Free Republic

Full Title: A Dozen Calif. Church Leaders Indicted For Allegedly Holding People Captive & Forcing Them Into Labor El CENTRO – A dozen leaders of Imperial Valley Ministries, including the former pastor, are charged in an indictment unsealed today with subjecting dozens of mostly homeless people to forced labor, coercing them to surrender welfare benefits and compelling them to panhandle up to nine hours a day, six days a week, for the financial benefit of the church leaders. The defendants were arrested today in El Centro, San Diego and Brownsville, Texas and charged with conspiracy, forced labor, document servitude and...

Iain Duncan Smith has pledged to appeal after a judge ruled that emergency legislation introduced over a flagship back-to-work program is “incompatible” with European human rights laws. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said that it “disagrees” with Mrs. Justice Lang, who said that retrospective legislation introduced interfered with the “right to a fair trial” under the European Convention on Human Rights. Human rights lawyers said the judgment was a “damning assessment” and, if upheld on appeal, could lead to some £130 million having to be paid out to thousands of jobseeker’s allowance claimants denied benefits under the schemes....