Free Republic

The Trump administration has rolled back a Food And Drug Administration rule instituted by President Barack Obama that has stalled coronavirus testing at the state level. The rule in question previously required state-run laboratories to only run medical tests pre-approved by the F.D.A.

Starbucks announced Wednesday that it will impose a temporary moratorium on the use of reusable personal mugs in its stores amid fears over the coronavirus outbreak. The change is part of “a series of precautionary steps in response to this emerging public health impact,” Rossann Williams, executive vice president and president, U.S. company-operated business and Canada, said in an open letter Wednesday. "Our focus remains on two key priorities: Caring for the health and well-being of our partners and customers and playing a constructive role in supporting local health officials and government leaders as they work to contain the virus,"...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrat Steve Bullock, the Montana governor who has insisted he won’t run for the Senate, is poised to do just that, according to two people familiar with his plans. Bullock has long been a Democratic favorite and has been heavily wooed to take on Republican Sen. Steve Daines. Democrats are straining to win back the Senate and they see a Bullock matchup with Daines as key to that strategy. Daines is increasingly allied with President Donald Trump and got a shoutout from the president Wednesday. Bullock, who made an unsuccessful run in the crowded Democratic presidential primary,...

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump on Thursday said he would withhold money from so-called sanctuary jurisdictions after a U.S. court ruled that his administration could block federal law enforcement funds to states and cities that do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan granted the move on Feb. 26, but three other federal appeals courts have agreed to uphold an injunction against the withholding of such funds, setting up a possible appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. “As per recent Federal Court ruling, the Federal Government will be withholding funds from Sanctuary...

Earlier this week, the Washington Post reported that the coronavirus may have spread undetected for weeks in Washington State, where the first two virus-related deaths in the U.S. occurred. According to the Post, genetic-sequencing studies of samples from two Seattle-area patients—one from a person who had traveled to China in mid-January, the other from a high school student in the same county, with no known exposure to the virus—suggested a close relationship between the infections. These data led investigators to hypothesize that the coronavirus had been circulating in the state for six weeks. In King County, a long-term care facility...

Hundreds of years before Christopher Columbus and his three ships arrived in the New World, a Native American civilization conquered neighboring tribes and expanded its political and cultural influence across what is now the central and southern United States.Historians believe its great metropolis and ceremonial complex at Cahokia in present-day Illinois was, in the 12th century, comparable in size to contemporaneous London. The Mississippians, as they are called, were not the only indigenous American people to conquer others’ land — the Aztecs, Incans, Mayans, and Mohawks did much the same, all before Europeans arrived.Washington Post-contributing David Moscrop, however, thinks...

President Trump on Thursday said his administration will begin withholding funding from self-described sanctuary cities after a federal court ruled last week that it could do so. "As per recent Federal Court ruling, the Federal Government will be withholding funds from Sanctuary Cities," Trump tweeted. "They should change their status and go non-Sanctuary. Do not protect criminals!" The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled on Feb. 26 that the Department of Justice (DOJ) could withhold funding from cities and states that refuse to cooperate with the Trump administration's crackdown on undocumented immigrants. The three-judge panel found Congress had...

True to form, President Donald Trump signaled confidence in his remarks addressing the threat of the coronavirus. He was correct when he mentioned that the average American is not at risk of imminent harm from the virus. And he correctly pointed out that far more people die annually from the common flu than have been killed thus far by the coronavirus. In urging calm, Trump also signaled that he views the virus as a potential catalyst for a strategic restructuring of America's trade relationship with China, and returning manufacturing jobs to the U.S. It has been a foregone conclusion among...

On March 8, 1971, a group of eight Vietnam War protestors broke into a Federal Bureau of Investigation field office in Media, Pennsylvania and stole hundreds of government documents. The burglars were never caught but several are now stepping forward and claiming responsibility for the break in. The stolen memos, reports and internal correspondence they found provided the first tangible evidence that J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI was systematically targeting and harassing hundreds of American citizens ---SNIP--- In response to the exposure of COINTELPRO and other revelations, the Senate formed the so-called Church Committee, and Congress later issued reforms to limit...

DETROIT – Former United Auto Workers President Gary Jones was charged with embezzlement and defrauding the U.S. government as part of a multiyear corruption probe into one of America’s most prominent unions, according to the documents unsealed Thursday. The documents suggests more charges of union officials could follow as federal prosecutors identified four other unnamed co-conspirators in the scheme that allegedly included embezzling more than $1 million of union funds. Jones resigned from leading the union effective Nov. 20 — the same day the UAW International Executive Board started the process under the union’s constitution to remove him from office....

