Free Republic

"Peaceful protest turns violent," read the San Francisco Chronicle headline about the May 1 protest in Oakland that ended badly. Police arrested about a dozen people after activists trashed new cars and smashed bank windows. I love that headline. It makes it seem as if it's an anomaly when an Oakland protest ends with errant sparks and glass shards -- even though a social-justice demonstration in Oakland has a better chance of ending with vandalism than a Hollywood marriage has in ending in divorce. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf had warned that violence would not be tolerated, but to no effect....

Researchers at the University of Connecticut and University of Florida measured carbon in 700 sediment samples from fjords around the world They estimate 18 million tonnes of carbon is buried in fjords every year Fjords account for just 0.1% of the world's ocean but 11% of carbon uptake Scientists say they could provide carbon sinks to combat global warming

PoliticsNation” MSNBC host Al Sharpton is in hot water for allegedly using his show to benefit labor groups that contributed to his nonprofit. In the latest development of trading his influence for cash, Sharpton appears to have used his show for the benefit of labor unions. Not only did labor leaders frequently defend their positions as guests, Sharpton played significant lip service to them.

President Barack Obama’s surprise visit to the Teaism Cafe near the White House inspired Time Magazine reporter Zeke Miller to video tape the event. However, the president didn’t want to be taped and ordered Miller to put away his camera. Miller meekly complied. Press Secretary Josh Earnest explained that “certainly, as the most powerful man on the planet, President Obama has the right to decide which of his activities will or won’t be recorded. He is under no obligation to permit random observations and disclosures of his activities if it doesn’t please him to do so.” A disappointed Miller rued...

<p>Attorney General Loretta Lynch speaks with members of Congress and faith leaders at the University of Baltimore on Tuesday, May 5, 2015, in Baltimore. Lynch met with the family of Freddie Gray in private earlier. The FBI and the Justice Department are investigating Gray's death for potential civil rights violations.</p>

Attorney General Loretta Lynch pledged Tuesday to improve the city's police department after meeting with the family of a man who was fatally injured in police custody. "We're here to hold your hands and provide support," Lynch said in a meeting with faith and community leaders, including members of Congress. The new attorney general met privately at the University of Baltimore with Freddie Gray's family, days after the state's attorney charged six police officers involved in Gray's arrest. Gray's injury in police custody and death a week later sparked protests and riots that prompted Maryland's governor to bring in the...

Lj Russum, a humanities professor, allegedly assigned papers that forced students to deny the existence of God and contest that Christianity is oppressive to women. Subsequently, a 16-year-old student received a “zero” on four essay assignments. A professor at Polk State College has allegedly failed a humanities student after she refused to concede that Jesus is a “myth” or that Christianity oppresses women during a series of mandatory assignments at the Florida college. According to a press release from the Liberty Counsel, a non-profit public interest law firm, Humanities Professor Lance "Lj" Russum gave a student a “zero” on...

This week’s question is from contributor Jesse Hassenger: I went to a couple of shows on Sleater-Kinney’s recent tour, and they played their kick-ass song “Entertain.” When the song came out in 2005, Carrie Brownstein described it as a screed against the empty nostalgia of then-contemporary rock music. As much as I enjoy hearing Brownstein calling out a bunch of flash-in-the-pan buzz bands (and as much as I agree that just because something is catchy doesn’t mean that it’s good), in my heart of hearts I don’t particularly agree with the song’s lament that fun rock music is “just a...

On April 8, 2015, the Michigan Supreme Court handed down an important decision upholding reforms to healthcare benefits for Michigan’s retired public school employees. Although it was specific to just healthcare, it bodes well for any future reforms to public pensions in Michigan. In 2010, the Legislature passed a reform that was signed into law by Gov. Jennifer Granholm. This law required all current school employees to pay 3 percent of their salaries to fund health benefits for both current and future retirees. This policy contained a fatal flaw — it required current teachers to pay into a fund to...

Judge expected to set new trial date for Jesse Matthew trial in Albemarle County Bill O'Leary Jesse Matthew, right, confers with an attorney while appearing in court on Friday, Nov. 14, 2014, in Fairfax, Va. Matthew, accused of abducting Hannah Graham, a University of Virginia student who was found dead last month, pleaded not guilty Friday on an unrelated sexual assault charge. Matthew, 32, is charged with attempted capital murder and other counts stemming from a September 2005 attack on a 26-year-old woman in Fairfax City. The man charged with abducting and killing a University of Virginia student is due...

