Free Republic

When Chelsea Clinton wanted to make a low-key visit to the hurricane-stricken Rockaways last fall, she arranged to take a trip with her close friend Huma Abedin, a longtime aide to Hillary Rodham Clinton. -snip- But the reality, it turns out, is just the opposite: Those close to the couple say that Ms. Abedin, a seasoned operative well versed in the politics of redemption, has been a main architect of her husband’s rehabilitative journey, shaping his calculated comeback and drawing on her close ties with one of the country’s most powerful families to lay the groundwork for his return. A...

Gov. Andrew Cuomo — calling job creation the state's "number-one mission" — on Wednesday unveiled a plan for dozens of tax-free zones on public college campuses across the state. The zones would be available to new businesses as well as to businesses that relocate from outside the state, and to those that create net new jobs. In the zones, they would face no business or corporate tax, no sales tax, no property tax, no franchise fee and no state income tax for the owner of the company or its employees. The breaks would last for 10 years. (...) One of...

First Prayer in Congress, September 1774, in Carpenters Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Washington D.C., May 22, 2013 / 12:05 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In a move that could have national consequences for prayer in public life, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a federal case challenging the constitutionality of opening prayers at the town council meetings of Greece, New York. “It is perfectly constitutional to allow community members to ask for God's blessing according to their conscience,� Brett Harvey, Senior Counsel with the Alliance Defending Freedom, told CNA May 21. “A Supreme Court ruling reaffirming this historic tradition and...

The sheriffs thought they were being summoned to the Capitol to discuss ideas for changes to New York's gun control law, the SAFE Act. Instead, Gov. Andrew Cuomo told them to keep quiet. Opposition to the new law has simmered in upstate areas since Cuomo signed the law in January. Many county sheriffs oppose it, particularly its expanded definition of banned assault weapons, and have spoken out around the state. In January, the New York State Sheriffs' Association wrote Cuomo with an analysis, and later suggested tweaks. Cuomo invited its leaders to the Capitol last month, people briefed on the...

The sheriffs thought they were being summoned to the Capitol to discuss ideas for changes to New York's gun control law, the SAFE Act. Instead, Gov. Andrew Cuomo told them to keep quiet. (...) Cuomo invited its leaders to the Capitol last month, people briefed on the meeting said. The group included Sheriffs' Association Executive Director Peter Kehoe and Chemung County Sheriff Christopher Moss. "We didn't get a response (to the analysis) from him, but we could tell after the budget was passed that none of those recommendations were taken into consideration," Moss said. "When we got there, we never...

Richmond County Tea Party Patriots and Gun Rights Across America yesterday held a rally in the rain to defeat Gov. Cuomo's unconstitutional and ill-conceived NYSAFE Act. Tea Party Patriots member and American Grizzlies United / Organize4Palin NY State Coordinator, Ron Devito spoke at this rally, beginning at the 21:45 mark in the video. His remarks were covered by the Staten Island Advance. The Richmond County Tea Party Patriots were initially denied the permit to hold the rally, but it was ultimately granted. The denial may or may not be part of a pattern of harassment and intimidation of Tea Party...

Fantastic Historic Civic Action May 21 If you deem this worthy – spread the words We are On the March for real. Look at all the stuff we are achieving – there are too many action items to mention here but we know there are many – such a rewarding feeling. We have rallied in more places and with more people on one issue than ever before. We now have bad governance in fear of “We the People”. We are making a DEMAND for a vote and have at least 300,000 signatures to back it up. We have put them...

"The State Department says, “Eligibility for access to classified information, commonly known as a security clearance, is granted only to those for whom an appropriate personnel security background investigation has been completed."

Well, well, well, the Huma Abedin controversy has finally hit the legacy media. Okay, okay — it’s not the Huma Abedin controversy, but it’s one Obama’s court stenographers apparently feel comfortable talking about. It seems Ms. Abedin, accurately described by the New York Times as Hillary Rodham Clinton’s ”longtime aide and confidante,” spent her last months at the State Department not really at the State Department. Despite maintaining her title as Secretary of State Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, she was permitted, upon returning to government service from maternity leave in mid-2012, to remain at home in New York with...

