Free Republic

ITHACA -- A Tompkins County legislator is facing a misdemeanor charge related to an outstanding traffic violation. Martha Robertson, who also is the chairwoman of the legislature's public safety committee, said her arrest last week was the result of a paperwork mix-up and that the Ithaca Police shouldn't have taken her into custody, "They could've issued me a ticket right there," she said, adding that police refused her request to go to her house and see the paperwork. At the station, Sgt. Andy Navarro told her they were waiving her bail based on her community connections, and Patrick Kimmich --...

The Clark County Republican Party has never had an Audit! Why is it that the leadership of the Clark County Republican Party doesn’t feel the need to follow their own bylaws and have an audit? There has been a report of officers writing checks to themselves without providing receipts for these checks. There has been a report that checks were writing above to allowed amount without the Executive Boards approval. There has been missing tax documents, missing treasurer’s reports, missing executive board meeting minutes, missing computers that hold the financial reports, anything dealing with financial reports are missing, bylaws rules...

Ramsey County health officials have come up with a novel way to prepare for what's called the novel H1N1 flu: Operation Big Shot. They're holding a mass vaccination drill called "Operation Big Shot" today to test their ability to immunize a lot of people quickly.

Health officials have confirmed that a fifth person, a 16-year-old, has died from the swine flu in Dallas County. WFAA-TV reported that the teen was a student at Berkner High School in Richardson. A Richardson school district spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment this morning.

The sheriff has started his own blog to combat media attacks. By KFYI News The Maricopa County Sheriff's Department has launched a new blog on the office's web site called "The Truth Behind the Headlines." The blog will swing back to media coverage the Sheriff believes is inaccurate and incomplete. So far, Sheriff Arpaio has only fought back against newspaper articles and editorials he says are skewed against him. Check out Sheriff Joe's blog here.

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors is spending $347 million to construct what they refer to as a “state of the art” brand-new court tower. Yet, many taxpayers are unaware of the details behind this project and the reason why this project continues may be found in the money.Maricopa County is facing a $138.2 million budget shortfall. In response, numerous county employees have been laid off in recent months, including 40 Superior Court employees that would staff some of these offices to be featured in the court tower. Also, county law enforcement has been cut by 15% and Sheriff...

There has been no reprieve for the unemployed in Lee County. Lee County's unemployment rate hit 13 percent for the month of June, up from a revised rate of 12.5 percent for May 2009. Statewide, Florida has a an unemployment rate of 10.6 percent for June, up from 10.3 percent for May. The last time the state's unemployment rate was higher than June 2009 was October 1975 when it was 11 percent. Lee's unemployment rate is a record, and could very well be even higher once the numbers are reexamined. "If the numbers follow the same pattern they have followed...

MUTH'S TRUTHS L’IL NATE'S EXCELLENT BATHROOM ADVENTURE When not dispensing advice on what a woman needs to do to make her man happy - “rub her man’s feet at the end of the night” and watch NASCAR with him - you might find GOP gadfly Nathan Taylor sipping on Cosmopolitans with those pink umbrellas and cherries in them and getting tossed out of a bar for starting a fist-fight in a bathroom. I sh--….er, kid you not. Got this second-hand report yesterday on Li’l Nate’s election night adventures from last week: “Seems Nathan he got pretty drunk at a Stavros...

Veterans In Politics Talk Show Introduces CEO for CC Court Edward Friedland and Laura Jessee LIVE on www.AllTalkRadio.net June 6: Laura Jessee Lightyear Wireless Representative: Edward A. Friedland Clark County Court Executive Officer: "Veterans In Politics" is a weekly radio show produced by the Veterans In Politics International and hosted by Steve Sanson and co-hosted by Ronda Baldwin Kennedy. The "Veterans In Politics" show is live every Saturday 2:05 PM Pacific Time you can call in and speak to the guest or/and hosts at (702) 309-6690.

Cook Co. Commissioner Home Under Fire Someone fired shots at Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica's house Staff Reporter WGNtv.com May 7, 2009 RIVERSIDE - Riverside Police report someone fired shots at Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica's house Wednesday morning. Seven bullets actually struck his neighbor's house, but police now believe they were intended for Peraica's home. Authorities have contacted the Cook County Sheriff and have ordered a special watch on the commissioner's house as a precaution. Anyone with information is asked to call Riverside Police. WGN-TV, Chicago

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik stood by his assertion that schools should be asking about the immigration status of students but said he planned to take no action nor make changes in the way Pima County deputies do their job. At a Tuesday afternoon press conference, Dupnik said he made the comments at a Senate hearing in Phoenix on April 20 because he wanted to seize the opportunity to weigh in on a sensitive topic he believes needs to be addressed. "It's wrong for the taxpayers in this country to spend the millions and millions and millions of dollars that...

