Free Republic

LANDSTUHL, Germany — It was the call that Yeganeh Salehi had been awaiting for more than a year. At 2 p.m. Saturday, she picked up the phone at her home in Iran and heard the voice of her husband, jailed American reporter Jason Rezaian. “I have been told I am leaving for the airport right now,” he said. Rezaian, the Washington Post correspondent in Tehran, had been detained for 18 months in the city’s notorious Evin prison, held on vague espionage-related charges that he denied. His wife, an Iranian, had visited him nearly every week, watching him lose weight and...

The head of the Chicago Public Schools says the district will lay off some of its central office staff on Friday. District CEO Forrest Claypool's statement came a day after top Illinois Republicans called for a state takeover of the financially troubled school district, which has a nearly $1 billion budget deficit that could lead to thousands of teacher layoffs and a strike. ...

The Obama administration announced Thursday the latest release of terrorists from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. One of the men, a Bosnian named Tariq Mahmoud Ahmed al-Sawah, admitted to being a member of al-Qaida and developed explosives for the terror group to target U.S. military personnel and civilians, the Free Beacon reported. The Hill first reported the release and transfer of al-Sawah back to Bosnia. Al-Sawah developed explosives and trained al-Qaida operatives in how to use them, according to his file, which was published by the New York Times. “Detainee is an admitted member of al-Qaida who developed...

Citibank, in particular, played a major role in one of the Trump’s organization’s more notorious bankruptcies, when the Trump Plaza Hotel in Atlantic City was underwater and Trump owed over $550 million on it to various creditors, with Citibank at the head. In order to restructure his debt, Trump gave Citibank and other creditors a 49% ownership interest in the hotel.As for Goldman Sachs, Trump is himself a shareholder in Goldman Sachs, which means he has a direct financial interest in its success. One would think that would make Trump even less enthusiastic about protecting me from Goldman Sachs (whatever...

Considering communist North Korea’s “unduly harsh” life sentence last month to Canadian pastor Hyeon Soo Lim for his Christian missionary activities, and the recent provocative claim of a successful hydrogen bomb detonation, described by Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion as a “grave threat to international peace and security,” it’s about time the Memorial to the Victims of Communism in Ottawa be built, and for its critics to stop playing political football with its location, size and design. As a Polish-Canadian immigrant I am well aware of communism’s fiercely atheistic and bigoted ideology, along with its brutal consequences. In view...

As Trump woos primary voters, New York records indicate he has NEVER voted in a Republican presidential primary (and neither have Ivanka or Melania!) ...Only primary elections on the list were from mayoral and Senate contestsHe has voted consistently in general elections, but not primaries... Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has never voted in a Republican presidential primary election in his home state of New York, voter records show. The same can be said of Trump's daughter Ivanka and his wife Melania. The revelation will give his rivals a fresh line of attack as the billionaire presses voters to embrace...

Sen. Ted Cruz will join Glenn Beck this weekend at the U.S.-Mexico border on what Beck describes as a humanitarian mission. The Tea Party Senator will join the radio talk show host and his followers in his effort to bring soccer balls and teddy bears to illegal immigrant children. Sen. Mike Lee dropped out of the trip, saying a scheduling conflict prevented him from attending. Sources close to Sen. Lee confirmed to Breitbart News that Lee would not be attending the Beck event.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Yesterday on this program we had a caller who said -- and I don't think he was joking. I don't even think he was half joking. I think this caller was serious. He said (paraphrasing), "You know, the Republican establishment's really missing the boat here. If they really hate Trump, and if they really want to get rid of Trump, they should all come out and endorse him. And if they did that then half the Trump supporters out there, since they hate the establishment, would think something's up and maybe abandon Trump and go to Cruz...

As one man put it, it was like Black Friday in January as hundreds of shoppers flocked to a Milwaukee Walmart that’s closing soon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Guthrie#Brush_with_Fred_Trump Footnote 66 added 1/21/2016 footnote 66 link http://gawker.com/woody-guthrie-despised-his-landlord-donald-trumps-racis-1754282007 footnote 67 added 1/21/2016 footnote 67 link http://time.com/4188991/woody-guthrie-donald-trump-fred-trump-songs/ The edited history appears to be scrubbed, but I'm not sure. Maybe an expert can chime in. I know the archived page before the mention of Trump is dated January 4th.

