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Whether they’re near or far, old or new, best friends help to carry us through our lives. This June 8, National Best Friends Day, it’s time to tell them how much we appreciate their company. As the Mayo Clinic reports: “Friends help you cope with traumas, such as divorce, serious illness, job loss, or the death of a loved one. They also encourage you to change or avoid unhealthy lifestyle habits, such as excessive drinking or lack of exercise.” Today’s the day to enjoy a little one-on-one time with the people who never fail to catch us when we fall....

George Orwell's novel of a dystopian future, 1984, is published on June 8, 1949. The novel’s all-seeing leader, known as “Big Brother,” becomes a universal symbol for intrusive government and oppressive bureaucracy.George Orwell was the nom de plume of Eric Blair, who was born in India. The son of a British civil servant, Orwell attended school in London and won a scholarship to the elite prep school Eton, where most students came from wealthy upper-class backgrounds, unlike Orwell. Rather than going to college like most of his classmates, Orwell joined the Indian Imperial Police and went to work in Burma...

Civil rights leaders spoke to Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) Tuesday about the For the People Act to federalize local elections, urging Congress to “act so all Americans have meaningful access to the ballot.” “The leaders also conveyed to Senator Manchin that a minority of senators must not be able to abuse the filibuster to impede much needed progress. Congress must act so all Americans have meaningful access to the ballot,” the NAACP President Derrick Johnson, National Urban League President Marc Morial, and Reverend Al Sharpton said after the meeting. The meeting comes as President Joe Biden is presumably attempting to...

Although the nameplate originally was used on a less-than-stellar compact car line in the 1970s, Ford is reviving the Maverick name for its new small pickup truck, and slotting it into the lineup below the mid-size Ranger. Instead of sharing parts and mechanicals with the Ranger, the Maverick rides on the same chassis as the Bronco Sport compact crossover. * snip * The Maverick pickup truck has been in the works for some time but the wait is nearly over. It's slated to go on sale in fall, 2021 and Ford is currently taking reservations for it.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon Legislature has approved changes to the lyrics of Oregon’s state song to remove racist language and make the lyrics more inclusive. House Concurrent Resolution 11, approved Monday by a vote of 47-6, modifies the lyrics, while keeping the same music of “Oregon, My Oregon.” If reflects the “significant cultural, historical, economic and societal evolution in Oregon” since the state song was adopted in 1927, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.

The claim of a unified America, and not a war against a modern-day version of Southern secessionists, is what links the Republican Party to its past. In a commentary about present-day Democrats and the secessionists whom Lincoln battled, Jeremy Carl offers the following observation: Today’s Republicans, like Lincoln, find themselves in a regime-level conflict with the Democrats. The Democrats are firing again and again on our Constitutional order, our history, and our traditions—our metaphorical Fort Sumter, if you will—but unlike our forebear Lincoln, our elected leadership seems either to be aiding the insurgent Left or, at best, feebly invoking constitutional...

Posted at 3:08 PM, Jun 08, 2021 and last updated 2:38 PM, Jun 08, 2021 BILLINGS - A Yellowstone County woman in her 50s has died of COVID-19 complications after she was previously vaccinated, RiverStone Health officials announced Tuesday. The woman had an underlying health condition that may have made the vaccine less effective, according to RiverStone. She died Monday, June 7 in a Billings hospital. She was the first person in Yellowstone County to die of COVID-19 complications following vaccination, according to Pat Zellar, a RiverStone spokesperson. RiverStone officials said the woman's death underscores the importance of widespread vaccination...

Liccardo acknowledged his plan won’t “magically stop” mass shootings but says it at least should reduce the harm caused by firearms in the city. He wants the city by September to adopt an ordinance requiring gun owners in San Jose to pay an annual fee and carry insurance to cover unintentional firearms-related deaths, injuries or property damage. The insurance could not legally cover intentional harm caused by a gun owner, he acknowledged. The city has yet to determine the annual fee, which would be used to cover emergency responses to shootings, medical care and related services, but Liccardo said it...

Former Hollywood star Jane Fonda, better known as ‘Hanoi Jane’ in some circles, showed once again on Tuesday that nothing will ever be enough for the radical left when she went on CNN to say that the Democratic President Joe Biden is “not bold enough” on ‘climate change.’ The actress, perhaps most famous for her photo-op with North Vietnamese soldiers with an anti-aircraft gun during the Vietnam War, made her comments on CNN’s New Day.

These bishops stand in the way of prohibiting Communion for Biden, pro-abortion politiciansThey don’t want the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to discuss prohibiting pro-abortion self-identified Catholics in public life from receiving Holy Communion.WASHINGTON, June 8, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — Cardinals Blase Cupich, Wilton Gregory, Sean O’Malley and Joseph Tobin are among the 68 bishops who don’t want the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to discuss prohibiting pro-abortion self-identified Catholics in public life from receiving Holy Communion.“Eucharistic coherence,” as the bishops call it, is theological shorthand for what is lost when famous people who identify as Catholics...

