Free Republic

While announcing new fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks on Tuesday, President Barack Obama said “unchecked” carbon pollution prior to his administration’s efforts to raise fuel economy standards “was having severe impacts on our weather.” “Carbon pollution was going unchecked, which was having severe impacts on our weather,” Obama said in a speech at a Safeway distribution center in Upper Marlboro, MD. For decades, fuel efficiency standards had been “stuck in neutral, even as other kinds of technology leapt forward,” the president said. The economy was “vulnerable to fluctuations in oil prices.” …

Even as they assessing damages from Hurricane Rita, state officials said Sunday they are asking the federal government for nearly $32 billion to repair and improve highways and bridges wrecked by Hurricane Katrina. The two storms knocked out electricity for more than million homes and businesses. Nearly 269,000 electric customers in south Louisiana were without power Sunday night. Power was restored to about 144,000 customers on Sunday, trimming the list of those without it to 268,671. Bill Doran, operations chief for the state Office of Emergency Preparedness, told reporters parish officials Sunday started the arduous process of putting a price...

Thousands of dollars in federal funds intended to assist poor D.C. schoolchildren appear to have been spent instead by school administrators on retreats and unapproved travel. D.C. auditors are looking into the public school system's use of these federal funds. "You had at least principals and some other managers participating," Deborah K. Nichols of the Office of the District of Columbia Auditor says. "No cost was spared." Mrs. Nichols disclosed the inquiry at an oversight hearing by the D.C. Council's Committee on Education, Libraries and Recreation.

Bob Brown, a former Black Panther and co-director of Pan-African Roots, filed a 183-page class-action lawsuit yesterday, claiming that 71 defendants owe reparations for slavery. The suit names: The King of Spain, the Queen of England, the Pontiff, President Bush, and Jaques Chirac; the governors of Illinois, Virginia, Louisiana and Texas; nine ports; several major sugar, gun, tobacco, and railroad companies; many, many banks and even Bacardi Rum. The Chicago Tribune pointed out that Brown will have difficulty with such a suit, considering that "slavery was legal, as well as the difficulty Brown and those he represents face in proving...

Los Angeles Daily News Tax guzzlers Legislators trade in SUVs for more gravy To the great surprise of many, it seems that state legislators do, in fact, have some sense of shame. Last year, when Sacramento Democrats were busily pushing legislation to crack down on California's sport utility vehicle owners, it came to light that many of the would-be environmental crusaders themselves drove SUVs -- on the taxpayers' dime, no less. Embarrassed by their own hypocrisy, legislative Democrats are now working on ways to purge the behemoths from their fleet. The state Senate might soon bar its members from using...