THE BRONX, NYC, NY -- After a year of public outrage and legal proceedings, a judge has simply thrown out the indictment of Officer Richard Haste, who gunned down an unarmed man inside his own home, without a warrant. Haste was facing manslaughter charges until the judge tossed the indictment. https://www.facebook.com/PoliceStateUSA In February 2012, police broke into the home of 18-year-old Ramarley Graham without a warrant, did not announce themselves as police, shoved guns in the faces of the residents and ultimately gunned down Graham for no reason.

..It seems Ms. Abedin, accurately described by the New York Times as Hillary Rodham Clinton’s ”longtime aide and confidante,” spent her last months at the State Department not really at the State Department... … This story is getting some attention — sure to be fleeting — ...But that has more to do with a potential Weiner political campaign than with the tangled web of government policy-making and Clinton cronies (like the Saudis and Qataris — multi-million dollar donors to the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation who do mega-business with the State Department). There has to date been scant media interest in...

The title of a New York Times article by Raymond Hernandez reads, “Weiner’s Wife Didn’t Disclose Consulting Work She Did While Serving in State Dept.”. However, the headline for another story pops up in the eighth paragraph when a potentially very interesting claim is made. Take note of when Abedin allegedly stepped down as Deputy Chief of Staff for Hillary. Via NYT: "Ms. Abedin reached her new working arrangement in June 2012, when she returned from maternity leave, quietly leaving her position as deputy chief of staff and becoming a special government employee, which is essentially a consultant. A State...

The State Department, under Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, created an arrangement for her longtime aide and confidante Huma Abedin to work for private clients as a consultant while serving as a top adviser in the department. Ms. Abedin did not disclose the arrangement — or how much income she earned — on her financial report. It requires officials to make public any significant sources of income. The disclosure of the agreement that Ms. Abedin made with the State Department comes as her husband, former Representative Anthony D. Weiner, a Democrat, prepares for a mayoral run in New York City. Politico...

BALLSTON SPA — A Ballston Lake man who thought he could time travel while driving drunk and on LSD won’t travel any further than state prison for up to three years after being convicted of vehicular assault. According to Saratoga County District Attorney James A. Murphy III, Terrence J. Rudes, 21, of Windy Hill Road in Ballston Lake was driving on Church Avenue in Ballston Spa Sept. 17 when he crossed a double yellow line and hit another vehicle head-on. The driver of that car suffered serious injuries as a result of the crash. Ballston Spa police, who responded to...

Huma Abedin — Hillary Clinton’s longtime aide and the wife of all-but-declared New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner — spent her final months at the State Department working as a part-time consultant with the agency who at the same time was allowed to represent outside clients, POLITICO has confirmed. Abedin, a fixture at the Clintons’ side for at least 15 years — from Iowa to Indonesia — shifted to her new role after maternity leave in the early summer of 2012, according to a source familiar with the arrangement. The new status made her a “special government employee,” which was...

Seven foreigners from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Singapore were arrested for trespassing at the Quabbin Reservoir on Tuesday. The Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts is one of the country’s largest man-made water supplies. (VIDEO-AT-LINK) CBS Local reported, via Free Republic: Shortly after midnight Tuesday, seven people were caught trespassing at the Quabbin Reservoir. State Police say the five men and two women are from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore, and “cited their education and career interests” for being in the area. The men told police they were chemical engineers and recent college graduates....

Anthony Weiner’s bid to rise from the political dead is ready to begin in earnest — the disgraced former congressman will announce he is running for mayor as early as next week, according to sources. “He’s definitely running,” one Weiner ally told The Post. After weeks of hinting at a run, Weiner has taken a major step toward firing up his campaign by hiring a manager to guide his mayoral bid, according to a report.

