Free Republic

Education: As if Occupy Wall Street and its parasitic protesters weren't a bad enough example for children, now teacher unions and their enablers are getting into the act with disturbing ideas about "teaching" its tenets. Little noticed in the protest army sitting in against Wall Street, the educational establishment is more involved than you might think. From teachers disrupting school board meetings to classroom use of lesson plans about the "Occupy" protests to "teach-ins" that aim to educate the public about protest demands, we are witnessing a vast spread of economic illiteracy for political purposes. It started early this month...

UKIAH -- An estimated $800 million worth of marijuana has been seized following a massive raid on illegal grows on public lands deep in Northern California's pot country, authorities said Tuesday. ... Several Mexican-based drug trafficking organizations were behind the illegal grows, Department of Justice spokeswoman Michelle Gregory said. In previous years, officials have blamed Mexican drug cartels for some of the state's largest growing operations, but Gregory stopped short of making that claim.

A cryptic code sent by the Zodiac killer on November 8, 1969 to San Francisco Chronicle has baffled authorities for decades, until now. Now a 27-year-old man is claiming he cracked this code as well as the identity of the Zodiac killer, who murdered at least seven people in the late 60s. Corey Starliper of Tewksbury, Massachusetts, was intrigued by the case after watching a 2007 movie "Zodiac" about the killings. He claims to have spent nine hours working on cracking the code. "I found it exciting, that I was actually able to get into his head when nobody had...

Mexican soldiers discovered the largest marijuana plantation in the country's history, hidden under black cloth in the middle of the desert. The 300-acre plantation is four times larger than the previous record discovery by authorities and workers had even installed toilet facilities, the Defence Department said. The towering pot plants sheltered under black screen-cloth in a huge square on the floor of the Baja California desert, more than 150 miles south of Tijuana, across the border from San Diego.

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) – CBS News has confirmed that authorities are looking into a shocking security breach that took place at John F. Kennedy International Airport last week. WCBS 880′s Pat Farnack With Former NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker Investigators say Olajide Oluwaseun Noibi, a Nigerian, boarded Virgin America Flight 415 to Los Angeles without a valid passport or identification, using an expired boarding pass for a flight the day before that belonged to someone else. 1010 WINS’ Carol D’Auria reports: Passengers Say Security Agents Fell Down On The Job Officials say Noibi got through security and was able to board...

The woman who authorities say killed her teenage daughter and son because she was fed up with them talking back and being mouthy will not appear in court Saturday because she's being treated at a hospital for an unknown condition. Authorities say Julie Powers Schenecker was taken to Tampa General Hospital shortly after midnight Saturday to be treated for a medical condition that existed before she was taken to jail. Hillsborough Sheriff's deputies — who oversee jail inmates — said they could not reveal Schenecker's medical condition, citing health care privacy laws. An arrest affidavit said Schenecker shot her son...

Gov. Christie proposes elimination of 300 N.J. boards, commissions Published: Friday, September 10, 2010, 4:26 PM Updated: Friday, September 10, 2010, 4:45 PM Lisa Fleisher/Statehouse Bureau Lisa Fleisher/Statehouse Bureau TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie today released reports from his departments recommending the merger or elimination of about 300 boards and commissions — including many inactive or defunct groups created years ago, and some that have never met at all. At the same time, Christie signed an executive order — his 40th since taking office in January (PDF) — shuttering 60 inactive boards, including some created three decades ago. The report...

