Free Republic

The NBA opened the first training academy of a professional US basketball league in Cuba on Thursday, made possible by the diplomatic thaw between Washington and Havana, reported dpa.

DES MOINES, IOWA — Nine Republican presidential hopefuls will share a stage Saturday here in the hopes of winning the backing of the state's socially conservative GOP activists, whose support can be crucial to winning the state's presidential caucus, the first major event in the presidential primary..... Notably absent are New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, both of whom were invited. "The event will have a definite religious cast to it," said Don Racheter, chief operating officer of the Public Interest Institute, an Iowa nonprofit free-market group. The coalition evolved from the state branch of the...

In the first major speech of her scandal-plagued presidential campaign, Democrat Hillary Clinton explicitly raised the issue of sexual assault on college campuses. Clinton delivered the wide-ranging speech at the Women in the World Summit in New York City on Thursday, according to Inside Higher Ed. “When women of any age, whether on college campuses or military bases or even in their homes, face sexual assault, then no woman is secure,” she declared. “Every woman deserves to have the safety and security they need. That means we have to guarantee that our institutions respond to the continuing scourge of sexual...

Leaders with the Student Government Association at Youngstown State University said they decided to act quickly this week when posters showed up on campus promoting “Straight Pride” week next month. The posters contained profanity, which our station has blurred for viewers. The posters promote the event as a way of not showing the differences between students. Campus leaders said while they believe the posters were meant more as satire, especially since no names were associated with them, they determined the flyers went too far with their message. “When you are talking about minority activism, it is very easy that if...

An avalanche triggered by a deadly earthquake in Nepal on Saturday buried a part of the base camp for climbers bound for Mount Everest, killing at least eight people, Nepal's tourism ministry said. "The toll could go up, it may include foreigners as well as sherpas," tourism official Gyanendra Shrestha said.

During her tenure as secretary of state for the Obama administration, Hillary Clinton used a private email account on a private server in her possession instead of using a government-provided account on a secure government server. In the aftermath of this revelation, Hillary deleted thousands of emails from her private server instead of turning them over to the State Department, despite ongoing congressional inquiries and Freedom of Information Act requests for the documents. Chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi Trey Gowdy has been at the forefront of the efforts to obtain Hillary’s emails as he continues his quest...

Mary Keefe, a 19-year-old Vermont telephone operator whom her neighbor Norman Rockwell immortalized as his model for the heroine of “Rosie the Riveter,” the World War II feminist anthem that empowered women to leave home and pinch-hit in military plants, died on Tuesday at her home in Simsbury, Conn. She was 92. Her death was confirmed by her daughter Mary Ellen Keefe. Mrs. Keefe was a redhead, like the Rosie who appeared on the cover of the Memorial Day issue of The Saturday Evening Post magazine in 1943, but she had never wielded a rivet gun (not until an appearance...

The more shocking revelation for many, however, was Jenner's admission that in addition to identifying as a woman, he also identified as a conservative Republican. "Are you a Republican?" a stunned Sawyer asked the former patriarch of the Jenner-Kardashian household. "Yeah," Jenner reticently responded. "Is that a bad thing?"

BREAKING NEWS – At least 71 people died after a powerful magnitude-7.9 earthquake shook Nepal’s capital and the densely populated Kathmandu Valley around noon Saturday, Nepal's Home Ministry says. Sky News also reports that at least 50 people are trapped underneath rubble of the city’s iconic Dharahara Tower, one of Kathmandu’s landmarks built by Nepal’s royal rulers in the 1800s and a UNESCO-recognized historical monument.

Opened my e-mail this morning and just flat out enjoyed this short

Saturday’s earthquake has triggered avalanches in Mount Everest according to a Tweet posted by Alex Gavan, a mountaineer. He claims, “running for life from my tent” and further says there were “many, many” people up the mountain at the time. Alex Gavan, who describes himself as a mountaineer, said a “huge avalanche” had hit from Pumori, a mountain lying close to Mount Everest on the Nepal-Tibet border.

"..........Mr. Walker’s apparent hardening on immigration has inspired a flood of reporting and commentary. Most recently he told the radio host Glenn Beck that he favored restricting legal immigration in tough economic times, a position to the right of most other 2016 presidential hopefuls. He repeated that view Friday after a speech in Cedar Rapids, when Eddie Failor, 24, expressed concern “as a young Republican” that the party must make inroads to new voter blocs, including by supporting a comprehensive overhaul of immigration. Mr. Walker told Mr. Failor that his top priority would be securing the border. He also said...

New information about donations to Hillary Clinton’s family foundation and her husband have her on the defensive. It’s also going to make it harder to go on offense.When Clinton announced her campaign, she outlined four big fights she would take on. One of the pillars of her pitch was that she wanted to fix “our dysfunctional political system and get unaccountable money out of it once and for all, even if that takes a constitutional amendment.”This position has political appeal. Voters think the system is rigged, and they think big money helps those in power keep it rigged. For a...

A bill proposed in California would allow classic car owners to cut a check to the DMV for $200 to get out of the state’s notoriously strict smog test. But naturally, it’s a bit more complicated than just paying off the Golden State. Any car in California built on or after 1976 has to undergo a smog test every two years (not so for pre-76 cars, which is one of the reasons my 1976 BMW 2002 is now living in Florida). AB550 seeks to amend that law to allow vehicles 30 years or older to bypass the test, but only...

A new slew of allegations has emerged implying that the Clinton Foundation may have accepted bribes in exchange for Hillary to use her Secretary of State status to influence government policy. An example of possible influence peddling was her support for Russia's acquisition of a major stake in American uranium mining. "It looks like she violated the law, and the idea that she was going to use her own server and do official business on it goes against every transparency issue that the President likes to tout," House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) observed. "She should turn that server and all...

A 7.9 magnitude earthquake has struck Nepal less than 50 miles from the capital, Kathmandu, the U.S. Geological Survey said Saturday. It occurred at a depth of less than two miles, which is considered shallow. The USGS previously rated the temblor at 7.5 magnitude but later upgraded the strength.

This morning on radio, Glenn gave some hints from an important phone call he received before going on the air. While Glenn was unable to release any of the details about who called or exactly what it was about, he did share a snippet of content concerning the GOP. Courtesy of Glenn, we do know that there were “big names involved” and Glenn was “encouraged by who it came from.”Glenn did provide some of the message from the mystery caller, saying“Just please tell Glenn to continue to put the heat on. Because the party is split. And half of...

Full title: James L. Buckley, author, Saving Congress from Itself: Emancipating the States and Empowering Their PeopleTimely interview with James L. Buckley. Starts at the 19:30 mark and runs for 20 minutes.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has already filed seven amendments, some with the backing of Republican colleagues. They include a proposal to require certification that Iran has recognized Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state and another to require certification that the Iranian government has released all detained Americans. Depending on your perspective, the Senate is looking for pass a “foundationally” solid bipartisan Iran bill, in the words of Sen Lindsey Graham, or a watered down nothing burger that really does nothing but allow the Senate to express their disapproval of Obama’s Iran deal, without the teeth to stop it.