Free Republic

Following the release of new footage that seems to show now former-Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice punching his then-fiancée in the face, it’s important to remember that the prosecutor who let Rice off with a slap on the wrist is now trying to throw the book at a young mother of two who tried to protect herself and her family from violence. Atlantic County Prosecutor Jim McClain approved an application for admitting Rice into New Jersey’s Pre-Trial Intervention program that allowed the NFL star to avoid jail time. Instead, Rice has to undergo counseling and will be immediately incarcerated...

A growing chorus of liberal Democrats is pushing President Obama to get Congress's explicit approval before launching missile strikes into Syria. The pressure from supporters on Capitol Hill is not only a headache for Obama, but also puts House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other top Democrats in the difficult position of bucking a broad segment of their own caucus in order to protect an ally in the White House. Scores of Democrats had signed letters a year ago advocating against military strikes targeting the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad without congressional backing. Thirteen months later the enemy...

The Democratic Governors Association plans a hefty purchase of television ads in coming weeks to bolster Maryland Democratic gubernatorial nominee Anthony G. Brown in his campaign against Republican businessman Larry Hogan. The $750,000 in spending, confirmed Tuesday night by several people familiar with the ad purchases, suggests that the Democratic party is bracing for a more competitive race in the heavily Democratic state than early polls suggested.

Did the NFL suspend Ray Rice indefinitely after he was given an initial 2 game suspension because A.) they saw the video inside the elevator, or B.) because we saw the inside-the-elevator video? If it is because of A, then why did they formulate a 6 game suspension to be followed by banning for a second offense and not apply the 6 game rule to Ray Rice? If this is because the inside-the-elevator video surfaced, then will the NFL have a system for those who are caught by video and those not caught by video? In the end, IMHO, Ray...

Columbus Police said they've never had anything like it - three churches vandalized in the same night. Someone spray painted them on the outside. It's the words used, though, that have some people asking if this was more than a prank. “It was just one word. It said ‘Infidels!'” Father Doug Marcotte said of what was spray painted on Saint Bartholomew's Catholic Church in Columbus overnight Saturday. Parishioners saw that, along with the word "Qur'an 3:151" on their way into mass Sunday morning. “It's certainly not a warm and fuzzy verse. It talks about the infidels, their refuge being the...

About two weeks after he went missing, police announced an NIH scientist has been found dead in his car. Martin John Rogers, 54, left his Gaithersburg home around 7:30 a.m. on Aug. 21 to go to work. As he was leaving, he told his wife of 25 years that he was going to a meeting -- but his co-workers said he never showed up to work that morning./SNIP/ Martin Rogers had worked at the National Institutes of Health for 15 years and specialized in tropical diseases.

What will go down in high school football history, a grounds crew in Maryland mowed the artificial turf. Wouldn't it smell like something is burning? Maybe just look wrong?

In light of recent mass shootings – primarily in so-called ‘gun-free zones’ – that have left dozens dead and even more injured, Americans have become increasingly divided regarding how such tragedies might be avoided in the future.While some have concluded that stricter gun control laws would keep citizens safe by limiting legal access to firearms, plenty of others recognize that a well-armed populace can act as a deterrent to would-be violent criminals. As federal authorities consider imposing legislation that would make the ownership of certain weapons illegal, local law enforcement officials are speaking out against such proposals. One such voice is...

A 23-year-old teacher at a Cambridge, Maryland, middle school has been placed on leave and—in the words of a local news report—"taken in for an emergency medical evaluation" for publishing, under a pseudonym, a novel about a school shooting. The novelist, Patrick McLaw, an eighth-grade language-arts teacher at the Mace's Lane Middle School, was placed on leave by the Dorchester County Board of Education, and is being investigated by the Dorchester County Sheriff's Office, according to news reports from Maryland's Eastern Shore. The novel, by the way, is set 900 years in the future. Sheriff Phillips told the newspaper that,...

EPA would regulate most Md waters . A new rule proposal by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ... The proposed Waters of the United States rule, which would give the EPA jurisdiction over millions of miles of streams across the United States under the Clean Water Act, has generated bipartisan backlash in both chambers of Congress. A letter to the EPA from Democratic and Republican House members stated, “Although your agencies have maintained that the rule is narrow and clarifies CWA jurisdiction, it in face aggressively expands federal authority under the CWA while bypassing Congress and creating unnecessary ambiguity.” The...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)There are 65 prominent people who might run for president in 2016. The Democratic and Republican fields contrast sharply. Hillary Clinton is the clear front-runner, while there is no front-runner on the Republican side. Twenty-three Democrats have been mentioned as a candidate or are eyeing a bid, according to an analysis by The Hill. The GOP side has 42. Most of the people on this list won’t run, and some have adamantly claimed that they’re not interested. But many politicians have changed their minds on seeking the White House. Before mounting his 2008 bid, then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said he...