One of the people murdered by Palestinian Authority terrorists Tuesday used to carry a gun for self-defense, but Israeli authorities took away his permit in late 2009 – leaving him defenseless. Attorney Yitzchak Bam of the Forum for the Land of Israel represented the deceased man in his legal attempts to win back his gun permit. “In December, he received a letter according to which the permit is suspended because of closed criminal files regarding disturbance of the public peace,” he related. “The last closed file was from the period immediately after the Disengagement,” he said. The permit was extended...

http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local-beat/Holy-Snail-Sipping-Doesnt-Sit-Well-With-Authorities-87343242.htmlReligious persecution is nothing new, but drinking snail juice as part of your beliefs is a bit of a stretch. But ask Charles L. Stewart, of Hialeah, and he'll tell you his practice of drinking the slimy creatures' juices in healing rituals is legit. "I did not invent this. It's something that is part of our religion," Stewart told the Miami Herald. "It's not something meant to hurt anybody." But state and federal authorities claim otherwise. They raided Stewart's house in January, claiming he was illegally smuggling the Giant African Snails into the country after they received complaints that his...

[ABOVE: Rifqa Bary] The Fate of Riqua Bary Seems Not to Matter to Authorities Does Riqua Bary's life matter? How the authorities stacked the deck against the runaway Muslim girl from Ohio who converted to Christianity.In virtually unprecedented breach of protocol, the State of Florida ridiculed Riqua Bary's belief that she would be in danger if she, as a Christian convert, were returned to her father and brother's household. Ms Bary is a 17-year-old minor. Being raised in a Muslim household, she was well aware that the crime for apostasy was death. With the help of a Christian missionary,...

The Iranian authorities have ordered the family of a student shot dead in Tehran to take down mourning posters as they struggle to stop her becoming the rallying point for protests against the presidential election. Neda Salehi Agha Soltan, 26, was killed as she watched a pro-democracy protest, and mobile phone footage of her last moments have become a worldwide symbol of Iran's turmoil. The authorities had already banned a public funeral or wake and have prevented gatherings in her name while the state-controlled media has not mentioned Miss Soltan's death. Today it was reported that they had also told...

BOONEVILLE, Ark. - A meat packing plant exploded Sunday afternoon, injuring an unknown number of people and forcing homes to be evacuated because ammonia gas leaked into the air, state officials said. Flames poured out of the Cargill Meat Solutions plant just after 2 p.m., witnesses said. It wasn't immediately known how many homes were evacuated in the western Arkansas town of 4,000, emergency management spokeswoman Renee Preslar said. A hazardous materials team from Sebastian County was heading to Booneville, Preslar said Meredith Voges, 22, of Connecticut, said she heard the explosion while staying at a hotel just behind the...

Authorities Raid California Museums By GREG RISLING LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal agents raided several Southern California museums on Thursday in search of Southeast Asian antiquities believed to have been illegally obtained, smuggled into the U.S. and donated so collectors could claim fraudulent tax deductions. Agents also investigated American Indian artifacts at one museum. Search warrants were executed at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena and the Mingei International Museum in San Diego, said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Authorities said no arrests...

BAGHDAD - Iraqi authorities want the U.S. government to sever all contracts in Iraq with Blackwater USA within six months. They also want the firm to pay $8 million in compensation to families of each of the 17 people killed when its guards sprayed a traffic circle with heavy machine gun fire last month. The demands — part of an Iraqi government report examined by The Associated Press — also called on U.S. authorities to hand over the Blackwater security agents involved in the Sept. 16 shootings to face possible trial in Iraqi courts. The tone of the Iraqi report...

North Texas toll roads ignore safe engineering standards to allow the state to set up speed traps. Toll road operators in North Texas are ignoring state law by imposing arbitrary speed limits that are set far below the safest level suggested by engineering surveys. A WFAA-TV investigation discovered that the North Texas Tollway Authority set speed limits on portions of the Dallas North Tollway and all of the Bush Turnpike without performing the scientific studies required by state and federal law. "Statistics show that 85 percent of the people drive at a prudent and reasonable speed," Kelly Selman, TxDOT director...

A 62-year-old man from northern Sweden faces a date in court after trying to eat his accounts when his home was raided by police, Västerbottens Kuriren reports. Having forced the man to stop chewing his books, police conducted a search of the house and found large quantities of gold as well as almost 800,000 kronor ($120,000) in cash. In 2005 and 2006, the suspect placed a number of ads in local newspapers offering goods for sale at attractive prices. But despite an obvious entrepreneurial streak, he had failed to declare an income for several years. As tax authorities became increasingly...

