Free Republic

**SNIP** Thanks to the pandemic, this hearing, before a three-judge federal appeals court panel, took place in part via telephone. It was recorded, which means you can still listen in, on the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit website. If you do, you’ll catch University of Chicago (and NYU) law professor Richard Epstein asking for a reversal of last year’s decision by District Court judge John Robert Blakey to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the activist group Protect Our Parks that sought to keep the Obama Presidential Center out of Jackson Park. And you’ll hear city attorney Benna Ruth...

Californian independent contractors and freelancers got quite a shock Thursday evening when a state senator compared lost jobs to “lollipops.” Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson represents the 19th District in western Ventura County and Santa Barbara County. In a Senate Labor, Public Employment and Retirement meeting officials heard arguments for and against pushing forward SB 806 and SB990. The bills — put forth by Republican senators John Moorlach (R-Costa Mesa) and Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield) — aimed to immediately suspend and amend the disastrous AB5 legislation that killed independent contracting/freelance jobs across the state. Moorlach and Grove have been two politicians at the...

JACKSON-The Jackson Township Mayor and Council on Tuesday passed a resolution supporting a bill that is currently going through the legislative process in Trenton that will turn being outside in public during Governor Phil Murphy’s quarantine from a misdemeanor penalty to one that could cost you as much as $10,000. That law states, “A person who willfully or knowingly violates any provision…declared by the Governor a penalty of not less than $5,000 and not more than $10,000.” Currently, violations of Murphy’s Law constitutes a disorderly persons offense carrying a potential sentence of up to six months in jail and a...

These days everybody seems to be talking about the Netflix documentary series ‘Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness’ and the eccentric character known as ‘Joe Exotic’. The series focuses on the little-known but deeply interconnected society of big cat conservationists and collectors in America, exploring the private zoos and sanctuaries they’ve set up for these unusual and deadly pets. Long before anyone ever heard of Mr. Exotic though, there was a real life Tiger Lady raising 450 pound Bengal tigers and terrifying local resident in the suburbs of Jackson, NJ During a New Jersey winter, wildlife sightings are not uncommon....

Civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson has endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) for president, the campaign announced Sunday. "A people far behind cannot catch up choosing the most moderate path," Jackson said in a statement. "The most progressive social and economic path gives us the best chance to catch up and Senator Bernie Sanders represents the most progressive path. That's why I choose to endorse him today." Jackson said Vice President Joe Biden's campaign had not reached out or asked for his endorsement. Jackson said the Vermont progressive answered the concerns of the black community in his support of voting...

JACKSON TOWNSHIP-An advertising blitz against Jackson Township elected officials and Ocean County GOP Chairman Frank “Frankie” Holman, III set mobile phones buzzing Wednesday night around 6:30 pm. Estimates report that between 30,000 to 40,000 people from Monmouth County down to Central Ocean County received the messages. “See Jackson Township’s targeted harassment of Orthodox Jews in our video hitting cable tv tomorrow,” the text read. “Please join our effort.” The text directed residents to visit a website, FamiliesForJacksonJustice.com. Upon arrival at the website, a YouTube video pops up with a one minute political commercial entitled, “Hate Stops Here”. The video details...

by Sheri Urban On Tuesday Roger Stone and his lawyers appeared in court to request a new trial after it was revealed the lead juror was biased and posted tweets attacking Trump and Roger Stone. Stone’s lawyers asked for a new trial after it was revealed jury forewoman Tomeka Hart lied to the Court during her testimony when she claimed she didn’t really know who Roger Stone was. During the proceedings today demon Judge Amy Berman Jackson complained about critical media reports on her outrageous conduct in the courtroom -- singling out popular FoxNews conservative Tucker Carlson for criticism....

Tonight's tucker Carlson commentary. Judge verbally attacks Tucker. How is this woman still a Judge?

A key juror from Roger Stone’s trial was questioned in court on Tuesday over allegations that she prejudiced the jury that convicted the longtime GOP political operative, with the juror also facing public attacks from President Trump on Twitter. In a lengthy hearing in a court in Washington, D.C., Judge Amy Berman Jackson brought in the juror, Tomeka Hart, to answer to accusations that she provided misleading answers about her political bias — a claim that Stone says justifies a new trial. Hart said she stood by the answers she gave during jury selection, in which she said she could...

