Free Republic

South Carolina lawmakers have passed a bill that would review and replace the Common Core standards, but not immediately repeal them. H3893 passed the state Senate 42-0 and the House 80-26. It now heads to Gov. Nikki Haley (R), who is expected to sign the bill. As reported by the Heartland’s School Reform News, the bill would create a committee to review and replace the Common Core standards prior to the 2015-2016 academic year. It also would prohibit South Carolina from using the federally funded national Common Core-aligned tests. The bill launched a debate earlier in the year when the...

It’s only a small matter of time until the Obama administration finally, rapturously releases what its hopes will be the crown jewel of its rise-of-the-oceans-slowing climate-change agenda: Regulations capping the emissions from existing power plants, a.k.a., stamping out coal plants across the country. This set of regs is going to be even more complicated and controversial than the regulations for only new power plants the administration released last year, and as the AP obliquely explains, we’re likely to start seeing those “necessarily skyrocketing” energy prices Obama once mentioned pretty quickly here: Electricity prices are probably on their way up...

Between now and the end of June, more than two dozen states will hold primary elections. A major subplot of this year’s midterm elections is the competition between the Republican establishment and the tea party wing of the party. The establishment is fighting back, but has the tea party already won? The general election is still six months off. But Tuesday opens the summer preseason of intraparty contests, which starts with an important primary in North Carolina. Between now and the end of June, more than two dozen states will hold primary elections. After a July break, the preseason will...

A South Carolina woman cannot get her medicine because Obamacare says she’s a man. The woman has been denied her meds for weeks. Posted by Jim Hoft on Thursday, May 22, 2014, 12:55 PM A South Carolina woman cannot get her medicine because Obamacare says she’s a man. The woman has been denied her meds for weeks. WLOS reported: The Washington Free Beacon reported: A family who was forced to buy healthcare is distraught after their daughter was denied medication because of an Obamacare error. Shelby Higdon needs her medication, but has been repeatedly denied it because the information in...

Human trafficking is the most common form of modern-day slavery, and it is a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States. Worldwide, human trafficking is the fastest-growing business of organized crime, according to the FBI. One of the chief responsibilities of government is to enforce the rule of law and protect human dignity through a functioning and fair justice system. This week, the House passed several bills to hold perpetrators accountable, protect exploited children, and provide victims the necessary services to recover and rebuild, including: H.R. 3530, the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act: boosts support and protection for domestic...

REPUBLICAN” VOTERS COULD NOMINATE A LIBERAL ON THE FIRST BALLOT Liberal U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (RINO-S.C.) has done everything within his power to alienate Republican primary voters in “conservative” South Carolina – supporting far left Supreme Court justices, backing multiple tax hikes and shamelessly shilling for the Obama administration’s domestic spying apparatus. Among other things … He should be toast in a GOP primary, in other words … and yet he’s not. In fact Graham may win the GOP nomination outright on June 10 after failing to draw a “big name” challenger in his most vulnerable of primary seasons. You...

As USC Upstate students prepare to protest last week’s closing of the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies Center on campus, Chancellor Tom Moore announced that administrators are exploring ways to create a new center. The announcement that the center would close resulted in outcry from students and alumni, who said the center was a safe place to discuss feminism, race and LGBTQ issues. Some questioned whether the center was closed because of political pressure. Last month, state Sens. Lee Bright, R-Roebuck, and Mike Fair, R-Greenville, questioned the programming at the center, which for the past several years has planned...

Charleston County deputies say eight students have been arrested after they were caught on surveillance video throwing rocks and food at passing cars while on their school bus. According to an incident report, Durham Bus Services notified Septima Clark Academy that several students on bus 529 threw items at a passing vehicles on May 8, causing damage to a truck. Officers arrived on the scene to find a dent on victim's passenger side roof/window area and "food splashed across the grill, hood, and windshield." Deputies say none of the students on the bus admitted to throwing things at the truck....

SNIP To lead the Republican majority staff, Gowdy selected Philip Kiko, a key aide to Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., when the latter served as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and more recently a registered lobbyist for the Smith-Free Group, a K Street lobbying firm with a diverse roster of clients. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, swiftly welcomed Gowdy’s choice, calling Kiko “a man of unquestioned integrity with a record of distinguished service” in and out of Congress... SNIP However, emails obtained by Fox News show that some conservatives are unhappy with Kiko’s appointment, chiefly because of his recent lobbying...

Challengers see themselves in the Texas senator, even in races where their odds of an upset are considered steeper than Cruz’s surprise victory over a GOP establishment figure two years ago. He’s made endorsements in the Oklahoma and Nebraska Senate races, plus the Nebraska gubernatorial race, and sent almost $26,000 to federal candidates through his leadership PAC. “Ted Cruz would be extremely helpful as an endorser and a fundraiser,” said C. Edmund Wright, a consultant to longshot South Carolina Senate hopeful Lee Bright, in an email. “Rand Paul and Mike Lee would be great also.” But, he said, “the reason...

