Free Republic

Chicago Alderman Anthony Beale gave new meaning to constituent advocacy yesterday when he told Metra’s executive director “people are going to get hurt” in the dispute over how many minorities they decide to hire for a railroad bridge project, the “Englewood Flyer.” The Chicago Sun-Times reports Beale did not specify who would “get hurt” or who would do the hurting. No matter the victims or perpetrators, this is a rather alarming prediction for a locally elected official to make. Beal warned, “I’m trying to help you help yourself. When I say that, problems could arise.

PROVO — Police here have arrested a man, accused of trying to blackmail a Brigham Young University student for sex and money by threatening to “out” him to his family, fiance and the LDS Church-owned university’s Honor Code Office. Brad Ray Adams, 36, was arrested last week on suspicion of extortion and attempted forcible sodomy. He was expected to make an appearance before a judge in Provo’s 4th District Court later this week. Police said it began last month, when the alleged victim met Adams over Craigslist. The two began texting and e-mailing and the two arranged a sexual encounter,...

For the past 10 years, California has struggled with huge budget deficits and wrenching cuts. Suddenly, however, the state is poised to raise billions from an unusual new source: the proceeds from its landmark global warming law. The windfall could come as soon as this fall, when state officials are set to begin auctioning off pollution credits to oil refineries, power plants and other major polluters as part of a new "cap-and-trade" system. The amounts are potentially enormous: from $1 billion to $3 billion a year in 2012 and 2013, jumping to as high as $14 billion a year by...

”That thing was greased,” as they say in Chicago, referring to a political phenomenon known as “being handled before table.” Well, bloggers are asking, was it? Word now coming out reveals just two days after Secretary of State Brian Kemp gave Barack Obama the green light to appear on Georgia election ballots,, the Department of Energy awarded Kemp’s state an eye popping $8.3 billion loan guarantee to begin construction on two nuclear plants. In the face of “a shocking dissent by Nuclear Regulatory Commission CHAIRMAN Director Gregory B. Jazcko,” four other commissioners approved awarding Southern Energy the first nuclear construction...

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu — who became the face of Arizona border security nationally after he started stridently opposing illegal immigration — threatened his Mexican ex-lover with deportation when the man refused to promise never to disclose their years-long relationship, the former boyfriend and his lawyer tell New Times.

In the seventh paragraph of an article on page A7, the Washington Post acknowledges that a bit of administration spin is particularly unconvincing: “Aides said Obama is focused on governing, not campaigning, but he has held five fundraisers this week alone.” Obama held 69 fundraisers between January 1 and December 1 of 2011, an average of one every five days. Then again, perhaps Obama sees fundraising as a form of governing.

Mideast: As the president sneaks more money in the budget for Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood thugs he helped install in Cairo show their gratitude by threatening to attack Israel. For three decades, the U.S. essentially paid Egypt not to attack our closest ally in the region. The policy worked to maintain peace. But Obama nullified that deal by backing Islamist revolutionaries against reliably pro-U.S. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Now the bribe has lost its effect. The new Egyptian leadership, led by the virulently anti-Jewish Muslim Brotherhood, this week issued a warning to Washington that it should understand that "what was...

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa woman is charged with extortion in an alleged plot to get Discovery Communications Inc. to cancel the TLC show "19 Kids and Counting" or pay her $10,000 in exchange for not revealing compromising photos of a cast member, according to federal court documents. Teresa Hunt, of Bettendorf, is accused of threatening to release photos of a cast member in "apparently intimate situations" to a magazine. Hunt was arrested Feb. 1 after she apparently sent television executives typed and handwritten letters demanding the show be canceled, along with a business card for "Perfect Pictures." The...

ROME—Organized crime has tightened its grip on the Italian economy during the economic crisis, making the Mafia the country's biggest "bank" and squeezing the life out of thousands of small firms, according to a report on Tuesday. Extortionate lending by criminal groups had become a "national emergency," said the report by anti-crime group SOS Impresa. Organized crime now generated annual turnover of about €140 billion ($178.89 billion) and profits of more than €100 billion, it added. "With €65 billion in liquidity, the Mafia is Italy's number one bank," said a statement from the group, which was set up in Palermo...

Attorney General Eric Holder said a federal probe found discrimination against at least 200,000 qualified African American and Latino borrowers from 2004 to 2008, during the height of the housing market boom. He said that minority borrowers who qualified for prime loans were steered into higher-interest-rate subprime loans.

