Free Republic

New York's attorney general sued Donald Trump for $40 million Saturday, saying the real estate mogul helped run a phony "Trump University" that promised to make students rich but instead steered them into expensive and mostly useless seminars, and even failed to deliver promised apprenticeships. Trump shot back that the Democrat's lawsuit is false and politically motivated. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman says many of the 5,000 students who paid up to $35,000 thought they would at least meet Trump but instead all they got was their picture taken in front of a life-size picture of "The Apprentice" TV star. "Trump...

Prosecutors on Tuesday charged two teenagers accused of gunning down an Australian student in Oklahoma for the “fun of it” with first-degree murder, and a third teen with being an accessory. Officials say 22-year-old Christopher Lane, who was visiting the U.S. on a baseball scholarship at East Central University, was jogging along a road in Duncan, Okla., after visiting his girlfriend on Friday when he was shot in the back, allegedly by the teens. Terri Moore from the Stephens County Courthouse says 16-year-old Chancey Allen Luna and 15-year-old James Francis Edwards Jr. were charged as adults with first-degree murder. Both...

The young widow of a firefighter who died with 18 others while battling an Arizona wildfire in June has reportedly been denied the lifetime benefits she sought to raise the couple’s four children. Juliann Ashcraft, 28, said she will receive workers’ compensations and a one-time federal payment of $328,000 in the death of her 29-year-old husband Andrew, who was among the Granite Mountain Hotshots who were killed on June 30 while fighting a wildfire near Yarnell, CBS reports. “I want to be able to just be mourning my husband, be supporting my children, be figuring out what our new normal...

Japan on Tuesday unveiled its biggest warship since World War II, a huge flat-top destroyer that has raised eyebrows in China and elsewhere because it bears a strong resemblance to a conventional aircraft carrier. The ship, which has a flight deck that is nearly 820 feet long, is designed to carry up to 14 helicopters. Japanese officials say it will be used in national defense -- particularly in anti-submarine warfare and border-area surveillance missions -- and to bolster the nation's ability to transport personnel and supplies in response to large-scale natural disasters, like the devastating earthquake and tsunami in 2011....

The trial of George Zimmerman, the Florida neighborhood watch captain accused of murdering teen Trayvon Martin while on patrol, begins Monday with jury selection. The February 12, 2012, incident in central Florida sparked a fierce national debate about such issues as gun control, equal justice and race after Zimmerman, who is Hispanic, fatally shot Martin, a black teenager. There is no disputing that Zimmerman fired his 9-mm. handgun after calling police, exiting his pickup truck to follow Martin, then getting into a fight with the 17-year-old on a rainy night inside the gated Retreat at Twin Lakes community. The 29-year-old...

A gunman opened fire on a street corner near the campus of Santa Monica College, wounding at least four people, authorities said. Two people were later found dead in a burned home near the campus. It was not immediately clear if the two events were related. Police and witnesses said the gunfire began adjacent to the campus and about 3 miles from where President Barack Obama was attending a fundraising luncheon, just before noon. Police said a shooter was in custody and the campus was being searched for a possible second shooter. Jeff Furrows of the Santa Monica Fire Department...

The New York Times editorial board, which twice endorsed President Obama and has championed many planks of his agenda, on Thursday turned on the president over the government's mass collection of phone data -- saying the administration has "lost all credibility." The grey lady's editorial section lately has shown frustration with the administration's civil liberties record. It has criticized the escalation of the lethal drone program, and it lashed out after the Justice Department acknowledged seizing reporters' phone records last month. The report that the National Security Agency has been collecting phone records from millions of Verizon subscribers appeared to...

At least nine people have died after a series of tornadoes slammed through the Oklahoma City area Friday, with at least 100 people injured, while heavy flooding hampers recovery efforts. The state medical examiner's office confirmed Saturday morning that the death toll had risen to at least nine, including at least two children. Meanwhile the Oklahoma State Department of Health reported that Oklahoma City-area hospitals treated 104 people. More than half of those were people who had been cut or pierced. Law enforcement officers and Red Cross damage assessment workers are heading out to view damage in the city and...

