Free Republic

The New York Police Department arrested 61 females after anti-Israel agitators stormed Columbia University's Butler Library on Wednesday as students were studying for finals. In total, the NYPD made 80 arrests – 19 males and 61 females, according to a source. A source also said at least 50 of the 80 protesters arrested were Columbia University students. Protesters renamed the Butler Library "Basel Al-Araj Popular University." Students at the Ivy League institution said protesters climbed on a desk and chanted "Free Palestine," and demanded that the university divest from Israel. At the entrance gate to Columbia University, a security guard...

The Obama Foundation touted progress on the construction of its presidential library Tuesday after President Trump mocked builders for being behind on developing the property. “We can’t wait to open our doors to the Obama Presidential Center next spring! In addition to a world-class museum, the 19.3-acre campus will feature a gymnasium, a fruit and vegetable garden, a branch of the Chicago Public Library, a playground, and so much more,” the Obama Foundation wrote in a post on the social media platform X. A separate post thanked all the workers for contributing to the project. The comments follow Trump’s Tuesday...

A Bronx librarian was forced to quit her job because she was traumatized by the unending parade of unhinged patrons — including one who flopped around on the floor naked, another who threatened to “cut off [her] f–king toes,” according to a lawsuit. Kelly Coffey said her New York Public Library horror story began after she started as a senior librarian in the young-adult sections of the Parkchester branch in November 2022. An agitated man came in, talking to himself and looking for his phone, according to Coffey and court papers. “He had his hands in his pockets” and suddenly...

Today, members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) gutted the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS). As of this afternoon, all staff members have been placed on administrative leave. They received a letter from the Director of Human Resources that the leave would be paid for 90 days and that no one will be allowed on IMLS property during that time... The union representing IMLS staff, AFGE Local 3403, indicated that the decision to fire staff came after a short meeting between DOGE and IMLS leadership. Everyone working at IMLS was required to return government property before exiting...

STANSTEAD, Quebec (AP) — For more than 100 years, people in Stanstead, Quebec have been able to walk into Derby Line, Vermont to enter the border-straddling Haskell Free Library and Opera House – no passport required. But municipal and library officials said on Friday that U.S. authorities have unilaterally decided to end the century-old unwritten agreement. Coming at a time of heightened tensions between the two countries, the decision is prompting an outpouring of emotion in communities on both sides of the border, which in places has been marked simply by flower pots. Inside the library celebrated as a symbol...

*Barack Obama’s efforts to raise money to compete construction on his $830 million presidential center are reportedly in jeopardy. According to The Daily Beast, costly delays and worrying setbacks are hindering what should be a lasting tribute to America’s first black president. So much so that its raised questions among center fundraisers about the M.I.A. status of some of the center’s heavy contributors. To some, Obama’s struggle to obtain funds is music to their ears, considering fundraising for the center dipped more than 50% to $129,320,227. in 2023. IRS filings also found that more than $311 million in funds were...

March 10 (UPI) -- An 81-year-old woman going through boxes of her mother's belongings made a surprising discovery: an overdue library book checked out by her grandfather 99 years earlier. "I thought, I don't have grandchildren, and my kids are getting older. Even if my son took it, I didn't know what they'd do with it," Cooper told CNN. "I figured it belongs to the library."

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has cancelled the lease for the Obama Presidential Library in Chicago, according to reports. DOGE included the library, which is currently in Chicago’s Hoffman Estates, in its extensive list of federal lease terminations. However, the library was already scheduled to closed and move to a new location, so the termination of the lease may not have any meaningful or major impacts. According to Fox News: The DOGE website did not provide a timetable for the closures, although a NARA spokesperson told Fox News Digital the Hoffman Estates library was scheduled to close in late...

President Trump on Friday celebrated the return of “boxes” taken from his Mar-a-Lago estate during the unprecedented August 2022 FBI search of the property. “The Department of Justice has just returned the boxes that Deranged Jack Smith made such a big deal about,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, referring to the former special counsel that brought federal criminal charges against him for allegedly stashing classified documents at his Palm Beach, Fla., residence after his presidency. “They are being brought down to Florida and will someday be part of the Trump Presidential Library,” Trump added. “Justice finally won out.” Smith’s classified...

Bolting billionaires. Ballooning budgets. A racial discrimination suit from a thwarted subcontractor. Who needs Jussie Smollett? The Obama Presidential Center (OPC) is turning out to be Chicago's greatest hoax. Sprouting up on the city's South Side in 2021 like an Egyptian funerary complex, the Taj Barack has already taken nearly twice as long to build as any presidential library in history. And at an estimated cost of $830 million, it's the most expensive... by hundreds of millions. That's enough to make King Tut's mummy blush, but it's pretty standard when it comes to the modern gods of the Democratic party....

