Free Republic

This is bad, real bad! I don’t want to see that in my country! Swiss citizens are now facing forced evictions to house Ukrainian refugees. Just one step further and officials in Switzerland will start requisitioning private property and possessions for Ukrainian refugees. This has already started in Germany… In the latest news, the municipality of Seegräben in Canton Zürich is throwing out a long-term tenant out of his apartment because they are unable to find apartments to accommodate asylum seekers from Ukraine. I think this is just the beginning… Fight for your rights… Swiss tenant has to leave apartment...

The Gunnison Stockgrowers’ Association filed a 22-page comment with the Colorado Wildlife Commission detailing the group members’ concerns about the Draft Wolf Plan process laid out by Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Ken Spann, who has delivered public comment to the CPW Commission on behalf of the group, said the endorsement of the comments lies in every acre of agricultural land in Gunnison County. The basis of their concerns is the survival of the area’s long standing ranching operations as well as the existing big game and other wildlife in the Gunnison Valley. According to Spann, established in 1894, the Gunnison...

Last week, Gov. Jared Polis gave his State of the State address before a joint session of the General Assembly and to all Coloradans around the state. As I and other rural legislators listened to his speech, we couldn’t help but notice something so significant to our state barely received more than a brief mention. As the speech lagged on, it was evident the governor was clearly avoiding talking about it. It became the industrial elephant in the room, if you will. In his 70-minute, 8,000-word monologue, the governor mentioned the word “agriculture” one single time. The words “farms” and...

In the face of sky-high rents, President Joe Biden is rolling out a new set of principles the White House is calling a "Renters Bill of Rights" in an effort to improve rent affordability and protections for tenants. The president is directing the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to examine limits on rent increases for future investments and actions promoting renter protections. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) have been tapped to root out practices that unfairly prevent applicants and tenants from accessing or staying in housing. This rollout comes as progressive Democrats have...

An overflowing, angry crowd of nearly 200 area citizens filled the Roubideau Room of the Delta County Human Resources room beyond capacity with the door to the room staying open for those who could not fit in the tight space Wednesday evening. The apparent consensus was that new land use restrictions are being placed on their personal land and property, which would result in fees or not allow them to use their land for purposes they intended.. Before the public hearing regarding the land use code began, Planning Commission Chairman Tom Kay gave a brief presentation on the beginnings and...

The Biden Administration signed off on Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, regulations to protect small streams, wetlands and waterways as part of the Clean Water Act, just before the end of 2022.President Biden’s signing of the regulations ultimately repealed Trump-era regulations that made many waterways susceptible to pollution and were thrown out by federal courts.The EPA signed off on the revised definition of "Waters of the United States," on Dec. 29, while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers signed off on the revised definitions on Dec. 28.The revised rules define what types of water bodies are protected under the Clean...

On September 13, 2022, Brett Christian, the Firearms Policy Coalition, the Second Amendment Foundation, and others filed suit against the “emergency” measure pushed through the New York State legislature by Governor Hochul, in defiance of the long-awaited decision in NYSR&PA v Bruen. The Bruen decision clarified the Heller and McDonald decisions, partially restoring the right to bear arms. The right has been incrementally infringed on for more than a hundred years, primarily under the “Progressive” political philosophy, along with its ideological brethren, the “Jim Crow” laws and Black Codes.The Christian v. Nigrelli case, as it came to be known, pointed...

I own a second home in Pagosa Springs, CO. A couple years ago the HOA for Pagosa Lakes went full dictator and declared war on short term rentals in Pagosa Lakes. We home owners were not able to vote on this; they simply declared it with minimal input from the owners. When I sent a scathing letter that included the “damn” word I was informed of another policy they enacted without input. If they don’t like your correspondence you are subject to a $500 fine for the first offense, $10,000 for the second and $20,000 for the third. Gee, what...

Thursday, if you eat a nice meal, thank the Pilgrims. They made Thanksgiving possible. They left the Old World to escape religious persecution. They imagined a new society where everyone worked together and shared everything. In other words, they dreamed of socialism. Socialism then almost killed them. As I explain in my weekly video, the Pilgrims attempted collective farming. The whole community decided when and how much to plant, when to harvest and who would do the work.Gov. William Bradford wrote in his diary that he thought that taking away property and bringing it into a commonwealth would make the...

Redfin projects mortgage rates may not fall until early to mid-2023 ... Red-hot mortgage rates are giving home buyers and sellers cold feet. About 17% of homes that went under contract with real estate brokerage Redfin last month were called off. The technology-powered real estate firm reported that approximately 60,000 deals fell through in September, marking the "highest share on record aside from March 2020," the same month the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus pandemic. Redfin Economics Research Lead Chen Zhao said the housing market is at "another standstill" although it's completely different from the early days of the...

