Free Republic

Fort Lauderdale has elected its first openly gay mayor.... ...Dean Trantalis, 64, a Wilton Manors attorney, defeated Bruce Roberts, 70, the city’s former police chief, to replace longtime mayor Jack Seiler, who could not run because of term limits. Trantalis will be the city’s first openly gay mayor....

A Illinois county might create a special task force to protect cemeteries as gangs have taken to opening fire on each other during funerals. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart proposed creating a special task force Thursday to combat rival gangs trying to shoot each other during funeral services, reported FOX 32. During a talk with various political leaders, religious members and funeral directors, Dart called for a task force made up of the three groups that would try to fix the problem. “This has been something that has been escalating I’d say over the last ten to 15 years from...

Marion Barry served four terms as D.C.'s mayor and 16 years on the D.C. Council before his death in 2014 An 8-foot statue of former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry was unveiled Saturday, giving the "Mayor for Life" a permanent legacy outside the seat of the city government. The statue depicts Barry with is hand held high, waving to anyone passing by. Thousands Mourn Barry, DC's 'Mayor for Life' Marion Barry Jr. served four terms as the District's mayor and also served 16 years on the city council. He was serving on the D.C. council when he died in November 2014....

Fewer high school seniors in the District are expected to receive a diploma in June than the year before, a sharp reversal for a school system that had celebrated a 20-point increase in its graduate rate since 2011. Data released Thursday by D.C. Public Schools show that 42 percent of seniors attending traditional public schools are on track to graduate, while 19 percent are considered “moderately off-track,” meaning they could still earn enough credits to earn a diploma. The likely drop in the graduation rate is the latest fallout from an investigation that cast doubt on the validity of diplomas...

Baltimore’s highest-ever per capita homicide rate in 2017 also made it the deadliest big city in the country, USA Today reported Monday. Though official data from the FBI won’t be available until later in the year, USA Today reviewed the homicide rates in the nation’s 50 largest cities and Baltimore came out on top. The 342 homicides the city experienced in 2017 were a 17 percent increase over the prior year, and translated to a rate of 56 killed per 100,000 people. That easily outpaced New Orleans and Detroit, which both had about 40 killings per 100,000 people, according to...

Proposal aimed at keeping up with population growth would limit cities’ power over housing, handing more control to state. The mayor of Berkeley, California, has called it “a declaration of war”. A neighborhood group in Los Angeles said it would be akin to forcing Native Americans from their land. Amid a desperate housing crisis, legislators in the Golden State have prompted an outcry with new proposals that threaten to take the rulebook that governs American city planning and throw it out the window. Their proposition: reducing cities’ power to decide what gets built and putting more control into state hands....

As we’ve discussed here previously, a series of trials have been underway in Baltimore, Maryland alleging widespread corruption among members of the city’s Gun Trace Task Force. This week, the trial of two detectives associated with that unit, Daniel Hersl and Marcus Taylor, ended in convictions on serious charges which could lead to lengthy prison sentences. The details of the robberies they pulled off and the shocking abuse of police authority were stunning even to those who have seen some of the worst incidents of official corruption. (Baltimore Sun)

Why are we afraid of racists? Racist people have no or little effect on me. My book “Tribalism” points out what will bring us out of misery. In “It’s OK to Leave the Plantation,” I illustrate the only way out for us. The idea that black folks must wait in the bushes until the elite black leaders and their white handlers stop all racism is foolish and unproductive. When will black folks be allowed to come into the light, join America and accept our role as patriots? Now we are to be self-segregating, separating ourselves from white America as if...

Overnight, Imamu Baraka was walking past a Baltimore hospital when he noticed something he says he'll never forget. The hospital's security guards had just wheeled a patient to a bus stop, and in the freezing temperatures they left her there. The only thing she had on was a hospital gown. "It's about 30 degrees out here right now," Baraka says in a recording of the encounter. "Are you OK, ma'am? Do you need me to call the police?" he asks.

