Free Republic

An outbreak of deadly bacteria at a Bay Area homeless encampment has sparked urgent calls for action in Los Angeles, with officials warning the disease may already be circulating in the city. The bacterial disease leptospirosis was found in rats at encampments in the hippie college town of Berkeley, leading health officials there to issue an urgent warning to the homeless to clear out. Officials told them to relocate at least a third of a mile from the “red zone” encompassing several square blocks as soon as possible. The warning comes as authorities attempted remove the encampment last year but...

Democratic Rep. Angie Craig could be seen laying into Republican Whip Tom Emmer, a fellow Minnesotan, on the House floor on Wednesday in the wake of the shooting of a Minneapolis woman who could be seen driving her car into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. A clip of the verbal altercation between the two lawmakers shows it lasted approximately 40 seconds. During the exchange, Craig repeatedly put her finger in Emmer’s face, while he yelled back at her. Eventually, other lawmakers stepped between them, and Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum of Minnesota pulled Craig away. “Craig told Emmer — who...

GOP lawmakers are fleeing for the exit in droves, with many pointing to a Congress they argue has grown too dysfunctional and a demanding schedule that leaves little time for their families. More than 50 lawmakers in both parties have announced decisions to leave their seats, scrambling the calculus on both sides of the aisle ahead of next year’s high-stakes midterms. The wave of exits could be particularly ominous for Republicans in charge of the House and Senate. The number exiting is nearly on par with 2018, a dismal midterm year for the GOP. Some lawmakers frustrated with inaction on...

Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) is irate over news that his colleague, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), is the subject of a Department of War investigation for taking part in a video urging military members to defy orders from their superiors.So much so that he's seemingly issuing threats to anyone who takes part in that investigation.A Department of War statement issued Monday stated Kelly had been accused of "serious allegations of misconduct" and that further actions against him are under consideration—including a potential court-martial or other "administrative measures."Gallego, in an interview with CNN, warned service members that once President Trump leaves office,...

Phys.org reports that Polynesian rats (Rattus exulans) may have played a larger role in the deforestation of Rapa Nui than previously thought. Some 15 million Rapa Nui palm trees (Paschalococos disperta) are estimated to have covered Easter Island before the arrival of Polynesians around A.D. 1200. When Europeans arrived in 1722, they observed just a few isolated trees, grasses, and shrubs. Terry Hunt of the University of Arizona and Carl Lipo of the University of Birmingham developed an ecological model of the island and found that a single pair of rats, feasting on nutritious palm nuts, could grow into a...

Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Firefighters in Michigan are urging residents to beware of unexpected fire hazards after an apartment blaze was found to have an unusual cause: an animal nest inside a kitchen exhaust fan. The Ann Arbor Fire Department said on social media that crews responded to an apartment building on Island Drive on Sunday and found a fire was burning inside the walls.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Troops patrol train stations and streets in the nation’s capital. Masked federal law enforcement agents detain District of Columbia residents. Congress passes bills that further squeeze the city’s autonomy. And the one person who could act as a voice for Washington on Capitol Hill has been a rare sight. Even longtime allies say Democrat Eleanor Holmes Norton, the district’s nonvoting delegate in the House, has not risen to the challenge of pushing back against the Trump administration’s intervention into her city. They cite her age, 88, and her diminished demeanor. That has raised questions about the 18-term...

The House of Representatives burst into chaos as Speaker Mike Johnson attempted to lead a prayer for Charlie Kirk after he was assassinated in Utah on Wednesday. Father-of-two Kirk, 31, the founder of Turning Point USA, a conservative youth organization that regularly holds events on college campuses nationwide, was shot in the neck at an event at Utah Valley University in Orem and died about two and half hours later. His assassination not only devastated many members of Congress who knew the activist personally, but unleashed sadness, confusion and anger among lawmakers in the Capitol on both sides of the...

University of Minnesota researchers developed a 3D-printed scaffold that directs stem cells to grow into functioning nerve cells, successfully restoring movement in rats with severed spinal cords. This promising technique could transform future treatment for spinal cord injuries.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers intercepted two separate shipments of bushmeat at Detroit Metropolitan Airport last month, including one haul of primate meat, in seizures officials say highlight the dangers of disease entering the United States. Bushmeat—defined by U.S. health agencies as meat from wild animals such as bats, monkeys, and cane rats—is illegal to import into the country. CBPOps and DFODetroit announced the discoveries Saturday in a joint post on Instagram, writing, “Scary!!! @DFODetroit CBP agriculture specialists intercepted back-to-back bushmeat at @DTWShots. Bushmeat poses serious risks to public health and violates federal regulations. CBP remains vigilant in protecting...

