Free Republic

BOCA RATON, Fla. (CBS12) — A labor and delivery nurse at Baptist Health Boca Raton Regional Hospital is no longer employed after a TikTok video surfaced that appears to show her making graphic and violent comments about White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who recently announced she is pregnant. The video was posted by a woman identified as Alexis “Lexie” Lawler. In the video, Lawler says it “gives [her] great joy” to wish Leavitt would suffer a fourth-degree tear during childbirth — the most severe type of obstetric tear — using explicit and profane language. Fourth-degree tears extend through muscle...

A team of scientists has uncovered a new way to slow the growth of glioblastoma, the most aggressive and currently incurable form of brain cancer—and identified an existing medication that could treat it. The research shows that certain brain cells—once thought to simply support healthy nerve function—actually help glioblastoma grow and spread. The researchers discovered that these cells send signals that strengthen the tumor, but when they blocked this harmful communication in lab models, the cancer slowed its growth significantly. Even more promising, the study suggests that an existing HIV medication could be repurposed to target this process and offer...

Carver police department officers responded to an "incident" on Silva Street after reports emerged regarding a shooting at the St. John the Baptist Club, also known as St. John’s Club, located at 53 Silva Street in Carver, Plymouth County, Massachusetts. The incident occurred around 7:30 PM Saturday evening, prompting a response from Carver Police and Fire. Scanner reports suggest at least three victims suffering from gunshot wounds. Carver Fire C1 initially requested two medical helicopters, though the response was later downgraded to one. The conditions of the injured remain unknown at this time. In a public safety alert, the Carver...

Saturday on CNN’s “Newsroom Live,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis was an “execution” by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Ocasio-Cortez said, “There’s a second angle that appears to be circulating much closer to the incident where you see the victim, I believe his name is Alex Pretti and immediately preceding that incident in ICE officer had pushed violently a woman to the ground and he had come over to help get her up. And that is what precipitated this incident. That very quickly led to an execution, a deadly shooting in the...

The parents of Alex Jeffrey Pretti, the 37-year-old shot by federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday, had urged him to “not do anything stupid” while protesting. Pretti, an intensive care unit (ICU) nurse at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Minneapolis, had no prior criminal record before he decided to confront the Border Patrol agents. The incident occurred one day after a massive protest where tens of thousands marched through downtown Minneapolis to oppose ICE’s operations in the city. According to the Department of Homeland Security, Pretti approached Border Patrol officers while carrying a 9mm semiautomatic handgun and began forcefully resisting...

A new video from a Walmart in Minneapolis exposes the Minnesota Somali community’s incompatibility with America by showing that they can’t understand or speak English and are unable to provide services to contribute to the economy. Conservative content creator Kevin Posobiec and Quincy Franklin, aka the Black Conservative Preacher, made a stop at Walmart to find some hand warmers, and their encounters with the non-assimilated Somali workers were hilarious. When they asked one woman for hand warmers, she responded with inaudible nonsense, adding, “I don’t know hand, hand– chicken?” The next woman they asked was visibly confused, then began shouting...

This week French President Emmanuel Macron distanced himself from US President Donald Trump's Board of Peace and seized an oil tanker of Russia's 'shadow fleet' demonstrating notions of French independence and power. The decision on not joining the "Board of Peace" by Mr. Macron explained in terms of respecting 'international law' over 'arbitrary action'. There was concern not fully expressed that the "Board of Peace" was really a mechanism to go around the United Nations in Gaza and other places like Ukraine... At one point US President Donald Trump published texts Mr. Macron sent him in an apparent effort to...

Bowel habits aren't exactly dinner-table talk. But they reflect how quickly the gut moves things along, and when that goes wrong, people can experience constipation, diarrhea, or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). A study reports DNA clues to intestinal motility and spotlights vitamin B1 (thiamine) biology as an unexpected pathway for follow-up research. A team coordinated by Mauro D'Amato used a large-scale genetics approach to search for common DNA differences associated with stool frequency. They studied questionnaire and genetic data from 268,606 people of European and East Asian ancestry and used computational analyses to pinpoint which genes and mechanisms are most...

In a disturbing incident amid ongoing anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis, a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) officer had his finger bitten off by a rioter, according to a post from Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security. McLaughlin shared graphic photos on X, showing the injured officer sitting in a vehicle, his uniform caked in mud, as a gloved hand tends to his mangled finger. One image shows the severed fingertip, bloodied and raw, and another shows it preserved in a small plastic container, presumably for medical evaluation. McLaughlin confirmed that the officer will lose the finger. Additional...

Abnormal clumps of proteins like α-synuclein, amyloid beta and tau are associated with neurodegenerative conditions like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, but a waste removal mechanism called the glymphatic pathway can clear these proteins and other metabolic byproducts from the brain. Now, a team is exploring whether intentionally raising and lowering blood levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) through rhythmic CO2 exposure or controlled breathing might boost the glymphatic system's effectiveness and improve brain health. Sephira Ryman, Ph.D. led studies to evaluate how intermittent breathing of CO2 could be used to dilate and constrict brain arteries and drive the movement of cerebrospinal...

