Free Republic

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers has pledged support for an affordable housing bill that could lead to the development of 500,000 starter homes in struggling communities over the next decade. The Neighborhood Homes Investment Act, introduced in both the House and Senate, would offer a tax incentive to developers to minimize their risk when building or rehabilitating existing housing. In some areas of the U.S., the cost of rehabilitating or building a home could exceed the eventual sale price. This bill would fill the “value gap,” up to 35 percent of eligible development costs for new homes. The bill...

Explanation: Because the Gum Nebula is the closest supernova remnant, it is actually hard to see. Spanning 40 degrees across the sky, the nebula appears so large and faint that it is easily lost in the din of a bright and complex background. The Gum Nebula is highlighted nicely in red emission toward the right of the featured wide-angle, single-image photograph taken in late May. Also visible in the frame are the Atacama Desert in Chile in the foreground, the Carina Nebula in the plane of our Milky Way galaxy running diagonally down from the upper left, and the neighboring...

The United States booked their place in the last-16 of the World Cup in Qatar with a nerve-shredding 1-0 victory over Iran on Tuesday. Gregg Berhalter's side went into the clash knowing a win was the only result to take them through, and Christian Pulisic's first-half goal was enough to seal three points. The US will take on the Netherlands in the last 16 on Saturday.

CNN anchor Don Lemon boldly asserted the network has never had a liberal stance — despite an ongoing push from top boss Chris Licht for more centrist coverage. The left-leaning Lemon, best known for his vocal criticism of prominent Republicans, made the dubious claim during an appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Monday after the comedian nudged him to address CNN’s recent move toward nonpartisan coverage. “Word on the street is that you guys aren’t allowed to be liberal anymore. Is that the case?” Colbert asked. “I don’t think we ever were liberal,” Lemon replied. Lemon’s answer...

It’s often remarked upon that when a greater being attempts to contact humanity, it chooses quiet backwater areas instead of going straight to the top. So it was when, on Saturday, Nov. 26, 1977, a representative of the Ashtar Galactic Command took over TV airwaves to warn the world of the risk of its destruction, he spoke via a regional broadcaster with a maximum audience of about 500,000 households in the south of England. Southern TV’s usual Day by Day evening news bulletin was being aired live just after 5 p.m. when the comforting tones of broadcaster Andrew Gardner were...

Twenty-four hours ahead of a must-win World Cup group stage match against Iran following two draws, U.S. men’s national team coach Gregg Berhalter and team captain Tyler Adams had to have expected a line of tough questions, but it’s hard to imagine that they thought this is how things would go on Monday. Berhalter and Adams were hit with an intense line of questioning regarding systemic racism in the United States, strict visa rules in place against Iranian citizens and what an American fleet is doing in the Persian Gulf, among other things. These questions all came from journalists from...

Mike Lindell is a conservative who puts his actions where his mouth is. Lindell has been outspoken bout election fraud and has been slammed with persecution for speaking out as well as investigating the issue. Lindell has invested his own money toward investigating the fraudulent 2020 election. As a result, he has been sued by Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic for defamation, canceled by major retailers, and retaliated against by the Biden Justice Department. Recent persecution includes the incident on September 13 when the Stasi-FBI raided Lindell outside of a Hardee’s restaurant and seized his mobile devices, including the phones...

IT'S a well-known fact that plants lack many of the sensory systems that animals and people use to perceive the world. In fact, for most of history, it was assumed that plants had no sense of perception whatsoever. However, recent study seems to indicate that at least one plant might be capable of “seeing” what's around it. Is this true? Verdict: POSSIBLY TRUE In the early 2000s, plant scientist Ernesto Gianoli came across a curious climbing vine while walking with a student in the temperate forests of Chile. The plant they came across is now called Boquila trifoliolata and what...

[Catholic Caucus] Belgian bishops pushing same-sex ‘blessings’ praise ‘impressive’ meeting with Pope Francis'I could say freely what I wanted, in an atmosphere of fraternity and respect.'VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Belgium’s Catholic bishops have spent a week in Rome for their ad limina visit, where it seems they received no reprimand for their recent publication of a text for same-sex “blessings.” From November 21 through 26, the Bishops Conference of Belgium (BCB) was present in Rome for their ad limina visit, which saw them follow in the heels of bishops from the Netherlands and Germany who have also been making the...

The news ahead is so dire, we had to cram it into a single article. #1. Statewide gun sales stop. The newly passed Measure 114 requires a new complicated process to obtain a firearm that goes way beyond the two different processes of current backgroudn checks and Concealed License Permits. The Democrat Herald’s Hasso Herring explains, “Unless a court intervenes before Measure 114 takes effect on Dec. 8, it looks like after that date private citizens will no longer be allowed to buy a firearm in Oregon for a good long while. But the promoters of the initiative didn’t mention...

