Free Republic

A North Texas teenager disappeared after going to the bathroom at a Dallas Mavericks game. A week later, her parents found her on nude advertisements for sex trafficking online in Oklahoma City. The harrowing incident is the basis for a lawsuit by the family against numerous organizations they said could have stopped the crime but didn't. The 15-year-old went to the game with her father on April 8 at the American Airlines Center. She went missing after leaving to go the bathroom right before halftime, and surveillance video captured her leaving with a man. The parents of the teenager said...

Ted Cruz continued his campaign against the national healthcare law Friday, calling on Texans to rise up and join a grassroots movement to try to repeal the program.This time, he took his argument to a group of local businesspeople, saying it’s time for change.“How do we repeal Obamacare?” he asked a crowd of nearly 300 people gathered for a Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce luncheon at the Petroleum Club. “It will come from millions and millions of people rising up and saying” that it doesn’t work.He likened such a movement to a late 1970s push that ultimately ushered in the...

Isaiah Smith is no stranger to crusades. He’s spoken out on gay rights before, last year appearing before the Keller City Council on the need for an anti-discrimination ordinance. But when the 18-year-old Birdville High School senior spoke out for gay rights in class this week after he said he was bullied — ripping apart his Bible to make a point — it earned him a three-day suspension. Smith said the suspension is unfair and that he intends to sue the district to remove the disciplinary action from his record. An attorney from the American Humanist Association has taken on...

AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry promised to keep fighting for private toll roads and his other transportation priorities Tuesday during his first major speech on the subject since the death in December of transportation commission chairman Ric Williamson. "This is a place for big challenges, not big excuses," he told state Transportation Department employees and highway experts from around the country at the annual Transportation Forum. Next year's legislative session, he said, can't be anything like last year's. "The Legislature must understand that 'no' is not a solution," Mr. Perry said. "It is an abdication of responsibility." Before last year's...