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A laptop and several memory sticks used to program Philadelphia’s voting machines were stolen from a city warehouse in East Falls, officials confirmed Wednesday, setting off a scramble to investigate and to ensure the machines had not been compromised.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has not ceased, the bubonic plague continues to rage in Inner Mongolia. Now a suspected case of bubonic plague has also been reported in Yunnan Province. The local area has activated a “level 4” alert for plague prevention, and has conducted massive testing on patients with fever.The Plague Prevention and Control Headquarters of Menghai county, Yunnan Province issued a notice on Sept. 25, reporting that mice with unknown causes of death were found in Bianyuan village of Xiding township, Menghai county. The mice were tested by the Provincial Endemic Disease Prevention and Control Center and the...

"Unhinged," "thuggish," "racist," "undisciplined" and "appalling" are among the many derogatory adjectives that have been used to describe President Donald Trump's performance during his debate with former Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday, September 29. But such adjectives were being used to describe Trump long before the debate, and one author who has not been shy about stressing that he considers Trump to be the most dangerous president of his lifetime is Noam Chomsky — who, in an interview with Smashing Interviews Magazine published this week, laid out a variety of reasons why he is so troubled by Trump's presidency....

Kim Foxx said “no” to a debate against her Republican opponent in the Cook County state’s attorney’s race and will not sit on a stage with him at all as she campaigns for reelection. “We learned during the recent Ed board interviews, that the State’s Attorney participated in with Mr. O’Brien, that he will instead use the time for Trump-like name calling and fear mongering,” Sims wrote. “During this nationwide crisis, she will not sit across the stage from a Republican that exploits tragedy to win a campaign. We had plenty of that last night. Voters deserve better.” O’Brien quickly...

Former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said Wednesday he will be stepping away from his company and any role with the campaign. Parscale, who had been demoted by the campaign in July, told Politico in a statement that he is stepping away from President Trump’s reelection effort to seek help for what he called “overwhelming stress” on him and his family. “I am stepping away from my company and any role in the campaign for the immediate future to focus on my family and get help dealing with the overwhelming stress," Parscale said in the statement. The statement comes after...

This Thursday, Northrop Grumman will launch a Cygnus cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) carrying not only supplies for the crew, but also new science experiments to be tested out in the microgravity environment. With a total of 8,000 pounds of cargo, the Cygnus will be launched on an Antares rocket from Virginia Space’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport. This will be Northrop Grumman’s 14th resupply mission to the ISS, and you can watch the launch and the arrival of the Cygnus at the ISS live. The launch and the spacecraft’s arrival at the ISS will both be shown on...

PLYMOUTH TWP., Pa. - Plymouth Township police are searching for two women who were caught on video removing a flag at a memorial site honoring Officer Brad Fox. Police say around 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 26, the two women on bikes stopped at the memorial along the Schuylkill River Trail. According to police, one acted as the lookout when the other woman removed the flag, discarding it in weeds next to the memorial. “As you will see, the female suspects stopped with the sole and express purpose of desecrating the memory of, and the memorial to, Officer Brad Fox,”...

by Ron Kersten "Blue-collar Joe" spoke at a train station in Alliance, Ohio on Wednesday. Biden took the Amtrak from Cleveland to Alliance and was greeted by a group of Trump supporter blaring his gaffes over giant speakers. At one point Biden had to be fed a line by a reporter because he forgot what he was talking about. “I can’t remember,” Joe said as he tried to trash Trump. Of course the reporter gladly helped Biden since he was speaking without his trusty teleprompter. WATCH:

Only one NBA player refused to kneel for the National Anthem before Wednesday night’s Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

Democratic presidential nominee Joseph R. Biden flatly denied at Tuesday night’s debate that his lawyer son took huge sums of money from corrupt oligarchs and Chinese communists during his vice presidency, but Treasury Department reports show that Hunter Biden did receive the money. President Trump chose to make an issue of Hunter Biden’s cash haul from Russia, Ukraine and China with the implication that unsavory figures were trying to buy Vice President Biden and the Obama administration. “When somebody gets 3½ million dollars from the mayor of Moscow,” Mr. Trump said. “That’s is not true. That report is totally false,”...

