Free Republic

Californians would have to take a four-hour course with live-fire training to buy a gun if a bill advancing through the Legislature gets signed into law. Senate Bill 948, by Berkeley Democratic Sen. Jesse Arreguín, also would require gun owners moving to California to obtain a firearm safety certificate and register their firearms within 180 days of their arrival. Beginning in 2028, obtaining that certificate would require completing the training.

The road to working and studying in the United States may soon become much tougher for thousands of skilled professionals and international students. The Trump administration is preparing a fresh set of immigration restrictions that could affect almost every major pathway used by foreign talent, from H-1B work visas to student work permits and even employment-based green cards. While several of the proposed rules are still under review, immigration lawyers, universities, and companies say the impact is already being felt. Employers are becoming more cautious, students are growing anxious and legal experts say visa scrutiny has dramatically increased. For Indian...

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) beneficiaries sued the Department of Agriculture on March 11 over the issuance of waivers to five states restricting certain types of foods that can be purchased under the program.On May 19 last year, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins issued a waiver to Nebraska that bans SNAP recipients in the state from buying soda or energy drinks. As of March 4 this year, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) has approved similar waivers for 22 states in total.In addition to soda and energy drinks, the additional waivers prohibit the purchase of fruit and vegetable drinks with less than...

The Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) flight reduction emergency order will officially end Monday morning, allowing normal operations to resume nationwide, according to officials. The order will be lifted at 6 a.m. ET Monday following recommendations from the FAA’s safety team. The decision came after safety reviews and improvements in air traffic control staffing levels across the U.S., according to a Sunday announcement from the FAA. "I want to thank the FAA’s dedicated safety team for keeping our skies secure during the longest government shutdown in our nation’s history and the country’s patience for putting safety first," Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy...

Starting August 13, 2025, YouTube will introduce an age estimation model for U.S.-based users to identify those under 18, regardless of the birthdate provided during account creation. The initiative aims to enhance protections and deliver age-appropriate experiences for teenage users, including enabling digital wellbeing tools and displaying only non-personalized ads. This move builds on YouTube’s existing safeguards for teens and leverages advanced technology already in use in other markets. The age estimation model will analyze various signals, such as a user’s YouTube activity and account longevity, to determine if they are under 18. Users identified as minors will receive a...

Democrat lawmakers in Oregon are pushing myriad new gun controls this legislative session, including a ban on the possession of firearms by persons under the age of 21. The Statesman Journal noted that Oregon has pivoted from its previous reputation of being a pro-gun, or at least gun-control neutral, state, to being ranked highly for gun control under Democrat governance. For example, “[Oregon] ranks just outside the top 10 by the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence (No. 11) and Everytown for Gun Safety (No. 12).” This year’s gun control proposals include Senate Bill 697, which would ban firearm...

The Justice Department issued a letter on Thursday stating that it has determined many removal restrictions for administrative law judges to be unconstitutional. The decision follows growing frustration within the Trump administration over judicial roadblocks to its executive actions. In the letter, acting U.S. Solicitor General Sarah Harris informed President Pro Tempore Chuck Grassley (R-IA) that the Justice Department “has concluded that the multiple layers of removal restrictions for administrative law judges” violate the U.S. Constitution, the Western Journal reported. The letter means the administration “will no longer defend” the removal restrictions in court or in litigation. For reference, Harris...

Former Canadian finance minister – and deputy Prime Minister – Chrystia Freeland announced yesterday (17) that she will join the contest to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as leader of the Canadian ruling Liberal Party. Before we share some of the Reuters’ reports about their former senior editor Freeland, let’s bring back a dimension of her that MSM will do their utmost to cover up: the Nazi connection. Chrystia Freeland’s family connections to Ukrainian Nazis revolve around her maternal grandfather, ‘Michael’ Mykhailo Chomiak. Chomiak was an editor of a Ukrainian-language Nazi propaganda newspaper called Krakivski Visti, published in Nazi-occupied Poland...

An FTC lawsuit accuses the agriculture machinery giant of illegal repair restrictions that allegedly inflate costs and deny farmers timely equipment fixes. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), along with attorneys general from Illinois and Minnesota, filed a lawsuit against John Deere manufacturer Deere and Company on Wednesday, Jan. 15, charging the agriculture machinery giant with engaging in practices that allegedly force farmers to rely on its authorized dealers for critical equipment repairs. According to the FTC’s complaint, these alleged tactics have inflated costs for American farmers and deprived them of the ability to quickly fix the tractors and combines they...

