The Vatican defrocked Priest for Life Director Frank Pavone without the possibility of appeal for social media posts the church considered to be “blasphemous.”
The Prefect of the Dicastery for the Clergy dismissed Pavone on November 9, according to a December 13 letter to U.S. bishops from Archbishop Christophe Pierre, who serves as Pope Francis’ representative to the United States, the Catholic News Agency reported Saturday.
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Tennessee set records for both the amount wagered and the taxes collected by the state in sports wagering in November.
There was more than $9 million in taxes collected on $439.5 million wagered in the state in what has been consistently one of the strongest months of wagering in the state due to betting on college and NFL football.
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The Bureau of Labor Statistics overestimated the number of jobs added nationwide from March through June by roughly 10,600%, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reported Tuesday.
The U.S. added just 10,500 net new jobs in the second quarter of 2022, a far cry from the 1,121,500 estimated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) monthly report on state-level data known as the Current Employment Situation (CES), according to the Philadelphia Fed. By using more comprehensive data from the BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), which samples roughly 11 million businesses compared to the 670,000 measured by the monthly CES, the Philadelphia Fed is able to make revisions to initial employment estimates, the regional bank reported.
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The city of Denver is under an official state of emergency following an influx of migrants from the U.S. border with Mexico.
Mayor Michael Hancock issued the emergency declaration on Thursday, saying 247 migrants have arrived since Monday.
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Four Republican senators joined Democrats in shooting down an amendment to a massive defense authorization package that would have reinstated troops discharged for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine.
The 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed the Senate 83-11 Thursday night, and along with it a provision overturning the Biden administration’s service-wide vaccine requirement. Republican Senators Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Mike Rounds of South Dakota voted no on a last-minute amendment to the bill re-enlisting thousands of troops separated for refusing the vaccine mandate, collapsing the proposal 54 to 40.
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In its annual Pork Report published earlier this week, the Beacon Center of Tennessee highlighted three areas of waste, fraud, and abuse of Tennessee taxpayer money in East Tennessee. The report specifically identified the issues of the city of Knoxville’s lawsuit against Netflix and Hulu, synthetic turf athletic fields in Johnson City, and pickleball courts in Bristol.
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Ohio’s 1st District Court of Appeals refused Friday to take up the state’s appeal of an injunction on its six-week abortion ban.
The appellate court sent the case back to the lower court to continue, and complete, proceedings in the case.
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In a 13-page decision Friday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Melissa Iyer Julian dismissed with prejudice a lawsuit challenging the certified election outcome by former Republican secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem, KOLD News 13 reported.
Julian’s ruling rejected Finchem’s allegations of misconduct and election administration errors, goes on to forbid Finchem from refiling a future complaint on the same grounds. Judge Julian also and affirmed Democrat Adrian Fontes is the state’s Secretary of State-elect.
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Pennsylvania’s Lycoming County will conduct a recount of its 2020 presidential election results amid mounting pressure from residents on officials to provide transparency on their handling of the contest.
The county commissioners made the decision following the submission of a 5,000-name petition demanding the recount, according to the Epoch Times. The county has approximately 70,000 registered voters and the petition’s size was a motivating factor in securing the recount, officials told the outlet.
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Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey convened a “Vibrant Downtown Storefronts Workgroup” this week following a string of recent high-profile closures.
“Cities that see the most success post-pandemic won’t cling to the old ways that are now changed forever,” Frey said in a press release. “Here in Minneapolis, we will step boldly into the future, guided by the top experts in our region, prepared to innovate and adapt. Minneapolis has always been a hub of commerce and innovation, and I am confident that this workgroup will help ensure we continue carrying that legacy forward.”
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U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-MI, received at least $55,600 in donations this year from employees of FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange platform that declared bankruptcy after allegedly misusing client funds.
Then, Stabenow, who as Agriculture Committee Chairwoman oversees the Commodities Future Trading Commission, a cryptocurrency regulator, sponsored legislation to regulate cryptocurrency.
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Gov. Glenn Youngkin will propose $230 million in his upcoming budget amendments to bolster Virginia’s behavioral health system and build crisis care capacity as part of a three-year plan unveiled Wednesday.
Youngkin’s plan, titled “Right Help, Right Now,” is aiming to reshape the state’s strained behavioral health care system. The plan outlines a six-pronged approach – ensuring same-day care for individuals in a behavioral health crisis, relieving the burden of law enforcement and decriminalizing behavioral health, building capacity for treatment beyond hospitals, targeting substance use disorder treatment, prioritizing the behavioral workforce in underserved communities and innovating crisis care services.
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After Hurricanes Ian and Nicole ravaged Florida causing billions of dollars in damage, the state’s citrus growers are expecting smaller yields. As a result, the price of America’s favorite breakfast beverage, orange juice, is expected to rise in price as supply drops.
Frozen orange juice concentrate was already down in production for the 2020-2021 season and on-tree crop values were down nearly half from the 2016-2017 season, hitting a 10-year low. This season’s yield is predicted to be the lowest in 80 years.
