Free Republic

A change in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance for mask-wearing Friday means federal authorities no longer recommend indoor masking as a COVID-19 precaution for much of Southeastern Pennsylvania, including Philadelphia. Whether that will change masking policy set by the health department in Philadelphia, the only place in the region with an indoor mask mandate, is uncertain. The Philadelphia Department of Public Health said it would review the CDC’s new guidance, but the safety restrictions in place in the city are based on local conditions and “months of data specific to Philadelphia,” said Matt Rankin, a spokesperson...

Russian military forces have not made the kinds of gains they expected in Ukraine and have faced more resistance than anticipated from Ukrainian forces, according to a senior U.S. defense official. After two days of war, Ukrainian command and control is still intact and no population centers have been taken. And Russia has yet to achieve air superiority with Ukraine’s air and missile defense capability still working, though degraded, the defense official told reporters Friday. "The Russians have lost a little bit of their momentum," the defense official told reporters, speaking on background.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Feb. 25 drastically changed a key measure that is used by officials across the country to determine whether or not to require mask-wearing. The federal agency now says nearly three-quarters of Americans don’t need to wear masks because they live in areas with low or medium community risk from COVID-19. The dramatic switch comes because the CDC switched from only using COVID-19 cases as a factor and are taking into account other metrics, including hospitalizations. “This updated approach focuses on directing our prevention efforts toward protecting people at high risk for...

A Colleyville Middle School teacher identified by school parents as Lisa Grimes was captured on camera saying that political opposition to the COVID vaccine prolonged the pandemic and and added “those conservative Christians … they need to die …. they need to get COVID and die.” The video was provided by a family of the school who asked to not be identified at this time. “We have a political system that will not allow us to [inaudible] so we’re vaccinating like the flu … which is, you know … get the flu vaccine if you want but you can’t —...

RINO Republican Paul Ryan is joining Barack Obama in praising Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nomination.Biden announced that he had nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on Friday.The president had previously nominated her for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, where she has been serving.“Janna and I are incredibly happy for Ketanji and her entire family. Our politics may differ, but my praise for Ketanji’s intellect, for her character, and for her integrity, is unequivocal,” Ryan tweeted.The Hill noted that Ryan’s sister-in-law is married to Jackson’s brother-in-law.In his statement, Obama opened by focusing on the color of Jackson’s...

The Ukraine skies lit up with fire tonight as Russian forces launched a devastating attack on one of the country’s fuel stores. The hellish scene unfolded near the village of Kulinichi close to Kharkiv city in eastern Ukraine. On the podcast today, we shared with you Vladimir Putin’s ‘spiritual secret’ that is driving him to conduct the largest military campaign in Europe since the end of World War II. Putin is following in the demonic footsteps of the previous European messiah Adolf Hitler. This weekend, Putin has vowed to take Ukraine capital Kyiv at any cost, and as you can...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A federal judge ruled Friday that a Virginia school system illegally discriminated against Asian Americans when it overhauled the admissions policies at an elite public school. The ruling from U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton found that impermissible “racial balancing” was at the core of the plan to overhaul admissions to Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, known as “TJ.” The school routinely ranks as the best or one of the best public schools in the country, and slots at the school are highly competitive. In 2020, the Fairfax County School Board significantly revamped the...

ransomnote: The Expose is over the target and taking flak, banned and censored - even Paypal turned against them in an effort to deprive them of funding. Please pray that the Expose receive the funds it needs to keep serving the public.In addition to a law protecting neurorights, Chile now has an employment law to protect against discrimination of mutants and genetically modified individuals. The National Congress of Chile approved a bill titled “Prohibits Labour Discrimination Against Mutations or Alterations of Genetic Material or Genetic Testing” on 16 February 2022. Official Gazette, Republic of Chile, Law number 21,422, 16 February...

[Catholic Caucus] Confined to the Reservation? Korazym.org (here) published in Italian a sort of odd article expressing skepticism over the intent of the particular audiences granted by Pope Francis to representatives of the FSSP on last February 4 and to Rev. Davide Pagliarani the Superior General of the FSSPX on February 8 and the consequent steps or declarations emanating from the Holy See. Korazym does not seem to make much of the papal document of February 11, securing for the FSSP and seemingly for all the other Ecclesia Dei Institutes the guarantee that their constitutions are held upright and...

After reports teased such an announcement was coming, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced on Friday that the agency was loosening mask restrictions for 70 percent of the country. Perhaps most pressingly, this will affect school-aged children in that guidelines no longer recommend they wear masks in the classroom unless they are in areas of "High" risk. The 70 percent figure refers to those Americans who are in areas considered to be at "Low" or "Medium" risk for the Wuhan coronavirus, as the Associated Press outlined in its reporting of the updated guidelines on Friday. For those who are...