Overuse of antibiotics has accelerated the development of bacterial resistance to conventional drugs, a global health crisis projected to result in more than 10 million deaths annually by 2050. The multidrug-resistant bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa accounts for approximately one-fifth of hospital-acquired pneumonia cases and is associated with severe illness and increased mortality. Nitric oxide is a therapeutic gas that researchers helped establish as a life-saving therapy for hundreds of thousands of newborns with congenital heart disease. Nearly 30 years later, investigators report that high-dose inhaled nitric oxide (iNO) demonstrates potential antimicrobial activity in preclinical models and is safe and feasible in...

A British nurse investigated for “misgendering” a trans-identified paedophile has had the disciplinary case against her dropped. The case was closed by hospital officials after months of internal proceedings and public controversy.Jennifer Melle, 40, who worked at St. Helier Hospital in Surrey, southern England, for 12 years with a previously clean record, had the disciplinary case against her closed, according to the U.K.-based group Christian Concern.The hospital’s move followed pressure from politicians across party lines, including a petition and a letter signed by eight Members of Parliament urging the Trust to halt its action against Melle.She had been facing a...

U.S. President Donald Trump says Canadian goods exported to the United States would be hit with 100 percent tariffs if Canada makes a deal with China.“If Governor Carney thinks he is going to make Canada a ‘Drop Off Port’ for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken. China will eat Canada alive, completely devour it, including the destruction of their businesses, social fabric, and general way of life,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on the morning of Jan. 24.“If Canada makes a deal with China, it will immediately be hit...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced just one day after the U.S. officially withdrew from the World Health Organization (WHO) that his state would become the first to join the organization’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, in a seeming rebuke of the Trump administration’s withdrawal from international collaborations. Newsom traveled this week to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he was scheduled to speak at an event but was canceled at the last moment. During his trip, he met with WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “As President Trump withdraws the United States from the World Health Organization,...

Nutrition experts are calling for dietary fiber to be officially recognized internationally as an essential nutrient—the first "new" essential nutrient in more than 50 years. Andrew Reynolds says increasing our dietary fiber intakes would deliver greater health benefits than increasing any other essential nutrient, given that our current fiber intakes are below World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations. "The disease burden associated with diabetes, heart disease and colorectal cancer would be expected to be appreciably reduced by such a dietary change." Their argument is supported by more than 100 years of research into its chemistry, physical properties, physiology, and metabolic effects...

On Tuesday of this week, ICE approached an immigrant from Ecuador who it was targeting for deportation. What happened next has become a story of great contention with activists and Democratic officials claiming a 5-year-old child was used as bait and then kidnapped while ICE officials are telling a very different story.The boy's name is Liam Conejo Ramos and this photo of him has been circulating online. Here it's being spread by DNC Chair Ken Martin.ICE detained a 5-year-old child in Minnesota to use as "bait."An innocent child.America, let this sink in. This is what the government is doing right...

Gov. Tim Walz is akin to the leader of a “drug cartel,” according to a Minnesota state lawmaker who filed articles of impeachment against the embattled Democrat — and warns other pols in the scandal state could be next. Republican state Rep. Mike Wiener drafted the paperwork to boot lefty Walz in November and filed the docs on Jan. 12, alleging the former vice presidential candidate failed in his fiduciary responsibility to taxpayers as a $9 billion Somali social services scandal unfolded under his nose. “This is almost like a drug cartel. You’ve got various levels that are all taking...

Did you know that in most of America, police can take your property, even if you did nothing wrong? They don't have to charge you with a crime. They don't have to take you to court. They can just say they suspect you of a crime. Then they can grab your money, your car, and sometimes, even your house! It's legal because of something called "civil asset forfeiture." My new video shows how police abuse such laws to take things from innocent people. Restaurant owner Mandrel Stuart was stopped by police in Virginia when driving. Stuart thought, at worst, he'd...

Word out of Iran has been scarce over the last few days. The regime has engaged in hideous repression of the uprising Iranian people, and the internet, and thus the flow of information out of the country has all but ceased. That's disconcerting, but in a bit of interesting news, there are now reports that the Supreme Leader himself, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that savage barbarian theocrat out of another century, has gone underground. Perhaps out of fear of American airstrikes?The 86-year-old supreme leader has moved to a fortified shelter in Tehran connected to a series of elaborate underground tunnels...

Chinese dictator Xi Jinping has removed China’s most senior general and the chief of combat planning and operations amid allegations of corruption and “violation of party discipline.” An editorial in the People’s Liberation Army Daily accuses the men of having “undermined Xi’s authority, abetted political and corruption problems that impaired the party’s leadership over the armed forces, and damaged efforts to develop combat effectiveness.” General Zhang Youxia, the senior of the two vice chairmen overseeing China’s approximate equivalent of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Central Military Commission, and a longtime Xi ally, was abruptly removed from his post...