Free Republic

California will soon become the first state to determine residents’ electricity fees based on their income as part of a new effort to spur households toward full electrification and bring down the state’s soaring electricity costs for low-income Californians. Electricity bills are made up of fixed costs as well as fees that vary based on the amount of electricity residents use. Last year, the state passed a law giving the California public utilities commission a 1 July 2024 deadline to determine a fixed charge for household electric bills based on people’s income. The new income-based electricity bills could hit residents’...

New York City council is considering a plan to impose fines for parking and other violations that are adjusted based on the income of the offender. Depending on one's point of view, it's either a step toward more proportionate justice or a deeper embrace of Marxism. The proposal for a pilot program to test the concept comes from South Brooklyn Councilman Justin Brannan, whose colorful background includes being a hardcore punk guitarist for the bands Indecision and Most Precious Blood, and working in alternative-energy venture capital at Bear Stearns. New York City Councilman Justin Brannan (Matt Miller via New York...

HENDERSONVILLE — Several residents held up protest signs — at a City Council meeting with no scheduled public comment session — on April 26, when a plan was proposed “to implement ways to bolster diversity, equality and inclusion within the government and city limits,” Asheville TV station WLOS (News 13) noted. “It’s all about us establishing the baseline for how our organization moves forward and interacts with our community,” City Manager John Connet was quoted as saying by News 13. “Some of our community feel like their voices have not been heard, and we wanted to have a process where...

Oprah Winfrey put on a woke showcase during her commencement speech at a Tennessee university over the weekend, advocating that students tackle a range of leftist issues once they graduate, SNIP See video.

Joe Biden recently made a disturbing comment that sounded like a creepy plea for collectivist child raising, further highlighting the role that the United States government plays in violating parental rights and indoctrinating and seizing children. “Rebekah put a teacher’s creed into words when she said, There’s no such thing as someone else’s child. No such thing as someone else’s child. Our nation’s children are all our children,” Joe Biden stated, referring to a Teacher of the Year honoree named Rebekah. At a Teacher of the Year ceremony from 2022, Biden also made a remark indicating his support for a...

Two Democratic lawmakers in Virginia were caught on hot mic last week mocking parental rights as "garbage," "crap," and "stupid," according to two recordings posted on social media by the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC).On the recordings, which were taken at a Friday meet-and-greet at Christopher Newport University, state Sen. Monty Mason and state Del. Shelly Simonds can be heard ripping Republicans over S.B. 1515, a bill that required pornography websites to verify a user's age to be at least 18 before allowing access to its content.They also slammed an amendment to the bill proposed by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin...

Well, this is disappointing news. The Washington Post reported Thursday that “the national Democratic Party has said it will support Biden’s reelection, and it has no plans to sponsor primary debates.” It’s understandable: the Dems have a president, of sorts, and so they’re counting on the power of incumbency to help their superannuated kleptocrat get over the top again. However, it’s also immensely disappointing, because after years and years of Democratic presidential debates being dreary displays of candidates trying to out-socialist one another, 2024 Democratic primary debates would have actually had something to offer. Biden has two challengers, Robert F....

A new Biden administration rule that is set to go into effect will force homeowners with good credit to pay more on their mortgages in order to subsidize loans to high-risk borrowers.According to a new, insane Biden Admin rule, people with good credit will be assessed higher mortgage rates to subsidize riskier loans to people with lower credit. Homeowners will now be punished for being responsible.Biden's attack on success in the name of "equity" continues.

Three major utility companies in California are looking to restructure customer billing, and part of that means customers could be charged based on how much money they make. Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric filed a joint proposal this week for a flat-rate charge based on income. The plan would break monthly bills in two parts: The fixed-income rate, plus a reduced usage charge based on consumption. Under the proposal, it would cost as little as $15 a month for low-income households and up to $85 more per month for households making more...

Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (MI) signed two gun control bills into law this week in the aftermath of a shooting at Michigan State University. According to The Detroit News, the bills are the “most significant firearm restrictions Michigan has enacted in almost 30 years.” The laws will expand background checks and impose storage standards for guns and ammunition that are kept in homes with children. Whitmer signed the bills into law at Michigan State University, where three students were killed after a gunman opened fire on the campus in February. The suspect, Anthony McRae, 43, was found by police dead...

