Free Republic

"9/11 plotter released in Syria prisoner exchange" SNIPPET: "The al-Qaeda recruiter reputed to have assembled the so-called Hamburg Cell, which planned and largely carried out the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, has been set free in a prisoner exchange between rebel and regime forces in Syria. Islamist rebel group Ahrar al-Sham has secured the release of 9/11 plotter and alleged al-Qaeda core member Mohammed Haydar Zammar, adding to concerns about the composition of the Islamic Front. A naturalized German citizen of Syrian origin, Mohammed Haydar Zammar left Germany shortly after the attacks and traveled to Morocco, where he was reportedly...

Consuming marijuana in a private home will no longer be a criminal offense in the nation’s capital under a measure that passed the D.C. Council on Tuesday and that instantly escalated a simmering national debate over loosening marijuana laws. Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) intends to sign the measure, a spokesman said, putting District drug law in conflict with federal law. The signed measure will go to Congress, which has veto authority over D.C. laws but has organized to override only three times since 1979. National advocates for marijuana legalization celebrated the 10 to 1 vote by the D.C. Council,...

Washington, D.C. may have the highest number of certified green buildings in the country, but research by Environmental Policy Alliance suggests it might not be doing much good.The free-market group analyzed the first round of energy usage data released by city officials Friday and found that large, privately-owned buildings that received the green energy certification Leadership in Energy Design (LEED) actually use more energy than buildings that didn’t receive this green stamp of approval.LEED is the brainchild of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a private environmental group.

Christian Scientists have won their long, twilight struggle against brutalism -- so says a wrecking ball at the corner of 16th and I streets in Washington, D.C. For what seemed like an eternity, members of the Third Church of Christ, Scientist fought with architecture historians and city bureaucrats over the right to tear down their own church. Churchgoers never liked their 1971 classic brutalist structure -- an architectural style that is well, brutal -- and have even suggested it has something to do with their dwindling numbers.

Warning: This article contains numerous spoilers. While it’s by no means family friendly programming, the second season of “House of Cards,” the Kevin Spacey-starring Netflix original, is a stunningly right wing piece of entertainment. Part of this may be accidental. Shows with a cynical bent, like Tina Fey’s “30 Rock,” have sounded conservative at times. Still, House of Cards’ jaundiced take on Washington is unique in the special scorn it displays for Beltway Democrats.

Feeling chipper about the economy? Think the future looks so bright, you gotta wear shades? Chances are, you’re either stuck in a 1980s time warp or … you live in Washington, DC. Gallup published its polling on economic confidence by state, and the only “state” to have a positive rating is the one where all the cash is going. Instapundit refers to this as a “Hunger Games update,” and it’s difficult to dispute that characterization: Although scores on Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index improved in most U.S. states in 2013, the index remained negative in all 50. Only the District of...

Gallup’s latest economic findings are seemingly straight out of the dystopian novel “The Hunger Games.” That is to say, every state in the nation boasted a negative economic index score; only the District of Columbia -- the capital city -- is seemingly prospering. Surprise: The pollsters posit some interesting takeaways for us to consider: (1) the disparity between the most economically confident state (Massachusetts) and the least economically confident state (West Virginia) is 43 percentage points. (This excludes the District of Columbia, of course, which is not a state).That’s an enormous gap, and one that doesn’t appear to be shrinking,...

WILC Drops Spanish Tunes For English Talk - 2/3 - Last week, DCRTV tipped you about a format change today at WILC. Now, Tom Taylor Now has more about AM 900 dropping Spanish adult contemporary "Romantica 900" for talk. ZGS Communications owns the Laurel, Maryland-licensed WILC, but DCRTV says "Wallis Communications will be running'" the new talk format that includes Glenn Beck from Premiere, live from 9 AM to noon. He's followed by "Dr. K," Ken Constantine's "Capitol Hill Show" in afternoon drive, and WestwoodOne's Dennis Miller. No morning show yet. The site says you can expect "some old Wolfman...

A 77-year-old man died after collapsing across the street from a fire station, where his daughter had asked for immediate assistance and was instead rebuffed by a firefighter who told her he couldn’t help unless dispatch instructed him to intervene.The man, Medric Cecil Mills, collapsed near the Engine 26 fire station in the Brookland area of Washington, D.C. at about 2:30 p.m. on Saturday. His daughter, Marie Mills, went to the station to beg for immediate medical assistance. But the firefighter she encountered there told her that she had to first call 911 so that dispatch could instruct him to...

