Free Republic

... I went to see Interstellar mainly because I was tickled by the fact that the bad guy is called "Dr Mann". But I took along my kids, and I'm glad I did because it's a good film to see with children or parents. Underneath all the saving-humanity space-travel stuff, the only relationship that matters in the movie is between dad Matthew McConaughey and his daughter. I'm tiptoeing around the startling evolution of that relationship, but let's just say that the, ahem, role reversal of their final scene together had my boys talking all the way home. Interstellar is directed...

In one of his first actions after surviving an election seeking to oust him from office, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday essentially abolished single-family zoning in California — and green-lighted a series of bills intended to bolster the state’s housing production.By signing Senate Bill 9 into law, Newsom opened the door for the development of up to four residential units on single-family lots across California. The move follows a growing push by local governments to allow multi-family dwellings in more residential neighborhoods. Berkeley voted to eliminate single-family zoning by Dec. 2022, and San Jose is set to consider the issue...

Helen Hudson will tell you what the 15th Ward was like when she was a girl. In the 1950s and early ’60s, the Syracuse neighborhood was home to thousands of predominantly black residents who had settled in the growing upstate New York city during and after the Great Migration. Those who remember it, like Hudson, describe it as thriving, self-sufficient community they were proud to call home. “Oh my god, the things we had,” she said recently, her voice softening with the distinct twang of nostalgia. “We had two bowling alleys. We had meat markets.” Charlie Pierce-El will tell you...

The President referred to Baltimore, MD as "a hellhole," and the nation erupted in anger. Within hours, snowflakes whined that it was hurtful, offensive, insulting, and unpresidential. Within days, people started talking about the facts, though, and the President was redeemed. The many statistics on crime, unemployment, poverty, and urban blight prove that, by any objective standard, Baltimore is indeed a hellhole. The proper political question isn’t what to do about a politician’s statement; the proper question is what to do about the facts? BALTIMORE ISN'T UNUSUAL. We should begin by acknowledging another truth; whatever can be said about Baltimore...

In a bold move to address its affordable-housing crisis and confront a history of racist housing practices, Minneapolis has decided to eliminate single-family zoning, a classification that has long perpetuated segregation.

Larry Elder reads from a 2006 article in The American Spectator entitled, "Race to the Top" (http://tinyurl.com/gn88j7m). In the article we find out some interesting sides to the new Senate Minority Leader. And I am sure this info will become much more public now that the words of Sen. Schumer (D-NY) are in the troposphere.

San Francisco.. stands as a profound example of the damage ultra-liberal policies can do. After 20 years of envelope-pushing changes to grow government and ease law enforcement, the once-shining City by the Bay has turned into a place where: Property crime runs amok. An online map is needed to track human feces on city streets. Discarded syringes are common sightings. Public urination is so widespread it has damaged subway elevators and escalators, building walls and power poles ... San Francisco has the dubious honor of being at or near the top of numerous national surveys tracking homelessness, the cost of...

Mayor Lou Mavrakis drove slowly through Monessen, block by block, pointing out one vacant, blighted building after another in the city of 7,700 along the Monongahela River. “That belongs to me,” he said, pointing to a house with a collapsing roof that has become the responsibility of the city and the mayor. Tax records show the building is one of 264 structures and lots in the city that have been abandoned by their owners. More than 26 percent of the city's 734 blighted properties are owned by people from 24 states and five foreign countries, beyond the legal reach of...

KENNER, La. —A Louisiana homeowner watched in horror as city workers in Kenner, La. tore down the house she was rebuilding since Hurricane Katrina. “I'm going to wind up in the loony bin. I've tried for seven years to get back home. This is my home. This is my corner. I own this piece of property, and Kenner does this to me,” said home owner Reba Tullier. But the city of Kenner said it has a zero-tolerance policy on blighted homes. Tullier said she had finally lined up help to fix her house, but it was too late. “It's not...

What futurists in 1988 imagined Los Angeles would be like in 2013 With the year 2013 a quarter of a century away, the Los Angeles Times in 1988 asked 30 futurists and other experts what they thought life in their city would look like in 2013. They may have overshot the sophistication of our robots, but many of those predictions for 2013 have come true—or at least come close. Reporter Nicole Yorkin wrote the futurism pieces for the April 3, 1988 issue of the Los Angeles Times Magazine, compiling the information from her various interviews. The articles include illustrations by...