Parents of children attending a Red Hook, New York, middle school are outraged after a recent anti-bullying presentation at Linden Avenue Middle School. The workshop for 13 and 14-year-old girls focused on homosexuality and gender identity. They were also taught words such as "pansexual" and "genderqueer." Parents say their daughters were told to ask one another for a kiss and they say two girls were told to stand in front of the class and pretend they were lesbians on a date.

Bill and Hillary Clinton will not support Anthony Weiner in his dream of becoming mayor even though they love his wife, Huma Abedin, sources say. “The Clintons wish Weiner would just disappear. Every time he pops up, it’s a reminder of Bill’s scandal with Monica Lewinsky, and it isn’t helpful to Hillary’s hopes for 2016,” one Democrat told Page Six.

It was a brazen bank heist, but a 21st-century version in which the criminals never wore ski masks, threatened a teller or set foot in a vault. In two precision operations that involved people in more than two dozen countries acting in close coordination and with surgical precision, thieves stole $45 million from thousands of A.T.M.'s in a matter of hours. In New York City alone, the thieves responsible for A.T.M. withdrawals struck 2,904 machines over 10 hours starting on Feb. 19, withdrawing $2.4 million. The operation included sophisticated computer experts operating in the shadowy world of Internet hacking, manipulating...

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2013/tunisian-man-charged-with-visa-fraud-related-to-terrorism-intended-to-remain-in-u.s.-to-facilitate-an-act-of-international-terrorism Tunisian Man Charged with Visa Fraud Related to Terrorism, Intended to Remain in U.S. to Facilitate an Act of International Terrorism U.S. Attorney’s Office May 09, 2013 Southern District of New York Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York; George Venizelos, the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); and Raymond W. Kelly, the Police Commissioner of the city of New York (NYPD), today announced the unsealing of charges against Ahmed Abassi, a Tunisian citizen, for...

The seal has been lifted on the sentencing memo for ex-Sen. Shirley Huntley, who wore a wire for the FBI for several months last year. The memo says: Mrs. Huntley met with attorneys for the government and FBI agents regularly over a six-month period. (...) Ms. Huntley upon the prompting of the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI recorded and photographed the following individuals on multiple occasions: State Senator John Sampson Melvin Lowe, (former political consultant and associate of New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman) State Senator Eric Adams State Senator Ruth Hassel-Thompson State Senator Jose Peralta State Senator...

While Senator Joe Manchin decides whether to reintroduce his failed background checks bill, other lawmakers are busy passing new gun measures that decrease rather than increase regulation. In Arizona, where Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot a little over two years ago in a rampage that left six people dead, including a federal judge, the legislature and the governor have devoted themselves to protecting the firearm supply. On Monday, Gov. Jan Brewer signed two gun laws. One would forbid cities and counties from destroying weapons they obtained through gun-buyback programs. Instead, they must resell them so that guns purchased by police...

A piece of landing gear believed to be from one of the planes destroyed in the Sept 11 attacks has been discovered wedged between the infamous "Ground Zero Mosque" and another New York building. The part includes a clearly visible Boeing identification number, New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said. The twisted, rusted metal part has cables and levers on it and is about 5 feet tall, 3 feet wide and 1.5 feet deep. The piece was discovered Wednesday by surveyors inspecting a lower Manhattan Islamic community centre on behalf of the building's owner. The spokesman said the inspectors...

After reading the 16-page New York Times magazine piece on former U.S. Congressman Anthony Weiner and his Muslim wife, Huma Abedin, one thing is clear. Weiner is giving serious thought (and money) to exploring the possibility of running for mayor of the city that was hit by Al-Qaeda on 9/11/01. Based on what is known about Huma, something else becomes clear. A woman with significant familial ties to the group that spawned Al-Qaeda would become first lady of the city that was hit by Al-Qaeda on 9/11/01. Make no mistake, whether Abedin has Brotherhood sympathies or not, her mother –Saleha...

