Free Republic

Syria conflict: Troops recapture key southern town 5 hours ago Government forces have retaken control of a strategically important town in southern Syria, activists say. Sheikh Miskeen, which lies on one of the main routes from Damascus to the city of Deraa and the Jordanian border, fell after a month-long battle. Russian warplanes were reported to have played a key role in the offensive. Russia's foreign minister meanwhile declared its intervention had changed the course of the conflict in Syria, ahead of the start of peace talks. Sergei Lavrov also warned it would be impossible to negotiate a political settlement...

s POSTED 9:43 AM, JANUARY 26, 2016, BY TRIBUNE MEDIA WIRE, UPDATED AT 09:44AM, A Florida man quit his job at Burger King, then he cleared out his locker and a whole lot more. Before leaving, the man scooped up every last chicken nugget in the freezer and took them all home. The man, whose Twitter handle is @Zealot, tweeted a picture of the stolen nuggets. He wrote: "TODAY WAS MY LAST DAY WORKING AT BURGER KING SO I TOOK ALL OF THEIR NUGGETS, F*** IT." The tweet has since gone viral. His friends are now hailing him as "The...

The Justice Department should limit the types of cases it brings and more nonviolent criminals should be steered toward probation and away from prison, according to task force recommendations designed to cut the federal inmate count and save more than $5 billion. [...] The recommendations from the Charles Colson Task Force on Federal Corrections provide concrete steps prosecutors, judges, prison officials and policymakers can take to reduce prison overcrowding and ease spending on a corrections system that's swelled in the last three decades as a result of harsh mandatory minimum sentences imposed on drug criminals. ...

Conservative radio host Dana Loesch on Tuesday endorsed Ted Cruz. "Dana is a fearless conservative who is not afraid to confront the liberal media bias head on," the Texas senator said in a statement released by his campaign. "She is a passionate fighter for liberty and an important voice for conservatives. I am thrilled to have Dana on our team and work together to win the White House in 2016." Loesch reiterated her support for Cruz following a 10-minute interview with him on her radio show. "I have said that I will pull for the most consistent conservative in the...

Sheriff Joe Arpaio is on his way to Iowa, at the request of Donald Trump's campaign staff. (Very short full story below.) http://www.kfvs12.com/story/31061567/sheriff-joe-arpaio-heads-to-iowa-at-request-of-trump-campaign

Robert Jeffress, who pastors the First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, and who has been making the introductions of Donald Trump to several of his recent campaign audiences, stopped short of endorsing the billionaire during a recent media interview - but basically only because his nonprofit exemption with the IRS would have been threatened had he appeared to have given his stamp of approval to one candidate over another. "I am not officially endorsing any candidate but I was happy to pray at Mr. Trump's events on Saturday and in Iowa and also to introduce him," Jeffress said, in a...

"Israel is currently experiencing one of the most severe cyber-attack on the Israel National Electricity Authority. We discovered it yesterday; fortunately, The Ministry of National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Resources and the Israel National Cyber Bureau are already handling it," said Dr. Yuval Steinitz, Minister of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources at the third international Cybertech Conference in Tel Aviv Tuesday. [...] The minister went on to underscore the importance of defensive cyber technology: "We need cybertech to prevent such attacks. Cyber-attacks on infrastructure can paralyze power stations and the whole energy supply chain from natural gas, oil, petrol...

Immigration proposals have been mentioned at every single debate this election season, but absent from the conversation are the actual immigrants who would be directly impacted by reforms. Just a week ahead of the Iowa caucuses, Fusion visited Iowa to ask undocumented immigrants what issues are important to them—and whom they would support this election season.

Gov. Chris Christie called Tuesday for an imminent state takeover of Atlantic City, saying the seaside gambling resort is incapable of getting its finances together after years of overspending.

Sometimes the world is moving so fast you just want to hop off. I am tempted after hearing that the Olympics will no longer require men to have the one thing that has always pretty much determined whether you are a man or a woman. (snip) I don't know about you, but I strive to be tolerant, enlightened and avoid being considered a knuckle-dragging moron. But I have to admit, the IOC's move feels like a bridge too far. "It is an adaptation to a human rights issue," IOC medical commission chairman Arne Ljungqvist told the Associated Press. "This is...

