Free Republic

At least 22 farm animals were discovered in the rented home of a self-proclaimed Santeria doctor from New Jersey, whose landlord suspects he’s conducting animal sacrifices — but says she can’t evict him because of the COVID-19 eviction moratorium. Resident Emilio Otero, who identified himself to NBC 4, allegedly kept goats, chickens and even nailed a dead pigeon to the door of the three-bedroom Jersey City rowhome.

As Chairman of the Otero County Board of Commissioners my heart is heavily burdened for my constituents as they struggle with the crisis on our nearby southern border. It is no accident that New Mexico is now the most dangerous state in the country for both property and violent crimes. Our border crisis has two related elements: narcotics and human impacts. They are two sharp edges of the same sword. The human impact edge. New Mexico ranks last, or nearly last, in every measurement of life quality and we lead in every negative statistical category, including child hunger. Both drive...

The 87-year-old fugitive knew it was over when the detective leaned out of his car window and yelled "Maria." With that, Maria Josefa Otero, who was found guilty but never sentenced for killing a 13-year-old boy, was finally caught in front of her Miami apartment after giving authorities the slip three decades ago. "How did you find me?" she said to police. "Nobody knows about me." But Otero's case was not forgotten. Found guilty of second-degree murder in 1976, she fled to Guatemala, several other countries and Puerto Rico. She came back about 15 years ago, living most of those...

GLENDALE, Calif. - A federal judge struck down a city law that bars day laborers from soliciting work at curbsides, an advocacy group said Tuesday. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund sued the city last year on behalf of a group of laborers on claims that the ban violated their constitutional rights. U.S. District Judge S. James Otero agreed, ruling Monday that the ban currently against solicitation from streets and curbs could be misinterpreted as also a ban from sidewalks. "The vagueness of the ordinance is likely to chill permissible speech," he wrote in an 11-page judgment. Glendale...

HAVANA -- A former political prisoner whose case was highlighted by President Bush urged Cuba's government Friday to hold a referendum on whether to change the communist island's political system. In a 10-page report called "The Cuba We Want," Leonardo Bruzon Avila and fellow dissident Carlos Rios Otero called for the referendum and laid out a plan for Cuba's transition to a multiparty, democratic system and free-market economy. The report was delivered Friday to the offices of Cuban Justice Minister Roberto Diaz Sotolongo. There was no public reaction by the President Fidel Castro's government to the recommendations. The proposal echoed...