Free Republic

Rumor has it that in a matter of days, after months of negotiation with big banks, the White House may announce a settlement that would let the banks off the hook for their role in the foreclosure crisis -- paying a tiny fraction of what's needed in exchange for blanket immunity from future lawsuits.

Now seems an unlikely time for handing out bonuses at bankrupt Solyndra LLC, but that’s the plan of company attorneys intending to dole out up to a half-million dollars to persuade key employees to stay put. Nearly two dozen Solyndra employees could receive bonuses ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 each under a proposal filed by Solyndra’s attorneys in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. The attorneys say the extra money will add motivation at a time when workers at the solar company have little job security and more responsibilities because so many of their colleagues have been fired. The names of...

In schools around the country, 2011 was marked by test cheating scandalsBy Associated Press, Published: December 31 ATLANTA — It was the year of the test cheating scandal. From Atlanta to Philadelphia and Washington to Los Angeles, officials have accused hundreds of educators of changing answers on tests or giving answers to students. Just last week, state investigators revealed that dozens of educators in 11 schools in Georgia’s Dougherty County either cheated or failed to prevent cheating on 2009 standardized tests. **SNIP** At President Obama’s invitation, states have begun filing waivers to get relief from the law. Under the 11...

Police have arrested a San Jose, California woman after they say she approached children at elementary schools and used a ruse to steal their jewelry. A San Jose police spokesman says Sandra Lizbeth Contreras-Velazquez is being held on suspicion of grand theft for allegedly stealing gold necklaces from six children at six different schools in October and November. Spokesman Jose Garcia says the 28-year-old Contreras-Velazquez would approach the girls—who range in age from six- to eight-years-old—and pretend to be a family friend. After gaining their trust, Garcia says she would either ask the girl to take off her necklace to...

As the film director Peter Jackson recovers from emergency surgery, it has emerged that he is the victim of a US$190,000 (£120,000) credit card fraud. Sir Peter, a keen collector of military memorabilia, used his American Express card online to buy items from the Michigan Toy Soldier Company, which specialises in historical miniature models and figurines. Richard Berry, owner of the company, is now facing up to 18 months in jail after admitting fraudulently using the director's credit card information to shore up his struggling business, based in Royal Oak, Michigan. Berry's lawyer, David Steingold, told a US court: "He...

BRUSSELS (AFP) – Hackers stole two million tonnes of polluting rights in a five-day raid this week on the European Union's carbon emissions trading system, an EU source said on Thursday. The volume of carbon credits stolen in online action, which a European Commission spokeswoman was "possibly concerted", represents just a fraction of global industrial greenhouse gas permits, but is potentially worth many millions of euros. The scale of the theft, which involved five unnamed EU states, was revealed a day after Brussels shut all 27 national trading registries for a week, citing inadequate online protection. Credits stolen just from...

East Oak Cliff pastor Sandy McGill denies burglarizing congregant's house The Dallas pastor facing felony charges of burglarizing a church member's home on Christmas Eve said Monday she had no criminal intent. Sandy McGriff, 52, said she was trying to protect valuables at the home of her longtime friend Serita Agnew and made a horrible mistake. Police accuse McGriff of stealing more than $10,000 worth of fur coats, designer purses and electronics from a home in the 2200 block of Village Way near Kiest Boulevard and Lancaster Road. She was also charged with resisting arrest. McGriff spent most of Christmas...

The Democommies stole many of these elections - you can’t tell me Harry Reid won an honest election. Ditto California... Ditto the Northeast/Northwest. The Democommie vote stealing machine funded by George Soros went into high gear and stole at least a dozen elections. BTW, what happened in Alaska? It would appear the GOP ruling class was involved in that one.

Any good suggestions for preventing or capturing DemoRATS that steal campaign yard signs from your yard? Maybe rat traps? http://tucsoncitizen.com/in-the-aggregate/tag/dems-steal-campaign-signs-in-ld-20/

SPIES WHO LOOK JUST LIKE US: THE GAME THAT IS NOT A GAME SNIPPET: "The basic task of all spies, including the SVR Russian operatives recently caught, is to "steal and shape," Simmons explained. The "steal" aspect is best known to the public, that is, stealing another nation's military or production secrets, but Simmons also described how spies can "shape" a nation. Spies engaged in the "shape" aspect of espionage are known as "agents of influence," Simmons said. These "agents of influence" attempt to mold the thinking of a society or a government by targeting "experts who are quoted in...

