Free Republic

More than 1.7 million Americans develop sepsis every year and incidence of the condition is on the rise. In severe cases, widespread inflammation leads to multiorgan failure and death. Results of a new study hold the tantalizing prospect that, for some patients with sepsis, intravenous (IV) vitamin C could increase survival and shorten intensive care unit (ICU) stays. The findings, published in JAMA, are from the CITRIS-ALI (Vitamin C Infusion for Treatment In Sepsis-Induced Acute Lung Injury) trial. Cleveland Clinic was one of seven enrollment sites across the country chosen for the study because of the diversity of its patients...

Preliminary results from two clinical trials of therapeutics for the new coronavirus that’s spreading around the world are expected in several weeks, World Health Organization (WHO) officials said on Feb. 20. The organization’s R&D Blueprint, a plan that allows the rapid activation of research and development activities during epidemics, has enabled the fast-tracking of two trials, WHO director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference in Geneva at the organization’s headquarters on Feb. 20. “We expect preliminary results in three weeks,” Tedros said. 1) One of the trials is using lopinavir and ritonavir, two drugs typically used to...

A Shawnee State University philosophy professor's lawsuit over the pronoun he used to address a student has been dismissed. Professor Nicholas Meriwether, a “professed Evangelical Christian”, was confronted in January 2018 by student Alena Bruening. Bruening said identified as a transgender female and wanted to be addressed by the pronouns she/her/hers. When Meriwether refused to abide by the request, the lawsuit claims, Bruening “became belligerent” and said, “well I guess that means I can call you a c**t.” "the court’s decision opens the door for them to shift from being a marketplace of ideas to an assembly line for one...

Mike Bloomberg has officially surpassed Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., in presidential endorsements from members of Congress and governors after his debut on the debate stage Wednesday night. With the Nevada caucuses set for Saturday, Warren still does not have any major endorsements from politicians in the Silver State. Bloomberg will not be on the ballot in Nevada. Joe Biden is the sole Democratic candidate with formal support from a Nevadan. Rep. Steven Horsford, the Democratic member for NV-04, endorsed the former Vice President on February 14. Biden leads the pack with a whopping 49 official backings from members of the...

A history of 10 or more lifetime sexual partners is linked to a heightened risk of being diagnosed with cancer, reveals research published online in the journal BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health. And among women, a higher number of sexual partners is also linked to heightened odds of reporting a limiting long term condition, the findings indicate. Few studies have looked at the potential impact of the number of sexual partners on wider health outcomes. To try and plug this knowledge gap, the researchers drew on information gathered for the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), a nationally representative tracking...

New York is combatting anti-Semitism with a new ad campaign featured in Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish print and digital outlets, in addition to social media. The New York City Commission on Human Rights launched a campaign to fight religious harassment and discrimination and to emphasize the city’s support for its Jewish population. The commission said in a release that the campaign was in response to rising anti-Semitic incidents in the city, the surrounding area and the country. One of the new ads reads, “Jewish New Yorkers belong here. Anti-Semitism does not.” The advertisements will be featured in Orthodox and Hasidic...

President Donald Trump likes to claim credit for the number of Americans who have stopped receiving food stamps since he entered office. In July 2018, he said 3.5 million had fallen from the rolls; the next spring, 5 million had. In his State of the Union speech this month, the number had grown to 7 million. Democrats say those figures only show Trump has pushed struggling Americans off public assistance by pressing to restrict eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Medicaid and other programs. For now, the evidence supports Trump’s contention that an improving economy is more responsible for...

Google Ends Kite Energy Initiative. Commercializing the tech will take too long and be too risky. 2-20-2020 AUTHORS Andy Szal Google’s parent company is ending an ambitious effort to harness wind energy using kites after officials determined that commercializing the technology would be “longer and riskier” than originally hoped.

A man with a tattoo on his forehead that says “Crime Pays” has run afoul of police in Indiana for the second time since Nov. 29. Donald Murray, 38, was busted Monday in Terre Haute after leading police on a short pursuit, the New York Post reports. He was charged with resisting law enforcement, possession of methamphetamine and auto theft. Murray and his tattoo gained notoriety after his first run-in with Terre Haute police on Nov. 29 landed him on the "Live PD" TV show. That day cops said he crashed a car after a high-speed chase and then...

