Free Republic

Louisiana Treasurer John Schroder penned a letter to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, explaining the state would liquidate all BlackRock investments within three months and, over a period of time, divest nearly $800 million from the bank's money market funds, mutual funds or exchange-traded funds. The state treasurer blasted Fink's pursuit of so-called environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards that promote green energy over traditional fossil fuels. "Your blatantly anti-fossil fuel policies would destroy Louisiana’s economy," Schroder wrote to Fink in the letter first obtained by FOX Business. "This divestment is necessary to protect Louisiana from actions and policies that would...

A wedding venue in Michigan was found to have violated one of Grand Rapids's human rights ordinances after the owners refused to host LGBT ceremonies because of their religious beliefs. "We believe in Jesus and are so blessed by his calling in our lives to start The Broadway Avenue!" Nick and Hannah Natale say on Broadway Avenue LLC's website. According to a local report, complaints began after the owner made an Instagram post about the decision against hosting LGBT weddings in July. An investigation into the business was subsequently launched. The investigation found that "Broadway Avenue LLC adopted, enforced, or...

Brookings scholar Richard Reeves and his just-released book, Of Boys and Men, proceeds from the proposition that “men at the top are still flourishing, but men in general are not.” Men are struggling in school, in the job market, and in family life; they are the gender most likely to end up in prison and most vulnerable to “deaths of despair.” “In the U.S … the 2020 decline in college enrollment was seven times greater for male than for female students.”“Among men with only a high-school education, one in three is out of the labor force. For those who have...

A Swedish cohort study shows 13% (95% CI, 2-22%) lower risk of kidney function decline or kidney failure and 12% (95% CI, 3-20%) lower risk of acute kidney injury with use of direct oral anticoagulants vs. vitamin K antagonists for non-valvular atrial fibrillation. The relative safety of anticoagulation with direct oral anticoagulants (DOAC) or vitamin K antagonists (VKA) remains inconclusive, particularly with regards to kidney outcomes. In a cohort of patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation from Sweden, researchers observed that compared with VKA, DOAC initiation was associated with a lower risk of the composite of kidney failure and sustained 30%...

"[W]e have seen leveraging athletics and extracurriculars as a way to boost you vaccination as an effective tactic across the county.” The federal government's response to the Covid-19 pandemic may already be one of the most infamous chapters in U.S. history. But new evidence keeps coming to light that reveals the "Experts" were every bit as cynical and dishonest as most citizens had figured out years ago. An August 2021 email by the U.S. Department of Education's Anne Hartge, of the Office of Communications and Outreach, following up on a conversation between Eric Hagarty, who is now Pennsylvania’s current Secretary...

Special counsel John Durham and his team cannot tell jurors about how the primary source for the anti-Donald Trump dossier has had links to Russian intelligence, a U.S. judge ruled on Oct. 4. The FBI opened an investigation into Igor Danchenko, the dossier source, after a colleague of Danchenko’s tipped off authorities, saying Danchenko had said he could get the person money in exchange for classified information. The FBI investigation advanced after agents learned that Danchenko had been in touch with the Russian embassy and known Russian intelligence officers and had in the past been interested in becoming a Russian...

Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney told Arizona voters on Wednesday that they will play a critical role in “ensuring the future functioning of our constitutional republic” — warning that election deniers like GOP gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake and Secretary of State nominee Mark Finchem could put the republic at risk. The three-term GOP congresswoman, who lost to a Donald Trump-backed primary challenger earlier this year, cast the stakes of Arizona’s elections in national terms. “So what happens here in Arizona is not just important for Arizona, but it’s important for the nation and for the future functioning of our constitutional republic,”...

Rep. Kevin McCarthy reacts to Just the News report, said DHS collaboration with private censors during 2020 election involves "fundamental violations of the First Amendment." House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a relentless critic of creeping censorship and cancel culture in America, is vowing an aggressive investigation into federal agencies' collusion with private entities to silence Americans' opinions on Big Tech platforms if Republicans capture control of Congress. McCarthy's comments Wednesday came after Just the News reported how the departments of State and Homeland Security essentially outsourced censorship activities to a private consortium that facilitated federal officials' requests to censor content...

OPEC+ declared on Wednesday that it would cut oil production by 2 million barrels per day. The White House on Wednesday denounced the organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+) for "aligning with Russia" after the bloc announced it would cut oil production, contrary to President Joe Biden's urging. "The President is disappointed by the shortsighted decision by OPEC+ to cut production quotas while the global economy is dealing with the continued negative impact of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine," National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and National Economic Council Director Brian Deese said in a joint statement, per the Epoch Times....

