Free Republic

BERLIN (AP) — Women in Berlin will soon be allowed to go topless at the city’s public swimming pools, like men, the Berlin state government said Thursday. The new bathing rules allowing everyone to go swimming without covering their torsos followed a discrimination complaint by a woman who was not allowed to go topless in a swimming pool in the capital. The woman, whose identity was not revealed, had turned to the senate’s ombudsperson’s office for equal treatment to demand that women, like men, can swim topless, the Berlin senate for justice, diversity and anti-discrimination said in a written statement....

In November, the progressive candidate, Pamela Price, was elected district attorney of Alameda County, California, after pledging to "disrupt the system." Now, she is doing just that, letting serial killers escape long sentences as part of plea deals, and letting many violent criminals off with just probation.

As minors are increasingly struggling with exposure to pornography, legislation has been filed a bill to make it harder for children to access. House Bill 3570 by State Rep. Nate Schatzline (R–Ft Worth) introduces requirements that force websites with pornographic content to implement age verification using state-issued identification and gives parents the ability to sue websites if their child is exposed to online pornography. If passed, the legislation would take effect September 1. As described in the bill, the requirement for age verification could affect social media websites and other websites where one-third of the content is sexually explicit. An...

BIDEN EMPHASIZES FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY Biden’s budget covers the next 10 years. Overall, he expects an additional $4.7 trillion in tax revenues and $800 billion in savings from making changes to government programs. Biden also wants $2.6 trillion in new spending. That leaves him with an estimated $2.9 trillion reduction in the deficit. MINIMUM TAX ON BILLIONAIRES Biden frequently talks about making companies and the wealthy “pay their fair share,” and the budget is designed to further that goal. MEDICARE FUNDING BOOSTED A key trust fund that funds Medicare, which provides health care to older adults, is on track to become...

"The View" co-hosts clashed on Thursday over Gov. Gavin Newsom's, D-Calif., call to cut ties with Walgreens over its refusal to sell abortion pills in certain states depending on regulations, as Alyssa Farah Griffin argued the California governor had the "wrong target." Farah Griffin and co-host Whoopi Goldberg went back and forth over the hot topic towards the end of the segment as Farah Griffin repeatedly insisted Newsom should not be targeting a private company. "You’re targeting a company for following state laws," she said. Goldberg pushed back and said, "no, then I didn't say it right." "20 attorney generals...

What would be your immediate concern if you lost your job? In a GOBankingRates survey polling 1,002 Americans, more than half of overall Americans said they wouldn’t be able to afford their basic bills and groceries. […] Nearly 37% of overall Americans surveyed by GOBankingRates said paying bills would be their immediate concern if they lost their job. The percentage breakdown is consistently high across all age groups. Those who would be particularly impacted are ages 45 to 54 and ages 65 and older.Ages 18 to 24: 36.40%Ages 25 to 34: 34.50%Ages 35 to 44: 34.43%Ages 45 to 54: 41.18%Ages...

Explanation: Where have all the dim stars gone? From many places on the Earth including major cities, the night sky has been reduced from a fascinating display of thousands of stars to a diffuse glow through which only a few stars are visible. The featured map indicates the relative amount of light pollution that occurs across the Earth. The cause of the pollution is artificial light reflecting off molecules and aerosols in the atmosphere. Parts of the Eastern United States and Western Europe colored red, for example, have an artificial night sky glow over ten times that of the natural...

Like many Angelenos, I spend a lot of time behind the wheel of my car. I drive from my Westside apartment to Dodger Stadium near downtown and farther east to hike in the San Gabriel Mountains. I take the 405 Freeway north to the San Fernando Valley to see friends, or occasionally south to the L.A. Times office — or to the airport, where I grow my carbon footprint even further. So I couldn’t help but consider my own complicity while reading a new study from USC researchers, finding that Angelenos who drive more tend to be exposed to less...

Former NFL quarterback Colin Kapernick accused his adoptive parents of "perpetuating racism," in an interview that aired Thursday. snip Kaepernick illustrated one specific example of this in the novel, depicting a fight he had with his parents during high school over his hairstyle. Inspired to braid his hair in cornrows like his hero, NBA star Allen Iverson, Kaepernick recalled received pushback from is parents. "He's getting what rolls?" his mom says in the graphic novel. Kaepernick said that after styling his hair this way his mom warned his hair was "not professional" and he "looked like a little thug."

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says the site of the devastating train derailment in Ohio is a “potential crime scene,” blasting House Republicans for not holding a hearing on the incident. “This committee needs to hold a hearing on the derailment in East Palestine,” the New York Democrat said during a House Oversight and Accountability hearing Thursday, as the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee grilled the CEO of Norfolk Southern. “This is not just a disaster site. It is a potential crime scene.” The federal government continues to deal with the fallout of the derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals...

