Free Republic

You know those super-fast-talking disclaimers run at the end of some ads? The kind of CYA things the lawyers force the advertisers to say? That's what Mark Halperin's pro forma praise of Hillary on today's Morning Joe brought to mind. Halperin first ripped Hillary's campaign as the most "unresponsive to basic questions" he's ever dealt with, and reported that "elite Democrats" are worried about being stuck with scandal-ridden Hillary as their candidate. But Halperin apparently felt obliged to include this bit of posterior-protecting pablum: "she's still an extraordinarily strong candidate, she's a great public servant. She's, I think, right now,...

GLENDALE, Ariz. - Arizona Cardinals assistant Jen Welter has become the first woman to coach an NFL game, the same night the league's first full-time female on-field official made her preseason debut. Welter worked Saturday night's game against the Kansas City Chiefs as an inside linebackers coach, while Sarah Thomas served as the line judge in the seven-person officiating crew.

The U.S. Department of Defense is sending a team to military installations in Kansas and South Carolina to investigate the possibility of relocating some Guantanamo Bay prisoners to U.S. soil, media outlets reported on Saturday. Fox News and CNN said the Pentagon on Friday notified the U.S. Congress that the team was already visiting the disciplinary barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and would then survey the naval brig at Charleston, South Carolina, in the coming weeks. Republicans, who control Congress, swiftly condemned the idea of moving detainees into the United States and close to major military posts, according to Fox...

On the day before Jews prepared to begin their sacred holiday of Passover, a pair of horrible events cast a pall over the Jewish community. The Kansas Jewish Community Center became a tragic scene when a gunman opened fire. The gunman’s rampage also took him to the nearby retirement community of Village Shalom. The word “shalom” in Hebrew has three meanings. It translates to “hello,” “goodbye,” and “peace.” Now three innocent Americans were forced to say goodbye to the world. For their families, there will be no more peace. Hours before the shooting took place, another hateful individual was engaging...

A 9-year-old who was hit with a bat during a baseball game in Kansas over the weekend has died. Kaiser Carlile, a batboy for the Liberal Bee Jays team, was accidentally struck Saturday at a National Baseball Congress World Series game. “With the permission of the family, and with much sorrow and a very broken heart, I regretfully inform everyone that Kaiser Carlile passed away earlier this evening,” the team said in a statement. “Please keep his family and our team in your thoughts and prayers.” Kaiser was a batboy for the team, which is a summer league for college...

UPDATE: Taco Bell has fired an employee that left an insensitive remark on an order of an officer and his fiancé. The company apologizes for the worker’s behavior and says they’re moving forward to correct the situation.Jeff Graves, senior director of operations for Taco Bell, said the worker was let go from the job. The worker wrote “PIG” on to-go orders for the couple Saturday night in Newton.“We do not share the same belief or view as the employee whatsoever,” Graves said. “Our company, Taco Bell, has always been pro-law enforcement, military. We’ve always supported the police in our community....

Wichita, KS – On Sunday, Cecile Richards, CEO of Planned Parenthood appeared on ABC News where she was interviewed by George Stephanopoulos. Rather than answering the questions Mr. Stephanopoulos asked, Richards attempted to deflect by making false statements against those behind the videos that were recently released by the Center for Medical Progress. While Richards did not mention any names, she obviously was referring to Troy Newman, who is one of three members of the CMP Board of Directors. Richards said: The folks behind this, in fact, are part of the most militant wing of the anti-abortion movement that has...

Kansas pro-life residents are waiting to see how long one judge can delay pro-life laws. At this point it's not just the babies, but also the women, who are paying a price. The Kansas attorney general's office is trying to get one judge to move on a lawsuit filed by abortionists to prevent implementation of a new law that would establish minimum health and safety standards for abortion clinics. It's been held up in court since 2012. Kathy Ostrowski of Kansans for Life tells OneNewsNow attorneys went back to the same court after waiting three years for movement.

...[Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.)] says they asked whether they could see those agreements. He says IAEA officials replied, “ ‘Oh no, of course not, no, you’re not going to get to see those.’ And so everybody on our side of the table asked, ‘Has Secretary Kerry seen these?’ ‘No, Secretary Kerry hasn’t seen them. No American is ever going to get to see them.’ ” It turns out that only the two parties — the IAEA and Iran — get to see the actual agreements (though you can see a picture of Iranian and IAEA officials holding up what appear...

This week brought the stunning news that Senator Tom Cotton and Representative Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.) had discovered, during a meeting with IAEA officials, the existence of secret side deal between the IAEA and Tehran — a side deal that will not, like the main nuclear agreement, be shared with Congress. So critics of the agreement were understandably eager to hear an explanation from Secretary of State John Kerry when he and other senior administration officials testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday. The hearing produced a new bombshell: In its investigation of Iran’s past nuclear-weapons-related work, the IAEA...

