Free Republic

President Joe Biden now uses the shorter steps to board Air Force One instead of the usual staircase that he often trips upon while boarding the plane, Politico reported Thursday in a 19-paragraph article. Politico, which frequently tries to protect the Bidens from political liabilities, such as its infamous reporting on the “laptop from hell” in 2020, permitted reporters Eli Stokols and Jonathan Lemire to write an article on Thursday about Biden’s deteriorating physical well being. “Biden downplays age talk — but subtle accommodations are being made,” the headline read with the subtitle, “From the dinners declined, to the way...

Research evaluated postoperative recovery rates from elective surgery. They found that for patients who underwent major elective surgery, every four minutes of mobilization per monitored hour was inversely associated with postoperative complications and was related to shorter hospitalization times. Postoperative mortality rates within 30 days are around 1% to 2% and major complications are about ten times more common than deaths. One of the leading approaches to post-surgery recovery is to get the patient mobile with Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocols designed to promote recovery, expedite healing, and reduce postoperative complications. While these protocols are based on expert opinion,...

Picture Pittsburgh 50 years from now with these transportation changes: a terminal in a central location to handle a hyperloop system, vehicles for vertical takeoffs and landings, and high-speed trains; aerial trams linking neighborhoods; and new bridges crossing the Monongahela River at Hazelwood for motorized vehicles and at the former Wabash rail bridge piers for bikes and pedestrians. Those might sound like something from a science fiction novel, but they are among the ideas the city says it must consider in a 50-year Mobility Vision Plan released Thursday by Mayor Bill Peduto and Karina Ricks, director of the city’s Department...

The first director of Pittsburgh’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure will be leaving her job in the city for a role in President Joe Biden’s administration, Mayor Bill Peduto announced Friday. Karina Ricks, who took the reins of the newly created DOMI in February 2017, will join the Federal Transit Administration as associate administrator for research, innovation and demonstration. The Peduto administration said the department was formed to promote safety, accessibility and sustainable transit in the city. Under her leadership, DOMI developed a plan early on to improve safety on Liberty Avenue in the Strip District, which is set to...

I recently found myself in need of a stairlift for a family member. I am looking to purchase a system and install it myself. I began with a little research to educate myself about the different brands. Any recommendations good or bad would be highly appreciative. As well, any tips about unreputable marketers or manufacturers. This is a basic straight one story flight of stairs with landings at top and bottom. Thank you

AMERICANS FLOCKED WEST and South in 2020, with Idaho experiencing the most inbound moves and New Jersey seeing the most outbound exoduses amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to an annual study by the moving company United Van Lines.The company's 44th annual study of customers' migration patterns – which considered states where at least 250 families moved through United Van Lines – shows that, unsurprisingly, the COVID-19 outbreak played a role in people's moving decisions. More than 25% of people who moved did so to be closer to family – a significant increase compared to previous years, according to the company.

Rich Threadgill was born and raised in California and loved his home state. Until he didn’t. The Navy veteran is a gun fan, but he felt he couldn’t talk about his hobby or express other conservative opinions without running the risk of making someone angry. This summer, when his employer allowed employees to telework from out of state for lower pay, the 39-year-old human resources officer surprised himself. He sold his Rancho Cordova home and moved the family to Idaho, where he’ll build a house for less than he sold his California home. He says he feels more relaxed in...

See how your community is moving around differently due to COVID-19 As global communities respond to COVID-19, we've heard from public health officials that the same type of aggregated, anonymized insights we use in products such as Google Maps could be helpful as they make critical decisions to combat COVID-19. These Community Mobility Reports aim to provide insights into what has changed in response to policies aimed at combating COVID-19. The reports chart movement trends over time by geography, across different categories of places such as retail and recreation, groceries and pharmacies, parks, transit stations, workplaces, and residential.

BRISTOL TOWNSHIP >> The long-awaited interchange connecting Interstates 95 and 276 (the PA Turnpike) in Bucks County is officially open. Officials from the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, the Pa. Department of Transportation (PennDOT), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and representatives from ground-transportation agencies in neighboring states gathered on Friday to commemorate completion of major, Stage 1 components of the Turnpike/Interstate 95 Interchange Project. “Motorists who travel in this area have been waiting a long time to realize the benefits this direct link will bring, namely reduced congestion on Bucks County roadways and improved traffic flow in the Philadelphia region and the...

Diabetes complications can include nerve damage and poor blood circulation. These problems make the feet vulnerable to skin sores (ulcers) that can worsen quickly. The good news is that proper diabetes management and careful foot care can help prevent foot ulcers. In fact, better diabetes care is probably why the rates of lower limb amputations have gone down by more than 50 percent in the past 20 years. When foot ulcers do develop, it's important to get prompt care. More than 80 percent of amputations begin with foot ulcers. A nonhealing ulcer that causes severe damage to tissues and bone...

