Free Republic

When Texas intervened to protect vulnerable children against transgender child mutilation, Google was one of the companies to sign a letter warning that preventing child abuse was "against the values of our companies." A recent lawsuit provides a small insight into just what the Big Tech giant’s “values” might be. Recently a former Google employer filed a lawsuit accusing the company of discrimination. “I was fired from my team there in February of 2021 because I raised alarm about a cult within Google, a group called the Fellowship of Friends. The group is well-documented: There are allegations of child abuse,...

California electricity bills are among the highest in the nation and are set to continue skyrocketing, putting state and national green ambitions in the spotlight. The surging prices could act as an impediment for the electric vehicle industry in the state. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order in 2021 banning new traditional gas vehicles by 2035 while President Joe Biden outlined a nationwide goal of having electric vehicles account for half of total car sales by 2030. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has repeatedly said Americans should buy electric vehicles to avoid the fluctuating costs of gasoline. “It’s a...

UC Berkeley scholar’s old lecture resurfaces and prompts criticism, debate “That’s why I am coming up with this recent understanding that to abolish whiteness is to abolish white people. That’s very uncomfortable perhaps, but it asks about our definitions of what race is and what racial justice might mean.”

Yelp dropped a list Tuesday ranking the best pizza in America — while simultaneously celebrating the made-up holiday National Pizza Day and trying to hire its inaugural “Chief Pizza Officer.” All that hullabaloo is to say: Yelp decreed that the top-ranked pizza spot in the U.S. is Cheese Board Pizza in North Berkeley, beating out New York City’s uber-popular (and troubled) Prince Street Pizza. The charms of the restaurant co-op are apparent for anyone who’s stepped into the perpetually long line: Crisp pizza dough topped with a rotating list of fresh, always vegetarian toppings, with the free green sauce, makes...

OK, we learned something new today. We’ve written a lot about DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) but we’d never heard of DEIBJ, which stands for “diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and justice” (how soon until we see DEIBJ+). The Skimm interviewed UC Berkeley’s new Vice Chancellor of Equity and Inclusion, Dania Matos, who describes the emotional toll of her $325,000 a year gig. At the time of her interview, she’d only been at UC Berkeley for about a month, so her typical day consisted of “holding informal and formal listening sessions focused on truth-telling, trust, and transformation.” The Skimm asked her...

Nearly half of Bay Area employers expect employees to work in person on three days a week post-pandemic, a market shift that could result in roughly 1.1 million fewer commute trips per day... The survey, conducted monthly since April, found that an average of 40.75% of Bay Area employers surveyed expect their workers to return to the office three days a week once the pandemic subsides. Around 15% to 20% of employers said they expect their workers to return to in-person work five or more days per week while less than 5% of employers said they thought their employees would...

The University of California has slammed the door shut on using any standardized test for admissions decisions, announcing Thursday that faculty could find no alternative exam that would avoid the biased results that led leaders to scrap the SAT last year. UC Provost Michael Brown declared the end of testing for admissions decisions at a Board of Regents meeting, putting a conclusive end to more than three years of research and debate in the nation’s premier public university system on whether standardized testing does more harm than good when assessing applicants for admission. “UC will continue to practice test-free admissions...

Batiste wrote that her and Harris's mothers were some of the 'early activists' who shaped Berkeley, California's ultra-liberal, artistic reputation into what it is today. 'We were a happy, loud, and vibrant crew, led by mothers who were both petite, but who loomed large,' she wrote of her earliest memories meeting Harris and her sister. DailyMail.com obtained an exclusive excerpt from the upcoming book, published November 16 by 12 Books. She said their mothers enrolled them in Berkwood Hedge School, a private school that Batiste described as 'very progressive, even for that time and place' and encouraged 'freedom of expression.'...

David Romps, director of the Berkeley Atmospheric Sciences Center, publicly resigned Monday over his concern that the school excludes scientists based on their political beliefs. “Excluding people because of their political and social views diminishes the pool of scientists with which members of BASC can interact and reduces the opportunities for learning and collaboration,” Romps stated on Twitter. “Such exclusion signals that some opinions—even well-intentioned ones—are forbidden, thereby increasing self-censorship, degrading public discourse, and contributing to our nation’s political balkanization.” Romps reportedly asked the Berkeley Atmospheric Sciences Center to invite Dorian Abbot, who was disinvited from a lecture at the...

The University of California will not take SAT and ACT scores into account in admissions or scholarship decisions for its system of 10 schools, which include some of the nation’s most sought-after campuses, in accordance with a settlement in a lawsuit brought by students. The settlement announced on Friday signals the end of a lengthy legal debate over whether the University of California system should use the standardized tests, which students of color and those with disabilities have said put them at a disadvantage. Opponents of the tests called the settlement “historic,” and said that it would broaden access to...

