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Heavily-armed federal agents have raided a white supremacist family's Arizona compound and seized dozens of weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Kirby Kehoe and his son Cheyne, 37, are known for allegedly trying to establish a whites-only nation within the United States. Both men are convicted felons and legally barred from possessing firearms. More than 50 agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives geared up on Tuesday and raided the family's 40-acre ranch near Ash Fork, Arizona, about 140 miles north of Phoenix.

The New York Times’ recent 6,000-word major opus, “Children and Guns: The Hidden Toll ,” is the latest installment in the paper’s self-described series on “the gun industry’s influence and the wide availability of firearms in America.” In this article, it took the authors 75 paragraphs before they acknowledged that federal statistics, in fact, show a dramatic 30-year downward trend in accidental deaths involving firearms. But that’s not the impression that the Times wanted to leave with its readers. The article focused dramatically on case vignettes involving the accidental deaths of children from firearms, which we all agree are tragic...

Psst. Anic-Pay! Bloomberg‘s Megan McArdle (who has been on an incredible roll lately**) takes issue with the idea that the Obama administration needn’t panic about Obamacare, as long as it can get its glitch-plagued health care exchanges up and running by the end of the year. Wrong, she suggests. It’s time to panic. Now. Why? Because the exchanges are the way to sign up young, healthy people and prevent the fabled “death spiral,” in which only older, sicker people sign up for insurance, causing rates to rise and healthier people to drop out, causing rates to rise even more, etc....

NASHUA — A store clerk who aimed a handgun at a knife-wielding robber early Monday morning and was later terminated for his actions did the correct thing, according to police. "From the information I have, the store clerk acted appropriately the other night when a man with a deadly weapon was within close proximity. He feared for his life and he took appropriate action," Lt. Denis Linehan said of Shannon "Bear" Cothran who was working at the Shell gas station, 301 Main St., at the time of the attempted robbery. Cothran may have violated a company policy that prohibits workers...

SELBYVILLE, Del. (AP) — Delaware officials are celebrating the state's first health insurance exchange enrollee. Department of Health and Social Service officials have declared 59-year-old Janice Baker of Selbyville the first confirmed resident to enroll in the marketplace. It opened Oct. 1 as part of the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act. Baker said Tuesday that she started looking on Oct. 1 and, like many people, made several frustrated attempts to signup online and spent hours on the phone. But Baker says she had success once she cleared the browsing history, cookies and other temporary data on her computer. Secretary...

To help you keep track of where both sides stand in the BART contract negotiations, here are our best estimates of current average salaries by bargaining unit based on the 2012 Public Employee Salary Database. This page will be updated as new contracts are proposed. Last updated 5:26 pm Oct. 14 to reflect the latest contract proposal by BART management.

If you've tried to sign up online for health coverage under the problem-plagued Obamacare exchange, our sympathies. Many people have tried to create accounts and shop for insurance under the new law. Few have succeeded. Those that have enrolled have found that the system is prone to mistakes. Some applications have been sent to the wrong insurance company. Wait. It gets worse. Those who have managed to browse the marketplace have often been hit by sticker shock. Take Adam Weldzius, a nurse practitioner and single father from Carpentersville. He sought the same level of coverage on the exchange as he...

CHARLESTON, SC — The Republican Liberty Caucus today announced its endorsement of Sen. Lee Bright (R-Spartanburg, SC) for US Senate in the seat currently held by US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina). This marks the first significant national endorsement in this particular race. “Sen. Lee Bright is a friend of liberty who knows the issues that South Carolinians care about. As a businessman who understands all too well the difficult economic times, Lee Bright stands for economic liberty,” said RLC-SC Chairman Scott Pearson. “As a man of faith, he stands for religious liberty; and as a man of great personal...

Spring Hill TN—Michael Patrick Leahy, co-founder of BEAT LAMAR, announced the ten locations across the state of Tennessee where BEAT LAMAR volunteers will be meeting simultaneously this Saturday, October 19 at 9 am to kick off a day of door-to-door canvassing to encourage Republicans to vote for Joe Carr, the group’s endorsed candidate to beat incumbent Senator Lamar Alexander in the August 2014 primary. BEAT LAMAR Regional coordinators will provide training on the use of Ipads, smartphones, and old fashioned pencil and paper from 9 am to 11 am. Volunteers will be encouraged to walk door-to-door in their own neighborhoods...

