Free Republic

As a way to solve the national debt crisis, North Carolina Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue recommends suspending Congressional elections for the next couple of years. “I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won’t hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover,” Perdue said at a rotary club event in Cary, North Carolina, according to the Raleigh News and Observer. “I really hope that someone can agree with me on that.” Perdue said she thinks that temporarily halting elections would allow members...

(CBS/AP)  JACKSON, Ga. - Georgia executed Troy Davis on Wednesday night for the murder of an off-duty police officer, a crime he denied committing right to the end as supporters around the world mourned and declared that an innocent man was put to death. Defiant to the end, he told relatives of Mark MacPhail that his 1989 slaying was not his fault. "I did not have a gun," he insisted.

CBS News recently got their hands on secret recordings of conversations about Fast and Furious that took place between an ATF agent and a gun store owner, both of whom were located in the Phoenix area (and both of whom were thoroughly acquainted with Fast and Furious). The recordings captured agent Hope McAllister talking with Andre Howard, owner of Lone Wolf Trading Company, at a time when Howard was noticeably worried that Fast and Furious was going to become public knowledge or be put under the microscope of a congressional investigation. Howard especially feared that Senator Charles Grassley might push...

WASHINGTON - CBS News has obtained secretly recorded conversations that raise questions as to whether some evidence is being withheld in the murder of a Border Patrol agent. (Scroll down to listen to the audio) The tapes were recorded approximately mid-March 2011 by the primary gun dealer cooperating with ATF in its "Fast and Furious" operation: Andre Howard, owner of Lone Wolf Trading Company in Glendale, Arizona. He's talking with the lead case ATF case agent Hope MacAllister. The tapes have been turned over to Congressional investigators and the Inspector General. As CBS News first reported last February, the Bureau...

A nightmare came to life on board a public bus in Philadelphia back in July. Prosecutors showed security camera video in court showing passengers scrambling as men with guns open fire, according to myfoxphilly.com . Prosecutors say the shooting and violence triggered because of a phone call that a woman, Penny Champan, made after having words with someone on the bus. The video shows Chapman's boy running up and down the aisles by one of the seven cameras on board. Finally she grabs the child and spanks him. A man sitting behind her doesn't approve and he threatens to turn...

John Cook — The White House released its annual salary report last week, and as usual, it's nice to work for Barack Obama: Most staffers who were there for more than a year got a salary bump. A bigger one than you did. The last time we checked in on White House salaries, we found that an astonishing 75% of continuing staffers got raises from 2009 to 2010—a huge number given the fact that, according to compensation experts, most companies had skipped routine raises that year in reaction to the economic crisis that the White House was busy failing to...

<p>DETROIT (AP) - A federal appeals court has struck down Michigan's ban on the consideration of race and gender when enrolling students at public colleges and universities.</p> <p>In a 2-1 decision Friday, the court said Michigan's Proposal 2 is unconstitutional because it burdens minorities. It was approved by voters in 2006.</p>

In his best-laid plans, Richard King was set to leave West Point next year as both a starting cornerback on the Cadet football team and a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. Instead, in a span of a little less than three months, he's been inflicted with likely career-ending injuries, busted to private and thrust into the queue for active duty — all, according to a lawsuit filed this week, the consequences of an unexpected encounter with R&B diva Patti LaBelle after King landed in his native Houston for spring break on March 11: (link to surveillance video at link...

Never come between the "Godmother of Soul" and her luggage. That's the lesson a West Point cadet says he learned at Houston airport when he charges Patti LaBelle's security guards roughed him up. Richard King, 23, is suing LaBelle over the incident, captured on surveillance video last March 11 at Bush Intercontinental Airport. King, a Houston resident who is a senior at the military academy, had come home for spring break when he wandered close to LaBelle's limousine. He was talking to his brother on his cellphone when her bodyguards "sprang into action," according to the civil suit he filed...

Attorney General Eric Holder came to Minneapolis on Friday to speak at a meeting of city leaders about how to decrease youth violence. But Holder's efforts to talk about youth violence prevention kept being interrupted by several anti-war protesters sitting in the crowd. They were among those whose homes and offices had been raided by the FBI on Sept. 24, 2010 in a case involving, "providing material support to terrorism," according to the search warrants. Again and again protesters stood to question Holder about why they are being investigated. Holder told the first protester to stand, Tracy Molm, that he...

