Free Republic

Donald Trump will be in Baltimore Monday to speak to a conference of National Guard officers at the Convention Center, The Baltimore Sun reports. Although Maryland currently has a Republican governor, who has said he does not plan to vote for Trump or Hillary Clinton in the November election, it is traditionally a blue state. And an OpinionWorks poll released earlier this week shows that Clinton has a strong lead. Trump has campaigned in Maryland before during this election. That was all the way back in April, when he had not yet won the Republican nomination, although he was a...

Starting September 16, the Towson Town Center in Maryland will require a curfew for anyone 17 years old and younger, a measure the NAACP and other organizations call discriminatory. “I think that they need to take a look at how to handle this in a different kind of way, other than just to say they are going to stand at the door and bar people. It’s illegal to do that,” said Tessa Hill-Aston, president of the NAACP Baltimore branch. The mall’s general manager said the age policy was not spurred by any particular incident, and is meant to improve shoppers’...

Benjamin Watson 11 hrs · Facebook Mentions · I will not have the option to kneel this Sunday while the National Anthem is being played. A week ago, in what would prove to be my last pre-game opportunity of this 2016 season, I stood with my right hand over my heart as the anthem played. And if I am fortunate enough to ever be dressed for another game day I imagine I would be doing the same thing I did in my last. Standing. Not because America is ALL I desire it to be because most assuredly it is not....

In the year 2042, something potentially significant to Central Florida motorists could happen. The Central Florida Expressway Authority, which operates 109 miles of toll roads in Orange County, will have paid off its $4.3 billion in bonds. But when the roads are paid for, what happens to the tolls? Many drivers would love to see them disappear. "That would be a big break for a lot of people," said Steven Dewdney, an Orlando resident. But because Central Florida has growing transportation needs and will need to build more roads and support commuter rail, removing tolls are unlikely, experts say. The...

The 2016 Atlantic Hurricane Season is heating up. Two tropical systems are taking aim at the United States. Tropical Depression Eight (Hermine) is expected to brush the Outer Banks of NC. Tropical Depression Nine (Ian) is in the Gulf of Mexico, anticipated to affect the Florida coast. Public Advisories: Ian(TD 9) Hermine (TD 8)Discussions: Ian (TD9) Hermine (TD 8)

CHICAGO -- An Illinois State Representative from Chicago is addressing the violence epidemic in the city, in a different way. Rep. Sonya Harper, D-Chicago, represents some of the most crime-ridden communities, including Englewood and the Back of the Yards neighborhood. Harper introduced her plan Tuesday for a bill that would require ammunition makers to stamp serial numbers on every bullet sold in Illinois.

(Full title):Meet the man siphoning money from Donald Trump- A 25-year-old with no Trump ties raises $1 million by dangling 'dinner' with the GOP nominee. At a glance, the two websites look virtually indistinguishable. Both feature a photo of Donald Trump, in a suit and red tie, in front of a giant American flag. Both seemingly offer a chance for two to win dinner with Donald Trump. One is at donaldjtrump.com; the other is at dinnerwithtrump.org. The first belongs to Trump’s campaign. The second is a scheme run by Ian Hawes, a 25-year-old Maryland man who has no affiliation with...

As Justice Department civil rights lawyers held a meeting to talk about overhauling the Baltimore police department, another group of Baltimore residents gathered to beg the police to fix the crime in their neighborhoods. The meetings show a disconnect between those who are concerned about crime and those worried about police reform, reports the Washington Post. Neither group was aware the other one was meeting.

Small planes outfitted with video cameras have been flying over Baltimore since January, capturing activity on the streets below and relaying the footage to police to help them catch criminals. The public knew nothing about it until this week — when Bloomberg Businessweek ran a cover story about the trial program. Airplane used to conduct wide area surveillance. Persistent Surveillance Systems The revelations triggered outrage from elected officials, defense lawyers and the American Civil Liberties Union, who said the program raised privacy concerns and could aggravate public distrust in a city that exploded in riots last year after the death...

