Free Republic

Cincinnati--Ohio State Highway Patrol officers reportedly exchanged fire Thursday morning with a man who tried to break into an FBI building in Cincinnati, Ohio. Interstate I-71 North was shut down after the suspect drove away from the scene and reportedly started firing at police from a cornfield, NBC 15 News reported. FBI negotiators have also arrived on the scene. The suspect was described as a white male over police scanner traffic, according to the News Journal. “Blood splatter on his shorts. Right thigh area,” an officer in a police helicopter said over the radio. “Part of windshield shot out ......

A top FBI lawyer who fabricated evidence in a federal spy warrant against Trump campaign affiliate Carter Page is expected to plead guilty to federal charges brought by U.S. Attorney John Durham. Kevin Clinesmith, who is expected to admit to deliberately fabricating evidence in a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant application, used to spy on a former campaign affiliate of President Donald Trump, was a top attorney in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Office of General Counsel (OGC) and a key agency attorney under fired former FBI Director James Comey. Clinesmith is the first individual to be charged as part...

Shirley Skipper-Scott, the warden of the federal jail in New York City where wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein killed himself was reassigned out of that post by Attorney General William Barr, the Justice Department said. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons also placed two staffers at the Metropolitan Correctional Center who had been assigned to Epstein’s cell unit on administrative leave pending ongoing investigations into Epstein’s death. Epstein, a former friend of Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, was being held without bail on child sex trafficking charges at the times of his death.

The Census Bureau is projecting that the population of the United States will hit 404 million by 2060, and nearly all of the net growth will be from immigrants and their families. A new analysis of the figures shows that of the 79 million more in 2060, 75 million will be legal and illegal immigrants and their families, a population the size of France and Belgium combined. Without immigration, according to the Census analysis from the Center for Immigration Studies, the U.S. population would increase by just 3.7 million, the latest sign that the country is on a path to...

Former top FBI lawyer Lisa Page testified during two days of closed-door House hearings, revealing shocking new Intel against her old bosses at the Bureau, according the well-placed FBI sources. Alarming new details on allegations of a bureau-wide cover up. Or should we say another bureau-wide cover up. The embattled Page tossed James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok and Bill Priestap among others under the Congressional bus, alleging the upper echelon of the FBI concealed intelligence confirming Chinese state-backed ‘assets’ had illegally acquired former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 30,000+ “missing” emails, federal sources said. The Russians didn’t do it....

the US Court of Appeals from the DC Circuit today found that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was “structurally unconstitutional.” The offending structure consists of an independent agency with a single, all-powerful executive director. The Court found that structure fell between two stools – an agency with a single head needs to be accountable to the President, while an independent agency needs to have internal checks and balances by having a multi-member commission format like the SEC and others... The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s lack of checks and balances violates the Constitution’s separation of powers. Its director is like a...

Representative Jason Chaffetz, the Republican from Utah, has introduced a Bill that would take the law enforcement capacity on public lands from the Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service. This is a major win for US citizens if it does in fact pass. Many have been harassed and even lost their land to the Federal Government in land grabs and other abuses enforced by the BLM.

Nearly 20 years after California became the first state to legalize the medical use of marijuana, legislators have a plan to impose order on the erratic patchwork of inconsistent policies that currently govern the billion-dollar industry. “We’re making up for two decades of inaction”, said state senator Mike McGuire, whose district includes the “Emerald Triangle” in Northern California where 60% of the marijuana grown in the US is cultivated. “This legislation brings clarity and desperately needed rules and regulations.” In the final hours of the legislative session that ended late Friday night, lawmakers passed a trio of bills that create...

In a move that’s prompting questions about the stockpiling of weapons by the federal government’s nonmilitary agencies, the Bureau of Reclamation wants to buy 52,000 rounds of ammunition for use in law enforcement at Hoover Dam and Lake Mead. After learning about the purchase request, Nevada Rep. Mark Amodei vowed to inquire with the bureau about its operations, number of officers carrying firearms and how much ammunition it uses, according Brian Baluta, a spokesman for Amodei.

With the rise of flexible working schedules, the freelance economy, and video conferencing, more Americans are getting their jobs done without ever heading into an office, according to new data from the American Time Use Survey released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Among all workers, 23% report spending all or part of their day working from home. That’s up from less than 19% in 2003, the first year for which there’s comparable data.

