Free Republic

The Seattle City Council passed a new ordinance that will fine people for throwing away too much food. The concern is that this discarded food should be composted rather than just trashed. “Our growth rate for recycling has stalled,” complained Council member Sally Bagshaw. “The notion of some city residents that they need not participate in this effort is erroneous. A successful program requires the full compliance of every citizen.” To enforce the stricter rules the City will empower trash collectors to examine a family’s discards to determine whether any items found could have been recycled. “We’ve taken voluntary obedience...

Have you ever been verbally assaulted by someone on the political left with a ferocity you didn’t quite understand? Have you seen it happen to friends and colleagues, or watched in horror as the media establishment does it to a public figure? At some point or other, nearly everyone on the political right has witnessed or been the victim of an attack designed not to elucidate facts, but rather to paint him or her as a villain. My attention was recently drawn to a typical such calumny from a Facebook exchange: Republicans hate anything that isn’t white, wealthy, and christian...

The Federal Communications Commission is considering whether to punish broadcasters for using the moniker of the Washington NFL team, the Redskins, a word many consider a slur to Native Americans, the agency's chairman indicated on Tuesday.

Bloomberg, link only

FRANKFORD, Del. — American schools are scrambling to provide services to the large number of children and teenagers who crossed the border alone in recent months. Officials were caught off guard by about 70 new students mostly from Guatemala — part of the wave crossing the border — enrolling last year, mostly at Sussex Central High School. The students are eager but face barriers. Some can barely read or write in their native language. Donald Hattier, a school board member, said advance warning would have helped with planning. The federal government, he said, "just dropped this on us." He wonders...

A Georgia woman was mistakenly jailed for one month after cops confused her SpaghettiOs for meth. Ashley Gabrielle Huff was first detained on July 2 after officers in Gainesville found a spoon with a dried substance baked onto it inside her car during a routine traffic stop. The 23-year-old, from Commerce, claimed it was residue from the canned pasta that she liked to eat in the vehicle. Police, however, believed it to be methamphetamine. Huff, who had no criminal history, was sent to Hall County Jail for two days so cops could conduct crime lab tests on the mysterious texture.

Hungry for a means to supplement is budget, the US Forrest Service is proposing new regulations that would allow it to charge visitors $1500 if they want to take pictures in wilderness areas. Liz Close, the Forest Service’s acting wilderness director, called the new fees “essential to our mission. These wilderness areas belong to the government. Why shouldn’t we get revenue from what is our property?” Close warned against thinking that “these areas are too vast for us to enforce collection. We are watching from both the ground and the air. Rangers randomly patrol with orders to seize any cameras...

The U.S. Department of Justice asked Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson on Friday to prohibit police officers from wearing “I am Darren Wilson” bracelets while on duty in Ferguson. Christy Lopez, a deputy chief in the Civil Rights Division, told Jackson in a letter that residents had photos of officers, from unknown local agencies, wearing the bracelets. “We are keenly aware of the importance of individual expression of opinions, even those that some find offensive, insensitive, or harmful,” Lopez said in the letter. However, she continued, “these bracelets reinforce the very ‘us versus them’ mentality that many residents of Ferguson...

Yes, it’s true that the lion’s share of the Forest Service budget is now going to dealing with wildfires, but is it so desperate for money that it has to hit up the people who do most of its marketing, photographers? A new policy, quietly proposed by the USFS on September 4 but now catching the public’s attention in a big way, would require $1,500 permits for media taking pictures in wilderness, with fines up to $1,000 for failing to comply. The rules could be applied to anyone taking pictures that result in some kind of commerce, from bloggers to...

When Steven Jones is sitting in prison (and I’m pretty sure the despicable abuse of his judicial powers will persuade a federal judge he’s unworthy of probation), don’t feel too sorry for him. He probably won’t have money woes when he gets out. While he’s pumping iron behind bars, he can rest assured he might be able to get up to 75 percent of his $200,000 a year salary as a judicial pension, at least at some point. That’s the way the system works. A pension is an earned benefit, so you can be a teacher convicted of molesting children...

