Free Republic

(NEXSTAR) – While violent crime has dropped to pre-pandemic levels nationwide, the FBI announced, changes weren’t the same across the board. The crime rates remained elevated in dozens of cities around the country. Personal finance site MoneyGeek used the FBI crime data to look at crime rates in 302 large cities and 1,010 small cities and towns around the country. They looked at both violent crime and property crime, and used research by the University of Miami and the University of Colorado Denver to determine the cost of crime in each area. After crunching the numbers, the large city with...

Americans are flocking to the coasts faster than ever before. And with much of the nation's priciest properties already concentrated near shorelines, this puts more people and buildings at risk from the kind of extreme storms and flooding linked to climate change. But for many communities across the U.S. the toll is likely to go far beyond physical damage. Rising sea levels could have a knock-on effect, making certain areas unlivable long before they're uninhabitable, effectively creating zombie towns, according to a new analysis from nonprofit environmental group Climate Central that looks at the financial impact of sea-level rise over...

Five towns in Vermont opted to extend their mask mandates another month, nearly two years after the start of the Chinese coronavirus pandemic. The Vermont legislature wrapped up 2021 by passing a measure allowing local governments to impose their own mask requirements. Republican Gov. Phil Scott emphatically approved the measure, pitching it as a way to avoid issuing a statewide mask mandate. In a November letter to members of the legislature, Scott said the legislation had to be “limited to facial covering requirements indoors within a municipality’s jurisdiction (except schools, which shall remain governed by the policies set forth by...

Hi Freeps! I need your help! Over ten years ago, I asked for some good locations in Washington State to live and you all came through and helped my family find a good place to live! Now I'm here asking you all again. My husband and I are needing to either move to South Carolina or Texas. We just need to find a good location, not too close to any city, more rural area with good schools and hopefully more conservatives. In Texas, we would like to live near either Dallas -Fort Worth, Amarillo, Lubbock or Midland. We just want...

Police said they were dealing with fires in Gothenburg, Malmo and Helsingborg Around 60 vehicles were reportedly vandalised with stones thrown at police Emergency services were tackling the fires with no reports yet of any injuries Dozens of cars were set alight and stones thrown at police as gangs of masked youths went rampaging across Sweden on Monday evening.

One of the great debates in American politics and economics in 2018 is likely to be how to help the country's forgotten towns, the former coal-mining and manufacturing hubs with quaint Main Streets that haven't changed much since the 1950s and '60s. Many of these places turned out heavily to vote for Donald Trump. He talks often about wanting to help them, but it's unclear how he can. Traditional economics says people living in these struggling towns should just move. Many of the United States' urban centers (and surrounding suburbs) are booming. If jobs are plentiful in Denver (unemployment rate:...

Call it Pennsylvania’s highway robbery. A pot of money from a huge increase in fuel taxes and motorist fees under a 2013 law designed to shore up Pennsylvania’s highways and bridges is not so huge anymore, as a growing amount is getting diverted to the Pennsylvania State Police. Now, alarmed transportation planners, construction firms and engineers are looking at 12-year Department of Transportation projections that show a fattening state police budget consuming more dollars for construction projects. Lawmakers are taking notice, too.

America Loves Catholicism: As Seen in Place Names Everywhere By: Msgr. Charles PopeThe video below boasts, “America loves Italy” and features a Fiat car driving through American towns with Italian names.If that is the case then America loves Catholicism even more, since thousands of towns and places are named for Catholic saints, themes, and objects. Consider the following:In California: San Diego, San Miguel, San Francisco, San Bernadino, San Clemente, San Luis Obispo, San Jose, San Rafael, Santa Maria, Santa Barbara, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Los Angeles (aka Nuestra Senora de los Angeles de la Porciuncula), Santa Cruz, Santa Clarita, Sacramento, San...

link only

Maybe 15 terms in Congress is enough. In at least one case, we now have proof that it’s more than enough. California Rep. Darrell Issa finally confirmed today what has been generally known for a long while: Even as Democrats were promised to get to the bottom of the scandal surrounding sup-prime mortgage loans, a least one top Democrat was working hard to cover-up the names of Democrats who got favors from Countrywide Financial Corp. Countrywide was the biggest abuser of sub-prime mortgages and was one of the main culprits in the housing collapse that eventually infected the rest of...

