Free Republic

Disney on Thursday announced it will be closing Disneyland and California Adventure Park from Saturday through the end of the month as cases of the novel coronavirus continue to rise in Southern California and nationwide. ---SNIP--- The move was made shortly after Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order calling for the cancelation of large, non-essential public gatherings in California, though he exempted theme parks and casinos from the directive. "After carefully reviewing the guidelines of the Governor of California's executive order and in the best interest of our guests and employees, we are proceeding with the closure of Disneyland...

Two Bay Area hospital staffers have been determined "presumptive positive" for coronavirus, public health officials announced. They are employed by the NorthBay VacaValley Hospital in Vacaville, where a Solano County woman was treated before being tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday. --SNIP-- Officials said both workers — one from Alameda County, the other from Solano County — had been exposed to the "community-acquired case" hospitalized at UC Davis Medical Center. They are currently in isolation at home and will not return to work until they are cleared. “We took immediate and comprehensive measures intended to stop any further spread of...

INVERNESS, Calif. (AP) — An academic couple who got lost during a Valentine's Day hike in the woods of Northern California was found Saturday by rescuers who spent almost a week looking for them and had given up hopes of finding them alive. Carol Kiparsky, 77, and Ian Irwin, 72, were found in a densely forested area near Tomales Bay, a narrow inlet about 30 miles north of San Francisco, and were airlifted to a hospital for treatment of hypothermia, Marin County Sheriff's Sgt. Brenton Schneider said at a news conference. “This is a miracle,” he said. They were unprepared...

The Milpitas City Council voted to rename a portion of a major street after President Barack Obama, meaning the city may become the first in the Silicon Valley to honor the 44th president in such a way. In a 3-2 vote after an hour of sometimes contentious debate, the council decided to change the name of a part of Dixon Landing Road to Barack Obama Boulevard. Vice Mayor Karina Dominguez and Councilmen Anthony Phan and Bob Nuñez voted in favor of the change, while Mayor Rich Tran and Councilwoman Carmen Montano voted against it. "I think it's about what President...

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, who presented herself in the presidential race as a champion of women and families, said Wednesday that she was withdrawing from the Democratic primary after failing to qualify for a third debate next month — a development she described as fatal to her candidacy. Ms. Gillibrand said in an interview that she would endorse another candidate in the primary but had not yet picked a favorite. Though she stopped short of saying she would endorse a woman, Ms. Gillibrand, who has made electing women to Congress a personal cause, said the next president had...

Hong Kong International Airport canceled all flights for the second straight day on Tuesday as crowds of anti-government protesters clashed with police as they continued to occupy the terminals. "Terminal operations at Hong Kong International Airport have been seriously disrupted, and all check-in processes have now been suspended," the airport authority said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. Travelers at the airport, one of the world's busiest, were advised to leave the terminals as quickly as possible and contact the airlines for more information. Some flights were able to depart from the airport earlier on Tuesday before the suspension was announced....

Planned Parenthood Removes Leana Wen as President By Shane Goldmacher July 16, 2019 Planned Parenthood on Tuesday removed its president after less than a year in the job, seeking new leadership at a time when abortion rights have come under increasing attack from statehouses and Republicans in Washington. The move came after hours of negotiations Tuesday between the board of directors and the president, Leana Wen, according to two people familiar with the decision. Dr. Wen had been the first physician to lead the organization in decades. The people familiar with the move said there had been internal strife over...

Trump Declares New Holiday: TanksgivingWASHINGTON D.C.—During a meeting with officials about Trump's Fourth of July tank parade, one of the men on Trump's staff jokingly said to another, "Happy Tanksgiving." The man—a father of four children (obviously)—was overheard by the president who immediately decided this "Tanksgiving" thing was a great idea. (SNIP) Tanksgiving will be the nation's first monthly holiday and will be celebrated the third Thursday of every month.

Christine Pelosi, daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, just tweeted this from her Twitter account (@sfpelosi): "This Epstein case is horrific and the young women deserve justice. It is quite likely that some of our faves are implicated but we must follow the facts and let the chips fall where they may - whether on Republicans or Democrats. #WeSaidEnough #MeToo"

OK Freepers, now that we're one (two half) debates in, who do you think are the top 6 Dem Presidential Candidates, and why? (This is the kind of thing that really could use a poll function like what used to exist on the sidebar...) Just as a reminder, here's all 20 that managed to make it to the debate stages: Joe Biden (76): Old, Slow, Creep; Cory Booker (49): Closeted nutjob with fantasy friends who complains about crime in a city he governed; Pete Buttigieg (37) Calm but annoyingly-in-your-face-gay mismanager of a small city. We thank him for his military...

