Free Republic

After being slammed into the food truck, five officers allegedly surrounded Yearwood then detained him. Once he was identified as a member of the clergy and a VIP at the march, the officers ran his identification for outstanding warrants and did not find anything. Yearwood was then allegedly released without being placed under arrest. . . . Yearwood claims that of an entire crowd of white people surrounding him, only one woman with dyed pink hair offered to help after he was released. He wrote that his experience was representative of how the environmental movement ignores the concerns of African-Americans....

Among the speakers at the March for Science on Saturday was a transgender man. Kellan Baker, a senior fellow with the LGBT research and communications project at American Progress, said it’s important for researchers to remember that the data they collect tell stories. “We all have a story. Mine is that I’m a public health geek and a policy wonk. I’m also a queer transgender man,” Mr. Baker said, drawing applause.

South Florida residents attended a town hall meeting, Thursday, all with the intentions of voicing their grievances about the current administration in Washington D.C.

I don’t know who is more shocked about this, me or Huma Abedin, but it turns out that a former top Clinton Foundation official is also … a senior Muslim Brotherhood official who has just been arrested for – you’ll never guess – inciting violence in Egypt. Not to worry, I’m sure it was only moderate violence. The Washington Free Beacon’s Adam Kredo reports on Gehad [as in Jihad] el-Haddad: "A senior Muslim Brotherhood official who, until recently, had been employed by the William J. Clinton Foundation was arrested in Cairo on Tuesday and charged with inciting violence.Gehad el-Haddad served...

Whether you’re a Democrat or Republican–or someone who doesn’t care at all about politics–it’s hard not to notice the massive campaigns to influence opinion on social media, the news and out there in real life. Those trying to persuade and manipulate are playing hardball. And, in many instances, we’re falling for it: they plop the ball in the middle of a frenzied crowd, nobody sees exactly who dropped it, and we in the news and the public pick it up and run. We’re being played. As I’ve reported and written: Astroturfers often disguise themselves and publish blogs, write letters to...

A director at a liberal think tank in Washington, D.C. said on Tuesday that white privilege and white supremacy led to the Energy Transfer oil pipeline project that includes land in North Dakota, and compared it to building a pipeline under Arlington Cemetery and across the Potomac River. […] Phyllis Bennis, director of the Institute for Policy Studies’ New Internationalism Project, first quoted David Archambault, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux, who has said the pipeline would harm burial grounds and threaten the water of Lake Oahe, the location of a Sioux ancestral site. […] “The equivalent, we might think,...

JANESVILLE, Wis. — The danger signs are mounting for Donald J. Trump in Wisconsin: Right-wing radio hosts are flaying him, Gov. Scott Walker and other elected Republicans have endorsed Senator Ted Cruz, and a new poll showed Mr. Cruz with a 10 percentage-point lead in the state before Tuesday’s primary. The Stop Trump movement may never have another opportunity like the one here, where resistance to Mr. Trump was running high even before his campaign became consumed by a new round of controversies, from his mocking of Mr. Cruz’s wife to the arrest of his campaign manager to his comments...

Somerville city officials hung a large banner bearing the words “Black Lives Matter” on the front of City Hall on Wednesday morning in solidarity with the grassroots movement that has spread across the country following the recent shooting deaths of unarmed black men by police. Mayor Joe Curtatone said he worked with members of Black Lives Matter Cambridge , a local offshoot of the national organization, to create the banner and show support for their message. “We see this as an important opportunity for an important national conversation” about race, Curtatone said. He said the move was “a very clear...

Companies owned by Donald Trump have reportedly tried to import at least 1,100 foreign workers since 2000. A Reuters review [link at URL] of Labor Department data found that Trump Enterprises have requested temporary work visas for over a thousand foreign workers. ... The desired workers include waitresses, cooks, vineyard workers, as well as positions as assistant golf-course superintendent, assistant hotel manager and banquet manager. ... Reuters found that most of the visa requests were granted, as Trump has vowed to create and protect jobs for American workers. ... The Labor Department data did not specify the nationality of the...

The Huffington Post headline screams: Indiana’s Memories Pizza Reportedly Becomes First Business To Reject Catering Gay Weddings Memories Pizza is a nine-year-old shop in downtown Walkerton, Indiana, just a few blocks from John Glenn High School. It’s owned by an openly-Christian couple, the O’Connors, who decorate their shop with mementos of their faith in Christ. So how does a small business in a small town wind up making headlines around the world as the new avatar of Christian bigotry?

Liberal activist groups have more than 200 “house party” events planned across the country this weekend as part of an effort to get Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts Democrat, to run for president in 2016. The “Run Warren Run” campaign, comprised of members from the groups MoveOn.org, Democracy for America and Ready for Warren, is planning more than 200 “organizing house parties” in 46 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and Guam to try to develop ideas for how they can convince her to run.

