Free Republic

Last winter’s unusual onslaught of rain and snow led to California’s first increase in groundwater levels in four years, state officials reported on Monday. The 2023 Water Year — which spanned from Oct. 1, 2022, through Sept. 30, 2023 — brought a welcome 4.1 million acre-feet of managed groundwater recharge and a total rise in groundwater storage of 8.7 million acre-feet, according to the California Department of Water Resources. Managed groundwater recharge involves purposefully replenishing supplies by injecting excess water into an aquifer. The 4.1 million acre-feet recharge volume was equivalent to the entire storage capacity of Shasta Lake, the...

When postal manager José Belloso put his Paris apartment up for sale this year he was required to have an inspector grade the home for energy efficiency under strict rules designed to fight climate change. Belloso’s building was built in the early 1900s from millstone, a porous sedimentary rock that was popular among architects of France’s Belle Époque. His apartment flunked the inspection—and under a regulation that came into force this year, the property was barred from the rental market until costly renovations are made. Belloso was ultimately forced to knock 50,000 euros, equivalent to $54,000, off his asking price...

The O.J. Simpson 1994 Chase with CGI animation

A L.A. Dash bus driver was attacked Sunday by a homeless woman in South Los Angeles, just two days after dozens of Metro transit operators staged a “sick out” amid ongoing safety concerns. Officers with Los Angeles Police Department responded to reports of the most recent attack at just before 1 p.m. at the intersection of South-Central Avenue and Jefferson Boulevard, police confirmed. Early reports by the video news service OnScene suggest the transient assaulted the driver after refusing to pay for a ride. Video footage of the incident obtained by KTLA showed the violent struggle between the female bus...

State leadership and delegation chairs from several Libertarian Party chapters, including those in Florida, California, Colorado, Tennessee, Minnesota, Vermont, Nebraska, and the District of Columbia, have extended an invitation to independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr., urging him to seek the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination. The letter, published on Friday by Libertarians for Kennedy and signed by various party leaders, including an alternative region representative on the Libertarian National Committee, urges Kennedy to seek the presidential nomination of the Libertarian Party, with the understanding that the undersigned would consider voting for him in the first round if he accepts. Notably, the...

The High Speed Rail Authority shared an update on the Fresno River Viaduct .. They were widely mocked with Elon Musk and Billy Markus piling in .. California has been mercilessly mocked for boasting about completing the 'world's most pointless crossing' to nowhere at a cost of $11billion. The California High Speed Rail Authority shared an update on the Fresno River Viaduct in Madera County last week, proudly saying it was one of the 'first completed high-speed rail structures'. The Tweet did not get the reaction officials were hoping for with Elon Musk and Dogecoin creator Billy Markus piling in...

Expert worries they are 'coming to this country to commit acts of sabotage'.. More Chinese-based illegal immigrants were encountered at the U.S. southern border in just two days than in all of fiscal year 2021, according to Fox News’ Bill Melugin. There were approximately 262 Chinese migrants caught by Border Patrol at the San Diego sector on May 1, as well as 223 on May 2, a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) source told Melugin. Only 323 Chinese nationals were apprehended by Border Patrol at the southern border throughout all of fiscal year 2021 ... There has been a surge...

The Palestine Solidarity Encampment at UCLA ended in the precise manner university leaders initially sought to avoid — with a massive police force arresting more than 200 protesters in the dead of night. When the encampment sprung up on Royce Quad last Thursday, April 25, the university envisioned a world in which students could peacefully display their message on the large green field while students shuttled to class nearby. Instead, they faced a situation where protesters allegedly blocked student access to classes, counter-protesters violently attacked the encampment, and leaders across the nation condemned the university’s failure to keep students safe....

LONG BEACH, Calif. (CNS) -- A tuberculosis outbreak among residents of a single-room occupancy hotel in Long Beach has left one person dead and led to the hospitalizations of nine others, prompting the declaration of a public health emergency, city officials said Thursday. The city Department of Health and Human Services insists the risk of exposure to the general public is low, with the outbreak restricted to a "distinct population" of people with "significant barriers to care, including homelessness and housing insecurity, mental illness, substance abuse and serious medical comorbidities." As of April 29, a total of 14 cases have...

Two police officers were shot and wounded Thursday in the Saint Teresa neighborhood of San Jose, California. The East Bay Times reported that the incident occurred around 10:30 p.m. Officers were responding to a disturbance call at an Extended Stay America in “the 6100 block of San Ignacio Avenue” when the shots were fired and the two officers wounded. he officers had just made contact with the suspect in the disturbance call when he opened fire. NBC Bay Area noted that one of the wounded officers is in critical condition. The suspect was hit by return fire and is also...

