Free Republic

The biggest problem facing Jeb Bush as he contemplates whether to become a Republican presidential contender is how will it affect his beloved family, especially his wife, Columba. The former Florida governor’s devoted Mexican-born wife intensely dislikes being in the public eye, while his daughter Noelle has struggled with drugs in the past, The Washington Post reported. Earlier this year, Bush was criticized by conservatives for his comments about illegal immigrants coming to America as an "act of love" for their families. Ironically, Bush has some strong misgivings about running for the highest office out of an "act of love"...

**SNIP** Leo Sharp was hauling 104 bricks of cocaine (over 200 pounds) on a highway near Chelsea, Mich., when he was pulled over in 2011 for an illegal lane change. **SNIP** Sharp received numerous decorations for valor for his service with the Army's 88th Infantry during its nearly year-long march through Italy to Austria in 1944 and 1945, military records show.

The Sacramento Bee asked legislative officials about court records showing the officer had cocaine in his system when he was involved in a December 2012 gunfight that left three people injured and one man dead. Lopez’s mother, Dina Hidalgo, is a high-ranking official in charge of Senate human resources. His wife, Jennifer Delao, is a secretary in Steinberg’s policy unit. The missing $100 bill, he said, was what they were using in the endeavor. When it was eventually discovered, Brace said, the bill was rolled up like a straw.

Attorney General Eric Holder criticized drug sentences doled out under “the old regime” in a video Monday announcing the Obama administration’s “Clemency Project 2014.” “In 2010, President Obama signed the Fair Sentencing Act reducing unfair disparities in sentences imposed on people for offenses involving different forms of cocaine. But there’s still too many people in federal prison who were sentenced under the old regime and who, as a result, will have to spend far more time in prison than they would if sentenced today for exactly the same crime. This is simply not right,” Holder says in the video....

<p>If the Rev. Al Sharpton, the bigoted, anti-Semitic, non-tax paying race-hustling poverty pimp, had any credibility left, it just vanished.</p> <p>The beneficiary of a lifetime of passes from our race-conscious mainscream media, Sharpton ran into an outlet not afraid of him -- The Smoking Gun. They obtained material that exposed Sharpton as an FBI "informant." Sharpton, of course, denies that this constitutes "snitching." No, he says he "volunteered" to "cooperate" with the FBI -- and for the most honorable of motives.</p>

DURHAM, NC — A drug trafficker who worked for Al Sharpton’s nonprofit in the 1980s said that despite the preacher’s denials, he was eager to get a slice of the lucrative drug deal captured on FBI surveillance video. “It was greed. He just wanted money,” Robert Curington, 72, told The Post during a two-day interview at his North Carolina home, detailing for the first time how Sharpton stepped into the FBI’s trap — and was then forced to become a federal informant.

....At the third meeting with Quintana, Sharpton made sure to go alone — wearing a cowboy hat and chomping on an unlit cigar, which was made famous in footage from the FBI surveillance leaked in 2002.... And once he was caught, he had no choice but to wear a wire to save his ample hide from prison. “Sharpton said they could do whatever they wanted with him after that,” Curington said. “Because they had him. Either he worked for them or they put that news out there that he was into coke.”.... Curington said the activist put on a good...

The number of chronic marijuana users—defined as those who used it on four or more days in the past month—increased 84.3% between 2000 to 2010, according to a RAND Corporation report commissioned by the White House. “In January 2012, the U.S. White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) asked RAND to generate national estimates of the total number of users, total expenditures, and total consumption for four illicit drugs from 2000 to 2010: cocaine (including crack), heroin, marijuana, and methamphetamine (or meth),” says the report, What America’s Users Spend on Illicit Drugs: 2000-2010. …

Snippet: "Iran and its terrorist proxy groups’ influence in Latin America remains a troubling security threat to the region and world, experts said at a congressional hearing on Tuesday."

According to reports from Politico, Southwest Florida Congressman Trey Radel is resigning from Congress. Radel pleaded guilty to cocaine possession in November and was sentenced to one-year probation. He also just completed a stint in rehab.

Rep. Trey Radel (R-Fla.) will resign from Congress on Monday, according to multiple sources. Radel, 37, was caught buying cocaine last year from an undercover federal agent in Washington and spent nearly a month in a rehabilitation facility. He returned to Congress after the winter recess.

