Free Republic

Thousands of foreign workers, many living overseas, are receiving stimulus checks designated for U.S. residents due to an unforeseen glitch that funneled taxpayer dollars to other countries, according to tax consultants and the recipients themselves. College-age workers who spent time in the U.S. in the last two years - some of whom returned home long before the coronavirus pandemic - have been surprised to find $1,200 checks deposited into their bank accounts. And with no clear guidance on how to return it, they’re holding onto the money or racing to spend it before the Internal Revenue Service realizes the mistake....

"Having summoned His twelve disciples" (Matt. 10:1). A good example is the best form of teaching. Matthew 10:1 is Christ's official commissioning of the twelve men He hand-picked to serve beside Him during His earthly ministry. Mark 3:13 says He "summoned those whom He Himself wanted, and they came to Him." In John 15:16 He tells them, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit." This is not their call to salvation, but to service. With the exception of Judas, they were already saved. Before the foundation of the...

I'll bet those folks down there arent too thrilled to have more activity so close to the earlier epicenters

KANSAS CITY -- Laurent Duvernay-Tardif has gone from the offensive line to the front line, using the medical degree he completed during offseasons with the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs to help patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Still dressed in his lab coat while taking a lunch break Friday, the gregarious Duvernay-Tardif explained during a video interview that he contacted the health ministry in his native Canada early in the outbreak to see how he could help. Duvernay-Tardif began by making public-service announcements and getting out the word about social distancing. But he soon sprang into action when it...

In a daily report dedicated to news updates and guidance for county employees fighting the coronavirus, an Oregon county in the Portland area said it was creating a safe "grounding space" for minority staff to escape a predominant “whiteness.” The April 5 "situation report" from the Multnomah County Office of Emergency Operations Center announced that the "Emergency Operations Center Equity Officer is hosting a grounding space for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) employees to share, heal, connect, and get grounded in a space that is not dominated by whiteness." Heather Mac Donald, a Stanford-trained attorney and fellow at...

The world is full of self-righteous crackpots. Especially the troglodytes who crawl out from their subterranean dwellings to play the racist card every time the scent of a Trump supporter is in the air. Or Krispy Kreme has its "Hot Now" light flashing, and it's time for a second breakfast. Enter: Rutgers University Associate Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Brittney Cooper clad in a tight-fitting "Black Femme Power" t-shirt. Lately, Cooper's been showcasing the jaw-dropping intelligence of leftist academia, making the case why parents should strongly consider where they send their kids to college. Unless, of course, they...

With the current coronavirus crisis creating a boom for video meetings, competition for secure platforms has become fierce. The recent controversies surrounding early frontrunner Zoom allowed Google to pounce at the opportunity, making rival Google Meet free to the general public. Google has begun positioning itself as the pro-privacy option because of supposed protections it has in place, even as many in the public remain skeptical. No protections in the world, however, will change that Google is a corporation whose whole business model revolves around tracking, mining, and selling personal user data, along with the history of privacy violations that...

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- A group of 20 merchants in Philadelphia say policies set forth by the city during the COVID-19 pandemic has caused an alarming epidemic of shoplifting, and in some cases, mobs of people. In one incident at the 7-Eleven store at 22nd & Market streets, video shows a group of about eight to 10 kids come in and spread out throughout the store. Each starts collecting items from different shelves and refrigerators before suddenly running for the door. The owner says this has happened two to three times since the pandemic.

Members of the media are bemoaning the “baby pig” abortions that are happening because of the coronavirus’ impact on the meat industry – as they should. But in their coverage, they’re missing a broader point: If we can mourn animals aborted because they’re unwanted, how much more so should we mourn aborted human beings destroyed for the same reason? On April 27, Reuters published a story with the headline reading, “Piglets aborted, chickens gassed as pandemic slams meat sector.” Following their lead, other media, along with animal-rights activists, drew attention to the same issue. In their coverage, Reuters writers called the...

This will be a weekly post. Count remains at 191 judges confirmed. 138 District Court judges 51 Circuit Court judges 2 Supreme Court justices The Senate is supposedly reconvening this week. The House is staying away so the Senate might as well confirm some judges. There are currently ten District judges on the floor awaiting a vote.

