Free Republic

Newport, DE — Back in 2010, a man named Nigel Sykes recently tried to rob Seasons Pizza restaurant in Newport, Delaware, but employees tackled him, took his gun, and beat him up. Now he is suing the restaurant for his injuries, and he’s doing it from jail. Now 23-years old, Sykes has just filed a federal civil complaint claiming that the rough treatment was “unnecessary”. He also says that because of his incurred injuries during the attempted robbery, he wants to be compensated. He also claims in his suit that after employees subdued him, two local police officers improperly...

A Florida jury has slammed the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. with $23.6 billion in punitive damages in a lawsuit filed by the widow of a longtime smoker who died of lung cancer in 1996. The case is one of thousands filed in Florida after the state Supreme Court in 2006 tossed out a $145 billion class action verdict. That ruling also said smokers and their families need only prove addiction and that smoking caused their illnesses or deaths. Last year, Florida's highest court re-approved that decision, which made it easier for sick smokers or their survivors to pursue lawsuits against...

President Obama might be thrilled that 7.1 million people apparently signed up for ObamaCare exchanges. But doctors have good reason to withhold their applause. Back in June 2009, Obama told a gathering of the American Medical Association that he was "looking at a range of ideas" that would stem the tide of costly medical malpractice lawsuits and "scale back the excessive defensive medicine." A few months later, he told Congress that "I've talked to enough doctors to know that defensive medicine may be contributing to unnecessary costs" and that he would borrow a page from President Bush and fund demonstration...

Braley camp: He knew he was being recorded when he disparaged Iowa farmers and Grassley POSTED AT 9:21 AM ON APRIL 1, 2014 BY GUY BENSON Many of us assumed this recording was made surreptitiously. It must have been. There’s no way a statewide office-seeker from Iowa would knowingly demean farmers and a beloved state political figure on tape, right? Wrong, says the Braley campaign, via the Des Moines Register: Braley’s campaign strategists say the candidate knew he was being videotaped at the private fundraiser when he made the remark that has the political world buzzing, describing Chuck Grassley as...

We recently published a forecast that described the GOP as more likely than not to win the U.S. Senate in November. But our analysis was less bullish on Republicans’ prospects of flipping the seat in Iowa currently held by Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin, who is retiring. There, Democrats appeared to have a strong candidate in Rep. Bruce Braley, who has cleared his primary field. Republicans, meanwhile, face a contentious primary with a number of candidates who have never won races for statewide or federal office. After we published our forecast, the Republican PAC America Rising released a video of Braley,...

LOGANSPORT, Ind. - A fast-moving virus that has infected hogs across half of the nation since it was first detected in the U.S. less than a year ago has become rampant in Indiana, agriculture officials say. Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, or PED, has infected farms in 43 of Indiana's 92 counties, according to March 14 data from the Indiana State Board of Animal Health. Twenty-six other states have reported cases of the virus as of March 12, the National Animal Health Laboratory Network indicates. While the flu-like sickness doesn't affect people and is not a food safety concern, it can...

The political action committee America Rising took that concept and applied it to an attack ad on Iowa Democrat Rep. Bruce Braley whose remarks earlier this week before a group of trial lawyers in Texas about Iowa farmers hit a nerve: If you help me win this race you may have someone with your background, your experience, your voice, someone who’s been literally fighting tort reform for thirty years, in a visible or public way, on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Or, you might have a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school, never practiced law, serving as the...

Iowa Democrats are worried Rep. Bruce Braley’s remark that Sen. Chuck Grassley (R) is a “farmer from Iowa who never went to law school” could come back to haunt him. Braley’s Senate campaign is in damage control mode following the release of a video in which the Democrat tells Texas trial lawyers at a fundraiser that he’s better equipped to serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee than his state’s senior senator. “If you help me win this race, you may have someone with your background, your experience, your voice, someone who’s been literally fighting tort reform for 30 years, in...

U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley is likely sweating it after a remark about the lack of towel service at an exclusive gym that has remained open to lawmakers during the government shutdown. The Iowa congressman defended the backlash for the gym's continued operation, while thousands of government employees are furloughed, including workers at the fitness center. He said on the "Bill Press Show:" "There's hardly anybody working down there. There's no towel service. So we're doing our own laundry down there. And we pay a fee to belong to the House gym. So this is no different than if you're working...

Iowa Rep. Bruce Braley, a Democrat running for Senate, was caught on videotape disparaging fellow Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley as “a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school” — comments that later drew an apology from the candidate. The video, posted online Tuesday afternoon by GOP opposition research firm America Rising, shows Braley speaking to what the group described as a group of lawyers at a fundraiser in Texas. “If you help me win this race, you may have someone with your background, your experience, your voice — someone who’s been literally fighting tort reform for 30 years...

