Free Republic

Democrat Ralph Northam invoked executive privilege to initially block release of travel dates but relented on appeal. On a Saturday night in the dead of August last year, Virginia taxpayers footed the bill as a state-operated plane roared from Richmond to one of North Carolina’s desirable beach destinations. The King Air 350 turboprop made the journey twice in six hours. The VIP passengers? Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam and his wife, Pamela, the first lady of Virginia. The listed purpose for a back-and-forth jaunt? The Northams took a brief break Aug. 31, 2019 from their Outer Banks beach vacation home in...

Three Democratic members of the Staunton, Virginia, city council were ousted by Republicans on Tuesday despite receiving more votes than they did four years ago. Republican candidates Mark Robertson, Amy Darby, and Steve Claffey all joined incumbent Andrea Oakes in a four-seat GOP sweep, WHSV reported. The three incoming council members replaced Democratic incumbents Erik Curren, Ophie Kier, and James Harrington all almost doubled their vote totals from 2016, yet still lost. Local outlet Augusta Free Press reporter Chris Graham called the results “stunning almost beyond words.” “Democrats got their voters out better than they have in a May cycle...

Special elections can be tricky to gauge the general election from. But when all of the results of them go just one way, it's pretty obvious the other party is in trouble. Latest news: Three Virginia Democrats in a reliably blue city have just gotten the boot. A local reporter called it 'stunning beyond belief.' The Daily Caller reports: Three Democratic members of the Staunton, Virginia, city council were ousted by Republicans on Tuesday despite receiving more votes than they did four years ago. Republican candidates Mark Robertson, Amy Darby, and Steve Claffey all joined incumbent Andrea Oakes in a...

Three Democratic members of the Staunton, Virginia, city council were ousted by Republicans on Tuesday despite receiving more votes than they did four years ago. Republican candidates Mark Robertson, Amy Darby, and Steve Claffey all joined incumbent Andrea Oakes in a four-seat GOP sweep, WHSV reported. The three incoming council members replaced Democratic incumbents Erik Curren, Ophie Kier, and James Harrington all almost doubled their vote totals from 2016, yet still lost. Local outlet Augusta Free Press reporter Chris Graham called the results “stunning almost beyond words.” “Democrats got their voters out better than they have in a May cycle...

Three Democratic members of the Staunton, Virginia, city council were ousted by Republicans on Tuesday despite receiving more votes than they did four years ago. Republican candidates Mark Robertson, Amy Darby, and Steve Claffey all joined incumbent Andrea Oakes in a four-seat GOP sweep, WHSV reported. The three incoming council members replaced Democratic incumbents Erik Curren, Ophie Kier, and James Harrington all almost doubled their vote totals from 2016, yet still lost.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Wednesday asked acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell for the underlying intelligence reports in which former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s name was “unmasked.” In a letter obtained by The Hill, Warner asked Grenell for any underlying intelligence reports concerning conversations between Flynn and then-Russian Ambassador Sergei Kisltak, as well as the reasoning behind declassifying the unmasking requests, “given the potential compromise to sources and methods.” “As you are well aware, there are substantial protections built into the process for requesting that identities of U.S. persons...

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) fired back at President Trump Tuesday after the president referred to Northam as “crazy” and an opponent of Second Amendment rights. Trump, speaking at a White House event Tuesday, followed a speaker from Virginia by saying, "We're going after Virginia, with your crazy governor, we're going after Virginia. They want to take your Second Amendment. You know that, right? You'll have nobody guarding your potatoes." “I grew up on a Virginia farm, Mr. President - our potatoes are fine. And as the only medical doctor among our nation's governors, I suggest you stop taking hydroxychloroquine,”...

These face masks were definitely not CDC approved. And even with virtually everyone wearing face masks these days due to COVID-19, the pair wearing carved-out watermelons over their faces stood out. So did their actions. As CNN and 6ABC report, the fruit-faced pair proceeded to steal from the shocked Sheetz in Louisa, Virginia. CNN reports one of the two has been arrested and charged in the incident from earlier this month: Justin M. Roger, 20, faces charges of wearing a mask in public while committing larceny, underage possession of alcohol, and petit larceny of alcohol, the Louisa Police Department told...

Virginia's Democrat governor, Ralph Northam, is begging for help to execute his draconian lockdown order in the state, but a patriotic sheriff is refusing to enforce the measures.Culpepper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins has rejected Gov. Northam's request for help enforcing his mandatory lockdown on certain businesses in the northern part of the state.

As governors crack down on religious services during the coronavirus pandemic, pastors across the United States weigh in on whether Attorney General William Barr and the Department of Justice are doing enough to protect their civil liberties. The attorney general has issued multiple statements on the importance of respecting religious liberty “even in times of emergency” and intervened in cases of government crackdowns on churches and pastors. The DOJ referred the Daily Caller News Foundation to several more instances of Justice Department intervention, including an April 27 memorandum from the attorney general on balancing public safety with the preservation of...