Scaling down a legal fight with the White House, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York has agreed to drop a request for documents about the government's requirement of insurance coverage for birth control, a court filing on Monday said.The archdiocese sent a subpoena to President Barack Obama's administration in February asking for documents from White House staff, including Obama himself, for use in a church lawsuit against the contraception mandate.Citing the burden involved and calling a subpoena of the president's office inappropriate, the White House asked a federal judge to toss out the subpoena on April 4.A notice filed...

Canadian authorities announced Monday they have broken up an Al Qaeda-linked terror plot to attack a passenger train as it crossed over a bridge in the Toronto area. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Monday that two suspects have been arrested on terrorism charges. Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jaser, who live in greater Montreal and Toronto -- were conspiring to carry out an Al Qaeda-supported attack against Via Rail, but posed no immediate threat to the public. "It was definitely in the planning stage but not imminent," RCMP chief superintendent Jennifer Strachan told reporters at a news conference. Read more:...

(CNSNews.com) – Although no group has claimed responsibility for Monday’s deadly bomb blasts at the Boston Marathon, a leading al-Qaeda ideologue last year recommended that jihadists in America include sporting events in their list of prospective terror targets.

Kirsten Powers has done a national service, by virtue of her now-famous USA Today column, of putting the news of the trial of abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell on the national radar screen. This, of course, is the horror story of a cesspool in Philadelphia posturing as an abortion clinic, operating without inspection for 17 years. Gosnell, the doctor who ran the place, is formally charged with the murder of one woman and seven infants. However, the grand jury report and testimony of family and staff at the trial indicate that if there were records in this dump, where life and...

Former Ptech Officer Arrested for SBA Loan Fraud Indictment Unsealed Charges Former Ptech President with Dealing in Assets of Specially Designated Global Terrorist BOSTON—A former resident of Somerville, Mass. who has been living in South Korea was arrested today after arriving at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. An indictment, originally returned on March 1, 2007, was unsealed today charging Buford George Peterson and Oussama Abdul Ziade, both former officers of Ptech, Inc., a computer software company that was principally located in Quincy, Mass., with making false statements to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) in connection with a...

Mayor Michael Bloomberg may have canceled his morning radio appearance today in response to the ongoing manhunt for a suspect involved in Monday’s deadly bombing attack on the Boston Marathon, but another top New York official, Governor Andrew Cuomo, scheduled his own radio interview on The Capitol Pressroom soon after. Mr. Cuomo directly addressed the high-profile situation in the Bay State by employing a phrase he previously used to describe climate change in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy: “the new normal.”

Albany Police Officers Union, local 2841, “We respectfully demand that you do the right thing and repeal the law.” FROM: Albany Police Officers Union, local 2841, Council 82, AFSCME, AFI-CIO, P.O BOX 6567, ALBANY, NEW YORK 12206 (518) 438-9422 To: Andrew M. Cuomo / Dean G. Skelos / Neil D. Breslin / John T- McDonald III / Phil Steck / Sheldon Silver / Jeffrey D. Klein / Cecilia Tkaczyk / Patricia Fahy Note; see the formal list of people this letter went to at the bottom. April 15,2013 Honorable Ladies and Gentlemen: The Albany Police Officers Union condemns and opposes...

A Saudi family who “fled” their Sarasota area home weeks before 9/11 had “many connections” to “individuals associated with the terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001,” according to newly released FBI records. One partially declassified document, marked “secret,” lists three of those individuals and ties them to the Venice, Fla., flight school where suicide hijackers Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi trained. Accomplice Ziad Jarrah took flying lessons at another school a block away. Atta and al-Shehhi were at the controls of the jetliners that slammed into the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center, killing nearly 3,000 people. Jarrah was the...

