Free Republic

A San Francisco law allowing non-citizen parents to vote in local elections was struck down Friday by a judge who said it violates both the state constitution and state statutes. San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard Ulmer ruled a 2016 ordinance that gave voting rights to non-citizen parents “cannot stand.” The ordinance allowed green card holders, work visa holders and undocumented immigrants to vote in school district elections. Ulmer also issued a permanent injunction that bars the city from allowing non-citizens to vote in the future.A month ago, a judge struck down a New York City law that allowed non-citizens...

Dozens of hikers on the famed Pacific Crest Trail have been located and evacuated as the McKinney Fire explodes along the California-Oregon border. According to the Jackson County Sheriff's Office, at least 60 hikers were found on the trail in the Klamath National Forest and escorted to safety. A spokesperson from the sheriff's office told NewsWatch 12 that although no hikers were in imminent danger, the remote nature of the trail and the quickly changing wildfire conditions made search-and-rescue the best option. The Pacific Crest Trail is over 2,600 miles of varied, stunning hiking from the California-Mexico border up to...

Suffolk University has a new poll out, including a question on Republican voter preferences for the 2024 presidential election, and while it is noteworthy that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is within 9 points of former President Donald Trump at 43%-34%, what is more striking is how little support the other possible candidates get. Vice President Mike Pence is at 7%, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WV) at 3%, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at 1%. Contrast DeSantis’s strong second-place rank to where Republicans were at this point in August 2015. Trump was in front at 22%, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush...

To be honest, I’d never much thought about the Ebola lockdowns in Sierra Leone and Liberia in 2014 and 2015. Within public health, the Sierra Leone and Liberia lockdowns were an early illustration of the fact that lockdowns were ineffective, but governments of developing nations sometimes do strange things; the idea that these lockdowns might have greater geopolitical significance never occurred to me. This changed dramatically when I began studying social media activity about lockdowns before 2020. Prior to 2014, and from 2016 to 2019, there’s virtually no social media activity about lockdowns. However, this pattern changes abruptly during one...

This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of equipment destroyed is significantly higher than recorded here. Small arms, ATGMs, MANPADS, loitering munitions, drones used as unmanned bait, civilian vehicles, trailers and derelict equipment are not included in this list. All possible effort has gone into avoiding duplicate entries and discerning the status of equipment between captured or abandoned. Many of the entries listed as 'abandoned' will likely end up captured or destroyed. Similarly, some of the captured equipment might be destroyed if it can't be recovered. When the...

The decision of the Browns to trade for quarterback Deshaun Watson elicited mixed reactions from the team’s fans. Some loved it, off-field issues notwithstanding. Some hated it, given the off-field issues. There was no sign of negativity on Saturday, for the first public practice of training camp. As explained by Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Watson received an “enthusiastic reception” from fans who attended the session.

According to the Republican senator from Kentucky, Small businesses organized as S-Corps or Partnerships could face a tax increase and hurt job creation. The NIIT is a 3.8% surtax on passive income (capital gains, interest, rental and royalty income, and dividends). However, the proposal suggests expanding the tax to apply to active income over $400,000 individually or $500,000 jointly. The proposed expansion of NIIT is expected to raise some $183.6 billion in tax revenues over the next decade, according to the Tax Foundation. The bill proposes to expand the taxation to include all business income, whether or not the taxpayer...

It's modern day colonialism': Mexico City residents are fed up with Americans descending on capital to escape high rents in California and gentrifying it by setting up Pilates centers and swanky coffee shops

Excerpted: The neighborhood has reportedly become a hub of homeless people taking advantage of vacant homes, with neighbors saying that they now live in fear for their safety. According to KGW8, neighbors have begun barricading unused doors in their houses, investing in security systems, and buying things like baseball bats intended for self protection. "It’s unbearable to watch your whole city become a dumpster fire," said Annette Benedetti, who lives near homes on Southeast 67th Avenue that have sat abandoned and have since had numerous homeless people move in, with RVs lining the streets. In early July, Benedetti said that...

More than four in ten Americans have been forced to cut back on everyday habits and items, including the amount of groceries they purchase, as a result of Bidenflation, a recent Suffolk University/USA TODAY survey found. They survey asked respondents about the habits they have had to change due to the reality of rising prices in President Biden’s America. Bidenflation was much worse than experts predicted for the month of June, rising to an annual rate of 9.1 percent, according to the Department of Labor. Perhaps what is more, the cost of basic items, such as food, rose by more...

It’s a thorny issue that can cause heated debate but, like so many things in Britain, social standing made it even more complicated. To be fair, the debate was sparked by my uncle. “I am perplexed,” he emailed me a couple of months ago, “by tradesmen who are determined to take their perfectly clean boots off before entering a lived-in, dog-strewn house like ours. And yesterday, a friend who lives in an even scruffier and doggier house apologised for having his clean, dry gumboots on when he called, having been making a bonfire at home. Keep them on I say,...

