Free Republic

A federal judge in San Diego on Friday overturned California’s three-decade ban on assault weapons, saying it violates the Second Amendment."Under no level of heightened scrutiny can the law survive," U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez said before issuing a permanent injunction that takes effect in 30 days. Benitez argued the state’s definition of illegal military-style rifles bans firearms allowed in other states, depriving California gun owners of their rights.He compared the AR-15 rifle to a Swiss Army knife, saying it’s "a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment. Good for both home and battle."

Loss of smell or taste, or both, is common in COVID-19 infected patients, particularly in patients with mild symptoms. Although research has focused on the causes underlying lung infections in COVID-19 patients, the causes of neurological symptoms have remained a mystery.Researchers have now explained the mechanisms involved in the loss of smell (anosmia) in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 at different stages of the disease, in an article published in Science Translational Medicine, “COVID-19-related anosmia is associated with viral persistence and inflammation in human olfactory epithelium and brain infection in hamsters.”Using noninvasive nasal brush sampling, scientists at the Institut Pasteur, CNRS,...

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the pace of vaccine development has surpassed anyone’s wildest expectations. Unfortunately, drug development for treatments has not kept the same pace. Indeed, there are still very few effective treatments for COVID-19. Now, a collaboration between four research institutes has identified the antimalarial drug amodiaquine as a potent inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 infection in human lung cells and in living preclinical models. This breakthrough helped secure the inclusion of amodiaquine in a COVID-19 clinical trial that is currently underway in 13 different countries in Africa where this drug is inexpensive and widely available.The research is published in...

Australia on Monday defended its decision to penalise its own citizens entering the country within two weeks of being in COVID-ravaged India, saying it had "strong, clear and absolute" belief the move was legal.Health Minister Greg Hunt pointed to the alarming surge of coronavirus cases in India and the pressure on Australia's health system as reasons to pause travel until May 15.Australia's quarantine hotels have seen a 1,500% spike in COVID-19 cases from India since March, raising questions about pre-departure testing in India and leading to this "agonising decision," Hunt said.Australia, which has largely contained the novel coronavirus, closed its...

The Biden administration’s announcement on Monday that it would soon export tens of millions of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine completed a dramatic policy U-turn. It came after a tumultuous week in which the administration’s carefully constructed pandemic-diplomacy plan fell apart as the COVID-19 crisis in India worsened. The Biden administration needs to learn from this misstep and demonstrate a more agile approach in managing the pandemic globally and in navigating the domestic politics of foreign policy.President Joe Biden’s foreign-policy team supports India and is unambiguously internationalist in its instincts, especially on matters of public health. It was horrified by...

DUNEDIN — A federal court upheld the City of Dunedin’s decision to issue almost $30,000 in code violation fines in 2018 to a homeowner for an overgrown lawn.Jim Ficken sued Dunedin in May 2019 after the city agreed to foreclose on his home, according to court records. He and his lawyers argued Dunedin’s fines were excessive and given with no notice.After a two-year legal battle, a judge from the Middle District of Florida ruled on Monday that the 71-year-old will have to pay up. Ficken said he plans to appeal the court’s decision.“The city’s behavior toward Jim is outrageous,” read...

You’ve heard of people “drinking away their pain,” but a new study has scientifically proven that alcohol is actually an effective painkiller.University of Greenwich’s Trevor Thompson led the review study that looked at 18 different experiments which tested the reactions of more than 400 healthy people. Their reactions were measured when exposed to controlled pain (such as heat, cold and pressure) both without alcohol and under the influence of alcohol.Thompson concluded that there is “robust evidence that alcohol is an effective painkiller.”“Although the finding that alcohol results in reduced pain might seem obvious to many people, results from individual studies...

Joe Biden’s presidency offered hope for extensive change in the nation. One of the many measures that we looked forward to was the American Rescue Plan. Many proposals were added to the plan; however, a proposal to increase the minimum wage to $15 was left out. Senator Bernie Sanders offered an amendment to the bill that would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2025; however, the amendment was voted down by a 58 to 42 count where the Senate parliamentarian determined the wage hike did not qualify under Senate rules. President Biden’s response to this was...

Brazil has recorded more than 4,000 Covid-related deaths in 24 hours for the first time, as a more contagious variant fuels a surge in cases.Hospitals are overcrowded, with people dying as they wait for treatment in some cities, and the health system is on the brink of collapse in many areas.The country's total death toll is now almost 337,000, second only to the US.But President Jair Bolsonaro continues to oppose any lockdown measures to curb the outbreak.He argues that the damage to the economy would be worse than the effects of the virus itself, and has tried to reverse some...

Why did he choose that particular King Soopers supermarket? Let's look at some facts. and check out this article from the New York Post. pay careful attention to the picture of the home. In fact, let me make it easy.Now that we have this knowledge, we can do a google search for grocery stores that are closer to the shooters home and we see that there were plenty of other targets that were closer. There was, in fact, a King Soopers that was located only 5 minutes away from him. Why drive 20 minutes away when there's a similar store...

