Free Republic

Politicians knew it. The community knew it. The police knew it. If you really wanted to connect with voters in troubled northwest Oakland, ... , all roads led to the late Yusuf Bey and his Your Black Muslim Bakery on San Pablo Avenue. Bey and his followers knew they had political clout. They used it to great advantage in obtaining money from the city, lenient sentences from judges, and a virtual hands-off approach from the Police Department - even though evidence now shows that the bakery's leadership was implicated in serious crimes. Jerry Brown - former governor, now state attorney...

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — All eyes may be on Iowa and New Hampshire, but many of them are rolling. Despite efforts to evict the two states from the front of the presidential calendar, both managed to hang on for another election cycle that culminates with the Iowa caucuses on Thursday and the New Hampshire primary on Jan. 8. As a year of media attention reaches its crescendo, voters in other states are saying enough is enough. According to national survey conducted for The Associated Press and Yahoo News, just over half of all voters said New Hampshire and Iowa have...

New weapon wielded in old tomb debate By REIJI YOSHIDA Staff writerInformation disclosure law reveals uncertainty over emperor's graves A law enacted six years ago has given historians a new powerful weapon to challenge a long-held taboo preserved by the Imperial Household Agency: investigating the secrets of ancient emperors' tombs. A booklet that assistant professor Noboru Koike found at a bookstore (below) and a copy of it obtained from the Imperial Household Agency suggest the agency had questions about the way some ancient tombs were linked to past emperors. The weapon is the public information disclosure law, which has allowed...