Free Republic

Concerns over the impending end of Title 42 are highlighting rifts among Democrats on either side of Pennsylvania Avenue as the party hunkers down to await the political ramifications of the policy’s termination. The Trump-era policy changing the way officials can process migrants they encounter crossing the border will conclude along with other pandemic emergency measures on Thursday, forcing officials to return to regular processing — and potentially prompting hundreds of thousands of migrants camped along the border to attempt to enter the United States. Sen. Bob Menéndez (D-N.J.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has led the charge...

Ron DeSantis, the rightwing Republican governor of Florida and a likely 2024 presidential candidate, has handed favors to his big-money donors in the insurance industry at the expense of cash-strapped residents of his state, a new report claims. The report, “How Ron DeSantis sold out Florida homeowners”, draws on contributions from the American Federation of Teachers union, the non-profit Center for Popular Democracy, the voting rights group Florida Rising and the dark money watchdog Hedge Clippers. [cut] the report’s authors suggest, that DeSantis’s administration has put the insurance companies’ interests ahead of Florida’s own citizens, who are battling homeowner insurance...

A Texas rancher witnessing the border crisis firsthand slammed the Biden administration for a “bad situation” that has “not improved at all” as the end of Title 42 looms. “We have people coming through our property 24 hours a day, seven days a week now,” Stephanie Canales said on “Mornings with Maria” Wednesday. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s claim that illegal migration was “down by more than 90%” made Canales “want to laugh,” she added. “And those of us that live down here every day that are dealing with this, it has not improved at all,” she argued.

Antibiotics administered before and during surgery should be discontinued immediately after a patient's incision is closed, according to updated recommendations for preventing surgical site infections. Experts found no evidence that continuing antibiotics after a patient's incision has been closed, even if it has drains, prevents surgical site infections. Continuing antibiotics does increase the patient's risk of C. difficile infection, which causes severe diarrhea, and antimicrobial resistance. "Strategies to Prevent Surgical Site Infections in Acute Care Hospitals: 2022 Update," provides evidence-based strategies for preventing infections for all types of surgeries from top experts from five medical organizations led by the Society...

Long-time readers of CTH research will remember a very specific agency inside government, the Dept of Justice Community Relations Service (DOJ-CRS). This little-known, quasi legislatively authorized, Eric Holder weaponized, silo inside the justice system operates to control information that would be deemed ‘adverse to the peace and tranquility interests of the nation.’ In non-pretending terms, the DOJ-CRS controls any information in the criminal justice system that doesn’t fit the agenda of the radical communists and left-wing activists within it. The CRS controlled the George Zimmerman case. The CRS controlled the Darren Wilson case (Ferguson). The CRS controlled the Baltimore-Six case....

Microsoft recently announced a slew of new artificial intelligence (AI)-powered features for its Bing chatbot and Edge web browser. Chief among the changes, Bing users now have full access to the GPT-4 model — the same underlying engine that powers ChatGPT’s “Plus” subscription service. Previously, Microsoft held access to the GPT-4 version of the Bing chatbot to a “limited preview.” It’s now announcing open availability through the Bing app, web access and the Edge browser. Aside from giving Bing, Edge and Windows users free, unfettered access to the GPT-4 model, Microsoft also announced upcoming support for multimodal outputs, chat history...

Jacinda Ardern’s government had an emotional response to the crisis and a mistaken understanding of science, which led to multiple vaccine-induced deaths. Have these victims become a new source of organ donors for organ transplantation? By perusing scientific literature from around the world, New Zealand’s Dr. Guy Hatchard explores what vaccine-induced deaths mean from the perspective of transplant surgeons. “[While] transplant surgeons are very excited to have more available young donors … [they] completely fail to comment on the significance of the increased number of cases of vaccine-induced death,” he writes. “Transplant surgeons are narrowly focused on their discipline. Despite...

1. Most medicines used in the West come from the Far East. If America declares war on China (or vice versa) then most people reliant on prescription medicines (such as diabetics) will die. And Taiwan is responsible for the production of most of the world’s semiconductors. Manufacturers can’t produce cars, smartphones, computers, kitchen appliances, etc., without them. Modern cars have around 1,400 semiconductors built into them. And yet 60% of all semiconductors are made in Taiwan. And most are made by a single company. Those cheering on a war between China and America might like to reflect on those facts....

Dear Patient: You may have seen that the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency ends on May 11, 2023. This means that many hospital policies made during the pandemic are changing. This message explains the changes happening across all Mass General Brigham facilities. Masking Masks have been important during the pandemic. At this point in time, however, universal masking is no longer needed. This is due to many factors, including the availability of vaccines and treatments. With the end of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, Mass General Brigham will end universal masking at all our hospitals, clinics, and other facilities starting on...

WASHINGTON–Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced a bill on May 4 to raise the federal minimum wage to $17 per hour. The proposal, which is more than double the current rate of $7.25, was unveiled to the cheers of various labor leaders outside Capitol Hill. “It is time to pass a new livable wage,” Sanders said. He was joined by AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, who said the increase would not burden large corporations, citing a leaked McDonald’s earnings call wherein the CEO says the company would do “just fine” under a $15 minimum wage. Last December, McDonald’s opened its first largely...

