Free Republic

A subset of visitors to New York City looks, on the surface, just like the rest. Some are high profile, like the boxer this year, and the football player, and the Tea Party leader from California. They are joined by the anonymous: the military wife from Minnesota, and the hazardous waste expert. There was a minister, and a surgeon, and someone in pest control. What sets them apart is what each brings along on a visit to the city. A handgun. The guns are legally owned, with the home state permits all in order. The visitors have locked the gun...

‘Nobody can look you in the eye and say you shouldn’t be worried” about nuclear energy, says British environmentalist author Mark Lynas in the new documentary “Pandora’s Promise,” which opens Friday. Lynas is shown putting on a hazmat suit and visiting the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, where three nuclear reactors melted down completely in 2011 after being ravaged by an earthquake and a tsunami. A huge area was evacuated due to the fear of radiation poisoning and cancer. “There’s no other energy source that can do this,” Lynas says, referring to the fallout. As his radiation detector beeps madly,...

On an old building at 12 St. Marks Place, hovering above the sushi counters and tattoo parlors, is an inscription chiseled in the stone facade: Deutsch-Amerikanische Schützen Gesellschaft. It marks the location of the German-American Shooting Society clubhouse, long defunct, and is a rare vestige of the German immigrant community that dominated the East Village and the Lower East Side for much of the 19th century. Known as Kleindeutschland, or Little Germany, the community had German saloons and social clubs, German theaters and churches, German stores and workshops, and, of course, tens of thousands of German residents. Little Germany is...

Mayor Michael Bloomberg–who previously suggested so-so students skip college to become plumbers–dished out some more advice to young people Friday morning during his weekly radio show. Mr. Bloomberg, whose own syntax has sometimes been the butt of jokes, warned kids to pay attention to their grammar lessons or risk losing opportunities later in life. “Kids have to learn to speak grammar,” said the mayor, in response to a caller who suggested kids weren’t being taught the subject in schools. “If you don’t speak good grammar–English with good grammar–you’re not gonna get the kind of jobs that you want,” said the...

A long time ago in a media world far, far away, Katie Couric was once seen as a competent, likable, down to earth co-host of NBC's "Today Show." She was appealing, smart, and accessible, But success ruined Couric. Over time, she became a Media Diva and a divisive, hysterical left-wing partisan. Whatever your politics, it is impossible to dispute that Couric went Hollywood -- and narcissism is never pretty In the wake of her chilling metamorphosis, Couric has only met failure. But her latest endeavor, a daytime talk show, is making Couric's time at CBS look like the glory days...

OK, this is really shocking: a Heritage Foundation economist [Dr. Salim Furth] has been accused of presenting false, deliberately misleading data and analysis to the Senate Budget Committee.What’s so shocking? Not the false, misleading data and analysis — that’s SOP at Heritage. Remember the disappearing forecast of 2.8 percent unemployment under the Ryan plan, and various other Heritage escapades? What’s shocking is that they got called on it, in real time.The claim in particular, by the way, is widely popular on the right; it’s the claim that there isn’t any real austerity in Europe. Wonkbook goes through some of the...

<p>Those traffic cameras drivers hate and municipal bean counters love have brought a small village in Ohio to a grinding halt.</p> <p>Elmwood Place (pop. 2,188) has seen four of its six Village Council members resign amid public outrage over a flurry of fines issued by the cameras. The devices have raised nearly $2 million for the tiny Cincinnati suburb, but angry drivers and shopkeepers complain the ticket blitz from above could turn downtown Elmwood Place into a ghost town. Now, with two-thirds of the council gone, partly in protest over the cameras, the governing body can't reach a quorum to conduct the people's business.</p>

In a brazen push to make his state even more decisively the abortion capital of the United States, Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York is trying to ram through the legislature, before its June 20 adjournment, a radical expansion of the abortion license in the provisions of his “Women’s Equality Act.” As my Witherspoon Institute colleague Gabrielle Speach, and co-author and practicing physician Elissa Sanchez-Speach, write today at Public Discourse, Gov. Cuomo’s bill is an open invitation to the Kermit Gosnells of the abortion trade to move to New York and ratchet up their performance of late-term abortions on viable...

Yesterday the New York state Senate passed Bill S.2402, which officially makes it illegal to "annoy" police officers. Now the bill must go on to the State Assembly. "Annoying" or "harassing" a police officer would be a "Class E" felony, which, in the eyes of New York State, is equal to aggravated assault upon a person less than 11 years of old, female genital mutilation, promoting a suicide attempt, and cemetery desecration, among other laws. There is no specification in the law as to what will be considered "annoying" or "harassing" an officer besides "subjecting them to physical contact." The...

