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Aug 11 (Reuters) - California, struggling to balance its clean energy push with the need to boost tight power supplies and avoid rolling blackouts, will lean more on fossil fuels in coming weeks to keep the power on if scorching heatwaves stretch its grid. The Golden State, which has among the world's most aggressive environmental policies, faces a potential supply shortfall of up to 3,500 megawatts during peak demand hours in the coming weeks. That is about 2.6 million households worth of electricity supply. California's predicament demonstrates the challenges electricity grids face by moving away from natural gas and coal...

Washington, DC, health officials say the indoor mask mandate, now in its second week, may be in place until Thanksgiving given the rising number of cases and stagnated vaccination rates. Patrick Ashley, a senior deputy director of the DC health department, told WRC-TV that the mask mandate will likely be in effect for the weeks to come. “We’re very hopeful that we’ll get back to normal around the holidays,” Ashley said, adding: “We’re hopeful that by Thanksgiving we’ll be in a different spot, but that relies on people getting vaccinated.” DC has been experiencing a steady climb in COVID cases,...

Biotech company Novavax has announced it will be initially prioritizing regulatory submissions for its promising COVID-19 vaccine in countries with urgent needs such as India, Indonesia and the Philippines. The long-anticipated vaccine is also being trialed as a third booster in people initially administered other vaccines. Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine is what's known as a protein subunit vaccine. Currently available COVID-19 vaccines are designed to coax cells into producing a part of the SARS-CoV-2 virus which then trigger the immune system to recognize it. Novavax’s candidate is a little different. It directly delivers lab-grown coronavirus spike proteins into the body in...

In the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremonies, there was the sad spectacle of a children’s choir singing the John Lennon song, “Imagine.” While some just think of the song as “pretty” the radical atheist/globalist words are a direct attack on things central to the existence of any civilization. Lennon imagines, with approval, a world without God, religion, or country. In effect no piety, no loyalties, and nothing worth dying for. He also dismissed the idea of heaven, hell, and more than implies that religion, faith and God are the source of violence, greed and disunity.As you will see below, there is...

Earlier this week, with Joe Scarborough away from Morning Joe, we noted Mika Brzezinski imitating one of his repetitious rants. She accused people dubious about masks/vaccines of belonging to a "death cult." Brzezinski deployed the "death cult" phrase no fewer than eight times during her spiel. Joe, back this morning, bought into Mika's "death cult" trope. Scarborough was responding to a report from NBC's Kerry Sanders, who said that a Collier County [Naples area] mom who was sending her children to school without masks was doing so because "we believe our faith will protect us." That set Scarborough off. Scarborough...

A new preprint study that raises concerns about the mRNA vaccines' effectiveness against Delta — particularly Pfizer's — has already grabbed the attention of top Biden administration officials. What they're saying: The study found the Pfizer vaccine was only 42% effective against infection in July, when the Delta variant was dominant. "If that's not a wakeup call, I don't know what is," a senior Biden official told Axios. Driving the news: The study, conducted by nference and the Mayo Clinic, compared the effectiveness of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in the Mayo Clinic Health System over time from January to...

The mother of two brothers charged in the murder of a Chicago police officer has been arrested after scuffling with police and guards, kicking one of them, while trying to visit her son in the hospital, police said. Evalena Flores was arrested at Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn just before 8:30 a.m. Tuesday after she ran down a hall and confronted Chicago police officers and security guards posted outside the room of Emonte Morgan, Oak Lawn police said. Flores tried to push by them, demanding to see her son, and kicked one of the guards in the groin, police...

August 4, Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown told 75 of the party faithful that, “We live at a very pivotal point in time right now in Colorado,” and that, “2022 presents a perfect storm of opportunities for us to take back some control in this state if we don’t give up.” Democrats presently control both chambers of the state legislature and hold every statewide elective office except for one seat on the CU Board of Regents. She pointed to the ongoing process of redistricting of the state’s congressional and legislative districts by the two 12-member independent redistricting commissions,...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. budget deficit hit $2.54 trillion for the first 10 months of this budget year, fed by spending to support the country after the pandemic-induced recession. The figures keep the deficit on track to be second largest annual shortfall in U.S. history, behind only the most recent fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. Still, the Treasury Department reported Wednesday that the deficit through July is 9.5% lower than the same period a year ago. That reflected improving tax collections as the economy recovers, and the winding down of many of the emergency support programs enacted after...

In an interview with Estonia’s public broadcaster, Soomere advanced his vision for Estonia’s foreign policy, in which he praised Finland’s approach to its relations with Russia – which is commonly referred to as “Finlandization.” Finlandization is a policy whereby smaller nations submissively acquiesce to the dominance of larger and more aggressive neighbours. During the interview, Soomere warned that “it is essential to avoid demonizing our neighbor and partner” without naming the government of Vladimir Putin by name. Soomere continued by suggesting that “maybe I’m an idealist, but I think that the director of KAPO [Estonian Internal Security Service] has to...

