Free Republic

ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood is defending her fund's stake in SpaceX, declaring the aerospace and satellite network pioneer could become the "most important company in global history" despite the stock's recent slide and an upcoming $116 billion share unlock. During an interview on "Mornings with Maria" Wednesday, Wood explained why she remains bullish on SpaceX after funds managed by ARK Invest allocated $80 million to the position following its public debut. "[Down] from its peak, it is," Wood said, "but of course not from the IPO price. We think this could become the most important company in history, and...

The Walt Disney Company has unleashed a fresh bloodbath across its entertainment empire, with Pixar taking a major hit despite the blockbuster success of “Toy Story 5.” The “Mouse House” announced several hundred layoffs Tuesday in its third round of cuts this year, affecting Disney Entertainment Television, ESPN, corporate divisions and Disney Studios, according to SFist. Pixar’s Emeryville animation studio was hit hardest within the film division. Disney has not confirmed how many Pixar workers lost their jobs, but a source told TheWrap that roughly 116 employees were laid off. Many of the Pixar cuts were concentrated in production and...

Rep. Cleo Fields (D-La.) has announced he will not seek reelection, choosing instead to run for state Senate in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling gutting the Voting Rights Act. In a statement late Tuesday afternoon, Fields said he came to the decision after “a great deal of prayer and reflection.” “I feel my calling to serve the people is better put to use back home than here in D.C., and I intend to answer that call,” said Fields, whose majority-Black district encompasses parts of Shreveport, Baton Rouge and Lafayette. Fields’ announcement comes after the Louisiana state legislature in...

A major American gun manufacturer is turning restrictive gun laws back on the law-enforcement agencies that benefit from special exemptions. CMMG says police departments in gun-ban states should not receive firearms, magazines, suppressors, or configurations that ordinary citizens are prohibited from owning—unless agency leadership is willing to take a public stand.In this video, we break down CMMG’s law-enforcement sales policy, what it actually means for AR-15 ban states, why police exemptions create a major Second Amendment contradiction, and whether other firearm manufacturers could follow. We also examine how law enforcement may respond, the Founders’ concerns about government monopolizing effective arms,...

WASHINGTON — What’s in a name? “Squad” Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) mixed up two Jewish Democrats named “Josh” Tuesday while attempting to dunk on Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) after he warned about the rise of socialism in the party. “What about Dems who sign bombs and vote to drop them?” Lee chided Gottheimer after the Garden Stater blasted the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) as “not Democrats” but “socialists, who want to hijack the Democratic Party” and declared “there’s no room for anti-American bomb-throwers who oppose our ideas, values, & leaders.” After Gottheimer told Lee she was thinking of “the...

WASHINGTON — A powerful House panel subpoenaed three far-left nonprofits Wednesday as part of a sweeping review of Shanghai-based Marxist millionaire Neville Roy Singham’s network of subversive groups in the US. The House Ways and Means Committee is probing the path of $39 million disbursed from Singham to the People’s Forum, lefty media outlet BreakThrough News, and Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Fox News Digital first reported on the subpoenas. Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) ripped the three groups for failing to cough up a “single responsive document” in response to the committee’s prior requests for information. Smith’s team is concerned...

On February 13 this year, the federal EPA rescinded one of its regulatory actions known as the “Endangerment Finding.” (EF). The EF, originally adopted in 2009 early in the Obama administration, was likely the single most costly and destructive regulatory action ever to spring forth from the administrative state. The EF became the fundamental underpinning for all the subsequent regulations that sought to restrict and ultimately ban use of fossil fuels in the economy — everything from regulations seeking to force closure of power plants, to efforts to mandate only electric cars, to restrictions on drilling and pipelines, and much,...

Climate science in the federal government is about to get a whole lot more honest. The United States Global Change Research Program, or the USGCRP, was disbanded early last year. Created by an act of Congress in 1990, the goal of the USGCRP was to coordinate federal research and investments across fifteen federal member agencies to present a whole-of-government face to the federal government’s position on global environmental change. Now it has returned, but with a new and improved mission and leadership. I served as Director of the USGCRP back in the latter days of the first Trump Administration; it...

he New Jersey bleedout continues. ExxonMobil and Samsung are running for the exits. Joining them this week is candy and confectionery giant Mars Wrigley, which just announced that it is shifting its corporate headquarters from Newark to Chicago. Since the 1940s, Mars Wrigley has been headquartered in Ironbound (AKA Downneck), a rather odd urban offshoot paralleling the Passaic River. It is one of the last livable areas of Newark. Mars Wrigley represents its largest industrial resident. Mars Wrigley is the producer of M&Ms, a legendary candy among one of the most popular in the world, along with Snickers, Milky Way,...

Celeste Rivas’ parents watched in horror during a hearing for their daughter’s accused killer D4vd as horrific images of her decapitated and mutilated corpse were displayed in a court. The 14-year-old’s family ignored their attorney’s request to look away as the shocking images were displayed in a Los Angeles courtroom during the first day of the singer’s preliminary hearing on Tuesday. The devastated couple were later spotted crying in the hall of the courthouse after viewing their daughter’s severed limbs, head, torso and fingers allegedly found in the trunk of D4vd’s Tesla. An LAPD homicide detective provided disturbing details while...

