Free Republic

In a release issued on Wednesday, the Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police was critical of the police department saying it is critically understaffed and that it has no long term plan of action to fight crime. FOP president Gene Ryan says the department cannot hire enough officers to catch up with attrition, and says the city has failed to properly manage the agency. “I really have a problem with elected officials being silent with what’s going on in the streets of Baltimore right now,” Ryan said. “I mean we have bodies dropping on a daily basis".

A group of Baltimore businesses that sustained damage during the 2015 riots following the death of Freddie Gray is suing the city, alleging officials failed to suppress the riots. The nearly 700-page complaint was filed in Baltimore City Circuit Court in March but only recently removed to U.S. District Court at the request of the defendants.

RUSH: Hey, the Supreme Court has handed down a decision that’s gonna have some ramifications. They have ruled for, in favor of an Asian-American rock band that calls themselves The Slants. Snerdley, you’re a big music guy. Have you ever heard of The Slants, Asian-American rock band called The Slants? I never have. You have heard of them? You like their music? Ohhh, but you’ve not heard their music, you never heard of ’em ’til the story hit? All right. Well, get this. In a win for Asian-American rock band The Slants — and this has got possible ramifications, good...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday struck down part of a law that bans offensive trademarks in a ruling that is expected to help the Washington Redskins in their legal fight over the team name. The justices ruled that the 71-year-old trademark law barring disparaging terms infringes free speech rights. The ruling is a victory for the Asian-American rock band called the Slants, but the case was closely watched for the impact it would have on the separate dispute involving the Washington football team. Slants founder Simon Tam tried to trademark the band name in 2011, but the...

HALETHORPE, Md. (WBFF) - A man who was breaking into a car in the Halethorpe/Lansdowne area Sunday morning was found dead after a witness tried to "hold" him until police responded, said Baltimore County police. Police did not immediately clarify if the witness killed the suspect, but the incident is being investigated as a "suspicious death." The witness was in the parking lot of a business on Annapolis Road near Virginia Avenue at about 8:30 a.m. when he saw another man breaking into a car on the lot, said police.

New questions are being raised over whether red light cameras in Pueblo are more about revenue and less about safety... the city is giving drivers less time to get through those intersections which potentially increases your chance of getting a ticket. ... Almost from the start, installing red light cameras has been a controversial topic, and now the focus has shifted to how they are timed. ... According to the National Motorists Association Foundation, the yellow light at that intersection should last a minimum of 5.5 seconds. News 5 Investigates discovered the yellow light is set to last a second...

The number of murders continues to sky rocket in Baltimore after six people are killed in less than 24 hours. Baltimore is closing in on 160 homicides, not even halfway through the year.

Baltimore’s top prosecutor is urging a federal appeals court to find that she is immune from a civil lawsuit filed by five police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray. The officers are suing Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby for malicious prosecution, defamation and invasion of privacy. Other claims, including false imprisonment, were dismissed. Mosby said in a brief filed this week in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that a lower court should have found her to be immune from being sued because she’s a prosecutor.

Six people were killed and at least two others wounded in separate shootings in Baltimore Monday night and early Tuesday morning, prompting Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis to announce a weeklong deployment initiative to put more officers on the street. Effective immediately, all patrol officers and detectives will be required to work 12-hour shifts, rather than their standard 10-hour shifts, and every sworn officer in the department capable of being deployed will be deployed, Davis said. Davis called the latest spate of violence — in a record-setting year for it — "unconscionable," and said he joined community members in being...

Attorneys general for Washington, D.C. and Maryland announced they're suing President Trump for accepting millions in payments from foreign governments which they say is "flagrantly violating" the Constitution's anti-corruption laws. "Never in the history of this country have we had a president with these kinds of extensive business entanglements, or a president who refused to adequately distance themselves from their holdings," said D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine in a news conference on Monday. "President Trump's business and his dealings violate the constitution's anti-corruption provisions." The lawsuit was filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland,...

Lawyers representing the traditionally black universities in Maryland are pushing for a multi-million dollar move to transfer academic programs from historically white schools. According to a report by The Baltimore Sun, the coalition of attorneys proposed to transfer about 20 academic programs currently taught at traditionally white universities as part of a legal effort to push back on "shameful history" of segregation.

