Free Republic

**SNIP** Pelosi's best option would be a "pocket veto." Legislative leadership, of course, can't execute a "pocket veto." That's an executive function. But something very much like a "pocket veto" would serve Pelosi and her party's interests well. She could say: "I'm not sending these articles of impeachment over to the Senate. There's no point in doing so. The majority leader has made it clear that he has no interest in a 'fair trial.' There's no point in wasting everyone's time and taxpayer money to arrive at a decision that Republican senators have already made. Everyone, including each and every...

... The new ruling prevents the government from slashing more than 30% of an unemployed person's benefits under the program. That guarantees unemployed residents at least 300 euros ($333) per month. Even then, the punishment can be waived if it threatens to cause extreme hardship. The three-month suspension can also be shortened if an individual works with their government-appointed adviser to seek employment or enroll in a training program. Housing and healthcare assistance will continue to be provided under the new policy. The decision followed a complaint from a resident who turned down a warehouse job because he wanted to...

Police have developed a laser-based defense system, similar in essence to the Iron Dome system and intended to thwart incendiary balloons and drones launched from Gaza toward Israel, Yisrael Hayom reported. The laser system is known as the "Light Blade", and police say it is the first in the world to demonstrate operational capability to blast balloons and drones. The balloons and kite threat from Gaza that sparked fires in the south and hilly localities and that have the capability to carry payloads and other explosive devices, led the Border Patrol and the Police Means Development Department - in collaboration...

Today the DC U.S. Attorney requested a one week delay prior to submitting a second briefing for the sentencing of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. According to the filing, the DOJ is seeking a one week delay, from Dec 30th to January 6th, in order to gather more material for a new sentencing memorandum. Due to Flynn’s non-cooperation, it is anticipated the DOJ will enhance the prior memo from December 2018 and ask for a more severe sentence.

Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson revealed in a new book titled, “Crime in Progress” which is set to be released next month that he was first hired to investigate Donald Trump “in the fall of 2015.” Simpson also claims that memos from the Christopher Steele dossier paid for by Hillary Clinton and her camp made its way directly “to President Obama.” Hillary Clinton and the DNC during the 2016 presidential election hid their payments to oppos research firm Fusion GPS and Steele through their law firm Perkins Coie. Perkins Coie paid Fusion GPS who then paid former British spy Christopher...

A new paper by three top researchers has revealed public health researchers are “are much more supportive of gun control than are either criminologists or economists.” The report, authored by John R. Lott, Arther Z. Berg. MD, and Gary A. Mauser, is headlined “Expert Views on Gun Laws.” Lott is founder and president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, Berg is at the Harvard University Department of Psychiatry and Mauser is with the Simon Fraser University Beedie School of Business. The eight-page report appears in the Winter edition of Regulation, the Cato Institute’s review of Business and Government. The trio...

FORT RUCKER — Those who know him best in Army Aviation refer to him as a “national treasure.” Jack Holmes, a Vietnam veteran who retired from the Army as a Chief Warrant Officer 4, has been the G-3 installation air traffic and airspace official for the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence and Fort Rucker for 30 years. After half a century of combined active duty and Department of the Army civilian service, Holmes made his final flight, landing on Howze Field Dec. 19, closing the chapter in his life marked “federal service.” “Today we witnessed the culmination of 50...

I explore Surah 60, which reveals Muhammad's propensity to break treaties. I also contrast the self-serving ethics of Muhammad and his religion with the morality of the Bible.

The most comprehensive analysis of its kind suggests that there is a strong link between non-HDL cholesterol levels and long-term risk for cardiovascular disease in people aged under 45 years, not just at older ages. The amount of non-HDL cholesterol and low-density lipoproteins (LDL) in the blood are accepted as causal risk factors for cardiovascular disease, and play a significant part in predicting a person's risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Using their data, the authors assessed and confirmed the long-term association between cholesterol levels and cardiovascular event risk. The model also estimated how much risk could be reduced if non-HDL...

Scientists at Wake Forest School of Medicine have identified a dead probiotic that reduces age-related leaky gut in older mice. The study is published in the journal GeroScience. But what exactly is leaky gut and what does a probiotic -- dead or alive -- have to do with it? Some research has indicated that leaky gut, in which microbes and bacteria in the gut leak into the blood stream through holes or cracks in the intestinal lining, causes an increase in low-grade inflammation, and these conditions are common in older people. This resulting inflammation is thought to play a role...

