Free Republic

The conviction and jailing of Russian protest leader Alexei Navalny has led to widespread criticism. Navalny was imprisoned for five years for embezzlement from a timber firm. He had denied the charges, saying the trial was politically motivated. The EU said the verdict posed "serious questions" about Russian law, while the US said it was "deeply disappointed". Later, police detained dozens of protesters following scuffles in Moscow, St Petersburg and other cities. Thousands took to the streets for protests which continued late into the evening. In Kirov, where the trial was held, at least two Navalny supporters were arrested after...

(CNSNews.com) – The IRS is looking to hire a “diversity and inclusion” specialist, with a minimum salary of $123,758 a year. The opening for a full-time “Supervisory Diversity and Inclusion Specialist” at the agency’s national headquarters in Washington, D.C. was announced on June 11 and is open until June 24. The Diversity Specialist will “serve as a change agent to provide strategies, solutions, training, tools, resources and thought leadership on diversity and foster inclusion” across the workplace and “build internal awareness” for diversity and inclusion throughout the agency. Among the day-to-day job duties: Hear and resolve complaints from employees; "effect...

Harvey Whittemore, with his wife, Annette, on his right, jokes with his lead defense attorney, Dominic Gentile, during a news conference in Reno, Nev., on Wednesday, May 29, 2013, shortly after he was convicted of three federal counts of breaking campaign contribution laws by funneling nearly $150,000 to U.S. Sen. Reid, D-Nev., in 2007. Photo: Scott Sonner RENO, Nev. (AP) —Harvey Whittemore's lawyer says despite his client's illegal campaign fundraising conviction, the man prosecutors called "King of the Hill" in Nevada politics is a long way from prison.Whittemore, former head of a billion dollar development company, was convicted recently of...

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Sunday proposed a new bipartisan “Gang of Eight” to draft a bill to create guidelines for future investigations of media leaks by the government. “I proposed along with [Sen.] Lindsey Graham [R-S.C.], we’ll be announcing that we have four Democrats, four Republicans, another Gang of Eight,” said Schumer on CBS’s Face the Nation. “I love these gangs of eight I guess.” Schumer said the bipartisan group will “introduce “legislation that sets up rules where… if the government wants to go to a member of the press and say you have to divulge your sources and...

The Next Bank Meltdown Won't Be An "Accident" By Shah Gilani, Capital Wave Strategist, Money Morning April 22, 2013Big banks turned in a pretty stellar first quarter. All but one beat profits expectations. But as I told you last week, I'm now out of these stocks completely. Do you want the truth about what shape banks are in right now? Sure you can handle it? I'm sorry; I can't tell you the truth. Regulators can't tell you the truth. And the Federal Reserve won't tell you the truth. No one can tell you the truth. That's because banks don't tell...

U.S. Government Investigation Of Gold Price Manipulation Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013March 15, 2013 - 04:16 PM GMT By: Midas Letter Yesterday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the regulator who ostensibly regulates the banks and major financial institutions who participate in the futures and commodities trading business, announced they were going to examine whether prices are being manipulated in the “world’s largest gold market”, according to a story in the Wall Street Journal. For long time observers of the gold price and the fundamental and not-so-fundamental influences on its price movements, the announcement might have elicited a gasp of...

Google on Tuesday acknowledged to state officials that it had violated people's privacy during its Street View mapping project when it casually scooped up passwords, e-mail and other personal information from unsuspecting computer users. In agreeing to settle a case brought by 38 states involving the project, the search company for the first time is required to aggressively police its own employees on privacy issues and to explicitly tell the public how to fend off privacy violations like this one. While the settlement also included a tiny - for Google - fine of $7 million, privacy advocates and Google critics...

An International Man lives and does business wherever he finds conditions most advantageous, regardless of arbitrary borders. He's diversified globally, with passports from multiple countries, assets in several jurisdictions and his residence in yet another. He doesn't depend absolutely on any country and regards all of them as competitors for his capital and expertise. Living as an international man used to be just an interesting possibility. But few Americans opted for it, since the US used to reward those who settled in and put down roots. In fact, it rewarded them better than any other country in the world, so...

Republic of Korea: For the record. Pak Ku'n-hye (Park Geun-hye) of the New Frontier Party won South Korea's presidential election on 19 December, media reported. She is the daughter of Park Chung-hee and the first woman elected to be president of the Republic of Korea. That should confound the North! North Korea-Iran: According to a Japanese news service, an Iranian lawmaker told the service that North Korea informed Iran in October of its plan to launch a satellite. The head of an Iranian parliamentary delegation to North Korea, Hamid Reza Taraghi, revealed talks took place mid-October with the North's delegates...

