Free Republic

Eager visitors will soon be able to visit Toro Park, once the gates open in April. The popular Central Coast recreational facility is preparing to once again host outdoor enthusiast and family outings after the River Fire burnt through it last August. Since then, crews have had their hands full removing damaged trees and cleaning trails, while still carrying out the day to day operations. But their hard work is about to pay off. Bryan Flores, Administrative Operations Manager said,"Were making preparations to have events and reservations whether it's somebody's birthday or wedding reception, bike race, cross country race and...

CNA Staff, Mar 23, 2021 / 09:01 pm MT (CNA).- University of Iowa officials who wrongly de-recognized a Christian student group for objecting to same-sex relationships can be held personally liable for their unconstitutional actions, a federal appeals court has said. The decision came in a second lawsuit relating to the university’s treatment of campus religious groups. A three-judge panel with the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals on March 22 overturned part of a lower court’s decision which held that dean of students Lyn Redington, assistant dean Thomas Baker, and Iowa Memorial Union executive director had qualified immunity. Instead, the...

Biden (Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg) is weighing a (vehicle miles tax) (VMT) to fund the president's estimated ( $3 trillion infrastructure plan), which he (plans to unveil next Friday).A VMT would tax people per miles driven and presents an alternative to further raising the gas tax."We’re obviously going to have to come to more solutions if we’re going to preserve the user-paid principle," Buttigieg said Thursday of a potential VMT while testifying before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

The nation’s very first “vaccine passport” is coming to the Big Apple. The program, dubbed the “Excelsior Pass,” is an app that will allow New Yorkers to prove their vaccination status, or recent history of a negative COVID-19 test, in order to gain entry to events and businesses, Governor Cuomo announced in a news release Friday. “Similar to a mobile airline boarding pass, individuals will be able to either print out their pass or store it on their smartphones using the Excelsior Pass Wallet app,” the news release explains. “Each Pass will have a secure QR code, which participating businesses...

Americans who travel to China for organ transplants are at risk of becoming accomplices in state-sponsored forced organ harvesting, warned a resolution recently passed by a U.S. county. Spotsylvania County, Virginia, on March 23 became the eighth county this year to pass a resolution condemning the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for forcibly harvesting organs from prisoners of conscience.

As the US President recently made vague remarks about implementation of the Doha agreement and withdrawal of all foreign troops, and moreover, some NATO member states are seeking to extend the occupation of Afghanistan, the Islamic Emirate would like to clarify its stance regarding the issue as following: The Doha agreement is the most sensible and shortest path to ending the past twenty-year war between Afghanistan and America and establishing a peaceful Afghanistan. The Islamic Emirate is firmly committed to its undertakings outlined in the agreement, and wants the American side to also remain firmly committed to the Doha agreement...

Trump joined “The Ingraham Angle” on Fox News on Thursday to respond to President Biden’s first press conference of his term, which was held earlier that day, following mounting pressure from critics and journalists wondering why Biden was taking so long to hold a briefing.

***** Tunes For Our Troops ~ Canteen Music Dedication Presents The Bee Gees ~ *****~ Support The Artists You Hear Throughout The Canteen ! ~ ***** Warning: Not all music may be appropriate for children! Please click with caution. Thank you! Tunes For The Troops This music is provided for the entertainment of our Troops, Veterans, Allies & their families! Enjoy the variety of musical selections that the Canteen DJs provide throughout the thread. Please ping any DJ with your requests for the Troops! All music is removed on Monday.Thanks to all the DJs for their time & effort...

Twenty Chinese military aircraft entered Taiwan’s air defence identification zone on Friday, in the largest incursion yet reported by the island’s defence ministry and marking a dramatic escalation of tension across the Taiwan Strait. It marked the largest incursion to date by the Chinese air force since Taiwan’s defence ministry began disclosing almost daily Chinese military flights over the waters between the southern part of Taiwan and the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands in the South China Sea last year.

