Free Republic

Until recently, Tim Haugh was among America's top spymasters. The four-star general spent 33 years in Air Force Intelligence and rose to lead America's largest and most advanced intelligence agency. Haugh was also in charge of defending America from computer threats. In his first television interview since retirement, General Haugh is here to warn that China has hacked into U.S. computer networks to an astonishing degree. And he believes he knows why. The surprise, Tim Haugh told us, is that China is targeting not just the U.S. military and industry but also Americans in their homes. Gen. Tim Haugh: I...

Miami Beach’s iconic rainbow crosswalk on Ocean Drive was removed brick by brick Sunday morning — without any notice to the city — leaving residents and LGBTQ+ community members shocked and heartbroken.

Link Above:0:03 now in a little bit of a state of shock. 0:06 Um, I have the past nine years of my 0:08 life flashing before my eyes reading the 0:12 de the classified annex that just got 0:15 declassified. 0:16 I'm still only about five pages into it 0:18 and it's about 29 pages, but I'm already 0:21 so shocked by it. I'm actually not. How 0:23 do I how do I describe it? 0:26 I'm not surprised at all. 0:29 And yet I'm shocked. You know that 0:32 feeling like you're not surprised but 0:34 you're shocked. 0:37...

Over 100 people showed up for Miami Beach’s rainbow crosswalks that are currently in the political crosshairs across the state of Florida. “Our rights are on shaky ground everywhere, but especially here in Florida,” said activist Paul Thomas. Under Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Florida Department of Transportation has ordered communities across the state to remove colorful crosswalks

Colorado’s infrastructure systems remain adequate but roads, schools and other aging assets require urgent attention, according to a report published by civil engineers. ... In the state's infrastructure report card, Colorado got a D- for roads. ... The state’s infrastructure received an overall grade of C-minus on the 2025 Report Card for Colorado’s Infrastructure published Wednesday by the American Society of Civil Engineers. That is one step below the national average grade of C. ... The American Society of Civil Engineers publishes national and state report cards about every four years. To compile the report cards, civil engineers analyze and...

Every time you ask ChatGPT a question, to generate an image or let artificial intelligence summarize your email, something big is happening behind the scenes. Not on your device, but in sprawling data centers filled with servers, GPUs and cooling systems that require massive amounts of electricity. The modern AI boom is pushing our power grid to its limits. ChatGPT alone processes roughly 1 billion queries per day, each requiring data center resources far beyond what’s on your device. In fact, the energy needed to support artificial intelligence, cloud computing and even crypto mining is rising so quickly that it...

A widespread power outage in the Santa Barbara area caused a major telecommunications disruption and forced the rescheduling of a planned SpaceX launch Tuesday afternoon. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, a regional outage in Santa Barbara disrupted communications of the Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control center, which manages air traffic over the Pacific Ocean. A spokesperson for the Santa Barbara County Office of Emergency Management confirmed to KTLA that 911 services were also affected throughout the entire county. The disruption came as SpaceX planned to launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in north-western Santa Barbara County, but the...

Governments can’t change the weather, but they can invest in infrastructure that is better able to handle it. A 2024 report from the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Value of Water Campaign estimated that the country is billions of dollars short in investments needed to update water infrastructure for 21st-century needs, including a new normal of extreme rainfall events. You can see strong bipartisan support for trying to prevent flooding and address flooding among local and county elected officials. South Carolina just passed funding to expand data collection related to flooding and resilience. They passed about $1 million...

Following the winter storm in February 2021, all three members of the Public Utility Commission and six members of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas board of directors resigned. The CEO of ERCOT was also fired. During the February 2021 winter storm, transmission companies inadvertently cut power to parts of the natural gas supply chain when ERCOT ordered the utilities to reduce power demand or risk further damage to the grid. That decision aggravated the problem as natural gas producers were unable to deliver enough fuel to power plants. At the same time, some wells were unable to produce as...

The Trump administration's Department of Energy (DOE) on Monday released a report that found currently scheduled retirements of energy-generating facilities coupled with delays in bringing new power sources online could lead to a rise in blackouts by the end of this decade. DOE's report found that with about 104 gigawatts of energy-generating capacity scheduled to be retired by 2030, power outages could see a significant rise if that capacity isn't replaced in a timely manner. It is estimated that annual outage hours could rise from single digits today to over 800 hours per year. The agency noted that while 104...

The Department of Transportation is taking action to expedite permitting for infrastructure projects nationwide, minimize delays, and clear the backlog of projects awaiting federal approval, the Washington Free Beacon has learned. The agency has historically had some of slowest permitting timelines across the federal government. According to government data, the Federal Highway Administration and Federal Aviation Administration each take more than seven years to complete reviews while the Federal Railroad Administration and Federal Transit Administration each take more than five years to approve projects. At the same time, the average age of America's bridges is 47 years, meaning a bulk...

