Free Republic

... Patients are understandably confused. They see hospitals consolidating and creating vast medical empires with sophisticated marketing campaigns and sleek digs that resemble luxury hotels. And then there was the headline-grabbing nugget from a Health Affairs study that seven of the 10 most profitable hospitals in America are nonprofit hospitals. Hospitals fall into three financial categories. Two are easy to understand: There are fully private hospitals that mostly function like any other business, responsible to shareholders and investors. And there are public hospitals, which are owned by state or local governments and have obligations to care for underserved populations. And...

The Hillary email leaks from Wikileaks were mostly about her private speeches to companies like Goldman Sachs. There were a few emails with comments from John Podesta or Huma Abedin, but nothing too bad. With the Access Hollwood tape, Trump did not know the recording was going to be released. The sources only say, "11-year-old recording of a presidential candidate who was apparently aware at the time that he was being recorded by a TV program," but the sources don't show proof that he knew he was being recorded. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/nbc-delayed-publication-of-lewd-trump-tape-because-of-lawsuit-fears/2016/10/08/a3c6850e-8db9-11e6-875e-2c1bfe943b66_story.html Why is leaking Hillary's speeches election interference, but Access Hollywood,...

But he went all-in tonight, not fully prepared and completely untested. It didn't go well. But credit is due to the other five candidates who at various times went all-in on making tonight's debate unique out of the nine held so far: It wasn't a snoozefest. Tonight's most interesting detail, however, is the one we'll never know: How many NDAs will be signed after Bloomberg is done berating his people who sent him swimming among the sharks?

Three relatives of an 11-year-old girl who gave birth in the bathtub of her suburban St. Louis home are facing criminal charges. An adult female and adult male are charged with child endangerment. A 17-year-old male is charged with incest as well as statutory rape and statutory sodomy of a child younger than 12. All three live in St. Charles.

To study American history is often an exercise in learning partial truths and patriotic fables. Textbooks and curricula throughout the country continue to center the white experience, with Black people often quarantined to a short section about slavery and quotes by Martin Luther King Jr. Many walk away from their high school history class — and through the world — with a severe lack of understanding of the history and perspective of Black people in America. Last summer, the New York Times’s 1619 Project burst open a long-overdue conversation about how stories of Black Americans need to be told through...

Appearing Tuesday on the Fox Business Network, House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) dismissed record-low black unemployment under President Donald Trump, stating black Americans “were fully employed during slavery.” (Read/watch it all)

'Squad' congresswoman Ilhan Omar told friends years ago that the man who went on to become her second husband was in fact her brother, DailyMail.com can confirm. And now for the first time one of those friends has come forward to reveal exactly how Omar and Ahmed Elmi scandalized the Somali community in Minneapolis. Abdihakim Osman is the first person to go on record to speak of how Omar said she wanted to get her brother papers so he could stay in the United States, at a time when she was married to her first husband Ahmed Hirsi. But hardly...

McFARLAND, Calif. — As an immigrant in the country illegally, Maribel Ramirez does not officially have a say in the affairs of the small agricultural town in California’s Central Valley that she has called home for 20 years. But late into the night Tuesday, she stood with hundreds of field workers and other residents outside McFarland’s City Council chambers, a bullhorn in her hand. “No ICE! No GEO! We’re farmworkers, not delinquents,” they chanted in Spanish, led by Ramirez, 42. At issue was a multibillion-dollar corporation’s proposal to convert two state prisons slated for closure into detention centers for immigrants...

Former National Security Advisor John Bolton admitted Wednesday that his testimony in President Donald Trump’s recent impeachment proceedings involving Ukraine would have had no impact on the trial’s outcome even after sections of his upcoming book leaked attempting to convict the president in its final days. “People can argue about what I should have said and what I should have done,” Bolton said at Vanderbilt University Wednesday night during a forum with his predecessor Susan Rice, according to ABC News. “I will bet you a dollar right here and now my testimony would have made no difference to the ultimate...

Former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg donated a total of $463.8 million to his self-funded presidential campaign by the beginning of February, according to a Federal Election Commission filing posted Thursday. Of that money, Bloomberg has spent $220 million in January alone — more than several of his opponents have raised in the entire cycle. Axios estimated that equalled a spending of $7.1 million a day, broken down into $4,942 spent per minute and $82.37 per second. Bloomberg, who’s worth over $50 billion, has been spending heavily on TV advertisements, especially on Super Tuesday states on March 3. The...