A plan to house migrant children from the surging crisis at the US-Mexico border will leave a Renton foster family with no place to call home. Edmundo Serena Sanchez said he and his wife were notified in February that they would have to vacate the Renton house where they have nurtured and raised Washington state foster children for nearly seven years. “It was just senseless. Everything they did was irresponsible,” Serena Sanchez said of the move-out order that came after a year of lockdown from the coronavirus pandemic. The couple have fostered about 20 children over the years in the...

As YouTube continues to censor, these alternatives are rising up to empower viewers and creators. Use them. Tell friends and family about them. Tell creators to use them.

The Ohio Health Department should begin releasing data on coronavirus deaths in two categories: those whose death was caused by COVID-19, and those who died of other causes but also had a positive test, the state auditor said in a report. Not making the distinction “may lead to confusion for the layperson as to whether an individual died by COVID-19 or died with COVID-19,” said the report from office of Republican state Auditor Keith Faber. While the state follows federal guidelines for coronavirus death reporting, some medical professionals may fill out death certificates for people who died of other causes...

A top Ohio Republican lawmaker said Wednesday he expects a court challenge to a new law curbing Gov. Mike DeWine’s coronavirus powers. However, it’s still unclear exactly where such a lawsuit against Senate Bill 22 will come from. The law, passed over DeWine’s veto, gives lawmakers the authority to cancel any gubernatorial health orders lasting longer than 30 days, requires the governor’s office to renew such orders every 60 days, limits local health officials’ power to quarantine or self-isolate people, and allows Ohioans to sue over the constitutionality of any state emergency order in their home county. The new law...

Different Styles of Biden and President Trump bring different results

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security, which was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to protect the country from international terrorism, is moving toward a sweeping set of policy changes to detect and stop what intelligence officials say is now a top threat: domestic violent extremism. Two senior Biden administration officials said DHS, whose intelligence division did not publish a warning of potential violence before the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, is seeking to improve its ability to collect and analyze data about domestic terrorism — including the sorts of public social media posts that threatened an attack on...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday will discuss taking up a major new gun rights case involving a National Rifle Association-backed challenge to a New York state law that restricts the ability of residents to carry concealed handguns in public...Two gun owners and the New York affiliate of the NRA, an influential gun rights group closely aligned with Republicans, are asking the justices to hear an appeal of a lower court ruling throwing out their challenge to a policy that requires a state resident to show "proper cause" to obtain a permit to carry a concealed handgun outside the home.

From the Desk of Fr. Mike: This is a good place to bring you up to date briefly on a recent change inp> the Catholic Church that you might not learn about from the secular media. A new instruction from the Vatican has banned the practice of individual Masses inside St. Peter’s Basilica, placing strict limits on the use of the Latin rite. One of the groundbreaking reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) was to adapt the liturgy “...more suitably to the needs of our own times.” Now, the place where those words were penned and approved can become...

Chances are you’ve seen them – car clubs gathering in suburban parking lots full of beautifully shiny classic vehicles, hoods open, windows down, men and women milling around comparing notes and sharing a mutual love of a hobby. But according to media reports, car clubs are under fire in Austin, Texas, for exuding a “toxic display of masculinity.” The term “toxic masculinity” is a recently invented term, coined by academics and media personalities who believe certain masculine traits are harmful to not only society but also to the men themselves. Repeating a lie long enough doesn’t make it true, of...

The U.S. government now holds political prisoners in jail in the nation’s capital, and the party that purports to stand for freedom, liberty, and rule of law refuses to defend them.federal judge this week blasted a top Justice Department official for publicly bragging about the agency’s sprawling investigation into the January 6 Capitol melee. In an emergency hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta warned government prosecutors to keep quiet or face a gag order. Mehta fumed over comments made in a television interview by former acting U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin—he led the first two months of the nationwide manhunt...

Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has previously spoken out against the allegations of election fraud former president Donald Trump claimed last year, has now insinuated that Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia won his 2018 race against Stacy Abrams through similar means. Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has previously spoken out against the allegations of election fraud former president Donald Trump claimed last year, has now insinuated that Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia won his 2018 race against Stacey Abrams through similar means. In a tweet posted Thursday after Gov. Kemp signed SB 202, a bill overhauling Georgia's voting laws, Warren called Kemp...