Free Republic

The U.S. Supreme Court has delivered two major rulings that are favorable to police officers. The nation’s highest court overruled two decisions and handed law enforcement big wins in a pair of cases over qualified immunity. Republicans overwhelmingly support qualified immunity, arguing that if it was taken away officers would be subject to lawsuits for nearly every difficult call they are faced with on the job. This would make it nearly impossible to recruit or retain good officers, they say. The justices reversed two federal appeals courts that allowed excessive force lawsuits to proceed against officers in separate cases in...

The defense attorney who represented George Zimmerman, who was acquitted in the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin, was accused this week of witness tampering in a juvenile rape case. Osceola County Sheriff Marcos López in a news conference said Hal Uhrig was arrested on Monday and faces charges including solicitation to commit perjury and witness tampering, according to ABC News. Uhrig was representing a man accused of raping a 9-year-old and allegedly coordinated a meeting between his client and the victim and her father.

The former Pennsylvania health secretary will be the sixth four-star admiral in the history of the health corps. A senior Biden health appointee who made history when she became the nation’s highest-ranking openly transgender official is also set to become its first openly transgender four-star officer, the administration announced on Tuesday. U.S. coronavirus cases tracker and map Rachel Levine, the U.S. assistant secretary for health, will be sworn in Tuesday as an admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, a 6,000-person force that responds to health crises on behalf of the federal government, including administering coronavirus vaccines and...

A Rhode Island woman’s search for her relative’s displaced gravesite led to the discovery of nearly 1,000 people buried beneath a local highway and an unmarked mass grave containing hundreds of bodies. Both discoveries were connected to state institution cemeteries in Cranston, where more than 5,000 of Rhode Island’s poor, sick or mentally ill residents were buried between 1875 and 1953. ...worried her relative was buried beneath the state highway According to the R.I. Department of Transportation, tens of thousands of people drive on Route 37 every day. Malcolm said the plaque indicating where the mass grave is located was...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinals Respond to Traditiones Custodes by Consecrating Priests in Immemorial Mass of All Ages Cardinal Müller ordained a monk from Le Barroux as a priest in the traditional rite.[katholisches] Two well-known cardinals have offered the priestly ordination in the Immemorial Mass of All Ages during these months. Cardinal George Pell consecrated two Benedictines from Nursia and Cardinal Gerhard Müller one Benedictine from Le Barroux. Both consecrations are a signal to want to defend the Rite and the communities associated with it against the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes. A new website also provides up-to-date information on the effects...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr_F_XQrukM

In the Star Trek Voyager series, the Jem'Hadar were an invincible military force which was genetically engineered to be dependent upon a special nutritional supplement. What if Bill Gates' confident assertion that he's not going to get Covid is based on his having access to a true, complete vaccine against Covid, along with other elites, which all the rest of the population only receives in a partial form that must be renewed every three months?

The passengers who did nothing while a homeless man raped a woman on a commuter train outside Philadelphia may have also recorded the vile attack on their cellphones instead of calling for help, authorities said. Surveillance footage showed Fiston Ngoy, 35, who has been charged with rape in Wednesday’s sickening attack aboard a Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority train, spent nearly 45 minutes harassing the woman and touched her breast at one point, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by the Philadelphia Inquirer. Police said the rape lasted about six minutes as other passengers looked on while holding their cellphones, but...

Over the last months, we have heard multiple cruise line executives mention the incredible popularity the companies are experiencing on bookings. It looks like those numbers are confirmed by a new survey conducted by U.S. News & World Report, so much so that the popularity of cruising is now surpassing pre-pandemic levels. It’s not just veteran cruisers that have shown their interest in going back to sea as soon as possible. According to the survey, many people who have never cruised before expressed interest in taking their first-ever cruise. In recent months the cruise industry has taken a leading role...

[Catholic Caucus] Athanasius Schneider Pontifical High Mass in Detroit There's no real theme to today's post, just some random smattering of thoughts I put together after returning from Detroit:Today the great Bishop Athanasius Schneider said Mass in Detroit as part of the Call to Holiness event put on by Assumption Grotto. If the name Assumption Grotto sounds familiar, this is the parish of traditional priest Fr. Eduard Perrone of the Archdiocese of Detroit. Some years ago Fr. Perrone was accused of sex abuse and suspended from ministry. Fr. Perrone fought back, however, and was successfully able to demonstrate that...

Apple is complying with the regime in China to remove Quran and Bible apps from its App Store there – the latest effort to suppress religious activity in the communist country. Apple Censorship reported in a tweet that the apps, Quran Majeed and Bible App by Olive Tree, had been taken down. Chinese officials claim the apps violate laws that prohibit the use of religious text or materials. A spokesperson from Olive Tree told the Washington Examiner, “We are currently reviewing the requirements to obtain the necessary permit with the hope that we can restore our app to China’s App...

