Free Republic

SNIPPET: "The third article, titled "Al-Shabaab Recruiting in the West," takes a comprehensive look at what we know about the group's efforts to recruit fighters in the United States, and in other Western countries. The final article concerns the efficacy of the Somali president's recent diplomatic efforts in Minneapolis, Columbus, OH, and Chicago."

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Residents of one Ohio city are complaining that police officers are telling them if they're fed up with crime in their neighborhoods they should move out. At least two Columbus city council members have heard the complaint. An aide to Councilwoman Charleta Tavares said she has received more than 20 calls. Councilman Andrew Ginther said if police are making the comments, they're neither acceptable nor appropriate, though he said he believes most officers want to be helpful. A police spokesman said the department addresses the complaints when it's given the name of an officer. A police union...

Researcher whose father found old maps posits 2000 BC voyage to west coast History books tell us that the first Chinese settlers to Canada arrived in Victoria about 150 years ago, but a U.S. researcher says she has solid evidence that they came earlier. Some 4,000 years earlier. That would be 3,500 years before 1492, when European explorer Christopher "Columbus sailed the ocean blue." Or 10,000 years after nomadic hunters from Eastern Siberia crossed the frozen Bering Strait during the Ice Age, a migration taken by modern scholars to account for North America's native population. Charlotte Harris Rees, a retired...

Last week was Columbus Day, once considered a major event, the holiday has been undergoing a decline in recent years. Columbus Day parades have met with protests and some have been deemphasized or outright eliminated. In California, Columbus Day become Indigenous People’s Day, which sounds vaguely like a Marxist terrorist group’s holiday. But while it’s tempting to put that down to California’s political correctness, in South Dakota, Columbus Day became Native American Day, and that is a trend that other states are likely to follow, as protests mounted under the aegis of La Raza (The Race- the Hispanic KKK) continue...

Ward Churchill (remember him?) references the book, Smallpox and the American Indian, during his testimony in his civil suit against the University of Colorado at the City and County Building in Denver, Colorado March 23, 2009. Churchill is suing the University of Colorado for wrongful termination. AP photo. Today, I picked up 2 kids I carpool to the gymnastics club from their magnet school, as I do every Monday. Apparently, there was no mention about Columbus Day. Nada. Zippo. Nothing negative or positive. But they did watch a performance by dancers dressed like Mayan/Aztec Indians; and the older one said...

Kennewick Man coverup - referenced to Columbus Day

Christopher Columbus' stature in U.S. classrooms has declined somewhat through the years, and many districts will not observe the explorer's namesake holiday on Monday. Although lessons vary, many teachers are trying to present a more balanced perspective of what happened after Columbus reached the Caribbean and the suffering of indigenous populations. "The whole terminology has changed," said James Kracht, executive associate dean for academic affairs in the Texas A&M College of Education and Human Development. "You don't hear people using the world 'discovery' anymore like they used to. 'Columbus discovers America.' Because how could he discover America if there were...

TAMPA, Fla. - Jeffrey Kolowith’s kindergarten students read a poem about Christopher Columbus, take a journey to the New World on three paper ships, and place the explorer’s picture on a timeline through history. Kolowith’s students learn about the explorer’s significance, but they also come away with a more nuanced picture of Columbus than the noble discoverer often portrayed in pop culture and legend. “I talk about the situation where he didn’t even realize where he was,’’ Kolowith said. “And we talked about how he was very, very mean, very bossy.’’ Columbus’s stature in US classrooms has declined somewhat through...

In fourteen hundred ninety-two. Columbus sailed the ocean blue. The native American Indian tribes in Christopher Columbus's time were probably less socialist than they are today - dominated by so many Indian Affairs bureaus, state programs, and other governmental agencies which help (overregulate) every aspect of Indian life, so much so that their culture is not so much now perceived as brave, self sufficient warriors as much as politically correct dependents on Big Gov, who have been blessed with gambling enterprises, and who object to the franchising of Indian logos adopted by sports teams, especially those evil Cleveland Indians...

The tradition of honoring Christopher Columbus for sailing the ocean blue in 1492 is facing rougher seas than the Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria. Philadelphia's annual Columbus Day parade was canceled. Brown University this year renamed the holiday "Fall Weekend" following a campaign by a Native American student group opposed to celebrating an explorer who helped enslave some of the people he "discovered." And while the Italian adventurer is generally thought to have arrived in the New World on Oct. 12, 517 years ago on Monday, his holiday is getting bounced all over the calendar. Tennessee routinely celebrates it the...

