Free Republic

LOS ANGELES — DEVELOPING: Los Angeles police have detained a man near the North Hollywood synagogue where two Jewish people were shot in the legs. Officer Rosario Herrera says she was unsure if the arrest was connected with the shooting Thursday at the Adat Yeshurun Valley Sephardic synagogue.

A New Orleans man who was caught slipping DVDs into his son's diaper bag at a Kenner Wal-Mart abandoned the toddler in the parking lot when police tried to arrest him, authorities said. A Kenner Police Department report said an employee of the Wal-Mart at 300 W. Esplanade Ave. alerted an officer working as a private security guard that Joshua Gibson, 20, hid several digital video discs in a blue diaper bag he was carrying Saturday. The officer approached Gibson as he and his 2-year-old son exited the business. Gibson admitted that he removed several DVDs from their cases and...

Thomas Lee White spent a year in prison for another man's mistake. But White's own error has left him with little legal recourse. A federal appellate court ruled late last month that White -- who was jailed in New Orleans for public drunkenness, mistakenly identified and then lost in the state penal system for a full year after Hurricane Katrina -- has no right to a federal civil lawsuit because he didn't file the suit fast enough. He is one of countless former jail inmates who appear to have been deprived of their constitutional right to due process in the...

SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) - Caddo Parish Deputies say they've made an arrest related to an early Thursday morning home invasion. Investigators say the break-in happened just after 3 am at a home in the 1100 block of Oak Grove Lane. According to deputies, the homeowner was awakened when he heard someone kicking in the front door of his house. The homeowner said he grabbed a handgun, and when the suspect came into the bedroom, the homeowner shot at the suspect several times. The suspect then ran from the house.

September 23, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a recent interview with CNSNews.com, Cardinal Roger Mahoney declined to answer a question about whether or not he agreed with Cardinal Justin Rigali that the Obama health care bill should include language explicitly excluding any public funding of abortion. "This is way beyond my field," the cardinal responded."My field is immigration," said Mahoney, who is the archbishop of Los Angeles. "I really haven't kept up on that, and I spend all my time on this other. You have to get somebody who spends time on that."When asked whether he believed abortion should be funded under...

The story in a nutshell: Bertha Lewis is the CEO of ACORN. In a review of Lewis’s contacts list, which was leaked to RedState, Bertha Lewis has the office, cell phone, home number, and private personal email address of Patrick Gaspard. Patrick Gaspard holds Karl Rove’s position in the White House and was Obama’s Political Director during the campaign. In addition to Patrick, Bertha has Patrick’s brother Michael in her rolodex. She lists Michael as working at the Advance Group. The Advance Group is ACORN’s lobbying organization. In other words, besides having Obama’s political director’s contact info, the political director’s...

Video at link.

SHREVEPORT, La. - Police say a man impersonating an officer with a flashing red light in his car has been arrested after he pulled over the wrong driver , the mayor of Shreveport, La.

NEW ORLEANS -- Two brothers who were shot and stabbed to death in a Carondelet Street apartment late Sunday night were killed in apparent self-defense, New Orleans police said. Click To Comment Carlos Calderon, 39, and Luis Calderon, 26, were found dead around 11:15 p.m. Sunday in an apartment at 1132 Carondelet Street. Two other men, a 38-year-old and a 31-year-old, were found in the apartment with multiple stab wounds. The Calderon brothers lived in the same building and had been involved in an argument with the two survivors earlier Sunday, police said. Later that night, the brothers -- armed...

A Slidell woman nearly nabbed two men who were burglarizing her boyfriend's home Thursday night, but they managed to wrest free of her grip, leaving her holding part of one burglar's shirt. Police arrested two suspects soon afterward, however, when the men returned to the area, one still wearing a torn gray T-shirt. John Stile Jr., 17, and Robin Arnold, 18, both of Slidell, later confessed to police that they were involved in that burglary, two other successful burglaries and another attempted break-in in the same subdivision, authorities said. The woman, whose name was not released, stopped by her boyfriend's...

LOS ANGELES — Wildfires erupted up and down California Thursday as a late summer siege of heat and low humidity levels made conditions ripe for conflagrations. Structures could be seen burning in the wealthy communities on the Palos Verdes Peninsula south of Los Angeles, while suburbs on the foothills to the north of the city were threatened by a slumbering fire that suddenly roared to life in the evening hours. Dozens of homes were evacuated in Rancho Palos Verdes, Los Angeles County fire Inspector Steve Zermeno said. TV news footage showed structures on fire and at least one entirely engulfed...

