Free Republic

The Obama administration’s Department of Justice shut down an attempt to force the Internal Revenue Service to search for Lois Lerner’s missing emails at off-site storage facilities. The IRS never looked for Lerner’s backup email tapes at the West Virginia storage facility where they were being housed. Treasury deputy inspector general Timothy Camus told Congress that the IRS never asked IT professionals at the New Martinsville, W.V. storage site for the backup tapes. Camus only found the backup tape for Lerner’s missing 2011 emails about two weeks ago. But the Obama administration knew that emails were stored at off-site facilities,...

L Constitutional carry, or permitless carry, has passed the West Virginia Senate with an astonishing 32 to 2 vote.   That means that 14 of the 16 Democrats in the Senate voted for the bill.  The two that voted against it were Sen. Ronald Miller (D) and Senator Corey Palumbo (D).   Perhaps the vote is not that astonishing. After all, this is merely the state of affairs that the country was in for most of its existence, nearly everywhere, before the Civil War, or War Between the States if you prefer.  Even after the war, most states did not criminalize...

Police say no charges will be brought against pharmacist [Video]

The Norwegian archaeologists Helge and Anne Stine Ingstad's famous identification, in 1961, of a Viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, from just after A.D. 1000 is, of course, a notable exception, no longer in dispute. But that discovery has so far gone nowhere. The Norse settlers, who may have numbered as many as 160 and stayed for three years or longer, seem to have made no lasting impression on the aboriginal skraellings that, according to Norse sagas, they encountered, and to have avoided being influenced in turn. The traditions of the Micmac people, modern-day inhabitants of the area, have...

Energy: Three million gallons of Bakken crude burning in rural West Virginia after an oil train derails in a snowstorm ought to underscore the environmental safety of replacing rail cars with the Keystone XL pipeline. One of the reasons President Obama says he'll veto the Keystone pipeline bill that, as a result of last November's GOP electoral gusher, has found its way to his desk is that it will only carry Canadian crude to foreign markets and is not worth jeopardizing the environment. Two things are wrong with that argument. The first is that Keystone XL will also bring Bakken...

A pair of GOP senators implored House Republicans Thursday to soften their stance in the intra-party dispute over funding the Department of Homeland Security. Sens. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who both formerly served in the lower chamber, stressed to the House GOP conference behind closed doors that the Senate can’t get the 60 votes it needs to advance the House-passed DHS funding bill that includes language to reverse President Obama's executive actions on immigration. "They lamented the frustration they're having getting up to 60 votes. But apparently that is the strategy now with the Democrat minority...

After days of debates lasting hours on the House of Delegates floor, West Virginia lawmakers passed a bill that would limit abortions in the state. On Wednesday House Bill 2368 passed by an overwhelming majority, 87-12, with both republicans and democrats voting in favor of it. The bill would ban abortions after 20 weeks, granting exemptions if a mother's life was in danger or the fetus was not medically viable. Doctors who would perform an abortion after this time would be at risk of losing their medical licenses. “Truly what we are talking about is just ensuring that a child,...

A West Virginia woman arrested in a bizarre home invasion Sunday night is also accused of murdering a 69-year-old pastor over the weekend, police said. Camille Brown, 19, was charged Monday with first-degree murder. She was already jailed for breaking and entering and disorderly conduct, said Beckley police Detective Morgan Bragg. He said Brown lived about a half-mile away from the home of victim Ronald Browning, a hospital chaplain, but did not know him. "I would have to say this is one of the most disturbing cases I've seen," Bragg told NBC News. "We've yet to determine a true logical...

A West Virginia Republican delegate previously scrutinized for his comments on a child that could come from rape has been called on to resign. The West Virginia Federation of Democratic Women created a petition on change.org calling on the lawmakers resignation. The petition explains that Delegate Brian Kurcaba, R-Monongalia, does “not represent West Virginia women and does not understand the mental anguish a woman goes through when sexually assaulted.” Kurcaba made the comments during a hearing in the House of Delegates Feb. 5 on a bill that would attempt to ban a woman from having an abortion performed after 20...

Abortion activists and the liberal media have ganged up on yet another pro-life legislator for saying babies conceived in rape are human beings worthy of respect and who should not be aborted. The dustup comes in the state of West Virginia, where state Delegate Brian Kurcaba took the side of unborn children, even int he tragic and heartbreaking circumstances of rape: A US lawmaker reportedly stunned crowds by saying a child born as a result of a rape being committed was ‘beautiful’. Delegate Brian Kurcaba made the alleged controversial remarks while discussing a law to prevent abortions in the state...

