Free Republic

The number of children enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP — two government health plans for the poor — fell by nearly 600,000 in the first 11 months of 2018, a precipitous drop that has puzzled and alarmed many health policy analysts, while several states say it reflects the good news of an improving economy. Enrollment in the two programs decreased by 599,000 children in the 48 states from which the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, has data from December 2017 to November 2018, the last month for which numbers are...

Another day, another celebrity going off the deep end on Twitter. Zachary Leeman reports that "Actress and Democrat activist Alyssa Milano sent out what was arguably the most bizarre tweet on International Women’s Day." Bizarre? Sure. But let's not forget "nonsensical," and for those who are concerned with such matters, "valor-stealing from the genuinely intersectional." That's a thing, or at least it is now. The former Charmed star tweeted, in full, "I’m trans. I’m a person of color. I’m an immigrant. I’m a lesbian. I’m a gay man. I’m the disabled. I’m everything. And so are you, Kirk. Don’t be...

The U.S. Senate voted by a 54-45 margin on Tuesday to confirm Paul Matey to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. With Matey’s confirmation, the Third Circuit shifts to a 7-6 majority of Republican appointees, making it the first court of appeals in the nation to see its composition switch under Trump, who has been clear on his goal to remake the federal judiciary with conservative judges. Trump previously appointed Stephanos Bibas and David Porter to the 14-member court of appeals. On Monday, after a vote to close debate on the Matey nomination was split on party...

Boeing making a more extensive software change to the flight-control system in the 737 MAX pior to Ethiopian tragedy than industry officials initially anticipated.

Attorney Michael Avenatti announced Tuesday that he was no longer representing adult film star Stormy Daniels, cutting ties with a client who had propelled him into the national limelight. In a statement posted to Twitter, Avenatti said he had informed Daniels "in writing" last month that his firm was terminating its representation of her "for various reasons that we cannot disclose publicly due to the attorney-client privilege." "This was not a decision we made lightly and it came only after lengthy discussion, thought and deliberation, as well as consultation with other professionals," Avenatti added. "We wish Stormy all the best."...

Speaker Pelosi Revokes Vice President Pence's House Office Space March 12, 20191:40 PM ET Susan Davis The speaker giveth, and the speaker taketh away. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has reclaimed office space her predecessor, Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., awarded to Vice President Pence. Republicans gave Pence, a former House member, a first-floor bonus office in the U.S. Capitol shortly after President Trump was inaugurated in 2017. The vice president rarely used the space, but it was a symbolic gesture of the warm relationship Pence enjoyed with Ryan and the House GOP. The vice president serves as the president of...

If millennials are currently aged between the ages of 22 and 36, I am one, albeit somewhere in the upper echelons – and I am also a publisher. And so I note with particular interest when people who are usually not millennials and don’t work in publishing share their view that Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita would never be published now because of awful young people like me. Not in a million years, they say. Highly unlikely, at a push. It’s a view that pops up with surprising frequency. In the Spectator this week, Rachel Johnson writes that Lolita would be stuck...

Los Angeles International Airport after an infected passenger walked between terminals last month. The traveler was still infectious when he or she arrived on China Eastern Flight 538 at the Tom Bradley International Terminal B, Gate 133, on the morning of Feb. 21, according to a news release from the L.A. County Department of Public Health. The passenger then went to Terminal 3, Gate 32, and departed later that day on Delta Flight DL 5705.

The red-blue divide has a big impact on Americans' views of companies, with only two — Wegmans and Publix Supermarkets — appearing on the top 10 list of favorite companies for both Democrats and Republicans, according to an Axios-Harris Poll survey of corporate reputations. The big picture: People's political views lead them in different directions. Democrats favor the Kraft Heinz Company, while Republicans like Chick-fil-A. But they agree more on the companies they hate — because bad performance affects everyone.

The Atlantic this month published a survey to measure the level of political prejudice in America. Evidently it surprised them to learn that those most prejudiced against members of the opposite party tend to be “whiter, more highly educated, older, more urban, and more partisan themselves.” “We don’t know what is causing what, unfortunately,” reads The Atlantic’s report, “as is often the case in sociological research.” But let’s take a crack at a guess. The report notes previous research by University of Pennsylvania Professor Diana Mutz, who found that “white, highly educated people are relatively isolated from political diversity.” Nowhere...

