Free Republic

The Biden administration’s National Science Foundation (NSF) is dumping more than $2 million in taxpayer funds to back efforts aimed at diversifying marine biology and climate science, deriding the fields as “some of the least diverse STEM disciplines.” The NSF, which controls $9.9 billion of federal money and exists to “promote the progress of science,” “advance the national health,” and “secure the national defense,” is backing four different universities engaged in the study aimed at diversifying the two scientific disciplines. “The program supports research and practice projects that investigate how considerations of racial equity factor into the improvement of science,...

Imagine a world without the almighty greenback as the main reserve currency. It's not an easy thought. The U.S. dollar has long been the global currency of choice. As much as 64% of the world's currency reserves are held in greenbacks, according to the IMF. But given the manic ups and downs of the dollar in recent years, it may finally be time to diversify the world's reserves. And that's exactly what some central bankers around the globe are now doing. This comes as a growing number of economists and policymakers are calling to move away from the greenback as...

As early as this week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will appoint a new judge to one of the state's 58 trial courts – and begin seizing an unprecedented opportunity to leave a lasting mark on the state judiciary. Legislation passed last year empowers Schwarzenegger to appoint 50 new judges beginning this month and 100 more in the coming years. These are positions the judiciary says are needed to meet growing demands on trial and appellate courts. The seats are newly created, not replacements for retired or departed judges. Never before has a California governor been given such a chance to affect...

It was 1985, and the government of New Zealand had made a momentous decision -- to abolish farm subsidies in a country where farming had been king ever since Britain colonized the islands in 1840. Twenty years later, as the World Trade Organization heads toward an apparent stalemate at its summit in Hong Kong over plans to reduce agriculture subsidies, the message from New Zealand's farmers to their counterparts in the United States and the European Union is: There's life -- in fact a better life -- after subsidies. The evidence is there, its farmers say: Since the government's momentous...