Augsburg College is host to two civic events this week that are open to the public as well as to students, faculty, and staff interested in attending. On Tuesday, May 24, we will host a U.S. Naturalization Ceremony which will confer U.S. citizenship to new citizens from more than 50 countries. The ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. in Hoversten Chapel, and will welcome these candidates for citizenship as well as their family members and friends. The Augsburg community is welcome to attend as space allows. On Friday, May 27, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will meet with members of...

Rep. Darrell Issa, the California Republican who chairs the House Oversight Committee, was able to question Attorney General Eric Holder for the first time over the Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious scandal during a Tuesday morning hearing of the House Judiciary Committee. (snip) “We’re not looking at straw buyers, Mr. Attorney General, we’re looking at you,” Issa said. “We’re looking at you, we’re looking at your key people who knew or should’ve known about this.”

'Where are the black people?' the outspoken actress, 44, asked as the panellists as they critiqued Prince William and Kate Middleton's ceremony. [snip] 'It was like where's Waldo, where are the black people?' she added. 'We found one little black child in the choir but where's the black people at this wedding?' she continued. 'They are segregated but they are at the front so we have our Rosa Parks moment,' she added referring to the African-American civil rights activist Rosa Parks who refused to obey a bus driver's order to give up her seat for a white passenger on December...

Black Panthers and other "activists" are planning upcoming action. April 23rd. http://www.dayofactionmovement.org/ Is saying boycott "non-black" businesses racist? Imagine a group encouraging whites to do that. It'd be headline news.

ELYRIA, Ohio, March 29 (UPI) -- Two Ohio women were arrested after allegedly choking a Walmart greeter and making bomb threats against the store, police said. Ashley Jackson, 21, and Toni Duncan, 49, both of Elyria, allegedly assaulted the 71-year-old greeter after he asked to see their receipt, which they did not have, police said.

Public safety is non-negotiable. That’s the message signaled Tuesday by lawyers defending the Big Apple's fire department from race-based bullying by the U.S. Justice Department. Justice is trying to make the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) hire more minorities even though FDNY has taken extraordinary steps to recruit in black and Hispanic communities. The Obama administration, still unsatisfied, ramped up the pressure by demanding admissions quotas for interim hires and extremely low standards on fire-academy entrance exams. Bowing to Obama wishes, U.S. District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis created a complicated, multistep process to ram through more minority admissions, effectively...

LAUDERDALE LAKES, Fla. (WSVN) -- Officials have released surveillance video of a woman who attacked an employee at a fast food restaurant because of her order.

Earlier this AM CNN aired an exchange between a reporter stateside on the CNN set and a reporter in Japan. The reporter in Japan was commenting on how calm and orderly everyone was while waiting in line at stores for water, food and gas. He said that they had several full gas cans on their truck to get them where they were going and they felt comfortable leaving their vehicle unattended while going inside stores to buy food or to interview people. He then compared it to his experiences during Katrina when their vehicle was completely looted of gas, food,...

DAYTON -- The Dayton Police Department is lowering its testing standards for recruits. It's a move required by the U.S. Department of Justice after it says not enough African-Americans passed the exam. Dayton is in desperate need of officers to replace dozens of retirees. The hiring process was postponed for months because the D.O.J. rejected the original scores provided by the Dayton Civil Service Board, which administers the test. Under the previous requirements, candidates had to get a 66% on part one of the exam and a 72% on part two. The D.O.J. approved new scoring policy only requires potential...

DAYTON — The city’s Civil Service Board and the U.S. Department of Justice have agreed on a lower passing score for the police recruit exam after it was rejected because not enough blacks passed the exam. The city lowered both written exams a combined 15 points that resulted in 258 more people passing the exam, according to a statement released Thursday by Civil Service officials. The agreement allows the city to immediately resume its plans to hire police and firefighters. The original passing scores determined by Civil Service required candidates to answer 57 of 86 (66 percent) questions correctly on...