Free Republic

WASHINGTON - Attorneys general in 20 states have signed onto a letter asking the Biden administration to shut down a Disinformation Governance Board. The AGs say it's an infringement on free speech and could cause people to "self-censor" if they disagree with the government. The board, part of the Department of Homeland Security, was announced last week. But DHS has so far released few details on how the board will function and what powers it will have. "The existence of the Disinformation Governance Board will inevitably have a chilling effect on free speech," wrote Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares. "Americans...

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the Disinformation Governance Board would not infringe on free speech or monitor Americans. Anchor Dana Bash said, “Let’s talk about what your department is calling, The Disinformation Governance Board that you unveiled this week. Republicans are calling it Orwellian and comparing it to the ministry of truth in the novel 1984. Can you clarify what exactly is this? What exactly will this disinformation governance board do? Will it monitor American citizens? ”

News that the Biden administration's Department of Homeland Security had formed a Disinformation Governance Board was met with swift backlash from conservatives and free speech advocates worried about how the board will function and how it comports with the First Amendment. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas mentioned the board Wednesday during a hearing before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, saying his department had just recently constituted the board. But the disinformation entity's name and mission set off red flags over potential free speech violations. "The federal government is supposed to not impede free speech, and that's exactly...

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal told employees Thursday that the company was still evaluating a $43 billion offer by Elon Musk to buy the company and take it private, setting the stage for a potentially drawn-out feud with the world’s richest person. After clips of the songs “I Say A Little Prayer” and “I Want It That Way” by the Backstreet Boys played, Agrawal launched into a 25-minute Q&A session with employees Thursday, according to a person in attendance. He didn’t say when the board would have an answer to Musk’s offer or which way it was leaning, frustrating some who...

Twitter’s board is reportedly considering using a poison pill in an attempt to stop Elon Musk’s ability to purchase the whole company. A poison pill is a shareholder rights plan that would limit a single shareholder from purchasing too many shares and forcing the company into a sale, according to The New York Times. Elon Musk said he had the means to buy Twitter, but investors were skeptical. The board was considering a “poison pill,” a defensive move.https://t.co/pMz9prWHH4 — The New York Times (@nytimes) April 14, 2022 The poison pill would allow Twitter’s board to either flood the market with...

According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday, Elon Musk has been appointed to a seat on Twitter's board of directors. The SEC filing states, "The Company will appoint Mr. Musk to the Company's Board of Directors ... to serve as a Class II director with a term expiring at the company's 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders."The filing goes on to state that Musk is not allowed to purchase more than 14.9% of the company's common stock, limiting his ability to gain full controlling shares of the corporation. Looking forward to working with Parag &...

Twitter (TWTR) - shares extended gains Tuesday after Tesla (TSLA) - CEO Elon Musk was given a seat on the board of the micro-blogging website just days after revealing a major stake in the group. Musk will be named a 'class II' director at Twitter for a period of two years, the company said, in exchange for an agreement that the billionaire investor won't increase his stake to more than 14.9% of the group's outstanding shares. Musk, who revealed a "passive" 9.2% stake in the group through a Securities and Exchange Commission filing yesterday, is now Twitter's largest individual shareholder

The United States Senate on Tuesday voted to advance Lisa Cook’s nomination by President Biden to the Federal Reserve Board after a committee deadlocked on her nomination earlier this month. Cook is currently an Executive Committee member of the regional Chicago Federal Reserve Bank Board of Directors. As a member of the national Federal Reserve Board, she would have key influence on the Fed’s monetary policy, which is supposed to be about price stability, i.e., controlling inflation. In 2020, you may recall that the Chicago Fed bowed to the cancel mob in a particularly egregious manner by cutting ties...

A monthslong dispute over masks in a Chester County school district culminated Tuesday in a judge ordering all five Democrats on the school board to be immediately removed from office.

San Francisco residents overwhelmingly approved of a vote Tuesday to recall three of the city’s school board members, election officials said. Critics, including San Francisco Mayor London Breed, argued the members - school board President Gabriela López, Vice President Faauuga Moliga and Commissioner Alison Collins - pushed progressive politics rather than act in the best interest of children during the pandemic, and voters agreed, according to the San Francisco Department of Elections. "The voters of this city have delivered a clear message that the school board must focus on the essentials of delivering a well-run school system above all else,"...

