Free Republic

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is asking Warner Bros. and the makers of “Richard Jewell” to release a statement acknowledging it took dramatic license when it portrayed journalist Kathy Scruggs as trading sex for tips. The Clint Eastwood film looks at the media circus that broke out around Jewell, a security guard who came under suspicion for orchestrating the Centennial Olympic Park bombing before being exonerated. Scruggs, an employee at the paper, broke the story that Jewell was under investigation by the FBI. The film shows Scruggs, portrayed by Olivia Wilde, sleeping with an FBI agent (Jon Hamm) to get the story....

Another first — civil weddings outnumber sacramental marriagesFor the first time in Italy's history, non-churchgoers outnumber churchgoers. Recently percentage of the population that has never attended a religious service of any kind has exceeded the percentage of churchgoers in the country. The figures also reveal that 50% of the total of number of marriages were civil marriages, outranking their sacramental equivalent for the first time as well. These statistics confirm how, for the past several decades, Italian Catholic religiosity has turned into a superficial cultural ornament for the majority of Italians.

Ukraine and Russia have agreed to implement a "full and comprehensive" ceasefire in eastern Ukraine by the end of 2019, after top-level talks. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky met face to face in Paris on Monday.

NEW YORK (AP) — A high-drama telecom deal is heading to court. T-Mobile, in its attempt to buy Sprint for $26.5 billion, has already notched approvals from key federal regulators. Now it must convince a federal judge that the 14 state attorneys general suing to stop the deal are wrong. A trial starts Monday in U.S. District Court in New York and is expected to last several weeks. If T-Mobile prevails, the number of major U.S. wireless companies would shrink to three from four. A combined T-Mobile-Sprint would become a fiercer competitor to larger Verizon and AT&T . But the...

**SNIP** House Republicans have been trying to throw sand in the gears of the impeachment inquiry from the start. Nadler, along with Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff before him, has largely succeeded in keeping things on track. But the frequency and fervor with which the GOP lawmakers objected today seemed to trip Nadler up a bit, and they focused relentlessly on the Democrats’ unusual if not unprecedented structure for the hearing. Republicans had hoped that Schiff would testify about his committee’s report, which would give them an opportunity to question the chairman on whether he ever met the anonymous whistle-blower...

Possible date for North Korean shenanigans: December 11 (Wednesday), which is exactly two years on from the 8th Conference of the Munitions Industry. Kim Jong Un set forward the process of “ushering in a heyday of development of the Juche-base defense industry” then

Brazil will push to expand oil drilling in its massive “pre-salt” oil and gas area off its coast in spite of growing global concerns about climate change, the country’s energy minister told Reuters on Monday.

As many as 80,000 people statewide who are living in the country illegally, including 30,000 on Long Island, will be able to obtain valid New York State driver’s licenses beginning Saturday. The starting date follows years of conflict and a continuing divide among New Yorkers. Supporters say the law will make roads safer and help immigrant families prosper; opponents call the law nothing less than a tool for terrorists. The measure, referred to as the Green Light Law, was passed earlier this year and signed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, making New York the 13th state to provide driver’s licenses to...

December 9, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Pope Francis has drawn a comparison between the separation of children and parents by border authorities and the actions of “Herod,” in what appears to be a criticism of U.S. President Donald Trump. “I must admit that I am shocked by some of the narratives I hear in Europe about borders,” the pontiff said. “Populism is gaining strength. In other parts there are walls that even separate children from parents. Herod comes to mind.” The Pope did not elaborate further. The name “Herod” is most commonly associated with “Herod the Great,” who is best known...

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) failed to swear in the two counsels for both the Democrats and Republicans prior to their opening statements in Monday’s impeachment inquiry hearing. Though staff members are not typically sworn in, witnesses must be sworn in and deliver testimony under oath. Both Democrat counsel Barry Berke and Republican Counsel Stephen Castor delivered opening statements. Berke in particular made several factual assertions — many of which were dubious at best, and outright false at worst.

ROME – As protests continue in Hong Kong, throwing the city’s future as an autonomous democracy within China into question, Catholics appear split about what exactly their role is in the situation, and just how political they ought to be. Protests in Hong Kong erupted in June when Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, former Chief Executive of the city, issued a bill granting mainland China extradition rights over any Hong Kong resident, including tourists and foreign nationals. Facing fierce backlash over the move, Lam – a practicing Catholic – suspended the bill, but she did not immediately meet protesters’ demands to...

