Free Republic

drag queen is challenging Democratic California Rep. Adam Schiff for his seat in Congress. Maebe A. Girl became the first drag queen elected to local government, winning a seat in Silver Lake Neighborhood Council earlier this year. Now the drag queen is attempting to win a seat in the House of Representatives and become the first congressional trans person and first drag queen, according to Route Fifty. Girl will face Schiff in an open primary. “While I appreciate his allyship, I think someone that is actually a part of the queer community, that understands the day-to-day struggles, would be a...

As Zika virus raced through the Americas and the Caribbean in 2015 and 2016, it infected an estimated 800,000 people and left nearly 4000 newborns with serious brain damage. But by mid-2017, the virus had all but disappeared from the region—or so it seemed. A new analysis of Zika-infected travelers who returned to the United States or Europe in 2017 or 2018 has found that 98% had visited Cuba, which did not report any cases to world health officials at the time the country’s outbreak apparently peaked. “It was startling,” says Kristian Andersen, a genomic epidemiologist at Scripps Research in...

Full title of article: "Michael Drejka found guilty of manslaughter in parking lot shooting that led to 'Stand Your Ground' trial" Text of excerpt: Michael Drejka, who fatally shot an unarmed man, Markeis McGlockton, last summer in Florida during a dispute over a handicapped-accessible parking spot, was found guilty of manslaughter Friday night.

The US will not negotiate a free trade deal with the UK unless a new digital services tax is dropped, according to a newspaper report. The measure, which was proposed in 2018 by then chancellor Philip Hammond in response to fears that technology giants were not paying their fair share of tax, is due to come into effect in April next year.

Summer Worden said her 6-year-old son is her world. Worden said the child was conceived through in vitro fertilization and carried by a surrogate. When her son turned 1, Worden said she met Anne McClain. Worden and the astronaut were married eight months later but three years into the relationship, she said things got rocky. In 2018, McClain asked a judge to grant her shared parenting rights of the child, saying in documents, "She was there for his first steps and first words" and that they had “a very healthy and deep parental relationship." Later that year, McClain filed court...

MARTHA’S VINEYARD, MA—According to reports, former President and First Lady Barack and Michelle Obama have purchased a $15 million dollar home sitting atop 29 acres of land on Martha’s Vineyard, where they look forward to spreading their wealth around. “Like I said in 2008, when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody,” Obama told reporters. “Michelle and I can’t wait to get out and start spreading our massive haul of cash all over this palatial piece of property. These acres will be green all year long,” he grinned. “We were starting to feel cramped in our 9 bedroom...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is planning to open a U.S. consulate in Greenland for the first time in decades amid increased strategic and economic interest in the Danish territory. The State Department says in a letter to Congress that reestablishing a consulate in Greenland is part of a broader plan to increase the U.S. presence in the Arctic.....

...Ogg said that as investigators probed the case, they determined that Goines first lied about using a confidential informant to buy heroin; then claimed to have bought the drugs himself; then lied about who identified the drugs; and finally admitted that he couldn’t determine whether Tuttle was the same person from whom he allegedly purchased the drugs....

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) took its first step in moving Washington-based staff out West, offering up vacant, but perhaps lower profile positions to staffers, despite objections from lawmakers. The Department of Interior announced in July that it would leave just 61 BLM employees in the capital and move about 300 other Washington-based employees to offices closer to the public lands they manage. In an email to staff sent late Friday and obtained by The Hill, BLM head William Pendley encouraged staffers to apply for vacant positions that have been moved out West as part of the agency’s effort...

A car park opposite the infamous New York City housing estate where rapper Jay-Z grew up seems an unlikely place for an agricultural revolution. Ten shipping containers dominate a corner of the Brooklyn parking area, each full of climate control tech, growing herbs that are distributed to local stores on bicycles. This is urban farming at its most literal. The containers are owned by Square Roots, part of America's fast-expanding vertical farming industry, a sector run by many tech entrepreneurs who believe food production is ripe for disruption. The world's best basil reputedly comes from Genoa, Italy. Square Roots grows...

CROYDON, N.H. (AP) — Joe Biden pondered a most serious, and awkward, question at a campaign stop Friday: What if Barack Obama had been assassinated during his presidential campaign in 2008?

