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The statement didn’t specify what it meant by “space altitude,” but company officials have previously said they were using the altitude of 50 miles, or approximately 80 kilometers, used by NASA and the U.S. Air Force for awarding astronaut wings. “For Virgin Galactic, the major milestone that we perceive is the altitude at which NASA and Air Force folks get their astronaut wings, which is 50 miles,” George Whitesides, chief executive of Virgin Galactic, said last month. “For us and our customers, I think we’ll be focused on 50 miles, at least at the start.” That is below the 100-kilometer...

December 12, 2018 Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe Reading 1 Zec 2:14-17 Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion! See, I am coming to dwell among you, says the LORD.Many nations shall join themselves to the LORD on that day,and they shall be his people,and he will dwell among you,and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you.The LORD will possess Judah as his portion in the holy land,and he will again choose Jerusalem.Silence, all mankind, in the presence of the LORD!For he stirs forth from his holy dwelling. or Rv 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab...

Congress and Trump previously approved funding bills for three quarters of the $1.2 trillion in operating expenses for federal agencies. As a result, only some agencies would be closed when funding runs out after Dec. 21, and even in those essential employees would still report to work. Among those facing a partial shutdown are the Homeland Security Department, though many of the agency’s law enforcement agents will remain on the job because they’re considered essential. National parks would remain open but most employees who maintain them would be sent home. The Securities and Exchange Commission would halt new investigations except...

Title at original website: Trump threatens shutdown in wild encounter with Democrats -- WASHINGTON (AP) — In a wild Oval Office confrontation, President Donald Trump heatedly threatened to shut down the U.S. government Tuesday as he and Democratic leaders bickered over funding for his promised border wall and offered a grim preview of life in Washington the next two years under divided government. (Please see link for full article.)

A compilation of videos of Belgian Malinois in action. Pretty amazing.

ITALY’S Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has accused French President Emmanuel Macron of keeping the power from the people and in the hands of the elite, less than 24 hours after he said the young centrist was to blame for the “yellow vest” protests that have unnerved Paris. The young centrist is struggling to curb a wave of violent protests that have rocked his administration to its core, and forced him to scrap a planned carbon tax and up salaries. Mr Salvini, head of the far-right League party, has repeatedly locked horns with Mr Macron over immigration policy, and has...

JACKSON, Miss. — A home goods retailer is expanding its furniture manufacturing to Mississippi, with plans to hire 350 people. San Francisco-based Williams-Sonoma Inc. announced Thursday that it will open a factory making upholstered furniture in Baldwyn, Mississippi, starting production in January. The company, which sells furniture under the Pottery Barn, West Elm and Williams-Sonoma Home brands, also has factories in Claremont, North Carolina, and City of Industry, California....

Protests and road barricades at roundabouts and toll-booths across France have continued, as many gilets jaunes demonstrators said concessions made by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, were not enough to calm their anger and sense of social injustice. Anti-government demonstrators have called for further demonstrations in Paris on Saturday, after four weekends of protests saw rioting in the French capital and other cities and plunged France’s centrist president into his worst crisis in office. Macron gave a prerecorded televised speech on Monday watched by more than 23 million people in which he announced major steps to address concerns that people...

They make beds in inns across the country. They pick oranges in Florida, strawberries in California and vegetables in Ohio. And they have built new subdivisions in Phoenix, Atlanta and Charlotte. For years, policymakers have talked about shutting off the influx of undocumented workers. But the economy has grown to rely on them. Ending illegal immigration, say many of those who have studied the issue, could mean that American workers would lose their jobs, companies would close and the economy would contract.

"I have at least 10, 12 - 12 people that want it badly. I'm making a decision. Great people," he said. "I could do it immediately. I'm in no rush. A lot of people want it." Trump said one candidate, North Carolina Republican Representative Mark Meadows, "is a great guy," as is former campaign adviser Dave Bossie, who is also on the list - "friend of mine." But he gave no indication who he was leaning toward. "Everybody wants it. Who doesn't want to be one of the top few people in Washington, D.C.," Trump said, gesturing to the three...

