Free Republic

Stacey Abrams, the Democratic former candidate for Georgia governor, was nominated Tuesday for an Emmy Award for outstanding character voice-over performance. According to theBlaze, Abrams appeared for one minute and seven seconds in an animated election special edition of the ABC sitcom ''Black-ish,'' in which she played herself and showed the importance of early and mail-in voting. In the episode, Abrams helps the fictional character Andre ''Dre'' Johnson, played by Anthony Anderson, in his congressional campaign. Since losing her gubernatorial race in 2018, Abrams has become active in efforts to expand voting through third-party registration. One of Abrams' groups, the...

A Texas state representative is accusing a Las Vegas-based Honorary Consul of Lebanon of providing private air travel for Texas Democrat lawmakers who fled the Lone Star State to block an imminent vote on Republican-crafted Election Integrity legislation. “A coalition of members of the Texas state House boarded private planes purportedly owned by Philippe Khalil Ziade, a Lebanese-American entrepreneur and honorary consul of Lebanon in Nevada, according to Texas State Representative Briscoe Cain (R-Deer Park),” reports Kenny Webster of KPRC Radio. “Ziade is the founder and chairman of Las Vegas based Growth Holdings and is highly engaged in Lebanese politics...

This is “Shark Week” and fascinating new research reveals something rare, scary, and exciting does happen in Midwestern waters. A study in the Journal of the Marine and Fishery Sciences says that sharks have been spotted twice in the Mississippi River near St. Louis over the past 84-years. One of the sharks was caught near Alton, Illinois on September 6, 1937. The city is located around 1,740 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. It weighed 84 lbs and was about five feet long. At the time, the Lock and Dam at Alton was the first major obstruction going north on...

(CNN)The spread of the Delta coronavirus variant in the United States has some experts questioning whether it should be time to start testing even vaccinated people for the virus. Although health officials have said evidence shows vaccinated people are unlikely to spread the virus to others, Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, says it may be important to watch to make sure the more transmissible Delta variant does not evade the effects of vaccines. Current guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says fully vaccinated people can...

With Missouri emerging as a COVID-19 hotspot due to the prevalence of the Delta variant, and the reluctance of some to get vaccinated, there is talk on social media about possible treatments, cures, or preventative measures that can be taken to ward off the virus. Last fall and leading into spring, some people latched onto the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a way to either prevent contracting COVID-19 or as a means of treatment. However, months of study and analysis from the scientific community have proven that hydroxychloroquine is not an effective preventative of COVID-19. The World Health Organization, the U.S....

A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that federal laws banning firearms dealers from selling handguns to customers under the age of 21 were unconstitutional. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit said in the decision that there was no reason to treat the Second Amendment any differently from other constitutional rights citizens enjoy no later than the age of 18. The court ruled that 18-year-olds possess Second Amendment rights, and the federal government failed “to justify its infringement of those rights under the appropriate level of scrutiny.”

Local media reports that the “north Toledo mural has been reduced to rubble” after reportedly being struck by lightning. Fire and rescue responded to the previous site of the mural, but were unable to render aid to the collapsed wall featuring Floyd’s face. “A witness who saw the wall fold told TFRD they had seen a lightning bolt strike the building,” local media reported. “The department later confirmed the strike to be the cause of the collapse.” Video indicates the mural was created on July 10, 2020, meaning the idol to George Floyd lasted just over one year before being...

A mural of the late Black Lives Matter icon George Floyd has been struck by lightning and has collapsed. Eyewitnesses confirmed that nobody was near the mural when it was struck nor when its pieces fell to the ground. The Toledo mural, completed in June 2020, was struck by lightning in the middle of the day on Tuesday, leaving a charred wall where Floyd’s face was before. It was a direct hit; artwork to the left and right of the mural appeared unblemished.

A mural of the late Black Lives Matter icon George Floyd has been struck by lightning and has collapsed. Eyewitnesses confirmed that nobody was near the mural when it was struck nor when its pieces fell to the ground. The Toledo mural, completed in June 2020, was struck by lightning in the middle of the day on Tuesday, leaving a charred wall where Floyd’s face was before. It was a direct hit; artwork to the left and right of the mural appeared unblemished.

