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The Securities and Exchange Commission, the federal agency tasked with enforcing the nation’s securities laws, has been a foundational piece of the administrative state constructed by the Left over the past century. Over the past few years, however, the SEC has come under fire for potential abuses of power, particularly involving its use of administrative law judges to decide its own cases. The SEC’s use of its own judges gives it a clear home court advantage—one that a federal appeals court recently deemed unconstitutional. Now, it appears the SEC may be headed to the Supreme Court with the very constitutionality...

The Washington Post was forced to issue a correction to an op-ed piece that lamented the absence of black players on Argentina’s national soccer team — even though the black population of the South American country is less than 1%.

The United States “took too long” to commence espionage efforts against Chinese health officials to learn more about the COVID-19 pandemic from the outset, according to Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee. In a declassified report (pdf) released Dec. 14, committee members credit intelligence agencies with their early warnings of a potential pandemic but hold that the lack of clandestine intelligence collection as the virus emerged in late 2019 and early 2020 was detrimental to the government’s insight into the situation. “The IC’s [intelligence community’s] reporting throughout January ‘was based on open source reporting, diplomatic reporting,’ and its own...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon judge handed guns rights advocates a victory Thursday and placed a new, voter-approved ban on high-capacity magazines on hold until questions about its constitutionality can be decided. Harney County Judge Robert Raschio released the written ruling after a lengthy court hearing earlier this week in which attorneys for gun rights groups sought a preliminary injunction to stop the narrowly passed ban on magazines of more than 10 rounds. “That the large capacity magazine bans promote public safety is mere speculation,” Raschio wrote. “The court cannot sustain restraint on constitutional right on mere speculation that...

Russia: Parolin Apologises for Francis’ Ill-Considered WordsRussian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on December 15 that Russia had received an apology from the Vatican's Secretary of State over Francis' comments against Chechens and Buryats (en)."This incident is settled," she said, after Francis's claim that Russian soldiers from these two nations where the "cruellest" fighters in Ukraine.

The first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, collectively known as the Bill of Rights, were ratified following vigorous national debate on this day in history, Dec. 15, 1791. Their passage came 3½ years after the Constitution was enacted to become the framework of the national government on June 21, 1788. “A clash erupted over ratification [of the Constitution], with the Anti-Federalists opposing the creation of a strong national government and rejecting ratification and the Federalists advocating a strong union and adoption of the Constitution,” writes the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University. […] “A bill of rights...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California will stop making companies pay employees who can’t work because they caught the coronavirus while on the job. For the past two years, California workplace regulators have tried to slow the spread of the coronavirus by requiring infected workers to stay home while also guaranteeing them they would still be paid. But Thursday, the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board voted to end that rule in 2023 — in part because the rule has become harder to enforce. Only people who caught the virus while at work are eligible to keep getting paid. But...

An official at Mississippi State Penitentiary told how Thomas Edwin Loden Jr “was really up and in good spirits and he has a full belly” after being given a last meal before his execution Loden, who had pleaded guilty to the rape and killing of 16-year-old girl Leesa Marie Gray, became the second inmate executed in the state in 10 years on Wednesday. He has been on death row since 2001, when he pleaded guilty to capital murder, rape and four counts of sexual battery against Ms Gray. Loden was given a last meal that included two bone-in fried pork...

When Steve Knight’s Peaky Blinders, the six-season series about a Birmingham gang in the interwar period and their rise to power, fans were left with a hole in their heart and a question in their mind: What now? Turns out there was no need for concern, as Knight already had another series in mind. Leaving the cold streets of Birmingham and the rainy English weather behind, the screenwriter’s next series takes place in the vast emptiness of the North African desert under the scorching sun. Rogue Heroes is the supposed real story of how the British Army’s real-life special forces...

One of President Biden’s judicial nominees is stuck in the Senate Judiciary Committee because the judge prosecuted an alleged Chinese spy, prompting at least one Senate Democrat to worry that this prosecution reflected “anti-Asian” racism, three Senate aides told Fox News Digital. Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, is stalling the confirmation process for attorney Casey Arrowood, a former Obama-era prosecutor at the Justice Department and Biden’s nominee for U.S. attorney to the Eastern District of Tennessee, the aides said. Arrowood led the prosecution of a case as part of the Trump-era “China Initiative” at the DOJ, which was disbanded earlier this...

