Free Republic

More and more we're hearing about various members of the media ceasing to use the name "Redskins." In perhaps the biggest deal yet, the Washington Post announced Friday the editorial board would cease using the team's nickname. "While we wait for the NFL to catch up with public opinion and common decency we have decided not to use the slur ourselves except when it is essential for clarity or effect," said a statement on the paper's own site. Worth noting: this doesn't affect the actual paper. The news-gathering side of the business can -- and will as we understand it...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Former Country Club Hills, Ill., police chief Regina R. Evans, 50, pled guilty to charges of fraud related to a $1.25 million state grant awarded in 2009 to We Are Our Brother’s Keeper, a not-for-profit program that Evans owned with her husband, Ronald W. Evans, Jr. Regina Evans appeared before U.S. District Judge Sue E. Myerscough and entered an open plea of guilty to the following charges: conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering (one count); wire fraud (three counts); and money laundering (seven counts.) There is no plea agreement between the government and Evans.

A Georgetown University professor whose father pled guilty to terrorism charges is facing criticism for comparing Israel to the terror group Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL or ISIS) on Twitter.Georgetown University History Professor Abdullah Al-Arian, the son of Sami Al-Arian, a controversial Israel critic who pled guilty to conspiring with a terror group, tweeted out his take on a common nursery rhyme by comparing Israel to the terror group ISIL, which recently beheaded an American journalist on film.Al-Arian quickly deleted the tweet, but not before a screenshot was taken and retweeted by the Washington Free Beacon. Critics immediately...

The Endangered Species Act has wreaked havoc for decades on rural communities, but a newly filed lawsuit could force San Francisco urbanites like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to share their pain. A federal complaint filed this week contends that the Hetch Hetchy Project, which supplies water to San Francisco and the Bay Area, has unfairly enjoyed an exemption from the “severe cutbacks” required in rural California in order to save endangered fish species. Craig Manson, who heads the Center for Environmental Science, Accuracy and Reliability (CESAR) in Fresno, said the lawsuit is aimed at addressing the “double standard” that...

A federal judge has ordered the Justice Department to provide Congress with a list of documents that are at the center of a long-running battle over a failed law enforcement program called Operation Fast and Furious. In a court proceeding Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson set an Oct. 1 deadline for producing the list to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The Justice Department says the documents should remain confidential and President Barack Obama has invoked executive privilege in an effort to protect them from public disclosure. …

WASHINGTON (AP) - Two influential NFL voices - including CBS lead analyst Phil Simms, who will handle Washington's Week 4 game - said Monday they likely won't use the term "Redskins" when discussing the franchise. "My very first thought is it will be Washington the whole game," Simms told The Associated Press on Monday. Simms will work the Thursday night package the network acquired this season and will have Giants-Redskins on Sept. 25. He isn't taking sides in the debate over whether Washington's nickname is offensive or racist. But he says he is sensitive to the complaints about the name,...

The National Treasury Employees Union has a PDF document on its website which shows why any attempt to shrink the government is foredoomed. ”The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) is an independent labor union representing approximately 150,000 employees of 30 agencies of the United States government. The union specializes in representation of non-supervisory federal employees in every classification and pay level in civilian agencies.” The document urges NTEU members to oppose a list of “bad bills” now before congress. Here is the list of “bad bills” verbatim. LEGISLATION PROPOSING REDUCTIONS IN PAY, BENEFITS AND THE SIZE OF THE WORKFORCE H.R....

From nearly 1,000 miles away, several Redskins players used the Monday Night Football stage to draw attention to the situation that has been unfolding in Ferguson, Missouri by running onto FedExField with their hands up in the air.

