Free Republic

Mayor Ray Nagin told the City Council this morning that the city has found 90 properties where storm remediation work that was supposed to be conducted by taxpayer-financed contractors was not done. Nagin said his staff visited all 870 properties enrolled in a now-defunct home remediation program run by the nonprofit New Orleans Affordable Homeownership Corp. Of the 90 properties where "discrepancies" were found, contractors involved with the program billed the city for work on 46. The city has notified those contractors of the problems and asked for reimbursement or documentation of work, Nagin said. While Nagin acknowledged that his...

Members of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church are threatening to picket the funeral of Tim McLean, the young man decapitated on a Greyhound bus last week. The Kansas-based church - a small fundamentalist sect led by Fred Phelps - is reviled in the United States for protesting the funerals of hundreds of soldiers killed in the Iraq war. The sect gained notoriety in the 1990s by picketing the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man beaten to death in Wyoming. Seven members of the church originally planned to picket theatre performances in Toronto and Red Deer, Alta., later this...

Sun August 3, 2008 How State Comp Funds End Up In Campaigns A secretive organization has raised close to $1 million throughout the last decade for political purposes, mostly from injured Oklahoma workers who sometimes don't even know they've donated. Many of the donations to Working Oklahomans Alliance may be illegal, an investigation by The Oklahoman found. The organization could be penalized $1,000 or more for each violation. The lawyers who control Working Oklahomans Alliance specialize in workers' compensation cases. These lawyers raise money for a political fund by withholding a portion of their clients' workers' compensation awards. The lawyers...

Among the paintings, glassware and photographs always found at the Uptown Art Fair are about a dozen young people sitting at a long table with markers and several sheets paper. They sit side-by-side inside Calhoun Square drawing letters and names in their own personal way. "You can really put yourself out there, show yourself in your art," said 16-year-old Nina Boswell, "It's wild, you know, and just out there everywhere. I'm kind of a wild person." She goes by the name "Milli 9" as a graffiti artist, a medium that sometimes gets a bad name when it's associated with the...

Prior to this year, it had been over 25 years since I last filled out a job application and all the accompanying paperwork. I was quite impressed with my current employer’s requirement for me to provide proof of citizenship prior to being hired in. If only all area employers were so diligent, one of Holland’s favorite sons might still be alive today. For years, I have warned against the consequences of illegal immigrants taking up residency in our community. For years, area employers have violated federal law by hiring illegal aliens. For years, illegal immigrants have stolen wages away from...

After being caught twice with a "baggie" of marijuana, 23-year old Rachel Hoffman was reportedly told by police in Tallahassee, Florida that she would go to prison for four years unless she became an undercover informant. The young woman, a recent graduate of Florida State University, was murdered during a botched sting operation two months ago. "The idea of waging a war on drugs is to protect people and here it seems like we're putting people in harm's way," said Lance Block, a lawyer hired by Rachel's parents. The Florida Attorney General's office says it is reviewing the procedures and...

Federal agents walked into Mexican restaurants in Oberlin, Vermilion and six other Ohio communities Wednesday and walked out with 58 workers in handcuffs. The dishwashers, cooks and waitresses now in federal custody are all Mexican citizens recruited to work here illegally, federal authorities say. They are likely to be deported. None of their bosses has been charged with a crime - yet. The raids at eight Casa Fiesta restaurants is part of larger workplace enforcement strategy that infuriates immigrant advocates, who say it brings down the hammer on hapless workers. "These people are not criminals," said David Leopold, a Cleveland...

BAGHDAD — The militia that was once the biggest defender of poor Shiites in Iraq, the Mahdi Army, has been profoundly weakened in a number of neighborhoods across Baghdad, in an important, if tentative, milestone for stability in Iraq. It is a remarkable change from years past, when the militia, led by the anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr, controlled a broad swath of Baghdad, including local governments and police forces. But its use of extortion and violence began alienating much of the Shiite population to the point that many quietly supported American military sweeps against the group. Prime Minister Nuri Kamal...

