Free Republic

LOS ANGELES, California — Mayor Karen Bass tried to strike an upbeat tone as she delivered the bad news Monday in her “State of the City” speech, cutting 400 civilian jobs in the L.A. Police Department next year. The Los Angeles Times reported: Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass released a proposed budget on Monday that would eliminate a nearly $1 billion financial gap by cutting more than 2,700 city positions — about 1,650 of them through layoffs. … The $14 billion spending plan, which covers the 2025-26 fiscal year, would provide funding for scores of new hires at the fire...

WASHINGTON, DC (WOWK) – A new resolution in Congress seeks to abolish the United States Department of Education. U.S. Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY) reintroduced House Resolution 899, which, if passed, would end the Department. While the text of the resolution is not yet on the 119th Congress’ website, Massie provided the document on his own website. He says it consists of one sentence, “The Department of Education shall terminate on December 31, 2026.” According to Congress’ website, the resolution was introduced on Friday, Jan. 31 and sent to the House Committee on Education and Workforce.

Governor Tim Walz (D-MN) claimed Thursday on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” that schools could segregate without the existence of the Department of Education. Maddow said, “What’s your reaction to closing the Education Department today?” Walz said, “Well, we knew it was coming, but it’s still a day that I dreaded. I dreaded it as a teacher, as a parent, certainly as a governor now. And the sad part for me about this is Donald Trump doesn’t know anything about education. This has been a long time dream of the far right to crush the public education system, to take...

President Trump took dramatic action Thursday to inch closer to fulfilling a four-and-a-half-decade-old conservative dream of abolishing the Department of Education, which was created in 1979 under the late former President Jimmy Carter. While the Department of Education has one of the smallest staffs of cabinet-level departments, conservative critics have long ripped it as an unnecessary bureaucracy with an oversized budget. Still, the Trump administration has acknowledged that the Education Department has some important responsibilities such as its work on student loans and administering Pell Grants that it wants to retain. “The Department of Education will be much smaller than...

American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten said she was "spitting mad" over the staffing cuts at the Department of Education, describing it as an "evisceration by a thousand cuts." "So what it does is that it levels the playing field, so all kids can have opportunity, and that it was they are cutting, and when they cut half the people, it's like evisceration by a thousand cuts," Weingarten said, listing the Department of Education's duties. The Department of Education announced on Tuesday that it would be shrinking its workforce from around 4,133 to around 2,183 employees. Remaining workers impacted...

The Swamp purge continues as dozens of Education Department employees were placed on leave, according to reports. CNN first reported the news of the administrative leave, noting that it is connected to the Trump administration’s goal of putting an end to wasteful diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts in the federal workforce. “Effective January 31, 2025, you will be placed on administrative leave with full pay and benefits pursuant to the President’s executive order on DEIA and further guidance from OPM,” the letter sent to affected employees states, making it clear the administrative leave is not related to disciplinary measures.

The website for the US Agency for International Development, or USAid, appeared to be offline on Saturday, as the Trump administration moves to put the free-standing agency, and its current $42.8bn budget for global humanitarian operations, under state department control. A message stating that the “server IP address could not be found” appeared when attempts were made to access the website on Saturday. Two sources familiar with the discussions told Reuters on Friday that the Trump administration was moving to strip USAid of its independence as a government agency and put it under state department control. The apparent failure of...

President Joe Biden’s farewell speech to the State Department on Monday will reportedly omit his most serious policy blunders. The octogenarian is scheduled to give multiple speeches this week during his last seven days in office to frame his presidency as a success. The planned speaking tour comes after Americans told Gallup they will remember Biden as the second worse president in the history of the republic. The two policy failures Biden will ignore during Monday’s State Department speech include his deadly Afghan withdrawal, which took the lives of 13 U.S. troops, and the Americans who died at the hands...

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, appointments of President-elect Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, gave their approval to a proposal that abolishes the Department of Education. Corey DeAngelis, who is a senior fellow at the American Culture Project, posted on X that the Department of Education failed an audit for the third year in a row. "Abolish it," DeAngelis, a prominent school choice advocate, wrote. "Very reasonable proposal." Ramaswamy responded. "Yes," Musk, the owner of Tesla, added. The Department of Government Efficiency, also called DOGE, is aimed at suggesting ways to dismantle government bureaucracy and restructure federal agencies in order...

