Free Republic

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs on June 2 vetoed a bill that would have prohibited the Chinese communist regime and state-owned enterprises from acquiring property in Arizona, according to her office.Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs speaks at the state Capitol in Phoenix on May 2, 2024. Matt York/AP PhotoSenate Bill 1109, sponsored by Arizona Senate Majority leader Janae Shamp (R-Ariz.), seeks to prevent China from buying or holding a substantial interest—a 30 percent stake or more—in property within Arizona.The proposed measure was designed to safeguard the state’s “military, commercial and agricultural assets” from the risks of “foreign espionage and sabotage,” which could...

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed into law a bill allowing land seizures by the state without compensation - a move that has put him at odds with some members of his government. Black people only own a small fraction of farmland nationwide more than 30 years after the end of the racist system of apartheid - the majority remains with the white minority. This has led to frustration and anger over the slow pace of reform. While Ramaphosa's ANC party hailed the law as a "significant milestone" in the country's transformation, some members of the coalition government say...

The budget reconciliation bill currently before the U.S. House could dispose of nearly 1.5 million acres of public land, according to new analysis released today by the digital mapping company onX. Republicans added the public land sale with an amendment proposed during a midnight session of the House Natural Resources Committee. Initial reports suggested that only about 10,000 acres would be subject to disposal, and later analysis increased that estimate to nearly 500,000 acres. Now, an extensive review by onX researchers has revealed that the actual number could be as many as 1,466,352 acres in Utah and Nevada. “Our public...

According to an email sent May 13, 2025, by Department of Natural Resources Director Dan Gibbs, Nicole Rosmarino is the sole finalist for the director of the State Land Board, which is the state’s second largest landowner with 2.8 million surface acres and 4 million mineral estate acres. Gibbs said, per statute, the board provides public notice for 14 days prior to a formal appointment which will occur at the next regularly scheduled public board meeting, which is June 11 and 12 in Denver. An email sent to DNR confirmed the hire Friday. The mission of the State Land Board...

The South African president’s office vowed Wednesday to fight the “treasonous act of misinformation,” which it blames for spreading abroad what it considers false narratives about the persecution of white Afrikaners. The warning came two days after the first charter flight of several dozen Afrikaner refugees arrived in the U.S. On Tuesday, President Cyril Ramaphosa called the refugees “cowards” for “running away” — a sentiment that his party, the African National Congress (ANC), echoed. The ANC claimed that the Afrikaners were not being persecuted, while faulting them for abandoning “transformation,” a policy of racial economic redistribution. Ramaphosa’s representative, Minister in...

He wants lawmakers to issue $1,000 for each of about 5.1 million homesteaded properties in the state. The rebates would be issued in December, covering state-mandated school property taxes, which he says would prevent a loss in funding for districts. “We need to focus on our Florida residents and to focus on in this case, Florida homeowners, particularly our homesteaded homeowners and we need to focus our relief there.” The second-term Republican governor and former presidential candidate said he wants a ballot initiative aimed at lower property taxes on the 2026 ballot that he says will provide “robust protections” for...

It is simply wrong to let the government take one person’s property away in order to hand it to another private owner with more political power.’ An often-criticized precedent from the Supreme Court 20 years ago that gives local governments permission to literally confiscate a landowner’s property and give it to someone else who may have more political influence could be overturned through a new case pending before the justices. It is the Institute for Justice that has been fighting on behalf of Bryan Bowers, a New York landowner whose property was “seized” by a local government agency. It was...

When Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered up to 200,000 soldiers into Ukraine, his aim was to sweep into the capital, Kyiv, in a matter of days. He wanted to overthrow the pro-Western government and return Ukraine to Russia's sphere of influence. Putin failed, but more than three years on a fifth of Ukrainian territory is in Russian hands (Excerpt)

resident Donald Trump’s concerns about South Africa’s recent legislation on expropriation were vindicated Wednesday when news emerged of new legislation to allow land to be redistributed along racial lines. The Freedom Front Plus, a small right-wing party in the South African parliament that represents a primarily Afrikaans-speaking constituency, warned that the new proposal would seek to bring land ownership patterns — currently dominated by whites — into line with the demographic reality of a black majority in South Africa. In a statement, the party said: The Department of Land Reform and Rural Development today announced to the relevant parliamentary Portfolio...

A tough choice between Muslim Europe and Muslim Russia. Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism. Russia, with a birth rate of 1.5 children per woman, has invaded Ukraine, where the birth rate is 1.2 children per woman, to determine which nation with below replacement birth rates will go extinct the fastest. In the long run the only winners of the war to determine whether Ukraine will belong to the 1.2 or 1.5 people will be the Chechen and other Muslim soldiers doing...

