Free Republic

(The Center Square) - California housing permitting collapsed 45% from 135,565 homes in 2022 to just 74,720 in 2023, according to the California Department of Housing and Community Development’s data at time of the story’s publication. Housing experts say rising interest rates are largely to blame for the phenomenon as rising construction costs and interest payments make fewer projects pencil out for developers.

The fossil fuel industry is cashing in on the $7.5 billion for electric vehicle (EV) charging stations that President Joe Biden approved in the Inflation Reduction Act, lobbying to have the stations built at existing gas station locations. Politico‘s Energy & Environment News reported: More than half of the charging stations being built so far from the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law are rising at truck stops and gasoline stations, according to data exclusively provided to E&E News by EVAdoption, an EV data consultancy. In essence, the law’s $7.5 billion pot for charging is reinforcing the very fossil-fuel infrastructure that the...

Boeing is—or was—a great company. From its manufacturing plants in Seattle, it produced the world’s most reliable, efficient aircraft. But after merging with McDonnell Douglas, shifting production around the world, and moving its headquarters to Chicago and then Arlington, Virginia, the Boeing Company has been adrift. Then, in October 2018, one of Boeing’s new 737 MAX aircraft crashed. Then, a few months later, another. Recent months have seen embarrassing maintenance failures, including a door plug that blew off an Alaska Airlines plane in mid-flight. To help explain what went wrong, I have been speaking with a Boeing insider who has...

The Korean alphabet, hangul, is “the most scientific writing system.” One often hears that in South Korea, a society that has taken to heart Asia scholar Edwin O. Reischauer’s description of hangul as “perhaps the most scientific system of writing in general use in any country.” But whatever their scientific credentials, all the other writing systems in use (and indeed out of use) have fascinating qualities of their own, a range of which are explained in the UsefulCharts video above on the writing systems of the world — not just the alphabets of the world, mind you, but also the...

The national director for No Labels, the group that attempted to field a third-party “unity ticket” for the 2024 election, said he will vote for President Joe Biden over former President Donald Trump in November. Joe Cunningham, a former Democratic congressman from South Carolina, told Fox News host Neil Cavuto on Thursday that Biden will get his vote after No Labels announced earlier in the day that it was ditching its effort to get a third-party candidate on the ballot to challenge both Biden and Trump.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called on China on Friday to address manufacturing overcapacity that she said could cause global economic dislocation and to create a level-playing field for American companies and workers. Starting a five-day visit to China in one of the country’s major industrial and export hubs, she said she would raise industrial overcapacity and what the US considers to be unfair Chinese trade practices during what will likely be tough talks with senior China officials. “There are a broad swath of economic interactions” between the US and China “that should remain uncontroversial,” she said at an event...

Rates on U.S. government debt jumped Friday morning after data showed the U.S. created far more jobs than expected in March and signaled that the economy might be speeding up. What’s happening The yield on the 2-year Treasury BX:TMUBMUSD02Y was 4.710%, up 6.9 basis points from 4.641% on Thursday. Yields move in the opposite direction to prices. The yield on the 10-year Treasury BX:TMUBMUSD10Y was 4.382%, up 7.4 basis points from 4.308% on Thursday. The yield on the 30-year Treasury BX:TMUBMUSD30Y was 4.533%, up 6.4 basis points from 4.470% on Thursday. Yields were on track for their largest one-day jumps...

Reuters said Novatek had stopped operations at its Arctic LNG 2 project, which processes gas from the Utrenneye field on West Siberia' Gydan Peninsula, in the latest blow to Russian fuel exports. It comes as Russian exports funding Putin's war have been hampered by repeated drone strikes on oil facilities, blamed on Ukraine. One energy industry expert told Newsweek that state oil giant Rosneft had reduced daily oil processing in March by a fifth. Sanctions have caused a lack of specialist tankers to transport the LNG from Russia through thick sea ice. Six Arc7 tankers were due to be built...

Marvel and Disney are once again courting controversy by casting a female actress to take on the typically male “Fantastic Four” role of the Silver Surfer in the upcoming reboot. Actress Julia Garner has been picked to play a female version of the iconic comic book character and Herald of Galactus, Deadline magazine reported. Sources told the outlet that the Emmy-winning “Ozark” star will play the Shalla-Bal version of the Silver Surfer from the comics. Bounding Into Comics reported that Marvel Studios dived deep into the comic book lore to find justification to not use the Norrin-Radd version of the...

CNN - The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season isn’t here yet, but is already shaping up to be one for the books, with more hurricanes and named storms predicted in a pre-season forecast from Colorado State University than ever before. This June through November could see 23 named storms in all, including 11 hurricanes and five Category 3 or higher “major” hurricanes, according to the university’s Atlantic hurricane season forecast, released Thursday. “This is the most active April forecast that we have ever issued,” lead forecaster Phil Klotzbach told CNN. “Our prior highest hurricane forecast in April was 9 hurricanes, which...

