Free Republic

New resources will encourage zero emissions conversions and transit-oriented development that increase housing supply and cut climate pollution Today, the Biden-Harris Administration is announcing new actions to support the conversion of high-vacancy commercial buildings to residential use, including through new financing, technical assistance, and sale of federal properties. These announcements will create much-needed housing that is affordable, energy efficient, near transit and good jobs, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, nearly 30 percent of which comes from the building sector. Office and commercial vacancies across the country are affecting urban downtowns and rural main streets. A new blog released today by...

When 16-year-old Shreya Nallamothu from Normal, Illinois, scrolled through social media platforms to pass time during the pandemic, she became increasingly frustrated with the number of children she saw featured in family vlogs. She recalled the many home videos her parents filmed of herself and her sister over the years: taking their first steps, going to school and other “embarrassing stuff.” “I’m so glad those videos stayed in the family,” she said. “It made me realize family vlogging is putting very private and intimate moments onto the internet.”

The National Owners Association called California’s recently-passed AB 1228 “draconian” and costly to franchisees in a memo distributed to its members. “The new ‘AB 1228’ legislation has been voted into law and will result in a devastating financial blow to California McDonald’s franchisees at a projected annual cost of $250,000 per McDonald’s restaurant,” the advocacy group representing some 1,000 McDonald’s franchisees said in the memo obtained by FOX Business. “These costs simply cannot be absorbed by the current business model.” CNBC earlier reported on the NOA memo. Among the bill’s key components: It would raise the minimum wage for fast-food...

The Canadian government is using the arson-driven wildfires sweeping across the country as a catalyst to set up its own version of FEMA. Evidence suggests that militant-level arson is responsible for the massive wildfires disrupting Canada and the northeast U.S.:

New York law went into effect last year but enforcement has just begun recently at some Capital Region stores Be prepared to show your ID at the grocery checkout if you want to buy whipped cream in a canister. In New York, the popular dessert topping has joined alcohol and tobacco products on the list of items age-restricted for purchase to those 21 and older, and proof of age is now required at the point of sale. The chargers that propel whipped cream through a canister nozzle are filled with nitrous oxide gas, which can be inhaled to produce a...

The dramatic rise in gun violence over the last two years in the United States, as was demonstrated in the deadly shootout in Sacramento on Sunday, demands that leaders do more to keep firearms away from dangerous people. This is no easy task, of course. But California has a system — the only one in the nation — to do so. The Armed and Prohibited Persons System is a state Department of Justice database that tracks firearms owned by people who are banned from possessing them because they’ve been convicted of a felony, are under a restraining order or have...

SB871 Adds CV19 inj. to list of immunizations for public/private school, no PBE very rare ME AB2098 Classifies anti vax medical opinion as "unprofessional conduct" subject to discipline by medical board SB866 Lowers age of vax consent to 12 without parental consent or knowledge SB920 Authorizes medical board to inspect docs office & med records without patient consent SB1464 Requires Law Enforcement to enforce public health care guidelines or lose their funding SB1390 Prohibits any person/entity making statements government deems untrue or misleading SB1187 Authorizes school health personnel to disclose child's medical info to third party without parents consent AB1797...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — It’s not often that bacon leads a roundup of new laws taking effect with the New Year in California. But even in progressive California, that’s the headline-grabber. It’s among a host of other legislation designed to safeguard employees, shield those seeking abortions, protect protesters from police, spare children from gender influence in store displays, and further ease criminal penalties to reduce mass incarceration. Several of the laws mark national “firsts” — first minimum wage to reach $15 an hour, first to protect warehouse workers from quotas, first to mandate hourly wages for garment workers, first to...

After Friday night's 11th-hour vote in the House resulted in the passage of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill - thanks to 13 uniparty Republicans who joined the Congressional Black Caucus in short-sheeting House Progressives - the Wall Street Journal and Forbes have published refreshers of what what America is supposedly getting out of the largest investment in infrastructure in more than a decade.From 10,000 feet, investments span refurbishing aging roads, bridges and ports, replacing lead pipes, upgrading and hardening the nation's power grid, and of course - a healthy investment in 'infrastructure' to battle the ever-looming man-made climate change disaster...

The New York Times has turned its sights on the middle class by asking President Joe Biden why Americans shouldn’t pay more at the pump to fight climate change. The Times White House correspondent Jim Tankersley lectured Biden on how economists “say that,you know, when you raise the price of something people consume less of it” [d]uring the Question & Answer session of Biden’s speech following the G-20 summit Oct. 31. To that effect, asked Tankersley, “[W]hy not allow even middle class, uh, people around the world to pay more for gasoline in the hope that they would consume fewer...

