Free Republic

PROVIDENCE - Tolls on the Sakonnet River Bridge were rejected by popular demand, but a proposed toll on Interstate 95 near the Connecticut border had less opposition. Any toll would need federal government approval, and Rhode Island Public Radio's Ian Donnis asked the Democrats running for governor what they thought of the idea during an NBC 10 live debate Wednesday. "Yes. I think people deserve a straightforward answer. This state should be looking in comprehensive ways," Pell said. Providence Mayor Angel Taveras said he does not support adding a toll on I-95. "It's a regressive tax that has an impact...

(Reuters) - Jury deliberations started on Tuesday in the federal corruption trial of former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell and his wife, who are charged with taking sweetheart loans and lavish gifts from a businessman.

As a feisty state senator with pink sneakers and a fist in the air, Wendy Davis captured both the love and the ire of America last year when she pulled an 11-hour filibuster of anti-abortion measures in the Texas Capitol. But after using that star power to win her party's nomination for governor, Davis is still struggling to take a lead over Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott, and some say party confidence in her race is waning. "I think the frustration in some Democratic circles is that, despite her star power and substantial war chest, she has not been able...

AUGUST 31, 2014 Anatomy of a GOP Disaster: Losing Pennsylvania Governor Corbett has lost support by raising taxes and giving ground to public-sector unions. By John Fund All over the country Republican governors are either poised for easy reelection (such as Ohio’s John Kasich and Nevada’s Brian Sandoval) or running even or better against Democrats (Wisconsin’s Scott Walker and Florida’s Rick Scott). Then there is Governor Tom Corbett in Pennsylvania. The latest independent poll has him down a shocking 49 percent to 24 percent (with a quarter of voters undecided) against Democrat Tom Wolf. How did Corbett become such an...

Fresh numbers from Marquette University Law School’s respected pollster confirms that Wisconsin’s gubernatorial race remains extremely tight. The head-to-head match up sits within the margin of error, but this split is unusual: New Marquette Law School Poll finds Walker at 47.5%, Burke at 44.1% among registered voters. #mulawpoll— MULawPoll (@MULawPoll) August 27, 2014 Among likely voters, Burke has 48.6% and Walker 46.5%, new Marquette Law School Poll shows. #mulawpoll— MULawPoll (@MULawPoll) August 27, 2014 Walker has improved his standing with registered voters since MU Law’s May and July surveys, but has fallen among respondents who are likely to vote....

......................"A visibly angry [Missouri State Police Capt. Ron ] Johnson said that officers had come under heavy gunfire from protesters and at least two people had been shot. Johnson said he did not know the condition of the shooting victims. Four officers had been injured when they were struck by rocks or bottles, though Johnson claimed that police had not fired a single shot. Citing what he called a "dangerous dynamic in the night," Johnson requested that protests take place during the daylight hours, so that officers could effectively isolate any troublemakers. However, Johnson said that his forces could not...

PROTESTERS STORM GOVERNOR’S ST. LOUIS OFFICE – Demand Removal of National Guard in #Ferguson

Missouri's governor ordered the National Guard onto the streets of Ferguson early Monday after another night of violence following the shooting by police of an unarmed black teen. "Tonight, a day of hope, prayers, and peaceful protests was marred by the violent criminal acts of an organized and growing number of individuals, many from outside the community and state, whose actions are putting the residents and businesses of Ferguson at risk," Gov. Jay Nixon said in a statement. "Given these deliberate, coordinated and intensifying violent attacks on lives and property in Ferguson, I am directing the highly capable men and...

"Missouri Governor Jay Nixon said he was 'thunderstruck' by images he saw of police forces responding to protests in Ferguson after the shooting of teenager Michael Brown as the midnight to 5am curfew enters its second night. Nixon, speaking to ABC News' Martha Raddatz on This Week on Sunday, said the sight of police in riot gear with armored tanks led to his decision to replace the local police force with highway patrol. The measure had a calming effect at first, but last night saw one man shot and seven arrested after resisting the curfew order. A picture has emerged...

Republican Governor Sam Brownback is in a 10-point hole in his bid for reelection in Kansas. The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Kansas Voters finds Democratic challenger Paul Davis with 51% support to Brownback’s 41%. Three percent (3%) like some other candidate, while five percent (5%) are undecided.(To see survey question wording, click here.)

