Free Republic

A powerful congressional committee accused the University of California, Berkeley, of fostering “an environment of pervasive antisemitism” — which included an anti-Jewish “riot.” The Republican-led Committee on Education and the Workforce said Tuesday it was formally investigating the San Francisco Bay Area college as part of an escalating probe into antisemitism. And the committee chair, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), revealed she had “grave concerns” about Berkeley because of the “inadequacy” of its “response to antisemitism on its campus” even before the October 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israel ignited anti-Jewish demonstrations. The committee outlined a list of antisemitic incidents...

Brian Williams' claims probed by NBC's investigative unit Published February 06, 2015 FoxNews.com NBC News has assigned the head of its own investigative unit to look into statements made by anchor Brian Williams about his reporting in Iraq a dozen years ago. A source at the network who requested anonymity because the person is not authorized to speak on personnel matters confirmed the investigation on Friday. Williams has apologized for falsely saying on the air that he was in a helicopter hit by a rocket-propelled grenade while in Iraq in 2003. Richard Esposito, a former editor at the New York...

The Most Transparent Administration Evah has yet another example of doublespeak and opacity uncovered by the Associated Press. A lengthy investigation shows that the Department of Homeland Security investigated people making Freedom of Information Act requests for their politics, and delaying legally mandated disclosures based on political considerations. The demands for information included the party affiliation of those making the requests, a policy that came from the top: For at least a year, the Homeland Security Department detoured requests for federal records to senior political advisers for highly unusual scrutiny, probing for information about the requesters and delaying disclosures deemed...

Republicans are planning new attacks on a vulnerable Democratic front: earmarks senior Democrats, including Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), directed to clients of a now-defunct lobbying firm under FBI investigation. Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), a member of the Appropriations Committee, plans to offer an amendment that would freeze millions of dollars directed to PMA clients as earmarks in the 2009 omnibus spending bill. The money would be on hold until the FBI investigation into the lobbying firm is concluded and Congress and the public can determine whether any wrongdoing occurred, the lawmaker confirmed late last week. Kirk has railed against the...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A federal grand jury is investigating how a California firm that contributed to the political activities of New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, the nominee to head the Commerce Department, won a lucrative government contract. A person familiar with the proceedings told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the panel is looking into possible "pay-to-play" dealings between CDR Financial Products and someone in a position to push the contract through with the state of New Mexico. The person asked not to be named because the proceedings are secret.

The Sacramento County District Attorney's Office and California attorney general are investigating whether members of the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board broke conflict-of-interest laws in 2005 when they voted to offer their own chairwoman a job in San Diego. During a closed session on Halloween three years ago, the appeals board offered Cynthia K. Thornton a six-figure job as an unemployment insurance appeals administrative law judge, board minutes show. Three members of that board, including former Democratic Assemblywoman Virginia Strom-Martin, voted to give Thornton the judgeship in San Diego, where she now earns $109,000 hearing claims from workers who say they...

Barry Munitz , chief executive of the J. Paul Getty Trust, had a private lunch with his friend Attorney General Bill Lockyer as the state probed Munitz for allegedly mismanaging trust money, the Los Angeles Times reported. Lockyer, California's top law enforcement official, acknowledged that the January lunch at a downtown pizzeria might look bad, but said the two did not discuss the investigation. He said, however, Munitz did disclose plans to resign from his $1.5 million-a-year post because of the controversy surrounding his lavish spending. Munitz quit a month later and agreed to forgo more than $2 million guaranteed...

Blast Outside Georgia Courthouse Probed Saturday November 26, 2005 10:46 PM HINESVILLE, Ga. (AP) - An explosion erupted outside the Liberty County Courthouse early Saturday, and police were investigating the possibility that a crude explosive device had been set off. The blast, around 6 a.m., didn't cause any injuries, said Rich Marianos, an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Officials said parts and evidence recovered by authorities led them to believe the explosion may have been caused by a crude explosive device.

WASHINGTON - The prosecutor in the CIA leak probe repeatedly asked New York Times reporter Judith Miller how Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff handled classified information in their discussions, and asked whether Cheney knew of their conversations. In a first-person account released Saturday on The Times' Web site, Miller recounted her recent grand jury testimony, which focused on her conversations in 2003 with Cheney's closest aide, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Miller said she "didn't think" she heard covert CIA officer Valerie Plame's name from Libby. "I said I believed the information came from another source, whom I could...

CHICAGO (AP) - Federal prosecutors investigating corruption at a state pension fund have subpoenaed records concerning $4.5 million in fees a Washington-based investment firm is paying the new treasurer of the Republican National Committee, government sources confirmed Tuesday. The subpoena calls for documents related to the fund, the Carlyle Group and Robert Kjellander, said sources familiar with the investigation who spoke only on condition of anonymity, saying prosecutors want details of the probe kept secret. Kjellander, a lobbyist who headed President Bush's re-election campaign in three states, was named the RNC's treasurer over the weekend. Illinois Teachers Retirement System officials...

SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands Mar 29, 2005 — Researchers want to excavate an old Japanese jail where aviator Amelia Earhart and her navigator were rumored to have been detained before they vanished in 1937. The Historic Preservation Office of the Northern Mariana Islands has applied for a grant with the National Park Service to fund the excavation, hoping to solve the 67-year-old mystery of what became of Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan. The Northern Mariana Islands, about 3,800 miles southwest of Hawaii, were administered by Japan from 1914 to 1944 and are now a U.S. commonwealth. "In the past,...

Mrs Arafat's bank accounts probed Suha, who married the Palestinian leader in 1992, lives in Paris French prosecutors are looking into alleged multi-million dollar transfers into the bank accounts of the wife of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Officials have confirmed reports of an inquiry into the financial transactions of Paris-based Suha Arafat. They acted after the Bank of France alerted them to transfers of nine million euros ($11.5m) from Switzerland to two of Mrs Arafat's accounts.Prosecutors say the investigation is at a preliminary stage. It was launched by the Paris public prosecutor last October after the Bank of France reported...

FRESNO — All through the night, the howls kept coming from the cell of inmate Ronald Herrera. More than one guard at Corcoran State Prison thought something was terribly amiss. Herrera wouldn't stop screaming late Sunday, and he had covered his cell window in a curtain of toilet paper soaked in blood. One guard had seen Herrera, a dialysis patient suffering from hepatitis, pull out the medical shunt from his arm, corrections officials said. But when the guard later tried to check on the inmate, his sergeant told him not to bother, they said. "He's not dead," the sergeant was...

<p>CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Investigators of the Columbia accident are studying whether pockets of cold air caused foam on the external fuel tank to peel off and strike the space shuttle's left wing during takeoff.</p> <p>The phenomenon, called cryo-pumping, was found in foam on another external fuel tank that was dissected at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The tank was a little newer than the one on Columbia.</p>

<p>An unusual drama is unfolding in a San Mateo County courtroom where an outraged judge wants to know how an 8-month-old foster baby in the court's custody ended up dead during a visit to his biological parents at Christmas.</p> <p>Juvenile Court Judge Marta Diaz has used her broad judicial powers to open a no-holds-barred inquiry into circumstances surrounding the death of little Angelo Marinda of Daly City.</p>