Free Republic

"said porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) is not a human health concern, but is deadly to newborn pigs."

The Christian conservative Family Research Council and the National Organization have been on the front lines in the opposition to gay marriage. Now, both groups and socially conservative politicians are trying to make divorce harder for straight married couples. According to The Washington Post, these small government advocates have voted to expand the power of government into the personal lives of adult couples. More than a dozen states have introduced bills that required longer waiting periods for divorce, counseling courses for adults and have limited the number of reasons that people can file for divorce. While this may seem...

Fox News' host Bill O'Reilly has devoted many broadcasts of this TV show, "The O'Reilly Factor," to what he believes are problems in the black community. O'Reilly, who has blamed black crime on black, unwed mothers, interviewed Kentucky Wildcats basketball coach John Calipari last night about controlling his black players, notes Salon.com (video below). According to New York Magazine, during the interview, O'Reilly asked Calipari, "I don't know if you listen to this rap stuff and the hip-hop stuff, but it has coarsened. Has that changed their attitude? How do you impose discipline on kids who are gonna do what...

Materials such as graphene and shrilk are so new that the scientists who discovered them hardly know what to do with them – they only know they might yet transform our lives :snip: Last week, Zhaohui Zhong at the University of Michigan described how graphene might be used to make night-vision contact lenses. "Graphene has huge potential," says Andrea Ferrari, director of the Cambridge Graphene Centre. "You don't usually find a material that has applications in so many different areas." :snip: What to call a material made from leftover shrimp shells and proteins derived from silk? Javier Fernandez and Don...

The Commission is close to finalizing proposals for economic and trade sanctions regarding Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula occupied by Russia. A final decision by member states is expected soon, diplomats told EurActiv. At their meeting held yesterday (14 April), EU ministers said they were looking forward to the Commission’s evaluation of the legal consequences of the annexation of Crimea by Russia, and to the related proposals for economic, trade and financial restrictions regarding the peninsula. According to EU diplomats, Crimea is “occupied territory” comparable to the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since June 1967. …

Video Media is now identifying Boston bombing prankster as Jayvon Edson, apparently a 2007 Wakefield High grad. He's on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. He apparently left two backpacks near the Boston Marathon finish line, on the anniversary of the bombings, wearing all black and barefoot and shouting "Boston Strong". Police detonated at least one of the backpacks.

Michael R. Bloomberg, making his first major political investment since leaving office, plans to spend $50 million this year building a nationwide grass-roots network to motivate voters who feel strongly about curbing gun violence, an organization he hopes can eventually outmuscle the National Rifle Association. Mr. Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, said gun control advocates need to learn from the N.R.A. and punish those politicians who fail to support their agenda — even Democrats whose positions otherwise align with his own. “They say, ‘We don’t care. We’re going to go after you,’ ” he said of the N.R.A....

Bowman posted the video, taken on a helmet-mounted camera, to YouTube, leading cyclists around the city to recount on social media similar experiences they had in the area. "I thought I'd just outrun the attackers," he wrote. "Wrong. Unless you're going downhill or already have some major speed, they will block your escape routes and grab any part of your bike or clothing to try to bring you down."

Deep-pocketed donors are turning over multimillion-dollar checks to political organizations for November’s elections, and the sums raised by the national parties and their super PAC allies are already approaching the $1 billion mark. […] At the moment, Democrats seem to have a roughly 3-to-1 advantage over Republicans in cash raised and saved through independent groups. That balance of power could quickly change as more reports are filed. …

Three key conclusions emerge from this analysis: First, the enormous flow of legal immigrants in to the country — 29.5 million 1980 to 2012 — has remade and continues to remake the nation's electorate in favor of the Democratic Party.Second, the partisan impact of immigration is relatively uniform throughout the country— from California to Texas to Florida — even though local Republican parties have taken different positions on illegal immigration. The decline does not seem to vary with the local Republican Party's position on illegal immigration. Third, if legal immigration levels remain at the current levels of over one million...

SPRINGFIELD — A Springfield man said he didn’t ignore commands, but rather was never told his remote-controlled drone camera was hindering CareFlight from responding to a crash scene until just before his arrest. Kele Stanley, 31, said he plans on hiring an attorney to help him fight the charges — a felony charge of obstructing official business and misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and misconduct at an emergency scene. He said he was booked into the Clark County Jail on three misdemeanor charges, but after he posted bond and as was being processed out of jail, the obstructing official business...

It was brightly lit night. The moon was white and full. I'm getting ready to turn in for the night and I notice it is dark outside. I go out in the yard, look up and there is this most spectacular sight. The moon is red! The sky is a clear and cloud fee as can be. One star next to the moon seems blue and another almost the same red as the moon. It is quiet outside. A couple dogs barking in the distance but otherwise really still. I don't usually get too excited by events like this but...

Here Are The Two Soviet Propaganda Posters Hanging In The White House Press Secretary's Home Washingtonian MOM magazine's spring issue has a profile of White House Press Secretary Jay Carney's wife, ABC News contributor Claire Shipman, that features a picture taken inside their home. In the background of the photo, you can see two framed Soviet-era propaganda posters. One of Carney's posters is a version of this iconic design by artist Dmitry Moor with a soldier pointing his finger alongside text that says "Have YOU Enlisted?" in Russian: The other poster features a female factory worker. According to this eBay...

Winning stories, photographs and cartoons, as well as bios and photos of winners, are available by clicking the links below.

video at link: http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/did-best-says-student-flubbed-wheel-fortune-113115717--abc-news-tv.html?vp=1

When you pass through the waters, I will be with You; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you: when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon you. – Isaiah 43: 2

To the Editor: First, we thank Matt Cooley for his research and links to interesting information about minimum wage impacts — or should we say, non-impacts — in his March 30 letter. We also feel called to respond to S. Douglas Leard’s letter of March 23. Why not celebrate when others have the chance to get a little more reinforcement for the work they do — especially when these chances are few and far between? Instead of begrudging or wailing about people making a minimum wage of $10 an hour (less than $23,000 a year), our outrage and energy might...

Some of the most vulnerable and integral cable sections and rods on the new $6.5 billion San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge are rusting. The bridge suspension span and iconic tower rely on an unusual design: A single cable, comprising 137 steel strands, loops over the tower and under the bridge to hold it up. That cable is secured on the eastern edge of the span, inside chambers designed to keep out water and marine air to prevent corrosion. But a Sacramento Bee investigation found that inside one of the chambers, where the suspension cable is attached, the cable strands and rods...

A Slate columnist argues that childless Americans should pony up some more cash for taxes and that parents should get a bigger break. Nonparents should pay higher taxes so that lower- and middle-income parents can receive a much-deserved tax break. That's the proposal of conservative Slate.com columnist Reihan Salam. "The willingness of parents to bear and nurture children saves us from becoming an economically moribund nation of hateful curmudgeons. The least we can do is offer them a bigger tax break," Salam, who is childless, said.

We are a family of six – two parents and four children – who, because of a rough year in 2013, had to apply for subsidized healthcare coverage under the new Obamacare rules. Yes, count us among the 7.1 million that Kathleen Sebelius is currently claiming are active Obamacare signups. We live in Orange County, Southern California, so our coverage comes through the state exchange, Covered California ...