Free Republic

Anonymous comments, even positive ones, damage trust in the news media. Despite their ubiquity on news sites around the Internet, a movement against anonymous comments sections has slowly gathered steam over the past few years. The first call to action came in 2010 when the American Journalism Review said, “It is time for news sites to stop allowing anonymous online comments.” Since that bold declaration, a wide variety of media outlets, including ESPN, the Huffington Post, Popular Science, Sporting News and USA Today have either banned anonymous posts on their sites or eliminated comments sections altogether. In August 2013, the...

They love a theme at Shooters Grill in Rifle, Colorado. The menu features the Swiss and Wesson and Guac 9 burgers, and owner Lauren Bobert and most of the waitstaff are armed, in Bobert's case with a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun."I wanted to start carrying just for my protection," Bobert told Nightline. "This is my establishment, so I didn't see anything wrong with that. I began to open carry." Bobert, a 27-year-old mother of four, opened Shooters Grill last year. While she says it's "not a gimmick," the theme does bring in customers from hundreds of miles away. Those who...

For the past several days, some children in Ferguson have seen a slain teenager on the street, killed by a police officer, a childhood symbol of protection. They’ve witnessed police in riot gear in clouds of tear gas, night after night, heard barking dogs used to try to control the unrest, angry shouts from protesters and police. They have heard shots fired and seen a building burned, glass shattered. “I know that in the coming days, weeks and months children will continue to re-experience this,” said Marva Robinson, president of the St. Louis chapter of the Association of Black Psychologists....

At about 1 a.m., a St. Louis County Police officer shot and critically wounded a man who police said pointed a handgun at the officer near the intersection of West Florissant and Chambers Road. The shooting happened near Chambers and Sheffingdell Court close to the site of protests against police for the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. Police said they received a call about four to five men in the area armed with shotguns and wearing ski masks and they got reports of shots fired in the area. Police officers arrived and saw "multiple subjects running," said police spokesman Officer...

President Barack Obama isn’t just grappling with what feels like an endless foreign policy nightmare around the world. Now he’s got one hell of a messaging problem at home.The United States will not intervene in foreign crises directly — or indirectly by supplying weapons and assistance — except when it does. Obama needs explicit authorization and funding from Congress in order to escalate American involvement in ongoing conflicts around the world — except when he doesn’t.The president’s order to step up direct military support to Iraq’s Kurds, who the Pentagon acknowledged Monday are getting more weapons, ammunition and other help...

He gives the kind of well-considered responses that suggest a president who carefully engages with truly difficult policy conundrums. Yet at the end of the day, he often comes across as vacillating and indecisive -- an impression that can be fatal in his dealings with allies, adversaries, and of course electorates. * It is Obama's bad luck to be chief executive at a moment when the consequences of several bad policies of the past century are blowing up, on his watch. His answers to particular questions are thoughtful, prudent, and mindful of the limits of American power. But taken together,...

The lunch lines at the main cafeteria on the sprawling campus of the Food and Drug Administration in White Oak, Md., are bigger than the brunch crowd at 14th Street’s latest farm-to-table, craft-cocktail, artisanal restaurant. And the staff is struggling to keep up. They’re short at least three employees to help prepare the dragon rolls, work the turkey carving station and replenish the croutons at the double-sided salad bar. In post-Edward Snowden Washington, hiring for official kitchens and dining halls is grinding to a crawl. Every busboy, dishwasher and cashier requires elaborate background checks, which include lengthy waits for fingerprinting,...

A bug can turn you into a vegetarian, or at least make you swear off red meat. Doctors across the nation are seeing a surge of sudden meat allergies in people bitten by a certain kind of tick. This bizarre problem was only discovered a few years ago but is growing as the ticks spread from the Southwest and the East to more parts of the United States. In some cases, eating a burger or a steak has landed people in the hospital with severe allergic reactions. Few patients seem aware of the risk, and even doctors are slow to...

Two summers ago a home invasion by gang members on the city's South Side went wrong when one of the robbers shot another one in the back of the head, according to Chicago police. Sixteen-year-old Douglas Bufford was killed, and 19-year-old Jermalle Brown was charged with first-degree murder. His trial begins on Aug. 15, and it may attract more attention than usual in a city plagued by violent crime, just as his arrest did. Why? Because at the time of the shooting, Douglas Bufford and Jermalle Brown were also on the Illinois state payroll, earning $8.50 an hour to hand...

During his first interview with the general leading an investigation into his capture by the Taliban, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl on Wednesday described details of his disappearance from his tiny combat outpost in eastern Afghanistan five years ago. It was the first time Sergeant Bergdahl, of the Army, had formally described those events since he was released by the Taliban to Special Operations troops in May and flown to Texas after five years of captivity. As soon as the session began, the investigating officer, Maj. Gen. Kenneth R. Dahl, warned Sergeant Bergdahl that he did not have to say anything that...

