Free Republic

Senate Democrats blocked a White House backed-plan to end the 34-day partial shutdown, turning it down in a 51-47 vote on Thursday. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) joined with Republicans to advance the measure, but it fell short of the 60 votes needed to defeat a filibuster. In an unexpected development, Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) voted against Trump's plan. Lee is considered a fiscal hawk and Cotton is one of the Senate’s most conservative members on immigration. The Senate is expected to hold a second vote Thursday on a continuing resolution (CR) that would fund the quarter...

EL PASO, Texas -- Border Patrol officials are investigating an incursion by Mexican federal police into the United State on Thursday morning. U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Doug Mosier said armed officers with Mexico's Secretaria de Seguridad Publica federal police were in the incursion, which took place in El Paso, near the Border Patrol's Ysleta station. The Mexican government, Border Patrol and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department are investigating the incident. U.S. authorities responded to the incident. An ABC-7 viewer contacted the station early Thursday, saying her son, husband and friends were hunting on the Rio Grande levy on the U.S....

Conservative activists, meanwhile, told the lawmakers to hold their ground. "You 15 are officially martyrs for all California taxpayers," Jon Fleischman, a member of the state party's board, wrote to the caucus on his blog Flash Report, http://www.flashreport.org.GOP senators have been using the blog to sound off on Perata, the governor and Assembly Republican Leader Michael Villines of Clovis. They also offered updates on the lockdown. Just before 7 a.m. Saturday, Sen. Jim Battin (R-La Quinta) sent in a posting. "We've been locked in, and there are sergeants at every exit making sure we can't leave," he wrote. "I slept...