Free Republic

Michelle Obama enjoyed a star-studded day out on sea off the coast Italy alongside a shirtless Tom Hanks and a slew of other famous faces. The former First Lady, 59, who has spent the last few weeks enjoying a European vacation without her husband Barack, was pictured taking a boat ride with a dazzling array of A-listers including Tom and his wife, Rita Wilson, as well as acclaimed director Steven Spielberg, and his spouse, Kate Capshaw. The group was seen exiting Steven's $250 million superyacht together near Portofino, getting onto a smaller vessel, which took them out for a day...

Anna Delvey poses for a portrait while on house arrest at a private residence in the East Village on November 7, 2022 in New York City. It’s 4 p.m. on a Monday afternoon and Anna Sorokin is blasting Drake from her quaint apartment in the East Village of Manhattan. When I arrive at the top of her five-floor walk-up, she doesn’t come out, instead yelling from the bathroom to let myself in. “Sorry, I’ll be right out. I can’t figure out what to wear! What’s the vibe?” she asks, in that iconic European accent that Julia Garner mastered in her...

Civil vessels may safely use the Azov Sea port of Mariupol in Ukraine as the danger from mines has been eliminated, the Russian defence ministry said on Thursday. It said a maritime humanitarian corridor was opened on Wednesday in the Azov Sea. ...

A multihome compound in Lake Tahoe with connections to Sen. Dianne Feinstein and her investment banker husband Richard C. Blum is up for sale according to Realtor.com. The waterfront property on Rubicon Bay is listed for $41 million, a price cut from its original listing price of $46 million in October 2020. It includes a private sand beach, a 172-foot pier, a boat lift and four buoys. There are three separate homes on the 4.75-acre estate. The property was purchased for $9.7 million in 2007, according to public records. It is owned by an LLC tied to Blum’s investment management...

The housing market is hot and it’s looking like Sen. Dianne Feinstein and her banker husband, Richard Blum, are taking advantage of it — listing their Lake Tahoe, California, estate for a whopping $41 million. In October 2020, the waterfront compound briefly graced the market with a $46 million asking price. The property is listed under the LLC, Lucky Bluff, which is tied to Blum’s investment management firm, Blum Capital, according to Realtor. Comprising three separate properties — the main house and two guest houses – the compound spans nearly 5 acres.

New York City Commissioner Dermot Shea announced Monday that “effective immediately,” the NYPD will disband its anti-crime unit and reassign roughly 600 plainclothes officers to other units. Advertisement - story continues below “This is 21st-century policing,” he said. “This is a seismic shift in the culture of how the NYPD polices this great city,” he said. “I would consider this in the realm of closing one of the last chapters of ‘Stop, Question and Frisk’…I think it’s time to more forward and change how we police in this city. We can do it with brains. We can do it with...

CHICAGO — Kim Foxx, the Chicago area’s top prosecutor, won the Democratic nomination Tuesday against three challengers who zeroed in on her handling of the Jussie Smollett criminal case. ...

A criminal justice college in New York City is embroiled in a battle with the Pentagon over exhibiting and helping to sell artwork by suspected al Qaeda terrorists at Guantanamo Bay. John Jay College of Criminal Justice is displaying 36 pieces of art by Gitmo detainees but the Department of Defense wants the paintings and sculptures destroyed. The school is funded by tax payers. Families of 9/11 victims were particularly upset to learn about the artwork. 'I can't understand how this college in particular would allow such a thing. Where's their decency? Where's their dignity? . . . It's denying...

BALTIMORE – The city of Baltimore says it has reached a $6.4 million wrongful death settlement with the family of Freddie Gray. Gray died in April after he suffered a critical spine injury while he was in police custody. Six Baltimore police officers face criminal charges stemming from Gray's death. Gray, who was black, was critically injured April 12 in the back of a prisoner transport van after he was arrested.

While strong cases can be made for both Benghazi and Fast and Furious, most voters consider Barack Obama’s misuse of the IRS to be his administration’s worst scandal so far. But, as we wrote last year, targeting of conservative non-profits for harassment is not the only dimension of the IRS scandal. In addition, there is strong reason to believe that one or more White House political appointees have illegally accessed private taxpayer information and used it for political gain.Austan Goolsbee directed Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board and later chaired his Council of Economic Advisers. In August 2010, Goolsbee conducted...

