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Michigan Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D) on Tuesday said she would not seek another term after serving eight years in Congress, making her the 25th House Democrat this year to announce plans to retire. "This year marks my 30th year in elected public service, and I've had the good fortune of serving Michiganders on the local and national level," Lawrence wrote on Twitter on Tuesday, along with a video announcement. "After reflecting on my journey & having conversations with my family, I'm announcing that I will not be seeking re-election to Congress," she wrote.

Hong Kong (CNN)Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Chow Hang-tung was sentenced to 15 months in prison on Tuesday for her part in organizing an unauthorized vigil to commemorate the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.... ...Chow, a barrister, represented herself in court and pleaded not guilty to the charge, arguing that appealing to the public to light candles did not constitute "incitement." She also challenged the police prohibition order on the grounds it undermined her right to freedom of assembly and argued that she appealed for candles to be lit "anywhere" across Hong Kong, and was not encouraging a rally....

More than 600,000 people have signed a petition calling for former Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair to have his knighthood removed. The ex-Labour leader, who was in power from 1997 to 2007, was given the title as the New Year's Honours were awarded. But the petition complains that his role in the Iraq war makes him "personally responsible" for many deaths and accuses him of "war crimes". Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Sir Tony had "earned" a knighthood. And a government minister said it was "only right" to reward the former prime minister, who had done "many good things"...

January 5th, 2021 Memorial of St. John Neuman St. John Neumann Church, Sunbury, Ohio Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White The readings shown here are for places where the Epiphany is celebrated on Sunday 2 January.Readings for the feriaReadings for the memorialThese are the readings for the feriaFirst reading1 John 4:11-18 ©As long as we love one another God's love will be complete in usMy dear people,since God has loved us so much,we too should love one another.No one has ever seen God;but as long as we love one anotherGod will live in usand his love will be complete in us.We...

In a rare show of dissent, protests reached the authoritarian country’s biggest city, Almaty, after officials lifted price caps on liquefied petroleum gas. ALMATY, Kazakhstan — Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev accepted the government’s resignation on Wednesday, his office said, after violent protests set off by a fuel price increase rocked the oil-rich Central Asian country. Police used tear gas and stun grenades late on Tuesday to drive hundreds of protesters out of the main square in Almaty, the former Soviet republic’s biggest city, and clashes went on for hours in nearby areas. The protests shook the former Soviet republic’s image...

Embattled 'Waterboy' actor Peter Dante was caught on camera throwing a profanity-laden fit on an Los Angeles hostess who wouldn't serve him for not wearing a mask. Witnesses said Dante, 52, nearly reduced the service worker to tears on Monday after calling her 'garbage' and 'c***' after she refused to seat him at Quarters Korean BBQ in L.A.'s Koreatown for violating the city's mask policy, which mandates that restaurant customers mask up before they are seated to dine indoors. In the video, the hostess is standing next to a 'No Mask No Entry' sign ...

The latest data available from the UK Health Security Agency confirms that 3 in every 4 Omicron cases admitted to hospital up to 29th December 2021 were people who had been vaccinated against Covid-19.On 31st Dec 21 the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), which has recently replaced Public Health England, published a ‘Technical briefing on SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern‘, with this particular briefing being an update on hospitalisation and vaccine effectiveness for the alleged Omicron Covid-19 variant.The UKHSA data confirms that up to 29th December there were 198,348 confirmed cases of Micron, identified through sequencing or genotyping, as well as...

This video has a nice visualization of how well the booster works over time. This is based on UK government data. No surprises here: the booster is mostly helping the virus.Steve Kirsch22 hr ago One thing that the vaccine mandates seem to accomplish is to make it easier for the virus to infect you and to prolong the pandemic. This of course is exactly the opposite of what we are being told.This video provides a nice visualization of the effect of the booster shots over time.I’m not sure who made the video, but the graphs are consistent with data I’ve...

“My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding: That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge. For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell” (Proverbs 5:1-5).

"Union claims rise in COVID cases makes classroom instruction unsafe Chicago teachers are preparing to strike over what they say are unsafe working conditions caused by a spike in coronavirus cases. The Chicago Teachers Union has scheduled a Tuesday vote to determine whether its 25,000 members will refuse to return to the classroom, WBEZ reported. On Sunday, more than 6,000 union members at a virtual town hall said they would not feel safe resuming classroom instruction following winter break. Chicago schools were set to reopen Monday, though some schools have already moved to remote learning without district approval. ..."

