Free Republic

HUNTSVILLE, AL (WAFF) - One lawmaker in the eye of the storm that is the government shutdown offered his encouragement to residents in the Tennessee Valley Tuesday night. Texas Senator Ted Cruz spoke at a dinner held by the Huntsville Republican Women. He gave a speech and then took questions from the crowd, via a video link from Washington. Cruz had been scheduled to appear in person but the turmoil in Washington kept him there. During the event, Cruz took the opportunity to blast the Obama administration on a wide range of issues. "We're seeing the constitutional rights of law-abiding...

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base, Alabama Maxwell Air Force Base, officially known as Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base, is a United States Air Force installation under the Air Education and Training Command (AETC). The installation is located in Montgomery, Alabama, US. It was named in honor of Atmore, Alabama native Second Lieutenant William C. Maxwell. Maxwell AFB is the headquarters of Air University (AU), a major component of Air Education and Training Command (AETC), and is the U.S. Air Force's center for Joint Professional Military Education (PME). The host wing for Maxwell-Gunter is...

An Alabama high school student killed himself after he was threatened with severe legal consequences — including registration as a sex offender — because he went streaking at a football game. The student, 15-year-old Christian Adamek, died from wounds he sustained while attempting to hang himself, according to The Daily Mail. Adamek ran naked across the field at a September 27th football game between his school, Sparkman High School, and Grissom High School. The incident was recorded and put on Youtube, and many students remarked that the prank had made Adamek — already a popular student, according to reports —...

Earlier this week, bad news arrived in mailboxes across New Jersey, as people discovered their health-insurance plans had been wiped out by ObamaCare. Plans that didn’t measure up to the mandates imposed by the Affordable Care Act were being canceled, despite President Obama’s infamous vow that “if you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.” How many folks in New Jersey were affected by this latest failure of Obama’s campaign promises? Oh, only about eight hundred thousand or so. The Star-Ledger reports this...

AUBURN, AL (WSFA) - The Auburn Police Department says it has arrested two people following a shooting that happened Sunday evening in the 800 block of Annalue Drive. Officers were called to the residence just before 9 p.m. on a report that a man found two people inside his home. The homeowner fired several shots at the suspects who then fled the scene. The victim reported two Samsung cell phones valued at $600 were taken in the burglary.

This has to be read to be believed. A group of competitive trail riders, having just completed 75 and 50 mile endurance rides, were evicted from Talladega NF in the middle of the night. Exhausted horses and humans were forced to move trailers out of a pine grove in the dark under threat of fines and prosecutions. The local park rangers were sympathetic, but U.S. Marshals were brought in (no doubt at great expense) to ensure that the rangers caused as much pain as possible despite their personal sympathy. Coming soon to a government function near you . . ....

Tropical Storm Karen threatens Central Gulf of Mexico states. NHC Public Advisories NHC Tropical Discussions

U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Vestavia Hills, said this morning that he will not seek re-election in 2014. Bachus, 65, said in a statement released by email that he will retire from congress at the conclusion of his current term in December 2014. Bachus, who has represented the state's 6th congressional district since 1993, is the senior member of Alabama's congressional delegation.

Complete news release from the Kansas Attorney General's Office: Kansas concealed carry licenses are now recognized in the State of Alabama, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt announced today. The Office of Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange last week notified the Kansas Attorney General’s office that a new Alabama law, which took effect August 1, recognizes valid concealed carry licenses from all other states. A similar law was passed by the Kansas legislature earlier this year, which allows all valid out-of-state permits to be recognized in Kansas when the non-resident permit holder is traveling temporarily in Kansas. Alabama is the 34th...

Seven people have pleaded guilty to stealing money from an oil spill settlement fund, Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange announced Monday. Five of the defendants were charged with theft of property. They’re collectively ordered to pay more than $20,000 in restitution, officials said. The defendants were indicted by a Mobile County grand jury on accusations that they created fake documents to file fraudulent claims saying they had lost income because of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. Defendants who were paid from the settlement fund have been sentenced to between one and five years in prison. Their sentences...