NEW YORK, May 2 (Reuters Life!) - Evacuees of Hurricane Katrina which devastated New Orleans in 2005 felt a deep level of distrust towards public health authorities, according to a new study. Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) said the level of distrust influenced how people reacted to warnings to evacuate and why some residents decided to stay. "The statements of distrust were all spontaneous statements," said Dr. Kristina Cordasco, the lead author of the study published in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved.

Law enforcement sources confirm to News 4 that Tucson Police have issued an "attempt to locate" on two Middle Eastern men in their 20's who purchased nearly 50 phones from Sam's Club and Wal-Mart in Tucson. Sources say the men made the purchases on Saturday and Sunday. There's been a number of arrests nationwide with very similar circumstances. News 4 is not linking this case with the national cases, but we do want to point out how similar they are. Arrests have been made in Michigan and Ohio and there are reports of large numbers of cell phones being sold...

About 75 illegal immigrants were found Tuesday in the desert about 50 miles west of Phoenix, many suffering from dehydration and exhaustion from triple-digit heat, authorities said. Seven immigrants and three sheriff's deputies were taken to hospitals for treatment, said Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Officers used a helicopter, canine units and all-terrain vehicles and conducted foot patrols to search for others believed to be in the area, officials said. "We know they're still out there because there's sounds in the brush," said Lt. Paul Chagolla, a sheriff's department spokesman. "We can hear them. They've hunkered down." Lt. Chuck Siemens,...

One day in the winter of 1996, while 12-year-old Suad Leija was getting ready for school, more than a dozen armed FBI agents raided her family's Chicago-area home. They were looking for her stepfather, Manuel Leija-Sanchez, who federal authorities believe runs a document-fraud network -- producing fake passports, Social Security cards, driver's licenses and a variety of other official papers -- with cells throughout the United States. That cold morning, the agents were too late. Manuel Leija-Sanchez had fled during the night to Mexico after he was tipped off to the impending raid, his stepdaughter recalled. The business continued to...

Marijuana users can be arrested for drugged driving weeks after they toast a joint, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in a Jackson County appeal. A veteran prosecutor hailed the ruling as a correct interpretation of the zero-tolerance law that will make enforcement easier. A longtime defense attorney said the high court has opened the floodgates on overreaching government. "This goes to show the Supreme Court does not seem to care about individual rights," Jackson attorney Jerry Engle said. At issue were cases from Jackson and Grand Traverse counties. The local case involved the prosecution of Dennis Kurts for driving...

WASHINGTON, June 12, 2006 – Afghan citizens turned in a sizable weapons cache in Bak, Khost province, on June 10, Combined Forces Command Afghanistan officials reported today. Cases of anti-aircraft rounds, a mortar system and rocket-propelled-grenade rounds were turned over to coalition forces. Another concerned citizen reported a homemade bomb in Khost's Del Pori Village to the Afghan National Police. A coalition explosives team destroyed the bomb in place. Afghan police also discovered a homemade bomb in Arghandab, Zabul province. The police and coalition forces removed the device, ensuring the safety of civilians on the road. In Nishgam, Kunar province,...

Thousands of students took to streets again Tuesday in Western states to protest proposed toughening of immigration laws but law enforcement authorities began cracking down by rounding up demonstrators as truants and issuing citations. Small numbers of arrests were reported. "We're not going to allow lawbreaking to take on a new dimension," Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said after a second day of students roaming streets and attempting to march onto freeways - a dangerous tactic that alarmed officials. "When kids are walking on freeways, that's not free speech," said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Some 11,600 students cut...

