Free Republic

Shrimpers along the Gulf Coast say they need more help from the federal government with cheap shrimp imports from countries like Ecuador, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam driving down local demand. With reciprocal tariffs on imports from those countries on hold for 90 days, shrimpers are left wondering if they will get a lifeline they say they desperately need. Some shrimp farmers are ready to push for measures like capping imports at 25%. Rodney Olander with the Louisiana Shrimp Task Force has been coasting the gulf coast waters for shrimp for more than 40 years. Shrimp season is just a month...

Earlier this week, as we covered at the time, President-elect Donald announced tariffs on Canada and Mexico, citing concerns with fentanyl and "Open Borders." Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum were quick to scramble to address such matters, with Trudeau stressing to reporters on Tuesday morning that he had had "a good call" with Trump. Just days after that, on Friday, it was revealed that Trudeau traveled to Mar-a-Lago. 🚨 #BREAKING: Canadian PM Justin Trudeau has just arrived at Mar-a-Lago to have dinner with President TrumpTrump isn’t even in office yet, and world leaders are ALREADY...

Caring for an elderly or permanently disabled family member is a gut-wrenching experience for many families. Not only that, but it’s expensive, often exhausting personal savings and resources. The United States, like many other rich countries, is aging fast, and that means more Americans with diminishing cognitive function and physical disabilities as well as the loss of independence. Providing such care is intensive. In the case of nursing homes, where residents have the most severe needs, round-the-clock attention is especially expensive. Most fund these things through the Medicaid program, but this can come with an unreasonably steep cost. The private...

MSNBC anchor Joy Reid on Wednesday night criticized Sen. Tim Scott’s (D-SC) rebuttal of President Joe Biden’s address to a joint session of Congress. Defending Georgia’s voting law, Scott said, “The state of Georgia passed a law that expands early voting; preserves no-excuse mail-in voting; and, despite what the president claimed, did not reduce Election Day hours. If you actually read this law, it’s mainstream. It will be easier to vote early in Georgia than in Democrat-run New York. But the Left doesn’t want you to know that. They want people to virtue-signal by yelling about a law they haven’t...

Many of us have praised Pope Francis for his humbleness and for his tolerance toward victims of discrimination who had long been neglected by the Vatican, but it’s time to tell him loud and clear: Get out of Venezuela.The Vatican’s mediation effort in Venezuela has been — to use a word much in vogue in Washington these days — a disaster. It has legitimized that country’s authoritarian ruler Nicolás Maduro, throwing him a lifeline when millions of protesters were demanding his resignation on the streets in October 2016. And it has helped him get back on his feet by further...

Italy’s interior minister has sparked a new migration crisis in the Mediterranean by barring two rescue boats from bringing refugees to shore, a week . “Two other ships with the flag of Netherlands, Lifeline and Seefuchs, have arrived off the coast of Libya, waiting for their load of human beings abandoned by the smugglers,” Matteo Salvini, the leader of the anti-immigrant party the League, wrote on his Facebook page. “These gentlemen know that Italy no longer wants to be complicit in the business of illegal immigration, and therefore will have to look for other ports [not Italian] where to go.”...

One in three people enrolled in a government-subsidized phone program might not qualify for the service, with thousands of accounts belonging to either fake or dead people, according to a government audit released Thursday. The oversight is costing taxpayers more than $100 million worth of improper payments per year, according to the audit by the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan federal watchdog.the audit n audit released on Thursday.

Lest you thought Obamaphones were mythical, here are some shots I snapped in California yesterday. So now you know... Every time an Obamaphone rings... ¡tu lo compraste: you bought it, suckers!

Any home where at least one person receives food stamps will be eligible for the new program, called Access from AT&T. The offering is part of an agreement AT&T (T, Tech30) made with the FCC as part of last year's DirectTV merger and will be available until 2020. The company is the latest to offer discounted internet to low-income households in the United States, joining Comcast (CCV), Google Fiber, and some local government and nonprofit. These programs help close the so-called "digital divide" for families who would otherwise be forced to rely on school connections or cell phones. A lack...

The Federal Communications Commission has announced plans to fine a mobile provider $51 million for defrauding its Lifeline program, which subsidizes wireless service for low-income Americans. The FCC accused California-based Total Call Mobile of fraudulently enrolling tens of thousands of duplicate and ineligible consumers in the Lifeline program. The company received an estimated $9.7 million dollars in improper payments since 2014, according to the FCC. In the fourth quarter of that year, 99.8% of the company's enrollments allegedly involved overriding a system designed to stop the registration of duplicate customers.

