Free Republic

EXCLUSIVE - An analysis of social media traffic in downtown Baltimore Monday has unearthed striking connections to the protests in Ferguson, Mo. last year, according to a leading data mining firm that shared its findings exclusively with Fox News. The firm, which asked to remain anonymous because of its government work, found between 20 and 50 social media accounts in Baltimore that were also tied to the peak period of violence in Ferguson. While further analysis is being conducted on the data, it suggests the presence of "professional protesters" or anarchists taking advantage of Freddie Gray's death to incite more...

The new mayor of a Missouri city [next to Ferguson] had a tough first day on the job when she was met by police at City Hall and informed she had been suspended over allegations of voter fraud. Betty McCray, the newly elected mayor of the city of Kinloch, was met in the parking lot at City Hall Thursday by police officers and the city attorney holding articles of impeachment, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. “You can’t come in as mayor,” attorney James Robinson told McCray. “You have been suspended.” McCray, however, was defiant, telling Robinson, “You may be the...

Betty McCray, newly-elected mayor of Kinloch, Missouri, showed up at City Hall this week to get to work. But when she arrived, the police wouldn’t let her in the door. The reason why? Those non-existent illegal voters who cast ballots for the candidate. The election, which was held April 7, was hotly contested and the results have been questioned by McCray’s opponents. However, the St. Louis County Board of Elections certified the results and swore McCray in after city officials refused to. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that deputies met her in the parking lot, and she was served with articles of impeachment by...

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – The family of Michael Brown announced they will file a civil suit against the City of Ferguson. They will claim wrongful death of Michael Brown Jr. Members of the Brown legal team plan a press conference Thursday at the St. Louis County Courthouse in Clayton. Attorneys Benjamin Crump, Anthony Gray and Daryl Parks said they would have no statement before the press conference. The attorneys said six weeks ago, that while a county grand jury and the Justice Department accepted Wilson’s claim of self-defense, “We do not accept his self-defense” One of the attorney’s says the...

Lawyers for the parents of an unarmed, black 18-year-old who was fatally shot by a white police officer in a St. Louis suburb say they plan to file a civil lawsuit Thursday against the city of Ferguson. Attorneys for the family of Michael Brown announced their plans in a statement Wednesday night. […] Attorneys said at the time that the lawsuit would also name former Officer Darren Wilson, who shot Brown. The statement Wednesday did not mention Wilson, and a spokesman for the law firm said he could not provide any additional information about the lawsuit. …

Voters in Parma, Missouri voted in their first African-American female mayor. Tyus Byrd will be sworn in as mayor on Tuesday evening, April 14, at the Parma Community Building. According to Mayor Randall Ramsey, five out of six police officers resigned this week, effectively immediately. Mayor Ramsey said the clerk and the waste water treatment plant supervisor also turned in resignation letters citing “safety concerns.” …

Police in St. Louis County are handling an officer-involving shooting that happened Friday night in Jennings, Mo., and left one person dead. The deceased was identified as Thaddeus McCarroll, 23, of Jennings, who according to police had been acting in a strange manner and spoke of a “black revolution.” St. Louis County Police Department gave the following account of the shooting: At 9:21 p.m., officers from the St. Louis County Police Department's City of Jennings Precinct responded to a residence in the 9200 block of Riverwood Drive for an armed subject. Officers responded and contacted the owner of the residence...

FERGUSON, Mo. — In the first municipal election here since a black teenager was shot to death by a white police officer last year, voters elected two black candidates to the City Council on Tuesday, increasing the number of African-Americans on the governing body to three. But in a blow to the protesters who had pushed for sweeping changes to the city’s law enforcement and judicial policies after the shooting last August, voters rejected several candidates who had the direct backing of protest activists. The results would seem to suggest a smoother road for the current Council as it will...

Voters in Missouri’s third largest city of Springfield voted Tuesday to repeal an ordinance that provided protection against discrimination in housing and hiring based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Unofficial final results showed that repeal of the ordinance passed with 51.4 percent of the vote. […] Opponents of the nondiscrimination ordinance have said it violates their freedoms by preventing them from operating a business according to their religious beliefs. Others have said that sexual predators would be allowed to use women's restrooms and have questioned whether discrimination against gay and lesbian residents actually occurs. …

After Duke University won the men’s NCAA basketball tournament Monday night, Senator Claire McCaskill weighed-in on Twitter. Congrats to Duke,but I was rooting for team who had stars that are actually going to college & not just doing semester tryout for NBA. — Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) April 7, 2015 McCaskill’s snide remark implicitly slammed Duke’s Jahlil Okafor, who is leaving after his freshman year to turn pro, and other Duke freshman who may not return for their sophomore seasons. Duke has gained a reputation as a school where players complete their education before turning pro. According to statistics compiled by...

re you sick of seeing “welfare leeches” in the grocery checkout line with carts stuffed full of junk food snacks, soda and even porterhouse steaks and crab legs? So is Missouri House Rep. Rick Brattin, who has begun pushing for legislation prohibiting welfare abusers from buying foods that most hard-working Americans can’t always afford. After Brattin heard a food stamp recipient say, “This is the way I want to live and I don’t really see anything changing,” he knew something needed to be addressed. “The intention of the bill is to get the food stamp program back to its original...

