Free Republic

John O’Connor’s The Secret History of Bigfoot: Field Notes on a North American Monster is a work of mourning. Bigfoot, as O’Connor, a journalism professor, illustrates, is thriving—if by “Bigfoot” we’re talking about the legend of Sasquatch and the communities that have sprung up to seek out the hairy, towering primate said to lurk in the depths of America’s few remaining old-growth forests. It’s that Bigfoot, the symbol, who, O’Connor argues, flourishes and does so because of how much we’ve lost. This Bigfoot is a black armband commemorating everything from the environmental devastation wrought on the continent to the dearth...

OKLAHOMA CITY – In a move to protect Oklahoma’s frontline healthcare heroes from religious discrimination, the State of Oklahoma filed a lawsuit on Friday to block Ascension Healthcare, one of the nation’s largest healthcare networks, from carrying out its plan to fire employees who have been denied religious exemptions from Ascension’s nationwide COVID-19 vaccination mandate. In court filings, the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office of Civil Rights Enforcement says it began an investigation into Ascension Healthcare after receiving several civil rights complaints. In reviewing the complaints, the attorney general says it determined the hospital system was summarily denying religious exemption requests...

Several Republican attorneys general have said that President Joe Biden’s federal mandate for COVID-19 vaccinations hasn’t yet come into effect for private businesses, adding that if it is ordered, they will file lawsuits against it.Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, a Republican, noted that the White House only last week submitted the text of its emergency rule regarding vaccinations to the Office of Management and Budget, meaning it hasn’t gone into effect.But, Knudsen noted that “no such rule or regulation is currently in effect,” adding (pdf) that there has been a “great deal of confusion” over Biden’s announcement last month.“Further, my...

CHICAGO (AP) - Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Thursday announced an end to his 10-week-old stay-at-home order, declaring that every region of the state has met conditions necessary to allow more social interaction amid the deadly coronavirus pandemic. The state will move into the third phase of the Democrat's five-stage “Restore Illinois” plan, a step that will see reopening of manufacturing and retail, outdoor dining at restaurants and small social gatherings. Restless residents have agitated for more freedom to leave their houses and resume some sense of normalcy. In loosening the restrictions, Pritzker cited more favorable conditions, including decreased hospitalizations and...

Some personal secrets are so well-kept that even family and friends are oblivious. So it is with the story of the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist's marriage proposal to a Stanford Law School classmate in the early 1950s. When 19-year-old Sandra Day entered Stanford Law School in 1949, her frequent seatmate was 26-year-old Bill Rehnquist, attending Stanford on the GI Bill. The two shared their equally meticulous class notes and eventually were dating regularly. But by December of their second year, she broke up with him while somehow retaining what she called their "study buddy" relationship; she even entered the...

Obama pick faces questions over bombers' clemencyBy PETE YOST Associated Press Writer Originally published Wednesday, January 14, 2009 at 2:05 PM WASHINGTON — New York police detective Anthony S. Senft's life changed forever when a bomb set by Puerto Rican separatists exploded, blowing him 15 feet in the air and blinding him in one eye. Now, he's angry that Eric Holder, who played a key role in awarding clemency to the bombers, is in line to be attorney general. Holder, as President Bill Clinton's deputy attorney general, worked closely with the Justice Department's pardon attorney to raise the possibility of...

MARK FELT WITH the secret revealed for the world, publishers at the Book Expo America trade show were getting a whole new spin on a book deal involving former FBI agent W. Mark Felt, or Deep Throat, who helped topple a president. Agent David Kuhn and author/lawyer John D. O'Connor — in their meetings with publishers — have recast the proposal as a multi-generational saga focusing on three generations of the Felt family. It will include the 30-year career of Felt, who became the No. 2 man in the bureau at a tumultuous time in U.S. history, and the...

Defining Kerry downward Posted: March 15, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com Will George W. Bush share the fate of his father and be turned out of office 18 months after having won a military triumph that vaulted him to 90 percent approval? So it seemed during the primaries, as almost a dozen Democratic candidates pummeled Bush daily for having misled the nation on Iraq and presided over the greatest job loss since Hoover. These same two months have been the halcyon days of John F. Kerry. Every Tuesday night, he has appeared before the nation smiling in victory....