Free Republic

For the first time in nearly nine years, and just the second time in half a century, Miami-Dade County’s teachers union has a new president. Fedrick Ingram, 39, was sworn in Thursday during a ceremony at the Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus as the leader of the United Teachers of Dade, which represents more than 34,000 members, most of them teachers. He replaces Karen Aronowitz, who chose not to seek a fourth term.... As president, Ingram will negotiate salaries and healthcare and try to build a declining membership. The former band director and Miami-Dade teacher of the year is the...

With Washington gripped by a trio of exploding scandals – from Benghazi to government spying on news outlets, to thug tactics by the IRS – Senate Democrats seem to be hoping that if they just yell loud enough, voters will overlook a key role they played in at least one of them. The pols quickly sensed the political toxicity associated with Friday's admission by the IRS that they selectively targeted conservative organizations for special government scrutiny, and so Democrats didn't waste any time springing into action. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana, for example, vowed congressional hearings and...

Ten California teachers are suing to break one of the strongest iron triangles in American politics, where the taxpayers pay the teachers; the teachers’ union supports candidates and referenda, and that leads eventually to the teachers getting better pay, benefits and working conditions. A civil rights law firm filed a federal law suit April 30 on behalf of 10 California teachers and the Christian Educators Association International challenging the state’s closed shop law that has them contributing to support political activity they opposed. "Individual teachers have a constitutional right to decide for themselves whether to join a union and financially...

San Antonio Park police violently beat a woman who had walked into the wrong room at a gas station, then arrested her brother for trying to video record the altercation. They also deleted the footage from her brother’s camera while charging the woman with felony assault on a peace officer. But her brother managed to recover the footage that contradicts the police version of the story. Christina Oliver, who ended up with a broken nose and black eye, told her story to KENS 5:

A bill to give Florida teachers a pay increase is getting mixed reviews. The $480 million bill was approved by legislators over the weekend and is expected to be signed by Gov. Rick Scott. The raises would be based on teacher evaluations that include student performance. Under the plan, teachers ranked as highly effective would receive a $3,500 pay increase and those ranked as effective would receive a $2,500 raise —while those considered to need improvement or to be unsatisfactory would not receive a raise. Scott, who initially proposed a $2,500 increase for every teacher, congratulated legislators on their progress.

‘Barack you my dawg’: Election tweets and retweets from Boston bombing suspect’s reported account

Massachusetts police pepper sprayed and arrested a man for video recording them after they ordered him to walk away. Then they spent the next several minutes handcuffing and stuffing him inside a police car while a woman who repeatedly identified herself as an attorney recorded it all. The incident took place in a bar district in Northampton. And the video was uploaded today. Other than that, there is not much information available other than the following brief description: Northampton, MA police arrest an innocent black man outside of Tully O’Reilly’s for no reason. All he did was take out his...

The warmest day of the year so far brought hundreds of teens to Michigan Avenue on Saturday. Police were calling it “mob action.” CBS 2 has learned about multiple incidents in at least four different locations along the Magnificent Mile and in the Gold Coast, yielding a slew of arrests. In all, 25 juveniles and three adults were charged. Many innocent shoppers and tourists became caught in the middle of a very chaotic situation. Hundreds of teens littered Michigan Avenue and State Street near Chicago.

Albany Chelsey Morales said police confined her to an apartment. Thurston Gross said police threatened to arrest him for trespassing as he tried to get to his own home. What happened at Ida J. Yarbrough Homes Thursday during a police training exercise was unacceptable, said residents and community advocates at a lively meeting of the Arbor Hill Neighborhood Association on Monday night at the Arbor Hill/West Hill Library. Albany Police Department's SWAT team conducted a hostage rescue drill in a vacant apartment at the public housing complex, just a few yards away from occupied homes.

