Free Republic

President Trump on Wednesday commuted the prison sentence of Sholom Rubashkin, whose Iowa meatpacking plant was the target of a huge immigration raid in 2008, and whose 27-year prison sentence angered many Orthodox Jews. Mr. Rubashkin made national headlines nine years ago after federal agents arrived by helicopter at the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa, and detained nearly 400 undocumented immigrants, including several children, who were working there. Mr. Rubashkin was the company’s chief executive, and the plant had been the largest kosher meatpacking operation in the country. He was later convicted of bank fraud in federal court.

Matthew Spencer Petersen has withdrawn from consideration for a federal judgeship, the Associated Press confirmed on Monday. Petersen, who was nominated by President Donald Trump to serve on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, made a name for himself last week thanks to his remarkably poor performance before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

2017 draws to a close. "Feminism" has been declared the word of the year. And House Speaker Paul D. Ryan has just urged women to have more babies for the good of the state. A joke? An outtake from "The Handmaid's Tale"? Alas, neither. At his weekly news briefing Thursday, Ryan (R-Wis.) suggested that the most important way to shore up the economy was for Americans to have bigger families. "This is going to be the new economic challenge for America: People. . . . I did my part, but we need to have higher birth rates in this country," he said...

A viral video making the rounds Friday has one of President Trump's judicial nominees in an uncomfortable spotlight. Matthew Petersen has been nominated for a judgeship on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, one of the nation's most important federal courts. Petersen is now a member of the Federal Election Commission. But his trouble began during Wednesday's confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee when, among a panel of five nominees, he alone told Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., that he had never tried a case in court.

Tony Schwartz, the ghostwriter behind President Trump's bestselling 1987 book "The Art of the Deal", says the president's recent attacks of LaVar Ball stem from Trump being "half awed and half frightened by black people." Trump and Ball have gone back and forth through the media since Ball's son, LiAngelo Ball, and two other UCLA players were released from China after being detained for shoplifting earlier this month.

When the thing your company is named for is no longer selling all that well, that's a big problem. Just ask Campbell Soup, which reported lousy earnings Tuesday because of weak soup sales. Shares of Campbell Soup (CPB) plunged more than 7% after the food giant said that soup sales in the U.S. fell 9% from a year ago. The company also lowered its earnings outlook for fiscal 2018.

One of the victims in Sunday’s Las Vegas mass shooting claims the onslaught felt like it was carried out by more than one person, and thinks he has the evidence to support it. The Blast spoke with Rocky Palermo, who has 30-40 pieces of bullet shrapnel still inside his body after taking a .223 round to the pelvis. He says the bullet was inches from paralyzing or even killing him. Palermo strongly believes there were between 3-5 active shooters during the attack because as he ran away from the initial gunfire, he describes bullets not only raining down, but flying...

Colin Kaepernick started out taking a knee during the national anthem to protest police brutality, but his activism has since expanded to encompass a wide range of leftist causes, including a group named after a convicted cop-killer.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has taken center stage as Hurricane Harvey pounds his state. For many people around the country, it's their first introduction to the Texas head of state. Abbott, a Republican, is the 48 th governor of the Lone Star State. Prior to his election in 2014, he was the 50 th and longest-serving Attorney General of Texas. Abbott also served as a Justice on the Texas Supreme Court and a State District Judge in Harris County, Texas.

The death of a federal prosecutor whose body was found on the beach in Hollywood has been ruled a suicide, Hollywood police said Thursday. Beranton J. Whisenant Jr. 38, was found dead by a beachgoer in Hollywood near Magnolia Terrace shortly before 6:30 a.m. on May 24.

FBI agents raided a Hallandale Beach business Wednesday morning that specializes in providing pregnant mothers from foreign counties the option to have their babies born in America to obtain citizenship.

Charles Payne who has anchored programs on Fox Business Network since its launch in the middle of last decade, has been suspended from his duties at the 21st Century Fox owned cable-news outlet as the company investigates sexual harassment allegations made against him.

A man who police say trapped and killed three co-workers inside a closed northeast Pennsylvania grocery store overnight Thursday left an online trail behind that includes praise for the 1999 Columbine High School shooters and expressions of deep frustration about the world around him.

Cortisone injection

Usually Hillary and Gums are attached at the hip but I haven't seen her lately. Has anyone else?

I post a lot on Facebook and have for years. Never had any problems until yesterday when someone posted an article about an American muslim in the Olympics staying she didn't feel safe in America. Of course people were posting that she should leave, etc. I simply posted "America doesn't need muslims". Last night when I tried to log on, I got a message telling me I was suspended for 24 hours because my post violated Facebook's community standards. I bet they would have no problem if I had posted America doeChristians Christians.

About time!

The Zika virus outbreak currently gripping the Americas could have been sparked by the release of genetically modified mosquitoes in 2012, critics say. The insects were engineered by biotechnology experts to combat the spread of dengue fever and other diseases and released into the general population of Brazil in 2012. But with the World Health Organisation(WHO) now meeting in Geneva to desperately discuss cures for the Zika virus, speculation has mounted as to the cause of this sudden outbreak. The Zika virus was first discovered in the 1950s but the recent outbreak has escalated alarmingly, causing birth defects and a...

One person is brain dead and five others are seriously ill after taking part in a drug trial for an unnamed pharmaceutical firm at a clinic in north-west France. The French health ministry said the six patients had been in good health until taking the oral medication. It did not say what the new medicine was intended to be used for, but a source close to the case told AFP that the drug was a painkiller containing cannabinoids, an active ingredient found in cannabis plants. The health minister, Marisol Touraine, said on Friday the six had been taking part in...

President Obama’s call for “a new national effort” to cure cancer during his State of the Union address on Tuesday seemed familiar to fans of Aaron Sorkin’s “West Wing” television show. That’s because there was an entire episode in 2002 of the NBC show where the fictional president played by Martin Sheen made nearly identical comments. On Tuesday, Obama said: “Tonight, I’m announcing a new national effort to get it done…For the loved ones we’ve all lost, for the family we can still save, let’s make America the country that cures cancer once and for all.” During the “West Wing”...