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The Archdiocese of Los Angeles was taking stock Thursday of damage to the four-story St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Boyle Heights damaged by a man in boxer shorts who allegedly set the bell tower on fire before being taken into custody. “The church building incurred some damage, including fire damage to the roof of the bell tower and some broken stained-glass windows, but thankfully no one was in the building at the time,” said Archdiocese spokeswoman Itzel Magana. “The parish is currently assessing the extent of the damage.” The parish has been part of the Boyle Heights community more than...

My 9-year-old daughter came home from camp two weeks ago after playing three hours of outdoor tennis in a mask. “I thought I was going to faint,” she told me, looking ill after playing in 98-degree weather. Later that afternoon the camp, run by the Sidwell Friends School, called to complain about her mask compliance. We’re now 16 months into the pandemic and children remain victims of the Covid political theater that has characterized the national debate about masks ever since. We’ve had an entire school year to prove what scientists have said all along: Children aren’t major vectors of...

It’s AOC versus Hillary as the two Dem heavyweights duke it out for an open Congressional seat in Ohio — and possibly control of the party. The raging proxy fight in the Buckeye state’s solidly Democratic 11th District pits Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her squad against Clinton and establishment Democrats over who will replace longtime Rep. Marcia Fudge, who retired this year to become Secretary for Housing and Urban Development. On the progressives’ left is Nina Turner, a former state senator and former co-chair of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign.

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) announced on Friday that children will continue to wear mandatory masks in school despite new federal guidelines saying that masks are no longer necessary in schools.

As China celebrated the 100th anniversary of the founding of its Communist Party last week, the Pew Research Center released a new report showing that unfavorable views of Beijing have reached historic highs in 17 advanced economies. As Statista’s Niall McCarty notes, in most places, large majorities of the public also agreed that China is not respecting the personal freedoms of its people. Views of China are broadly negative across most of the world’s advanced economies including approximately three-quarters of respondents in Japan, Sweden, Australia, South Korea and the United States. While overall views did not change significantly in most...

DES MOINES, Iowa — The federal government promised Friday to spend $500 million to encourage the construction of smaller meat processing plants located closer to farmers who raise chickens, pigs and cows with the goal of diversifying an industry now largely run by a small number of large corporations. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the program in Council Bluffs, Iowa, in addition to another $150 million to be used for existing small processing facilities with unexpected costs. The goal is to help them recover from the coronavirus pandemic and compete better in the marketplace. Vilsack said he wants to...

I do not expect any of my fellow “liberal/progressive” Democrats to share my concern here, but because I believe that it will be very difficult for the Democrats to retain the pesidency in 2024 and to retain control of Congress in 2022 (because of Republican state legislatures wanting to make it hard for many Democrats to vote), I want whoever the Republicans nominate for president in 2024 to be a high-quality person such as Carly Fiorina (who voted for Biden-Harris in 2020). I like it that she is widely known to be a very sensitive, empathetic and compassionate person on...

A growing number of Democrats are concerned their party is getting too "woke," which could run the risk of alienating future voters. "You ever get the sense that people in faculty lounges in fancy colleges use a different language than ordinary people?" James Carville said, Axios reported. "This is not how voters talk." Kevin Drum, formerly with Washington Monthly magazine, wrote, "the truth is that the Democratic Party has been pulled far enough left that even lots of non-crazy people find us just plain scary — something that Fox News takes vigorous advantage of." Whether the left's messaging has been...

More than 5,000 teachers have signed onto a pledge at the Zinn Education Project that states they vow to teach their students the concepts of Critical Race Theory (CRT), even where it is banned by law.Far-Left teachers unions are prepared to ram Critical Race Theory propaganda into the minds of students while targeting those who oppose it. https://t.co/SaUv9YFed7 — Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) July 5, 2021 Making the claim that bans on teaching students America is a racist, sexist, oppressive country mean they will be taught “lies” instead, the Zinn Education Project’s pledge states: Lawmakers in at least 26 states are...

