Free Republic

Gov. Andrew Cuomo doubled down last week on his blame-the-messenger approach to New York’s growing shortage of natural-gas supplies by ordering the Department of Public Service to “broaden its investigation” of National Grid and threatening to “find another franchisee.” Anything, rather than admit that his own policies are at fault. The utility has stopped taking new gas customers in parts of Long Island, Brooklyn and Queens where it can’t handle the new demand — because Team Cuomo vetoed the proposed Williams pipeline to bring in supplies from New Jersey. (Jersey is also blocking the pipeline, since Gov. Phil Murphy is...

While Dave Ball today on these pages cautions us that polls no longer are reliable, in his article Trump in a Landslide: Here's Why, the New York Times’ own polling guru is picking up signs that the paper’s bête noire may be surging in public support. Nate Cohn writes in Don’t Assume Trump’s Approval Rating Can’t Climb Higher. It Already Has.: "Donald J. Trump doesn’t always seem like a candidate focused on expanding his base of support. He may have done so anyway. The share of Americans who say they have a favorable view of him has increased significantly since...

The seeds of dissent were visible almost immediately. Soccer officials had notified the Timbers Army, a fan organization for the team in Portland, Oregon, on the eve of this season that the anti-fascist symbol its members had been waving on a giant banner in the north end of the stadium would no longer be permitted at games.

Short video with scenes from the services commemorating the death and funeral of The Virgin Mary. I think the church building is quite stunning. (appx 4 mins Church Slavonic)

A key witness, in the child sex trafficking case against deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, has vanished "without a trace" as authorities "urgently" seek him for questioning, according to reports.Millionaire model agency boss Jean-Luc Brunel, 72, has been described as Epstein's alleged "fixer" or "provider" of underage girls.

If you go to www.wunderground.com you can find individual weather stations owned by private individuals and companies like you and me. They buy their own instruments and feed it live to the wunderground.com. They provide some ground truth independent of government and MSM. The last time there was a supposedly major hurricane the ground stations showed much less wind. Sure enough, the damage was way less than the MSM and government had been talking about. Now with Dorian they seem to be doing the same thing. The data from Weather Underground stations match Windy.com which match Ventusky.com. They all show...

God give me the Courage to change the things I can. The Serenity to except the things I can not change, and the Wisdom to know the difference. Let the storms that come be brief. Calm the waters and give me faith. Turn back the Hurricanes Give us peace in knowing you are with us always until the end of time. Amen

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Police are trying to find the suspect in an assault that may have been fueled by hate. The victim is out of the hospital and recovering at home. His family tells CBS2’s Ali Bauman the beloved father and grandfather was exercising on the fields at a Crown Heights park like he does every week when he was blindsided by a man yielding a very large rock. Investigators say the suspect hit the 63-year-old man with a paving stone Tuesday morning inside Lincoln Terrace Park.

A Roman mosaic depicting a mythical chariot race has been fully uncovered in a Berkshire village - and it could be one of Britain's most exciting archaeological discoveries. The 1,600-year-old mosaic, which was found in Boxford in 2017 but only fully uncovered recently, is one of only three of its kind in the world and is 'totally unknown' in Britain, experts said. It depicts a chariot race involving Greek mythological figure Pelops, who is racing to win the hand of love interest Princess Hippodamia. ... The mosaic will now be covered over once more to protect it and to allow...

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Police are looking for two suspects who they say attacked an Orthodox Jewish man in front of a synagogue in Brooklyn. It’s the third attack on Orthodox men in Brooklyn in less than a week, according to police. It happened in Midwood on Saturday night just as Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath, was coming to an end, CBS2’s Marc Liverman reported. Police said the 45-year-old victim was walking home when he saw two men drinking in front of a synagogue near Avenue J and East 15th Street. They said there was some type of verbal dispute. That’s...

NEW YORK -- American doubles star Mike Bryan was fined $10,000 on Sunday for making a shooting gesture with his racket, aimed at a linesperson, during a US Open match at Flushing Meadows on Saturday night. Bryan turned his racket upside down and held it as if he was holding a gun, in the direction of the official who had made a poor call. The incident happened late in the second set of the second-round doubles match between Mike and Bob Bryan and Roberto Carballes Baena of Spain and Federico Delbonis of Argentina.

