Free Republic

Adrian Lamo, the notorious computer hacker who turned in Chelsea Manning to the FBI and was arrested for hacking into The New York Times and Microsoft, has died in Kansas at age 37. *snip* Charley Davidson, a Wichita police officer told the media outlet there was “nothing suspicious about his death.” It was not immediately clear how Lamo died.

St. Patrick's Day is immensely popular all over the country, especially among frivolity-loving college students, but is the holiday actually an example of the "cultural appropriation" those same students so detest? Students who spoke with Campus Reform were initially fine with the idea of non-Irish people celebrating St. Patrick's Day, but upon further reflection decided that it does, in fact, constitute cultural appropriation. Video at the link or at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jobm31RXSCs

Truth in Accounting .. based on fiscal year 2016 comprehensive annual financial reports .. found that 64 cities do not have enough money to pay all of their bills, and in total, the cities have racked up $335.4 billion in unfunded municipal debt. ... Government reports are lengthy, cumbersome, and sometimes misleading documents ... taxpayers and citizens deserve easy-to-understand, truthful, and transparent financial information from their governments. ... to balance the budget, elected officials have not included the true costs of the government in their budget calculations and have pushed costs onto future taxpayers. ... TIA was unable to rank...

New York Rep. Louise Slaughter, the top Democrat on the powerful House Rules Committee and the only microbiologist in the Congress, died Friday at a Washington hospital just days after being injured in a fall at home, her congressional office said. She was 88.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said today his name "was never mentioned" at a nearly eight-week corruption trial of his former top aide. Cuomo's former deputy executive secretary Joseph Percoco was convicted of three felonies in connection with a bribery and corruption scheme.

<p>Prominent liberals mocked President Donald Trump’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., after his wife filed for divorce.</p> <p>Page Six reported on Thursday Vanessa Trump filed for divorce from Don Jr. in Manhattan Supreme Court.</p> <p>Some liberals used the divorce to mock Don Jr. and his family.</p>

Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, has died at age 88, her office announced Thursday. “To have met Louise Slaughter is to have known a force of nature. She was a relentless advocate for Western New York whose visionary leadership brought infrastructure upgrades, technology and research investments, and two federal manufacturing institutes to Rochester that will transform the local economy for generations to come," Liam Fitzsimmons, chief of staff, said in a statement. Slaughter had been hospitalized after suffering a concussion in her home, her office said earlier this week.

The Justice Department under Barack Obama directed the FBI to drop more than 500,000 names of fugitives with outstanding arrest warrants from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, acting FBI deputy director David Bowdich testified Wednesday. Fugitives from justice are barred from buying a firearm under federal law. But what is a fugitive from justice? That definition has been under debate by the FBI and the ATF. According to The Washington Post, the FBI considered any person with an outstanding arrest warrant to be a fugitive. On the other hand, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives defined...

The pornographic film actress who says she had an affair with President Trump offered on Monday to return $130,000 she received from Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer in 2016 for agreeing not to discuss the alleged relationship. In exchange, the actress, Stephanie Clifford, seeks an end to her deal to keep quiet about what she says was an affair with Mr. Trump that started in 2006 and lasted for several months. In the letter, which was sent to Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, early Monday, Ms. Clifford’s lawyer, Michael Avenatti, wrote that Ms. Clifford would wire the money into an...

Twice a year, Jaime Bremnes, 35, a fifth-generation resident of Garden City and the president of its Welcoming Club, arranges a cocktail party for new residents in this affluent village of around 22,600, part of the town of Hempstead in Nassau County. The organization has running and walking clubs, toddler play groups and gourmet and book clubs in addition to the parties for newcomers, which are held at members’ homes. “We aim to introduce neighbors to one another so they may become friends and part of the community,” said Dr. Bremnes, a dentist, who moved back from Manhattan four years...

<p>Vanessa Trump filed for divorce against her husband Donald Trump Jr. late Thursday in Manhattan Supreme Court.</p> <p>The president’s daughter-in-law filed for an uncontested proceeding, meaning she’s not expecting a legal battle over custody of the couple’s five children or their assets.</p> <p>They were married in 2005.</p>

n the United States, politicians are not supposed to be able to prevent the opposition from meeting or speaking.When Progressives dominated the mass media, the left celebrated the First Amendment.  In 1963, the Harvard-Radcliff Democratic Club invited George Wallace to speak, and there were no protests or threats of violence.  Leftists were all for free speech and rights of an assembly when they had little opposition in organs of mass media. Times have changed. The Progressives no longer have an effective monopoly in the media. Now, heavier-handed tactics are resorted to. Democrat politicians in New York pressured a Staten...

<p>It’s hard to put into words just how appalling it is that the New York Board of Parole has ordered a domestic terrorist and serial cop-killer turned loose.</p> <p>It’s a decision so indefensible that a former parole board chairman — now an advocate for inmates — says he was shocked.</p>

New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo took part in a die-in protest against gun owners Wednesday in New York City. It would have been more impressive if the governor was not surrounded by armed guards.

President Trump broke from his inspection of border wall samples on Tuesday to castigate California's Democratic state government, saying that Gov. Jerry Brown is "doing a terrible job running the state." Trump's first visit to the nation's most populous state is to be brief — just one day — but long on symbolism. He spent about an hour inspecting border wall prototypes built at his direction in San Diego, and plans to speak at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar and travel to a fundraiser in Beverly Hills that is expected to raise $5 million for the Republican National Committee.

The White House said Wednesday that President Trump opposes cutting a deal with Congress to protect young illegal immigrants from deportation for three years in exchange for three years of funding for a border wall. Mr. Trump does want to see funding for his border wall included, but doesn’t think it should be tied to legal status for “Dreamers,” spokesman Raj Shah said. ...He was shooting down a Washington Post report that the White House had signaled it was open to a “three-for-three” deal, which would have allocated ...

President Donald Trump is expected to fire VA Secretary David Shulkin and is strongly considering replacing him with U.S. Army Veteran Pete Hegseth, according to three sources who spoke to Townhall under the condition of anonymity. It has been rumored former Texas Governor Rick Perry is also on the list for the job.It has been widely reported President Trump called Hegseth on Monday during a meeting with Shulkin in the Oval Office to go over options for reform. According to Axios, Trump specifically asked Hegseth to analyze new VA legislation while Shulkin listened in on speaker phone. Since Shulkin took over, the...

Last evening I began watching the PA-18th-CD election returns on the New York Times newspaper election results site...which is by far the best in the business for election reporting and background information. As the initial election returns flowed in, the Times indicated that, though the race was very close, it appeared like Conon Lamb would eke out a victory scoring 52%-48% over Rick Saccone. Then about fifteen minutes later, the Times suddenly changed its prediction to Saccone winning by a 62%-38% over Lamb. The Times said that they had information as to voting patterns in the Conservative counties, indicating a...

Climate change coupled with wide-spread famine is “creating more terrorism” in Africa, home to jihadist organizations like the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) and al-Qaeda, declared Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).

A cold-blooded killer who gunned down two New York City police officers nearly half a century ago is set to walk free after he was granted parole. Herman Bell, a former Black Revolutionary Army thug who lured Officers Joseph Piagentini and Waverly Jones to a housing project in 1971, was granted clemency recently – despite past parole board rejections of his earlier bids that argued freeing Bell “would depreciate the severity of this crime,” the New York Post reported Wednesday.