Freight rail has been an unquestionable success of government deregulation. Since deregulation was passed over forty years ago, America’s rail freight industry has gone from the brink of collapse to one of the most efficient and productive. A recent report from the American Consumer Institute (ACI) has highlighted this fact, showing since the passage of the Staggers Rail Act, the industry’s productivity has increased 159%, shipping volumes have increased 57%, and prices have plummeted 44%. In addition to these gains, the industry has also been able to generate “more than $10 billion in annual consumer welfare.” However, despite these substantial...

The world is facing a “real shortage of energy” that could lead to social unrest, according to Blackstone Inc. co-founder Stephen Schwarzman. “We’re going to end up with a real shortage of energy,” he said at the fifth edition of the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday, Bloomberg reported. “And when you have a shortage it’s just going to cost more and it’s probably going to cost a lot more. And when that happens you’re going to get very unhappy people around the world, in the emerging markets in particular,” he added. Schwarzman’s warning was echoed by...

The University of Alabama (UA) and Auburn University (AU) announced on Friday that to keep federal funding, the colleges must comply with President Joe Biden’s Sept. 9 executive order on vaccine mandates for all employees.Employees must be vaccinated by Dec. 8 or be discharged.“Failure to comply will place The University of Alabama in jeopardy of losing hundreds of millions of dollars that we receive through federal contracts and awards, as well as thousands of jobs funded, in part, by those dollars,” UA said in press release to faculty, staff, and student employees.As part of his “Path Out of the Pandemic:...

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a top Democratic swing vote for the White House‘s legislative agenda, has ruled out scrapping the Trump-era tax cuts in order to pay for the entitlement and climate-change programs within President Biden’s multi-trillion-dollar partisan spending bill.Ms. Sinema, Arizona Democrat, has told colleagues she will not support the more than 40 new tax increases being proposed.House Democrats have proposed to pay for the $3.5 trillion expansion of the federal safety net by hiking corporate and income taxes. The current rates were set in 2017 by former President Trump’s signature overhaul of the tax code.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has told the White House the child tax credit must include a firm work requirement and family income cap in the $60,000 range, people familiar with the matter tell Axios.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom spent the summer campaigning to keep his job and, with a landslide victory in hand, he’s continued pushing progressive California further left. In the four weeks after beating back a recall attempt, the Democrat signed laws that require gender-neutral displays of children’s toys and toothbrushes in large department stores, made it illegal to remove a condom without consent during intercourse and cleared the way for a nation’s first ban on the sale of new gas-powered leaf blowers and lawn mowers. He also made it illegal to film someone near an abortion clinic...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Californians could have higher cellphone bills after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two laws on Friday aimed at giving the state more money to build high-speed internet connections in unserved areas. California is one of 41 states that collect a tax on phone bills and uses the money to build high-speed internet connections. The laws Newsom signed Friday make sure the state will keep collecting that tax — and collect more of it. The laws don’t increase the tax, but it extends the tax, which was scheduled to expire at the end of next year. The laws...

Newly released details of Democrats' massive spending plans include $3 billion for 'tree equity', $12 billion for electric cars, $1 billion more to turn government facilities into 'high-performance green buildings' and millions more for gender identity and bias training. The text of the Build Back Better Act, released by Democrats on the House Budget Committee on Saturday, for the first time reveals how President Biden's allies plan to spend a whopping $3.5 trillion. Critics have already seized on one of its most controversial measures: An extra $79 billion for the Internal Revenue Service over the next decade to expand audits...

WASHINGTON, Sept 27 (Reuters) - A sharply divided U.S. Senate failed on Monday to advance a measure to suspend the federal debt ceiling and avoid a partial government shutdown, as Republican lawmakers denied the bill the votes necessary to move forward. The legislation by President Joe Biden's Democrats was aimed at beating two fast-approaching deadlines that, if left unaddressed, threaten to destabilize the U.S. economy as it struggles to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. The near party-line vote of 48 votes to advance against 50 opposed fell short of the 60 votes needed to push the bill ahead in the...

Donald Trump's supporters didn't take waste time breaking out into 'F*** you Biden' chants immediately as they arrived for the former president's rally in Perry, Georgia. A crop plane with a banner reading 'Tax the Rich' along with President Joe Biden's slogan 'Build Back Better' circled the rally venue at the Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter on Saturday afternoon.