Free Republic

Student-loan borrowers are at risk of resuming student-loan payments in under two months without the debt relief they were promised. Just over a month after President Joe Biden announced up to $20,000 in student-debt cancellation at the end of August for federal borrowers making under $125,000 a year, he made available an online application for borrowers to apply for the relief. Since then, 26 million borrowers have submitted forms to get the relief — but due to decisions from federal courts, those borrowers are now in legal limbo. On Thursday, a federal judge in Texas sided with two student-loan borrowers...

Why do Democrats condemn hardworking immigrants?What was I — a lifelong Democrat — doing at an election watch party in rural Virginia, surrounded by Republicans? As Ron DeSantis, 800 miles away, filled a huge TV screen with a post-landslide victory speech, he provided part of the answer: “We chose education over indoctrination!” He got a raucous round of applause from the crowd at the Marriott Ranch, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Even I joined...“[T]he Democratic Party, which once valued fairness and justice, has, alas, been torching the American Dream. Democratic politicians, school boards, governors and even US...

The increasing use of “diversity statements” in hiring and faculty evaluation has provoked considerable concern from free-speech advocates and defenders of academic freedom. An American Enterprise Institute study last November found that these statements were required for 19 percent of academic jobs and were especially common at prestigious universities. The danger of the trend is perhaps best illustrated by a University of California, Berkeley, search that filtered applications in the biological sciences for “contributions to diversity, equity and inclusion.” This eliminated 679 of 893 nominally qualified candidates on DEI criteria alone. Organizations like the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression...

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called on “non-MAGA Republicans” to work with Democrats to pass legislation in the next two years as each party is likely to control one house of Congress. Schumer told The New York Times in an interview on Monday that he plans to reach out to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other Republicans to work with Democrats to make accomplishments instead of just remaining in a stalemate. “What gives us the opening is that they know embracing Trump and MAGA is a failure,” he said. “Not all Republicans know it, but a large...

Scientists from the University of Bristol and NHS Blood & Transplant (NHSBT) have discovered a rare new blood group system. The findings, published in Blood, the journal of the American Society of Hematology, also solve a 30-year mystery...In this study, individuals with alloantibodies against a collection of antigens termed Er, that were first observed more than 30-years ago, were investigated by applying a powerful technique allowing simultaneous analysis of all their gene coding DNA sequences. Specific changes were identified in the gene coding for the Piezo1 protein, which would result in the production of an altered protein on the cell...

As an old talk radio guy, I tend to listen to several talk shows, more out of prior professional interest than anything else. I tuned into Glenn Beck today and didn’t last too long. Nothing against Glenn, I just couldn’t listen to another post-election post-mortem and another diagram of who had to do what for the odds to shift for someone to win the House or Senate in one state or another.We have analyzed the 2022 midterms to death. Now it only remains to be seen what we do moving forward, provided we even move forward. For example, as Matt...

“Celebrity Jeopardy!” was harshly criticized for including a clue that referenced Brian Laundrie, the man who allegedly murdered Gabby Petito in the fall of 2021. Laundrie committed suicide weeks after Petito’s body was found, with her strangled in a campground near the Grand Teton mountains. He left a note in which he confessed to killing his longtime girlfriend. “In 2021, fugitive Brian Laundrie ended his days in Fla’s Myakkahatchee Creek area, home to these long & toothy critters,” the “Celebrity Jeopardy!” clue stated, referring to alligators, as actors John Michael Higgins, Wil Wheaton and Joel Kim Booster competed on the...

The Republicans just got a little closer to taking the House of Representatives. Orange County – Republican incumbent Congresswoman Michelle Steel won reelection to the US House in California’s 45th Congressional District. Michelle Steel defeated her Democrat challenger Jay Chen 53.8% to 46.2%.Decision Desk HQ projects Rep. Michelle Steel (R) wins re-election to the U.S. House in California’s 45th Congressional District.#DecisionMade: 8:34pm ESTFollow more results here: https://t.co/erllKAE1oN pic.twitter.com/glXjYlKZU4— Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) November 15, 2022Michelle Steel flipped Democrat Harley Rouda’s seat red in 2020 after Democrats stole Orange County in 2018 with ballot harvesting. Recall, Orange County, a traditionally conservative...

Fabio Panetta, an Executive Board Member of the European Central Bank (ECB), has proposed that users of the digital euro should only be allowed to spend €50 per transaction and have a maximum monthly spending limit of €1,000. "People spend too much on frivolous and unnecessary junk," Panetta said. "We can't do much about that when people have currency in their hands. With digital money, though, we can guide people to better choices by putting them on an 'allowance' so to speak. This will tamp down binge spending. The money saved can be deposited in a fund that could be...

