Free Republic

MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes said Wednesday on his show “All In” that many people, including him, were “permanently scarred” by Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential victory. Hayes said, “Even by the standards of our time, of this day and age in the avalanche of news and spectacle, this sort of dizzying clawing for your attention the last 24 hours have really been something else. So I want to begin tonight by just taking a second here to try to collectively just wrap our heads around the meaning and significance of what we have seen in the last 24 hours.” He continued,...

Microsoft is allowing its employees to work from home permanently. While the vast majority of Microsoft employees are still working from home during the ongoing pandemic, the software maker has unveiled “hybrid workplace” guidance internally to allow for far greater flexibility once US offices eventually reopen. The Verge has received Microsoft’s internal guidance, and it outlines the company’s flexible working plans for the future. Microsoft will now allow employees to work from home freely for less than 50 percent of their working week, or for managers to approve permanent remote work. While most employees will be able to easily take...

SACRAMENTO — California has permanently scrapped its high school exit exam under legislation signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday. The California High School Exit Examination was a requirement to receive a diploma in the state, but the legislature voted in 2015 to drop it for the high school classes of 2015 to 2018. Diplomas were retroactively awarded to anyone who met all other graduation requirements after the test became a mandatory must-pass exam in 2004. That resulted in an estimated 40,000 former high school students receiving their diplomas. The bill signed by Brown, AB830 by Ash Kalra, D-San Jose,...

IRVING, Texas — Hostess Brands Inc. is permanently closing three bakeries following a nationwide strike by its bakers union. The Texas-based maker of Twinkies and Ding Dongs says the strike has prevented it from producing and delivering products. Hostess warned earlier this month that the strike, by about 30 percent of its workforce, could lead to bakery closures. It said Monday that it will close bakeries in Seattle, St. Louis and Cincinnati that collectively employ 627 workers. The company has about 18,300 employees. Thousands of members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers

Obama: "Open your hearts and open your minds to the words of Prof. Derrick Bell." Derrick Bell: "Racism is permanent"

With world oil prices nearly touching $100 a barrel in the past week, we are living through the third great energy shock of the post-war era. But this time, demand from India and China means that prices are unlikely ever to go down again. Since 2004, oil prices have risen on a scale similar to that of the first oil shock at the start of the 1970s, and double that of the second oil shock at the end of the 70s. China's oil consumption has doubled over the past decade and India's has increased by two thirds. A new Australian...

"I think it's very important for our friends, the Israelis, to have a peaceful Palestinian state living on their border. And it's very important for the Palestinian people to have a peaceful, hopeful future." So spoke President Bush just two days after his re-election, just exactly as news reports were leaking Yasser Arafat's demise.The combination of Mr. Bush's stunning new mandate and Mr. Arafat's near-death condition will lead, I predict, to a quick revival of Palestinian-Israeli diplomacy after months of relative doldrums and to massive dangers to Israel.The doldrums will cease because the Bush administration views Mr. Arafat as the...