Gosh. Who knew that a massive tax could solve all imagined climate problems? David L. Hagen writes: The UN is demanding control over $1.6 trillion per year to control climate. Extract: 47. The provision of the amount of funds to be made available annually to developing country Parties, which shall be equivalent to the budget that developed countries spend on defence, security, and warfare. Fifty per cent of that amount shall be for adaptation, 20 per cent for mitigation, 15 per cent for technology development and transfer and 15 per cent for forest-related actions in developing country Parties;

Has anybody know anything as to why Cantor tabled the Inside Trading Bill. He said something about the bill needs more looking into? Hay, Cantor let me write the bill. Even a Elected Elite would understand. 1)All Federal elected personal and immediate family are subject to inside trading laws and bribing laws. 2)All Federal employees and immediate family are subject to inside trading laws and bribing laws. 3)All Non Paid Staff members and immediate family are subject to inside trading laws and bribing laws.

AFP - British Prime Minister David Cameron threatened to block a new European Union treaty designed to save the euro from the debt crisis if London's demands are not met. Cameron said Britain's huge financial sector and the single market would have to be protected if he were to sign up to a new EU-wide treaty aimed at resolving the crisis in the euro, which Britain does not use. His threat increases the likelihood that France and Germany, who proposed rewriting the treaty Monday, will end up pushing for an agreement between just the 17 nations who use the euro...

In a push to expand across California without interference, Walmart is increasingly taking advantage of the state's initiative system to threaten elected officials with costly special elections and to avoid environmental lawsuits. The Arkansas-based retailer has hired paid signature gatherers to circulate petitions to build new superstores or repeal local restrictions on big-box stores. Once 15 percent of eligible voters sign the petitions, state election law puts cash-strapped cities in a bind: City councils must either approve the Walmart-drafted measure without changes or put it to a special election. As local officials grapple with whether to spend tens of thousands...

One of the recurring scourges facing small-business owners in the Bay Area is the often frivolous lawsuits filed under provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Chronicle has done a number of stories about the problem, relating the travails of bookstore, restaurant and retail store owners in San Francisco who have either been put out of business or essentially extorted to cough up thousands of dollars - which go into the plaintiffs' and lawyers' pockets - to settle the complaints out of court. Now, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is getting into the act, initially on behalf of Latino...

A woman who settled a sexual harassment complaint against GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain in 1999 complained three years later at her next job about unfair treatment, saying she should be allowed to work from home after a serious car accident and accusing a manager of circulating a sexually charged email, The Associated Press has learned. Karen Kraushaar, 55, filed the complaint while working as a spokeswoman at the Immigration and Naturalization Service in the Justice Department in late 2002 or early 2003, with the assistance of her lawyer, Joel Bennett, who also handled her earlier sexual harassment complaint against...

Recuperation from the storms. Nine month saga with the county. major cleanup with branches hauled off house and garage. The trees I planted long ago and had to take down and cut up because otherwise they would disturb the road, pedestrians, parked cars, overhead lines during the storms. Noone told me to do this. It was my responsibilty. So I had some stacks, small stacks on a small parcel of a small house in Arlington as we are into winter and those very storms. The adjoining property has huge trees which rain hell upon me with branches laden with snow...

An organization with close ties to government employee unions is trumpeting pronouncements by a university “labor studies” department (that’s also closely aligned with unions), claiming the unionization of government employees has “no link” with state “deficits.” Michigan’s largely unionized state, local and school employees, however, are granted fringe benefits exceeding what they would get in the private sector by $5.7 billion every year. The figure may start to fall now that Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has signed legislation capping local government and public school employee health insurance benefits at $15,000, which represents a haircut for many, but is still 46...

Media: The president of Univision, the top Spanish-language network, made an apparent attempt to extort a TV appearance from Sen. Marco Rubio in exchange for not broadcasting dirt on a relative. Can it go any lower? Last July, representatives of the Florida-based Hispanic national television network contacted the Florida Republican to urge him to appear on "Al Punto," a Spanish-language talk show whose host, Jorge Ramos, is a loud proponent of amnesty for illegal aliens. Like most Americans, Rubio is no amnesty proponent and said no to an appearance on the show. But Univision wouldn't take no for an answer....

A judge has delayed sentencing for Antoin “Tony” Rezko, a top fundraiser and adviser to disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Rezko, convicted on corruption charges, was scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 21. But prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve to move the sentencing because another corruption trial connected to the Blagojevich administration starts this week – and includes allegations of an extortion plot involving Rezko. Prosecutors most directly involved in the Rezko sentencing are also handling the prosecution of William Cellini, a Springfield powerbroker whose trial on charges including attempted extortion and fraud starts this morning. In...

