Free Republic

You’d never know it from news coverage — or from last month’s midterms — but the electorate has warmed up to Donald Trump. An Emerson College poll shows the president getting his best job approval ratings since near the beginning of his presidency. That doesn’t make them good, but it’s going in the right direction: The last Emerson poll of 2018 finds President Trump’s job disapproval rating fell below 50% for the first time this year, with approval at 43% and disapproval at 47% on his job performance. These are the strongest job numbers for the President in an...

Knowing how to lease a car is important - that knowledge will get you the best deal at the best price. But just as important is knowing when the time is right to lease a car, truck or SUV. That's right - timing can be everything in a vehicle leasing deal. If you can get both the knowledge and the timing down pat, chances are you'll walk away with a great auto lease deal. The fact is that most consumers have little idea how leasing really works, what some of the hidden costs are, or how to land the best...

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in her first public remarks following a health scare last month, hailed immigrants as the “vanguard” of an effort to remove “stains” of discrimination from American society. “The Constitution sets out the aspiration to form a more perfect union,” Ginsburg said, addressing 31 newly naturalized American citizens who had just taken the oath of allegiance. “While we have made huge progress, the work of perfection is far from done. Many stains remain." “As well informed citizens you will play a vital part in that endeavor,” she said. “First by voting in elections, serving on...

Now that three men have been found dead near water in Downtown Austin in recent months, social media posts have speculated the deaths could be related, but Austin Police say there’s no evidence of that... Police are still awaiting toxicology reports on some cases but confirmed none of the recent deaths have been connected, stating some were simply just accidents or overdoses. Recently, 25-year-old Martin Gutierrez was found dead near Lady Bird Lake after disappearing on Nov. 19. He was last seen during a night out on Rainey Street. In October, 25-year-old Christopher White was found dead in the Colorado...

As Venezuela continues to crumble under the socialist dictatorship of President Nicolas Maduro, some are expressing words of warning – and resentment – against a six-year-old gun control bill that stripped citizens of their weapons. “Guns would have served as a vital pillar to remaining a free people, or at least able to put up a fight,” Javier Vanegas, 28, a Venezuelan teacher of English now exiled in Ecuador, told Fox News. “The government security forces, at the beginning of this debacle, knew they had no real opposition to their force. Once things were this bad, it was a clear...

US national security adviser John Bolton unveiled President Trump's strategy for Africa, outlining a plan that he said focuses heavily on countering China and Russia's expanding influence across the region....

Johnson & Johnson shares sank 8% Friday after Reuters reported that the pharmaceutical giant knew for decades that its baby powder contained asbestos. Reuters reviewed documents, deposition, and trial testimony from at least 1971 to the early 2000s that it said showed powders and raw talc sometimes tested positively for small traces of asbestos. Furthermore, "company executives, mine managers, scientists, doctors, and lawyers fretted over the problem and how to address it while failing to disclose it to regulators or the public," the Reuters reporter Lisa Girion wrote. Johnson & Johnson issued a statement on Friday in response to the...

Time's Up Legal Defense Fund and Time's Up Entertainment are among the 18 recipients of a $20 million donation from CBS Corporation, an amount determined when Leslie Moonves was pushed out as CEO over sexual misconduct allegations, according to a press release issued Friday. The money was earmarked for groups focused on "eliminating sexual harassment in the workplace." The funds will be distributed within 60 days of execution of the agreement, according to a person familiar with the arrangement. The amount each group will receive was based on their proposal and "capacity to absorb funds relative to their annual budgets."...

New York (CNN Business)The Weekly Standard, the magazine that espouses traditional conservatism and which has remained deeply critical of President Donald Trump, will shutter after 23 years, its owner Clarity Media Group announced Friday morning. The magazine will publish its final issue on December 17. * * * Employees were told at an all staff meeting, which CNN obtained an audio recording of, that they would be paid through the end of the year, and that afterward they would receive severance which would range in scale depending on factors like seniority. To receive severance, however, employees would need to sign...

Want a good morning laugh? Get a load of National Review's Kyle Smith and his hilarious vivisection of Michael Avenatti, whose rise and fall show just how absurd he and his Democratic cheerleaders always were. Here's the start of the piece and don't tell me you don't want to read further : Remember when Michael Avenatti was the Democrats' big hope for 2020? He wasn't just that, though. Parachuting in to launch his presidential campaign to the DNC's "Ethnic Council" and its black caucus in Chicago in August, he enthusiastically adopted the party's guiltspeak. "People that look like me, white...

