Free Republic

The 600,000 New Yorkers who don’t have any type of health coverage will be getting access to medical care under a program being announced Tuesday by Mayor Bill de Blasio. Previewing the plan on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program, the mayor said it would cost about $100 million at full scale and ensure that all residents — including illegal immigrants — can see a doctor when they need to.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday that all residents, regardless of citizenship status or ability to pay, will be guaranteed comprehensive health care. The recently re-elected Democratic mayor of the country's largest city announced on MSNBC Tuesday the government will pay for any and all resident's comprehensive care, including those who aren't eligible to receive comprehensive Medicaid coverage. The city's more than 600,000 uninsured residents, including its more than 300,000 undocumented residents, are included in this de Blasio guarantee.

New York is facing an educational disaster. Mayor Bill De Blasio's socialist plan to end meritocratic entry to New York's famed specialty schools - in performing arts, hard sciences, engineering, academic achievement - in the name of racial equality, is about to trigger a huge white flight. And not just white flight, Asian flight. Here's an excellent report from New York Post columnist Karol Markowitz: In a push to improve diversity at District 15 middle schools in Brooklyn, Mayor de Blasio last week approved a plan to remove admission standards at all of them. and The announcement of the...

Rockefeller Christmas tree lights go ON! Thousands turn out (and BOO) de Blasio as he hits the button after performances by Diana Ross, John Legend and Tony Bennett to kick off holiday season New York Mayor Bill de Blasio flipped the switch Wednesday to light the Rockefeller Center Christmas TreeThe lighting followed a televised extravaganza that featured performances by Diana Ross and Tony BennettThe 72-foot tree is decorated with 5 miles of multicolored LED lights and a 900-pound Swarovski crystal starThe festive spirit was momentarily interrupted when de Blasio was booed by some in the crowd when his name...

Mayor Bill de Blasio cited his "socialistic impulse" in describing an ideal world where New York City government has control over all land and buildings in his city. “I think people all over this city, of every background, would like to have the city government be able to determine which building goes where, how high it will be, who gets to live in it, what the rent will be,” de Blasio said in a wide-ranging interview with New York Magazine. “I think there’s a socialistic impulse, which I hear every day, in every kind of community that they would like...

Mayor Bill de Blasio cited his "socialistic impulse" in describing an ideal world where New York City government has control over all land and buildings in his city. “I think people all over this city, of every background, would like to have the city government be able to determine which building goes where, how high it will be, who gets to live in it, what the rent will be,” d

Mayor Bill de Blasio cited his "socialistic impulse" in describing an ideal world where New York City government has control over all land and buildings in his city. “That’s a world I’d love to see, and I think what we have, in this city at least, are people who would love to have the New Deal back, on one level,” he said. “They’d love to have a very, very powerful government, including a federal government, involved in directly addressing their day-to-day reality.”

We’ve covered plenty of stories coming from the ongoing corruption trials of donors to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Big Apple Mayor Bill de Blasio, but the most recent one is turning into a highlight reel for Page Six. We previously noted how de Blasio had been subpoenaed to testify in the trial involving campaign finance violations and bribery with City Hall donor Jeremy Reichberg and NYPD Deputy Inspector James Grant. Many of the details of those charges were routine, boring allegations of political malfeasance. Promises were made, donations were solicited and “favors” were done.But not all of the...

Mayor Bill de Blasio used taxpayer resources to push his national political agenda — at one point even asking his staff to come up with a governmental excuse to justify a political trip to Washington, DC, emails show. In September 2015, Hizzoner was trying to build a coalition of labor and elected officials to support his Progressive Agenda — spending many hours each week peddling his income inequality platform to potential officials.

Federal cases include: Kellie Cline, 35, Greenwood: Cline served as the Extra-Curricular Activity (ECA) Treasurer at Greenwood Middle School. She is alleged to have stolen approximately $50,000 from the school’s extra-curricular account. Sami Dillon, 38, Crawfordsville: Dillon served as the Clerk-Treasurer of Cayuga, in Vermillion County and is alleged to have stolen approximately $44,000 by not depositing utility receipts. Clint Madden, 51, Columbus: Madden served as the Wayne Township Trustee and the Jonesville Volunteer Rural Fire Department Treasurer, in Bartholomew County. He is alleged to have misappropriated over $100,000 from the township and the fire department.

Larry Hauth has a farm in Coffey County and a daughter in Wichita. Good roads are kind of important to him. So he’s disturbed by the ongoing and accelerating trend of the state taking money out of the highway fund to balance the rest of its budget. “One of the things Kansas has going for it, compared to our surrounding states, is our road system,” Hauth said. “When they built them in years past, they were thinking ahead. I don’t think we’re thinking ahead right now. We’re trying to tread water, at best.” Gov. Sam Brownback wants to take nearly...

