Free Republic

His death wasn’t about race, guns, or your pet issue. It was about misjudgment and overreaction—exactly what we’re doing now to the verdict. Trayvon Martin is dead, George Zimmerman has been acquitted, and millions of people are outraged. Some politicians are demanding a second prosecution of Zimmerman, this time for hate crimes. Others are blaming the tragedy on “Stand Your Ground” laws, which they insist must be repealed. Many who saw the case as proof of racism in the criminal justice system see the verdict as further confirmation. Everywhere you look, people feel vindicated in their bitter assumptions. They want...

Wedged into a secure, windowless basement room deep below the Capitol Visitors Center, U.S. District Court Judge John Bates appeared before dozens of senators earlier this month for a highly unusual, top-secret briefing. The lawmakers pressed Bates, according to people familiar with the session, to discuss the inner workings of the United States’ clandestine terrorism surveillance tribunal, which Bates oversaw from 2006 until earlier this year. FISA court papers show NSA warrantless surveillance rules Classified documents spell out procedures for targeting foreigners and minimizing the collection of data from U.S. persons. Bates had rarely spoken of his sensitive work. He...

THE NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER IN NORMAN OK IS FORECASTING THE DEVELOPMENT OF WIDESPREAD DAMAGING WINDS AND A FEW STRONG TORNADOES OVER PARTS OF THE PORTIONS OF THE MIDDLE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY EAST TO THE UPPER OHIO VALLEY AND LOWER GREAT LAKES THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT.

Russian intelligence officials believe that if U.S. authorities had acted on warnings about Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bombings could have been prevented, U.S. Rep. William Keating said Saturday after returning from a congressional delegation trip to Russia. The Massachusetts Democrat, who met with Russian intelligence officials Thursday, said he was provided with details on how U.S. intelligence agents were warned in 2010 that Tsarnaev was preparing to join a terrorist cell in the southern Russian region of Dagestan, the Boston Globe reported. Keating told reporters at Boston's Logan International Airport that a top Russian counterintelligence official told the delegation...

URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 262 NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK 330 PM CDT FRI MAY 31 2013 THE NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER HAS ISSUED A * TORNADO WATCH FOR PORTIONS OF CENTRAL AND NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA * EFFECTIVE THIS FRIDAY AFTERNOON FROM 330 PM UNTIL MIDNIGHT CDT. ...THIS IS A PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION... * PRIMARY THREATS INCLUDE... SEVERAL INTENSE TORNADOES LIKELY NUMEROUS VERY LARGE HAIL EVENTS TO 4 INCHES IN DIAMETER LIKELY NUMEROUS DAMAGING WIND GUSTS LIKELY WITH SEVERAL SIGNIFICANT GUSTS TO 80 MPH POSSIBLE THE TORNADO WATCH AREA IS APPROXIMATELY ALONG AND 65 STATUTE MILES...

Tornado Watch issued in North Central Texas:Severe Thunderstorm Watch in Southern Oklahoma:

Tornado warnings up in Oklahoma. Watches in TX, OK, KS, MO, far NW Arkansas.

Live coverage: http://www.ksn.com/weather/live-radar-and-storm-coverage/ Large tornado confirmed on the ground. Weather service has issued a Particularly Dangerous Situation warning.

WASHINGTON - Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) hasn't given up on his bill to expand background checks for gun purchases, he said Thursday, signaling more willingness to return to the plan than he had publicly shown before. "If we could find a way to bring some more folks on board, then of course it would be worth bringing it up again," Toomey said in an interview. While he has largely returned his focus to the fiscal issues he has long been associated with, he said he still occasionally talked privately with fellow senators about the background-check bill that was defeated...

Applications for tax exemption from advocacy nonprofits had not yet spiked when the Internal Revenue Service began using what it admits was inappropriate scrutiny of conservative groups in 2010. In fact, applications were declining, data show. Top IRS officials have been saying that a “significant increase” in applications from advocacy groups seeking tax-exempt status spurred its Cincinnati office in 2010 to filter those requests by using such politically loaded phrases as “Tea Party,” “patriots,” and “9/12.” Both Steven Miller, the agency’s acting commissioner until he stepped down Wednesday, and Lois Lerner, director of the agency’s exempt-organization division, have said over...

George Orwell could have been killed twice in the Spanish Civil War. Once when he was shot in the throat by General Franco’s fascist forces; then when he was hunted by official Communist agents who, with the backing of Stalin’s Soviet Union, stabbed the revolution in the back and imprisoned, tortured and killed leading leftists and anarchists who were ostensibly on the same Republican side. Orwell learned the hardest way that the war against fascism in Spain was also a civil war against Stalinism. Homage to Catalonia, Orwell’s famous account of his time in Spain from his arrival in Barcelona...

