Free Republic

Brigitte Jackson is nabbed by cops in elaborate sting. She gets caught when she tries to cash fake state check for $94,323,148.

A national security staffer in the Obama administration said the president has been seeing 'highly accurate predictions' about the rise of the ISIS terror army since 'before the 2012 election' Obama insisted in his campaign speeches that year that America was safe and al-Qaeda was 'on the run' The president said during Sunday's '60 Minutes' program that his Director of National Intelligence had conceded he underestimated ISIS But the administration aide insisted that Obama's advisers gave him actionable information that sat and gathered dust for more than a year 'He knew what was at stake,' the aide said of the...

Members of Minnesota's large Somali community gathered Sunday to condemn the recruitment of youth by terrorist groups and urge collaboration to find solutions to address the problem. About 100 people attended a town hall meeting to denounce groups such as the Islamic State and al-Shabab, which together have recruited more than two dozen fighters from Minnesota since 2007. U.S. Attorney Andy Luger told the crowd he's working hard to bring more resources to the community to address the root causes of the problem. "I have two children and if somebody was recruiting my children to go overseas and die, I...

The Obama administration looks set to go weak in the knees in life-or-death negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. From the start, the United States and its allies have pressed the mullahs to disable all but about 1,500 of their centrifuges. The logic: With that many machines in operation, should Tehran flip the switch to begin enriching weapons-grade nuclear material, the process of amassing enough uranium for an atom bomb would take a year. Cold comfort, but better than nothing. All the while, Iran has insisted that it needs all 9,400 of its spinning centrifuges, which, of course, ha ha, it...

Written Aug. 31, 2014 – Before recent days, who among us had ever heard of Ferguson, Missouri? Because of what happened there, the brief but intense experience of state repression, its name will be transmitted by millions of Black mouths to millions of Black ears, and it will become a watchword for resistance, like Watts, like Newark, Harlem and LA. But Ferguson wasn’t 60 years ago – it’s today. And for young Blacks from Ferguson and beyond, it was a stark, vivid history lesson – and also a reality lesson. When they dared protest the state street murder of one...

The Great Recession has lasted a lot longer for some than for others. A new survey from Rutgers University’s John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development found that “one in five workers - or nearly 30 million people - say they were laid off from a job in the past five years," dating back to the end of the recession in June 2009. "Nearly 4 in 10 of these laid-off workers say they searched for a job for more than seven months before finding another one; one in five workers laid off during the past five years never found another...

On Sept. 26, 2012, an American pastor named Saeed Abedini who was visiting family and fellow Christians in Tehran was dragged out of the private home he was staying in and hauled away to jail by Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Friday marked the second anniversary of his imprisonment, and for the last two years he has been beaten, abused and subjected to solitary confinement for weeks on end in Iran’s most notoriously dangerous prisons for the crime of professing his Christian faith. Pastor Saeed isn’t the only American suffering at the hands of the Iranian regime. Marine veteran Amir Hekmati is...

A 37-year-old man has been executed in Iran after being found guilty of heresy and insulting prophet Jonah, according to human rights activists. Mohsen Amir-Aslani was arrested nine years ago for his activities which the authorities deemed were heretical. He was engaged in psychotherapy but also led sessions reading and reciting the Qur’an and providing his own interpretations of the Islamic holy book, his family said. Amir-Aslani was hanged last week for making “innovations in the religion” and “spreading corruption on earth”, but human rights activists said he was a prisoner of conscience who was put to death because of...

A knife-wielding intruder allowed to burst through the White House's front door. Bullets that struck the window of Barack Obama's private residence but went unnoticed for days. A presidential bodyguard so drunk he passed out in hallway of a hotel. These are just some of the recent incidents that have shaken confidence in the Secret Service, the elite agency assigned to protect Mr Obama, his family and the White House. On Tuesday, Julia Pierson, the Secret Service's director, will face a grilling from members of Congress and a battle to convince them that her agents are up to the task...

College syllabi are handed out en masse at the beginning of a course for students. Sometimes they’re kept and carefully followed; sometimes they’re tossed away when the student decides not to take it after all. Professors often post their syllabi online. They are not treated like creative works. Therefore, the idea that syllabi are the copyrighted property of the professor seems far-fetched. The idea that the university that employs the professor must refuse requests for copies of them under a state’s “Sunshine Law” seems even more so. But that is exactly the situation in a dispute involving the University of...

