Free Republic

As the United States and Canada wrestle with the COVID-19 pandemic, states and provinces continually change restrictions on restaurant dining. This state-by-state guide offers a status check on whether restaurants are allowed to be open for dining in (indoors and out), or whether delivery and takeout are still the norm.Keep in mind that local (county, city, and town) guidance may differ from the state, and that many restaurants may not reopen right away even if they are able. Takeout and delivery remains an option in all areas, though, and links are provided in each region on how and what to...

When pressed by Senators on the legality of illegal border crossings, President Biden’s Attorney General nominee Merrick Garland revealed he “hadn’t thought about it.”“Just a fundamental question. Do you believe that illegal entry at America’s borders should remain a crime,” Senator Dick Durbin asked.Garland replied: “Well, I haven’t thought about that question. I just haven’t thought about that question.”“I think, you know, the president had made clear that we are a country with borders and with a concern about national security. I don’t know of a proposal to decriminalize but still make it unlawful to enter. I just don’t know...

Mayor Svante Myrick will propose replacing the city’s current 63-officer, $12.5 million a year department with a “Department of Community Solutions and Public Safety” which would include armed “public safety workers” and unarmed “community solution workers,” all of whom will report to a civilian director of public safety instead of a police chief. Under the proposal, all current officers would have to re-apply for a position with the new department. If the proposal is approved, calls for service will be evaluated to determine whether an armed or unarmed respondent is necessary, or another public agency altogether would be best to...

Dominion Voting Systems has filed a lawsuit against MyPillow CEO and vocal Donald Trump supporter Mike Lindell over his election fraud claims, saying “the lie sells pillows.” Lindell is only the latest person to be legally targeted by Dominion over election fraud conspiracy theories. The company filed suit last month against Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, accusing him of pushing election conspiracies to “financially enrich himself.”Dominion is now suing Lindell for defamation, seeking $1.3 billion in damages.“MyPillow’s defamatory marketing campaign – with promo codes like ‘FightforTrump’, ‘45’, ‘Proof’, and ‘QAnon’ – has increased MyPillow sales by 30-40 percent and continues...

The 17-year cicadas have started to emerge from their underground homes and, soon, Northeast Ohio will be crawling with literally billions of these bugs. While snacking on a cicada may not be your idea of a delicious treat, they're high in protein, low-fat, low-carb, gluten-free and, over the course of the next several weeks, will be plentiful and fairly easy to forage. The clock is ticking, though. Jenna Jadin, an entomologist who wrote "Cicada-Licious," the definitive cicada cookbook in 2004, says the bugs are best to eat shortly after they've hatched, before their exoskeletons have hardened. Early morning is the...

Comments from those who watched this shocking video: "In Texas. Filled a saucepan with snow and heated on gas stove and snow sticking to outside and bottom of pan sparked a little and burned different colors. I was a little freaked out by that." "We had the same kind of line “snowflakes” falling in central Texas the other day. Not sure what it was but I’ve never seen anything like it before..." "Those snowflakes look like designer viruses." "Here in Indiana we got weird "stick shaped" snowflakes! I took a video recording. Looked like material fibers! My Senior Mother commented,...

President Joe Biden, who promised to bring the nation together, continues to act in a dictatorship fashion as he signed a new presidential executive order reversing the Mexico City Policy. With one stroke of the pen, he has now enacted the largest anti-life movement ever in the country’s history. The Mexico City Policy prevents using taxpayer dollars to fund abortion-related activities in foreign countries. In an action against the wishes of the majority of Americans, as revealed in a new poll conducted in January, Biden continues to take steps that further divide the country. Under the scheme of a woman’s...

The North Dakota House of Representatives has passed a bill that will make any future mask mandates illegal in the state. Monday’s vote passed 50-44 and is now heading to the state senate. “Our state is not a prison camp,” the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Jeff Hoverson, said. The state’s Republican Gov. Doug Burgum had put a mask mandate in place three months ago, but had previously expressed doubt about if mandates were really the way to go. The Grand Forks Herald reports that Hoverson called mask mandates “diabolical silliness,” referring to them as a conspiracy run by “unelected, wealthy bureaucrats...

289 years ago, on February 22nd, 1731, George Washington came into our world. He would go on to do amazing things, things which it is not my intent to spend another 50000 words re-telling. What I wanted to do instead was invite you and invite everybody to celebrate his life and legacy, and take the time to get to know him a little better on a more personal level. This can be done. There are two fantastic free/opensource biographies here and here to help facilitate this, and it is a great reminder of who we as Americans truely are. Sure,...