A Georgia city’s youngest-ever mayor was temporarily stripped of his duties and privileges amid an investigation over his alleged spending – less than a year after being elected on a campaign premised around accountability and transparency. Jayden Williams, the 22-year-old mayor of Stockbridge, Ga., was ordered to hand over his city-issued credit cards by Monday at noon due to his spending, but failed to meet the deadline, Atlanta News First reported. Stockbridge city council officials launched a probe into Williams after “information” was presented to finance officials and the city attorney, without divulging further. Lawmakers backed a resolution on a...

A slate of Republican candidates endorsed by President Trump, including former NFL kicker Jay Feely, emerged victorious Tuesday in Arizona’s primary elections, while a Democratic socialist House hopeful suffered a massive defeat. Feely, who played for six teams, including the New York Jets and New York Giants, during his 14 seasons in the NFL, defeated former state lawmaker Joseph Chaplik in the Arizona 1st District race by a 49.4%-35.2% margin. The district, rated a toss-up by the Cook Political Report, is being vacated by Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.), who opted to run for governor, and is expected to be hotly...

Political parties tend to harshly reject the idea that they are a threat to the constitutional order, but the Democratic Socialists of America are making it part of their brand. The DSA has released a new program that, besides contemplating the advent of a classless society, calls for abolishing the US Senate, the presidency, and the Supreme Court. This is literally a revolutionary program to topple the American system as we have known it since 1789. It’s the kind of thing you might expect after angry rebels mount the barricades in Washington, DC, and overthrow the government. It makes proposals...

Oli London @OliLondonTV King Charles visits new ‘eco friendly’ mosque in Cambridge, England. “The fact that you have a purpose built mosque here with a community center attached, makes a huge contribution, not only to the Muslim community here- but to Cambridge itself.”

Google’s parent company Alphabet has reportedly more than quadrupled its office space in Miami this year after co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin bought mansions in the area, fleeing California ahead of a proposed tax on billionaires. This spring, Alphabet signed a lease to expand its Miami space to about 45,000 square feet, adding to its current 10,000 square-foot satellite office in the city’s financial district, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Page and Brin are the second- and third-richest people in the world, with net worths of $257 billion and $237 billion, respectively, according to Forbes. Their...

California policymakers are dangerous not only to their neighbors but to the entire country because their ideas are often adopted by imitators in state houses and city halls. Plastic bag bans. Overbearing climate regulation. Draconian COVID rules. A crusade against condiment packets. Almost added to that list is a punishment for retail chains that dare close their stores. One San Francisco city supervisor, Bilal Mahmood, had hoped to tax shuttered grocery stores and pharmacies, because, in his view, “no San Franciscan should be forced to choose between long walks, expensive rides, or going without basic necessities.” Had Mahmood had...

A California man accused of stealing jewelry was back behind bars less than 24 hours after walking out of jail, allegedly pulling off the exact same type of crime while already on pretrial probation, authorities said. Andre Wiley, 19, was arrested last week after Sacramento County Sheriff's Office detectives said he teamed up with two other men in an alleged jewelry store theft just hours after being released from the Placer County Jail on his own recognizance for burglary, conspiracy and grand theft charges. Investigators said Wiley and 18-year-olds Andrew Ivy and Kameryus Mayhand entered a local jewelry store together....

Speaker Mike Johnson's latest bid to skirt Democrats’ opposition to an election integrity bill backed by President Donald Trump survived a key hurdle on Monday evening. The Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act has faced significant headwinds in Congress despite having Trump’s full-throated support. While it passed the House, the legislation has struggled in the Senate where at least several Democratic votes are needed to break a filibuster and advance to final passage. But the new plan by Johnson, R-La., which would allow key parts of the bill to skirt Democrats entirely, is one step closer to getting a...

Young progressives are more likely to consider normal day-to-day struggles — like difficulty sleeping and feeling blue — as mental health problems, per a new analysis. Is it any wonder, given the left-leaning ideology that convinces Americans that the system is simply stacked against them? Data from the US General Social Survey, analyzed by the Financial Times, revealed that younger people and more progressive people were more likely to believe that everything from feeling worried, trouble sleeping and feeling a little sad were symptomatic of a disorder. Asked if a theoretical person with those symptoms was experiencing mental illness, 6...

For millions of Americans, the weekly grocery trip has become one of the biggest strains on the household budget. Even as overall inflation has cooled, food prices remain stubbornly high, forcing shoppers to compare prices more closely than ever before.Now, a new study suggests one of the country’s largest supermarket chains may be offering the best value on everyday essentials.Kroger topped a comparison of four major grocery retailers, beating Walmart, Aldi, and Albertsons on the total cost of a basket of common store-brand staples.Kroger Comes Out on TopThe price comparison, conducted by Restaurant Furniture Plus and reported by Southern Living,...