Free Republic

Army scientists working on a vaccine to target all coronaviruses, including mutations of the one causing COVID-19 and others that may emerge in the future, are finding data from early human trials promising and expect to publish the results by year-end. Researchers at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research have been working since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic on a pan-coronavirus vaccine and are currently analyzing data from the Phase I clinical trial, which began in April with dozens of volunteers. They are following up with participants to monitor the safety and effectiveness of the new vaccine one...

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Mainers voiced their disapproval Tuesday for a 145-mile (233-kilometer) conduit for Canadian hydropower that was billed as either a bold step in battling climate change or unnecessary destruction of woodlands. Utilities have poured more than $90 million into the battle over the $1 billion project ahead of the referendum on Tuesday, making it the most expensive referendum in Maine history.... ...Three-quarters of trees already have been removed for the project, which calls for a transmission line that mostly follows existing utility corridors. But a new section needed to be cut through 53 miles (85 kilometers) of...

Glenn Youngkin ought to stand up and thank the liberal legacy media for his victory. The Republican may never have beaten Democratic former governor Terry McAuliffe had it not been for major outlets dumbly insisting that school parents weren’t actually upset about everything the educational establishment was doing to their kids. McAuliffe, by all appearances, believed the media giants and behaved as if the uprisings against failing, dishonest, and ideology-overrun school boards were some sort of fake, astroturf Fox News mirage. And thanks to that out-of-touch arrogant belief, McAuliffe persisted in running against school parents. That may have been his...

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is sounding off on the Biden administration's handling of Afghanistan, arguing that claiming success was the "most extraordinary statement" he's heard from a president in his lifetime. Fox News had asked what the thought was the "biggest political turkey" or "most ridiculous" thing he's seen in politics this year. "I have to say – it's not funny, it's tragic – but I have to say that having Joe Biden go out and say that the evacuation of Afghanistan was an extraordinary success – after 13 service members lost their lives, including one from my home state,...

In the late hours of election day, I received an "alarming" email from "Glenn Youngkin," although I seriously doubt he wrote it himself. Here's what Youngkin's email said: Dear ________, "CODE RED - If I don’t raise at least $8,285 in the next hour, it is GAME OVER for Republicans in states like Virginia & beyond. We need you to step up, and we need you to do it quickly. We can’t wait any longer." Here is My Response: (Nov. 3, 2:30 a.m. EDT)"Congratulations, Mr. Youngkin! You won! (And you did it without my money.) I did, however, work feverishly...

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Jean Rounds, the wife of Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, died Tuesday following a battle with cancer. She was 65... Mike Rounds, who previously served as South Dakota’s governor, won a second Senate term last year while his wife was undergoing treatment. He said in a statement that she died Tuesday morning. As South Dakota’s first lady from 2003 to 2011, Jean Rounds advocated for childhood literacy through the “Reach out and Read” program and promoted awareness of women’s heart health. She also led the design of the governor’s mansion that was completed...

A small-town Alabama police chief who died of COVID-19 loved the community he served and regretted his decision against getting vaccinated, his widow said. Buddy Crabtree, a 10-year veteran of the Ider Police Department in northeastern Alabama, died Saturday of the illness caused by the new coronavirus, news outlets reported. He was often seen inside schools in the town of about 650 people. “He loved his job and Ider,” widow Kristie Crabtree told WAAY-TV. “He loved the community of Ider, his officers, the school kids.”

Former President Donald Trump mockingly credited Democrat Terry McAuliffe with turning out “MAGA voters” in Virginia for Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin, who held a solid lead Tuesday with 85 percent of precincts reporting. McAuliffe and top backers, including President Biden, sought to make the vote about the Trump, who lost the state by 10 points last year. But the race was widely seen as a referendum on Biden’s performance. “It is looking like Terry McAuliffe’s campaign against a certain person named ‘Trump’ has very much helped Glenn Youngkin,” Trump said in an email blast.

Terry McAuliffe declined to concede defeat in the Virginia gubernatorial race Tuesday night, despite trailing Republican Glenn Youngkin by more than 100,000 votes with most precincts reported. “We still got a lot of votes to count, we got about 18 percent of the vote out, so we’re gonna continue to count the votes because every single Virginian deserves to have their vote counted,” McAuliffe told cheering supporters in the suburban outpost of Tysons Corner, Va. at around 10:20 p.m. Hours earlier, the former Virginia governor had tamped down expectations for his supporters in a brief, sober message.

