Free Republic

For years, turning 65 with a blood pressure reading above 130 meant one thing: medication. A new analysis of the 2025 American Heart Association guidelines shows that this practice is changing, finding that roughly 10 percent of older adults previously flagged for treatment may no longer meet the criteria, a move experts say prevents overtreatment, but one that carries its own risks. The 2025 guidelines marked a significant departure from the 2017 AHA guidelines, which recommended treatment for all adults over 65 with blood pressure at or above 130/80 mmHg. The updated 2025 guidelines replace that blanket approach with one...

Yes, cigarette smoking is declining and has been for decades. Globally, the number of tobacco users dropped from 1.38 billion in 2000 to 1.2 billion in 2024. In the United States, 11.6% of adults smoked cigarettes in 2022, down from roughly 21% in 2005 and over 42% in the mid-1960s. The trend is clear and consistent, but the decline is uneven, with certain populations and regions lagging behind. The Global Picture About one in five adults worldwide still uses tobacco or nicotine products, roughly 20% of the global adult population. That’s a significant number, but it represents real progress. The...

Eunisses Hernandez has been called a hypocrite for repeatedly calling for police to be abolished — then using taxpayers’ money to pay for own her security in public. The socialist Los Angeles councilmember has built her political brand crusading against cops, winning election on an abolish-the-police platform and even voting ”no” to the city’s budget three years running because she claims the $2.4 billion needed to keep them takes funding from her priorities. But when it came time to securing the 36-year-old’s own public event, Hernandez turned to the LAPD — despite just months earlier voting against the use of...

A Venezuelan migrant was arrested in connection with the execution-style murder of a New York teen on a night stroll with friends near Loyola University Chicago’s campus on Thursday, according to reports. The 25-year-old man, who hasn’t been officially charged, is accused of approaching 18-year-old Sheridan Gorman, of Yorktown Heights, NY, at the Loyola Beach Pier before firing the fatal shot from behind. The unidentified suspect was wearing black clothes and a black mask when he allegedly killed the first-year Loyola University Chicago student at around 1:30 a.m., the Chicago Tribune reported. A bystander witnessed the gunman fire a single...

Air travelers are reacting with shock after a dead passenger’s body was reportedly stored in a heated galley for more than 13 hours on a long-haul flight, according to reports. A woman in her 60s died about an hour after takeoff on British Airways Flight BA32 from Hong Kong to London last Sunday, but the pilots continued on to Heathrow Airport instead of turning back, The Sun reported. A source told the outlet that the Airbus A350-1000’s galley had a heated floor, and by the end of the flight "there were claims that a foul smell was present" in that...

Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, hasn’t been seen since the Feb. 28 strikes that blew up his father, baffling US and Israeli officials as to his current whereabouts and whether he’s actually running the Iranian regime. Since the strikes that took out Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the younger Khamenei has issued two written statements, but no one has so much as heard his voice. It’s left Iranians speculating whether he’s even alive — and earned him the moniker “the cardboard ayatollah” — after an AI-generated video of supporters hailing a cardboard cutout of him went viral. But intelligence from both...

San Francisco’s streets have seen their fair share of oddities — but a gun-toting man with a pet duck riding in the backseat of a purple Ferrari may take the cake. Police arrested 51-year-old Brian Currier on Monday after he allegedly waved a gun at a pedestrian, authorities said. The flamboyant gunslinger then barricaded himself inside his apartment in the luxe Nob Hill neighborhood, prompting an hours-long standoff, according to cops. Neighbors told The San Francisco Standard that Currier was a local curiosity, often spotted zipping around in his flashy purple Ferrari with his duck, Daisy, like a loyal sidekick....

In A Nutshell: Researchers developed a breath test that detects bacterial infections by measuring a carbon-13 signal produced when bacteria consume specially tagged sugar compounds injected into the bloodstream. In infected mice, the signal tracked bacterial load in real time and dropped sharply after antibiotic treatment, suggesting the test could tell doctors whether a drug is actually working. The approach successfully detected infections in multiple tissues, including muscle, lungs, bone, and blood, using portable, inexpensive equipment. All findings are currently from animal studies, and significant testing in humans is still needed before the method could reach clinical use. Antibiotic resistance...

Date: March 20, 2026 Source: University of Sydney Summary: The largest review of medicinal cannabis to date found it doesn’t effectively treat anxiety, depression, or PTSD—despite millions using it for those reasons. Researchers warn it could even make mental health worse, raising risks like psychosis and addiction while delaying proven treatments. Some limited benefits were seen for conditions like insomnia and autism, but the evidence is weak. The findings are fueling calls for stricter oversight as cannabis use continues to rise. Cannabis Fails for Mental Health A sweeping new analysis finds medicinal cannabis doesn’t work for anxiety, depression, or PTSD—and...

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps spokesperson Ali Mohammad Naini has been killed in ‌strikes ⁠launched by the US and Israel, ⁠Iranian state TV reported ⁠on Friday. Naini, also the agency’s deputy of public relations, was assassinated just days after Israeli forces eliminated the clerical regime’s de-facto leader, Ali Larijani, and its anti-protest enforcer Gholamreza Soleimani. Hours before his death, Naini insisted that Tehran was still able to build missiles despite the US forces’ bombardment from Operation Epic Fury. “These people expect the war to continue until the enemy is completely exhausted,” he said. “This war must end when the shadow...

