Free Republic

A large group of demonstrators are taking to the streets in Washington to support Baltimore protesters seeking solutions in the police custody death of Freddie Gray. News4’s Jackie Bensen said people began gathering at the Gallery Place Metro location around 7 p.m. Wednesday. The group began moving on foot from Gallery Place toward the Wilson Building. Metropolitan police are advising people to avoid the area near 7th Street Northwest at H Street. They said commuters should use New York Avenue, Massachusetts Avenue, 10th Street and 5th Street Northwest as alternate routes. More demonstrators began at Dupont Circle, heading east along...

Microsoft announced today during its Build conference that it will release a tool for developers to port their iOS apps directly to Windows 10 as “universal apps” that run on both phones and desktop computers. Developers will be able to feed their existing Objective-C code into a new software package and have it converted to work on the upcoming PC operating system. At least, that’s how Microsoft is pitching it, though the whole process is a bit more complex. Essentially Windows 10 will ship with APIs that mirror the expected behavior of many iOS APIs, and this new conversion tool...

The dean of the law school at the University of the District of Columbia urged students to take part in protests in Baltimore, even offering to defer an exam for those who help people on the street with legal advice. Dean Shelley Broderick of the David A. Clarke School of Law told students that community and police relations “is the civil rights issue of our time,” and that law school leaders want students to be part of the “energy and commitment” of the protests.

Parents in South Carolina who are part of a nationwide revolt against Common Core say they are being threatened with “criminal accountability” if they prevent their children from taking the tests required by the controversial educational-standards program. Tamra Hood, a member of South Carolina Parents Involved in Education, said the state Education Department’s chief Operating officer, Elizabeth Carpentier, warned parents could spend 30 days in jail if even a single day of testing is missed, Breitbart News reported. In addition, Hood said Carpentier warned that groups that encourage parents to refuse the Common Core-aligned tests could be charged with aiding...

hings just got real up in here. You might remember the hubbub surrounding Sen. Tom Cotton’s so-called “47 Traitors” open letter addressed to Iranian officials. You know, the one where Cotton, et al. were proved right? Well earlier today, Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif (the same dude who thought it would be cute to lecture the Senate about the U.S. Constitution), took a verbal swipe at Sen. Cotton. As U.S. News and World Report writes: The Iranian foreign minister addressed the U.S. domestic political debate regarding the negotiations, referencing a letter sent by 47 Republican senators to leaders of the...

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A radio station has suspended a disc jockey over his online posting about the arrest record of a Baltimore man whose fatal injury in police custody led to rioting. Officials at FM station WAMO 100, which bills itself as Pittsburgh's No. 1 choice for urban music, said Wednesday the posting by Mike Jax was "too controversial" and partly inaccurate. They also said listeners had complained and threatened to harm Jax, whose real name is Mike Jackson....

The Lone Star State’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, is answering citizens’ concerns over Operation Jade Helm 15, a lengthy military campaign to train U.S. troops in an urban setting, with a call to arms of his own: he’s ordered members of the Texas military to monitor the special-ops exercises. Jade Helm, as WND has previously reported, kicks off in July in seven states, including Texas, Utah, California and Colorado. The two-month campaign involves special forces with all four branches of the U.S. military working with local law enforcement, as well as with FBI and DEA officials, to respond to mock...

The proposed $60bn flotation of Glencore was plunged into a sexism row after the chairman of the world's largest commodities trader claimed young women were a risk to hire because they get married and become pregnant. Vince Cable criticised the remarks by septuagenarian Simon Murray as "unbelievably primitive" and indicated that they could be used to justify any affirmative action in British boardrooms. Murray, who is based in Hong Kong and was only appointed as chairman this month to facilitate the flotation, was forced into a humbling apology after saying that there should not be quotas for women in boardrooms.

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-04-29/cruz-to-hispanics-economy-matters-more-than-immigration

Most Americans would be shocked to learn that the Democrats still control the Senate even after Republicans won the majority last year, but it is true. Breitbart News reports: "With two minor exceptions, every single vote that has passed the U.S. Senate since the beginning of this Congress in January has passed with at least – usually more than – 93 percent of support from Democrats." Despite controlling the Senate, Republican leaders are passing bills that have more support from Democrats than Republicans. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has helped the Democrats pass funding for executive amnesty, pass the...

