Free Republic

A Texas Republican Senator is joining forces with a Connecticut Democrat to pass a bipartisan bill to strengthen background checks on firearms. The change is small but would end an unintended loophole that has led to mass shootings. Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, have been quietly negotiating this bill, NBC News reported Wednesday, but the senators believe they could be on the verge of a compromise deal.

An Atlanta mayoral candidate who voted to defund millions of dollars from the local police department’s budget reportedly had his car stolen by a group of young thieves this week. City Council Member Antonio Brown had just gotten out of his white Mercedes coupe to speak to fellow community leader Ben Norman in northwest Atlanta’s Dixie Hills community Wednesday when he spotted four or five kids — the youngest only 6 or 7, WAGA-TV reported. The children were walking around a store — and within seconds were inside Brown’s car, he said. “One kid was in the driver’s seat,” Brown...

A Nevada State lawmaker was denied access to the House chamber Wednesday because she did not have a vaccine passport, although she had been vaccinated. Assemblywoman Annie Black tweeted, “Day Three: COVID-free! But Speaker @JasonFrierson is still standing in the doorway & refusing to let me enter the Assembly Chamber unless I wear a muzzle or produce a ‘vaccine passport.'” It started Tuesday, the Las-Vegas Review-Journal reported, “when Black took to the Assembly floor, ripped off her mask and said face coverings are no longer necessary, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” Black is apparently in “timeout”...

LEBANON, Ohio (AP) — A southwest Ohio city became the first in the state Tuesday to enact a measure outlawing abortion and declaring itself “a sanctuary city for the unborn,” setting itself up for a likely legal challenge by opponents who call the ban unconstitutional. The vote by Lebanon City Council was unanimous -- after one member quit in protest. The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that that member, Krista Wyatt, said she could no longer associate her name with the body “as a respectable, decent human being.” No abortion clinics are located in Lebanon and none are planned. Mayor Amy Brewer...

MIT and Wellesley College data scientists have published a paper that undercuts the prevailing media portrayal of skeptics of government COVID-19 policies as ignorant and unscientific, even while warning that their emphasis on "rationality and autonomy" can be put to "horrifying ends." Skeptics of government COVID-19 mitigation methods, such as mask mandates, "often reveal themselves to be more sophisticated in their understanding of how scientific knowledge is socially constructed than their ideological adversaries," the researchers acknowledge However, their skepticism, based on their own analysis of scientific data and unwillingness to defer to a "paternalistic, condescending elite," also might embolden the...

The Department of Homeland Security issued a new security directive for pipeline owners and operators on Thursday after a hack of the Colonial Pipeline disrupted fuel supplies in the southeastern United States for days this month.Owners and operators of critical pipelines will be required to report confirmed and potential cybersecurity incidents to the department's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and designate a cybersecurity coordinator, to be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, DHS said.

For the fourth time in as many years, authorities in Cleveland on Wednesday held a news conference to announce the arrests of more than two dozen men accused of trying to meet up for sex with undercover agents posing as teenagers on social media apps. The tale is so familiar that Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force dubbed the four-day sting that that took place this past week “Operation Deja Vu.” “We could do this day in and day out and we would see the same results every time,” ICAC Commander Dave Frattare said at the conference. “Despite all...

A Wisconsin man received an unusual wake-up call when a nearly 13-pound chunk of ice crashed through the ceiling of his bedroom. Ken Millermon said he was in bed at his family's Elk Mound home when the 12.6-pound chunk of ice crashed through the roof and into his bedroom. "It grazed me," Millermon told WQOW-TV. The homeowner said he "would've probably been out, kicked the bucket" if the ice chunk had landed just inches away from where it fell. He compared the sound of the crash to a shotgun blast. The origin of the ice chunk is a mystery. The...

Now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stopped investigating breakthrough infections among fully vaccinated people unless they become so sick that they are hospitalized or die. The change means the agency will continue to investigate cases like the death of a vaccinated resident of a nursing home in Kentucky but not the infections of more than 20 other vaccinated residents and employees in the same home who did not require hospitalization. But even relatively mild cases of Covid-19 can lead to persistent long-term health problems, and it will be difficult to know the full scope without tracking mild...

Left-wing Hollywood star Susan Sarandon has declared her support for the Palestinian people while accusing Israel’s Netanyahu administration of practicing “apartheid.” Susan Sarandon tweeted her political declaration Wednesday, adding her support for supermodel Bella Hadid, who has also publicly accused Israel of “apartheid” and participated in pro-Palestinian protests. “I stand with the Palestinian People fighting against the apartheid government of Netanyahu and pray for the Israeli people that they too, will enjoy peace,” Sarandon tweeted. “I also support @bellahadid for having the bravery to stand in solidarity with her people. That can be lonely.”

