Free Republic

President Donald Trump and conservatives in Congress earned a historic victory this week by enacting the First Step Act. The landmark bill provides modest yet much-needed prison and sentencing reform modeled on successful reforms already passed in red states. On Tuesday night, senators passed the First Step Act with support from law enforcement professionals, the faith community, business groups, and the White House, by a vote of 87-12. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., deserves credit for bringing the bill up for a vote. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, a former federal prosecutor and leading advocate of the legislation, said, “American...

FULL TITLE: ‘A terrible reason’: Orrin Hatch NAILS IT on what Chuck Schumer is really prioritizing with his obstruction Retiring Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah) has identified why Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer’s strategy is so bad for him and his party. It’s not based on actual substance, but instead on resisting Trump. As Hatch knows, Democrats have repeatedly rejected common-sense border security ideas with the wall proposal by President Trump being the latest.

Utah ranks No. 1 among the states for its population growth rate this decade — thanks to its high birthrate plus a strong economy that attracts people from other states and abroad. Growth slowed a bit here recently — and Utah ranked No. 3 for 2018, according to estimates released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. “We added nearly 400,000 people this decade,” the equivalent of adding two cities the size of Salt Lake City, said Pam Perlich, director of demographic research at the University of Utah's Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. In just the past year, Utah added 57,987...

Just a month ago we raised more than a proverbial eyebrow when we noted the creation of the NSA's Utah Data Center (codename Stellar Wind) and William Binney's formidable statement that "we are this far from a turnkey totalitarian state". Democracy Now has the former National Security Agency technical director whistleblower's first TV interview in which he discusses the NSA's massive power to spy on Americans and why the FBI raided his home. Since retiring from the NSA in 2001, he has warned that the NSA’s data-mining program has become so vast that it could "create an Orwellian state." National...

Three people have come forward with hundreds of pages of evidence of potential wrongdoing by the Clinton Foundation, including misappropriation of funds and allegations of quid-pro-quo promises made to donors during Hillary Clinton's tenure as secretary of state, Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., told Fox News on Thursday. Meadows, the leader of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, is also the chairman of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Government Operations. The panel is set to hold an investigative hearing next week on the status of the Foundation case. U.S. Attorney John Huber was tasked to investigate the foundation last year by then-Attorney...

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) said Tuesday that House Republicans plan to hear testimony on Dec. 5 from the prosecutor appointed by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions to probe alleged wrongdoing by the Clinton Foundation. Meadows, who is chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations, told Hill.TV’s “Rising” that it’s time to “circle back” to U.S. Attorney John Huber’s investigation with the Justice Department into whether the Clinton Foundation engaged any improper activities. “Mr. Huber with the Department of Justice and FBI has been having an investigation — at least part of his task was to...

Stoney Westmoreland was an actor on Disney Channel’s top-rated show when, police said, he hailed a ride-share car to a Salt Lake City trailer park late Thursday, allegedly hoping to have sex with someone he believed to be a minor. The 48-year old, who played a grandfather on the Disney Channel series “Andi Mack,” had used a dating app to meet a minor and sent explicit photos, authorities said. And then, a plan was set into motion. “He arranged to meet up with what he thought was a 13-year old,” Detective Greg Wilking, a spokesman for the Salt Lake City...

Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch is backtracking after saying that he wasn’t concerned that prosecutors implicated President Donald Trump in a crime. The Republican in a statement said he spoke “imprudently” in a CNN interview Tuesday. During the interview, he dismissed federal prosecutors who said Trump directed his personal lawyer Michael Cohen to make hush money payments. Hatch said Democrats will do anything to hurt Trump. …

U.S. Attorney for Utah John Huber won't testify Thursday before the House Oversight subcommittee as its chairman had announced previously. Huber had been assigned by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to investigate several controversies Republicans have raised about Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation, many of them stoked by right-wing activists who believe she should be prosecuted. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., chairman of the Oversight’s subcommittee on government operations, had hoped Huber would provide an update on his probe. “Mr. Huber with the Department of Justice and FBI has been having an investigation — at least part of his task was...

A Utah man who repeatedly made headlines around the world in the 1970s has died. Melvin Dummar was a gas station operator in Box Elder County in 1976 when he suddenly seemed to be on the verge of becoming a multi-millionaire. He was named an heir to the fortune of eccentric and secretive billionaire Howard Hughes. Dummar's name was contained in a handwritten will discovered in the headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. The document became known as the "Mormon Will" because someone had mysteriously dropped it on a desk at the...