Before Army Sgt. 1st Class Randal Ruby was accused in Iraq of beating prisoners and of conspiring to plant rifles on dead civilians, he amassed a 10-year criminal record documenting assaults on his wife in Colorado and Washington state and a drunken high-speed police chase in Maine for which he remains wanted. Before Lance Cpl. Delano Holmes stabbed an Iraqi private to death with a bayonet, he was hospitalized after threatening suicide in high school, was accused of assault, disorderly conduct and trespassing, and, in the months leading up to deployment, was twice linked to drug use. Before Army Spec....

  Jack Straw ... law will back heroes            New law to back 'have-a-go-heroes'     By CLODAGH HARTLEY Home Affairs Correspondent Published: 12 Jul 2008     NEW legislation will protect “have-a-go heroes” who intervene in crimes or use force to defend themselves, Justice Secretary Jack Straw vowed last night. From Monday a person’s actions will be judged on the situation “as they saw it at the time” — even if in hindsight the force could be classed as unreasonable, according to insiders. Mr Straw told The Sun: “We’re not going to have a...

OAKLAND -- The fact that fireworks are illegal and potentially dangerous did not prevent many Oakland residents from setting them off on Friday night. KTVU's Amber Lee found adults and children playing with fireworks on 100th Avenue. "I spent a hundred dollars for my kids, for the Fourth of July", said Vitalino Acabal of Oakland. He insisted it was just part of summer vacation fun. A few blocks away, a four year old girl and her 12 year old brother were setting off bottle rockets. Their 15 year old sister said their parents weren't home, but it's part of her...

CCTV:New York,June 10/08:A school prank gone wrong on Long Island is caught on tape. Police said a group of students, dismissed early from Uniondale High School during the June 10th heat wave vandalized a 7-11 store. They're seen grabbing items off shelves and throwing items on the floor. According to police, they also stole candy and beverages from the store. Three teenagers are charged with riot and petty larceny.

Pakistan launches anti-Taliban crackdown near Peshawar Jun 28, 2008 By Ibrahim Shinwari LANDIKOTAL, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani security forces launched an offensive against Taliban fighters near the northwestern city of Peshawar on Saturday, prompting a militant commander to suspend peace talks and threaten retaliation. The crackdown in the Khyber tribal region followed a series of sorties by Taliban fighters into Peshawar to push people to observe their puritanical interpretation of Islamic law. "There has not been any resistance from any group or miscreants," according to a government statement in Peshawar. Major-General Alam Khattack, who is leading the offensive, said it...

In an astonishing stroke of irony, the New York Times has outed the name of the CIA operative who interrogated 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, over the objections of CIA Director Michael V. Hayden and a lawyer representing the operative. Agency officials and legal counsel told the Times that publishing the agent's name would "invade his privacy and put him at risk of retaliation from terrorists or harassment from critics of the agency." In an Editor's Note linked from the story on KSM's interrogation, the Times defended its decision by stating that "other government employees" had been "named publicly in...

A new state rule in Florida calls for more than 115,000 former felons who complete their sentences to be given back their civil rights, including the right to vote, hold public office, serve on a jury, and obtain state and local licenses for certain types of work. The rule by the state’s Board of Executive Clemency ends a policy that, until now, required a panel to act individually on every restoration of rights requests. Florida Governor Charlie Crist – attending a two-day summit of state officials, lawmakers, community activists, prison ministers and others brainstorming ideas for keeping former inmates from...

Civic and social organizations

New blood: Violent gang life is passed down from parent to child BY VERONIKA BELENKAYA DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Sunday, June 15th 2008, 2:13 AM Warga/NewsA longtime member of the Lating Kings, here with his 4-year-old, says he wants to be a peacemaker and hopes his son follows suit. Newborn Blood, known as a Blood drop, is draped with beads and flanked by guns. Police later seized the pistols from the parents.  The images as chilling as they are heartbreaking: An infant with a semiautomatic handgun next to each tiny shoulder. A child no more than a year old...

