Free Republic

Representative Will Hurd announced Thursday that he will not seek re-election for his Congressional seat. He has represented the district stretching from San Antonio to El Paso since 2015. In the 2018 election, he won a close, expensive race against Gina Ortiz-Jones. He is currently the only Republican representing a district that borders Mexico. He has 17 months remaining in his term. On Twitter, he said he would pursue opportunities outside of Congress to solve problems involving technology and national security.

A woman visits the ancient Jubail church in Saudi Arabia Jan. 19, 2019. The ruins date back to the fourth century, making it one of the country’s oldest churches. (Credit: CNS photo/Dale Gavlak.) UBAIL, Saudi Arabia — As Pope Francis embarks on the first-ever papal visit to the Arabian Peninsula, few may realize that the predominantly Muslim region carries an ancient Christian heritage.Christians worshiping there today have their antecedents in churches and monasteries hailing from the earliest times of Christianity. St. Paul ministered in Arabia, as recorded in the New Testament.When Francis visits Abu Dhabi, one of seven emirates composing...

Problem making donation 2 days in a row

Today’s Campaign Update (Because The Campaign Never Ends) Is it time to take Marianne Williamson seriously yet? – The new-age guru is getting gobs of free media attention – some of it somewhat positive, most of it negative – in the wake of her second straight debate performance that was highly ummmm, er, ah…impressive, but does it really mean anything in the grand scheme of things? Probably not, because the Democrat voter base comes into this election in an entirely different state of mind than the GOP voter base was in four years ago. Republican voters in 2015 were fed...

When did Christianity first appear in China? Well, you may come across a much reasonable answer by examining the over 4,000 stone tablets at Xi'an Beilin Museum, or Stele Forest, located in northwest China's Shaanxi Province.  A much-justified answer to that question is in 635 AD during the early Tang Dynasty (618–907), the time of which was inscribed on the world famous Nestorian Stele, a 279-centimeter tall limestone block.  Xi'an Beilin Museum, established in 1087, houses the highest number of stone tablets in China. /CGTN Photo Xi'an Beilin Museum, established in 1087, houses the highest number of stone tablets in...

LAREDO, Texas — Three people landed behind bars for beating up a 60-year-old man, according to Laredo police. Dunick Edward Garcia, 18, Fernanda Robles, 17, and Luis Alberto Valdez, 20, were arrested on Tuesday after being served with warrants. Each was charged with aggravated assault. Laredo police officers responded to an aggravated assault report at about 12:30 p.m. June 15 at Laredo Medical Center. A 60-year-old man stated that, several individuals had assaulted him the night before. Officers said they noticed the man had facial, bodily and internal injuries. The man said the assailants forced their way into his...

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker is facing the greatest crisis of his political career. And try as he might, the growing scandal at the Registry of Motor Vehicles threatens to bring down his administration. This week’s shocking 7-hour testimony in front of the state Joint Committee on Transportation has blown the lid off RMVgate. After hearing from multiple senior RMV officials and Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack, one conclusion is clear: The RMV has blood on its hands.

We don't care if you're white...

BALTIMORE — A new audit ordered amid the controversy about former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh's book deals makes no mention that her financial dealings touched the city's Children and Youth Fund. The fund is managed by a charity that took donations and then bought Pugh's books. **SNIP** To date, about $36 million has been allocated to the fund, but just $9.6 million has gone out of the fund to organizations serving children and youth. The city pays Associated Black Charities, which is headed by Diane Bell McKoy, to manage the fund. The audit was ordered in the spring after ABC...

Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson defended controversial comments she has made in the past about mental health and antidepressants during a contentious interview Thursday. The self-help author is under increased scrutiny after she received positive reviews for her debate performance this week in Detroit, during which she called the Trump administration a "dark psychic force." “Not all drugs numb you or mask you," Anderson Cooper asked Williamson, referencing comments she had made about antidepressants. "And telling a seriously depressed person that taking an antidepressant they’re going to be numbed — isn't that not a good message?”

