Free Republic

HARTFORD, Conn. — Gun maker Remington can be sued over how it marketed the Bushmaster rifle used to kill 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, a divided Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Thursday. Justices issued a 4-3 decision that reinstated a wrongful death lawsuit and overturned a lower court ruling that the lawsuit was prohibited by a 2005 federal law that shields gun manufacturers from liability in most cases when their products are used in crimes. The plaintiffs include a survivor and relatives of nine people killed in the massacre. They argue the AR-15-style rifle...

After being contacted by a Chicago attorney who served as former first lady Michelle Obama’s chief of staff, the top prosecutor in Cook County asked the city’s top cop to turn over the Jussie Smollett probe to the FBI, according to reports. Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx reached out to Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson after Tina Tchen, the former senior Obama official, emailed the prosecutor saying the “Empire” actor’s family had “concerns” about the probe, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Tchen passed Foxx’s number to a family member of Smollett, and the ensuing conversations with the relative were later cited...

California is free of drought and only a small amount of territory remains in the lesser condition of abnormal dryness after a very wet winter. The state has been mired in drought since Dec. 20, 2011, according to the National Weather Service. “Until this week some part of the state had seen some form of drought for 376 consecutive weeks,” the weather service tweeted. The U.S. Drought Monitor says Thursday that more than 93 percent of the state is free of drought or dryness. Tiny areas of abnormal dryness along the Oregon border and in parts of four southern counties...

Hollywood celebrities are constantly lecturing the rest of America on how to live, what to eat and who to vote for. They're better than you and me. But now and then things go wrong. Like yesterday: This doesn't happen every day: Hollywood stars Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin and Loughlin's fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, were arrested Tuesday and charged with paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to cheat their daughters into college.The three were charged along with nearly 50 other people in a scheme in which wealthy parents allegedly bribed college coaches and insiders at college testing centers to...

When visiting Khurrum Wahid’s Facebook page, you see photos of what appears to be a clean-cut politician attending different events, posing with important politicos, standing with young people, and smiling broadly for the camera. Wahid is running for the position of City Commissioner of Coral Springs, Florida, and his Facebook page has been manufactured to show the perfect candidate for the public’s view. What is hidden behind this façade, though, is Wahid’s history – and present – of his involvement in radical Islam. It is this other side of Wahid that the voters need to recognize, so that they do...

Police in Arizona said an 18-year-old woman admitted to slashing the tire of a random SUV because she saw one of President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” hats inside, The Arizona Republic reported Wednesday. Phoenix Police Department spokesman Sgt. Vincent Lewis said the woman admitted to slashing the tire “because she saw a hat with a political message inside the vehicle which she disagreed with.” The car belonged to Nick Dugas, a retail security manager, who noticed something didn’t seem right after leaving the parking lot of Paradise Vally Mall. He discovered a slash in his tire and turned back...

The Connecticut Supreme Court on Thursday said a lawsuit challenging how Remington marketed the rifle used in the December 2012 Newtown school shooting can proceed, overturning a lower court’s outright dismissal of the case. In a 4-3 opinion, the court narrowly ruled that families of victims of the Newtown school shooting can challenge whether Remington violated trade practices in how it marketed the AR-15-style rifle used in the shooting. “The regulation of advertising that threatens the public’s health, safety, and morals has long been considered a core exercise of the states’ police powers,” Justice Richard Palmer wrote for the majority....

President Donald Trump is not happy that former House Speaker Paul Ryan blocked subpoenas of people and entities Trump thinks the House GOP should have been investigating during the first two years of his administration. Trump told Breitbart News in an exclusive lengthy Oval Office interview that Ryan blocked issuance of subpoenas to people he thinks should have been investigated on the political left, and now that the Republicans no longer have the majority in the House, people Trump says Ryan protected may have gotten away with whatever they did that warranted investigation. Trump said that House Freedom Caucus Chairman...

TALLAHASSEE - Without much debate and two days before Gov. Ron DeSantis’ deadline, a bill to repeal a ban on smoking medical marijuana has finally rolled onto the governor’s desk. The Florida House affirmed the right to smoke medical pot Wednesday afternoon, approving the Senate bill to include “smoking” to the language in the medical marijuana constitutional amendment. The bill allows patients to receive up to 2.5 ounces of whole flower cannabis every 35 days as recommended by their qualified doctor. The bill passed 101-11. Seven representatives were not present for the vote. DeSantis in January tasked the Legislature with...

