Free Republic

If what these groups and these asset managers were doing was so righteous, why are they running from it now?’ says Montana attorney general.. Wall Street titans appear to be having an increasingly hard time reconciling the conflicting goals of progressive activism and shareholder returns. Until recently, many banks, asset managers, and insurers portrayed these goals as complementary, asserting that climate risk is financial risk and that the competence of management can be assessed by its commitment to social justice goals. Today, however, those narratives are rarely heard. BlackRock, JPMorgan Chase, and State Street recently exited from Climate Action 100+,...

A Boeing 737 Max 8 operated by United Airlines veered off the runway after landing in Houston early Friday in the latest near-miss involving the embattled airliner. The aircraft, which arrived from Memphis, is said to have suffered some form of gear collapse as it exited the runway at George Bush Airport, although the 160 passengers and six crew were not injured. Shocking footage showed the plane lying flat on its wings on grass by the side of the runway, while passengers were hurried off from an emergency gate ladder.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Wednesday adopted final rules regarding climate disclosures in a 3 to 2 vote. The final rules left out some of the more burdensome reporting requirements for greenhouse gas emissions that were in the proposed rule, but they still maintain many of the other climate-related reporting requirements that critics say will be costly to comply with. "Today, the SEC announced that it has allowed radical climate activists to hijack our capital markets. Unable to push their unpopular agenda through Congress, these leftists have found a willing partner in SEC Chairman Gary Gensler,” House Majority Leader...

16 Republican AGs seek answers from Wells Fargo CEO Charles Scharf... ... debanking ... Wells Fargo is pushing the Biden administration's anti-gun and anti-traditional energy policies and discriminating against customers who don't fall in line with their political beliefs," Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen... As attorney general, it's my job to protect Montanans from discriminatory business practices. I will continue to investigate and fight against any illegal actions that could impact Montana businesses and consumers." ... Wells Fargo unexpectedly closed the business and personal accounts of Bradon Wexler, the owner of Florida-based firearms dealer Wex Gunworks, with a vague explanation...

The efforts by government, captured institutions and radical activists to manipulate and menace can feel like an endless loop. But is it possible we’ve turned a corner, or at least nearing one that we can take? Recent events suggest so. The flagship institution of higher education in the red state of Florida is shutting down its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) office. The University of Florida is ridding itself of the malign chief diversity officer position, sacking the program’s useless staff, and is also “halting any contracts involving the subject,” the Associated Press reports. What a welcome development, thanks to...

Growth came after Yale instituted a diversity hiring initiative and pledged to expand DEI offices campuswide Yale University employs more than three administrators and support staff for every four undergraduate students – roughly one administrator per undergrad, according to a College Fix analysis. Over the last decade, Yale added 631 administrators and support staff to its payroll, according to data provided by administrators to the federal Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. As the university embraced new DEI efforts, the number of administrators and support staff increased by 13 percent, from 4,942 to 5,573, between 2013-14 and 2021-22, the analysis found....

ARLINGTON, Va., — The National Guard Bureau announced today the director of the Army National Guard has ordered an aviation safety stand down of all Army National Guard helicopter units to review safety policies and procedures following two recent helicopter crashes. The stand down went into effect Monday. Two separate crashes of AH-64D Apache helicopters in Utah on February 12 and Mississippi on February 23 drove the decision to ground all helicopters for safety reasons. Mississippi Army National Guard pilots Chief Warrant Officer 4 Bryan Andrew Zemek and Chief Warrant Officer 4 Derek Joshua Abbott died in the February 23...

Alade McKen plagiarized pages of material from Wikipedia.. The chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer of Columbia University's medical school, Alade McKen, plagiarized extensively in his doctoral dissertation, lifting entire pages of material, without attribution, from sources that include Wikipedia, according to a complaint submitted to the university on Wednesday. The allegations implicate approximately a fifth of McKen's 163-page dissertation, "'UBUNTU' I am because we are: A case study examining the experiences of an African-centered Rites of Passage program within a community-based organization," submitted to Iowa State University's School of Education in 2021. More than two of those pages are...

Weaponry systems in Ukraine, many of which were supplied by European countries, have been rendered unworkable, not due to Russian interference, but because of damage caused by mice and other rodents. Seemingly, these creatures have developed a preference for cable insulation made of corn fiber over synthetic materials. This predilection leads to malfunctioning electrical installations, rendering the expensive equipment essentially worthless, and requiring rapid overhauling. Mice and rats have become a bane on the frontline for both Ukrainian and Russian forces, with these rodents capable of nesting almost anywhere, even in the exhaust systems of armored vehicles. The disadvantage of...

