Free Republic

First the city banned smoking in most public places. Now it’s moving to snuff out the use of smokeless electronic cigarettes as well. The City Council announced Wednesday that it will hold a hearing Wednesday on a bill prohibiting the use of the battery-operated, tobacco-free vaporizers in restaurants, offices, parks, beaches and other places where smoking regular cigarettes is not allowed.

WASHINGTON (WJLA) - Phoebe Connolly says she had no idea what was coming when she biked through a group of teens in Columbia Heights. "My whole head went flying to the side," she explains. "It was a hard punch. One kid came from the side and pretty much cut me off. "He just like threw a hook with his left hand, and just got me right in the face," she continues. "And he said 'wa-pow' as he hit me in the face." Phoebe says she was able to pedal away, but was left sore and with a bloody nose. Otherwise,...

A rash of violent anti-Semitic attacks in Brooklyn, New York recently left a local rabbi wondering if the wave of assaults is part of a game of “Knock out the Jew.” Those were the words that Rabbi Yaacov Behrman had for CBS New York this week when he weighed in on a string of recent incidents that have taken Brooklyn by storm. The CBS affiliate reported that the New York Police Department is now investigating the series of crimes - at least one of which was captured on a surveillance camera. In that incident, Behrman said a local Jewish man...

A pro-life student group today released a new video showing young girls not legally old enough for sexual relations were unable to buy the sudafed cold medicine but could easily purchase the Plan B drug. Although sex with a girl 15-years-old or younger if statutory rape, the girls had no problems getting the drugs at nationally-known stores. Earlier this year, the Food & Drug Administration announced that “Plan B,” also known as the “morning after pill”, should be sold over the counter to anyone of any age. Before that it could only be sold to those 17 and older. Plan...

For the first time at Calabasas High School, a same-sex couple has been crowned as homecoming queen and queen. Lily Cohen and her partner, Greta Melendez, were nominated by their classmates for titles that historically have been awarded to a male and a female student. But times are changing. [Snip] “I was just shocked because it’s just amazing to see how much our school has changed in the past four years,” Melendez said. “When I was a freshman, we wouldn’t have gotten that reaction. I went through a lot of bullying.”

A group of 10 black youths blocked a white couple’s car in the New York borough of Brooklyn, brutally beating the husband and slamming the wife’s head into the pavement by her hair as they shouted racial epithets, officials said. Ronald Russo, 30, and his wife, Alanna, 30, were stopped at a red light Monday night when the group crossed Avenue U at East 58th Street, the New York Daily News reported. Mr. Russo honked his horn when the light turned green to get the youths out of the way, but they then began kicking the car, according to the...

A Chicago-area high school pulled a senior student from class on Thursday after he showed up to school wearing a Jesus costume for Halloween. Shortly after, the school then reversed its decision and allowed the teen to return to class wearing the costume. Angenetta Frison, mother of Marshon Sanders, a senior at Highland Park High School in Chicago's northern suburbs, said in a statement to a local news outlet that her son was asked to remove his Jesus costume after two teachers at his high school reportedly complained that the costume was offensive. The costume consisted of a long white...

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Two teenage girls suspected of shoplifting were stopped as they were leaving the Victoria’s Secret store in Herald Square, and a security guard checking their bags found what appeared to be a dead baby, police said Thursday. The girls, both 17, were stopped by a store security guard. It was then that one of the girls admitted she had “a baby in the bag,” CBS 2 reported. The guard called police. The girl later told police that she had given birth Wednesday and did not know what to do with the stillborn baby, which had matured...

A 17-year-old North Andover High School student was stripped of her captain's position on the volleyball team and suspended for five games after she went to a party to pick up an intoxicated friend, reports The Boston Herald. Erin Cox received a call from a friend, who was allegedly intoxicated, and asked her to pick her up from a party on Main Street in Boxford. Being a good friend, Erin went to pick her up, but instead met police just as they arrived at the house, the newspaper reports.

An Alabama high school student killed himself after he was threatened with severe legal consequences — including registration as a sex offender — because he went streaking at a football game. The student, 15-year-old Christian Adamek, died from wounds he sustained while attempting to hang himself, according to The Daily Mail. Adamek ran naked across the field at a September 27th football game between his school, Sparkman High School, and Grissom High School. The incident was recorded and put on Youtube, and many students remarked that the prank had made Adamek — already a popular student, according to reports —...

