Free Republic

A 17-year-old Dutch girl was legally allowed to kill herself using euthanasia after she was raped when younger and spent years battling depression, according to a report Tuesday. “Love is letting go, in this case,” Noa Pothoven of Arnhem wrote in an Instagram post announcing her choice to die in the living room of her home Sunday. Pothoven — who was sexually abused at 11 and raped three years later — said she was sick of suffering “unbearable pain. "Maybe this comes as a surprise to some, given my posts about hospitalization, but my plan has been there for a...

Woman accuses Cardinal DiNardo of dismissing sex abuse case HOUSTON (AP) — The cardinal leading the U.S. Catholic Church's response to the sex abuse crisis has been accused of mishandling a case alleging that his then-deputy manipulated a woman into a sexual relationship, even as he counseled her husband on their marriage, heard her confessions and solicited their donations. The allegations against Cardinal Daniel DiNardo come just a week before he presides over a meeting of U.S. bishops to adopt new measures to hold church leaders accountable for sexual misconduct or for covering it up. Laura Pontikes, a 55-year-old...

Pride Month kicks off in Boston on Tuesday with a lights event, a paint night — and preparations for a possible “Straight Pride Parade” this summer. The event to celebrate heterosexuality in one of the nation’s most gay-friendly cities is meant to poke fun at the “identity politics” of the political left, organizer Mark Sahady wrote in a Facebook comment. The parade organizers have designed a flag and designated actor Brad Pitt as their “mascot.” “For them everything is based upon identity and whether or not one is categorized as a victim or an oppressor,” Sahady wrote on Facebook. “If...

Jailed Cardinal George Pell's appeal against his historical child sex abuse convictions has begun at the Supreme Court of Victoria in front of a packed court room. The 77-year-old is fronting the hearing in person, after being taken to court in a prison van and escorted in by guards. His appeal is being heard by three Court of Appeal judges and is being live-streamed on the court's website. The courtroom was full as the hearing got underway. Some of Pell's relatives and supporters were in attendance, as well as abuse survivor advocates and reporters. Sitting in the dock for the...

Los Angeles has experienced a 16% increase in the homeless population over the last year, the latest sign of severe income inequality and a worsening housing crisis plaguing California. There are now more than 36,000 homeless people in the city of LA, and nearly 59,000 across LA county, a 16% and 12% uptick respectively, according to an annual LA county report released on Tuesday. The county “point-in-time count”, conducted by thousands of volunteers in January each year, is an estimate of the number of people living on the street, in tents, in cars and in shelters. The sharp increases paint...

Growing up in Fairbanks, Alaska, Nathan Baring has seen the signs of a warming world all around him. The winters have begun to lose their infamous chill. Thawing permafrost is shifting the ground beneath his feet. And some years, there isn’t even enough snow to ski. “If you have eyes and you walk out your back door, you can see the changes that have taken place over only my short childhood,” said Baring, 19, who already has six years of climate activism under his belt. So when lawyers asked Baring if he’d like to sue the federal government for failing...

Former “Jeopardy!” champion James Holzhauer will likely have to pay $1.2 million in taxes on his $2.462 million winnings amassed during his 32-game winning streak, according to the sports media analytics company The Action Network. Holzhauer, a professional gambler from Nevada, will have to pay both federal and California state taxes, where the decades-old program is broadcast. California has the dubious distinction of having the nation's highest tax rate at 13.3 percent. When adding the federal and state taxes up, they will take away 47.6 percent of Holzhauer's lump sum, The Action Network reported. Holzhauer said he received his check...

Left-wing London Mayor Sadiq Khan has said that the UK will “regret” inviting President Donald Trump on a State Visit and accused the U.S. leader of being a “poster boy” for the far-right. Speaking to Sky News on Tuesday, Labour’s London mayor claimed that people espousing right-wing views amidst the resurgence of conservatism in countries like Hungary, Italy, France, and the UK were “fringe” and “far-right extremists”. He blamed the backlash against leftist progressivism on the U.S. President, saying: “Their views are now mainstream and have been normalised by Donald Trump.” “Donald Trump is the poster boy for the far-right...

An investigation into the cause of their deaths is ongoing, but a recent World Health Organization alert warns of a deadly influenza strain, including in Fiji where it is “particularly affecting young adults.”

The Florida deputy who knew a gunman was loose at the Parkland high school but refused to go inside to confront the assailant was arrested Tuesday on 11 criminal charges related to his inaction during the massacre that killed 17 people. ......... He was charged with child neglect, culpable negligence and perjury — allegations that carry a maximum potential prison sentence of nearly 100 years. more at the link

June 4th, 2019 marks the 15th anniversary of the Killdozer's rampage through Granby, Colorado. Sit down kids, and let me tell you a tale. A tale about a reasonable man driven to do unreasonable things. Marvin Heemeyer was a man who owned a muffler shop in Granby, Colorado. The city council ordained to approve the construction of a concrete factory in the lot across from Marvin's shop. In the process, this blocked the only access road to the muffler shop. Marvin petitioned to stop the construction to no avail. He petitioned to construct a new access road, and even bought...

President Trump just took another crucial step toward restoring sanity to our immigration system and making sure it works to America’s benefit rather than draining our country’s wealth. In a recent memorandum, the president ordered authorities to enforce a Clinton-era law that required sponsors of welfare-dependent legal immigrants to reimburse the government for the benefits they receive. That law also requires the government to consider the income of a sponsor when a legal immigrant applies for welfare. "To protect benefits for American citizens, immigrants must be financially self-sufficient," President Trump said in announcing the plan, making the common-sense point that...

Senate Republicans pushed back on President Donald Trump -- including the threat of a veto override -- after he scoffed at the possibility that members of his own party would try to block his plan to impose a tariff on Mexico over concerns about the potential economic fallout. Senator Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican, predicted that the Senate would have enough votes to override a presidential veto of any measure that would keep Trump’s tariffs on Mexico from going into effect June 10. “You’ve heard of people who are war weary,” Cramer said. “Senate Republicans are tariff weary.” Trump,...

Can you stand one more addition to the discussion on the Ahmari-French debates? The most positive assessment I can make of Sohrab Ahmari’s side of the argument is that many of us on the Right want to believe that we have a free and fair system for expressing our views and attempting to get the government to enact the policies we want, and under the law, we do. But in practice, the deck is stacked particularly high against conservative Christians, and some of our country’s most powerful institutions are less inclined to even give lip service to the concept of...

The President of the United States last night hosted the heir to the British throne at an intimate 60-person black tie dinner at the official residence of the US Ambassador, Winfield House in Regent’s Park. Mr Trump and Prince Charles were joined by their wives, the Prime Minister, and officials and dignitaries from both nations for the three-course meal in London, which was held to reciprocate Monday night’s lavish banquet in the Buckingham Palace ballroom. In contrast to the sophisticated Palace menu which included steamed halibut and strawberry sable, - and was served with a £2,000-a-bottle Chateau Lafite - last...

Christopher Steele, the former MI6 operative infamous for collecting a dossier alleging ties between the Trump campaign and Moscow, among other sordid details, has agreed to be questioned by U.S. officials about his relationship with the FBI. A source close to Steele told The Times he will meet with investigators in London in the coming weeks. Republicans have long alleged it was Steele’s dossier that improperly led to an FBI inquiry, which ultimately morphed into special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible coordination between the Trump and campaign and Russia during the 2016 election. The Justice Department’s internal watchdog is...

With chants of “Yes we can” raining from the rafters, House Democrats on Tuesday powered through legislation to cancel deportations and grant future citizenship rights to millions of people, in a vote that nodded more toward 2020 politics than to substantive policymaking. The 237-187 vote was momentous, marking the first major legalization to pass the House in nearly a decade, and underscoring the ground Democrats feel they have gained on an issue both sides expect to be at the center of the presidential election. With President Trump calling for action to solve crisis at the border, Democrats countered by casting...

Democratic legislation aimed at helping more than 2 million migrants stay in the U.S. has cleared the House. But that's about as far as it's likely to get. The measure would help young migrants brought to the U.S. illegally when they were children. This includes many "Dreamers" protected by the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which President Donald Trump has tried to dismantle. It would also protect others here temporarily from countries racked by wars, natural disaster or disease. The migrants would be offered chances for legal residency and citizenship.

The former school resource officer widely branded as a coward for failing to intervene during the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting has been arrested for failing to act during the massacre. Scot Peterson, 56, was arrested Tuesday and charged with seven counts of neglect of a child, three counts of culpable negligence, and one count of perjury, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Rick Swearingen said Peterson did “absolutely nothing” to stop the shooting, which killed 17 and injured 17 others.

JUNE 4 2019 Tuesday of the Seventh Week of Easter Reading 1 ACTS 20:17-27 From Miletus Paul had the presbyters of the Church at Ephesus summoned. When they came to him, he addressed them, "You know how I lived among you the whole time from the day I first came to the province of Asia. I served the Lord with all humility and with the tears and trials that came to me because of the plots of the Jews, and I did not at all shrink from telling you what was for your benefit, or from teaching you in public...