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I have had several posts on a collection of related cases that I have called “The Stupidest Litigations In The Country.” These are cases where climate hysterics have sued oil and gas producing companies, or the federal government, or both, seeking various extreme punishments ranging from massive damages up to and including an order to end all production of fossil fuels. The asserted grounds vary somewhat from case to case, but a central theme is a claimed constitutional right to a “clean and healthy environment.” My last update on these cases was a post on April 9. A main subject...

13 May 2024 Monday of the 7th week of Eastertide Basilica of Our Lady of Fatima, Ourém, Portugal Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: B(II).First readingActs 19:1-8 ©The moment Paul laid hands on them the Holy Spirit came down on themWhile Apollos was in Corinth, Paul made his way overland as far as Ephesus, where he found a number of disciples. When he asked, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?’ they answered, ‘No, we were never even told there was such a thing as a Holy Spirit.’ ‘Then how were you baptised?’ he asked. ‘With...

Doug Burgum has dislodged Sen. Tim Scott at the head of the market for Republican VP nominee on betting exchanges (Betfair) @ 5.7 I know little about him. 😲

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — When West Virginia Republicans vote in Tuesday's primary, they will have a hard time finding a major candidate on the ballot in any statewide race who openly acknowledges that President Joe Biden won the 2020 election. Embracing or skirting the line on election denialism has become an unspoken checkoff among Republicans running for governor and Congress in one of the states most loyal to former President Donald Trump. What is spoken — almost constantly — is praise for the party's presumptive White House nominee from a slate of candidates that includes a convicted Jan. 6 insurrectionist...

Gazprom, the energy giant at the heart of Russia's economy, has announced it is selling property in Moscow, one week after posting record losses linked to restricted supplies to Europe linked to Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. The company said on Wednesday that the properties include office and non-residential buildings, a car parking lot in the capital, and the Imperial Park Hotel and spa sanatorium and resort complex in Rogozino village, just outside of Moscow. "Gazprom is engaged in a fire sale. They had their worst year in decades, and their production has fallen precipitously, down to what it was...

Former President Donald Trump announced he is endorsing Christine Serrano Glassner in her bid to represent New Jersey in the U.S. Senate amid a heavily-watched race for the seat of incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez. "She’s a fantastic woman," Trump said about Serrano Glassner, mayor of Mendham Borough, during a New Jersey rally on Saturday. "I’m giving her my complete and total endorsement." His endorsement comes less than a month before the state is scheduled to hold its Republican Senate primary. Trump also said Serrano Glassner's GOP opponent Curtis Bashaw is a supporter of New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie,...

We've been keeping you up to date on the Princeton hunger strikers and it just got even funnier. We knew it would, but this is even better than we'd imagined. We were sure they'd wimp out not long into their stunt, but they're quitting AND claiming they're not quitting.

Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas on Sunday accused President Joe Biden of taking the side of Hamas in an effort to end the war in Gaza, which was started by Hamas when it slaughtered Israeli civilians on Oct. 7. “Joe Biden’s position is de facto for Hamas victory at this point. Israel’s goal is to destroy Hamas, which committed the worst atrocity against Jews since World War II. Hamas’s goal is to survive,” Cotton said on the CBS show “Face the Nation.” “If Israel does not go into Rafah and destroy Hamas in Rafah, Hamas will survive,” he said.

Ronn Torossian, Jews are not safe in New York State - at Syracuse U., INN, May 9, 2024 Our greatest nightmares as Jews are coming true. It is happening again. Op-ed. Ronn Torossian is an American public relations executive, and president, Syracuse Jewish Parents Council ... On Saturday, on Holocaust Eve, a Jewish Syracuse U. student was beaten by a trespasser yelling “Heil Hitler” and no arrests were made. The day before, professors at the on-campus encampment distributed flyers saying, “Flood the Gates Escalate” and “We will not disavow any actions taken to escalate the struggle, including militant direct actions....

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... In the early 1980s, the UK could not keep up with demand for Factor VIII, which was made by pooling - or mixing - the blood plasma of thousands of individual donors. Instead the treatment was shipped from the US. In the UK, blood donations have always been voluntary, but in the US, drug companies were allowed to pay cash for plasma. High risk groups, from prisoners to drug users, had a clear financial incentive to give blood and potentially lie about their medical history. Evidence uncovered by campaigners and seen by the ongoing public inquiry into the wider...