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Although work has yet to begin to expand I-94 in western Milwaukee County, supporters hope they are almost done with the waiting.
Wisconsin’s Department of Transportation is wrapping-up its public meetings on the plan to expand I-94 between the Zoo Interchange and the Marquette Interchange from the current six lanes to eight lanes.
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The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to replace its rail fleet, which officials say will eliminate many delays customers see.
MARTA’s board of directors signed off on the $646 million deal with Swiss-based Stadler Rail in November 2019. The deal for 56 four-car train sets — 224 total railcars — marked the largest procurement for either organization.
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It would be an interesting investigation to reverse the names of every major bill passed by Congress and signed into law by the president, and then see whether that does not better describe the result of the law, if not the intent of the lawmakers. Names, in our day, are advertisements, and advertisements, as we well know, appeal very rarely and only glancingly to reason, but mainly to passions, and among those usually to the most powerful prompts to hasty action, such as lust, fear, avarice, and vanity.
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The Maricopa County Republican Committee (MCRC) is holding its biannual election for the board in January, and two slates of candidates have declared their candidacies for the five slots. One slate has labeled itself “America First,” while another is calling itself “Arizona First.”
The America First slate, which is also going by #TeamTruth and emphasizing election integrity, consists of Craig Berland for chair, Shelby Busch for 1st vice chair, Jeff Greenspan for 2nd vice chair, Diana Jones for secretary, and Lawrence Hudson for treasurer. The slate promises, “We promise to put the GOP clearly on the side of True Reform of Arizona Election Laws: mail-ins limited to true absentees, and precinct hand counts. Empower PCs to make the party grassroots, not top down.”
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Recently disclosed internal communications between top election officials in Arizona’s Maricopa County in the immediate aftermath of Election Day reveal that they struggled to reconcile a discrepancy of almost 16,000 in outstanding ballot totals.
The governor’s race in Arizona was decided by a margin of just over 17,000 votes.
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As Kari Lake’s lawsuit contesting the results of the gubernatorial election winds its way through the legal system, various legal experts are speaking out on the merits of the case. Former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline, who is currently a professor at Liberty University and director of the election integrity legal organization Amistad Project, warned on Friday that if Lake’s lawsuit is dismissed, allowing Democrat Katie Hobbs to become governor, it will undermine the rule of law.
Kline tweeted, “If Hobbs is successful in dismissing Lake’s suit it only proves 1) election officials can violate procedure and law without accountability 2) partisan private vendors can still be used to conduct core government functions 3) legislators & others have failed to learn from 2020 and 4) many of those who claimed to fix the 2020 problems are wrong!”
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Friday on WarRoom Battleground, Host Bannon welcomed well-known Attorney and Litigation Specialist Christina Bobb to the show to comment upon the recent ruling in Maricopa County, Arizona allowing GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake to proceed with ballot sampling.
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An investigation conducted by the Ohio Auditor of State found a longtime former employee of the Clark County Auditor’s Office stole over $1.8 million of public funds over about 15 years to pay for his own lavish vacations.
According to a release from Auditor of State Keith Faber, 64-year-old Robert Vanderhorst, a former employee of Clark County in Springfield since 1991, stole over $1.87 million of public funds in a scheme involving a fake vendor between the years 2005 and 2021.
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As transit agencies across the country struggle to recover from pandemic-induced ridership loss, getting back to the basics of reliability might matter most.
A new report from Moovit, a trip-planning app, analyzed user data in 2022 in 10 major American cities. Transit riders complained of unreliable systems, fare prices, trip time, safety, and cleanliness, among other issues.
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Mortgage rates continued a slow but steady decline over the past week, suggesting a small but notable reversal from the meteoric rise they underwent over the past year.
Thirty-year fixed mortgage rates “averaged 6.31 percent as of December 15, 2022, down from last week when it averaged 6.33 percent,” Freddie Mac said in its weekly rate update on Thursday.
Fifteen-year rates, meanwhile, averaged 5.54%, down from 5.67% last week.
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Outgoing Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker has already found a landing spot for his post-political career.
The second-term Republican governor has been named as the next president of the National Collegiate Athletics Association, the organization said. Baker, who played basketball at Harvard University, will take the reins in March from Dr. Mark Emmert. Emmert will serve as a consultant to the organization through June.
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For millions of Christians around the world, the official religious Christmas season kicked off this week with a renewed sense of normalcy – an abundance of colorful lights, parades and processions, family and church gatherings, and even fireworks in some areas.
Many believers in countries where Christians are religious minorities such as China and India are embracing the festivities with new enthusiasm. Early December marks the first time annual public and private advent gatherings have been allowed since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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A health care worker has filed suit against the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs saying the federal agency has not allowed her a religious accommodation to avoid participating in the agency’s new federally funded abortion plan.
First Liberty Institute filed a lawsuit on behalf of Stephanie Carter, a nurse practitioner at the Olin E. Teague Veterans’ Center in Temple, Texas. She’s worked for the VA for 23 years.
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