Free Republic

A 71-year-old became Britain's first official witch after she was given unique permission to declare the job on her tax forms, including claiming spells and potions on expenses. Cassandra Latham-Jones, 71, was allowed to register as a self-employed 'village witch', using the term when she files tax returns with the inland revenue. It means she can also write off certain expenses as tax deductible, including ingredients for potions.

Moscow, March 29, Interfax - The head of the Coordination Center of Muslims of the North Caucasus, Ismail Berdiyev, considers negotiations with the Ukrainian side to be hopeless and advocates the total destruction of neo-Nazis in Ukraine. "There is no need to negotiate with them. Even if they agree to surrender now, you don't have to agree, you have to destroy them to the end. There should be no Ukraine," Berdiyev said on Tuesday at a round table of the State Duma Committee on the development of civil society, issues of public and religious associations. According to mufti, appeals to...

Currently the Church in Peru is led chiefly by three prelates whose Marxist inclination is well-known.(The New American) – In her famous key-note address to the 2015 Women in the World Summit, Hillary Clinton stated, Rights [reproductive health care, i.e., the right to abortion, sterilization, and contraception funded by the employer’s health insurance without copay, for example] have to exist in practice, not just on paper. Laws have to be backed up with resources, and political will.… Deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs, and structural biases have to be changed.One wonders if she thinks that churches and religions should be infiltrated...

Three police officers were shot Tuesday during a pursuit, authorities in Buffalo, New York said. The officers sustained non-life threatening wounds and several people were in police custody, the Buffalo Police Department tweeted. Authorities have not disclosed the events that preceded the chase and how many suspects are involved.

This Tuesday the Vaudois police indicated that the family of five French people lived "withdrawn from society and had to fear that the authority could interfere in their way of life." On March 24, a French family of five fell from their apartment on the 7th floor of a building in downtown Montreux, Switzerland, killing four of them... This Tuesday, in a progress report on the ongoing investigations, the Canton of Vaud police finally declared that they were focusing on this track. "The thesis of collective suicide is privileged", thus the authorities know... About a half an hour before their...

A little while ago I highlighted a shocking Maryland bill that would essentially decriminalize neglecting an infant to death in the “perinatal” period — i.e., through the first 28 days after birth — by preventing investigations and prosecution of such deaths that resulted from “a failure to act.” I was interviewed on several talk-radio programs and was asked what the sponsor was thinking. My most charitable thought was that he was unaware of the definition of “perinatal.” That “defense” is now inoperative. A bill was just filed in the California Legislature that is even worse than the Maryland legislation. First,...

ACI MENA will operate from the campus of Erbil’s Catholic University.EWTN Global Catholic Network has launched an Arabic-language news service headquartered in Erbil, Iraq, Michael P. Warsaw, EWTN's chairman of the board and CEO, announced March 25, on the Solemnity of the Annunciation. The Association for Catholic Information Middle East and North Africa, or ACI MENA, will publish original news content in Arabic using a network of correspondents across the region. The news agency will operate from the campus of Erbil’s Catholic University (CUE). A ceremony marking the occasion was held in Erbil, which included Archbishop Bashar Warda of the...

Former Yale Administrator Pleads Guilty To Embezzling $40 Million In Massive Fraud. A former Yale Medical School administrator has pleaded guilty to embezzling $40 million from the school in an electronics purchasing scheme. According to federal prosecutors, Jamie Petrone, 42, took advantage of her position as the director of finance for the emergency medicine department to authorize equipment purchases without additional approvals, which weren’t required as long as the amounts were below $10,000.. In total, prosecutors say she caused Yale $40,504,200 in losses – which she never declared as income on her ‘false’ tax returns for years 2013 through 2016....

... On Monday, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul took issue with Biden's use of the cue cards, and his off-the-cuff remarks about Putin. Paul questioned Biden's acuity, saying the aging president's remarks were a threat to national security. 'A lot of times when you're around somebody who's in cognitive decline, you find yourself trying to help them with a sentence, trying to help them complete it - but we shouldn't have to do that for the commander-in-chief,' he told Fox News. 'And, it is actually a national security risk because he's sending signals that no one in their right mind would...

Jon Stewart, a comedian who happens to be white, led a discussion on his Apple TV+ show last week, The Problem with Jon Stewart, in which he noted “the problem with white people,” and agreed with a white guest that writer Andrew Sullivan is a racist.