For those interested, Cruz will be on with Bill O'Reilly tonight.

Party officials and strategists believe that if Trump wins Iowa, Rubio's path to the nomination is clearer. To many out­side ob­serv­ers, the wave of seasoned Re­pub­lic­an of­fi­cials and strategists sound­ing in­creas­ingly com­fort­able with Don­ald Trump as the GOP's pres­id­en­tial nom­in­ee is a sign of sur­render. Wheth­er it's Iowa Gov. Terry Bran­stad root­ing for Ted Cruz to lose the Iowa caucuses or Or­rin Hatch "com­ing around a little bit" on Trump's can­did­acy or the paucity of money spent at­tack­ing Trump on the air­waves, it feels like of­fi­cial Wash­ing­ton has sided with Trump over Cruz. In real­ity, many are try­ing to sal­vage...

Obama's Chief Of Staff Admits They Want Tyranny Denis McDonough says Obama's administration doesn't want his executive orders subject to anything so piddly and irritating as Congress. The White House recently made an amazing--and disturbingly un-American--pronouncement regarding its desire to move its agenda via executive actions. In describing the administration's intent to pursue "audacious" executive orders, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough stated the Obama administration's desire that its actions "not be subjected to undoing through [Congress] or otherwise."

Russia: Syria Peace Talks Must Include Kurds Despite Turkish 'Blackmail' Foreign Minister Lavrov says Syrian President Assad was never offered asylum in Russia, takes stance opposite Turkey on Kurdish participation in peace talks. The Associated Press Jan 26, 2016 1:32 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) -- All adults, including pregnant women and new mothers, should be screened for depression as a routine part of health care, a government advisory group recommended Tuesday. Depression is a common public health problem, and screening simply involves health workers asking about certain symptoms even if patients don't mention them.

The federal government will be flirting with $30 trillion in debt within a decade, the Congressional Budget Office reported Monday, blaming an aging population, new spending and tax cuts approved on Capitol Hill, and the growing burden from Obamacare for erasing the progress Washington had made over the past few years. Analysts said Obamacare will chase more workers out of the labor force over the next five years, adding pressure to an economy still struggling to spring to life more than seven years into the Obama recovery.

A decision by Italian officials to cover up ancient nude statues to not offend Iran's visiting president is drawing ridicule in Rome. Ahead of a news conference Monday with Premier Matteo Renzi and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, wooden panels were erected around some Roman statues in Rome's Capitoline Museums. When images of the cover-up made the Italian media Tuesday, politicians from across the spectrum decried and derided the decision. The museum said Tuesday that the premier's office wanted the statues along Rouhani's path to the news conference covered up. Renzi's office declined to comment. ...

As the Schengen treaty guaranteeing open internal European borders continues to crumble, Italy is gearing up for a tidal wave of as many as 400,000 immigrants "in the coming weeks," according to Italian sources, and worse still, they will be coming to stay. Italian authorities fear that their worst nightmare is materializing before their eyes: as droves of immigrants arrive on Italy's shores, they have no choice but to remain in Italy. According to analysts, the worst is yet to come. Until a few days ago the Italian peninsula was a transit channel for tens of thousands of desperate migrants...

Real-estate mogul Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that his campaign was endorsed by a big-name leader in the evangelical community: Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr. "Great honor- Rev. Jerry Falwell Jr. of Liberty University, one of the most respected religious leaders in our nation, has just endorsed me!" Trump wrote on Twitter. ... "It is truly an honor to receive Jerry's endorsement. Not only is he a high-quality person, with a wonderful family, whom I have great respect for - I also consider him a very good friend and his support means so much to me," Trump said in...

Audit details huge gap in missing White House documents Published: 05/18/2000 With Congress planning more hearings into the White House's cover-up of a huge gap in subpoenaed e-mail, it's no wonder that the nation's chief executive says he avoids using e-mail. At least that's what he told a 9-year-old boy when the lad asked him how he uses the Internet last month during a "digital divide" photo-op. "If you work for the government," President Clinton explained, "you don't use e-mail very much unless you want it all in the newspapers." Of course, Clinton was making a joke at his own...