The only Democrat running in the primary for the open Senate seat in Iowa made a spectacular gaffe before a roomfull of trial lawyers in Texas. Standing next to a table full of booze, Rep. Bruce Braley insulted farmers, praised lawyers, and belittled the second most popular political figure in Iowa. Iowa Rep. Bruce Braley, a Democrat running for Senate, was caught on videotape disparaging fellow Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley as “a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school” — comments that later drew an apology from the candidate. The video, posted online Tuesday afternoon by GOP opposition...

Mitt Romney waded into the crowded Iowa Senate race Wednesday, throwing his support behind state Sen. Joni Ernst (R) in the contested GOP primary. "As a mother, soldier and proven conservative, Joni has the kind of experience, skillset and discipline it will take to not only win this important seat, but to also take Iowa values to help turn around the mess in Washington," Romney wrote in a fundraising e-mail sent Wednesday morning... This is not Romney's first endorsement of the 2014 cycle. He is also backing Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who faces tea party challenger Bryan Smith (R).

The party has an outside chance of winning the five or six seats it needs to retake control, but needs to find top-tier recruits in several states and is running out of time to do so. ....Here are five states where the party needs to land strong candidates to broaden the battleground and have a hope of winning back the Senate. Michigan Iowa Montana Arkansas New Hampshire

Rep. Bruce Braley, D, is running for Senate in Iowa, for the seat being vacated by Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin, D. Braley, a trial lawyer before he came to Congress, needs votes from a lot of farmers and a lot of people who have never gone to law school, as well as people who also like Iowa’s other senator, Republican Chuck Grassley, currently the state’s most popular politician. So this America Rising video of Braley at a fundraiser for trial lawyers in South Texas is just priceless. He talks about Grassley as if the guy just came in from slopping...

Joni Ernst, a Republican candidate in the GOP Senate primary in Iowa, is touting her experience “castrating hogs on an Iowa farm” to underscore how emphatic she will be about ending pork barrel spending in the U.S. Senate. “I'm Joni Ernst. I grew up castrating hogs on an Iowa farm. So when I get to Washington, I'll know how to cut pork,” Ernst says in the ad, followed by the sound of a pig squealing. The ad, which was provided exclusively to Breitbart News, will appear in television spots in Iowa. Ernst ends the ad saying, “Washington's full of big...

Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, apologized for his critical comments of Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, that were posted online Tuesday by a Republican research group. Speaking at a fundraiser, Braley, who is running for the Hawkeye State’s open Senate seat, said the Senate could end up with “a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school, never practiced law, serving as the next chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee,” before identifying that person as Grassley. “I apologize to Senator Grassley and anyone I may have offended,” Braley said in a statement released a couple of hours after the video...

Iowa Rep. Bruce Braley, a Democrat running for Senate, was caught on videotape disparaging fellow Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley as “a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school” — comments that later drew an apology from the candidate. The video, posted online Tuesday afternoon by GOP opposition research firm America Rising, shows Braley speaking to what the group described as a group of lawyers at a fundraiser in Texas. “If you help me win this race, you may have someone with your background, your experience, your voice — someone who’s been literally fighting tort reform for 30 years...

FORT WORTH — What started as a murder case ended as a standoff at a two-story home on Permian Lane in Fort Worth on December 31, 2013. John St. Angelo, a contractor, had been here before, and chose it as a place to hide from Fort Worth police as they tried to track him down for the murder of his estranged wife, Suzanne Parsons. Police used tear gas and more to break into the home until St. Angelo finally gave up. All the owner of the house could do was watch. "We’re about 12 hours ahead, so I found out...

A man named Webster Lucas is so upset with McDonald's that he has decided to file a lawsuit against them for $1.5 million, but it's not for any reason you could possibly imagine. TMZ reported on Feb. 27, 2014, that the California man is suing McDonald's because they gave him only one napkin with the meal that he ordered and received. Lucas contacted the general manager via email and said that he was suffering from "undue mental anguish" and that stopped him from going to work. He also says that the general manager tried to make amends by offering him...

The cost of defensive medicine, those tests and procedures ordered solely to protect hospitals and physicians from medical malpractice (Med-Mal) litigation, are estimated to cost as much as $200 billion each year. That’s more than seven percent of all the money spent on health care annually. A number of Republicans tried—to no avail—to include some aspect of tort reform in the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). So did Bart Gordon (D-TN), a Blue Dog Democrat, and he also failed. In the summer of 2009, Howard Dean, a physician, onetime presidential candidate, and former chair of the Democratic National Committee, was asked...