Free Republic

The Los Angeles Police Department has launched a task force to try to crack down on 'burglary tourists' who use the US tourism visa system to commit crimes. Cunning criminals from Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru target wealthy neighborhoods in places with relaxed criminal justice laws to conduct home burglaries - before returning home with the loot while out on bail. The troubling trend of 'lanzas internacionales' - translated to 'international thieves' - dates back at least two years across America, while the problem has also reared its ugly head in the United Kingdom. Authorities in Los Angeles announced the...

'Doomsday prepping' used to be seen as a hobby relegated to the paranoid fringe — but ordinary Americans spent a staggering $11 billion on survival items, just last year, from April 2022 to April 2023. About a third of US citizens admit to prepping, surveys show, but few have the resources today's billionaire bunker-builders have to devote to their own shelters. The world's wealthiest have increasingly spent hundreds of millions on securing underground compounds, private islands and (for the merely rich) 'survival condos.' Late last year it emerged Mark Zuckerberg was building a $100 million hidden fortress buried beneath his...

Californians are bracing for third day of monster surf that has already damaged countless ocean-side properties. During the first round of severe surf Thursday, nearly 20 beachgoers were swept away by a particularly powerful wave that slammed into a barrier in Ventura County. First responders also rescued about 10 people there Friday after the group 'thought they were able to navigate that high surf,' officials said. Two beachgoers then had to pull a lifeguard out of the water as he struggled to make it back ashore, a firefighter told CNN. Though hazards are expected lessen Saturday, waves slamming into California’s...

Dianne Feinstein's daughter and three stepdaughters are set to inherit the late senator's $102 million property portfolio, as well as her $62 million private jet. The California congresswoman, who died in DC Friday aged 90, leaves behind an Italianite mansion with stunning views of San Francisco Bay that's worth $21 million. Democrat Feinstein - whose vast wealth raised eyebrows - died in a Washington DC mansion she owned that's worth $7.4 million. She also owned a $5 million Hawaii duplex, $7.5 million beach house in Marin County, California and a $62 million Gulfstream G650 jet she used to shuttle between...

Believe it or not, California thinks it has a solution to the homelessness problem that can be solved with additional taxation! Go figure.A new measure in Los Angeles, called Measure ULA, is set to generate $900 million in taxes that will then be used for housing subsidies and tenant protections. The tax is essentially a levy on all property sales of more than $5 million, according to Bloomberg.This "mansion tax", if it passes, will look to "speed new construction and deliver a way out of the city’s spiraling homelessness crisis", according to Bloomberg. It could generate some $900 million per...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed Kyiv's ambassador to Germany on Saturday as well as several other top foreign envoys, the presidential website said.

A non-profit organization called “Feeding our Future (FOF)” was stopped in its tracks this week by the FBI after using millions of federal dollars meant for child nutrition to instead buy “numerous vehicles” and 14 properties, according to the Bureau. FBI Special Agent Travis Wilmer wrote in an affidavit this week: “The companies and their owners received tens of millions of dollars in federal funds for use in providing nutritious meals to underprivileged children and adults. Almost none of this money was used to feed children. Instead, the participants in the scheme misappropriated the money and used it to purchase...

Prices in Florida’s ultra-rich Palm Beach community hit an all-time high in the second quarter, as brokers grappled with a record-low number of mansions to sell. The average price for a single-family home in Palm Beach hit $11.7 million in the quarter, up 38% from a year earlier and marking a new high, according to Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel. Brokers say the flow of wealthy hedge funders, private equity chiefs and other executives in finance moving from New York and other finance capitals has created a sharp rise in demand and prices for a market already known for its...

The founder of BLM who “identifies as a trained Marxist” has resigned from her post at the unashamedly anti-capitalist group to focus on her book and TV deals, says Sky News host Rita Panahi.

A former Black Lives Matter activist is making stunning accusations against fellow agitators in an unprompted YouTube video.Trey Turner, who says he protested police killings in St. Paul, Minnesota, created a video to expose what he learned while he was active with the group.Turner said he joined Black Lives Matter after the shooting of Jamar Clark last March, and that he was a part of the “4th Precinct shutdown.” He said he joined because activists insisted the movement was peaceful and “didn’t hate whites.” According to Turner, he was an active participant in the protests at the governor’s mansion after...

