Free Republic

(CNSNews.com) - Sometime in the next four years the global population of human beings who are 65 and older will surpass those under 5 for the first time, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau. “For the first time in human history, people aged 65 and older will outnumber children under age 5,” says the report, entitled “An Aging World: 2015.” “This crossing is just around the corner, before 2020,” says the report. “These two age groups will then continue to grow in opposite directions,” it says. “By 2050, the proportion of the population 65 and older...

A 96-year-old Laguna Woods man has been charged with molesting two girls, ages 10 and 11, authorities said Monday. Kenneth Leroy Collins is scheduled to be arraigned on Friday on four felony counts of lewd or lascivious act with a minor under 14, according to court records.

According to financial research firm ICI, total retirement assets in the Land of the Free now exceed $23 trillion. $7.3 trillion of that is held in Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs). That’s an appetizing figure, especially for a government that just passed $19 trillion in debt and is in pressing need of new funding sources. Even when you account for all federal assets (like national parks and aircraft carriers), the government’s "net financial position" according to its own accounting is negative $17.7 trillion. And that number doesn’t include unfunded Social Security entitlements, which the government estimates is another $42 trillion. The...

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II reflects on Jesus' central role in her life in a new book ahead of her 90th birthday, calling Christ "the King she serves" in the title. "I have been -- and remain -- very grateful to you for your prayers and to God for his steadfast love," the British monarch writes in the foreword to The Servant Queen and the King She Serves, which is to be released in April. "I have indeed seen His faithfulness," she adds. Thousands of churches will reportedly be giving away copies of the book, which is being published by HOPE,...

It's Friday, but Sunday Is Coming! As Seen in Life and in a Powerful Video Msgr. Charles Pope -- February 5, 2016 -- Some years ago in a previous parish assignment (St. Thomas More, in Washington D.C.) I was accustomed to taking a Friday afternoon walk in order to focus on my Sunday homily. At the beginning of the walk I'd often stop by the house of an elderly parishioner, Ms. Lillian, and give her Communion. Her mind was beginning to fail and it was difficult for her to get to Church.In mild weather she would often be out...

Detroit police released video this week of a brutal knockout attack during an attempted robbery.The suspects knocked an elderly man out during an attempted robbery. The second suspect hit the man after he fell unconscious to the ground.The suspects knocked an elderly man out during an attempted robbery. The second suspect hit the man after he fell unconscious to the ground. This was so brutal–" ideo from a surveillance camera in a Detroit liquor store shows the brutal attack of a 64-year-old man during an attempted robbery that happened last weekend. Police released the video Friday with the hope that...

My landlord's mother lives downstairs, and has advanced lung disease and has been on oxygen 24/7 for many years, to the point that she spent many weeks in a nursing home before coming back home. However, mentally she is by nature a feisty (Jewish) 77 year-old lady and with a devoted son but who lives 30 min away. The daughter lives upstairs and tries to help but has limitations in helping her mother. I told her to call me anytime if she needed help (for free, no strings) and daily this has been the case (make coffee, take trash out,...

There was a time in my life twenty years ago when I was driving a cab for a living. It was a cowboy's life, a gambler's life, a life for someone who wanted no boss, constant movement and the thrill of a dice roll every time a new passenger got into the cab. What I didn't count on when I took the job was that it was also a ministry. Because I drove the night shift, my cab became a rolling confessional. Passengers would climb in, sit behind me in total anonymity and tell me of their lives. We were...

A 91-year-old man was beaten, covered with gasoline and set on fire in a homicide in northwest Detroit early Monday, police said. Officers and firefighters discovered Paul Monchnik's body when witnesses reported the blaze at the retired TV repairman’s Bentler Court home around 3 a.m., officials with the Detroit Police Department told WJBK-TV.

