Free Republic

On Friday’s Morning Joe, the MSNBC show’s hosts and guests spent most of their broadcast mourning the announced resignation of Minnesota Senator Al Franken from Congress in the wake of over half a dozen allegations of sexual assault against him. In a stunning display of hypocrisy, MSNBC’s liberal morning pundits went to extraordinary lengths to cast doubt on the women who have accused Franken of sexual misconduct, violating the network’s own oft-repeated standards for Republican and conservative politicians.New York Times writer Bari Weiss was even brought on to complain about how “some innocent people are going to go down” as...

CONCORD, N.H. – Former President Bill Clinton’s name no longer adorns the Democratic Party’s major fall fundraising dinner in the state that made him “the comeback kid” and launched him on the road to the White House. The New Hampshire state party announced Tuesday that their annual Kennedy-Clinton Dinner will now be known as the Eleanor Roosevelt Dinner, in honor of the famous first lady who went on to serve as the first U.S. delegate to the United Nations. "We are proud to honor Eleanor Roosevelt, a woman revered around the world for her bold leadership and tireless efforts to...

OSSIPEE — A worker at a Jackson inn has been charged with a hate crime for physically removing two patrons from the establishment because of their religion and perceived national origin, state and county prosecutors allege. Priscilla Protasowicki, 32, will face an “enhanced criminal sentence” if the two counts of simple assault are proven to have been motivated by hate, said prosecutors. The simple assault charges carry a possible maximum sentence of five years in New Hampshire State Prison. In addition, Attorney General Gordon J. MacDonald announced he has begun a New Hampshire Civil Rights Act claim against the woman....

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Catalina Celentano used to hold training sessions for hospital workers in Lynn, Mass., to familiarize them with the cultures of patients from Cambodia, Russia and the Dominican Republic. When she moved to New Hampshire, she suddenly found herself in an ethnic vacuum. “I went from being able to speak Spanish every day to not speaking Spanish at all because there wasn’t anybody to speak Spanish to,” said Mrs. Celentano, who was born in Colombia to a Colombian mother and Hungarian father. “The only person I spoke Spanish with was a cleaning lady and she moved back to...

A fiercely contested bill to make residency a condition of voting in New Hampshire was determined by the state Supreme Court to be constitutional Thursday, in a major ruling that clears its approval by Gov. Chris Sununu. In a 3-2 ruling, the court found that the bill, House Bill 1264, is not a burden on the right to vote, but rather a means to better organize state laws “in order to place voters and residents on equal footing as New Hampshire citizens.” The court’s decision, which came without warning, now sets up a high-stakes choice for Sununu. On Thursday afternoon,...

An intern for Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan (N.H.) was suspended for a week for shouting an expletive at President Trump while he visited the Capitol last week. The intern will have restricted access to the Capitol moving forward, Aaron Jacobs, director of communications for Hassan, told The Hill in a statement. “We are aware of the situation and have taken disciplinary action, including a one-week suspension and revoking her Congressional intern ID badge (thereby restricting her access to the Capitol), in response to her breach of office policies regarding respectful and appropriate conduct. We also facilitated contact with Capitol Police,"...

Several illegal immigrants were arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents at a checkpoint established along a New Hampshire interstate this week. The Nashua Patch reported that five immigrants from Brazil, China, Ecuador, El Salvador and Mexico were detained and are set to be deported. The outlet reported that this is the third immigration checkpoint held in New Hampshire in the last year. This one was held in Woodstock along Interstate 93, approximately 100 miles from the U.S.-Canada border. Seventeen people were arrested at another checkpoint last month, The Boston Globe reported. "Checkpoint operations are a critical enforcement...

New Hampshire’s Republican Gov. Chris Sununu signed into law on Friday a ban on gay conversion therapy for minors. Medical and mental health professionals — including the American Medical Association — say the practice to change a minor's sexual orientation or gender identity is proven to be ineffective and can cause psychological harm to LGBTQ youth. “Discrimination — in any form — is unacceptable and runs contrary to New Hampshire’s Live Free or Die Spirit,” Sununu said in a statement, as reported by WMUR. “If we really want to be the ‘Live Free or Die’ state, we must ensure that...