Cindi Cook had it all planned out. Her teenage son would graduate from his Hall County high school, go to college, then settle down and start a family. Then came the pregnancy. It was spring 2007 and, according to court testimony, Cook had no interest in her 16-year-old son's girlfriend, also 16, having their baby. Cook "began to pressure until the young lady relented and agreed to have an abortion," DeKalb County solicitor general Robert James said Wednesday. Displeased that the baby would ruin her son's chances of going to college, Cook "searched for a clinic that did not require...

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - It is not just gas and food prices and mortgage foreclosure rates that are soaring in the U.S. The country's prison population is also on an all time high, with one percent of American adults behind bars.A Pew Center on the States report pointed out the U.S. has the largest number of people in prison. Among black males, the ratio was one in 15, while it was one in 35 for Hispanic men. Women prisoners also logged its highest rate of increase in 2006 compared to the previous five years. Bureau of Justice Statistics data said...

Mexico: the danger of 'drug ballads'  Last Updated: 12:01am BST 01/06/2008       In the past two years, 15 mexican musicians have been murdered. Their crime: to fall foul of the country's drug barons. Ioan Grillo reports It was three in the morning and the Mexican group Banda Guasavena were driving back from a concert at a cockfighting festival, just over the border from Texas. The audience had been even more rapturous than usual and Fausto Castro-Elizalde, the band's horn player, recalls them chatting happily about the evening.   Grupo Cartel de Sinaloa pose in a cemetery full of extravagant...

WASHINGTON, May 22, 2008 – Coalition and Iraqi forces killed 13 enemy fighters, detained 79 suspects, and uncovered makeshift bombs and other weapons in recent operations in Iraq, military officials said. In Iraq yesterday: -- Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers killed 11 enemy fighters in an ongoing operation in the New Baghdad security district of the Iraqi capital. Military officials said troops killed the combatants either to defend themselves from immediate danger or to prevent the enemy from planting homemade bombs in the area. -- Coalition forces caught two individuals fleeing a mud hut near Beiji that was doubling as a...

Police didn't have the money to catch burglars who beat me with a crowbarBy MILES GOSLETT - More by this author » Last updated at 23:45pm on 17th May 2008 A businessman who was almost beaten to death by three crowbar-wielding burglars claims police haven't carried out DNA tests to identify his attackers – because they can't afford to pay for them. IT consultant Simon Pither, 36, was savagely beaten over the head when he interrupted the gang at his £300,000 home. The married father of two sustained such serious skull injuries during the assault that doctors told him...

The Feral Sex: The terrifying rise of violent girl gangsBy PAUL BRACCHI - More by this author » Last updated at 23:48pm on 16th May 2008  The girl emerged from her house with a mobile phone glued to her ear and a cigarette hanging out of her mouth.  Her friends take the mickey out of her, we learn from her sister's MySpace internet page, because she is never out of "a chav T-shirt and tracksuit bottoms" - and she didn't disappoint yesterday. Even so, it doesn't pay to get on the wrong side of this 14-year-old, who plays for...

Foreign criminals work at airports unchecked By Christopher Hope and David Millward Last Updated: 2:55AM BST 08/05/2008 |   Thousands of foreigners are being allowed to work in high security parts of Britain's airports without passing proper criminal record checks, it was disclosed last night. PA Despite warnings that terrorists would try to recruit people working "airside" in terminals – with direct access to aircraft and baggage – no attempt has been made to check whether foreign workers have committed any offences abroad. The vetting process checks only for crimes committed in Britain. Foreign workers – arriving from inside or...

When Bigots Accuse by Clark Baker "I know, Officer - you're just stoppin’ me ‘cause I’m BLAAACK!� Cops hear it every day, and although millions of hours and tax dollars are wasted each year to disprove false allegations, many blacks (and guilt-ridden whites) consider the non-existence of racial profiling as proof of an institutional cover-up that corroborates its existence. Who needs more proof than that? Trial lawyer Merrick Bobb, who faked portions of the Christopher Commission Report, blames “… the impossibly high burden of proof…� for the exoneration of the falsely accused. While Bobb rejects the value of evidence, he...

