Free Republic

Attorneys representing longtime Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Michael Jeffries in his sex trafficking and prostitution case have claimed he has dementia and will need to undergo a competency hearing to determine whether he can face the vile charges. The lawyers wrote in court documents on Monday that the 80-year-old was examined by a neuropsychologist in October, who concluded that he likely has dementia with behavioral disturbance, Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body dementia. They claimed the neuropsychologist concluded that Jeffries exhibited cognitive impairments including impaired memory, diminished attention, processing speed slowness and ease of confusion. Jeffries does 'not even come close...

The former CEO of fashion giant Abercrombie & Fitch and his British partner have been arrested and are facing sex trafficking charges, the BBC understands. Mike Jeffries, his partner Matthew Smith and the couple’s alleged middle-man were arrested on Tuesday morning. The FBI and prosecutor's office are expected to announce more details at a press conference shortly. Lawyers for Mr Jeffries and Mr Smith have been approached for comment. They have previously "vehemently denied" any wrongdoing by both men. The FBI opened an investigation last year after the BBC revealed claims that Mike Jeffries and his partner sexually exploited and...

Finding a civil rights cause that increasingly brings together conservatives and liberals, the Supreme Court told employers Monday that they had an "affirmative" duty under federal anti-discrimination law to accommodate the religious practices of employees and job applicants. By an 8-1 vote, the justices sided with a 17-year-old Muslim girl who was rejected for a job at Abercrombie & Fitch because she wore a head scarf. The court's liberal justices have long championed religious minorities in discrimination cases. But as Christian conservatives have more frequently been put on the defensive over issues such as abortion and gay rights, the court's...

The Supreme Court ruled Monday in favor of Samantha Elauf, a Muslim woman who sued for discrimination after not being hired by Abercrombie & Fitch, because her insistence on wearing the Muslim hijab conflicted with their dress code.

HONOLULU (AP) -- In a stunning defeat for an incumbent, Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie was unseated by a fellow Democrat in Saturday's primary election, as voters chose state Sen. David Ige as their nominee in one of two marquee races that have divided the party. Abercrombie had tried to hold onto his seat while disgruntled voters turned their allegiance to Ige, who promised to bring a less confrontational political style. Voters rewarded Ige with a decisive victory....

Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie launched a radio ad Wednesday featuring President Barack Obama supporting the governor’s bid for re-election. In the ad, Obama uses the Hawaiian word for family, saying Abercrombie is “like ohana to me.” The president says Abercrombie knew his parents “before I was a twinkle in their eye.” Obama says the governor has made gutsy decisions leading Hawaii, tackled a budget crisis, made smart investments in education and fought for middle class and working families. …

“……additionally there’s some forensic accounting investigation of Loretta Fuddy’s personal finances which resulted in a disclosure that she received a substantial - I believe she received a $50,000.00 dollars in cash shortly after she verified the Obama’s birth certificate as being legitimate. And, [I] may your listeners remember that it was late last year that Loretta Fuddy died in a very peculiar plane accident off the coast of Hawaii, shortly after Doug filed that sealed affidavit [ah] in the federal District Court in Washington………”

Gov. Neil Abercrombie with Coral Andrews of the Hawaii Health Connector HONOLULU — The woman charged with implementing the Affordable Care Act in Hawaii through the insurance exchange Hawaii Health Connector will step down amidst controversy over its failed launch. Coral Andrews, executive director of Hawaii Health Connector for the past two years, said Friday she will not seek to renew her contract. She will leave her post Dec. 6. Hawaii Health Connector received $200 million in federal funding to set up the website and network of more than 30 providers where individuals and small businesses can sign up for...

It's been fifteen years since Hawaii overwhelmingly voted against "gay marriage." Last Monday, Sept. 9, the Governor decided to go for broke to try to make it a reality in in that state. He has called a special session of the Legislature to convene on Oct. 28, for the sole purpose of taking up his new "gay marriage" bill. A "gay marriage" bill had already been introduced in this year's session. But by the time the session ended on May 2, it had failed to gain sufficient support and was never brought to a vote. Much of that was due...

Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie, who once participated in a 1960s anti-Vietnam War rally where a U.S. soldier was hung in effigy, has dropped the ball on getting Veterans Administration mortgages in Hawaii. This is happening because water coming from catchment water systems was deemed non-potable by a state bureaucrat in 2011, and veterans whose homes have such a system or who want to buy a home with such a system cannot get VA loans. Abercrombie has had the power to change this since 2011 but has refused to do so.

Several years ago, I was browsing the racks at Abercrombie & Fitch when a store employee approached me. “Hey, do you want to work here?” she asked, over the store’s notoriously loud (and obnoxious) music. In case you didn’t know, no one applies to work at Abercrombie. They offer jobs to good-looking, stylish patrons. For a brief moment, I felt anointed. I shouldn’t have. It turned out the store had dozens of teenaged and twenty-something employees—all of whom could expect to work five hours a week, if that. But there was a catch: in order to secure the job, you...

Three events that made no sense at the time now make sense. I'll C&P the substance in the first comment so the HTML will (hopefully) transfer.

Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie, a Democrat, will have a limited choice of successors to appoint to succeed the late Sen. Daniel K. Inouye. According to Hawaii election official, the governor will choose from a list of three candidates submitted to him by the state Democratic Party. The appointee will serve until November 2014, when a special election will be held to fill the final two years of Inouye’s current term.

Upon taking office, Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie once declared he was going to solve the mystery of Barack Obama’s missing birth certificate. But after searching for it, he suggested it might not exist. If the governor couldn’t find it, how is it that the Hawaii Health Department produced it so quickly upon the request of the White House? That’s a question Abercrombie is no longer eager to address. In fact, in Hawaii, questions about the authenticity of the document released by the White House are still considered radioactive. In Abercrombie’s office, spokeswoman Donalyn Delacruz expressed that she was happy to...

President Obama met with a group of Democratic governors on Friday and discussed plans to work around Congress toward policy goals. Gov. Jack Markell, the Democratic governor of Delaware and the vice chairman of the National Governors Association, told The Hill that the meeting was “very good” and said many of the governors were responsive to ideas about bypassing Congress. “There was a sense that none of us should wait, we can’t wait for things to happen in Congress,” Markell said of the meeting. “We’re going to do what we can do [now].” Obama has positioned himself against Congress as...

Gov. Abercrombie requires a review of helicopters' environmental impact, forcing an $11 million move to Colorado. The Army is shifting at least some high-altitude helicopter training from Hawaii to Colorado — at a taxpayer cost of up to $11 million — following an additional environmental review imposed by the state. The regulatory process has already delayed training by four months, creating a tight deadline for Wheeler Army Airfield pilots preparing for a yearlong deployment to Afghanistan in January. Now Gov. Neil Abercrombie has informed the Army it must conduct a state environmental assessment in addition to a federal environmental assessment to use...

Abercrombie vows to fix system. West Hawaii pays a disproportionate percent of property taxes on Hawaii Island, and "we Democrats have to do something about it, and do something now," Gov. Neil Abercrombie told party supporters Saturday in Kailua-Kona. Some 116 people attended the Hawaii County Democratic Party's luncheon held at Hualalai Academy's Bridge Building. Abercrombie also covered topics ranging from energy and sustainability, affordable housing and the failed soda tax legislation. The governor noted that property owners on the west side Hawaii Island pay around 70 percent of all property taxes, even though far more people live on the...

Obama's birth certificate. How is that coming? A: I got a letter from someone the other day who was genuinely concerned about it; it is not all just political agenda. They were talking on Olelo last night about this; it has a political implication for 2012 that we simply cannot have. (Abercrombie said there is a recording of the birth in the State Archives and he wants to use that.) It was actually written I am told, this is what our investigation is showing, it actually exists in the archives, written down ... ...What I can do, and all I...

Only Barack Obama could take the birther controversy out into the deep woods and kill it graveyard dead. But he won’t, and that’s the mystery.

There is evidence to refute the claim that President Barack Obama was not born in Hawaii, and therefore is not eligible to be president of the United States, but "birthers" persist with their claims that Obama is in office illegally. Donald Trump is the latest to question the president's birthplace. SNIP As for Obama's roots in Hawaii, Abercrombie told Hawaii News Now he first laid eyes on baby Barack Obama a few days after he was born. Abercrombie said Obama's parents introduced their newborn to friends at the University of Hawaii where Abercrombie was going to college with the president's...