Despite its backing by the billionaire Warren Stephens family, Las Vegas copyright lawsuit filer Righthaven LLC warned today it may have to file for bankruptcy because of a series of setbacks in its litigation campaign. The warning came in an emergency request by Righthaven to a federal judge in Las Vegas that he stay his order that Righthaven pay $34,045 in legal fees to attorneys who successfully defended Kentucky message board poster Wayne Hoehn against a Righthaven lawsuit. Righthaven has already appealed U.S. District Judge Philip Pro’s fee award to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Righthaven is also...

“Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail shall keep the postmen from their appointed rounds.” But unless Congress steps in, bankruptcy will. The New York Times reports that unless the House and Senate take drastic action in the next few months, one of the nation's oldest institutions — which employs 574,000 Americans — may be forced to shut down. A combination of labor costs and a declining number of packages and letters has the United States Postal Service running short on cash. The independent government agency will be unable to make a $5.5 billion payment to its employee healthcare...

32-year-old Luis Mijangos was sentenced to six year in prison this week by a U.S. District Court judge in California after pleading guilty to one count of computer hacking and one count of wiretapping in March 2011. Mijangos, a resident of Santa Ana, California, worked as a freelance web designer and developer earning about $52,000 a year, but also spent his days using malware to gain access to people’s computers and extorting up to $3,000 a day from his victims. FBI experts in computer forensics estimated that Mijangos infected more than 100 computers used by over 230 people, 20 percent...

3M claims an investment company conspired with high-powered lobbyist Lanny Davis in a smear campaign to "coerce" it into paying "tens of millions of dollars ... to save them from the consequences of yet another unprofitable investment," a screening test for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. 3M sued defendants London-based Harvey Boulter, CEO of defendant Porton Capital and a director Porton Capital Technology Funds, both of the Cayman Islands; and Lanny Davis, a principal of co-defendants Davis & Associates, and Davis-Block, all of Washington. Davis, who worked as a special counsel for President Clinton from 1996 to 1998, has lobbied for a...

Here’s a tip for you: Listening to really, really loud sounds over long periods of time can damage your hearing. Perhaps you already knew that. But a few years back, a group of clever trial lawyers decided they could make some serious money by arguing in court that you are too stupid to know it yourself. They filed 26 consumer-fraud lawsuits in multiple states against Motorola and other manufacturers of Bluetooth headsets. They alleged that consumers were not warned sufficiently about the dangers, and that they “would not have purchased their Bluetooth headsets but for defendants’ false advertising.” That led...

Big Labor: Union organizers reportedly are telling South Carolina Boeing workers they'll halt a National Labor Relations Board action to shut their plant as long as the workers join their union. What contempt for workers! That's right, the International Association of Machinists (IAM), the very union that's trying to put 1,000 workers out on the unemployment lines in Charleston, S.C., through a complaint filed through the National Labor Relations Board, is now trying to force workers to join their union anyway, says a report last week in the Daily Caller. This is just the latest way the organization that proclaims...

Teachers are facing a $10 hike in dues by the union to fund Obama's reelection campaign. They have no choice but to pay these dues.

If developer Dan Johnson and his team finally earn approval to revitalize a derelict lumber mill's 240-acre company town on the shores of Humboldt County, they'll be building homes with first floors 32 feet above ground. The state's scientific advisers expect rising sea levels will hasten most of the California coastline's eastward push as it combines with storms or tsunamis. They say the few extra feet through 2100 will slowly make beaches of bluffs and marshes of beaches. From Crescent City to San Diego, state and local planning authorities have started telling developers to factor sea-level rise into project designs....

Fugitive on run for 16 years wanted in 19 murders, inspired film 'The Departed' LOS ANGELES — James "Whitey" Bulger, a notorious Boston gangster on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list for his alleged role in 19 murders, has been captured near Los Angeles after living on the run for 16 years, authorities said Wednesday. The FBI tweeted his capture along with his girlfriend, Catherine Greig, early Wednesday morning. Santa Monica Police Sgt. Rudy Flores said the agency informed him of the arrest. Bulger, 81, was the leader of the Winter Hill Gang when he fled in January 1995 after...

A Baltimore City police officer has pleaded guilty to extorting car accident victims. According to the plea agreement, Reeping said he would contact fellow Officer Alexis Moreno Mejia, who would then arrive at a crash scene to arrange to tow the vehicle to Majestic. The court document indicated that Moreno would then pay Reeping up to $300 for each vehicle taken to Majestic.

