Free Republic

New York's top terrorism official says there's evidence that members of anarchist groups from outside the city intentionally planned to incite violence at protests calling for justice in the death of George Floyd. Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller said there is a high level of confidence within the NYPD that these unnamed groups had organized scouts, medics, and supply routes of rocks, bottles and accelerants for breakaway groups to commit vandalism and violence. There are strong indicators they planned for violence in advance using at times encrypted communications, he said. One out of every seven arrests, of...

Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King will face off against four other primary candidates Tuesday night, and the embattled congressman confirms the poll numbers between him and his closest challenger are tight. “Well, it's closer than we would like. But we've been on top in every legitimate number, and in absolutely every published poll, so that tells me that the voters are gonna make their decision,” he told the Washington Examiner on Thursday. “But one thing is that none of my opponents have criticized a single vote that I put up in 18 years in this Congress," said King, first elected...

Top Republicans and conservative outside groups are rallying around Rep. Steve King’s (R-Iowa) challenger ahead of the June 2 primary election, worried that the nine-term lawmaker’s record of inflammatory remarks will be a drag on the GOP everywhere. Party leaders such as Karl Rove and Rep. Steve Stivers (R-Ohio), the former chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), have donated to businessman Randy Feenstra, who has emerged as King’s top challenger for the Republican nomination in Iowa’s 4th Congressional District. National groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Realtors and the Defending Main Street super...

A top Democrat operative from the dark money group behind the botched Iowa caucus app has been caught funneling nearly $2.4 million from the Super PAC she runs to her private firm. The operative, Tara McGowan, has been caught moving money from her PAC to her private firm in the past, as well. The Washington Free Beacon reports: “New disclosure forms show that PACRONYM, a super PAC affiliated with McGowan’s nonprofit ACRONYM—the dark money group behind the botched Iowa caucus app—spent close to $2.4 million on anti-Trump ads Wednesday night that will run in the key swing state of Pennsylvania....

An effort by Iowa lawmakers to stop taxpayer dollars from funding the abortion giant Planned Parenthood was blocked in court this week. The AP reports Fifth Judicial District Judge Paul Scott ruled Wednesday against a state law that prohibits abortion providers from receiving grants for sex education. Scott said the law is unconstitutional because it violates Planned Parenthood’s right to equal protection. Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union challenged the pro-life law after Gov. Kim Reynolds, the first female governor of Iowa, signed it into law in 2019. Earlier, a judge blocked the state from enforcing the law...

The Iowa Department of Public Health is releasing new information on confirmed outbreaks of COVID-19 at five Iowa workplaces, including one where more than half of employees tested positive. On Tuesday, Dr. Caitlin Pedati, Medical Director of IDPH, approved the release of testing results of employees at four Iowa meat packing plants and TPI Composites in Newton. Each of the facilities have a confirmed outbreak, meaning 10% or more of the workforce in a single location is sick. At the Tyson plant in Perry, 730 employees tested positive for COVID-19. That is 58% of their workforce. Iowa Premium Beef in...

...In the survey of over 8,000 swing and “persuadable” voters in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Iowa provided to Secrets this morning, 63% said that they approve of Trump’s handling of the crisis. Just 21% disapproved. And they appear to support his gradual shift from focusing on fighting the virus to also reopening the economy, as well as a reliance more on businesses than Washington to lead the way. “Swing voters are concerned about the impact of the coronavirus and generally approve of Trump’s handling of the crisis. Moreover, they are more concerned with health risks than the economy —...

Sen. Mitt Romney is among a bipartisan group of lawmakers demanding that President Donald Trump explain why he fired the intelligence community inspector general. The eight senators, led by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, say the explanation Trump gave for removing Michael Atkinson was insufficient and does not comply with the law. The president cited a lack of confidence in the intelligence community’s top watchdog. “Congressional intent is clear that an expression of lost confidence, without further explanation, is not sufficient to fulfill the requirements of the statute,” the senators wrote in a letter Thursday. “This is in large part because...

A small Iowa town received a big surprise last week from an anonymous donor who shipped every household in town $150 worth of gift cards good at local small businesses. All 549 households in the town of 1,400 people received three $50 gift cards, according to the Des Moines Register, one each for West Side Bar and Grille, Hometown Market and Trostel’s Broken Branch. Collectively, the cards added up to $82,350, or $27,450 to each locally owned business. Mayor Jeff Lillie was in on the secret. On March 26, he was called by a man who said he was the...

DES MOINES, Iowa — A Johnson County judge ordered Wednesday that some abortions can continue during the COVID-19 outbreak after Gov. Kim Reynolds ordered the procedures to stop. A lawsuit against Reynolds was filed by the ACLU after the governor included abortions as elective and non-emergency procedure, requiring them to be halted during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a combined statement from Planned Parenthood North Central States, ACLU of Iowa and the Emma Goldman Clinic, a judge ordered an agreement between the parties that allows physicians to make case-by-case decisions on whether patients will receive abortions. The statement said Planned...

