Free Republic

On a recent Friday, Kwanza Brooks, a $7.25-an-hour McDonald’s worker, climbed into a 14-person van to take a four-hour ride from Charlotte, N.C., to Atlanta. As she and other workers headed south, Ms. Brooks, a short, fiery woman, swapped stories with her companions about unsafe conditions and unfair managers. Upon arriving, they joined more than 400 other people — including home care aides, Walmart workers, child care workers and adjunct professors. The gathering was a strategy session to plan for the fast-food movement’s next big wave of protests, which is now scheduled for April 15. But the meeting was also...

New York City’s 334 public housing developments’ bland, dilapidated-before-they-were-even-built housing projects have blighted the urban landscape for decades. Now, though, a Big Apple councilwoman has added further insult by bizarrely endorsing the segregation of residents living in two housing projects in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood by ethnic groups. The Daily Caller is not making this up. The councilwoman is Democrat Laurie Cumbo, the New York Post reports. Cumbo, who is black, is concerned that “blocs” of Asians have been moving into the Fort Greene housing projects. “How is it that one specific ethnic group has had the opportunity to move...

Apparently upset that “blocs” of Asians are taking over blocks of public housing in her district, a New York City councilwoman last week suggested “culture” be included when assigning people to public housing. “There could be some benefit to housing people by culture,” Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo told the New York Post. “I think it needs to be discussed.” lauriecumbo0330 Photo: New York Post If Cumbo weren’t a black woman Democrat from New York City in 2015 – if she were, say, a white male Democrat from Alabama in 1965 – everyone would know exactly what she was talking about when...

Ted Cruz is being called a Republican Obama, but he has not exactly gotten an Obama-like reception from the mainstream media. Liberal commentators have, predictably, beclowned themselves in the wake of Cruz’s presidential announcement. Chris Matthews (the guy who “felt a thrill going up his leg” when Barack Obama spoke during the 2008 campaign) compared Cruz to Sen. Joe McCarthy, even showing pictures of McCarthy and Cruz in the same pose. Ebony magazine Senior Editor Jamilah Lemieux told MSNBC that Cruz likes country music because “nothing says ‘let’s go kill some Muslims’ like country music.” On “Morning Joe,” Donny Deutsch...

NEW YORK – Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas, stressed during a closed-door meeting with New York City Christian leaders earlier this week that for the first time in history an astounding 65 percent of Americans do not think that their children will have a better life than them. Cruz, who is the first in an expected crowded Republican field to officially launch a presidential campaign, said that this depressing outlook is unacceptable and that there is a need to restore hope for those who have lost their faith in America's leadership. "America wants to believe that America has...

In full-page ad, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach warns of another Munich Agreement, calling one-year breakout time "catastrophic" • Ad says deal must not be signed before Iran's leader "personally and publicly repudiates all genocidal threats" against Israel. Popular New Jersey Orthodox Rabbi Shmuley Boteach took to The New York Times on Friday to criticize President Barack Obama's emerging nuclear deal with Iran, saying it could spell disaster for the Middle East region and the world. Boteach's World Values Network ran a full-page ad in the paper warning that the agreement -- which might be finalized by Tuesday -- could backfire like...

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – New York City public schools have added two Muslim holidays to the school calendar, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina announced Wednesday. Schools will now close for Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, making New York City the largest school district in the nation to recognize the two holidays on the official school calendar. “We are committed to having a school calendar that reflects and honors the extraordinary diversity of our students,” said Farina.

The beleaguered New York City Housing Authority said it faces a $98 million budget gap this year that will grow to $400 million by 2025 ... the "financial model for pubic housing is unsustainable." Meanwhile, the Daily News also reported that NYCHA sold off supplies that were needed for repairs and cleanup at its complexes across the city.

Chuck Schumer is set to get a big promotion -- and that's welcome news to Wall Street. The veteran Democratic senator from New York is widely expected to take Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's job when he retires at the end of 2016. Reid, who announced he would not be running for reelection Friday morning, quickly endorsed his New York colleague for the role. Schumer's ascension to the top Democratic position in the Senate -- and even possibly to Senate majority leader if his party regains control of the chamber -- is a boon for the finance and business communities,...