DEA operations chief decries legalization of marijuana at state level The chief of operations at the Drug Enforcement Administration on Wednesday called the legalization of marijuana at the state level “reckless and irresponsible,” warning that the movement to decriminalize the sale of pot in the United States will have severe consequences. Capra’s comments marked the DEA’s most public and pointed criticism of the movement toward decriminalization in several states, where local officials see it as an opportunity to generate tax revenue and boost tourism. “It scares us,” James L. Capra said, responding to a question from a senator during a...

Justin Bieber's rapper pal Lil Za has accused reporters of racial discrimination by exaggerating his drug possession arrest to make him "look bad". The 19 year old was taken into custody on Tuesday following a police raid on Bieber's Calabasas, California mansion in connection to an alleged neighbourhood vandalism incident. Cops claim to have discovered illegal substances in "plain view" during the property search and arrested Lil Za on suspicion of felony drug possession. The white powder allegedly found was determined to be MDMA, a form of ecstasy frequently referred to as molly, but the teenager, real name Xavier Smith,...

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20140112/NEWS01/301120061/A-cargo-plane-a-pickup-modified-to-conceal-dope-and-a-federa

Rapinder Singh Sidhu has pleaded guilty to his role in smuggling cocaine across the Canada-U.S. border and is expected to be sentenced to eight years in prison later this week. U.S. District Attorney Jenny Durkan says Sidhu also contributed to the corruption of a fellow law enforcement officer who sabotaged his own career by becoming involving in the drug-smuggling scheme ... a Canadian border inspector recruited by Sidhu allowed the vehicle to enter B.C. without inspection. Durkan says that in the case of the California load, both drivers received 12 years behind bars and that there’s no justice in the...

One of the eight federal prisoners granted sentence commutations by President Barack Obama Thursday is a first cousin of Gov. Deval Patrick (D-Mass), one of the president's most devoted supporters on the national political scene. Reynolds Allen Wintersmith Jr. was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted in Illinois federal court in 1994 of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distribute cocaine and cocaine base and possession with intent to distribute crack. He was 19 at the time of his arrest and 17 at the time he got involved running drugs for the Gangster Disciples gang. He...

President Obama on Thursday commuted the prison sentences for eight people convicted of crack cocaine offenses and pardoned 13 others, surpassing in the fifth year of his presidency all the acts of clemency from his entire first term. “I am commuting the prison terms of eight men and women who were sentenced under an unfair system,” Mr. Obama said in a statement. “Commuting the sentences of these eight Americans is an important step toward restoring fundamental ideals of justice and fairness.” [Snip] “We are excited for the families of those who were granted commutations today, and we are glad that...

Obama on Thursday granted a rare commutation to the first cousin of Governor Deval Patrick, allowing the release of a man who in 1994 was given a life sentence on charges of dealing crack cocaine. Patrick said that he does not recall ever meeting his first cousin Reynolds Allen Wintersmith Jr., 39 of Rockford, Ill., and had no involvement in his application for clemency, which has been a cause of national advocates for years and has been featured in the national media. “There’s a significant age gap between the two and the governor has no recollection of having met Mr....

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and other Republicans told Rep. Trey Radel (R-Fla.) they didn’t want him to resign and would support him, according to Radel’s father. “He had a meeting with John Boehner and some of the Republicans,” Skip Radel told Ohio’s The Cincinnati Enquirer. “They told him they didn’t want him to resign, and they wanted to back him.” According to the report, Boehner’s spokesman, Michael Steel, declined to comment on the father’s remarks. Steel stood by the statement his office issued Wednesday: “Members of Congress should be held to the highest standards, and the alleged crime will be...

(CNN) -- U.S. Rep. Trey Radel was sentenced to a year of probation after pleading guilty Wednesday to misdemeanor cocaine possession -- a charge that authorities say came after he bought a small amount of cocaine in a sting in the nation's capital last month. Radel, a 37-year-old first-term Republican from Florida, said at his sentencing in D.C. Superior Court that he plans to enter an inpatient drug treatment program in Naples, Florida. It wasn't immediately clear how long he would be in treatment. A tea party favorite, Radel was elected last year to represent southwest Florida's 19th Congressional District....