Free Republic

The White House is waging war on menthol — the last allowable flavoring in cigarettes — and flavored cigars, announcing Thursday that the administration intends to ban the popular additives in tobacco products. It was the first shot in an uphill battle that advocates say would prevent the industry from marketing to children and minority communities with whom flavored tobacco has proven popular. "With these actions, the FDA will help significantly reduce youth initiation, increase the chances of smoking cessation among current smokers, and address health disparities experienced by communities of color, low-income populations, and LGBTQ+ individuals, all of whom...

One of the things I couldn’t help but notice during the BLM protests last year was the fact that deeply distraught, hysterically angry white women seemed to be taking the lead in many of the protests. It turns out that I may have been on to something. A women’s publication called Evie has caught up with the fact that a study from last year found that over half of white, Democrat women have been diagnosed at one time or another with a mental health problem. I’m not at all surprised. To quote myself, in July, after sharing several videos of...

The battle over housing is back at the state Capitol.... ...For some time, a main focus of housing legislation has been to bulk up density along major transit corridors. That concept appears to have broad support. But the real fight is over key provisions that allow for two, three or four units — and sometimes more — to be built on lots zoned for single-family homes... ...Eliminating single-family zoning has become a bedrock goal for many housing advocates. It is also one vociferously opposed by suburban homeowner groups ...Such developments would have to be within a half-mile of transit lines,...

In his first prime time address to the nation President Joe Biden boosted American morale by promising “we may be able to allow small July 4th gatherings, but only if everyone behaves between now and then. This means get your vaccination, wear your mask, keep your distance, wash your hands, and wait for our permission to mingle with other appropriately obedient and deserving family members, friends, and neighbors.” The President cautioned that “we must not lapse into old habits of going where we want whenever we want and with whoever we choose. We have been advised by New York University...

Maryland lawmakers advanced a bill Monday that would prohibit stores from providing plastic bags to customers starting July 2022. An iteration of this legislation passed the House and was voted out of the Senate Finance Committee last year, but it did not reach the Senate floor due to the abbreviated legislative session. With an amendment from Del. Brian Crosby (D-St. Mary’s) that would allow orchard farmers to provide plastic bags to customers for its fruits and vegetables, the Plastic Bag Reduction Act, sponsored by Del. Brooke Lierman (D-Baltimore City) and Sen. Malcom Augustine (D-Prince George’s), moved out of the House...

Story at a Glance: Tech giants with deep ties to the U.S. national security state — Microsoft, Oracle and the MITRE Corporation — have partnered with healthcare companies to create the Vaccination Credential Initiative (VCI) to advance the implementation of digital COVID-19 vaccination records. The initiative is essentially built on a common framework of digital vaccination “wallets” called SMART Health Cards that are meant to “work across organizational and jurisdictional boundaries” as part of a new global vaccination-record infrastructure. SMART Health Cards are expected to include a person’s complete name, gender, birth date, mobile phone number and email address in...

Meanwhile, both IGEA and John Deere believe existing protections under existing consumer law work just fine. "As more products are computerised, and the information and power imbalances between manufacturers and consumers grow, the incentives for premature planned obsolescence that harms consumers is likely to increase. It is important that regulators are equipped with an appropriate legislative framework to investigate new emerging practices that may harm consumers," the ACCC said. In September 2018, the Equipment Dealers Association signed an agreement with John Deere in which the company would begin voluntarily making repair tools, software guides, and diagnostic equipment available for ordinary...

NORML: According to the most recent national data, police made 545,602 arrests for marijuana-related violations in 2019. That is 1,494 people a day. That is 62 people an hour. That is more than a person minute. This is not justice. This is not freedom. This should not be normal. Zuri Davis: Lives are being ruined forever over a plant that is safer to consume than legal alcohol. A criminal record is a life sentence. 545,602 people will now struggle to find jobs, a place to live, and a business loan. They can’t vote or buy a gun for self-defense.

President Biden was sworn into office Wednesday, and one of his first priorities will be to sign an executive order urging Americans to wear masks for 100 days and requiring them on federal property. During his inaugural address, the new commander in chief warned that the nation’s “darkest and most deadly” coronavirus pandemic days could be ahead of it.

A Cleveland-based technology company partnered with Purdue University to develop a rapid diagnostic test to detect numerous pathogens, including the molecule that causes COVID-19. The technology from the Purdue and IdentifySensors Biologics collaboration can also be modified to detect influenza, Zika, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C, chickenpox, and more. “This test can be done fast, it’s accurate and can be done at home,” IdentifySensors CEO Gregory Hummer, MD, said. According to Purdue University, the real-time technology identified pathogens “by their induced distinctive resistance chance to electronic materials” and automatically transmits results to the individual’s cellphone and appropriate health departments. “We intend to...