On CNN's Don Lemon Tonight Monday, the host wanted to reflect on the life and career of Gen. Colin Powell, who died earlier in the day at 84. But first, Lemon took issue with multiple Fox News anchors who began raising questions about vaccines “literally minutes” after the news of Powell’s death broke. “Shame on them,” Lemon said. “I just found it to be disgusting. I cannot believe it happened. Every day I'm more surprised when that happens.” Lemon played examples of anchors on Fox News quickly turning the news of Powell’s passing into a discussion about vaccines and also...

Ace Hardware is reportedly finding it difficult to keep shelves full due to the supply chain crisis threatening grocers, emergency medical services, and holiday shoppers. Operations manager John Ketels told thechroniclesonline.com his store in St. Helens, Washington, is having difficulty stocking items due to lack of warehouse inventory.

Daniel Andrews is the premier of Victoria and a member of the Socialist Left faction of the Australian Labor Party. Melbourne, the capital of Victoria and previously considered one of the most liveable cities in the world, is now the most locked down city in the world. Police open fire on peaceful protestors and body slam them to the ground, including a seventy year old grandmother. The two vaccinated independent libertarian members of parliament have been barred from parliament for refusing to complete vaccination paperwork. I have lived through Melbourne lockdowns imprisoned in my own home and have heard hundreds...

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker signed a new state law Thursday that focuses on students' access to school meals, with provisions around free breakfast and lunch as well as unpaid meal debt. The new law also takes aim at a practice known as "lunch shaming," prohibiting schools from publicly identifying or taking punitive action against students who have unresolved debt for school meals. "The new law is both timely and critical because it boosts federal nutrition dollars to schools across Massachusetts, and keeps children out of what should be an 'adult only' conversation on school meal debt," said Patricia Baker, a...

Dr. Rachel Levine is making more history. Levine, the former Pennsylvania health secretary, was ceremonially sworn in Tuesday as a four-star admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps. Levine becomes the nation’s first openly transgender four-star officer across any of the uniformed services of the United States. Earlier this year, President Joe Biden chose Levine to be the U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health. She also became the top ranking officer of the USPHS Commissioned Corps, which includes 6,000 officers that serve vulnerable and underserved groups. She’s also the first female officer to lead the corps. The USPHS...

OLYMPIA, Wash. – More than 125 state troopers have been cut following Governor Jay Inslee’s mask mandate. Washington State Patrol announced Tuesday morning it “separated” 127 people from employment who were not vaccinated by the Oct. 18 deadline. This included 53 civil servants and 74 officers. The officers include 67 troopers, six sergeants and one captain. WSP said it has more than 2,200 people in eight districts and the firings are spread across the state. “As for the more than 2,000 individuals who elected to stay with our agency, I am forever thankful. We have the responsibilities of the agency...

Blame the American consumer! That’s the approach liberal outlet Axios used to explain away the atrocious labor shortages plaguing the U.S. economy, and not President Joe Biden’s economic policies. Axios published a snobbish piece headlined, “Unruly customers threaten economic recovery.” The outlet’s asinine argument was that “increasingly violent and combative customers,” angry about “long wait times and mask mandates,” were causing workers to quit, hamstringing a recovery that hinges in part on employees “returning to work.” But unlike Axios, The Wall Street Journal editorial board didn’t hesitate to pin the labor shortage blame on the proper culprit: “Bidenomics.”

I’ve generally tried to avoid these kinds of stories the last several weeks because writing about Joe Biden’s obvious senility gets repetitive at some point. But somehow, he just keeps upping the ante in a way that I can’t ignore. That happened today during an event at the White House where Jill Biden hosted the 2021 Teachers of the Year ceremony. That included the presence of Randi Weingarten, the child-less teachers union head who was at the forefront of so much destruction to schools over the last two years. She was honored today because absolutely nothing matters to this administration...

CNN this morning unleashed a double-barreled blast of scare tactics regarding the urgent need to pass the Democrats' $3.5 trillion spending bill. New Day had on Bernie Sanders-backing Nina Turner, and Clintonista CNN contributor Paul Begala. While the pair were there to represent the progressive and "moderate" Dem wings, respectively, both broke out scare tactics on the bill. A very animated Turner asked, "Senator Manchin, what do you want to negotiate away? Is it child care? Is it the implosion of Mother Earth?"That's right, Joe: unless you agree to spend untold billions on "climate change," the world will implode --...