Free Republic

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) says his sole focus in Congress is making sure illegal aliens are given amnesty to remain permanently in the United States. In comments on Monday, Durbin said it is illegal aliens, not his Illinois constituents, who he is working “full time” and around the clock for. Durbin said: Listen, politics ain’t beanbag. When you get into tough, complicated, contentious issues, sometimes rhetoric gets very fiery. If you don’t have a tough skin, this is not a good business to get into. I know what happened. I stand behind every word that I said in terms of...

WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos gave a far-ranging speech today in Washington at an American Enterprise Institute conference, “Bush-Obama School Reform: Lessons Learned.” She announced the death of Common Core, at least in her federal agency. DeVos also decried the federal government’s initiatives to improve education. “We saw two presidents from different political parties and philosophies take two different approaches. Federally mandated assessments. Federal money. Federal standards. All originated in Washington, and none solved the problem. Too many of America’s students are still unprepared,” she said. And she touched on a favorite topic, school choice. “Choice in...

Former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon arrived on Capitol Hill this morning for a closed door meeting with the House Intelligence Committee. Bannon is expected to face questions about the ongoing investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. This meeting comes after Bannon resigned as executive chairman of Breitbart News following the release of Michael Wolff’s tell-all "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House." The book, which includes harsh comments from Bannon on the controversial June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between campaign officials and a Russian lawyer, renewed questions about Trump’s campaign activity.

PITTSBURGH - Dozens of people protested for a second day outside of a downtown pizza shop where a woman was assaulted by an employee. Channel 11 spoke with people who say they want Pizza Milano shut down for good and the manager involved in the incident charged with attempted murder. According to police, Mahmut Yilmaz and Jade Martin were involved in a “violent altercation” at Pizza Milano on Fifth Avenue in the Uptown neighborhood. The incident between Yilmaz, a manager at the restaurant, and Martin was caught on camera, and the video quickly spread via social media. --snip-- Organizers at...

AKRON, Ohio — An Ohio man who reportedly believed “Wheel of Fortune” host Pat Sajak instructed him to kill his elderly mother has been found not guilty by reason of insanity. The Akron Beacon Journal reports a judge made the ruling Thursday in the murder case against 48-year-old Derrick Williams. Defense attorney Brian Pierce says Williams believed he was getting messages from the TV game show when he heard his hometown mentioned. He thought Sajak was telling him to kill his mother when Sajak said, “Do it.” Pierce says Williams was off his medication and “clearly was psychotic.”

Two South Florida state senators went public Tuesday to acknowledge their extramarital affair as the Florida Legislature convened under a cloud of sexual impropriety that has distracted lawmakers for months. Their statement came after a website posted video purporting to show state Sen. Anitere Flores, R-Miami, entering and leaving an apartment rented by Senate Minority Leader Oscar Braynon, D-Miami Gardens. “As this 2018 session of the Florida Legislature gets underway, we do not want gossip and rumors to distract from the important business of the people,” Flores and Braynon said in a joint statement. “That's why we are issuing this...

There were several reactions to President Donald Trump’s recent “nuclear button” tweet to North Korea, including one from one of his favorite fast-food spots. --snip-- KFC jokingly delivered a similar message to McDonald’s. The chain wrote, “McDonald’s leader Ronald just stated he has a ‘burger on his desk at all times.' Will someone from his big shoed, red nosed regime inform him that I too have a burger on my desk, but mine is a box meal which is bigger and more powerful than his, and mine has gravy! #nuclearbutton.” The tweet quickly went viral, garnering more than 150,000 retweets...

A skeletal portrait of the Sterling, Va., man federal authorities have accused of obstructing a terrorism investigation began to come into focus on Monday — that of a directionless youth who converted to Islam at the end of high school, married a significantly older Muslim woman, had a child who died as an infant, and became increasingly religious until an arrest Friday that allegedly included him destroying a computer thumb drive that authorities suspect may have contained evidence of terrorism-related activity. In the months before that arrest, court filings allege, Sean Andrew Duncan, 21, who will appear in federal court...

Music mogul and entrepreneur Russell Simmons is “vehemently” denying he raped at least three women dating back to the late 1980s. The three women have stepped forward, accusing Simmons, 60, of a “pattern of violent sexual behavior,” including rape, between the late 1980s and 2014, according to the New York Times. The women all spoke on the record and allowed their names to be revealed. The Times said it confirmed the allegations through friends and associates of the women at the time the incidents occurred. The women said they decided to come forward and tell their stories after dozens of...

A former Pittsburgh Steeler is among three analysts suspended Monday night by the NFL Network over sexual harassment allegations. Ike Taylor was named in a lawsuit by a former NFL Network wardrobe stylist. The woman claims in the lawsuit that Taylor sent her lewd pictures of himself in the shower. Former players turned analysts Marshall Faulk and Heath Evans have also been named in the lawsuit. They have also been suspended by the NFL Network.

