Free Republic

President Obama’s expanded food-stamp program certifying flea market retailers as vendors to provide low-income neighborhoods with fresh produce has ripped open a Pandora’s Box of fraud and corruption. This week federal authorities in south Florida busted the largest food-stamp fraud operation in U.S. history. Twenty-two defendants in the largely black and Hispanic areas of Miami-Dade County known as Opa-Locka and Hialeah swindled the government out of $13 million by fraudulently trading food stamps for cash. The crooked vendors operated food and produce stands at a local flea market as part of First Lady Michelle Obama’s initiative to eradicate “food deserts,”...

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump is slamming Jeb Bush for refusing to back him, saying he isn't a "man of honor." Trump criticized his 2016 primary rival for breaking the pledge he signed last year vowing to support the eventual Republican nominee. “Jeb Bush dishonored his pledge. I mean he dishonored his pledge,” Trump said on the "Mike Gallagher Show" on Wednesday, as first reported by BuzzFeed News. “He signed a pledge, and, if you remember, they all wanted me to sign it, so I signed it. But that pledge is a guarantee, there’s no outs. It doesn’t say,...

After review of the candidates I am back to my original thought that Dr Ben Carson would be best for VP. My initial thought the best selection would be Rubio but after his latest tantrum when he was excluded from the VP selection confirms he is not ready for the big show. I still love the Trump and Christie stage presence but I am not yet convinced it will help gain votes. I know some people still want a women but introducing a new face brings in the unknown and pushes Melania off the stage. And there is Trump and...

Cops: Man jumped into lake to avoid police during psychological episode Lakeland police said they were called to a home on Long Lake Circle at 8:30 p.m. by a woman who said her 21-year-old son needed psychological help and was having an "episode." The man ran into a wooded area behind their apartment and his mother said she wanted help getting him taken into custody under the Baker Act, according to police. The Lakeland Police Department enlisted the help of the Polk County Sheriff's Office helicopter and K-9 to search the area. At 9:52 p.m., PCSO's helicopter crew said they...

A woman had to be rescued by police and firefighters after she became stuck inside a giant banyan tree in Key West. According to the Key West Police Facebook page, Officer Scott Standerwick and Fire Rescue helped the local woman after she somehow got stuck in the tree. Police also posted a photo of the woman with part of her legs and body sticking out of the tree with officers nearby. "Protect and serve!" the Facebook post proclaimed.

KEY WEST, Fla., - Police in Key West helped to rescue a woman who had become stuck in a giant banyan tree. Officer Scott Standerwick worked alongside firefighters to rescue the woman, who happened to be a Key West local, from the tree. "They popped her out like a cork," a Key West Police Department spokesperson told ABC 10. The woman had reportedly been trying to climb the tree before she became stuck.

Asked if he can support Trump, former Marco Rubio backer Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina answered: “Oh yeah.” “The country is better off having a Republican in the White House than having a Democrat in the White House,” Scott said. “I’m certain that the center-right construct is better for our country than the far liberal left that we have to contend with. So if you compare the right to left in this campaign it’s very clear that we are in a far better position” supporting Republicans and Trump. Still, Scott shot speculation from the Capitol Hill press that he...

A routine meeting of liberal Democrats grew heated on Wednesday when Rep. Alan Grayson(D-Fla.) went after Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) over ethics charges dogging Grayson as he vies for the Senate. Reid was a guest at the weekly gathering of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) when Grayson confronted him over Reid's previous calls for the Florida Democrat to resign from Congress over the ethics complaint, which accuses Grayson of running a hedge fund through his congressional office. "Shame on you. It’s not true," Grayson said, according to sources in the room. "It is true and I want you...

Now that he has very likely secured the GOP presidential nomination, Donald Trump has turned his attention to a running mate. Trump brought Ben Carson on board to help him decide on a VP nominee, but don't count on it being Carson. The former Republican presidential candidate announced Thursday he was taking himself out of the running. When asked who Trump was considering, Carson reportedly mentioned a wide candidate pool that could include Democrats. Carson told The Wall Street Journal, "We would consider people who are Americans and who put America first." If that includes a Democratic name, the chances...

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A vote for Ben Carson in Tuesday's primary really didn't matter. Not only did Carson drop out of the race last month, he actively rejected his own votes. But that didn't stop thousands of people from checking the "Ben Carson" box on the ballot yesterday. In fact, Carson even beat U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in one district.

