Free Republic

<p>Chicago - City Clerk Susana Mendoza is investigating whether gang signs are in the artwork of the new Chicago city sticker just days before the sticker is set to be printed.</p> <p>The sticker was picked as the winner in a city-wide contest and was designed by a 15-year-old boy who attends a school for troubled youth.</p>

Cynthia Nixon of “Sex In The City” fame (I finally got to see it on E years after its run on HBO; what a loathsome show about some lonely, superficial people) is gay. She said it was a choice — a statement that has angered certain people who want to stifle her free speech and dictate how she feels. First the over-reaction from John Aravosis: “It’s not a ‘choice,’ unless you consider my opting to date a guy with brown hair versus a guy with blonde hair a ‘choice,’” he writes. “It’s only a choice among flavors I already like…...

The struggling U.S. city of Detroit is on track to run out of money in May instead of April after spending changes made by city officials, Michigan Treasurer Andy Dillon said on Tuesday. Dillon addressed media following a two-and-a-half-hour meeting with a team that is looking at Detroit's financial picture and trying to assess whether the city needs an emergency manager to take over operations. It was the first time the 10-member team met since it was appointed last month. He said Detroit's most urgent issue is figuring out how to arrest escalating retiree health care costs, and clean up...

Stacy Lynne educates We Are Change Colorado about the International Council on LOCAL Environmental Initiatives. An arm of the United Nations Agenda 21 and how they are using "GREENWASHING" to take over America

The city in the Heilongjiang province in China first held its Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival in 1963, although it was interrupted for a number of years during the Cultural Revolution and only resumed in 1985. The festival, which starts on January 5 and lasts for one month, is one of the largest of its kind in the world attracting thousands of tourists from across China.

We wish that we could call this list, "The Happiest Cities In America." But right now every city in America is suffering. The least miserable cities might surprise you, including Pittsburgh and Buffalo. These cities experienced less of a boom during the bubble, so they're finding it easier to recover. Conversely the most miserable cities are mostly housing bubble capitals. Our list is based on an index from Brookings including unemployment rate and change in employment, home prices and gross metro product since before the recession. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ #20 McAllen, Texas Unemployment rate of 12.2% Employment up 2.0% from peak Gross...

Adopts Conforming Ordinance The Raleigh City Council today adopted an ordinance that members hope will be short lived. The vote brings the City Code into compliance with North Carolina State Enabling Laws. The newly adopted State law that went into effect Dec. 1, allows the carrying of concealed weapons essentially everywhere, with the exceptions of some City-owned parks and recreational facilities. The City Council has asked the City Attorney’s Office to pursue an exemption for Raleigh during the General Assembly’s short session. "While the City Council will comply with the new law, the Council members unanimously believe it is bad...

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — The City Attorney’s Office recommended that 46 people charged with crimes related to the LAPD raid on the Occupy L.A. enacampment not be allowed back to City Hall to continue protesting. Charges were filed against protesters who either resisted arrest or had prior criminal records. “We believe it is appropriate since they were arrested for violating the law in that area that they be ordered by the court not to go back to that area,” Thomas said. He likened it to a husband accused of beating his wife, saying it would be reasonable to request the...

Natasha Nimer had a simple question: As a trustee in a local labor union representing City of Phoenix employees, did she have a duty to check the books of a taxpayer-funded insurance account it managed? So she asked the executive board of AFSCME Local 2960. The response was an emphatic “no.” She dropped the matter and thought it would end there. She was wrong. In the months that followed, union officials tried to strip Nimer of her duties as a trustee and steward. They tried twice to force her out of AFSCME, only to have the international headquarters order her...

During Tuesday’s Los Angeles City Council meeting, where the most scintillating item on the agenda was a proposal to increase ticket prices at the L.A. Zoo, a speaker stood up and told lawmakers they were ignoring an obvious fact: “You are surrounded by tents.” He was referring to the large group of protesters camped a few hundred feet away, on a grassy lawn outside City Hall. The group, which calls itself Occupy L.A., has been there since Saturday in a demonstration against economic policies that benefit corporations and the wealthiest Americans. The speaker, a well-known political gadfly named John Walsh,...