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren on Thursday decried an Arizona bill that would prevent biological males from competing in girls sports, calling the legislation “cruel.” “Trans athletes are not a threat,” Warren wrote in a tweet. “We need to protect trans kids - and all LGBTQ+ kids - and ensure they feel safe and welcomed at school. I urge the Arizona legislature to reject this cruel bill.” The “Save Women’s Sports Act” would assign high-school students to interscholastic and intramural leagues by their “biological sex” rather than the gender with which they identify, grouping biological females together and likewise for...

BERLIN - A German court ruled on Thursday that Tesla Inc can continue to clear forest near the capital Berlin to build its first European car and battery factory, in a defeat for local environmental activists. The court said in a statement it had rejected urgent applications to stop the land being cleared of trees from several environmental groups, adding its ruling was final. It had temporarily halted the tree felling earlier this month. The U.S. electric carmaker announced plans last November to build a Gigafactory in Gruenheide.

A federal judge issued a permanent injunction against the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector on Wednesday, telling the agency that it cannot hold migrants, including families with children, for longer than 48 hours. In his 40-page decision, U.S. District Judge David C. Bury ruled the conditions at the sector's eight stations are "presumptively punitive and violate the Constitution," and he blocked Border Patrol and parent agency U.S. Customs and Border Protection from holding people who have been processed by agents for more than 48 hours from "book-in time." "Detention may not extend into a third night under the 'no longer than...

[Catholic Caucus] Francis-approved communist parallel Chinese ‘church’ approves abortion, contraception The government-established 'church' cannot deviate from the Communist Party's position, which includes support for forced abortion. BEIJING, China, February 20, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) ― The confusion around the Vatican’s concordat with China and its state-founded version of the Catholic Church has been compounded by the failure of the so-called Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA) to transmit the Gospel of Life. According to expert Steven Mosher, the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association is in lockstep with the pro-abortion, pro-contraception Chinese Communist government when it comes to life issues.  “The CPCA cannot deviate...

Fans of the beloved old CBS show Walker, Texas Ranger will be sorely disappointed to hear it will be getting the CW treatment in its reboot. In addition to Walker getting a new female partner, media reported on Wednesday that he will have a “gay, conservative younger brother.” The new series will be titled simply Walker and star Jared Padalecki (Supernatural) who will also executive produce. The original, which starred Chuck Norris as Texas Ranger Cordell Walker and aired eight seasons from 1993-2001, was a wholesome, moral show about good vs. evil and roundhouse kicks. With the show, movie actor...

The third (yes, third) Democratic primary debate of the month will be held in Charleston, South Carolina, on Tuesday, February 25. It is co-hosted by CBS and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute, and will air from 8 pm to 10 pm ET on CBS, BET, and Twitter. The debate is the last of a deluge scheduled for February, and it’s taking place just days before the South Carolina primary...Candidates’ performances onstage could play a critical role — in New Hampshire, many voters...indicated that the debate right before the primary influenced their ultimate decisions. This debate will also be the final...

Twitter is experimenting with adding brightly colored labels directly beneath lies and misinformation posted by politicians and public figures, according to a leaked demo of new features sent to NBC News. Twitter confirmed that the leaked demo, which was accessible on a publicly available site, is one possible iteration of a new policy to target misinformation it plans to roll out March 5. In this version, disinformation or misleading information posted by public figures will be corrected directly beneath the tweet by fact-checkers and journalists who are verified on the platform, and possibly other users who will participate in a...

Sepsis, an infection that kills millions worldwide each year and is the third leading cause of death in the United States, may have finally met its match. Paul Marik, the EVMS Foundation Distinguished Professor in Internal Medicine, Professor of Internal Medicine and Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, believes he has developed a cure for the life-threatening infection. His treatment breakthrough promises to revolutionize sepsis care and produce results that are nothing short of astonishing. Vitamin C is often used intravenously as part of a treatment for cancer. Hydrocortisone is used to relieve inflammation and for a variety of...

A prominent City of Buffalo employee plead guilty to the sexual abuse of a 17-year-old boy. Antwan Diggs, 50, plead guilty Thursday to the abuse that happened at the Marriott Hotel at Canalside last August. He forced the boy to perform oral sex on him, then later blamed “demons” for his actions. Diggs was the former Community Crime Prevention Coordinator for the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency. He has since lost his job. Diggs was also a pastor at the Hananiah Lutheran Church in Buffalo. “There are human frailties in life and people make bad decisions and mistakes,” Defense Attorney Tom...

Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders lost his cool Wednesday night when former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg called him the “best known socialist” who “happens to be a millionaire with three houses.”