Top California Democrats have moved to officially strike disgraced union boss Cesar Chavez‘s name from an official state holiday — saying they’ll pass a bill to rename to celebration before the end of the month. Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday he’ll support a plan to rebrand March 31 — celebrated since 2000 as Cesar Chavez Day after the labor activist and accused child rapist — as Farmworkers Day. California Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and Senate President Pro Tem Monique Limón are scrambling to pass the bill before the end of the month. “The farmworkers’ movement was always bigger than just...

Five Mexican nationals were indicted on federal drug trafficking and weapons charges this week after authorities discovered a clandestine methamphetamine lab in Northern California, leading to the seizure of nearly 3,000 pounds of the drug, officials said. The Department of Justice said a federal grand jury returned a 10-count indictment Thursday against Luis Reyna Carrillo, 33, Mariana Vanessa Mendoza Camacho, 33, Juan Jesus Manriquez Diaz, 31, Alvaro Rosales, 44, and Manuel Juan Madrid Perez, 38, charging them with conspiracy to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine and multiple drug trafficking and gun offenses. "These illegal aliens allegedly operated a secret lab on...

Movie martial arts legend Chuck Norris has been hospitalized in Hawaii after a reported medical emergency.The famed movie tough guy, who is 86, was reportedly hospitalized over the last 24 hours in island of Kauai, according to TMZ.He is reportedly in good spirits, the site added.Norris only just turned 86 on March 10 and posted a video of his sparring workout to social media to show fans that he’s still got it.Norris has been deeply involved in conservative and Republican politics fpr years and is a strong supporter of President Donald Trump.

New York City has more than tripled spending on unsheltered homelessness since 2019, shelling out nearly $368 million even as the number of people living on the streets continued to rise, according to a state comptroller’s report. The city’s own numbers show the unsheltered population grew from 3,588 in fiscal year 2019 to 4,504 in fiscal year 2025, a 26% increase from pre-pandemic levels. Over that same period, spending on services for the unsheltered jumped 262%, from $102 million to nearly $368 million. That works out to roughly $81,700 per unsheltered person in FY 2025 — slightly more than the...

In 2017, I took Cipro for just five days to treat a simple UTI. Since then, my quality of life has been steadily deteriorating. Over the past seven years, my condition has worsened to the point where I can barely walk, and I will soon need a wheelchair.

Progressive influencer Kat Abughazaleh closed out her failed Illinois congressional bid Tuesday night with an expletive-laced tirade against President Donald Trump and federal immigration authorities, telling supporters, "f--- Trump, f--- ICE, free Palestine." The comments came at the end of her concession speech after losing the Illinois 9th Congressional District Democratic primary on Tuesday. "I don’t know if you heard, but we didn’t win, and it really f------ sucks. We came really close," Abughazaleh told the crowd, adding that her campaign was "something that no one in power even expected would be possible at all." Abughazaleh lost the primary to...

Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is little more than an "empty entity" who is not at the helm of the regime, according to Israeli national security sources. The son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a targeted Israeli strike on Feb. 28, is also linked to what officials describe as a "misfunctioning" regime. "The new leader is an empty entity," Kobi Michael, a defense analyst at the Institute for National Security Studies and the Misgav Institute, told Fox News Digital. "Mojtaba Khamenei does not appear in public, but we also have reliable information that he does not...

Christian McCaffrey’s had a football career worthy of Hall of Fame discussion, but his mom might actually hold the honor for most impressive athletic feat in their household. Ed McCaffrey revealed this week that Lisa McCaffrey once clocked a 40-yard dash time that would make even NFL linebackers envious. SNIP Ed, 57, explained on the “Side Piece with Melissa Pfeister” podcast that Lisa — a former Stanford soccer player — accomplished the quick sprint nearly three decades ago, when she was trying out for a local sports team while carrying Christian’s younger brother. “I think Lisa ran a 4.7 while...

Steak ‘n Shake has rolled out its new tater tots cooked in beef tallow, expanding the fast-food chain’s push toward traditional frying methods. The announcement drew attention on social media after the Indianapolis-based company highlighted the ingredient Monday morning in an X post, with commenters praising the move, while others debated whether beef tallow is healthier than vegetable oils. Steak ‘n Shake previously made headlines last year when it announced that its fries would be cooked in beef tallow instead of vegetable oil — part of what the company described as a return to the “authentic way” of frying potatoes....

Seventeen alleged drug traffickers are facing charges after authorities say they ran a sprawling methamphetamine pipeline that pumped hundreds of pounds of the drug every month across Northern California. Prosecutors in Placer County announced Thursday that the suspects were charged with crimes including conspiracy and transporting large quantities of methamphetamine for sale after an eight-month undercover probe dubbed “Operation Meltdown.” The investigation began in July 2025 when an undercover detective bought several pounds of meth from a suspected dealer in North Auburn, according to the Placer County Sheriff’s Office. What started as a single case quickly snowballed into what investigators...