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WASHINGTON — The government and publishing titan Penguin Random House exchanged opening salvos in a federal antitrust trial Monday as the U.S. seeks to block the biggest U.S. book publisher from absorbing rival Simon & Schuster. The case comes as a key test of the Biden administration’s antitrust policy. The Justice Department has sued to block the $2.2 billion merger, which would reduce the Big Five U.S. publishers to four. The government’s star witness, bestselling author Stephen King, is expected to testify at Tuesday’s session of the weekslong trial in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. Mr. King’s works are...

It all comes down to Senator Kyrsten Sinema with nearly half a trillion dollars in new spending and taxes on the line, now that West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin’s lips are firmly planted in the area of Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s buttocks. The Arizona Democrat has remained mum on whether she’ll support the so-called Inflation Reduction Act. Schumer needs support from all 50 members of his caucus, or the bill will fail when it comes up for a vote, probably later this week. When asked by Fox News, a spokesperson for Sinema said, “Sen. Sinema does not have comment as...

Chrystia Freeland called climate action 'an insurance policy against higher energy prices.'. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s World Economic Forum-linked finance minister told Canadians on Tuesday that record-high fuel prices are a “reminder of why climate action is so important and why as a country we need to work even harder and move even faster towards a green economy.” “It’s an insurance policy against higher energy prices,” Liberal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said at a press conference. Freeland’s statements come after the Liberal government increased the cost of fuel overnight by imposing a “carbon tax” on Canadians on April 1. On...

An asteroid ...is set to fly safely past Earth later this week after being discovered just a few days ago. The space rock, dubbed 2022 OE2, will make a close approach to our planet on Wednesday, figures from NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) database show. At 8:23 p.m. ET on that day, the asteroid is predicted to come within around 3.2 million miles of Earth in its own orbit around the sun. ...astronomers usually provide a range for size estimates, which in the case of 2022 OE2 is 170-380 meters (558-1,247 feet). According to the CNEOS figures,...

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has been in politics since 1982, so he knows a thing or two about wheeling and dealing. Manchin was sitting pretty, holding the fate of the entire Democratic Party in the palm of his hand because it was his vote that was absolutely necessary to keep Joe Biden’s agenda alive. When Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer doggedly pursued Manchin’s vote for the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act,” he didn’t arrive at the negotiations empty-handed. Schumer came to the table bearing gifts — the kind of gifts that a politician like Manchin couldn’t refuse. Schumer and Manchin crafted...

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TUCSON (KVOA) - A southside pastor and his congregation are praying for the man who set fire to one of their church buildings. Pastor Gene Chewning has watched over his flock at the Living Word Assembly of God church on 12th Avenue for 22 years. On Sunday, he started his sermon with a prayer. "Lord, I pray for that man who has been found guilty of starting those fires. And Lord, pray that you change his heart." Just over two years ago several fires broke out on church property. . . . . Earlier this month, Julian Castillo pleaded guilty...

The paper uses newly examined inscriptions from a set of ancient silver beakers to propose a method for reading the symbols that make up Linear Elamite... 5,000 years ago, in the thriving city of Susa, on the fringe of the great Mesopotamian plain and the edge of the vast Iranian plateau that rises to the east...was at the heart of an urban society spanning much of what is today southwestern Iran. The city’s western neighbors, the Sumerians, dubbed its residents the Elamites. French archaeologists digging in Susa at the turn of the 20th century uncovered evidence of a writing system...

The head of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was killed Saturday in Kabul, Afghanistan following U.S. drone strikes.Joe Biden said the following yesterday:On Saturday, at my direction, the United States successfully concluded an air strike in Kabul, Afghanistan and killed al Qaeda Amir Ayman al-Zawahiri.He carved a trail of murder and violence against American citizens, American service members, American diplomats, and American interests. Zawahri was Bin Laden's leader, his number two man, and his deputy during the time of terrorist attacks on 9/11. He was deeply involved in the planning of 9/11.YouTube screen grab.His Twitter account also tweeted this:The United States continues...

Gov. J.B. Pritzker declared the virus a public health emergency Monday, which allows the Illinois Department of Public Health to use state and federal resources across state agencies to distribute vaccines. “I find that a disaster exists within the State of Illinois due to the public health emergency caused by the monkeypox virus and specifically declare all counties in the state of Illinois as a disaster area,” Pritzker’s disaster declaration said. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puts the count nationwide at 5,189. Illinois has reported 520 cases of confirmed or presumptive monkeypox, according to the governor’s office,...

