Free Republic

The Trump administration has reconsidered what state and territory firearms permits qualify as substitutes for National Instant Criminal Background Check system checks, or more generally, for Brady Law checks when purchasing a firearm. Two more states, Michigan and Alabama, have been added to the current list. As of present, 29 states and Puerto Rico have permits that qualify.Not all permits in a particular state may qualify. In Alabama, both the Concealed Carry Permit and the Lifetime Concealed Carry Permit qualify. In Michigan, both the Permit to Purchase, Carry, Possess, or Transport a handgun and the license to conceal carry qualify.Missouri...

The Pacific Palisades fire burned more than 6,800 structures, both homes and businesses. Clearly, the rebuilding process is going to take a while for many families even if insurance covers the losses. What should not take a long time are permits for people who lost everything to get started. Indeed, Mayor Karen Bass vowed to streamline the process and made a big show when the first permit was issued.The first permit was issued March 5, less than two months after the Palisades fire destroyed or seriously damaged more than 6,000 homes in Pacific Palisades and surrounding areas.“We want this to...

Two recent court decisions could have far-reaching impacts on oil and gas projects. The Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity, and other anti-fossil fuel groups recently sued the National Marine Fisheries Service, claiming the agency’s “biological opinion” failed to properly assess the risks that offshore oil and gas drilling poses to endangered species. Last month, U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman ruled in favor of the plaintiffs.

The Biden administration is doing an end-run around the nation’s immigration laws — by giving migrants work permits in record numbers. Since President Biden took office, more than 3.3 million migrants have been given a Employment Authorization Document (EAD), commonly known as the federal work permit, even though many didn’t even legally have the right to be America. And as of February of this year, pending EAD applications stood at an another 1.4 million. In many cases, migrants are given the right to work before they are even given asylum, a green card or other legal documentation that allows them...

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.