Free Republic

ITV's new Covid drama "Breathtaking" is "breathtakingly good". That was Carol Midgley's assessment in The Times. She said "it's the best I have seen" from the lead actor, Joanne Froggatt, because "her performance as the consultant Abbey Henderson was more powerful for being restrained". This is a "tour de force, exposing political complacency and reminding us how, despite all the clapping, NHS staff, many of whom died in the line of duty, are still taken for granted". "Rarely does television feel so visceral," said Rachael Sigee on the i news site. "The attention to detail is unparalleled," she added, "from...

This photographer has a long love affair with Lady Liberty - and has captured it on film. Peter Alessandria, of New Jersey, started taking pictures of the statue in 2013 as part of his work capturing New York's famous landmarks.

Congressional leaders are playing a dangerous game with their intrusion into the hotly publicized fight in Florida over maintaining life support for a severely brain-damaged woman. With state legislative and court appeals being exhausted, the House and Senate began some grim one-upsmanship to stop the removal of the feeding tube from Terri Schiavo. She is the 41-year-old woman who has been in a persistent vegetative state for the last 15 years, with her parents contesting that sad diagnosis. They also challenged the careful decisions by Florida's trial and appellate courts, based largely on the testimony of her husband that their...

Judge snuffs out ban on smoking; Pierce County board will appeal By Kyung M. Song Seattle Times staff reporter A Pierce County Superior Court judge yesterday overturned the county health board's blanket ban on smoking in public places, ruling that the ban illegally co-opts state law that specifically exempts bars, restaurants, taverns and bowling alleys from having to be smoke-free. Judge Ronald Culpepper issued an injunction against the smoking ban, prompting the Tacoma/Pierce County Board of Health to immediately suspend enforcing its 3-week-old landmark resolution. The health board said it will appeal Culpepper's ruling. Linda Matson, executive director of the...