Free Republic

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is eyeing a change to the United States Constitution. The state's legislature on Thursday approved a resolution in support of Newsom's call for a 28th Constitutional amendment, according to the Los Angeles Times. The amendment would enshrine a list of Democratic gun-control policy priorities into federal law. California is requesting a Constitutional convention to enshrine the amendment. For the amendment to be considered, two-thirds of state legislatures would have to vote in favor of a convention, according to the Times. The proposed "Right to Safety Amendment" would limit legal gun ownership to adults 21 and older,...

Some residents in Oregon are fed up with living under Democratic control of their state government and have launched a ballot initiative campaign to join Republican-led Idaho. The movement, known as "Move Oregon's Border for a Greater Idaho," is hoping to expand the borders of the Gem State through the inclusion of more than a dozen bordering rural counties now in Oregon. Mike McCarter, chief petitioner of the movement says the group has gotten the "green light" in at least three Oregon counties -- Josephine, Douglas and Umatilla -- that would start the first step in the secession process, which...

Seeking to attract millions more passengers, Amtrak is preparing a large-scale overhaul of its national network aimed at boosting passenger service in the South and West—but at the expense of long-haul routes beloved by train buffs and their allies in Congress. The goal is to revamp the way Amtrak runs trains along the aging network of national routes it already maintains, with more frequent service between pairs of cities in the fastest-growing parts of the country, such as Atlanta and Charlotte, NC, or Cleveland and Cincinnati. Running more trains over shorter distances would allow Amtrak to better serve those commercial...

Despite what you might have heard, Gov. Gavin Newsom reaffirmed California's commitment to high-speed rail in his State of the State speech on Tuesday. Newsom said California must "be real" about high-speed rail in the state, and that there "simply isn't a path" to completing the full vision of the project, which would connect San Francisco and Los Angeles by bullet trains in less than 3 hours. At the same time, he affirmed the state's commitment to completing the 119-mile first phase, which will connect Bakersfield to Merced. Most media reports portrayed Newsom's announcement as a scaling back of the...

Everybody has been watching Brightline, the bold upstart operator of private-sector passenger trains in a nation where every other scheduled train is operated in the public sector, either by Amtrak or by a local transit authority. There has been a lot of news about Brightline lately, and this writer originally intended to focus on the customer experience and the railroad’s plans for the future.Then came the news that Virgin Group’s Richard Branson is buying a position in the company and the brand will be sacrificed in favor of Virgin Trains USA. This news raises more questions than it resolves, and...

President Trump has decided to remove Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, and her departure from the administration is likely to occur in the coming weeks, if not sooner, according to five current and former White House officials. Trump canceled a planned trip with Nielsen this week to visit U.S. troops at the border in South Texas and told aides over the weekend he wants her out as soon as possible, these officials said. The president has grumbled for months about what he views as Nielsen’s lackluster performance on immigration enforcement and is believed to be looking for a replacement who...

Railway Age editor William C. Vantuono wondered recently what exactly Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson is trying to accomplish by truncating long-distance routes, replacing fresh dining-car meals with MREs, and replacing station agents with nobody. Is Anderson trying to drive passengers off the long-distance system so he can close it? (Ben Biaggini tried that at Southern Pacific in the 1960s, and it worked.) Is Anderson just trying to please Congress by reducing “money-losing” operations so he can look like the kind of fiscal tough guy currently in fashion in Washington? Or maybe Anderson is being tactical rather than strategic, plotting to...

With its funding plans clearer, South Florida passenger start-up Brightline is looking west for its next venture into private high speed rail.Brightline on Tuesday said it had acquired XpressWest, a high-speed passenger rail project with rights to develop a federally approved corridor connecting Southern California and Las Vegas. he project would be only the second privately funded intercity passenger rail in the United States after Brightline. No terms were disclosed. “Brightline is changing transportation in our country by connecting heavily trafficked corridors that are too long to drive and too short to fly,” said Wes Edens, co-founder and co-chief executive...

One hundred years ago, the United States had a public transportation system that was the envy of the world. Today, outside a few major urban centers, it is barely on life support. Even in New York City, subway ridership is well below its 1946 peak. Annual per capita transit trips in the US plummeted from 115.8 in 1950 to 36.1 in 1970, where they have roughly remained since, even as population has grown. This has not happened in much of the rest of the world. While a decline in transit use in the face of fierce competition from the private...

The Last Train to Grand Canyon: How Amtrak Fails the National Parks — and America Editor's note: National parks historian Alfred Runte has over the years closely watched how Congress has managed and funded Amtrak. Although funding for Fiscal Year 2019 is halfway to being assured -- the Senate has approved $50 million for the railroad, but the House of Representatives has yet to take up the measure -- he reminds us that only weeks ago Amtrak’s board approved the scenario here. A stay of execution for the Southwest Chief aside, Dr. Runte continues to lobby for the trains Americans...

