Free Republic

The man who set the Pennsylvania Governor’s residence on fire on Sunday morning has been identified. Police arrested a suspect on Sunday. His name is Cody Balmer, he’s 38 years-old and he lives near the governor’s mansion. Balmer torched the governor’s residence during Passover. Shapiro is Jewish. Times Now reported: During a news conference, police confirmed that Balmer scaled fences, evaded state troopers, and ignited the fire. He was arrested in the Harrisburg area shortly after Governor Shapiro and his family were safely evacuated. Dauphin County District Attorney Francis Chardo stated that forthcoming charges will include attempted murder, terrorism, attempted...

The California Coastal Commission is set to empower local government to take thousands of properties through eminent domain along 1,100 miles of coastline to prepare for sea level rise. Despite California being battered by 4-8 inches of torrential rain and flooding from an El Niño weather cycle, E&E News reported that the State of California in late January will authorize eminent domain authority for local jurisdictions to implement a “managed retreat” policy that will allow taking and demolishing coastal homes and businesses. […] CCC retreat guidance is expected to also entail dismantling and relocating of dozens of wastewater treatment and...

DES MOINES - If nothing else, Donald Trump certainly didn't toe the company line or kowtow to the citizens of Pella, Iowa, while touting his support for eminent domain during his second campaign stop in the Hawkeye State on Saturday. With only eight days until voting, the Republican Party front-runner continued to back eminent domain before a crowd interspersed with locals from Pella and Oskaloosa as the two cities continue to push to build a regional airport next to Highway 163 using the practice. Twice, Trump called the practice a "positive thing" while talking up the necessity of its use....

Oklahoma resident Sue Kelso and her siblings have filed a motion in district court to block TransCanada’s plan to exercise eminent domain in order to build across their property. Ms. Kelso, 69, lives on a farm where she grew up near the Texas border in southern Oklahoma. “My objection is that a foreign company has no right to condemn our property, come in and take what they want, where it does not benefit us or our neighbours,” Ms. Kelso said in an interview Monday. “It only benefits them and their investors. It is for their gain – it is not...

(Washington-AP, Aug. 22, 2005 12:05 PM) _ The Supreme Court, given a chance to revisit a heavily criticized ruling, refused Monday to reconsider its decision giving local governments more power to seize people's homes for economic development. So contentious was the court's narrow 5-4 ruling in the so-called eminent domain case earlier this year that some critics launched a campaign to seize Justice David Souter's farmhouse in New Hampshire to build a luxury hotel. Others singled out Justice Stephen Breyer's vacation home in the same state for use as a park. Both Souter and Breyer voted on the prevailing side....

Zimbabwe's embattled President Robert Mugabe on Friday defended his country's seizure of white-owned farms for redistribution to blacks, a program widely blamed for his country's political and economic crises. In his address at the annual U.N. General Assembly meeting, Mugabe said the program "is yielding tangible benefits to the vast majority of our people." Under the program, white-controlled farms are being taken, often through violence, and redistributed to blacks. Mugabe has said the seizures, which began three years ago, are an effort to correct colonial-era injustices that gave about 4,000 whites about one-third of the country's productive land in a...

HARARE (Reuters) - The West piled pressure on Africa on Friday to condemn the re-election of President Robert Mugabe and join international isolation of Zimbabwe's leader. European Union officials said EU leaders at a summit in Barcelona would issue a tough statement on Zimbabwe's election, roundly condemned as blatant fraud by Zimbabwe's opposition, the United States, Europe and white Commonwealth members. Mugabe's defeated challenger, Morgan Tsvangirai, has denounced last weekend's vote as "daylight robbery," saying tens of thousands of his supporters were stopped from voting or cowed by systematic violence in which more than 100 people died. In a move...