Free Republic

Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a proposal for a ‘Teacher’s Bill of Rights’ on Monday, which includes provisions to increase teacher pay, alter school board member term limits, and impose new school union regulations. Speaking at a press conference in Jacksonville, DeSantis detailed his proposal to lawmakers that would allocate $1 billion to increase pay for teachers across the state. If adopted, the proposition would increase funding for teacher salaries by $200 million dollar compared to the year prior. The proposal package also takes a swipe at teacher unions, outlining a series of regulations that would prohibit unions from deducting dues...

The rookie quarterback who has surprised NFL observers by guiding the San Francisco 49ers to the NFC Championship says his Christian faith has given him peace and confidence amidst the spotlight. Rookie Brock Purdy started the season as the 49ers' third-string quarterback but became the starter in early December due to a string of injuries, guiding his team to an undefeated December. On Sunday, he led his team to a 19-12 victory over rival Dallas in the playoffs and into an NFC Championship game at Philadelphia. The winner goes to the Super Bowl. Purdy, who played at Iowa State, is...

The woke snowflakes have beclowned themselves again. A Norwegian transgender activist group is demanding that Apple Music and Spotify remove one of Aretha Franklin’s hit songs because of its allegedly offensive lyrics. The Trans Cultural Mindfulness Alliance (TCMA) is targeting Franklin’s 1968 hit “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” which they say “perpetuates multiple harmful anti-trans stereotypes.” The group claims, “There is no such thing as a ‘natural’ woman” and is calling on the streaming platforms to cancel the song. Aretha Franklin's 1968 song "Natural Woman" perpetuates multiple harmful anti-trans stereotypes.There is no such thing as a "natural"...

YUMA, Ariz. – A major border city is on the brink of collapse as the migrant surge under President Biden's leadership overloads food banks and hospitals and threatens food security, a Yuma official told Fox News."Policies need to be changed when you see an unprecedented amount of people coming across the border that even supersedes what we saw under any of the other presidents for the past 30 years," Yuma County Supervisor Jonathan Lines told Fox News. "And they're coming because they said that Biden told them to come, that we have an open border."

Message of His Holiness Pope Francis to Prof. Klaus SchwabMessage of His Holiness Pope Francis to Prof. Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum Davos-Klosters (Switzerland), January 22-25, 2014.os-Klosters (Switzerland), January 22-25, 2014.By Holy See Mission for immediate release Message of His Holiness Pope Francis to Prof. Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum Davos-Klosters (Switzerland), January 22-25, 2014. To Professor Klaus Schwab, Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, I am very grateful for your kind invitation to address the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, which, as is customary,...

Tucker Carlson made some explosive assertions Friday, suggesting that the CIA and the FBI brought down Richard Nixon because he was on to their efforts to undermine the American system as the Founding Fathers had intended it to run and knew that the CIA was involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Carlson’s segment quickly became wildly controversial, but is it true? We may never know for sure — and that in itself demonstrates yet again the need to demand and enforce complete transparency and accountability from these agencies that all too easily can go rogue.Carlson said: “Richard Nixon...

The Church of England issued a formal apology to LGBTQ members of the Anglican Communion who have felt excluded by the institution even as officials decided to continue to bar same-sex marriages in its churches. "We want to apologize for the ways in which the Church of England has treated LGBTQI+ people — both those who worship in our churches and those who do not," the bishops of the church wrote in "Living in Love and Faith," a report released Friday following a six-year consultation period about identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage. "For the times we have rejected or excluded...

Charles McGonigal, who had been the special agent in charge of the FBI‘s counterintelligence division in New York, is accused of taking secret payments from Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska in exchange for investigating a rival oligarch, according to court documents. Mr. McGonigal, 54, is one of the highest-ranking FBI officials ever charged with a crime. He faces one count of violating U.S. sanctions, one count of money laundering and two conspiracy counts.

For patients with spinal stenosis, operative treatment is associated with lower risk of death and lower costs over two years, compared with nonoperative treatment, suggests a study. Patients with spinal stenosis experience narrowing of the spinal canal and compression of spinal nerves, causing back pain, leg pain, and other symptoms. In some patients, stenosis is related to degenerative spondylolisthesis, referring to "slipped" vertebrae often resulting from spinal degeneration. Operative treatment of spinal stenosis can include the use of a laminectomy to decompress the spinal canal, a spinal fusion to stabilize the spine, or a combination of both. Nonoperative treatment can...