Former Obama administration Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Tuesday on CNN’s “OutFront” that Americans who have not received a coronavirus vaccine should not be allowed to work or have access to children and be limited on where they are allowed to go. Sebelius said, “We’re in a situation where we have a wildly effective vaccine, multiple choices, lots available, free of charge, and we have folks who are just saying I won’t do it. I think that it’s time to say to those folks, it’s fine if you don’t choose to get vaccinated. You may not come...

When I see an article titled "Over 50% of Liberal, White Women Under 30 Have A Mental Health Issue, Are We Worried Yet?," I'm going to read it. Mostly out of curiosity — is there something to the long-standing joke that liberalism is a mental disorder? Well, turns out, there is. The article, written by Elizabeth Condra in Evie Magazine, focuses on young, white women because that is the magazine's reading demographic. But, upon further investigation of the Pew American Trends Panel: Wave 64 study, it turns out that for white women and men, in every age group, there are...

On the 86th birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi set a new precedent by making a first-ever public announcement by tweeting: “Spoke on phone to His Holiness the @DalaiLama to convey greetings on his 86th birthday. We wish him a long and healthy life.” In reciprocation, the Tibetan religious leader called himself the “longest guest” of India which he sees as “home.” Indian leaders unofficially conveyed their wishes; however, Modi’s official wish to the highest religious leader of Tibet who is in exile is not just symbolic but of great significance given its political...

Are people going door-to-door to "see your papers" on COVID-19 vaccination? No, there's no evidence that's true: The claim riffs off a comment that President Joe Biden made on vaccine outreach. As his administration has made clear, the door-to-door effort is about education and access. It's being staffed by local public health officials and volunteers. Although they may ask whether you've been vaccinated, the federal government does not maintain a database of who's gotten the shot. he claim appeared as a meme in a Facebook post (archived here) published on July 9, 2021. The meme read: We went from "Flatting...

Barack and Michelle Obama have reportedly decided on their next Netflix project — an anthology series of six “black love stories” set during a power outage in New York. The Obama’s are developing Blackout as a project involving six writers who will each pen one of the teen romances, according to multiple reports. The series, which will also be edited into a feature movie, takes place during a heatwave when the city loses power, forcing the characters to confront love in their midsts. “Six prolific authors have written six Black love stories all taking place during a power outage on...

SHANGHAI—Part of a hotel collapsed in the Chinese city of Suzhou killing eight people and rescue workers were searching on Tuesday for nine people missing in the ruins, state media reported.The collapse of part of the Siji Kaiyuan Hotel in the coastal city happened on Monday afternoon. The Ministry of Emergency Management sent a team to help with the rescue work, media reported.The cause of the collapse was under investigation, the Xinhua news agency reported. It published photographs of rescue workers combing through rubble in the search for survivors.The Siji Kaiyuan is a budget hotel that opened in 2018. The...

ROME – As Tokyo readies to welcome thousands of the world’s top athletes later this month for the Olympics, the local archbishop has announced that “regrettably” no Catholic parish will be able to welcome them due to the spread of COVID-19, as the Japanese city is once again in a state of emergency. The Olympic Games, originally scheduled for 2020, will run July 23 to Aug. 8. Close to 10,000 athletes will compete in the international multi-sport event and several thousand more in the para-Olympic games, set to begin in Aug. 24. Though not every athlete speaks openly about their...

<p>Just when I think I’ve seen it all from so-called “progressives” and their allies in the mainstream press in the debate over transgender rights, one of them surprises me with something even more ridiculously idiotic and twisted than the last.</p>

Moscow, July 12, Interfax - Eid al-Adha celebrations will be held in an online format in Moscow this year due to the coronavirus pandemic and consistent with the decision made by the Council of Ulema of the Spiritual Muslim Board of Russia. "The festive prayer will be delivered in Moscow only in the Cathedral Mosque with the participation of imams, muezzins and deputy mufti. It is not recommended to deliver the festive prayer in other mosques and local religious organizations of Muslims. All Muslims should celebrate the holiday at home, with their families," the Board said on its website. The...

Actor and activist Sean Penn declared the Trump administration’s coronavirus policies were no better than “gunning down” vulnerable communities “from a turret at the White House” Speaking at the at the Cannes Film Festival. about his new film, Flag Day, Penn told the media of his efforts to continue observing coronavirus protocols as he filmed the movie. Penn slammed officials who pushed what he deemed to be “misinformation,” and the actor had particularly harsh words for the Trump administration. “We were — not only as a country but as a world – let down and openly neglected, misinformed. We had...