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RARITAN TWP. — For many kids who have lost a tooth, seeing money left by the tooth fairy is a special moment. One local mom says the magic was ruined for her daughter when a health teacher told a class the magical fairy doesn't exist.

St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA. Vatican City, Apr 24, 2015 / 11:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis met April 17 with Laurent Stefanini, the openly gay foreign service officer named by France to be ambassador to the Vatican. News of the private audience, which was kept strictly confidential, was reported April 22 by the French magazine Le Canard Enchainé, although the magazine said that the meeting took place April 18. A source from the Vatican Secretariat of State told CNA that the meeting actually took place in the late evening of April 17, and confirmed that it...

When it comes to negotiating power, it’s better to be a home seller in the Bay Area and a buyer in Philadelphia. Zillow’s spring analysis of buyers’ and sellers’ markets across the U.S. looked at how long homes spend on the market, how likely they are to have had a price cut and how much they sold for in relation to their listing price.The nation’s top sellers’ markets are the big West Coast tech centers in San Jose, San Francisco and Seattle. Less competitive markets where buyers have time to negotiate are in the East and Midwest, including Philadelphia, Chicago...

Bloomberg - link and title only. Sub-title... "A culture war blows up, and Cruz intends to win it!" politics/articles/2015-04-24/ted-cruz-campaiA culture war blows up, and Cruz intends to win it.

WASHINGTON — A U.S. Senate staffer is facing a federal charge after court documents say he bought drugs from China with the intent to exchange them for sexual favors. Senate staffer Fred W. Pagan is facing the federal charge of possession with intent to distribute after court documents say he shipped drugs in from China. Pagan is a staffer for Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Mississippi.

The Legacy Lives On! Mark’s Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation “Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny precisely because its principles are the founding principles.” --Mark Levin in Liberty and TyrannyWelcome to “The Levin Lounge”… Step in and have a virtual FRink.Taking the country by storm, one radio station at a time – and kicking the BUTTS of the competition… it’s America’s Clean-Up Hitter! Welcome all, to the most FUN LIVE THREAD on FreeRepublic.com! You can call Mark’s show: 1-877-381-3811.

~snip~ "What I call the Benedict Option is this: a limited, strategic withdrawal of Christians from the mainstream of American popular culture, for the sake of shoring up our understanding of what the church is, and what we must do to be the church. We must do this because the strongly anti-Christian nature of contemporary popular culture occludes the meaning of the Gospel, and hides from us the kinds of habits and practices we need to engage in to be truly faithful to what we have been given."

Every year, millions of Americans frequent our state and national parks. In 2013, tourists, families and outdoor enthusiasts made an estimated 720 million visits to state parks and 726 million visits to national parks. National Park Week is an opportune time to focus on how to best preserve our parks for future generations. Across the country, tight government budgets leave little money for preserving and maintaining public parks. With increasing operational costs, privatizing certain park concessions can help provide a sustainable funding structure for these beloved areas. Funding shortfalls have caused states to close or significantly reduce services in state...

It would be comical, were it not such big business for bad people. [The vendor wasn't named by the researchers, David Byrne and Charles Henderson, but they did disclose the password: 166816. A Google search reveals that's the default password for several models of credit card terminal sold by Verifone, a Silicon Valley-based vendor that says it connects 27 million payment devices and has operations in 150 countries. The researchers said that the password remains in use on nine out of 10 terminals they see from the vendor, in part because customers mistakenly assume it is unique to them.] "Even...

The University of Maryland joins the University of Michigan in the ranks of educational institutions with an "American Sniper" controversy. Muslim student protests prompted the University of Maryland at College Park to announce the cancellation of the movie about deceased Navy SEAL Chris Kyle. "American Sniper only perpetuates the spread of Islamophobia and is offensive to many Muslims around the world for good reason. This movie dehumanizes Muslim individuals, promotes the idea of senseless mass murder, and portrays negative and inaccurate stereotypes," the university's Muslim Students Association said in its petition, Fox News reported Thursday.

Full title: **Want to shoot machine guns with the Navy SEAL who killed Osama bin Laden? That’ll be $50,000, please.** Key contributors to a conservative group have received a special invitation: For $50,000, they can shoot guns and hang out this June with Robert O’Neill, the former Navy SEAL credited with killing al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The offer was recently made by the ForAmerica organization. Those invited have until May 10 to RSVP for an event at the Amangani Resort Hotel in Jackson Hole, Wyo.