A lot of focus this election season is trained on the battle for Capitol Hill. And rightly so, with the majority in the Senate up for grabs and Democrats hoping to avoid another harmful midterm election in the House. But there are also a host of gubernatorial battles being waged this year. In fact, the midterm elections every four years mark a bonanza of statehouse contests. Thirty-six of the nation’s fifty states will be choosing their chief executive this November.In 2010, the last midterm election, thirty-seven gubernatorial elections produced a staggering 17 partisan takeovers – 11 by Republicans, 5...

WESTLAKE, Ohio – Officers responding to a call of suspicious behavior found Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald and a woman who was not his wife in a parked car at 4:30 a.m. on a Saturday in 2012, police records here show. Nothing inappropriate happened in the car, FitzGerald, now the Democratic nominee for governor, said Friday in a telephone interview after a campaign stop in Cincinnati. FitzGerald, a former FBI agent, prosecutor and mayor of Lakewood, was not charged with a crime. He said the woman with him was a friend visiting from Ireland as part of a larger delegation...

How will President Obama feel when a Republican wins the governor’s race in his home state of Illinois? Gov. Pat Quinn is facing an increasingly uphill battle against Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner, a new We Ask America poll shows. Rauner is now sitting on a 14-point lead in the poll that was conducted July 28, which is up from his 10-point lead he had in a June poll. Rauner’s boost can be attributed to his economic plan, which includes a state income tax reduction. A poll showed while people don’t believe Illinois can afford this plan, a majority say...

Gov. John Hickenlooper's job approval ratings plunged in a new poll that shows Republican challenger Bob Beauprez beating the Democratic incumbent by 1 percentage point.

LINCOLN, Neb. (CBSDC/AP) — Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman believes federal authorities are conducting secret operations by sending immigrant children into states without the knowledge of state officials. Heineman told Fox News he learned from Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., that 200 unaccompanied immigrant children were placed with relatives or sponsors in the state. Heineman says no federal officials notified them that would be happening. “We want to know the names of those individuals, who their sponsor is. Is their sponsor legal? What communities did you send them to? Why are they conducting a secret operation, essentially, transporting them all over the...

CHICAGO • llinois Gov. Pat Quinn is once again calling for legislation that would ban the sale of assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines. The Democrat addressed the issue at a news conference on Sunday. He spoke in the Morgan Park neighborhood — a South Side Chicago community that's been affected by gun violence.

The speech was given by Governor Lamm at the 2004 Immigration-Overpopulation Conference in Washington, D.C. He titled it “A Plan to Destroy America.” AMERICAN SUICIDE Wherever you stand, please take the time to read this; it ought to scare the pants off you! We know Dick Lamm as the former Governor of Colorado (Democrat). In that context his thoughts are particularly poignant. Recently there was an immigration overpopulation conference in Washington, DC, filled to capacity by many of America’s finest minds and leaders. A brilliant college professor by the name of Victor Davis Hansen talked about his latest book, “Mexifornia,”...

The media coverage given to the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman case, and the attention paid to Florida's "stand your ground" law, resulted in the legislature considering flaws in the law.   They passed a reform bill that was signed by Governor Rick Scott yesterday, 20 June, 2014.  From tallahassee.com: The legislation, which marks one of the most significant changes to the state’s self-defense laws since the 2012 killing of teenager Trayvon Martin, was one of nearly 60 bills signed by Scott on Friday. The state mandatory sentencing law, the "10-20-life" law, was being used by some prosecutors to obtain plea bargains...

There's no obvious reason that Scott Walker should be president. And yet. When Scott Walker won the governorship of Wisconsin in 2010, state Democrats reacted with a collective shrug, but Tim Cullen was perhaps the least concerned of all. The retired state senator had known Walker since 1993, when the two spent a series of summer evenings sitting together on concrete benches outside a Janesville hospital that was caring for both Cullen's mother and Walker's father. The men hadn't talked politics, but they'd talked plenty, and Cullen had been impressed with, and grown fond of, the easygoing rookie assemblyman. Cullen...

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The governor of the embattled western state of Michoacan has left his post for health reasons, the Mexican government announced Wednesday. Mexico's presidency said in a statement that Michoacan Gov. Fausto Vallejo met with President Enrique Pena Nieto to inform him of his decision. Vallejo is a member of Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party. Neither the presidency nor Vallejo have said what ails him. Vallejo, 65, took a leave of absence last year to have a kidney transplant and then Michoacan state interior secretary Jose Jesus Reyna took control of the government. Reyna was charged last...