Free Republic

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Kentucky has confirmed its first case of the novel coronavirus, and Gov. Andy Beshear Friday afternoon declared a state of emergency. The patient is at UK Chander Hospital in Lexington and is being treated in isolation. The governor said he was not ready to release information about the person’s travel, but Kentucky Public Health Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack said experts will begin "contact tracing" to determine with whom the infected person was in contact and where they traveled. Ten people in Kentucky have been tested for the virus and the results were negative for nine of...

SEATTLE -- Three more people have died from the COVID-19 outbreak in the Puget Sound area, local officials said, as the number of confirmed cases swelled to 79, including confirmed cases now in Grant County and Jefferson County. The three new deaths were patients being treated at EvergreenHealth Hospital, where now 12 of the deaths have occurred, hospital officials said. One earlier reported death occurred in a patient never hospitalized and the other was a death at Harborview last week that was later found to have been likely caused by COVID-19. The coronavirus crisis in Washington state has prompted a...

Political activism in journalism is nothing new. But it is rarely so evident. “Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dominates in abortion case,” reads the headline to a news report this week by CNN Supreme Court reporter Ariane de Vogue. If it were just the headline, the unusually excited tone could be forgiven. But there is so, so much more. “If there is any question whether 86-year-old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who has spent her life steeped in issues concerning women's rights, is slowing down after four bouts of cancer, it was not evident Wednesday morning in Washington,” reads the report's opening...

President Trump visited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters Friday and expressed confidence in the public health response to the new coronavirus while airing a disagreement he has with the vice president on whether to bring the Grand Princess cruise ship passengers onshore in California. "I have great experts, including the vice president ... they would like to have the people come off," Trump said in arguing he'd prefer to have the passengers stay idling off the coast of California. "I would rather have the people stay. But I'd go with them. I told them to make...

March 6, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Successful pro-life women are speaking out after actress Busy Phillips cited her professional success as an illustration of why pregnant teenagers should be able to abort their preborn babies. Phillips was among the left-wing figures speaking at Wednesday’s pro-abortion rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court, which is currently reviewing an Louisiana law requiring that abortion centers make arrangements for admitting women to nearby hospitals in cases of life-threatening complications. Both sides are watching the case intently for its potential ramifications for states’ ability to regulate abortion. Discussing a story of a 14-year-old girl recently denied...

Philadelphia police have released images of the suspect wanted for spray-painting racial slurs on the Cecil B. Moore mural in North Philadelphia. Police say he was also caught spray-painting slurs at Brightside Academy and Habitat for Humanity. The incidents happened on Feb. 15, between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m.

WASHINGTON — A seemingly divided Supreme Court struggled Wednesday with its first major abortion case of the Trump era, leaving Chief Justice John Roberts as the likely deciding vote. Roberts did not say enough to tip his hand in an hour of spirited arguments at the high court. The court’s election-year look at a Louisiana dispute could reveal how willing the more conservative court is to roll back abortion rights. A decision should come by late June. The outcome could have huge consequences at a time when several states have passed laws, being challenged in the courts, that would ban...

Under fire for his handling of the coronavirus crisis, President Donald Trump on Friday made a major staff overhaul, announcing that Rep. Mark Meadows will be replacing Mick Mulvaney as his chief of staff. Trump announced the surprise reshuffle in a series of Friday night tweets, saying Mulvaney would become the U.S. special envoy for Northern Ireland. “I have long known and worked with Mark, and the relationship is a very good one,” he wrote, thanking Mulvaney — who never shook his “acting” title — “for having served the Administration so well.” The long-rumored move makes Meadows, who announced last...

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — The number of Northern California residents who contracted the coronavirus on a February cruise to Mexico aboard the Grand Princess grew to at least five Friday with two new cases reported in Contra Costa County. Meanwhile, Vice President Mike Pence announced on Friday that 19 crew members and two passengers on the current cruise have tested positive for the coronavirus. He said the ship would dock at a “non-commercial port” over the weekend and the more than 2,000 passengers would be allowed to leave the boat. “We have developed a plan which will be implemented...

