Free Republic

President Joe Biden claimed Thursday he spoke with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) about the federal government response to Hurricane Ian “four or five times” after initially resisting calling the governor personally. The White House spent most of Tuesday defending the president for resisting making a personal phone call to DeSantis prior to the storm, despite previously doing so for other governors facing damaging hurricanes. DeSantis told reporters Tuesday evening he had not heard from Biden personally, but that he would be “happy to brief the President if he’s interested in hearing what we’re doing in Florida.”

The rim rock crowned snake was found dead in the Florida Keys, locked in lifeless combat with a giant centipede it had managed to swallow halfway. Credit: Drew Martin The snake was recently spotted for the first time in four years. After a four-year absence, the rarest snake in North America, the Tantilla oolitica (rim rock crowned snake), was recently discovered at a park in the Florida Keys. The snake encounter was more of a source of astonishing awe than anything else, despite the fact that this would typically be a reason for joy among conservationists. The snake was discovered...

Cystic fibrosis patients who supplement their diet with vitamin C can also derive greater benefit from another antioxidant, vitamin E, resulting in a reduction in damaging inflammation, a study suggests. "Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disease that is associated with increased inflammation, and it comes with a large amount of oxidative stress," said Maret Traber. "In addition to oxidative stress, cystic fibrosis is also characterized by problems with fat absorption, which limits uptake of vitamin E, a fat-soluble antioxidant," said Traber. "Low vitamin E levels plus high oxidative stress is a recipe for more inflammation." Patients' difficulties with fat absorption...

Twitter has allegedly once again suspended the Libs of TikTok (LOTT) account for posting “hateful conduct.” Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon reported the new suspension on Wednesday from his personal Twitter account. “BREAKING: Twitter has once again hit Libs of TikTok with a 7-day suspension for ‘hateful conduct.’ No specific tweets were flagged. We’ve since fired off another letter to Twitter (attached). They’re on notice that we will sue them if they permanently suspend us,” Dillon tweeted. He added, “In anticipation of an extended legal fight with Twitter (we all know it’s just a matter of time before the permanent...

Biden wanders away from the podium as his FEMA administrator attempted to lead him in another direction.

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is associated with a greater capacity for selective and sustained attention in adolescents, while alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) is associated with lower impulsivity, according to a study. The results confirm the importance of having a diet that provides sufficient amounts of these polyunsaturated fatty acids for a healthy brain development. During adolescence, important structural and functional changes occur in the brain, especially in the prefrontal area, which plays a major role in controlling attention. On the other hand, omega-3 unsaturated fatty acids are known to be critical for proper brain development and function. The most abundant fatty acid...

President Biden on Thursday warned Hurricane Ian could prove to be the deadliest storm in Florida’s history as it punished swaths of the state with flooding rains and damaging winds. “This could be the deadliest hurricane in Florida’s history. The numbers are still unclear, but we’re hearing early reports of what may be substantial loss of life,” Biden said during a visit to Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters for a briefing on the hurricane response.

Baltimore, Maryland – A federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging Anna Gabrielian, age 36, and her husband, Jamie Lee Henry, age 39, both of Rockville, Maryland, with conspiracy and for the disclosure of individually identifiable health information (“IIHI”), related to their efforts to assist Russia in connection with the conflict in Ukraine. The indictment was returned on September 28, 2022 and unsealed today upon the arrest of the defendants. Gabrielian is scheduled to have initial appearance at 11:30 a.m. today, in U.S. District Court in Baltimore before U.S. Magistrate Judge Brendan A. Hurson. Henry is also expected to...

Good afternoon fellow Freepers. I got a project that I'm working on but I don't know how to make it work. Basically, I have a PDF file with areas that need text or digital signature blocks added, but I'm looking to find out if there is a way to overlay a PDF with those items in key positions onto the primary PDF file, and have everything line up. As it is right now, I manually add those items one at a time and the time it takes to do 20-30 forms is killing me. There's got to be a way...

Ladies and gentlemen, this here is the most ice-cold gunslinging lawman in all of Washington: [Warning: Violence] video at link........................... Yeah. Dude calmly parked, put down his coffee, grabbed his rifle, sighted in with his red dot, used the cruiser to brace himself, then downed an active shooter at 183 yards! He was probably whistling the "Andy Griffith" tune the whole time too. Suspect down. Absolutely legendary. More on this incident: And from KIRO 7: The Pierce County Force Investigation Team released the video as part of its ongoing investigation into the shooting. Investigators concluded Collins fired off 15 rounds,...

