Free Republic

In an exclusive interview with the AFRO, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), discussed the events of a March 5 hearing held by House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, of which Cummings is the ranking member. During the hearing, former IRS employee Lois Lerner was questioned on the agency’s alleged targeting of conservative political groups. Chairman Darrell E. Issa (R-Calif.) posed questions for approximately 15 minutes, though Lerner had already invoked her Fifth Amendment right not to speak. When Cummings tried to take his turn, Issa adjourned the meeting, turned off Cummings’ microphone, and he and other Republicans filed out. AFRO:...

<p>State lawmakers have passed a new food safety law that they wish they hadn't.</p> <p>Anyone working in a California restaurant or bar who prepares ready-to-eat food - from bagels to sushi to fruit salad to cocktails - has to wear gloves or use deli tissue, spatulas or tongs. But the new rule, which went into effect Jan. 1, has had so much blowback that lawmakers are already trying to repeal it.</p>

The United States took another punitive measure against Russia Tuesday, announcing it would not participate in a G8 Summit scheduled for Sochi in June unless Moscow reversed course on Ukraine, Reuters reported. The move followed an hour-long phone conversation between President Obama and West German Chancellor Angela Merkel that senior administration officials told Fox News focused on trying to construct a diplomatic off-ramp to get Russian President Vladimir Putin to de-escalate the situation in Ukraine. The White House released a statement saying the two leaders “agreed on the importance of de-escalating the situation, including through the deployment international observers and...

Sarah Palin’s tweet was simple enough. “Enough is enough,” she wrote. So, I clicked on the link thinking I’d read yet another mindless yet lengthy musing from Mama Grizzly. Not sure why, but I was disappointed to read the equivalent of cotton candy. It was a mouthful whose substance disappears the moment you start to chew on it. Sarah Palin Politician · 4,001,990 Likes.. Enough is enough... “The permanent political class in D.C. won’t listen. So, let’s start putting our efforts behind good new candidates who will go to Washington not to line their own pockets, but to help restore...

For the past decade, armor protection has dominated U.S. combat vehicle programs. Now, maneuver officials are breaking with that tradition, abandoning armor for highly transportable, all-terrain vehicles. The Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, Ga., recently reached out to the defense industry to see if it could build the new Ultra Light Combat Vehicle -- a new effort to equip infantry brigade combat teams with go-anywhere vehicles capable of carrying a nine-man squad. Lawmakers recently cut most of the funding for the U.S. Army's Ground Combat Vehicle -- a move that has all but killed the high-profile acquisitions effort....

During the State of the Union Address on Tuesday, President Barack Obama announced an executive order for federal contractors to pay employees at least $10.10 an hour. He also urged mayors, governors and state legislators to raise wages as well. On Friday, New London Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio announced that he has proposed a minimum wage ordinance. He wants to raise the city’s minimum wage for municipal employees and contractors to $10.10.   “I believe New London should answer President Obama’s call to action,” Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio said in a statement. 

The Scottish Parliament has overwhelmingly voted in favor of a same-sex marriage bill, allowing the first such ceremonies to take place by the end of the year. Scottish Health Secretary Alex Neil called the bill’s approval “one of the great historic days of the parliament.” But some religious leaders criticized it as an assault on tradition. …

Suffering from zero weather conditions, lack of activity, and boredom, I decided to use the self cleaning feature on my gas range. Now, my mother wasted a lot of money educating me in various fields that involved burning things, and people actually paid me a lot of money to help them do it correctly. So I removed the internals of my oven and pushed the button marked CLEAN. So I sat back and grabbed a brew to help me get through the cleaning time. After the stove warmed up the smoke came billowing out, lots of smoke. So I opened...

The 2016 national elections are not that far away. It is timely and important that we not wait until then to begin having constructive discussions about who should be given the opportunity and responsibility to succeed President Barack Obama. The questions of the future of politics, economics and equal justice should never be avoided. Especially given all the voter suppression enactments in many states over the last two years, we should be more vigilant about being politically conscious and civically active. My motive, therefore, is to stimulate a proactive dialogue now about the possibilities for viable candidates for the next...

