Free Republic

An Ohio school board has unanimously voted to place armed custodians on their k-12 campus in an effort to better protect their students from a future mass shooting. Following Wednesday's believed unprecedented 5-0 vote in the state, four male janitors were the first to volunteer to arm themselves with their own handguns on the rural Montpelier campus, the Toledo Blade reports. The vote will permit only non-teaching employees to carry the firearms on the campus, so long as they complete a weapons training course. 'It's kind of a sign of the times,' Superintendent Jamies Grime said on Friday. The move...

MINNEAPOLIS — Information and examples of how to reduce gun violence will be shared at a regional conference on gun violence Thursday. Law enforcement leaders and elected officials from several Midwestern cities and scholars who study crime and violence are expected to participate in the day-long conference in Minneapolis. Mayor R.T. Rybak said the planning of this regional gun summit began last year before the mass shootings at Accent Signage Systems in Minneapolis and at Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut. He said those tragic events have added urgency to efforts to fight gun violence. Rybak said it is important...

Thursday was inauguration day in Venezuela. Hugo Chavez — who has dominated Venezuelan politics one way or another for 14 years — was again sworn in as President. Only this time, the authoritarian populist could not take the oath in person. He departed for cancer surgery in Cuba on Dec. 10, 2012, and has not been seen in public since. This latest surgery is his fourth round of treatment in Cuba. Few expect Chavez to serve out this next six-year presidential term.

Mental-health professionals, not more guns, are the way to address school violence, Sen. Al Franken said on Wednesday. The Minnesota Democrat, in Duluth to announce legislation related to mental health, said he hasn’t seen support for proposals to arm teachers or place armed guards in schools. “In the discussion that I’ve had with Minnesota teachers and school officials, they don’t think that’s the solution,” Franken said after a news conference at the Federal Building in Duluth. “There’s agreement in the educational community in Minnesota … that we need more counselors, and we need more mental-health professionals in our schools.” The...

As we reflect on 2012, there were a number of gun-related incidents that made many of us outraged. The senseless shootings at the movie theater in Aurora, Colo.; the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin shootings in Oak Creek; and, most recently, the shootings in Newtown, Conn., that took the lives of innocent children and their teachers. Quite often, gun violence has been associated with urban central city neighborhoods, and it is true that urban violence is much too prevalent. For example, both locally and nationally, in some African-American neighborhoods, we have black males killing other black males with guns in alarming...

In the past few weeks there has been a veritable explosion of White House petitions ranging from the bizarre to the surreal to the outright absurd, including such demands as Texas (and other southern states) seceding, deporting Piers Morgan, not deporting Piers Morgan, creating a Joe Biden sitcom, and even making a total mockery out of the US, and global, monetary system and evading the debt ceiling using a cheap, platinum coin-based parlor trick. All of these are, for lack of a better word, a la carte distractions launched by bored American citizens, meant to evade the menial drudgery of...

[snip] (Standard Gravure shooting) First known shooting with ties to Prozac. Joseph Wesbecker kills 12, injures 9. Eric Harris age 17 (first on Zoloft then Luvox) and Dylan Klebold aged 18 (Columbine school shooting in Littleton, Colorado), killed 12 students and 1 teacher, and wounded 23 others, before killing themselves. Klebold’s medical records have never been made available to the public. Jeff Weise, age 16, had been prescribed 60 mg/day of Prozac (three times the average starting dose for adults!) when he shot his grandfather, his grandfather’s girlfriend and many fellow students at Red Lake, Minnesota. He then shot himself....

I just filed this petition with the Obama White House but it needs 150 signatures before it will show up on the Open Petitions section of We the People. Those who want to have a little fun while educating Progressives may find it worth signing. We petition the obama administration to: Send to Congress an act to contain mass murder through common-sense media control. The act should have two sections: the first creates a federal board to license journalists and media companies. Prior licensing of a constitutional right is allowed under DC v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008). The second...

Hong Kong action hero Jackie Chan has once again provoked criticism, this time from an American blogger, after suggesting on Chinese television that the US is the "most corrupt" country in the world. "When you talk about corruption -- the whole world, is there corruption in the United States? The most corrupt in the world!" the Rush Hour star, who has made headlines recently for his controversial views, told Phoenix TV last month. Chan reaffirmed his view after the show's host questioned him -- "Of course! Where did the great breakdown come from? The world, the United States started it,"...

