Free Republic

New Yorkers can take solace in the fact that their rights to be equally disgusting, offensive and unsanitary and to publicly expose themselves to passing strangers, including children are now protected by Mayor Bill de Blasio and his city council. An assortment of quality-of-life laws are being relegated to the ranks of the non-enforced because too many minorities are being arrested under them. When an overly large percentage of the violations of a law take place among a particular minority or ethnicity, the liberals naturally assume there is something wrong with the law or those who are enforcing it. The...

Courageous Conservatives is a political action committee that supports Ted Cruz and other conservative candidates who support Conservative principles and defend the Constitution of the United States. It has just released a new video weighing in on Donald Trump's New York values, which Sen. Ted Cruz has made a major issue by turning the Donald's words against him. As Cruz has been doing the Courageous Conservatives PAC uses Trump's own words against him. Watch the video: "... Fred Dicker: What is it going to mean for Donald Trump to have Bill de Blasio as Mayor?" Donald Trump: "He's a smart...

Right now socialist New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is conducting a one man Jihad against Donald Trump, but the fact is, before Trump decided to run for President, Trump was a big fan. Yes, even when it was known that de Blasio was a committed socialist, with a long record of being on the extreme left, Trump was a fan. "I think pretty strongly that he'll end up being a good mayor", Trump said. "Maybe a very good mayor and I don't think he's going to want to kill the golden goose." His positive words, spoken before the election...

Five fiends took turns raping a terrified teenage girl in a Brooklyn playground Thursday evening, police said on Saturday. The 18-year-old and her dad were inside Osborn Playground, near Hegeman Avenue and Osborn Street in Brownsville, at 9:10 p.m. when the perverts, all strangers, accosted them. One had a gun and pointed it at the pair, demanding that the father leave. The father ran out of the park, desperately looking for help. When he left, each of the men, who ranged in age from 20 to 30, raped his daughter, cops said. By then the father had encountered two cops,...

U.S. cities that implemented big minimum-wage hikes to $10 an hour or more in 2015 have seen a strikingly similar aftermath: Job gains have fallen to multiyear lows at restaurants, hotels and other leisure and hospitality venues. The data aren't, for the most part, stark and reliable enough to amount to smoking-gun proof. But Chicago, Oakland, San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. — all on the leading edge of the push for big minimum wage hikes — all show worrisome job trends.

NYC Settles Lawsuits Over Muslim Surveillance by Police By tom hays, associated press NEW YORK -- Jan 7, 2016 The New York Police Department will strengthen safeguards against illegal surveillance of Muslims in investigations of terror threats and install a civilian representative on an advisory committee that reviews the probes under the terms of a settlement of two high-profile civil rights lawsuits, lawyers said Thursday. The announcement of a deal following months of negotiations formally ended litigation over accusations that the nation's largest police department cast a shadow over Muslim communities with a covert campaign of religious profiling and illegal...

More than 100 restaurant owners in the state of New York are begging Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) not to force them to pay their waiters and waitresses $15 an hour. But it's doubtful he heard them over the roar of union workers at rallies Jan. 4 supporting Cuomo's call for a statewide $15 an hour minimum wage. Melissa Fleischut, president and CEO of the New York State Restaurant Association, can see the $15 an hour wage coming, but she's hoping for a five-year moratorium for people who make their livings on tips. She said her organization's members would be crushed...

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Philadelphia Mayor-elect Jim Kenney bristles at the label "progressive." "How about fairness?" he said in a recent interview. "When you know something's unfair, it's unfair. There are certain things that you have to acknowledge are the case and then work to fix them." Jim Kenney is not African-American but few white politicians are as comfortable discussing issues of inequality, mass incarceration and policing. The 57-year-old Irish-American, South Philly native's positions have earned him comparisons with New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Restaurant owners can't require ties for male diners only. Gyms can't tell clients which locker room to use. And in most cases, an employer can't put "John" on a worker's ID if she prefers "Jane." New York City's Human Rights Commission is establishing what advocates called some of the most powerful guidelines nationwide on gender-identity discrimination, releasing specifics Monday to flesh out broad protections in a 2002 law. "Today's guidance makes it abundantly clear what the city considers to be discrimination," which can lead to fines of up to $250,000, Commissioner Carmelyn P. Malalis said in a statement. Officials said...

In New York City, even sidewalk space is coveted real estate. Street vendors sometimes spend a fortune or languish for years on waiting lists to acquire one of the permits that allow them to sell goods in tightly regulated locations. But once a year, there's an exception, laid out in an artfully worded city ordinance: During the month of December, anyone may sell "coniferous trees" just about anywhere - no license required. It's a rare tree-for-all. Peddlers flock in from across North America. Big trucks carrying huge loads of trees arrive in the dead of night. Stands selling coniferous trees...