20 Most Miserable U.S. Cities to Live In Forbes magazine released its dubious 2013 list of the most miserable cities in the United States of America. With the new list for the new year came a new city listed at the top of the list as Detroit, Michigan replaces last year’s most miserable city of Miami, Florida. The magazine cites Detroit’s high unemployment, violent crimes, shrinking population, and its financial crisis as reasons for giving the city the title. The list created by Forbes involves the scrutiny of the country’s largest urban areas which are then ranked via factors such...

"All-American Muslim," a new program on The Learning Channel that is being touted as a "powerful series" that carries viewers "inside the rarely seen world of American Muslims," is being dropped by advertisers. Critics say the program is nothing more than video jihad propaganda, and the Florida Family Association says it is contacting companies whose advertising appears on the show to ask them to quit. So far, 18 of 20 companies contacted have done so, the group said. The organization said that among the companies that initially supported the program, but later did not have any advertising aired, were Airborne...

Vice President Joe Biden is rallying a defense of his boss, fighting slurs that President Obama is in over his head and lashing out at "Tea Party Republicans." In Oklahoma this week where Obama isn't high in the polls, the veep said the president isn't just smart, he's got strength and character. "People knew Barack was really bright, they knew Barack was straight, they knew Barack was a different kind of politician. What they didn't know was just how strong he was. Republicans spent a lot of time trying to tag him as a follower, not a leader. Well, he's...

This Is Just Wrong: Crazy Brawl Of 2 Girls & A Guy Jumping An Elderly Lady In A Hood Of Dover, Delaware For Trying To Stickup For A Boy & Then The Whole Block Comes Out

In 1965, Rosa Parks boarded a bus and forever changed the course of history. Her very public struggle for equality began at a bus stop outside Columbia Court apartments in Montgomery, Alabama. "It is a very sad situation, it is quite ironic, that this is the place, this is the city where the civil rights movement began in 1955, a very assertive civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King. Yet you have the civil rights of minorities being violated here in a new kind of way, on, I think, a massive scale," said David Beito, chair of the Alabama...

LASHKAR GAH -- Aziz Ahmad is a deeply worried man. With two wives and seven children at home, the 30-year-old farmer depends entirely on his opium-poppy crop to make a living. This year, it's proving to be an increasingly difficult task. First, falling water tables stunted his crop. Then a mysterious blight emerged to destroy most of what remained. In a normal growing season, Ahmad's 4-hectare plot in the Washer district of Afghanistan's southern Helmand Province yields 100 kilograms of opium -- enough to cover his debts and ensure his family's survival over the winter. This year he managed to...

Late blight, which caused the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s and 1850s, is killing potato and tomato plants in home gardens from Maine to Ohio and threatening commercial and organic farms... "Late blight has never occurred this early and this widespread in the United States," said Meg McGrath, a plant pathologist at Cornell University's extension center in Riverhead, New York. She said the fungal disease, spread by spores carried in the air, has made its way into the garden centers of large retail chains in the Northeastern United States. "Wal-mart, Home Depot, Sears, Kmart and Lowe's are some of...

The same virus that caused the potato blight in Ireland in the 1840s that decimated the population and drove thousands to these shores has been found in potato and tomato crops in Rhode Island. The Providence Journal has reported that the blight has been found in crops in the state and that the Department of Environmental Management (DEM) has warned all growers to be aware of the problem and use fungicides to counter it. The DEM has also warned growers to be vigilant to spot the telltale signs of the blight – brown spots on leaves and a white fungus...

The plant fungus that caused the Irish Potato Famine in the 1840s has shown up in Plattsburgh, and experts say residents need to act quickly. It's called "late blight" and it affects eggplants, potatoes and tomatoes. The fungus hasn't made it this far north in about a decade, but it moves quickly and can kill an infected plant in as short as a week and a half. The signs that your plants have late blight are brownish lesions on the leaves which make them look wet. Late blight was discovered in the region at unnamed major box stores on Friday....

More Roosevelt… Less Jimmy Carter… that’s what this brand needs! Folks, there’s been a lot of scrutiny of President Obama in these first 100 days. It goes with the territory. The attention is brutal no matter who’s in the Oval Office and it always will be. Exposure is something most marketers covet . . .but over-exposure especially of the wrong features can be deadly for a personal brand. That is why, Barack Obama –whom I’ve called a first-rate poli-marketer (see the past few weeks FOX Forum posts here)– had better stop behaving like Jimmy Carter and start emulating Roosevelt. In...