Free Republic

COLONIAL HEIGHTS, Va. — The Virginia Department of Health confirmed its Office of Licensure and Certification is conducting an investigation into Colonial Heights Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Colonial Heights. "Due to the ongoing criminal investigation, VDH cannot comment further on this matter at this time,” Maria Reppas, a spokeswoman for VDH, said. CBS 6 has reported Colonial Heights police arrested multiple employees at the Colonial Heights Rehabilitation and Nursing Center Wednesday morning, charging them with crimes ranging from abuse and neglect of vulnerable adults to falsifying patient records. The arrests came after police say a 74-year-old patient was hospitalized...

Reuters awarded $300M in contracts as 11 federal agencies investigated Elon Musk’s companies Tesla and SpaceX. The Biden administration reportedly awarded $300 million in government contracts to Reuters while 11 federal agencies conducted investigations into Elon Musk’s companies—Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and X (formerly Twitter). The timing of the contracts has drawn scrutiny, especially as Reuters earned a Pulitzer Prize for its reporting on “misconduct” at Musk’s businesses during this period. Critics claim the funding raises ethical concerns, alleging that taxpayer dollars were used to undermine Musk, a figure widely regarded as one of America’s most prominent innovators. Musk’s companies have...

December 19th will mark a significant milestone for the pro-life community in Idaho. Planned Parenthood in Twin Falls, one of the organization’s last remaining locations in the state, will be closing its doors permanently. This closure is more than just a local event; it is a resounding victory for those who champion life and believe in supporting women with compassionate, life-affirming care. With this closure, Idaho now has only one Planned Parenthood location, situated in Meridian. This shift highlights the growing momentum of the life-affirming movement and the increasing availability of alternatives that provide holistic support for women and families....

As concerns mount over mysterious drone sightings across the United States, the government appears caught in a whirlwind of public speculation and official denials. Amid this growing chaos, renowned ufologist Dr. Steven Greer has issued a chilling warning about what he calls an imminent “false flag” operation designed to mislead the public and obscure decades of clandestine activities. The White House has sought to downplay fears. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby recently attributed the sightings to “commercial, hobbyist, or law enforcement drones, all operating legally and lawfully,” even suggesting that some reports were misidentified stars or aircraft. Similarly, Pentagon...

Happy Christmas? Merry Hanukkah? Happy Challahdays? There’s no need for an identity crisis this year for those who celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah, with both happily coinciding on Dec. 25. New Yorkers who normally nurse some serious “Christmas envy” are plotzing over the cultural conundrum they’ve dubbed “Chrismukkah,” a Judeo-Christian mashup for the ages. Comedian Max Cohen, who goes by the handle MurrayHillBoy, is so pumped for the cultural collision, he staged a parody of the Dr. Seuss Christmas classic, rebranding the holiday tale as “How the Grinch Stole Hanukkah.”

Democrats have been caught doing the very thing they’ve been accusing President-elect Donald Trump of doing: Cutting Social Security. On Wednesday, the U.K. Daily Mail reported Senate Democrats are trying to push through a Social Security reform bill they want to see signed by President Joe Biden before Trump takes office. The Social Security Fairness Act aims to repeal provisions that reduce payouts to public sector employees like police officers, firefighters, teachers, and post workers. The Mail cites The Committee for a Responsible Budget in their article, and that group states this would make Social Security insolvent six months earlier...

A Canadian startup awarded a US$40-million grant from Bill Gates’ climate solutions initiative is preparing to extract carbon directly from the atmosphere at its Alberta site by this spring. Montreal-based Deep Sky announced on Wednesday that it had secured funding from Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, a firm established by Gates, to support its Deep Sky Alpha project. According to CEO Damien Steel, construction at the facility in Innisfail, just north of Calgary, is already in progress.

The Washington Commanders are one of the most storied teams in the NFL. After being started as the Boston Braves in 1932. Following a big move to Washington D.C., the team would change to the Washington Redskins in 1937. The Redskins would play at RFK Stadium from 1961-96, and then move to FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland — where they remained until now. However, after another name change that led to the Washington Commanders moniker, the team might finally move back to their namesake. In the early morning hours of Saturday, the RFK Stadium Bill was quietly passed by the...

The filing also included other demands, like, “No more adding of sex scenes, oral sex or on camera climaxing by BL outside the scope of the script BL approved when signing onto the project.” Per the demands, the cast and crew of It Ends With Us were under a contractual obligation to promote the film as they had previously determined would focus “more on Lily’s [Lively’s character] strength and resilience as opposed to describing the film as a story about domestic violence.” They were also supposed to “avoid talking about this film that makes it feel sad or heavy [sic]—it’s...

