Free Republic

Campus Carry Could Cost Millions The Houston Chronicle over the weekend reported that many Texas colleges would have to spend millions if campus carry passes during the legislative session. According to the Chronicle, Texas Tech would have to shell out $7 million if campus carry passes. The University of Texas and University of Houston combined would have to make $47 million in changes. The UH System’s cost estimate notes the need to “create, maintain, and staff secured weapons storage facilities in nine dormitories,” as well as hire additional security personnel “to man the facilities 24 hours per day 7 days...

Sen. Ted Cruz leads a crowded field for the Republican presidential nomination in Texas, according to a new University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll released on Monday. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker grabbed only 2 percent of the vote in the last such poll in October, but he has surged to a close second. Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, whom 14 percent of Republican voters would have chosen in October, fell to fifth place in a wide-open field. Twenty percent of those surveyed went for Cruz, with Walker coming in with 19 percent. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and neurosurgeon Ben Carson...

Myles Udland February 23, 2015Manufacturing activity in Texas is plunging and the crash in oil prices is to blame. The Dallas Fed's February manufacturing index fell to -11.2, down from -4.4 in January and well below the -4 reading that was expected. Expectations were for the headline index to come in at -4. In the last couple months, this report has been in focus as business owners in Texas take stock of how the decline in oil prices is weighing on that state's economy. And Monday's report was no different. One business executive in the primary metal manufacturing sector said...

Taya Kyle, the widow of American Sniper and Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, stunned at the Oscars last night in Hollywood. She arrived on the red carpet in a beautiful green dress, carrying her husband's dog tags. Although American Sniper didn't win best picture last night from the Academy, it certainly has won over Americans. The movie has grossed a whopping $400 million since its opening in January, breaking all kinds of records. The film received six Oscar nominations overall and according to Forbes, is one of the top grossing best picture nominees of all time. Alan Robert Murray and Bub...

Irving immigration lawyer and Obama supporter, Sherin Thawer, was arrested on federal fraud charges and for forging applications of illegal immigrants. Sherin Thawer was invited to the Obama White House last year to discuss immigration reform. Dallas.com reported: An Irving immigration lawyer was arrested Friday morning on federal fraud charges for allegedly forging visa applications for illegal immigrants she represented, the U.S. attorney’s office said. Sherin Thawer, 45, was arrested by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations at her Coppell home, authorities said. She made her initial court appearance Friday and was released. The seven-count indictment,...

The Big Apple is about to get a big ol’ “Hey, y’all” from cop-loving Texas kid Savannah Solis. The bright-eyed 10-year-old from Tyler, Tex. — who warmed cops’ hearts by mailing the NYPD 200 handmade thank you cards during one of the darkest periods in the department’s history — is flying into New York on Monday to be honored by the cops she touched with her missives, the Daily News has learned.

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)You can’t demonstrate the dangers of President Obama’s plan to regulate the internet and reclassify broadband as a Title II common carrier more clearly than this video, courtesy of Sen. Ted Cruz. Cruz said on his website that the Obama Administration is trying to impose 1934 rules on the Internet, which will stifle innovation. “The FCC’s net neutrality plan will drive up the cost of consumer Internet plans, impose billions of new taxes on the Internet, and allow a panel of five unelected bureaucrats to regulate and control every aspect of the Internet,” Cruz said. FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, one...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, today joined Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton for a press conference to present a united front among Texas leaders against the President's illegal executive amnesty. A transcript of Sen. Cruz's remarks is below. "Thank you Governor Abbott, thank you Lieutenant Governor Patrick. I'm very glad to be back home. This victory this week, the decision from the federal court was a major victory for the rule of law. All of us have reason to be proud that Texas led the way, standing up to President...

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, spoke with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly last night regarding the threat of radical Islamic terrorism. WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, spoke with Fox News' Megyn Kelly last night regarding the threat of radical Islamic terrorism. A transcript of Sen. Cruz's remarks is below. Megyn Kelly: Senator Cruz, thank you for being here and as we see that act take place, 21 Christians beheaded and as we see 45 people burned to death by ISIS in Iraq the White House refuses to identify the religion of the first group of victims and holds...

The largest U.S. refinery strike in 35 years entered its fourth week as workers at 12 refineries accounting for one-fifth of national production capacity were walking picket lines as of 12 a.m. CST on Sunday, according to union officials. A total of 6,550 members of the United Steelworkers union at 15 plants, including the 12 refineries, are involved in the work stoppage that began on Feb. 1 when talks for a new three-year contract between the USW and lead oil company negotiator Shell Oil Co stopped.... After the latest breakdown between the two sides, Steelworkers leaders targeted Shell, which is...