An illegal immigrant who had been deported over a half-dozen times was charged with murder in Butler County, Ohio, according to local reports. Hamilton Police arrested 48-year-old Fermin Garcia-Gutierrez on unrelated charges on March 16, the Journal-News, an Ohio-based newspaper, reported. Authorities highlighted Garcia-Gutierrez’s record of seven deportations in a Friday press conference prior to the discovery of the murder, according to the Journal-News. “It just so happens we ran into him and had an encounter with him,” Hamilton Police Chief Craig Bucheit told the Journal-News Wednesday. “Unbeknownst to us, he had committed this murder.” Police received a 911 call...

The Hamas terrorists behind the Oct. 7, 2023, jihadist raid literally view their female Israeli captives as horses and other animals — to be “ridden.” ... Sex slavery is not only an ironclad aspect of Islam; it is a reflection of “piety,” ... In the moments before he raped the 12-year-old [non-Muslim] girl, the Islamic State fighter took the time to explain that what he was about to do was not a sin. Because the preteen girl practiced a religion other than Islam, the Quran not only gave him the right to rape her — it condoned and encouraged it,...

There could be an Election Denier right next door. They could deliver your mail, serve you a cocktail at the airport, sit next to you on the subway, or empty your garbage. They might be a grandma, a wife, or a son. They could be anyone. They could even be me. Yes, I am an Election Denier. I am someone you’ve been told to fear, someone you probably think has been captured by extremist ideology and THE BIG LIE. You might say that also makes me an “insurrectionist” and “domestic extremist.” I would say you’ve been watching too much MSNBC....

On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) stated that Hamas hiding among civilians is “perhaps, a part of the problem, but it’s not the real problem.” And starvation in Gaza “is Israel’s responsibility, not Hamas’.” Host Jake Tapper asked, “What do you say to people who say, this is not fair, it’s a double standard, Hamas started this on October 7, Hamas wants to destroy Israel, Hamas wants to kill Jews, Hamas hides behind their own people, Hamas doesn’t care how many Palestinian civilians die — all of which, in my opinion, is true — what’s...

Why it matters: Ultra-high-purity quartz is an essential component to semiconductor chips, and the only places in the world that can meet this need are two mines in a small North Carolina town. The mines' owner, Sibelco, is investing $700 million to expand capacity, but is that enough to keep up with AI-fueled chip demand? Spruce Pine is a small town about two hours drive northwest of Charlotte, NC. You can get to the general area via a number of ways, depending on your point of origin, but for the last stretch of the trip, you need to travel down...

The earliest recipients of newly authorized COVID-19 vaccines, including healthcare workers, wrote in tens of thousands of adverse events related to the heart, ears, reproductive system and other conditions not listed as checkboxes in a federal active monitoring smartphone app. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the past two months turned over 780,000 "free text" entries from V-safe, the agency's vaccine-safety monitoring system, under a January order by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by Freedom Coalition of Doctors for Choice. It kept holding out for more than a year after turning...

The FDA is set to axe its ban on gay and bisexual men donating sperm, it has been revealed. Under the current rule, men who have had sex with men within the last five years are blocked from anonymously donating sperm amid fears of HIV infection. But the agency is now seeking to scrap the blanket ban, and replace it with screening questions that assess a donor's risk of carrying HIV or other infections.

Job growth surged in March, as employers added 303,000 positions and the unemployment rate edged down, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Why it matters: The U.S. labor market has proved remarkably resilient over the last year, as employers keep seeking workers despite a bumpy economic environment. The latest numbers affirm that strength, handily beating analysts' forecasts. By the numbers: The jobless rate fell as more people entered the work force — a good sign for growth potential. The labor force participation rate rose by 0.2 percentage points to 62.7%. Average hourly earnings were up 0.3%, and are up...

It didn’t take long for Oregon to realize decriminalizing hard drugs was a bad idea. On Tuesday, Gov. Tina Kotek, a Democrat, signed legislation that recriminalizes drug possession, reversing Measure 110, which 58 percent of voters approved in 2020. By August, however, 56 percent of Oregonians disapproved after a major uptick in overdose deaths and addiction in the state. Lawmakers from both parties got to work drafting legislation to reverse the measure.

President Joe Biden visits Baltimore on Friday following the deadly bridge disaster on March 26, as investors and left-wingers jointly use the tragic deaths of six migrant workers to demand legalization for low-wage migrants. The illegal migrants “that have been working, contributing, paying taxes here for decades deserve the dignity of a legal work permit,” Rebecca Shi, executive director of the American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC), told a press conference on April 3. “Given the tragedy on the Key Bridge, this is more urgent and necessary than ever,” she said, according to a report by WTOP.com.