Free Republic

NEW YORK (AP) — New York Attorney General Letitia James formally announced Friday that she is running for governor, a widely anticipated move from the woman who oversaw an investigation into allegations that former Gov. Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed numerous women. James announced her candidacy on Twitter, saying, “I’m running for Governor of New York because I have the experience, vision, and courage to take on the powerful on behalf of all New Yorkers.” A campaign video cited the multiple lawsuits she filed against former President Donald Trump’s administration and an investigation into deaths in New York’s nursing homes during...

Joe Biden: Pope Francis Told Me ‘I Was a Good Catholic’ and to ‘Keep Receiving Communion’President Joe Biden said Friday that Pope Francis told him to keep receiving communion — even though he publicly supports killing unborn children through abortion.“We just talked about the fact that he was happy that I was a good Catholic and to keep receiving communion,” Biden told reporters after his private meeting with the pope at the Vatican. He said they did not discuss the issue of abortion.When asked by reporters if the pope told him to keep receiving communion, Biden replied, “Yes.”The pope met...

A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds that vaccination provides better protection against hospitalization with COVID-19 than a previous infection with the virus. The analysis found people hospitalized with coronavirus-like symptoms were more than five times more likely to test positive for COVID-19 if they had had recent prior infection than if they were recently vaccinated. The study released Friday examined more than 7,000 people across nine states and 187 hospitals, comparing those who were unvaccinated and had previously had the coronavirus in the last three to six months and those who were vaccinated...

Though critical race theory's introduction to the public school system has only recently become a well-known issue, a recent report from the Heritage Foundation suggests it has been a problem in education for quite a while. A sample of 554 different public school districts with more than 15,000 students found that 39% of them currently employ a chief diversity officer, or a high-ranking school official whose responsibility it is to implement various diversity, equity, and inclusion goals. The purpose of this position is to reduce achievement gaps, level the playing field, and make sure that less-privileged students are able to...

The economic and cultural hub has seen the most shootings in years in 2021. The rise mirrors a citywide violent crime wave and threatens downtown’s recovery. Deserted during the pandemic and battered by looting, downtown Chicago is grappling with a rise in violent crime that threatens the reputation of the city and its economic viability. Murders, shootings, rapes and car thefts are all up sharply in the downtown area, prompting fears among residents and business owners similar to those that have long been a reality in struggling neighborhoods beyond the skyscrapers. And some of the same frustrations. “How do you...

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) on Thursday said he is “not having second thoughts” about mandating vaccines for first responders and other city workers ahead of Friday’s 5 p.m. deadline. He predicted many will get vaccinated anyway “once they really realize that they’re not going to get paid.” When asked about the likelihood of shortages of city workers Monday — from sanitation workers to first responders — the Democrat mayor made it clear he has no regrets.

The gun supervisor for the film "Rust," on which a crew member was killed after a gun held by actor Alec Baldwin went off during rehearsal, has no idea where the real bullet came from, she says. Hannah Gutierrez was responding to "untruths that have been told to the media," a statement released Thursday night by her attorneys to NBC News said. Santa Fe County Sheriff says Baldwin fired suspected live round on Rust set Santa Fe County Sheriff says Baldwin fired 'suspected live round' on 'Rust' set "Safety is Hannah's number one priority on set," reads the statement from...

Did a ‘mafia’ of liberal cardinals pressure Benedict to resign?In this episode of Holy Smoke, I interview Julia Meloni, author of The St Gallen Mafia: Exposing the Secret Reformist Group Within the Church. It's the first detailed study of the self-described 'mafia' of liberal cardinals who worked tirelessly to prevent and then undermine the pontificate of Benedict XVI. The book contains many disconcerting revelations, and also well-sourced speculation that the group's founder, the Jesuit scholar Cardinal Martini of Milan, may have visited Benedict shortly before his own death in order to pressure him to resign. By 2013, when that happened,...

By now we all know the tale of socialist Cinderella, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez hitting the Met Gala red carpet to hobnob with the wealthy and powerful in a pricey couture gown emblazoned with the phrase, “Tax the Rich.“ If it was a sartorial effort to show solidarity with her working-class constituents, it only seemed to get “yas kween” snaps from the fancy people inside the fancy museum. Enter Kyrsten Sinema who basically said, “hold my Keystone Light… and Marlboro Reds.” This week, the 45-year-old presided over the Senate in a denim vest, looking like Ponyboy’s long lost sister who made...

The Big Sur Land Trust has announced that hiking reservations are now open for Mitteldorf Preserve in Carmel Valley as the installation of a new bridge has been completed, providing access to more than 1,000 acres of landscape. “One of the great benefits of having this new bridge in place is it’s going to help us manage the rest of the property better with safe access and get to some of those structures as well,” said Big Sur Land Trust President and CEO Jeannette Tuitele-Lewis. Mitteldorf Preserve served as a critical access point to the backcountry in and around the...

