Free Republic

The man who launched the Christmas morning bomb in Nashville died in the explosion, federal authorities said Sunday late afternoon. A DNA test identified the bomber as Anthony Quinn Warner, according the Associated Press. No one else was involved in the incident, the outlet reported.

A document from the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) indicates that Donald Trump took steps last week to outmaneuver nonprofit organizations, leaving them unable to officially campaign against him over the next few years of his Presidency. Filed on January 20th, 2017, the letter states that, while not an official announcement for reelection, Donald Trump has filed an FEC Form 2 in order to “ensure compliance with the Federal Election Campaign Act.” This is an unprecedented, although legal, move for the President to make. Barack Obama did not file for his 2012 re-election bid until April 2011. Having filed (even if...

An Australian government official made the mistake that is every office workers’ nightmare: an autofill mistake causing an email to go to the wrong person. Except in this person’s case, the mistaken email exposed the personal details of 31 world leaders, including President Barack Obama. “The cause of the breach was human error,” said an email sent to the Australian privacy commissioner and obtained by The Guardian under freedom of information laws... excerptedThe exposed data included not only names and dates of birth, but passport numbers and visa details as well. On Monday, White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz...

Employees at the U.S. Department of Education have repeatedly treated the U.S. government’s trove of student information as a personal playground and piggy bank, according to a Freedom of Information Act release obtained by the Daily Mail.(excerpted)The Daily Mail’s inquiry found other cases of bizarre wrongdoing by the department’s 5,000 employees, including one worker who was caught searching for the student loan records of “Barrack Obama” (sic), apparently unaware that the president has already made most of his student loan details public. (excerpted)

Questions about 401Ks.

CGI's contract was terminated. Sebelius still has a job, but CGI's gone.

Former TVA Vice President 58-year-old Masoud Bajestani plead guilty to conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and Iranian Transactions Regulations, and two counts of filing false income tax returns. Bajestani sentencing is set for January 15, in U.S. District Court in Knoxville. Bajestani faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for conspiracy to violate the IEEPA, and three years for each count of filing a false tax return. He also faces a maximum fine of $250,000 on each count. In February 2013, a federal grand jury charged Bajestani, with conspiracy, violations of the IEEPA...

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) – A pair of gunrunners smuggled firearms into New York City by hiding them in luggage they carried on discount buses offering cheap fares and lesser odds of getting caught, authorities said Monday. The men were captured in a police sting that netted 254 weapons in 45 transactions since last year – the largest total from a gun case in recent memory. The alleged smugglers, Walter Walker and Earl Campbell, were among 19 people arrested in New York, North Carolina and South Carolina as the result of a 10-month investigation.

Here’s a long list of companies to boycott. http://images.nictusa.com/pdf/641/13020171641/13020171641.pdf

KNOXVILLE — The FBI has Pilot Flying headquarters on lockdown Monday afternoon.

NASHVILLE – Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam announced Monday the state will not operate a state-based healthcare exchange under the federal Affordable Care Act. Haslam made the following statement on the issue: “Tennessee faces a decision this week about health insurance exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act. “I'm not a fan of the law. The more I know, the more harmful I think it will be for small businesses and costly for state governments and the federal government. It does nothing to address the cost of health care in our country. It only expands a broken system. That’s why I’ve...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- The Tennessee Court of Appeals has upheld the state's new law requiring voters to show photo identification at polling places and ruled that election officials must accept an ID issued by the Memphis library. (excerpted)

Clarksburg, MD—Two different research groups have independently made the same important discoveries on how Alzheimer’s disease spreads in the brain, according to a February 2 New York Times story. The groups’ findings have the potential to give us a much more sophisticated understanding of what goes wrong in Alzheimer’s disease and, more importantly, what can be done to prevent or repair damage in the brain. The Times reported on the research teams of Bradley T. Hyman, MD, Ph.D., at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and Karen E. Duff, Ph.D., of Columbia University Medical Center in New York. Each research group...

(Editorial) Journalism: As the president launches his re-election bid by striking a more centrist tone, the partisan press is helping him whitewash his radical past. • Obama first learned Alinsky's rules in the 1980s, when Alinskyite radicals with the Chicago-based Alinsky group Gamaliel Foundation recruited, hired, trained and paid him as a community organizer in South Side Chicago. • In 1988, Obama even wrote a chapter for the book "After Alinsky: Community Organizing in Illinois," in which he lamented organizers' "lack of power" in implementing change. • Gamaliel board member John McKnight, a hard-core student of Alinsky, penned a letter...

The Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) left the BlueGreen Alliance on Friday, citing a disagreement with the group’s members over the Keystone XL pipeline. LIUNA, a vocal Keystone supporter, took aim at other unions for opposing the project. “We’re repulsed by some of our supposed brothers and sisters lining up with job killers like the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council to destroy the lives of working men and women,” LIUNA General President Terry O’Sullivan said in a statement. The BlueGreen Alliance, a coalition of environmental groups and labor unions, confirmed LIUNA’s exit Friday afternoon. “The...

Recall on some pet food. Iams, River Run, and Marksman so far. http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/default.htm

"HOW IT WORKS...According to ABC News (2011), "economists say that if every one of us spent an extra $3.33 on U.S.-made goods every year, it would create nearly 10,000 new jobs in this country." This statement can only be realized if there is a concentrated effort to increase Made In USA purchases, which is the primary driver beind the vision of ChooseMadeInUSA.com. CHOOSEMADEINUSA.COM is an open ecommerce marketplace allowing sellers to offer their products to buyers that are searching for Made in USA products. Click here for more information. Sellers agree to terms of sale then will upload products with...

Too many people in Tennessee are asking for antibiotics and too many doctors are prescribing them — a practice that renders once-powerful drugs ineffective against infections, according to a recently released study......“Unless we do something really radical and different, we’re going to lose these drugs,” said Dr. Ramanan Laxminarayan, an epidemiologist and economist in Washington, D.C., who was a co-author of the study. “It’s not like we’re going to. We already have in many instances and things are just getting worse...” (Excerpted) http://www.tennessean.com/article/20111118/NEWS07/311180046/Tenn-ranks-3rd-antibiotic-use

John J. Cannell, M.D writes that he receives numerous questions from individuals who ask, "My doctor prescribed Drisdol, is that OK?" Drisdol is vitamin D2 in a form that doctors write prescriptions for. Sun exposure does not produce vitamin D2 in the body, the vitamin is produced by plant matter and irradiating fungus. When consumed, numerous metabolic forms of D2 can be traced in the body. According to some studies, vitamin D3, which is produced by the skin, is more powerful, hence more effective at raising blood levels compared with vitamin D2, however, some studies say they are equal. Few...

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The city of Knoxville is being sued by a red light camera vendor in a case that could change the new state law limiting citations for improper right turns on red. American Traffic Solutions Inc. filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Knox County Chancery Court. The Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company provided the equipment for the city's red-light cameras in Knoxville......Knoxville has seen citations from its 14 cameras drop 90 percent since the new law took effect, going from more than 30,000 violations in August, September and October of 2010 to just over 3,200 for the same period this...