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LOS ANGELES - A man climbed a four-story church in Boyle Heights on Wednesday night and lit fire to a cross before jumping from roof to roof in an attempt to evade police. Dramatic video from SkyFOX shows the unidentified man jumping from rooftop to rooftop not once, but three different times.

On this date in 1850, a Persian merchant who claimed to be the Islamic messiah was shot in Tabriz for apostasy. The Bab — the handle means “Gate”; he was born Siyyid `Alí Muhammad — started preaching as a young man in 1844 and attracted a following unwelcome to the orthodox Shi’a clergy and the powers that were. The Bab would claim to be “that person you have been awaiting for one thousand years”: the Mahdi. And in a John the Baptist-like pose, he would also pledge to be preparing the way for another, “He whom God shall make manifest,”...

During a portion of an interview with BET set to air on Friday that was broadcast on Thursday’s “CBS This Morning,” Vice President Kamala Harris responded to a question on whether she’d compromise by agreeing to voter ID provisions to pass voting legislation by stating that we shouldn’t downplay the impact voter ID laws could have. Because to some, voter ID means, “you’re going to have to Xerox or photocopy your ID to send it in to prove that you are who you are.” And many people live where “there’s no Kinko’s, there’s no OfficeMax near them.” Journalist Soledad O’Brien...

Liberal MP William Amos says he mistakenly appeared naked twice during virtual House of Commons proceedings because of issues with “hyperactive multitasking” and a “lack of focus” and not because of any “mental health disorder.” “I put everyone in such an embarrassing situation, but I want to clarify that though those two incidents were embarrassing, they do not define me. These were not circumstances driven by personal gain, ill intent, unethical or a morally reprehensible act,” Amos said in French according to clips posted by local media outlets in his Pontiac, Que. riding. Amos, who was flanked by his wife,...

Major League Baseball is heading into the all-star break. Next week, it will hold its home run derby on Monday and the all-star game on Tuesday. Both events, and various others, will be held in Denver, Colorado, not Atlanta, Georgia as originally scheduled. MLB pulled the game from Atlanta because the Georgia legislature passed election integrity reforms that Democrats don’t like and contend are racist. MLB thus inserted itself into a political disagreement and sided with the Democrats. MLB is promoting the derby and the game hard. It’s counting on Japanese sensation Shohei Ohtani to sell both. He’ll be hitting...

Students at a South Korean university can earn a digital currency called Ggool when they use the toilet. Their excrement is turned into renewable energy to power the building. Professor Cho Jae-weon at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology designed an eco-friendly toilet called BeeVi—a portmanteau of bee and vision. The toilet connects to a lab that uses excrement to produce biogas and manure. It powers devices in the building such as a gas stove and a boiler. "If we think out of the box, faeces has precious value to make energy and manure. I have put this...

Last week Dan Bongino talked about the pointlessness of arguing with the left. He said something like “We think the left are simply people with bad ideas while the left thinks we are simply bad people…” He went on to say that while pointless in terms of trying to convince the person with whom you’re “arguing”, it’s worthwhile because others, who may be open minded and paying attention, might be persuaded. This was driven home to me via a Facebook discussion that started out with a friend’s cartoon suggesting CRT is an innocuous addition to the teaching of American history...

July 9, 2021 Friday of week 14 in Ordinary Time The reliquary of the Martyrs of Gorkum at the Franciscan church of St Nicholas in Brussels. Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green.First readingGenesis 46:1-7,28-30 ©'I can die, now that I have seen you alive'Israel left Canaan with his possessions, and reached Beersheba. There he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. God spoke to Israel in a vision at night, ‘Jacob, Jacob’, he said. ‘I am here’, he replied. ‘I am God, the God of your father’, he continued. ‘Do not be afraid of going down to Egypt, for...

Surgeon who operated on young Italian vaccine victim ‘I have never seen anything like this’ Camilla Canepa was operated on by Gianluigi Zona, director of the neurosurgical and neuro-traumatological clinic of the San Martino hospital: “I had never seen a brain that was affected by such an extensive and severe thrombosis.” The neurosurgeon on duty in San Martino that night was Alessandro d’Andrea, who also called the chief physician to his side at the operating table. “We decided to have a decompression craniotomy, in which the skull is opened to relieve internal pressure.” Zona recounted the experience: “All venous sinuses...

We live in a world dominated by science, but most people don't understand its most essential characteristic: establishing standards of evidence to keep us from getting fooled by our own biases and opinions. -Maintaining standards of evidence is the most important and least appreciated idea in science. -Modern science was established in the late Renaissance when networks of researchers began working out best practices for linking evidence with conclusions. -In the face of science denial and attempts to create a post-truth society, we have to protect the primacy of standards of evidence in science and society. I talk a lot...

