Free Republic

"AUSTIN, November 14, 2014– A Texas legislator has introduced a new bill to derail the enforcement of virtually all federal gun control measures within the state’s borders. Landreth has suggested that this could create a domino effect. Introduced by newly re-elected State Representative Tim Kleinschmidt (R-Lexington), House Bill 176 (HB176) declares all federal restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms to be “invalid” and “not enforceable” within the state of Texas. It bill reads, in part: A federal law, including a statute, an executive, administrative, or court order, or a rule, that infringes on a law-abiding citizen’s right...

Does Sen. Ted Cruz believe AIDS is God's punishment for being gay? Does Cruz believe that government should regulate homosexuality and that public schools are using anti-bullying laws to indoctrinate children into homosexuality? Does Cruz believe that we need more hate and less tolerance in the world? If not, perhaps Cruz should explain why he's headlining a legislative conference in Dallas this weekend hosted by a group whose founder has said each and every one of those things. Cruz, along with another potential 2016 GOP presidential candidate, Gov. Bobby Jindal, is scheduled to keynote the Wallbuilders ProFamily Legislators Conference, which...

"AUSTIN, Tx., November 13, 2014 – A Texas state representative has introduced a bill to thwart enforcement of virtually all federal gun control measures within the state. Introduced by newly re-elected Representative Tim Kleinschmidt (R-Lexington), House Bill 176 (HB176) declares all federal restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms to be “invalid” and “not enforceable” within the state of Texas. It reads, in part: A federal law, including a statute, an executive, administrative, or court order, or a rule, that infringes on a law-abiding citizen’s right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment to the United...

Rick Perry ascended from Lieutenant Governor to Governor of Texas in December 2000 when then-governor George Bush resigned after being elected the 43rd President of the United States. Perry will retire in January with the tenth longest gubernatorial tenure in U.S. history. Perry made job creation one of his principle mantras, and he has overseen remarkable employment gains under his watch with 2.1 million jobs added during his tenure. The total represents 30% of the jobs added in the U.S. since 2000 and more than twice as many as any other state. The so-called “Texas miracle” does not show any...

Texas Governor-Elect Greg Abbott is in the process of preparing to start his new job next year. And it appears as if he will have a lot on his plate. Abbott joined Houston’s Morning News with KTRH’s Matt Patrick this morning to talk about a wide variety of issues. Abbott soundly beat Democrat Wendy Davis in last week’s election, using border security as one of his main issues. President Obama is reportedly going to announce Executive Action on immigration next week, and Abbott told KTRH he is ready for whatever that action is. “One thing we can do is legislation....

The U.S. government now patrols nearly half the Mexican border by drones alone in a largely unheralded shift to control desolate stretches where there are no agents, camera towers, ground sensors or fences, and it plans to expand the strategy to the Canadian border. It represents a significant departure from a decades-old approach that emphasizes boots on the ground and fences. Since 2000, the number of Border Patrol agents on the 1,954-mile border more than doubled to surpass 18,000 and fencing multiplied nine times to 700 miles. […] The government has operated about 10,000 drone flights under the strategy, known...

Greg Abbott made a very public play for Hispanic voters in his successful quest for the governor’s mansion. He frequently reminded people that his wife would be the first Latina First Lady of Texas, made economic opportunity and education reform important parts of his campaign message, and invested significant financial and volunteer resources in the heavily-Hispanic Rio Grande Valley. How did these efforts pay off?Statewide, the campaign did quite well. Abbott captured 44% of Hispanics who cast ballots, and actually outright won Hispanic men, 49%-48%. By almost any measure, this is a significant victory for a Republican candidate. What about...

The hospital that treated the only Ebola patient to die in the United States will pay his relatives an undisclosed sum and create a charitable foundation in his name, the family's attorney said Wednesday. The agreement heads off a lawsuit from relatives of Thomas Eric Duncan, who died Oct. 8 at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. Attorney Les Weisbrod declined to say at a news conference how much money the family would receive but said the settlement was a "very good deal" that would provide for Duncan's parents and his four children. Weisbrod also said Presbyterian hospital was not charging...

<p>The family of Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian national who died of Ebola at a Texas hospital, has reached a confidential settlement with Texas Health Resources, according to the Duncan family attorney Les Weisbrod.</p> <p>In September, Duncan traveled to Texas from Liberia and began experiencing Ebola symptoms which prompted him to go to the emergency room at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. He was misdiagnosed and sent home, both the Duncan family and Texas health authorities have said. Duncan was hospitalized days later, tested for Ebola and then began receiving care.</p>

Bundick says the rainbow is what the area’s all about. “It’s the most recognizable way that people can identify and say, ‘This is a safe community. This is an accepting community,'” he said. The Austin City Council gave the project initial approval. Now the details are getting worked out with the city’s Art Commission. Funding for the project will come partially from city money for public artwork. The Austin PRIDE Foundation is also donating money.

