Free Republic

Experts are warning that over-the-counter pain relievers such as Aspirin, Tylenol or ibuprofen could dull the effectiveness of coronavirus vaccines. As the US continues to roll out vaccines from both Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna to the general public, recipients have reported minor side-effects like temporary pain that have driven some to take preventative over-the-counter painkillers before inoculation. But several experts who spoke with ABC News Wednesday warn that this practice may hinder the body’s ability to form the antibodies that protect against COVID-19.

It happened a couple of years ago -- a now-viral video showing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene chasing down David Hogg on the street in Washington, D.C. Hogg is a college student who was a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during the 2018 shooting and famously helped organize the March for Our Lives organization. Hogg was in Washington to lobby for gun control measures. In the video, Greene, who was not yet an elected official, is berating Hogg with talking points against gun control and makes sure he knows she has a concealed carry permit. Hogg ignored Greene and...

The beneficiaries of Wall Street’s cash flow have stacked President Joe Biden’s cabinet picks to head various agencies, including the Treasury Department, Transportation Department, and State Department. Despite claims to be at odds with Wall Street throughout the 2020 presidential election, Biden is stacking his cabinet with allies and the beneficiaries of some of the nation’s biggest banks. The appointments are not a surprise for the Washington, DC, beltway as Wall Street spent $74 million to unseat former President Trump. When Vice President Kamala Harris was picked as Biden’s running mate, Wall Street executives and hedge fund managers praised the...

Covid19 may damage sperm quality and reduce fertility in men, according to a new study based on experimental evidence. The viral disease -- which has swept the globe, claiming nearly 2.2 million lives -- can cause increased sperm cell death, inflammation and so-called oxidative stress, researchers reported Friday in the journal Reproduction. "These findings provide the first direct experimental evidence that the male reproductive system could be targeted and damaged by Covid-19," the authors concluded.

Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) are introducing DREAM Act legislation next week, as senators look for a long elusive immigration deal. Durbin told reporters on Thursday that it would be the starting base for broader negotiations within the Judiciary Committee and the Senate. "If we can reach an agreement soon, very soon, we will have the base bill reintroduced and then that will be our starting point to build support as well as consider any additions, too," Durbin, the incoming chairman of the Judiciary Committee, told reporters. Durbin, who also serves as Senate majority whip, said that...

The Biden administration plans to offer coronavirus vaccines to detainees held at the U.S. military prison in Guantánamo Bay, the New York Times reported on Thursday evening. According to the report, the Pentagon will offer the coronavirus vaccine, which remains in high demand, to the terror suspects “possibly starting next week, according to a prosecutor in the case against five prisoners accused of conspiring in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.” According to the report, detainees could begin receiving the vaccine, which will be administered on a voluntary basis, as early as Monday:

Air Force researchers are developing technology using cellular reprogramming they say could "heal wounds more than five times faster than the human body." Scientists are researching "ways to reprogram a person's own cells to heal wounds faster," according to a news release from the service. Indika Rajapakse, associate professor of computational medicine and bioinformatics and mathematics at the University of Michigan, is leading the research. Cellular reprogramming is the process of using a human cell and rewriting its genome to transform into an entirely different type of cell. The method can change a skin cell, for example, to a neuron,...

John Kerry, whom President Joe Biden appointed as the United States special presidential envoy for climate, said in an interview with the BBC on Wednesday that only nine years remain to save the planet from so-called manmade climate change. Kerry was asked about the United Nation’s COP26 conference in Glasgow, Scotland, scheduled for November. “Glasgow will be extremely important,” Kerry said. “In fact, I would say that in my judgment, it is the last best chance the world has to come together in order to do the things we need to do to avoid the worst consequences of the climate...

Billionaires in the United States have increased their wealth by nearly 40 percent since the start of the Chinese coronavirus crisis, new analysis finds. The nation’s 660 billionaires have grown their collective net worth by $1.1 trillion since March 2020, when economic lockdowns closed small and medium-sized businesses, according to analysis by Americans for Tax Fairness. In March 2020, U.S. billionaires had a combined net worth of just under $3 trillion. Today, that net worth has jumped to $4.1 trillion — a 38.6 percent increase in wealth for the nation’s richest one percent of earners.

Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) Thursday on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” proclaimed House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was “standing with the enemy of the Constitution” by meeting with former President Donald Trump.

Former Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) said Thursday on CNN’s “Cuomo Prime Time” he holds the Republican leadership responsible for fostering “foster lies and misinformation” that enabled President Donald Trump, who Kasich called a “false prophet.” Kasich said, “The situation is that the Republican leadership has really gone along in fostering these lies, these conspiracies. You know, the election was stolen.”