For the past few months I’ve been reporting a big story on the copper industry for Pacific Standard. It takes a broad look at how the global economic boom of the past decade, led by China and India, is pushing copper mining into new regions and new enormities of investment and excavation. (It’ll be out in June.) But a few days ago a very local event shook the copper industry, and I thought it would be neat to look at how a crisis at a single mine can ripple through space and time, ultimately affecting just about everyone around...

Colorado authorities have identified the victims of a backcountry avalanche on Saturday as five experienced snowboarders and skiers who were participating in a community event promoting backcountry safety and gear. The Rocky Mountain High Backcountry Gathering's organizer, Joe Timlin, who worked as the Rocky Mountain sales manager for various snowboard brands, was among the deceased, according to the Clear Creek County Coroner's office. "I lost a very dear friend today," said Adam Schmidt, editor of Snowboard Colorado Magazine, one of the event's sponsors. "I helped Joe put this community event together. Everybody in the snowboard community here knew him, and...

URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 123 NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK 935 AM EDT THU APR 18 2013 THE NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER HAS ISSUED A * TORNADO WATCH FOR PORTIONS OF EASTERN ILLINOIS CENTRAL AND EASTERN INDIANA SOUTHERN LOWER MICHIGAN NORTHWEST OHIO OHIO LAKE MICHIGAN * EFFECTIVE THIS THURSDAY MORNING AND AFTERNOON FROM 935 AM UNTIL 500 PM EDT. ...THIS IS A PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION... * PRIMARY THREATS INCLUDE... SEVERAL INTENSE TORNADOES LIKELY SEVERAL SIGNIFICANT DAMAGING WIND GUSTS TO 80 MPH POSSIBLE A FEW VERY LARGE HAIL EVENTS TO 2 INCHES IN DIAMETER POSSIBLE THE...

The liberal media will do anything to pressure lawmakers to support President Obama’s gun-control agenda. Politico published a story Wednesday with this headline: “Hunting Group Wants Background Checks.” The story gave the false impression that the millions of hunters in the U.S. support Mr. Obama’s push for “universal background checks.” That is way off target. In fact, 31 well-known hunting and conservation groups sent a letter to Capitol Hill Thursday expressing opposition to intrusion by the federal government into private firearm transfers. Politico only cites one small group in its story, Bull Moose Sportsmen, which claims 5,000 members. The story...

WASHINGTON - Could Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey be a Republican bridge who helps secure a deal on background checks on guns? His office confirmed Friday that Toomey, a strong Second Amendment advocate, was in discussions on pending gun bills that have struggled to gain traction with Republicans and many pro-gun Democrats in the Senate. "Sen. Toomey and his staff are talking to a lot of folks - both in Pennsylvania and in the Capitol - on the issue of guns in the hopes that we get to an approach that works," his spokeswoman wrote in an e-mail. There was no...

The decision of the government in Cyprus to simply take money out of people's bank accounts there sent shock waves around the world. People far removed from that small island nation had to wonder: “Can this happen here?” The economic repercussions of having people feel that their money is not safe in banks can be catastrophic. Banks are not just warehouses where money can be stored. They are crucial institutions for gathering individually modest amounts of money from millions of people and transferring that money to strangers whom those people would not directly trust... [snip] One of the big differences...

Underwater doesn't even begin to get at the heart of Maurice Corkery's predicament. "This was my summer home," the Delaware County plant manager said of his little rancher on Third Street in Ocean City, N.J., flooded with its foundation cracked - totalled, really - by Sandy. "I was trying to think of a time line," he said. "It's been so long. I'm so screwed up. I haven't seen any money. Where is the money? All they do is talk about it." [snip] "It seems like people who are responsible and have paid for coverage are the losers," he said. "The...

During the ongoing sesquestration, taxpayers were confronted with the cancellation of White House tours, military cutbacks and the heartbreak of congressional staffers having to brown-bag lunches twice a week – while President Obama resumed golfing and his daughters went to the Bahamas and an Idaho Ski area in the same week. Confronted with plummeting poll numbers in response to such, President Obama today unveiled proposals to significantly reduce the vacation travel costs for him and his family. “In hindsight, it does use up Secret Service time and fuel for me to travel to go golfing” President Obama said. "So I...

WASHINGTON — The gun lobby isn’t the only group throwing its weight around trying to thwart President Obama’s plans to combat gun violence. Even a modest proposal to study how violent video games might be affecting young minds has quietly run aground, the victim, sources say, of opposition by the burgeoning video game industry — a $67 billion colossus with increasing clout in Washington.