Free Republic

Caltrans reached its next steps to remove one of the worst freeways in the country and make right what Oakland Rep. Barbara Lee once called a “scourge on the East Bay.” The freeway is highly criticized for ostracizing residents in the predominantly Black neighborhood of West Oakland. For years, community organizations have called for its demolition. “Today, I-980 represents a painful physical monument to the segregation and discrimination of generations past,” Caltrans wrote in a statement. In March 2023, Caltrans received a $680,000 grant from the federal government as part of the Biden administration’s infrastructure law. This prompted Caltrans to...

The decades-long push led by tribal communities to remove four dams along the Klamath River reached another victory this week as crews began the project’s final stages, restoring historic water flows to the river for the first time in over a century. The fight to remove dams along the Klamath began over two decades ago, when poor water quality and river flows caused tens of thousands of the river’s fish, mostly Chinook salmon, to die in a massive fish kill in 2002. For thousands of years, Chinook salmon have been a fundamental source of physical, spiritual and economic sustenance to...

A secondary school in Treviso, Italy, has come under fire after it was revealed that Muslim students were exempted from studying Dante Alighieri's "The Divine Comedy" due to the poem's depiction of the Prophet Muhammad in Hell. The epic poem, spanning Inferno, Purgatoria, and Paradiso, shows the fate of many non-Christians, per the immagination of the legendary Italian poet. Ancient poets Virgil, Aristotle, and other pagans are depicted as existing in Limbo due to their lack of Christianity. According to a report by The Telegraph, the school allowed two Muslim students, aged around 14, to skip classes during the study...

Millennials and Gen Zers are far more skeptical about starting a family than previous generations, with some pointing to a lack of financial stability and a potential climate crisis as factors. As a result that’s led to fertility rates plummeting. The average American woman is having just 1.6 children on average, per World Bank data. "The US population is still growing because of immigration" said ADM’s Ostwald. He added that the 2024 presidential election could be even more crucial for the economy. Republican frontrunner Donald Trump slammed Mexican migrants in his 2016 campaign. “Trump's objective is to actually slow migration...

Cars, not near the fire were turned to dust. Dustified engines. Same thing with Paradise CA and other areas. Melted, temperatures so hot it melted metals and turned things to dust. But things made of the color blue not so damaged. Listen to this short very logical explanation. Folks we are being incincerated. This is like 911 all over again. Go to Youtube and search Hawaii Real Estate . See the videos posted by Eric West the owner. And now I heard Keller Williams has fired him or let his office off their list… for him just reporting what is...

More than 500 people are likely to be accepted under the Government’s Afghan Admission program, established in response to the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan after the Taliban returned to power there almost two years ago. Originally, places on the scheme were limited to 500; however, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice has said that “the number of places to be provided under the program is likely to exceed that number”. As of 27 July this year, 178 applications had been approved, representing 479 beneficiaries. This represents a third of all applications submitted.In total, 528 Afghan citizens living in Ireland...

At long last, justice has come: the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Ill., has begun paying reparations to black residents. So now that historic wrongs have been righted, a new era of racial harmony will dawn in northern Illinois, right? Wrong: one local “civil rights activist” is already complaining that the payouts are too meager and more money is needed. Despite the discontent, however, supporters of the scheme are optimistic, with one even terming it “a test run for the whole country.” Yeah, that’s the problem. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Evanston will shell out $25,000 to around 140...

Apart from the 16 individuals who have already received payment, the city has identified 90 more eligible individuals and begun making home visits. A Chicago suburb began paying reparations to black residents this week after first approving the proposal in 2019. Thus far, 16 residents have received funds from a $10 million sum the city allocated for such payments, the Evanston Round Table reported. The money was initially to come from cannabis sales tax, but the city subsequently approved use of real estate transfer tax revenue to expedite the process. Apart from the 16 individuals who have already received payment,...

A suburb of Chicago has become the first to start paying reparations to qualifying black residents in what is being seen as “a test run for the whole country.” The city of Evanston has already paid 16 locals from a $10 million package first approved in 2019, the Evanston RoundTable said Monday. By the end of the year, the reparations committee expects to have paid $25,000 each to 140 qualifying residents in the city of about 75,000, officials also told the Wall Street Journal. Those qualifying had to be at least 18 and living in the city between 1919 and...

A research document published on the White House's website reveals the Biden administration is open to studying how to block sunlight to save the earth from climate change. The congressionally mandated report released by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy on Friday shows that the team has been researching "geoengineering" methods to keep the sun rays from accelerating global warming. As the University of Oxford notes in its entry on the subject, "geoengineering" is "the deliberate large-scale intervention in the Earth’s natural systems to counteract climate change." According to the report, titled "Congressionally-Mandated Report on Solar Radiation...

