Free Republic

Bill de Blasio has added two Muslim holidays to the school calendar, but isn’t on board with adding the Hindu festival of Diwali. As usual, this isn’t about diversity, it’s about Muslim Privilege. A spokesman for the Indian community appealed to the mayor to recognize the Hindu holiday.“We are disappointed. We’ve been trying for a long time … It’s very important for the community,” said Dr. Shashi Shah of the Association of Indians in America.But he said he’d move forward with closing schools for Lunar New Year and for Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, Muslim holy days.“It is complicated in...

In another shameful reminder of how Americans care more about sports than the future of their own country, Seattle Seahawks fans reacted to their team’s Super Bowl victory by behaving like animals – lighting fires, damaging historic buildings and ripping down street signs during raucous scenes last night.

A 77-year-old man died after collapsing across the street from a fire station, where his daughter had asked for immediate assistance and was instead rebuffed by a firefighter who told her he couldn’t help unless dispatch instructed him to intervene.The man, Medric Cecil Mills, collapsed near the Engine 26 fire station in the Brookland area of Washington, D.C. at about 2:30 p.m. on Saturday. His daughter, Marie Mills, went to the station to beg for immediate medical assistance. But the firefighter she encountered there told her that she had to first call 911 so that dispatch could instruct him to...

It really is a tale of two cities — this time with the tony Upper East Side getting the shaft! Huge swaths of the UES had been not been plowed by early Tuesday evening, according to the city’s own map of snow-plower activity. “He is trying to get us back. He is very divisive and political,” said writer and life-long Upper East Side mom Molly Jong Fast of Mayor de Blasio. “By not plowing the Upper East Side, he is saying, ‘I’m not one of them.’ But we have everyone in this area on the Upper East Side. We have rich...

Gov. Cuomo has a message for conservative Republicans — you don’t belong in New York. Cuomo said Friday that members of the GOP with “extreme” views are creating an identity crisis for their party and represent a bigger worry than Democrats such as himself. “Their problem isn’t me and the Democrats; their problem is themselves,” the governor said on Albany’s The Capitol Pressroom radio show. “Who are they? Right to life, pro-assault weapons, anti-gay — if that’s who they are, they have no place in the state of New York because that’s not who New Yorkers are.” He added that...

A walk down the 6-mile city street named for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. yields plenty of images that would surely unsettle the civil rights leader: shuttered storefronts, open-air drug markets and a glut of pawn shops, quickie check-cashing providers and liquor stores.The urban decay along Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in St. Louis can be found in other major American cities, from Houston and Milwaukee to the nation’s capital. “It’s a national problem,” said Melvin White, a 46-year-old postal worker in St. Louis and founder of a 3-year-old nonprofit group that is trying to restore King’s legacy...

The city’s annual prayer breakfast to honor the life of Martin Luther King Jr. on Friday at times turned into an election-year pep rally for Illinois Democrats to push the idea of a minimum wage hike. **SNIP** Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and Gov. Pat Quinn weren’t listed on the program, but both took the stage after guests dined on eggs and sliced melon. Both politicians who are seeking new terms this year tied their support for an increase of the minimum wage at the federal and state levels to King’s legacy of fighting for justice. Quinn said leaders today...

Houston Mayor Annise Parker and longtime partner Kathy Hubbard are now married - at least in the eyes of 18 states, including California, where the couple formally exchanged vows Thursday in a sunset ceremony in Palm Springs.

Don Guardian was sworn in to office today, becoming the first Republican to lead the city in 23 years.

Liberals in New York City have been waiting 20 years for this day. For the first time in that period, a Democrat has taken office as the city’s mayor. Yes, there was Michael Bloomberg, but even he had a few redeeming qualities. Now with Bill DeBlasio taking office we can see a lot of smug people just telling everyone how wrong the rest of the country is. Belafonte said that DeBlasio will fight against, “the naysayers of progress in our midst” and ridiculed America’s “Dickensian” justice system.

