Free Republic

The working day in the retrial of former state Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno will be shorter — as long as the former political powerhouse is not too talkative outside of court. U.S. District Court Chief Judge Gary Sharpe conditionally ruled on Thursday that the trial, which begins Monday, will start at 10 a.m. and last until 4:30 p.m. each day. He said Bruno, 85, of Brunswick requested the shorter days for medical-related reasons. (...) But Sharpe said his view will change if he sees Bruno outside the courthouse speaking to reporters about the trial. The longtime Republican senator...

WASHINGTON — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo urged the White House Wednesday to give "immediate attention'' to safety issues involving the increased use of freight trains to transport crude oil. He made his comments just hours before the latest derailment in Lynchburg, Va. Cuomo later said the accident and other recent derailments are "a startling pattern that underscores the need for action." "In addition to steps that states like New York are taking, the federal government must overhaul the safety regulations, starting with taking DOT-111 trains off the rails now," he said in a statement. "These trains travel through populated...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who will be arriving in New York this afternoon for a trip trying to lure businesses to the Lone Star State, offered a Texas-sized take-down of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s record on job creation this morning and challenged him to a debate. “I’d be more than happy to sit down and have a thoughtful conversation, a debate with Gov. Cuomo over the issues that face us as a state and talk about the economic policies and compare New York to Texas,” said Mr. Perry, speaking on New York Post columnist Fred Dicker’s Live from the State Capitol...

<p>ALBANY — A “mass exodus” is expected from the Cuomo administration after November’s election, according to several sources.</p> <p>“They all want out,” one source said of top Cuomo staffers. A former staffer said the rush has been spurred by the work environment.</p>

The West’s standoff with Russia over Ukraine is triggering debate over the adequacy of defence spending and cooperation to confront a more assertive Russia across Europe. In Finland and Sweden, an important element in this debate is whether the two countries should join NATO, STRATFOR reported. While the events in Ukraine strengthen the argument for NATO membership, general support for the idea is still lacking in both countries — such a step would represent a big shift from Finland’s and Sweden’s strategy of avoiding too strong a military alignment with the West in order to prevent any conflict with Russia....

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Conflict in Syria kills hundreds of thousands of people and spreads unrest across the Middle East. Iranian forces battle anti-Shi'ite fighters in Damascus, and the region braces for an ultimate showdown. If the scenario sounds familiar to an anxious world watching Syria's devastating civil war, it resonates even more with Sunni and Shi'ite fighters on the frontlines - who believe it was all foretold in 7th Century prophecies. From the first outbreak of the crisis in the southern city of Deraa to apocalyptic forecasts of a Middle East soaked in blood, many combatants on both sides of...

Video at link.

Sepang - The radar blip that was Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 did a wide U-turn over the Gulf of Thailand and then began moving inexorably past at least three military radar arrays as it traversed northern Malaysia, even flying high over one of the country's biggest cities before heading out over the Strait of Malacca. Yet inside a Malaysian air force control room on the country's west coast, where American-made F-18's and F-5 fighters stood at a high level of readiness for emergencies exactly like the one unfolding in the early morning of March 8, a four-person crew did nothing...

A British man convicted of plotting an Al-Qaeda plane bombing told a New York court yesterday about a separate 2001 plan for a Malaysian pilot to blast his way into a jet's cockpit. Saajid Badat, who was sentenced in 2005 to 13 years in jail as a co-conspirator in a notorious December 2001 plot to bomb US airliners, has testified about the Malaysian plan before. But his description of the apparently abandoned plot has a new resonance as investigators probe the fate of a Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared on Saturday with 239 people on board. There has been no...

<p>ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff has obtained a letter that an oil rig worker in Vietnam wrote to his employer claiming he saw Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 go down in flames.</p> <p>Mr. Woodruff tweeted an image of the letter saying, “Oil rig worker claims in employer confirmed letter-he saw the plane go down. Vietnamese say they found nothing.”</p>

The pastor of a Lansingburgh Baptist church plans to give away an AR-15 assault rifle to the winner of a free raffle at an upcoming Sunday service. A provocative flier he distributed rallied supporters of gun rights and stirred controversy among anti-gun advocates and some who considered it un-Christian. The Rev. John Koletas, pastor of Grace Baptist Church, said the service and gun raffle are aimed at "honoring hunters and gun owners who have been so viciously attacked by the antichristian socialist media and antichristian socialist politicians the last few years," according to a letter he posted on the church...

