Free Republic

At least three men were killed and another five people were wounded across Chicago as the Fourth of July weekend got underway.. On one block in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, a man was killed and another man was wounded about nine hours apart in shootings at the corner of 49th and Justine streets. Police said both men belonged to the La Razas gang, which has been fighting with a gang to the north in a small pocket of the Back of the Yards called "Halo City.”

... The German chancellor’s disapproval helped end the political careers of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and Greek leader George Papandreou. After burning through whatever goodwill he had with Merkel’s lawmakers and the German public, the current Greek premier could be next.... “We are watching the end of the political career of Alexis Tsipras,” Jacob Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at Peterson Institute in Washington, said in a Bloomberg Radio interview. “Mr. Tsipras can continue his career on T-shirts for students, replacing Che Guevara.”... Refusing to play ball with Germany didn’t turn out well for Berlusconi, whose premiership had survived...

A Catholic school in Macon, Ga., is facing a federal discrimination lawsuit from a former teacher whose employment was terminated in 2014 after the school found that he would be legally marrying his same-sex partner. “The argument being made in this suit—that a Catholic school’s commitment to upholding Catholic teaching on marriage is discriminatory toward homosexual employees—is a grave threat to Catholic education,” said Patrick Reilly, president of The Cardinal Newman Society. “A Catholic school exists for the very purpose of teaching the faith and forming young people for God,” he continued. “The implication is that our religion itself, rooted...

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky has filed a lawsuit on behalf of four Rowan County couples, two same-gender couples and two opposite-gender couples, denied marriage licenses by County Clerk Kim Davis, a press release from the ACLU confirms. Davis is standing firm on her decision to stop issuing marriage licenses, despite dozens of protesters who gathered outside the courthouse. "My conscience will not allow me to issue a license for a same sex couple," says Kim Davis, "because I know that God ordained marriage from the very foundation of this world to be between a man and a...

Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian finalized a preliminary ruling today ordering Aaron and Melissa Klein, the bakers who refused to make a cake for a same-sex wedding, to pay $135,000 in emotional damages to the couple they denied service. “This case is not about a wedding cake or a marriage,” Avakian wrote. “It is about a business’s refusal to serve someone because of their sexual orientation. Under Oregon law, that is illegal.” In the ruling, Avakian placed an effective gag order on the Kleins, ordering them to “cease and desist” from speaking publicly about not wanting to bake cakes for...

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

After the decision by the Oklahoma Supreme Court to remove the Ten Commandments Monument outside the state Capitol, the Satanic Temple is now looking for another home for its Baphomet monument. In 2012, Rep. Mike Ritze paid for the installation of a Ten Commandments Monument at the Oklahoma State Capitol’s front lawn. Since he paid for the Commandments himself, it was classified as a donation and was allowed to be placed on government property. After the Ten Commandments Monument was placed at the Oklahoma Capitol, the Satanic Temple announced that it wanted to donate a public monument to “complement and...

Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin spent months persuading influential Republicans that he alone had the impressive conservative achievements and mainstream American appeal needed to not only win the party’s nomination but also recapture the White House. Breakout performances on the stump in Iowa early this year vaulted Mr. Walker, who is expected to officially enter the presidential race this month, into the lead in polls in the state with the nation’s first nominating contest, and cemented him among the top three Republican contenders in most national surveys. But the expectations created by that early prominence, as well as a growing...

U.S. Chamber of Commerce president Tom Donahue said something Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, could work on was learning how to 'sit down and shut up' after the firebrand conservative led a Republican effort to defund President Barack Obama's signature health care law resulting in a 16-day federal government shutdown and near credit default. "He has his right as a member of the Senate to get out and push the things he supports or resist the things he doesn't support and we're going to try to work with him wherever we can," Donahue said during an event hosted by the Christian...

Home invasion survivor: I was against guns, now I carry

Nearly 150 people are reported to have been killed by suspected Boko Haram Islamist militants in attacks in Nigeria's north-eastern Borno state. Eyewitnesses say the gunmen stormed the village of Kukawa near Lake Chad on Wednesday evening, killing 97 people, including women and children. On Tuesday, the militants shot dead 48 men after they had finished prayers in two villages near the town of Monguno, a resident told the BBC. The women are said to have been spared. Monguno was recently recaptured from Boko Haram. At least 23 people died in the town last month after a confiscated Boko Haram...

