Free Republic

On Thursday, the Biden administration restored rules to protect imperiled plants and animals that had been rolled back under former President Trump. Among the changes announced, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will reinstate a decades-old regulation that mandates blanket protections for species newly classified as threatened. That means officials won’t have to craft time-intensive plans to shield each individual species while protections are pending, as has been done recently with North American wolverines and alligator snapping turtles in the southeastern U.S. and spotted owls. The blanket protection regulation was dropped in 2019 as part of a suite of changes...

Gut bacteria and a diet rich in the amino acid tryptophan can play a protective role against pathogenic E. coli, which can cause severe stomach upset, cramps, fever, intestinal bleeding and renal failure, according to a study. The research reveals how dietary tryptophan—an amino acid found mostly in animal products, nuts, seeds, whole grains and legumes—can be broken down by gut bacteria into small molecules called metabolites. It turns out a few of these metabolites can bind to a receptor on gut epithelial (surface) cells, triggering a pathway that ultimately reduces the production of proteins that E. coli use to...

The bar exam will no longer be required to become a lawyer in Washington, the state Supreme Court ruled in a pair of orders Friday. The court approved alternative ways to show competency and earn a law license after appointing a task force to examine the issue in 2020. The Bar Licensure Task Force found that the traditional exam “disproportionally and unnecessarily blocks” marginalized groups from becoming practicing attorneys and is “at best minimally effective” for ensuring competency, according to a news release from the Washington Administrative Office of the Courts. Washington is the second state to not require the...

A Fremont Vietnamese restaurant has closed its doors due to a neighbor’s complaints about the restaurant’s smell. Pho Gabo, which operates three locations in the Portland area, has closed its Fremont and Northeast 73rd location indefinitely due to “the city’s and the neighborhood’s complaints about the smell of the food that we grill and the foods that we serve customers,” according to a sign posted to the restaurant’s door. Willamette Week reports that the restaurant has been hit with complaints since September 2022, five years after the restaurant opened. A presumed neighbor has been filing complaints with the city about...

Same story, same result. For the third time this week, President Biden told an audience that he discussed the Jan, 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol with European leaders who were actually dead at the time. On Wednesday, Biden told Democratic donors in New York that he spoke about the riot with former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, whose death pre-dates the event by nearly half a decade. The shocking gaffe comes just days after the 81-year-old president confused French President Emmanuel Macron with the country’s ex-leader Francois Mitterrand — who died in 1996. Biden made the blunder Wednesday in...

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the woods... Today we learn that, in British Columbia, a 45-year-old "ecosexual" woman has fallen head-over-heels in love with a tree. It's unknown as to whether the tree reciprocates her feelings.A self-proclaimed “ecosexual” took nature loving to the extreme after becoming infatuated with an oak tree — which she says fills her with “erotic energy.”“There was an eroticism with something so big and so old holding my back,” Sonja Semyonova, 45, told SWNS of her forest fetish.She is a self-proclaimed “ecosexual,” defined by “Here Come The Ecosexuals” as a...

DUBAI, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Iran said that the United States would "be hit hard" if Washington did not implement a ceasefire in Gaza, the country's Minister of Defence was quoted as saying by the semi-official Tasnim news agency on Sunday. "Our advice to the Americans is to immediately stop the war in Gaza and implement a ceasefire, otherwise they will be hit hard," Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani said.

Jacqui Heinrich @JacquiHeinrich Follow NEWS: 3 sources with knowledge tell me the US has urged Israel to delay its ground operation in Gaza until safe passage for Palestinians can be secured – this is in line with previous messaging from the US, urging Israel to abide by the laws of armed

By now, everyone that’s paying attention has come to the same conclusion about the war in the Ukraine: Russian forces have the decisive upper hand, and if Kiev doesn’t sue for peace soon, the likelihood is that it will lose even more of its territory – may even cease do exist. This is a hard truth for the Western apparatus, but it has steadily been gaining ground, as the hyped counteroffensive has not yielded any gains, and the military capabilities of NATO countries begin to get overextended with the looming possibility of conflict in Taiwan, in Korea, in Africa… And...

The White House has opened the door to an audacious plan to block sunlight from hitting the surface of the Earth in a bid to halt global warming. Despite some scientists warning the effort could have untold side effects from altering the chemical makeup of the atmosphere, President Joe Biden's administration have admitted they're open to the idea, which has never been attempted before. In a report released Friday by the White House, officials suggested limiting sunlight to rapidly cool the planet, a process known as solar radiation modification (SRM). The administration added a note of skepticism to the report...

