Free Republic

Hunter Biden on Wednesday refused to accept House Oversight Committee James Comer’s (R-KY) offer to publicly testify before Congress on March 20. Hunter previously said he would only testify in public and refused to appear for a closed-door interview in December. “Here I am, Mr. Chairman, taking up your offer when you said we can bring these people in for depositions or committee hearings, whichever they choose. Well, I’ve chosen. I’m here to testify in a public hearing today to answer any of the committee’s legitimate questions,” Hunter said outside the U.S. Capitol in December. Hunter later appeared in February...

A flurry of court filings sets the stage for next week’s legal arguments U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon ordered a hearing next week for legal arguments in the looming trial of Donald Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents — while both sides await her decision on when the trial will be. Cannon, who held a hearing last week in which lawyers sparred over when to start the trial, told Trump’s lawyers and special counsel Jack Smith’s team to be prepared to spend the whole day in court. Cannon said she wants to hear arguments on Thursday about Trump’s claims...

While medical science and the health community have huge problems and too often focus on death management rather than enhancing life, it is breakthroughs like this that give hope that all is not lost. A medical miracle of hearing for this end-of-February Feel-Good Friday.A novel gene therapy approach has given five children who were born deaf the ability to hear. The method, which overcomes a roadblock presented by large genes, may be useful in other treatments, according to researchers.The work, conducted in Fudan, China, by a team co-led by Zheng-Yi Chen at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Harvard...

Hearing loss, frequently due to exposure to loud noises, is a significant health problem. Its biological underpinning may well be due to what we consider a trace mineral: zinc. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ How do we hear? Sound waves, really variations in air pressure, are collected and directed towards the eardrum by our outer ear, where we hang our glasses and the ear canal. Those waves strike the eardrum (tympanic membrane), transmitting those vibrations to the three small bones of the middle ear - the malleus (hammer), incus (anvil), and stapes (stirrup). The mechanical linkage of the three amplifies the incoming vibrations and...

A person’s hearing can be damaged by loud noise, aging and even certain medications, with little recourse beyond a hearing aid or cochlear implant. But now, UCSF scientists have achieved a breakthrough in understanding what is happening in the inner ear during hearing loss, laying the groundwork for preventing deafness. The research, published on Dec. 22, 2023, in the Journal of Clinical Investigation Insight, links animal studies on hearing loss with a rare type of inherited deafness in humans. In both cases, mutations to the TMTC4 gene trigger a molecular domino effect known as the unfolded protein response (UPR), leading...

Ajudge on Monday cut off a lawyer for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis as he was arguing why his client should not be deposed in a divorce hearing involving special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom she hired to handle the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald Trump. Willis, who is accused of having an affair with Wade, was originally scheduled for a deposition in the case on Tuesday, but Judge Henry Thompson delayed that ruling until after Wade himself is questioned later this month. During a brief hearing at Cobb County Superior Court Monday, Willis’ lawyer, Cinque Axam,...

Circumstances aren't looking good for Fani Willis. The Fulton County, Ga., district attorney who has made a personal crusade out of trying to prosecute Donald Trump now has to give account to a judge regarding the allegations that she is in an improper relationship with one of the special counsels she hired for the Trump case. "The judge overseeing the election interference case against former president Donald Trump in Georgia has reportedly scheduled a hearing for Feb. 15 to examine recent allegations that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her lead prosecutor 'engaged in an improper relationship and mishandled...

I hope this Thanksgiving brings to mind many blessings our Lord has bestowed on us, chiefly the unveiling of Jesus Christ as Lord of all; above all circumstances this sinful world throws at us.So say goodbye to those who suffer from tinnitus! I began taking Omega-3s to deal with bad cholesterol......and in ONE WEEK, tinnitus disappeared. No more annoying ringing in the ears. Gone.I get a high-quality plant-based Omega-3 Essential Fatty Acids (EFA) and Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) The product brand is from "Meta Genetics" and the company is from Standard Process. They do not sell directly, but once you establish...

Police dragged away pro-Palestinian protestors for disrupting a Tuesday Senate hearing on the Biden administration’s national security supplemental funding request for $75 billion for Ukraine and Israel. The demonstration signals a growing undercurrent of antisemitic ideology within the Democrat Party after Israel launched defensive measures to counter Hamas terrorism on October 7. The protestors interrupted testifying Biden administration officials and presiding Democrat senators with disorderly conduct unbecoming of a Senate hearing. Many protestors held raised hands splattered in red hue for the television cameras to capture behind the witnesses.

