Free Republic

The Biden administration has offered to pay off Florida schools that defy Governor Ron DeSantis’ ban on mandatory mask requirements.DeSantis signed an executive order last month banning mandatory masks in schools and on Monday threatened to withhold the salaries of school board members and superintendents who refuse to complyIn a letter to DeSantis and the Florida education commissioner on Friday, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said that districts have “sole and complete discretion” to pay salaries that are withheld by the state for violating the order.“We are eager to partner with [the Florida Department of Education] on any efforts to...

Hundreds of tourist-trade businesses DEFY Covid lockdown rules and say they will reopen in Poland because lockdown they 'won't survive another month'Ski slopes, restaurants and hotels in Poland's mountainous south to defy rulesHundreds joined the 'Highlanders' Veto' movement's disobedience campaign Poland's government extended most of the coronavirus lockdown rules MondaySki slopes, restaurants and hotels in Poland's tourist-reliant mountainous south have announced they will defy anti-virus restrictions and reopen Monday, as small business owners nationwide grow increasingly weary of lockdown. Around 200 entrepreneurs have joined the so-called 'Highlanders' Veto' movement, whose leader Sebastian Piton announced the disobedience campaign while clad in...

A restaurant opened for dine-in service Friday in El Dorado County, California, despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s shelter-in-place orders meant to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. VIDEO: https://youtu.be/6alhP85Padk “I will not survive another month. This place is my livelihood and it’s being taken away from me,” Café El Dorado owner Cherie Baldridge told the Mountain Democrat. Two months behind in rent and facing insolvency, Baldridge and her two employees realized that opening up was their last resort.

They’re gonna fight for their right to party. Thousands of American college students refuse to let the pesky coronavirus pandemic get in the way of their annual pilgrimage to Florida for spring break. Ignoring repeated warnings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization about the potentially deadly COVID-19 virus, the masses showed up in Miami — only to find their good times hijacked by safety measures to prevent the spread of the deadly coronavirus that are taking effect. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered the closure of all bars and nightclubs in the state for...

New reports suggest that Harvard and Yale are ignoring Federal guidelines against the use of race in university admissions. A report from Fox News claims that some Ivy League universities are doubling down on their affirmative action policies after receiving a “Dear Colleague” letter from Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos that requested they stop using race in university admissions. The continued use of race in university admissions practices put their federal funding at risk. “It’s racial discrimination and it’s a quota. The quota today is against Asians, much like the quota back in the 1920s and 30s was against Jews,”...

We’ve been saying for two weeks that President Obama has a weak hand as he promotes his plan to deal with his own manufactured “border crisis”. Quite simply the entire administration is on the wrong side of the people. This recent report from the Border Patrol not only confirms this perspective, but further outlines how stark and contrasting is the opposition to illegal immigration. CALIFORNIA - In an exclusive expose regarding the immigration standoff in Murrieta, California, it was revealed by a confidential informant inside the Murrieta U.S. Border Patrol facility that the real reason busses stopped delivering illegal immigrants

In a defiant statement issued Wednesday, the Washington Redskins said the team would appeal the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's decision to revoke the trademark to the team's name and logo on the grounds that they are offensive to Native Americans. The professional football team added that in the meantime, the ruling would have "no effect at all" on its trademark rights while the case is on appeal. The press release even put that in boldface and underlined it. "We are confident we will prevail once again, and that the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s divided ruling will be overturned...

Shortly after voters in Colorado and Washington State approved measures that legalized the recreational use of marijuana, President Obama told Barbara Walters that his Justice Department would not prosecute pot users in these states. "We've got bigger fish to fry," Obama said. Although the state measures defy federal law, it appears Barack Obama is giving each state a pass on this issue.

Hundreds of protesters flooded the streets of Port Said, Ismailia and Suez Monday night, defying Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's imposed curfew as part of the state of emergency he declared... The anti-government crowds chanted "Down with Mohamed Morsi, down with the state of emergency."

GLOUCESTER, England (AFP) - Fearless thrill-seekers on Monday flipped, slipped, somersaulted and tumbled down a suicidally steep slope in western England to try to catch a giant runaway circle of cheese. The cheese rolling event at Coopers Hill is one of Britain's more unusual annual events and is not for the faint-hearted but it was made even more perilous this year by torrential rain that turned the course into a mudbath. Organisers claimed the downpours that lashed much of southern Britain over the weekend made the vertiginous slope softer underfoot but more than 30 first aid volunteers were kept busy...

FORT MEADE, Md., August 2, 2006 -- A step through the doors of the Military Entrance Processing Station here blows away the myths that the military is struggling to get enough recruits, dropping its standards to get those it does, or glossing over the fact that it’s recruiting into a wartime force. July 31 was the last day of a month in which all the services had already met their quotas for recruits. It was a relatively slow day at the station -- one of 65 dotting the country. Yet the station buzzed with activity as 102 men and women...

