Free Republic

San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Health Director Dr. Grant Colfax are giving an update on the city's COVID-19 response and stay-at-home order. The press conference is scheduled to start at noon. Check back to watch live and read updates. Both Breed and Colfax have been pleading with San Francisco residents to stay home and avoid socializing over the holidays. People traveling into San Francisco from outside the Bay Area are also being told to quarantine for 10 days. San Francisco is also under a stay-at-home order through at least Jan. 4. It could be extended even further.

People in France who refuse to take the COVID-19 vaccine will be banned from using public transport and engaging in other activities under a newly introduced law.The law, which is set to be submitted to parliament, mandates that citizens have proof of a negative COVID test or “preventative treatment, including the administration of a vaccine” in order to “access transport or to some locations, as well as certain activities.”The law has sparked “angry protests from opposition politicians,” according to AFP.France’s vaccination program, which is set to get underway on Sunday, will not be mandatory, but a whopping 55% of citizens...

A top Russian scientist who was working on a Covid-19 vaccine has been found dead in suspicious circumstances in St Petersburg, adding one more to the list of people engaged in coronavirus research dropping dead mysteriously. Alexander ‘Sasha’ Kagansky, 45, was reported to have fallen in his underwear from a 14th floor window of a high rise flat – and was found with stab wounds. The Russian biologist had close links to Edinburgh University and had been working in the city for 13 years until at least 2017. The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a murder probe and a 45-year-old...

An integrated biorefinery approach utilizing agriculture waste biomass to produce renewable biomethane along with other co-products (for soil amendment, nutrient recovery, and transportation biofuels). Credit: Nazih Kassem, with images from Cornell University, Department of Energy ================================================================== Cornell University is developing a system to extract energy from cattle manure to meet the campus's peak demands for heat in the winter months. In the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, scientists involved with the project give a detailed analysis of the issues required to make this work, including scientific, economic, and energy policy considerations. The university is already involved in an initiative...

“A great report by Peter. Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election. Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!” President Trump wrote.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said "it's not personal" on Tuesday when asked about President-elect Joe Biden's remarks that Graham was a “personal disappointment” to him. Graham made the statement while appearing on “Fox & Friends” to speak about the recently passed $2.3 trillion spending bill and the federal investigation on the business dealings of Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son, in Ukraine. On Friday, Biden said Graham's criticism of him and his son Hunter Biden was was a "personal disappointment” due to their previous friendship. During the Tuesday interview, host Katie Pavlich raised the issue, noting that outgoing Attorney General William...

Last week there was some hopeful Christmas news regarding COVID-19. Pfizer's vaccine was approved with Moderna's close behind. Both are now being administered. However, news from the U.K. in an article on Dec. 20 in Self-Reliance Central has thrown cold water on that hope. The title of the article is self-explanatory: "European countries ban flights from UK as government warns potent new strain of virus is 'out of control.'" It is too early to know if the new vaccines will work on this alleged new strain. Regardless, this conveniently timed scare could sow doubts and justify extending the lockdowns well...

WASHINGTON — Dr. Deborah Birx has announced she plans to retire after being outed on Sunday for not following her own holiday travel guidance, calling the experience “overwhelming.” In an interview with Newsy, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator said she would help the incoming Biden administration but then planned to head for the exits. “I want the Biden administration to be successful,” Birx said, noting that she has worked in the federal government since the Regan administration in 1980. “I will be helpful in any role that people think I can be helpful in and then I will...

I predict the day our country’s finances collapse, we will still be funding “gender programs in Pakistan.” Tonight’s COVID relief/stimulus bill has no less than $10 million for said programs attached to it. link: https://mobile.twitter.com/RepThomasMassie/status/1341190322748076032/photo/1

Here’s another reason CNN’s political coverage seemed slanted against President Donald Trump: Political Correspondent Sara Murray gave cash to one of the only two Democratic senate candidates to defeat a GOP incumbent so far. Federal Election Commission (FEC) records revealed that Murray gave $1,000 to Democratic Senator Mark Kelly’s (D-AZ) campaign Sept. 19, 2020. Her contribution creates a potential conflict of interest given Murray’s role as a news correspondent covering politics for CNN.

Democracy is in disrepair. Over the past four years, President Donald Trump has mocked its rules and norms, accelerating the decay of democratic institutions in the United States. We are not alone: a global reckoning is underway, with authoritarian leaders capitalizing on broken promises and failed policies. To reverse the trend, President-elect Joe Biden has proposed to convene a Summit for Democracy. His campaign presents the summit as an opportunity to “renew the spirit and shared purpose of the nations of the Free World”. With the US placing itself once again “at the head of the table”, other nations can...

