Free Republic

The pro-life movement is often criticized for supposedly imposing religious views on others. However, those in favor of abortion sometimes express devotion to a much darker aspect of spirituality. On Saturday, members of Students for Life, a pro-life group based in Virginia, had a sinister encounter with an abortion supporter. According to Kristan Hawkins, the group’s president, members of the Students for Life chapter at Whatcom Community College in Bellingham, Washington, were gathered to pray peacefully outside of a Planned Parenthood clinic when they were antagonized by pro-abortion advocates. Top videos 1/5 GOP Group Angry That This Rep. Is Running...

March Madness 2020 will be unlike any NCAA Tournament ever. The NCAA announced on Wednesday that both the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments will be played without fans after consulting with its coronavirus advisory panel. “Based on [the panel’s] advice and my discussions with the NCAA Board of Governors, I have made the decision to conduct our upcoming championship events, including the Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, with only essential staff and limited family attendance,” NCAA president Mark Emmert said in a statement.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is quickly unveiling a coronavirus aid package while President Donald Trump is considering a national disaster declaration and new travel advisories as Washington raced Wednesday to confront the outbreak that's moving dramatically across the country and disrupting the daily lives of Americans. After days of trying to downplay the threat, Trump announced he would be delivering a prime-time Oval Office address to the nation Wednesday at 9 p.m. on the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic. The swiftly mounting effort to contain the outbreak and financial fallout intensified on a grueling day as the number of...

The White House Coronavirus Task Force today recommended 30-day mitigation strategies for Seattle-King, Pierce, and Snohomish County, Washington, and Santa Clara County, California due to widespread transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). These mitigation activities are designed to address the effects of COVID-19 on areas that are experiencing community spread.“President Trump has made clear that the Task Force must move decisively to protect the health and safety of the American people,” said Vice President Mike Pence. “These recommendations outline a whole-of-community approach to immediately minimize the impacts of coronavirus in these cities and towns. I look forward to the...

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows: It is the policy of the United States to take proactive measures to prepare for and respond to public health threats, including the public health emergency involving Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), which was declared by the Secretary of Health and Human Services on February 4, 2020, pursuant to section 564 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 360bbb-3). We must ensure that our healthcare providers have full access to the products...

NCAA President Mark Emmert statement on limiting attendance at NCAA events: http://on.ncaa.com/gabyq[snip]I have made the decision to conduct our upcoming championship events, including the Division I men's and women's basketball tournaments, with only essential staff and limited family attendance.[snip]

East Room 5:01 P.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much and good afternoon. The First Lady and I — please — are delighted to welcome you all to the White House for this very special occasion — and that it is. Today, it is my great privilege to present our nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to a courageous warrior and fearless patriot: General Jack Keane. (Applause.) Thank you. We are excited to have Jack’s wife Angela with us today, along with his brother Ronald and son Daniel. Thank you all very much. That’s great....

Oil prices crashed after Russia and Saudi Arabia announced that they will abandon OPEC production quotas and open the taps, and while drillers and oilfield service companies are feeling the pain, the world’s largest oil traders are eyeing huge profits. After all, volatility is a trader’s best friend.

As New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo declares a state of emergency amid a spike in coronavirus cases, the state's attorney general, Letitia James, is going after a Chrisitan televangelist for "false advertising." A guest of The Jim Bakker Show on Feb. 12, Sherrill Sellman, was asked if the "Silver Solution," sold for $125 on his website, would be effective against the coronavirus. "Let's say it hasn't been tested on this strain of the coronavirus," Sellman, a naturopathic doctor, is quoted as saying, "but it's been tested on other trains of the coronavirus and has been able to eliminate it within...

I will be addressing the Nation this evening at 9:00 P.M. (Eastern) from the Oval Office. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1237841878889840642

Gov. Jay Inslee ordered a halt Wednesday to all gatherings of more than 250 people in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties, and ordered schools across the state to immediately begin contingency planning for potential closures in the next several days. ..... Shortly after Inslee’s announcement, Seattle Public Schools, the state’s largest school district, announced that schools would close for a minimum of two weeks.

