Free Republic

It’s a tight race among “defund the police” Democrats in this year’s chutzpah Olympics, but New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other House members of “the Squad” are well-positioned to take home the gold. Fully embracing the politics of “good for thee, but not for me,” AOC, Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar, Massachusetts’s Ayanna Pressley, and the newest Squad member, Missouri’s Cori Bush, are among the most vocal advocates for defunding — while also being, according to Federal Election Commission reports, among the biggest spenders on personal security. All these legislators support the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which passed the...

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Community activists and people of color are denouncing a state lawmaker they once considered an ally but who now stands accused of intimidating a young Black man and endangering his life. Rep. Nicole Klein-Knight, D-Manchester, was removed from the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee on Monday at the request of Democratic leaders after a dozen Black, brown and Indigenous community organizers issued a letter condemning her. The group said that Klein-Knight had worked with many of the signers in the past, but that her behavior in recent months has become alarming and “increasingly dangerous,”...

<p>PITTSFIELD – A Massachusetts man severely injured in a 2019 crash in New Hampshire that killed seven members of his motorcycle club has sued the Massachusetts Registrar of Motor Vehicles for allegedly failing to suspend the driver's license of the man charged in connection with the crash.</p>

I can already anticipate how many of you are going to be completely shocked and surprised by this report. (For anyone qualifying for that category, welcome to the internet!) California is a place where COVID mandates flow like water, with vaccination and mask mandates showing up at the state and municipal levels up and down the coast. But as we’ve already learned plenty of times in the past, the officials issuing these mandates don’t always wind up obeying them themselves. This weekend during the big NFL playoff game in Los Angeles, another such instance was recorded for posterity. The game...

Six months after the second Covaxin dose, a study using the vaccine as a booster dose has detected neutralising, T and B cell responses. This suggests good immune memory responses and long-term protection from severe disease, an official statement from Bharat Biotech said. The booster dose of whole-virus inactivated Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin (BBV152) may give long-term immunity against Sars-CoV-2 infection, its manufacturer Bharat Biotech announced on Saturday. A phase 2, double-blind, randomised controlled trial demonstrated long-term safety of Covaxin vaccine with no serious adverse events, the company said. Six months after the second Covaxin dose, a study using the vaccine...

BACK IN 1997, when I was in my second year with the Cubs, I vividly recall watching batting practice when Mark McGwire stepped in the cage for the Cardinals. It was awesome. I saw how far the ball flew, and, like so many of us, I suspended disbelief. It was like watching a good horror movie, before we knew how wrong things could go. Over time, a cloud of doubt seeped into clubhouses. Suspicion about whether that teammate beating you out is playing fair. Records became mere placeholders. Every home run hit a little too far brought a hitter's integrity...

I sensed throughout Sunday no let up in either enthusiasm or the decibel level from truck and car horns, and fireworks. All weekend, the atmosphere was festive, with an obvious sense of catharsis after two years of heavy restrictions and repeated lockdowns.... One myth that was busted right away was the striking diversity of the protestors starting with the two main organizers, Benjamin Dichter, who is Jewish and Tamara Lich, who is Metis. Far from being a uniformly disgruntled group of white Canadians, not that there is anything wrong with being that, one saw Indo-Canadians, Arab Canadians, Chinese Canadians, Black...

Only 6 of the 109 homes remain in reasonably good shapeBrad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation built 109 eye-catching and affordable homes in New Orleans for a community where many people were displaced by damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Now this housing development is in disarray. The vast majority of the recently constructed homes are riddled with construction-related problems that have led to mold, termites, rotting wood, flooding and other woes. At least six are boarded up and abandoned. Many residents have filed lawsuits that are still pending. That is, a nonprofit that built houses with input from...

Woke wheels keep on turning Canc'lin folks who got thin skin Spinnin lies about Joe Rogan "He questioned Fauci once again" And they think it's a sin Well I heard Mr. Young hates Joe Rogan Well I heard old Neil pulled his songs down Well I hope Neil Young will remember Spotify don't need him around anyhow See Joe drop the hammer For the red, white and blue See Joe drop the hammer Joe, I'm tuning into you Outside D.C. they love the Donald (boo, boo, boo) Now we all did what we could do Now Russiagate does not bother...