Los Angeles is now checking the immigration status of inmates as they are released. Link only to L.A. Times

Mose Jefferson, the older brother of the former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson who was convicted two weeks ago of abusing his congressional office to enrich himself and his family, has been, convicted by a federal jury on four charges that he bribed an Orleans Parish School Board member. After the passage of almost $14 million worth of contracts in 2003 and 2004, Jefferson received commissions totaling more than $900,000. The first two checks, each worth $50,000, were given to Brooks-Simms with no person listed on the payee line. After receiving the check from Jefferson, Brooks-Simms wrote the name of her...

I recently finished reading The Great New Orleans Gun Grab: Descent Into Anarchy by Gordon Hutchinson and Todd Masson. To give you an idea of how interesting this book is, I finished all 190 pages PLUS the Appendix materials in just under three hours. Both Hutchinson and Masson are professional writers, and they do an excellent job conveying a story that is fascinating, frightening, horrifying, and often, beyond belief. I found myself muttering, numerous times, "Certainly this did not happen in the United States." Well, it did happen. And every gun owner owes it to himself to at least know...

Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao New Orleans, La., Aug 3, 2009 / 02:06 pm (CNA).- Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao, (R-New Orleans), the first Vietnamese-American congressman and a Catholic,  announced this past weekend that, because of the “stealth mandate” for abortion still present in the Health Care bill, he prefers to “save his soul” rather than  vote in favor of it.Cao, the only member of the Louisiana House delegation who had not weighed in on where he stands on the health reform bill, told the Times-Picayune on Saturday that he cannot support any bill that permits public money to be spent...

Why did Congress exempt themselves from being included in the healthcare they want for the rest of Americans? Maybe it's because Congress members don't want themselves and their families to be at the mercy of bureaucrats about whether they can receive quality of life treatments, or even treatments for their very life or death; rationing; long lines; or when they become senior citizens, be forced to have counseling every five years, or more often if they are sick, regarding alternatives for end of life care. Rep. John Fleming, (the 2007 Louisiana family physician of the year), put forth a bill,...

Lou Dobbs had David from Freeport, N.Y., on the line, the caller musing darkly about President Obama "rushing all these programs through by whatever means," knowing he will soon be exposed as a fake, a fraud, a . . . Kenyan. At that point, a scrupulous radio host had three options: (A) hit the kill button (B) laugh and hit the kill button or (C) offer some push-back against the fantastical notion that Barack Obama was born on foreign soil and thus serves -- illegally -- as the Oval Office's first resident alien.

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - Police say a deadly shooting on Alliquippa Street in Baton Rouge was apparently the result of an attempted robbery gone bad. They say around 2:00 Wednesday morning two men rushed into a home attempting to rob the people inside. Police say an 18-year-old inside the home grabbed his gun and started shooting, but so did a 38-year-old robber. The robber died at the scene, while the 18-year-old remains hospitalized fighting for his life. The second suspect ran off. If you can help police find him, call Crime Stoppers at 344-7867. Related Stories:

The ACLU, not exactly known for being sympathetic to the right to keep and bear arms, is going to bat for a New Orleans man who had his gun confiscated. From the Associated Press: The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana filed the federal lawsuit Thursday on behalf of Errol Houston Jr., who was arrested last year following a traffic stop. The lawsuit says the district attorney's office declined to prosecute Houston but has refused to return his .40-caliber firearm. Why? After all: "Mr. Houston has done nothing wrong. There are no criminal charges against him. His firearm, which he...

Los Angeles police released security video today that captures unruly celebrants of the Lakers NBA finals victory helping themselves to merchandise at a Shell gas station convenience store blocks from the Staples Center. The footage, shot June 14 by a security camera at the rear of the store in the 600 block of West Olympic Boulevard, shows a group of about two dozen men swarming the store and helping themselves primarily to juice, soda and energy drinks in a large cooler. The mob shouted, “Free soda, free soda” as they grabbed merchandise in a two-minute rush in which they also...

Is it freedom of speech or lack of respect? That's the question after Thursday's graduation ceremony at John Liechty Middle School. Angry parents crowded the school's lobby demanding a meeting with Principal Jeanette Stevens to discuss the issue, but were turned away Monday morning. It comes after 15 students chose to protest their graduation speaker, LAUSD Board President Monica Garcia. The students and their parents said they chose to do so to protest teacher layoffs and increased class sizes. "We didn't stand up," said Ender Perez, who continues to refuse to apologize for Thursday's events, "we just sat in our...

