Free Republic

Tense surveillance footage captures the moment a masked thief robbed a man at gunpoint inside the elevator of an East Harlem building late last month. The gunman approached the 21-year-old victim inside the residential building on First Avenue near East 124th Street, part of NYCHA’s Wagner Houses in East Harlem, around 11:20 p.m. May 28, cops said as they released video of the violent crime late Wednesday. The suspect, seen with a black face mask and wired headphones dangling from his ears, held a gun in one hand and appeared to grab the victim’s throat with the other, according to...

(10-18) 09:59 PDT OAKLAND -- An Oakland City Council candidate was robbed at gunpoint Wednesday night near his home after he attended a neighborhood anti-crime meeting, authorities said. Dan Kalb, 53, an environmental policy director who is one of seven candidates vying for the District 1 seat that represents North Oakland, said he had parked his car near his home on the 5100 block of Manila Avenue when he was accosted about 8:35 p.m. A man pointed a gun at him, demanded his iPhone and wallet and fled in a car, said Kalb, who was not hurt. The robbery happened...

Some people who need medical care but can't afford it go to the emergency room. Others just hope they'll get better. James Richard Verone robbed a bank. Earlier this month, Verone (pictured), a 59-year-old convenience store clerk, walked into a Gaston, N.C., bank and handed the cashier a note demanding $1 and medical attention. Then he waited calmly for police to show up. He's now in jail and has an appointment with a doctor this week. Verone's problems started when he lost the job he'd held for 17 years as a Coca Cola deliveryman, amid the economic downturn. He found...

A gun-wielding man wearing a Hillary Clinton mask robbed a Sterling bank on Dec. 27, authorities said. The man walked into the Wachovia bank in Community Plaza about 9:14 a.m., approached a teller, brandished a firearm and demanded cash, according to Loudoun County sheriff’s office reports. The robber then fled the bank in an unknown direction with an undisclosed amount of cash. No injuries were reported, according to Kraig Troxell, spokesman for the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office. Witnesses described the robber as a 6-foot-tall black man. He was last seen wearing a black jacket with a red shirt underneath, according...

Hoover Dam, Empire State Building Constructed Faster than California SchoolsSAN FRANCISCO, CA - "Schools take six years or more to build in California, longer than a student's elementary education, and are as expensive as possible because of dated legislation and a bureaucratic quagmire, according to No Place to Learn: California's School Facilities Crisis, a new study by the Pacific Research Institute (PRI). "California students are not getting the facilities they need for a quality education," said author K. Lloyd Billingsley, editorial director at PRI. "The cause is an obsolete bureaucratic system better at enriching adults than serving the needs of...