Free Republic

Ranked choice voting (RCV) fits within the Democratic Party’s presidential delegate selection rules, including proportional delegate allocation and the 15% “threshold.” Ranked choice voting can be used to select multiple winners, and is not inherently a majority-winner or winner-take-all system. As the Democratic National Committee and states consider how RCV might be used in the 2028 presidential primaries, this post explains how votes could be counted and delegates awarded. How are votes counted and delegates awarded in Democratic presidential primaries in general? Democratic Party rules require that candidates receive at least 15% of the vote in a state to earn...

An Islamic center in Westwood is working to rebuild trust after burglars broke in and vandalized its main hall with a hateful message, even as leaders say the center’s mission to serve the neighborhood will continue. The Cincinnati Islamic Community Center is a modest building in the neighborhood that holds a biweekly food pantry and a trauma workshop with young people in the inner city. Members said the break-in was not the first at the center, but the shock this time was not what was taken; it was the damage left behind. An Islamic center in Westwood is working to...

A Southern California nonprofit that runs domestic violence shelters has paid its longtime chief executive officer, a Hawaii resident, more than $1.6 million in salary and vacation over two years — far more than local peers. Experts in nonprofit oversight say 1736 Family Crisis Center CEO Carol Adelkoff’s out-of-state residency and compensation raise questions about board governance and ‘reasonable’ pay. Adelkoff said her compensation grew significantly over the last couple of years because she was paid unused vacation time that had accrued over the 40 years she has worked at the nonprofit. As public spending on homelessness has come under...

Those who first dreamed of artificial intelligence saw it as an instrument for the perfection of modern secular society. The IBM Pavilion at the 1964 World’s Fair, where some of the earliest AI applications made their public debut, advertised a streamlined future in which technologically enhanced problem-solving was extended to all areas of life. Things have turned out somewhat differently. The AI era that began with the 2022 launch of ChatGPT often seems more consumed by theological concerns than by technical ones. The technology has given rise to a phantasmagoria of prophecies, heresies and false messiahs of the sort one...

White House officials are mulling an executive order that would target vaccines and autism amid a push by President Donald Trump to take more action on the issue, an administration official familiar with the deliberations told CNN. The potential order is expected to focus on the childhood vaccine schedule and autism research, though the scope and timing of the action have yet to be finalized and could still change. In recent months, Trump has pressed senior officials, including US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to prioritize greater scrutiny of vaccines — even as many of his...

When cisplatin came on the market in 1978, it revolutionized cancer care. Carboplatin, a related chemotherapy drug with fewer side effects, soon followed in 1986. Together, these two drugs have saved countless lives and are prescribed for up to 20% of cancer patients to treat ovarian, bladder, breast, lung, and other types of cancer. “They're the backbone for treatments for a lot of different types of cancer,” says Dr. Jacob Reibel, a medical oncologist at Dartmouth Cancer Center. And yet, in recent years, when some hospital pharmacists have gone to source these chemo drugs for patients, they’ve had difficulty. They’ve...

LA Clippers star Kawhi Leonard, whose sponsorship deal with a now-bankrupt green banking company is at the center of an NBA investigation, also had an undisclosed sponsorship agreement allegedly worth millions of dollars with the company that designed the Clippers' videoboard inside the Intuit Dome, former ESPN contributor Pablo Torre reported on his podcast "Pablo Torre Finds Out" on Thursday. Torre interviewed someone identified as an "anonymous high-level source under contract for Intuit Dome" who alleged that the sponsorship deal "was 1,000% a way to circumvent the salary cap. It was funneling money from the Clippers through Daktronics back to...

This is a YouTube video of a discussion of the works of Thomas Sowell, particularly his "Culture" trilogy. It is an excellent discussion of Sowell and his legacy, which continues to grow, although deliberately ignored by most academia.

Columbia will once again require standardized test scores for undergraduate applicants, beginning in August 2027, the University announced Friday. With the change, Columbia is the final Ivy League school to reinstate test score requirements, which most universities made optional in 2020. Students applying to Columbia College or the School of Engineering and Applied Science will be required to submit SAT or ACT scores for the 2027-28 admissions cycle. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many universities, including Columbia, waived standardized testing requirements, citing concerns about access to testing opportunities. Columbia has deviated from its peers by extending the waiver for more than...

Trade team told Americans Trump's newest tariffs would kill will for talks if implementedThe Canadian government is preparing to meet some U.S. demands — including ending bans on American alcohol sales — in exchange for tariff relief as trade talks heat up ahead of the latest tariff deadline, according to sources. U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened a new 50 per cent levy on hundreds of Canadian imports by Aug. 19, citing complaints about provincial booze bans, dairy import quotas and the auto tariffs. The Canadian side is willing to offer movement on those concerns, according to industry sources...

