Free Republic

Mortgage rates moved higher again last week, pushing buyers back to the sidelines just as the spring housing market is supposed to be heating up. Mortgage applications to purchase a home dropped 6% last week compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index. Volume was 44% lower than the same week one year ago, and is now sitting at a 28-year low. This as the average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($726,200 or less) increased to 6.71% from 6.62%, with points rising to 0.77 from 0.75 (including the...

Months of disputes between Justice Department prosecutors and FBI agents over how best to try to recover classified documents from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club and residence led to a tense showdown near the end of July last year, according to four people familiar with the discussions. Prosecutors argued that new evidence suggested Trump was knowingly concealing secret documents at his Palm Beach, Fla., home and urged the FBI to conduct a surprise raid at the property. But two senior FBI officials who would be in charge of leading the search resisted the plan as too combative and proposed instead to...

The lead negotiator representing the United States in discussions on a global pandemic accord said in a statement this week that the United States is committed to the accord amid debate on the draft document. Leaders are meeting this week in Geneva as part of the fourth meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Bureau (INB) to consider a “Zero Draft” (pdf) of the agreement. The INB was set up by the World Health Assembly in December 2021 to “draft and negotiate a convention, agreement or other international instrument under the Constitution of the World Health Organization to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness...

If the cause of Ukraine is righteous, there is no reason to chill debate.It’s not exactly a sign of a healthy democratic discourse that it’s virtually impossible to ask a critical question about the United States’ role in the Ukraine-Russia conflict without being smeared as a Putin apologist or an “isolationist.” We’ve been bombarded with bromides about a civilizational struggle that pits the forces of autocracy and liberalism against each other. “It’s not just about freedom in Ukraine,” Biden tells us. “It’s about freedom of democracy at large.” Yet Ukraine — which, before the war, regularly slotted in somewhere beneath...

A new interactive website database is now available free to individual citizens and election reform groups across the country to help in the fight to get all states to obey a federal election law mandating regular voter roll maintenance. The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), a national, non-profit, law firm dedicated to election integrity, announced the launch of the website on Feb. 27. The data provided on the website is designed to encourage some defiant state election officials to comply with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA). “We hope this interactive database will draw attention to the hundreds...

(Last Updated On: February 24, 2023) NATIONAL PEANUT BUTTER LOVER’S DAY March 1st was made for National Peanut Butter Lover’s Day. Ah, peanut butter. One day is not enough to recognize peanut butter. The goober has been paired, blended, and added with many tasty results! #PeanutButterLoversDay The creamy, nutty goodness known as peanut butter is so amazingly delicious that when we pair it with creamy and dreamy chocolate, we almost have bacon. We digress. Another great love is peanut butter ice cream. Blended smooth with a few chopped nuts and a drizzle of peanut butter syrup is a peanut butter...

In the 1960s, 90% of murders were solved. That fell to 75% in 1980, and 60% in 2000. In the year of Black Lives Matter, the homicide clearance rate fell so low that it became a ‘coin flip’.The media reported that only 50% of murders were being solved. What was less reported was that this mainly reflected a drop in solving black murders. Homicide clearance rates for white people have actually improved since the 1980s and reached a high during the Obama administration even as black homicide clearance rates dropped catastrophically.In the 70s, 80% of the murders of black people...

A federal effort to throw about $40 billion in taxpayer cash at semiconductor manufacturers is now going to double as a backdoor effort at expanding federal subsidies for child care. According to The New York Times, the Commerce Department is set to unveil new rules on Tuesday that will effectively force recipients of the new federal semiconductor subsidies to "guarantee affordable, high-quality child care for workers who build or operate a plant." The Times reports that the new rules will not specify how recipients use the funding, though it could include everything from "building company child-care centers near construction sites...

"Pray at all times in the Spirit" (Eph. 6:18). Spiritual victory is directly related to the quality of your prayer life. Prayer is communication with God, and like all communication, it can be developed to maximum efficiency or allowed to languish. Which you choose will determine the quality of your spiritual life. Ironically, the freedom of worship we enjoy in our society and our high standard of living make it easy to become complacent about prayer and presume on God's grace. Consequently, many who say they trust in God actually live as if they don't need Him at all. Such...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning about a rise in extensively drug-resistant cases of the bacterial infection Shigella, a major cause of inflammatory diarrhea. The agency calls the new form of the stomach bug, which causes the diarrheal condition known as shigellosis, a “serious public health threat.” Evidence suggests the illness is spreading among gay and bisexual men in particular, apparently through sexual contact, both in the U.S. and abroad. The CDC held a call Tuesday with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the U.K. Health Security Agency to alert doctors about the spread...