Gerrymandering is something Democrats usually whine about. It’s easy for them to do with Republicans controlling an unprecedented amount of state legislatures and gubernatorial seats in modern history – these entities deciding how congressional districts are drawn after the U.S. census is completed every ten years. However, there are undoubtedly cases of gerrymandering taking place in Democrat-controlled states. Maryland is one such example and a law school student has taken their antics to court. Steve Shapiro, an American University student, has challenged the districts drawn by former Governor Martin O’Malley and the blue legislature on first amendment grounds. The case...

The Baltimore County Board of Education on Tuesday voted 6-5 against closing schools for two Muslim holidays when they fall on school days. According to the Baltimore Sun, the Muslim community had advocated for more than a decade to close Baltimore schools on the Islamic holidays of Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr. The vote followed a heated discussion among school board members as dozens of Muslims waited in the audience. The results of the vote prompted shouts of “Injustice!” by some in attendance, and the board had to call a five-minute recess before continuing. …

The professional Soros migration/refugee agitators are rallying the street radicals to come to Washington, D.C., this Sunday, August 28. The aim of #DCRally4Refugees is to whip up the appearance of popular support for the UN’s September 19 Refugee Summit and President Obama’ plan to “surge” thousands more Syrian “refugees” into American communities. The #DCRally4Refugees is being organized by dozens of radical-Left groups funded by billionaire hedge fund mogul George Soros (shown) and his Open Society Foundations. As we reported last week, hacked documents from the Open Society Foundations (OSF) database have confirmed what was long known to readers of The...

A Maryland school district is instructing teachers and administrators not to tell parents if their daughters are bunking with male students who identify as girls on overnight field trips. Bob Mosier, chief communications officer for Anne Arundel County Public Schools, says in a training video detailing how to accommodate transgender students that privacy issues regarding the student prevent the district from informing parents about such arrangements.

The long and winding saga of Freddie Gray has mostly drawn to a close, but that doesn’t mean that the topic has dried up in Social Justice Warrior circles. At the home of all things liberal – Vox – there is a fresh round of outrage regarding the officers involved in the incident. This one sub-header seems to capture the mood perfectly: “It’s even clearer now than after Freddie Gray’s death: The Baltimore Police Department is a disaster” So what is it that has everyone up in arms this time? As the Baltimore Sun reports, the officers who were found...

A Maryland school district is instructing teachers and administrators not to tell parents if their daughters are bunking with male transgender students on overnight field trips. Bob Mosier, chief communications officer for the Anne Arundel County public school system, says in a training video on how to accommodate transgender students that privacy issues prevent the district from informing parents about such arrangements. “So, many of you might be asking yourselves, ‘So I’m at an overnight field trip, and I have student who’s biologically a male, identifies as a female, and we’ve worked with that student and her family, and that...

Twenty years ago, when thousands of people still drove past his Edgemere gas station every day on their way to make steel and cars, Carl Hobson put up signs for Democrats. Now the 77-year-old displays one of the largest "Trump" signs in this blue-collar community. The "Make America Great Again" slogan is impossible to miss under the price for diesel. Hobson has owned the station since 1964, when Bethlehem Steel and General Motors weren't just large employers important to the local economy — they were fundamental to the region's culture. "People don't want a third term of Obama," Hobson said....

BALTIMORE, MD (KTRK) -- Firefighters say a dog gave his life protecting an 8-month-old from a fire late Sunday. The girl is alive today thanks to an act of heroism and a heart-breaking loss for her family. Erika Poremski, the child's mother, said she had quickly stepped out to her car when she turned around to find the house in flames and her daughter Viviana inside. "I just heard her crying and I couldn't get to her," Poremski said. "I tried really hard, everyone in the neighborhood tried. They were kicking the doors in and kicking the windows out. I...

Chesapeake Conservancy and Terrain360 are using drones to give a bird’s-eye tour of historic shipwrecks in an inaccessible zone of the Potomac River. WASHINGTON — There’s a corner of the Potomac River known as Mallows Bay that is teeming with sunken vessels, what has been described as a “ghost fleet” of more than 100 wrecked ships. You don’t even have to go beneath the river’s surface to get a good view of these ships. In fact, you don’t even have to leave your computer chair, thanks to the Chesapeake Conservancy’s latest effort. Through the use of drones, the Annapolis-based...