Free Republic

Four more years! Four more years! Reuters: ******** Retailers moving into old downtown buildings, an abundance of freshly planted greenspaces, and a stream of new jobs in Knoxville, Tennessee, are all signs to Mayor Madeline Rogero that for the last year prosperity has been blooming in her city. "We feel very good about how we're coming out of this recession," Rogero said. "We see new interest. We see new development that's occurring. We're optimistic that this recovery is going to continue." Knoxville is a member of a very small club. Three and a half years since the 2007-09 economic recession...

AUSTIN – Texas tied for the third highest high school graduation rate in the country for all students.....

AUSTIN – Texas tied for the third highest high school graduation rate in the country for all students.....

You raise them, you educate them and you expect them to go out into the world. But they keep coming back. ... between 2007 and 2011 there was a steady increase in the percentage of adults living in someone else’s house – and that increase has mostly been driven by adult children moving in with mom and dad. In 2011, Census Bureau researchers found that 17.9 percent of people 18 and older, or 41.2 million people, lived in a house in which they weren’t the head of the household or that person’s spouse or significant other. That’s up from 16...

Former President George H.W. Bush is in the hospital, the Houston Chronicle reported Thursday. Bush, 88, is at Houston’s Methodist Hospital receiving treatment for a “chronic cough,” his chief of staff, Jean Becker, told the Chronicle.

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — A northwest Harris County homeowner fought back against two burglars Tuesday night and ended up shooting one of them. It all happened at a home on Morgensen Drive at Zada Park Lane sometime before 8 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. The sheriff’s office said a homeowner came home and noticed an upstairs light was on that wasn’t supposed to be. He went back to his car, got his gun, and headed back to the house.

The Transportation Security Administration is under heavy fire after publicly exposing the breasts of a teenage girl during its controversial “screening” procedures. TSA Blasted for Exposing Breasts of Congressman's Teen Grandniece The New American 28 November 2012 The Transportation Security Administration is under heavy fire after publicly exposing the breasts of a teenage girl during its controversial “screening” procedures. Of course, passengers routinely complain of TSA abuse and molestation — some 17,000 formal complaints have been lodged against the widely ridiculed and despised unconstitutional Homeland Security agency just since 2009, documents show. The latest scandal, however, has turned into...

HOUSTON—As family members of a man who was shot by a Valero clerk in southeast Houston called for the store clerk’s arrest, the store owner released surveillance video. Alexander Calloway, 21, and his two cousins were trying to enter the gas station on Martin Luther King and Belarbor around 3:30 a.m., but the store was locked. The young men got into an argument with the clerk, who unlocked his door and came outside, police said. Someone punched the clerk in the face and the clerk pulled out his gun and shot Calloway in the stomach, according to HPD. Calloway’s cousins...

Defense Distributed spokesman Cody Wilson tells the UK’s Guardian that his company has the “logistics, time, resources and money” to start freely distributing blueprints that will let any hobbyist with a 3-D home printer make their own gun, and now it’s just up to Uncle Sam to sign off on a federal firearms license. Wilson doesn’t think there will be any problem, though, and says his company plans to be approved and begin building prototypes in the coming weeks. “We're just waiting on a little piece of paper,” Wilson says, which could be all the federal government needs to give...

A lieutenant in the Dallas Police Department who goes by the name “Lucille Baller” when she promotes herself as a recording artist promises to shoot anyone who messes with her in a rap song that was posted on her website. “Don’t push Ms. Lucy because you won’t like the consequences,” Dallas Police Lt. Regina Smith raps on the recording. “Mess with me or I will shoot a [expletive] cuz Lucille Baller, she been to hell and back.” Smith, who oversees burglary and theft detectives at the Southwest and Northwest patrol investigative units, will likely face an internal affairs investigation over...

In the upcoming legislative session in Texas, guns will be a point of discussion. Rep. George Lavender (R) will introduce a bill that would allow Texans who have a concealed handgun license the freedom to open-carry. According to the Dallas Morning News: Lavender said he finds it ironic that freedom-loving Texas is one of just six states not to allow some form of open carry. The others are Illinois, New York, Arkansas, South Carolina and Florida. An open-carry law went into effect in Oklahoma on Nov. 1. Lavender and other gun rights advocates argue that law-abiding citizens openly carrying pistols...

