Free Republic

The 19.6% of office space that isn’t leased is the highest since at least 1979 ... America’s offices are emptier than at any point in at least four decades, reflecting years of overbuilding and shifting work habits that were accelerated by the pandemic. A staggering 19.6% of office space in major U.S. cities wasn’t leased as of the fourth quarter, according to Moody’s Analytics, up from 18.8% a year earlier. That is slightly above the previous records of 19.3% set in 1986 and 1991 and the highest number since at least 1979, which is as far back as Moody’s data...

President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign announced Monday it raised $1 million in online donations over a 24-hour period after the president delivered his first 2024 campaign speech on Friday, comparing Trump to Nazis. The escalation of extreme rhetoric appears to be a part of Biden’s newest strategy to defeat Trump. Commemorating the January 6 protest, Biden compared former President Donald Trump’s words to language used in Nazi Germany and claimed “Democracy is on the ballot” after Democrats tried to remove Trump from several state ballots: “Echoing the same exact language used in Nazi Germany, he [Trump] proudly posts on social...

[cut] Ransome later recanted the allegation in an email to journalist Maureen Callahan, according to the records. “I have spoken to my family at some length this morning and I would like to retract everything I have said to you and walk away from this,” the October 2016 email states. [cut] A Trump spokesperson slammed the claims. “These baseless accusations have been fully retracted because they are simply false and have no merit," said Steven Cheung.

In the 2023 election cycle in Louisiana, conservatives let their voices be heard. It wasn't just a Republican wave in the state last year - it was a decidedly conservative wave. Moderate (read: really Democrat) Republicans were thrashed just as much as actual Democrats were. SNIP>>>>> But Republicans in Louisiana can be their own worst enemy when it comes to governance. Even while Republicans had majorities in both chambers of the legislature during Edwards' term, they could rarely agree on leadership and committee assignments, and on more than one occasion, Republican leaders picked Democrats to chair committees in the House...

While the U.S. is only a few weeks into winter, this year’s respiratory virus season is already looking different than last year’s. Covid and flu are both surging and there’s no peak in sight. During the previous winter, flu and RSV got off to an early start but were already declining by the time hospitalizations from the omicron virus started to spike in December 2022.

The Biden administration is increasingly leaning on Mexico to curb the record flow of migrants crossing into the U.S., but Mexico has its own lists of ambitious asks for the U.S., say officials from both governments familiar with the discussions. In a press conference on Friday, López Obrador called on the U.S. to approve a plan that would deploy $20 billion to Latin American and Caribbean countries, suspend the U.S. blockade of Cuba, remove all sanctions against Venezuela and grant at least 10 million Hispanics living in the U.S. the right to remain and work legally. Responding to those requests,...

Mark 1:7-11 Friends, on this Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, let us meditate on John the Baptist. Young John, the son of the priest Zechariah, grew up in and around the temple, acquainted with its rituals. And he sensed that the true Messiah was on the horizon. And so he went away from the old temple, but he continued to act as a priest of a new Temple.John was baptizing people in the Jordan. Why this ritual? Well, in the Jerusalem temple, a pilgrim would cleanse himself in a mikvah, a ritual bath, before he entered to make...

KEY POINTS: *Climate anxiety in later life is on the rise, threatening well-being. *Taking climate action can increase generativity and ego integrity and combat a sense of despair. *Worries about climate change can lead to isolation, alienation, and helplessness. The well-being of the individual is connected to the well-being of the planet. The emerging field of conservation psychology addresses how our social and psychological connections with the natural world influence our well-being. As an increasing number of people recognize the perils of climate change, anxiety about the environment is becoming widespread. Increasingly, people are worried about a future filled with...

House Republicans on the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic are questioning Dr. Anthony Fauci on Monday and Tuesday in closed-door sessions; the focus, according to committee chairman Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), is “pandemic-era” failures. Members of the committee are expected to question Fauci about many failures surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, including Fauci’s participation in casting doubt on the theory that the coronavirus came from a lab leak:

Recent college graduates are failing at job interviews, according to a new study. Developmental setbacks from various factors have appeared to delay communication skills among Gen Z grads — and employers are taking notice. In a Dec. 2023 study, the New Jersey-based research group Intelligent surveyed 800 U.S. managers, directors and executives who are involved in hiring. One in five employers reported that recent college grads are generally unprepared when it comes to interviewing for a job. More than half of employers surveyed said Gen Z candidates struggle the most with eye contact during interviews. Candidates in this age group...