Forty-four-year-old Vincent Broughton of Colorado Springs, Colo., is facing charges of bias-motivated crime, harassment, littering and disorderly conduct.A Colorado Springs, Colo., man was arrested Tuesday after admitting to local station KRDO that he was the one who posted racially charged signs outside two churches and around the city, KRDO reports. Vincent Broughton, who is black, faces charges of committing a bias-motivated crime, disorderly conduct, harassment and littering, the news site notes. The signs were first put up outside New Covenant Church of God in Christ, and referenced the Ku Klux Klan. On Monday, three signs were found outside the Relevant...

The party's hardline chief and defence minister, Panos Kammenos, dismissed them contemptuously. "We are at war and there will be no backing down. Whoever does not have the stomach for war, be gone," he said... Mr Varoufakis vowed to resign if the Greek people voted yes. "I prefer to cut off my own arm rather than sign an agreement without debt restructuring," he told Bloomberg TV. He said there is not a "smidgeon of an iota of possibility" that the terms on offer can lift the Greek economy out of a deflationary tailspin, insisting that the talks broke down because...

John Whitman, the husband of former Republican Gov. Christine Todd Whitman and the state's first-ever first gentleman, died Thursday. He was 71. He died at Morristown Medical Center after suffering a catastrophic brain injury in mid-June, said Heather Grizzle, a spokeswoman for Todd Whitman. John Whitman was an investment banker who served as a managing partner at Princeton-based Sycamore Ventures. He served as New Jersey's first gentleman from 1994 to 2001.

This past weekend has been heady one for our friends on the soft-core left. Without ever attending a meeting, let alone a march, or even making a donation, they got to celebrate Obergefell v. Hodges as if it were V-J day. These are the same people, of course, who protested not a peep in 1996 when Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act into law, the same people who voted giddily for Barack Obama in 2008 despite his avowed support for traditional marriage, the same people who cannot wait until their next water cooler encounter to dress down some...

FR CANTEEN MISSION STATEMENT Showing support and boosting the morale of our military and our allied military and the family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. FReeper Canteen Just Hangin' Cafe Come on in, we're open Need a place just to hang out? This is it. We serve coffee, tea, conversation and music. Our AWESOME military, our AWESOME allies, and their families are welcomed and honored here. No worries in the FReeper Canteen Just Hangin' Cafe. Grab a cup and start a conversation. You never know who you might meet in the Cafe. Glad you could...

Photo Islamic State-linked militants struck Egyptian army outposts in the Sinai Peninsula on Wednesday in a coordinated wave of suicide bombings and battles that underlined the government's failure to stem an insurgency despite a two-year crackdown. Security officials said dozens of troops were killed, along with nearly 100 attackers. After the attack, which took place just across the border from Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, "We send our condolences to the government and people of Egypt, and to the families of the Egyptians that were slain by this vicious terrorism." Later on Wednesday, Netanyahu said, "We see ISIS [Islamic...

BALTIMORE —The Baltimore City Police Department has launched an internal investigation after a WBAL-TV 11 News viewer shared four photographs of a sign inside a city police wagon. The photos show the doors of the parked police van left open. On the inside of the back door is a sign, attached or possibly stenciled on, that reads: "Enjoy your ride, cuz we sure will!" The pictures were taken Tuesday near the Central District Police Station on Baltimore Street.

Rep. Alan Grayson (D., Fla.) is finding himself in hot water over managing hedge funds that bear his name, actions that are in possible violation of House ethics rules. Sitting members of Congress are prohibited from using their name in titles of entities for personal financial gain, Politico reports. Rep. Grayson has three hedge funds with his name attached to their title. One of Grayson’s funds, Grayson Fund L.P, is based out of Delaware and consists of three investors. According to November regulatory filings, the fund shows sales totaling $13.2 million.

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Hundreds of Chicago Public Schools teachers and parents protested at City Hall Thursday morning following 1,400 layoffs and $200 million in cuts to meet a teachers' pension deadline. Mayor Rahm Emanuel delayed a $634 million pension payment until the eleventh-hour on Tuesday, waiting to see any relief would come from state lawmakers. It never came. The mayor and Interim CPS CEO Jesse Ruiz outlined on Wednesday who would be laid off and where cuts would be made. Ruiz said most of the 1,400 jobs cut were in administration and special education programs. Very few teachers were laid...