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds has banned abortions in the state in order to preserve medical resources to help fight the coronavirus. She said anesthesiology machines used during abortion procedures might instead be converted to function as ventilators so they can function as legitimate health equipment in a time of need. Reynolds, who is pro-life, signed a state public health emergency declaration Friday that stops all nonessential medical procures to conserve medical resources. On Sunday, she clarified that killing babies in abortions is considered non-essential. That “does include surgical abortion procedures,” Reynolds said during a Sunday press briefing “Making sure that...

Planned Parenthood, along with other pro-abortion organizations, sued government officials in four states on Monday after abortion in those states was deemed a “non-essential” procedure during the coronavirus pandemic. Last week, the abortion corporation also sued the state of Texas for its temporary suspension of elective abortions. Iowa, Ohio, Oklahoma, Alabama, and Texas each issued orders that either call for — or appear to call for — abortion to be included in non-essential medical procedures that must be postponed during the COVID-19 crisis. As emergency medical teams and hospitals face a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) for staff members...

The American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood Federation of America filed a lawsuit Monday against Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds' order halting abortions amid the coronavirus pandemic. Pat Garrett, a spokesman for Reynolds, told the Des Moines Register Friday that the governors' proclamation earlier this week to suspend "non-essential" medical procedures through mid-April included surgical abortion. The lawsuit "asks the court for an emergency injunction to block the Governor's Proclamation as it applies to abortions," an ACLU of Iowa statement said Monday. "Abortion is an essential, time-sensitive medical procedure," Planned Parenthood's Iowa Executive Director Erin Davison-Rippey said in a statement....

With Iowa hospitals and clinics facing potential staffing shortages related to the COVID-19 virus, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has issued a state of public health disaster emergency, a section of which directly impacts nursing and nurses in the state. The emergency proclamation temporarily suspends administrative rules that prohibit the practice of medicine and surgery, osteopathic medicine and surgery, nursing, respiratory care and practice as a physician assistant by a license holder whose license is inactive or lapsed.

An employee of the biotech company at the center of the COVID-19 outbreak in Massachusetts is being criminally investigated after she defied the president’s travel ban and went to China. Of the 328 confirmed cases of the disease in Massachusetts, 30 percent of them are linked back to Cambridge-based Biogen after several employees at a conference held by the company at the Marriott Long Wharf tested positive for the virus and traveled across the country, further spreading the disease. Belmont native Jie Li is being accused of knowing she was sick and of taking medication to bring down her fever...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) turned down repeated requests from Bernie SandersÂ’ presidential campaign to appear at events promoting the Vermont senatorÂ’s candidacy in recent weeks, according to three people familiar with the discussions. After the Iowa caucuses, Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir asked Ocasio-Cortez to stump for Sanders in New Hampshire, according to the sources. The campaign prepared a model schedule to highlight the kind of popular support she would expect if she attended, one of the people familiar with the talks said. Ocasio-Cortez resisted the entreaties until a few days before the primary on Feb. 12. She ultimately spoke...

The Iowa Democratic Party (IDP) announced Friday that it would delay its county conventions over concerns about the coronavirus outbreak. The IDP did not specify when it would hold the county conventions, which had been scheduled for March 21. “Today, the Iowa Democratic Party is announcing it will postpone County Conventions to a future date to be determined," IDP Chair Mark Smith said in a statement. "After extensive consultation with County Chairs, the State Central Committee, party leaders, and public health officials, we have come to the determination that the spreading coronavirus poses a risk that outweighs a temporary delay...

President Trump holds strong leads over both former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in potential head-to-head matchups in Iowa, according to a Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa poll released Thursday. Trump leads Biden among likely voters by a 51 percent to 41 percent margin, with 8 percent of voters saying they are undecided in the hypothetical matchup. Trump gets the support of 53 percent of likely voters in a matchup with Sanders, who gets 41 percent support. Six percent of voters are undecided in a Trump-Sanders head-to-head. The president is buoyed by a net-positive approval rating —...

WASHINGTON—Republican Senators Joni Ernst of Iowa and Mike Braun of Indiana are proposing to limit the federal tax credit for electric vehicles (EVs) to those costing $45,000 or less and end the subsidy entirely for affluent buyers. Depending on the price of the EV purchased, the tax credit allows buyers to deduct between $2,500 and $7,500 from their federal taxes. The credit first went into effect in 2011. “Iowa taxpayers shouldn’t be footing the bill for millionaires to get a discount on luxury cars. That’s why I’ve been working hard to get the EV tax credit off the books,” Ernst...

Iowa Radio is reporting that the Iowa range protection and strengthened preemption bill has passed the Iowa House. The bill passed on a 52 to 44 vote, with 4 members not voting. There are 56 Republicans and 44 Democrats in the Iowa House. The bill was earlier reported on as HSB 615. Second Amendment supporters have been attempting to pass the bill for several years. From radioiowa.com: Supporters of the bill say Iowa gun owners should not have to navigate a labyrinth of different ordinances. The bill also forbids cities and counties from trying to ban gun modifications or from...