TOLEDO, OH (Toledo News Now) - Toledo Free Press Publisher Tom Pounds says the paper will be shutting down operations. Pounds says financial troubles are the reason he's closing the paper. “When you can't pay your bills, you don't keep going,” Pounds said Monday. Pounds says about 50 families in total will be impacted by the decision to cease publication. That includes 10 full-time employees, as well as writers, paper carriers, artists and others who worked on the Free Press's weekly issues. Even as he announced the decision to shut down, Pounds said he's proud of what the Free Press...

So not only does global warming cause volcanoes, but it also caused the massive earthquake that rocked Nepal Saturday and killed thousands of people. “It now appears that there exists a clear relationship between the global warming and earthquakes and other under earth activities,” writes Dr. Vivek Kumar Srivastava, an assistant professor at India’s Kanpur University. Srivastava argues that when permafrost melts in the Arctic “and associated areas due to the increased global temperature, it is quite likely that the under located areas of the earth are affected due to alteration in the pressure on the earth crust.” He adds...

Obama’s just like Reagan… Except when he isn’t. Trickle Down Economics versus Trickle Down Socialism Ronald Reagan’s economic plan saw GDP surge at a 3.5% clip – 4.9% after the recession. That’s a 32% bump. During the Obama years, thanks to his big government policies, the US economy has stalled. Today the quarterly GDP was announced. The GDP for the first quarter of 2015 braked more sharply than expected at only a .2% pace. The US economy has grown an anemic 9.6% during the Obama years (excluding today’s dismal number). Of course, Obama’s record on job growth is also much...

After facing pressure from conservative lawmakers, House leadership has agreed to hold a vote on a measure that could strike down a Washington, D.C., anti-discrimination law that opponents say infringes on the ability of organizations to operate in accordance to their religious beliefs. “We exerted a lot of pressure in the last 48 hours to bring [the measure] to the floor,” Rep. Bill Flores, R-Texas, told The Daily Signal in a phone interview, speaking on behalf of the Republican Study Committee, a group comprised of 180 lawmakers. “Fortunately, our leadership has come to the conclusion that it’s the right thing...

Protesters gathered in Union Square Wednesday night to demand justice in the death of Freddie Gray, the man who died while in police custody in Baltimore. Several hundred people assembled as speakers addressed the crowd, with some people chanting 'Hands up, don't shoot'. Organizers say the rally is meant to show solidarity with people in Baltimore. "The game plan is to make sure people are politicized about the issues that are happening in terms of police brutality," said one organizer. "What's happening not only in communities in Baltimore, but in Brooklyn and Harlem and across the country." Police have barriers...

Veteran Democrat congressman Elijah Cummings was in front of a tough crowd Tuesday when he took to the streets of his Baltimore district pleading with protesters to go home. Let’s just say not all of them listened.

Senators on Wednesday blocked a Republican push to tie Iran's support of terrorism to a final deal on the country's nuclear program. Senators voted 45-54 on the amendment from Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), which would have required President Obama to certify as part of a diplomatic deal that Iran hasn't carried out or directly supported an act of terror against the United States or a U.S. citizen. Republican Sens. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Dan Coats (Ind.), Bob Corker (Tenn.), David Perdue (R-Ga.), Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Orrin Hatch (Utah) and John McCain (Ariz.) voted with Democrats against the amendment....

In early April, Roll Call reported that state Sen. Darin LaHood is the establishment frontrunner to replace “disgraced former Rep. Aaron Schock,” and while politics may be in the junior LaHood’s blood, contrary to his claims, conservatism may not be. His father and presumed mentor is “Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., who held this seat for more than a decade until 2009 — when he left Congress to serve as transportation secretary to President Barack Obama.” Yes, nothing says conservative like resigning to go to work for Barack Obama. And while LaHood the younger claims to be more conservative, his early...

ISTANBUL — The mayor of Ankara, the Turkish capital, fired out a slew of sexist, anti-American remarks on Twitter on Wednesday and promoted a photograph that referred to Marie Harf, the State Department spokeswoman, as a “stupid blonde.” Melih Gokcek, Ankara’s combative mayor and close ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, criticized Ms. Harf for her “silence” about the death of a black man who was fatally injured while in police custody in Baltimore after she had heavily criticized Turkey for its disproportionate use of police force during antigovernment protests in 2013. He lashed out at her on Twitter and...

The owner of Z Pizza says she’s being forced to close her doors, because she can’t afford the higher labor costs. ... Ritu Shah Burnham doesn’t want to go out of business, but says she can’t afford the city’s mandated wage hikes. ... Shah Burnham is concerned about where her employees will end up when she does close. “I absolutely am terrified for them. I have no idea where they’re going to find jobs, because if I’m cutting hours, I imagine everyone is across the board.”