"You would have elections that everybody could be proud of. Because right now this country is a laughingstock all over the world," former president said in an interview with Just the News. Former President Donald Trump is offering a specific policy prescription for restoring Americans' confidence in elections, saying it is time for states to return to paper ballots and to end no-excuses absentee ballots so that results can be finalized on Election Day and the nation can stop looking like a "laughing stock" to the world. "I call them the fake vote store. That's the mail in ballots. We...

The White House on Wednesday accused the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+) of siding with Russia by deciding to cut oil production. “Look, it’s clear that OPEC+ is aligning with Russia with today’s announcement,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said to reporters aboard Air Force One. President Joe Biden also expressed his concern about the decision, calling it “unnecessary” as he left the White House to travel to Florida to witness the storm damage caused by Hurricane Ian. The White House was sharply critical of the OPEC+ decision to cut production by two million barrels a day,...

In the 1996 film, "Independence Day," the President of the United States attempts to communicate with a representative of the alien horde attacking the Earth. Assuming that some compromise can be reached, he asserts that surely we have much to learn from each other, and he asks the question, "What do you want of us? What do you want us to do?" The alien responds, matter-of-factly. “Die. We want you to die.” Only then does the audience fully appreciate that the enemy we face is pure evil; not merely people with a different culture, different looks, different technology. It is...

Europe is not burning. When writers discuss economics and politics, we sometimes use figures of speech to attract the reader, in the hopes that a powerful visual will help carry the reader through the boredom of statistics and political analysis. So, when activists riot, when protesters mob and chant, we may say "the city is burning." It catches your attention. It gets the reader to keep reading. Sometimes, unfortunately, these words move beyond figures of speech, and become literal. In 2020, the Antifa riots that took over dozens of American downtowns did in fact include arson and fire bombing. Population...

The Georgia Senate race is heating up following the establishment media airing accusations against Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker. All the while, that same establishment media conveniently continue to ignore the domestic controversies swirling around Herschel’s opponent, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA). Walker appeared on Hannity Monday night reacting to a report from the Daily Beast, which talked to an anonymous woman who claimed that Walker not only encouraged her to abort their child in 2009 but paid for it. When questioned on the show about whether he know who the woman was, he said, “I have no idea, but it...

On this date in 1943, a special transport of 1,196 children and 53 adults arrived at Auschwitz and were gassed shortly thereafter. Thus ended one of the lesser-known tragedies of the Holocaust. The children were very nearly the last survivors of the Bialystok Ghetto, which had been liquidated in August 1943. Almost all of the inhabitants of the ghetto wound up being sent to the Treblinka Extermination Camp and killed, but over a thousand children were mysteriously separated from their parents and taken away for some as-yet-unknown purpose. (The transport list can be found here.) At the time, there were...

Trump return could have a “tremendous impact on 2024 elections, especially if Donald Trump is a presidential candidate,” Andrew Bleeker, president of the progressive political public affairs firm Bully Pulpit Interactive, said in an interview. “You can think of it as a $40 billion donation to the Trump campaign.” Still, it’s not entirely clear whether Trump would help — or hurt — Republicans. “It’s like the weather, I can’t know what the weather’s going to be on Election Day, but it’s going to have an impact. It could be good, it could be bad,” Wilson said. It could also mean...

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico health officials are renewing a public order aimed at protecting newborn babies from syphilis. The state Health Department on Wednesday announced requirements that medical providers follow best practices by testing all pregnant women for syphilis multiple times. The agency says that New Mexico had the highest rate of congenital syphilis cases among states in 2020, when there were 42 local cases of newborn babies contracting the disease from their mothers. That is the most recent year for finalized federal statistics. Syphilis is a bacterial disease that surfaces as genital sores but can ultimately...

Maine Democrat Gov. Janet Mills is scrambling to stem political damage from revelations five weeks before the election that her administration was teaching students in an online curriculum that “MAGA” is racist. Both in Tuesday’s debate and in her campaign advertising, the vulnerable Democrat has attempted to fend off allegations about education improprieties from her Republican opponent, former Gov. Paul LePage.

Lincoln Project founder Rick Wilson said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “The Beat” that “society” has to “strap up and decide we’re going to push back against” the dangerous Republican Party. Guest anchor Katie Phang said, “Election workers are increasing security around polling places before the midterms. Is this the new reality in America now where we have to have armed guards for people to exercise their right to vote?”

Per a standard set in 1975, haulers are restricted to 80,000 pounds gross vehicle weight. The industry wants that upped to 88,000 pounds.The car hauling industry is lobbying various departments of the federal government to increase weight limits on U.S. highways in order to accommodate the transportation of electric vehicles. ...the industry says current weight limits on trucks roaming around U.S. roads are outdated and not equipped for the imminent pivot to battery-heavy EVs. Currently, federal highway safety standards restrict trailers to 80,000 pounds gross vehicle weight. This standard was set back in 1975, back when a Honda Civic weighed...