BAGHDAD – Multi-National Division – Baghdad soldiers and their Iraqi Security Forces partners engaged criminal elements May 2 in the Sadr City district of Baghdad, as they continue to provide security for the law-abiding people of Iraq.At approximately 7:20 a.m., MND-B soldiers observed a criminal on a rooftop with an AK-47. The soldiers engaged and killed the criminal.At approximately 12:30 p.m., an air weapons team engaged a house adjacent to the Ubaydi neighborhood, with a Hellfire missile after an explosivelyformed penetrator triggerman was identified. The criminal was killed in the engagement.Afterward, the two EFPs, that he was the triggerman for,...

WILSON — Luke, the mixed-breed dog, was supposed to attend his owner's funeral. That's what three Wilson residents wanted to ensure over the weekend when they attempted to bust the dog out of the city pound. But the plan went awry, and now two men could face second-degree burglary charges in connection with the attempted dog break, said Wilson Police Chief Felix Hernandez. A juvenile was cited and released to his parents. SNIP Luke was picked up April 22 by local dogcatcher after he was caught once too often running the streets of Wilson. His owner, Saundra Vickers, 53, died...

Father confronted by axe-wielding burglars - but police are too busy to turn up for THREE hoursBy DAVID WILKES - More by this author » Last updated at 00:49am on 29th April 2008  Cowering upstairs with his partner and their two children as a gang of burglars wielding an axe emptied his living room, Mathew Sims wasted no time in calling 999.  But instead of the immediate response he expected, the police told him: "We're too busy to help." Within minutes, the burglars drove off with a haul of stolen property. Scroll down for more... Terrified: Matthew Sims, Sarah Barham...

Prison life is so comfortable and the drugs are so cheap that prisoners don't want to escape, says prison officers chiefLast updated at 17:59pm on 24th April 2008  Prisoners are ignoring chances to escape because they would rather stay in their cushy jails where drugs are cheaper than on the outside, a prison chief officers has said.  Lags at Britain's 'toughest' prisons are treated to breakfast in bed, have Sky TV in every cell and are given cash bonuses for good behaviour. At one prison in Yorkshire, drug dealers and hookers regularly break IN to ply their trade by...

WASHINGTON -- The FBI is grappling with growing numbers of public corruption cases and a surge in mortgage fraud investigations, FBI Director Robert Mueller said Thursday, wondering aloud whether Americans are "becoming more crooked." In a speech to the American Bar Association, Mueller asked the assembled defense lawyers for help in "creating a culture of integrity" by reporting evidence of wrongdoing by politicians and corporate executives alike. "Anyone who follows the news these days and sees repeated references to corporate fraud and public corruption might think the nation is in the midst of a moral crisis," Mueller told the defense...

The District has the fourth-highest incarceration rate in the nation, according to a report that says jails nationwide are bursting at the seams even though crime is nearly as low as it has been in 30 years. The report by the Justice Policy Institute, a Washington-based group that focuses on what it considers an over-reliance on incarceration... In the District, 3,214 inmates are under city control at the D.C. jail and contract facilities. That is 553 people per 100,000 residents. Only Philadelphia and two Tennessee counties, Davidson and Shelby, lock up residents at a higher rate. The numbers do not...

Foreigners carry out one in every five killings in Britain, police figures revealBy JAMES SLACK - More by this author » Last updated at 08:07am on 14th April 2008 Angolan refugee Roberto Malasi killed a pastor's daughter who he felt 'disrespected' him  One in every five murders or manslaughters in England and Wales is committed by a foreigner, police figures revealed.  In one area of London, the figure is one in three. This is despite the fact that foreigners represent only around one in 16 of the general population. The statistics are so alarming that Home Secretary Jacqui Smith will...

BAGHDAD – Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers killed 13 criminals in separate engagements in Baghdad April 9. At approximately 8:35 p.m., Soldiers from 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, manning a combined checkpoint with Iraqi National Policemen from 3rd Battalion, 4th Brigade, 1st National Police Division, were attacked by criminals with small-arms fire from a rooftop nearby in northeastern Baghdad.  Soldiers returned fire and killed one criminal. Soldiers from 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), killed four criminals in northwestern Baghdad at approximately 9:40 p.m. after they were attacked with rocket-propelled grenades at a checkpoint. An aerial weapons team...