Woman threw her alligator purse filled with cash at a Range Rover filled with teens. A woman lost $2,000 in Palo Alto after she threw her purse at a passing car filled with teenagers who allegedly threw a milkshake in her face. The woman was walking across University Avenue near Rudy's Pub Sunday when a white Range Rover full of teenagers drove by and allegedly threw a milkshake in her face. Authorities said the woman tried to get revenge by throwing her alligator skin purse at the passing vehicle. The story was first reported by Palo Alto Online. A window...

While proponents of immigration enforcement have been told that the federal government monitors the hiring of illegal aliens by the private sector, including adherence to the federal employment verification (I-9) program, Attorney General Eric Holder's Justice Department appears to have made a decision to penalize organizations that zealously comply. For example, on Thursday the Justice Department announced that it filed a civil lawsuit against the Tuscany Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, accusing the company of engaging in "a pattern or practice of discrimination in the employment eligibility verification and re-verification process."

Just in time to pack your beach bag with some good summer reading, President Obama’s aunt has penned a book sure to connect with a wide swath of Americans. Zeituni Onyango’s new memoir “Tears of Abuse” was released quietly in late March. The Boston Herald’s Howie Carr brought national attention to it Friday in a tongue-in-cheek column based on a fresh press release for the book. According to Carr, Onyango’s book deals with her supposed victimization in America while living off the taxpayer’s dime. “Auntie” Zeituni Onyango indentifies herself as “an advocate for peace and a writer” on her personal...

One day after the Herald reported some surprised Bay State inmates - including murderers and rapists - were cashing in $250 stimulus checks, federal officials revealed the same behind-bars bonus was mailed to nearly 4,000 cons nationwide. A federal watchdog is now probing how the cons were cut the checks. The same cash also may have been sent to fugitive felons, people kicked out of the country and even individuals now deceased. It’s all part of the massive American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 - and what is becoming an accounting nightmare for red-faced feds. “President Obama’s $787 billion...

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I was listening to Laura Ingraham this morning and on the air she asked her assistants to try to get a hold of SF Supervisor Sandoval who is part of a SF City/County resolution to condem Michael Savage for his saying that illegal immigrants who were on a hunger strike to get free college should "starve [themsevles] to death". For details about the controversy (does not include the bit about Laura)see http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57130

Suarez case tough to prosecute BY CHRIS TITTEL Citizen Staff KEY WEST - There was no evidence to send former Public Works Superintendent Gilbert Suarez to jail or force him to pay back thousands of dollars detectives suspect he stole from parking meters over a four-year period, prosecutors said Thursday. After Suarez reached a plea agreement with the State Attorney's Office, Circuit Court Judge Mark Jones sentenced him on Monday to five years probation on grand theft charges for stealing change from parking meters on May 15, 2005. Suarez, 44, also was sentenced to two years probation on drug charges...

ATLANTIC, Iowa Cass County authorities say they released two Mexican immigrants found with 95 pounds of marijuana because the county did not want to pay their medical bills and federal officials did not have room for them. Natividad Valdovino and Javier Ruiz were stopped Monday along Interstate 80 in Atlantic for driving erratically. Deputies found open containers and said one of the men was intoxicated. They searched the van and found drugs but also noticed both men had cuts, scrapes and bruises and needed medical attention. Cass County Sheriff Bill Sage says the charges were dropped because the county did...

Among the organizers of Democrats for Bloomberg, a new group working to create bipartisan support for the Republican mayor, is a businessman who figured in a bribery scandal involving Donald R. Manes, the Queens borough president who killed himself in 1986. The businessman, Michael A. Nussbaum, was convicted in 1987 of soliciting a $250,000 bribe for Mr. Manes, but the conviction was overturned on appeal. The appeals court ruled that Mr. Nussbaum could not be charged with bribery because he was not a public official, and that there was insufficient evidence linking Mr. Manes - the only public official implicated...

NASHVILLE - A state attorney general's opinion Tuesday apparently shot down one plan for denying pension benefits to some state legislators who commit crimes, but Sen. Randy McNally says he will push ahead with an alternative. In a formal opinion requested by McNally, Attorney General Paul G. Summers said legislators who began service before 1993 cannot have their pension benefits reduced or eliminated by new legislation. That was the year the Legislature first passed a law denying pensions to those convicted of federal crimes. "Once a legislator becomes a member of the state retirement system, he or she acquires rights...