Free Republic

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), a ranking member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, will not support Sen. J.D. Vance’s (R-OH) bipartisan railway safety bill in the wake of a disastrous train derailment that has rocked the small community of East Palestine, Ohio. Last month, a Norfolk Southern train derailed in East Palestine, with a population of less than 5,000, leaving chemicals spewing into the community’s environment. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources estimates that more than 43,000 fish and other aquatic animals were killed as a result of the toxic chemical spill, while residents have reported feeling sick,...

Goldman Sachs Group agreed to pay $215 million to settle a class action alleging widespread bias against women in pay and promotions, ending one of the highest-profile lawsuits claiming unequal treatment of women on Wall Street. The settlement disclosed on Monday covers about 2,887 current and former female vice presidents and associates who worked in investment banking, investment management and securities. Goldman denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle. The resolution averts a trial that was scheduled to begin in June in the nearly 13-year-old case. “Everybody is feeling very and proud of this settlement - we worked so extremely hard...

President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is preparing to release border crossers and illegal aliens directly into American communities when Title 42, one of the administration’s only remaining border controls, ends on Thursday. In 2020, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, former President Donald Trump invoked Title 42 at the United States-Mexico border to ensure that federal immigration officials could quickly return illegal aliens to their native countries for the sake of public health. To date, more than 2.5 million illegal aliens have been removed from the U.S. after crossing the border thanks to Title 42. As...

THE GLADIATRIX WERE THE FEMALE EQUIVALENT OF THE ROMAN GLADIATOR, THAT FOUGHT OTHER GLADIATRIX OR WILD ANIMALS DURING RARE OCCURRENCES IN ARENA GAMES AND FESTIVALS. There are no defining Latin words from the Roman period for a Gladiatrix (a modern invention), and documented accounts or historical evidence is limited. To the Romans, combat involving Gladiatrix was a novel event (although contemporary accounts often report in a derogatory manner), in which the combatant would most likely be pitted against fighters of similar skill and capacity. According to the Roman poet, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, the Gladiatrix trained for gladiatura using the same...

Two Popes: “God Bless Schismatic Church”Francis held his May 10 general audience together with the schismatic Coptic Pope Tawadros II and asked to “pray that God may bless Pope Tawadros' visit to Rome and protect the entire Coptic Orthodox Church.” The principles of the Coptic liturgy are similar to those of the Roman Rite, which Francis hates. At the end of the audience, both, Francis and Tawadros, gave successive blessings. On Sunday, Tawadros II will celebrate in St John Lateran. It is striking that Francis can coexist with all religions except traditional Catholicism.

Britain’s fertility regulator has confirmed the births of the U.K.'s first babies created using an experimental technique combining DNA from three peopleBritain's fertility regulator on Wednesday confirmed the births of the U.K.'s first babies created using an experimental technique combining DNA from three people, an effort to prevent the children from inheriting rare genetic diseases. The Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority said fewer than five babies have been born this way in the U.K. but did not provide further details to protect the families' identities. The news was first reported by the Guardian newspaper. In 2015, the U.K. became the...

Billionaire liberal donor George Soros is the sole contributor to an outside political group financing most of Democrat Matt Dugan’s run for Allegheny County district attorney, a new financial filing shows. The Pennsylvania Justice and Public Safety PAC listed Mr. Soros as its only donor in a campaign finance report released Tuesday. Based in New York City, the philanthropist, financier and activist has backed progressive candidates in local races for prosecutor across the country, including Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner. While he is often only one source of funding for groups that in turn help finance candidates, the extent of his...

BALTIMORE — A transgender woman is suing the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services for her treatment behind bars. The suit, filed by Chelsea Gilliam, alleges she faced cruel and unusual treatment at two correctional facilities as she awaited trial. "I would say I was treated like an animal, but it was worse than that. People love and respect their animals. I was treated like an alien from the moment I entered Baltimore City Corrections, by inmates and staff," Gilliam said. Gilliam faced assault charges and was being held at the Baltimore City Correctional Center and the Maryland...

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) on Wednesday declined to say whether he accepted as legitimate the verdict by a jury in New York finding that former President Trump sexually abused E. Jean Carroll in the mid-1990s and owes her $5 million in damages. “That’s about presidential politics and that will all be settled in the primaries next year,” McConnell said when asked about whether the jury’s verdict, which also found Trump liable for defaming Carroll by denying her claims of sexual abuse, was legitimate.

video at link This is not going to end well for our nation.