"So how could @AdamScotti who is Justin Trudeau personal photography just happen to be with the guy at the protest who just happens to have a brand new confederate flag that still has wrinkles on it. Imagine the coincidence!!" DannyGiles62 Twitter

Heart attacks and strokes are the number one cause of death in the United States, and 70% of them are caused by plaques of cholesterol clogging blood vessels. Despite the prevalence of cardiovascular disease, our best attempts to predict who is at risk are not very good. "We started looking at macrophages, cells that eat lipids stuck to the walls of blood vessels," says Beiyan Zhou, immunologist. Macrophages eat the fatty deposits on the walls of arteries. After eating the fat, they become foamy. "They look foamy because the fat droplets are contained in the cell and look like a...

he 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has dismissed former Waco Police Chief Brent Stroman and Assistant Chief Robert Lanning from lawsuits filed by bikers alleging false arrest after the 2015 Twin Peaks shootout, but left former McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna as a defendant. The ruling, issued late last week, is the most recent development in the six-year legal battle waged after hundreds of Bandidos and Cossacks and their respective support clubs squared off in the Twin Peaks parking lot while families were dining or shopping May 15, 2015, at the busy Central Texas Marketplace. About 134 bikers...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — As school systems across the U.S. struggle to keep classrooms open amid the pandemic, New Orleans is set to become the nation’s first major district to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations for children 5 and up, though state regulations will allow parents to opt out easily. Ahead of Tuesday’s deadline, many schools in the city have been holding vaccination events, including one at KIPP Believe school. One by one, dozens of children presented their signed permission slips, pushed up the sleeves of their pale yellow school uniform shirts and — often wincing, but rarely with tears — received...

Men have been twice as likely as women to fall victim to online blackmail since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a study published Monday by the journal Victims & Offenders found. This includes threats to publish explicit photos, videos and personal information, the researchers said. Young people, Black and Native American women, and LGBTQ individuals also were at higher risk for being victims of this form of cyber-crime called "sextortion," the data showed. "Recent research has highlighted gender disparities in unpaid care work and household-related work since the start of the pandemic," co-author Asia Eaton said in a press...

1Translational Research in Pain Program, Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, United States 2Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, United States 3Department of Molecular and Biomedical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, United States 4Comparative Pain Research and Education Center, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, United States 5Thurston Arthritis Center, UNC School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC, United States 6Department of Anesthesiology, Center for Translational Pain Research, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States ************************************************************************ Osteoarthritis (OA) associated pain...

In today’s marketing environment, a great amount of time and money has been spent researching how companies can better reach their targeted consumers. Products and services are tailored to specific consumer groups to increase sales and grow businesses. As a result, businesses far and wide save money in the long run and better serve those who need them the most. In the business world, these advances are viewed as a victory for all involved. But as has been the case with many recent advances, those on the left – always in search of a quarrel – have found a way...

New COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have plateaued or dropped in all communities served by UPMC, which has more than 30 hospitals across Pennsylvania. But it’s no time to give in to pandemic fatigue, a prominent UPMC doctor said Monday. “We may be finished with the pandemic because of our fatigue about it. But the pandemic is not finished with us,” said Dr. Donald Yealy, the chief medical officer for UPMC. Yealy also cited “reason for optimism,” given that while the ultra-contagious omicron variant spread quickly, it is dropping off quickly, a pattern it has shown in other parts of the...

David McCormick, the establishment Republican Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, recently hosted a fundraiser with Dominion Voting System’s anti-Trump public relations representative Tony Fratto. The fundraising reception was held in New York on January 24. Fratto is a partner at Hamilton Place Strategies, a top PR firm that was hired by Dominion in December 2020.

The Rise of Totalitarian Science, 2022 EditionIn 2007, I published Darwin Day in America, a critical history of social Darwinism in the United States and, more broadly, an exploration of the abuse of science in American public policy in the last century-and-a-half. In 2015, I wrote a new chapter for the paperback edition, highlighting a worrisome trend. I warned:Our culture is witnessing the rise of what could be called totalitarian science — science so totalistic in its outlook that its defenders claim the right to remake every sphere of human life, from public policy and education to ethics and religion....

Gold prices edged up on Monday even as expectations for interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve put non-yielding bullion on track for its worst monthly performance since September, while palladium braced for its best month in 14 years. Spot gold was up 0.3% to $1,795.70 per ounce, and was headed for a loss of 1.8% for the month. U.S. gold futures rose 0.5% to $1,795.80. The dollar has risen against other currencies based on expectations of Fed rate hikes, while other central banks haven’t really started to move yet, which has created a problem for gold, said Bob Haberkorn,...