Zoom has added former Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to its Board of Directors. Financial Buzz reports that Zoom, the video-conferencing app that skyrocketed in popularity at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, has added former governor of Arizona and former Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to its Board of Directors as of today.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly recast his board of directors to cast aside dissenters and consolidate decision-making power at the social media giant. The campaign culminated in the recent departures of two directors from the board and the appointment of a longtime friend of Zuckerberg, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. Kenneth Chenault, who was appointed Facebook's first black board member in 2018, left the board in March, reportedly over disagreements with Zuckerberg over the company's governance and political policies. Two weeks later, Facebook announced that Jeffrey Zients, a former economic adviser to President Barack Obama who also joined...

A Ukrainian official is claiming that Hunter Biden was only appointed to the board of directors of Burisma Holdings to “protect” the company at a time it faced foreign scrutiny over its business practices. Oleksandr Onyshchenko, a former member of the Ukrainian parliament and ally of Burisma’s founder, made the admission to Reuters on Friday when discussing Hunter Biden’s ties to the oil and natural gas company. “It was to protect (the company)” Onyshchenko said, noting that Hunter Biden’s appointment came the same month that Mykola Zlochevsky, Burisma’s founder, had his assets frozen in Great Britain under suspicion of money...

Highly rigorous and respected Cochrane systematic studies in 2010 and 2012 of chronic pain patients found addiction rates in the 1 percent range, and a report on over 568,000 patients in the Aetna database who were prescribed opioids for acute postoperative pain between 2008 and 2016 found a total “misuse” rate of 0.6 percent. The continued clampdown by the DEA also shows a complete lack of understanding about the nature of addiction.

Tom Davis, former Congressman and Chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, will discuss effective campaign strategies, tactics, and techniques for use in Northern Virginia at the April meeting of the Fairfax County Republican Committee. Former Congressman Davis is a proven political winner in Northern Virginia. Starting with a Mason District Supervisor win in 1979, Mr. Davis scored a remarkable 11 straight electoral victories in Fairfax County and other counties of the 11th Congressional District. In 1991 Mr. Davis defeated the incumbent Chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and implemented a number of reforms that resulted in...

BRENTWOOD, NH (WMUR/CNN) - A New Hampshire homeowner is under court order to clean up his yard that's littered with thousands of boxes. If he doesn’t, the town will do it for him and stick him with the bill. Meanwhile, his neighbors are hoping their community will finally go back to normal. Michael Bates found himself back in court after failing to clean up his property in Salem, MA. The town estimates that there are some 2,000 boxes containing printers in the yard.

California is moving toward becoming the first state to require companies to have women on their boards — assuming the idea could survive a likely court challenge.

The Illinois tollway contends its no-bid process that uses a selection committee to makes recommendations to the board on expensive engineering contracts is independent and transparent. But when asked to provide meeting minutes, the agency blacked out the names of committee members in a majority of cases, making it impossible to see who is voting -- a response criticized by attorney and public access expert Don Craven as improper under Illinois open records law. When the names did surface they included tollway board Director Corey Brooks, who like all directors is appointed by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, countering claims the...

The dominoes continue to fall in the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment case. Deadline has confirmed that two more Weinstein Company board members — Tim Sarnoff and Marc Lasry — resigned today in the wake of Thursday’s devastating New York Times report that outlines a pattern of behavior stretching back at least two decades.Sarnoff’s day job is as Deputy CEO and President of Production at Technicolor. Lasry is a billionaire hedge fund manager, CEO of Avenue Capital Group and a co-owner of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks. Their board exits follow by hours that of billionaire investor Dirk Ziff.

With President Donald Trump’s nominees on their way to the Senate, labor and employment attorneys say the National Labor Relations Board is poised to roll back regulations with its first Republican majority in nearly a decade. Management-side attorneys and anti-union advocates are hopeful Obama-era regulations will be scuttled in favor of business-friendly practices.