Free Republic

In downtown Los Angeles, the Weingart Center Tower has recently opened as a high-rise homeless shelter. Here are the key details: The tower comprises 228 studio apartments, 47 one-bedroom apartments, and three apartments for onsite managers. Each unit costs an estimated $600,000 and is funded by taxpayers. Residents will have access to amenities such as a gym, an art room, a music room, and a library. This building is the first of three towers planned for the project, with the second tower set to open in 18 months. The initiative is part of LA’s efforts to address homelessness, following the...

Wealthy beach lovers are left devastated as they're forced to slash prices of their luxury seaside homes by millions due to climate change. Climate experts believe the rise in sea levels and unforgiving storms, intense rainfall and coastal flooding and erosion are the culprits putting homeowners in a precarious position - and the unpredictability of it all. The areas with some of the priciest real estate that have been hit the hardest include, Dana Point, California, to Long Island, New York, and Nantucket, Massachusetts, CNBC reported. In September, a beach front home on Nantucket that listed for $2.3 million, fell...

As sea levels rise and storms intensify, coastal real estate is seeing flooding and erosion like never before. From Dana Point, California, to Long Island, New York, and Nantucket, Massachusetts, some of the nation’s priciest coastal real estate is in an increasingly precarious position due to climate change. This year’s hurricane season is already underway, and the forecast is for “above-normal” activity, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It predicts up to 13 hurricanes, with four to seven categorized as “major” storms. Various risk models have shown myriad projections for falling real estate values, but the effects...

A luxury apartment building funded by the American taxpayer is set to open in Los Angeles‘s Skid Row for homeless people. The 19-story building, with 278 units, will open within weeks. According to The Times, the building is meant to be a “self-contained environment that will insulate its formerly homeless residents from the squalor and hopelessness around them.”

The prices are just too damn high.Earlier this month, McDonald’s made a reassuring announcement — the return of its $5 value meal. This pocket-friendly deal includes a choice of sandwiches, a four-piece order of McNuggets, medium fries, and a drink. Not to be outdone, Burger King is also stepping up with its own $5 Your Way Meal, featuring a sandwich, chicken nuggets, fries, and a drink. And of course, Wendy’s weighed in first with its $3 breakfast meals, then with its 1-cent bacon cheeseburgers. These affordable options are a welcome respite for consumers amidst the rising fast food prices. Although...

Lending Tree surveyed 2,000 American adults and found 78 percent now consider fast food a luxury. “78% of consumers view fast food as a luxury because it’s become increasingly expensive,” reports Lending Tree. “Additionally, half of Americans say they view fast food as a luxury because they’re struggling financially” Of those making less than $30,000 a year, 71 percent see fast food as a luxury, as do 58 percent of parents with young kids, 58 percent of those in Generation Z, and 53 percent of women.

The road to Hamptons luxury is paved with D-listers and day-drinkers. A swanky new bus service from the company that brought Big Apple elites $1,000 helicopter trips to the East End kicked off its first weekend of rides Friday — with passengers that included a cocktail-sipping reality TV star, a CEO and a nightlife promoter. Well-to-do New Yorkers said they plunked down $195 to $275 for the one-way ticket on Blade’s new Streamliner bus to avoid cramped mass transit and safety risks associated with chopper travel.

LOS ANGELES - Many Southern California customers are frustrated and confused to learn that they might not be receiving their expensive appliance orders, purchased through the luxury appliance store Pirch, when all locations suddenly closed this week. "Are we getting our merchandise? Are we getting a refund?" asked one customer, Maribell Rodriguez. Rodriguez told FOX 11 that she has yet to receive any answers from Pirch regarding her order since the company's abrupt closure Wednesday. She is in the middle of a home renovation and just took out a $20,000 loan to pay for the appliances. "I really feel that...

As is well known, the senior leadership of Hamas takes good care of itself. Just three of its leaders — Ismail Haniyeh, Mousa Abu Marzouk, and Khaled Meshaal — have between them squirreled away $11 billion, stolen from the aid money that was meant for the people of Gaza. They all now live in lavish apartments in Doha, Qatar, watching the war from a safe distance, while egging on those who are doing the real fighting, and dying.Qatar has been the main financial supporter of Hamas, and it isn’t just money it provides. Qatar thoughtfully built luxury apartments for the...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Amit Patel, the former Jacksonville Jaguars employee who deposited $22 million stolen from the team primarily at FanDuel and DraftKings, spent $5 million on a "life of luxury," including Tiger Woods' 1996 putter and $78,800 in private jets, federal prosecutors said in a court filing Thursday. Patel also spent $275,000 to retain his attorney, Alex King, according to the filing. In the filing, prosecutors rebutted King's assertion that his client's behavior was fueled by gambling addiction and that "99% of the misappropriated funds" were used to pay back gambling losses. Instead, authorities say, $5 million went to...