According to Judicial Watch, Rep. Edolphous Towns (D-NY) has introduced the Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2011. That bill would do with Obama’s presidential records what Obama has already done to his personal and collegiate records: Seal them up. In an obvious effort to protect President Barack Obama, a group of congressional Democrats has introduced legislation to create an official process that will allow the commander-in-chief to keep presidential records secret after he leaves office. Ironically, Obama revoked a similar George W. Bush order in one of his first official acts as president. In 2001 Bush penned an executive order...

The hottest market in the hottest economy in the world is Chinese real estate. The big question is how vulnerable is this market to a crash. One red flag is the vast number of vacant homes spread through China, by some estimates up to 64 million vacant homes. We've tracked down satellite photos of these unnerving places, based on a report from Forensic Asia Limited. They call it a clear sign of a bubble: "There’s city after city full of empty streets and vast government buildings, some in the most inhospitable locations. Click here to see the ghost towns

The letter that Ralph Groves, director of the U.S. Census Bureau, recently sent to the American people reflects what America has become under the welfare state. Here is what the letter states in part: "Your response is important. Results from the 2010 Census will be used to help each community get its fair share of government funds for highways, schools, health facilities, and many other programs you and your neighbors need. Without a complete, accurate census, your community may not receive its fair share." In that one paragraph lies the plunderbund society in all it majestic glory. Everyone is supposed...

Susan Crabtree of The Hill has the scoop: "Two junior Democrats are urging their leaders to open an investigation into the Countrywide VIP mortgage program. Rep. Paul Hodes (N.H.), who is in his second House term, and freshman Rep. Mike Quigley (Ill.) called on the House Oversight and Government Reform panel to initiate an investigation into Countrywide Financial's 'Friends of Angelo' VIP program and whether it was used to gain influence over federal officials. They made their case for the investigation in a letter to Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), the panel's chairman, and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the ranking member....

Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) locked Republicans out of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee room to keep them from meeting when Democrats aren’t present. Towns’ action came after repeated public ridicule from the leading Republican on the committee, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), over Towns’s failure to launch an investigation into Countrywide Mortgage’s reported sweetheart deals to VIPs. For months Towns has refused Republican requests to subpoena records in the case. Last Thursday Committee Republicans, led by Issa, were poised to force an open vote on the subpoenas at a Committee mark-up meeting. The mark-up was abruptly canceled. Only Republicans...

Bloomberg link only http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=atlmwyTD7xAg

(IsraelNN.com) The IDF Central Command has warned residents of 24 Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria that they face eviction in the near future. Thousands of people who reside in the communities could find themselves homeless. The list of communities facing demolition includes towns that were built up to 10 years ago, such as Migron and Givat Assaf. Senior members of the Ichud Leumi party were informed by IDF officials that the towns will be evicted either peaceably or by force before June 6, the date on which United States President Barack Obama plans to give a historic address to...

Candidates for Congress and the Legislature made a final push for votes on Sunday before Tuesday’s primary elections throughout the city and the state. In New York City, the most prominent of the hotly contested primaries are for Congress in a district in central Brooklyn and in another that includes all of Staten Island and part of Brooklyn. There are also competitive primaries throughout the state, notably in the Buffalo area. In the Staten Island Congressional district, the 13th, there are spirited races in both the Republican and Democratic primaries. The winners will compete in November for the Congressional seat...

The UK's towns and cities are designed primarily for men, not women, says a study. So what's the difference? If a town was designed solely for women, how would it look? If you think it would have more nail bars, shoe shops and coffee shops selling skinny lattes, then think again. A study by Cambridge University says planning projects and urban regeneration schemes tend to cater to men better than women, despite the two living their lives differently. Travel is one example. Studies show women make more complex journeys than men, dropping children off at school, going to work, getting...

San Marcos — At her first meeting as part of a citizen advisory committee on the Trans-Texas Corridor, San Marcos Mayor Susan Narvaiz plans to listen before she speaks. “I want to be better educated about where they are now in terms of the timeline,” said Narvaiz, who was appointed to the board by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) on Thursday. “I want to hear from the people who put this together, what their intent was, why they figured their alignment the way they did.” The 18-member committee will advise TxDOT in the planning of TTC-35, which will roughly...