Free Republic

Jeff Jones started shopping for health insurance as soon as the Obamacare insurance marketplaces opened on October 1. The Kentucky resident is like a lot LGBT citizens who have not had access to affordable health insurance in the past. If Jones, 47, had been able to legally marry, he would have immediately been eligible for coverage under his partner, Nathan Walker’s, policy. Walker has domestic partnership benefits at work, but the couple haven’t lived together long enough to qualify for them. “I’m a diabetic, so I do want to make sure I’m covered,” Jones said. As a whole the LGBT...

Missouri’s Republican U.S. Senator is expressing some frustration with his GOP colleagues in the House of Representatives over a temporary debt ceiling increase proposal and the partial government shutdown. Sen. Roy Blunt says the shutdown was a strategic error because it is overshadowing the troubled implementation of the Affordable Care Act. “The President had as difficult an August and early September as any president, second-term president, could have and we figured out how to change the subject,” he said Thursday in a conference call. Blunt says an offer by House Republicans to temporarily raise the debt ceiling is a missed...

For more than a year, Assembly Speaker John Pérez dated a Hollywood funeral director who faces fraud allegations in one of the biggest financial scandals to rock the U.S. funeral industry. During their relationship, Pérez, a Los Angeles Democrat, mixed political business with his personal life in ways that showed poor judgment, ethics experts say. A Pérez spokesman said the lawmaker conducted himself appropriately during a casual dating relationship. Tyler Cassity, proprietor of a boutique cemetery called Hollywood Forever as well as a Mill Valley cemetery, and defendant in a $600 million fraud lawsuit in his native Missouri, accompanied Pérez...

St. Louis - News 4 is issuing a warning of possible scammers taking advantage of the Affordable Care Act involving the navigators who help people sign up for the health insurance exchange. Certified navigators are operating all over the state and officials warn the legit navigators will set up appointments and have strict rules for taking personal information. If you are doing it by yourself online, make sure the website ends with .GOV as scammers have set up false websites hoping to steal people’s information as well.

A House-passed bill to ensure the military gets paid under any government shutdown was approved without dissent in the Senate on Monday — a rare bipartisan agreement as Congress stumbled toward midnight when the fiscal year ends and current appropriations expire. The measure, now on its way to President Barack Obama’s desk, would also ensure continued pay for civilian employees of the Defense Department and Pentagon contractors whom Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel determines “are providing support to members of the Armed Forces.” Put forward by House Republicans, the bill is considered good politics for the GOP, since analysts suggest the...

As October 1 approaches, Americans are getting a closer look at the cost of dysfunction on Capitol Hill. The promises about Obamacare, such as “you can keep your own doctor” and “the average family will pay less,” have all been exposed as fraud. The cold, dark reality is that employers are dumping coverage. Networks of physicians and hospitals are scarce. And increased deductible payments are taking a chunk out of what’s left of the middle class. As I write, it’s a beautiful fall day here in St. Louis, where I’m attending a board meeting and visiting close friends. But the...

President Barack Obama famously promised, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.” He later got even more specific.“If you are among the hundreds of millions of Americans who already have health insurance through your job, or Medicare, or Medicaid, or the VA, nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change the coverage or the doctor you have,” Obama said.But as Obamacare’s rollout approaches, we have learned this is not true. Here are the ten states where consumers may like their health care plans, but they won’t be able to...

ST. LOUIS • One of three would-be robbers raised a pistol while his two friends pretended to hide guns under their clothes late Monday night at Forest Park’s Grand Basin, police say. “Don’t make me kill you,” one of them told an off-duty St. Charles County sheriff’s deputy after approaching him and his female jogging partner, authorities say. The deputy announced he was a police officer and opened fire, killing Antonio Nash, 18, and wounding the two other men in what police say appeared to be a justifiable shooting. The deputy, 36, and his friend, 23, were uninjured. The two...

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A St. Louis-area robbery suspect is jailed after a store clerk stopped the man and held him at gunpoint until police arrived.

Though there is still a long way to go for the Delta Queen to return to the rivers as a cruise ship, passing of bill H.R. 1961 in the House of Representatives is a major step in this direction. On Wednesday, September 25th 2013, the House has approved the bill that would grant the historic Delta Queen a 15 years exemption from a fire-retardant materials construction requirement. The House voted 280 to 89 in favor of the Delta Queen with almost all Republicans voting with “yea”, while Democrats voted 82 to 84 against the bill. The bill still has to...