Mr. Speaker, in 2012, two bioethicists—Dr. Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva—published an outrageous paper in the Journal of Medical Ethics, justifying the deliberate, premeditated murder of newborn babies during the first hours, days and even weeks after birth. The ethicists said: “When circumstances occur after birth that would have justified an abortion, what we call after-birth abortion should be permissible.” In other words, the same conditions that would justify the killing of a baby in utero justifies the killing of that baby even when she is born. They—these two individuals—made it clear that because a child does not have dreams...

The Satanic Temple plans to hold a rally this fall to demand that they be allowed to abort unborn babies for any reason, at any time — and without informed consent. The religious group is involved in abortion advocacy in a number of states, including lawsuits challenging pro-life laws. Its upcoming rally is part fundraiser, part publicity stunt for its radical pro-abortion agenda. “The Satanic Temple will be staging a rally for religious reproductive rights and women’s health at the capital of one of the states with the most egregiously restrictive abortion laws,” the group said in a statement. The...

Two would-be robbers in Chicago quickly discovered over the weekend they picked the wrong woman to mess with when they attacked a Golden Gloves champion. The incident happened around 10:30 a.m. on Sunday in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood as 26-year-old Claire Quinn was on her way to Unanimous Boxing Gym in Logan Square to train when police said two men tried to mug her. One of the men ran off, while the other punched Quinn and attempted to take her phone, police told FOX32. Quinn told neighborhood news outlet Block Club Chicago one of the men punched her in the...

New England Patriots safety Patrick Chung was indicted on a charge of cocaine possession, the Belknap County (NH) Attorney’s Office told the Boston Herald’s Kevin Duffy on Thursday morning. News first broke of Chung’s indictment in the Laconia Daily Sun, that reported: “Patrick C. Chung, 32, of Meredith, was indicted on a charge of possession of cocaine.”

President Donald Trump promised he’d get rid of bad rules. “Remove the anchor dragging us down!” he said when campaigning for president. “We’re going to cancel every needless job-killing regulation!” Trump was a developer, so he knew that the thicket of rules government imposes often makes it impossible to get things done. But would he keep his deregulation promise? I was skeptical. Republicans often talk deregulation but then add rules. People called President George W. Bush an “anti-regulator.” But once he was president, he hired 90,000 new regulators! Trump has been different. When he took office, he hired regulation skeptics....

arlier today, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the constitutional order, limited the reach of expansive nondiscrimination laws, and protected a Christian couple from having to choose between their business and their conscience. The facts of the case are simple. The plaintiffs, Carl and Angel Larsen, are videographers who create “commercials, short films, and live-event productions.” While they work with anyone of any race, sex, sexual orientation, or religion, they will not produce videos that advance viewpoints that violate their Christian beliefs. That includes videos that “contradict biblical truth; promote sexual immorality; support the destruction of unborn children; promote...

5 things the media won't tell you about the Amazon fires By Jesse Ferrell, UPDATE: An astute reader pointed out that my quote below from a NASA website was changed on their end. The Google Cache of their page, which contained my quote, has been changed from "slightly below average" to "close to average" with no explanation of that revision. It would be nice to know if the data has changed, or it was a mistake. GlobalFireData Graph However, there is no average given, so I can't say whether it's above or below average. The data goes back to 2003,...

An Obama-appointed federal judge is forcing Wisconsin taxpayers to provide costly sex reassignment surgery and hormonal procedures for low-income transgender residents who get free medical care from the government. In a recently issued ruling U.S. District Judge William M. Conley writes that Medicaid, the publicly funded insurance that covers 65.7 million poor people, cannot deny the medical treatment needs of those suffering from “gender dysphoria.” Officials estimate it will cost up to $1.2 million annually to provide transgender Medicaid recipients in the Badger State with treatments such as “gender confirmation” surgery, including elective mastectomies, hysterectomies, genital reconstruction and breast augmentation....

Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar is not happy that a top House Democrat seemed to accuse her, along with President Trump, of spreading anti-Semitic messages. In a series of tweets Friday, the congresswoman called it “sickening to watch people make false equivalences between the open bigotry and hatred of this president and progressives.”