Free Republic

Philadelphia mom, 44, who shelled out $25k on Arabian themed prom send-off for her son complete with camel and three dates is charged with fraud for collecting disability and faces 140 years behind bars Saudia Shuler, the mom who dropped $25,000 for her son's 2017 prom, has been charged with wire fraud, theft of government funds and Social Security fraud The 44-year-old was said to have applied for benefits, describing herself as disabled and unable to work, but continued working She even operated a restaurant called Country Cookin' - costing the government close to $37,000 Shuler could face a staggering...

A former St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office deputy pleaded guilty Wednesday to stealing drugs during traffic stops and giving them to his girlfriend. Kenneth Szalajeski, 36, of Folsom, faced two counts of malfeasance and two counts of distribution of marijuana in connection with incidents in May and October 2016. He was sentenced to five years in prison, with four years suspended, on both malfeasance counts, and 10 years, with nine years suspended, on the distribution counts. The sentences will be served concurrently, effectively giving Szalajeski one year of jail time, followed by three years of probation. He faced up to...

A couple's dispute turned deadly at South Shore Harbor Marina early Saturday (August 11) when a woman crashed her car into her boyfriend's car and veered off the road into a palm tree, killing her, the New Orleans Police Department said. Neither has been publicly identified. Police said the 32-year-old woman and her boyfriend were arguing at their residence at about 2:15 a.m. when he decided to leave in his car. She followed in her car and ultimately struck his car in

A Horizon Air passenger plane crashed on an island in Puget Sound Friday night, not long after a suspect conducted an "unauthorized take-off" from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Washington state, officials said. Witnesses reported seeing a large plume of smoke in the air above Ketron Island after the plane went down. No passengers were believed to be aboard the Q400 aircraft, airport officials said. No one on the sparsely inhabited island was believed to have been injured, the Pierce County Sheriff's Department said on Twitter.The unidentified pilot was a 29-year-old "suicidal male," the sheriff's department said. The Seattle Times reported...

The internal affairs division of the Plaquemines Parish Sheriff's Office on Wednesday (Aug. 8) began looking into a complaint that a patrol deputy is part of a right-leaning organization that some have categorized as a hate group. The Sheriff's Office received Facebook screenshots and other images purportedly showing that Deputy Brian Green is a member of the Proud Boys, a conservative, men-only group whose members describe themselves as "Western Chauvinists." "To determine the factual and credible intentions and values of this organization, we are in contact with our federal partners to obtain reliable law enforcement intelligence that confirms or exonerates...

BEIJING (Reuters) - Hundreds of ethnic Hui Muslims are staging a sit-in protest in China’s western region of Ningxia against government plans to demolish a huge new mosque, amid tightening curbs on Islam to pull its practice in line with the Chinese mainstream. China officially guarantees freedom of religion, but in recent years officials nervous about the possibility of radicalization and violence have tightened controls in heavily Muslim areas. The Weizhou grand mosque, with numerous domes and minarets in a Middle Eastern style, had not received proper permits before construction, officials in the town of Weizhou said in a notice...

Angered that an immigrant mother and her daughter who are plaintiffs in a lawsuit had been deported, a federal judge demanded the administration turn the plane carrying them around and stop removing people from the country who are seeking protection from gangs and domestic violence. The court ruling came in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. According to a statement by the ACLU, while U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan was hearing arguments in the case, the court learned that the Trump administration had put a mother and a daughter who are plaintiffs in the lawsuit on a...

The U.S. Army has stopped discharging immigrant recruits who enlisted seeking a path to citizenship -- at least temporarily. A memo shared with The Associated Press on Wednesday and dated July 20 spells out orders to high-ranking Army officials to stop processing discharges of men and women who enlisted in the special immigrant program, effective immediately. It was not clear how many recruits were impacted by the action, and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the memo. "Effective immediately, you will suspend processing of all involuntary separation actions," read the memo signed by Acting Assistant...

First Lt. Marina Hierl has reportedly made history by becoming the first woman in the Marine Corps to lead an infantry platoon. The 24-year-old is one of four platoon commanders in Echo Company, a group of 175 Marines and Navy sailors who were recently sent to northern Australia, The New York Times reported Thursday. Hierl is one of two women to the 13-week Marines Corps Infantry Officer Course, according to the Times. “I wanted to do something important with my life,” she told the newspaper. “I wanted to be part of a group of people that would be willing to...

The Union City police chief’s teenage son was arrested Wednesday in connection with a brutal attack on a 71-year-old Sikh man in Manteca, and detectives are trying to determine if the attack was a hate crime. Surveillance footage from a nearby home released by the Manteca Police Department allegedly shows Tyrone Keith McAllister, 18, the son of Union City Police Chief Darryl McAllister, and a 16-year-old boy confronting Sahbit Singh Natt, who was taking his daily walk Monday morning along Greystone Park on Turquoise Way.Footage shows two people walk up to Natt at around 6 a.m. when one of the...

