Free Republic

The mother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence says the authors of a government-ordered race review are "not in touch with reality" and "it has pushed [the fight against] racism back 20 years or more". The report from the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities - which was set up by Prime Minister Boris Johnson following last summer's Black Lives Matter - found the UK is no longer a country "where the system is deliberately rigged against ethnic minorities". It added that geography, family influence, socio-economic background, culture and religion all affect life chances more than racism. But Baroness Doreen Lawrence,...

A Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty today to multiple counts of receiving child pornography, accessing with intent to view child pornography, and possessing child pornography depicting prepubescent minors and minors under the age of 12.According to court documents, Robert Costello, 53, of Bethlehem, who was employed by the New York City Department of Probation as an assistant commissioner at the time of the offenses in 2020, used an online app to discuss the sexual abuse of children and to receive images of child sexual abuse, and stored images and videos of child sexual abuse on his electronic devices.Costello is scheduled to...

The Department of Justice has received reports that fraudsters are creating fraudulent COVID-19 vaccine surveys for consumers to fill out with the promise of a prize or cash at the conclusion of the survey. In reality, the surveys are used to steal money from consumers and unlawfully capture consumers’ personal information.Consumers receive the surveys via email and text message, and are told that, as a gift for filling out the survey, they can choose from various free prizes, such as an iPad Pro. The messages claim that the consumers need only pay shipping and handling fees to receive their prize....

WASHINGTON – A former intelligence analyst and former military servicemember pleaded guilty today to illegally obtaining classified national defense information and disclosing it to a reporter.According to court records, Daniel Everette Hale, 31, of Nashville, Tennessee, served as an enlisted airman in the U.S. Air Force from July 2009 to July 2013. After receiving language and intelligence training, Hale was assigned to work at the National Security Agency (NSA) and deployed to Afghanistan as an intelligence analyst. After leaving the Air Force in July 2013, Hale was employed by a defense contractor and assigned to the NGA, where he worked...

The Charles County Sheriff’s Office is investigating an assault caught on camera. News4’s Shomari Stone reports a driver rammed Taco Bell employees and drove into the restaurant. A woman drove a car into a Taco Bell in Waldorf, Maryland, following an argument with an employee Wednesday night. The trouble started at the drive thru when someone inside the car got in an argument with an employee, authorities said. A woman stepped out of the car, hit the employee at the window and got back in the car. The driver drove to the front of the restaurant where the argument continued....

A Washington man pleaded guilty today to defrauding Tyson Foods Inc. (Tyson) and another company (Company 1) out of more than $244 million by charging them under various agreements for the purported costs of purchasing and feeding hundreds of thousands of cattle that did not actually exist.According to court documents, Cody Allen Easterday, 49, of Mesa, used his company, Easterday Ranches Inc., to enter into a series of agreements with Tyson and Company 1 under which Easterday Ranches agreed to purchase and feed cattle on behalf of Tyson and Company 1. Per the agreements, Tyson and Company 1 would advance...

A former executive director for a university’s donor relations and fundraising programs in New York was sentenced today to 35 years in prison for multiple child pornography crimes, including his participation in the sexual abuse of a 6-year-old.According to court documents, on July 22, 2015, Scott Lane, 37, of New York, New York, and others were on a particular video-conferencing platform when a man in Pennsylvania, co-conspirator William Augusta, began sexually abusing a 6-year-old boy. Lane and others encouraged Augusta to sexually abuse the boy for everyone to watch live. Specifically, Lane, using the alias “NYC Perv,” instructed Augusta to...

A federal court in the District of Massachusetts entered an order today authorizing the IRS to serve a John Doe summons on Circle Internet Financial Inc., or its predecessors, subsidiaries, divisions, and affiliates, including Poloniex LLC (collectively “Circle”), seeking information about U.S. taxpayers who conducted at least the equivalent of $20,000 in transactions in cryptocurrency during the years 2016 to 2020. The IRS is seeking the records of Americans who engaged in business with or through Circle, a digital currency exchanger headquartered in Boston.“Those who transact with cryptocurrency must meet their tax obligations like any other taxpayer,” said Acting Assistant...

ViacomCBS is the first major Hollywood studio to speak out against Georgia’s voter integrity law, claiming without citing evidence that the legislation intended to fight voter fraud actually impedes the “equal right to vote.” The media conglomerate, which owns Paramount Pictures and the CBS network, stopped short of endorsing the left’s demands to boycott the state. In a statement posted to Twitter, ViacomCBS said that it opposes the new law and will work to promote an “open and fair voting system” through its programming and partnerships with activist groups. “We unequivocally believe in the importance of all Americans having an...