ATMORE, Ala. -- A 52-year-old Atmore man is charged with reckless murder after his 2-year-old child died after being left in a vehicle for several hours. Atmore Police arrested Shawn Rounsavall Monday night. He is being held in Escambia County, Alabama jail without bond.

How many years did you waste before you repented and surrendered all to Jesus? How many years were eaten up by the cankerworm of sin and rebellion? Now you know you are forgiven, but wouldn’t you love to get back those years and live them for the glory of the Lord? In his final days, Paul looked back over his life and testified, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness” (2 Timothy 4:7-8, NKJV). Paul says, “Forgetting those things which...

Surrounded...

The U.S. Misery Index was a concept conceived by economist Arthur M. Okun in the 1970s to describe and quantify the level of economic distress experienced by everyday Americans. The index, while not perfect, can nonetheless be used as a powerful tool to help Americans and their leaders understand the existing economic forces affecting not only their lives but the financial circumstances of the country as a whole.The index is calculated by adding the official U.S. unemployment rate to the U.S. inflation rate and is a popular indicator of economic health or distress. The higher the U.S. Misery Index, the...

Join with fellow FREEPERS across the world to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Agri-Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, Technology, Religious Freedom and the Media. "I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness." (1 Timothy 2:1-2) Religion Forum threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind. "Finally, brothers, rejoice. Set things in order. Be encouraged. Agree with one another. Be at peace. And the God...

Colossal recently added $60 million in funding to move toward a 2027 de-extinction of the woolly mammoth. The Dallas-based company is now working to edit the genes for the reincarnation of the mammal. Colossal planned to reintroduce the woolly mammoth into Russia, but that may shift. The long-dead woolly mammoth will make its return from extinction by 2027, says Colossal, the biotech company actively working to reincarnate the ancient beast. Last year, the Dallas-based firm scored an additional $60 million in funding to continue the, well, mammoth gene-editing work it started in 2021. If successful, not only will Colossal bring...

Everything ends. A hard truth, because we are a sentimental species. We have pleasant memories of more hopeful times, and we yearn for a return of days that will never repeat. The future that the past promised us was never to be. A rocket powered tomorrow with monorails, a moon Hilton, and push button ease has been denied. The blue haired, “gender” confused, angry world of today was never part of yesterday’s tomorrow…. Had it been, I doubt any of us would have signed on for it. What future have we now? What kind of tomorrow is even possible after...

The South Carolina Freedom Caucus has filed a lawsuit against the House Ethics Commission. The group wants to be recognized as a full legislative caucus. The lawsuit has been filed in federal court and lists all members of the House Ethics Committee as defendants. Members say the caucus is classified as a “special legislative interest caucus” and specifically forbids it from raising money and “engag[ing] in any activity that would influence the outcome of an election or ballot measure.” "South Carolina law prohibits the Freedom Caucus from enjoying the same privileges as other caucuses. Caucuses formed on the basis of...

Germany's federal statistics office Destatis said on Wednesday that February's inflation rate was 8.7%, the same as the previous month. This dashed hopes consumer prices would continue to decline slightly, as they had in the autumn after a high of 10.4% in October. Skyrocketing energy and food prices continued to drive the high inflation rate, despite government measures to decrease the energy burden on consumers and the European Central Bank (ECB) gradually raising interest rates to further dampen inflation. Energy costs in February 2023 were 19.1% more than the same time in 2022, while food prices were 21.8% higher. Destatis...

SHASTA CO, Calif. — The Anderson Union High School District Board is meeting Tuesday night starting at 6 p.m. for a closed session and at 6:30 for open session in the AUHS library. One of the major items on the agenda is a resolution in Support of Parental Rights. .. Board Meeting On the table: FUNDAMENTAL PARENTS RIGHTS RESOLUTION, expansion of school counselor privileges, funding of social and emotional health support groups on campus, forced pronoun use, gender-affirming care with NO PARENTAL CONSENT, and more $$ to CSBA ... In the agenda, it said the board of trustees believes parents...