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's administration has admitted that the number of deaths in the state's nursing homes is 43% higher than previously announced in a bombshell report just hours after the state's Attorney General said numbers had been undercounted by 50%. State health commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker released figures Thursday that put the death tally at both nursing homes and hospitals at 12,743 as of January 19 - where previously the official count had been 8,914. Zucker said provisional data showed 3,829 nursing home residents died from Covid-19 after being sent to hospitals. The number has not been reported...

The CEO of trading platform Robinhood has defended his firm's highly controversial decision to halt trading of certain stocks on Thursday, insisting it was for the good of customers and the company. Vlad Tenev, a 33-year-old Bulgarian-American businessman, co-founded Robinhood in 2013. On Thursday night he explained why his platform had infuriated users by preventing trading in stocks including GameStop, AMC Cinemas, Nokia and American Airlines.

A second police officer who defended the Capitol during the siege on Jan. 6 has died by suicide, the acting chief of the Metropolitan Police Department told Congress this week. Chief Robert J. Contee III told a House committee that Officer Jeffrey Smith, a 12-year veteran of his department, had killed himself on Jan. 15 and that Officer Howard Liebengood, a 15-year veteran of the Capitol Police, had also died by suicide days after the attack. The Police Department declined to give a cause for Officer Smith’s death or say whether it was connected to the riot. His family could...

Two gymnopedies down, one to go.

A Harrisburg attorney said Thursday that a state appeals court has just given him the next clue toward hopefully solving the mystery of whether the FBI dug up a cache of lost Civil War gold worth about $400 million from a remote Pennsylvania forest nearly three years ago. That clue, William J. Cluck said, is the name of the federal magistrate judge who ordered all records of the March 2018 excavation in the Dent’s Run area of Elk County to be sealed from public view. Cluck said he can use that information, secured through his latest Right-to-Know Law appeal to...

Jon Stewart was prompted to join Twitter on Thursday to defend the renegade Reddit traders who turned Wall Street upside down this week. The former “Daily Show” host hit back at critics of the rogue day traders who used WallStreetBets to send GameStop’s stock skyrocketing in defiance of large hedge funds shorting the business. “This is ********. The Redditors aren’t cheating, they’re joining a party Wall Street insiders have been enjoying for years,” Stewart tweeted.

Securities with trading restrictions We have placed some restrictions on the following securities. These restrictions will not prevent clients from making basic buy and sell transactions. This list is as of January 28, 2021, 4:00PM ET. AMC, CVM, EXPR, FOSL, GME, NOK, BB, BBBY, FIZZ, GSX, IRBT, NCMI, TR, UONE, VIR, NAK, NAKD, DDS, KOSS The following restrictions are in place: Stocks - 100% holding requirement (not marginable) Long calls and puts are allowed Covered call and short put orders may only be placed with a broker. Please be aware that wait times to speak with a broker may be...

Boeing confirmed Wednesday that all 787 Dreamliner production will move to South Carolina in March 2021.KING 5 first reported the move in late September, when reports emerged that 787 assembly would be leaving Everett and relocating to Charleston, S.C....Boeing shared the following statement on their website Wednesday:"Commercial Airplanes production rate assumptions reflect the continued impacts of COVID-19 on commercial demand, and the company will continue to assess them on an ongoing basis.The 737 program is currently producing at a low rate and expects to gradually increase production to 31 per month in early 2022 with further gradual increases to correspond...

PRESIDENT BIDEN HAS TAKEN DURING HIS FIRST WEEK AS PRESIDENT. NEWS 8’S JEREMY JENKINS HAS MORE. JEREMY: DURING HIS INAUGURATION, PRESIDENT BIDEN TALKED ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF LIMITING -- LISTENING TO EACH OTHER AND BRIDGING THE GAP. TO THAT THERE PAT TOOMEY SAYS HE HAS DONE ANYTHING BUT THAT IN HIS FIRST DAYS IN OFFICE. DAYS INTO BIDEN’S PRESIDENCY, HE SIGNED AT LEAST 30 EXECUTIVE ORDERS ADDRESSING ISSUES FROM CLIMATE CHANGE AND OIL DRILLING. >> THEY KILLED THE KEYSTONE PIPELINE. JEREMY: TO GENDER IDENTITY IMMIGRATION SCIENTIFIC INTEGRITY AND RACIAL EQUITY. >> THEY ARE ALL EXTREMELY LITERAL -- EXTREMELY LIBERAL PARTISAN...