Free Republic

Official congratulated China for reporting no COVID-19 cases Calls are mounting in Congress for the World Health Organization's director-general to resign following allegations his group aided China's efforts to obfuscate the number of coronavirus cases in the country. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who goes by Dr. Tedros—though he is not a medical doctor—has repeatedly lauded China's measures to contain the virus despite mounting evidence the communist regime has been less than forthcoming with the international community. A classified U.S. intelligence report recently concluded China lied about its internal spread and death toll. Several Republican lawmakers told the Washington Free...

Just heard there as about a 4.5 quake possibly in the San Diego area.

The U.S. Army awarded SLSCO Ltd. with a $61.4 million contract modification Friday for wall construction along the southern U.S. border. This deal amends an earlier contract, awarded in April 2019, for work on the wall near Santa Teresa, N.M., or what the new contract announcement describes as the "El Paso sector" of the wall... The original contract had an estimated completion date of Oct. 1, 2020, but work covered under the modification is expected to wrap by Dec. 31, 2020.

There’s no easy way for me to put this, so I’m just going to flat-out say it: Right now, the state of the world has reached dystopian levels. The coronavirus is infecting thousands daily, quarantines and social distancing efforts are predicted to be in effect until at least April 30 in the United States, and hand sanitizers and disinfecting wipes have become rare precious jewels to hoard. But while the world was completely tuned in to the news and the government’s next steps in the battle of COVID-19, I was completely tuned out. In the midst of the madness, I...

On Wednesday evening, dozens of motorists parked in front of a home on Elderica Way in Lodi, rolled their windows down and turned on their cellphone flashlights to show their support for a Lodi resident who has been devastated by the novel coronavirus. Karen Baumbach has been in quarantine at her home for the past two weeks after testing positive for COVID-19. Her husband Jeff had also tested positive, and passed away from the disease Monday. He was 57. “She’s broken,” Karen Baumbach’s mother, Sharleen Leal, said Thursday. “I think if she wasn’t quarantined and the kids could be there...

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Abortion foes filed a federal lawsuit alleging Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s order to stay home to slow coronavirus spread violates their right to protest outside of abortion clinics. One of the plaintiffs, Andrew Belanger, said he was cited March 31 by Detroit police while he preached outside of Scotsdale Women’s Center. He said he was holding a pro-life sign and kept a distance from others. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids, said that 15 police officers in eight patrol cars showed up while Belanger was engaged in “peaceful expressive activity.” He and the...

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room5:25 P.M. EDTTHE PRESIDENT:  I just had a meeting with Kevin McCarthy, future Speaker of the House, I hope.  And he’s done a fantastic job for the people of California.  And also, the people of California have done a fantastic job, when you look at the — at the bump.  You take a look at the bump and how they’re doing out there.  So I congratulate everybody out there.But I thought I’d have Kevin say a few words.  So, Kevin, please.LEADER MCCARTHY:  Well, thank you, Mr. President.  And I would like to thank you. ...

$5,053

President Donald Trump has fired the intelligence community’s chief watchdog, Michael Atkinson, who was the first to sound the alarm to Congress last September about an “urgent” complaint he’d received from an intelligence official involving Trump’s communications with Ukraine’s president. Trump formally notified the Senate and House intelligence committees of his intention to fire Atkinson and remove him from his duties, to take effect 30 days from Friday, according to two congressional officials and a copy of the letter obtained by POLITICO dated April 3. “This is to advise that I am exercising my power as President to remove from...

“If anguish were visible, almost the whole of this benighted planet would be enveloped in a dense dark vapour, shrouded from the amazed vision of the heavens!” — J.R.R. Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien; Ed. Carpenter and Tolkien; Allen and Unwin (UK); 20 August 1981 On the 30th of April, 1944, just five weeks prior to D-Day, author and scholar J.R.R. Tolkien wrote to his son, Christopher, the ever-faithful guardian of his father’s legacy up until the time of his death recently at the age of 90: “I sometimes feel appalled at the thought of the sum total of...