Startling surveillance footage captured the moment a band of teens from the Chicago area broke into a Wisconsin Jaguar/Land Rover dealership and sped off with more than half a million dollars worth of high-end vehicles – later leading police on a dramatic 40-mile chase. In a coordinated heist, several black-clad individuals pulled up to the Waukesha dealership in the early hours of Feb. 18, pried open the key box and got into nine cars, the footage shared by FOX6 News showed. One of the thieves got into a Land Rover Velar and used the car “as a battering ram” to...

Furious Harlem residents forced New York Mayor Eric Adams into a humiliating u-turn on plans to house migrants in an empty luxury apartment building after they spotted bunk-beds being discreetly delivered. The WA condominium off 130th Street promised buyers an indoor swimming pool, marble bathrooms and a rooftop running track, before the project was put on ice in a neighborhood with a chronic housing shortage. Schools, nursing homes and a string of landmark hotels have been requisitioned to house many of the 170,000 migrants who have arrived in the city since the spring of 2022. But neighbors of the condominium...

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Chicago police are looking for the people who reportedly stole from a luxury clothing store on Michigan Avenue. Police said two suspects entered MCM, which is located in the 500-block of North Michigan, just before 2:30 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. One of them took merchandise as the other threatened the security guard with a handgun, CPD said. They then ran away together. No one was in custody Wednesday, and area detectives are investigating. The Mac cosmetics store, also located in the 500-block of North Michigan on the Magnificent Mile, was also robbed Saturday morning.

The owner of a luxury San Francisco department store took out a full-page ad to bash the city’s leadership — warning that rampant homelessness and drug abuse could force it to shut up shop after 166 years. “Gump’s has been a San Francisco icon for more than 165 years,” John Chachas wrote in his open letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom, Mayor London Breed and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. “Today, as we prepare for our 166th holiday season at 250 Post Street, we fear this may be our last because of the profound erosion of this city’s conditions.” The...

Police have launched a manhunt in downtown Los Angeles after a gunman opened fire on four people near a luxury residential building. Authorities were called to the building at 2am on Saturday morning to reports of a shooting at the property. Officers are now hunting the gunman, who fled the scene of the crime, but a description has not yet been made available. LAPD officers found three men and one woman suffering from gunshot wounds on the lobby floor. Their conditions are not currently known, but police confirmed that they were taken to hospital and they were expected to survive....

Twitter users appeared disgusted at the rising price of eggs and called it “ridiculous” as some labeled them a “luxury item.” Multiple users noted the high cost of a carton of eggs at Whole Foods and posted photos showing prices as high as $11.49. “I never thought EGGS would become a luxury item,” conservative commentator Mike Cernovich wrote. The price of eggs has tripled in certain places across the U.S. in the last year, according to CBS News. The price per carton surged as high as 49.1% in November, according to the Consumer Price Index. “$11.49 for eggs at Whole...

Disgraced Sam Bankman-Fried appears to be living a life of luxury, after pictures of him in an American Airlines lounge and business class seat emerged following his $250 million bond release. Photos show the accused fraudster Bankman-Fried relaxing at JFK's American Airlines Flagship lounge and later, without shoes, in a business class seat on a AA flight. The pictures, posted to social media on Friday show two snaps in the lounge with a caption saying that he was there 'with his parents, FBI and lawyers.' The person taking the lounge pictures said that they had asked if they could take...

Back in 2010, RNC Chair Michael Steele was heavily criticized and eventually lost his position because donors were angry about what they believed was luxurious spending on private jets, floral arrangements, chauffeur services, and member meetings in expensive tropical locales. Donors were used to frugality from the RNC under the George W. Bush administration, when “Karl Rove would bitch if there were flowers on the tables” and staff holiday parties were catered by Chick-fil-A. Despite Joe Biden’s economy and three straight cycles of election losses, the RNC’s big-spending days are back with a vengeance. Perhaps because of these losses both...

FIRST ON FOX: California Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell’s campaign once again spent thousands of dollars on luxury hotels, including locations in Nantucket, Massachusetts, and New York City. Swalwell’s campaign dropped some serious cash in the California Democrat’s latest lavish expenditures, which included ritzy hotels, luxury car rides and fine dining. The spending comes as Americans both in his district and around the country face sky-high inflation that is driving food, fuel and energy costs through the ro