Right now we have an opportunity to push back against ESG and reclaim part of our country from the globalist elites. For the past year, Tennessee has been working hard to limit the power of financial conglomerates like BlackRock to impose ESG standards on businesses statewide, and lawmakers are finally ready to make a big play. The Tennessee state treasurer has made great strides in anti-ESG policy, but as of right now, the changes are at risk of being undone. That's why Tennessee legislators are trying to pass "The Tennessee ESG bill," designed to cement the anti-ESG policy into state...

Administrative staff grew by 12 percent while enrollment barely budged The University of Florida employs one administrator for every four undergrad students, according to an analysis by The College Fix. The Fix analyzed data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System and found the public university in Gainesville added 1,000 new administrator jobs in the past 10 years. In the 2022-23 school year, the university employed 7,376 administrators, or 250 per 1,000 undergraduate students, a 12 percent increase from a decade prior. By comparison, the university’s enrollment grew by just three percent during the same time period. The University of...

State officials have threatened legal action against nonprofit climate alliances and banks’ participation, highlighting the contentious relationship between environmental initiatives and economic interests.

ESG (Environmental, social, and corporate governance is a losing game. Two of the world’s largest financial institutions cut ties Thursday with Climate Action 100+, delivering the latest setback to the world’s biggest coalition of investors pressuring corporations to ditch fossil fuel assets. The asset management arms of JPMorgan Chase and State Street dropped out of Climate Action 100+, home to more than 700 investment firms totaling $68 trillion in assets under management. BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, with more than $10 trillion in assets, distanced its U.S.-based operations from Climate Action 100+ by transferring its membership to BlackRock International....

Lloyd Austin underwent an invasive surgical procedure called a prostatectomy for his prostate cancer. He was readmitted to the ICU ward of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center seven days later, on January 1st, due to complications caused by a severe infection. It appears he was septic. He concealed his inability to carry out his duties from Biden, Congress, the Pentagon, and his Deputy Secretary, Dr. Kathleen Hicks. On January 4th, finally becoming aware of Austin’s hospitalization, security adviser Jake Sullivan notified Hicks, who was on vacation in Puerto Rico. Even though Biden continued to back Austin, Austin was already...

While you were watching the Super Bowl, there was a change at the White House: John Kirby received a promotion. ... It was a blatant vote of no confidence in Jean-Pierre, who may have checked off all the right diversity boxes .. but quickly proved herself to be grossly unprepared. She routinely dodged questions and seemed to be unable to answer a question without constantly referring to her notes. Sometimes she'd provide an answer that was completely unrelated to the question. Kirby was given the ridiculously wordy title of "United States National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications" for keeping...

Texas agriculture commissioner says ESG policies 'will have a devastating impact on US agriculture and world food security'Climate change policies and environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards will have an outsized negative impact on the U.S. agriculture industry, according to a new report shared with FOX Business. The report — published Wednesday by the free market think tank Buckeye Institute — is titled "Net-Zero Climate-Control Policies Will Fail the Farm" and outlines how farmers will see their operational costs rise by an estimated 34% as a result of net-zero ESG policies. While the report states its findings were "predictable and...

A professor who sued UCLA after he was suspended in the wake of the George Floyd-Black Lives Matter riots after refusing a request to grade black students leniently will soon get his day in court. UCLA accounting lecturer Gordon Klein is demanding well over $19 million in damages in a lawsuit scheduled to go to trial March 4 in a Santa Monica courthouse. The two sides have engaged in legal wrangling since September 2021, when Klein first filed suit — including a failed attempt by UCLA’s lawyers to get the case tossed by summary judgment. The causes of action to...

The jets collided on the tarmac while passengers were inside both aircraft.. One was headed to Las Vegas, while the other was on its way to Orlando.. The FAA confirmed that the collision occurred at 6.40am at the Boston airport ... Two JetBlue airplanes collided on the tarmac at Boston's Logan Airport on Thursday. The jets collided while a fleet full of passengers were inside both aircraft. One plane was left with damage to its wing, while the other aircraft’s tail section was wrecked. Debris was scattered on the runway and both jets were taken out of service. The incident...

Farmers not sufficiently 'woke' can have accounts shut down without notice.. Farmers are under attack in multiple food-producing nations now... empty stores in France, where a climate agenda threatened the production processes for farmers, and they more or less staged a strike. ... And just recently, in Germany, farmers blocked highways in protest over costly and unnecessary agriculture policies. Now, however, there's a new campaign against farmers, in which the United Nations works with banks to debank the food producers, closing their accounts and not allowing them to operate their businesses. ... officials from 12 U.S. states have sounded an...