Free Republic

Some of the most prominent venues in New York City have recently hosted as an honored guest a Chinese official who praised China's ruling Communist Party as "great" and dismissed reports of systematic persecution against minorities inside China as "lies." Huang Ping, who's been the consul general of China's New York Consulate since 2018, has over the past week made appearances at Barclays Center, the Nasdaq MarketSite, and the Empire State Building, rubbing elbows with prominent American business leaders at each stop. The NBA's Brooklyn Nets, which play at Barclays in Brooklyn, celebrated the Chinese New Year of the Rabbit...

I recently started a job as a pharmacy tech, and this job comes with a 401k, unionization, and health insurance - none of which I have ever had through a job before. I just got the booklet detailing the basics of my 401k, and I was a little alarmed. Three guesses who it's managed by. Rhymes with, "Lock stock". As I live in a leftist state (for now) which I know won't bar the practice, I want to make sure that they aren't investing MY money for ESG purposes and claiming that it's for my benefit. How do Freepers suggest...

Moderna and the Food and Drug Association (FDA) have been accused of concealing data during the approval process for the pharma giant's bivalent Covid booster. Vaccine advisors who signed off on the updated shot late last year claim they were not shown trial data that indicated the booster was actually less effective at preventing Covid than the older vaccine it was meant to replace. While the early trial results had substantial limitations, 'disappointed' and 'angry advisors say its omission from panel discussions shows a remarkable lack of transparency. US taxpayers ended up shelling out nearly $5billion on the new booster,...

Explanation: Where did all the stars go? What used to be considered a hole in the sky is now known to astronomers as a dark molecular cloud. Here, a high concentration of dust and molecular gas absorb practically all the visible light emitted from background stars. The eerily dark surroundings help make the interiors of molecular clouds some of the coldest and most isolated places in the universe. One of the most notable of these dark absorption nebulae is a cloud toward the constellation Ophiuchus known as Barnard 68, pictured here. That no stars are visible in the center indicates...

Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA) said Saturday on MSNBC’s “Ayman” that some of the so-called right-wing conservatives in the House of Representatives were “domestic terrorists.” Anchor Ayman Mohyeldin said, “I know that politicians tried to sound optimistic as much as they can but right now, with the leadership that we see in the House, is there any path forward for police reform in Congress after this later on tragic killing?”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D) posted a video to Twitter on Saturday in which she pushed an “assault weapons” ban in response to two shootings carried out with pistols. Klobuchar cited the January 21, 2023 Monterey Park shooting (11 killed) and the January 23, 2023 Half Moon Bay shooting (seven killed). She did not mention that both shootings occurred in stringently gun-controlled California, which has had an “assault weapons” ban since the 1990s. Nor did she mention that both shootings were carried out with pistols.

Amid a torrent of biotech layoffs, Massachusetts mRNA star Moderna is staffing up big time, and the company’s new chief technical operations officer figures this is just the start. Eyeing potential launches beyond its COVID-19 vaccine Spikevax, Moderna will hire roughly 2,000 new employees in 2023, the company recently told Fierce Pharma. That should bring the biotech’s total headcount to around 6,000 before the year is out, Jerh Collins, Ph.D., Moderna’s chief technical operations and quality officer, said in an interview. Recent clinical wins for Moderna's mRNA candidates in melanoma and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) show "that the pipeline is...

On Saturday, a football player suddenly collapsed after suffering from a cardiac arrest during the Beitostlen cup in Norway, local media Valdres and NRK reported. The player, who has yet to be identified, collapsed suddenly two minutes into the game. CPR was performed and they used the hall’s defibrillator to revive the player, and two minutes later, he was breathing again. He was immediately sent by air ambulance to Ullevål hospital. He must have responded well, tournament manager Vidar Hilmen told Valdres newspaper. It didn’t seem like we would be able to save his life, so it was a tough...

Elton John - Crocodile Rock A half century ago, a song with the silly title of "Crocodile Rock" moved into the number one position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Elton John's first number one hit in the United States, and yes, he had a number of hits before that but this was his first U.S number one. This song heralded the beginning of Elton's complete domination of mid 1970s FM radio that would continue until around the middle of the Bicentennial year of 1976, culminating with the number one duo hit with Kiki Dee called "Don't Go Breaking My...