After a Century, Has the Age of the Tank Passed? – As Russian losses in Ukraine mount, the main battle tank (MBT) could soon join the battleship in the boneyard of military history. While a true game changer when the first tanks rolled across the battlefields of Europe during World War I, these metal behemoths could be just the latest weapon from another era whose time has passed. The truth is that from the introduction of the tanks at the Battle of the Somme in September 1916, enemies have looked at ways to counter the armored platforms. In the final...

The cool temperatures that had been helping to prolong the bloom might have taken things too far last night. It dipped into the low to mid-20s, which is nearly 20 degrees below normal for this time of year. And it's into the danger zone for the cherry blossoms. The extent of the damage isn't fully clear yet, but it's looking a bit grim. As of this morning, they're still white/pink. But they're also quite shriveled and droopy and clearly not their usual selves. You might notice in the photos below that there are no close-ups of open flowers–that's because I...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), already under fire from all sides for his bellicose statements on the Ukraine-Russia conflict, has now risked angering conservative voters across the country by backing a bill that would give legal sanction to collusion between Big Media and Big Tech, empowering corporate media giants like CNN and the New York Times at the expense of independent creators. The bill, called the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA), does the opposite of what it promises: it protects discredited media companies from competition by allowing them to form a legal cartel to collectively bargain with Silicon Valley. If...

Perlman implied the Florida bill violates the First Amendment ------------- Actor Ron Perlman was blasted on Twitter after posting a video message to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis calling him a "piece of ****" and a "Nazi" for signing a controversial parental rights bill in Florida. "Good morning Governor DeSantis, Ron here," the Hellboy and Sons of Anarchy actor tweeted on Tuesday in a message, which was viewed over 1 million times, expressing his frustration over a bill DeSantis signed that prohibits the instruction of sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade classrooms. WARNING: The video contains language...

Moderate Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) blasted his Republican colleagues Tuesday for their treatment of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson during her confirmation hearings last week, calling their behavior “disgraceful” and “embarrassing.” “It was disgraceful, it really was, what I saw,” said Manchin, according to The Hill. “And I met with her and read all the transcripts. I listened to basically the hearings and it was just embarrassing.”

GOP Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Tuesday met with Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for a second time, saying she would decide “relatively soon” if she’ll support her Supreme Court nomination. “I had a good meeting with Judge Jackson. She provided clarification on some of the issues, so it was a useful meeting and I’ll reflect on her answers tonight,” Collins said after the meeting.

We asked HR managers about the best ways to catch their attention – and to keep it. It’s anxiety on steroids when you enthusiastically invest in your application for your dream job and keep waiting to hear back from the hiring manager. If you don’t get an answer for a few days or weeks, you can say hello to that familiar spate of self-questioning coupled with debilitating attacks on your self-esteem. It’s anything but healthy and certainly not productive. According to a survey done by job aggregation site Indeed, employers have been ghosting their candidates more after the pandemic struck....

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinals, theologians gather to plan how US church can support Pope FrancisCardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago celebrates Mass March 25 in Chicago. Cupich was among about 70 cardinals, bishops and theologians gathered privately March 25-26 for conversations focused on how the U.S. church can better support Pope Francis. (NCR screengrab)Chicago — A group of about 70 cardinals, bishops and theologians gathered privately for two days here from March 25-26 for conversations focused on how the U.S. Catholic Church can better support the agenda of Pope Francis.Through a series of keynote presentations and panel discussions centered on tracing the...

MSNBC host Al Sharpton said Tuesday on “Deadline ” that even though President Joe Biden signed into law the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act, America had a “long way to go” on race issues given Republican senators “bogus questions” during the confirmation hearing of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson. Sharpton said, “I think that it was hopeful to be able to see this legislation finally pass.”

More than 16 million homes are sitting vacant across the U.S., according to a report using census data. The study by LendingTree ranked the nation’s 50 states by their shares of unoccupied homes. The highest vacancy rates were found in Vermont, Maine and Alaska. Each state has between 20% and 22% of its housing stock vacant. The three states combined are home to more than 315,000 unoccupied units. Other states rank lower on the list but have many more vacant units because they are larger. Florida, for example, is No. 6 on the list. About 17% of states in Florida...