Free Republic

TEL AVIV (JTA) — When he goes door to door in this city handing out campaign materials, Shai Gal doesn’t tell people to vote for Labor, Meretz or the other liberal parties vying for support ahead of Israel’s March 17 election. He just asks one question: Do you want to replace Bibi? ___Snip___ OneVoice received grants from the State Department in 2014, prior to its affiliation with V15. ____Snip____ Dweck said that while the organization has received donations from abroad, V15’s activities are legal because the law only prohibits outside groups from campaigning for a specific party, which V15 doesn’t...

(CNSNews.com) – The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is advancing federal regulations that require federally funded organizations caring for illegal alien minors who are in the United States without their parents (Unaccompanied Children or UC) and who may have been sexually abused access to “emergency contraception” services. “Emergency contraception” includes abortion-inducing drugs. These care providers currently include Catholic and other faith-based organizations that oppose abortion, according to the Center for Family and Human Rights or C-FAM, a Catholic advocacy group. The Interim Final Rule was published in the Federal Register on Dec. 24,...

In September 2013, Jeri Wright, daughter of Reverend “God Damn America” Wright, and 12 other Democrats were charged with embezzling $16 million in Federal health grants that should have gone to AIDS charities and other programs for the poor and needy. More than one of the defendants had direct ties to President Barack Obama. In March 2014 Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s daughter Jeri was found guilty on eleven counts that included money laundering and lying to federal agents. This week US District Judge Sue E. Myerscough sent Jeri Wright to prison. The Chicago Sun-Times reported: Jeri L. Wright, the daughter of...

A veteran State Department diplomat and longtime Pakistan expert is under federal investigation as part of a counterintelligence probe and has had her security clearances withdrawn, according to U.S. officials. The FBI searched the Northwest Washington home of Robin L. Raphel last month, and her State Department office was also examined and sealed, officials said. Raphel, a fixture in Washington’s diplomatic and think-tank circles, was placed on administrative leave last month, and her contract with the State Department was allowed to expire this week. Two U.S. officials described the investigation as a counterintelligence matter, which typically involves allegations of spying...

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Judith White, who runs a research lab at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, submitted a proposal to the National Institutes of Health to test potential countermeasures against Ebola in March — just as Liberia was confirming its first two cases of the deadly virus. The project, a collaboration of the university, the Army and a drug company, showed promising early results: Mice injected with two compounds — one used in a drug to treat female infertility, the other found in a breast cancer drug — showed immunity to Ebola. But a few months later, not...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Wearable brain scanners and lasers that can turn hundreds of cells on and off were among 58 projects awarded $46 million in federal grants as part of President Obama's $100 million initiative to unlock the secrets of the human brain. Launched in 2013, the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative is designed to give scientists greater insight into how the healthy brain works and a better understanding of what systems go awry in diseases ranging from Alzheimer's to schizophrenia. "The human brain is the most complicated biological structure in the known universe. We’ve only just...

Texans, There's a New Front in the Judicial Branch Lone Star College System and Richard Carpenter v. Immigration Reform Coalition of Texas For Texans interested in cutting off free tuition funds for college to those who are unlawfully present in the United States, please consider joining IRCOT (Immigration Reform Coalition of Texas). This case challenges the use of Texas taxpayer dollars for illegal use of the Texas General Revenue fund for grants to unlawfully present aliens in violation of federal laws. The state of Texas has failed to “affirmatively state” the use of such funds in law and is only...

Launched in December 2007, USASpending.gov was meant as a way of tapping modern technology to hand the American public the means to track what the federal government spends. But a new report from the Government Accountability Office found that, in 2012 at least, more than $619 billion in federal awards that should be accounted for on the site weren't. Agencies, GAO found, are generally reporting on the contracts that they hand out. What's missing from the site are grants and awards, a range of federal spending that covers everything from agricultural development to research on new naval reconnaissance. The absent...

Policy organizations on both the Left and the Right receive commissions and funding from foundations and other non-profit organizations established as social welfare organizations. But the Left in California gets two additional sources of funding: union-affiliated labor-management cooperation committees and public agencies. Public agencies seem eager to fund projects that will justify spending more taxpayer money and increasing government authority. For example, consider the $1,590,000 in grants awarded by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (of the San Francisco Bay Area) on February 5, 2014.

