Free Republic

Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and Washington D.C. increase spending as enrollment and scores dwindle More than a year after the COVID-19 lockdowns, several major metropolitan school districts across the country are reporting record-level spending per student while enrollment dwindles. New York City, Chicago, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles have increased per student budget expenses in the last five years while academic outcomes have fallen considerably. Chicago Public Schools (CPS) now spends over $29,000 per student, compared to $17,800 per student in 2020. According to the Illinois State Board of Education, CPS enrollment has decreased by 8.9% since 2020, with...

- Bill Gates is sounding the alarm on political polarization in the US. - "Political polarization may bring it all to an end, we're going to have a hung election and a civil war," he told Forbes recently. - Gates, who has been the target of many conspiracy theories over the years, also pointed out the dangers of misinformation. Bill Gates usually focuses on issues like poverty and infectious diseases through his charitable foundation, but another problem on his mind is the polarization of US politics. "I admit that political polarization may bring it all to an end, we're...

If it wasn’t so frightening, one might be able to recognize the irony in the sight of campus progressives trying so hard to signal progressive virtue that they fall victim to a deeper moral shame. Nine different law student groups at the University of California at Berkeley’s School of Law, my own alma mater, have begun this new academic year by amending bylaws to ensure that they will never invite any speakers that support Israel or Zionism. And these are not groups that represent only a small percentage of the student population. They include Women of Berkeley Law, Asian Pacific...

President Biden warned his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, that America and its allies were “fully prepared” to “defend every single inch of NATO territory” after the Moscow tyrant claimed to have annexed parts of four Ukrainian territories. “Mr. Putin, don’t misunderstand what I’m saying,” Biden said at the conclusion of remarks focused on Hurricane Ian. “Every inch.”

The protests this week are being exacerbated by the government’s total incompetence in handling the arrival of Hurricane Ian, which at one point on Tuesday resulted in an island-wide failure of the national power grid. At press time, communist authorities claim that only 12 percent of the power grid is operational, making electricity accessible only in the wealthiest parts of the country – controlled by Communist Party elites – and in luxury tourist destinations. The regime-controlled Gaviota tourism agency boasted on Twitter on Thursday that its luxury hotels remain fully functional. In areas where Cuban citizens live, many are protesting...

Donald Trump Jr shared a meme accusing Greta Thunberg of being behind the Nord Stream pipeline explosions, echoing a conspiracy theory that has been picked up in conservative circles in the last week since the natural gas lines erupted. The meme, which shows the young climate activist photoshopped in front of Nord Stream with explosives strapped around one of the pipelines, was shared by the former president’s son on Truth Social on Thursday night. “I could be wrong but my understanding is this is not photo shopped,” wrote Mr Trump Jr alongside the meme, which has since gained traction on...

IF you're ever in the mood for day drinking, overcooked meat, or smashing yourself into tables, then tailgating could be for you. And no-one does tailgating like NFL fans. But Miami Dolphins fans took it in a whole new level before last week's 21-19 win against the Buffalo Bills. A video has emerged of strippers dancing in a makeshift strip club outside Hard Rock Stadium. With music blaring in the background, fans can be seen throwing money and enjoying the company of these dancers as they live life to the fullest - in a stadium parking lot on a Sunday...

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not intimidate or scare off the U.S. and its allies from helping Ukraine, President Biden said Friday in a public response to Putin’s ceremony earlier in the day that carried out an annexation of Ukrainian territory. The annexation move was declared illegal by Ukraine, the U.S., many of its Western allies and the United Nations by officials who said it violated Ukrainian and international law.

If you like the idea of an electric car with modern features, but hate the way they all look like river pebbles, the Charge '67 may be the car for you. At first glance it looks like a 1967 Mustang fastback, but beneath the retro body is an electric AWD powertrain and one of those newfangled interiors with a big screen in the middle of it. We got a look at the Charge '67 earlier this year, but now the company has released some adjusted numbers ahead of its U.S. debut. A 63-kilowatt-hour battery feeds juice through four independent electric...

