Free Republic

**SNIP** It’s a dilemma more American retirees can relate to: While most borrowers are 18 to 39 years old, people over 60 are the fastest-growing segment of the population with student loan debt, according to a report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In all, more than 2.8 million Americans over 60 are contending with student debt, a number that has quadrupled from 700,000 in 2005, according to the bureau. The cost is swelling, too: Between 2012 and 2017, for those age 60 and older, the average amount of student loan debt almost doubled, ballooning to $23,500 from $12,100. The...

Whom better to have as president during the coronavirus epidemic but a renowned germaphobe, the “build-the-wall” guy who refuses to kowtow to China? It’s a unique set of characteristics showing that President Trump understood early the need for decisive measures such as travel restrictions on China, which he imposed in January. Yet for that sensible decision — in defiance of the World Health Organization — he was criticized by Democrats such as Joe Biden as xenophobic, and by China as racist. “This is no time for Donald Trump’s record of hysteria and xenophobia — hysterical xenophobia — and fearmongering,” said...

Even the Big Apple’s most beloved Chinese restaurants are in critical condition as the coronavirus keeps customers at bay. Restaurant owners, the people who work for them and city lawmakers say business at Chinese-owned establishments has plummeted by as much as 60 percent as the global pandemic spreads. Some restaurants in Queens have closed, possibly for good, sources said. “It’s been terrible for business,” said Thomas Lo, a co-owner of Spy C Cuisine of Forest Hills, Queens, which opened in 2018 and garnered a coveted spot in this year’s Michelin Guide. “We’ve had a steady increase in business since we...

As an outbreak of a new coronavirus causes some U.S. customers to fill up shopping carts and thin out store shelves, industry groups and experts say grocers can tamp down on “panic buying” by planning ahead and trying to stay stocked. Grocery stores, including Costco stores, have seen a spike in sales of household items like hand sanitizer, face masks and cases of bottled water in recent weeks. Sales of shelf-stable grocery items, including fruit snacks, dried beans and pretzels, are on the rise, too, according to late-February data from Nielsen. At U.S. stores, sales of fruit snacks were up...

This Sunset Park family is growing by leaps and bounds! Lindsay and Dane Demchak were all set to throw a birthday party Saturday for their son Omri, who was born Feb. 29, 2016, the last Leap Year. But that soiree was put on hold when the 31-year-old stay-at-home mom unexpectedly gave birth Saturday morning, four days early, to a 7-pound, 2-ounce baby girl at Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn. “We’re the double Leap Year family!” a beaming Lindsay Demchak boasted from her hospital bed as she cradled a swaddled Scout on her right arm. “We don’t believe in superstition. We...

Classic film fans will have something unique to celebrate this March, which will see the return of the original King Kong to theaters for a nationwide, one-day engagement for the first time since 1956. The 1933 film will screen at more than 600 theaters nationwide on Sunday, March 15 via Fathom Events, with tickets available now, as part of Turner Classic Movies’ Big Screen Classics series. The press release for the screening points out that the last time King Kong was re-released, back in 1956, “Dwight D. Eisenhower was President, the average movie ticket cost 59 cents, and not a...

Four teenagers were injured when an 18-year-old driver intentionally ran them over as they were walking on the sidewalk in Burlingame, California. Two of the victims suffered serious injuries and were taken to Stanford Hospital, while the other two teens were taken to a different hospital with less severe injuries.

Four years ago, candidate Donald Trump’s pitch to African Americans heading to voting booths was simple: “What do you have to lose?” While he captured just 8 percent of the black vote in 2016, recent polls suggest things could be different this time around. In November, an Emerson poll reported a 34.5 percent approval rating among black voters, and a January Gallup poll reported a 14 percent increase in satisfaction over race relations among Americans. “We’ve had this wild surge of new testimonials coming in the past few weeks, largely in the black community,” said Brandon Straka, founder of #WalkAway,...

Good luck deposing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She’s as slippery as an eel and twice as devious. She’ll figure out a way to circumvent the truth. It’s her greatest skill set. Clinton and her lawyers have spent months inventing one excuse after another for why she shouldn’t have to answer questions in a deposition about her unauthorized and unsecured computer system. She used a clandestine server to handle all of her electronic communications as secretary of state, including the transfer and dissemination of thousands of classified and top-secret documents.There is no doubt that Clinton’s unprotected email apparatus jeopardized...

Before Shanee Markovitz and Tani Kay get married this May, the couple gathered their close friends together recently to celebrate … their prenup. “I want my friends to see this as a huge part of our wedding. It’s as important as every other piece, if not more,” says Markovitz, 20. “We’re going to announce it at our wedding and put it in our programs, too.” While many prenuptial agreements are kept hush-hush and often seen as unromantic, for this couple — who have been together since they were high-school sophomores — it’s a sign of liberation. And not everyone is...

