Free Republic

A stinging rejection of same-sex marriage bans in Wisconsin and Indiana, issued by a unanimous and unequivocal U.S. appeals court, has brought hope to those fighting the laws that the Supreme Court will feel pressure to rule soon in their favor. The ruling from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago came Thursday, the same day 32 states asked the Supreme Court to settle the issue once and for all. Fifteen states that allow gay marriage, led by Massachusetts, filed a brief asking the justices to take up three cases from Virginia, Utah and Oklahoma and overturn bans....

The business group that has been pushing for amnesty but that has often backed Republican candidates is throwing its support behind Democrats in several key House races this cycle... the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will have endorsed four Democratic candidates in the House races by the end of the week. Wednesday the Chamber endorsed California Democratic Rep. Scott Peters, a vulnerable freshman facing reelection against Republican challenger Carl DeMaio. ... Georgia Democratic Rep. John Barrow is also slated to receive the Chamber’s official endorsement at an event on Friday... Other Democratic House members receiving the Chamber’s endorsement this year to...

President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron say they will “not be cowed” by the Islamic militants who have killed two American journalists. […] Obama and Cameron appear to suggest that NATO should play a role in containing the militants, but were not specific in what action they would seek from the alliance. …

With recent waves of Central Americans seeking to reach the U.S., human smuggling along the Texas border has, at least for the moment, become more lucrative than smuggling illicit drugs for criminal organizations such as the Gulf and Zetas cartels, according to two U.S. intelligence officials. U.S. agents tracking the money flow as part of the anti-smuggling Operation Coyote say that in just over six months, human smuggling has generated nearly $50 million, mostly in the area around the Mexican border city of Reynosa. The revenue has helped sustain the Gulf cartel during a bloody internal split, the officials said....

EPA would regulate most Md waters . A new rule proposal by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ... The proposed Waters of the United States rule, which would give the EPA jurisdiction over millions of miles of streams across the United States under the Clean Water Act, has generated bipartisan backlash in both chambers of Congress. A letter to the EPA from Democratic and Republican House members stated, “Although your agencies have maintained that the rule is narrow and clarifies CWA jurisdiction, it in face aggressively expands federal authority under the CWA while bypassing Congress and creating unnecessary ambiguity.” The...

This is…not what embattled "Louisiana" Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu wanted to read in the Washington Post -- which, as it turns out, is her hometown paper: In Washington, Sen. Mary Landrieu lives in a stately, $2.5 million brick manse she and her husband built on Capitol Hill. Here in Louisiana, however, the Democrat does not have a home of her own. She is registered to vote at a large bungalow in New Orleans that her parents have lived in for many decades, according to a Washington Post review of Landrieu’s federal financial disclosures and local property and voting records. On...

Moving from the Capitol, British Navy Rear Admiral George Cockburn, Army Major General Robert Ross, and 150 redcoats marched to the White House. Rocca asked Allman what the Britons' impression of the White House would have been as they walked in the door: "I think that it was a pretty good-sized house, but not a palatial one. No Buckingham Palace. No Versailles. That it was, you know, reasonably well decorated." The biggest surprise? A dinner set for 40. So the British feasted in the White House dining room before burning the mansion down. Here, too, the walls survived. But little...

The Environmental Protection Agency’s staff has concluded that the government needs to tighten smog rules by somewhere between 7 and 20 percent. In its final recommendation in a 597-page report, the agency staff agrees with EPA’s outside scientific advisers that the 6-year-old standard for how much smog is allowed needs to be stricter, saying it will save a significant number of lives and cut hospital visits. An earlier version of the report came to a similar conclusion. Industry representatives criticized the recommendation as way too costly, while environmental activists hailed it as a public health measure. …

The ACLU, the American Immigration Council and other pro-amnesty groups filed a lawsuit Friday against the federal government because they claim the Obama administration’s policies are unconstitutional. The groups filed on behalf of mothers and children deported from a detention facility in Artesia, New Mexico for policies that would ensure “rapid deportations” and create “countless hurdles” according to the ACLU for people who illegally crossed the border. …

Democratic strategist James Carville believes two-time presidential candidate Mitt Romney will go for a third try in 2016, even though the 2012 GOP nominee has said he won’t seek the nation’s top office again. “He’s run for president twice. I once noted that running for president was like having sex: No one did it once and forgot about it,” Carville said Thursday on Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor.” …

