Free Republic

Three months ago, Harvard student Aran Khanna was preparing to start a coveted internship at Facebook when he launched a browser application from his dorm room that angered the social media behemoth. His application, called Marauder’s Map — a clever name that Harry Potter fans will appreciate — was a Chrome extension that used data from Facebook Messenger to map where users were when they sent messages. The app also showed the locations, which were accurate to within three feet, in a group chat with people he barely knew. That meant complete strangers could hypothetically see that he had messaged...

In a recent interview with The Boston Herald, Boston police Commissioner William Evans whined about people who record the police, even going so far as to call for a new law that would criminalize the act of recording a police officer while standing within a certain distance of them.

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the shot heard ’round America — the one that left Michael Brown’s lifeless body lying on a Ferguson, Mo., street for hours and then left the nation reeling and roiling ever since. Yet watching the GOP candidates and Fox News moderators shape and prioritize the nation’s most pressing problems Thursday night, one couldn’t help but wonder: Does “Black Lives Matter” matter to them at all? In a two-hour debate, which frankly felt much longer, only two candidates were even asked about race. First, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker answered a question about the Black Lives...

BOSTON — In 1990, Richard Abath was a 23-year-old self-described hippie and guitarist for a rock band named Ukiah who, while moonlighting as a security guard, allowed two thieves posing as police officers to enter the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum here. For 25 years, his decision to buzz in the men who carted away $500 million worth of art has been largely treated as the hapless act of a rookie watchman who fell for a bluff. But on Thursday, federal officials still investigating the art heist — the largest in American history — drew fresh attention to Mr. Abath’s actions...

BOSTON (MyFoxBoston.com) - Three people were shot Monday while sitting in a car in Roxbury. This comes, ironically, on the same day as Boston's Night Out and Mayor Marty Walsh and BPD Commissioner William Evans are begging for help from the community. The shooting occurred around 1 p.m. in the area of Academy Terrace. “I’ve got as many cops as I can possibly have in this area, yet it doesn’t seem to stop the violence in the neighborhood,” Evans said.

Beijing won the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games on Friday. But Boston topped that earlier in the week, winning the right not to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. Beantown abandoned its bid for the games after Mayor Marty Walsh refused to sign a contract with the International Olympic Committee that would have left the city responsible for billions in possible cost overruns. Did I say possible? Call it seemingly inevitable. “I cannot commit to putting the taxpayers at risk,” declared Walsh. People throughout the Bay State can now rest easy — no tax hike or debt burden...

SCENE LAST NIGHT: Less than a mile or so from Chabad Lubavitch's HQ at 770 Eastern Parkway, around 80 Hillary for America supporters gathered at the home of former White House Jewish Liaison Jarrod Bernstein and Hildy Kuryk, currently communications director at Vogue, to hear from the Clinton campaign's senior advisors including manager Robby Mook, vice chairwoman Huma Abedin and finance director Dennis Chang. SPOTTED: Recent Chairman of the Conference of Presidents Bob Sugarman, Obama mega-bundler Sarah Kovner, Tusk Ventures' Seth London, Anya Hoerburger of Intermedia Partners, Samantha Maltzman, Jill Strauss, Samantha Vinograd of Goldman Sachs and formerly at office...

Finally, at long last, someone has gone broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public. And it couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch — Boston 2024. There is a God. The lesson here is from Abraham Lincoln: You can’t fool all of the people all of the time — even in Massachusetts. It’s a great victory for the people, but it could easily have gone the other way. What if Marsha Coakley had been elected governor? The state would already be on the hook for $5 billion in cost overruns. Like most flim-flams, the Boston Olympics collapsed abruptly. Perplexing,...

A Medford police detective has been placed on administrative leave after he was caught on video threatening to “blow a hole through your f---ing head” while pulling over a driver who drove the wrong way at a traffic circle. Medford Police Chief Leo Sacco confirmed to Boston.com that the man in the video was Medford Police Detective Stephen Lebert. “He’s a 30-year member of the department and works in our detective division,” Sacco said. “He’s a very effective police officer but last night’s incident that’s on video, at least that portion of the video that I saw, is troubling to...

— The U.S. Olympic Committee has dropped Boston’s bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics, sources tells WBZ-TV political analyst Jon Keller.

