Free Republic

The other day I posted a thread regarding an incident that occurred with an MHP officer at a traffic scene. I finally posted the video on YouTube I tried to be respectful. I know that the officer was trying to be diplomatic despite being in the wrong. At the end of it all, the traffic scene was really boring and I would have stopped filming on my own, but it gets my neck hairs up when told to stop doing a constitutionally protect activity -- especially one so important to ensuring accuracy. Anyhow - I sent a letter to the...

Probe into corruption in Dallas snares 16 Indictment names legislator, ex-councilman and former mayor pro tem DALLAS — A meeting behind a church with $10,000 cash changing hands, five-figure gifts for a city councilman's "birthday party" and a mistress funneling bribes through a sham consulting company were among details spelled out Monday in a federal indictment alleging corruption at Dallas City Hall. The 166-page indictment accuses state Rep. Terri Hodge, D-Dallas, and former Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill of extortion and bribery in soliciting and taking payments from affordable housing developers. Former City Councilman James Fantroy was indicted separately on...

SAN DIEGO – Downtown San Diego developer Doug Wilson threw a party so posh this summer that it violated state and local gift limits for the public officials who attended, barring five of them from working on his projects for a year. It was hardly the splash he wanted. San Diego City Councilman Jim Madaffer and four Centre City Development Corp. staff members, including President Nancy Graham, are disqualified from reviewing or recommending any of Wilson's projects until next summer. They, along with other public officials and hundreds of invitees, attended the lavish party Wilson threw in July for a...

Nearly 40 percent of Florida lawmakers with school-age children send their kids to private schools, a rate four times as high as that for parents statewide, a St. Petersburg Times survey has found. The rate climbs to 60 percent for lawmakers on education committees that make key decisions about K-12 policy and funding. Does it matter? Some lawmakers say yes. Lawmakers with children in private schools "know there's a problem" with public schools, said Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, who chairs the House Education Council and has a child enrolled in Catholic school. "They want to fix the problems for everybody...

International efforts to stamp out graft among public officials have made little progress, laments a new study. Corrupt politicians and greedy businessmen are not just enriching themselves, but hampering economic development THE United Nation's summit on sustainable development, now under way in Johannesburg, is a rallying point for a plethora of causes, some more deserving than others. The latest to join the throng—with some justification—is Transparency International (TI), a non-governmental organisation that fights corruption worldwide. But those striving to break the cycle of poverty and graft in the developing world will find little to encourage them. TI’s latest Corruption Perceptions...