The top three elected leaders of the Greenville county Republican party jointly resigned their offices on Thursday afternoon, citing an inability to work with the grassroots conservative activists currently dominating the direction of the local party. The trio of county leaders were at their posts for less than three months … and their ouster is the latest major development in what has become a pitched battle for the heart and soul of the South Carolina Republican party (SCGOP), as well as the mantle of “conservatism” is this ostensibly bright red state. The resignations of party chair Jennifer Black, vice chair...

Remember Napster? The peer-to-peer file sharing company, popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s, depended on users sharing their music files. To promote cooperation, such software "could mislead its users," says Bryce Morsky, a postdoc in Penn's School of Arts & Sciences. Some file-sharing companies falsely asserted that all of their users were sharing. Or, they displayed the mean number of files shared per user, hiding the fact that some users were sharing a great deal and many others were not. Related online forums promoted the idea that sharing was both ethical and the norm. These tactics were effective...

Several high-ranking county GOP officials have resigned after pressure from a group of outspoken critics questioning their leadership. Greenville County Republican Party's Chairman Jennifer Black, First Vice Chairman Stacy Shea and Executive Committeeman Randy Page released a statement announcing their departures on Thursday. This came after a group called mySCGOP, a South Carolina group of Republicans backing a "MAGA agenda," alongside members of the Greenville Tea Party, questioned the legitimacy of the convention that led to their leadership. MAGA stands for Make America Great Again, a phrase linked with former President Donald Trump. In joint remarks, shared via the Fresh...

On 28 May, 2021, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania reversed a decision that held that Stroud Township had the power, through zoning ordinances, to prevent people from discharging firearms on their own property. The Court reversed a summary judgment by the Court of Common Pleas of Monroe County dated 26 May 2020. The plaintiff, Jonathan Barris, appealed the decision on the grounds that Township Ordinance No. 9-2011 was unconstitutional under the Second Amendment.Barris had first asked for a zoning permit on 27 December 2012.The Ordinance has been enacted on 6 December 2011. Barris had operated a private range on his...

The 10-point guidelines established in response to Nazi atrocities during the Holocaust are unrelated to widespread COVID-19 vaccination efforts, according to Lead Stories, FactCheck.org, RMIT ABC and other fact-checkers. Moreover, the Nuremberg Code does not apply to COVID-19 jabs, according to Rappler and Full Fact, because they have undergone extensive clinical trials and have received emergency use authorization around the world.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has claimed a viral video showing a flooded NY subway station is the result of Americans taking orders from fossil fuel execs. She claimed that her Green New Deal was being sidelined by corporate elites who would make you swim to work. Thunder storms brought flash flooding to the city this week with footage showing New Yorkers wading through filthy waist deep water at a Bronx subway station. AOC, who is from the Bronx, responded to the videos on Twitter, mocking her critics by writing in their voice: 'The Green New Deal, which is a blueprint to create...

We’re impressed by the way New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo moved to get a handle on gun violence this week after 51 people were wounded or killed across his state during the long Fourth of July weekend. Frankly, it’s the kind of “the buck stops here” leadership on the gun violence issue that’s needed in Chicago. Cuomo issued an executive order on Tuesday that declared the gun violence a “disaster emergency” and a public health crisis. That allows him to immediately muster the power and personnel of at least a dozen major New York state agencies and direct it toward...

Terry McAuliffe, a DNC fundraiser and Clinton flak who defiled the Governor of Virginia office from 2014-2018, is gunning for a second term this November.In the Democratic primary, he bested five challengers and spent a whopping $15 million in a contest where he was favored to win. Against political newcomer and Republican gubernatorial nominee Glenn Youngkin, however, he is struggling to negatively brand his opponent and make his attacks stick. Is “Fast Terry” ready for primetime? Not so fast. From blunders to fact checks, the 72nd Governor of Virginia isn’t a shoo-in for his old job in Richmond. And his...

White House coordinator for the Indo-Pacific Kurt Campbell said this week the U.S. does “not support Taiwan independence” but does “very much support Taiwan’s dignity.”

Thanks to the blessings of decentralization, life can vary greatly in America depending on where you sit. Those differences are growing into a chasm of philosophical and practical contrasts between two basic models for the American future. Call them the California way and the Florida way. On many critical questions facing our culture, our economy and our society, California and Florida offer radically different answers. Should lots of new housing be built in the interest of affordability? California says no, Florida says yes. Should homeless people be allowed to turn public spaces into tent cities? California says yes, Florida says...