Free Republic

Virtually all of the teachers only spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity. One reason for that is that Maryland has a law prohibiting anyone (including staff) from bringing a firearm onto school property. At least one teacher admitted that she already does it anyway, keeping a 9 mm. with her at her desk. From the sound of the support that this training program is drawing, she’s not alone.

Recent protests in St. Louis may repel Amazon as it mulls over its metropolitan options for its second headquarter’s location. ... “There is no good timing for something like this and it will have an impact,” said Didi Caldwell, founding principal with Global Location Strategies, which helps companies choose locations for new businesses and expansion, according to a Reuters report published Saturday.

A recent article in the Chicago Tribune detailed the experiences of a black woman who obtained a concealed carry permit in Chicago. The article is surprisingly positive about her experiences. An important point is that minority women make up a significant percentage of the growth in concealed carry permits nationwide. From chicagotribune.com: Robinzine, 51, is a gun owner with a concealed carry license. Since she received her permit in late spring, she carries her firearm wherever she goes. “It's like a part of me now,” Robinzine said with the smile.Data show Robinzine is part of a burgeoning group in...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I haven't seen a single article on Free Republic, or on any place I frequent, talking about the three nights (so far) of rioting in St. Louis after that verdict. St. Louis police is reporting on their twitter that just tonight, there has been significant damage done to businesses in the downtown area, chemicals thrown at police, arrests, injuries received by cops, and weapons and ANTIFA/BLM flags confiscated from violent criminals. See the link above for more information, as I don't know how to post pictures from twitter onto free republic, unfortunately.

Several businesses in and near downtown are closing early in response to the Jason Stockley verdict. The home office of Wells Fargo Advisors closed at 10 a.m. Friday. The 4,900 employees at the Market Street campus west of downtown were "strongly encouraged to take their laptops home" and continue working there," based on a statement from the company.

At first glance, nothing differentiates Vernetta Robinzine from passers-by in the Beverly neighborhood on Chicago's Far South Side. On a recent evening, like most people on a workday, she donned business casual attire with a loose, bright blouse. But her daily wardrobe includes something unseen that gives her confidence. Robinzine, 51, is a gun owner with a concealed carry license. Since she received her permit in late spring, she carries her firearm wherever she goes. ADVERTISING "It's like a part of me now," Robinzine said with the smile. Data show Robinzine is part of a burgeoning group in Cook County:...

Miami-area police have arrested more than 50 suspected looters during and after Hurricane Irma, including 26 people who allegedly broke into the same Walmart. . . . 'I think it's despicable that anyone would try to take advantage of the fact that we're in a vulnerable state,' Miami Commissioner Francis Suarez said

PORTLAND -- Violence broke out between opposing groups at an anti-white nationalist rally in Portland that left at least one police officer injured, CBS affiliate KOIN-TV reports. Police made several arrests in the city's downtown area as two groups faced off over different views on white nationalism. The Portland Police Department tweeted that marchers and residents should clear the area for their own safety, adding that officers reported protesters attacking photographers and that projectiles were thrown at officers. They said several arrests were made and at least one officer was injured.

Three Portland police supervisors announced Friday that the Portland Police Bureau would halt its more than two-decade practice of designating gang members on Oct. 15. Portland police next month will end their more than 20-year-old practice of designating people as gang members or gang associates in response to strong community concerns about the labels that have disproportionately affected minorities. The Police Bureau recognizes that the gang designations have led to "unintended consequences'' and served as lifelong barriers for those who have shunned the gang lifestyle and tried to get jobs, said Acting Tactical Operations Capt. Andy Shearer.

rma Looting in Fort Lauderdale and Miami, BSO Deputy Shoots Teen Who Was Allegedly Burglarizing Weston Home In Miami, an NBC 6 reporter saw an organized group of at least a dozen looters at a store in Midtown loading up boxes of shoes and clothing into cars One teen was shot by a South Florida deputy and another is in custody after they burglarized a home during Hurricane Irma Sunday morning, while looters have been spotted in Miami-Dade and Broward, authorities said. The deputy-involved shooting happened around 3 a.m. at a home in the 2500 block of Monterey Court, Broward...