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Vladimir Putin's gamble on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which delivers gas from Russia to Western Europe, has backfired as Russia "is losing the energy war," analysts have told Newsweek. Nord Stream 1 is the biggest pipeline transporting natural gas between Russia and Europe and stretches some 745 miles under the Baltic Sea from Vyborg, 80 miles northwest of St. Petersburg, to the northeastern coast of Germany. Sabotage has been widely expected to be the cause of the leaks, and a British defense source told Sky News on Friday that underwater explosives were likely used. Russia has denied causing the...

The Juno space probe has sent back the first image it captured as it flew by Jupiter's icy moon Europa, the sixth-largest moon in our solar system. Europa is a little smaller than our own satellite and is believed to host a salty ocean below its miles-thick ice shell. Juno launched from Cape Canaveral on August 5, 2011, and entered Jupiter's orbit on July 5, 2016. In 2021, the probe sent back its first images of Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon. During the flyby of Europa on September 29, the probe came within about 219 miles of the icy moon. It...

Fearfully and wonderfully madeESSAY | Elegant molecular machines at the center of life belie Darwin’s theoryAt a recent conference, I watched a computer simulation of the most important machine in the world: ATP synthase. Without it, no life can exist. In the cells of every organism on Earth, from bluebird to blue whale, from amoeba to alfalfa to Aunt Millie, this molecular machine packages energy for cells to use, like AA batteries for so many game systems.No batteries, no game.I sat halfway back in the room on the center aisle, amid the hundred-odd scientists and casually dressed grad students watching...

House Judiciary Republicans are asking a senior FBI official to testify in a transcribed interview, alleging the official has signed off on many “adverse personnel actions” against conservative agents, saying they were being targeted in a “purge.” Their allegations concern Jennifer Leigh Moore, the executive assistant director of the FBI’s human resources branch, according to a Sept. 29 letter from Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), and Mike Johnson (R-La.). Jordan is the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee. “This is beyond outrageous,” the House Judiciary GOP wrote on Twitter. The lawmakers said they found out how conservative...

When players and their parents raised concerns about teen girls sharing intimate spaces with someone of the opposite sex, the school told them state law allows for students claiming to be transgender to use whichever bathrooms and locker rooms they desire. The school is also investigating whether the team violated the school’s harassment, hazing, and bullying policy. “My mom wants me to do this interview to try to make a change,” one of the volleyball girls, Blake Allen, told local news outlet WCAX3. “I feel like for stating my opinion — that I don’t want a biological man changing with...

President Joe Biden desecrated a celebration of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, on Friday by repeating a proven lie known as the “fine people hoax,” falsely accusing his predecessor, Donald Trump, of praising neo-Nazis in Charlottesville in August 2017. In fact, as Breitbart News and others have demonstrated repeatedly, Trump said the neo-Nazis should be “condemned totally.” Biden made his remarks in front of a Jewish audience at what was billed as the first-ever White House gathering for Rosh Hashanah.

Jamie Raskin, who sits on the January 6th Committee makes a stunning comment about Ray Epps.

ABC legal analyst Sunny Hostin said Tuesday on ABC’s “The View” that Ginni Thomas “is a little bit of a filthy liar” for saying she does not talk to her husband, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, about politics. Co-host Joy Behar said, “Yesterday, conservative activist Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, doubled down on voter fraud lies to the January 6th committee. She testified under oath that she still has concerns the election was stolen even though judges, 60 of them, some of who are Trump appointees, more than 60 of them found no evidence. She...

President Joe Biden tried to flatter Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday during a reception celebrating the Jewish New Year. “Kamala won’t be the last woman, to be vice president, or president,” Biden said at the beginning of his speech, prompting Harris to look over in the president’s direction. Biden spoke after he was introduced by Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff at the reception at the White House

WASHINGTON — It’s not just curiosity killing the cat anymore — it could be the Army. The Army Medical Research and Development Command has quietly allowed shooting cats and dogs for wound experiments despite a 1983 Defense Department ban on the practice, according to a policy update obtained by The Post. While the change was made as early as 2020, it’s being publicized for the first time after the Army command turned aside a bid by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to find out how many such experiments had been conducted since the switch.