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead issued a statement Tuesday saying that he expects the state to seek a stay of Jackson’s decision. He said the state will seek an emergency rule from the Fish and Wildlife Service to allow continued state wolf management. ... Wyoming took over wolf management in late 2012 after the federal government ruled that wolves no longer needed protection under the federal Endangered Species Act.

The U.S. Forest Service has tightened restrictions on media coverage in vast swaths of the country's wild lands, requiring reporters to pay for a permit and get permission before shooting a photo or video in federally designated wilderness areas. Under rules being finalized in November, a reporter who met a biologist, wildlife advocate or whistleblower alleging neglect in any of the nation's 100 million acres of wilderness would first need special approval to shoot photos or videos even on an iPhone. Permits cost up to $1,500, says Forest Service spokesman Larry Chambers, and reporters who don't get a permit could...

Journalists who cover the White House say Obama’s press aides have demanded — and received — changes in press-pool reports before the reports have been disseminated to other journalists. They say the White House has used its unusual role as the distributor of the reports as leverage to steer coverage in a more favorable direction.

It has taken five-and-a-half years to learn that the Obama administration has been censoring White House print pool reports—and that the media has quietly acquiesced until now. The Washington Post’s Paul Farhi reported Tuesday evening that the Obama administration has abused its role as distributor for the print pool reports by exercising prior restraint on the reports. Farhi cites numerous instances where the Obama press office refused to release pool reports until changes demanded by Obama operatives were made. Farhi reports several examples of reporters acquiescing to Obama’s censorship of the media. Farhi reports on the Washington Post caving twice...

Authorities this morning are searching the area of Snow Hill Road in Price Township, near the border with Barrett Township outside Cresco, as part of their ongoing search for alleged cop killer Eric Frein. Police vehicles are parked along or driving along Route 447 and Snow Hill and Beartown roads, which both run off Route 447. There has been police presence in the area for days, and many residents have been unable to leave or return to their homes. Frein, 31, of Canadensis, is accused of shooting two troopers, killing one and critically wounding the other, on Sept. 12 at...

Internal Revenue Service (IRS) commissioner John Koskinen made light of Congressional efforts to probe his agency for evidence of wrongdoing. At a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee hearing Koskinen mocked committee members, saying that “hard drive crashes continue as we speak. We can erase files and destroy incriminating evidence faster than you can imagine where to look.” Charges that IRS employees broke the law and broke file retention protocols elicited only a chuckle from the Commissioner. “Congress is not my boss,” Koskinen pointed out. “I answer to the President. Last I heard, he thinks we’re doing fine.” Koskinen belittled...

Wyoming Considers Steps to Assist Its New Refugees State Weighs Creating a Resettlement Program Dan Frosch Sept. 21, CHEYENNE, Wyo.—Draped in a brightly hued robe and veil, Amal Hassan certainly stands out from the locals as she walks along the outskirts of this high-plains city, pickup trucks rumbling by. Somali refugees such as Ms. Hassan are becoming a more common sight here in the nation's least populous state, the only one without a refugee-resettlement program. Such initiatives provide social and financial services to refugees such as Ms. Hassan, 29 years old, who were admitted legally into the U.S. Now, with...

During the Bush administration, national Democrat leaders threatened to kill the ABC network's broadcast license if a miniseries unfavorable to the Clinton administration wasn't censored to satisfy Democrats. ABC complied.

“Regardless of whatever else happens, I know I did the best I could under the circumstances and am not sorry for anything I did,” former IRS official Lois Lerner told POLITICO in an exclusive interview released today. In the piece, Lerner portrays herself as being unfairly attacked by the very groups she spent years inappropriately targeting. Lerner, for her part, assumes she is at the center of the storm because “I was the person who announced it. I assume the other part of it is because I declined to talk, and once I declined to talk, they could say anything they...

Knife-Wielding Veteran Sniper Rushes White House, Wants To Warn Obama "Atmosphere Is Collapsing" Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/21/2014 Of the stories in the past two days, there is hardly anything more bizarre than that of Omar J. Gonzalez, 42, of Copperas Cove, a veteran had served three tours in Iraq — and relatives said served as a sniper — managed to jump over the White House fence, sprinted more than 70 yards across the Northern Lawn, got to the front double doors of the North Portico, turned the brass knob and stepped inside the vestibule. "There he was grabbed...