Free Republic

15 Sep 20220 On Thursday’s “CNN Newsroom,” Rep. Bill Keating (D-MA) reacted to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) sending migrants to Martha’s Vineyard by stating that Martha’s Vineyard is “very small” and so there are “absolutely no resources to deal with this.” Keating said, “That’s part of the cynical nature of this. Martha’s Vineyard is a very small populated island. People commute from the land just to work there because there’s no housing. So, there’s absolutely no resources to deal with this. But fortunately, religious community members and local officials and now state officials are springing into action to deal...

Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska appeared alongside her husband, President Volodymyr Zelensky, for a rare television interview in which she spoke about the family’s experience during Moscow’s invasion of their country. “Our family was torn apart, as every other Ukrainian family,” Zelenska said in an interview on Ukrainian television network ICTV, according to The Washington Post. “He lives at his job. We didn’t see him at all for two and a half months,” she also said of Zelensky who has led the country as a wartime president. She added that she was “grateful” for the interview as time to spend...

A gay couple says in a federal lawsuit that a printing company sent them pamphlets with messages about temptation and sin instead of the wedding programs they ordered for their special day. Stephen Heasley and Andrew Borg sued Vistaprint on Tuesday in Massachusetts. They were married in Pennsylvania in September. The couple's lawsuit says they were horrified to find the package they received the day before their wedding contained pamphlets with "hateful, discriminatory and anti-gay'' messages. They say they hope their lawsuit sends a message that "there will be consequences for acts of hate.'' The printing company went on to...

NEWARK -- She crouched in her bathroom, barely audible as she told a reporter her biggest fear.  "My grandson is 10 years old, I live with the fear that when he comes home from school his family won't be here," an undocumented woman told NJ Advance Media hours after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced its crackdown on illegal immigration.  "I'm terrified that they will disintegrate my family," she said on the phone in Spanish, whispering over her sobs so her family wouldn't hear. The 47-year-old single mom lives with her two older daughters and grandson in Newark.  She requested her name not be published out of fear she'd...

Muslim women are being beaten, killed, and sold into slavery in the Muslim Middle East. But these are small potatoes compared to the indignities fundamentalist Muslim women are suffering in America. In America, sharia-compliant women complain that Americans do not smile enough at them on airplanes. This is why the New York Times has chosen to put a spotlight on the indignities hijab-covered women suffer every time they go to the airport. They interviewed an expert on the subject, a lawyer for CAIR, the Council for American Islamic [State?] Relations. CAIR knows what it's talking about when it comes to...

<p>When Michael Brown was shot and killed by a white police officer two years ago in Ferguson, Mo., Darren Seals was one of the most vocal activists leading protests across the city. He rallied a boycott of Democratic candidates in local elections after he said they failed to protect black lives. And on the day a grand jury declined to indict the Ferguson police officer, Darren Wilson, Seals held Brown’s mother in his arms as she sobbed.</p>

It wasn't long ago that the woman arrested in the deadly Las Vegas Strip sidewalk crash seemed to be doing well for herself. After a rough childhood that included a period of homelessness in high school Lakeisha Holloway had become an award-winning high school graduate and caring mother. That recent picture of success deepens the mystery of how the former Oregon woman wound up in a Las Vegas jail and on suicide watch.

Half of New York City residents say they are struggling economically, making ends meet just barely, if at all, and most feel sharp uncertainty about the future of the city’s next generation, a new poll shows.

Activists that have taken over U.S. college campuses this week protesting racial injustice took to Twitter last night to complain that news coverage of the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris had stolen their spotlight. Black Lives Matter and Mizzou protesters on Twitter said their struggles with racial oppression were being “erased” by the overwhelming news coverage of the murder of scores of people at the hands of Islamic State extremists. “Racist white people kill me, you want everyone to have sympathy for YOUR tragedy, but you have none for ours,” one user tweeted, adding “#Mizzou.” “Disgusted @ white conservative Americans...

Fire has reportedly broken out at the 'jungle' refugee camp in the port of Calais in the hours following the terror attacks in Paris. At around 11pm volunteers at the camp began sharing pictures of the blaze on social media. And soon after an anti-migrant group known as 'The Angry of Calais' posted videos of the inferno on Facebook.

