Free Republic

To some, a makeshift shrine in the middle of the Ferguson street where Michael Brown was killed last summer is a hallowed symbol of a new civil rights movement over race and policing. To others, it has served its purpose and is now more of an eyesore and a road hazard. Within hours of Brown’s Aug. 9 shooting death by a white police officer, people began placing stuffed animals, candles and other tributes in the middle of Canfield Drive, where the unarmed black 18-year-old’s body lay for about four hours before it was removed. […] Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III,...

CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin had choice words for President Obama last night when she appeared on “The Lead” with Jake Tapper. ...“Both Mayor Rawlings-Blake and President Obama, today, using the word “thug,”” Tapper said after showing a clip of Mayor Rawlings-Blake speaking. “Sunny, you take issue that?” “I do,” Hostin responded. “It’s not a word, certainly, that I’m comfortable with. It’s not a word that I use. I think that we can all agree that that word, that term has been racialized, and I think what I saw during the riots was, I saw a lot of crimes being...

The new mayor of a Missouri city [next to Ferguson] had a tough first day on the job when she was met by police at City Hall and informed she had been suspended over allegations of voter fraud. Betty McCray, the newly elected mayor of the city of Kinloch, was met in the parking lot at City Hall Thursday by police officers and the city attorney holding articles of impeachment, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. “You can’t come in as mayor,” attorney James Robinson told McCray. “You have been suspended.” McCray, however, was defiant, telling Robinson, “You may be the...

Betty McCray, newly-elected mayor of Kinloch, Missouri, showed up at City Hall this week to get to work. But when she arrived, the police wouldn’t let her in the door. The reason why? Those non-existent illegal voters who cast ballots for the candidate. The election, which was held April 7, was hotly contested and the results have been questioned by McCray’s opponents. However, the St. Louis County Board of Elections certified the results and swore McCray in after city officials refused to. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that deputies met her in the parking lot, and she was served with articles of impeachment by...

A small city in Missouri caught national attention when roughly half of its employees resigned following the election of its first African-American female mayor. Many news outlets and bloggers have speculated that racism and sexism drove the exodus in Parma, a city of about 700 near the Mississippi River; whereas several residents say other factors were at play. Mayor Tyus Byrd, 40, who beat longtime incumbent Randall Ramsey, has not yet released a formal statement on the controversy, but did address it briefly after being sworn in last week. “Moving forward, I’ll get with the board. I’ll speak here in...

Police in St. Louis County are handling an officer-involving shooting that happened Friday night in Jennings, Mo., and left one person dead. The deceased was identified as Thaddeus McCarroll, 23, of Jennings, who according to police had been acting in a strange manner and spoke of a “black revolution.” St. Louis County Police Department gave the following account of the shooting: At 9:21 p.m., officers from the St. Louis County Police Department's City of Jennings Precinct responded to a residence in the 9200 block of Riverwood Drive for an armed subject. Officers responded and contacted the owner of the residence...

Well wishes have been pouring in to the Slidell Police Department since one of its officers was shot last Friday. But one in particular has hit the mark. On its Facebook page Friday, the department showcased a letter sent from Anderson, Missouri, by a young girl. The girl, Kaeleigh Ash, wrote by hand: "To the officer who got shot. I say a prayer every night for you to get better. Hope you feel better soon." Since the department posted the letter close to 1,100 people have "liked" the girl's heartfelt card. The reserve officer, Sgt. Cliff Laigast, an 8-year veteran...

Only days after Indiana rushed through a change in its state law amid a backlash led by homosexual-rights groups and Arkansas reacted by modifying a similar law before it was adopted, voters in Springfield, Missouri, have moved the opposite direction. The city repealed an “anti-discrimination” law adopted only months ago.

FERGUSON, Mo. — In the first municipal election here since a black teenager was shot to death by a white police officer last year, voters elected two black candidates to the City Council on Tuesday, increasing the number of African-Americans on the governing body to three. But in a blow to the protesters who had pushed for sweeping changes to the city’s law enforcement and judicial policies after the shooting last August, voters rejected several candidates who had the direct backing of protest activists. The results would seem to suggest a smoother road for the current Council as it will...

re you sick of seeing “welfare leeches” in the grocery checkout line with carts stuffed full of junk food snacks, soda and even porterhouse steaks and crab legs? So is Missouri House Rep. Rick Brattin, who has begun pushing for legislation prohibiting welfare abusers from buying foods that most hard-working Americans can’t always afford. After Brattin heard a food stamp recipient say, “This is the way I want to live and I don’t really see anything changing,” he knew something needed to be addressed. “The intention of the bill is to get the food stamp program back to its original...