Like COVID-19, Streptococcus pneumoniae spreads in droplets when we cough or sneeze. It is responsible for deadly pneumonia, meningitis, sepsis or blood poisoning, as well as inner ear infections that commonly cause deafness in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, S. pneumoniae was the leading cause of death by pneumonia globally. It accounted for more deaths than all other causes of pneumonia combined in 2016. This is despite the widespread use of antibacterial agents, vaccines and antibiotics, to protect against S. pneumoniae infections. Our current vaccines provide limited protection, working against only a fraction of all...

On Tuesday, the Senate voted to approve a historic $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill that—if signed into law—will have an effect on American transportation for decades to come. And thanks to section 24220 on page 1066 of the proposed bill, that transportation includes drunk driving. The stats on alcohol-impaired driving speak for themselves: Alcohol-impaired driving fatalities represent approximately 1⁄3 of all highway fatalities in the United States each year. In 2019, there were 10,142 alcohol-impaired driving fatalities in the United States involving drivers with a blood alcohol concentration level of 0.08 or higher, and 68 percent of the crashes that...

BREAKING: Mesa County forensic images show Dominion DELETED databases and logs after the election. I'm watching live while the crowd is digging through the forensic images turned over by the Mesa County Clerk. This shows the settings, configs, logs, databases, of the tabulation machines from before, during, and after the 2020 election. They just discovered in real time that the machines had Microsoft SQL server installed which contained databases for elections going back to 2019, and then on May 25 this year, ALL of those databases were deleted by someone from Dominion. This is another smoking gun.

Olympic gold medalist swimmer Katie Ledecky will be leaving Tokyo with two gold medals and two silvers, and reportedly a large tax bill. The swimmer has won a total of 10 Olympic medals since London 2012, making her the most decorated female swimmer in Olympic history and helping her get lucrative endorsement deals totaling more than $1 million, according to Bloomberg. While all Olympic medalists win money along with their hardware -- $37,500 for gold, $22,500 for silver and $15,000 for bronze – the Internal Revenue Service exempts athletes making less than $1 million in income from paying taxes on...

The CDC on Wednesday urged all pregnant or breastfeeding women to get vaccinated against Covid-19.In an effort to scare pregnant women, the CDC said data suggest expecting mothers face an “increased risk of severe illness from Covid-19.”“CDC recommends that pregnant people should be vaccinated against COVID-19, based on new evidence about the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines,” the CDC said. “COVID-19 vaccination is recommended for all people 12 years and older, including people who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or trying to get pregnant now or might become pregnant in the future.”The CDC said there is no evidence that the...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized 2.8 tons of methamphetamine and fentanyl at a commercial border crossing in California. Officers found the deadly drugs in a shipment of plastic household items. CBP officers assigned to the Otay Mesa Commercial Facility on August 5 observed a tractor-trailer hauling a load of plastic household items approaching from Mexico. Following an initial interview, a CBP officer referred the driver, a Mexican national, to a secondary inspection station, according to information obtained from CBP officials this week. Additional officers carried out non-intrusive inspections utilizing an x-ray scan and found several anomalies inside the...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Wednesday endorsed Florida state Rep. Anthony Sabatini (R) in Florida’s 7th Congressional District race. “I am officially announcing my endorsement for Anthony Sabatini for Congress,” Paul wrote in a press release. “The man is a true patriot who loves our country and will be one of my greatest allies when he is elected to Congress.” “Anthony Sabatini is a bold leader in the state of Florida who isn’t afraid to fight for an America-First agenda, the Constitution, and liberty,” Paul continued, further outlining Sabatini’s accomplishments: Led the fight in Florida to back up my efforts...

Moments ago Mary from the National Republican Senate Committee (NRSC) just called and asked for a donation to help Senate Republicans help fight the Democrats and regain the majority. I could not believe my ears. I literally just finished posting here on FreeRepublic about the Republican Senators who handed Biden a bipartisan victory and thrust the final bankruptcy dagger into America with the infrastructure bill. I politely, but firmly, told Mary I was Trump supporter and it was an insult to receive this call immediately after Senate Republicans just finished collaborating with Democrats on passing the infrastructure bill. It was...

Biometrics in future of vaccine passports Any kind of document, especially a passport, needs to be built on a foundation that allows it to operate across borders and jurisdictions. Biometrics could be the easiest and fastest path to get started. It can add convenience and security, while identifying a person’s vaccination status easily. Modern biometric solutions have many different modalities at their disposal, from fingerprints and face to voice and iris recognition. The biometric modalities most likely to be used for vaccine passports, however, are anticipated to be face or voice recognition, as these can easily be performed on an...

It seems the Chicago police department's officers have more than one reason to turn their backs on Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the wokester freaks running that crime-plagued city. This Chicago Sun-Times story here is beyond appalling: Chicago police officers upset with Mayor Lori Lightfoot over her reform policies are also directing their anger at the Chicago Police Department's second-in-command. First Deputy Police Supt. Eric Carter infuriated officers gathered Saturday night at the Cook County medical examiner's office to give their slain colleague, Ella French, a final send-off. Ignoring a sacred ritual, Carter impatiently declared: "We don't have 20 minutes for...