Free Republic

The nationwide average price for regular gas hit a reported six-month high of $3.60 a gallon on Tuesday, spiking more than 50 percent under President Joe Biden. In the past month, gas prices rose more than 20 cents. They are over a dollar more expensive ($2.38) than when Trump left office. Gas prices remain high and could go higher due to industry and political factors. Biden’s economic war on American energy independence during instability in the Middle East and in Ukraine are significant factors.

Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Bureau of Land Management, Tracy Stone-Manning, testified in federal court in 1993 that she sent a threatening letter to the Forest Service warning that a local forest had been sabotaged with tree spikes. Stone-Manning told a local news outlet in 1993 that she could have faced conspiracy charges had she not struck an immunity deal with a federal prosecutor in return for her testimony. Court documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation show that Stone-Manning testified that her friend and former roommate John Blount, who was found guilty and sentenced to 17 months...

James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas released audio Wednesday of a purported conference call in October in which CNN president Jeff Zucker appears to tell editors to spike the story of Hunter Biden’s laptop. On October 14, the New York Post published emails found on a laptop apparently belonging to Hunter Biden, suggesting that his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, had met in 2015 with one of Hunter’s business associates from the Ukrainian energy company, Burisma. That directly contradicted Joe Biden’s claims on the campaign trail never to have done so: “I have never discussed, with my son or my brother or...

According to Paraday’s own calculation of payment due after retirement — which included three unused personal days, 532 unused sick days and 350 unused vacation days multiplied by his nearly $2,000 per diem rate — the district owed him $1,757,229.45, documents show. Paraday allegedly permitted himself to accumulate compensatory time without limit for any day in which he worked more than eight hours, despite his contract not allowing for the accrual or use of comp time. Since fiscal year 2006, when he started as superintendent, Paraday had used 2,484.65 hours of comp time, or the equivalent of 310 days, records...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) - A Missouri radio talk show host was arrested on murder charges Monday for allegedly poisoning his wife by spiking her Gatorade with a chemical found in antifreeze. James Keown, 31, was arrested at the radio station where he worked in Jefferson City, Mo. He later made a court appearance via video and said he would not fight efforts to return him to Massachusetts. Prosecutors said he slowly poisoned Julie Keown, 31, with ethylene glycol while the couple were living in Massachusetts in 2004. District Attorney Martha Coakley said the motive may have been financial: Julie Keown...

'TANSTAAFL," an acronym popularized by Robert Heinlein's classic libertarian novel "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress," means, "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch." It's one of life's most basic lessons, but, unfortunately, its message has been lost on public employee unions and the politicians who do their bidding. Through aggressive political behavior, public-sector unions have not only pushed public-sector salaries above comparable salaries in the private sector, but they have achieved astounding pension plans for their members. Firefighters and police officers in Orange County can earn more than $100,000 a year, and they can receive 100 percent...

California state and local budget crises aren't going to get fixed until state pension spiking is fixed - in every aspect. One previously unreported wrinkle was described in the Dec. 19 Sacramento Bee. "California is the only state in the union that bases its pensions on an employee's highest single year of pay, rather than averaging three or more years," the paper reported. "The other 49 states use a three- to five-year average for rank-and-file workers, according to two recent surveys of state retirement systems." The law allowing this was passed in 1990, with one dissenter in the Legislature. That...

Ediors of the New York Times killed a column by Pulitzer Prize winner Dave Anderson that disagreed with an editorial about Tiger Woods and Augusta National's refusal to admit women as members.A column by sportswriter Harvey Araton was also zapped, sources said, because it differed with the papers editorial opinion about the golf club standoff.The moves came amid extensive coverage of the exclusive Georgia club under former editorial page editor Howell Raines, who has called for high impact stories since becoming executive editor last year.