Free Republic

(NEXSTAR) – The COVID-19 public health emergency may be over, but the spread of the virus sure isn’t. COVID hospital admissions jumped another 21% last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. The summer surge has some people – who haven’t donned a COVID mask in months – wondering if they should dust off their N95s. We asked three medical doctors if they thought the rising cases and hospitalizations meant masks are needed now. For Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at UCSF, the rationale hasn’t really changed. “Masking remains an inexpensive and portable way to reduce risk...

Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) failed to answer whether he still identifies as a Democrat on this week’s broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures.” Manchin said, “My main concern is how do we bring this country together? How do we make it work? How do we make Democrats, Republicans become Americans again and not just party affiliates? This is what’s happening right now. We’re pushing people further apart, making people take a side and rewarding for bad behavior.”

​Kellyanne Conway, who served as special counselor to former President Donald Trump, said when she worked in his administration nobody ever had to ask “who’s in charge?” “I will tell you this: Whatever people think of Donald Trump, the White House I worked in nobody ever had to ask, ‘What is the vice president doing?’ … And nobody had to ask who is actually the president? ​’​Who is in charge?'” she told John Catsimatidis on his WABC AM 770 show in an interview that aired Sunday​, referring to 79-year-old President Biden​.

Jonathan Swan asked Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) during an Axios NewsShapers interview on Thursday why Republicans hate him. “You’re the most powerful elected Republican in Washington, DC,” Swan prefaced the question. “And despite all the BS I hear around, there is no obvious challenge to your leadership.

President Obama has never run a business or been forced to negotiate unless he was in a position of overwhelming strength. He is obviously clueless as to how the real world works. (The Hill) — In the midst of a rebellion from his own colleagues, John Boehner faced a big decision. It was 10 p.m. last Thursday, the most stressful moment of his Speakership. Boehner’s debt-limit bill was short on votes, and the GOP leadership was forced to change the measure so it could attract the support of recalcitrant members. With dozens of reporters staking out the Speaker’s office and...

C’mon, no one’s this sensitive to bad press. Well, almost no one. In an email to The Daily Caller, Gina Channell-Allen, president of the Pleasanton Weekly in Pleasanton, California, said that her paper “received a call from the White House asking us to take out part of the story because it reflected poorly on the First Lady.” The story in question was a soft feature about Marine One titled, “Inside Marine One, President Obama’s helicopter,” that ran in the paper on April 20. Pleasanton staffer Amory Gutierrez “didn’t get to ride in ‘Marine One,’” she wrote in her story, “but...

JERUSALEM – In what Egypt's Christians fear may be a sign of things to come, a senior Islamic cleric asked Christians to bow in Muslim prayer in an act of submission to Allah. On Friday, famed Egyptian theologian Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a spiritual leader to the Muslim Brotherhood who hosts a popular Islam-themed television show on Al Jazeera, led the Islamic prayer services in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the epicenter of Egypt's uprising. While he repeatedly offered nods to Egypt's Coptic Christians, unmentioned in most news media accounts of the ceremony was that Qaradawi asked all in attendance, specifically singling out Christians,...

Loss of about $400 million from canceled Israeli reservations. Muslims are being encouraged to vacation in Turkey this summer to offset the estimated $ 4 0 0 million l o s s caused by Israelis boycotting the country as relations between the countries deteriorate. A number of Muslim scholars and leaders issued a statement on June 17 praising Turkey’s position regarding Israel and welcoming Ankara’s efforts to “lift the siege on Gaza and the Palestinian people.” It called on Arabs and Muslims to show support for Turkey by boosting economic ties. The statement called on “families and groups planning to...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal grand jury has again indicted the self-proclaimed "Guru of Ganja" on charges that he grew hundreds of marijuana plants for a dispensary. Ed Rosenthal was convicted in 2003 for cultivating the plants for a city of Oakland medical marijuana program. An appeals court overturned the conviction in April, citing jury misconduct, but it upheld federal powers to charge marijuana growers. An indictment unsealed Thursday charges Rosenthal with 14 felonies, including conspiracy to manufacture marijuana at his Oakland warehouse and distribute it to a San Francisco pot club. He also faces four counts of money laundering...

No one can seriously question one of the two major assumptions behind the $38 billion worth of construction and repair bonds proposed on the Nov. 7 state ballot. Traffic relief is a must in myriad parts of California. Port security isn't a tenth as tough as it needs to be. Who can argue against battered women's shelters and housing assistance for senior citizens, veterans and working families? Overcrowded public schools need relief. And the levees in the Sacramento-San Joaquin river delta area are a disaster waiting to happen. Taken together, all those realities make up one big assumption behind the...