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US lawmakers on Friday "strongly condemned" what they called Beijing's harsh pre-Olympic crackdown in China's Muslim-populated far northwest Xinjiang region. The bipartisan leadership of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus in a statement cited "credible" reports about a July 9 conviction in a closed trial of 15 minority Muslim Uighurs on terrorism charges that led to "the immediate execution of two" of them. Three others were given suspended death sentences and the remaining 10 received life imprisonment, it said. These are "abuses of due process and rule of law," said caucus co-chairmen Democrat Jim McGovern and Republican Frank...

Two 50-year-old men filed a lawsuit Tuesday claiming the Seventh-Day Adventist Church put a man known to abuse children in charge of its youth program in the 1970s and kept him in that position even after learning he was accused of abusing a child in its ranks. The men filed the suit in Oregon, seeking $15 million from the Maryland-based church and its Northwest and Oregon branches. The men say they were abused in the 1970s but only discovered two years ago that the church knew it had a convicted child molester in the program and did nothing.

Nathaniel Morales, who was recently convicted of sexually abusing boys he met in a Gaithersburg church decades ago, was sentenced to 40 years in prison Thursday. In two trials in May, jurors found Morales guilty of a series of counts of sex abuse and sex offense. Victims gave powerful testimonies of what Morales did to them and the lasting effect it had.

Even on a normal night, casinos can assault the senses with glitz, flashing lights, showgirls, cocktails, high rollers, fancy food and blaring music. So it follows that the long-awaited opening night of the $442 million Horseshoe Casino Baltimore would include all of those things — but magnified tenfold.

GLEN BURNIE, Md. (WJZ) — The Anne Arundel County Fraternal Order of Police is raising some eyebrows after making a substantial donation to the defense fund of Ferguson, Missouri officer Darren Wilson. Mike Hellgren explains why the union decided to make the donation. Anne Arundel County’s Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 70 has donated $1,070 to a defense fund for Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson, whose shooting of African-American teenager Michael Brown has led to protests nationwide. Carl Snowden, head of the Caucus of African-American leaders, condemned the donation. “It smacks of racial insensitivity. It smacks of destroying the...

Michelle Waro was charged with three counts of reckless endangerment and two counts of property destruction over $1,000.A Maryland woman apparently gets her kicks by tossing bricks thorough the windows of family members. An officer from the St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office was summoned to a home in Leonardtown after getting a report about property destruction. The residents of the home called police after someone, later identified as Michelle Waro, had started tossing bricks through windows at the home. According to the homeowner, Waro is his daughter-in-law. When he arrived on the scene, Cpl. Connelly saw the 43-year-old suspect behind...

At this point, you really have to wonder: Is it still news when a Republican says something asinine? On the off chance it is, let us spend a few moments pondering the strange case of Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks, who said last week that the Democratic Party is waging a "War on Whites." Yeah, he actually said that. You can look it up if you want. Mr. Brooks was responding to radio talk show host Laura Ingraham, who had asked him to comment on a remark from National Journal columnist Ron Fournier to the effect that the GOP cannot continue to be competitive in national elections if it...

A former Prince George’s County teacher won a $350,000 jury award after accusing the school system of discriminating against him because he is white. Jon Everhart alleged in his lawsuit against the Prince George’s County school board that a black principal forced him out of his job because of his race. “Justice was served,” Everhart said. “I do feel as though I have been vindicated.” Everhart, 65, speaking by phone from Ohio after the verdict in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, said he faced years of racial harassment from the Largo High School principal, who he...

The African Leaders Summit in Washington, D.C., this week brought leaders from over 50 African nations to our nation’s capital to discuss such wide-ranging topics as women’s health to the threat of terrorism, according to WJLA. The summit featured a host of key speakers, including former President George W. Bush, Laura Bush, and congressional leaders. One such speaker was Democratic House Whip, Rep. Steny Hoyer (MA). And Hoyer took the opportunity to make what he would describe as a joke, which was met with light laughter, and one person clapping.