Free Republic

<p>EXCLUSIVE Food stamps are paying to buy and ship food to Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. A spokeswoman for the US Dept of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service said the $86 BILLION welfare program is reserved for poor US households that buy and prepare food.</p>

(CNSNews.com) – The State Department through its Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs is planning to spend $95,000 to provide vocational training to Haitian inmates in textile production and assembly. “The applicant should demonstrate an ability to conduct job training on clothing production (including skills such as sewing, tailoring, and/or clothing assembly) within individual prisons in Haiti’s Ouest Department. This training should be hands-on and allow prisoners to get real practice working with textile materials,” the grant said. The International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) specifically targeted the textile industry, “which is projected to grow in Haiti as...

His wife may be the official ambassador for the U.S., but Bill Clinton sure does get a lot of requests about his opinion on foreign affairs. Clinton is expected to take the stage around 4 p.m. at the Americas Conference, being held at the Biltmore in Coral Gables and he won't be talking about his good times in the Oval Office. The former president is expected to address the recent political upheavel in Honduras, which has become the dominating theme at the conference. Outside of the hotel, about 50 protesters chanting "Elections yes, Zelaya no" greeted guests and speakers. They...

On April 8, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi headlined a Boston conference on ''media reform.'' She was joined by four other congressmen, a senator, two FCC commissioners, a Nobel laureate and numerous liberal journalists. The 2,500-person event was sponsored by a group called Free Press, one of more than 180 different media-related organizations that receives money from liberal billionaire George Soros. Soros, who first made a name for himself in investing and currency trading, now makes his name in politics and policy. Since the 2004 election, the controversial financier has used his influence and billions to push a laundry list...

First there’s a tap on the shoulder. A huge palace-guard policeman in full body armour and a black balaclava uses a riot stick to suggest it’s time to go. Then he swings the truncheon high in the air and it comes down with a sickening thud on the back of a demonstrator. Beside him a man lies groaning as blood drips from a deep hand wound. The President of Haiti, Michel Martelly, stands just yards away, surrounded by a crowd of 10,000 people in the central square of the capital Port-au-Prince. This pop-star leader – a former Creole singer known...

International affairs can be complicated, but sometimes a case comes along that’s so simple it’s almost absurd. In 2010, the United Nations made a horrendous mistake that, so far, has claimed more than 8,000 lives. Its officials tried to cover it up. When the evidence came out anyway, lawyers for victims’ families petitioned the U.N. to end the crisis, pay damages, and apologize. For a year and a half, the world’s leading humanitarian organization said nothing. Then, last week, it threw out the case, saying, “The claims are not receivable.” The background should be well-known by now. But despite the...

Prisons for Haiti: U.S. to Build Two Complexes Near Port au Prince (NEWS BRIEF)By Steve Peacock, U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor (Dec. 20, 2012) The U.S. Department of State is arranging the construction of two prison facilities outside Haiti's capital of Port au Prince. The project, with an estimated top-cost of $10 million, includes a 150-bed prison and 200-bed womens prison in Petit Goave and Cabaret, Haiti, respectively. State tentatively scheduled a "pre-proposal conference and site visit" for prospective prison-industry contractors in Port au Prince for February 5-6, 2013. Source document: Solicitation #SAQMMA13R0067. FOR ADDITIONAL COVERAGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE ISSUES,...

A Travel Channel episode of No Reservations, [..], took viewers to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. I had heard that the show offered unique insight into the country and its troubles. I couldn't imagine how. But it turns out to be true. Through the lens of food, we can gain an insight into culture, and from culture to economy, and from economy to politics and finally to what's wrong in this country and what can be done about it. Through this micro lens, we gain more insight than we would have if the program were entirely focused on economic issues. Such an episode...

Documents obtained by CBS News show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) discussed using their covert operation "Fast and Furious" to argue for controversial new rules about gun sales. PICTURES: ATF "Gunwalking" scandal timeline In Fast and Furious, ATF secretly encouraged gun dealers to sell to suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels to go after the "big fish." But ATF whistleblowers told CBS News and Congress it was a dangerous practice called "gunwalking," and it put thousands of weapons on the street. Many were used in violent crimes in Mexico. Two were found at the murder...

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has attended the launch of a $300m (£187m) industrial park in the Haitian town of Caracol. The project is part of US efforts to help Haiti recover from the devastation it suffered in the 2010 earthquake. The US has invested $124m (£77m) in the project, which it hopes will create thousands of jobs. At a grand opening ceremony Haiti's President Michel Martelly said the country was "open for business".

The government of Haiti is hosting Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton today, along with a delegation of foreign investors and a crowd of celebrities. They're gathering to inaugurate an industrial park that is the centerpiece of the U.S. aid effort since the 2010 earthquake. The Clintons and others hope the facility will transform northern Haiti by providing thousands of jobs. The industrial park is more than a hundred miles from the slowly-recovering quake zone.

