Free Republic

A federal court has ruled Arizona Republicans’ ban on mail-in ballots is illegal and unconstitutional, calling it intentionally discriminatory toward people of color, who already face increased barriers to voting. The ruling is a major victory for the Democratic party, which filed the suit, and will likely make it easier for minorities to get their ballots counted in the largely red state. Four years ago, Arizona Republicans made it a felony, punishable by prison time, for third-party groups to collect mail-in ballots during elections – a process often called “ballot harvesting.” Marginalized communities in the state may rely more on...

Everytown for Gun Safety announced on Monday its plan to spend at least $60 million in the 2020 election, which is nearly double what the National Rifle Association (NRA) spent in 2016. Billionaire former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, is a co-founder of Everytown and is the organization’s largest donor. Bloomberg has put gun control at the forefront of his campaign, but Everytown has said they will treat him like any other candidate in terms of endorsements. “This massive 2020 effort is fueled by a combination of financial resources, unprecedented grassroots...

Arizona State University told students and faculty on Sunday that a case of the Wuhan coronavirus was confirmed in the university community, according to an email sent by ASU officials. The university and the Maricopa County Department of Public Health (MCDPH) confirmed that the person lives in Tempe, where the university is located, but does not live in university housing, according to an email sent by Mark Searle, executive vice president and provost at the university, and Morgan Olsen, executive vice president and CFO of the university.

The mother and step-father of two missing children from Arizona were reportedly contacted by police at a resort in Hawaii Sunday after months of searching for the couple. According to a statement obtained by FOX 10's Justin Lum from Idaho authorities, a child protection action has been filed on behalf of Joshua "JJ" Vallow and Tylee Ryan, and a court has ordered Lori to physically produce the two children to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare in Rexburg within five days of being served with the order. The order, according to the statement, was served to Vallow in Princeville,...

... California is one of many states to ask teachers and textbooks in recent years to cover the contributions of specific immigrant groups, including Asian-Americans, Pacific Islanders, European-Americans and Mexican-Americans. These additions are part of the reason California books are almost always longer than their Texas counterparts. California’s Board of Education adopted an expansive 842-page social studies framework in 2016. Two years later, Texas’ school board streamlined its social studies standards, which are now laid out in 78 tightly compressed pages. Critics of California’s approach say that making state standards and textbooks longer and more inclusive can be overwhelming to...

A fifth U.S. case of coronavirus was confirmed on Sunday in Maricopa County, Arizona, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The patient is reportedly a student at Arizona State University, but does not live in university housing, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS). The Maricopa County Department of Public Health and ADHS said they are currently investigating “to identify any close contacts that may have been exposed while the person was infectious,” adding that “Any individuals who have been identified as having been exposed will be contacted directly. These individuals will be monitored for fever...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The U.S. has five confirmed cases of the new virus from China, all of whom traveled to the city that is the center of the outbreak, health officials said Sunday. Two new cases were reported Sunday — one in Los Angeles County in California and the other in Maricopa County, Arizona. The others were a patient in Orange County, California, who was in isolation at a hospital and in good condition; a man in his 30s in Washington state; and a woman in her 60s from Chicago. ... The CDC expects more Americans to be diagnosed...

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said Saturday it is “certainly possible” some Senate Democrats will vote to acquit President Donald Trump when the Senate impeachment trial concludes. The Connecticut Democrat said that the Senate Democrat conference will likely vote for additional witnesses; however, he added that he cannot guarantee all Democrats will vote to convict the president. Sen. Murphy said Saturday morning: I don’t have any reason to think there are Democrats that aren’t with us on procedural votes. It’s certainly possible there are Democrats that are going to vote no on one of the articles, two of the articles. And...

The Americans killed in a firey plane crash yesterday have been identified, with their families expected to land in Australia early tomorrow to bring their loved ones home. Captain Ian McBeth, 45, First Officer Paul Hudson, 43, and Flight Engineer Rick DeMorgan Jnr, 43, died instantly yesterday when their C-130 Hercules plane crashed in the south of New South Wales, exploding into a ball of flames. The three firefighting aeroplane crew members were killed just before 2pm yesterday when the aerial water tanker they were in crashed while battling fires near Cooma in the state’s Snowy Mountains region. The plane...

"The View" co-host Meghan McCain slammed the "performance art" of House Intelligence Committee chairman and leading House manager Adam Schiff, D-Calif., during the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump, suggesting Schiff's dramatics are meant to indicate future political ambitions. After Schiff received praise by her daytime co-hosts, McCain began by expressing she feels like she "lives on a different planet" by not being enthralled by his opening arguments. "When I saw Adam Schiff, I thought he seemed pretty performative ... and that he's clearly trying to take over for Dianne Feinstein at some point," McCain said, referring to the California...