Syracuse, N.Y. -- The union representing New York State Police say they believe the state's stricter gun laws could put law enforcement officers at risk. In an email release on Monday, the New York State Troopers PBA said its 6,000-member group "holds widely shared concerns" about the NY Safe Act. Nonetheless, the union takes exception to some state lawmakers accusing the troopers of failing to enforce the law. "The individual members of this union did not write the terms of the bill nor vote on its passage," the release said. "We urge the citizens of New York state to remember...

The Abortion Expansion Bill Send a message to Governor Cuomo and your legislators today. Just go HERE.Memorandum of Opposition Re: The Abortion Expansion Bill “In relation to revising existing provisions of law regarding abortions”The above-referenced legislation may come before you as a stand-alone bill (such as S.438, Stewart-Cousins) or may be re-packaged into a multi-point “women’s agenda” as advocated by Governor Andrew Cuomo in his 2013 State of the State message. We strongly urge you to oppose this abortion expansion plan, in whatever form it may take. It is unnecessary, extreme and dangerous. For the reasons outlined below, the New...

And so this is how it begins: a man with no criminal record and no mental health issues is told by the state that he must turn in his legally-purchased arms to the state because they somehow accessed his medical records. Reader LC Scotty dropped this admission of tyranny into the comments of today’s earlier post: The NYS SAFE Act is billed as a necessary law to protect the public and keep guns out of the hands of the wrong people. But Hamburg attorney Jim Tresmond says his client was notified by letter that his gun permit was suspended upon...

The opposition of the NY Safe Act is intensifying. With several successful Albany protests and then with the first “Regional Protest” in Syracuse, NY also being a success, the opposition is getting even more credible, energetic and vigorous. Will the movement continue with successful outcomes? The Team adamantly says yes. In the newest twist in the effort to repeal the Safe Act the grassroots citizens of New York will hold two regional rallies on the same day. On April 13th Citizens for Repeal of the Safe Act will hold protest rallies in Gouverneur, NY and Norwich, NY. (there is also...

Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) member and Spring Valley Mayor Noramie Jasmin was arrested yesterday for allegedly accepting bribes from an undercover FBI agent, as part of a wide-ranging federal corruption probe that netted six New York state politicians.

ATTENTION! EAST COAST READERS! RALLY AGAINST AMNESTY! This is a Reminder of our NY ICE Counter Protest THIS Saturday, April 6, 2013, in New Jersey. WHAT: Counter Protest of Illegal Alien Amnesty in New Jersey That Will Be Sponsored by Obama’s “Organizing for Action” Group WHEN: April 6th, 2013 (*THIS* Saturday) at 9am WHERE: Meet in the MAIN parking area near Liberty House Restaurant at 76 Audrey Zapp Drive, Jersey City, NJ 07305. The Liberty House Restaurant has a GREEN Roof, for easy recognition. Look for NY ICer, Basil, who will have a BIG, American Flag on a pole that...

Finally, after years of dreaming, we've finally moving from New Yorkistan to America (the outskirts of Atlanta, to be exactly)! I accepted the transfer offer today, for a position that I really wanted & I'm pretty sure I'm going to love. And to all the Georgia residents out there, I solemnly swear that we will not mess up your state. We're moving to Georgia because we like what it is, not because we want to change it. Having been raised in captivity, I'm thinking it may take us a while to adapt to the wild (AKA freedom). But I'm positive...

The two men sat in the state senator’s parked car in suburban Rockland County, but New York City was at the front of their minds and the focus of their conversation. What the senator, Malcolm A. Smith, wanted to do, the other man explained, was going to cost “a pretty penny.” “But it’s worth it,” replied Senator Smith, a Democrat, according to a transcript of the January meeting. “Because you know how big a deal it is.” His plan, described by federal prosecutors in a criminal complaint unsealed on Tuesday, was as ambitious as it was audacious. Mr. Smith was...