Just over two months ago, the Rand Corporation released a study on the cost of producing multi-family housing in three states: California, Colorado, and Texas.The results were paradoxically shocking, yet utterly predictable.California, it turns out, is a ridiculous place, run by ridiculous people, with ridiculous regulations. Or, as the folks at Rand put it, “The average market-rate apartment in California is roughly two and a half times the cost of a similar apartment constructed in Texas on a square-foot basis—and regional differences within California, where costs in the San Francisco Bay Area are roughly 50 percent higher than costs in...

In the dawn light of a South African savanna, a team of rangers huddle around a satellite dish aimed skyward. Their phones spring to life with a signal – an unthinkable result just months earlier in this remote, off-grid conservation zone. The source is Starlink, Elon Musk and SpaceX’s satellite internet service, offering encrypted, high-speed connectivity far from state-controlled networks. But in South Africa, this signal didn’t just connect – it disrupted. And that disruption provides some subtext to the extraordinary “Wild West Wing” showdown between Donald Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in May, which played out in...

The U.S. Department of Energy has ordered another power plant, this time an oil and gas plant in Pennsylvania, to keep its turbines running through the hottest summer months as a precaution against electricity shortfalls in the 13-state mid-Atlantic grid. The department’s order to the grid operator, PJM Interconnection, regarding the Eddystone power plant just south of Philadelphia on the Delaware River, is the department’s second use of federal power under President Donald Trump to require a power plant to keep operating on the mainland United States. Constellation Energy had planned to shut down Eddystone’s units 3 and 4 on...

Video The IDF announced that troops of the 7th Brigade, under the command of the 98th Division currently operating in the Khan Yunis area as part of Operation Gideon's Chariots, eliminated dozens of terrorists and dismantled approximately 100 terrorist infrastructure targets in joint operations involving the brigade's fire coordination unit, the Israeli Air Force, and the Intelligence Directorate. The troops identified three terrorists transporting explosives, intending to rig the area with explosives. The troops quickly directed an Israeli Air Force aircraft, which struck and eliminated the terrorists. .....

Sales of electric vehicles are on the rise in the United States, but the road ahead for charging infrastructure looks a whole lot bumpier. Despite growing interest in EVs, the pace of building high-speed chargers isn’t just lagging, it’s actively falling behind. Add in looming policy shifts under the Trump administration, and the gap between supply and demand could widen even further. It’s understood that the number of high-speed EV chargers being installed across the US dropped more than 21% through the first quarter compared to last year. With this in mind, BloombergNEF has cut its expectations for EV installations...

All major mobile networks went down in Spain on Tuesday, just four weeks after the country was hit by a national power outage. Movistar, Orange, Vodafone, Digimobil and O2 were all reported to have been affected by outages hitting professional services, including health centres. Complaints soared as landline, internet and emergency contact services were knocked offline early this morning. Madrid, Andalucía, Galicia, the Basque Country, Aragon, Navarra, Extremadura and the Valencian Community were all reportedly affected. Networks contracted with Telefónica appeared to have been hit, but outages did not appear to be affecting individuals' network access. The company told MailOnline...

The Trump administration’s Department of Transportation revealed that it inherited an “unprecedented backlog of grants” left by the Biden administration. In late March, the DOT’s Federal Highway Administration reported that Secretary Sean Duffy had finalized a $221 million federal grant to rebuild Rhode Island’s Washington Bridge — its westbound side has been closed since December 2023 following a “critical failure.” The funding for the project was initially announced in the fall of 2024, but the Biden administration “failed to sign the agreement.” The DOT’s announcement noted that "the Trump administration inherited roughly 3,200 unobligated grants that had been promoted by...

New York -- When a suspicious video of ballots being ripped up in Pennsylvania gained attention on social media last October, federal agencies responded quickly and called it out as Russian disinformation. On Election Day in November, bomb threats to polling places in numerous states caused relatively few disruptions to voting. It’s one of the many scenarios covered by the nation’s cybersecurity agency in its outreach to state and local officials.The Trump administration’s downsizing and disbanding of federal agencies has hit efforts that improve election security and monitor foreign influence. That could create gaps for America’s enemies to exploit the...

A major fire broke out Thursday at one of the world's largest battery storage plants.The facility, in Moss Landing, northern California, stores energy for general use as part of the state grid, and is a significant part of California's efforts to use cleaner energy.It caught fire Thursday afternoon, officials in Monterey County said, prompting evacuation orders for more than 2,000 people.A Monterey County Sheriff's Office spokesperson told the local news channel KSBW 8 that 40% of the battery plant had burned.A law enforcement spokesperson told CNN that concerns around chemical spills and hazardous material burning had prompted broad evacuation orders....snip...Monterey...