Free Republic

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WTVC) — One family says their 5-year-old son with autism is being punished for giving his classmate a hug. East Ridge Elementary leaders say the boy overstepped his boundaries. But, his family says the whole thing is a big misunderstanding. Nathan is a 5-year-old boy kindergartner at East Ridge Elementary. The principal says the school staff has talked with him several times. His guardian says the school has filed a report with the state. Summery Putnam, Nathan's guardian, says she received a call from her son's teacher at East Ridge Elementary about three weeks ago. "I was sick...

Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) now supports Sen. Mike Lee’s (R-UT) green card giveaway bill, which will allow investors to reward many more Indian graduates for taking middle-class jobs from American college graduates. Perdue’s decision to end his opposition to the bill clears the way for Lee to rush his bill through the Senate on Thursday. If no other senators object, Lee’s bill will move through the Senate, putting it much closer to becoming law.

NEW YORK (AP) — Earth is in more hot water than ever before, and so are we, an expert United Nations climate panel warned in a grim new report Wednesday. Sea levels are rising at an ever-faster rate as ice and snow shrink, and oceans are getting more acidic and losing oxygen, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in a report issued as world leaders met at the United Nations.

The new leader of Democrats in the Senate says Donald Trump is being "really dumb" for picking a fight with intelligence officials, suggesting they have ways to strike back, after the president-elect speculated Tuesday that his "so-called" briefing about Russian cyberattacks had been delayed in order to build a case. "Let me tell you: You take on the intelligence community — they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Tuesday evening on MSNBC after host Rachel Maddow informed him that intelligence sources told NBC news that the briefing had not been...

Dear friends: I'm having a computer problem I would like some advice/help on. Please be aware that this problem has been ongoing for several weeks, so please don't advise me to reboot or clear out the cache since I've done that several times and it makes no difference whatsoever. And please don't ask if my computer is plugged in or turned on. I don't understand why cruelly having fun at the expense of someone with an issue is so popular here. Daily Motion is an excellent site for watching old movies and TV shows that YouTube won't allow. I used...

Legendary CREAM drummer Ginger Baker is "critically ill" and in the hospital, his family has revealed. "Please keep him in your prayers tonight," the family wrote in a brief statement posted to Baker's official Twitter account on Wednesday afternoon. Baker, who turned 80 in August, has experienced a number of health issues in recent years. In 2016, he underwent open heart surgery, which forced him to cancel a run of tour dates. During recovery, a fall also left him with swollen legs and feet. In 2013, he was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and he is also said to...

The whistleblower complaint over President Trump’s call with Ukraine raises concerns over how the White House handled records of the call with the foreign leader, The New York Times reported Wednesday citing two people briefed on the complaint. The whistleblower identified multiple White House officials as witnesses to Trump’s alleged misconduct who could corroborate the complaint, according to people who spoke to the Times.

Select members of the intelligence committees received the whistleblower complaint. . .

BERLIN - About 800 people have protested gender inequality in the Catholic Church by forming a human chain around Germany’s Cologne Cathedral. German news agency dpa reported that many of the protesters were women from an activist group called Maria 2.0. The group is pushing for the Catholic Church in Germany to allow women to have leadership roles within the church hierarchy.

ROME — The Vatican published the list of participants in its upcoming pan-Amazon Synod Saturday, which includes as “special invitee” Jeffrey D. Sachs, who is among the world’s foremost proponents of population control. In his 2008 book Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet, Sachs argued for legalizing abortion as a cost-effective way to eliminate “unwanted children” when contraception fails. Abortion, he wrote, is a “lower-risk and lower-cost option” than having unwanted children born into the world. The “legalization of abortion reduces a country’s total fertility rate significantly, by as much as half a child on average,” he wrote approvingly,...

As part of global initiative to promote peace, Higher Committee of Human Fraternity unveils designNEW YORK — The Higher Committee of Human Fraternity has come together for a global gathering at the New York Public Library in which they shared with stakeholders their mission to progress a culture of mutual respect and dialogue across all backgrounds, beliefs, and nationalities. The new body is empowered to provide guidance and counsel on realizing the goals of the Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together signed by His Holiness Pope Francis of the Catholic Church and the Grand Imam of...

