Free Republic

A Pennsylvania state legislator wants to revive the registration sticker two years after it was discarded as a cost-saving measure. A bill before the House Transportation Committee would not only bring back the tiny sticker, but tie it to state vehicle inspections as well, according to the proposed legislation introduced by Berks County Republican Rep. Barry Jozwiak. The Department of Transportation stopped issuing the stickers in 2017, a product of legislation passed years earlier. The move was projected to save more than $3 million. Jozwiak said Tuesday at a committee hearing that the loss of the stickers has given police...

Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro on Thursday released an economic plan that includes higher taxes on the wealthy and tax relief for low- and middle-class people. The rollout of Castro's economic plan comes as the former Housing and Urban Development secretary is trying to qualify for September’s third round of Democratic presidential debates in Houston. Castro needs to reach 2 percent in one more poll in order to qualify. Castro said on a call with reporters from the early voting state of Iowa that he’s confident he’ll make the debate stage next month, saying he’s been spending time in early...

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel said Thursday that it will bar two Democratic congresswomen from entering the country ahead of a planned visit over their support for a Palestinian-led boycott movement, a decision announced shortly after President Donald Trump tweeted that it would “show great weakness” to allow them in. The move to bar Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota from visiting the close American ally appeared to be unprecedented, and marked a deep foray by Israel into America’s bitterly polarized politics. It is also a sharp escalation of Israel’s campaign against the international boycott movement. Interior...

Look at the bright side! Sure, a recession could throw millions of Americans out of work, and shrink retirement portfolios. But an economic downturn would also hurt President Trump in 2020! That was CNN's theme this morning. The 6 am New Day hour led with co-host John Berman trumpeting yesterday's stock market drop. CNN economic analyst Rana Foroohar then said of a recession: "it's here." [snip]Catherine Rampell, a CNN commentator and Washington John Avlon then weighed in to crow: "if the economy goes south, [Trump] is in a world of hurt."Get the rest of the story and view the video...

With so many rats running for president in 2020 it's hard to keep up with who's in and who's out. Hopefully, this post will help. Below is a list of declared candidates, their occupation, the date they dropped from the race (if they did) and misc. notes.This is the first post of this list. It will be reposted each time a candidate drops out or a new candidate declares. As you can see, Mike Gravel and Eric Swalwell are already gone.Please let me know via FReepmail if you find errors. Thanks! upchuck Nbr Name Occupation Dropped Notes 1. Michael Bennet...

Some Democrats are eyeing Texas as a longshot pickup in the 2020 presidential race. But Republicans who are keeping an eye on the national electoral landscape say the party should be more concerned that Arizona could go from red to blue this time around. “Arizona typically has been, in a presidential year, somewhere around an eight-point Republican advantage and Trump only won Arizona with about three points. So, I definitely think Arizona is very competitive from my perspective," Paul Bentz, vice president of research and strategy at High Ground, a Phoenix-based firm specializing in public opinion surveys, strategy, and campaign...

Five Chicago teenagers are being charged with murder after a 14-year-old who was with them was shot and killed by a homeowner during an alleged burglary attempt, according to authorities. Deputies from the Lake County Sheriff's Office were called to a home in Old Mill Creek, Illinois, about 47 miles north of Chicago, Tuesday around 1:15 a.m. following the shooting, Detective Sgt. Chris Covelli told reporters in a news conference. The 75-year-old homeowner told deputies he went outside after noticing a suspicious SUV in his driveway and several people on his property, whom he believed were attempting to break into...

I want the beginning of my funeral to be focused on Jesus, as well as the middle, as well as the end, as well as every point in between. here will come a day, perhaps sooner, perhaps later, when the man in the coffin will be me. They say the dead don’t care, but I’m not dead yet, so as long as I’m still alive, I’d like to have some say in what goes on at my funeral. And, truth be told, I think the dead do care. Not that they will be privy to the details of what happens...

1934: The Marines depart Haiti, ending the United States' 19-year occupation of the Caribbean island. 1942: U.S. Navy destroyers finally manage to deliver the first load of supplies to Marines on Guadalcanal, who have been coping with limited rations and ammunition since landing nearly ten days ago. Also on this day, Maj. Gen. Matthew Ridgway's 82d "All-American" Infantry Division is redesignated as the 82d Airborne Division, becoming the first airborne division in American military history. The division's first combat jumps will take place in Sicily and Italy the following year. 1943: 35,000 American and Canadian troops conduct an amphibious landing...