The State is asking a Court of Appeals to deny Steven Avery's motion to be released on bond while he pursues a new trial. In an appeal, Avery claims his property was illegally searched and that a juror was influenced into voting guilty, which he argues are grounds for a new trial and asks to be released on bond. The state Department of Justice responded to that appeal Thursday. In a letter filed with the appellate court, the state says Avery is a flight risk and shouldn't be released from custody.

My husband caught a nasty cold last weekend, and promptly shared it with me. We came out of the haze just in time to hear from the NWS that our little area of the US is in the bull's eye for an official - and very rare - blizzard this weekend. We've been preparing, as we're largely concerned about a power outage. I remember a few pretty bad snowstorms when I was growing up, but a power outage was never a real problem: we lived in one of those old buildings with radiators, whose hot water/steam was powered by burning...

HOUSTON — Southwestern Energy Co. will shed more than 40 percent of its workforce starting in the first quarter as it pauses its U.S. drilling program to cope with low natural gas prices, the company said Thursday. The natural gas driller expects a $60 million to $70 million pre-tax charge for severance payments and other costs of cutting 1,100 jobs. About 300 of those are part of Southwestern’s Houston headquarters. Falling natural gas prices over the past year has meant “cash flow to fund projects will be significantly lower than it has been the past few years,” Southwestern spokeswoman Christina...

~Favorite Songs with Food in them~ Scenes From An Italian Restaurant-Billy Joel *Video* Deep Blue Something - Breakfast At Tiffany's *Video*

Donald Trump kicked off his presidential campaign with what many observers saw as anti-Hispanic remarks. Yet, according to the latest poll from Florida Atlantic University, Trump is strongly leading among the state's GOP voters. Trump is now the favorite candidate of nearly 48 percent of all likely Republican primary voters (a large difference from the Florida Times-Union poll earlier this week) and is now the top choice of 54 percent of Hispanic likely Republican voters. Here's the breakdown among all likely Republican voters: Donald Trump - 47.6 percent Ted Cruz - 16.3 percent Marco Rubio - 11.percent Jeb Bush -...

We get it. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) is rattled. He’s afraid of losing Iowa. He doesn’t know how to deal with Donald Trump. But he sure isn’t helping matters with embarrassing arguments. His latest: “Right now, the Washington establishment is abandoning [Sen.] Marco Rubio. They made the assessment that Marco can’t win this race, and the Washington establishment is rushing over to support Donald Trump.” Thunk. Let’s consider the ways in which this is unhelpful. First, after spending months genuflecting to Trump as a kindred spirit, how can Trump be a closet establishment figure? Maybe Cruz isn’t a good judge...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Did anybody see the cover of the New York Post this morning? You did? I love it. The headline: "This Weekend Will Be Whiter Than the Oscars." Big snowstorm (laughing) -- not supposed to laugh, right? It sounds like a hate crime of some sort on the front page of the New York Post. Maybe another argument for global warming. Snow is racist. Anyway, the big news about all this is that the mayors of Washington, DC, and New York City and so forth, other officials, can't wait to be first to close schools. Big blizzard coming....

Donald Trump may have Sarah Palin on his side, but rival Republican primary candidate Ted Cruz has a big personality up his sleeve too: Glenn Beck. The conservative radio host and former Fox News personality will campaign with Cruz on Saturday in Iowa as the candidates scramble to secure an Iowa caucus victory. He'll attend two events hosted by the Cruz-supporting Super PAC Keep the Promise. Beck has long supported Cruz, and he urged his supporters to "fast and pray like you have never fasted and prayed ever before" for Cruz after he declared his candidacy, according to Politico.

... Influential leaders with direct ties to the founding of modern conservatism are rallying behind Ted Cruz...

I'd like to propose an accountability project. I invite all FReepers to list the names of public officials and others who have never been held to account for crimes, corruption and other misdeeds that are readily verifiable and widely known. My goal is to make sure we have before us a list of accounts that should be settled if and when justice and accountability are restored. I'll start off with a list that comes to mind: 1. Bill Clinton: Selling technology to the ChiComs for campaign cash; failing to catch or kill Bin Laden; multiple acts of abuse of power;...