Free Republic

The feud between Trump and liberal cities which encourage protests which seeking to defund the police escalated sharply on Wednesday, when the President ordered the federal government to begin the process of defunding New York City, Portland, Seattle and Washington, cities where officials allowed “lawless” protests and cut police budgets amid rising violent crime. In a five-page memo sent to federal agencies on Wednesday whose subject is “Reviewing Funding to State and Local Government Recipients of Federal Funds That Are Permitting Anarchy, Violence, and Destruction in American Cities” and signed by Trump, the president orders them to report to the...

In 2017, as part of efforts to crack down on uncontrolled illegal immigration, Trump’s Justice Department announced that it would withhold federal monies from so-called sanctuary cities and states that prevented Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from having access to illegal aliens within those “sanctuary” jurisdictions. Within the ambit of the Second Circuit appellate court, New York City, Connecticut, New York State, Washington, New Jersey, Virginia, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island raced to a Manhattan federal court claiming that it was unconstitutional. Although an activist lower court agreed, the Second Circuit has now reversed that ruling. When seven states and NYC...

Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, February 6, 2020 CRA/LA agreed to pay $3.1 million to resolve allegations that its predecessor violated the False Claims Act by knowingly failing to comply with federal accessibility laws when it financed and assisted in the development of affordable housing in the City of Los Angeles supported by federal funds, the Department of Justice announced.  CRA/LA is the successor of the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles, a local redevelopment agency that financed and assisted in the development of multifamily affordable housing using local tax...

Full title:Feds can’t withhold public safety grants for Oregon, city of Portland based on sanctuary law, judge rules A judge has barred the Trump administration from withholding public safety grants from the state and the city of Portland over Oregon’s sanctuary law that directs police not to help federal agents enforce immigration policies. U.S. District Judge Michael J. McShane also said the federal government can’t impose immigration-related conditions on the grant awards. McShane, who is seated in Eugene, issued his 44-page decision late Wednesday in a case brought in November by Gov. Kate Brown, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum and...

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Friday ruled in favor of the Trump administration's efforts to prioritize federal dollars for local policing to towns and cities that complied with certain immigration policies. The ruling, a split 2-1 decision, ruled that the Justice Department was within its rights to withhold Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grants from sanctuary cities and states over their refusal to work with federal immigration enforcement authorities and instead prioritize agencies that focused on unauthorized immigration and agreed to give Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) access to jail records and immigrants in custody. The city of Los...

The Justice Department said Wednesday it has begun distributing hundreds of millions of dollars in grant money that had been tied up in a major court battle over sanctuary cities. Byrne Justice Assistance Grants are used by localities and police departments across the nation to pay for equipment, training, personnel or other pressing needs. The Trump administration last year said it would condition the money on localities’ willingness to cooperate in holding illegal immigrants for pickup by federal deportation officers. Chicago sued, saying the conditions weren’t part of federal law.

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration's rules requiring so-called sanctuary cities to help enforce federal immigration laws in order to receive funding. U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced new rules governing DOJ law enforcement grants, The Chicago Tribune reports. The city of Chicago sued the Trump administration last month over the DOJ’s threat to withhold those grants from so-called sanctuary cities, which refuse to help federal authorities enforce immigration laws. Leinenweber said in his 41-page ruling that Chicago had shown...

Grant: Alcohol is 'integral component of bars and clubs'! The National Institutes of Health is spending over $400,000 studying whether gender norms of masculinity and femininity lead LGBTQ individuals to drink too much. Trying to find the "meanings of intoxication" of sexual and gender minorities is the central question of a study that was awarded in late July. The project will "examine the extent to which gendered norms shape risky drinking practices for sexual and gender minority (SGM) young adults," according to the grant for the study. The grant states that alcohol is an "integral component of bars and clubs."...

The Justice Department issued a new warning to sanctuary cities Tuesday, saying they must prove they fully cooperate with immigration agents in order to claim federal law enforcement grant money. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said jurisdictions that don’t allow federal agents into their prisons and jails, and that refuse to give at least 48 hours’ notice before releasing illegal immigrants, will lose money.

Court Rules Veteran Bob Rosebrock Not Guilty of Federal Crime for Displaying American Flags above Veterans Administration Fence Judicial Watch Sues the IRS to Preserve Its Emails Documents Reveal Early Security Concerns about Healthcare.gov Judicial Watch Sues for Records about Government Funding of George Soros’ Political Foundation Court Rules Veteran Bob Rosebrock Not Guilty of Federal Crime for Displaying American Flags above Veterans Administration Fence In a tremendous victory for Judicial Watch and our supporters, a U.S. District Court in California has declared 75-year-old veteran Robert Rosebrock not guilty of violating federal law for allegedly displaying two four-by-six inch...

