Free Republic

Iran said Tuesday that dozens of people had been arrested over the Islamic Republic's apparently unintentional shooting down of a Ukrainian jetliner last week. The arrests come amid Iranian vows to fully and openly investigate the firing of the surface-to-air missile that downed the plane, killing all 176 people on board. But while Iran confessed to shooting the jet down — three days after the fact and under intense international pressure — its president asserted Tuesday that the "root causes" of the tragedy were U.S. actions. "It was the U.S. that caused such an incident to take place," Iran's state-controlled...

BS was the Deep State’s choice to run with the Monday narrative-setting piece. – The Democrat/Media/Deep State pressure campaign on several GOP senator related to the upcoming Senate trial of President Donald Trump continued to mount on Monday. CBS News became the chosen vessel to run with yet another story based on an anonymous “source” designed to pressure not only the Usual Suspects among the Republican caucus, but also to add to their numbers. From the CBS fake report: Washington — The White House is preparing for some Republican senators to join Democrats in voting to call witnesses in President...

Having tried a couple different ideas to fix its “Monday Night Football” broadcasting team, ESPN seems ready to throw money at the problem. A lot of money. Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports reported that ESPN was preparing an offer to make CBS’ Tony Romo the highest-paid sports broadcaster in history. McCarthy said the offer would be between $10 million and $14 million annually to attempt to lure him from CBS. That report broke the same day Romo was calling the Houston Texans-Kansas City Chiefs playoff game for CBS. Andrew Marchand of the New York Post also reported Sunday that...

Lou Ferrigno, the actor in the CBS television series “The Incredible Hulk,” is slated to become a sheriff’s deputy in New Mexico. Socorro County Sheriff William Armijo is scheduled to deputize Ferrigno next week at a special ceremony. Officials say Ferrigno will bring decades of law enforcement experience to the department and be instrumental in recruiting for the department and the county.

When an honest politician makes a mistake, he owns up to it. But after Joe Biden made a massive mistake by supporting the failed 2003 Iraq War that cost thousands of American lives and only further destabilized the Middle East, the 2020 candidate and his surrogates have instead chosen to completely deny that it ever happened. This continued on Sunday during Face the Nation on CBS. Former Secretary of State John Kerry, who has endorsed Biden for 2020, was asked by host Margaret Brennan about 2020 rival Bernie Sanders’ criticism of Biden’s support for the Iraq war. The Sanders campaign...

“I think that some of it will end up in the hands of the IRGC or other entities, some of which are labeled terrorists,” Kerry told CNBC in 2016. When asked by Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation” why he believed this was a worthwhile risk when releasing the money, Kerry attacked the president rather than answer the question. “You know that the president's tweet is a lie,” Kerry told host Margaret Brennan. “And the president tweeted this morning, because I am coming on the show and he knew you'd ask me the question or he'd push you in a...

CBS has closed deals for Clarice, a crime drama series project based on the famous Thomas Harris character Clarice Sterling, which is set after the events in The Silence Of the Lambs. The project, written and executive produced by Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet, has received a big series commitment. The intention for the project, which has a pilot script written, is to go to series. It will film a pilot before a series order decision is made but a writers room has already been set up, and there is a lot of enthusiasm for the title, the premise and...

* Fewer suicides occur when minimum wages are higher during periods of elevated unemployment, according to a new study. * Every $1 increase in the minimum wage is associated with a 6% reduction in suicide for high school grads. * Boosting the minimum wage by $1 could have saved 27,550 lives from 1990 to 2015, the study says. Raising the federal minimum wage, which hasn't increased in more than a decade, might accomplish far more than simply offering U.S. workers a boost in pay. New research suggests that lifting the baseline wage could also stop thousands of Americans from killing...

Editor’s note. Hard as it is to believe, we are just two weeks away from commemorating the 47rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade. For the past two weeks, we’ve been reposting some of our prior stories written about Roe and its companion case, Doe v. Bolton. The following first appeared in December 2013. When we flip the calendar over to December, even more than usual, we come to think about the anniversary of an earth-shattering event that will be only seven weeks away: January 22, 1973. Last year attention focused a great deal around the obvious—that it had been 40...

A federal judge has temporarily blocked a new California labor law from impacting more than 70,000 independent truckers. The law, passed late last year, makes it harder for companies to classify workers as independent contractors instead of employees, who are entitled to minimum wage and benefits such as workers compensation. U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez of San Diego on Tuesday granted a temporary restraining order sought by the California Trucking Association while he considers imposing a permanent injunction. He said the association is likely to eventually prevail on its argument that the state law violates federal law. He also ruled...