Japan, the largest market for U.S. wheat exports, suspended imports from the United States and canceled a major purchase of white wheat on Thursday after the recent discovery of unapproved genetically modified wheat in an 80-acre field in Oregon. How the altered crop made its way to the Oregon field remains a mystery. The strain was developed by Monsanto to make wheat resistant to the company’s own industry-leading weed killer. Monsanto tested the type of altered seed in more than a dozen states, including Oregon, between 1994 and 2005, but it was never approved for commercial use. Yet the Agriculture...

In the early days of May 1940 German panzer forces overran Belgium and France, trapping the bulk of the British army against the sea – effectively creating what could have become the greatest military disaster in British history. But God heard the prayers of the people of England, and soon many of those same people participated in what has become known as 'The Miracle at Dunkirk.' There are many places to read about this historical event – but too often most accounts leave out the strong evidence that the ‘Hand of God’ played a large part of the story. That...

<p>CEOs of large organizations all face the same problem – driving their agendas in organizations too diverse and geographically dispersed to manage directly.</p> <p>They hire competent managers for their units, set goals and establish clear metrics for evaluating performance. As in politics, competition in business is tough, and CEOs must set ethical boundaries for their managers’ conduct.</p>

<p>President Obama may think the dispute over his handling of Benghazi is a “sideshow,” but his remarks Monday at the joint press briefing with British Prime Minister Cameron are evidence that his administration misled the American people and is trying to do so even today.</p>

<p>Energy companies are lining up for their shot to drill in the Dakotas and Montana after a new government report revealed that a massive geological formation stretching across the states contains twice the oil and three times the amount of natural gas than was originally believed.</p>

A legal battle is brewing over whether California gold miners should be allowed to vacuum up the bottoms of rivers. The controversy is about a process called suction dredge mining, a practice popularized on the Discovery Channel show "Bering Sea Gold" but banned for the last four years in California, as state courts continue to weigh new environmental regulations. "Suction dredging is the best way to extract gold from the environment," said Craig Lindsay, a former dredger and president of the Western Mining Alliance, an advocacy group working to protect mining rights in Western States. Suction dredge mining is a...

After successful recent ballistic and nuclear bomb tests, North Korea has threatened the United States with nuclear strikes. This week, the Pyongyang regime stated that the Korean Peninsula is headed for thermo-nuclear war, told foreign diplomats to leave North Korea and advised foreigners to leave South Korea. Today, it has two medium range Musudan-1 missiles prepared for immediate launch from its east coast. It’s decision time on North Korea. What should the U.S. do if, as expected, North Korea goes ahead and launches the two Musudan-1 missiles?

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis indicated Friday that he will seek to have the church act `'with determination" against clergy sex abuse cases. The pope pushed for decisive action during a meeting with the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, the Vatican said in a statement. Read more

The U.S. military has moved a Navy ship capable of intercepting missiles to waters off the coast of the Korean Peninsula, as threats from North Korea's Kim Jong Un escalate and the White House signals it wants to head off any potential conflict by flexing America's military might. A U.S. defense official confirmed to Fox News that the Navy had moved the U.S. destroyer to a location near South Korea. The ship, the USS Fitzgerald, is equipped with the Aegis defense system and is capable of shooting down missiles. The defense official said the decision is not part of the...

<p>While the federal government prepares to furlough workers in critical agencies starting next month, it's spending millions of dollars on employees who are "absent without leave" or simply showing up to work on "standby."</p> <p>In other words, complains one senator, workers "being paid to do nothing."</p>

A California man and his dog are being credited with saving a man who was trapped for days in a hole on a mountain. Ramon Llamas says he and his dog, a mixed breed named Mole, were hiking as they often do on a trail in Riverside, Calif. when Mole suddenly stopped. "He kept on tugging at my pant and whining, pulling me," Llamas told MyFoxLA.com. Mole led Llamas to a hole about the size of a plate, and Llamas says when he looked in he saw eyes staring back. Llamas says he originally thought there was an animal trapped...

(Fox News excerpt of AP) VATICAN CITY – Thousands of people are pouring into St. Peter's Square to witness the official start of the papacy of the first pope from the New World. (snip) The installation Mass is simpler than the 2005 ceremony for Pope Benedict XVI in keeping with Francis' style, but still grand enough to draw 132 official delegations and religious leaders from around the world, including the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians who is attending for the first time since the two branches of Christianity split 1,000 years ago. (Bold print above not in the...