Free Republic

We need more data on COVID-19 to better understand how to fight it. You can help. At this time, most of us are sheltering-at-home trying to minimize the spread of the virus. As you may have read or heard, it has been challenging to track rates of infection. You are invited to help address this challenge by taking less than a minute each day to log your health status on a newly developed COVID-19 Symptom Tracker. After initially spending ~5 minutes downloading an app and providing some basic descriptive facts (e.g., age, zip code), the daily task is simply to...

Fox News anchor Bret Baier on Tuesday called out the "hypocrisy" of President Trump's claim the day before that he has "total" authority when it comes to reopening the nation's economy, saying that conservative heads would have "exploded" had former President Obama said the same thing.

For most of the past century, the United States was the pre-eminent nation in science and technology. The evidence for that is beyond dispute: Since 1901, American researchers have won more Nobel prizes in medicine, chemistry, and physics than any other nation. Given our history of discovery, innovation, and success, it is not surprising that across the political landscape Americans consider the funding of scientific research to be both a source of pride and a worthy investment. Nevertheless, in his 1961 farewell address, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned that the pursuit of government grants would have a corrupting influence on...

So far today, the U.S. has reported nearly 2,100 new coronavirus deaths, a daily record https://t.co/1x8YilLzhD— BNO Newsroom (@BNODesk) April 14, 2020

A vaccine for the novel coronavirus is likely at least a year away, but the state’s large anti-vaccine community is ready to resist it.On Friday, just after Governor Greg Abbott declared a statewide emergency in response to the coronavirus, Sarah posted a worried plea on a local anti-vaccine Facebook group. She worried that the declaration gives the government the right to “force vaccinations” on unwilling Texans. “If they fast-track some vaccine for coronavirus, how are all of us going to defend ourselves?” she asked. “I’ll let them vaccinate my daughter over my dead body.” Other members of the group, Tarrant...

President Trump on Tuesday announced a new public-private partnership aimed at allowing hospitals to lend unused ventilators to areas that need them to treat patients who have contracted the novel coronavirus. Trump announced the new initiative, which he called the “Dynamic Ventilator Reserve,” during a meeting with healthcare executives at the White House Tuesday afternoon. He said there were 60,000 unused ventilators in hospitals across the country and that the new program would help get the critical devices to areas that need them. “Hospitals throughout the country currently have 60,000 unused ventilators,” Trump said at the start of the meeting....

SNIP Charles Calvin is a volunteer firefighter in New Chicago, Indiana, and unbeknownst to him, he received his first stimulus payment from the federal government on Friday. SNIP “I went to the ATM at the Family Express, and once I withdrew $200 out of my account, I looked at the available balance still left in my account,” he said. He said his account had $8.2 million in it. He was only supposed to receive $1,700.

Over 3,200 people in Santa Clara County were tested for COVID-19 antibodies on Friday and Saturday in an effort to determine the proportion of the population that either has or has recovered from coronavirus. The study, led by researchers at Stanford Medicine, is the first of its kind in the nation. The results, expected to be released within a week, could be used to guide future public health policy in the county, according to associate professor of medicine and study co-lead Eran Bendavid.

A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled that prosecutors did not break the law in negotiating a plea agreement with Jeffrey Epstein while keeping his victims in the dark more than a decade ago. A three-judge panel on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that federal prosecutors, led at the time by former Trump administration Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, did not violate victims' rights laws in negotiating a lenient and secretive plea agreement for the late financier. But the ruling tore into the prosecutors for their handling of Epstein's case, which the judges called a "national disgrace. "Despite...

In a letter to Salinas' Mayor Joe Gunter and the Salinas City Council, Salinas League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) described a video from council member Tony Villegas as "disturbing and racist". LULAC, which is the largest and oldest Hispanic Organization in the country, described an incident that took place Friday on Facebook in the letter. "Mr. Villegas was videotaped demeaning a group of Latino Salinas residents wherein he made racially charged remarks on Facebook Live: 'I guess it’s taco time,'" said the letter. LULAC asked for the mayor and the city to formally discipline Villegas with a public...