GENEVA—In an ornate stone palace on the shores of Lake Geneva, just a stone’s throw from the Quai Wilson and the Palais des Nations, the Trump administration is waging its latest battle against the international order that the United States helped to build. At issue is the fate of a little-known part of a little-understood institution: the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization. As soon as Wednesday, if U.S. President Donald Trump continues his administration’s yearslong campaign of obstruction, the WTO’s ability to resolve trade disputes between countries—pretty much its most important function—will likely be paralyzed. That means that...

The largest homeless ministry in the United States and a prominent Roman Catholic charity, Covenant House, is now on the LGBT bandwagon. Covenant House was founded Bruce Ritter, a Franciscan priest, in 1972. Ritter was later embroiled in an abuse-scandal in which he was accused of molesting the young men coming in for shelter off the street. It was first formed in Manhattan and Staten Island but now operates in 21 cities throughout the United States, Central America, and Canada. The charity is still a dues-paying member of Catholic Charities and Catholic Charities of New York. Covenant House says that...

FBI Director Christopher Wray offered mixed reactions to a Justice Department watchdog report that uncovered "serious performance failures" on the part of agents involved in the Russia investigation but ultimately determined the bureau was justified in launching its probe. In an exclusive broadcast interview with ABC News, Wray lamented "actions described in this report that [he] considered unacceptable and unrepresentative of who we are as an institution." But, he said it was "important that the inspector general found that, in this particular instance, the investigation was opened with appropriate predication and authorization." Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz on Monday...

"What happened to Drudge?"A lot of people have been asking that question lately. If you talk to conservatives these days, you'll hear that Matt Drudge's eponymous news aggregation site has gone over to the dark side—that Matt's joined the anti-Trump resistance. And now, Rasmussen Reports, an arguably reputable polling operation, is calling Drudge out on Twitter, even suggesting that the site has been sold.

Two days after a Houston police sergeant was shot dead responding to a domestic violence call, the city police chief, Art Acevedo, has lacerated the majority leader Mitch McConnell and Texas’s two Republican US senators, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz for stalling the Violence Against Women Act. “I don’t want to see their little smug faces about how much they care about law enforcement when I’m burying a sergeant because they don’t want to piss off the NRA,” Acevedo told reporters on Monday. Sgt Christopher Brewster was killed in Houston on Saturday. At a briefing the same day, Acevedo paid...

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, ArizonaDavis–Monthan Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base 5 miles south-southeast of downtown Tucson, Arizona. It was established in 1925 as Davis-Monthan Landing Field. The host unit for Davis–Monthan AFB is the 355th Wing (355 WG) assigned to Twelfth Air Force (12AF), part of Air Combat Command (ACC). The base is best known as the location of the Air Force Materiel Command's 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (309 AMARG), the aircraft boneyard for all excess military and U.S. government aircraft and aerospace vehicles.Davis–Monthan...

On December 4, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) made a long-overdue and much-needed rule change to the nation’s beleaguered Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as “food stamps.” According to a USDA press release, “At the direction of President Donald J. Trump, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue today announced a final rule to move more able-bodied recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) towards self-sufficiency and into employment. The rule restores the system to what Congress intended: assistance through difficult times, not a way of life.”In other words, the new rule aims to ensure that...

In less than three years as president, President Trump has done nearly as much to shape the courts as President Obama did in eight years. Trump hasn’t simply given lots of lifetime appointments to lots of lawyers. He’s filled the bench with some of the smartest, and some of the most ideologically reliable, men and women to be found in the conservative movement. Long after Trump leaves office, these judges will shape American law — pushing it further and further to the right even if the voters soundly reject Trumpism in 2020. Let’s start with some raw numbers. Both Obama...

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide, the bible for agents, has long recognized that journalists, the clergy and lawyers deserve special protections because of the constitutional implications of investigating their work. Penitents who confess to a priest, sources who provide confidential information to a reporter, and clients who seek advice from counsel are assumed to be protected by a high bar of privacy, which must be weighed against the state’s interests in investigating matters or subpoenaing records. Judges and members of Congress also fall into a special FBI category because of the Constitution’s separation of powers....