Free Republic

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has filed a lawsuit against Walton County in Florida, and their Sheriff’s Office, for threatening to arrest him and his neighbors if they use their private beaches. Huckabee teamed up with several other residents to file a federal complaint over a county ordinance that closed all beaches, including the ones on private property, which they contend stops them from “being able to use or even set foot in their own backyards.” The lawsuit was filed on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida and argues that their constitutional rights are...

The massive army field hospital that hundreds of troops built inside a Seattle convention center last week will be dismantled before treating a single patient. Instead, it will be redeployed to a state facing a more difficult battle against the coronavirus outbreak, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said Wednesday. Nearly 300 soldiers from Fort Carson, Colo., and Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) near Tacoma, Wash., built the makeshift facility inside CenturyLink Field Event Center, normally home to the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks and the Seattle Sounders of the MLS, for patients who do not have COVID-19. "We requested this resource before our physical...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Thursday signaled that there was still a possibility that Florida schools could reopen in May after being closed since March due to the coronavirus outbreak. “We’re going to look at the evidence and make a decision," DeSantis said of the possibility of children returning to schools in the state, the Tampa Bay Times reported. "If it’s safe, we want kids to be in school. ... Even if it’s for a couple of weeks, we think there would be value in that," he continued. CNN reported that DeSantis added that he didn't think anyone under...

A seed catalog coming in the mail is enough to get a gardener’s heart pumping. Now more than ever people are expected to return to the earth, as they get weary of the COVID-19 indoor restrictions and foresee the punch the pandemic will have on their wallets. Call volume has spiked at Jung Seed Company with longer wait times as people place their orders for Wisconsin 55 Tomato and Butter and Sugar Sweet Corn seeds. Nathan Zondag, the company’s VP, has a theory on the demand. “More people are at home now with COVID-19 orders and looking at the seed...

As the novel coronavirus cuts its relentless swath across the globe, doctors have identified one grim constant: COVID-19 has men, more than women, in its sights. In Italy, men account for at least 70 percent of all coronavirus deaths. While South Korea has seen more confirmed COVID-19 cases in female patients than in males, a higher percentage of men have been felled by it. Here in New York City, more men than women are testing positive for coronavirus, with 55 percent of all cases. They also are dying of it at even higher rates. As of Friday, 1,159 men in...

I have vociferously defended the news value of the White House Coronavirus Task Force daily press briefings, shoving back hard against the embarrassing, anti-journalism demands of anti-Trump media figures insisting that they be censored or boycotted. I will continue to do so. But that doesn't mean that I believe that the pressers are being wielded or executed properly or wisely by the president, or that their format shouldn't be revamped. In a Thursday house editorial entitled "Trump's Wasted Briefings," the Wall Street Journal's editors argue that Trump is too often squandering these news conferences by allowing them to descend into...

VIDEO Bernie Sanders had one very important final mission at the end of his long political career. That was to stop the elder abuse of Joe Biden by the Democrat National Committee which is pushing him to participate in a grueling 2020 campaign despite his increasing loss of coherency. Sanders did his best and for awhile it looked he could have spared poor Biden the torture to which the DNC seems determine to force him to endure by winning the Democrat nomination. Unfortunately, after the South Carolina primary the DNC pull out all the stops and with the help...

**SNIP** Hardcore Hillary Clinton fans remain sore about the fact that a certain percentage of Sanders supporters didn’t back the Democratic nominee in the 2016 presidential election against Donald Trump. Some opted to go third party with Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein. Some didn’t show up in November. And a certain percentage voted for Trump. St. Petersburg resident Chuck Terzian is a major Sanders supporter who voted for Clinton in 2016. He says now he won’t be fooled again. “I just won’t do it anymore,” he says of voting for the establishment favorite in Biden. “I won’t give power...

