Free Republic

BEIJING -- Inspectors in protective suits went door-to-door Wednesday in the epicenter of China’s viral outbreak to try to find every infected person in an epidemic that is showing signs of waning as new cases fell for a second straight day. The city of Wuhan, where the new form of coronavirus emerged, was in the final day of a campaign to root out anyone with symptoms whom authorities may have missed so far. “This must be taken seriously,” said Wang Zhonglin, the city’s newly minted Communist Party secretary, adding that “if a single new case is found” after Wednesday “the...

YAKIMA, Wash. — A Yakima fast food employee wasn’t having it when someone tried to rob him last Saturday, according to a police report. Officers were called to the Jack In The Box on North First Street around 1 p.m. for a report of an attempted robbery that went awry for the suspect. The suspect, 37-year-old Damian McCorkle, allegedly walked to the restaurant and ordered some food. A witness said he was wearing a coat with his hands in his pockets, as if he was going to pull something out of it, and told the cashier he needed money, police...

A new law in Cambridge encourages police officers not to arrest unlicensed drivers in an effort to protect undocumented immigrants from having their information shared with federal immigration officials. The City Council voted Monday to pass the Welcoming Community ordinance, which directs officers to summons unlicensed drivers instead of arresting them whenever possible. The ordinance also prohibits the Cambridge police from: inquiring about a person’s immigration status; initiating an investigation or take law enforcement action based on a person’s immigration status; arresting or detaining a person due to an ICE detainer or administrative warrant; initiating investigations or taking law enforcement...

Roush Fenway Racing driver Ryan Newman has been treated and released from Halifax Medical Center, according to the team’s official Twitter account.

Astronomical Images of Nebulae and Galaxies to Jeremiah Clark's 'Prince of Denmark's March,' a Trumpet Voluntary. I am awed by the vastness and the beauty of space. A trumpet voluntary conveys that awe perfectly.

LONDON—A lawyer for Julian Assange has claimed in court that President Trump offered to pardon Assange if the WikiLeaks founder agreed to help cover up Russia’s involvement in hacking emails from the Democratic National Committee. Assange’s lawyers said on Wednesday that former Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher offered Assange the deal in 2017, a year after emails that damaged Hillary Clinton in the presidential race had been published. WikiLeaks posted the stolen DNC emails after they were hacked by Russian operatives. The claim that Rohrabacher acted as an emissary for the White House came during a pre-extradition hearing in London. Assange...

Ryan Newman is fully alert, walking around the hospital and joking with staff two days after his frightening crash on the final lap of the Daytona 500. Roush Fenway Racing said Wednesday the 42-year-old driver "continues to show great improvement." The team added that "true to his jovial nature, he has also been joking around with staff, friends and family while playing with his two daughters." The team included a photo of Newman standing in a hospital gown, smiling with his arms around his two young daughters.

China has reportedly deployed 40 industrial incinerators to the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak Wuhan. Chinese media reports that the furnaces have been shipped to the city amid ongoing fears the death toll is being covered up. NTD reports that the cabins are for the disposal of animal carcasses, while China Ship news reports the incinerators are for medical waste. Wuhan has been at the centre of the global epidemic which has infected more than 75,000 people and killed more than 2,000. It is believed the virus spread from bats to other animals in the so-called “wet markets” in the...

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) on Tuesday repeated remarks he has made before about the origins of the coronavirus outbreak in China saying that the U.S. has to take into consideration every possibility until it’s determined where the disease came from. Cotton’s remarks: On Sunday, Cotton initially floated the idea that the virus didn’t originate from the Wuhan market as it’s been widely reported in the media. He pointed out that the only high-level biosafety laboratory in China that deals with highly-infectious diseases is in Wuhan.

Key Points President Donald Trump retweeted a claim that he was “the victim of a seditious conspiracy out of the” Justice Department and the FBI. Attorney General William Barr has warned people close to Trump that he might resign if the president continues commenting on criminal cases. Trump has publicly complained about the case against his friend, political operative Roger Stone, who lied to Congress about his contacts with WikLeaks. ====================================================================== Your move, Mr. Attorney General. President Donald Trump on Wednesday retweeted claims that he is “the victim” of a Justice Department conspiracy, hours after reports that the department’s chief...

