Free Republic

JP Morgan Chase CEO says 'eminent domain' powers may be needed to accelerate energy transition projects as 'window is closing' for climate change action. In a latest article. The Wall Street titan told JP Morgan’s investors in the bank’s annual report: “Massive global investment in clean energy technologies must be done and must continue to grow year-over-year. Really? Citizens ask, "What about when school children were told 20 years ago that oil would run out?", "What about when legislators said we had had ten years to stem global warming?" Now people must give up their property? For what? Countries across...

n Monday, the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission denied a permit for a controversial carbon capture pipeline in the state. Summit Carbon Solutions (SCS) had filed dozens of eminent domain lawsuits against South Dakota landowners to seize properties that had been in their families for generations. The carbon technology captures carbon dioxide pollution from ethanol plants, power plants and steel factories, and stores it deep underground. The $5.5 billion Midwest Carbon Express pipeline would have extract carbon from ethanol plants in Iowa and stored it underground in North Dakota. The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by Joe Biden last...

On April 15, Preident Biden signed an Executive Order on Blocking Property with Respect to Specified Harmful Foreign Activities of the Government of the Russian Federation. Contrary to its title, this EO is not about Russia. It is designed to allow the Biden administration to deprive American citizens and organizations of their rights and property by arbitrarily linking those persons to real, imagined, or vaguely defined activities of the Russian government. The Biden administration unilaterally makes the determination and requires neither criminal acts nor intent. The punishment is blocking assets and a prohibition on any dealing with the accused person....

The decision provides important protection for property rights, and features a powerful concurring opinion by prominent conservative Judge Amal Thapar. In many states, asset forfeiture laws allow law enforcement agencies to seize valuable property based on mere suspicion that it was used in a crime, and then keep it even if the owner was never convicted of any crime. On top of that, some force owners to wait many months before they even have a chance to challenge the forfeiture in a hearing. Yesterday, in Ingram v. Wayne County, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued a...

Chinese property developer Evergrande defaulted in 2021 and recently filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States. But it wasn’t until today that the company’s stock resumed trading after 17 months of absence from the Hong Kong stock exchange. The results were about what you’d expect.Shares of the world’s most indebted property developer plunged as much as 87% on its open on Monday, trading for the first time since March 21, 2022.Shares fell to as low as 22 Hong Kong cents on Monday, compared to its last close at 1.65 Hong Kong dollars per share on March 18, 2022.The resumption...

Legislative Democrats have been scheming to kill Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR, since before it was added to the state Constitution in 1992. Hardly a year goes by without a bill, proposal, “listening tour,” or lawsuit hatched to enable state legislators to spend money TABOR denies them. Now, they’re at it again. This time, they’ve proposed a Rube-Goldberg ballot initiative called Proposition HH. Some of its superficial details might seem novel — like lipstick on the proverbial pig — but it’s only the latest gambit in a political long-con that has gotten very, very old. That’s why the...

This story started all the way back in February. A homeowner in DeKalb County, Georgia had been leasing his house to a tenant who had just moved out. A few days later he stopped by to check the condition of the property but when he pulled into the driveway he found someone else had already moved in.Tim Arko said just days after his tenants moved out of his East Lake rental home, he showed up to find someone had broken in.He said as soon as he pulled into the driveway, someone pointed a gun at him.“I just jumped the fence...

On July 27, the Biden Administration released a fact sheet detailing new actions to develop the Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights, which was rolled out early this year (covered by InfoBytes here). The three new actions aim to support renters by (i) “ensuring all renters have an opportunity to address incorrect tenant screening reports”; (ii) “providing new funding to support tenant organizing efforts”; and (iii) “ensuring that renters are given fair notice in advance of eviction.” Additionally, the CFPB, USDA, FHFA, and HUD concurrently released statements aimed at landlords, reminding them of “best practices” and their obligation to...

Kenigsberg never lost his fondness for the town. For decades, he held on to a vacant parcel of just under a half-acre next door to his childhood home. His father had bought that land, also in 1953, directly from Eleazar Parmly Jr. -- the family that settled the area in 1716. ...On May 31 of this year, Kenigsberg received a call with bad news from a childhood friend still in Fairfield. His closest pal growing up was in a hospice in the town. And by the way, the friend mentioned, they’re building a house on the lot next to his...

It’s a short, to-the-point story from a local Fox affiliate, but the news is jaw-dropping. The devastation Democrats have brought to the once-mighty city of Baltimore is about complete. A mere eight years ago, in 2015, a 30-story downtown Baltimore building sold for $66 million. Last month the same building sold for $24 million. Another downtown building, which is currently the home of T. Rowe Price, was once assessed at $171.4 million. Today it assessment sits at about half that amount: $93.7 million.

