Free Republic

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was snubbed by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio again. According to The New York Observer, de Blasio confirmed he would not attend Hillary Clinton’s Roosevelt Island campaign kickoff this Saturday. New York’s liberal mayor says he still needs Clinton to talk about the income inequality issue. “What I am waiting to hear about is the fight against income inequality, how we raise wages and benefits, how we create the kind of progressive taxation system we need,” de Blasio told reporters at a city event in the Bronx.

Thousands of Chicago Teachers Union members and their supporters blocked a downtown stretch of LaSalle Street early Tuesday evening, staging a show of force amid an intensifying contract battle.. "You have to remember that what you're fighting for is not just a fair contract, it is the history of fair contracts," CTU President Karen Lewis told supporters gathered outside the Thompson Center. "And if we have a chance, this is it. This is the time where you have to stand up and tell 'em all, 'No, we're not going to take that.' " **SNIP** Chicago Public Schools says it is...

Blow to Obama as public rejects his case for free trade just as Congress agrees to consider his request to negotiate 'secret' Pacific Rim pact Judgement day is coming for President Barack Obama's Pacific Rim trade proposal, with Congress expected to vote Friday on the controversial measure that's sharply divided both major political parties. The Democratic president and Republicans in charge of Congress have become strange bedfellows as they try to convince lawmakers on Capitol Hill to give the White House the ability to negotiate a 'secret' trade deal with 11 other nations. The progressive wing of Obama's party fears...

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Members of the Los Angeles City Council Wednesday approved an ordinance that will raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour over the next five years. Officials explained the minimum wage will go from $9 per hour to $10.50 an hour beginning in 2016. The rate will then jump to $12 in 2017; $13.25 in 2018; $14.25 in 2019; and $15 by 2020. “We are already seeing the fruits of our labor as our own state and other cities nationwide begin exploring policies to increase their local minimum wage,” said L.A. City Council President Herb Wesson.

President Barack Obama said on Monday that he never told his G7 meeting counterparts that the strong U.S. dollar posed a 'problem' for the United States. Having a strong currency typically weighs on the competitiveness of a country's industries and exports. Speaking to reporters after the G7 summit, Obama denied a report by an unidentified French official that he had voiced concern about the strength of the dollar during a discussion of the world economy. 'First of all,' he said, 'don't believe unnamed quotes. I did not say that. And I make a practice of not commenting on the daily...

Mayor de Blasio is playing hard-to-get with his former boss and presumptive 2016 Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton. For the third time, de Blasio refused to endorse Clinton on national television, sidestepping questions about throwing his support behind the former New York senator. "As for the Democratic field, each of the candidates is beginning to address these issues," de Blasio said on CBS' "Face the Nation" about whether any of the declared Democratic presidential candidates had adequately addressed issues like income inequality and a higher minimum wage. "I'm waiting to hear a fuller vision from each, on how they'll actually tackle...

MILWAUKEE -- Democratic Party of Wisconsin conventioneers backed Hillary Clinton for the party’s presidential nomination next year, while Bernie Sanders finished a strong second, according to a WisPolitics.com straw poll. Meanwhile, Sen. Kathleen Vinehout of Alma was favored in the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial primary straw poll. Clinton drew support from 252 of the 511 delegates, alternates and registered guests who voted in the straw poll. Sanders was backed by 208, while Vice President Joe Biden and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley tied for a distant third with 16 votes each.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) -- A 2007 email shows FIFA President Sepp Blatter and then-South African President Thabo Mbeki held "discussions" over $10 million that ultimately went to allegedly corrupt soccer executives as payback for supporting the country's World Cup bid, a newspaper claimed Sunday. South Africa's Sunday Times reported that the email from FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke to the South African government asks when the $10 million will be transferred. The newspaper said that in the email, which was not published, Valcke wrote that the $10 million was "based on discussions between FIFA and the South African...

Hillary Clinton plays to raucous but HALF-EMPTY arena at black university as she claims opponents want to 'disempower and disenfranchise people of color' Hillary Clinton closed a three-day campaign fundraising swing through Texas and New Mexico on Thursday with a rare public appearance at Texas Southern University in Houston and a stemwinder on voting rights. She took no questions and spoke with no reporters, but angrily complained that Texas voters can present their concealed-carry gun permits as a voter ID, but not their college student identification cards. Clinton was received with wild applause at the historically black college, but organizers...

The first-ever "female viagra" in the world came one step closer to coming to market, as a key advisory committee to the Food and Drug Administration voted Thursday afternoon to recommend that the FDA approve it with conditions. The committee voted 18-6 to recomend that the FDA approve flibanserin, a drug designed to boost otherwise healthy women with low sexual desire. The FDA had twice before rejected the drug, saying the side effect risks of fainting, nausea, dizziness, sleepiness and low-blood pressure outweighed its benefits. Even on Thursday, the committee described the drug benefit as "moderate" or "marginal."

