Free Republic

December 14 has come and gone—and President Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—better known as Obamacare—has received a stunning blow. State governments had until December 14, 2012 to decide whether or not they would build their own health insurance exchange, an online service that would allow individuals to purchase private health insurance if it wasn’t provided for by their employees. That date has now passed, and the exchange has been rebuked by half the states—with 25 state governments refusing to participate in this critical component of Obamacare. Their refusal won’t stop exchanges in their states. Under the law, states...

Texas has become the next state to propose legislation that would permit college students to carry guns on campus, in defense of the Second Amendment. Texas Moves Closer to Allowing Guns on College Campuses The New American 28 February 2011 In one of the most controversial, but many say common-sense, moves related to campus violence and Second Amendment rights, the state of Texas is considering legislation that would allow students, professors, teachers, and other personnel to carry firearms on the campuses of elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as those of colleges and universities — without any violations...

<p>A 12-year-old girl who uses a wheelchair was detained for nearly an hour at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport by Transportation Security Administration agents who said they detected traces of bomb residue on her hands, according to her mother.</p> <p>MyFoxDFW.com reports that Shelbi Walser, who suffers from a genetic bone disorder, was traveling with her mother from Texas to Florida for medical treatment Dec. 8 when she was prevented from proceeding through a security checkpoint.</p>

Florida is slated to become the first state with one million concealed firearm permits, Bloomberg reported yesterday. State officials issued 993,200 active permits as of Nov. 30, and are expected to pass the one million mark next week. “Floridians have a great respect and appreciation for their Second Amendment rights,” said Adam Putnam, Florida’s commissioner of agriculture and consumer affairs. This got me thinking about the Texas number. So I called the state department of public safety, and they sent me to their website (technology!). The numbers aren’t exactly apples-to-apples (the newest Texas numbers are for last year), but they...

In the 70 percent of Texas public schools where a private curriculum has been installed, students are learning the “fact” that “Allah is the Almighty God,” charge critics of a new online curriculum that already is facing condemnation for its secrecy and restrictions on oversight. The program, called CSCOPE, is a private venture operating under the umbrella of the Texas Education Service Center Curriculum Collaborative, whose incorporation documents state its independence from the State Board of Education of the Texas Education Agency. Other reports previously have raised alarm over the curriculum’s depiction of the Boston Tea Party as a terrorist...

As college costs rise rapidly in most places, Texas and Florida are trying to implement something that has become a radical notion: a degree that costs only $10,000. Texas governor Rick Perry announced this goal for his state last year. (Perry was inspired by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who had remarked that online learning ought to make it possible for students to pay just $2,000 per year for college.) In November, Florida governor Rick Scott announced that he, too, wanted to see state colleges offer bachelor’s degrees for $10,000 or less. In Texas, ten colleges have signed on (some of...

<p>A judge in Nacogdoches County has issued a temporary restraining order to halt work on the Keystone XL pipeline, according to court documents.</p> <p>Attorneys for Trans-Canada, which is building the pipeline, said they will fight the order at a hearing set for Thursday and do not expect it to thwart construction of the pipeline, which has drawn opposition from environmentalists and some landowners in its path.</p>

The liquefied natural gas (LNG) division of Calgary-based Ferus LP successfully completed in October what the company believes to be the first-ever hydraulic fracturing operation utilizing liquefied natural gas (LNG) as engine fuel in North America. Ferus' LNG Division was engaged by a major oil and gas service company in the United States to conduct the pilot project, which involved six dual-fuel 2,250 horsepower pressure pumper units, powered by LNG, to stimulate well performance in the south Texas Eagle Ford shale. The dual fuel systems allow for natural gas and diesel to be consumed simultaneously with no decrease in performance,...

She has become a hit on the Today Show with her warm on-air presence, but Jenna Bush Hager will be taking time off from the small screen to have her first child, MailOnline can reveal. The daughter of former President George W Bush is expecting a baby with her husband Henry Hager - and debuted her bump on the NBC show on Tuesday morning. The pretty blonde, 31, looked blooming as she showed off her fuller figure as she joined her twin sister Barbara at the UNICEF Snowflake ball in Manhattan last month. And as she returned to her New...

A professor at the University of Texas has sparked outrage by claiming black and Hispanic students are failing academically because they have been raised in single parent homes usually by females. Law professor Lino Graglia was talking to the BBC when he said he could 'hardly imagine a less beneficial or more deleterious experience than to be raised by a single parent, usually female, uneducated and without a lot of money.' He said the average black performance on SAT test is 200 points lower than that for the average white student and that among the black population almost three quarters...