Voters in Ferguson, Mo., head to the polls Tuesday for the first municipal election since a fatal police shooting last year led to weeks of unrest in the St. Louis suburb and exposed deep divisions between the city’s largely white police and government and its majority-black population. The election for half of the city council’s six seats could shift the body’s racial makeup. About 67% of the city’s 21,111 residents are black, according to 2013 Census estimates, but the council has just one African-American member. Ferguson’s mayor, who is a council member at large, is also white. [..]

The Holder DOJ released 14 pages of racist or offensive emails they collected during their multi-year investigation of the Ferguson police department. Here is one email:

Pic - Mayor Bill de Blasio, at Gracie Mansion with First Lady Chirlane McCray, activist Van Jones, and Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, plans to dip his toe into presidential politics with the launch of a push for income inequality to become a central issue of the 2016 national elections. "All of this is focused on the notion that we are not having a discussion on income inequality in this country and we are not having that discussion at our peril." GRACIE MANSION — Mayor Bill de Blasio, who supporters describe as a "national hero" among progressives, has dipped his his...

Emanuel Cleaver says he gets it. Years of heavy-handed police tactics in Ferguson — like the issuing of lots of petty traffic citations aimed more at boosting the city budget than keeping the streets safe — have beaten down the citizenry of Ferguson. Cleaver, a Democratic congressman from Kansas City, called it “taxation by citation” and “strobe-light lynching.” Citizens have tuned out of the election process as a result, Cleaver said during a visit to the troubled city Saturday as part of a delegation from the Congressional Black Caucus. The visit was aimed at boosting turnout in Tuesday’s municipal elections,...

In 2013, Fox News proudly broadcast an interview with a young food stamp recipient who claimed to be using the government benefit to purchase lobster and sushi."This is the way I want to live and I don’t really see anything changing," Greenslate explained to Fox. “It’s free food; it’s awesome."That story fit a longtime conservative suspicion that poor people use food stamps to purchase luxury items. Now, a Republican state lawmaker in Missouri is pushing for legislation that would stop people like Greenslate and severely limit what food stamp recipients can buy. The bill being proposed would ban the purchase with food stamps...

Anger toward those living below the poverty line seems to only be increasing. Maine and Missouri have proposed bills limiting residents’ food choices if they use SNAP. Missouri House Bill 813 would bar the state’s 930,000 food stamp recipients from using their benefits to buy cookies, chips, soda, energy drinks, steak and seafood. (The legislature also implemented mandatory drug testing for TANF applicants in 2011.) If the bill becomes law, a Missourian can’t buy a can of tuna with an EBT card. Tortilla chips to go with salsa? Nope. Flank steak — tough, stringy and the only cut of beef...

Olajuwon Davis and Brandon Orlando Baldwin(VIDEO-AT-LINK)ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI) – Two members of the New Black Panther Party face felony charges for conspiracy to use explosives to damage property during the Ferguson protests. The Department of Justice says Olajuwon Davis and Brandon Orlando Baldwin wanted to use the explosives against people, buildings, vehicles and property. They say Davis and Baldwin also made an illegal firearms purchase at a Hazelwood Cabela’s store. If convicted they face up to 20 years in prison and fines up to $250,000.

(CNN) —There will be no hate crime charges for two males arrested in the beating of a man that may have been sparked by a question about the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown. St. Louis police have charged Ronald Williams, 21, with assault. A 15-year-old has also been arrested, according to authorities. There had been speculation that the suspects might be charged with a hate crime because the victim was white and the people who attacked him were black. And because the punches were thrown following the Michael Brown reference.But that won't be happening.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The following is about infrastructure. Don't nod off just yet. To be specific, it's about pavement — basic, boring road surface. In the six decades since Interstate 70 began to creep across Missouri, how we view pavement hasn't changed much. Now meet Tim Sylvester, 33. He sees pavement as an electronic tablet with a concrete touch screen, The Kansas City Star (http://bit.ly/1MWYIxn) reports.