AUSTIN, Texas — For the first time in its 34-year history, South by Southwest has been canceled as the City of Austin declares a local disaster due to concerns about coronavirus spreading. In an announcement on Friday by Mayor Steve Adler, Judge Sarah Eckhardt, Dr. Mark Escott of the Interim Health Authority and Austin Public Health Director Stephanie Hayden, the City of Austin declared a local disaster, canceling the spring festival event as the COVID-19 virus causes worldwide concern. Judge Eckhardt also signed a companion declaration of disaster to apply county-wide in Travis County to festival gatherings that have guests...

He’s never heard of Prozac? Bill Clinton waves off his tawdry affair with then-White House intern Monica Lewinsky in a new documentary — by saying it was something he did “to manage my anxiety.

South Korea has tested more than 140,000 people for the new coronavirus and confirmed more than 6,000 cases. Its fatality rate is around 0.6%. This suggests that, as many health experts have predicted, the virus' fatality rate seems to decrease as more cases are reported. That's because more widespread testing leads more mild cases to be included in the count. The US, by contrast, has tested around 1,500 people. The country has 221 confirmed cases and 12 deaths, suggesting a death rate of 5%. The US' testing capacity has been limited.

...[T]he Democratic campaign in the fall will only be about one thing: smearing Donald Trump with all the old and repeated claims trying to make the Big Lie stick this time. I don’t think it will work, because it is nakedly untrue and thus unfair. We have seen this play run over and over again. When you go down the list of over-the-top machinations against Trump, or anyone associated with Trump, you understand who and what you empower if you vote for the Democrats in November.

In a year when the General Assembly passed sweeping LGBTQ-friendly legislation, it’s a relatively low-profile health bill that has opponents questioning whether the state is going too far in its protections for transgender Virginians.The Senate Commerce and Labor committee voted 12-2 on Monday to report a bill from Del. Danica Roem, D-Manassas, that would ban health insurance companies from denying or limiting coverage based on a patient’s gender identity or transgender status. The legislation, which passed the House 54-41, is expected to clear the Senate in a similarly party-line vote.The bill codifies federal protections first established under the Affordable Care...

Alfredo Ortiz of Job Creators Network writes in USA Today that amid the positive economic indicators in the country, about 6.4 million jobs are open nationwide. In order to fill these jobs, high schools and colleges need to prioritize skills-based education and training: Millions of available jobs are in middle-class professions that pay roughly $50,000 a year or more, according to Labor Department estimates. These include 600,000 construction and manufacturing jobs, whose median annual full-time pay is $47,000 and $49,000, as well as over a million health care and social assistance positions, whose median annual pay is $45,000. . ....

I know some here hold it against Glenn Beck for opposing Trump back in 2016. However, this program shows the danger that America is in. This is 1930's Germany all over again. Bernie Sanders may be a clown,but his advisors are real world expert threats to subjugating nations. If Bernie is elected,they will move quickly, like the night of long knives.

...While Amash would obviously have no chance to win the presidency if he ran as a Libertarian, he could theoretically peel off voters from Trump in the battleground state of Michigan, which may be the ulterior motive behind his potential run...

A new section of border wall in going up on San Luis, Arizona (Southern edge of the City of Yuma, AZ). The area of new infrastructure is located just west of the port of entry. The new stretch is expected to completed by the end of 2020, along with an additional 99 miles of new border wall in Yuma County. This is part of President Donald Trump's promise to complete 400 to 450 miles along the entire southern border.

MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace was beaming as she discussed the possibility of the deadly coronavirus sweeping the country and killing an untold number of Americans. The reason for her glee? MSNBC and the rest of the mainstream media see an opportunity to direct the public's ire toward the president should the virus result in a deadly pandemic, which the media assures us is already here. The coronavirus originated in China and has quickly made its way around the world. Wallace, who worked in the Bush administration during the deadly storm, sees an opportunity for the media to blame President Trump for...

March 6, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Sante Fe’s Archbishop John Charles Wester has asserted that Communion in the hand is “every bit as respectful” as receiving on the tongue in a statement regarding his response to the coronavirus. “There is nothing ontologically preferable to receiving on the tongue,” he said as he announced that all communicants in the archdiocese must receive in the hand due to the coronavirus. The archbishop said in a statement earlier this week that “[g]iven the highly contagious nature of the flu and the coronavirus, communicants MUST [capitalization in the original] receive Holy Communion in the hand...