I was thinking this morning. The next push from the Obama administration appears to be immigration. If they allow 12-20million our more illegals become citizens. Who for the most part are uneducated, come from countries where the government is corrupt at best and at worst is dictatorial. Without any real knowledge of how our system works and our history. Many get hand outs already from the government. Welfare, school for their kids, ect. Who do you think they would vote for? And for first time voters, would they pour into the election booths in mass to vote? Could this be...

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Police say two Florida teenagers are facing charges after 911 dispatchers heard them talking about breaking into cars when one teen's cell phone accidentally called 911 during the heist. Daytona Beach police say 19-year-old Stefanie Vargas and her girlfriend's 13-year-old brother, Kristian Amezquita, are charged with burglary to a conveyance. According to myfoxorlando.com , the crimes took place on Friday in the parking lot of a strip club at which Kristian's sister works. Police spokesman Jimmie Flynt says during the event, Vargas' cell phone somehow dialed 911 and that dispatchers listened as the pair discussed...

Police in the Mexican border city of Tijuana say they have arrested six men for stealing pieces of the U.S. border fence to sell as scrap metal. Holes in the border fence once were more commonly made by migrant smugglers, but fewer people are trying to cross because of a weak U.S. economy and a crackdown on immigration. The Tijuana police department says the suspects intended to sell the steel sheeting as scrap. The first two men caught cutting into the fence on Monday. An alleged accomplice was detained Tuesday with 11 pieces of fencing. The U.S. Border

The Minnesota Supreme Court yesterday declared Democrat Al Franken the winner of last year's disputed Senate race, and Republican incumbent Norm Coleman's gracious concession at least spares the state any further legal combat. The unfortunate lesson is that you don't need to win the vote on Election Day as long as your lawyers are creative enough to have enough new or disqualified ballots counted after the fact. Mr. Franken trailed Mr. Coleman by 725 votes after the initial count on election night, and 215 after the first canvass. The Democrat's strategy from the start was to manipulate the recount in...

I stole a laundry bag from the Alvear Palace Hotel in Buenos Aires. It was made of thick ivory linen, embroidered with the words "dry cleaning" in cerulean blue, and looked like something that I could have found at an antique textiles show. But that wasn't the case. I'm usually pretty scrupulous about purloined souvenirs. Of course, I help myself to soap and shampoo, sewing kits, even those black sponges meant to spruce up your shoes -- oh, and ballpoint pens and darling little notepads. But the laundry bag was my first sojourn into the land of, what shall we...

As soon as this summer, shoplifters could pilfer $250 in merchandise and walk away with a fine. Same for those who buy or sell up to an ounce of marijuana or who fence stolen goods. Bad checks up to $125 would get similar treatment, as would credit fraud under $250. A Senate bill that would dramatically change the criminal justice system -- reducing sentences, changing misdemeanors to petty misdemeanors, vastly increasing fees -- is under serious consideration as a means of dealing with the state's gaping $4.6 billion budget deficit and relieving pressure on an overburdened court system.

Some owners of foreclosed homes are stealing appliances and leaving the houses damaged and in disarray, MyFOXOrlando.com reported. Realtors complain the trashed houses are harder to sell. Homeowners upset at banks that are forcing them out have been hauling items from their houses and selling them, the station said. They're also damaging walls and floors.

NEW YORK -- In the past year, 30 percent of U.S. high-school students have stolen from a store and 64 percent have cheated on a test, according to a new large-scale survey suggesting that Americans are apathetic about ethical standards. Educators reacting to the findings questioned any suggestion that today's young people are less honest than past generations, but several agreed that rising pressures are prompting many students to cut corners. "The competition is greater, the pressures on kids have increased dramatically," said Mel Riddle of the National Association of Secondary School Principals. "They have opportunities their predecessors didn't have...

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) _ A judge has decided the best punishment for a man found guilty of stealing should be to take his son's words to heart — and wear them on his sleeve.

The radical left-wing 'community organizer' group ACORN is doing all it can to steal the presidential election in Michigan. According to the Detroit Free Press:Several municipal clerks across the state are reporting fraudulent and duplicate voter registration applications, most of them from a nationwide community activist group working to help low- and moderate-income families.The majority of the problem applications are coming from the group ACORN, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, which has a large voter registration program among its many social service programs. ACORN's Michigan branch, based in Detroit, has enrolled 200,000 voters statewide in recent months, mostly...

