Free Republic

If you need more evidence that America has become a "permission-slip" society, look no further than the City of Portland, Oregon, requiring homeowners to get permits to remove trees that've fallen on their houses during recent winter storms. Portland alt-weekly Willamette Week published a story last week about Joel and Sarah Bonds, who had a large Douglas Fir in the backyard squash their house after it became weighed down with ice. The tree barely missed the Bonds' young daughter and cat. As it turns out, the couple were not unaware of the danger posed by the tree. In 2021, they'd...

The holidays are here, and while the decorations on Capitol Hill symbolize a season of giving, lawmakers seem more focused on getting what they want on immigration. Every member on Capitol Hill agrees the public health crisis at the southern border is untenable. Those truly committed to addressing the emergency know that it can’t be fixed overnight. They have the hard task of enacting laws to prevent migrants fleeing abhorrent conditions from entering America illegally, providing border support for their humane treatment while being processed and managing the needs of those granted temporary protected status now living in the U.S....

Mayor Eric Adams is taking to the streets to demand — yet again — the Biden Administration fast-track work permits for thousands of migrants who have flooded into the Big Apple since last year. Hizzoner told a crowd of about 200 in Lower Manhattan on Thursday that the feds need to step up, and follows on the heels of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s visit to the White House on Wednesday to plead for help. “We must expedite work visas,” Adams said at a rally in Foley Square. “It’s just common sense. “We could continue to build the pipeline,” he said. “That...

On Tuesday’s broadcast of Spectrum News NY1’s “Inside City Hall,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) stated that New York’s migrant crisis “is a federal problem. People are coming here because of the border situation and people’s desire to seek asylum.” And said New York needs more money through an attachment to the package for Ukraine funding, land from the federal government, and to give migrants work permits. Hochul said that the state and New York City need, “One, more money. Now, I always can use more money, and I believe they’ll be putting in a request for supplemental dollars...

Elon Musk's newly installed "X" sign atop the former Twitter headquarters in San Fransisco has already been removed after only four days because of the city's investigation into concerns about its structural safety and illumination, city officials told the Associated Press. Our HQ in San Francisco tonight pic.twitter.com/VQO2NoX9Tz— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 29, 2023After the San Francisco Department of Building Inspection received reportedly 24 complaints over the weekend regarding the giant structure, they forced the "X" addition to halt until the company acquires the necessary permits. The required permit is supposed to ensure the “consistency with the historic nature of...

Senator Joe Manchin introduced a new bill on Tuesday aimed at accelerating the permitting process for oil, gas, renewables, mineral extraction, and power transmission projects to address domestic energy security.The Democratic Senator of coal and natural gas-producing West Virginia has been working for months to garner support from both sides of the aisle for a permitting reform that would shorten the timelines for permitting all types of American energy and mineral infrastructure without bypassing environmental laws or community input. Permitting reform legislation has failed in recent months, also because critics and some Democrats have accused Senator Manchin of basically giving...

close Alaska leaders demand Biden administration 'not kill' oil drilling project The Biden administration quietly updated a federal database showing how many unused oil and gas drilling permits it has approved, reducing the number by more than 2,000. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) revised the current number of approved applications for permits to drill (APD) — which oil and gas companies are required to file once they identify a deposit on a lease that can be tapped — down from an estimated 9,000 to less than 6,700. The BLM, a subagency of the Department of the Interior (DOI), blamed...

The San Francisco Chronicle did an analysis of the timeline for building permits in the city and even to an SF pessimist like myself the results are pretty shocking. On average it takes more than two years to get a building permit for a single family residence in the city. It’s only slightly less for a multi-family dwelling.When housing advocates and developers talk about how long it takes to get permits to build housing in San Francisco, they don’t speak in increments of days, weeks or months. They speak in years.And they’re not exaggerating, according to a new Chronicle analysis...

She was involved in 'pay-to-play' scheme involving gun permits issued by her officeFormer Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith has been found guilty on all six civil counts of corruption and willful misconduct less than one week after retiring. Laurie Smith was found guilty in a civil corruption trial on Nov. 3, 2022. She had resigned as Santa Clara County sheriff three days earlier. Embarcadero Media file photo. Smith was on trial over accusations from a 2021 civil grand jury report that the sheriff's office traded concealed carry weapon licenses to campaign donors and that Smith accepted San Jose Sharks...

The New York State anti-Second Amendment law, enacted under an extraordinary session brought about by Governor Hochel, is blatantly unconstitutional under the terms of the recent Bruen decision by the Supreme Court. Several provisions of the law are likely to be struck down. This article focuses on the requirement to provide social media accounts and the practical mechanisms, which mean very few permits will be approved under this provision. Those which are approved are likely to take an unconstitutional amount of time. From Bruen, page 30 of the opinion, footnote 9: And they likewise appear to contain only “narrow, objective,...

