Free Republic

New Hampshire’s Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed a pair of bills into law Thursday that place bans on sanctuary city polices in the Granite State. “There will be no sanctuary cities in New Hampshire,” Ayotte said during the bill signing, according to New Hampshire Bulletin. “Period. End of story.” The two bills that are now law — House Bill 511 and Senate Bill 62 — ban municipalities and counties in the state from putting in place policies that prevent local officials and police from cooperating with federal immigration officials such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Among other requirements, House...

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp (R) signed legislation into law on Monday that would block males identifying as females from competing in girls’ and women’s sports at public schools and colleges in the Peach State. The Riley Gaines Act, which will take effect on July 1, requires that student athletes from kindergarten through college compete according to their biological sex, not what they may identify as. The law further requires the state to provide separate locker rooms and changing facilities for male and female athletes. “It will establish clearly in Georgia law that males are not allowed to compete in female...

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk slammed a new California law Friday that aims to prohibit local authorities from requiring photo identification (ID) when voting, saying that it had been passed “to make voting fraud unprovable.” Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed the law in September. The law was partly a reaction to an attempt by the City of Huntingon Beach, one of the last conservative bastions in California, to require voter ID in the 2024 election. Voters in the city passed Measure 1, requiring voter ID, in March 2024, but it does not take effect until 2026. The law, SB 1174, includes...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a bill this week to ban one-pound, single-use propane cylinders, meaning that only more expensive reusable cylinders will be available in the state. The San Francisco Chronicle reported: Disposable propane canisters like the dark green ones used with camping stoves will soon be phased out in California, after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Sunday requiring all one-pound cylinders sold in the state to be reusable or refillable starting in 2028. … Between 4 million and 7 million of the single-use cylinders are sold in California each year, according to an estimate from the California...

In prior months you may remember me saying the mechanisms of control will shift to specifically target individuals, not ideas.The banning, blocking, removing and censorship of ideas, thoughts and concepts was the control activity that took place in the past six to eight years. Now that many of those black-listed ideas and opinions have been shown to be more accurate than the approved, white-listed claims that stood before, the censorship effort has to modify and target the truthtellers.Thus, in this censorship game, big tech moves to target individuals. As CTH predicted a few years ago, Neil Oliver is one of...

Imagine a world where gas stations are replaced by charging stations. Does that sound weird or cool? Well, that’s the future 12 U.S. states are hurtling towards by phasing out the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles. California pioneered this ambitious plan to fight air pollution by encouraging residents to buy electric cars. A domino effect has begun following California’s lead, with 11 states lining up to follow suit. In August 2022, California decided to ban the sales of gas-powered cars by 2035. It’s a big step in fighting climate change since ICEs constitute a significant cause of air pollution. However,...

A lawmaker in California introduced a bill that would ban teachers from being able to assign students an excessive amount of homework. California State Assembly member Pilar Schiavo (D) introduced The Healthy Homework Act, also known as AB 2999, in February, noting in an interview with Fox40 that it would have a “huge impact” on the students. Under AB 2999, educational agencies, local school board officials, and school administration officials would need to “develop, adopt, and update” homework policies “at least once every five years,” and take into account research available regarding the impacts of homework on students’ physical and...

Colorado House Democrats passed “assault weapons” ban legislation Sunday to prohibit the sale of AR-15s and certain 9mm pistols. On March 20, 2024, Breitbart News reported that the legislation, HB24-1292, bans 9mm pistols that have threaded barrels and accept a detachable magazine. Moreover, the text of HB24-1292 makes clear that a semiautomatic handgun of any caliber would be banned if it takes a detachable magazine and has a threaded barrel.

A bill that would prohibit public libraries from banning books or other materials because of topic or content passed the Assembly Education Committee in a 5-1 vote with 1 abstention on Wednesday. Assembly Bill 1825, authored by Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance), would specifically require the governing board or body of each public library to establish a written policy for the selection of library materials and the use of library materials and facilities. The bill would require the policy to establish that library materials shall not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to the creation...

Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Alex Wagner Tonight” that she believes Democrats are fighting for freedoms that Republicans are taking away with book bans. The former speaker claimed books in school that have been classics “are now burned.” Wagner said, “Some of the priorities for these Republican lawmakers in a vacuum. The most egregious things really stand out. Among them their war on reproductive freedom and the most recent comments from their informal head, their front runner, Donald Trump, who wants to replace Obamacare.”

