Free Republic

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is not content to infringe on property rights; recent actions taken against the country's last lead smelting facility will affect the right to keep and bear arms, as well, by substantially impacting the production of ammunition. As of December 31, 2013, the lead refining plant will close for good.The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports:About 145 employees of the Doe Run lead smelter [in Herculaneum, Missouri] learned they will lose their jobs at the end of December because of the plant’s closure, the Doe Run Co. said Wednesday. An additional 73 contractor jobs also will be eliminated....

A children’s book that is part of the Common Core curriculum portrays white voters as racists who would never vote for Obama for president. The book called, “Barack Obama,” says: “Some people said Americans weren’t ready for that much change. Sure Barack was a nice fellow, they said. But white voters would never vote for a black president,” the book reads. This is in spite of the fact that millions of whites voted for the sitting president. Follow TLR on Google+ Common Core’s implementation has gotten off to a rocky start. States like Indiana have opted out of the unified...

OMB Leadership Sylvia Mathews Burwell, Director Sylvia Mathews Burwell is the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). She was confirmed by the Senate on April 24, 2013. Burwell previously served as President of the Walmart Foundation. Before joining the Foundation in 2012, she was President of the Global Development Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she worked for 10 years and was also the first Chief Operating Officer. During the Clinton Administration she served as Deputy Director of OMB, Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, Chief of Staff to the Secretary of the...

Healthcare.gov, the troubled website set up to help Americans choose and enroll in a health care policy, crashed early Monday morning, on the final day to begin the process to apply for health insurance. According to a CNBC story, the website crashed around 3:20 a.m. (ET) Monday. It was  still down as of 7:40 a.m.Monday is the deadline to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act -- commonly called Obamacare -- before facing a fine.According to the White House, more than 6 million people have signed up since the enrollment period began on Oct. 1. According to...

For Immediate Release March 28, 2014 Readout of the President’s Call with President Putin President Putin called President Obama today to discuss the U.S. proposal for a diplomatic resolution to the crisis in Ukraine, which Secretary Kerry had again presented to Foreign Minister Lavrov at the meeting at the Hague earlier this week, and which we developed following U.S. consultations with our Ukrainian and European partners.  President Obama suggested that Russia put a concrete response in writing and the presidents agreed that Kerry and Lavrov would meet to discuss next steps.President Obama noted that the Ukrainian government continues to...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Bypassing Congress, President Barack Obama intends to order changes in overtime rules so employers would be required to pay millions more workers for the extra time they put in on the job. The rules, which would not likely take effect until 2015, are aimed at workers currently designated as supervisory employees but who are exempt from overtime because they get paid a salary of more than $455 a week. Obama plans to order his Labor Department to recommend regulations that would increase that salary threshold and change the definition of what constitutes a supervisor. Obama's attention to...

(CNN) - Sarah Palin may be having a bragging rights moment. In 2008, when she was the GOP vice presidential nominee, Palin questioned in a speech whether then-Sen. Barack Obama would have the foreign policy credentials to handle a scenario in which Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine.Follow @politicalticker"After the Russian army invaded the nation of Georgia, Senator Obama's reaction was one of indecision and moral equivalence – the kind of response that would only encourage Russia's Putin to invade Ukraine next," she said in Reno, Nevada on October 21, 2008. The former Alaska governor was happy to highlight her...

COMMERCE TWP. (WWJ) – A Commerce Township floral delivery company says the Federal Aviation Administration has grounded its experiment in delivering flowers by unmanned mini-helicopter. FlowerDeliveryExpress.com said the FAA has informed them that commercial drone use is only allowed on a pre-authorized, case-by-case basis — and told the company to knock it off.“Cupid’s wings have been clipped,” said the company’s CEO, Wesley Berry.But at least the FAA was nice about it, Berry said. “The FAA was extremely professional and polite,” he said. “I couldn’t have been chastised in a nicer way.”Berry said he agreed with the FAA’s characterization of delivery...

Conservative radio host Laura Ingraham battled the rest of the Fox News Sunday panel over immigration, arguing that immigration reform and current enforcement of immigration laws were weakening the American workforce, even as her fellow panelists countered that reform would bolster the economy. “I think what we’re seeing here is a split inside the Republican Party between two staunch conservatives,” host Chris Wallace said, going on to ply Ingraham with a Wall Street Journal editorial that called flinching on reform “de facto amnesty.” “As far as I can tell, the Wall Street Journal is on the side of Nancy Pelosi,...