Places with highest daily reported cases per capita Seven-day average of daily new reported cases per 100,000 residents

There’s something in the California air.The state’s spectacular almond bloom—the largest single pollination event in the world—has begun. Orchards are blooming and honey bees are buzzing.The video above shows flowering almond trees at Kimmelshue Orchards in Durham, California, south of Chico.The pollination season typically runs from early February to mid-March.“Californian almond pollination requires billions of honeybees traveling thousands of miles in a nationally coordinated migration,” according to the agriculture information and news sources website Farm Progress.

“We’re not going to prejudge.” State Department spokesperson Ned Price deployed this classic Washington euphemism last week to avoid responding to a question over how much culpability Iran and its Shiite militias bear for recent rocket attacks against a U.S. military base in northern Iraq. ....Biden’s approach draws directly from Obama’s playbook: turning a blind eye to regional aggression and offering economic relief... And it’s unfortunate, because the result is sure to be the same as before as well: an overly deferential and defective deal that offers Iran patient pathways to nuclear weapons because its restrictions eventually sunset, while handcuffing...

Bob is going in for his right shoulder replacement surgery this Friday, 2/26. He did so well with the left one back in December his doctor calls him his "poster child". It went so smoothly and Bob said he had a wonderful sense of peace throughout the whole thing. Thank you to everyone who prayed for him and to the Lord for His hand in it all. Bob's doing so well recovering from the last surgery that he feels more than ready to take care of the other side now. He's been suffering serious pain and limited movement for years...

Mia Farrow is still acting. In Part 1 of HBO’s sizzling new docuseries, “Allen v. Farrow,’’ the actress, appearing as prim and uptight as the state of Connecticut, recounts, yet again, how she was emotionally mutilated by the filmmaker Woody Allen, who dumped her for one grown daughter and then, she claims, proceeded to molest her other, prepubescent girl child. It’s a riveting, yet strangely antiseptic, performance by an actress who’s made her life’s work exacting revenge from the man who done her wrong. Trouble is, it seems to me that not a word of it, with the possible exceptions...

Merrick Garland took questions in the Senate today in support of his nomination by President Joe Biden for US Attorney General. Senator Josh Hawley asked Garland his thoughts on "assaults on federal property in places other than Washington, DC, Portland, for instance, Seattle." Garland said, in essence, that while the attack on the Capitol was domestic terrorism, the attacks on federal buildings over the summer likely were not. "Do you regard assaults on federal courthouses or other federal property as acts of domestic extremism, domestic terrorism?" "Well Senator, my own definition, which is about the same as the statutory definition,...

Together with a few other tech and media corporations, Microsoft has formed a coalition focused on fighting “disinformation” and fake news. The other founding members of the coalition are Truepic, Intel, BBC, Adobe, and Arm. Disinformation and fake news have become prevalent buzzwords to create a justification to censor in this digital age. It’s now very easy for people to formulate and spread falsehoods, according to the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity. “There’s a critical need to address widespread deception in online content — now supercharged by advances in AI and graphics and diffused rapidly via the internet. Our...

Date of first SOTU -Nixon 1970 - Jan 22 -Carter 1978 - Jan 19 -Regan 1982 - Jan 26 -Bush, HW 1990 - Jan 31 -Clinton 1994 - Jan 25 -Bush 2002 - Jan 29 -Obama 2010 - Jan 27 -Trump 2018 - Jan 30

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on Monday that he discussed the 2022 elections during a weekend meeting with former President Trump that he had billed as part of an effort to unite a fractured party. Graham, returning to the Capitol on Monday evening, said they "just talked about the 2022 cycle." "He’s very involved in helping the team win," Graham added, noting that Trump "made a bunch of phone calls" and is "trying to get the best team on the field." An adviser to the former president didn't immediately respond to a question about the meeting and what, if any,...

~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: MacDill Air Force Base, FloridaMacDill Air Force Base (MacDill AFB) is a United States Air Force installation located 4 miles south-southwest of downtown Tampa, Florida. The "host wing" for MacDill AFB is the 6th Air Refueling Wing (6 ARW), assigned to the Eighteenth Air Force (18AF) of the Air Mobility Command (AMC). MacDill became an Air Mobility Command installation in 1996 and home to the 6th Air Refueling Wing, its 310th Airlift Squadron flying the C-37A, and its 50th Air Refueling Squadron and 91st Air Refueling Squadron flying the KC-135. The 6 ARW...