Free Republic

The United States Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday on whether or not the sectarian prayers offered at a New York town's meetings are constitutional. The highest court in the land will hear an appeal from a lower court decision regarding Greece, N.Y.'s practice of having explicitly Christian prayers open town meetings. Known as Galloway v. Town of Greece, the lawsuit was filed by two residents of Greece who felt the sectarian prayers made them feel excluded from the public affairs of the town. Susan Galloway and Linda Stephens, the two plaintiffs, are being represented by the Washington, D.C.-based group...

Rochester city councilman Adam McFadden has to be wondering why so many people are still so puzzled at the frequent black mob violence in Rochester. After all, McFadden explained it all to us just two years ago. "I think what you saw at the beach is what we've been seeing in many of our neighborhoods for two decades," (black) Councilman McFadden told WHAM TV. "It's just that you had a lot of people there who are not used to that culture and got to witness it personally."

On September 3, 1838, Frederick Bailey undertook the riskiest journey of his life. The 20-year-old slave made a daring escape from his master in Baltimore, and with his newfound freedom came a new name -- Frederick Douglass... After Douglass’ attempt to escape slavery two years prior was betrayed by a fellow slave, he had been jailed, sent to Baltimore by his master and hired out to work in the city’s shipyards. Undeterred, Douglass vowed to try to escape again on September 3, 1838, although he knew the risk. "I felt assured that if I failed in this attempt, my case...

In Rochester, New York, renting rather than buying a home is enough cause for a search warrant. Florine and Walter Nelson are grandparents who have lived in Rochester for over 30 years. For nearly a third of that time, they have resisted the efforts of city officials to inspect their home on the basis that they are renters rather than buyers. Since 2005, the city has steadily escalated its efforts to enter their house, by charging them with contempt and attempting to use “administrative” search warrants to conduct suspicionless searches.The Nelsons and other renters claim that the city is violating...

<p>My hometown — Port Clinton, Ohio, population 6,050 — was in the 1950s a passable embodiment of the American dream, a place that offered decent opportunity for the children of bankers and factory workers alike.</p> <p>But a half-century later, wealthy kids park BMW convertibles in the Port Clinton High School lot next to decrepit “junkers” in which homeless classmates live. The American dream has morphed into a split-screen American nightmare. And the story of this small town, and the divergent destinies of its children, turns out to be sadly representative of America.</p>

While locals fled in anticipation of the annual celebration of violence and chaos during Black Beach Week over the Memorial Day holiday in Miami Beach, large-scale black mob violence erupted in Jacksonville, Rochester, West Bloomfield, and Baltimore. A lot of it on video. The Jacksonville Beach riot started much like the other examples black mob violence documented in “White Girl Bleed a Lot: The return of racial violence and how the media ignore it.” When initial reports came in that police closed a section of the shore at Jacksonville Beach, police assured the media that it wasn’t much: Just a...

Rochester, N.Y. — Early Tuesday morning, Christopher Boise heard a noise coming from the basement. As he walked toward the source of that noise, the RIT student noticed two men standing in the downstairs portion of his apartment. "They were waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs," said Boise. One of them had a handgun trained on Boise. Within moments, Boise screamed. His cries were heard by his roommate, Raymond. "It wasn't like a, 'I stepped by stepped on a piece of glass' kind of scream," Raymond said. "So, I instinctively went to my gun bag." Raymond owns...

In reading up on Governor Cuomo's new gun legislation in New York, I came across a rather startling statement. Startling in it's pure and utter stupidity. And in what Cuomo termed "the Webster Provision" — a reference to the Dec. 24 killings of two firefighters fatally shot while responding to a call in a suburb of Rochester — the murder of a first responder will become a felony punishable by life in prison without parole. That's right, a future Presidential hopeful for 2016 is actually bragging about a provision in his gun law named specifically for one individual gun man,...

The Rochester, NY, Democrat & Chronicle reports that city of Rochester employees have committed at least 119 red light violations while driving city vehicles. But, unlike John Q Public, the violators have their fines waived.

Video of widow Karen Klein being bullied and threatened in most disgusting ways by school children she is there to monitor for their protection.

Prepare to see a disturbing video of young people at their worst. This clip of middle schoolers allegedly abusing a bus monitor is so disgusting, so bothersome that it will leave many wondering what has gone awry in our society. Of course, it is merely one of the many tragic, anecdotal instances of human cruelty that we so often see today. The unbelievable clip is painful to watch, as it shows alleged students from Greece Athena Middle School in Rochester, New York (my hometown) take their abuse to horrific levels. The woman purportedly shown in the video, Karen Huff Klein,...

It’s a first for Wegmans in this area. They’ve put up a sign asking customers buying pork or alcohol not to use a particular checkout line when a Muslim teenager is on duty as the cashier. The sign went up a week ago at their Lyell Avenue store. Read more: http://times247.com/articles/rochester-supermarket-becomes-sharia-complaint#ixzz1qpo9ZdRt

My work is done. Those words were some of the last penned by George Eastman. He included them in his suicide note. They mark an ignoble end to a noble life, the leave taking of a truly great man. The same words could now be said for the company he left behind. My work is done. For all intents and purposes, the Eastman Kodak Company is through. It has been mismanaged financially, technologically and competitively. For 20 years, its leaders have foolishly spent down the patrimony of a century’s prosperity. One of America’s bedrock brands is about to disappear, the...

FRiends, I'm looking for references to what kinds of gifts or freebies a mayor in NYS may recieve. Digging thru legal pages, .Gov pages, but can't find I'm looking for. Some friends having trouble with their Mayor , drinking at different bars every day, not paying. Thank you for any help in this.

The Rochester woman whose run in with the law with her iPhone and made national headlines, plans to file a lawsuit claiming Rochester police violated her civil rights. Donald Thompson, attorney for Emily Good, told News 10NBC's Ray Levato Tuesday they may sue the individual police officer involved in her arrest, the Rochester Police Department, "any or all of the above and that's something to be discussed and considered." Good was arrested in her bare feet and pajamas while standing in her own yard one night in May while taping a traffic stop that happened in front of her 19th...

VIDEO

(CNN) -- Prosecutors dismissed a charge Monday against a community activist who was arrested while filming a police encounter with her iPod camera because she was concerned it was initiated by racial profiling. "I'm feeling vindicated, I'm feeling energetic" Emily Good, 28, of Rochester, New York, said of the decision to have the charge dropped. Good had been charged with obstruction of governmental administration when she began videotaping the interrogation of a black man by three white officers in front of her house on May 12, she said. "Based upon the evidence, we could not make out the elements of...

"The woman was videotaping a traffic stop in front of her house at night. The video speaks for itself." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7ZkFZkejv8

As uncertainty lingers over whether or not there will be a vote in the state senate on a same sex marriage proposal, Bishop Matthew Clark discussed the issue for several minutes today. The leader of the Rochester Roman Catholic Diocese said he's not opposed to extending equal human rights to homosexuals but stressed his belief that redefining marriage is not the way to do that. "(Marriage) is an institution so deeply ingrained in the human spirit that to redefine it in such a short time frame under the very wonderful rubric of human rights, which I thoroughly support, the two...

Mayor Tom Richards released a statement Wednesday afternoon, which says he has seen the video of Emily Good's arrest last month. Good was arrested while she was videotaping police conducting a traffic stop in front of her home. The video has been posted on YouTube. Good was charged with obstruction of governmental administration.