BERLIN (AP) - Police and customs officials investigating suspected patent violations seized dozens of boxes of mobile phones, navigation devices and other gadgets from exhibitors in a technology fair, authorities said Thursday. All the exhibitors who were searched cooperated, except one who was briefly taken to a police station, police said. Of 51 exhibitors affected, 24 were from mainland China, three from Hong Kong and 12 from Taiwan. Another nine were German, and one each were from Poland, the Netherlands and Korea.

How fraud led to this property changing hands 3 times as son of owner sat dead inside The new buyers of a rundown graystone on the South Side showed up Jan. 9 to look at the house they won at a foreclosure auction. They took the plywood off the front door and went inside to make sure the utilities had been shut off. Then they called the police. Sitting upright in the corner of a bedroom off the kitchen was a human skeleton in a red tracksuit. Next to him lay a dead dog. Neighbors told police the corpse was...

After nearly a month of silence following accusations of steroid use, Roger Clemens and his legal team exploded into action. They filed a lawsuit late Sunday night, then staged an emotional press conference yesterday, airing a secretly taped conversation with Clemens' accuser, former trainer Brian McNamee, that they contend clears the seven-time Cy Young winner. In fact, little was provided in the way of hard evidence. McNamee did not admit wrongdoing on the tape. A surprisingly impassive Clemens did not ask him to. Clemens saved his anger for the press conference. After weeks of heavy scrutiny, that's where his frustration...

Will Sandy Burgler advise the Hillery campaign how to lie, cheat & steal...or did the Clintons teach him how to steal classified documents from the National Archive and lie about it so as to cheat the 911 Commission out of the truth about Bill Clinton's failure to take terrorism seriously? Or do the Clintons fear what Sandy Burgler might say during the campaign, so they are keeping him on a short leash?

When it comes to Abraham Lincoln, apparently there's no such thing as enough. After countless books about his boyhood, his presidency, the hunt for his killer and yes, even his feet, maybe it was time for a new book devoted to what happened to Lincoln's body after he was done using it. As its title implies, "Stealing Lincoln's Body" by Thomas J. Craughwell (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press) is devoted to Lincoln after, as Craughwell writes in the first sentence, "the last tremor of life" left his body. Craughwell details a little-known plot to steal the 16th president's...

A WORKER at a UK boat-building firm has been caught trying to steal a luxury yacht one piece at a time. James Light, 35, stole hundreds of yacht parts worth £55,000 ($133,000) over a period of seven years, Bournemouth Crown Court heard yesterday. He stole the parts from his former employer, Sunseeker.

US military: Afghan leaders steal half of all aid By Gethin Chamberlain, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 11:44pm GMT 27/01/2007 Corrupt police and tribal leaders are stealing vast quantities of reconstruction aid that is intended to improve the lives of ordinary Afghans and turn them away from the Taliban, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. In some cases, all the aid earmarked for an area has ended up in the wrong hands. Defence officials in the United States and Britain estimate that up to half of all aid in Afghanistan is failing to reach the right people. Nato forces in the south...

STOCKTON - Ruben, a roofer living in Stockton, knew using a Social Security number that didn't belong to him was against the law. He knew using it was a gamble that could get him deported to Mexico. And, if that happened, it could mean he might never be allowed to return. It was a risk he was willing to take two years ago, as he worked in the United States illegally under an alias. "Because they asked me for a Social Security number at work or they wouldn't pay me," said Ruben, speaking on the condition that his last name...

One bad apple...What if I told you that it would take only one person—one highly motivated, but only moderately skilled bad apple, with either authorized or unauthorized access to the right company's internal computer network—to steal a statewide election? You might think I was crazy, or alarmist, or just talking about something that's only a remote, highly theoretical possibility. You also probably would think I was being really over-the-top if I told you that, without sweeping and very costly changes to the American electoral process, this scenario is almost certain to play out at some point in the future in...

SHANGHAI - When executives at Shanghai Automotive Industry failed in their bid to buy the celebrated Rover brand name for a line of cars they are rolling out this month, they quickly switched to Plan B: Call the new autos Roewe, instead. Roewe, which Shanghai Automotive suggests should be pronounced ''roe-wee,'' is the latest in a series of Chinese brands that bear a striking resemblance to foreign trade names. In some cases, names are drawing ire from multinational companies. Branding is in its infancy in China. Few Chinese companies have experience developing international brands -- something that has become a...

SEPTEMBER 27--The mother of one of Japan's biggest pop stars was recently caught with more than $400,000 in suspected drug proceeds as she tried to board a plane from New York to Las Vegas, according to federal prosecutors now seeking forfeiture of the funds.

