Free Republic

n his New York Times bestselling book, Throw Them All Out, Breitbart editor Peter Schweizer revealed how members of Congress enrich themselves and their relatives using earmarks and insider information. Now, the Washington Post, following in Schweizer’s footsteps, has conducted a study that found 16 members of Congress have used their power of the purse to benefit companies, colleges, and community groups tied to their relatives. *snip* Among those cited in the Washington Post report were the following (below):

Bin Laden Zombie Film Coming This Summer A Utah production company announced today that it has shot a movie based on the premise that Osama bin Laden rises from his watery grave and leads an army of zombie terrorists in a violent jihad of the undead. In the feature-length film, "Osombie: The Axis of Evil Dead," a NATO Special Forces unit races to defeat zombie bin Laden and his flesh-seeking militia, while also stopping the infection from spreading to even more terrorist corpses. According to the film's executive producer, Kynan Griffin, the script was written before the real al Qaeda...

PROVO -- A major new art exhibit is currently undergoing installation at the BYU Museum of Art is expected to attract 100,000 visitors and will feature art from the world of Islam. KSL was able to get an exclusive first look. The "Beauty and Belief" exhibit is expected to attract 100-thousand visitors. Works will travel to four museums in America, but they make their first stop in Provo. The exhibit team is mounting 250 works of art. A pair of 19th century mother-of-pearl doors from India were donated by the Doris Duke Foundation in Hawaii. A heavy, jewel-encrusted box from...

The monster who killed himself and his two young sons in a Washington house fire two years after his wife vanished reportedly attacked the boys with a hatchet before setting the blaze. The sons of Josh Powell, who were just 7 and 5, suffered what police described as "chop wounds" to their heads and necks before the Graham, Wash., home went up in flames as a helpless social worker looked on Sunday. The cause of death for all three is believed to be smoke inhalation. The grisly new details emerged as investigators combed through the charred rubble of the home...

A man accused of fatally shooting a police officer and wounding five others during an Ogden drug raid last month says he feared for his life because he thought people were breaking into his home to rob and kill him. Matthew Stewart told The Salt Lake Tribune (http://bit.ly/zMxrig ) that he never heard the drug strike force members identify themselves or announce they were at his home to serve a search warrant the night of Jan. 4. Stewart, in an interview Friday at the Weber County Jail, said he was asleep when he heard his alarm clock and then a...

Do I agree with Obama's interpretation of Luke 12:48? No. Do I agree with Obama in his 2004 interview "I have a deep faith" in which he said that there many paths to heaven/the Father and his words which were contrary to Jesus saying He is the "Way, Truth, Life...no man comes unto the Father but by me." Absolutely not. Do I agree with Mormon teaching that Jesus and Satan are brothers? Again, absolutely not. (link below in comments section.) The point of the this thread is to point out that Orrin Hatch was wrong. In fact, I believe that...

Utah's gentleman bruiser, Don Fullmer, 72, who fought some of the world's most famous boxers and came within a single fight of a world title himself, died peacefully Saturday morning surrounded by the prize he valued most — his family. Fullmer and his boxing brothers, Gene, the oldest and a world middle weight champion in 1957, and Jay, second oldest who left the sport with a 20-5-2 record after an eye injury, put Utah on the international boxing stage in the 1950s and '60s.

Reporting from Port Saint Lucie, Fla.— Dubbed the "proxies with moxie," Mitt Romney's congressional backers have been crashing Newt Gingrich's events to offer a counterpoint to the former House speaker's remarks. It's an unusual tactic to begin with, but their collisions with Gingrich's testy spokesman, R.C. Hammond, have made their sparring into the campaign trail's version of must-see TV. Gingrich said he doesn't mind their presence, which he said is a sign of desperation by Romney. "They send a member of Congress, we send R.C. It's a slight overmatch — R.C.'s a little bit more informed than they are, but...

Congressional support for controversial online piracy legislation eroded dramatically on Wednesday in the face of an unprecedented online protest supported by tech titans such as Google, Wikipedia and Facebook. Several key senators withdrew their support from the Senate's Protect IP Act (PIPA), including Tea Party favorite Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), an elected member of his party's leadership. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who leads the Senate GOP's campaign team, said the legislation should be put on hold, while Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), a sponsor and the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, retreated from the...

