Free Republic

I've written recently about the serious budget problems with San Francisco's schools and its public transit system. But things appear to be even worse in nearby Oakland. Last week the city accidentally published a budget report on its website which said the city was in danger of insolvency unless serious cuts were made immediately. One report, published early Friday morning in connection with a City Council agenda, warned Oakland must take immediate action to “maintain the solvency of the General Purpose Fund and avoid the Chapter 9 process.” The report, which had the signatures of the city’s top officials on...

A special agent at the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been charged with sexually assaulting two women, according to police and court records. The agent, Eduardo Valdivia, was previously acquitted of attempted murder for shooting a man on a Metro subway train near Washington, D.C., four years ago. He was arrested in Maryland on Monday. Valdivia has been suspended by the FBI, pending the conclusion of a police investigation in Montgomery County, Maryland, a bureau spokesperson said. "The FBI takes allegations of criminal violations and misconduct very seriously. We are aware of the matter involving the recent arrest of an...

The Ukes perform Ennio Morricone's classic, from the DVD 'Anarchy in the Ukulele'. Another upload of exactly this clip received over 2 million views, but was mistakenly deleted in early 2010.

Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has pledged to have a good working relationship with President-elect Donald Trump once he takes office, has responded to Trump's statement on November 25, 2024, in which he promised tariffs on Mexico and Canada due to their allowing illegal immigration and the flow of drugs across their borders into the United States to go unchecked.MORE: Trump Pledges Tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China in Sweeping Trade Policy Announcement As everyone is aware, thousands of people are pouring through Mexico and Canada, bringing Crime and Drugs at levels never seen before. Right now a Caravan coming...

All patients who have had a heart attack are typically treated using beta blockers. According to a study conducted earlier in 2024, this drug is unlikely to be needed for those heart patients who have normal pumping ability. Now a sub-study shows that there is also a risk that these patients will become depressed by the treatment. Beta blockers are drugs that block the effects of adrenaline on the heart and have been used for decades as a basic treatment for all heart attack patients. In recent years, their importance has started to be questioned as new, successful treatments have...

In October of 2022, Smith filed a lawsuit against a publisher called All Seasons Press (ASP), to whom he had sold the rights to a book proposal based on a February 2021 essay he had written for Tablet. “The Thirty Tyrants” argued that Americans at the top of the financial, entertainment, and political industries had sold their country out to communist China. Unsurprisingly, according to an outline Smith submitted to an editor at ASP in July of 2022, one of the book’s targets would be George Soros, who in the 2010s lauded China’s “doctrine of harmonious development,” hailed the Chinese...

Former New York City mayor Bill de Blasio called on his party to "be more honest" after Americans felt "betrayed" over the Democratic Party keeping quiet on President Biden’s decline. De Blasio joined a panel on CNN’s "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer" to offer more commentary on what was behind Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party’s resounding losses in the 2024 election. He argued part of the problem was Harris being unwilling to separate herself from Biden, as well as the Democratic Party’s hesitation to criticize Biden until after he dropped out of the race. "Let‘s be...

Drinking beetroot juice before a workout could enhance the benefits of exercise training in postmenopausal women, according to new research. Reduced nitric oxide availability may diminish the responsiveness of skeletal muscles and blood vessels during exercise, potentially explaining why late postmenopausal women respond differently to exercise training. To address these challenges, the researchers investigated whether beetroot juice, rich in dietary nitrate, could enhance the health benefits of exercise for late postmenopausal women. Nitrate is stored in limited amounts in skeletal muscle and converted to nitric oxide during physical exertion. For the study, 24 postmenopausal volunteers completed supervised, circuit-based exercise training...

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs, are fire-retardant chemicals that are found everywhere—upholstery, carpets, curtains, electronics, and even infant products. Known to disrupt hormones and persist in the environment, these pollutants have been detected in human tissues and even breast milk. A mouse study reports that probiotic supplementation can reduce the negative impacts of PBDEs on neurodevelopment, behavior, and metabolism. "Exposure to PBDEs during the perinatal period produces autistic-like behavior and metabolism syndrome in mice," said Margarita C. Curras-Collazo. "These compounds also disrupt the gut microbiome, which has been linked to brain and metabolic health. Our study shows supplementing the maternal...

