Free Republic

Ted Cruz may have the aura of a future presidential contender, but is he even eligible...? The newly sworn-in Texas senator and rising Republican star was born in Canada, to a mother who was born in Delaware and Cuban father. That’s triggered a debate about whether he’s eligible for the nation’s highest office... While there’s no legal precedent for Cruz’s situation, most constitutional scholars surveyed by POLITICO believe the 42-year-old tea party sensation would be OK. “The problem is, no one knows what a natural born citizen is,” agreed University of California, Davis law professor Gabriel Chin, who argued in...

<p>Legislators in Texas, the biggest energy producer among U.S. states, will begin deliberating its next two-year budget with a surplus forecast today to match an $8.8 billion record set in 2007.</p> <p>As the taxable value of oil produced in Texas surged to $39.1 billion in 2011 from $18.4 billion in 2009, the state led the nation in employment gains, adding about 700,000 jobs, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The state unemployment rate has tumbled to a four-year low of 6.2 percent. Oil and natural-gas drilling rigs more than doubled by mid-2012 compared with two years earlier, and the industry’s workforce climbed 9.2 percent, Combs said.</p>

Bloomberg reports that when the Texas Legislature begins its 2013 session it will face a problem that most states will kill for. Texas will likely have a budget surplus of around $8 billion. The question arises, how to spend it? How Texas arrived at a surplus In 2011, when it looked as if Texas was facing a multi-billion-dollar budget deficit, the Texas Legislature cut spending, especially funding for education, Bloomberg notes. However, partly because of the fracking boom, revenues from the sale of oil and gas soared, bringing in unexpected tax revenues. The jobless rate also declined sharply, currently down...

The Minnesota Representative introduced a bill to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act, the first bill of the 113th Congress--but it stands almost no chance of passing. Second verse, same as the first, apparently.Rep. Michele Bachmann, the Tea Party darling and former presidential candidate introduced the first House bill of the 113th Congress Thursday.Of course, the bill she introduced was to--you guessed it--repeal Obamacare in its entirety. At noon today, I introduced the first bill of the 113th Congress to repeal Obamacare in its entirety.— Michele Bachmann (@MicheleBachmann) January 3, 2013 Even if Bachmann's bill stood a chance of becoming...

Effectively affirming the concerns of five much-maligned Republican House members and the evidence presented in an investigative book, an Egyptian magazine claims six American Muslim leaders who work with the Obama administration are Muslim Brotherhood operatives who have significant influence on U.S. policy. Egypt’s Rose El-Youssef magazine, in a Dec. 22 story, said the six men turned the White House “from a position hostile to Islamic groups and organizations in the world to the largest and most important supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood.” "Claims 6 American Muslims have strong influence on U.S. policy " The Egyptian article was translated and...

WICHITA, Kan. — An illegal immigrant accused of assuming the persona of a Texas teacher pleaded guilty Monday in a case that put a face on the growing crime of “total identity theft” in the United States.

Driving in to work today I heard the KLBJ 590 boys discussing the latest in the Left's attack on the Second Amendment. From their web site: Officials to discuss banning gun shows from city and county owned facilities Newsroom 1/7/2013 Officials with Travis county and the city of Austin will discuss whether or not they want to ban weapons shows from city and county owned facilities. Travis county resident Ed Scruggs tells commissioners he thinks he's not against gun shows, but thinks they should not happen in publicly owned facilities following the tragic school shooting in Connecticut, "We have the...

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), a freshman Congressmen, appeared on Fox News Sunday and said he did not support most new gun control legislation because “it is unconstitutional.” Cruz was discussing his belief that after the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, politicians used the opportunity to “try to exploit and push their political agenda of gun control.” Cruz said he would not back an assault weapons ban or a ban on high capacity magazines. RELATED: Former Marine Responds To Sen. Feinstein’s Gun Proposal: ‘Unconstitutional Laws Aren’t Laws’ Asked if there was any new gun legislation he might be willing...

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TEXAS): The reason why I'm a conservative is because conservative policies work and they improve opportunities. They are the avenue for climbing the economic dream. And what I have been talking about for many years is opportunity conservatism, that every policy should focus like a laser on easing the means of ascent up the economic ladder. That we should be championing the 47%, to take that now infamous comment. Look, the great thing about Americans -- Americans don't want to be dependent upon government. Dependency saps the spirit, it doesn't work. Americans want to stand on their...

