Free Republic

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush appears poised for a presidential run and is currently leading the polls among potential Republican candidates for 2016, but the comments he made in 1994 during his first run for Florida’s highest office may come back to haunt him.The Associated Press reports that Bush described himself then as a “head-banging conservative” and used fiery rhetoric — such as claiming he would do “probably nothing” for African-Americans if he became governor — in his ultimately unsuccessful bid. Bush made that statement in response to a question on what he would for African-Americans if elected to office.“It’s time...

As a general rule, people have the right to protect themselves from animals that attack them. As might be expected, they have more leeway to use deadly force against animals than against other humans. Most states also allow property owners to protect their property from marauding animals, whether the animals are wild or property of another person. Damage caused by domesticated animals can be grounds for a civil suit. This situation occurred in New York.   From thedailynewsonline.com: ALEXANDER — The man who shot and killed his next-door-neighbor’s dog as it attacked him last week will not face any...

Donald Montgomery, a decorated retired police detective who served in the United States Navy, says in a lawsuit that his pistol permit and four handguns were seized by authorities in New York after he sought medical treatment for insomnia, the Daily Caller reported Friday. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat who once said conservatives who oppose gun control aren't welcome in his state, and several other state officials are named as defendants in the lawsuit filed on December 18.

Judge frees 2nd cop-hater in 2 days By Josh Saul, Jamie Schram and Bruce Golding She keeps turning ’em loose. A day after freeing a gang member who posted an anti-cop death threat online, a Brooklyn judge ignored the admonishment of a court boss — and sprung a man who allegedly punched a police officer and threatened to kill his colleagues, The Post has learned. Criminal Court Judge Laura Johnson blatantly disregarded an Office of Court Administration boss who said she “should be setting an example to the public that threatening or assaulting police officers isn’t an acceptable thing,” a...

Mayor Bill de Blasio has spoken of conversations with his son, Dante, about the “dangers he may face” from the police. Like so many other assertions connected with the cases of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, it is a fiction — and a dangerous one. Truth is, a young man of Dante de Blasio’s age faces far more danger from violent men his age than he does from cops. Zach Emanuel found this out the hard way. Zach’s father is Rahm Emanuel, mayor of Chicago. Like Dante, he’s 17. Last Friday, he was assaulted and mugged just a block from...

At a press conference Monday afternoon, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio repeated his request that demonstrators in the city put aside protests until after the funerals of the two police officers ambushed and executed in their patrol car Saturday. Naturally, when video shows marchers chanting, “What do we want? Dead cops!” during the recent #MillionsMarchNYC, it’s not hard to believe that many protesters weren’t sympathetic to the mayor’s request.

McDonald’s and its franchisees illegally retaliated against employees for participating in union-related activities, the National Labor Relations Board’s top lawyer alleged Friday in a case with sweeping industry implications. NLRB general counsel Richard Griffin announced Friday he will issue 13 complaints involving 78 charges against franchises and McDonald’s USA, LLC. Though many of these alleged labor violations were committed by independent franchise owners, Griffin ruled earlier this year that McDonald’s can be held liable for those actions as a so-called joint employer, leaving the corporatrion — and potentially other franchisors — exposed to such claims. McDonald’s said the decision will...

ALBANY — The Cuomo administration announced Wednesday that it would ban hydraulic fracturing in New York State, ending years of uncertainty by concluding that the controversial method of extracting gas from deep underground could contaminate the state’s air and water and pose inestimable public-health risks... That conclusion was delivered publicly during a year-end cabinet meeting called by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in Albany. It came amid increased calls by environmentalists to ban fracking, which uses water and chemicals to release natural gas trapped in deeply buried shale deposits.

It might not be as fragrant as evergreen but this giant beer keg Christmas tree sure taps into the festive spirit. The Genesee Brewing Co. in Rochester, New York, spent around two weeks constructing the 23-foot-high structure out of 300 stainless steel half-barrels. Employees laced it with 600 feet of green LED lighting and placed a rotating sign bearing the company's name on top instead of an angel.

