Free Republic

Just before authorities released the names of the victims of the Boulder, Colorado shooting, Liz Hanson woke up and got dressed, slipping into a pair of tie-dyed pants she bought at the store of her friend Lonna Bartkowiak. Moments later she learned that Bartkowiak, 49, had been shot and killed. “I found out she was gone,” Hanson said in an interview with the Forward . “I looked down at my pants because she had bought them at her store – she picked them out for me.”........Hanson is a member of Congregation Bonai Shalom, where London-native Rabbi Marc Soloway serves as...

On Jan. 10, Chinese scientists uploaded the genetic sequence of a novel coronavirus, later named SARS-CoV-2, to an open-access website, GenBank. The virus had been linked to a growing number of mysterious pneumonia cases, and its rapid spread was beginning to raise alarms. A few hours later, Barney Graham woke up and saw the sequence. Though it was a Saturday, he got right to work. Days before, his lab at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) had partnered with the biotech company Moderna to design an experimental vaccine for the virus, which causes the disease COVID-19....

We contacted the airport tower to see if someone could explain the lights but have not heard back from anyone. So far, we have not been able to speak to anyone with the FAA to find out if there were any drones in the area. The Southaven Police Department told us they had not received any calls about the lights. Memphis Police have not gotten back to us. The time stamp on David Howell’s cell phone shows the video was captured just after 10 p.m. “I can’t believe nobody else got video or called and said, hey, we see something....

The DO(In)J now admits that maybe the dog ate their homework: "The Justice Department has since acknowledged in court hearings that some of its evidence concerning the riot -- carried out by a mob of supporters of former President Donald Trump to try to overturn his election loss -- is less damning than it initially indicated. The department suffered another blow this week when U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta threatened to impose a gag order on prosecutors after Michael Sherwin, its former head prosecutor on the Capitol cases, told CBS's "60 Minutes" program that evidence pointed toward sedition charges against...

"Imagine being put in a concentration camp for trying to start a kindergarten. That's what happened to Abduweli Ayup, a writer, linguist, and now Uyghur activist. But while the Chinese Communist Party is committing genocide in Xinjiang, the international community debates."

Inside a tiny prison cell in Iran, an expert on disaster medicine and a citizen of Sweden named Ahmadreza Djalali is dying. At least, what is left of him is dying. This innocent man has spent four months in solitary confinement on a daily ration of 100 grams of bread. His possessions consist of a thin blanket and a picture of his wife and their two children. A prison photo of Djalali resembles a survivor of Nazi concentration camps. Djalali’s jailers have made it clear to his family that he will die unless Belgium agrees to swap him for Assadollah...

Three days after he was led away in handcuffs from a Boulder supermarket where 10 people were fatally shot, the suspect appeared in court Thursday for the first time and his defense lawyer asked for a health assessment "to address his mental illness." Kathryn Herold, the lawyer for suspect Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, provided no details about what he might suffer from. During the brief hearing, Alissa didn’t speak other than to say "yes" to a question from the judge and was advised of the 10 charges of first-degree murder he faces. He did not enter a plea, which will...

He was very well-rehearsed to take predictable questions on the Democrats’ soft-points and respond with articulate answers that had almost nothing to do with the real issue. Less reassuringly, he read from briefing notes at length in a manner that brazenly advertised the pre-selection of questionnaires, questions, and generally windy and evasive answers. No president in the history of such press conferences, going back to Franklin D. Roosevelt, has ever responded from a briefing book, especially one where the questions were in anticipated sequence as occurred today.

Now that Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure will reopen on April 30, excitement from fans hoping to revisit the “happiest place on Earth” has hit a fever pitch. But getting tickets is going to be a challenging process, even for the most die-hard fans who know the ins and outs of the system. Here’s everything we know about how to get tickets to Disneyland when it reopens. Advertisement Currently, there’s no announced date for when Disney plans to release ticket availability for guests — and in all likelihood, there will be only vague information about when tickets will go...

Regeneron's cocktail, a mixture of two drugs, imitates antibodies that the body generates when fighting the coronavirus in order to boost the immune system The antibody treatment was authorized by the FDA to treat mild to moderate cases of COVID-19 in November Half a group of 4,500 mild-to-moderate COVID-19 patients at high risk of severe illness were given one of two doses of the drugs Both doses were found to reduce the risk of hospitalization or death by about 70% compared to a placebo Recovery time was also shortened, with symptoms only lasting about 10 days in the cocktail group...

Thursday, at his first press conference as president, Joe Biden appeared to forget what he was saying, then become so confused that he struggled to move on to a new topic. Pres. Biden was addressing the possibility of abolishing or changing the Senate filibuster when he lost his train of thought, looked down, then tried to summarize what he meant to say. Biden seemed to have increasing difficulty expressing his thoughts, then completely lost his train of thought: “So, the best way to get something done, if you…if you hold, it near and dear to you, that you…uh, uh, like...

