Free Republic

Sen. Rand Paul revealed Wednesday in a disclosure that was more than a year overdue that his wife in February 2020 bought up to $15,000 worth of shares in Gilead, a biotech company that brought to market the first drug designed to treat COVID-19. Paul’s mandatory filing with the Senate shows that his wife purchased between $1,000 and $15,000 worth of Gilead stock on Feb. 26, 2020. Gilead’s antiviral drug remdesivir became the first COVID-19 specific treatment to win an emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration less that three months after the purchase in May 2020.

A liberal Massachusetts town has created a fund that will be used to pay reparations to eligible black residents to “repair past harms” it committed against them or their ancestors. No money is in the fund yet, but town finance officials have proposed a plan to put $210,000 in the account later this year, The Daily Hampshire Gazette reported. Amherst, a town of more than 39,000 with a black population of just over 2,100, according to the Census Bureau, is home to The University of Massachusetts’ flagship campus and Amherst College, a liberal arts university. Voter registration data shows it’s...

Facebook announced Friday that it will ban former President Donald Trump until at least 2023 — with Trump shooting back, “Next time I’m in the White House there will be no more dinners, at his request, with Mark Zuckerberg and his wife. It will be all business!” The decision means that Trump might still be able to regain access to his Facebook and Instagram accounts in time for the 2024 campaign if he seeks a rematch against President Biden. But Facebook said it may decide to ban Trump even longer than the two years — and White House Press Secretary...

Amazon is halting construction at a facility in Windsor, Connecticut after workers discovered the seventh case of a “rope which could be interpreted as a noose” at the site. The first six were discovered at the work site during the last week of April. The latest was Wednesday, when officers on a private duty assignment “were made aware of the discovery of a rope which could be interpreted as a noose hanging within overhead beams on the site,” police said. “We continue to be deeply disturbed by the incidents happening at the construction site in Windsor and have ordered its...

Cybercrime group DarkSide said it has lost control of its web servers and some of the money it’s made off ransom payments after the FBI confirmed that the gang was behind the $5 million ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline last week that spurred gas shortages and panic buying across the Southeast.Analysts at security research firm FireEye said that messages are circulating in multiple cybercriminal forums that say DarkSide has shut down amid pressure from the US and law enforcement.“A few hours ago, we lost access to the public part of our infrastructure, namely: Blog. Payment server. DOS servers,” read a...