Free Republic

Wisconsin’s Democratic Gov. Tony Evers vetoed a series of six election security bills Tuesday sent to his desk by the state’s GOP-controlled legislature. Republicans do not have the votes to override Evers’ veto, as no Democrats supported the legislation in June. The governor also said that two Wisconsin counties should not comply with subpoenas to turn over ballots and voting equipment as part of an investigation being led by the Republican head of the Assembly elections committee. ‘Hell no,’ Evers said when asked if the local election clerks should comply. ‘You´ve seen what´s going on in Arizona. It´s a clown...

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FEMA, in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission, will conduct a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) this summer. The national test will consist of two portions, testing WEA and EAS capabilities. Both tests will begin at 2:20 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Aug. 11. The Wireless Emergency Alert portion of the test will be directed only to consumer cell phones where the subscriber has opted-in to receive test messages. This will be the second nationwide WEA test, but the first nationwide WEA test on a consumer opt-in basis. The test message will display...

During a conference call with analysts last week, Shake Shack’s chief financial officer Katherine Fogerty said customers will be paying three to 3.5 percent more for their food in the fourth quarter of 2021. In December of last year, Shake Shack raised its prices two percent, which was followed by a ten percent increase this past spring. In February, the burger chain increased its delivery prices via third-party apps by five percent. According to Restaurant Business, Shake Shack’s restaurants in suburban locations in states like Texas, Oregon, and Indiana have not only returned to normal but are “above pre-pandemic levels”...

Types of venom fangs in snakes: Rear fangs (crab-eating water snake), fixed front fangs (taipan), and hinged front fangs (Gaboon viper); fangs highlighted in redEver wondered how deadly snakes evolved their fangs? The answer lies in particular microscopic features of their teeth, research led by Flinders University and the South Australian Museum suggests. "It's always been a mystery why fangs have evolved so many times in snakes, but rarely in other reptiles. Our study answers this, showing how easy it is for normal snake teeth to turn into hypodermic needles," says lead author Dr. Alessandro Palci, from Flinders University.Of...

Data from a leaked internal salary calculator at Alphabet’s Google reveals that employees who decide to work from home indefinitely face pay cuts of up to 25%. A sign is pictured outside a Google office near the company’s headquarters in Mountain View, California, U.S., May 8, 2019. REUTERS/Paresh Dave/File Photo The news comes as a surprise, as the tech giant has been outwardly supportive of working from home during the pandemic – and just last week approved nearly 10,000 employee requests to do so. Google also pushed back its target date for employees to return to the office from September...

France's controversial vaccine passport came into full effect on Monday, even as restaurant staff said they did not plan on enforcing the law amid a growing backlash.Anyone looking to enter a bar, restaurant or café, or board a long-distance train or plane, now has to scan a QR code showing proof of vaccination, a recent negative Covid-19 test, or a certificate confirming they have recovered from the disease within the last six months. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jIqPzA2G1E

THE DISCOURSE OF VOLUNTARY SERVITUDE is lucidly and coherently structured around a single axiom, a single percipient insight into the nature not only of tyranny, but implicitly of the State apparatus itself. Many medieval writers had attacked tyranny, but La Boétie delves especially deeply into its nature, and into the nature of State rule itself. This fundamental insight was that every tyranny must necessarily be grounded upon general popular acceptance. In short, the bulk of the people themselves, for whatever reason, acquiesce in their own subjection. If this were not the case, no tyranny, indeed no governmental rule, could long...

Top members of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government are lobbying for the implementation of vaccine passports in a supposed bid to increase takeup of the jab throughout the country. While Angela Merkel has previously ruled out making coronavirus vaccines mandatory in Germany, members of her government, including her chief of staff Helge Braun and Health Minister Jens Spahn, are calling for increased restrictions on the unvaccinated. Neither official has openly committed to the idea of introducing a vaccine passport, as has been rolled out in France, however, they have both called for increased access to public venues for citizens who...

One of the big COVID-19 mysteries is why some people suffer severe illness, while others experience mild colds. Research about reactive T cells produced during infection with other beta coronaviruses — which could explain a level of mitigating immunity for some people — has appeared in journals. Age certainly seems to be a significant risk factor. However, nothing to date explained all differences or provided any insight into which patients may suffer from severe disease.Now researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) have found a specific and sensitive biomarker that may provide more insight:In a new retrospective study,...