A California man is suing the National Park Service and a park ranger who allegedly shot him with a stun gun for being uncooperative about his off-leash dog. In a federal lawsuit filed Thursday, 51-year-old Gary Hesterberg of Montara claims his constitutional rights were violated and seeks $500,000 in damages for the Jan. 29, 2012 incident. The complaint says Hesterberg was running on a trail in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area when the ranger warned him about having one of his dogs off-leash. The suit says the woman hadn’t identified herself as a park ranger when she fired her...

s I posted earlier, the 17-year-old Houston resident was shot to death Tuesday by a police SWAT team during a drug raid on his family's home. It's increasingly looking like yet another paramilitary drug raid gone horribly wrong. The father of a 17-year-old killed by a police officer who was looking for drugs at his home said the shooting was unprovoked. [...] The elder Castillo said his son was awakened by the pleas of his 20-year-old sister, Ashley. When the younger Castillo turned toward Falks, he said, the officer shot him in the face. "My son heard her say, 'Don't...

Omaha police displayed an unbridled street gang brazenness when they chased a man who was video recording them abusing his brother into a private home, confiscating his phone and arresting him to ensure their actions would never see the light of day. However, another citizen captured the entire incident on video from a second-floor window, ensuring at least the façade of an internal investigation.

<p>An active-duty Marine who lost both his legs to an Improvised Explosive Device was humiliated by TSA agents after he was forced to remove his prosthetic legs and was then ordered to stand so agents could inspect his wheelchair for explosives.</p>

The White House is denying reports an adviser threatened famed Watergate journalist Bob Woodward after the Washington Post reporter challenged President Obama's version of events on the looming sequester. Woodward claimed Wednesday night that a White House aide sent him an email saying he would "regret" his comments. The aide was not identified, but an official familiar with the exchange told Fox News it was National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling. That was after Woodward wrote a column this past weekend claiming Obama was trying to re-write history -- regarding not only whose idea the sequester was, but also how...

Go to Google News and enter "Lanny Davis Threats" in the search bar. Wow. This is incredible. Anyone here can have a field day in posting these articles here at FR. Just thought I would give a heads-up!

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dozens of protesters rallied outside Los Angeles police headquarters Saturday in support of Christopher Dorner, the former LAPD officer and suspected killer of four who died after a shootout and fire this week at a mountain cabin following one of the biggest manhunts in recent memory. Protesters told the Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/11Ndm6i ) they didn't support Dorner's deadly methods, but objected to police corruption and brutality, and believed Dorner's claims of racism and unfair treatment by the department. Many said they were angered by the conduct of the manhunt that led to Dorner's death and...

Manti Te’o and Lance Armstrong both started the year with headlines they would just as soon like to forget. Now, they are part of a list just as humbling, as Forbes has published a list of the most disliked American athletes. ... Here’s the final tally: 1.Manti Te’o 15% Appeal 2.Lance Armstrong 15% Appeal 3.Tiger Woods 19% Appeal 4.Jay Cutler 21% Appeal 5.Metta World Peace 21% Appeal 6.Alex Rodriguez 22% Appeal 7.Michael Vick 23% Appeal 8.Kurt Busch 27% Appeal 9.Kobe Bryant 27% Appeal ... One of those names is former Denver Bronco Jay Cutler. The quarterback lost a lot of...

Politics becomes amusing when liberalism becomes theatrical with high-minded gestures. Chicago’s government, which is not normally known for elevated thinking, is feeling so morally upright and financially flush that it proposes to rise above the banal business of maximizing the value of its employees’ and retirees’ pension fund assets. Although seven funds have cumulative unfunded liabilities of $25 billion, Chicago will sacrifice the growth of those assets to the striking of a political pose so pure it is untainted by practicality. Emulating New York and California, two deep blue states with mammoth unfunded pension liabilities, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has...

An Internet star is born. His name is Darrien Long and he is an Atlanta security guard. Ads by Google Hong kong trade shows2200 Houseware & Home Textiles suppliers in HK. Register now! www.hktdc.com Invest in ForexPredict currency rates and start making profits now! www.ifcmarkets.com But most people know him as the “guy in the video who Tased that crazy lady at the Metro Mall downtown.” Before the Taser video begins, Long said something to four children at the Metro Mall in downtown Atlanta. Before it ends 10 minutes later, the mother and members of the crowd that watched the...

'Large numbers of kids coming downtown … with guns' (Editor’s note: Colin Flaherty has done more reporting than any other journalist on what appears to be a nationwide trend of skyrocketing black-on-white crime, violence and abuse. WND features these reports to counterbalance the virtual blackout by the rest of the media due to their concerns that reporting such incidents would be inflammatory or even racist. WND considers it racist not to report racial abuse solely because of the skin color of the perpetrators or victims.) EDITOR’S NOTE: The links in the following report may contain offensive language. Indianapolis? A hot...

