Free Republic

From last night's speech to the New England Police Benevolent Association, which voted to endorse him. Rarely can you tell whether a new Trump policy idea was gamed out beforehand or just something he came up with on the fly while in front of a mic, and this is no exception. His advisor, Dan Scavino, tweeted it out after Trump said it, though, so if it wasn't official campaign policy before, I guess it is now. Is it worth critiquing this? Krauthammer’s ready to give up on arguing against Trump policies, partly because they're all obviously political panders rather than...

A former state Senate leader and his son were convicted Friday of federal extortion charges, marking the second time in a month that one of Albany's most powerful politicians was run out office following a case that put the state capital's political culture on trial. The prosecution of Republican Dean Skelos, 67, and his 33-year-old son, Adam, cast a harsh light on politics-as-usual, much like the one against former Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who was convicted of bribery on Nov. 30. ...

Congressman Chris Gibson of New York is calling for an investigation into Governor Andrew Cuomo's administration after learning hundreds of millions of dollars in loans went to Health Republic, an insurance co-op that lasted only two years, and which caused 215,000 New Yorkers to lose their insurance. Health Republic was founded in 2013 with $265 Million in federal loans. It soon became one of the largest health insurance cooperatives in the United States. Now it is no more after New York regulators discovered massive deficits in Health Republic's books. Originally ordered to close by December 31, regulators had to bump...

The principal of DeWitt Clinton HS, a struggling Bronx school in Mayor de Blasio's multimillion-dollar Renewal program, changed students failing grades to passing without teachers knowledge or consent, insiders told The Post. In one case, Santiago Taveras gave a senior who received a "no show" in a global-history class a 75 and changed her failing 55 grade in gym to a minimum passing 65, records show. She then got a credit for each class, which she did not deserve, several staffers charged. He thinks he is God and can do whatever he wants. ... Taveras changed a students failing 55...

Americans increasingly support free speech as a concept but make lots of exceptions. A new Pew Research poll found that 40 percent of Millennials (ages 18 to 34) believe the government should be able to prevent people from making offensive statements about minority groups. New York governor Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York City, certainly agree. Often rivals, they teamed up to remove a set of controversial subway ads advertising a new Amazon series that depicts an alternate history in which the Nazis and the Japanese won World War II and divided control of America between...

Mayor de Blasio said his son Dante has been active in protests over racial issues at Yale — and they both agree the school should drop the name of a prominent defender of slavery. Dante, a freshman, is assigned to Yale’s Calhoun College, named for John C. Calhoun, a U.S. vice president and South Carolina senator who vehemently backed slavery as a “positive good” for the nation. “He’s very concerned, and he certainly notes the fact that the college he’s in, Calhoun College, is named for someone it shouldn’t be named for,” de Blasio told reporters Monday. “ That’s quite...

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has announced as part of his "See Something, Send Something" campaign a new mobile app that allows New Yorkers to alert authorities of potential threats. The "See Something, Send Something" app allows anyone with a smart phone to report suspicious activity directly to the New York State Intelligence Center in the form of photos or written notes, according to a press release. The press release reminds users to only report “suspicious behavior and situations (e.g., an unattended backpack or briefcase in a public place) rather than beliefs, thoughts, ideas, expressions, associations, or speech unrelated to...

Thanksgiving week is typically a time for people to reflect on the blessings they have known and to be grateful for all of the bounty we receive in our lives, so we should kick off Monday morning with just such a story. One person who apparently has a lot to be grateful for is Al Sharpton. The nationally renowned race agitator arranged for some particularly rich blessings last year in the form of a 71% pay raise, made possible largely through the renewed, high profile image he obtained via multiple public appearances with President Barack Obama and New York City...

It pays to have friends in high places. Al Sharpton gave himself a 71 percent raise last year after his National Action Network group drew a record $6.9 million in donations — as the controversial cleric’s association with Mayor de Blasio and President Obama lent him a newfound air of legitimacy. De Blasio’s election gave Sharpton a seat at City Hall, as the mayor treated him as an adviser and presented him at a press event next to Police Commissioner Bill Bratton after the death of Eric Garner. Also in 2014, Obama addressed NAN’s annual convention, bringing along five...