State legislators around the country have introduced more than 200 bills aiming to nullify regulations and laws coming out of Washington, D.C., as they look to rein in the federal government. The legislative onslaught, which includes bills targeting federal restrictions on firearms, experimental treatments and hemp, reflects growing discord between the states and Washington, state officials say. “You have a choice,” said Kentucky state Rep. Diane St. Onge (R). “To sit back and not do anything or say anything and let overregulation continue — or you have the alternative choice to speak up about it and say, ‘We know what...

Joe Manchin (D-WV) wants everyone to know he really opposes Obama’s amnesty. He really is a moderate and so distressed by Obama’s radical takeover of his party. In fact, he is so upset with Obama’s unconstitutional amnesty that he is willing to do anything to stop it…well, anything except for something that would actually stop it. Manchin told National Review’s Joel Gehrke that Obama “overstepped his bounds,” but he doesn’t want to defund it through the DHS appropriations bill – the only must-pass bill that will actually force the issue. He contends that the Senate should just bring up a...

he West Virginia House of Delegates began moving a bill Thursday to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The bill is very similar to one that was passed last year, only to be vetoed by Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin. The bill is one of 11 introduced so far this legislative session that seek to restrict women’s access to abortion. A similar bill passed both houses of the Legislature last year with overwhelming bipartisan support but was vetoed by Tomblin, who said he had been advised that it was unconstitutional. The House Health Committee held a public hearing on the...

Ten Senate Democrats warned the White House in a letter Tuesday that they will support legislation imposing new sanctions on Iran if a framework to roll back the country’s nuclear program isn’t reached within two months. "In acknowledgement of your concern regarding congressional action on legislation at this moment, we will not vote for this legislation on the Senate floor before March 24," said the letter, led by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who is the co-author of Iran sanctions legislation. "After March 24, we will only vote for this legislation on the Senate floor if Iran fails to reach agreement...

U.N. gives mixed signals on Tehran cooperation as nuclear talks intensifySenate Democrats on Tuesday backed away from a bipartisan push for immediate new sanctions on Iran, bowing to President Obama’s call not to undercut international talks to get Tehran to curb its nuclear programs in the coming weeks. The shift, announced Tuesday by Sen. Robert Menendez, the New Jersey Democrat and one of the party’s outspoken hawks on Iran, came amid a series of mixed signals from the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency over the question of whether Tehran was honoring promises to put its suspect nuclear programs on hold as...

Everyone involved seems to be trying to put the best face on it, but Barack Obama went so far as to suggest senior Democrats like Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), who take a hard line on Iran, are doing so purely to appease their donors. Obama said that as a former senator himself, he understood how outside forces — like special interests and donors — can influence senators to act, one of the senators recounted.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A heated exchanged between President Barack Obama and Sen. Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey) broke out Thursday over whether the U.S. should reimpose sanctions on Iran amid ongoing negotiations over the country's nuclear program, according to two senators who were in the room. Menendez, the leading Democrat pushing for additional sanctions against Iran, forcefully pressed Obama on the need for additional sanctions during a meeting in which Obama urged Menendez and other senators to drop their efforts to pass sanctions legislation. Additional sanctions, Obama argued, could torpedo ongoing negotiations over Iran's nuclear program. The unusually sharp exchange, between...

Menendez: Obama Admin Statements on Iran 'Sound like Talking Points Straight out of Tehran'

Unless there is any doubt, the vast majority of Democrats value partisan support for a failed president over support for our own national security and for that of Israel. Hence, they want to delay once again a vote on the Menendez-Kirk bill imposing sanctions on Iran unless it agrees to an acceptable final deal. The bill was introduced more than a year ago. The timing just isn’t right, you see. Will it ever be? A letter by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) signed onto by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.),...

FULL TITLE: West Virginia hospital sees many patients with abortion complications, says Doctor who supports admitting privileges for abortionists “We commonly (I personally probably at least weekly) see patients at Women’s and Children’s Hospital in our emergency room or ultrasound center with complications from abortions at the centers in Charleston: so much for “safe and legal.” These patients are told to come to our hospital because the abortion clinic providers do not have hospital privileges to care for their patients, so we must treat them as emergency “drop ins.… No other medical providers are allowed to care for patients, have...