Free Republic

American scientists applied to engineer coronaviruses with remarkable similarities to SARS-CoV-2 at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2018, just one year before the pandemic’s outbreak, according to newly released internal documents. The 2018 grant proposal and related documents — obtained by the watchdog group U.S. Right to Know through a Freedom of Information request — reveal that an American virologist working with the Wuhan lab planned to engineer a virus that resembles SARS-CoV-2 as part of a U.S.-China research collaboration called “DEFUSE.” The research project was to be led by EcoHealth Alliance, a New York City-based research nonprofit that...

The Chinese scientist who ran controversial experiments at the laboratory suspected of triggering Covid held a secret meeting with the US government to seek backing for a project that would go on to supercharge coronaviruses – shortly before the devastating outbreak started in her native Wuhan. The June 2017 meeting at America's National Institutes of Health (NIH) held by Shi Zhengli – known as 'Batwoman' because of her work on sampling and sequencing the animals' viruses – will bolster fears of Western collusion in a Chinese cover-up after Covid resulted from a reckless laboratory experiment. A new cache of documents,...

The June 2017 meeting at America's National Institutes of Health (NIH) held by Shi Zhengli – known as 'Batwoman' because of her work on sampling and sequencing the animals' viruses – will bolster fears of Western collusion in a Chinese cover-up after Covid resulted from a reckless laboratory experiment. A new cache of documents, obtained by Freedom of Information campaigners and seen by The Mail on Sunday, reveal the extent to which the controversial work at the Wuhan Institute of Virology was supported, and often funded, by America. They show that US researchers seeking funding for work to engineer 'spike...

Public officials concealed their conflicts of interest and role in funding research that may have caused the pandemic, says health reporter Emily Kopp.Journalists and scientists routinely dismissed the lab leak hypothesis as a crackpot theory and even as "racist," up until the summer of 2021 when science journalist Nicholas Wade published an influential article, and a viral rant by Jon Stewart pushed it into the mainstream. Until that point, social media platforms had been removing or throttling posts that took it seriously. Anthony Fauci, who didn't respond to our interview request, said it wasn't worth even considering the possibility that...

Does Mitt Romney, an elder and former missionary of the Mormon Church, believe he will one day be a god ... equal to Jesus ... ruling his own planet? Does he agree with Mormon teaching that Jesus and Satan are brothers? That America is the Promised Land where Jesus will return one day to rule from the Garden of Eden, which Mormons believe to be Jackson County, Missouri? And do American voters have the right to know this? When Barack Obama was running for president, he assured us he was a Christian. Pastor Rick Warren brought Candidate Obama to his...

.... No one — including the media — is supposed to note the injunctions exist. In one notorious case, Fred Goodwin, head of Royal Bank of Scotland, bailed out by taxpayers for billions of pounds, obtained an order preventing anyone from reporting he was philandering with a colleague while negotiations were going on. Even saying he was a banker was forbidden. Now, the city of South Tyneside has used the law to pursue a blogger known as Mr. Monkey, who has allegedly levelled a stream of criticisms against councillors and council officers. On the weekend it persuaded San Francisco-based Twitter...

Can the White House continue to shield post-mortem photos of Osama bin Laden? Maybe not. Judicial Watch has filed the inevitable Freedom of Information Act request with the Defense Department seeking “all photographs and/or video recordings of Osama bin Laden taken during and/or after the U.S. military operation in Pakistan on or about May 1, 2011.” An identical request was filed with the CIA.

Now steps onto the stage of world history a man apparently quite conscious that the Supreme Law of the United States prevents him from being president of the United States. For why else would anyone hire lawyers and expend millions of dollars to avoid producing a $12.50 birth certificate to show eligibility under the Constitution? 'Midst the rhythmic chants of a delirious, sycophantic media, inaugural splendor will substitute for simple proof that the United States of America will have a constitutionally legitimate president. If Obama is not eligible, legally, the United States of America will have no president. A usurper...

The Maryland State Board of Education has ruled that the right of the state supersedes the rights of parents in teaching children about homosexuality. The Board said the "right (of parents) is not absolute. It must bend to the State's duty to educate its citizens." The ruling means that the teaching of homosexuality as an accepted and approved lifestyle in Maryland public schools can move forward

NORTH COUNTY ---- Police departments locally and throughout California scored miserably in a sweeping statewide exercise that found most routinely break the law when people ask to inspect public records, according to a report being released today. Law enforcement agencies in Oceanside, Escondido and Temecula received failing grades for their handling of several public records requests during the exercise last month, and the Vista sheriff station didn't do much better in getting a D, the report states. Carlsbad and Lake Elsinore police each earned a C. Murrieta was one of only a handful of agencies across the state to receive...