Attorney Benjamin Crump said he wants to bring national attention to Georgia after the death of 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson. Crump is no stranger to the national spotlight. He represented Trayvon Martin's family and helped pushed for prosecution in that case. A jury exonerated neighborhood watch George Zimmerman. Crump is now representing Johnson's family. The teen was found dead in his high school gym in January. His body was stuck upside down in a rolled-up wrestling mat. Investigators with Lowndes County Sheriff's Office ruled his death accidental. Today Crump joined Johnson's parents outside the Superior Courthouse in Lowndes County. He called...

This isn’t the Los Angeles Unified School District, either, but a school in relatively conservative Orange County that seems to have a strange and inconsistent notion of stamping out images of firearms. Sophomore Haley Bullwinkle had already worn the NRA t-shirt she received as a gift from her father to her high school several times without anyone questioning her about it. Last week, though, she got sent to the principal’s office and was told she had to remove it because the T-shirt from the nation’s largest gun-safety instruction organization promoted gun violence. What about the school’s drill team, Haley’s father...

..In this ironic case, the 13-year-old unidentified girl, and the 12-year-old boy, are both on the sex offender list and are the victims in the case, because they had consensual sex with each other. The two violated a Utah state law that criminalizes having sex with a person under 14 years of age. Although they were both children, Utah State officials found them guilty of sexual abuse of a child....

Two boys playing on a girls’ volleyball team at a New York high school could see their playing time spiked when league officials consider modifying a rule that allows them to play with the fairer sex. Seniors Andrew Lafortezza and Jason Elbaum both played for the co-ed volleyball club last season at Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua. But due to budgetary constraints, the Quakers were unable to field a boys’ team this year, prompting the teens to seek a spot on the girls’ squad, which they earned after receiving approval from league officials in August. ... Kim Cleary, the...

"CNN reports that Jared James Abrahams, a 19-year-old computer science student, has been arrested for allegedly hijacking the webcams of young women — among them reigning Miss Teen USA Cassidy Wolf — taking nude images, then blackmailing his victims to send him more explicit material or else be exposed. Abrahams admitted he had 30 to 40 'slave computers' — or other people's electronic devices he controlled — and has had as many as 150 total. His arrest came six months after a teenager identified in court documents as C.W. alerted authorities. She has since publicly identified herself as Cassidy Wolf,...

A thoughtless phone call forced a bereaved father to begin grieving all over again. Brooklyn teen Jean Fritz Pierre drowned on a class field trip in June, but that didn’t stop school officials who called his devastated dad last week to tell him his son was skipping class. Jonas Pierre, who this month filed a notice of claim for two $5 million suits against the city over the 16-year-old’s death, said staff from Prospect Heights International High School called him to set up a meeting to discuss his son’s awful attendance record. The distraught dad said the school’s insensitive phone...

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) - Three Virginia Beach seventh graders learned their fates Tuesday morning when they were suspended for shooting airsoft guns on private property. During a hearing with a disciplinary committee Tuesday morning, Aidan Clark, Khalid Caraballo and a third friend were given long-term suspensions in a unanimous vote. The suspensions will last until June, but a hearing will be held January 27 to determine if they will be allowed back in school sooner. The students' parents initially told WAVY News' Andy Fox their children were expelled, but when Fox looked at the official letter from the school,...

The principal at Marina High School in Huntington Beach had made a vow before one of his students – a transgender teen – was crowned homecoming queen Friday night. "If Marina High School is to make high-profile news during its homecoming week this year," Principal Paul Morrow said before the ceremony, "then we are proud that the message is one of equity and individual respect." Cassidy Lynn Campbell, who was born male but told The Times she always felt like a girl, broke down in tears during the homecoming ceremony at the school’s football game.

Cassidy Lynn Campbell broke down in tears Friday night when she learned that she had been crowned homecoming queen. The senior at Marina High School in Huntington Beach was born male but told The Times she always felt like a girl. In high school, she began taking hormone blockers and estrogen injections prescribed by an endocrinologist and made the transition to living as a girl. She decided to run for homecoming queen, in part, to make a statement.

If Brian Holloway thought the hundreds of teenagers who destroyed his home were ruthless, wait until their families are through with him. Several parents are reportedly considering lawsuits against the former NFL star after he posted their children's names on a website created in the wake of the Labor Day weekend house party. snip The website, www.helpmesave300.com, identifies over 100 of the estimated 300 house-crashers who trashed his upstate New York residence, and includes photos and tweets that documented the reckless destruction. But rather than apologize to Holloway for their children's behavior, some parents have contacted their lawyers to see...