For weeks, Sydney Loofe’s last Tinder date has proclaimed innocence to pretty much anybody who would listen. Yes, Bailey Boswell said, the two women had swiped right on the dating app and met up. Yes, they had driven around the Lincoln, Neb., area getting acquainted and high at the same time. Yes, Loofe had been to her house. But Boswell claimed the last time they saw each other, Loofe was safe and alive, headed into a friend’s house a week before Thanksgiving. Most important, Boswell said, the claims that people had been making about foul play after the two women...

HARRISBURG — Conservative state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe wants everyone to know that he’s heterosexual, has a wife, and doesn’t want to be touched — at least not by a male colleague. The Republican from Butler County made that clear Tuesday during a meeting of the House committee he chairs. Mr. Metcalfe’s comments, captured on video, came after the committee’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Matt Bradford of Montgomery County, was trying to make a point about a bill having to do with land use and, for a split second, put his hand on Mr. Metcalfe’s left forearm. The two were seated side...

A Buffalo Township couple is suing the township police and the Nationwide Insurance Co. after, their lawsuit says, hibiscus plants growing in their backyard were mistaken for marijuana plants. In a lawsuit, Edward Cramer, 69, and his wife, Audrey Cramer, 66, claim that Buffalo Township police handcuffed them both and made them sit in the back of a police car for hours last month as police ransacked their house looking for marijuana. But rather than running a pot-growing operation, the Cramers say they grow flowering hibiscus in their backyard. The Cramers were not charged. They filed a civil lawsuit Thursday...

ACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A Jacksonville mother whose twins were shot and killed as she held them is now suing the U.S. government. She says the government could have stopped the shooting that claimed the infants' lives. Megan Hiatt says the U.S. Navy knew her ex-boyfriend Gawain Wilson was agitated and made threats when he left his shift at Naval Station Mayport Nov. 5, 2015. Hiatt's father Travis was helping her move out Wilson's home when Wilson came back from work early. Wilson shot and killed Travis as he tried to protect his daughter. He then forced the Hiatt, who was...

The 51st Annual CMA Awards saw the best in county music come together, but it was Garth Brooks that took home the top prize, being crowned entertainer of the year. "The most important thing other than God Himself is you, the poeple who allow us to be in the greatest music ever. Country music man," the star said while accepting his award. "I love you." The show started off on a somber note and quickly segued into political quips with hosts Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley mocking the president. The evening began with the first verse of “Amazing Grace” performed...

HENRY COUNTY, Ga. - A bullet narrowly missed a woman's heart after police say she fought off a group of teenaged robbers. It happened in Stockbridge. The family told Channel 2's Chris Jose they're offering $10,000 of their own money to find the suspects. On Friday, Van Anh Ho picked up three teenagers who asked for a ride to school. When they told her to park here near a Walmart, police told Jose she got suspicious and jumped out of her SUV. One of the suspects fired a gun. Even though she was wounded, Ho fought back, said her daughter,...

Shot… ThinkProgress reporter Elham Khatami noticed in a now-deleted tweet that President Donald Trump didn’t say that Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock should be treated as an enemy combatant and sent to Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba for interrogation: Chaser… Who wants to tell her?

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly waded into the long-simmering dispute over the removal of memorials to Confederate leaders saying in a televised interview on Monday night that "the lack of an ability to compromise led to the Civil War." In the interview on Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle," host Laura Ingraham asked Kelly about the decision by Christ Church, an Episcopal congregation in the Washington suburb of Alexandria, Virginia, to remove plaques honoring President George Washington and Robert E. Lee, the commander of Confederate forces during the Civil War. "Well, history's history," said Kelly, whom President Donald Trump...

Paul Manafort and Richard Gates have pleaded not guilty to all charges in Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, but at least one legal scholar has suggested special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation may not be constitutional. According to the reasoning, one of the key factors is how Mueller's role is structured. Jeff Sessions recused himself, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has said Mueller doesn’t report to him with day-to-day decisions. Because of that, Pepperdine University law professor Douglas W. Kmiec says that Mueller effectively does not have a supervisor — and without one, the Senate would have to confirm Mueller as...

CORONA, Calif. - A popular direct clothing sales company is the focus of not one, but two, class-action lawsuits accusing it of being a pyramid scheme. LuLaRoe, known for its line of leggings and other knit clothing, is being sued, saying that independent retailers had to take out loans and max out credit cards to remain viable in the company’s “buy more, sell more” business plan, The Riverside Press-Enterprise reported. But the company fired back saying that the lawsuits are “factually inaccurate and misinformed,” The Associated Press reported. One suit, filed on Oct. 23, claims that LuLaRoe is violating federal...