Free Republic

Daegu (AFP) -- South Korea confirmed 52 more cases of novel coronavirus on Friday as the number of infections linked to a religious sect in Daegu spiked, making it the worst-infected country outside China. (Please see full article, at the link)

Lori Vallow, the 47-year-old woman wanted by authorities in Idaho in connection to the September disappearance of her two children, was arrested in Hawaii on Thursday. Vallow, under investigation by the Rexburg Police Department, was arrested by the Kaua'i Police Department on a warrant issued by Madison County, Idaho. She's facing multiple charges, including two felony counts of desertion and nonsupport of dependent children, police said in a statement. Her bail has been set at $5 million. The maximum sentence on each count of desertion of a child under Idaho law is 14 years in prison, according to Madison County...

Thomas Fleming talked about his book, A Disease in the Public Mind: A New Understanding of Why We Fought the Civil War, in which he portrays the Civil War as a tragedy that American leaders foresaw and struggled to prevent. He spoke about how public opinion and propaganda helped spark the war, and the longstanding tensions between the North and South. He also discussed events that heightened fear of a slave rebellion in the southern states. The Pritzker Military Library hosted this event.

Ever since President Trump commuted the sentence of disgraced former governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich, I’ve been asking myself why he would do such a thing. I have a theory about what might have contributed to the decision, and if I’m right, Barack Obama should be concerned. When Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008, it was then-Governor Blagojevich’s responsibility to appoint someone to fill the seat. But, Blagojevich didn’t just want to give it away, he wanted something for it. “A Senate seat is a f---ing valuable thing. You don’t just give it away for nothing,” Blagojevich said at...

Another case of the coronavirus has been diagnosed in British Columbia. The provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, says a woman in her 30s has been diagnosed with COVID-19 after returning this week from Iran. The woman lives in the Fraser Health region. “Our continued view is that the risk to B.C. is low, we are acting with vigilance,” she said. Henry said staff were surprised by a new case linked to Iran, which only recently reported it had five cases of COVID-19 and two deaths. “That could be an indicator that there’s more widespread transmission. This is what we...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The largest super PAC that supports Republican Senate candidates will say in a filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) late Thursday it spent millions of dollars to boost a liberal Democratic candidate running for the right to face Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) in November. The Senate Leadership Fund, the super PAC run by close allies of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), will reveal in the FEC filings that it was behind a secretive new group created earlier this month that has spent millions on television advertising ahead of the March 3 Democratic primary, The Hill...

The 14 coronavirus-stricken Americans evacuated from a cruise ship in Japan were flown back to the US on a plane full of healthy people against advice from the CDC, a report said Thursday. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials argued the 14 infected Diamond Princess passengers shouldn’t be flown back with the about 300 virus-free people — but ultimately lost the battle to the US State Department, according to The Washington Post. “It was like the worst nightmare,” an anonymous senior U.S. official involved in the decision told the paper. “Quite frankly, the alternative could have been pulling grandma...

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — Is one suburban county going too far trying to legislate what residents can and cannot do in the privacy of their own homes? Hoping to be the most progressive county in the state, Suffolk County is proposing a law that would snuff out secondhand smoke in apartment complexes, condominiums, and multi-family dwellings, CBS2’s Jennifer McLogan reported Wednesday. Smoking is already banned in many public places, and near schools and office buildings, but there are no smoke-free laws for apartment buildings, condos, and two-family homes. “Let me be clear, any legislation that there is a vote required...

President Donald Trump is enjoying a positive approval rating for the first time since his inauguration, according to a poll released Thursday. 49% of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing, compared to 48% who disapprove of Trump’s performance, according to a Gallup poll published Thursday. The poll also found that the president is enjoying his highest approval ratings among Independents since taking office at 43%. The poll suggests that the current state of the economy could help the president’s re-election efforts this Fall, finding that 61% of Americans believe the economy is getting better compared to 33% of...

BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) — Television personality Miranda Khan — seen regularly on Boca-based Newsmax — is suing the conservative channel for back pay. She claims, in a suit just filed in Palm Beach County, that Newsmax did not appropriately compensate her for her work as a commentator and host. The suit includes this language: “While employed by Newsmax, Plaintiff customarily and regularly worked over forty (40) hours a week. Plaintiff worked particularly long hours during the 2016 presidential election period. Newsmax, however, never compensated Plaintiff for time-and-a-half her regularly (sic) rate of pay for all hours worked over forty...