At least 62 people were killed when a crane crashed in Mecca's Grand Mosque on Friday, Saudi Arabia's civil defence authority said on its Twitter account. It said nearly 30 people were injured as well. The Muslim annual Haj pilgrimage is due later this month. Al Jazeera's Hasan Patel, reporting from Mecca, said witnesses told him that a crane fell on the third floor of the Grand Mosque around 5.45pm.

At least 65 people were killed and scores were wounded Friday when a crane collapsed in the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia's civil defense authority said. The accident happened as pilgrims from around the world converged on the city, Islam's holiest site, for the annual Hajj pilgrimage, which takes place this month. (snip) Another video, on a Twitter posting, captured the apparent moment of the crane's collapse during a heavy rainstorm, with a loud boom, screams and confusion.

They may be in the majority, but many House Republicans feel irrelevant. That’s the problem both candidates for House majority leader promised to fix when they delivered their pitches to the rank and file at a closed door meeting. “I want every member to feel relevant again,” Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, pledged when he addressed a crowd of about 50 lawmakers. “I want you to feel like you did the first day you came to Congress. Do you remember that day? That was an amazing day filled with endless possibilities.” First elected in 2010, Labrador is the underdog candidate against...

The Cummings/Issa feud is the showdown that keeps on giving. Democrats faced off with Republicans on the House floor, protesting GOP Rep. Darrell Issa's diss of Democrat Rep. Elijah Cummings last week. Cummings' colleagues stood on the House floor on Thursday, holding up tablets, iPhones and iPads with screen showing images of Issa shutting down Cummings during a committee hearing a week ago. But the show of solidarity was closed down, with the presiding officer, Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), deeming the display of electronic devices a violation of house rules.

The number of Erie County residents in the food stamp program is the highest its been in 20 years. One in 5 people, or 20.5 percent, in the county are on food stamps. In all, more than 57,000 Erie County residents are on food stamps, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. About 38,000 city of Erie residents, or nearly 37 percent, are on food stamps, a 24 percent increase from 2009.

DETROIT - Michigan residents in a federal food program are being denied purchases with their debit-style cards because of technical problems. A woman from Fenton, who asked not to be identified, spoke with WWJ about her experience. “I’ve been in two different stores and in both stores, I was told that food stamps could not be authorized so I was not able to make a purchase. I’m absolutely outraged and furious,” she said. “Today is Saturday, my only day off to go grocery shopping for my children and I’m very, very angry that this has happened.” Officials said they’re not...

Staten Islanders were fed up with Mother Nature’s wrath.

Report: Dozens pass out from heat at Obama campaign event By Jonathan Easley - 07/06/12 03:14 PM ET Dozens of supporters passed out from the extreme heat at an Obama campaign event in Pittsburgh on Friday. Obama was speaking outdoors at Carnegie Mellon University as part of his two-day campaign swing via bus through the key swing states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, and according to multiple reports on Twitter, people were being carted off on stretchers or leaving the event to seek shade. AccuWeather said the temperature was 98 degrees at the time of the speech, but that it felt...

Maroon Rafique missed an important talk concerning her son's university education because she would not remove the niqab A mother was turned away from a parents’ evening because she was wearing a full-face veil.Maroon Rafique, 40, was told that for the security and safety of children and teachers at the college there was a ban on any type of face coverings.She was warned that unless she removed her full-face covering, known as the niqab, she would not be allowed into the college to attend.In the end, a stunned Mrs Rafique was forced to call her husband, who took her place...

Fighting back tears, the parents of slain Florida teenager Trayvon Martin stood beside the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. and relatives of Chicago area murder victims on Saturday to stress the need to end “senseless gun violence.” “We are the voice of Trayvon Martin,” Martin’s mother Sybrina Fulton said. “He’s not here to speak for himself so we as his parents have decided instead of sitting back and not doing anything, this is what we have decided to do, to help our community and to help other parents.” As she spoke about her son, Fulton also detailed her family’s Justice for...