Free Republic

Paying near record-high prices for gas may be hitting your wallet hard, but according to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, that will just make an electric vehicle all the more worth it. During a House hearing on Tuesday, Buttigieg said, “The more pain we are all experiencing from the high price of gas, the more benefit there is for those who can access electric vehicles.” Watch the video below: VIDEO AT LINK....................... According to AAA, the national average price for a gallon of gas is $4.49, down from $4.98 a month ago. However, it is up from $3.17 a year ago....

Chipotle is closing a Maine store that had been leading efforts to unionize the chain. Employees at the Augusta, Maine, Chipotle filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board in June asking to hold a union election at the store. It was the first of the Mexican food chain’s stores to file such a petition, according to NLRB filings. The NLRB had scheduled a hearing Tuesday on Chipotle’s objections to the union election. But early Tuesday, Chipotle announced it was permanently closing the store.

(Translation) Law 54 on domestic violence will now protect against pet mistreatment following Governor Pedro Pierluisi’s signing into law House Bill 582 authored by Representative Ángel Matos García, Popular Democratic Party House Leader. The amendment to Law 54, known as “Law for the Prevention [of] and Intervention in Domestic Violence”, includes threat of pet mistreatment or [pet] mistreatment [itself] within the behaviors that are defined as intimidation and psychological violence and categorizes new aggravating circumstances. According to the legislator, studies have shown that these behaviors are part of the tactics the aggressor performs to inflict fear, despair, sadness, or intimidation,...

The 1968-69 “Hong Kong Flu” Pandemic RevisitedIt was a very bad year for the flu. The pathogen came in two large waves. This is only obvious in retrospect. At the time, not so much. Life went on as normal. There were gatherings. There were parties. There was travel. There were no masks. Doctors treated the sick. Traditional public health reigned as it had during the flu pandemic ten years earlier. No one considered lockdowns. It’s a good thing because it was in the thick of this that many “super-spreader” events took place, among which was Woodstock itself. That event influenced...

Conservation and clean-air groups have filed a lawsuit challenging the Biden administration’s resumption of oil and gas leasing on public lands. Oil and gas industry groups argue opening up more public lands for drilling will increase global supplies. A new lawsuit hopes to reverse the BLM's recent approval of oil and gas lease sales on public lands across eight western states, including nearly 120-thousand acres in Wyoming, in part to protect public health. Melissa Hornbein, with the Western Environmental Law Center, said regions surrounding federal oil and gas production face dangerous air quality issues—due to methane leaks, ground-level ozone, and...

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is withholding records related to high-profile investigations, including the probe into President Joe Biden’s son, according to a new lawsuit. Protect the Public’s Trust, a watchdog group, is seeking records seeking ethics waivers and determinations on allowing potentially conflicted employees to work on cases, but has been stymied. The group submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) records request on June 1, 2021, but didn’t receive a response for more than a year, according to the suit. After inquiring about the status of the request on June 10, the watchdog received an acknowledgment that...

President Joe Biden could declare a climate emergency as soon as this week, according to The Washington Post, in a bid to implement elements of his environmental agenda as climate legislation has stalled in Congress. Leading Biden administration officials are debating ways to advance the president’s agenda, and the president is prepared to announce a number of new initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reported the Post, citing three people familiar with the matter. The internal discussions come after Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia told party leaders last week that he opposes the plans to advance this month’s...

Data experts from the Data Integrity Group identified material fraud in the 2020 Election in Georgia that would have given President Trump the lead in the state. However, this was ignored by Secretary of State Raffensperger who certified the state for Biden anyways. Looking back at a presentation to the Georgia Senate on December 30, 2020, a group of Data experts from the Data Integrity Group identified fraud that resulted in President Biden stealing the election in the state. The state ignored this fraud and certified the election anyways.Lynda McLaughlin from the Data Integrity Group, along with data scientists Justin...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a bold move this morning to address the nation's financial woes, President Biden has officially called on the American economy to stop being bad. "Come on, economy!" said an impassioned President Biden. "Make everything cheaper! Give everyone more money! I hereby demand you stop being atrocious! Do it. Do it now!" Pundits immediately lauded President Biden's brilliant plan, with MSNBC heralding it as the most transformative economic initiative since the New Deal. "Biden simply asking the economy to be better is nothing short of genius," said Rachel Maddow. "Economists are out there playing checkers, and Joe...

The number of home sales in California in June dropped a staggering 21% year-over-year, a report from the California Association of Realtors revealed this week. Outside of the early pandemic downturn in 2020, that plunge is the biggest since 2008, during the nadir of the Great Recession. The Bay Area has seen a similar trend to the rest of the state, with home sales down a whopping 29% over past year. The cost of buying a home, however, hasn't yet dropped in San Francisco. Zillow data shows that the average cost of a single family home in the city in...

