Free Republic

Reports are that the Ron DeSantis campaign is telling donors he has a shot at winning delegates in next month’s caucuses in the U.S. Virgin Islands. However, what the campaign’s plan is to do that remains unclear at this writing. Spokesman Andrew Romeo didn’t respond to a couple of our inquiries regarding how Team DeSantis intends to tackle the Feb. 8 plebiscite. Meanwhile, VI Republicans say there has been no communication between the DeSantis operation and local officials, in contrast to the Trump and Haley operations, which have plans for VI events the day after the New Hampshire Primary (an...

Ron DeSantis is seeking an 'off-ramp' from his 2024 campaign, according to reports, following a disappointing performance in Iowa - buoyed by the promise from Trump supporters to back him in 2028. Speaking on Tuesday in South Carolina, DeSantis said that Trump voters in Iowa had told him they would support him in four years. 'They were coming up to me saying, "We want you in 2028, we love you, man," he said. He told a similar story on NBC News. Andrew Romeo, the DeSantis campaign's communications director, said DeSantis was in the race 'for the long haul,' through South...

At any rate, this is the Iowa caucus, the Hawkeye Cauci, and it has been fascinating all morning and during the day yesterday to watch the media. My gosh, they are so excited. They are ten times as excited as anybody else is about this. It’s funny to watch. Now, to put this in a little more perspective — and this is not to disparage the Hawkeye Cauci — but there’s not a single delegate chosen tonight. Nothing that happens tonight really leads to votes in terms of delegates at a convention. It’s a glorified straw poll. And I’m not...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Sunday vowed to stay in the presidential race for the “long haul” despite a poor showing in the final Iowa poll before Monday’s caucuses. “We’ve got a huge number of people that have committed to caucus, and we expect that these are the people that turn out,” DeSantis told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” before a slate of events in Iowa. “We’re in this for the long haul. We understand that you got to win a majority of the delegates. We understand that that there’s a long process here, but we’re going...

Yellow Corp., a 99-year-old trucking company that was once a dominant player in its field, halted operations Sunday and will lay off all 30,000 of its workers. The unionized company has been in a battle with the Teamsters union, which represents about 22,000 drivers and dock workers at the company. Just a week ago the union canceled a threatened strike that had been prompted by the company failing to contribute to its pension and health insurance plans. The union granted the company an extra month to make the required payments. But by midweek last week, the company had stopped picking...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ team is already plotting out a strategy to run against Donald Trump for the long haul. The plan focuses less on making a quick splash in places like Iowa or New Hampshire and more on outlasting the former president in a battle for Republican convention delegates. Even though it’s early and DeSantis isn’t officially a candidate yet, in talks behind the scenes, an expanded map is viewed as one of the keys to victory, three sources close to the governor said. “There have been multiple conversations about delegates and how they are picked in various states...

Anywhere from 10 percent to 80 percent of people experience prolonged illness and symptoms after COVID-19 infection that may last for months. This means that anywhere from 5 to 40 million people around the world may be suffering from post-COVID syndrome or long-haul COVID.Persistent symptoms have appeared in patients of all ages, even children who only had minor of COVID-19 infections, regardless of whether or not hospitalization was required. Additionally, there is no firm consensus regarding which risk factors make patients more likely to acquire long-haul COVID, although a Mayo Clinic study found three quarters of those with long-haul COVID...

A simple blood test for long COVID is on the horizon. Biological “fingerprints” can identify individuals with the debilitating syndrome, according to new research. This opens the door to the first accurate diagnosis of the mysterious condition. Sufferers complain it is hard to convince doctors of their disease. Long COVID is an umbrella term for symptoms of the virus lasting more than 12 weeks. They range from fatigue, headaches, and breathlessness to fever and tummy pain. At least one fourth of patients have developed some form of long COVID, per research out of the University of California, Davis. “We need...

In the fall, after Samar Khan came down with a mild case of COVID-19, she expected to recover and return to her previous energetic life in Chicago. After all, she was just 25, and healthy. But weeks later, she said, “this weird constellation of symptoms began to set in.” She had blurred vision encircled with strange halos. She had ringing in her ears, and everything began to smell like cigarettes or Lysol. One leg started to tingle, and her hands would tremble while putting on eyeliner. She also developed “really intense brain fog,” she said. Trying to concentrate on a...