A Chinese student who survived in flooded and dense Gold Coast bushland for five days used an empty milk bottle in a life-preserving bid to collect water. Yang Chen went missing on Wednesday last week while walking with a friend in the Tallebudgera Valley. A Chinese student who survived in flooded and dense Gold Coast bushland for five days used an empty milk bottle in a life-preserving bid to collect water. Despite losing her shoes and surviving in caves, Chen has no serious health concerns. Brailsford said Chen jokingly credited survival and adventure-style TV shows for helping her stay alive....

Mike Bloomberg's campaign is sounding the alarm that Bernie Sanders will soon amass an unsurmountable delegate lead if the Democratic field stays split — and took the extraordinary step of suggesting laggards should drop out. What they're saying: Kevin Sheekey, Bloomberg's top strategist, said: "The fact is if the state of this race remains status quo — with Biden, Pete and Amy in the race on Super Tuesday — Bernie is likely to open up a delegate lead that seems nearly impossible to overcome." "I don’t think many people understand the dire circumstances here." Why it matters: Based on every...

<p>Spokesman Kianush Jahanpour tweeted that they died due to their "old age and deficient immune systems" while being treated in hospital in Qom.</p> <p>Deputy Health Minister Qasem Janbabaei told the Young Journalists' Club (YJC) that they were both Iranian nationals.</p>

Sen. Bernie Sanders split with one of his top campaign surrogates on Medicare for All on Tuesday night. He said his signature plan to enroll everyone in the US under a government-run health insurance system was already a compromise. At a CNN town hall, Sanders distanced himself from Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who said last week that passing a watered-down version of the legislation would be still represent a significant progressive achievement. Asked about Ocasio-Cortez's comments, the Vermont senator initially praised the freshman congresswoman's achievements in her first year in the House. But he disputed her assessment of the plan.

The third and last teen suspect in the fatal stabbing of Barnard College student Tessa Majors has been arrested, law enforcement sources told The Post on Wednesday. Luciano Lewis, 14, surrendered to police with his lawyer Wednesday morning and is expected to be arraigned in Manhattan Supreme Court later Wednesday in connection with the Dec. 11 killing of the 18-year-old, the sources said.

• One more thing about Bloomberg: He isn’t merely trying to buy the Democratic nomination; he’s also starving the Democratic Party into submission. The Intercept notes that Bloomberg is hiring so many Democratic political staff people, with guaranteed salaries through November whether he gets the nomination or not: Bloomberg’s spending is having a shockingly disruptive effect on Democratic politics throughout the country: He is hiring armies of staffers and canvassers in nearly every state in the country at eye-popping salaries, poaching talent from other campaigns and progressive organizations that are now struggling to fill jobs. In just three months, the...

Bloomberg is rising in polls and just qualified for the debate stage in Nevada, but a question nags: who really wants Bloomberg to be president? Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s massive campaign spending—hundreds of millions of dollars and counting—appears to be paying off. One poll this week showed Bloomberg tied with Sen. Bernie Sanders in Virginia, each with 22 percent, and after garnering 19 percent in a national poll released Tuesday, Bloomberg has qualified for the Democratic presidential debate tonight in Las Vegas.At first glance Bloomberg’s poll surge suggests the New York billionaire has a real shot at...

Poor Paul Krugman. He’s been reduced to using zombie metaphors to illustrate his disdain for certain “centrist” Democratic presidential candidates. Krugman wrote Feb. 17 that “sometimes zombie ideas also manage to eat centrists’ brains,” in an op-ed headlined “Have Zombies Eaten Bloomberg’s and Buttigieg’s Brains?” This appears to be an obvious play on his recently released book “Arguing with Zombies: Economics, Politics, and the Fight for a Better Future.” To be clear, Krugman assured his readers that the “most important zombie ideas are on the right, kept undead by big money from billionaires who have a financial interest in getting...

President Donald Trump granted clemency to eleven people Tuesday in what mainstream media outlets are calling a “clemency spree,” but many are ignoring the several women — including women of color — who were granted relief from long prison sentences, in pursuit of headlines tying Trump to “corruption” and “white collar crime.” Trump did, of course, grant commutations and pardons to several high-profile individuals, including former governor Rod Blagojevich, former New York police comissioner Bernard Kerick, financier Mike Milken, and pro-football Hall of Famer Edward DeBartolo, Jr. But while media focused on creating a common thread tying these commutations and...

I explore Surah 96, and debunk some Muslim claims about early persecution, the alleged divinity of the Koran and explain why you can't necessarily trust Islamic historiography.