Free Republic

West Virginia governor’s switch from D to R means GOP will have full control of legislative and executive branch in 26 states; Dems have full control in just 6 states Tonight West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (D) will announce his intention to join the Republican Party, and the GOP have full control of the legislative and executive branch in 26 states. Democrats now only have full control of the legislative and executive branch in six states. Population of GOP-controlled states: 164,139,104 Population of Dem-controlled states: 50,190,213

On Wednesday afternoon, a Boeing 787-800 Dreamliner took off from Seattle on a test flight. Flight tracking apps show the Dreamliner followed a flight path over the United States that draws an outline of the Dreamliner. It set the internet abuzz, likely one of the goals. But the Dreamliner was actually conducting a flight test of its new Rolls Royce engine "to prove to regulators that the airplane can safely operate on one engine for an extended period of time," according to Flightradar24, a flight-tracking app.

Non-farm payrolls were expected to have increased by 183,000 last month after surging by an initially reported 222,000 in June, according to a Reuters survey of economists. The unemployment rate was expected to fall one-tenth to 4.3 percent.

Employment Situation Summary Transmission of material in this release is embargoed until USDL-17-1070 8:30 a.m. (EDT) Friday, August 4, 2017 Technical information: Household data: (202) 691-6378 * cpsinfo@bls.gov * www.bls.gov/cps Establishment data (202) 691-6555 * cesinfo@bls.gov * www.bls.gov/ces Media contact: (202) 691-5902 * PressOffice@bls.gov THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION -- JULY 2017 Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 209,000 in July, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 4.3 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment increased in food services and drinking places, professional and business services, and health care. Household Survey Data Both the unemployment rate, at...

President Trump is firing pointed criticism at the GOP Congress, ripping lawmakers for sending him a Russian sanctions bill he hates while failing to negotiate an ObamaCare repeal bill. While tensions between the president and GOP lawmakers have been simmering for months, the latest exchanges suggest a turn in the relationship. Trump lamented Thursday that the U.S.-Russia relationship is “at an all-time and very dangerous low.” “You can thank Congress, the same people that can’t even give us [health care]!” he tweeted. It was the second day in a row that Trump ripped the Congress on both issues, and GOP...

Chicago faces an epidemic of gun violence. This year alone, more than 2,100 people have been shot, more than 400 killed.(snip) Young men on the city's south and west sides told CBS News how easy it is to get illegal guns, and why many never leave their homes without one. "I know people who can't walk from they house to the store without a gun," said Aaron Murph. "Because people getting killed left and right. It's sad." "I got shot twice and I could have been gone but I'm still here so, that scar, that's with me, so," said Tyshaun...

Remember how some people used to talk about President Barack Obama’s rise as “post-racial?” With bracing candor, Michelle Obama has begun to open up about how post-racial her White House life wasn’t. In an appearance at the Women’s Foundation of Colorado in Denver, the former first lady, who memorably advised Democrats “when they go low, we go high,” offered a painful glimpse of how low the insults could go — and how it felt to be on the receiving end.(snip) “The shards that cut me the deepest were the ones that intended to cut,” she said, according to the Post....

Inconvenient Truth: In a recent interview, Al Gore claimed that he lives a "carbon free lifestyle." The electricity bills for his home in Tennessee say otherwise. CNN's Jake Tapper asked Gore to respond to charges that he's a climate hypocrite. "This is a criticism we hear from conservatives all the time when talking about people like you or Elon Musk or Leonardo DiCaprio," Tapper said, "that you, yourself, have a large carbon footprint." Gore's response was "Well, I don't have a private jet. And what carbon emissions come from my trips on Southwest Airlines are offset. I live a carbon-free...

This will be the biggest movie of the year, I just can't wait. so excited to see this. PS: as an added bonus it is already being trashed as "alt right". It just doesn't get any better. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwpcBDPscdk

In Oprah Winfrey's mind, there is a concrete number that stands between accepting her body and being unhealthy when she steps on the scale. Winfrey, 63, spoke to The New York Times Magazine about the specific weight she deems unacceptable for herself. She also discussed her decision to get involved with Weight Watchers in 2015 and her well-chronicled struggles with fluctuating weight over the years. "For your heart to pump, pump, pump, pump, it needs the least amount of weight possible to do that,'' she said. "So all of the people who are saying, 'Oh, I need to accept myself...