The US has a trove of parts and equipment from 'non-human origin' UFOs which have crash landed on earth, a whistleblower claims Former intelligence officer David Charles Grusch said the US is also engaged in top-secret operations that attempt to 'reverse-engineer' the pieces 'The material includes intact and partially intact vehicles,' said Grusch The US has a trove of parts and equipment from 'non-human origin' UFOs which have crash landed on earth, a whistleblower claims. Former intelligence officer David Charles Grusch said the US and other nations are also engaged in top-secret operations that attempt to 'reverse-engineer' the pieces to...

VIDEO"Liberalism is a mental disorder." And if you doubt those words, then take a look at Nebraska DEMOCRAT state senator Machaela Cavanaugh in action. Just when you think she can't get any nuttier, she gets even nuttier. The most astounding thing about this video is the sad realization that people in Nebraska, of all places, actually voted for this very very disturbed person.

New York state leaders led by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul reached an agreement late Thursday on the state's 2024 budget which includes a future ban on natural gas hookups in new building construction. Under the budget deal, natural gas hookups will be banned in small buildings beginning in 2025 and large buildings beginning in 2028, according to Hochul. The governor said in remarks that the budget insulates households from "exorbitant energy bills" while helping the state build a "more sustainable future." "Everyone knows we've seen the effects of climate change — the storms, the hurricanes coming to New York, record...

From the people who brought us "green bullets," we now have plans for all-electric tanks to save the earth. Which sounds more than a little odd, given the purpose of tanks. But here's Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, testifying before Congress: Biden Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm says she supports requiring the U.S. military to adopt an ALL-electric vehicle fleet by 2030 pic.twitter.com/pw4F3jmrpo — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 26, 2023 According to Fox News:Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Wednesday that she supports efforts from the Biden administration to require the U.S. military to implement an all-electric vehicle fleet by 2030,...

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova on Saturday indicated that lifting all anti-Russia sanctions and canceling all claims against Moscow in international judicial instances should be an intrinsic part of a peace settlement in Ukraine. -snip- "the cancellation of all illegal sanctions and lawsuits against Russia in international courts should become an integral part [of this settlement]," Zakharova said in a statement. It is noteworthy that on Friday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as Russia’s Children’s Rights Commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, on the grounds of alleged "unlawful deportation" of Ukrainian...

Local, state and federal law enforcement and security agencies are preparing for the possibility that former President Donald Trump is indicted as early as next week, according to five senior officials familiar with the preparations. Law enforcement agencies are conducting preliminary security assessments, the officials said, and are discussing potential security plans in and around the Manhattan Criminal Court, at 100 Centre Street, in case Trump is charged in connection with an alleged hush money payment to Stormy Daniels and travels to New York to face any charges.

Special Counsel Jack Smith expanded his witch hunt and issued a flurry of subpoenas to Mar-a-Lago staff – including servers! More than 2 dozen Mar-a-Lago staffers were subpoenaed in the special counsel’s investigation into classified documents stored at Trump’s Florida residence. “For instance, federal investigators have talked to a Mar-a-Lago staff member seen on security camera footage moving boxes from a storage room with Trump aide Walt Nauta, who has already spoken with investigators.” CNN reported. Jack Smith is also targeting Trump’s lawyers (because they don’t have a case). The special counsel is seeking more testimony from Trump’s former lawyer...

Canadian researchers analyzed coffee's "contribution to climate change" in a piece published in early January and suggested people moderate their consumption of the popular drink as a part of the solution. Researchers Luciano Rodrigues Viana, Charles Marty, Jean-François Boucher and Pierre-Luc Dessureault wrote in an analysis published in The Conversation that pollution from preparing coffee was "just the tip of the iceberg." "Limiting your contribution to climate change requires an adapted diet, and coffee is no exception. Choosing a mode of coffee preparation that emits less GHGs (greenhouse gases) and moderating your consumption are part of the solution," the researchers...

Planters, the iconic nut brand is looking for adventurous college graduates for a once-in-a-lifetime job opportunity, driving Mr. Peanut across the country in the iconic NUTmobile. Post-college road trips are almost a rite of passage for millions of graduates and now there’s a chance for an iconic trip to get even nuttier when you apply to drive the NUTmobile, a 26-foot-long peanut on wheels from coast to coast. This is not just a chance at experiencing the open road — just you the fresh air, the humming of the engine of the NUTmobile — it’s a chance to have the...

Putin told Turkey's President Erdogan he was open to peace dialogue with Kyiv However, Kremlin said this was only possible if Ukraine accepts that territories occupied by Moscow's armies since the invasion began on Feb. 24 as Russian Erdogan called for peace talks in the phone call with Putin, his office said Vladimir Putin told Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan he was open to dialogue with Ukraine, but only if Kyiv accepts 'new territorial realities'. Russian troops occupy large swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine. The Kremlin claims it has annexed the Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions despite not...