NEW YORK (AP) — More than seven months before an explosion and fire leveled three apartment buildings in Manhattan's East Village, utility workers discovered that the gas line to a restaurant in one of them had been illegally tapped, creating a hazardous situation, according to the company. On Aug. 6, a meter reader at the restaurant detected the smell of gas and reported it, said Consolidated Edison spokesman Allan Drury. A gas crew dispatched to the site found multiple leaks in a gas line that had been tapped, Drury said, adding that the restaurant was the only customer in the...

Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot of the Germanwings plane who deliberately crashed in the Alps on Tuesday killing 150 people, retweeted (actually looks more like shared on Facebook) the photo above, with the caption "A Germany in which religious feelings have more rights than the meaning of freedom - is not my Germany." (Hat Tip: Mike K). And the New York Times reported on Friday that Lubitz "lived, at least part time, with his parents. Mr. Lubitz’s mother was an organist at a Protestant church near the town center.” Mike K adds: Here is the sad, but probably true story....

A Brooklyn city councilwoman wants to know why “blocs” of Asians are living in two Fort Greene housing projects — and suggested it would be “beneficial” to assign housing by ethnic group. “How is it that one specific ethnic group has had the opportunity to move into a development in large numbers?” Laurie Cumbo, who is black, said at a council hearing on public housing Thursday

Forget New Hampshire, or Iowa, or Lynchburg, Virgina, where Republican Senator Ted Cruz kicked off his presidential campaign. State Senator Ruben Diaz wants Mr. Cruz to come stump in the South Bronx. “Imagine Ted Cruz traveling to the Bronx where there is a grassroots army of Black and Hispanic Evangelical Christians who are just like him—and who have been ignored by every Presidential candidate,” Mr. Diaz wrote today in one of his periodic e-mail blasts to constituents. “Imagine Ted Cruz coming to the South Bronx where there are many of Hispanic Evangelical Churches that are willing to stand together for...

The Texas Tribune took to the streets of New York City, specifically Times Square, and asked random people what they thought of Ted Cruz. Many hadn’t heard of Ted Cruz, but he did find one admitted Democrat who said likes what she sees in Ted Cruz so far. Of course, there are others in the video who like Cruz and the rest are idiots.

he Clinton campaign has issued a list of words and terms to the Drive-By Media in the form of a threatening e-mail to a New York Times infobabe telling them, "These are the words you cannot use to describe Mrs. Clinton." One word that's not on the list is "cankles." I guess everybody in the media is free to use the word "cankles." ... [snip]Here are the words that the Hillary Clinton campaign sent out to the New York Times reporter Amy Chozick is telling her she can't use. "Polarizing." You may not use the word "polarizing" to describe Mrs....

In the bad old days of New York City, the mob would decide the price of erecting a building regardless of who was planning to do it. Years after the construction of One Police Plaza, the City’s Police Headquarters, when the ceiling of the main floor started to fall down an investigation found that the mob had sold the city substandard concrete. They didn’t care who they ripped off. Hard work led by former Mayor Rudy Giuliani broke the grip of the mob on New York’s construction industry and for years afterward construction boomed because of the reduced costs of...

In New York City schools, kids are learning Rs: reading, writing, and Ramadan. Thanks to the far-Left priorities of Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), city schools have added two Muslim holidays to the school calendar — a concession that took even Big Apple parents by surprise. While the largest religion in the country fights to even be recognized, “NYC schools will now close for Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha — making (it) the largest school district in the nation to recognize the two holidays on the official school calendar.” Although families already had the option of taking excused absences for...

When a Queens first-grader refused to join their public school fight club, a group of “twisted sisters” who were supposed to be tutoring her made the little girl pay. The mother of 7-year-old Taniya Jules claims in court papers that her daughter was pounded by a pack of eighth-graders for refusing to battle a classmate — and then dragged by the hair down the hallway of her school and slammed into the walls. -snip Two other first-grade girls and a boy were also victimized, Gore said, by a fearsome foursome that was supposed to be tutoring the kids as part...

Despite the fact that feminists attacked Monica Lewinsky during the Clinton-era, calling her “slutty” and a “trashy bimbo” among other things, feminists are now embracing her as an “inspiring” figure against the tide of “slut-shaming.” The change of tune came after Lewinsky gave an interview to Vanity Fair last year, where she called feminists out for attacking her in the 90s. Jessica Bennett wrote a piece on Lewinsky in the Style section of The New York Times, March 19, describing the phenomenon: "Feminists who had stayed silent on the first go-round were suddenly defending her, using terms like “slut-shaming” and...