Wyclef's Haiti Charity Is Now Defunct After Mishandling $16M In Donations Aly WeismanOct. 12, 2012, 6:52 PMWyclef's Yéle charity is no longer.Wyclef Jean's Yéle Haiti charity, once what the singer said was the country's "greatest asset and ally" is now defunct and in debt. The charity's collapse comes after years of accusations of mishandled funds, which amounted to a reported $16 million following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. "Yéle was small before the earthquake, with only $37,000 in assets," reports The New York Times. "Immediately afterward, money started pouring in. Mr. Jean said he raised $1 million in 24 hours...

Four of Haiti's five Olympians at the London Games have something in common -- they're not from Haiti. With millions of Haitians living on $2 a day or less and hundreds of thousands of people rendered homeless by a devastating earthquake two years ago, the country struggles to produce world-class athletes. But those with Haitian links are still eager to represent the small Caribbean country. "I still feel Haitian even if I wasn't born there," 21-year-old sprinter Marlena Wesh said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. Wesh, who will run in the 200 and 400-meter races at the...

Criminals in Haiti are preying on vulnerable earthquake survivors, even raping women, in makeshift camps set up in Port-au-Prince after the disaster. "With the blackout that's befallen the Haitian capital, bandits are taking advantage to harass and rape women and young girls under the tents," Haiti’s police, chief Mario Andresol, said yesterday. "We have more than 7,000 detainees in the streets who escaped from the national penitentiary the evening of the earthquake ... It took us five years to apprehend them. Today they are running wild." Rachelle Dolce, who is living at a large makeshift camp on the Petionville Club...

Can Any of These House Underdogs Survive? Stuart Rothenberg June 8, 2012 · 1:48 PM EDT Remember their names: Reps. Charles Bass (R-N.H.), John Barrow (D-Ga.), Bobby Schilling (R-Ill.), Jim Matheson (D-Utah) and Robert Dold (R-Ill.). If any of these five House incumbents survive, it will surprise most dispassionate observers (including some in their own parties). But upsets happen, and each of these candidates has a scenario for victory. Moments after Bass was declared the winner in November 2010, most political insiders figured he would be doomed in 2012. But considering his past electoral success, reports of his political demise...

Orlando Morel was 6 years old when he and his mother left Haiti on a crowded small wooden boat destined for America. Now 24, Morel remembers the blue of the ocean everywhere. And the hunger. When a piece of bread fell into the water, Morel quickly scooped it up. "I will never forget that taste," he said, recalling the salty, soggy bread. Nor will he forget when the Coast Guard showed up in a white boat and rescued him, his mother and other passengers. Eternally grateful, the rescue led Morel to join the Coast Guard, and on Wednesday he will...

Several Democratic senators are calling on the Obama administration to allow Syrians who are already in the United States to stay, at least temporarily, out of concern it would be "too dangerous" for them to return home. The senators want President Obama to invoke what's known as "temporary protected status" for thousands of Syrians in the U.S. The designation typically is given to foreign nationals whose home countries are beset by war or natural disaster and who could face harm should they return. The senators argued that Syrians in the U.S. are in just that kind of predicament, as Syrian...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - A small band of protesters called Tuesday for Haitian President Michel Martelly to prove he's eligible for office as they destroyed posters that bore images of the leader. The 100 or so demonstrators said Martelly should heed requests by lawmakers to show his travel documents in an effort to dispel allegations that he holds dual nationality, which would bar him from office under Haiti's constitution. "We are taking to the streets to tell Martelly to show his passport," protester Ronald Jean-Charles said as others burned posters of the president. "If not, he should step down." The...

When burglar Kesler Dufrene became a twice-convicted felon in 2006, a Bradenton judge shipped him to prison for five years. And because of his convictions, an immigration judge ordered Dufrene deported to his native Haiti. That never happened. Instead, when Dufrene’s state prison term was up, Miami immigration authorities in October 2010 released him from custody. Two months later, North Miami police say, he slaughtered three people, including a 15-year-old girl in a murder case that remains as baffling today as it did the afternoon the bodies were discovered.

On Jan. 12, for the second anniversary of the devastating earthquake, thousands of people flocked to the Shalom Church in Port au Prince, Haiti. The "church" is just a plywood stage under a patchwork of tattered tarps. The crowd was so large that it spilled down a muddy hill toward a tent camp for earthquake victims. Most of the singing, swaying congregation were so far away they couldn't even see the podium. The evangelical mission now claims to have more than 50,000 members and one of the most popular radio stations in Haiti. This church is a product of the...