Startup Xos trucks originally pitched itself as a custom electric chassis maker for Class 8 trucks. After pivoting to medium-duty trucks, the company is back on mission with a contract from Japan’s Hino Trucks. Xos, formerly Thor Trucks, will supply its X-Pack, a modular battery pack system, to the Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) subsidiary. The X-Pack is built from the cell-level up to operate as an intelligent standalone unit. After giving up its original name, Xos proceeded with deals to make electrified chassis for United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) and cash-hauling armored truck company Loomis US. Surprising timing The...

Long-haul truckers, who spend weeks on end working and sleeping in spaces the size of a modest suburban bathroom, say life on the road does have its monastic charms. Cooking dinner at 70 miles an hour has never been one of them. ... Trucker-chefs swap recipes online and compete in virtual contests like the “Chopped Challenge” run by Big Truck Cooking, a 12,600-member Facebook group whose recent contest entries include slow-cooked Thai peanut pork and skillet shepherd’s pie.

I've been bullish on gold in varying degrees since 2001. Since then, the price has quintupled -- from about $250 an ounce to as much as $1,250. Over the same period, stocks show a net loss. And yet we still hear from some commentators that gold is a bad investment. Not just because it's gone up so much that maybe it's not positioned to go up more. That, at least, I could understand as an argument, though I disagree. I hear over and over that gold is always a bad investment, no matter what, when or why. In a nutshell...

BEDFORD, N.H. - Mitt Romney pledged to "fight across this nation" for the Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday after a second place finish in New Hampshire, the same spot where he finished in last week's Iowa caucuses. He likened it to another silver medal in his quest and praised GOP victor John McCain for a "first class race." "I'd rather have a gold" medal, the former Massachusetts governor told supporters. He vowed to stay in the race and set his sights on the primary in Michigan in one week. He was raised in Michigan and his father George Romney was...

WASHINGTON -- Coalition training teams with Iraqi military units, police battalions and border guard units are making a tremendous difference in the performance and professionalism of the Iraqi security forces, said the commander of the Iraq Assistance Group on Monday. Army Brig. Gen. Dana Pittard told the Pentagon press corps in a video teleconference from Iraq that Iraqi forces are well-equipped, but require help in sustainment. Pittard confirmed that 100 members of an Iraqi battalion had refused to redeploy to Baghdad. The soldiers were part of the 10th Iraqi Army Division, in southern Iraq's Maysan province. "There were some soldiers...

FEDERAL Treasurer Peter Costello has warned Australians to brace themselves for a war on terror that could exceed the previous 50 years of the cold war. Mr Costello told a Liberal Party conference in Melbourne today that Australians must "steel ourselves" and be clear about their values as they prepare for a long war on terror. "The cold war lasted over 50 years," he said. "The war on terror could last a lot longer." Mr Costello said a free society must be prepared to defend itself against the threat of terrorism. "There are, unfortunately, terrorists who would rather see Australia...

WASHINGTON – Cutting gasoline taxes is not a good way for the country to deal with soaring energy prices, President Bush's top economist said Tuesday. “One of the things we worry about when we cut the tax on gasoline is that it basically stimulates additional use,” said Edward Lazear, chairman of the White House's Council of Economic Advisers. “Over a longer period of time, it would be a significant problem ... because what it would do is it would encourage us to use more oil, not less and that is the way we got to the situation right now,” he...

PHILADELPHIA — The men gathered in front of the BZ Ballaz Club barbershop in a gritty, mostly Hispanic section of north Philadelphia were listening intently as Kimberly Cromer made her pitch for a career in long-haul trucking.Faced with what trucking experts describe as the worst labor shortage in the industry's history, recruiters like Ms. Cromer are canvassing cities and holding job fairs to entice new drivers. With predictions from the association that the current shortage of 20,000 drivers will grow nearly fivefold within a decade, trucking companies are offering generous 401(k), stock option and health care packages to new...

BALTIMORE - Just when we thought we couldn't get any fatter, a new study that followed Americans for three decades suggests that over the long haul, 9 out of 10 men and 7 out of 10 women will become overweight. Even if you are one of the lucky few who made it to middle age without getting fat, don't congratulate yourself — keep watching that waistline. Half of the men and women in the study who had made it well into adulthood without a weight problem ultimately became overweight. A third of those women and a quarter of the men...

<p>PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - Scientists working on NASA's twin rover mission to Mars said Friday they are settling in for the long haul, as they ready to dispatch the six-wheeled robots on extended treks that could stretch into the late summer.</p>