CNN analyst and former FBI chief Andrew McCabe said Wednesday on CNN “News Central” that Attorney General Merrick Garland’s hearing before the House Judiciary Committee was “very much political theater.” Anchor Boris Sanchez asked, “We saw some fireworks early on but in terms of substance, has anybody garland said stood out to you, or is this mostly political theater?” McCabe said, “It’s very much political theater, I’m afraid.”

This is the emotional moment a teen with irreversible hearing loss that she shares with her mom has her cochlear implants activated for the very first time. Katelynn Bronson, from Provo, Utah, shares a hereditary hearing loss, passed down through her mom, Jennifer. Jennifer, 38, started losing her hearing in her 20s, and after Katelynn, now 14, was born her family were worried she would start losing her hearing, too. Having passed her hearing test at birth, Katelynn began to show signs of the same condition as her mom after her first birthday, and she received her hearing aids when...

Researchers report that blood levels of the omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) were inversely correlated with hearing difficulty in a new population-based cross-sectional study. Middle-aged and older adults with higher DHA levels were 8–20% less likely to report age-related hearing issues than those with lower DHA levels. The results showed that people in the highest quintile (one-fifth of participants) of blood DHA levels were 16% less likely to answer yes to the question "do you have difficulty hearing" compared with those in the lowest quintile of DHA levels. Similarly, those in the highest quintile for DHA levels were 11%...

Links to opening statements of today's witnesses before the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs: Ryan Graves: https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Ryan-HOC-Testimony.pdf David Fravor: https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/David-Fravor-Statement-for-House-Oversight-Committee.pdf David Grusch: https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Dave_G_HOC_Speech_FINAL_For_Trans.pdf

On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” House Minority Whip Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA) argued that “what’s dangerous about” Republicans investigating the handling of the Hunter Biden probe “is that the American people and their needs are not part of their agenda, and they want to focus on this political theater.” Co-host Joe Scarborough asked, “[W]e have House Republicans bringing in arms dealers, Chinese agents, people that illegally smuggle Iranian oil. Now, we have these so-called whistleblowers who are saying, yeah, we’re really angry. It’s really terrible what Trump’s IRS people did and Trump’s attorney general did and Trump’s prosecutor...

Democrats plan to ask Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) to disinvite presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from this Wednesday’s hearing on censorship at the Weaponization Committee over recent controversial remarks. Kennedy was accused — inaccurately — over the weekend of claiming that the coronavirus was “‘ethnically targeted’ to spare Jews.” He did not, in fact, say that, but said bioweapons targeting ethnicities were a threat, citing differential responses to the coronavirus among different population groups as evidence it could be done.

FBI Director Christopher Wray sat for nearly four hours of questioning on Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee. Here are the top takeaways from the hearing.1. Wray Indicates Foreign Intel Agencies Worked with Big Tech to Silence SpeechThe FBI director faced fierce questioning from Republican committee members on the FBI’s efforts to induce Big Tech to censor American speech. Several representatives specifically challenged Wray to justify the FBI passing along requests from the Ukrainian intelligence agency, SBU, to social media companies. The FBI’s role as a conduit for SBU was just revealed on Monday in a report from the House...

Low-level laser therapy and associated photobiomodulation is the most effective of the known treatments for tinnitus, according to a study comparing the main therapies in current use. Often described as ringing or hissing in the ears, it is considered a symptom rather than a disease, but is unpleasant and in some cases incapacitating. Its known causes can range from a buildup of earwax and insufficient peripheral irrigation in the inner ear to brain damage and bruxism. Panhóca and his team tested alternative and complementary treatments for idiopathic (with no apparent cause) and refractory tinnitus on more than 100 men and...

He’s for snore and order. Rep. Jerry Nadler was seen dozing off during a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee. The viral video clip began whipping around Twitter Wednesday. “Disgrace … sleeping through this,” a low voice off-camera can be heard whispering. “Might want to wake him up.” The Wednesday hearing focused on edits to a regulatory reform bill before sending it to the full House floor.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Tuesday called on Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin to hold a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Special Counsel John Durham’s report, which slammed the Justice Department and the FBI for their politically motivated investigation into the Trump campaign for non-existent Russian collusion.

Hunter Biden’s lawyers on Friday made a final effort to avoid an in-person hearing for his contempt case, a motion that has now been denied by an Arkansas judge. Attorneys representing the son of President Joe Biden urged Batesville Judge Holly Meyer to soften her previous decision ordering their client’s appearance. But instead of allowing for Biden’s remote participation, Meyer ordered him to “physically appear” for all of his court dates from this point forward — beginning with a hearing on Monday.