Our hardwood floors are all popping because there are pools of liquor. There's glass shards, there's dent in our walls, toilets flooded and plugged with condoms," said homeowner Star King. King says she agreed to rent her house in northwest Calgary to four adults, who said they were in town for a wedding. She and her husband, Mark, turned their keys over to the renters on Saturday night and went to stay with their in-laws in another part of the city. King says shortly after, she started receiving texts from neighbours, telling her the police had arrived. She was told...

Pamela Geller, the outspoken head of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, has spoken out after her group’s Mohammed Cartoon event was targeted in a shooting attack by Muslim terrorists on Sunday night. In an interview with CNN, Geller lashed out at the media “elites” for criticizing her group—the attackers’ intended victims—as opposed to radical Islamists responsible for such violent attacks. The event had offered a $10,000 award for the best cartoon depicting the founder of Islam, Mohammed, and featured a speech by Dutch MP Geert Wilders, among other prominent critics of Islam. […] The prize was won by an ex-Muslim,...

I-81 remains closed in Botetourt after armed standoff Posted: Tuesday, May 5, 2015 1:43 pm The Roanoke Times A man who engaged in a standoff with Virginia state police on Interstate 81 is dead, according to a release. A trooper stopped the driver near mile marker 161 in Botetourt County while the vehicle was going southbound at 10:20 a.m. When the trooper approached the vehicle, the unnamed driver displayed a firearm. The trooper immediately took cover. No shots were reported fired in a Tuesday morning release. Police continued attempts to contact the driver. When he remained unresponsive they, approached the...

Watching the Right’s reaction to the Freddie Gray case, I’ve had a horrible nightmare: Aliens from a distant planet—big-government, statist aliens from Planet Obama, perhaps—have snatched millions of American conservatives and replaced them with Progressive pod people. How else to explain the sudden, sweeping abandonment by my fellow conservatives of that most precious icon of our movement, the Constitution? The Grey case is a constitutional fiasco. A guy walking down the street approached by the authorities because—literally—he “looked at them?” He’s pursued, frisked, found in the legal possession of a weapon (a pocketknife) and is arrested? No crime? No theoretical...

Hillary's campaign didn't outright hurl Bill under the bus. Even so, the former prez might be feeling a bit too close for comfort to the underside of a Greyhound. Asked by Andrea Mitchell today to comment on footage of poor ol' Bill saying he would continue to give paid speeches because he's "gotta pay our bills," senior Hillary campaign official Amanda Renteria said "that's President Clinton. We are focused on her." Whatever happened to "two for the price of one?" View the video here.

(CNN) —A month after launching Hillary Clinton's presidential candidacy, with every moment of her announcement video and reintroduction tour to voters carefully crafted, her campaign team now finds itself consumed by fending off a familiar, yet far more elusive, adversary: The Clinton legacy. Aides to Clinton still insist she will run the race on her own terms without distraction from whirlwinds of controversy. Yet strategists acknowledge sufficient concern by an erosion of trust and credibility that they are forcefully fighting back. One way is through a new blog, "The Briefing," which is notably not devoted to Clinton's platform for 2016,...

US authorities have identified the two gunmen who opened fire at an anti-Islam art exhibit in Texas and were shot dead by police on Sunday (May 3), and are investigating whether the men were linked to international terror groups. US authorities have identified the two gunmen who opened fire at an anti-Islam art exhibit in Texas on Sunday (May 3). They are now investigating whether the men were linked to international terror groups. An Islamic State (IS) militant had referred to them as "brothers", in a tweet posted after the two were shot dead by police. The two men shot...

The feds say at least one of the gunmen was on their radar for years. Watch how the suspects, even with their rifles and body armor, were no match for a courageous officer with a handgun:

Patience Roggensack said Tuesday there is no doubt she is the Wisconsin Supreme Court's chief justice and that she didn't want to fight with any of her colleagues — in the process, taking jabs at how the court has been run. The justice told conservative WTMJ-AM (620) radio host Charlie Sykes she had been meeting with top court staff in recent days and planned to allow them and other justices to have more input than they have in the past. ~snip~ Roggensack did not respond to interview requests from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last week and did not immediately respond...

When Orson Welles was born 100 years ago on May 6, 1915, there were no radios or television, and movies still hadn’t learned to talk. From age 26 until his death in 1985, Welles established himself as an innovative but turbulent filmmaker. He narrowly missed the high-tech media revolution that might have saved his troubled film-directing career. Yet in a surprising number of ways, Welles himself set the stage for that revolution—and technology has repaid the compliment by restoring many of his films, allowing them to be seen and appreciated by more people than ever saw them in theaters during...