Construction of former President Barack Obama's long-awaited library and museum in Chicago began with ambitious plans for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) but is now plagued by huge cost overruns, delays and a $40.75-million, racially charged lawsuit filed by a minority contractor. From the outset, the endeavor touted DEI as a key part of enshrining Obama's legacy at the 19.3-acre site, where costs have ballooned from an initial $350 million to $830 million in 2021 based on its previous annual reports, with no publicly available figures available for updated projected costs. The project set out "ambitious goals" for certain construction...

President Trump has vowed to crack down on the extreme left-wing agenda — but a woke stronghold lurks a stone’s throw away. The United States Senate Library — located in the basement of the Russell Senate office building in Washington D.C. — offers a slew of prominently displayed woke titles pumping everything from diversity equity and inclusion, far-left policy manifestos, polemics against Christians, and even deep dives into the long-discredited Russia probe. The taxpayer-funded library — its 21-person payroll expenditures exceed $1.9 million per year — maintains a collection of 45,000 books and serves a population of roughly 6,000, mostly...

The Louisiana Supreme Court has revived a lawsuit between a middle school librarian and furious parents who accused her of promoting pornography and 'erotic content' to children. Amanda Jones, the school librarian at Live Oak Middle School, sued the Citizens for a New Louisiana, its leader Michael Lunsford, and parent Ryan Thames for defamation in 2022. Her lawsuit, seen by DailyMail.com, claimed they publicly accused her of promoting porn and 'erotic contents' to minors by placing 'inappropriate' books in the 'kid's section' of her library. The controversial books involved in the argument include 'Dating and Sex: A Guide for the...

U.S. Archivist Colleen Shogan, whose National Archives and Records Administration operates Presidential libraries, talks about the library in an exclusive Sun-Times interview.By Lynn SweetUpdated Aug 25, 2023, 8:54pm CDTWASHINGTON — When Colleen Shogan, the new archivist of the United States, pulled up in front of the Obama Presidential Library in Hoffman Estates for the first time, “I thought it looked like a wedding center.”The gray brick exterior of 2500 Golf Rd. in the northwest suburb, once a Plunkett Furniture showroom and warehouse, has decorative front and side portico entrances. But there’s no grand architectural detail or even a sign to...

Outgoing President Joe Biden’s move of pardoning his corrupt son, Hunter Biden, is angering some Democrats who are threatening to withhold funding for his future presidential library. The president's decision to pardon his son, despite previously insisting he would not, has sparked mixed reactions—both from the public and within his own party. Some Democratic lawmakers are so angered by the move that they consider directing their "rage" at his library project.

Somebody called in a bomb threat to the Somerville MA central library on Highland Avenue shortly before 2 p.m - the scheduled start of a drag-queen story hour, which was then cancelled as police combed the building for a bomb that didn't exist. In addition to Somerville officers, the Cambridge bomb squad responded - and then left shortly after 3 p.m. after no bomb was found. The Somerville Fire Department was called in as a precaution and the building was cleared. Outside, chanting right-wingers, one carrying a large blue-stripe flag, were significantly outnumbered by story-hour supporters. Somerville City Council President...

I was vilified for criticizing the Dewey Decimal system. We librarians need to stop perpetuating its systemic racism in our libraries. Almost a decade ago, my colleagues and I wrote an article for SLJ entitled “Are Dewey’s Days Numbered?” in which we made the argument that the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system had lost its relevance. We took a bold stance, and the backlash was swift. Fellow librarians would wait outside the rooms I was speaking in at conferences, backing me into corners to demand that I stop talking about alternative systems.

Tompkins High School student Travis Thornton held up a copy of "Mein Kampf," the 1925 manifesto published by Adolf Hitler, saying it had been checked out of the school library. The book written by the former dictator of Germany and leader of the Nazi Party, who started World War II and oversaw the genocide of millions of Jews, is available to students in Katy ISD. As of Monday night, though, students like Thornton must get parental permission to access books that touch on gender identity – while elementary and junior high students in the district will not even be able...

On June 1, the first day of “pride” month, drag queens set a Guinness World Record for attendance when 263 people showed up in Philadelphia to hear one of their infamous story hours. On Aug. 24, one of the hundreds of Americans hosting wholesome story hours in nearly every state across the country hope to dwarf that record on See You at the Library Day.

ransomnote: I copied about 80% of the Justice.gov FOIA Library page (below). About 20% or less of the page is formatted in a way that I can't copy. Anything on the webpage which uses formatted graphics to look like a tab, menu or box did not copy. FOIA LibrarySubscribe for Email UpdatesOIP processes FOIA requests for records of the Office of the Attorney General, Office of the Deputy Attorney General, Office of the Associate Attorney General, Office of Legal Policy, Office of Legislative Affairs, Office Public Affairs, and Office of Information Policy.OIP posts records from these Offices in this FOIA...