Free Republic

CHICAGO — About 300 anti-war activists crowded into the basement of the Teamsters Union’s headquarters on Saturday to hear organizers from all over the country describe their plans to disrupt the Democratic National Convention this August. Joe Biden’s backing of Israel since Hamas’s October 7 attack has turned these left-wing radicals against their own party.

As contractors widen Interstate 66 in Northern Virginia, they produce tons of excess dirt. So do excavators digging basements for homes or leveling land for commercial projects or schools. Some of that dirt – no one knows how much – ends up on Fauquier County properties. Some county officials think it is way too much. “Fauquier County is becoming, if not has already become, the dumping ground for Northern Virginia's fill dirt. And it's obviously a huge problem. And it's affecting people's lives,” county supervisor Rick Gerhardt (Cedar Run District) said at April’s Board of Supervisors meeting, as residents complained...

Alberta’s premier is “profoundly disappointed” in the amount of money the province will receive through federal transfer payments next year. Jason Kenney made the statement in a news release in response to a letter from Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland Thursday containing details on the funding the province will receive for 2021-2022. Alberta will receive over $6.8 billion in health and social transfers according to Freeland — an increase of $217 million from this year. Under the current formula Alberta does not qualify for an equalization payment. He said in the last 10 years alone, Alberta has contributed more than $200...

Elizabeth Zemba of Mt. Pleasant, a daily Pennsylvania Turnpike traveler, turned to art and creativity to express frustration with the highway's ever-rising tolls. She created an Internet meme. A photo of a turnpike tollbooth is overlaid with the logo: "Pennsylvania Turnpike re-inventing highway robbery since 2009." For many, annual turnpike toll increases simply have become too much to bear. Two weeks ago, a coalition of truckers and motorists advocates filed a class action suit against the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, PennDOT and Gov. Tom Wolf, seeking to recoup "excessive fees" that went to underwrite projects other than the operation of the...

Republican lawmakers called Thursday for the Obama administration to suspend detainee transfers from Guantanamo Bay following a Fox News report that as many as 20 to 30 former prisoners are suspected by intelligence and Defense officials of having joined forces with the Islamic State and other militant groups inside Syria. Some of those former Guantanamo detainees were released within the last three years. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., said in a statement the development "underscores the risks we face when Guantanamo detainees are released based on a misguided desire to close Guantanamo -- rather than the national security interests of the...

The People’s Bank of China , the central bank, has just ordered commercial banks to halt cash transfers. ---Clip--- In short, there will be a three-day suspension of domestic renminbi transfers. There will also be a suspension, spanning nine calendar days, of conversions of renminbi to foreign currency. The specific reason given—“system maintenance” at the central bank—is preposterous. It is not credible that during the highest usage period in the year—the weeklong Lunar New Year holiday beginning January 31—the central bank would schedule an upgrade and shut down cash transfers. A better explanation is that the country’s banking system is...

Somali officials said Friday they are pleading with U.S. authorities to persuade banks to reconsider a decision to block money transfers from Minnesota's Somali community to relatives in this Horn of Africa nation, where anarchy has given safe haven to an al-Qaida linked terror group. The institution that handles the bulk of money transfers from Minnesota to Somalia — Sunrise Community Banks — has said it will discontinue the service at the end of December over fears it could be at risk of violating government rules intended to clamp down on the financing of terror groups. Minnesota political leaders Rep....

Pop quiz. What's the biggest single job the federal government undertakes? National defense? Nope. Homeland security? Wrong. Transportation? Not even close. Law enforcement? No way. Education? Getting colder. Foreign aid? Are you kidding? Nope, the biggest single thing the federal government does these days is ... cut checks. Lots and lots and lots and lots of checks that go to individual citizens -- $2.3 trillion worth last year alone. In fact, according to a table buried deep inside the little-noticed Historical Tables volume of the White House's 2012 budget, these "direct payments to individuals" accounted for more than two-thirds...

The veteran Justice Department voting rights section chief who recommended going forward on a civil complaint against members of the New Black Panther Party after they disrupted a Pennsylvania polling place in last year's elections has been removed from his post and transferred to the U.S. attorney's office in South Carolina. Justice Department officials confirmed Monday that Christopher Coates, who signed off on the complaint's filing in federal court in Philadelphia in January accusing the party and three of its members of civil rights violations, would begin his new assignment next month.

Administration economists cited Keynesian models that predicted that the $787 billion stimulus package would increase GDP by enough to create 3.6 million jobs....more modern macroeconomic models predicted only one-sixth of that GDP impact. Consider first the part of the package that consists of government transfers and rebates. The nearby chart reviews income and consumption through July (DPI)--the total amount of income people have left to spend after they pay taxes and receive transfers from the government--jumped. The increase is due to the transfer and rebate payments in the 2009 stimulus package. However, as the chart also shows, there was no...