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is not ruling out a 2024 presidential bid — even if it means running against his old friend Donald Trump, according to a report. “I would not, no,” Christie told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Monday, Fox News reported. “I would not rule it out.” “If I go and look up Christie 2024, will that URL already be reserved?” Hewitt asked. “ChrisChristie.com is, sir,” Christie answered. “So, we’re gonna keep that one and we’ll see where we go from here.”

Truck carrying hundreds of propane tanks catches fire on LIE A tractor-trailer carrying hundreds of propane tanks overturned on the... This is the moment a tractor-trailer carrying nearly 300 propane tanks exploded after an accident on the Long Island Expressway early Tuesday — a crash likely caused by black ice, according to cops.Dramatic footage shows the massive inferno just after midnight on the eastbound service road of the highway near Junction Boulevard in Queens — with clips catching several explosions from the 294 propane tanks being carried.Police investigators found black ice just before the crash, and believe the tanker...

A smart friend of mine who is a moderate liberal asked why I was not recognizing Joe Biden’s victory.The friend made the case that Mr. Biden had gotten more votes, and historically we recognize the person with the most votes. Normally, we accept the outcome of elections just as we accept the outcomes of sporting events.So, my friend asked why was 2020 different?Having spent more than four years watching the left #Resist President Donald Trump and focus entirely on undoing and undermining the 2016 election, it took me several days to understand the depth of my own feelings. As I...

Around 2013, U.S. intelligence began noticing an alarming pattern: Undercover CIA personnel, flying into countries in Africa and Europe for sensitive work, were being rapidly and successfully identified by Chinese intelligence, according to three former U.S. officials. The surveillance by Chinese operatives began in some cases as soon as the CIA officers had cleared passport control. Sometimes, the surveillance was so overt that U.S. intelligence officials speculated that the Chinese wanted the U.S. side to know they had identified the CIA operatives, ---SNIP--- CIA officials believed the answer was likely data-driven—and related to a Chinese cyberespionage campaign devoted to stealing...

Congress is likely to pass the big COVID “relief” bill like the world’s second-largest kidney stone. My colleague Victoria Taft already highlighted some of the most egregious spending included in the bill, such as the horseracing regulations and the new cars for HIV/AIDS workers overseas. That one’s worth more than $193 million, begging the question of just how many restaurants, movie theaters, and other small businesses in these United States might have been helped with that money. A lot, I’d venture. Enjoy your $600, America. Don’t spend it all in one place! In addition to the $10 million for gender...

China said its military chased out a U.S. naval destroyer, after the United States said it would continue to assert "navigational rights and freedoms in the Spratly Islands," where Beijing has built an airstrip and other man-made structures. Chinese military spokesman Tian Junli said Tuesday the People's Liberation Army's southern command deployed ships and aircraft to warn and drive out the USS John S. McCain, Xinhua news agency reported.

Lt. Col. Christopher Ophardt, spokesman for the academy at West Point, said Monday that 73 cadets were accused of cheating on the calculus exam in May after instructors noticed irregularities in answers. All but one were freshmen, or plebes, in a class of 1,200. The other was a sophomore. After an investigation by an honors committee made up of trained cadets, two cases were dropped for lack of evidence and four were dropped because the cadets resigned, Ophardt said. Of the remaining 67 cases, 55 cadets have admitted cheating and have been enrolled in a six-month rehabilitation program focused on...

Ending selective admissions for top performing public middle schools in New York will disadvantage the city's brightest and highest achieving students as well as those who are not academically gifted. New York had 1.1 million public school students, though that number has now shrunk to 900,000 or so, and they are not all academically gifted. Most of the kids who have left the public school system since the pandemic are from low-income families. Those who are not academically gifted, or even who are not academically driven, are not stupid, bad, or in need of having all the super smart kids...

A woman in Colorado who was arrested five years ago while she was naked inside her private room at a sober living facility, was bound to a chair at a jail for several hours and was shocked twice with a Taser, was paid $2.4 million in a settlement Sunday. In May 2014, three deputies with the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office knocked on then 49-year-old Carolyn O’Neal’s door at New Creations Inn, a homeless transitional housing program in Cañon City, Colo., to perform a welfare check after management reportedly grew concerned she might harm herself. According to court documents, O’Neal insisted...