Free Republic

The founder of Shake Shack, Danny Meyer, said his Union Square Hospitality Group will require indoor diners and drinkers at its restaurants to show that they’ve been vaccinated against COVID-19. Employees will also have to get the vaccine, Meyer said, although he didn’t say whether they would be fired or be forced to wear masks. However, the policy will not be extended to Shake Shack, a hamburger fast-food restaurant that has a number of locations in the northeastern United States. The policy will be implemented at the Union Square Hospitality Group, which oversees Gramercy Tavern, Manhatta, and Union Square Cafe....

Galesburg, IL School District 205 Superintendent John Asplund sent this shocking email out to staff members announcing a new ID badge policy.School staff now have the option to change from the customary white ID badge to a yellow ID badge to indicate that they have received the covid vaccine. They are actually going to use Yellow Badges for identification.

Virginia Democrat gubernatorial hopeful Terry McAuliffe has a history of challenging elections with attacks he now claims are an abject assault on democracy.Virginia Democrat gubernatorial hopeful Terry McAuliffe has a history of challenging elections with attacks he now claims are an abject assault on democracy.While a vocal critic of President Donald Trump’s challenges to the 2020 presidential contest, McAuliffe himself was at the forefront of allegations that the 2000 presidential election was stolen for George W. Bush. In a newly unearthed Feb. 4, 2001 interview on Meet the Press, the former Virginia governor was emphatic in challenging the legitimacy of...

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Thursday he doubts there is a Plan B for immigration reform if attempts to include provisions through the budget process fail. "If we don't have reconciliation I'm not sure that there's a pathway forward," Menendez told immigration advocates on a call organized by the American Business Immigration Coalition. He added that any legislative avenue outside of reconciliation would need the support of at least 10 Republican senators, an unlikely prospect for an issue as politicized as immigration.

An 18-year-old woman was killed and a 19-year-old social media influencer was injured in a shooting at a movie theater outside Los Angeles, local ABC affiliate KABC reports. The shooting took place just before midnight Tuesday, July 27th, during a screening of The Forever Purge. The woman who was killed was identified as Rylee Goodrich, while the wounded man was Anthony Barajas, who goes by the username “itsanthonymichael,” and has almost one million followers on TikTok.

What the film ‘The Father’ tells us about Alzheimer’s disease The film “The Father” brings the issue of dementia to the forefront. This is a story about how a man, played by Anthony Hopkins, who refuses all assistance from his daughter, played by Olivia Colman, as he begins to suffer from the overwhelming and unnerving symptoms of dementia. As he tries to make sense of his ever-changing circumstances, he begins to doubt his loved ones, his own mind and even the fabric of his reality. Watching the film gives viewers a close-up experience of what it’s like to be an...

Suddenly, the tide is beginning to shift toward employers and governments requiring people to get vaccinated against COVID-19. It’s based on the idea that something close to universal vaccination among Americans is the best and perhaps only path back to normal. It comes as about a third of Americans seem hard-set against vaccination and the vaccinated majority have begun expressing alarm that the unvaccinated are leaving the door open to new surges of infections, and possible return to new surges of sickness and disruption of things such as in-person school. A wave of major companies recently announced vaccination mandates for...

(President Trump's Operation Warp Speed Update) (Cases over 86K on this report, Higher than any single day of the Spring 2021 or Summer 2020 waves - Vaccinations higher up on today's daily report, for the second day - New Cases and Hospitalizations climbing quickly - Deaths only moderately) Administered: 344,071,595 (13,329,001 J&J) People Vaccinated, At Least One Dose: 189,945,907 Fully Vaccinated: 163,868,916

Mayor Muriel Bowser announced all Washington, D.C. residents over the age of two will be required to wear face masks indoors in D.C. regardless of vaccination status. The requirement will go into effect at 5 a.m. Saturday, according to Bowser's Thursday announcement. The city ended its mask requirement for vaccinated people in May, and all residents in June, after having one of the most strict mask mandates in the nation.

Israel will reportedly begin offering a booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for people ages 60 and older, weeks after it opened up the availability of a third jab to at-risk populations. The move, reported via Israeli TV and radio but not yet published on the Ministry of Health website, comes amid a rapid rise in the delta variant. Pfizer this week published data suggesting that a third dose of its vaccine would strongly boost protection against the delta variant. A preprint also suggested that efficacy dropped to about 84% about six months after the second dose. Boosters remain...

