Free Republic

LAST weekend Tim Kaine, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee and a churchgoing Catholic, briefly escaped obscurity by telling an audience of L.G.B.T. activists that he expects his church to eventually bless and celebrate same-sex marriages. In short order his bishop, Francis X. DiLorenzo of Richmond, Va., had a statement out declaring that the Catholic understanding of marriage would remain “unchanged and resolute.” In a normal moment, it would be the task of this conservative Catholic scribbler to explain why the governor is wrong and the bishop is right, why scripture and tradition make it impossible for Catholicism to simply reinvent its...

Developing – Earlier today there was a detonation of explosive device in New Jersey. Currently Firefighters are at the scene of an explosion in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood, and another in Charlottesville Virginia. The Fire Department of New York said there were reports of 15 patients, all with minor injuries, and there were no reports of fatalities. [Via New York Post] A dumpster blew up at 8:30 p.m. Saturday night in Chelsea, blowing out the lower windows of a 14-story residence for the blind. At least 26 suffered minor injuries from what may have been an explosive device, police...

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The Charlottesville Fire Department is now investigating a reported explosion on the Downtown Mall. The local fire chief says there was no fire or smoke from the reported explosion near the Downtown Mall between 3rd street and Water street.

WASHINGTON — In a unanimous vote Saturday, the Alexandria City Council has decided to change the name of Jefferson Davis Highway, a roadway named for Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy. “I could honestly say, personally, raise my taxes to pay for it, to satisfy my parents, my grandparents,” Councilman Willie F. Bailey Sr. said. The council discussed the possibility of changing the name to Patrick Henry but tabled the discussion for later. An advisory committee did not recommend name changes for all the streets in Alexandria named after Confederate soldiers but has now opened the door for neighbors...

Nine years ago, a driver lost control of his pickup truck and crashed into the Confederate monument on the front lawn of the Franklin County Courthouse, decapitating the marble soldier. Some locals who found the monument offensive said they were glad to see it go, but there was never much doubt that once the money was raised, the soldier would be back. The rededication ceremony in 2010 drew a crowd of about 500 people—women wore hoop skirts and men donned the gray uniforms of Confederate soldiers. “We’re very proud of it,” says Linda Stanley, managing director of the Franklin County...

With the presidential election less than eight weeks away, the race is too close to call in Virginia, according to a poll released Thursday. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton held a 3-percentage-point lead over Republican Donald Trump among likely voters, but the spread is within the margin of error, according to a telephone survey commissioned by the University of Mary Washington’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies. Clinton’s lead was wider – 5 percentage points – when the pollsters included the results of all registered voters surveyed, not just those who indicate they’re likely to vote Nov. 8. Voters remain unhappy...

A new poll by the University of Mary Washington shows a tightening race in Virginia …

The city of Alexandria, Va., is stonewalling an investigation into voter rolls in the city that could have illegally registered voters. The Public Interest Legal Foundation, an Indiana-based law firm that litigates to protect election integrity, filed a lawsuit in April against the city of Alexandria on behalf of the Virginia Voters Alliance, a group dedicated to improving election laws. The groups contended that voter rolls in Alexandria have for years contained more registrants than people of voting age in the city. In January, PILF sent a statutory notice letter to Anna J. Leider, the general registrar of Alexandria, warning...

Washington (CNN)For a brief period of time Gavin Grimm, the transgender male high school student at the center of a national debate on gender identity, was allowed to use the boys' bathroom at his school. "People expect me to say that using the boys' bathroom was super magical and just the best time of my life," Grimm said in a recent interview with CNN. "But I was just using the bathroom," he said, "I went in and left." What was important for Grimm is that using the boy's room felt natural to him.

Second Amendment rights advocacy organization the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL), along with two of its members, today filed a $12 million defamation lawsuit against Katie Couric, director Stephanie Soechtig, Atlas Films, and Studio 3 Partners LLC d/b/a Epix for false and defamatory footage featured in the 2016 documentary film Under the Gun. The film portrays a fictional exchange in which members of the VCDL appear silent, stumped, and avoiding eye contact for nearly nine seconds after Katie Couric asks a question about background checks. An unedited audio recording of the interview reveals that—contrary to the portrayal in the film—the...