Jason Villar has joined the channel as VP or research and analysis, in charge of data and ratings analysis. Villar had been VP of media and market research for conservative cable news powerhouse Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network and Fox Digital, coordinating ad sales and marketing initiatives and audience targeting. “I’ve been watching Newsmax’s tremendous growth as it gives Americans the opportunity to get accurate news,” Villar said in a statement. “I’m proud to be part of Newsmax’s continuing success story.”

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, President Donald Trump’s allies are trying to acquire the conservative-leaning privately owned One America News Network and to potentially take on Fox News Channel directly. The Journal said that investment firm Hicks Equity Partners—which is owned by the family of Thomas Hicks Jr., co-chairman of the Republican National Committee and a close friend of Donald Trump Jr. is looking to acquire the company with the help of other wealthy GOP donors for roughly $250 million from San Diego based Herring Networks. Even though Fox News dominates cable news and conservative cable...

Ukraine’s film authority has banned the distribution of several movies over national security concerns, including a Russian-Ukrainian romantic comedy featuring Ukraine’s current president, it said Tuesday. The Ukrainian state film agency said it banned a total of five movies in 2019, three of which were banned to comply with a request by Ukraine’s security service. Two of the blacklisted movies are the decade-old French fantasy “Trouble at Timpetill” and the Hollywood action film “Machete.” Ukraine’s film agency said it banned the movies because the former features French actor Gerard Depardieu and the latter features American martial artist Steven Seagal. Both...

Ukraine’s effort to quarantine more than 70 people evacuated from China over the new virus outbreak was plunged into chaos on Thursday as local residents hurled stones at buses carrying the evacuees and engaged in violent clashes with police. The vehicles were finally able to reach the designated place of quarantine after hours of clashes. The masked evacuees, exhausted by the long journey, peeked through shattered bus windows as they drove slowly under heavy police escort. Since the early morning, several hundred residents of the village of Novi Sanzhary in Ukraine’s central Poltava region had barricaded the road to a...

"So that you may approve the things that are excellent" (Phil. 1:10). In a world of mediocrity and confusion, God calls you to excellence and discernment. There's the story of a pilot who came on the loudspeaker mid flight and said, "I have some good news and bad news. The bad news is we've lost all our instrumentation and don't know where we are. The good news is we have a strong tail wind and are making great time." That's an accurate picture of how many people live: they have no direction in life but they're getting there fast! We...

True heroes.

With the potential of a contested convention on the horizon for Democrats, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Wednesday staked out a notably different position on delegates during the ninth Democratic debate. Asked if the candidate with the most pledged delegates should be the Democratic nominee — even if that candidate did not have a majority of pledged delegates — Sanders said, “the will of the people should prevail, yes. The person who has the most votes should become the nominee.” It is the opposite of what Sanders and his campaign said in 2016, even after Hillary Clinton had secured the...

A politician in Northern Ireland has pointed out that the new law legalizing same-sex “marriage” in the region will not allow civil registrars, hoteliers, florists, and wedding photographers to refuse their services for homosexual “weddings.” The Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019, the same piece of legislation that introduced new abortion laws into the region, has also legalized same-sex “marriage,” effective from January 13 of this year. Same-sex “marriage” has been legal in the rest of the U.K. since 2013, but until last month had not been imposed on Northern Ireland. On January 20 the Northern Ireland Office (NIO),...

President Trump kicked off a Thursday night rally by mocking Mike Bloomberg — who he called “Mini Mike” — and Sen. Amy Klobuchar for their performances at the Democratic debate on Wednesday, saying both the candidates “choked” on the stage in Las Vegas. “I don’t know if anyone watched last night’s debates,” Trump told the crowd in Colorado Springs. “It got very big ratings — and you know mini Mike Bloomberg didn’t do well last night.” Trump claimed he was going to send Bloomberg a note, “saying it’s not easy what I do.” “Mike didn’t do well, he went way...

The Justice Department unleashed a legal assault on sanctuary jurisdictions across the country this week, filing a new round of civil lawsuits asking judges to overturn the policies, and warning state and city officials they could soon face their own criminal charges for harboring illegal immigrants. Lawsuits were filed against California, New Jersey and King County, in Washington, each of which has adopted novel ways of interfering with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s ability to arrest, detain and deport illegal immigrants. Attorney General William P. Barr also said his department is taking a look at state and local prosecutors who...