Free Republic

A threatening email has derailed one of the Portland Rose Festival's signature events, and spurred new debate about the ongoing political protests in Portland. Organizers of the 82nd Avenue of Roses Parade announced Tuesday that the event will be canceled, for fear that the east Portland parade could be disrupted by "the type of riots which happen in downtown Portland." Originally scheduled this Saturday, April 29, the parade is meant to highlight the local community and businesses along Southeast 82nd Avenue, aiming to turn around the negative perception many people have of the area. It started in 2007 and has...

PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) - The annual 82nd Avenue of Roses Parade and Carnival scheduled for this weekend has been canceled due to "threats of violence," according to organizers. The parade, in what would have been its 11th year, is the first sanctioned event of the Portland Rose Festival. The event is put on by the 82nd Avenue of Roses Business Association in partnership with local businesses, neighbors and community groups. The goal is to "celebrate and promote the diverse community that lives, works and plays on 82nd Avenue." In a statement released Tuesday, the business association said, "Following threats of...

BREAKING: US judge blocks Trump order to cut off funding to cities that limit cooperation with immigration authorities.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg dismissed sanctuary cities on Tuesday, saying that those who oppose federal immigration laws should try to change them in legislatures. "Morning Joe" panelist Steve Rattner asked Bloomberg for his take on the cities that refuse to cooperate with federal officials on detaining and deporting illegal immigrants. "You cannot, Steve, have everybody deciding which laws they should obey," Bloomberg said. "The law is the law."

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Monday that New York City would offer free, full-day preschool to all 3-year-olds within four years, saying that he was building on the success of the city’s prekindergarten program for 4-year-olds and that it was time to go further.

even people were killed and at least 31 others were wounded in shootings across Chicago between Friday evening and Monday morning. The violence brought the city’s toll to at least 980 people shot, 170 fatally, since the start of the year, according to Chicago Sun-Times data.

New Orleans officials removed the first of four prominent Confederate monuments early Monday, the latest Southern institution to sever itself from symbols viewed by many as a representation racism and white supremacy. The first memorial to come down was the Liberty Monument, an 1891 obelisk honoring the Crescent City White League. Workers arrived to begin removing the statue, which commemorates whites who tried to topple a biracial post-Civil War government in New Orleans, around 1:25 a.m. in an attempt to avoid disruption from supporters who want the monuments to stay, some of whom city officials said have made death threats.

The letters were sent to officials in Chicago, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Miami, Milwaukee, New York City and Sacramento, Calif., as well as Cook County, Ill. These municipalities were identified in a Justice Department inspector general’s report last year as potentially out of compliance with the requirements. Friday’s letter asks the cities to send documentation that they are in compliance by the end of June.

Three Seattle police officers were shot and wounded while trying to arrest robbery suspects in downtown Seattle on Thursday afternoon before one of the suspects barricaded himself in a nearby building where he was later found dead. A male officer, who was shot in the face, was initially listed in critical condition but was upgraded to serious condition. He remains in serious condition Friday morning. A female officer, whose Kevlar vest saved her from a life-threatening gunshot wound to the chest, was treated at a hospital and released. A third officer suffered a hand wound and was treated and released...

For the International Church of Cannabis in Denver, there were three reasons to celebrate on Thursday. First, it was opening day. The church, a more than century-old building recently adorned with brightly colored paintings by the artists Kenny Scharf and Okuda San Miguel, welcomed the public early in the afternoon, at which time no cannabis consumption was allowed inside. “It seemed to be a nice steady flow of people,” said Lee Molloy, a founder of the church and a member, who estimated that a couple of hundred people had come by.