Some parents at Leeds Elementary Public School in Alabama were in for a shock when their kids brought home a permission slip for corporal punishment. It stated that failure to return the form would be considered authorization for school personnel to administer the punishment. Corporal punishment is legal in 19 states in America. …

Dem Mayor PeeWee Richardson Charged With Multiple Sex Crimes BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff September 20, 2013 12:28 pm James “PeeWee” Richardson, mayor of Carbon Hill, Alabama, was arrested and taken to the Walker County Jail Thursday evening for allegations of sexual abuse, sexual misconduct, harassment, and soliciting prostitution. Accusations against Richardson include: sexual conduct against four victims, “that he engaged some victims in the custody of the Carbon City Jail,” and soliciting prostitution from one of the victims. Should “PeeWee” be convicted, his maximum penalty would be one to ten years in jail for one to ten years per...

North Carolina has become the seventh state to prohibit state judges from considering Islamic law in family cases, joining what critics say is a national anti-Muslim campaign. ... North Carolina now joins Arizona, Kansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Tennessee, according to Religion News Service, in banning Islamic Sharia law. A constitutional amendment seeking the same change in Alabama will be on the 2014 ballot. In Missouri, the governor vetoed an anti-Sharia bill because of its potential impact on international adoptions. But the law in Oklahoma was struck down in court as unconstitutional,

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- United States Attorney General Eric Holder told a packed crowd at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church that the struggle that began here in Birmingham in 1963 continues today, with the Voting Rights Act under siege by those who would roll it back and civil rights denied by a criminal justice system that does more to perpetuate problems than to resolve them. "Today, we affirm that it is our duty - and it will always be the responsibility of every American - to confront injustice wherever it is found, to isolate those who act out of hate, and...

American jihadi Omar Hammami was murdered “in cold blood,” a Somalia-based Islamic center said, backing up reports that the militant from Alabama was killed Thursday by his rivals within the Somali Islamic extremist group al-Shabab.The Islamic World Issues Study Center published a tribute online in which it describes the killings of Hammami, 29, and two other militants as a “tragedy,” saying al-Shabab should be “directing their arrows at the enemies of the group,” according to a report issued Saturday by SITE Intel Group, an American private company that analyzes terror threats. … In an interview last week with Voice of...

A US Islamic extremist fighting in Somalia was killed Thursday in a shootout with Al-Qaeda linked Shebab militants, former comrades he had fallen out with, witnesses said. Alabama-born Omar Hamami -- better known as Al-Amriki or "the American" -- was one of the most prominent foreigners fighting in Somalia, and the US State Department had offered a $5 million bounty for his capture. "There was a gun battle between Amriki and his men and other fighters, the reports are that Amriki is among those killed," said Moalim Ali, a resident in Bardhere district.

It’s rare these days to have the opportunity to send both a principled conservative and someone brandishing the pre-attained experience necessary to make an impact on Day 1. Yet that’s exactly the opportunity the voters of Alabama’s 1st Congressional District have in the person of Quin Hillyer, who time and time again has risen to the challenge of consistent conservatism over a career spanning back to President Reagan. Having watched and known Quin Hillyer for years, I can personally attest to each. He faces a crowded GOP field, full of good people, but none can match the depth of policy...

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - The largest synagogue in Birmingham has thrown a penalty flag on any talk of football during Yom Kippur, the last day of the Jewish High Holy Days on Sept. 14. Temple Emanu-El posted a stern announcement in a hand-out bulletin distributed at Rosh Hashanah services Wednesday night and Thursday morning, saying that football should not be discussed at the synagogue on the solemn Day of Atonement.

Dean Young, a candidate for Congress in Alabama’s first district, says he’s being “inundated by the left” for his endorsement of traditional marriage and his request that fellow Republican primary candidates do the same. The battle came to a head this week when the left-leaning Huffington Post headlined a story about him and his work titled “Alabama GOP candidate wants his opponents to promise they’re anti-gay, religious enough.” The story says: “Alabama Republican Dean Young, a candidate for the congressional seat of retiring Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Ala., is not a fan of gay rights. So, in an effort to make...

Memo to Maegan Pitt: If you're gonna videotape alleged civil rights abuses by the cops, don't be the biggest crime on the tape. When Jefferson County Sheriff's deputies John McGrath and Philip Blanding sought to execute a warrant for the arrest of Pitt's husband, tainted evangelist and cop wannabe Matt Pitt, she railed at the officers and trailed them through the Trussville home. "There is so much crap on y'all, y'all are about to get in big trouble," she said. It was posted on YouTube under the name "Jefferson County illegal search of Matt Pitt's home and use of excessive...

