Free Republic

Times is back online, although many of its links--including its link to the story on the Clinton Foundation--are still not working. More to follow. .. On Wednesday, The New York Times published a devastating report, detailing the financial tensions and shady business deals surrounding the Clinton Foundation. The New York Times went off-line earlier this morning and is still not up and running. The Daily Telegraph and Fox News are the only sources so far reporting on this issue. But why would the New York Times go down for so long after this news broke? Founded in 2001, the Clinton...

The highly lethal nerve agent VX -- used in weapons of mass destruction -- appears to have been discovered in a mail facility at JFK Airport where two US customs agents were sickened this morning, a law-enforcement source said. Both victims suffered respiratory distress and were taken for emergency treatment after being overcome while inside the US Postal Service facility on North Boundary Road at 9:40 a.m., the source said. Initial testing after the incident revealed the presence of "chemical-grade weapons and nerve gas," and subsequent testing produced a positive reading for VX, the source said.

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — A suspected U.S. drone killed four alleged al-Qaida members in Yemen on Tuesday, as the U.S. and British embassies evacuated staff amid reports of a threatened attack by al-Qaida that has triggered temporary shutdowns of 19 American diplomatic posts across the Muslim world. Yemeni officials have suggested al-Qaida threats to multiple potential targets in the Arabian Peninsula country in recent days, including foreign installations and government offices in the capital Sanaa as well as to the strategic Bab al-Mandeb straits at the entrance to the Red Sea to the south. It is not clear if these...

A defiantly unapologetic Tawana Brawley began paying off damages last week, 25 years after falsely accusing ex-prosecutor Steven Pagones of rape, The New York Post reported. Ten checks totaling $3,764.61 were delivered to Mr. Pagones — the first payments Miss Brawley has made since she defamed him in 1988, The Post said. She still owes Mr. Pagones $431,000. A Virginia court this year ordered the money garnisheed from six months of Miss Brawley’s wages as a licensed practical nurse at The Laurels of Bon Air in Richmond, The Post reported. She can appeal the wage garnishment every six months.

The way this feud is progressing, I half-expect Christie to reply, “And you’re the queen.”Ostensibly Paul means “bacon” in terms of “pork,” i.e. wasteful federal spending. Which I guess means he’ll be referring to Christie as “Porky” before the week’s out. “This is the king of bacon talking about bacon,” Paul said about Christie. Both are considered potential 2016 contenders for the Republican presidential nomination…“What does he want to do, shut down military bases in Kentucky?” he said.Fort Campbell and Fort Knox, both Army bases, are located in Kentucky. New Jersey itself is home to a large joint military base...

Another court ruling has taken the fizz out of New York City's ban on big, sugary sodas. A New York appeals court on Tuesday ruled that the city Board of Health exceeded its legal authority and acted unconstitutionally when it tried to put a size limit on soft drinks served in city restaurants. "The Board of Health overstepped the boundaries of its lawfully delegated authority," the court said in its decision. The state Supreme Court Appellate Division, with its opinion, upheld an earlier ruling that stopped the ban from taking effect in March. The rule would stop many eateries from...

They may take our lives, but they will never take…our FANTA! New York City’s plan to ban large sugary drinks from restaurants and other eateries was an illegal overreach of executive power, a state appeals court ruled on Tuesday, upholding a lower court decision in March that struck down the law.The law, which would have prohibited those businesses from selling sodas and other sugary beverages larger than 16 ounces, “violated the state principle of separation of powers,” the First Department of the state Supreme Court’s Appellate Division said in a unanimous decision. The appeals court echoed a court’s March decision,...

He’s light on specifics here about the pros and cons of the NSA program as he sees them, but any time three serious contenders for 2016 are in a scrum over national security and civil liberties, it’s blogworthy. More than that, it’s blogworthy because the Paul/Cruz Senate partnership is to some extent a proxy for the tea-party/libertarian partnership generally. It won’t go on forever, but it’s fascinating while it lasts. I won’t bore you with rehashing why I think Cruz is more a tea partier than a true blue libertarian; read these two posts if you care, or read Nick...

Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in Houston on Monday to protest against the acquittal of George Zimmerman, but what started as a peaceful rally turned terrifying for one woman who claims she was assaulted while trying to get her daughter to the hospital. “I looked up and I see all the protesters, they’re everywhere,” said Georgia, who asked Click 2 Houston that her last name not be used. “So, we got into the traffic and they’re stopping us and not letting us go.” Police told the station that protesters spilled into the road, blocking traffic for about 15...

U.S. Olympic boxer Terrell Gausha is so disgusted over the George Zimmerman verdict ... he's vowing to never sport the red, white and blue again. Gausha -- who boxed in the 2012 London Summer Games -- started wearing the American flag on his boxing trunks after his Olympic run ... but tells TMZ he's done with that now in the wake of Zimmerman's acquittal in the killing of Trayvon Martin.

