Free Republic

The Supreme Court is expected to end its term on Wednesday with one final major case challenging public sector union fees left to decide. The most anticipated decision of the year came Tuesday, when the court in a 5-4 decision upheld Trump's travel ban. That's led to some speculation that a retirement announcement could happen on Wednesday, though there is no hard evidence one is coming. The speculation for the last year has centered on the court’s swing voter Justice Anthony Kennedy, but some have pondered if Justice Clarence Thomas is actually going to be the one to call it...

Social Security will spend more than it collects this year, the program’s trustees said Tuesday, marking the first time in more than 35 years that it will run an annual deficit as it slides toward insolvency by 2034. Medicare’s main trust fund is in even worse shape, scheduled to hit insolvency in 2026 — three years earlier than last year’s estimate, the trustees said. The twin warnings add even more pressure to a budget already strained by last year’s tax cuts and this year’s deal to boost spending on defense and basic domestic needs, leaving few bright spots in the...

Medicare will run out of money sooner than expected, and Social Security’s financial problems can’t be ignored either, the government said Tuesday in a sobering checkup on programs vital to the middle class. The report from program trustees says Medicare will become insolvent in 2026 — three years earlier than previously forecast. Its giant trust fund for inpatient care won’t be able to fully cover projected medical bills starting at that point. The report says Social Security will become insolvent in 2034 — no change from the projection last year. The warning serves as a reminder of major issues left...

A Biblical Meditation on Aging Msgr. Charles Pope • May 29, 2018 • Last week in the Office of Readings we concluded the Book of Ecclesiastes. One of the more beautiful passages in the Old Testament is the 12th Chapter of Ecclesiastes. It is a melancholy but soulful meditation on old age. Its poetic imagery is masterful, as it draws from the increasingly difficult effects of old age such as hearing loss, fading eyesight, difficulty walking, digestive issues, and even gray hair.Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come And the years approach...

Sweden’s Minister of Social Affairs, Annika Strandhäll, told newspaper Aftonbladet that the country’s elderly and not refugees, are overloading the healthcare system. The Swedish health care system is so overloaded that the care queues for surgery are so long that patients literally start to rot, Aftonbladet reported earlier. Strandhäl is convinced this is not due to mass migration to Sweden. When readers of Aftonbladet claim that it is the acceptance of refugees that has made Swedish healthcare worse, the minister answers: “That’s not true, that’s not true! We have a rapidly aging population in Sweden. Life expectancy increases by 3.5...

Former first lady Barbara Bush is in failing health, a source close to the Bush family tells CNN. At 92 years old, Bush has been suffering for some time and has been in and out of the hospital multiple times in the last year while battling with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, or COPD, and congestive heart failure. The source said she is being cared for at her home in Houston and has decided she does not want to go back into the hospital.

Former First Lady Barbara Bush, 92, decided Sunday to focus on comfort care in the face of her failing health, rather than additional medical treatment. “Following a recent series of hospitalizations, and after consulting her family and doctors, Mrs. Bush, now age 92, has decided not to seek additional medical treatment, and instead will focus on comfort care,” read a statement from the office of George H. W. Bush. Bush has been in an out of the hospital the past year battling chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and congestive heart failure. The former first lady has been married to former...

Facebook BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. - Two women working as caretakers were arrested over the weekend, accused of stealing more than $1 million from an elderly woman in Fort Lauderdale after she died, police said. Angella Morrison, 54, and AnnaKay Johnson, 29, each face changes of grand theft, exploitation of an elderly victim, and dealing in stolen property, WPLG-TV reported. Detectives said Morrison and Johnson wiped out the woman’s bank accounts after she died in March 2016 by making withdrawals that totaled more than $1 million, according to WPLG. Police said that Morrison and Johnson gained the victim’s trust while working...

In her powerful new book, “Nomadland,” award-winning journalist Jessica Bruder reveals the dark, depressing and sometimes physically painful life of a tribe of men and women in their 50s and 60s who are — as the subtitle says — “surviving America in the twenty-first century.” Not quite homeless, they are “houseless,” living in secondhand RVs, trailers and vans and driving from one location to another to pick up seasonal low-wage jobs, if they can get them, with little or no benefits.

Talk about the perfect coda: Tower Records founder Russ Solomon died with a drink in his hand and a smart-aleck remark on his lips. The swashbuckling, visionary entrepreneur who built a global retailing empire and the most famous company in Sacramento history died Sunday night of an apparent heart attack. He was 92. Solomon was watching the Academy Awards ceremony Sunday night at his Sacramento-area home when he was stricken, said his son, Michael Solomon, the former chief executive of Tower. "Ironically, he was giving his opinion of what someone was wearing that he thought was ugly, then asked (his...

Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) on Monday said he will resign from the Senate next month, saying his "health has become an ongoing challenge." "I intend to fulfill my responsibilities and commitments to the people of Mississippi and the Senate through the completion of the 2018 appropriations cycle, after which I will formally retire from the U.S. Senate," Cochran said in a statement. He is set to resign from his seat on April 1, according to his office. Cochran is the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. His announcement comes as Congress aims to pass a mammoth government funding bill by...

Apparently assisted suicide is not enough for the death peddlers in this Pacific Northwest State. Now they are pushing legislation in the Oregon State Legislature that would allow starving mentally ill patients to death. A similar bill was defeated last year but the euthanasia promoters are back with a new one, Oregon Right to Life tells LifeNews. House Bill 4135 is scheduled for a hearing and possible work session in the House Health Care Committee at 3:00 pm on February 7th. It is believed this bill will move quickly because there are only 35 days in the 2018 regular session....

She did it again! Democrat leader Nancy Pelosi called President Trump “President Bush” at least five times in 2017. She did it again today. Minority Leader Pelosi got confused and mixed up on Thursday when speaking to reporters on the pending release of the House Intelligence FISA memo. Pelosi stuttered and once again called President Trump “Bush” to a gaggle of reporters. She’ll get it one of these days.

A Montana-based Mongolian BBQ restaurant is getting some attention with a new video promoting its new ‘menu item.’ HuHot Mongolian Grill posted the tongue-in-cheek video Friday afternoon featuring the latest item on the food line, Tide Pods. The video shows a customer placing the laundry detergent packs in a bowl of noodles and drizzling them with orange sauce. The video ends suddenly just as the customer is about to put the pod in his mouth. It then cuts to text saying “Just kidding, please don’t eat Tide Pods, it’s gross.” “Funniest thing I’ve seen on the internet this week 🤣🤣🤣...

The mythical Fountain of Youth isn’t made of water, after all, but vodka — at least, according to Betty White. The famously spry comic actress, who turns 96 today, gave good news to those struggling to make it through January by offering some sage insight into her longevity. She told Parade magazine that she loves vodka and hot dogs, “probably in that order.” She may be on to something — a recent study found that adults who were moderate drinkers were more than 20 percent less likely to die early of any cause. White added that she’s also made it...

FULL TITLE: Elderly couple stopped last month with 60 pounds of pot arrested again on suspicion of possessing drug money A California couple arrested last month with 60 pounds of marijuana that they described as Christmas gifts were arrested again Tuesday on suspicion of possessing drug money. Patrick and Barbara Jiron of Clearlake Oaks, California, were arrested on Interstate 80 in western Lancaster County. Sheriff’s deputies stopped the couple’s westbound pickup truck, saying it was following another vehicle too closely, Sgt. Jason Mayo said. “A deputy made the stop, and their daughter was driving,” Mayo said. “A K-9 (service dog)...

The longest-serving Republican senator in U.S. history announced this week that he will finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally retire. That's seven "finallys" -- one for each of the consecutive six-year terms Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, served. He begin his occupancy in 1976, when all phones were dumb, the 5.25-inch floppy disk was cutting-edge, the very first Apple computer went on sale for $666.66, the Concorde was flying high, O.J. Simpson was a hero, Blake Shelton was a newborn, the first MRI was still a blueprint, and I was a gap-toothed first-grader wearing corduroy bell-bottoms crushing on Davy Jones....

After Hatch leaves office, and should the republicans retain the Senate majority, Thad Cochran will be senior-most republican senator, and will likely be made President Pro-Tempore, third in line for the Presidency. This is likely why there's been talk of his retirement as well. After Cochran, next in seniority is Charles Grassley of Iowa, elected in the Reagan landslide.

About 500 elderly immigrants live in the Diplomat Hotel in southeast Jerusalem, where the US Embassy is expected to move. MK Ksenia Svetlova (Zionist Union), who initiated a discussion on the matter at the Knesset Absorption Committee, said that the American administration recently bought the hotel building. According to her, there are about 500 elderly immigrants living at the hotel and every four years, they are asked to sign a new lease. "Now they have been informed that the place is being sold to the US government and that in the next two years the site will be evacuated from...

Back in November, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, the 83-year-old Republican from Utah, was at the helm when the Senate's massive tax bill came through the Finance Committee. But Hatch also deputized four younger Republicans on the panel to serve as de facto co-chairmen over various parts of the legislation. This week, with a compromise bill marching toward final passage in both chambers, the House will take the unusual step of voting first - because a pair of senators, Thad Cochran, R-Miss., and John McCain, R-Ariz., are recuperating from, respectively, non-melanoma skin surgery and the side effects of cancer treatments. Hatch's...