Free Republic

The deep East Bay locale, 30 miles from the city, has a different air. It's far removed from the bustling vainglory of San Francisco, the excessive hipness of Oakland and the poshness of the North Bay. Concord is just Concord, your friendly neighborhood suburb, simple but replete with land and history and families. It’s one of the most populous cities in the Bay Area, credited with gifting the world Tom Hanks, Dave Brubeck, at least two of the Workaholics, Waterworld (or whatever it's called now) and the area’s great culinary contribution, the cheese zombie. I recall zombies clearly from my...

CHICAGO — With all the fear and panic over COVID 19, some basic questions remain: how likely are you to get sick, should you be worried and how can you protect yourself? Currently, there is no treatment for COVID 19 and there is no vaccine. But how does it compare to a major health problem we’re all familiar with, like the flu? “People should not worry any more about this than the flu,” said Dr. Ernest Wang, Chief of Emergency Medicine at NorthShore University HealthSystem. There’s a vaccine to fight the flu, but many Americans choose not to get it....

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy ousted Oleksiy Honcharuk as prime minister after just six months in a reshuffle on Wednesday, saying that “new brains and new hearts” were required to revive the economy and tackle corruption. At a special parliament session, lawmakers voted to accept the resignation of Honcharuk, 35, who left as Ukraine’s youngest and most short-lived prime minister since independence in 1991. He was replaced by Denys Shymgal, who said his immediate challenge was to stave off an economic and budget crisis. He wanted to revise the 2020 budget, cut the salaries of ministers and some officials, and also...

"What a Fool Believes" is a song written by Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins. The best-known version was recorded by The Doobie Brothers (with McDonald singing lead vocals) for their 1978 album Minute by Minute. Debuting at number 73 on January 20, 1979, the single reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on April 14, 1979 for one week. The song received Grammy Awards in 1980 for both Song of the Year and Record of the Year. The song was one of the few non-disco No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 during the first eight months...

People in Ontario living with HIV had a 34 per cent higher incidence rate of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and were diagnosed with the disease about 12 years younger than HIV-negative individuals, according to a study led by researchers at St. Michael's Hospital of Unity Health Toronto and ICES. Researchers analyzed incidences of COPD among adults 35 years and older who were living with and without HIV between 1996 and 2015 in Ontario - where over 40 per cent of Canadians living with HIV reside. People with HIV were diagnosed with COPD at a mean age of 50 years...

Placer County Public Health is reporting that a resident has died of COVID-19. The person, an elderly adult with underlying health conditions, is now the first to die from the illness in California.

Former Vice President Joe Biden sniffed a baby’s hair during a campaign stop in Oakland, California, as voters across the country voted in the Super Tuesday primaries. The video, filmed and shared to Twitter by New York Times reporter Katie Glueck, shows the baby turning away as Biden takes a whiff. Biden found himself at the center of controversy regarding unwanted touching from several women at the launch of his White House campaign last year. Lucy Flores, an unsuccessful Nevada Democrat candidate for lieutenant governor, alleged the former vice president sniffed her hair and kissed the back of her head...

Italy has confirmed that it will shut all schools from Thursday for 10 days as it battles to contain the coronavirus outbreak. All schools and universities are to close until 15 March, officials said. A total of 107 people have now been killed by the coronavirus in Italy, which has the most serious outbreak in Europe. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said the country's health service risked being overwhelmed. Most of the more than 3,000 cases are in the north but others have been confirmed in 19 of Italy's 20 regions.

Nine of the seats are poised to be flipped from blue to red while the one red district at risk looks like it may stay red in November. ==================================================================== Beneath the cover of a contentious presidential primary race that gave Establishment Democrats hope, the arguably biggest takeaway of the night is going to be buried. But Democrats took note and the implications are terrifying for them. While Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden did battle on the national stage from coast to coast, several states were also holding primary elections for lower offices. There were some good storylines in high-profile Senate...

A far-right lawmaker in Poland said that natural selection in pogroms have made Jews powerful, and that “there are theories” that rabbis provoked violence to achieve this. Janusz Korwin-Mikke made the comment in an interview for the Polsat channel last week about the coronavirus, the Do Rzeczy newspaper reported Wednesday. “Jews are now powerful because they had pogroms,” he said. “As a result of pogroms, the strongest and the most gifted survived. This is a warning to anti-Semites: That is why Jews are powerful, because they had pogroms. There are even theories that rabbis deliberately provoke pogroms precisely so that...