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Republicans asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to block a congressional redistricting plan that state judges drew this week, initiating a last-ditch effort to derail a map that likely would give Democrats another seat on Capitol Hill in 2023. GOP legislative leaders argue that the boundaries — which replaced a map that the legislature approved earlier this month — violate the U.S. Constitution. Candidate filing under the map began Thursday and continues through next week. Since the Constitution allows state lawmakers to determine the manner of U.S. House elections, the panel of three...

A ransomware group linked to Russia has claimed a cyberattack on McDonald's Corporation, as federal officials warn of potential widespread targeting of US businesses after Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. The hacker gang Snatch on Friday claimed to have stolen 500 gigabytes of data from the fast-food giant headquartered in Chicago, posting their demand for an undisclosed ransom on the dark web. A McDonald's spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com. The iconic company, which signifies America's economy and culture around the world with more than 38,000 locations in 100 countries, has a market capitalization...

It’s coming together! Engineers for the James Webb Space Telescope have now completed two more phases of the seven-step, three-month-long mirror alignment process. This week, the team made more adjustments to the mirror segments along with updating the alignment of its secondary mirror. These refinements allowed for all 18 mirror segments to work together — for the first time — to produce one unified image. As you can see in the image above, this view of the star HD 84406 shows one image instead of the 18 views – one from each segment – that we saw earlier this week....

A Scott Rasmussen national survey found that 84 percent of voters believe that "parents should be able to see all curriculum plans and materials for classes their children take," while 12 percent said they disagreed and 5 percent said they are not sure. In addition, the survey found that 44 percent of voters believe many schools teach a radical ideology that would be offensive to parents, 36 percent disagree while 19 percent are not sure. Another factor in the support for transparency comes from the fact that 68 percent believe most public schools have lowered standards rather than demanding more...

The Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began in 2014, has resumed. Putin was not deterred. The threat of sanctions failed to stop Putin from launching a full-scale assault spanning the width and depth of Ukraine. This wasn’t just a nibble to expand the territory Russia holds in the Donbas; missile and aircraft strikes took place all through the country. Russian paratroops were reported in the western port city of Odessa, and Russian tanks have been filmed roaring nearby the abandoned Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Putin may not intend to take and hold all of Ukraine, but his newly stated objective—"the...

A Baltimore teen has been charged with murder after authorities say that he killed a woman who was delivering food for DoorDash. Cheryl McCormack, 51, was accompanied by a friend while working for the food delivery service on Jan. 24. Around 2 a.m., McCormack's vehicle ran out of gas. McCormack's friend set out on foot to find a gas station, leaving McCormack at the car. According to Fox Baltimore, the teen and another suspect allegedly approached the friend and attempted to rob him. Then, police say, they demanded that he return to the car with him. When they arrived at...

Violent crime continues to plague the majority of urban cities across our country, and as the violence increases, so has the danger officers face every day. Gun violence continues to devastate our communities, and countless victims are left without recourse as the failures of our criminal justice system are exposed. The Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA) has collected violent crime data since 2015 and in the most recent survey of the Association’s 70 U.S.-based member agencies, homicides in 2021 increased roughly 6% and aggravated assaults rose 3% compared to 2020. While those increases may seem small, they are anything but....

With no appetite for military confrontation, the U.S. and its allies are relying on sweeping economic sanctions to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to pull out of Ukraine. But the effectiveness of those measures are anything but certain, relying on a host of factors that includes how much China is willing to come to Moscow’s aid. Placing a stranglehold on Russia’s $1.5-trillion economy will not be easy, especially since it began trying to buffer itself from international sanctions after it annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Russia has sidelined growth to pare down its debt and built up its reserves...

As Russia pummels Ukraine in an invasion waged on Thursday, Moscow’s Deputy Ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, leveled the same type of sentiment at Israel as the Kremlin did towards Ukraine. “We’re concerned over Tel Aviv’s announced plans for expanding settlement activity in the occupied Golan Heights, which contradicts the provisions of the 1949 Geneva Convention. Russia doesn’t recognize Israel’s sovereignty over Golan Heights that are part of Syria,” he tweeted. Putin refused to recognize republics Donetsk and Luhansk as sovereign Ukraine like the Golan. Interestingly, Polyanskiy referred to Israel’s capital as Tel Aviv rather than Jerusalem. Russia has...