It is a bad situation that the Radical Left Media doesn't want to so much as mention. A massive Human Rights VIOLATION, at a minimum, is happening for all to see. The United States won't stand for it, we will act. Also, I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed the designation of 760,071 acres of critical habitat to protect the imperiled foothill yellow-legged frog under the Endangered Species Act. The Center for Biological Diversity says this proposal aims to safeguard vital habitats for the frog's conservation and recovery across the Sierra Nevada, and along the central and southern California coast. This proposal follows a petition and lawsuits filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, which has long advocated for the protection of these frogs. The designated areas will protect essential habitats for four populations of foothill yellow-legged frogs...

Texas on Tuesday offered up more land to the incoming Trump administration to build deportation facilities — naming the project after a 12-year-old girl allegedly raped and murdered by two illegal migrants. Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, standing along a portion of the state’s border wall, said her office is expanding its earlier offer by adding more identified land that could be used by the Trump White House “on Day One” to hold violent criminal illegal migrants before they are deported from the US.

Amap of the U.S. showing land under federal control paints large swaths of the West. In August, Utah filed a lawsuit against the federal government, arguing that it’s unconstitutional for the feds to retain unappropriated land in a state indefinitely. Since the lawsuit was filed, a dozen other states, including Idaho, Alaska and Wyoming, have filed briefs asking the court to hear the case. Additionally, a coalition of counties in Arizona and New Mexico, the Pacific Legal Foundation, the Utah Legislature and the Wyoming Legislature have also filed briefs in support of the lawsuit. “The federal burden in the West...

The United Nations says it can end poverty, stop global warming, and end the threat of contagious disease while also unlocking $7 trillion of hidden wealth from developing nations in the process. If this sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is. In a new book launched with great fanfare at last month’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, The New Public Finance: Responding to Global Challenges, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) claims to offer “innovative financial mechanisms that could dramatically reduce the cost of managing global risks can now be implemented by governments across the world.”...

A polyamory cult has fenced off a huge portion of land in southwestern Colorado and attempted to claim it for themselves under the Homestead Act of 1862. The Free Land Holders have fenced off about 1,400 acres of San Juan National Forest land. The group were formerly associated with the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other well-known figures, including imprisoned FLDS President Warren Jeffs, who called himself a prophet and is serving a life sentence in Texas for child sexual assault. The group, an offshoot of the mainstream Mormon church, encourages members to engage polygamy. 'The...

And therefore should not exist. The DNC 2016 party platform began by claiming that “Democrats meet in Philadelphia with the same basic belief that animated the Continental Congress when they gathered here 240 years ago.” Four years later, out went the Continental Congress and all of America. The 2020 DNC platform began with a politically fashionable ‘land acknowledgement’ asserting that America was an illegitimate entity operating on stolen land “built on Indigenous homelands.” The 2024 platform likewise begins with a ‘land acknowledgement’ claiming that Chicago properly belongs to 13 different Indian tribes. Once again, the DNC asserts that they “recognize...

Utah filed a major lawsuit with the Supreme Court on Tuesday that could have major implications for federalism and the administration of public lands across the country if successful. Utah’s lawsuit contends that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) does not have the authority to effectively hold “unappropriated” state lands indefinitely under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), the state announced. The federal government controls about 18.5 million acres of “unappropriated” Utah land under the FLPMA, and Utah’s suit argues that the state ought to control this land because nothing in the Constitution expressly permits the federal government...

Wen Raiti, a Chinese American community leader in Jacksonville, Florida, has been a Republican for more than a decade. As a small business owner, she said, the party’s fiscal conservatism and small government ethos resonated with her. But last May, when Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation banning Chinese citizens from buying property in Florida, Raiti changed her party affiliation and began campaigning for local and national Democratic candidates. Leading up to Florida’s Aug. 20 primary election, anger toward Senate Bill 264 has turbocharged voter mobilization efforts in the Chinese American community in the state, organizers and elected officials said, pushing...

A report by a Native American-led nonprofit group claims indigenous homelands were taken by Colorado, and the state reaped mountains of money through that action. The report shares about the apparent “dispossession” of $1.7 trillion worth of the indigenous homelands by the state and the United States, according to an Associated Press (AP) article published Friday. The outlet noted the report was compiled by the Truth, Restoration, and Education Commission (TREC). In addition, the report claims that Colorado gained nearly $550 million in mineral extraction from those homelands. The AP article continued: