Free Republic

Our prayers this morning are with Sue Krentz (widow of rancher Robert Krentz) who was hit by a drunk driver while leaving church last night. Her husband was murdered in March by an illegal alien on his border ranch - a major impetus for SB1070's passage. Mrs. Krentz' friend was also injured. Authorities have not released the extent of their injuries.UPDATE: It was a hit-and-run DUI. The suspect, Ramon Saucedo, 66, was arrested after fleeing the scene.UPDATE: The Krentz Family has notified Stand With Arizona that "Susan is in critical but stable condition at UMC (Tucson). She had lots of...

(CNSNews.com) - Zachari Klawonn, a Muslim U.S. Army specialist stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, told the Arabic-language television network Al Jazeera in a recent interview that training he had undergone in the U.S. military was “propaganda against Islam.” Fort Hood is the Army installation where Maj. Nidal Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, executed a terrorist attack last November. Hasan has since been charged with murdering 13 people and attempting to murder 32 others. Al Jazeera is based in Qatar. U.S. Army Specialist Klawonn told Al Jazeera he was subject to disrespectful comments and harassment of his property from fellow soldiers and...

A Harris County jail inmate awaiting trial on a murder charge allegedly beat a young illegal immigrant accused of robbing and fatally shooting a 14-year-old girl in the back as she was walking home on Aug. 6. Melvin Alvarado, 22, one of two men charged with capital murder in the death of Shatavia Anderson, was beaten Thursday evening, sustaining serious enough injuries to be hospitalized and receive stitches, said Alan Bernstein, of the Harris County Sheriff's Office. Accused in Alvarado's beating is Robert Williams, 38, Bernstein said. A volunteer inmate crew at the county's jail on San Jacinto entered Alvarado's...

U. S. District Judge James Zagel has started reading the 93 legal instructions the jury will use to decide the case against former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his brother, Robert.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in an interview with a TV station in Ecuador that the Obama administration "will be bringing" suit against Arizona for its immigration law, though the Justice Department for weeks has said that the issue is under review. In a clip of the interview posted on a conservative blog, Clinton was asked how the Obama administration was handling the debate over the law. "President Obama has spoken out against the law because he thinks that the federal government should be determining immigration policy. And the Justice Department, under his direction, will be bringing a lawsuit...

When Barack Obama’s two faculty mentors at Harvard Law got in trouble for plagiarism, they were rescued by Dean Elena Kagan. In 1989, Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe hired first-year Harvard law student Barack Obama as his research assistant.  After Obama was elected president, Tribe would gush, "His stunning combination of analytical brilliance and personal charisma, openness and maturity, vision and pragmatism, was unmistakable from my very first encounter." Obama had one other prominent mentor among the Harvard faculty, Professor Charles Ogletree, an African American.  In the run-up to the election, Ogletree would enthuse, "I'm so excited about this candidacy...

Federal judge in Chicago acts after being flooded with emails prompted by the author-infomercial king. Kevin Trudeau, the slick, silver-tongued infomercial king and best-selling author amassed a fortune over years of persistent, late-night hawking. This week, he made the wrong sales pitch. Kevin Trudeau has been ordered to appear before a federal judge in Chicago this afternoon after flooding U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman with e-mails. CASE AGAINST HIM What led the late-night miracle-cure hawker to criminal contempt charges in Chicago: * Kevin Trudeau's Shop America USA as well as Natural Cures Inc. are in Elk Grove Village. * Trudeau...

Fannie / Freddie - What Does Treasury Know? by: Karl DenningerDecember 25, 2009 On Christmas Eve one would think you could have a nice evening with your family. Little did I know what Timmy Geithner had up his sleeve: The two companies, the largest sources of mortgage financing in the U.S., are currently under government conservatorship and have caps of $200 billion each on backstop capital from the Treasury. Under the new agreement announced today, these limits can rise as needed to cover net worth losses through 2012. I see. But I thought housing was getting better? That's what I...

EAST PALO ALTO -- Alberto Alvarez should be put to death for murdering an East Palo Alto police officer nearly four years ago, a San Mateo County jury decided Tuesday. The same jury of six men and six women convicted Alvarez, 26, last month of first-degree murder with the special circumstance of murdering a police officer. On Tuesday, the jury chose death for the East Palo Alto resident rather than life in prison without parole. A judge will officially sentence Alvarez on Feb. 2. "It was the verdict we were seeking because of the aggravating factors in the case -...

