Free Republic

California now has more electric vehicle (EV) charging stations than gas nozzles, but consumer demand is struggling to meet Gov. Gavin Newsom’s target of ending gas-powered vehicle sales by 2035, and federal support is in doubt. The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday: Electric vehicle charging ports now outnumber gas nozzles across the Golden State, a sign of the increasing number of zero-emission vehicles on the road. But the milestone arrives as the federal government has moved to deprioritize the shift away from gasoline-powered cars. … The number of accessible chargers across California has nearly doubled since 2022. Just since August,...

President Donald Trump on Saturday signed two executive orders that call for immediately expanding American lumber production and addressing lumber imports' threat to national security. The orders aim to update guidance on production, streamline permitting, and assess possible risks that imports pose to national security. A White House official told Fox News the president identified a crisis in both supply and demand in an industry the U.S. should be entirely self-sufficient in. The executive order notes that the production of timber, lumber, paper, bioenergy, and other wood products is crucial for Americans in construction and energy production. Recent disasters, the...

The leader of Ansarallah, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, threatened “military intervention” on Thursday against America if President Donald Trump goes ahead with his plan to rehabilitate the war-torn Gaza Strip. Houthi, the leader of the Yemeni jihadist terror organization commonly referred to as the Houthis, aggressively opposed Trump’s call to allow Palestinian civilians trapped in Gaza to seek refuge in neighboring countries, instead supporting fellow terrorist organization Hamas, which is the governing body of Gaza, in its quest to continue controlling the territory’s population. Translations of Houthi’s remarks this week indicate that he suggested to Washington to ethnically cleanse Israel, forcing its...

The Hamas terrorist group on Tuesday dismissed U.S. President Donald Trump’s demand for the release of all remaining Israeli and American hostages from Gaza by noon on Saturday, or the ceasefire deal is over — and Israel can respond as it wants. AP reports Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the dozens of hostages would only be returned if all parties remain committed to a ceasefire deal reached last month. “Trump must remember there is an agreement that must be respected by both parties,” he cautioned, adding threatening language only complicates matters.

U.S. Olympic gymnastics legend Simone Biles calls on President Joe Biden to “make some things shake” in his final weeks as president before President-Elect Trump takes the oath of office. Following President-Elect Trump’s sweeping electoral victory in Tuesday’s election, Biles took to X and told President Biden to make big moves on behalf of women. “Mr Biden, I need you to stand up, straighten your back and make some things shake before your departure,” Biles wrote, ending the post with “xoxo the women in America.”

On Tuesday’s broadcast of New York’s Power 105.1’s “The Breakfast Club,” 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris argued that her proposed down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers won’t “have an unintended effect, because that increases the demand for home ownership, which is going to have an impact, also, on supply.” And talked about parts of her plan to boost housing supply. Harris said, “$25,000 down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers, let me tell you why that’s not going to have an unintended effect, because that increases the demand for home ownership, which is going to have an impact,...

During an interview with Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” released on Tuesday, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm blamed the “hiccup” in electric vehicle demand on “a lot of talking down of electric vehicles,” and predicted that after the election, there will be “more positivity” around EVs. Host Michael Kosta asked, “It feels like electric — sorry to be the bummer — it feels like EV has slowed a little bit. What are some of the challenges you’re facing?”

During an interview with CNN’s “Axe Files” podcast released on Thursday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that the spending in the American Rescue Plan “added to the demand in areas that were supply-constrained, and so, may have played a little bit of a role” in inflation. Yellen said, [relevant remarks begin around 43:35] “We never would have seen that inflation just because of the demand that was created. It was the supply shock created by the pandemic, the fact that you couldn’t get semiconductors to produce cars, that we had auto factories that had to close that caused prices to...

Democrats on Friday urged the nation’s central bank to cut interest rates now as the unemployment rate surged. The unemployment rate jumped to 4.3 percent and employers added 114,000 workers to their payrolls in July, a significant miss from economists’ 180,000 expected jobs estimate. As Breitbart News Economics Editor John Carney noted, the significant jump in unemployment may suggest that the economy might be heading towards a recession: The 4.3 percent unemployment rate brings the three-month average 50 basis points above the lowest three-month average over the past 12 months, a threshold known as the “Sahm Rule” that historically has...

Columbia Law students want their final exams called off … in the name of Palestine. In a recent letter, the student editors of the Columbia Law Review made a public call for the school to cancel the semester’s remaining exams and “give all students passing grades for their work throughout the semester.” “We believe that canceling exams would be a proportionate response to the level of distress our peers have been feeling,” the unnamed students wrote in an open letter. The plea comes after Columbia University, on April 30, authorized the NYPD to clear out trespassers who violently and forcibly...