Formula 1 broadcaster and commentator Jennie Gow recently revealed her absence from the BBC's F1 coverage was due to her suffering a stroke, and she has given an update on her conditionBBC Formula 1 reporter Jennie Gow has shared an update on her health after suffering a "serious stroke" earlier this month. Gow is one of the most recognisable faces in F1, and has proven to be an integral part of the BBC's coverage. The journalist also played a huge role in Netflix's hit F1 documentary 'Drive to Survive, having featured heavily in season three of the production. Towards the...

TIKTOK star who goes by the username @Waffler69 has died. Waffler69, or Taylor Brice LeJeune, "passed away at around 10 pm on January 11" from what his brother Clayton Claydorm called a "presumed heart attack" in a video on TikTok. Claydorm added: "This is still pretty new. I don’t know what’s going to be happening in the near future with any of that, but I thought I should get on TikTok and let everybody know.” LeJeune, a food critic and TikTok content maker from Louisiana, rose to fame for his films in which he cooked, tested, and tried out unusual...

A California doctor who treated the mortally wounded Ashli Babbitt after she was shot outside the House of Representatives on Jan. 6, 2021, was arrested by the FBI on four criminal charges stemming from his time at the U.S. Capitol. Dr. Austin Brendlen Harris, 42, of Granada Hills, California, was arrested Jan. 25 in Van Nuys, California. Harris was charged in a criminal complaint in Washington D.C. with knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds without authority, and disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds—both felonies with sentences of up to 10 years in...

The federal government will allow Medicaid dollars to treat some people in prisons, jails or juvenile detention centers for the first time ever, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced Thursday.

For those of you who care, as one of JimRob's FR FB Admins I appealed our Sept. 2022 ban this AM and we are reinstated. Please keep in mind that JimRob established the FB page so we could keep in contact if/when the motherboard went down. Now you all can unload on me that you've never used FB and will NEVER use FB and all who do are Zuckbots. 😂😎 OK, go ahead and flame me, I'm wearing double-secret fireproof underwear. 😉

I am a fan of classic radio shows and I notice that until at least the late 1930s, what we know as the city of Los Angeles, California, was always referred to phonetically as, “Los Angle-Es”. Do any of our old timers or young timers with more knowledge than myself here know, or remember when, the pronunciation change was made, and by who, and why? You can hear this formerly de facto pronunciation in old radio shows from the 1930s such as this example - https://podcasts.apple.com/jp/podcast/case-closed-old-time-radio/id219708992?l=en&i I appreciate you all accepting my Vanity post.

What makes the SCORPION unit so controversial? Recently, the unit has garnered significant criticism, particularly after the Nichols case which has also raised concerns that the SCORPION has strayed from its core mission of targeting more serious crimes. “They were in unmarked cars, why are they conducting traffic stops?” said Antonio Romanucci, one of the lawyers for Nichols’ case to CBS. Multiple allegations against the SCORPION unit Several reports citing criminal justice reform activists and some residents of the city said that the officers who are a part of the SCORPION unit had previously been accused of using excessive force....

Archbishop Viganò: On the Feast of St. Paul’s Conversion we must pray for the ‘Sauls’ who persecute the ChurchLet us pray that the prelates and priests who today obey the Roman Sanhedrin, which does not want to recognize Christ the King while paying homage to Caesar, may be enlightened by the Grace of the Lord.Abbot Guéranger comments: “To complete the court of our great King, it was right that the two powerful pillars of the Church, the Apostle of the Jews and the Apostle of the Gentiles, should be raised on either side of the manger: Peter with the keys...

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that “there will not be a default” while discussing raising the federal debt ceiling while controlling government spending. Partial transcript as follows: MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to get to some of the top agenda items. You have accepted an invitation to meet with President Biden. When will that happen, and what offer will you put on the table? MCCARTHY: Well, we’re going to meet this Wednesday. I know the President said he didn’t want to have any discussions, but I think it’s very important that our whole government...

House Democrats proposed legislation this week that would give more than 2 million federal workers an 8.7% pay raise in 2024, a raise they say is needed because they suffered through both the COVID pandemic and the Trump administration. "For years now, federal employees have risked their health and safety working on the frontlines of this pandemic," said Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., who sponsored the bill. "They were subjected to the Trump Administration’s cruel personal attacks, unsafe work environments, pay freezes, government shutdowns, sequestration cuts, furloughs, and mindless across-the-board hiring freezes." "Still, our federal workforce serves with dedication and distinction...

BREAKING: Finland has introduced the world's first transgender national figure skater They fall down in the first 45 seconds and no one is allowed to act like anything at all happened