Free Republic

PORTLAND, Maine — In November, Portland residents are being asked to approve sweeping changes to the city’s charter including controversial items that would result in a strengthened mayor, a financially independent school board and a citizen-led police oversight board. But, amid the ongoing fury, one charter change question among the eight-question list has been largely overshadowed. It would make Portland the only municipality that officially recognizes in its charter that it sits on unceded land, stolen from Indigenous peoples by European colonizers. The question, which would alter the governing document’s preamble, was written by charter commissioner Pat Washburn. It reads,...

Among the shortcomings of the Articles of Confederation was the near impossibility of amending them to meet pressing needs regarding taxation and commerce. In 1787-1788, the lower threshold to amend the Constitution per Article V overcame Anti-Federalist reluctance to form a new Union. From the time the federal convention sent the draft Constitution to the Confederation Congress and states, many Anti-Federalists demanded a second convention, preferably before federal elections and the establishment of a new government.Not only the Anti-Federalists, but few Federalists were entirely satisfied with the Constitution as written. The difference was that Federalists were satisfied that Article V...

The IRS released inflation-adjusted marginal rates and brackets for 2023 on Tuesday, and many workers will see higher take-home pay in the new year as less tax is withheld from their paychecks. Additionally, the agency released the standard deduction for next year. It is increasing by $900 to $13,850 for single taxpayers, and by $1,800 for married couples, to $27,700. For heads of household, the 2023 standard deduction will be $20,800. That’s an increase of $1,400. Here are the marginal rates for tax year 2023, depending on your tax status. Single filers – 10%: income of $11,000 or less –...

"I pursued my enemies and overtook them..." [sefaria.org/Psalms.18.38]. Remember the Arab who shouted over the loudspeaker at the leftist demonstration "Khaybar, Khaybar, Ya Yahud" and called on Mohammed's army to kill Jews? I met him today. Spoiler: he doesn't like cameras.

On Wednesday, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted to add the Covid-19 vaccine to the Vaccines for Kids program. The 15-0 vote took place during Wednesday’s committee meeting. A vote will be held on Thursday on whether to include the vaccine in children’s immunization schedules. Vaccines for Kids is a federally funded program that provides children vaccinations at no cost to families. Children are eligible for the program if they are under the age of 19, and are Medicaid-eligible, uninsured, underinsured, American Indian, or Alaska Native. Vaccines available through this program are ones included on the ACIP’s...

Review of Neonatal Mortality in Scotland. I think the numbers are really troubling and I don't think we know the reasons why yet.

The electric carmaker is growing fast but investors are worried that sales are starting to slow because of higher prices and interest rates. Tesla on Wednesday reported a big jump in its quarterly profit as sales of its electric cars soared in the three months that ended in September. The electric carmaker said it made $3.3 billion in the third quarter, up from $1.6 billion in the same period a year earlier and nearly matching the record profit it reported in the first three months of the year. It reported revenue of $21.5 billion, up from $13.8 billion. Tesla said...

[Catholic Caucus] Belgium: Francis Would Have Approved the Blessing of Homosexual Couples According to a source, Pope Francis was aware of the preparation of a liturgy for the blessing of homosexual couples by the Dutch-speaking episcopate of Belgium, which was published on September 20, 2022, together with a letter of explanation.This publication caused a stir and many reactions. The bishops defended themselves. Msgr. Johan Bonny, Bishop of Antwerp, said he had spoken about this project to Pope Francis – with whom he met in Rome in June – and that he was in “communion with him.”In an article published...

The Ukrainian military made another attempt to land an assault force of up to two companies on the left bank of the Kakhovka reservoir and seize the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, with the attack repelled by Russian troops, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Wednesday. "The Kiev regime does not cease provocations with the aim of creating the threat of a man-made disaster at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. Today, at about 4:00 a.m., up to two enemy companies made another attempt to land an assault force on the left bank of the Kakhovka reservoir and seize the...

Midterm elections are a natural point for administration officials to move on—especially when the president’s party takes a shellacking, which is what is widely expected to happen in November. Dr. Anthony Fauci has already announced his intention to leave his post in December, in what is largely seen as a means to avoid Republican investigations. But who else is likely to resign from the Biden administration after the midterm elections? I’m sure there will be plenty, but here are five likely candidates Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen Rumors of Yellen’s ouster have been floating around for weeks, and it seems that...

On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Katy Tur Reports,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said that the Biden administration wants “to accelerate the transition to clean energy, so that we’re not held hostage to these global ups and downs and volatility associated with the fossil fuel sector.” And that increasing U.S. electric vehicle production “will reduce the demand for fossil fuels and certainly will alleviate people’s pocketbooks if they’re able to be able to get into one of those electric vehicles eventually.”

