Free Republic

The tech billionaires behind a project to build a utopian new city in California's Bay Area have released the first artistic renderings of their ambitious plans. Previously known only as 'Flannery Associates,' the group rebranded as 'California Forever' and released the plans in a publicity blitz on Thursday night, following months of silence and speculation. Led by former Goldman Sachs trader Jan Sramek, the group's backers include Silicon Valley heavyweights such as LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Andreessen Horowitz investor Marc Andreessen, and Steve Jobs' widow Laurene Powell Jobs. California Forever is now the largest landowner in Solano County, which is...

Travis Air Force Base and surrounding land in Solano County, Calif. Image: Google Maps Since 2017, a shadowy Silicon Valley company has bought up 52,000 acres of farmland around Travis Air Force Base in Solano County, Calif., totaling about $800 million.Flannery Associates is a company run by Jan Sramek, a 36-year-old former Goldman Sachs trader. Beyond that, nothing much is known of the company except that some of the most famous names in Silicon Valley have invested in a project being promoted by Flannery. Some backers include Marc Andreessen, Powell Jobs, Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital, LinkedIn co-founder Reid...

One of the biggest mysteries in Solano County may be one step closer to being solved. Since 2018, a shadowy company called Flannery Associates has been buying up land around Travis Air Force Base — so much land, in fact, that it is now the biggest property owner in the county. Its land now surrounds the military base on three sides, said Congressman John Garamendi, who represents California’s 8th District. In July, the story went public when the Wall Street Journal published a report about how Flannery Associates has spent nearly $1 billion in land acquisitions in the county. Because...

Government officials are investigating a mysterious company that has bought around 55,000 acres of dry farmland around a USAF base in California. Travis Air Force base, northeast of San Francisco, houses large transport aircraft used for refueling smaller planes and sending aid and munitions around the world. Starting in 2018, a company called Flannery Associates LLC has spent around $800million buying swathes of land around the base, leaving local, state and federal officials flummoxed as to who they are and what they want with it. An attorney representing Flannery told The Wall Street Journal the company is controlled by US...

It was the Catholic scholar Edward Flannery who pointed out that antisemitism was “the longest and deepest hatred of human history.” He asked, “What other hatred has endured some twenty-three centuries and survived a genocide of 6,000,000 of its victims in its twenty-third century of existence only to find itself still intact and rich in potential for many years of life?”

Anything in these remarks that does not stray from the truth is indebted to the American Founders, who bequeathed these ideas to us, to Abraham Lincoln, who preserved and ennobled them in the country's greatest crisis, to Harry V. Jaffa, who has done more than anyone since Lincoln to recover them, and to the late Tom Silver, the wisest and best of those who founded the Claremont Institute for the sake of these ideas. American children are not born understanding the principles of their country, and most American college students—if reports can be believed—are still largely unfamiliar with them...

DURHAM -- One of two Duke lacrosse-playing tenants of 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. was found not guilty Tuesday of violating a noise ordinance during a January house party that took place two months before the alleged rape there that has dominated headlines since. Daniel Flannery, who is not listed as a suspect in the rape case, was found not guilty by Judge David LaBarre on Tuesday but Dave Evans, who on Monday became the third player indicted in the rape case, remains scheduled to be tried on the same noise violation next week. Evans is being targeted, one of his...