Former Utah governor Jon Huntsman has become the second Republican voted off the island in the 2012 Republican primary campaign (we don't count Tim Pawlenty or Herman Cain, both of whom dropped out before voting began). His decision late Sunday to suspend his campaign is a bit jarring, given that he had insisted after a disappointing third place finish in New Hampshire that he was staying in through South Carolina. I suspect that what happened is a combination of two things. First, financial reality set in. If you don’t think a candidate is going to win, you’re hard pressed to...

If elected in November, Love would be the first black Republican woman in Congress and Utah's first black representative. She said she would join the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington, D.C., should she win. "Yes, yes. I would join the Congressional Black Caucus and try to take that thing apart from the inside out," she said.

Jon Huntsman was endorsed by Columbia, S.C.'s The State newspaper on Sunday. The endorsement comes less than a week before the South Carolina primary and comes as Huntsman quickly tries to gain traction in the Palmetto state. The State's endorsement is actually similar to what happened just before the New Hampshire primary: Mitt Romney's hometown paper, The Boston Globe, backed Huntsman in a long editorial in which it compared Romney with the former Utah governor. Like the Globe endorsement, The State praised both Romney and Huntsman but said Huntsman was the better candidate. "There are actually two sensible, experienced grownups," The...

If Saratoga Springs Mayor Mia Love wins her bid for Congress, she will be the first black Republican congresswoman in history. But don’t try to put her in that box. ~snip~ If she does receive significant media attention, Love hopes to use the opportunity to express a conservative message that has too few African American champions. “Any time I’m in front of that camera … I’m going to champion those conservative causes. I’m going to let people out there know that we exist, and that … there are conservative black Americans everywhere that believe in fiscal discipline, limited government and...

Washington, DC --(Ammoland.com)- Two pro-gun conservatives recently announced they were running against Utah Senator Orrin Hatch. This is welcome news for gun owners. In a Senate career that has lasted more than thirty five years, Hatch has not been a particularly good friend of the Second Amendment. During negotiations over the 1986 McClure-Volkmer Firearms Owners Protection Act – designed to protect gun owners from abuses of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms -- Hatch sat at the negotiating table next to officials of the ATF and argued against the pro-gun positions of Sen. Jim McClure. Though a senior member...

(MSNBC) Forget San Francisco (18th) or New York (not even on the list) — the gayest city in the U.S. is Salt Lake City, Utah, according to The Advocate, the gay and lesbian newsmagazine. Rather than rely on the U.S. Census tabulation of gay and lesbian populations, which inevitably yield San Francisco as No. 1, The Advocate used different measures to establish “per capita queerness” — including a city’s number of teams entered in the Gay Softball World Series, gay bookstores, openly gay elected officials and semifinalists in the International Mr. Leather Contest...

The Advocate, an LGBT magazine, has released a list of what it says are the "gayest" cities in the U.S. The equation breakdown used is a bit different from what you may have expected. The magazine takes into account such parameters as LGBT bookstores and "International Mr. Leather competition semifinalists" among the nine criteria used to compile the list.

In November 2011, Mia Love filed to run for Utah’s newly formed 4th Congressional District based on her demonstrated leadership on conservative principles. She credits her parents with providing the foundation for her ideals. After many years of living in the unstable, regime-torn socialist island country of Haiti, her parents immigrated legally to the United States with $10 in their pockets in hopes of achieving the American Dream. Mia was born in Brooklyn, New York and eventually moved to Connecticut. Mia recalls both parents working hard to earn a living, her father at times taking on second jobs cleaning toilets...

A 31-year-old woman in Salt Lake City has been charged with two counts of burglary after she allegedly used a fake mustache to disguise her appearance as she robbed her neighbors. The Salt Lake Tribune reports that the unnamed woman's neighbors first noticed that several thousand dollars were missing from a security box inside their home. A later review of the box revealed that an additional $9,000 was missing.

“This is not a time for us to shrink. This is a time for us to have bold colors, not pale pastels.” -- Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum campaigning at the Rockingham County Nursing Home in Brentwood, N.H. It doesn’t look like Mitt Romney could lose New Hampshire, but then again, he can’t really win it either. Even a 20-point landslide by Romney in New Hampshire would be instantly discounted as merely meeting expectations for the former governor of the neighboring state who keeps a summer home there. The only way Romney could make news in New Hampshire would be...

Praying for their full recovery.