Sen. Tim Kaine's Catholic bishop in Richmond, Va., has an answer for the Democratic vice presidential pick's prediction that the Vatican will change its opposition to same sex marriage: Never. In a statement provided to Secrets, Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo said, "Marriage is the only institution uniting one man and one woman with each other and with any child who comes from their union. Redefining marriage furthers no one's rights." Speaking Saturday to the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's leading LGBT lobbying group, Kaine said he believes the church will change its position on gay marriage. "I think it's going...

When parking lots open at 7 a.m. Saturday, the game — Tennessee and Virginia Tech in a border battle at Bristol Motor Speedway, playing in front of what will be a college football record attendance, topping 150,000 — will finally be here.

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Members of the Maury High School football team took a knee during the national anthem Friday night. A WAVY viewer snapped a photo of the team before their football game against Grassfield.

A group of students and parents from Minnesota filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the federal government and their school district for allowing a transgender student who was born male but identifies as female into the girls’ locker rooms, showers, and restrooms. The lawsuit is the latest in a series of challenges to the Obama administration’s bathroom mandate issued in May that requires public schools and universities nationwide to give transgender students full access to school facilities based on their gender identity instead of their biological sex. Schools that do not comply with the administration’s guidance could face legal action or...

Jose Rodriguez-Nunez, a 27-year-old illegal alien gang member who also went by “Killer,” just pled guilty in federal court to racketeering crimes and participating in the murder of a 14-year-old Maryland boy. From a Justice Department press release: According to his plea agreement, beginning in 2010, Rodriguez-Nunez conspired with members and associates of MS-13 to engage in crimes to further the interests of the gang, including murder, assault, robbery, extortion by threat of violence, obstruction of justice, witness tampering and witness retaliation.  Specifically, Rodriguez-Nunez admitted to his role as the driver in a drive-by shooting on Dec. 5, 2012, in which...

Federal prosecutors on Thursday moved to drop their corruption case against former Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, bringing to a close a case that gripped the state capital, tarnishing the former governor’s reputation and the state’s.

Election integrity foes mistakenly tell us voter fraud is a myth. So when legitimate voter fraud is actually discovered, these foes pretend it didn’t happen, fail to take any steps to investigate or prosecute such cases, or, even worse, try to cover it up. Take Virginia, where the State Board of Elections and some local election officials want to hide a blatant case of voter fraud involving noncitizens. Penalties for voting as a non-citizen - When non-citizens register or actually vote, they violate both state and federal statutes because citizenship is a requirement to vote in both state and federal...

The Virginia Free Citizen Status: On-going In Dan Wolf’s recent article, Resettling Immigrants in Virginia, we presented several maps to illustrate the correlation between the resettlement of Muslim refugees and the growth of Muslim institutions throughout the Commonwealth.  Now you’re most likely asking yourselves what all this means.  And you would be right to do so. It’s expected and perfectly natural for a newcomer to gravitate towards and seek out people who speak his language or are from the same region.  This provides an added degree of comfort and support to someone who understandable feels alone and surrounded by the...

Mines are closing and the coal industry is facing a run of bankruptcies and other bad news, but a company backed by a $90 million investment is defying conventional wisdom by preparing to open two new mines in Appalachia, the hardest-hit coal region. The mines in West Virginia and Virginia will create some 400 jobs in counties where unemployment ranges close to three times the national average, Ramaco Development CEO Randall Atkins told The Associated Press. "It's a fairly big deal, frankly, for southern West Virginia," Atkins said....

If you had any doubt whether or not Obama’s politicized DOJ was deliberately targeting conservative elected officials, this should confirm your suspicions. The US Supreme Court overturned a convictionin June against former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell for bribery. This was extremely significant, because the decisionwas unanimous — even all the liberal justices on the court agreed the criminal charges were a sham. Writing the opinion for the court, Chief Justice Roberts saidthe prosecutors had taken an overly broad interpretation of federal bribery law, and that if the court had allowed the conviction to stand, it would have made it extremely...