Free Republic

We’ve been following the events in Baltimore coming out of the Freddie Gray case pretty closely and, as usual, the story seems to be swinging further and further away from the original incident and focusing on the city government. As you may recall, State Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby recently asked for a gag order preventing the release of the autopsy in the case, as well as barring any discussion in the media of relevant information. It didn’t take long for an answer to come down, and the court has declined her request.But the reason is probably not what you were...

BALTIMORE – The judge presiding over the prosecution of six Baltimore Police officers involved in the arrest of Freddie Gray struck the state’s motion for a gag order in the case.

BALTIMORE (AP) — Baltimore prosecutors are seeking a gag order as they pursue a criminal case against six city officers in the case of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old man who died a week after suffering a spinal injury while in police custody. A court document that references the gag order, obtained by The Associated Press, is dated Wednesday. Assistant State's Attorney Antonio Gioia wrote that the gag order motion was mailed to defense attorneys. Rochelle Ritchie, a spokeswoman for State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, confirmed Friday the office is seeking a gag order. She declined to provide further details. A gag...

Full title: Prosecution attempts to silence Jared Marcum with gag order; reporter covering story threatened with arrest WOWK has been the only news outlet following every new development in the case of Jared Marcum, the Logan County, West Virginia student who was suspended, arrested and is now facing an obstruction charge after refusing to change his NRA shirt at school. On Monday morning, June 24, Jared's case took yet another turn. Nearly two weeks before Jared, the 14-year-old at the center of the "T-Shirt Control Controversy", was scheduled to be back in court, he found himself inside of the Logan...

Many continue to ask why the media and lawmakers have not spoken to or brought forth those who survived the deadly attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi last September. The truth of the matter is the Americans who survived that attack cannot legally reveal to members of the press or most lawmakers that they were even witnesses to the attack in Benghazi. According to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, immediately following the attack, the FBI, as part of the agency’s investigation, interviewed survivors of the Benghazi attack. Bill Bransford, a Washington, D.C. attorney at Shaw Bransford & Roth P.C....

Israeli security forces have arrested a terrorist wanted for dozens of attacks, including an April 2008 incident in which he fired at the convoy of then Public Security Minister Avi Dichter. The terrorist is Ayoub Ayoub Ahmed Abu Karim, 22, of the Muazi neighborhood in Gaza. He was arrested last month but the matter was under a gag order until now. Abu Karim told interrogators that he had joined a Hamas affiliated group called the Defenders of Al Aqsa, which was formed in order to carry out attacks without implicating Hamas. The instructions for carrying out attacks came from Hamas,...

Women to blame for rise in injunctions, says leading lawyer Baroness Deech, one of Britain's leading lawyers, says she is ashamed of the "kiss and tell women" at the centre of most superinjunctions. By Steven Swinford3:55PM BST 26 Apr 2011 Lady Deech, the head of the Bar Standards Board, said she blamed women who sell their stories for money for increasing use of the orders. She said: "I do blame women. In many of the cases of gagging orders we read about, women have sold their favours to celebrities and then have tried to make even more money out of...

U.S. health officials announced Friday that private insurers can send seniors information on health-related issues as long as they allow their members to opt out of receiving the communications, effectively ending its probe of Humana. The federal government, in the face of allegations it was trampling on free speech, has closed its investigation of a major insurance company for allegedly trying to scare seniors with a mailer warning they could lose important benefits under President Obama's health reform plan. U.S. health officials announced Friday that private insurers can send seniors information on health-related issues as long as they allow their...

The ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee is demanding answers from the government agency that administers Medicare and Medicaid after it ordered a private health insurance company to stop informing its enrollees about looming Medicare cuts under President Obama's healthcare plan. In a letter last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) informed Humana that it had launched an investigation of the health insurance company's marketing practices. CMS has also ordered Humana to stop telling its enrollees that President Obama's proposed healthcare plan could lower their Medicare Advantage benefits. Medicare Advantage plans are private plans...

Senator Max Baucus (D-MO), who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, recently asked the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to investigate a mailer sent by the Humana healthcare company to senior citizens that it insures claiming it misled seniors about proposed changes to Medicare. The letter Humana sent to its enrollees regards its concerns about potential cuts in the Medicare Advantage program. ... Today (Sepember 24th), Senate Republicans threatened to block Obama’s health care-related appointments if the decision is not reversed. House Republicans further called for a hearing on what they described as a politically motivated “gag order.” Democrats Gag...