A North Texas mother is accusing a Hurst police officer of using excessive force while arresting her 17-year-old son Andrew Rodriguez, CBS DFW reports. A video of the incident shot by Rodriguez's friend has gone viral. Rodriguez was questioned along with two others at Bellaire Park because police thought they looked suspicious, CBS DFW reports. The officer on scene got the names of the three teenagers and discovered Rodriguez had an open warrant. Rodriguez's mother, Kelly Pope, said the warrant was from a ticket her son had received four years ago for trespassing on school

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush met Monday with a group of his former staffers at the J. W. Marriott hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue, just steps from the White House. Bush, a potential 2016 presidential contender, spent an hour in the hotel’s Cannon room, reminiscing and entertaining questions about his political future. In an interview with NRO, Bush did not rule out a presidential run. “I am here to catch up with folks and promote education reform,” he said, smiling. When asked again whether he will issue a Sherman-type statement about his future, Bush remained coy. “We have an alumni group...

“A local militia, believed to be a terrorist organization, attacked the property of private citizens today at our nation’s busiest port,” wrote the teachers in charge of organizing the curriculum about the Boston Tea Party. “Although no one was injured in the attack, a large quantity of merchandise, considered to be valuable to its owners and loathsome to the perpetrators, was destroyed. The terrorists, dressed in disguise and apparently intoxicated, were able to escape into the night with the help of local citizens who harbor these fugitives and conceal their identities from the authorities.

‘Gang fight’ at Black Friday sale… Man Punched in Face Pulls Gun On Line-Cutting Shopper…Shots fired outside WALMART…Shoppers smash through door at URBAN OUTFITTERS…Customers run over in parking lot… [Scroll down -TSR]Woman busted after throwing merchandise…Thousands storm VICTORIA’S SECRET…VIDEO: Insane battle over phones… [Theme from "Superjail" started to run through my head as I watched this -TSR]Mayhem at Nebraska mall where 9 murdered in 2007…Shoplifter tries to mace security guards… [Scroll down -TSR]Men Steal Boy’s Shopping Bag Outside BED, BATH & BEYOND…

A $21 price difference between crude oil in Midland and Cushing, Okla., is an all-time high, as oil production in the Permian Basin far outpaces the pipeline infrastructure to move it. The spot price for West Texas Intermediate crude was about $87 per barrel this week in Cushing – the delivery point at which the U.S. benchmark oil is priced – versus $65 per barrel in Midland. The two only differed by $3 in October, according to a Wells Fargo report. “If I produce a barrel of oil in the Permian, my ability to move it to market is restricted,”...

Comal County, Tex. (CBS HOUSTON) – A Guadalupe County man arrested for his eighth DWI has been sentenced to life in prison after being pulled over last February with a Blood Alcohol level equivalent to consuming 23.5 beers. In late February, authorities say Cornelio Garcia-Mata was driving nearly six times the legal alcohol limit, when he was pulled over around 6 p.m. off Interstate 35 in New Braunfels, WOAI-TV reports. Garcia-Mata got his first DWI in 1990. While on probation, he picked up his second. Since he’s a habitual offender he faced 25 years to life in prison for his...

The following quote was attributed to an unidentified Czechoslovakian Republic leader, a country that suffered generations under the evil of Socialist / Marxist corruption. The writer clearly and succinctly described what may be a troubling reality for America. “The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is...

The lunchtime rush had subsided, and three idle sandwich shop employees were speculating about what they would do if a guy dressed in T-shirt and jeans walked through the door with a holstered Colt .45 strapped to his hip. “I would think it’s a plainclothes police officer,” said Eric Bejarano. “I would be suspicious that he had come to rob us,” said Candice Guard. “I would call the cops to come check him out,” said Matthew Guard, Candice’s husband. If a Texas lawmaker has his way, strangers wearing six-shooters may become a common sight across the state. The Legislature passed...

Actor Larry Hagman, notorious and beloved as 'Dallas' villain J.R. Ewing, dies From staff reports Larry Hagman, the North Texas native who played the conniving and mischievous J.R. Ewing on the TV show Dallas, died Friday at a Dallas hospital. He was 81. Mr. Hagman died at 4:20 p.m. Friday at Medical City Dallas Hospital from complications of his recent battle with cancer, members of his family said.