The city of San Francisco is dealing with many pressing problems, such as skyrocketing homelessness, a surge in crime and poverty, a tourism industry in free fall, etc. Yet, amidst all of these troubling issues, the City Board of Supervisors is busy playing nanny state, following suit of California politics. Recently, San Francisco’s City Board of Supervisors voted to advance an invasive piece of legislation that would ban smoking inside private dwellings located in an apartment with three or more units. The bill, filed on November 12, applies to smoking tobacco, vaping, and cannabis products. Not only would this overreaching...

The government’s long-running and destructive effort to control our nation’s economy at all levels, which went into overdrive this year with the advent of COVID-19, barely slowed for the speed bump that was the November 3 election. The current pattern has become distressingly clear and sadly predictable: issue declarations and then shame people into following them. Without any science to support many of their recommendations, unelected bureaucrats and politicians enamored of the power their status provides, continue to propose radical and often nonsensical measures. The American people can see this system at work simply by skimming through Joe Biden’s official...

In what would be a first in the U.S., possession of small amounts of heroin, cocaine, LSD and other hard drugs could be decriminalized in Oregon under a ballot measure that voters are deciding on in Tuesday’s election. Instead of being arrested, going to trial and facing possible jail time, the users would have the option of paying $100 fines or attending new, free addiction recovery centers. The centers would be funded by tax revenue from retail marijuana sales in the state that was the country's first to decriminalize marijuana possession.

PUEBLO, Colo.—It’s a common story across America: A city loses its main employer, usually a manufacturing company with well-paying, blue-collar jobs (that often go to China). The city’s economy crumbles, and those who can move out, do. Decades later, and looking peeling-paint tired, the city hasn’t managed to recover, but drugs have found a permanent home. In Pueblo, Colorado, the manufacturer was a steel plant beleaguered by a market crash in the 1980s and worker strikes in the 1990s. And one drug was given a red-carpet welcome. For years, Pueblo has been looking for industries to revive its economy, and...

The opioid crisis affects thousands of Americans daily; companies like Walmart work to curb addiction at their pharmacies by blocking questionable prescriptions. However, in a federal lawsuit filed by the company on Thursday, Walmart leaders said federal agencies are asking them for too much, trying to require them to second-guess doctors’ orders on entire categories of prescriptions. “It’s disturbing that this is the turn it’s taken,” said Dr. Joseph Sbarra, a local physician at Sickbay on Highway 77. News 13 interviewed him earlier this year when he said he’d had several patients say certain pharmacists were limiting their prescriptions that...

A Tarrant County grand jury Monday declined to indict a volunteer security officer for a White Settlement church who fatally shot a man who killed two parishioners during a Sunday service. Jack Wilson fired one shot at Keith Thomas Kinnunen, stopping the 43-year-old gunman seconds after he pulled out a shotgun and shot Anton “Tony” Wallace, 64, and Richard White, 67, the morning of Dec. 29 at West Freeway Church of Christ. There were more than 250 people in the church at the time, officials said. Tim Rodgers, a prosecutor in the Tarrant County district attorney’s office, said in a...

Berkeley in northern California will ban the sale of junk food from supermarket checkout displays -- becoming the first US city to do so, according to local media. The city council unanimously passed a bill this week to promote healthier eating, by prohibiting products with over 5 grams of added sugar or 250mg of sodium from checkout aisles. Drinks high in sugar and artificial sweeteners will also be restricted. "The healthy checkout ordinance is essential for community health, especially in the time of COVID-19," said councilmember Kate Harrison. "What is good for Berkeley customers is also good for our businesses."

The liberal media are again peddling their anti-men-drinking-alcohol schtick. This time, The Washington Post pushed a very flawed government report recommending men should only have one drink a day.

The Stone Roses singer joined the red pill-devouring ranks with a series of anti-lockdown missives. What is it with musicians and not believing the TRUTH?If I could be locked down in a house full of rock stars – the kind we’re always being offered to pick from on social media – it would contain Matt Bellamy, Tom DeLonge, B.o.B., George Clinton, and Jim Corr as the live-in landlord. We’re talking Conspiracy House. A mansion stuffed with alien watchers, kabbalah mystics and exposers of shadowy one-world power cartels. How brilliant would that be? Imagine the wild nights spent crushing up red...

... Kamala Harris strongly rebuked President Donald Trump for politicizing the issue of wearing a pandemic mask during an interview Sunday with CNN's Dana Bash. Harris, minutes earlier in the same interview, said she would be skeptical of a coronavirus vaccine distributed by the Trump administration but said a big part of the problem with pandemic response " is that we have a president of the United States who made this a partisan issue and made it a political issue." BASH: Would a Biden/Harris administration support a federal mask mandate? HARRIS: So it's about a national standard. Everyone should wear...