Free Republic

TAMPA, Fla. (970 WFLA) - Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee has sent a letter to three community groups hoping to get their support in preventing another incident of mayhem among teenagers at the Florida State Fair. Last Friday, hundreds of teens stormed through the fair's midway, vandalizing property, accosting fairgoers and even targeting law enforcers. Deputies were overwhelmed by the chaos and had to close down the fair early Friday night. In his letter to the Hillsborough NAACP, the pastor of Beulah Baptist Church and the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office's Black Advisory Council, Gee says the "overwhelming number of youth and...

A former clown reflects on the Obama circus’s creeping Stalinoidism. I’m surprised, in the efforts to lynch the Obama Clown and brainwash other cowboys with sensitivity training, that the Obama regime and cronies have failed to recount one of my favorite Stalin stories from long ago. After a hard day’s work, Uncle Joe blessed a Moscow circus with his presence. The clowns performed a bit that contained (what Stalin perceived as) political commentary obliquely critical of him. Yet the audience roared with delight at the funny clowns! True to form, Stalin had his armed guards line up the clowns in...

Dear President Obama, I’m reaching out to you as a friend. I know you must be deeply hurting after what happened at the Missouri State Fair. Sure, you probably try to avoid watching the news while you’re on vacation, but I’m sure the pilot who airlifted your dog to your rental mansion in Martha’s Vineyard probably caught you up to speed (that guy is such a chatterbox). Your jaw must have hit the floor when you heard the news: A rodeo clown in Missouri poked fun at you. Yeah, I know, almost impossible to believe. The gall! The gumption! The...

So in Missouri we have a state fair board that is administering social justice, sensitivity training, not to mention life time bans for freedom of speech: to rodeo clowns! So I am asking for any and all information on these board members, and how they get their jobs. I know, I should find out myself. But, I support 5 kids and a stay-at-home wife. So if you have a few minutes to help, lets multiply our time and be effective. Tomorrow, I will talk to local chapters (they are already pissed and active), to get them focused on details. All...

INDIANAPOLIS - A bizarre scene played out Tuesday night at the State Fair when police found a man trying to carry five guns into the fairgrounds. State Police found the man with five guns on the midway, but say, despite the number of weapons, there was no immediate threat. Troopers say the man had a gun permit and was allowed to take his guns with him after police unloaded the ammunition near the fair's Midway. It is not the first time people with gun permits have entered the fairgrounds with a weapon, police say. For safety reasons, State Police asks...

Mitt Romney will campaign in the Milwaukee area Monday, a campaign official said. Details are to come.

<p>Big Tex clothes caught fire at the State Fair of Texas Friday Morning.</p> <p>Dallas fire crews are on the scene, his clothes are gone.</p>

The 125th annual State Fair of Texas has several options for saving money on admittance fees so more money can be spent on food, rides and with vendors. The fair will run from Friday, September 28 thru Sunday, October 21 at the historic grounds of Fair Park just east of downtown Dallas. This article will give you everything needed to know which days have admission specials and if it's okay to carry a gun on the annual pilgrimage to visit Big Tex. Here is a break down of how to get into the fair with a special promotion or, in...

Reflections on spending a day at a state fair... Wisconsin holds its state fair in West Allis, a close-in suburb of Milwaukee, in the state’s southeast corner. This makes it a more convenient state fair for Chicago’s north suburbanites than our own Illinois state fair in Springfield, so one sees a number of fellow Chicagoans munching on funnel cakes and riding the giant slide every year. State Fair: it’s not just for farmers anymore. But even so, it is largely about farmers. The state fair is many things, a microcosm of our people, our commerce, and our culture. Annual attendance...

The Wisconsin Department of Justice has received more than 20,000 concealed carry applications since the law took effect Tuesday. Data from the state Justice Department show that as of 4 p.m. Friday, 20,476 applications had been submitted. Of those, 879 concealed carry licenses had been approved and 793 had been printed. Also, 117 applications were rejected. Agency spokeswoman Dana Brueck said incomplete applicant data, insufficient training documentation or a missing payment are all reasons an application can be rejected. The state has 45 days to issue a license once a valid application is received. Brueck said the Justice Department is...

Stage rigging collapsed after a storm gust Saturday night, trapping and injuring at least a dozen people at a concert at the Indiana State Fair, NBC station WTHR reported. The outdoor stage was set up for the Sugarland concert at the state fairgrounds. Medics and rescue crews throughout Indianapolis were converging on the State Fairgrounds after Hoosier Lottery Grandstand stage rigging fell. Dave Lindquist, music journalist for The Indianapolis Star, reported on Twitter, "Tragedy at fair concert. Entire stage collapses on track." He also wrote that "perhaps a dozen injured people have been removed from track on stretcher-type boards."

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The investigation into 11 of the violent incidents on the opening night of the Wisconsin State Fair has resulted in the arrest of a 16-year-old African-American who reportedly told investigators he targeted whites. West Allis police said Thursday the teen was arrested late Wednesday. The Milwaukee teen was booked on suspicion of attempted robbery and robbery. Police recommend that he face additional penalties for hate crimes.

<p>WEST ALLIS, Wis.—West Allis police are releasing new details about some arrests on the opening night of the Wisconsin State Fair, but say none of those incidents possessed elements that would prompt their prosecution as hate crimes.</p> <p>WTMJ-AM reports ( http://bit.ly/roRWMr) the Police Department issued a statement Tuesday with new information about a handful of the more than two dozen arrests made last week.</p>

On August 4, 2011, the opening night of the Wisconsin State Fair, the worst race riot in Wisconsin history occurred. As darkness fell over the amusement park area known as the Midway before closing time, hundreds of young blacks swarmed out into the parking lot, seeking out white fairgoers to attack -- pulling people off their bikes, out of their cars, to knock them to the ground and beat them: with fists and whatever blunt instruments they had handy. Now, this wasn't the worst ever in America. The race riots of the Red Summer of 1919, for example, sometimes involved...

A man accused of throwing a mustard-covered corn dog that hit his live-in girlfriend during a weekend fracas faces misdemeanor charges, according to a recently released arrest affidavit. Fort Pierce police arrested Tommie Lee Mckeliver, 48, on Saturday after his beau told investigators he "got mad at her and threw a paper plate that contained a mustard covered State Fair corn dog on it." The corn dog crashed into her chest area, leaving her "coated" in mustard. "(The girlfriend) stunned by the situation then found herself being pushed out of the room, and (the) door locked behind her," the affidavit...

His boots are shined, his shirt is pressed and his jeans are wrinkle-free. The big man made his 2010 debut at the State Fair of Texas this morning, ahead of opening day on Friday. Workers raised the 52-foot-tall cowboy at Big Tex Circle, with dozens of elementary schoolchildren watching.

Let me start this by saying I am not against state fairs. State fairs have a long tradition in America and often serve as a focal point for the community, most especially the rural, farm community. But a state fair is neither a "right," nor an entitlement. Unfortunately, the attitude that a state must have a fair is just another abuse of what the role of government should be, especially in the United States. We are not a monarchy and when a state is billions in the red a state fair is the last thing people should be wasting state...

MARSHFIELD, Wis. — When it comes to spitting a cricket for distance, the central Wisconsin talent seems concentrated in one Marshfield family. Brian Johnsrud spat a thawed cricket 22 feet, 8 inches at the Central Wisconsin State Fair on Saturday. Minutes later, his son Jared shot his cricket 10 feet, 5 inches to win the 9-to-11 age division.