God-fearing heavy metal fans in Sweden now have a place to go to bang their heads and worship Jesus at the same time. The church was formed from an ever-expanding network of Christians who “love hard rock and want to see the metal world transformed by God’s power,” according to a statement by the church’s founders. “We want to be a safe-haven for Christian hard rockers where they can feel at home and grow spiritually, and where newly-converted hard rockers can develop their faith and be protected,” said the group. The idea for Sweden's Metal Sanctuary came to life following...

There wasn't much to celebrate after police arrived early Thursday morning at a Studio City club. Authorities raided a birthday party at the Platinum Club on Ventura Boulevard. The rental club is just east of Tujunga Avenue. Investigators said members of the South Los Angeles Rolling 60s gang were at the party. The gang is one of Los Angeles' largest and most dangerous, police said. "They're one of the larger gangs in South Los Angeles," said LAPD Sgt. Dan Horan. "They're well established. There was a gang injunction against them in the neighborhood that they claim. That area around there...

Midvale » Police officers here will not be cross-deputized as immigration agents under Utah's new anti-immigration law, said Midvale Police Chief Tony Mason. During a City Council work meeting Tuesday, Mason spoke to city leaders about how the Midvale Police Department plans to enforce the new law, known as SB81, that goes into effect July 1. Mason said that after years of building a relationship with the community, he doesn't want Midvale residents to fear officers. He doesn't want victims, witnesses or those who report crimes to think officers are now enforcing federal immigration law, he said. "We don't want...

Guns on campus Published: Friday, May 15, 2009 at 2:00 p.m. Last Modified: Friday, May 15, 2009 at 2:13 p.m. Just like it was last year, state Rep. Ernest Wooton’s proposal to allow concealed weapons on college campuses is a bad idea. Wooton, D-Belle Chasse, championed the measure last year before finally withdrawing it from legislative consideration. But this year, he has renewed his effort. The heart of his bill is to do away with gun-free zones that prohibit firearms on college campuses throughout the state. Wooton has already gotten the support of the Committee on Criminal Justice, which he...

Bratton: L.A. Is as Safe as 1956 Except the chief is manipulating numbers and acting like a politician By Patrick Range McDonald published: April 30, 2009 Star Foreman Trust us, it’s 1956 Courtesy of The USC Digital Archives Poker Hall of Shame: A 1954 Laurel Canyon “vice raid” netted three young hipsters who, scandalously, were playing poker for cash. Courtesy of The USC Digital Archives Men in black: A crowd rushes to this Inglewood crime scene, drawn by a shocking radio broadcast in 1957, to see police haul away a would-be robber. Marc Wanamaker/Bison ArchivesAt squeaky-clean Sunset and Vine in...

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff's deputies say a 21-year-old woman who shot and killed a 46-year-old man told investigators he had kept her in a house without utilities by threatening to kill her. Sheriff's spokeswoman Casey Rayborn Hicks says the woman's name is not being released because she is considered an abuse victim. She says investigators consider the death of Allison L. Jackson to be justifiable homicide, but will forward the case to prosecutors. He was killed during a fight in a three-room house. His brother, 29-year-old Darrell Scott, says the woman was always free...

Police are looking for a LaGrange man accused of using a space heater to try to electrocute and strangle his neighbor early Saturday. At around 5:50 a.m., LaGrange police said Alexis Dewayne Owens kicked in the door of his neighbors’ Ashton Street apartment. Inside were Owens’ two neighbors, a man and woman. Owens began hitting his male neighbor with a space heater and told him he was going to have to fight for his life. The man then tried to electrocute the male victim with the heater’s cord. When that didn’t work, police said he tied the cord in a...

Jim Sinclair’s Commentary Jim’s 2006 Formula functions:Select a city. It is omnipresent. It cannot be reversed by Tarp, or any acronym. Your town and city are experiencing just this, no matter where you live.Prepared text of Villaraigosa’s State of the City speech Tuesday, 14 April 2009 Fellow Angelenos:These are no ordinary times in the City of Los Angeles, or for that matter, any place where people depend on the global economy.Here in L.A., the recession is taking a terrible toll.  230,000 Angelenos now standing on unemployment lines.  The jobless rate simmering at 12% and rising. The mortgage crisis has now...

LA school board votes to lay off 5,400 employees1 day ago LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Board of Education has voted to lay off as many as 5,400 teachers and support personnel for the upcoming school year. The vote came Tuesday as employees protested raucously outside the meeting. The board had voted hours earlier to save the jobs of 1,996 elementary school teachers using federal stimulus funds. The Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation's second largest school system, faces a $596 million budget shortfall for the 2009-10 school year. The final number of layoffs remains to be...