Pic - Mayor Bill de Blasio, at Gracie Mansion with First Lady Chirlane McCray, activist Van Jones, and Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, plans to dip his toe into presidential politics with the launch of a push for income inequality to become a central issue of the 2016 national elections. "All of this is focused on the notion that we are not having a discussion on income inequality in this country and we are not having that discussion at our peril." GRACIE MANSION — Mayor Bill de Blasio, who supporters describe as a "national hero" among progressives, has dipped his his...

Emanuel Cleaver says he gets it. Years of heavy-handed police tactics in Ferguson — like the issuing of lots of petty traffic citations aimed more at boosting the city budget than keeping the streets safe — have beaten down the citizenry of Ferguson. Cleaver, a Democratic congressman from Kansas City, called it “taxation by citation” and “strobe-light lynching.” Citizens have tuned out of the election process as a result, Cleaver said during a visit to the troubled city Saturday as part of a delegation from the Congressional Black Caucus. The visit was aimed at boosting turnout in Tuesday’s municipal elections,...

The Holder DOJ released 14 pages of racist or offensive emails they collected during their multi-year investigation of the Ferguson police department. Here is one email:

A new Quinnipiac poll has Rand Paul tied for 5th. That’s eight different polls since November showing Paul in 4th place or worse. There was a moment in 2013 when political realignment was within our grasp– a once-in-a-generation opportunity to unite conservatives and progressives under the banner of classic Jeffersonian liberalism. That window is closed– squandered by the mind-boggling incompetence of senior adviser Doug Stafford. I know what you’re thinking: It’s still early! Polls don’t matter until [some arbitrary future date]. (SNIP) Rand could meet with Al Sharpton again. Because that went over so well the first time. Rand could...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) is the only major Republican likely 2016 presidential candidate who hasn't weighed in on the controversy over Indiana's "religious freedom" law that erupted this week — and his explanation for avoiding the issue is questionable.

In 2013, Fox News proudly broadcast an interview with a young food stamp recipient who claimed to be using the government benefit to purchase lobster and sushi."This is the way I want to live and I don’t really see anything changing," Greenslate explained to Fox. “It’s free food; it’s awesome."That story fit a longtime conservative suspicion that poor people use food stamps to purchase luxury items. Now, a Republican state lawmaker in Missouri is pushing for legislation that would stop people like Greenslate and severely limit what food stamp recipients can buy. The bill being proposed would ban the purchase with food stamps...

Anger toward those living below the poverty line seems to only be increasing. Maine and Missouri have proposed bills limiting residents’ food choices if they use SNAP. Missouri House Bill 813 would bar the state’s 930,000 food stamp recipients from using their benefits to buy cookies, chips, soda, energy drinks, steak and seafood. (The legislature also implemented mandatory drug testing for TANF applicants in 2011.) If the bill becomes law, a Missourian can’t buy a can of tuna with an EBT card. Tortilla chips to go with salsa? Nope. Flank steak — tough, stringy and the only cut of beef...

(CNN) —There will be no hate crime charges for two males arrested in the beating of a man that may have been sparked by a question about the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown. St. Louis police have charged Ronald Williams, 21, with assault. A 15-year-old has also been arrested, according to authorities. There had been speculation that the suspects might be charged with a hate crime because the victim was white and the people who attacked him were black. And because the punches were thrown following the Michael Brown reference.But that won't be happening.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The following is about infrastructure. Don't nod off just yet. To be specific, it's about pavement — basic, boring road surface. In the six decades since Interstate 70 began to creep across Missouri, how we view pavement hasn't changed much. Now meet Tim Sylvester, 33. He sees pavement as an electronic tablet with a concrete touch screen, The Kansas City Star (http://bit.ly/1MWYIxn) reports.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I want to go to Indiana and discuss this supposedly controversial Indiana religious freedom law. It's made to order for the modern-day Drive-By Media. On Saturday and Sunday, ABC, CBS, NBC -- virtually every mainstream media organization -- condemned a new law in Indiana that would protect private businesses from government infringement on their religious freedom. What this means is that the Obama administration wants to do away -- and the media is assisting -- with the whole notion of free markets, the Constitution, and the freedom of religion clause. The administration wants the power to mandate...