A white woman could be charged with a hate crime after she called police on a black delivery driver and shouted racial abuse at him in Berkeley, California. Julie Walrand, 35, is facing a string of charges over the April 18 incident, including using offensive words and willfully threatening a person based on their perceived characteristics, KRON4 reports. Walrand and her boyfriend, who has not been identified, allegedly called 911 on Amazon driver Kendall McIntosh, claiming he was speeding through the streets of North Berkeley. When McIntosh then stopped to make a delivery, Walrand pulled up next to him in...

Dear profs X, Y, Z I am one of your colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley. I have met you both personally but do not know you closely, and am contacting you anonymously, with apologies. I am worried that writing this email publicly might lead to me losing my job, and likely all future jobs in my field. In your recent departmental emails you mentioned our pledge to diversity, but I am increasingly alarmed by the absence of diversity of opinion on the topic of the recent protests and our community response to them. In the extended links and...

Parent groups are crying "hypocrisy" after a video surfaced showing the president of the Berkeley teachers union dropping off his two-year-old daughter at an in-person preschool. Matt Meyer, president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, has fought for what he called the "gold standard" for the teachers he represents — saying Berkeley schools should only reopen to in-person learning when educators are vaccinated, among other criteria. A tentative plan between the Berkeley Unified School District and Berkeley Federation of Teachers in mid-February would see preschoolers through second grade returning to class at the end of March and other grades staggering...

A little more than a year ago, 2,000 antifa tried to shut down my speech at UC Berkeley, according to police on the scene. The Berkeley police chief had ordered her officers to stand outside the building like mute ninjas, and make no arrests, unless they personally witnessed a felony being committed in front of them. So barring a bank suddenly popping up on the sidewalk and an antifa attempting to rob it, I had no official protection from 2,000 violent, mentally disturbed thugs. Thank God I had the Proud Boys. There had been no warning of the antifa mobilization...

The administrators at the University of California, Berkeley, have launched strict coronavirus lockdown rules that include a ban on outdoor exercise. The university announced that its lockdown would last at least until February 15, but that date is already an extension from the original February 8 end time. Shockingly, the school exclaimed that the police would monitor the lockdown. “Due to the 14-day incubation period of this virus, it is too early to be sure we have contained this current surge,” UC Berkeley told students, according to the Daily Californian. “We understand this extension is frustrating, but please understand this...

Police officers monitoring dormitory halls, frequent inspections of student ID cards — these are among the measures being implemented in a dorm lockdown as UC Berkeley continues to grapple with a spike of COVID-19 cases on campus. First reported by the Daily Californian, the self-sequester mandate for UC Berkeley students living in the dormitories, originally intended to end Monday, has been extended for another week, with stricter security measures in place. “We don’t wish for residents to be alarmed by this increased UCPD presence, but we must ensure the health of our community,” an email sent out to students reads....

The city of Berkeley urged residents of the hills to consider staying elsewhere amid what is expected to be the year's biggest wind event set to begin Sunday. "Hills residents should consider pre-emptively evacuating to the homes of friends, family, or to hotels until dangerous weather subsides," a press release from Berkeley reads. Warning of the potential for wildfires during the wind event and possible blocked roads and exit routes due to fallen trees, the press release urged Hills residents to "reduce the risk to your household" by leaving Sunday afternoon before a fire starts, especially for those residents who...

Berkeley’s City Council has passed an ordinance that will remove unhealthy food from grocery store checkout aisles. The ordinance is the first of its kind in the U.S., supporters said. The new policy will require retailers larger than 2,500 square feet to stock healthy food at the register and in areas where customers wait in line, instead of items like chips, soda and candy. It forbids food items with 5 grams of added sugars and 200 milligrams of sodium, chewing gum and mints with added sugars, and beverages with added sugars or artificial sweeteners. In Berkeley, the policy will affect...

Berkeley in northern California will ban the sale of junk food from supermarket checkout displays -- becoming the first US city to do so, according to local media. The city council unanimously passed a bill this week to promote healthier eating, by prohibiting products with over 5 grams of added sugar or 250mg of sodium from checkout aisles. Drinks high in sugar and artificial sweeteners will also be restricted. "The healthy checkout ordinance is essential for community health, especially in the time of COVID-19," said councilmember Kate Harrison. "What is good for Berkeley customers is also good for our businesses."

BERKELEY, Calif. - The man suspected of killing a 19-year-old UC Berkeley student in June has been charged with murder Berkeley Police Department said on Monday. Tony Walker, 60, of Berkeley was arrested at his home August 20 for the shooting death of Seth Smith on June 15. Smith, who was set to graduate from Cal next year, was found on the sidewalk of Dwight Way near Valley Street. Alameda County District Attorney's office charged Walker, a convicted felon, with murder as well as a number of criminal enhancements. Police had offered a $50,000 reward for information in this case....