Free Republic

Obama Scandal: Former President Obama and his political supporters have repeatedly stated that his administration was scandal-free, unlike administrations before and after. "We're probably the first administration in modern history that hasn't had a major scandal in the White House," Obama himself said. A new book puts the lie to that statement. Never mind that the left-leaning big media basically ignored major scandals during the Obama years, ranging from the IRS targeting scandal and the VA's deadly waiting lists for veterans to Hillary Clinton's illegal use of an unsecured, hackable home-brew server for her official duties as secretary of state...

Gannett on Tuesday walked away from its attempted takeover of Tronc, the publisher of the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and other major dailies. USA Today publisher Gannett’s target was elusive from the beginning, with a publicly contentious back-and-forth between the two companies. Tronc, formerly known as Tribune Publishing, rejected at least two bids from Gannett because it said it preferred to go it alone, focusing on tech-driven initiatives involving artificial intelligence and global expansion in entertainment news and video. Shares of Tronc Inc. plunged 20 percent in early trading. …

CHICAGO — Ever since he was a child actor growing up in a show-business family, Jussie Smollett’s life blended activism with the make-believe worlds of television and movies. ..." He spoke of his mother’s closeness with the Black Panthers and prominent civil-rights leaders, and how she had encouraged Mr. Smollett and his brothers and sisters to create art and live out their beliefs. ..." For Mr. Smollett, arts and activism were intertwined throughout his childhood. His parents met while campaigning for civil rights in the Bay Area of California, and his mother had worked with the founders of the Black...

....As journalists, we’re supposed to sort through press releases, talking points and propaganda, using them only to the extent they enlighten us as to what special interests want to believe: Is it true? Is it the whole story? Who wants you to think it and why? Are they trying to deflect attention from other facts or a more important story? Finding these answers is a basic part of our job. Instead, we’re willing repositories for all kinds of narratives. We report — as if news — press releases from the government, corporations, special interests or nonprofits (that are often undisclosed...

Two U.S. immigrant rights attorneys and two journalists who have worked closely with members of a migrant caravan in Tijuana said they had been denied entry into Mexico in recent days after their passports were flagged with alerts by an unknown government.

OAKLAND — Sen. Kamala Harris began her Democratic campaign for president Sunday with an attack on President Donald Trump and a promise to unify a country deeply riven along social, cultural and political lines. Speaking from the steps of Oakland’s City Hall plaza to a crowd that spilled over several downtown blocks, Harris depicted her candidacy as a fight against those “trying to sow hate and division.” “We are here at this moment in this because we must answer a fundamental question,” Harris said. “Who are we? Who are we as Americans? So let’s answer that question, America. We are...

After news came out about mass layoffs at HuffPost, Buzzfeed and Gannett -- in the midst of the media's relentless smear-job against the Covington Catholic students -- right-wing Twitter had a field day. Tons of leftist journalists announced they were laid off on Twitter and the top meme was telling them to "learn to code" -- which is the same advice the media gave middle Americans whose jobs are being taken in traditional industries. Talia Levin, who was hired by Media Matters last year after being fired by the New Yorker for smearing an ICE agent as a Nazi because...

Here's the video - There's some pretty interesting discussion at CFP https://youtu.be/yRaylhZ0GEQ

Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader, promised “action” after the latest racist remarks by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa). “Action will be taken,” McCarthy said Sunday of King on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “I’m having a serious conversation with Congressman Steve King on his future and role in this Republican Party."

Members of Congress will have to pay out of their own pockets to settle sexual and other harassment claims made against them under compromise policies that lawmakers announced Wednesday. Currently taxpayers cover the cost of settling harassment claims made against elected officials. The new policy, a bipartisan response in the #MeToo era after nearly seven months of negotiations between the House and Senate, could get a Senate vote by the end of the week, said Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.). Blunt said he had spoken with House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and Ryan told him that he would bring the...

Defying President Trump, senators sent a strong signal Wednesday they want to punish Saudi Arabia for its role in the slaying of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Senate voted 63 to 37 to move forward with legislation calling for an end to U.S. involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen. The vote was a rebuke not only to Saudi Arabia but to the Trump administration, which has been clear it does not want to torpedo the long-standing U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia over the killing.

