Free Republic

Nobel prize-winning physicist Peter Higgs, who proposed the existence of the so-called "God particle" that helped explain how matter formed after the Big Bang, has died at age 94, the University of Edinburgh said Tuesday. The university, where Higgs was emeritus professor, said he died Monday following a short illness. Higgs predicted the existence of a new particle, which came to be known as the Higgs boson, in 1964. He theorized that there must be a sub-atomic particle of certain dimension that would explain how other particles—and therefore all the stars and planets in the universe—acquired mass. Without something like...

Most Republican voters support childhood vaccine mandates, yet may be discouraged from publicly expressing these views, a new study suggests. To determine the source of this disconnect, researchers conducted a survey that revealed differences between Republican voters who support childhood vaccine mandates and those who do not. According to the study, most Republicans surveyed supported immunization requirements for children and held favorable attitudes toward vaccine safety, while those who said they opposed vaccine mandates did not acknowledge this support exists—and expressed a greater willingness to share their vaccine views to others. In contrast, the Republicans who supported vaccine mandates were...

Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen has notified the state and national Democratic parties that the scheduled date of the Democratic National Convention is a few days after the deadline for the party to put its nominees for president and vice president on the ballot for the general election in November. Allen, who is a Republican, said state law requires parties to provide a certification of nomination for president and vice president no later than Aug. 15.

It seems that Germany is very serious about its robots following religious edicts and laws. As such, it has ordered all businesses and stores must stay shut on Sundays, and observe Sonntagsruhe or Sunday Rest, even if the entire shop is staffed by robots, or, the store itself is a robot. Germany’s Tegut is known across Europe for its innovative approach to retail. It has a chain of automated stores that sells regular supplies like bread, milk, eggs and certain healthcare products. The retail outlet finds itself entangled in a legal dispute regarding the German practice, or rather the law...

The wild $30 million cash heist from a Los Angeles warehouse Easter Sunday was apparently pulled off by a top-notch group of criminals — and so clean that it could go unsolved, an expert says. “This is a group that would have to have a lot of prior experience,” Scott Selby, a Harvard-educated lawyer and co-author of “Flawless,” a book about the famous Antwerp Diamond Heist, told The Post. “It’s like if you were a gymnast, you know, by the time you’re world-quality, you’ve already done a lot of work,” Selby said of the type of thieves who seem to...

We graded Illinois’ candidates based on their previous 2A voting records, public statements on their constituents owning firearms, and their willingness to focus on 2A issues. Given our research on these criteria, we’ve assigned the following grades to those currently running for office: A – Joshua Loyd, James Marter B – Jerry Evans, Joe McGraw C – Mark Rice D – Nikki Budzinski F – Raja Krishnamoorthi, Bill Foster, Lauren Underwood, Eric Sorensen

Billy Dee Williams said that he believes actors should be able to do what they want to do, including blackface. The comments were made on Bill Maher's show, "Club Random with Bill Maher." Williams called attention to Laurence Olivier's performance in "Othello," where he wore blackface. "When he did 'Othello,' I fell out laughing. He stuck his a** out and walked around because black people are supposed to have big a**es." Following the comments, Maher replied: "Today, they would never let you do that." "Why?" Williams responded. "You should do it. If you're an actor, you should do anything you...

Former CIA director John Brennan says he is "worried" about a possible second Donald Trump presidency - and fears it could spell disaster for Europe.

Joe Biden’s massive electric vehicle (EV) agenda will subsidize the lifestyles of America’s well-to-do while hitting average people the hardest.... The Biden administration is aggressively regulating the U.S. auto market to drastically increase the proportion of EVs sold over the coming decade, but consumer demand has not taken off as quickly as proponents had projected despite the subsidies made available by Biden’s flagship climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Manufacturers are slashing prices of their EVs to make the vehicles more appealing to consumers, which will increase prices for internal combustion engine (ICE) cars to compensate; this dynamic will...

We answer your questions about immigrants and SNAP BenefitsThe immigrant issue in Americahas reached a whole new level of scrutiny amid the recent waves of people coming into the country while searching for that American dream. Nations involved in this are people from Haiti, Ukraine, Palestine, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and any other country that is currently having socio economic or political issues. Amid all the incoming folks getting in the country illegally, the ones that are already living here and are also immigrants are concerned over what could happen to their welfare programs. Because many of these illegal immigrants...

