Free Republic

Pennsylvania’s school mask order is losing its luster in Lancaster County. Most county school districts have decided to make masks optional instead of waiting for resolution of a court battle over whether the state’s school mask order - which mandates students, employees and visitors wear masks inside school buildings - is valid. The state Department of Health, however, says nothing has changed. Schools, department spokesperson Paul O’Neill told LNP | LancasterOnline Wednesday, should follow the mask mandate until Dec. 4 - when the order is expected to be thrown out, again, by the Commonwealth Court - and possibly even longer....

The acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse in a Kenosha, Wis., courtroom sparked plenty of opinions on Friday — divided in the same way the country is. The baby-faced gunman, who killed two men and wounded a third at a Black Lives Matter protest last year, was hailed as a hero in right-wing circles, while those on the left decried the jury’s decision. President Biden expressed anger, but at the same time, urged calm. “While the verdict in Kenosha will leave many Americans feeling angry and concerned, myself included, we must acknowledge that the jury has spoken,” the president said in a...

President Joe Biden could face a civil defamation suit from newly-acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse for calling him a “white supremacist” last year — without evidence, and before Biden was able to enjoy the immunities of presidential office. Rittenhouse was, by then, a “public figure” for the purposes of defamation law, and would have to show that any defendant acted with “actual malice” — that is, with reckless disregard for the truth. He could arguably do so for Biden’s false statement. When Biden made the now-infamous, and false, claim about Rittenhouse at the end of last September, more than a month had...

When Carol Baltosiewich was a Catholic nun, she spent 10 years caring for young men dying from AIDS. Even so, the first time I spoke to her, in 2016, I was terrified to tell her I’m gay. As a reporter who covers the church, I had started interviewing Catholics who worked and fought during the height of the H.I.V. crisis in the United States, roughly 1982 to 1996. People like Ms. Baltosiewich persisted amid frequent hostility from church leaders toward gay people and the broader stigmas of the time. A poll in 1987 found that 43 percent of Americans agreed...

A Christian florist who was sued after declining to create flower arrangements for a same-sex wedding ceremony and subsequently spent eight years in court will pay a small settlement and retire, rather than seek another U.S. Supreme Court hearing. “I am willing to turn the legal struggle for freedom over to others. At age 77, it’s time to retire,” Barronelle Stutzman, who owns Arlene’s Flowers in Richland, Washington, said Nov. 18. “I’ve never had to compromise my conscience or go against my faith. I’ve met so many, many kind and wonderful people, who’ve generously offered me their prayers and encouragement...

Maryland Democrats are considering a radical overhaul of congressional district lines that would give them a chance to win all eight of the state’s seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, putting the lone Republican representative at risk. Two of the four draft maps released by the General Assembly’s Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission spell trouble for Rep. Andy Harris (R), who represents a district that covers the Eastern Shore. Those proposals would add hundreds of thousands of voters from Anne Arundel County, home of Annapolis, in with voters from the less populous counties on the Eastern Shore. The two halves...

The largely pro-life country of Malta, located south of Sicily, has been facing pressure to legalize abortion and euthanasia and abandon its deeply-held principles. Activists are working to make abortion legal in the island nation, though pro-life Maltese citizens are continuing to stand strong — even as police have begun cracking down on pro-life advocacy as “hate speech.” Emma Portelli Bonnici is a candidate running for office with the Nationalist Party (PN). In a press conference, she promised free contraception and morning-after pills within six months if her party is put into power. She’s also openly pro-abortion, and filed a...

The leader of the Women's Tennis Association said he is willing to pull out of China if missing Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai is not accounted for.Steve Simon, chairman and CEO of the WTA, said business interests should not get in the way of doing "what's right," alluding to a willingness to end business ties with the country over Shuai's disappearance unless Chinese officials provide proof she is safe."We're definitely willing to pull our business and deal with all the complications that come with it," Simon told CNN on Thursday. "This is bigger than the business."

Today, for at least a part of it, we celebrate. Justice was not swayed by the ugly demands of mob rule or threats of domestic terrorism as Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted on all charges, just as he should have been. As many commentators said in the months leading up to the trial, he should never have been charged in the first place. He was, and therefore anything that happens going forward is a direct result of a vindictive, politically minded district attorney’s office that craved the spotlight more than justice. Unfortunately, the celebration for the delivery of a young man...

Kyle Rittenhouse’s guilt as a white supremacist, terrorist, violence-inciting murderer is obvious. That’s why the prosecution team for the state of Wisconsin has been so sharply criticized for botching what should have been a layup case. Below are the critical errors made by the prosecutors that may allow the mass murderer the freedom to do even more mass-murdering: 1) Forgetting to go to law school: Sources say they learned to be lawyers by watching episodes of Suits. 2) Letting their star witness tell the truth: Hours training him to lie in court, down the drain. 3) Googling "what does self-defense...

