Free Republic

A former FBI agent and an Internet penny stock adviser were convicted Monday of mining government computers for confidential information they used to manipulate the stock market. Former agent Jeffrey Royer was convicted of racketeering, securities fraud, obstruction of justice and witness tampering for leaking details of FBI investigations and executives' criminal histories to San Diego stock picker Anthony Elgindy. Elgindy was convicted of racketeering, securities fraud and extortion for his role in the scheme. He dropped his face into his hands and sobbed uncontrollably as the jury foreman read the verdict; U.S. marshals led him weeping from the courtroom....

The growing Chinese 'gate crashers' trend is sparking espionage concerns The FBI and Department of Defense have reportedly tracked more than 100 incidents of Chinese nationals posing as tourists to attempt to breach U.S. military bases and other federal sites. Those responsible, dubbed "gate crashers," range from Chinese nationals detected crossing into a U.S. missile range in New Mexico, to scuba divers caught swimming in murky waters near a U.S. government rocket launch site in Florida, several U.S. officials recently told The Wall Street Journal. The growing trend represents a potential espionage threat, as authorities believe the Chinese government in...

Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) has been banned from all nine of South Dakota’s tribal nations. On Tuesday, the final tribe that had not yet banned her, the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe, voted in favor of banning Noem from its reservation. Flandreau President Tony Reider called an emergency meeting in response to some of the governor’s comments. “President Reider informed the governor that a ban from our territories is imminent and requested that the Governor refrain from making future blanket statements that offend the tribes within the boundaries of the State of South Dakota, some of which depend on state services...

Republican Sen. Keith Regier is proposing asking Congress to study alternatives to reservations... ...The draft resolution argues that reservations have “failed to positively enhance the lives and well-being” of Native Americans, led to substance abuse, domestic violence, welfare dependence, poverty and substandard education. It also argues tribal members who don’t own land have the highest poverty rate and lowest life expectancy of any ethnic group in America. It also argues reservations are “not in the best interests of either the Indians inside our borders or for our common Montana Citizens.”... ...Floyd Azure, chairman of the Fort Peck Tribe in northeastern...

A Supreme Court case about jurisdiction in an obscure murder has huge implications for tribes. On the morning of June 22, 1839, the Cherokee leader John Ridge was pulled from his bed, dragged into his front yard and stabbed 84 times while his family watched. He was assassinated for signing the Cherokee Nation’s removal treaty, a document that — in exchange for the tribe’s homelands — promised uninterrupted sovereignty over a third of the land in present-day Oklahoma. That promise was not kept. Sixty-seven years later, federal agents questioned John’s grandson, William D. Polson. They needed to add him to...

A tribal leader is threatening protests if the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) begins construction of President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall. During a meeting of Native American tribal leaders, the Tohono O’odham Nation’s Vice Chairman Verlon Jose threatened protests similar to those known as ‘Standing Rock,’ where environmentalists protested the Dakota Access Pipeline, if Trump’s wall is built, according to AZ Central:

Loretta Lynch's DOJ looks to further federal control of elections in ways that benefit the Democrats. The Obama Justice Department has quietly launched an effort to erode traditional state powers over elections. In the first instance, Attorney General Loretta Lynch has drafted and sent a bill to Congress which would force state election officials to turn over power to tribal governments to determine the location and number of polling places on Indian reservations in state-run elections. In the second instance, the DOJ is seeking to erode the power of states to prohibit the mentally incompetent from voting, as long as...

Even if a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this spring makes same-sex marriage the law, it would leave pockets of the country where it isn't likely to be recognized any time soon: the reservations of a handful of sovereign Native American tribes, including the nation's two largest. Since 2011, as the number of states recognizing such unions spiked to 37, at least six smaller tribes have revisited and let stand laws that define marriage as being between a man and a woman, according to an Associated Press review of tribal records. In all, tribes with a total membership approaching 1 million...

These are the American Indian reservations the Department of Interior plans to focus on in the next phase of a $1.9 billion buyback program of fractionated land parcels to turn over to tribal governments. The program is part of a $3.4 billion settlement over mismanaged money held in trust by the U.S. government for individual Indian landowners. …

Where to begin? We met with staff members from seven DC Senate offices on Monday. We had come to talk about the Indian Child Welfare Act and how it infringes on the right of children and parents. But sitting next to this young woman, who comes from the same reservation as my husband… I realized there is so, so much more we all need to talk about. She told how she was abused and used sexually as a child. She said she was first given to a man at the age of ten. Her sisters were also given to men....

