Free Republic

We regularly report on campus restrictions that undermine students’ First Amendment rights to free speech. Now, in the wake of several well-publicized mass killings by mentally ill individuals, several university presidents have signed document that may target students’ Second Amendment rights as well. The Cornell Insider has the details about the head of its institution. "In response to the Newtown shooting, Cornell University’s own President David Skorton has joined nine other university presidents in signing a document advocating for “strong, meaningful action needs to occur in three domains: gun control, care of the mentally ill, and the culture of our...

ITHACA — Robberies in the city increased 27 percent during the first half of 2012, ending a three-year decline, according to the latest figures released by the Ithaca Police Department.... In another unsettling statistic, the number of burglaries committed in the first half of 2012 are already 71 percent of the level committed in all of 2011....

After seeing two consecutive years of double-digit growth, Cornell’s endowment return took a nosedive in the 2011-12 fiscal year, just breaking even with a 0.14 percent gain, the University reported Wednesday.... In explaining its financial performance, the University has cited turbulence in the economy: slowing growth in China, financial crisis in Europe and an impending “fiscal cliff” in the U.S. “While traditional measures of volatility are at historically low levels, it would be an error in judgment to think that all is well and there is nowhere to go but up,” [Chief Investment Officer A.J. Edwards] said at the end...

As the contentious and divisive 2012 presidential campaign draws to a close, Cornell students and professors say that this year’s election has not generated nearly the same level of excitement on campus as the one in 2008. During the 2008 campaign, Cornell’s campus was “abuzz,” said Prof. Theodore Lowi, government. “There was a lot of talk, a lot of chatter, among both faculty and students, on the issues,” he said. But this year, Lowi said, he has seen far less enthusiasm about the upcoming presidential election. “Walking around campus, I’ve seen no excitement, nothing energizing. I see it as a...

A jury has awarded Ithaca police officer Chris Miller more than $2 million in a federal discrimination lawsuit. After nearly a month of testimony and two days of deliberation, it's a win for suspended Ithaca police officer Chris Miller. "He works day by day to recover his reputation and I think it's been tarnished and I think it's been very difficult for him and his family. And I think this is a step along the way of recovering that," said AJ Bosman, Miller’s attorney. Miller sued the City of Ithaca and five of his superiors in the police department. He...

ITHACA — Journalists covering dictatorial regimes overseas often have ‘minders’ assigned ensuring the state controls access. In a move more familiar to China than a college campus, Ithaca College officials announced Friday future press contact with administrators must be cleared by the college. The change in policy was quickly denounced by IC faculty as a “potential public relations disaster.” Starting Oct. 1, members of Ithaca College student newspapers, radio and television must first clear any administrative contact with the college’s media relations department. The new policy affects student media “who are reporting on topics of college policies and developments must...

Claiming the prevalence of high-level corruption in the IPD, Officer Chris Miller named two police chiefs, one former mayor, two municipalities, one district attorney, one union president and at least five Ithaca Police officers as defendants in his sprawling, $17-million federal discrimination lawsuit. The resulting legal battle has ensnared Marlon Byrd — a black IPD lieutenant — in allegations that he aided drug dealers, and threatens to destroy the reputations and careers of many others.

One afternoon in Ithaca, N.Y., my kids were playing on the swing sets in the park when a little tike wearing a football jersey ran into my daughter’s path. I lunged for the swing — I jerked the chain so abruptly that I feared whiplash — and shared a “wow, that was close” exchange with the kid’s mom. “How old is he?” I asked. The lady looked at me as she placed her kid on the swing and said with no trace of irony, “His name is Jill, and she’s three.” As I tried to match the pronouns and antecedents,...

The FBI, the New York attorney general and the Tompkins County district attorney are investigating allegations that an Ithaca Police Department officer may have tipped off drug dealers about impending drug raids, according to Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick.

Three Democratic organizers have joined together in Tompkins County to rally up voters for President Barack Obama’s re-election. Senior Veronica De Cesare, a member of Obama for America 2012 who is responsible for canvassing Ithaca College and its surrounding areas, held a meeting in her Circle Apartment last week to talk about re-election tactics and to celebrate the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which prevented openly homosexual and bisexual individuals from serving in the military. De Cesare, Cornell University senior Brynn Leopold and Robert Chapman, an adjunct instructor at Tompkins Cortland Community College, met in mid-September during...