Beloved "Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek shared an emotional health update Wednesday, just one year after he began treatment for pancreatic cancer. Trebek released a video on Twitter to celebrate the news he received from his oncologist."Hi everyone. If you've got a minute I'd like to bring you up to date on my health situation. The one-year survival rate for stage 4 pancreatic cancer patients is 18 percent. I'm very happy to report I have just reached that marker," Trebek told his supporters while on the set of the "Jeopardy!" studio.The game show host who has been with "Jeopardy!" for 35...

When Pete Buttigieg dropped out the Democratic primary on Sunday, he didn't immediately make any endorsement.While being interviewed on KHOU 11 News in Houston, Texas, on Monday, Biden revealed he'd discussed giving Buttigieg a position in his administration. "I did speak to Pete Buttigieg a couple of days ago to encouraged him to stay engaged because he has enormous talent and I indicated to him that if I became the nominee I'd be coming to ask him to be a part of an administration to be engaged in moving things forward," Biden said. Just finished 1 on 1 interview...

Eleven days and an eternity in political time ago, I offered some advice for Democrats seeking to stop Bernie Sanders, drawn from the failed experience of #NeverTrump. Losing candidates need to drop out, I suggested, unconventional alliances need to be considered and hanging around hoping for a brokered convention is a fool’s game if you’re ceding a plurality of delegates to the insurgent candidate you want to stop. The tone of my column, like the evidence of the polls, suggested that the stop-Sanders effort would meet the same fate as the stop-Trump movement and that the Vermont socialist would complete...

Now that the primary circus has left town you’d think that the candidates would be done with California, wouldn’t you? For the most part, they are, but Joe Biden was out in Los Angeles yesterday on some very important business. Hollywood’s glitterati were eager to open up their wallets and shower money on the new frontrunner and Uncle Joe couldn’t disappoint them. Former Paramount Pictures honcho Sherry Lansing had arranged a fundraiser for Joe at her mansion prior to Tuesday’s voting, but she’d been having trouble filling the seats. But once the polls had closed and Biden had been...

A simple “I regret my poor decision to threaten two Supreme Court justices” would have worked fine here, but eh. NEW stmt from Schumer spox: “For Justice Roberts to follow the right wing’s deliberate misinterpretation of what Sen Schumer said, while remaining silent when Pres Trump attacked Justices Sotomayor & Ginsberg last week, shows Justice Roberts does not just call balls and strikes.” pic.twitter.com/9908ZAeNkz— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) March 4, 2020 Let’s go in order. Schumer’s comments earlier weren’t a reference to “the political price Senate Republicans will pay” for confirming Gorsuch and Kavanaugh. It’s insulting to our collective...

Federal prosecutors have charged former United Auto Workers President Gary Jones with conspiracy to embezzle union funds, making him the highest-ranking ex-union official to be ensnared in the Justice Department’s yearslong corruption probe. Mr. Jones, who led the UAW through contract negotiations late last year with the Detroit car makers and a 40-day strike at General Motors Co., is alleged to have been a part of a group of senior UAW leaders who embezzled more than $1 million to pay for private villas, liquor, golf and other luxuries, according to charging documents filed with a Michigan federal court and made...

Although it was black voters in South Carolina who probably saved Biden’s bacon by giving him a much-needed bounce, it might be black voters who give Trump help in retaining the White House. In 2016, Trump was able to win the White House with only 8% of the black vote. Although that meant 92% of blacks who voted went for Hillary, the problem was with the number of blacks who stayed home: Of the black voters who turned out for Obama in 2012, 7% stayed home for Hillary in 2016. If Democrats are to have a prayer of retaking the White...

In his recent book, “Immigration Reform,” Mr. Kamasaki, who has worked for migrant rights for nearly 40 years, advises other progressives to moderate their tone — to seek bipartisan compromise, avoid assuming all opponents are racist, and question whether “unfettered immigration is necessarily in their community’s interest.”

If there’s a silver lining to the novel coronavirus, it’s that our dependence on China for medication and medical devices has been brought to the fore (at least to those paying attention). Our dependence on China for these vital supplies is insane for all the obvious reasons, none-the-least of which is how quickly we could be brought to our knees. We must act now to break this dependence and start manufacturing medication here at home. India, which manufactures most of the world’s generic drugs, is already taking steps to reduce their reliance on ingredients from China (here). This point...

Allies of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are in unity talks as they seek to rally around one agenda following poor Super Tuesday performances, it has been reported. Two sources familiar with the discussions also told the Post that Warren allies and members of the Joe Biden camp had talked about an endorsement from the Massachusetts senator, should she decide to exit the primary race.