Free Republic

A former Olympian has been charged with defrauding the Small Business Administration over a pandemic loan. Luka Klasinc, a Slovenian figure skater, competed in the men's singles event at the 1992 Winter Olympics. ... ...Beginning last July, Klasinc's company received more than $1.5 million in Economic Injury Disaster Loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration. When accounts that controlled the money started making suspicious wire transfers, Klasinc's bank froze the funds, according to the criminal complaint....

Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam was locked down for hours because of a bomb threat. Play Video: https://www.kitv.com/clip/15223704/bomb-threat-locks-down-joint-base-pearl-harborhickam A bomb threat forced military officials to lock down Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. By the afternoon, it was back to normal for the busy Oahu base, after its gates were closed for four hours. The ripple effects of the bomb threat were also felt around Pearl Harbor. A line of traffic stretched out from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam after its gates were closed at 9:39 a.m. Drivers not only waited to get in, but also were unable to leave because of a security...

BUCHAREST, Romania — Government ministers in the former Soviet and communist countries along the Black Sea basin are bracing for President Joe Biden’s meeting with Vladimir Putin of Russia next Wednesday in Geneva. But, analysts are warning them to keep their expectations low. They hope the American president will stand for democratic ideals and support their security, but regional analysts say they may be pawns in a broader geopolitical chess match between great power rivals. From Kyiv to Bucharest, government leaders are attempting to influence Biden ahead of the meeting, underscoring that their democracy depends on the United States and...

Five Republican senators wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to discuss their concern of "unequal justice" for the prosecution of Capitol rioters in comparison to some demonstrators during the social justice protests in 2020.Signed by Senators Ron Johnson, Tommy Tuberville, Mike Lee, Rick Scott and Ted Cruz, the letter highlighted a few instances of disruption by protests that may have resulted in unequal justice in the prosecution of those involved. They requested "information about our concerns regarding potential unequal justice administered in response to other recent instances of mass unrest, destruction, and loss of life throughout the...

Andrew Lloyd Webber has said he will open his theatres on 21 June, and is prepared to be arrested if authorities try to intervene. The composer has also warned he may have to sell his six West End venues if the government does not relax its restrictions as set out in its roadmap for England. The pandemic has had a catastrophic financial impact on the theatre industry and many have remained closed despite the ease in COVID-19 restrictions as it is not financially viable for them to open with reduced capacities. Lord Lloyd Webber is preparing for a production of...

El Salvador has become the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender. Lawmakers in the Central American country’s Congress voted by a “supermajority” in favor of the Bitcoin Law, receiving 62 out of 84 of the legislature’s vote. Earlier on Wednesday, President Nayib Bukele sent the law to to the country’s Congress for a vote. “The purpose of this law is to regulate bitcoin as unrestricted legal tender with liberating power, unlimited in any transaction, and to any title that public or private natural or legal persons require carrying out,” the law reads. Prices can now be shown in...

JUST IN - Vendor that runs the constituent services platform for many of US House offices hit by a ransomware attack (Punchbowl News) -- Just copying the Tweet

The US moratorium on gain-of-function experiments has been rescinded, but scientists are split over the benefits—and risks—of such studies. Talha Burki reports. On Dec 19, 2017, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that they would resume funding gain-of-function experiments involving influenza, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus. A moratorium had been in place since October, 2014. At the time, the NIH had stated that the moratorium “will be effective until a robust and broad deliberative process is completed that results in the adoption of a new US Government gain-of-function research policy”. This process...

The New York Attorney General's Office is probing whether Governor Andrew Cuomo and his aides committed a crime by retaliating against women who accused him of sexual harassment, according to a report. Sources told the Washington Post investigators are looking into the possibility the governor and his inner circle broke state laws aimed at protecting whistleblowers that make it illegal to retaliate against alleged victims of sexual harassment. Officials are said to be especially interested in the controversial release of the personnel file of his first accuser, Lindsey Boylan, to the media which branded her a bully.

The Guardian has been mocked for branding apple pie racist after one of its writers said the treat was linked to 'a vast and ongoing genocide of indigenous people. Writing in the famously liberal publication, food writer Raj Patel claimed the all-American dessert was born of colonialism and slavery, after highlighting how apples had first arrived in the west from central Asia 4,000 years ago. The piece, titled 'Food injustice has deep roots: let's start with America's apple pie', claims the pie has 'bloody origins' and is 'as American as stolen land, wealth and labor.'

