Free Republic

Iowa's biggest newspaper is under fire after publishing a map that showed which public school districts have police or security -- and which ones don't. Critics said the Des Moines Register, which quickly pulled the interactive map off of its website, was making it easy for a deranged killer to know where to launch a Sandy Hook-style attack. "What they did yesterday was provide a shopping list for every nut job in Iowa," WHO radio host Simon Conway, who said his phone lines "blew up" as soon as he began discussing the map with his audience, told Fox News Channel....

On Wednesday afternoon, the Des Moines Register published a map that shows which public schools in Iowa have no security. (See Link for Map) The graphic is also interactive. When you click on a specific dot, you are given very detailed information about the location of the school and if it has a security office on campus.

The map of the Middle East displayed in an Obama administration video released days before President Barack Obama’s visit to Israel shows the Jewish state dispossessed of substantial parts of its current territory, including its capital. The map of Israel, displayed repeatedly during the video, shows the Golan Heights, Jerusalem, northern Israel, and areas surrounding what is currently the West Bank as non-Israeli territory. The Golan Heights is shown as part of Syria; Jerusalem is shown as part of the West Bank; and northern Israel is shown as part of Lebanon. The itinerary on the White House website also implies...

Thieves ransacked a house that features on the gun map published by the Journal News, just days after another home on the list was also targeted. Burglars broke into the house in New City, New York, on Wednesday and pried open two safes, before leaving with another one. The criminals escaped with two handguns, two pistol permits, cash, savings bonds and jewelry. The firearms were in the stolen safe. Burglars also broke into a house in White Plains, New York, on Saturday and headed straight for the gun safe.

Journal News gun permit map used by burglars to target White Plains home? January 14, 2013 by TIMOTHY O'CONNOR and MEGHAN E. MURPHY / meghan.murphy@cablevision.com A White Plains residence pinpointed on a controversial handgun permit database was burglarized Saturday, and the burglars' target was the homeowner's gun safe. At least two burglars broke into a home on Davis Avenue at 9:30 p.m. Saturday but were unsuccessful in an attempt to open the safe, which contained legally owned weapons, according to a law enforcement source. One suspect was taken into custody, the source said. The gun owner was not home when...

Evidence is mounting that the map of pistol permit owners, published by New York-based Journal News, could be causing unintended consequences as law abiding citizens are being put in danger, according to a NewsBusters report. At least two media reports have surfaced with specific references to people who are most vulnerable as a result of the map. Fox News reports that reformed criminals have said the map can help thieves in two ways. “Crooks looking to avoid getting shot now know which targets are soft and those who need weapons know where they can steal them,” the report says. Also...

The intentions of the Journal News’ editorial board in publishing a highly controversial “interactive gun map” are further occluded by an inconvenient fact. According to Rockland County Clerk Paul Piperato, in Rockland County a large number of the names and addresses on the map are not even correct. Piperato said, “I’d figure about 25 percent of the addresses are not accurate.” He explained that when persons change their address or pass away it is supposed to be reported to the County Clerk’s office, but the county has no means to vigorously enforce this regulation. Thus pistol permit and other permit...

Law enforcement officials from a New York region where a local paper published a map identifying gun owners say prisoners are using the information to intimidate guards. Rockland County Sheriff Louis Falco, who spoke at a news conference flanked by other county officials, said the Journal News' decision to post an online map of names and addresses of handgun owners Dec. 23 has put law enforcement officers in danger. "They have inmates coming up to them and telling them exactly where they live. That's not acceptable to me," Falco said, according to Newsday.

A lawsuit has been filed against The Journal News by a business that claims its reputation suffered after the newspaper published an interactive map of licensed gun owners in the area, following the massacre in Newtown, Conn. First Impression LLC is a gift shop and interior design firm located in Katonah. They sued both The Journal News and its corporate parent Gannett Co. in Westchester County Court. In the Summons with Notice, the gift shop accuses the newspaper of “falsely…publicly stating in the interactive website www.lohud.com that plaintiff First Impression LLC is a licensed handgun owner.” They are represented by...

