Free Republic

Educators unions in Massachusetts are urging officials to change course on mask-wearing in schools after state officials on Friday said the prevention effort will be encouraged but not required. In guidance released Friday, the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education strongly encouraged, but did not require, unvaccinated students in grades K-12 or school staff to wear masks when inside school buildings this fall. Massachusetts Teachers Association President Merrie Najimy called it a “reckless decision.” “The guidance issued today by Governor Charlie Baker’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is no guidance at all. Rather than adopt a plan in...

A hospital in Maine is apologizing after the state's Human Rights Commission said workers had created a “wall of shame” ridiculing disabled patients and incorporating confidential medical information, according to CNN. MyKayla McCann, an employee who was treated at St. Mary's Regional Medical Center in Lewiston, said that at least two co-workers looked at her medical records and that after she returned from a leave of absence she believed they were treating her differently. In September 2016, she reported her discomfort and the “wall of shame,” which included details of patients’ sexual activity, bodily functions and private parts, according to...

James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas has released the second installment of its undercover video series unmasking the deep state within the United States Federal Government. This time the investigation covers Department of Justice paralegal Allison Hrabar and Jessica Schubel, the former HHS Chief of Staff for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services during the Obama administration. While undercover cameras were rolling, Schubel admitted that “…there’s like a little resistance movement” inside of the federal government. ... In particular, Hrabar knows a DSA member inside the U.S. Department of Agriculture, who is “…slowing what they do” in order to help people...

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders quickly smacked down a liberal reporter complaining about Trump calling NFL players “sons of bitches” for protesting the National Anthem.What about our Veterans? What about the gold star moms? Nobody feels sorry for overpaid, ungrateful athletes.“I think it’s always appropriate for the President of the United States to defend our flag, to defend the national anthem.”(video at link)

A group called “Teach, Organize, Resist” has released a call to action asking for students and professors to use January 18th or “#J18” to protest against Trump. “January 18, 2017, is a day to Teach, Organize, Resist. Poised between Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the presidential inauguration, J18 is an opportunity to affirm the role of critical thinking and academic knowledge in challenging Trumpism.” The group claims that they want to use higher education to resist against Trump. Teach, Organize, Resist has a long list of partners mostly from UCLA.

Sixty-one years ago last month, the third-ever McDonald's opened in Downey, Calif., a suburb of Los Angeles and home to Apollo, the third-ever NASA manned spaceflight program. McDonald's went to 119 countries from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; Apollo went to the moon. A man who witnessed much of this history is Ron Piazza, who owns the landmark McDonald's in Downey —the world's oldest-operating McDonald's— along with nine other golden-arched franchises in the area. Piazza is something of a throwback. Plainspoken and serious, he is the type of business owner whose name and phone number are printed at the...

Services needed for everybody from new immigrants to employers bringing in foreign workers will be brought to a halt. Foreign Ministry’s workers committee declared a full-fledged strike on Sunday, closing the ministry and all the country’s embassies and consulates around the world for the first time. The strike is the latest development in a nearly two-year-old work dispute that the workers declared for improved salaries and work conditions. Seven months of mediation efforts exploded on March 4 when the workers rejected a Finance Ministry proposal. The workers then resumed crippling labor measures that had been put on hold during the...

This weekend, U.S. President Barack Obama sat down for a series of meetings with China's newly appointed leader, Xi Jinping. We know that the two leaders spoke at length about the topic du jour -- cyber-espionage -- a subject that has long frustrated officials in Washington and is now front and center with the revelations of sweeping U.S. data mining. The media has focused at length on China's aggressive attempts to electronically steal U.S. military and commercial secrets, but Xi pushed back at the "shirt-sleeves" summit, noting that China, too, was the recipient of cyber-espionage. But what Obama probably neglected...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Unions lent their muscle to the long-running protest against Wall Street and economic inequality Wednesday, with their members joining thousands of protesters in a lower Manhattan march as smaller demonstrations flourished across the country. Protesters in suits and T-shirts with union slogans left work early to march with activists who have been camped out in Zuccotti Park for days. Some marchers brought along their children, hoisting them onto their shoulders as they walked down Broadway. "We're here to stop corporate greed," said Mike Pellegrino, an NYC Transit bus mechanic from Rye Brook. "They should pay their...

The ongoing budget stalemate in Wisconsin threatened to jeopardize as many as 12,000 public-sector jobs beginning next week as Democrats in the state Senate continued to abandon their jobs. Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican whose plan to cut nearly all public employees' collective bargaining rights remains in limbo, said Friday that he didn't want to see layoffs, but insisted that if the bill is not passed by the end of next week, his administration would have to start preparing layoff notices for as many as 1,500 state employees. They would be laid off by July in order to achieve the...

.....Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who chaired the hearing of the antitrust, competition policy and consumer rights subcommittee, said the BCS bowl “regime” is best described as a violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act--a law aimed at protecting against monopolies and business arrangements that stifle competition.........

April 16, 2008. Cargo Apartheid: UK Muslim Airport Porters Refuse to Handle Israeli Luggage .... I'd be more worried about him than a few Islamic porters. ... http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/2008/04/cargo_apartheid.html

Minneapolis, MN (SHNS) -- Beryl Dsouza was late and in no mood for delays when she stopped at a Target store after work two weeks ago for milk, bread and bacon. So Dsouza was taken aback when the cashier -- who had on the traditional headscarf worn by many Muslim women -- refused to swipe the bacon through the checkout scanner. "She made me scan the bacon. Then she opened the bag and made me put it in the bag," said Dsouza, 53, of Minneapolis. "It made me wonder why this person took a job as a cashier." In the...

Workers and students across the nation plan to skip work and school Wednesday in a national moriatorium to stop the impending war against Iraq.Backed by dozens of religious, labor, community and anti war groups, the moriatorium's theme is 'no school, no work no business as usual.'Participants are being encouraged to call in sick close their businesses, cancel classes, hold workplace talks about the war, conduct special services at house of worship and stage non violent protests.The student walkout has gained a momentum of its own, with thousands of students on more than 200 campuses pledging to boycott classes.In the Bay...