Things did not go well for Ted Cruz last night, but his performance in New York's 16th District was especially depressive... Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz was so disliked in Westchester County’s 16th congressional district that residents cast more votes for Ben Carson - who is no longer running... Carson, who bowed out of the GOP race in March, was still featured on Tuesday’s ballot as his request to be removed was made after the deadline had passed. Roughly translated...You Get Nothing! One final thing... CRUZ HAS $9 MILLION IN BANK AS OF END-MARCH: CAMPAIGN MANAGER tick tock...

Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz was handed a stinging loss in the New York primary Tuesday, getting shut out of delegates by Donald Trump and John Kasich. And in at least one congressional district, the Texas senator lost to someone who has long since dropped out of the race: Ben Carson.

Former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said Saturday that "we need to make some changes" to the nation's political system — possibly even abolishing the Electoral College — because it's a process "that's disregarding the will of the people." "One of the reasons that this is the year of the outsiders because people were so tired of the status quo and the rules that were arbitrary, created to advantage one group or another group," Carson, the retired pediatric neurosurgeon, told Uma Pemmaraju on Fox News. "Whatever happened to 'We are the people, the American people?' "The power has been served,"...

Many conservatives, including me, thought nothing but the best about Dr. Ben Carson's run for the White House...until now. Recently, Dr. Carson has suggested that we need to get rid of the Electoral College because it disregards the "will of the people." Underlying this proposal is the idea that pure, national democracy is the best form of government. Dr. Carson displayed shocking ignorance of American history when he told Fox News: "When the Electoral College was put in place, a lot of people did not know what was going on. They had no idea who was running or what the...

With Ted Cruz out of the race and John Kasich set to announce he’s suspending his campaign later today, presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump is wasting no time in moving forward on building out his campaign team, amassing a team of advisers and beginning to review potential vice presidential running mates. To help him with the latter, Trump told the New York Times that Ben Carson will serve on a selection committee to find his running mate.

Having essentially locked up the Republican presidential nomination, Donald Trump says he's about to set up a committee to find a potential running mates -- and he's reportedly wants Dr. Ben Carson, his former nomination rival-turned-campaign surrogate, to help conduct the search... Putting the retired neurosurgeon on the veep search committee, however, could generate some buzz among Trump supporters: a recent public-opinion survey found that voters want Trump to pick Carson as his running mate. But Trump on Wednesday intimated that he may have someone else in mind: "I think probably I would like to go with somebody with great...

Ben Carson is still advising Donald Trump as his campaign ramps up its search and vetting process for a running mate, a Trump campaign source said Tuesday, despite a top aide to the retired neurosurgeon claiming Carson had stepped away from the process. Williams said while Carson "doesn't want a position" or a "title," he would continue to advise Trump on vice presidential picks as needed. "He's an adviser. I just think he's in a better position where he's not pigeonholed," Williams said, though Carson had never been given a formal title to account for his role in the Trump...

Buckle up for the next six months: Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are effectively tied in the swing states of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, according to the results of a Quinnipiac University survey released Tuesday. Split along lines of gender, race and age, the presumptive Republican nominee and the likely Democratic nominee appear poised for tight battles in those states, though Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders performs better against Trump than Clinton does and is also seen more favorably by voters in all three states. No presidential candidate has won an election since 1960 without winning at least two of the...

Authorities are investigating after a part-time jail guard accidentally shot himself in the leg as he waited to interview for a janitorial job at a Florida Panhandle elementary school. The News Herald reports that while 28-year-old Travis Anthony Holland waited in his truck on Friday, he decided to replace a spent round in his Derringer revolver before storing it in a secure compartment of the truck. A police report says he shot himself in the thigh and was treated at a hospital. Police initially said the incident didn't warrant criminal charges because law enforcement officers are exempt from a state...

On Monday and Tuesday, PBS will devote most of its prime-time schedule to a two-night event built around the theme “Armed in America” as part the service’s ongoing coverage of gun violence. Two films under the “Independent Lens” banner will air, followed by town hall discussions moderated by former ABC News correspondent Michel Martin (now weekend anchor of NPR’s “All Things Considered”). (Both town halls were taped April 27 at Northland Church in Longwood, Florida.)