As Ed pointed out yesterday, there were indications from Danish and Swedish authorities that the leaks from the Nord Stream pipelines were the result of explosions, i.e. deliberate sabotage not accidents. All eyes immediately turned to Russia who has been playing games with gas deliveries through the pipelines for months. The NY Times created this graph showing the gas supply over time. As you can see, it took a sudden dip in June and then was up and down until this month when they shut it off indefinitely. (snip) Still, with the gas already cut off, why bother sabotaging the...

He spoke in a vigil in commemoration of Qasem Soleimani held in front of the U.S. consulate in Toronto, which he referred to as the "representative of the Great Satan," on January 2, 2022 and which was posted on Dars TV on YouTube...

Arizona police shot a suspect to death after he pointed a handgun at a police dog’s head, video shows. The Tucson Police department released body cam footage Tuesday of Francisco Javier Galarza aiming a semi-automatic at a K9 named Kiro, as the dog brought the runaway suspect to the ground. Police instantly opened fire on the man, killing him with several shots. According to the department, Galarza was wanted on a felony arrest warrant for home invasion and bank robbery. The 49-year-old was spotted entering a convenience store just before noon on Aug. 25. Police confronted him in the parking...

"The View" hosts slammed criticism of President Biden's "where's Jackie" gaffe on Thursday and said that America was "ageist." "I mean, she passed last month not, like, a hundred years ago," co-host Whoopi Goldberg said. Joy Behar added that former President Donald Trump forgot Fredrick Douglas was dead. Sara Haines compared Biden's moment to a "brain fart" and "mommy brain." Reacting to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre answering questions about the obvious gaffe, Haines declared: "That was very apparent, what this gaffe was, I think her explanation made it worse though because in that moment I probably would have...

KYIV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will hold an emergency meeting with top security, political and defence officials on Friday, following the Kremlin's announcement of plans by Russia to annex four Ukrainian regions.The Kremlin said on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin would sign documents on Friday proclaiming Moscow's annexation of regions where Russia organised what Kyiv and the West said were sham referendums staged at gunpoint on Russian-held Ukrainian territory."President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called an urgent meeting of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine for tomorrow. The agenda and other details will be announced later," presidential...

Former President Trump on Wednesday offered to help negotiate a deal to end Russia's now 7-month-old war on Ukraine, following reports of a major natural gas pipeline from Russia to Europe appearing to have been sabotaged. "Be strategic, be smart (brilliant!), get a negotiated deal done NOW," Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social. "Both sides need and want it. The entire World is at stake. I will head up group???" Trump also posted: "U.S. 'Leadership' should remain 'cool, calm, and dry' on the SABOTAGE of the Nord Stream Pipelines. The Russia/Ukraine catastrophe should NEVER have happened, and...

Google is planning to offer much faster broadband speeds in the US areas where it operates its fiber networks, all the way to 100Gbps.Google Fiber, part of the Access division of the search giant's parent company, Alphabet, currently provides a 1Gbps service, and began upgrading its speed in 2021 with the introduction of a 2Gbps product offering downstream bandwidth of 2Gbps and upstream bandwidth of 1Gbps for $100 a month.That comes up against AT&T Fiber's similar tier at $110, Verizon Fios and Ziply Fiber's 120 plans, and Frontier's Fiber 2-gig is $150, although, of course, Google's $100 pricing may not...

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Wednesday said inflation is one of the top three greatest midterm issues — after he and the Washington, DC, establishment enabled the passage of several massive spending bills that fueled soaring costs. Over the past two years, McConnell voted for the $1.5 trillion omnibus spending, $1.9 trillion for COVID-19 corporate bailout, and $1.2 trillion “infrastructure” bills – all items of legislation that have fueled inflation, according to experts.

Updated Every four years, the United Nations' International Telecommunication Union (ITU) stages a Plenipotentiary Conference at which member states decide how the organization will steer the development of communications technologies. The event is usually only of interest to telco and policy wonks.But this year's event has become a geopolitical football – and possibly a turning point for internet governance – thanks to the two candidates running in an election for the position of ITU secretary-general.The US has put forward Doreen Bogdan-Martin for the gig. She's an ITU veteran with years of experience working with global telecoms regulators. She also believes...

A Southern California man suspected of killing his estranged wife and abducting their 15-year-old daughter had been living with the teenager out of his pickup truck and hotels for weeks before the violence, authorities said Wednesday. Anthony John Graziano and his daughter, Savannah Graziano, were killed Tuesday in a shootout with law enforcement on a highway in the high desert east of Los Angeles after a 45-mile (72-kilometer) chase. Shots were fired at the officers from the pickup truck as it was being chased. Once it came to a stop, the girl, wearing a tactical helmet and vest, got out...