Free Republic

....Omarosa Manigault-Newman’s appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists’ annual convention did not go well. On Friday, the White House aide headlined a panel on police violence, moderated by BET news host Ed Gordon..... Against Gordon’s running on-stage criticisms of the panel itself, NABJ president Sarah Glover took to the floor to defend the association’s choice to even host the panel in the first place, saying the NABJ’s policy has always been to invite members of the sitting administration to every convention. ...New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones and New Yorker journalist Jelani Cobb pulled out of the panel...

American Indians are the poorest of all of America's ethnic groups. Why? After all, the government has granted them massive reservations and created entire agencies to look after them. Well, maybe that's why. Naomi Schaefer Riley, author of "The New Trail of Tears," explains. We've all heard about how many bad things the U.S. government did to American Indians in the past. But what about today? Like most people, the only time I hear about today's American Indians is when people are outraged about sports mascots or team names, like the Washington Redskins. But sports teams' names are the least...

Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are two investors in Bridge International Academies. But in Uganda, the group's 63 schools have been "ordered to shut down in a matter of weeks, leaving the lives of thousands of pupils in limbo." An anonymous reader quotes CNN: Uganda's High Court has described the Bridge International Academies...as unsanitary and unqualified, and has ordered it to close its doors in December because it ignored Uganda's national standards and put the "life and safety" of its 12,000 young students on the line. The Director of Education Standards for the Ministry, Huzaifa Mutazindwa, told CNN that the...

His tribe once controlled huge swaths of what is now New York and Connecticut, but the shrunken reservation presided over by Alan Russell today hosts little more than four mostly-dilapidated homes and a pair of rattlesnake dens. The Schaghticoke Indian Tribe leader believes its fortunes may soon be improving. As the U.S. Interior Department overhauls its rules for recognizing American Indian tribes, a nod from the federal government appears within reach, potentially bolstering its claims to surrounding land and opening the door to a tribal-owned casino. “It’s the future generations we’re fighting for,” Russell said. The rules floated by the...

WHITERIVER (AZ) — Tax breaks, according to economists, are designed to encourage some types of behavior, such as business investment. Taxes and regulation, they say, discourage other types of behavior, such as smoking, drinking and conspicuous consumption. One such project is the Fort Apache Timber Company (FATCO), a once-thriving lumber company that created jobs and kept the White Mountain Apache forests clean and relatively fireproof. According to WMAT (White Mountain Apache Tribe) planning office officials, the tribe has secured $40 million in loans stemming from these tax credits. The loans will ultimately result in $10 million of “free money” to...

Indian tribes seek federal bailout money for casinos A native-American tribe struggling to keep its Foxwoods Resort Casino in the red is now turning to the U.S. government for a helping hand. The Associated Press reports that the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation has already received more than $4.5 million in grants from the Department of Health and Human Services and from the Interior Department in the last five years. But now members are facing tough times with its casino — which used to be a billion-dollar empire — and are looking at the government for more grants, AP says. Critics...

BANGOR, Maine — Guess who’s coming to dinner? Waylaid in Bangor by bad weather farther to the north and east, a political who’s who of high-profile travelers greeted troops at Bangor International Airport on Friday night and livened up the local downtown scene before flying out early Saturday. [snip] [Sen Collins said "Rebecca Hupp (airport mgr)] told us they were expecting two planeloads of troops shortly after 5 p.m.,” she said. “She asked if we would be willing to wait at the airport and greet them.” Collins filled her guests in on the city’s storied troop greeters program. [snip] The...

HOUSTON - A small piece of luggage exploded at Bush Intercontinental Airport on Tuesday afternoon. No injuries were reported. According to a spokeswoman for the Houston Airport System, the luggage exploded shortly after the jet landed around 2 p.m. Ground crews said they noticed something strange about the luggage and were working to remove it when the explosion occurred. While no injuries were reported

A top priority of DOI Secretary Ken Salazar was to settle the 13-year old Indian Trust lawsuit. That goal was just met and announced. The settlement says the Federal Government will: o Establish a $1.4 billion fund to settle historic trust mismanagement and accounting claims. o Create a $2 billion fund that DOI will use to buy back fractionated Indian lands to ensure the problems raised by Cobell do not occur again. To provide an additional incentive for account holders to sell their interests in fractionated lands, Interior will direct up to 5 percent of the value of fractionated land...

10/16/2009 - BAGHDAD (AFNS) -- The Iraq Civil Aviation Authority assumed full control of daily air traffic operations at the Baghdad International Airport air traffic control tower Oct. 1. Before the transition to full Iraqi control, air traffic operations at BIAP were conducted by Iraqis and U.S. Airmen assigned to the 447th Expeditionary Operations Support Squadron at Sather Air Base, while more Iraqis trained with the Washington Consulting Group, an American contract firm. "ATC-wise, we work two runways," said Master Sgt. John Kirby, 447th EOSS chief controller. "One side is civil and one side is military. On the civil side,...