Today the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) met to discuss and vote on whether or not to add the COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna to the list of recommended childhood vaccines for children six months and older. In a unanimous vote, the ACIP approved the addition. Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are still under emergency use authorization (EUA), making their consideration and approval for inclusion on the Vaccines for Children (VFC) schedule unprecedented. On October 12, the FDA approved a EUA for the omicron vaccine version from Pfizer for children five and older. The Moderna version earned a...

In America today you can now be sent to prison for months on end for mocking illegitimate government committees and Democrat lawmakers. As investigative journalist Julie Kelly pointed out, the Department of Justice extended Steve Bannon’s jail sentence because he mocked the Democrat Party’s January 6 Committee and he mocked Democrats Adam Schiff and Eric Fang-Fang Swalwell. This is no longer allowed in America today. Apparently calling Eric Swalwell “fang fang” justifies more jail time. [Remember, these are the same prosecutors calling J6 trespassers “domestic terrorists.” pic.twitter.com/xwqtRdfcFl — Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) October 17, 2022] Here is the DOJ document...

Explanation: Do we dare believe our eyes? When we look at images of space, we often wonder whether they are "real", and just as often the best answer varies. In this case, the scene appears much as our eyes would see it, because it was obtained using RGB (Red, Green, Blue) filters like the cone cells in our eyes, except collecting light for 19 hours, not a fraction of a second. The featured image was captured over six nights, using a 24-inch diameter telescope in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, in California, USA. The bright spiral galaxy at the center (NGC...

An ABC News investigative producer has not been seen by colleagues since April, when the FBI mysteriously raided his apartment in Virginia. He 'abruptly' left his job at the news network, withdrew from the book he was co-authoring about Biden's withdrawal from Afghanistan, and has kept a low profile ever since. All the bureau will say is that a raid was carried out at his address on the day in question. The warrant that enabled the raid has not been made public, and Meek's attorneys are being tight-lipped about what they have been told. In a statement, attorney Eugene Gorokhov...

America’s Grave Sensus Fidei-less OpinionsIn private conversations, off-the-record interviews, and moments of candor, Catholic journalists have known what German Cardinal Gerhard Müller recently revealed in plain sight when discussing the Synod on Synodality on EWTN’s The World Over television program: Our Lady’s prophecy to Sr. Agnes Sasagawa in her apparition at Akita, Japan, a half-century ago is now an irremovable part of the ecclesial landscape: The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against other bishops.Of course, the first half of Mary’s prophesy has been...

FIRST ON FOX: The U.S. Department of State has awarded more than $20,000 for a cultural center in Ecuador to host "drag theater performances" in the name of diversity and inclusion. The State Department awarded a $20,600 grant on Sept. 23 to the Centro Ecuatoriano Norteamericano (CEN), a non-profit organization supported by the U.S. Embassy and Consulate in Ecuador, to "promote diversity and inclusion" in the region. The project at CEN, which started Sept. 30 and runs until Aug. 31, 2023, will include "3 workshops," "12 drag theater performances," and a "2-minute documentary," according to the State Department’s grant listed...

Former President Donald Trump signed legal documents describing evidence of election fraud that he knew were false, a federal judge indicated on Wednesday. U.S. District Court Judge David Carter wrote in an 18-page opinion that emails from attorney John Eastman, an architect of Trump’s last-ditch effort to subvert the 2020 election, needed to be turned over to the Jan. 6 select committee. Those emails, Carter wrote, “show that President Trump knew that the specific numbers of voter fraud were wrong but continued to tout those numbers, both in court and to the public.” The emails are among the files that...

Three people have been charged in connection with a robbery and fatal shooting in Reseda this summer, including a man who was arrested after allegedly dragging and killing a carjacking victim during a police chase in Inglewood. Joshua Reneau, 31, Derek Lateef Hall, 28, and Miracole Brown, 20, were each charged with one count of murder, five counts of assault with a firearm and two counts of second-degree robbery in the July 29 incident that left a suspect dead, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

At Sacred Heart University conference, theologians reengage with Vatican IILast week, Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, marked the 60th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council by hosting a wonderful conference, "Vatican II and Catholic Higher Education: Leading Forward." The school, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary next year, was a fruit of the council, the first Catholic university under lay leadership in the country. The event was part of a growing body of evidence that a significant minority of U.S. Catholic theologians are reengaging with Vatican II, and ecclesiology more generally, in important ways.Massimo Faggioli of...