President Barack Obama outlined plans Tuesday to make 2014 his year of action — using his executive authorities wherever possible while encouraging Congress to go even further. Obama took on a more pragmatic tone than in previous State of the Union addresses, acknowledging that getting his agenda past House Republicans was unlikely and therefore he would use his power to do what he can on his own.

High levels of natural gas are escaping from the aging pipes beneath the streets of the nation’s capital, creating potentially harmful concentrations in some locations, a new study has found. Natural gas leaks pose explosion risks, health concerns, and contribute to climate change. The paper, which appears in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology, also provides information that could help companies justify additional financial incentives for fixing leaks quickly. Robert Jackson and colleagues note that natural gas leakage is a serious problem on multiple levels, including impacts on the economy and climate. Property damage is estimated at $133 million...

Last year, NBC News anchorman David Gregory almost got in trouble with the law for waving a 30-round ammunition magazine in front of the camera during an interview with NRA leader Wayne LaPierre on “Meet the Press.” The show was being broadcast from Washington, D.C., where it’s illegal under local law to possess even an empty magazine capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammo. Irvin Nathan, the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, huddled with staffers to decide whether to make a public example out of Gregory for his very public stunt. But Nathan ended up exercising...

Nellie Gray, a steadfast opponent of abortion who for almost 40 years led a yearly protest march in Washington that drew tens of thousands of supporters, and whose battle cry was “No exception! No compromise!,” was found dead on Monday at her home in Washington. She was 88.

Of all the states in the nation, Maryland once again reported the highest concentration of millionaires, according to an annual survey conducted by a wealth research firm. A report released this week by the New York-based Phoenix Marketing International showed that there were just over 6million millionaire households in the nation - an increase of 53,000 from the year before. In other words, 1 of 20 households in the U.S. has more than $1million in investible assets, not counting the value of real estate.

An interesting Gallup poll shows Government Itself Still Cited as Top U.S. Problem Mentions of the government as the top problem remain higher than they were prior to the partial government shutdown in October. During the shutdown, the percentage naming the government as the top problem doubled to 33% from 16% in September. Compared with a year ago, mentions of government are up slightly. Mentions of healthcare, on the other hand, have quadrupled -- from 4% in January 2013 to 16% today, likely related to highly visible problems with the rollout of the 2010 healthcare law. At the same time,...

The Senate is poised to confirm Robert L. Wilkins to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit — the final battle in a bruising war between the White House and Senate Republicans over the "second highest court in the land." The D.C. Circuit deals with cases against the federal government. Anyone who has a complaint with a regulatory agency or wants to challenge an excess of the federal government usually winds up there. >snip In November, Obama effectively gained control of the 11-member court when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid triggered the "nuclear option" — reducing the threshold...

The Japanese government has promised to lend the United States half of the cost of building the first "Super-Maglev" train, reducing travel time between Baltimore and Washington DC to just 15 minutes. Tokyo is so keen to show off its technology that it will provide loans for half the estimated $8 billion (£5bn) cost of installing the tracks, Japan's Asahi newspaper said on Tuesday.Masahiro Nakayama, a general manager at Central Japan Railway Co, told The Daily Telegraph that the American federal government was keen, and that the state authorities were especially enthusiastic about the project."The national government has shown interest,"...

The small suburban independent city of Falls Church, Va.—which is treated as the equivalent of a county by the Census Bureau--had a higher median household income in 2012 than any county in the United States, according to data released in December by the Census Bureau.In the Census Bureau’s ranking of the 30 counties with the highest median household incomes, the City of Falls Church rose from the No. 2 spot in 2011 to the No. 1 spot in 2012, overtaking Loudon County, Va.While treated as the equivalent of a county by the Census Bureau, the City of Falls Church had...

In room-size metal boxes, secure against electromagnetic leaks, the National Security Agency is racing to build a computer that could break nearly every kind of encryption used to protect banking, medical, business and government records around the world. According to documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the effort to build “a cryptologically useful quantum computer” — a machine exponentially faster than classical computers — is part of a $79.7 million research program titled, “Penetrating Hard Targets.” Much of the work is hosted under classified contracts at a laboratory in College Park.

Just saw this on local D.C. news..they even had it on video. Unbelievable, he was there for a toy give-away when he was shot.