Free Republic

State Senator Faith Winter arrived late and drunk to a pubic meeting .. She slurred her words and scrolled on her phone at the halfway-house hearing.. ... A Democratic Colorado State Senator announced she is getting substance abuse treatment after she arrived late to a public hearing late, intoxicated, slurred her words and scrolled on her phone while community members talked. Faith Winter, the assistant senate majority leader, was nearly 10 minutes late on Wednesday to a community hearing in Northglenn about a plan to open a halfway house for sex offenders near an elementary school. When she walked in...

San Francisco state Senator Scott Wiener has introduced a new bill to decriminalize adult men having sex with boys and he and his allies in the media are smearing all opposition as "homophobic" and "anti-Semitic." From The Federalist, "No California Shouldn't Decriminalize Adult Sex With 14-Year-Olds": LGBT activists have pushed reasonable notions of equality to its limits with obscene perversions. State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco -- the same lawmaker who co-sponsored a bill in 2017 to remove the felony penalty for knowingly exposing another person to HIV -- has introduced a bill, Senate Bill 145 to give judges more...

Former state Sen. Morris Hood III, a Detroit Democrat who spent 14 years in the Legislature, died Tuesday after a long battle with COVID-19, friends and colleagues said.

Oklahoma Republican state Sen. Jonathan Nichols was found dead Friday, making him the second GOP state senator to be shot to death in the last two days. Police reportedly found Nichols, 53, dead by a gunshot wound in Norman, Oklahoma, Wednesday night. His death comes two days after police reportedly discovered former Arkansas Republican state Sen. Linda Collins-Smith dead from a gunshot wound and wrapped in some kind of blanket.

A second former Republican state senator has been found dead at home from a gunshot within a span of two days.53-year-old Former Oklahoma GOP state Sen. Jonathan Nichols was found dead inside his home in Norman on Wednesday night from an apparent gunshot wound, according to police.Investigators are working with the Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s Office to determine the exact cause and manner of death.

Former Republican Arkansas state Senator Linda Collins-Smith, who was found murdered in her home this week in Pocahontas, Arkansas, believed she was closing in on a child-trafficking ring working from within the Arkansas state government. A verified source close to Collins-Smith told CD Media that she was about to go public with incriminating information on sitting judges in Arkansas, who were involved in taking children from poor women via the Department of Human Services (child protective services) in Arkansas and selling them to wealthy individuals. The source also disclosed that Collins-Smith believed the perpetrators were using illegal aliens to facilitate...

Pennsylvania’s governor said Sunday a state senator should resign over published allegations he behaved inappropriately toward women. Gov. Tom Wolf’s call for Sen. Daylin Leach to quit followed a story quoting former campaign and legislative staffers and advisers who accused Leach, 56, of behavior ranging from highly sexualized jokes and comments to touching they considered inappropriate. Wolf called Leach “a leader on important policy issues”, but said, “this conduct cannot be excused.” Leach, a legislator since 2003, is seeking the Democratic nomination next year for Congress in the Philadelphia suburbs. In a statement, Leach blamed the accusations on an unnamed...

A California state senator has been arrested for promising shoulder-fired automatic weapons and missiles from a Muslim separatist group to an undercover FBI agent in exchange for campaign donations, according to court documents unsealed Wednesday. In San Francisco, FBI agents have charged California State Sen. Leland Yee with conspiracy to deal firearms and wire fraud. The allegations were outlined in an FBI affidavit against Yee and 25 others. The allegations against Yee include a number of favors he requested in exchange for campaign donations, as well as performing "official acts" in exchange for donations to get himself out of a...

The 137-page, FBI-sworn affidavit against California State Sen. Leland Yee, a Democrat who is also running for Secretary of State, and over two dozen other individuals reads like a crime thriller. Beyond the widely reported stories of alleged wire fraud, money laundering, corruption, and bribery, the affidavit contains tales of alleged murder-for-hire plots involving a political consultant close to Yee, as well as large international weapons trafficking operations.Indeed, while the media have fixated on the hypocrisy of a gun-control advocate--Yee sponsored legislation against detachable magazines, for example--alleged involvement in gun smuggling, few reports delve into the kind of weapons with which...

SACRAMENTO, California — An ongoing federal investigation of a California senator is roiling the Democratic leadership in Sacramento and threatens to complicate relations in the majority party when lawmakers reconvene in January. FBI agents raided the offices of Sen. Ron Calderon in June, but the drama escalated within the past month when the Los Angeles-area lawmaker tried to tar his fellow Democrats after they stripped him of his committee assignments and one called for his resignation. Calderon has denied allegations he took money in return for promoting bills, but some analysts say the inquiry could affect the re-election chances for...

Idaho State Sen. Arrested For DUI And Grand Theft Auto June 19, 2011 Aaron Wiener A Republican lawmaker from Idaho was arrested early Sunday morning for allegedly stealing and driving a Ford Excursion under the influence of alcohol. State Sen. John McGee (R), who has been mentioned as a possible candidate for higher office, including governor, was charged with misdemeanor drunk driving and felony grand theft. The Idaho Statesman has the details: According to Sgt. Carlos De Leon with the Ada County Sheriff's Office, events unfolded like this: McGee began drinking at a golf course at about 10 p.m. Saturday...

by Arizona State Senator Sylvia Allen I'm Arizona State Senator Sylvia Allen. I want to explain SB 1070 which I voted for and was just signed by Governor Jan Brewer. Rancher Rob Krentz was murdered by the drug cartel on his ranch a month ago. I participated in a senate hearing two weeks ago on the border violence, here is just some of the highlights from those who testified. The people who live within 60 to 80 miles of the Arizona/Mexico Border have for years been terrorized and have pleaded for help to stop the daily invasion of humans who...

I noticed an hour ago that State Senator Jim Preuitt had not yet qualified with the state Democratic Party. I got the answer as to why just a moment ago when the GOP confirmed and posted to their website the qualification of Senator Preuitt as a Republican. This is another big pick-up for the Alabama Republican Party and inches them that much closer to a majority. The split is now 20-15 in favor of the Democrats with a number of what look to be competitive races in November.

Some Texas Republicans were happy to pound Democrats in Washington over a maneuver that allowed them to bypass a GOP roadblock and pass fixes to health care reform. The move allowing U.S. Senate passage of spending-related fixes with a majority vote — instead of a 60-vote super-majority with which the main bill passed before GOP U.S. Sen. Scott Brown's election — was legal and available. But for health care foes, it was just another example of ramming through legislation. Sort of the way Texas Democrats felt when state Senate Republicans changed the two-thirds vote required to bring legislation to the...

Take it from those who have been there: Prison life is hard on people who need to be in control. Especially politicians accustomed to giving orders, cutting deals, spending millions - and getting their way. Former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo is due to report to federal prison tomorrow, assigned to serve his 55-month sentence at a low-security institution in Ashland, Ky. His attorneys have fought that, wanting Fumo placed closer to family in Philadelphia. What's definite, experts say, is that prisons specialize in turning people like Fumo from kings to peasants. In free society, his dominion included four homes,...

PHILADELPHIA – A former Pennsylvania state senator convicted on fraud charges is scheduled to report to federal prison in Kentucky on Monday. Sixty-six-year-old Vincent Fumo has been sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison for defrauding the Senate and two nonprofits of several million dollars. ... The 66-year-old Fumo was a wealthy Democratic power broker during a 30-year state Senate career.

GRUSSENDORF: Party plans to give slate of 3 new names to governor. JUNEAU -- The Alaska Senate Democrats on Wednesday rejected Gov. Sarah Palin's appointment of legislative aide Tim Grussendorf to the state Senate. The decision came during a two-hour closed-door meeting in the office of Senate Majority Leader Johnny Ellis, an Anchorage Democrat. Around 50 people -- legislators, lobbyists, and news media -- jammed into the Capitol hallway outside Ellis' office when word came out that a decision had been made. The Democrats were tense and tight-lipped as they left the office, referring all questions to Ellis -- who...

<p>NEW YORK (AP) — A freshman state senator sworn in to office despite allegations he slashed his girlfriend's face with broken glass in a jealous rage has been indicted on domestic assault charges, prosecutors said Monday.</p> <p>A grand jury in Queens indicted Hiram Monserrate on three counts of second-degree felony assault and three counts of third-degree misdemeanor assault. Arraignment is expected later this week. He faces seven years in prison if convicted on the most serious charges.</p>

The senator's tenure as a state legislator reveals him to be an old-fashioned, big government, race-conscious liberal.Barack Obama's neighborhood newspaper, the Hyde Park Herald, has a longstanding tradition of opening its pages to elected officials-from Chicago aldermen...senators. Obama himself, as a state senator, wrote more than 40 columns for the Herald, under the title "Springfield Report," between 1996 and 2004. Read in isolation, Obama's columns from the state capital tell us little. Placed in the context of political and policy battles then raging in Illinois, however, the young legislator's dispatches powerfully illuminate his political beliefs. Even more revealing are hundreds...

The California Senate is preparing to weigh in on the hot-button topic of torture, with a twist that combines elements of the Hippocratic oath and the military oath. Under a resolution that state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas plans to put to a vote Thursday, California regulators would notify physicians and other health professionals that they could lose their license and be prosecuted by the state if they are involved in the torture of suspected terrorists. The Los Angeles Democrat chairs the Senate Committee on Business, Professions and Economic Development, which oversees boards that license health professionals in the state. During a...