Free Republic

Traffic on New York City bridges was reportedly shut down as demonstrators marched in traffic lanes over the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Triboro bridges as peaceful protests occurred in 90 cities across the U.S. Thousands of people rallied late on Monday in cities including Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., to passionately but peacefully protest a grand jury's decision not to indict a white police officer who killed a black 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri. They led marches, waved signs and shouted chants of 'Hands Up! Don't Shoot,' the slogan that has become a rallying cry in protests over police killings across the...

On Monday night, the grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri freed Officer Darren Wilson from the possibility of indictment over his shooting of 18-year-old black man Michael Brown. The prosecutor before the grand jury, Robert McCulloch, explained why the indictment had been rejected: the evidence, both physical and eyewitness, supported Wilson’s case that he had acted in self-defense. McCulloch added pointed criticism of the media that drove the case in the first place, ripping the “insatiable appetite” of social media and “non-stop rumors” driven by it. The initial accounts pushed by social media, McCulloch said, were “filled with speculation and little,...

A no fly zone has been instituted above and around Ferguson, Missouri while reports are emerging that area airports are being shut down. The Federal Aviation Administration announced the no fly zone after the grand jury decision came through on Monday night in the Michael Brown shooting. Listed under the reason for the no fly zone, the agency put: “To provide a safe environment for law enforcement activities.” It later said that the decision stemmed partially from reports of gunshots being fired into the sky. The prohibited airspace is designated as three nautical miles around Ferguson. “On the ST LOUIS...

Included in the grand jury material released tonight after the announcement that no charges would be filed in the Michael Brown killing is a handwritten witness account stating that the teenager charged at Officer Darren Wilson “like a football player. Head down.” The unidentified witness wrote that the 18-year-old Brown “has his arms out with attitude,” while “The cop just stood there.” The witness added, “Dang if that kid didn’t start running right at the cop like a football player. Head down.” The witness told of hearing “3 bangs,” but “the big kid wouldn’t stop.” The witness’s account of...

Sen. John McCain is prodding one of his closest allies in the Senate to consider a run for the White House – Sen. Lindsey Graham. “I think he is looking at it, and I am strongly encouraging him to take a look at it,” McCain, R-Ariz., told ABC News. “I know of no one who is better versed and more important on national security policy and defense than Lindsey Graham, and I don’t think these challenges to our security are going away.” “He is eminently qualified,” McCain added. In an interview with The Weekly Standard last month, Graham, R-S.C., said...

Jewish life in New York is dominated by ritual. Holidays. A pastrami reuben on a hero at Katz’s. The reading of holy books in cycles that take a year (the Torah) or seven and a half years (the Talmud). And just as reliably, there’s the ritual of presidential candidates sniffing around for dough right after the midterm elections. That last one got going in earnest yesterday and today, with Senator Ted Cruz of Texas making a whirlwind tour of power Jews in New York City. Last night, Mort Klein’s Zionist Organization of America dinner featured Mr. Cruz, known for his...

You can use 3D printing to make a handful of electronics, such as antennas and batteries, but LEDs and semiconductors have been elusive; you usually need some other manufacturing technique to make them work, which limits what they can do and where they'll fit. A team of Princeton researchers recently solved this problem, however. They've found a way to make quantum dot LEDs (and thus semiconductors) using only a 3D printer. The scientists choose printable electrodes, polymers and semiconductors, which are dissolved in solvents to keep them from damaging underlying layers during the printing process; after that, the team uses...

A Missouri grand jury's decision not to indict a white police officer on any charges in the fatal August shooting of an unarmed black teenager unleashed a wave of violent protests Monday night similar to what engulfed the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson in August. Angry crowds took to the streets around the Ferguson, Missouri, police department after the grand jury determined there was no probable cause to charge officer Darren Wilson with any crime for the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown. The incident highlighted longstanding racial tensions in the predominantly black city, which has a white-dominated power structure. "They...

* At an 8:30pm CT press conference in Missouri on Monday night it was announced that Wilson will not face trial over the teen's death* Ferguson officer Darren Wilson shot dead unarmed black teenager Michael Brown on August 9 * Brown's family issued a statement saying they were 'profoundly disappointed' with the decisions, while calling for peaceful protests * Local police are currently attempting to make peace in the streets of Ferguson where some angry protesters have grown violent, throwing bottles and rocks and smashing car windows * The U.S. Attorney General and president have both urged police to show...

A grand jury decided not to indict the Ferguson police officer who fatally shot Michael Brown in August. With protestors gathered in Ferguson and elsewhere, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch announced the decision Monday night. What do you think of the grand jury decision? Take our poll and share your thoughts in the comments section below....