Despite a pending court case that will ultimately determine the general’s fate, the Charlottesville City Council voted 3-2 Monday evening to sell the city’s statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Three people were shot to death and 11 other people were wounded in shootings since Tuesday morning, according to officials. A 22-year-old woman was shot dead about 11:35 p.m. in the 10700 block of South Indiana Avenue (snip) police found the woman on the sidewalk with gunshot wounds to her abdomen and left ankle. (snip) The double fatal shooting happened about 8:15 a.m. in the 5100 block of South Halsted Street. The woman, 22, and the man, 25, were sitting in a vehicle when two people stepped from another vehicle and started shooting,(snip) A 20-year-old man was shot in the...

Pedro Hernandez, the bodega clerk convicted for the 1979 murder of New York first-grader Etan Patz was sentenced on Tuesday to 25 years to life in prison, CNN reports. Hernandez, 56, was convicted of kidnapping and murder in February, nearly 40 years after the six-year-old disappeared on May 25, 1979. Etan left home to walk to a school bus stop and was not seen again. In the early 1980s, his photo appeared on milk cartons across the country, the first time the method was used to try to locate missing children. Hernandez was previously tried for the same charges in...

Austin authorities have confirmed a bomb threat at the Walmart located on Ben White Boulevard. A suspicious package was found in the building. People inside are being evacuated and the APD EOD SWAT team is on its way.

A tragic accident was made worse when a man was killed for being white. Jamie Urton was driving through Cincinnati when he accidentally struck a child with his car. The child’s father murdered Urton, with the help of an accomplice, but the two murderers told the passenger, “Get out of here, you’re black.” (via WLWT5)Deonte Baber and Jamall Killings are both facing murder charges for killing Urton. They did so after Killings’ 4-year-old son was accidentally struck by Urton’s vehicle. The murderers spared Urton’s passenger because he was black, proving that they killed Urton because he was white.Of course, the...

Four people were killed and 16 others hurt in a series of shootings that plagued Philadelphia over the warm Easter holiday weekend. "Summertime is coming, warm weather today, we get shootings that peak and valley during the warm weather," Philadelphia police Capt. Jamill Taylor said early Sunday at the scene of a homicide at 62nd Street and Woodland Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia.

Sacramento police issued 233 tickets for jaywalking last year in the police district that includes North Sacramento and Del Paso Heights – nearly triple the number handed out in the entire rest of the city. Black people received 111 of those citations, nearly 50 percent, but account for about 15 percent of the area’s residents. The equivalent of 12 citations were issued to every 1,000 black residents in District 2 last year, more than 5 times the issuance rate for non-blacks, city and census figures show. The citation numbers, released in response to a request by The Bee, drew outrage...

As New England One was first to report last December, WFXT FOX 25 [Boston] is dropping the "FOX" identity from its newscasts. The change comes amid sagging ratings, and FOX 25 management is placing some of the blame on confusion with Fox News Channel. In February, WHDH 7 came in first place at 10pm, beating WFXT for the first time since WHDH started a 10pm newscast. WHDH won again at 10pm in March. As we first told you a few months ago, the station wants to distinguish itself from the Fox News Channel to avoid confusion that WFXT leans right....

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan's capital city on Wednesday rescinded its decision to deem itself a "sanctuary city" protecting immigrants, bowing to concerns from the business community that the ambiguous, contentious term may draw unwanted attention to Lansing.The City Council voted 5-2 to reverse course after last week's 6-0 vote to call itself a sanctuary. The term "sanctuary city" has no legal definition and varies in application, but it generally refers to jurisdictions that do not cooperate with U.S. immigration officials. Under Lansing city policy, police don't ask for people's immigration status, except as required by U.S. or Michigan law...

It seemed like a done deal that Baltimore would make it illegal to work for or offer a job for less than $15 per hour. The city's new mayor, Catherine Pugh, had campaigned as a supporter of raising the minimum wage, and the city council passed the measure to require wages in the city 50 percent higher than those in the rest of Maryland. But on March 31, in what many activists are denouncing as a betrayal, Pugh vetoed the measure. "I want people to earn better wages," Pugh told the Wall Street Journal, which recently took an interesting local...