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Jeffrey Kolowith's kindergarten students read a poem about Christopher Columbus, take a journey to the New World on three paper ships and place the explorer's picture on a timeline through history. Kolowith's students learn about the explorer's significance -- though they also come away with a more nuanced picture of Columbus than the noble discoverer often portrayed in pop culture and legend. ''I talk about the situation where he didn't even realize where he was,'' Kolowith said. ''And we talked about how he was very, very mean, very bossy.'' Columbus' stature in U.S. classrooms has declined...

Chicken Bones Suggest Polynesians Found Americas Before ColumbusBy Heather Whipps, Special to LiveScience Which came first–the chicken or the European? Popular history, and a familiar rhyme about Christopher Columbus, holds that Europeans made contact with the Americas in 1492, with some arguing that the explorer and his crew were the first outsiders to reach the New World. But chicken bones recently unearthed on the coast of Chile—dating prior to Columbus’ “discovery” of America and resembling the DNA of a fowl species native to Polynesia—may challenge that notion, researchers say. “Chickens could not have gotten to South America on their own—they...

A loophole in an Ohio policy allowed thousands of undocumented immigrants to register cars and get license plates even though many did not have valid Social Security numbers or car insurance. The practice was so widespread that law officers in other states asked the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles why they were seeing so many undocumented immigrants driving cars registered in Ohio. State Public Safety Director Henry Guzman delayed a proposed crackdown for more than a year after he met with people who cater to such immigrants, including people who were profiting from obtaining plates. Guzman initially requested tougher regulations,...

Concert canceled after gays' protest Saturday, September 12, 2009 3:25 AM By Kevin Joy THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH The Lifestyle Communities Pavilion has canceled an Oct. 3 show featuring reggae singer Buju Banton after protests by advocates for Columbus' gay community. Taking issue with some content in the singer's music, several groups -- including Equality Ohio and Stonewall Democrats of Ohio -- circulated an e-mail yesterday urging people to voice their disapproval and shut down the show. "The targeted audience for his message and the proximity to the OSU campus neighborhood creates a tangible threat to the safety and well-being …...

Perhaps we need to institute a timeout. Back in elementary school, when things got a little out of hand, the teacher would say we needed to take a timeout. Usually this followed a fight on the playground, an argument in homeroom or an unusually nasty prank. Kids need to learn the boundaries. It feels a lot like elementary school right now in our political arena. The players have expanded the boundaries way past what had been defined as acceptable. In just over a month we have seen the following: • Town-hall meetings being disrupted by yelling and shouting. Story continues...

Somali president planning U.S. visit, stop in Columbus Thursday, September 10, 2009 3:24 AM ASSOCIATED PRESS The newly elected president of Somalia plans a tour of U.S. communities with large Somali populations, including Columbus, this fall in hopes of spreading the word about his country's problems and getting advice for solving some of them.

The first Briton sailed to the New World only seven years after Columbus, a long-lost royal letter reveals.Written by Henry VII 510 years ago, it suggests Bristol merchant William Weston headed for America in 1499.In his letter the king, right, instructs his Chancellor to suspend an injunction against Weston because "he will shortly with God's grace, pass and sail for to search and find if he can the new found land".Bristol University's Dr Evan Jones believes it was probably the earliest attempt to find the North-West Passage - the searoute around North America to the Pacific. He said: "Henry's...

WASHINGTON -- An internal CIA report made public yesterday says the agency's heavily criticized interrogation techniques led to the 2003 arrest of a Columbus truck driver who pleaded guilty to providing assistance to al-Qaida. The 2004 report, released following an order by a federal judge, asserted that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, provided CIA interrogators with information that "led to the investigation and prosecution'' of Iyman Faris, a native of Pakistan who was living in Columbus. Faris, 39, is serving a 20-year sentence after admitting he had scouted the Brooklyn Bridge in 2002 as...

As shown on the FR OHIO page: "I think Howard “we need to rethink civil liberties” Dean needs to receive an appropriate welcome: Health Care Town Hall with Howard Dean. Saturday August 15, 2009, 5-7 PM. SEIU District 1199, 1395 Dublin Road, Columbus, OH 43215. Free and “open to the public”. RSVP@ 1-866-806-3770 or media@seiu1199.org."

Did Chinese sailors really discover America before Columbus? A new exhibition sets the scene, presenting new evidence that lends support to the assumptions made in "1421: The Year China Discovered America" by Gavin Menzies. "1421: The Year China Sailed the World," in Singapore in a special tent near the Esplanade (until Sept. 11), is primarily a celebration of Admiral Zheng He's seven maritime expeditions between 1405 and 1423. With a fleet of 317 ships and 28,000 men, Zheng He is generally acknowledged as one of the great naval explorers, but how far he actually went remains a matter of dispute....

