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Timothy Stansbury died in a New York housing project stairwell in 2004 because he startled a police officer. The officer's surprise at encountering Stansbury caused the officer's hand to clench and his weapon to fire. The death was ruled accidental by a grand jury, though the officer was later stripped of his gun for the remainder of his career. Akai Gurley died in another New York housing project stairwell last fall. A rookie officer with his finger on the trigger of his pistol tensed as he pushed open a stuck door; the added pressure on the trigger caused his weapon...

Greenville, S.C. — Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) signaled a new line of attack on Republican rivals, arguing that not all of his rivals defended religious liberty when Indiana passed a Religious Freedom Restoration Act. “Indiana was a sorting moment, as Reagan would say, a time for choosing,” Cruz said at the South Carolina Freedom Summit. “There are candidates running in 2016, even candidates in the Republican field, who when Indiana was being battled, they were nowhere to be found. I can tell you this, when it comes to standing for the religious liberty of Americans, I will always, always,...

The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports that global monthly CO2 levels reached 400 ppm. They present this as threatening news, but it is good news for plants and animals. I was involved in a brief to the US Supreme Court opposing the EPA actions on CO2. I proposed we seek Power of Attorney (POA) for the plants. We would vote on behalf of the plants against any attempts to reduce atmospheric CO2 from the current claimed 400 ppm and for any increase, at least to a level of 1200 ppm. Seeking POA sounds like an environmental stunt for...

In an editorial for the new issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD, Bill Kristol notes the "ludicrous" "guarantee" Secretary of State John Kerry made last week regarding Iran's so-called breakout capacity towards nuclear weapons. Kerry told Israelis: I say to every Israeli that today we have the ability to stop [the Iranians] if they decided to move quickly to a bomb and I absolutely guarantee that in the future we will have the ability to know what they are doing so that we can still stop them if they decided to move to a bomb. This is not the first time Kerry has...

A lot has been written about Baltimore recently, but the most insightful commentary often comes from people who are not directly addressing the news. Back in 2010, Antero Pietila wrote Not in My Neighborhood: How Bigotry Shaped a Great American City about Baltimore (h/t Tyler Cowen). The shaping was not subtle. Indeed, with a 1910 residential segregation ordinance passed by the City Council, Charm City literally invented the idea of legally enforcing neighborhood-level segregation: Baltimore's innovation was the use of government legislation to achieve systematic, citywide race separation. "Nothing like it can be found in any statute book or ordinance...

A degenerate piece of trash praised the murder of two cops in Mississippi last night on Facebook, but the bigger mistake she made was to do it in uniform. Today Subway has been inundated with tweets demanding she be fired. Retired NYPD cop John Cardillo leads the charge:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday confronted Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin over the Ukraine crisis, balancing a tribute to Soviet losses in World War II with a rebuke of Russia’s policies today. Ms. Merkel flew to the Russian capital a day after she skipped Moscow’s massive military parade in honor of the 70th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany. She joined Mr. Putin at a military wreath-laying at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier outside the Kremlin wall, walking behind slowly marching Russian soldiers. In a news conference after the two spoke for about two hours,...

Cable news is in trouble. The Pew Research Center reports that the median daily audience for Fox, CNN, and MSNBC is down about 11 percent since 2008. The Washington Post's Paul Farhi sees a grim future for the industry. He argues that cable news outlets are pretty much where newspapers were a decade ago: their audience is aging, their medium is being disrupted by new technologies, and the next generation of viewers is developing habits and preferences that they're poorly placed to serve. (This is probably a good moment to note that I'm a contributor to MSNBC.) The networks may still...

Netanyahu speaks of regional threats; cabinet approves bill to increase number of ministers. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at the start of a cabinet meeting Sunday morning, mentioned that since the outgoing government's first cabinet meeting two years ago, the region has been in constant tumult. “Despite the many attempts to challenge us from our borders, we fended off all these efforts without exception,” he said. Netanyahu mentioned Hezbollah in south Lebanon, the efforts by Iran to open up a new front against Israel on the Golan Heights, attempts to transfer advanced weaponry from Syria to Lebanon, and efforts by Hamas...