9to5Mac is on the ground in San Jose, California for Apple’s 2019 Worldwide Developers Conference, and our WWDC news hub is collecting all of our coverage in one place. Apple is expected to unveil iOS 13, macOS 10.15, watchOS 6, and tvOS 13 at WWDC. There’s also the possibility of new hardware in the form of a Mac Pro and an external display. Stay tuned to 9to5Mac for all the news from San Jose and from the keynote on Monday, June 3rd at 10 am PT/1 pm ET. Everything announced: Apple officially announces watchOS 6 for Apple WatchApple officially announces tvOS 13 for...

Another creepy moment for Joe Biden Former vice president and 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden struck again Tuesday afternoon, grabbing a ten-year-old girl by the shoulders and putting his face inches from hers, just moments after telling the child she was “good looking.” “I’ll bet you’re as smart as you are good looking,” Biden told the 10-year-old girl at an American Federation of Teachers town hall in Houston. The girl was chosen to ask him a question, which he answered. Then, he got personal with her, complimenting her on her looks. When she said her favorite school subject was journalism,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tesla Inc's Autopilot feature was engaged during a fatal March 1 crash of a 2018 Model 3 in Delray Beach, Florida, in at least the third fatal U.S. crash reported involving the driver-assistance system, the National Transportation Safety Board said on Thursday. The NTSB's preliminary report said the driver engaged Autopilot about 10 seconds before crashing into a semitrailer, and the system did not detect the driver's hands on the wheel for fewer than eight seconds before the crash. The vehicle was traveling at about 68 miles (109 km) per hour (mph) on a highway with a...

(...) More than a week after the explosion, SpaceX remains silent about the incident. At this moment, even an “anomaly” in its test capsule should rattle the engineers, astronauts, and administrators invested in Dragon’s success. SpaceX was well on its way to launching American astronauts into space, a historic first in U.S. spaceflight history. (...) Barely two months ago, the same capsule was docked to the International Space Station, circling Earth. It arrived without people—this was only its first flight, after all—but plenty of fresh supplies, and the astronauts on the station opened the hatches and floated in. Several days...

WASHINGTON — Boeing confirmed April 2 it will delay the uncrewed test flight of its commercial crew vehicle, citing a tight schedule and conflicts with another launch. In a statement to SpaceNews, Boeing said the first flight of its CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, called the Orbital Flight Test, is now scheduled for August on a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. That launch had been scheduled for this spring. In the statement, Boeing said it had entered the “final phases of production” of the Starliner that will fly that uncrewed test flight. “Our Starliner team continues to press...

<p>Model 3 owners have taken to social media and online forums to air issues they’ve had with their sedans due to the frigid weather of the last week. Cold conditions are a drain on battery range, no matter the car brand. But other predicaments are particular to Tesla.</p>

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is recovering after undergoing surgery to repair a broken bone suffered in a cycling accident. A department spokeswoman says DeVos is resting at home after the Thursday surgery. She is expected to recover fully. The spokeswoman did not immediately answer questions about the accident or the nature of DeVos’ injury. (Snip. Not much more article after this...)

A DAD has died in hospital just weeks after both his ears were chopped off in a horrific machete attack. Tragic Sajed Choudry, 42, was left in a coma after the violent attack on him and his son Ahsan Choudry, 24, in November. Sajed also suffered a collapsed right lung and sustained a bleed on the brain after the assault in Blackburn, Lancs. He underwent a 14-hour operation to have his ears re-attached, using a skin graft from his legs to complete the surgery. Last week daughter Mariya Choudry, 22, said the family are in shock about the attack as...

A new posting at 4:10AM EDT from the Official Twitter account of Senator Chuck Grassley: Supplemental FBI background file for Judge Kavanaugh has been received by @senjudiciary Ranking Member Feinstein & I have agreed to alternating EQUAL access for senators to study content from additional background info gathered by non-partisan FBI agents FBI supplement requested Friday sept 28 by bipartisan group of senators w specific scope of current/credible allegations. Dr Ford & Judge Kavanaugh had opportunity to testify under oath b4 public/cmte to tell senators what they know This FBI material will b handled per 2009 memorandum of understanding/MOU signed...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s next-generation space telescope has been delayed yet again at a staggering cost of $1 million a day. For the third time in less than a year, the space agency announced a lengthy postponement Wednesday for the James Webb Space Telescope. The observatory will now fly no earlier than 2021; until last fall, it was on the books for a 2018 launch. The telescope’s overall cost is now expected to reach nearly $10 billion. Development cost alone will exceed the $8 billion cap set by Congress by more than $800 million and require reauthorization. An independent...