A fight or series of fights led to the early closure of the Mall of Louisiana. No injuries were reported in the Saturday night episode. The East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's office tells The Advocate that they plan to charge a number of people in the incident. Witnesses say the trouble started after Instagram users posted a "meet and greet" invitation to meet their followers in person. Eventually, a fight between 100 or more teenagers broke out, leading to a stampede.

Scores of out-of-state strikebreakers wait on high alert in Northwest hotel rooms, ready to replace longshoremen in case of a lockout at grain terminals. Three fully crewed, non-union tugboats protected by armed guards stand by, prepared to keep grain ships docking. In a provocative move, a California company has moored the tugs on the Willamette River near longshore Local 8's Northwest Portland union hall. Quietly, owners of Portland, Vancouver and Puget Sound terminals have spent months preparing for a battle royal on the waterfront, lining up troops and assets like chess pieces. The agribusiness giants have laid legal groundwork for...

December 14, 2012 Fox News Contributor Steven Crowder Files Criminal Complaint After Alleged Assault By Pro-Union Protester Noah Rothman Fox News commentator Steven Crowder has filed a complaint with the Michigan State Police in relation to an assault he sustained by a pro-union protester while attending a demonstration outside Michigan’s state capitol on December, 11. The protesters were demonstrating against the state legislature’s efforts to pass right to work laws in the heavily unionized state. Crowder joined the protests in support of those controversial laws. The Washington Post’s Erik Wemple spoke with Richard Hale, the shift supervisor at the Lansing...

MELVINDALE, Mich. (WJBK) -- It's a video seen all over the world. An attack on a Fox News contributing reporter at the right to work protest in Lansing earlier this week was caught on video. Now, one of the union members seen in the footage is speaking out to FOX 2. By now, almost everybody knows who he is, reporter Steven Crowder, the guy who got sucker-punched outside a pitch tent where the pro-right to work crowd had gathered. (See the video above in the upper right corner) "I'm under rested and overworked right now and still tough enough to...

Add Politico and The Daily Kos to organizations conceding that Breitbart News is reporting stories they refuse to cover. In an article describing the violent pro-union demonstrations in Michigan on Tuesday, in which protesters rallied against Michigan's historic right-to-work legislation, Politico promptly finished the piece with two paragraphs that served to dismiss everything that was written leading up to that point, quoting a poster on the liberal website The Daily Kos lamenting about the "Fox News-Breitbart" crowd. "But some on the left are saying the reports are overly exaggerated," Politico writes at the end of the article. Politico then quotes...

Posted at 4:00 pm on December 11, 2012 by Twitchy Staff | View Comments Dana Loesch ✔ @DLoesch An Anonymous Donor is offering $1,000 for information leading to the arrest of the thug who assaulted @scrowder . #dlrs 11 Dec 12 Reply Retweet Favorite Conservative radio talk show host Dana Loesch announced on her show that an anonymous donor is offering $1,000 for information leading to the arrest of the union thug who assaulted Steven Crowder in Michigan on Tuesday. Dana Loesch ✔ @DLoesch Now ppl are contacting my show offering monetary awards for information leading to the arrest of...

Early today Clint Tarver, known as “The Hot Dog Guy” here in Lansing had his business attacked and destroyed by out of line and out of control protesters near the Capitol. Everyone who has passed the hot dog cart knows what a kind and caring individual Clint is. He never fails to bestow a smile or friendly greeting. In no way [did] he provoke this attack, nor any of the behavior displayed toward him. Mr. Tarver has been operating his food businesses since 1990 in the Lansing area. He had been hired by Americans for Prosperity to cater their tent...

December 12, 2012 Heckuva job: Michigan union thugs destroyed hot dog vendor’s cart Michele Malkin This is small business owner Clint Tarver of Lansing, Michigan. He was caught in the violent chaos that erupted when union thugs attacked the Americans for Prosperity tent on the capitol grounds yesterday during the right-to-work debate. His hot dog stand was destroyed. Velvet Hammer reports that the thugs shouted “Uncle Tom� and “nigger� at Tarver.Dana Loesch has more on the story and how to help.