Rev. Al Sharpton will Announce that NAN is Convening a National Summit of Black Ministers to discuss the Recruitment of Black Churches as Sanctuaries for Syrian Refugees and to Recruit Congregation Members to provide Homes to Those Seeking Asylum. Rev. Sharpton will also condemn a lack of mercy, compassion and the perpetuation of Islamophobia by certain leaders

Mayor de Blasio says New York City will not turn away any refugees fleeing Syria. De Blasio said Tuesday that New York "is a proud immigrant city" and would welcome refugees trying to escape the conflict in their homeland. Many public officials and U.S. presidential candidates have expressed wariness at admitting refugees in the wake of the terror attacks in Paris last week. De Blasio chided a pair of local Republicans running for president. He called New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie "an embarrassment to this country" and said that the city "will adhere to the words of our Founding Fathers,...

Mayor de Blasio is moving to clean up a state medical-insurance mess that blindsided thousands of New Yorkers, including 114 cancer patients in the city who were about to lose their doctors. Under a hastily drawn-up deal, the patients will continue to get coverage for treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center under the city's MetroPlus health plan. The patients had faced a tough choice: pay out of pocket or find new doctors because of the impending bankruptcy of Health Republic - one of the state's ObamaCare providers and the only one that covers treatment at Sloan Kettering.

FLINT, MI -- The Michigan chapter of Al Sharpton's National Action Network says the state needs to set up a special court to hear criminal cases against juveniles who may have been poisoned by lead contaminants in Flint water. "All juvenile offenders arrested, charged or incarcerated in Genesee County that may have consumed Flint water during the period of lead contamination should be tested for lead content in their blood," Sam Riddle, state political director of Michigan NAN, said in a news release.

I took it for granted that a leftist like Bernie Sanders would be opposed to the death penalty. Still, I was truly shocked to see Sanders—not in some throwaway comment on the campaign trail but in prepared remarks on the Senate floor—flatly call the death penalty "murder." On his MSNBC show this morning, Al Sharpton played the Sanders clip to illustrate how Sanders is working to differentiate his policy positions from those of Hillary Clinton, who says she supports the death penalty in "rare" cases. Question: how can we begin to explain the moral compass of liberals like Sanders who...

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio endorsed Hillary Clinton on Friday for president. "The candidate who I believe can fundamentally address income inequality effectively, the candidate [that] has the right vision and the right experience and ability to get the job done is Hillary Clinton," de Blasio said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." De Blasio, who was Clinton's campaign manager for her 2000 Senate bid, had been debating for months whether to endorse her. "I've seen her vision and platform develop over five months. I'm extremely pleased with what she's put on the table," said de Blasio, who also served...

In his 1999 book, Dr. Ben Carson wrote that our nation’s history on racial injustices made it impossible for the black community to think of the judicial system in anything but racial terms and that white Americans were only able to view racial violence in a modern context. In his book, The Big Picture, released by Zondervan, Carson argued white Americans had “no grasp on the history of racial violence in this country.” Carson wrote of a time his mother was thrown in jail for a minor traffic violation as an example of personal history of the racial injustice in...

NEW YORK (AP) — Divers searching the Harlem River recovered a gun "consistent" with the weapon used to kill a police officer during a foot chase in Manhattan, the New York Police Department said Sunday. Chief of Manhattan detectives William Aubry said the weapon was found around 3 a.m. Sunday. The gun will be tested for fingerprints and DNA, as well as test fired, to determine whether it is the same gun that was used to shoot Officer Rudolph Holder in the head. "That firearm is consistent with the firearm that we were looking for," Aubry said. The police also...

Protesters flip off NYPD days after cop slay By Amanda Lozada Just four days after the on-duty murder of a hero NYPD street cop, a rally in Washington Square Park against “police terror” devolved Saturday into a raucous, law-enforcement gripe-fest. Protesters held signs reading “Rise Up! Stop Police Terror!” and “Murder with a badge is still murder.”

An NYPD housing officer was killed Tuesday night, shot in the head by a trigger-happy perp during a chase and gunfight on a pedestrian overpass above FDR Drive in East Harlem, police said. Officer Randolph Holder, 33, was shot in the forehead by the callous gunman, who had stolen a bike and was being pursued by cops along the promenade hugging the East River around 8:30 p.m., Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said. The brave officer died at 10:22 p.m. at Harlem Hospital. A suspect, shot in the legs, was arrested. Holder, who emigrated from Guyana, was a third-generation police officer,...

NEW YORK >> New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday joined government leaders worldwide in signing an agreement to help combat global warming and keep the Earth’s average temperature from rising dangerously. The Under Two MOU, a memorandum of understanding signed by more than three dozen government leaders, affirmed New York’s commitment to helping keep the Earth’s average temperature from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius and committed the state to working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions about 40 percent by 2030. Cuomo said he hoped New York would be able to generate 50 percent of its electricity from renewable...