Department official who oversees the immigration courts as head of the Executive Office for Immigration Review, announced a mandate imposing individual quotas on all the judges. Each judge would be required to decide 700 cases per year, he said. With these new quotas, which went into effect on Oct. 1, immigration judges must now decide between three and four cases a day — while also reviewing dozens of motions daily and keeping up with all their administrative duties — or their jobs will be at risk. The announcement of the quotas in March was the first in a series of...

According to a press release sent out by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, nine individuals have been charged "with a dozen felony counts for allegedly offering money and cigarettes to homeless people on Skid Row in exchange for false and forged signatures on ballot petitions and voter registration forms." "The defendants are accused of engaging in the solicitation of hundreds of false and/or forged signatures on state ballot petitions and voter registration forms by allegedly offering homeless people $1 and/or cigarettes for their participation, prosecutors said. The alleged offenses occurred during the 2016 and 2018 election cycles," the release...

The federal government has been grossly irresponsible in its neglect of mounting immigration problems, even as these problems place unbearable burdens on states like California. It is regrettable that states have reached a point where the only avenue they have for justice is the courts. It is even more regrettable that this Administration and this Congress stand by and allow the federal courts to decide the nation's immigration policies. Taxpayers simply cannot continue to sustain new populations the size of San Diego or the state of Nevada every year. California is sending up the red flag tat Washington should heed.Unprecedented...

For more than a century, UC Berkeley's elite law school has been closely tied to the name of the building that houses it, Boalt Hall.

President Obama is sidestepping the Senate to directly fill the No. 2 position at the Justice Department and appoint four U.S. ambassadors whose nominations had been stalled or blocked by lawmakers for months. The White House on Wednesday said Mr. Obama is using a recess appointment to install James Cole as the deputy attorney general and ... Senators had blocked or refused to consider the confirmations of the nominees for various reasons, including questions about their qualifications. ... Recess appointments are made when the Senate is not in session and last only until the end of the next session...

Swamped by a tidal wave of Democratic cash, Republicans entered the final 72 hours of the midterm campaign scrambling to preserve their slim Senate majority as a bulwark against the increasing prospect of a Democrat-run House. Needing to gain 23 House seats for control, Democrats were burrowing deep into once-safe Republican territory, from the suburbs of Philadelphia, Minneapolis and Houston to California’s historically conservative bastions of Orange County and the Central Valley. The most optimistic GOP scenarios had the party hanging on to its majority in the 435-member chamber by a whisper-thin margin. In the battle for the Senate, it...

<p>This commentary is IMO honest and frank and leads to many interesting side discussions. My comment is that the red tide is indeed happening, people are just not talking about it. Some are afraid to put up signs, because of the property damage that seems to go along with posting a sign, but they show up at the ballot box. They won't wear a Maga hat because of the violence that seems to encourage, but they have one in their home. This is really sad. The reason it will be a red tide, is because many on both sides of the isle are sick and tired of just what this article articulately describes...See if you don't agree...</p>

Elon Musk announced Sunday that the first tunnel of a proposed underground transportation network across Los Angeles County would open Dec. 10. “The first tunnel is almost done,” Musk tweeted to his 23.1 million followers shortly after 5 p.m. Musk’s Boring Co. is building the tunnel beneath the city of Hawthorne, part of his grand vision for a transportation network that whisks commuters across the county. Last year, Hawthorne officials approved the Boring Co.’s request to tunnel west from Space X headquarters. At the time, they said the tunnel had extended 500 feet. The company has said its technology...

Everyone’s DNA sequence is unique. But for those who wish to maintain their genetic privacy, it may not be unique enough. A new study argues that more than half of Americans could be identified by name if all you had to start with was a sample of their DNA and a few basic facts, such as the region where they live and about how old they might be. It wouldn’t be simple, and it wouldn’t be cheap. But the fact that it has become doable will force all of us to rethink the meaning of privacy in the DNA age,...