Free Republic

Two of the country’s most powerful and politically influential labor unions are backing President Obama in the recent court challenge to his 2014 executive action on illegal immigration, saying they support the president’s effort because "undocumented workers" need more workplace protection and their participation helps the U.S. economy. The AFL-CIO and the National Education Association on Monday each filed so-called amicus briefs in a federal appeals court case in which Texas and 26 other states are challenges the president’s 2014 memorandum on illegal immigration. The memorandum essentially expands work authorization and delayed-deportation programs for illegal immigrants. And it provides similar...

Sen. Mike Lee would have quite the fight on his hands if he were to face off against former Rep. Jim Matheson in 2016. The latest UtahPolicy.com shows 48% of Utahns would support Lee while 42% would back Matheson. 10% are undecided. Matheson's electoral calculus has always been the same in heavily Republican Utah. Win a majority of Democrats, pick off some Republicans and get a majority of the independent vote. The survey shows Matheson would win 87% of Democrats, 20% of Republicans and 57% of independents. He would likely need to increase the numbers among Republican and independent voters...

As a declared presidential candidate, Senator Rand Paul (R., Ky.) should generate even bigger headlines when he addresses black audiences, as he has at Howard University and other venues. When he was executive of mainly Democratic Milwaukee County, Governor Scott Walker (R., Wis.) appealed to black voters; his reelection majorities consistently increased. These and other Republicans should ask black Americans for their votes from now through November 2016. They should do so by challenging blacks to ask themselves an honest question: “What, exactly, have you gained by handing Obama 95 percent of your votes in 2008 and 93 percent in...

We’ve all been there: You’re invited to a function, you think you’re just going to be a passive observer and then suddenly you thrust into the spotlight.One guy apparently had that uncomfortable experience with the commander in chief.President Barack Obama stopped by Hill Air Force Base in Utah last week to talk about the economy.His speech was closed to the public, but the presidential team sent some invites to the media and industry leaders.That’s where things went wrong.Image via imgur/TheBlaze The above picture, posted to Reddit on Tuesday, apparently shows an unprepared, mid-level employee trying his best to blend into...

e New York Times just published one of the more rough-handed pieces we’ve yet seen regarding “gay Christianity.” In “Bigotry, the Bible and the Lessons of Indiana,” opinion writer Frank Bruni takes the gloves off and seeks to bully Christians into caving on homosexuality. The column is frank, direct, and brutalizing.Let’s consider five takeaways from this striking article.1. Here’s what Bruni believes opposition to “gay Christianity” is based in: raw prejudice. He says as much: But in the end, the continued view of gays, lesbians and bisexuals as sinners is a decision. It’s a choice. It prioritizes scattered passages of ancient texts over all...

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog With help from 80 years of self-described “progressives,” Obama is now waging the biggest war against medical marijuana of any president in history Anyone who has been following the self-described “progressive” politicians since FDR should not be surprised at Obama’s war against medical marijuana.Obama’s war against medical marijuana is a direct result of the policies of the self-described “progressives” in the White House, Congress, and the U.S. Supreme Court, going all the way back to FDR’s New Deal.During the Great Depression, while millions of Americans were hungry, the self-described “progressives” who controlled the federal government passed...

Welcome to the big leagues. That’s the message several top GOP operatives say Rand Paul will get from the Republican establishment, and from the media, when he announces his candidacy for the presidency on Tuesday. These onlookers believe that Paul, who has been a media darling and a ubiquitous presence on the airwaves since his election in 2010, has gotten a pass from the press. In their eyes, he’s been allowed to skate past one controversy after another in part because he’s been a vocal critic of the Republican party. “The media treats him better than they treat other Republicans,”...

Jeremy Trentelman’s cardboard fort for his kids came with windows, trap doors and a green slide. Then the city of Ogden, Utah, gave him 15 days to take it down. With the help of their kids Max, 3, and Story, 2, Trentelman and his wife, Dee, cut and taped the cardboard to build two towers, trap doors, tunnels, and a slide. They built the whole thing last week with the help of their friend, Byron Owens, and his two kids Satoria and Oliver in Ogden, Utah. His friend’s daughter also wrote a sign on the door of the fort reading,...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) is the only major Republican likely 2016 presidential candidate who hasn't weighed in on the controversy over Indiana's "religious freedom" law that erupted this week — and his explanation for avoiding the issue is questionable.

(KUTV) A co-founder of genealogy company Ancestry.com has been arrested, accused of sexually abusing a teen. Prosecutors say 50-year-old Daniel Taggart gave his daughter and her 15-year-old friend alcohol and sex toys during an overnight party. Police say Taggart played cards with the girls and encouraged a twerking contest. The 15-year-old allegedly got shot glasses and sex toys as prizes. Eventually the alcohol, police say, took effect. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the victim told police once Taggart’s daughter feel asleep, he turned on a pornographic video and sexually assaulted her. She said the same thing happened at another...

