Free Republic

ALBANY – Albany County is creating an online portal to let residents report violations of the state's new indoor mask mandate, as well as other issues they see involving mask and vaccine requirements.

On Tuesday evening, a Connecticut school board meeting turned violent during a debate about a “racially insensitive” mascot.The incident took place during a special school board meeting in the Glastonbury High School auditorium.The meeting was set to debate dropping the school’s new team name, “the Guardians,” and bring back the previous name “the Tomahawks,” which was deemed insensitive by some.

Politically connected First Solar also secured $3 billion in loan guarantees from Obama administration A solar energy company owned by a Biden megadonor received a $500 million government loan to build a manufacturing facility in India, the Biden administration announced this week, raising questions about whether the company's political clout played any role in the financing decision. The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation granted the loan to First Solar, which is owned by billionaire Walmart heir Lukas Walton, to build a solar module plant in India. Walton contributed over $300,000 to President Joe Biden's campaign last year, and over $100,000...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Wednesday said he thinks President Biden’s social spending and climate bill, the Build Back Better Act, is “dead forever,” as Senate Democrats struggle to get their caucus unified behind the legislation. Graham pointed specifically to the wariness of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who has signaled concerns about the roughly $2 trillion cost of the bill and its potential effects on inflation. “I think Build Back Better is dead forever, and let me tell you why, because Joe Manchin has said he's not going to vote for a bill that will add to the deficit,” Graham...

President Biden on Wednesday touted the number of unemployment insurance claims, stating that the number represents one of the strongest jobs recoveries ever. “Today, we received further evidence that our jobs recovery is one of the strongest ever. The average number of Americans filing for unemployment over the last four weeks is now at its lowest level since 1969,” Biden said in a statement. The four-week moving average for claims fell by 16,000 to 203,750, the lowest level since Nov. 15, 1969. New applications for jobless aide rose slightly last week, totaling 206,000, an increase of 18,000 from the previous...

A microscopic close-up of the copper surface. (Smith et al., Biomaterials, 2021) ========================================================================= Copper is well known for being able to kill off bacteria that it comes into contact with – the metal releases ions that are toxic to bacterial cells, punching through their outer membranes. However, this process usually takes several hours. A newly developed copper surface does the job in just a couple of minutes, though, some 120 times faster than normal copper. The less time the bacteria hang around, of course, the safer that surfaces like door handles and worktops are going to be. The scientists behind...

Thousands sign petition asking for reduced sentence for truck driver in I-70 crash by: Evan Kruegel Updated: Dec 16, 2021 DENVER (KDVR) — More than 1-million people have signed an online petition asking Gov. Jared Polis to grant clemency to Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, the truck driver found guilty of a fiery 2019 crash that killed four people. Aguilera-Mederos was sentenced to 110 years in prison on Monday, after a jury found him guilty of 27 counts in October. According to a Change.org spokesperson, the petition is the fastest-growing petition on the website in all of 2021, with more than 45,000 people...

COLUMBIA, S.C. A top nurse at a Columbia skilled nursing and rehabilitation center has been indicted on federal charges of creating false COVID-19 vaccination cards. Tammy McDonald, 53, a registered nurse and director of nursing at the rehabilitation center, also lied to agents with the FBI and U.S. Health and Human Services Department when confronted about the false cards, an indictment in the case said. The rehabilitation center was not identified in the indictment, which was unsealed and made public Thursday morning. McDonald, a longtime Columbia resident, was indicted by the federal grand jury on Nov. 23. Her attorney Jim...

Inflation is spiraling out of control, the Southern border is essentially nonexistent, Iran is growing more aggressive by the day, America is no longer energy independent, and COVID hysteria and authoritarianism keep on advancing, but at least one American couldn’t be happier: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Ketel One). In yet another episode of the Left’s long-running “Believe Me, Not Your Lying Eyes” show, Pelosi claimed that the Biden faux presidency, far from being the dumpster fire that everyone in the world can see that it is, has been “just perfect.” She didn’t even burst out laughing as she said it....

An Antarctic ice shelf could crack and disintegrate within the next decade, allowing a Florida-sized glacier to slide into the ocean and raising sea levels by feet, scientists warned Wednesday. A dramatic chain reaction in the ice could occur by 2031, starting with the Thwaites Glacier, said Erin Pettit, a professor at Oregon State University who studies glacier and ice sheet dynamics. New research Pettit presented to a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in New Orleans suggests the final collapse of the ice shelf may occur "within as little as 5 years" and mark the beginning of the end...