Republican Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler was reelected to Congress by a wide margin in 2020, but if new polling numbers are any indication, she could be facing a significant primary challenge from within her own party in Washington state.

Viganò: Francis Homosex Steps Are "Suicidal Gesture"Francis' recent endorsement of the “aberrant provocations" of the homosex activist James Martin is only one more step down a path that started with his famous “Who am I to judge?” - Archbishop Carlo Viganò told LifeSiteNews.com (July 8).For him, this is "a suicidal gesture" by which Francis handed over the entire flock of Christ as a hostage to the Enemy. He identifies homosex ideology as a mortal threat for our entire society, the family, the human person, and the Church.Viganò explains that Martin doesn't seek the conversion of homosexuals but the illusion of...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Psalm 119Psalm 119[a]ג Gimel 17 Be good to your servant while I live, that I may obey your word. 18 Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. 19 I am a stranger on earth; do not hide your commands from me. 20 My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times. 21 You rebuke the arrogant, who are accursed, those who stray from your commands. 22 Remove from me their scorn and contempt, for I keep your statutes. 23 Though rulers sit together and slander me,...

U.S. President Joe Biden will host a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel next Thursday to affirm "deep and enduring" ties between the NATO allies

Anthony Fauci said Friday that Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla called him to apologize for not warning top health officials ahead of the company's announcement that it would be seeking authorization for a third dose of its COVID-19 vaccine.

A-list actress Scarlett Johansson — who has an estimated net worth of $165 million and topped the Forbes list of highest-paid actresses in 2019 — complained that women are underpaid in Hollywood, and that she is “still fighting that damn fight” to get paid what she is worth. “As a woman, you have to be [your own ally] all the time, because we are underminded[sic], and underserved, and under-appreciated, and underpaid — you have to be your own ally,” Johansson said in a recent interview with Glamour Magazine. The Black Widow star went on to say that her mother “instilled...

Every summer on the Discovery Channel, “Shark Week” inundates its eager audiences with spectacular documentary footage of sharks hunting, feeding and leaping. Debuting in 1988, the television event was an instant hit. Its financial success wildly exceeded the expectations of its creators, who had been inspired by the profitability of the 1975 blockbuster film “Jaws,” the first movie to earn US$100 million at the box office. Thirty-three years later, the enduring popularity of the longest-running programming event in cable TV history is a testament to a nation terrified and fascinated by sharks. Journalists and scholars often credit “Jaws” as the...

Doctors for Covid Ethics on Twitter: "An Urgent Message From Professor Sucharit Bhakdi. MD: Recent findings show that we already have antibody memory immunity to #COVID19, rendering 99% of us immune. This not only makes vaccination unnecessary but re-vaccination potentially life threatening. https://t.co/203mw6SLbV" / Twitter

PRAYERS FOR ISRAEL Maschil of David, when he was in the cave; a Prayer. With my voice I cry unto HaShem; with my voice I make supplication unto HaShem. I pour out my complaint before Him, I declare before Him my trouble; When my spirit fainteth within me--Thou knowest my path--in the way wherein I walk have they hidden a snare for me. Look on my right hand, and see, for there is no man that knoweth me; I have no way to flee; no man careth for my soul. I have cried unto Thee, O HaShem; I have...

Naha – Two Chinese coast guard ships sailed in Japanese territorial waters off the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture on Saturday. The Japan Coast Guard urged the two Haijing ships to leave the waters after they approached a Japanese fishing boat. It was the first intrusion into Japanese territorial waters around the island chain by Chinese government ships since June 26 and the 23rd this year. The Chinese ships entered the Japanese waters south of Minamikojima in the Senkaku chain around 11:15 a.m., according to the Japan Coast Guard. The Japanese-administrated islands are also claimed by China, which calls them...

Alex Berenson @AlexBerenson·40m More on Scotland: a reader correctly notes that in the last week of June, fully vaccinated people accounted for the majority of Scots who died from #Covid (and more fully vaccinated people died than had died in the previous six months combined).