Free Republic

This past August, the National Toxicology Program, of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), issued a report indicating that there seems to be a connection between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQ in kids. Based on this, US District San Francisco Judge Edward Chen ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) "to take steps to lower the potential risk." EPA spokesperson Jeff Landis asserted that "adding fluoride to the nation's drinking water was one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century. We doubt whether the few IQ points lost could outweigh all the cavities...

the San Francisco mall’s most prominent anchor tenant, Nordstrom, announced it would close its doors in August, leaving more than 300,000 square feet vacant across five floors. Shortly thereafter, the mall’s owners, Westfield and Brookfield Properties, said they were handing the property back to lenders ....stripped of the Westfield name and the brand’s distinctive red lettering, the 1.5-million-square-foot San Francisco Centre has become synonymous with the challenges of Downtown San Francisco: a hollowed-out business district, vacancy rates hovering at historic highs, widespread public safety concerns and business owners like the Politrons trying to find a way to surviveOn their way...

Some Amazon workers are refusing to "disagree and commit," as one of the company's famed leadership principles requires of those who aren't on board with a decision. Instead, hundreds of the online retailing giant's employees are complaining that CEO Andy Jassy's five-days-per-week return-to-office mandate, announced last week, will negatively impact their lives—and productivity at work—and how they hope the company will reverse course. The feedback is from an anonymous survey created by Amazon employees that was viewed by Fortune on Tuesday. Corporate employees have shared it widely via the messaging app Slack, including in one "remote advocacy" Slack channel with...

Last week, the House approved a resolution to block the Biden administration’s emissions rule that would require more than half of the automobiles sold in the new-car market to be electric by 2032. The 215 representatives who voted for the bill, including eight Democrats, are far more in tune with most of the country than the White House. The “deplorables” and “bitter” clingers of the industrialized world are rejecting electric vehicles. Nationwide, the inventory of unsold EVs had grown by nearly 350% over the first half of 2024, creating “a 92-day supply — roughly three months’ worth of EVs, and...

The House on Friday voted, 215-191, to overturn the Environmental Protection Agency’s vehicle emissions rule, with eight Democrats joining Republicans. Kamala Harris says she doesn’t support an electric vehicle mandate, but that’s what the Biden EPA rule effectively is. The EPA in March finalized greenhouse gas emissions requirements for auto makers through 2032. EPA’s models show that gas-powered cars will make up no more than 30% of sales by 2032. EVs made up a mere 7.6% of auto sales last year and less than 4% for General Motors and Ford. In eight years they will have to increase their EV...

Kamala Harris's campaign recently walked back Harris's position on EV mandates, stating she "does not support an electric vehicle mandate." But the campaign is now shying away from questions about whether Harris would sign or veto legislation she personally cosponsored in the Senate that would implement a nationwide EV mandate. The campaign on Wednesday ignored several questions from the Washington Free Beacon asking for it to clarify Harris's position on EV mandates. That came one day after a Harris campaign official declined to comment late Tuesday to Axios on whether she would even sign the so-called Zero-Emission Vehicles Act that...

Teacher Daphne Halkias has been barred from her own school despite winning a court order for her reinstatement after refusing the COVID-19 vaccine. The Queen’s educator, who has 30 years of teaching experience, was fired last year for refusing the jab on religious grounds. However, she was blocked from entering her school on Tuesday despite a judge’s ruling reinstating her, The New York Post reported. The single mother of four won her court battle when Queens Supreme Court Justice Chereé Buggs ruled in her favor last month. The court found the New York City Department of Education (DOE)d wrongfully denied...

A day after a Tesla Semi caught fire and left Interstate 80 in a chokehold, California lawmakers are calling on Gov. Gavin Newsom to delay a state mandate for big rigs in the state to be all-electric by 2045. Along the freeway east of Nyack in Placer County, traffic stretch on for miles as crews tried to extinguish the Tesla fire. Another issue at play was the toxic fumes being emitted from the vehicle, the California Highway Patrol said.

the vaccine produces fatigue, as does the virus. Sometimes long fatigue.".. What does the COVID vaccine do to those in the military? According to a former Navy SEAL training commander, it can literally cause seamen to drop out of training due to fatigue... Capt. Brad Geary talked about the damage Joe Biden’s military vaccine mandate wrought upon the Armed Forces, including a lack of readiness for those who have to do significant physical exertion... February 2022, a Navy SEAL trainee under Geary’s command, Kyle Mullen, died during the notorious “hell week” — another name for Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL, or BUD/S,...

A former Minnesota bar owner who now commutes two hours a day to sling suds in neighboring Wisconsin said Gov. Tim Walz’s restrictive pandemic-era lockdowns in the state “decimated” local businesses — and caused financial ruin for those who stood up for their livelihoods. “I think he’s an evil man who overstepped his role as the governor. He took small businesses and ripped them up. He destroyed us,” Lisa Zarza. ... She said when shelter-in-place and business closures first went into effect in March, 2020, “I did everything I was supposed to do. I wore my mask, I social distanced....