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to promote economic mobility, strong social networks, and accountability to American taxpayers, it is hereby ordered as follows: Section 1. Purpose. The United States and its Constitution were founded on the principles of freedom and equal opportunity for all. To ensure that all Americans would be able to realize the benefits of those principles, especially during hard times, the Government established programs to help families with basic unmet needs. Unfortunately, many of the programs designed to help families have...

‘Red October” was the name for a great Cold War movie. It’s also the name for the Communist takeover of the Russian government on Oct. 26, 1917, when Bolshevik forces stormed the Winter Palace in today’s St. Petersburg. That’s according to the old-style calendar; in the new calendar, the 100th anniversary of the Revolution is Tuesday, Nov. 7. We had our own revolution, a year ago. Which makes it a good time to compare Red October with red-state America, the Trump revolution in American politics. I got a heads up about the comparison at a 2015 dinner, when I heard...

A challenge to the state's I-77 toll lane was denied by the N.C. Court of Appeals today.The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel upheld a lower court, which had dismissed a citizen group's attempt to stop the public-private project in Mecklenburg and Iredell counties.This was a big political issue in the 2016 governor's race, costing Pat McCrory a lot of votes in those counties. As a legal issue, the opposition doesn't seem to have much gas.I-77 from Charlotte to Mooresville is a traffic nightmare. To address the congestion, the state's DOT in 2014 signed a contract with a Delaware LLC...

More than one-third of Bay Area residents say they are ready to leave in the next few years, citing high housing costs and traffic as the region’s biggest problems, according to a poll released Monday. Of the 1,000 people polled by the Bay Area Council, 34 percent said they are considering leaving. Those who have lived here five years or less are the most likely to want to leave. “This is our canary in a coal mine,” said Jim Wunderman, president of the Bay Area Council. “Residents are screaming for solutions.”

Boulder City is planning a beautification project for Nevada Highway, and several local merchants are concerned with how it could affect their businesses. As part of the Boulder City Parkway complete street project, the plan is to widen the sidewalks, create bike lanes, improve pedestrian and bike crossings, improve the median, and create bus turnouts from Gingerwood Street to Buchanan Boulevard. All these additions will take away space from the businesses along that portion of the roadway. Chris Gatlin, owner of Woodchuck’s, is concerned about the lack of space he’ll have once the sidewalk and road are widened. Woodchuck’s, at...

DAVIS (CBS13) — A UC Davis economics professorhas determined there is no American Dream. Gregory Clark is sharing his research as a hard truth with no hope—whether or not you can get ahead in America is as predictable as any formula.

Dakota Blazier had made a big decision. Friendly and fresh-faced, from a small town north of Indianapolis, he'd made up his mind: He wasn't going to college. "I discovered a long time ago," he explained, "I'm not book smart. I don't like sitting still, and I learn better when the problem is practical." But he didn't feel this limited his options—to the contrary. And he was executing a plan as purposeful as that of any of his high-school peers. It started in his junior year with release time from high school to take a course in basic construction skills at...

One disturbing trend of recent decades is the decline in Americans’ geographic mobility. We pride ourselves on being a get-up-and-go people. In particular, we see ourselves as willing to move for opportunity. If there aren’t jobs here, we’ll go there. Our “flexibility” is reputedly a large economic advantage, especially compared with Europe’s, where people tend to stay put. It’s a flattering self-portrait now marred by the reality of more Americans also staying put. The dramatic drop in geographic mobility is usually taken as yet more evidence that the U.S. economy has become less dynamic and flexible. Examples abound. Just recently,...

Japanese company Nano Optonics Energy displayed its caterpillar-tracked UNiMO (UNIque MObility) micro EV drive train at the International Robotics Exhibition in Tokyo last week, promising new levels of personal mobility for wheelchair users. There are two models of the UNiMO: the US$18,000 Unimo Grace which is now available for purchase and the US$10,000 UNiMO Sport which will be available by the end of this month (November 2013). Even more importantly, the 400 W drivetrain designated E-001 is being made available to other manufacturers to create their own micro EVs. The UNiMO Grace is a stylish armchair-on-wheels that looks like it...

The Obama administration envisions a “low-carbon, low-petroleum” future where Americans tele-work, tele-shop, walk, bike and use carpools or mass transit if they must leave the neighborhood at all. A study released Friday says the U.S. has the potential to reduce petroleum use and pollution in the transportation sector by more than 80 percent by 2050. In other words, gasoline-powered cars may go the way of the dinosaur, and many Americans may end up living in planned, mixed-use, “walkable” neighborhoods, built along mass transit lines. … Higher densities (more people living in the same area in smaller homes), a mix of...