Free Republic

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the Albuquerque Police Department, Chief of Police Harold Medina, and former APD officers under federal investigation involving APD's DWI unit on behalf of alleged victim Carlos Smith. The ACLU is also suing DWI defense attorney Thomas Clear and his paralegal, Ricardo "Rick" Mendez. Smith claims he was victimized by the APD's DWI Unit's "extortion" scheme. KOAT spoke with Smith's attorney on why he is seeking justice. KOAT reached out to APD regarding the lawsuit. The 17-page suit filed in Second Judicial District Court also alleges former APD officers, including officer...

U.S. prosecutors have abandoned their case against Angelo Mozilo, the over-tanned character at the center of the risky subprime mortgages that fueled the financial crisis, after a two-year quest to bring a civil suit against him. As Bloomberg reports, The Justice Department has decided not to sue Mozilo, according to people familiar with the matter, ending a decade-long hunt for someone, anyone to jail over what happened.

Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.), a onetime rising star who came to Congress 20 years ago as a next-generation reformer, was charged Wednesday with racketeering related to an off-books $1 million loan to his unsuccessful campaign for Philadelphia mayor in 2007. The Justice Department charged Fattah, a senior member of the powerful Appropriations Committee, and four supporters with 29 counts that included bribery, bank fraud and other corruption charges. “The public expects their elected officials to act with honesty and integrity,” said U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. “By misusing campaign funds, misappropriating government funds, accepting...

For Wall Street Occupiers or other decriers of the “social injustice” of college tuition, here’s a curveball bound to scramble your worldview: a totally free college education regardless of your academic performance or background. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) will announce on Monday that they intend to launch an online learning initiative called M.I.T.x,which will offer the online teaching of M.I.T. courses free of charge to anyone in the world.

It's no secret higher-education costs have risen three times faster than inflation in the last 30 years. For perspective, President Obama proposes to nationalize one-sixth of the economy to address "skyrocketing health-care costs," which have gone up only twice as fast as inflation in 30 years. But even as more middle-class American families are priced out every year, ivory-tower school officials maintain a bachelor's degree is still a good investment — a bargain, they say — based on the gap between the average lifetime earnings of high school and college graduates. U.S. Department of Education data show the difference is...

Hallelujah Hucksters By Norman H. Wells Chapter 3, from the book, "The Religion Racket." Since the average church-goer is living in pretense and has no appetite for real religion it has been necessary to make some adjustments. Instead of dedicated worship and sacrificial service, we have what might be called ecclesiastical entertainment. Our religious services are dedicated to the amusement of the assembled adherents. Today's sophisticated church-goer can shop through the religious page of his Saturday paper and find out what will be playing in the various churches on Sunday. It will be noticed that sometimes it is difficult to...