Peter Boyles interviews Trevor Loudon.

Last weekend, Brownells held its Lady 3 Gun Pro-Am Challenge West Match in St. George, Utah. The event brought out hundreds of top female shooters to compete in action-packed 3 gun stages for a tournament that is quickly making a name for itself in the shooting world.

Cuban President Raul Castro has said he was so impressed by a Vatican audience with Pope Francis that he might return to the faith he was born into. Mr Castro praised the pontiff's wisdom, adding: "I will resume praying and turn to the Church again if the Pope continues in this vein." He thanked the Pope for brokering a rapprochement between Cuba and the US. The communist leader had stopped at the Vatican after attending Russia's World War Two Victory Day in Moscow. The Catholic Church has maintained ties with Havana since the 1959 revolution. The Pope will visit Cuba...

BASTROP, Texas - Vicki Lehmeir said she was initially surprised that Gov. Greg Abbott put the Texas State Guard in charge of monitoring the U.S. military's Jade Helm 15 exercises this summer. Then again, Lehmeir, treasurer of the county Democratic Party, reconsidered. “Gov. Abbott is pandering to the paranoia in the state,” said Lehmeir, on Thursday morning. “And then he’ll probably complain about the cost, like he did at the border when those children were coming across.” Fear that the exercises represent the beginnings of a military-led takeover of the state, orchestrated by President Barack Obama, were all too real...

he pool is still there. It's shrouded by palm fronds and heavy gates, but it's there. Stand on Pierce Street, beyond the walls of the Fort Harrison Hotel, and you can hear families splashing, even smell the chlorine. Close your eyes and picture this pool a half-century ago. Picture the Rolling Stones, then a scrum of scrawny Brits in lounge chairs... Depending on the legend you believe, it was here, 50 years ago while in town for a concert on May 6, 1965, that Keith Richards and Mick Jagger wrote (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction. It's the Rolling Stones' signature...

Happy Mother's Day, everyone!! Woo Hoo!! Over halfway there!! Please keep those donations coming in so we can wrap this baby up early!! FR is funded solely by contributions made by the liberty loving patriots who enjoy and use it. We are beholden to no political party. No advertisers, no outsiders, no sugar daddies, no corporate string pullers. This means no commercial ads. No annoying pop-ups. No ad tracking. No mail campaigns. No spam. No one trying to control us. Definitely no government subsidies or tax breaks. We are self-funded, fiercely independent and enjoy our freedom to speak plainly in...

But I do think it’s very important that we keep our ammunition ready. I do feel there is nothing to worry about as long as we’re willing to protect ourselves.

Does Tom Brady have a target on his back because he’s a Republican? Here’s his agent’s analysis of the Wells Report. According to Don Yee, “…omission of key facts and lines of inquiry suggest the investigators reached conclusion first and determined so-called facts later.” You think? Consider this legal analysis the agent makes: the Wells investigators, who he says showed less than stellar knowledge of pro football, buried the report’s significant vulnerabilities in the FOOTNOTES…a key legal device. Additionally, Tom Brady’s full day of interview testimony by four League legal types “virtually was omitted.” But the most trenchant point of...

As the number of shootings and homicides has surged in Baltimore, some police officers say they feel hesitant on the job under intense public scrutiny and in the wake of criminal charges against six officers in the Freddie Gray case.State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby's decision last week to charge the officers has stoked strong opinions across the country — including praise from those who want accountability and derision from some legal experts. But perhaps the most jarring effect has been on the Baltimore Police Department. "In 29 years, I've gone through some bad times, but I've never seen it this...

The steady stream of cars, reported Benedict, represented the people who not only wanted to be gun-free but also people looking for the gift cards credited to the generosity of Ralphs.

The windows are still boarded up, the car windshields are still smashed in, and the tempers are still boiling over. One week after the May Day riots left Broadway Auto Row in Oakland an avenue of broken glass and dented metal, the proprietors who are still wondering why they were targeted are still awaiting some help from somebody.