With all 100% precincts results in, by a factor of 52% to 48%, city residents of Columbus, Ohio have voted for a +.5% city income tax increase. I guess we are still asleep here in Central Ohio...

SNIPPET: "A federal grand jury has indicted a group of Somali-Americans on terror-related charges after more than 20 young men from the Minneapolis area were recruited to join an Al Qaeda-linked group in Somalia, according to two law enforcement sources. The indictments have yet to be unsealed, but an announcement is expected in the next few weeks. One law enforcement source told FOX News the grand jury already has handed up indictments against at least three people. Among those charged is a man from Minneapolis who went to war-torn Somalia and then, about four months ago, relocated to Seattle, according...

The recent convert to Islam who allegedly shot and killed a U.S. soldier at a Little Rock, Ark., recruiting booth had ties to a number of global locations linked to extremists, including Yemen, Somalia and Columbus, Ohio, ABC News has learned. Yemen and Somali are known hotbeds for terrorism. Columbus, Ohio, has been an area of domestic concern for authorities who have observed a number of Somali Americans traveling from there to Somali to wage jihad. Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, 24, upon his arrest Monday shortly after the fatal shooting, allegedly confessed and told authorities he acted alone, according to court...

Numbers count when estimating Somalis Thursday, May 21, 2009 10:27 PM By Mark Ferenchik THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Past estimates of Franklin County's Somali population have ranged from 30,000 to 80,000. But a new report says that it's more like 15,000. An accurate number helps government agencies funnel funds for social services - English classes, jobs programs, etc. - to specific groups. "Is it possible we have a grant proposal that says 40,000 Somalis? Yes," said Angie Plummer, executive director of Community Refugee and Immigration Services. But she said that grant proposals must include the specific number of people an agency...

“Somalis, FBI in other U.S. cities on alert for terrorist recruiting” “While Minneapolis is the core of an investigation, leaders elsewhere want to keep youth from being drawn to violence.” COLUMBUS, OHIO - SNIPPET: “”No one has disappeared,” said Ahmed Hosh, who works with Somali youths in Columbus. “But if those who did the recruiting were individuals talking to someone alone, the scary thing is it could happen here.” The Twin Cities area has been at the center of the federal investigation ever since a 27-year-old from Minneapolis blew himself up in a suicide attack in Somalia last fall. But...

But, of course, they keep the day off. LOL!

On the same spot where then-candidate Barack Obama delivered closing arguments for the presidency last November, thousands of Ohioans gathered yesterday evening to issue a rebuttal. The "tea party" on the lawn of the Statehouse was one of hundreds of events around the country on the federal tax deadline to protest Obama's tax policies and the federal stimulus package. Organizers said about 7,000 people attended. The message was simple: The federal government, already bloated by decades of growth, now is gorging on the next generation's earnings with a stimulus plan that relies on billions of dollars in borrowed money."....

Quickpost this image to Myspace, Digg, Facebook, and others! The crowd was estimated at 7,000 I understand. A co-worker of mine ten floors up could hear the speakers better than I could. The crowd was not at full-size when this picture was snapped. I was stunned by the turnout, considering the weather.

Any freepers attending the Columbus, Ohio Tea Party, tomorrow at the Statehouse? Was hoping to run into some of you.

Federal agents searched three money-transfer businesses in Minneapolis on Wednesday, carrying away boxes of documents and copying computer hard drives in a quest for details of financial transactions between the U.S. and several African nations. Agents searched Mustaqbal Express, also known as North American Money Transfer Inc.; Quran Express; and Aaran Financial. FBI spokesman E.K. Wilson confirmed the searches but wouldn't elaborate on the reason.

Honda offering local workers incentives to quit Other cost-cutting measures planned; 13 days of production to be cut Tuesday, March 31, 2009 5:19 PM By Dan Gearino THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH For the first time, Honda is offering Ohio employees incentives to resign. The move, which continues the company's tradition of avoiding layoffs, is part of a wide-ranging set of cost-saving measures announced today. "Regardless of job title or level within our organization, each Honda associate will share the responsibility of doing what we must to remain competitive," said spokesman Ron Lietzke. Among the other moves: • Honda will cut 13...

Columbus man charged with threatening Blue Jackets Friday, March 27, 2009 9:01 AM By Aaron Portzline THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Peter Stenzel, 52, has been arrested and charged with inducing panic after placing at least three threatening phone calls to the Blue Jackets -- specifically goaltender -- Steve Mason during last night's win over Calgary. According to the Columbus police report, Stenzel was wearing a Calgary Flames T-shirt when he was arrested at his residence in Columbus. He is charged with menacing and inducing panic, a misdemeanor. "They got his number from caller ID, and it was given to special duty...