County residents next week will have a chance to air concerns to state lawmakers and area leaders about Hurricane Ike recovery efforts. The committee on Hurricane Ike will meet at 10 a.m. Jan. 7 at the Galveston Island Convention Center, allowing the public to tell state lawmakers and area leaders what issues and obstacles they face almost four months after the storm struck Southeast Texas on Sept. 13, causing catastrophic flooding from storm surge and displacing thousands of people from their homes. The storm was the third most destructive to ever make landfall in the United States. The committee has...

Hey FReepers, I am looking for other FReepers in Orange County. We are starting a new action oriented grassroots conservative group to provide support (and opposition) for local issues. It will be very action oriented (rallies, precinct walks, phone banks, etc.) and will hold regular monthly meetings in the Saddleback Valley. If you live in the area please let me know. We are holding our first meeting a week from tonight to discuss forming the club, it will be in Rancho Santa Margarita on Monday Dec 1st at 7:00 PM. Email me if interested in getting involved jesse@joinjesse.com Thanks!

Anybody have any sort of a red/blue map breakdown by counties from last night?

Prominent ex-Chicago alderman to plead guilty U.S. District Judge Milton Shadur made the announcement just as the trial of former alderman Edward Vrdolyak's (ver-DOHL'-yakz) was to begin Monday morning. The one-time Cook County Democratic chairman is accused of arranging to get a kickback for a lawyer in the sale of a piece of property for $15 million. The charges stem from the same investigation that led to the fraud conviction of influence peddler Tony Rezko, the political fundraiser who helped to bankroll the campaigns of Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Sen. Barack Obama.

I attend the "fine" learning "establishment" known as LHS, Laurel High School (and before anyone says anything, I chose to go to this school because I felt it was my duty as a Catholic Republican to actually be someone who's gonna stand up for what I believe, evangilize, if you will.) I'm in AP Government there along with two honors courses and three regular (one which is a Junior/Senior class, Psychology, while I, myself, am a Sophomore) classes. Our lunch period is known as "Spartan Hour" (our school mascot is the Spartan -which is SO epic, only reason I like...

Prince George's County police announced yesterday that they have arrested a deliveryman and another man who they say are involved in a scheme to smuggle marijuana by shipping packages addressed to unsuspecting recipients, including a delivery last week to the wife of the mayor of Berwyn Heights. The county Sheriff's Office SWAT team and narcotics officers raided the home of Mayor Cheye Calvo and his wife, Trinity Tomsic, after intercepting a package addressed to her that was filled with 32 pounds of marijuana. During the raid, officers broke down Calvo's door and fatally shot the family's two black Labrador retrievers.(snip)...

Ohio has two counties in the list: Delaware County #5; and Geauga County (the red county where I live) was #4. Forbes' rankings are skewed toward counties with good school districts. Using research provided by the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax research group based in Washington, D.C., we started with a list of the nation's counties with populations over 65,000. To eliminate under-funded school districts, we isolated 97 counties where more than half of per-pupil spending comes from property taxes. They've also discovered something most Americans are still searching for: the ideal place to raise a family. Their sons, Pete...

Sheriff Arpaio conducted another crime suppression operation in Fountain Hills on Tuesday. A total of seven traffic stops and fourteen contacts were made throughout a seven-hour patrol period. This resulted in ten arrests, nine of them being of undocumented immigrants, and three felony warrants cleared.

With the television writers strike over, many people here in Ventura County may have tuned into the TV show Brothers and Sisters when it resumed airing last night to complete its last 4 episodes of the season. With much of the show set here, in our very own Ojai, the intense Republican primary race of the fictional character Senator McAllister plays can easily distract us from the politics facing us in reality. It is the similarities to this campaign that a primary challenger, Michael Tenenbaum faces as he runs for congress. Equally as handsome as Rob Lowe who plays a...

My local board of supervisors donated $10K to the Red Cross, very generous with my tax money i suspect. Here is my letter to the editor: BOARD DONATES TO RED CROSS Let's see now 5 supervisors on the board donated a total of $10,000. that is a very generous donation of an average of $2000 each. I commend them for their generosity, assuming they personally made the donation and didn't use my taxes to make a donation in their name. If I was forced to participate in that donation against my will, I demand to know the specific law that...

