Free Republic

If you’re interested in eye-popping, attention-grabbing animals, look no further than hybrids. While hybrid animals like this wolf-dog are a fascinating cross of two separate species, they also reveal a host of ethical problems. < . . . > To create this “bear-dog” hybrid—who didn’t actually have any bear DNA—Russian breeders allegedly used a Chow Chow and some other sort of long-nosed stray. As animal shelter volunteer Polina Kefer put it, “This dog is a ‘badly-made’ Chow Chow.” While the four-year-old pooch might’ve looked cool to some, mentally, he was a mess. < . . . > Unfortunately, all of...

Chinatown crime boss Raymond 'Shrimp Boy' Chow - the man at the heart of a federal corruption case that brought down former state Sen. Leland Yee and engulfed City Hall with allegations of 'pay to play' politics, took the center stage in U.S. District Court this week to deny the murder and racketeering charges against him. But anyone expecting his testimony to blow the roof of City Hall or cause Mayor Ed Lee further embarrassment would be sadly disappointed. The trial has largely boiled down to unpacking the nearly decade-old murder of businessman Allen Leung, and whether Chow - who...

Six defendants in the sweeping criminal prosecution of Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow, part of a public corruption and organized crime investigation that ensnared a once-prominent Democratic politician, pleaded guilty on Wednesday, prosecutors said.. In a San Francisco courtroom before U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, the defendants entered their pleas to some of the charges filed against them in an indictment that alleged gun-running, a rampant pay-for-play political culture, money laundering, drug trafficking and more. None of the six admitted to racketeering, a count for which former state Sen. Leland Yee, one of the many caught in the wide-ranging federal inquiry,...

San Francisco’s mayor was accused by the FBI of taking bribes in exchange for favors, attorneys for a defendant in an organized crime case centered on San Francisco’s Chinatown said Tuesday. In a court filing, Curtis Briggs, an attorney for Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow, cites as the source of the FBI’s allegation documents turned over to him by the government as part of the process of mounting a defense for his client. Briggs is seeking to dismiss the indictment against Chow on the grounds that the government is selectively prosecuting him while letting other people caught in its probe go....

**SNIP** The charges against most defendants, including Chow, remain the same as in a previous indictment, but the new document added two money laundering conspiracy counts against Yee and Jackson. All of the defendants are being re-arraigned on the revised 230-count indictment, known as the second superseding indictment, last week and this week. Chow, 54, of San Francisco, is accused of conspiring to racketeer, or to operate a continuing criminal enterprise that allegedly included selling drugs and stolen property and money laundering. He is also charged with conspiring to receive and transport stolen liquor, conspiring to traffic in stolen and...

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - Accused Chinatown gangster Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow has refused to sign on to a protective order that will allow defense attorneys to receive evidence from federal prosecutors, including audio recordings and video surveillance, from a five-year undercover investigation that led to his arrest, and the arrest of 26 others in March. Attorneys for the federal government on Thursday filed a motion to compel Chow to cooperate, noting that nearly all the other defendants have signed on, and only one other defendant has not signed because of a likely substitution of counsel in the near future. According...

Shocking enough are the allegations that a long-perceived unassuming state senator tried brokering an international arms deal with military-style rifles and rocket launchers, but Leland Yee may have narrowly escaped an even more ominous label: supporter of terrorism. Yee, whose arrest after an FBI undercover sting shook the California political world last week, would likely have been charged with aiding terrorists if not for a bureaucratic label missing from the militant Filipino group that he is accused of sourcing for an international arms deal, counterterrorism experts told this newspaper. His ties to the group, whose leader has said he personally...

(06-11) 14:24 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Friends, neighbors and a former fellow inmate of Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow took turns testifying Wednesday that the onetime Chinatown gang leader had turned his life around and should be released on bail while fighting money-laundering charges. Describing the witnesses as sincere but not fully informed, U.S. Magistrate Nathanael Cousins refused to release Chow from jail, where he has been kept since his arrest in April. While Chow has engaged in "community activities of a positive nature" since his release from federal prison in 2003 after serving time for racketeering, federal prosecutors presented evidence...

An undercover FBI agent gave campaign donations to an unnamed Bay Area politician during a yearslong undercover investigation into a Chinatown gang and alleged political corruption that culminated in the arrests of state Sen. Leland Yee and Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow earlier this year. This is according to the latest filing by the U.S. Attorney's Office in the federal case against the two men and about 20 others. Besides indicating that a politician other than Yee allegedly took money from undercover FBI agents in exchange for favors, the filing further lays out the relationship between former school board member and...

