Free Republic

A South Carolina megachurch led by celebrity pastor John Gray is facing eviction after another well-known preacher said Relentless Church wasn’t paying its bills, court filings show. Gray, a protégé of televised preacher Joel Osteen, took over the space of Redemption Church in Greenville in 2018. He has been in a dispute with Redemption owner and pastor Ron Carpenter over the property for months, according to multiple reports. The 30-day eviction notice was filed Jan. 2 in Greenville County, court records show. Redemption told Gray and his congregation to be out of the building by the end of 2019, the...

... In the first place, over the past few years wages for workers toward the bottom of the income stream have been rising faster than wages for those toward the top. If the bosses have the workers by the throat, how can this be happening? Second, wages are still generally determined by skills and productivity. For example, Edward Lazear of Stanford University finds that between 1989 and 2017, productivity in mostly high-skill industries rose by roughly 34 percent and wages in those industries rose by 26 percent. Productivity in industries with mostly less-skilled workers rose by 20 percent while wages...

He put the fat in fatwa. A morbidly obese ISIS fanatic dubbed “Jabba the Jihadi” has been captured by Iraqi forces — who loaded him onto a flatbed truck because he couldn’t fit in a police car. The 560-pound mufti Abu Abdul Bari, also known as Shifa al-Nima, was nabbed Thursday by an elite SWAT team of the Nineveh regiment in the city of Mosul, according to Stars and Stripes.

Vatican picks Hong Kong bishop, delays announcement Hong Kong, China, Jan 17, 2020 / 07:06 am (CNA).- The Holy See has delayed announcing its pick for the next bishop of Hong Kong, CNA has learned, amid concerns that local clergy and lay Catholics will see Rev. Peter Choy Wai-man as too sympathetic to the Chinese Communist government.The Diocese of Hong Kong has been without permanent leadership since January 2019, when Bishop Michael Yeung Ming-cheung died unexpectedly. Since Yeung died, the diocese has been led temporarily by Cardinal John Tong Hon, Yeung’s predecessor, who retired from the post in 2017.Senior Church...

An out of control vehicle almost smashed directly into a man in Armenia. Amazing video at link...................

11:59 AM PT -- The LSU players felt right at home during their White House visit ... doing a special version of their epic "Get The Gat" locker room dance while visiting the president!! For those unfamiliar ... the Tigers have celebrated wins this season using the Lil ELT song as a sort of unofficial anthem. It's taken a life of its own and it's freakin' awesome. John Emery, Peter Parrish and other players pulled out all the stops in the 1600 Penn version ... featuring an unidentified woman stealing the show. Of course, now that LSU are the champs...

Florida represents an important battleground during presidential elections. The swing state went twice for George W. Bush, then twice for Barack Obama and then it went to Donald Trump in 2016. Vice President Pence spent Thursday campaigning in the Sunshine State where the Trump campaign hopes to win again in 2020. Thursday evening the vice president spoke at a Latinos for Trump event at a Kissimmee church called Nación de Fe. He said that the nation needs “four more years” with President Trump at the country’s helm. “But to keep America great, we need you to decide right here and right...

The Supreme Court will consider allowing the Trump administration to enforce rules that allow more employers to deny insurance coverage for contraceptives to women. The justices agreed Friday to yet another case stemming from President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, this time about cost-free birth control. The high court will review an appeals court ruling that blocked the Trump administration rules because it did not follow proper procedures. The new policy on contraception, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, would allow more categories of employers, including publicly traded companies, to opt out of providing no-cost birth control...

Judicial Watch Sues State Dept. for Records Tied to Alleged Monitoring of Trump Family and Journalists by Amb. Marie Yovanovitch Federal Court Orders Snap Hearing on Awan Brothers, Congressional Democrat IT Scandal after DOJ Files Document under Seal Records Show ‘Diversity Workshop’ Instituted by South Bend Police Department Mexican Police Chief Unfazed by U.S. Alert; Arrival of Middle Easterners Going North is ‘Normal’ Judicial Watch Sues State Dept. for Records Tied to Alleged Monitoring of Trump Family and Journalists by Amb. Marie Yovanovitch Judicial Watch is going to court to uncover details of the alleged monitoring of President Trump’s...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department will do everything necessary to determine whether former U.S. ambassador Marie Yovanovitch was under threat in Ukraine, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday. Documents released this week indicated Lev Parnas, a Ukraine-born U.S. citizen, helped U.S. President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani investigate U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter. They also showed Parnas was involved in monitoring Yovanovitch’s movements before Trump removed her in May. Yovanovitch, a respected career diplomat, was a key witness in the U.S. House of Representatives’ impeachment investigation of Trump last fall.

