Free Republic

The last remaining U.S. independent counsel, David Barrett, after spending $21 million over 10 years, on Jan. 12 finally will close down his investigation of former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros' lying to FBI investigators about hush money paid to an ex-mistress. The political significance is that the Barrett report's shocking allegations of high-level corruption in the Internal Revenue Service and Justice Department are likely to be concealed from the public and from Congress. A recently passed appropriations bill, intended to permit release of this report, was altered behind closed doors to ensure that its politically combustible elements never saw the...

Lost in the tumult over Islamic port deals and Katrina video capers is the recently released -- and willfully ignored -- Barrett Report. David Barrett, you'll recall, is the independent counsel appointed in 1995 to investigate allegations of impropriety against President Clinton's Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros. Mr. Barrett found his path mined by the Justice Department, the Internal Revenue Service and President Clinton's attorneys, even after Mr. Clinton departed the White House. He prepared 18 felony indictments against Mr. Cisneros but had to settle for a guilty plea on a misdemeanor charge (lying to the...

A 34-year-old man was arrested Friday on suspicion of asking a uniformed Orange County sheriff's deputy sitting in a marked patrol car if he wanted to buy some crack cocaine. Garibay walked up to Johnson's car at a Mobil gas station and asked the Orange County deputy if he was "straight," ... When Johnson replied he was, Garibay responded "Do you know what that means? .... It means do you want to buy some cocaine." When Johnson said "yes," Garibay pulled out a plastic bag containing "several pieces of flat white rocks substances" and asked for cash... When Garibay pulled...

Developing a Crack Index If you rely on the news media for your information, you probably think that crack cocaine is a thing of the past. If you rely on data, however, you reach a different conclusion. Measuring the use and impact of a drug like crack isn't easy. There is no government Web site to provide crack data, and surveying dealers is bound to be pretty unreliable. So how can you get to the truth of crack use? One way is to look at a variety of imperfect but plausible proxies, including cocaine arrests, emergency-room visits and deaths. Unlike...

A first-grader brought dozens of little bags of crack cocaine to his Chicago Heights elementary school Friday and began passing them out to classmates, calling them "candy," officials said Sunday. Adults at Lincoln School, which has fewer than 200 students in kindergarten through eighth grades, learned what was going on through other kids and alerted police. "He lives in a household where apparently there's drug dealing, and when he sees these little bags of rock cocaine around the house, they're telling him it's candy," Chicago Heights Deputy Police Chief Michael Camilli said. A member of the household is believed to...

Liberal bloggers who either support John F. Kerry or simply detest George W. Bush to the point where Kerry's qualifications for the job of President no longer matter, are accusing the GOP of plotting to steal election 2004. News Stories such as this... The Republican challenges in Ohio have already begun. Yesterday, party officials submitted a list of about 35,000 registered voters whose mailing addresses, the Republicans said, were questionable. After registering, they said, each of the voters was mailed a notice, and in each case the notice was returned to election officials as undeliverable. In Cuyahoga County alone, which...

Thieves shattered a side window overnight at Lucas County Democratic headquarters in Toledo, stealing computers with sensitive campaign information and triggering concern of the local party's ability to deliver crucial votes on Nov. 2. (See URL for complete article) http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041013/NEWS03/410130378&SearchID=73187255382209

Story last updated at 5:39 a.m. Saturday, June 19, 2004 Confessed child pornographer sentenced to prison Two drug dealers and a man who possessed child pornography were sentenced Friday in Lubbock federal court. Charles Neel Alexander, 52, of Galveston previously pleaded guilty to interstate transport of child pornography. Prosecutors dismissed 15 additional charges. U.S. District Judge Sam Cummings sentenced Alexander to seven years and three months in prison, and imposed a $2,000 fine. A Department of Public Safety trooper stopped Alexander on Dec. 21 in Yoakum County. When the trooper searched Alexander's truck, he found a small amount of marijuana,...

For years, a boy who is now a teenager has been told that Bill Clinton (The Sinkmaster) is his father. Bobbie Ann Williams had a son named Danny whose picture has an amazing resemblance to The Sinkmaster. Bobbie Ann was a crack cocaine hooker and happens to be black. Using some DNA information that appeared in the Starr report, Bobbie Ann backed off when it appeared that there was not a DNA match. The problem is that she should have never relied on the limited DNA info that may or may not have been correct in the report. The Sinkmaster,...

A 28-year-old American has become the butt of jokes by Pearson airport workers after she was busted trying to smuggle 2.2 kilos of cocaine, worth $275,000, in fake buttocks. The Georgia woman was travelling with a one-year-old child in a stroller when arrested last Saturday night at Terminal 1, Canada Customs spokesman Mark Butler said yesterday. The woman was detained for proceedings in Brampton court. "We have never seen this sort of body packing before," Butler said. "We usually find drugs in fake legs or torsos." He said the incident occurred as the family arrived from the Caribbean island of...