Free Republic

FULL TITLE: Two Miami Dolphins wide receivers become first players of 2018 season to take the knee during national anthem, just hours after Trump blamed the sport's poor TV ratings on the ongoing protest President Donald Trump is slamming the National Football League for low ratings and blaming players for protesting during the national anthem as two Miami Dolphins players took to the knee Sunday during 'The Star Spangled Banner' as football season began in earnest. 'Wow, NFL first game ratings are way down over an already really bad last year comparison. Viewership declined 13%, the lowest in over a...

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms on Thursday signed an executive order declaring that the city jail will no longer accept people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). "Atlanta has permanently ended its acceptance of ICE detainees and will immediately transfer all those remaining out of our City jail," Bottoms tweeted with a photo of her signing the order. "We will not be complicit in an immigration policy that intentionally inflicts misery on vulnerable populations." A spokesperson for ICE confirmed to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that all of the agency's detainees at the Atlanta City Detention Center would be transferred by...

A fiery, old-school eulogist at the funeral of Aretha Franklin fell flat for many in the crowd and prompted a social media uproar when he declared "black America has lost its soul," black women are incapable of raising sons alone and the Black Lives Matter movement is unfounded in the face of black-on-black crime. And that was just 26 minutes into the nearly 50 minutes of words provided by the Rev. Jasper Williams Jr. of Salem Baptist Church in Atlanta as Franklin's marathon funeral wound down Friday. Williams, who also eulogized Franklin's father, minister and civil rights activist C.L. Franklin,...

Atlanta Neighborhood Charter School Principal Lara Zelski decided students will no longer recite the Pledge of Allegiance during the school’s morning meeting agenda, which she described to parents as “an effort to begin our day as a fully inclusive and connected community.”“Over the past couple of years it has become increasingly obvious that more and more of our community were choosing to not stand and/or recite the pledge,” she wrote, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.The statement, posted to the school website, promised parents students could recite the Pledge of Allegiance later in the day, if they felt like it,...

<p>WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate voted narrowly on Tuesday to confirm Britt Grant to Atlanta’s 11th U.S. Circuit, greenlighting the Georgia Supreme Court justice for a lifetime position on the powerful federal appeals court that frequently takes on hotly contested issues such as gun rights and the death penalty.</p>

ATLANTA -- Atlanta Braves pitcher Sean Newcomb apologized Sunday for a series of offensive tweets he sent as a teenager, calling them "some stupid stuff.'' The 25-year-old Newcomb spoke less than an hour after he nearly pitched a no-hitter against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The tweets were sent in 2011 and 2012, when Newcomb was a senior in high school. One tweet included a racial epithet that was part of a rap lyric, and several others contained gay slurs. "I just wanted to apologize for any insensitive material,'' Newcomb said. "It was a long time ago, six or seven years...

The Waffle House is in the 1000 block of Northside Drive, a busy stretch near 14th Street that includes a row of restaurants. Police said a man in a black hooded sweatshirt was seen pacing the parking lot just before 6 a.m. He entered the restaurant and went straight for the bathroom. “When he came out, he had a (gold) mask on,” Atlanta police Capt. Andrew Senzer said. “He produced a gun and he essentially demanded the belongings of everybody of the store.” The masked man confronted a half dozen patrons and employees in the restaurant, though some of the...

Volume warning on the second video After edited video surfaced online of a female protester seemingly get dragged across the pavement during an attempted arrest, police have released body cam from one of the officers involved in the clash. The incident in question happened Tuesday night, when protestors from a group called All Out Atlanta marched as part of a rally against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, or ICE. Dozens of readers and viewers shared the edited video with 11Alive showing a woman being dragged, but none of them showed what happened in the moments leading up to the...

North Point Community Church Senior Pastor Andy Stanley recently explained to popular radio host and Messianic Jewish author Michael Brown why he's quit using the term "the Bible says." In an episode of Brown's podcast "Line of Fire" that aired Monday afternoon, Stanley explained why, although he considers the Good Book inerrant, the term "the Bible says" doesn't work with those he's trying to evangelize. "Once upon a time that was very effective in our country. Those days are long gone. But unfortunately, church leaders still want to leverage 'the Bible says,' which is great for people who take the...

I was checking out the so-called massive attendance at the Immigration Rallies across the country this morning with spaese attenance in Washington, DC nor many folks in Atlanta. We were told by the "fake news" that hundreds and hundreds of thousand of marchers were going to be active today, across the entire country. So far....not so good for the Democrats, the America Haters, Thje Trump Haters, the Open Border folks, and the illegal immigrants, etc. We shall see as the day goes forward. Methinks it will not go well...across the board. Just a few screaming fools making idiots out of...