Al-Shabaab is claiming that there are American gunmen among those still holed up in the Westgate mall in a standoff with Kenyan and Israeli special forces. The Somali al-Qaeda affiliate tweeted a series of names on its latest account before Twitter against suspended the group. Al-Shabaab has been creating new accounts each time they get shut down but a movement of pro-Kenyan tweeters has been tracking down the new accounts and complaining to Twitter. “We received permission to disclose the names of our mujahideen inside #Westgate,” their latest account tweeted. They proceeded to tweet the names one by one, including...

CNN: Three of the gunmen in the Kenyan mall attack that killed at least 68 are from the United States. Two are from Minnesota, one from Missouri. This is a developing story stay tuned to CNN for more information.

The Talk Shows September 15==22nd, 2013 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla.; Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz.THIS WEEK (ABC): Reps. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Tom Graves, R-Ga.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

ST. CHARLES, MO (KTVI)– It may be a non-election year, but the St. Louis area is about to be in the national political spotlight. The Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, will hold a convention in St. Charles, Saturday, September 28. It’s bringing big-name, conservative, Republican, politicians to the St. Charles Convention Center. With those politicians come national headlines and a crowd from across the country. The grass roots group, the American Conservative Union, putting on the event. It’s a virtual all-star conservative parade. As with past CPAC gatherings, there may be “moments”, like Sarah Palin’s “Big Gulp” moment at...

North Carolina has become the seventh state to prohibit state judges from considering Islamic law in family cases, joining what critics say is a national anti-Muslim campaign. ... North Carolina now joins Arizona, Kansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Tennessee, according to Religion News Service, in banning Islamic Sharia law. A constitutional amendment seeking the same change in Alabama will be on the 2014 ballot. In Missouri, the governor vetoed an anti-Sharia bill because of its potential impact on international adoptions. But the law in Oklahoma was struck down in court as unconstitutional,

Many children grow up looking up to their mothers. But one woman in Missouri is setting the wrong example for her kids. She allegedly took them along for a jewelry store heist. Surveillance video captures her going into a store with her two young kids, a boy and girl. The store owner says that the woman distracted him, while her kids filled up her purse with thousands of dollars in jewels. Police did recover $10,000 worth of merchandise and identified the woman in the surveillance video. However, thieving family is on the run tonight.

GRANDVIEW, MO (KCTV) - Grandview police said a 14-year-old has been charged after an elderly veteran was robbed twice over the course of two days. . . Police shared surveillance video from a robbery on Sunday. A group of seven men forced their way into a home near Blue Ridge Boulevard and Interstate 49. Once inside police say they stole two handguns and a rifle after punching the 85-year-old homeowner in the head. The robbers came back two days later, this time with nine people rushing into the home.

Gov. Jay Nixon saw a historic number of his vetoes go down Wednesday at the hands of a Republican-dominated General Assembly. But in the end, he was able to claim victory on the year’s two most high-profile issues — a $700 million tax cut and a bill aimed at criminalizing enforcement of federal gun laws. Fifteen Republicans joined with every Democrat in the Missouri House to put the final nail in the coffin of a tax cut bill that many Republicans pointed to as the marquee achievement of the 2013 legislative session. The override came up 15 votes short of...

A controversial donor with ties to prominent Democrats who is under investigation by the FBI may not have the qualifications he claims. The resume of Dr. Salomon Melgen, a Florida-based ophthalmologist and controversial Democratic donor, boasts medical education and experience at Harvard University, Yale University, and the University of Missouri. But none of those schools says it can find any record of Melgen, who claims to be a Harvard alumnus, the former chief resident of the University of Missouri’s ophthalmology department, and a former Yale intern. Questions concerning Melgen’s background are also coming to light. According to his biography, posted...

Vince Gill did something on Sunday that not many country singers are willing to do: he courted controversy. Prior to a concert in Kansas City, Missouri, Gill confronted protesters from the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, who were picketing outside his concert to protest his divorce and remarriage, which they hold to be nothing more than a form of adultery. The church, which is nonaffiliated, has also protested against gays and Jews and at the funerals of U.S. soldiers killed in combat, in the belief that God is punishing the nation for its immorality. At Kansas City’s Kauffman Center...

