Free Republic

Lautenberg's net worth was estimated at $57 million in 2011 Lawmakers are under fire for awarding a $174,000 tax-free gift to the widow of late Senator Frank Lautenberg when the cash-strapped government can't even pay its own bills. The tax-free payment for the surviving relatives of members of Congress is a time-honored perk of public service in Washington. The gift is equal to the member's annual salary at their time of death, which in the New Jersey Democrat's case, was $174,000. The payment is written into the appropriations bill that has been approved by the House of Representatives. If the...

The legislation released by the Senate late Wednesday to reopen the government contains several surprises. The bill includes extra funds to fix flooded roads in Colorado, a $3 million appropriation for a civil liberties oversight board and a one-time payment to the widow of Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who died over the summer. It also includes a more than $2 billion increase in funding for construction on the lower Ohio River in Illinois and Kentucky. Current law authorizes $775 million in spending for related projects, and the bill increases it to $2.918 billion. The Senate Conservatives Fund quickly called that...

In 1973, a 29-year-old federal prosecutor named Rudy Giuliani indicted a Brooklyn congressman, unknowingly creating a political opening for an ambitious 23-year-old named Chuck Schumer. It is the first and least known link between two powerful New York politicians whose paths have crossed and careers intersected in often surprising ways over the past four decades. But it certainly wasn't the last. Just two weeks ago, Sen. Schumer (D-N.Y.) found himself defying his own party to confirm U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, a retired Manhattan judge and close friend of the former mayor. Schumer and Giuliani may seem an odd pairing,...

I'm very angry because I'm sick and tired of what I see as deception and dishonesty within the literary community. It's been going on for far to long and nobody seems to want to pay attention to it or to care about it. I love my publisher which is Publishamerica and it's a first rate Publisher however I have seen firsthand with my own eyes individual authors that meet on discussion boards asking each other to do reviews of one anothers books that most always turn out to be four or five star reviews. These people then go on every...