Immigration reform advocates plan an aggressive campaign to bring the issue back — and the White House has signaled it’s on board. Can Obama emerge from the fiscal crisis with enough momentum to win the immigration fight? As the fiscal fight roiling Washington nears its end, the White House is already signaling that it plans to use the political momentum it has gained during the shutdown fight to charge back into the immigration debate. And this time, Democratic pollsters and advocates say, they could actually win. The final chapter of the current crisis hasn’t been written yet, but Democrats in...

When a liberal reporter asked Steve Lonegan if “Sarah Palin was too far-right for New Jersey,” Lonegan did what Republican candidates for Senate have not done in recent memory: He went on offense. “I don’t think it’s far right to support small business owners and to support taxpayers who are struggling,” he shot back. “Sarah Palin is a wonderful mother. She was also a wonderful governor and an excellent role model for women.” That’s not how Republicans coming out of the Northeast typically respond when they encounter a hostile reporter. And if you ask Amy Kremer, chair of the Tea...

After months of anguished debate over mass shootings, gun control and Second Amendment rights, the Justice Department finds itself on the defensive after a training manual surfaced that suggests federal agents could face a firing squad for leaking government secrets. The online manual for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — complete with a photo of a turn-of-the-century firing squad — was obtained by The Washington Times from a concerned federal law enforcement official, and it immediately drew protests from watchdogs who said it showed a lack of sensitivity to gun violence and the continuing hostile environment toward...

BOZEMAN — The number of Montana residents with concealed weapons permits has more than doubled since 2008.

A New York Times investigative article based on two dozen interviews with industry insiders and confidential Obama Administration documents reveals that the catastrophic $500 million Obamacare rollout "has deeply embarrassed the White House" and has the technology companies involved "publicly distancing themselves" from the Obamacare fiasco. "These are not glitches. The extent of the problems is pretty enormous," an insurance executive who participated in Obamacare conference calls told the Times. "At the end of our calls, people say, 'It's awful, just awful.'"

If Republicans don’t join together with Democrats to pass comprehensive immigration reform, “they will never win another national election,” according to Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.). -snip- Gutierrez is an outspoken progressive, but he has still made somewhat unlikely alliances with Republicans in order to push immigration reform. In 2012, the Illinois Democrat praised the immigration reform strategy presented by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), someone he had previously called an “extremist.” Gutierrez also partnered with Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) earlier this year, participating in a pair of immigration reform events in Chicago.

The Sheriff did not return phone calls, so details are scarce. At this point, we know two burglars tried to break into a home Saturday just outside Rockport City limits. Sources say the homeowner shot at the burglars, but its not clear if they were hit.

In a much-discussed post titled "Five Thoughts on the ObamaCare Disaster," the Washington Post's Ezra Klein manages to cycle through the first three of Elisabeth Kübler Ross's five stages of grief: • Denial. "In the weeks leading up to the launch I heard some very ugly things about how the system was performing when transferring data to insurers--a necessary step if people are actually going to get insurance. I tried hard to pin the rumors down, but I could never quite nail the story, and there was a wall of official denials from the Obama administration. It was just testing,...

Bear Cothran works–or rather, worked–at a Shell station in Nashua, NH. Over the weekend, in the wee hours of the morning, a large guy with a knife entered the store, demanded money and, according to Cothran, threatened to kill him if he didn’t cooperate. Cothran is a lawful New Hampshire gun owner, he had his gun on him, so he drew the gun and the robber left post-haste. Yay, the good guys win! Uh…no. At 11:20 [Monday] morning, Bear received a phone call from his boss, informing him that, in spite of his status as a 10-year employee in good...

UPDATE 10/15/13 @ 4:50 p.m. PORTSMOUTH, Ohio (WSAZ) -- A man has died after being shot in what police say was a home invasion. Officials at Cabell Huntington Hospital say Keith Richards, 31, of Portsmouth, died Monday evening after being taken off life support. Portsmouth Police say Richards broke into a home in the 1000 block of 23rd Street Sunday night. Family members of the deceased homeowner say the home was also broken into the night before, so they had someone at the house Sunday, keeping an eye on it. They say Richards was crawling through a window at the...

Amidst all the blather about Republicans going over the cliff and taking the world with them, a tantalizing bit of truth was spoken on today's Morning Joe. Doomsaying notwithstanding, the GOP is actually positioned to do OK in 2014. Making the comment particularly surprising was its source: Barack Obama's former senior adviser himself—David Axelrod. View the video here.