The rocky economic recovery and stagnant unemployment rate have led to a surge in the homeless seeking shelter in shanties and tents nationwide, experts say. There's no official estimate on how many tent cities exist but, experts say, nearly every state has one and the presence of such communities is soaring. "In just about every major city, there are tent cities," said Michael Stoop, a community organizer for the National Coalition for the Homeless. "Unfortunately, we're in a growth industry and the numbers are going to continue." Stoop and his organization began formally tracking tent cities in 2010 but the...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Authorities say a Florida man faces federal misdemeanor charges after witnesses reported seeing him wandering around a national forest campground naked and armed with a pistol. Joseph Alfieri is charged in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City with being publicly nude and causing annoyance.

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AFP) - Thousands of residents have fled the Nigerian city of Maiduguri over the past two days fearing more Islamist attacks and after soldiers were accused of shooting civilians, residents said on Tuesday. Residents piled into the backs of trucks and packed up their cars to leave the northeastern city, which has seen the brunt of the violence blamed on the Islamist sect known as Boko Haram. The government has deployed hundreds of troops to Maiduguri in a bid to stop the sect, and last weekend a shootout between soldiers and suspected sect members left at least 11...

[snip] "In addition, the incidence for schizophrenia is almost doubled for individuals who are born and brought up in cities. "These values are a cause for concern and determining the biology behind this is the first step to remedy the trend." He and colleagues studied a series of brain scans from healthy volunteers from rural and urban areas to reach their conclusion. Dr Pruessner said: "These findings suggest that different brain regions are sensitive to the experience of city living during different times across the lifespan. "Future studies need to clarify the link between psychopathology and these affects in individuals...

SAN JOSE, Calif., June 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- WHAT: Three San Jose city unions establish 24/7 mobile negotiations center to demand negotiations on pension reform. Media availability and press conference scheduled. WHO: Negotiating teams for IFPTE, Local 21 & AMSP. WHEN: June 6, 2011 4:00 AM to 12:00 PM Media Availability 12:00 PM Press Conference WHERE: East Santa Clara Street, between 4th & 5th Streets (Across from San Jose City Hall) San Jose, CA 95113 Beginning at 4:00 AM Monday, unions representing architects and engineers (AEA), mid-level managers (CAMP) and maintenance supervisors (AMSP) will staff an RV parked across the...

A bill that seeks to ban “sanctuary cities” in Texas has been filed for the special session of the Legislature that began today. State Rep. Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton, filed HB 9, a bill that would prohibit local entities from enacting policies that prohibits law enforcement from inquiring into the immigration status of a person lawfully detained or arrested. Gov. Rick Perry called a special session of the legislature immediately after learning Monday that the Texas Senate would not pass a bill essential to balancing the 2012-2013 budget. His original proclamation did not include sanctuary cities legislation, which he designated as...

ALTUS, Okla. – After a little over 30-minutes in executive session Thursday afternoon, the Altus City Council accepted the resignation of embattled City Manager Mike Nettles.

House, still simmering, OKs sanctuary city bill in late-night voteBy Tim Eaton and Kate Alexander | Tuesday, May 10, 2011, 12:26 AM Texas House members approved the controversial “sanctuary cities” immigration-related bill just before midnight. The vote on House Bill 12, sought by Republicans and declared a priority item by Gov. Rick Perry, was 100-47 along party lines. In the end, Republicans resorted to a brute-force approach that they earlier had tried to avoid after similar moves on Saturday brought bitter discord to the chamber. For much of the day Monday, members of the two parties had retreated into private...

Reason.tv: Sandy Springs, Georgia - The City that Outsourced Everything April 12, 2011 While cities across the country are cutting services, raising taxes and contemplating bankruptcy, something extraordinary is happening in a suburban community just north of Atlanta, Georgia. Since incorporating in 2005, Sandy Springs has improved its services, invested tens of millions of dollars in infrastructure and kept taxes flat. And get this: Sandy Springs has no long-term liabilities. This is the story of Sandy Springs, Georgia—the city that outsourced everything. Approximately 8 minutes. Produced by Paul Feine and Alex Manning.