NC Gov. Perdue faces deadline on jobless benefitsBy EMERY P. DALESIO The Associated Press Saturday, April 16, 2011 RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Republican legislators met in a rare weekend session Saturday to force Gov. Beverly Perdue to choose between halting unemployment benefits for about 37,000 long-term jobless workers or accepting a double-digit budget cut. A handful of General Assembly members met to mark the final step needed to start the clock on a choice Perdue had to make before authorization for the federally funded jobless benefits later Saturday. Perdue must sign the combined bill Saturday or the federally funded benefits...

The Kabuki theater that is the debate over the federal budget took a weird turn this afternoon. The GOP-led House of Representatives passed HR 1255, the “Government Shutdown Prevention Act.” The measure is largely symbolic…it states that if the Democrat-led Senate and President Obama don’t act on $61 billion in cuts passed earlier this year by the House, those cuts would be ‘law of the land.’ Which, obviously, doesn’t hold any water. This isn’t too far away from when Democrats proposed “deeming” ObamaCare passed. The House GOP Leadership, however, did add something to their legislation that should give pause to...

Having lost their fight in the legislature, Wisconsin unions are now getting out the steel pipes for those who don't step lively to their cause. A letter we've seen that was sent to businesses in southeastern Wisconsin shows that Big Labor's latest strategy is to threaten small businesses with boycotts if they don't publicly declare their support for government union monopoly power. Dated March 28, 2011, the letter is addressed to "DEAR UNION GROVE AREA BUSINESS OWNER/MANAGER," in Racine County. And it begins with this warm greeting: "It is unfortunate that you have chosen 'not' to support public workers rights...

Members of Wisconsin State Employees Union, AFSCME Council 24, have begun circulating letters to businesses in southeast Wisconsin, asking them to support workers’ rights by putting up a sign in their windows. If businesses fail to comply, the letter says, “Failure to do so will leave us no choice but (to) do a public boycott of your business. And sorry, neutral means 'no' to those who work for the largest employer in the area and are union members." Jim Parrett, a field representative of Council 24 for Southeast Wisconsin, confirmed the contents of the letter, which carries his signature. But...

Members of Wisconsin State Employees Union, AFSCME Council 24, have begun circulating letters to businesses in southeast Wisconsin, asking them to support workers’ rights by putting up a sign in their windows. If businesses fail to comply, the letter says, “Failure to do so will leave us no choice but (to) do a public boycott of your business. And sorry, neutral means 'no' to those who work for the largest employer in the area and are union members."

“A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.” ~ Mao We are currently in the midst of a battle for the heart and soul of America. This war is being waged at our schools, the workplace and in our communities. States struggling to moderate impossible debt and balance budgets are examining ways to free themselves from the fiscal and political shackles imposed by labor unions whose exorbitant pensions and benefits comprise the bulk of their debt. With the economy tanking and the fight over public union benefits and collective bargaining spreading across the...

Cockroaches, bugs, mold, and flies. These are just some of the props and rumors allegedly employed by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) against the American unit of French catering company Sodexo. And the company’s had enough. Fed up with tactics that include intimidation, extortion, and yes, sabotage that apparently includes plastic cockroaches, Sodexo filed a lawsuit against the SEIU last week under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt

Dear Governor: Here on the Ides of March, as we recall the death of a tyrant, we have learned from your experiences in Wisconsin (and soon all over), that when Democrats lose elections... “democracy has failed"! In their twisted outlook, they have NO obligation to accept the election results! In bizarre irony... While President Obama hosted a seminar on the "crisis" of bullying , his union affiliated supporters trashed the people's capitol in Madison and threatened GOP legislators. All in protest of your attempts to curtail the public union stranglehold on your state, and balance the budget. Now there's news...

A group of South Carolina attorneys is putting up the stiffest resistance yet to a Righthaven LLC copyright infringement lawsuit, threatening Friday to press for sanctions against Las Vegas-based Righthaven and to hit it with a malicious prosecution claim. Righthaven is a company that has filed at least 239 copyright infringement lawsuits since March over copyrights it obtained from the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Denver Post. The South Carolina attorneys filed a counterclaim Friday in Charleston, S.C., federal court against Righthaven that, among other things, accuses Righthaven of violating South Carolina’s Unfair Trade Practices Act when it sued Dana...

David Martin was in the mood for raw fish, and he liked the deal offered by a Studio City sushi restaurant: all you can eat for $28. He took a seat at the counter and started ordering. But it turned out that Martin didn't really want sushi, which includes rice; he wanted all-you-can-eat sashimi, which is just fish. He began picking the seafood off the top and leaving the rice. Restaurant owner Jay Oh told Martin that if he wanted the all-you-can-eat price, he'd have to eat the rice too and not just fill up on fish. Martin replied that...

