Free Republic

The Wall That Heals, a three-quarter scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial along with a mobile Education Center, is coming to Garland Thursday, Feb. 27, through Sunday, March 1. The exhibit will be on display at Audubon Park, 342 W. Oates Road, and will be open 24 hours a day and free to the public. The City of Garland is leading the effort that will bring the exhibit to the metroplex. The Wall That Heals honors the more than three million Americans who served in the U.S. Armed forces in the Vietnam War and it bears the names of...

WILMINGTON, Del.—The purchase of an abandoned 10,000 square-foot DuPont mansion in an affluent Wilmington suburb may have been a stretch for a 32-year-old widower and father of two commuting daily to Washington for his job as a U.S. senator. Then again, Joe Biden readily acknowledges that his passion for real estate occasionally overtook his common sense.The son of a car salesman who was under frequent financial duress, Mr. Biden has seen up close what it looks like to scrape by. He also knows what it feels like to be worried about his mortgage payments. As Mr. Biden faces a make-or-break...

At the Place de la Bourse/Beursplein in central Brussels, tourists and commuters pick their way around coils of plastic tubing, bright green construction barriers and piles of paving stones that have been ripped up in the name of urban improvement. A few blocks north, the transformation is complete. What was once a busy boulevard clogged with traffic is now a car-free zone given over to pedestrians, bicycles, scooters and cafes taking advantage of the expanded sidewalk to offer alfresco dining. The area’s redevelopment began in 2017, and, weather permitting, will be finished by the end of 2020. But that’s just...

When Juliana Garcia crossed the U.S.-Mexico border with her 8-year-old daughter, Glendy, in December, she hoped to find safety and build a new life with her father living in Tennessee. But Ms. Garcia and her daughter remained in the U.S. just 25 days before being returned to Guatemala. Based on where they crossed the border, near El Paso, Texas, the two were placed in an experimental Trump administration program designed to give asylum seekers brief and rapid access to the U.S. legal system—and deport them quickly if the government finds they don’t qualify for protection. A review of the Garcias’...

What a difference a day makes! Yesterday, the Morning Joe crew was insisting that Mike Bloomberg immediately "get out" of the race to clear the field for Biden and prevent a Sanders nomination. Today, after airing Bloomberg's wide-ranging interview with Kasie Hunt, Morning Joe was overflowing with praise for him! "Great interview! Hasn't lost a step! Better prepared to run country than other candidates!" Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

A Darien woman has been named by President Donald Trump to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Jennifer H. Rearden, a partner in the litigation and crisis management practice groups at New York City-based firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, lives in Darien according to her Facebook page.... In 2008, she donated $2,000 to Barack Obama’s campaign, and Rearden has contributed repeatedly to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, as well as Gillibrand’s Off the Sidelines PAC which works to get more women elected to office. Rearden has donated to several Democratic campaigns, according to Federal Elections Commission...

<p>The coronavirus could be up to 1,000 times more infectious than SARS because it plagues the body in the same way as HIV and Ebola, scientists warn.</p> <p>Experts initially presumed the spread of COVID-19 would follow the same trajectory as the SARS outbreak in 2002/3, because the viruses are almost identical genetically.</p>

It’s no secret that Democratic primary voters prize fall “electability.” But for all the clamor about progressive versus moderate choices, the obstacles to pulling voters toward Democrats -- particularly in the battleground states -- could prove more cultural than ideological. Last summer, Senator Elizabeth Warren electrified huge crowds at rallies in Seattle, Austin and New York. The events had one thing in common besides her populist pitch for “big structural change.” At each stop, her trademark selfie lines were less than a mile from a Whole Foods Market, a Lululemon Athletica and an Urban Outfitters. These high-end retailers and brands,...

Rep. Elaine Luria is the kind of up-and-comer the Democratic Party would like to keep in Congress. But the former Navy commander with a moderate bearing, who flipped a coastal Virginia House seat in 2018, said she's afraid that will be far more difficult if her party nominates Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders for president. “When I talk to people across our district, they are very pragmatic, middle of the road,” said Luria, who has endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden. “They don’t want free everything for everyone, or policy positions that are unrealistic.”

There are certain issues that you’d expect to be top-of-mind for older Americans, whether it be Social Security, Medicare, or scams that target seniors. But as I traveled through my district this year and held workshops for seniors across Maryland, there was one topic that I was surprised came up again and again: loneliness. The crisis of social isolation and loneliness currently affects almost half of our population, and seniors are front and center. In 2018, a national poll revealed that nearly half of all Americans suffer from social isolation and chronic loneliness. That’s almost 164 million people – across...