JEFFERSON CITY • The Missouri House has failed to override Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of legislation that would cut state income taxes for the first time in nearly a century. The vote, which happened after more than an hour and a half of debate near the start of the state Legislature’s annual veto session today, signaled a key victory for Nixon, who has spent the summer advocating against the tax legislation, which he often characterized as poorly drafted. “This (legislation) is bad tax policy and bad public policy,” state Rep. Jill Schupp, a Creve Coeur Democrat who spoke out against...

<p>A southwest Missouri man was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison Wednesday for holding a young woman captive as a sex slave for six years.</p> <p>Edward Bagley initially faced 11 federal charges accusing him of enticing an underage girl to be his sex slave, torturing and mutilating her, and allowing others to watch and participate in the torture sessions. In January, he pleaded guilty to one count of using an interstate facility to entice a minor into illegal sexual conduct.</p>

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.), a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services, released the following statement today on Syria: “Assad’s chemical attacks on his own people were abhorrent, and I join the President in condemning his actions. “It is clear that the Administration’s policies toward Syria have not worked. The refugee problem has destabilized the region, and the addition of outside radical groups increases the likelihood of long-term danger for Syrians and their neighbors. “During the first months of the insurgency, I believed that we could and should assist in establishing a safe zone...

Missouri’s legislature recently passed a law purporting to forbid the application of federal gun laws in the state and making it a crime for federal agents to enforce them there. The Missouri law goes so far as to allow a Missouri resident arrested under federal gun laws to sue the arresting officer. . . President Barack Obama might benefit from President Andrew Jackson’s response to South Carolina’s attempt at nullification: “Tell them if one South Carolina finger is raised in defiance of this government, then I shall come down there and once I’m there, I’ll hang the first man I...

Fox confirms Vice President Joe Biden will have dinner Sunday night with a group of GOP Senators who could be swayed on Syria. The topic of conversation is expected to be what the President needs to say in his Tuesday address.

Robinson allegedly stole three vehicles in a pre-dawn crime spree that ended with his death inside a residential garage in the 9000 block of North Garfield Avenue in Kansas City, North. He allegedly fought with the homeowner, who killed him with two shotgun blasts after Robinson stole keys and tried to drive off in the family’s vehicle. The homeowner’s wife held their child and hid in a closet while calling 911 after Robinson broke into their home, police said.

According to The News Leader, the would-be robber pulled a gun on Jon Lewis Alexander who was working at Beer 30, a liquor store in Marionville, Missouri. Alexander, who served 30 years in the military including four tours in Iraq, was armed and pushed the would-be robber’s hand down and pulled out his Walther PPX 9 mm handgun.

Rheuan Creason was home alone when she heard the man rummaging through her garage. She quickly locked the door leading to the house but she says she wasn’t scared. She figured he just wanted her stuff. “And then he banged on the door trying to get it open and that’s when I decided I better get out,” she said. Creason says the man took a hammer, hatchet and BB gun along with her car. “At the time I didn’t know he was getting into other people houses and property,” she said. Police said when he left Creason’s, the suspect then...

Should a St. Louis nonprofit agency that helps the poor have any business in rebuilding the diesel engine of an old Mississippi River tugboat named the Bryant T? That’s essentially the question raised in a recent federal audit of a Grace Hill Settlement House program to retrofit diesel engines and reduce pollutants from delivery trucks, school buses, fire engines and even two old tugboats in St. Louis. The audit recommended the agency return more than $1.4 million to the Environmental Protection Agency.

<p>KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An early morning home invasion ended with the suspected intruder shot and killed.</p> <p>Police said a home owner in the 9000 block of N. Garfield in Kansas City, Mo., shot a man who broke into his home just after 5:30 Wednesday morning. The shooting victim suffered life-threatening injuries and died inside the residence. He was 20 years old. Police have not released his identity.</p>

From Michelle Malkin:PLEASE keep praying for @gatewaypundit Jim Hoft, who is undergoing heart surgery this morning. #getwelljimJim Hoft is a FReeper who has made a name for himself as The Gateway Pundit by being a bold, independent conservative blogger. For being effective, Jim became a regular target of Media Matters and other leftists.Jim is also a very nice man who has made friends across the country in his travels speaking at Tea Party rallies and meetings.Jim has published my articles at times and is always gracious in crediting FR when he picks up stories from here. One of our last...

