Free Republic

California’s governor and legislative leaders on Wednesday proposed raising $52 billion to fix the state’s roads through a big gasoline tax increase, higher car registration fees and a charge on emission-free vehicles. The 10-year plan would boost gasoline excise taxes for the first time in more than two decades, raising them 12 cents per gallon — a 43 percent increase. The tax would rise automatically with inflation. For the first time, owners of zero emission vehicles would pay a $100 annual fee because they use public roads but don’t pay gasoline taxes that fund highway maintenance. The plan also includes...

The speculation began almost immediately after Donald Trump was elected: Who would have the ear of the famously unpredictable 45th president? Two months into Trump's presidency, it's becoming clear that blood and family have trumped ambition on Pennsylvania Avenue with First Daughter Ivanka Trump emerging as a powerbroker in her own right, along with her husband Jared Kushner. "Ivanka Trump is all powerful," a source familiar with the inner workings of the White House told NBC News. Empowering women is not her father's issue, it's Ivanka's. And she's making the most of her opportunity. "She has these issues that she's...

SAINT-PAUL-LEZ-DURANCE, France — At a dusty construction site here amid the limestone ridges of Provence, workers scurry around immense slabs of concrete arranged in a ring like a modern-day Stonehenge. It looks like the beginnings of a large commercial power plant, but it is not. The project, called ITER, is an enormous, and enormously complex and costly, physics experiment. But if it succeeds, it could determine the power plants of the future and make an invaluable contribution to reducing planet-warming emissions. ITER, short for International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (and pronounced EAT-er), is being built to test a long-held dream: that...

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will deliver the keynote address March 31 at the Revolution for Truth rally in Washington, D.C., organized by the Vaccination Injury Awareness League to call for more transparency in the research and government approval process of an ever-expanding schedule of vaccines. Kennedy has said that he is “pro-vaccine,” but he believes more research should be done to investigate potential health risks and is critical of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s handling of the issue. “CDC recommended five pediatric vaccines when I was a boy in 1954,” says Kennedy, son of the late U.S. Senator...

In what is being called a point of no return, Venezuela's Supreme Court took over legislative powers Thursday, effectively shutting down the opposition-controlled Congress. "As long as the National Assembly's contempt of court and invalidity persist, parliamentary powers shall be exercised directly by (the Supreme Court's) constitutional chamber or by the body it stipulates to safeguard the rule of law," the high court said in the ruling, issued late Wednesday.

Goldman Sachs estimates that almost one million foreign H-1B contract workers are now employed in college-level jobs throughout the United States, even though many media outlets routinely say the federal government approves only 85,000 H-1B visas per year.

Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson has taking his fight against sanctuary cities to the nation’s capitol.Hodgson testified in Washington on Tuesday before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on immigration. He called ‘sanctuary cities’ a danger.The sheriff told lawmakers that the mayors of these cities are breaking the law and should therefore be arrested.“These officials pledge not to work with, cooperate or even communicate with federal immigration enforcement. As a result, these ‘safe zones’ have become magnets for illegal aliens, some of which have violent criminal records. If these sanctuary cities are going to harbor and conceal criminal illegal aliens from ICE,...

The Secretary General for the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM), Reverend Father Henry Saindi has expressed the need for responsible parenthood and proper guidance especially to the youths as a way of controlling population which is fast growing at an alarming rate. Fr. Saindi was speaking Catholic Secretariat in Lilongwe when he opened a two-day advocacy workshop for Diocesan Social Communication Secretaries and Youth Chaplains on responsible parenthood and procreation. He said the Catholic Church is equally concerned with the way the population is growing hence joins the rest of stakeholders including government in ensuring that the country's population is...

When people think about climate change, they probably think first about its effects on the environment, and possibly on their physical health. But climate change also takes a significant toll on mental health, according to a new report released by the American Psychological Association and ecoAmerica entitled Mental Health and Our Changing Climate: Impacts, Implications, and Guidance. Climate change-induced severe weather and other natural disasters have the most immediate effects on mental health in the form of the trauma and shock due to personal injuries, loss of a loved one, damage to or loss of personal property or even the...