A California woman was severely beaten in a “completely random and unprovoked” attack as she pumped gas, according to police and video of the incident. The victim was filling up her car around 7 p.m. in Gardena, about 14 miles south of Los Angeles, on May 30 when a large, shirtless man pulled up in front of her car, got out and “calmly” walked over to her, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department said. Video of the incident shows the man coming up behind the woman and suddenly punching her square in the face, knocking her to the ground. The suspect...

(President Trump's Operation Warp Speed Update) (Vaccination rate below goal pace, for 70% of adults to have at least a first shot by the 4th of July - New Cases and Deaths may be levelling off at a new lower plateau - hospitalizations continue dropping) Total Vaccine Doses Delivered: 372,100,285 (21,401,000 J&J) Administered: 303,923,667 (11,245,388 J&J) People Vaccinated, At Least One Dose: 171,731,584 Fully Vaccinated: 140,441,957

Consumer demand has come roaring back for restaurant meals, but the workforce has been slower to return, pushing eateries to sweeten the deal. In May, the leisure and hospitality industries added 292,000 jobs, but employment in those fields is still down by 2.5 million compared with pre-pandemic levels, according to the Department of Labor. In May, Chipotle said that it would raise hourly wages for its restaurant workers to reach an average of $15 an hour by the end of June. Company executives said at the Baird Global Consumer, Technology & Services Conference that they would be passing along the...

At least 60 members of Congress from both parties have been unable to access data for weeks in the latest ransomware attack to strike the United States. The target was iConstituent, a tech vendor that provides constituent outreach services to dozens of House offices, including a newsletter service that allows lawmakers to communicate with residents in their districts and a service to track constituent casework. It's the latest cyber attack after a series of hacks against the US executive branch and American companies have left many institutions feeling vulnerable and the Biden administration struggling to deal with the situation. The...

Rebekah Jones‘ Twitter suspension saga took a bizarre turn late Monday night after the embattled data designer announced that she’s running for Congressman Matt Gaetz‘s seat. Jones, a former Florida Department of Health (DOH) employee who was fired for repeatedly violating the agency’s policy about communicating with the media, made the out-of-left-field announcement on social media mere hours after she was suspended from Twitter for violating rules against “platform manipulation and spam.” Jones also placed the crosshairs on Governor Ron DeSantis, calling the Republican governor a “sociopathic liar.” “Didn’t want to announce it this way, but since DeSantis is now...

The father of a 14-year-old middle school girl in Fargo who was the victim of a stabbing says his daughter has been declared dead and her organs are being preserved "to try and save some lives." Robert Paulsen said Tuesday morning, June 8, that his daughter, Jupiter Paulsen, had been declared brain dead by a doctor and tests were being completed to determine her official time of death. Jupiter Paulsen lived in Fargo and was a student at Cheney Middle School. Robert Paulsen told WDAY News that there will be a Walk of Honor for his daughter on Wednesday and...

On May 27, 2021 the New York State Attorney General was celebrating a successful gun“buyback” program in Rochester, New York on their official Facebook page. Cam Edwards previously covered this story, but I was compelled to follow-up after over five thousand comments were on the AG’s post online. So-called gun “buybacks” hardly do anything to curb any type of violence. In fact, there is an argument that these no questions asked events are harmful, as they are a handy way for criminals to dispose of evidence. Quoted in an article, Sgt. Steve Ward of the Rochester Police Department stated the...

As the forensic audit of the 2020 election results from Arizona’s Maricopa County is currently taking place, delegates from all across the country are flocking to observe the enormous effort that is currently taking place in the Veterans Memorial Coliseum. As National File reported, the first state to send people to observe the audit was Pennsylvania, with Doug Mastriano, the pro-Trump Pennsylvania state senator, joining two other Pennsylvania lawmakers, Representative Rob Kauffman and Senator Cris Dush. “This audit is so secure, transparent and organized that other states want to duplicate the process,” Mastriano said at the time. Up next were...

Suzi Voyles, the poll manager for Fulton County, Georgia, discovered a disturbingly peculiar pattern of regularity in the markings for Joseph R. Biden when she looked through a big stack of mail-in ballots in November. The absentee ballots all had flawlessly filled-in ovals for Biden, with the exception that each of the darkening bubbles had an identical white space inside it in the shape of a tiny crescent, indicating they’d been inscribed with toner ink rather than a pen or pencil. She also noticed that all of the ballots were printed on different stock paper than the others she handled...

An ongoing disagreement between a major Houston hospital’s management and its nursing staff continues. Houston Methodist Hospital is requiring that all staff be vaccinated against COVID-19, with the exceptions of religious objection or health. Staffers were told to get the vaccinations or they no longer have jobs at the hospital.