UPDATE 12:15 pm EST: The Republican controlled legislature has passed the right-to-work legislation 58-51. Michigan Governor Snyder is expected to sign the bill into law later today. The vote to turn Michigan into a right-to-work state will take place today after days of protests in Lansing about the pro-worker legislation that prevents having to pay dues to a union. Not surprisingly, local police are bracing for possible violence today as more protests are planned. Even with the outcome considered a foregone conclusion, the heated battle over right-to-work legislation in the traditional union bastion of Michigan shows no sign of cooling....

Four Hofstra University basketball players were arrested on burglary charges stemming from dormitory room break-ins, police said Friday. Detectives said the players were charged in six burglaries that occurred between Oct. 4 and Nov. 5, but they suspect there have been numerous other thefts starting at the beginning of the semester.

The protest, supported by the UAW, was for 'decent pay, regular hours, affordable healthcare and respect.' Saying their walkout on 'Black Friday' had shown the world's largest retailer their determination to fight against all odds, Walmart workers hailed their wage protest Saturday. Hundreds of protesters targeted Walmart stores across the United States on Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year, accusing the bargain superstore of ripping off its own employees. The protests were designed to disrupt the Black Friday shopping frenzy, after Thursday's Thanksgiving holiday, when deep discounts pull in waves of customers. "Today's protests at Walmart stores across...

When Thanksgiving Day parade-goers in Manhattan looked into the confetti-filled sky last week, they may have seen more than they bargained for. Nassau County police announced that they are investigating how some of their confidential records including social security numbers and even details about a motorcade for Mitt Romney, then the GOP presidential candidate, ended up as joyous scraps raining from buildings on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. “I'm just completely in shock. How could someone have this kind of information, and how could it be distributed at the Thanksgiving Day Parade?” Inspector Kenneth Lack, from the Nassau County Police...

About 20 people gathered in front of the Oakland Walmart store on Edgewater Drive Wednesday to demand better pay and work schedules. Richmond Walmart store employee Anthony Bravo joined fellow demonstrators and said the company starts associates at minimum wage, but reported $15 billion in profits last year. “We didn’t see nothing. I didn’t see none of that. It really makes me upset that they can make all of this money out of profits and we’re barely surviving,” Bravo said. With the chant of “Walmart, Walmart you’re no good. Treat your workers like you should,” Bravo and the others marched...

SQUIRREL HILL, Pa. — For the second time in the past week, an anti-Obama office in Squirrel Hill was vandalized. According to police, two vandals were caught on surveillance camera spray-painting the front window of a building that houses a Jewish group that promotes the message of defeating President Barack Obama. Group coordinator Josh Wander said he's disappointed the building has been vandalized a second time. "It happened once last week and we thought that was an isolated incident. Clearly it's not, and it's a campaign thing that's going on," Wander said. Authorities said the vandals spray-painted an H over...

It's all anecdotal at this point, but if crime reports following hurricanes Katrina and Irene are any indication, the East Coast is in for a crime wave, post-Sandy. No reports of looting or Hurricane Sandy-related crimes have been reported yet but that doesn't mean we won't see some soon. Following Hurricane Katrina, the most devastating hurricane in modern memory, New Orleans was besieged with reports of looting, rape, and murder, causing delayed troop deployments, delayed medical evacuations, and police department mutiny, The New York Times reported in 2005....(excerpt)

Attendees at a Racine, Wisc., Tea Party rally Saturday were met with a parking lots full of nails deliberately placed there early in the morning before the event, which I attended.This incident adds to a week where a gay Republican campaign worker was brutally beaten and, in a separate incident, a son of a local state senator was hospitalized after defending his Romney sign after two people attempted to remove it from his yard.Saturday’s Tea Party rally, which featured senate candidate Tommy Thompson (former governor),  Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA), and Breitbart’s Rebel Pundit, was held in one...

Here they come again. California unions are once again meddling in Arizona politics on behalf of illegal aliens, and against the interests of their own American workers. The deceptively-named "Campaign For Arizona’s Future" - which was funded by the national mega-labor unions AFL-CIO and UNITE HERE is spending millions to try and defeat Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The group, which calls its campaign "Adios Arpaio", is mostly comprised of the same Los Angeles-based activists which protested in 2010 after the passage of S.B. 1070. They claim to have registered over 36,000 - mostly Hispanics - in Maricopa County, AZ to...