The New York State Rifle & Pistol Association is calling for a nationwide boycott of the advertisers of the suburban New York newspaper that published online maps revealing names and addresses of people with pistol permits. **SNIP** The group is encouraging “concerned citizens” to contact national and local advertisers who use the Journal News — including Best Buy, CVS, IKEA and Target, among others — and tell them to stop running ads until the list of lower Hudson Valley pistol license holders is off the Web.

Did some digging. From Dwight R. Worley's own piece at the Journal News website and Angry White Dude - Journal News reporter Dwight R. Worley owns a Smith & Wesson 686 .357 Magnum and has had a residence permit in New York City for that weapon since February 2011.I went to the Journal News map. There is no red dot on his address showing that he is a permit holder. To be fair, they may not have updated all of the info on that website yet. BUT, there are red dots shown in his area.

In response to Gannett´s Jounal News headquartered in White Plains, New York publishing an interactive map containing the names and addresses of all pistol permit holders in Westchester and Rockland Counties (previous related posts are here and here), blogger Robert Cox at NewRochelleTalk.com (HT Instapundit) has produced an interactive map at a post entitled "Where are the Journal News employees in your neighborhood?" It contains names, addresses, and various forms of Internet presence. Some of his narrative follows the jump:The map indicates the addresses of all Journal News Employees in the New York Tri-State area.

LONDON (Reuters) - An international team of astronomers has produced the first map of the universe as it was 11 billion years ago, filling a gap between the Big Bang and the rapid expansion that followed. The study, published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, shows the universe went through a phase roughly three billion years after the Big Bang when expansion actually started to slow, before the force of so-called 'dark energy' kicked in and sent galaxies accelerating away from each other. Much is known about the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang from studies of its afterglow in...

Most of us are, by now, familiar with the maps the TV channels and web sites use to show the results of presidential elections. Here is a typical map of the results of the 2012 election:

Take the exit poll!

Seven states changed status and strengthened for Mitt Romney after two weeks of favorable state polling following his impressive performance in the first presidential debate. Montana moved from "lean" to "safe" Romney; North Carolina moved from "toss up" to "lean" Romney; Ohio, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, and Nevada moved from "lean" Obama to"toss up;" and Connecticut shifted from "safe" to "lean" Obama. Mr. Romney now has a total of 159 "safe" Electoral College votes with four "lean" states (47 EC votes), while Barack Obama is down to 194 "safe" EC votes and three "lean" states (43 EC votes). There are eight...

Al Qaeda has six regional branches and affiliations with at least 14 other terrorist groups. All together, the organizations have operations in almost 30 countries, according to research by IntelCenter, a Virginia-based organization that tracks terrorist groups.

Maryland’s highest court rejected an appeal Friday by state Democrats who were hoping to block a referendum on the state’s new congressional map. The Maryland Court of Appeals filed an order upholding the state Board of Elections‘ decision to hold a November referendum on the map after it received signatures from more than 59,000 registered voters hoping to get it put on the ballot. The Maryland Democratic Party sued the board this summer, alleging that it erroneously validated thousands of signatures that were collected using the website MDPetitions.com. Read more: Md. court rejects lawsuit challenging redistricting referendum - Washington Times

BOISE, Idaho -- Former Republican U.S. Sen. Larry Craig aims to fend off a federal election lawsuit against him by arguing his infamous July 11, 2007, Minneapolis airport bathroom visit that ended in his sex-sting arrest was part of his official Senate business. Craig is hoping to avoid repaying $217,000 in campaign funds the Federal Election Commission claims he misused to defend himself. The FEC sued Craig in June in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., alleging he converted the campaign money to personal use by spending it on his legal defense after he was accused of soliciting sex in...

History 500-year-old global map found in Munich Munich librarians have found a rare 16th century world map that first gave America its name as a continent. The version by German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller survived World War II sandwiched between geometry books. The Munich version is smaller than the 500-year-old global map found in a German monastery in 1901 and handed over by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2007 to the US Library of Congress. Only four smaller versions were previously known to have survived. The word "America" on the larger Library of Congress map Waldseemüller (1470 – 1522) was...