President Trump’s job approval soared to 49 percent in a new Gallup poll released Thursday, making up a 6-point loss from a similar survey released just two weeks ago. The new approval number is tied for Trump’s personal best in Gallup’s polling data. A survey conducted by Gallup in mid-March similarly found his approval ticking up to 49 percent before it took a 6-point dive in the first half of April. The poll released on Thursday marked a rare instance in Gallup’s polling history in which Trump’s overall approval is above water. Only 47 percent of respondents said they disapprove...

Comcast Corp. ’s NBCUniversal is reviewing operations across its portfolio of media and entertainment properties as part of a cost-cutting effort that could result in a significant reduction of staff, people familiar with the matter said. Discussions began this past week regarding cost-cutting measures, including layoffs, the people said. NBCUniversal’s holdings include the NBC broadcast network, the Universal Pictures movie studio, theme parks, NBC News and several entertainment cable channels. NBCUniversal Chief Executive Jeff Shell alluded to the review during Comcast’s earnings call Thursday. Asked how NBCUniversal was positioned to deal with the economic fallout from the coronavirus, Mr. Shell...

I predicted earlier this week that the media would help Joe Biden get out of the corroborated charges made by Tara Reade regarding alleged inappropriate behavior in the 1990s when Reade was on Biden's Senate staff. I predicted he'd have a pre-recorded, sit-down interview with a friendly, female journalist with Jill Biden by his side. I was wrong about Mrs. Biden's presence, but the rest of the set up was as predicted. I also predicted that after the interview, Biden and his apologists would proclaim the matter settled, any further questions would be out of line since Mr. Biden had...

This frustrated Michigan pilot gives a literal flying you-know-what about his governor’s lock-down order. Ed Frederick, 45, spent about an hour charting a path over Grand Rapids that spelled out this message for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer: “F U,” with an arrow pointing directly over the governor’s mansion. Frederick said he was inspired to hop in a propeller plane Friday morning after Whitmer announced an extension of the state’s emergency lockdown order through May 28. “It’s a power trip,” Frederick told The Post. “The government, no matter Democrats or Republicans, always seem like they’re trying to do something just to prove...

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, whose name has been mentioned as a possible running mate for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, spoke early Friday about the sexual assault claims against the former vice president. “Women should be able to tell their stories,” Whitmer said, apparently supporting the right of former Biden Senate staffer Tara Reade to go public with her claim of having been sexually assaulted by Biden in 1993 – a claim Biden denies. Whitmer shared her remarks during an appearance on ABC’s “Nightline” – just hours before Biden addressed the claims on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe." **SNIP** Whitmer’s most...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday that any guaranteed monthly income plan that Congress works on should apply to illegal immigrants with tax ID numbers.

(CNN) Most Floridians hitting the newly reopened beaches are trading stay-at-home sweatpants for shorts and swimsuits. But when he heads out, Daniel Uhlfelder dons a raggedy black robe, conceals his face with a black cloth and wields his scythe. Uhlfelder, an attorney, is haunting Florida beaches dressed as the Grim Reaper to protest their reopening, which he believes is premature. It's a macabre plea to beachgoers to stay home. Uhlfelder is a staunch advocate for public beach access in the state, even butting heads with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, whose Florida Panhandle home is parked on a private beach....

The crackdown on legal firearms ownership, which was announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on May 1, is another shining moment in the long history of dysfunctional Canadian gun control proposals. It will accomplish nothing in particular, but will come at considerable public expense. It will not improve public safety, nor will it will please either side of this contentious debate. What it will do is give both Liberals and Conservatives an opportunity to fundraise off the issue — one could be forgiven for wondering if that’s literally the only point to any of this. So, again: a textbook example...

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PING LIST - Please contact me as needed... COVID-19 Update As of 05/01/2020 23:45 PDST     Johns Hopkins University - Capture Nations InformatonAs of 00/00/2020 23:45 PDST     Johns Hopkins University - Capture Counties InformatonAs of 00/00/2020 23:46 PDST     Johns Hopkins University - Process JHU DataAs of 00/00/2020 23:59 PDST     WorldofMeters - Document Core NumbersAs of 00/00/2020 23:59 PDST     WorldofMeters - Capture Nations InformatonAs of 00/00/2020 23:59 PDST     WorldofMeters - Capture States InformatonAs of 00/00/2020 00:00 PDST     WorldofMeters - Data Processing begins...As of 00/00/2020 ??:?? PDST    ...