Mexican authorities on Friday announced the capture of a top Mexican drug smuggler wanted in the United States for cocaine trafficking and money laundering and who was included among the 40 most-wanted fugitives in the world. Oscar Arriola Marquez, leader of the Arriola Marquez cartel, was arrested on Thursday in the northern state of Coahuila, one of three states where the organization is based, Attorney General Daniel Cabeza de Vaca said. “He is one of the drug traffickers most sought after in the United States” and among the 40 most-wanted fugitives in the world, Cabeza de Vaca said. Mexican authorities...

LA authorities warn of more booby-trapped pens Dan Glaister in Los Angeles Wednesday December 7, 2005 The Guardian (UK) The authorities in Los Angeles have issued a warning to pupils after the discovery of three exploding pens. The latest booby-trapped device went off on Friday morning when a pupil picked up a marker pen lying on the floor in the boys' toilets. It went off in his hands. In August two other devices went off at El Monte district schools, injuring two others. The victims suffered minor burns and scratches on their hands and faces. Article continues

SAN DIEGO – After an exhaustive search, authorities say they've captured a man suspected of being the "FedEx bandit." Farzad Farhbaksh, 40, was caught entering Mexico Monday at a Tijuana border checkpoint, said Lauren Mack, spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Farhbaksh was being pursued for six months, Mack said. He is accused of being the bandit who robbed 41 banks in Southern California, using a Fed Ex box to carry away his stolen cash. San Diego police are expected to announce the arrest and the charges they plan to pursue at a news conference later in the day. Immigration...

Authorities skeptical of police reports that woman from Irvine committed suicide. IRVINE – Alone in Ensenada late at night, without her car or purse or shoes, 20-year-old Paulina Baeza found an unlocked Chevy Blazer at a downtown car lot, climbed inside and fell asleep. A few hours later, after police had arrested her for trespassing and locked her in a cell, Baeza was dead. Contradicting initial reports from Ensenada police that Baeza - who suffered from bipolar disorder - committed suicide in her cell Aug. 9 by banging her head against the bars of the door, Mexican authorities said Friday...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A Mexican national wanted in his native country for allegedly killing a man following an argument over a herd of goats was arrested in Los Angeles County, immigration officials said Friday. Federal agents arrested Miguel Garcia-Chavez, 49, at his Palmdale home Thursday night, according to a statement from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A legal permanent resident, Garcia-Chavez could be deported because he has a prior conviction for spousal battery. He was held without bond and faces immigration proceedings, officials said. He allegedly shot to death a man in the rural community of Tamazula de Gordiano...

DENVER (AP) - Federal authorities said Wednesday they had disrupted a far-flung ring that made counterfeit immigration and identification documents, and they hope to extradite the alleged leader from Mexico. Authorities said the fake Social Security cards, driver's licenses and other documents were so sophisticated that only a crime lab could distinguish them from the real thing. An indictment accuses Pedro Castorena-Ibarra of Guadalajara, Mexico, of overseeing cells in more than a dozen cities across the country. Cell leaders paid a "franchise fee" to get in on the operation, said Marcy Forman, director of investigations for U.S. Immigration and Customs...

POLICE believe that they have identified the British-born man who masterminded the suicide bomb attacks on London. It also emerged yesterday that one of his recruits was a primary school teaching assistant. The leader of the terrorist cell is believed to be in his thirties and of Pakistani origin. He arrived at a British port last month and is understood to have left the country the day before four suicide bombers murdered at least 52 people. Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, working as a teaching mentor in a classroom at a school in the Beeston area of Leeds (©THE TIMES )...

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico plans to deport a Pakistani to the United States to face questions regarding arms trafficking, Mexican authorities said Wednesday. The Pakistani, who has not been identified by name, was detained Sunday along with three Afghans and a Syrian in the Tijuana area, across the border from San Diego, two Mexican government officials said on customary condition of anonymity. All five were in the process of being deported to the United States on Wednesday for being in Mexico illegally, the officials said. It appeared the detainees arrived from the United States. The Pakistani was being deported...

