Free Republic

RENO, Nev. (KRNV & MyNews4.com) -- A pay raise dispute between the Washoe County and its Sheriff's Deputies has come to a close. Sheriff Deputies had requested an increase in pay after the county cut benefits and 51 paid positions last year. Arbitrators Thursday advised in favor of the deputies, saying that their pay was behind national standards. The County was advised to give a three percent pay increase.

Americans' distrust in the media hit a new high this year, with 60% saying they have little or no trust in the mass media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly. Distrust is up from the past few years, when Americans were already more negative about the media than they had been in years prior to 2004. The record distrust in the media, based on a survey conducted Sept. 6-9, 2012, also means that negativity toward the media is at an all-time high for a presidential election year. This reflects the continuation of a pattern in which negativity increases...

The pilots are at it again. While American Airlines languishes in bankruptcy court, they have taken the difficult steps of instituting cuts to wages, benefits, vacation time and flights. As a result, airline pilots are none-too-pleased, and could create countless problems for the millions of passengers the airline serves each year. According to a Wall Street Journal article: Airlines workers periodically perform badly or walkout to get the attention of management and gain leverage in negotiations. It’s a messy battle that leaves passengers as collateral damage. Late flights means families with small children get stranded at airports when they miss...

Misuse of the FHA Preforeclosure Sale Program may have cost the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) over a billion dollars for claims that did not meet program according to an audit released this week by the HUD's Region 7 Office of Inspector General (OIG). OIG initiated the audit after noticing significant deficiencies in borrower qualifications during an audit of program claims at one large lender. The Preforeclosure Sale Program allows borrowers in default due to an adverse an unavoidable financial situation to sell their home at fair market value and use the proceeds to pay off an FHA-guaranteed...

A bumper sticker is making the rounds with Joe Biden's words: Osama is Dead; GM is Alive. Apparently, that resonates with democrat voters who want to believe Obama knows a thing or two about foreign relations. Not. Ambassador Stevens is Dead...Al Qaeda is Alive. Ambassador Stevens is Dead...The Muslim Brotherhood is Alive. The above are the real truth, and any chest thumping on the part of Obama is really misplaced self-congratulatory narcissism. We all know it was our special operations forces who took out Osama. We're pretty sure that Obama did not put on a black mask, take up a...

(Being purchased for them by Penny Pritzker and wealthy Chicagoans) [ Michelle Obama's mother, Marian Robinson, has been bragging about getting to live in Hawaii next, in a $35 million beachfront mansion after leaving the White House in January 2013.  "It was fun while it lasted", Miss Marion is quoted by Chicagoans as saying, "but wait until you see the place they're buying for Michelle and Barack!" ] Part 1 of this report — HEREPart 2 of this report — HERE***************************Today has been declared “National Empty Chair Day”, in honor of Clint Eastwood’s speech on the closing night of the Republican...

Democrats need to change their party mascot from the donkey to the squirrel. They divert the media and the electorate’s short attention spans with fleeting, fuzzy objects — like the talking dog in the animated Pixar movie “Up,” who was easily distracted from his main thoughts and serious duties by every last little, moving trifle. Embassy attacks? Quick, find a squirrel! Warnings ignored? Squirrel! American troops killed by long-plotting jihadis exploiting security weaknesses? Squirrel! First Amendment sabotage by White House officials in the name of political correctness? Squirrel! Chronic joblessness, high gas prices, exploding dependency? Squirrel! Squirrel! Squirrel!

One of the key stories of 2011 was the revelation, courtesy of MF Global, that no asset in the financial system is "as is", and instead is merely a copy of a copy of a copy- rehypothecated up to an infinite number of times (if domiciled in the UK) for one simple reason: there are not enough money-good, credible assets in existence, even if there are more than enough 'secured' liabilities that claim said assets as collateral. And while the status quo is marching on, the Ponzi is rising, and new liabilities are created, all is well; however, the second...

The House Committee on Ways and Means has compiled an estimate of the total amount of hours it will take to comply with the taxes contained in Obamacare. Based on IRS estimates, it will take nearly 80 million hours for families and businesses to comply with Obamacare taxes. To put this in perspective, according to Ways and Means, it is the equivalent of the Empire State Building being constructed 11 times, a building which took 7 million man-hours to build. To make matters worse, Ways and Means has concluded that over half of the burden of tax compliance for Obamacare...

As the Chicago Teacher’s strike enters its fourth day, those on the picket line are insisting that they would rather be back in the classroom, and only want a “fair” deal. Chicago teachers are already well compensated, to the tune of $71,000 a year, and were offered a 16% salary raise before they initiated the strike on Monday morning. Teacher’s balked at this counter proposal and proclaimed, “[w]e’re not going back to work unless we have a fair contract.” That’s quite a statement when, according to the Illinois Policy Institute, the average starting pension for Chicago teachers is $77,496. Chicago...