When asked whether President Donald Trump would still cut off law enforcement funds to the city of Chicago because it’s a sanctuary city even though it could hamper police from fighting violent crime, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said sanctuary cities can’t have it both ways — refusing to cooperate with federal immigration officials and still expecting to get law enforcement grants to handle a situation they created. “You can’t be a sanctuary city and at the same time seem to pretend or express concern about law enforcement or ask for more money when probably a number of the...

Several towns, cities and counties around the nation are caving to President Trump's threat to pull funding, and abandoning their "sanctuary" pledges to shield illegal immigrants from federal authorities. Dayton, Ohio, dropped a policy that restricted the city’s cooperation with immigration officials pursuing illegal immigrants arrested for misdemeanors or felony property crimes, according to the Dayton Daily News. Police Chief Richard Biehl said federal authorities will no longer be impeded by the city when pursuing illegal immigrants being held by his department. Other communities that have dropped policies of shielding illegal immigrant suspects from Immigration and Customs Enforcement include Miami-Dade...

It is difficult not to cackle with irony at the possibility of President Trump -- he of the monosyllabic vocabulary, odd sentence structures, and Joe Six-pack mentality -- forcing Ivory Tower elitists to raise their sights above their current postmodern descent. Instead of fiddling while Berkeley burned, Trump quickly responded to the anarchy that prevented Milo Yiannopoulos from speaking after an invitation by the campus Republican Club. Upon witnessing scenes from the spectacle, which included thousands of protestors, numerous fires, smashed windows, and at least one vicious beating, the President tweeted: If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and...

Travis County could lose close to $2 million in state and federal funding due to a proposed policy change. Budget Director Travis Gatlin sent out a memo warning of a possible loss of grant money if the county doesn't fully cooperate with federal immigration holds.

Colleges and universities are forever feeling shortchanged by taxpayers. They needn't worry. For one thing, they are far richer than those of us who actually pay federal levies. For another, academia has succeeded in securing millions for what look like panel discussions at the Modern Language Association. "The National Institutes of Health has spent more on exercise programs for refugees, anti-tobacco video games, weight-loss programs for truckers, and studies on gay hook up apps than it has to fight the Zika virus," Elizabeth Harrington reported in the Washington Free Beacon on August 8, 2016. And a good chunk of that...

School boards have been vexing about their loss of authority over the schools they ostensibly govern. There is a solution to their problem, but it's not necessarily one they want to hear. "The public must be owners of the educational system and not simply the recipient of its services," Thomas J. Gentzel, the executive director of the National School Boards Association (NSBA) avers in the latest issue of the American School Board Journal (ASBJ). The ASBJ is published by the NSBA. "Without school boards and the leadership role they provide, education would be little more than just another public service,"...

Under President Obama, federal agencies are doling out tens of millions of dollars to one of the Democratic Party’s most essential constituencies: big labor. The grants range from safety training to union membership recruitment to whipping up support for the president’s signature program called Obamacare, a Washington Times review of federal contracting records shows. Last week, for example, the Department of Energy awarded a $900,000-plus grant for the development of a safety regimen for workers facing hazardous duties in energy and waste jobs. It didn’t go to a safety firm or training school but rather to a labor union: Akron...

Arutz Sheva was on hand to cover Kenneth Abramowitz, co-founder of NGN Capital and founder of a blog about the threats facing the West called SaveTheWest.com, as he addressed the Israel Day Concert in Central Park in New York on Sunday. According to Abramowitz, America's success is due to three things: its ability to grow an economy, to protect both a secular and religious culture, and to protect itself physically from external threats. However, he noted that the US has room to improve in all of these categories, remarking, "we could end anti-Semitism in two minutes." "Anti-Semitism should be illegal...

A member of Hawaii’s House of Representatives is criticizing an ambitious, federally funded sex education program currently in use in 12 of the state’s public schools. The pilot curriculum, called “Pono Choices,” targets 11- to 13-year-old students. (“Pono” is a Hawaiian word that basically means “good” or “moral.”) Its creators include the University of Hawaii and, of course, Planned Parenthood. Rep. Bob McDermott, a Hawaii Republican, claims that the curriculum is “not age appropriate and not consistent with state policy” for a slew of reasons, reports EAGnews.org. McDermott’s biggest complaint is that the curriculum is wrong on a pretty major...

The Labor Department’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs plans to award up to $1 million in taxpayer dollars to increase gender equality at work in Morocco. The purpose of the grant is “to help build the capacity of civil society organizations,including non-governmental organizations and trade unions,in the Kingdom of Morocco to address working women's issues and empower women to more fully exercise their labor rights.” “Projects awarded funding will be expected to work with local organizations to enhance service delivery to women on matters related to their labor rights and interests and to raise public awareness of women's labor rights,”...