Magnetic field treatments gave a woman with hard-to-treat depression a new lease on life.Jenna Bierma thought she’d exhausted most options for managing her depression, which her sister also had before dying by suicide at age 24. "I've tried everything with depression. I’ve tried every medication, every treatment that's out there," Bierma said. Dr. Vidhya Selvaraj is a psychiatrist at Omaha Insomnia & Psychiatric Services who used magnetic fields to treat Bierma's depression. The process is known as transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS. "They feel hopeless," Selvaraj said. "They lose interest in things they used to enjoy. they don't feel motivated....

Earlier this week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced it was now recommending masks for everyone – regardless of vaccine status – if they live in an area of high COVID transmission. The CDC changed another recommendation as well. Previously, the CDC said fully vaccinated people did not need to be tested if they were exposed to coronavirus unless they began exhibiting symptoms. Now, the guidance said vaccinated people should be tested 3-5 days after exposure even if they don’t show symptoms. “You should also wear a mask indoors in public for 14 days following exposure or until...

MacKenzie Scott and Melinda French Gates are joining forces to give $40 million to projects focused on advancing gender equality in tech, higher education, minority communities and caregiving. Both Scott and French Gates have previously given to causes around gender equality.

Were there no Americans capable of doing Olympic coverage?It just bothers me that I need to listen to an obvious non-American doing the Olympic coverage for USA network TV.Ms. Lowe may be a very nice person but her accent makes her sound like a snotty bitch.

“This is not the America we know,” Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said of having to wear a mask in the Capitol to help stem the spread of COVID-19. House Republican leaders held a press conference on Thursday to deliver a powerful parting message to America before they head home for a two-month recess: We hate wearing masks at work.

A 58-year-old man was struck and killed by an arrow intended for a skunk Friday night, police in central New York said. James Parker Jr., 58, and another man were trying to kill a skunk with a crossbow, but when the other man shot the arrow it “unintentionally” struck Parker instead, according to a news release from New York State Police.

Diners could soon be once again required to wear facial coverings inside restaurants in Illinois. As COVID-19 rates within the state increase, following a trend seen in other parts of the country, the Illinois Department of Public Health wants residents in “areas with substantial and high transmission” — primarily public indoor spaces — to resume wearing facial coverings. There’s no government mandate, though there’s concern that one could be intituted early next week. The health department’s announcement matches recommendations put out earlier on Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC also stressed that teachers and students...

An influential hog dealer sanctioned twice for defrauding pork producers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars says it has fired employees responsible for its latest violations and paid restitution to affected sellers.USDA said its investigation found the practices went on for three years, from January 2018 through 2020. The agency ordered Lynch Livestock to pay $445,626 in penalties and restitution, and to stop recording false weights, altering classifications of hogs delivered, and creating false scale tickets.In the press release, his company said the USDA received a complaint in January that employees at its Waucoma buying station were manipulating the...

Covid-19 vaccines have created at least nine new billionaires after shares in companies producing the shots soared. Topping the list of new billionaires are Moderna (MRNA) CEO Stéphane Bancel and Ugur Sahin, the CEO of BioNTech (BNTX), which has produced a vaccine with Pfizer (PFE). Both CEOs are now worth around $4 billion, according to an analysis by the People's Vaccine Alliance, a campaign group that includes Oxfam, UNAIDS, Global Justice Now and Amnesty International. Senior executives from China's CanSino Biologics and early investors in Moderna have also become billionaires on paper as shares skyrocketed, partly in expectation of profits...

President Joe Biden used a visit to a Mack Truck facility in Pennsylvania on Wednesday to roll up his sleeves and assert solidarity with the workers, telling them “I used to drive an 18-wheeler, man.” He offered no evidence to support the boast. RNC Research shared the video of Biden and captioned it “Joe Biden, a career politician who has been in politics for 48 years, claims he “used to drive an 18 wheeler.” RNC Director Zach Parkinson said there was “zero evidence that Biden used to drive an 18 wheeler.” “The extent of Biden’s trucking experience is that he...