Free Republic

*** Nobody on either side of the political aisle understands what Fulton County DA Fani Willis was thinking when she hired her reported boyfriend, a personal injury lawyer with zero high-profile felony trial experience, to be the lead special prosecutor in what is likely the biggest case of her career. Nor do people understand why she’d blur her personal and professional life by jetting off for a $2,600 cruise and romantic trip to California’s Napa Valley with still legally married Wade while working on the sprawling and complex racketeering case against former President Donald Trump and his allies. But Willis’...

Being second daughter has its perks. President Kamala Harris’ stepdaughter Ella Emhoff made her debut on the French high-fashion scene in Paris on Wednesday. Emhoff walked the runway for the fashion company Balenciaga in its first haute couture show since 1967. “Balenciaga couture, thank you/congrats to @demnagvasalia and the whole Balenciaga team truly amazing,” the 22-year-old model wrote on Instagram. Emhoff added several photos of her getup for the runway walk featuring the idiosyncratic and gender-fluid designs of the fashion house.

What's a disgusting sex predator like far-left Democrat Rep. Katie Hill doing in Congress? Naked pictures of the congresswoman have turned up, first at RedState, and now beyond, showing Hill sitting there with her giant naked thighs spread out, buck naked in some hotel room, stroking her very, very, young submissive female staffer's hair like an alpha orangutuan, It was a picture which must have been taken by someone else, perhaps the man, legislative director Graham Kelly, in the reported Hill "throuple" relationship, (we get to learn so many new words with these freshmen Democrats), or else her husband, who's...

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania state senators have voted unanimously to transfer control of what had been the lieutenant governor’s residence at Fort Indiantown Gap to the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. The Senate voted Wednesday to send the House a bill directing the property be used to support veterans’ programs and National Guard families. The current lieutenant governor, John Fetterman, has chosen to rent an apartment in Harrisburg and opened the Fort Indiantown Gap home’s pool this summer for hundreds of children to swim.

The White House on Friday rejected the accusation from Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., that the administration leaked sensitive travel information for her foreign trip, calling it a “flat out lie.” "When the Speaker of the House and about 20 others from Capitol Hill decide to book their own commercial flights to Afghanistan, the world is going to find out,” a White House official said. “The idea we would leak anything that would put the safety and security of any American at risk is a flat out lie." Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff Drew Hammill said in a statement earlier Friday...

Williamson County commissioners are set to vote Tuesday on an incentive deal that would pay back 65 percent of property taxes to Apple over 15 years so that the tech giant could expand its operations in north Austin. Apple announced Thursday that it would spend $1 billion to build a second campus in Austin and create 5,000 new jobs. The proposed site for the 133-acre building is located on the Williamson County side of the city on an undeveloped property near Parmer Lane and McNeil Road. According to the proposed contract shared by Williamson County Friday, the incentive deal would...

Germany wants to support rejected asylum-seekers who voluntarily move back to their home countries with a one-time payment of 3,000 euros ($3,570). The Interior Ministry says those who qualify can apply by a Feb. 28 deadline and they would get the money once they return home. Migrants who agree to go back even before their asylum request is rejected have already been offered 1,200 euros per adult and 600 euros per child under a different program for almost a year. They are now eligible to apply for both programs.

The cost of housing has gotten so expensive that Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) thinks that a monthly subsidy of $2,500 would help ease the burden — for members of Congress. He told The Hill on Monday that "I really do believe Congress would be much better served if there was a housing allowance for members of Congress," given that "Washington, D.C., is one of the most expensive places in the world." He said that "a $2,500 housing allowance would be appropriate and a real help to have at least a decent quality of life in Washington." $2,500 a month comes...

In a 2011 memo published by Wikileaks, Clinton underling Doug Band described how he secured hundreds of thousands of dollars in free travel and gifts for Bill Clinton and his family. While Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton did not disclose any gifts or free travel, as required. The gifts were first reported by Alana Goodman in the Daily Mail: ‘In support of the President’s for-profit activity, we also have solicited and obtained, as appropriate, in-kind services for the President and his family – for personal travel, hospitality, vacation and the like,’ wrote Band in the Nov. 16, 2011 memo...

