Free Republic

The Club for Growth, a conservative advocacy organization, is taking aim at Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, focusing on past domestic violence accusations against her husband. “Claire McCaskill has been giving the back of her hand to voters and padding the pockets of her family for a generation… her husband’s treatment of women and her turning a blind eye while funding the agencies that pay her own family is hypocrisy at its finest. Missourians deserve better,” Club for Growth spokeswoman said in a statement provide to the Washington Examiner. The group noted that Suzanne Shepard, the ex-wife of Joseph Shepard,...

...The boats, modeled on the amphibious landing craft used in the D-Day invasion, have a checkered history including more than three dozen fatalities on water and land, including the Branson sinking, according to the complaint. “This tragedy was the predictable and predicted result of decades of unacceptable, greed-driven, and willful ignorance of safety by the Duck Boat industry in the face of specific and repeated warnings that their Duck Boats are death traps for passengers and pose grave danger to the public on water and on land,” the complaint said. Robert Mongeluzzi, an attorney for the families, told a news...

Billionaire conservative businessman Charles Koch’s political network is freezing out Republicans that it believes have violated its fiscally conservative principles, and is, at least for now, only supporting four Senate GOP candidates in the fall. The Koch network is backing GOP Senate candidates in Wisconsin, Missouri, Tennessee and Florida, signaling it will be selective in where it engages as Republicans seek to retain or grow their narrow 51-49 majority. At a Monday presentation to about 500 of the network’s top donors at a five-star resort in the Rocky Mountains, Americans for Prosperity president Tim Phillips made an example out of...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Family members who lost loved ones when a duck boat sank in Missouri’s Table Rock Lake earlier this month have filed suit against the companies involved in the incident, claiming that the boat’s operators knew that their boat designs and weather conditions made the July 19 excursion unsafe. Seventeen people died when the boat sank as powerful winds swept through the area. Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader said the victims ranged in age from 1 to 76 years old and included nine members of the Coleman family. Eleven of the Colemans were on the Ride the...

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., probably didn't have the best birthday this year. A Kansas City Star report on Tuesday revealed that a whole lot of federal dollars have been flowing to businesses tied to the senator's husband since she took office in 2007. According to the report, more than $131 million in federal subsidies have been routed to companies McCaskill's husband, Joseph Shepard, has invested in since she entered the Senate. "Based on the data, it appears that a growing percentage of Shepard’s personal earnings come from new businesses he has invested in that are receiving federal awards, primarily rural...

Few people would deny that, as a rule, parents want what is best for their children and keep their children’s needs, including their material needs, in mind when they make important decisions for their families. If this eminently plausible supposition is correct, then there is clear evidence that government-authorized forced unionism makes it more difficult for parents to provide their children with a comfortable standard of living and good prospects for the future. At this time, 22 states have yet to adopt Right to Work laws protecting employees from being forced to pay dues or fees to an unwanted union...

A southern Missouri sheriff and a deputy with whom he had an affair were both indicted...including assault, robbery and harassment...Former Texas County Sheriff James Sigman, 48, and Lt. Deputy Jennifer Tomaszewski, 38, also were indicted on child endangerment and unlawful use of a weapon...Tomaszewski hit an inmate with the mental capacity of a 9-year-old in the face with her elbows after he was rendered unconscious,..."He was completely unconscious and his lips were turning blue,"...she pointed a firearm at several people, including a 1-year-old,...she thought they were video recording the officers...

Daughnworks247 encapsulates a media cycle at Trump-Speed: In the last 30 hours: 1. President Trump dropped a MOAB on the state of Georgia for Brian Kemp, and wiped the floor with the establishment GOPe, winning by 39 points. 2. President Travels to Kansas City, giving the speech which made us all cry, to the VFW. Embraces a 94 year old Sargeant and we immediately fall in love. 3. Our sheer perfection of a FLOTUS stops in Nashville at a children’s hospital. On the way back CNN reporter asks Stephanie Grisham about the Cohen tapes and tries to take a hit...

New polling shows Missouri Republican Senate candidate Josh Hawley with a slight lead over Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill in what promises to be one of the country’s tightest and most consequential races. The new head-to-head survey, which was conducted last week by GOP pollster Remington Research, shows Hawley two points up on McCaskill, 48-46. The poll provides the first glimpse into Missouri voters’ thinking on the race since Republican governor Eric Greitens resigned in May over allegations of sexual misconduct and violations of campaign finance law, bringing an abrupt end to a months-long scandal that was widely seen as a...

