Free Republic

Police escorted the fiancé of Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nicole “Nikki” Fried off the premises of the Westin Beach Resort in Ft. Lauderdale Beach last weekend after a witness said he threw a trash can during a public argument that ended with them getting in a vehicle, driving over a curb and then heading south down State Road A1A with a flat tire. [Snip] Fried is the only statewide elected Democrat in Florida and viewed as a possible 2022 candidate for governor or U.S. Senate. Her spokeswoman told the Miami Herald that “an argument with her fiancé escalated further than either...

Challenger Bob Good has ousted Rep. Denver Riggleman, R-5th in a rancorous drive-thru convention for the party's nomination. Voting in the all-day convention at a church in Campbell County concluded at 7 p.m., but party officials did not announce the results until after 1 a.m. Fifth District GOP chairman Melvin Adams said 2,537 delegates voted Saturday. Good said he received 58% of the tally. On Twitter Riggleman asserted that "voting irregularities and ballot stuffing has been reported in multiple counties" in the district. He added: "We are evaluating all our options at this time." As for Riggleman's allegations, Good said:...

While self-driving cars won't get distracted or drive drunk, that only accounts for a third of wrecks that occur, according to the insurance industry. In a blow to hopes for a future free of car crashes with the coming of self-driving cars, a study released Thursday by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows totally driverless cars would have a difficult time achieving such a goal. The IIHS looked at more than 5,000 police-reported crashes from the National Motor Vehicle Crash Causation Survey, which the insurance industry-funded group said represents vehicle crashes that resulted in one car towed and required...

Twice in a 24-hour period, the president of the United States took to Twitter to endorse violence. The first time, at 12:00 a.m. on Thursday, he retweeted a video in which a supporter says, “The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.” Then, early Friday morning, as protests over the police killing of George Floyd erupted in Minneapolis and turned violent, Donald Trump tweeted that “THUGS” were “dishonoring” Mr. Floyd’s memory. He concluded with a chilling warning, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Trump is by no means the first American president to talk tough or to threaten the...

One of America’s favorite game shows “The Price Is Right” donated nearly $100,000 to the abortion chain Planned Parenthood on Monday night. Yahoo News reports the CBS special “The Price Is Right at Night” featured celebrity guest drag queen RuPaul playing for donations to the billion-dollar abortion group. According to the report, the show matched the contestants’ winnings with a donation to RuPaul’s charity of choice, and the contestants won prizes valued at $97,266. On the show, RuPaul said he chose Planned Parenthood because it “provides vital and often free services to both men and women.” But many fans were...

At least 1,000 Kentuckians protested Saturday in Frankfort against Gov. Andy Beshear’s decision to allow abortions to continue while restricting church gatherings and small businesses. Kentucky Today reports protesters urged the governor to reopen the state and allow people to return to church and work. Like many Democrat governors, Beshear restricted church gatherings, small businesses, non-essential medical care and more to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus and preserve medical supplies for life-saving medical care. However, the governor allowed an exception for elective abortions – after the state’s only abortion clinic donated to his campaign, something state Rep. Stan...

There is an outcry over a video of an NYPD officer taking down a bystander who was watching officers make an arrest for an apparent social distancing violation this weekend. The incident was reported Saturday evening around 5:30 on 9th Street and Avenue D in the East Village. As a couple was being arrested, video shows one of the officers break away from that arrest to walk up to a bystander with his taser drawn -- swearing and telling him to move back. Video showed the plainclothes officer, who was not wearing a protective face mask, slapping 33-year-old Donni Wright...

TEL AVIV – An Israeli hospital will begin testing COVID-19 patients with medicinal cannabis, which is known to have anti-viral properties, as part of a new experimental treatment. Researchers are investigating cannabidiol, the non-psychoactive component of cannabis also known as CBD, can slow down the spread of the virus and stop moderate patients from turning critical. Dozens of COVID-19 patients in moderate condition at Ichilov Medical Center in Tel Aviv are expected to be treated. Barak Cohen, a senior anesthesiologist who is in charge of managing the hospital’s coronavirus response, stressed the treatment would alleviate symptoms by using “a component...

...Amash has a long record of supporting government intervention to facilitate transgenderism. He once voted to appropriate taxpayer dollars from Christians and other Americans so military personnel could have their genitals mutilated:...Amash announced his presidential campaign last week, likely an effort to sabotage President Trump in the key battleground state of Michigan. But with Amash going around promoting trannies, he may pull more liberal voters than conservatives.

The Army Times appointed as its top editor a 28-year-old feminist from Brooklyn who has repeatedly tweeted that she hates President Donald Trump and worked as a spokeswoman for a New York councilman who describes himself as a “moderate Democrat.” After interning for several Democrats, graduating Hofstra University in 2014, and contemplating art school, Sarah Sicard wrote for a marijuana publication called the “Bluntness,” served as communications director for a New York city council member, and worked in corporate PR, according to her resume and online bios.

