Free Republic

This was one action-packed scene. An irate moviegoer was caught on tape pummeling a fellow patron over a seat in a Florida theater earlier this month, authorities said. The unidentified suspect appeared to throw numerous punches at a 63-year-old man who stumbled to the ground during part of the unhinged attack on July 10, according to footage released by the Broward County Sheriff’s Office. The confrontation between the two men began when the victim and his wife saw the suspect and his female companion in the VIP seats they purchased in advance before showing up at the AMC Pompano theater,...

House Democrats voted Thursday to make Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) the top Democrat on the powerful Oversight and Reform Committee in the next Congress, a pivotal role in the defense of President Biden as Republicans prepare to take control of the lower chamber next year. Raskin, a six-year House veteran, defeated Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) in the closed-door, secret-ballot vote on Capitol Hill, where the full caucus gathered to finalize their committee roster heading into the 118th Congress.

It’s clear that Generation Z has earned a seat at the table. We’ve led the social movements that have shaped our current politic climate and helped elect President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris into office. Our growing political power is driven by our unique perspective on the future as we ask ourselves: What does the future hold? Too often, as young people we are underestimated due to our age, but in reality many of us have years of experience and our youth and age is not a detriment, but an asset providing our perspective as members of the...

Just when you thought he was out … Ex-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told a state lawmaker he plans to run for New York’s newly drawn 10th Congressional district — the seat entrenched Rep. Jerrold Nadler is vacating to fight it out with former longtime ally Rep. Carolyn Maloney in the rejigged 12th.

In what could be an indicator of things to come in the 2022 mid-term election, the GOP flipped a state senate seat in a Connecticut special election on Tuesday night – the first flip for either party in 2021. The Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) announced in an email: State Republicans tonight delivered the first flip of a state legislative seat in a special election by either party in 2021, as Republican Ryan Fazio defeated liberal Democrat Alex Gevanter in Connecticut’s state Senate District 36 – a district Joe Biden won by more than 25% in 2020.

Senate Republicans are actively courting New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu to challenge Sen. Maggie Hassan in next year’s midterms. Hassan (D-NH) was governor of the state until 2016, when she opted to challenge then-Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) instead of run for a third term. She won, and Sununu, a Republican, went on to beat Democrat Colin Van Ostern by more than two points in the gubernatorial race.

R.I. (WPRI) – Rhode Island is now just 157 residents away from losing one of its two seats in the U.S. House, which would give the state a single vote there for the first time since George Washington was president, according to an analysis of newly released population data. Kimball Brace, the reapportionment expert who has been involved in drawing legislative and congressional districts in Rhode Island since the early 1980s, ran the numbers Wednesday after the U.S. Census Bureau announced Rhode Island had added about 2,000 residents between July 2016 and July 2017.

Next Tuesday will see a "special election" in the Georgia, 6th CD, a race between 18 candidates, 11 Republicans & 7 Democrats. If there is a clear winner, she or he must achieve at least 50% of the ballots cast. This seat was vacated by Congressman, Tom Price, a Republican, appointed to the Trump Administration. It will be at best, a messy matter, but, The Republicans must do everything they can, to make certain a runoff occurs and they hold onto the seat. Bottom line is: every single Republican, Conservative and Independent voter must turnout for this gig in massive...

Rhode Island is likely to lose one of its two U.S. House seats after the 2020 U.S. Census, according to projections by reapportionment guru Kimball W. Brace, who has for many years helped Rhode Island lawmakers draw both state legislative and congressional districts

Don’t mess with pregnant Olivia Wilde. “NBD, able-bodied 🚇 [train] riders who won’t give your seat to a GIANT preggo,” she sarcastically tweeted on Wednesday. “I’ll just stand riiiiight next to your head and pray I go into labor.”

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson is running for the Florida Senate seat that Republican Marco Rubio is giving up to run for president. Grayson made the announcement on Thursday. "This is the it campaign of 2016. Just like Elizabeth Warren was the it campaign in her race," Grayson said. "I'm going to be running a Barack Obama style campaign. I am going to try and wake up and electrify the electorate with all the good we can do for each other." When WFTV asked Grayson how he is going to win, he replied, "By being the champion for...

