Free Republic

A group of downtown Olympia business owners is seeking a temporary restraining order to stop the opening of a city-sanctioned homeless camp, arguing the city is violating its own ordinance. The city is preparing to open a so-called mitigation site on a city-owned parking lot at Olympia Avenue Northeast and Franklin Street Northeast where homeless people have been camping out for months. Officials have said the site will have water, restrooms and garbage service for people in 80 to 120 city-provided tents. The plan was a response to rapid growth in the number of tents in downtown in recent months,...

The topic of white nationalists was handled in a heavy-handed way during the December 9 episode of Fox’s Rel. Rel (Lil Rel Howery), an African-American man, is a charge nurse in a Chicago hospital. In “Hate & Hip Hop,” his patient turns out to be a racist who fainted during a white nationalist protest rally. The white patient isn’t impressed when Rel calls him a blood brother, as they both have O negative blood. Rel explains to Tommy Smith (Josh Duvendeck) that only 7 percent of the population have O negative blood. Rel at first assumes that Tommy was at...

In the normal course of events, one could understand the hundreds of “I don’t knows” and “I don’t recalls” former FBI Director James Comey during Friday’s testimony. Most FBI investigations are handled out of the field office in which the illegality allegedly occurred with the FBI Director not privy to all the details. But it was Comey who decided to run the whole Trump collusion and obstruction investigation out of FBI headquarters. He should have known ad remembered every detail of his actions and those under him. He did. Don’t count the “I can’t recalls” Just counting the contradictions and...

Some 158 million, or a population far larger than all of Russia, want to move to the U.S., about 21 percent of all those in the world seeking a new home.........the U.S. continues to be the most desired destination country for potential migrants,” said Gallup. And as the border war has seen, the United States is a huge draw from those in the Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Honduras. Half of the citizens in those countries want out.... Trump's immigration policies also make that unlikely, having put some limits on refugees and other immigrants.

Leader McConnell,Since your office has neglected to make an appointment for us to meet on the matter, I’m compelled to use this open letter to explain why your apparent attempt to sabotage the FIRST STEP Act is so misguided.It’s become clear that you are using your powers as Senate Majority Leader to slow-roll one of the President’s top legislative priorities: the FIRST STEP Act. This bipartisan legislation has already passed the House with a resounding vote of 360-59. Your refusal to bring the bill forward for a vote in the Senate is all that stands in the way of its...

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There were 1 million more jobs than unemployed workers in the most recent government count of job openings, according to a Labor Department release Monday. Total available jobs stood at 7.08 million for October, the second-highest level surpassed only by the 7.3 million in August, the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed. By comparison, there were just 6.08 million Americans classified as unemployed for the month. The survey shows a tightening jobs market at a time when questions are arising over the broader economy's strength. Most economists are expecting a global slowdown that could infect the U.S., which is...

With Nick Ayers bowing out of the opportunity to replace WH Chief of Staff John Kelly, who is departing at the end of this year, the question of who will be next to run the show is a Monday morning political obsession in D.C. Who could it be? Well there are a few names that have floated to the top of everyone’s lists. They are, in no particular order: – Steve Mnuchin, current Trump Treasury Secretary – Mick Mulvaney, current Trump OMB Director – Matt Whitaker, current Trump Acting Attorney General – Rep. Mark Meadows, Chair of the House Freedom...

Hanukkah celebrates the miracle that oil thought to be enough for only one day burned instead for eight. So the Jewish festival of lights is also, in a way, a celebration of surprise. A temple in Queens got a small dose of surprise on Sunday - the final night of Hanukkah - when Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York Democrat with a knack for dramatic flourish, told those gathered to light the menorah that her ancestors were Jewish. ‘‘One of the things that we discovered about ourselves is that a very, very long time ago, generations and generations ago, my...

On December 1, 2018, NASA’s InSight lander captured a haunting low rumble caused by vibrations from the Martian wind, estimated to be blowing between 10 to 15 mph (5-7 m/sec) from northwest to southeast. The wind was consistent with the direction of dust devil streaks in the landing area, which were observed from orbit. “Capturing this audio was an unplanned treat. But one of the things our mission is dedicated to is measuring motion on Mars, and naturally that includes motion caused by sound waves,” said InSight principal investigator Dr. Bruce Banerdt, a researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.The vibrations...