In an April 10 Press Release, Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) announced that his committee has subpoenaed the FBI for documents relating the FBI’s move to infiltrate Latin Mass communities in search of any “radical extremism” that could potentially signal domestic terrorism. Vatican journalist, Diane Montagna tweeted out the latest on the FBI’s efforts to weaponize the Southern Poverty Law Center’s decades-old witch hunt against Latin Mass Catholics: House Judiciary Committee Chairman @Jim_Jordan confirms FBI planned to “engage in outreach to leadership” of SSPX chapels in Richmond area “to sensitize these congregations to warning signs of radicalization & to enlist their...

he acronym ESG (representing environmental, social, and governance criteria for investment and business metrics) gained mainstream attention in 2020, and has since been political fodder for those wishing to weigh in on wokewashing matters. The backlash over ESG has been strong, evidenced by the fact that anti-ESG regulatory developments have outpaced those that are pro-ESG over the past few years, largely due financial concerns over taxpayer dollars. The ESG industry, however, shows no signs of slowing down, and initiatives seem to be ramping up on a global scale. As such, it is worth considering how we got here, who is...

A famed Black Panther who's also a communist has faced calls to pay reparations after discovering her ancestors were white puritans who arrived in the US on the Mayflower. Angela Davis, 79, was flabbergasted to discover both sides of her family were white, and that her mom's ancestors were slave-owners on PBS show Finding Your Roots. And the stunning revelations sparked calls for the famously woke Marxist University of California professor to herself pay reparations, having previously called on whites to pony-up in the past.

California school district is using lesson plans designed by its Black Lives Matter Task Force (BLM) to help teach 7th graders about their implicit bias during Black History Month, according to the curriculum obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. In an effort to address “issues related to racial justice,” Anaheim Union High School District (AUHSD) requires 7th through 12th grade teachers to use a curriculum created by the schools’ Black Lives Matter Task Force, a coalition dedicated to creating equity for African American students and staff within the district, according to screenshots of the curriculum obtained by the DCNF....

Vice President Kamala Harris said Friday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” that she believes it is “wrongheaded” for Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) to “censor” what is taught in Florida schools. Mitchell asked, “Let me ask you, what does Governor Ron DeSantis not know about black history and the black experience when he says that slavery and the aftermath of slavery should not be taught to Florida schoolchildren?” Harris said, “I don’t know what he knows and what he doesn’t know, but I know this, any push to censor America’s teachers and tell them what they should be teaching in the...

President Joe Biden signed a new executive order to address racial inequity on Thursday. The Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government is designed to address systemic barriers that hold communities of color back from prospering. The order is Biden’s second racial equity executive order. On his first day in office two years ago, Biden signed Executive Order 13985, which saw funding go to places like Historically Black Colleges and Universities and indigenous tribes and new programs to help close racial disparities in job and housing opportunities. Biden also a pardoned all federal offenses...

One nonprofit is now demanding the practice immediately cease in an effort to "protect the constitutional rights of students and parents." The Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF), a national advocacy group for atheists, agnostics and non-theists, works to protect the Establishment Clause. Despite local law allowing prayer at other council meetings, FFRF argues that GUSD is subjecting itself to both "unnecessary liability" and "potential financial strain" by adopting the practice in an educational setting.

For nearly seven years, scientist Bruce E. Ivins and a small circle of fellow anthrax specialists at Fort Detrick's Army medical lab lived in a curious limbo: They served as occasional consultants for the FBI in the investigation of the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks, yet they were all potential suspects. Over lunch in the bacteriology division, nervous scientists would share stories about their latest unpleasant encounters with the FBI and ponder whether they should hire criminal defense lawyers, according to one of Ivins's former supervisors. In tactics that the researchers considered heavy-handed and often threatening, they were interviewed and polygraphed...

Katie Hobbs’ first budget proposal, released on Friday, January 13, calls for the defunding and total elimination of Arizona’s ‘Border Strike Force,’ $40 million for illegal immigrants to receive in-state tuition rates, and the repeal of a new school voucher law giving school choice to all families. As The Gateway Pundit reported, in 2022, The Arizona Legislature passed a new law expanding the Empowerment Scholarship Account program, giving every family in the state the freedom to choose their child’s school no matter which school they attend. Katie Hobbs did everything possible to prevent this law from taking effect late last...

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Tuesday on CNN’s “Situation Room” that the government will hold Southwest Airlines accountable as they canceled thousands of flights over a system meltdown. Buttigieg said, “I conveyed to the CEO our expectation that they are going to go above and beyond to take care of passengers and to address this. They indicated a number of issues that they’re having with systems, legacy systems for managing their schedule and where their crews are, but the bottom line is the rest of the aviation system has been on the road to recovery since the worst days of...