Former first lady Michelle Obama said Monday on CBS’s “The Late Show” that former President Donald Trump was unqualified to be president and his language and behavior brought the chaos of the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot. Colbert said, “I don’t think you and I have had a chance to talk about this yet, but there you are, you and your husband, after your eight years of service, you are citizens at home, watching January 6 unfold. Like everybody else but of course, these are your colleagues. This is the place you used to work. You know those people, that...

A 25-year-old man was killed when he got knocked off the top of a tractor-trailer barreling down a Texas freeway. Houston police said the man, who was not identified, either jumped or climbed on top of the 18-wheeler, started dancing, and was possibly recording himself. As the truck went underneath a bridge, the man was knocked off and landed on the roadway below. He was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The driver told investigators that he had no idea there was somebody dancing on top of his truck. Authorities said the driver was released after it...

While the Republican Party will vote on a nominee for House Speaker on Tuesday for the projected GOP-led Congress next year, some establishment Republicans are considering working with House Democrats to select a Speaker. GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the favored candidate to win the party’s nomination for Speaker, will face a challenge from at least one of his colleagues during Tuesday’s vote.

Patients with advanced ankle osteoarthritis who undergo surgery see equally good outcomes from the two main surgical treatments for osteoarthritis, a new study has shown. The TARVA randomized clinical trial compared total ankle joint replacement with ankle fusion (when the ankle joint is pinned to prevent movement). The study analyzed the outcomes from half of whom had total ankle replacement and half had ankle fusion surgery. Both procedures are intended to relieve pain and restore movement that was lost due to advanced osteoarthritis. The study found that both total ankle replacement and ankle fusion improved patients' quality of life considerably....

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Tuesday said it had pushed out $185 billion in funding under a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law passed last year, with that same amount or more to follow in 2023, but denied the funding would fuel inflation. Former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who oversees implementation of the law, said the Biden administration had announced nearly 7,000 projects reaching over 4,000 communities across all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and the U.S. territories. He said the federal government had hired over 3,500 workers to implement the law, which is already funding the repair and...

Imagine creating a biological product that not only has negative efficacy and debilitating side effects but actually proliferates other viruses so that the same manufacturer can market its ineffective and dangerous vaccine for the new disease. Well, stop imagining and start observing, because this is exactly what Pfizer and Moderna are doing if we don’t stop them. After the vaccines were released in 2021, there was an unprecedented, out-of-season spike in RSV during the spring. Now, while in season, although on the early side, RSV is filling the hospitals with children all over the country. In October, which is pretty...

Recent studies provide evidence on the effects of puberty blockers on kids, a field where hitherto there has been little to no longterm data or research. And the results are sobering. It turns out trying to tamper with natural biology has bad and sometimes permanent longterm consequences. Who would have thought? ... The cost not only comes in delayed sexual development but in serious effects such as permanently retarded bone growth, infertility, and potential retarded brain development. “Many physicians in the United States and elsewhere are prescribing blockers to patients at the first stage of puberty — as early as...

There isn’t just one reason for the midterm shortcomings but none are more important than the party’s neglect in adapting to our new jungle of an election process.

Casey Anthony has blamed her father George for the 2008 murder of her daughter Caylee, claiming in her new documentary series that he killed her to cover up sexually abusing her. Anthony was infamously acquitted of murdering her two-year-old daughter in 2011 after a highly publicized trial during which she was dubbed the most hated woman in America. She has always denied killing Caylee, despite cadaver dogs picking up the traces of human remains in her vehicle. Caylee's skeletal remains were discovered on the family property in Orlando, Florida. Now, in her first sit-down interview, Casey appears in a three-part...

Regular physical activity can extend colorectal cancer patients' lives. In a first-ever study, scientists looked at the impact of exercise on the gut microbiome of cancer patients and reported a positive association. Researchers found physical activity was also beneficial to obese cancer patients, who typically have a less healthy gut microbiome. The team found that regular physical activity can aid in creating a healthy gut microbiome, while also reducing inflammation. These findings were reported in patients independent of their body mass index (BMI). "A patient who is active has a more diverse microbiome and lower abundances of colorectal cancer-promoting bacteria,...

One of the most distinctive doctrines in Orthodox theology is that of theosis – divinization – becoming “like God.” Those who inquire into the faith likely stumble across this teaching fairly early, and, no doubt, some are drawn to it. Of course, there are those who run away from it and fear that it is saying something that it isn’t. Perhaps the most attractive aspect of theosis is the unabashedly positive note that it places in the midst of salvation. Whereas many Western treatments of salvation major in “not going to hell,” theosis gives tangible content and a goal that...