Free Republic

SEATTLE — Seattle Councilmember Kshama Sawant is facing charges over allegedly violating city law after using her official website to promote a ballot initiative that's part of the "Tax Amazon" campaign. Sawant broke two laws, according to charging documents filed by Wayne Barnett, Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission's executive director. That includes using city resources for a non-city purpose and using city resources to promote a ballot proposal. Three specific examples from Sawant's city council website are used to support the charges: - A link to a Facebook page promoting a January 25, 2020, "Tax Amazon Action Conference" in which...

[Catholic Caucus] New Hong Kong bishop to be announced within weeks Fr Peter Choy Wai-man is expected to be appointed as the new bishop Priests in the Diocese of Hong Kong are expecting the announcement of their new bishop within the next two weeks.“We have been told to expect an announcement within the next ten days or so,” a senior priest in Hong Kong told CNA on February 15. The priest confirmed that Rev. Peter Choy Wai-man is the expected appointee.“I think by the end of the month we should see something official,” the priest added.The Hong Kong diocese...

I came back from a flight last night around midnight at Terminal A gate 15 and was surprised by all the homeless sleeping in the area around baggage claim and in the hallways. I guess they take the DART train to the A terminal and sleep the night, and are rounded out in the morning. This situation makes Dallas county and the DFW airport look bad at their ineptness to deal with homelessness. I heard about this situation about 2 weeks ago and called Fox affiliate KDFW channel 4 and they brushed it off. I should have taken video but...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — It’s the law that you need a license to drive. But, if you’re undocumented and driving without a license in Cambridge, police have been advised not to arrest you for that. It’s all part of a new law that passed unanimously in the city, which encourages police to summons unlicensed drivers instead of arresting them. The procedure has already been practiced for a while, but city leaders said they felt compelled to officially make it a law, in fear of what could happen to immigration laws should President Trump be re-elected. “We need to protect our community...

If you regularly read my columns, you have probably figured out by now that I am a strong advocate of law and order. That brings me to three items I would like to discuss related to law enforcement that I believe should be changed or abolished. The first is civil asset forfeiture or civil judicial forfeiture, and it is a procedure in which police agencies and the government can legally confiscate property from a person they suspect of criminal or illegal activity without charging them with a crime. This can be in the form of cash, or a house, or...

Neil Young is no fan of Donald Trump. In an open letter published on his website on Tuesday, the aging rocker told the president directly: “You are a disgrace to my country.” Young, who is originally from Canada, revealed last month that he’s now a citizen of the United States and plans to use his new status to vote Democrat. The 74-year-old singer used the letter to Trump to show his support for former President Barack Obama and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. “Your mindless destruction of our shared natural resources, our environment and our relationships with friends around the world...

Eight people are reported to have been killed following a drive-by shooting at two shisha bars in Germany. The incidents happened in the town of Hanau, located 20 miles from Frankfurt at around 11pm local time. Five other people are also believed to have been seriously injured.

Steven Spielberg's adopted 23-year-old daughter Mikaela has revealed she is working as a porn star, while opening up about the sexual abuse that she suffered as a child. In a new interview, the Nashville-based adult film star, who was adopted as a baby by Spielberg, 73, and his wife Kate Capshaw, 66, revealed that she only recently told her parents about her new line of work, but said that they have been very supportive of her career choice. 'My safety has always been a number one priority for them,' she told The Sun, while revealing that she broke the news...

No excerpt allowed from source, story here.

Failed politician Stacey Abrams wants to do away with the electoral college. Her reasoning? The electoral college is a "classist, racist system whose time has passed and we need to get rid of it," so it's the same argument the left makes to get rid of everything they don't like. Naturally, Abrams attacked the centuries old constitutional system with the cast of ABC's "The View" on Monday morning.   Abrams claims the founding founders created the electoral system as a racist system designed somehow to prevent blacks from voting. To make her point, Abrams repeated the historically illiterate lie about...

Some residents in Oregon are fed up with living under Democratic control of their state government and have launched a ballot initiative campaign to join Republican-led Idaho. The movement, known as "Move Oregon's Border for a Greater Idaho," is hoping to expand the borders of the Gem State through the inclusion of more than a dozen bordering rural counties now in Oregon. Mike McCarter, chief petitioner of the movement says the group has gotten the "green light" in at least three Oregon counties -- Josephine, Douglas and Umatilla -- that would start the first step in the secession process, which...

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) pushed back on Fox News’s Neil Cavuto’s citation of record low African American unemployment, saying African Americans “were fully employed during slavery.” The subject came up when Cavuto asked Clyburn, who has yet to make an endorsement ahead of the South Carolina primaries, if he would support the Democratic nominee if it was former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg. "I'm going to back whoever our nominee is. Absolutely,” said Clyburn, the top African American Democrat in Congress. "Even with the things he has said about African Americans? Does that bother you?" Cavuto asked. Bloomberg...

A Vermont bill that proposed increasing the state’s hourly minimum wage was vetoed Feb. 10, 2020, by Gov. Phil Scott (R). The measure (S. 23) proposed raising the minimum wage to $11.75 from $10.96 on Jan. 1, 2021, and to $12.55 on Jan. 1, 2022. Scott, in statement, said an analysis showed that a higher minimum wage would lead to job losses, decreased employee hours, and increased costs for goods and services. To override the veto, a two-thirds majority vote is needed in both legislative chambers, each of which has a Democratic majority.

Washington, DC ~ Wednesday, February 19, 2020 Remarks as Prepared for DeliveryThank you, Director Wray, for that introduction and thanks for hosting us for today’s workshop on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.Section 230 is a topic that has garnered significant attention over the past year, and we are pleased to have so many experts and thought leaders on our panels and in the audience here today.The Department of Justice’s interest in Section 230 arose in the course of our broader review of market-leading online platforms, which we announced last summer.  While our efforts to ensure competitive markets...

Starts at 9pm Eastern. On NBC News as well as MSDNC. Will post youtube link when it goes live. Buttigieg, Sanders, Warren, Klobuchar, Biden, Bloomberg

Deeper into the deep state's contrivances on two continents.

NEW YORK — As Republican President Donald Trump seeks a second term in November, Americans' interest in voting is growing faster in large cities dominated by Democrats than in conservative rural areas, according to an analysis of Reuters/Ipsos national opinion polls. If the trend lasts until Election Day on Nov. 3, it would be a reversal from the 2016 election when rural turnout outpaced voting in urban areas, helping Trump narrowly win the White House. The finding, based on responses from more than 88,000 U.S. adults who took the online poll from August to December 2015 or from August to...

At a Glance A mature swarm of locusts entered South Sudan this week.Warmer temperatures and more rain have contributed to the outbreak.Some swarms are the size of cities and can move up to 90 miles a day. The locust outbreak plaguing East Africa has now reached South Sudan as swarms the size of cities continue to move across several countries, fueled by extreme weather and changing climate patterns. "Studies have linked a hotter climate to more damaging locust swarms, leaving Africa disproportionately affected — 20 of the fastest warming countries globally are in Africa," Richard Munang, United Nations Environment Programme...

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has said his party will seek to form a government without Sinn Féin. Both parties have been seeking a path to a viable coalition since the Irish general election earlier in February. Fianna Fáil’s parliamentary party met last Thursday and decided forming a coalition with Sinn Féin “would not be the right thing to do”. On Wednesday, Mr. Martin said a steering group would be set up to formally engage with other parties. He said the group, made up of members of the Fianna Fáil front bench, would begin formal engagements with other parties and...