Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump took unprecedented steps toward federalizing Washington, D.C. on Monday, saying it’s needed to fight crime even as city leaders pointed to data showing violence is down. He took command of the police department and deployed the National Guard under laws and Constitutional powers that give the federal government more sway over the nation’s capital than other cities. Its historically majority Black population wasn’t electing its own city council and mayor until 1973, when Republican President Richard Nixon signed the Home Rule Act. The measure still left significant power to the president and Congress, though...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal jury on Monday awarded $500,000 to the widow and estate of a police officer who killed himself nine days after he helped defend the U.S. Capitol from a mob of rioters, including a man who scuffled with the officer during the attack. The eight-member jury ordered that man, 69-year-old chiropractor David Walls-Kaufman, to pay $380,000 in punitive damages and $60,000 in compensatory damages to Erin Smith for assaulting her husband, Metropolitan Police Officer Jeffrey Smith, inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. They awarded an additional $60,000 to compensate Jeffrey Smith's estate for his pain...

The streetcar left much to be desired. The Democrat-run city of Washington, D.C., is derailing its $200 million boondoggle streetcar system only 10 years after the streetcars began to operate. Oh well, $200 million of our hard-earned taxpayer funds down the drain — on to the next expensive wasteful project! The costly D.C. streetcar system, only 2.2 miles long, is going into the trash heap 15 years after the track was first laid and only a decade into operations. The streetcars were justified originally as being more “environmentally friendly” — Dems love to shove in the climate hoax everywhere —...

As Beth Brelje recently reported in The Federalist, Five of the fifteen judges sitting on the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia were born outside the United States. All five of those foreign-born judges somehow managed to get selected to rule on controversial Trump cases. All five of those five judges had zero experience as a judge before being appointed to one of the most influential courts in the land. The recently infamous James Boasberg, chief judge of the D.C. District Court, is one of the 15 principal judges on that court. There are an additional 10 older,...

Judge Tanya Chutkan, an Obama appointee, ruled that Lee Zeldin cannot claw back the money currently being sheltered at Citibank for 8 different ‘green’ nonprofits. The $20 billion sitting at Citibank will not be restored to the 8 nonprofits yet. Judge Chutkan’s TRO temporarily stopped Lee Zeldin from reclaiming the funds. “When the court asked EPA to proffer evidence justifying its decision given the terms of the agreement, its only response was to refer to the termination letter, which gave no legal justification for the termination,” the judge wrote.

Concerned Washington, D.C. residents and small business owners have banded together to oust a Democratic councilmember during an ongoing crime surge, marking the second recall effort launch in the district in months. The recall effort against Councilmember Brianne Nadeau launched Tuesday over her relaxed criminal justice reform policies as the district grapples with skyrocketing crime in recent years, leaving some business owners in turmoil and many residents feeling unsafe. The announcement echoed a push to remove fellow Councilmember Charles Allen, which has attracted support from Democratic political fundraisers and congressional staffers who have helped raise over $56,000 for the campaign....

What is an insurrection? Merriam-Webster says it’s “an act or instance of revolting against civil authority or an established government.” That’s pretty good, but it requires knowing what “revolting” is (other than the major television networks’ current primetime lineups). Merriam-Webster is helpful here: a revolt is “a determined, armed uprising.” What does this mean in today’s context? For the past year, the Left has been united in a continuous drumbeat that conservative supporters of President Trump staged an "insurrection" at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. Did they? Now, we should remember that President Trump was indeed holding...

Federal authorities won't explain why three men who participated in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, have mysteriously disappeared from the FBI's Capitol Violence Most Wanted list. One unidentified man wore an earpiece during the riot and was filmed carrying what appeared to be a concealed handgun on his left hip. The man was pictured on the FBI's most wanted list for over five months until he was removed without explanation on the same day the New York Times reported an FBI informant was at the Capitol on Jan. 6. A second unidentified man was filmed beating police officers...

On Friday the Arizona Senate released their much anticipated Maricopa County forensic audit report. Following the public hearing, Michigan Attorney and Attorney General candidate Matthew DePerno tweeted out that he was told that Arizona attorney Cory Langhofer suppressed critical information from the audit report, including the statement that the election must be decertified.

Our cities are filled with extreme violence, and the blood of the innocent flows in our streets, and yet most Americans still seem to be in denial about what is happening. This isn’t just a momentary spike in violent crime that we are witnessing. The increase in violent crime that we experienced in 2020 was unprecedented, and things have been even worse in 2021. If you are not familiar with those numbers, here is a reminder… Police and public reported data details that from January through March of 2021, the homicide rate rose by 28% from the same period last...

The girls avoid harsh penalties The two teenage girls charged with carjacking and murdering an Uber Eats driver in Washington, D.C., last month have reportedly reached a plea deal with prosecutors ensuring they won't spend any time in a prison facility. What are the details? The two young girls — ages 13 and 15 — allegedly attacked 66-year-old Mohammad Anwar with a stun gun near Nationals Park last month, causing his car to flip. Anwar, who was ejected from the car during the crash, was reportedly a Pakistani immigrant and father of three who came to America in 2014 "to...

The new Judicial Watch blockbuster feature documentary, The District of Corruption, directed by Stephen K. Bannon, lays bare the lawless and unconstitutional Obama administration and makes the case for more openness, integrity, and honesty in government and leads the way for changing the climate of corruption that has gripped Washington, D.C. for far too long.

The recession pushed more people in the Washington area into living with relatives and friends, according to new census figures showing a sharp rise in families who have taken in adult children, siblings, parents and roommates. Almost 1.2 million of the region’s 6 million residents were living with extended family members and friends last year, a 33 percent rise over the past decade. Nationwide, according to recently released 2010 Census statistics, at least 54 million people are in a similar spot. “We haven’t seen anything like this since the Depression,” said Frances Goldscheider, a Brown University sociologist who has studied families...