--(snip)-- When a person is hit by bullets from an AR-15, their bodies explode. In Parkland, Uvalde, Highland Park and Las Vegas, first responders, doctors and survivors have shared the horror that they witnessed. That trauma for survivors reverberates in your mind and scares your soul forever. You can learn to manage it, but it never leaves you. In the years since my own night of terror, I have made it my mission to pass meaningful gun safety measures to keep our families and communities safe. Since 2018, we have banned bump stocks like those used by the Oct. 1...

Walt Disney World Cast Members are now addressing guests as “friend,” rather than sir or ma’am in the latest effort to promote inclusivity. The neutral “friend” moniker allows Cast Members to address individuals without assuming their gender identity. Similar changes have been made around the resort, such as the switch from “ladies and gentlemen” to “dreamers of all ages” in the pre-fireworks announcements. Some Cast Members had already elected to use “friend” when they address guests, but it has become commonplace over the last few weeks. In 2021, Disney announced the addition of “Inclusion” as a 5th key, which serve...

The at-home test says you’re COVID negative, but your body says you’re positive—so very positive. What (or whom) to believe? No, your body isn’t gaslighting you. If you’re certain you’re COVID positive, you probably are—regardless of what the test says, Dr. Stuart Ray, vice chair of medicine for data integrity and analytics at Johns Hopkins’ Department of Medicine, told Fortune on Tuesday. “It’s a funny situation when you’re confronted with a big surge of infections,” Ray said, referencing the fact that in many areas of the U.S., COVID levels are at or near record highs—as evidenced by levels of the...

Friday, during an appearance on FNC’s “Hannity,” Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) offered a defense of the Second Amendment, arguing that it was an “equalizer.” According to the Colorado freshman Republican lawmaker, gun rights were women’s rights. “[T]he Second Amendment has nothing to do with hunting,” she said. “And it certainly doesn’t have to do with anything with deers having Kevlar vests. It’s actually an equalizer. Gun rights are women’s rights. And I need an equalizer to defend myself against a larger potential aggressor. That’s why most people carry. So they have a way to defend themselves. And we have the...

A single ticket bought in a Chicago suburb beat the odds and won a $1.337B Mega Millions jackpot. According to megamillions.com, there was one jackpot-winning ticket in the draw Friday night, and it was bought at a Speedway gas station and convenience store in Des Plaines. “We are thrilled to have witnessed one of the biggest jackpot wins in Mega Millions history,” Ohio Lottery Director Pat McDonald, the current Lead Director for the Mega Millions Consortium, said in a statement on the lottery’s website. “We’re eager to find out who won and look forward to congratulating the winner soon!” The...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — President Joe Biden tested positive for Covid-19 once again, CNN reported Saturday. “His physician said he’s not experiencing any symptoms, but that he will isolate at the White House,” said CNN. The President Tweeted:Folks, today I tested positive for COVID again. This happens with a small minority of folks. I’ve got no symptoms but I am going to isolate for the safety of everyone around me. I’m still at work, and will be back on the road soon.— President Biden (@POTUS) July 30, 2022Biden tested positive more than a week ago a day after visiting Massachusetts.This...

Vladimir Putin's health has been brought into question yet again as new footage emerged today of the Russian president seemingly unable to use his right arm. The clip captured the moment Putin, 69, was given a tour of a military museum as part of a weekend of festivities marking Russia's Navy Day, celebrated on the last Sunday of every July. The Kremlin chief is seen speaking with Ksenia, daughter of defence minister Sergei Shoigu, when mosquitoes begin buzzing around the right side of his face. Putin raises his left arm in an attempt to swat them away while his right...

With the 2022 midterm elections less than four months away, a New York Times/Siena College poll revealed that just 1 percent of registered voters viewed climate change as a “top priority,” let alone the most important issue facing the nation. The poll placed climate change far behind concerns about inflation, the economy, record crime rates, and the humanitarian crisis on America’s southern border. Even among voters younger than 30 -- the demographic that is typically most energized by debates about environmental policy -- the corresponding figure was a mere 3 percent. The same poll showed that public concern about climate...

Speaking at an economic forum in June, President Joe Biden said Russia’s brutal and unprovoked attack on Ukraine had sparked a global crisis that has refocused attention on the need for energy stability and security. He noted that, “In the United States, I’m using every lever available to me to bring down prices for the American people.” Yet long before Russia’s attack, several alarming trends were well underway that contributed to the underinvestment in oil and natural gas development and increased the sizable gap between energy supply and demand as markets rebounded from the pandemic. Far from using “every lever...