Free Republic

A bruising battle over academic freedom is being waged in Texas, where the legislature is poised to give the state power to screen faculty, programs and courses in one of the country’s largest public university systems, and experts say the outcome could reverberate for higher education nationwide.Conservative lawmakers, who control all levers of government, are advancing a measure they say would hold institutions more accountable and ensure curriculum is “free from ideological bias.” Faculty could be removed or face civil penalties for violations. Schools that fail to comply could be barred from spending state funds.“Higher education should be about teaching...

In Los Angeles’s chaparral-covered ecosystem, wildfires in the mountains are an annual ritual. But when those fires leaped into residential neighborhoods earlier this week, killing at least 11 people and destroying thousands of homes, the city suddenly found itself in survival mode. A critical question became why the largest city in California, a state that has spent years fortifying itself against wildfires, couldn’t stop the fires this time. State regulations required residents in high-risk neighborhoods to create vegetation-free buffers around their homes. California had invested billions of dollars to reduce the amount of woody fuel for fires to burn. It...

HOUSTON — Half a million Texans are expected to suffer through sweltering heat with no electricity into early next week after Hurricane Beryl knocked out power throughout the Houston area Monday, generating anger at the region’s large utility for failing to defend the grid from a predictable summer storm. Food is spoiling in dormant refrigerators days after the Category 1 hurricane tore through power lines and utility poles. Hospitals are swarming with patients struggling with heat stroke. Businesses can’t function as residents are ordered to stay home, and many residents faced at least three or four more days of continued...

When she discovered she was pregnant, the 22-year-old aspiring veterinarian started calling abortion clinics in her home state of Oklahoma. It was a short list – there are only two, and neither could get her an appointment quickly. Unemployed, no car, and still living with her parents, Pearl thought about trying Texas, but knew the state had also recently tightened restrictions on clinics. ...

Arizona has some of the weakest gun control laws in the nation. To gun owners, those laws — which allow them to carry guns in their cars, in restaurants and other public places — are their last defense against unexpected evil. Gun control activists say the state's laws put weapons into the hands of the mentally unstable, and demand that federal officials impose tougher background checks and reinstate a ban on assault weapons. Pima County Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik said the state's gun laws contributed to the shooting. He singled out the law passed last year that allows those 21...