Free Republic

Drivers may not mind, but state transportation officials this spring said they had lost confidence that a new contractor would launch Highway 99 tunnel tolls on schedule, records show. State toll managers became wary enough that they’ll make a temporary deal with the existing statewide tolling contractor, to take over the tunnel-toll startup. That way, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) can begin charging drivers sometime this fall, as announced last month. Then next year, the current operator will hand off the tunnel toll operations to the new company, Dallas-based ETAN, state toll-project engineer Jennifer Charlebois said in an...

Kaitlin finally meets Cenk of TYT5 minute video

Aspiring James Bond villain, George Soros, is clawing his way deeper into America's political system, with a SuperPAC. Democratic mega-donor George Soros is creating a new super PAC, called Democracy PAC, to serve as a hub for his 2020 election spending. Soros, a billionaire financier, is putting an initial $5 million into the PAC, according to a person familiar with the new organization. Paperwork for the group will be filed with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday. Other members of the Soros family may also contribute to Democracy PAC, the person familiar with the group said. Alexander Soros, George Soros’...

President Barack Obama wasn’t on the debate stage with the 10 Democratic presidential hopefuls Wednesday night — but his legacy was, and it was trashed by many of the candidates, leaving some Democrats scratching their heads in disbelief. Obama’s record on immigration was widely criticized by the participants and his signature legislative achievement, the Affordable Care Act, became a casualty of the discussion around “Medicare for All,” as his former Vice President Joe Biden attempted to defend the administration’s work. Eric Holder, Obama’s attorney general, warned Democrats to tread lightly. “To my fellow Democrats. Be wary of attacking the Obama...

A 7-year-old boy complaining of jaw pain was found to have 526 teeth inside his mouth, according to the hospital in India where he was treated. The boy was admitted last month in the southern city of Chennai because of swelling and pain near his molars in his lower right jaw. When doctors scanned and x-rayed his mouth, they found a sac embedded in his lower jaw filled with “abnormal teeth,” After discovering the sac, two surgeons removed it from the boy’s mouth. Then Ramani’s team took four to five hours to empty the sac to confirm its contents and...

Navarro outlines the background of the second quarter GDP result... the two primary drags on the Q2 release are also the most volatile: Export/Import contributions (-.65%), and Inventory contributions (-.86%). However, consumer spending was much stronger than anticipated (+4.3%) showing the internal strength of the U.S. labor market and the impact of wage growth which now exceeds 5.5 percent. The rebound in Q3 is going to be very, very good.

Daniel Lee Lewis was involved in his first murder when he was 17 years old. It was July 24, 1990. Enraged by a teenage party prank, he beat Joseph Wavra unconscious. Then Lewis ran to get a knife and helped Wayra’s murderer hide the crime. This was only the beginning of Lewis’ seven-year crime spree that included burglary, bombings, public shootouts, and murder. The crime that landed him on death row happened on January 11, 1996. He and his partner, Chevie Kehoe, kidnapped a Tilly, Arkansas gun dealer with his wife and stepdaughter. Lewis had burglarized William Mueller’s home a...

ABILENE, Texas (KTXS) — An Abilene man -- who appears to be homeless and handicap -- is making a good living by panhandling on weekends, according to the police chief. Chief Stan Standridge said the man panhandles every Saturday and Sunday at the intersection of Hwy 83/84 and FM 707. He sits in a wheelchair and the police department has gotten calls from people concerned about the man thinking he's homeless. Standridge said the department's homeless outreach team has been in contact with the man. They learned he is not homeless. Standridge said the man lives in a home in...

The attacker, whose identity was not immediately available, was arrested and taken to Mount Sinai Beth Israel, according to a high-ranking police source. He was also shouting “Allahu akbar” — a common Muslim prayer that has also been co-opted by religious extremists — when he was arrested, sources said. Cops are investigating any possible terror ties, according to sources.

Rwanda has reopened its border with the Democratic Republic of Congo after closing it for several hours, a reaction to three Ebola cases, two of them fatal, in a border city in the past month. The border was closed after a third case of Ebola was detected in the border city of Goma, which has a population of more than 2 million people and has an international airport. Two people have already died there, according to the BBC. The first confirmed case in Goma was a 46-year-old preacher who managed to pass through three health checkpoints on the way from...

Say what you will about Charles Manson, he really empowered women to pursue excellence in traditionally male-dominated fields. From armed robbery to sadistic murder at knifepoint, he put women in positions from which they had been traditionally excluded, and ultimately helped them to break that hardest, highest glass ceiling, the one that makes death row such a male purview.

