Free Republic

I’ve written before about the problems on BART trains which include rising crime and a substantial increase in the number of homeless people using the trains as a moving shelter (and occasionally a bathroom). Not surprisingly, those and other problems have led to a substantial decrease in ridership. Though trains continue to fill during rush hour, fewer people are riding BART to museums, parks or shopping centers.Outside the peak commute times, ridership plummeted — from 62.2 million in 2015 to 52.7 million last year…A recent BART survey of 662 commuters in five counties may help explain the evening and...

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, Md. (ABC7) — Stephanie Mohr’s life changed forever 25 years ago. As a young Prince George’s County Police K9 Officer, she and her partner, Valk, were asked to assist on a breaking and entering call in Takoma Park, Maryland.....Now nearly a decade after her release, she is asking for a presidential pardon

When the coronavirus began to spread in Wuhan, a doctor named Li Wenliang issued the first warning about an outbreak. Chinese authorities responded by showing up at his house in the middle of the night and forcing him to sign a document stating that he had broken the law by spreading rumors online. Dr. Li later died from the virus he had warned about. But Dr. Li isn’t the only voice China has attempted to silence as it tries to maintain control over information about the virus.When the outbreak began, a video blogger named Chen Qiushi went to the...

Trump’s on the phone right now with Zelensky, like, “By any chance, has Mike Bloomberg ever leaned on any of your prosecutors?”And then, before he can answer: “Because I’ve got the next shipment of military aid right here and I just want to know how soon I should send it out.” The sudden decline of Joe Biden and the sudden rise of Mike Bloomberg still hasn’t quite reached the point where Bloomy has been able to pass him in any national polls. He got close in a Quinnipiac poll taken after Iowa and before New Hampshire, finishing with 15...

Prosecutors on Monday charged 20-year-old Alvin Thomas with two counts of first-degree murder for the shooting deaths of 36-year-old Huayi Bian and 38-year-old Weizhon Xiong in a parking lot on the 2000 block of South Wells around 2:13 a.m. Sunday. Responding police officers tracked Thomas down by following a set of bloody footprints from the crime scene to the 2100 block of South Archer, according to an officer who is familiar with the case. In August 2018, Police arrested Thomas, 19-year-old Herbert Sanderfer, and 22-year-old Dijon Williams near the Belmont Red Line station. A grand jury indicted all of the...

President Trump tweeted out earlier Thursday that he was getting ready to meet with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, but also took a whack at Cuomo’s brother, who works at CNN. “I’m seeing Governor Cuomo today at The White House,” Trump tweeted. “He must understand that National Security far exceeds politics. New York must stop all of its unnecessary lawsuits & harassment, start cleaning itself up, and lowering taxes.” Trump added: “Build relationships, but don’t bring Fredo!." Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump I’m seeing Governor Cuomo today at The White House. He must understand that National Security far exceeds politics....

MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday Russia would not legalise gay marriage as long as he was in the Kremlin. He made clear he would not allow the traditional notion of mother and father to be subverted by what he called "parent number 1" and "parent number 2". "As far as 'parent number 1' and 'parent number 2' goes, I've already spoken publicly about this and I'll repeat it again: as long as I'm president this will not happen. There will be dad and mum," Putin said. Read more at https://www.todayonline.com/world/there-will-be-dad-and-mum-putin-rules-out-russia-legalising-gay-marriage

Attorney General William Barr told ABC News in an interview aired Thursday that President Trump had never asked him to do anything in a criminal case but advised the president to stop tweeting about the Justice Department, saying it makes it “impossible for me to do my job.” The remarks are a significant and rare public break by the attorney general from the president, following days of controversy surrounding the Justice Department’s decision to lessen a sentence for Trump ally Roger Stone after the president tweeted about his displeasure with the gravity of the original sentence recommendation. “I think it’s...

The body of six-year-old Faye Mary Swetlik, who has been missing since Monday afternoon, has been found in her South Carolina neighborhood. 'It's with extremely heavy hearts that we announce we have found the body,' Director of Public Safety for Cayce, Byron Snellgrove said through tears at a Thursday news conference where he spoke for only about a minute and took no questions. Snellgrove confirmed that the coroner identified the child's body this morning. Faye's death is being treated as a homicide and no arrests have been made. The body of an adult male was also found in the Churchill...