A New York City art gallery owner with a bruised eye says he was beaten by a group of teens on the street Tuesday because he was wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat. "It's sad to get beat up for wearing this hat. This is America," Jahangir Turan, 42, said, claiming more than a dozen attackers shouted “F--- Trump!” during the assault, FOX 5 in New York reported.

A federal judge on Thursday rejected four motions from former Trump associate Roger Stone contesting his indictment on obstruction of justice, witness tampering and other charges, adding that Stone has “no one but himself to blame” for having to stand trial in November. Stone was accused of obstruction of justice, witness tampering and lying to Congress under oath in an effort to mislead the House Intelligence Committee and the FBI about alleged dealings with WikiLeaks during the 2016 presidential election, Politico reported. Stone filed four motions to have his indictment scrapped, arguing that he was unfairly singled out during former...

A former political opponent of Rep. Matt Gaetz pleaded guilty Thursday to throwing a drink at him after a town hall meeting in June. Authorities say Amanda Kondrat'yev, 35, threw a red liquid at Gaetz, a Florida Republican, as he left a Pensacola restaurant where he was holding an “Open Gaetz” event, the Pensacola News Journal reported.

A historic arms-control treaty signed three decades ago by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was scrapped after President Trump decided to withdraw Friday. The move to scrap the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty comes amid the administration’s assessment that Russia was in “material breach of the treaty” and made no effort to “come back into compliance” with the agreement, a senior White House official said. Russia was given a six-month period, in accordance with the treaty, as a “final opportunity to come back into compliance” with the agreement, but the government headed by President Vladimir Putin “has...

Big Labor warned Democratic presidential contenders Wednesday against taking union support for granted, adding that Dems would need to be more honest about the party’s record on workers’ rights, reports said. The president of the AFL-CIO labor union, which represents 12.5 million union workers, addressed a closed-door meeting with representatives from each campaign in attendance before the second round of debates Wednesday in Detroit. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka argued that “both parties” needed to take responsibility for U.S. labor laws that benefit corporations to the detriment of the middle class.

Robert F. Kennedy’s granddaughter reportedly died of an apparent drug overdose at the family’s Cape Cod compound on Thursday — the latest in a long line of tragedies to rock the storied family. Saoirse Kennedy Hill, 22, was staying at the sprawling Hyannis Port, Mass., home of her grandmother, 91-year-old Ethel Kennedy, RFK’s widow. By the time medics arrived to the Marchant Avenue mansion at about 2:30 p.m., the young Kennedy was already in cardiac arrest, the Hyannis News reported. She was rushed to Cape Cod Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The New York Times said the suspected cause...

“I can explain it to white women in the suburbs,” Gillibrand (D-NY) said on the debate stage. “When their son is walking down the street with a bag of M&Ms in his pocket, wearing a hoodie, his whiteness is what protects him from not being shot.” The New York senator was addressing racial injustice issues when she made the remarks. “I don’t believe that it’s the responsibility of Cory and Kamala to be the only voice that takes on these issues of institutional racism,” she said about Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), both of whom are black....

August 2 2019 Friday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Lv 23:1, 4-11, 15-16, 27, 34b-37 The LORD said to Moses,"These are the festivals of the LORD which you shall celebrateat their proper time with a sacred assembly.The Passover of the LORD falls on the fourteenth day of the first month,at the evening twilight.The fifteenth day of this month is the LORD's feast of Unleavened Bread.For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.On the first of these days you shall hold a sacred assemblyand do no sort of work.On each of the seven days you shall...

Britain faces potential "consumer panic" and gaps in security within weeks of leaving the EU without a deal, according to an official government document obtained by Sky News ..The internal government document entitled "What this could look like on the ground" and marked "Official Sensitive" sets out what a no-deal Brexit could look like in practice. It appears to be the first time the worst case scenarios have been set out by the government in a single document. ..It was shown to some cabinet members but not the whole cabinet and is understood not to have been "agreed" by ministers....

Sexual harassment at work is on the decline, but sexism is rising. That’s according to a new study from the University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business