The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Thursday denied Hawaii’s request for a major disaster declaration after Tropical Storm Iselle. Iselle made landfall over the Big Island’s isolated and rural Puna region nearly three weeks ago, knocking down trees and power lines. FEMA denied the request because “it has been determined that the damage from this event was not of such severity and magnitude to go beyond the capabilities of the state, affected local governments and voluntary agencies,” the agency wrote to the state Thursday. …

The federal government is spending close to $1 million of your money on an online tracking program that will supposedly search for so-called “hate speech” or “misinformation” on Twitter. On Fox and Friends, Fox News legal analyst Peter Johnson Jr. brought us more details on the “Truthy” database, which intends to monitor suspicious Internet memes as well as false or misleading ideas spreading around social media. […] The Indiana professor who is leading the project, Filippo Menczer, had previously identified a list of hashtags that he believed fell under the categories of “far right” and “polarizing.” Among those that he...

The sister of the Boston marathon bombing suspect was arrested in New York City Wednesday for allegedly making a bomb threat, police said. Ailina Tsarnaev, 24, sister of Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was charged with aggravated harassment after a bomb threat was made by phone to another woman on Monday. The recipient -- whose name was not released -- notified police of the threat, according to NYPD Lt. John Grimpel. Ailina Tsarnaev, a resident of North Bergen, New Jersey, turned herself in to authorities on Wednesday.

Learning that U.S. Navy commissioning coins were made in China is more than Middle Paxton Twp. resident Gene Stilp can tolerate. The citizen activist doesn't like seeing the "Made in China" label on any product, knowing it signals the continued erosion of America's manufacturing base. But having the United States military buying Chinese-made commemorative coins is an insult to those who wear its uniforms, he said. On Monday, Stilp asked U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., to push for a federal law barring any branch of the military from buying collectible coins minted outside the nation's borders. The Democratic state House...

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, have donated $1 million to a Washington state campaign seeking to expand background checks on gun sales, bringing the total amount the campaign has brought in up to nearly $6 million. ... The large donation comes on the heels of fellow Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s $500,000 donation earlier this month. Also last week, venture capitalist Nick Hanauer donated an additional $1 million, bring his total donation to the campaign to nearly $1.4 million.

Driverless cars are coming. And those of us who drive in Washington know that the city offers its own particular version of driver hell. What we don’t know is what will happen when the autocar finds itself in that hell. So we set out on a summer afternoon to see how a driverless car could do on the streets of the nation’s capital. The little car is tootling around Washington — pretty much on its own — when a police officer bolts into the road ahead of it, almost within spitting distance of the Capitol dome. What is the cop...

British diplomats in the US have been forced to apologise after revealing they were hosting a party to celebrate the anniversary of the burning of the White House. The British Embassy in Washington held a ‘White House barbeque’ yesterday to mark the two hundredth anniversary of Britain capturing the US capital and setting fire to the President’s iconic address. The Embassy even sent a message on Twitter from its official account with a photograph of a White House cake, flanked by British and American flags and surrounded by sparkler fireworks.

'Sunday marks the 200th anniversary of the Burning of Washington, and the instrumental role played by a County Down man. British Army Maj Gen Robert Ross, from Rostrevor, will forever be remembered as the man who burned down the White House. The Burning of Washington took place in 1814, during the War of 1812 between British forces and the United States of America. The major general led the troops who set alight public buildings including the Capitol, Washington Navy Yard and, most infamously, the President's Mansion. One eyewitness testified to Ross personally being involved in the piling up of furniture...

On Aug. 24, 1814, the British started a fire — and ultimately kindled a capital’s future. The day began like so many days in Washington, with a painfully long meeting marked by confusion, misinformation and indecision. The British were coming. They were on the march in the general direction of Washington. The precise target of the invaders remained unclear, but their intentions were surely malign. James Madison, the fourth president of these young United States, had raced to a private home near the Navy Yard for an emergency war council with top generals and members of his Cabinet. The secretary...

The Islamic Society of North America or ISNA, the nation's largest Muslim group, will hold its 51st annual convention in Detroit's Cobo Center Friday through Sept. 1, and will feature former President Jimmy Carter as the keynote speaker. ... A “secret special guest” is also on the bill. The convention‘‍s opening session Friday will include words from Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Bishop Elizabeth Eaton, the national leader of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the first Muslim member of Congress,