LEBANON, TN (WSMV) - (video at link) If a Lebanon inventor has his way, the bathroom experience may never be the same. Dave Reynolds thinks toilets should glow in the dark, and he's not joking. "I kept telling this story over and over to people and they laughed," Reynolds said. "And I said, 'One day you're not going to laugh at me. One day you're going to go to the bathroom and think of me.'" For Reynolds, a glow-in-the-dark toilet just makes sense. "Not right now, but at 3 in the morning, that's when it comes together," he said. "When...

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) is talking like a man who will run for Senate in 2016. In an interview with The Hill on Tuesday, Grayson said he’s thinking about running. The often-controversial Democrat spoke at length about why he’d begin in a potential Senate race in position of strength, whether he’s going up against Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) or not. “We have some very substantial advantages,” Grayson said in an interview with The Hill on Tuesday. “I have over 100,000 individual contributors, no one else on the House Democratic side has anything like that. We have raised as much as...

It’s a sign of our air-rage times: three separate planes forced to divert in the space of two weeks when cramped passengers went ballistic over someone reclining their seat. In one episode, two undercover air marshals subdued and handcuffed the irate traveler in question. In another, a woman swore at the reclining passenger in front of her and screamed for the pilot to “put this plane down.” The dust-ups don’t shock Robert Mann, a former airline executive who now runs an airline-industry analysis company. “August is the highest load-factor month of the year for a North American carrier, and it’s...

Israel said on Thursday it plans to run for a rotating seat on the U.N. Security Council for the time ever for 2019-2020, although U.N. diplomats said it will not be easy for the Jewish state to win. “We’re going all out to win,” Israel's U.N. Ambassador Ron Prosor told Reuters. “It’s about time.” … Prosor said Israel will be vying against Germany and Belgium for two seats allotted to the “Western European and Others Group.” Technically, Israel should be a member of the Asia-Pacific Group along with the other states in the Middle East, but predominantly Muslim states blocked...

Names surface for Jackson Jr.'s seatBy Alexandra Jaffe - 11/24/12 06:00 AM ET Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.'s resignation from Congress leaves his seat in Illinois's 2nd District open for a special election, and local Democrats are already considering names. A top option would be Debbie Halvorson, who represented Illinois's 11th District for one term, from 2009-11, and lost her bid against Jackson this year when he picked up over 70 percent of the vote in the primary. Halvorson said in an email to The Hill that she has "not yet decided what I'm going to do," but indicated she's been...

Voters in Arizona were set to select a replacement for former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D) in a competitive special election on Tuesday, but late poll closings left the winner undetermined late Tuesday night.

The Obama campaign has found its Joe the Plumber. President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday night is expected to emphasize economic inequality, appropriately timed coming off the Occupy Wall Street fall leading up to Tuesday’s release of frequent Republican front-runner Mitt Romney’s tax returns which reveal that the multi-millionaire pays an effective tax rate of 13.9 percent. To hammer home the political game that the Obama campaign has been playing, billionaire Warren Buffett‘s longtime secretary will be joining first lady Michelle Obama in her seating section during tonight’s speech. The guest choice is significant because Buffett’s secretary,...

Democrat drops out of race for Texas Senate seatBy CHRIS TOMLINSON | AP – Fri, Dec 16, 2011 AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Retired Lt. Gen. Ric Sanchez, the sole major Democratic candidate in the race to replace Republican U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, said Friday he is dropping out of the Texas race because of "pressing personal challenges" and a lack of funds. In an email to supporters Friday afternoon, Sanchez thanked those who had encouraged him to run but said he needed to put his family first. **SNIP** While the Republican field to replace Hutchison is extremely crowded, Sanchez...

WGN Brothers denied flight due to size Southwest Airlines kicks Chicago teens off flight because one was too big Lourdes Duarte WGN News 9:41 PM CST, November 29, 2010 Two Chicago brothers say Southwest Airlines made things too difficult for them when it required one of them to buy a second ticket. The twin brothers were headed to Minnesota to visit their aunt on Thanksgiving night when one of them was told he was too big to fit in a seat and needed a second ticket. The 18-year-old brothers had no cash or credit cards on them so they called...