The company behind America's latest mission to soft-land on the Moon is battling to save the project. Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic says its Peregrine spacecraft has a faulty propulsion system, which, unless fixed, will prevent a lunar touch-down. The problem has already made it difficult for the craft to point its solar panels at the Sun to generate electricity. Astrobotic is already talking about changing its mission goals. The 1.2-tonne lander was launched early on Monday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a Vulcan rocket. It is aiming to become the first American mission in half a century to make a controlled landing...

While ”Angry Joe” Biden screams about democracy (while having his attorney general prosecute his likely Presidential election opponent), and he and Congress continue to spend and borrow like there is no tomorrow (not a bad assumption since Biden is a sickly 81, Pelosi is 83 and assorted other aging policitians in the District of Corruption will never live beyond 10 more years), we are now seeing more attention to the boiling frog problem facing our children and grandchildren. I call this “Biden Stew.” The country’s soaring national debt — which recently surpassed a record-high $34 trillion — is akin to...

Google’s DEI leader, Adriele Parker, wants people to do the opposite of what Martin Luther King Jr. taught. She wants them to see color and “acknowledge the struggles that people like me face.” Parker makes a lot of money working for Google to spill nonsense like that. She has a lot fewer “struggles” than the average American. “In the year 2023,” Parker began, “it also amazes me how many people are like, ‘Well, I don’t see color, or it would be so much better if we just didn’t worry about someone’s skin tone. You, as an individual, are contributing to...

MADISON, Wis. -- Monday morning, the first American spacecraft to land on the moon since the last Apollo mission in 1972 will launch from Cape Canaveral, and one longtime Madison resident will be on it. Paul Wertsch and his wife Kay Heggestad always loved space. "Kay especially was a Star Trek person," Paul said. "We went down to Cape Canaveral, watched a lot of rockets." In fact, Paul remembers watching the first ever moon landing with Kay by his side. "She and I were both medical students, and we were doing a rotation up in Rhinelander, Wisconsin," Paul said. "I...

JUST IN - U.S. Defense Secretary was transported by ambulance from his home to hospital on Jan 1 after suffering "severe pain" — Pentagon

A New York Democrat says taxpayers deserve answers after she captured and shared "unbelievable" video of cars appearing to belong to migrants being towed outside a Brooklyn shelter. "It seems like they're having more resources than the average American, so we deserve answers," Assemblywoman Jaime Williams, who represents southeast Brooklyn-area neighborhoods like Marine Park and Canarsie, told "Fox & Friends First" on Monday. "As soon as the tow trucks arrived on the scene, we saw the migrants running out of the tents, saying that it was the vehicles that had belonged to them. Actually, one of the migrants had a...

Ukraine lost 500,000 soldiers, killed or seriously wounded, since the beginning of the Russian special military operation/invasion, former Prosecutor General and ex-head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko said on the YouTube channel. “I think that they should name the number of dead Ukrainians. I know that they don’t want this, and it will be taken seriously. Yes, it will be a shock,” he said.According to Lutsenko, Ukraine loses tens of thousands of fighters per month, which is why the Ukrainian military proposed to mobilize half a million people.“We must honestly say that the 500,000 that...

This is a *Live* webcam of a market in the Philippines and of course it is middle of the night. LOOK AT THE RATS! in this market. This is disgusting.

A Reuters report released just days ago uncovered that America’s leading drugmakers are raising prices yet again. Due to industry greed, the American people can expect to see more than 140 brands of drugs increase in cost over the next month. Prior to the increase, on average, pharmaceutical costs are already higher in the United States than in any other country in the world. According to Bloomberg, the average American spends about $1,300 per year on pharmaceuticals. For a year’s supply of a newly launched drug, the costs have risen to $220,000 per year, an increase of more than 20%...

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said Sunday on MSNBC’s “PoliticsNation” that he believed it was “evil-spirited” that Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) is sending migrants to cities “being led by black leaders or leaders of color.” Johnson said, “We have this international crisis that really requires federal intervention that local government is being asked to subsidized. Local government is not designed or built to handle such a crisis. Since I’ve been in office, we’ve had well over 500 buses show up to the city of Chicago, in fact, closer to 600 right now, over 855 flights have come to Chicago. Now, the...