State Department officials spent $630,000 to get more Facebook "likes," prompting employees to complain to a government watchdog that the bureau was "buying fans" in social media, the agency´s inspector general says. The department´s Bureau of International Information Programs spent the money to increase its "likes" count between 2011 and March 2013. "Many in the bureau criticize the advertising campaigns as ´buying fans´ who may have once clicked on an ad or ´liked´ a photo but have no real interest in the topic and have never engaged further," the inspector general reported. The spending increased the bureau´s

The former Yahoo! News Washington bureau chief who was fired after he was heard saying Republican National Convention attendees were “happy to have a party with black people drowning” has been hired at Politico. David Chalian will serve as vice president of video programming to expand Politico’s video content, according to an internal memo. He was fired in August after he was caught on a hot mic during an online video broadcast saying RNC officials were unconcerned about holding their convention as Hurricane Isaac approached the Gulf Coast. “They’re not concerned at all,” Chalian said. “They are happy to have...

Things had been looking up for gun-rights activists. In 2008, the Supreme Court ruled in D.C. v. Heller that Washington’s handgun laws were unconstitutional. In the summer of 2010, in McDonald v Chicago, the court expanded that ruling to apply to handgun laws in all 50 states. Even President Obama seemed relatively open to Second Amendment rights, saying on the campaign trail: “I believe there is a Second Amendment right. I think it is an individual right. I think people have the right to lawfully bear arms.” Now, it seems that when it comes to Obama and guns, he was...

Barney Frank: Protection bureau won’t run amokBy Thomas Grillo Friday, October 15, 2010 - Updated 2 days ago U.S. Rep. Barney Frank rejected suggestions that the director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will have unchecked powers. “I can’t see many examples of there being an excess of consumer protection,” the Newton Democrat said yesterday following a speech to kick off Suffolk University’s Moakley Breakfast Series at the federal courthouse. “There are very strict rules about what she can and can’t do,” he said, “but the notion that we will overprotect consumers is a strange one.” Last month, President...

Battle brews over director for new Consumer Financial Protection BureauThe agency with the power to make rules for credit cards, mortgages and other products is created as Obama signs the financial overhaul law. By Jim Puzzanghera, Los Angeles Times July 22, 2010 Reporting from Washington — President Obama reversed decades of lax oversight of the financial industry Wednesday by signing a landmark overhaul of regulations, but he still faces a major task — appointing a director for the powerful new agency charged with protecting consumers from unscrupulous deals.

The Financial Reform give the USA new bureaucracies of all kind: Advisory Committee, Office of the Investor Advocate, and of course the … the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection that will include the Consumer Advisory Board. It is not likely that the first-time home buyer will have the connections or the resources to influence who will sit on the Consumer Advisory Board. It is likely that the Wall Street will have the ability to lobby them. It is not likely that the senior taking care of the retirement funds will go all the way to the Office of the Investor...

MY REFUSAL TO COMPLY! January 29, 2009 I received the American Community Survey about a month ago. This compulsory 28 page document published and administered by the U.S. Census Bureau clearly demonstrates the need to ask the question " Who is out-of-control in our government?". Perhaps, more importantly, "Who is in control, outside of our government?" I decided, almost immediately, not to comply. A little investigation confirmed my suspicion. Namely, there are countless others of you out there who share a common concern about this interrogative survey as well as the motives of our government. I say " our government"...

Government plans new credit, mortgage programs By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer 19 mins ago WASHINGTON – The government introduced a pair of new programs Tuesday that will provide $800 billion to help unfreeze the market for consumer debt and to make mortgage loans cheaper and more available.

Washington--The government is working on a new loan facility to help companies that issue credit cards, make student loans and finance car purchases. The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve will unveil the program Tuesday, according to people familar with the plan. They spoke on condition of anonymity because a formal announcement has yet to be made. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has said he plans to use a "relatively modest share" of the $700 billion financial bailout money to pay for the new program. It's the latest effort by the government to break through a dangerous credit clog that has...

Four New Orleans police officers have been cleared of allegations that they looted a Wal-Mart store after Hurricane Katrina, but each was suspended 10 days for not stopping civilians from ransacking the store, the Police Department said. The probe stemmed from an MSNBC report that showed the officers filling a shopping cart with shoes, clothes and other items. When a reporter asked the officers what they were doing, one responded, "Looking for looters" and turned her back. Assistant Police Chief Marlon Defillo, commander of the Public Integrity Bureau, said the officers seen on the video were recently cleared of looting...