Larry Elder, who could be California’s next governor if the recall election next month against Gavin Newsom is successful, was interviewed by the Sacramento Bee editorial board. One of the editors asked Elder a gotcha question about “The Big Lie.” Elder took that question and completely turned the tables on it to the extent that it stunned the editor. The editor’s reaction at the end will make you laugh out loud. Like Dirty Harry said "Make my day Punk"

Two people have been charged in the fatal shooting of 29-year-old Officer Ella French who was killed during a traffic stop in West Englewood Saturday night. Her partner remains in the hospital after being shot. Emonte Morgan, 21, is charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, and unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, according to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. Eric Morgan, 22, is charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, and obstruction of justice, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office said....

Secretary of State: All California Voters Can Download Ballots in the ‘Comfort of Their Own Home’California’s recall election may be an exercise in futility unless voters put in safeguards to stop a downloadable ballot system from leading to ballot harvesting in order to keep unpopular Governor Gavin Newsom in office.“For the November 3, 2020 General Election, any voter can request to use Remote Accessible Vote by Mail,” the Secretary of State’s website states. “A Remote Accessible Vote by Mail (RAVBM) system allows voters to mark their selections using their own compatible technology to vote independently and privately in the comfort...

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A landlord argued with his live-in tenants over unpaid rent before opening fire with a handgun in a small house near downtown Las Vegas early Tuesday, killing two women and wounding a man who survived nine gunshots, police said. The shooting suspect, Arnoldo Lozano-Sanchez, 78, surrendered after a one-hour standoff with police who arrived about 12:30 a.m. to find one woman dead outside the pink one-story home and the wounded man coming out the door, said police Lt. Ray Spencer. Police SWAT officers found the second woman dead inside the house, Spencer said. https://www.yahoo.com/news/vegas-police-2-fatally-shot-143626031.html

Pat Hitchcock, director Alfred Hitchcock’s only child, has died at 93. Her daughter, Katie O’Connell-Fiala, confirmed that she died Monday in Thousand Oaks, Calif. She appeared in her father’s films including “Strangers on a Train,” “Psycho” and “Stage Fright.” In “Psycho,” Hitchcock played Janet Leigh’s office mate Caroline, who offers to share her tranquilizers. In “Strangers on a Train,” she was Barbara Morton, the sister of Ruth Roman’s character Anne Morton. She also appeared in movies including “The Case of Thomas Pyke” and TV series such as “Suspense,” “Suspicion,” “My Little Margie,” “Matinee Theatre” and “The Life of Riley” as...

Beryl Howell, the chief judge of the federal court in Washington deluged with more than 550 prosecutions from the Capitol riot, raised questions about why some defendants were being permitted to resolve their criminal cases by pleading guilty to a misdemeanor and why the amount of money prosecutors are seeking to recover through those plea deals was based on a relatively paltry estimate of about $1.5 million in damages caused by the rioters. Howell aired her doubts during what was expected to be a routine morning hearing to take the guilty plea of a Capitol riot defendant, Glenn Croy of...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed a new fatal case of the rare disease melioidosis in Georgia that is linked to three previous cases in different states, including Texas. The cases have included adults and children. Two of the four patients had no known risk factors for melioidosis; two died. Melioidosis, also called Whitmore’s disease, is an infectious disease that can infect humans or animals. The disease is caused by the bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei. Whole genome sequencing at CDC shows the bacterial strains that sickened the patients – one each in Texas, Kansas, Georgia and Minnesota –...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell praised President Joe Biden on Wednesday for working with Republicans to pass an infrastructure bill. “I think the president deserves a lot of credit for getting the Democrats open to reaching a bipartisan agreement on this bill,” McConnell said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

Turkish archaeologists excavating the site of the city of Troy on the hills of Hisarlik have discovered a large wooden structure that they believe are the remains of the Trojan Horse. These excavations include dozens of fir planks and beams up to 15 meters (49 feet) long, assembled in a strange form. The wooden structure was found inside the walls of the ancient city of Troy. Boston University professors Christine Morris and Chris Wilson believe that "the carbon dating tests and other analyses have all suggested that the wooden pieces and other artifacts date from the 12th or 11th centuries...

Washington (AFP) - US President Joe Biden will convene a virtual "Summit for Democracy" on December 9 and 10 to which heads of state, civil society, philanthropy, and the private sector will be invited, the White House said Wednesday. The summit "will galvanize commitments and initiatives across three principal themes: defending against authoritarianism, fighting corruption, and promoting respect for human rights," according to a White House statement. A year later Biden plans to host them once more -- hopefully in person -- to "showcase progress made against their commitments." Biden has said that "the challenge of our time is to...