Free Republic

The migration of undocumented children and adolescents traveling alone EE. UU. does not stop, and only in October and November last -the first two months of fiscal 2015 in that country-, 495 thousand Guatemalan minors were arrested in the southern border of the country by Border Patrol agents. Guatemala tops the list of Central American countries with the largest number of infants captured by entering illegally in the country's north. In the same period 115 thousand were arrested and 506 Hondurans Salvadoran children. Although Foreign Ministry authorities say that migration figures are changing and may decrease in the coming months,...

The man who may have been one of the last people to talk with Jessica Chambers says he is being threatened, and he is being called the leader of a gang that may have been involved in Chambers' death. Jessica Chambers, a 19-year-old Panola County resident, was murdered on December 6th. She was found burning next to her car, which was also on fire. "Everybody knows me out here," said Ali Alsanai, son of the owner of the gas station where Chambers was seen pumping gas hours before she died. "Everybody likes me, I get along with everyone so they...

Job cuts at the New York Times will exceed the stated goal of 100 newsroom positions eliminated, the Newspaper Guild of New York said yesterday in a memo to union members. According to the guild, the Times said yesterday it will lay off 21 union-represented employees starting as early as today, after 57 guild members and roughly 30 non-guild members accepted buyout applications. That amounts to more than the 100 newsroom positions the newspaper said it needed to eliminate as a cost-cutting measure on Oct. 1.

The nation’s state legislatures are about to become embroiled in a battle of epic proportions as they line up on either side of the debate over the EPA’s Clean Power Plan. The struggle could define the future of, and indeed the very existence of, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wisc.), 49 members of the Wisconsin Legislature and the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin are part of a nationwide, state legislative backlash against the EPA’s Clean Power Plan. EPA officials proposed the plan in June 2014. It is designed to reduce carbon greenhouse gas emissions from fossil-fuel fired...

Sen. Mike Lee is defending the weekend's acrimony-inducing Senate session, explaining that it was important to get a vote on the constitutionality of President Obama’s executive amnesty.“It’s always worth it when you stand behind the American people, who want to make sure these that things are being voted on,” Lee said during an appearance Monday on Fox News. “When we have a president who engages in acts of lawlessness and behaves as if he were a government of one. It’s always worth it to stand up for the American people and get a vote on whether or not the president...

The National Hockey League's puzzling outbreak of the mumps has now reached the league's biggest star. Sidney Crosby has the vaccine-preventable disease. The Pittsburgh Penguins announced the diagnosis in a news release Sunday morning. According to the release, Crosby will be "monitored daily, but specialists believe he should be through the infectious period by Monday."

Featured Term selected at random:REGIMINI ECCLESIAE UNIVERSAE Apostolic consititution authorizing the new constitution of the Roman Curia. This estensive document gives the juridical structure of: 1. the whole Roman curia in general; 2. the Secretary of State and the Council for the Public Affairs of the Church; 3. the Sacred Congregations (nine); 4. the Secretariats (three); 5. the Council of the Laity and Commission "Justice and Peace"; 6. the Tribunals (three); and 7. Offices (six). Pope Paul VI hereby ratified the centureies-old curial system which he described as "rendering the universal Church outstanding service" (August 15, 1967). All items in...

he scariest words uttered during Jonathan Gruber’s recent appearance before the House Oversight Committee were “positive selection.” They were read aloud by Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, from a 1997 paper the professor co-authored concerning abortion. The opus in question made the Congressman uneasy because of the following passage: “By 1993 all cohorts under the age 19 were born under legalized abortion and we estimate steady state savings of $1.6 billion per year from positive selection.” Rep. Massie asked the professor what was meant by “positive selection.” This question was evidently not anticipated in Gruber’s pre-testimony coaching, so he became evasive....

I don’t usually get so personal in these columns, but today I want you to know that I feel particularly blessed. I am in the Holy Land with my friends, Dr. Ben and Candy Carson. Israel is one of my favorite travel destinations in the world. This will be my eighth visit. It is the first trip there for the Carsons and it is truly a privilege to escort them through this remarkable country. Dr. and Mrs. Carson are deeply faithful Christians, who I suspect will soon find themselves enveloped by the deep sense of spirituality that is palpable in...

Even though pro-life counselors have had success in their campaign against a Michigan abortionist the most recent campaign against him has been lengthy and it is likely not over. Michael Arthur Roth has been operating his abortion facility in West Bloomfield, Michigan under a guise for some time. But Operation Rescue President Troy Newman is not fooled by the façade of Roth’s business and is familiar with him. “This is a guy that likes to call his place the Laser and Anesthetic Center, trying to mask off as being, I guess, a plastic surgeon,” Newman informed. “But in reality, all...