South Africa’s deputy security minister has told police how to tackle rampant crime in their cities: “kill the bastards”, and do not worry about regulations. “You must kill the bastards if they threaten you or the community,” Susan Shabangu, told a local police forum in Pretoria. “I want to assure the police station commissioners and policemen and women that they have permission to kill these criminals. “You must not worry about the regulations. That is my responsibility. Your responsibility is to serve and protect,” she added. “I won’t tolerate any pathetic excuses for you not being able to deal with...

A Tucson police officer who shot and killed an illegal entrant during a violent scuffle was justified in using deadly force, according to the findings of a Police Department board of inquiry. Officer Douglas Dreher's actions on Nov. 24, when he shot a man who'd attacked him with his own baton, were found to be within department policy, according to a summary of the incident obtained by the Arizona Daily Star on Friday. Francisco Javier Yanez-Burruel, 35, of Magdalena, Sonora, was shot several times, according to Star archives. Dreher was driving his patrol car west on Irvington Road near Interstate...

March 31, 2008 Group Tied to Pakistani Terrorist to Parade in Binghamton, NY Instead of those plastic toy swords sold at normal parades, they will be selling replicas of the one used by Mohammed to behead infidels.... The city of Binghamton, New York granted a group with ties to Islamic terrorist Sheikh Mubarek Ali Gilani a permit to publicly celebrate Milad-un-Nabi, or Muhammed’s birthday, in the streets of Binghamton this Saturday. The Muslims of the Americas (MOA), the name used by Jamaat ul Fuqra, or “Community of the Impoverished,” was issued a permit for a public celebration that includes a...

A Team You Can't Trust By Dick Morris and Eileen McGann FrontPageMagazine.com | Monday, March 31, 2008 Bill Clinton made a significant admission in Corpus Christi, Texas this month - saying he had decided to pardon Puerto Rican terrorists back in 1999 "based on the stuff I was given by the staff." But Ron Kolb, the citizen whose questioning prompted the ex-president's comment, rightly pointed out that the FBI and Justice Department had opposed the pardons. The clear conclusion is that it was Clinton's political staff who pushed for clemency - with the obvious goal of helping Hillary Clinton's bid...

BAGHDAD – Multi-National Division – Baghdad soldiers killed 12 criminals after a small arms and rocket-propelled grenade attack in northern Baghdad March 30. At approximately 1 a.m., a 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division patrol was attacked, and Soldiers pursued the criminals as they fled. An air weapons team arrived on scene to provide support. After positively identifying the attackers, the air weapons team engaged and killed the 12 individuals. “We are exercising great effort to protect the people of Baghdad,” said Lt. Col. Steve Stover, MND-B spokesman. “We are only targeting criminals and those acting outside the rule...

ATLANTA -- Judge Marvin Arrington insists he's not a racist; despite ordering white lawyers out of his courtroom on Thursday. The Fulton County Superior Court judge said he was just fed up seeing a parade of young black defendants in his courtroom. "I came out and saw the defendants, about 99.9 percent Afro-Americans, and some point time I excused some of the lawyers, most of them white, and said to the young people in here 'What in the world are you doing with your lives,'" he told WSB-TV Channel 2 reporter JaQuitta Williams. Arrington said he thought his message might...

Online Sex Offender Alert System Launched New Service Is Free   POSTED: 12:35 pm EDT March 27, 2008 UPDATED: 12:57 pm EDT March 27, 2008   ORLANDO, Fla. -- Authorities in Florida on Thursday introduced a high-tech alert system that helps people keep track of sex offenders and predators.   The new feature, which is free at www.floridasexoffender.net, allows registered users to enter numerous street addresses, such as a home, workplace or school. When a sex offender or predator moves into that specified area, an e-mail alert about the offender and his or her address will be sent to...

For now, he's known to federal prosecutors as "John Doe," the man with too many names. ...

Congress left Washington on Friday without passing the SAVE Act (H.R. 4088), which would secure our borders and strengthen our employer enforcement laws. We now have 2 more weeks to pressure our elected representatives in passing this important bill in April, upon their return from the Easter Recess. Speaker Pelosi and her cronies appear to be winning this battle and we cannot allow them to win—a win for Pelosi and company will result in the defeat of the SAVE Act and passage of their new amnesty bill. Before Congress left town, 181 Congressmen signed the discharge petition, which requires 218...