Mitt Romney's top ten is made up of Goldman Sachs, followed by Credit Suisse (Switzerland), Morgan Stanley, Barclays (UK), Bank of America and JP Morgan. In contrast Romney's co-frontrunner in Iowa, Ron Paul, has a top three donor list made up of the US Army, US Navy and US Airforce.

(12-29) 11:21 PST Las Vegas, NV (AP) -- A police chief in northern Nevada said Thursday he decided to use the discovery of marijuana on five Utah-bound buses carrying 250 underage skiers from Northern California as a teaching moment instead of an enforcement headache. Elko Police Chief Don Zumwalt said he offered a choice to the mostly teenage passengers from the Bay Area: They could spend their three-day ski and snowboard trip in juvenile detention in northeast Nevada, or they could turn over the illegal drugs voluntarily. The kids gave up the pot. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/12/29/state/n093604S31.DTL#ixzz1i2tWo6Gr

The state's high court determined that an unborn child qualifies as a minor child and, therefore, wrongful death lawsuits may be filed on behalf of those who die before birth. "Although there is no majority opinion, four members of this court hold that the statute allows an action for the wrongful death of an unborn child," Chief Justice Christine Durham wrote. "The term 'minor child,' as used in the statute, includes an unborn child." Durham wrote that the "plain language ... reveals that the term 'minor child,' as used in this statute, includes an unborn child. The statute does not...

WEST BOUNTIFUL — In a closet inside Gary Turley's West Bountiful home, an empty spot now shows where his most valued material possession used to sit. It was a safe, containing nearly $200,000 in cash — he thought was safer there than in a bank. "It was my life savings," Turley said. "I had stuff from my grandpa, who's dead now: his pocket watch, stuff like that. My Social Security cards, Visas, passports, birth certificates, checking — everything to do with my checking (was in the safe)." How it disappeared is almost worse that losing it in the first place....

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry failed to submit enough valid signatures to qualify for the Virginia primary ballot, state GOP officials said Friday evening. Perry’s campaign told state election officials it had submitted 11,911 signatures, but a Virginia Republican familiar with the situation said that the Texas governor did not submit the required 10,000. Earlier Friday, the Republican Party of Virginia certified former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.) to appear in the March ballot. Four candidates — Romney, Perry, Paul and former House speaker Newt Gingrich — turned in thousands of signatures by the deadline. State...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Two nurses in a Utah hospital's intensive care unit were fired this week for taping a patient's mouth shut and laughing about it, hospital officials said Friday. Penny Artalejo was admitted to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo on Dec. 17 with nausea and anxiety from taking medication for chronic neck pain, her daughters told KSL ( http://bit.ly/tbVNuS ). Artalejo's daughter, Brittany Bilson, told the television station that her mother's teeth were chattering and she was moaning and shaking. Bilson said the nurses told her mother to shut up, taped her mouth closed and...

TAYLORSVILLE — A 34-year-old man has been arrested for investigation of multiple counts of sex abuse against a 13-year-old girl. The four-month relationship was discovered after a bizarre incident at the man's house in which one of his housemates was shot by a third housemate who was reportedly trying to shoot a mouse in his kitchen with a 9mm handgun, according to investigators.

A Walmart parking lot in Cedar City, Utah was the site of mass carnage when thousands of birds crashed into the pavement Monday night, reports Brian Ahern at The Spectrum. Wildlife officials believe that the flock of migrating Grebes, a duck-like aquatic bird, was confused by storm clouds that made the parking lot look like a flat body of water...

These days if you don't like the polls, wait a few minutes. Another will be along shortly. Speaking of which, here's a new one this morning that could presage the start of a significant move by one candidate (or not), as well as some fresh insights into the thinking of those New Hampshire voters who'll hold the nation's first Republican primary early next month. Suffolk University is out with a new survey showing Newt Gingrich gaining and Mitt Romney slipping there, which we already knew. What it also shows though is Jon Huntsman making a push into third place with...

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GOP Presidential Candidate Jon Huntsman dismissed Donald Trump and the debate the real estate mogul and reality TV star will be moderating, and told Larry Kudlow he’s the only consistent conservative in the race. The former Utah Governor and former ambassador to China likened the Newsmax-sponsored presidential debate to a reality show, and said he would not be participating. “There’s some dignity associated with a run for the highest office in the land, and it shouldn’t be trivialized and it shouldn’t be dumbed down,” he said. “If Don Trump cares about our nation’s future, he should have been a candidate...