Hillary takes 'everyday Americans' campaign to trial lawyers' $11.4 MILLION Dallas home for $2,700-per-plate fundraiser whose hostess donated to Democrats after infamous Clinton 'White House coffees' Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton has said she ants her second presidential campaign to position her as a champion for 'everyday Americans.' But her two-day fundraising swing through Texas included a Wednesday dinner event at a $11.4 million home in the most exclusive corner of Dallas. The home of prolific Democratic donors Frank and Debbie Branson boasts nearly 10,000 square feet of living space, about 13 times the size of a typical one-bedroom...

BEIRUT (AP) — A U.S. official said Wednesday that more than 10,000 Islamic State fighters have been killed by American-led airstrikes in Iraq and Syria in nine months, offering a body count for a campaign that has yet to blunt their advance. Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken's figure came after a Paris conference on how to stop the extremists ended without any new strategy to halt their campaign. It also comes months after the Pentagon dismissed such counts as "simply not a relevant figure" in the fight against the Islamic State group. Meanwhile, the Islamic State group launched a...

Climate change is HELPING Africa because greenhouse gases are bringing rain to areas that have suffered drought for decades, says new study Climate change means rain is returning to previously drought-stricken areas of Africa exactly 30 years since Live Aid raised £150million to help starving people there, a new study has revealed. A severe lack of rainfall during the 1970s and 80s led to a persistent drought and famine, killing more than 100,00 people in countries such as Ethiopia. **SNIP** But now research by scientists at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science at the University of Reading, has shown how...

Condescending Hillary Clinton tells autograph-seeker to 'go to the back of the line' on campaign trail in New Hampshire Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton may be busy with retail politcs on the campaign trail but she expects that her supporters have time to wait in line to get her autograph. The former Secretary of State greeted fans outside an event at the Smuttynose Brewey in Hampton, New Hampshire, when she was approached by a woman asking for her signature on what appeared to be a photo of Clinton.. 'Go to the end of the line,' the candidate informs the woman, who...

CHICAGO — Barbara Byrd-Bennett has resigned as chief executive of the Chicago Public Schools amid a federal investigation into a $20.5 million no-bid contract. **SNIP** The investigation centers on a $20.5 million no-bid contract at CPS related to an elite nonprofit education group that has long been at the center of city school reform efforts. Federal corruption investigators have also sought records related to some of Byrd-Bennett's top deputies. Byrd-Bennett, who has not been accused of wrongdoing, acknowledged when she went on leave that her presence could divert attention from the pressing affairs of the district as it tackles labor...

On this week's edition of the syndicated public affairs show The McLaughlin Group, panelist Eleanor Clift argued Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's wealth could be good for her. "This is nice work if you can get it and it’s the way our society works right now," Clift said. Acknowledging Hillary Clinton "would probably be the richest president ever," Clift likened the former Secretary of State to former President Franklin D. Roosevelt, saying he did great things for the "little people."

Among all the rivers of money that have flowed to the Clinton family, one seems to raise the biggest national security questions of all: the stream of cash that came from 20 foreign governments who relied on weapons export approvals from Hillary Clinton’s State Department. Federal law designates the secretary of state as “responsible for the continuous supervision and general direction of sales” of arms, military hardware and services to foreign countries. In practice, that meant that Clinton was charged with rejecting or approving weapons deals — and when it came to Clinton Foundation donors, Hillary Clinton’s State Department did...

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) — A prominent San Francisco political consultant is back in jail after pleading not guilty at his arraignment to six felonies related to the possession and distribution of child pornography Wednesday afternoon. Enrique Pearce, a 41-year-old San Francisco resident who has worked on numerous high profile election campaigns, entered the courtroom today in a light brown suit, a white shirt, a blue striped tie and black shoes. He left the courtroom in handcuffs and was placed back in jail, five days after he had initially bailed out. **SNIP** Max Szabo, a spokesman for the San Francisco District...

**SNIP** The 35-year-old Smith is charged with felonious assault, felony firearm, domestic violence assault and battery, and malicious destruction of personal property on accusations he fired as many as ten shots at ex-wife’s parked Mercedes-Benz during a domestic dispute early in the morning of Sunday, May 10, outside his Detroit home. While Smith has not been asked to resign, the leader of the Michigan Senate has said he should give “serious consideration” to whether or not he can still serve his constituents. In a statement out May 12, the day charges were filed against Smith, Republican Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof’s...

While Arizona State University has almost doubled its tuition over the past 10 years amid claims that it needs more state money, the school somehow had the funds to give half a million dollars to the Clinton Foundation. According to The Arizona Republic, the public university paid $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation to host the former president-Bill Clinton; former-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; and their daughter, Chelsea, during a Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) event in 2014. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Bill’s wife, is the current front-runner for the Democratic nomination for the 2016 presidential race. Mark...