Free Republic

It turns out that Denver, Colorado may not be the only major American city seeing an increase in crime following marijuana legalization. Seattle, Washington looks to be experiencing some blowback as well. According to the Drug Policy Alliance, "[a]dult possession of marijuana became legal [in Washington State] on December 6, 2012, 30 days after the passage of I-502, the voter-approved initiative legalizing marijuana for adults 21 and older. A year-and-a-half later, the first retail marijuana store opened its doors on July 8, 2014." When we look at the number of total and property crimes in Seattle from 2008 through 2014,...

Bill Cosby admitted in a 2005 deposition that he obtained Quaaludes with the intent of giving them to young women he wanted to have sex with. He admitted giving the sedative to at least one woman. The Associated Press went to court to compel the release of the documents, and they were made public Monday. Cosby’s lawyers had objected on the grounds that it would embarrass their client.

All-grown-up Jonathan Bower is ready to walk down the aisle! Former Who's the Boss child star Danny Pintauro is engaged to boyfriend Wil Tabares, he tells Us Weekly exclusively. The happy couple, who live and work in Las Vegas, headed to Palm Springs, Calif. earlier this week to celebrate their one-year anniversary together. Over a romantic dinner on Wednesday April 3, Tabares popped the question by playing a homemade video -- featuring a ring!

Police say they arrested 66-year-old Larry Brinkin, the high-profile gay activist, on possession of child pornography on Friday night.

Jerry Sandusky, the former Assistant Coach for Penn State, was found guilty today of molesting children. The high-profile began last year when almost a dozen people came out, revealing that Sandusky has molested them, which then resulted in the firing of Penn State Head Coach Joe Paterno. Sandusky was found guilty of at least some of the almost 50 that were levied against him. The jurors deliberated for two days, starting yesterday. Sandusky leaving court earlier today Sandusky's stepson also stated yesterday that his father had abused him. However, jurors were not aware of this as they were sequestered. Sandusky...

KENOVA -- Two men are charged with the rape of a Wayne County girl. Arana Neftali, 38, and Henry Isaac Rucuch Beletzuy, 26, were both charged with second degree sexual assault, according to a complaint filed with Wayne County Magistrate Court. The report states an officer was on patrol at 3 a.m. July 30 in the 400 block of 9th St. The officer said he heard screaming and found several people in the parking lot to the Hollywood Motel claiming their family member had been raped. The victim was taken to the hospital then later identified the two men that...

If the U.S. military increases its use of alternative fuels, there will be no direct benefit to the nation's armed forces, according to a new RAND Corporation study. Any benefits from investment in alternative fuels by the U.S. Department of Defense will accrue to the nation as a whole rather than to mission-specific needs of the military, researchers found. The study is based on an examination of alternative jet and naval fuels that can be produced from coal or various renewable resources, including seed oils, waste oils and algae. In response to a congressional directive for a study on alternative...

The chief executive of BP sold £1.4 million of his shares in the fuel giant weeks before the Gulf of Mexico oil spill caused its value to collapse. BP chief executive Tony Hayward has been under intense pressure since the oil well erupted on April 20Tony Hayward cashed in about a third of his holding in the company one month before a well on the Deepwater Horizon rig burst, causing an environmental disaster. Mr Hayward, whose pay package is £4 million a year, then paid off the mortgage on his family’s mansion in Kent, which is estimated to be valued at...

Spending: President Clinton said reform legislation would "end welfare as we know it." That was in 1996. The current administration appears determined to take welfare to heights we've never known.America's tried. The country has spent $15.9 trillion of other people's money on welfare since the mid-1960s. But it has failed. As noted in the Gospel of Matthew, we will always have the poor. It would be vain to argue otherwise. The evidence is hard, the facts clear. "Welfare spending was 13 times greater in fiscal 2008, after adjusting for inflation, than it was when the war on poverty started in...

Hey all! I was listening to Ramon Raquello and his orchestra (and who doesn't?) and just as they were playing "La Cumparsita", the program was interupted by a breaking news story from the Intercontinental Radio News with a bulletin on Mars. "At twenty minutes before eight, central time, Professor Farrell of the Mount Jennings Observatory, Chicago, Illinois, reports observing several explosions of incandescent gas, occurring at regular intervals on the planet Mars. The spectroscope indicates the gas to be hydrogen and moving towards the earth with enormous velocity. Professor Pierson of the Observatory at Princeton confirms Farrell's observation, and describes...

The Internet is a wealth of information for high school and college students looking to do research, it is also the place where they go to buy Salvia divinorum, a readily available, and legal, hallucinogenic drug. Parents around the country are mostly unaware of this member of the mint family, but the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has already flagged it as a "drug of concern." Salvia, also known as S. divinorum, magic mint, Maria Pastora and diviner's sage, is native to areas of the Mazateca region of Oaxaca, Mexico. Because this drug is not listed in the federal Controlled...

