Free Republic

Former Rep. Baron Hill (D-Ind.) on Wednesday became the first Democrat to enter the race to replace retiring Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) in Indiana.

 In a statement posted on Medium, Hill played up his blue-collar roots and deep ties to the Hoosier State. He struck a populist tone in vowing to be a fighter for the Middle Class against the moneyed interests he said control Washington. 

“We can either put our heads in the sand, or we can fight to restore the American Dream, the middle class, and what’s great about Indiana,” Hill said. “I know we can do better,...

Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami (AP Photo/Alan Diaz) (CNSNews.com) - Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, who serves as chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, has delivered a sermon warning that religious liberty is under attack in the United States and that American Christians “are being increasingly subject to a soft despotism.” A transcript of the archbishop’s sermon--which was delivered at a special mass for Catholic lawyers in Broward County, Fla.--is now linked to a page on the USCCB’s website that is dedicated to the issue of religious liberty. “While atrocities are...

Politics today seems to be dominated by an “either you’re in or you’re out mentality.” If you’re a good Republican, a good Christian, and a good conservative, then you really can’t support gay marriage—at least, that’s what I’m constantly being told. “We can’t redefine an institution that’s been around for thousands of years,” opponents of marriage equality say. “To do so would be to radically transform the way society has always understood marriage. That’s just not what conservatism is all about.” But is that really true? It seems to me the heroes of the modern conservative movement— individuals such as...

An Indiana-based church that worships marijuana has been granted tax-exempt status. First Church of Cannabis founder Bill Levin said it took 30 days for the IRS to grant his group tax-exempt status. “Somebody at the IRS loves us,” he added. […] Marijuana is still illegal in Indiana. …

<p>HAMMOND, Ind. (AP) — A Hobart school district faces a lawsuit over prayers that are said before athletic events, graduations and school board meetings from parents who say the prayers violate the First Amendment.</p> <p>Jim and Nichole Bellar filed the lawsuit over the prayers at events in the River Forest Community School Corp. after they say their son was ostracized after raising objections.</p>

I'm not among those Republicans who have “evolved” on the issue of gay rights. I didn’t need to. I’ve always been attracted to the GOP message of more freedom and less government, but thought it hypocritical and counter to the core of our philosophy that Republicans would not apply those tenets to gay rights. But of course I was often the black sheep in campaign meetings during the 1990s and 2000s. There goes McKinnon again. Taking up for the gays. Although “gay” wasn’t the word that was used back the

Indianapolis Power & Light Co. (IPL) plans to construct a $25 million energy-storage facility in central Indiana. Department of Metropolitan Development officials said IPL is looking at two spots for the battery energy storage system (BESS): one at the Harding Street Station in Marion County, Indiana; and the other is at a new $600 million Eagle Valley plant under construction in Morgan County. Officials estimate the project at the Harding Street plant to cost $24.5 million for new equipment and $500,000 for real estate. However, the project would not be eligible for a real estate tax abatement. IPL is seeking...

CIA Releases New 'Noah's Ark' Documents Posted Nov. 13, 2002 By Timothy W. Maier Is it the Ark, or just a piece of rock? Two years after Insight filed an appeal charging that the CIA withheld documents and imagery concerning the Mount Ararat anomaly in Turkey, the CIA has released two new documents to Insight that indicate the search for "Noah's Ark" reached the level of the White House under former president George H.W. Bush. The appeal, filed one month after Insight's exclusive story (see "Anomaly or Noah's Ark?"; Nov. 20, 2000), comes on the heels of the CIA's releasing...

<p>BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — Educators and parents in southern Indiana are calling for more training and awareness of the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students after a high school’s failed attempt to establish a “Straight Pride” club.</p> <p>A group of students at Bloomington High School North had proposed starting the faith-based club in the 2015-16 school year. Principal Jeff Henderson said federal law required the school to allow the club, which students had said would offer “specific supports for heterosexual students.”</p>

The fall in to “certain untruth” is almost complete within the ranks of the increasingly mentally disturbed Left. Further, because so much of what the Left is promulgating is in fact certain untruth, it must continually seek to cut off rational debates. It abhors questions about the veracity of its dogma and praxis. Leftists believe it is vitally important to prohibit questions that might undermine them or their system’s credibility. Nothing, absolutely nothing, about the dogma of the Left is to be questioned. It is only to be believed. That is one reason why the Left’s current chief flag bearer,...