Thousands of dangerous federal prison inmates will be released in November as a result of the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s decision to lower federal sentencing for all drug trafficking and distribution crimes, two Republican lawmakers warned Tuesday. According to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, the release will include inmates with violent criminal histories who committed crimes involving assault, firearms, and even murder. ... the Sentencing Commission has estimated that 46,376 prisoners are eligible for early release under Amendment 782 — with nearly 8,000 offenders eligible for immediate release on November 1, 2015.

Senator Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) and Congressmen Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.) issued a press release today on a startling discovery they made during a July 17 meeting with International Atomic Energy Agency officials in Vienna: There are two secret side deals to the nuclear agreement with Iran that will not be shared with other nations, with Congress, or with the U.S. public. One of these side deals concerns inspection of the Parchin military base, where Iran reportedly has conducted explosive testing related to nuclear-warhead development. The Iranian government has refused to allow the IAEA to visit this site. Over the...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. —Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced Monday that a new ship will be named the USS Kansas City. The ship will be the next Independence variant littoral combat ship, a type designed for a variety of missions that include mine warfare, surface warfare and anti-submarine warfare. It will be 419 feet long and can travel up to 40 knots. It will be built in Mobile, Alabama. A similar ship, the USS Independence, is shown above. Mabus made the announcement at Kauffman Stadium before the Royals game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. A Navy replenishment oiler was also named after...

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback on Tuesday called on the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts to investigate the state’s Planned Parenthood facilities following the release of two videos accusing Planned Parenthood of selling body parts from aborted fetuses. An official from a regional chapter of Planned Parenthood responded that Kansas facilities don’t participate in a tissue-donating program. Last week, the anti-abortion group Center for Medical Progress released a hidden video purporting to show Deborah Nucatola, a senior director of medical research for Planned Parenthood, discussing how to abort fetuses in a manner that preserves tissue and organs for medical research.

With a “refusal to rule” late Friday afternoon, a local judge continues to thwart state oversight of abortion facilities as permitted under the pivotal 1992 Plaanned Parenthoood v. Casey U.S. Supreme Court ruling. To the consternation of pro-lifers, the 2011 Kansas abortion clinic licensure law remains blocked in the Topeka court of District Judge Franklin Theis. On Friday afternoon, Judge Theis denied the state of Kansas’ request that he rule on whether the law discriminated against women, as alleged by the litigants, the Overland Park Center for Women’s Health [CWH]. Attorney Sarah Warner, representing the office of Attorney General Derek...

Kansas City, Kansas mayor Mark Hollan bragged during a speech this week at the annual La Raza Convention that his city is no longer a majority white town. Hooray! The mayor of Kansas City, Kansas, in an address to the radical socialist organization National Council of La Raza, bragged that his city is no longer majority white and the city’s schools now have students who speak 62 different languages. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, Kansas City, Kansas, was 52 percent white. But in a speech before the La Raza National Affiliates Luncheon earlier this week in Kansas City, Mayor...

Kansas Governor: State Can’t Punish Religious Groups Over Same-Sex Marriage Objections By Sandhya Somashekhar July 7 Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) on Tuesday issued an executive order asserting that clergy and religious organizations cannot be penalized by the state for refusing to recognize or provide services for a same-sex marriage. The order comes nearly two weeks after the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, paving the way for gay couples to marry across the country. It is the latest sign that the battle has shifted to the issue of religious liberties, and how much...

Immigration reform will be a big topic at the 2015 National Council of La Raza Annual Conference, starting Saturday at Bartle Hall. But the Latino population, like the rest of America, is concerned with so much more than that. In addition to meaningful talks on immigration, focused on permanent solutions, the 10,000 or more convention-goers will brainstorm on voting rights, education, civil rights, health care, workforce development and youth leadership. For four days, the Kansas City event will spotlight issues affecting America’s largest and one of its fastest growing minority groups. Janet Murguia, who has headed La Raza for 10...

Pro-life regulations in Texas, North Carolina, Kansas and Iowa have been stymied in court challenges. Affected are a Texas law requiring abortion clinics to qualify as ambulatory surgical centers and for abortion doctors to have hospital admitting privileges; a North Carolina law requiring doctors to show pregnant women ultrasound images before performing an abortion; a Kansas law banning dismemberment abortions; and an Iowa Board of Medicine ban on “webcam” abortions. Texas The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday issued a stay of House Bill 2, which was slated to go into effect July 1, until the justices can consider whether to...

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt plans to appeal a state district court judge's ruling blocking the state's first-in-the-nation ban on a common second trimester abortion procedure. Attorneys representing Schmidt filed a notice Wednesday in Shawnee County District Court that they intend to ask the Kansas Court of Appeals to overturn the ruling last week from Judge Larry Hendricks. The law was model legislation from the National Right to Life Committee and was to take effect Wednesday. It would have barred doctors from using forceps, clamps or similar instruments on a living fetus to remove it from...