HORNBROOK, Calif. (AP) — Tribal, state and federal officials on Thursday cheered a plan for the largest dam removal in U.S. history along the Klamath River near the California-Oregon line as a major step toward restoring a once-thriving watershed that tribal communities have long relied on. “Clean water, healthy forests and fertile land made the Klamath River Basin and its surrounding watershed a home to tribal communities, productive agriculture, and a place where abundant populations of migratory birds, suckers, salmon and other fish could thrive,” U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said. The removal of four dams along the river will...

MINNEAPOLIS -- The federal government recently renamed hundreds of lakes, streams, summits and other places to remove an offensive term for Indigenous women. The new name for the lake formerly known as Squaw Lake, which is located in Pine County, is Manidoons Zaaga'igan Zhaawanor. It's one of the nearly 650 changes that have been made by the government in order to avoid the use of the slur. Among the states with the most instances include California, which had 80 name changes, and Arizona, which had 66. Wisconsin had 28 instances of names being changed, the closest of which is the...

LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization says it’s holding an open forum to rename the disease monkeypox, after some critics raised concerns the name could be derogatory or have racist connotations. WHO said the decision was made following a meeting of scientists this week and in line with current best practices for naming diseases, which aims to “avoid causing offense to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional, or ethnic groups, and minimize any negative impact on trade, travel, tourism or animal welfare.” Monkeypox was first named in 1958 when research monkeys in Denmark were observed to have a “pox-like”...

Former Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine, who coordinated the commonwealth’s initial response to the coronavirus pandemic before being appointed to the Biden administration, has been named among the Women of the Year by USA Today. Levine, the U.S. assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the head of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps., is the nation’s highest ranking transgender official. “I really feel that everything I’ve ever done, whether it was in academic medicine, in education, in clinical research, seeing my patients in my role in public health, in...

President Biden's Health and Human Services department is finalizing funding to dole out crack pipes to drug addicts as part of its Harm Reduction Plan. The $30 million grant program will begin doling out money in May to provide funds to nonprofits and local governments to make drug use safer and to advance racial equity. Included in the grant is money to purchase safe smoking kits/supplies. A spokesperson for HHS told the Washington Free Beacon that included in these kits could be pipes for users to smoke substances like crack cocaine and crystal methamphetamine, or any illicit substance. Handing out...

Joy Behar told her co-hosts Wednesday on ABC’s “The View” that the NFL should “rehire” Colin Kaepernick to make up for former Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden’s emails. Behar said, “The scandal at the NFL keeps getting worse. Raiders coach Jon Gruden was forced to resign after years of his racist, homophobic and misogynist emails were found while investing the toxic work environment in yet another organization, The Washington football team.” Co-host Sara Haines said, “This was troping at the lowest level. We can’t say these words. We were reminded 15 times not to,. But most of us don’t...

A long-running crime prevention strategy that’s used in a couple of East Bay cities may be heading to San Francisco. It involves cash incentives for not committing crimes. San Francisco’s Dream Keeper Fellowship has been described as giving someone money to not shoot people.

VALPARAISO, Ind. -- Valparaiso University announced Tuesday that it has adopted the Beacons as its new team name, replacing the Crusaders, a term school officials dropped this year after saying it had been embraced by hate groups. The university's president, José D. Padilla, said the private Lutheran school's new nickname "directly connects to the University's motto, 'In Thy Light We See Light,' and represents the Valparaiso University community in many ways."

MADISON, Wis. (WTVO) — The University of Wisconsin has removed a 70-ton boulder from its campus after complaints by minority students that it is a symbol of racism. According to ABC News, Chamberlain Rock, named after geologist and former university president Thomas Crowder Chamberlain, was referred to, in the 1920’s, by a derogatory term for black people. According to the Wisconsin State Journal, the term “n*****head” was commonly used in that era to describe any large dark rock. The Black Student Union called for the rock to be removed last summer, saying it represents the campus’ racist past. “I’m grateful...

A senior Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official informed Breitbart Texas that Border Patrol agents will deploy to the Mexico-Guatemala boundary to respond to large migrant caravans organizing in Central America. The senior source, speaking on a condition of anonymity, says Border Patrol will deploy 300 agents to assist in the endeavor and will likely play a role in gathering intelligence and work in advisory roles. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced on Monday that Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras are focusing efforts to disperse the caravan through conventional troop deployments. [excerpted] The efforts are the results of discussions with...