Free Republic

GOP White House hopefuls are declaring their independence from Donald Trump. Former New York governor George Pataki urged people Friday to sign his online petition condemning Trump’s anti-immigrant comments. ... The feds had issued a detention order asking to be notified if he was sprung from prison. It was not honored by the “sanctuary city.” Trump tweeted, “Where are the other candidates now that this tragic murder has taken place b/c of our unsafe border.’’

Baltimore police are investigating 17 shootings that have occurred since early Monday.. Six men were reported shot Tuesday after 11 shootings were reported Monday, according to police. There have been 286 nonfatal shootings in the city this year, police said. At this time last year, 151 nonfatal shootings were reported. On Tuesday evening officers were called to an area hospital where a 32-year-old man was being treated for a gunshot wound to his hand, police said. Detectives are working to determine where the shooting occurred. At 4:55 p.m. Tuesday, officers responded to an area hospital for a report of a...

The solution to poverty begins in the neighborhoods and the people affected by it, says Robert Woodson, the founder and president of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise. "You always have to begin with a solution in mind," Woodson told CSPAN Tuesday morning in a discussion on poverty. "I tell people, what is your solution? If all whites tomorrow were to move to Canada and Europe, tell me how it would affect the black on black crime rate, how would it it affect the out-of-wedlock births, how would it affect the spread of AIDS? How would it affect those issues?" he...

Hate crimes have spiked in New York City in 2015, according to New York Police Department (NYPD) statistics released Sunday—particularly against Jews. Hate crimes overall rose 9%, with 127 reported crimes during the first week of June in 2015 compared to 116 at the same time in 2014, the New York Post reports. Of those, anti-Semitic attacks rose 27% during that period, with 56 over 44 last year. …

One person was killed and nine others wounded Saturday night when someone opened fire at a neighborhood block party on a basketball court in Detroit, police said. Asst. Police Chief Steve Dolunt said a 20-year-old man was killed. He was not being identified while relatives were informed. Another man was critically injured and eight others, five men and three women, were listed as seriously injured

A major new report from the nonprofit Coalition on Homelessness investigates how criminalizing homelessness in San Francisco has only exacerbated the crisis. Much like America’s War on Drugs, the city’s crackdown on homelessness has been a costly failure, leaving in its wake people who feel victimized by the very system that’s supposed to help them. The report’s title, “Punishing the Poorest,” neatly sums up city policy. “Since 1981, San Francisco has passed more local measures to criminalize sleeping, sitting, or panhandling in public spaces than any other city in California,” the report states. In fact, San Francisco has 23 state...

In “This Is What Happens When A Millennial Tries To Get A Job,” we highlighted 1) high youth unemployment (U-6 at nearly 14%) and 2) the failure of America’s university system to prepare new entrants for the job market, on the way to painting a rather grim picture for America’s newly-minted college graduates. We’ve also been keen to emphasize the fact that the “strong” labor market is anything but, as wage growth is essentially non-existent and upside “surprises” benefit from the now ubiquitous “vanishing worker.” Given this, it’s no surprise that many of America’s best and brightest find themselves serving...

Baltimore police say a man was fatally shot in the western part of the city, continuing the month’s spike in homicides. Sgt. Jarron Jackson said in an email Friday that officers on patrol found a 19-year-old man with a gunshot wound to his chest about 4:30 p.m...

At least 56 people were shot over Memorial Day weekend between Friday afternoon and early Tuesday morning, according to authorities. Twelve people, including three shot Monday afternoon, died from their wounds. Twelve others shot between late Monday morning and early Tuesday morning survived their gunshot wounds, bringing the total of non-fatal gunshot victims for the weekend to 44.

LOS ANGELES — The nation’s second-largest city voted on Tuesday to increase its minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020 from the current $9 an hour, in what is perhaps the most significant victory so far in the national push to raise the minimum wage. The increase — which the Los Angeles City Council passed in a 14-1 vote — comes as workers across the country are rallying for higher wages. The impact is likely to be particularly strong in Los Angeles, where, according to some estimates, more than 40 percent of the city’s work force earns less than...

The increase in violence that has followed the death of Freddie Gray continued through the weekend, with four homicides reported since Saturday, according to Baltimore police. Ten people were reported shot on Sunday alone, including three who were shot to death within a span of 39 minutes. The violence comes as the city prepares for the Preakness on Saturday at Pimlico Race Course. Ten people were also shot Thursday. At least 87 people have been killed in Baltimore this year, 22 more than at this time last year. Nonfatal shootings are up nearly 50 percent across the city.

