Free Republic

It turns out there were two Churchill busts in the White House. One is still there. The other — the one that used to be in the Oval Office, the one which Charles Krauthammer was referring to — has been returned to the British.

OLYMPIA, July 12.—If you think the cost of health insurance is going to go down under health care reform, think again, says the CEO of Washington state’s largest individual-insurance health plan. Many purchasers of individual insurance plans may see premiums rise 50 to 70 percent.

China has officially rejected a request by the US, Europe and Japan to have a special panel of the World Trade Organization arbitrate a dispute over the country's controversial policy of restricting exports of rare earths. China mines roughly 95% of the world's rare earths and is also the globe's top consumer of the 17 elements used in critical components for the automotive, high tech, green energy and defence industries, but the country maintains it only holds 23% of global REE reserves and is actively encouraging others nations to explore and mine REEs. Platts reports under WTO rules, China can...

Investigators are searching for dozens of teens reportedly involved in mob assaults on two consecutive nights in a Southeast Portland park. The Portland Police Bureau reports that a little after 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, responding officers found several groups of teens roaming the park. As they were telling the teens to clear out, a witness directed them to a 14-year-old boy who had sustained facial injuries in an alleged attack. The boy told police that he was with a friend when a group of African American teens approached him, beat him up, and stole his cell phone, iPod, headphones and hat....

For the first time, taxes are taking a bigger chunk out of Canadians' budgets than the basic necessities of food, clothing and shelter, a new report from the Fraser Institute says. The public policy think-tank calculated that over the past 50 years, an average family's total tax bill has increased 1,738%, the report Canadian Consumer Tax Index 2012 said. Over the same period, the cost of shelter increased by 1,185%, food by 518%, and clothing by 500%.

Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Demonstrates Astounding Humility As of today, the voters of the 1st Congressional District no longer have a congressman. For the rest of the year they will be represented by an empty chair. The question is whether they’ll notice the difference. That might sound a little cruel, but the funny thing is that Congressman Jay Inslee himself is arguing that they won’t. When the Democrat announced March 10 that he would resign after seven consecutive terms to focus on his campaign for governor, he said the voters of the north-Seattle suburbs could get along without him. And while...

The public radio show This American Life has retracted an entire storyline told by comedian and self-described Apple fanboy Mike Daisey that aired in early January after Daisey's translator said he made up significant details of the tale. In a press release, the show says the episode was the most popular in its history and was downloaded 888,000 times. The episode also sparked a petition for Apple to improve its working conditions that was signed by a quarter of a million people.

Matt Ridley has long deplored the wind farm delusion, and was appalled when a family trust was paid by a wind farm company in compensation for mineral rights on land on which it wanted to build a turbine. The trust would be paid £8,500 a year for it, and Matt couldn’t abide the idea of profiting — even in part — from this. So he is donating £8,500 in an annual prize to be given to the best essay exposing environmental fallacies. Entries open today. The rules are simple. We invite pieces from 1,000 to 2,000 words in length, to...

The King County Republican Party says it has received multiple reports of robo calls to voters falsely claiming the Saturday caucuses have been delayed a week. Lisa Shin, executive director of the King County GOP, said the calls came in Friday evening bearing the caller-identification number of the county party headquarters in Bellevue.

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D) is expressing frustration with the debate in Washington over the Keystone XL pipeline, which he strongly supports. “Ninety per cent of these jackasses that are complaining about the Keystone pipeline in Washington, D.C., one year ago wouldn't have even known where the Keystone was. While we were doing the heavy lifting here in Montana and in South Dakota and in Kansas and Oklahoma ... in Washington, D.C. ... all these great defenders had never heard of Keystone before,” Schweitzer said in an interview published Thursday.

A start-up called Chamtech Enteprises has an answer to the problems of poor cellphone reception and other shortcomings of traditional antennas. The company has developed a spray-on antenna that it says is more lightweight, energy-efficient and effective than the old-school version. (Where was this stuff when the iPhone 4 came out?) The Sandy, Utah-based start-up’s nanotechnology, unveiled last week at Google’s inaugural Solve For X gathering, can be painted onto a tree, a wall, the ground or even the back of a soldier, enabling a more portable, lightweight way to get reception for a variety of uses. The company has...

