Free Republic

The Chicago Police Department conducted a series of overnight raids from Thursday into Friday that resulted in 81 arrests, mostly for drug- and weapons-related offenses, Supt. Eddie Johnson said Friday. The raids, focused on the city's South and West Side neighborhoods, were "focused on the underlying source of crime in these areas: the sale of narcotics," Johnson said at a press conference Friday afternoon. Of the 81 people arrested, Johnson said 61 are previously convicted felons, 49 are documented gang members, 19 have previously been arrested on gun charges, 14 are currently on parole, and 65 have been previously identified...

Gov. Cuomo’s office has warned public-relations officers at 55 state agencies to start churning out a lot more good news about the administration — or else Cuomo’s communications director, James Allen, delivered the stern message in a conference call last week, leaving some of the agency officials rattled. “If you don’t generate more press releases . . . changes will be made!” Allen declared He singled out some low-performing state agencies by name.

Soon: Mayor's Long-Anticipated Meeting with U.S. Attorney's Office By NY1 News Friday, February 24, 2017 at 06:29 AM EST NEW YORK - Mayor Bill de Blasio's long anticipated meeting with the U.S. Attorney's Office will take place later this morning in Midtown. For the past two days, the mayor has been inside in his attorney’s office for hours at a time, presumably preparing for this interview. Today's meeting comes as the U.S. Attorney’s office potentially wraps up a lengthy investigation into the mayor’s fundraising and campaign activities. De Blasio voluntarily agreed to sit down with federal investigators and he has...

A Veteran’s Affairs (VA) “whistleblower” has reported that the VA is on the verge of throwing out “over 500,000” veteran’s applications because of errors made during the Obama administration. Scott Davis is a well-known VA whistleblower and program specialist at the VA’s National Health Eligibility Center, in Atlanta, Georgia, who has previously testified before Congress. Davis wrote an urgent letter to President Trump making the nearly-incredulous claim that, unless Trump quickly steps in to intervene, the Veteran’s Administration plans to throw out “more than 500,000” veteran’s applications in March. According to Davis, the reason the VA wants to declare the...

A US appeals court has ruled that military-style assault weapons are not protected under the US Constitution, dealing a blow to gun rights activists. In a 10-4 ruling, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, said the 45 assault weapons banned under Maryland's law are not protected by the Second Amendment. 'Put simply, we have no power to extend Second Amendment protection to the weapons of war,' wrote Judge Robert King, adding that the Supreme Court's decision in District of Columbia v. Heller explicitly excluded such coverage. While the Second Amendment guarantees Americans the right to bear...

Six people were killed and six others were wounded in shootings across Chicago on Wednesday, police said. A 20-year-old man and a pregnant woman in her 20s were shot in Chatham at about 8:15 p.m., police said. Officers got to the 7600 block of South Champlain Avenue to find the woman on the sidewalk with gunshot wounds to the abdomen and side. The man was found in the driver's seat of a parked car with a gunshot wound to his neck. Both were taken to Stroger Hospital and pronounced dead, police said. (snip) Later, at 8:50 p.m., a 24-year-old man...

The 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil cost Brazilian taxpayers $4.6 billion, conservative estimates show. But once related expenses covered by the Brazilian government are factored in, the overall costs hit the $12 billion mark, which equates to about 0.72 percent of Brazil’s national budget. Prior to the Olympics, however, the Brazilian government had already spent BR$39.5 billion on infrastructure, or about $12 billion. Stadiums and urban projects designed to ensure the country was ready for the sports event were built, but aside from the events scheduled for 2014 and 2016, there seemed to be little to no demand for such...

DML is in possession of an audio file which we planned to release today at 7pm. The file contains comments made by a top level executive from the American Conservative Union (ACU) speaking terribly about well-known people who often speak at CPAC. But our plans changed this afternoon when conservative activist, Milo Yiannopoulos, had his invitation to speak at CPAC 2017 rescinded by the ACU. We’ve decided to release our audio file tomorrow morning at 12:00pm eastern standard time. Below are some of the hard hitting comments heard on the audio file.

Lou Dobbs interviews Representative Chris Collins (R) New York, regarding Obama and Democrats going after Donald Trump.

Remember during the presidential campaign when then Senator Barack Obama made public a video outlining Senator John McCain's role in the Keating Five scandal. Bringing up McCain's role during the campaign wasn't just about his past. Rather, his role in that scandal had possible implications to the present financial crisis. The video shows McCain as someone who helped out a constituent, Charles Keating, while — just like today — taxpayers got stuck with the bill. Just what is the Keating Five scandal? Senator John McCain was one of five senators accused of corruption in 1989 in the Savings and Loan...