The same media elites are are eternally suspicious of all Trump business activities -- a fair topic for investigation -- have generally demonstrated a dramatic incuriosity about the Barack and Michelle Obama wealth boom. Whatever coverage bubbles up comes with a You-Go-Guys tone. Last August, TMZ reported the Obamas were buying a $15 million mansion on Martha's Vineyard. Non-Fox network coverage? Zero. In December, they actually bought said mansion for $11.75 million. Non-Fox network coverage? Again, zero. Now Joe Pompeo at Vanity Fair is addressing the Obama Boom in a chirpy piece on the "Obamoguls" and how their wealth is...

A year and a half into Donald Trump’s presidency, Henry Kissinger set out a theory. “I think Trump may be one of those figures in history who appears from time to time to mark the end of an era and to force it to give up its old pretences,” he told the Financial Times. “It doesn’t necessarily mean that he knows this, or that he is considering any great alternative. It could just be an accident.” A term has been coined to describe this notion: Ryan Evans of War on the Rocks calls them “Trumportunities.” It is the idea that,...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Friday to take up an issue that could change a key element of the system America uses to elect its president, with a decision likely in the spring just as the campaign heats up. The answer to the question could be a decisive one: Are the electors who cast the actual Electoral College ballots for president and vice president required to follow the results of the popular vote in their states? Or are they free to vote as they wish? A decision that they are free agents could give a single elector, or a...

Published 2 years ago on February 22, 2018 By Alanna Ketler CE Staff Writer The invention of the chair was really a total game changer in regards to how our bodies function and which parts of the body we are using on a regular basis. The chair took all of that pressure off of our rears and backs, and relieved some of our weight for us. Of course, we always had the option to sit on the ground or perhaps in a tree, but the chair became such a fundamental piece of furniture in our lives that it absolutely changed...

The life of Anthony will remind many people of Saint Francis of Assisi. At 20, Anthony was so moved by the Gospel message, “Go, sell what you have, and give to [the] poor” (Mark 10:21b), that he actually did just that with his large inheritance. He is different from Francis in that most of Anthony’s life was spent in solitude. He saw the world completely covered with snares, and gave the Church and the world the witness of solitary asceticism, great personal mortification and prayer. But no saint is antisocial, and Anthony drew many people to himself for spiritual healing...

The teeth in the mechanism are a familiar Trump administration tool: the imposition of tariffs in proportion to damage caused by any non-compliance. But according to the text, if the offending party disagrees with such a result, its only recourse is to quit the agreement. There are no provisions for appeal or levying retaliatory tariffs.

A new poll ranks U.S. Sen. Susan Collins as the least popular senator. The poll, released Thursday by the Morning Consult, found a 42 percent approval rate for Collins and 52 percent disapproval rate among Maine voters surveyed. The fourth quarter ranking represents a 10 percent drop in Collins’ net approval rating. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R – KY, ranked as the second least popular senator with 50 percent of Kentucky voters disapproving of his performance. The rankings are based on a survey given to 494,899 registered voters nationwide between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31. Participants could answer whether...

Democratic presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg wants all new cars to be electric by 2035, according to a plan released by the former New York City mayor's campaign on Friday. Bloomberg's campaign said he would instate mileage and pollution standards and "put in place an aggressive schedule to put the U.S. on pace to make 100% of new vehicles pollution-free by 2035." SNIP Bloomberg's plan also calls for building metro-area public transit and intercity rail and bus systems and incentivizing local governments to prioritize "zero-emission" transit systems such as biking and walking. His campaign did not specifically outline how much the...

We are saddened today to hear of the passing of the world’s shortest man, Khagendra Thapa Magar from Nepal. He was 27 years old.⁣ Khagendra was born in the Baglung district of Nepal, the eldest son of Roop Bahadur and Dhan Maya. His father recalled, “He was so tiny when he was born that he could fit in the palm of your hand, and it was very hard to bathe him because he was so small.”⁣

Home/Rod Dreher/Rainbow Cake Girl: The True Story Rainbow Cake Girl: The True Story JANUARY 17, 2020|3:08 PM ROD DREHER You might have heard about Whitefield Academy, the private Christian school in Louisville, Kentucky, that expelled Kayla Kenney, a 15-year-old student, for posting on social media a photo of herself with a rainbow cake. On the surface, it looked ridiculous: this priggish Christian school kicking a teenager out for merely having a rainbow cake for her birthday. The story has gone viral in the national media. The Washington Post, for example, reported: