Free Republic

California’s requirement that all handguns sold in the state come with chamber load indicators, magazine disconnect mechanisms, and microstamping features are likely unconstitutional according to U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney, who granted an injunction on Monday in Boland v. Bonta; a case brought by the California Rifle & Pistol Association and several individual gun owners taking on the constitutionality of several aspects of California’s Unsafe Handgun Act. In his ruling, Carney pointed out that California’s requirements have a “devastating impact” on Californians’ ability to acquire “new, state-of-the-art” handguns; noting that no new models of handguns have been made available for...

UCLA’s SETI group will launch a new project on Tuesday that allows the public to assist scientists in classifying radio signals that could be signs of extraterrestrial life, a news release said. Participants will then be asked to select an image, provided by researchers, that closely resembles the radio signal they previously saw. The goal is to match the signals to the “common classes of radio frequency interference,” a news release said. Scientists with the group have observed about 42,000 stars and over 64 million radio signals and have technology that discards about 99.5% of the signals that are either...

These UCLA students don’t know what the capital of the United States is. This is proof that getting into college is way too easy. No wonder why so many college students think that borrowing money doesn’t entail paying it back.This new video from James Klug is called, “BRUTAL: Gen Z Fails To Answer The EASIEST Questions.”He asks adults the following questions. They don’t know the answers:What’s the capital of the United States?How many stars are on the United States flag?What ocean is on the east side of the United States?What country is the Queen of England from?What was Adolf Hitler’s...

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law announced the launch of a project that will be dedicated to tracking so-called “attacks” on the far-left concept of Critical Race Theory, allowing users to view a database of any time the concept is criticized at the “local, state and federal levels.” As reported by Fox News, the university issued a press release celebrating the new initiative, declaring that the “UCLA School of Law’s Critical Race Studies Program has created an innovative project to track and analyze legislative, regulatory, and administrative efforts to block or undermine the teaching of a...

With Los Angeles County health officials announcing last month masks will no longer be required indoors, a letter surfaced signed by doctors and researchers from USC and UCLA suggesting mask mandates were ineffective at preventing the spread of COVID-19 in the county. The February letter from researchers and medical professionals at UCLA’s Geffen School of Medicine and USC’s Keck School of Medicine was sent to the LA County Board of Supervisors asking the board to end mask mandates. “The time to end local mask mandates is now,” the letter reads. Data shown within the letter suggest there was a continued...

I find myself thinking a lot lately about the deficit of imagination among people who consider themselves savvy and sophisticated. Here’s what I mean: Let’s say you work for a prestigious company or organization that professes to care about a certain set of values: open-mindedness, curiosity, excellence, hard work. And let’s say you watch as a colleague, previously held up as a paragon of those values, is ostracized and smeared for a thought crime that was not considered a thought crime until about five minutes ago. Maybe he made a bad joke. Or maybe he used the phrase “guys” instead...

Is more realignment coming in college athletics? USC and UCLA are planning to leave the Pac-12 for the Big Ten, Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News is reporting. According to Wilner, arguably the most plugged-in reporter on the Pac-12, the move could come to fruition as early as 2024 but “has not been finalized at the highest levels of power.” Minutes after the news from Wilner dropped, several other outlets reported that USC and UCLA are in negotiations to join the Big Ten. Big Ten presidents and athletic directors met Wednesday night to discuss adding USC and UCLA...

Family and friends of Brianna Kupfer hosted a charity run for the slain UCLA grad student on Saturday, nearly three months after police say a homeless man walked into the Los Angeles furniture store where she was working alone and fatally stabbed her in a "random" attack.

A judge recently ruled that a UCLA professor who had been suspended after refusing to grade black students more leniently may continue with his lawsuit against the school. According to Inside Higher Ed, a group of students initially emailed UCLA accounting professor Gordon Klein, shortly after George Floyd's death, and requested that Klein institute a "no-harm" final exam that would include extending the timeline for other final assignments and projects. The students sought these accommodations, according to a Daily Wire report, due to recent "traumas ... we have been placed in a position where we [must] choose between actively supporting...

(No search results) Julio recently reported on Johnathan Perkins, the director for Race and Equity at the University of California-Los Angeles, who, in a series of tweets, ranted against Justice Clarence Thomas, even tweeting "he can go" and he "can choke." Perkins also questioned whether Thomas was as sick as was reported before doubling down on his death wish. The rating thread remains up. As Mia Cathell covered for The Post Millennial, though, there's even more when it comes to Perkins' questionable past on racial issues. Cathell details quite the dramatic incident of Perkins fabricating a story of police misconduct...

UCLA is facing a new free speech controversy after its Director of Race and Equity, Jonathan Perkins, tweeted that he (like many) hoped Justice Clarence Thomas would die rather than recover from his recent illness. UCLA recently disciplined a student for controversial statements, but has stood by the right of Perkins to express such hateful viewpoints. Ironically, Perkins’ office has long posted anti-free speech positions to justify censorship and speech codes. Perkins is a lawyer (with a J.D. from the University of Virginia) and previously worked in the General Counsel’s office of Harvard University. When news spread of the hospitalization...

Johnathan Perkins, director for Race and Equity at University of California, Los Angeles, tweeted his wish for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to die after news broke that Thomas was hospitalized for an infection. "This whole rule we’re not to wish ill on people is silly," he said. Perkins added "Uncle Thomas is a sexist token who’s committed himself to making us all share in he and his treasonous wife’s misery" and "I’m over it. He is bad. He’s LITERALLY endangered lives of countless of this country’s vulnerable populations." Perkins further said he did not believe Thomas was not actually...

A former UCLA lecturer who threatened to carry out a mass shooting at the school was arrested in Colorado on Tuesday morning where he had also made threats against a different campus in an 'alarmingly' violent 800-page manifesto. Matthew Harris, 31, was taken into custody near the University of Colorado Boulder campus on Tuesday by SWAT teams. On Sunday, he posted 300 unhinged and threatening videos on YouTube, and then he sent emails to UCLA staff threatening a mass shooting. He included details of the manifesto, which also had references to Boulder in it. UCLA banned in-person classes and told...

CLA canceled in-person classes Tuesday after a former lecturer and postdoctoral fellow sent a video referencing a mass shooting and an 800-page manifesto with “specific threats” to members of the university’s philosophy department Monday. Several emails from department leaders and obtained by The Times inform students and faculty that Matthew Harris made threats toward the philosophy department and people in it. In some of the emails, sent over the course of Monday evening, department heads recommend moving to virtual learning, and multiple instructors did so, alerting students that in-person classes would be canceled. A campus alert sent shortly after midnight...

A suspect has been identified in connection to the murder of a UCLA graduate student in Hancock Park. According to the Los Angeles Police Department, 31-year-old Shawn Laval Smith is wanted in connection to Brianna Kupfer's death. Kupfer was found dead by a customer at a luxury furniture store during daytime last week. Authorities believe her death was the result of a random attack. Smith has been seen in Pasadena, Santa Monica, West Hollywood, Covina and other parts of California, according to LAPD. LAPD believes Smith is armed and dangerous. Anyone near Smith is asked to call 911, instead of...

The UCLA men’s basketball game against Alabama State was canceled on Wednesday due to COVID-19 protocols, as sports leagues across the country face rising cases. UCLA initially announced that head coach Mick Cronin would not be at the game after entering COVID-19 protocols and associate head coach Darren Savino would be the acting head coach in his place. Hours later, the team said the game would be canceled altogether due to COVID-19 protocols.

A UCLA anesthesiologist who is vocal about his opposition to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate was escorted out of his workplace Monday for attempting to enter the building unvaccinated. In a video that he seemingly captured himself, Dr. Christopher B. Rake is seen being escorted out of the 200 UCLA Medical Plaza in Westwood by three individuals. “This is what happens when you stand up for freedom and when you show up to work, willing to work, despite being unvaccinated, and this is the price you have to pay sometimes,” he says. “But what they don’t realize is that I’m willing...

Anxiety. Depression. Stress. These are some of the emotions LGBTQ Americans experienced during the Trump administration, according to two recent studies. The reports, conducted independently, both landed on the same conclusion: There was a significant decline in the mental well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people while Donald Trump was president. “Everybody’s worst fears came into reality,” Adrienne Grzenda, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at UCLA and lead author of one of the studies, told NBC News. “We were noticing this undercurrent of despair and hopelessness among our clients,” many of whom are LGBTQ.

Dr. Christopher Rake is escorted from UCLA Medical Center by security (Twitter screenshot)“This is what happens when you stand up for freedom.”“This” was being summarily fired, escorted, and deposited from the premises like so much refuse by security guards at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Health.That’s the Westwood hospital where Dr. Christopher B. Rake worked until Tuesday as an anesthesiologist.It’s unclear what Dr. Rake is now. Is he fired? On unpaid leave? What’s clear is that the anesthesiologist can’t go to work. All because he refused a forced medical procedure — a shot — that he didn’t want, didn’t...

A UCLA professor is suing the school for putting him on involuntary leave and allegedly threatening to fire him because he refused to grade black students more leniently than whites in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.