Free Republic

The expected $4 billion increase in federal road and bridge funds over the next five years is raising the rhetoric against the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s proposal to toll nine bridges across the state to pay for their replacement. The department says its financial problems are so severe that using federal infrastructure funds approved Friday instead of following through with tolling would still prevent the agency from repairing hundreds of other bridges across the state. The $4 billion increase in federal funds over five years will help, the agency said, but it claims it should be spending $8.1 billion more...

Justin Mealey, a data scientist with the Data Integrity Group, told The Epoch Times on Jan. 5 that adjudication of 106,000 ballots on the election day in Fulton County, Georgia, is “physically not possible.” Mealey worked in the U.S. Navy for 9 and a half years and was a former CIA contractor as a data analyst and programmer for the National Counterterrorism Center. He currently works for one of the “big four” accounting firms as a programmer. Adjudication serves to resolve issues of voters marking ballots incorrectly, and the tabulating machine could not read it. A review panel will...

On Thursday, 15 Republican legislators in Michigan filed a motion in support of Attorney General Ken Paxton’s (R-Texas) lawsuit challening the 2020 presidential election results in four key swing states, including Michigan. The legislators joined the Amistad Project of the Thomas More Society in supporting the Texas lawsuit, which asks the Supreme Court to remand the election results to swing-state legislatures for review and potential reversal. “The state legislature serves as an ‘insurance policy’ against election officials who abuse or misuse their power,” State Rep. Daire Rendon, one of the legislators who signed on to the brief, said in a...

‘China poses the greatest threat to America today, and the greatest threat to democracy and freedom world-wide since World War II,’ John Ratcliffe warned. WASHINGTON, D.C., December 5, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — John Ratcliffe, the Director of National Intelligence, warned in a CBS News interview on Thursday that China is trying “through blackmail, bribery, overt and covert operations” to influence legislators to pass “only laws that are favorable to China.” “I was so troubled by what I saw from the position as the Director of National Intelligence that I went and briefed both the House and Senate Intelligence Committees on this...

The Trump campaign on Tuesday announced that legislatures in key swing states – Pennsylvania, Arizona and Michigan – would hold hearings on alleged voter fraud. Legislators in those states, however, say nothing is scheduled to take place."It's in everyone's interest to have a full vetting of election irregularities and fraud," Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and current personal attorney to President Donald Trump, said in a statement Tuesday. "And the only way to do this is with public hearings, complete with witnesses, videos, pictures and other evidence of illegalities from the November 3rd election.""There were serious irregularities,...

We have to move the fight from the executive branch of the states to the legislative branch of the states. In all of these four key states — North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin — there are Democratic governors, but both houses of the legislature are Republican. Those guys need to wake up,” Morris, a former adviser for former President Bill Clinton, told host Grant Stinchfield. “And if you live in those states, you need to call your state rep and your state senator and say, get on the ball. Get to the state capitol, demand that the legislature be...

impeachment was a disgrace

Introduction Redistricting—the redrawing of congressional and legislative districts to balance them for equal population while meeting many other criteria—starts again in 2021, after new census data are released.

There are many people taking notice of modern politics for the first time in their lives. There is also some confusion noticed between two groups who talk above and around each other. Two groups communicating from two entirely different sets of understanding. Perhaps it is valuable to reset the larger frames of reference and provide clarity. Many, heck, most people think when they vote for a federal politician -a representative- they are voting for a person who will go to Washington DC and write or enact legislation. This is the old-fashioned “schoolhouse rock” perspective based on decades past. There is...

BROWN COUNTY (WLUK) -- If you experience stop-and-go traffic heading to work or backups on your way home, you’re not the only one frustrated. Every community experiences traffic delays. Transportation planners design new roads to ease the congestion. But FOX 11 Investigates found that in Brown County, those planning the roads are frustrated too. Ads by ZINC Highway 172 in Brown County carries a heavy load of cars and trucks. During peak traffic hours, motorists are trying to cross the Fox River. A little over two miles to the south, the Claude Allouez Bridge in De Pere can be even...