Last May, when Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels was pondering a White House bid, Jason Sorens of the University of Buffalo wrote a commentary that went largely unnoticed. Wanting to "take a look at Jon Huntsman," who has been "widely viewed as a 'moderate' Republican, but whose" policies "stake out a position that may be more libertarian than Daniels'," Sorens concluded that after former Gov. Gary Johnson and Texas Congressman Ron Paul, Huntsman offered the most libertarian credentials — besting even Daniels. Sorens's views deserve recognition in New Hampshire, a generally conservative state with decisively libertarian leanings, as our first-in-the-nation presidential...

MERRIMACK, N.H. — Jon Huntsman has staked his presidential bid on doing well in New Hampshire. With few exceptions, the former two-term governor of Utah has campaigned exclusively in the Granite State. Two months ago, he moved his national campaign headquarters to Manchester, and he’s beginning to make some inroads there. Huntsman explained his strategy this way: He wants to avoid the meteoric rises and flameouts of Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and Herman Cain. “I don’t want 15 minutes of fame,” Huntsman told reporters at the Merrimack Town Hall. “I want a sustained rise that isn’t fickle and isn’t short-lived,...

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman is skipping next week's presidential primary debate in Iowa. ABC is to televise the event nationally. Huntsman on Friday says he'll instead have a town hall-style meeting on Dec. 10 in New Hampshire, a state that is central to his political strategy. Huntsman has written-off Iowa and has spent neither time nor money there. Huntsman also has accepted an invitation to do a one-on-one debate with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in New Hampshire. The two will meet in Windham for a Lincoln-Douglas-style debate with tea party activists on Dec. 12. Gingrich has invited each...

BOX ELDER COUNTY, Utah— Excitement turned to pain after a man suddenly received a shotgun blast to the buttocks while bird hunting with several companions Sunday. Pipper the yellow labrador was the triggerdog behind the blast the sent his 46-year-old hunting companion to the hospital. Somehow, caught up in the excitement of the hunt, Pipper set off the shotgun that struck Brigham City native Robert Cottingham in the lower back and buttocks.

BOSTON - A University of Utah professor pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges that he viewed child pornography on his laptop during a flight from Salt Lake City to Boston. Grant D. Smith, 47, of Cottonwood Heights, Utah, was ordered held on $75,000 cash bail. Smith, a professor in the university’s materials science and engineering department, was arrested Saturday afternoon on possession of child pornography charges shortly after disembarking the Delta Airlines flight. Smith was sitting in first class when a passenger behind him saw the images and became concerned. The passenger took a cellphone picture of Smith, then...

The debate over spending among Republicans in Congress has become so intense that one Senate Republican leader has started wearing a flak jacket to meetings. The arguments have gotten so pointed that Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) wore a flak jacket to a Republican lunch meeting a few weeks ago. He said he would don the protective gear after Rep. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), an outspoken conservative, blasted him in a meeting for arguing that Congress had already made substantial reductions in discretionary spending. Coburn objected heatedly. He argued that slowing the rate of discretionary spending growth is not...

SALT LAKE CITY — Motorists who leave their vehicles idling for more than two minutes in Utah's capital city run the risk of being fined. The Salt Lake City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve an ordinance making idling of vehicle engines a crime punishable by a fine of between $50 and $210, depending on the number of offenses and how quickly fines are paid. The goal, city leaders said, is to improve air quality in the Salt Lake Valley, where more than 50 percent of air pollution comes from vehicle exhaust. "Anything we can do to reduce pollution on...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A Utah man dodged prison with an unusual ploy - he claimed to be an illegal immigrant and got himself deported to Mexico. Prosecutors say 27-year-old Jaime Alvarado told Salt Lake City police and immigration officials in 2010 that his name was Saul Quiroz and he had come to the U.S. illegally from Mexico. At the time, he faced felony drug distribution charges, but based on his false identity, authorities sent him back to Mexico.

Republican candidates for president have been busy for weeks now, laboring strenuously to give the 2012 nomination to Mitt Romney. And he keeps trying to give it back. The former Massachusetts governor could walk to next year's GOP convention without touching the ground, treading exclusively on the bodies of rivals who have fallen on their faces. He's the equivalent of the Alabama Crimson Tide, playing a schedule heavy on Southeastern Louisiana and Middle Tennessee State. He should be running up the score every week. Instead, he keeps finding ways to keep his opponents in the game. Look at the opposition....

