Free Republic

Usher and Ng, journalism professors at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, identified nine clusters of journalists or "communities of practice" in their study, published online by the journal Social Media + Society. Their "elite/legacy" cluster was the largest, including about 30% of the journalists covered in the study, with The Washington Post, NBC News, NPR and The New York Times among the major newsrooms represented. A congressional journalism cluster included another 20%. The other clusters centered around CNN, television producers, local political news, regulatory journalists, foreign affairs, long-form/enterprise reporting and social issues. In leading the study, Usher said she wanted...

The United States Postal Service violated federal law by letting employees do union-funded work for Hillary Clinton's campaign and other Democratic candidates while on leave from the agency, according to an Office of Special Counsel report obtained by Fox News. The OSC determined the USPS "engaged in systemic violations" of the Hatch Act, a federal law that limits certain political activities of federal employees. While employees are allowed to do some political work on leave, the report said the Postal Service showed a "bias" favoring the union's 2016 campaign operation. The investigation was launched months ago after Senate Committee on...

A Massachusetts judge is one step closer to facing a federal trial on charges that she assisted an illegal immigrant in avoiding federal apprehension. A federal judge last week declined to dismiss charges against Massachusetts District Court Judge Shelley M. Richmond Joseph and now-retired Massachusetts trial court officer Wesley MacGregor. Joseph, MacGregor, and a defense attorney are accused of helping a Dominican man evade being taken into custody at the Newton District Court by ICE agents after a 2018 hearing on criminal charges including drug possession. Prosecutors say the man had previously been removed from the U.S. twice and was...

The Louisville cadre of Black Lives Matter activists sent a letter to many downtown businesses demanding they “diversify” their employees. But at least one Cuban-American business owner objected to the threatening tone of the letter and posted his displeasure on Facebook. Fernando Martinez owns a restaurant group with several Hispanic eateries. He accused BLM of using “mafia tactics” and explained his position. “There comes a time in life that you have to make a stand and you have to really prove your convictions and what you believe in,” Martinez wrote in a public Facebook post. “… All good people need...

The Louisville cadre of Black Lives Matter activists sent a letter to many downtown businesses demanding they “diversify” their employees. But at least one Cuban-American business owner objected to the threatening tone of the letter and posted his displeasure on Facebook. Fernando Martinez owns a restaurant group with several Hispanic eateries. He accused BLM of using “mafia tactics” and explained his position. “There comes a time in life that you have to make a stand and you have to really prove your convictions and what you believe in,” Martinez wrote in a public Facebook post. “… All good people need...

Video at link.

Businesses and non-profits in the East Market District of downtown Louisville, also referred to as NuLu (New Louisville), have received letters from left-wing activists demanding that they give in to a list of racial reparations or face having their businesses get negative reviews online. The activists “sent out a three-page contract to NuLu businesses following Friday’s protest where LMPD says 76 protesters were arrested and charged with obstructing a highway and disorderly conduct,” WAVE 3 News reported. “Some also picked up assault charges, accused of throwing bottles at police officers.” WDRB News reported that the “demands came with a deadline...

In the vast majority of cases, Lauer reported, the person being investigated has been an Asian man in his 50s. Some three-quarters of those under investigation had active NIH grants, and nearly half had at least two grants. The 285 active grants totaled $164 million. Lauer also presented data on the nature of the violations that NIH has uncovered. Some 70% (133) of the researchers had failed to disclose to NIH the receipt of a foreign grant, and 54% had failed to disclose participation in a foreign talent program. In contrast, Lauer said, only 9% hid ties to a foreign...

Yesterday, Laura Ingraham conducted a brief interview with Judge Patrick W. O'Brien who is challenging incumbent State's Attorney Kim Foxx, the Soros sponsored prosecutor who prosecutes next to nobody in crime ravaged Chicago. This morning, video segments of the Ingraham program were available on YouTube. By midday, however, the links were disabled.

The open letter by Sheriff Daniel J. Coverley has touched off the expected media outrage and fake news heavy breathing because of its final paragraph, in which he states, "Due to your support of Black Lives Matter and the obvious lack of support or trust with the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, please do not feel the need to call 911 for help. I wish you good luck with disturbances and lewd behavior, since those are just some of the recent calls my office has assisted you with in the past." But the letter's previous six paragraphs elaborate at length why...

