Free Republic

TEXAS CITY, Texas (KXAN) — There’s no doubt Tim McClellen will be framing the picture of him with the massive, record-breaking hammerhead shark he caught over the weekend. McClellen won 1st place when he caught the 1,033-pound shark in the 55th Annual Texas City Jaycees Tackle Time Fishing Tournament on July 9. His catch smashed the 871-pound record set in 1980 in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Obama-holdover chosen by DHS Secretary John Kelly to direct Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for the Trump Administration helped author Obama’s controversial immigration priorities and executive orders, and he also publicly praised them. ... Trump’s campaign largely centered around opposing former resident Barack Obama’s executive orders on immigration and the release of criminal illegal aliens into U.S. communities. Acting ICE Director Homan was the Enforcement and Removal Director (ERO) for resident Obama and even received an elite award from the former resident for his efforts on immigration. Homan has come under fire from the ICE Council for being Obama’s...

Commissioner John Wiley Price Votes Against Honoring Assassinated Police Officers Dallas, TX – Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price voted to oppose a resolution to honor murdered police officers, blaming police officers for the assassinations. The Wednesday vote was supposed to be largely ceremonial, but gained unexpected opposition as Commissioner John Wiley Price argued that law enforcement should not be honored, according to Fox4. “I think it’s interesting in this country how you again try to frame the narrative with regards to other people who’ve lost their life at the hands of law enforcement,” Price said. “No life is more...

A Texas teenager was suspended from his cookie store job after a customer became upset when he paid for a police officer's order. Zachary Randolph, 18, was suspended from his job at a Great American Cookies mall after he bought a police officer a brownie out of his own wages on Sunday. The teen from Katy, Texas, said upper management put him on temporary leave for a week because another family complained that he didn't buy their cookies as well. Randolph said the customers in line who overheard the interaction became upset and threatened to beat him up because he was racist...

The Department of Justice will withdraw from a legal challenge to Texas’ voter ID law, after the state legislature enacted several legislative fixes to the law to assuage the Department’s concerns. Reuters reports that the Department filed a motion informing the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas that it would withdraw from a challenge to the law because the state’s new amendment to the statute “removes any ‘discriminatory effect’ or intent the Court found … and advances Texas’s legitimate ‘policy objectives’ in adopting a voter ID law.” The amendment Texas adopted eased some of the law’s photo...

Dallas proclaimed itself the first “human rights county” in Texas. The commissioners court embraced the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, an initiative that claims to cultivate communities worldwide, although the Geneva-based Human Rights Council (HRC) has come under fire for anti-Israel bias and member countries with poor records. “Human rights abuses occur in our community, our country, and our world every day,” said Democrat Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, who pushed the resolution to a vote on July 5. “We must lead at the local level. We can’t do everything but we can all do something.” Democrat commissioners...

Secretary of Energy Rick Perry sparked disbelief on Twitter Thursday after he tried to offer an economics lesson while touring a coal plant in West Virginia. "Here's a little economics lesson: supply and demand. You put the supply out there and the demand will follow," Perry said, responding to a question about a shale gas boom in comments captured by S&P Global Market Intelligence reporter Taylor Kuykendall.

The acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the Trump Administration is the same bureaucrat responsible for overseeing the release of violent criminal illegal aliens into U.S. communities under the Obama Administration. The acting director, Thomas Homan, previously headed Obama’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), a position where Homan helped direct the release of criminal illegal aliens. Homan received an award from President Obama for his work on immigration matters. The agents and officers in the National ICE Council are sounding the alarm that such a bureaucrat would somehow be chosen by the Trump Administration to lead...

A Texas City commissioner was charged with two counts of intoxicated manslaughter with a vehicle early Monday morning after her pickup hit and killed two men standing on the side of the road near the Galveston Causeway. According to investigators, the driver charged with manslaughter was identified as Texas City Commissioner Dee Ann Haney, 54. Charging documents obtained from Galveston County reveal that police arrested Haney after she admitted she was under the influence of marijuana and admitted to smoking it before her crash.

Texas has put President Trump over a barrel with its threat to sue to stop the 2012 deportation amnesty for Dreamers, said legal analysts, calling the state’s case as close to a slam-dunk as possible. Known in Washington as DACA, the amnesty was started by President Obama — and was roundly criticized in last year’s campaign by Mr. Trump. Now in office, though, Mr. Trump has reversed himself and kept DACA intact, approving tens of thousands of new and renewal applications. But the program has been on borrowed time for more than a year, ever since a series of court...

GALVESTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A driver taken into custody after a crash that left a father and his son dead overnight is being identified as a Texas City commissioner. Authorities held Dee Ann Haney after the incident on northbound Interstate 45 near the Galveston Causeway at 12:55 a.m. Monday. Law enforcement at the scene said two men were standing outside of a stopped black truck when a woman in another pickup hit them. The men died from the crash.

After an investigation of the state’s largest liquor retailer, the TABC sought to yank permits for all 164 of the company’s stores — which would effectively shut it down — or hit Spec’s with fines of up to $713 million, according to court documents filed last week...The judges said TABC failed to prove dozens of allegations, rebuked agency lawyers for failing to disclose evidence to their own witness (and the court) and called out the agency for “stacking” charges, a tactic commonly used to pressure defendants into a settlement...“The governor continues to be deeply concerned about the pattern of practice...

Muslims Demands Pig Farmer Move So They Can Build Mosque Next Door… He Does THIS Instead! A Texas pig farmer just learns that Muslims trying to build a mosque had purchased the land next to his farm. The new Muslim landowner actually asked him to leave. Craig Baker, owns a pig farm, the Muslim community hates pigs. In an effort to “cleanse” the land, the Muslim landowner asked Baker to move out. Baker instead decided to fight back. Baker started holding pig races every Friday at the same time Muslims are supposed to be saying their afternoon prayer. What do...

- snip - But here in Texas, the bigger battle over tree ordinances is whether they represent a form of local government overreach. Gov. Greg Abbott (R), citing grave worries about “socialistic” behavior in the state’s liberal cities, has called on Texas lawmakers to gather next month for a special session that will consider a host of bills aimed at curtailing local power on issues ranging from taxation to collecting union dues. Texas presents perhaps the most dramatic example of the increasingly acrimonious relationship between red-state leaders and their blue city centers, which have moved aggressively to expand environmental regulations...

A Democratic congressman has introduced a bill to deny taxpayer funding to President Trump's voter fraud commission. The Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, created by Trump in May, received little attention until this week, when at least 20 states rejected a request to provide the commission with all publicly available voter roll data. "As the president continues to press his blatantly false claim that voter fraud cost him the popular vote in the 2016 presidential election, he endangers the sanctity of our nation's democracy," Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Texas, said in a statement Friday. He is the author of the...

BEAUMONT — If you have a gun, you could receive a $100 gift card from a group of churches and community leaders teaming up to stop violence in Beaumont. Pastors John Adolph and Randy Feldschau developed a program called "Not in My City" last summer in response to violence against officers. Following four homicides in Beaumont in June alone, the program is trying to stop violence here through a gun "buy back" program. A meeting about the gun buy back program will be held Monday at 11 a.m. at the Cathedral Church, off Eastex. They're in the process of choosing...

Overturning a lower court decision, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday that spouses of homosexual public employees are not entitled to government benefits. In its conclusion, the justices ruled that although the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges legalized same-sex marriage, it did not include adequate guidance for marriage benefits. Therefore, the lawsuit introduced against Houston by the conservative group Texas Values and taxpayers Jack Pidgeon and Larry Hicks can proceed. In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs argued that the city had violated the Texas Constitution. Justice Jeffrey Boyd authored the unanimous opinion. “We agree with the Mayor [of Houston] that any...

LAREDO, Texas – Custom and Border Protection agents have located and seized nearly two tons of marijuana hidden in a shipment of lettuce. CBP said in a release that the seizure happened at the Colombia-Solidarity International Bridge on June 26, when an officer referred a tractor-trailer hauling lettuce for secondary inspection. After “a canine, non-intrusive and physical inspection” of the trailer, CBP said agents found and seized 5,754 packages containing a total of 3,707 pounds of marijuana. The marijuana had an estimated street value around $741,000. “This is truly an example of our CBP officers’ hard work, experience and dedication...

SAN FRANCISCO — The Trump administration plans to arrest parents and other relatives who authorities believe smuggled their children into the United States, a move immigrant advocates said would send a wave of fear through vulnerable communities. Spain rescues 54 migrants crossing the Mediterranean Man busted in smuggling ring wants his guns back Actor-turned-drug-dealer testifies against pal at trial A new “surge initiative” aims to dismantle human smuggling operations, including identifying and arresting the adult sponsors of unaccompanied minors who paid coyotes or other smugglers to bring young people across the U.S. border, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials confirmed Thursday....

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus tells us one officer is in grave condition and not expected to survive. The other officer was shot in the chin and is expected to survive. Two police officers are in critical condition and a suspect is dead following a shooting north of Downtown. San Antonio Police Department Chief William McManus confirmed the officers were on routine patrol when they stopped two individuals around 3:25 p.m. near the 100 block of West Evergreen, between North Main and Howard Street. McManus said that both officers were getting out of their vehicle when they were immediately...