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Detroit Police say they’ve conducted dozens of raids in the last six weeks netting them millions of dollars in drugs. Since July 1st, Detroit police have raided more than 90 homes, in one of the city’s biggest busts ever. “Since July first, we have raided a total of 90 homes, arrested 616 individuals and confiscated 69 firearms,” Police Chief Ralph Godbee said. “We’ve taken in about $3.5 million worth of heroin, cocaine, marijuana, various pills, Oxycontin and things of that nature, and over $360,000 in cash and narcotic proceeds.”

Transient meth-head Kirk Wise probably made more money than you did last year -- and he didn't even have a job. Wise, 45, is a professional copper thief who steals copper wire to support his $100-a-day meth habit. He's pretty good at it, too -- according to Wise, he's netted nearly $100,000 since January of 2010 by selling the copper to scrap-metal recycling businesses throughout the east Valley. (...) He admitted to everything -- he said he stole copper to support his meth habit and he'd netted $95,000 since last January. He told police he'd been stealing copper for three...

Below are some random thoughts on Cato’s founder, Edward Crane. Consider it a free-flowing free speech exercise. Indulge me. First, the “Libertarian Party Correspondent”, Edward H. Crane III strikes one as naïve, at best. Here he is in August 1973 (Reason, Aug/Sep2008, Vol. 40, Issue 4): If there were any remaining doubts as to the viability and future of the Libertarian Party, its 1973 National Convention in Strongsville, Ohio, early in June must surely have eliminated them. The L.P. is no longer a tenuous coalition of hesitant and dubious allies but rather a united front of determined individualists committed to...

After the Washingtonian drama of the past few weeks, the nation is now reflecting, and seeing the tangible proof of the damage which our politicians have once again done to our economy. As I have perused various conservative blogs, forums and Twitter accounts, the reaction of choice seems to be anger. This anger stems from feeling betrayed, and again lied to (I imagine the liberals may feel the same anger). Many of the conservative feel that many of our "hardline" conservatives pulled "Scott Browns" on us. Without thinking too deeply, this makes sense. We, the American people, got more rubbish...

While Colorado’s soft on marijuana laws, were welcomed by adults-first libertarians, so-called unexpected costs are being felt. “The dark side of the issue, however, is the unintended consequences on Colorado’s young people,” reports Our Colorado News. “Since the state legalized marijuana for medical use, treatment centers are treating more teens for marijuana addiction, according to a report from Thomas Crowley, director of the Division of Substance Dependence at the University of Colorado.” The consequences are alarming: “Denver Health Medical Center reports that treatment referrals have tripled, with 83 percent of the teens that smoke marijuana daily saying they obtained it...

A 4-year-old boy who was fatally shot while fishing with his father in northeastern Indiana was struck in the head by an errant bullet, a sheriff and a family friend said. Wells County Sheriff Monte Fisher told The Associated Press on Sunday that Jacob Michuda was shot in the head late Friday night while he and his father were fishing from a pier at a pond outside Ossian, a rural community about 15 miles south of Fort Wayne. Trisha Ulmer told The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne for a Sunday story that the boy's mother told her the boy was...

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who is still weighing a presidential bid, said Sunday that the Republican Party should stop focusing on gay marriage and "get the heck out of people's bedrooms." Giuliani, who personally supports civil unions but not same-sex marriage, said that he was against the recent vote in New York to legalize gay marriage in the state. But while he called that decision "wrong," he described it as a "democratic vote" and urged Republicans to move on. "I think that marriage should be between a man and a woman, but I think that the Republican Party...

<p>One of the serious problems facing the Republican Party is that their leadership cadre is aging and ossifying. The people who make up the county and state committees all over the country are getting older and older and increasingly out of touch with the grassroots of the party and the younger people who vote Republican but aren't at all satisfied with what the party has come to stand for or the way that it is run.</p>

A South African anthropologist has asked permission to open the graves of William Shakespeare and his family to determine, among other things, what killed the Bard and whether his poems and plays may have been composed under the influence of marijuana. But while Shakespeare's skeleton could reveal clues about his health and death, the question of the man's drug use depends on the presence of hair, fingernails or toenails in the grave, said Francis Thackeray, the director of the Institute for Human Evolution at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, who floated the proposal to the Church of England. Thackeray...

EUGENE — An arsonist who avoided federal prison five years ago by helping lock up Earth Liberation Front activists is headed to state prison for selling heroin. ... He was on probation under a 2007 plea deal for his role in arsons by an ELF band known as The Family. Targets included a meat-packing company, car dealership, ranger station and lumber company. Ferguson is depicted as the leader of the group in the documentary "If A Tree Falls." He faces a probation revocation hearing July 14 in federal court.

