Free Republic

Democrats now assert their bailout of multiemployer union pension plans in March's American Rescue Plan Act was deeply flawed and are demanding the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) rescue multiemployer union pension plans from the act's botched rescue. Democrats' admission this bailout will cost much more than advertised should raise concerns about the real costs of the third massive bill they are rushing to enact this year with new social spending schemes. The American Rescue Plan Act provided an $86 billion "taxpayer bailout" to some multiemployer union pension plans, according to the Congressional Budget Office, but not enough to make...

(CNSNews.com) - President and Mrs. Biden attended a "friendsgiving" celebration at Fort Bragg on Monday evening, giving brief remarks before the meal was served. First lady Jill Biden spoke first, then introduced her husband, who joked, "I'm Jill Biden's husband Joe Biden, as you can see. I continue to follow her." (Indeed he does follow her. At the conclusion of Joe's remarks, he wondered "where am I supposed to go?" looking to his wife for direction. More on that below.) Evidently at a loss without prepared remarks, Biden told the troops about his wife -- and Valentine's Day. The anecdote...

All Israelis required to quarantine for at least 3 days, undergo 2 PCR tests after return to Israel. Those returning from "red" countries will be quarantined in hotels. Israel's Coronavirus Cabinet on Saturday night approved the restrictions recommended by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz). During the meeting, the staff of experts presented its position, according to which the COVID-19 vaccinations are more important than ever, in order to prevent severe illness. In accordance with this, the Cabinet members call on Israeli citizens who have not yet received their booster dose to do so as...

The Ukrainian president called on Vladimir Putin to publicly deny that he was preparing an invasion yesterday, saying Russia was sending “very dangerous signals”. President Zelensky, 43, also made the extraordinary claim that he believed a coup attempt was being planned for December 1 in Ukraine, with the involvement of Russian citizens and the country’s richest man. The remarks came amid continuing concerns in the West over the alleged build-up of almost 100,000 Russian troops on Ukraine’s borders. Moscow warned that suggestions of an invasion plan were “a provocation”. President Zelensky told journalists in Kiev: “We believe that very dangerous...

Frantic parents with children in their arms fled in every direction during a Black Friday shooting at a packed mall in Washington, witnesses said. Kobe Marsh was inside Panera Bread at Tacoma Mall with a friend when they heard a loud bang, which they quickly realized was gunfire around 7:08 p.m., the Sun reported Saturday.

Sam Nunberg, former aide to President Trump, said the former president is “certainly, certainly considering” a presidential run and said he personally believes he will, telling Breitbart News Saturday that Trump must “look forward” despite everything that occurred in the last presidential election.

A recent poll shows that nine out of ten most popular governors in the United States are Republicans while President Biden’s approval rating is lower than the country’s least popular governor. Vermont Republican Phil Scott is the most popular governor in America and holds a 71% approval rating, according to a recent Morning Consult poll that shows Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont as the only Democrat to register in the top 10.

The new COVID-19 omicron variant is posing new risks for the American people as President Biden and his administration attempt to control the spread of a virus he vowed to "shut down" during the 2020 campaign. The omicron variant, according to World Health Organization (WHO) officials, has a large number of mutations, "some of which are concerning."

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott promised residents in the Lone Star state that the "lights will stay on" this winter following a near collapse of the state's electrical system last February. Asked by Fox 7 for his thoughts and confidence about the power grid, Abbott said he is "very confident" as he "signed almost a dozen laws that make the power grid more effective."

Again and again, public health inspectors returned to the Italian restaurant at the Westlake Village shopping center. They found Novo Cafe serving diners indoors and out, despite a Los Angeles County order forbidding it during the worst wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to county records. Over and over, they handed out citations with a $500 fine. In February, the county revoked the restaurant’s public health permit. Novo Cafe stayed open. This summer, co-owner Massimo Forti told an NBC4 news crew who filmed unmasked workers in the restaurant that he saw adhering to mask requirements as a “sign of submission.”

On Saturday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Alex Witt Reports,” Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) argued that changes in the price of gas are one reason why “we have to accelerate our program to get off of fossil fuels” and control of the oil supply by other countries is “another reason why we need to accelerate our efforts to get off of fossil fuels.” Cardin said, “The challenge, of course, is we have to transition off of the fossil fuels to renewable fuels. We need to do that for our economy. We need to do it for our environment. We need to do...