If government anti-poverty programs focused on individual outcomes, the results would be those like Lance from Michigan. His father on death row and his mother a prostitute, Lance wandered into Florida and lived behind a dumpster at a 7-11. Hungry, dirty and homeless, he later found a place to live, became sober, got a job and will go to college on a scholarship. We don’t hear stories like that attributed to government assistance. That is because there are over 90 government welfare programs ranging from cash payments to housing and nutrition that are projected to cost $14 trillion over the...

Chrysler Group LLC has changed its name to FCA US LLC. The change will be largely unnoticed by consumers, affecting mostly corporate and financial communications. Chrysler-branded cars will continue to bear the Chrysler badge, as those branded Fiat will bear the Fiat badge. …

In the wake of the passage of CRomnibus –on the strength of GOP votes – the GOP leadership in Congress and the GOP establishment has been working overtime to rough up Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Utah Senator Mike Lee. A lot of the GOP is miffed that they have to serve alongside men of principle, this produces a Devil-Holy Water effect. They also realize based on the government shutdown… an act I’d contend mobilized the GOP base to come out and deliver a beating to the Democrats in November… and the forced vote on the Constitutionality of the Obama’s...

Destination weddings are all the rage. After all, why not attend a wedding in a beautiful location and stay a little longer for some extra rest and relaxation? According to an article published by WBTW.com, it looks like some tourists are doing the opposite. After flocking to Myrtle Beach, SC for a vacation, some foreign visitors have extended their stay indefinitely by marrying American citizens in exchange for money and a green card. (Instead of planning a destination wedding, they plan to commit wedding fraud.)

Shocking political news this morning! Jeb Bush has announced he is going to “actively explore” running for President. This, no doubt, comes as a huge shock and surprise to everyone. It was only a few days ago that the New York Times got wind of Bush’s super secret meeting with John McCain wherein they discussed how to make irrelevant the conservative base of the Republican Party. Funny how in politics super secret meetings somehow get discovered and splashed all over the New York Times. It’s as if someone planted the story. After McCain and Mitt Romney, party moderates, got trounced...

Who is in charge of our nation today in mid-December, 2014? The answer seems to be nobody. We have a lawless president and Attorney General, trying everything they can to control our lives; but last month’s election showed they are only able to present obstacles to our lives. Neither the House nor the Senate is in the hands of men who can make things happen. They are good at stopping things from happening and reacting to external events, but that’s not the same as being in control. The best estimate of what is going on is that events jumping off...

A sweeping Vatican investigation of Roman Catholic sisters in the United States that began five years ago amid criticism they had become secular and overly feminist ended up mostly praising nuns for their contributions to the church, a sign of the shift in tone under Pope Francis. The report released Tuesday praised the sisters, thanked them for their selfless work caring for the poor and promised to value their "feminine genius" more, while gently suggesting ways to survive amid a steep drop in their numbers. Given the criticism of American religious life that prompted the Vatican under Pope Benedict XVI...

Andrew Luck’s legend is growing. Sure, there’s buzz about how he has thrown for more yards in his first three seasons than anyone in NFL history. Or the fact he’s led the Indianapolis Colts to the playoffs in each of his NFL seasons, after clinching a spot this year with Sunday’s win. But among NFL players, the gossip around Luck concerns a peculiar brand of on-field chatter so confusing and brilliant that no one knows quite what to make of it. “In all the years I’ve played football I have never heard anything like it,” said Washington Redskins linebacker Ryan...

A court has ordered a postmortem on the body of politician Andreas Schockenhoff, a sharp critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin, to squash rumors of foul play after his death on Saturday night. […] It had initially been reported that the 57-year-old Christian Democratic Union (CDU) MP had died of heart failure. Schockenhoff was coordinator of foreign policy towards Russia for the German government from 2006 until earlier this year. He was a hawkish voice in the debate over how to deal with Putin and often clashed with his successor Gernot Erler of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). …

The city of Scranton hiked property taxes 57% and garbage collection fees 69% to shore up a police and fire pension funds that will run out of money anyway, in 5 years and 2.5 years respectively. Amusingly (to outsiders) but certainly not to Scranton taxpayers, Scranton Pensions Increased as Much as 80 Percent as a result of inane mayoral promises. The 2011 court ruling that awarded huge raises and millions of dollars in back pay to Scranton firefighters and police officers was a windfall for retirees too, with some seeing a more than 80 percent hike in their pensions between...