Virginia Department of Elections Commissioner Chris Piper said Tuesday that the statewide election between former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Republican nominee Glenn Youngkin ran smoothly. Piper said, "Today was an overwhelmingly good day for Virginia," and that the election was "about as smooth as we could ask for," according to Richmond-based The Virginia Mercury.... ...Piper, who said 88,000 ballots had yet to be returned, said there was no update on that number as of Election Night, but assured that they would be counted if they arrive Friday by noon. ...

Around 12,000 years ago, something scorched a vast swath of the Atacama Desert in Chile with heat so intense that it turned the sandy soil into widespread slabs of silicate glass. Now, a research team studying the distribution and composition of those glasses has come to a conclusion about what caused the inferno. In a study published in the journal Geology, researchers show that samples of the desert glass contain tiny fragments with minerals often found in rocks of extraterrestrial origin. Those minerals closely match the composition of material returned to Earth by NASA's Stardust mission, which sampled the particles...

Swiss police were deployed en masse to take brutal action against a non-compliant entrepreneurial family critical of the state’s mandates. On Sunday, October 31, 2021, Swiss police stormed the famed Walliserkanne restaurant in Zermatt after the owners refused to enforce the government’s mandate requiring vaccine passports for indoor dining. Dozens of masked armed officers rushed into the famous family-owned establishment to arrest the restaurant’s owners, Patrik Aufdenblatten, his brother Ivan, and their parents, Nelly and Andreas. According to eyewitnesses, the police physically attacked the family with their “fists and shoes – and without warning.” The family did not fight back....

(CNN)About 9,000 of New York City's 378,000 municipal employees were on leave without pay as of Monday because they haven't complied with a Covid-19 vaccine mandate for city workers, the mayor said Monday... ...The number of city employees on leave appears to be less than 3% of the municipal workforce. About 12,000 other employees, meanwhile, have applied for a religious or medical exemption, and can continue to work at least until their case is decided, de Blasio has said.... ...When the number of employees who have requested exemptions is factored in, the percentage of the department eligible to continue working...

Iran is hosting a meeting of... the foreign ministers of Iran, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Russia holding talks in the Iranian capital Tehran on Afghanistan's political future and the formation of a new government...Iran's population is majority Shiite but Sunni minorities live predominantly in the areas near the border with Afghanistan. The Sunnis have long complained about discrimination by Iranian authorities.Due to dilapidated infrastructure and a lack of health and educational facilities, the areas near the Afghan border are the poorest and least developed in Iran...But Fatemeh Aman, an Iran expert at the Washington-based Middle East Institute (MEI),...

Democrat Ed Gainey became the first Black mayor of Pittsburgh on Tuesday. “Look at the image we are showing our children,” Gainey said to the crowd at the downtown Benedum Center for the Performing Arts. “I want our children to see a city for all of them,” The Associated Press reported. He had consistently made his campaign about equality for Black and poor residents, and accused Peduto of failing to ensure equity in policing, housing and other areas. At one point, he called Pittsburgh “a tale of two cities,” according to The Associated Press.

Look where the votes are still out at this link. We might actually win it!

“Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding" (Proverbs 3:13).

Somewhere looking down from Heaven, our lovable fuzzball Rush Hudson Limbaugh has to be smiling tonight. CNN is in disarray. The Punk is out. MSNBC is near tears. A sweep in Virginia and possibly so in NJ. Keep on smiling, Brother Limbaugh. We got this one for you!

A slate of conservative challengers fell just shy of securing a majority on the Wichita school board on Tuesday Three of the four challengers edged out incumbents after a partisan race that focused on mask mandates, critical race theory and other national issues. In District 1, Diane Albert finished ahead of incumbent Ben Blankley with 56% of the vote, according to unofficial results. In District 5, challenger Kathy Bond edged Mia Turner with 53% of the vote. Hazel Stabler won the District 6 seat with 44% of the vote, topping incumbent Ron Rosales’ 30% and Holly Terrill’s 25%. Incumbent Julie...

Incumbent Mead School Board member Carmen Green was in a tight race to keep her seat Tuesday night. Green’s challenger, BrieAnne Gray, a nurse practitioner, was leading the race with about 51%. The race brought in more contributions than any race in the Mead School District in recent history. Gray raised more than $42,000 as of Tuesday, more than double Green, who raised about $19,000. Prior to 2019 when one candidate raised $10,500, no Mead School Board candidate raised more than $5,000. Despite the results, Green said she was “super hopeful” with the amount of ballots still left to count......