Obamacare doesn’t have much of a chance of working because of the wariness of states over the creation of health insurance exchanges, according to Texas Gov. Rick Perry. … “The idea that you’ve got a state instituted exchange, but it has to be federally approved. So the fact is the federal government’s going to have to run these. And they don’t have the expertise, nor do they have the money,” Perry said. …

Texas is waiting for President Obama’s reaction to a petition demanding it be allowed to secede from the United States. They may have to keep waiting. Sunday marked the last day for Texas’ petition to secede from the union to gather 25,000 digital signatures, the number needed to warrant a response from the White House. The virtual petition achieved that goal four weeks ago. Now it’s up to 119,209, but still no word from the Oval Office. A White House official told ABC News in November that it would respond to the petition, following a procedure that demands they address...

FLUSHING, N.Y. — Qian Wu thought the man who brutally attacked her was gone forever. She was sure that Huang Chen, a Chinese citizen who slipped into America on a ship and stayed in the country illegally, would be deported as soon as he got out of jail for choking, punching, and pointing a knife at her in 2006. But China refused to take Chen back. So, after jailing Chen on and off for three years in Texas, immigration officials believed they were out of options and did what they have done with thousands of criminals like him. They quietly...

SOURCE: January 15, 2013: Stop Agenda 21 Presentation in Katy, Texas The Dangers of UN Agenda 21 / Sustainable Development Date: January 15, 2013 Time: 7:00 PM Location: Spring Creek Barbeque 21000 Kay Freeway ( 1-10 W @ Westgreen Blvd ) Katy, Texas, 77449 This presentation will reveal the true intentions of United Nations’ Agenda 21 / Sustainable Development and who’s in control behind the scenes. Video: Brief Overview of Agenda 21:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzoN0IQsTAE Contact Information: Mar. Webster (713) 248-8413 E-mail: mwebster2222@me.com Erin Earley (281) 599-7198, E-mail: eesquared57@comcast.net

Ralph Sherman Parr Jr., one of the most decorated military pilots in U.S. history, has died, joining the ranks of other legendary aviators who shaped today's Air Force. Parr, a double ace in the Korean War, had undergone treatment for cancer in recent weeks at an assisted living facility in New Braunfels, where he died Friday at 88. Parr was among the last survivors of an era of gutsy, instinctive flying before remotely piloted aircraft and technology changed the way wars are fought in the air. Bob Laymon, a friend and military historian, said Parr “inspired and motivated combat aviators...

On Saturday Night Live, guest host Jamie Foxx told the amped-up crowd now in his new movie, Django Unchained, he gets to "kill all the white people ... How GREAT is that?" The live audience erupted in cheers and laughter.

Douglas Cain made a big bet on the shale drilling industry in South Texas, and so far it seems to be paying off with a boom for his family’s longtime trucking company.? Since moving the company from Houston to San Antonio to get closer to the Eagle Ford Shale oil and gas play, Cain’s Lake Truck Lines Inc. has grown from 11 trucks to 67. The company opened a location in Odessa to serve the Permian Basin. And it’s started a new subsidiary, Lake Oilfield Services, to provide equipment such as tanks to drilling rigs or hydraulic fracturing sites. “I...

A 27-year-old mother of two has been fatally shot by an off-duty sheriff's deputy after he suspected her of shoplifting at a Houston Walmart. Harris County Sheriff's deputies have said that victim Shelly Frey, Tisa Andrews and Yolanda Craig were stealing when they were confronted by Louis Campbell a 26-year veteran of the force who works as a security guard at the store. According to Campbell the women ran to their car and when he rushed to open the door, they accelerated away - at which point he fired the deadly shot into the car which hit Frey in the...

U.S. agents on assignment in Mexico, where they are helping the local authorities go after violent drug cartels, are not allowed to carry weapons for their own protection, a situation that one lawmaker says could turn into “another Benghazi.” Because the official role of U.S. agents south of the border is limited to intelligence gathering and training their Mexican counterparts, they are barred by Mexico from carrying weapons. The danger they face was underscored last month, when 15 Mexican National Police were arrested in connection with the attempted murder of two CIA agents in August. ... Obama gave tacit approval...

BP has begun building a new supercomputing complex for commercial research that it claims will be the biggest in the world at its Westlake Campus in Houston, the company reported Friday. The project is designed to keep BP at the forefront of seismic imaging technology and, the firm said, will be a critical tool in its global hunt for oil and natural gas in coming years. The new High-Performance Computing (HPC) center, scheduled to open in mid-2013, will serve as a worldwide hub for processing and managing very large amounts of geological and seismic data from across BP's portfolio. It...