<p>Warning of “a grave risk” to elected officials, the California Legislature’s legal arm has asked the blog platform WordPress to take down a post listing the addresses of lawmakers who supported gun control legislation.</p> <p>Gov. Jerry Brown on July 1 signed several gun control measures, fortifying California’s already strong gun restrictions over the objections of those who saw the bills eroding Second Amendment rights.</p>

Civility Two years ago, Stephen Henderson won a Pulitzer Prize. I’ll let you decide what you think that says about the state of journalism, especially as you consider what he wrote late last week. Henderson, the editorial page editor of the Detroit Free Press (and a Facebook friend of mine, at least as I type this), has become increasingly hysterical in the past year - seeing racism behind almost every perceived societal ill and ascribing to conservative policymakers not just mistaken thinking but, invariably, an intent to hurt people. But his column of this past Saturday took the cake. A...

The First Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, being appointed by George Washington, was also President of the American Bible Society. Who was he? John Jay, who died MAY 17, 1829. As President of the Continental Congress, John Jay approved the "Circular Letter from the Congress of the United States of America to their Constituents," September 13, 1779: "Friends and Fellow Citizens... In governments raised on the generous principles of equal liberty... the rulers of the state are the servants of the people, and not the masters of those from whom they derive authority... ...The ungrateful despotism and inordinate...

Tennessee's rule factory is cranking at full tilt, and Nashville lawmakers want to tell Memphians how to pay for bike lanes, what monuments we can move, and whether or not we can own skunks (seriously). No gas tax for bike lanes A new bill would prohibit spending any gas tax revenues on bike lanes, pedestrian walkways, and "other non-vehicular facilities." Portions of the state gas tax are required to go to cities and counties. Those governments sometimes use the gas tax funds for matching dollars to get federal money for bike and pedestrian projects. The new bill says all of...

After noticing some irregularities in certain legislators’ campaign loans, we took it upon ourselves to examine every sitting State Representative’s and Senator’s campaign and PAC finance reports from their first report until now (prior to January 2015 reports) and audit their loans (more to come from contributions and expenditures at a later date). Very quickly, we noticed that, at the very least, the numbers weren’t reconciling. In some cases, the figures were off by hundreds of thousands of dollars, some by millions.

Republicans have the opportunity to take control of a record number of state legislative chambers across the country this year, as Democrats play defense in unfavorable terrain. The Republican landslide in 2010 and the subsequent redistricting process in 2012 gave the GOP control of a nearly unprecedented number of legislative chambers. Today, the party controls 59 of the 98 partisan chambers in 49 states, while Democrats control only 39 chambers (One legislature, Nebraska’s is officially nonpartisan). Once election results are tabulated in the 6,049 legislative races on the ballot in 46 states this year, Republicans could find themselves running even...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania state legislator exchanged gunfire with a would-be robber near the state Capitol in Harrisburg, city police said Wednesday. Rep. Marty Flynn and another lawmaker were walking to their residence after a late dinner with other legislators when two males accosted them and demanded their wallets just before 11 p.m. Tuesday, police said. Flynn is a former Lackawanna County prison guard who is licensed to carry a handgun. He drew his pistol and fired during the attempted holdup. At least one of the two would-be robbers was armed, police said, but neither Flynn nor the...

Hope Baker is one determined young lady. She won't take no for an answer, even though it looks like her Don Quixote-type quest has run smack into a legislative windmill up at the state Capitol. Along with Jayne Jones, her Concordia University political science professor, and six like-minded classmates, the 22-year-old Alexandria native and law school aspirant wants to add impaired driving as a specified exclusion to a state law that grants lawmakers immunity from arrest in certain cases while the session is underway. But the push to clarify a centuries-old state Constitution provision has not gone over well with...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Florida's Republican-controlled Legislature is coming out solidly against a special session to repeal the state's "stand your ground law." The Department of State on Wednesday released a list that showed more than half of the state's 160-member Legislature has already voted against the idea. The vote was triggered earlier after 33 legislators asked for a special session in writing. They were urged to do so by protesters upset with the July verdict in the George Zimmerman case.

Young women and men supporting late-term abortions shouted ‘Hail Satan’ throughout the day as the Texas House and Senate convened a special session to discuss timekeeping measures following Democrat Wendy Davis’ filibuster de-railing the vote to limit abortions to 20 weeks and establishing stricter safety standards for abortion clinics. On one occasion some young women shouted ‘Hail Satan’ as Christians gave personal testimony about  abortion and sang ‘Amazing Grace’.Breibart reports:‘It would be difficult to argue that the pro-abortion crowd wasn’t an “unruly mob” — last week protesters shut down proceedings by screaming from the gallery and used social media to debate...