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As I watched my neighbor put her dog’s poop in a single-use plastic baggy, I thought about split pants in China. When my wife and I got off the plane, 18 years ago, to adopt our first daughter, we were taken aback by the split pants. Split pants are (or at least were, back then) pants the children wear that are open in the crotch area. That allows them to urinate or defecate unobstructed, onto the street or wherever they may be. The theory is that eventually they will learn to “aim it at the toilet” or something to that...

Thursday, a public hearing was held at the Capitol over a proposal to tax ammunition by an additional 35%. Nearly 50 people signed up to testify on this issue, and many spoke out against the proposal. “I feel this just goes too far. They just keep nibbling and taking away, taking away,” said Skip Roberts of Higganum. Recently retired, Roberts said he’s on a fixed income. He owns a gun to keep his family safe and estimates a day of practice at the range will cost him and his wife close to $100 more if the ammunition excise tax is...

President Donald Trump said this week that the United States is preparing to impose further sanctions on the Venezuelan oil industry—one of the chief sources of income for President Nicolás Maduro‘s authoritarian regime as it continues to cling to power. The news came less than a week after the Trump administration announced sanctions against Geneva-based but Russian-controlled oil brokerage Rosneft Trading S.A., which U.S. officials say has been helping the Venezuelan regime to skirt the American oil embargo by acting as an intermediary to supply Venezuelan oil to third parties in Asia. “You’ll be seeing something on that in the...

But the position Sanders landed on is a very peculiar one. It suggests that he would rather lose to Trump than to tarnish his ideological purity by taking money from a billionaire. That his campaign would turn down hundreds of millions — perhaps even $1 billion or more — in financial help is a revelation that should be very troublesome for Democrats across the country who have set their sights on removing Donald Trump from office, no matter his successor. It's important to highlight that Bloomberg's offer is not a random gesture from some random billionaire. I don't think anyone...

SANTA ANA, Calif. - A 29-year-old San Clemente woman was sentenced Thursday to 51 years to life in prison for an alcohol-fueled crash in Huntington Beach that killed two Las Vegas teenagers and an 18-year-old man on spring break. Bani Marcela Duarte was convicted Oct. 1 of three counts of second- degree murder and a single count of driving under the influence of alcohol causing bodily injury, for causing the March 29, 2018, pre-dawn crash. Killed in the crash were the other driver, 17-year-old Brooke Hawley, and passengers 18-year-old Dylan Mack and 17-year-old Albert Rossi. A fourth high school classmate,...

— A man stole an ambulance and tried to run over an officer who shot him three times, leading to a low-speed chase through Philadelphia that lasted more than an hour Friday night, authorities said. Authorities were called to a motel in northeast Philadelphia around 9:20 p.m. for reports of a domestic disturbance involving a man and a woman that necessitated medical attention for one or more parties, Staff Inspector Sekou Kinebrew of Philadelphia police said. The man became combative and jumped into the ambulance, driving at one of the officers who medics called for backup, Kinebrew said.

At his rally in South Carolina Friday night, President Donald Trump tied the Coronavirus issue to the Democrats’ preference for open borders: “We must understand that border security is also health security,” the president said to cheers from the crowd at a reelection campaign rally in North Charleston, South Carolina, one day before the Democratic primary in the state. “You’ve all seen the wall is going up like magic,” he continued, saying they’d “have 500 miles built by very early next year.” “We will do everything in our power to keep the infection from entering our country. We have no...

Erdogan said Saturday his country’s borders with Europe were open, thousands of refugees gathered at the frontier with Greece. “We will not close the gates to refugees,” Erdogan said in a speech in Istanbul. “The European Union has to keep its promises.” The move by Turkey to open its border, first announced Thursday, was seen in Greece as a deliberate attempt to pressure European countries as tensions ratcheted up between Turkey and Syria. It would be a dramatic departure from Turkey’s current policy. Under a 2016 deal, Turkey agreed to stem the tide of refugees to Europe in return for...

CALABASAS, Calif. - Put on the map with the help of the 'Beverly Hillbillies,' 'Beverly Hills Cop,' the '90210' clan and Weezer, Beverly Hills has worn the crown for wealth in Southern California, until now. Bloomberg just named Calabasas one of the richest cities in the U.S, surpassing Beverly Hills. Located 25 miles west of downtown Los Angeles, Calabasas is a community of about 24,000, where “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” now entering its 18th season, calls home. It’s a place where the rich and famous can enjoy a more normal lifestyle. “We do have some ordinances about paparazzi that...