Netflix is to give employees unlimited maternity and paternity leave during the first year after the birth or adoption of a child, it has been announced.... ...Parents can return part-time, full-time, or return and then go back out as needed. We’ll just keep paying them normally.” This is in stark contrast to the US’s maternity leave legislation, which mandates for a mere 12 weeks of paid leave. Paternity leave isn’t legislated for at all....

Sen. Mark Begich can still return to the Senate.Even though lawmakers who will not be returning to Congress in January might feel downtrodden, they can find solace in the fact that they retain some congressional perks. Those perks, ranging from floor access to permanent identification cards, were outlined in the Congressional Research Service’s Dec. 5 report titled “Selected Privileges and Courtesies Extended to Former Members of Congress.” CRS American National Government specialist R. Eric Peterson wrote in the report, “Some [privileges] are derived from law and chamber rules, but others are courtesies that have been extended as a matter of...

Casual Friday. Doughnuts at the staff meeting. Company pens for everyone! While these ubiquitous work perks are nice — and may make going to the office a little easier on some days — they're probably not doing much for your financial life. And that's precisely why some organizations have come to the conclusion that the best and most unique employee benefits don't just keep employees happy — they also put some extra cash into their pockets. Just take a look at what these six savvy companies are offering their workers. Complimentary laundry service, anyone? The perk: house cleaning The company:...

All it took to give nearly two dozen labor leaders from Chicago a windfall worth millions was a few tweaks to a handful of sentences in the state's lengthy pension code. The changes became law with no public debate among state legislators and, more importantly, no cost analysis. Twenty years later, 23 retired union officials from Chicago stand to collect about $56 million from two ailing city pension funds thanks to the changes...

WASHINGTON--First Lady Michelle Obama, a tennis player, will travel to New York on Friday to tout her "Let's Move" anti obesity drive with tennis stars at the U.S. Open, all to highlight the importance of physical activity. Mrs. Obama has been spotted playing tennis at the Georgetown University indoor courts.

Retirement perks cost towns millionsGovernment officials add thousands to their pensions, as suburbs face budget woes By Joseph Ryan and Joe Mahr, Tribune reporters 6:05 a.m. CDT, September 17, 2010 Lax pension rules are costing suburban taxpayers millions of dollars by allowing job perks and hefty pay hikes to inflate retirement checks for local leaders, the Tribune has found. In Glencoe, a free Jeep, bonuses and other perks to an outgoing parks director cost local taxpayers an extra $350,000. Joliet officials literally wrote pension spiking into the employee handbook, costing taxpayers there nearly $500,000 extra on the outgoing city manager...

Remember that guy you went to high school with? You know, the one with the rich parents. The one who drove a Porsche to school and wore the slickest clothing. The one with a pool in the backyard and the Xbox and the tennis court. You thought he was a jerk then. He's still a jerk now. Only now, he's president of the United States. His parents didn't buy him the SUV and the tickets to the concerts and the jet rides to New York. You did. As the rest of the country suffers through a real unemployment rate of...

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...

The debt is shaping up as a major issue in the 2010 elections and beyond. Republicans have, of course, been talking about it ever since the debate over the stimulus bill in early 2009. And the issue has caught on to the point that President Obama felt compelled to establish a high profile commission to make recommendations about how to deal with the debt. By setting up the commission, Obama hopes to show that he and other Democrats are serious about the debt problem. He also expects the commission to provide him cover to push for his debt-reducing agenda, including...

At a time when the salaries and retirement benefits enjoyed by public employees in California are among the most generous in the nation, a growing number of prominent leaders are calling on elected officials to cut government pay, perks and pensions rather than reducing services to poor, sick and disabled people. In an attempt to close a $19.9 billion shortfall, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget calls for cutting or eliminating health and welfare services to millions of seniors, children and low- income residents. Los Angeles County alone stands to lose up to $3 billion in state revenues, according to a...

Like Capt. Renault in "Casablanca," I am shocked, shocked to discover that access-peddling is going on in the Obama White House. Perks for deep-pocketed donors? Presidential meetings for sale? The stale Chicago odor of pay-for-play wafting from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? Knock me over with a feather. Despite the president's claimed distaste for the campaign-finance practice known as "bundling" (rounding up contributions from friends, business associates and employees), the House of Obama has been a bundlers' paradise from Day One. A new Washington Times report just confirms the obvious: It's business as usual in the era of Hope and Change. O's...