Free Republic

Former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has joined global communications firm Edelman as vice chair of its international public affairs team, the company announced Wednesday. Edelman CEO Richard Edelman in an announcement pointed to Haley’s experience as a former United Nations ambassador and two terms as governor of South Carolina. “Politics has become a critical consideration for clients in brand marketing, employee engagement and reputation management,” he said. “In her time as Governor, Haley had great success in attracting foreign companies to South Carolina and as Ambassador to the UN, helped lead important work on global issues.” Haley said she...

The youngest witness to George Floyd's death in 2020 published a children's book detailing her perspective and the weeks to follow. Judea Reynolds, 11, released her book "A Walk to the Store" on Friday, the day Floyd would have celebrated his 49th birthday. Floyd was killed on Memorial Day 2020, when former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin held his knee to Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes. Reynolds was nine years old when she witnessed Floyd's death after walking to a store to buy snacks with her then 17-year-old cousin, Darnella Frazier, who had recorded Chauvin and Floyd.

Guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor first told fans about a new Queen track this summer — now it’s here. Driving the new: For the first time in eight years, rock group Queen released new music with late frontman Freddy Mercury’s vocals, CNN reported. The track, “Face It Alone,” was originally recorded during the late 1980s but didn’t make the cut for their album, “The Miracle.” “We’d kind of forgotten about this track,” Taylor said in a statement. “But there it was, this little gem. It’s wonderful, a real discovery. It’s a very passionate piece.”The track was discovered as...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will be the keynote speaker at a top defense industry conference in Austin, Texas, later this month. Zelensky’s keynote address at the National Defense Industrial Association’s (NDIA) annual Future Force Capabilities Conference and Exhibition will occur over video on September 21. Zelensky is expected to make his pitch to U.S. defense companies for more weapons to aid in his country’s war with Russia, Reuters reported. Zelensky will be joined by Ukraine’s minister of defense, Oleksii Reznikov, who will also address the defense industry leaders. NDIA’s board of directors includes individuals who work for defense industry titans...

Lockheed Martin, the nation's top defense contractor, forced 13 executives including a three-star general to complete a three-day Zoom course so they would 'unlearn their male privilege'. The course was led by Portland-based firm White Men as Full Diversity Partners. It was carried out last June, at the height of the BLM movement, and involved 13 Lockheed employees dialing in for 16 hours. Details of the three-day course last June were obtained by City Journal. The 13 employees were Director of Aeronautics Mark Ward, Air Force lieutenant colonel David Starr, Senior Design Engineer Jeff Schweiss, Risk Management and Sustainability Executive...

Veteran actor Kevin Spacey has been accused of sexual harassment and assault by several coworkers working for his hit Netflix series "House Of Cards" as the actor faces allegations that he made sexual advances towards actor Anthony Rapp when the latter was just 14 years old. CNN reported Thursday that eight people working for or who previously worked for Spacey's Netflix show described a "toxic" work environment created by the actor, who one of the sources said sexually assaulted him during an early season of the show. All eight sources remained anonymous for fear of retribution. That source, a former...

Seven mothers united in grief over losing their children to gun violence or excessive use of force by police will put their message in the spotlight tonight when they deliver a speech at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. The group known as the Mothers of the Movement includes Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, who was shot while walking in his neighborhood in 2012, and Lezley McSpadden, the mother of Michael Brown, whose death in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014 at the hands of a police officer set off nationwide protests. Mothers of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner Offer Emotional...

WASHINGTON — A new study details how President Barack Obama has been inviting his Obama Foundation donors to events at the White House, a venue that obviously won’t be available to him to entertain mega contributors in a few months. The Obama Foundation, created on Jan. 31, 2014, has to date only 39 contributors, with the money coming either from individuals or foundations controlled by Obama supporters. The nonprofit, nonpartisan Maplight Foundation found that 15 of the 39 have been to the White House for small meetings

Long before Jim Messina became a trusted aide to President Barack Obama and one of the most powerful men in Washington, he was just a simple boy from Boise. Now, after working in politics for just over a decade, he lives in a lavish D.C. estate. How this happened is a classic Washington Cinderella story. Raised in Idaho by a single mother, Messina moved to Washington in 1995, in his mid-20s, to take a job as a legislative aide for Max Baucus, the conservative Democratic senator from Montana (now ambassador to China). Baucus supported George W. Bush-era personal and corporate...

A mother who endured cyberbullying after her daughter's death writes about the insidious trend. Lesli Catsouras, the mother of Nikki Catsouras, has just completed a memoir "Forever Exposed," about her family's journey coping with Internet trolls and cyber-bullies in addition to the toll-road-crash death of her 18-year-old daughter.