CLAYTON, Mo. — The suburban St. Louis County police officer who fatally shot an unarmed 18-year-old has enlisted a police union attorney who has spent decades representing members of law enforcement in court. James P. Towey Jr. told The Associated Press Monday that he represents Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. Wilson is under a grand jury investigation....

Imagine you consult an attorney with an important case. He says, “I'll accept your case, but I have to tell you at the start, I don't respect you. In fact, you're a coward.” The Obama administration entrusted the most important cases of our nation to an attorney general who held the people he was hired to represent in contempt. Presidential administrations have mottos. Theodore Roosevelt spoke softly but carried a big stick; John Kennedy pointed to new frontiers and self-sacrifice; Lyndon Johnson spoke of a great society. As Eric Holder departs, in order to recover from his verbal abuse of...

First Lady Michelle Obama will rally with Democratic candidate for governor Mary Burke in Milwaukee on Monday, September 29th. Last-minute preparations were underway Sunday at the Wisconsin Center in downtown Milwaukee. That’s where Michelle Obama will join Mary Burke Monday for a Milwaukee rally in the very close race for governor. “We want to give the first lady a big Wisconsin welcome,” Burke for Wisconsin Communications Director Joe Zepecki said. Volunteers were busy Sunday at the Wisconsin Center — setting up for the first lady’s visit. “There`s always a lot of set up — little details big details. They`re handling...

There is light at the end of the tunnel of Barack Obama’s presidency. With only 843 days left, the presidential campaign will kick off about one month from now. Getting an early boost for his potential bid is U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). This past weekend he won the Value Voters Summit straw poll with 25 percent of the vote. Ben Carson placed second with 20 percent and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee came in a distant third with 12 percent. While so many GOP establishment types are still encouraging former Gov. Mitt Romney to try a third time after...

John Hopkins Medicine researchers will track the physical activities and daily diet of 50 overweight freshman from Lakewood High School as part of a pilot project using Fitbit – an electronic wristband that records activity and sleep patterns. The effort, funded by a $100,000 grant from insurer Florida Blue, is focused more on teaching healthy habits than weight loss, and is expected to be one of the first studies involving adolescence and wearable heath-related technology, Reuters reports. Researchers told the news service the pilot project eliminates the need to bring students in to the doctor’s office, and they’re hoping to...

War speech at Air Force base produced by private, Dem-friendly company The stage, drapes, and sound system for an 18-minute speech by President Barack Obama cost taxpayers nearly $100,000. “Elite Productions,” the go-to company for prominent Democratic politicians such as Bill and Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi, put on the set for Obama’s speech to troops at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., on Sept. 17. The company provided “stage, drapery, and audio/visual equipment,” according to a contract document made public by the Air Force last week. The government paid the company $94,360 for a speech that lasted from...

Strict laws must be put in place to combat New York City’s massive tobacco smuggling problem, former Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives Assistant Director Rich Marianos told The Daily Caller News Foundation.“Street gangs, narcotics crews, Russian and Asian organized crime networks, and terrorists are trading cigs for guns, narcotics — even humans,” Marianos, who was with the ATF for 27 years, said.NYC’s disproportionately high cigarette tax is allowing hardened criminals and even terrorists to fund illicit activity and make huge profits, with almost no risk, thanks to lax tobacco smuggling laws.Since 2006, the tax rate on NYC...

Prepare for the return of the confirmation fight. If Republicans capture the Senate majority in November, their sway over prominent judgeships and Cabinet vacancies — potentially including a new attorney general — will become one of the GOP’s primary leverage points against President Barack Obama. But first the GOP must decide whether to adopt Senate Democrats’ bellicose tactic to allow approval of most executive branch nominees by a simple majority vote. The rules change to the filibuster was implemented by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), but it could now come back to bite him...

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – A verdict is reached in the trial of a western Colorado radio host accused of causing more than $1,000 of destruction to a Bureau of Land Management trail. David Justice, also known as Stanley Hugh Anderson, was found guilty on Thursday following a three-day jury trial in Grand Junction. Jeff Dorschner of the U.S. Department of Justice in Denver said David Justice and others tore down barricades on Cushman Creek Trail in Montrose County in July of 2013. The vandalism was in protest of the BLM's decision to limit access to the trail to two-wheel vehicles,...

Hong Kong Protests