Threats, harassment and graffiti have all been reported to policeAn Islamic centre in Gatineau, Que., says it's been targeted for weeks by threats, harassment and graffiti. The Centre islamique de l’Outaouais, which includes schools and mosques around the city, condemned what it called hateful intimidation in a social media post on Thursday night. It said the campaign started with threats, then progressed to in-person and online harassment against families. More recently, it's been dealing with graffiti suggesting Muslims don't belong in the area. The centre said whoever is leaving the graffiti is returning to rewrite it after city workers remove...

A man wanted in connection with the sexual assault of a child in Canada more than 30 years ago was arrested in Santa Cruz, according to ICE San Francisco. Charles Peter Billone, 64, was found hiding in Santa Cruz after decades on the run from Canadian law enforcement. He has been wanted since 1991 for allegedly sexually assaulting a child. According to ICE San Francisco, Billone also has previous convictions for possession of stolen property, assault and drug-related offenses. He is currently in ICE custody pending removal. Articles published by Canadian news outlets in 2014 reported that Billone had been...

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Central Fire District of Santa Cruz rescued a seagull Tuesday evening after it became tangled in a wire that was caught in a tree at Black's Beach. Viewer video from Steven Hamm shows Santa Cruz Central Fire firefighters using a ladder truck with an aerial platform to reach the bird, which was perched high above the beach. Two firefighters can be seen carefully cutting the line wrapped around one of the seagull's legs before safely freeing the bird. As the bird is freed, cheers and applause can be heard from people watching the rescue below. Amy Redfeather with Native Animal...

Progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed — beloved by the now blossoming Democratic Socialists of America — won his primary Tuesday night against the more moderate Democrat in his Michigan race, one many consider a pivotal shift for the party. He faces off against Republican Mike Rogers in a seat Democrats could fork over to Republicans in a year when they hope to take the Senate. But El-Sayed isn’t the only far-left candidate taking the country by storm, and neither is socialist Zohran Mamdani, the handsome New York mayor trying to figure out how to run a government grocery store. Adorable young...

A federal judge granted Carmine Agnello, the grandson of late mob boss John Gotti, a delay in his self-surrender date, with caveats to allow him to donate a kidney to his mother, Victoria Gotti. In a ruling issued Thursday, the judge said Agnello can postpone his surrender to prison until Sept. 18 if the transplant takes place on or before his original Aug. 10 surrender date. If the procedure does not occur by then, however, Agnello must report to prison on Monday as previously ordered, according to court records. The judge also directed Agnello to notify the court once the...

Learn how Viagra trapped cholesterol inside cancer cells and why statins may strengthen the effect.A man might take Viagra for erectile dysfunction and a statin for high cholesterol, treating two problems that seem to have nothing to do with cancer. But if he is later diagnosed with cancer, he may already be taking two medications linked to a lower risk of dying within five years. In a study published in Cancer Research, researchers found that sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra, trapped cholesterol inside cancer cells and reduced lung metastases in several mouse models. Men who filled at least three...

Will Rosenzweig joins a growing list of former prosecutors and federal agents who have gone to court to contest the purge of law enforcement deemed disloyal.One day last September, a right-wing influencer named Natalie Winters posted what she billed as an “EXCLUSIVE” on social media: A federal prosecutor in Miami overseeing a fraud case against “MAGA patriots” had once written a blog with comments critical of President Trump.Ms. Winters, who has hundreds of thousands of followers, addressed her message to the accounts of senior officials at the Justice Department. Her demands for the prosecutor, Will Rosenzweig, could not have been...

For the first time ever, scientists have used artificial intelligence to design complete viral genomes that were physically synthesized and turned into 16 new functional viruses capable of replicating. The work was published in Science, one of the world’s most prominent scientific journals. Disturbingly, the study’s senior author, Brian L. Hie, who conceived, designed, and supervised the research disclosed funding from the Gates Foundation. This was not a computer simulation. Researchers generated hundreds of AI-designed viral genomes, physically manufactured the DNA, assembled the genomes, introduced them into susceptible E. coli, and recovered 16 functional bacteriophages that successfully propagated. The viruses...

Vitale was first diagnosed with cancer in 2021, when he revealed he had melanoma.Longtime college basketball announcer Dick Vitale says he is making positive strides after announcing in April that he had been diagnosed with cancer for the fifth time. The 87-year-old Vitale said on social media Wednesday that recent blood tests came back “very good” and that the immunotherapy treatments that he has been receiving are “very effective in wiping out the cancer.” Vitale was first diagnosed with cancer in 2021, when he revealed that he had melanoma. He also was diagnosed with lymphoma and, after being declared cancer-free,...