Free Republic

[SNIP]...With the start of the next school year, the Recovery School District will be the first in the country made up completely of public charter schools, a milestone for New Orleans and a grand experiment in urban education for the nation.

The bodies of 28 veterans at the L.A. County Morgue were finally moved Friday for burial to the Riverside National Cemetery. CBS2/KCAL9 pressed the L.A. County CoronerÂ’s Office Thursday to find out why the bodies had not yet received a proper burial after a source indicated there may have been as many as 60 veterans at the morgue for the past year and a half. The morgue says the bodies were unclaimed and they donÂ’t know how long the veterans were there. The law states veterans are supposed to receive a proper burial. The Veterans Administration says they were never...

SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - The federal government will spend $2 billion to extend a subway line under Los Angeles' storied Wilshire Boulevard, an effort to ease congestion in one of the country's most transited corridors and to eventually link downtown to the beach with a "Subway to the Sea." The project is meant to improve traffic in a part of the city where it can take hours to go just a few miles, with train stations to be built at major cultural attractions, including museums and the glitzy shopping areas of Beverly Hills. Backers hope at some point to expand...

It appears that Louisiana will be the last state to allow people with gun permits to eat in the same restaurants as less law abiding members of society.  New York, California, and Massachusetts, those staunch promoters of restrictive firearms law, have never barred the practice, nor have they had any of the problems imaginatively projected for southern states that have recently reformed their law, such as North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. The states show considerable variation in those laws.  Laws in highly restrictive states, such as New York and New Jersey, do not have any restriction on permit...

NORTHEAST and SOUTH There are numerous important House Primary Races! And places where we can WIN! PLEASE contribute! And if you can't contribute money ... the least we can do is go to their pages and give them a "like" or a tweet. All of these candidates are involved in primaries that are close (or could be close) against generally more moderate or liberal Republicans. All of these districts are winnable in November. Maine: BRUCE POLIQUIN, MAINE-2, JUNE 10th .... Open Seat Endorsed by: Maine Right to Life, Freedom Works Bruce Poliquin -- FACEBOOK -- TWITTER -- DONATEFreedomWorks: "As a...

For almost a year and a half workers had been constructing a bridge to cross the main Interstate that runs between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, but it took just minutes to bring the entire structure crashing to the ground. The blaze began after a construction workers' blowtorch was fanned by strong winds and ignited the wooden scaffolding that was being used to build the new flyover, across Interstate 15 in Herperia, California. Driven by high winds, the fire took hold extremely quickly and began burning the supports surrounding the bridge. Debris began to fell onto the I-15 minutes after...

The Talk Shows May 4th, 2014 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H.; Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas; Kevin Johnson, mayor of Sacramento, California; Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti; Richard Williams, father of tennis players Serena and Venus Williams.THIS WEEK (ABC): Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn.; former NBA star Kareem Abdul-Jabber; former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.; Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y.

While several states, including Indiana, Kansas, and Arizona have passed reforms to prevent the waste of valuable assets in gun "buy backs", Louisiana is looking to expand its program.    In these programs, the organizers offer incentives for people to turn in unwanted firearms, often inherited antiques whose owners are unaware of their value.  Scholars have concluded that the programs have little, if any effect on crime, while wasting police resources. Although the term "buy back" has been popularized,  the firearms were never owned by the people purchasing them.  Critics say that the programs are thinly disguised political propaganda...

How? Are the two reconcilable? Secondly, should (not can) an owner of a team be forced to sell his team, and/or be banned from attending any NBA game as a non-owner - attending a NBA game like any other person? Example: Is the situation of an owner saying that blacks cannot eat in his restaurant different from someone saying that now the restaurant is under new management, and the racists will no longer be allowed to eat in that same restaurant? When hunting monsters should society be careful that it doesn't become a monster when doing so? I think so....