President-Elect Donald Trump selecting... A Memorandum Of Understanding between the Trump Transition and the Biden White House... US Central Command attacking a militia storage facility in Syria... Farmers protesting tonight dumping brush, hay bales, tires and refuse at government building in the southwestern French town... Early Wednesday morning Kiev and ten regions of Ukraine under an air raid alert... An Israeli attack on Beirut late tonight... A Brazilian police report claims former President Jair Bolsonaro was in a 'criminal organization'... French Premier Michel Barnier warning of turbulence...if his government is censured... A man on the FBI's most wanted list arrested...

Does anyone actually believe that Trump won Arizona by 5.5% but Kari Lake lost? You think Trump voters really went in there and voted for the open border cartel guy? Arizona’s elections are an absolute joke ... Arizona FINALLY finished counting votes yesterday, a mere 20 days after Election Day. Trump won AZ by 5.5% making it the reddest of the seven swing states. President Trump won Maricopa County, the biggest prize in the state, by over 3%. This puts Arizona in the same category as Minnesota (Kamala by +4), Virginia (Kamala +5), New Mexico (Kamala +6), and New Jersey...

A new counteroffensive is the only way forward to success for Ukraine, the commander of its Armed Forces recently told a small group of milbloggers.“Victory is impossible if the Armed Forces work only in defense,” said Col.-Gen. Oleksander Syrskyi, according to Ukrainian military journalist Kirill Sazonov’s recent post on Telegram. “We have to seize the initiative and counterattack. We have and we will. Where and who – you will see.”

On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “OutFront,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston reacted to incoming Border Czar Tom Homan saying he’s willing to arrest him and arguing that sanctuary cities are violating the law by stating that “What we’re not going to do is support deploying the 101st Airborne into American cities to pull ten-year-old kids out of their classrooms in handcuffs. I think that is immoral, that’s unconstitutional, and that’s un-American. And so, I think if that’s what they’re proposing, they will find us resisting.” But they will help the federal government with going after violent criminals and felons as they...

This is a relatively short essay to convey some thoughts about this entire election process of Trump vs. Harris and the implications of that event. The biggest thing that sticks out to me (after several days of thinking about it) is that the liberal, leftist Marxists in our Federal Government Agencies, the Legislative branch and the Executive brank actually look down on us and believe the vast majority of us to be the ignorant poor or at least the unwashed, untaught (deplorables, nazis, garbage). What hurts most of all (literally the truth for me) is that they believed enough people...

Research conducted across 12 hospitals in China has discovered that combining linear ablation with ethanol infusion via the vein of Marshall (EIVOM) alongside pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) significantly improves sinus rhythm maintenance in patients suffering from persistent atrial fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation (AF) is when the heart's upper chambers beat irregularly and often too fast due to misfiring electrical impulses. This can cause blood clots and other heart problems. Treating persistent AF is challenging because standard methods used to break up irregular electrical impulses with scar tissue, like PVI, don't always work well over the long term. EIVOM involves injecting alcohol...

The race in California's 13th Congressional District is between Democrat Adam Gray and Republican John Duarte, the incumbent

New evidence has been revealed in the Kouri Richins’ murder case claiming that she requested fentanyl from more than one person prior to the death of her husband. Kouri Richins was charged with aggravated murder and attempted criminal homicide after being accused of poisoning her husband with fentanyl. Her case gained notoriety as she was arrested in 2023 shortly after she wrote a children’s book on grief. Judge denies Kouri Richins bail a second time, drops two charges Throughout the case, prosecutors have claimed Kouri Richins obtained fentanyl from an acquaintance later identified as housekeeper Carmen Lauber. During the preliminary...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media.This is the confidence we have in approaching God: That if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (1 John 5:14)Religion Forum threads labeled *Prayer* are closed to debate of any kind.1 John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true...

A popular thyroid medication taken by 23 million Americans may be associated with bone loss, a startling new study finds. Levothyroxine — marketed under brand names such as Synthroid — is the second-most commonly prescribed medication among older adults in the US. It’s consumed by about 7% of the US population. The drug addresses hypothyroidism, also known as an underactive thyroid, by replacing or providing more of a thyroid hormone naturally produced by the body. The study authors, from Johns Hopkins Medicine, linked levothyroxine use to a greater loss of bone mass and bone density over six years — even...