GALVESTON — Jose Alfredo Sanchez and his wife may never see their daughter alive again. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials this week denied the Mexican couple's final attempt to obtain permission for humanitarian reasons to visit Maria Sanchez, 26, who's painfully living out the last days of her life in a Houston apartment under the care of her husband. It was the third time the agency denied humanitarian parole to the parents of Maria Sanchez, who's nearing death. Critics of immigration laws say the case illustrates a

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has barely taken his oath of office as a United States Senator and he is already making news. He has a Washington Post op-ed in which he reiterates his "opportunity conservatism" approach to governance. The first bill he will file will be to repeal Obamacare. This and a combative stance on guns and fiscal policy have gotten the notice of the media.

Liquids production from the Eagle Ford of South Texas could catch or surpass North Dakota’s output from the Bakken petroleum system in 2013, a recent study by EAI Inc. indicates. Meanwhile, a separate report by Wood Mackenzie projects 2013 capital spending in Eagle Ford will total a whopping $28 billion. “With $28 billion in capex being spent in 2013 and development now in full swing, the excitement in the Eagle Ford and value being extracted from the play continues to exceed expectations,” said Callan McMahon, upstream research analyst for Wood Mackenzie. Behind the Bakken, Eagle Ford is currently the second...

A woman died on an international flight Wednesday. The flight was American Airlines flight 962 and originated from Sao Paulo, Brazil. According to police, the 25-year-old woman made her way to the airplane’s lavatory then collapsed and died after walking from the lavatory. The plane was headed to the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport but was diverted to Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport; it landed around 6:30 a.m. Officials are scheduled to perform an autopsy on the woman who was not identified at the time of this report. After several hours later, the flight continued onto Dallas and landed there just before before...

A southeast Oak Cliff charter school teacher faces sexual assault charges involving two male students at school in multiple incidents last year, according to Dallas police documents. Geogery Lynn Shelton, who taught at Children First Academy, was being held at the Lew Sterrett Justice Center on Friday. His bail was set at $75,000 after his arrest this week on two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child under the age of 14 and a charge of continuous sexual assault of a child, police records said. [Snip] The crimes for which Shelton faces charges date to at least May and...

Off Duty Officer Who Saved Lives in Texas Movie Theater Shooting Deserves National Attention By Polly Wogg December 30, 2012 Just two days after the tragedy at Sandy Hook, another shooting took place at a movie theater in San Antonio Texas. Did you hear about it? I didn’t. Why? Because no one died, thanks to an off duty police officer who shot the gunman. Sgt. Lisa Cuello Castellano, a 13-year veteran of the police department, shot 19-year-old Jesus Garcia after he fired several times inside a restaurant and a movie theater parking lot. She saved several lives and was given...

HOUSTON - The Texas Department of Transportation will continue to use freeway message signs in Houston to provide directions to firearms-related events, state officials said Thursday evening. On Thursday afternoon, local TxDOT officials told KPRC Local 2 that gun show directions would no longer be displayed on the signs. A short time later, state officials said that an error had been made. "The decision 2 suspend use of these signs for similar future events in Houston was made in error by the district office," a tweet from TxDOT read. The electronic signs are routinely used to direct traffic or tell...

The First Presbyterian Church of Dallas will host a gun buyback program later this month in hopes of taking a few weapons off the streets and lending its voice to the national debate about gun control. "I think today there is rarely a family or individual who has not been touched by some incident of a violent gun accident or death," said Reverend Bruce Buchanan who will run the program. The gun buyback is actually a return to the church's roots. In 2000, First Presbyterian Church of Dallas held the first of six annual gun buybacks, collecting more than 500...

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Tea party darling Ted Cruz has been sworn in as U.S. senator and says his first order of business will be introducing a bill he knows will never pass.

Jerry Hartfield was still a young man when an uncle visited him in prison to tell him that his murder conviction had been overturned and he would get a new trial. Not long afterward, he was moved off of death row. “A sergeant told me to pack my stuff and I wouldn’t return. I’ve been waiting ever since for that new trial,” Hartfield, now 56, said during a recent interview at the prison near Gatesville where he’s serving life for the 1976 robbery and killing of a Bay City bus station worker. He says he’s innocent.

Princeton, New Jersey (CNN) -- Somewhere in Texas, former President George W. Bush is smiling. Although some Democrats are pleased that taxes will now go up on the wealthiest Americans, the recent deal to avert the fiscal cliff entrenches, rather than dismantles, one of Bush's signature legacies -- income tax cuts. Ninety-nine percent of American households were protected from tax increases, aside from the expiration of the reduced rate for the payroll tax. In the final deal, Congress and President Barack Obama agreed to preserve most of the Bush tax cuts, including exemptions on the estate tax. When Bush started...