Free Republic

PERRIS, Calif. – Two Southern California parents are being held on $9 million bail each after a horrific discovery at a residence in Perris over the weekend, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department said Monday. An investigation began after a 17-year-old girl "escaped" from her home in the 100 block of Muir Woods Road and called 911 early Sunday morning to report that her 12 brothers and sister were being held captive by their parents, according to a sheriff's news release. She alleged some of her siblings were bound in padlocked chains. Her call prompted a response from Perris Police Department...

First Lady Melania Trump's fashion choices are "not America First," according to the Associated Press.A Monday article addressing the first lady's wardrobe declared "Melania Trump's style evokes Europe roots, not America First." AP reporter Thomas Admason credited Trump, who grew up in Slovenia before moving to Paris in the 1990s, for staying "true to her roots," and being "unafraid to go against her husband's ‘America First' agenda." Admason described the first lady's fashion choices as "keeping with the expensive personal taste she’s acquired since marrying Trump in 2005." The article goes on to assume her choice to wear designer clothes...

Pelosi: Tax Cut Bonuses for Employees Amount to 'Crumbs' House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Thursday slammed President Trump’s tax reform that led to companies giving as large as $2,000 bonuses as “crumbs,” despite praising Obama-era $40 tax cut to workers as a “victory for America” in 2011. Following the passage of sweeping tax cuts, including lowering the corporate tax from 35 percent to 21 percent, multiple companies have given out bonuses and pay rises for its workers amid anticipating tax savings. Former CBO director Doug Holtz-Eakin discusses why President Trump's tax reform overhaul is likely to benefit Republicans in...

Just in time for Martin Luther King Day, Bill Penzey is calling every Trump voter a racist. To combat that racism, Penzeys Spices is giving away a free “mini Soul Box” – normally $14.95 plus shipping and handling – for just a shipping charge of $3.95. The box contains some cinnamon, some Cajun Seasoning and, yes, a rub for chicken and pork called “33rd and Galena.” “Just the right gift for anyone on your list working to keep the goodness of the American soul alive,” Penzeys Spices’ online catalog claims. If the small box of spices isn’t enough for you,...

MADISON, WI - A woman stole money from a stranger who offered to buy her a meal at a fast-food restaurant on Madison's east side Tuesday, police said. Madison police said an 81-year-old Madison woman was at the KFC on East Washington Avenue at 4:15 p.m. when she met a woman, 36-year-old Stacy M. Andruss, who told her she was homeless. According to the report, the older woman, who is a regular customer at the KFC, offered to buy a meal for Andruss. While she was getting the food, Andruss got into the victim's purse. Police said the older woman...

MADISON, WI - A public hearing on a Republican bill that would end state wolf management efforts is off to a tense start. Democratic Rep. Nick Milroy began the proceeding in front of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee Wednesday by complaining that the bill's chief Assembly sponsor, Republican Adam Jarchow, didn't show up to address the panel. He said he was disgusted by Jarchow's absence. He said Jarchow proposed the bill simply to appeal to his conservative base as he heads into a special election for an open state Senate seat Tuesday. He questioned whether the committee's chairman, Rep. Joel...

In the latest overly empathetic attempt at shielding young people from the harsh realities of life, a shrink wonders if schools should ban children from having — wait for it — best friends. Writing in US News, child and family psychologist Dr. Barbara Greenberg says “there is something dreadfully exclusionary” about the concept of a “best friend,” and notes some American and European schools already forbid kids from having them. Greenberg realizes that many will scoff at the notion based on “real life” expectations (“perhaps there is some truth to that,” she says), but she is focused on the “bigger...

Quote of the Day: “I tell my people, ‘Where you don’t need to fill slots, don’t fill them,’ ” Trump told conservative radio host Laura Ingraham in November. --the Washington Post Wow! Imagine that--hiring people only for jobs that need to be done! And this radical proposition seems to be having an effect. The Washington Post analyzes federal personnel data and finds that President Trump is delivering on a promise near and dear to those who believe government is too big: Nearly a year into his takeover of Washington, President Trump has made a significant down payment on his campaign...

Ten years ago, subprime mortgages went from a little-known form of lending to a precipitating cause of the international banking crisis that led to the Great Recession of 2008 to 2009. Like these mortgages, another relatively obscure financial problem could end up being the next big taxpayer bailout. Unless the funding crisis for multiemployer pension plans is addressed, the “solution” will look more like the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s, under which the taxpayers lost $123.8 billion. In his testimony last November in the House, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) Director Thomas Reeder wrote, “Legislation is needed to...

The Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, formerly known as the food stamp program, is once again becoming a battleground for fiscal conservatives, welfare reformers, big-government advocates, and the food police. As Congress begins the process of re-authorization of the next Farm Bill, the skirmishes will become more intense, since SNAP makes up 80 percent of the total cost of the legislation. There are several issues that need to be addressed, starting with the bureaucratic nightmare of administering and overseeing the program. The Government Accountability Office has repeatedly highlighted lax oversight systems, caused in part by the dual jurisdiction over the program....

Anti-semitic, pro-Palestinian activist Linda Sarsour has been accused of allowing a woman who worked for her to be sexually assaulted and harassed. The woman also said Sarsour threatened her if she went public with the charges. The woman who made the claim, Asmi Fathelbab, worked at the time with Sarsour, who was executive director of the Arab American Association, the Daily Caller reported. Fathelbab said after she started working with the association as a contractor in 2009 she was groped and physically attacked by a man who also worked there. But her reports to leadership at the association were ignored...

Literally dozens of pro-Trump candidates are running for seats in Congress in 2018, and the establishment is really starting to freak out about this. If having Trump in the White House was a nightmare for them, how are they going to respond once his allies start taking control of Capitol Hill? For a very long time I have been saying that the 2018 mid-term elections are going to be the most important in modern American history. They will inevitably be a referendum on Trump and his policies, and I believe that the American people will support Trump wholeheartedly. Personally, I...

Trump administration officials are forbidding officials at the nation's top public health agency from using a list of seven words or phrases - including "fetus" and "transgender" - in any official documents being prepared for next year's budget. Policy analysts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta were told of the list of forbidden words at a meeting Thursday with senior CDC officials who oversee the budget, according to an analyst who took part in the 90-minute briefing. The forbidden words are: "vulnerable," "entitlement," "diversity," "transgender," "fetus," "evidence-based" and "science-based." In some instances, the analysts were given...

GRIFFITH, Indiana — Broad Street Gyros' doors will remain closed indefinitely until detectives finish their investigation into how a bag of cocaine wound up in a customer's food order last month, according to Griffith Police Cmdr. Keith Martin. The business at 105 N. Broad St. in downtown Griffith — steps away from the town's police department — was first shuttered Nov. 22 and the Town Council voted again this week to allow the suspension to stand during the police department's investigation, according to Martin and police records. No criminal charges have been filed, Martin said, but that could change as...

Harvey Weinstein built his complicity machine out of the witting, the unwitting and those in between. He commanded enablers, silencers and spies, warning others who discovered his secrets to say nothing. He courted those who could provide the money or prestige to enhance his reputation as well as his power to intimidate. In the weeks and months before allegations of his methodical abuse of women were exposed in October, Mr. Weinstein, the Hollywood producer, pulled on all the levers of his carefully constructed apparatus. He gathered ammunition, sometimes helped by the editor of The National Enquirer, who had dispatched reporters...

Just had to share. Found this earlier in the week, and I've had it on since 8am this morning and it is REALLY putting me in The Holiday Mood. Very nice background music (all instrumental) for whatever you're up to. Enjoy and Merry Christmas, FRiends!

Here’s a bitter taste for you. Bill Penzey of Penzeys Spices says being upset at players in the National Football League (NFL) who protest during the national anthem is racist. In his Veterans Day email to customers, Penzey explained the reason for the players protesting: “For Veterans Day, out of respect for Veterans, can we all just be honest and admit that the NFL protests really are about racism?” Except they’re not. They supposedly started as protests against police treatment of minorities. And, of course, it’s impossible to separate the message from being a protest against America because it is...

A recent book blames the boomers for everything bad in the country — and the author has a point. Earlier this year I read Bruce Gibney's screed "A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America," with the intent of writing about it here on MNN. At the time, I thought it was too extreme, too much of a rant. He asks in the introduction: "Can the case be made: can an entire generation be described as sociopathic?" He has this to say about baby boomers: 'The sociopaths’ goal is to wring every last dollar from the system, and...

In the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston back in 2015, the people at the nonprofit organization Haley House came up with a novel idea. They would open a pizza shop based on the principles of economic justice and fair wages to support the community. Named Dudley Dough, the shop would pay wages far above the minimum which many people in that industry earn, with added incentives for training and community development. It was an inspiring idea. Unfortunately for them, only two years later the place is closing down. It turns out that operating a for-profit business on the principles of a...

SONOMA COUNTY, CA (Breitbart) – The U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) issued a detainer request on the Sonoma County Jail for Jesus Fabian Gonzalez, who was arrested Sunday on suspicion of arson in Wine Country fires that have killed at least 40 residents. Breitbart News reported earlier this week that Sonoma County Sheriffs had arrested Jesus Fabian Gonzalez, 29, at Maxwell Regional Park in Sonoma County after a series of reports of ongoing fires in the region. Mr. Gonzalez was observed around 3:00 p.m. PDT wearing a jacket and walking “out of the creek area and a plume...