Free Republic

Kurt Smolek, a Diplomatic Security special agent with the State Department and Dayton Police Academy graduate, was found dead in the Potomac River on Wednesday and the cause is listed as undetermined pending an autopsy. We're hearing tonight that Smolek, 45, is a 1998 academy graduate and one of his assignments as a special agent was as a member of Condoleezza Rice's security team. According to DC Metro police, Smolek was last seen Monday, Aug. 28, in the 600 block of Water Street, Southwest, about 10 p.m. A missing persons bulletin described hims as white with graying brown hair, brown...

The U.S. Department of Justice ordered the Dayton, Ohio, Police Department to lower testing standards on its recruitment exam. Why? Because not enough blacks passed the test the first time around. So the Dayton Civil Service Board made the required changes. Up until now, potential recruits needed to score 66 percent on the first part of the exam, and 72 percent on the second in order to move on to the next phase in the process. Under the new DOJ-ordered guidelines, 58 percent and 63 percent are now the benchmarks. Based on the new, lowered standards, 258 more people “passed”...