Free Republic

Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Joe Biden. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle. Joe Biden is an American comedian, whose main schtick is to provide presidential voters a good laugh or two at his sparsely attended comedy shows, disguised as "Presidential Campaign Events." All hints, along with the answer, are provided in the first reply comment below, using filtered font to prevent accidental spoilers. Please refrain from disclosing the full answer in comments to prevent spoilers.To solve the puzzle: Enter the letters in the top half (letter columns)...

BALTIMORE — A Syrian refugee who escaped his war-torn country in 2016 and took a job delivering pizzas in Baltimore to help support his family was gunned down earlier this month on a street less than five minutes from his workplace, authorities said. Khaled Heeba, 31, was fatally shot Feb. 7 in the 1300 block of W. Franklin Street, Baltimore police officials said. They released video last week that they allege shows Heeba’s possible killer in the moments before and after the shooting. The man, described as about 5 feet, 9 inches tall, slim in build and wearing all black,...

DES MOINES, Iowa - Tuesday, the Iowa Democratic Party will begin recounting select results from the Iowa Caucus. The party has agreed to re-tally results from twenty-three different precincts. Fourteen of those precincts were requested by Pete Buttigieg’s campaign and another 10 were requested from Bernie Sanders’ campaign. Administrators will conduct the recount and it will be overseen by the IDP’s recanvass and recount committee, with both campaigns able to have representatives present. It is expected to take two days to complete.

President Trump has turned his back on hundreds of thousands of children and young immigrants who came forward and put their trust in our government. This Administration has chosen to ignore what American voters have said they think is right. Nearly 80 percent of voters want to protect the legal status of Dreamers.Ending the program is devastating not just for recipients, but for our economy. California businesses would lose more than a billion dollars in turnover costs. Attorney General Sessions claims this decision is full of "compassion," but real compassion would be treating Dreamers "with heart," as President Trump himself...

  Monday, February 24, 2020 Contact: (916) 210-6000, agpressoffice@doj.ca.gov SACRAMENTO — Attorney General Xavier Becerra today issued the following decision in response to the Ninth Circuit decision in California's Title X case."Today's court ruling on the Trump Administration’s Gag Rule is troubling. The Gag Rule interferes with healthcare decisions that should remain between women and their healthcare providers," said Attorney General Xavier Becerra. "This reckless rule is just another attempt by the Trump-Pence Administration to roll back women’s access to reproductive healthcare. The rule targets the Title X program — which serves low income women, LQBTQ individuals, young people, and...

Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Pat Riley. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle. Today's non-Constitutionalist author, Pat Riley, long associated with the NBA, was coach of the Los Angeles Lakers during their heyday with (the decidedly non-Constitutionalists) Kareem Abdul Jabbar, James Worthy, and Magic Johnson. (And don't forget Kurt Rambis!) All hints, along with the answer, are provided in the first reply comment below, using filtered font to prevent accidental spoilers. Please refrain from disclosing the full answer in comments to prevent spoilers.To solve the puzzle: Enter the...

A cemetery in Australia has removed the offensive grave marker of Peter “Pete” Robert Bridge (April 1, 1986 - April 7, 2019) that featured a photo of Bridge making an obscene gesture. The problem is, Enfield Memorial Park in Adelaide apparently carted off the offensive stone without notifying Bridge’s family. According to Arthur Bridge, the deceased’s father, the cemetery did not contact the family before removing the memorial. When a friend advised the family the stone was removed on January 16, he immediately contacted cemetery staff and was told there had been complaints about the photograph. “We did try and...

TORONTO — David Ayres was sitting in the stands with his wife at Scotiabank Arena when Carolina Hurricanes goalie James Reimer went down with an injury. The on-call emergency netminder in Toronto, Ayers left his seat and got half-dressed into his gear on the off-chance something might happen to Carolina's second option, Petr Mrazek. Midway through the second period, Ayres noticed his cellphone started to blow up. What he didn't realize was that Mrazek had been hurt in a scary collision with Maple Leafs forward Kyle Clifford and was down on the ice. "One of the equipment guys came in...

Arizona Diamondbacks starter Madison Bumgarner has a double life, according to a bombshell — and yet, not shocking — report from Zach Buchanan and Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic. For years, the four-time All-Star has reportedly been competing in team-roping rodeo competitions in secret, under the alias “Mason Saunders” and possibly others. Yes, really. According to The Athletic’s interview with Bumgarner, the former San Francisco Giants southpaw has been competing as Saunders with different partners as far back as March of last year, and possibly longer. The participation of the 2014 World Series MVP is apparently an open secret...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVBZcrB8MJE&list=PLPtysUSalP2XzwMe1jxgoD_gHcR4EH5n_

Tucker: Calif. is challenging integrity of the unionCA State Attorney General Beceerra Order's CA employers to defy federal law or face punishment. An excerpt from the auto-generated video transcript: SOMETHING SIGNIFICANT HAPPENING IN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA. THE ATTORNEY GENERAL THERE SENT A WARNING TO EMPLOYERS AND SAID DEFY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OR YOU WILL FACE PUNISHMENT.   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ETA: NOTE THAT ON SATURDAY, THE WHITE HOUSE ISSUED THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT   Statement from the Press Secretary [re immigration, Supreme Court lifts Public Charge Injunction] 02/23/2020 1:40:59 PM PST · by ransomnote · 4 replies whitehouse.gov ^ | 02/22/20 | White...