A 34-year-old genetic researcher with ties to Yale University will appear Monday in a Dryden courtroom, charged with the first-degree rape of a Town of Ithaca woman. Navneet K. Tyagi of New Haven, Conn. is charged with forcible sex. According to the Tompkins County Sheriff’s Office, Tyagi drove from Connecticut to the victim’s home, where he allegedly “held her captive for several hours, forcing her to engage in sexual intercourse.” He was arraigned before Judge Clauson in the Town of Dryden Court and sent to Tompkins County Jail in lieu of $500,000 cash bail. Cornell Public Safety and the New...

Expect even more flags at Republican campaign events. And if the Democrats were wise, they might well strip the stage of flags altogether, suggests a new Cornell study, the first to look at the political impact of the flag's image on Americans. The research finds that for up to eight months after glimpsing the stars and stripes, voters of all political persuasions shift toward conservative Republican attitudes and voting behavior. "Part of the reason we think this effect is so durable is because we primed people with the flag while they were thinking about their voting choices," said Melissa J....

Giuliani is scheduled to speak at Cornell’s convocation May 28 at Schoelkopf Stadium. His selection as the first Republican to speak at this Ivy League school follows a long list of Democrats since 1984. In 2010, the school selected then-Democratic U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “It is encouraging to see that there’s a consideration of the other side, which I know a lot of us hadn’t thought was the case,” a member of the Cornell Republicans told the Cornell Daily Sun earlier this week.

America's 10 Most Toxic CitiesPhiladelphia Lands on Atop The Most Toxic Towns List By Morgan Brennan March 5, 2011 During the Revolutionary War Philadelphia served as one of America's first capital cities. These days, however, Philadelphia could be considered the capital of toxicity, since the city and its environs ranked No. 1 on our 2011 Most Toxic Cities list. One big reason: The sprawling Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), including parts of four states (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and one county in Maryland), is pocked with more than 50 Superfund sites---areas no longer in use that contain hazardous waste. **SNIP**...

ITHACA--The Cornell University Police Department shut down the second annual “Epic Snowball Fight on the Arts Quad” Wednesday, apprehending a student, confiscating tin shields and knocking over a six-foot snow penis. Chief of Police Kathy Zoner said CUPD officers did not plan on breaking up the event but had to do so in response to a call-in complaint. The officers decided that the event had to be stopped because it was “putting both people and property at the potential for injury and damage,” Zoner said. As a police car approached from the western end of the quad, the hundreds of...

While it's tempting for conservatives to cheer the termination of the liberal blowhard from MSNBC, I have a bad feeling that the Obama administration will try and use this to ram through some of their proposals for regulating broadcast content and the internet. Despite the fact that MSNBC will still feature liberals Matthews, Maddow, O'Donnell and Schultz as their big "stars," and despite the center-left bent to the big three networks and CNN, liberals are already using the Olbermann firing to advance the myth that there is nothing out there to balance against "Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and the vast...

GREECE, NEW YORK--A Greece man loaded his car with a shotgun, hunting knives, a flare gun, baseball bat and handcuffs and set off en route to Washington, D.C., with plans to engage law enforcement and possibly kill former Vice President Dick Cheney, according to the Secret Service. The Secret Service detained the man, Ian Rotunno, on Oct. 7 and this week charged him with threats against a former president. Rotunno told Secret Service agents that, as well as planning to kill Cheney, he intended to go to the Texas ranch of former President George W. Bush and murder him also,...

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ITHACA, NY--A Green Street mural approved by the Public Arts Commission is causing a minor uproar after Underground Railroad leader Harriet Tubman was described as “Comrade” Tubman. In an interview, the artist said his goal is developing a “socialist movement in the United States.” Earlier this month, the city’s planning director lavished praise on the 30×600-foot mural of Tubman and Frederick Douglas beneath the Aurora Street bridge. “I think it’s a great introduction to our city,” Ithaca Planning and Development Director JoAnn Cornish said. The mural, paid for through a state grant applied for by the city and the business-oriented...

A mural approved by the Public Arts Commission under the Green Street bridge is causing a minor uproar after Underground Railroad leader Harriet Tubman leader was described as “Comrade” Tubman. In an interview, the artist said his goal is developing a “socialist movement in the United States.”