Bryant Swenson and his wife Lauren, from Utah, were driving near Mai Mahiu on November 30 when three masked men attacked their car. The couple, who moved to Nairobi with their three children to open a CrossFit gym, spotted a white van which the gangsters are believed to have been trying to rob. Bryant said in a Facebook post about the attempted robbery, that one of the men was carrying a gun but “couldn't get it out of his waistbelt in time”. As the bandits rushed towards their Toyota Land Cruiser, Bryant had to reverse backwards to give himself time...

As a former federal prosecutor, I am clear-eyed about crime. Unlike some reformers, I don’t think our justice system is fundamentally broken, unjust, or corrupt. I have nothing but respect for law-enforcement officials, who put themselves in danger every single day in order to protect the public. I know from experience that dangerous criminals exist — individuals who are incapable of or uninterested in rehabilitation and change. We should throw the book at those people. But my time as a prosecutor also tells me that not every criminal is dangerous or incapable of living a productive life. My faith as...

Just-defeated GOP Rep. Mia Love — who was mocked by President Trump after Election Day for supposedly not showing him sufficient loyalty — fired back at the commander-in-chief Monday. “The president’s behavior towards me made me wonder: What did he have to gain by saying such a thing about a fellow Republican,” the Utah lawmaker said in Salt Lake City. “It was not really about asking him to do more, was it? Or was it something else? Well Mr. President, we’ll have to chat about that,” she continued during her concession speech after a tight race with Democratic Rep.-elect Ben...

In a wide-ranging speech that included swipes at fellow Republicans, including President Donald Trump, outgoing Rep. Mia Love on Monday called her successor in Congress a "wolf in sheep's clothing." Speaking from a teleprompter at the Utah GOP headquarters in downtown Salt Lake City surrounded by her family, Love confirmed she called Rep.-elect Ben McAdams, D-Utah, to congratulate him on winning the 4th Congressional District race.

UPDATE: A tweet posted by Unified Police Department identified the deceased suspect as Felix Anthony Calata, 32, of West Valley City. UPD is not releasing any additional information at this time. SOUTH SALT LAKE, Utah -- A South Salt Lake Police officer died Saturday night after police said he was purposely hit by a car driven by suspects fleeing an apparent burglary. South Salt Lake Police identified the officer as 31-year old Officer David Romrell. Officer Romrell was a Marine Corps veteran, husband and had recently become a father.

Having served some time in non-elected office purgatory, Willard Mitt Romney, Republican of Michigan Massachusetts New Hampshire California Utah, the man who blew the 2012 presidential election against a very beatable Barack Hussein Obama, is back in action: made little secret that he intends to use his outsize profile as senator. Prior to the election, he backed an array of Republican candidates in races up and down the ballot. The question is which GOP candidates Romney's PAC will back -- besides Mitt. Although Trump flirted with Romney when he was shopping for a secretary of state, there is little love...

Sen.-elect Mitt Romney(R-Utah) (R-Utah) on Wednesday condemned President Trump's and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's latest comments about journalist Jamal Khashoggi's killing, calling them "inconsistent" with the U.S. national interest. "The President's and Secretary of State's Khashoggi statements to date are inconsistent with an enduring foreign policy, with our national interest, with basic human rights, and with American greatness," Romney said in a statement. "Sanctions do not necessarily require ending the alliance; they do demand real and painful consequence," he added.

SALT LAKE CITY — It's Congressman-elect Ben McAdams after election results were certified Tuesday. The Democratic Salt Lake County mayor's lead over Republican Rep. Mia Love was at 694 votes following the final vote canvass throughout the 4th Congressional District, just 21 votes more than would have allowed for a recount. McAdams was confident enough about the 739-vote lead he held after Monday's results to declare victory, saying he saw no way Love could catch up to him in the final county totals........

Democratic Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams claimed victory over Republican Rep. Mia Love Monday after new Salt Lake County results showed her trailing by 739 votes in the 4th Congressional District race. "I'm eager to get to work," McAdams said at a hastily called news conference held at his Millcreek campaign headquarters. "We are confident there is no way Rep. Love will retake the lead." He said he has not yet tried to contact the two-term congresswoman. "I do want to give her the space," McAdams said, anticipating her campaign wanted time to review the numbers released early Monday...

No, even though the votes from last week aren’t even all counted yet, it is, of course, time to move on to the next election. And while the discussion so far has focused on which Democrats are running and who among them is best positioned to defeat President Trump, I’ve got the perfect candidate to dethrone the Donald. It’s Mitt Romney. Or maybe Jeff Flake. Ben Sasse? Sure, whatever. Any of them will do. Because I’m not suggesting that any of these vocal Trump critics from within the president’s own party — including Massachusetts’ re-gift to Utah — run as...