Free Republic

STUDIO CITY (CBSLA.com) — The president’s announcement Thursday of an executive order shielding some five million undocumented immigrants from deportation has been a subject of controversy. And Loyola Marymount University Professor Michael Genovese stopped by KCAL9 Saturday to discuss the context surrounding the issue. “All presidents use executive authority. That’s been true from Washington to Obama. And almost all executives actions are non-controversial. Every once in a while something spills over causes great concern and controversy,” he said. “It’s one of those cases reasonable people could disagree. And historically we have seen for the most part presidents prevail in these...

Holder urges restraint ahead of decision on Ferguson shooting FERGUSON Mo (Reuters) - Hundreds of civil rights lawyers from across America are descending on Ferguson, Missouri as police and protesters prepare for a grand jury decision on whether to charge the officer who killed an unarmed black teenager in August. The attorneys are arriving in Ferguson as talks between protest groups and police have stalled over a refusal by officials to rule out the use of riot gear, tear gas and militarized equipment if demonstrations turn violent should a grand jury decide not to indict police officer Darren Wilson, protest...

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Republican Dan Sullivan won Alaska's U.S. Senate race, defeating first-term incumbent Democrat Mark Begich. Sullivan led Begich by about 8,100 votes on Election Night last week and held a comparable edge after election workers had counted about 20,000 absentee, early-voted and questioned ballots late Tuesday. Thousands more ballots remained to be counted, but the results indicated that Begich could not overcome Sullivan's lead. The Alaska seat was initially considered key to the Republicans' hopes of taking control of the U.S. Senate, but that goal was accomplished before the Alaska race was decided. Sullivan, in a statement,...

The mother of 18-year-old Michael Brown, the unarmed black teenager shot to death by a police officer during an altercation in Ferguson, Mo., is going to Geneva, Switzerland to address the United Nations on police brutality. Never mind that the investigation into the incident is ongoing, and it has yet to be determined that Officer Darren Wilson is guilty of any such brutality. In fact, according to The Washington Post, Justice Department investigators “have all but concluded they do not have a strong enough case to bring civil rights charges against Darren Wilson.” Nevertheless, Lesley McSpadden will be in Switzerland...

U.S. Marine veteran Andrew Tahmooressi has been released from a Mexican jail, where he had languished for months on weapons charges after crossing the border with three guns in his car earlier this year. Tahmooressi has long maintained his innocence, saying that he made a wrong turn at the Mexican border and was unable to return to the U.S. upon realizing his mistake. His release became a cause célèbre for conservatives nationwide. The San Diego Union-Tribune notes that Tahmooressi's legal strategy shifted in recent weeks: "He initially pressed for dismissal of the case on the grounds that his client’s rights...

ABCNews: Judge Rejects Attempt to Isolate Nurse October 31, 2014 5:52PM ET "A Maine judge gave nurse Kaci Hickox the OK to go wherever she pleases, handing state officials a defeat Friday in the nation's biggest court case yet over how to balance personal liberty, public safety and fear of Ebola."

In a separate interview with CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen, Hickox elaborated on what she thought of Christie's assessment of her medical condition. "I'm sorry, but that's just a completely unacceptable statement in my opinion. For (Christie) -- a politician who's trusted and respected -- to make a statement that's categorically not true is just unacceptable and appalling." "She's fine. She's not sick." Hickox told Crowley that mandatory quarantine is "not a sound public health decision" and that public health officials -- not politicians -- should be making the policies related to Ebola and public safety. "For the first...

Four former Blackwater security guards were found guilty Wednesday in the 2007 shootings of more than 30 Iraqis in Baghdad, and a federal judge ordered them immediately to jail.

If any American soldiers in Liberia contract the deadly Ebola virus, they will be quarantined, stabilized, and evacuated to a medical facility for treatment, said the Ebola mission commander, adding that the U.S. military hospitals that will admit potentially infected troops have not yet been identified. “If, God forbid, one of these soldiers, sailors, airmen, or marine contracted this disease, as I mentioned, they would be stabilized, they would be quarantined, we would go through the appropriate protocols,” Maj. Gen. Darryl Williams, commander of U.S. Army Africa, said on October 16 while briefing reporters in the Pentagon by telephone from...

Thursday night on Fox News, Charles Krauthammer predicted that it would only take "a couple more cases like Mr. Duncan" flying to the United States from West Africa with Ebola for the president to back down from his no travel ban position. But if Judicial Watch's sources are correct, Obama's open door policy for people coming from Ebola infected countries, may creak open a little wider to allow the transfer of non-US citizens infected with the disease into the country for treatment. It is unclear who would bear the high costs of transporting and treating non-citizen Ebola patients. The plans...