All around us there are signs in abundance that the Apostasy is spreading. Parishes are emptying, more and more Catholics who have remained are approving of same-sex "marriage" and other forms of dissent. Preparation for the Reign of Antichrist is in full swing. Does this trouble Archbishop Loris Capovilla? One would wonder. For instead of addressing the myriad evils of our time, the Archbishop has chosen to address something which does concern him: the Fatima apparition and Marian devotion in general. As noted here, Archbishop Capovilla has "reservations" about Fatima and what he refers to as "excessive focus on Marian...

Judge Napolitano in for Beck about Indian Reservation health care.

When Tracey Carter asked one of the hosts at West Hartford's new Cheesecake Factory restaurant how long the waits were on a Friday night, she couldn't believe her ears. Two hours. Three hours. Sometimes longer. "I was shocked. Three hours? I never dreamed someone would wait three hours," said Carter, a Hartford resident who recently dined at the crammed-to-the-rafters restaurant. "I could drive to New York and get a fish sandwich in that time." True, but anyone who'd decline to cool their heels would miss out on one of Greater Hartford's most popular new activities: the waiting game at Cheesecake...

Reactions to the latest measures that benefit the lower castes have been stormy as the population battles for coveted spots in universities The scenes from the streets of Bombay, Delhi, and other big Indian cities have shocked India. As medical students and young doctors peacefully protested a government initiative to reserve another share of seats in colleges and universities for members of lower castes, police set upon the marchers, beating many of them with truncheons. Even more shocking to many, officials later claimed that although a few students were hospitalized, the police had not used undue force. One politician even...

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that states have the power to tax fuel sold on Indian reservations. In a 7-2 vote, the high court said Kansas can tax distributors who sell fuel at an Indian-owned and operated gas station near the Prairie Band Potawatomi tribe's casino. Most of the Nation Station's fuel customers are patrons of the casino, which is 15 miles north of Topeka, Kan. Writing for the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas said the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was wrong in ruling that the tax violated tribal sovereignty. "Kansas law makes clear that...

Hiding beneath the cloak of sovereign immunity federally recognized Indian tribes can ignore virtually any state law, many federal laws and violate the Constitutional rights of non-Indians with seeming impunity. While I am not a legal expert on tribal sovereignty, based upon my own first-hand experience as a Commander of a State Police unit monitoring tribal gaming on a Connecticut reservation, I do not believe this is the outcome or state of affairs that either Congress or the courts expected or anticipated. I have analyzed numerous state-tribe gaming compacts that allow tribes in most instances to create and apply their...

DINNER SEMINAR 6:00 PM Wednesday, September 21, 2005 Aquaturf Club, Mulberry Street Plantsville, CT.“THE ISLAMO-FASCIST THREAT TO WORLD PEACE AND NATIONAL SECURITY” The People’s Truth Forum (PTF) is hosting an educational seminar at the Aquaturf club in Plantsville, Connecticut, on September 21st. The organization’s primary objective is to heighten public awareness with respect to matters of national security. Warmly invited are those patriotic Americans who share PTF’s concerns for the future of our nation – especially those interested in learning more about Islamic terrorism and the threat it poses to future generations. Speakers include: Harvey Kushner, PhD., noted author, lecturer,...

Have you ever been issued a "guaranteed" reservation by a hotel? You know the drill: they take a credit card number and tell you that you will be charged for the room if you don't show up. But in return, you comfort yourself with the assumption that your access to an actual room at that particular hotel is "guaranteed" even if you show up at 4 AM. Maybe if you did this, you assumed that it meant that the hotel had already sold the room to you, and that, barring acts of God like a tornado, no matter how late...

Jobs on American Indian reservations have always come with their own set of work rules and regulations. The tribes are considered separate governments, entitled to establish their own labor standards unless specifically restricted by Congress. They are subject to no state labor laws and only limited federal labor rules. That's why a recent decision by the National Labor Relations Board is causing a stir among California's tribes and the estimated 44,000 people who work for them. The NLRB recently ruled that it has jurisdiction over union disputes at casinos operated by Indian tribes. The ruling reverses three decades of a...

<p>New Yorkers dodging heavy taxes on cigarettes by buying from Native American sellers on the Internet could be hearing soon from the taxman.</p> <p>Under a settlement in the federal appeals court, the Ojibwa Trading Post, a popular online cigarette vendor based in upstate New York, has agreed to report its sales and hand over customer names to authorities every two weeks, effective immediately.</p>