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — A statewide, month long initiative to put the clamps on a Senate bill is underway. Senate Bill 463 is aimed at redirecting highway money to the state general fund. This weekend, the Kansas Contractors Association is running ads targeting lawmakers to get them to just say no. It’s called Detour Greenlight and it’s pointed to 24 legislators they believe detour, or normally vote against protecting road and bridge funding. It also names some who they say are for strong spending on roads. “To redirect the little bit of sales tax that goes into the pot to...

Carbon dioxide levels have reached its highest throughout human history, recent figures from a US monitoring station show. The level in our atmosphere is now at a record high 400 parts per million, prompting renewed warnings of the ‘huge risks’ of climate change. The shocking figures, which have risen from 270ppm before the Industrial Revolution, is a result of human activity such as burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. The preliminary figures have come from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) monitoring station in Hawaii. The greenhouse gas has not been at such high levels for around three...

[Madison] - The Republican Party of Wisconsin filed a verified complaint with the Government Accountability Board today against Shelly Moore for knowingly violating state law by using taxpayer funded resources for political activity. Moore, a public school teacher and WEAC union leader, is challenging incumbent candidate Sheila Harsdorf in the 10th senate district recall election. Several overtly political emails were turned over to the Republican Party of Wisconsin following an open records request into Moore’s official Ellsworth School District email account. Moore explicitly states in one exchange: “We’re not supposed to use school email, but since all of our rights...

PHOENIX (AP) -- An examination in Arizona's Maricopa County has found that the sheriff's office, widely known for efforts against illegal immigrants, inappropriately spent $99 million from two jail funds over the last eight years to pay for other law enforcement operations - including immigration patrols. The $99 million figure released Wednesday is an update to an estimate made in September by budget officials who said the sheriff's office was believed to have used $60 million and $80 million over four or five years from a jail tax on other purposes.

The union of low-wage caregivers that Tyrone Freeman once headed has taken him to court to demand restitution of more than $1.1 million -- dues money that allegedly financed his lifestyle of $175 glasses of cognac, $250 bottles of wine and a $3,400 trip to the NFL's Pro Bowl in Hawaii. The lawsuit filed by a Los Angeles-based chapter of the Service Employees International Union opens another legal front in a scandal that dates to last summer and remains the subject of a federal criminal investigation. In the civil complaint, brought in Los Angeles County Superior Court, the United Long-Term...

CHANGE! This kind of Change we don't need. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's home district includes San Francisco. Star-Kist Tuna's headquarters are in San Francisco, Pelosi's home district. Star-Kist is owned by Del Monte Foods and is a major contributor to Pelosi. Star-Kist is the major employer in American Samoa employing 75% of the Samoan work force. Paul Pelosi, Nancy's husband, owns $17 million dollars of Star-Kist stock. In January, 2007 when the minimum wage was increased from $5.15 to $7.25, Pelosi had American Samoa exempted from the increase so Del Monte would not have to pay the higher...

Between 2003 and 2007 -- as many military families dealt with long war deployments and increased numbers of home foreclosures -- Army Emergency Relief grew into a $345 million behemoth. During those years, the charity packed away $117 million into its own reserves while spending just $64 million on direct aid... Superior officers come calling when AER loans aren't repaid on time. Soldiers can be fined or demoted for missing loan payments. They must clear their loans before transferring or leaving the service. -- Promotions can be delayed or canceled if loans are not repaid. -- Despite strict rules against...

Texas Department of Transportation that claims it has no money for roads uses $20 million in gas tax funds to build a park. Woodall Rodgers ParkThe Woodall Rodgers Park Foundation announced yesterday that the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) would hand over $20 million in gas tax funds to help build a 5.2 acre park near downtown Dallas. The $67 million park is intended to serve as a model public-private partnership with a restaurant, a children's playground and a dog park. It will have no roads. "The park... will connect Uptown, Downtown and the Arts District, and is expected to...

HARRISBURG -- With a section of a Pittsburgh bridge dropping 8 inches and an Interstate 95 support pillar cracking in Philadelphia, Gov. Ed Rendell is turning up the heat under the Legislature to provide infrastructure repair funds more quickly. Mr. Rendell sent a letter to all 253 legislators yesterday urging quick passage of a $240 million "supplemental debt authorization." His program of borrowing would enable state officials to fast-track repairs on some of the state's 6,000 bridges classified as structurally deficient, along with fixing ailing highways, repairing "state-owned, high-hazard dams" and beginning flood mitigation projects. Also yesterday, Mr. Rendell called...