The Obama administration is poised to rescind a little-known emissions exemption for power plants as it seeks to address climate change. Green groups are pressuring the Environmental Protection Agency to finalize a rule that would force utilities to limit emissions when power plants are shutting down, starting up or malfunctioning. Those emissions had previously been exempted from regulations because they were not considered a part of “normal operations,” but the EPA says that policy is now “outdated.” The environmental group Sierra Club held rallies last week near two facilities that would be affected by the end of the exemption and...

<p>BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A federal aviation official says a large UPS cargo plane has crashed near an airport in Birmingham, Ala.</p> <p>Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen tells The Associated Press that the A300 plane crashed on approach to the airport before dawn Wednesday.</p>

BIRMINGHAM, AL, August 8, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An Alabama judge has shut down Birmingham's New Women, All Women abortion facility after finding its owner was illegally operating without a state license. Judge Joseph Boohaker of the Jefferson County Circuit Court also permanently barred its alleged proprietor, Dr. Bruce Norman, from operating an abortion facility at this location in the future. The decision comes just one day after an ambulance was called to the Jackson Women's Health Organization in Mississippi, where Dr. Norman also performs abortions, to transport a pale brunette woman to the hospital.

A West Virginia state senator leaves the Democratic party.In West Virginia, a fed-up Democratic state senator is changing parties — and hoping to represent his state in Congress. State senator Evan Jenkins is done with President Obama’s vision for America. “The Obama agenda has become crystal clear,” he says, pointing to the president’s support for “immigration reform that includes amnesty provisions” as well as “his limitations on our constitutional rights relating to gun ownership,” “his environmental agenda, which spells the end of coal and coal jobs,” and “the government takeover of health care.” “Those are issues and positions that I...

n Monday, August 5, the same day abortion clinic owner Diane Derzis faces a judge about the accusation she is illegally operating the New Woman All Women abortion clinic in Birmingham, shut down by the state of Alabama since 2012, pro-lifers have organized a simultaneous Twitter campaign called #ShutDerzisDown, in hopes of adding pressure and bringing public awareness to the accusation of the flagrant disregard for the law and persistent operation of what they say is now an illegal abortion clinic. new woman alabamaDerzis is infamous to Southern pro-lifers. Her ownership of two major abortion clinics has made her the...

Under the cover of Obama’s campaign to sell his budget .. it is no coincidence that his visit is occurring at the same time Volkswagen is being pressured to accept the UAW into its Chattanooga factory. The United Auto Workers have tried every other option at this point including calling in a favor with the union that resides in Volkswagen’s home plant in Germany. ... it doesn’t look like the UAW’s normal campaign of propaganda seems to be succeeding; therefore, it’s time to call in the big dog himself and hope their investment of $148,967 into the reelection of President...

Alabama executed a convicted murderer on Thursday who prisoners' rights groups said was mentally ill. Andrew Reid Lackey, 29, was put to death by lethal injection at Holman Prison in Atmore, Alabama, prison officials said. It was the state's first execution since 2011. Lackey was convicted of killing Charlie Newman, an 80-year-old World War Two veteran in Athens, Alabama. Andrew Reid Lackey, who was executed by Alabama on Thursday, was prescribed multiple psychotropic drugs, according to the Equal Justice Initiative. Lackey made no statement before his execution, according to prison officials. He was pronounced dead at 6:25 p.m. local time...

BIRMINGHAM, AL, July 25, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Photographs, eyewitness testimony, online advertisements, and an undercover phone call all prove that an Alabama abortion clinic that was supposed to have shut its doors last year is still operating illegally, according to a pro-life legal group. The evidence against the New Woman All Woman (NWAW) abortion clinic in Birmingham was all compiled by the Life Legal Defense Foundation and submitted as part of an amicus curiae brief in support of the state’s request for a permanent injunction against the facility. After a state inspection last year uncovered 76 pages of serious violations...

Kansas laws could be targeted as the U.S. attorney general on Thursday announced a new federal offensive against state restrictions on voting rights. Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday that he is shifting resources in the Justice Department to pursue more legal action against state-by-state voting restrictions. He said his efforts will begin with Texas and expand to other states where voting issues have surfaced. Joan Wagnon, chairwoman of the Kansas Democratic Party, applauded Holder’s speech and said she’s considering contacting the Justice Department over the issue of more than 12,000 Kansas voters whose registration is “in suspense” because of...

MONTGOMERY, Alabama – A Jefferson County lawmaker wants to change Alabama’s Stand Your Ground law so the defense can not be invoked by someone who followed or pursued a person before a confrontation. The legislation is directly inspired by the shooting of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida. “I’m calling this the Trayvon Martin amendment,” Rep. Merika Coleman-Evans, D-Pleasant Grove.