In a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson and other House leaders on Wednesday, a right-leaning think tank encouraged “prompt House passage” of legislation protecting the installation of AM radios in all new vehicles. Numerous vehicle manufacturers—especially makers of electric vehicles—such as Ford, Tesla, and Volvo, have begun removing AM radios from their new models. The American Principles Project urged Johnson, R-La., as well as House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., to bring the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act “to the House floor as soon as possible.” According to Rep. Josh Gottheimer,...

Navy SEALs, Sailors Who Refused Covid Vaccine Win Legal Victory over Biden-Harris Mandate Let’s not forget Harris’ connection to the covid and mask mandates as she takes on the mantle of the 2024 Democratic presidential candidate. When the Biden-Harris administration issued a covid vaccine mandate for all federal workers, thousands of men and women in the U.S. military were discharged in early 2022 rather than comply. They did not wish to inject something into their bodies about which they had serious health and ethical concerns. The U.S. Navy discharged over 8,000 members, who faced stiff penalties for refusing to agree...

If you thought Joe Biden's electric vehicle mandates were unpopular (and they are) just wait until you see the even more aggressive plans that Kamala Harris has in store if she manages to be elected to the White House. Rather than giving in to a popular lack of demand, Harris intends to double down, accelerating the schedule for converting the American fleet of vehicles at an even more rapid pace wherever possible. The Democrats still aren't quite crazy enough to try to make possession of a gas-powered vehicle illegal, but they will bully the automakers to ensure that a full...

The American consumer's "love affair" with electric vehicles turned out to be more of a figurative one-night stand. That's the conclusion of many economists today, along with the management at automakers including Ford and General Motors. The Biden administration attempted to force its EV mandate and goose the public into supporting it by spiking the punchbowl in the form of generous taxpayer-funded subsidies and rebates. (It's funny how generous they can be with your money, isn't it?) And for a little while it seemed to work, at least to a degree. There was an initial surge in EV sales, leading...

A Tennessee jury has awarded a former research scientist at BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee $687,000 in back pay and damages after she was fired in 2021 for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine.Following a three-day jury trial in Chattanooga last week, a federal jury decided BlueCross failed to provide reasonable accommodation for Tanja Benton, who did most of her work from home and claimed a religious exemption to the company's vaccine mandate. Chattanooga Attorney Doug S. Hamill, who represents Benton, said the biostatistical research scientist was fired in November 2021 in violation of her religious beliefs after working for the...

WASHINGTON — The U.S. response to the Covid-19 pandemic got politically messy. A Friday Supreme Court ruling could frustrate government responses to public health emergencies even further. The Supreme Court struck down a long-standing legal doctrine that directed judges to defer to reasonable federal agency interpretations of ambiguous or technically challenging aspects of the law. The loss of the so-called Chevron doctrine calls into question every federal agency’s interpretation of a statute, so the ruling affects the regulations of all federal agencies. ... There were other cases in which Chevron didn’t come up but that involved agencies making legal justification...

Former President Donald Trump on Saturday endorsed displaying the Ten Commandments in all schools, days after a controversial new law went into effect in Louisiana mandating classroom postings. “Has anyone read the ‘Thou shalt not steal’?” the presumptive GOP presidential nominee told more than 1,000 predominantly evangelical Christians at a Faith & Freedom Coalition conference in Washington DC. “I mean, has anybody read this incredible stuff? It’s just incredible. They don’t want it to go up. It’s a crazy world,” added Trump, who drew huge applause. A new law signed in Louisiana on Thursday requires the Ten Commandments to be...

The Los Angeles City Council officially terminated its vaccination mandate for municipal employees Monday... The council members voted to end the city’s vaccination mandate .. The decision was unanimous, with all present council members voting 13-0 to rescind the mandate, effective retroactively from June 2. This move aligns with actions taken by other Southern California cities and comes more than a year after the city lifted its coronavirus emergency declaration. The ordinance ends the vaccine requirement for current and future city employees and allows those fired or who resigned over the mandate to seek re-employment, ABC 7 reported. The council...

This announcement out of Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin's office yesterday is pretty cool news. In 2021, under the benevolent eye of uber-prog Democratic black-face aficionado Gov Ralph Northam, the completely Democratic-held VA legislature decided to commit the state to follow the California emission standards, which, as everyone knows, are tougher than the federal ones. Progs of a feather flock together. In 2022, doubling down on their infinite wisdom, VA lawmakers saw fit to impose what's known as CA's Advanced Clean Car II regulations on their fellow Virginians. In essence, what that was going to do was impose a 100% EV...