Free Republic

Investigative reporter Emily Miller, who literally wrote the book on gun rights in our nation’s capitol (see Emily Gets Her Gun), who is now a reporter with My Fox DC, attempts to obtain a permit to carry in Washington and the results are about what was expected. What she found (and what most people already assumed) is that it’s pretty much impossible to get a permit to carry in DC. DC is currently a “may issue” district, which means you must prove you need a permit and it’s up to the authorities to decide if that need is legit. Miller...

NEW YORK (AP) — Voters in Oregon and the District of Columbia approved ballot measures Tuesday allowing the use of marijuana by adults, elating legalization activists who hope to extend their winning streak across the country. Oregon will join the company of Colorado and Washington state, where voters approved the recreational use of pot two years ago. And the District of Columbia is on the same path unless Congress, which has review power, blocks the move. Still to come were results from Alaska, which also had a marijuana-legalization measure on its ballot Tuesday. Other volatile issues on state ballots include...

You don't need to be a fan of the show the get it :-)

Alliance Defending Freedom and six other pro-life organizations sent the Council of the District of Columbia a letter Thursday arguing that a proposed bill violates federal law by forcing the groups to provide elective abortion coverage through their insurance plans and employ those who live and act contrary to the organizations’ pro-life mission. The letter explains that the bill clearly violates federal law in light of the recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings in Conestoga Wood Specialties v. Burwell and Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores. pichealth50The Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Amendment Act prohibits employers from “discriminating” against employees for any “reproductive health”...

A patient with Ebola-like symptoms is being treated at Howard University Hospital, a hospital spokesperson confirms. The patient had traveled to Nigeria recently.

In Washington, D.C., where issuing traffic citations is a $179 million-a-year business, drivers get speeding tickets for violations they donÂ’t commit and for vehicles theyÂ’ve never owned. Those are among the findings in a 115-page audit of the three city agencies that issued nearly 2.5 million parking and traffic tickets in fiscal 2013, according to a withering report issued Monday by the D.C. inspector general. The report portrays the District as the Wild West of traffic enforcement when compared with neighboring jurisdictions and the states, with a shortage of regulations, a legion of ticket writers often confused about the rules,...

Post your conditions or noticable behavior of your city officials here. Little Rock-

On Aug. 24, 1814, the British started a fire — and ultimately kindled a capital’s future. The day began like so many days in Washington, with a painfully long meeting marked by confusion, misinformation and indecision. The British were coming. They were on the march in the general direction of Washington. The precise target of the invaders remained unclear, but their intentions were surely malign. James Madison, the fourth president of these young United States, had raced to a private home near the Navy Yard for an emergency war council with top generals and members of his Cabinet. The secretary...

Race-based hate crimes jumped in the District last year even as most other types of bias crimes decreased, with analysts saying such incidents could be vastly underreported among minority groups uncomfortable coming forward to authorities. D.C. police say that of the 18 race-based hate crimes in 2013, the majority of victims were white and the majority of suspects black. The number of incidents was up from the 13 race-based bias crimes reported in 2012. SEE ALSO: Race pimps and war tanks: Why Ferguson was a perfect storm The disclosure comes as a wave of protests and unrest after the fatal...

Transportation Security Administration workers will be getting training on how to recognize District of Columbia driver’s licenses and identification cards. […] The Washington Post reported earlier this year that a District teacher was questioned about the validity of her license while boarding a plane in Phoenix. Many similar stories later surfaced. …

Everyone knows how safe the streets of Washington, DC are [where as of 2010 violent crime was three times the national average], and how DC criminals scrupulously respect the District's very restrictive gun-control laws. So of course the last thing you would want is to permit law-abiding citizens to exercise their Constitutional rights to keep and bear arms. Why, that would only lead to the Gunfight at the DC Corral. No, better to keep all the guns in the hands of criminals. Such seems to be Eugene Robinson's logic. On today's Morning Joe, the Washington Post columnist bemoaned a federal...

