Free Republic

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — A California coastal panel on Thursday rejected a long-standing proposal to build a $1.4 billion seawater desalination plant to turn Pacific Ocean water into drinking water as the state grapples with persistent drought that is expected to worsen in coming years with climate change. The state’s Coastal Commission voted unanimously to deny a permit for Poseidon Water to build a plant to produce 50 million gallons of water a day in Huntington Beach, southeast of Los Angeles. Poseidon said it was disappointed in the decision. “California continues to face a punishing drought, with no end...

The town of Woodside in San Mateo County has found a way to thwart new housing development: invoking the supposed endangerment of mountain lions. Woodside, which according to the U.S. Census Bureau has a median household income of more than $250,000, has blocked any new development under Senate Bill 9 under a clause in the bill prohibiting development in the habitat of an endangered species. SB 9 was an attempt to encourage more housing development in established neighborhoods by allowing property owners to split large lots and bypass public hearings. Advertisement “We love animals,” Mayor Dick Brown told The Almanac....

The U.S. Department of State has warned Afghan refugees that California and Washington, D.C., might be too expensive.... “Please be aware that the cost of living and the availability of housing can vary significantly in different locations across the United States,” the department’s website read. “The Washington, DC metro area including northern Virginia and some cities in California are very expensive places to live... ....The webpage used to display a list of 19 “welcoming communities” for Afghans fleeing the Taliban, but now only suggests that refugees steer clear of the “very expensive places to live” according to WMTV. Chicago, Phoenix,...

In November 2020, over 80% of Marin County, California, residents voted for Joe Biden. This was to be expected. In 2018, 64% of Marin’s residents voted for Gavin Newsom. Only 12% voted for John Cox, the Republican candidate. Another 8% of votes went to yet another Democrat. Now that Marinites have gotten their solid Democrat governance, though, they’re not happy with one of the main Democrat goals: Turning expensive suburbs into densely populated urban areas. Welcome to the new NIMBYs (“Not in my back yard”). Marin County is one of the wealthiest areas in America, coming in at number 13...

After two decades of false starts and lengthy delays, Massachusetts is poised to get the nation’s first large-scale offshore wind farm with the approval Tuesday by the Biden administration of a massive energy project in federal waters some 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. The decision is an important milestone for the Biden administration’s effort to battle climate change by moving the nation’s energy policy away from fossil fuels and toward renewable sources. It is also validation of a push for wind power that started in Massachusetts some 20 years ago with the Cape Wind project that was proposed for...

Palm Beach is reviewing whether it’s legal for former President Donald Trump to reside at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Town Manager Kirk Blouin told news outlets that the town’s attorney, John Randolph, is conducting a legal review. Mr. Randolph is reviewing the Declaration of Use Agreement and our Code of Ordinances to determine if former President Trump can live at Mar-a-Lago,” Blouin told CNN. Emails to Blouin and Randolph weren’t immediately returned. The Trump Organization has said it’s legal for Trump to live at Mar-a-Lago.

Lightfoot refused to elaborate on the specific threats, but said she receives them daily against herself, her wife and her home. Comparisons to how the Police Department has protected previous mayors’ homes, such as Rahm Emanuel’s Ravenswood residence, are unfair because “this is a different time like no other,” Lightfoot told reporters.

New York City is spreading its homeless crisis across the nation by quietly sending homeless people to other cities in the U.S., all without giving the receiving cities a heads up. The city has deployed local homeless families to 373 cities across the U.S.— from Honolulu to Louisiana— with a year’s worth of rent as part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “Special One-Time Assistance Program,” without alerting local officials in those cities, the New York Post reported. The Post reported that city taxpayers spent $89 million on rent to ship 5,074 homeless families—or 12,482 individuals— out of the city since...

Republican Mark Finchem and Democrat Tom O’Halleran agree on at least one thing regarding Interstate 11. Both expect to be deceased before the proposed roadway becomes a reality. Finchem, a District 11 state representative spoke to Hidden Valley residents last week in a gathering attended by Blanca Varela, a representative from Congressman O’Halleran’s office, at Mountain View Community Church. The proposed interstate is a long-range goal of Arizona Department of Transportation and is expected to pass through Hidden Valley south of Maricopa. While Finchem has been outspoken against I-11, O’Halleran has remained neutral. Varela said the congressman had expressed to...

Putting on its Victorian gentleman suit (pace Tom Wolfe), the Washington Post's editorial board tut-tuts a rich part of Washington, D.C. and its political patrons, for pulling out all stops to prevent construction of a child-migrant shelter in its fancy environs. MANY AMERICANS are rightly outraged by the Trump administration’s treatment of migrant children, who have been separated from parents and ill-treated by authorities. Democrats have been understandably eager to distance themselves from such policies — a stance that can result in knee-jerk opposition even to sensible practices in effect during the Obama administration. That might explain the nearly uniform outcry from Washington-area politicians incensed...

