Free Republic

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D) unveiled a plan on Friday to cancel medical debt for residents of the Constitution State, in what would be a first-of-its-kind initiative. The plan was first unveiled on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” According to ABC, the plan includes using $6.5 million in funds from the American Rescue Plan Act to cancel $1 billion of medical debt in collaboration with a nonprofit that buys and eliminates debt. Those who are eligible for the cancellation include families that have debt equivalent to 5 percent or higher of annual income. “This is not something they did because they...

...Archaeologists already knew that the São Luís area, also called Upaon-Açu, meaning "big island" in the Tupí-Guaraní Indigenous languages, held traces of prehistoric human activity. For instance, a prehistoric jawbone was discovered at Farm Rosane in the 1970s and other artifacts found in São Luís have dated to 6,000 years ago, Wellington Lage, the lead archaeologist of the recent excavations, told Live Science. The remains were attributed to the Sambaquian peoples. This group relied on marine resources and built shell mounds with leftover food refuse that reached up to 100 feet (30 meters) high.The latest excavation, which began in June...

This week, Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom revealed that he saw a shoplifter steal from Target without any employees stopping him. When he questioned one of the workers about it, the employee blamed Newsom without realizing who he was. According to Mercury News, Newsom shared the story before the start of a Zoom meeting about a mental health measure he’s supporting. In the meeting, Newsom said he was at a Target store and waiting in line with a cart when he saw another customer walk straight past him without paying. “As we’re checking out, the woman says, ‘Oh he’s just...

Some Republicans may be urging Nikki Haley to drop her presidential bid and step aside for former President Trump — but Trump's former national security adviser, John Bolton, disagrees with them all. "I think she should stay in," he told CBS News in an interview Friday. "In fact, I think she should announce that she's gonna stay in through the [Republican] convention, no matter what happens in South Carolina, where it looks like she'll lose." Haley, he went on to say, "can carry the flag for everyone within the Republican party who doesn't want Trump to get the nomination." Yes,...

BLACKWOOD, N.J. (KYW) - A New Jersey animal shelter is giving scorned partners a way to get back at their exes for Valentine’s Day while also helping to control the pet population. The Homeward Bound Pet Adoption Center is offering to “neuter your ex” by naming a feral cat after them then having the cat spayed or neutered. The promotion’s tagline is “because some things shouldn’t breed.” The Blackwood shelter is asking for a $50 donation for the service. “It’s been really interesting to see what people have been sending in,” said Eric Schwartz, the shelter’s director of development. So...

A study published in the journal Prehistory Works, indicates that two objects sampled from the Villena Treasure were smithed using meteoric iron...The Villena Treasure is one of the most important Bronze Age hoard finds in the Iberian Peninsula, discovered by José María Soler in 1963 in Villena, Spain. Archaeologists uncovered a collection of bowls, bottles, and bracelets, which were ornately crafted from gold, silver, iron and amber.Iron was considered a precious metal before the advent of iron smelting, where meteoric iron was the only source of iron metal used to make jewellery, tools, and weapons during the Bronze Age.Iron sourced...

Cori Bush could be on the hook for many crimes as the Justice Department continues its investigation into her alleged misuse of over $750,000 in campaign funds for personal security. The progressive Squad member spent thousands on security services out of her campaign account since getting elected in 2020. That includes over $120,000 to her husband Courtney Merritts, according to her most recent campaign filings, who she married in February 2023. Kendra Arnold, executive director for ethics watchdog the Foundation for Accountability & Civic Trust (FACT) told DailyMail.com that 'a host of other possible charges' for Bush are possible.

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley was skewered by her former ally, South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace, at a 'Team Trump' event Friday in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Haley had helped Mace get through her 2022 Republican primary challenge against a Trump-backed candidate. But then Mace pulled an about-face and endorsed former President Donald Trump over Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, on the eve of the New Hampshire primary.

Identifying an archaeological site with biblical stories is often circumstantial. In this case, archaeologists found the biblical archaeology equivalent of the Holy Grail: inscriptions discovered within a few hundred meters from the site, albeit from the 1st century B.C.E., reading "boundary of Gezer" in Hebrew, among other things. But the city's story begins thousands of years earlier...Later excavations in the 1960s and '70s on behalf of Hebrew Union College discerned 26 strata, often with one built upon the last. They range in date from the Chalcolithic period (4th millennium B.C.E.) to the Early Roman period (late 1st century B.C.E).The most...

New York family court officials have denied a father the legal right to stop his eight-year-old son taking life-changing hormones that would begin his medical transition to a girl. Dennis Hannon, 32, a senior software engineer from Buffalo, has been locked in a 'nightmare' legal battle with Erie Supreme Court spanning seven years, fighting to retain his fundamental parental rights. He claims that the boy's mother 'pushed' their child's transition, and says the boy himself was not distressed about living as a boy.

