Free Republic

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg dismissed the idea that Washington, DC, is experiencing a rise in crime, pointing out that a “lot of energy” was going into painting the narrative. During an interview with MSNBC host Jen Psaki on Sunday, Buttigieg highlighted how he was able to “safely walk” his dog in the nation’s capital without any problems. Buttigieg, like many other elected officials, is provided with a security detail.

With the hope of preventing another virus surge, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a new process Friday for reopening businesses that's more gradual than the first attempt that eventually led him to close many businesses soon after they reopened. “Simple, also slow," is how the Democratic governor described the new rules, which take effect Monday. The four-tiered, color-coded system ranks counties based on the number of virus cases and infection rates. “We don’t put a green (tier) because we don’t believe that there’s a green light that says go back to the way things were or back to a pre-pandemic...

MADISON — The specter of a drug-resistant form of the deadly H5N1 avian influenza is a nightmare to keep public health officials awake at night. Now, however, a study published this week (Dec. 21) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) suggests that a new compound, one on the threshold of final testing in humans, may be more potent and safer for treating "bird flu" than the antiviral drug best known by the trade name Tamiflu. Known as T-705, the compound even works several days after infection, according to Yoshihiro Kawaoka, a University of Wisconsin-Madison virologist and...

The giant US Air Force B-52 bombers returned safely to their base at RAF Fairford today after taking part in the massive air assault on Baghdad. The bombers had left Fairford in Gloucestershire at around 10am yesterday before the massive assault on the Iraqi capital got under way. The fleet of aircraft dropped their cruise missiles, which have a 1,000-mile range, well away from Iraqi airspace. Yesterday was the first time that so many of the planes had left the base in one sortie. They have a range of 8,000 miles and are able to hit Iraqi targets within around...