Free Republic

Design-bid-build may still be the No. 1 project delivery method for U.S. construction, but other processes are rising that could challenge DBB’s stake in how some projects are carried out.One such arrangement, public-private partnerships (P3), is gaining steam with talks from Washington, D.C., about employing the method for President Donald Trump’s $1.3 trillion infrastructure spend. While more states and local entities are successfully turning to P3s to tackle major infrastructure overhauls and new projects, the method still runs up against a perception problem. Some elected officials are hesitant to employ P3s because they don’t want to let a private firm...

I grew up in a Christian home, where a photo of Jesus hung on my bedroom wall. I still have it. It is schmaltzy and rather tacky in that 1970s kind of way, but as a little girl I loved it. In this picture, Jesus looks kind and gentle, he gazes down at me lovingly. He is also light-haired, blue-eyed, and very white. The problem is, Jesus was not white.

Commercial hunters are the stuff of legend. Scottish Karamojo Bell harvested elephants for ivory in Africa at the turn of the century. American Billy Dixon made the famed long shot with a buffalo rifle to stop the attack on Adobe Walls.  Norwegian Per Jonsson harvested 165 polar bears on Halfmoon Island near Svalbard, Norway, in two years in 1969-71. Increasing human populations and agriculture have reduced the potential for commercial hunting. Australia is a place where commercial hunters survive. Australia is a continent as big as the lower 48 states, with a human population smaller than Texas. Australia has game...

(New South Wales Public Order and Riot Squad officers with Colt M4 carbines) Citing threats posed by gun-armed criminals and potential terrorists, law enforcement in Australia are getting more rifles. In Victoria, a spokesman for Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton confirmed state police are considering expanding the use of semi-auto rifles for officers, The Age reported. While personnel assigned to Victoria’s Special Operations Group and Critical Incident Response Team already have access to such firepower, patrol officers will likely have access to rifles when needed. “To enhance our abilities to respond to a major security incident or terrorism attack, we...

David Dunstan, an Australian farmer who defended his family from an armed intruder, may have finally gotten his three guns back. His story illustrates much that is wrong with Australia's extreme gun laws. No one disputes the events that brought David Dunstan and his family to the attention of the authorities.David Dunstan lives on a rural property near Bungowannah, New South Wales. It is about 10 miles outside the Australian town of Albury.  At 3 a.m. on the 14th of September, 2017 he answered the door and found himself confronting a teen armed with a knife and a large...

An Israeli company located in Judea and Samaria is working to combat the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement through a monthly box subscription that allows supporters throughout the world the opportunity to be part of the Israel experience. Aryeh Powers, the director of marketing for Lev HaOlam, told Breitbart News that these gift boxes — which include items that are boycotted by anti-Israel entities as part of the BDS movement — reach thousands of people worldwide. “We send thousands of packages to people in multiple countries per month,” he said. These packages are sent to over 40 countries...

In 2017, when I visited Australia, Donald Eykamp had an ongoing appeal at the New South Wales Supreme Court. That case has been resolved. The decision came down on 18 December 2017. I was unable to obtain a copy of the decision until after I had returned to Australia. I carefully read the decision, then conferred with an Australian barrister. The decision was a disaster for gun owners. It gave the New South Wales Police everything they asked for. Then, it gave them things they did not ask for.For a while, the politics looked promising. The New South Wales...

The new tariffs announced by President Donald Trump have generated intense controversy. With the debate ongoing, it might be useful to examine how other countries have dealt with similar policy debates in the past. New Zealand now ranks third in The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom and is one of the champions of economic freedom around the world. But it wasn’t always so. In the mid-1980s, New Zealand was facing an economic crisis, with its domestic market and international trade both heavily regulated. Unemployment had reached 11 percent, and inflation was a sky-high 15 percent. In response, the government...

Political correctness put her in the way of a “nervous, jumpy” Muslim cop who took her life. A forty-year-old Australian woman named Justine Damond called 911 in Minneapolis Saturday night to report what she thought might be a rape; when police arrived, she approached the police car, and a Minneapolis police officer named Mohamed Noor shot her dead. Since then, Noor has refused to be interviewed by investigators, but has spoken to friends about what happened and why. The more Noor and those who know him have spoken, the more it becomes clear: Justine Damond was a casualty of “Islamophobia.”...

The police officer who shot unarmed, white Australian woman Justine Damond has been identified. Police sources have named the shooter as Officer Mohamed Noor, according to Kare 11. The officer started on the force in 2015 and, at the time of the shooting, had two outstanding complaints against him, Kare 11’s Lou Raguse tweeted.