MONROE – A federal lawsuit filed by a group of landlords, including Pamela Lee, who own rental properties, says that a Monroe town law passed earlier this year is discriminatory against landlords and violates the federal Fair Housing Act. The lawsuit also alleges that families with more than two people cannot reside in a one-bedroom rental unit. The lawsuit, filed by six LLCs that own rental properties and Pamela Lee, a member of all of the LLCs and owner of properties in Monroe personally, asserts that the town is attempting to prohibit them from enjoying their constitutional right by depriving...

Since the coldest winter weather ended in Chicago this year, groups of hundreds of teens have been carousing through various Chicago neighborhoods, reportedly vandalizing cars, stealing from businesses, and physically assaulting people on the streets. The most recent gathering of hundreds of marauding teenagers and young adults occurred on Monday evening in the Lakeview neighborhood, an area just north of downtown. The mob of violent teens used the Chicago “L” train at the Belmont Red Line to gather in the Lakeview neighborhood, swarming out of the station in numbers big enough to shut down traffic adjacent to the station, according...

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said in his annual shareholder letter Tuesday that the government may need to seize private property to advance clean energy initiatives. Dimon discussed the need to quickly begin investing in solar projects and other green initiatives and suggested that the government should use eminent domain to seize property for those projects. “At the same time, permitting reforms are desperately needed to allow investment to be done in any kind of timely way. We may even need to evoke [sic] eminent domain – we simply are not getting the adequate investments fast enough for grid, solar,...

There have been a lot of stories in the news lately around squatters moving into vacant homes and refusing to leave. These stories show, time and again, that the police refuse to take action and instead say it’s a civil matter. So why aren’t these “trespassers” arrested? Is trespassing still against the law? Per ipropertymanagement, a squatter in California, “is someone who takes up residence in an abandoned, unoccupied or foreclosed building or area of land...without lawful permission…Despite this, it’s common and legal to squat in the United States.” Unlike trespassing, per the law, “While trespassing is a criminal offense,...

We’ll say it again now that Gov. Jared Polis has inked his purported “relief” for soaring property taxes: His plan is largely an illusion. Ignore the stagecraft of Wednesday’s signing ceremony for Senate Bill 23-303. It was a nice publicity stunt — the governor and assorted lawmakers turning up at the home of a Commerce City resident who supposedly would benefit. It was all sleight of hand. As we noted here only weeks ago, the Polis plan is as if someone offered to help you pay your bills — then reached into your pocket, grabbed your wallet, pulled out some...

The U.S. Supreme Court in a 5–4 decision reined in the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) effort to impose extensive federal land use regulation through its broad interpretation of the Clean Water Act (CWA). The decision in the case of Sackett v. EPA turns on the question of the proper definition of the term "the waters of the United States" (WOTUS). Interestingly, all the justices concurred in the judgment that plaintiffs Michael and Chantell Sackett's property and actions were not covered by the CWA. In the case, the Sacketts had purchased property near Priest Lake, Idaho, and began backfilling the lot...

The 69th Bilderberg Meeting taking place in Lisbon, Portugal this weekend is comprised of about 150 of the most powerful individuals in finance, business, military, government, media, and academia discussing in secret how to steer their global agenda. Learn about the history of Bilderberg and its plan in Alex Jones’ 2007 seminal film Endgame: Blueprint For Global Enslavement, breaking down the eugenics-obsessed elite’s plot to depopulate the planet and impose a totalitarian world government. If Endgame was the Master’s Degree in understanding the long term goals of the global elite and their quest for world government and population reduction, then...

The devil is in the details behind all the weekend media headlines proclaiming equal TABOR refunds, but only if voters approve Prop HH that is disguised as a property tax cut. It’s a con job that would make Charles Ponzi proud. The last hour bill comes as the legislative session grinds to a close today. It came with zero review or input from the public and most of your elected lawmakers. The bill — sponsored by Democratic Reps. Chris deGruy Kennedy and Mike Weissman, as well as Democratic Sens. Chris Hansen and Nick Hinrichsen — was immediately heard Saturday afternoon...

The ranch owner suing hunters for trespassing through his airspace to access public land says he would drop his damage claim of some $7.75 million if a judge rules in his favor in a landmark corner-crossing case. “[P]ursuit of money damages against the individual Defendants in this case detracts from important legal issues,” Eshelman’s new filing states. “[I]f the Court rules in favor of [Eshelman], declares the Defendants’ actions as being actionable trespass, and restrains further trespass, then [Eshelman] will withdraw money damage claims … in the interest of justice and judicial economy.” The hunters say they never touched Elk...

PORTLAND, Ore. — A new bill in the Oregon legislature is proposed as the Right to Rest Act. House Bill 3501 would decriminalize camping in public places. Under HB3501, homeless individuals would be able to have "a privacy interest and a reasonable expectation of privacy in any property belonging to the person, regardless of whether the property is located in a public space" – i.e., granting the individual rights to treat public spaces like a private residence "without discrimination and time limitations that are based on housing status." Homeless individuals would also be able to sue for up to $1,000...