MINNEAPOLIS — A joint statement from legislators asks Vice President Joe Biden to support the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's ability to research gun violence. The statement is signed by Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., and three other House Democrats. It says while the law does not legally prohibit data collection on gun violence, "it has a chilling effect on the CDC Center for Injury Prevention and Control which compiles and analyzes data in order to help protect people from deaths and injuries both accidental and intentional." Next week, Biden is expected to reveal anti-gun violence proposals that likely include...

A French court agreed to the release of Lebanese George Abdallah, who was convicted for involvement in the murder of Israeli diplomat Yaacov Bar-Siman-Tov in 1982. French judicial sources said that the 61-year-old Lebanese man was granted parole on condition that he is expelled from France. Abdallah was captured in 1984 and sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for the murder of American Lieutenant Col. Charles Ray and the killing of Israeli diplomat Bar-Siman-Tov, in Paris. Abdallah had been eligible for parole from 1999 onwards but failed in seven previous bids to be released. Bar-Siman-Tov was murdered in April...

He ordered the centurion to keep Paul under guard but to give him some freedom and permit his friends to take care of his needs. Acts 24:23 America has become two separate countries or actually three. We have one side that wants to stay a free and open country, a second which wants to be a Soviet style communist State and the group in the middle who don’t care. Throughout history we have had two types of people, those who want to take care of themselves and those who want to be taken care of. Those who will accept a...

After weeks of rumors and equally strenuous denials, Sandi Jackson resigned as Chicago's 7th Ward alderman Friday, the latest chapter in the stunning, scandal-laced downfall of what had been one of the city's most prominent and powerful political duos. ... The decision by Ald. Jackson, who was elected in 2007, came less than two months after husband Jesse Jackson Jr. quit the congressional seat he had held for 17 years amid ongoing federal ethics probes into his campaign finances and a diagnosis of bipolar depression. ... For years, the former congressman had used his federal campaign fund to pay his...

**SNIP** Geneva District 304 officials released a statement late Thursday morning explaining a parent used “language that is not typically heard in a school setting” in the library in front of a kindergarten class. School officials called police to “minimize the disruption,” according to the release. Sheriff’s Lt. Pat Gengler said the parent was volunteering at the school during the time afternoon kindergarten students start their day and saying the pledge. That evening, the same parent emailed school board members, administrators and some parents in the community, and also posted a message on Facebook, claiming Mill Creek students state the...

(Reuters) - Americans are beginning to feel the pinch from Washington's decision to embrace austerity measures aimed at bringing down the nation's budget deficit. Paychecks across the country have shrunk over the last week due to higher federal tax rates, and workers are already cutting back on spending, which will drag on the economy this year.

Citing an obvious concern from citizens about changes to gun laws, law enforcement officials say they were hit hard in 2012 with applications for permits to purchase a firearm. And if the first week of 2013 is any indication, the interest in being able to buy, and carry, a firearm is going to continue to grow. "The numbers don't lie," said Northfield Interim Police Chief Chuck Walerius. "We are definitely seeing more applications, much more so than in other years. I would say changes in the laws had something to do with that." Walerius said his department saw 103 applications...

Never let it be said that the Obama administration is not willing to use every weapon in its arsenal. The fight over stricter gun control laws is heating up and Obama and his team are moving heaven and earth, trying to drum up support for their assault on the 2nd Amendment rights of American citizens. I find it odd that they would target some of the groups they have chosen, hence my claim that they have a double standard on gun control and morals. You may believe I am making a baseless claim, but I can show I am not....

From the perspective of the fashion industry, Johanna Lassonczyk is an ideal customer. She is young, places value on her appearance and, for years, has regularly bought new brand-name clothing and accessories. From Lassonczyk's own perspective, the fashion industry is in pretty bad shape. The self-employed entrepreneur has recently started attending so-called swap parties. The last one was the "Xmas Event" hosted by the website "Swap in the City" at Cologne's E-Werk concert hall. You clean out your closet, gather the things that no longer fit or you don't like anymore, and take them with you to a swap party,...

WASHINGTON - Opposing sides are finding common ground as lawmakers tackle the issue of gun control, mental health and school safety. Sen. Tim Kaine, a former Virginia governor and democrat, says there is enough agreement to take the first steps toward solutions that would make the U.S. a little safer in the wake of the school shooting in Newtown, Conn. "We need to make improvements to our mental health system," Kaine says. "We do need to talk about school security and figure out better security protocols, but we also can find common-sense rules about gun use that can help us...

An overseas rights group says a Tibetan man has died after setting himself on fire, marking the year’s first self-immolation in protest of Chinese rule. … More than 90 Tibetans reportedly have set themselves on fire since March 2011. …