Q is the result of the sacrifices and commitment of countless patriots to win back our captured country from the Deep State and achieve the transformation President Trump promised in this campaign video. President Trump has said the awakening of the public is key to this transformation. Q describes this awakening as follows: "The Great Awakening ('Freedom of Thought’), was designed and created not only as a backchannel to the public (away from the longstanding ‘mind’ control of the corrupt & heavily biased media) to endure future events through transparency and regeneration of individual thought (breaking the chains of...

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power recently bulldozed hundreds of federally endangered plants in Topanga State Park, and both state and city authorities have launched investigations into DWP’s actions, part of a wildfire prevention project aimed at replacing wooden power poles with steel ones. “In response to recent community concerns about protected plants in the construction area, the LADWP has halted construction and is working with biologists and other experts to conduct an investigation and assessment of the site,” Stephanie Spicer, a spokeswoman for the city water and power agency, said late Wednesday in response to inquiries from The...

Greer said there was one clear loser in tonight’s debate: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s quixotic quest to go from Gracie Mansion to the White House. “De Blasio was the loser tonight,” she added. “Not even the [Eric] Garner question was directed at him.” [cut] WINNERS Julián Castro Analysis: Presented a strong case for attendance in the next debate with measured and thoughtful answers to complex issues — including on Eric Garner and President Trump’s racist tweets. He started to lay a foundation as to why he deserves to be in the conversation. It could be enough to...

*** The bond market is taking on the Fed, betting the Fed is mistaken in its view that it does not need to cut rates very much, strategists say. *** The market is betting inflation will be much lower than the Fed expects it will be, and that will force the Fed to keep cutting rates. *** Stunning moves across the Treasury curves sent yields sharply lower, and the benchmark 10-year yield was edging toward a 3-year low, while stocks rose sharply in response. The bond market is bent on having its way and is now pricing in a Fed...

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland on Thursday scrapped its personal income tax for young employees earning less than $22,000 a year, as part of a drive to reverse a brain drain and demographic decline that's dimming the prospects of a country that is otherwise experiencing strong economic growth. A new law by the right-wing government took effect Thursday, slashing the personal income tax from 18 percent to zero for workers under the age of 26 below the income threshold. It is expected to boost the earnings of nearly 2 million Poles at home, and the government hopes it will also...

Shortly after Operation Desert Storm the U.S. Navy was by far the largest and most modern naval force in the world with 529 total ships, including the following combatants: 1 Battleship 15 Aircraft Carriers 47 Cruisers 47 Destroyers 93 Frigates 87 Fast Attack Submarines 34 Ballistic Missile Submarines 65 Amphibious Warfare Ships At about that same time, Communist China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) included no modern warships—no aircraft carriers, no cruisers and no modern destroyers or frigates. The PLAN had a few nuclear powered submarines, but they, like China’s fleet of destroyers and frigates, were a full generation or...

The Justice Department has decided against prosecuting former FBI Director James Comey for leaking classified information following a referral from the department’s inspector general, sources familiar with the deliberations told Fox News. “Everyone at the DOJ involved in the decision said it wasn’t a close call,” one official said. “They all thought this could not be prosecuted.” Comey penned memos memorializing his interactions with President Trump in the days leading up to his firing. He then passed those documents to a friend, Columbia University Law Professor Daniel Richman, who gave them to The New York Times. Comey admitted to that...

OXFORD, Mississippi, July 31, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Alexandria “Ally” Kostial was pregnant when she was murdered last week. Kostial was a business student at the University of Mississippi. Her college friends confirmed to the UK’s Daily Mail that the 21-year-old was pregnant with her accused killer’s child. The Daily Mail reported today that a fellow Ole Miss student told them: “Her sorority sisters knew she was pregnant and that she had told [accused killer] Brandon. He was really upset about it, that it would ruin his life and his future.” “He was really mad that she wouldn't get an abortion....

What might a truly Catholic Amazon Synod look like? July 29, 2019 (The Catholic Thing) — On Friday, Cardinal Gerhard Mueller — former head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) — published a second commentary on the Synod for the Amazon, to be held in Rome this October. It follows an earlier critique of his, both of them blistering about the radical nature of what is largely a German "paradigm," not only for the rainforests of South America, but for the whole Church. The good Cardinal begins by noting something that has been widely reported but not...