On Wednesday, police in Slidell, LA, arrested an illegal alien for slashing the throat of his 84-year-old neighbor with a razor blade. The attack left an 8-inch gash in the woman’s throat, her assailant stole about $65 in cash. The octogenarian victim survived the attack and later identified the man who did odd jobs for her, Ricardo Tenorio-Palma, 20, as the man who tried to kill her. Slidell Police Capt. Kevin Swann said: "It wasn't like he demanded money; he stabbed her first. He slashed her first, before he robbed her. He intended to kill her,” Police allege that on...

SALEM, Ore. (AP) - An illegal immigrant who drove away after hitting a toddler in a Salem parking lot has been sentenced to one year and five months in prison. Juan Lopez-Perez pleaded guilty Thursday morning to failing to perform the duties of a driver in a crash. Defense attorney Steven Walls said his client left the scene Nov. 24 because a crowd was gathering, he feared for his safety and he was in the country illegally. Before his conviction, the district attorney’s office said Lopez-Perez told witnesses he knew he’d struck and killed a child and that he tried...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Police in Charlotte said 13 Salvation Army donation kettles were stolen at gunpoint late Friday night. Police said two armed men covering their faces entered the business at 4300 Stuart Andrew Blvd. just after 10 p.m. Two employees were held at gunpoint while the property was taken, police said. Jim Price, of the Salvation Army, said the kettles held an estimated total of $4,000.

"The senseless and savage execution of police officers in Washington State has saddened the nation, and early reports indicate that a person of interest is a repeat offender who once lived in Arkansas and was wanted on outstanding warrants here and Washington State. The murder of any individual is profound tragedy, but the murder of a police officer is the worst of all murders in that it is an assault on every citizen and the laws we live within. Should he be found to be responsible for this horrible tragedy, it will be the result of a series of failures...

When Chrissy and Benny Pinckard woke one morning in March on their small farm in Alabama to find two prized bulls stolen they were distraught. They were also a statistic. Cattle ranching is a multibillion-dollar industry in the United States and cattle theft is a small but growing problem as a recession bites and thieves realize that stealing cows is a relatively easy way to raise a quick buck. Stolen cattle are often loaded onto trailers and taken straight from their farm or ranch to auction at a stockyard, according to detectives involved in tracking thefts.

LOS ANGELES – A Beverly Hills hedge fund manager was arrested Friday on a charge he bilked investors out of $44.3 million, including $5 million he lost playing poker, the U.S. attorney's office said. Bradley L. Ruderman, 46, surrendered to FBI agents after being named in a wire fraud complaint. He was later released on $500,000 bond. The government alleges he spent at least $8.7 million of investor money on personal expenses including a summer rental of a Malibu beach home and two Porsches. He admitted in an FBI interview that he lost $5.2 million of investor money in poker...

About $12 billion was pulled out of accounts at Bernard L. Madoff’s firm in 2008, according to several people briefed on an analysis of Mr. Madoff’s business records. About $6 billion, or half, was taken out in just the three months before the financier was arrested in December and charged with operating an extensive Ponzi scheme, these people said. Those figures offer a bit of hope for Mr. Madoff’s thousands of defrauded customers. Under federal law, the trustee overseeing the Madoff bankruptcy can sue to retrieve that money from the investors who withdrew it.

BY MOST people’s standards Barack Obama has had an excellent week. He enjoyed a counter-Carter moment when navy commandos rescued an American hostage, leaving three kidnappers dead. He gave a measured speech on the economy. And, to cap it all, he gave his daughters a Portuguese water dog named “Bo”. What’s not to like? Plenty, according to some people. Mr Obama may be widely admired both at home and abroad. But there are millions of Americans who do not like the cut of his jib—and a few whose dislike boils over into white-hot hatred. The American Spectator, which came of...

Numb. At some point, that's about how one feels, isn't it? Didn't rogue nuclear power North Korea, in violation of yet another United Nations resolution, test-fire a long-range missile? Didn't this occur while President Barack Obama delivered a speech on nuclear disarmament? Isn't North Korea the same country that helped Syria build a nuclear reactor, showing North Korea's clear intention to sell and export its nuclear technology? And in response, didn't the President call for the United Nations Security Council -- the one that provides Russia and China with a veto -- to … take action?! Did the traditional media,...

Two Morris County men were so proud of pulling off a UFO hoax that they chronicled it in an online magazine. But the Morris County prosecutor regarded the stunt as a threat to aviation and tonight said he was filing disorderly person charges against Chris Russo, 29, and Joe Rudy, 28. "If there is a single word to describe this ... it is in essence 'stupidity'," Prosecutor Robert Bianchi said at a press conference in Morristown. Bianchi said although there were indictable offenses with which he could have charged the men, he wanted to take a "measured approach" toward the...