Free Republic

The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority's report cited stagnant or falling wages among the lowest-income earners, a local jobless rate that remains above state and national averages, and a worsening lack of affordable housing. ... According to the agency's latest biennial count, an estimated 44,300 people are living on the streets, in cars, in abandoned buildings or in shelters and government-funded "transitional housing" on any given night in Los Angeles County. That tally, based on a census conducted in January, is up 12 percent, or nearly 5,000 people, across Los Angeles County, compared with numbers reported from the previous survey...

The group Women on 20s says 600,000 voters chose the Maryland-born escaped slave and Underground Railroad conductor to appear on a $20 Tubman beat out Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt and Wilma Mankiller, the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation, in the final round of voting Now the group intends to petition President Obama to encourage the treasury to make the first such change since 1929A group campaigning to replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill with a woman has announced who they want that woman to be: Harriet Tubman. Starting in March, the non-profit Women on 20s held...

CityNews reporter Shauna Hunt confronts men who bombarded her with vulgarity at Sunday's TFC game. Update: The moron in the yellow shirt got fired from his job today.

The people have spoken — at least, the people who cast ballots in an unofficial "Women on 20s" campaign — and more than 100,000 voters want to see Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill instead of Andrew Jackson. Tubman, the abolitionist who helped free slaves on the Underground Railroad, on Tuesday was declared the winner of an online poll, part of a petition aimed at convincing the Treasury Department to put a new face on the $20 — and specifically a female one.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Los Angeles County's homeless population has grown by 12 percent during the past two years amid a sluggish economic recovery that has left the poorest residents of the second-largest U.S. metropolitan area falling farther behind, a study released on Monday found. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority's report cited stagnant or falling wages among the lowest-income earners, a local jobless rate that remains above state and national averages, and a worsening lack of affordable housing. "The economy has improved, but not for the persons at greatest risk of homelessness," said Peter Lynn, the authority's executive director.

With one week to go and the race turning tense, a new Bluegrass Poll found no clear favorite in the battle for the Republican nomination to battle likely-Democratic nominee Jack Conway in the Kentucky governor’s race. Louisville businessman Matt Bevin, Agriculture Commissioner James Comer and former Louisville councilman Hal Heiner are effectively even among likely-Republican voters, according to the poll conducted for WKYT-TV, the Lexington Herald-Leader, the Louisville Courier-Journal, and WHAS-TV. Fireworks erupted last week and the race turned divisive after abuse allegations involving Comer surfaced and questions were raised about whether Heiner's campaign was involved in them becoming public....

State Department officials gave speedy and sometimes only cursory consideration to potential conflicts of interest when approving former President Bill Clinton's lucrative speeches to global companies and foreign governments during Hillary Rodham Clinton's tenure as secretary of state, an Associated Press investigation has found. Again and again, the ethics office responsible for vetting his appearances hurriedly signed off on them, even in cases where questions had been raised about the behavior of organizations hiring Bill Clinton to appear. It approved at least 330 requests for the former president's appearance at speeches, dinners and events. More than 220 of those were...

Wisconsin governor, stung by gaffes, posts pictures from Israel, but won’t take questions. Want to know what Scott Walker thinks about the Obama administration’s preliminary deal with Iran on its nuclear program? Or the composition of Israel’s new government? This week, you’re out of luck.The Wisconsin governor, the current Republican front-runner in some early voting state polls, is in Israel until Thursday, but he isn’t taking questions. Stung by his own past gaffes and those of other Republican presidential hopefuls abroad, Walker has locked the press out of his trip to the Jewish state, moving to burnish his foreign policy...

When Hillary Clinton was America's top diplomat, she also appeared at times like a top salesperson for America's biggest airplane maker, Boeing. A sales plug in Russia in 2009, though, may have proved especially fruitful. While touring a Boeing plant, Secretary of State Clinton said, "We're delighted that a new Russian airline, Rossiya, is actively considering acquisition of Boeing aircraft, and this is a shameless pitch." In 2010, Boeing landed the Russian deal, worth $3.7 billion. And two months later, the company donated $900,000 to the Clinton Foundation. This chain of events is raising new questions for Clinton, and Boeing,...

Latest developments • A U.S. military helicopter "was declared missing" Tuesday while in Nepal to support earthquake relief efforts there, U.S. Navy Capt. Chris Sims said. The UH-1 Huey helicopter had six U.S. Marines and two Nepalese aboard at the time, Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren said. Radio transmissions indicated its crew was having some type of fuel problem before it went missing, said Warren, who added the U.S. government is "hopeful" the aircraft didn't crash but doesn't know. • At least 50 people have died in Nepal because of the latest large earthquake there, police spokesman Kamal Singh Bam...