Florida has “effectively” banned AP Psychology from being taught in schools, according to a statement from the College Board. The Florida Department of Education instructed superintendents that “teaching foundational content on sexual orientation and gender identity is illegal under state law,” according to the statement.

Portland officials are mulling a proposal to ban daytime homeless camps in most public spaces as the West Coast city struggles to get a handle on the ballooning number of people living on the streets. Homeless people would need to clear their camps every morning by 8 a.m., picking up all their belongings and trash before they could settle down again at 8 p.m., according to the proposal. The ban would extend to city parks, near schools, day cares, construction sites and some sidewalks, according to the plan brought forward by Mayor Ted Wheeler. “There are currently hundreds of unsanctioned,...

Once this is in place, hopefully it will serve as a model for other states. The Texas Tribune reports: Texas lawmakers find consensus on bill banning diversity, equity and inclusion offices in public universities Texas public universities’ diversity, equity and inclusion offices likely have six months left before they’re banished. State lawmakers came to an agreement Saturday on legislation that would ban DEI offices, programs and training at publicly funded universities, largely adopting the version that the Texas House approved a week ago, with some minor changes.

Among the many lies that Joe Biden told in his 5 A.M video announcing his 2024 reelection bid last week was that Republicans are banning books. As Biden mentions the book ban, there is a depiction of a stack of books at the top of which sits a paperback copy of To Kill a Mockingbird.It is not only Biden; this is also a claim that many Democrats have made when they are confronted with the cancel culture pioneered by the left. They slyly paint a false equivalence by claiming that Republicans are banning books too; often, they make it a...

New York state leaders led by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul reached an agreement late Thursday on the state's 2024 budget which includes a future ban on natural gas hookups in new building construction. Under the budget deal, natural gas hookups will be banned in small buildings beginning in 2025 and large buildings beginning in 2028, according to Hochul. The governor said in remarks that the budget insulates households from "exorbitant energy bills" while helping the state build a "more sustainable future." "Everyone knows we've seen the effects of climate change — the storms, the hurricanes coming to New York, record...

Buying “nips” in Boston may soon be nipped in the bud. The city of Boston is considering a possible ban on miniature liquor bottles, known to Bostonians as “nips” and to others across the country as “minis” or “shooters,” due to the amount of waste they add to the city. Boston City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo on Monday proposed banning city liquor stores from selling the mini bottles, which hold between 1.7 to 3.4 fluid ounces, in order to combat both alcohol abuse and mounting waste in city streets. “The fact that this handled even one of these two issues would...

Sometimes it’s the little things – the one indignity too many – that cause people to revolt. Banning new gas stoves, as a commissioner on the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has suggested, could be the diktat that finally brings Americans to rebel against the government’s incessant, autocratic and ultimately insulting intrusion into our daily lives. The European Union found that out the hard way. Just weeks before the British went to the polls to vote on whether they wanted to remain in the EU, reports leaked that the unelected bureaucrats in Brussels planned to ban electric teakettles that were...

COVID response critic and former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson was reinstated by Twitter Wednesday, after suing the social media company in the wake of his August 2021 banishment from the platform. Berenson and Twitter settled the lawsuit in late June, with most of the terms undisclosed. The tech giant was forced to eat a little crow, though, admitting that his “tweets should have not led to [his] (Berenson’s) suspension at that time.”Shady's back.Tell a friend.For the full story of my reinstatment, including @Twitter's acknowledgment of error, see my Substack.https://t.co/SgXfocIFiQ— Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) July 6, 2022Berenson was a loud...

Vijaya Gadde, the 48-year-old chief legal officer and general counsel of Twitter, called a virtual meeting with the policy and legal teams she oversees on Monday Gadde wanted to update her team on the implications of Elon Musk's $44 billion takeover of the company, and ended up breaking down in tears, Politico said Gadde 'expressed concerns about how the company could change,' Politico reported, under Musk's leadership, in which free speech is championed Having joined Twitter in 2011, she has been central in crafting the company's positions on banning hate speech versus allowing free debate Gadde was instrumental in the...

President Joe Biden announced his decision to ban oil imports from Russia at the White House on Tuesday, just days after his administration argued against the idea. “We will not be part of subsidizing Putin’s war,” Biden said, painting the decision as a moral one after Russian president Vladimir Putin escalated his war in Ukraine.