Last February, during an interview with Tom Trento, John Guandolo claimed that he personally knows two people who witnessed current CIA Director John Brennan convert to Islam in the 1990's while stationed in Saudi Arabia. We posted the interview at the time but in light of the allegations made by Yossef Bodansky and Dale Gavlak – in conjunction with our own research – relative to the CIA involvement in Syria, perhaps it’s an interview worth revisiting. (...) A very interesting figure in all of this is the CIA Director himself, John Brennan. If Bodansky is correct, the CIA is actively...

INDIAN LAKE, NY — Don’t worry, New Yorkers. We’re in charge — really! Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Cuomo channeled their inner mountain men — and showed off their office tans — during a white-water rafting race in the Adirondacks yesterday to promote upstate tourism. The pair, joined by crews of assorted relatives and staffers, engaged in a three-mile contest on the Indian River, about 310 miles north of Manhattan. (...) “He called me up and I said, ‘Oh, I can’t do that.’ And he said, ‘You will come,’ ” Bloomberg said. The two-day event cost taxpayers about $175,000. But Cuomo...

(...) As WCBS 880′s Peter Haskell and CBS 2′s Marcia Kramer reported, the former governor’s return to the campaign trail was not without hecklers, shouting things such as the following: “Spitzer, you cheated on your wife!” “You betrayed your constituents. You abandoned your wife. You betrayed everybody!” “This is about power. You just want power, man. If you want public service go volunteer somewhere!” “Did you leave your black socks on?” Spitzer appeared to take it in stride, as if he expected it. “This is what I look forward to — dealing with the public,” said Spitzer. “This is New...

As the leaders of western nations remain mired in a toxic tank of groupthink that says Syria’s Bashar al-Assad must go and that if you disagree, you’re a heartless and ridiculous twit who doesn’t know anything, Russian President Vladimir Putin explained that it’s the rebels who are making Assad’s supporters heartless – by eating them in front of video cameras. What do these geniuses of elitist western thought come back with? Well, nothing, really. The seven words underlined below represent a “Bingo” moment for Putin. (...)

The rumble in Round Lake is over. As its first order of business, a newly appointed seven-member Board of Trustees held an emergency meeting Wednesday night and unanimously voted to reinstate longtime librarian Theresa Marchione to her job with back pay. "Come on back, Theresa," said Bill Ryan as sustained applause from the audience filled Village Hall. Marchione, a familiar face at the Wesley Avenue facility for decades, had been terminated for shutting down the library 40 minutes early on May 29 because of a tornado warning. A powerful twister touched down later in nearby Vischer Ferry. Since Marchione's dismissal,...

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Thousands of black-robed Turkish lawyers stormed out of their courthouses Wednesday, shouting about the rough treatment police dished out to their colleagues amid Turkey's biggest anti-government protests in years. The rallies by clapping, chanting jurists added a new twist to the nearly two weeks of protests that started in Istanbul and spread to dozens of other Turkish cities. The protests have shaped up as the biggest test yet in the 10-year rule of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamic-rooted government. Police and protesters mostly retrenched Wednesday after fierce overnight clashes in Istanbul's Taksim Square...

(CNN) - It's a congested, sprawling transport hub surrounded by 1950s architecture and predominantly used by commuters or tourists to cross the city of Istanbul. But proposed changes to Taksim Square have seen it become the flashpoint for protests that have swept through Turkey in the past week, leaving thousands injured and focusing the world's attention on the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Taksim has been no stranger to violence. In 1977, at least 34 protesters died during May Day clashes with police. May 1 rallies in the square were banned in 1980 and were only allowed to...

America in the Midst of a Coup d'Etat June 07, 2013 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Late yesterday afternoon I was sitting in the library at home, and I was just swamped. It seemed like every 90 seconds somebody needed something, or somebody had a question or somebody had a comment, requiring my response. It was during the period of time that I generally devote to reading my tech blogs, you know, where I abandon all of this and get away from it and start spending time on, quote, unquote, my hobby. But it was one of those days. I'm sure you...

Something shocking happened on Saturday night during the uprisings against Erdogan’s AKP rule in Turkey. CNN’s local news provider, called CNN-Turk, aired a documentary on penguins during the climax of the protests. Turkish people have been suffering a lack of press freedom for a while; however, this has reached to a ridiculous point in the last few days. There is a phenomenal difference between how CNN international and CNN-Turk cover the protests and the Turkish people are furious, feel mocked and betrayed, and they rightfully demand CNN international to take action. On Saturday night, people who turned on their televisions...