My heart is breaking for Chicago, and for all Americans, as one of our greatest cities crumbles before our (and the world’s) eyes. I don’t see any way out of the vicious circle of political corruption, irrevocable pensions obligations overwhelming tax revenue, vanishing public services, and a decline in civil order leading toward a third world level of crime.  As a result, the city consumes itself, strangling business and entrepreneurship, and killing off precious assets. Now, comes a story that captures it all in one heart-rending example. Sam Cholke of DNAChicago writes: BRONZEVILLE — Chicago’s top-rated bed and breakfast...

The Associated Press shirked their own style guide in a recently published article, using “undocumented citizens” in lieu of their usual “undocumented immigrants.” The article with the strange reference was published on September 5 and discusses Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s response to President Donald Trump’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. “The Chicago Sun-Times reports that school officials say about a third of the school’s students are undocumented citizens,” the AP wrote.

EXCLUSIVE: Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner walk son Jordan to his first day of $40k-a-year kindergarten Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner were seen together for the first time in almost one year as they took their son Jordan to Kindergarten on Friday The estranged couple held hands with their son as they walked to his private school in downtown Manhattan, where annual tuition is over $42,000 Weiner, who turned 53 on Monday, turned back towards home however halfway through the walk leaving Abedin to walk their son the rest of the way He agreed to register as a sex offender...

The city of Chicago saw 30 people shot between Friday and Monday morning, with four fatalities and 26 casualties in hospitals around the city.

Chicago Police credited a pre-holiday round-up of troublemakers and 1,300 extra officers on the streets each day with a year-to-year decline in shootings over Labor Day weekend. Between 11 p.m. Friday and 5 a.m. Tuesday, seven people were killed and 35 others were wounded in shootings across the city. Between Friday night and Monday morning of the city’s Labor Day weekend last year, the city tallied 13 people dead and 52 others wounded in shootings citywide. Seven people were killed and at least 25 others were wounded in shootings last weekend.

They are the schools Mayor de Blasio doesn’t mention. At 32 city elementary and middle schools, the average English-math proficiency rate on state exams has not exceeded 10 percent of students for four years in a row. Seventeen of these schools — which enroll nearly 10,000 kids — have been part of the mayor’s signature Renewal program, which has spent $582 million on teacher training, social services and an extra hour a day of instruction. Four did so poorly that the city Department of Education closed them in June. ... Families for Excellent Schools, a pro-charter-school group that analyzed the test...

NEW YORK CITY — Controversial Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio appears to be backing down from his crusade against “symbols of hate” in the Big Apple amid significant political pressure. In the wake of the clashes between right and left-wing protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, which led to a surge in calls from the left for the removal of Confederate statues and monuments across the country, de Blasio got on board with the trend and said he would conduct a 90-day review of all “symbols of hate” on city property. He later refused to say that Christopher Columbus’ statue in the...

In January, on the evening of President Trump’s inauguration, a band of bandanna-wearing vandals raced along South Street, shattering the windows of two banks and a dozen storefronts. “They came by and had masks on,” recalled Tanya Italia, manager of a high-end furniture store. “They just smashed the window with a hammer. It was just a day of vandalism. I don’t think of them as real protesters.” The next month, an evening protest march along Broad Street turned ugly at Temple University. Some anti-Trump demonstrators tossed latex gloves filled with dye at Philadelphia police and campus officers, the university said....

If Soros is spending this much on local DA races in Philadelphia, imagine how much he is pouring into more important and higher-profile contests. Soros is attempting to bring his anti-Americanism, socialism, and globalist internationalism into every sphere of American life, and destroy every vestige of America as a free nation. If you are unfamiliar with Soros’s actual past, remember that, as 60 Minutes reported in 2006, “While hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews were being shipped off to the death camps, George Soros accompanied his phony godfather on his appointed rounds, confiscating property from the Jews.” I have long...

Activists who toppled a statue of a Confederate soldier just days after Charlottesville perhaps thought they were doing God's work ... at least until they got arrested. At that moment, it's hard to imagine that the enormity of what they'd done didn't slam into them. After all, they'd destroyed public property and been stupid enough to do so on video. But perhaps they need not worry too much. It seems that the district attorney is going to let Leftist ideology mitigate his prosecution: