Free Republic

Spanish special-operations police, their faces covered with balaclavas and their weapons visible, attempted to force their way past Bolivian police at the Mexican Embassy in La Paz on Dec. 27. The effort failed but it left behind troubling questions about whether rogue interests inside the Spanish government are working with Mexico on behalf of former Bolivian officials, some of whom face criminal charges. Spanish elite police had already escorted the Spanish Embassy’s chargé d’affaires and its consul to the Mexican Embassy earlier that morning. When two more cars, carrying masked members of the same counterterrorism unit, showed up later and...

llinois’ governor granted more than 11,000 pardons for low-level marijuana convictions on Tuesday, describing the step as a first wave of thousands of such expungements anticipated under the state’s new marijuana legalization law. The expungement process is a key part of the law, which takes effect Wednesday and made Illinois the 11th state to legalize marijuana for people 21 or older. When they crafted the policy, Illinois lawmakers said they wanted to repair some of the damage caused by law enforcement’s efforts to combat sale and use of the drug, particularly in minority communities. Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker announced the...

We have a choice next November, possibly the last chance for honest choice we will ever get. Choose wisely 2020 promises to be the most crucial and pivotal year for America, if not, certainly in our lifetime. This new year will either produce our best chance for a stable social, political, and financially secure future or it will radically alter everything this country stands for, our values, and the freedoms we have come to enjoy and take for granted. The Democrat Party is not your grandfather’s or even your father’s Democrat Party. It has morphed and contorted, into a deranged...

An oft-repeated but, in my view, ultimately misguided self-critique by Christians, is that we are better known for what we are against than what we are for. I fully agree with the spirit of the comment. As Chuck Colson liked to say, Christians should not just resist the bad stuff but always propose a better way. Today, however, that statement is too often used as a way of saying Christians should be more positive, as if Christians should be known for what we are for, and not known for what we are against. But Christians just can’t choose between those...

In the wake of the strike ordered by President Trump that killed General Qasem Soleimani, many on the left have rushed to criticize Trump for retaliating against the attack on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. 2020 Democrats, in particular, piled on Trump with condemnations. "President Trump just tossed a stick of dynamite into a tinderbox," said Biden. Cory Booker, who apparently is still in the race, claimed, "We have a president who has failed to show any larger strategic plan." Elizabeth Warren acknowledged that Soleimani was an evil terrorist responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans, but also said,...

Gov. Ralph Northam said Friday that he would throw his weight behind the decriminalization of marijuana in Virginia this year but said he wants to study full legalization before going further. Northam announced legislation Friday that would make possession of small amounts of marijuana a civil offense carrying a $50 penalty, instead of a criminal misdemeanor. The proposal is part of a broader “criminal justice reform agenda” that includes changes to the state’s parole system, a higher threshold for theft to be considered a felony, and an increase to the age at which a young offender can be tried...

Looking back at 2019 is incredibly disorienting. The country is horribly divided. In fact, the president of the United States was just impeached along partisan lines. The government is running trillion dollar (and growing) annual budget deficits, even though the economy is doing well. Still, listening to many politicians and pundits, you'd think the nation is doing terribly and the government isn't spending a dime. That's 2019 in a nutshell. The economy is entering its 11th year of expansion. Poverty is at an all-time low; so are African American and Hispanic unemployment rates. The 3.5% overall unemployment rate hasn't been...

A Democrat mayor from Massachusetts was arrested on Thursday after a federal investigation found that he allegedly stole over $230,000 from investors and spent the money on himself. Mayor of Fall River Jasiel Correia, who was elected mayor at just 23 years old, used the investment money to fund his own lavish lifestyle and pay off his student debts.

FALL RIVER, Mass. — Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia II was arrested early Friday morning at his home in the city. Correia, 27, was charged in a superseding indictment with bribery; extortion conspiracy; extortion and aiding and abetting; wire fraud; and filing false tax returns. He is accused of conspiring to extort hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from marijuana companies. In federal court Friday afternoon, Correia entered a plea of not guilty and was released on $250,000 bond. He will be required to pay $25,000 of that amount by the end of the day Tuesday. Genoveva Andrade, Correia's...

SAN ANTONIO – Midway through a sold out two night stand at the Majestic Theater here, country music icon Willie Nelson said that in spite of recent breathing related health issues, he has no plans to give up touring. “I love the bus,” he told KSAT TV’s Paul Venema during a recent interview. “This is my home.” Performing, he says, is his key to happiness and good health. “It’s an energy exchange,” he said, describing his relationship with the audience. “They give me a lot of positive energy and I hope to give them a lot of positive energy.” He...

Aides of Democrat presidential hopeful Kamala Harris are saying fellow candidate Tulsi Gabbard is the reason their campaign is suffering. New reports are detailing the slump in the California senator’s bid as advisers say the drop in polls started after the July debate where Gabbard slammed Harris’ record. During the debate, Gabbard took aim at Harris’ history as a prosecutor by saying she was in a position to help people yet she didn’t. She also said Harris laughed off marijuana use comments while imprisoning people for the same crime, and using prisoners as so-called “cheap labor.” “She blocked evidence that...

On this day [February 1] in 1887, Harvey Wilcox officially registers Hollywood with the Los Angeles County recorder’s office. Wilcox, who had lost the use of his legs as a child due to polio, envisioned the land as the perfect site for a utopian-like community for devout Christians, where they could live a highly moral life free of vices such as alcohol (Wilcox was a prohibitionist). Daeida Wilcox called the new community “Hollywood.”

It’s like Michael Jordan retiring from the NBA. It’s like Donald Trump quitting Twitter. It’s like Lindsay Lohan forsaking drama. Willie Nelson has quit weed. The country icon — whose smoking habit was rivaled only by Snoop Dogg‘s — told KSAT TV, “I have abused my lungs quite a bit in the past, so breathing is a little more difficult these days and I have to be careful.”

For residents and storekeepers on one Neptune Avenue block between Ocean Parkway and Brighton 3rd Street, being close to Lincoln High School has been an unrelenting disaster. Massive groups of students, often high on marijuana, wreak chaos, and intimidate the neighborhood every school day, neighbors complain. The large groups of teenagers — often 60 kids or more — block entryways, dance on Dunkin’ Donuts tables, play dice games, and harass residents and store owners to the point that business owners say their commerce is interrupted and residents say it has become unsafe to leave their apartments.  Businesses Plan for Daily Chaos...

WASHINGTON, Nov 26 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said in an interview aired on Tuesday that he will designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorists over their role in drug and human trafficking. "They will be designated ... I have been working on that for the last 90 days. You know, designation is not that easy, you have to go through a process, and we are well into that process," Trump said in an interview with conservative media personality Bill O'Reilly that aired on Tuesday. Once a group is designated as a terrorist organization, under U.S. law it is illegal...

Utah Senator Mitt Romney argued that flavored e-cigarettes and vaping juices like “unicorn poop” should be banned because of their attractiveness to children. President Donald Trump hosted a lively discussion at the White House about the benefits and dangers of vaping flavors. The president spent over an hour listening to supporters for banning vaping flavors as well as vape industry advocates who have sharply criticized the president’s proposed ban. Senator Mitt Romney participated in the discussion in support of a ban on flavored vaping. He argued that most adults were not using vape flavors, earning a strong reaction from vape...

South Dakota on Monday launched a brand new anti-meth initiative designed to bring awareness to resources that are available for anyone who are trying to kick the drug. The new website, www.OnMeth.com is part of the South Dakota Department of Social Services' new campaign called, "Meth. We're On It." The campaign is meant to help create awareness for people seeking help as well as connect community members to employ prevention strategies in homes and schools. “South Dakota’s meth crisis is growing at an alarming rate,” said South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem. “It impacts every community in our state and threatens...

Two-thirds of Americans say the use of marijuana should be legal, reflecting a steady increase over the past decade, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. The share of U.S. adults who oppose legalization has fallen from 52% in 2010 to 32% today. Meanwhile, an overwhelming majority of U.S. adults (91%) say marijuana should be legal either for medical and recreational use (59%) or that it should be legal just for medical use (32%). Fewer than one-in-ten (8%) prefer to keep marijuana illegal in all circumstances, according to the survey, conducted Sept. 3 to 15 on Pew Research Center’s...

A 1986 federal law makes it a crime to “encourage” unauthorized immigrants to come to or stay in the United States. “The statute potentially criminalizes the simple words — spoken to a son, a wife, a parent, a friend, a neighbor, a co-worker, a student, a client — ‘I encourage you to stay here,’” Judge A. Wallace Tashima wrote last year for a unanimous panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, in striking down the law. The law applies to a grandmother urging a grandchild to overstay a visa or a lawyer...

Chesa Boudin, the urine-and-feces-plagued city’s incoming district attorney, pledged during the campaign not to prosecute public urination and other quality-of-life crimes if he was elected. Boudin declared victory Saturday night after results showed him winning a plurality of votes in the DA race. “We will not prosecute cases involving quality-of-life crimes. Crimes such as public camping, offering or soliciting sex, public urination, blocking a sidewalk, etc., should not and will not be prosecuted,” Boudin vowed in response to an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) questionnaire during the campaign. “Many of these crimes are still being prosecuted, we have a long way to go to decriminalize...