Free Republic

As recounted in scores of interviews since his first album, the platinum-selling "Trouble," debuted in 2004, Akon was incarcerated for a total of four-and-a-half years, including a long stretch for his role as the "ringleader of a notorious car theft operation." Akon's gang specialized in boosting Porsches, Lamborghinis, and Mercedeses, he owned four chop shops catering to "celebrities and drug dealers," and he frequently escaped from cops in high-speed pursuits. His criminal empire collapsed, though, after underlings--who "felt like they deserved more than they were getting"--cut deals and ratted him out to law enforcement. As a result of that betrayal,...

Is the U.S. Federal Reserve, as it claims, an agency of the U.S. government charged with maintaining the stability of the US economy? Or is it, as some critics charge, really a privately held consortium of banks whose principal interest is its own self-interest? That argument could go back and forth ad infinitum, but in the final analysis, it's an exercise in irrelevancy. Whether one believes the Fed is a colossal banking swindle or not, it is now an accomplished reality that is so ingrained in our nation that neither political party is willing to endure the pain of undoing...

Rikki Rockett, the drummer of glam rock band Poison, was arrested Monday at Los Angeles International Airport on an outstanding rape warrant, the Los Angeles Daily News reports. Rockett, 46, was arrested and booked into the L.A. County Jail, the paper said. He was being held on a strong-arm rape warrant filed in Neshoba County, Miss. Details

On Jan. 6, 1944, Anne Frank wrote in her diary that her image of him was so vivid she didn't need a photograph to remember him. Indeed, more than 60 years later, no photograph had been found of Anne Frank's childhood sweetheart, leaving hundreds of readers around the world curious for a glimpse. But now, 81-year-old Earnst Michaelis has identified his dearest childhood friend, Peter Schiff, as the "Petel" or "Peter" from the diary … the mysterious boy who stole Anne Frank's heart. Despite "Anne Frank's Diary" becoming one of the world's most-read journals, selling an estimated 35 million copies,...