Free Republic

MOSCOW (AP) — Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev turned 90 on Tuesday, receiving greetings from the Kremlin and global leaders while Russians remained divided over his legacy. Gorbachev, who has stayed in a hospital as a precaution amid the coronavirus pandemic, was scheduled to have a video call Tuesday with his aides and associates who gathered at his foundation to congratulate him. Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Gorbachev in a letter published by the Kremlin, hailing him as “one of the most outstanding statesmen of modern times who made a considerable impact on the history of our nation and the...

LUBBOCK, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) – Texas Governor Greg Abbott made the “statewide announcement” Tuesday afternoon that it’s time to open Texas 100% and he ended the mask mandate. “Under no circumstance can someone be punished for not wearing a mask,” said Gov. Abbott.

A collision between a semitruck and an SUV carrying more than two dozen people near the U.S.-Mexico border Tuesday morning has left 15 dead and several others injured, officials said. Twenty-seven people were in the SUV when it struck a tractor-trailer hauling gravel, said Judy Cruz, the El Centro Regional Medical Center’s emergency department director. Fourteen people died at the scene. One more died at El Centro Regional Medical Center, where six others are being treated, Cruz said. At least five more have been flown from the scene to other treatment centers, she said. “The patients are, of course, going...

It's no secret that President Obama is an avid reader. But, he just got even more cred with book-lovers by praising everybody's favorite children's author: yep, Obama loves Dr. Seuss. In a Q&A session with interns, Obama admitted that "pretty much all the stuff you need to know is in Dr. Seuss." And of course, he's spot on. Obama won his way into the hearts of book nerds last year when he declared that reading novels made him a better citizen. (And considering he's the leader of the entire country, he's pretty much the best citizen there is.) Obama claims...

FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday refused to tell senators the cause of death for Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, whose death heavily influenced coverage of the Capitol riot. Reports after Jan. 6 originally said Sicknick died after being bludgeoned by a fire extinguisher while fighting off then-President Donald Trump’s supporters, which authorities didn’t deny at the time. The claim became part of the impeachment trial case against Trump for allegedly inciting the riot — though his family now says it’s untrue. Wray cited an “ongoing” investigation into Sicknick’s death. “I certainly understand and respect and appreciate the keen interest...

Total Vaccine Doses Delivered: 102,353,940 Receiving 1 or More Doses: 51,755,447 Receiving 2 Doses: 26,162,122

While Kruiser is away, Stephen Green and I will play, and the playground is the Morning Briefing. Green ably led the line yesterday. I’ll do my best today. Today is March 2. Outside Texas this is just another day but in Texas it’s Texas Independence Day. On March 2, 1836, while the 189-odd Texians, Tejanos, and European rebels (and a bunch from Tennessee, however you choose to classify them) were under Santa Anna’s brutal siege at the Alamo, Sam Houston, Lorenzo de Zavala, and other Texas leaders were holed up at Washington-on-the-Brazos. They were hashing out what to do, as...

Mitt Romney knocked unconscious, suffers black eye, more than a dozen stitches after fall Sen. Mitt Romney was knocked unconscious when he fell in Boston over the weekend, leaving him with “a lot of stitches” and a black eye. “I took a fall. Knocked me unconscious. But I’m doing better,” Romney told reporters on Capitol Hill Monday night. The Utah Republican said he was visiting his grandchildren when he got injured. “I went to CPAC, that was a problem,” he joked. Romney was not invited to the marquee event after receiving backlash over his vote to impeach President Donald Trump....

"Put Your Head on my Shoulder" is an interesting take on the love triangle, set in college. The ambiguity in a high school relationship leaves room later for the boy's college roommate to move in on the girl, who was loved but not claimed.

Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany is joining Fox News, bringing one of the Trump administration’s most prominent figures to the cable channel. Fox News host Harris Faulkner announced the hiring Tuesday during a segment with the former press secretary on her show, “The Faulkner Focus.” A Fox News spokeswoman said Ms. McEnany would serve as an on-air commentator. Before joining the Trump administration in April 2020, Ms. McEnany had served as press secretary for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and as a national spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee. She has experience on cable news, having been a frequent...

