Free Republic

"After laying out the “clear and convincing” burden of proof Lake needed to carry, the court summarized and evaluated the witnesses and evidence Lake presented. The court looked to Arizona case law going back to 1898, before we became a state in 1912, for the proposition “it is . . . unwise to lay down any rule by which the certainty and accuracy of an election may be jeopardized by the reliance upon any proof affecting such results that is not of the most clear and conclusive character.” (See opinion for the citations.)" and: "What difference does it make? Lots...

After a seventeen-year production hiatus, PBS has rebooted its enduring favorite, Clifford the Big Red Dog, but with one jarring change: The series now features a child with two lesbian “moms.” In the episode where the lesbian characters are introduced, “The Big Red Tomato/Dogbot,” the women are not identified as overtly lesbian, but in subsequent installments, the two are both called “Mom” by Samantha, the new friend of Emily Elizabeth, who remains the central character in the show along with her loveable gigantic red dog, Clifford. One Million Moms (1MM) director, Monica Cole, sent out a call to action to...

MARTINSBURG — Thunderstorms are in the forecast for the next few days, but on Friday night a different type of phenomenon hit the Mountain State: Stormy Daniels. The adult film star and stripper, who is suing President Donald Trump over a nondisclosure agreement regarding a sexual encounter with the president in 2006, took the stage at Lust Gentlemen’s Club in Martinsburg Friday. The show was one of two at the club, the other slated for Saturday night, as part of Daniels’ nationwide tour. General Manager Robert Austin said the star’s appearance was a notable event for the club and for...

Porn actress Stormy Daniels was arrested at an Ohio strip club and is accused of letting patrons touch her in violation of a state law, her attorney said early Thursday.

The FBI raided the offices of President Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen on Monday. The raid came after federal prosecutors in New York City obtained a search warrant following a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller, Cohen's lawyer told the New York Times. Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, and related issues. NBC News confirmed news of the raid. The Times reported that FBI agents seized records relating to several issues, including a $130,000 payment Cohen has said he made to porn star Stormy Daniels. Daniels has said that money was given to her in exchange...

To understand what feeds former president Jimmy Carter's anti-Israeli frenzy, look at his early links to Arab business. Between 1976-1977, the Carter family peanut business received a bailout in the form of a $4.6 million, "poorly managed" and highly irregular loan from the National Bank of Georgia (NBG). According to a July 29, 1980 Jack Anderson expose in The Washington Post, the bank's biggest borrower was Mr. Carter, and its chairman at that time was Mr. Carter's confidant, and later his director of the Office of Management and Budget, Bert Lance.

Norman Bridwell, the creator of Clifford the Big Red Dog, a figure who looms as large in toddler lit as the great white whale does in the American canon, died on Friday in Oak Bluffs, Mass., on Martha’s Vineyard. He was 86. Kyle Good, a spokeswoman for Scholastic Books, which over the past half-century has published dozens of Clifford titles by Mr. Bridwell, confirmed his death without specifying a cause. Mr. Bridwell’s wife of 56 years, Norma, told The Associated Press that he had prostate cancer and that he had been in the hospital for three weeks after a fall...

A former Chicago-area executive is blowing the whistle in the latest case to showcase what is derisively known as the "Illinois way" -- politicians' practice of doing business by dishing out favors to friends who contribute generously to their campaigns. This time, a top-ranking Democrat has been implicated. The case involves Illinois' most powerful Democratic leader -- state House Speaker Michael Madigan -- and the former head of the Chicago area's commuter rail service, Metra. In a rare move earlier this week, Metra's ex-CEO Alex Clifford came forward publicly to reveal specific details about how he says he was forced...

All John Clifford wanted was a peaceful ride to work on the 7:39 to Pennsylvania Station. He would get to the Long Island Rail Road station at Long Beach early every weekday morning, board the train, stake out a five-seat section to rest his bad back, and prepare to read his newspaper and eat his breakfast. But all around him, there would be chaos. One woman putting on full makeup while listening to her iPod and talking to friends. Another inviting guests to a barbecue and talking about personal problems. Men chatting on cellphones. They were treating the ride as...

THE career of President Vladimir Putin of Russia was built at least in part on a lie, according to US researchers. A new study of an economics thesis written by Putin in the mid-1990s has revealed that large chunks of it were copied from an American text. Putin was labelled a plagiarist yesterday after a pair of researchers at the Brookings Institution, a Washington DC think tank, established that the Russian president’s academic credentials were based on a dissertation he had lifted in part verbatim from the Russian translation of a management study written by two professors at the University...

Look out kids. SpongeBob SquarePants, Barney and Clifford the Big Red Dog are joining forces to rerecord the disco tune We Are Family to promote diversity and tolerance in classrooms. A video starring the three children's characters plus nearly 100 others, including Dora the Explorer and Arthur, will be distributed to 61,000 public and private elementary schools nationwide, along with lesson plans for teachers. It will air simultaneously on Nickelodeon, the Public Broadcasting Service and the Disney Channel in March. ... The We Are Family Foundation was founded by singer-songwriter Nile Rodgers, who wrote the song recorded in 1979 by...

Well, how convenient it is to be a congressman. No wonder incumbents hate to leave. Sen. John Kerry proved the point last week with the release of his subcommittee's report on the BCCI scandal. The Bank of England fell down on the job, as did American bank regulators, according to the Massachusetts Democrat. The CIA is gravely at fault as well for maintaining covert accounts with the so-called Bank of Crooks and Criminals International. The Justice Department, instead of pursuing wrongdoing by the global bank, got in the way of other investigators. Price Waterhouse, the major accounting firm, was slipshod...