Free Republic

When I wrote about NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio’s new plan to release thousands of additional criminal suspects without bail yesterday, I asked how the police would respond to the news. Since the expanded program would be releasing suspects as old as 19, some of whom will have been charged with violent crimes, it just seemed as if these revolving door policies would make the cops’ jobs tougher. Turns out that it didn’t take long at all for the police to speak up with the same message. And the city’s top cop went so far as to write an op-ed...

In case you didn’t hear, there was yet another hate crime attack on Sunday, this time taking place at a subway station in the Tribeca district of New York City. A 25-year-old gay man was abruptly attacked by two men hurling homophobic slurs, leaving him with a laceration to the head requiring stitches. Police quickly put out the call for information leading to the arrest of the assailants. Barely 24 hours later the story had fallen apart. The NYPD’s investigation determined that the supposed victim was the one instigating the conflict. (NY Post) A Manhattan straphanger who claimed to have...

President Trump blasted Robert Mueller as “highly conflicted” on Thursday, claiming the special counsel "would have brought charges" against him in the Russia investigation if he had "anything" but that "there were no charges to bring," while calling impeachment a "dirty, filthy, disgusting word." The president's comments were in response to what Mueller said during his rare public appearance on Wednesday, and in response to Democrats using Mueller's statements as ammunition to begin considering impeachment proceedings. Mueller emphasized a day earlier that charging the president with a crime was "not an option" due to longstanding Justice Department policy and maintained...

Anyone who thought Mitch McConnell was going to give up a prized Supreme Court seat purely for the sake of appearances hasn’t been paying attention. With four words and a proud smile, the Senate majority leader this week confirmed what those who have watched him closely have long understood to be true: If a vacancy on the high court occurs in the election year of 2020, the Republican majority that McConnell leads would vote to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominee. “Oh, we’d fill it,” McConnell said in response to a what-if question about the Supreme Court during an appearance in...

Steve King says assuming all cultures are equal is 'devaluing' the Founding Fathers © Greg Nash Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said at a constituent town hall Tuesday night that treating all cultures as equal is “devaluing” the country’s Founding Fathers. "If we presume that every culture is equal and has an equal amount to contribute to our civilization, then we're devaluing the contributions of the people that laid the foundation for America and that's our Founding Fathers," King said Tuesday, according to the Des Moines Register. The controversial Republican lawmaker added that his remarks Tuesday were “not about race, it's...

We Build the Wall founder Brian Kolfage said the Trump administration called the International Boundary and Water Commission, a federal agency, to authorize his organization’s construction of a private border wall.He also said the Department of Homeland Security approved his organization’s venture.Both agencies disputed Kolfage’s claim. The founder of the nonprofit group that built a half-mile border wall over Memorial Day weekend said the Trump administration sanctioned the project, but two federal agencies disputed his claim Wednesday. Triple amputee and Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage said Wednesday that the Trump administration called the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC)...

There's nothing magical about the number 10,000. In fact, the idea of walking at least 10,000 steps a day for health goes back decades to a marketing campaign launched in Japan to promote a pedometer. And, in subsequent years, it was adopted in the U.S. as a goal to promote good health. It's often the default setting on fitness trackers, but what's it really based on? "The original basis of the number was not scientifically determined," says researcher I-Min Lee of Brigham and Women's Hospital. She was curious to know how many steps you need to take a day to...

Sports Talk 790 in Houston tweeted that the child was awake, responsive and taken to the hospital for precautionary reasons. Best of all, the girl is expected to be fine, the station said.

SAN FRANCISCO — On its website, Salesforce.com touts retailer Camping World as a leading customer of its business software, highlighting its use of products to help sales staff move product. A Camping World executive is even quoted calling Salesforce’s software “magic.” But behind the scenes in recent weeks, the Silicon Valley tech giant has delivered a different message to gun-selling retailers such as Camping World: Stop selling military-style rifles, or stop using our software. The pressure Salesforce is exerting on those retailers — barring them from using its technology to market products, manage customer service operations and fulfill orders —...

A D-Day veteran aged 90 has hit the No 1 spot in the Amazon music chart – ahead of Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber. Jim Radford's haunting ballad The Shores Of Normandy – featuring lyrics about men who 'stormed the gates of hell' and 'died upon that blood-soaked sand' – was released only a week ago. It has edged ahead of Sheeran and Bieber's joint hit I Don't Care in the online store's chart, regarded as a barometer of what could be a future official No 1. Mr Radford, the youngest known D-Day veteran, was inspired to write the folk...