Metropolitan area results are beginning to trickle in from the 2010 census. They reveal that, at least for the major metropolitan areas so far, there is little evidence to support the often repeated claim by think tanks and the media that people are moving from suburbs to the historical core municipalities. This was effectively brought to light in a detailed analysis of Chicago metropolitan area

In the days following Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin came under fire for publicly saying he wanted to rebuild his city as a "Chocolate New Orleans." Now, a report by National Public Radio is using similar terminology, calling the nation's capital "chocolate," but noting a change in its flavor. The article, titled, "D.C., Long 'Chocolate City,' Becoming More Vanilla," by Alex Kellogg, opens by stating: "For decades Washington, D.C., was known affectionately as 'Chocolate City' to many black Americans, because it was predominantly African-American. "Most big U.S. cities are getting browner as more blacks, Hispanics and Asians move...

According to Forbes, the top 10 most dangerous cities are: 1. Memphis, Tenn. 2. St. Louis, Mo. 3. Kansas City, Mo. 4. Detroit, Mi. 5. Miami, Fla. 6. Tulsa, Okla. 7. Nashville-Davidson, Tenn. 8. Indianapolis, Ind. 9. Oklahoma City, Okla. 10. Stockton, Calif. http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-news/nashville-ranked-seventh-most-dangerous-city

City mulls stripping workers' health careBy Linda Metz, Staff writer 11/2/2010 3:33 AM Washington city employees eventually could find themselves shopping for their own health care plan. At council's agenda meeting Monday morning, Councilman Joe Manning introduced the concept of the city not offering health care benefits to its employees by taking advantage of The Affordable Care Act that was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in March. "If we, as an employer, do not provide health care, our employees would be eligible for federal government subsidies" to purchase their own, Manning said. He also...

Recently, the California “Crash Tax” has received national attention as Sacramento is one city on a growing list to potentially adopt a measure imposing fines on out-of-town drivers that wreck in their cities. The measure is supposed to increase revenue for local fire and rescue budgets that are strained from accidents resulting from careless visitors to popular tourist destinations.

WASHINGTON –Six officers with the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) were charged today in connection with the federal investigation of a police-involved shooting on the Danziger Bridge in the days after Hurricane Katrina, the Justice Department announced today. The incident resulted in the death of two civilians and the wounding of four others. The indictment charges four officers – Kenneth Bowen, Robert Gisevius, Robert Faulcon and Anthony Villavaso – in connection with the shootings, and charges those four officers and two supervisors – Arthur “Archie” Kaufman and Gerard Dugue – with helping to obstruct justice during the subsequent investigations. The...

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) - First lady Michelle Obama has arrived in the Florida Panhandle to meet with business and tourism leaders to discuss how the Gulf oil spill has harmed them. Obama's plane landed Monday at the new Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport in Panama City.

City Journal's Steve Malanga offers the most detailed and succinct history yet on how public sector unions grew from being toothless employee associations to having a virtually lock on all of the key power levers in California and how they've used that power to enrich themselves while all but ruining a once-goldern state. As Malanga explains, what has already happened in California is well underway across the rest of the nation and in Washington, D.C.: "The story starts half a century ago, when California public workers won bargaining rights and quickly learned how to elect their own bosses—that is,

hots fired at City Hall prompt Texas AG to ask for more troops on border EL PASO – Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott today demanded that President Obama send more troops to the Texas-Mexico border and used the shots that hit El Paso City Hall as an example of increased violence on the border. Abbott said in a letter that the seven shots that hit City Hall in El Paso were an example of the violence that is plaguing the border area and that sending 1,200 National Guard soldiers to the entire U.S.-Mexico border is not enough

America's Municipal Debt Racket State and local borrowing as a percentage of U.S. GDP has risen to an all-time high of 22% in 2010. By STEVEN MALANGA New Jersey officials recently celebrated the selection of the new stadium in the Meadowlands sports complex as the site of the 2014 Super Bowl. Absent from the festivities was any sense of the burden the complex has become for taxpayers. Nearly 40 years ago the Garden State borrowed $302 million to begin constructing the Meadowlands. The goal was to pay off the bonds in 25 years. Although the project initially went according to...

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- The city of Tucson has joined a lawsuit by one of its police officers to block Arizona's immigration enforcement law. The suit was filed in late April in U.S. District Court in Tucson on behalf of Tucson police officer Martin Escobar.