Cutting an increasingly frail figure, Burt Reynold arrived in New York yesterday for an interview on Stephen Colbert's 'The Late Show'. Still using a cane to walk, the 79-year-old star hit the studio as part of his press rounds for new memoir 'But Enough About Me'. Former Hollywood macho man Reynolds has been suffering ill health for many years now, with back surgery in 2009 leaving him addicted to pain killers.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. -- A suburban Chicago man is being held on $5 million bail in the sexual assault of a 97-year-old woman at an assisted living facility.

A Chicago McDonald’s employee who closed the register during the dinner rush to help a disabled customer is being praised by the fast food chain.

The most recent Quinnipiac poll is awful news for Hillary Clinton. Most voters don’t view her in a favorable light, and the first words that come to mind when they think of her are “liar,” “dishonest,” and “untrustworthy,” while “bitch” and “murder” are slightly lower down the list. She’s getting outperformed by Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden in head-to-head match-ups with the leading Republican candidates. Democratic voters seem to be holding out for Joe, because they love him. If there’s a silver lining in the poll, it’s the fact that Hillary Clinton would still win a three-way race against Jeb...

Verbal announcement that the previous surgery for a liver tumor has now been diagnosed as a cancer and it has apparently spread beyond the liver.

A 79-year-old Norwegian has swum across a fjord in the pouring rain dressed only in swimming trunks and a bow tie to wed his 65-year-old bride-to-be on the rocks.Trygve Bernhardsen was accompanied by his two grandchildren as he swam the 800 meters in 14C (57F) water. Before his exploit, Bernhardsen joked with reporters that they were with him mostly to make sure that he didn’t swim off in the wrong direction. “If I decide to say yes, I will swim straight over. If it’s a no, I’ll swim off to sea, and I think the wife wanted some assurances,” he...

PALMETTO -- At least one resident of a Manatee County mobile home park has been threatened with eviction if she continues to accept deliveries of food from a church food bank. There have been reports as many as 28 Carlyn Estates residents have received eviction threats for accepting food from a food pantry.

Credit: Michael Brant via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). San Diego, Calif., Jul 3, 2015 / 10:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Few love stories can say that they began at the age of eight. But for Jeanette and Alexander Toczko, they couldn't have imagined life any other way. What began as a childhood crush later bloomed into a deep, committed love – a love that would last throughout a war, five children, and seventy-five years of marriage. “Their hearts beat as one from as long as I can remember,” said Aimee Toczko-Cushman, one of the couple's five children, according to the Daily...

Belgium passed its Euthanasia Act in 2002. A study published in this month’s Journal of Medical Ethics by Raphael Cohen-Almagor revealed that despite the law’s requirement that patients voluntarily give their consent to the procedure, many are euthanized without giving consent. The decision to euthanize was not discussed with the patient in nearly 80% of the cases of patients over 80 years old. Dr. Pierre Tueur estimated that “I have probably performed more than 300 of these procedures on patients incapable of giving informed consent. In cases where the patient is unconscious, demented, or unreasonably frightened of death, I feel...

Cops: Woman claiming she needed 'spinal transplant' scams $1.2 million from man, 86 Candy Ely, 35, lured an 86-year-old Chicago man into a romantic relationship and stole more than $1.2 million in cash and items from him, including a car, police said. (Cook County Sheriff's Office) By Liam Ford Chicago Tribune contact the reporter Crime Theft A 35-year-old woman is accused of luring an 86-year-old man into a romantic relationship and then stealing more than $1.2 million in cash after claiming she had cancer and needed a "spinal transplant," police said. Candy Ely “baited” the man “into a false relationship...

An elderly man who'd just returned home after months in the hospital said he was hungry, had no food and no one to turn to for help. So he dialed 911. "I can't do anything. I can't go anywhere. I can't get out of my damn chair." Clarence Blackmon, 81, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, told the 911 operator, according to ABC station WTVD in Durham. "I said, 'I'm not broken, I'm not bleeding, and I'm not in crisis. I just want somebody to help me buy some food,'" he told ABC News.