HOUSTON - A missile may have just barely miss hitting a Continental Airlines flight on Friday. Liberty County sheriff deputies are meeting with the FBI and FAA to discuss this incident. Sheriff deputies say on Friday a missile may have been launched near Interstate 10 and mount Belview. A continental flight which had just taken off from Bush Intercontinental Airport may have been the target.

FORWARD OPERATING BASE FALCON, Iraq, July 7, 2008 – Leaders from Multinational Division Baghdad, the Iraqi security forces and the Iraqi government broke ground July 5 for a project to revitalize the road from Baghdad International Airport to the heart of the Iraqi capital. A member of the Iraqi National Police stands behind three gold-painted shovels while Baghdad Mayor Saber al-Esawi speaks during a ground-breaking ceremony to mark the beginning of the Airport Road revitalization effort in southern Baghdad, July 5, 2008. Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team worked with leaders from...

Several of California's largest gaming tribes have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to a little-known body to successfully speed up their land applications - a necessary step for casino expansion, Capitol Weekly has learned. The California Fee to Trust Consortium was established under the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs Pacific Regional office in 2000 in order to expedite land claims, many of which have languished for years. The consortium arrangement allows tribes to pay into a fund that pays the salaries of the BIA employees who evaluate these claims. Documents about the little-known governmental organization came to light following...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASERELEASE No. 20070927-14September 27, 2007Three Baghdad International Airport staff detainedMulti-National Corps – Iraq PAOBAGHDAD – Coalition Forces detained three extremists in an early morning operation at the Baghdad International Airport Sept. 27.The corrupt workers are suspected of having positioned themselves in several high-level jobs at the airport to establish a base and conduct kidnapping operations against Iraqi Security Forces and innocent civilians who stand up against the group’s criminal activities.The men are further suspected of participating in attacks on Iraqi and Coalition Forces with improvised explosive devices and mortars.

Thermal, Calif. (AP) -- Life is harsh for the 4,000 migrant workers who live in the Desert Mobile Home Park, where hundreds of dilapidated dwellings sit along dirt streets. The 110-degree air is thick with large black flies and the stench of raw sewage. Wild dogs prowl the alleys. But conditions could get even worse if the federal government follows through on its threat to close this site on a sun-baked Indian reservation because of rampant health and safety violations. "Where are we going to go, where are they going to put us?" asked Angelina Cisneros, 59, who lives with...

WASHINGTON - Black leaders in Congress asked the federal government Tuesday to weigh in on the legality of a vote by the Cherokee Nation earlier this month to revoke citizenship from descendants of former tribal slaves.Saying they were "shocked and outraged," more than two dozen members of the Congressional Black Caucus signed a letter to the Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs questioning the "validity, legality, as well as the morality" of the March 3 vote. "The black descendant Cherokees can trace their Native American heritage back in many cases for more than a century," said Rep. Diane Watson (news,...

WASHINGTON - Federal officials are investigating how National Archives documents of interest to Indians suing the Interior Department were found discarded in a trash bin and a wastebasket. The discovery came to light on Sept. 1, when Archives staff noticed federal records in one of the trash bins behind the National Archives Building near the Capitol. They notified the Archives' inspector general, Paul Brachfeld, whose staff recovered the documents. They found at least a portion of the documents were Bureau of Indian Affairs records dating to the 1950s, according to Jason Baron of the Archives' Office of General Counsel, in...

WASHINGTON - American Indians suing the government over billions of dollars in lost royalties say they are contemplating an offer by members of Congress to resolve their lawsuit for $8 billion. The offer is considerably lower than the $27.5 billion plaintiffs offered to settle for a year ago. But plaintiffs say they are considering it seriously, bringing them closer than ever to ending the lawsuit, which has bogged down the Interior and Justice departments for 10 years. "Eight billion dollars is something I wish was higher, but I'm glad they were able to bring something forward that was equitable," the...

Blasts kill 14 at Baghdad airport Two cars packed with explosives ripped through a busy car park Fourteen people have died and six were hurt in a double suicide attack near Baghdad airport, on a day of violence that claimed at least 30 lives in Iraq.The blasts took place in a car park close to the airport compound, the US military said. Militants north of the capital also attacked the Iraqi foreign minister's convoy, killing two of his bodyguards. The violence came a day after two British soldiers died in a bombing near Basra, the British army said. The...

A Snohomish County judge has struck down a key package of tax increases on liquor and cigarettes, agreeing that lawmakers illegally bypassed voter-approved spending limits to enact the new fees. The judgment, issued Friday by Superior Court Judge James Allendoerfer in Everett, invalidated an omnibus tax plan that Democratic lawmakers used to balance the two-year state budget during the 2005 session. State officials are likely to appeal the ruling, which essentially would require a statewide vote to keep the $263 million, two-year tax package in place. >snip Their lawsuit targeted the 2005 Legislature's overhaul of state taxation and spending limits...