Elon Musk’s Tesla, the leading electric vehicle manufacturer, has slashed even more workers from the payroll following weeks of massive layoffs, leaving employees on edge and seeking closure. Business Insider reports that Tesla has been conducting a series of layoffs over the past four weeks. The latest round of cuts, which took place on Sunday night, has left employees uncertain about their future with the company. According to Business Insider, four workers reported that their managers notified them of additional cuts to their teams on Monday morning, while several Tesla workers took to LinkedIn to share their experiences of receiving...

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres demanded that Israel end its military operation in Rafah, less than a day after the IDF launched an operation to destroy the final four Hamas battalions in Gaza. "I am disturbed & distressed by the renewed military activity in Rafah by the Israeli Defence Forces," Guterres wrote on X today (Tuesday). "I urge the Government of Israel to stop any escalation, and engage constructively in the ongoing diplomatic talks." .....

UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron will warn the U.S. it is risking the West’s security by holding up a new package of aid for Ukraine when he visits Washington, DC, next week. He will issue his caution during a meeting with Mike Johnson, the House of Representatives speaker, urging him to stop his fellow Republicans from blocking the funding and let U.S. taxpayer funds flow. The move will come a week after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv will lose the war against Russia if the U.S. fails to approve funds and direct military aid to battle Moscow’s invasion, as...

Migrants in Washington State left an encampment on a local tennis court after an unknown donor subsidized a temporary stay at a hotel. Now, they are demanding a long-term solution from the county. The migrants who were on the court of the local Garfield Community Center in Kent, a city in Seattle's metropolitan area located in southern King County, reportedly packed up their belongings on Thursday to return to a Quality Inn they were previously evicted from due to a lack of funds. They reportedly hail from Venezuela, the Republic of the Congo, and Angola.

In a letter to Jack Smith, the House Oversight Committee said, “The Supreme Court has consistently overturned criminal convictions against public officials and private parties based upon broad theories of prosecution brought under general criminal statutes. Yet you have used just such a theory in your prosecution of President Trump, relying on a general conspiracy statute to allege a conspiracy to defraud the United States. The Supreme Court has held past attempts to prosecute under such a theory exceeded the reach of the statutes on which they were based, including overly expansive definitions of “official acts,” the lawmakers wrote. They...

In just three weeks, 3,882 dealerships reflecting the voice of our customers, representing all major vehicle manufacturing brands spanning 50 states, called on the President of the United States to tap the brakes on the proposed Electric Vehicle Mandate. Below is the letter and list of the dealerships that signed. A Letter to the President Dear Mr. President, We are auto dealers from across the country who collectively sell every major brand in the U.S. We are small businesses employing thousands of Americans. We are deeply committed to the customers we serve and the communities where we operate, which is...

Twenty-four House Republicans wrote a letter to House Oversight Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) on Thursday, demanding an apology for “spreading disinformation” and “lies” after he flatly dismissed allegations that Hunter and President Joe Biden accepted a $10 million bribe. Raskin, an establishment Democrat who consistently defends and excuses the Bidens’ corruption, recently argued that an FD-1023 form filed by an FBI informant was not credible and that the U.S. Attorney’s office in Pittsburgh terminated the probe into the allegation.

mRNA vaccine maker Moderna has backpedaled on a January plan to charge $110 to $130 per dose of Covid-19 vaccine (up from $26 per dose for booster shots), and is now promising that people won't have to pay for the jab once the US Government stops buying shots."Moderna remains committed to ensuring that people in the United States will have access to our COVID-19 vaccines regardless of ability to pay," the company said in a statement, adding that the vaccine "will continue to be available at no cost for insured people whether they receive them at their doctors’ offices or...

President Joe Biden is expected to demand Congress approve an amnesty for the nation’s 11 to 22 million illegal aliens in Tuesday night’s State of the Union (SOTU) Address. Analysts expect Biden to make the amnesty plea yet again even as his administration has overseen the largest waves of illegal immigration to the United States in American history.

Have you gone electric? Elon Musk thinks you should. That’s why he’s slashed Tesla prices in the U.S. and Europe by as much as 20 percent in an effort to get more drivers into electric vehicles (EVs) and out of legacy gas powered alternatives. The aggressive sales drive follows questions raised on Thursday about the safety risks posed by heavy EVs in any collision with lighter vehicles that pushed the head of the National Transportation Safety Board to issue a general warning to all U.S. road users, as Breitbart News reported. Reuter’s reports the dramatic Tesla discounting, which prompted a...