Two weeks ago, an unexpected cluster of coronavirus cases in New Rochelle, N.Y., seemed an unnerving sign that an outbreak that had devastated China and Italy was taking hold in the New York region and could spread rapidly. The state took drastic measures that stirred a backlash, including creating a containment zone. But now, the latest data indicates that the measures may be starting to work. The outbreak, which Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo once said was advancing “unabated” in New Rochelle, has appeared to slow: Over the last four days, only 38 new cases were reported to the county. “Everybody...

April 04 2020 Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent Reading 1 Ez 37:21-28 Thus says the Lord GOD: I will take the children of Israel from among the nations to which they have come, and gather them from all sides to bring them back to their land. I will make them one nation upon the land, in the mountains of Israel, and there shall be one prince for them all. Never again shall they be two nations, and never again shall they be divided into two kingdoms.No longer shall they defile themselves with their idols, their abominations, and...

Women in Texas must now travel 20 times farther for an abortion as a result of the state’s new ban, according to an analysis of anti-abortion measures introduced in a half dozen states amid the coronavirus outbreak. Under Texas’s statewide ban, the average one-way distance a woman must travel to reach the nearest abortion provider would increase from 12 miles to 243 miles, according to a new study by the research group the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights. “The greater the increase in travel distance, the greater the hardship it causes, and the more likely it becomes that some...

Donald Trump's top advisors have expressed doubts about the accuracy of the White House's apocalyptic forecast that 240,000 Americans will die from the coronavirus pandemic, sources have said. As the US death reached 6,056 Thursday and the nation's healthcare system buckles under the crisis, administration officials said the stark forecasts could have been a tactic to warn the president he needs to act now. The White House made the shock prediction Tuesday that there will be between 100,000 and 240,000 deaths in the US if the nation continues on its trajectory and current social distancing guidelines are maintained. Trump said...

The C.I.A. has been warning the White House since at least early February that China has vastly understated its coronavirus infections and that its count could not be relied upon as the United States compiles predictive models to fight the virus, according to current and former intelligence officials. The intelligence briefings in recent weeks, based at least in part on information from C.I.A. assets in China, played an important role in President Trump’s negotiation on Thursday of an apparent détente with President Xi Jinping of China. Since then, both countries have ratcheted back criticism of each other. So far, to...

pril 3, 2020 (Pregnancy Help News) — Eleven Planned Parenthood locations in the state of California have closed amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The sites are closed "until further notice," according to the abortion giant's website. News of the California Planned Parenthood closures was released courtesy of Californians for Life. Planned Parenthood staff indicate this may last until at least the end of April, according to the pro-life group. PP screen capture via Californians for Life The abortion centers closed in California include City Heights Center in San Diego, Corona Center of Corona, Eagle Rock Health Center of Los Angeles,...

a behind the scenes look

It’s a grim reality that the number of people who have died around the world, across the country and here at home grows every day. For privacy reasons, we’ll never know who these people were unless their families share their stories -- as a few who you see named below have -- yet we want to acknowledge the loss of all of them our communities. We’ll update this list of the casualties in our battle with COVID-19 daily based on the limited information the Florida Department of Health provides on each one. For complete coverage of coronavirus’ impact and response,...

Troubling headlines have been cropping up across Asia: Some patients in China, Japan and South Korea who were diagnosed with COVID-19 and seemingly recovered have been readmitted to the hospital after testing positive for the virus again. Because SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, was only discovered a few months ago, scientists are still trying to answer many big questions related to the virus and the disease it causes. Among them is whether patients can be reinfected by the virus after they seem to recover from the symptoms. With other coronavirus strains, experts say the antibodies that patients produce...

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Hours after 16 medically-vulnerable inmates were released from jail Friday, Harris County has halted additional releases, citing a court order. The order signed by the region's administrative judge, Herb Ritchie, couldn't be any clearer. It directs county criminal justice agencies to "ignore and wholly disregard any order and/or directive from the Harris County Judge regarding the (release of felony inmates) now in custody."