Free Republic

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio condemned the treatment of a symptom-free nurse quarantined in New Jersey after she returned from caring for Ebola patients in West Africa, saying, “What happened to her was inappropriate.”. De Blasio’s remarks came during a news conference at New York City’s Bellevue Hospital, where a doctor infected with the deadly virus remained in serious but stable condition Sunday, showing slight improvement. Dr. Craig Spencer had recently returned from a stint with Doctors Without Borders in West Africa, where he treated Ebola patients. Spencer tested positive for Ebola on Thursday. The mayor spoke during...

KAYES, Mali (AP) — After 2-year-old Fanta Kone's father died in southern Guinea, the toddler's grandmother took her from the forested hills where the Ebola outbreak first began months ago to bring her home to Mali. It wasn't long, though, before the little girl started getting nosebleeds. By the time the pair made their way back more than 600 miles to the heat-baked town of Kayes several days later, the toddler had a high fever and was vomiting blood. Doctors swiftly diagnosed Fanta with Ebola, but she soon succumbed to the virus already blamed for killing nearly 5,000 people in...

DALLAS — Federal health officials said Tuesday that a rapid response team would be sent to any hospital in the country that diagnoses an Ebola case, an effort to limit the possible spread of the virus and calm public concerns after a nurse contracted the disease while treating a patient in Dallas. “We will put a team on the ground within hours with some of the world’s leading experts in how to take care of and protect health care workers from Ebola infection,” Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Tuesday at a...

SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif. (KCRA) —Citrus Heights officers shot and killed a woman driving a stolen car after she rammed into two police cruisers and led officers on a high-speed chase, sheriff's officials said. The woman was identified as Gabriella Nevarez, 22, by the Sacramento County Coroner's Office Monday morning. A spokeswoman with the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department said Citrus Heights police began to pursue a stolen vehicle in the 7000 block of Madison Avenue at 11:38 a.m. Sunday. Watch report: Citrus Heights police fatally shoot woman in stolen vehicle On two different occasions during the pursuit -- which reached speeds...

If you’re heating with propane, it might be time to turn the thermostat down. Way down. The perfect storm of a wet fall followed by an immediate “turn on the furnace, honey” start of winter has combined with an intermittently working pipeline to squeeze the supply of propane to the upper Midwest. Adding to that misery was the rupture of a natural gas pipeline on Saturday in Canada that interrupted the main supply to some areas of the Upper Midwest. Shortly following the pipeline explosion, Xcel Energy − a Minneapolis-based company − asked customers in North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin...

DEKALB COUNTY, Ala. (WHNT) — A nationwide propane fuel shortage is having a trickle down effect on local poultry growers. Many of them depend on propane to keep their chicken houses warm so their chicks don’t freeze to death. “About three weeks ago is when everything started,” said a local grower who did not want his name used. “They started rationing the gas. They got it down to where we could only get 50% in a 1,000 gallon tank.” But now, he says the fuel shipments have completely stopped. Many propane companies, fed by the same supplier, have cut off...

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho (AP) — Police have released the body-camera video from Officer Spencer Mortensen's shooting of Eric B. Johnston last Aug. 25. The video shows viewers what Mortensen saw and heard before fatally shooting Johnston, 35, five times in rapid succession. It shows Mortensen asked Johnston about eight times to put down a knife or knives before Mortensen shot him.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority this morning said weather conditions in the Antarctic had improved and those marooned on the MV Akademik Shokalskiy would soon reach the end of their ordeal. "Wind in the area is now down to 10 knots and visibility has improved. Weather conditions are expected to remain favourable over the next 36 hours," a spokeswoman for AMSA said. "The helicopter on board the Chinese flagged vessel Xue Long will be used to rescue the passengers from the MV Akademik Shokalskiy."