Investigators searching for Mollie Tibbetts in Iowa have discovered the body of a young white woman in her 20s, but they do not believe it to be the missing college student, whose whereabouts remain a mystery more than two weeks after she vanished. The unidentified woman’s remains were found in Lee County, about 100 miles southeast of Brooklyn, where Tibbetts was last seen jogging on July 18. The Iowa Department of Public Safety, however, said they have no reason to believe the body is that of Tibbetts. Officials have vetted more than 200 anonymous tips and have searched numerous areas...

Three women believed to be the mothers of 11 children found living in filth in a makeshift compound in New Mexico have been arrested. Taos County, New Mexico, Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe said the women and two men who were arrested over the weekend face charges of child abuse.

Beachgoers playing volleyball on a small island at the mouth of Mobile Bay perpetrated a horrific crime in recent weeks, likely killing hundreds of tiny least terns. The volleyballers even stacked dozens of eggs stolen from nests in a pile to bake in the sun. Birmingham Audubon, which discovered the tragedy, hopes to use it as a teaching moment and further the group's effort to help Alabama's coastal birds rebound from the BP oil spill. Least terns are the smallest of the terns, weighing 1.4 ounces as adults. They are about half the size of a cardinal, with snowy white...

On his way into his Ohio rally, Trump stopped his motorcade to get out and shake hands with some firefighters.

Jerry and Rita Alter kept to themselves. They were a lovely couple, neighbors in the small New Mexico town of Cliff would later tell reporters. But no one knew much about them. They may have been hiding a decades-old secret, pieces of which are now just emerging. Among them: After the couple died, a stolen Willem de Kooning painting with an estimated worth of $160 million was discovered in their bedroom. More than 30 years ago, that same painting disappeared the day after Thanksgiving from the University of Arizona Museum of Art in Tucson. And Wednesday, the Arizona Republic reported...

A war monitoring group says Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) fighters seized 36 women and children during simultaneous attacks on the southeastern province of Sweida last week. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Monday that 20 women and 16 children were seized from al-Shobki village in Sweida during the Wednesday attacks. The ambush by suspected ISIS militants left at least 221 people dead. Reports on social media suggest ISIS has sent photos of some of the kidnapped women, most of them from the minority Druze sect prevalent in Sweida, to their families in via WhatsApp. The...

PORTLAND, Ore. (CBSNewYork/AP) — A right-wing group and self-described anti-fascist counter-protesters rallied in Portland, Oregon, Saturday as police tried to prevent the gatherings from turning violent as they have before. The rally organized by Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson was the third to roil Portland this summer. Two previous events ended in bloody fistfights and riots, and one counter-protester was sent to the hospital with a skull fracture.This time, Gibson changed the venue from a federal plaza outside U.S. District Court to a waterfront park so some of his Oregon supporters could carry concealed weapons as they demonstrate. Protesters saw...

After Carlos Bayon was arrested on a charge of menacing U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise in a voicemail message, authorities deemed the threat "credible" and described evidence seized at the suspect's upstate New York home as "very concerning." The U.S. attorney did not detail the evidence, but a new affidavit filed in federal court in Buffalo by the Capitol Police itemizes it. No guns were found in the search, yet special agent Lawrence Anyaso says investigators discovered: 150 rounds of 7.62-millimeter rifle ammunition 50 rounds of shotgun ammunition A 2004 receipt for an SKS assault rifle A 1987 receipt for a...

PARIS (Reuters) - French judges ruled on Saturday that two celebrity rappers should be held in custody ahead of their trial in a month’s time following a brawl in the departure lounge of a Paris airport earlier this week.The two, Booba, 41, and Kaaris, 38, were arrested on Wednesday in the aftermath of a fight between their respective entourages, during which punches and kicks were exchanged and bottles containing perfume were thrown, sending other passengers scurrying for safety. Booba, whose real name is Elie Yaffa, has sold millions of records and is one of France’s most downloaded artists. Judges at...

Illinois government offices remained open Saturday as the home state of former President Barack Obama commemorated his birthday under a new state law. The bill marking Aug. 4 as “Barack Obama Day” throughout the state was enacted without making the date a full-scale holiday. The Illinois House narrowly rejected a plan to make Obama’s birthday a state holiday amid worries that the cash-strapped state could not afford to give state state employees another paid day off.Obama turned 57. The law hailed Obama’s efforts to protect the rights of Americans and build “bridges across communities.”