Following the headlines about a possible impeachment inquiry regarding President Trump’s phone conversation with the President of the Ukraine, KGVO reached out to Constitutional scholar Dr. Rob Natelson. Natelson, the Constitutional Fellow at the Independence Institute in Denver provided clarification about the possible charges against the President. “In order for there to be grounds for impeachment, the President must have committed treason, or bribery or another felony, or what’s called a high misdemeanor, which means a breach of fiduciary duty or breach of trust,” said Natelson. “There are pretty clear standards for what that means in our law and chatting...

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump struck a stance of defiance Wednesday, proclaiming his innocence and leveling distortions and falsehoods after the publicly released notes of his phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart turbocharged the push on Capitol Hill for his impeachment. The five pages of a rough transcript of Trump's call asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to work with Attorney General William Barr and personal attorney Rudy Giuliani to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden landed like a hand grenade on Capitol Hill and led House Democrats to recalibrate their strategy. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and her fellow Democratic...

As House Democrats moved forward with an impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee convened confirmation hearings for five judicial nominees. Wednesday’s candidates include two appeals court nominees and three trial court nominees. Sarah Pitlyk, a trial court nominee who litigated for pro-life groups and clerked for Justice Brett Kavanaugh, bore the brunt of Democratic criticism at the hearing

Aggrieved church members should use more traditional methods to express their opinions to the Pope, the bishops said The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria has condemned recent verbal attacks on Pope Francis as well as xenophobic attacks by South Africans on foreigners. They condemned both attacks in a statement issued on September 20 at the end of their second plenary meeting at Divine Mercy Pastoral Center in Abeokuta. The bishops expressed their communion with and loyalty to Pope Francis, expressing “serious concern” about “attacks coming from some higher levels of the church in some parts of the world.” They said...

Danielle Hunsaker, a former clerk for Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, got a step closer Wednesday to filling the seat left open on the court when O’Scannlain took senior status in 2016. Hunsaker said in her prepared remarks before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that being confirmed as O’Scannlain’s successor would be “a highlight for me in my life,” although she said “the prospect of filling his shoes is daunting.” Hunsaker, whose father worked in Oregon’s timber and construction industry, and whose mother homeschooled her, answered largely friendly questions about her...

Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan said nuclear power should either be free for all states or banned completely. He warned that the “inequality” between states who have nuclear power and who do not undermines global balances. This comes amid global concern following news that Iran has exceeded limits to its uranium stockpile and was enriching the chemical to beyond limitations imposed by the Iran nuclear deal. Earlier this month, Tehran announced it would use advanced centrifuges prohibited under the deal. President Erdogan said: “The position of nuclear power should either be forbidden for all or permissible for everyone.” …

The President is transforming the federal courts in a flurry unlike anything we’ve seen in the past. Since he began his tenure in office, President Trump made revamping the courts a top priority. Even before elected he made this one of his most prominent campaign pledges. This started with his promise to fill Justice Scalia’s seat on the Supreme Court at the commencement of his presidency and has continued at a rapid pace ever since. While this process began at the Supreme Court it surely has not lasted there. The federal courts of appeals and federal district courts have also...

What a shame! The Democrat Deep State apparatus thought they’d nail President Trump with phony impeachment investigations and it would sink him in the polls. Instead, Americans saw through this latest charade already. President Trump surged ahead of Slimy Joe Biden by 4 points in the latest Rasmussen poll. Via Rasmussen Reports: Most voters expect Joe Biden to be the Democratic nominee, but President Trump has the edge for now in next year’s presidential race. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 65% of Likely U.S. Voters think Biden is likely to be the Democrats’ presidential...

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough appeared to be fooled Wednesday by a parody transcript of a July phone conversation between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The parody transcript was tweeted by Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” amid claims that Trump improperly withheld military funds from Ukraine until it investigated then-Vice President Joe Biden’s dealings in the country. The White House released an unclassified transcript of the July 25 call between Trump and Zelensky, during which the president made no explicit reference to withholding military aid. “The Daily Show’s” tweet shows a clearly doctored version of that transcript, portraying Trump as...