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), the far left anti-gun group under investigation for voter fraud, could be eligible to receive millions, if not billions of dollars from the economic bailout bill that passed out of the House of Representatives. ACORN was an aggressive supporter of Barack Obama -- who had served as the group's legal counsel and even trained ACORN in "community organizing" -- in the presidential election. The Obama campaign even paid the group $800,000 for "voter turnout," the very activities that came under scrutiny by the FBI. In October 2008, ACORN's Las Vegas office...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A judge Tuesday threw out Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to transfer thousands of inmates to other states to relieve prison overcrowding. Schwarzenegger said he would immediately appeal, saying dangerous convicts might otherwise have to be released early. The governor invoked emergency powers in October when he ordered the Corrections Department to send thousands of inmates to private prisons in other states. Two employee unions, including the one representing guards, filed lawsuits alleging the order violated state law. Superior Court Judge Gail Ohanesian agreed with the unions, saying that while prison overcrowding is dangerous, "this is not the...

KABUL, Afghanistan, Feb. 6, 2007 – The United States transferred 213 Humvees and more than 12,000 light weapons to the Afghan National Army during a ceremony Feb. 2 at a depot in Pol-e-charkhi, Afghanistan. Afghan President Hamid Karzai (right) looks over light weapons after a vehicle and weapons transfer ceremony in Pol-e-charkhi, Afghanistan. The United States transferred 213 Humvees and more than 12,000 light weapons to the Afghan National Army. Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Scott Cohen, USN  '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The transfer marks the beginning of delivery of more than 800 various up-armored vehicles...

SINGAPORE - Hurt by election losses back home, President Bush tried to exert his authority on the world stage Thursday by warning a nuclear-armed North Korea against peddling its weapons and vowing the United States would not retreat into isolationism. The president then headed for Vietnam and Hanoi, the wartime capital of the once-divided country, in a visit that promised to stir inevitable comparisons between the unpopular war raging in Iraq and the divisive war fought and lost in Vietnam more than three decades ago. Bush's words on North Korea and isolationism came on the eve of his trip to...

SACRAMENTO Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared an emergency Wednesday over prison crowding, a step that lets him use his executive powers to free space by shipping inmates to other states. The move comes five weeks after state lawmakers failed to act on a $6 billion prison building plan Schwarzenegger sought after calling a special session of the state Legislature. That proposal also included involuntarily sending inmates to prisons in other states. "Our prisons are now beyond maximum capacity, and we must act immediately and aggressively to resolve this issue," Schwarzenegger said in a statement. California has the nation's largest state prison...

WASHINGTON - President Bush has transferred 14 key terrorist leaders from secret CIA custody to the U.S. military-run prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to be prepared for eventual trials, a senior administration official said Wednesday. The high-value suspected terrorists include Khalid Sheik Mohammed, believed to be the No. 3 al-Qaida leader before he was captured in Pakistan in 2003; Ramzi Binalshibh, an alleged would-be Sept. 11, 2001, hijacker; and Abu Zubaydah, who was believed to be a link between Osama bin Laden and many al-Qaida cells before he was also captured in Pakistan, in March 2002. Bush was announcing the...

The U.S. military handed over to Iraqi forces on Monday security responsibilities for Mahmudiyah, one of the contentious areas south of Baghdad. Soldiers from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division held an “Iraqis in the Lead” transfer of area ceremony on Monday, giving responsibility to the 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division.

WASHINGTON, August 6, 2006 – The 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team handed over operations in Mosul, Iraq, and other surrounding areas in the Ninewa province to the 3rd SBCT, 2nd Infantry Division, in a transfer-of-authority ceremony at Forward Operating Base Marez today. The 172nd SBCT soldiers were deployed in August 2005 and since have conducted more than 15,000 missions, including cordon and searches, combat patrols, counter-mortar and rocket missions, raids, escort missions and humanitarian aid throughout Dohuk, Ninewa and Irbil provinces. “The accomplishments of the 172nd SBCT have been truly remarkable,” said Army Maj. Gen. Thomas Turner, commanding general of...

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (NNS) -- The recovery and salvage ship USS Grapple (ARS 53) was decommissioned and transferred to Military Sealift Command (MSC) in a ceremony at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek July 13 after completing 20 years of accomplished service. At the ceremony, Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Brand, Grapple’s last commanding officer, turned over command to Capt. Curtis Smith, a seasoned civilian mariner who has commanded almost 20 ships in his 27-year career with MSC. “It’s really neat as a lieutenant commander in the Navy to be able to command one of these ships,” said Brand. “It’s the largest ship...

Ceremony Transfers Base Control to Iraqi Army Iraqi troops assume control of Forward Operating Base Hope, reflecting the increasing responsibility for the Iraqis as their army gains control of more battle space throughout the region. By U.S. Army Pfc. Paul David Ondik 506th Infantry Regiment 101st Airborne Division FORWARD OPERATING BASE LOYALTY, Iraq, March 10, 2006 — The Iraqi army’s 3rd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, assumed control of Forward Operating Base Hope during a transfer of authority ceremony March 9. "We work side-by-side with the dedicated soldiers of the [Iraqi Security Forces] every day. The [2nd...