President Donald Trump spoke to the VFW Convention today in Kansas City, Missouri. During his speech invited 94-year-old veteran Allen Jones on stage to share a few words. Allen stole the show. The World War II veteran told the story of losing his brother in World War II fighting. Then Allen turned to President Trump and made a request. Allen asked the US president if he could bring his family to the Oval Office next April when he turns 95. President Trump said yes and gave Allen a hug. This was an amazing American moment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LacxeCjaLdE&feature=youtu.be

Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill was hit with another politically damaging report Tuesday when her local newspaper revealed businesses tied to her husband have gotten more than $131 million in federal subsidies since she took office. According to an investigation by The Kansas City Star, Joseph Shepard's personal income also has grown since McCaskill took office in 2007. He reportedly made between $1,608 and $16,731 in 2006. But by 2017, Shepard reportedly earned between $365,374 and $1.2 million "from investments in housing projects that received federal subsidies." The information came from the senator's financial disclosure forms, which only provide a range...

The National Education Association thinks Colin Kaepernick is an ideal role model. Many members, however, may take their loyalty elsewhere. And frankly, they should. On July 1, the NEA honored Kaepernick, along with several other persons and organizations, with a “Human and Civil Rights” award in recognition of the former pro-football star’s campaign “to fight racial oppression through education and social justice activism.” The born-again political revolutionary, who these last couple years has been peddling the idea that police are conducting a nationwide pogrom against innocent blacks, accepted the honor with predictable melodrama. “To me, this is bigger than football...

A Higginsville couple celebrating their 45th wedding anniversary. An Illinois grandmother taking her granddaughter on a special trip to Branson. An Indianapolis youth football coach — “a community legend” — visiting with his family of 11 on vacation, and only two survived. Seventeen passengers — including four children and a teenager — died Thursday night on Table Rock Lake when the Ride the Ducks boat they were on sank in violent waves and swells of whitecaps, caught in the midst of a severe storm. Here are the stories of the victims:

Nine members of the same family are among the 17 people who died on Thursday night when a duck boat capsized in a Missouri lake. The family were from Indianapolis, but have not yet been named. Two other members of the family, who were also on the boat, survived. Bill Asher and his girlfriend Rose Hamman were also identified as among the dead by friends on Facebook on Friday afternoon. Bill and Rose had been on a week-long holiday in Branson, and had spent their last evening away on the duck boat, friend Mary Ogborn Kientzy said. Family confirmed the...

BRANSON — Eleven people, including at least one child, are dead after an amphibious duck boat capsized Thursday evening on Table Rock Lake. At least seven other passengers were injured, including one in serious condition. Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader updated the casualty information just after 11 p.m. Thursday. The Ride the Ducks tourist boat sank near the Showboat Branson Belle with a reported 31 people on board. Rader said emergency personnel were still searching for at least five people. CoxHealth said in a statement victims were being treated at Cox Branson. Spokeswoman Kaitlyn McConnell said the patients were a...

The Missouri branch of Americans for Prosperity says it's spending $1.8 million on ads against Sen. Claire McCaskill. The television and digital ad announced Wednesday by the Koch-backed group accuses the Democratic incumbent of saying she supports tax cuts but voting against President Donald Trump's tax bill. A narrator in the ad says Missourians can spot a "politician who says one thing but does another." McCaskill repeatedly said she supports tax cuts for the middle class. But McCaskill says she voted against the law because it gave preferential treatment to the rich. A press release from McCaskill's campaign responding to...

AFL‑CIO President Richard Trumka (UMWA) spoke at the Missouri AFL‑CIO’s 29th Biennial Convention yesterday, rallying a packed audience of local union leaders and working Missourians in the fight against Prop. A. He recalled the charge that President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered to Americans in the midst of the Great Depression: “True patriotism urges us to build an even more substantial America where the good things of life may be shared by more of us.” Working people in Missouri are speaking out and mobilizing their neighbors against a corporate-backed attack on our fundamental economic rights. As union leaders gather in St....

Ten Washington University students, all black and all incoming freshmen, were stopped by Clayton police this month while walking to a MetroLink stop from a late-night dinner and told they were suspected of leaving the IHOP restaurant without paying, university officials said. Even though some of the students had receipts showing they had paid for their meals, police made all of them walk three blocks back to the restaurant, with six squad cars following them. At the restaurant, the manager told officers the students were not those who had left without paying...

Early jockeying has begun in the race for chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee — the largest caucus on Capitol Hill, and one that has seen its influence grow with Donald Trump in the White House. At least five House Republicans told The Hill they are weighing bids to replace the group's chairman, Rep. Mark Walker (N.C.). Known informally as the RSC, the caucus imposes a two-year term limit on its chairman, giving more members a chance to lead. So far, the possible contenders are: four-term Rep. Vicky Hartzler (Mo.); three-term Rep. Roger Williams (Texas); two-term Rep. Barry Loudermilk...

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (W. Va.) had strong words for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (N.Y.) efforts to unify the party against President Trump’s Supreme Court pick. Manchin suggested to Politico that Schumer does not have any influence over whether or not he supports Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination. “I’ll be 71 years old in August, you’re going to whip me? Kiss my you know what,” Manchin told Politico, referring to whipping votes among the party caucus. Schumer has spoken out harshly against Kavanaugh and vowed to oppose him “with everything I’ve got.” Democrats will need at least two GOP votes, in...