The city of Portland, Ore. is fining the federal government $500 for every 15 minutes it maintains unpermitted fencing outside of the federal courthouse that has faced nightly attacks amid ongoing protests and rioting. City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly said in a statement Tuesday that the fencing is obstructing the street outside of the courthouse. As of Monday, she said, the federal government owed Portland $192,000. "We intend to collect," said Eudaly, who added that she was "committed to doing everything in my power to end this federal occupation and move forward with our community's reckoning with racial injustice and our...

The Nini’s Deli incident—mentioned briefly in a post here earlier this month—was a particularly malicious act perpetrated by the jack-booted thought police that is BLM/Antifa. Surprisingly, it didn’t seem to get much coverage on either side. Apparently the restaurant was started by 2 Cuban immigrant brothers & had been a local favorite for years. The chaos began in the early aftermath of the George Floyd incident, when BLM/Antifa started requesting (requiring) Chicago businesses to release statements in favor of BLM. The Nini’s mgmt. politely replied with a statement to the effect of “All Lives Matter,” supporting the police, & professing...

Prominent ‘Black Lives Matter’ activist and rapper Tef Poe has a message for “white people”: “Dear white people if Trump wins young niggas such as myself are fully hell bent on inciting riots everywhere we go. Just so you know,” Poe tweeted today. Poe is by no means a nobody, he has appeared in innumerable articles charting the rise of ‘Black Lives Matter’ and was credited with coining the phrase,“This ain’t your grandparents’ civil rights movement.” The rapper was one of the co-founders of Hands Up United, a “social justice” organization that emerged after the death of Michael Brown that...

SEATTLE — On Sunday, the Seattle Police Department released video that shows improvised explosive devices being thrown at officers during violent protests Saturday. Authorities said 59 officers were injured, including one who was treated at the hospital. Officers used blast balls, pepper spray and sponge-tipped rounds in clashes with demonstrators and reported they had arrested 47 people. Content Continues Below During the violence, police were hit with rocks, bottles and improvised explosive devices while dispersing a crowd with blast balls. There was even an explosive used by someone to blast through the wall of the East Precinct, creating a small...

On the night of July 22, over 150 rioters took to the streets of Capital Hill in Seattle to target specific businesses like Starbucks, Uncle Ikes, and Rove Vintage. According to the Seattle Police Department (SPD) they did "massive amounts of property damage, looting, shooting fireworks, and committing arson."

Antifa rioters attack federal buildings in Los Angeles. ...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The leader of a Black militia group says when Attorney General Daniel Cameron told him it would be four months before his investigation into the Breonna Taylor case would be completed, he had one response. "I told him, 'You ain't got four months.'" ... In response, the militia leader told the group that he issued an ultimatum to Cameron, telling him he had four weeks to finish the investigation. He also promised that the NFAC would return to Louisville. "Four weeks from today, we gonna come back here, and we should have an answer," he said....

The shooting death of a black Trump supporter in Milwaukee has state Republicans calling for a federal investigation. Bernell Trammell, 60, a dreadlocked activist known for carrying handmade signs through the streets reading “Vote Donald Trump 2020,” and posting them on his storefront, was gunned down by an unknown assailant on his sidewalk Thursday afternoon, police said. “Because of Trammell’s well-known political activism and the possibility that his murder could be politically motivated, I respectfully request that United States Attorney Matthew Krueger open an investigation,” said Andrew Hitt, chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, late Friday. “No American should...

Facebook Inc on Tuesday placed a “voting info” disclaimer on U.S. President Donald Trump’s post on mail-in voting.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The mayor of Portland demanded Friday that President Donald Trump remove militarized federal agents he deployed to the city after some detained people on streets far from federal property they were sent to protect. “Keep your troops in your own buildings, or have them leave our city,” Mayor Ted Wheeler said at a news conference. Democratic Gov. Kate Brown said Trump is looking for a confrontation in the hopes of winning political points elsewhere and to serve as a distraction from the coronavirus pandemic, which is causing spiking numbers of infections in Oregon and the nation....