Free Republic

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said Tuesday that he’ll only allow the House to vote on an immigration bill President Trump will sign, effectively ruling out several bipartisan plans that fall short on border security. “We’re not going to bring immigration legislation through that the president doesn’t support,” Mr. Ryan said when asked about the path forward. Congress has less than four weeks until the March 5 phaseout deadline Mr. Trump set for the Obama-era DACA deportation amnesty, which is currently protecting nearly 700,000 illegal immigrant “Dreamers.”

The Democratic Attorneys General Association (DAGA), a political fundraising group, touts the AGs as “the first line of defense” against Trump’s agenda. The “sheer volume” of Democratic lawsuits is “staggering,” said Scott Will, executive director of the Republican Attorneys General Association. Throughout 2017, Democratic attorneys generals filed 35 multi-state lawsuits against the Trump administration....By contrast, Republican attorneys general brought 46 multistate legal challenges during ALL of former President Barack Obama’s two terms. Attorney general races are playing out in 32 states in 2018, with 14 seats held by Democrats and 18 by Republicans. Rankin said DAGA is focused chiefly on...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, and Democratic lawmakers slammed President Trump after he approved the release of a memo questioning surveillance methods by the FBI during the early stages of the Russia investigation, arguing that he gave up “his constitutional responsibility” by releasing it.“President Trump has surrendered his constitutional responsibility as commander in chief by releasing highly classified and distorted intelligence,” Pelosi said. “By not protecting intelligence sources and methods, he just sent his friend Putin a bouquet. "[House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin] Nunes’ partisan spin memo distorts highly classified intelligence in a cynical attempt to discredit our national...

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson has requested the Department of Justice turn over communications from 16 FBI and DOJ officials, including former Director James Comey and former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. In a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein sent Wednesday, the Wisconsin Republican requested “all documents and communications” — which includes emails, memos, notes, texts, iPhone instant messages, and voicemails — from 16 employees between January 1, 2015, to the present.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi wants Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) removed as the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee in the middle of the uproar over a memo that supposedly exposes FISA violations and bias at the FBI during the 2016 presidential election. Republicans voted to release the memo, and President Trump said that is "100 percent" going to happen.The FBI, however, shared its "grave concerns" over the four-page document Wednesday in a rare public statement, doubting its accuracy. Democrats say releasing it will be detrimental to national security and that Republicans only want it public in order to upend...

House Speaker Paul Ryan called Tuesday to “cleanse” the FBI as he openly backed the release of a controversial memo that purportedly details alleged surveillance abuses by the U.S. government. “Let it all out, get it all out there. Cleanse the organization,” Ryan, R-Wis., said. He added, “I think we should disclose all this stuff. It’s the best disinfectant. Accountability, transparency -- for the sake of the reputation of our institutions.” The striking remarks came at a breakfast with anchors and reporters ahead of President Trump’s State of the Union address; much of the session was off the record.

West Virginia's Sen. Joe Manchin (D.) criticized House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) after being shown a clip of her characterizing President Donald Trump's immigration plan as a way to "Make America White Again." CNN's "State of the Union" host Jake Tapper used the Pelosi clip to start a discussion on immigration. "Let me just say what I said last night: that plan is a campaign to make America white again," Pelosi said. "You know what, we don't need that type of rhetoric on either side, from Nancy, Paul Ryan or anybody else," Manchin said. Manchin proceeded to say...

Many of the minimum wage laws passed in recent years, including in major cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago, include waivers allowing unionized businesses to pay their employees below the minimum. The waivers in effect make unionizing workers a low-cost option for businesses unwilling or unable to pay the new minimum wage, which in cities such as San Francisco and SeaTac, Wash., which also has a waiver, will climb as high as $15 an hour when fully phased in. In those cities, businesses can sign a collective bargaining agreement with a union that sets the wages below...

The chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee acknowledged Thursday that a reference made between two FBI employees of a "secret society" could have been said in jest as opposed to evidence of an anti-Donald Trump plot.

Calling proposed immigration reform legislation “devastating” to Western Growers members, association president and CEO Tom Nassif alerted members that the group will work to stop it from becoming law. The immigration reform package, the Secure America’s Future Act, was authored by House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. House leaders passed a continuing resolution on Jan. 18 that will fund the government for another four weeks. Facing a midnight deadline Jan. 19, the Senate had still not passed any bill to keep the government operating. According to Nassif, the House passage of the continuing resolution included a commitment to vote on...