Tesla has yet to explain the outage, but the issue appears to span the globe. Based on several posts on Twitter, it seems that Tesla owners around the world are reporting not being able to connect their phone to their vehicle or, in some cases, not even being able to start the car. The reports mention an unexplained "500 Internal Server Error," which is, unfortunately, a pretty generic error. The existence of he outage appears to be corroborated by the website DownDetector.com, with 74% of reports of outages referring to the app. Tesla boss Elon Musk responded to one user...

The Vatican’s seven-year plan to widen the reach of Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical on the environment is just what the church needs in a time of global climate change in the mind of Father Emmet Farrell, a retired priest living in San Diego. “The church is very serious about what we need to do to address climate change,” Father Farrell, volunteer director of the Creation Care Ministry of the Diocese of San Diego, said of the Laudato Si’ Action Platform that launched Nov. 14. The pope introduced the initiative in a video May 25, asking the world to join a...

The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that four to five million Americans work in retail, with an average salary of about $27,000 per year. As careers go, retail isn't one of the most lucrative, and while there are many reasons for that, shoplifting is one of the biggest. Like any industry, salary is a calculation of other business costs and business revenue. A store buys inventory and display cases; pays rent and utilities; pays for print ads and commercials; and sells as much as it can, pricing the goods as high as the market will bear. Whether the store managers...

Former President Trump congratulated Kyle Rittenhouse after a jury found him not guilty of all charges at the conclusion of his homicide trial in Kenosha, Wis., Friday afternoon. A jury in Kenosha acquitted Rittenhouse of all five charges brought against him, including intentional homicide. Rittenhouse was charged with first-degree intentional homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide and two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety after he fatally shot two men and injured a third during civil unrest in Kenosha last year.

Americans may not be mentally prepared to hear the really bad news. The COVID pandemic is not going to end. What the government is doing (and not doing) will ensure no end to the pandemic. Just released is a new forecast of the coming COVID death toll on March 1, 2022. It comes from the group that has been doing the most thorough studies and modeling of the US pandemic. It is the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), an independent global health research center at the University of Washington. It forecasts a total of one million COVID deaths...

Police fired warning shots, injuring an unknown number of people, as riots broke out Friday night in downtown Rotterdam at a demonstration against plans by the government to restrict access for unvaccinated people to some venues. Police said in a tweet that "there are injuries in connection with the shots" during the violent unrest. Riot police used a water cannon in an attempt to drive hundreds of rioters from a central street in the port city. Video from social media shown on Dutch broadcaster NOS appeared to show a person being shot in Rotterdam, but there was no immediate word...

On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The ReidOut,” host Joy Reid reacted to the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict by stating that America “was built on the idea that white men had a particular kind of freedom and a particular kind of citizenship that only they have, that gives, from the slave catchers on, the right to inflict violence in the name of protecting property. That’s like the foundational creation of the United States.” And so, a conviction of Rittenhouse would have been a shock.

Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of all charges Friday after pleading self-defense in the deadly Kenosha shootings that became a flashpoint in the debate over guns, vigilantism and racial injustice in the U.S.Watch Richards’ remarks in the player above.Rittenhouse, 18, began to choke up, fell forward toward the defense table and then hugged one of his attorneys as he heard a court clerk recite “not guilty” five times.Rittenhouse’s defense attorney, Mark Richards, said his client was greatly relieved by the verdict.“There were times we doubted the case. There were times we were confident and to say that we were relieved would...

Fox News analyst Juan Williams said on Friday on “Special Report” that if Kyle Rittenhouse were a black teen, he would have been treated differently. Discussing Rittenhouse’s not guilty verdict, Williams said, “Well, I think one of the realities is that the jury made a decision. And I think a considered decision after lengthy three days, obviously, looking at the facts of the case and looking at the law. I think that’s where we have to go. I think there are lots of people who are concerned that someone crossing into another state with a weapon, you know, really a...

I couldn't have been more pleased that Kyle Rittenhouse was totally vindicated by a jury of his peers for his courageous actions during the Kenosha riots.My celebratory joy, however, is tempered by another case that didn't receive the justice deserved.Jacob (Jake) Gardner was the first Kyle Rittenhouse, a patriot who was forced through events beyond his control to use lethal measures to protect his livelihood and safety against violent BLM rioters in Omaha.Originally vindicated without charges filed, the Twitter mob pounced and demanded retribution. Charged with four felony counts by a Soros-purchased District Attorney, and slandered as a violent white...