President Donald Trump has taken tough steps to protect Americans from the spread of the coronavirus rampaging through China. In an order issued Friday, federal officials announced that as of 5 p.m. Sunday, “Foreign nationals other than immediate family of U.S. citizens and permanent residents who have traveled in China in the last 14 days will be denied entry into United States.” American citizens returning the U.S. from areas in China where they may have been exposed to the virus will be quarantined, while others coming from the rest of China will be screened for the virus. Earlier Friday, officials...

THIES, Senegal (AP) — The only place in the world where fighters linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group are cooperating is in West Africa’s sprawling Sahel region, giving the extremists greater depth as they push into new areas, according to the commander of the U.S. military’s special forces in Africa. “I believe that if it‘s left unchecked it could very easily develop into a great threat to the West and the United States,” U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Dagvin Anderson told The Associated Press in an interview this week. The leader of U.S. Special Operations Command Africa described...

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack the...

Five-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova has announced her retirement. "Tennis -- I'm saying goodbye," she wrote in an essay that appeared Wednesday in Vogue and Vanity Fair. Sharapova turned pro in 2001 at age 14. She won Wimbledon in 2004, the US Open in 2006, the Australian Open in 2008 and the French Open in 2012 and 2014. She is one of only six women in the professional era to win each major tennis title at least once. She made 10 Grand Slam finals in all, going 5-5. For a while, Sharapova was as big a star as her...

The Father "has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light" (Col. 1:12). You are the recipient of a very special inheritance. Perhaps you've had the disappointing and annoying experience of receiving in the mail an envelope that identifies you as the winner of a large sum of money or some other fantastic prize, only to open it and discover you hadn't won anything at all. It was simply a ploy to get you to enter a contest or purchase a product. In a world filled with deception and unfulfilled expectations, it's wonderful to know that...

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Border Patrol agents in southern Arizona have uncovered another illegal tunnel running under the U.S.-Mexico border, the latest in a series of discoveries and the result of renewed efforts targeting underground smuggling routes. The tunnel, according to Customs and Border Protection, ran about 30 feet into Nogales, Arizona. No arrests were immediately made in connection with the tunnel, a CBP official confirmed to ABC News. It’s the third time since December that agents have thwarted a suspected underground smuggling route in the area, according to Border Patrol. Similar tunnels used for drug trafficking have recently been found...

Longtime MSNBC host Chris Matthews may want to start polishing up his resume, because on Friday he committed his third major faux pas in less than seven days by mistaking one black man for another. In the oft-used words of the president: “Not good.” He specifically mistook Sen. Lindsey Graham’s primary challenger, a South Carolina Democrat by the name of Jaime Harrison, for Republican Sen. Tim Scott. As he was speaking on a panel that included Harrison, a clip appeared on the screen of Scott standing by Graham. After one of his fellow panelists made some remarks about Sen. Bernie...

The cruise ship Diamond Princess was quarantined for over two weeks resulting in more coronavirus infected passengers than if they would have disembarked immediately. Rather the opposite to what was intended. This according to a study conducted at Umeå University in Sweden. “The infection rate onboard the vessel was about four times higher than what can be seen on land in the worst infected areas of China. A probable cause is how close people stay to one another onboard a vessel,” says Joacim Rocklöv, Professor of epidemiology at Umeå University and principal author of the article. After a person travelling...

Last week an article from the Federalist Society about Greta Thunberg popped up on my computer. It was by David Harsanyi and titled, “The Tragedy of Greta Thunberg”. The following is the first two paragraphs of his article: “Sixteen-year-old Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg lives in the healthiest, wealthiest, safest, and most peaceful era humans have ever known. She is one of the luckiest people ever to have lived. In a just world, Thunberg would be at the United Nations thanking capitalist countries for bequeathing her this remarkable inheritance. Instead, she, like millions of other indoctrinated kids her age,...

The New York Times on Ash Wednesday displayed more sudden respect for religion, at least of the left-wing variety, in an opinion piece by veteran journalist, presidential historian, and former editor-in-chief of Newsweek Jon Meacham, “Jesus May Be the Best Hope Against an Amoral President.” The text box: “Religious history can inspire activists in the Trump resistance.”