Has anyone noticed the incredible scrutiny that left-wing propaganda bureaus (formerly known as “news media”) give to every little disease outbreak?Let’s take measles, for example. It’s a virtually harmless childhood disease. You get measles once, and you’re immune for life.When I was a child, whenever any of our friends got the measles, it was time for a slumber party. All the kids who weren’t immune from previous outbreaks got the measles, and stayed home from school for a few days.Our parents planned it that way. Development of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine in the 1970s put an end to this “abusive”...

Illinois Gov. JB . ...Pritzker slammed President Donald Trump as a "cheater" and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott as a "joke" days after welcoming Texas Democrats who fled their state in protest of GOP-led redistricting efforts.... .

In the immortal words of J.D. Vance, do they even hear themselves? The biggest names in Democrat gerrymandering are out taking to the Sunday talk show circuit, to complain about Texas's maneuvers to redistrict their state in what would likely bring in more Republican seats in Congress, in what they say is a bid to correct underrepresentation. "Threat to democracy," intoned Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzger, without irony. Questioned about his own state's famous gerrymandering, he insisted that his state is nothing like Texas, which its own way was true enough, because nothing is as badly gerrymandered as Illinois. New York's...

Chicago, long infested with crime and poverty, keeps crawling ahead of its rivals to remain the champion of one more side effect of its decline. Pest control company Orkin said that the deep-blue Democrat-dominated city is top in the nation in bed bugs for the fifth consecutive year. Orkin bases its list on data from metro areas where the company has been called in to provide bed bug treatments between May 15, 2024, and May 14, 2025. Both residential and commercial calls are counted. ... Although Chicago remains on top, Orkin noted that Hartford, Connecticut, crawled onto its list of...

Four people were caught on video awkwardly bird-napping a massive swan in Queens — as activists fear the missing bird may have met its end as an animal sacrifice or because of a a senior prank. The four — including one minor — were busted after snatching the mute female swan Saturday at Frank M. Charles Memorial Park in Howard Beach, according to US Park Police. Authorities didn’t immediately release the names of the alleged bird-brained bandits, but local officials and activists speculate the bird could have met an unsavory fate as some of the birds have ended up on...

A young California man died from the same rare rodent-linked virus that killed Gene Hackman’s wife in February — with health officials discovering rat droppings at his workplace following his untimely death, according to a report. Rodrigo Becerra, 26, had fallen seriously ill and was prescribed antibiotics the night before he was found convulsing in his Mammoth Lakes home, where he perished from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rare infectious disease linked to rodents, on March 6, his family told SFGATE. Becerra, who was just three days shy of his birthday when he died, worked as a bell hop at Mammoth...

Judge Paula Xinis postponed discovery in Kilmar Abrego Garcia for one week in response to the Trump Administration’s request for a delay. The judge did not give a reason for her decision to postpone the discovery. “The Court has reviewed Defendants’ Motion to Stay and Plaintiffs’ Response. With the agreement of parties, the Court hereby ORDERS that discovery shall be stayed until April 30, 2025, at 5:00 PM,” the judge wrote.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., announced Wednesday that he will not seek re-election in 2026, ending his decadeslong career in Congress. The decision from Durbin, who is the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate and the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, will open up a leadership position in the chamber and is expected to set off a competitive primary for his seat in solidly blue Illinois.

Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) claimed Wednesday on CNN’s “News Central” ” that U.S. District Judge James Boasberg was a “great judicial hero” for finding probable cause to hold the Trump administration in criminal contempt for disobeying his order to halt deportations. Raskin said, “Judge Boasberg goes to great pains to restate the precedent going back to 1967, Walker vs. Birmingham, holding that you’ve got to comply with a court order, even if you know, they were in the wrong court, even if for some reason there’s a change. Look, Judge Boasberg, who was a President Bush appointee when he originally...

The Democrats’ once-vociferous endorsement of high tariffs on foreign countries has evaporated. Fizzled. Gone kaput. The reason: President Donald Trump’s recent imposition of tariffs, and particularly high tariffs on China, something Trump has advocated for years. Yet if Trump is for it, Democrats must oppose it, even if opposing it makes no sense. Thus did White House spokesman Karoline Leavitt read back Representative Nancy Pelosi’s pro-tariff tirade of 1996, while others pulled up quotes from Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and socialist Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Tariff TussleTrump is taking heat for imposing tariffs on Mexico,...