DALLAS, Texas -- A Texas State Representative, Giovanni Capriglione (R-Southlake), shocked Tea Party activists in Fort Worth Monday night, November 10, when he declared he would be supporting the current Speaker of the Texas House, Joe Straus, instead of the Tea Party favorite son, State Representative Scott Turner (R-Rockwall). The announcement came during the NE Tarrant Tea Party final meeting of 2014 as a pre-84th Texas legislative session panel discussion on the upcoming race for the Speakership in the Texas House. Many conservatives and Tea Party leaders across Texas are rallying around Turner. However, in front of over 200 Tarrant...

This is liberalism at its finest. Get really angry with someone who holds views different from your own, and then berate that person with hyper-emotional drivel. In this case, the victim was Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who received sexually explicit questions from Dartmouth's student body regarding anal sex during a visit to the college. Perry is a social conservative. According to the Dartmouth, the student newspaper, Perry was there to discuss the midterms, border security, energy initiatives and foreign policy. There was a Q&A session–and that’s when things devolved. Both presidents of the College Democrats and Republicans condemned the actions of...

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) said in a video posted Monday that impeaching President Obama "would be a consideration" if he moves forward with executive action on immigration. "Impeachment is indicting in the House and that’s a possibility," Barton said on Newsmax TV. "But you still have to convict in the Senate and that takes a two-thirds vote. But impeachment would be a consideration, yes sir.” Republicans and Obama are clashing over the president's planned executive actions on immigration. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has in the past dismissed talk of impeachment as a Democratic "scam" fueled by Democrats to boost fundraising....

A student at Dartmouth College asked Texas Governor Rick Perry Sunday if he would accept anal sex in exchange for $102 million in campaign contributions. Senior Emily Sellers, a member of The Dartmouth, the official campus newspaper, posed the question to confront Perry’s stance on homosexuality. Another student, Timothy Messen, accused Perry of comparing homosexuality to alcoholism.

Kior, Inc., the Houston-area biofuels maker that hoped to tap new technology to produce clean energy, filed for bankruptcy Sunday. The company listed $58.3 million in assets along with $261.3 million debts in its filing in the federal bankruptcy court in Delaware, where the company is incorporated. The company was at one-time considered a leader in the development of what’s known as cellulosic fuel — gasoline and diesel that is made from inedible plant material like woodchips and grass clippings. Though other biofuels are made from plants — ethanol, for example, is made from corn or sugarcane — cellulosic fuels...

A conventional wisdom bubbled up among media people like myself about the tenor of Republican Dan Patrick’s message on immigration. We concluded that his hard-edged border security focus in his campaign for lieutenant governor was going to stampede Hispanic voters into the waiting arms of Democratic statewides. Wrong. Or at least partially wrong. Patrick trailed Leticia Van de Putte among Hispanic voters by only 52-46, according to NBC’s exit polling on the race. I said “only,” because the 40 percentage range among Hispanics was once a mark of distinction for statewide Republicans. When George W. Bush reached 40 percent among...

House Republicans will have their largest majority since the 1930s next year, but that doesn't mean Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) job will be easy.The House GOP leadership's struggles in keeping members in line over the past four years have been well documented. Some of the incoming freshmen will likely join the ranks of conservatives who frequently oppose leadership initiatives.Among the new freshmen, for instance, is one congressman-elect who has called Hillary Clinton the "anti-Christ," another who has suggested Muslims don't deserve First Amendment rights, and yet another who has declared himself open to the idea of the United States invading...

AUSTIN, Texas -- It has been an up-and-down week for Texas State Representative Ron Reynolds. On Tuesday, Reynolds, an attorney and Democrat representing Missouri Springs, coasted to an easy re-election, winning 66 percent of the vote against his Republican opponent. Wednesday, he was in a Montgomery County courtroom -- not to represent a client, but to face trial for 10 felony counts of "barratry," the illegal solicitation of clients by attorneys commonly referred to as "ambulance chasing." Finally, on Friday, he managed to avoid a felony conviction, but was found guilty of six misdemeanor counts for a lesser charge of...

I think I can speak for nearly all the pundits in the right side blogosphere when I say that we’re going to miss Wendy Davis. Few candidates have offered more fun coverage and easy peasy headlines than the pink sneaker wonder delivered during the 2014 races. When the end came, it came down like a hammer, and even with all of the rosy pictures being drawn by Texas Democrats about shifting demographics and a new majority, Davis took home a brutal, 20 point drubbing for her efforts. (Prompting Salon to proclaim that White Women had let down the entire state.)...

A US nurse who got infected with Ebola but has recovered got a special gift on Friday, November 7, when former President George W. Bush visited the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, where the first case of the disease in the US was diagnosed. Bush gave Amber Vinson a kiss and a big hug during a visit to the hospital, where she works, to celebrate the end of the Ebola outbreak in Texas. Vinson, along with colleague Nina Pham, contracted the disease while treating index patient, Thomas Eric Duncan from Liberia.