--SNIP--the outcry from Washington-area politicians incensed at federal plans to build new shelters for migrant children in Northern Virginia and the District . The shelters, state-licensed and similar to scores across the county in operation since before President Trump took office, would help move migrant children out of squalid, cramped Border Patrol stations near the U.S.-Mexico border. They would provide a way station for unaccompanied minors while federal officials seek to place them with U.S.-based relatives or foster families. But local politicians, nearly all Democrats, have balked at cooperating with federal authorities on any immigration matter. They have denounced the...

San Francisco saw its homeless population rise by 17% in the last two years, but the rise in many surrounding counties has been worse. A report Monday by Curbed San Francisco summarizing the figures noted: “Five out of nine Bay Area Counties—i.e., all of those not located in the North Bay—saw their homeless counts spike during the same period, with each other county showing worse homelessness surges than SF.” As Breitbart News has noted, homelessness has been rising rapidly in urban areas throughout the state. San Francisco’s rise in homelessness has been accompanied by a spike in Los Angeles that...

The wealthy San Francisco residents who launched a crowdfunding campaign to block construction of a new homeless shelter in their waterfront neighborhood are employing a new tactic: arguing that homeless people are bad for the environment. In a lawsuit filed against the city of San Francisco and the California State Lands Commission, the residents called for the project to undergo an environmental review before breaking ground. “This project will have a significant effect on the environment due to these unusual circumstances, including by attracting additional homeless persons, open drug and alcohol use, crime, daily emergency calls, public urination and defecation,...

The Arizona Department of Transportation has released its first-stage environmental review of a proposed new interstate from the border to north of Phoenix. The agency wants the public to weigh in on the controversial proposal, and is holding public meetings in Tucson and Marana this week. Three years ago, the state transportation department began evaluating the possibility of a new interstate highway, called I-11, which would connect traffic from the Mexican border to the Nevada border. In 2015 a federal act identified the route as a high-priority corridor eligible for federal funding. State transportation spokesperson Laura Douglas says her agency...

A scuttled White House proposal to release immigrant detainees in San Francisco and other sanctuary cities triggered a fierce backlash Friday from Democrats including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose office called the idea “despicable.” The Washington Post first reported that the White House proposed sending the detainees to sanctuary cities, including Pelosi's district, twice in the last six months. The proposal was first floated in November amid reports of a large migrant caravan from Central America making its way to the southern border. The idea was again considered in February, amid the standoff with Congress over a border wall. “The...

A proposed interstate into Myrtle Beach might be further delayed after a judge rejected most efforts to dismiss a lawsuit that raises concerns with the roads’ environmental impacts. It’s another chapter in the longstanding effort to bring Interstate 73 to the Grand Strand. The proposed Interstate 73 would run from Michigan to Myrtle Beach with about 75 miles of highway in South Carolina. Officials have long discussed the need for the route to help ease congestion and to serve as an alternative hurricane evacuation route. Late in 2017, the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League sued the U.S. Army Corps of...

The state with the largest share of people in poverty is California. As the most populous state, it also has by far the largest number of poor people, 7.4m.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — An increasing number of West Virginians are open to regulation to help protect the environment. The MetroNews Dominion Post West Virginia Poll asked whether this country should do whatever it takes to protect the environment or if the country has gone too far in its efforts to protect the environment. Sixty-seven percent responded that the country should do whatever it takes. That’s up from the 51 percent who held that view in 2014, the last time the West Virginia Poll asked that question. “My interpretation is that there were effects of Obama-era regulations on the coal industry...

WASHINGTON, DC — Work on the Mountain Valley Pipeline has come to a halt after a Friday order from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The agency issued the stop work order a week after the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals pulled a permit needed for construction in the National Forest. The 300 miles pipeline is under construction to carry natural gas from Wetzel County, West Virginia to Pittsylvania County, Virginia. FERC ordered a halt to all work with the exception of what it considered measures necessary to land management and stabilization of the right of way and work areas....

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Federal appeals judges ruled two key federal approvals don’t provide adequate protection on the Mountain Valley Pipeline’s route through the Jefferson National Forest, which includes Monroe County. The Sierra Club and other environmental groups had challenged approvals by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management over a 3.6-mile segment of the pipeline’s route through the national forest. The Mountain Valley Pipeline gained approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in mid-October. The $3.5 billion Mountain Valley Pipeline would extend 42-inch diameter natural gas pipeline over 303 miles to transport West Virginia natural gas into...