Just when you thought the Left couldn’t veer any closer to the cliffs of insanity, The Washington Post has given notice that we haven’t seen anything yet. The daftest bit of madness, the war on biological gender, is just part of it. Sanity itself is now on trial, according to a book review in the Post’s Sunday Outlook section, “How colonialism and capitalism helped place a stigma on mental illness.” In it, New York-based writer Balaji Ravichandran discusses a book by Roy Richard Grinker entitled “NOBODY’S Normal: How Culture Created the Stigma of Mental Illness.” Mr. Ravichandran, channeling Mr. Grinker,...

We reported last month that veteran New York Times health and science reporter Donald McNeil Jr. “resigned” over resurfaced allegations he used racially offensive and sexist language during a 2019 NYT-sponsored student trip to Peru.At issue were complaints from students who “specifically alleged that the science reporter used the ‘n-word’ and suggested he did not believe in the concept of white privilege” during the trip, according to a January story from the Daily Beast. “Three other participants alleged that McNeil made racist comments and used stereotypes about Black teenagers,” they also reported.The Times higher-ups became aware of the claims and...

Gov. Andrew Cuomo — now being called on to resign over allegations of sexual harassment — apparently couldn’t help himself during a live press briefing last spring, commenting on the appearance of a female doctor in full protective gear who was administering him a coronavirus test. The unsolicited, preserved-on-video comment now stands out, with Cuomo publicly accused of sexual harassment by three women in less than a week.

Mass insanity appears to have gripped nearly the entire nation of New Zealand, which has placed its largest city, Auckland, under its fourth lockdown requiring people to stay indoors at home (AKA "house arrest"), this time because one case of COVID was discovered (a second case followed after the lockdown was announced). The nation's leader, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, is blaming the victim for presumed rule-breaking, on the theory that the spread of a virus can be completely prevented if only people obey their leaders who are imposing radical confinement rules on them. Quote from an MP today: "It is...

A pet husky proved what a useless guard dog he was – sleeping through an armed robbery training session at a jewelry store. Hilarious CCTV footage shows the chubby pooch ignoring the thief wielding a fake gun during the simulation in Chiang Ma, Thailand, on February 16. During the alarm training day, a man approached the store counter and pointed a replica at the shop owner. Worawut Lomwanawong, who owned the shop, waited for the pooch named Lucky to spring into life and snarl at the man, who was demanding money at gunpoint. He kept glancing to his side and...

Four major bills being pushed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., are expected to be killed in the Senate. ...

'This is full-on abuse' A video of a woman having a little boy read from "The GayBCs" — a children's book that uses letters of the alphabet to introduce readers as young as 4 years old to LGBTQ words — has been making quite a stir on social media. POLL: What scares you the most? What are the details? The video begins with the little boy reading aloud the word for letter A: "ally." Then the woman with him is heard introducing the rest of the letters, beginning with "B is for" — and the tyke answers "bi." While some...

Some of us old timers who grew up in Southern California recall the inversion layers of particles in the valleys that trapped smog. We later learned that the haze we saw (which was then called 'smog') was ozone, created primarily from vehicle emissions. That was “bad” ozone. There also was naturally occurring (good) ozone, generated by the sun’s reactions with naturally emitted hydrocarbons (e.g. pine trees) that one sees over the Great Smoky Mountains. Ozone is important, since its layer in the stratosphere protects us from intense UV radiation that is associated with skin cancer. So, years ago, the world’s...

Rep. Kathleen Rice has become the first New York Democrat in Congress to join mounting calls for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resign after three women accused him of offensive behavior. "The time has come. The Governor must resign," Rice, a former district attorney, tweeted Monday night. Recent Stories from ABC News Rice was once a close ally of Cuomo's. In the 2010 race for state attorney general, Rice was widely believed to be Cuomo's preferred pick for the role, but he ended up endorsing her opponent, Eric Schneiderman, right before the primary. In 2013, Rice was appointed by Cuomo as...

Potato Head Politics Nothing that is considered traditional, including something as innocuous as a family of plastic potato toys, will be allowed to survive.No matter how far you think the woke warriors have overextended themselves, there will forever be a fresh new hell that makes you scratch your head and ask, “is this the final straw?”Mr. Potato Head is the latest example. If you missed the saga, Hasbro last week had decided America’s favorite cartoon spud is insufficiently inclusive and elected to neuter him. Mr. Potato Head briefly went genderless and people were asked to refer to the toy simply...