Mansion prices show no signs of slowing in rich enclaves such as the Hamptons, Beverly Hills and Aspen, suggesting that the global market panic has yet to spread to top trophy homes. According to sales data from Douglas Elliman, the median sales price in Beverly Hills for a single family home jumped 54 percent in the fourth quarter over the same period last year, to $5.5 million. In Aspen, the median single-family home price increased 35 percent to $6.7 million and 2015 was the market's best year ever for sales. In the Hamptons, a record number of homes sold for...

The Leadership Institute’s Campus Reform sent a film crew into the streets around the White House with pictures of four mega-properties where Hillary Clinton has lived. He asked various millennials which of the candidates for president they thought had lived in each property. First up was the $5.7 million “embassy estate.” Rubio got one vote, Dr. Ben Carson another. Second was the $1.7 million “country-side cottage.” Jeb Bush won that one. Third was the $11 million “Hampton’s hideaway.” It was Rubio and Carson again. Last was a $13 million “beachside bungalow.” This time Donald Trump got a vote, but Rubio...

 In 2013, when the struggling Clintons weren't in their 2 mansions, they summered at this 100k per week Hamptons home

A tribute to the U.S. military service personnel who gave their all for our freedom.

U2 guitarist may get a second chance at Malibu mansions Lobbyists who worked on the Edge's project are urging legislators to approve a measure that could clear the way for his development, which the Coastal Commission rejected. SACRAMENTO — The California Coastal Commission rejected a controversial proposal last year by U2 guitarist the Edge to build five mansions on a scenic bluff above Malibu, saying that it would scar a rugged ridgeline and harm sensitive habitat. Now, some of the same powerful lobbyists and lawyers behind the musician's quashed development are working the halls of the Capitol to push a...

INDIA's richest man, Mukesh Ambani, has bought his wife a luxury jet with entertainment cabins, a sky bar and fancy showers for her birthday, a newspaper said yesterday. Ambani, who owns the country's biggest private company, Reliance Industries Ltd, gifted the $US60 million ($66 million) Airbus plane to wife Neeta on her 44th birthday on Thursday, the Mumbai Mirror newspaper said. The jet is custom-fitted with an office and a cabin with game consoles, music systems, satellite television and wireless communication, the report said. It also has a master bedroom, a bathroom with a range of showers and a bar...

A mansion that once belonged to publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst was put on the market Monday for $165 million. The seller, attorney-investor Leonard M. Ross, bought the Beverly Hills property in 1976 and is seeking a "lifestyle change," said his real-estate broker, Stephen Shapiro. It is believed to be the nation's most expensive residential listing. The asking price surpassed the $155 million being sought by developers of a 10-bedroom estate in Montana's Big Sky country, and the $135 million price of an Aspen, Colo., compound owned by Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, former ambassador to the United States. Hearst...

MALIBU, Calif. - A wildfire fanned by Santa Ana winds destroyed eight seaside mansions and damaged five others Monday as it spread over more than 10 acres in this celebrity enclave, authorities said. Flames boiled furiously out of the skeletons of million-dollar beach homes as palm trees bent in winds blowing at 21 mph. More than 300 firefighters battled the blaze, which began about 5 p.m., said Los Angeles County fire Inspector Ron Haralson. The blaze erupted near West Pacific Coast Highway and Malibu Canyon Road. Residents were being evacuated on the west end of the canyon road, Sheriff's Sgt....

SUNLAND, CALIF. – Leaning on the wrought-iron fence that defines the front lawn of his cottage-size home, Marty Greer says he doesn't like what is happening to this California foothill community. "They're tearing down homes like mine and putting up homes like those," says the 31-year resident, pointing to a two-story home one block away. The magenta-stucco home dwarfs the one-story bungalows that line these hillside streets. Its walls stretch to the edges of the property line, not even leaving room for a swath of yard "I don't like it and the neighbors here don't like it," says Mr. Greer,...

He is one of the richest Senators in Government. When someone is elected president, it means the Secret Service has to protect the President and his family as well as his property. The Kerry's have five US properties not counting the several foreign properties they own too. The cost to run these homes are more than what the average American could afford, even if the rent was free, and all you had to pay the water, gas &electric. Including ground keepers, maintenance, pool, and house keepers. To be President would require the taxpayers to pay for all that now if...