They were treated for dehydration and hypothermia after their perilous trip, officials said. Txema Santana, a migration adviser to the local government, said in a tweet: “It is not the first and it will not be the last. Stowaways do not always have the same luck.” In 2020, a 14-year-old Nigerian boy was interviewed by Spain’s El País after lasting 15 days on a ship’s rudder after a trip from Lagos. Thousands of African migrants and refugees have reached the Canary Islands in recent years by making the dangerous voyage on crowded boats after departing from the coast of Morocco,...

Pele’s Hair, a byproduct of volcano eruptions, are thin glass fibers “named after the volcanic deity Pele,” according to the National Park Service. Piles of the long, hair-like fibers can be found near volcanic summits in Hawaii. The fibers resemble “golden mats of hair,” the park service says on a page about the phenomena. Strands of Pele’s Hair can stretch up to 2 feet in length but are less than a micron, or .001 millimeters, wide. They are light enough to be picked up and carried by the wind. Pele’s Hair can form mats up to several inches deep. The...

West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz is a popular 2.5-mile stretch along the ocean. Tourists, locals, and dogs walk and bike along the stretch by the thousands every week. But visitors on Sunday had to walk in the street to avoid an area of sidewalk that caved in, off of Columbia Street, early Friday morning. “I think it’s a natural phenomenon. This is something that happens all the time. It just happens to be close to a way that we built and but it’s been happening for millions of years,” says Laurine, a Santa Cruz resident. Advertisement Concerned residents hope...

Dollar Tree is known for its great prices on holiday decorations and party supplies, but as food prices continue to hit budgets hard, shoppers are turning to this discount store to get their groceries. According to Winsight, Dollar Tree’s same-store sales of consumables outpaced discretionary sales for the second straight quarter, the retailer reported, with a 9.3% comparable in food and beverage, snacks and cookies, and candy. Same-store sales of food and beverages grew by 4.7% and the chain saw overall same-store sales growth of 4.1%, Winsight noted. The company’s overall same-store sales increased by 8.6%. “We are increasing our...

A Black NPR writer named Eric Deggans wrote a review of Dave Chappelle’s monologue from this past week’s Saturday Night Live and Chappelle fans responded by placing him on the Bar-b-Que grill and grilling him on the socials leaving him charged and crispy sans seasoning. Deggans’ feelings were obviously hurt by the attacks but they kept coming. Deggans said he was disappointed in Chappelle’s performance and as a result was called everything from a “Biscuit-eating sellout” to an Uncle Tom and Sambo who was allowing his paymasters to dictate his writing. They even suggested that he picked the “ugliest white...

Twitter searches for the widespread Covid-19-related protests in China are returning a flood of spam, pornography and gibberish that some disinformation researchers say at first glance appear to be a deliberate attempt by the Chinese government or its allies to drown out images of the demonstrations. Beginning late last week and into Monday, searches in Chinese for major protest hotspots, including Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, and Guangzhou, produced a nonstop stream of solicitations, images of scantily clad women in suggestive poses and seemingly random word- and sentence fragments. Many of the tweets reviewed by CNN on Monday came from accounts that...

A “superbug” known as Candida auris (C. auris) has caused 774 cases in Nevada hospitals and other care facilities, according to the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). A total of 63 Nevada deaths have been linked to C. auris, according to DHHS. The deaths were not necessarily caused by the fungus, KTLA sister station KLAS added. C. auris is a fungus that can cause severe illness in hospitalized patients. If it’s introduced into the bloodstream, the fungus can spread throughout the body and cause serious invasive infections. It was listed in 2019 as one of five “urgent”...

Used by humans as a stimulant and anesthetic for thousands of years, the drug commonly known as cocaine has been carefully shaped by species of the coca plant (Erythroxylum) over tens of millions of years in an arms race against hungry insects. Knowing just how the plants pull off this feat of chemical engineering would be a big win for the pharmaceutical industry while helping biologists better understand the evolution of similar pesticides across the plant kingdom. Yet the sheer complexity of the chemical's production has been one of nature's best-kept secrets, one that scientists have spent the better part...

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — An employee who survived the mass shooting at a Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia, last week has filed a $50 million lawsuit against the company. The lawsuit, filed by Donya Prioleau, claims she submitted a complaint about the gunman two months prior to the shooting that took the lives of six Walmart employees. Store supervisor Andre Bing, 31, fatally shot six employees and wounded several others before he died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot, police said.

“‘Behold, My Servant whom I have chosen; My Beloved in whom My soul is well-pleased’” (Matthew 12:18). Jesus Christ is God’s ultimate Servant, the one and only Son chosen by the Father to die for fallen sinners. The divine commendation here is a modified quotation of Isaiah 42:1–4, one of the most beautiful descriptions of our Lord anywhere in the Bible. The Father’s choice of Jesus to be His Servant was decisive and irrevocable—Christ was the one and only person perfectly qualified for the work of redemption. As the perfect choice of God, Jesus is also completely pleasing in His...