"A few liberals appear eager to blame Virginia's Republican governor-elect for a mess he has no power over. Some social media accounts are blaming Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin for the hundreds of drivers stuck on I-95 due to Monday's snowstorm, though Youngkin has not been sworn into office. [RIDICULOUS TWEETS] Several accounts responded immediately to these accusations, pointing out that Ralph Northam is still governor as of Jan. 4. Youngkin, who won the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial election, is expected to be sworn in on Jan. 15. ..."

"With wokeness and cancel culture becoming a common occurrence in the United States, and across the globe, one entertainment consultant is claiming that Glee sparked the movement, and gave said movement the terminology it frequently uses nowadays. Tumblr user twelveclara posted about the phenomenon on the blogging website in September of 2017, writing the following post: "[The Glee fandom is] not history, its blood. i still see it all over this website. the vague posts. the deactivated urls. where do u think the word problematic became popular. where do u think the representational anger started. glee was the hungry gaping...

The Chicago Teachers Union voted to teach virtually rather than in the classroom, triggering a cancellation of classes Wednesday which the school district leadership warned would happen if the union vote passed. Chicago Public Schools, the third-largest school district in the country, resumed in-person learning Monday in conditions union leaders described as unsafe as the Omicron virus variant sent Covid-19 cases soaring around the country. The union held an emergency meeting Tuesday evening to hold the vote by its delegates (elected union leaders for individual schools) on virtual teaching and then poll its 25,000 members electronically. The vote was 73%...

"Joe Biden has spent 95 of his 348 days President on vacation, mostly in Delaware. That equates to a quarter of the Biden regime’s first year in office, at the time of writing, being spent doing anything other than being President during one of the most crisis-ridden times in modern human history. ..."

BC Broadcaster Rabbi YY Rubinstein announced he would resign from the broadcasting corporation due to "inexcusable" antisemitism on Monday. Rubinstein posted his resignation letter on Facebook, writing it is "a very sad moment" for him. He wrote that his resignation was sparked by the broadcaster's coverage of a group of Jewish teenagers being attacked on a bus in London.... ...Rubinstein's resignation follows the BBC being named on the Simon Wiesenthal Center's "global anti-semitism 2021 top ten list" in December. The report criticized the BBC for both their reporting of the bus incident, as well as statements from BBC reporters considered...

[4:54 video clip] "Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis sounds off on ‘Hannity’"

Albuquerque police officers believe Isela Camarena set multiple fires at the Islamic Center of New Mexico. Surveillance video from the mosque shows a person in a black hoodie setting the fires. "I noticed that the media is playing, in reports, significant sections of the surveillance footage, yet those of us defending Ms. Camarena have not been provided those copies," Lindsey Rosebrough, Camarena's defense, said. Camarena appeared in court Tuesday. Prosecutors asked a district court judge to keep her locked up, but the argument didn't get far. "I'm asking for a continuance at this time," Rosebrough said. Islamic Center of New...

[3:41 video clip] "Owens discusses Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claiming Republicans want to ‘date’ her after being criticized for Florida trip on ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight."

With the conclusion of the first year of the Biden administration, White House chief of staff Ron Klain sought to end on a high, or at least higher, note by retweeting a column saying that 2021 was not "all bad." It was like bragging that a bad first date told you that the evening could have been worse. However, what really stood out in the column by Albert Hunt was the key rationale: the first year was "scandal free." ... ...Consider just three of the Voldemort scandals of 2020, or those scandals which must not be named by the media:

Universities are supposed to be bastions of critical thinking, reason and logic. But the COVID policies they have adopted — which have derailed two years of students’ education and threaten to upend the upcoming spring semester — have exposed them as nonsensical, anti-scientific and often downright cruel. Some of America’s most prestigious universities are leading the charge. At Georgetown University, fully vaccinated students are randomly tested for COVID weekly. A positive PCR test, which can detect tiny amounts of dead virus, sends asymptomatic students to a room in a designated building where they spend 10 days in confinement. Food is...