Free Republic

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon will no longer automatically ban people who are HIV-positive from joining the US military as officers or deploying abroad. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin issued a memo this week updating HIV policies for the military "in view of significant advances in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention" of the virus. EMAIL U.S. & WORLD US military eases restrictions on HIV positive service members The policy changes follow a recent federal court decision that ruled Defense Department policies were unlawful. CNNWire Sunday, June 12, 2022 1:29PM EMBED <>MORE VIDEOS An investigation is underway after two women were killed...

Breakthrough infections were responsible for three-quarters of COVID-19 cases in an outbreak during large public gatherings on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and nearly all sequenced cases were the Delta variant, researchers found. Of 469 cases linked to multiple summer events and large summer gatherings in a small town, 346 (74%) occurred in fully vaccinated people, and almost 80% of those cases were symptomatic, reported Catherine Brown, DVM, of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, and colleagues. There were five hospitalizations, four among fully vaccinated people, and no deaths. Of 133 cases with sequence information available, 89% were from the Delta variant...

The Israeli military said Tuesday it will begin enlisting soldiers who are HIV-positive, in a policy shift putting the country at the forefront of military inclusivity toward people with the virus that causes AIDS. Military service in Israel is compulsory for Jews, but until now people with HIV were automatically deemed unfit to serve for medical reasons. ...

President Obama on Monday signed 20 bills into law, from legislation naming post offices to bills authorizing intelligence spending and increasing penalties for stealing trade secrets for the benefit of foreign entities. Among the new laws are the "North Korean Child Welfare Act of 2012," which requires the State Department to regularly brief Congress on efforts to advocate for North Korean children, and the "Drywall Safety Act of 2012," which would limit sulfur content and establish drywall labeling requirements. Also on the list: the "Clothe a Homeless Hero Act," which requires the TSA to make every

Speaking at a plant in North Carolina about the tough economic times, PBO claimed that "what drives me every day as I walk down to the Oval Office" is the need to find jobs and economic security for everyone. But Obama opened his speech by bragging that "I have a better plane" than when he visited the same plant three years ago as a presidential candidate. Later, in explaining that he had brought the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness with him to North Carolina, Obama boasted "I travel with a bigger entourage" than he did as a candidate. View video...

US Democratic presidential candidate Illinois Senator Barack Obama speaks to customers after buying lunch at 12 Bones Smokehouse in Asheville, North Carolina. Republican John McCain Monday accused White House rival Barack Obama of obfuscating his past and offering no track record to point a way out of America's deepening economic crisis.

I love you guys! The Only Way Out This message is to ALL of my friends and fans. I wasn't sure how exactly to start this...but I trusted that God would help me write this and maybe through me I could speak His word and make His will be done..... For a long time I have been very lost. So lost in myself and in the world that I didn't even REALIZE that I was lost. I have always thought of myself as a pretty good person. I love helping people, I love befriending people, I love animal rescue and...

CINCINNATI — A lawyer for the man accused of raping a University of Cincinnati student says the encounter could have been consensual because the woman has a history of sleepwalking. Dexter Ford, 52, is charged with raping the 23-year-old woman early Thursday morning near Interstate 71 in Cincinnati. Ford's lawyer, Jeff Adams, said prosecutors told him the woman takes prescription medication and has a sleepwalking condition, a fact that will likely be the core part of Ford's defense. "It goes to consent," he said. "How is he to know she is sleepwalking, if it's a dream 'yes' or a real...

U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Kirk Milhoan Doctor Donates Time, Talents to Help HIV-Positive Children By Sue Campbell 59th Medical Wing Public Affairs LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas, Feb. 7, 2006 — Lt. Col. (Dr.) Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist with the 859th Medical Operations Squadron, rarely takes a routine vacation. He devotes almost all his leave time to humanitarian service. He and his wife Kim, a pediatric cardiac anesthesiologist at the University of Texas Health Science Center, just returned from a trip to Zambia where they opened an AIDS orphanage. “This is the second AIDS orphanage we’ve opened...

Civil liberties and homosexual rights advocates have renewed their push for community programs to bolster support in schools for homosexual youths, just weeks after voters repudiated same-sex unions in 11 state referendums.     But in northeastern Kentucky, parents and students have defied the Ashland-Boyd County school district's "mandatory anti-harassment workshops," part of an agreement with the American Civil Liberties Union to allow the Gay-Straight Alliances student group to meet in school buildings. Hundreds of students opted out of the tolerance training video, and another 324 students did not show up for school the day it was shown. The ACLU has...

(snip) Today, Asheville, [NC] is one of a handful of boroughs from St. Paul, Minn., to Manhattan that top the destination lists of ex-addicts wary of returning to the siren calls of their former haunts. These cities tend to be gritty, but artsy, places where the harsher realities of city life are on display alongside art openings and late-night cafes. Here in Asheville, there's also a strong religious backbone, a growing number of available service jobs, and a broad community of recovery support groups and counselors. What's more, the cost of living is relatively low, with lots of free things...

<p>AST week's ruling by the highest court in Massachusetts legalizing gay marriage was perfectly timed in many ways.</p> <p>It feels like a snowball effect, coming only months after Canada legalized marriage and three years after Vermont allowed civil unions for gay couples. And it comes just in time for same-sex couples to begin planning a June wedding.</p> <p>It also makes one think that same-sex weddings may soon become nearly as commonplace as the traditional black tie, country club and limousine kind.</p>

She tested positive for HIV in October, infected by the man she had married the year before. He hadn't told her that he was HIV-positive and that he slept with men. She got pregnant. They got married. And, at 26 months old, their daughter died from HIV complications.