In a decision certain to reignite debate over one of the most consequential events in recent city history, a Philadelphia judge on Tuesday reinstated all criminal charges against the engineer in the fatal 2015 Amtrak derailment. The decision by Common Pleas Court Judge Kathryn Streeter Lewis once again clears the way for the case against Brandon Bostian to be put before a jury. Bostian’s prosecution has for years taken unusual twists and turns through the criminal justice system, even as millions of dollars have been awarded to victims who filed civil suits against Amtrak. Bostian, 34, sat quietly next to...

President Judge Marsha Neifield of Philadelphia Municipal Court ordered the city District Attorney’s Office on Thursday to reverse course and charge Amtrak engineer Brandon Bostian with involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment.  To avoid a potential conflict of interest, the District Attorney's Office responded that it would refer the prosecution to the state attorney general. Neifield issued the order following a request from lawyers for victims of the May 12, 2015, derailment of Amtrak Train 188 that the case be reopened. On Tuesday, the District Attorney's Office had said that, following a lengthy investigation, it had concluded there was insufficient evidence to...

The idea of a high-speed train connecting Vancouver, Seattle and Portland was floated by a private organization last year. Now, Washington Governor Jay Inslee has set aside $1 million in his new state budget to study whether such an idea has legs (or, more accurately, rails). According to Mark Hallenbeck, director of the Washington State Transportation Center, the region has the right geography for a high-speed line, CBC News reports. "They’re the right distance where it's small enough that the train would compete very well with an airplane," he told the news site. "If you get too much longer, then...

The engineer of the New Jersey Transit train that crashed into Hoboken Terminal on Thursday, killing one person and injuring more than 100 others during the busy morning commute, felt well rested and was unaware of any mechanical problems in the moments before the accident, federal investigators said on Sunday. At a news conference in Hoboken, officials from the National Transportation Safety Board said they had interviewed the engineer, Thomas Gallagher, as well as the train’s conductor, who was not identified, and still were no closer to determining the cause of the crash. It was the first fatal accident on...

One of Donald Trump's closest advisers has said he would pull out of the next debate if he were running for president. "If I were Donald Trump I wouldn't participate in another debate unless I was promised that a journalist would act like a journalist and not an incorrect, ignorant fact checker," Rudy Giuliani said after Monday's debate between Trump and Hillary Clinton. While Giuliani lashed out at NBC News' Lester Holt, who moderated the event, Trump said he "felt [Holt] was fine." Giuliani added: "I did not say what I'm advising, I'm saying what I would do. Whatever advice...

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday ordered authorities to seize factories that have stopped production and jail their owners, a day after declaring a state of emergency to combat the country's economic crisis. "We must take all measures to recover productive capacity, which is being paralyzed by the bourgeoisie," he told a rally in Caracas. "Anyone who wants to halt (production) to sabotage the country should get out, and those who do must be handcuffed and sent to the PGV (Venezuelan General Penitentiary)," he said.

From 30th Street Station, the train glided northwest out of Philadelphia, tracing the arc of the freeway. Near the old Schuylkill River Bridge, it jogged right, gathering speed, bound for the New Jersey border. Had you been standing anywhere near the tracks, you would have heard Amtrak 188 before you saw it, in the hum of the rail bed and the metallic shiver of the electricity in the overhead catenary wires. And then you would have felt it, in the vibration of the earth: the combined weight of a 98-ton locomotive and seven 50-ton cars, carrying a total of 258...

~Favorite Rain Songs~ The Ronettes: Walking in the Rain *Video* Dee Clark: Raindrops *Video*

Whenever there is some political deal, it is never what they present to the public with such magnanimous fanfare. There is always a hidden agenda. Here, Obama tells the American people this deal will prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons. Why the sudden change of heart? Surely, negotiations could have produced the same result five years ago. Ah, they will claim the sanctions worked. But is it suddenly the sanctions working or is there a darker inner truth? You have to clear the stench left behind by the lies. This sudden deal with Iran is actually Part II of an...

~ The FReeper Canteen Presents ~ ~ Favorite Summer Songs ~ Canteen Mission Statement Showing support and boosting the morale ofour military and our allies' militaryand family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. The Jamies: “Summertime, Summertime” ”Summertime” from Gershwin’s opera “Porgy and Bess” Please remember that The Canteen is here to support and entertain our troops and veterans and their families, and is family friendly.