Free Republic

Get rid of the guns.Change the U.S. Constitution, which we as a nation have managed 27 times already in this evolving democracy. Restore the Second Amendment to its original meaning — ensuring a well-regulated militia — and get rid of the guns.Take deadly arsenals out of private hands, no matter the firearm. No assault weapons. No handguns. No rifles. Melt them down and throw them somewhere deep in the ocean.Protect ourselves and our futures.People will break the law, you say. That may be. But we continue to make crack cocaine and recreational fentanyl illegal. Republicans claim they want to bomb...

Rapid adoption of electric vehicles and low-carbon energy would dramatically improve children’s respiratory health in the United States, according to a new report released Wednesday by the American Lung Association. If the U.S. meets three targets — 100 percent zero-emission passenger vehicle sales by 2035, emission-free truck sales by 2040 and a fossil-fuel-free electric grid by 2035 — it could prevent 2.79 million total asthma attacks among children, 147,000 pediatric bronchitis cases and over 500 infant deaths by midcentury, the organization found. “Curbing pollution from transportation and energy production is key to cleaning our air and protecting our nation’s children,”...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday took Republicans to task over a report that GOP governors in 15 states are shunning a new federally-funded food assistance program for hungry kids in the summer. “What is wrong with these people?” Clinton asked on X, formerly Twitter. The 2016 Democratic presidential candidate shared The Washington Post’s coverage of the move and quoted the first paragraph of its story: “Republican governors in 15 states are rejecting a new federally funded program to give food assistance to hungry children during the summer months, denying benefits to 8 million children across the country.”

Some one billion children are at "extremely high risk" due to climate change harms, a rights group warned on Wednesday, adding that youths' living standards failed to improve in the last decade. The KidsRights index, based on figures supplied by UN agencies, also said more than one-third of the world's children, some 820 million, were currently exposed to heatwaves. Water scarcity affected 920 million children worldwide, while diseases such as malaria and dengue affected some 600 million children, or one in every four, Dutch NGO KidsRights said. The KidsRights Index is the first and only ranking that measures how children's...

Glenn shares a chilling personal story, warns: 'If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone'

So many parents are saying they "don't know what to say" to their children about Donald Trump being elected the 45th president of the United States. One Seattle mom, Molly Spence Sahebjami, helped her 5-year-old son write a letter to Donald Trump after the tumultuous and scandal-ridden election asking for him to "be kind." Sahebjami started a Facebook group that now has more than 10,000 members called "Dear President Trump: Letters from Kids About Kindness," encouraging children to write letters on how to be kind. The mom says, "There were things that

As Super Tuesday draws near and Americans from 12 different states choose their candidate, I want to make one final plea to my friends, fellow tea partiers, patriots, conservatives, and Christians, who will be voting on Super Tuesday. I know you're tired of losing. I am too. I know it feels good to have someone voicing our frustrations and be heard for a change. I know it feels like voting for Trump will send the establishment, the media, and everyone who has ignored us for the past eight years a powerful message. I know it feels good to finally feel...

ROSIE O’DONNELL wrecked her marriage when she “went nuts” in a Thanksgiving Day tantrum fueled by booze and drugs! In a blockbuster world exclusive, The National ENQUIRER can reveal the untold story of Rosie’s relationship-ending meltdown, which left terrified wife Michelle Rounds locked in a bathroom and fearing for the safety of both herself and their 2-year-old daughter. Multiple sources have confirmed the shocking incident took place last November at Rosie’s home on Casey Key – north of Sarasota, Fla. – with raging Rosie throwing a holiday tantrum in front of Michelle’s visiting relatives!

Penn State University located in State College, Pennsylvania is notorious for their seemingly bottomless pitcher of school spirit. After all, students at the University are even tailgating their final exams. Complete with hot dogs and encouraging signs. This photo from Onward State's Facebook page has been making the rounds this week: Stephen Pianovich, pictured above, is graduating this May and masterminded the plan to tailgate a final. It was on his senior year bucket list. In an email to Business Insider, he said: We got some confused looks from people walking and driving by, but nobody from the university or...

CHICAGO — Michelle Obama announced the name of the best picture via satellite for the Academy Awards ceremony in order to promote the arts among children, her principal constituency, she said in an interview on Thursday. And if people didn’t like it, she added, that doesn’t bother her. “We’re going to be approaching those filmmakers to do some things in the White House with kids all over this country who, sometimes, that’s going to be their hook, watching that movie that inspires them,” she told a small group of reporters during a two-day, three-city trip to promote her anti-obesity campaign...

