Free Republic

According to the Quinnipiac University poll released today, in the state that the Atlanta GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said he could win - Ohio, he is trailing behind two of his Republican challengers former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, attracting just 20% of the vote. -snip- The Quinnipiac survey finds Santorum leading with 36%, Romney second with 29%, Gingrich third with 20% and Texas Congressman Ron Paul last with 9%. However, 50% of the voters say they could still change their minds. -snip- Gingrich campaigned in Ohio for a few days last week with...

Incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown has a narrow lead over Republican challenger Josh Mandel in Rasmussen Reports’ first look at Ohio’s 2012 race for the U.S. Senate. A new telephone survey of Likely Voters in the state shows Brown earning 44% support to Mandel’s 40%. Four percent (4%) like another candidate in the race, and, tellingly, 12% are undecided.

How does an underfunded candidate defend himself against a big onslaught of negative attack ads? Newt Gingrich tried leveraging the media attention received from going nasty and personal in response and ended up flaming out in Florida and a string of caucuses in the last three weeks. Rick Santorum has decided to use humor to just attack the attack in a new ad running called "Rombo": CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO In its morning e-mail blast, Politico reports on the strategy, which purposefully avoids what it sees as the mistakes made by Gingrich in January: Campaign leaders feel that...

Guns and coffee collided Tuesday outside as Ohio State students from the group Buckeyes for Concealed Carry on Campus spent part of their Valentine's Day advocating for the right to carry a weapon on campus. The group protested outside Starbucks on 14th Avenue and High Street in a response to a nationwide boycott against Starbucks for its neutral position on concealed carry. The National Gun Victim's Action Council called for a nationwide boycott of Starbucks on Valentine's Day until the corporation prohibits guns in the stores. Michael Newbern, a second-year in industrial engineering and president of Buckeyes for Concealed Carry...

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 13, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Within weeks, the top lawyers in a dozen states may file a federal lawsuit against the Obama administration’s controversial requirement that all insurance plans include access to abortion-inducing drugs, contraception, and sterilization, the attorney general of Nebraska told LifeSiteNews. Jon Bruning told LifeSiteNews.com that 12 states had signed onto a scathing critique of the mandate and were preparing to take more serious action. Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning On Friday, ten state attorneys general addressed a scathing letter to President Obama, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis....

Conventional wisdom has Ohio being vulnerable to a Democratic rollback in 2012 after a GOP sweep in 2010. Approval ratings for Governor John Kasich have been low after his reforms of public-employee unions in a state where Big Labor is thought to have a wide reach. However, a new Quinnipiac poll on a proposed right-to-work reform may indicate that their power is not as broad as first thought: Despite the overwhelming victory by organized labor and its allies in repealing SB 5 in this past election, by 54 – 40 percent Ohio voters favor the idea of passing a “right-to-work”...

n his New York Times bestselling book, Throw Them All Out, Breitbart editor Peter Schweizer revealed how members of Congress enrich themselves and their relatives using earmarks and insider information. Now, the Washington Post, following in Schweizer’s footsteps, has conducted a study that found 16 members of Congress have used their power of the purse to benefit companies, colleges, and community groups tied to their relatives. *snip* Among those cited in the Washington Post report were the following (below):

Makers of an upcoming documentary that seeks to counter the anti-hydraulic fracturing film “Gasland” have raised over $36,000 through crowdsourcing in a matter of a few days. The creators of the new documentary called “FrackNation” hope to dispel what they view as inaccuracies in the Oscar-nominated film “Gasland” and give more voice to those who live in the communities that are benefiting economically from natural gas drilling. Phelim McAleer, formerly a journalist with The Economist and Financial Times, is teaming up with his wife Ann McElhinney, a fellow former journalist, in making the film. The Irish couple in the past...

Judy Westbrock, the candidate supported by the Tea Party, won over a long-time established GOP insider for the 6th district State Central Committee seat Wed. night. Small step for mankind, er, womankind, but important.

WCMH, Columbus' NBC affiliate, is reporting that police are investigating a break-in in which approximately 80 firearms were stolen from a Central Ohio shooting range as well as boxes of ammunition. Thieves knocked a hole through a cinder block wall to gain access to The Powder Room, which is located in Powell. According to the report, this wasn't the first time thieves have targeted The Powder Room. In the past, a gun stolen from the shop was later used in a crime where violence against a police officer was involved. Linda Walker is the Ohio chair of the Buckeye Firearms...

