Free Republic

The coronavirus and its devastating effect on the economy is giving an old idea new traction with leaders in both parties: trillions of dollars in infrastructure spending. President Trump on Tuesday called for $2 trillion in new public works programs as a national economic lifeline, backing an idea promoted by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) just a day earlier. Rank-and-file lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have quickly joined the chorus, framing infrastructure as a commonsense strategy for creating jobs amid mass layoffs sparked by the fast-spreading coronavirus pandemic. “I think the Speaker’s right that infrastructure would be a good...

Today and every day, @DrBiden and I are proud to stand with the trans community. We see you, we support you, and we will continue to do everything we can to ensure you are affirmed and accepted just as you are. #TransDayOfVisibility — Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) March 31, 2020

Texas will again be allowed to implement its temporary ban on abortion, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday afternoon. Per the order, any abortion "not medically necessary to preserve the life or health" of the patient must be halted as part of the state's directive suspending "non-essential" medical procedures amid the coronavirus pandemic. The ban was briefly lifted on Monday evening when a lower court ruled the suspension of abortion services was unconstitutional and in violation of Supreme Court precedent, including Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide. "I thank the court for their immediate...

Christians apparently do not have a right to practice their faith in church and pro-life sidewalk counselors are being arrested for peacefully assembling on public sidewalks, but abortion facilities can continue to kill unborn babies in elective abortions during the global health crisis. On Monday, an Alabama judge ruled against a state mandate temporarily halting all non-essential medical procedures, including abortions, UPI reports. Judge Myron Thompson, who has a history of ruling for the abortion industry, argued that the mandate restricts women’s right to abortion. Thompson temporarily suspended the order as it applies to abortion facilities through April 13, according...

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer drew fire from some on the right after the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) sent a letter last week threatening "administrative action" against doctors who prescribed two experimental drugs that could potentially help coronavirus patients. But the Whitmer administration has since removed the language threatening doctors from the letter and is now asking the federal government to send shipments of the drugs, Bridge magazine reports. The Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency authorization for the antimalarial drugs hydroxychloroquine sulfate and chloroquine phosphate on Saturday. Conservatives including Charlie Kirk and Rudy Guiliani accused Whitmer...

Proving massive bias in the media, PBS “reporter” Yamiche Alcindor was heard happily exclaiming that the role of the press is to be Trump’s enemy. Speaking to left-winger Ali Velshi on MSNBC on Sunday, Alcindor was heard crowing that attacking Trump is a “team sport” for the media. And she insisted that the whole of the press corps must align to the attack and must “have each other’s back” in opposition to Trump. Alcindor was speaking about an example of the media’s ignorant treatment of the president during another contentious press conference on Sunday. Alcindor was whining that she didn’t...

The Planned Parenthood abortion business was caught lying. Again. During its battle with the state of Texas over Governor Greg Abbott’s order to stop all medically unnecessary medical procedures — and nothing could be less necessary than killing a baby in an abortion — Planned Parenthood sought to refute Texas’ argument that banning abortions would help the state conserve personal protective equipment and other medical resources sorely needed to combat the coronavirus. In a brief filed Monday to defend the order and the abortion ban, attorneys for Texas Attorney General Paxton said that abortion center staff “are still using (personal...

Seattle's chief of police said in a Monday night video that she wants residents to call 911 if called racist names during the coronavirus pandemic. "Washington state is no place for hate. In a show of solidarity between police and community, I'm joined today by Lori Matsukawa," Chief of Police Carmen Best said, referring to the retired KING 5 news anchor who joined her in the video. "Hate crimes have no place in our community," Matsukawa continued. "We're better than that, Washington. We're all trying to deal with the COVID-19 public health crisis together. If you are a victim of...

WASHINGTON - For a few moments in the Rose Garden, the coronavirus pandemic is a bucking bronco with President Donald Trump on its back. His arm swings an invisible rope. He seems to be hanging on for dear life. “Ride it like a cowboy,” he growls. “Just ride it. Ride that sucker right through.” This rodeo riff came during the daily White House coronavirus task force briefing, where science meets all things Trump. It’s where the teetotaling president serves a 5 o’clock cocktail of public-health policy, twisted facts, invented achievements, performance art, hectoring, cheerleading, erraticism, improvisation, self-praise, pet theories and...

Seven more pro-life advocates were arrested Monday for peacefully praying near a North Carolina abortion facility. The Greensboro Police Department arrested the Christians as they stood near an abortion facility in Greensboro, praying and offering resources to people going inside, PJ Media reports. Allegedly, the pro-lifers violated a Guilford County mandate requiring people to stay at home except for essential needs. The pro-life advocates are with the organization Love Life, which has been trying to abide by the social distancing mandates while still striving to save unborn babies from abortions. Though abortions are not essential or life-saving, many states are...

Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon defended his decision Friday to veto a bill that would have ensured babies who survive abortions receive basic medical care. In a statement, the Republican governor claimed to be pro-life despite his rejection of the pro-life bill, according to the Christian Post. “Laws already in place protect children from being denied life-saving care simply because they were born as a result of an abortion,” Gordon said in his veto message. He claimed the bill could unintentionally hurt families. “This bill will not do anything to improve on those laws which already exist,” he continued. “Instead, this...

Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb has banned abortions in the state in order to preserve medical resources to help fight the coronavirus. Governor Holcomb has issued orders calling for a halt to all elective and non-urgent surgical procedures in Indiana and he included abortion clinics in the new emergency orders related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Gov. Eric Holcomb in the order called on “all health care providers, whether medical, dental or other, and health care facilities, whether hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, dental facilities, plastic surgery centers, dermatology offices and abortion clinics” to cancel or postpone elective and non-urgent surgical or invasive...

AJO, Ariz. - Motels, mobile home camps and Airbnbs in this small Arizona border town are full up. Work crews stream into eateries for takeout orders. License plates on trucks parked outside the crowded laundromat come from as far away as Alaska. Around the country, some states have cut back on construction activity to curb the spread of the coronavirus, and hotels and restaurants in many cities have closed. But here in Arizona, the federal government is embarking on a frenetic new phase of construction of the border wall. The Trump administration contends that the wall will help prevent the...

SANTA FE — In a telephone conversation between President Donald Trump and governors today, the president told Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham that he will grant her request for a U.S. Army field hospital in Albuquerque. The governor had asked the federal Department of Defense for the 248-bed hospital last week, citing concern about New Mexico hospitals’ ability to absorb a surge of novel coronavirus cases. During the phone call today, Lujan Grisham brought up the request and said her office had not yet received word on the hospital from U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper. In response, Trump told the governor...

Sports radio giant Mike Francesa blasted President Trump on Monday, criticizing his administration's handling of the coronavirus outbreak and lack of medical equipment in the nation, according to Politico. The radio host, who came out as a Trump advocate during his 2016 presidential campaign, accused him of not providing enough personal protective equipment, or PPE, to New York City, the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak. "We're watching one thing happen in our city on the 11 o'clock news every night. We're watching people die, and now we know people who died. And we're not seeing one or two people die...

This year has been shaping up to be an even more prophetically charged than 2019. One of the more interesting, yet underreported, strange goings-on, has been the lemming-like procession of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) leaving their corporate respective organizations. According to Challenger, Gray, and Christmas Inc., who has tracked statistics like these since 2002, the years 2019-2020 had seen the highest exodus of CEOs depart their organizations since they first began. Unlike 2008, in which the mortgage meltdown threw the entire economy into a tailspin, the economy had been booming up until the current COVID19 (Wuhan Flu) began its pandemic...

MEXICO CITY - Twenty-eight U.S. spring break tourists who returned to Texas after vacationing with a large group in the Mexican beach resort of Cabo San Lucas have tested positive for coronavirus, drawing attention to possibly low detection of cases in Mexico. The 28 confirmed cases are self-isolating and dozens more are under quarantine while being monitored and tested, the city of Austin said in a statement on Tuesday. “About a week and a half ago, approximately 70 people in their 20s departed in a chartered plane for a spring break trip,” the city said, adding that some of the...

The state of Texas is not going to just roll over and allow a federal judge to authorize Texas abortion clinics to keep killing babies in abortions instead of obeying the governor’s order to halt non-essential medical procedures. The order helps support hospitals and medical clinics that need additional medical gear and supplies to treat patients with the coronavirus. As LifeNews.com reported yesterday, a federal judge in Texas with a long history of siding with abortion advocates ruled today that Texas abortion centers can defy the governor’s order to stop non-essential medical procedures instead of helping coronavirus patients by conserving...

Illinois' stay-at-home order has been extended until April 30, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Tuesday. Pritzker said he was signing an executive order that would extend Illinois’ Disaster Proclamation, stay-at-home order, and the suspension of on-site learning at schools across the state. "If we can end these orders earlier, I’ll be the first to tell you when we can start to make strides toward normal again," Pritzker said. The news comes one week before the initial order was set to end and just days after the state saw its biggest rise in cases of the coronavirus pandemic so far. Health officials...

The global oil market was rattled by the coronavirus pandemic, which has slashed international demand for crude. The damage to Iran, the world’s fifth largest oil producer, has been particularly disruptive. The price of Iranian heavy crude fell below $14 per barrel March 31 — not good news for a government that has based its fiscal budget on the rate of $50 per barrel... To curtail the epidemic, Iran is currently practicing social distancing amid its new year holidays. The measures come at a time when an unspecified number of Iranians are already traveling, as the government initially refused to...