Free Republic

On April 9, 1959, the newly-formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, introduced the world to a new breed of heroes: the Mercury Seven, America’s first astronauts. Se-lected from a pool of over 500 military test pilots, these men represented the best the nation had to offer, and its best hope in the intensifying Space Race against the Soviets. Almost immediately, the Mercury Seven became national heroes: on May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard would became the first American in space, while on February 20, 1962, John Glenn would become the first American to orbit the earth, a feat which...

Last week, I spent an hour talking to Janelle Wong about the misconceptions around who is perpetuating anti-Asian violence. Wong, a professor of American and Asian American studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, knew I was planning to write a column. Before getting off the phone, she sighed, laughed and said, “Good luck.”

New laws in Maryland and Montana are the first in the nation to restrict law enforcement’s use of genetic genealogy, the DNA matching technique that in 2018 identified the Golden State Killer, in an effort to ensure the genetic privacy of the accused and their relatives. Beginning on Oct. 1, investigators working on Maryland cases will need a judge’s signoff before using the method, in which a “profile” of thousands of DNA markers from a crime scene is uploaded to genealogy websites to find relatives of the culprit. The new law, sponsored by Democratic lawmakers, also dictates that the technique...

Kevin B. Blackistone, a journalism professor at the University of Maryland and former ESPN analyst, is calling for the MLB to pull its All-Star Game from Georgia over the state’s new election integrity law. Blackistone praised Atlanta for having one of the first liberal activist mayors in the south and noted that the NBA gave the city a team a few years after Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr., testified before Congress in favor of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. But, like most leftists, Blackistone is furious that Georgia is attempting to prevent future election debacles by making changes in its election...

The authors of a 2019 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that examined “917 fatal police shootings of civilians from 2015 to test whether the race of the officer or the civilian predicted fatal police shootings” was withdrawn by the authors after being cited by noted conservative author and essayist Heather MacDonald. Psychologists Joseph Cesario of Michigan State and David Johnson of the University of Maryland say they stand behind their work, which concludes there was “no significant evidence of anti-black disparity in the likelihood of being fatally shot by the police.” But they objected...

An academic paper from 2019 defies the current progressive narrative about police targeting minorities. The paper has been cited by right leaning scholars, such as Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute. Now the authors of the paper are seeking to retract it. We’re now politicizing inconvenient facts and data. Retraction Watch reports: Authors of study on race and police killings ask for its retraction, citing “continued misuse” in the media The authors of a controversial paper on race and police shootings say they are retracting the article, which became a flashpoint in the debate over killings by police, and...

Four top executives at the University of Maryland Medical System have resigned amid investigations into accusations of self-dealing among the hospital network’s board members, the system announced Thursday. Those resigning are Megan Arthur, the system’s primary lawyer; Jerry Wollman, the chief administrative officer; Christine Bachrach, the system’s chief compliance officer; and Keith Persinger, the chief performance improvement officer. **SNIP** The resignations come as Nygren Consulting of Santa Barbara, Calif., works to finish its examination of deals worth millions of dollars that led UMMS CEO Robert Chrencik and Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh to resign from their jobs. The consulting firm was...

A fungus - genetically enhanced to produce spider toxin - can rapidly kill huge numbers of the mosquitoes that spread malaria, a study suggests. Trials, which took place in Burkina Faso, showed mosquito populations collapsed by 99% within 45 days. Conducting the study, researchers at the University of Maryland in the US - and the IRSS research institute in Burkina Faso - first identified a fungus called Metarhizium pingshaense, which naturally infects the Anopheles mosquitoes that spread malaria. The next stage was to enhance the fungus. They turned to a toxin found in the venom of a species of funnel-web...

FULL TITLE: 99.9999% chance humans are causing global warming, and other science-based facts on climate change for Earth Day. Climate change is real and increasingly a part of our daily lives. New research and studies out in just the past six months highlight the latest facts about the human-caused shift to our global weather systems and its effects on our planet. First among them, there's no longer any question that rising temperatures and increasingly chaotic weather are the work of humanity. There's a 99.9999% chance that humans are the cause of global warming, a February study reported. That means we've...

University of Maryland campus police launched an investigation into a discarded piece of plastic wrap Tuesday after receiving a report about a “possible hate-bias” incident. “Out of an abundance of concern, we are looking into this matter and conducting a review of our cameras in the area,” the department informed students via email, though The Diamondback reports that some students were upset when officers initially dismissed the object as garbage.

Here are more signs Sarah Palin could face an uphill battle with PBS host Gwen Ifill. Professor Sherrilyn Ifill of the University of Maryland Law School, whom Gwen Ifill has lauded as "my brilliant baby cousin," has written that black women are not buying Sarah Palin's "false claims to feminism" and is portrayed as too perfect: "when women who are privileged present as though they have it all together, it's offensive to black women." The Community Times, a suburban Maryland newspaper, found Professor Ifill was ardently opposed to the Alaska governor when they did an e-mail interview: "From the first...

Faheem Younus, an Associate Professor at the University of Maryland, believes that films like "American Sniper," as well as Fox News, are at fault for the tragic shooting in Charleston that left nine dead. Dr. Younus responded to the news by blaming popular media for the shooting. "Stop glorifying mass murderers as heroes and it may prevent the next #CharlestonShooting #BlackLivesMatter," he wrote this afternoon: He also wrote that Fox News helped cause the shooting as well: Younus further said that Roof, the shooter, was "predictably white:"

A new study released by the University of Maryland shows American voters to be vastly misinformed. Even worse, the same study points to the media as the cause of much of this misinformation. The study involved a poll of 616 self-reported voters in the week after the 2010 midterm election. Voters were asked where they get their news from, and then asked about a number of verifiable facts. For instance, voters were asked whether the TARP program, otherwise known as the bailout, was started under President Bush or President Obama. Over 40% of respondents said President Obama started TARP even...

"Jessica Valenti, author of the book Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman's Guide to Why Feminism Matters, has criticized the university's prohibition. She explains that for women, 'There's power in naming.' "She is correct; the protesters have a lot of power. They have the power to destroy an innocent young man's reputation, college life and career. They have the power to imperil an innocent student's safety by setting him up for vigilante retribution. It's a power that should not be afforded."My new column, U. of Maryland Correct to Deny Clothesline Project Protesters a Forum to Publicly Name Alleged Rapists (Baltimore...