Free Republic 1st Qtr 2024 Fundraising Target: $81,000 Receipts & Pledges to-date: $74,893
92%  
Woo hoo!! And we're now over 92%!! Thank you everyone!! God bless.

Articles Posted by Makana

Brevity: Headers | « Text »
  • ‘Unsafe to the community’: Facebook takes on pro-Trump Diamond and Silk

    04/09/2018 5:40:22 AM PDT · by Makana · 27 replies
    The American Mirror ^ | April 7, 2018 | Kyle Olson
    The hilarious duo of Diamond and Silk is a danger to society. That’s according to Facebook. The pro-Trump pair posted on the embattled social media platform on Friday night, saying after months of correspondence, they were deemed to be “unsafe to the community.”
  • Are There Risks From Secondhand Marijuana Smoke? Early Science Says Yes

    03/29/2018 4:11:38 AM PDT · by Makana · 23 replies
    NPR ^ | March 19, 2018 | MARISSA ORTEGA-WELCH
    So far, Springer and his colleagues have published research demonstrating that just this one minute of exposure to secondhand smoke makes it harder for the rats' arteries to expand and allow a healthy flow of blood." With tobacco products, this effect lasts about 30 minutes, and then the arteries recover their normal function. But if it happens over and over — as when a person is smoking cigarette after cigarette, for example — the arterial walls can become permanently damaged, and that damage can cause blood clots, heart attack or stroke. Springer demonstrated that, at least in rats, the same...
  • VA Reforms Removed from Massive Spending Bill

    03/22/2018 4:00:54 AM PDT · by Makana · 45 replies
    Stars and Stripes 22 Mar 2018 ^ | 22 Mar 2018 | Nikki Wentling
    WASHINGTON -- A deal collapsed Wednesday to include multiple Department of Veterans Affairs reforms in a spending bill that Congress formulated to prevent a government shutdown. Earlier this week, the bill was set to contain a measure to overhaul the VA Choice program, which veterans use to access private-sector medical care. A deal reached between key House and Senate lawmakers on VA oversight also included an expansion of benefits for veteran caregivers, as well as a plan to initiate a systematic review of VA infrastructure, with the intention of disposing of aging and underused facilities nationwide.
  • Modern humans interbred with Denisovans twice in history

    03/16/2018 4:46:53 AM PDT · by Makana · 50 replies
    Science Daily ^ | March 15, 2018 | Cell Press
    Modern humans co-existed and interbred not only with Neanderthals, but also with another species of archaic humans, the mysterious Denisovans.
  • BSO deputy accidentally shoots himself while responding to North Broward Preparatory School

    03/14/2018 6:41:34 AM PDT · by Makana · 27 replies
    Local 10 News Florida ^ | Feb 15, 2018 | Carlos Suarez
    "We heard shots for a second. We heard one shot, and after that it was just terrifying. We went in the classroom and waited it out," Nicolas Krate said. But that shot heard was actually from a deputy who accidentally discharged his gun, injuring his leg, Oglesby said."
  • Women Survuve Crisis Better Than Men

    01/10/2018 3:02:14 AM PST · by Makana · 24 replies
    Science Daily ^ | January 9, 2018 | Duke University
    Women today tend to live longer than men almost everywhere worldwide -- in some countries by more than a decade. Now, three centuries of historical records show that women don't just outlive men in normal times: They're also more likely to survive even in the worst of circumstances, such as famines and epidemics.
  • Ex-CIA officer has Trump administration to thank for extradition KO

    03/01/2017 4:26:23 PM PST · by Makana · 8 replies
    Fox News ^ | March 1, 2017 | Cristina Corbin
    An "extraordinary" effort by the new U.S. administration prevented former CIA officer Sabrina de Sousa from being the first ever extradited for an alleged CIA misdeed, according to her spokesman. De Sousa, who was set to be extradited from Portugal to Italy over the kidnapping of a Muslim cleric, won a last-minute reprieve on Wednesday. Sabrina de Sousa was one of 26 people convicted in absentia for the 2003 abduction of radical Egyptian cleric Osama Mustapha Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar. He was then transported to his native Egypt for interrogation where he says he was tortured.
  • Mayor Bill De Blasio meets with federal prosecutors