The news of a contentious and allegedly stolen diary of the US President's daughter has surfaced time and again online. Latest reports have emerged stating that Ashley Biden has sent a letter to a New York Judge acknowledging the diary is true. However, these reports are not confirmed at the moment. Wading into the controversy, a fact-checking website named Snopes has claimed that the contents written by the First Daughter in her journal are true. The 'leaked diary' which was sold to a Conservative self-claimed media outlet Project Veritas mentioned the sexual trauma the author faced at a very young...

Former President Trump narrowly leads President Biden in both the 4-way and head-to-head ballots in Pennsylvania. • Among voters 50+, Trump leads by wider margins on both ballots, while voters 18-49 are closely divided. Within voters 50+, Trump has a sizable lead with 50- 64 year olds, but the race is very close among seniors. • On the 4-way ballot, 19% of voters 18-49 either choose a third-party candidate or are undecided compared to just 10% of voters 50+. Biden improves among younger voters when the third-party options are removed. • Trump is ahead in large part due to more...

Over the course of my lifetime these are some of the film makers I have revered: Charlie Chaplin (more for his silent features than his talkies) and Shirley Temple, (both as a child and adult for the former and as a child only for the latter), Woody Allen (when i was a tertiary student in the 1970's and 1980's but less so now) Steve Bochco, primarily for the reinvention of what television can do through Hill Street Blues and Shawn Ryan and Micheal Ciklis for The Shield which I consider an even better drama than HSB and the best thing...

No assignment in the Third Reich’s war machine, nay not even the fearful eastern front, was as dangerous as service in the Kriegsmarine’s U-boat fleet. Terrors of English shipping in the early war years, these submersible predators became prey once overwhelming U.S. materiel poured into the theater, and Allied intelligence started cracking German signals. By war’s end, fully three-quarters of the wartime U-boat personnel had sunk into watery graves. And on top of all the intrinsic perils of fighting a losing war from the inside of a submerged tin of beans, you’d better do it with enthusiasm or you’ve got...

A New Hampshire man was arrested for allegedly overturning a port-a-potty, trapping a woman and her child inside. Witnesses told Manchester police they saw Aiden Struder, 18, and the woman arguing near the portable toilet at Derryfield Park on Wednesday, the New York Post reported. “When the woman, who apparently didn’t know the 18-year-old man, went inside the port-a-potty to help her daughter, the man pushed it over and it landed with the door on the pavement,” according to the report. Police said bystanders rushed over to turn the toilet over and free the woman and child. The mother and...

A 10-story residential building in Belgorod, Russia, was struck overnight by a Ukrainian missile, a local governor said. "The Belgorod city and the Belgorod district came under a massive attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces," Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region, said in a post on Telegram. The Ukrainian Tochka-U missile that struck the building was among several that Ukraine launched overnight, the Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement. Ukrainian military officials did not immediately comment on the claims, which could not immediately be verified.

A pastor in Wichita Falls, Texas, has been found guilty on six charges of indecency with a child by contact. The jury deliberated less than an hour before finding Ronnie Killingsworth, the 79-year-old pastor of Rephidim Church, guilty, the Wichita Falls Times Record News reported. Killingsworth elected to have the jury impose his punishment, who sentenced him to 84 years in prison and $60,000 in fines, KFDX reported. The first four prison terms — totaling 42 years — are to be served concurrently with the sentences for counts 5 and 6 to be served consecutively after the conclusion of the...

Applebee's is to close another 35 further locations this year, after shutting 46 in 2023. The restaurant chain has shut at least three locations so far this year and has plans to close even more, president Tony Moralejo said in an earnings call on Wednesday. Closing restaurants was 'an incredibly difficult decision' and a 'last resort' for the company, Moralejo said. The American grill chain, famous for its $10 burgers and 'dollaritas', closed 46 of its more than 1,500 locations due to 'underperformance' last year. The franchise - which competes with the likes of Waffle House and Denny's - has...