Moments ago, Melania Trump appeared before a crowd of rally-goers to introduce her husband, President Donald Trump. The First Lady began her speech by leading the audience in The Lord’s Prayer. This didn’t sit well with many Twitter users, who quickly began blasting Melania’s use of the prayer. @CNNPolitics separation of church and state. God should stay in the church not in government! — Manon Pilon Fry (@ManonPilonFry) February 18, 2017

Union leader says some stations continue to follow Obama 'catch and release' directives Some border patrol stations have been slow to carry out President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement executive order and instead have continued former President Barack Obama’s “catch-and-release” policies, according to a union official. Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, told LifeZette that he raised concerns Thursday with U.S. Border Patrol Chief Ronald Vitiello. He said he is confident that issue soon will be corrected. But Judd said as recently as Thursday, some border patrol stations were still releasing border-jumpers, often without even issuing notices to...

George Soros' alleged meddling in European politics has caught the attention of Congress. Concerns about Soros' involvement most recently were raised by the Hungarian prime minister, who last week lashed out at the Soros "empire" and accused it of deploying "tons of money and international heavy artillery." But days earlier, Republican lawmakers in Washington started asking questions about whether U.S. tax dollars also were being used to fund Soros projects in the small, conservative-led country of Macedonia.

A defamation suit is allowed to survive in a defeat not only for the cable news network, but also for the MPAA. Donald Trump probably doesn't know about it, but the guy who once said he wanted to open up libel laws will probably be quite pleased by a new ruling from a Georgia federal judge. In fact, the stakes in this case are so high we wouldn't be surprised if it eventually lands before the U.S. Supreme Court and potentially makes it easier to sue entertainment and media outlets. There's a reason why the Motion Picture Association of America...

The man who managed former President Barack Obama’s campaign has been slapped with a $90,000 fine for using Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s private email account to lobby the mayor on behalf of ride-sharing giant Uber without registering as a lobbyist. Newly-appointed Chicago Board of Ethics Chairman Attorney William Conlon said the fine assessed against David Plouffe is the largest ever by the Chicago Board of Ethics. It represents $1,000 for every one of the 90 days that Plouffe failed to registered as a lobbyist after his November 2015 email to Emanuel on the mayor’s personal account. “Registration of lobbyists is important....

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned a lower-court decision that would have struck down a 10-day waiting period for certain firearm purchases. The lower-court decision would have allowed existing gun owners and people with concealed-weapons permits to immediately take possession of a lawfully purchased firearm. [Snip] 9th Circuit Judge Mary Schroeder ... said someone who already owns a hunting rifle may want to buy a larger-capacity weapon that will do more damage when fired into a crowd. "A 10-day cooling-off period would serve to discourage such conduct and would impose no serious burden on the core...

As if on cue. I swear we didn’t know this was going to be in the Swamp Media Newsletter when we earlier wrote about Trump’s anticipated budget battle with the UniParty…Apparently the GOPe has had enough of this hiding behind the guise of supporting Trump. We know this specifically because the Corinthian Chair sitting GOPe “Decepticons” never trot out Thad Cochran unless -and until- Mitch McConnell pulls him out of the closet for a purpose.For those who don’t know, Senator Thad Cochran is, well, to put it nicely, cognitively impaired. As such, McConnell keeps him tucked away, and hidden...

The United States is much better off without Michael Flynn serving as national security adviser. But no one should be cheering the way he was brought down. The whole episode is evidence of the precipitous and ongoing collapse of America's democratic institutions — not a sign of their resiliency. Flynn's ouster was a soft coup (or political assassination) engineered by anonymous intelligence community bureaucrats. The results might be salutary, but this isn't the way a liberal democracy is supposed to function. Unelected intelligence analysts work for the president, not the other way around. Far too many Trump critics appear not...

As the state contemplates an income tax hike, Oregon's elites line their pockets with taxpayer money. In 2016, as politicians across America were fleeing voter wrath, Oregon’s governor and attorney general were blazing an unlikely trail – accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from businesses with state contracts. Since 1940, at the federal level, individuals and entities negotiating or working under federal contracts are prohibited from giving political cash to candidates, parties or committees. In Oregon, however, this political patronage is perfectly legal, at least for now. Our analysis at American Transparency (OpenTheBooks.com) found 207 state contractors...