COBB COUNTY, Ga. - Police in Cobb County are working to determine how a person died and their body ended up in a beer cooler. A co-worker made the grisly discovery hours before the first pitch at the Braves home game Tuesday afternoon at SunTrust Park. Cobb County Police said the worker was employed by a third-party contractor. The worker’s body was found in one of the vendor areas. Police said they responded to the stadium around 3:30 p.m. to investigate after receiving a 911. Investigators are working to determine the nature of the person's death. Detectives would not release...

ATLANTA - Roads around the state Capitol are closed after troopers said a man set himself on fire near it. We have several reporters and photographers at the scene for live updates on Channel 2 Action News at Noon. Troopers tell Channel 2’s Linda Stouffer that a disgruntled veteran drove up to and parked on Washington Street, near the west entrance of the Georgia State Capitol, around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday. He got out of the car and walked toward the Capitol building, with homemade incendiary devices and fireworks on him, troopers said. He then doused himself in a liquid and...

NORTH FULTON COUNTY, Ga. - A sting on the sex-trafficking trade in metro Atlanta netted dozens of arrests and the rescue of dozens of children forced into sexual servitude, the FBI announced this week. Operation Safe Summer was a collaborative effort between the FBI’s Atlanta field office and 38 law enforcement agencies in six metro counties, assistant Special Agent in Charge Matt Alcoke told Channel 2’s Mike Petchenik. “They are crimes of special concern to the FBI and to law enforcement generally,” Alcoke said. “Because the victims are so vulnerable as children and because the offenders could be from just...

The U.S. economy is expanding at a 4.8 percent annualized rate in the second quarter, the Atlanta Federal Reserve’s GDPNow forecast model showed on Friday. The forecast has been climbing higher following the release of a series of good economic data. On May 25, the measure foresaw four percent GDP growth. This rose to 4.7 percent Thursday and ticked even higher on Friday following the better than expected jobs report for May. The Atlanta Fed forecasts a big boost in private sector fixed investment, which includes capital investment in machinery, land, buildings, vehicles, and technology. Earlier, the Atlanta Fed saw...

An Atlanta plastic surgeon is facing a slew of lawsuits after it was revealed she had filmed herself singing and dancing over her exposed patients during surgeries. Dozens of videos have been found that show Dr Windell Boutte cavorting in the operating room, even while making incisions on her patients. In one video Boutte sings the to the rap lyric 'I'm 'bout to cut it', from an OT Genasis rap song, before slicing into one of her patients.

With her wedding just two months away, Icilma Cornelius arrived at the Lilburn office of Dr. Windell Boutte to prepare for her special day. The 54-year-old bride-to-be came to the doctor’s full-service medical spa and cosmetic surgery center for Botox and another anti-wrinkle treatment. While there, the staff recommended cosmetic surgery that could give her a flat stomach before she married. Cornelius agreed to the surgical makeover by Boutte, whose website promotes the doctor as “nationally and internationally known” and a “doctor to the stars!”

One person has died and another has been shot in a parking lot across the street from Mt. Zion High School, police said. The two people shot were not students. There was a graduation ceremony happening across the street at the Clayton County Performing Arts Center, Channel 2 Action News said. The shooting happened after the graduation concluded, and an arguement led to the shooting, police told Channel 2. @JustinWilfonWSB Clayton County School Police say the shooting happened after a graduation ceremony here. Argument led to the shooting. Two women shot, one killed. Both people shot were adult women, Channel...

A passenger's rant onboard a Spirit Airlines plane is going viral on social media. Passenger Safira Allen had apparently missed an earlier flight from Atlanta to Las Vegas on May 1. Airline officials said Allen ran down the boarding ramp of another Spirit flight to Vegas and took a seat that wasn't ticketed to her. When the gate agent tried to remove her from the flight, Allen refused and instead fired up her cellphone to take her story to Facebook Live. In her video, which has landed millions of views on Facebook, Allen goes on a tirade about the airline's...

Washington - The Democratic National Committee is eyeing eight American cities for its 2020 Democratic National Convention, a party official tells CNN. The DNC sent requests for proposals to a host of cities and received responses from eight: Atlanta; Birmingham, Alabama; Denver; Houston; Miami Beach; Milwaukee; New York; and San Francisco. "The DNC sent the original letters of interest to a broad list of cities that have traditionally been able to meet the preliminary requirements for serving as a host," the official said. "We expect the entire selection process to play out over the next year."

ATLANTA - Police say attackers, including a 13-year-old girl, targeted a woman parking at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The attacked happened at 9:30 p.m. Monday. The woman, in her late 20s, was in her car and ready to leave when police say two very young teenagers came to her window asking for help. She rolled down the window and then next thing she knew, they left her bloodied and without a car, according to authorities. Police say investigators recovered the victim's car and also arrested the 13-year-old girl.