Thomas Sowell: Criminals belong behind bars Liberals ignore potential costs and risks when suggesting 'alternatives' Thursday, March 13, 2008 For more than two centuries, the political left has been preoccupied with the fate of criminals, often while ignoring or playing down the fate of the victims of those criminals. So it is hardly surprising that a recent New York Times editorial has returned to a familiar theme among those on the left, on both sides of the Atlantic, with its lament that "incarceration rates have continued to rise while crime rates have fallen." Liberals seemed to find it puzzling that...

The Hague, 11 March (AKI) – Three Croatian generals went on trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Tuesday for crimes allegedly committed against Serb civilians in 1995. Ante Gotovina, Ivan Cermak, and Mladen Markac are the first Croatian officers to be tried for crimes committed in the operation, Storm, in August 1995. More than 350 Serb civilians were killed, thousands of homes were destroyed and up to 250,000 Serbs were deported from the country, prosecutor Alan Tieger told the court. He said he would prove that the three generals were part of a “joint...

WASHINGTON – The next time a San Diego sheriff's deputy arrests a man who tries to steal a car, hauls him to a county detention center, starts asking questions and discovers he's in the country illegally, here's what will happen: The tax-supported district attorney's and public defender's offices will handle his case, a tax-supported judge will preside if it goes to trial, he'll spend an average three weeks in the local jail at $100 each day, a state prison could house him for years at $121 a day, and tax-funded probation officers will follow his progress. Only after that will...

U.S. incarcerates more than any other nation: report Thu Feb 28, 2008 7:20pm EST By James Vicini WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world and for the first time in the nation's history, more than one in every 100 American adults is confined in a prison or jail, according to a report released on Thursday. The report by the Pew Center on the States said the American penal system held more than 2.3 million adults at the start of the year. The far more populous nation of China ranked second with...

-- snip -- It's impossible to know exactly how often guns stop criminals. Would-be victims don't usually report crimes that don't happen. But people use guns in self-defense every day. The Cato Institute's Tom Palmer says just showing his gun to muggers once saved his life. "It equalizes unequals," Palmer told "20/20". "If someone gets into your house, which would you rather have, a handgun or a telephone? You can call the police if you want, and they'll get there, and they'll take a picture of your dead body. But they can't get there in time to save your life....

ESCONDIDO – The car thief had been released from jail and formally deported to Mexico six days earlier, and yet Wednesday, police found him back on the streets of Escondido. Officers say they've become frustrated with the growing numbers of illegal immigrants in the city who commit crimes and are deported, only to return. “As short as a few days or a couple of weeks later, they're back in town,” said Escondido Police Chief Jim Maher. The auto thief was one of 14 illegal immigrants police detained this week in a three-day sweep targeting people whom officers have had contact...

Violent criminals calmed by scent of oranges By Joan Clements in The Hague Last Updated: 1:08am GMT 20/02/2008 Calming: scent of an orange Hardened criminals in the Netherlands become less aggressive and have fewer fights when exposed to the scent of oranges, a study has found. Rotterdam police said the four week study suggested that criminals, many of them violent drug pushers, are calmer and more malleable when the perfumes are circulated through cell air vents. The head of police social services, Herma Heester, said: "It's amazing, fighting in the cells has been dramatically reduced and we are using 10...

Deputies use Valentine's Day ploy to round up scofflaws By HEATHER RAWLYK, Staff Writer Published February 15, 2008 They thought they were getting a heartfelt gift from an unknown admirer, but instead more than a dozen men and women were served with outstanding warrants on Valentine's Day from county Sheriff's Department deputies disguised as florists. On Wednesday, Sgt. Tonya Pfaltzgraff of the county Sheriff's Department called about 50 men and women wanted on various charges under the guise of "Maria," a representative from the fictitious company "Flowers By Ron." Sgt. Pfaltzgraff told each person she reached that a gift was...