Free Republic

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The mayor of Paterson, New Jersey, resigned on Monday, a city official said, after the mayor pleaded guilty last week to a state criminal conspiracy charge that he ordered city employees to perform work at a warehouse leased by his family members. Mayor Jose “Joey” Torres, 58, pleaded guilty on Friday in state superior court to second degree conspiracy as part of an agreement in which prosecutors will recommend a five-year prison sentence, state Attorney General Christopher Porrino said. The plea agreement also required that Torres relinquish his office, never again hold a government job in...

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said Monday that nearly one-third of employees at his department are not loyal to him and President Donald Trump, adding that he is working to change the department’s regulatory culture to be more business friendly. Zinke, a former Navy SEAL, said he knew when he took over the 70,000-employee department in March that, “I got 30 percent of the crew that’s not loyal to the flag.” In a speech to an oil industry group, Zinke compared Interior to a pirate ship that captures “a prized ship at sea and only the captain and the first mate...

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher stated that Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) should stay in the Senate, even if he’s a Menendez brother. Maher said, “[I]n normal times, I would say, well, maybe the Democrats should vote — he’s a Democrat, to vote against Bob Menendez and say, ‘You should get out of the Senate. Except, in the post-Merrick Garland world, where the Republican view is you know what, whatever you can get away with, I don’t care if he’s a Menendez brother. He needs to stay in the Senate. Because if he leaves before Chris Christie...

The New York Times published an almost 1300-word news story in Tuesday’s paper about Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez’s corruption trial, without ever mentioning Menendez’s party affiliation. Both in print and on social media, the NYT failed to inform its readers that Sen. Menendez is a Democrat. “For the first time in 36 years, a sitting United States Senator is facing a federal bribery trial,” read a NYT tweet promoting the story, which was titled: “Menendez Trial Set to Begin With Tensions High and Washington Watching.” The NYT wasn’t without opportunities to inform its readers which party Menendez belonged...

During the 2016 presidential election, one of the most controversial claims made by then-candidate Donald Trump was that Democrats were allowing illegal aliens to vote, being a remark that got brutally criticized by the mainstream media, which accused him of spreading false claims. However, almost a year after he became president, this controversial comment proved to be true, after a key election official in Florida admitted that actually happened. Her name is Brenda Snipes, an Elections Supervisor who revealed that both noncitizens and felons have voted illegally in Broward County. She made this comment in order to defend her office...

Despite repeated attempts, Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott has reported that he has been unable to reach Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner. Abbott has called Turner's cell phone "several times" to offer aid and whatever he may need in this time of crisis.

A top Democratic National Committee leader called the Republican Party "the party of racism" at a conference for liberal activists Friday, pointing to President Donald Trump's positions on immigrants and refugees. "You hear Republicans say, 'We're the party of Lincoln.' He wouldn't recognize these people," said Rep. Keith Ellison, a congressman from Minnesota and Democratic National Committee deputy chairman. "The fact is that the Republican Party today is the party of racism. Now I'm not saying every Republican is a racist, but I'm saying their party does hold that up. ... It is the Republican Party in 2017 that says,...

Former President Obama will re-emerge on the national scene this fall, though Democrats expect him to do so with caution. One aide describes the beginning of a "delicate dance" that aims to put Obama in the Democratic fray, but prevent him from remaining the face of the party. Aides will huddle with Obama in the coming weeks to plot out what shape the former president's fall schedule will take. Advisers close to him say that while he will play an active role in helping his party rebuild, much of his work will be behind the scenes.

The fallout from last weekend's New Orleans flash flood continued Thursday. A state of emergency has been declared for Orleans Parish as drainage complications persist with the possibility of heavy rain Thursday and Friday. Here's a rundown of the new information unveiled so far Thursday... Fire damages turbine that powers pumps Much of New Orleans is at high risk of flooding Thursday and Friday because a fire overnight damaged the power source that runs most of the city’s pumps, Mayor Mitch Landrieu said early Thursday. The fire damaged one of five ancient turbines that power the Sewerage & Water Board’s...

Detectives leading the Seth Rich murder investigation agreed to meet with Capitol Hill investigators to discuss evidence surrounding the alleged hacking of Democratic National Committee emails during the 2016 presidential election, a private eye claims. But the Metropolitan Police Department canceled its meeting with House investigators on the Hill just hours before it was scheduled to take place, according to former Washington, D.C., homicide detective Rod Wheeler. “I’ve been following the arrest of Awan – this is a guy whose name came up a couple of times in my investigation as someone that I should look at,” he said in...

