Free Republic

Judge Aileen Cannon has been criticized for her handling of the criminal case in Florida federal court against former President Donald Trump, who appointed her to the bench...Trump is charged in the case with crimes related to retaining classified government documents after he left the White House, and with obstructing the recovery of those records...Complaints filed since May 16..."appear to be part of an orchestrated campaign..."

Scientists at the Institute for Cancer Research in London said the DIY spit test would catch more aggressive tumours and lead to fewer false alarms than the current NHS system...Men simply spit into a tube at home and send the sample off for lab analysis...Their DNA is checked for high risk genes or damage that could indicate prostate cancer...The study, presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference, trialled the test on 6,142 men at GP surgeries in the UK.

The charges against Trump are Class E felonies, the least serious category under New York law...Experts tend to think it is highly unlikely that Trump will face any jail time as a result of the hush money verdict...Due to the immense and complex challenges of incarcerating a former president, the judge might instead opt for a sentence of house arrest...The U.S. Constitution...does not bar felons from holding its highest office.

Donald Trump on Monday again denied rape and defamation claims against him by writer E. Jean Carroll..."TWO separate trials awarded a woman, who I never met before (a quick handshake at a celebrity event, 25 years ago, doesn't count!), 91 MILLION DOLLARS for "DEFAMATION."

The computer...uses an array of 100 lasers to perform calculations...Because the LPU100 lacks electronics, it can operate efficiently at room temperature and maintain a compact size similar to a desktop computer...It is also built entirely from well-understood laser technology and commercially available components...LightSolver [the Start Up] now offers select enterprise customers the ability to use the LPU100 through its cloud platform for problems involving up to 1 million variables.

Moderna stock spiked in Wednesday trading, climbing 13.7% over the course of the day amid swelling concerns over the avian influenza outbreak in U.S. cattle...Moderna confirmed to Barron's that the company is in discussions with the federal government about "advancing our pandemic flu candidate." Pfizer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

President Calvin Coolidge signed it into law on May 26, 1924...despite the various and often invidious motivations of the Act's supporters, its effect was overwhelmingly positive for Americans of all races...The act led to a significant decrease in immigration, which had positive social and economic effects.

A Louisville, Kentucky, police detective violated department policy by not turning on his body-worn camera while arresting Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 golfer in the world, the city's police chief said...Scheffler's lawyer Steven Romines last week said Scheffler was told by another officer to drive around the other vehicles...Romines said that "multiple eyewitnesses have confirmed that he did not do anything wrong but was simply proceeding as directed."

A stunt to shift blame to the GOP for the border...Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) plans to bring a border bill...negotiated in secret by Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.), Krysten Sinema (I-Ariz.), and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.)...to the floor for a vote...It would expand parole...Worse, it would codify the administration's mass release...

Trump's decision not to take the witness stand was not a surprise, as testifying carries serious risks for any criminal defendant, particularly one with a tendency to speak off the cuff and undercut his prior statements, as he has shown in testimony in other civil matters...Trump had previously said he was "absolutely" willing to testify in the case...

ESPN broadcast the PGA Championship on Thursday and Friday, plus early play on Saturday and Sunday...CBS Sports has prime time rights on weekend play...ESPN has a really interesting new feature (new to me anyway)...If you subscribe to ESPN+ you can choose full time coverage of individual player groups that include Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, and Bryson DeChambeau (the longest hitter in the PGA)...Since many viewers just follow three or four golfers, that seems like a brilliant business idea to me.

A survey of five million distant solar systems, aided by "neural network" algorithms, has discovered 60 stars that appear to be surrounded by giant alien power plants...Ever since theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson first proposed the idea at Princeton in 1960, astrophysicists have speculated that advanced extraterrestrials might have constructed massive solar energy collectors around one star or more. [Illustration in Comment #1]

GameStop (GME) was up 74% on Monday during regular trading hours, and closed at $30.45...In After Hours trading, on Tuesday early AM, it has been up as much as 49% at $45.00...Is it pure hype?...Or, the greatest Short Squeeze anyone has seen for a long time?...Extreme buyer caution advised...At the $30 close yesterday, the GME Price/Earnings Ratio was 1,400...The median P/E for the S&P 500 is around 18

The foreign-born or immigrant population (legal and illegal) hit new record highs in March 2024 of 51.6 million and 15.6 percent of the total U.S. population. Since March 2022, the foreign-born population has increased 5.1 million, the largest two-year increase in American history.

SEATTLE (KOMO) — Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson addressed recent developments in the state's governor's race Monday morning, days after two [other] people named Robert Ferguson joined the ballot...Right wing activist Glen Morgan posted...he was the "volunteer campaign manager for two of the Bob Fergusons running for governor. They are both superior in every way to the AG running for the same office..." [Wash state has "Top 2" Primaries]

Even with the electric-vehicle maker's stock down 32% so far this year, Moses is sticking with his Tesla short..."Everything is kind of falling apart in their core business...He [Elon Musk] is pointing everybody to robotaxis and AI and autonomy...This move to own Tesla for robotaxis and AI is going to fade over time...$50 seems like a reasonable valuation to me..." [Current price $167.50]

In a study by the Institute for Counter-Terrorism Policy at Reichman University, it has been revealed that extreme right-wing antisemitic groups in the USA are aggressively promoting their ideology within the anti-Israel campaign of the American liberal left. These efforts, conducted through clandestine right-wing networks, are believed to be fueling the surge in violence on campuses and city streets as well as the burgeoning wave of online antisemitic rhetoric.

The world just experienced its hottest April on record, extending an 11-month streak in which every month set a temperature record...[I urge readers to scroll through the Comments. At least 70% are well informed and well written criticism. It feels like the political tide has turned on this hugely expensive and completely bogus crisis.]

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. experienced a series of health issues in recent years, including an abnormality that he said was caused by a worm that entered his brain and then died...Kennedy said [that] in a 2012 deposition, which concerned a divorce from his second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy...

The auditing firm for Trump Media and the auditor's owner were charged with "massive fraud" by the Securities and Exchange Commission for work that affected more than 1,500 SEC filings...The auditor, BF Borgers CPA and its owner Benjamin Borgers, have agreed to be permanently suspended from practicing as accountants before the SEC, and also agreed to pay a combined $14 million in civil penalties, the SEC said.