A new book by Greta Thunberg’s mother reveals the reality of family life during her daughter’s transformation from bullied teenager to climate icon One evening in the autumn of 2014, Svante and I sat slumped on our bathroom floor in Stockholm. It was late, the children were asleep. Everything was starting to fall apart around us. Greta was 11, had just started fifth grade, and was not doing well. She cried at night when she should be sleeping. She cried on her way to school. She cried in her classes and during her breaks, and the teachers called home almost...

K.T. McFarland, conservative politico, pundit, analyst and a former national security figure in President Donald Trump’s administration, told a rapt radio audience just recently that Robert Mueller’s thuggish investigators treated her so poorly, so viciously and so unfairly — trying to get her to cop to crimes she didn’t commit and accuse others of crimes they didn’t commit, either — that she and her husband, minus hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, fled to Scotland to recover and reflect on the New America: the place where civil rights are routinely violated by entrenched, smug bureaucrats.Her story is eye-opening...

True crime lovers can rejoice at the reintroduction of one of the longest-running, most widely praised forensic analysis shows. Forensic Files II will premiere Sunday night with all new. half-hour stories of murder, deception and survival. Forensic Files II will air on HLN, a CNN station that often plays reruns of the classic series. There, 16 new episodes will take viewers inside new stories. Here's everything you need to know about Forensic Files II, how to watch it and what this season entails.

Two University of Connecticut students uttered a racial slur several times while walking through the parking lot of a campus apartment complex and were recorded by a black student.   HARTFORD, Conn. — Free speech concerns that were raised following the arrests of two University of Connecticut students accused of saying a racial slur have led state legislators to consider repealing a century-old law that bans ridicule based on race, religion or nationality.The episode on campus involving two white students in October was recorded on video and sparked protests against racism. Many people applauded their arrests, but civil liberties...

Have you ever wondered how often your smart speaker accidentally activates itself? A study from Northeastern University tried to find out.No one likes it when a stranger butts into their conversation.Especially when they interrupt with some astonishing non-sequitur.You're watching TV and chatting about the painfully demanding couple on House Hunters International when a distant voice pipes up: "The circumference of the Earth is 24,901 miles."MORE AT LINK It's Apple's Siri, of course. Or Amazon's Alexa. Or whatever you call your Google Home person.I suspect you pass off these apparent accidents as merely one of those things. Yet, as a new...

SAO PAULO (AP) — When dancer Camila Prins entered Sao Paulo’s Carnival parade grounds, a costume of feathers clinging to her sinuous body, she fulfilled a dream of feminine beauty nearly three decades old. Prins says she first realized she wanted to be a woman at a Carnival party at age 11, when, like the other boys, she was allowed to dress like a girl as part of the burlesque festivities. Now, in the final minutes of Saturday, she became the first transgender woman to lead the drum section of a top samba school in either of the renowned Carnival...

WASHINGTON—Senior White House officials are discussing an overhaul of the government’s surveillance program for people in the U.S. suspected of posing a national-security risk, spurred in part by President Trump’s grievances about an investigation of a 2016 campaign adviser, according to people familiar with the matter.The effort seeks to take advantage of the looming expiration of some spying powers next month, including portions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a Watergate-era law that Mr. Trump believes was improperly used to target his campaign, these people said.Overhauling FISA has become a rallying cry for conservatives and allies of the president in...

When a researcher from a Chinese military academy applied to study with celebrated Boston University physicist Eugene Stanley, he said her affiliation didn’t raise red flags.“I’m not interested at all in politics. I’m a scientist,� said Mr. Stanley, whose wide-ranging research has included using artificial intelligence to decode financial markets and applying statistical physics to prevent diseases.The recent indictment of the researcher, who is accused of lying on her U.S. visa application to conceal she is a lieutenant in the Chinese military, shows how U.S. universities’ openness to international collaboration in cutting-edge research leaves them vulnerable to potential exploitation.Mr. Stanley...

The Cult of Trump: A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control by Steven Hassan One of America’s leading experts in cults and mind-control provides an eye-opening analysis of Trump and the indoctrination tactics he uses to build a fanatical devotion in his supporters. Over the past two years, Trump’s behavior has become both more disturbing and yet increasingly familiar. He relies on phrases like, “fake news,” “build the wall,” and continues to spread the divisive mentality of us-vs.-them. He lies constantly, has no conscience, never admits when he is wrong, and projects all of his shortcomings...