The incoming Trump administration intends to rescind a long-standing policy that has prevented Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from arresting immigrants at or near so-called sensitive locations, such as houses of worship, schools and hospitals or events like funerals, weddings and public demonstrations without approval from supervisors, according to three sources familiar with the plan. President-elect Donald Trump plans to rescind the policy as soon as the first day he is in office, the sources — who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the change publicly — said. The move would be intended...

President-elect Donald Trump promised Thursday to end all restrictions and delays on arms deliveries to Israel on his first day in office, according to Amit Segal, a reporter for Israel’s Channel 12 News and Yedioth Ahronot newspaper. The Biden-Harris administration withheld precision bombs from Israel in May in response to Israel’s decision to enter Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, against the White House’s explicit demands. Israel ultimately secured Gaza’s border with Egypt and killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who had been attempting to escape through Rafah. Though the administration later released those weapons, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) alleged that...

The ruling requires the administration to keep processing new applications to export LNG as the Texas-led lawsuit proceeds. Attorney General Ken Paxton obtained a temporary injunction in his lawsuit against the Biden administration over their decision to halt liquefied natural gas exports. Joined by 15 other state attorneys general, Paxton secured the win Monday after a federal district court judge in Western Louisiana ruled that the new administrative plan should be paused as the case proceeds. “This ruling means [President Joe] Biden’s illegal ban does not prevent Texas natural gas from reaching market while the lawsuit continues,” stated Paxton in...

Last night, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed House Bill 311, restricting firearms on college campuses and college-owned properties, even for concealed carry permit holders. This legislation is now eligible for a floor vote. Please contact your state senator by using the Take Action button below and urge them to OPPOSE this legislation. HB 311 could lead to confusion among concealed carry permit holders who may not realize they are on property owned by a college or university. HB 311 adds all colleges and universities to the Safe School Zone criminal offense so that any person who knowingly possesses a firearm...

The Kansas Supreme Court has ruled that voting is not a fundamental right protected by the Kansas Constitution. The landmark decision on voting rights Friday is likely to weaken legal challenges to future voting restrictions in Kansas. The majority opinion reversed a 2023 appeals court decision that recognized any restrictions on the fundamental right to vote would be subject to the highest legal bar for evaluation, or strict scrutiny. Justice Caleb Stegall wrote for the majority, saying voting is instead a “political right” under the Kansas Constitution that has a lower bar for regulation than fundamental rights. [snip] Kansas Attorney...

Back in 1969, Congress passed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), mandating environmental reviews for all major projects to determine their environment impact and allowing for periods of public comment. This has generally been beneficial, but it opens the door to lengthy lawsuits from environmental activists that can tie projects up in the courts for years. There may be some significant changes coming to the process, however, but only for certain types of projects. The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) has just finished what's being described as a "rule change" that will remove many delays and "streamline" the...

There is little doubt that the COVID-19 restrictions in place now have caused major disruptions in our daily life and have had negative economic impacts on California families, especially the working poor. But consider how much worse it would be if we in California hadn’t moved quickly to “flatten the curve.” An out-of-control pandemic would rage through our state at numbers unimaginable and would have much more severe consequences on the health of Californians, as well as the economy. Thankfully, California is once again leading the way by taking major measures such as shelter in place, physical distancing, orders to...

During his closing monologue on Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher argued that America is better off than it was four years ago because we’re not in the middle of the time “when COVID hit and America wet itself, emptied its pockets, and curled up in a ball” by overreacting to the coronavirus pandemic.

Mar 25, 2024 During a House Natural Resources Committee hearing last week, Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) spoke about a Bureau of Land Management policy.

MSNBC legal analyst Barbara McQuade argued Monday that the United States’ “deep commitment to free speech” makes Americans uniquely susceptible to disinformation campaigns. McQuade, a University of Michigan law professor, went on “The Rachel Maddow Show” to promote her new book, “Attack from Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America.” She said her “goal” with the book was to spark a “national conversation about truth and our commitment to it.” She added, “I hope that by dissecting it, explaining it, and educating the public, we can all see disinformation for what it is so that we can begin to push back...

Many Americans are only now beginning to realize the devastating impacts that COVID lockdowns had on our society, as many businesses struggle still to recover and children try to catch up with missed learning opportunities. But what if the pandemic was just a trial run for more drastic restrictions and lockdowns related to climate change? After decades of arguing that the world is at a climate tipping point, Democrats may try to enact restrictions to stop perceived global warming at an order of magnitude larger than the COVID-19 measures imposed during the height of the pandemic. And considering the pandemic’s...