WASHINGTON — As Democrats begin to coalesce around Joe Biden as the moderate alternative to Bernie Sanders, there appears to be a quiet hand behind the rapid movement: former President Barack Obama. Obama spoke with his former vice president after he handily won the South Carolina primary on Saturday, and with Pete Buttigieg on Sunday when he dropped out of the Democratic race, according to people familiar with the calls. Buttigieg will travel from South Bend, Indiana to Dallas Monday and endorse Biden, multiple people familiar with the plan tell NBC News People close to Obama said the former president...

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Travis Air Force Base, CaliforniaTravis Air Force Base is a United States Air Force air base under the operational control of the Air Mobility Command (AMC), located three miles east of the central business district of Fairfield, in Solano County, California, United States. Situated at the southwestern edge of the Sacramento Valley and known as the "Gateway to the Pacific," Travis Air Force Base handles more cargo and passenger traffic through its airport than any other military air terminal in the United States. The base has a long and proud history...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu succeeded in winning 60 seats for his bloc of right-wing and religious parties in Monday’s election, one less than he needed for a majority in the Knesset, according to exit polls on the three television networks. The first polls indicated that Netanyahu’s Likud won 36-37 seats. Its allies in Shas, UTJ and Yamina won 9, 7-8 and 6-7 respectively. The polls showed Blue and White with 33 seats, its ally Labor-Gesher-Meretz 6-7, the Joint List 14-15 and Yisrael Beytenu 6-8. When Channel 13 updated its numbers at around 1 a.m. Israel time, Gantz gained one seat...

...Why should private donors stop giving to higher education? University benefactors should be made more aware of the one-sided ideological profile of faculty and administrators and the relentless growth of the university bureaucracy and infrastructure that is driving up costs. They need to realize that the present volume of private money helps make universities impervious to pressure to reform some of their troubling practices, including their political tilt, their intolerance of dissent, and their burgeoning administrative apparatus. Yet even for alumni and donors who are untroubled by these trends, there are still compelling reasons to redirect their generosity. What should...

Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas), who dropped out of the presidential race in November, plans to endorse former Vice President Joe Biden's 2020 bid on Monday, The New York Times reported, citing two Democratic officials familiar with his plans. The move comes as a host of Democrats work to position Biden as the moderate alternative to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the self-identified democratic socialist who has emerged as the front-runner to win the Democratic nomination. Following Biden's decisive victory in South Carolina over the weekend, both former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) bowed out...

Fox News Channel announced Friday that it will host a town hall with former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, marking his first appearance on the network as a presidential candidate. "Special Report" anchor Bret Baier and "The Story" anchor Martha MacCallum will co-moderate the town hall on Monday, March 2 in Manassas, Va., from 6:30-7:30PM/ET.

President Donald Trump nominated the first African American Air Force chief of staff, the highest ranking uniformed position. Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. is a veteran combat pilot and longtime officer currently the head of U.S. Pacific Air Forces. Defense Secretary Mark Esper announced his nomination on Monday, according to the Wall Street Journal. Brown is an F-16 pilot who has served in Asia and the Middle East and has been an Air Force officer since 1984. He has flown nearly 3,000 hours, including combat missions, the Wall Street Journal reports. Prior to leading the Pacific Air Forces, he was...

The ex-director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday that the deadly coronavirus may be “impossible” to contain — and that kids may be secret carriers of the disease. “We think it will be very difficult if not impossible to contain it … but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try,” Dr. Tom Frieden told reporters. Frieden, who ran the agency under President Obama and was the New York City health commissioner under Mayor Mike Bloomberg, said the spread of the virus to more than 89,000 people across the world has been an “unprecedented situation.” “Never before...

North Korea has ordered major provincial organizations, military-run factories and other facilities to prepare a months’ worth of food, signalling that the state is unable to provide rations anymore, Daily NK has learned. “The order was handed down by provincial party committees to local people’s committees, Ministry of State Security offices, police stations, military-run factories run by the Second Economic Committee [of the Workers’ Party of Korea], and even orphanages,” a North Hamgyong Province-based source told Daily NK on Feb. 26.

When California lawyers Matthew Smith and Katherine Codekas checked into a hotel in Tokyo last weekend, they decided not to hide where they had been. The couple, along with about 900 other passengers, were released from Feb 19 to 21 after a two-week quarantine on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, where a coronavirus outbreak has left more than 700 people infected and killed four Japanese nationals. Foreign governments evacuated hundreds of their citizens, including about 300 United States nationals, and imposed 14 more days quarantine. But Smith and his wife were not among them. Smith led a mutiny of about...