Washington Post reporter Darran Simon was found dead in his apartment on Thursday, according to a newsroom memo from Tracy Grant, the Post’s managing editor for staff development and standards. Simon covered D.C. government and politics for The Post, according to a January 30 memo announcing his arrival at the newspaper. Read the memo about his passing below:

In this installment, Alexandra Patsavas, a Hollywood music supervisor for shows like Grey's Anatomy and Mad Men, argues on behalf of Wall of Voodoo. Fans of MTV in its earliest days might remember "Mexican Radio," which became an underground hit in 1983 for being one of the first music videos played in heavy rotation. Read Patsavas in her own words below, and hear the radio version at the audio link. One of the great '80s bands, Wall of Voodoo, came out of the punk/alternative scene in Los Angeles in the [late '70s]. Stan Ridgway founded Wall of Voodoo. His company...

I was chatting with a friend of mine recently and the topic of gun sales came up. My friend’s father owns a gun range near me and she said he’s seen a huge amount of liberals coming in to purchase weapons in recent weeks. How does he know they’re liberals? “They’re shocked to discover they can’t just walk out of the store with a gun.” We’ve all heard about gun sales skyrocketing recently, but I hadn’t considered some of the tangential effects of the phenomenon until I spoke to my friend. Not only are many liberals suddenly learning to love...

If you live in this world, there is a very small chance you may have not yet heard of this novel Coronavirus Covid-19 and the pandemic it caused literally all over the world. Actually, it is a good chance that you are reading this while self quarantined at your home, social distancing from public and like many, have very much of extra time to deal with. So, if you are familiar with programming, why not try this: build your own epidemic model at home. Which helps you boost your programming abilities, and, helps you understand the concepts and basic dynamics...

The SIR model attempts to explain both of these situations. Assume every individual is in one of three states: susceptible, infected, or resistant. In a simple world, patient zero is infected, everyone else is susceptible and nobody is resistant. With every step in time, some susceptible people become infected, some infected people recover to be resistant, and resistant people stay resistant.

New York City officials trying to process a rising coronavirus death toll have been forced to ramp up burial operations at its public cemetery from one day a week to five. Aerial images captured on Thursday showed 40 caskets lined up for burial at Hart Island — the same day New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo reported 799 new deaths across the state. Normally, about 25 bodies a week are interred there, mostly for people whose families can't afford a funeral, or who go unclaimed by relatives.

Neurologic manifestations fell into 3 categories: central nervous system manifestations (dizziness, headache, impaired consciousness, acute cerebrovascular disease, ataxia, and seizure), peripheral nervous system manifestations (taste impairment, smell impairment, vision impairment, and nerve pain), and skeletal muscular injury manifestations.

The drug doesn't come without a certain set of risks, and no one knows if it can effectively treat COVID-19. The president and some of his close advisors — desperate for a COVID-19 cure — are asking “What do you have to lose?” by taking hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), a strong medication never adequately tested for efficacy or safety in COVID-19 patients. The correct answer to the president’s question, which he doesn’t seem to want to hear, is that we have our lives to lose.The president acknowledges “I’m not a doctor” but this raises the question “What do doctors know about the drug...

Editor's Note: This piece was co-authored by David Feder.Today is the three-year anniversary of Justice Gorsuch’s swearing-in as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Although still early, Justice Gorsuch has already proven to be a grand slam for anyone who cares about interpreting the Constitution as written; for anyone who cares about the differences between judges and legislators; and for anyone who cares about protecting individual liberty. As a judge on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, Justice Gorsuch was widely recognized as a leading proponent of the judicial philosophy known as “originalism.”...

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As I consider the state of the evangelical church at the beginning of the twenty-first century, I observe a people who have swapped their faith for a bumper sticker and a church that has been caught up with the wrappings of religion. Many in the church have grown tired of that old-time religion, and they have become enamored with the affluence of get-holy-quick, pop-Christian programs. They have joined arms with the razzlers and the dazzlers of the world’s marketplace, and they have set out on a journey down a yellow-brick road that will lead only to the great and powerful...

In my opinion, as a black woman, Biden’s choice, without question, should be a black woman. Here is why: When Barack Obama secured the nomination for president of the United States of America in 2008, he chose the older, wiser, gray-haired, white male senior senator from Delaware, Joe Biden. Although Biden was not the exciting choice, he was the right choice for the young, black nominee. Obama was going to be the nation’s first black executive. He needed to reassure those nervous about history’s choice, that he would have someone “safe” and known to the public by his side. Now,...