Ever had your credit card turned down at a fancy restaurant? President Obama can commiserate. Speaking to workers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in Washington on Friday, he recalled a moment last month when, at the end of a dinner out in New York City, his plastic was declined. "I guess I don't use it enough, so they thought there was some fraud going on," he said. "Luckily, Michelle had hers. I was trying to explain to the waitress that I've really been paying my bills."

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: So, how many of you still doubt me, that everything this administration does is a political calculation? How many of you still doubt me on that? So we now have an Ebola czar. There was a clamor for an Ebola czar, and we've got an Ebola czar, and he doesn't know the first thing about medicine or health. All he knows is fisticuff politics. JOHNNY DONOVAN: And now, from sunny south Florida, it's Open Line Friday! RUSH: Open Line Friday, and here we are at the end of the week, where I, El Rushbo, take the biggest...

UN health agency acknowledged ‘nearly everyone involved in the response failed to see some fairly plain writing on the wall’ The World Health Organisation has admitted mishandling the early stages of the Ebola outbreak in west Africa, saying it failed to recognise the risks of the disease in the fragile states of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. “Nearly everyone involved in the outbreak response failed to see some fairly plain writing on the wall,” says a draft internal document obtained by the Associated Press. Experts should have realised that the conventional way of containing an Ebola outbreak would not work...

The second health-care worker diagnosed with Ebola had a fever of 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit before boarding a passenger jet on Monday, a day before she reported symptoms of the virus and was tested, according to public health officials. Even though there appeared to be little risk for the other people on that flight, she should not have traveled that way, Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a news conference Wednesday.

Conservative Christian pastors in Houston who opposed an equal rights ordinance had their sermons and other private communications subpoenaed by city attorneys fighting to keep a repeal referendum off the ballot.Houston Chronicle: Houston's embattled equal rights ordinance took another legal turn this week when it surfaced that city attorneys, in an unusual step, subpoenaed sermons given by local pastors who oppose the law and are tied to the conservative Christian activists that have sued the city. Opponents of the equal rights ordinance are hoping to force a repeal referendum when they get their day in court in January, claiming City...

Leon WatsonOctober 13, 2014 The Ebola outbreak is the "most severe acute health emergency in modern times", the World Health Organisation has warned. The agency's director-general Margaret Chan said the epidemic had proved "the world is ill-prepared to respond to any severe, sustained, and threatening public health emergency". She added that new cases of Ebola are now "rising exponentially" in the three hardest-hit countries, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. In a statement to a regional health conference in the Philippine capital Manila, she said: "I have never seen a health event threaten the very survival of societies and governments in...

St. Louis Police Officer Fatally Shoots Teen Incident Sparks Protest Echoing Those in Nearby Ferguson, Mo. Ben Kesling An off-duty St. Louis police officer shot and killed a black teenager Wednesday evening, triggering protests in a metropolitan area that has been rattled by weeks of sometimes violent unrest in some neighborhoods following a high-profile police-involved shooting in August. The white, six-year veteran of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, who was working as a private security officer, shot and killed Vonderrit Myers Jr., an 18-year-old black teen, following an alleged struggle and after the teen allegedly fired a pistol at...

Prompted by recent Ebola scares, about 200 cabin cleaners at New York’s La Guardia Airport have walked off the job over what they say are safety concerns. The protesting workers are employed by Air Serv, which contracts with Delta to clean airplane cabins and bathrooms, and organizers predict the strike will last 24 hours.

The incident occurred at the Parchin military compound, not far from the Iranian capital, according to the Iranian Students News Agency. Two workers were killed in an explosion that took place at a military explosives factory southeast of Tehran, near the suspected nuclear reactor in Parchin, IRNA, the official Iranian news agency, reported Monday. The agency quoted Iran’s Defense Industries Organization, which said a fire occurred Sunday night, killing two people. The agency did not provide additional information. The semi-official ISNA news agency also reported that an explosion occurred at a military base near Tehran, killing two people. “Unfortunately, two...

At least two are reported dead after a lethal explosion Sunday evening at or near the Parchin military compound near Tehran, the Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) reported. Quoting the Iranian Defense Industries Organization, ISNA reported, “Unfortunately, due to the incident two workers of this production unit lost their lives.” No further details were provided. The blast occurred in a unit where explosive materials are produced at the nuclear facility, news reported said.