Over the past few years, immigration reform has been at the forefront of debates in Congress. In both the Senate and the House of Representatives, members from across the aisle have come together to develop bipartisan bills that would change the lives of over 11 million undocumented immigrants. Some in Congress have worked tirelessly to create a law that would provide a path to citizenship for millions, while others have focused the debate on border security. In an exclusive interview with Latinos Post, National Council of La Raza (NCLR)’s senior immigration legislation analyst Laura Vazquez discussed the future of immigration...

This is it folks, the New Jersey special election for U.S. Senate, today, Wednesday, Oct. 16th. After months of campaigning, it all comes down to voter turnout. In response to Booker's plunging poll numbers 2 days before the election, President Obama came out with a video asking voters to turn out for Cory Obama., I meant to say Cory Booker. Although, with his eagerness to follow in his idol's footsteps, many are calling Booker, Obama's clone. In case you haven't noticed, there's a political perfect storm a brewin'; unforeseen events all working together, ushering in a resurgence of Conservatism, while...

Tulsa, Okla. — A homeowner returns from a walk Saturday evening and finds an intruder inside his home near Skelly and Lewis. Police say they received the call around 6 p.m., but not just for a burglary.

In a move that portends a labor firestorm, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and four other city leaders filed papers on Tuesday aiming to put a public pension measure on the November 2014 statewide ballot. If approved, the measure would change the California Constitution to give state and local government authority to lower current employees’ pension and retiree health benefits prospectively.

(CN) - Concerns that a limitation on concealed-carry permits in Orange County, Calif., amounts to an all-out ban did not seem to resonate with the 9th Circuit. A three-judge panel with the federal appeals court met this week to consider a 2012 lawsuit challenging Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchen's policy of "denying law-abiding, competent adults ... state-required licenses to carry handguns in public for the purpose of self-defense." The policy requires gun owners to prove to the sheriff that they have a valid reason to carry their gun for self defense.

Once the fiscal crisis has been resolved, President Barack Obama is going to push for immigration reform, he told the Los Angeles affiliate of Spanish-language network Univision on Tuesday. Obama, who largely managed to hold on to office on the backs of Hispanic voters, has long looked to easing the plight of the country’s 11 million illegal immigrants, but other issues have kept coming in the way during his second term.

Some tasks are occasionally necessary, though unpleasant. (Oops. My mind just drifted to that plastic bag you must carry with you when walking your dog.) Hunting down that roach your wife is just absolutely certain she saw scampering across the bedcovers would be one; talking to Harry Reid might be another. I’ll leave the roach to you. That’s what the Yellow Pages are for. Unfortunately the Yellow Pages are going to be of no help if you find yourself trying to make sense out of, or talk sense into, Harry Reid. Now Harry likes to throw around a lot of...

A pit bull attacked at least two children on a neighborhood street, wounding one, before someone fatally shot the dog Sunday afternoon, police said. The dog got loose in the 2400 block of North Genevieve Street (map) and began attacking people about 2:40 p.m., a San Bernardino police lieutenant told NBC4. The pit bull bit a child's thigh. Someone arrived with a gun and fatally shot the dog, the lieutenant said.

Nothing is more important for a startup burning through cash than winning customers and revenue. So problems with the Affordable Care Act’s online marketplaces, also known as exchanges, aren’t just an inconvenience. They’re a threat. Nobody is pushing the panic button. March 31, the end of enrollment, is several months away. Co-ops are well financed with federal loans. Evergreen holds enough capital to be in good shape even if it doesn’t reach what Beilenson calls “self-sustaining” membership of 15,000 or 20,000 in the first year, he said. But with few confirmed customers so far and no revenue, Evergreen and its...

"Think for a moment about the term 'Redskins,'" NBC Sports commentator Bob Costas exhorted viewers in his halftime tirade during Sunday's Cowboys-Redskins game. "Ask yourself what the equivalent would be, if directed [at] African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, or members of any other ethnic group. When considered that way, 'Redskins' can't possibly honor a heritage or a noble character trait, nor can it possibly be considered a neutral term. "It is an insult, a slur, no matter how benign the present-day intent," Costas continued. This is ludicrous. I say this not as someone who has particular love for the Redskins...

A new memoir by his ex-girlfriend sheds light on the cult of Steve Jobs. Albert Watson Chrisann Brennan first met Steve Jobs in 1972, while they were both students at Homestead HS in Cupertino, Calif. Over the next five years, they dated off and on throughout their teens and early 20s. The two were living together with their friend Daniel Kottke, a computer engineer and one of the earliest employees of Apple, in 1977, when the company took off. The two finally ended their romantic relationship for good in late 1977, after Brennan became pregnant with their daughter, Lisa. Brennan...

As Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., mulls retirement, a local lawmaker is considering a mounting a primary challenge against him in the Magnolia State. State Sen. Chris McDaniel, a Republican aligned with the tea party, confirmed to CQ Roll Call this week that he’s considering challenging the six-term senator. “We are keeping all of our options open because we want to do the right thing for the conservative movement,” McDaniel said in a Wednesday phone interview. “No firm decision has been made one way or the other.” Many Mississippi Republican emphasized their support for Cochran to seek a seventh term, underscoring...

The government shutdown has made it abundantly obvious that the anti-conservative news media and the anti-conservative Republican establishment have joined together to the point where it's almost impossible to see where one ends and the other begins. Some might say they merge every day on the set of "Morning Joe." The media have designated as Public Enemy No. 1 a recalcitrant bloc of tea party stalwarts who have declared their intention to stop Barack Obama's statist juggernaut from imposing the Obamacare monstrosity, running up trillion-dollar deficits year after year and in so doing destroying the private sector. Amazingly, liberal Republicans...

We’ve written extensively of late regarding the widening divide between fiscally conservative Republicans and the “neoconservative” fiscally liberal wing of the party – led by U.S. Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham and John Cornyn. For our latest on this subject, click here. This week, Republicans in Mississippi (well, Marshall County Mississippi) have taken action against one of their fiscally liberal lawmakers – U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran. In fact according to the website Mississippi PEP, they’ve censured him. For those of you unfamiliar with this aging RINO, Cochran is one of several Southern “Republicans” who habitually caves to U.S. President Barack...

Liberal U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (RINO-S.C.) is getting another challenger … but it’s not one of the big name fiscal conservatives being courted by national limited government groups. Orangeburg, S.C. attorney Bill Connor – who ran for lieutenant governor in 2010 and SCGOP chairman in 2011 (unsuccessfully on both occasions) – is reportedly jumping into the race in the next few days. We’ve written previously on the speculation surrounding Connor’s bid, but multiple grassroots sources tell FITS he is getting ready to pull the trigger. Connor’s prospective candidacy received a major kiss on the lips from The South Carolina Conservative,...

Many people criticize President Obama for spending too much time campaigning, traveling or on the golf course. They are wrong. He spends too much time in a far more removed and unique place: Wonderland. Indeed, he seemingly lives in Wonderland. The problem is that the rest of us live in the real world. Over the last five years it has becoming increasingly clear that Barack Obama and his crew of handpicked officials see America and the rest of the world in ways at variance with reality.

A lot of people are wondering when the stock market will get back to fundamentals now that Janet Yellen has been named to replace Ben Bernanke. I won't really, or at least not in the way traditionalists look at such things.

After claiming his innocence for over two decades, William Happ finally confessed to murder as he was put to death by lethal injection in the US state of Florida. News reports said Happ took over 15 minutes to die, as his body repeatedly made convulsive movements, as the state corrections system used a new lethal chemical for the first time. Happ, 51, had spent 24 years on death row for the murder of a young woman named Angela Crowley in 1986. Happ, who had drug and alcohol problems, met Crowley in a parking lot. The woman was strangled and raped,...

Josh Hargis, an Army Ranger severely injured in Afghanistan last week, was thought to be unconscious during his Purple Heart ceremony. He lost both legs and was hooked to a breathing tube at a military hospital in Afghanistan. The bedside ceremony began and, while he still presumed to be unconscious, the Ranger struggled with an attending doctor to raise his heavily bandaged hand to salute a commanding officer presenting him with the medal.

Implementation of the Affordable Care Act eventually could cost the Aiken County School District from $300,000 to $400,000 a year, District Comptroller Tray Traxler told School Board members on Tuesday. Those costs are rough estimates based on the number of employees who may or could average 30 hours of service every week. Each employee formally added to the program could cost the District $3,000 to $6,000 annually as its contribution, depending on whether the employee has a child who qualifies. Probably the biggest headache for Traxler's department is the requirement that the District must provide continuous monitoring of such employees'...

