Free Republic

Recently, Austin City Council members proposed using up to $150,000 of Austinites’ cash toward funding abortions. Your money would cover associated costs such as rides to and from an abortion facility, lodging, and ironically, childcare. In the past, council preferred to give your cash directly to abortion businesses, such as the special $1-a-year lease deal they give Planned Parenthood on a downtown plot of land. However, a new state law (Senate Bill 22) now protects citizens’ money from being funneled directly to organizations that kill pre-born babies. Austin City Council, however, is determined to sidestep that new law. Council members...

Rep. Eric Swalwell of California might have left the presidential race, but his signature issue is still on the primary ballot. After the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton earlier this month, Swalwell’s proposal for a mandatory buyback of all assault-style weapons was embraced by the congressman who represented the Texas border city, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke — giving the idea its highest-profile platform yet. Swalwell has been actively advising presidential candidates to follow his lead, telling them in conversations that “the moms will have your back,” even as critics denounce the plan as gun confiscation that would turn...

The official said Brazil's comments and policies over the last few weeks showed that Bolsonaro did not intend to respect obligations on climate change and also did not want to commit on concrete proposals to maintain biodiversity French President Emmanuel Macron believes his Brazilian counterpart Jair Bolsonaro lied to him on Brazil's stance on climate change, and France will now block a trade deal between the EU and South American nations. "Given the attitude of Brazil over the last weeks, the president can only conclude that President Bolsonaro lied to him at the Osaka [G20] summit [in June]," a French...

Houston-area transportation officials are not going to lose southern segments of the Grand Parkway without a lot of fuss. Members of the Houston-Galveston Area Council’s Transportation Policy Council on Friday unanimously approved a resolution urging the Texas Transportation Commission to keep Grand Parkway segments B and C and other related projects in Texas’ 10-year transportation plan. The segments represent the southern portion of the Houston area’s third ring road, carrying the tollway from Interstate 69 near Sugar Land south through Fort Bend, Brazoria and Galveston counties, intersecting with Texas 288 and Interstate 45 near League City. Texas Department of Transportation...

An international organization of Catholic exorcists said Thursday that the existence of Satan as a real and personal being is a truth of Christian doctrine. “The real existence of the devil, as a personal subject who thinks and acts and has made the choice of rebellion against God, is a truth of faith that has always been part of Christian doctrine,” the International Association of Exorcists said in an Aug. 22 press release. The organization’s release came in response to recent remarks on the devil from Jesuit superior general Fr. Arturo Sosa, SJ, which the organization called “grave and...

At a time when Republicans are starting to contemplate what their party will look like after Donald Trump leaves office, a rivalry has developed between the two politicians who cut markedly different profiles — and signs of strain are bubbling to the surface. The Pence team has recently asked senior Republicans for updates on Haley’s outreach to donors. And with Haley embarking on a national fundraising tour and promoting a new outside political group, top Pence advisers blame her for persistent rumors that she will replace him on the Trump's ticket in 2020. Tensions flared after Haley chose not to...

[If you have plans near/after Labor Day, they may be impacted as this storm that may hit the Caribbean or the Gulf of Mexico, especially Florida] Possible affected areas: Florida, Florida Keys, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, Mexico, and theUS Gulf Coast (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama) NOAA/NHC link to Storm System

When a school district deems its region’s main thoroughfare unsafe for school buses, that highway’s problems need fixed. Lots of Wabash Valley residents fear driving on the local stretch of Interstate 70. And with good reason. Fatal accidents — several involving semi tractor-trailers crashing into stopped or slowed traffic — have become frequent on I-70 between the Illinois-Indiana border and Indianapolis. Accidents along that 68-mile path outnumbered those on the 66-mile portion east of Indy to the Ohio border in 2016 and 2017, according to the Indiana University Public Policy Institute’s statistics. Distracted driving has been cited as a factor...

A high-speed transit system through the mountain corridor could serve as a major economic boon to communities on the Western Slope, according to a new study recently published by Development Research Partners. A high-speed transit system — likely in the form of a train that would carry passengers and light freight between Denver International Airport and Eagle County Regional Airport — was listed in the 2011 Record of Decision issued by the Colorado Department of Transportation and the Federal Highways Administration as a potential long-term solution to dealing with congestion on Interstate 70. Late last year, stakeholders — including the...

The problem with Joe Biden isn't that he's a leftist. Every single Democrat is. No, the real problem with this guy is that he clearly has no idea what he's talking about. Politics, history, race relations... it doesn't matter. Imagine a subject and realize: Biden has little to no knowledge about it. That would be perfectly fine if he were, say, a truck driver. Sadly, however, Biden is a) a former senator, b) a former vice president and c) the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination. As we reported yesterday, Biden was in New Hampshire on Friday to promote his...

