Free Republic

By now you've likely heard that Atlanta Fire Chief, Kelvin Cochran, was recently fired from his position for publishing a book in which he affirmed a biblically orthodox understanding of human sexuality. Who Told You That You Were Naked book coverThe 162-page book in question, "Who Told You That You Were Naked?" is a Bible study designed for Christian men. According to press reports, Mr. Cochran gave a copy of the book to three individuals within his department, all of whom he knew to be Christian. So, what's the problem? The now former fire chief was initially suspended from his...

The New York Times reports that President Barack Obama is about to dismiss Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. The reason given? That the White House recognized that "the threat from the Islamic State would require a different kind of skills than those that Mr. Hagel was brought on to employ." In other words: Hagel was brought on to downgrade the military radically, but now the military turns out to be necessary, after all. Yet that cannot be the only reason, absent any sign that Obama is committing to a sudden, steep increase in the defense budget, and reversing the non-sequester...

In New York City – as with so many other places around the country – it’s generally a sadly accepted assumption that once a teacher in the public school system achieves tenure, they are in place for life. It doesn’t matter if you turn out to be a pedophile, a sexual predator or violent madman, thanks to the power of the teachers unions, your taxpayer funded paycheck is pretty much safe for life. At most, you might be sent to sit in a rubber room. Heck, in the current case of Sean Shaynak, you can collect your pay while...

<p>ST. LOUIS — With lethal-injection drugs in short supply and new questions looming about their effectiveness, lawmakers in some death penalty states are considering bringing back relics of a more gruesome past: firing squads, electrocutions and gas chambers.</p> <p>Most states abandoned those execution methods more than a generation ago in a bid to make capital punishment more palatable to the public and to a judicial system worried about inflicting cruel and unusual punishments that violate the Constitution.</p>

**SNIP** Firing squads have all but disappeared from the U.S. While Oklahoma law provides for them if lethal injection is ever ruled unconstitutional, only Utah actually continues to use them, and then only for inmates convicted before 2004 as it seeks to phase them out. But the shortage of pentobarbitol has some lawmakers reconsidering. State Sen. Bruce Burns filed a similar bill (.pdf) Monday in Wyoming, saying the state would have to do something soon before it runs out of approved drugs for lethal injections.

Media: A Tennessee newspaper fired an editor over a hard-hitting editorial denouncing President Obama's jobs plan on the very day the president came to town to tout it. This has the odor of White House revanchism. ngbfThe Chattanooga Times Free Press insists that its firing of Drew Johnson for the title of his editorial, "Take Your Jobs Plan And Shove It, Mr. President," was unrelated to content, and merely a case of an insubordinate editor changing his headline to a riff on a song by Nashville singer Johnny PayCheck over another headline. Frankly, it's hard to believe. For one thing,...

Matt Pearce @mattdpearce Trayvon Martin demonstrators are marching on the FREEWAY in LA. pic.twitter.com/GB8oJBp2sS

BIG BEAR LAKE, Calif. – The hunt in the snowy mountains for a former Los Angeles police officer suspected in three killings continued Saturday as police announced they will reopen the disciplinary proceedings that led to the fugitive's firing. Officials will particularly re-examine Christopher Dorner's allegations that his law enforcement career was undone by racist colleagues, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck told KCBS-TV. He also urged Dorner to surrender. "If he was to give himself up, we'd be happy to hear what he has to say," Beck said. Authorities suspect Dorner in a series of attacks in Southern California...

Obama Fires Top General Without Even a Phone Call Daniel Halper January 25, 2013 10:26 AM President Barack Obama fired General James Mattis, the head of Central Command, without even calling the general to let him know he was being replaced. "I am told that General Mattis was travelling and in a meeting when an aide passed him a note telling him that the Pentagon had announced his replacement as head of Central Command. It was news to him -- he hadn't received a phone call or a heads-up from anyone at the Pentagon or the White House," Thomas E....

Coach of the month in November, out of a job by New Year's. The Brooklyn Nets have elevated expectations this season, and a .500 record wasn't good enough. Coach Avery Johnson was fired Thursday, his team having lost 10 of 13 games after a strong start to its first season in Brooklyn. "We don't have the same fire now than we did when we were 11-4," general manager Billy King said at a news conference in East Rutherford, N.J. "I tried to talk to Avery about it and we just can't figure it out. The same pattern kept on happening."...

On paper, it was a promotion. But Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta turned down a White House offer to become the next director of national intelligence anyway. President Barack Obama last week fired his intelligence chief, Dennis Blair, without an immediate successor teed up. People familiar with the matter said the White House had expected Mr. Blair would stick around until a replacement was found. Mr Blair declined. The struggle to find a successor has highlighted the challenges of filling an ill-defined job fraught with political tripwires. Mr. Panetta is one of a number of people who have turned...