MEXICO CITY - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is facing a barrage of criticism at home that he is doing U.S. President Donald Trump’s bidding after erecting a “wall” of security forces near the Guatemala border to keep out Central Americans. Mexico has bowed to demands from Trump, under the threat of punitive tariffs, to contain mass movements of migrants, most of them from Central America, who have been crossing through Mexico on their way to the U.S. border. Lopez Obrador was questioned at his daily morning news conference for a second day in a row about how the...

Whether by accident or by deliberate osmosis, Israel and the U.S. have adopted similar solutions to their existential problems. Before 2002, during the various Palestinian intifadas, Israel suffered hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries from suicide bombers freely crossing from the West Bank and Gaza into Israel. In response, Israel planned a vast border barrier. The international community was outraged. The Israeli left called the idea nothing short of "apartheid." However, after the completion of the 440-mile border barrier -- part concrete well, part wire fencing -- suicide bombings and terrorist incursions into Israel declined to almost nil....

Not that you’d generally be able to tell by watching CNN or MSNBC, but there’s actually been quite a bit of good news lately. And it’s not just retail sales, Wall Street and historic low unemployment. In a surprising reversal of recent trends, the number of illegal border crossings observed in Arizona this winter is down. And I mean way down. We’re talking a reduction of more than 90 percent over the previous year during the same period. (Associated Press) Illegal crossings plummeted across the border after the Trump administration made more asylum-seekers wait in Mexico for hearings in...

During Monday’s broadcast of CBS’s “This Morning,” former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) sounded off on his outspokenness against President Donald Trump ahead of the upcoming Senate impeachment trial. Flake, who was never shy about his distrust of Trump, said it is “difficult” for Republican lawmakers to speak out against Trump because they do not want to lose their jobs.

As part of CNN’s day-long-pants-wetting resulting from Arizona Senator Martha McSally (R) calling out CNN correspondent Manu Raju as a “liberal hack,” CNN hosts Chris “Fredo” Cuomo (Cuomo Prime Time) and Don Lemon (CNN Tonight) railed against the Senator during the handoff between their shows on Thursday. Cuomo lashed out by describing McSally, the first female U.S. combat pilot, as a “punk” and later argued that her criticism of his colleague “should hurt her.” As he pivoted away from suggesting all Republican senators were liars, Cuomo started to target McSally. “That’s what’s so upsetting about McSally today. This is a...

I had pretty much written off Martha McSally as a loser, a sure loss of the crucial Arizona Senate seat she got handed after flubbing a campaign to win the state’s other one, but it looks like I was wonderfully wrong. Somewhere along the line, McSally got woke, calling a liberal hack from CNN a “liberal hack” and inspiring a million Dem-loving media tears. It was glorious, and overdue. McSally laid out that simpering microphone jockey and showed that maybe she can take the fight to her gun-stealing, socialist-tolerating astronaut opponent and keep our seat. Fredocon cruise director Bill “Ahoy”...

UNION TOWNSHIP — Theodore Jakubowski has seen this before. The 64-year-old man saw it as a child growing up in Union Township, as Italian, Irish and Polish families came to his community in droves after World War II and learned to live together despite their differences. And now things are changing again in Union, and in few places in New Jersey is that change happening as quickly or as completely as it is here in this town of 56,600.

As a new migrant caravan makes its way through Central America with the final goal of reaching the U.S., Mexico announced this week that it will not allow passage. Mexico’s Secretary of Interior Olga Sanchez Cordero said no visas or permissions for the caravan will be provided. “We will not have a transit visa or safe passage,” Sanchez Cordero told Expansion Politica. “There will be special enforcement and there will be immigration agents.” However, if caravan migrants want to stay in Mexico, procedures are available. “Mexico is not a country of transit that gives passage, it is a country that...

The Pentagon was asked by the Department of Homeland Security to fund the construction of about 270 miles of border wall in 2020 to counter drug smuggling across the U.S.-Mexico border, officials told reporters on Thursday. The request came in on Wednesday and the Department of Defense (DOD) will ascertain how much will be allotted to Homeland Security, DOD officials told The Associated Press, Reuters, and other news outlets. They did not say how much it would cost, and an official told Reuters that it would take about two weeks to review the request. So far, President Donald Trump’s administration...

Republican Arizona Sen. Martha McSally ripped into CNN Capitol Hill reporter Manu Raju on Thursday, calling him a “liberal hack” after he asked a question about President Donald Trump’s upcoming impeachment trial. “Sen. Martha McSally, a Republican facing a difficult election race, lashed out when I asked if she would consider new evidence as part of the Senate trial,” Raju, a University of Wisconsin graduate tweeted Thursday.