1. Ben Nelson, D-Neb. 2. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. 3. Jon Tester, D-Mont. 4. Scott Brown, R-Mass. 5. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah 6. Dick Lugar, R-Ind. 7. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio 8. Bill Nelson, D-Fla. 9. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine 10. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration on Thursday identified 17 sites in six Western states as prime candidates for solar energy projects on public lands, continuing a push for solar power despite the high-profile bankruptcy of a solar panel maker that received a half-billion dollar federal loan. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the latest "Solar Energy Zones" refine and improve on a draft released in December that identified two dozen areas in California, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona.

Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman doesn’t color his salt-and-pepper hair, but admits his wife buys him plenty of hair products from the local Aveda Institute to keep everything in place. Huntsman, the former governor of Utah, discussed his grooming habits in an interview with Chris Moody of Yahoo! News. Asked what products he uses for his hair, Huntsman responded that his wife tells him what to do in this regard, explaining: “I wish I could tell you. She has these little squirt bottles.” Huntsman added: “But no dye. And not much in the way of artificiality.”

WASHINGTON — A Republican Utah senator and Democratic senator from New York introduced an immigration reform bill Thursday aimed at encouraging foreign travel and housing investment in the U.S. Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Charles Schumer, D-New York, say the legislation would reduce barriers for Canadian and Chinese visitors, expedite priority visa applications, use videoconferencing to screen foreign nationals and change visa procedures for U.S. allies fighting al Qaeda. It would also provide a three-year visa for foreigners who invest at least $500,000 in residential real estate, including half for a home in which they must live for six months...

Congressmen ask Administration to come clean on what they knew and when Washington - On Friday, October 14, 2011, Representatives Chaffetz (UT-3) and Gowdy (SC-4) sent a letter to President Obama seeking information in the "Fast and Furious" investigation conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.  The letter asks what the President knew about the investigation and when he learned of it.  This is significant information because both President Obama and Attorney General Holder have spoken about when they were informed of "problems" with the investigation.  Reps. Chaffetz and Gowdy believe "Fast and Furious" was a flawed...

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC 4 News) - It's your money and even in these hard times City leaders are finding unusual ways to spend it, like a $250,000 loan to keep a radio station on the air. KCPW would default on a loan without the help. Listeners promised $230,000 in pledges, but they were never paid. KCPW is the only public radio station to focus on only on Salt Lake County. It has 11 reporters and reaches a potential 1,000,000 listeners. Its coverage would have ended without a loan from Salt Lake City, one of the very groups it...

Liberal group takes credit for audience member asking Obama to raise taxes By Alicia M. Cohn - 09/28/11 09:32 AM ET Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength, a campaign by the progressive group The Agenda Project, on Tuesday took credit for a member of the audience who asked President Obama to raise his taxes during a town hall meeting in Silicon Valley on Monday. “Will you please raise my taxes?” the man said. “It kills me to see Congress not supporting the expiration of the tax cuts that have been benefiting so many of us for so long." It was a...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A protest of Utah's uptight laws that featured people running through the streets of Salt Lake City in their underwear has set a new world record. Guinness World Records says the Utah Undie Run broke the previous record for largest gathering of people wearing only underpants or knickers by 1,720 people. .. 2,270 people stripped to their underwear during the Utah Undie Run on Sept. 24. .. previous record of 550 people .. set last year in Great Britain.

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney on Saturday denounced "poisonous language" against faiths as he grappled with a flare-up over religion sparked by a prominent supporter of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, his rival. Perry steered well clear of that simmering issue and pushed another hot button instead: Social Security. [snip] At an event in Iowa later Friday, Perry was asked if he believes Mormonism is a cult. "No," Perry said.... So far, none of Romney's rivals has directly attacked his faith _ and Romney has dismissed the issue in interviews. "The great majority of Americans understand that this nation was founded...

WASHINGTON - Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney told conservative and evangelical voters today that “poisonous language doesn’t advance our cause,” the day after a surrogate for another GOP presidential candidate described Mormonism as a cult. “It’s never softened a single heart or changed a single mind,” Romney said. “The blessings of faith carry the responsibility of civil and respectful debate.” Romney’s comments at the Values Voter Summit in Washington were aimed at a conservative radio commentator who immediately followed him on the program, according to a spokeswoman. But the backdrop was a controversy from the previous day when a Texas...