Free Republic

Tucson Unified School District will keep its mask mandate in place even after a statewide mask mandate ban goes into effect next week..... The district's lawyer is writing a letter with that request to the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice.

The issue of mandatory vaccination is once again an item of debate in media circles given the recent outbreaks in measles, and fueled this week by the continued inability of politicians to discuss vaccination policy without sounding like anti-science fools.... The current vaccine debate, unlike those prior ones, is actually motivated by a real problem (the return of diseases presumed previously eradicated) as opposed to conspiratorial musings....But vaccination is not about protecting the vaccinated so much as it is about protecting others from disease-carriers. Vaccines are properly understood not on the basis of narrow self-interest but as a defense of...

Former President George W. Bush said immigration should be “dear to all religious people” and immigrants should be viewed with a “loving eye” during a conversation Thursday with Southern Baptist ethicist Russell Moore and American Enterprise Institute's Yuval Levin. “It depends on where you start your philosophy from,” the 74-year-old Bush, who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009, said. “I start mine from ‘all lives are precious, and we’re all God’s children.’ … If that’s how you view immigration, then you don’t view them with a hostile eye. You view them with a...

Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris has come in for criticism after saying that protests against racial injustice, including those by the Black Lives Matter group are 'essential for the evolution of our country' - with some online branding her 'ignorant'. Senator Harris D-Calif. made the comments during the NAACP's national convention in which she was interviewed for more than one hour and come just three days after two police officers were shot and injured during rioting in Louisville. The shooting came after a grand jury's decision not to charge the officers who shot and killed Breonna Taylor. One of the...

TUCSON, Ariz. — Governor Doug Ducey says local governments across the state are now allowed to implement their own face mask policies. At Wednesday's press conference, the governor unveiled the new guidance after addressing recent requests from mayors and other local leaders to decide how strict mask mandates should be in individual counties.... ..."Today, we're seeing facts on the ground and differing circumstances around the state support flexibility at a localized approach," Ducey said. He specifically mentioned that border counties are dealing with unique issues and that this will allow local leaders to tailor policies.

TUCSON - Gov. Doug Ducey announced Wednesday during a press conference that he decided to extend its Stay-At-Home order to May 15....On April 22, Ducey held a press conference announcing that the state will lift the COVID-19 restrictions on elective surgeries on May 1.... In an afternoon press conference held Wednesday, the governor shared that the Stay-At-Home order with modifications will be extended through May 15. Ducey said one of the modifications will be a "phase-in" approach toward reopening the economy.... Governor Ducey says retail stores could start to softly open with social distancing starting May 4th and then expanded...

Unemployment benefits boosted by $600 as part of Congress stimulus package Average weekly payment up to $978 - increased from almost $378 last year Half of full-time workers earned $957 or less a week in the first quarter of 2020 Around half of all workers in the US could earn more in unemployment benefits than in their jobs before the coronavirus decimated the economy, official figures have revealed....This increase added to state benefits should give an average weekly payment of $978. On average almost $378 was paid in unemployment benefit to each claimant last year, according to the Labor Department....

"But what might authorities learn if people were tested randomly instead? Some early clues may be found in the tiny country of Iceland. So far, the country has tested 11,727 people—about 3.2% of its population of 364,000.... By screening healthy as well as sick people, say scientists, Iceland and deCODE have assembled a far more accurate picture of COVID-19. And the results are sobering. “The virus had a much, much wider spread in the community than we would have assumed, based on the screening of high-risk people,” deCODE’s founder and CEO Kári Stefánsson told Fortune by phone from his office...

Navy Secretary Richard Spencer said on Friday a Navy SEAL convicted of battlefield misconduct should face a board of peers weighing whether to oust him from the elite force, despite President Donald Trump's assertion that he not be expelled. 'I believe the process matters for good order and discipline,' Spencer told Reuters, weighing in on a confrontation between Trump and senior Navy officials over the outcome of a high-profile war-crimes case.... ...The Navy responded with a statement saying it would follow 'lawful orders' from the president to halt the review but was awaiting further guidance, suggesting his Twitter post was...

Arizona's Ballot Tabulation Process Many people across Arizona, in the media, and across the United States are wondering why it takes so long to count ballots. So we wanted to take the time to explain the process. Early Ballots In Arizona, there are 15 elected County Recorders and their elections divisions tabulate the ballots and upload them to the Secretary of State’s website. The Secretary of State’s only role in this process is to display the results once they are uploaded by each county. One of the major reasons it takes time to count ballots is that there are hundreds...

