Free Republic

..New York has nine specialised high schools, of which eight admit students using the city’s Specialist High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT). The education they offer rivals that of private schools that charge $40,000 a year. The high schools are free. The most popular, Stuyvesant, sends roughly 25% of its graduates to the Ivy League or other top colleges. The school’s unofficial mantra is “Sleep, study, socialise: pick two.” It admits 4% of test-takers, pickier than Harvard.New York’s Democratic mayor, Bill de Blasio thinks the SHSAT favours parents who can afford tutors. He wants to “broaden” (ie, relax) the admissions criteria,...

The New York Police Department moved swiftly late Tuesday and early Wednesday to beat back accusations of statistical manipulation leveled by its former commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, that called into question the city's official count of shootings and murders. In a briefing with reporters at Police Headquarters, a news release that contained a point-by-point rebuttal and an appearance on national television by the current commissioner, William J. Bratton, on Wednesday, police officials denied any altering of statistics and defended the city's low crime figures for 2015. "He is engaging in politics, and as you know the first casualty of politics...

It's Spitz-ville: Disgraced former New York governor Eliot Spitzer and his girlfriend, 33, break up - two years after affair ended his marriage It was an affair said to have cost Eliot Spitzer his marriage and his girlfriend her political spin job. But after two years together it appears that the disgraced former New York governor and partner Lis Smith have gone their separate ways, NY Daily News reports. Smith had just joined Bill de Blasio's team and was widely considered to be the likely candidate for the mayor's press secretary when pictures of emerged of then-married Spitzer sneaking into...

<p>The New York City Police Department is ramping up security around tourist hotspots, but denies a report claiming it received a "credible threat" against the city ahead of Christmas.</p> <p>Commissioner William Bratton held an emergency meeting with authorities Tuesday to urge police officers to remain vigilant during the busy holiday season, sources told PIX11 News.</p>

NEW YORK - A "credible threat" has been lodged against New York City, days ahead of Christmas and during an especially busy time of the year when tourists flock to the Big Apple, law enforcement sources told PIX11 News Tuesday. Top NYPD brass including Commissioner William Bratton held an emergency meeting Tuesday to discuss the threat and their response to it, sources said. Few details were released about the nature of the threat. A federal law enforcement source said the threat is not specific and could take place in several major U.S. cities. All New York City police officers received...

White House Holds Meeting With Muslims And Sikhs by KRISTIN DONNELLY, CHRIS JANSING and CORKY SIEMASZKO President Obama's top advisers held a series of meetings Monday with Muslim and Sikh religious leaders to discuss the fallout their communities are facing in the wake of the deadly San Bernardino shootings. Senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, Domestic Policy Council director Cecilia Munoz, and Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes took part in the White House sit-downs — a dozen days after a radicalized Muslim couple fatally shot 14 people and wounded 21 more in California. The Chicago-born Syed Farood and his wife Tashfeen...

From last night's speech to the New England Police Benevolent Association, which voted to endorse him. Rarely can you tell whether a new Trump policy idea was gamed out beforehand or just something he came up with on the fly while in front of a mic, and this is no exception. His advisor, Dan Scavino, tweeted it out after Trump said it, though, so if it wasn't official campaign policy before, I guess it is now. Is it worth critiquing this? Krauthammer’s ready to give up on arguing against Trump policies, partly because they're all obviously political panders rather than...

“It reminded me of days in the Old West where there’d be a shooting and the whole town would go through and look,” former NYPD officer Bill Stanton tells TheWrap.The FBI potentially dropped the ball by letting media ransack the home of the San Bernardino shooters just two days after the massacre. “They [the FBI] totally scrubbed it from head to toe, or it’s a major **** up,” former NYPD police officer Bill Stanton told TheWrap about reporters from MSNBC, CNN and other outlets being allowed into the suspects’ home to comb through photos and documents. Stanton, who worked for...

Congressman Chris Gibson of New York is calling for an investigation into Governor Andrew Cuomo's administration after learning hundreds of millions of dollars in loans went to Health Republic, an insurance co-op that lasted only two years, and which caused 215,000 New Yorkers to lose their insurance. Health Republic was founded in 2013 with $265 Million in federal loans. It soon became one of the largest health insurance cooperatives in the United States. Now it is no more after New York regulators discovered massive deficits in Health Republic's books. Originally ordered to close by December 31, regulators had to bump...

The principal of DeWitt Clinton HS, a struggling Bronx school in Mayor de Blasio's multimillion-dollar Renewal program, changed students failing grades to passing without teachers knowledge or consent, insiders told The Post. In one case, Santiago Taveras gave a senior who received a "no show" in a global-history class a 75 and changed her failing 55 grade in gym to a minimum passing 65, records show. She then got a credit for each class, which she did not deserve, several staffers charged. He thinks he is God and can do whatever he wants. ... Taveras changed a students failing 55...

