Free Republic

Media analysts on CNN and MSNBC agreed Wednesday that liberal Justice Stephen Breyer's retirement would allow President Biden a chance to make history and appoint the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, and restore his embattled administration's tattered image. Breyer, 83, is retiring, Fox News confirmed Wednesday. A source close to Breyer told Fox News that the justice will step down at the end of the current Supreme Court term early this summer. Pundits largely agreed that while a new Biden appointee would not change the ideological makeup of the court, it could serve as a symbolic and historic...

A Short Jolt, a Pause and Another Jolt

Palestinian militants barraged Israel with more than 200 rockets on Thursday, killing three people as Israel pressed a punishing campaign of airstrikes on militant targets across the Gaza Strip. Late in the day, Israel signaled a ground operation may be imminent as forces moved toward the border area with Gaza. At least 12 trucks were seen transporting tanks and armored personnel carriers, and a number of buses carrying soldiers arrived. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said he had authorized the army to call-up additional reservists for possible action. The army said it was prepared to draft up to 30,000 additional...

The CNBC headline says it all: "Job Openings Report Show Market is…Really, Really Bad" - not the stuff of which re-election campaigns are made. It is all about the newest JOLTS (Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey) report from the Labor Department that new job openings declined by 325,000 in April; an 8% drop in just one month.  New hires also declined in April by 160,000.  Nearly 9-out-of-10 of the decline in job openings was in the private sector that President Obama claims is "doing fine."  "The reading for April job openings offered by employers retreated sharply from its highest...

The arrow on this MRI of a brain shows areas where researchers applied electrical stimulation. In an experiment likely to raise new hopes for those with memory-robbing diseases such as Alzheimer's, researchers have found that sending an electrical jolt to a part of the brain that plays a key role in memory improved people's ability to learn — and remember — their way across an unfamiliar landscape. The study, conducted at UCLA and published in Thursday's edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, was small and highly preliminary, involving just seven patients with epilepsy. But deep brain stimulation helped...

Much of the media's attention is focused on Election Day. But another event Tuesday could have a far greater effect on the one overriding issue that looks likely to lead to major Republican gains. The Federal Reserve, at a meeting of policymakers Tuesday and Wednesday, is poised to take dramatic steps to jolt the economy awake. With Ben Bernanke and Company running out of conventional tools to address the slump, the moment is one of the most crucial since the downturn began nearly three years ago. The Fed has already pumped money into the economy by buying over $1.7 trillion...

WASHINGTON – America is bringing shock and awe to the home front, using dollars instead of bombs. It's the military doctrine of lightning force — fast and brute, or as brute as the shaken country can manage — applied to the campaign for economic recovery. With a record-busting stimulus plan, the U.S. is marshaling resources against economic catastrophe in ways not seen since Franklin Roosevelt put the New Deal in motion.

A North Attleboro man faces financial ruin because he built a new home so close to dangerous high-voltage transmission lines that fluorescent bulbs inside the house light up without even being plugged in. The electric currents running through the two-story home are considered so potentially harmful that the town’s fire department has strung “caution” tape around the house while an electrical inspector has refused to issue a final permit out of fear someone might get electrocuted. The home’s metallic door knobs and exterior shingles give off mild electric jolts when touched, while flowing currents are strong enough to light up...

When Christine Drake worked as a Starbucks barista, the Seattle woman with psychiatric disabilities said it was the first time in her life that she "felt a sense of accomplishment." But after two years on the job, a new manager at the Starbucks store at 425 Queen Anne Ave. N. in Seattle allegedly discriminated against Drake, decreased her hours and berated her in front of customers, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Lisa Cox, an EEOC lawyer, said the world's largest coffee retailer ignored Drake's requests for help and violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by not accommodating...