1 When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, 2 (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,) 3 He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee. 4 And he must needs go through Samaria. 5 Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. 7 There cometh...

Arrested three months before the defeat of Hitler’s Germany, his first reaction was like that of the millions he would later write about: “Me? What for?” A decorated captain of an artillery battery that had fought its way deep into East Prussia, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was at the time a committed Marxist-Leninist. He even fantasized he was being whisked to a meeting with Stalin. In fact, military censors had read his letter exchanges with a boyhood friend, also in the army, in which they criticized Stalin (“the mustachioed one”) for having deviated from the path laid down by Lenin. It was...

Woke 29-year-old Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went after White House Chief of Staff John Kelly yesterday. Why? She wants him to apologize to Democrat Rep. Frederica Wilson for supposedly "lying" about her to reporters. John Kelly was straight up exposed for lying about @RepWilson in comments aimed at discrediting her. He absolutely owes her an apology, and his refusal to do so isn’t a sign of strength - it’s cowardice. https://t.co/BA40Hgofvk— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) December 10, 2018 "Cowardice." Quite a big word to use against a four-star Marine Corps general whose son was killed in Afghanistan.Wilson's spat with Kelly came last...

It all started when California farmer John Duarte plowed a wheat field in Tehama County, about two hours north of Sacramento, and wound up paying a $1.1 million fine to the federal government for his efforts.

“Why would a person choose a life where they will be hated, judged, and rejected by society?” This was one of the first arguments I learned to defend myself against in arguments about my sexuality. In the late 1990s, it was perceived as a powerful call to the humanity of those who opposed gay rights under the notion that it was merely a lifestyle choice. The idea was that if we could appeal to others’ sense of compassion for our social plight, perhaps they could understand the effects of their intolerance. I often fantasized about breaking through the walls of...

MENLO PARK, Calif. (KGO) -- Police in Menlo Park are responding to a bomb threat that has forced the evacuation of at least one building on the Facebook campus this evening. Police are asking people to avoid the 200 block of Jefferson Drive while they investigate the threat. A tip was received from Crime Stopper units in New York City regarding the threat. The units received an anonymous phone call regarding the threat, but did not have details on the call. No further details were immediately available.

RUSH: Now, Rasmussen has come out with Trump approval numbers at 49%. But I want to play you an audio sound bite, and it is No. 5. Yesterday I made the point that what the media has to do… In order to actually allow other authorities to impeach Trump or to get rid of him, they’ve got to drive his approval numbers down to the thirties. They have to do that, like they did George W. Bush, like they did Nixon. They have to do this. They have to somehow get those numbers down so that it is apparent Trump...

Franciscan Media Image: Lithography of Pope Saint Damasus I | Pedro Augusto Guglielmi Saint Damasus I Saint of the Day for December 11 (304 – December 11, 384)  Saint Damasus I’s Story To his secretary Saint Jerome, Damasus was “an incomparable person, learned in the Scriptures, a virgin doctor of the virgin Church, who loved chastity and heard its praises with pleasure.” Damasus seldom heard such unrestrained praise. Internal political struggles, doctrinal heresies, uneasy relations with his fellow bishops and those of the Eastern Church marred the peace of his pontificate.The son of a Roman priest, possibly of Spanish...

The cyberattack on the Marriott hotel chain that collected passport information or other personal details of roughly 500 million guests was part of a Chinese intelligence-gathering effort that hacked health insurers, other hotels and the security clearance files of millions more Americans, according to two people briefed on the preliminary results of the investigation. The hackers are suspected of working on behalf of the Ministry of State Security. The discovery comes as the Trump administration plans a series of actions targeting China’s trade, cyber and economic policies. The Justice Department is preparing to announce new indictments against Chinese hackers working...

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