Charlotte, NC — In his first press conference on Thursday, President Joe Biden was asked about several different subjects. No doubt the news will be filled with many of his responses and our website will have more coverage as well. One specific comment caught attention when Joe Biden was pressed about former President Donald Trump, he made an interesting comment. He seems to share the same sentiment as many Americans across the country. Biden made the comment “my predecessor, God I miss him.” The comments by Biden can be seen in the press conference video below which was around 30...

Sure, it seems a little sketchy to buy beer from a guy tapping a keg on a Hanoi street corner, but it’s actually totally legit. Besides, at 5,000 Vietnamese dong (VND)—about 22 cents U.S.—what do you have to lose? Bia Hoi is a traditional low-alcohol beer that’s brewed fresh daily and brought to the street vendors via Vietnam’s ever-present motorbikes. Grab your plastic cup of brew and settle into the child-sized plastic lawn furniture set up on the sidewalk to watch the fascinating street life. As the day gets later the sidewalk turns into a low-key social experience, as inexpensive...

Our Operating SystemRecognizing the broad potential of mRNA science, we set out to create an mRNA technology platform that functions very much like an operating system on a computer. It is designed so that it can plug and play interchangeably with different programs. In our case, the "program” or “app” is our mRNA drug - the unique mRNA sequence that codes for a protein.We have a dedicated team of several hundred scientists and engineers solely focused on advancing Moderna's platform technology. They are organized around key disciplines and work in an integrated fashion to advance knowledge surrounding mRNA science and...

His estimate that it’ll take a 70% to 85% vaccination rate ignores those who have already been infected. --------- Anthony Fauci has been saying that the country needs to vaccinate 70% to 85% of the population to reach herd immunity from Covid-19. But he inexplicably ignores natural immunity. If you account for previous infections, herd immunity is likely close at hand. Data from the California Department of Public Health, released earlier this month, show that while only 8.7% of the state’s population has ever tested positive for Covid-19, at least 38.5% of the population has antibodies against the novel coronavirus....

A winning Political Narrative is one that can bring All Americans to One Side, unite us against our Common Adversary, and paint a Bright Future to excite us all. The following essay presents such a persuasion. All honest Liberals and Conservatives are ultimately fighting the exact same thing: Greed. Both parties want to dismantle Greed, as they see it in the other’s ideology. To dismantle Greed, we must address its power source: top-down power structures. What are top-down power structures? Centralized governments, corporate monopolies, federal banks, the IMF, globalist institutions and institutionalized religions, and other shadowy structures where Few dictate...

State-owned investment funds are reportedly making inquiries into buying Bitcoin (BTC). According to Robert Gutmann, CEO of New York Digital Investment Group, the firm has been having conversations with sovereign wealth funds about possible Bitcoin investments. Gutmann made this known while appearing at a virtual podcast with investment strategist and founder of Real Vision Raoul Pal. Pal also confirmed Gutmann’s revelation, stating that Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek was indeed a Bitcoin investor.According to Pal, Temasek which holds about $306 billion in assets under management, has been buying virgin Bitcoin from miners. Tweeting on Thursday, Pal characterized the imminent entry...

Jessica Walter, a fan-favorite actress who starred in TV series “Arrested Development” and “Archer,” has died. She was 80. Walter died on Wednesday in her home in New York. Walter’s publicist confirmed her passing. Brooke Bowman, Walter’s daughter who is a senior vice president of drama programming at Fox Entertainment, released a statement to Deadline: “It is with a heavy heart that I confirm the passing of my beloved mom Jessica. A working actor for over six decades, her greatest pleasure was bringing joy to others through her storytelling both on screen and off. While her legacy will live on...

OMPANO BEACH, Fla. – Chaos unfolded at a Pompano Beach park last week after a driver was accused of slamming her car into a woman and a child. That driver took down a portion of a gate before driving into a playground and hitting a grandmother and her 3-year-old grandson. “You see those kids running and screaming for their lives,” said that grandmother, Chaunda McCleod. She told Local 10 News she saw a group arguing at Pompano Beach Community Park. “They were on the other side and it was a fight, so we started to get all of the kids...

In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled the federal Liberal government's carbon pricing regime is constitutional — a major decision that allows Ottawa to push ahead with its ambitious plan to ensure every province and territory has a price on carbon to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Some provinces — notably Alberta, Ontario and Saskatchewan — have forcefully opposed the carbon tax, arguing natural resources are in the provinces' jurisdiction under the Constitution. Chief Justice Richard Wagner, writing for the majority, said the federal government is free to impose minimum pricing standards because the threat of climate...