Sarah Palin is no fan of the “lamestream media” — except when she’s using it to serve her ends. Is she using Newsweek to get free personal training? And, if so, is that entirely legal? The former Alaska governor appears on the cover of the new issue of Newsweek wearing a gray sweatshirt with a logo on it reading “Edge Fitness.” That’s the name of a gym in Palin’s hometown of Wasilla. Edge Fitness was featured last November in an episode of her TLC show “Sarah Palin’s Alaska,” and it also received a plug on a Facebook page Palin apparently...

The bids by Sarah Palin and her daughter Bristol Palin to trademark their names and images have cleared a major hurdle and should soon be approved for the potential presidential candidate and her Dancing With the Stars child. Sources close to the process tell our Suzi Parker that nobody challenged Sarah Palin's trademark application. Today is the deadline to do so. They also say that Bristol Palin's went unchallenged. That deadline passed June 10. Each should receive their trademark within three months, said the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The clear sailing for both Palins is something of a...

West Hills College Lemoore officials say they invited Sarah Palin to speak to make money for the school, and it's working out as planned - even with the $115,000 fee they're paying for her upcoming speech on Sunday. "That's the bottom line," said Frances Squire, marketing director for West Hills Community College District. "We're raising funds ... and so we wanted somebody we knew would sell tickets." WHCL officials say they recouped the $115,000 just a few weeks after they announced that Palin was coming to kick off the grand opening of their new Golden Eagle Arena. At this point,...

<p>Some local Walgreen's stores are pulling a supposed likeness of President Barack Obama off their shelves.</p>

To the list of lofty names that glamorize the city’s fried chicken stands, like Crown, Royal and Kennedy, one Brooklyn restaurant owner decided to add another: Obama. From the restaurant’s perspective, the name change grew out of pride in the new president and a keen sense of commerce. From other perspectives, it was tone-deaf at best, and racist at worst. When the restaurant, Royal Fried Chicken on Rutland Road in Brownsville, changed its name last week to Obama Fried Chicken, the reaction was swift. “Community leaders came. They told us we have to change the name,” said Mohammad Jabbar,...

This week's exhaustively detailed indictment of Republican Sen. Ted Stevens for allegedly failing to disclose $250,000 in gifts from an oil magnate in his home state of Alaska is dismaying enough. But the stench is hardly limited to Stevens and San Diego's own convicted congressman – Randy “Duke” Cunningham, R-Rancho Santa Fe. There are abundant signs that corruption in Congress goes beyond just trading votes for contributions to actual bribery. Yet public outrage remains disturbingly muted. Unfortunately, this indifference is also the norm in California. Consider the case of Senate President Don Perata. The Oakland Democrat is the focus of...

Congressman Richard Baker (R) announced Tuesday that he will resign his seat "no later than February 6" to become the chief lobbyist in DC for the $1.8 trillion hedge fund industry. Baker's resignation will prompt yet another special election. Baker was first elected to Congress in 1986, and had been openly pondering retirement for months. A special election could be set for as soon as March 8 -- the same day of the special election to fill the US House seat left vacant by the election of Bobby Jindal (R) as Governor. State Representative Don Cazayoux (D) was already an...

Terri Schiavo's parents and siblings are writing a book about their struggle in the epic end-of-life case that divided the country and captured the attention of everyone from the Pope John Paul II to President Bush, their publisher said Tuesday. The yet untitled memoir by parents Bob and Mary Schindler, brother Bobby Schindler and sister Suzanne Vitadamo will be published in March to coincide with the first anniversary of the death of the brain-damaged woman, whose feeding tube was removed after her husband won a court order to do so. "This book is the moving story of an ordinary family...

How's this for 'In your Face' ? You're not going to believe this, but on the other hand - given the bizare circumstances of everything else related to Terri Schiavo's death, you probably guessed it already. George Felos is apparently seeking speaking engagements, for money of course, to further the cause of judicial homicide and social acceptance of active euthanasia. - from a reader's email George Felos has enlisted the help of a talent agency to help sell his death package. (...) He fought successfully in U.S. courts at every level—and overcame the Congress and both Governor Bush and President...

The estranged wife of President George Bush's brother, Neil, plans a tell-all book about life within the first family. In the midst of a divorce wrangle with her former husband of 22 years, Sharon Bush travelled to New York to lunch recently with America's queen of celebrity biography, Kitty Kelley. At a Manhattan restaurant, the pair brainstormed ideas and discussed Mrs Bush's debut as author. Kelley, who scored hits with unauthorised biographies of Nancy Reagan, Frank Sinatra and the British royal family, is already writing a book on the Bush clan scheduled for release next year. Mrs Bush is believed...