Millennials struggle to make it past the crucial 90-day mark when starting a new job largely due to “own goals” such as lateness and absenteeism, a HR expert says. Greg Weiss, who specializes in developing “onboarding” programs to help improve retention rates, says businesses face a growing challenge with the new generation. According to Deloitte, millennials will make up 75 percent of the global workforce by 2025, but data shows this cohort have a much higher churn rate — and it’s costing money. In 2015, the Australian arm of global consulting firm PwC estimated staff turnover in the first 12...

Cells from a woolly mammoth that died 28,000 years ago have begun to show "signs of biological [activity]" after they were implanted in mouse cells. However, researchers caution that it's unlikely the extinct creatures will walk the Earth again anytime soon. The research, published in Scientific Reports, details how a well-preserved woolly mammoth, found in 2011 in the Siberian permafrost, has begun to show some activity. "Until now many studies have focused on analyzing fossil DNA and not whether they still function," Miyamoto added. The study's abstract reveals "[i]n the reconstructed oocytes, the mammoth nuclei showed the spindle assembly, histone...

In the fall of 2017, William Rick Singer, college admission fraudster for the rich and famous, sat in the Los Angeles home of actors William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman and laid out a plan to scam their oldest daughter into college, according to a federal indictment released Tuesday. It was what Singer often told parents was “the side door” to college and he did not lack for what federal prosecutors called “a catalog of wealth and privilege” willing to pay for entrance. That includes actresses Huffman ("Desperate Housewives") and Lori Loughlin ("Full House"), each of whom was indicted by...

San Diego State University is set to host a “Racial Healing Workshop” for minority students and faculty later this month that aims to help students and professors of color get through college and career life. “This intimate one and a half hour Racial Healing Workshop catered to students and faculty of color will be led by well-known professional Dr. Cheryl E. Matias,” state the student organizers of the event, the Marriage and Family Therapy Association, a recognized student organization under the College of Education. “She will provide a safe space for students and faculty of color to discuss issues that...

Socialism in action! These poor bastards are forced to collect sewage runoff for drinking water! Desperate Venezuelans swarm sewage drains in search of water

Nine college coaches and one administrator are among the dozens of individuals charged in a a widespread cheating scheme aimed at getting students into universities as recruited athletes. According to court documents, the scheme, orchestrated by William Rick Singer was centered around cheating on college entrance exams to get the children of wealthy parents like actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin into the schools of their choice. In addition to cheating on tests, Singer enlisted coaches to help the prospective students gain admittance into school by any means necessary. Below are the coaches facing charges and what they are accused...

If you're concerned about Facebook's privacy scandals or worried that it's listening in on your phone calls, you'll likely be disturbed by CEO Mark Zuckerberg's recent comments at Harvard. Despite the fact that Facebook is under fire from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. and facing more skepticism from the public about its business practices, the tech giant's chief executive officer discussed the company's research into a brain-computer interface that would allow people to use their mind to navigate through augmented reality. Even though this might sound creepy, don't worry, Zuckerberg said they have no current plans to develop surgically implanted chips. The idea...

Peddlers of the Green New Deal know that the only way for their radical agenda to become reality is if Americans buy into the wildest claims of climate extremists. It’s clear that some of the most enthusiastic supporters of this radical agenda are young people. This was on full display in the now viral video of a meeting between Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and a group of children from the Sunrise Movement.

I've had the pleasure of appearing on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show. But, even if I hadn't, I would watch it. It is by far the most interesting show on cable news. (Don't take my word for it.) By definition, that world's a hamster wheel - let's go live to a press conference, a House vote, a court verdict, a car chase - and much of it doesn't matter a week later, never mind a year or a decade. But night after night Tucker uses the small details of the day to paint the big picture of our times -...

Italy’s populist leader, Matteo Salvini, has recently continued his hardline approach to unwanted migrants in his country by deporting over 1,500 from a refugee camp in Reggio before bulldozing the site. Earlier in the week, Italian police removed around 1,592 migrants from the camp before flattening the shanty town where they were living.