This was posted on Citizen Free Press. I found it very funny. I hope you do too https://youtu.be/Y_wa5R5hmsM

April 02 2021 Feria sexta in Passione Domini ("Friday of the Passion of the Lord"). The Church of The Holy Passion of our Lord, Amberley, New Zealand Lectionary 261There is no Mass today. The readings given here are used in the afternoon celebration of the Lord's Passion.First readingIsaiah 52:13-53:12 ©The servant of the Lord, an expiatory SacrificeSee, my servant will prosper,he shall be lifted up, exalted, rise to great heights.As the crowds were appalled on seeing him– so disfigured did he lookthat he seemed no longer human –so will the crowds be astonished at him,and kings stand speechless before him;for...

The Collin County Sheriff's Office has fired seven detention officers involved in the death of 26-year-old Marvin Scott III... ...After being arrested in the parking lot of an Allen, Texas outlet mall for smoking marijuana, police found him "incoherent," according to Scott family attorney, Lee Merritt. Police then took Scott to the Texas Health Presbyterian hospital nearby. There, doctors found him fit for incarceration, WFAA reported. Once inside the Collin County jail, Scott underwent several mental health episodes...

Mum Kate McGinley, 35, has a condition which is causing her brain to be pulled down into her spinal cordWhen she was a child, Kate McGinley had a party trick which would make all her friends and family squirm. Her ability to stretch and extend her body like a contortionist meant that she could dislocate her shoulders, hips and fingers on command. But little did she know that her unusual talent was being caused by a rare, life-threatening disease which would later cause her years of pain and suffering. Kate was diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos syndrome (EDS), a condition which...

Hulu will produce a documentary series based on “The 1619 Project,” stories in The New York Times that examined the legacy of slavery in America dating from the arrival of the first slave ship from Africa. Roger Ross Williams, an Academy Award-winning director for his film “Music by Prudence,” will oversee and produce the series, it was announced Thursday. The announcement was an outgrowth of a deal announced last summer by the Times, Lionsgate and Oprah Winfrey to develop “The 1619 Project” into a portfolio of films, television series and other content. …

ATLANTA (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday sided with Georgia in ending its eight-year battle with Florida over water that runs through Atlanta’s thirsty metro region and downstream past cotton and peanut fields to Apalachicola Bay and its depleted oyster fisheries. ...In a unanimous 9-0 decision, the court ruled that Florida did not prove that its proposed water diversion caps on Georgia were warranted, given the balance between the needs of Georgia’s population and agricultural needs versus the needs of Florida. Nor did the court accept that water depletion was the cause of the Florida’s declining oyster beds....

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) is preparing legislation to expand production of semiconductors only weeks after his family members purchased stock in semiconductor tool manufacturers. Wyden and two other Democrat senators released a statement to announce they were working on legislation to “expand production of critical technologies like semiconductors, batteries and solar components” in the name of “economic recovery.” ‘By building on tools with records of success, we can also boost manufacturing in communities that have been left behind. We are working on new legislation that would expand production of critical technologies like semiconductors, batteries and solar components....

The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) released a report Tuesday documenting the $36 million spent in 14 urban counties of Texas in the 2020 election by the Mark Zuckerberg-funded Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL). According to the report: Grant award letters showed Texas counties were given money to help shift voting to the mail and away from traditional procedures in Texas law. The large blue leaning counties received huge sums to transform their elections. Smaller red counties did not receive anything close. Mandated changes included were: Drive-thru voting Mail voting sorting assets Polling place rental expenses Temp labor...

My latest song. Left hand at 10 o'clock, right hand at 2 o'clock.

First Lady Jill Biden journeyed to California in a visit to a pop-up vaccination site for farmworkers. Video of her effort to speak Spanish during the stop in Delano attracted almost as much attention as the flag that provided the backdrop. It came on the birthday of César Chávez, a left-wing labor leader, and she was joined by California Gov. Gavin Newsom. “It’s ‘Si se puede’ (Yes you/we can) not ‘Si se pwadueh,’” RGA Deputy Communications Director Joanna Rodriguez tweeted. “I can’t even imagine what word she was trying to say. Seriously why even try pandering if you’re going to...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s diplomatic mission to North Korea complained on Thursday of acute shortages of essential goods such as medicine, problems getting healthcare and pandemic restrictions that it said were unprecedented in their severity. Foreign diplomats have been leaving North Korea in droves, it said in a statement on Facebook, describing it as an exodus that had left behind fewer than 290 foreign nationals in the country....