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Nearly 300 striking doctors in Zimbabwe ignored government demands Tuesday for them to return to hospital wards, officials said. The strike has deepened a crisis in Zimbabwe's health system which has seen qualified staff fleeing the country in droves for jobs that pay up to six times more abroad. A young doctor here earns only about $564 a month. The junior doctors walked out Thursday after authorities extended their seven-year attachment to state hospitals by another year, to be spent working at rural facilities. State-run radio reported a "critical" situation at government hospitals Tuesday, with only the...

EL PERU WAKA, Guatemala (Reuters) - Archeologists outsmarted tomb raiders to unearth a major Maya Indian royal burial site in the Guatemalan jungle, discovering jade jewelry and a jaguar pelt from more than 1,500 years ago. The tomb, found by archeologist Hector Escobedo last week, contains a king of the El Peru Waka city, now in ruins and covered in thick rainforest teeming with spider monkeys. He may have been the dynastic founder of the city, on major Mayan trade routes that could have stretched from the city of Tikal in Guatemala up through Mexico. "If this is indeed the...

Bolivia urges UN to defy Washington and legalise coca By Sophie Arie in La Paz (Filed: 20/03/2006) Bolivia is leading a Latin American campaign to legalise coca plants despite them being vilified by the United States as the source of the world's cocaine industry. Coca leaves: fans claim it aids digestion and contains more vitamins and nutrients than most vegetables Under the slogan "coca is not cocaine", politicians, consumers and growers across the Andes are promoting the leaf's qualities and calling for coca-based tea, yoghurt, bread, toothpaste, shampoo and soap to be mass produced and exported. Its fans claim it...

More European papers defy Muslim protests Gwladys Fouché Thursday February 2, 2006 More newspapers across Europe today reprinted the 12 cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that have sparked protests across the Middle East - although most refrained from publishing them on their websites. Earlier this week hackers attacked the website of Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which first published the controversial pictures last September, and the site became unavailable for a time. When the website reappeared it published a statement in Danish, Arabic and English stating that the cartoons "were not intended to be offensive, nor were they at variance with Danish...

http://www.coralridge.org/specialdocs/PR_KennedyCallsOnGovernorBush.htm    D. JAMES KENNEDY: GOVERNOR JEB BUSH DUTY BOUND TO ACT TO PRESERVE LIFE OF TERRI SCHIAVO Fort Lauderdale, March 24, 2005 — Dr. D. James Kennedy issued the following statement today: Governor Jeb Bush is to be commended for all he has done in seeking to save the life of Terri Schiavo. His course of action thus far has proven fruitless. Neither the state legislature nor the courts, state or federal, have been willing to act on behalf of this helpless woman who is now within hours of death. As Governor, Jeb Bush is the only legal authority...

It's very late. Does the President know what the Army is doing? On the issue of women in land combat, it seems no one is in charge. High-level civilians are circumventing law and policy, members of Congress are being misled and decorated generals seem to have lost all perspective. President Bush has been a strong leader on national defense, which makes it difficult to understand why he is saying one thing, but the Pentagon is doing another. During an interview with the Washington Times in January, Bush declared, "No women in [land] combat." He was referring to current Defense Department...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqis embraced democracy in large numbers Sunday, standing in long lines to vote in defiance of mortar attacks, suicide bombers and boycott calls. Pushed in wheelchairs or carts if they couldn't walk, the elderly, the young and women in veils cast ballots in Iraq (news - web sites)'s first free election in a half-century. Iraqi election officials said it might take 10 days to determine the vote's winner and said they had no firm estimate of turnout among the 14 million eligible voters. The ticket endorsed by the Shiite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani was the pre-voting favorite....

Only a few months ago, this question never would have occurred to us, but now it must be asked: Are city officials engaged in a cover-up of incriminating information sought by federal authorities investigating San Diego's financial irregularities? Highly disturbing evidence is mounting that some city officials have been less than cooperative with the separate civil and criminal probes being conducted by the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the last two weeks, an SEC lawyer found it necessary to remind city officials by letter that subpoenaed documents "within the possession, custody or control of the...

As we reported last week, Venezuela's vengeful dictator, Hugo Chavez, continues to target eight helpless fired oil workers for long prison terms. Their "crime" was leading a strike. Former Venezuelan oil company executive Gustavo Coronel points out that they are, shockingly, being charged with crimes and neglect against the state oil company that happened after they were fired from their jobs by Chavez himself on live television. In today's El Universal, another Unapetrol oil union leader speaks out, pointing out the shifty legal maneuvers the Chavez court has engaged in over Christmas to deny the eight arrested strike leaders any...