The Canadian Office of Ethics completed their investigation of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and whether he inappropriately used his office to influence and pressure the Canadian Attorney General to drop criminal charges against a political ally and donor, SNC-Lavalin. [Backstory Here] Section 9 of the Canadian Ethics Act prohibits “public office holders from using their position to seek to influence a decision of another person so as to further their own private interests or those of their relatives or friends, or to improperly further another person’s private interests.” The investigation found: “Prime Minister Trudeau used his position of authority...

Evidence of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes and operations “may have been lost,” warned U.S. Virgin Islands Sen. Oakland Benta (D) in a Monday interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight with host Rebecca Mansour and special guest host Matt Boyle. “What’s going on here is what should have happened a long time ago,” said Benta of federal authorities investigating an island owned by Epstein. “As a result of all that has transpired, the federal government decided [to investigate] now, whether it’s too late or not — because there have been so many people on the island since Mr. Epstein has been incarcerated...

(snip) --CHICAGO — Spending all day surrounded by dogs and cats probably sounds like heaven for many people, but a new study finds that veterinarians and others who work with animals on a daily basis deal with stressful and emotional events that put them at a higher risk of developing mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, and, in some cases, suicidal thoughts. “People who work or volunteer with animals are often drawn to it because they see it as a personal calling,” says Dr. Angela K. Fournier of Bemidji State University in a statement. “However, they are faced with...

To all the people who let this election break up families and friends let this sink in I think the last civil conversations we had occurred just days before November 8, 2016. You were supremely confident Hillary Clinton would win the presidential election; you voted for her with glee. As a lifelong Republican, I bit down hard and cast my vote for Donald Trump. Then the unimaginable happened. He won. And you lost your freaking minds.

It would be difficult to argue that the political environment in America has not grown significantly more toxic and hostile over the last several years. I pointed out in my column of two weeks ago that the political left cites the culture of the Trump administration for the recent deterioration in race relations. Similarly, the left blames the culture of the Trump administration for this dramatic downturn in civility. Again (as I detailed in the earlier column), this decline actually began during the Obama administration and represents the left’s reaction to the popular rejection of socialist policies by the electorate....

College football has seen many different styles of helmet since the sport’s inception 150 years ago. While some teams have stuck to traditional looks, others have changed helmets more than coaches. Here are the top 10 helmets in college football history.

This week’s shoot-up of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in San Antonio is just the latest in a series of such attacks. Last month a self-described antifa member with a rifle and incendiary devices tried to blow up an ICE facility in Tacoma, Washington. These attacks are occurring during a time when Democrat politicians and media personalities are continually comparing Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler, ICE officers to Nazi guards and border detention facilities to “concentration camps” where children are “locked in cages” and forced to “drink from toilets.” Which raises a big question currently being debated: To what...

politicized atmosphere of today’s factory-style government-monopoly schools. ... many students did not understand English grammar ... Poor preparation, however, was only the tip of the iceberg. Students did not bring books to class, relentlessly complained about homework, and expected high grades regardless of proficiency. ... A department head had been demoted for teaching at a pre-college level and refusing to lower his standards. Senior teachers were dropping out in disgust. ... the school embraced grade inflation ... administrators tacitly urge teachers to lower standards, despite proclaiming the opposite in public. Like the Dodo in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland:...

A 9-year-old girl is suing a centuries-old Berlin boys choir, arguing that her bid to join was only rejected because of her gender, in a case that has sparked debate over equal rights versus artistic freedom. The State and Cathedral Choir is one of the most renowned boys choirs in Germany, founded in 1465 by Fredrick II of Brandenburg. Over its 554 years, it has never admitted any girls. The girl, whose identity was not revealed to protect her privacy, auditioned with the choir in March and was rejected, according to the Berlin administrative court that is to rule on...

From its early days, the availability of source code was one of the defining characteristics of open source software. Indeed, Brian Behlendorf of the Apache web server project, an early open source software success, favored "source code available software." Another important aspect related to user rights. Hence, the "free software" terminology that came out of Richard Stallman’s GNU Manifesto and GNU Public License (GPL). As the shorthand went, free was about freedom, not price. Christine Peterson would later coin "open source" as an alternative that avoided the confusion that regularly arose between these two meanings of free. And that’s the term...

Israel has decided to bar Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib from entering the country on Friday after fierce debates on the contentious matter involving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and various ministers, Israel’s deputy foreign minister said Thursday. “The decision has been made, the decision is not to allow them to enter,” Tzipi Hotovely told Israel’s Reshet Radio, Reuters reported. The reason cited for their ban is reportedly “suspected provocations and promotion of BDS,” a reference to the anti-Israel boycott movement, according to the Times of Israel, which cited a report by local Channel 12. Interior Minister Aryeh Deri made...