The attorneys general of Maryland and Washington D.C. reportedly plan to file a lawsuit Monday against President Trump alleging that foreign payments to his businesses violate the Constitution. A similar lawsuit was filed in January, but the case from two Democratic attorneys general may stand a better chance in court because it is the first brought by government entities, according to Reuters. The attorneys allege Trump violated the Constitution’s emoluments clause. . . . The attorneys said that if the lawsuit is able to proceed it could force Trump to hand over his personal tax returns in an effort to...

Attorneys general for the District of Columbia and the state of Maryland say they will sue President Trump on Monday, alleging that he has violated anti-corruption clauses in the Constitution by accepting millions in payments and benefits from foreign governments since moving into the White House. The lawsuit, the first of its kind brought by government entities, centers on the fact that Trump chose to retain ownership of his company when he became president. Trump said in January that he was shifting his business assets into a trust managed by his sons to eliminate potential conflicts of interests. But D.C....

We have 2nd and 4th graders at St. Andrew's and we feel very fortunate to have found this school and the community. Our children are being given a first-rate education here, both academically and socially. We are very impressed by the faculty and staff. Our son and daughter are being challenged and engaged in their classes, and they are being taught to care about their classmates and to be compassionate people. The community is warm and nurturing to both the students and parents. My children are really happy at school. I love the fact that the Center for Transformative Teaching...

President Obama’s Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper and his Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director John Brennan oversaw a secret supercomputer system known as “THE HAMMER,” according to former NSA/CIA contractor-turned whistleblower Dennis Montgomery. Clapper and Brennan were using the supercomputer system to conduct illegal and unconstitutional government data harvesting and wiretapping. THE HAMMER was installed on federal property in Fort Washington, Maryland at a complex which some speculate is a secret CIA and NSA operation operating at a US Naval facility.

In San Francisco’s public schools, Marc Benioff, the chief executive of Salesforce, is giving middle school principals $100,000 “innovation grants” and encouraging them to behave more like start-up founders and less like bureaucrats. In Maryland, Texas, Virginia and other states, Netflix’s chief, Reed Hastings, is championing a popular math-teaching program where Netflix-like algorithms determine which lessons students see.

A 25-year-old federal contractor is facing charges she leaked a classified National Security Agency document to a news outlet in May. The charges against Reality Leigh Winner came about an hour after the publication of a story based on an NSA document detailing Russian attempts to hack American voting systems in 2016. President Trump has been pushing Justice to go after leakers inside the federal government, which he has identified as "the big story" when it comes to Russia's involvement in the 2016 presidential election. Winner's arrest could signal the federal government is going to aggressively investigate and prosecute individuals...

A 25-year-old federal contract worker from Augusta, Georgia has been charged by the Department of Justice for taking Top Secret materials from her workplace and mailing them to a news outlet. Reality Leigh Winner was arrested by the F.B.I. on June 3 and appeared in federal court in Augusta on June 5. She was charged with gathering, transmitting or losing defense information that could have been damaging to the U.S. It’s alleged that she took a Top Secret document, copied it and mailed it to a news organization, believed to be a podcast that wasn’t identified by authorities. Here’s what...

A dilapidated block of homes in Baltimore has been demolished as part of a $94million project to tear down a chunk of the 17,000 abandoned homes in the neighborhood. More than 800 crumbling homes have already been razed and this section of Herbert Street in West Baltimore is the latest to be reduced to rubble. The homes - many of which are riddled with asbestos and lead paint - have come to symbolize the deep social divide in Baltimore. Roofs have caved in on the abandoned rowhomes, boards are fastened to the doors and window frames and the streets are...

President Trump’s supporters plan to hold a “Pittsburgh Not Paris” rally Saturday in front of the White House to demonstrate support for his decision to pull out of the Paris climate change agreement, countering expected protests by Democrats and liberal activists. The rally, named after Mr. Trump’s remark about representing “citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris” when announcing he was ripping up the Obama-era agreement, was organized by the Republican Party of Fairfax Country, Virginia, in the D.C. suburbs. The Trump campaign urged the president’s supporters in the area to attend the event Saturday from 10 a.m. until noon across from...