<p>ELKHART, Ind. (AP) — A northern Indiana man convicted of sexual abusing three young boys has received a more than 200-year prison sentence.</p> <p>An Elkhart County jury convicted 40-year-old Jose Jesus Macias in April on all 11 felony counts of child sexual abuse the Goshen man had faced.</p>

The words of the former New York Governor and Democrat icon Mario Cuomo rang out loud and clear some 30 years ago. "I am personally opposed to abortion but" would pretty much sum up Cuomo's message. Yesterday that message was echoed on the issue of gay marriage by the Republican governor of North Carolina in a statement entitled "Governor McCrory defends Constitution". Governor Pat McCrory noted his own 'sincerely held religious beliefs that marriage is between a man and a woman'. But then we got this: "Whether it is the president, governor, mayor, a law enforcement officer, or magistrate, no...

As the debate over First Amendment Freedom of Religion laws raged back in May with Republican Governors backing down under business pressure in Indiana and Arkansas, the Republican governor of North Carolina, Pat McCrory, said his state didn't need such a law. The legislature has been acting, though, the House passing a bill to allow government officials to object to gay marriage, the bill now in the Senate as Senate Bill 2. But today Governor McCrory says he will veto the bill. A news release describing it is headlined "Governor McCrory defends Constitution". McCrory speaks of 'sincerely held religious beliefs...

One woman was hospitalized and another arrested after a fight over the last rib at a backyard barbecue turned violent. The fight broke out on North Turner Street in Muncie on Sunday night. Officers got a call about a stabbing around 7 p.m., in the midst of a large family barbecue. According to a police report obtained by the Muncie Star Press, a woman told police she had been stabbed in the eye with a fork by Sabrina Davis, a family friend. “She was upset that Davis was taking the last rib from the kitchen,” an officer said in the...

A Franklin man was arrested Sunday evening after choking his fiancé in a dispute over whether NASCAR or Indy Car is better.

RUSH: A new Gallup poll out. Headline: "Americans Continue to Shift Left on Key Moral Issues." Now, before you go off getting depressed about this, let me tell you what the reason for this is, after we give you the details. "Americans are more likely now than in the early 2000s to find a variety of behaviors morally acceptable, including gay and lesbian relations, having a baby outside of marriage and sex between an unmarried man and woman. Moral acceptability of many of these issues is now at a record-high level." It's a subtle message to the Republican Party, and...

Author and conservative firebrand Ann Coulter was not invited to speak at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference, marking the first time in several years that she was not scheduled to attend in an official capacity.Coulter is usually a popular speaker at the annual conference -- it's the largest gathering of conservatives in the U.S. held this weekend just outside of Washington, D.C. -- where she has delivered well-received speeches and signed her books for fans."I wasn't invited," Coulter confirmed in an email Thursday to the Washington Examiner media desk. "I might just show up anyway just to piss them...

Happy National Hate Week! Today, we're all hating on Indiana. Who will be the left's Emmanuel Goldstein next week? Evidently, the sole function of the media these days is to subject the public to a steady stream of manufactured events: "Hands Up, Don't Shoot"; nuclear power kills; Lena Dunham's rape by a college conservative at Oberlin; the "mattress girl" raped at Columbia University; Jon Stewart is funny; a fraternity gang-rape at the University of Virginia; and a law protecting religious freedom will lead to separate water fountains for gays in Indiana. Happy National Hate Week! Today, we're all hating on...

Pro-adoption organizations should have the same speech rights as any other organization, said the attorney representing a group whose pro-life license plate has been denied for the past 13 or 14 years in New York. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Friday reversed a lower court ruling ordering the state to let an adoption advocacy group put the words "Choose Life" on its own plates. By a 2-1 vote, the court said the commissioner of the state Department of Motor Vehicles had "broad discretion" to decide which plates to permit, and did not violate the First Amendment free speech rights...

A United States Marine was convicted at a court-martial for refusing to remove a Bible verse on her computer – a verse of Scripture the military determined “could easily be seen as contrary to good order and discipline.” The plight of Lance Corporal Monifa Sterling seems unbelievable – a member of the Armed Forces criminally prosecuted for displaying a slightly altered passage of Scripture from the Old Testament: “No weapon formed against me shall prosper.” Sterling, who represented herself at trial, was convicted February 1, 2014 in a court-martial at Camp Lejune, North Carolina after she refused to obey orders...