The National Institutes of Health has spent millions of dollars studying male sex workers in Peru, including more than $400,000 to determine why gay men get syphilis in the South American country. “Syphilis remains an uncontrolled infectious disease globally, with high prevalence and incidence in certain high risk populations, affecting more than 20 percent of men who have sex with men (MSM) in Peru,” according to the grant, awarded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). “The incidence of syphilis in MSM in Peru is about 9 cases per 100 person-years,” it said. “We are proposing a study to improve...

Last week’s punishment/settlement between the Department of Justice andDuke Energy over bird deaths caused by itswindturbines gives evidence that the Obama administration needed a scapegoat, to defuse accusations that it applies a double-standard in enforcement of wildlife laws. The Friday before Thanksgiving both parties announced that Duke would pay $1 million for the deaths of more than 160 birds that are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The incidents occurred over the last four years at two Wyoming sites operated by the utility’s Duke Energy Renewables subsidiary. “This case represents the first criminal conviction under the Migratory Bird Treaty...

(CNSNews.com) – The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is soliciting applications for federal grants worth up to $275,000 to research ways to provide elderly patients with “palliative care” – even in hospital emergency rooms and intensive care units. Palliative care is commonly understood to mean medical treatment that focuses on relieving symptoms, including pain, instead of trying to treat or cure the underlying disease. But researchers will not be studying the use of palliative care to relieve the suffering of dying patients. “Hospice and end-of-life settings are not included within the scope” of the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), the grant...

A former top White House official and the head of President Obama’s personal advocacy group is joining the board of a green energy company backed by a major Democratic donor that recently received millions in federal contracts. LanzaTech announced Wednesday that Jim Messina, Obama’s former deputy chief of staff, reelection campaign manager, and the head of his retooled campaign apparatus Organizing for Action was appointed to the company’s board of directors. “Jim’s proven ability to merge technology, messaging, and communications in support of ideas that transcend ‘business as usual’ will help us continue our mission of reshaping how our world...

More Federal studies and grants are needed and we can't wait. Editor's note: This is a guest post by the Very Honorable Ima Librul, Senator from the great State of Confusion Utopia. He recently explained some of his difficulties in growing pineapples and focuses here on other major problems and opportunities facing modern American society. We are privileged to have a post of this caliber by a quintessential Librul such as the Senator. He is a charter member of President Obama’s Go For It Team, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Chairman of the Meretricious Relations Subcommittee. He is also...

The federal government gave out more than $40 billion for research and development (R&D) to universities across the country in fiscal 2011. Universities depend heavily on federal funding, with many of the top programs relying on the government for more than 60% of their R&D budgets. As a result, many research program directors fear that the federal cuts promoted by the sequester will hurt future funding. A few of the top schools received a disproportionate share of the governmentÂ’s spending on grants for R&D. Of all 896 schools that received federal money for R&D, approximately 20% of those funds went...

“Ineptocracy” is a new Internet-popularized word in wide circulation, which came to my inbox with the following definition: “A system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.” Clearly the word’s creation was inspired by the current presidential administration, where the ineptocrats abound. And as NLPC has documented for 4+ years, nowhere has that been more evident than in President Obama’sDepartment...

As media ruminate about Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s possible motives in the Boston Marathon terrorist attacks, one that can be laid to rest is any suggestion that the U.S. has failed to assist financially the countries associated with the ethnic Chechen terror suspects. A review of U.S. federal tax grants and international aid reveals that American taxpayers have spent tens of millions funding humanitarian efforts in Chechnya, Dagestan (Dzhokhar’s birthplace and the current home of his father, Anzor), and Kyrgyszstan (Tamerlan’s birthplace). Since 2007, the United States has given at least $7,197,095 in

A Washington company intends to moor five wind turbines off the Oregon coast, and hopes the project dovetails with a separate proposal for liquefied natural gas.

With record numbers of college graduates underemployed in jobs that don’t actually require degrees, economists are joking that even aspiring janitors may soon have to get master’s degrees to compete for jobs. A study released Monday by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity found that 37 percent of employed graduates didn’t need to attend college at all to successfully perform their current jobs. The study was co-authored by Dr. Richard Vedder, an economics professor at Ohio University and director of CCAP; Jonathan Robe, a CCAP researcher; and Christopher Denhart, an economics student at the university. “Just as a bachelor’s...

(CNSNews.com) - Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is giving another $1.5 Billion in taxpayer money to eleven states to build their new health insurance exchanges. But it appears that half the states will let the federal government do it for them. The “Exchange Establishment Grants” announced on Thursday will go to California, Delaware, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, and Vermont. “These states are working to implement the health care law, and we continue to support them as they build new affordable insurance marketplaces,” Secretary Sebelius said. “Starting in 2014, Americans in all states...