I'm not asking for much. I just don't want to be sick in my mouth. I don't want to leave the cinema feeling like I've paid £7.50 to be mocked, patronised and kicked in the face. I don't want to be filled with despair at Hollywood's increasing inability to conceive of women in comedic films as anything other than self-obsessed babies with breasts. And I don't, most of all, want to spend two hours watching dreams and memories from my youth being trampled into humiliating self-parody. Is that too much to ask?

What happens when a former US Marine becomes a Franciscan friar and then goes on to found a monastery in the toughest district of Ireland’s toughest city? In 2007, Father Sylvester and a small group of American friars from the Bronx, N.Y., did just that when they arrived in Limerick, Ireland. They left behind their former lives as a teacher, a soldier, a punk-rock singer, and a rapper to transform lives through prayer. The urban district they live in, Moyross – a sea of burned-down and boarded-up houses – is always in the news for the wrong reasons: drugs, shootings,...

“City in a Garden“ (Revelation 22:1-6, 12-20)The official motto of the town where I come from, Chicago--the motto of the city is, in Latin, “Urbs in horto,” which means, “City in a garden.” The hope and vision of the founders of the city way back in 1837 was to establish a city that would have, besides the bustle of a city, the beauty of a garden. “Urbs in horto, City in a garden.” Decades later, in 1909, the famed architect Daniel Burnham develop a master plan for Chicago that would ensure that that vision would become a reality. The Burnham...

I'd love to be able to tell you in precise detail what it is that I so thoroughly loathe about Sex And The City. But to do that, I'd have to sit down and watch it - and frankly I'd rather be dipped in honey, dangled upside-down from a tree and eaten alive by fire ants.

SNIPPET - quote: Standoff in NH city after bus bomb threat By KATHY McCORMACK (AP) – 45 minutes ago PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Authorities remained in a standoff with a man on a Maine-to-New York Greyhound bus Thursday, hours after a passenger called 911 to report an explosive device on board. The other 16 passengers and the driver safely got off the bus, which was parked in downtown Portsmouth, surrounded by a bomb squad and sharpshooters, including one in an armored vehicle.

Rarely are currency exchange rates as good for the American dollar as that of Asian countries. In Asia, the American dollar carries a lot of clout and with the recent devaluation of the USD; it is a good thing that these countries offer an excellent trip for so little cost to Americans.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced today a moratorium on official city travel to Arizona after the state enacted a controversial new immigration law that directs local police to arrest those suspected of being in the country illegally. The ban on city employee travel to Arizona takes effect immediately, although there are some exceptions, including for law enforcement officials investigating a crime, officials said. It's unclear how many planned trips by city workers will be curtailed.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Gunmen stormed into a bar, dragged out eight people and killed them in the parking lot, the first of several shootings in this violent border city Wednesday that left 16 dead, including a man in a wheelchair. In one incident, a car chase and shootout killed three people in front of an elementary school, creating a panic among students, teachers and parents. Battles between rival drug gangs have made Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, one of the world's deadliest cities. More than 800 people have been killed this year in the city...

There's trouble ahead in Sex and the City 2 - and her name is Penelope Cruz. The Spanish actress appears in the new trailer for the highly anticipated film as a sultry temptress who catches the eye of Mr Big, played by Chris Noth. Sarah Jessica Parker's Carrie Bradshaw catches her husband flirting with Cruz at a bar, prompting her to question her two-year marriage.

With only 11 weeks to go before the eagerly-awaited Sex And The City 2 movie, fans have been given a sneak peek of what to expect, The upcoming sequel is set two years after we last saw Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her friends and brings the girls out of their beloved New York on a trip of Morocco. Little has been given away about the plotline, but the film will definitely include a wedding and perhaps a baby for an unlikely mother. Apparently happily married to husband Mr Big (Chris Noth), it is not known why Carrie decides...

Since the dawn of the modern age, the notion of a pre-historic world, hidden deep in the jungle and untouched by the passage of time, has captivated our imaginations. Before "Jurassic Park," before "King Kong," there was "The Lost World." Written in 1912 by Sherlock Holmes' creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Lost World" was in turn largely inspired by the real-life adventures of one remarkable man: Col. Percy Harrison Fawcett. David Grann, a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, says in his time Fawcett was a larger-than-life figure: "Oh, he really was. I mean, he was the last...