Just when it seemed that the racial tensions couldn't get any worse after George Zimmerman's “not guilty” verdict regarding the charge of the second-degree murder of black teenager Trayvon Martin, along comes Nancy Grace, the host of a weeknight news/interview program on the HLN cable news network, who did her best to fan the flames even higher. Responding to lead defense attorney Mark O'Mara's closing argument on Friday night asking the jury to give Zimmerman his life back, the acerbic host growled: “Give Zimmerman back his life? He’s out on bond driving through Taco Bell every night, having a churro.”

I listened to Rush this morning, explaining how the liberals overlooked how Jeantel's interview on the "crazy ass crumpet's" show last night had warned St. Trayvon to run away from the chicken hawk. Here is the original testimony that describes what she feared. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjaNsWK8oW8 I kept on cracking up how the prosecution kept asking her to repeat "crazy ass cracker." The defense should have made much more of the "rapist" remark, since this was not about the facts, but about social engineering. It is conceivable that she think Trayvon is a hero for saving his kid brother, who was back...

Times reporter Ruben Vives is reporting live in South Los Angeles, where protesters are taking to the streets around Crenshaw and Martin Luther King Jr. boulevards to oppose the not-guilty verdict for George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer who killed Trayvon Martin. Earlier, dozens of protesters gathered in Leimert Park for a vigil in support of Martin. Following the vigil, marchers moved along Crenshaw Boulevard chanting "No justice, No Peace." Police estimated that 80 to 150 people began engaging in lawless activity along Crenshaw as they jumped on top of vehicles and appeared to assault bystanders. Some protesters stormed a...

Apart from what the Department of Justice might decide to do with George Zimmerman, there remains one piece of unfinished legal business from the sensationalized case — what to do with the sensationalizer. The death of Trayvon Martin might have fallen under the media spotlight over what it meant for the definition of self-defense and the limits of community-watch programs even without the overtones of race. After NBC selectively edited Zimmerman’s call to police, though, that angle overtook all other aspects of the case, and many other unrelated crime stories with a little more national significance.With the acquittal behind them,...

<p>Zimmerman, 29, blinked and barely smiled when the verdict was announced. He could have been convicted of second-degree murder or manslaughter. But the jury of six women, all but one of them white, reached a verdict of not guilty after deliberating well into the night Saturday.</p>

Pennsylvania's attorney general Kathleen Kane said Thursday that she will not be defending the state in a recent lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union regarding the state's ban on same-sex marriage. Kane, a Democrat, has decided not to defend the state because she is a proponent of same-sex marriage, and therefore the responsibility to defend the state's same-sex marriage ban will now be passed to Republican Gov. Tom Corbett, who opposes same-sex marriage. Pennsylvania law states that the attorney general may pass her responsibility to defend the constitutionality of state laws to the governor's office or executive branches,...

George Zimmerman's prosecutors want to add lesser charges for the death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin, including manslaughter and third-degree murder, possibly because they're worried he'll be acquitted. Originally, Zimmerman just faced second-degree murder charges for shooting and killing 17-year-old Martin. He claims self-defense, saying that Martin punched him in the face and smashed his head into the sidewalk. In the state of Florida, third-degree murder doesn't require proving that Zimmerman acted with some sort of "ill will" or hatred. The new charge, however, does need a felony-basis. In a surprising move, the prosecution argued Zimmerman committed child abuse as...

As expected, the Judge in the George Zimmerman case ruled that in addition to Second Degree Murder, she will instruct the jury on the lesser included offense of Manslaughter, as required by Florida case law. In a surprise move this morning, the prosecution asked the Judge to drop the Aggravated Assault charge and to instruct the jury on Third Degree Murder, which is murder in the course of committing a felony. The felony the State wanted as the predicate was Aggravated Child Abuse (Jury Instruction) because Trayvon Martin was 17 at the time of the shooting. According to Don West,...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I have here in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers a story from PJMedia.com that just cleared this morning. It's by Bryan Preston. Here's the headline, and the headline pretty much says it, but we'll delve into it. "Newly Released Documents Detail the Department of Justice's Role in Organizing Trayvon Martin Protests." Let me reread that with just a slight difference. "Newly Released Documents Detail Eric Holder's Role in Organizing Trayvon Martin Protests -- Judicial Watch announced today that it has obtained documents proving that [Eric Holder] the Department of Justice played a major behind-the-scenes role in organizing protests...

Washington, D.C. – Judicial Watch announced today that has obtained documents in response to local, state, and federal records requests revealing that a little-known unit of the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Community Relations Service (CRS), was deployed to Sanford, FL, following the Trayvon Martin shooting to help organize and manage rallies and protests against George Zimmerman.