Free Republic

A federal judge who used to authorize wiretaps in terrorist and espionage cases criticized President Bush's decision to order warrantless surveillance after the Sept. 11 attacks. Royce Lamberth, a district court judge in Washington, said Saturday it was proper for executive branch agencies to conduct such surveillance. "But what we have found in the history of our country is that you can't trust the executive," he said at the American Library Association's convention. "We have to understand you can fight the war (on terrorism) and lose everything if you have no civil liberties left when you get through fighting the...

Herenton Defends Selling Home to Administrative Assistant Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton is defending the sale of a home he owned on Barton to a city employee he gave a $20,000 raise to last year. In a story first reported Wednesday on Memphis Morning News on NewsRadio 600 WREC, Herenton says Tonia Jackson's family has been a friend of his for years and there was nothing inappropriate about the sale of the home for $75,000. Jackson got the raise from Herenton hiking her salary to $61,500. She bought the home from Herenton five months later. Jackson works in the Public Services...

The lone undercover agent in a sting that sent dozens of black people to prison on bogus drug charges was convicted Friday of one of two perjury counts. Tom Coleman was acquitted of testifying falsely in a 2003 hearing that as a sheriff's deputy he never stole gas from county pumps, but he was found guilty of saying that he didn't learn about the theft charge against him until August 1998. Jurors were to begin hearing evidence in the penalty phase of the trial later Friday. The perjury charge carries a maximum 10-year sentence and $10,000 fine. Coleman arrested 46...