Friday on Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” network host Trey Gowdy, a former South Carolina congressman, blasted President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL). Gowdy suggested Gaetz was corrupt and said naming a corrupt person to head the Department of Justice would not alleviate the corruption. “Trey, I had Senator Thune on, the incoming Senate majority leader yesterday, and he basically said, listen, it’s not going to be easy,” host Bret Baier said. “Some of these picks are not going to be easy to get through. But there is this mandate just by the vote that...

President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday nominated former third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy to lead the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department. Trump announced in a written statement on social media: I am thrilled to announce Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as The United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health. The Safety and Health of all Americans is the most important role of any Administration, and HHS will play a big...

What are the elements of the libertarian movement and how does one of its most illustrious proponents, Milton Friedman, apply its tenets to issues facing the United States today? Milton Friedman, Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences discusses how he balances the libertarians' desire for a small, less intrusive government with environmental, public safety, food and drug administration, and other issues.

Attorney General Merrick Garland this week called for “attacks” against the Justice Department to stop, in a rare op-ed a day before the House voted to hold him in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena. Garland said in the piece, which appeared in the Washington Post on Tuesday, that in recent weeks, there have been an “escalation of attacks that go far beyond public scrutiny, criticism, and legitimate and necessary oversight of our work,” and claimed that the attacks are “baseless, personal and dangerous.” He suggested the attacks were coming from Trump supporters, in response...

The taxman just delivered a body blow to another member of the Biden family, informing her that she owes thousands of dollars in unpaid back taxes. The revelation, first reported by Fox News, is another indication of the pressure that multiple family members to President Joe Biden are under to profit off his stature and status. A recent tax lien docket by the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue shows that Ashley Biden, daughter to the president, owes $5,000 for unpaid tax bills accrued between 2015 — when Biden was vice president — and 2021, shortly after he took office again. The...

Ukraine is about to become Afghanistan 2.0 for Americans hoping to evacuate. Fox News Channel is reporting that the Biden Administration will not be able to evacuate U.S. citizens from Ukraine. “Given that the President has said military action by Russia could come at any time. The US government will not be in a position to evacuate US citizens. So US citizens, currently present in Ukraine should plan accordingly.” Arrange commercial flights,” a State Dept. official is quoted as saying on a phone call. The announcement is reminiscent of the administration’s feckless handling of the evacuation of Afghanistan — when...

Passengers on Cruise Ships U.S. citizens, particularly travelers with underlying health conditions, should not travel by cruise ship. CDC notes increased risk of infection of COVID-19 in a cruise ship environment. In order to curb the spread of COVID-19, many countries have implemented strict screening procedures that have denied port entry rights to ships and prevented passengers from disembarking. In some cases, local authorities have permitted disembarkation but subjected passengers to local quarantine procedures. While the U.S. government has evacuated some cruise ship passengers in recent weeks, repatriation flights should not be relied upon as an option for U.S. citizens...

Fresh from the same Dept. of Energy and EPA that gave us:toilets that don’t flush; light bulbs that don’t light; dishwashers that don’t wash; plant-based fuel that burns like carrots; and paper straws that dissolve in liquid….  Now we get this: […] Energy Star, the federal program from the DOE and the Environmental Protection Agency, said the coolest you should keep your home is 78 degrees when you’re home.When you’re at work or away, the program recommends setting it at 85 degrees. When you’re sleeping, Energy Star said to set the thermostat at 82 degrees. (link) Setting the thermostat at...

In the aftermath of 17 students and teachers being gunned down at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, schools, colleges, and universities are reevaluating campus safety and taking a closer look at their active-shooter protocols. There are questions about how this could have happened when there were so many signs for earlier detection. In a three-part series, we will examine a local well-publicized case involving the University of South Florida where an incident was detected at the Tampa campus but went unreported by the USF police department and how the failure to take appropriate action could have just...

The JFK Pentagon didn't want Viet Nam, it was Foggy Bottom that pushed it. Now, after the State Department at last became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Klinton Krime Korp, the roaches are running around crying havok, claiming that Tillerson is causing a brain drain.Let M*A*S*H 'Splain it to you.http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x59aj08 -- M*A*S*H -- The Ringbanger

Nov. 11 (UPI) -- The U.S. State Department is offering buyouts of up to $25,000 in an effort to trim 641 employees from its ranks, department officials said Saturday. A state official told ABC News the voluntary buyouts would be in addition to the normal attrition expected within the department by the end of 2018. Multiple officials told The New York Times that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's goal is to reduce the department by 8 percent, or 1,982 people. The department already has instituted hiring and promotion freezes, left a number of ambassadorships and senior leadership positions fulfilled and...