Julian Finney/Getty ImagesConstruction in the Gorky Gorod 540 Hotel in Sochi. Sochi officials say that the city's hotels are 97% complete on the eve of the Olympics.But given the nightmare travel stories rolling in from reporters in Sochi, that 3% difference goes a long, long way.There are reports of rooms without light bulbs or doorknobs. There are stories about unfinished hotels without lobbies or working elevators or running water. There are anecdotes from people who've checked into their rooms, only to find them occupied by stray dogs or construction workers napping in between shifts.The venues and Olympic Village all look...

Bill de Blasio is now visibly annoyed at the constant blizzards bombarding New York.Speaking at a press conference this morning, the new mayor repeatedly sighed and expressed his exasperation at Mother Nature, which is set to deliver the fourth significant snowstorm of his tenure later today, with yet more bad weather forecast for later week.“The snowstorm situation is reaaaally getting a little too common,” began Mr. de Blasio as he began update on tonight’s approaching storm.“So,” he added, pausing for a breath, “let’s talk about tonight!”“The next snowstorm,” he continued, again pausing a beat, “will start roughly … between 12...

WASHINGTON/BOSTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's new "myRA" retirement savings program will be run by a private-sector money management firm chosen by the U.S. Treasury Department from a field of up to 30 firms, a senior administration official said on Wednesday. In a competitive bidding process to begin in the next few weeks, the Treasury Department will select a firm with experience in handling Roth individual retirement accounts (IRAs), the official said on a conference call with reporters. The time frame was not clear, with the official saying only that selection would take place in months ahead. With millions of...

The Justice Department will significantly expand its definition of racial profiling to prohibit federal agents from considering religion, national origin, gender and sexual orientation in their investigations, a government official said Wednesday.The move addresses a decade of criticism from civil rights groups that say federal authorities have in particular singled out Muslims in counterterrorism investigations and Latinos for immigration investigations.The Bush administration banned profiling in 2003, but with two caveats: It did not apply to national security cases, and it covered only race, not religion, ancestry or other factors. Since taking office, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has been...

Pope Francis is selling his Harley Davidson motorcycle. The pope, known for riding through Buenos Aires on a bus and taking to the streets of Rome in a modest Ford Focus, plans to see the chopper auctioned off next month with the proceeds going to charity, according to the auction house.

President Obama took a selfie with British Prime Minister David Cameron and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt while seated in the audience at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service in South Africa on Tuesday.

After the death of Nelson Mandela, President Obama ordered that U.S. flags on government buildings be flown at half-staff until Monday evening — a symbolic gesture of a nation in mourning.It's a tradition observed by countries around the world, one that began as early as the 17th century. Mental Floss reports: "The oldest commonly accepted reference to a half-staff flag dates back to 1612, when the captain of the British ship Heart's Ease died on a journey to Canada. When the ship returned to London, it was flying its flag at half-mast to honor the departed captain." Some scholars say...

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Gov. Scott Walker won't say whether he, his attorneys or any staff members have been contacted in a growing, secret criminal investigation into a variety of state issues. Pressed three times on the matter, Walker said Monday that he wouldn't be distracted by questions on the John Doe investigation, which he called a "sidebar issue.""In terms of a lot of the questions regarding that issue, I really don't have a lot to say," Walker said during a visit to Beechwood Sales and Service in New Berlin. "I'm going to stay focused, as I am today, on helping the people of...

WASHINGTON — In the view of America’s spy services, the next potential national security threat from Russia may not come from a nefarious cyberweapon or intelligence gleaned from the files of Edward J. Snowden, the former security contractor now in Moscow. Instead, this menace may come in the form of a seemingly innocuous dome-topped antenna perched atop an electronics-packed building surrounded by a security fence somewhere in the United States. In recent months, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon have been quietly waging a campaign to stop the State Department from allowing Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, to build...

A man in camouflage who alarmed Madison neighbors when he walked down a street with an uncased shotgun Saturday morning turned out to be a hunter thwarted by city parking. The Madison Police Department said in a statement that the man, a University of Wisconsin student, had been hunting outside the city and was unable to find parking close to his residence. He decided to walk home from his parked vehicle with an uncased shotgun, police said.