Let us begin with a church history exam question. Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542–1621) was a figure not to be taken lightly. He was Pope Clement VIII’s personal theologian and one of the most able figures in the Counter-Reformation movement within sixteenth-century Roman Catholicism. On one occasion, he wrote: “The greatest of all Protestant heresies is _______ .” Complete, explain, and discuss Bellarmine’s statement.How would you answer? What is the greatest of all Protestant heresies? Perhaps justification by faith? Perhaps Scripture alone, or one of the other Reformation watchwords?Those answers make logical sense. But none of them completes Bellarmine’s sentence. What he...

DUNDALK, Md. - Baltimore County Police say another arrest has been made in connection with the brutal attack of a Maryland man who was trying to break up a fight in front of his own house. 61-year-old Richard Fletcher was home on April 22 when a large fight broke out in the 500 block of 45th Street in Dundalk. Police say Fletcher saw two teen girls, surrounded by a larger group of teens, fighting on his vehicle. When he approached the group to ask them to move away from his truck, he was attacked. Witnesses say they believe anywhere from...

A major rating agency downgraded the city of Chicago's creditworthiness two notches to junk status, a move likely to increase the city's borrowing costs and make investors skittish as the financial world reacts to last week's Illinois Supreme Court ruling that bodes ill for city efforts to resolve its massive pension fund shortfall. Moody's Investors Service downgraded the city's debt rating on bond issues backed by property, sales and fuel tax revenue to Ba1, one notch below investment grade, from Baa2, specifically citing last week's Supreme Court ruling on an attempt to cut state pension costs. Moody's calls the Ba1...

Before the spacecraft ended its mission, it captured almost 100,000 images of the planet mapping its gravitational field. As scientists study the data, they found that it ages about 4 billion years old. Furthermore, the spacecraft was able to collect sufficient information for scientists to conclude that Mercury’s crust is thicker in low latitudes and thinner at both poles. This kind of distribution highly suggests that the planet is made of liquid or molten outer core, which comprises 85% Mercury’s radius and bigger than Earth’s core. Also, the layer below the crust of the planet is made up of liquid...

CBS has renewed 15 of its series for next season — but missing from the list is long-running crime procedural “CSI.” The network has not confirmed the fate of the franchise flagship, and may opt to end the Ted Danson series with a TV movie rather than a 16th season, according to reports.

SYDNEY: Growing sea ice surrounding Antarctica could prompt scientists to consider relocating research stations on the continent, according to the operations manager of the Australian Antarctic Division. Tony Worby, from an Australian centre studying Antarctic climate and ecosystems, said that in contrast to the Arctic where global warming is causing ice to melt and glaciers to shrink, sea ice around Antarctica was increasing. Rob Wooding said that resupplying Australia's Mawson Station -- the longest continuously operated outpost in Antarctica -- relied on access to a bay, a task increasingly complicated by sea ice blocking the way. "In the 2013-4 season...

The New York Times, even to this day, remains "America's newspaper". But why?! The latest brouhaha scandalous decision made by the newspaper involves the outing of 3 CIA officials in wake of reporting that two innocent hostage lives were taken in a drone attack. In response, 20 former senior CIA leaders penned a blistering response to the NYTimes Executive Editor Dean Baquet after he defended his paper's decision to name names. The former CIA officials rebuked: Officials who work on covert operations do not escape accountability. Their actions are carefully reviewed by the C.I.A.’s general counsel, the inspector general, White...

Baltimore NBC affiliate WBAL did a report Friday night about the attorneys of the six cops charged in the death of Freddie Gray wanting the court to either dismiss the case or recuse Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby over what they call ‘numerous’ conflict of interest charges.... ...but failed to mention the relationship between WBAL reporter Jayne Miller, who covered the story for the station in the heat of the riots, and deputy state’s attorney Janice Bledsoe.

Over 400 Christian leaders and social activists gathered together in Hyderabad, in India’s Telangana state, on 2 May, to hold a peaceful protest against a recent spate of attacks against Christians. The protest came in the wake of yet another brutal mob attack in the state, when at least 100 Hindu radicals stormed a Christian meeting shouting anti-Christians slogans and beating the believers with wooden clubs, iron rods, and knives.Christians in India meet to pray together First breaking the lights and sound system, the assailants then proceeded to attack the Christians who had gathered together in Pebber town, in Telangana...

MADISON, Wis. – A white Wisconsin police officer won't face criminal charges for fatally shooting an unarmed 19-year-old biracial man whom witnesses say was acting erratically and had assaulted two people, a prosecutor announced Tuesday. Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, who is biracial but identifies as black, said he won't file charges against Madison Officer Matt Kenny in the death of Tony Robinson. Kenny shot Robinson on March 6 in an apartment house near the state Capitol building.