The ‘music of the spheres’ was born from the effort to use numbers to explain the universeAn image of a white half circle at the bottom-center on a starry background. There are 8 arches spreading away from the circle. The Pythagoreans believed that the motions of the heavenly bodies, with just the right ratios of their distances from a central fire, made pleasant music — a concept that evolved into the “music of the spheres.” If you’ve ever heard the phrase “the music of the spheres,” your first thought probably wasn’t about mathematics. But in its historical origin, the music...

The internet got icy with this couple. A Virginia couple was slammed online after a video of the pair licking an ice cream container at a grocery store and then putting it back went viral. In a now-deleted Instagram post, the couple, identified as Tequan and Asia Hines, walk down the freezer section of a grocery store when Tequan encourages Asia to open a tub of Blue Bunny Soft Vanilla ice cream and lick the top. “Let me taste it. Let me taste it,” Tequan can be heard saying as he films his wife. Asia then lifts the tub up...

ST. LOUIS – One woman arrested in a Cherokee Street weekend shooting is no longer in jail. Police say she has been released after the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office refused to issue charges. Police arrested Amber Booker, 33, in the investigation into a shooting Saturday evening as a Cinco de Mayo festival was wrapping up for the day. Photos shared by police Monday in connection with the case showed one woman, suspected to be Booker, and another man holding weapons. The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department tells FOX 2 that the circuit attorney’s office refused all charges, citing a...

Speaking for the first time on Tuesday, St. Croix Sheriff Scott Knudson talked about the grief and pain that has followed the killing of Deputy Kaitie Leising. Leising was shot in the line of duty Saturday night as she investigated a DWI crash. Tuesday, the sheriff said that his department and the community are struggling. The sheriff is heartbroken but also angry that there has been another member of law enforcement killed in the line of duty.

President Biden warned Wednesday that if the United States defaulted on its debt, it would spell trouble internationally, after his latest meeting with congressional leaders to raise the country’s borrowing limit hardly made a dent in the debate. The president, during remarks in Valhalla, N.Y., said that world leaders are wondering about the looming risk of a default. “They all are looking at me, ‘are you guys serious?’” Biden said, referencing world leaders. “Because, if we default on our debt, the whole world is in trouble.”

A trans predator was jailed for nine years today for raping a 'vulnerable' friend with 'her penis' - just weeks after being released from prison for child sex offences. Lexi-Rose Crawford, 24, began identifying as a woman after being released on licence from a four-year jail term imposed for having sex with an underage girl she met online. A jury heard how she went on to attack the latest victim in her own home, after taking a PlayStation to the address so they could play computer games. The defendant, who was referred to as 'Miss' throughout her March trial, was...

@RepThomasMassie How did Joe Biden force millions of people to take vaccines? He threatened to disqualify them from employment, using existing federal bureaucracies like OSHA, CMS and federal contracting authority. I guarantee he would use E-Verify to do the same if it were federally mandated.

Opinion Transgender Ideology Isn't About Dignity. It's Warmed Over Misogyny | Opinion Jenny Holland , author of the Saving Culture Substack newsletter On 5/10/23 at 3:45 PM EDT Current Time 0:10 Dylan Mulvaney Slams Backlash Over Her Transition—'I'm Not Some Monster' Share Twenty years ago, my father, Irish author Jack Holland, wrote a book called Misogyny: the World's Oldest Prejudice. It's a sweeping look at how hatred and fear of women has been a part of nearly every society in human history. The need to control women's sexuality, women's voices and women's power have been a feature of societies from...

Police raised concerns, so lawmakers moved forward with a less-restrictive proposal — and now that version of the bill is likely to be defeated CONCORD, N.H. — An effort to restrict the use of no-knock warrants in New Hampshire is likely to fail this week, after a committee advised the full Senate to reject the proposal despite its bipartisan popularity in the House. The original version of House Bill 135 had called for a complete ban on no-knock warrants, which allow police to enter a property without knocking and announcing their presence in advance. But lawmakers watered down their proposal...

— Stanford says masks are no longer mandatory, but are recommendedParticipants in a long COVID clinical trial at Stanford University in California have raised concerns that some investigators there are not wearing masks during clinic visits, putting them at risk. The issue was first highlighted in a Reddit post on r/covidlonghaulersopens in a new tab or window, where an anonymous poster said he or she and their wife walked out and quit the study last week because "researchers running the long COVID Paxlovid study have stopped masking while tending to long COVID participants." That commenter, who has not returned a...