Free Republic

CLAY COUNTY, Ill. (NEXSTAR) — Governor J.B. Pritzker’s emergency powers to issue executive orders to close businesses or order people to stay at home expired 85 days ago on April 8th, 2020, a judge in Clay County Circuit Court ruled on Thursday afternoon. The ruling did not find the state has no power to forcibly close businesses or to restrict a citizen’s movements, but rather that those powers are derived from the Illinois Department of Public Health Act, not under the Illinois Emergency Management Act. Pritzker’s administration has at times cited both portions of state law to enforce his orders....

A strain of the coronavirus that was first seen in Italy is now the dominant strain of the virus, a group of scientists said Thursday. In an article published by the peer-reviewed science journal Cell, researchers working with the Sheffield COVID-19 Genomics Group announced that the new strain "has become the most prevalent form in the global pandemic." The strain is different than what appeared in Wuhan, China, the city where the coronavirus is believed to have originated. According to the science journal, tracking of the virus frequency revealed a prevalence of the dominant strain, labeled G614, that took over...

An armed member of Canada's military has been arrested after driving a pick-up truck through the gates of an estate where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lives, police say. The suspect used his vehicle to breach the main entrance of Rideau Hall in Ottawa early on Thursday morning. He then entered the grounds on foot before being confronted by police. The man was arrested at 08:30 local time (12:30 GMT) without incident. He is in custody, with charges pending.

Officials in New York’s Rockland County announced on Wednesday that they had issued subpoenas to eight people allegedly infected by the coronavirus for refusing to speak with contact tracers voluntarily. “The health of our county” will not be “compromised because of ignorance, stupidity, or obstinance,” Ed Day, the county executive, told reporters.

The FBI knew about allegations against convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell at least as early as 2006, possibly as early as 1996, an Epstein accuser says. Maxwell was not arrested until Thursday after a grand jury indicted the British socialite and heiress on charges of conspiracy to entice minors to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors to these illegal sex acts, transportation of a minor to engage in illegal sex acts, and perjury. Painter Maria Farmer alleges that she and her sister were sexually abused by Epstein and Maxwell in 1996 when...

FedEx has asked the Washington Redskins to officially change its name, long condemned as an anti-Indigenous slur. The shipping company has communicated to the NFL team a request that it change its name, FedEx confirmed in a statement to NBC News on Thursday. FedEx owns the naming rights to the Maryland field where the NFL team plays and its chief executive, Fred Smith, owns a minority stake in the team.

NASCAR driver Corey LaJoie’s No. 32 racecar is getting a new look. Starting Sunday, the car will debut a patriotic color scheme emblazoned with a political message: Trump 2020. LaJoie's team, Go Fas Racing, announced a partnership with the pro-Trump Patriots of America PAC on Wednesday. The design will premiere at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and be used in the following eight races throughout the remainder of the season. LaJoie’s car previously sported a smaller “Trump 2020” logo on the rear of his car.

A white Oakland County, Michigan couple were charged with felony assault on Thursday after a video of a pregnant woman defending herself from a black woman with a firearm went viral. Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper charged Jillian Wuestenberg , 32, and Eric Wuestenberg, 42, each with one count of felonious assault, a four-year felony, the Detroit News reported. Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper charged Jillian Wuestenberg, 32, and Eric Wuestenberg, 42, each with one count of felonious assault, a four-year felony. The Independence Township couple each possessed one loaded firearm and CPL licenses, Sheriff Mike Bouchard said. The couple...

Having people look at you, knowing they consider you a lawbreaker and a health threat. Looking at yourself, knowing you risked passing a disease that could kill someone’s grandparent or chronically-ill spouse. Those apparently are the harshest punishments Gov. Tom Wolf and Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine hope to impose on violators of their new order to wear face masks in most indoor and outdoor public settings to help block the spread of COVID-19. They were pressed this week on exactly what penalties apply to those who violate the order, such as someone entering a store without a mask...

Bill Scott, chief of San Francisco policoe, said new rule takes effect immediately San Francisco is adopting the policy to stop spreading negative stereotypes Los Angeles and New York already have a policy against releasing mug shots

Father of 19-year-old killed in CHOP says he got condolence call from President Trump, but not Seattle's mayor SEATTLE - The family of a 19-year-old shot and killed at the edge of the Seattle CHOP zone was laid to rest today in Kent. The father of Horace Lorenzo Anderson Jr. told us, he still hasn’t received a call about his son’s death from the Mayor of Seattle Jenny Durkan, but he got a condolence call this morning from President Trump.... "Incredibly, Donald Trump called me," said 50-year-old Horace Lorenzo Anderson Sr. "The President of the United States called me today....