Cleveland leads a slew of Midwestern towns on our annual list, but thanks to high taxes New York and Chicago make it too. The city of Cleveland has had a colorful history. The Cuyahoga River, which runs through the city, famously caught fire in 1969 thanks to rampant pollution, and it wasn't the first time. In 1978 it became the first U.S. city to default on its debts since the Great Depression. Cleveland sports fans have had to endure more anguish than those in any other city. The city has been dubbed with a less than endearing nickname: the Mistake...

If you've been watching the daily scandals destroy the credibility of the U.N. IPCC, then you might not realize that Cambridge, Massachusetts is in a state of climate emergency. This is not hyperbole, but an official policy order, passed by the City Council in May 2009, "recogniz[ing] that there is a climate emergency" and requesting the City Manager "to direct the appropriate city departments to increase the City's responses to a scale proportionate to the emergency."

Colorado Springs, second biggest city in the state, has decided that enough is enough. Confronted by a $38 million budget shortfall, and opposed to a proposal to triple property taxes to make up the gap, residents are instead bracing for spending cuts that make "draconian" sound tame. According to the Denver Post: More than a third of the streetlights in Colorado Springs will go dark Monday. The police helicopters are for sale on the Internet. The city is dumping firefighting jobs, a vice team, burglary investigators, beat cops — dozens of police and fire positions will go unfilled. The parks...

Beatty is, evidently, less of a town than a state of mind. When locals tried in recent years to find the original borders of this 1,000-person desert dot, they discovered an unsettling fact: Beatty was apparently never officially formed with official boundaries and therefore might not really exist -- officially, at least. Ever since, Nye County leaders have been flummoxed over what to do with the maybe-town about 120 miles northwest of Las Vegas: Adopt the borders of one of Beatty's tax districts? Draw town limits from scratch? "When we went to the county," said Harold "Bert" Bertram, the town...

NEWBURGH – City officials say Newburgh will participate in Orange County’s latest gun buyback program on January 16 from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. The buyback program is part of a countywide effort to get guns off the streets and keep them out of dangerous hands. In exchange for the weapons being turned in, no questions asked, the person turning the gun in will receive Shoprite gift cards. They range from $25 to $150 depending upon the condition and type of weapon turned in. Since this program began in the county, over 100 weapons have been recovered. Mayor Nicholas Valentine...

Members of the El Paso City Council appear to favor the purchase of over 1,000 assault rifles for the police department, which says it needs them to protect the city from increasingly better armed criminals. The council will be asked on Tuesday to approve the purchase of 1,145 assault rifles at a cost of $772,646. That would supply all patrol officers with the civilian version of the M-4 military rifle. The lowest bid is from recommended bidder GT Distributors Inc. of Austin. The money would come from a federal grant of up to $899,287, funds targeted at stimulating the economy....

For women, looks may matter more if they live in the city than in rural areas, a new study finds. The results, which are based on body shape rather than overall beauty, showed that in cities the most attractive gals had higher social and psychological well-being. That same link wasn't found for country residents. The researchers suggest with higher population densities, cities offer more potential friends and sexual partners, allowing city folks to be choosier and so theoretically able to select the cream of the crop to associate with. Though the study is based on women, the researchers suspect similar...

As reported here over the last few weeks, Huntington has been facing a shortfall of over a million dollars in tax revenue. Mayor Updike has tried to acquire a trash fee, has laid of a minimum of 12 people (including 6 fire fighters), closed one fire station and gotten a lot of bad reactions. The city employees have tried to help. City employees volunteered their time to decorate the city with Christmas cheer, only to find that the city has to pay overtime. The reason, a labor law states that a worker can not do anything while off duty that...

Montana state law says that guns made and shot in the state are not under the jurisdiction of the federal government and that the federal should not tread on state law. Montana District 61 representative Joel Boniek sponsored House Bill 246, the bill says state law trumps federal law when it comes to gun laws. Firearms that are made and stay in Montana do not fall under the interstate commerce clause in the U.S. Constitution and is not in Congress' jurisdiction, according to Boniek who spoke Wednesday at the Big Sky Pachyderm luncheon. His law is in court at the...