These numbers come from Wikipedia articles: California's popular vote was 5.5 million for Hillary to 3.0 million for Trump, giving Hillary a 2.5 million surplus in California. That surplus gave her a little over 230,000 vote lead nationwide. Without the California vote, the popular vote would have been roughly 56.7 million Trump to 54.4 million Hillary, a 2.3 million surplus for Trump. The electoral vote was 306 to 232. Without California, the electoral vote would have been 306 to 177 - a 129 vote difference! In the House, Wiki gives the Republicans 240 seats to 188 for the Democrats. Without...

The mothers of Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner and Jordan Davis and more have delivered one of the most powerful speeches at the Democratic convention. The grieving parents walked on stage together as Mothers of the Movement - a group who have been campaigning against gun violence and racism at the hands of police since the deaths of their children. They all urged voters to back Hillary Clinton, as she 'isn't afraid to say Black Lives Matter'...'Hillary knows that when a young black life is cut short, it's not just a personal loss. It is a national loss. It...

A response to my email sent earlier to Sen McFlake, Democrat-lite from Arizona: "As you may know, on November 7, 2014, President Obama nominated Loretta Lynch to replace Attorney General Eric Holder. On February 26, 2015, the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary voted to approve Ms. Lynch's nomination by a vote of 12 to 8. I voted in favor of her nomination. I believe that elections have consequences and that elected presidents should be afforded a certain degree of deference in the presidential appointment process, particularly when the nominee is uniquely qualified. While I disagree with Ms. Lynch...

Mr. Ryan reflected on this incident over time, and wrote this in Friday’s WSJ: Even so, that day at the fair was the first time I really heard the way the phrase sounded. Later, I thought about that guy from the Democrats’ tent, and eventually I realized: He’s right. Mr. Ryan continues: Who was a taker? My mom, who is on Medicare? Me at 18 years old, using the Social Security survivor’s benefits we got after my father’s death to go to college? My buddy who had been unemployed and used job-training benefits to get back on his feet? The...

Disciplining a church Former SBC vice president Wiley Drake, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif., stepped forward at the first opportunity to make a motion requesting convention officers to represent convention messengers in visiting discipline on the church for violating a constitutional ban on congregations “which act to affirm, approve, or endorse homosexual behavior.” An order of business committee determined Drake’s motion was not in order, and the matter wasn’t reintroduced in subsequent business sessions. Toward the end of the convention, Drake approached a microphone during a report by Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary seeking advice about...

From 3 months ago: "TUCSON - Thirty one Bighorn sheep that were relocated to the Catalina mountains Monday are thriving, according to Arizona Game and Fish officials. Their movements are being tracked using GPS collars. News 4 Tucson was given insight into their first few hours on their new turf. If you live in, or visit Pusch Ridge grab your binoculars, you're in for a sight...The cost of the project is around $600,000. It's funded by private donations and fees from hunting and fishing licenses." From a week ago: "Officials said a mountain lion killed the ewe they found in...

Three months after Gov. Rick Perry ignited a firestorm by issuing an executive order to require schoolgirls to be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus, he is letting a bill go into law that will undo his mandate. In an emotional speech to reporters Tuesday, during which the governor surrounded himself with women whose lives have been affected by the cancer-causing infection, Perry laid blame for future cervical cancer deaths at the feet of lawmakers who supported the bill. Perry thanked the minority of legislators who voted against the bill and said, "No lost lives will occupy the confines of their...

This comes from a Vegas paper, so I'll summarize: Day 1 of the inquest into the police shooting of Eric Scott at a Las Vegas Costco emphasized the large amount of prescription painkillers found in his body. The assistant DA suggested Scott was suicidal. Day 2 apparently spent a bunch of time explaining why there will be no video...basically, the machines weren't working, sorry. Then the cop who was closest to Scott testified. In his testimony, he says the gun found by investigators was in its holster, and that he didn't realize the gun was in its holster when he...

I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play one, so what follows is just IMHO on how the case of Perkins v Elg affects the definition of natural born citizen. I offer it, not as definitive, but as evidence that the Supreme Court has ruled in the past in a way that might well lead to its ruling in favor of Obama, if the case is based on the citizenship of Obama's presumptive father. The facts as stated in the decisions: "The question is whether the plaintiff, Marie Elizabeth Elg. who was born in the United States of Swedish parents...

The following YouTube animation is from the transcript of Orly Taitz's presentation in Brockhausen v. Andrade. http://www.youtube.com/user/AntiBirther#p/u/1/ppk7lgUD3-Q The transcript can be found here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/18284002/BROCKHAUSEN-v-ANDRADE-Transcript-of-Proceedings-Pleas-to-Jurisdiction-Hearing-12209 You can find the case discussed on FreeRepublic here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2170430/posts