Thirty-one Baltimore police officers have been suspended after authorities uncovered a towing extortion scheme, and 17 of them are facing federal charges. The department is starting suspension hearings Thursday for the officers, many of whom were assigned to the northeastern district. It is also filling a staffing gap in that district with a 20-officer community stabilization unit.

A Chevron Corp. lawyer said Friday that the company will not apologize for damage that an oil company it purchased is accused of causing to Ecuador's rainforest even though the refusal means a $9.5 billion judgment against it will nearly double within days. Attorney Randy Mastro instead attacked the judgment issued Monday by an Ecuadorean judge as the product of a corrupt judicial system and urged a U.S. judge to block lawyers for Ecuadoreans from trying to collect the money by getting other countries to seize Chevron assets and bank accounts. Mastro told U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in...

AWOL Wisconsin Democrat calls CNN with list of demandsBy Mary Katharine Ham - The Daily Caller Updated: 4:31 PM 02/17/2011 State Senator Mark Miller, a member of the missing band of Wisconsin Democratic lawmakers who fled Madison Thursday to avoid a vote on a budget bill, called into CNN with the group’s list of demands for Republican Gov. Scott Walker. Miller, a state senator since 2004, would not disclose where he and his colleagues were hiding out, saying only “we are in what we consider a secure location outside the capital. We are not all in one place at this...

BOSTON (AP) - A former Massachusetts state senator convicted of corruption after being videotaped stuffing bribe money into her bra has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison.

The Armed Citizen is back online! TheArmedCitizen.com, the premiere website for chronicling civilian defensive gun use re-launched on New Year’s Day following five months of down time. The site, founded by historian and author Clayton Cramer, fell prey to a frivolous lawsuit from a company known as Righthaven, a legal firm which partners with online newspapers to sue blogs that rebroadcast stories or images from the publications. “It’s basically legal extortion,” said co-blogger David Burnett. “They print their stories online with all kinds of buttons inviting you to share the story on the web. If you repost the story with...

A Massachusetts jury today ordered cigarette manufacturer Lorillard Inc. to pay $71 million in damages to a dead smoker's family for allegedly seducing the Boston woman decades ago into smoking Newport cigarettes. The Suffolk Superior Court jury awarded compensatory damages of $50 million to the estate of Marie Evans and $21 million to her son, William Evans. A hearing on punitive damages in the lawsuit has been scheduled for Thursday. The total amount of damages awarded could rise significantly at that hearing. The case was the first to claim that Lorillard had decided to target minority communities with samples of...

The drug violence in Mexico has a new potential victim: the potent agricultural sector in that country and its multibillion-dollar ties to consumers, farmers and ranchers in the United States. So far, two South Texas produce companies have changed the way they conduct business there. It's primarily how they move strawberries, melons, onions and other produce out of Mexico that has been affected rather than the growing practices themselves, company representatives said. SNIP Progreso already is transporting commodities grown in places like the city of Tampico on Mexico's Gulf Coast and the state of Guanajuato in central Mexico in multi-truck...

Bloggers already know of the association between Barack Obama, Michelle Obama and Steve Gibson. The latter's Righthaven firm has launched a legal war on websites over alleged copyright infringement. All three worked for Chicago Law firm Sidley Austin LLP, where Gibson and Michelle Obama coincidentally specialized in copyright-related "intellectual property" law for the firm. I've just uncovered a further Obama link to this new copyright war. Just two weeks ago Detroit-based Dickinson Wright PLLC acquired Steven Gibson's Las Vegas-based legal firm of Gibson Lowry Burris LLP, with Gibson becoming managing partner of what is now Dickinson's Las Vegas office.

So, my place of employment has been pressuring us with high-profile donation campaigns for a month or so. Now, I'm getting emails from the Chairman of the Board who has pledged a one-for-one dollar donation, and wants me to be a first time donor. I have several problems with this, mainly that the United Way nationally does fund Planned Parenthood. Now, locally they say they do not. However, United Way says you can make donations to specific charities. The issue I have with that is does United Way take something of the top for handling these donations? If so, why?...

The Las Vegas Review-Journal's copyright enforcement company no longer wants to litigate one of its more controversial cases: a complaint against the big political website the Democratic Underground. Righthaven LLC on Aug. 10 sued the website after a message-board poster copied to the site four paragraphs of a 34-paragraph May 13 Review-Journal story about Republican Nevada U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle titled "Tea Party power fuels Angle." The post by Democratic Underground website user "pampango" credited the information to the Review-Journal and included a link to the rest of the story on the Review-Journal website. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)...