The alleged gunman charged with slaughtering 10 people at a Colorado supermarket bought a gun a week prior to the shooting — and was caught “playing” with it by a family member, according to new court documents.Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa purchased a Ruger AR-556 pistol on March 16 — six days before going on a deadly rampage at the King Soopers in Boulder, according to an affidavit unsealed Tuesday.His sister-in-law, whose name is redacted, told investigators that she saw Alissa, 21, “playing with a firearm she thought looked like a ‘machine gun'” in the days prior to the shooting, the...

Quid pro ho, smoked the Mary Joe don't you know?She even said so.Listening to Tupac and Snoop Dawg like she was born in a ghettoBut then she got mean on the green, and despite her Jamaica geneShe joined the police teamand cracked down on the weed sceneAll over town, all over Willie BrownA tribute to skanks moving up in the ranksShe was laughing out loud while prosecuting the dankShe never looked back or gave a second thoughtAs she incarcerated people for smoking potTime went on and she made it to the topBut never forget, she used to be a copHer...

President Joe Biden said in an interview broadcast Wednesday that he plans to raise taxes on Americans making more than $400,000 a year as his post-stimulus legislative plans come into focus."Anybody making more than $400,000 will see a small to a significant tax increase," he told ABC News. "If you make less than $400,000, you won't see one single penny in additional federal tax."Speaking with NBC News, two administration officials earlier confirmed that Biden and his top aides are discussing the framework to increase taxes on Americans making more than $400,000 and on large corporations.The officials stressed that the full...

As the global public health crisis continues, it is useful to reflect that its cause is the actions and policies of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Their conduct has been reprehensible. They have suppressed whistleblowers and information, destroyed lab samples and prevented the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) from gaining access when it might have blunted a global outbreak. Let’s examine the timeline of the origins of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Last December, China knew the virus was transmitted human to human. Between Dec. 27, 2019, and Jan. 5, 2020, five firms and...

ROME (Reuters) - An Italian study supporting the case that the novel coronavirus was circulating outside China earlier than thought has sparked doubts among some Western scientists who called for further tests.A paper published by the Italian Cancer Institute (INT) describes the presence of neutralizing antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in blood taken from healthy patients in Italy in October last year during a lung cancer screening trial.All of the patients in the study were asymptomatic despite most being 55-65 years old and having been smokers. This would normally be a high-risk group for COVID-19, so it is puzzling why all patients...

TOLEDO, Ohio — Two young boys are dead and a third underwent surgery and is in critical condition following a shooting at a south Toledo apartment complex, police confirmed on Friday.The shooting occurred on the 800 block of Byrneport Drive on Friday evening. Toledo police officers arrived and found three boys inside the apartment, all suffering from at least one gunshot wound. The children were treated at the scene before being taken to the hospital.Ahmir Phillips, 5, and Gabriel Phillips, 1, died at the hospital. Ashton Phillips, 4, remains in critical condition, with Toledo police saying he "continues to fight...

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the B.1.1.7 variant of COVID-19 which was said to be 50% to 70% more contagious, has now been discovered to also be 30% deadlier. The CDC warns it could become the dominant strain in the US by March.The UK's chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, broke it down this way, according to CNN. “If you took... a man in their 60s, the average risk is that for 1,000 people who got infected, roughly 10 would be expected to unfortunately die with the virus. With the new variant, for 1,000 people infected, roughly 13 or...

There were whispers that the virus had been manufactured in a laboratory in that city and that somehow the little spiky ball that has killed millions and brought the world’s economy to its knees escaped. But nobody much believed it and certainly what’s known as the mainstream press for the most part ignored it. Until now.

A top attorney on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team investigating alleged Trump campaign ties to Russia also represented the IT staffer who set up Hillary Clinton’s private email server, a report said.Aaron Zebley was an attorney for Justin Cooper, the IT aide who set up the private email server and who destroyed Clinton’s old Blackberry phones with a hammer, Fox News’s Tucker Carlson reported on Dec. 7. Documents obtained by Fox News show that Zebley, as Cooper’s acting attorney, “stonewalled” Senate investigators who wanted to question Cooper regarding Clinton’s mishandling of classified information. “We are troubled by [Zebley’s] complete refusal...

Moments ago, the special counsel released Michael Flynn’s “Statement of the Offense.” This document lays out Flynn’s crimes in far greater detail than the short “information” released earlier today. It’s important to state this clearly as possible — the statement contains no evidence of collusion with Russia to influence the presidential election. Instead, it amplifies the fact that Flynn apparently lied about contacts that were lawful and appropriate.First, the statement says that the day after President Obama announced sanctions in response to Russian efforts to interfere with the 2016 election, Flynn called a “senior official of the Presidential Transition Team...