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was too ill on Thursday to appear via video link from a British prison in a hearing on an extradition request from the United States, his lawyer said. The United States is seeking the extradition of Assange, 47, who was dragged from the Ecuadorean embassy in London on April 11. He faces a total of 18 U.S. criminal counts and decades in prison if convicted. “He’s in fact far from well,” Assange’s lawyer, Gareth Peirce told Westminster Magistrates’ Court. She earlier told Reuters he was too ill to attend the hearing by videolink. Judge Emma Arbuthnot,...

A hot shot army veteran dubbed the ‘Queen of Guns’ loves firing huge machine-guns while wearing tiny outfits, and says US has the ‘best gun laws in the world’ Orin Julie, 25, boasts 585k followers on Instagram, and divides her time between home in Ramat Gan, Israel and the United States – where she passionately believes citizens enjoy ‘the best gun laws in the world’. The former fighter in Israel’s IDF (Israeli Defence Force) reckons US citizens should ‘appreciate and protect’ their second amendment gun rights – and says she gets ‘huge excitements’ whenever she discharges a weapon. The all-action...

The Miss India beauty pageant has faced criticism over a lack of diversity in its finalists. The organisation came under fire after a newspaper published headshots of all 30 women competing to take home the crown. Twitter user LeBrown James shared a photo of the collage, asking: 'What's wrong with this picture?' The question sparked dozens of responses from social media users who pointed out that all the women have 'fair skin', with one saying simply: 'This is so white!'

California residents working for companies like Lyft and Uber would get the rights of employees entitled to a minimum wage and workers compensation under a law the state Assembly passed on Wednesday. The sweeping bill, which now goes to the Senate, carries new standards defining whether workers are employees or independent contractors, upending how workers are treated in industries from trucking to the burgeoning gig economy. Under those standards, for example, workers could only be classified as independent contractors if they are free from the control or direction of an employer and they do work outside a company’s usual course...

Most congressional Democrats heard one message in Robert Mueller’s public statement on Wednesday: It’s up to you to punish President Donald Trump. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signaled unwillingness Wednesday to take a leap that many on the political left have already made — impeachment. Investigating and potentially impeaching Trump dominated Capitol Hill hall talk on Wednesday, both behind closed doors where influential Democrats urge starting an inquiry and out loud among progressives demanding action. Pelosi didn’t utter the word Wednesday in her terse five-paragraph statement issued two hours after Mueller left it to Congress to investigate Trump further. “The...

CNN is preparing to make substantial cuts to its London-based television news operation in a move that is likely to result in at least a dozen employees losing their jobs. The announcement was made by Jeff Zucker, the CNN boss, at a “town hall” meeting on Tuesday in the company’s office in central London. Staff, including some managers whose shows were affected, were given no advance warning of the announcement, according to some of those present. Zucker told them that the international channel was losing $10m (£8m) a year, according to those present.

The U.S. economy grew at a solid 3.1% rate in the first three months of the year, but much of that gain was based on temporary factors that will likely fade, leaving growth much slower in the current quarter. The Commerce Department said Thursday that the first quarter advance in the gross domestic product, the economy’s total output of goods and services, rose sharply from a 2.2% increase in the fourth quarter as the economy overcame a partial government shutdown to weakness in overseas economies. The new GDP estimate was down slightly from an initial 3.2% estimate. For the current...

The Greatest Presidential Harassment in history. After spending $40,000,000 over two dark years, with unlimited access, people, resources and cooperation, highly conflicted Robert Mueller would have brought charges, if he had ANYTHING, but there were no charges to bring! Russia, Russia, Russia! That’s all you heard at the beginning of this Witch Hunt Hoax...And now Russia has disappeared because I had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected. It was a crime that didn’t exist. So now the Dems and their partner, the Fake News Media,..... ....say he fought back against this phony crime that didn’t exist,...

Announced in Summer 2015, Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge theme land in California is finally open to the public nearly four years later. Never before (despite Hollywood Studio's previous efforts), has the world of Star Wars felt more alive. From costuming, to design, to engineering, the Black Spire Outpost, the setting for this Star Wars world, is the most impressive attraction in Disney's history—and this is everything we love about it.

In 2022, the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force will take possession of a frigate with one of the most powerful combat information centers (CICs) in the world. Normally a CIC, a dimly lit room isn’t much to get excited about, but this is different. The “Advanced Integrated CIC” set to go on the ship features a 360 degree wall of video monitors, augmented reality, and large tactile tables for mission planning and other tasks. The new system looks like the bridge of a Star Trek starship come to life—and in some respects, it's even cooler. Japan has one of the...