Chanting "Justice for Trayvon," some 500 demonstrators marched from the Frank M. Johnson Federal Courthouse up legendary Dexter Avenue Saturday in a noon time rally that coincided with at least 101 across the country. Organized by Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network (NAN), the Montgomery event included a keynote address by Sharpton's brother, Pastor Kenneth Sharpton Glasgow

Blackwell was wanted by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and Pulaski Police Department on one count of rape of a child. According to the TBI, Blackwell was babysitting a 4-month-old baby at a residence in Pulaski on June 9, 2013. When the infant's mother returned home, she noticed signs of trauma later determined to be injuries suffered from sexual abuse. The victim underwent surgery at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital to repair the injuries.

Plan 2020 strives to use where students are now as starting point Beginning this fall, Alabama public schools will be under a new state-created academic accountability system that sets different goals for students in math and reading based on their race, economic status, ability to speak English and disabilities. The state's new Plan 2020 will replace No Child Left Behind, the much-maligned, Bush-era accountability program. Plan 2020 emphasizes getting students college- or career-ready and closing the achievement gap that exists between impoverished minority students and students who are better off socioeconomically. It sets a different standard for students in each...

Churches across Alabama are known for their clever and sometimes humorous signs promoting the Sunday sermon –but not many people are laughing at the sign outside the New Era Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. “They’re calling me a hate-monger,” Pastor Michael R. Jordan told Fox News. “Most whites down South don’t like it.” The sign reads, “George Zimmerman jury supported white racism.” It was first reported by Birmingham news reporter Greg Garrison. Jordan said he made the decision to post the controversial statement after preaching the Sunday night message, calling Zimmerman a ‘”racist” and his acquittal a “racist verdict.” “I...

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt and the attorneys general of 11 other states sued the Environmental Protection Agency Tuesday, demanding that the agency turn over documents the states allege will show the agency cooperates with environmental groups as part of a "sue and settle" legal strategy to develop regulations. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City, alleges that binding consent decrees between the EPA and environmental groups that have sued the agency over the years have led to new rules and regulations for states without allowing their attorneys general to defend their interests and those of its...

Grassroots Americans from across the political spectrum will march in Washington, D.C., from Freedom Plaza to Capitol Hill on Monday from 9:30 AM until the early afternoon. Breitbart News will be broadcasting the event live online at Breitbart.com, starting when speeches from members of Congress and leaders in the activist community begin on Capitol Hill at 11 AM EDT and continuing until 4 PM EDT. Confirmed speakers at the event include Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Ted Cruz (R-TX), Reps. Steve King (R-IA) and Mo Brooks (R-AL), former Florida Republican Congressman Col. Allen West, conservative activist Wayne Dupree, the Rev....

MOBILE, Alabama -- A man is recovering at the University of South Alabama Medical Center after police say he and two women tried to set two men up for an armed robbery at a home on South Gimon Circle Wednesday night, according to the Mobile Police Department. Their plan was foiled after the homeowner grabbed a gun from his bedroom closet and opened fire on the man, who was armed at the time, according to MPD spokeswoman Ashley Rains. Kastellio Demarcus Vaughan, 23, is in custody at USAMC with multiple gunshot wounds, Rains said. He will face one count of...

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - A pregnant, 28-year-old nurse was abducted as she walked to her car in the parking lot of Princeton Baptist Medical Center on Saturday night, according to a Birmingham police spokesman. An unknown, armed black male abducted the woman at the hospital at 701 Tuscaloosa Avenue and forced her to drive her vehicle to several ATMs to withdraw money, Birmingham Police spokesman Capt. Henry Irby said. The woman was abducted while she was on the phone with her husband, who called police at 6:45 p.m.

Four high-ranking Republican lawmakers criticized the Obama administration on Friday for three failed tests of the country's missile-defense system, saying budget cuts and neglect are to blame. Sens. James Inhofe, R-Okla., and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., along with Reps. Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., and Mike Rogers, R-Ala., sent Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel a letter faulting President Obama for allegedly gambling with national security by cutting funding to the program. They claim this hampered the ability to conduct vital tests needed to make sure the "ground-based midcourse defense system" (GMD) worked properly and conduct regular maintenance. The last successful GMD intercept test...