Xavier University in New Orleans, a Catholic institution, has announced plans to honor pro-abortion political commentator and activist Donna Brazile at commencement on May 9, 2009. “Given New Orleans Archbishop Alfred Hughes’ strong condemnation of Notre Dame’s honor of pro-abortion President Barack Obama, it is surprising and saddening that Xavier University would honor a prominent figure opposed to Catholic moral teachings,” said Patrick J. Reilly, President of The Cardinal Newman Society, whose petition at NotreDameScandal.com has surpassed 263,000 supporters. Most U.S. bishops speaking and writing publicly against the decision of the University of Notre Dame to honor and host President...

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The Los Angeles Board of Education voted Tuesday to lay off as many as 5,400 teachers and support personnel for the upcoming school year as employees protested raucously outside the meeting. The vote came hours after the board voted to save the jobs of 1,996 elementary school teachers using federal stimulus funds. The Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation's second largest school system, faces a $596 million budget shortfall for the 2009-10 school year. The final number of layoffs remains to be determined because the exact amount of state and federal funds coming to the...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0903/090309la.htm Leader of ring that moved thousands of illegal aliens across U.S. sentenced to more than 6 years in prison LOS ANGELES - A Guatemalan national who helped run a Los Angeles-based organization that harbored and transported more than 9,000 illegal aliens was sentenced today to 78 months in federal prison. Francisco Andres-Francisco, 40, was sentenced by United States District Judge George H. King in Los Angeles. Andres-Francisco has been in custody since he was arrested 14 months ago in Pennsylvania after being found driving a van allegedly loaded with illegal aliens. Andres-Francisco...

Chad Rogers was just on the radio here and he did not know who Geert Wilders was. Couldn't pronounce his name. And objected to him addressing CPAC because he was "one of those who led us over the cliff." Huh?

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0902/090224losangeles.htm February 24, 2009 Former LAX elevator mechanic sentenced to 3 years for human smuggling LOS ANGELES - An elevator mechanic formerly employed by Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) has been sentenced to three years in federal prison for smuggling foreign nationals into the United States by bypassing established security at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Roberto Amaya Canchola, 54, was sentenced yesterday as part of a plea agreement in which he admitted earning $1,800 for each illegal alien he ushered into airport elevators and escorted to taxis outside the terminal. Canchola was...

Waterproof, Louisiana mayor and police chief arrested for corruption. The pair received federal grants to create speed traps. The mayor and police chief of a federally funded Louisiana speed trap town were arrested Wednesday on felony corruption charges. A Tensas Parish Grand Jury indicted Waterproof Mayor Bobby Higginbotham for felony theft, malfeasance in office, payroll fraud and using public funds for personal use. Waterproof Police Chief Miles Jenkins faces three felony counts for receiving bonuses for meeting traffic ticket quotas and altering traffic citations. The activities of both officials were fueled by federal taxpayer dollars. In 2007, Higginbotham received $37,500...

SNIPPET: "Ahmadullah Sais Niazi, 34, who was arrested without incident this morning at his Tustin residence by members of the joint terrorism task force, was named in a five-count indictment returned Feb. 11 by a federal grand jury. The indictment, unsealed this morning, alleges Niazi hid associations with "Specially Designated Global Terrorists," groups including Al Qaeda, Hizb-i-Islami and the Taliban, when he completed nationalization papers five years ago. During one visit, the government alleges Niazi visited Dr. Amin al-Haq, the security coordinator for Osama bin Laden."

LOS ANGELES – An exotic dancer was set on fire outside the club where she worked early Thursday, burning more than 60 percent of her body, police said. They were searching for two suspects...

Several of the GOP's most prominent governors blasted the stimulus plan making its way through Congress Thursday, urging Senate Republicans to resist passing the bill and taking aim at what they called unnecessary spending in the package. "The legislation currently being considered includes excess spending and impedes states' abilities to manage their own programs," said Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. "I will oppose any stimulus package that increases states' costs and taxes, or results in federal control over state-administered programs. Barbour concluded: "The best stimulus package is one that includes tax cuts and real job creation initiatives that can have an...