Speaking at the Oscars earlier this month, Māori director and writer Taika Waititi told his audience they were “gathered on the ancestral lands of the Tongva, Tataviam and the Chumash”—Native American groups who lived in and around modern Los Angeles. “We acknowledge them as the first people of this land on which our motion picture community lives and works.” This may have struck many American viewers as unusual. But such “land acknowledgments” have been common for years in Australia, New Zealand and my own country, Canada. Originally intended as a tribute to the legacy and rights of Indigenous peoples, they...

Aliya Feroe recalls the flustered OB-GYN who referred her to another physician after learning she identified as queer. For Rhi Ledgerwood, who was designated female at birth, identifies as trans and doesn’t have sex with men, it was a doctor advising about condoms and pregnancy prevention. For Tim Keyes, who came out as gay at age 17, it’s when doctors automatically assumed he sleeps with women. Ask any LGBTQ patient about awkward doctor visits and chances are they’ll have a story to tell. When being heterosexual is presumed even in doctors’ offices, those who identify otherwise can feel marginalized and...

Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders suggested Wednesday that online attacks attributed to his supporters, known as “Bernie Bros,” might be the Russians trying to “divide” Americans.

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – Officials with the medical examiner’s office are ruling a former NASCAR driver’s deathan accident by drowning after she was found dead inside her Ski Island homeon Monday. Forty-three-year-old Candace Muzny was discovered inside her home Monday afternoon. Her death was initially ruled suspicious, but now authorities say her cause of death was an accidental drowning. The 43-year-old former NASCAR driver was arrested and charged just last month after allegedly punching a metro nail technician for not speaking English.  Muzny is also accused of cutting the responding Oklahoma City Police officer with a knife.  She had only been out of jail for a few...

The media are sounding the alarm. As Bernie Sanders solidifies his lead over his 2020 Democratic presidential competitors, members of the media are starting to worry that a race that once appeared impossibly easy for Democrats to win is suddenly slipping from their grasp. These TV talking heads are now forecasting not just a possible Trump re-election, but a 49-state, Walter Mondale-style blowout.

After nearly a dozen years moving through the U.S. visa system, Sai Kyaw’s brother and sister and their families were at the finish line: a final interview before they could leave Myanmar to join him in Massachusetts and work at his restaurant. Then a dramatic turn in U.S. immigration policy halted their plans. The interview was postponed, and it’s not clear when, or whether, it will be rescheduled. “It’s terrible,” Kyaw said. “There’s nothing we can really do except pray. They’ve been waiting 12 years. If they have to wait another 12 years, they will.” His is just one of...

The White House can't get its broad immigration proposal moving, so officials are pursuing a narrow deal that would please the business community but might go against the president's campaign promise to reduce overall immigration. In recent months, the administration has been in talks with senators about legislation that would create new categories of temporary worker visas or lengthen the allotted stays for those workers, among other possible changes, according to four people familiar with the discussions. A White House official confirmed the ongoing negotiations on the guest worker proposal and said the effort is an attempt to generate action...

Two people were killed when a car went off Highway 1 and over a cliff in Big Sur on Tuesday morning, according to the California Highway Patrol.

...Folks, Americans are extremely naive about what’s coming. We just cannot imagine that people who burst into tears in the face of gentle mockery of their political beliefs can ever come to power. They are already in power, in the sense that they have mesmerized leaders of American institutions. I’m telling you, that 2015 showdown on Yale’s campus between Prof. Nicholas Christakis and the shrieking students was profoundly symbolic. Christakis used the techniques of discursive reason to try to establish contact with these young people. None of it mattered. They yelled and cursed and sobbed. The fact that he disagreed...

In three critical Rust Belt states that delivered a victory to President Trump in 2016 by narrow margins, President Trump leads in head to head matchups against the top Democratic candidates in Wisconsin, but loses or trails within the margin of error in Pennsylvania matchups, and is locked in close races in Michigan, according to a Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pea-ack) University Poll released today. This is the first swing state poll of the 2020 presidential election cycle from the Quinnipiac University Poll that includes separate polls conducted simultaneously in key swing states. The poll was conducted from February 12th - 18th, prior...

Recently, while at a comedy club, the daughter of former president Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, was verbally reprimanded, so to speak.(snip) Comedian Pete Holmes, who produced and starred in HBO’s Crashing, shared on ‘Conan‘ exactly what happened the evening Obama and a friend stopped in at The Comedy Studio.(snip) Holmes went on to recount his run-in with Obama and how he had repeatedly asked her and her friend, politely, to please stop distracting him with their whispering and giggling. He also shared his horror at learning it was she that had been so rude…and that he had...