Elon Musk @elonmusk · 22h Replying to @elonmusk Last night, car carrying lil X in LA was followed by crazy stalker (thinking it was me), who later blocked car from moving & climbed onto hood. Legal action is being taken against Sweeney & organizations who supported harm to my family. Elon Musk @elonmusk · 19h Anyone recognize this person or car? *Video of person wearing Islamic-looking garb with face hidden, almost took down mask but saw camera and put it back up, and license plate of car*

A jet reportedly crashed in White Settlement Thursday morning, police say. The White Settlement Police Department told WFAA that emergency crews responded to the scene around 10:15 a.m. near the Fort Worth Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base. Police confirmed the pilot of the aircraft ejected. His or her condition is unknown at this time. Police said officers have been asked to help close streets near the incident. In a statement to WFAA, Lockheed Martin said an investigation is underway. "We are aware of the F-35B crash on the shared runway at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Fort...

Explanation: On December 8 a full Moon and a full Mars were close, both bright and opposite the Sun in planet Earth's sky. In fact Mars was occulted, passing behind the Moon when viewed from some locations across Europe and North America. Seen from the city of Kosice in eastern Slovakia, the lunar occultation of Mars happened just before sunrise. The tantalizing spectacle was recorded in this telescopic timelapse sequence of exposures. It took about an hour for the Red Planet to disappear behind the lunar disk and then reappear as a warm-hued full Moon, the last full Moon of...

Luxury condo prices in San Francisco are nosediving amid the continued rampant drug use and crime issues in the city, which is compounded by people continuing to work remotely. "I knew that market segment had weakened, but I didn’t realize the degree to which things had changed," Patrick Carlisle, the chief market analyst for Compass, which conducted the study, said according to the New York Post. "It was a bit shocking." The Compass report found that the median sales price of a two-bedroom condo in the downtown area has fallen by 16.5% since 2021, the New York Post reported. There...

As a spacewalk was being planned to move a radiator onto a new module on the space station a cooling system on the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft was seen leaking into space. This resulted in the space walk being cancelled and the crew investigating this problem while trying to limit effects on the station's scientific experiments.Will Leaking Russian Spaceship Leave The Crew Stranded In Space?Scott Manley | 1.53M subscribers | 196,864 views | December 15, 2022

Model school policy partly crafted by Brinton says 'great sensitivity needs to be taken in what information is communicated' with 'unaffirming' parents Sam Brinton, the non-binary former federal government official who is now facing the possibility of significant prison time, played a key role in developing a model school policy adopted in multiple states that instructs school districts to keep "unaffirming" parents in the dark about a potentially suicidal child’s gender identity or sexual orientation.—-break—- Before joining the federal government, Brinton was in charge of advocacy and government affairs at the LGBTQ youth suicide prevention nonprofit The Trevor Project, where...

The D.C. Bar's disciplinary counsel recommended Thursday that Rudy Giuliani be disbarred after a hearing panel tentatively determined he likely violated at least one professional conduct rule in his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Pennsylvania. The panel said its determination was preliminary and nonbinding, and because of that it declined to specify what rule Giuliani, who contested the election results as former President Donald Trump’s lawyer, had likely violated. It will release a final decision in several weeks, after hearing recommendations related to what discipline Giuliani should receive, assuming the preliminary finding stands. Hamilton “Phil” Fox, of...

Apple App Store Preview: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/trump-tracker-news-politics/id1252432015 In-app purchase: $2.99 I was looking for Trump's TruthSocial.com Terms of Service and Privacy Policy papers, when I stumbled upon the TruthTracker.app at the App Store, and figured the app might interest some members of Free Republic. The SunFuture Inc. Privacy Policy: https://sunfuture.com/privacypolicy-en/

The processed food industry is struggling to come to grips with a more educated consumer. Gone are the days where government and mass-media could completely sway the buying habits of the American public as they did in the past. Today mainstream media is still largely financed by big industry, from pharmaceuticals to processed food to automobiles, and as Americans change their buying habits it is very likely mainstream media will also die a slow death. It would be wrong to assume that the processed food industry will simply change and start producing healthy food, however. Instead, they will try to...

The U.S. Army has announced that it’s next helicopter isn’t a helicopter.The US Army awarded Textron Inc’s Bell unit with the contract to build the next-generation helicopter, ending years of fierce competition between Lockheed Martin Corp.-Boeing Co. to replace the aging fleet of Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawks by 2030.The Army’s “Future Vertical Lift” award went to Bell’s V-280 Valor tiltrotor aircraft, similar to the V-22 Osprey. The new aircraft can take off and land vertically like a helicopter but rotate massive props to fly like a fixed-wing aircraft at impressive speeds.Indeed, the specs are pretty impressive:General characteristicsCrew: 4 Capacity: 14...