The Biden administration has remained silent on a key interstate natural gas pipeline facing significant permitting roadblocks. “Since the project’s inception, groups opposing energy infrastructure development have challenged the MVP project at every turn, filing dozens of petitions contesting MVP’s previously issued state and federal authorizations,” said Equitrans spokesperson Natalie Cox. “Ultimately, the decision on [the Mountain Valley Pipeline] is one that President Biden can influence,” climate group Food & Water Watch stated in October. The Biden administration has yet to take a public position on a major natural gas pipeline as the project faces an uphill federal permitting battle....

Three major U.S. fossil fuel companies rejected an invitation from House Democrats to testify at an April hearing on whether the industry has done enough to lower prices. The three companies — EOG Resources, Devon Energy Corporation and Occidental Petroleum — informed Natural Resources Committee leadership that they would skip the hearing that was planned for April 5, the panel’s chairman, Arizona Democratic Rep. Raúl Grijalva, announced Tuesday evening. Grijalva sent letters to the energy producers on March 18, asking their CEOs to appear at the hearing to discuss why gasoline prices were so high. “As rising gas prices started...

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Three Idaho women are suing the state in federal court over its expensive training requirement for professional hair-braiders. The women, represented by the Institute for Justice, filed the lawsuit against the Idaho Barber and Cosmetology Services Licensing Board in Boise’s U.S. District Court on Tuesday, the Idaho Statesman reported. Idaho is one of five states that still require cosmetology licenses for professional hair braiding. The licenses require 1,600 hours of training and can cost up to $20,000, even though cosmetology schools aren’t required to teach braiding techniques for naturally textured hair. Scott Graf, spokesperson for the...

President Joe Biden’s pro-migration chief of homeland security is offering temporary residence and work permits to roughly 75,000 Ukrainian tourists, visa workers, and illegal migrants — including many young men — who are already in the United States. The award of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 18 months was announced by Alejandro Mayorkas, the Cuban-born immigrant who runs the Department of Homeland Security:

On Monday, April 26, 2021, the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear the case of New York Rifle, Et Al. v. Corlett, for the question of whether the denial of applications for firearms carry licenses violates the Second Amendment. From the supremecourt.gov: The petitions for writs of certiorari are granted. 20-843 NEW YORK STATE RIFLE, ET AL. V. CORLETT, KEITH M., ET AL. The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted limited to the following question: Whether the State’s denial of petitioners’ applications for concealed-carry licenses for self-defense violated the Second Amendment. This is the first significant Second...

With Gov. Spencer Cox (R-UT) signing Utah’s constitutional carry bill on Friday, there are now 17 states that no longer demand a permit to carry concealed. The Utah law goes into effect on May 5th. As might be expected, the Utah media is aghast.

The Nantucket Police Department in Massachusetts announced Wednesday that its officers would indefinitely halt new weapons permit applications due to heightened risk of coronavirus spread. The department initially announced the decision on Twitter, writing that all fingerprint services were to be suspended, but the post was removed shortly after. The law enforcement body said the reason for its decision was that the employees who fielded the applications expressed “concern that they could not safely do their jobs,” according to a press release.

On the night of Sunday, May 31st, I read about the burning of the church near the White House, and, as a VA headquarters employee[i], I received a work email stating that our two HQ buildings next to that church -- the main building and the overflow building -- had been “vandalized.” On Friday, June 5th, I came back to DC to see for myself what had happened to the VA and surrounding areas. Keep in mind, the VA -- for all of its problems, centered around its enormous size and perennial inability to clean out its own rot --...

A United Nations human rights expert is recommending changes in the way protests are handled in the United States, saying the process of issuing permits for demonstrations is “arbitrary” and could easily lead to discrimination against certain groups. Maina Kiai of Kenya, U.N. special rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, offered preliminary findings Wednesday from his visits this month to seven U.S. cities — including the sites of this year’s Democratic and Republican political conventions — to investigate how the U.S. upholds its citizens’ rights of assembly and association. Kiai’s full report to the United Nations will...

The topic of guns foments emotions on both sides of the firearm argument - whether the person is for weapons or against them. An issue often discussed in the political arena is whether the government can require a permit for citizens to carry a firearm. Some say that the Second Amendment is the only permit that citizens need to possess weapons, and others want the amendment abolished. As a country, we are already overregulated in the firearm arena, and now at least one politician who calls himself a republican intends to require a permit for ammunition. Pennsylvania State Representative Thomas...