Free Republic

A Queens-based developer who set his sights on the redevelopment of Harlem more than a decade ago has filed plans to bulldoze a historic church in the neighborhood after acquiring the property over the summer, records show.

The current owners of Marilyn Monroe’s former Los Angeles home, a wealthy real estate heiress and her reality TV producer husband, are suing the city for the right to demolish the abode where the star died. Brinah Milstein and Roy Bank filed the lawsuit Monday as an ongoing landmark designation process has stopped them from razing the iconic Brentwood residence, which they purchased for $8.35 million last summer, KCAL-TV reported. The couple, who live next door and bought the sprawling Spanish colonial as a tear-down so they could extend the size of their house, were initially granted a demolition permit...

NYCHA will announce on Wednesday a $1.5 billion plan to demolish and redevelop two massive and crumbling public housing complexes in Manhattan, City Hall confirmed. The sweeping redevelopment deal calls for the construction of more than 2,000 new public housing apartments at the Fulton Houses and Chelsea-Elliot Houses, enough for every resident currently residing at the existing buildings, officials said late Tuesday. “This is how you create new public housing for the next generation, this is what we need,” said Miguel Avecedo, president of the Fulton Houses Tenant Association. The new units would include amenities rarely seen in public housing,...

The midterm election doomsday scenario for Democrats is becoming clearer, scarier, and more real as inflation and gas prices remain stubbornly high and dissatisfaction with President Biden is through the roof. Democrats are seeing their chances of retaining the House slimmer than ever, with both history and the dreary political environment working against them. In the Senate, where the party had hoped strong swing state candidates could help save the majority, fears are also growing. It seems that wherever voters look, things are bad in Biden’s Washington - and getting worse. “Democrats haven’t done things they promised,” said Connor Farrell,...

BEIJING (Reuters) - Hundreds of ethnic Hui Muslims are staging a sit-in protest in China’s western region of Ningxia against government plans to demolish a huge new mosque, amid tightening curbs on Islam to pull its practice in line with the Chinese mainstream. China officially guarantees freedom of religion, but in recent years officials nervous about the possibility of radicalization and violence have tightened controls in heavily Muslim areas. The Weizhou grand mosque, with numerous domes and minarets in a Middle Eastern style, had not received proper permits before construction, officials in the town of Weizhou said in a notice...

The Texas church where more than two dozen people were killed by a gunman during Sunday services will be demolished, the pastor said. Pastor Frank Pomeroy told leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention earlier this week that it would be too painful to continue using First Baptist Church as a place of worship. A national Southern Baptist spokesman said Pomeroy discussed the plan with the denomination's top executives, who traveled to the rural community in a show of support.

What is a demoRAT? Pronounced: Demo-Rat Mykapidia definition is: A democrat that in Saul Alinsky style, targets their political opposition and uses ridicule to marginalize them intending to destroy anyone or anything that they can’t control. Also see: demolish, demo and Obama

Dozens of Palestinian Authority Arabs on Tuesday created a hole through the security barrier that runs between the Arab village of Abu Dis and Jerusalem. The Arabs said that IDF forces who were stationed nearby dispersed them using tear gas and stun grenades. A similar incident took place two months ago, when dozens of Arab men held a protest against the security barrier, taking large hammers and creating a gaping hole in the wall. Several men used the hole to enter Jerusalem without going through a security checkpoint. That protest was part of the “Nakba Day” events in which Arabs...

Protesters in New York faced off with police Tuesday after being kicked out of their tent camp in lower Manhattan in a huge operation that threw the two-month old Occupy Wall Street movement into crisis. All morning, several hundred protesters played cat and mouse with the authorities as they searched for a way to reestablish themselves in the wake of the nighttime raid. About two dozen people were arrested when one group of activists tried to occupy a small park apparently owned by a church. The crowd marched through the Financial District and eventually turned back to Zuccotti Park, their...

The government is preparing to free the murders of the Dickstein couple – and also may level their eldest son’s home in Beit El. The house is located in Ulpana neighborhood the community and is under threat of demolition. Yosef Yaakov Dickstein, 44, and his wife Hana, 42, and their son Shmuel, age 10, were murdered by Arab terrorists in the nearby community of Psagot, along with Sergeant Elazar Leibowitz, 21, of Hevron. Public Diplomacy Minister Yuli Edelstein, who voted with the majority of the Cabinet to approve release more than 1,000 terrorists for the return of kidnapped soldier Gilad...

The Texas National Guard is planning to demolish 31 vacant houses in Dallas next month as part of a program to rid neighborhoods of havens for drug activity. The Guard's counter-drug task force does it once a quarter in cities across the state. They've torn down over 1,200 structures since the program began in the early 1990s. "They not only are able to provide a service to the community, but at the same time they are able to train on the equipment which they are assigned to operate, giving them the opportunity to sharpen their skills," said Staff Sgt. Jason...

Six women were treated for cuts, bruising and shock after Robert Caton, 50, smashed a 1983 Rolls Royce Silver Spirit into the store and demolished two check outs. View Pictures...

Police and Israel Defense Forces troops on Wednesday demolished an illegal outpost near the northern West Bank settlement of Kochav Hashachar. At the site, Maoz Esther, security forces dismantled a synagogue which had been constructed there without permit. It was built in memory of Yonadav Chaim Hirschfeld, who was killed in the terror attack at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem in March. The synagogue, which was not a permanent structure, was dedicated during the intermediate days of the Passover holiday. On Tuesday, police and the Civil Administration demolished a swimming pool which had been built without permit at a...

Iran: Fund to 'demolish' Israel set up Iranian students set up fund dedicated to Israel's destruction. Encouraged by regime, students call fund 'symbolic move' in support of Palestinians A group of Iranian students announced Sunday at an event attended by a high-ranking member of the elite Revolutionary Guard that they were setting up a fund to destroy Israel. Although the initiative's name - "The Student Fund for Demolishing Israel" - brings to mind President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's call last year to destroy the Jewish state, an organizer said its goal was to support the cash-strapped Palestinian government. Some 300 students attended...

As the anticipated date for the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza approaches, more support is being heard among the Palestinians for having Israel demolish the houses in the settlements. Even Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) supports the move. Why? Why should the Palestinians mind getting the homes of the settlers as they are, and using them as they wish? Many Israelis, and chief among them the settlers, support demolition. They fear seeing pictures of the Palestinian victory celebrations in their Gush Katif homes. "The terrorists will dance on the roofs of our homes," wrote one of the settlers' publications....

Sudan Jails Episcopal Priest Near Khartoum A Sudanese court jailed an Episcopal priest “indefinitely” last month for refusing to demolish a church he had built himself 11 years ago on the outskirts of Khartoum North. In a verdict announced on April 7, the Rev. Samuel Dobai Amum was ordered to tear down St. Matthew’s Parish in Takamol and surrender the land on which it was built to the “rightful owner.” “Amum said he couldn’t destroy something he has devoted to his Father in the Highest,” the newspaper Khartoum Monitor reported on April 29. “If the law sees it just to...