(snip) The focus of the fundraiser was on foreign policy and standing with Israel, and everyone at the fundraiser was on the same page—which is the Obama-Clinton foreign policy has dramatically weakened our friendship and relationship with the nation of Israel. The Times somehow found it extraordinary that a conservative Republican would be willing to have a conversation about foreign policy with people who are homosexual. It is only in the Times’ strange caricature of conservatism that that is the case. I am happy to bring my conservative message to anybody—conservative or liberal—and not every supporter of a candidate will...

The head of a powerful House panel is threatening to withhold defense funding over the department's alleged stonewalling in a probe of the controversial swap of five Taliban leaders for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had initially pledged to respond to questions, when lawmakers first demanded to know why the Pentagon had not given Congress the requisite 30-day notice before proceeding with the May 31 prisoner trade. But nearly a year later, the Pentagon has released only a trickle of highly redacted emails from before the swap. Republican lawmakers now plan to attempt the unusual step of...

A baker's dozen — twelve plus one — is the number of candidates seeking to fill the seat of the late U.S. Rep. Alan Nunnelee who died of brain cancer in February. The special election to fill Nunnelee's seat is May 12, less than a month away and the jockeying has begun to court votes in DeSoto County, Mississippi's fastest growing county and a population that makes up nearly one-fourth or 23 percent of all voters in the First Congressional District. The list of candidates, in alphabetical order, is as follows: Boyce Adams, Sam Adcock, Nancy Collins, Edward Holliday, Starner...

Imam says linen cloth believed to be the burial shroud of Jesus invites us to be "brothers" TURIN — “We decided to come as a sign, to say that we are citizens of this country and city. The Shroud draws Christians and Muslims, and in a world marked by division, it invites us to be brothers.”  This message of peace and dialogue came Wednesday from a group of Muslims who visited the Holy Shroud of Turin now on display at northern Italian city’s Cathedral. The delegation included the President of the League of Imams and Preachers of Mosques in Italy,...

New claims have surfaced suggesting that US Olympic herp Bruce Jenner started a gender transition process in the mid-1980s but stopped after he met and fell in love with Kris Kardashian, who became his third wife. Entertainment Tonight, quoting 'a source with direct knowledge,' said Bruce, now 65, talked about transitioning 30 years ago. By the mid-1980s, the Olympic gold medalist had allegedly started hormone therapy and electrolysis and had had plastic surgery to make his features look more feminine. Jenner found his own facial hair to be repulsive, the source told ET. The bombshell Entertainment Tonight report, broadcast Thursday...

While the term “school choice” is often perceived as a decision between public and private institutions, magnet schools offer an opportunity to introduce another option for parents and families within their public school district. With almost 3,000 magnet schools nationwide in 2012, the trend embracing more public school choice continues to rise. Originally conceived as an approach to decrease segregation in school districts, today magnet schools encourage more hands-on learning by tailoring instruction around a central theme. Various magnet schools focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM); arts; business; culinary studies; medicine; languages and more. Magnet schools increase parental...

Four Swedish police officers took a break from their New York vacation to answer the call of duty Wednesday, breaking up an out-of-control fight between two homeless men on a Manhattan subway train.The Scandinavian patrolmen said they were on their way to see a performance of Les Misérables when they heard the operator of their uptown 6 train yell frantically over the intercom: “Are there any police officers on the train?!” “We thought maybe someone needed help,” said Samuel Kvarzell, 25, a rookie with the Stockholm Police Department. When they made their way to the front of the train, they...

A Jewish convert’s remarkable journey to Catholicism recounted in a fascinating new book from Ignatius Press San Francisco, April 23, 2015 – Ignatius Press has published another poignant and astonishing story of a Jew who discovers the truth of the Catholic faith. This latest book, From the Kippah to the Cross tells the moving conversion story of Jean-Marie Élie Setbon. Raised in a non-observant Jewish family, Jean-Marie first encountered Jesus Christ on a crucifix at the age of eight. He felt an inexplicable attraction to Christ on the cross and would spend hours contemplating Him and began to develop a deeply...

Hillary Clinton should have to turn her computer hardware over to the federal government, House Speaker John Boehner now says, though he hasn't decided yet if he'll take legal action to force her hand. 'She violated the law, and the idea that she was going to use her own server and do official business on it goes against every transparency issue that the President likes to tout,' Boehner told Bloomberg News. The Republican leader said the executive branch 'just can't ignore the fact that there are a lot of public documents on this server that the American people have a...