CROSSVILLE, AL - A Crossville man's home was broken into Sunday. When a trio tried to break into his camper the next day, they got a little more than they bargained for. According to DeKalb Co. Sheriff Jimmy Harris, a home on County Road 24 was broken into Sunday. The owner was cleaning up from the break-in on Monday when he heard people outside and found three people trying to break into his camper. The owner called the Sheriff's Office, then held the offenders at gunpoint until the authorities arrived.The victim noticed some of his belongings from the first burglary...

He aims to make the jump from writing about Congress to serving in it.Alabama GOP representative Jo Bonner announced in May that he was resigning to take a vice-chancellor’s job at the University of Alabama System in Tuscaloosa. Among the first to announce interest in his seat was Quin Hillyer, a senior editor at The American Spectator magazine and past contributor to National Review. Hillyer spoke to NRO’s Jim Geraghty Friday. Jim GERAGHTY: Quin, here’s the question that has nagged at me since the moment I heard you were running: Why on earth would anyone want to give up the...

State officials across the South are aggressively moving ahead with new laws requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls after the Supreme Court decision striking down a portion of the Voting Rights Act. The Republicans who control state legislatures throughout the region say such laws are needed to prevent voter fraud. But such fraud is extremely rare, and Democrats are concerned that the proposed changes will make it harder for many poor voters and members of minorities — who tend to vote Democratic — to cast their ballots in states that once discriminated against black voters with poll...

The Huntsville Stars minor league baseball team is planning to give away the opportunity to win guns to fans in drawings at the July 3 game at Joe Davis Stadium. The game is being billed as "2nd Amendment Night." The Stars have clarified on Twitter than the promotion is a raffle and that the guns will not be given away at the stadium. Stars general manager Buck Rogers said today there will be no guns given away at the game, only the raffle tickets redeemable at Larry's Pistol and Pawn. Guns are prohibited at all Huntsville Stars games. Rogers said...

A landmark Supreme Court ruling that struck down a key part of the Voting Rights Act has set up a stand-off between Republican-led states and the Obama administration over controversial voting laws that until now had been stalled. The 5-4 ruling on Tuesday addressed a 1960s-era provision that largely singled out states and districts in the South -- those with a history of discrimination -- and required them to seek federal permission to change their voting laws. The court ruled that the formula determining which states are affected was unconstitutional. ********************** Attorney General Eric Holder warned states against going too...

The Talk Shows June 23th, 2013 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Mike Lee, R-Utah; Gabriel Gomez, Republican nominee for Senate in Massachusetts.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; Reps. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., and Mike Rogers, R-Mich.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.THIS WEEK (ABC): Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency; Reps. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas; Mike Kelly, R-Pa.; and Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky.,...

Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) blasted the Senate's border security amendment to its immigration bill, touted as a breakthrough for the controversial legislation. Sessions alleged that it does not hire any new border agents until years after its presumed passage. Senators Bob Corker (R-TN) and John Hoeven (R-ND) gave reassurances on Thursday that their amendment would enact tough border security provisions before any legalization of new immigrants could occur. Corker and Hoeven stated on Fox News Friday that their amendment would bring a “surge” to border security. The provisions of the amendment include 20,000 additional border patrol agents, 700 miles of...

On the Senate floor on Friday, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) mocked and blistered Karl Rove and his "fat cat" and "country club" pals at American Crossroads for being out of touch with working class Americas on immigration. Sessions, one of the staunchest opponents of the Senate's immigration bill, said Rove "raised a bunch of money for Crossroads to run ads in the last election that was supposed to elect Mr. Romney. Didn't do so well, Karl. Sorry about that. Wish you'd been more effective." American Crossroads wasted more $100 million last year and supported no winning candidates. He suggested Rove...

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- The fate of Paula Deen's magazine, Cooking with Paula Deen, is still up in the air after a controversy over the Food Network host's use of racial epithets led to the end of her television contract. "We are not in a position to discuss her magazine and contract right now," said Phyllis Hoffman DePiano, the president of Birmingham-based Hoffman Media, which produces the magazine. "A statement will be forthcoming later." "We at Hoffman Media do not condone discrimination of any kind," DePiano said.

Not many players walk away from football as abruptly as Glen Coffee did. The former Alabama star running back played a season with the 49ers and even started two games. Then the former third-round pick simply told the team he was done with football during training camp before what would have been his second season, in 2010. Most football players will stay in the NFL until they're told they can no longer come back, but Coffee admitted he just didn't like football anymore. And it turns out, he had bigger goals. AL.com reported Coffee enlisted in the U.S. Army in...