Judge Army Berman Jackson, who presided over the case of former Trump adviser Roger Stone, denied Stone’s request that she be removed from deciding whether he can have a new trial, writing Sunday that his motion seemed to be "nothing more than an attempt to use the court’s docket to disseminate a statement for public consumption that has the words 'judge' and 'biased' in it." Stone was sentenced to over three years in prison last Thursday following his conviction in November on charges of lying to Congress and intimidating a witness in connection with the Trump-Russia probe. Stone’s defense team...

A bill to scrap Lee-Jackson Day as a holiday in Virginia has now passed both the House and Senate. Lee-Jackson Day, established over 100 years ago, is observed annually on the Friday preceding the third Monday in January. It honors Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, both native Virginians. Critics of the Lee-Jackson holiday view it as a celebration of the state's slave-holding history that’s offensive to African Americans. Many cities and counties have opted not to observe it. The bill passed the Senate last month with a vote of 22-18. The bill then passed the House...

An operation to kill mountain goats that have invaded Grand Teton National Park and threaten the existence of the park’s struggling Bighorn Sheep herd is beginning Sunday, officials said.

JACKSON-Days after Ken Bressi, a decorated Marine Corps Vietnam War combat veteran testified in a federal civil rights court case against the Township of Jackson, Council President Barry Calogero stripped Bressi of all of his authority in the township government. Calogero, who is a federal employee and the Executive Director of the USDA’s Farm Service Agency for New Jersey took revenge on Bressi at the township’s annual reorganization meeting by stripping him of all but one of his functions as an elected official in the Township of Jackson. Bressi, in sworn testimony to lawyers in a Jewish civil rights lawsuit...

Initially, Obama Foundation officials ambitiously predicted they would break ground on the construction in 2018 and said they expected the center to open in 2021. Then they had to push that timeline back. Most recently, the foundation has hesitated to publicly release an updated timeline.

In a recent post-election post-mortem in the Jackson Free Press, editor Donna Ladd advances ideas about why Democrats lost almost all power in the Mississippi state government. One of her thoughts has to do with cowardice in the Mississippi Democratic Party, in the way that white men who control the party have been too timid to advance progressive values, or even uphold a plank in the national party platform for the bodily autonomy of women.

The decision to locate the Obama Presidential Center in historic Jackson Park has received strong backing from the Chicago establishment. No surprise. Former Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the City Council expressly, and unconstitutionally, delegated their authority over public lands to the Obama Foundation and the former president. Along with associated structures, they plan to build a 235-foot-high white obelisk that would arguably resemble a stake through the landscaped heart of a Frederick Law Olmsted masterpiece. And disregarding her applicable fiduciary duties, Mayor Lori Lightfoot appears poised to acquiesce. But the project is not a fait accompli. To build the discordant...

In what one community leader called a “breakthrough,” the city’s law department will meet with aldermanic sponsors of a community benefits agreement for the area around the proposed Obama Presidential Center in order to iron out legal issues with their proposed ordinance. The city’s housing department agreed to facilitate the process at a meeting of community stakeholders Tuesday after members of the Obama CBA Coalition held a prayer vigil outside the meeting, said Alex Goldenberg, executive director of Southside Together Organizing for Power and a coalition leader. Goldenberg said he hopes legal guidance on the ordinance from city attorneys will...

Why, in the words of a Sun-Times editorial, is it “hard to buy” the Trump administration rationale of “underused” to justify allowing businesses in the national parks when columnist Mary Mitchell has characterized Chicago’s Jackson Park as “underused” to justify construction there? Why object to the Trump administration’s commercialization of the national parks but support the construction of the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park, turning it into a tourist attraction? Why acquiesce to the Obama Center’s entrance and parking fees? Plenty of ordinary people can’t afford it.

(full article title: 'Michelle Obama: Barack could build presidential library anywhere because 'so many people' feel 'like he is their president') Former first lady Michelle Obama suggested that former President Barack Obama could build his presidential library anywhere around the world because people in foreign countries feel like he is their president. Michelle Obama explained at Tuesday's Obama Foundation Summit at the Illinois Institute of Technology that Chicago's Jackson Park was selected as the location for the Obama Presidential Center because it is close to the couple's old home and near her childhood home. “There’s power in the selection of...

Former First Lady Michelle Obama stood in defense of the proposed Obama Presidential Center site in Jackson Park as an intentional, strategic, powerful decision. “Barack’s presidential library could have been anywhere in the world, because there’s so many people who feel like he is their president all over the world, alright?" she said at today's Obama Summit. "New York wanted it, Hawaii wants it, because it’s also an economic engine. It will be a visited presidential library, because it’s going to be alive. It’s a first. We had to think, where do we put this resource?” she said. “Well, what...