Full title: Kansas University faculty wants Chick-fil-A banned from campus for fears of 'safety,' 'mental well being' “The culture of Chick-fil-A fosters hate and discrimination on multiple levels,” the Sexuality & Gender Diversity Faculty and Staff Council wrote in a two-page letter, accusing university leaders of being "more concerned about money and corporate sponsorship than the physical, emotional, and mental well being of marginalized and LGBTQ people."

A new school year is about to begin and along with it comes a new solution to a new problem. And Stanford University, the Harvard of the West, is proudly taking credit for discovering the problem: that people in science aren't diverse and inclusive enough. Horrors. But, being a renowned research university, it is proudly offering its solution, called: PUWMAS. That's its unprepossessing acronym for Physics Undergraduate Women and Gender Minorities at Stanford, what it calls "Stanford’s first undergraduate group dedicated to forming an inclusive community of underrepresented minorities in physics." -- snip -- What does that mean? Well, along...

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) has said she won’t be dropping out of the 2020 Democratic presidential race after she narrowly missed the cut for the upcoming third Democratic presidential debate this month. Addressing voters’ concerns on Aug. 31 that she may pull out of the race for the White House, the 38-year-old congresswoman said at a town hall in Atlanta: “Hell, no!” “I started hearing from a lot of people in the media when they said, ‘OK, you didn’t make the third debate. Are you quitting?’” Gabbard said, after failing to make the lineup of 10 candidates put in place...

Most of us who came of age in the 1970s revered the university—even as it was still reeling from 1960s protests and beginning a process that resulted in its present chaos and disrepute. Americans of the G.I. Bill-era first enshrined the idea of upward mobility through the bachelor’s degree—the assumed gateway to career security—and the positive role of expanding colleges to grow the new suburban middle classes. Despite student radicalism and demands for reform, professors had been trained in the postwar era by an older breed of prewar scholars and teachers. As stewards they passed on their sense of professionalism...

<p>A Middlesex County man is in police custody after several pipe bomb-like devices were found near the route of a Labor Day parade that the governor was set to attend Monday.</p> <p>Officials detained a man on Monday morning after they found “over half a dozen” devices on his large property near South Plainfield’s Labor Day Parade route, according to a senior law enforcement official with the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness.</p>

Posted on September 1, 2019August 30, 2019 by Msgr. Charles Pope Labor Day Reflection: We Need One Another to Survive Labor Day makes me mindful of our interconnectedness; we need one another in order to survive. Consider how we are each called to contribute as well as how we benefit from the labor of others: Even that simple can of corn you pull from the grocery store shelf has thousands of people standing behind it: from those who stock the shelves to the truckers who transport the product to the store; from the regional warehouse workers to the rail...

Police say a driver in California who fell out of his truck was drunk. On Saturday, California Highway Patrol shared a video on Facebook of what they say is a drunk driver falling out of his truck and into the street. “Don’t drink and drive,” the video warns before an Aramark truck is seen making a sharp turn across traffic in Arden-Arcade. Afterward, a man can be seen laying in the street near a crosswalk. He stays huddled on the ground for a moment before slowly struggling to his feet. Police say the truck continued down the street until it...

Illinois hasn't fared well in recent years in its attempts to curb Second Amendment rights. In April, a gun ban imposed by the Illinois Housing Authority was struck down by a court. Then there was an attempt to disarm all day-care operators. And famously, the McDonald Second Amendment case that originated in the Windy City resulted in a U.S. Supreme Court ruling affirming an individual's right to bear arms. Now the non-partisan Second Amendment Foundation is considering legal action to force state authorities to speed up the application and renewal process for concealed-carry licenses. The concern was triggered by complaints...

New York City is losing more than 270 residents each day, more than any other city in the United States, according to census data analyzed by Bloomberg. Driving the Big Apple residents away are high taxes, staggering costs of living, and a significant decline in quality of life. While local politicians watch swaths of people pack up and leave, they continue to prioritize rank partisanship over smart policy. As a result, the great exodus is likely to accelerate in the months and years to come. New York City is home to the highest tax burden in the nation. Its residents...