Millions of poor Americans will be eligible for federal subsidies to help pay the cost of Internet service after new regulations were approved in a whirlwind Federal Communications Commission meeting on Thursday. The FCC voted to expand its 30-year-old program called Lifeline, which previously offered $9.25 in subsidies for phone and basic cell service. The three Democratic commissioners approved the proposal over opposition from the two Republicans, who have concerns about the program's budget. The vote was delayed for more than three hours as Republicans accused FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler of scuttling a late-night compromise to bring them on board....

**SNIP** She is among the 15.3 million people in the United States who receive the Lifeline telephone service because they meet income guidelines or are enrolled in programs such as Medicaid or food stamps. But the fundamental feature of the program on which James relies — 250 minutes of free wireless service a month — is at the center of a legal battle linked to a new tactic to reduce fraud in the program. Alarmed by accounts of households that have more than one subsidized phone — a breach of federal guidelines — and other allegations of fraud, the Georgia...

In a continuing crackdown on the federal government's Lifeline program, sometimes known as "Obama phones," the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has revealed that fraud and abuse in the program exceeded two million subscribers. New rules were established after it became clear that subscribers and providers were taking advantage of the system:

Georgia has become the first state to charge a fee to low-income people who receive free cellphone service through a federal program, saying the move would combat fraud. The Georgia Public Service Commission voted 3-2 Tuesday to approve a $5-a-month charge on participants in the Lifeline program, which is designed to ensure low-income households have access to basic communications services. Georgia Public Service Commissioner Doug Everett, who proposed the rule, said the program's structure encourages wireless providers to sign up as many customers as possible to rake in taxpayer-funded subsidies, without first verifying their eligibility. Each eligible household is supposed...

Three leading House Energy and Commerce Committee Democrats are calling for an oversight hearing on the Federal Communications Commission's Lifeline program, a phone subsidy for the poor that has been disparagingly referred to as the "Obama phone" program. The program, which began long before President Obama took office, has been notorious for waste and abuse. The FCC enacted reforms last year aimed at trimming billions of dollars from the program, but recent reports indicate that people who are ineligible for the program are still receiving subsidies. The program gained more attention last year when conservatives seized on a viral video...

Lady Thatcher is in my top 5 Conservative champions of all time, and this recognition by her lucid countrymen of her vindicated wisdom, especially in these times, is inspiring. The tide of wisdom may be sweeping away shallow suicidal waters of socialism and winning the day through buoyant Conservative seas, for which she nearly alone showed how to plot her nation's course. Bravo!

Sometimes, government programs, subsidies and entitlements need no embellishment. In 2008, TracFone Wireless of Miami began distributing free cell phones to people who get food stamps, welfare or other government assistance. Recipients of the free cell phones are allowed to earn up to 150 percent of the federal poverty level, or no more than $33,075 a year for a family of four. The phones provide 68 free minutes a month and, in the words of The Philadelphia Inquirer, "they're paid for, in part, by charges on phone bills that the federal government allows carriers to levy." The free cells are...

How many Freepers know about this program? It gives a free mobile phone to low-income households and free 68 minutes of airtime per month. Tracphone has this website: Safelink WirelessI tried to find what legislation established this, but cannot.

NEW YORK - Wall Street rebounded sharply Tuesday after the Federal Reserve and other central banks said they will pump $200 billion into the financial markets to help ease the strain from the credit crisis. The Dow Jones industrials surged about 150 points. The program is part of a worldwide effort to help struggling banks and mortgage providers. The Fed — acting in concert with the European Central Bank, the Bank of Canada and the Swiss National Bank — agreed to loan investment banks money in exchange for debt that includes slumping mortgage-backed securities. The Fed's latest move was seen...

The patrol pulled up and men of the U.K. 3 Squadron Royal Air Force Regiment jump out of their vehicles and approached a crowd of waiting men. Unlike most places in Iraq the airmen are relaxed. They are able to remove their helmets and conceal their weapons as they meet and greet the familiar faces of the Shaghamba tribe. For the Iraqis and British airmen the occasion is a happy one. The ceremony marked the completion of a project financed by Coalition forces in Iraq to pump water into a Marsh Arab village near Basra Air Station. "We are very...