The FBI’s top agent on the Trump-Russia investigation sent a text message last year that one top Republican senator says suggests he saw no evidence of Trump campaign collusion. The text message, which was sent by Peter Strzok, is “jaw-dropping,” Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said in a radio interview on Tuesday. In an interview with WISN-Milwaukee radio host Jay Weber, Johnson read aloud a May 19, 2017 text that Strzok sent to Lisa Page, an FBI lawyer and his mistress. Strzok wrote: “You and I both know the odds...

A school district in Wisconsin is mulling over whether to remove the classic Harper Lee novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” from its high school curriculum after a parental complaint. Parent Tujama Kameeta wants the Monona Grove School District in Monona, Wisconsin town to remove the novel due to the “48 racial slurs directed at African Americans in the book.”

MILWAUKEE —The Milwaukee police officer who was cleared in an officer-involved shooting that sparked two days of violent protests on the city's northwest side is likely heading to prison in connection with alleged sex crimes that were revealed during the investigation into the shooting. As part of a plea deal reached Wednesday, Dominiuqe Heaggan-Brown avoided a trial by agreeing to plead guilty to reduced charges: three counts of soliciting prostitution and two counts of capturing an intimate representation without consent.

HOUSTON - A woman described as a victim of sex trafficking, who is originally from Wisconsin, is recovering Saturday morning after an overnight altercation, Houston police said. The woman left a club she was at after her "pimp" was assaulting her there just before 2:30 a.m. in the 14600 block of Hempstead Road. When she left, the pimp began following her, continuing to berate and assault her, Houston police said. A "good Samaritan" pulled over after he saw the assault and got out of his dark-colored pickup truck to help, Houston police said. The pimp then told the good Samaritan...

A Harvard Law School professor and Newsweek magazine were recently mocked after uncritically suggesting a scenario in which Hillary Clinton could still become the president. Lawrence Lessig, the Roy L. Furman professor of law and leadership at Harvard Law School, outlined a scenario in which the former senator could take the reins of power in the event of a series of impeachments of the Trump administration. If President Trump resigns or gets impeached, Vice President Mike Pence resigns or is impeached and House Speaker Paul Ryan – who would legally become the heir to the top job – appoints Clinton...

The House’s immigration-and-amnesty bill is going to get a formal debate and vote in the House, according to the House Freedom Caucus. Caucus chief Rep. Mark Meadows announced the decision to reporters following closed-door negotiations with House Speaker Paul Ryan. The talks with Ryan were held when Ryan had to trade favors to collect enough GOP votes to push through another short-term budget that will last until February 16. Democrats voted against the GOP’s short-term budget because it does not offer an amnesty to millions of illegals. The House budget plan next goes to the Senate, where Democrats will be...

A veteran who made headlines by offering to take Rep. Maxine Waters' seat at President Trump's first State of the Union address will indeed be in attendance. After seeing Ricky Taylor's appearance Wednesday on "Fox & Friends," Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) invited him to the event and he accepted. Waters (D-Calif.) is one of several Democrats who are skipping the event, telling MSNBC last week that Trump is "the most despicable human being that could possibly ever walk the earth."

The possibility of a government shutdown grew dramatically Thursday as House and Senate GOP leaders struggled to round up the votes to keep the government open past midnight Friday. Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) predicted that the House would pass a short-term funding measure on Thursday night. GOP leaders are gambling that rank-and-file Republicans won't want to risk being blamed for a shutdown and will end up supporting the short-term spending bill, which would keep the government open until Feb. 16.

A Wisconsin Democrat won a State Senate seat on Tuesday night that had been held by a Republican for 17 years, setting off a flurry of political predictions across a state that President Trump won. Republicans warned that it was a “wake up” call for their party as elections loom in the fall, while Democrats cheered the upset victory as a sign of hope that Wisconsin was back in contention. In the state’s first special election of 2018, Patty Schachtner, a Democrat and the St. Croix County medical examiner, beat Representative Adam Jarchow, a Republican member of the State Assembly,...

Besides losing one in Wisconsin, what are the other 4 seats did we win last night? I know libs are going gaga over this but 4 out 5 does not look like blue wave so far to me.