Free Republic

Gun control laws divert money from law enforcement activities that work. The thousands of hours spent by police to register guns are time that police could have put to solving crimes. That diversion of resources is the real threat to public safety. On Friday, a federal District Court judge tried to indirectly reinstate the D.C. handgun ban. Judge Ricardo Urbina, a Clinton appointee, wants to make it so difficult for people living in DC to use a handgun defensively that few will get one. Last September, a Washington Post reporter, Christian Davenport, found out just how difficult it still is...

In August, when listening to the detainees’ proposal for release, U.S. District Judge Urbina said he didn’t “understand why that would not be a viable option.” This shocking, outrageous ruling by a Bill Clinton appointee is a prime example of what type of judges we can expect to get more of if Barack Obama becomes president. Not only will Obama appoint federal judges, but also the critical positions of Supreme Court Justices. And this is where the problem began.

Even as the anti-antiterror lobby cheers as the courts attack the Bush Administration's wartime legal architecture, the practical results are starting to emerge. It is increasingly possible that many enemy combatants will be set free -- in the U.S. On Tuesday, D.C. District Court Judge Ricardo Urbina ordered that 17 foreign nationals held at Guantanamo Bay be transferred to the U.S. and released. Judge Urbina relied on the Supreme Court's June Boumediene decision, which extended the Constitutional right of habeas corpus to aliens captured abroad and incarcerated outside the U.S. Had an appeals court not granted an emergency stay, the...

Pitcher Ugueth Urbina has been arrested on a charge of attempted murder in his home country of Venezuela. Caracas, Venezuela -- Police said Ugueth Urbina and a group of men allegedly attacked several employees at his family home using machetes and tried to set them on fire. Urbina's lawyer has said the pitcher was sleeping at the time and was not involved. Urbina has insisted he had nothing to do with the violence that broke out at his home last month. Police said five workers were injured in the incident, and one of them suffered burns on the back and...

London 27.02.05 | Remember a couple of days ago I reported about another FARC leader having been arrested in Venezuela? Well in spite of some rather odd changing or articles in Venezuela's official media and backpedalling from ministers, presumably due to this piece of news, colonel Óscar Naranjo director of Colombia's investigative police, confirmed the identity of the detainee as that of FARC leader Gentil Alvis Patiño.

Breaking news from reliable Venezuelan media, no full story in English yet. Developing....

Tigers Closer's Mom Kidnapped Thursday, September 02, 2004 CARACAS, Venezuela — The mother of Detroit Tigers (search) pitcher Ugueth Urbina (search) was kidnapped by four unidentified men disguised as police officers, police said Thursday. The men took Maura Villareal from a house owned by Urbina in suburban Caracas on Wednesday, said Joel Rengifo, director of the country's anti-kidnapping police force. The men have not contacted family members, he said. The Tigers said Urbina had left the club to go to Venezuela (search), and the team is working with major league baseball and its Venezuelan contacts to assist the pitcher.