Full Title: "AUDIO RELEASED=> Shooting of MN Woman By Somali Cop Mohamed Noor While She Was Talking to His Partner"Somali American police officer Mohamed Noor shot Aussie Justine Damond dead this past weekend. Mohamed Noor reached over his partner and shot Damond dead while she was speaking to his partner. Damond called the police to report a possible assault down the alley behind her home. Mohamed was the first Somali officer in his precinct.Damond was shot and killed while wearing her pajamas and speaking to another police officer after calling 911 to report a possible assault in an alley behind...

Minneapolis, MN – Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton defended the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) on Friday, after Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman told an activist group that investigators “haven’t done their job” in investigating the officer-involved shooting death of Justine Damond. The prosecutor cast blame on the BCA while speaking to an activist group at a union holiday reception on Wednesday, WCCO reported. He said he was tasked with determining whether or not Officer Mohamed Noor was justified when he shot Damond, but that officers had not provided him with the information he needed to make a decision. “I’ve...

JUSTINE Damond’s killer cop doesn’t have to talk about why he shot her — but if he wants to keep his job, he will be compelled. The Star Tribune reports that Officer Mohamed Noor has a constitutional right not to talk with anyone pursuing possible criminal charges in her shooting death. But if the Minneapolis Police Department opens an internal investigation, the law will force him to talk if he wants to keep working as a police officer. However, if he gives a statement there’s another cruel twist. It can never be used in a criminal case. In Minnesota, public...

Chauntyll Allen wasn’t sure how to feel on Monday when she traveled to Justine Damond’s memorial site in the affluent South Minneapolis neighborhood known as Fulton. The 43-year-old leader of a Black Lives Matter group in St. Paul, Minnesota, stood near Xerxes Avenue and 51st St. by the late Damond’s home, watching the mostly white residents share remarks about police brutality and the need for police reform. Many of those same people, she recalled, were nowhere to be found when Allen and her fellow activists were out marching for justice for black police-shooting victims like Philando Castile and Jamar Clark....

KSTP, Minneapolis/St. Paul: Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigators were granted permission to search Justine Damond’s home hours after she was shot and killed by a Minneapolis police officer, according to court records ... "I don’t understand why they’re looking for bodily fluids inside her home," said Joseph Daly, an emeritus professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, referring to one of two recently-released search warrant applications. "Whose bodily fluids are they looking for? Is she a suspect? I don't understand why they're looking for controlled substances inside her home. I don’t understand why they’re looking for writings inside...

In a blog post Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges wrote the shooting should never have happened... Mayor Hodges’ comments come as it was revealed the cop who shot Ms Damond dead, Mohamed Noor, is known in the townhouse complex where his large family lives as quick-tempered, “jumpy” and “extremely nervous”. Forklift driver Chris Miller, 49, has lived next door for the past two years and said he wasn’t surprised to learn Noor was the policeman making international headlines for firing on Ms Damond after she called 911 about what she thought was a sexual assault in the alley behind her house....

Mohamed Noor said he was “startled” by a loud noise. He sounds little a little girl (and a liar). That notwithstanding, neighbors said, they heard nothing. Pajama-clad Justine Damond was unarmed when Mohamed Noor fired multiple shots and shot her dead. She died at the scene. From the Daily Telegraph: (thanks to Scott) http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/world/family-of-us-cop-mohamed-noor-say-officer-mistakenly-shot-justine-damond/news-story/f1fceb1b41f4c9494e136365861e1d02

Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor, who fatally shot Justine Damond last July, is now listed on the jail roster in Hennepin County and county attorney Mike Freeman has scheduled a press conference for 2:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Hennepin County Government Center. According to the roster, he is being held on possible third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter charges. Damond's family issued the following statement: Justine’s family in Australia and the US applaud today’s decision to criminally charge Officer Noor with Justine’s murder as one step toward justice for this iniquitous act. While we waited over eight months to come to...

The officer who fatally shot Justine Damond graduated in 2015 from the city’s accelerated police cadet program. The seven-month training is a quicker, nontraditional route to policing aimed at helping those who already have a college degree enter law enforcement. The Minneapolis program covers tuition at Hennepin Technical College and pays trainees a $20-an-hour salary with benefits while they work to get licensed. After that their salary bumps up. Some law enforcement professionals say the cadet program and others like it are exactly what policing needs — a way to attract more diverse people with broader life experiences.

Killer policeman Mohamed Noor has said he was 'startled' by his victim Justine Damond seconds before he opened fire. The cop has told friends about why he gunned down the bride-to-be, 40, in his first account of what happened Saturday night. DailyMail.com has spoken to those friends to reveal for the first time his account of what happened that night.