Kansas City's honest beggar is moving on up after returning the engagement ring a woman accidentally left in his cup. Billy Ray Harris was able to buy house and car after donors rewarded his act with more than $190,000 in online gifts. "When I think of the past, I think, 'Thank God it's over,'" he told the "Today" show. "I mean, I feel human now." Harris was living on the streets of Kansas City, Mo., in February when Sarah Darling dropped a few coins and her diamond and platinum ring in his cup. Neither noticed until later. Harris said a...

I read with interest Abigail Fisher's column, "What college can teach you about life and pizza" in your August 21, 2013 issue. I'm all for humorists and their clever work, but humor usually stems from kernels of truth with which a reader can identify. Therefore, I am compelled to point out a problem with one part of her column. She says in the piece that "you can enroll in a three-credit class, miss every single lecture or discussion and pass with a 93 percent." She goes on to state that the class that can do this for you is "a...

Unless a handful of wavering Democrats change their minds, the Republican-controlled Missouri legislature is expected to enact a statute next month nullifying all federal gun laws in the state and making it a crime for federal agents to enforce them here. A Missourian arrested under federal firearm statutes would even be able to sue the arresting officer. The law amounts to the most far-reaching states’ rights endeavor in the country, the far edge of a growing movement known as “nullification” in which a state defies federal power. The Missouri Republican Party thinks linking guns to nullification works well, said Matt...

Four African American Men With Hammer Brutally Attack White Man At Home Depot In what’s become a familiar news story during the long, hot “Trayvon Martin” summer, a group of black men violently attacked another man who is white. This latest attack, in Ferguson, Missouri, involved four black men who stole a hammer from Home Depot and used it to attack a hot dog vendor standing near the front entrance. The attack occurred because, as the four men left Home Depot with their stolen hammer, they made a quick stop at the front entrance to steal the vendor’s cell phone....

Tuffy Gessling, the Missouri rodeo clown who wore a President Obama mask at the state fair, defends his actions and discusses the backlash he has faced.

I went to see Jim today. As usual, we laughed and joked more than we were serious. So, the good news is his sense of humor and wit are still sharp, but the not so good news is that he is still in a lot of pain and pretty sick. Jim’s team of physicians has diagnosed the problem and determined his prognosis. He has a blood infection most likely caused by complications of his knee replacement and the doctors are working diligently on treating it. We talked about all the thoughtful comments from Gateway Pundit readers and Jim was very...

rest of headline:...had nothing to do with race. Obama Rodeo Clown Tuffy Gessling has chosen to come forward after he’s been deemed a hater by so many to explain that his performance that night had nothing to do with race or hate; it was just entertainment as they’ve done with past presidents. He also talks about some of the death threats he’s received.Video:

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. --The last time that new Missouri Democratic Party chairman Roy Temple held a key role in state politics, his party controlled the state House and Senate, as well as all but one statewide office. Twenty years later, Democrats have held on to most of those statewide offices. But Temple acknowledges that the 2/3 majorities that Republicans have secured since then in both legislative chambers pose a problem and challenge. “Nobody’s declaring that we’re going to take over the General Assembly in 15 minutes,” said Temple on Saturday, shortly after he had been elected state Democrats’ new chairman...

Everyone knows by now, a mastery of social media is a necessity if you want to maintain a successful political campaign or career. Seemingly, social etiquette is absent in some social media as recent months have shown how a miss use of it can draw negative attention to yourself. Former U.S. Congressman, Anthony Wiener, is the most notorious example of how it can ruin a career. In 2011 he resigned his position after sexually suggestive tweets, sent to a 21 year-old woman, became viral and the targets of media fodder. And again, earlier this summer, while campaigning for mayor of...

Police are hoping surveillance video will help catch four suspects after a hot dog vender was robbed and attacked with a stolen hammer at a Ferguson Home Depot on Wednesday. Authorities said the hot dog vendor was standing at the front entrance of the Home Depot in the 10900 block of New Halls Ferry Rd. around 3 p.m. when four shoplifters walked by and swiped his cell phone. Police said the vendor chased them out of the store, but was struck in the head with a hammer one of the suspects had stolen. The suspects then got in a car...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Police: Suspects hit hot dog vendor with hammer at local Home Depot. Police are hoping surveillance video will help catch four suspects after a hot dog vender was robbed and attacked with a stolen hammer at a Ferguson Home Depot on Wednesday. view full article A hot dog vendor at a Ferguson Home Depot was robbed of his cellphone and struck in the head with a hammer by four shoplifters. The incident occurred around 3 p.m on Wednesday. The Home Depot is located in St. Louis County at the 10900 block of New Halls Ferry Road. According the CBS St...

