Free Republic

Have you lost that loving feeling? If so, the United States federal government might just be able to help. Before you swipe right on Tinder or update that eHarmony account, consider instead taking a quick trip out of the country. Because on your way back home into the Land of the Free, US Customs and Border Protection will have agents standing by ready with heaps of government stimulus. It happened to a Jane Doe (the name has been withheld to protect what little remains of her dignity), a 54-year old US citizen who had recently been on a trip to...

. . . that try men’s souls. In Common Sense, his hit pamphlet of 1776, Tom Paine lamented that “Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe.” Appealing to Americans, he urged us to “receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.” Today . . . well, our country might be mistaken for an asylum. Just not the type envisioned by Citizen Tom Paine. Freedom is now under siege right here in America. Even before police added two more black men, one in Minnesota and one in Louisiana,...

CHULA VISTA (CBS 8/CNS) - A shooting involving a federal law enforcement officer in the area of an Eastlake-area strip mall left one suspect dead Tuesday afternoon. The gunfire in the 2300 block of Proctor Valley Road in Chula Vista was reported about 2 p.m. The shooting apparently involved a U.S. Homeland Security agent investigating some kind of illegal drug activity, Chula Vista police Lt. Ken Heinz said.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine president-elect has encouraged the public to help him in his war against crime, urging citizens with guns to shoot and kill drug dealers who resist arrest and fight back in their neighborhoods. In a nationally televised speech late Saturday, Rodrigo Duterte told a huge crowd in the southern city of Davao that Filipinos who help him battle crime will be rewarded.

Brandon Judd, the president of the National Border Patrol Council, testified before the Senate this week and provided some remarkable clarity on subjects which probably strike anyone without a vested interest in electing Democratic candidates as blindingly obvious common sense. The subject at hand was the effect that lax immigration policy has on the illegal drug trade and continued border incursions. The long and the short of it was that when you make it ridiculously easy for people to break the law and provide them with every opportunity to face no consequences for it, they have every incentive to keep...

Update (April 23, 6 p.m.): SHERWOOD, Ark. - Xavier Porter, 17; Travone Miller, 14; and Quincy Parker, 15 all face charges as adults in the death of 17-year-old Bryan Thompson. Sixth Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Larry Jegley confirmed the identities of the teenagers Saturday (4/23). The trio all face charges of Capital Murder and Aggravated Robbery. Update (April 23, 10 a.m.): SHERWOOD, Ark. - Sherwood Police arrested three unnamed juveniles (ages 14, 14 and 17) on Friday in connection with the death of Bryan Thompson, who was found dead on Thursday. All three face charges of Capital Murder and Aggravated...

Obama's war against medical marijuana is the biggest of any president, which is the exact opposite of what he had promised Campaign promisesIn May 2008, Obama campaign spokesperson Ben LaBolt said that Obama would end DEA raids on medical marijuana in states where it's legal.Also in 2008, Obama said that he supported the "basic concept of using medical marijuana for the same purposes and with the same controls as other drugs" and that he was "not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws."Federal raids against medical marijuana in states where it's legalDespite Obama’s campaign...

An admitted crack dealer accused of shooting a Jefferson Parish deputy during a federal drug raid Tuesday (Jan. 26) told investigators he thought he was being robbed when he fired his gun several times at police through his bedroom door, according to court records. Jarvis Hardy, 26, was booked Wednesday (Jan. 27) on federal charges of attempted murder and attempted murder of a federal officer, related to the shooting of deputy Stephen Arnold, a federal criminal complaint says. Arnold, a federally deputized member of a local Drug Enforcement Agency Task Force, was leading the entry team into Hardy's house in...

Actor Sean Penn said in a Friday preview of an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" that his article based on a secret interview with then-fugitive cartel leader "El Chapo" "has failed" to achieve his goal of sparking conversation about the War on Drugs. Penn met the notorious Sinaloa Cartel leader, whose real name is Joaquin Guzman, back in October with the help of Mexican actress Kate del Castillo. His story for Rolling Stone went live on Saturday, one day after Mexican authorities announced the fugitive's capture. Journalists immediately criticized the piece. "I have a regret that the entire discussion about...

A couple weeks ago, I posted about a case in Kansas in which a couple was wrongly raided by a police tactical team. Robert and Addie Harte and their two children were held in their home by armed officers for over two hours as the officers searched the house for marijuana. They found no drugs. After spending $25,000 to get a judge to order the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department to turn over documents related to the search and investigation leading up to it, the Hartes discovered that Robert Harte, along with hundreds of other people, became a suspect when Missouri...