By Pamela Geller, Breitbart, July 19, 2015 The New York Times reported Thursday that “in the last two or three months,” the Chattanooga gunman Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez “had begun showing up rather regularly at Friday Prayer at the Islamic Society of Greater Chattanooga, a large mosque and cultural center, said Dr. Azhar S. Sheikh, a founding member of the center’s board.” “Dr. Sheikh said that he showed no signs of extremism. He said the family regularly worshiped at the mosque,” the NYT reported. What is being taught at that mosque? Are investigators simply going to assume that the mosque is...

A prosecutor raised concerns about the safety of people around a 15-year-old Danvers boy accused of raping and killing his high school math teacher in newly released court documents that provide more detail about his alleged assault of a female counselor at a juvenile detention facility.

Federal officials revealed Monday they have arrested a heavily armed Massachusetts man who was building bombs in his apartment and planned to attack a crowded university campus cafeteria on behalf of the Islamic State militant group. Alexander Ciccolo, 23, also known as Ali Al Amriki, was arrested July 4 for the unlawful receipt of multiple guns, the U.S. Justice Department said in a news release. His indictment was unsealed today. The college he intended to target was not disclosed... ...Ciccolo's father, Boston police Captain Robert Ciccolo (pictured), contacted FBI September, 11, 2014, saying his son 'had expressed a desire to...

Three years ago he was a long-haired, bandana-wearing hippie walking for peace, now he’s been arrested for plotting to kill Americans for ISIS. Such is life in Obama’s America. Alexander Ciccolo at a peace walk’ in 2012 against nuclear power and weapons. Photo, ABC News from the Napanee Beaver. Another photo can be seen here. Alexander Ciccolo, “Ali Al Amriki” to his Muslim terrorist friends, was busted by the FBI on July 4 after buying firearms from a confidential source working for the FBI, reported WCVB-TV. Ciccolo also reportedly bought a pressure cooker to make an IED. He allegedly was...

DEVELOPING: The son of a Boston police captain was an ISIS supporter who planned to set off an improvised explosive device and was arrested after illegally purchasing four firearms on July 4, according to the AP and a Justice Department press release. Authorities say 23-year-old Alexander Ciccolo, who also went by the name Ali Al Amriki, spoke about setting off an explosive device “in places where large numbers of people congregate, such as college cafeterias,” and was seen purchasing a pressure cooker similar to the kind used by the perpetrators of the Boston Marathon bombing.

Seattle City Council president Tim Burgess is proposing a new tax on guns. The proposal would tax gun sales $25 per gun and add a five cent-tax on each round of ammunition. Five cents per round adds up to a roughly $2.50 increase for a box off handgun ammunition. The legislation would also impose a $500 fine on gun owners who do not report guns lost or stolen.

The Boston Museum of Fine Arts is being called "racist" after it encouraged visitors to dress in a kimono to celebrate Claude Monet's 1876 painting "La Japonaise." The painting contains a woman dressed in a kimono: A group called "Stand Against Yellow-Face @ the MFA" has planned a protest for tomorrow at six o'clock. According to Stand Against Yellow-Face, "There is no education from curators or staff on the painting itself, nor the "orientalism" that was ocurring [sic] at the time, nor is there any sort of education on the kimono itself. "The act of non-Japanese museum staff throwing these...

BOSTON — Now that it is July, it is easy to think of Boston’s record snowfall last winter as a bad dream. These days, you can walk outside without dressing in multiple layers. You can see your car when you stand next to it. Even the subway is running (more or less). But if you want a reality check, come to the Seaport district, where you will find an astonishing residual artifact from the glory days of February: a 12-foot-high frozen mound, a remnant of the record 110.6 inches of snow that accumulated in Boston over the winter. Yes, some...

A man in his mid-20s was fatally shot late Saturday night in Dorchester, Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said in an interview. At 10:50 p.m. on Holborn Street, a car was seen firing shots before it fled, Evans told reporters on the scene. The man, whose name was not released, died at the scene. A second man had his arm “grazed,” Evans said, and he was taken to the hospital for minor injuries.

A brazen 4 a.m. anti-Olympics protest by Black Lives Matter activists outside Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s Dorchester home has City Hall officials mulling beefed-up security as the demonstrators vow to continue their battle in the escalating standoff over the Summer Games bid. “I think it’s always a concern when there’s a certain line that is crossed, when there is something outside his house. As of now, we’re just kind of assessing if and what kind of security measures we take to make sure the mayor is safe,” a Walsh administration source told the Herald. “The mayor does not at all...