Kenneth Pennington, a top digital strategist for Beto O’Rourke, had a simple plan. Mr. O’Rourke would announce his bid for governor of Texas early on a recent Monday morning and then Mr. Pennington would break the news via email to Mr. O’Rourke’s lucrative list of supporters, a loyal following that had already raised tens of millions of dollars for Mr. O’Rourke in his past bids for the Senate and the White House. But Mr. Pennington soon noticed something troubling: a parallel wave of look-alike emails from groups completely unaffiliated with the O’Rourke campaign that were designed to capitalize on the...

LONDON (AP) — The new potentially more contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus popped up in more European countries on Saturday, just days after being identified in South Africa, leaving governments around the world scrambling to stop the spread. Many countries have slapped restrictions on various southern African countries over the past couple of days, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, the European Union, Iran, Japan, Thailand and the United States, in response to warnings over the transmissibility of the new variant. This goes against the advice of the World Health Organization, which has warned against any overreaction before the variant was...

​A whole bunch of data about the economy was released Wednesday — a day early because of Thanksgiving — and a lot of it was positive. ​We learned that the Federal Reserve is bullish on the economy’s prospects through the end of next year. In the minutes of the Open Market Committee meeting earlier this month, the central bank’s staff predicts gross domestic product will post “sizable” gains this year and next. ​Some of Wednesday’s news was a downer — consumer confidence fell to its lowest point in a decade, according to the University of Michigan. And the personal consumption...

An Oakland security guard has died from a bullet wound he suffered after the retired cop was shot while he protected reporters at the scene of an armed robbery in the crime-ravaged Bay Area Kevin Nishita, a father of two and grandfather of three, was on assignment to guard the KRON4 team as it was reporting on the latest smash-and-grab raid in California on Wednesday when a robber targeted the TV crew for their cameras. Nishita, a former police officer, confronted one of 12 masked robbers to protect the reporters, and the thief shot him in the lower abdomen. He...

… As New Zealand shifts to a policy of “living with the virus,” residents accustomed to living virtually Covid-free for most of the pandemic are being confronted by rising case numbers and widening vaccine mandates. Opposition to vaccination as well as frustration with ongoing pandemic restrictions is fueling a small but vocal protest movement inspired in part by American politics. In a working paper published in November, a team of researchers in New Zealand said there had been a “sharp increase in the popularity and intensity” of disinformation around Covid-19 since August. The researchers said the disinformation was “being used...

J.K. Rowling's controversial posts about trans women continue to divide her fans, with the furor against her reaching a new level over the weekend, when activists shared the author's home address on Twitter. The incident has since prompted outrage from her supporters and a lengthy Twitter statement from Rowling on Monday. "I’ve now received so many death threats I could paper the house with them, and I haven’t stopped speaking out," she wrote in part. "Perhaps — and I’m just throwing this out there – the best way to prove your movement isn’t a threat to women, is to stop...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation is soaring, businesses are struggling to hire and President Joe Biden’s poll numbers have been in free-fall. The White House sees a common culprit for it all: COVID-19. Biden’s team views the pandemic as the root cause of both the nation’s malaise and his own political woes. Finally controlling COVID-19, the White House believes, is the skeleton key to rejuvenating the country and reviving Biden’s own standing. But the coronavirus challenge has proved to be vexing for the White House, with last summer’s premature claims of victory swamped by the more transmissible delta variant, stubborn millions...

Both Italy and Germany reported on Saturday that they had detected cases of the omicron COVID-19 variant, adding to a handful of countries that have found the new variant within their borders. Two cases of omicron were found in the southeastern German state of Bavaria, the country's health ministry confirmed, according to Reuters. The ministry said that the two people infected with the variant, who the government appeared to imply had traveled from South Africa, were isolating after they came into the country on Nov. 24.

It is clear that travel was a major factor in the rapid dissemination of COVID-19 disease. It has been proposed that Wuhan, China, was the epicentre of the pandemic. The World Military Games took place from the 18th to 27th of October 2019 in Wuhan, China. Over 140 nations with 9308 athletes participated with over 300,000 attendees, volunteers and staff [1–4]. This study examined the hypothesis that the large gathering in a pandemic epicentre was a factor in the spread of COVID-19 disease. -snip- There is a correlation between the number of individuals who travelled to the event and the...