In a wide ranging interview with The New York Times, Trump threw his Attorney General Jeffrey Sessions under the bus for deciding to recuse himself from the Russia probe. A decision Trump called “very unfair” to the president. But, maybe even more shocking, he claims that FBI Director James Comey tried to hold the salacious dossier over his head, in order to gain “leverage” over him. It had previously been reported that when administration officials briefed the president at Trump Tower in January, Comey pulled him aside and told him about the details of the now infamous dossier which included...

BREAKING: Feds explain sweet deal for billionaire sex offender Epstein Jane Musgrave Palm Beach Post Staff Writer 6:46 p.m Thursday, June 22, 2017 Palm Beach County Crime WEST PALM BEACH Federal prosecutors went on the offensive this month, denying allegations that they bowed to pressure from billionaire Palm Beach resident Jeffrey Epstein and his high-priced lawyers at the expense of dozens of teenage girls he sexually abused. In their first public comment since 2007 — when they negotiated a deal that allowed Epstein to escape federal charges — prosecutors filed hundreds of pages of documents in U.S. District Court, explaining...

Press Release Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) released the following statement after former FBI Director James Comey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee: “Former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony today revealed several things: First, that President Trump demanded Comey’s loyalty and tried to get him to beg for his job. Second, that President Trump asked Comey to end the investigation into Michael Flynn in order to cover up his campaign’s collusion with Russia. And third, that the President, his campaign, and the Administration repeatedly lied to the American people.    “This is obstruction of justice.    “Republicans must now stop tying...

Being a communist would no longer be a fireable offense for California government employees under a bill passed Monday by the state Assembly. Lawmakers narrowly approved the bill to repeal part of a law enacted during the Red Scare of the 1940s and '50s when fear that communists were trying to infiltrate and overthrow the U.S. government was rampant. The bill now goes to the Senate. It would eliminate part of the law that allows public employees to be fired for being a member of the Communist Party.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- California prosecutors on Tuesday charged two anti-abortion activists who made undercover videos of themselves trying to buy fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood with 15 felonies, saying they invaded the privacy of medical providers by filming without consent. The charges against David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt of the Center for Medical Progress come eight months after similar charges were dropped in Texas. State Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a longtime Congressional Democrat who took over the investigation in January, said in a statement that the state "will not tolerate the criminal recording of conversations."

And no surveillance (including wiretapping) on Trump?

In truly progressive fashion, Chicago renamed one of its streets after a terrorist. Earlier this month Alderman Robert Maldonado submitted a proposal to name three blocks of a city street after Oscar Lopez Rivera, the founder of the Puerto Rican terror group FALN, which was responsible for 120 bombings and armed robberies in the U.S. during the ‘70s and ‘80s that killed nine and injured hundreds of others. On Wednesday, aldermen approved the measure honoring Lopez Rivera, the terrorist whose 70-year sentence was recently commuted by Barack Obama. Aldermen also voted to approve an honorary street re-naming for Puerto...

California State Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) is renewing a demand to see First Lady Melania Trump’s immigration papers — an issue Democrats first raised during the election campaign.Skinner expanded on her demand in an interview with Politico this week: “No one in the Trump operation has released any of the documentation to indicate what was the circumstance, or whether she had full legal status. … We only know they had a lawyer look at whatever papers she chose to give.”In 2010, when Arizona passed a controversial immigration law that allowed state and local law enforcement officers to check the immigration status of anyone...

A photo that appeared on Reddit last week of Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt wearing a pink “pussy hat” in the courtroom made the rounds on Twitter Monday. The knit cap, which recently made the cover of TIME, was conceived by two women in Los Angeles who envisioned “a sea of pink hats” at the Women’s March on Washington.

President Donald Trump relieved acting Attorney General Sally Yates of her duties Monday night after she directed Justice Department attorneys not to defend Trump's controversial executive refugee and immigration ban. Yates, a holdover from the Obama Administration, was replaced as acting attorney general by Dana Boente, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Yates had "betrayed the Justice Department" by refusing to enforce Trump's order, which temporarily halted the entire U.S. refugee program and banned all entries from seven Muslim-majority nations for 90 days.