A teacher with the Mill Valley School District was found dead in the water off of Drakes Beach on Point Reyes on Wednesday, just a day after he was arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing a child, according to the Marin County Sheriff’s Office. Darren Smith, 55, was arrested on Tuesday following a report that the school district filed with the Marin County Sheriff's Office on March 28, according to a news release. The Marin Independent Journal reported Thursday that after initially being booked into the Marin County Jail, Smith was released on $200,000 bail. A Google Search preview of...

LOS ANGELES (NewsNation) — While the encampment on the University of California, Los Angeles campus has ended and protests have calmed down, the events over the past week have triggered anger, fear and new concerns for students trying to get back to normal. After growing for about a week, the encampment was cleared by Thursday afternoon, with almost all the tents taken down. Heavy equipment was brought in to scoop up debris left behind. Police arrested more than 200 people Thursday morning at UCLA after breaking up the pro-Palestinian encampment. Many of the protesters surrendered and were arrested peacefully, although...

Hundreds of University of California of Los Angeles (UCLA) students converted to Islam and participated in a massive group prayer to Allah on Wednesday night. Just before police officers moved in and dismantled defiant pro-terrorism protest encampments at UCLA, students said Muslim prayers as the sun set over the campus. The pro-terrorism students chanted "Allahu akbar" during the prayer and chanted "Allah is the greatest" of all gods. This is not a university in some Islamic country.This prayer was held at UCLA in California.Perhaps some think this is a harmless prayer, something that we can understand as freedom of religion.And...

American federalism is struggling. Federal rules are an overwhelming presence in every state government, and some states, due to their size or other leverage, can impose their own policies on much or all of the country. The problem has been made clearer by an under-the-radar plan to phase out diesel locomotives in California. If the federal government provides the state with a helping hand, it would bring nationwide repercussions for a vital, overlooked industry. Various industry and advocacy groups are lining up against California's costly measure, calling on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to deny a waiver needed to...

Today a unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granted the U.S. Department of Justice's petition for a writ of mandamus seeking dismissal of Juliana v. United States, the so-called "Kids Climate Case." The brief order was short and direct. It noted that the Ninth Circuit had previously concluded that the plaintiffs lacked standing and ordered the case dismissed. Contrary to the plaintiffs' claims, no intervening decisions changed that fact, and that there was no basis for the district court to allow the plaintiffs to amend the complaint. This decision should not have been a...

The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) last week released its next five-year plan for the State Water Project—Update 2023. After years of meetings, California’s premier water agency has decided to focus on “three intersecting themes: addressing climate urgency, strengthening watershed resilience, and achieving equity in water management.”Lake Shasta Dam in Shasta Lake, Calif., on Feb. 14, 2023. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)Water supplies for California’s 40 million people and the planet’s most productive agriculture have third- to fifth-level priority.There is nothing new here, except to publicly admit to betraying the public trust. Really?Over several decades, the public has been deceived...

The Democrat mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, didn’t send police onto the campus of UCLA when pro-Hamas demonstrators took over parts of it and prevented Jews from entering, just as Nazis once blocked Jewish students from the University of Vienna. A Jewish girl being beaten unconscious and hospitalized also drew no police response to the state government-owned campus. But when non-student members of the Jewish community of Los Angeles entered the campus and began physically confronting the pro-Hamas demonstrators and videos of fights went out on internet, after two-plus hours [update: 3+ hours] of mayhem, the Mayor decided to...

Pretty weird. Obvious Antifa BLM types. Some holding Israeli flag. Not a lot but they’re trying to cause a riot.

Tech workers in San Francisco plan to create a square-mile downtown 'commune' that allows people to 'live, eat and work' all within a 15-minute walk A utopia-like space is set to be launched on March 11 in downtown San Francisco City Campus was created by four community builders' It is supposed to have everything that people need within a 15-minute walk Tech workers in San Francisco have planned to create a downtown 'commune' that will allow people to 'live, eat and work' all within a 15-minute walk. Set to be launched on May 11, City Campus, a nonprofit, plans to...

Jewish student trying to attend class is forcibly prevented entry by 6 masked Pro-Hamas students while UCLA guard stands by and DOES NOTHING. “I am a UCLA student…my class is over there. I want to use THAT entrance. Let me go in.”