Free Republic

A Pennsylvania city worker was accused Monday of staging a fake “hate crime” after she allegedly planted a noose at her own desk, according to police. Allentown City Hall employee LaTarsha Brown was charged with a pair of criminal counts after DNA pulled from the noose only belonged to her, authorities said — though one of her pals claims she’s innocent. Brown initially said she made the shocking discovery at her desk on Jan. 10 when she arrived for work — leading to an investigation and a community protest. Allentown City Councilwoman Ce-Ce Gerlach said at the time she was...

The City of Los Angeles is bracing for layoffs of thousands of municipal employees due to a budget crisis that is said to be “inevitable,” as the city is reeling from recent wildfires and still preparing to host the 2028 Summer Olympics. The Los Angeles Times reported: L.A.’s financial problems exploded into a full-blown crisis on Wednesday, with the city’s top budget official announcing that next year’s shortfall is now just shy of $1 billion, making layoffs “nearly inevitable.” City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo advised the City Council to focus on cost-cutting measures, including a potential reduction in the size...

Last September, the FBI released its national crime statistics for 2023. The numbers for New Mexico can be described only as catastrophic.New Mexico had the highest per capita rate for violent crime of any state at 7.8 incidents per thousand and the highest rate for any state for property crime at 29.84 per thousand. Violent crime includes the offenses of aggravated assault, homicide, rape, and robbery. Property crime includes arson, burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft.I wanted to do a deeper dive into the crime stats for New Mexico’s five largest cities and compare those stats to the national averages...

ROME — Jesuit Father James Martin has struck back at the “internet,” launching the disingenuous and counter-factual claim the Vatican “is not a walled city.” Father Martin, a gay rights activist, was responding to critics who have pointed out the obvious irony involved in Pope Francis’ harsh criticisms against U.S. immigration policy while the Vatican itself is the only walled sovereign territory in the world. The massive, 40-foot-high walls surrounding Vatican City State were built by Pope Leo IV, after Islamic Saracen troops sacked Old St. Peter’s Basilica in 846 AD. The original wall encompassed the entire Vatican hill, surrounding...

Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) went full Trump Derangement Syndrome this week, calling on Democrats to “shut down the city” in what she described as a “war” against the current administration. Speaking at a protest with several other members of Congress in Washington, DC, in opposition to Trump ally Elon Musk’s influence on the federal government, McIver screamed into the microphone with a full call to war. “We will not take this!” she exclaimed. “We will fight back! And goddammit, shut down the city!” “We are at war,” she continued. After lamenting Elon Musk’s access to the U.S. Treasury, McIver then...

Embattled Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass made her big play this week to rebuild Pacific Palisades in her own image. Needless to say, it won't be pretty. ... Bass announced that the city plans to hire "an outside consultant to handle a significant rebuilding contract for areas devastated by this month’s Palisades fire," ... Pacific Palisades residents were not so much as consulted on the decision. "Locals have had virtually no input into any of the decisions currently being made by city and state officials .. Most were only able to access their property for the first time on Monday,...

At least 75 fire trucks languished in a city repair facility in downtown Los Angeles as wildfires decimated Altadena, Pacific Palisades and Malibu, pictures taken by The Post show. The essential firefighting vehicles were still sitting in the Los Angeles Fire Department’s Bureau Of Supply and Maintenance lot in an industrial area Wednesday, waiting to be repaired. Controversy over the rows of idle trucks has intensified after revelations about the LAFD budget being cut by $17 million by Mayor Karen Bass. “We have over 100 fire apparatus out of service,” Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley admitted to CNN when...

Los Angeles City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson said in a Sunday interview that he’s excited for President-elect Trump to visit California. In an interview on MSNBC’s “The Sunday Show with Jonathan Capehart,” Harris-Dawson added that he hopes the visit comes before Trump’s Inauguration Day, on Jan. 20. “I’m ready for him. We’ll be excited to see him here, you know, to be in Pacific Palisades, here in the city of Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley, and Pasadena, Altadena,” Harris-Dawson said, when asked whether he wants Trump to visit the state. “We hope that he comes soon, before the 20th,”...

A pair of Chicago officials have joined together to urge City Hall to end its moratorium on cooperating with immigration officials to deport migrants accused or convicted of criminal offenses. Alderman Raymond Lopez of the 15th Ward and 23rd Ward Alderwoman Silvana Tabares, both Democrats, say they plan to introduce an amendment making changes in the city’s rules blocking the Chicago Police Department from aiding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when an immigrant is arrested by the CPD. The pair of officials want city hall to approve a policy of the CPD cooperation with federal officials if a migrant is...