Let’s state some facts: Michael Rubens Bloomberg notoriously expanded stop-and-frisk in New York City to obscene proportions, violating the bodies and constitutional rights of mostly minority men and boys, and not only defended the policy, but mocked his detractors and bragged about it. What Bloomberg did as mayor amounted to a police occupation of minority neighborhoods, a terroristic pressure campaign, with little evidence that it was accomplishing the goal of sustained, long-term crime reduction. Nearly 90 percent of the people stopped were completely innocent. He knew that. They were the collateral damage in his crusade, black and brown bodies up...

Andrew Napolitano believes President Donald Trump’s former adviser, Roger Stone, should get a new trial. The Fox News senior judicial analyst has known Stone for over four decades but said that has no bearing on the fact that the long-time Trump ally is “absolutely entitled” to a new trial in light of an “inherent bias” from a jury member. “He is absolutely entitled to a new trial with a member of the jury making these types of revelations about the politics involved in the decisions to prosecute him,” Napolitano told “Fox & Friends” Thursday. “I presided over 150 jury trials...

None of the others can win. Trump will have a run for his money with both of them, who do you think is stronger?

Students at a Chicago high school held a sit-in Wednesday in protest after a teacher allegedly told a Latino student last month to "go back to your country” when she and others declined to stand for the national anthem during an assembly. Mary Beck, the school's principal, addressed students during the protest at Nicholas Senn High School, saying she had notified the school district soon after receiving a report of the teacher's alleged comment. "I notified everybody within three hours of receiving the report. It is all in writing," Beck said in a video posted to Twitter. "It is all...

Well... well... well... lookie here: In the Dec. 30, 1991 - Jan. 6, 1992 edition of JET Magazine, an article on page 8 describes in detail how Donald Trump gave a man named Lawrence Herbert, who is black, a check for an undisclosed amount (he was facing foreclosure) as well as a job offer since Mr. Herbert helped his mother, Mary Trump, after an attempted robbery. Mr. Herbert thanked Mr. Trump for his generosity and was able to keep his home. You'll never hear about these acts of kindness from Trump towards others in the mainstream media! #BlackHistoryMonth

A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Pentagon to halt its work on a controversial cloud-computing contract amid a court challenge by Amazon, notching a major win for the tech giant as it seeks to prove that President Trump improperly interfered to keep the $10 billion contract away from Amazon. The Court of Federal Claims is granting Amazon's request to stop the Pentagon from forging ahead with the cloud-computing project until the lawsuit is settled. The Department of Defense was planning to work with Microsoft, the company that received the contract over Amazon last year, to implement a sweeping cloud...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un quickly placed those returning from China in a quarantine. But according to reports an official was spotted breaching the order A North Korean official has reportedly been executed after breaching the country's strict rules surrounding coronavirus. Maniac leader Kim Jong-un had set the rules surrounding those who had returned from China, according to reports. He then ordered them into a quarantine. But according to Korean news outlet Wikitree and other outlets in the region, an official was executed after he was spotted at public baths. The method of execution was by shooting, the report adds....

Senate votes to rein in Trump's power to attack Iran BY JORDAIN CARNEY - 02/13/20 02:10 PM EST Eight Senate Republicans voted with all 47 Democrats on Thursday to rein in President Trump's ability to take military action against Iran, paving the way for a veto showdown with the White House. Senators voted 55-45 on the resolution, spearheaded by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), that would require Trump to pull any U.S. troops from military hostilities against Iran within 30 day unless he gets congressional approval for the military actions. The rebuke comes just a week after senators voted to acquit...

It’s a perfect example of what is known as the “progressive stack,” a ranked hierarchy of minority groups, with those deemed to be the most oppressed given the highest status. When the term “progressive stack” first appeared a few years ago, it specifically referred to the waiting list for speakers at left-wing meetings, with minorities being allowed to speak first ahead of white men. But disputes arose as to which minorities got to speak ahead of which other minorities, so a formalized ranking of minority demographics evolved, with those higher on the list getting priority over those lower down. (Needless...

From left to right: AYANNA PRESSLEY = HUD DIRECTOR ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ = SECRETARY OF STATE RASHIDA TLAIB = FBI DIRECTOR ILHAN OMAR = ATTORNEY GENERAL (DOJ)

NOMINATIONS SENT TO THE SENATE: Adam L. Braverman, of California, to be United States District Judge for the Southern District of California, vice Roger T. Benitez, retired. John W. Holcomb, of California, to be United States District Judge for the Central District of California, vice Dean D. Pregerson, retired. Knut Sveinbjorn Johnson, of California, to be United States District Judge for the Southern District of California, vice John A. Houston, retired. Steve Kim, of California, to be United States District Judge for the Central District of California, vice Beverly Reid O’Connell, deceased. Sandy Nunes Leal, of California, to be United...