A former Utah State University fraternity president is accused of sexually abusing a woman at a fraternity party. Logan police arrested Ryan Wray, 26, on Tuesday night on suspicion of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony. During Pi Kappa Alpha parties at the fraternity house, which is off-campus, people who "could no longer take care of themselves" were placed in Wray's care, said police Capt. Tyson Budge on Wednesday. "Several of the girls got talking and realized that they may have been taken advantage of," between last October and now, Budge said. One of the college-age women gave a statement...

Cards and board games are a big part of Utah culture -- perhaps it comes with the Nerdiest State title -- and Kickstarter is usually swimming with projects and ideas for new entertainment. At the moment, Kickstarter has 645 live projects involving games, with names and genres ranging from Dungeonmancer and Demon Lord to Assumptions and the recently completed and funded game Exploding Kittens (which received $8.7 million in pledges, making it the fourth highest funded project in Kickstarter history). Needless to say, even though there are hundreds of games being thrown at consumers out there, there's still demand and...

And unless there are any changes, this is the order. Iowa, New Hampshire,Colorado,Minnesota,New York,Utah.Then from Feb.6 thru Feb.23,we have Nevada,South Carolina,North Carolina and Michigan on the 23rd. Obviously the odds of Bush even winding up in the top three are about the same as the odds of Joe Biden taking the Democrat Nomination in 2016. The far left media will probably keep Bush in the top three with their "Left Leaning Polls". Should be interesting to watch their reactions when Jeb wont even make the top four in Iowa.

Utah is considering a bill that would allow patients with certain debilitating conditions to be treated with edible forms of marijuana. If the bill passes, the state's wildlife may "cultivate a taste" for the plant, lose their fear of humans, and basically be high all the time. That's according to testimony presented to a Utah Senate panel (time stamp 58:00) last week by an agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration. "I deal in facts. I deal in science," said special agent Matt Fairbanks, who's been working in the state for a decade. He is member of the "marijuana eradication" team...

Seven Southwestern states will soon be infiltrated by 1,200 military special ops personnel as part of a controversial domestic military training in which some of the elite soldiers will operate undetected among civilians. Operation Jade Helm begins in July and will last for eight weeks. Soldiers will operate in and around towns in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah and Colorado where some of them wil drop from planes while carrying weapons loaded with blanks in what military officials have dubbed Realistic Military Training. ....snip....

A new study says that nearly one of every three farmworkers in Utah is an undocumented immigrant. So is one of every six construction workers. The Pew Research Center released a study Thursday that uses U.S. census and other government data to examine labor trends among undocumented workers nationally. It included a variety of state-by-state information. It estimates that 31 percent of the farmworkers in Utah in 2012 were undocumented immigrants, as were 17 percent of all construction workers. Randy Parker, CEO of the Utah Farm Bureau Federation, says the numbers are surprising at first, but may be close to...

After last election cycle, when Colorado House Republicans received 189,000 more votes than House Democrats, we began to highlight how grossly gerrymandered the statehouse has become. Now, even the liberals at the Daily Kos blog are acknowledging that the Colorado House is the Democrats’ “best chamber” in the entire nation. It favors Democrats even more than California’s general assembly. The reapportionment process is obviously deeply flawed ... Democrat obstructionists in the House should be careful. While they may think they’re the party of the people, they’re not actually representing the majority of people who voted in the last election. And...

On March 17 in Salt Lake City, a good samaritan going by the name of Nick (he declined to give his last name) witnessed a man pull a knife on another man. He recounted that a the knife-wielding suspect began attacking the other individual, who was unarmed, swinging the knife at him several times. Nick, a concealed carry permit holder, got out of his car and pulled his handgun on the suspect, stopping the attack and possibly saving the unarmed man’s life.“I told him to lay down on the ground and he stayed there,” said Nick.While Nick held the attacker at...

It is a macabre choice to make - and almost unique to some inmates on Utah's death row: would you be injected with toxic chemicals, or shot in the heart? But, amid cries of outrage against the southwestern state bringing death by firing quad back into law, almost half of those due to die that way have picked the punishment themselves. Ron Lafferty, who slit the throats of his sister-in-law and her baby daughter in 1984, is one of three who has opted to die by the bullet. Two others in Utah's eight-strong death row have made the same choice,...

Gov. Gary Herbert signed into law Monday a bill to make firing squads the state's back-up method of execution — used whenever the state is unable to obtain drugs needed to perform lethal injections. The Republican executive signed the firing-squad bill despite international attention on the state as it becomes alone in allowing that method of execution. (Oklahoma authorizes execution by firing squad only if lethal injection and electrocution are found unconstitutional, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.) Numerous groups called for a veto, but Herbert signaled last week that he was leaning toward signing it. "Those who voiced...