Free Speech: The Senate votes against transparency as the administration silences a private insurer for exposing the president's health care proposal. Meanwhile, AARP is allowed to tout reform as it awaits payday. We weren't surprised when the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday voted 12 to 11 against allowing two weeks for the Congressional Budget Office to complete its cost analysis of the health care bill pushed by Montana Democrat Max Baucus and to put the bill online in its original wording. Instead, the Senate panel passed another amendment to require the committee to post the full bill online in "conceptual"...

“Until Your Department Rescinds Its Gag Order And Allows Seniors To Receive Information About Matters Before Congress, We Will Not Consent To Time Agreements On The Confirmation Of Any Nominees To Your Department Or Associated Agencies”

Jonathan Blum, an acting director at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is apparently responsible for issuing a gag order against Humana, Inc., on Monday evening. Blum is a former staffer to Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee currently in markup of their own chopped salad version of the health care bill. Baucus has taken credit in the media for demanding CMS issue the unprecedented order.  CMS also changed their mailing guidelines to include a ban on any Medicare Advantage (MA) provider sending information or placing information on their websites regarding the non-partisan Congressional...

The Kenyan government has barred unapproved contacts between the media and President-elect Barack Obama's extended family. Family members will be required to receive permission from the government before making any public statements about their famous relative, according to the Nairobi Star. "We are doing this because we want to ensure better flow of information," Athman Said, an under-secretary in the Ministry of Heritage, told the Obama family in Kogelo. "The government has decided that you should inform its officers who will be based here if you want to address the media."

Judge enters ‘not guilty’ plea for UnderwoodBy Tom Blakey Transcript Staff Writer PURCELL — A downstairs neighbor was arraigned Monday in last week’s macabre murder of a 10-year-old girl whom the man allegedly had intended to cannibalize. Kevin Ray Underwood, 26, made his first appearance in the McClain County courtroom of Special Judge Gary Barger and was formally arraigned on charges of first-degree murder in the death of Jamie Rose Bolin. Most of the 45 to 50 people at the hearing were representatives of local and national media, who have arrived in force in this McClain County town of 5,713...

I have disturbing news to bring to you. Right now, in the California State Legislature, a bill is being considered which would effectively silence any voice that dare oppose homosexuality. This bill will mandate that public school textbooks used by children be revised to include "gay history." But there's more. Not only would this bill revise textbooks to favor homosexuals, it would PROHIBIT teachers from saying anything that confronts or challenges homosexuality.This is nothing less than censorship of an Orwellian sort. We need your action now! Call your state senators and tell them to oppose SB 1437. http://www.crmail.org/public/lib.aspx?lid=3098 ++ FIND...

The William J. Clinton presidential foundation has decided to scrap a form requiring volunteers at the former chief executive's library in Little Rock, Ark. to sign a restrictive gag order that was good for life. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that the library barred volunteers from ever speaking on the record once they signed a two-page non-disclosure form required before they were permitted to work there. The paper also reported that the form, which "threatened legal action against volunteers who spoke out of turn," also required the volunteers to alert the foundation if they were ever subpoenaed, and forbade them from...

Captain's Quarters has really stirred up the Canadian blogosphere by carrying details of court testimony on a governmental scandal that is banned from publication in the Great White North. The scandal is about the use of Canadian government money, laundered through a private ad agency, to hire Liberal Party hacks, and is so serious it may catapault the Canadian conservatives into power. This incident marks one more step by the blogosphere into the realm of news generation as opposed to mere commentary. Captain Ed is well aware of this and adds the uncustomary (for a blog) disclaimer: Thanks to a...

In a shocking abuse of office, the attorney general of Kansas is conducting a stealth campaign to violate the privacy of about 90 women who obtained late-term abortions, offering the flimsy claim that he's looking for evidence of crime. Protected by a sweeping gag order from a local judge, Attorney General Phill Kline has been demanding the women's records from two clinics that have been unable to even warn clients that their intimate histories are being sought. When the inquiry finally came to light through a court brief, Mr. Kline maintained that he needed all the women's records - including...

2004 GOP Primary EndorsementsU.S. Senate - John McCain sure has a lot of sympathies for liberal and Democrat causes and office holders. He has opposed almost everything conservatives hold dear. This summer alone, he has defended Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and has sided with homosexual activists over those who would defend traditional marriage. Recommendation: NONE