Free Republic

LAS VEGAS - The week of chaos that followed the Iowa caucuses has prompted growing concern about problems in the next state to use that presidential nominating process, Nevada. Voters and campaigns have become increasingly mistrustful of the caucus format since the Iowa vote and are worried that further trouble could throw the Democrats’ 2020 primary process into complete disarray. In Nevada, those fears have only deepened since the state’s Democratic Party was forced to make abrupt changes to its caucus process because it had planned to use an iPad app developed by the same company that developed the mobile...

SHANGHAI - For weeks after the first reports of a mysterious new virus in Wuhan, millions of people poured out of the central Chinese city, cramming onto buses, trains and planes as the first wave of China’s great Lunar New Year migration broke across the nation. Some carried with them the new virus that has since claimed over 8 00 lives and sickened more than 37,000 people. Officials finally began to seal the borders on Jan. 23. But it was too late. Speaking to reporters a few days after the the city was put under quarantine, the mayor estimated that...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Boston University, had to correct herself Saturday evening after mixing up two "very different" economists during a lengthy Instagram discussion. "UGGGH TYPO,” the freshman congresswoman wrote after confusing John Maynard Keynes, an early 20th-century British economist who theorized that government spending was linked to economic growth, with Milton Friedman, a free-market American economist and 1976 Nobel Prize winner, according to The Washington Examiner. Ocasio-Cortez mistakenly combined their names into "Milton Keynes." “I was just reading today about how in 1930, famed economist Milton Keynes predicted that by 2030...

Payments withheld over readmissions, complications ROSA SALTER RODRIGUEZ | The Journal Gazette Several Fort Wayne-area hospitals are having their Medicare payments cut because patients suffered complications or had to be readmitted, according to study results published by Kaiser Health News. Lutheran Hospital, Dupont Hospital and Parkview Medical Center and other hospitals in the Parkview system all made the 2020 list. Hospitals can be penalized 1% for the federal fiscal year from October to September for complications, including hospital-acquired infections. Penalties for excess readmissions range up to 3% per patient. No local hospital came close to that. The penalties are part...

Anxiety is coursing through the Democratic Party as President Donald Trump emerges from his impeachment proceedings as a potent threat for reelection, with party leaders and activists uncertain about how to beat the incumbent and worried about a nominating race that remains crowded and is growing more acrimonious. While Democrats see Trump as a corrosive figure and a threat to the nation, they also see the president and his well-funded campaign tailoring a reelection bid around the strong economy and visceral appeals to his ardent supporters. Trump's robust political standing came into view this past week, as he claimed vindication...

Forty-five minutes after Joe Biden’s first campaign event was supposed to start on Saturday, his crowd had grown restless. The former vice president wasn’t at the Rex Theatre in downtown Manchester and those crammed inside were wondering just how much longer they’d have to suck in the heated air before they get to see him speak. In the rafters, a chant broke out. “We Want Joe!” the voices said, overpowering the soundtrack of classic rock and commercial motown that had been playing on blast to keep the crowd from completely dozing off. But no one picked it up. Instead, after...

Chinese lives have undergone sudden changes as a result of the novel coronavirus epidemic. At the national level, Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei Province and the outbreak's epicenter, earlier announced a citywide closure to contain the virus. Many provinces and cities have implemented harsh but effective preventive measures. People have been told to remain indoors, and in some places, only one member from each family is allowed to go outside to buy daily necessities every other day or longer. In Beijing, residential communities have remained on high alert. Entrance gates are closed all day, with the exception of one...

Please join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for President Trump, Vice-President Pence, and for America: Government, Family, Military, Business, Education, Churches, and the Media. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (I John 5:14) Religion forum threads labeled “Prayer” are closed to debate of any kind.

Boris Johnson has revived plans to build a £20 billion bridge between Scotland and Northern Ireland — with engineers looking to copy the link between Sweden and Denmark which featured in a hit “Scandi noir” crime drama. The Prime Minister, who is keen to sanction a series of grand infrastructure projects as a legacy of his rule, is about to receive the results of a feasibility study into the construction of a combined bridge and tunnel connection at the narrowest, 20-mile gap between Northern Ireland and the British mainland. One version of the plan would be modeled on the Öresund...