Click on the link at the source.

(Editor’s note: Colin Flaherty has done more reporting than any other journalist on what appears to be a nationwide trend of skyrocketing black-on-white crime, violence and abuse. WND features these reports to counterbalance the virtual blackout by the rest of the media due to their concerns that reporting such incidents would be inflammatory or even racist. WND considers it racist not to report racial abuse solely because of the skin color of the perpetrators or victims.) EDITOR’S NOTE: The links in the following report may contain offensive language. DeAndre Felton and his crew had a problem: The mall was closed....

Documents detailing multiple legal threats from the AFL-CIO and Florida Democratic Party operatives indicate a new effort to keep citizens from acting as election observers and assisting in the maintenance of their local voter rolls. Two Florida voters were in receipt of a letter last week threatening legal action should they “frivolously” challenge voter registration records, or as election workers in the polls. Unfortunately for the union, no justification for the threats could be given. Worse, Florida election code and federal law gives clear guidance for citizens to offer challenges to voter rolls keeping dead, duplicate, or ineligible ballots from...

A conservative radio host based in central Virginia, has posted a video on his website of a GOP office with its window smashed in, expletive-laced rants presumably delivered at Republicans, and Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan signs torn down, defaced and smeared with what appears to be human excrement. The clip (prefaced with a warning of "extremely graphic content") on the "Schilling Show" blog, written by radio host Rob Schilling, begins with President Obama on the campaign trail telling attendees to "argue with them and get in their face," a phrase he used in 2008 to encourage his supporters to talk to...

PITTSBURGH — Police are looking for the attacker who injured a CAPA teacher in Pittsburgh on Thursday. Investigators said the attack on James Addlespurger, 50, in an alley off of Liberty Avenue on Thursday afternoon was captured by several surveillance cameras. The video shows Addlespurger walking by a group of teenagers when one of the teens abruptly hits him. Addlespurger falls and hits his head on the curb as the teens walk away.

Rappers Young Jeezy and Rick Ross got into a fight Saturday (Sept. 29) at the BET Hip-Hop Awards in Atlanta that resulted in shots being fired. There's no word on whether anyone was wounded from the shots, reportedly fired by a member of Ross' entourage. According to TMZ and ATL Night Spots, the altercation started when Jeezy and Ross exchanged words backstage. That led to pushing and shoving, and security personnel and the rappers' bodyguards eventually separated them. The crowd backstage eventually made its way to the parking lot, where a member of Ross' crew reportedly pulled a gun and...

A local activist makes a stand against OFA thuggery.

When one thinks of ways to pay homage to the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, naming a violent street gang in his honor probably doesn’t top the list.

A 61-year-old man was shot to death by police while his wife was handcuffed in another room during a drug raid on the wrong house. Police admitted their mistake, saying faulty information from a drug informant contributed to the death of John Adams Wednesday night. They intended to raid the home next door. [snip] The two officers, 25-year-old Kyle Shedran and 24-year-old Greg Day, were placed on administrative leave with pay. “We did the best surveillance we could do, and a mistake was made,” Lebanon Police Chief Billy Weeks said. “It’s a very severe mistake, a costly mistake. It makes...

D.C. police are looking for a 7-year-old boy who robbed a customer at a McDonald's restaurant.

Now on Fox. Media Matters has been sending to Obama's DOJ the names of people to be investigated for being seditious. Judge Napolitano on, says he has discovered that the DOJ is investigating his writings and opinions, along with those of other Fox and conservative analysts and commentators. Seems bemused.

LOOK FOR THE UNION GOON SQUAD

Labor tries to soften image with 'hug a union thug' booth in CharlotteBy Kevin Bogardus - 09/03/12 05:00 AM ET This Labor Day, unions are trying a mix of celebrity, social media and humor to polish up the labor movement’s image in the eyes of everyday people. In Charlotte, people will be asked to “hug a union thug” at a CarolinaFest booth sponsored by the North Carolina State AFL-CIO the day before the Democratic National Convention officially begins. Also in honor of Monday, videos are being posted online thanking workers while actors and athletes will use Twitter to express support...