Free Republic

An East Chicago councilman was sworn into office behind bars earlier this month while in custody on murder charges. Robert Battle, who was re-elected in November when he ran unopposed, was given his oath of office and signed required paperwork on Jan. 15, said Paula Miraldi, of the Lake County Board of Elections in northwest Indiana. The board of elections received the paperwork Friday morning, but it was dated Jan. 15. Battle needed to be sworn in and submit his paperwork by Feb. 1, otherwise the council post would be declared vacant. Battle has been in the custody of the...

Drug overdoses are driving up the death rate of young white adults in the United States to levels not seen since the end of the AIDS epidemic more than two decades ago — a turn of fortune that stands in sharp contrast to falling death rates for young blacks, a New York Times analysis of death certificates has found. The rising death rates for those young white adults, ages 25 to 34, make them the first generation since the Vietnam War years of the mid-1960s to experience higher death rates in early adulthood than the generation that preceded it. The...

At a commercial break in the Demonrat debate, You Tube showed a little speech by Hillary where she began talking about opioid addiction and the drug problem. She called for federal money for programs and said police need to always have an antidote for opioid overdose with them at all times m She ended this short NBC produced spiel by saying drug use needs to cease being a criminal issue and be put where it belongs, as a health issue.

A jury convicted a man of 31 offenses Friday for plotting to fly illegal drugs, a cellphone and other contraband aboard a drone into a maximum-security state prison. Thaddeus C. Shortz, 25, of Knoxville, could face more than 50 years in prison for crimes that include contraband, drug, conspiracy and firearm convictions. His sentencing wasn’t scheduled. The Allegany County Circuit Court jury deliberated about two hours and 15 minutes after two days of testimony. The panel of eight men and four women convicted Shortz on all but four of the charged offenses. He was acquitted on two counts each of...

It’s been just over four months since Sean Penn met with the world’s most wanted drug lord, and things aren’t going as the actor had planned. “My article has failed,” Penn told CBS’s Charlie Rose in an interview that will air on 60 Minutes this Sunday. The Oscar winner was referring to the 10,000-plus word screed detailing his meeting this October with notorious Mexican cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, and the events leading up to it. Rolling Stone published Penn’s article this past Saturday, following Guzman's capture six months after his Hollywoodesque escape from a maximum security prison this...

Actor Sean Penn is breaking his silence about his trip to Mexico to meet notorious drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. In an interview for this Sunday's "60 Minutes," Penn spoke to "CBS This Morning" co-host Charlie Rose Thursday night in Santa Monica to talk about his seven hours with Guzman.

Actor Sean Penn said in a Friday preview of an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" that his article based on a secret interview with then-fugitive cartel leader "El Chapo" "has failed" to achieve his goal of sparking conversation about the War on Drugs. Penn met the notorious Sinaloa Cartel leader, whose real name is Joaquin Guzman, back in October with the help of Mexican actress Kate del Castillo. His story for Rolling Stone went live on Saturday, one day after Mexican authorities announced the fugitive's capture. Journalists immediately criticized the piece. "I have a regret that the entire discussion about...

Darcy Olsen, CEO and president of the Goldwater Institute, has written a must-read book for anyone facing a serious ailment, The Right to Try: How the Federal Government Prevents Americans from Getting the Life-Saving Treatments They Need.It is common knowledge there is a problem with the FDA delaying the approval of drugs. But until now, most Americans did not realize just how bad the situation is  — hundreds of thousands of people, including children, needlessly lose their lives every year because new, breakthrough drugs that have worked in clinical trials and are legal in other countries are not approved here....

Folks are furious at actor Sean Penn and Mexican-American actress Kate del Castillo because they got chummy with El Chapo, the notorious drug kingpin rearrested last Friday. Why exactly is that? Penn was not "acting" as a journalist, he was one when he and the soap star bravely entered the jungle and risked physical and financial harm to pursue the huge exclusive interview with the fugitive who was the most wanted man in the world. I would have done it. And I would have kept my mouth shut if I promised the source that I would keep my mouth shut...

In the most violence-plagued state, the loss added up to a stunning three years. A new study suggests that Mexico‘s drug violence was so bad at its peak that it apparently caused the nation‘s male life expectancy to drop by several months. Experts say the violence from 2005-2010 partly reversed decades of steady gains, noting that homicide rates increased from 9.5 homicides per 100,000 people in 2005 to more than 22 in 2010. That has since declined to about 16 per 100,000 in 2014.