16th of June DEFEATING DEPRESSION PART 1 “Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad” Proverbs 12:25 Depression- from Webster’s New Unabridged Dictionary Low spirits, gloominess, dejection, sadness, a decrease in force, or activity, or amount, a decrease in functional activity. An emotional condition either normal or pathological characterized by discouragement, a feeling of inadequacy, the act of humbling abasement as a depression of pride. Abasement, reduction, sinking, fall, humiliation, dejection, melancholy. Major Depression Facts Major depression is the No.1 psychological disorder in the western world.(1) It is growing in all age groups,...

NEW YORK, May 18 (Reuters) - Occidental Petroleum Corp. (OXY.N: Quote, Profile, Research) is seeking damages totaling more than $1 billion as part of an arbitration claim against the Ecuadorean government for seizing its assets, a company spokesman said on Thursday. The U.S. oil producer has also terminated all local employees in Ecuador and is relocating its expatriate staff, the spokesman said.

Venezuela and Mexico are among the potential strategic partners for joint operations in the fields that used to be developed by oil corporation Oxy. The corporate agreement to drill oil in the Ecuadorian Amazon was made null and void, the Ecuadorian Government disclosed Tuesday. "There is the possibility of forming a strategic alliance with a state company, as set forth in the regulations," Ecuadorian Minister of Energy Iván Rodríguez said. Additionally, there is the possibility of "contracting directly a state company of a foreign country to reinforce technically Petroproducción. The subsidiary of state oil company Petroecuador will be responsible for...

States and the IRS are mining personal and business data to sniff out scofflaws The Texas comptroller's Office suspected for years that well-heeled Lone Star citizens were buying big-ticket private planes out of state to dodge sales taxes. But the tax collector couldn't prove it. Then the agency installed new computer technology that matched federal airplane registrations with state tax records. In just the past six months, Texas has collected $5 million in unpaid taxes from 43 scofflaws. As tax season nears its Apr. 15 peak, revenue agencies are reaching for a software tool kit that has long been popular...

Four New Orleans police officers have been cleared of allegations that they looted a Wal-Mart store after Hurricane Katrina, but each was suspended 10 days for not stopping civilians from ransacking the store, the Police Department said. The probe stemmed from an MSNBC report that showed the officers filling a shopping cart with shoes, clothes and other items. When a reporter asked the officers what they were doing, one responded, "Looking for looters" and turned her back. Assistant Police Chief Marlon Defillo, commander of the Public Integrity Bureau, said the officers seen on the video were recently cleared of looting...

...If there are serious criminal acts being covered up, then this election could prove to be unlike anything seen before in this country. Would a party guilty of high crimes against the people of Canada willingly go down to defeat running an honourable campaign? Would they restrict themselves to fighting a war of words and ideas when losing power is synonymous with having their crimes exposed, prosecuted and punished? I don’t think so. I expect that such a party would have no problem resorting to winning by any means possible, legal or not...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Oil companies, including one that employed an Iraq weapons supplier, paid hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks to Saddam Hussein during the U.N. oil-for-food program, a U.N. report said on Thursday. Saddam Hussein's government took in $228.8 million (128.3 million pounds) from surcharges in connection with oil contracts, the report said. That was nearly 13 percent of the $1.8 billion in surcharges Iraq received from more than 2,200 foreign companies during the oil-for-food humanitarian program of 1996 to 2003, the report charged. Intricate webs of companies, individuals, and governments stretching from Europe to Asia...

FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) — The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which was accused of mismanagement, fraud and wasting money after last year's four hurricanes, has asked more than 7,600 Floridians to return $30.3 million in emergency hurricane aid. Most of the payments FEMA wants back are because insurance settlements were paid after the government aid was doled out. By law, FEMA cannot duplicate insurance coverage, spokesman Jim Homstad said. In a small number of cases, FEMA wants to recoup the money because of processing errors or duplicate approval of funds, Homstad said. The measure will affect residents in 60 counties,...

San Francisco, CA (LifeNews.com) -- The author of a new study discounting evidence of the pain unborn children feel during abortions formerly worked at a pro-abortion organization. Also, the school where the study was conducted, the University of California at San Francisco, has been cited as a bastion of activism in favor of abortion. The lead author of the study is Susan J. Lee, a UCSF medical student who once worked for NARAL, an abortion advocacy group that recently came under fire for falsely accusing Supreme Court nominee John Roberts of backing abortion-related violence. Meanwhile, another author, UCSF obstetrician-gynecologist Eleanor...