Shrine at shooting site in South L.A. leads to more deaths By Ruben Vives and Richard Winton February 4, 2009 The flowers and candles began piling up Friday at the corner of 104th Street and Budlong Avenue, after a suspected gang member was fatally shot there. To residents in this rough section of unincorporated South L.A., that killing was bad enough. Then Monday night, a group of mourners were gathered there when a gunman walked by and opened fire, killing two men -- both suspected gang members -- and gravely wounding a third. By Tuesday afternoon, the corner had the...

A second unrelated incident occurred Saturday morning when a man entered the airport to pick up his wife, according to LAX officials Police searched his vehicle and found two unregistered and unloaded shotguns (12-gauge and 20-gauge) as well as about 220 rounds of ammunition. The man told officers he recently went to a shooting range to fire the guns and forgot they were in his vehicle. The man was not arrested, but the guns were confiscated and he risks possible prosecution down the line. His name could also become part of a federal "watch list" database of sorts. “While these...

"HAMAS MISSILES FOR ISRAELI FOOD" (Added January 12, 2009) VIDEO DESCRIPTION - QUOTE: IsraelMFA January 12, 2009 Israel gives food, medicine and electricity to Gaza citizens and gets rockets in return. Category: News & Politics Tags: Israel Hamas war rockets missile humanitarian aid children shield Gaza

LA Jews for Peace Critical of Mayor’s Public Support for Israel’s War & Blockade of Gaza by Marcy Winograd posted on Tuesday, 6 January 2009 LA Jews for Peace (LAJP), joining a chorus of critics, calls for a meeting with Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa and city council members Wendy Greuel, Janice Hahn, Jack Weiss and Dennis Zine to express disappointment in their public support of Israel’s relentless bombing and blockade of Gaza. Following a similar request from the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), LA Jews for Peace requests the Mayor sit down with diverse members of the LA community, including...

The Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations recently presented a report about how hate crimes stacked up in Los Angeles County for the year of 2006. The report came back with some interesting figures on the rising tensions between African-American and Latino communities. Hate crimes directed towards African-Americans have been on the rise leading many to abandon their communities. According to an analysis by Manuel Pastor, a University of California, Santa Cruz professor, the Highland Park area was 80 percent black and 20 percent Hispanic in 1980. By 2000, it was 60 percent Hispanic, 40 percent black.

Prosecutors Seek Assets of LA Gang MembersUpdated: December 9th, 2008 02:32 PM EDT By GREG RISLING Associated Press Writer LOS ANGELES -- Los Angeles prosecutors on Monday filed the state's first lawsuit seeking to seize homes, businesses and other assets from known members of the city's largest gang to cripple their criminal enterprises. The lawsuit, filed against nine leaders of the 18th Street gang who are all serving prison time, is believed to be the first of its kind in the nation. It aims to reduce the wealth accumulated by gang leaders through illegal activities. "The days of allowing vicious...

The Mormon temple in Westwood was closed Thursday afternoon after an envelope filled with an unidentified white, powdery substance was delivered to temple employees, Los Angeles police said. About 3:30 p.m., a hazardous-materials team was sent to the temple at Santa Monica Boulevard and Overland Avenue, said LAPD Officer Karen Smith. The temple has recently been the site of protests by opponents of Proposition 8, though it is unclear whether the envelope was related to protests over the gay marriage ban, officials said.

Intolerant liberals? What mythical creatures do you speak of? A good friend of mine took "YES ON 8" signs, taped them to his truck and drove through West Hollywood today with myself in the passenger seat Essentially, we made a "victory lap" through the most heavily homosexual part of LA (perhaps anywhere; even the SF bay area is intimidated by their sheer gay prowess) Needless to say, the Liberal backlash was slightly less than tolerant. One woman, frothing at the mouth, cursing loudly and (get ready for it) driving a Subaru insisted we were evil and proceeded to spit on...

BATON ROUGE, La. -- After just six months in office, U.S. Rep. Don Cazayoux faces a rocky path to re-election, with a Republican attacking him from the right and an independent attacking from the left.

Too bad Obama wasn't wearing a pair of expensive Neiman Marcus pumps at the Khalidi dinner; then the tape would be all over the main stream media right?

An attorney for Mychal Bell claims Bell's father attacked her Wednesday after a hearing with the Louisiana High School Athletic Association.Carol Powell Lexing of Monroe, an indigent defense attorney, filed a report with Baton Rouge police stating that Marcus Jones spat in her face and pushed her down in an elevator after the LHSAA denied Bell an extra year of athletic eligibility.Bell, one of the “Jena Six” defendants accused of beating up a fellow high school student, sought to regain the year of eligibility he lost while awaiting trial. Bell was convicted of second-degree battery, a conviction that was later...