Free Republic

Rep. Bruce Braley (D., Iowa) threatened to sue a homeowners’ association after a chicken crossed onto his vacation home property in Iowa, again raising concerns that the Senate candidate is out-of-touch with farmers in the state, the Iowa Republican reports. The dispute started this spring after one of his neighbor’s chickens appeared on his vacation property in Holiday Lake, Iowa: Braley’s wife Carolyn attended a May 8 meeting of the Holiday Lake Owner’s Association to complain about the fowl. The dispute escalated, causing the association to incur nearly $1,700 in legal fees after Braley called the association’s attorney with an...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Terry Branstad said Monday that he does not want Iowa to host any of the thousands of children from Central America who have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border alone. During a news conference, Branstad said he was not aware of any of the children currently living in Iowa and that state has not been contacted by the federal government about housing any immigrant children. He said the government's focus should be on securing the borders.

Hello, this is Joni Ernst. I’m a mother and grandmother, a soldier, and proud to be Iowa’s Republican nominee for U.S. Senate. I get asked all the time what made me want to join the military. And the answer is simple. When I was attending college, I went on an agricultural exchange to the Soviet Union. And I saw with my own eyes what a nation without freedom looks like. I saw what happens to people when they lose their liberty. When I came home, I decided that it wasn’t enough for me to simply enjoy freedom and liberty. I...

Gannett paper, link only: http://www.press-citizen.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2014/07/11/iowa-democratic-leader-held-for-questioning-in-double-murder/12543309/

The fight over what to do with thousands of kids flooding the U.S. border could be coming to the Quad Cities. Today, President Obama asked Congress for $3.7 billion to deal with this issue. He wants to build facilities for the illegal immigrants, strengthen border patrol and hire more judges and lawyers to speed up the deportation process. Right now, the government is using three military bases for the kids. There's a dispute about just how long the facilities will be obligated to care for and house the children. Davenport Mayor Bill Gluba is saying the Quad Cities shouldn't turn...

Iowa Republican U.S. Senate candidate Joni Ernst waded back into controversial waters in June when, during a conversation with a conservative radio host, she again discussed impeaching President Barack Obama. In January, Ernst had suggested that “impeachment” should be on the table if the Supreme Court decided against Obama on the question of recess appointments, which it later did. But Ernst walked back her comments on Tuesday after they were reported by Yahoo News and other media outlets, saying she herself was not calling for the second-term president to be removed from office over his power struggle with the Republican-controlled...

Republican Iowa U.S. Senate candidate Joni Ernst attempted Tuesday night to walk back statements made at a January event in which she said President Barack Obama had “become a dictator” who should be “removed from office” or face “impeachment.” In a statement provided to Yahoo News, reacting to a story published earlier Tuesday, Ernst said that she did not believe Obama is a dictator but rather “his repeated use of unilateral action sure makes him look like one.” “To be clear, I have not seen any evidence that the President should be impeached,” the statement read.

Republicans are seizing on a video that appears to show Iowa Democratic Senate candidate Bruce Braley claiming to be a farmer -- even though he's an attorney and U.S. congressman. The web video was flagged by the conservative America Rising PAC, and later by The Des Moines Register. It comes after the same candidate got in a bit of trouble earlier this year for making remarks seen as disparaging to farmers. In the latest video, Braley is seen walking along an Independence Day parade route when he approaches two kids and gives one a high-five. Someone can be heard saying:...

Think you’ve got a problem remembering and keeping track of all your computer passwords? After nine days on the job, the Iowa GOP’s new leadership hasn’t been able to get an accurate list of passwords for the party’s online platforms. The party’s previous chairman was ousted June 28. The list of passwords left behind for the Iowa Republican Party’s website and other online accounts didn’t work. Chad Olsen was hired as the party’s executive director on the 28th of June. “When we attempted to use those user names and passwords for the most part we were unsuccessful in gaining access...