CBS News on Monday apologized for confusing one congressman for another during their evening broadcast. The network showed a photo of late Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, who died in October at 68, when referring to Georgia Democrat John Lewis. The image of the longtime lawmaker was placed next to a quote from the civil rights icon about his recently revealed battle with stage four pancreatic cancer. “While I am clear-eyed about the prognosis… I have a fighting chance,” the quote from Lewis said. The network’s embarrassing error drew scorn on social media. “Can’t believe CBS News is showing a picture...

A producer at CBS News alleged in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that she was “ostracized, isolated and penalized” after reporting inappropriate behavior by a veteran "60 Minutes" producer. Associate Producer Cassandra Vinograd, who previously worked for The Associated Press and NBC News, joined "60 Minutes" in its London bureau in June. Soon thereafter, senior producer Michael Gavshon engaged in inappropriate behavior that included sharing a photo in a text message of him and several friends urinating on a fire, according to the lawsuit filed in New York Supreme Court. The photo was included as evidence in the lawsuit. Vinograd, 35,...

Despite the clouds of unknowing emanating from the liberal press, Americans are catching on. Rasmussen asked the question: How likely is it that senior federal law enforcement officials broke the law in an effort to prevent Donald Trump from winning the presidency – very likely, somewhat likely, not very likely or not at all likely? 52% of likely voters responded that it is likely that senior federal law enforcement officials–the FBI’s leadership–broke the law in an effort to defeat Trump (36% “very likely”), vs. only 39% who think such FBI lawbreaking unlikely. Amazingly, more people seem to be listening to...

A legal scholar who received threats after testifying for the GOP at last Wednesday’s House impeachment hearing said that trolls are now going after his wife — and even his dog. Jonathan Turley, who argued against the speed at which Democrats have gone through the impeachment process, was acting as a CBS News contributor on TV Monday when host Norah O’Donnell said, “I know you received a lot of threats after what you did last week.” “And my wife and dog,” Turley added. “You did talk about them during your testimony, to be fair though. You did bring up your...

Washington - An Infowars host interrupted the opening minutes of the House Judiciary Committee's impeachment hearing on Monday, accusing Chairman Jerry Nadler and other Democrats of committing "treason" while declaring President Trump innocent. The protester, Owen Shroyer, began shouting just seconds after Nadler gaveled in the hearing and posted live video of the interruption to his Twitter feed. "Jerry Nadler and the Democrat party are committing treason against this country, and you can kick me out, but he's the one committing crimes. You are, Jerry Nadler," Shroyer shouted. "You're the one committing treason. America is done with this."

Kudos to Margaret Brennan of CBS for asking Adam Schiff on Sunday about his release of phone logs of his political opponents. Mr. Schiff dismissed any criticism, and his reason is revealing about the balance of power in Washington. “The blowback has only come from the far right,” Mr. Schiff said. “But look, every investigator seeks phone records to corroborate, sometimes to contradict, a witness’s testimony.” Yes, but executive-branch investigators who want to get data from private telecom companies typically must obtain some kind of judicial order. Mr. Schiff did it himself. Prosecutors are also supposed to limit the release...

As the impeachment inquiry heats up in Washington, with the House Judiciary Committee set to hold its first public hearing Wednesday, President Trump has found himself in tense moments with fellow world leaders at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in London. The leaders, who are celebrating the 70th anniversary of the transatlantic alliance, are meeting Wednesday at a golf resort outside of London to discuss threats including terrorism, arms control and China. But tension among the leaders of NATO member countries over the alliance's role also appears to pose a threat to the partnership.

Although the U.S. is on a record streak for job-creation, many Americans still feel like they can't get ahead — it's not their imagination. The last three decades have seen the economy churn out more and more jobs that offer inadequate pay, a group of researchers found. "The history of private-sector employment in the U.S. over the past three decades is one of overall degradation in the ability of many American jobs to support households — even those with multiple jobholders," they wrote. The group wants to popularize a new economic metric, called the Job Quality Index, that goes beyond...

Catherine Herridge .. notes that long after filing whistleblower complaint that failed to disclose prior contacts with the staff of Adam Schiff – probably a matter of lying in a sworn statement, and therefore criminal conduct – the still unnamed (in the MSM but widely believed to be Eric Ciaramella) ... the anonymous whistleblower reached out to the intelligence community watchdog on October 8 to clarify the nature of his or her contact with Democratic majority staff of the House Intelligence Committee before the complaint was filed. The whistleblower acknowledged reaching out to the committee, but claimed that nothing substantial...

CBS All Access’s The Good Fight will explore Donald Trump’s impeachment in an upcoming episode. Rather than having the traditional CBS executive Q&A, at which Reporters Who Cover Television take turns excoriating the network for lack of diversity, the network held one of the most interesting panels of this TCA to date, in which various showrunners took questions about politics and social issues on television. The Good Fight stole the show when EP Robert King told TV critics at TCA on Saturday about an upcoming episode in which the DNC seeks guidance from series’ law firm about the legal case...