An African American transgender woman in the Chicago area is suing national convenience store chain Circle K, alleging she was fired from one of its stores and retaliated against after reporting co-workers' use of racial and transphobic slurs against her. Judi Brown claims in the lawsuit filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois that a manager and other Circle K employees at the store in Bolingbrook, Illinois, harassed her based on her race and being transgender. Brown, 26, said she was fired after she complained about the alleged discrimination. “The discrimination and harassment were...

Yamhill County’s Board of Commissioners approved a series of diversity training classes Thursday after debating the merits earlier in the month, when two of three board members argued that the training should not include the phrases “white privilege” or “microaggressions.” After opposition Aug. 6 and again Tuesday, the training was approved in McMinnville in a 2-1 vote. After the vote, Commissioner Mary Starrett said over email that she voted no on “a training that would have included training on ‘White Privilege,’ ” but that the other board members approved it.(snip) Starrett said the training had “red flags” and included “a...

In the aftermath of the news that liberal Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has once again been treated for pancreatic cancer, talk of a potential vacancy on the court has once again heated up. While there will be disagreement over how to handle such a vacancy, it's clear that everyone knows a Supreme Court battle in 2020 will be brutal and contentious. Chris Wallace, the host of Fox News Sunday, weighed in on Friday, "We all wish her a long, happy, healthy life. I will say this though, and again, there’s no reason not to think that she won’t...

The Air Force this week awarded Boeing a contract worth up to almost $1 billion to expand its effort to add new wings to A-10s, shortly after wrapping up a previous initiative that replaced wings on most of the fleet. “The Air Force currently has a fleet of 281 A-10s and recently announced the completion of wing replacements for 173 A-10 aircraft, by Boeing, from an earlier contract award,” the service said in an Aug. 21 release. The Aug. 21 contract allows the Air Force to re-wing up to 109 aircraft, plus three spares, “depending on how many aircraft are...

Matt covered the insanity brought on by climate change protesters at the Democratic National Committee's summer meeting this week. But, it isn't just the party crashers who are saying truly outlandish things, it's also the invited speakers. Progressive Pastor Rev. William Barber challenged Republicans on whether or not socialism is moral. He even invited the debate, saying Jesus would support the economic system. Luckily, we have Texas Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw to explain to the preacher just how wrong he is. "When we embrace moral language, we must ask does our policy care for the least of these? Does it...

Posted on August 23, 2019August 23, 2019 by Msgr. Charles Pope Life Takes Softness and Strength, as Noted in a Commercial The commercial below focuses on a mother and daughter as the youngster gets ready for the day. There is the mother’s soft presence and support during the morning routine, but there is also her strength, as she makes sure that her daughter is ready for school on time, remembers her backpack, and promises to call (for some unknown reason). Love is not merely about softness; it is also about demands.I am grateful that Georgia-Pacific (the manufacturer of Angel...

A visit to The Butterfly Place yesterday resulted in this memory of the trip. I love Joseph Blanchard's compositions. And I'm impressed at how well phone cameras work, as opposed to the big, clunky ones of the past.

An elderly retired doctor and his wife are suing an airline, some of its employees, a sheriff and his deputies, saying he was illegally arrested and subjected to excessive force after being removed from an airplane at New Orleans International Airport. Dr. Johannes Markus Sieber and his wife Mina Margareta Sieber Schneiter, both 74 and citizens of Switzerland, were removed from a Delta Airlines flight at the airport in November 2016 following what they say was a minor incident over the placing of luggage in an overhead compartment. According to the suit filed in the U.S District Court for the...

If Trump asserts the China is the leading polluter and violator of human rights as a part of his trade negotiations with China, he will win the independent voters and the 2020 election. Trump is a strategic negotiator and politician. By taking the lefts position against China, he can head them off at the pass. He can appear concerned for the world and caring for the earth by comparison of the EU and US regulations with the abuses by China. It's the Bambi approach that will label China as the evil hunter and change world opinion. He can invite a...

Kellie Watson said she was just finishing her workday last October when she received a phone call from her 12-year-old son. "It was unbelievable to hear the fear and panic in his voice," she said. Her son told her that her father, 69-year-old Maurice Stallard, had been shot. Stallard had been shopping for school supplies with his grandson at a Kroger grocery store in Louisville, Kentucky, when a gunman opened fire, killing two – including Stallard. Watson said the only thing that stopped the alleged gunman from shooting her son was that he ran. "If he hadn't run, I probably...