The weird ecstasy of the media-political complex at the convention in Charlotte last month was the first sign that its attachment to President Obama, always fawning, had become morbid. In spite of the anemic economy and a real unemployment rate above 11 percent, the high priests of pontificating liberalism were giddy with euphoria. The Democrats “put on a nearly flawless convention,” Paul Begala opined, and it was soon all but incontrovertibly established that, come November, the president — beautiful, magical, and lovable as he was — would vanquish his boring opponent. The media savants sympathized with the delirium of Charlotte...

The Boston Globe ran a massive 3,000 word lead article this morning trying to excuse away Elizabeth Warren's claim during her professional career to be minority and a woman of color based on supposed Native American ancestry.The story, which had the cooperation of the Warren campaign, comes just days before the first debate in Massachusetts' Senate race. Clearly, the Warren campaign is worried after even Native Americans who are Democrats criticized Warren at the DNC in Charlotte, and is attempting to put its story out there through a friendly source.The article is a masterpiece of distraction, weaving stories from...

The New York Times is developing a bad habit of sending its columns to the Obama administration for approval. Daniel Harper at the Weekly Standard reported yesterday on a no-no committed by then-contributing Times columnist Peter Orszag, former director of Obama's Office of Management and Budget and an Obama-care booster in an October 20, 2010 column, "Malpractice Methodology." Halper wrote in part: The latest Bob Woodward books reveals that Peter Orszag, at the time a columnist for the New York Times, sent a draft of an article to White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett for review and comments before publishing....

A woman was awarded Social Security disability benefits because of "crippling hand pain" from carpel tunnel syndrome, but still managed to work as a bartender. A judge coached a disability applicant to lie about paying rent to boost his payments from the government. ‘I think you could flip a coin for anybody who came before the Social Security commission for disability and get it right just as often as the ALJs do, - Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.’ A man with history of cocaine addiction was approved for disability because of back pain and headaches, which he claimed could be controlled...

The nation faces a critical need to "overcome a number of serious problems" related to economic development and growing energy needs, particularly because of its "strong dependence on energy imports," the Obama Administration has concluded. Consequently, it has launched a project to increase "competitiveness and energy security" while reducing "greenhouse gas emissions via greater clean energy investments" across the nation. Across the nation of Macedonia, that is.

Despite an unusual plea for leniency from Houston's city controller, five-time felon and swindler Dwayne Jordon was handed a 30-year sentence Friday after admitting to stealing 23 properties from rightful owners by forging deeds and building new homes on pilfered land. He then resold the properties to unsuspecting victims. Harris County District Judge David Mendoza said he weighed competing factors to find a "sentence that fit the crime." He said he considered Jordon's construction work on stolen and legitimate lots in a blighted neighborhood, evidence of his continuing scams while free on bond and Jordon's role as a father and...

For months, Ramsey County Elections Manager Joe Mansky has been predicting the costs and complications of the state voter ID amendment if it passes in November. Mansky has made public appearances at civic events and spoke at a state House news conference, where he's cautioned voters that Ramsey County will foot a heavy price to correct a problem that he says does not exist: widespread voter fraud. Now, some St. Paul Republicans are sending him a message of their own: Please be quiet and resign. In a public statement Thursday, Sept. 13, Greg Copeland, chairman of the St. Paul Republican...

After George W. Bush defeated Al Gore at the ballot box and in a rare show of fortitude for a Republican, didn't stand by haplessly wringing his hands when Gore tried to lawyer his way into the White House, liberals were outraged. Sure, Gore had never been ahead at any point, but OBVIOUSLY voter fraud had cost Democrats the election. Afterwards, Democrats DEMANDED that we do more to insure the integrity of our elections. Republicans agreed and for a while, we finally had an issue where there was genuine bipartisan agreement. Then came the 2004 elections and many of the...

SNIP Joel Gilbert suggests a more likely explanation. In doing his research in Hawaii, Gilbert heard from several sources that pre-statehood, every institution or branch of government in Hawaii was dominated by the Japanese syndicate known as the "Yakuza, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), and a complicit bureaucracy. "After statehood in 1959 the Federal Government came in, and the syndicate went underground, but maintained the same control, and does so to this day," says Gilbert. "Hawaii was and is a corrupt state," Gilbert continues. He was told by retired Honolulu police detectives that in the state bureaucracy, "anything...

Youtube user Bigone5555J found a photo of one of the Birth Certificates given to Obama's attorneys by the Hawaii Department of Health on April 25, 2011. You might recall that after Obama released his long form in a Pdf for the public to download on April 27, 2011, NBC's Savannah Guthrie boasted she was allowed to look at and feel the seal on Obama's Birth Certificate and reported that it said Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. She also took a picture of it and posted that photo on site called Lockerz.com. The photo she took can be seen here:...