All seven major Democratic presidential candidates addressed the National Jewish Democratic Council this past week, but only one had two supporters introduce her. Hillary Clinton also received the most applause and ovations before, during and after her speech. Even those NJDC activists who aren't backing Clinton in the primary campaign acknowledged that she was the most popular choice in the hall, according to several attendees interviewed by The Jerusalem Post. The NJDC, which describes itself as the country's only organization of Jewish Democrats, counts top political donors and activists among its members. The other top two Democratic contenders - former...

Octopus Considered An Anti-Semitic Symbol (CBS/AP) NEW YORK -- A magazine cover by the National Rifle Association protesting Mayor Michael Bloomberg's campaign against guns is raising questions for its depiction of him as an octopus, which has a history of use as an anti-Semitic symbol. The cover of this month's issue of the NRA publication America's 1st Freedom features an evil-looking cartoon of the Jewish mayor, with a headline warning: "Tentacles!" The eight-armed sea animal has been used as the Nazi representation of Jewish conspiracy and control, and was referenced by Adolf Hitler in "Mein Kampf." The NRA magazine dedicates...

(03-24) 15:05 PDT SAN DIEGO -- The man who once sang as the police officer in the Village People band has been arrested. Again. Police in Universal City arrested Victor "Macho Man" Willis, 55, early Friday morning. A woman, who described herself as Willis' girlfriend, told police she had been choked and threatened with a knife. The woman told officers that Willis had been abusive and was out on bail on a similar assault charge from last month, police said. Last year, when Willis was arrested in San Francisco for drug possession, he gave officers a fake name. They didn't...

The Bush administration's drug and sexual health policy is a key issue as the World Health Organization chooses its next leader, a post that wields great power in allocating billions of dollars in funds to alleviate misery around the world. ~snip~ Critics say the United States, WHO's largest donor, plays too large a role behind the scenes. They argue that the Bush administration is promoting the interests of its pharmaceutical industry at the expense of poor AIDS patients who could be saved by cheap generic medicines and has adopted an ideological line on issues like abortion. President Bush has made...

A Chinese expert on glaciology said Monday that the world's glaciers may help curb the effects of global warming. Not only are the geographical features good sources of freshwater on earth, they are also "monitors" and "adjusters" of global temperatures, said Zhang Wenjing of the Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment with the Chinese Academy of Science. Think you know everything about Server Virtualization? What technology did Gartner name as the best potential for server consolidation? What solution enables software and management savings? What had 3 fantastic reviews over the last few months? Discover SWsoft's Virtuozzo, OS Server Virtualization. With...

This is a heads-up for anyone to watch Keith Olbermann's "Countdown" today. It replays 9 p.m. westcoast time. Jackie Mason is #5 on the Countdown, and he was TERRIFIC. Keith looked very disappointed in the wise, generous, sensible and hilarious Mr. Mason, the son of a rabbi and a comedian without peer. Try as Keith might, he couldn't get Mason to say a bad word about Mel Gibson. On the contrary, he said "if we're going to hold everyone accountable for what they say when they're drunk, everyone would either be in jail or dead by next Thursday." Mason went...

'Minutes' man gets Rather curt CBS legend Don Hewitt hasn't been shy about criticizing Dan Rather, but the grand old man of "60 Minutes" had stopped short of publicly recommending termination for the central figure in CBS News' painful 2004 Memogate flap. Until yesterday. "Should Dan Rather have been fired?" Time magazine managing editor Jim Kelly asked the 83-year-old Hewitt during a Court TV journalism panel at Michael's. "Yes," Hewitt answered. He suggested that the 74-year-old Rather - a "60 Minutes" correspondent since stepping down last March as "Evening News" anchor - was politically motivated in airing a controversial pre-election...

“National Singles Week” was started by the Buckeye Singles Council in Ohio in the 1980s to celebrate single life and recognize singles and their contributions to society. The week is now widely observed during Sept. 19-25 as “Unmarried and Single Americans Week,” an acknowledgment that many unmarried Americans do not identify with the word “single” because they are parents, have partners or are widowed.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) denounced the Republican elite’s emerging campaign to outmaneuver the party’s base on the issue of immigration control and border security. Former high-level officials at the RNC and the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign are orchestrating a multi-million dollar effort on behalf of big business to sell the President’s illegal alien amnesty plan, The Los Angeles Times reported this morning. “Let me get this straight. Our most loyal supporters give up their vacations to walk door-to-door for our Republican candidates. They hand out bumper stickers and put out yard signs. They convince coworkers which way to...