Free Republic

A federal judge on Tuesday approved a plan to restructure Puerto Rico's bond debt, which had plunged the U.S. territory into the country's largest municipal bankruptcy in history. Judge Laura Taylor Swain ruled in favor of the Plan of Adjustment that was years in the making, through arduous negotiations between the island's Fiscal Oversight Board, debtors and the government. According to Board officials, the plan will reduce Puerto Rico's debt by 80 percent and save the island more than $50 billion in debt payments. Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said the approval of the plan "represents a great step for...

Project Veritas just released a video of the results of a freedom of information act request by Judicial Watch about any communications between Pfizer and its employees or representatives and the FBI regarding Project Veritas. It was confirmed the FBI had material which is located in an investigative file exempt from disclosure. Pfizer had communications with the FBI regarding "misinformation" as per its own admission. So why is the FBI in contact with Pfizer regarding journalists, especially given the Project Veritas reports which simply convey the exact words of Pfizer employees?

Senate Democrats will force a vote this week to try to change the rules and enact a talking filibuster to pass voting rights legislation, getting rid of the 60-vote hurdle. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced on Tuesday that Democrats will force a rules change vote once Republicans block a voting rights bill as soon as Wednesday.

Hong Kong officials are killing hamsters by the thousands after declaring the rodents responsible for spreading COVID-19. Meanwhile, in China’s mainland, the blame has been put on international mail packaging. As one of the world’s last major holdouts of a zero-tolerance approach to the virus, China is fanning unusual theories about the source of emerging COVID-19 clusters despite doubts from overseas experts over the likelihood of such claims. On Jan. 18, Hong Kong ordered 2,000 hamsters, chinchillas, rabbits, and other small animals to be “humanely” put down after a health check on the rodents found 11 to carry the Delta...

The city of Potsdam and two districts are reacting to high infection rates. From Wednesday, there will be a night curfew for the unvaccinated from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Potsdam-In Brandenburg, the seven-day incidence of corona infections continues to rise unabated. The city of Potsdam and the districts of Havelland and Teltow-Flaming therefore ordered nightly curfews on Tuesday. These apply to unvaccinated people-but not to vaccinated or recovered people. The regulations come into force at midnight and will apply from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m in the future..

The Choice is Yours.

Two dozen Republican senators are calling on Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to explain his role in soliciting a letter from the National School Boards Association that compared school parents to domestic terrorists. An email released this week showed that an association official told a colleague that Cardona asked the group to write the Sept. 29 letter that urged President Joe Biden to use the FBI to investigate threats made against school board members. The letter was the catalyst for Attorney General Merrick Garland's decision to form a federal task force to track school board threats across the country. Republicans...

Ray Epps, the Arizona man who several Republican lawmakers say is a federal informant who was present during the Capitol attack, is scheduled to participate in an interview on Friday with the House Jan. 6 committee. Mr. Epps’ lawyer, John Blischak, said that the meeting is intended to be a formal, transcribed follow-up to his previous interview with the committee, which took place in November and was disclosed last week, Politico reported. The committee did not respond to a request for comment. Republican lawmakers speculate that Mr. Epps was a government informant participating in the riot. A man matching his...

MSNBC's Chuck Todd said Tuesday that based on past metrics of job approval and the American people's impression of the country's direction, President Biden and Democrats could be heading into the midterm in "shellacking territory," such as what was seen during the 2010 midterms during former President Obama's first term in the White House.

To cruise or not to cruise? That is the question. The Centers for Disease Control’s Conditional Sailing Orders for cruise ships expired over the weekend. That means cruise lines can voluntarily follow CDC COVID-19 guidelines, but they don’t have to. us. Several major cruise lines have already docked ships until the end of January with the surge of the omicron variant. According to a CDC official, over the past two weeks, coronavirus cases on cruise ships increased 300-fold. WRAL Investigates producer Randall Kerr and his family were on a Norwegian cruise ship when the CDC’s recommendation came down " "People...

Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Hallie Jackson Reports” that it was the Republican Party’s “business plan to suppress black and brown votes in order to gain an electoral advantage in 2022.” Markey said, “We celebrated Martin Luther King Day this week. And it is absolutely creating a moment in history where we have to stand up as Democrats and to fight for voting rights. Mitch McConnell said as recently as today. It’s a winning issue for the Republican Party if they suppress black and brown voters across this country. If those voters don’t get to the polls,...

U.S.—Fans of former president Donald J. Trump are chomping at the bit to once again vote for the guy who fast-tracked vaccines and appointed Dr. Anthony Fauci to the Coronavirus Task Force. "Trump was by far our greatest president. Even better than James Madison!" said local deplorable Nathan Nebulous. "Everything was great under Trump until that deadly virus changed the face of the entire earth overnight and ruined everything. But he was so good at owning the libs!" Sean Hannity, a popular conservative pundit, announced his continued support of Trump on his radio program. "Sure, the vaccines don't seem to...

The House select committee on Jan. 6 has subpoenaed and obtained the phone records associated with former President Trump's son Eric Trump and Kimberly Guilfoyle, former Trump adviser and fiancée to Donald Trump Jr. Multiple sources told CNN that the phone records that were obtained are part of a new round of call records requested from communication companies. These records include incoming and outgoing calls, the dates they were made, the duration and the times of the calls.

University of Alabama head football coach Nick Saban has co-signed a letter to West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin (D) to support the Freedom to Vote Act. However, the coach later stressed that he did not support killing the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster. In addition to Saban, the letter was signed by NBA legend Jerry West, former Bills linebacker Darryl Talley, former WVU Athletic Director Oliver Luck, and former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue.

SYDNEY — The Pacific nation of Tonga, scrambling to recover from a devastating volcanic eruption on Saturday that sent tsunami waves halfway around the world, faces a new threat: a potential “tsunami” of coronavirus infections. Aid groups and defense officials from Australia and New Zealand are working on contactless ways to deliver water and other vital supplies to the remote archipelago kingdom, which is one of the few places in the world to remain essentially free of the virus. (Residents went into a brief lockdown in November when a single case, Tonga’s first, was detected in a person at a...

Democratic NJ governor signs unlimited abortion into law, says he cannot ‘deny services’ as a Catholic‘I have leaned on my faith to inform and enhance many of my most deeply held values,’ claimed Murphy, who recently signed a bill codifying a ‘fundamental right’ to abortion. Mon Jan 17, 2022 - 3:53 pm ESTMon Jan 17, 2022 - 4:11 pm EST TRENTON (LifeSiteNews) – New Jersey Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy claims his decision to sign a law codifying a “fundamental right” to abortion does not compromise his professed Catholic identity, despite the Church’s unambiguous teachings against the shedding of innocent blood...

https://nypost.com/2022/01/18/saban-backs-election-bill-but-not-killing-filibuster/

The House select committee investigating the Capitol riot announced Tuesday it had subpoenaed former New York City mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani for documents and testimony related to his claims that voter fraud cost the 45th president the 2020 election. In addition to Giuliani, the committee subpoenaed former Trump campaign attorneys Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis, as well as Trump 2020 strategic adviser Boris Epshteyn.

Vatican Asks Bishops to Invite Local Protestant and Orthodox Leaders to Participate in Synodal PathOffering “some practical suggestions to ensure the ecumenical dimension of the synodal journey,” the cardinals encouraged bishops to reach out to leaders of other Christian communities in their area.VATICAN CITY — The Vatican has issued a letter asking Catholic bishops to invite local Orthodox and Protestant leaders to participate in the diocesan stage of the two-year process leading to the 2023 Synod on Synodality. Cardinal Mario Grech, the general secretary of the Synod of Bishops, and Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for...

Music icon Stevie Wonder on Tuesday pressed Senate lawmakers to enact a rules change in order to pass voting rights legislation, saying the filibuster “is not working for democracy.” In a video message posted on his YouTube channel, Wonder expressed his thoughts about the voting rights bill that Senate Democrats are expected to meet about on Tuesday.