The ABC network refuses to air a commercial criticizing Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel even though other networks are running the spot, The Daily Caller has learned.As Emanuel seeks re-election in the Chicago mayoral run-off next week, the Republican-leaning Real Chicago PAC produced an ad highlighting reported instances of Emanuel’s corruption and crony capitalism, including his promotion of the transportation company Uber, in which his brother Ari is a major investor.“We sent the commercial to the local Fox affiliate. They vetted it, they checked every single quote and every single headline to make sure it was accurate and they ran...

I bring you shocking news, gentle readers. If you take thousands of incarcerated felons and turn them loose on society, and you then allow the federal government and cultural elites to demoralize the police officers charged with keeping these liberated hoodlums in line, you end up with higher crime. Who would have dared imagine it?This is the state of affairs in California, where a succession of imprudent decisions by judges [1], lawmakers [2], and the electorate [3] have combined to throw open the prison gates to swarms of men who in a sane world would have remained locked away...

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has become the latest high-profile progressive to endorse Cook County Commissioner Chuy García's challenge to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D). “I am going to Chicago to support Chuy García and [City Council candidate] Susan Sadlowski Garza. I support them because we need a political revolution in this country and we need the kind of working-class coalitions that Chuy and Susan are pulling together,” Sanders said in a statement.

Starbucks Coffee is getting creamed by New York City rents. The java giant may get priced out of its premier and larger Manhattan locations as some of the company’s earliest stores approach renewal after 15 to 20 years. “It’s likely that it’ll be very difficult to renew a number of those leases,” said retail broker Joanne Podell, a vice chairman at Cushman & Wakefield, who does not represent Starbucks. She noted that the stores with “superb” locations—i.e., on busy streets with well-trafficked storefronts—are expiring and the chain was paying “much, much less per square foot” than today’s rents. The average...

93.8 percent of the adults polled in the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward metropolitan area do not “personally identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender,” according to a Gallup survey that interviewed 374,325 adults nationwide from June through December of last year. […] The San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metropolitan area—commonly known as Silicon Valley—ranked fourth from the bottom among the 50 largest metropolitan areas for its percentage of LGBTs. 96.8 percent in that metro area do not personally identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, according to the Gallup survey, and 3.2 percent do. …

The San Francisco metropolitan area has the highest percentage of the adult population who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) of any of the top 50 U.S. metropolitan areas, followed by Portland, Oregon, and Austin, Texas. Variation in the percentage who identify as LGBT across the largest metro areas is relatively narrow, with San Francisco's percentage just 2.6 percentage points higher than the national average of 3.6%, and the lowest-ranked metro area -- Birmingham, Alabama -- one point below the national average. The top 10 includes metro areas from every region of the country except the Midwest. Given...

Seattle’s $15 minimum wage law goes into effect on April 1, 2015. As that date approaches, restaurants across the city are making the financial decision to close shop. The Washington Policy Center writes that “closings have occurred across the city, from Grub in the upscale Queen Anne Hill neighborhood, to Little Uncle in gritty Pioneer Square, to the Boat Street Cafe on Western Avenue near the waterfront.” Of course, restaurants close for a variety of reasons. But, according to Seattle Magazine, the “impending minimum wage hike to $15 per hour” is playing a “major factor.” That’s not surprising, considering “about...

Kill Stop and Frisk, attack police for doing their jobs and promote the grievances of criminals… and strangely enough more shootings happen. The murder rate in New York City has spiked an alarming 20% in the first two months of the year, prompting NYPD brass to rethink strategy to curb the deadly trend.Since Jan. 1, 54 murders have been recorded in the city, up nine from the same period a year ago, according to the grim stats released Monday.Shootings have also climbed 20% — with 149 so far in 2015 compared with 126 in the first two months of 2014....

Excerpted from The New York Times: Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Wednesday morning that New York public schools will observe two of the most sacred Muslim holy days — Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.“This is a growing community in our city and in our schools and we wanted to recognize that.Mr. de Blasio was surrounded on the podium by dozens of local activists and politicians who had pressed for the change. Carmen Fariña, the schools chancellor, took the podium to say that she hoped the change would lead to increased tolerance and understanding within the school system and...