Immigrant rights protesters were back in front of Pruitt's furniture store near 36th Street and Thomas Road Tuesday morning. They claim the owner of the store hired Maricopa County sheriff's deputies to patrol against day laborers last Saturday. It appears the sheriff's office believed that protests planned for the site were supposed to begin that day.

Most of the chain e-mails I receive, I delete. Occasionally I read one that appears to be humorous or interesting. My mother sent me one titled SHERIFF JOE IS AT IT AGAIN. This e-mail, while not humorous, is definitely interesting. The chain e-mail is about Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the operation he runs in Maricopa County, Ariz. The e-mail says the inmates live in tent cities, there are female chain gangs and inmates eat brown-bag lunches. I had received Sheriff Joe e-mails before, as had my husband, and we always dismissed them as urban legend, amazing, entertaining, but certainly not...

I just heard a radio alert thingie downstairs on the television. But missed it. Anyone know whats going down? An Amber alert? Mt. Rainer blowing its top?

TACOMA, Wash. - A Pierce County woman apparently tied a record for the amount of alcohol in her blood when the Washington State Patrol toxicology lab measured a blood-alcohol content of 0.50 two hours after she was arrested for investigation of drunken driving. Ann Marie Gordon, manager of the lab in Seattle, said the reading — more than six times the legal limit of 0.08 — tied the highest level ever found by technicians at the patrol's lab. A King County driver also registered 0.50 on a blood test in 2000, Gordon said. "It certainly would kill many people," she...

Chester Township -- They might be a kind of curly horned sheep. Of course, they could be a funky breed of mountain goat, too. Or . . . well, this sounds sort of silly, but the idea has been tossed out there . . . maybe they're mutant deer. But whatever they are, they're roaming the woods in this Geauga County community. At least three of the mystery animals popped up a few months ago, bringing a smattering of quizzical calls to Chester Township police and leaving wildlife experts scratching their heads. One resident managed to snap a few photos...

Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin yesterday tried to rally support among black Democrats in Prince George's County, while Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele campaigned with county Democratic leaders who broke ranks this week to endorse him. Mr. Cardin appeared with Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson and about 30 other lawmakers in Hyattsville, aiming to keep a diminishing lead in the polls. In his first public show of support for Mr. Cardin, Mr. Johnson ... But the rally turned sour later. State Sen. Nathaniel Exum, Prince George's Democrat, berated Mr. Cardin for excluding him and other local delegates from speaking...

2 killed in wreck on I-74 in Surry CountyElderly Mount Airy driver was in wrong lanes, patrol says By Patrick Wilson JOURNAL REPORTER MOUNT AIRY A woman from Mount Airy drove the wrong way on Interstate 74 last night and collided with an oncoming car, killing both her and a man from Ohio driving the other vehicle, authorities said. It was the second fatal collision involving a car traveling the wrong way on a four-lane way highway in northwestern North Carolina this week. The woman killed last night, who was in her 80s, was driving west in the eastbound lanes...

Pulaski County - The Pulaski County Sheriff is found in contempt of court Friday by a Little Rock District Judge. This after the jail would not accept repeat traffic offenders because the jail was closed. Late Friday afternoon an appeal was filed in circuit court by the County Attorney Karla Burnett. Friday District Judge David Steward heard testimony as to why several repeat offenders were not picked up and taken to the Pulaski County detention facility as ordered by District Judge Vic Fleming. (Judge David Stewart, District Judge) "It’s a financial problem a legal problem and a constitutional problem and...

Sonoma County authorities will seek to have John Mark Karr extradited to California to face child pornography charges on hold since he failed to appear for a court hearing five years ago. District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua said the decision was made Monday after Colorado authorities dropped their case against Karr in the JonBenet Ramsey killing. Karr, a one-time substitute teacher in Petaluma area schools, is wanted on a no-bail warrant issued by a Sonoma County judge after he failed to appear at a December 2001 court hearing in a misdemeanor child pornography case. Sheriff's detectives said they found five photos...

The day Shirley Meiere’s annexation into the city was final, she and her husband, Cheney, popped a bottle of champagne in the bathroom and toasted their toilet. “It was an answer to a prayer,” the 58-year-old said, smiling. For more than 10 years, the Meieres tried to annex their two-story brick home into the city of Florence to receive sewer services. The couple’s efforts were blocked by neighbors who moved into Windsor Forest subdivision to escape the city limits. “It divided our neighborhood quite a lot,” Meiere said. City officials have urged the South Carolina legislature for 45 years to...

