Free Republic

Governor Rick Scott announced Thursday that he and the National Republican Senatorial Committee plan to sue the Broward County Supervisor of Elections over ballot counting.

Complete title: Claims by Courtney Smith's mother, mother-in-law reflect tangled narrative facing Urban Meyer investigators. COLUMBUS, Ohio -- As Ohio State continues investigating what head football coach Urban Meyer knew about domestic abuse allegations against former assistant coach Zach Smith in 2015, a new report on Thursday shows just how complicated the issue could be for the investigative team. In a report published on the Facebook page of veteran sports writer Jeff Snook, the mothers of Zach Smith and his ex-wife, Courtney Smith, painted a very different picture of the allegations against Zach Smith, one that only adds to the...

Congress passed legislation Tuesday to revise parts the Dodd-Frank financial reforms that were enacted in 2010. The bill headed to President Trump’s desk, however, is not the sweeping replacement that he and congressional Republicans sought. Instead, it’s a bipartisan, modest change of some of the rules, mostly benefiting regional and smaller banks. The lower chamber voted 258 to 159 to pass the bill, with 33 Democrats voting in favor. “This is a major step forward in freeing our economy from overregulation," said House Speaker Paul Ryan. The House vote, scheduled months after the Senate passed the bill with strong bipartisan...

The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, told his top agents from around the country that he had been asked by President Trump to stay on the job running the federal government’s top law enforcement agency, according to people familiar with the matter.

Voters in Ohio have approved a ballot measure intended to keep government from requiring Ohioans to participate in any health care system. The constitutional amendment passed is largely symbolic, coming in response to the 2009 federal health care overhaul, a provision of which mandates that most Americans purchase health care.

The good news for Willard Mitt Romney is that his religion won’t knock him out of the Republican race for president next year. The bad news is, he’s got an even bigger problem now than the magic underwear jokes — Romneycare. “That’s the question he has to address,” Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H) was saying Friday afternoon. “Not just in New Hampshire, but nationwide.” You know how big a headache this is when even Mitt’s highest-profile supporters are dodging brickbats over the chaos that is Massachusetts health care.

WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown has apologized for a speech in which he invoked the names of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin while he criticized Republican efforts in Ohio and Wisconsin to curtail the power of public-employee unions to bargain with state and local governments. In a statement yesterday, the Ohio Democrat said he is "passionate about fighting for the middle class. Ohio's teachers and nurses and police and firefighters are facing the loss of their collective-bargaining rights, and I think that's wrong." "But in speaking about this, I should not have mentioned the hostility of tyrants like Hitler...

Evelyn Burgess was in a jealous rage when she assaulted her teenage cousin for wearing what she considered an inappropriate outfit to Easter dinner. But she relaxed after chasing 19-year-old Danielle Pickens outside and fatally shooting her in the face as she cowered in a car parked in front of Burgess' North Side house. "(Burgess) calmly walked away and stated, 'I killed the bitch,' and placed the gun on the mantel above the fireplace," Assistant Prosecutor Laurie Arsenault said in Franklin County Common Pleas Court. The 42-year-old defendant pleaded guilty yesterday to one count of murder in the April 4...

Gov.-elect John Kasich is calling on Gov. Ted Strickland to immediately end two studies of the 3C passenger rail route across Ohio, saying the train plan is as good as dead under a Kasich administration. Strickland and his transportation director, Jolene Molitoris, should sever the 3C contracts right away, said Rob Nichols, a spokesman for Kasich. The governor-elect plans to communicate that in a letter to Strickland, Nichols said. "Given that the train is dead under John, no additional state or taxpayer dollars should be spent on this project," Nichols said. Kasich wants the Ohio Department of Transportation to terminate...

Kasich beats incumbent rat Strickland. Republicans are sweeping statewide offices.

Some photos from the Tea Party Express rally in Central Ohio today. Turnout was surprisingly good for a cold, college football Saturday. I estimate the crowd was between 200 and 400.More hotos below.

Incensed when two teenagers ignored his demands to pull up their saggy pants, a Memphis man allegedly shot one of the youths in the back, according to police. Kenneth Bonds was arrested Saturday night and charged with two counts of aggravated assault and jailed on $25,000 bond. Bonds, 45, is pictured in the mug shot at right. Investigators contend that Bonds admitted to shooting Cameron Tucker, 17, following a September 25 argument on a Memphis sidewalk. The teenager was accompanied by Isaac Taylor, a 16-year-old friend. Tucker told cops that he and Taylor were walking to a candy store when...

A fatal mid-air collision between a helicopter and a small plane, which resulted in the deaths of nine people, was caused by an air traffic controller talking on his phone about a dead cat, an investigation has found. A government safety panel said the incident over New York's Hudson River last year occurred after the controller became distracted by the call. Five Italian tourists were killed on August 8 2009 when their tour helicopter smashed into a light aircraft flying over the city. The U.S National Transportation Safety Board said the Federal Aviation Administration rules between New York and New...

Third-party gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo on Tuesday survived a legal maneuver to remove him from the ballot, setting up a potentially brutal political brawl within the GOP as members continue to pick sides between him and Republican Dan Maes. Denver District Judge William Hood's decision in Tancredo's favor also may create more headaches for Maes. Tancredo on Tuesday released a stinging television ad impugning Maes' character, and a Rasmussen Reports poll showed Maes for the first time trailing the former GOP congressman. "It's lucky for conservatives that I'm here, because they wouldn't have any options if I wasn't," Tancredo said....

Strickland channels Howard Dean as he rants against Republicans. He's trailing Kasich in his reelection bid for Governor of Ohio and getting desperate. Link

While about 200,000 Ohioans have obtained permits to carry concealed firearms through the state, nearly 2,000 others have bypassed Ohio's requirements and gotten licenses from Utah - without even having to visit that state. Ohio requires people to undergo 12 hours of handgun-proficiency training before they're eligible for a license to discreetly pack heat. Utah requires applicants to take a certified course but doesn't specify a number of hours. Ohio also adds the names of permit holders to a law-enforcement database, whereas Utah does not. Because the two states honor each other's handgun licenses, a resident of Ohio can take...

A federal judge yesterday threw out a lawsuit by Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher - the northwestern Ohio man immortalized as "Joe the Plumber" in the 2008 presidential campaign - alleging that three high-ranking state bureaucrats violated his privacy by running his name through confidential databases. U.S. District Court Judge Algenon L. Marbley said Wurzelbacher could not show that he had been harmed by the snooping. Three top managers of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services ran database checks of Wurzelbacher, who briefly vaulted to fame in October 2008 when he confronted then-candidate Barack Obama about the effects of his...

The number of people applying for initial state unemployment insurance benefits rose 37,000 to 464,000 in the week ended July 17, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected an initial claims level of 450,000.

Recently, someone wrote to me complaining of a “recent and dangerous trend” of attacks on intellectuals coming from “those on the right.” The writer’s ostensible purpose was to shield intellectuals from “attacks.” His real purpose was to shield them from criticism. Nothing could be more dangerous than shielding today’s intellectual, particularly the secular university professor, from criticism. It is precisely because they are so coddled and shielded (read: tenured) that they have become modern day Pharisees. Jesus was not nice to the Pharisees. In fact, He had this to say to them: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For...