The Oakland Education Association might want to consider changing its name. The teachers union was one of six unions in California that refused last week to support their school district application for millions of dollars worth of federal funding offered by the Race to the Top program. Without union support, the districts could not qualify for the grants, which - if won - would have paid for high-quality math programs for fourth-through-eighth-grade students. Clearly the union placed the welfare of its membership above that of the students, so it's somewhat misleading that it calls itself an "education association." The big...

In TV commercials and campaign stops, Gov. Jerry Brown has told Californians that voting against his tax-hike measure, Proposition 30, will mean devastating cuts for public schools. Yet the governor's finance team concedes that state spending will go up next year regardless of your vote.So what's a voter to think? Does the state of California really need more of your money?This newspaper's review of state budget figures found: The estimated $6 billion in extra revenue annually from Proposition 30 quickly would put the state on track to return to peak spending levels before the Great Recession. The inflation-adjusted tax burden...

Nearly 80 percent of Californians oppose $5 billion in so-called trigger cuts to state schools this fall, but only a slight majority of voters support the governor's tax plan to stop it, according to a survey of 2,000 voters released Wednesday. At this point, 54 percent of likely voters said they'd vote for Gov. Jerry Brown's ballot measure to temporarily boost sales tax and income tax on wealthy California residents, the Public Policy Institute of California poll found. If it doesn't pass, Brown's plan calls for school budget cuts to be triggered. Supporters of the tax hike measure expect to...

Some folks just can’t take a hint. House leaders, insisting this is no time to raise taxes on anyone for any reason, made sure that the budget that will be debated next week includes none of the governor’s proposed $260 million in tax hikes, including a 50-cent a pack hike in the cigarette tax. But anti-smoking zealots have adopted a new strategy. According to interviews conducted by State House News Service, they will push for a $1.25 a pack hike not in the state budget (OK, let’s give them credit for knowing a non-starter when they see one), but in...

Last year, a family of three earning $111,000 a year could afford just 23 percent of homes for sale in San Francisco - mostly in southern neighborhoods, including Bayview-Hunters Point.The median price of a house in the city in 2010 was $668,000. Just 2 percent of new housing units built in the city since 2001 are single-family, detached homes.These were just a few of the scores of statistics presented at a special Board of Supervisors hearing Thursday to help explain why San Francisco is bleeding families with children - losing 5,278 people younger than 18 between 2000 and 2010, according...

The state budget contains hundreds of specific provisions but none is bigger, more complicated, more politicized, more emotional – or more important – than the 30 or so billion dollars that it spends on K-12 education. That was true even before Gov. Jerry Brown proposed to increase state school aid and raised its political and societal stakes even higher, although he claims it would be less complicated. Brown's proposed 2012-13 budget would increase K-12 spending by $4.4 billion – but only if voters pass temporary increases in sales and income taxes next fall. School officials worry, however, that the supposed...

SACRAMENTO -- Putting schools and voters squarely in the middle of what could be an explosive battle over taxes, Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday laid out a fiscal blueprint that heavily relies on cash the state doesn't yet have. Brown called for a budget that assumes $6.9 billion in new revenues from a tax measure he plans to take to voters in November. The governor says passage of the measure would wipe out a $9.2 billion deficit through mid-2013 and give schools $4.9 billion more than this fiscal year. It was the opening act to what will be Brown's main...

Layoffs are an unfortunate feature in these tough times – including in public schools. "Pink slip" season is coming upon us again, March 15.California is one of only 15 states that require school districts to follow a "last in, first out" principle in budget-based layoffs. The newest teachers go first, based on seniority. But the seniority rule is not absolute. The law does allow some exceptions – and the Sacramento City Unified district is using them. It is trying to keep newer teachers who have been specially recruited and trained to teach at seven of the city's most struggling schools....

About 1,000 teachers, parents, school support workers and religious leaders came to the Capitol today and urged lawmakers today to pass a tax extension to avoid deeper cuts to education budgets around the state. About 150 protesting educators left their sit-in near the governor's office and moved to the Capitol rotunda around 5 p.m., shouting "They say cut back. We say fight back. Tax, tax, tax the rich! We can solve the deficit." A rally that started at Cathedral Square one block from the Capitol late in the morning, took on the air of a spiritual revival as blue-shirted members...

Gov. Jerry Brown summoned reporters to his office last Wednesday to talk about his state budget. As he bantered with newsies around a conference table – a picnic table on steroids – advocates for the aged, disabled and poor were denouncing his billions of dollars in cuts to the state's relatively generous "safety net" services. "Not only are these cuts a death sentence to the sickest and most vulnerable of our communities, it's also going to cost the state of California more money," Lisa Roellig, a hepatitis patient at an Oakland clinic, told one hearing. It was a sentiment repeated...