Full Title: Feds charge 5 from New Mexico compound, where 11 children were found, with terror, kidnapping offenses The residents of a makeshift New Mexico compound -- where 11 emaciated children were found during an August raid -- were charged by federal authorities Wednesday with terror, kidnapping and firearms offenses.

This week Michael sits down with lawyer, journalist, First Amendment expert and Gavin McInnes' attorney Ron Coleman. They discuss Ron's work, the limits and consequences of free speech, Ron's ongoing thoughts about the McInnes trial, and, of course, the Southern Poverty Law Center. Will we make their next list!?

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said on Thursday that he will oppose President Trump's emergency declaration to build the U.S.-Mexico border wall. "I will vote today for the resolution of disapproval. This is a vote for the Constitution and for the balance of powers that is at its core," Romney said in a statement. Romney is the sixth Republican senator to say he will vote for the resolution of disapproval, which is getting a vote in the Senate later Thursday.

FAIR HAVEN, Vt. — The new honorary mayor of Fair Haven, Vermont — a 3-year-old goat named Lincoln — was officially sworn into office this week. Lincoln was dressed in a sash reading "Mayor" for the Tuesday ceremony at the Fair Haven town offices. Town Clerk Suzanne Dechame and the select board were present to deliver the oath of office.

Some thoughts on Saint Patrick's Day, and the real-life Roman-British Christian missionary that brought the Gospel to Ireland.

LANSING, Michigan, March 13, 2019 — Republican state legislators in Michigan introduced bills to ban the dismemberment of unborn babies and restrict late-term abortion. House Bills 4320 and 4321 would amend Michigan’s ban on partial-birth abortions by including the dismemberment abortion procedure, also known as a dilation and evacuation abortion (D&E). The ban has stood since 2011. In a press release, Right to Life of Michigan president Barbara Listing said, “These bills are Michigan’s response to New York’s abortion law and other states seeking to explicitly allow abortions through all nine months of pregnancy for any reason.” HB 4321 was...

Albert Einstein was born in Germany on March 14, 1879. He began teaching himself calculus at age 14. With a doctorate from the University of Zurich, Einstein wrote papers on electromagnetic energy, relativity, and statistical mechanics. Einstein predicted a ray of light from a distant star would appear to bend as it passed near the sun. When an eclipse confirmed this, the London Times ran the headline, Nov. 7, 1919, “Revolution in science – New theory of the Universe – Newtonian ideas overthrown.” In 1921, Albert Einstein won the Nobel Prize in physics. Describing the theory of relativity, Albert Einstein...

VIDEO While watching Beto O'Rourke announce his candidacy for president today, his empty platitudes and shallow buzzwords sounded very familiar. And then it hit me. Beto O'Rourke is "The Candidate." Not just a candidate but "The Candidate" as in the 1972 movie of the same name starring Robert Redford as Bill McKay as "The Candidate."

Full header" Bono's partner in socially responsible investment firm is charged in college fraud scandal after 'promising $250K to USC, hiring a man to take his son's exam and photoshopping boy into football photos' He founded the $2 billion Rise Fund with Bono, an investment firm that focuses on social responsibility and ethical investing TPG owns a majority stake in Creative Artists Agency, where McGlashan serves as a director

Carly Schroeder is trading fame for fatigues. The former "Lizzie McGuire" actress has enlisted in the Army. "I've been considering it for a while and it is a big choice, but thankfully my parents and my little brother were very supportive of me," Schroeder, 28, told TMZ on Wednesday. "My dad was actually in the Army, he was a Green Beret medic, and my little brother Hunter, he's in the Marines now."

James Bond is not an activist. There's the boozing, the womanizing, the license to kill. More than a few submarines downed in the ocean. That mess on the Russian border couldn't have been good for anybody. But Daniel Craig is not a typical James Bond. And Cary Joji Fukunaga is not a typical director. With that pair teamed up for the next entry in the franchise, we're about to see another side of the British super-spy: Environmentalist. In the still-yet-to-be-named Bond 25, 007 is taking the wheel of a £250,000 all-electric Aston Martin Rapide E, per a report from the...