Isabel Vaughan-Spruce and Father Sean Gough were arrested for praying outside abortion clinics…now prayers outside abortion clinics have been formally BANNED in the U.K. by the British Parliament! Dr. Gavin Ashenden joins Joe McClane to discuss this totalitarian crackdown on freedom of thought and freedom of religion, as well as Jordan Peterson and his Twitter fight with Pope Francis

The Senate voted Thursday to confirm Daniel Werfel, the former acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, to lead the IRS. He was approved on a bipartisan 54-42 vote. Werfel’s confirmation to the agency comes after he was grilled by the Senate Committee on Finance last month on how he plans to utilize the money in new funding coming to the IRS over the next decade to revitalize the tax agency as taxpayers could see increased audit rates. Democrats approved the $80 billion for the agency last year when they approved the Inflation Reduction Act in a party-line vote. Democrats...

China ​ripped off US military technology to build an advanced high-tech jet fighter, and experts warn that more must be done to protect American weapons information​ and keep Beijing from making such huge development leaps​ in the future, according to a report​ on Thursday​. “What we know is that because of the espionage efforts, [China’s] J-20 is more advanced than it otherwise would be, and that’s the important point here,” former Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Policy James Anderson ​told Fox News Digital in an interview. “They have profited greatly from their thievery over the years,” ​Anderson said. “They’ve...

The Metsamor archaeological site is located near the village of Taronik, in the Armavir Province of Armenia, where the oldest trace of human settlement dates from the 4th millennium BC during the Copper Age.In the Bronze Age and Early Iron Ages, the site became an important religious and economic centre, developing into a city with many temples and sanctuaries, fortified by a citadel and cyclopean walls, and an advanced economy based on metallurgical production.Recent excavations have uncovered a sunken chamber framed by large stones, containing the remains of a wooden burial and two skeletons who died at the age of...

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced legislation on Thursday that would make the minimum pay for public school teachers in the U.S. $60,000 a year, following calls from President Biden to give teachers a raise last month. The Pay Teachers Act of 2023, co-sponsored by a number of lawmakers including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), would provide states with federal funds to establish minimum teacher salaries of at least $60,000 a year. It would also triple the funding of the Title I-A program, which provides funding to schools with a high percentage of students that come from low...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell suffered a concussion after a fall at a local hotel and remains hospitalized “for a few days of observation and treatment,” a spokesman said Thursday. The Kentucky senator, 81, was at a Wednesday evening dinner for the Senate Leadership Fund, a campaign committee aligned with him, when he tripped and was admitted to the hospital, his office said. The dinner was at the Waldorf Astoria Washington DC, formerly the Trump International Hotel, Washington D.C. Spokesman David Popp said McConnell is being treated for a concussion and “is grateful to the medical professionals...

Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) pressed Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw Thursday on the railroad’s history of lobbying against stricter safety regulations at a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine, Ohio. Whitehouse specifically cited a 2015 Obama-era regulation that required more modern electronic brakes for trains carrying hazardous materials, which Norfolk Southern called “not in the public interest” and lobbied to weaken before the Trump administration scrapped it outright in 2018.

...SNIP At the 37:30 mark, Judge Nap was asked about the files the CIA won’t produce related to the JFK assassination. His response was alarming: I’ll tell you a story about JFK. So Trump, as you know, I was privledged to be consulted by him many, many times during his Presidency on the phone. He twice considered me for the Supreme Court, another story for another time. But in one of our interviews, he said to me, don’t forget, I’m going to release the JFK files. I said, “I’m not going to forget it Mr. President, on the contrary, I’m...

Remind me again who the serial liars and deniers are? Tucker Carlson shows real footage from January 6th, and the media and the other Democrats squeal like pigs, denouncing the expository tapes as “lies” and Carlson a cherry picker. This is rich coming from Democrats and the media, who deliberately chose to show a small portion of the videos. The J6 committee was never seeking the truth. It was seeking to destroy President Trump to preclude a run for 2024. If they sought the truth, they wouldn’t have lied about the number of people who died that day, and they...

Officials in California are imploring residents to prepare for a powerful storm set to lash the region with torrential rain later this week as the state continues to recover from colossal amounts of snow that trapped mountain communities. Previous severe weather was responsible for the death of one person in the San Bernardino Mountains area. The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office said the person died in a traffic accident. Other deaths since February 25 don't appear to be weather-related but investigations are ongoing, spokesperson Mara Rodriguez said. About 17.5 million people across central and Northern California -- including the San...