So why are journalists not covering it?Michael Capuzzo, a New York Times best-selling author , has just published an article titled “The Drug That Cracked Covid”. The 15-page article chronicles the gargantuan struggle being waged by frontline doctors on all continents to get ivermectin approved as a Covid-19 treatment, as well as the tireless efforts by reporters, media outlets and social media companies to thwart them.Because of ivermectin, Capuzzo says, there are “hundreds of thousands, actually millions, of people around the world, from Uttar Pradesh in India to Peru to Brazil, who are living and not dying.” Yet media outlets...

On this date in 1780, statistician Johann Heinrich Waser. “One of the most spectacular and horrific treason cases of the late eighteenth century” in the words of Jeffrey Freedman (A Poisoned Chalice | here’s a review) — one that “shattered the complacent belief that such a brutal and cynical act of repression could no longer occur in an age of Enlightenment, let alone in Switzerland, the land of William Tell, republican virtue, and free, self-governing citizens.” Subsequent centuries laugh in bitter commiseration. Initially a pastor, Waser’s idealism had not been fully wrung out in the seminary and so he got...

Ichilov Hospital announced that the daughter of Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza and deputy head of the organization's political bureau, had been treated at the medical center. The hospital said that she "is one in more than a thousand patients from Gaza and the territories, children and adults, who come for treatment every year at Ichilov Hospital."

Today’s Europa League final featured two contrasting teams: Manchester United and Villareal. Man U, which represents the red half of a city of about half a million, has won everything there is to win in soccer, and most things multiple times. Villareal, known for some reason as the Yellow Submarine, represents a Spanish city of around 50,000. Until today, it had never won anything. This year, Man U finished second in the English Premier League. Villareal, which played three EPL castoffs today, finished seventh in La Liga. And here’s one more contrast. Just before the opening whistle, the Man U...

The Rush Limbaugh replacements are in, as Clay Travis and Buck Sexton will take over his three-hour conservative talk radio show time slot, said distributor Premiere Networks. The duo will serve up similar right-wing fare, tackling news stories of the day, politics and current events, peppered with call-ins from listeners and humor. Premiere Networks hopes the younger voices will bring something new to talk radio, while also continuing on in Mr. Limbaugh’s legacy. The program, slated to begin airing June 21, will be called “The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show.” It is expected to air around the country, from...

Over the last several months, gold and silver have faced strong tailwinds due to market expectations that the Fed would tighten monetary policy sooner rather than later to fight price inflation. But after April’s hotter than expected CPI, that sentiment seems to have shifted and the markets are acting the way you would expect in an inflationary environment. Gold and silver have rallied and the dollar has shown weakness. In fact, gold pushed above the $1,900 an ounce level. In this Gold Videocast, Peter Schiff explains why he thinks this is just the lull before the real storm and now...

Defense contractor Lockheed Martin tossed its executives to the woke wolves recently for training to help them check their white, male, and heterosexual privilege according to internal documents posted to Twitter Wednesday afternoon. Writer and Manhattan Institute fellow Christopher Rufo posted screenshots of the documents that he says were part of a "three-day white male reeducation camp" that Lockheed Martin executives attended via Zoom. The training program was hosted by White Men As Full Diversity Partners, one of many woke consulting firms that have popped up in a new and insufferable cottage industry as companies bend to the will of...

Has anyone seen anything about Caucus Room site being "hijacked"? I have an e-mail from the last half hour which really just looks like an ad for Caucusroom, but the subject line is "CaucusRoom hijacked". e-mail addy looks legit.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) blasted political extremes on the left and right during his acceptance speech for the John F. Kennedy Library's "Profile in Courage" award. In a virtual speech, Romney said many have been disappointed by those "who've chosen the easy way, playing to the crowd, itching the ears of the resentful with conspiracies and accusations." "I take heart in the fact that such displays are still newsworthy and are generally met with disdain," he said. Romney continued that many are "guilty of a fault less reprehensible though similarly consequential." He accused the right of spreading false claims about...

Lockheed Martin, the nation's top defense contractor, forced 13 executives including a three-star general to complete a three-day Zoom course so they would 'unlearn their male privilege'. The course was led by Portland-based firm White Men as Full Diversity Partners. It was carried out last June, at the height of the BLM movement, and involved 13 Lockheed employees dialing in for 16 hours. Details of the three-day course last June were obtained by City Journal. The 13 employees were Director of Aeronautics Mark Ward, Air Force lieutenant colonel David Starr, Senior Design Engineer Jeff Schweiss, Risk Management and Sustainability Executive...