A video posted by reliable Fox News reporter Matt Finn shows illegal immigrants ravaging a mountain in Sunland Park, New Mexico, while Border Patrol agents apparently won’t defend it, calling the mountain the Cartel’s. Finn wrote in the video post, “Unbelievable. A Border Patrol agent in Sunland Park, NM just told us a mountain in the United States is ‘not ours’ anymore. ‘It’s theirs.’ Referring to Cartels. We literally spent five minutes on Mt. Cristo Rey and a group of illegals breezed by.” Mt. Cristo Rey is adorned by a 29-foot-tall statue of Jesus, which was erected in 1940 after...

One of the worst kept secrets in Washington is no one actually knows just how much money the United States has spent in support of Ukraine. Over the past year, however, conservatives in Congress have been pushing President Joe Biden and his administration for the real number, and they’re finally getting some answers.In a letter sent to Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young on Tuesday, Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, along with Sens. Roger Marshall, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and twelve other members of Congress, chronicled the immense difficulty Congress has...

Tyranny by the Numbers: The Government Wants Your Money Any Way It Can Get ItThe government wants your money.It will beg, steal or borrow if necessary, but it wants your money any way it can get it.This is what comes of those $1.2 trillion spending bills: someone’s got to foot the bill for the government’s fiscal insanity, and that “someone” is the U.S. taxpayer.The government’s schemes to swindle, cheat, scam, and generally defraud taxpayers of their hard-earned dollars have run the gamut from wasteful pork barrel legislation, cronyism and graft to asset forfeiture, costly stimulus packages, and a national security...

The Federal Bureau of Investigation San Francisco has filed its Internet Crime Report for 2023. They found that these types of crimes cost Californians over $2 billion in 2023. Here on the Central Coast, investment scams and phishing scams cost residents over $5 million. Investment Scams: Monterey County- 33 victims suffered$2,534,214 in reported losses. Santa Cruz County- 37 victims suffered $2,484,283 in reported losses. San Benito County- Five victims suffered $251,801 in reported losses. Phishing Scams: Monterey County- Six victims suffered $13,300 in reported losses Santa Cruz County- 10 victims suffered $500 in reported losses San Benito County- 0 victims...

California spent $24 billion to tackle homelessness over the past five years but didn’t consistently track whether the huge outlay of public money actually improved the situation, according to state audit released Tuesday. With makeshift tents lining the streets and disrupting businesses in cities and towns throughout California, homelessness has become one of the most frustrating and seemingly intractable issues in the country’s most populous state. An estimated 171,000 people are homeless in California, which amounts to roughly 30% of all of the homeless people in the U.S. Despite the roughly $24 billion spent on homeless and housing programs during...

Two Republicans joined Democrats in blocking legislation that would have stopped transgender athletes from competing in girls’ sports in K-12 schools in Nebraska. A bill that would stop student athletes from participating on sports teams for the opposite sex, as well as using locker rooms and bathrooms for the opposite sex, was blocked by a filibuster on Friday in Nebraska, according to a report by Nebraska Public Media. After four hours of debate, 31 state senators voted for the legislation (LB575), but the bill needed 33 votes in order to end the filibuster.

Israel and Hamas on Tuesday were considering a new U.S. proposal for a cease-fire in the war in Gaza and the freeing of some hostages still held by the militant group, but mediators cautioned that the two sides remained far from a deal. The plan, presented by Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns to officials from Israel, Hamas, Qatar and Egypt in Cairo on Sunday, calls for a six-week cease-fire in Gaza, which has faced an intense Israeli military campaign in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks. During the pause in fighting, according to the plan, Hamas would release...

President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice is dragging its feet in prosecuting Nicholas Roske, the man accused of trying to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, leaving legal experts perplexed about the slow-moving pace of the case. Roske was indicted for attempted murder of a Supreme Court justice nearly two years ago in June 2022, after allegedly traveling from his parent’s home in California to the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., with the intent to kill Kavanaugh. Roske, a biological male who identified in some online posts as a transgender woman, was upset over the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion...

Angus Deaton is doing some rethinking. Specifically, the 78-year-old Nobel Memorial Prize-winning economist is re-examining his views on major topics like unions, immigration, and global trade. It's a big statement from someone who's spent over 50 years studying inequality, welfare, poverty, and "deaths of despair," and it comes as he sees economics in disarray. His most recent book, "Economics in America: An Immigrant Economist Explores the Land of Inequality," came out in 2023 — it catalogs, among other topics, the role of economists in the US and tackles some of the problems he's identified. When I asked Deaton what prompted...

CNN just reported the following:For nearly 50 years, only Black men caddied The Masters. One day, they all but vanishedFor Jariah “Jerry” Beard, caddie for 1979 Masters champion Fuzzy Zoeller, it meant he could earn as much in a day as his parents could in a week working at the city’s John P. King mill.So here’s my question: Is it a good thing, or a bad thing, that black people today no longer have these high paying jobs?