This video comes from a press conference given by Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) earlier this week [see update - from late last year], but Real Clear Politics picked it up today, and it’s definitely worth a fresh look. As the newly-appointed chair of the select committee investigating Benghazi, Gowdy has bristled at criticisms that all of the questions have already been answered — especially when those criticisms come from national media outlets who have shown remarkably little curiosity about the collapse of American policy in Libya. In his presser, Gowdy challenged the critics to answer the questions his committee...

There is less than one month to go before the June 10th primary and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has just received yet another censure from South Carolina Republicans. According to Conservative Fifty: “On Monday evening the Charleston County GOP, one of the largest and most active county GOP groups in South Carolina, passed a censure resolution against Graham by a vote of 39-32. Charleston becomes the 9th county GOP to censure Graham since August. Other counties to censure Graham are Lexington, Pickens, Anderson, Laurens, Orangeburg, Greenville, Fairfield, and Chesterfield. All of the 9 censure measures have cited similar points where...

University of South Carolina Upstate officials announced $450,000 in changes and cuts to programs Tuesday to save money, including closing its Center for Women's and Gender Studies. The cuts are effective July 1, with the bulk of the savings coming from moving some faculty and staff from 12-month positions to 9- or 11-month positions, officials said. The announcement came the same day the state Senate approved a budget amendment requiring USC Upstate to spend $17,000 to teach the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Federalist Papers - the same amount of money the college spent on the gay-themed...

BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C. (WCIV) -- A Cross High School teacher has been charged with sexual battery of three students. Berkeley County Sheriff's Office officials said 29-year-old Ellen Lindsay Niemiec, of Summerville, turner herself in at the sheriff's office Thursday afternoon. Officials said that there are three student victims leading to two felony and one misdemeanor charges because of their ages. The sheriff's office said the misconduct had been going on for several weeks. Niemiec is married with three children, according to her attorney David Aylor. Mike Bosnak, who is an attorney representing all three victims, said some of the inappropriate...

Republican Sen. Tim Scott doesn’t vote according to the color of his skin, Assistant Democratic Leader Rep. James Clyburn complained in a Thursday Washington Post article.“If you call progress electing a person with the pigmentation that he has, who votes against the interest and aspirations of 95 percent of the black people in South Carolina, then I guess that’s progress,” he told the Post.Clyburn’s argument was featured in a generally favorable article about Scott’s practice of briefly working alongside his constituents in South Carolina without revealing his identity.The comment from Clyburn, age 73, stands in contrast to a comment from...

Bloomberg writer Francis Wilkinson recently wrote a piece claiming that Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina--an African American--only became a senator because Republicans "lowered the bar" for his appointment. He also claimed that Scott’s candidacy serves as a "shield" for racist Tea Party members to hide behind. In an article that is more invective than analysis, Wilkinson essentially called Senator Scott a do-nothing senator. He said Scott acted like a "shield" for racist, Confederate flag-waving Tea Party members who need someone to replace Herman Cain as the favorite candidate behind whom they can hide their racism. Wilkinson made these...

Rep. Trey Gowdy, the tea party Republican tapped to lead the new committee investigating the 2012 Benghazi attacks, made a telling slip Wednesday morning in describing his mission. Asked by MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough about the possibility that his panel’s work would continue into the 2016 election campaign, Gowdy replied that “if an administration is slow-walking document production, I can’t end a trial simply because the defense won’t cooperate.” A trial? And the Obama administration is the defense? So much for that “serious investigation” House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) promised; his new chairman intends to play prosecutor, proving the administration’s guilt...

House Speaker John Boehner would not say Thursday if the House GOP’s campaign arm should stop including the Benghazi attacks in fundraising appeals. Asked three times whether the National Republican Congressional Committee should be fundraising based on what they call Democratic obstruction of the Benghazi investigation, Boehner answered only: “Our focus is on getting the answers to those families who lost their loved ones. Period.” An NRCC email sent Wednesday morning included a link to “become a Benghazi watchdog” – which led to a page where supporters can donate cash. A separate website called “BenghaziWatchdogs.com” still contains a link encouraging...

..... As veterans from all aspects of Special Operations, we have no doubt that there’s a lot more to what happened in Benghazi than President Obama and his Administration are letting on. From the very beginning, he has attempted to mislead and outright lied to the American people about why the attack on September 11th, 2012 happened, how it happened, and what our government did or did not do to save the lives of our patriots abroad,” former Navy SEAL Captain Larry Bailey wrote in a statement to Breitbart News. The representatives from the retired military community want “a full...

<p>The mainstream, media is still trying to figure out how they are going to push back against the recently-announced House Select Committee that will investigate Benghazi.</p> <p>With polls showing that nearly two-thirds of Americans believe Obama engaged in a cover-up and want the investigations to continue, our media -- that from the beginning have fought to protect Obama, Hillary, and to ensure the truth is never known -- are in a tough spot.</p>