Free Republic

I first reported in April 2023 about a new California state law that would require utility companies to come up with a fixed-rate plan as a way to help stabilize rates and make billing more "equitable." Hence, the state’s soon-to-be-implemented "equitable" policy will base residential electricity bills on income rather than usage, even as public and political opposition to the idea builds in the Democratic coalition.I titled my 2023 article "Marxism, California Style? New State Law Will Lead Energy Companies to Bill Customers Based on Income" because of a phrase popularized by Karl Marx as part of a larger communist...

The continued embrace of diversity, equity and inclusion in STEM combined with a broad decline in academic standards is producing a generation of scientists who are less capable than their predecessors, warned some scientists in recent interviews with The College Fix. From easier math classes in high school to the elimination of standardized tests to extreme grade-inflation to DEI tropes that elevate lived experiences and ways of knowing over facts and data, the trend represents a pressing problem for science professors working to protect STEM and preserve its standards and meritocracy. Alex Small, chair of the physics and astronomy department...

Several large public universities are getting multimillion dollar budget cuts.. The bursting of the higher education bubble has finally struck its first blow, and it is a serious one. Several major public universities have announced multimillion dollar budget cuts in January, citing enrollment declines among other factors. Pennsylvania State University expects to cut $94 million from its budget starting in July 2025. The University of Connecticut (UConn) announced significant budget cuts in response to its projected $70 million deficit. And the University of New Hampshire (UNH) will slash expenses by $14 million. These cuts were a long time coming—higher education...

‘It is still unknown if any of these six departures are related’ Another diversity staffer at Quinnipiac University left this month, the sixth DEI official in one year, prompting questions about the turnover rate. Sarah Hellyar, the interim Title IX coordinator, resigned in January and began a new job in the same role at Antioch University, the Quinnipiac Chronicle reports. Her resignation follows two others in December and three more since January 2023, all of them in diversity-related positions at the private Connecticut university. Last week, new interim Vice President for Equity and Inclusion David Fryson said in an email...

Harvard University’s chief diversity and inclusion officer has been hit with dozens of plagiarism allegations tied to her academic work — including one claim she failed to properly cite her own husband’s study. The Ivy League school was handed an anonymous complaint on Monday listing at least 40 examples of alleged plagiarism by Sherri Ann Charleston dating back to 2009 — a decade before she joined Harvard, the Washington Free Beacon reported. The allegations, which include failing to properly cite other scholars’ work and not referencing them in footnotes, come just weeks after Harvard University president Claudine Gay resigned from...

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban made headlines early this month when he sought to school X chief Elon Musk on the wonders of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies and insisted that it is not really race-based hiring. But the video of the woman he put in place to guide his DEI policies shows she did, indeed, use DEI policies to hire strictly based on race and gender to the exclusion of white males. Cuban engaged with Musk in a series of X posts on Jan. 4, where he defended DEI hiring policies and said there is “zero” evidence that...

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies used to be relegated to liberal college campuses, but in recent years they have infected virtually every aspect of life in America.These policies are divisive and often racist. Progressives who advance this ideology are taking the country backwards and can’t even see it.In the case of government agencies, particularly when it comes to law enforcement, these policies should be completely rejected, but instead are embraced. in the case of the FBI, these policies are causing the bureau to lower their standards in ways which seem beyond parody. The Daily Caller reports:FBI Hired Barely Literate...

Grade inflation is rampant and has been so for many years. Back in 2011, an in-depth study by three Ivy League economists looked at how the quality of individual teachers affects their students over the long term. The paper, by Raj Chetty and John N. Friedman of Harvard and Jonah E. Rockoff of Columbia, tracked 2.5 million students over 20 years, and, using a value added approach, found that teachers who help students raise their standardized test scores have a lasting positive effect on those students’ lives beyond academics, including lower teenage-pregnancy rates, greater college matriculation, and higher adult earnings....

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby allegedly has a penchant for dressing in drag as famous female singers, resurfaced pictures have revealed. On Monday, the conservative X account Libs of TikTok posted pictures of Kirby appearing to don a long purple and blonde wig, black eye makeup, a stuffed bra, chaps, and a lot of leather, as well as a blonde wig, white dress, and purple feather boa. The resurfaced pictures of Kirby in drag appear to be from his time as president of American Airlines. A 2019 report from the Dallas Morning News details how Kirby dressed in drag as...

The widespread pro-Hamas demonstrations, particularly at elite universities, has, ironically, had a positive impact by alerting Americans to the ideological rot infecting higher education. They now realize that the slogan “Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity” (DIE) is not just the latest black civil rights campaign; rather, it is a race-based ideology that demonizes white civilization. Abolishing whiteness means ending the colorblind rule of law, abolishing the merit principle, eliminating constitutionally-protected rights together with limited government and one-person-one-vote democracy, and the economic freedom and all the rest that has made America, America. Champions of DIE envision a race-based utopia of group, not...

United Airlines is the “Bud Light” of the airline world. They’ve shifted gears, moving away from their core customer base, which prioritizes safety and security. Now, it’s all about drag queens and flamboyant celebrations. But is this the direction most air travelers want? Hardly. Flyers don’t want in-flight gay entertainment featuring CEOs in ladies’ pantyhose or a strong push on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). When passengers board a plane, their primary concern is a competent, professional pilot, not one who’s more interested in theatrics and show tunes. This trend in air travel is starting to mirror our “woke” military,...

Doesn’t it feel like United Airlines is becoming the ‘Bud Light’ of air travel? Their recent drive towards Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) seems heavily focused on transvestites, cross-dressers, and other assorted freaks. But unlike Bud Light, which was “merely” cynically trying to sell beer, United Airlines is potentially putting people’s lives in danger with their Drag Queen Flying Hour. You may have heard by now, but the CEO of United Airlines enjoys cross-dressing as a woman. Revolver covered this disturbing story. ... Have you noticed? The US aviation industry is crashing, both literally and figuratively. It’s like we’re watching...

DEI commitment includes a recent $17 million faculty initiative, ‘identity centers,’ and more Vanderbilt University employs more than one full-time administrator for every two students ... the private Nashville university employed 3,516 full-time administrators and support staff, according to information the school filed with the federal Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. Administrators and support staff include management, student and academic affairs divisions, IT, public relations, administrative support, maintenance, legal, and other non-academic departments. In 2022, Vanderbilt’s reported full-time undergraduate student enrollment was 6,983. That amounts to 517 full-time administrators and support staff per 1,000 undergrads, or more than one for...

acknowledging a "clearly disappointing" quarter marred by one-off charges that resulted in a $1.8 billion loss. ... in the middle of a multi-year effort to cut bureaucracy, increase profits and boost a stock that has lagged peers ... "The fourth quarter was very clearly disappointing," CEO Jane Fraser .. We know that 2024 is critical." ... layoffs from the sweeping reorganization, Chief Financial Officer Mark Mason ... Citi will also no longer count 40,000 jobs when it spins off and lists its Mexican consumer unit Banamex in an eventual initial public offering, eventually aiming to reach a staffing level of...

Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman said he can no longer be “associated with” the Democratic Party over its support of “racist” diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.In an interview on CNBC Friday, the Pershing Square Capital Management founder said that the Dems had “morphed” into woke martyrs.“I was a Bill Clinton Democrat and what the party has morphed into is not something I want to be associated with,” he said on “Squawk Box.”

Academic dishonesty and crime are alike: ... When my peers are found responsible for multiple instances of inadequate citation, they are often suspended for an academic year,” wrote the student who sits on Harvard’s honor council.. When the president of their university is found responsible for the same types of infractions, the fellows of the Corporation ‘unanimously stand in support of’ her ... Gay’s plagiarism, the Harvard Corp. showed that its commitment to academic integrity was as phony as its other ideals. ... serious academic-integrity offenses, are too often ignored or excused—much like petty crimes in cities with left-wing governments....

Elon Musk hit out at Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban for his full-throated defense of DEI, or diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives across corporate America in a scathing tweet on Thursday. “Mark Cuban is desperately trying to signal his ‘virtue,’ but his hypocrisy convinces no one,” Musk wrote as the two billionaires engaged in an online brawl on the X social media platform following the resignation of Harvard President Claudine Gay.Cuban, who recently announced his departure from the hit business reality TV show “Shark Tank,” responded: “Lol.” Musk was responding to an X user who asked Cuban “whether he thinks...

Russia's Ramzan Kadyrov once again demanded that the United States lift sanctions against members of his family—and his horses—this time offering Ukrainian prisoners of war in exchange, Russian state media reported on Friday. Kadyrov, the head of Chechnya and Russian President Vladimir Putin's loyal ally, made the offer via former American intelligence officer Scott Ritter, who was visiting Grozny, the capital of Chechnya. -snip- It is not immediately clear why Kadyrov decided to reach out to U.S. authorities via Ritter, a disgraced former UN weapons inspector and Marine Corps analyst, who is also a convicted sex offender. Ritter was guilty...

Sean Ono Lennon, the son of iconic singer John Lennon, has become quite the contrarian lately, from his knock against the media’s bias amid the coronavirus to his recent knock against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). In an X post on Wednesday, Sean Ono Lennon rebranded DEI with a not-so-wholesome name. “Have you guys heard of DEI? It stands for ‘Dumb Evil Idiots,” he said. Have you guys heard of DEI? It stands for ‘Dumb Evil Idiots.’ — Seán Ono Lennon (@seanonolennon) January 3, 2024

Faculty said they felt trapped in an ‘alternate reality’ when trying to navigate the college’s ‘toxic’ DEI environment.. College students attending universities with restrictive speech codes are used to walking on eggshells and keeping their heads down on campus out of fear of committing social suicide or experiencing violence. In the disordered world of contemporary higher education, Jewish students receive limited, if any, support from school administrators amid explicit calls for violence against them, while other students face punishment for banal infractions like rolling a “free speech ball” around campus. But if you are shocked at how students are subject...