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CONCORD, N.H. – New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley says his phone’s ringing off the hook with calls from likely White House contenders. “There are so many potential contenders wanting to come up for our events, it’s just mind-blowing, the activity,” he told Fox News. Several potential Democratic presidential candidates are making trips this weekend to the state that traditionally holds the first primary on the road to the White House -- part of a wave of hopefuls taking advantage of the expectation that Hillary Clinton, who kept young candidates on the sidelines last time, is politically finished. One...

The Donald Trump administration approved New Hampshire’s waiver, becoming the fourth state to implement work requirements for Medicaid. New Hampshire Republican Gov. Chris Sununu said in a statement on Monday: Work requirements help lift able-bodied individuals out of poverty by empowering them with the dignity of work and self-reliability while also allowing states to control the costs of their Medicaid programs. They help people gain the skills necessary for long-term independence and success. Sununu added, “Today’s announcement by CMS authorizing New Hampshire’s Medicaid work requirements is a transformative step towards a more thriving workforce.” New Hampshire became the fourth state...

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Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said on Monday that he will vote for CIA Director Mike Pompeo to be the next secretary of State, making him the second Democrat to support Pompeo's nomination. "After meeting with Mike Pompeo, discussing his foreign policy perspectives, & considering his distinguished time as CIA Director & his exemplary career in public service, I will vote to confirm Mike Pompeo to be our next Secretary of State," Manchin said in a tweet. Pompeo likely already had the votes to be confirmed by the full Senate. With Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) expected to oppose him, Pompeo needed...

We don’t always delve down to the level of state and local politics, but this rather curious story caught my attention this week. A Democratic state representative in New Hampshire, Katherine Rogers, has stepped over the line and dared to tread where most Granite State residents would never set foot. She’s not just pushing for tougher gun control laws, but suggesting that recent talk about repealing the Second Amendment is “a discussion we should have.” (New Hampshire Journal)

American Research Group found Gov. John Kasich of Ohio trailing Trump in a two-way race, 42% to 48%, among likely Republican primary voters, with 9% undecided. Trump leads another possible rival, Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, 49% to 33%, with 18% undecided. The results come ahead of Kasich’s third visit to the nation’s first primary state since ending his 2016 bid for president. He will speak Tuesday evening at New England College in Henniker. Flake, who is retiring from the Senate this year, made a trip to the state last month… The more anti-Trump challengers in New Hampshire, the easier...

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The Federal Election Commission (FEC) fined Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign $14,500 for accepting illegal in-kind foreign contributions from the Australian Labor Party (ALP) during the 2016 elections. The ruling stems from a February 2016, conservative activist group Project Veritas video showing Australian nationals working for the Sanders campaign on the dime of the Australian taxpayer funded ALP. Republican and former New Hampshire House speaker William O’Brien filed a complaint with the FEC shortly after Project Veritas made the footage public, alleging the ALP had made “prohibited foreign contributions” to the Sanders campaign, according to WMUR. The FEC levied the fine...

Democrat Phil Spagnuolo won a special election in New Hampshire's Belknap County District 3 on Tuesday night 968-841 (54%-46%). It is the 38th state legislative flip from Democrat to Republican since President Trump's inauguration. The contest for this state House race pitted Spagnuolo, a substance abuse recovery coach, against Republican Les Cartier, a former employee at the state fire marshal's office. The seat was left open after the death of Republican State Rep. Donald Flanders last September. Donald Trump won the district by a sizable 54-41 margin in 2016, four years after Barack Obama carried it by just one point,...

U.S. lawmakers — both Democrats and Republicans — and top national security officials in the Trump administration offered the same advice publicly and privately, often clashing with Trump’s Twitter stream: the United States remains staunchly committed to its European allies, is furious with the Kremlin about election interference and isn’t contemplating a preemptive strike on North Korea to halt its nuclear program. But Trump himself engaged in a running counterpoint to the message, taking aim on social media at his own national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, because he “forgot” on Saturday to tell the Munich Security Conference that the results...

It seems weary commuters will have to wait four more months before they can start using the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge between Portsmouth and Kittery, Maine. The lift-span bridge will now be open to traffic in mid-May, eight months after cars were supposed to start using it to cross the Piscataqua River, according to an updated construction schedule from Cianbro, the Pittsfield-based construction company hired by the state of Maine to build the bridge. Cianbro spokesman Alan Grover did not return a interview request Tuesday to explain why bridge construction has been delayed. Cianbro started construction on the $160 million...