Free Republic

Former head of Disney’s animation studios announced a sabbatical in November after reports of inappropriate workplace behavior John Lasseter will exit Disney on Dec. 31, the company announced Friday. The former chief creative officer overseeing Pixar and Disney Animation will assume an unspecified “consulting role” at Disney until his departure. Lasseter announced he was taking a sabbatical in November after the publication of a Hollywood Reporter story in which “former Pixar insiders” said he frequently made a habit of “grabbing, kissing, making comments about physical attributes” of women at the company. At the time, Lasseter said his leave of absence...

A private investigator has been unable to find the only eyewitness to the sudden death of media innovator and conservative activist Andrew Breitbart. The apparent disappearance of Christopher Lasseter, who says he saw Breitbart drop to the sidewalk in front of a restaurant, adds to the mystery surrounding Breitbart’s March 1 death. On the day the Los Angeles County coroner released Breitbart’s autopsy report, a photographic technician at the corner’s office died suddenly of suspicious causes. In addition, at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., just three weeks before Breitbart’s death – where he promised to unveil “damning”...

BAGHDAD - While U.S. politicians and generals in Washington debate the possibility of civil war in Iraq, U.S. officers here and troops who patrol Baghdad daily say it has already begun. U.S. soldiers in and around Baghdad interviewed in the past week cite a long list of evidence that the center of the nation is unraveling: Villages have been abandoned by Sunni and Shiite Muslims; Sunni insurgents have killed thousands of Shiites in bombings and assassinations; Shiite militia have tortured and killed hundreds, if not thousands, of Sunnis. And neighborhoods have become open battlegrounds at night. "There's one street that's...