While I would have liked to have been less subtle in how I worded the title, Flopping Aces is a family friendly web site. One benefit of being married to a registered Democrat is seeing what kind of mailers The Radical Left is using to promote their campaigns. Today Sister Babe received two pieces of mail. The first is just, well, creepy: This is not the first mailer of this nature that Sister Babe has received. No, there is nothing stalker-ish whatsoever about going into somebody's voting history and showing that you've been snooping on them! Today, in an envelope,...

Florida has the lowest COVID-19 case rate in the country. They did it without vaccine mandates, without mask mandates in school and with no restrictions on businesses. Life simply went on. Over the summer, when Florida was experiencing a spike in cases, the media was wall-to-wall news about the numbers. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis was a frequent target for the blame. His sensible moves, such as not forcing low-risk kids to wear masks, was treated as akin to murder by the media. ... Florida is doing better in per-capita cases and deaths from COVID than states that put in universal...

A Washington, D.C., district court judge temporarily blocked the Biden administration from firing unvaccinated federal employees who sued the government over religious exemptions."None of the civilian employee plaintiffs will be subject to discipline while his or her request for a religious exception is pending," District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ordered, Fox News reports.Active duty military personnel whose religious exemptions have been denied also cannot be disciplined while the outcome of their appeals are pending. Twenty plaintiffs sued President Biden and members of his administration in their official capacity over the president's Sept. 9 executive order mandating vaccines for federal employees, according...

There won't be any tricks or treats at the White House this year. Michael LaRosa, press secretary for first lady Jill Biden, tweeted that the White House will not hold a specific Halloween event but will be illuminated in orange in celebration. The Bidens will be traveling for the annual G20 summit in Rome, and so they are encouraging families to trick-or-treat outdoors in neighborhoods or other venues. (snip) There's a long tradition of Halloween celebrations at the White House. This will be the first Halloween with the Biden administration, but it isn't the first time White House Halloween festivities...

U.S. President Joe Biden said he was told Friday that he should keep receiving communion despite his support for abortion. Biden met with Pope Francis in Vatican City behind closed doors. The topic of abortion did not come up, the president told reporters afterward. “We just talked about the fact that he was happy that I was a good Catholic,” he claimed. Asked if the pope said he should keep receiving communion, POTUS said “yes.” Biden has been in danger of being denied communion since the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in June voted to approve the drafting of a...

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Friday said she continues to see inflation as a temporary supply side-driven phenomenon that will normalize next year, and that President Joe Biden’s big spending package will actually have an anti-inflationary effect by smoothing some supply-side dislocations and footing the bill for some costs facing American families. Yellen made the remarks in separate interviews on CNN, CNBC, and CBS in Rome, where she is attending the G-20 conference of global leaders. “As demand shifts back to services and supply has a chance to adjust, I believe that price increases will normalize and we’ll see lower...

Headline inflation, including food and energy, rose at a 4.4% annual rate in September, the fastest since 1991. Core inflation, which is the Fed’s preferred gauge, increased 3.6% for the 12 months, the same as in August but still also the fastest pace in 30 years. Personal income declined at a faster pace than expected while consumer spending increased and was in line with forecasts. Employment costs rose more than expected and at the fastest annual pace in 19 years.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—With the pandemic still ongoing, the White House has been on the alert for anything that might cause resistance to the vaccine mandates. And they just realized that there was a constant anti-vax sentiment right under their noses: the national anthem. The last line of “The Star-Spangled Banner” is “O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave,” implying that the U.S. is a place where people are free to make their own choices and aren’t motivated by fear — pretty much a call to ignore the government during a pandemic. “So basically, at the beginning...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—With the pandemic still ongoing, the White House has been on the alert for anything that might cause resistance to the vaccine mandates. And they just realized that there was a constant anti-vax sentiment right under their noses: the national anthem. The last line of “The Star-Spangled Banner” is “O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave,” implying that the U.S. is a place where people are free to make their own choices and aren’t motivated by fear — pretty much a call to ignore the government during a pandemic. “So basically, at the beginning...

Mr. Volodymyr Salo. LVIV, UKRAINE — A 19-year-old philology student is dead after defying his family’s philosophical and religious objections.Mr. Volodymyr Salo, also spelled “Vladimir” in some accounts, received his first Pfizer mRNA injection on September 13 at about 2:30 p.m. local time, according to the Ukrainian Humanities Institute. Mr. Salo was a student there. His day continued as normal thereafter. He ate dinner in the student cafeteria at 6:30 p.m., then played board games with other students in the commons area. The situation quickly deteriorated from there.A high fever and general malaise kicked in around 8 p.m. Mr. Salo...