Free Republic

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A new report from the Sacramento Sierra Club shows there were three times as many fires along the American River Parkway last year compared to 2019. It attributes the increase to climate change and the surge in homeless camps in the area over the last few years. The rise in fires happened at the same time the county stopped enforcing an ordinance against illegal camping, the report states. The change followed a federal court decision that found that local governments could not ban camping unless they were providing alternatives, like enough shelters.

As we mark World IP Day, it provides an opportunity to marvel at the critical role the American system of protecting IP, particularly patents, has played in the United States’ global innovation leadership. Unfortunately, recent years have seen too many efforts to undermine those critical property rights. One recent bill is a perfect example of that trend. If someone set out to give a gift to Big Tech and the Infringer Lobby, worsen the Administrative State element of our patent system and advantage our innovation adversaries such as China, it would take some doing to check all these boxes more...

Making homes affordable is NOT one of the mottos for The Federal Reserve. But making homes outrageously unaffordable for the masses should be their motto. The February Case-Shiller home price indices are out for February and the national home price index rose to 19.80% YoY. Instead of the limbo rock, The Fed is apparently trying to see “How HIGH can we go?”

I don’t deliberately avoid organic foods or markets, but I don’t seek them out either. Claims that organic food tastes better or is more nutritious are not supported by evidence and certainly don’t justify the far higher prices. Mostly, I’m put off by assertions that organic food is pesticide-free, safer and more planet-friendly. Those assertions are simply false advertising; deliberate misinformation. Mom’s Organic Market shopping bags provide an excellent example. They’re emblazoned with six “Bee Informed” messages that help customers Bee the Change, Give Bees a Chance, and Save the Bees from a looming Armageddon attributed to synthetic pesticides. The...

When Vladimir Putin declared that a primary objective of Russia’s invasion was to “de-nazify” Ukraine, the political elites and their media went ballistic. Michael McFaul, former U.S. ambassador to Russia, said flatly, “There are no neo-Nazis in Ukraine.” The truth? The CIA has been organizing, funding, and training Nazis and developing fascist assets inside Ukraine for 75 years. Nazis are a powerful and growing presence. In 2014, the CIA and U.S. State Department engineered a coup that overthrew Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s democratically elected pro-Russian president. The United States replaced him with a pro-American, anti-Russian president—and the Nazification of Ukraine kicked...

@marklevinshow Thanks to new ownership, I’ve decided to come back! 😊

One of Utah’s freshman congressmen narrowly survived the Republican 2022 Nominating Convention, failing to secure his party’s nomination and setting the stage for a primary election in June to appear on the November ballot. Rep. Blake Moore, who was elected to his first term representing Utah’s 1st Congressional District in 2020, will move on to the Utah primary on June 28 to face Andrew Badger, who on Saturday almost clinched the Republican nomination during the convention over the weekend. Moore joins the rest of his Republican counterparts, as each incumbent in Utah will face a primary election in their reelection...

The Bible In Paintings 2 ENCOURAGEMENT FOR APPRECIATING AND APPLYING GOD'S MESSAGE R U T H CHAPTER 1 There was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. The man died, and Naomi was left with her two sons. They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. Both her sons also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. When she heard in Moab that the LORD had come to...

AMSTERDAM — The FBI is probing the agency’s involvement in investigations into the October 2018 Schoharie limousine disaster which killed 20 people, according to a letter released by U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam. “In recent months, concerns have been raised about this incident and whether there was any FBI involvement in the investigation,” wrote Jill Tyson, assistant director at the FBI. “As a result, the director ordered that the FBI further review the matter.” Mounting questions over the FBI’s possible role in the investigation in the crash of a vehicle operated by Prestige Limousine, owned by Shahed Hussain, a former...

Moldova’s president, Maia Sandu, is convening a meeting of her security council on Tuesday following a series of incidents in the breakaway Moldovan republic of Transnistria and a warning from Moscow that the Russian-backed region could be drawn into the war in Ukraine. Transnistria, which borders western Ukraine, is controlled by pro-Russia separatists and permanently hosts 1,500 Russian troops as well as a large arms depot. Last week, a senior Russian commander said the goal of Russia’s new offensive was to seize control of southern Ukraine and to gain access to Transnistria, creating worries that the small east European country...