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) reportedly awarded government workers with major wage increases before making cuts to the city’s fire department budget. “Mayor Karen Bass’s budget cuts to the city’s fire department, enacted just months ago amid warnings about the city’s deteriorating finances, stand out as a striking example of misplaced priorities,” The City Journal reported on Friday: The cuts stemmed from a budget crisis triggered by her administration’s decision to reward city employees with rich contracts and benefits—even as it dismissed worries that the reductions would hurt services. “Predictions that city services will be impossible to deliver,” deputy...

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass spent Tuesday in Africa as part of a taxpayer-funded delegation attending the inauguration of John Dramani Mahama as Ghana’s president. The Democrat was there as her city battled wildfires and thousands of residents fled for their lives. CNS News reports Shalanda D. Young, the director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, headed the delegation to Accra, Ghana’s capital. It also consisted of Virginia E. Palmer, the U.S. ambassador to Ghana, and Frances Z. Brown, special assistant to the president and the National Security Council’s senior director for African affairs alongside Bass.

The Golden City is losing its shine. Housing prices in San Francisco have plunged to pre-pandemic levels amid widespread layoffs in the tech sector, SFGATE reports. Despite still being one of the more expensive metropolitan areas in the US, prices for condominiums and co-ops in the city were down 14.7% from May 2022 and now average $986,000. Those prices have not been seen since 2015, according to Zillow data analyzed by Wolf Street. According to the outlet, condo prices doubled between 2012 and 2022, but have now declined by 30% in the past two years. The Millennium Tower, notorious for...

After 5 days of early voting in Maryland, an underwhelming 7% of registered voters in the City of Baltimore have cast an in-person early vote (this numbers excludes provisional and absentee ballots).

SALEM - Salem is the latest city in Massachusetts to test out a guaranteed income program that would give thousands of dollars directly to its poorest residents. The Uplift Salem initiative will give $500 a month to 100 Salem residents for an entire year. There's no restrictions on how recipients can spend the income. "We want Salem to be an affordable place for everyone, and a guaranteed income program offers an innovative approach to help achieve that goal," Salem Mayor Dominick Pangallo said in a statement.

Berkeley, Calif., once a bastion of liberal idealism, currently mirrors the lawlessness of the Wild West. Its streets resemble an open-air drug den, overrun by homeless encampments. Tents block streets and parking, making sidewalks impassable for pedestrians with disabilities. Human waste, syringes and hazardous materials spill directly on private property and in waterways, polluting them. Open-air fires in the middle of public thoroughfares offer scenes more reminiscent of the Great Depression than the prosperous, innovative community associated with the Berkeley name.

In this video, I am waking in downtown San Jose, California a large city in Silicon Valley, a major technology hub in California's Bay Area. But after the major layoffs in the tech industry, street conditions and changes in consumer habits downtown is desolated hardly anybody on the streets and most of the stores, restaurants, banks, coffee shops are closed . I have to warn you this video is very impressive to see what used to be a vibrant downtown , now abandoned

Homebuyers desperate for a deal might be curious to learn more about a tiny town in Arkansas where homes are selling for just over $400. In Pine Bluff, just 45 miles outside of Little Rock, a home was recently sold for $402.74 at a tax auction. The city found itself thrust into the spotlight when a documentary titled “The City Left Behind: $400 Abandoned Homes in Pine Bluff” got 1.6 million views in the past three weeks on YouTube. “There is a surplus of properties—cheap!—that are prime for restoration and redevelopment,” filmmaker Michael Schwarz told Realtor.com®. “But not enough people...

I know many folks don't like it when someone creates a thread using a Youtube video as the source, and doesn't give a synopsis about what it's about, but I wanted to post this one because I think it speaks to the times we now live in. Long and short, he says that when evil takes over, rural living is not much safer then living in the city and he lays out the reasons why. It's a good listen if you got the time. Share your thoughts. Thanks all.

(AP) — A Russian missile strike sparked a blaze in the Ukrainian city of Sumy Saturday, while Ukrainian forces continued to push into Russia’s Kursk border region. Two people were injured in the Sumy strike, which also damaged cars and nearby buildings, said Ukraine’s State Emergency Service. It said that the hit had involved an Iskander-K cruise missile and an aerial bomb. Ukraine’s air force also said it had shot down 14 Russian drones overnight, including over the Kyiv region.

Torrential rain turned streets into rivers, while one local river went from 5 to 17 feet in just a few hours, overflowing its banks.