The US Navy invited an active-duty drag queen Joshua Kelley to be a ‘Digital Ambassador’ – as part of a recent drive “to attract the most talented and diverse workforce” and combat plunging recruitment. With the passing of each and every day, America becomes more and more like unto Sodom, and unto Gomorrah, we are living in the ‘Vanity Fair’ of The Pilgrims Progress. The scary part is that as this wickedness rises, we are normalizing it, so comparatively speaking things don’t really look all that bad. But things are bad, very, very bad. So bad it’s biblical. “Except the...

Recent predictions have turned out wrong. NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center said 2022 would be a whopper, "predicting above-average hurricane activity [this] year – which would make it the seventh consecutive above-average hurricane season." It wasn’t. In fact, in terms of combined frequency, intensity, and duration, 2022 represented a noteworthy "low mark" in the past 42 years of all hurricane occurrences on the planet. Talk of seven "above-average" seasons was the real whopper. The eleven years from 2006-2017 show an unprecedented period in which no major hurricane made continental landfall, and yet the "average" data set was selected to comprise these...

Researchers have identified the role that two key genes associated with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) play in the disease. The team have for the first time found that the genes TMEM97 and POLDIP2 play a role in regulating oxidative stress—a part of aging in the macula. The findings provide a deeper understanding of the underlying causes of AMD and help prioritize new gene targets for treatments. AMD affects the macula—the central part of the retina at the back of the eye—causing cells to gradually break down, often leading to blurred central vision. Previous studies have identified many genes that are...

A self-driving electric car caught fire at a warehouse in Phoenix earlier this week and firefighters suspect it might not be fully extinguished for weeks. KSAZ-TV reported a Waymo self-driving electric car burst into flames on Tuesday morning inside a building located near the interaction of Third Street and Buckey Road. The building’s sprinkler system has been credited with preventing the fire from spreading to other cars in the fleet. Electric vehicle fires are notoriously challenging to put out and the one that caught fire Tuesday was no exception. According to KSAZ-TV, more than 50 firefighters descended upon the warehouse...

Gov. Brian Kemp will sign a measure Friday to create a state commission with powers to investigate, sanction or oust local prosecutors, part of an intensifying campaign by state Republicans to punish district attorneys they see as soft on crime. The second-term governor was one of the chief advocates for the GOP-backed measure, which was approved mostly along party lines by supporters who cited embarrassing examples of “rogue prosecutors” they say neglected their duties. It will be signed by Kemp despite objections from Democrats and prominent prosecutors who view it as a power grab by empowering a new panel to...

Steve Bannon has described Ron DeSantis' recent world tour, which saw the Florida governor visit stanch U.S. allies Israel, Japan, South Korea and Britain, as "humiliating."Trump's former White House chief strategist made the comment during a monologue on his War Room podcast, which was broadcast on right-wing network Real America's Voice.DeSantis is widely believed to be weighing up a possible 2024 presidential bid, with polling indicating he is the second most popular choice with Republican voters, after Donald Trump. It is common for perspective presidential candidates to embark on trips abroad, in a bid to garnish their foreign policy credentials.Addressing...

Police videos “It was me! I need a tourniquet!” We’re now learning more about a situation when a Hobart-Lawrence officer’s gun went off, shooting him in the leg during a police chase. Police released footage from Officer Samuel Schroeder’s body and dash cameras from early December. Officers were asked to check on a person’s welfare. Officer Schroeder pulled that person over after a short pursuit, then was hurt when his gun fired. The video shows him falling to the ground shortly after a gun goes off. A closer inspection of the video shows Officer Schroeder’s finger was inside the trigger...

A former West Virginia teacher convicted of molesting a 14-year-old girl also kept a list of the “Top 10” most attractive middle school students and was caught masturbating on school property multiple times, a new lawsuit claims. The civil action contends that school administrators “turned a blind eye” to Ronald Paul Harris’ perverted behavior during his time as a history teacher and basketball coach at Oak Glen Middle School in New Cumberland in the decade before his sexual abuse conviction. The 63-year-old is serving a 10-to-20-year sentence after admitting in September to abusing a high school freshman in 2010 who...

Attacks on churches and Christian institutions on American soil are at an all-time high. The March 27, 2023 killings in Nashville — where a woman claiming to be a man (aka “transgender”) stormed a private Christian school and murdered three children and three adults — is just the spectacular tip of a growing but concealed iceberg. According to recent reports by the Family Research Council, “criminal acts against churches have been steadily on the rise for the past several years. ... there were more church attacks in the first quarter of this year than there were in the first quarters...

FOX News continued to lose viewers on Monday, a week after they announced they were removing Tucker Carlson from their lineup. FOX News has absolutely FLATLINED after firing their top-rated host Tucker Carlson! By Wednesday of last week, FOX News had lost NEARLY HALF of their audience at Tucker’s 8 PM time slot. Tucker was averaging 3.2 million viewers a night. On Tuesday FOX News had only 1.7 million viewers at 8 PM. And by Friday of last week FOX News audience sunk to 1.33 million viewers at 8 PM down from 3 million just one week ago. That is...