MIDLAND, Texas -— In a faded West Texas town dotted with vacant buildings and potholed streets is a sparkling storefront window and a curious display: rows of diamond-studded Rolex watches, awaiting buyers whose pockets are packed with oil money. The surge in oil drilling has drawn money and men like a magnet to run-down communities that haven't seen a boom since the 1980s. But leaders and residents here are increasingly mindful that the runaway riches tapped by hydraulic fracturing will eventually run out. And they are determined to live by a fondly remembered bumper sticker from the last bust: Please,...

Businesses across the nation, including the Pinellas County school district, are adjusting their health care plans to comply with the Affordable Health Care Act, but one variable may end up costing the school district millions: substitute teachers. By 2015, the act requires the school district to provide health care benefits to all employees who work at least 30 hours a week. Last school year, there were 1,798 part time employees, including substitute teachers, working in instructional and administrative positions, according to the school district. “We have substitutes that work on a regular basis and over a certain period of time...

As the realities of Obamacare continue to sink in, more and more people are getting letters from their health insurance providers telling them that their plans no longer comply with federal requirements under Obamacare. We just brought you the story of “Trick Shot Titus” and his family facing significant increases in the cost of their health care plans. Now, a community blogger on the far-left Daily Kos website has penned a blog post complaining that both he and his wife are facing a nearly 100 percent increase in their monthly premiums. He claims he is canceling his insurance and refuses to pay any “f***ing...

Editor’s note: This is the first in a 10-part series produced by the Alaska Support Industry Alliance to educate the public about liquefied natural gas. Liquefied natural gas, or LNG, is natural gas converted to its liquid form. When natural gas is cooled to minus-259 degrees Fahrenheit, it becomes a clear, colorless, odorless liquid. LNG is produced by taking natural gas from a production field, processing it to remove impurities, and then liquefying the processed gas. LNG isn’t corrosive or toxic. It doesn’t explode or burn as a liquid. Natural gas is primarily methane, with low levels of other hydrocarbons,...

Dan Pfeiffer’s fingerprints are all over the White House’s strategy of not negotiating with congressional Republicans over the government shutdown and debt ceiling. The senior adviser to President Obama has been plotting the White House’s every move, and is described by some within the administration as the “relentless guardian” of Obama’s no-negotiations stance. “He’s been the most ferocious on that principle,” one senior administration official said. “He was quite adamant and relentless about this. And on the face of it, it’s not an easy argument to make.” Even before the shutdown began on Oct. 1, Republicans had turned their fire...

Last week's column discussed the political trade-offs made by black politicians and civil rights organizations that condemn whole generations of black youngsters to failing schools (http://tinyurl.com/6mmlsf). Similar political trade-offs in labor markets condemn many blacks, particularly black youths, to high rates of unemployment and reduced economic opportunities. Let's look at this, starting with a few historical facts. Today white teen unemployment is about 20 percent, while that for blacks is about 40 percent and more than 50 percent in some cities. In 1948, the unemployment rate of black 16-year-old and 17-year-old males was 9.4 percent, while that of whites was...

Good morning Free Republic and good morning to the GREAT STATE of NEW JERSEY! Get up and go to you polling place!! VOTE FOR STEVE LONEGAN TODAY!! And with that -- I am off to do my civic duty and to make America proud!! (hope this isn't a repeat thread!)

These days, being seen as a victim can be useful. You immediately claim the moral high ground. Some people want to help you. Lawyers and politicians brag that they force others to help you. This turns some people into whiners with little sense of responsibility. Joe Biden's niece was arrested recently for throwing a punch at a cop. The New York Post says she's addicted to alcohol and pills, but rather than take responsibility for her actions, she blamed them on the "pressure she faces" because her uncle is vice president. Give me a break. America was founded by people...

A 17-year-old North Andover High School student was stripped of her captain's position on the volleyball team and suspended for five games after she went to a party to pick up an intoxicated friend, reports The Boston Herald. Erin Cox received a call from a friend, who was allegedly intoxicated, and asked her to pick her up from a party on Main Street in Boxford. Being a good friend, Erin went to pick her up, but instead met police just as they arrived at the house, the newspaper reports.

Testing, 1, 2, 3, testing. Jihadists never go on furlough. While shutdown theater preoccupies Washington, terror plotters remain on the clock. The question is: Will America keep hitting the post-9/11 snooze button? At Los Angeles International Airport, two dry ice bombs exploded this week, and two others were found in a restricted area of the airport. According to the Los Angeles Times, the devices "appeared to be outside the terminal near planes where employees such as baggage handlers and others work on the aircraft and its cargo." That reminds me: It's been more than a year since watchdogs warned Capitol...