And Subjective Justice For All By Jenni Vinson Trejo August 19, 2006 William S. Mosher lived in Harris County in Houston, Texas. Mosher was a prominent Houston businessman and philanthropist who had been a long-time active and supporter of a local Christian charity, the Star of Hope Mission, that provided food and shelter to indigents. William Mosher died in 1948. In 1953 the president of the Star of Hope Mission approached the Harris County Commissioners Court and secured permission to erect a memorial to Mosher on the Courthouse property. Morris testified that Star of Hope selected a location in front...

The Republicans sponsoring this in this county are just like liberal Democrats, support seat belt laws for adults, smoking bans, fireworks bans, eminent domain, etc.

AL ASAD, Iraq (July 10, 2006) -- Hollowell, a band from Orange County, Calif., entertained a crowd of service members at the Morale, Welfare and Recreation building here June 29. According to Jared Daniels, bassist for Hollowell, the band decided to come out to Iraq to show their support for the men and women fighting for our country. "The is the best way we can think of to say thank you to all of the troops," said Daniels, a native of Orange County, Calif. "We need to show our support for everything the men and women over here are doing....

BISBEE — In response to a plan by the Minuteman Project to construct an Israeli-style border barrier on private land near Naco, the Cochise County Planning Department is advising area ranchers that any such project must comply with county zoning rules. In a communique issued last week, the Minutemen announced they would begin constructing an Israeli-style security fence at an Arizona ranch in early July. The anti-illegal immigration group is currently overseeing the construction of a barbed-wire range fence on the border-front property of Jack and John Ladd in Palominas. Speaking at the May 27 groundbreaking for the Ladd’s fence,...

Alachua County Republicans gained two new allies and candidates for the 2008 elections Friday at an event intended to show the growth of the county party. Alachua City Manager Clovis Watson and Ward Scott, a Sante Fe Community College professor, traded in their Democratic party registrations for Republican ones and announced their intentions to run at a "switch event" held in downtown Gainesville. "I'm a man of action and ideas," Watson told a group of a few dozen Republicans who attended the event. "I cannot continue to support a party that uses criticism and calumny as its stock in trade."...

San Bernardino County, Calif., has been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury for records connected to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, and a lobbying firm with strong ties to Lewis, a county official said. The subpoena asked for all records of the county's correspondence with Lewis and his staff and with the lobbying firm, Copeland, Lowery, Jacquez, Denton, & White, which employs former California Republican congressman Bill Lowery, said San Bernardino County's chief deputy counsel, Daniel B. Haueter. Haueter said that the county, which hired Copeland, Lowery in 2002, was complying. Lewis represents portions of the inland Southern...

view lo speed video view hi speed video (WSBT) It snuffed-out lighting-up in St. Joseph County, but now there's a fight over an amendment to the smoking ban. Tuesday morning County Commissioners vetoed an amendment that would have let some businesses have a smoking room for their workers. The two commissioners who voted down the amendment say it's really a matter of people's health. Cindy Bodle and Steve Ross say they supported the ban in the first place because they wanted people to have cleaner air in public places. Some businesses had complained that workers should have a place to...

BISBEE — Congressman Jim Kolbe said he would be “closely watching” the Border Patrol’s management of traffic revision points in the area after the officer in charge of the agency’s Naco station said that a permanent checkpoint on Highway 90 would be reinstated. Kolbe has long opposed permanent Border Patrol revision points, which he says are predictable and ineffective. Instead, he advocates roving checkpoints and has inserted a provision into Border Patrol appropriations bills requiring the agency’s Tucson Sector to relocate checkpoints on a regular basis. “The law allows checkpoints, but they must be relocated at least once every seven...

TUCSON — Apprehensions of illegal immigrants in Cochise County in March is down by more than 50 percent, according to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector. The reduction is about 7 percent sectorwide, Shannon Stevens said Thursday. The emphasis in the county is paying off, she said, adding the number of agents, use of unmanned aerial systems and other technology also will be used to establish operational control in the Tucson Sector’s west desert area. The West Desert Corridor is now absorbing the most illegal immigrant traffic. “We’re concentrating as many assets as we can (in the...

Cook County lost more people between 2000 and 2005 than any county in the nation, according to Census Bureau estimates released Thursday that also show continued gains in suburban and exurban counties across the region and portions of the nation. The new figures--based on administrative records and estimates for births, deaths and net migration--show the county lost more than 73,000 people, or 1.4 percent, since the last official count in April 2000. The largest-loser designation can partly be attributed to Cook County's massive size, because raw numbers were used for the rankings. Still, among the nation's 10 largest counties, Cook,...