Michigan Teachers and Allies for Change (M-TAC), which MLive described as “a grassroots organization started by Ann Arbor Public Schools teachers and parents,” was in the news last week for a rally in Ann Arbor seeking more money for public schools. According to MLive, the group is "non-partisan and is not affiliated with a union." The featured politicians on the stage at the rally were all Democrats: Lisa Brown, who is running for Lt. Governor, State Rep. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, State Sen. Rebekah Warren, D-Ann Arbor, State Rep. Gretchen Driskell, D-Saline; and State Rep. Adam Zemke, D-Ann Arbor. MLive...

When police officers locked the doors to the state Capitol at the end of business Thursday more than 100 protesters remained inside. Among the group were about 30 high school students and young adults from Philadelphia and at least six pastors from across the state, all planning to spend the night with the Dream Defenders. “We’re writing the story of our generation right now,” Gabriel Pendes, a Dream Defender organizer, told the group as it gathered around the Great Seal of the State of Florida for a pep talk and prayer, and to hear the rules of engagement. “We want...

In a study published online on Feb. 8 by the journal Tobacco Control, researchers from the University of California at San Francisco—using taxpayer funding from the National Cancer Institute—argued that the tobacco industry helped create the Tea Party Movement through a process the researchers called “astroturfing.” “Rather than being purely a grassroots movement, the Tea Party has been influenced by decades of astroturfing by tobacco and other corporate interests to develop a grassroots network to support their corporate agendas, even though their members may not support those agendas,” said the researchers. … Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of Tea Party Patriots,...

...“You would be surprised at how many Republican Latinos there actually are in the state of Nevada. There are quite a few of us,” said Alex Garza, a Hispanic Republican activist. “I think the numbers are there; we just haven’t organized as well as the Democratic Latino organizations.” The potential political power of Latinos is an oft-told story in Nevada and elsewhere, though any happy ending at the polls usually is enjoyed by Democrats. ...During the Republican presidential candidates’ nationally televised debate in Las Vegas last month, they were asked how they would speak to the Latino community. Newt Gingrich...

Complete title: ACORN Officials Scramble, Firing Workers and Shredding Documents, After Exposed as Players Behind Occupy Wall Street ProtestsOfficials with the revamped ACORN office in New York -- operating as New York Communities for Change -- have fired staff, shredded reams of documents and told workers to blame disgruntled ex-employees for leaking information in an effort to explain away a FoxNews.com report last week on the group’s involvement in Occupy Wall Street protests, according to sources. NYCC also is installing surveillance cameras and recording devices at its Brooklyn offices, removing or packing away supplies bearing the name ACORN and handing...

HANOVER, N.H. — Barely 48 hours before nine Republican presidential hopefuls are scheduled to debate at Dartmouth College, signs began appearing on campus Sunday evening announcing a demonstration in support of the Occupy Wall Street protests. A “Students Stand With Staff” organization with ties to the Service Employees International Union is organizing the event. The group plans to hold its rally on the center of campus during the four hours immediately preceding Tuesday evening’s high-profile debate. Sterling Beard, a senior at the college and editor-in-chief of The Dartmouth Review, a conservative campus newspaper, told The Daily Caller that organized labor’s...

Nationally, Democrats say they intend to campaign against the tea party movement. But locally, Democratic officials and activists in at least four states now stand accused of collaborating with tea party candidates in an attempt to sabotage Republican challengers in some of the closest House races in the nation. The charges of dirty tricks are being leveled in Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Jersey and Florida--and they involve more than a half-dozen contests that could tip the balance of power in the House. The accusations range from helping tea party activists circulate candidate petition sheets to underwriting the creation of official Tea...

. . .Mr. Saint, a former newspaper reporter and political press secretary, founded his firm 26 years ago. It specializes in using political-campaign tactics—petition drives, phone banks, websites—to build support for or against controversial projects, from oil refineries and shopping centers to quarries and landfills. Over the years, it has conducted about 1,500 campaigns in 44 states. Mr. Saint says about 500 have involved trying to block a development, and most of those have been clandestine. For the typical anti-Wal-Mart assignment, a Saint manager will drop into town using an assumed name to create or take control of local opposition,...

The Coffee Party Heats Up Tired of all the Tea Party talk, Annabel Park decided to throw a Coffee Party—and 200,000 people showed up. By Steve Tuttle | NEWSWEEK Apr 22, 2010 When Annabel Park imagined what it would be like to head a new national political movement, here is what she had in mind: a coming together of engaged, intelligent citizens who had tired of the angry rhetoric and accusations of the Tea Partiers; Americans of all political persuasions joining in a spirit of equanimity to discuss the nation's problems, and maybe even share a laugh. It was this...