A flash mob broke out in the Petworth neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Friday night, prompting police to fire a riot control agent into a crowd near a subway station.The episode underscores boiling tensions in a neighborhood that — like many inner-city communities across the country — is trying to launch a major “revitalization” project that will see the opening of upwardly-priced new apartment units this summer to accompany a major new chain store.Reports on social media suggest that D.C. Metropolitan Police broke up a party in Petworth due to fighting, prompting a crowd of teenage partiers — at least one...

WASHINGTON - A Virginia man is furious after he was pulled over in Alexandria while driving in a funeral procession. He missed his great-grandmother's burial because of the delay, his family says. Now Alexandria police are reviewing the stop. With their hazard and headlights on, Heather Spinner and her husband were on Duke Street driving to the Mount Comfort Cemetery on June 12 when they noticed red and blue flashing lights in the rear-view mirror. "My brother-in-law behind us was actually pulled over for running a red light," Spinner says. Both her husband and brother-in-law, R.G. Spinner, removed their yellow...

The Roman Catholic archbishop of San Francisco said Monday it’s his duty to proclaim “the truth about marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife,” even when those views are unpopular. The comment by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone came in response to a coalition of liberal politicians, fellow clergy and gay-rights leaders who have urged him to skip an upcoming March for Marriage event in Washington. Cordileone, who chairs the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ subcommittee on the promotion and defense of marriage, is a scheduled speaker at Thursday’s march and rally sponsored by the National Organization for Marriage and...

The public schools in Washington, D.C., spent $29,349 per pupil in the 2010-2011 school year, according to the latest data from National Center for Education Statistics, but in 2013 fully 83 percent of the eighth graders in these schools were not "proficient" in reading and 81 percent were not "proficient" in math. These are the government schools in our nation's capital city -- where for decades politicians of both parties have obstreperously pushed for more federal involvement in education and more federal spending on education. Government has manifestly failed the families who must send their children to these schools, and...

Claiming that the District of Columbia's ObamaCare exchange is just too darn small in size to pay for itself, Mayor Vince Gray (D) is proposing the city council "approve legislation granting the District's exchange board broad new power to tax any health-related insurance product sold in the city -- regardless of whether it's offered on the exchange," Washington Post staffer Aaron Davis reported this morning.

A coalition of ranchers, farmers and native tribes are staging protests against the Keystone XL pipeline on the National Mall this week with teepees, horses and a sacred fire that will burn for days The National Mall in Washington, D.C., will look like a scene out of an Old Western this week, as the Cowboy and Indian Alliance holds a multi-day protest against the Keystone XL pipeline complete with teepees, horses and religious ceremonies. The confederation of ranchers, farmers and members of Native American tribes kicks off the week of protest and civil disobedience Tuesday, Earth Day, with a horse...

This is a topic that one must approach delicately so as not to offend the reader’s sensibilities, but since it is a matter of importance for which you may receive a bill for some portion of $470 million, we start out with an analogy. You need energy, so you eat. Through the miracle of digestion, your body sorts what you have eaten, say, a pastrami on rye with a glob of coleslaw and a dill pickle, and plucks out the nutrients — proteins, carbohydrates and sugars it needs to generate power. Then it jettisons the rest. What your body jettisons...

n an interview published Thursday in Roll Call, Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) lamented that his $174,000 annual salary was not enough to live "decently" in Washington, D.C. "I think the American people should know that the members of Congress are underpaid," Moran said. "I understand that it’s widely felt that they underperform, but the fact is that this is the board of directors for the largest economic entity in the world." The remarks came as the House begins markup on a bill to fund all legislators' salaries. Moran is planning to introduce an amendment that would offer lawmakers a per...

"9/11 plotter released in Syria prisoner exchange" SNIPPET: "The al-Qaeda recruiter reputed to have assembled the so-called Hamburg Cell, which planned and largely carried out the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, has been set free in a prisoner exchange between rebel and regime forces in Syria. Islamist rebel group Ahrar al-Sham has secured the release of 9/11 plotter and alleged al-Qaeda core member Mohammed Haydar Zammar, adding to concerns about the composition of the Islamic Front. A naturalized German citizen of Syrian origin, Mohammed Haydar Zammar left Germany shortly after the attacks and traveled to Morocco, where he was reportedly...