I vividly remember entering the California Institution for Women for the first time in 2001. As the prison guard slammed the gate behind me, I wondered if I had made the right decision to become a volunteer for an inmate support group. But my nerves were eased by a woman who introduced herself as “Krenny.” Welcoming me into the group, she seemed quiet and insecure — yet also exuded an inner strength. I had no idea how she got here and didn’t ask. It was only several years later, while documenting the support group for a documentary film, “Sin by...

So, what else has been going on? Sadly, we seem to be in a period when a normal massive crisis with international implications just isn’t enough to get our attention. With missiles flying over Gaza, a civil war in Ukraine and the worst Ebola outbreak in history spreading through West Africa, a host of crises that would normally have been front-page news have received hardly any interest in the U.S. media. Here’s a look at what we’ve been missing. The Disintegration of Libya Libya’s already fragile post-Moammar Gadhafi political order has descended into chaos as rival militias have descended on...

Samuel Walker Sr. had been preparing for the funeral of his teenage son, Samuel Walker Jr., who was gunned down last Friday in East Garfield Park. Now his family must decide whether to hold a joint memorial instead. On Thursday, the elder Walker was shot to death in a Humboldt Park gangway — just two days before his 13-year-old son was to be laid to rest. Walker just had his hair cut, and was on his way to get a cigarette, when he came across his killer near Division and Keeler about 9 a.m., those close to him said. Authorities...

A circus parade and rally for nonviolence that drew hundreds of people to the Linwood Shopping Center on Tuesday evening had to be cut short when multiple fights broke out. Kansas City Police Chief Darryl Forté said the organizers stopped the event. He tweeted that the crowds dispersed and there were no reported injuries. But the fighting marred an event, called “Your Life Counts,” that was intended to celebrate survival in a city plagued by crime. Performers and animals from the UniverSoul Circus paraded north on Prospect Avenue from 39th Street to the rally. * Performers in bright costumes walked...

Army Spc. Angel Aguirre needed a washer and dryer. Money was tight, and neither Aguirre, 21, nor his wife had much credit history as they settled into life at Fort Carson in Colorado in 2010. That’s when he saw an ad for USA Discounters, guaranteeing loan approval for service members. In military newspapers and magazines, on the radio, and on TV, the Virginia-based company’s ads shout, “NO CREDIT? NEED CREDIT? NO PROBLEM!” The store was only a few miles from Fort Carson. “We ended up getting a computer, a TV, a ring, and a washer and dryer,” Aguirre said. “The...

LAWRENCEVILLE, Va. – It’s been five weeks since the meeting. The townspeople don’t need you to specify which meeting. There can only be one in which an outsider would be interested. The meeting during which the town of Lawrenceville in the county of Brunswick in the tobacco country of southern Virginia unequivocally rejected temporary housing for 500 Central American children seeking refuge. * In this largely African American community that prides itself on its hospitality, something was revealed that night: a full-throated, bared-teeth rage with which not everyone is comfortable or proud. “It made me think of the Civil Rights...

Senator John Walsh, Democrat of Montana, was appointed by Gov. Steve Bullock in February to fill the seat vacated by Max Baucus, a six-term senator who stepped down to become the United States ambassador to China. Relatively new to politics, Mr. Walsh, 53, was elected lieutenant governor in 2012 after more than three decades in the National Guard, which included a combat tour in Iraq in 2004 and 2005. He had already declared his candidacy for Mr. Baucus’s seat in November’s midterm elections when Mr. Bullock selected him in the hopes that raising his profile would enable the Democrats to...

CARLISLE, Pa. — The United States Army War College determined in a preliminary review on Thursday that Senator John Walsh of Montana appeared to have plagiarized his final paper to earn a master’s degree from the institution, and sent a letter to the senator instructing him that an investigative panel will meet next month to conclusively assess any culpability. “It’s clear there is indeed strong reason to believe this is plagiarism,” said the War College’s provost, Lance Betros, a retired brigadier general. “We are initiating academic review procedures.” Dr. Betros said he made the decision after he and another member...

In undercover tests of the new federal health insurance marketplace, government investigators have been able to procure health plans and federal subsidies for fake applicants with fictitious documents, according to findings that will be disclosed to lawmakers on Wednesday. The results of the inquiry by the Government Accountability Office are evidence of still-imperfect work by specialists intended to assist new insurance customers and government contractors hired to verify that coverage and subsidies are legitimate. The GAO also pointed to flaws that linger in the marketplace’s Web site, HealthCare.gov. According to testimony to be delivered before a House Ways and Means...

Mail is being delivered after 5 p.m. almost 70 percent of the time to residents and businesses in the District and the Maryland suburbs in violation of U.S. Postal Service policy, an investigation released Tuesday found. The number of letter carriers who are still on their routes after 5 p.m., even in the winter darkness, and the delayed delivery of letters and packages has grown so dramatically in recent years that the Capital District now ranks as the worst area in the country for late mail service, a report by Postal Service Inspector General David Williams concluded. Northern Virginia also...