Free Republic

John David Ashton, the actor who starred opposite Eddie Murphy in “Beverly Hills Cop,” has died at the age of 76, reported TMZ on Sunday. A rep for Ashton told the outlet that he passed on Thursday in Ft. Collins, Colorado after fighting cancer. The Springfield, Massachusettes native appeared in over 200 screen and stage productions during his 50-year career, including three out of four installments of “Beverly Hills Cop” beginning in 1984.

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) pushed back on Monday against a contention by a Democratic FCC commissioner that the government should create new regulations to promote diversity in news programming. Barton was reacting to a proposal made last week by FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, who in a speech suggested that broadcasters be subject to a new "public values test" every four years. "I hope … that you do not mean to suggest that it is the job of the federal government, through the [FCC], to determine the content that is available for Americans to consume,” Barton wrote Monday in a letter...