3/3/2006 - WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- The Air Force has completed negotiations with the St. Louis County Port Authority for the transfer of 39 acres in the Lemay community of St. Louis. The property, once home to the National Imagery Mapping Agency, was declared excess to the federal government by the General Services Administration in 2005. "This truly is one of those win-win situations that you hear about,” said Brig. Gen. Del Eulberg, Air Mobility Command director of installations and mission support. “There are a lot of winners in this deal -- not just the local community but there are winners...

BISBEE — More than once Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever has been called to Washington, D.C., to testify before congressional committees about border problems. Today the sheriff is heading to the East Coast, where he will testify before two committees — one in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, and the other in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday. What senators and representatives will hear is more of the same, more of what he told members of Congress in 1997, and that is the nation’s immigration and border strategies are failing, Dever said Sunday. While it is expected that both...

CASTAIC, Calif. - Most of Los Angeles County's jail system was on lockdown Monday after fighting broke out between blacks and Hispanics at two jails over the weekend. One inmate died in the fighting, and more than 100 others were injured. The lockdown was intended to reduce tensions, and it wasn't clear how long it would remain in effect, said Lt. Robert Craton, a watch commander at the North County Correctional Facility. "We are making every attempt to get back to normal," he said. Black and Hispanic inmates at the North County Correctional Facility were segregated Saturday after the fighting...

A Better Approach to Government Consolidation Print E-mail By The Effort Staff Friday, 03 February 2006 By Jalexson HUTCHINSON, KS -- Current talk about government consolidation in Kansas is basically just a continuation of the ancient attempts of cities to control the surrounding countryside. Cities want to force rural residents to finance the services city residents receive and to obey city laws. There is a better approach to the issue than what city governments are suggesting. County governments are necessary because they are the administrative units of the state. City governments only exist because urban residents want more services or...

For the first time in Santa Clara County, the coroner's office has listed the use of Tasers by police officers as one of the factors causing a person's death. The main cause of Jose Angel Rios' death late last year was heart failure during his cocaine-fueled battle against San Jose police officers, according to an autopsy obtained Friday by the Mercury News. The 38-year-old's obesity and heart disease caused by cocaine use were also listed as causes. The manner of death -- accidental, homicide, suicide, etc. -- was ``undetermined.'' Dr. Christopher Happy also concluded a ``contributory cause of death'' was...

A proposed smoking ban in St. Joe County has hit a roadblock. Thursday night, county commissioners vetoed the ban passed by the county council last week. After more than two hours of public testimony, commissioners voted two to one to veto the measure, sending it back to the council. Commissioner Mark Dobson says he turned down the ban because the restaurant community wasn't involved enough in the process. “I could support a well-crafted ordinance but I am very upset that the mom and pop restaurant community tavern community in this area was not engaged on this ordinance,” said Dobson....

The disciplinary arm of the N.C. State Bar dropped charges of felonious misconduct against two former Union County prosecutors Friday because of a 1999 clerical error at the state Supreme Court. The State Bar had charged Kenneth Honeycutt and Scott Brewer with lying, cheating and withholding evidence in a 1996 death penalty case. The ruling Friday marks the second time that Honeycutt and Brewer won on procedural grounds before the bar's Disciplinary Hearing Commission, which sits as judge and jury in disciplinary cases. . . . Prosecutors around the state are concerned that the case is damaging their reputation and...

SOUTH BEND -- St. Joseph County residents will no longer have to request restaurant seating in a "no smoking" area. Beginning April 10, all the areas in most restaurants will be smoke-free. After months of deliberation, the County Council voted 7-2 on Tuesday to adopt an ordinance that will ban smoking in restaurants and other public places, and in private businesses as well. Dozens of area residents, including several physicians warning of health risks and restaurant owners fearful that they will lose business appeared in the County-City Building to support or oppose the issue. Jerry Scott, vice president of human...

MURRIETA ---- Councilman Doug McAllister is proposing that Murrieta become one of the first cities in California to have its Police Department enforce federal immigration laws. McAllister is asking the council to allow Murrieta police to have the authority to be able to question suspects about their residency once they are detained or arrested. He's not getting much support from the rest of the council, though. The program is already being used in a few states and being pursued in Costa Mesa, which would be the first city in California to have an agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement...