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Donald Trump says he has a “big announcement” to make tonight in Iowa, but he’s not saying what it is. Trump’s campaign announced that the Republican presidential candidate would be joined by a very “special guest” at his Ames, Iowa, rally tonight at 6 p.m. ET at the Hansen Agricultural Student Learning Center. The campaign isn’t giving any hints.

While low energy prices are thought to provide a boost to the global economy as consumers benefit from lower costs, there are growing signs that the dramatic collapse in oil prices – so sudden and so severe – is actually creating economic headwinds. The oil and gas industry spent $200 billion on drilling, refining, and new equipment in 2013, and the sharp cutback in spending is being felt beyond just the oil patch. Last week Wood Mackenzie estimated that $380 billion worth of oil and gas projects were scrapped by the industry. In The New York Times on January 16,...

Remember when universities used to encourage freedom of academic inquiry and were seen as intellectual and social preparation for the transition into adulthood? I know; that was a long time ago -- before the left infected these institutions. Everyone knows about the leftward slant of most American universities: their monolithic biases; their bent toward politicizing their curricula; and their practice of indoctrinating students. But increasingly the results of leftist community organizing -- the toxins of political correctness -- are seeping into university disciplinary rules. This deplorable trend has concerned me for years, but it is particularly disturbing when it is...

Read the graphs. All started high, though none able to get back towards even the start point of Friday's disastrous losses. But, every index is trending back towards - or past - negative territory. Again.

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad would like to see Ted Cruz defeated, he said on Tuesday. The Iowa governor, whose powerful network of supporters is a prized political commodity, was speaking to reporters at the Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit. Branstad's son Eric is leading efforts to portray the Texas senator as hostile to ethanol, a narrative Cruz has been trying to stifle in recent weeks. Asked if he'd like the Texas senator to lose, Governor Branstad said, "Yes." "I think it would be very damaging to our state," he continued, according to Iowa's Channel 13 news. "I believe it would be...

Theophany is the Feast which reveals the Most Holy Trinity to the world through the Baptism of the Lord (Mt.3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22). God the Father spoke from Heaven about the Son, the Son was baptized by the St John the Forerunner, and the Holy Spirit descended upon the Son in the form of a dove. From ancient times this Feast was called the Day of Illumination and the Feast of Lights, since God is Light and has appeared to illumine "those who sat in darkness," and "in the region of the shadow of death" (Mt.4:16), and to save...

-snip- Her background in finance has proved useful: Quite at ease asking for large sums of money, Mrs. Cruz makes as many as 10 calls a day seeking the maximum contribution couples can make to the campaign. "The $10,800 contributions is my lane," she said. Inside the campaign, Mrs. Cruz has built a model that seems lifted from Wall Street, with donors labeled "investors" who are privy to "quarterly investor meetings" to discuss the "product." She also helped recruit an important fund-raiser, Lila Ontiveros, after Ms. Ontiveros left Goldman Sachs. At times, the dual role of Goldman executive and political...

The federal budget deficit will soar this year, the Congressional Budget Office reported Tuesday, after President Obama and Congress gave up on austerity late last year, embracing spending hikes and massive new tax cuts that have left the government awash in red ink. Adding to the problems is a projected rise in interest rates, which will force the government to pay higher costs as it services the trillions of dollars of debt that have already piled up over the last 15 years. CBO analysts say the deficit will reach $544 billion in fiscal 2016, which is a 24 percent leap...

With the Iowa caucus less than two weeks away, a super PAC supporting former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is trying new ways to lure in potential voters: A video mailer. The group, Right to Rise, is sending supporters in Iowa and New Hampshire (which holds is primary in three weeks) LCD displays that start playing a documentary called "The Jeb Story" when opened.

Tech giants - Apple, Samsung and Microsoft among them - are under fire following the release of a new report that links the companies to the child mining of cobalt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As portable electronics such as smartphones, tablets and laptops become more and more ubiquitous, the global demand for rechargeable batteries and in turn cobalt - a major component in lithium-ion batteries - continues to grow. According to estimates, the African country is responsible for more than 50% of the world's cobalt production, a portion of which is sourced from artisanal mines in the...

DES MOINES, Iowa, January 19, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Leading Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton "would like to see Planned Parenthood even get more funding." Speaking to Fusion's Anna Holmes after the Iowa Brown & Black Forum, Clinton – who has been endorsed by the embattled abortion giant – clarified that she opposes defunding "because, often times, it is both the first and the last resort for health care." Planned Parenthood has been under fire for conducting possibly illegal abortions to allegedly profit off baby parts – which is also illegal – as well as alleged fraud. Its affiliates have also...

The Chicago police complain they arrest people all the time for the illegal possession of a gun, only to find the gun-toting goofs back on the street in the blink of an eye. Former Police Supt. Garry McCarthy liked to cite the example of four men in a car who were arrested back on Aug. 29 in connection with a murder. Between them, the men had been arrested 65 times before, including ten times for gun offenses. One of the men was out on bond at that moment, charged with shooting into a house.

The Constitution provides that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." But, as Gary Scott Smith of Grove City College writes in his new book, Religion in the Oval Office, "Throughout American history many citizens have viewed strong faith as an asset, if not a requirement, for politicians, especially presidents." The biography of faith, such as it is, of the Republican presidential candidate who has led the polls for six months starts with First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, Queens. That is the church Donald Trump's parents attended...

The Dangers of Parisian Theology Orthodox Ecclesiastical Theology By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou When we speak of Parisian theology, we mean that theology which was formed from various Russian theologians that had opposed the reforms of Peter the Great, and which was expressed in the West by Russian slavophile immigrants. The Theological Institute of St. Sergius in Paris cultivated the basic concepts of this theology, because many Russian theologians fled there. It is, of course, known that these Russian theologians had a sense of the Orthodox hesychastic tradition and, observing the humanistic principles of western civilization,...

It goes to show, when you tangle with a guy who is incredibly smart, and was a national debate champion while at Princeton, a guy who graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1995, and a guy who's sponsored over 97 conservative pieces of legislation in the Senate, said guy is not going to back down nor get into the hemming and hawing which other candidates have descended into. Silly Molly Ball has said the in-fighting is all part of a "portrait of a party on the verge of coming apart," which is the type of fable that...

The big fall-off-your-chair moment during President Obama's State of the Union address came when he proclaimed: "We've cut our imports of foreign oil by nearly 60 percent and cut carbon pollution more than any other country on Earth. Gas under two bucks a gallon ain't bad, either." Sure, Mr. President. Take a bow for the smashing success of the very domestic oil and gas industry that you have tried to destroy. Even Obama couldn't carry this off. The smirk on his face as he sang the praises of the oil and gas industry was unmistakable. Right after Obama boasted...

Well ok. I have never heard of this guy before. I don't know if what he is saying it true, is true. Tried to google the guy, and it wasn't for sure whether he is reputable. But it seems interesting, at least. So here it is: http://thesovereigninvestor.com/exclusives/80-stock-market-crash-to-strike-in-2016/?z=451506

Former Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) praised Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) for his view on gay marriage on Thursday's broadcast of CNBC's Squawk Box. Cruz appeared on the show prior to Frank and said though he believes marriage is between one man and one woman, that it is up to each state to decide what their marriage law should be. "I support the Constitution letting each state decide each marriage law consistent with the values of their citizens," Cruz said. "If the citizens of California decide they want to allow gay marriage, that's a decision for them." Barney Frank said Cruz's...

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Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, has caused controversy by blaming the rise of Daesh--in part--on homosexuality. In an interview published on the church's official website, he claimed that people were flocking to join the group because of the "godless civilization" of the West which celebrates gay pride.He lamented what he apparently considered to be persecution of so-called religious values in the West, before going on to offer that as an explanation as to why one may join a group like Daesh."We can have parades for the sexual minorities - that is supported - but a million...