Hitler Finds Out McConnell Is Losing To Matt Bevin; self explanatory

10) Only in America ... could politicians talk about the greed of the rich at a $35,000.00 a plate campaign fund-raising event. 9) Only in America ... could people claim that the government still discriminates against black Americans when they have a black President, a black Attorney General and roughly 20% of the federal work force is black while only 14% of the population is black. 40+% of all federal entitlements go to black Americans – 3X the rate that go to whites, 5X the rate that go to Hispanics! 8) Only in America ... could they have had the...

Overstock.com – the American internet retailer with over a billion dollars per year in sales – will accept Bitcoin starting in 2014. As Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne told the Financial Times: I think a healthy monetary system at the end of the day isn’t an upside down pyramid based on the whim of a government official, but is based on something that they can’t control. If there’s going to be some part of the population which adopts it… I think that we’ll get that business. And the people who switch to it will respect that we started adopting it. Europe...

During the last city council meeting for 2013, Councilman Nick Mosby (D-District 7) introduced “Ban the Box,” a bill that would bar prospective employers from asking, in the initial job interview, if a job applicant has a record of criminal arrests or convictions. On Dec. 5, Mosby said omitting the criminal conviction-check for applications and interviews would help more Marylanders obtain employment and give them the opportunity to re-enter the workforce. “This legislation will provide a level playing field for people who have experienced criminal convictions in the past,” Mosby told the AFRO. “Many of our citizens have been convicted...

<p>WASHINGTON—All five regulatory agencies put to a vote and approved the Volcker rule on Tuesday, ushering in a new era of tough oversight that drills to the core of Wall Street's profitable markets and trading businesses.</p> <p>The rule will put in place new hurdles for banks that buy and sell securities on behalf of clients, known as market making, and will restrict compensation arrangements that encourage risky trading. The Fed also approved an extension to give banks until July 2015 to comply with the rule, though firms will be expected to make "good faith" efforts to get into compliance earlier.</p>

ST. GEORGE — A Staten Island woman has sued the city claiming police entered her St. George home without a warrant, beat her family and killed her beloved pet parakeet, according to court documents. Last year, Evelyn Lugo's bird, Tito, was thrown from his cage after it was knocked off a dresser as cops came into her Corson Avenue home, the Daily News first reported. The officers then stepped on the bird intentionally, killing it, court documents say. Officers also beat two of Lugo's sons, her daughter and a family friend, the lawsuit claims. According to court documents, police entered...

This one is a gem. Two of the NYPD’s finest decided to open fire on an unarmed, mentally disturbed man outside New York’s Port Authority Bus Terminal. His capital offense–wandering through traffic. Though these defenders of the realm missed their target, they did manage to shoot two women who had the impudence to be on the scene. And now for the MOST unbelievable part of the story-–New York’s DA has charged the mentally disturbed man with...

A short time ago, Iran's Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged the Muslim World to boycott anything and everything that originates with the Jewish people. In response, Meyer M. Treinkman, a pharmacist, out of the kindness of his heart, offered to assist them in their boycott as follows: "Any Muslim who has Syphilis must not be cured by Salvarsan discovered by a Jew, Dr. Ehrlich. He should not even try to find out whether he has Syphilis, because the Wasserman Test is the discovery of a Jew. If a Muslim suspects that he has Gonorrhea, he must not seek...

During an exclusive interview with "This Week," Facebook CEO and FWD.us founder Mark Zuckerberg criticized the current U.S. immigration system and framed comprehensive reform as a major civil rights issue. "When you meet these children who are really talented, and they've grown up in America and they really don't know any other country besides that, but they don't have the opportunities that … we all enjoy, it's really heartbreaking - right? That seems like it's one of the biggest civil rights issues of our time," Zuckerberg said.

One of the more common refrains in the “Where have all of the good men gone!” lament is men’s increasing unwillingness to court women the way women expect to be courted. This is almost always framed as either a great mystery or a case of weak men screwing up feminism (or both).Examples of this concern abound, from Aunt Haley’s last three posts, to the divorced single mother who found out men weren’t willing to spend very much to court her, to the woman in Vox’s recent post lamenting that her 59 year old friend was only offered half a sandwich...

"I can only say: I'm sorry, America," he wrote. "The central bank continues to spin QE as a tool for helping Main Street. But I've come to recognize the program for what it really is: the greatest backdoor Wall Street bailout of all time."