Federal fish cops in Seattle bought a $300,000 luxury boat to spy on whale-watching tours — but didn't go through an appropriate bidding process, held barbecues onboard, ferried friends and family across Puget Sound to restaurants and resorts, and used the boat for what one visitor called "a pleasure cruise." When confronted, one federal employee in Seattle misled inspectors about how the vessel was used, and one interfered with federal investigators, according to an internal investigation by the Commerce Department. Those documents were released Friday by U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass. At issue is a 35-foot, 14-passenger boat purchased by...

WASHINGTON (CN) - Former U.S Department of Agriculture official Shirley Sherrod's lawsuit against right-wing blogger Andrew Breitbart survived a motion to dismiss, clearing the way for her to pursue the high-profile defamation suit she filed against him and a colleague last year. Sherrod Sued Breitbart and associate Larry O'Connor in February 2011, charging the two men posted a heavily editor clip of her online that led to accusations of racism and ultimately got her fired. Breitbert filed his motion under the D.C. Anti-SLAPP Act, which provides that if a defendant can show the claim at issue arises from an act...

The federal agency that sells and transmits most electrical power in the Northwest has proposed a plan to cover half of wind producers' lost revenue when they're forced to shut down wind farms during periods of excess hydropower production. The plan would affect Cowlitz PUD, which owns interests in two Central Washington wind farms, but would not lower or raise rates significantly, PUD officials said. "This is not going to do anything that would appear to be a rate-driver," PUD spokesman Dave Andrew said Wednesday. Over the objections of wind energy producers, the federal Bonneville Power Administration last spring ordered...

Sen. Maria Cantwell, a longtime opponent of oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, has helped defeat the latest Republican plan to open up the refuge for new energy exploration. The Washington Democrat and member of the Senate Finance Committee raised objections Tuesday when Utah GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch offered a plan that would have allowed drilling rigs into the refuge and protected waters off the coast of Florida and southern California “We all know that gas prices going up are a very big challenge to us and we need to find alternatives to foreign oil,” Cantwell said. “But...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign is returning more than $200,000 in donations from the family of a fugitive casino magnate linked to violence and corruption in Mexico who has been seeking a pardon, Obama’s campaign confirmed on Tuesday. “More than 1.3 million Americans have donated to the campaign and we constantly review those contributions for any issues,” Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said in an email after a New York Times report on the decision appeared late on Monday. “On the basis of the questions that have been raised, we will return the contributions from these individuals and...

OLYMPIA — As immigrant advocates gathered in Olympia on Thursday, state lawmakers took up a bill that could give minorities a better chance at winning election to local government positions. The legislation would make it easier to bring court challenges aimed at pushing cities, counties and school districts to switch from at-large to district elections in areas where large minority groups are present. -snip- The Washington legislation would make it easier to prove that such districts are necessary. If passed into law, a plaintiff could use census data and election results to show that an unsuccessful minority candidate for local...

(Reuters) - The Congress has the constitutional right to legislate permits for cross-border oil pipelines like TransCanada's Keystone XL, according to a new legal analysis released late on Friday. The study by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service could give a boost to Republicans drafting legislation to overturn a decision this week by President Barack Obama to put the $7 billion Alberta-to-Texas project on ice. Historically, U.S. presidents have made executive decisions on pipelines that cross borders. But Congress had the power all along to weigh in on the permits, said the study, done by four legislative attorneys with the CRS....

TransCanada Corp. is considering building U.S. portions of its Keystone XL pipeline and later seeking approval of an Alberta link to circumvent the Obama administration's rejection of the $7-billion project. There is no requirement for a presidential permit to lay pipe anywhere in the United States, provided the line doesn't extend across the border into Canada. On the table is a segment between the oversupplied oil storage hub of Cushing, Okla., and Gulf Coast refining centres in Texas, as well as a longer line from Montana to the Gulf Coast, executives said Thursday. "I think that clearly, with yesterday's decision,...

Democrats have accepted more political donations than Republicans from executives at Bain Capital, complicating the left’s plan to attack Mitt Romney for his record at the private equity firm. During the last three election cycles, Bain employees have given Democratic candidates and party committees more than $1.2 million. The vast majority of that sum came from senior executives. Republican candidates and party committees raised over $480,000 from senior Bain executives during that time period.