Free Republic

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...