Free Republic

More than 70 gravesite headstones have been vandalized and stripped of their bronze/copper name plates at the Julia Page Cemetery, located at the 1300 block of Third Street. The incident is under investigation by the Douglas Police Department and is believed to have been occurring over the past few months, although it is just now being reported, according to DPD Sgt. Jose Duarte. As of Friday, investigators have only been able to identify fewer than 10 victims, including the loved one of Douglas resident Tom Felix.

Dr. Ben Carson confirmed five people on presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s list of potential vice presidential running mates in a recent interview. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the 2008 VP running mate to John McCain, was one of the five Carson said was on the list. The rest are all former 2016 GOP presidential candidates: Trump’s closest competitor Sen. Ted Cruz, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Sen. Marco Rubio, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. (Read more at source)

I'm sorry to have to tell you about Ken Towery's death. But I'm honored to be able to tell you about his life.

Oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens, who on Wednesday endorsed presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, is planning to host a fundraising event for the pro-Trump super PAC next month, the first major effort by the super PAC to raise money. Mr. Pickens, chairman of the hedge fund BP Capital, has invited Ed Rollins, the co-chairman of the super PAC, to visit his Texas ranch in mid-June, along with a few other fundraising officials from the group. The goal is both to raise money for the super PAC and to bolster party unity, a spokesman for Mr. Pickens said.

While some Americans appear to be confused over the differences between a man and a woman, Megyn Kelly has eliminated any confusion about where she stands on the issue. Kelly had Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Friday’s show to discuss the Obama administration‘s directive informing schools that they “must allow transgender students access to such facilities consistent with their gender identity,” and the Fox News host’s disdain could not have been more obvious. Kelly was uncharacteristically rude and disrespectful to the Texas Republican, eventually cutting away from him in mid-sentence. In particular, she seemed to take exception to Patrick’s...

Unlike some of the other former candidates, Rick Perry is keeping his word and has pledged his support for the apparent nominee, Donald Trump. Texas’ longest serving governor is now being attacked for honoring his promise to the voters that he would support the eventual nominee of the party. In September 2015, Gov. Perry was asked in a post-campaign interview if he would support Donald Trump by the Austin American-Statesman’s Jonathan Tilove... Perry’s answer, “Sure. Whoever comes out of that Republican field I’m going to be supporting...” Now, outlets like Red State and National Review are attacking the governor for...

Montana and five other states say resident Barack Obama overstepped his power by rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline, whose developers are now suing four presidential cabinet members. The states along the pipeline’s route filed a friend-of-the-court brief this week arguing that Congress, not the executive, has the right to regulate interstate and international commerce. The pipeline, which would have crossed the Canadian border, was being developed by TransCanada, which is now suing the government. Because of the resident’s representations to the rest of the world that America would lead in reducing its carbon footprint, that that was the sole reason...

Nine GOP committee chairmen lined up behind presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump Friday, just a day after the billionaire businessmen met with key party leaders on Capitol Hill. In a statement released announcing the endorsement, the chairmen said that it was important for Republicans to unite around Trump since America cannot deal with another Democrat in the White House nor can Republicans to lose their hold on Congress. “Any other outcome is a danger to economic growth, puts our national security in peril, enshrines ObamaCare as the law of the land, entraps Americans in a cycle of poverty and dependence,...

The Texas Republican Party considered a platform Friday that would soften support of widely rebuked “reparative therapy” for gays while still preserving some of the toughest anti-gay language on any party plank in the U.S. The new platform also would oppose bathroom rights for transgender persons — an unsurprising move after the state’s Republican lieutenant governor said Friday that Texas is ready to forfeit billions of federal dollars rather than comply with a new Obama administrative directive on transgender rights in public schools. …

Republican presidential contender Donald Trump has asked one of America's most ardent drilling advocates and climate change skeptics to help him draft his energy policy. U.S. Republican Congressman Kevin Cramer of North Dakota - a major oil drilling state - is writing a white paper on energy policy for the New York billionaire, Cramer and sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Cramer was also among a group of Trump advisers who recently met with lawmakers from western energy states, who hope Trump will open more federal land for drilling, a lawmaker who took part in the meeting said. Cramer...