Franklin County deputies accused of tampering with inmate's food Tuesday, March 24, 2009 7:40 AM THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Two deputies assigned to the Downtown Franklin County jail are being investigated after being accused of tampering with an inmate's food. According to sources at the jail, the deputies fed a sandwich to an inmate after having another inmate touch the sandwich with his penis. Sources also said that the deputies used a cell phone to take pictures of the incident. The Franklin County sheriff's office confirmed that the deputies are being investigated and have been reassigned to the control center, where...

Columbus questions whether it needs paramedics City panel suggests returning to cheaper basic emergency medical care Sunday, March 22, 2009 8:43 PM By Suzanne Hoholik THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH A committee charged with finding ways for Columbus to save money has recommended that the city return to a basic emergency medical system. The last time the Columbus Division of Fire provided only basic-level care was in 1968. Since then, Columbus has provided advanced life support to anyone who calls 911 for medical attention, whether a patient needs it or not. Basic care mostly involves stabilizing injuries before a patient is transported....

A GROUP of Welsh Americans are hoping their campaign to reinstate a plaque celebrating the arrival of Prince Madoc ap Owain in the US will overcome its final political hurdle. The plaque was blown out of its position on the Alabama shoreline at military museum Fort Morgan by Hurricane Frederic in 1979. The Alabama Welsh Association (AWA) wants the plaque restored to its original position and last year won the backing of the state’s House of Representatives. Though the motion then stalled in Alabama’s senate the AWA believes a resolution calling for its reinstatement could be passed when the local...

The 15th century explorer who opened up the American continents to Europe was actually called Pedro Scotto - not Christopher Columbus - and his family originally hailed from Scotland, a Spanish historian has claimed. Alfonso Ensenat de Villalonga has disputed conventionally-accepted narratives on the explorer's origins - that he was the son of a weaver in Genoa, Italy, or that he was from Catalonia or Galicia in Spain. In fact, he was from Genoa, but he was "the son of shopkeepers not weavers and he was baptised Pedro not Christopher," Mr Villalonga told Spain's ABC newspaper on Sunday. And his...

Burials excavated at the earliest European settlement in the New World, established by Christopher Columbus in 1493, have surprised archaeologists by including women and children. It had been thought from documentary evidence that the settlers had all been men. La Isabela, on the north coast of Hispaniola, in what is now the Dominican Republic, was founded by Columbus, pictured below, late in 1493 on his second voyage. The camp at La Navidad, now in Haiti, established on his first voyage in 1492, had been abandoned by the time he got back, and he moved eastwards along the coast of Hispaniola...

Homeland Insanity The Blue Jackets travel party landed safely at 4:06 a.m. Monday. Odd timing, as that's roughly the time when the computer system used by U.S. Customs agents at Port Columbus crashed. What followed in the next hour and 20 minutes was a maddening sequence of government red tape, bureaucratic blather and remarkable incompetency. The Blue Jackets travel party numbers roughly 50, when you consider the players, coaching staff, training staff, equipment guys, traveling secretaries and media. As the group made it off the plane and wound its way toward an empty Customs area, the long trip home came...

Determined few keep demonstrating for peace Saturday, January 31, 2009 5:48 PM By SUZANNE HOHOLIK THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Despite President Barack Obama's campaign promise to withdraw troops from Iraq in 16 months, central Ohio peace activists continue to meet each Saturday on street corners to call for an end to the war. "I think it's important to keep up the pressure," said Mike Smalz, who held a "Stop Iraq War" sign at the corner of North Broadway and N. High St. today. "I'm still optimistic that Obama will keep to his pledge and withdraw troops in 16 months." Not all...

The path of destruction and fear stretched at least 5 miles yesterday morning after a 24-year-old man rocketed his car the wrong way on the South Outerbelt. The toll: Seven people injured, including the critically injured driver, Altunar Baltazar. Six vehicles crunched, including the smashed Nissan Maxima that witnesses say other cars were lucky to avoid. "He headed right for us," Columbus resident Robert Crawford said. "It was like he was trying to hit us. He had the pedal to the floor. I knew he was going to clip someone quick." Crawford, who was heading east on I-270, said the...