    02/25/2017 5:07:46 AM PST · by Makana · 10 replies
    http://www.marocjournal.net ^ | February 24, 2017 | marocjournal.net
    Bill de Blasio met with federal prosecutors in a Manhattan law office on Friday where he faced questions related to a criminal probe of his fundraising, the mayor’s office said. Prosecutors have been investigating whether or not donors to de Blasio’s 2013 campaign or his former nonprofit, Campaign for One New York, were rewarded with favors. De Blasio, who agreed to speak voluntarily and without immunity to prosecutors, arrived at Kramer Lefin Naftalis & Frankel LLP, the firm of his defense lawyer Barry Berke, just after 9 a.m.
  • Legal loophole: Virginia AG uses forfeiture funds to cover staff salaries

    02/18/2017 8:22:41 AM PST · by Makana · 30 replies
    Richmond Times-Dispatch ^ | February 18, 2017 | Jason Snead
    So, you’re sitting on millions of dollars’ worth of confiscated property. You want to give your workers a raise, but federal rules bar you from using seized assets to fund salaries. What’s an attorney general to do? Well, if you’re Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, you turn to a strange source for the solution: the very U.S. Justice Department officials who are responsible for enforcing the rules you want to skirt. They told Herring he could use the funds to cover routine costs “so long as your overall budget does not decrease.” Herring promptly started using seized funds to cover...
  • Conway "banned" from Morning Joe

    02/16/2017 4:29:37 AM PST · by Makana · 55 replies
    MSN News ^ | February 16, 2017 | Meera JAGANNATHAN
    They’ll just have to book alternative guests. Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway is no longer welcome on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” co-host Mika Brzezinski declared Wednesday — blasting the Trump aide as “not credible anymore.” “At times in recent days, Kellyanne Conway has struggled to be on the same page, to say the least, as the rest of the staff in the White House,” Brzezinski said, citing Conway’s contradictory TV interviews on short-lived national security adviser Michael Flynn’s exit. “We know for a fact that she tries to book herself on this show — I won’t do it. Because I...
  • SEAL Team 6 Members Fought Female Fighters in Yemen Raid

    02/04/2017 4:13:24 AM PST · by Makana · 31 replies
    Military.com ^ | January 30, 2017 | Richard Sisk
    SEALTeam 6 fought and killed female fighters of an al-Qaida affiliate in the raid Saturday in Yemen in which a team member was killed, three were wounded and three injured, the Pentagon said Monday. "There were a lot of female combatants that were a part of this," Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said of the firefight in the raid Saturday, which the Defense Department and White House said killed at least 14 enemy fighters. "Some of those enem[ies] killed in action were female." Davis said the SEALs saw the women running to fighting positions as the team approached...
  • At home and abroad, Obama’s trail of disasters

    01/09/2017 6:07:27 AM PST · by Makana · 19 replies
    Boston Globe ^ | January 8, 2017 | Jeff Jacoby
    AS HE PREPARES to move out of the White House, Barack Obama is understandably focused on his legacy and reputation. The president will deliver a farewell address in Chicago on Tuesday; he told his supporters in an e-mail that the speech would “celebrate the ways you’ve changed this country for the better these past eight years,” and previewed his closing argument in a series of tweets hailing “the remarkable progress” for which he hopes to be remembered. In 2010, two years after electing him president, voters trounced Obama’s party, handing Democrats the biggest midterm losses in 72 years. Obama was...
  • What if Public Radio disappeared?

