Free Republic

With a greater focus on enforcing mask wearing on the horizon, the city of Bend has a hotline residents can call about businesses not adhering to the statewide mask mandate. The city established a complaint hotline for people to report businesses that are not following the COVID-19 related rules set back in July, during a previous peak in the spread of coronavirus. The number is 541-323-7155.Callers to the hotline must leave a message and include the name of the business, the date and time of the violation and a description of the violation, according to the city. Anonymous calls are...

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) took aim at GOP Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) after the lawmaker said a weekend uptick in violence in the city proved that “gun control doesn’t work.” “60% of illegal firearms recovered in Chicago come from outside IL — mostly from states dominated by coward Republicans like you who refuse to enact commonsense gun legislation,” Lightfoot tweeted late Monday. “Keep our name out of your mouth.” Cruz Tweet: Gun control doesn’t work. Look at Chicago. Disarming law-abiding citizens isn’t the answer. Stopping violent criminals—prosecuting & getting them off the street—BEFORE they commit more violent crimes is...

Edward Crawford, Jr., the man whose image became the defining moment in the Ferguson protests, is dead. Crawford was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and police are trying to determine if it was accidental or suicide. Crawford's dad told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "I don't believe it was a suicide," adding cops are being "hush-hush" about the investigation. The photo symbolized the tensions between police and protester in the wake of Michael Brown's death. Cops hurled a tear gas canister at protesters ... Crawford picked it up and hurled it back. Crawford was 27 and the father of 4...

A defiant Rev. Al Sharpton today responded to media reports that he served as an FBI informant against mob bosses in the 1980s, confirming that he recorded conversations, but insisting the reports missed the mark. Speaking at a hastily-called press conference at the National Action Network’s headquarters in Harlem, Mr. Sharpton took special issue with the “informant” characterization. The front pages of the New York Post and Daily News today labeled the reverend a “rat” and a “mob snitch.”