Free Republic

NSW has recorded 31 new cases of COVID-19, with 13 active in the community while infectious.

(h/t Cathi)Children and adults around the country are getting sick as it usually happens in the winter, experts say.The corona crisis might be over, but all over Israel adults and children are getting sick with viral infections in a phenomenon that is unprecedented for this time of the year, according to several medical professionals. “We have never seen anything like this,” said Dr. Tal Brosh, head of Infectious Disease Unit at the Samson Assuta Ashdod Hospital. “We’ve been monitoring viral infections in the hospital, which of course is just the tip of the iceberg of what is going on in...

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The Venetian Resort Las Vegas says last night a lucky guest turned a $5 bet into more than $1.5 million on a Wheel of Fortune slot machine. The jackpot was hit when the lucky symbols lined up to activate the progressive jackpot. The casino said the winner wished to remain anonymous.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—In a move to save tax dollars, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has replaced federal executions with bus tickets to Chicago. The move received praise from both sides of the political aisle, as a $60 bus ticket per inmate will free up millions to be spent on more important issues like funding a border wall in Egypt. Chicago’s Mayor Lori Lightfoot praised the decision to free those poor, innocent federal criminals into the peaceful bastion of Chicago, where there has been no violence during her tenure. Then, speaking louder in order to be heard over the gunfire, Mayor Lightfoot...

American actress and singer Vanessa Williams will perform the song “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which has become known as the “black national anthem,” at the annual A Capitol Fourth televised celebration. Williams told the Associated Press that she will be honoring both the nation’s independence day and Juneteenth, which recognizes the anniversary of the liberation of the last slaves in the United States, at the show. “It’s in celebration of the wonderful opportunity that we now have to celebrate Juneteenth. So we are reflective of the times,” she said. President Biden recently signed a law designating Juneteenth as a...

Two research teams, using data from the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter, have recently published results suggesting that what were thought to be subsurface lakes on Mars may not really be lakes at all. The question of whether the signals are liquid water or not is also being considered by a team of scientists led by ASU School of Earth and Space Exploration postdoctoral scholar Carver Bierson. Their research was also recently published in AGU's Geophysical Research Letters and determined that these bright reflections might be caused by subsurface clays, metal-bearing minerals or saline ice. As Mars Express orbits...

The National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers’ union, voted this week to conduct opposition research on groups that oppose the use of critical race theory in school curricula. During its virtual representative assembly this week, the NEA adopted an amendment that would see the union spend an estimated $56,500 on researching anti-CRT organizations. “NEA will research the organizations attacking educators doing anti-racist work and/or use the research already done and put together a list of resources and recommendations for state affiliates, locals, and individual educators to utilize when they are attacked,” the newly adopted business item reads. “The research,...

Rashad Gober is a 31-year-old residing in Cambridge, Massachusetts who used the public’s distrust in police departments about racial injustice to try and distract suspicion for a spree of animal cruelty attacks against local cats. Gober entered a not guilty plea to four counts of animal cruelty at his arraignment hearing at Cambridge District Court on Thursday. He’ll be held without bail until his next court date on July 7th. Rashad Gober is a 31-year-old residing in Cambridge, Massachusetts who used the public’s distrust in police departments about racial injustice to try and distract suspicion for a spree of animal...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media. I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 1 Timothy 2:1-2 Religion Forum threads labeled “Prayer” are closed to debate of any kind.

Unvaccinated people do more than merely risk their own health. They're also a risk to everyone if they become infected with coronavirus, infectious disease specialists say. That's because the only source of new coronavirus variants is the body of an infected person. "Unvaccinated people are potential variant factories," Dr. William Schaffner, a professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told CNN Friday. "The more unvaccinated people there are, the more opportunities for the virus to multiply," Schaffner said. When it does, it mutates, and it could throw off a variant mutation that is even more...

“Baby bonds” have become one proposal to help close the racial wealth gap between Black and white families in the United States. Unlike regular bonds, they’re not a debt instrument traded in the public markets. Instead, the policy proposal creates a federally funded trust fund account for every newborn baby in the U.S.