On August 12, 2017, I will get in my car and make my annual cross-country trip from my summer home in Colorado to my other home in North Carolina. After I arrive in the Tar Heel State and get settled I will sit down at my computer and do something the leftists at my university have been wanting me to do for years: I will pen my letter of resignation to the Board of Trustees at UNC-Wilmington.However, before I submit that letter, I thought it would be a good idea to write a brief letter of explanation to all of...

Trump China speech postponed as president expected to order trade probe Aug 4, 2017 ROBERT SCHROEDER A speech on China’s trade practices that President Donald Trump was slated to give Friday has been postponed. Trump was expected to order an investigation into trade with China. He is being encouraged by some Democrats to get tough with Beijing, making for rare bipartisan agreement with the Republican commander-in-chief. The administration has been considering invoking a little-used provision of U.S. trade law to investigate whether China’s intellectual-property policies constitute “unfair trade practices,” The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week. The move could...

<p>Hope is fading for a feel-good ending at the U.S. box office.</p> <p>After several months of flops like Warner Bros.’ “King Arthur” and EuropaCorp’s “Valerian,” movie studios and theaters are beginning to acknowledge that their streak of record-setting ticket sales may be coming to an end. AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., the world’s biggest cinema chain, laid out a worse-than-projected outlook for the North American box office this week.</p>

John McCain's latest seemingly irrational remarks make it seem as if he's not in his right mind, but that's not really the case. It's just that McCain's right mind has always been wrong.

During a quarterly earnings call on Wednesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that about 63,000 people have canceled their Tesla Model 3 orders over the past year. Total orders for the vehicle have fallen from 518,000 to 455,000, Musk said, according to Business Insider. But the drop in orders doesn’t hurt Tesla too much: The electric-car company has averaged about 1,800 new Model 3 reservations per day since last Friday.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions will hold a press conference announcing on-going leak investigations on Friday. The investigations into various government leaks have "been in the works for some time," an official familiar with the matter told CBS News' Paula Reid. It is expected that leaks related to the Manchester terror attack will be part of the Justice Department's investigation, as well as other leaks of sensitive information to the media. Sessions recently faced criticism from President Trump for not being "tougher on the leaks from the intelligence agencies." While it is atypical for the Department of Justice to announce investigations,...

.....another controversial video is out there involving marine life and young men. This time, instead of dragging a shark behind a speeding boat, this latest clip shows two young men using a gun to kill a hammerhead....

Members of 4chan's /pol/ board, the hotbed of the alt-right, are pretty active in Britain, as the conspiracy theories around Grenfell Tower fire and the terror attack at Ariana Grande concert show. But this time they have stepped up their game. Hackers from /pol/ claimed responsibility on 4chan for breaking into a billboard in the heart of Cardiff's busy shopping district and using it to broadcast swastikas, images about Islam, a Big Brother message from George Orwell's 1984 and a photo of Donald Trump as alt-right meme Pepe the Frog.

...I cannot remember now which friend I was texting. I began to type my dread as I started the 30-minute walk to where I was staying in Haringey. My head was down when he stepped towards me. Tall, bandana wrapped across his face, eyes only just visible, a piece of wood in hand, hood pulled high – and immediately I remembered every newspaper clipping, every headline, every whisper that he will take your phone, your handbag. I did not look at him. I simply anticipated the moment it would happen: his face against mine, flesh almost touching, how still my...

Illegal immigrant families received nearly $1.3 billion in Los Angeles County welfare money during 2015 and 2016, nearly one-​quarter of the amount spent on the county’s entire needy population, according to data obtained by Fox News. The data was obtained from the county Department of Public Social Services -- which is responsible for doling out the benefits -- and gives a snapshot of the financial costs associated with sanctuary and related policies. The sanctuary county of Los Angeles is an illegal immigration epicenter, with the largest concentration of any county ​in the nation, according to a study from the Migration...