OPPONENTS of Proposition 85, which would mandate that a parent be notified before a minor has an abortion, basically argue that teenagers will tell good parents -- open-minded parents like them -- if they are pregnant. But if pregnant teenagers don't talk to their parents, it probably is for a good reason. As in: their parents are close-minded, abusive or neglectful. They have a nifty-sounding sentence that sounds good until you think about it. As they told The Chronicle's editorial board last week, no law can make kids talk to their parents. Wrong. When minors need parental consent to do...

Last Tuesday, during or immediately after my appearance on Fox News Channel to discuss the Mohammed Cartoons, this blog was hit by a large, foreign-based denial of service attack. Last night, my hosting service notified me that it is receiving ongoing threats from individuals vowing to take down this site--and others along with it--which will presumably continue until I take down the cartoons. For now, we are on guard and continuing with business as usual. But you should know there's something much wider and deeper going on: I. Security Pro News reports on the latest Islamist hacker attacks spurred by...

Letter: 'Gay Day' not for 'the public' Wednesday, December 28, 2005 A few days before Newton North's all-day "Gay Day" assembly, a parent called and asked me to attend it for him because he had to work. I'd been to several over the past few years, when my own children were students. (It was on Dec. 7 - they had Gay Day instead of Pearl Harbor Day.) I called the superintendent's office and was told that this year "the public" was not allowed. Taxpayers in Newton who aren't Newton North parents have been to assemblies there in the past without...

<p>For years, a citizen who wanted to know the name and phone number of a Pentagon official could buy a copy of the Defense Department directory at a government printing office. But since 2001, the directory has been stamped ''For Official Use Only," meaning the public may not have access to such basic information about the vast military bureaucracy.</p>

Hurricane Frances made landfall more than 100 miles north of Miami-Dade County earlier this year. But that didn't stop thousands of residents there from getting nearly $28 million in federal disaster aid. Top winds reached only 47 mph in Miami-Dade County during the Labor Day weekend storm, so damages were limited to some fallen power lines and uprooted trees, according to Federal Emergency Management Agency and other disaster relief officials. Yet residents used their relief checks to buy more than 5,000 televisions allegedly destroyed by Frances, as well as 1,440 air conditioners, 1,360 twin beds, 1,311 washers and dryers, and...

New York, NY (LifeNews.com) -- In a stunning admission last week, an attorney representing a national group of abortion businesses admitted that women don't need to know of the risk of premature delivery in a pregnancy following a partial-birth abortion. The frank admission came during closing arguments of the New York trial of a lawsuit filed seeking to overturn the ban on partial-birth abortions, one of three such suits nationwide. During his closing arguments on behalf of the National Abortion Federation, attorney Stephen Hut and Judge Richard Casey discussed a study conducted by Dr. Steven Chasen who practices maternal fetal...

Gov. Bob Wise on Wednesday allowed the “informed consent” abortion bill to become law without his signature. “While I do not feel a compelling need for this legislation, I recognize the strong majorities in both houses that have voted for this bill,” Wise said in a statement released Wednesday evening. He had until midnight to act on the bill (SB170). Wise vetoed a similar bill last year. Had he vetoed this one, the Legislature would almost certainly have overridden the veto. Pro-choice advocates were disappointed Wise failed to veto the bill. “This is a sad day for the women of...

Charleston, WV — The Women's Right to Know bill (SB 170) passed both Houses in West Virginia overhwelmingly and is on its way to Governor Bob Wise. It is urgent that you contact Governor Bob Wise at (304) 558-2000 or (888) 438-2731 and ask him to sign the Women's Right to Know Bill (SB 170). Calls should continue through tomorrow, March 7, 2003. Please encourage as many pro-lifers to call as possible. Also, please encourage your church congregation to pray that the Governor does not veto this legislation again this year. Ask them to contact Governor Bob Wise at (304)...

Last week, Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA) was joined in a press conference by an interesting coalition of national organizations and legislators in support of a new bill. In attendance were both the National Rifle Association and American Civil Liberties Union. The ultra liberals Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Rep. Melvin Watt (D-NC) were there, as were folks from the Eagle Forum. Lucky for us, so was Dave Boyer, reporting for The Washington Times.(1) The event was called by Rep. Barr to introduce the Federal Agency Protection of Privacy Act, a bill Barr says was drafted to "improve the regulatory process...