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Seventeen of President Trump’s federal court nominees cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, setting them up for floor votes as Republicans look to install as many conservative judges as possible. Eight of the judges were deemed very controversial and were approved on a 11-10 party-line votes, while just two were approved unanimously. Three of the judges were for circuit courts. Democrats raised concerns over several of the nominees over their LGBTQ positions, saying they would not be fair to that community. But Democrats spent the most time protesting Thomas Alvin Farr, who was nominated to be a district judge for...

The snowstorm that crippled the Gulf Coast is gone, but cold weather remains in place across most of the eastern U.S., stretching all the way to Florida. The storm on Wednesday left a foot of snow in parts of North Carolina, and daily records in Raleigh (5.9 inches) and Atlanta (2.3 inches). On Thursday morning, the cold has moved all the way to southern Florida. A wind chill advisory has been issued all the way to Naples and West Palm Beach, Florida, where wind chills are near freezing this morning. It was so cold in the Gulf of Mexico you...

Earth last year wasn't quite as hot as 2016's record-shattering mark, but it ranked second or third, depending on who was counting. Either way, scientists say it showed a clear signal of man-made global warming because it was the hottest year they've seen without an El Nino boosting temperatures naturally. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the United Kingdom's meteorological office on Thursday announced that 2017 was the third hottest year on record. At the same time, NASA and researchers from a nonprofit in Berkeley, California, called it the second. The agencies slightly differ because of how much they...

A year after President Donald Trump was sworn into office, he continues to receive historically low and highly partisan approval ratings, despite widely positive views of the economy. He gets at least some credit for the economy, but most Americans don't feel they've personally benefitted from his policies – only 22 percent think they've been directly helped. Americans overall are feeling upbeat about the economy and the President gets some credit for that. Sixty-seven percent say the economy is very or fair good – a figure that has been at the 60 percent level or higher since Mr. Trump became...

...towards 51st state. A group called (“New California”) has taken its first step towards carving the Golden State in two – issuing a “declaration of independence” which would incorporate most of the state’s rural counties – while coastal counties from the northern San Francisco Bay Area to the southern tip of Los Angeles would remain part of the existing state.[snip]One of New California’s pamphlets reads: “The current state of California has become governed by a tyranny, which rivals those stated above. It is time to take action. The Duty of the People who are suffering the long train of abuses...

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David KopelIndependence Institute January 17, 2018 David B. Kopel The House of Representatives recently passed the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017 with bipartisan support. The act would allow people eligible to carry a concealed firearm in their home state to carry in other states, as well.Opponents contend the act violates federalism. Actually, the act is well within congressional powers under the 14th Amendment. That amendment was enacted specifically to give Congress the power to act against state infringements of national civil rights.Section one of the 14th Amendment forbids states to violate civil rights. Section five of the amendment...

2017 was the hottest year since global records began that was not given an additional boost by the natural climate cycle El Niño, according to new data. Even without an El Niño, the year was still exceptionally hot, being one of the top three ever recorded. The three main global temperature records show the global surface temperature in 2017 was 1C above levels seen in pre-industrial times, with scientists certain that humanity’s fossil fuel-burning is to blame. The data, published on Thursday, means the last three years have been the hottest trio ever seen, with 2017 ranking second or third...

Lindsey Graham, the Arlen Specter of the South, has been trying to ingratiate himself with President Trump, his former adversary. By doing so, Graham hopes to achieve his longtime dream of granting amnesty to illegal aliens. One happy byproduct of the unfortunate “S***thole” controversy is that, in all likelihood, Graham’s friendship with the president is at an end. It’s over not because of that controversy, but because of what led to it. Simply stated, Graham tried to bamboozle Trump. The deal Graham helped write and then took to Trump lurched to the left in every significant particular. For example, it...

You would think that the Justice Department has better things to do than to restart a federal war on marijuana or that it would want to stay away from interfering with the will of the people in the 29 states, plus the District of Columbia, that allow at least the medical use of marijuana. But you would be wrong. Thanks to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, we have now an emerging conflict between federal and state laws. That conflict should be resolved in favor of the states. When he was a senator, Sessions once said during a Senate hearing, "Good people...