A ketone-supplemented diet may protect neurons from death during the progression of Alzheimer's disease, according to research in mice recently published in JNeurosci. Early in the development of Alzheimer's disease, the brain becomes over excited, potentially through the loss of inhibitory, or GABAergic, interneurons that keep other neurons from signaling too much. Because interneurons require more energy compared to other neurons, they may be more susceptible to dying when they encounter the Alzheimer's disease protein amyloid beta. Amyloid beta has been shown to damage mitochondria -- the metabolic engine for cells -- by interfering with SIRT3, a protein that preserves...

An autologous stem cell therapy for Parkinson’s disease (PD), with a potential to alter disease progression, received a boost when the programme received a seed funding totalling $6.5m from a group of venture capitalist firms. The funding is likely to help the company in advancing the programme to different stages of clinical development. Aspen Neuroscience aims to tackle the disease by using the patient’s own cells obtained via a skin biopsy and turning that into pluripotent stem cells that are then differentiated into dopamine-releasing neurons, which can be introduced back into the patient with the objective of replacing neurons that...

Currently there are no treatments for Advanced Dry AMD, also known as GA, which can lead to significant central vision loss.The National Eye Institute (NEI), one of the federally funded National Institutes of Health, is launching the first clinical trial in the US for induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC), stem cells that are derived from mature human cells. The iPSC in the landmark study are being derived from the patient’s own blood and developed into retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells for the treatment of geographic atrophy (GA), the advanced form of dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which causes progressive central...

Researchers at the University of Houston are pioneering a unique method for developing biological pacemakers: converting stem cells found in fat to biologic pacemaker cells.Pharmacologist and UH associate professor Bradley McConnell, BS, PhD, is leading the effort and published his team’s latest results in the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology. The results build on colleague and co-author Robert J. Schwartz’s 2012 finding that adipogenic mesenchymal stem cells in fat tissue could be reprogrammed into cardiac progenitor cells.Those same progenitor cells are now being programmed by McConnell et al. to act as biologic pacemaker cells—cells responsible for keeping hearts...

(CNN)At least nine people have died after a plane carrying 95 passengers and five crew members crashed shortly after takeoff near the city of Almaty in Kazakhstan on Friday morning. The plane "lost altitude after takeoff and broke through a concrete fence," before colliding with a two-story building at approximately 7:22 a.m., local time, according to Almaty aviation authorities. The domestic flight, operated by Kazakhstan-based Bek Air, was scheduled to fly from Almaty, the country's largest city, to the capital Nur-Sultan.

In a stunning takedown of MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple wrote Thursday that the liberal cable news star “rooted for” British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s dossier, which served as the basis for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against Trump campaign official Carter Page, to be the smoking gun that would force the president out of office. In an op-ed titled, “Rachel Maddow rooted for the Steele dossier to be true. Then it fell apart,” Wemple wrote, “She seemed to be rooting for the document.” He added, “As part of her Russianist phase, Maddow became a...

Christian social teaching tells us to look after the needy and the impoverished, and this certainly includes matters of health and illness. Because of this, American conservatives, who are in large part Christian, often are criticized for opposing the specific policy prescriptions of the left such as single-payer health care. In particular, pro-life advocates are called hypocrites for opposing presumably life-saving health insurance plans fully paid by the government. It is an old and tired argument that nevertheless remains popular among supporters of abortion rights. Ryan T. Anderson, a senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation and editor in chief...

S&P 500 has surged 50%, while average is only 23% Got money in a mutual fund? Have a bit of a stock portfolio? Those shares your aunt left you? Even a retirement or pension plan? You gotta like President Donald Trump. A report from CNBC explains that the stock markets under Trump stack up "well" against the majority of his predecessors. "The S&P 500 has returned more than 50% since Trump was elected, more than double the 23% average market return of presidents three years into their term, according to data from Bespoke Investment Group dating to 1928," the report...

Glossary Term | Motion to Table/motion to table -  Used in both the Senate and House, if adopted a motion to table PERMANENTLY KILLS a pending matter and ends any further debate on the matter.  Searched For: tabling a resolution Results 1 - 25 of 3517.      

“If a kid hasn’t showered in a couple days, everybody knows,” he said. “Or if you’re wearing the same clothes, or they’re not clean, by having a place where kids can get a shower and get their clothes clean, it normalizes things and removes some of the stigma that makes coming to school and focusing more difficult.” About 1% of students in the Poway Unified School District are classified as “youth in transition,” Henry said. At Abraxas, the district’s continuation high school, 14% of students fall into that category, which broadly means they lack a stable place to live.