SAN FRANCISCO — Every night in San Francisco, more than 4,000 people sleep on the streets without any form of shelter. In the same city, tens of thousands of homes are vacant without a single person sleeping inside. “It is devastating to realize that for every person sleeping on the streets tonight, there are 14 vacant homes in our city,” county supervisor Dean Preston said. ... A new report released Thursday by the city’s Budget and Legislative Analyst Office revealed that a staggering 61,473 homes were vacant in San Francisco in 2021. The number of vacant homes skyrocketed from 40,000...

Too many on the Left believe that Article 3 of the Constitution, the judicial powers afforded by the Constitution, should be ignored when Congress enacts legislation that is unconstitutional. Next June, the Supreme Court will rule in the case of Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency. It will decide whether Congress has the authority to determine if owners of a plot of land can use that private property to build a home without first gaining permission from the EPA. In plain language, is private property still protected by the Constitution, or can the federal government at its whim seize that property...

There are two ways to get to Mossbrae Falls, one of the most beautiful (and most often Instagrammed) natural attractions in California, about 30 minutes from the base of Mount Shasta. Unfortunately, neither of the routes are legal — and the more popular one involves a potentially deadly trek along active railroad tracks. And yet the ethereal beauty of the falls is still a powerful temptation for visitors, who come here by the thousands, often drawn by shots splashed across Instagram and other social media sites. Tall as a five-story building and longer than an Olympic swimming pool, Mossbrae is...

The World Economic Forum is pushing for a global transition away from private ownership of vehicles and other "idle equipment" as part of a "clean energy revolution,” itself part of the Great Reset. SNIP The first of these is the most important, and surely the most arousing to the likes of Klaus Schwab (son of a former member of several National Socialist (i.e. Nazi) organizations, and his ilk. The report argues that private ownership of vehicles and electronic devices, et. al., is wasteful and inefficient, and that we must “go from owning to using.” It further notes, "The average car...

The 21st century so far hasn’t been the best of times for America. First 9/11, then a financial crisis and deep recession, then a global pandemic without recent precedent. The economy has suffered, and politics has been upended. American self-confidence has been badly bruised, and public trust in institutions has plummeted. What can we do about it? That’s the question that John Cogan and Kevin Warsh, both policy veterans and Journal contributors, asked themselves in September 2020 when prompted by former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice. She had just taken over as director of Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, where both...

A federal judge this week denied a temporary restraining order sought by environmental groups that would block grazing in six eastern Oregon pastures. The Capital Press reports U.S. District Judge Michael Simon said the plaintiffs haven’t shown that turning cattle out on the pastures will cause irreparable harm to sage grouse or to rangeland research. He said continued grazing isn’t likely to irreparably harm the ability of environmental plaintiffs to enjoy undisturbed sagebrush grassland, since the pastures have long been grazed and are rested on a rotating basis. The case was filed against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management by...

A question must seriously be asked whether Jared Polis is interested in governing all of Colorado, or just the narrow strip that contains the vast majority of the state’s population. Polis has repeatedly angered the small band of hardy farmers and ranchers that make up Colorado’s second-largest industry by his insensitive slights and tone-deaf insults. It’s as if the governor pays lip service to agriculture one day and then slaps it in the face the next. Case in point: In February Polis ignored the recommendations of his own Department of Agriculture and appointed yet another animal welfare extremist to a...

Ottawa's mayor says any vehicles seized during the police crackdown on the occupation of the downtown should be sold to cover costs incurred by the city. "We actually have the ability to confiscate those vehicles and sell them," Mayor Jim Watson said Saturday. "And I want to see them sold. I don't want the return to these people who've been causing such frustration and angst in our community." The mayor told CBC News that Ottawa has that power due to the Emergencies Act, which was invoked by the federal government last week. Watson said he's been pleased by the level...

Controversial appointee accuses ranchers of ‘scam’ in recent wolf kills.. For a day and a half, county officials, policy experts and politicians discussed the challenges unique to rural Colorado, but the most satisfying moment for most attendees came at the very end. The annual Voices of Rural Colorado Conference returned after a one-year COVID-19 hiatus, hosted by the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce. The conference is a joint effort by Action 22, Pro 15 and Club 20, organizations that represent the interests of 59 of Colorado’s 64 counties. The 2022 conference covered such things as affordable housing, higher education, energy...

Attacks on cattle and dogs by wolves that migrated into northwest Colorado from Wyoming have stoked a rancher-wolf controversy sooner than expected. Don Gittleson woke up Wednesday morning to a sight that’s starting to feel common on his North Park ranch: a cow torn up by wolves, the third attack on his livestock since a few days before Christmas. If this were Montana, Wyoming or Idaho, Gittleson could pull out a gun and shoot the predator dead. But this is Colorado. Wolves in Colorado are protected under state law. Killing them – no matter how many cows or sheep or...