A former top official at the Justice Department argues that President Trump can yet be indicted for campaign finance violations as part of a possible decision to delay his trial until after he leaves office. Neal Katyal, a former deputy and acting solicitor general under President Obama, told the Yahoo News podcast “Skullduggery” that Trump allegedly directing payoffs to two women to silence them during the 2016 campaign was “very serious.” He said the payments could be grounds to challenge department legal opinions that conclude presidents cannot be indicted while in office. “I think it’s a bad constitutional argument to...

Chief Justice of California Tani Cankil-Sakauye has reportedly renounced her Republican Party registration and re-registered as a no-party-preference voter, citing Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Cankil-Sakauye made the comments in a phone interview on Thursday to CALmatters, a nonprofit news organization, saying that she had been thinking about Kavanaugh's September confirmation hearing. "I’ve been thinking about it for some time," Cankil-Sakauye said of her decision. She said that she spoke with her husband and friends about the hearing and their conclusion was that "you didn’t leave the party - the party left you." “I felt compelled to make a choice...

The investigation began in part after federal agents seized materials from the president's former personal attorney Michael Cohen. President Donald Trump's inaugural committee is under criminal investigation by federal prosecutors in Manhattan for pay to play and misspending some of the $107 million it raised from donations, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The probe was launched by the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan, the paper said, citing people familiar with the investigation. The investigation, which is reportedly in its early stages, is looking into whether some of the committee's top donors gave money to gain access to the...

An irrigation reservoir was found to be contaminated. An outbreak of E. coli infections linked to romaine lettuce has been traced to at least one California farm, but it’s probably not the source of all the sicknesses, federal health officials said Thursday. So far, 59 people have been reported sick across 15 states in the outbreak, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The CDC said 23 have been sick enough to be hospitalized, although no one has died. Canadian health officials have reported 27 cases linked to the same outbreak. Investigators found the implicated strain of E. coli...

Connecticut could stand to gain $1 billion annually with electronic tolling, the state Department of Transportation said in a new report. The report, released last week, said Connecticut could achieve $1 billion annually even with per-mile rates lower than many other states. The 81-page report is based on a study by CDM Smith, an engineering and construction firm. The company looked at electronic tolling on interstates 84, 91, 95, and 691, and routes 2, 8, 9, and 15, with up to 82 toll gantries possibly being installed. The authors of the report urged the state to continue with a proposed...

It was only a few weeks ago when outgoing Ohio Governor John Kasich said he was seriously considering a 2020 primary challenge to President Trump, if only to “send a message.� (Who that message was intended for remains unclear.) But hey… the guy is going to be unemployed come January so he needs something to keep himself busy.But now, with Christmas fast approaching, something seems to have changed. During an interview with the Associated Press, Kasich was striking a decidedly different tone. Clearly, if you’re going to mount a primary challenge, you need to believe that you at least have...

The Harvey Weinstein scandal has a lot of moving parts headed towards an important hearing next week that will set the next stage in the criminal proceeding. On one end, Weinstein has been pushing a Delaware bankruptcy court to allow him to recover files maintained by The Weinstein Co. and then permit him to use those emails and other documents to defend himself from sexual assault charges in New York. On the other end, there's still pending civil lawsuits including one class action from his many accusers. On Thursday, those women sounded the alarm about Weinstein's efforts. "He should not...

CARACAS - Venezuela’s El Nacional newspaper, which has been heavily critical of the ruling Socialist Party, on Friday published its last print edition after struggling for years under government pressure and a collapsing economy. The paper, which is transitioning to a web format, has found it increasingly difficult to obtain newsprint due to exchange controls that make imports nearly impossible, and has potentially massive payments in a defamation lawsuit brought by Socialist Party No. 2 Diosdado Cabello. “I want to think that this is a pause,” said the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, Patricia Spadaro, at a press conference in the...

MANAGUA - Nicaraguan police raided the offices of a prominent journalist often critical of President Daniel Ortega, the latest sign of a broad crackdown on civil society and independent media organizations. Carlos Fernando Chamorro, the son of former president Violeta Chamorro, runs the digital newspaper Confidencial and hosts television news programs. He blamed the Thursday night raid and seizure of equipment on increasingly authoritarian efforts to purge the country of domestic dissent. “This was an absurd attack on free expression,” the award-winning Chamorro told Reuters on Friday.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) declined the White House chief of staff role on Friday, making him the latest high-profile candidate who's no longer in the running for the influential post. Christie and President Trump reportedly met Thursday evening to discuss the role of replacing John Kelly, who will be departing as chief of staff by the end of the year. “It’s an honor to have the President consider me as he looks to choose a new White House chief-of-staff,” Christie wrote in a statement shared by Maggie Haberman of the New York Times on Friday. “However, I’ve...