GLAD SHE HAD HER GUN by Elinor Dufy My gnawing guilt about owning a handgun faded as quickly as the determination on the face of the burglar as soon as he noticed the blue-steel Smith & Wesson .38 caliber revolver in my hand. The young man, armed with an ice pick, had forced his way in my apartment and was waiting for me-even though he had heard me come down the stairs and had had time to get out. When he saw the gun, the burglar became a sweet young boy pleading for forgiveness. After all, he was only a...

Of things said by Venezuelan Government officials and Fidel Castro today and my first two instictive answers to these statements: --Vice-President Rangel: “Venezuela is Latin America’s most stable country” 1) Allende and Pinochet used to say the same thing about Chile 2) Does he know Costa Rica is in Latin America? --Head of Corpovargas: “The Comptroller’s Office has revised and intervened (?) all of the finances of the Corporation without finding any corruption” 1) The Comptroller’s Office has not found any corruption in Venezuela in the last six years. 2) Somebody is not doing their job.

BISBEE - A demand letter sent by Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano seeking reimbursement of $118 million state taxpayers have shelled out to incarcerate illegal immigrants and legal resident aliens was a good move, said Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever. Although millions are due to the state, based on a federal law that requires the U.S. government to fully reimburse the cost of keeping immigrants in jail who are accused of committing crimes or convicted of felonies, county taxpayers are paying nearly two-thirds of the costs locally, Dever said. Napolitano sent her letter to new U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales earlier...

Guest columnist King County voters in good hands By Corky Mattingly Special to The Times I've been particularly troubled by one recurring comment regarding the gubernatorial recount in King County. It pertains to county Elections Director Dean Logan's professionalism and integrity. There also have been suggestions that Logan's decisions are based on partisan politics and are without justification or regard to Washington state law. As president of the Washington State Association of County Auditors, I assure you nothing could be further from the truth. All 39 counties conducted the recount process according to the rules currently in place, which are...

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said Wednesday that he signed an order to immediately expropriate the assets of Venepal, a bankrupt paper company that halted operations last month. Chavez met with former Venepal employees to sign the expropriation order. The workers vowed to rebuild the company with the help of the government and manufacture books and notebooks the government could use in public schools and other education-related social projects. Chavez, a self-described "revolutionary" and critic of unbridled capitalism, said Venepal's expropriation is a step in Venezuela's new economic self-development model. "We're at war against poverty and against misery in Venezuela," he...

I have been arranging my extensive CD collection which lead me to play some of those long forgotten CD. This afternoon it was Mendelssohn "Reformation" Symphony. This might not be the best symphony of this rather underrated composer. The 5th popularity has suffered from being a "heftier" work, more intellectual, less crafted and vital than the "Italian". As if trying to encompass the reformation movement in music were possible. Still, the last movement opening is one of the most stirring moments of the repertoire, and a powerful musical image of the liberation of the spirit, no matter what religious connotation...

These past days have been rich in demonstrations that the Venezuelan state is sinking fast into some type of tribal units ruled by weapons. Sunday's papers reflected the marvelous contradictions in which we live, making Gabriel Garcia Marquez an illuminated amateur. I wanted to start with the latest on the seizure of El Charcote, that X-thousand acres ranch in Cojedes part of a group of ranches owned by British interests. I use the X as a number since the true extent of the land owned, and by whom, has become the mystery du jour. And the source of quite a...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations is adopting new steps in its global tsunami-relief campaign to guard against improprieties like those alleged in the oil-for-food program for Iraq, U.N. officials said Monday

Countries the world over jockey hard to attract foreign investment. They care about it enough to make it a national priority, to send spies against their competitors, to build infrastructure, and to change laws to make their investment climate attractive. Most know of the economy-developing potential of foreign capital. The United States itself was developed this way, largely on British capital which built its great railroads, mining ventures, universities and corporations. China is now the giant of this game opf attractring foreign investment, aptly offering favorable business conditions and great opportunities to businesses the world over. But it's not just...

Land interventions in Cojedes State will continue next Wednesday. In this way, the decree issued by Cojedes Governor Johnny Yánez Rangel with regard to 16 estates will be enforced. Following the effective intervention of El Charcote farm last Saturday, regional authorities plan to seize several properties of the Boulton family in Cojedes, such as Gavinero, Yaguara, San José and La Flecha. Rafael Alemán, the Cojedes State Secretary-General, said under this schedule of interventions, Paraima and Piñero -both properties of the Branger family- will be intervened next January 13th and 14th, respectively.