After 150 years, the emotions and opinions are still raw. Generations of Kansans have been taught that thieving, bloodthirsty Missourians ripped Lawrence men from their families in the early morning hours of Aug. 21, 1863, and shot them in the dusty streets of Lawrence. “It was utterly catastrophic,” said Pat Kehde, a retired Lawrence bookstore owner and great-granddaughter of Ralph and Jetta Dix. On the morning of the raid, Jetta tried to protect Ralph by standing between William Quantrill’s men and her husband. When Jetta stumbled as one of Quantrill’s men rode his horse into her, Ralph was momentarily unguarded...

...The clown, Tuffy Gessling, has reportedly received a lifetime ban for the gesture, which was part of his clown act for an event focused on entertainment. The taxpayer funded Missouri State Fair Commission, reportedly given Gessling a lifetime ban from performing again at the fair. It is not clear to what extent this could be a violation of Gessling’s first amendment rights to free speech, but many have noted that the United States has a long tradition of satirizing presidents and politicians...

"Citizens have a right to peaceably assemble," said Messmer, who was part of a series of overpass demonstrations around the country seeking the president's impeachment. "We were simply doing that. There were no laws broken." Sgt. Al Nothum, a spokesman for the Missouri Highway Patrol, said the potential for a traffic hazard was why the two and 10 or so other protesters were told by officers to leave the Fairgrounds Road overpass about 2 p.m. The two were arrested, he said, for failing to obey. Nothum said the patrol wants charges filed but prosecutors have yet to decide. The patrol...

ST. CHARLES • The arrest Saturday afternoon of two anti-Barack Obama protesters on an Interstate 70 overpass is stirring controversy - fueled by a video of the incident circulating on the internet. The two — Marc S. Messmer, 41, of St. Charles, and Jimmy D. "Duane" Weed, 57, of Bridgeton — say that their constitutional rights were violated. "Citizens have a right to peaceably assemble," said Messmer, who was part of a series of overpass demonstrations around the country seeking the president's impeachment. "We were simply doing that. There were no laws broken." Sgt. Al Nothum, a spokesman for the...

Survival Doc (the videographer) and Mark M. are arrested for not obeying an officer and Mark was also charged with resisting arrest. Did he resist arrest? You be the judge. Oh, and they never read us our Miranda Rights. We spent 24 hours in the St. Charles Count Jail with Missouri Hwy Trooper Jenkins acting as judge, jury and executioner.

A few of you sent me this video, published to Youtube today, of the weekend overpass protests, this one in St. Charles, Missouri. I’m still trying to figure out what laws these protesters broke. While I wasn’t there, it seems to me the protesters were standing on public ground, not in traffic, therefor not impeding traffic. Having organized and attended many protests myself — and having worked with local law enforcement to make sure regulations (even mindlessly unnecessary ones) are met, so long as a protester isn’t standing in traffic, there isn’t an issue. Am I missing something here? Don’t...

If an eccentric, liberal, nudist musician had not attended a rodeo at the Missouri State Fair a week ago Saturday, the world would be a slightly happier place. The State Fair would not have banned rodeo clown Tuffy Gessling for life. The NAACP would not have asked the Secret Service to investigate Tuffy for a "hate crime." His clown colleagues would not have been dispatched to sensitivity training. And race tension nationwide would not have ratcheted up another notch. But the eccentric in question, Perry Beam, did attend the rodeo. He took his wife and a Taiwanese student with him....

To anyone who has been following the really big stories in the news – and by big, I don’t mean the silliness surrounding IRS, EPA, NSA, ObamaCare or Benghazi – it has become obvious. This is a racist country. Indeed, it is a horribly racist place. It’s not like it used to be, with Klan rallies, Jim Crow and governors standing in schoolhouse doors. It’s much more subtle and insidious now, and it permeates every aspect of American life. I’ve avoided saying it for a while now, but I can’t be silent anymore. I’m talking, of course, about the really...