On Wednesday, the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) released a powerful new ad warning about vandals and rioters destroying a key monument in American culture — the presidents on Mount Rushmore. While the vandals are not likely to actually deface Mount Rushmore anytime soon, their iconoclastic movement has already targeted each of the four presidents on the monument — George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. The ad, “Erasing History,” shows the presidents on Mount Rushmore disappearing, one by one, as vandals tarnish monuments to each of those presidents, and as “America the Beautiful” plays somberly in the...

SUDBURY -- There are currently a dozen statues at Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes property, and all are from the 1950s. Recently, half of the statues were beheaded by vandals. “We’re saddened,” said David Sirois, of Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie. "There’s enough volunteers and people who have donated to try and keep this site nice … for the general public. Then when you see damages like that, you wonder who would do that kind of thing?" Officials found out about the damage a few weeks ago, and say the incident most likely happened in the middle of the...

Moscow, July 2, Interfax - Russian State Duma Deputy Speaker and Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Vice President in respect of Russia Pyotr Tolstoy has urged the Duma ad hoc commission investigating interference in Russia's internal affairs to legally assess the demonstration of LGBT flags on the buildings of the United States and United Kingdom diplomatic missions in Moscow. "I am asking you to consider these circumstances within the commission's purview in order to issue its legal judgment and propose relevant methods of response to an attempt to put pressure on the people's free will during the...

DENVER (CBS4) – Republican Lauren Boebert, running to represent Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, will spend July 4th with Pres. Donald Trump. They’ll be celebrating Independence Day at the same event. Earlier this week, Boebert defeated five-term incumbent Rep. Scott Tipton in the Republican primary. Boebert owns a restaurant on the Western Slope that opened for dine-in service in May and violated a cease and desist order. She and her restaurant also made headlines for employees openly carrying guns.

“Free the Slaves in Nigeria and the Congo” would be good. Both African countries still enslave blacks, but the BLM movement and its affiliates aren’t interested. They’re working on freeing American slaves, though that freedom was won in a war that cost 650,000 mostly white lives 157 years ago. OK. Then how about this: “Stop the Slaughter! — B.H.”

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- San Francisco's city attorney is coming down hard on Catholic Churches that he says are gathering illegally indoors, without face coverings. In a seven-page cease-and-desist letter, City Attorney Dennis Herrera said the Archdiocese of San Francisco is "putting its parishioners and the larger community at risk of serious illness and death." The letter says despite calls between San Francisco Health Officer, Dr. Aragon, and Archbishop Cordileone, multiple churches have held indoor gatherings that "violate the health order" and fail to "follow common sense safety protocols." Indoor gatherings are not currently permitted in San Francisco. Outside religious...

President Donald Trump should appoint a special envoy for Nigeria and the Lake Chad region to “focus like a laser beam” on the attacks by Boko Haram and other Islamic militants, according to one of the main architects of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. Former Congressman Frank Wolf said such a move was necessary to stop a genocide of Christians in the region. Wolf was speaking to journalists during a press call on the situation in Nigeria sponsored by In Defense of Christians, a Washington D.C. human rights group. Nigeria has had over 50,000 people killed since 2009...

Now that we’re in the book-burning stage of the revolution, Black Lives Matter has managed to cancel one of the most historically significant films in American history. And in doing so, they have all but erased the film career of the first black Oscar winner. Nice going, idiots! What’s your next trick going to be? Burning down all the grocery stores in black neighborhoods? Oh, wait… During the ongoing streaming wars that have been happening under the radar, entertainment companies are gobbling up the rights to classic films. Each company hopes that its exclusive content will be enough reason for...

CARLSBAD, N.M. - Recently released videos from a body-camera worn by a National Park Ranger at Carlsbad Caverns National Park reveals the park visitor who he tased, then shot and killed did not provoke the use of force and was unarmed. Charles “Gage” Lorentz was traveling from his work site in Pecos, Texas on March 21. 2020 intending to head to his family’s home in Southwest Colorado. A report from the Eddy County Sheriff’s Department noted that he detoured at Carlsbad Caverns National Park to meet a friend. The report states National Park Ranger Robert Mitchell stopped him for speeding...