Determined to reduce childhood obesity, Mayor Lori Lightfoot moved Wednesday to stop Chicago restaurants from automatically serving kids meals with sugary, high-calorie drinks. At a City Council meeting, Lightfoot joined City Clerk Anna Valencia in introducing an ordinance that would prohibit Chicago restaurants from serving or marketing pop and other sugary drinks as the “default beverage” with kids meals.

For my job, I come in contact with many people from states where masking is maybe not "mandatory" but heavily and socially encouraged. The people ask me if they have to wear a mask, and I say no, this is Texas, and I would say the vast majority basically say, thank God.

France will ban non-essential travel to and from Britain from the weekend to slow the spread of the Omicron Covid-19 variant that is causing record numbers of cases on the other side of the Channel, the government has said. From midnight Saturday there will be a "requirement to have an essential reason to travel to, or come from, the UK, both for the unvaccinated and vaccinated ... People cannot travel for touristic or professional reasons," the government said in a statement, adding that French citizens and EU nationals could still return to France from the UK.

As many as 1.3 million new COVID-19 cases are expected in the US by Christmas Day — and as many as 15,600 additional deaths by Jan. 8 — as Omicron continues to spread in the country, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned. The grim predictions mean that “a total of 837,000 to 845,000 COVID-19 deaths will be reported by this date,” the CDC said in its latest update from Wednesday. In addition, the number of new daily confirmed hospital admissions will likely increase over the next month, with 6,300 to 18,400 likely reported on Jan. 7, the...

Director slams woke mob as “a small group of closed-minded, humour-averse ideologues” irector and Monty Python legend Terry Gilliam has found himself the latest victim of cancel culture as the Old Vic Theater in London dropped plans for a production of Stephen Sondheim’s musical Into the Woods after Gilliam merely suggested on social media that people should watch Dave Chappelle’s latest Netflix special. Essentially Gilliam was canceled by the Old Vic for engaging in wrong think. Not one to keep his opinion to himself, Gilliam blasted the move as the theater caving to a minute mob of woke complainers. Gilliam...

Wow, the racial reckoning after George Floyd sure has gotten a lot of black people killed! According to the FBI, amid the extravaganza of violence following Floyd's death in 2020, an additional 2,400 black males and 405 black females were killed, compared to 2019. The post-Floyd murder surge of 2020 is, by far, the largest year-to-year increase in homicide in U.S. history. So far this year, 615 black people have been killed in Chicago (out of a total of 767 homicide victims, 29 white); 164 in Baltimore, (out of 323 total, eight white, with the race of 144 murder victims...

NEWS: The initial interest rate on new Series I savings bonds is 7.12 percent. You can buy I bonds at that rate through April 2022.

Inflation has reached its highest level in decades. While we're not yet in a situation like we had in the 1970s -- and we can hope that the Federal Reserve will regain control before it reaches that point -- there are still plenty of reasons to be upset that inflation is getting so out of hand. Inflation is commonly defined as a general increase in prices, leaving our money with less purchasing power. When the prices of goods and services increase faster than wages, workers essentially take a pay cut. Savers and those who receive interest payments also lose out....

Six men, including a decorated army veteran, were arrested in New York City last night after failure to show proof of vaccination. New York City Police were called by the manager at The Cheesecake Factory in Queens, New York after a large group entered the restaurant without Vaccine Passports and were denied service. They continued to attempt to order food and drinks at the bar counter and from various tables around the restaurant. New York City Police were called. See arrest video here and full set of videos at bottom of article: VIDEO AT LINK.................... Mitchell Bosch, a retired United...

COVID vaccines are “irreversible and potentially permanently damaging,” says Dr. Robert Malone, who explains why 16,000 physicians and medical scientists around the world signed a declaration publicly declaring healthy children should not be vaccinated for COVID-19.. Before you vaccinate your child — which is irreversible and potentially permanently damaging — find out why 16,000 physicians and medical scientists around the world signed a declaration publicly declaring that healthy children should NOT be vaccinated for COVID-19. On behalf of these M.D.s and Ph.D.s, I have published a clear statement outlining the scientific facts behind this decision: My name is Robert Malone,...