People across the country reacted sharply to the decision by a grand jury not to indict a white Missouri police officer in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager, with protesters taking to the streets in cities from Oakland to New York. St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch announced the grand jury had chosen not to indict Officer Darren Wilson, who gunned down Michael Brown, 18, on a street in Ferguson on Aug. 9. The grand jury had options from first-degree murder to no charge at all. In New York, protesters held up a poster reading "Black Lives Matter."...

President Barack Obama’s unwillingness to wade deeply into the thicket of passions, grievances, suspicions, and resentments that materialized after Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, Missouri, has disappointed some of his strongest supporters. His decision has been interpreted as a strategic retrenchment—a conscious determination not to polarize the public’s impressions of Ferguson the way he did when he expressed a kind of racial solidarity with the parents of Trayvon Martin two and a half years ago. The contrast between Obama’s approaches to the Brown and Martin cases has always been overstated. Bracket one poignant but contentious sentence—“If I had a...

A 13-year-old boy who was reported missing may have left home to join the protests in Ferguson, Missouri. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that police have put out an Endangered Person Advisory for Avery Gales of Florissant, Missouri. The report mentions that Gales is thought to have run away to join demonstrators in Ferguson. Gales is described as "black, 5 feet 3 inches tall, 105 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes," according to the Post-Dispatch. Gales has been missing since Nov. 15. Before Gales was reported missing, a boy who appears to match his description and who has the...

Attorney Lizz Brown said on MSNBC’s “Politics Nation” that if there are no charges brought against Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, the “quality and the value of black life does not exist.” “I think there has to be real change, but how do you define real change under these circumstances?” she said. “If this grand jury does not indict Darren Wilson, then the real change has to come from changing people’s understandings and world views. If Darren Wilson is not indicted in this case for the killing of Mike Brown, that says that the quality and the value of black...

FERGUSON, Mo. (Reuters) - Honking horns and banging a metal bucket, a small but growing group of protesters awaited Monday's grand jury decision, swarming the Ferguson Police Department and meeting briefly with the father of slain black teen Michael Brown. Mike Brown Sr., whose unarmed son was killed by a white police officer on Aug. 9, slowed down in a car to chat with demonstrators after hearing that the secret panel had reached a decision on whether to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the Aug. 9 shooting. Protester Byron Conley, father of a teen son, said he spoke with Brown...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has a person in mind to replace outgoing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel: Joe Lieberman. Cruz floated the former Connecticut independent senator as a “strong” option to succeed Hagel, who announced his resignation earlier Monday. President Barack Obama has not yet named a proposed replacement. “One strong option would be former Sen. Joe Lieberman, a member of the president’s own party with deep experience and unshakable commitment to the security of the United States,” Cruz said. “I urge the president to give him full and fair consideration for this critical position.”(continued)

NEW YORK, Nov. 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- With presidential elections coming up in 2016, the need for politicians to project a professional, trustworthy yet down-to-earth image is important. When preparing for a campaign, wardrobe decisions are far from trivial in politics. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20141124/160563 Following the controversy of Sarah Palin's $150,000 wardrobe expense during the 2008 Republican Party's presidential campaign and given the key issue of income inequality that came up in the November 2014 United States elections, Sterling Style Academy students were assigned to assess the situation as a case study and provide possible wardrobe scenarios for rebranding the...

A Portland activist said she was “disgusted” over recent Facebook postings by Portland police that displayed solidarity with a Missouri police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black teen. On Monday afternoon, a Missouri grand jury had yet to announce if it had indicted officer Darren Wilson after Michael Brown, 18, was shot and killed on Aug 9. Sunday evening, a social media flurry kicked up on Facebook after three Portland police officers posted images of a police badge covered by a black band reading “I am Darren Wilson.” “I think it’s sickening and it promotes fear amongst our...

The national hysteria over the Ferguson grand jury is a fresh indictment of America. The core issue is a charge of police brutality by a white officer shooting an unarmed black 18-year-old man. Yet all around the country, the talk is about black violence. Here in Boston, police are sending out robocalls to public school students and sending messages to college students to stay calm. In Oakland, California, businesses are putting steel plates on their doors. In Los Angeles, Police Chief Charlie Beck said he hopes to get advance notice from Missouri authorities about whether or not the grand jury...

The New York Times published information about the address of Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson on Monday in a move that has generated controversy. Tensions are running high in Ferguson, Missouri, as the world awaits a St. Louis County grand jury’s decision on whether to indict the white policeman for the Aug. 9 shooting death of unarmed black teen Michael Brown. Wilson received death threats after he was identified as the officer who shot Brown, and as community members and activists plan to protest if he is not indicted, the location of his home could potentially endanger him, his new...