Free Republic

A pair of House committees is forming a bipartisan working group of eight lawmakers to prepare for possible legislation addressing how the widespread use of encryption affects law enforcement investigations. "The bipartisan encryption working group will examine the issues surrounding this ongoing national debate," House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and House Energy and Commerce Committee Fred Upton. R-Mich., said Monday. As chairman of the two committees that have jurisdiction over encryption issues, Goodlatte and Upton are ex officio chairs of the working group. They released that statement jointly along with Michigan Rep. John Conyers and New Jersey Rep. Steve...

At an event today in Spokane, Washington, Bill Clinton called for putting "the awful legacy of the last 8 years behind us and the 7 years before that where we were practicing trickle down economics."

It seems that everyday residents of red states aren’t the only ones fed up with people moving to our states from their failed progressive fantasylands and bringing those failed policies with them.One Mississippi State Representative echoed the sentiments of many of us; while I live in Florida, not Mississippi, Florida is being inundated with blue staters fleeing the results of their policies . . . only to try to force them on us.The Clarion-Ledger reports: When Becky Guidry of Gulfport emailed freshman Rep. Karl Oliver, R-Winona, expressing her concerns about the tax breaks being considered by the Legislature, she was...

As the 2016 field of election contestants narrows, Republican Presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has become the stormy center of campaign news coverage and a lightning rod for violent tension at his rallies. Many in the left-leaning media place the blame for the heated confrontations at his events on Trump himself; others on his supporters. Few are pointing the finger at the swelling numbers of leftist protesters aggressively organizing to shut Trump down altogether.

SHOCK FLASHBACK: In 2006, Obama wrote that Illegal Immigration HURTS ‘Blue-Collar Americans,’ and STRAINS Welfare... Listen/read for yourself...https://www.facebook.com/numbersusa/videos/1079683218755039/      

A bizarre lawsuit, filed by the reliably leftist Rev. Michael Pfleger, was dismissed by Cook County judge Franklin Valderrama on February 25th. Other leftist activists had joined Rev. Pfleger in filing the lawsuit against three municipalities outside of Chicago.  From chicagotribune.com: A lawsuit filed by Rev. Michael Pfleger and a group of activists last year that said lax local gun laws in Lincolnwood were to blame when guns sold by the town’s only firearms dealer ended up at Chicago crime scenes has been dismissed by a Cook County judge. The lawsuits tried to make the claim that black people...

Last Friday, March 11, the institutional left held GOP Presidential Candidate Donald Trump's campaign rally hostage in Chicago, Illinois. Rebel Pundit's Jeremy Segal and Andrew Marcus, director of the motion picture Hating Breitbart, documented the "protest" on film, including an interview with Bill Ayers, a founder of the Weather Undergound, who discusses the motivation behind the premeditated and well funded demonstrations.

Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois on Friday became the first Republican senator to call for an up-or-down vote on Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, saying on a Chicago radio show that his colleagues ought to “just man up and cast a vote.” That Kirk would be first to break with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other GOP colleagues, who believe the next president should pick the replacement for Justice Antonin Scalia, is not particularly surprising: Kirk was already one of two Republican senators, with Susan Collins of Maine, to call for hearings.

In light of Friday night's fracas in Chicago, Joe Scarborough writes, "America faces a deepening divide that is tearing away at the fabric of this great land." Joe continues in The Washington Post: Friday's freak show was as prepackaged as a rerun of "Celebrity Apprentice." The only difference was that Donald Trump delivered his lines on the phone from a hotel room in the Windy City instead of on the set of his made-for-TV boardroom. It was all a scam. Has anyone noticed that Trump's campaign now regularly stages media events designed to eclipse any negative coverage that predictably follows...

WEST TOWN — The daughter of state Rep. Cynthia Soto is facing criminal charges along with her boyfriend for hitting former Soto opponent Bob Zwolinski over the head with a beer bottle and stapling his forehead, Chicago Police said. Jessica Soto, 26, of the 1500 Block of West Ohio Street, and Bradley Fichter, 26, of the 4700 Block of North Kewanee Avenue, were each charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery causing great bodily harm and aggravated battery in a public place. Additionally, Fichter was charged with one felony count of disorderly conduct for filing a false...

Former U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan says he’s returning to Chicago to work on improving opportunities for teens and young adults. Duncan said Thursday that he’ll join with Emerson Collective to work with people ages 17 to 24 who are neither working nor in school. The Emmerson Collective was founded by Laurene Powell Jobs. …

I have been an attentive observer of political protests for many moons. You might say I was present at their creation. For me, that would be back in 1968 at Chicago, Illinois's Grant Park. My brother and I stood between a line of young Chicago policemen as they grew increasingly anxious, their backs to the hotels that faced the park. In the park, luminaries of Democratic politics -- Eugene McCarthy and Hubert Humphrey -- were putting the final touches on their convention performances. What provoked the young cops (those mainly of Irish and Italian descent) was a mob of college-age...

Republican presidential candidate Texas Senator Sen. Ted Cruz stated that “no one should be surprised that Donald Trump is trying to stir up riots” in reaction to Trump’s prediction that there would be riots if he was denied the nomination after being just shy of the necessary 1,237 delegates and challenged Trump to a debate when both are in Washington, DC for AIPAC’s conference on Wednesday’s “Kelly File” on the Fox News Channel.

Six people have been wounded in shootings before noon on St. Patrick's Day, all on Chicago's South Side. The most recent shooting happened at 11:15 a.m. in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood.

Hillary Clinton held off a hard-charging Bernie Sanders to win the Democratic primary in her native state, further clearing the path to the presidential nomination. A loss would have dealt her a humbling setback in her native state.

Told to reduce his son’s time in the clubhouse, Chicago White Sox first baseman Adam LaRoche took a different path: He said he planned to retire and walk away from a $13 million salary. The president of the White Sox, Kenny Williams, confirmed Wednesday that he had twice asked LaRoche in the last week to “dial it back” with his 14-year-old son, Drake.

A bit of conventional wisdom was settling in on Wednesday morning that though Donald Trump enjoyed a good “Super Tuesday II,” with victories in the Northern Mariana Islands, Florida, North Carolina, Illinois, and—tentatively—Missouri, he may not have done well enough to ward off a contested convention. John Kasich’s win in his home state, Ohio, deprived Trump of a juicy 66 delegates, and he has still not shown that he can claim a state with anything greater than a plurality of the popular vote. By the Associated Press’ latest estimate, he’ll need to win 54 percent of the remaining delegates to...

MILWAUKEE—Six years ago, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin unseated three-term Sen. Russ Feingold in a GOP wave fueled by a backlash against government spending and President Barack Obama’s signature health care overhaul. This year he is in a rematch against Mr. Feingold. But instead of riding a wave, Mr. Johnson is navigating unpredictable currents stirred up by Donald Trump’s drive for the Republican presidential nomination. The ability of Republicans to keep control of the Senate will depend on winning Rust Belt states such as Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Illinois. And within those states, they will need strong turnout—in particular...

Conservative heavyweights joined forces with establishment figures to form Our Principles PAC, a super-PAC focused on persuading Americans of why Donald Trump is a deadly threat to conservatism who should not be the Republican nominee.

Losing Ohio is not going to be a big deal. He romped in Illinois winning 75% of the 69 delegates. Cruz gets 9 and Kasich 8.