Many leftist politicians who want to strip Americans of their Second Amendment rights say their position is based on concern for the safety of citizens. Somehow, they contend, forcing law-abiding gun-owners to give up their weapons will result in street gangs following suit. According to a recently unsealed affidavit, however, one state senator in California allegedly wanted to curtail gun rights for everyone except violent gangsters. State Sen. Leland Yee, the court documents state, was the subject of an FBI raid that led to his arrest Wednesday along with 25 other individuals. Among those arrested was Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow,...

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - Suspended California state Sen. Leland Yee could face a jury as early as June for charges of political corruption and conspiracy to import guns. At a scheduling conference on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said Yee will be tried along with his political consultant Keith Jackson, who also faces drug and murder-for-hire charges. Breyer said those charges will be tried separately, but lawyers for the defendants, including Yee's lawyer James Lassart, were not satisfied. "The firearms charges are going to be extremely prejudicial. The government has acquired 50 to 70 different firearms that, undoubtedly to...

**SNIP** The San Francisco Democrat was a fairly high-profile member of the California Legislature, but not a flamboyant one or one who was the subject of gossip and rumor. And that’s probably why the news in March landed with such a bombshell, when the 66-year old former psychologist was arrested and charged with not only corruption, but also with allegedly participating in a scheme to smuggle illegal weapons into the United States. The irony was impossible to miss: gun trafficking charges against a Democrat who made a name for himself as a fierce advocate of gun control, a politician who...

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**SNIP** It was there that James Brosnahan, attorney for one of the defendants, former San Francisco school board President Keith Jackson, told his colleagues that Montana was among those the government was looking to shield from unfair scrutiny, multiple sources say. Brosnahan is one of the lawyers on the defense team who was negotiating terms of the protective order with federal prosecutors. "I have nothing to say affirmatively or negatively" about that, Brosnahan said when we contacted him about Montana. Just why the FBI would take an interest in a retired football great as part of a probe that netted...

California State Sen. Leland Yee and his campaign consultant Keith Jackson were arrested Wednesday alongside longtime criminal Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow during an FBI raid in San Francisco's Chinatown district that also netted several members of the Ghee Kung Tong gang. The Associated Press reported that the federal charges, which allege the California lawmaker accepted money and campaign donations in exchange for providing official favors and helping broker an arms deal, cast harsh light on Chinatown's tight-knit network of fraternal organizations and one of its most shadowy characters, Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow. Beneath the strings of red paper lanterns and...

The execution of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's uncle was more brutal than initially reported, according to a Beijing-controlled newspaper, which said the country's second-most-powerful figure was thrown into a cage filled with starving dogs and eaten alive. The Singaporean Straits Times cited a report from Wen Wei Po, a Beijing-control newspaper, that said Jang Song Thaek and five close associates were stripped and fed to 120 dogs that had not eaten for three days. The entire process, witnessed by 300 senior officials, lasted for about an hour, the report said. Fox News could not immediately verify the report.

The founder of the grassroots organization Dogs Against Romney called the Romney campaign “desperate” for dredging up the revelations that President Obama ate dog meat as a child in Indonesia. “It seems desperate for the Romney campaign to bring up something that happened to Obama when he was 10 years old, not preparing his own meals, in a country where eating dog meat probably isn’t all that unusual as if it compares in any way to Romney, as a 36-year old adult, in America, making the conscious decision to strap his family pet to the roof of a car for...

This place gets reviews that range from raves to scowls. I used to love this place in the early eighties. I used to get this plate of korean ribs asian bbq beef and bbq fish with rice for like $5 The loco moco was great too.I was just wondering if anybody else out there had eaten at this dive and what they thought of the place.Millions of military have been served.

Maybe a couple of years ago, I gave up on ever expecting any quality product from the big 3 pizza stores. Without exaggeration, I could get a much, much better product by simply picking up a frozen Tombstone pizza and baking it. (Pizza Inn is great though. They don't deliver here, but I gladly go and pick it up rather than order the crap the big 3 serves.) On to burgers. I used to love McDonalds and Burger King hamburgers. However, for some time, when I would eat them, they just didn't taste right. Especially McDonalds -- It's like I...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE GARDEZ, Afghanistan, March 2, 2009 – I’ve eaten more lobster since I arrived here than I have in the past decade in the states. Army Spc. Kiana Mealey serves up lobster tails and crab legs at an Army-run dining facility nicknamed “Olive Gardez,” Feb. 21, 2009, at Forward Operating Base Gardez, Afghanistan. DoD photo by Fred W. Baker III  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Don’t tell my wife. She thinks I’m suffering. One of the few Army-run chow halls I have come across in my travels is located here. The base was too small when...