<p>No link yet. Friend in area has told me. Firemen on roof of Trump Tower. TV should cover soon.</p>

I remember a time in the not so distant past. The year was 2016, and racial tensions were running high. Freddie Gray was a resident of Baltimore, Maryland. He was arrested and notoriously died while in police custody. Soon afterward, Black Lives Matter and other activists became enraged. They began to protest the police department's presence in their neighborhoods over alleged brutality. Let's fast-forward a couple of years later to present day. Now we see over 300 murders in the City of Baltimore this past year. When I saw the number of murders, I was shocked. All of the intellectuals...

For the third year in a row, Baltimore, Md., has had more than 300 murders, reaching a new record of murders per number of residents in 2017. Some residents attribute the high murder rate to relaxed police patrols in the city following high-profile cases of police brutality. Officers have backed off in neighborhoods, like the one where Freddie Gray was arrested.

Dennis Murphy sniffed the bobcat urine he uses to lure his prey. He checked the silencer on his AR-15 assault rifle and loaded a few snares into his Ford pickup. “Let’s go kill some coyotes,” he said. But he wasn’t heading for the wilderness. Mr. Murphy’s stalking ground is on the contentious new frontier where hunters are clashing with conservationists: cities and suburbs. Coyotes are largely associated with their ancestral bastions in the wild lands of the American West, but they are highly adaptable, and in recent years they have been colonizing large population centers throughout North America. The hunters...

A Christmas toy giveaway in Detroit, Michigan, devolved into a massive brawl Saturday night, leading to the arrest of one woman, police said. WXYZ reports that the brawl took place at the Tower Center Mall on Detroit’s west side Saturday around 7 p.m. after a crowd gathered to attend a toy giveaway for inner-city children. Several hundred people gathered inside the building before the fights broke out. Police said they deployed strike force units to tame the crowd once it got unruly. The event’s organizer, John Cromer, said he did not intend for his event to become violent. “People are...

The Memphis City Council has ordered the removal of the NB Forrest Statue that sits on top of the graves of General and Mrs. NB Forrest. This action breaks several laws and the order of the State for Memphis to not make any action toward the historical monument and grave site.

Instead of asking the U.S. President Donald Trump for assistance with Chicago’s never-ending gun violence, Cook County commissioner Richard Boykin, a Democrat, has reportedly expressed interest in teaming up with the United Nations. “I’m hoping to appeal to the U.N. to actually come to Chicago and meet with victims of violence, and maybe even possibly help out in terms of peacekeeping efforts, because I think it’s so critical for us to make sure that these neighborhoods are safe,” he said Thursday, according to local station WBBM. He reportedly made the comments from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport en route to New...

Six people are dead and at least 14 more have been wounded in shootings across Chicago this weekend, according to police. The weekend's first fatality occurred at around 3:40 p.m. Saturday afternoon in the 5600 block of South Emerald Avenue in the city's Englewood neighborhood, authorities said. A 20-year-old woman and an 18-year-old man were sitting in a car when a person in a dark-colored Audi opened fire, striking both victims, according to police. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police, and the man was taken to St. Bernard Hospital in stable condition with a gunshot...

The first of four adults charged in January with the hate crime of a white special needs 18-year-old has been freed on probation in what many people are likely to believe is a rather light sentence compared to the crime. Brittany Covington narrated a Facebook Live video showing the special needs teen being tortured and humiliated in the Chicago apartment she shared with her sister Tanishia, who is still behind bars in this matter along with co-defendants Tesfaye Cooper and Jordan Hill.

Regularly posting on his Instagram page the Chicago-based photographer Jason M Peterson, who has been taking pictures for the past 25 years daily, constantly pushes his limits within the confines of black and white photography. 'I'lI shoot photos that try and make you feel something,' he told Cover Images. 'Black and white is simply a way I feel makes you focus on the emotion of the photo with less distraction.

everal years ago, a woman who lives around the corner in Inglewood told me a story common to black people who were among the first to move into once-white cities. She and her husband bought their house in 1967. Every day that summer, she said, her next-door neighbor came out on his porch, glaring. Whenever he saw her, this white man shouted not a greeting, but a question: Why are you here? In a few months, he was gone, along with pretty much every other white family on the block. I grew up in and around Inglewood and have lived...