Free Republic

“With slightly increased oversight in a state-by-state, case-by-case basis, children might not slip through the cracks,” said Hannah Ettinger, who studies incidents of violence against or perpetrated by home school students for the Coalition for Responsible Home Education. The group advocates for increased oversight of home-schooled students, such as requiring that each be registered and meet yearly with a certified teacher for annual testing and with a doctor for a physical checkup — both of whom would be required to report to authorities if they suspected a child’s physical or mental health or welfare were in jeopardy. Texas’ regulations are...

House Speaker Paul Ryan will push his open borders agenda during his last months in Congress, telling the media that he is interested in passing an amnesty for millions of illegal aliens who are enrolled and eligible for the President Obama-created Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Ryan announced this week that he will leave Congress after his current term is up, but now he says he will continue pushing for a DACA amnesty despite his exit. In a comment to Fox News’s Chad Pergram, Ryan said he would “certainly” be interested in passing a DACA amnesty before his...

When JoJo McKibben was the victim of a hit-and-run on April 3 as she biked to work, she wasn't all that surprised. She was hit while biking by a drunk driver last summer and has come to expect that cars won't realize she's riding on two wheels. McKibben's boyfriend Brendan Sharpe said he has also been seriously injured by cars while he's biked in Austin, once in 2009 and again in 2015... Katie Delleoz, the executive director of Bike Austin, said she personally has nearly been struck at the same intersection McKibben was hit at last week

Mark Zuckerberg faced a mixture of tough and softball questions at yesterday’s Senate hearing. Many questions were left unanswered, and members of the House will have to pick up the slack today. The toughest questions in the Senate hearing came from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) and Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE), who grilled Zuckerberg on Facebook’s political bias, its possible status as the “largest publisher in the world”, and its definition of “hate speech.” Democrats, when they weren’t urging Zuckerberg to do more to censor so-called “hate speech,” focused on irrelevant panics like Russian propaganda and “fake...

A Korean American man known as the “Asian Nazi” on social media was arrested in Tyler, Texas, on Friday on a federal warrant by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Heon “Hank” Jong Yoo, 24, was booked into the Smith County Jail by ATF around 10:30 p.m. after making false statements while he purchased firearms, according to a U.S. Marshals Service spokesman. Share A Korean American man known as the “Asian Nazi” on social media was arrested in Tyler, Texas, on Friday on a federal warrant by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Heon...

A Republican congressman said Tuesday he’s rounded up enough GOP co-sponsors to force multiple immigration votes on the House floor. Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) told The Hill that he has secured support from more than 40 House Republicans on a resolution that would allow debate and votes on four separate immigration proposals. Etc...

Senate Republicans, frustrated by delaying tactics imposed by Democrats on President Trump’s judicial and executive branch nominees, are on the verge of altering the Senate rules in order to speed up the process. GOP lawmakers told the Washington Examiner Tuesday that momentum is building for a change in the Senate rules that would shorten the time frame allowed for lawmakers to debate each nominee. One proposal by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., would reinstate a temporary rules change made by Democrats in 2013 that reduced debate time from 30 hours to eight hours for most executive branch nominations and from 30...

Jeff Bezos just donated $33 million to 'dreamers' Jeff Bezos just donated $33 million to 'dreamers' 41 Mins Ago | 00:41 Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos donated $33 million in college scholarships for "dreamers" — childhood undocumented immigrants granted stay in the country under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. TheDream.Us, a nonprofit working toward college access for undocumented immigrants, said the donation from Bezos and his wife MacKenzie is the largest in the organization's history and will fund 1,000 scholarships. "My dad came to the U.S. when he was 16 as part of Operation Pedro Pan," Bezos said...

AUBURN, Calif. (CBS13) -- A California dad has been called a hero after knocking out a kidnapper to rescue his 3-year-old daughter. Freddie Cantrell lives across the street from Regional Park in Auburn, California, where his two girls were playing with their mother and stepfather Sunday evening. He said park is a place they used to love, but now is part of their biggest nightmare. “I got a phone call from the mother saying, ‘Hey you got to get down here quick. Somebody tried to kidnap Aubrey,'” Cantrell told CBS Sacramento. The incident unfolded in front of their 6-year-old daughter,...

<p>HOUSTON — Some National Guard members have started arriving at the US-Mexico border with more expected as federal officials continue to discuss what they’ll do about illegal immigration.</p> <p>The Republican governors of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico on Monday committed 1,600 Guard members to the border, giving President Donald Trump many of the troops he requested to fight what he’s called a crisis of migrant crossings and crime.</p>

The distinction between how rail and road projects can happen in Central Texas — state law requires Capital Metro to ask voters for permission to build or expand a rail line, while road builders can proceed, even on a tollway project, without an election — has always rankled transit supporters.The Legislature added that requirement for Capital Metro rail elections in 1997 when the agency was in turmoil and anti-rail lawmakers held sway. Since then, area voters have OK’d one rail project — the MetroRail commuter line in 2004 — and twice said no to light rail (that second rejection, however, was of...

