Free Republic

DES MOINES — There can be no doubting it now, not after so many years spent in the crosshairs, not after active presidential candidates began challenging its privileged position atop the nominating calendar, and certainly not after Monday night’s debacle that left seven candidates and millions of viewers waiting for results that never came: Iowa’s reign is over. Oh, sure, the state and its fabled caucuses may live on in some ceremonial capacity, perhaps clinging to a sort of emeritus role in the earlier stages of the presidential nominating season. Presidential candidates will still pay occasional homage to the state,...

DES MOINES, Iowa — A technical meltdown in Iowa Monday night set off bedlam in the critical first contest for the Democratic presidential nomination, triggering competing claims of victory and stoking doubts about the legitimacy of the eventual outcome. No results had been reported by midnight Eastern, and two campaigns told POLITICO that after a conference call with the Iowa Democratic Party, they didn’t expect any returns until Tuesday morning at the earliest.Candidates stepped into the void. Pete Buttigieg went first by claiming victory — misleadingly, in the view of Sanders, whose campaign responded by releasing unofficial figures showing his...

NEW YORK — Deborah A. Batts, the nation’s first openly gay federal judge, has died. She was 72. Batts was found dead on Monday, three months before she was set to preside over a trial of California lawyer Michael Avenatti on charges that he cheated porn star Stormy Daniels, a former client, of proceeds of a book deal. No cause of death was immediately released. In June 1994, Batts was sworn in after a smooth confirmation process following her appointment to the bench by President Bill Clinton. During her confirmation proceedings, it was never mentioned that she was a lesbian....

(CNN)The Democratic 2020 crusade to oust President Donald Trump could not have got off to a more disastrous and embarrassing start. The party couldn't even deliver a first-in-the-nation election night winner after a vote-reporting debacle in Iowa — where candidates spent months and millions of dollars vying for a glittering opening prize in their nominating duel. "Iowa, you have shocked the nation," said former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg. It was a bold attempt to declare victory in the absence of a result, but the 38-year-old inadvertently cast an ironic judgment on a political train wreck. The big Hawkeye...

A tip from an anonymous caller led police in Laredo, Texas, to a surprising discovery: 36 migrants trapped in a hidden compartment inside a dump truck that appeared to be hauling gravel. Officers had dispatched a wrecker to tow away the disabled dump truck on the morning of January 30, police said. Later that morning, they received a call reporting that people were concealed in a compartment inside the vehicle. Investigators and rescuers responded to the impound lot and heard banging from inside the truck, Laredo Police spokesman Officer Emanuel Diaz said. The people inside appeared to be trapped, he...

U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe said Monday that he will vote to acquit President Donald Trump on both articles of impeachment, making official a vote that was never in doubt. “I think you know how I’m going to vote,” the Oklahoma Republican said in a speech on the Senate floor. “I’m going to vote to acquit the president on both articles of impeachment.” Inhofe said House Democrats had presented no evidence that Trump withheld military aid to Ukraine to force that country to conduct investigations that might help Trump politically. The House investigation centered around the partial transcript of a phone...

State Sen. Scott Wiener will unveil legislation today to let the state of California seize control of the embattled utility PG&E. Wiener's bill, which comes one year into PG&E's bankruptcy case, would use eminent domain to force the company's stockholders to sell their shares to the state of California, which would then take over operations. Wiener said the new entity could issue bonds to pay for it. "PG&E is a failed company — it is an irresponsibly run company," Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat, said in an interview. "It has allowed its infrastructure to completely deteriorate to the point that...

After being adopted and returned four different times, it seemed as though Bandit would be at the Gwinnett Jail Dogs Program in Georgia for the rest of his life. The wheelchair-bound dog is so sweet and friendly, but his special needs require a lot of care and have scared off many potential adopters over the years... It seemed the right family would never come along — until finally, a couple saw a Facebook post about Bandit, and knew they could give him the love and care he needed. As soon as Darrell and Sue Rider learned about Bandit, they were...

When left-wing Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was recovering from lung cancer treatment, right-wing media figures as a whole showed compassion by sending her well wishes and prayers, but religious scholar Reza Aslan, formerly of CNN, seems to have a different idea on how to publicly react to another fellow human being’s cancer diagnosis. In a tweet, Aslan wondered aloud if the world would, in fact, be a “better place” if conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh died of lung cancer — a disease he announced to be suffering from during his radio show on Monday. “Ask yourself this simple question:...

<p>"OK, Boomer" is currently a common refrain. Will that change with age?</p> <p>It’s a crime punishable by eternal nagging to show up to a family function in a pair of ripped jeans. But ripped denim is such a common style for the majority of young people that we don’t even notice we’re wearing it until a person above the age of 65 comments on it. And without fail, they do, leaving us to sit there and politely nod while making a mental note to never bring this wrath upon our poor legs again.</p>

China’s acting ambassador to Israel is under fire for comparing coronavirus-related travel bans to the Jewish people being denied international refuge during the Holocaust. Dai Yuming said Sunday at a press conference that “errors to limit or even ban entries of Chinese citizens” were not unlike “the old days, the old stories that happened in World War Two, the Holocaust, the darkest days in human history. “Millions of Jewish were killed, and many, many Jewish were refused when they tried to seek assistance from other countries. Only very, very few countries opened their door, and among them is China,” said...

Research conducted by Tel Aviv University and Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologists shed new light on these cult practices thanks to new excavations at the site of a temple uncovered in 2012.The Bible narrates that in the centuries after ancient Israelites entered the Land of Israel, many if not all of the people turned their back on the God of their Fathers for long periods of times, going back to worshiping idols, creating altars and adopting pagan practices. New research conducted by Tel Aviv University and Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologists has shed new light on these cult practices, thanks to new...

Although the vast share of attention on this year’s Iowa caucuses was focused on Democratic candidates vying to oppose Trump, the Republican Party of Iowa still held traditional meetings statewide for nearly 1,700 precincts to allow the party faithful to have their voices heard. What those Republicans said Monday: They are overwhelmingly behind the president.

The Iowa caucuses reveal not only a Democratic Party deliriously incompetent at handling a vote tally — this from the folks who have been screaming about voting fraud and irregularities for years — but at war with itself in a way that could lead to political disorder that will make the counting disaster look like a garden party. What little we can glean from entrance polls reveals the way in which the schematics of the intra-Democratic conflict in 2020 are very stark. It’s Joe Biden with big numbers with people 65 and older — and nobody else. It’s Bernie Sanders...

Virginia lawmakers on Monday rejected a gun control bill proposed by Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, as the state continues to become the battleground in the nation's gun debate. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted against Northam's bill that would make it a felony to "recklessly leave a loaded, unsecured firearm” in a way that endangers a minor. “This bill will keep children safe from loaded, unsecured firearms. Like Gov. Northam’s other commonsense gun safety measures, it is something that everyone -- including responsible gun owners -- should support,” said Northam’s spokeswoman, Alena Yarmosky.

President Trump tweeted his wishes for a speedy recovery to talk radio king Rush Limbaugh Monday after the conservative talk pioneer ended his broadcast with an announcement saying he’d been diagnosed with “advanced lung cancer.” “Many people do not know what a great guy & fantastic political talent the great Rush Limbaugh is. There is nobody like him. Looking for a speedy recovery for our friend!,” the president tweeted. Limbaugh, 69, announced the news to his audience at the end of his broadcast, adding he hopes to return later this week after undergoing treatment.

Cynthia McFadden on MSNBC basically said that the App that the Democrat precinct chairman were to use to report results is basically a Hillary Clinton shell operation.

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg declared himself the winner in Iowa after technical glitches and snafus prevented the state party from announcing any caucus results Monday night. Buttigieg, who was hoping to get a boost out of the nation's first caucus state to drive past more seasoned rivals, went beyond any of the other Democratic presidential contenders his his caucus-night speech. 'We don't know all of the results. But we do know that by the time it's all said and done, Iowa: you have shocked the nation. Because by all indications we are going on to New Hampshire victorious,' Buttigieg...

A delay in the results of the Iowa caucuses has left the Democratic presidential campaigns in the dark about the state of the race in the Hawkeye State. Aides to some of the leading candidates said late Tuesday that they know little if anything about the cause of the delays, even after a briefing from Iowa Democratic Party officials. “They basically told us nothing,” one senior adviser to a leading candidate said of the call between Iowa Democratic Party leaders and the campaigns. Asked what they were hearing about issues related to the caucus results, another Democratic campaign source replied,...

DES MOINES, Iowa — Elizabeth Warren's campaign manager, Roger Lau, said she is in a three-way tie for the lead in Iowa, with Joe Biden a "distant fourth." With no official results in due to reporting issues by Iowa Democrats, campaigns are scrambling to make sense of a race with no clear winner. "From what we can tell, Warren, [Bernie] Sanders, and [Pete] Buttigieg, based on our own data and data collected by our own operations and organization, are fighting for the lead, and it's clear that Biden is a distant fourth," Lau told reporters