Dustin Reininger is a U.S. veteran and former police officer serving 3-5 years in a New Jersey prison for possession of firearms that he legally owned. As a result of the extreme and unjust New Jersey gun laws, Reininger was convicted of illegal possession of firearms as he was passing through the state. Dustin Reininger is not from New Jersey. He was actually moving from Maine to Texas and was driving through New Jersey when he parked his car in a parking lot to rest for the night. Reininger was awakened in the night by police officers who searched his...

An employee of the plant told us that: "We were told that Senator Schumer will not be conforming to our GMP policy, so no hair net, bump cap, safety glasses, etc. Even the CEO of Pepsi and the founding parent of Muller took off their jewelry and conformed to our GMP and safety policies."

A bill making its way through the New York state legislature would make it a crime to annoy a police officer by subjecting them to physical contact. The New York State Senate on Wednesday passed the bill that would make it a felony to "harass, annoy, threaten or alarm" an on-duty police officer, WIVB.com reported.

He’s back. An explosive Anthony Weiner received his first serious criticism from voters over the sexting scandal that forced him to resign from Congress Wednesday night–sparking a shouting match that marked the most heated moment of his campaign to date. Mr. Weiner had given his usual stump speech touting middle class jobs and his book of policy proposals at a New Kings Democrats candidates forum in Williamsburg when the floor was opened to questions. The second came from Chris Owens, a Brownstone Brooklyn district leader and a supporter of one of Mr. Weiner’s electoral rivals, who berated Mr. Weiner for...

Michael Bloomberg and his battle against bulging waistlines are targeting new villains: sweet tea, energy drinks and fruit juices. New York City’s health department launched a series of TV and bus ads on Monday that warn people about the high sugar content in drinks that are seemingly healthy. The ads cost about $1.4 million and are part of a “pouring on the pounds” campaign that dates back to 2009, The Daily Mail reports. One of the television ads shows a young boy happily slurping on a juice box. The scene takes a dramatic turn when it flashes to what appears...

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick says he went to his rural home the day after the surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect was captured and got "quite drunk" alone at a restaurant. The Democrat made his comments Wednesday while visiting a Cambridge marketing firm. Patrick says he was relieved that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured on April 19 because otherwise people would have been complaining about the "shelter in place" order he gave that day, locking down Boston and several suburbs. Maggie Merelle, co-owner of the restaurant Rouge in West Stockbridge, told the Boston Herald that Patrick had a "glass of chardonnay or...

A deranged, suicidal man ranting against the government used two knives to saw at his wrists outside the “Today" show Thursday morning.

When it comes to the tough questions, Anthony Weiner won’t back down. Weiner lashed out at fellow Democrats at a candidates forum Wednesday night when he was grilled about his infamous sexting scandal. -snip- Strauss noted that teachers are prohibited from tweeting photos to their students. “How are we going to have the stature as a city to tell that teacher that they can’t work for the City of New York when our mayor has done the same thing?” he asked. Weiner snapped back: “Listen, if you believe that my personal failings disqualify me, don’t vote for me.”

A Brooklyn couple who hosted a radio show called "The Pursuit of Happiness" committed suicide together by putting plastic bags over their heads and inhaling helium. Lynne Rosen and John Littig, who were found dead on a couch in the living room of their Park Slope apartment, left behind two notes, police said Wednesday. “We’re going to do this together,” was the gist of Littig’s note, sources said. Littig said, without explanation, that he could not watch his wife suffer any more. “Her note basically said she was sorry for doing this,” a police source said. “We believe she had...

On Friday afternoon, a New York motorist called police with a tip about a potential terror threat. Seems someone was hauling a suspicious-looking object — it resembled a torpedo — on the highways around the city. Before long 30 agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, were searching for this potential menace. Even Coast Guard cutters in the area were on the lookout, since the thing looked sort of like a boat. They should have set the terror color chart to Rebel Gray, because they were just hunting for a bunch of good ol’ boys from Summerville hauling a replica...

Another Elmo outrage! "Bad Elmo" -- a costumed panhandler who has freaked out tourists on two coasts with his anti-Semitic rants -- was hauled into a Manhattan courtroom today for allegedly trying to extort $2 million from the Girl Scouts. Transient loon Dan Sandler, who also uses the name Adam Sandler, threatened to spread false rumors that the Girl Scouts of the USA arranged sexual encounters between underaged girls and adult men, prosecutors allege in the bizarre new extortion and harassment case. Even before today's indictment, Sandler, 50, had been a disturbing Internet sensation for his antics as Elmo. Last...