SUPERIOR, MT -- A Montana Rail Link train derailed near Superior Thursday, sending Boeing aircraft fuselages into a river. [Photo in Comments]

Jerri Andersen wasn’t impressed by the Fourth of July fireworks display at her local Hy-Vee in Urbandale, Iowa. “Of course, it’s not their fault,” she said. And it isn’t. The supermarket was displaying the only types of fireworks people can buy or possess in Iowa without a special permit: sparklers and snakes. All other consumer fireworks were banned in Iowa 76 years ago, following devastating fires in Spencer and Remen. The ban wouldn’t have prevented either fire. Both are believed to have been started by reckless use of sparklers. Andersen, from Colorado where most fireworks are legal, eventually decided on...

Mississippi Tea Party dreams were extirpated last week when State Senator Chris McDaniel lost his Republican primary bid to unseat Senator Thad Cochran. Yet if some of Mr. McDaniel’s most outspoken contemporaries are any guide, he may actually have greater political influence as a loser. Mr. McDaniel made clear this week that he was not giving up the fight, dashing off fund-raising emails declaring Mississippi’s Republican Senate runoff “a sham, plain and simple,” and offering rewards to individuals who “provide evidence leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in voter fraud.” “Thanks to illegal voting from liberal Democrats,...

July 1, 2014 Lois Lerner Targeted Chuck Grassley After He Blocked Obama’s DOJ Tax Nominee Patrick Howley Ex-Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner tried to audit Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley after Grassley blocked President Obama’s nominee to head the Department of Justice (DOJ) tax division, an executive branch insider told The Daily Caller. Grassley made it more difficult for the IRS and DOJ to work together to target conservative groups by blocking Obama’s political appointee Mary L. Smith from taking over the DOJ Tax Division, which prosecutes criminal cases for the IRS. Grassley held up the nomination in early 2010,...

The end of primary season is nigh, and Republicans are now optimistic their slate of House candidates will yield a net gain of female members in the conference after November. Republicans are now focusing their efforts on a specific slate of top female candidates with a strong chance of coming to Congress. On Tuesday morning, a top aide to Rep. Ann Wagner, a Missouri Republican and leading voice in the conference for women, emailed Capitol Hill colleagues and K Street allies to highlight these female candidates, according to an email obtained by CQ Roll Call. “As many of you know,...

SOLON, Iowa—State Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton, officially announced his intent to seek reelection Monday night at a fundraiser featuring Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Adam Gregg, the GOP nominee for Attorney General, and Kaufmann’s father—the newly elected chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa. “Let me apologize to you: I’m a farmer, not a lawyer,” Grassley told the crowd of more than 100 people, who roared with laughter at the obvious reference to Democratic Senate nominee Bruce Braley’s comments disparaging Grassley as “a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school” at a Texas trial lawyer fundraiser. Grassley, who regularly...

Severe weather will lash through areas from the Midwest to the Great Lakes into Tuesday, hitting some of the major cities in the United States, including Chicago, St. Louis and Detroit.

The Iowa GOP central committee voted Saturday to fire the state party chairman and replace him with a fixture of the establishment. Danny Carroll, removed on a 14-2 no confidence vote, will be replaced by Jeff Kaufmann, formerly the Speaker Pro Tem of the state House. The bloodless coup was widely expected after forces loyal to Gov. Terry Branstad officially seized control of the party’s governing body from close allies of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) at a state convention earlier this month. The former chairman, A.J. Spiker, stepped down this spring and became a senior adviser to RAND PAC. Carroll...

"Aren't Border Patrol agents who do food prep, laundry, shower runs, diapers & warm bottles for illegal kids "doing work Americans won't do?" Iowa Rep. Steve King isn’t alone in wondering why the Border Patrol seems to be doing everything but patrolling the border to keep it secure.

Senate Democrats blocked Republicans on Thursday from passing two bills that would require companies to verify the legal status of people before they hire them, and stop the government from handing out child tax credits to illegal immigrants. Sessions tried to get approval for the two bills after saying illegal immigration is swamping the U.S., which is leading to reduce wages for Americans and higher costs as these immigrants start improperly receiving federal tax benefits. He first tried to pass the Accountability Through Electronic Verification Act, sponsored by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa.) That bill would require companies to verify whether...

Congressman Steve King released the following video excerpts from his questioning of the witnesses in the Full House Judiciary Committee on “An Administration Made Disaster: The South Texas Border Surge of Unaccompanied Alien Minors.”