Gun control proponent Gabby Giffords announced her endorsement of Joe Biden for president on Monday. Giffords made a name for herself pushing background checks for all gun sales after a man with a pistol, acquired via a background check, attacked her on January 8, 2011. Biden is a proponent of universal background checks, too, and he also supports a ban on “high capacity” magazines, AR-15s, and other commonly owned semiautomatic rifles. Biden is also pushing to repeal the protections that prevent frivolous lawsuits against gun makers, and he was critical of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) for signing a law...

Two things are becoming increasingly clear in the race for the Democratic nomination. Former Vice President Joe Biden now looks unstoppable after another excellent primary/caucus showing, defeating Bernie Sanders in Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri and Michigan Tuesday. And should he get the nod before or during the Democratic National Convention, his running mate will almost certainly be a woman. Biden is now a massive -2500 favorite to earn the nomination on the heels of a dominant Super Tuesday performance. Biden has soared in U.S. Presidential odds as well, closing from +1700 to +120 in two weeks. 888sport's UK-facing betting site lists...

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the outbreak will get worse and warned the U.S. must take serious mitigation efforts. The federal government’s top infectious disease expert told lawmakers Wednesday that the novel coronavirus spreading across the globe is 10 times more lethal than the seasonal flu. “I mean people always say, 'Well, the flu does this, the flu does that,'” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), said Wednesday during a hearing before the House Oversight and Reform Committee. “The flu has a mortality...

Hunter Biden’s lawyers told an Arkansas judge on Tuesday that he is unable to attend a child support deposition scheduled for this week due to coronavirus and his pregnant wife’s imminent due date. “It is unsafe for the Defendant to travel, as travel restrictions have been implemented both domestically and internationally, particularly on airlines, due to the Coronavirus,” Hunter Biden’s lawyer wrote in a court filing. “Setting aside personal endangerment, Defendant reasonably believes that such travel unnecessarily exposes his wife and unborn child to this virus.”

A staffer says claim that knowing Hillary Clinton causes more deaths than coronavirus was “clearly a joke.” The legislator, Gae Magnafici, took office in January 2019 after a 35-year career as a nurse. It’s obviously nonsense to compare Clinton in any way with a global virus outbreak that has killed thousands. As America’s coronavirus death toll hit 19 and the number of cases topped 400 on March 7, 2020, one Wisconsin branch of Twitter wasn’t exactly taking the matter seriously. It started innocuously enough with a tweet from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Molly Beck. She shared a link to a...

Excerpt: This case, a man in his mid-50s, is the first example of “community spread” of COVID-19 in Ohio, said Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton. This means the man had no history of travel outside the United States, and had no known contact with someone else with the disease. The patient is currently hospitalize, and health officials in Canton and Stark County are investigating the large number of contacts the patient had, state officials said.

SANTA FE — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham declared a public health emergency Wednesday as the first cases of COVID-19 surfaced in New Mexico. To slow transmission of the virus, the governor urged people to avoid public gatherings, sanitize common surfaces and minimize contact with other individuals, even if it means staying home from church or going out less often. Three New Mexico residents tested positive for COVID-19 early Wednesday and are now isolating themselves at home — the first confirmed cases in the state, the governor said. All three cases, she said, are travel-related — a good sign because it...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House has ordered federal health officials to treat top-level coronavirus meetings as classified, an unusual step that has restricted information and hampered the U.S. government’s response to the contagion, according to four Trump administration officials. The officials said that dozens of classified discussions about such topics as the scope of infections, quarantines and travel restrictions have been held since mid-January in a high-security meeting room at the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), a key player in the fight against the coronavirus. Staffers without security clearances, including government experts, were excluded from the interagency...

An abortion advocate’s macabre choice of jewelry inadvertently highlighted the dark history of infanticide, a form of killing that was recorded in the earliest books of the Bible. The protester’s earrings were shared by the Daily Caller on Wednesday. The woman wearing the gruesome accessories was apparently spotted at a pro-abortion rally the same day. Appearing to be custom work, the earrings portray a crocodile with a small baby in its jaws. It’s unclear what message this protester was trying to send. The shock factor alone was enough to catch the Daily Caller’s attention, but it could have simply been...