Muslim-Americans who sued the New York Police Department over a surveillance program launched after 9/11 say calls from the Republican presidential campaign to put them under more scrutiny are recklessly seizing on public fears and distressing Muslims in the U.S.

Mayor de Blasio said his son Dante has been active in protests over racial issues at Yale — and they both agree the school should drop the name of a prominent defender of slavery. Dante, a freshman, is assigned to Yale’s Calhoun College, named for John C. Calhoun, a U.S. vice president and South Carolina senator who vehemently backed slavery as a “positive good” for the nation. “He’s very concerned, and he certainly notes the fact that the college he’s in, Calhoun College, is named for someone it shouldn’t be named for,” de Blasio told reporters Monday. “ That’s quite...

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has announced as part of his "See Something, Send Something" campaign a new mobile app that allows New Yorkers to alert authorities of potential threats. The "See Something, Send Something" app allows anyone with a smart phone to report suspicious activity directly to the New York State Intelligence Center in the form of photos or written notes, according to a press release. The press release reminds users to only report “suspicious behavior and situations (e.g., an unattended backpack or briefcase in a public place) rather than beliefs, thoughts, ideas, expressions, associations, or speech unrelated to...

It pays to have friends in high places. Al Sharpton gave himself a 71 percent raise last year after his National Action Network group drew a record $6.9 million in donations — as the controversial cleric’s association with Mayor de Blasio and President Obama lent him a newfound air of legitimacy. De Blasio’s election gave Sharpton a seat at City Hall, as the mayor treated him as an adviser and presented him at a press event next to Police Commissioner Bill Bratton after the death of Eric Garner. Also in 2014, Obama addressed NAN’s annual convention, bringing along five...

Rev. Al Sharpton will Announce that NAN is Convening a National Summit of Black Ministers to discuss the Recruitment of Black Churches as Sanctuaries for Syrian Refugees and to Recruit Congregation Members to provide Homes to Those Seeking Asylum. Rev. Sharpton will also condemn a lack of mercy, compassion and the perpetuation of Islamophobia by certain leaders

Mayor de Blasio says New York City will not turn away any refugees fleeing Syria. De Blasio said Tuesday that New York "is a proud immigrant city" and would welcome refugees trying to escape the conflict in their homeland. Many public officials and U.S. presidential candidates have expressed wariness at admitting refugees in the wake of the terror attacks in Paris last week. De Blasio chided a pair of local Republicans running for president. He called New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie "an embarrassment to this country" and said that the city "will adhere to the words of our Founding Fathers,...

Mayor de Blasio is moving to clean up a state medical-insurance mess that blindsided thousands of New Yorkers, including 114 cancer patients in the city who were about to lose their doctors. Under a hastily drawn-up deal, the patients will continue to get coverage for treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center under the city's MetroPlus health plan. The patients had faced a tough choice: pay out of pocket or find new doctors because of the impending bankruptcy of Health Republic - one of the state's ObamaCare providers and the only one that covers treatment at Sloan Kettering.

Apparently the Democrats including both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have cast their lot with the Black Lives Matter movement for next year, no doubt hoping to hang on to the full share of the black vote which Barack Obama drove to the polls in the last two cycles. If that's how they’re going to play it, then it’s time to prepare for the inevitable media assault and ensure that some measure of truth leaks out during the process. One good place to start would be the grade school level math required to analyze the most common claims being tossed...

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio endorsed Hillary Clinton on Friday for president. "The candidate who I believe can fundamentally address income inequality effectively, the candidate [that] has the right vision and the right experience and ability to get the job done is Hillary Clinton," de Blasio said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." De Blasio, who was Clinton's campaign manager for her 2000 Senate bid, had been debating for months whether to endorse her. "I've seen her vision and platform develop over five months. I'm extremely pleased with what she's put on the table," said de Blasio, who also served...

Slain NYPD Officer Randolph Holder’s fiancée was stunned to hear that the Rev. Al Sharpton was asked to speak at his funeral — because the policeman detested the anti-cop preacher, she told The Post on Monday. “He didn’t like [Sharpton]. He wasn’t a fan. So I don’t know why [Sharpton] is speaking,’’ Mary Muhammad said. Sharpton claims that he met with Holder’s father and that the dad asked him to speak at Wednesday’s service. On Saturday, Sharpton made a condolence call at the elder Holder’s home in Far Rockaway and tweeted a photo of himself with Holder and other family...