Free Republic

The Treasury Department on Friday rejected an effort by the Teamsters Central States Pension Plan to cut benefits for 270,000 retired workers starting in July. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said in a letter to members of Congress that while the decision blocks the pending pension cuts, it does not resolve the issue because the pension plan remains severely underfunded and is projected to become insolvent within the next 10 years. …

Almost 55 months after confessing felonious conduct, Teamster money-laundering scandal figure, Jere Nash, has finally been sentenced. U.S. Dist. Judge Thomas P. Griesa (S.D.N.Y., Nixon) sentenced Nash Apr. 9 to a mere two years probation for his role in a series of schemes which lead to the embezzlement of some $885,000 from the Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters' treasury and to $538,100 in illegal campaign contributions to the failed reelection campaign of expelled IBT president Ron Carey. The sentencing appears to have been hush hush: the four N.Y.C. major dailies and the two Washington, D.C., dailies apparently did not cover the...

On Wednesday night, Anderson Cooper took some time to address how Michele Bachmann‘s recent comment about the danger of the HPV vaccine — relaying a story about a Tampa woman who supposedly shared that her daughter had developed mental retardation following the vaccination — fits in with other misleading and incorrect comments she had made in the recent past.Said Cooper: Now it’s certainly not a new phenomenon for politicians to stretch the truth and manipulate facts. But Bachmann is spreading an all-out falsehood here — a dangerous falsehood at that. It’s not the first time she’s done this by any...

The Republican Party in Minnesota, where the GOP will crown its nominee this summer, is a perfect reflection right now of the national party. It is all mixed up on the presidential race and struggling to hold an increasingly fragile coalition together. "There's a real battle going on here for what it means to be conservative, to be Republican," said Andy Aplikowski, a local party chairman. "Is it religion, is it defense, free markets ... states' rights? There's no common message." In Minnesota, as across the country, evangelicals are lining up behind pastor-turned-politician Mike Huckabee despite his record of tax...

Comedy film and television actor Ron Carey -- who began his career as a stand-up on "The Merv Griffin Show," "The Mike Douglas Show," "The Ed Sullivan Show" and "The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson" -- has died. He was 71. Carey died Tuesday of complications from a stroke at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He appeared on the hit TV series "Barney Miller" as officer Carl Levitt and the sitcom "Lucky Luke." Carey's feature credits include Mel Brooks' "History of the World: Part 1," "High Anxiety," "Silent Movie," "Fatso" and "The Out of Towners." Carey was born Dec....