On this date in 1775,* plantation owner William Pitman was hanged for murder in King George County, Virginia. Pitman had a reputation as a brutal man and was no stranger to the Virginia courts; he had been making appearances since the 1750s. So perhaps it was not surprising that he got strung up eventually. What is surprising, indeed perhaps unprecedented, is that the murder victim was one of his own slaves.

Northern Virginia, the state’s economic engine, is nowhere near ready to reopen Friday when Gov. Ralph Northam plans to begin lifting shutdown restrictions, the region’s top elected officials said Sunday, citing the continuing increase in coronavirus infections and hospitalizations. In a joint letter, the elected leaders in Northern Virginia’s five largest jurisdictions — representing nearly 2.4 million residents — told Northam (D) they are unwilling to lift restrictions in place since late March, which the governor plans to do in a limited capacity Friday in hopes of reviving the state’s ailing economy. Northam announced last week that he will begin...

(Reuters) - James Comey, the former Federal Bureau of Investigation director who was fired last year by U.S. President Donald Trump, will teach a course on ethical leadership at the College of William & Mary in Virginia, the school said on Friday. Comey has been by turns castigated and lionized by both Democrats and Republicans for overseeing high-stakes FBI investigations that overshadowed the election campaigns of Trump and his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, in 2016. “Ethical leaders lead by seeing above the short term, above the urgent or the partisan, and with a higher loyalty to lasting values, most importantly...

Herring still doesn’t have much appreciation for civil rights. He’s defending Virginia social distancing policies that led to the pastor of a Virginia church being cited for holding a church service. There were sixteen people in the church sanctuary, which seats 225. The congregation in question serves, among others, recovering drug addicts and former prostitutes. The church sought legal relief. The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division filed a statement of interest, arguing that the Virginia polices at issue may constitute a violation of the constitutional right to the free exercise of religion. Herring’s office responded with this imbecilic statement:...

BRISTOL, Tenn./Virginia State Line -- Joe Deel is behind the chrome-trimmed turquoise counter of his legendary diner, the Burger Bar in Virginia, working with his wife, Kayla; daughter Emily; and sous chef, Corey Young. They can see people going to lunch at the State Line Bar and Grill in Tennessee, just across the street and less than 50 yards away. But their round, black-topped stools remain as empty as they were nearly two months ago when the coronavirus first shut down the country...A lot of cities and towns in our country border neighboring states, but few are quite like this...

At a press conference on Friday, State Health Commissioner Norman Oliver gave an example of a single patient being tested four times for COVID-19. "What we're doing now is, we're counting all four tests," Oliver said.

This is heartbreaking! "@GovernorVA my son is special needs and lives in a residential facility. We have not seen him in two months due to this hoax. Your order now goes to June 10th, another month without seeing him. He asks us everyday if he did something wrong. Can you answer this?" Remember when the left accused Trump of separating children from their families? Apparently, it doesn't count when the Left does it. Her son's name is Caden Bray. If you're on Twitter, please use the hashtag #CadenBray whenever you have extra space to do so. If you could give...

The Justice Department sided with a church suing Virginia Governor Ralph Northam (D) after the pastor was threatened with a fine and jail time for holding a 16-person service on Palm Sunday. Northam is famous for a posing in KKK-blackface in his college yearbook. Kevin Wilson, the pastor of Lighthouse Fellowship Church on Chincoteague Island, was threatened with jail time or a $2,000 fine by police for violating Northam’s unconstitutional Coronavirus lockdown order. A total of 16 people attended the Palm Sunday church service on April 5 and were all spaced far apart from each other in a church that...

VIRGINIA — A solid majority of Virginia residents disapprove of the federal government's response to the coronavirus pandemic, and an even greater majority disapprove of President Donald Trump's performance during the crisis, according to an informal reader survey Patch conducted Friday. About 60 percent of the survey's nearly 1,900 respondents said they are dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the federal response, compared with 31 percent who say they are either satisfied or very satisfied. Almost 67 percent of respondents said they are either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the president's performance, compared with 28 percent saying they are satisfied or...

Six members of the boards overseeing James City County, Williamsburg and York County are urging Gov. Ralph Northam to reopen the economy sooner rather than later. The six - three from James City, two from Williamsburg and one from York - pressed for a “phased reopening of businesses as soon as possible," contending in an April 24 letter to the governor that not doing so could cause some businesses to be forever lost. “We are very concerned that (the current expiration date of the governor’s shutdown orders) may put some of these closed businesses in jeopardy of never reopening,” they...