The Red Apple Rest opened in 1931, in Southfields, N.Y., and quickly became a place where people stopped to fill up their cars and their stomachs on the way to the hotels and bungalow colonies in the Catskills. It survived economic downturns, competing businesses, and the new highways that lured drivers away. By the time the restaurant closed its doors in 1984, it had become a legend for generations of diners. In her new memoir, Elaine Freed Lindenblatt, daughter of Big Apple’s founder Reuben Freed, shares her memories of the restaurant’s rise and fall. By 1955, after nearly a quarter-century...

It wasn’t a chokehold. That’s just the biggest single distortion in all the talk about the Eric Garner case, in which the public has been misinformed and misled from the start. The Rev. Al Sharpton has never had to put himself in harm’s way to protect our streets against crime, as our police officers do every day. He’s in no way qualified to stand on his soapbox and dictate procedures. I spent decades in law enforcement. During my time with the NYPD, I was responsible for over 1,400 felony arrests — any of which could’ve required the use of deadly...

Last year, David Carlson of Sparrow Bush, New York, was a principal actor in a tragic situation involving a fugitive who was facing statutory rape charges.   Norris Acosta-Sanchez had fled the police and was living in a cabin not far from the Carlson's home.  Carlson got to know him; well enough to invite him to dinner in his house several times.   Acosta-Sanchez eventually confided in Carlson that he was a wanted man, though he did not disclose the charges against him. Carlson tried to cooperate with police to have Acosta-Sanchez taken into custody.   In a sequence of events worthy...

People across the country reacted sharply to the decision by a grand jury not to indict a white Missouri police officer in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager, with protesters taking to the streets in cities from Oakland to New York. St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch announced the grand jury had chosen not to indict Officer Darren Wilson, who gunned down Michael Brown, 18, on a street in Ferguson on Aug. 9. The grand jury had options from first-degree murder to no charge at all. In New York, protesters held up a poster reading "Black Lives Matter."...

Guns seized decades after implementation of firearms law in Britain It has been a common tactic of disarmists, statists, leftists or whatever name you wish to apply to those who desire the concentration of power, to incrementally acrete more and more power to the government.  The founding fathers of the American republic knew that there was a natural tendency to do this, as laws, once passed, are extremely difficult to repeal. One of the reasons this is so is that it is easy for authorities to simply not enforce unpopular laws.  This removes the incentive to repeal them, but...

New York health officials test person's remains for Ebola (Reuters) - New York City health officials said they will test the remains of a person who died of an apparent heart attack on Tuesday for Ebola as the person had recently come to the United States from West Africa. The person, who was not identified

The NYPD has identified a homeless man, Kevin Darden, 35, as the suspect in a deadly subway incident that took the life of Wai Kuen Kwok, 61, of the Bronx. Darden has a long history of violence "with more than 30 arrests"—for crimes including "robbery, assault, and narcotics."

The state’s most powerful Republican secretly worked for months to help Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo win re-election — in exchange for Cuomo’s promise not to aid Senate Democrats in their Long Island races, a top New York GOP leader has charged.

A librarian who formerly worked at the Riverhead Free Library has filed a lawsuit saying that she was fired because she did not discriminate against white people. Riverhead Free Library is located in Long Island, New York. Diane Woodcheke says she was fired after she questioned her boss's decision to only hire minorities. Her boss told her that “my people have been kept down,” and, therefore, only minorities should be hired at the library. Woodcheke questioned this, telling her boss that "discrimination is illegal." Woodcheke claims that her boss then mocked her and then fired her soon after. “Discounting people...

A 29-year-old father who butchered his wife in a jealous rage and then hacked to death his two, slumbering toddler daughters was sentenced to 45 years in state prison on Friday, WPIX-TV reported. Before sentencing Miguel Mejia-Ramos, Queens Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Holder delivered an epic tongue-lashing against the killer. “It is truly difficult to find words to describe how sickened people are in this courtroom at the sight of you,” Holder said, saying what he did repulses even the most hardened of criminals. Calling him a “vile and despicable man,” the justice, seething with outrage, said the convicted killer...

Local reporting puts John Katko (R) ahead of Dan Maffei (D) by 59 to 41%, with 77% of precincts reporting.