Mayor: 'Either the Judeo-Christian philosophy will survive or the Islamic philosophy will survive'SACRAMENTO, CA -- (OfficialWire) -- 09/11/06 -- The Sacramento Valley chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SV) today called on Californians to repudiate remarks insulting to Muslims made by a mayor in the northern part of that state. CAIR-SV said that Redding, Calif., Mayor Ken Murray claimed Shia Muslims "believe it's acceptable to lie, cheat, steal and kill as long as it ultimately glorifies Allah." "Folks, they're not like us," said Murray. When asked about his offensive remarks, Murray drew a distinction between "mainstream" and Shia Muslims,...

ABU GHRAIB, Iraq, June 15, 2006 – The Iraqi deputy prime minister called on about 450 Iraqis being freed from the Abu Ghraib detention facility today to work for peace in Iraq, the Middle East and the world. Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Salim al-Zawbai speaks with detainees released from Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison June 15. The Iraqi government plan aims at getting "low-risk" detainees back into the workforce and working toward a new Iraq. Photo by Jim Garamone  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Salim al-Zawbai spoke to the men before they were released from the facility. It is...

Iraq's vice president has asked President Bush for a timeline for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraq, the Iraqi president's office said. Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni, made the request during his meeting with Bush on Tuesday, when the U.S. president made a surprise visit to Iraq. "I supported him in this," President Jalal Talabani said in a statement released Wednesday. Al-Hashimi's representatives could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday. Bush made it clear during his visit that the U.S. military presence — now at about 132,000 troops — would continue, though he stressed the fate of...

Gonzales Asked Germany to Hold Hijacker Wednesday December 21, 2005 11:16 PM By ANNE GEARAN AP Diplomatic Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales personally asked the German government not to release a terrorist accused of killing a Navy diver, but was rebuffed, the Bush administration said Wednesday. Mohammed Ali Hamadi was freed on parole by German authorities after serving 19 years of a life sentence for the 1985 hijacking of a TWA plane during which a U.S. Navy diver was killed. The 17-day ordeal riveted the United States and brought Middle East terrorism home for many Americans. ``We...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Corporations are being asked to donate tens of thousands of dollars to fund Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's upcoming trade mission to China and some will be along when he talks to officials there, it was reported Monday. The governor, who came to office on a promise to take state government away from special interests, is raising money to pay for the trip through a nonprofit foundation that is not required to publicly reveal the names of donors, the Los Angeles Times said. Some companies have been asked to give $50,000 to the California Protocol Foundation, the Times...

WASHINGTON - Two Democratic senators said Wednesday that they want Supreme Court nominee John Roberts to explain before his confirmation hearings why he continued to judge a lawsuit against the Bush administration while being interviewed to be a justice. "It is clear that you have long understood the ethical issues raised by continuing to work on a case in which a party is considering you for another position," Judiciary Committee Sens. Charles Schumer of New York and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin said in a letter to Roberts. White House spokesman Steve Schmidt said in response that "the opponents of Judge...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United States and several other nations have asked the United Nations to designate January 27 as an annual day to remember the six million Jews and the countless others who perished in the World War II Nazi Holocaust. A letter from the nations, which also included Russia, Israel, Australia and Canada, circulated Thursday requests the General Assembly to add the proposal to its agenda, noting that this year's 60th anniversary of the United Nations coincides with the 60th year of the end of the war. "The Holocaust constituted a systematic and barbarous attempt to annihilate...

NEW YORK - A federal judge considering whether the government should be forced to reveal the identities of Guantanamo Bay Naval Base detainees suggested Friday that each one be asked whether he wants his name made public. Judge Jed S. Rakoff offered the idea as he considered the government's position that the United States must hide the identities to protect the detainees and their family members from potential reprisals. If asked, "that person may be saying, `Yes, please, tell the world,'" Rakoff told Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Wolstein. Wolstein said there might be "military reasons" for not engaging in such...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States has charged a Dutch citizen with conspiring to kill Americans in Iraq, the first U.S. criminal case connected to terrorist activities there, the Justice Department said Friday. Iraqi-born Wasem al Delaema, 32, was arrested in May during a raid on his home in the Dutch city of Amersfoort. On Wednesday, U.S. authorities filed a criminal complaint in U.S. District Court in Washington and asked the Dutch government to extradite him for prosecution. Among the charges is conspiring to kill Americans overseas. U.S. authorities allege al Delaema helped plot attacks near Fallujah in October 2003....

WASHINGTON - With dropout rates rising, governors nationwide are being asked to lead a high school overhaul that demands more skills of students and help from colleges. The call for action, outlined Tuesday by leaders of an upcoming national summit on high schools, would change everything from core course requirements to state graduation standards. It came as the Educational Testing Service reported Tuesday that high school completion rates dropped nationally from 1990 to 2000, with about one third of students failing to graduate. It is the latest in a string of sobering assessments of high school performance. "Students can make...