Quincy Middlebrooks gets lots of invitations. He just does not answer them. For years, Middlebrooks and a minority of Lucas County's convicted sex offenders have repeatedly ignored requests from authorities to register their places of residence with the county sheriff's office as required by Ohio's sex offender registration and notification law. "They're the ones you always have to run after," said Lucas County Deputy Sheriff Mark Woodruff, who verifies that the county's more than 600 registered sex offenders live at the address they provide to authorities. But now it's no more Mrs. Nice Gal for Lucas County Prosecutor Julia Bates....

ROSARITO, Mexico (AP) - Police have identified the driver who hit two Americans while drag racing on a beach here last month, but he has avoided arrest by filing a court injunction, investigators said Thursday. Amy Ruth Kent, 24, of Santa Barbara, California, died instantly when she was hit by the car March 20. Her companion, Joseph Andre Escalante, was seriously injured and taken to a hospital in California. Witnesses told police that the two were resting on the sand in front of a restaurant when they were hit by a man driving a Honda. The driver fled the scene....

Only a few months ago, this question never would have occurred to us, but now it must be asked: Are city officials engaged in a cover-up of incriminating information sought by federal authorities investigating San Diego's financial irregularities? Highly disturbing evidence is mounting that some city officials have been less than cooperative with the separate civil and criminal probes being conducted by the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the last two weeks, an SEC lawyer found it necessary to remind city officials by letter that subpoenaed documents "within the possession, custody or control of the...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - State Attorney General Bill Lockyer filed a securities-fraud lawsuit Monday against Edward D. Jones & Co., alleging the investment giant received $300 million in improper payments to push seven mutual funds to its clients. The announcement came the same day that the Securities and Exchange Commission settled with the St. Louis-based brokerage firm for $75 million, but Lockyer said clients who were deceived deserved a larger payout. John Boul, spokesman for Edward Jones, did not immediately return calls for comment. The lawsuit, filed in Sacramento County Superior Court, charged the company instituted a policy in 2000...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Four people, including a local Iranian TV and radio personality, were arrested and charged with allegedly filing false employment visa applications on behalf of hundreds of foreigners seeking entry into the United States, officials said Tuesday. Henry Hossein Haghighi Heguman, 59, of West Hills was described in the federal criminal complaint as the leader of the scheme. Haghighi has regularly appeared on local Iranian TV and radio shows, officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement. Haghighi was arrested Saturday along with Bita Logham Hoffman, 39, of Carlsbad; Farideh Mir, 58, of Sherman...

Feds target alternative media Web site update An alternative media network called the Independent Media Center said Friday that federal law enforcement authorities confiscated several of its Web servers, shutting down many of its independently run sites. The group said in a statement on its Web site that federal authorities issued a court order requesting the computer equipment Thursday morning to United States-based Web hosting provider Rackspace. The hosting company subsequently handed over the Web servers, located in its London facility, to authorities, Independent Media Center (IMC) said. Rackspace issued a terse comment on the issue, saying it responded to...

LOS ANGELES - Police investigating a report of a kidnapping found 27 suspected illegal immigrants who had been held by smugglers at a small hotel. Authorities were tipped off Tuesday by a 911 call that people were being held at the Polaris Hotel in South Los Angeles, said police Sgt. Michael Parlor. The suspected smugglers fled before police arrived with their lights and sirens on, Parlor said. Officers who went to the hotel to investigate a possible kidnapping found 13 people crammed into one motel room and 14 in another, he said. "We got food for everyone. It looks like...

NIIGATA, Japan (AP) - To his Japanese neighbors, Lionel Dumont was a mystery. When police and immigration officials asked about the Frenchman, Dumont's landlord had no idea who he was, even though the landlord lived right across the street and had only 36 tenants in his apartment building. "They showed me a black-and-white picture and asked if I remembered him," Jubei Sato said. "I couldn't place him at all. I don't think I saw him once the whole three months he lived here. He blended right in, never caused any trouble. But I found out after he left that he'd...