Devotion to sacred Scripture, a “living and tender love” for the written word of God: this is the legacy that Saint Jerome bequeathed to the Church by his life and labours. Now, on the sixteen hundredth anniversary of his death, those words taken from the opening prayer of his liturgical Memorial[1] give us an essential insight into this outstanding figure in the Church’s history and his immense love for Christ. That “living and tender love” flowed, like a great river feeding countless streams, into his tireless activity as a scholar, translator and exegete. Jerome’s profound knowledge of the Scriptures, his...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, thanked experts from Moneyval -- the Council of Europe's Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism -- for helping the Holy See in its efforts to ensure transparency and international cooperation in its financial dealings. The cardinal welcomed the experts to the Vatican Sept. 30 as they began a regularly scheduled, two-week visit. In the Vatican, he said, there is underway "a progressive implementation of systems that allow a greater control of financial flows that could be exposed to the risks...

Video originates from C-SPAN during a debate on the use of Confederate flags. Then Senator Joe Biden: "...not granting a federal charter to an organization, made up of many fine people, who continue to display Confederate flag as a symbol, and the charter was to give them the right, the impruader of the federal government, to do that."

...The officers were made deputies in advance of expected demonstrations at a rally by far-right group Proud Boys which took place in Portland on Saturday. Anticipating violence, Oregon Governor Kate Brown issued an executive order allowing local and county law enforcement to handle the event. While some protests did occur, the rally lasted roughly 90 minutes before ending. Mayor Wheeler's office said in a Tuesday statement that it had asked the office of the U.S. Attorney to remove the deputation. On Wednesday, District of Oregon Billy J. Williams and U.S. Marshal for the District of Oregon Russ Burger denied Wheeler's...

WASHINGTON—Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett disclosed that President Trump had offered her the nomination just days after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, a timeline that suggests the week of suspense before the pick was publicly revealed was largely for show. Judge Barrett said in a questionnaire submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee that on Saturday, Sept. 19—one day after Justice Ginsburg died—she received a phone call from White House counsel Pat Cipollone and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to discuss the vacancy. She spoke to them again on Sunday, when they invited her to the White House,...

CNA Staff, Sep 29, 2020 / 02:30 pm MT (CNA).- The lawyer representing Cardinal Angelo Becciu has resigned over criticism of his social media activities. Ivano Iai, who had been handling legal and media matters for the cardinal and his family, announced that he had withdrawn from the case after criticism of pictures he posted on social media. Iai, apparently a recreational body-builder, posted a series of photographs of himself in revealing swimwear on different social media sites, including Instagram and Twitter. In the photos, Iai appears in seaside settings, and strikes a number of attitudes and poses, including arching...

Former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale resigned from his post on the president’s re-election team Wednesday evening, days after he was detained and hospitalized following an altercation at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The Trump campaign confirmed to Fox News that Parscale had stepped down but did not immediately provide a statement on his departure. Parscale, 44, had served a leading role in the campaign’s digital outreach efforts following his demotion from the campaign manager’s post in July.

Abstract Since 1977, U.S. states have passed laws steadily raising the age for which a child must ride in a car safety seat. These laws significantly raise the cost of having a third child, as many regular-sized cars cannot fit three child seats in the back. Using census data and state-year variation in laws, we estimate that when women have two children of ages requiring mandated car seats, they have a lower annual probability of giving birth by 0.73 percentage points. Consistent with a causal channel, this effect is limited to third child births, is concentrated in households with access...

The new Sts. Cyril and Methodius Church in northeastern Moscow. Photo: v-resin.ruDespite the restrictions imposed due to the coronavirus, the construction of new Orthodox churches in Moscow is ahead of schedule this year. “If in just one district we start building three churches, then we will exceed the overall plan of our program for building churches in 2020,” His Grace Bishop Paramon, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Financial and Economic Department, said during an inspection of building projects in Moscow’s Eastern district, reports Interfax-Religion. Nine churches have already been built and put into use this year, and another nine are...

CLEVELAND, OH—During last night's explosive and chaotic debate, Trump totally steamrolled that loser Biden, and Biden totally put that fat meanie Trump in his place as most pundits predicted would happen. In the middle of the fiery debate, moderator Chris Wallace suddenly excused himself and left the debate hall to go jump in a volcano. "Excuse me, Sir," Wallace said in his booming broadcasting voice to a local Cleveland resident outside the building. "Do you have any active volcanoes nearby in Ohio?" The helpful local motioned in the general direction of Mexico, where several active volcanoes are located. Wallace then...