When Thanksgiving Day parade-goers in Manhattan looked into the confetti-filled sky last week, they may have seen more than they bargained for. Nassau County police announced that they are investigating how some of their confidential records including social security numbers and even details about a motorcade for Mitt Romney, then the GOP presidential candidate, ended up as joyous scraps raining from buildings on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. “I'm just completely in shock. How could someone have this kind of information, and how could it be distributed at the Thanksgiving Day Parade?” Inspector Kenneth Lack, from the Nassau County Police...

The House Science Committee is investigating whether Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson used the secret email alias "Richard Windsor" to hide internal communications from government watchdogs—an action that may violate open-records laws.

West asks court to order full recount of early votes in St. Lucie Countyby George Bennett | November 13th, 2012 Republican Rep. Allen West‘s campaign says it filed a request for an injunction late today ordering St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections Gertrude Walker to conduct a recount of all 37,397 ballots from early voting rather than the 16,275 ballots the county canvassing board decided to recount Sunday.A copy of the filing wasn’t immediately available.A partial recount of early votes on Sunday showed Democratic challenger Patrick Murphy losing 667 votes and West losing 132 — a net gain of 535...

"Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who is battling legal troubles and mental illness, is likely to resign from Congress and face jail time under the terms of a plea deal his lawyer is negotiating with the federal government."

CNN just called WI.

George Soros Totally Bailed On Democrats This Election Walter HickeySeptember 25, 2012World Economic Forum, Flickr George Soros has been the primary political bogeyman for more extreme wings of the Republican party for some time now. The fascination first began in 2004 when Soros pledged $25.5 million to groups dedicated to removing then-President George W. Bush from office, including MoveOn.org, America Coming Together, and the Center for American Progress. Those efforts obviously failed, but they also cemented the billionaire hedge fund manager in the conservative psyche as the man bankrolling liberal causes. Rumors abound about his true motivations, and have spawned...

SAN ANTONIO -- San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro was recently profiled in the New York Times, which referenced him as the next national Hispanic leader and perhaps president. "It's been a very promising response," said Castro. "It's a very flattering article." But comments he didn't make could draw some strong opinions. His mother, Rosie Castro, had strong words when asked about her memories of the Alamo, a symbol of Texas independence. "They used to take us there when we were school children," Perez told the Times. "They told us how glorious that battle was. When I grew up, I learned...

City Controller Ron Green, Houston's top elected money manager and self-described watchdog, is seeking leniency for a five-time convicted felon and contractor who masterminded an elaborate real estate and forgery scam targeting the city's historically African-American neighborhoods. Green is asking a judge for probation for his friend and former next-door neighbor Dwayne K. Jordon, a rogue developer who pleaded guilty to felony theft. According to indictments, Jordon pilfered 23 Houston properties from different owners and then duped unsuspecting buyers into purchasing homes built on stolen ground. The ex-con contractor and the city controller have known each other about five years,...

The IRS pays out billions in fraudulent tax refunds, and Lansing is at the top of the list. The IRS paid out more than $3 million in refunds to one address in Lansing. The IRS has not disclosed that address, but according to a new report issued by the IRS Inspector General, someone filed more than 2100 separate tax returns using that address, and received $3.3 million in fraudulent refunds. The inspector general says identity thieves filing bogus tax returns got more than $5 billion in refunds last year. The inspector general also says the problem is so rampant., the...

DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign team have been waging a coordinated effort against Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney by repeatedly casting aspersion on the length of his tenure at Bain Capital as well as the limited disclosure of his past personal income tax returns...But now the Shark Tank has come into possession of information that has never been publicly disclosed which completely undermines Wasserman Schultz’ credibility as it pertains to her calls for transparency or the claim that she qualifies as “middle class.” ...on the mainland, Newbury, New Hampshire is a quaint little town...

After a lengthy investigation, Wilson was indicted in April on a misdemeanor insurance charge for laundering a total $8,000 in campaign contributions from Missouri Employers Mutual Co., a state-created workers' compensation company based in Columbia, to the Missouri Democratic Party through a St. Louis law firm, Herzog Crebs. Former Herzog Crebs partner Ed Griesedieck III was also indicted.