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is vowing to help defend North Carolina's law on transgender restrooms — and hinting that a similar measure could be coming soon to his state. Abbott, a former state attorney general, told delegates at the Texas GOP convention in Dallas on Thursday, "I am working with the governor of North Carolina, and we are going to fight back." The U.S. Justice Department is suing North Carolina over its new law requiring transgender people to use public bathrooms corresponding to the gender on their birth certificates. Texas Republicans have used the issue to delight conservatives, even though...

Republican presidential candidate John Kasich insisted Tuesday he would not consider running for the vice presidency. “Zero chance, just stop there, zero chance,” he told Fox Business Network’s “Varney & Co.,” specifically referencing Donald Trump. “I have no interest,” Kasich added. "I’m going to be governor of Ohio. There is zero chance I will be anybody’s vice presidential candidate — period, end of story.”

News of the president’s forthcoming directive requiring educators to let students use bathrooms according to their gender identity — not their birth certificate — offered a welcome set of guidelines to some school administrators Thursday night about how they ought to proceed amidst the ongoing legal and cultural bathroom battle embroiling the nation. As Obama’s time in the White House ticks away, the president wants his administration to leave a legacy of social reform, especially when it comes to issues like same-sex marriage, immigration, healthcare, clean air and climate change. Because Congress is under Republican control, Obama has mostly had...

U.S. immigration officials are planning a month-long series of raids in May and June to deport hundreds of Central American mothers and children found to have entered the country illegally, according to sources and an internal document seen by Reuters. The operation would likely be the largest deportation sweep targeting immigrant families by the administration of President Barack Obama this year after a similar drive over two days in January that focused on Georgia, Texas, and North Carolina. Those raids, which resulted in the detention of 121 people, mostly women and children, sparked an outcry from immigration advocates and criticism...

Jim Robinson, the founder of popular conservative internet discussion board Free Republic that was founded in 1997, threw his support behind Donald Trump for president on Thursday...... Our overriding mission on Free Republic is to preserve, protect and defend (conserve) God, family, country–and all that that entails (refer to the Declaration, Constitution, and our Judeo-Christian American heritage for details). Our most immediate task we must undertake at this time is keep corrupt, godless, treasonous, America-hating communists like Hillary Clinton out of power. Our very survival as a free nation depends upon it. That means FR is going all in to...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Thursday suggested Fox News had a role to play in facilitating presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s success and warned that it “will bear that responsibility going forward"

Ted Cruz said Thursday that those who contributed to the rise of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will have to "bear that responsibility going forward." Cruz appeared Thursday evening on the Houston-based "Michael Berry Show" and was asked whether he thought he was treated fairly in the GOP primary, with the host mentioning Fox News. "Well listen, there's time for recriminations and you know, everyone who was responsible for the rise of Donald Trump, they will bear that responsibility going forward," Cruz responded. "But there were more than a few players that played a disproportionate role in that rise,"...

Ted Cruz isn’t giving up. While Donald Trump dispatches three advisers to Texas’s convention in Dallas this week and makes a pitch for party unity, his team will be running up against a Cruz operation that is still maneuvering to stuff the state’s delegation with allies the senator could call on to snub the presumptive nominee. “We have a busy weekend planned,” said a source familiar with the Cruz campaign’s plans. Cruz is scheduled to deliver an address at the Texas convention after a week of hinting he could jump back into the presidential contest and urging activists to thwart...

Apparently, the no-tipping test at Joe's Crab Shack isn't working out. The casual seafood chain announced in November that it had been trying out a no-tipping model in 18 of its restaurants across the country since August. But less than a year later, the company is moving back to the standard gratuity model in 14 of the test locations. ... "Our customers and staff spoke very loudly [about the policy], and a lot of them voted with their feet," he said.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said yesterday that Border Patrol agents on Monday found “37 illegal immigrants” in a house in southern Texas that featured a shrine to “La Santa Muerte” or the “goddess of death.” “Border Patrol agents along with Texas Department of Public Safety troopers conducted a traffic stop on a known smuggler which led to the discovery of the stash house,” CBP said in a release published on Wednesday. “After obtaining consent to search the residence, agents found 37 individuals inside. Among them were three juveniles from Mexico and Honduras.” …