“Gay marriage” in fact represents a vast expansion of state power: In this instance, the state of New York is declaring that it has the competence to redefine a basic human institution in order to satisfy the demands of an interest group looking for the kind of social acceptance that putatively comes from legal recognition. But as Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York and others argued during the days before the fateful vote on June 24, the state of New York does not have such competence, and the assertion that it does casts an ominous shadow over the future. *****...

Earlier this week, New York Times columnist and Princeton professor Paul Krugman argued that folks on the Left were better able to accurately reiterate competing (ie conservative or libertarian) economic and political positions than, say, the Right could outline the liberal position. We will leave aside issues we might have with a Nobel Prize winning economist making such sweeping statements based on absolutely no facts. To a large extent, KrugmanÂ’s conceit is just part and parcel of the liberal hubris that they are smarter, better educated, and more empathetic than their political opponents (a conceit that is actually philosophically necessary...

A bipartisan team of Reps. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and Ron Paul, R-Texas, will introduce federal legislation that would permit states to legalize, regulate, tax and control marijuana without federal interference. The legislation will be unveiled Thursday by Frank, an outspoken liberal Democrat, and the libertarian Paul, who is running for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. The bill would limit the U.S. government role in marijuana enforcement to interdiction of cross-border or inter-state smuggling. Citizens would be able to legally grow, use or sell cannabis in states which have legalized the forbidden weed. The legislation is the first bill to be...

June 20, 2011, 9:26 am Poll Finds a Shift Toward More Libertarian Views By NATE SILVER Libertarianism has been touted as the wave of America’s political future for many years, generally with more enthusiasm than evidence. But there are some tangible signs that Americans’ attitudes are in fact moving in that direction. Since 1993, CNN has regularly asked a pair of questions that touch on libertarian views of the economy and society: Some people think the government is trying to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses. Others think that government should do more to...

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is lobbying individual senators in a quest to secure what appears to be one more vote needed to legalize gay marriage in New York and deliver a major win for the national effort. The Democrat met with three Republican senators in his Capitol office Thursday and plans to meet with more on Friday, the day Senate Republican leader Dean Skelos predicted his house would bring the bill to a floor vote. The quietly-called meetings come as talks drag on, leading the Senate's Democratic leader to say Republicans are more concerned with protecting their majority. Some advocates thought...

Everybody knows that libertarians are greedy capitalists who favor the maximization of profit above all else. “Taxation is theft!” they cry, but the exploitation of the working classes fails to elicit any similar moral outrage. Libertarians, everybody knows, care about the rich to the utter neglect of the poor and vulnerable. But everybody is wrong. The reason for the common misperception, of course, is that libertarians oppose many of the governmental policies that are commonly thought to benefit the poor and working classes. Libertarians oppose redistributive taxation, oppose the minimum wage, oppose workplace safety regulations, antitrust laws, and many other...

Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. has long sold weed killer. Now, it's hoping to help people grow killer weed. In an unlikely move for the head of a major company, Scotts Chief Executive Jim Hagedorn said he is exploring targeting medical marijuana as well as other niches to help boost sales at his lawn and garden company. "I want to target the pot market," Mr. Hagedorn said in an interview. "There's no good reason we haven't." Sales at Scotts rose 5% last year to $2.9 billion. But the Marysville, Ohio, company relies on sales at three key retailers—Home Depot Inc., Lowe's Cos....

A federal SWAT operation kicked down the doors of Kenneth Wright’s home in a 6 A.M. raid because his wife, who no longer lives at the residence, failed to repay her student loan. Wright, who had been sleeping, was dragged out of the house in his underwear, thrown face down on the front lawn and held at gunpoint. His three children were not harmed. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan defended the harsh tactics. “Too many people are defaulting on their student loans,” Duncan pointed out. “The old system of pursuing collections through the courts may have been the only alternative...

Anyone know of any good books of this type that they could recommend? I am looking for something intellectual (e.g., anything written by a Professor, James Fennimore Cooper, Federalist Papers, Tocqueville, etc.) not catered to more mainstream audiences (e.g., Beck, Hannity, Coulter, etc.) and theoretical mostly, either fiction or non-fiction... I have a few on my list that I have read or will read but am just looking for some more ideas Thanks!

Texas Congressman Ron Paul, now officially seeking the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, says that the raid which killed Osama bin Laden "was absolutely not necessary." In the same radio interview, Paul conjectured that the United States could have convinced Pakistan to turn over bin Laden. The congressman added a bizarre non-sequitur. What if [bin Laden] had been in a hotel in London? So would we have sent the... helicopters into London because they were afraid the information would get out? Can Ron Paul not distinguish between steadfast ally Britain and a Pakistani regime poisoned by duplicitous people? The London scenario...