In 1981, Philadelphia Police Officer Danny Faulkner was murdered by Mumia Abu-Jamal.[1] A racially diverse jury convicted Jamal of first-degree murder and sentenced him to death. Since then, he has pursued endless appeals in state and federal courts. Although his death sentence was overturned on a technicality, his conviction has been repeatedly affirmed. Throughout this lengthy process, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was zealously represented by three previous district attorneys. But now the defense of Abu-Jamal’s conviction is in the hands of District Attorney Larry Krasner, the self-styled “public defender with power,” who during his short time in office has established...

Republicans gathered at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday to cheer on their conservative heroes. But they also had an opportunity to shame GOP politicians they deemed not pro-Trump enough, casting ballots for the “phoniest ‘conservative’ lawmaker.” Next to a stuffed donkey with a fake elephant’s snout, attendees voted for the likes of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who led the ballot count as of Thursday afternoon. One prominent GOP Trump critic wasn’t an option, though—because everybody already knew he’d win in a landslide.

Trump to do Fox News town hall in Pennsylvania next week © Getty Images President Trump will field questions from voters at a Fox News town hall event in Scranton, Pa., next week, the network announced Friday. The Thursday event will be moderated by anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum. It will mark a rare foray into such a setting for Trump — his first time holding a town hall with voters since his 2016 campaign. The appearance at the Scranton Cultural Center will also mark the first time Trump will take questions from Baier and MacCallum since interviews with...

Country music legend Garth Brooks posted a picture of himself in a "Sanders" jersey after his packed show Saturday night in Detroit, which created a bit of misguided outrage and confusion online. Brooks wore the No. 20 jersey of former Detroit Lions running back Barry Sanders – a football legend in the city and NFL Hall of Famer – which caused some of his Instagram followers to mistakenly attack him for being a Bernie Sanders supporter.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is trailing Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in her home state of Massachusetts, according to a new poll of likely Democratic presidential primary voters in the Bay State. 25 percent of respondents said they supported the Vermont senator, while 17 percent said they supported Warren, according to the WBUR poll. Former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg came in third place with 14 percent support, while former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg garnered 13 percent. Nine percent of respondents said they supported former Vice President Joe Biden. The most recent RealClearPolitics polling average shows Sanders leading...

Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Thomas Paine. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle. Thomas Paine is one of America's Founding Fathers and preeminent political writer whose writings inspired tenets of the U.S. Constitution, as well as the narrow and fundamental pathway for proper governance. All hints, along with the answer, are provided in the first reply comment below, using filtered font to prevent accidental spoilers. Please refrain from disclosing the full answer in comments to prevent spoilers.To solve the puzzle: Enter the letters in the top half (letter...

President Trump is threatening to blow up an extension of expiring intelligence programs as he backchannels with a cadre of top allies who want to use the bill to reform a shadowy surveillance court. Congress has approximately 10 working days to reauthorize three expiring provisions of the USA Freedom Act, a 2015 bill that overhauled the country’s surveillance laws, with Attorney General William Barr and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) backing a “clean” extension. But Trump threw a grenade into those already fragile plans Thursday, when Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told reporters that the president supports his effort to...

Police announced Thursday that they've arrested a suspect in connection with the robbery of a 68-year-old man's recyclables in the city's Bayview neighborhood.

On Thursday, Iran’s Ministry of Health announced that thus far, 26 people infected with the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, have died and that there were an additional 245 confirmed cases. The latest victim of the disease is Masoumeh Ebtekar, Iran’s Vice President for Women and Family Affairs. In 1979, she was the spokeswoman for radical Islamic fundamentalists who invaded the American embassy in Tehran and took 52 American diplomats and citizens hostage for 444 days. On Tuesday, Iran’s Deputy Health Minister was quarantined due to infection. Several other Iranian parliamentarians have become infected as well. Globally, the coronavirus has...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it has been alerted to the first manufacturing shortage of an unnamed drug due to the deadly novel coronavirus outbreak that began in China and has now reached the U.S.. FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn said the agency has been "closely monitoring" the medical product supply chain "with the expectation" that the outbreak of the novel coronavirus would "likely" have an impact. "A manufacturer has alerted us to a shortage of a human drug that was recently added to the drug shortages list," Hahn said in a statement Thursday night. "The manufacturer just notified...