The GOP was forced to keep a procedural vote open for just over an hour after two Republicans senators, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski and Maine's Susan Collins, voted against moving ahead on the measure. During that time, the GOP got Pence to the Senate to break a 50-50 tie and cast the deciding vote. He previously broke a tie on the nomination of Betsy DeVos to be education secretary. A final vote on the bill is expected later Thursday, when Pence's vote likely will be needed again.

Russia President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that climate change doubters "may not be at all silly." In an interview by CNBC at the International Arctic Forum in Arkhangelsk, Russia, Putin was asked about the rollback of environmental regulations from U.S. President Donald Trump's administration. "Those people who are not in agreement with opponents (of climate change) may not be at all silly," Putin replied via an interpreter. Russia's president also pointed to the economic importance of the Arctic region as he argued global warming and ice melting in the area created beneficial conditions for economic improvement. "Climate change brings in...

The pieces are falling into place. It is quite a spectacle. AOL this morning offered a poll showing that people want a special prosecutor to look into the Trump-Russian connection. It's no wonder, given the daily bombardment of innuendo the networks drop on viewers. Never mind the constant insults by the late night idiots and even reporters. Scott Pelley has completely abandoned pretending to be a journalist. CBS This Morning hammered Trump again today and Matt Lauer was nasty to Chris Christie. Day after day after day it's "What is Trump hiding?' Let's back up a second. Let's remember that...

Bad move by Trump. Ryan and the globalist big government GOPe RINOs are the problem not the Freedom Caucus. Trump is supposed to be draining the swamp by now, not swimming in it. Put the interest of American citizens first! Freedom not socialism and tyranny!! Good grief! Dump Obamacare already! Should have been done on day one and we’d be way on down the road to draining the swamp by now! We the people have been demanding a full repeal for seven long years and that's the position Trump took with his original health care goal at the beginning of...

President Trump's deputy chief of staff Katie Walsh is leaving her current position to work with political groups whose help the White House is seeking as it plows ahead with an ambitious agenda, two sources familiar with the move told the Washington Examiner. "She's got a track record of being able to raise money," a White House source said. "Hopefully she'll put that to good use in support of the president." But Walsh, a former Republican National Committee staffer who worked closely with chief of staff Reince Priebus in the West Wing, was not popular with some longtime Trump loyalists...

A top aide to President Donald Trump is leaving his administration. Two senior White House officials said Thursday that Deputy Chief of Staff Katie Walsh is leaving her job. The officials were not authorized to speak before a formal announcement is made and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Last week Donald Trump said he was going to "come after" Congressman Mark Meadows, the head of the House Freedom Caucus, if he didn't support the American Health Care Act. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer later said the president was joking. No one is laughing now. The House Freedom Caucus, the collection of libertarian-leaning conservatives who helped sink the Trump-backed American Health Care Act last week, appears to be as much of a political enemy for the president as the Democratic Party. The fissures appearing beneath Mr Trump's feet as he tries to lead the Republican Party are not...

President Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Katie Walsh, is leaving the White House to work with outside groups tasked with promoting his agenda, according to multiple reports.

7News has exclusive new details on a Florida case against White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, and it has to do with his voter registration.... [Prosecutors admitted]..."the investigation also revealed sufficient evidence that the subject intended to legally reside in Miami-Dade County. Therefore, at a minimum, there is reasonable doubt as to the subject’s guilt.”

The leader of Germany's right-wing populist party has indicated she may step down after an embarrassing dip in national polls. The AfD is set to select its candidate for chancellor in a few weeks' time.

A new legal analysis concludes that President Trump could undo the Bears Ears National Monument. The analysis from the Pacific Legal Foundation finds that a president can revoke a national monument if they determine the areas under protection are "illegally large." The analysis was conducted by Todd Gaziano and John Yoo. From E&E News: Yoo and Gaziano argue, however, that even if a president does not have a "general discretionary revocation power," Trump could seek to revoke monuments by declaring them overly large. "The Congress that enacted the Antiquities Act did not intend monuments of that size to be established...