...But before more data could be collected to answer these lingering questions, the CDC stopped tracking breakthrough infections that resulted in asymptomatic, mild, or moderate cases. Since May 1, the agency has only reported and investigated coronavirus infections among vaccinated people that resulted in hospitalization or death....That means it's difficult to tell exactly how much of a risk the Delta variant poses to vaccinated people. Researchers still don't know whether Delta makes breakthrough cases more common, or what the typical symptoms of a breakthrough infection caused by Delta look like. As a result, vaccinated people may have a hard time...

With mere hours to go before a scheduled book event on Thursday, the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum in downtown Austin removed itself from a discussion on a controversial new book that re-examines the narrative around Texas’ iconic Alamo landmark. “Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth,” was released earlier this year and attempts to present the “truth” around what happened at The Alamo and those viewed as heroes for the battle. Especially given a critical eye are Texas’ legends James Bowie and William Barret Travis. Authors Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson and Jason Stanford argue...

President Joe Biden announced on Friday that he was nominating Amy Gutmann to serve as US ambassador to Germany. Gutmann, who is the president of the University of Pennsylvania, is also the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. Gutmann's father escaped Nazi Germany in 1934, according to a 2013 interview in The Daily Pennsylvanian. ... Her family history inspired her to help establish one of the world's largest Holocaust education archives, Haaretz reported. She partnered with the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation Institute's Visual History Archive in 2013 to bring nearly 52,000 video testimonials to the University of Pennsylvania's library...

Both boys shot at Danny Andrew Smith with a rifle as he rode his tractor in the field near Westminster on June 23 Smith, 62, was shot once in the back, but investigators charged both boys because they both fired the gun in Smith's direction The boys have been charged with involuntary manslaughter as juveniles in Family Court and their names were not released Under South Carolina law, they are too young to be kept at a juvenile jail so they were released to their parents Deputies have the .22 caliber rifle used to kill Smith but investigators are not...

When writing an opinion piece with a “reveal,” it behooves authors to build up to their climax in which they announce their profound findings in or near their article’s conclusion. In this case, I’m supposed to set up my “reveal” of the real reason they’re pushing vaccines so hard. I’m choosing to explain what it is first, then I will demonstrate why this is not only true but also ludicrous and very concerning.The answer is annoyingly simple on the surface, but when we dig into the motives of those who are actually in power over this situation, we realize just...

Even though Carnival has not detailed the reason for the cancellation, it comes as the island of Bimini is experiencing increased cases of COVID. As a result, authorities implemented a daily curfew between 7:00 PM and 5:00 AM from July 1 to help stop any further spread.

At his campaign style speech in Sarasota, Florida, 45th President Donald Trump mentioned Ashli Babbitt, the Air Force Veteran slain on January 6, for the first time publicly. President Trump revealed that he met with Babbitt’s grieving family, and also asked why so many January 6 protesters are still in jail, and slammed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for refusing to fight for them. While discussing “weak” Republican leaders like McConnell, President Trump suddenly changed the subject. “And by the way, who shot Ashli Babbitt? Who shot AShli Babbitt? Who? Who shot Ashli Babbitt? We all saw the hand, we...

Vatican Official Pleads with Catholic Critics of Covid Vaccines: ‘Listen to What the Church Has Already Said’During a press conference presenting a final statement dedicated to "vaccine equity and confront vaccine hesitancy," Archbishop Paglia took several questions from journalists representing secular and Catholic media highly skeptical of COVID vaccines who pushed back.VATICAN CITY — During a press conference on Friday, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, President of the Pontifical Academy for Life, called Catholics who are reluctant to receive COVID vaccines and oppose their distribution to "listen to what the Church has already said”, implying that all objections against COVID vaccines...

Frustration over delays and tabulation mishaps in New York’s Democratic mayoral primary is fueling a wave of Republican opposition to an increasingly popular election structure change. Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton called it a “corrupt scam.” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy dinged it as “woke.” New York Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney argued that it “disenfranchises” voters. Jason Snead, executive director of the conservative-leaning Honest Elections Project, said ranked-choice voting is a “solution in search of a problem.” **SNIP** Ranked-choice voting, also called an automatic runoff, is a system of relocating votes from bottom-tier candidates in races with at least three candidates...