The pro-open borders Hispanic Caucus has “implored” President Trump’s administration to stop mentioning the process known as “chain migration,” whereby newly naturalized citizens are allowed under the current legal immigration system to bring an unlimited number of foreign relatives to the U.S. A report by POLITICO revealed that members of the House Hispanic Caucus — which regularly advocates for more immigration to the U.S. despite its negative impact on America’s working and middle class — asked Trump’s Chief of Staff John Kelly to stop talking about chain migration, which has imported more than 9.3 million foreign nationals to the country...

Sen. Lindsey Graham says he scolded the president for saying something scatological about certain countries and their immigrants. “Diversity has always been our strength,” he allegedly said. By my count, this makes Graham the bazillionth person to proclaim some variant of “diversity is strength.” Is it true? I think the only close to right answer is, “it depends.” Specifically, it depends on what — often clichéd — analogy you have in mind. Diverse stock portfolios are more resilient. Diverse diets are healthier. But that doesn’t mean picking bad stocks will make you richer or that eating spoiled foods is good...

SPRING, Texas (KTRK) -- Walking with a limp from an injury suffered in a prison fight, Khari Ty Kendrick had one thing to say. "I'm sorry this happened," Kendrick said as he was led to a patrol vehicle. Sources told Eyewitness News the 23-year-old is the one, when interviewed, who confessed to killing Jenny and Bao Lam, both 61, last week. Erick Alfredo Peralta, a 20-year-old who was arrested along with Kendrick, answered ABC13 with a question. "Do I look like a killer?" Peralta asked. Aakiel Ricardo Kendrick, 21 and Khari's younger half-brother, was the most-recognized after security video was...

Judicial and LGBT advocates are slamming Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) for scheduling a vote on a horde of judicial nominees ahead of a possible government shutdown. The Senate Judiciary Committee is slated to vote Thursday on 17 judicial nominees, who were re-nominated by President Trump at the beginning of the month. Under Senate rules, nominees have to be approved by the full Senate in order to carry over into a new session of Congress. But advocates are accusing Grassley of trying to avoid public scrutiny by slipping controversial candidates opposed by Democrats into an already stacked agenda....

40 Percent of All US Childbirths Occur to Single Mothers, 700 Percent Higher than in 1960 A recent report from the Social Capital Project reveals that the American family is disintegrating, fast. Fully 40 percent of mothers are currently unmarried. This is bad news, because good families depend on good marriages. Marriage is the moral glue that binds them. It’s the stabilizing agent. There’s a reason that children from married couples do better in school, and are less likely to end up in jail as compared to children of unmarried mothers, known as “fragile families.” Lavar Young, civil rights activist,...

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WASHINGTON (WTNH) — Social media executives testified on Capitol Hill on Wednesday about the steps the industry is taking to fight extremist propaganda online. Witnesses included representatives from Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Lawmakers presses the executives on measure they are taking to ban extremist content. Executives at the hearing discussed a range of topics, including getting rid of instructional videos on the internet that explain how to launch a terrorist attack.

Gaza - The U.N. Relief and Works Agency, the main body providing aid to millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants across the Middle East, made an urgent appeal for international support Wednesday, one day after the State Department announced it will withhold more than half its annual funding. “After decades of generous support, dramatic reduction of US funding to UNRWA results in most critical financial situation in history of Agency,” the agency’s commissioner general, Pierre Krähenbühl, wrote on Twitter. “I call on member states of the United Nations to take a stand & demonstrate to Palestine Refugees that their...

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday aligned himself solidly with conservative Republicans on immigration, criticizing a proposed bipartisan deal as “horrible” on border security and “very, very weak” on reforms for the legal immigration system. The Senate proposal -- aimed at addressing Democrats’ demands for protections for young adults dubbed “Dreamers” brought to the United States illegally as children -- fell far short of what most Republicans believe needs to happen, Trump told Reuters in an interview. “It’s the opposite of what I campaigned for,” Trump said.

Climate scientists on Wednesday suggested that they may be able to rule out some of the most dire scenarios of what would happen if greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere were to double. Unfortunately, the same scientists say the best-case scenarios are also probably unrealistic. How a doubling of atmospheric greenhouse gases would affect the climate is of tremendous importance, as humans are running out of time to avoid that outcome. With current atmospheric concentrations at 405 parts per million, as opposed to about 280 parts per million before the dawn of the industrial era, the planet is already about...