Tucker Carlson interviews Bret Weinstein who traveled to the Darien Gap to understand who’s behind the invasion of our country. His conclusion: “it’s not a friendly migration.” He sits down with Tucker Carlson for an in-depth review and analysis.Weinstein is perplexed, albeit with various theories about the origination and motives behind the mass invasion, however, if you have followed the issue closely since the first rendition during the Obama era in January 2011, the entire “crisis” is nothing more than one growing continuum of the fundamental change. {Go Deep on Timeline} Obama originated the UAC Central American migration. The additional...

El Salvador will hold an unprecedented presidential election on Sunday as polls suggest President Nayib Bukele will win reelection by an overwhelming landslide despite the country’s Constitution explicitly forbidding presidents from seeking more than one term. Sunday will see some 5.5 million Salvadorans head to the polls to choose who will lead their country for the next five years. The country entered a mandatory three-day silent period on Thursday in which no participating candidate or party may issue any kind of political statement or publish propaganda. According to polls released by El Salvador’s Central American University in January, 81.9 percent...

WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Washington formally postponed Donald Trump’s March trial on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election as a key legal appeal from the former president continues to work its way through the courts.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Friday acknowledged having a personal relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade as former President Donald Trump and another co-defendant have sought to get them disqualified from the Georgia election interference case. In a 176-page filing, Willis seemed to respond to the allegations by stating that “any personal relationship among members of the prosecution team does not amount to a disqualifying conflict of interest or otherwise harm a criminal defendant.”

Another day, another leak.Special Counsel Jack Smith leaked another dubious story to ABC News as his cases against Trump falter.According to a leak to ABC News, Jack Smith’s prosecutors have questioned witnesses about “hidden rooms” and a locked closet inside Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estateThe hidden rooms and locked closet were not searched by federal agents when Biden’s FBI raided Trump’s Florida residence in August 2022.

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - The U.S. Attorney’s Office-District of Oregon said four suspected drug traffickers are facing federal charges Thursday after they were caught transporting near 370 gallons of liquid heroin. Police said 44-year-old Marco Antonio Magallon, 26-year-old Luis Deleon Woodward, 25-year-old Jorge Luis Amador and 32-year-old Santos Alisael Aguilar Maya have ties to a Mexico-based transnational criminal organization. They have all been charged with conspiracy to distribute and posses with intent to distribute heroin and possess with intent to distribute heroin. Investigators watched Amador drive a rented moving truck alongside a red pickup truck west on I-84 near Bonneville....

Current President Joe Biden is dominating the 2024 Democratic Party Primary, but Michelle Obama is still getting whispers of a potential run for the White House. Her odds were recently shortened as the speculation grows, so let's take a look at the possible chances. CANDIDATE / IMPLIED PROBABILITY (%) Joe Biden 80% Michelle Obama 20% Gavin Newsom 11.11% Dean Phillips 5.88% Kamala Harris 5% Elizabeth Warren 2% Hillary Clinton 2% Tulsi Gabbard 1.49% Robert Kennedy Jr 1.49% Gretchen Whitmer 1% The odds surrounding Michelle Obama's potential run for President of the United States have taken a significant turn, with her...

The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill to expand the Child Tax Credit until 2025 despite some opposition from Republican members of Congress. “The Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024” is a bipartisan bill negotiated between the Democratic-led Senate Finance Committee and the Republican-led House Ways and Means Committee, which would reform and expand the credit until 2025. On Wednesday, the House voted to suspend normal rules and pass the bill by a vote of 357 yeas to 70 nays. “For the last three years, American families, farmers, workers, and small businesses have borne...

Culinary critics took a bite out of President Biden after an unappetizing “Detroit-style” pizza was served aboard Air Force One on Thursday while Biden was returning from a campaign trip to Michigan. “The Air Force One dinner tonight after the Michigan trip: Detroit-style pizza,” Bloomberg White House reporter Josh Wingrove posted on X following Biden’s swing-state appearance alongside auto union workers. But the presidential version of the Motor City’s signature deep dish, rectangular pizza barely had any mozzarella cheese or tomato sauce — and Wingrove merely nibbled at the edges before snapping a picture of the display. “Mom Joe Biden...

A panel of four early childhood health experts discussed the effect of climate change on childhood development at a Harvard Graduate School of Education forum featuring former First Daughter Chelsea V. Clinton on Wednesday. The event, hosted by HGSE’s Askwith Education Forum, was titled “A Healthy Childhood in a Changing Climate” and sought to outline viable solutions to mitigate the impact of climate change on children’s health and development. Clinton, the vice chair of the Clinton Foundation, moderated the discussion. HGSE Dean Bridget Terry Long opened the forum by highlighting the urgency of responding to a changing climate, noting that...