Joe Biden's hopes of passing his much-touted infrastructure bill now rest on a bipartisan group of senators after direct talks with Republicans collapsed. Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican representing West Virginia, had been liaising with the White House over the bill. But their talks collapsed on Tuesday. Instead Biden turned to a small group of about half a dozen Republicans and Democrats, hoping that they could find a way to reach a compromise.

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10).

New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay has been defended by her bosses after saying she was 'disturbed' by the number of stars and stripes flags on display during a trip to Long Island. The paper's official PR Twitter account backed Gay on Tuesday night, tweeting: 'New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay's comments on MSNBC have been irresponsibly taken out of context.' 'Her argument was that Trump and many of his supporters have politicized the American flag. The attacks on her today are ill-informed and grounded in bad-faith.'

Former President Trump on Tuesday applauded Nigeria’s Twitter ban and called on other countries to follow suit. Trump praised the West African country for banning use of the social media platform after the Twitter suspended the account of Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari for comparing gunmen attacking national electoral commission offices to the Nigeria Civil War. The company deleted the tweet, saying it violated their abusive behavior policy. “Congratulations to the country of Nigeria, who just banned Twitter because they banned their President. More COUNTRIES should ban Twitter and Facebook for not allowing free and open speech—all voices should be heard,”...

Inflation may look like a problem that will go away, but is more likely to persist and lead to a crisis in the years ahead, according to a warning from Deutsche Bank economists. In a forecast that is well outside the consensus from policymakers and Wall Street, Deutsche issued a dire warning that focusing on stimulus while dismissing inflation fears will prove to be a mistake if not in the near term then in 2023 and beyond. The analysis especially points the finger at the Federal Reserve and its new framework in which it will tolerate higher inflation for the...

A North Hollywood middle school teacher quit her local labor union because it’s considering support of the pro-Palestine BDS movement, a report said.Lindsey Kohn of James Madison Middle School said she in a heated resignation letter that she felt “unsafe as a Jew” in the United Teachers Los Angeles, the Jewish Journal reported on Tuesday.

ABSTRACTBackground The purpose of this study was to evaluate the necessity of COVID-19 vaccination in persons previously infected with SARS-CoV-2.Methods Employees of the Cleveland Clinic Health System working in Ohio on Dec 16, 2020, the day COVID-19 vaccination was started, were included. Any subject who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 at least 42 days earlier was considered previously infected. One was considered vaccinated 14 days after receipt of the second dose of a SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine. The cumulative incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection over the next five months, among previously infected subjects who received the vaccine, was compared with those of previously...

The spacecraft flew closer to Jupiter’s largest moon than any other in more than two decades, offering dramatic glimpses of the icy orb. The first two images from NASA Juno’s June 7, 2021, flyby of Jupiter’s giant moon Ganymede have been received on Earth. The photos – one from the Jupiter orbiter’s JunoCam imager and the other from its Stellar Reference Unit star camera – show the surface in remarkable detail, including craters, clearly distinct dark and bright terrain, and long structural features possibly linked to tectonic faults.This image of Ganymede was obtained by the JunoCam imager during Juno’s June...

Biden, Pope Francis may meet in Rome ahead of US bishops’ debate on Communion for pro-abortion politiciansThe get-together and details about the discussion have yet to be confirmed by the Vatican.June 8, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) –President Joe Biden will make his first international trip to Europe for a number of political liaisons starting June 10, according to the White House, and Vatican sources hinted that he may stop in Rome to meet with Pope Francis on June 15.The meeting would come just one day before American bishops are set to debate the censure of openly pro-abortion politicians like Biden who claim...

The overall rate of vaccination for Covid-19 among the U.S. military is far below what's claimed by CDC for the general public. The vaccines are not mandatory for the military since they are only approved for "emergency use."According to the figures reported at military.com (counting Guardsmen and Reservists):23% of the military force is fully vaccinated.The Navy is at 40%.The Marine Corps is almost 27%.The Air Force and Space Force are at 25%.The Army is at 14.5%.Nationally, CDC says that 40% (132.8) of the U.S. population of 332 million is "fully vaccinated" against Covid-19. Nearly 50% (165.7 million) have received at...