In April 2012, a Kansas SWAT team raided the home of Robert and Addie Harte, their 7-year-old daughter and their 13-year-old son. The couple, both former CIA analysts, awoke to pounding at the door. When Robert Harte answered, SWAT agents flooded the home. He was told to lie on the floor. When Addie Harte came out to see what was going on, she saw her husband on his stomach as SWAT cop stood over him with a gun.

Hillary Clinton on Saturday called for looser federal regulations governing marijuana, to boost scientific research on a drug that many tout for relieving pain, among other medical benefits, according to media reports. Speaking at a campaign event in Orangeburg, South Carolina, the Democratic presidential candidate said changing U.S. rules would acknowledge the drug's potential for medical uses and give scientists access to the drug for further investigation. "Universities, (the) National Institutes of Health can start researching what is the best way to use it, how much of a dose does somebody need, how does it interact with other medications," Clinton...

These are embarrassing times for the nation's criminal justice system; as the Obama administration executes the nation's largest mass release of federal prisoners, it's sending a Long Island fisherman to jail for reeling in too many... Back in 2010 resident Obama signed a measure that for the first time in decades relaxed drug-crime sentences he claimed discriminated against poor and minority offenders. This severely weakened a decades-old law enacted during the infamous crack cocaine epidemic that ravaged urban communities nationwide in the 1980s. As part of the movement the U.S. Sentencing Commission lowered maximum sentences for drug offenders and made...

The residents of Long Island can rest easier in their beds knowing that another dangerous criminal has been taken out of commission thanks to the diligent work of the Justice Department. Anthony Joseph has finally been brought to justice and won’t plague the coastal residents any longer. What was the nature of his crime spree? He failed to properly report the correct number of flounder that he caught on his fishing boat, and for that he’s heading off to jail, spending years on probation and facing more than a half million dollars in fines. Anthony Joseph, a commercial fisherman from...

Lebanese security forces are interrogating a Saudi prince on charges of carrying drugs on his private plane after they allegedly retrieved 2 tons of narcotics from the aircraft, local media reported. Abd al-Muhsen bin Walid bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud was detained on Monday in Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport. The prince was about to conduct a flight on his private plane to Saudi Arabia. Lebanese TV station Al Mayadeen also said that 40 packages of drugs, weighing 2 tons in total, were confiscated. The prince was arrested and taken in for questioning along with four other people.

Former Los Angeles crack cocaine kingpin “Freeway” Ricky Ross was arrested this week in Sonoma County on suspicion of possessing money related to the sale of a controlled substance, authorities said. A law enforcement official told the Los Angeles Times that Ross was carrying more than $100,000. Ross, who authorities say was a major player in the crack trade in South Los Angeles in the 1990s, was also arrested on suspicion of conspiring to commit a crime, according to a Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office arrest log. He is no longer in custody, according to Sonoma County sheriff’s jail records. Ross’...

AUSTIN — As Dallas County district attorney, Craig Watkins inappropriately spent about $80,000 from an asset forfeiture fund for legal fees covering personal behavior, excessively expensive travel for himself and aides, and a recreational football league sponsorship, a state audit has found.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A push to overhaul criminal sentencing is prompting the early release of thousands of federal drug prisoners, including some whom prosecutors once described as threats to society, according to an Associated Press review of court records. About 6,000 inmates are due to be freed from custody in the coming month, the result of changes made last year to guidelines that provide judges with recommended sentences for specific crimes. Federal officials say roughly 40,000 inmates could be eligible for reduced sentences in coming years. Many of them are small-time drug dealers targeted by an approach to drug enforcement...

One word can sometimes change the way one views things. To wit: if one adds the word “other” to alcohol and drugs (alcohol and other drugs) one’s perspective is likely to change. The failure to use it in normal parlance speaks to an arbitrary distinction that has for too long been accepted. It is difficult to argue that alcohol is not a drug and the same applies to nicotine. Further, like almost all recreational drugs, they offer an immediate “high” followed by a “low” as the pleasure chemicals oscillate back to stasis. “Weed,” cocaine, heroin (OXY) etc. do exactly the...

The Justice Department is set to release about 6,000 inmates early from prison — the largest one-time release of federal prisoners — in an effort to reduce overcrowding and provide relief to drug offenders who received harsh sentences over the past three decades. The inmates from federal prisons nationwide will be set free by the department’s Bureau of Prisons between Oct. 30 and Nov. 2. Most of them will go to halfway houses and home confinement before being put on supervised release. The early release follows action by the U.S. Sentencing Commission — an independent agency that sets sentencing policies...