Good news from Chicago: The catastrophic murder rate in the Democratic-controlled city was slightly less catastrophic in 2013 than in 2012. Only 413 Americans were shot, stabbed or bludgeoned to death in the city, where all 50 aldermen are Democrats. Most of the victims in the blue-voting city were African-Americans or Hispanic, and very few were white. Still, the city’s Democratic leaders cautiously cheered the deaths of the 413 Americans, more than one victim per day, which included one young woman who marched in President Barack Obama’s 2013 inauguration parade. “We continue to make significant progress in reducing crime rates...

INDIANAPOLIS - Indianapolis homicide officers were investigating three unrelated deaths this weekend as the city's murder rate continued to rise. The deaths, which occurred within just hours of one another, pushed total murders for the year to 124. Police say there have been another 16 justifiable homicides on top of that. -snip- An RTV6 analysis of the city's 2013 murder rate compared to Chicago's shows that Indy has seen approximately 10 percent more homicides per capita than the Windy City. Chicago, with a population of more than 2.7 million, has reported 409 murders and justifiable homicides this year, according to...

In regards to the 1.3 Million still unemployed for 2 or 3 years and still begging for more,anyone want to take a guess where the bulk of them live? If we had a "Top 10 Laziest/Least Educated Towns" in America, odds are most of these 1.3 Million live there.These unfortunate/unemployed have had plenty of time to look for work and develop new work skills to get them back into the working class. And yet the left is making the GOP look so evil because they want to stop wasting billions on these people who should of found a job by...

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday announced the members of a grocery store task force that will work to find new owners for stores left vacant after Safeway closes all Dominick's stores in the Chicago-area Dec. 28. The task force will work with building representatives, gather local market data, find and approach likely prospects in the food industry as well as host tours, create marketing materials and engage brokers. It will also work to ensure the availability of fresh food and produce and support workers who are affected by the store closings.

With the closure of the recent Atlantic Club Casino Hotel, rumors of the bankrupt Revel being sold to Hard Rock, Las Vegas real estate prices remaining depressed, casinos opening up all around the country and online gambling legislation underway in various states, it seems as if the reasons for the very existence of Atlantic City and Las Vegas are in serious jeopardy. Beginning in the late 1940s, Las Vegas became known as the 'adult playground of the world.' Celebrities knew they made the big time when their names graced the billboards of ‘Sin City.’ Gamblers hoping to make money would...

The New York City Council voted Thursday to ban the use of e-cigarettes in public places where smoking is prohibited, including offices, restaurants, hospitals, parks and beaches. “Because many of the E-cigarettes are designed to look like cigarettes and be used just like them, they can lead to confusion or confrontation,” City Council Speaker Christine Quinn told CBS New York.

Last year, the city of Camden decided to can its unionized police force in favor of ununionized county cops who hit the streets this April. ... The city has been run exclusively by Democrats for several generations, and some local leaders openly worried that Camden, which already had the highest crime rate per capita last year, would get worse. But it hasn’t. In fact, crime’s gone down

New York’s SAFE Act is a bad, bad thing. It requires people to register, sell or transfer (out of state) “assault rifles” and “high capacity” magazines. Many Empire State gun and standard capacity ammunition magazine owners have complied. Many have not. So, at some point, the State’s gonna go get ‘em. People on both sides of the law enforcement divide will die and the s will hit the fan. Meanwhile, there it is: the reason why expanded background checks, indeed all background checks and any type of registration, set the stage for confiscation. And tyranny.

SEATTLE — Seattle City Councilmember-elect Kshama Sawant told Boeing machinists her idea of a radical option, should their jobs be moved out of state “The workers should take over the factories, and shut down Boeing’s profit-making machine,” Sawant announced to a cheering crowd of union supporters in Seattle’s Westlake Park Monday night.

Washington Comes Out: Ten percent of adults in the District of Columbia identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, nearly three times the national average. What makes the city such a gay-friendly place?