Free Republic

ST. LOUIS • Former St. Louis police officer Jason Stockley was found not guilty Friday of murdering a man while on duty. St. Louis Circuit Judge Timothy Wilson's highly anticipated verdict found a white former St. Louis police officer not guilty of first-degree murder and amed criminal action in the December 2011 shooting death of a black drug suspect after a high-speed pursuit and crash. Activists, with support from some of the city's black clergy, had pledged disruptive protests ahead of St. Louis Circuit Judge Timothy Wilson's verdict.

ALBANY, NY (WAMC) - Come tomorrow, you'll need to dig a little deeper into your pocket to pay for a new vehicle registration or driver's license in New York State... Capital District Bureau Chief Dave Lucas reports. As of September first, state Department of Motor Vehicles registration fees will go up for passenger and commercial vehicles, trailers, taxis, buses, motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles and motorboats. The changes were called for in the state budget passed this year. Registration for passenger vehicles, will increase from $44 to $55. The cost of a driver's license or a renewal will rise by 25 percent...

“Is this going to be the first administration to be declared a failure within its first 100 days? It is beginning to look that way.” Rosslyn Smith Well, it’s becoming obvious he’s not really much of a manager, decider, legislation-craftsman, or supervisor. His vetting process is in shambles and key Treasury slots are still vacant. His Treasury Secretary is a classic under-performer and Obama encourages that tendency by talking about everything other than our immediate recovery needs. He lets Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid do the legislating — and they’ve come up with an embarrassing stimulus and an omnibus spending-bill...

Lockheed Martin overcharged the US government by $265 million on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter development programme, the company announced on 9 August. The company is now in the process of reimbursing the funds to the government, although it was not immediately clear if the funds will be returned to the JSF programme office for reinvestment or go elsewhere. “We are working with the government to determine the appropriate amount of interest” owed, according to a released company dossier. The government’s joint programme office did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment. The overbilling issue was discovered during a...

Call it "fee creep." We're paying fees for a lot of things that once were free. In the automotive, electronics, banking, telecommunications and other industries, services that once were provided as a courtesy are now raking in millions of dollars. For years, credit-card companies have been imposing an "over-limit fee" when customers exceed their credit lines. But other fees have the acrid tang of novelty. Some credit unions charge $15 for a copy of a disputed check. A few companies have actually penalized customers for paying bills early. Some banks these days charge customers who exchange rolled coins for paper...

My wife spent 40 minutes on the phone with a Sprint service rep the other day clearing up $70 worth of charges for calls we didn't make. We were charged for roaming and it took a lot of convincing that nothing was wrong with our phones, that we don't use the roaming feature, etc, before the representative finally removed the charges. Turns out that our local paper has a story that others had the same happen to them. And they had to go through the same ordeal to have the charges removed. Too bad that Sprint thinks so little of...

<p>The Defense Department is removing the Army Corps of Engineers from overseeing oil imports into Iraq, acting just weeks after Pentagon auditors said Halliburton — Vice President Dick Cheney's former firm — may have overcharged taxpayers under the Corps' supervision.</p>