Kilroy is headed to Congress Democrat defeats Stivers in 15th Congressional District Sunday, December 7, 2008 6:58 PM By James Nash THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Franklin County Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy, left, won the seat by 2,311 votes, outside of the 0.5 percent margin to trigger a recount. FILE PHOTO Franklin County Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy, left, won the seat by 2,311 votes, outside of the 0.5 percent margin to trigger a recount. Now it's official: Mary Jo Kilroy will be going to Washington as the first Democrat to represent any part of Franklin County in Congress in a generation. Final...

Congrats to the Columbus Crew. Defeats the New York Red Bulls 3- 1.

Sex-abuse caseworker accused of soliciting Monday, November 17, 2008 9:50 PM By John Futty THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH A Franklin County caseworker who investigates child sexual abuse is accused of soliciting a Columbus vice detective for sex at her Far West Side condominium. Vanise M. Dunn, an employee of Franklin County Children Services, was arrested at 11:41 a.m. Wednesday on a misdemeanor charge of prostitution. Police say she offered the detective oral sex for $150. She pleaded not guilty on Friday and requested a jury trial. Dunn, 31, was placed on paid leave pending an investigation into whether she violated agency...

The number of homes sold in Ohio rose in September, the first increase in 20 reporting periods, the Ohio Association of Realtors said today. Sales in September totaled 10,387, up 3.5 percent from 10,036 in September 2007. The average sale price, however, fell 6.3 percent to $134,135, the group said. Activity during September picked up significantly in several markets, notably northeastern Ohio. The same could not be said for the Columbus market, where sales fell 1.5 percent to 1,824. For the January-to-September period, sales totaled 88,382 in Ohio, down 13.8 percent compared with the year-ago period. The average sale price...

Dispatch reporters have been writing like they graduated from Pravda for years, and the paper's editorials have been trending left for the past deacde or so. Therefore, this was something of a suprirse http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/editorials/stories/2008/10/19/bikepath2.ART_ART_10-19-08_G4_GUBKEGH.html?adsec=politics&sid=101

(IsraelNN.com) Columbus was a Jew named Salvador Fernando Zarco and was among those expelled from Spain in 1492, a rare triangular Kabbalistic signet indicates. Jose Rodrigues Dos Santos has authored an historical novel, Codex 632: The Secret Identity of Christopher Columbus, which relates the deciphering of a rare triangular Kabbalistic signet. The interpretation of the recent discovery of the signet claims to reveal the secret identity of Columbus. The unique triangular monogram is similar to inscriptions on gravestones in Jewish cemeteries in Spain and southern France. The interpretation of the recent discovery of the signet claims to reveal the secret...

Michael Arace commentary: Blue Jackets face tough decision on Malarchuk Monday, October 13, 2008 3:07 AM By Michael Arace THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Last week, Clint Malarchuk shot himself in the chin with a .22-caliber rifle. The incident occurred at Malarchuk's ranch in Gardnerville, Nev. The Douglas County sheriff investigated and concluded the shooting was "accidental under suspicious circumstances." Which is to say this looked exactly like a suicide attempt, but there is no way to prove it. Malarchuk, after resisting, ultimately accepted treatment and was hospitalized. He has since been discharged. His coaching career is in jeopardy and he has...

DENVER -- With signs reading "Don't Celebrate Genocide," "Don't Celebrate Racism," and "The Americas' First Terrorist," the preview to the annual Columbus Day parade seemed to have the same passion that lead to conflicts in previous years. But 2008 was the year without arrests. In stark contrast to a warm, sunny 2007 when fake blood and 83 arrests ruled the day, Saturday's chilly, misty event was much less confrontational. "They both have freedom of speech to express their views and that's what we allowed and that's what happened," said Det. Sharon Hahn, spokeswoman for the Denver Police Department. Police had...

Columbus Day Celebrates Western CivilizationBy Thomas BowdenOn October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus discovered the New World, opening a sea route to vast uncharted territories that awaited the spread of Western civilization. Centuries later, the ensuing cultural migration culminated in the birth and explosive growth of the greatest nation in history: the United States of America.It is fitting that we have set aside a day to honor the Great Explorer. On one level, Columbus Day honors the man himself for his many virtues. Columbus was a man of independent mind, who steadfastly pursued his bold plan for a westward voyage to...

Palin holds her own in debate, steering answers to topics she knows well Neither the Republican nor Democrat Biden commit major gaffes Thursday, October 2, 2008 11:29 PM By Jack Torry and Joe Hallett THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH WASHINGTON -- Technically, there were two contestants in tonight's vice-presidential debate. But in reality, the debate was all about Republican Sarah Palin. At a time when even some conservatives questioned whether she had the knowledge and experience to handle the vice presidency, the Alaska governor appeared to hold her own against Democrat Joe Biden, a six-term senator from Delaware and a seasoned debater....