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has been discharged from a hospital after undergoing surgery for a hernia. [...] De Blasio is now resting at Gracie Mansion and will return to City Hall on Monday. ...

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio went on CNN’s “New Day” and accused Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump of dividing the country in a way that only helps one group — ISIS. Host Alisyn Camerota asked de Blasio what his “ongoing beef” with Trump is, and the mayor replied that he doesn’t care what Trump says about him, “what I’m concerned about [is] he goes before a Republican Jewish group and uses age-old, horrible stereotypes of Jewish people — out loud!” He added that “these are the kinds of stereotypes that have undercut the Jewish community for centuries,” before...

In wake of San Bernardino mass shooting, Bill de Blasio appeals to comptroller to 'to divest immediately' from funds that include assault weapon-makers New York City's mayor, Bill de Blasio, urged the city's pension funds on Friday to divest their holdings in stocks of gun-makers after this week's mass shooting in San Bernardino, California. In a statement he said: "I call on all government pension funds in New York City and across the country to divest immediately from funds that include assault weapon manufacturers." The mayor urged the city comptroller "to divest as soon as possible if no verifiable assurance...

New York City's new warning label for salt-laden chain restaurant food is headed for a court fight, after restaurateurs sued Thursday to argue that health regulators overstepped legal bounds to enact the first-of-its-kind requirement. The National Restaurant Association's suit came just two days after the rule took effect, compelling chain eateries to put a salt-shaker icon on menu items that top the recommended daily limit of 2,300 milligrams of sodium -- about a teaspoon. The group had vowed to challenge the city Board of Health-approved rule, which will sprinkle salt warnings on some dishes ranging from burgers to pizzas to...

The principal of DeWitt Clinton HS, a struggling Bronx school in Mayor de Blasio's multimillion-dollar Renewal program, changed students failing grades to passing without teachers knowledge or consent, insiders told The Post. In one case, Santiago Taveras gave a senior who received a "no show" in a global-history class a 75 and changed her failing 55 grade in gym to a minimum passing 65, records show. She then got a credit for each class, which she did not deserve, several staffers charged. He thinks he is God and can do whatever he wants. ... Taveras changed a students failing 55...

In the wake of the terror attacks in Paris, politicians and others are calling for a ban — or at least a delay — on the influx of refugees to the United States. Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush have called on the U.S. to accept only Christian Syrian refugees, not Muslims. Presidential candidate Donald Trump goes one step further, saying he would accept none. Dr. Ahmad Jaber, president of the Arab-American Association of New York and Dawood Mosque, calls such rhetoric unconstitutional. "How dare you say you are not welcoming refugees," Jaber said. "How dare you say...

Nearing the midpoint of his term, Mayor Bill de Blasio is confronting a city that is deeply divided about his ability to lead, with his efforts to create a more liberal New York overshadowed by growing worries about homelessness and crime, a new poll finds. Nowhere is that concern more visible than among a group, long cool to Mr. de Blasio, that he has now decisively lost: whites. Just 28 percent of white New Yorkers approve of the Democratic mayor’s performance, and 59 percent now disapprove, up sharply from the start of his term, according to a citywide poll conducted...

Nearing the midpoint of his term, Mayor Bill de Blasio is confronting a city that is deeply divided about his ability to lead, with his efforts to create a more liberal New York overshadowed by growing worries about homelessness and crime, a new poll finds. Nowhere is that concern more visible than among a group, long cool to Mr. de Blasio, that he has now decisively lost: whites. Just 28 percent of white New Yorkers approve of the Democratic mayor’s performance, and 59 percent now disapprove, up sharply from the start of his term, according to a citywide poll conducted...

Mayor de Blasio is moving to clean up a state medical-insurance mess that blindsided thousands of New Yorkers, including 114 cancer patients in the city who were about to lose their doctors. Under a hastily drawn-up deal, the patients will continue to get coverage for treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center under the city's MetroPlus health plan. The patients had faced a tough choice: pay out of pocket or find new doctors because of the impending bankruptcy of Health Republic - one of the state's ObamaCare providers and the only one that covers treatment at Sloan Kettering.

Nine people were wounded—two fatally—in seven violent incidents between two boroughs which spanned from Saturday night through Sunday morning, police said. The mayhem started in Queens when two men were shot—one fatally—at a house party on 240th St. near 144th Ave. in Rosedale around 8:53 p.m., cops said. The victims—Peyton Manwaring, 19, and a unidentified 18-year-old man—were disputing with someone and the suspect shot them, according to the police. Manwaring was shot once in the stomach, while the other was shot in the gut, arm and leg, cops said. Both were taken to Jamaica Hospital, but Manwaring could not be...