Bobbie Bee can no longer contain her outrage after her husband was prescribed a drug that if taken in conjunction with his current cocktail of medications potentially could have raised his serotonin levels to dangerous heights, a risk that she says - and the FDA warns — "could've been deadly." "I can't carry them all at once," Bobbie J. Bee says over the unmistakable sound of pills individually bouncing off the sides of plastic bottling tubes as she walks in from her home's kitchen and into the dining room. She lays the containers out one-by-one. "These are for nerves, anger...

My landlord's mother lives downstairs, and has advanced lung disease and has been on oxygen 24/7 for many years, to the point that she spent many weeks in a nursing home before coming back home. However, mentally she is by nature a feisty (Jewish) 77 year-old lady and with a devoted son but who lives 30 min away. The daughter lives upstairs and tries to help but has limitations in helping her mother. I told her to call me anytime if she needed help (for free, no strings) and daily this has been the case (make coffee, take trash out,...

"Muslims account for only about 1 percent of the U.S. population but account for about half of terrorist attacks since 9/11. That means Muslims in the United States are about 5,000 percent more likely to commit terrorist attacks than non-Muslims." -- Mark Krikorian2) "Consider, for example, that in 1958 a mere 4 percent of Americans approved of interracial marriage. By 2013, that number had grown to 87 percent. In 2012 these once-taboo unions hit an all-time high.Ku Klux Klan membership has shrunk drastically from millions a century ago to fewer than 5,000 today. The Black Panthers are essentially extinct. While plenty...

LECANTO, Fla. — A woman is accused of shooting up meth and riding a motorized cart through a Walmart while eating chicken and drinking wine. WFLA reported that 20-year-old Josseleen Elida Lopez faces charges after the incident reported at a Walmart in Lecanto, Fla. on Tuesday. The suspect allegedly shot up meth and then ate sushi, cinnamon rolls, rotisserie chicken and drank wine while driving a motorized shopping cart at a Walmart....

President Barack Obama commuted the sentences of 95 offenders - including six drug offenders from the Philadelphia region - and pardoned two more in a year-end spree. Almost all of those receiving commuted sentences are non-violent drug offenders. Many were convicted of distributing or possessing cocaine or crack-cocaine. The commutations are the most that Obama has issued at once time. Four Philadelphia men, a Reading, Pennsylvania resident and a Lawrenceville, New Jersey man - three who were serving life sentences - were among those pardoned. Click here to learn more about each man's crimes and when they will become free.

Fugitive Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán has reportedly threatened to eliminate ISIS if it continues to destroy his drug shipments to unspecified Middle East countries that go through the terrorist group’s so called “caliphate,” a website called cartel.blog reported Thursday. In a harshly-worded encrypted email addressed to ISIS head Abu Bakd Badhdadi, the head of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel reportedly said: “My men will destroy you. The world is not yours to dictate. I pity the next son of a whore who tries to interfere with the business of the Sinaloa Cartel. I will have their heart and...

FORT GREENE — Surveillance video appeared to capture a woman calmly munching on a slice of pizza moments after an unlicensed driver hurtled onto a curb and fatally struck a 30-year-old woman Sunday on Fulton Street. In the video, the hungry witness is shown turning to look back at the victim, Victoria Nicodemus, lying beneath the wheels of a Chevrolet, but continuing to walk down the street unfazed after the crash near South Portland Place about 5:26 p.m. Just before walking off screen, the woman lifts her slice and takes a bite while others race to the victim's aid, the...

TULSA, Okla. (Reuters) - An Oklahoma man has been taken into custody on a murder charge on suspicion that he beat and sexually abused the 1-year-old daughter of his girlfriend, police said on Monday. Cody Johnson, 30, and his girlfriend brought an unresponsive Sawyer Jefferson to a Tulsa hospital on Saturday, saying that the girl had tripped over her pajamas and fallen on a toy.

A little pill called Captagon turns Jihadists into superhuman soldiers. They dont feel pain, they dont fear death and they dont get tired. They become killing machines. Bonus; it makes them murderously psychotic and causes brain damage after prolonged use. It is cheap, easy to produce and highly addictive. The Syrians take it as do the rebels. And from what I hear, ISIS loves the stuff. They laugh when they are beaten, they are high when they rape, they are jazzed when they behead infidels. During the raid in Paris, French police said they found needles used by the attackers...

In 1997, I went to a “needle exchange” in San Francisco to see firsthand how the “harm reduction program” prevented the spread of HIV among addicts. Exchange staff offered vitamins, treatment for sores and referrals to kick the habit; addicts handed over carefully bundled needles in a one-dirty-for-one-clean exchange. Users’ participation demonstrated that they had not given up on themselves.