A Chicago man and three juveniles committed two robberies in about 30 minutes Saturday night near Wrigley Field, authorities said. But the real surprise during Cortez Savage’s bail hearing came from his defense attorney, who claimed that he graduated from Walter Payton College Prep and is studying accounting at Howard University. That didn’t sit well with Judge Barbara Dawkins. “This defendant is a graduate of one of the best high schools in this city and is currently attending one of the most prestigious historically Black colleges in this country,” Dawkins noted. She then ordered Savage to pay an $8,000 bail...

On MSNBC's Sunday Show with Jonathan Capehart, Rep. Pramila Jayapal talked about a man yelling outside her home who was arrested for threatening to kill her. So now, as Jason Rantz asserted, "She is now the beneficiary of the very systems she seeks to destroy." Capehart was "chilled," and Jayapal was "not OK" with the fact that the man has been released from jail pending further investigation. Capehart, predictably, never mentioned that Jayapal has been a critic of cash bail, has supported defunding the police, and told her supporters to "take to the streets" and "fight tooth and nail" for...

22 year old pizza delivery driver rushes in to burning house, saves four children, sustains serious injuries

Former President Donald Trump is not only going to run in 2024, but he is going to get the Republican nomination without a primary fight, according to political strategist Dick Morris on Newsmax.Morris is out with a new bestseller, "The Return: Trump's Big 2024 Comeback," that asserts Trump will not only easily defeat any GOP challenger, but win back the presidency in 2024."The phrase is not 'likely,' the phrase is dead pipe certain: He's certain to run, and he is, I believe, certain to get the Republican nomination," Morris told Sunday's "Wake Up America." "I think he'll actually get it...

A cooling trend sparked by rising mortgage rates continued to chill Southern California’s housing market, with home prices and sales dropping at a time when they typically are on the rise. Home prices dipped from May to June for the first time since 2010. Sales fell from May levels for the first time since 2013. Despite the cool down, experts say a market crash still appears unlikely. “We’re still in what we call in the industry ‘a slight seller’s market,’ ” said Geoffrey Tackney, broker and co-owner of GMT Real Estate in Garden Grove. “We’re entering a neutral market, but...

Bears have mauled and eaten a wealthy couple and a pilot after their helicopter crashed in the Russian wilderness. The helicopter was flown by well-known Russian biathlete Igor Malinovsky, with business people Zoya Kaygorodova and Sergey Kolesnyak on board. On July 16, the helicopter lost communication due to bad weather, Euro Weekly News reported. The next day, the helicopter wreckage was discovered by rescuers in Kamchatka. Three hours later, remains of the trio were found near the Semyachkov Pass, just 13 kilometers from the Uzon volcano. It is believed the corpses were dragged away, mauled and eaten by wild bears...

Moving on does not mean Americans should forget the lessons of the 2020 election. The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled on July 8 that the ballot drop boxes used in the 2020 election were illegal and harmed Wisconsin voters. Not surprisingly, the media has spun the opinion as a mere change of rules concerning future elections, ignoring the rebuke to the practice in prior elections. The New York Times wrote, “The 4-to-3 ruling by the court’s conservative majority will take effect in time for Wisconsin’s primary elections next month.” The case involved two memos authored by the Wisconsin Elections Commission which...

Strike two! Bill de Blasio dropped his bid to represent the left-leaning 10th Congressional District on Tuesday, admitting that “it’s not going work out.” “I’ve really listened carefully to people and it’s clear to me that when it comes to this congressional district, people are looking for another option. And I respect that,” the former mayor said in a video statement posted to Twitter. “Even though this is not going to work out, I hope you know how much I appreciate you and we’re gonna do a lot together to make this city better in the future.” De Blasio quit...

SIXTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME MATTHEW 12:46–50 Friends, in today’s Gospel, someone tells Jesus, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak with you.” Jesus stretches his hand toward his disciples and says, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.” Family is wonderful. There is nothing in the world wrong with fostering the flourishing of your family. But over and again, the Bible places the goods of the world into question—even something as good as family relationships. Why? Because family isn’t...

Progressive Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and other Democratic members of Congress were arrested outside of the Supreme Court on Tuesday protesting the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Ocasio-Cortez was seen walking escorted away by police with her hands crossed behind her back, as if she were in handcuffs, but she was not. At one point she uncrossed her hands and raised her fists to the other protesters. Other members seen being detained by officers include include Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., Jackie Speier, D-Calif., Sarah Jacobs, D-Calif., Katherine Clark, D-Mass., Andy Levin, D-Mich., Carolyn...