Russian commanders are reportedly refusing to send their troops to join a planned offensive to storm the Dnipro river. Putin's army is building up its forces on the left bank of the Dnipro river, as it prepares to force a crossing. Intelligence reports suggest 2,000 assault troops have been assembled in the Kherson region, along with some 300 speedboats. However, many senior officers believe the planned assault to be a suicidal mission and are reluctant to commit their troops and equipment to the fight, according to the ATESH partisan group. In a post to their Telegram channel, they wrote: "Russian...

... Dr. Carson emphasized that the last four years also allowed Americans to see how valuable conservative values are. ...

Former Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean appeared on MSNBC's "All in" to predict that "Trump will attack free speech. America will be done for as we know it. His vicious assault on ABC's George Stephanopoulos for calling him a rapist showed the kind of complete disregard for freedom of speech one would expect from an enemy of our democracy." Host Ari Melber asked "wasn't Stephanopoulos' claim that Trump was a convicted rapist slander? I believe the jury in the case specifically rejected the rape claim. Wasn't misstating this fact a deliberate lie? Should journalists be permitted to broadcast lies...

Allergic diseases such as asthma, atopic dermatitis, and food allergies have been increasing in frequency over the last few years. They are typically caused by the immune system being hypersensitive to harmless substances in foods and the environment. Flavonoids are chemicals present in various fruits and vegetables that are known to have anti-allergic effects and show promise as natural allergic treatments. To better understand how these allergies can be treated, let's look at an interesting anti-allergic mechanism in our cells. In the intestines, specialized dendritic cells (DCs) produce an enzyme called RALDH2 (retinaldehyde dehydrogenase 2) which converts retinal, a chemical...

President Joe Biden’s administration is dedicating $1 billion to preserve the Ecuadorian Amazon as a means of addressing climate change, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre announced Friday.

Is there some evidence suggesting that humans are the Galaxy’s only intelligent species? Enrico Fermi thought so – and he was a pretty smart guy. Could he be right? In 1950, the famous physicist made a seemingly innocuous lunchtime remark that has caught and held the attention of every SETI researcher since. The utterance came while Fermi was discussing with his mealtime mates the reasonable possibility that many sophisticated societies populate the Galaxy. But somewhere between one sentence and the next, Fermi’s supple brain realized that if this was true, it implied something profound. If there are really a lot...

Hot tubs can improve insulin effectiveness, heart health and lower blood pressure in people with type 2 diabetes, research has found. The small-scale study involved immersing 14 participants with type 2 diabetes in 40°C water for one hour, eight to 10 times within a two-week period. It's the first study of its kind to show that participants experienced improved insulin sensitivity, which means the insulin they produced worked better after repeated immersion. Glucose levels didn't change, but insulin levels were lower. The study took place in a controlled laboratory setting where researchers could monitor the participants' deep body temperature, as...

Donald Trump’s team has told European officials that the incoming US president will demand Nato member states increase defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP, but plans to continue supplying military aid to Ukraine.The US president-elect’s closest foreign policy aides shared his intentions in discussions with senior European officials this month, according to people familiar with the talks, as he firms up his policies towards Europe and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. During his White House campaign, Trump vowed to cut off aid to Ukraine, force Kyiv into immediate peace talks, and leave Nato allies undefended if they failed to...

On April 23, 2023, in the airport at Sidney, Australia, a heavily tattooed and pierced non-binary person known as Liliana Goodson failed to declare a 1911 A1 type pistol in her “hand luggage“. Hand luggage is what Australians call carry-on bags. Liliana has been reported as planning to attend a clown school in Australia. Liliana’s preferred pronouns have been “they/them,” but she has also been referred to by her Australian lawyer as she/her. According to news.com.au:A heavily tattooed American traveller is fighting to be released from jail after she was allegedly busted trying to smuggle a 24-karat gold-plated pistol into...

“May Trump supporters and Trump voters and Trump himself never know peace.” Those words, from Disney’s new Snow White actress Rachel Zegler, came shortly after half of the country, roughly 77 million Americans, voted for Donald Trump. Only a few weeks ago, Kamala Harris and her supporters were rallying the country to choose “love over hate.” Now, the “joy” is gone. Tis the season of the liberal hate-fest. As Washington prepares for the inauguration, we are seeing a return to rage. During the first Trump administration, liberal servers and restaurant owners pledged not to serve Trump officials. Now, the Washingtonian...

A shipwreck dating to the sixth or fifth century b.c. has been discovered near Sicily along with a collection of ancient anchors, according to a report from CBS News. The wreck was found buried under sand and rock 20 feet underwater off Santa Maria del Focallo, at the southern tip of the island. The excavation was carried out by underwater archaeologists from the University of Udine in collaboration with Sicily's superintendent of the sea. Researchers determined that the ship's hull was built using a simple early shipbuilding technique known as "on the shell." Further study of the wreck may help...