It could be the biggest copper theft in U.S. history and it's apparently been going on here in the Tri-State for years. It involves a massive on-going federal investigation. In a story you'll see only on Local 12, reporter Rich Jaffe adds up the cost of a missing treasure chest of "red gold". In February of last year, agents from the Internal Revenue Service and the FBI along with police from Cincinnati, Blue Ash and a couple of Northern Kentucky agencies executed federal search warrants at numerous locations around the Tri-State. Among other places they hit were Garden Street Metals,...

The Dayton Daily News is reporting that according to a DDN analysis of permit data, opinion polls and interviews with firearm and criminal justice experts, more women in the Miami Valley are choosing to purchase and carry handguns for protection, reflecting a national trend. From the article: More than one in five who have applied to carry concealed handguns in Butler, Greene, Miami, Montgomery and Warren counties are women, and owners of local gun stores and shooting ranges say women are increasingly participating in training and target practice. Although violent crime continues to decline in the region, experts said more...

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich brought his campaign to Memorial Hall in downtown Dayton today. He ended his remarks to a packed crowd around 3:40 p.m. After the event, Gingrich and his wife Callista are visiting Hawthorn Hill, the Oakwood home once owned by Orville Wright.

LAS VEGAS — Newt Gingrich is wooing NASCAR voters. As he charts a possible course to the Republican nomination, aides say Gingrich will paint frontrunner Mitt Romney as the candidate of the PGA golf tour while the former House speaker pursues the blue collar mantle of Dale Earnhardt. It’s a strategy that exploits the class warfare Gingrich professes to oppose. Still, it could pay dividends once the GOP race again swings South. Gingrich sees delegate-rich Texas as a firewall in April. But he must slog through more than 30 contests before that....

Raleigh, N.C. – It looks like Mitt Romney is headed for a decisive victory in the Florida primary tonight, but beyond the Sunshine State, he has more work to do to wrap things up. Newt Gingrich still looks pretty strong in Missouri and Ohio, but the candidate with the greatest potential to challenge Romney, in the Midwest at least, is Rick Santorum. Santorum is by far the best liked of the four remaining candidates in these two states. And not only does he do well in the horseraces, but if the race is winnowed to him and Romney, he would...

The Marietta Times is reporting that the Ohio State Highway Patrol (OSHP) is voicing concerns about HB422, legislation that seeks to repeal requirements that a concealed carry licensee inform an approaching law enforcement officer that the licensee is a licensee and is carrying a concealed handgun. From the article: House Bill 422, jointly sponsored by Reps. Ron Maag, R-Lebanon, and Andy Thompson, R-Marietta, would amend the current state code to remove a requirement that during a traffic stop drivers must notify police officers if they're carrying a firearm. "The patrol has concerns from a public safety viewpoint, not only for...

Federal and county governments are among the long list of creditors owed money by a nearly-bankrupt local business that stored livestock semen. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provided about $536,000 in loans to the company. The federal government wants its stimulus money back, but so do the business’ 84 other creditors. The company stored the semen in slender “straws” frozen in liquid nitrogen. Now the business’ owner has filed for bankruptcy protection. The public creditors’ hearing is set for 10 a.m. at the U.S. bankruptcy court in Dayton. Genetic Connection owner Roger Clark said he would not...

The Ohio Supreme Court declined Wednesday to hear the case of a 55-year-old Cleveland homeowner convicted in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court last year of killing an intruder. When the 8th Ohio District Court of Appeals threw out the conviction of Carl Kozlosky and ordered a new trial, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason appealed the decision. The Ohio Supreme Court's decision Wednesday returns the case to Common Pleas Court. Kozlosky was sentenced last year to 18 years to life in prison for the shooting death of Andre Coleman on Sept. 20, 2009. Coleman broke into Kozlosky's house and began beating...

Dialing the right wrong number may have saved the life of a Cuyahoga Falls woman. Loretta Smith, 70, said a complete stranger many states away came to her rescue Saturday when she fell ill. Around 4 p.m., Smith said, her right arm went dead. Soon the whole right side of her body wouldn't respond. And then she fell to the floor. "I couldn't move," she said. When she tried to stretch out, her left leg hit a table near her bed and knocked the telephone onto the floor.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A bill in the Ohio Senate would ban smoking in cars if children under 6 are on board. The measure's sponsor says the idea is to safeguard youngsters from secondhand smoke. Democratic Sen. Charleta Tavares of Columbus testified Wednesday at a hearing on her bill and said smoke inside cars is especially dangerous because the space makes the smoke much more concentrated. Multiple news outlets report that Senate Highways and Transportation Committee Chairman Tom Patton questioned how law enforcers would be able to spot that a child is younger than 6, in order to enforce the...