Phil Simms may have self censored himself from saying the name “Redskins” but fans show no signs of abandoning the name.Link to song:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPVfFzbRuc4&feature=youtu.be

Between 1989 and 2010, Congress rejected nearly 700 cap-tax-and-trade and similar bills that their proponents claimed would control Earth’s perpetually fickle climate and weather. So even as real world crises erupt, President Obama is using executive fiats and regulations to impose his anti-hydrocarbon agenda, slash America’s fossil fuel use, bankrupt coal and utility companies, make electricity prices skyrocket, and “fundamentally transform” our economic, social, legal and constitutional system. Citing climate concerns, he has refused to permit construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, and blocked or delayed Alaskan, western state and offshore oil and gas leasing and drilling. He’s proud that...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told an Ocean City, Md., town hall Thursday that he was considering running for president in 2016. “I’m thinking about it,” Christie said in response to a question from a local supporter, according to The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J. “It is an enormous decision to make not only for me, but my family,” Christie said, according to the newspaper, saying he would make his decision “probably by the end of this year or the beginning of next.” …

In a press conference Thursday, President Barack Obama commented on the fallout of the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown at the hands of Ferguson, Mo., police, saying there was “no excuse for violence against police,” the use of “excessive force against peaceful protests” or for police to bully or arrest journalists “just trying to do their jobs.” “There is never an excuse for violence against police or for those who would use this tragedy as a cover for vandalism or looting. There’s also no excuse for police to use excessive force against peaceful protests or to throw protesters in jail...

A Democratic congressman plans to introduce a bill to restrict a Defense Department program that provides machine guns and other surplus military equipment for free to local law enforcement agencies across the country. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., said Thursday that the death of an unarmed teenager who was shot by a police officer in a St. Louis suburb highlights the need for the legislation, which has been in the works for months. The bill comes as members of Congress have called for the Justice Department to investigate the shooting of a black teen by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo....

The great majority of Americans reject US President Barack Obama’s policies on Israel, according to a recent poll. The poll, which studied the telephoned responses of over 1,000 random US voters, was conducted by Fox News. Fifty-four percent (54%) of respondents noted their disapproval of Obama’s policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, whereas just 30% approved. The responses showed deep divides between Republicans and Democrats, White and Black Americans, as well as different age brackets. Among Republicans, 74% disapproved of Obama’s policies toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, compared to just 34% of Democrats; 59% of White Americans gave Obama a low approval...

President Obama won't make any major announcements on immigration reform during his secretive mid-vacation trip back to Washington next week, the White House said Wednesday. The president is expected to return to the White House on Sunday, but officials won't say why Obama is taking the unusual, and costly, trip back to Washington. He's expected to return to Martha's Vineyard, where he's been vacationing, on Tuesday. Speculation has circled around whether Obama might make an announcement of executive actions he's taking on immigration reform, or a surprise visit from a foreign leader. But the White House is "not anticipating a...

Police are searching for a gunman who shot and wounded a District of Columbia police officer.

Sometimes - but not always - news reporters get exactly what they are looking for when covering a story. For one news crew from CBS News affiliate WUSA in Washington, D.C., they got a little more. The news crew's vehicle was burglarized while they were working on a story about a controversial app that alerts people to "sketchy" neighborhoods, WUSA reports. The crew had locked their news van on a street in Petworth in Northwest, D.C. while they were out in the neighborhood conducting interviews. When they returned they found the lock had been popped out of the door of...

On a pleasant Saturday this summer, Eric Holder, his daughters, their boyfriends and two security officers boarded a government-owned Gulfstream and jetted off to New York for the Belmont Stakes Thoroughbred horse race. Even for personal trips like this, the attorney general doesn’t fly commercial. For security reasons, Holder — like other top government officials — flies a government plane, though is required to reimburse taxpayers for airfare. According to records obtained by The Daily Caller through a Freedom of Information Act request, Holder is getting pretty good deal here — especially when he flies a government-owned Gulfstream V jet....

A WUSA-TV news van was burglarized in Washington, D.C., Friday while the news crew was interviewing locals nearby, the station reported. The robbery happened as they were reporting about a “sketchy neighborhood” app. The crew said they had locked their van in D.C.’s Petworth neighborhood, but someone popped the lock and absconded with “the gear of photojournalist James Hash, the backpack of reporter Mola Lenghi, and the purse of intern Taylor Bisciotti.”[snip]

A photo posted to Twitter on Saturday by a supporter of the terrorist group the Islamic State (aka ISIS or ISIL) shows a cellphone screen with a large image of the black flag of jihad being held up so the White House is seen in the background. The Twitter account @mhajr93 posted the image.The undated photo was taken at night from the Pennsylvania Avenue side of the White House. The brightly lit North Portico is clearly seen in the background of the photo. Alongside the photo was the propaganda message, “we are here #America near our #target :) sooooooooooooon”. The...