WASHINGTON — Staffers in President Donald Trump’s White House are measured by longevity.(snip) Few in Trump’s White House have a history with him that dates as far back as Stephanie Grisham. For nearly two years, she served as communications director for first lady Melania Trump. A few weeks ago, she received a promotion to deputy chief of staff for communications and has become one of the more powerful figures in the ever-evolving Trump White House. Back in the summer of 2015, she was a lowly press wrangler on Trump’s campaign. On a hot July day 3 1/2 years ago, Grisham...

Russia is deploying nuclear-capable Tu-160 Blackjack bombers to Venezuela this week as part of an increasingly provocative pattern of bomber training flights, according to American defense officials. At least two Blackjacks will fly from a strategic forces air base in Russia to Venezuela as part of a series of training exercises that will include long-range refueling, said officials familiar with Russian plans for the flight. The bomber foray to South America will be Russia's seventh training flight for Blackjack bombers in the past three months. Mark Schneider, a former Pentagon official and specialist on the Russian military, said Tu-160 flights...

Everyone’s excited about the upcoming 2020 Ford Bronco, in part, because of what the nameplate means to American culture: adventure, ruggedness, and fun. It was the first-gen model that created this meaning, so it’s cool that one Illinois company is now building those old Broncos from the ground up as a Ford-licensed product. But they’re not cheap. A company out of Illinois, Gateway Bronco has been finding pristine early Broncos and restomodding them for a couple of years now, getting its start in 2016. Recently, the outfit that “reimagines” Broncos announced that it’s the first builder officially licensed from Ford...

Emails leaked exclusively to Breitbart News reveal that a group of Google employees, with encouragement from the tech giant’s director of monetization, began plotting the downfall of this website shortly after the 2016 election. The group sought to strike at Breitbart News’ revenue by kicking the site off Google’s market-dominating ad services. Although their efforts ultimately failed, the discussion featured senior Google employees speaking frankly about their reasons for targeting the site. These included unfounded allegations of “hate speech” and “fake news.” In the leaked emails, Google employee Richard Zippel advised a fellow employee that Google would act against Breitbart...

Baby Its Cold Outside - Dolly Parton and Rod Stewart Baby it's cold outside, a cosy duet sung by Dolly Parton and Rod Stewart, aren't they gorgeous together? I hope you enjoy the video.

Protesters gathered outside a Cuban tourism office in Montreal to support a father who’s been stuck in Cuba for over a year — and faces a second trial on Monday for his involvement in a fatal boating accident. During a family trip to Cuba in July 2017, Montreal resident Toufik Benhamiche was driving a boat that veered out of control and killed an Ontario woman. He was charged and convicted of criminal negligence causing death. Benhamiche was released from custody after both his conviction and his four-year prison sentence were overturned by Cuba’s top court. “It was fantastic news for...

Last week, anti-gun teen demagogue David Hogg posted a message on Twitter regarding illegal aliens that prompted quite a bit of criticism from a number of other Twitter users. And not just because the word-salad he posted made very little to no sense. “The only people that are illegal in America are those that collude with foreign governments and the only aliens are those who think guns are worth more than children’s lives,” he said.

Nineteen-year-old Maryury Elizabeth Serrano-Hernandez, a Hondruan woman who made the grueling 2,000-mile trek to the U.S. border with her husband and three-year-old in tow, wasn’t about to miss out on what she called the “big reward”: having a baby on American soil. But when the family reached Tijuana a month after they set out on their journey, they found that thousands of Central Americans had had the same idea before them. With U.S. inspectors processing only about 100 asylum claims daily, Serrano-Hernandez — who was eight months pregnant — wasn’t about to wait her turn. Somehow she managed to scale...

A Minnesota public school is looking into the source of a meme targeting President Donald Trump, which was posted on the school’s official Facebook page. Posted on Saturday night to the Garfield Elementary School Facebook page, the meme was a photo of Trump and then–presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during a presidential debate. Accompanying the photo was the sentiment, “People love to hate Hillary, but she called Trump a Russian puppet right to his stupid f*****g face. I’ll always respect her for that.” The post has since been taken down, (snip) Garfield Elementary School Principal Jodi Kennedy told The Bemidji Pioneer...

The 40-page sentencing memo filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York for former Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen is the basis for an indictment against the president, according to Andrew McCarthy.McCarthy believes the charges will be for violating campaign finance laws. It's alleged that Cohen and Trump paid off two women to hide their sexual liaisons with Trump during the 2016 campaign. The violation occurred when Cohen made the payments and cooked the books to hide them. That's fraud and Cohen will go to jail for it.As McCarthy points out, the prosecutors have...