While other states have been moving right along with deploying the decades-old hydrofracking technique that’s unlocking access to their hitherto hard-to-reach oil and gas reserves (and enjoying the subsequent wealth- and job-creation that comes with it), the state of New York has been hanging back while Governor Andrew Cuomo decides whether he cares more about serving the best interests of his state or placating the vociferous green lobby. The governor has been dithering between continuing New York’s current ban on hydraulic fracturing or allowing fuel companies to go for it in at least the state’s southern portion, and has several...

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Sixteen and pregnant? There’s an app for that. The Bloomberg administration has launched an app intended to reduce teen pregnancy called “Teens in NYC Protection+” that provides a wealth of health data for kids who are — or are thinking about becoming — sexually active, The Post has learned. Information about everything from free clinics for HIV and STD testing to receiving condoms and emergency contraception is just a touch away on a smartphone. The Health Department has yet to publicly announce the app. But the information has been available on the nyc.gov Web site, which has a special section...

Some 1 million workers across the city will soon able to call in sick without losing a day’s salary, under a deal struck yesterday to make small businesses provide paid days off for illness. The measure comes after City Council Speaker Christine Quinn dropped her long-standing opposition to a paid-sick-days bill. The new legislation — which Quinn is expected to tout at City Hall today — will give workers at small companies their salary for up to five sick days a year. Quinn has been facing growing criticism from other mayoral candidates for blocking paid sick leave — as well...

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown today announced that current WBC welterweight champion Robert Guerrero has been arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport and charged with illegally traveling with an unloaded pistol and three unloaded high capacity bullet magazines. The weapon and 15-bullet clips were discovered during a routine pre-flight check-in this morning. District Attorney Brown said, “I hope that Mr. Guerrero fights better than he thinks. For anyone who hasn’t gotten the message, let me be crystal clear. You cannot bring an unlicensed weapon – loaded or unloaded – into this county or this city. And if you...

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2013/al-shabaab-operative-sentenced-in-manhattan-federal-court-to-111-months-in-prison-for-conspiring-to-support-and-receive-military-type-training-from-a-foreign-terrorist-organization Al Shabaab Operative Sentenced in Manhattan Federal Court to 111 Months in Prison for Conspiring to Support and Receive Military-Type Training from a Foreign Terrorist Organization U.S. Attorney’s Office March 27, 2013 Southern District of New York Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Mohamed Ibrahim Ahmed was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court to 111 months in prison for conspiring to provide material support to and to receive military-type training from al Shabaab, a terrorist organization based in Somalia. The U.S. Department of...

A bright meteor briefly outshined the lights of New York City Friday evening (March 22), according to reports by witnesses who used Twitter and the Internet to report sightings of the fireball streaking over a broad stretch of the U.S. East Coast. "Strange Friday night … a meteor passed over my house tonight!" wrote one New Yorker writing as Yanksmom19. The first fireball sightings came at about 8 p.m. EDT (0000 March 23 GMT) and sparked more than 500 witness reports to the American Meteor Society. Reports of the meteor flooded Twitter from New York, Boston and Washington, D.C. "The...

The National Rifle Association today filed a federal lawsuit against New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and other officials, seeking injunctive relief from the state’s Secure Ammunition and Firearms (SAFE) Act. This was the law for which Olympic Arms in Lacey announced in February that it would no longer do business with agencies in New York State. It’s the kind of law anti-gunners would like to see enacted in Washington and Oregon as “sensible” or “reasonable.” It limits magazine capacity to seven rounds, requires background checks for ammunition purchases, and requires that retailers report large ammunition sales...

A New York couple has been arrested and accused of plotting to babysit children as a cover to drug and sexually abuse them, federal prosecutors said. Special agents with the FBI and NYPD detectives arrested Bebars Baslan, 35, and Kristen Henry, 25, from Brooklyn, on Tuesday night at a hotel in Jersey City, N.J. Prosecutors say they believed they were going there to meet an acquaintance and three children, including a 1-year-old and a 3-month-old baby, that the group was planning to drug with children's Benadryl and take sexually explicit photos. Prosecutors say that acquaintance was actually an informant who...