The breeder whose dog sired Niko, the 130-pound dog who killed a 4-year-old Houma girl in March, says his animal is being wrongly blamed. "I know everyone is blaming Kimbo, and I don't think it's right," said Gustavo Castro, a California man, in a conversation via Facebook messenger. Kimbo, famous in the world of XL American bully breeding, was Niko's father. After Niko's attack, several other owners of Kimbo's progeny said in online forums that their dogs were also unstable. One man, Zach Dank, said his Kimbo son attacked him, breaking his forearm and tearing through the muscle. He said...

In 2012, the voters of Louisiana approved a constitutional amendment to the state Constitution that removed the constitutional provision that gave the State the power to regulate concealed weapons.   It added the requirement that the court use the strongest level of judicial review, strict scrutiny, for Amendment 2 cases.   There is a a good discussion of the history behind this amendment at the Volokh Conspiracy, by David Kopel.  The amendment passed with over 73 percent of the vote. The court has already upheld bans on the possession of handguns by minors without parental approval and on felons on...

The Louisiana House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill 85-6 Monday afternoon that would restrict access to abortion services in the state. The legislation, which generated no discussion or questions on the House floor, now heads to the Louisiana Senate. Similar laws passed in other states have been used to shut down several abortion providers around the country. Abortion rights advocates have said the proposal, if approved, would immediately close three of Louisiana's five abortion clinics. Only two facilities in the Shreveport area would be able to meet the new requirements laid out in the bill. Gov. Bobby Jindal, Department...

The victim called the Sheriff’s Office around 8:39 p.m. and explained that he had shot at an intruder. Shortly afterward, the Sheriff received a 911 call from Prince who said he had been shot near the victim’s home.

Feral hogs continue to feast on West Bank levees, prompting the authority responsible for 100 miles of flood protection to seek help from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office. Major damage has been reported along the V-line levee south of Marrero as well as to structures in Jean Lafitte National and Bayou Segnette State parks."It's a lot of work to keep repairing the same thing three days later. You go back out there and they tear it up. It's costing the parish a lot of money,'' Chris Muscarello, operations superintendent of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Authority-West said.In the worst-case scenarios, the...

Little Mia Derouen, who would have turned 5 next week, died from face and head injuries after the family dog attacked her as she watched TV. Her mom dragged off the beast and barricaded herself and Mia in a bedroom while screaming for help. A little girl in Louisiana was killed by her family’s pit bull, despite her mother’s frantic efforts to drag away the dog. Mia Derouen, whose 5th birthday was next week, suffered severe facial, body and head injuries from Tuesday night’s horrendous attack and died at a nearby hospital, Houma Police Chief Todd Duplantis told WWL-TV.

No major injuries were reported after a magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck near Los Angeles last night. Beyond word of property damage, power outages, and general anxiety—there were dozens of reported aftershocks—moviegoers, especially those who saw the biblically-themed "Noah," were a little shaken up.

Just had a very large violent quake here in So Cal. Scary.

California State Sen. Leland Yee and his campaign consultant Keith Jackson were arrested Wednesday alongside longtime criminal Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow during an FBI raid in San Francisco's Chinatown district that also netted several members of the Ghee Kung Tong gang. The Associated Press reported that the federal charges, which allege the California lawmaker accepted money and campaign donations in exchange for providing official favors and helping broker an arms deal, cast harsh light on Chinatown's tight-knit network of fraternal organizations and one of its most shadowy characters, Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow. Beneath the strings of red paper lanterns and...

**SNIP** Guess who decided to skip out on the event? Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), even though the Senate was not in session and no committee meetings were on the books, according to the chamber calendar. Bayou Buzz pointed out that Landrieu wasn’t mentioned on the official schedule sent out by HHS, nor was there any mention of her in The Times-Picayune’s coverage of the event.

(CNN) - Former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards said Monday he's running for the state's 6th Congressional district. Edwards, who was released from federal prison three years ago after serving nearly a decade on charges of racketeering, conspiracy and extortion, made the announcement at a Press Club meeting in Baton Rouge. "I acknowledge that there are good reasons why I should not run. I know that, but there are better reasons why I should and good reasons have to give way to better reasons and therefore, I will be a candidate for congress in the sixth congressional district this year," Edwards...