When MSNBC discarded Keith Olbermann, al-Qaida mourned. So reports David Ignatius, the Washington Post columnist who has gained exclusive access to some of the documents recovered from Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. In his Wednesday column in the Washington Post, Ignatius reported on the details of a 21-page letter to bin Laden written by al-Qaida media adviser Adam Gadahn. Though the letter was undated, Ignatius says that it was likely written sometime after November 2010. Laying out the current media landscape for the now waterlogged terrorist kingpin, Gadahn, an American-born Jewish convert to Islam, lamented the “firing” of...

Complete title: Judicial Watch Obtains Documents Revealing White House Role in the Controversial Firing of USDA Employee Shirley Sherrod White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs Denied Obama White House was Involved in Firing Documents Show Obama White House Approved Statement by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack Accepting Sherrod’s Forced Resignation (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained documents suggesting the Obama White House approved of the decision to fire U.S. Department of Agriculture employee Shirley Sherrod on July 19, 2010, based on what were thought to be racist...

WASHINGTON (AP) — About 90 District of Columbia workers have been suspended and may be fired after officials determined they received unemployment checks while holding city jobs. The Washington Post reports Monday that another 60 former D.C. workers have cashed unemployment checks they were not entitled to. Lisa Mallory is director of the city's Department of Employment Services. She says the city has paid about $800,000 in unemployment benefits to working city employees since 2009 (http://wapo.st/yEm9Iw ). Mallory says some employees received as much as $20,000. Others received a few hundred dollars. The fraud is not complicated. Mallory says people...

Officials with the revamped ACORN office in New York -- operating as New York Communities for Change -- have fired staff, shredded reams of documents and told workers to blame disgruntled ex-employees for leaking information in an effort to explain away a FoxNews.com report last week on the group’s involvement in Occupy Wall Street protests, according to sources. NYCC also is installing surveillance cameras and recording devices at its Brooklyn offices, removing or packing away supplies bearing the name ACORN and handing out photos of Fox News staff with a stern warning not to talk to the media, the sources...

Officials with the revamped ACORN office in New York -- operating as New York Communities for Change -- have fired staff, shredded reams of documents and told workers to blame disgruntled ex-employees for leaking information in an effort to explain away a FoxNews.com report last week on the group’s involvement in Occupy Wall Street protests, according to sources. NYCC also is installing surveillance cameras and recording devices at its Brooklyn offices, removing or packing away supplies bearing the name ACORN and handing out photos of Fox News staff with a stern warning not to talk to the media, the sources...

Peshawar: Safi peace committee member nephew has died in firing, here on Sunday at 10am.The Safi peace committee member Malik Subadar nephew Malik Jahanzaib was died in firing at Budhni Peshawar. According to police He was coming to Peshawar with his two friends when unknown persons start firing on his car. The dead body and two injured persons were shifted to the Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar for medical treatment. After the incident, police reached the spot and start investigation. No one took responsibility of the firing. According to the police Malik Jahanzaib was the owner of Marble Factory, he belongs...

Normally in these cases, my sympathy tends to run towards employers, who have the legal right to set uniform and presentation policies, especially in public positions. Barring the display of pins on a uniform is not unreasonable, as adopting a laissez-faire attitude might end up with a whole lot of political messages seem as though they represent the views of management rather than individual employees. As a former mid-level manager in a corporation, I also know how difficult life can get when exceptions get made to policy, and suddenly every employee wants an exception for their own pet causes.With all...

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa -- A Marshalltown homeowner faces felony charges after shooting at a trespasser Sunday afternoon. Officials said the trespasser has been charged with a misdemeanor. Clayton Jensen told officials he had just come home from running an errand when he looked out his back window and saw a man in his backyard. Jensen said he was concerned for his family's safety. "He was kind of heightened alert because one of his family members had seen someone outside the house at night and then they took off when they were confronted," said Brian Batterson, Marshalltown assistant police chief. Several homeowners...

Former MSNBC host Cenk Uygur’s departure from the network earlier today was fairly quiet for a close-to-primetime host, and the network made it clear it was his choice to leave. It didn’t take long for the newly liberated Uygur to address his fans. In the end, he explained, it boils down to this: Cenk Uygur is a tiger, and MSNBC tried to cage him. “They offered, honestly, a lot of money,” Uygur explains in his message, where he also says the role would have been a smaller one– “contributor, etc.”– instead of the alternate program the MSNBC statement suggested. He...