Giuliani told host Jesse Watters that his goal was to make sure Trump emerges as "totally vindicated" following the Democrats' failed impeachment proceedings on Capitol Hill, which ended last week with the president acquitted on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. "I want to prove what happened," Giuliani said, "because I believe if we prove what happened, he will be totally vindicated." Watters asked Giuliani if he had any documentation regarding Hunter Biden's business dealings in Ukraine before adding that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., will be investigating that. "Lindsey, get started," Giuliani said, laughing,...

NEW YORK (AP) — Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey headlined Brooklyn’s Barclays Center like an A-list duo Saturday, getting a rock-star like applause from a feverish audience of fans on a stage typically reserved for pop, rap and basketball stars. It was the fifth tour stop of “Oprah’s 2020 Vision: Your Life in Focus,” Winfrey’s full-day wellness event with WW (Weight Watchers Reimagined) that had the New York venue usually holding concerts at night buzzing with bright-eyed attendees lined up as early as 8 a.m. It marked Obama’s return to Barclays just 14 months after appearing at the arena for...

A new exit poll suggests that Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin are tied when it comes to first preference votes, making the result of the General Election too close to call. The exit poll, carried out by Ipsos MRBI for RTÉ, The Irish Times, TG4 and UCD, indicates all three parties have 22% of first preference votes. The margin of error in this exit poll is ±1.3% — which means any of the three parties could be as low as 20.7% support or as high as 23.3%. […] The poll suggests a move toward Sinn Féin among younger...

“See the Light, Be the Light” (Matthew 5:13-20) Two weeks ago, during this Epiphany season, the Gospel reading was from Matthew 4, and it included this verse: “The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.” The great light that they saw, the light that had dawned on them, was Jesus, as he began his ministry of preaching, teaching, healing, and gathering disciples. Jesus Christ is the light that shines in the darkness. As he himself would later say, “I am the...

LONGWOOD, Bronx (WABC) -- An NYPD officer was shot while sitting in a marked police van, sources say. The officer was shot in the neck and chin on 906 Simpson St. in Longwood just before 8:30 p.m. Saturday. Sources say the suspect walked up, started asking directions and then opened fire at the officer. The officers then fired back.

The virus: 86 people died in a single day in China on Friday. The coronavirus death toll has risen to at least 805, and the vast majority have died in mainland China. Globally, the virus has infected more 34,400 people across 28 countries and territories. Foreign fatalities: A 60-year-old US national died in Wuhan on Thursday, the US Embassy in Beijing said Saturday, marking the first confirmed death of a foreigner. Japan also reported its first death of suspected coronavirus in Wuhan on Saturday. Doctor's death: The death of a doctor widely regarded as a hero in China for blowing...

Former major league outfielder Angel Echevarria, who played seven seasons with three different teams, has died. He was 48. Rutgers, where he set a career home run record that has since been broken, announced his death Saturday but didn’t provide further details. The Connecticut Post reported Saturday that Echevarria died on Friday at Bridgeport Hospital. The story said his girlfriend, Jazmine Cox, told them he took at fall in his Bridgeport home earlier in the day.

No one injured; vehicle attack draws nationwide response JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Police are looking for an older brown Chevrolet van the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said drove through a tent in a Walmart parking lot Saturday where Republican volunteers were registering people to vote. According to Lt. Larry Gayle, the vehicle attack happened about 3:50 p.m. at Atlantic and Kernan boulevards where members of the Republican Party were in the tent registering voters. The driver of the van pulled up, drove through the tent and struck their table. “It happened so quickly,” said Nina Williams, a volunteer. “I just barely got...

Seriously, cnn? You let him on the air like that.

Liza Sejkora is the now-former principal from Camas, Washington, who made national headlines after suggesting on Facebook that she felt Kobe Bryant had deserved to die. She resigned from her position at Camas High School after receiving multiple threats. Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and seven others were killed in a helicopter crash on January 26, 2020. Hours after the news broke, Sejkora wrote on her Facebook page, “Not gonna lie. Seems to me that karma caught up with a rapist today.” Sejkora was referring to the 2003 case in which Bryant was accused of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman...

February 9, 2020 Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Reading 1 IS 58:7-10 Thus says the LORD: Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless; clothe the naked when you see them, and do not turn your back on your own. Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed; your vindication shall go before you, and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer, you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am! If...