After more than 111 years of living, the nation's oldest veteran was treated to an unexpected first: a trip on a private jet. On Saturday, Austin's Richard Overton was flown to Washington, D.C., for a tour of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The trip was made possible by billionaire Austin businessman and philanthropist Robert F. Smith. Last Friday, Smith spent a couple hours visiting Overton, believed to be the oldest man in America, at Overton's home. Overton mentioned that one day, he'd like to visit the museum, where Smith donated $20 million. The next morning, Overton...

The Texas Department of Transportation has a contractor lined up to add a lane to each side of Texas 130 through Pflugerville, a popular commuter route that often backs up during rush hour.But the $36.7 million contract with OHL Construction is now caught up in the freeze on toll road projects — even though the project would be an expansion of an existing toll road, funded with toll road revenue. It would not use money from the gas, sales and energy taxes that have been the target of grass-roots anti-toll groups.“The planning and (bidding) has been done. The contractor is ready...

Texas and Arizona increased the number of National Guard troops they’re sending to the U.S.-Mexico border, the Associated Press reported on Monday. On Monday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) increased the number of National Guard troops Texas will send to the border as part of President Trump’s recent call to send military officials to defend the southern border against migrants and drug trafficking from 250 to at least 1,000. On the same day, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) said that the Arizona National Guard would send 338 troops to the southern border. The Arizona National Guard said that 225 troops...

PHOENIX — Arizona's top elected officials, both Republicans, are not going to join the lawsuit filed by Democrat officials in some states challenging the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census even though it could mean that Arizona won't get its fair share of federal dollars and political representation. Daniel Scarpinato, press aide to Gov. Doug Ducey, said his boss is opposed to more lawsuits. "And he supports having accurate statistical information,'' Scarpinato said. Attorney General Mark Brnovich also has no interest in Arizona becoming one of the 17 states, seven cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors...

Design-bid-build may still be the No. 1 project delivery method for U.S. construction, but other processes are rising that could challenge DBB’s stake in how some projects are carried out.One such arrangement, public-private partnerships (P3), is gaining steam with talks from Washington, D.C., about employing the method for President Donald Trump’s $1.3 trillion infrastructure spend. While more states and local entities are successfully turning to P3s to tackle major infrastructure overhauls and new projects, the method still runs up against a perception problem. Some elected officials are hesitant to employ P3s because they don’t want to let a private firm...

All you toll road haters, limber up your fingers for the flaming responses to this column.Because the toll road story here in Central Texas that I’m about to tell you, based on usage and revenue, is a good news story. The simple fact is that the nine toll roads here, other than the privately run section of Texas 130 south of Mustang Ridge, are being heavily used and are financially healthy.This is certainly not the uniform case around the country, where a number of toll roads in the past decade have gone bankrupt. In Central Texas, well over 1 million TxTags...

FULL TITLE: Texas teacher reveals how 'rude parents, disruptive children and poor pay' have forced her to quit her job in viral post - as she shares photos of classroom items 'destroyed' by her students A teacher has slammed her 'disruptive' students and their 'rude' parents over their lack of respect for her 'poorly paid' profession in a Facebook rant that's gone viral. Julie Marburger, who works at the Rockwall Independent School District in Texas, said she had been pushed to quit her role as she feels as though she has 'no way to do the job I was hired...

A family of three in Hurst was sent to a hospital Saturday after a vehicle crashed into their home, struck a gas line and sparked an explosion, firefighters say. Flames and smoke were seen billowing from a home at the corner of Myrtle Drive and Redbud Drive shortly before 2 p.m. Gary Sutton's home security camera captured the moment from across the street. “It shook the whole house. I guess you can kind of describe it like a sonic boom," said Sutton. Hurst Police said in a press release that a driver lost control and slammed into the front of...

Over the last couple of weeks, a dramatic saga has taken place between open carry advocates and Olmos Park police in Texas. The incident began on Monday, March 26 when CJ Grisham, the founder of Open Carry Texas (OCT), put in a call to Olmos Park Police Chief Rene Valenciano. Grisham questioned Valenciano's stance on open carry and whether or not open carry activists would have issues if a demonstration was held in the San Antonio suburb. On Tuesday, March 27, OCT held an open carry rally in Olmos Park, which resulted in the arrest of three OCT members, including...