This piece by Dr. Ashish K. Jha, Director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, is absolutely crucial reading, especially by Washington policymakers handling the COVID-19 crisis. It puts forth the steps that must be taken immediately if we are to reopen the economy as soon as possible without a resurgence of this ghastly disease. The key is a rapid ramp-up of testing: The COVID-19 pandemic is taking an unprecedented toll on Americans and on the country’s daily life. President Trump has said he wants to open up again—we all do. The real question is how we reopen in a way...

NASHVILLE (BP) -- The death of Truett Foster McKeehan, 21, son of Christian rapper TobyMac, was caused by an accidental overdose of fentanyl and amphetamines. The cause was listed on a report from the Davidson County (Tenn.) medical examiner, according to the Tennessean newspaper. McKeehan's death was sudden. Emergency crews found him dead on arrival to his home after a call was made regarding a person in cardiac arrest. The report showed potential nitrous oxide use, known also a laughing gas, as well as Adderall and marijuana. Metro Public Health Department records for Davidson County show that deaths as a...

SNIP “We both have a dream in life and that is to get Gayle to smoke weed,” Winfrey said of her best friend, while talking with Schumer on a recent episode of her podcast “Oprah’s Super Soul Conversations.” Winfrey explained that as long as she’s known the “CBS This Morning” co-host, King has stayed away from the hard stuff. “In all the years that I’ve been besties with Gayle and that’s since 1976, and I’ve been with Stedman [Graham] since 1685, in all those years neither he nor Gayle has ever had a sip of anything,” she said, adding that...

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) is calling for the U.S. to legalize currently illicit drugs. “If we take that step to legalize and regulate, then we're no longer treating people who are struggling with substance addiction and abuse as criminals and instead getting them the help that they need,” the 2020 presidential candidate said at a campaign stop in Merrimack, New Hampshire on Friday. She was responding to a voter who asked whether her plan to end the war on drugs centered on more harm reduction and treatment or if it involved moving to “legalize and regulate narcotics so that you're...

A hemp field near Fresno, Calif., is marked with a no trespassing sign that indicates the plant growing here is hemp, not marijuana. Photo courtesy of Fresno County Sheriff's Office =================================================================== EVANSVILLE, Ind., Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Across the country, newly legal hemp plants are being mistaken for their close cousin, marijuana. And they're attracting thieves. "They thought they stumbled upon the field of dreams," said Ashleigh Baldwin, a hemp grower in Coopersburg, Pa., who experienced two people stealing hemp from her fields last summer. "It really does look, smell and feel a lot like marijuana." While a hemp is...

Abby Huntsman announced on Monday she’s quitting “The View” to join her father, Jon Huntsman Jr., on his Utah gubernatorial campaign. But Page Six is told that the campaign isn’t the real reason for her exit from the ABC fixture, which has recently been rocked by a breakdown in the relationship between Meghan McCain and her fellow panelists. “It’s an unhealthy environment — just the way that things are handled during shows and how people deal with each other,” said an insider familiar with Huntsman’s thinking. “It’s intense.” “Abby made an issue [to executives] about the overall environment. She’s felt...

On Monday, during an interview with the Des Moines Register, 2020 presidential hopeful mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg said drug possession should not result in jail time. Buttigieg said, “Incarceration should not even be a response to drug possession. What I have seen is while there continues to be all kinds of harms associated with drug possession and use, it is also the case that we have created in an effort to deal with a public health problem, we have created an even bigger problem — a justice problem, and it’s own form of a health problem when...

"No voices calling for peace. No voices critical of empire. Just establishment media and current and former Pentagon officials who feed off the trillion dollar war machine." As President Donald Trump spent the early days of 2020 instigating and then backing down from a potentially catastrophic confrontation with Iran, corporate media in the U.S. turned to the very same people who promoted the country's worst foreign policy disaster in a generation to advocate for repeating the mistakes of two decades ago. The decision of networks and cable news outlets like CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News to bring on a stream of past advocates for...

Neil Peart, the drummer behind the band Rush, has made it known that, as a “bleeding-heart libertarian,” he encourages people to support Democrats. […] Rolling Stone notes that Peart's newfound beliefs appear to prioritize the “bleeding-heart” aspect over the “libertarian” one. Speaking of the libertarian-oriented Senator Rand Paul, a 2016 presidential candidate, Peart allegedly told Rolling Stone it is “very obvious” that Paul "hates women and brown people.” […] Peart, who recently became a United States citizen, told Rolling Stone, “For a person of my sensibility, you’re only left with the Democratic party.” …

Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee declared in a heated press conference Wednesday afternoon that national security officials had just delivered the "worst military briefing" he had ever seen on Capitol Hill, even claiming that one official had warned during the "lame" and "insane" meeting that Congress shouldn't debate whether additional military action against Iran would be appropriate. Democrats piled on, with Virginia Democratic Rep. Gerald E. Connolly calling the briefing "sophomoric and utterly unconvincing." Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, for her part, asserted that she has been "stricken with PTSD" due to recent developments and condemned President Trump's new sanctions...