"I'm the only monster drag queen in Russia," Danya proudly tells me as he applies ghostly-white make-up in front of a mirror. We're sitting in his kitchen, a rainbow flag adorning the wall. The 22-year-old regularly performed at a queer club night in St Petersburg called Gender Blender. But the project has now cancelled its shows after a new anti-LGBT law was passed by the Russian Parliament in December. Danya's work has all but dried up. "According to the law, it's forbidden to do what we're doing," Danya says. "We're a lot more anxious now. The risks are much higher."...

A San Francisco tech executive has branded the downtown area 'dystopian' after she walked past 'hundreds' of homeless people. Michelle Tandler, 37, shared a picture from her Saturday night trip to a bar in the wilting Democrat-run city. She posted the image of a distressing scene that featured a group of homeless men surrounding by trash and graffiti.

The Supreme Court called upon the Biden administration to weigh in on cases involving Florida and Texas laws aimed at limiting what sort of content social media platforms can censor. Litigation over Florida's SB 7072 and Texas's HB 20 pit the states' goal of maintaining the free expression of ideas online – amid concern that social media giants unfairly censor conservative ideas – and social media companies' own free speech interests in being able to keep and remove content on their own sites. "The Solicitor General is invited to file briefs in these cases expressing the views of the United...

A study on tri-modality therapy (START-FIT)has found that nearly 50% of patients with inoperable locally advanced liver cancer, can be cured through this innovative approach. Liver cancer is the sixth most common cancer globally with more than 900,000 new cases every year and is the third leading cause of cancer-related mortality. However, only 30% is eligible for curative treatment, while the rest could solely be managed with non-curative option due to large tumor size, or vascular invasion etc. The research team focused on these 70% inoperable cases and developed a new treatment modality to improve their chance of cure. A...

As members of Congress debate whether lawmakers and their spouses should play the stock market, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul Pelosi, a venture capitalist, continues to regularly buy and sell stocks and stock options. Pelosi has access to confidential intelligence and the power to affect - with words or actions - the fortunes of companies in which her husband invests and trades. When asked in December 2021 whether members of Congress should even be allowed to trade stocks, Pelosi answered in the affirmative. "We are a free-market economy. They should be able to participate in that," she said. This...

The Food and Drug Administration on Monday proposed approaching COVID-19 vaccines like the annual flu shot many Americans receive in order to protect against mutations of the virus. The proposal aims to simplify future vaccination efforts. Under this strategy, most adults and children would get a once-a-year shot to protect against the mutating virus. They would no longer have to keep track of how many shots they’ve received or many months it's been since their last booster. In documents posted online, FDA scientists say many Americans now have "sufficient preexisting immunity" against the coronavirus because of vaccination, infection, or a...

"And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, "Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. "And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." Revelation,...

A 26-year-old woman left a Marilyn Manson concert wasted and devastated the residents of a Canadian street after an explosive car crash. Daniella Leis, who pleaded guilty to four counts of impaired driving causing bodily harm in October 2020, caused an estimated $10 to 15 million in damages. She was sentenced to three years in prison in February 2021 and is now suing the venue for kicking her out of the venue despite her level of intoxication, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Referred to as the "car bomb" fiasco by the CBC, the incident occurred on Aug. 14, 2019,...

Joe Scarborough sunk to new depths in his toadying to Joe Biden. On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough virtually apologized to Biden spokesman Ian Sams for Mika having pressed him regarding the classified documents.Instead of criticizing him for clamming up, Scarborough actually praised Sams for stonewalling Mika.Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

Should an elderly grandmother be forced to hand over millions of dollars to the government for failing to file a particular form?The Supreme Court today rejected to consider a case on whether some Internal Revenue Service (IRS) penalties are actually unconstitutionally excessive fines. The case revolves around Monica Toth, an 82-year-old Boston-area woman who the IRS wants to seize more than $2 million from because she ran afoul of IRS documentation guidelines. In the 1930s, Toth's family fled from Nazi Germany to Argentina, where she was born. Toth moved to America at age 22 and later became a U.S. citizen....

Space issues have become so acute at the Seattle-King County morgue in Washington state that local officials are considering keeping bodies on gurneys and partnering with local funeral homes for storage as stopgap measures. “A key indication of just how bad things are … the medical examiner’s office is now struggling with the issue of storing bodies because the fentanyl-related death toll continues to climb,” Seattle-King County Public Health Director Dr. Faisal Khan said at a Board of Health meeting last week, according to KTTH radio. “Obviously, they have finite space in the coolers they use, and that space in...