Vice President Pence is bringing the CEOs of major airlines to the White House on Wednesday to press for what he described as "greater cooperation" on data that public health officials use to track down passengers when someone on a flight is later found to have coronavirus. "We'll be meeting with the CEOs of all the major airline carriers here," Pence told reporters. "The topic will be contact tracing data and how we can have a stronger relationship in the 11 airports that have been assisting us with screening personnel coming back into the country." Pence said he also plans...

American shoppers flock to branches of the major department store Costco across the country in order stock up on supplies in fear of a coronavirus outbreak, CNBC reported. The various necessities being sought include hand sanitizer, paper towels, trail mix, water and surgical masks, all of which are being bought in bulk. Citing Nielsen, CNBC reported that hand sanitizer sales are up 73% since February 22, while surgical masks sales are up 319%. However, Nielsen added that it does not expect hand sanitizer sales to peak any time soon. The sudden surge of panic-induced shoppers is predicted by some to...

At our primary voting location they formed separate lines for Republican primary voters and Democrat primary voters with separate voting booths for each side.

Early-onset dementia and Alzheimer’s disease jumped 200% among commercially insured Americans between the ages of 30 and 64 over a recent five-year period, a new analysis of Blue Cross and Blue Shield health insurer claims shows. The report, the latest from the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, shows 131,000 people between the ages of “30 and 64 were diagnosed with either form of dementia” in 2017. The average age of someone “with either condition is 49 and women are disproportionately impacted than men,” the report, which is the latest in the trade group’s “The Health of America” series, shows. In...

On Tuesday, March 3, 2020, the President signed into law: H.J.Res. 80, which authorizes VA to refer certain veterans for dental care in the community; S. 394, the “Presidential Transition Enhancement Act of 2019,” which provides for changes to how the General Services Administration provides services and facilities to Presidents-elect and Vice Presidents-elect and makes other changes to the Presidential transition process; and S. 2107, the “Protecting America’s Food and Agriculture Act of 2019,” which authorizes the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Customs and Border Protection to hire additional agricultural specialists, agricultural technicians, and canine inspection teams to improve the...

"The View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg didn't realize on Wednesday that the "Dr." in Dr. Jill Biden's title didn't represent a medical degree. After former Vice President Joe Biden's wins on Super Tuesday, Goldberg floated the candidate's wife for surgeon general. "I'm hoping Dr. Jill becomes the surgeon general ... she's a hell of a doctor. She's an amazing doctor," Goldberg said, as if she knew of the former second lady's medical expertise.

Francis’ closest collaborators prove how Pope has reinvented priesthood in Amazon exhortation They demonstrate how the Pope's new document is about more than a simple yes or no to married priests and female deacons. March 3, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – In the recent days, several key people who are either closely working with Pope Francis or who are otherwise closely linked to his reform agenda – Cardinal Michael Czerny, Archbishop Víctor Fernández, Austen Ivereigh, and Father Antônio Almeida – have now come out insisting that Pope Francis did not close the door to married priests in the Amazon in his...

Home-made videos featuring a catchy Vietnamese song and an accompanying dance about the necessity of hand-washing during the coronavirus crisis have racked up more than 2 million views on video app TikTok. Cribbing the tune from pop song "Jealous" - or "Ghen" in Vietnamese - by singers Erik and Min, the Ministry of Health released an animated video with lyrics telling its citizens to "push back the virus Corona, Corona". The unlikely earworm by a usually staid Communist government drew hundreds of thousands of views on Youtube, and was also featured on HBO's comedic news show Last Week Tonight, with...

BREAKING: U.S. CDC investigating "small cluster" of coronavirus cases linked to previous journey of the Grand Princess cruise ship, company says Current passengers of the Grand Princess cruise ship who were also on board during the previous journey are required to stay in their stateroom until they are cleared by medical staff, company says Princess says the Grand Princess cruise ship has canceled its call at Ensenada, Mexico, and will sail directly to San Francisco. The ship will arrive on Thursday afternoon.

Crane operator Jason Nash filmed the terrifying moment he got stuck 375ft in the air in his crane cable car as a twister ripped through Nashville, TennesseeNash panics as he films the tornado and flashing lights in the distance 'If something happens make sure everybody knows I love them, Carla,' he says At least two twisters whipped through four counties after midnight on Tuesday24 people were killed and at least 22 people are missing following the twisters88 people were injured and than 140 buildings destroyed in the natural disaster  Terrifying video footage shows the moment a tower crane operator helplessly watches a Tennessee...