Shortly before it was revealed Tesla CEO Elon Musk reached a deal to buy Twitter, it was reported that The New York Times is releasing a documentary about the businessman. According to Variety, the film is titled “Elon Musk’s Crash Course” and is “the latest in FX and The New York Times’ collaborative documentary series “The New York Times Presents,” which provides in depth looks at prominent people and events, ranging from Janet Jackson to Juul to the 2020 Australian bushfire disasters.” It added the documentary “is an exposé into Musk’s company Tesla, and its work on self-driving cars. Featuring...

By now it’s pretty clear that Ukraine has been bombarding Russia as part of the former’s defensive campaign. As Russia’s wider war on Ukraine enters its second month, the Ukrainians at least four times appear to have lobbed Tochka ballistic missiles at military targets on the Russian side of the Russia-Ukraine border. The latest possible strike took place in the early morning hours Sunday. A pair of oil depots in Bryansk, in western Russia 70 miles from Ukraine, exploded and burned through the following day. While it’s always possible the blazes were the result of industrial accidents, it’s telling that...

Here is Dvorak’s New World Symphony, an appropriate piece the global turmoil that has taken place after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Here is the ratio of the S&P 500 index against the Bloomberg Commodity Price Index. This ratio is plotted against The Federal Reserve’s balance sheet of assets. Notice the decline in the Commodity Ratio in 2022, even ahead of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Global currencies, on the other hand, have been really crushed since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Japanese Yen, China’s Renminbi and Europe’s Euro relative to the US Dollar are falling due to a variety...

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 18: U.S. President Donald Trump looks at his phone during a roundtable at the State Dining Room of the White House June 18, 2020 in Washington, DC. President Trump held a roundtable discussion with Governors and small business owners on the reopening of American’s small business. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) The head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is urging Elon Musk to not let former President Donald Trump back on the platform. Shortly after Twitter announced that it had accepted Musk’s acquisition offer, NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in...

Less than one month from the May 17 PA primary election, Nexstar Media Inc. will host an exclusive multi-market prime time debate between the Republican Party candidates for Governor of PA. The candidates will debate for one hour on Wed. April 27 at 8 p.m. and will both air and live-stream in 10 markets across PA , NY, Ohio, and Maryland, reaching 9.8 million TV and streaming households in every county of the Keystone State. All candidates on the ballot who meet eligibility criteria will be invited to participate. Candidates who have committed to attend include: Lou Barletta, Doug Mastriano,...

He was one of the most consequential public figures of the last century. Winston Churchill was a man of many interests. Even now, his paintings fetch prices approaching those of the master Hunter Biden. Always fascinated with words, Sir Winston mobilized the English language and skillfully used them to help win a world war. Churchill was also interested in history. That curiosity combined with his considerable writing talents to produce his four volume classic, The History of the English-Speaking Peoples. He began writing in the 30s during his “wilderness years.” He didn’t finish it until the early 1950s. It begins...

“‘Whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also’” (Matthew 5:39). God has created every human being in His image, and therefore He demands that we treat one another with basic respect, dignity, and consideration. But in a sinful world, this will not always happen, so believers can expect to suffer persecution simply because of their basic testimony (cf. Matt. 10:16–23; John 15:18–16:3). This leaves one inevitable issue to deal with: how should Christians respond to ridicule, insult, or physical abuse. The Lord Jesus, of course, is the perfect example of how to behave when personally...

In a recent column, we charged resident Joe Biden's leftist energy policies and pathetically weak leadership with undermining America's economy and financing Russia's genocide in Ukraine. But the damage wrought by this president is not limited to Ukraine, pain at the pump or flaccid foreign affairs. All the policies of this hapless tool of the left are destroying the America we love and serve. Since day one of his presidency, Biden and his socialist puppet masters have tried to deflect blame from themselves to others for major problems they created for the American people. Their latest scapegoat is Vladimir Putin....

Chinese stocks got slammed overnight as rumors about a potential lockdown in Beijing have sent people scrambling for food and other necessities (many items, like fruit, coffee and even disposable diapers are now considered “frivolous” under the terms of the lockdown in Shanghai). Meanwhile, the situation in Shanghai, having entered its 4th week (and even longer in the eastern part of the city), has spurred a level of need that is not only leaving citizens desperate – but also reminding many of the bad old days when central planning was the status quo in China, creating an environment that allowed...

Former Fox News anchor and now former CNN+ anchor Chris Wallace admitted Sunday night his professional future remains unclear, saying he is focused on helping other co-workers get their own careers sorted first. Wallace’s next step in the news media was broached during a Common Ground Committee panel discussion.