Free Republic

He’s the Grinch who stole your wallet. A serial pickpocket with more than 30 busts under his belt was pinched again last week while targeting unsuspecting tourists at the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, only to be dumped back on the street the next day, law-enforcement sources and authorities told The Post. Gary Teasley, 65 — who has been known to wear snazzy outfits, including a long dark fur coat and fashionable hat, during his alleged crimes — is so familiar to cops that they’re on a first-name basis, a source said. Teasley is such an illicit pro that he also...

We’re starting to sound like a broken record, aren’t we? Those of us who have been warning about the dangers of unchecked, unvetted Muslim migration to the West are getting tired of having to say “We told you so.” Sadly, it seems that none of our leaders in the West have been listening to us, because they continue to allow the unfettered flow of Muslim migration into our homelands. Recently, the Obama administration celebrated hitting their goal of 10,000 new Muslim refugees accepted (they accomplished the feat ahead of schedule – the first time in the Obama era the government...

Paris's iconic Eiffel Tower was shut to tourists on Friday as staff walked off the job to protest a surge in gangs of pickpockets roaming around the monument. ... They said they wanted "formal guarantees from management that lasting and effective measures will be taken to end this scourge to which numerous tourists fall victim every day". One of the striking workers told AFP that pickpockets "form a gang of 4 to 5 people ... sometimes there can be around 30"... the pickpockets sometimes "fight among themselves". Another worker said he had been threatened while chasing away a pickpocket. "He...

The Louvre was closed Wednesday after its workers walked off their jobs to protest what is said to be a rising problem of pickpockets haunting the famed Paris museum’s vast galleries. Louvre spokeswoman Sophie Grange was unable to say when the museum, which normally attracts up to 30,000 visitors a day at this time of year, would reopen. Museum staff organized the protest to draw attention to the problem, which they say is hindering their ability to welcome visitors and protect the Louvre’s collections. …

Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget would reduce tax credits for the poor — effectively taking money out of their pockets — while decreasing taxes overall, according to a nonpartisan report released Friday. Low and middle income people would lose tax credits worth about $49.4 million over two years, the new Legislative Fiscal Bureau report said. Those affected most by Walker’s proposal would include low-income families who qualify for the earned income tax credit program, and low-income homeowners who receive tax rebates under the homestead tax credit. Walker repeatedly promised during his campaign for governor not to raise taxes. Democratic lawmakers...

First Daughter Barbara Bush had her purse and cell phone stolen as she had dinner in a restaurant in Buenos Aires, Argentina, even though she was being guarded by a detail of Secret Service agents, according to law enforcement reports made available to ABC News. It was not the only mishap on the two-week trip to Argentina by Barbara (right) and her twin sister Jenna (left). A Secret Service agent on the advance detail got into an "altercation" with someone after a night out and was badly beaten, according to the law enforcement reports. The Secret Service said today the...

Whoever said "Hugs are free" apparently hasn't run the "hugging thief." West Mifflin police are accusing Mary Ann Johnson, of Clairton, of being the "hugging thief." They have received half a dozen reports of a woman walking up to senior citizens; acting as if she knew them, sometimes with an embrace; and walking off with their valuables. Victims lost cash, credit cards, gift certificates, even a birth certificate. Johnson is charged in connection with six thefts, police said. Victim Violet Lawton, 79, of Whitehall, said she had just checked out with her groceries on March 15 at the Century III...

Additional car-tax relief hit a dead end yesterday. House-passed legislation jump-starting the rollback of the local tax on personal motor vehicles was, in effect, defeated for the year in the Senate Finance Committee. The committee, dominated by moderate Republicans who consider the car-tax phaseout a budget-buster, refused to even vote on the bill, sponsored by Del. L. Scott Lingamfelter, R-

<p>Virginia senators want to squeeze at least $1 billion from a House-passed tax increase - perhaps through a local option sales tax and limits on car-tax relief - while protecting the fragile coalition of delegates that defied their chamber's anti-tax orthodoxy.</p>

<p>After spending the day convening, recessing, reconvening and caucusing, the Virginia House of Delegates voted 52-46 this afternoon in favor of a bill whose passage could signal the beginning of the end of Virginia's three-month budget crisis.</p> <p>The delegates voted about 5:15 p.m. on a bill that would raise about $850 million through higher sales and cigarette taxes, as well as other fee changes.</p>

The New Reason For Pain at the Pump By Ben Lieberman Everyone knows that the recent rise in the price of oil has had an effect at the pump, but something less well known is also affecting gasoline prices. It is something the federal government could reduce, since the federal government created it in the first place. It is gasoline regulations. Until the mid-1990s, the feds did not micromanage the recipe for gasoline, the only exception being the phaseout of lead in the 1970s. But that changed with the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act, which began to take...