    12/20/2016 1:26:29 PM PST · by Makana · 173 replies
    WGBH Public Broadcast Network in Boston ^ | December 20, 2016 | WGBH Website
    "What would the past year have been like without public television and radio? Imagine it — a year without Morning Edition and All Things Considered. What if FRONTLINE halted its latest investigation? No Nature, NOVA, or Masterpiece?"
  • My choice for Secretary of Education

    11/15/2016 12:59:31 PM PST · by Makana · 37 replies
    Hillsdale College ^ | November 15, 2016 | Makana
    The country needs Larry Arne, the President of Hillsdale College, as Secretary of Education. Under his leadership, the college refuses ANY federal aid. It requires all students to be literate in the US Constitution and has pioneered online courses about the Amercian governmental system to anyone at no cost.
  • Law Lets I.R.S. Seize Accounts on Suspicion, No Crime Required

    10/27/2014 4:43:20 AM PDT · by Makana · 22 replies
    New York TImes ^ | October 27, 2014 | Sheila Dewan
    ARNOLDS PARK, Iowa — For almost 40 years, Carole Hinders has dished out Mexican specialties at her modest cash-only restaurant. For just as long, she deposited the earnings at a small bank branch a block away — until last year, when two tax agents knocked on her door and informed her that they had seized her checking account, almost $33,000. The Internal Revenue Service agents did not accuse Ms. Hinders of money laundering or cheating on her taxes — in fact, she has not been charged with any crime. Instead, the money was seized solely because she had deposited less...
  • Mowdown in Motown

    09/01/2014 5:19:03 AM PDT · by Makana · 1 replies
    Wall STreet Journal ^ | August 31, 2014 | Review and Outlook
    Federal Judge Steven Rhodes will begin hearings Tuesday to determine whether Detroit's readjustment plan fulfills the legal and fiscal requirements to exit Chapter 9 bankruptcy. The trial may provide investors a lesson, instructive but painful, in how politics can override law in municipal bankruptcies. Since declaring bankruptcy in July 2013, Detroit has cut deals with nearly all of its major creditors. Workers, retirees and most bondholders this summer voted to accept the plan. Yet Judge Rhodes must still validate that the plan is "fair and equitable" and was proposed in good faith, among other standards of Chapter 9.
  • US-Israel ties at new low after Netanyahu-Kerry phone 'disconnect'

    08/06/2014 4:06:09 AM PDT · by Makana · 12 replies
    Jerusalem Post ^ | August 6,2014 | JPost.com staff
    ow badly have US-Israel relations deteriorated in recent weeks? If Israeli media reports are any indication, tensions boiled over to the point where a phone call between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ended due to "communications problems" earlier this week. Both men have not spoken since, according to the State Department. Kerry's spokesperson, Jen Psaki, told reporters in Washington on Tuesday that the two men have not spoken since a brief phone call over the situation in Gaza ended because of "communications problems."
  • The More Things Change....

    06/19/2014 11:35:57 AM PDT · by Makana · 5 replies
    Macrohistory and World TImeline ^ | June 19, 2014 | Unknown
    In 1961, France's Charles de Gaulle told President John F. Kennedy that in Vietnam the U.S. would sink "step by step into a bottomless quagmire," however much it spent "in men and money." President Kennedy had begun sending more advisors to Vietnam to help the Diem regime, increasing their number to 800 in 1961. Kennedy refused his military advisors advice to send combat divisions to Vietnam, but he increased the number of so-called advisors and aid to the Saigon regime.
  • A Selfie-Taking, Hashtagging Teenage Administration

    05/13/2014 5:25:16 AM PDT · by Makana · 24 replies
    Wall Street Journal ^ | May 12, 2014 | ELIOT A. COHEN
    ...Why does the Economist magazine put a tethered eagle on its cover, with the plaintive question, "What would America fight for?" Why do Washington Post columnists sympathetic to the administration write pieces like one last week headlined, "Obama tends to create his own foreign policy headaches"? Clues may be found in the president's selfie with the attractive Danish prime minister at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela in December; in State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki in March cheerily holding up a sign with the Twitter TWTR +0.44% hashtag #UnitedForUkraine while giving a thumbs up; or Michelle Obama looking glum last...
  • Ancient Egyptian Soldier's Letter Home Deciphered

    03/08/2014 3:47:49 AM PST · by Makana · 9 replies
    Live Science ^ | March 7, 2014 | Owen Jarus
    A newly deciphered letter home dating back around 1,800 years reveals the pleas of a young Egyptian soldier named Aurelius Polion who was serving, probably as a volunteer, in a Roman legion in Europe. In the letter, written mainly in Greek, Polion tells his family that he is desperate to hear from them and that he is going to request leave to make the long journey home to see them.