ROME - Anti-terrorism police arrested the Algerian cleric of a mosque and four Tunisians Sunday in a crackdown authorities said was aimed at preventing an al-Qaida-linked cell from sending suicide attackers to Iraq (news - web sites). The suspects were seized in pre-dawn raids in three cities in the northern Tuscany region, Genoa's Police Chief Oscar Fiorolli said. Genoa, a northern port city, began the investigations that led to the arrests. The suspects allegedly belonged to a cell of Ansar al-Islam, an organization based in northern Iraq with links to al-Qaida, Fiorolli told the Associated Press in Rome in a...

Syrian Authorities Break Up Rare Protest Monday March 8, 2004 11:46 PM By ZEINA KARAM Associated Press Writer DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - In a capital awash with Syrian flags, posters supporting President Bashar Assad and pamphlets declaring his party's achievements on its 41st anniversary, a paper banner raised Monday urging freedom for political prisoners did not fit in. Syrian authorities quickly tore it up, broke up the rare demonstration and arrested the small group of activists - who knew that was the most likely outcome of their call for change. A U.S. diplomat observing the demonstration was also briefly detained,...

Their boss insists that they're not trying to act like jerks. It's just that the border patrol agents who descended on Portland last weekend are new to Maine and, this being the dead of winter and all, they apparently can't help themselves."A lot of our agents are just off the southern (U.S.) border and there's a different atmosphere down there," said Monte J. Bennett, assistant chief patrol agent for the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection in Houlton. "There are a lot more numbers down there. Things are more aggressive."In other words, if you're an immigrant in Maine these...

Lebanese Authorities Seize Iraq Currency Saturday January 17, 2004 3:46 AM BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Lebanese authorities have confiscated billions of new Iraqi dinars from aboard a private plane that came from Baghdad. Officials said that 19.5 billion dinars, worth about $15 million, were confiscated aboard the Lebanese-owned Magic Carpet plane late Wednesday. The officials said Thursday that the notes might have been brought to Lebanon to try to trade at money exchange companies. Lebanon's Financial Prosecutor's office detained three Lebanese businessmen who were aboard the plane for questioning. The confiscation of the new money came as Iraq's old bank...

<p>ST. LOUIS (AP) - Only a month since the rollout of retooled $20 bills meant to thwart counterfeiters, authorities say a Missouri woman has joined a growing list of people trying to cash in with knockoffs of the colorized currency.</p>

<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) - Suicide has been discounted as a possibility in the death of an actress found dead at the home of music producer Phil Spector, authorities said Wednesday.</p> <p>Spector's attorney, Robert Shapiro, did not immediately return a phone call today seeking comment.</p>

DETROIT (AP) - A tip to New York police from a man who said his ex-brother-in-law was a terrorist linked to al-Qaida and "was getting ready to bomb you guys" has triggered the arrest of a Yemeni man in Michigan. Agents who raided the home of Mohamed Nasser Alajji found a number of anti-American tapes and documents, the U.S. Justice Department said Monday. State police and federal agents arrested the 31-year-old Detroit resident Thursday near Springfield, a Battle Creek-area community about 120 miles west of Detroit. Alajji appeared in U.S. District Court on Monday on charges of possessing two social...

PMW has documented in the past the Palestinian Authority’s [PA’s] tactic of encouraging children to seek heroic Shahada - death for Allah, and then using the numbers of dead children in their PR war against Israel. A PMW bulletin last week week noted the PA’s recent attempts to brings crowds of violent demonstrators into the streets, in an attempt to change the image of the terrorist war to that of a popular uprising. Now the PA has combined the two tactics, once again encouraging children to die as part of the “popular uprising”, as they have renewed the broadcasting of...

<p>About 2,000 convicted sex offenders in Maine did not register with authorities by this week's deadline, police said.</p> <p>The number of crimes covered by the state's registration law was expanded by the state Legislature in 1999 and 2000. The changes, which took effect last September, also made the law retroactive to 1992.</p>