In his fight to help millions of immigrants living in the country illegally, President Obama’s most implacable enemy may not be House Republicans or conservative governors, but the ticking clock. A lengthy battle in a Texas court case could prove fatal for his plans to provide a temporary haven for up to 5 million people in the U.S. illegally. If the legal fight continues into next year, it will be difficult if not impossible for officials to process millions of applications before Obama leaves office. The more people it can shield from the threat of deportation, the administration theorizes, the...

Capital murder defendant Eddie Ray Routh appeared to be faking insanity after his arrest and may have formed wild stories about “pig assassins” by watching reruns in his jail cell of Seinfeld and the Boss Hog reality show, a mental health expert testified Friday. Dr. Randall Price, a forensic psychologist who frequently testifies as an expert witness, said Routh was overheard talking about the two shows in phone calls he made from the Erath County Jail. “For a lot of time he’s talked about pigs with a lot of people,” he said. “It’s suspicious.” An old episode of Seinfeld featured...

NEW YORK, Feb. 20 (UPI) -- Oil prices were treading water early in the Friday session as markets weighed latest inventory data and production figures from the United States. The price for West Texas Intermediate crude oil, the U.S. benchmark, was relatively unchanged from the previous session to trade at $51.10 for the March contract. WTI has recovered from late January lows below $45 per barrel and have rallied for most of February.

From Johnny earlier today: "Time to fess up. Turns out I have brain cancer that moved there from my lungs. Prognosis is poor. I had brain surgery a couple of weeks ago. Of course, being me, I intend to fight hard to the very end, and beat the odds. I may well be around for harvest season this year. That is my intent. Normal prognosis is in weeks. I've held off on bringing this up on FR for several reasons. But the time to bring it up is now. Consider this my opus. It's as close as I'm going to...

AUSTIN — Hours after a Texas county clerk issued the state's first same-sex marriage license, Texas' attorney general said the marriage is void. Attorney General Ken Paxton said Thursday that the Texas Supreme Court granted his request to stay two court rulings declaring Texas' ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. "The Court's action upholds our state constitution and stays these rulings by activist judges in Travis County," Paxton said in a statement. "The same-sex marriage license issued by the Travis County Clerk is void, just as any license issued in violation of state law would be. I will continue to defend...

Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner has introduced legislation which would have the effect of placing all of Virginia’s election laws under Justice Department oversight, and Virginia isn’t the only state that would fall into federal election receivership. Sensenbrenner’s bill, H.R. 885, is co-sponsored by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and multiple members of the Congressional Black Caucus. It revives federal control through the Voting Rights Act over every state election law change. In 2013, the Supreme Court’s Shelby County vs. Holder decision struck down this power as an outdated and unconstitutional relic from a half-century ago. Texas would also fall under immediate federal...

A group of 23 liberal House Democrats urged Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday to delay Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to Congress next month. In the letter spearheaded by Reps. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the lawmakers argued that Netanyahu was being used as a "political tool" against President Obama. "As members of Congress who support Israel, we share concern that it appears that you are using a foreign leader as a political tool against the president," they wrote. Netanyahu's March 3 address will be just two weeks before the Israeli elections and...

Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas. joined Father Gerald Murray of New York on Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor" Tuesday night to encourage Americans of all faiths to contact the White House and demand that the Obama administration call out radical Islam and take action to defeat the Islamic State terrorist organization. "This is part of a disturbing pattern," Jeffress said when asked by Bill O'Reilly what he made of Obama's initial refusal to call the ISIS beheading victims Coptic Christians [until he publicly acknowledged that the 21 Egyptian men were Christians and not just "citizens"...

Two Austin women were legally married Thursday morning after a Travis County judge ordered the county clerk to issue a marriage license. Sarah Goodfriend and Suzanne Bryant, together almost 31 years, said their vows before Rabbi Kerry Baker while standing in front of the Travis County Clerk’s Office sign on Airport Boulevard. The couple was denied a license in the same office building eight years ago. But on Thursday morning, state District Judge David Wahlberg, petitioned by a lawyer for Goodfriend and Bryant, ordered Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir to grant the couple a marriage license. The ceremony was a...

Sarah Goodfriend and Suzanne Bryant were married this morning in Austin. The county clerk issued the couple a same-sex marriage license based on a court order. The order, the county clerk's office confirms, will only apply to this one couple, one of whom is "medically fragile." [See the judge's order here.] "I am happily following the court order, but the court order only applies to this one couple," says Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir. "And it is based on the idea that there are circumstances with this couple…one of them is medically fragile and they may not survive the...