President Trump and Coronavirus Task Force News Conference 4/14/20 – 5:00 P.M. (Eastern) The White Househttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7_wPl7DgS0&feature=youtu.be RSBNhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfXARJk-z_k Diamond and Silkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh7XpH2ZUEA Golden State Timeshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZqXm2eqrIA FOX 10 Phoenixhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGyDJBJf6B8 FOX Newshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk1EXwA4HAg C-SPANhttps://www.c-span.org/video/?471195-1/white-house-coronavirus-task-force-briefing Because the T.V. Ratings for the White House News Conference’s are the highest, the Opposition Party (Lamestream Media), the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats &, of course, the few remaining RINO’S, are doing everything in their power to disparage & end them. The People’s Voice!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 10, 2020

"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy" (Matt. 5:7). Mercy is compassion in action. Mercy is not a human attribute. It is God's gift to those who seek Him. Psalm 103:11 says, "As the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him" (KJV). The verb form of "merciful" appears many times in Scripture and means "to have mercy on," "aid the afflicted," "give help to the wretched," or "rescue the miserable." In general it refers to anything you do to benefit someone in need. The noun form is used only...

A large crowd of at least 100 protesters gathered Monday outside the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, demanding Gov. Mike DeWine end a statewide stay-at-home order meant to curb the spread of the coronavirus, according to reports. Meanwhile, DeWine -- a Republican -- is also facing pressure from several GOP lawmakers in the Ohio General Assembly to reopen the economy to relieve jobless Ohioans, even if some social distancing measures must continue in the coming months, The Columbus Dispatch reported. “We need to get the economy open, even if that means social distancing of some sort for months to come,” Sen....

A Colorado baker who fought and won a years-long legal battle after refusing to make a wedding cake for a gay couple has been slapped with a similar lawsuit, this time for refusing to bake a transgender cake. The story: In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared Jack Phillips, a devout Christian who owns Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado, of any wrongdoing after a same-sex couple sued him for denying them a wedding cake as it went against his religious precepts. Now, Phillis is facing a similar lawsuit for refusing to bake a trans-themed cake in 2017. Autumn Scardina, the...

U.S.—Medical experts were excited to announce today that Democrats have achieved herd immunity against sexual assault allegations. After getting accused of sexual assault thousands and thousands of times for so many years, the Democrats developed some kind of antibodies against the allegations. Researchers are taking blood samples to isolate the antibodies to see if a vaccine can be developed for other groups. "It's amazing -- the entire Democrat demographic is entirely immune," said one researcher as he took blood samples from Joe Biden. "After conspiring with the media to squash any accusations that pop up, it seems, over time, Democrats...

The 31-year-old from Houston knew she did not want another baby. She already had three — her youngest, a boy, was just 6 months old. And she had just been laid off from her job in a medical billing office, another casualty of America’s growing unemployment crisis. So she scheduled an abortion at a local clinic. But when she arrived for her appointment four weeks ago, the doors were locked and a sign was taped inside the glass: The clinic was closed. Abortions in Texas were off after the state included them on a list of medical procedures that were...

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s May 1 target for restarting the economy is “overly optimistic,” his top infectious disease adviser said on Tuesday, after a battle erupted between Trump and state governors over who has the power to lift restrictions aimed at curbing the coronavirus pandemic. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said public health officials must be able to test for the virus quickly, isolate new cases and track down new infections before social-distancing restrictions can be eased. Trump’s administration has recommended stay-at-home guidelines through the end of April, and...

Former President Barack Obama had multiple long discussions with Sen. Bernie Sanders in an effort to convince him to bow out of the presidential primary, playing a significant role in the Democratic socialist’s decision-making, according to a report. In the weeks after former Vice President Joe Biden established himself as the presumptive Democratic nominee, following his win in South Carolina and sweeping victories on Super Tuesday, Obama had at least four conversations with the presidential hopeful, according to the New York Times. The paper reports that the former president told a close friend that Biden, now the party front-runner, needed to “accelerate the...

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – A group of demonstrators are outside the General Assembly in downtown Raleigh Tuesday morning calling for businesses to reopen amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Some are holding signs that say “Reopen NC” while another has a sign that reads “Freedom is not free.” Another has a sign with “#ReopenNC #Tyranny.” Raleigh police were on scene – telling the demonstrators they were in violation of the executive order. A group of demonstrators are outside the General Assembly in downtown Raleigh Tuesday morning calling for businesses to reopen amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Many went to the vehicles where they...

U.S. equity markets rallied Tuesday as concerns over the coronavirus ease and early-stage plans of re-opening some pockets of the economy take shape. DOW JONES AVERAGES 23949.76 +558.99 +2.39% S&P 500 2847.34 +85.71 +3.10% NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX 8515.915505 +323.49 +3.95% The Nasdaq surged nearly 4 percent stretching its winning streak to four days, the longest since February.