VIDEOPoll after poll after poll has shown that Kari Lake leading Karrin Taylor Robson by wide margins in the Arizona gubernatorial primary race yet ONE recent very outlier Emerson College poll has Robson leading by a point. Politico immediately jumped on that outlier poll and hyped it to the exclusion of all the others contrasting sharply with it. Hmmmm..... And how do you think this could be? Can you solve the "mystery?"

Fact Checkers Cover for Democratic Party’s Sordid History With the Ku Klux KlanDuring a June 7th Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on white supremacy and domestic terrorism, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz stated that:the Ku Klux Klan “was formed by elected Democrats.”Klan “leadership was almost entirely elected Democrats.”today’s Democrats “try very hard to erase the history” of their party’s involvement with the Klan.today’s Democrats “politicize acts of violence.”Conversely, “fact checkers” like PolitiFact and the Associated Press have repeatedly argued that the Democratic Party did not found the Klan, played a limited role in it, and that racist southerners fled to the Republican...

Rachel Recchia cried after feeling unseen and confronted the remaining men about whether they cared about her at all on Monday's episode of The Bachelorette. The 26-year-old flight instructor was still reeling from being rejected three times during the last ceremony while also coping with feelings of inadequacy following her split from Clayton Echard, 29, on season 26 of The Bachelor. 'At this point, I want to feel chosen,' Rachel tearfully said in a confessional. 'I'm not here to beg these guys to act like they want me.'

EIGHTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME MATTHEW 14:22–36 Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus comes to his disciples walking on the water. Whenever we encounter the disciples in a boat, we are dealing with the Church, the barque of Peter. Here we see the beginning of the Church’s journey through time. Winds and waves toss the barque. Anyone acquainted with Church history knows the truth of this—and it’s a special comfort for those enduring our tumultuous times. We are engaged in a spiritual warfare, a battle not against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities. Early in the morning, the disciples...

Kamala obviously didn’t make her way to the top on her brain power. Kamala told supporters the recent record flooding in Missouri and Kentucky could have been prevented if Congress spent more to fight climate change. Kamala also spit out another word salad of nonsense Monday. She was discussing the recent flooding in the Midwest. Kamala Harris: “While we send our prayers, and our love, we also, with each day, renew our commitment to the urgency of now and the ability that we have collectively, all of us in it together, to do something about it.”

The July 5, 2022 attempted murder. Gilad Morag, "He concluded that it was a Jew, and hit him in the head with a concrete paver", YNet, Aug 1, 2022:Palestinian terrorist accused of attempted murder at Givat Shmuel bridge. Ahmed Rashdan (33) from the town of Einabus near Nablus, who held a permit to look for work in Israel, is accused of an act of terrorism following the attack on Yitzhak Dahan, 47 years old from Bnei Brak. The indictment states that he left a letter at his home in which he wrote that he must "live or die because of...

Virginia lost about 2,000 acres of productive farmland per week in 2021, according to data released in February by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. There are many reasons why farmers sell off their land, including development pressures, lack of interest by younger members of farming families, and the difficulties of turning a profit in the face of ever-changing market and weather conditions. But there is now a new threat to Virginia’s agricultural base, which has a $70 billion economic impact on the commonwealth annually, according to the Virginia Farm Bureau. In 2015, there were no utility-sized solar “farms” in Virginia....

“The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” Psalm 9:17. It’s true, there really is a Hell. I know because I’m standing in the midst of the most horrible place anyone could imagine. Truth be told, no human being could ever come close to imagining what I am seeing and experiencing without experiencing it personally for themselves. Hollywood could not do justice to the immense hideousness of this place. What I am seeing cannot be described in human terms. Why am I here? I rejected God’s free gift of salvation, and if you keep...

Vulnerable House Democrats will not say if they support the Manchin-Schumer Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, or if it is wise to raise billions in new taxes during an economic recession. The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) revealed in an analysis last week that the Manchin bill, which would spend $433 billion on climate change initiatives, would increase taxes by billions of dollars, including on middle-class earners. According to the JCT, Americans making less than $200K per year would have their taxes increased by $16.7 billion. For taxpayers earning between $200,000 and $500,000, the bill would increase taxes by...

A man armed with what looked like an assault rifle was no match for the owner of a Riverside County convenience store, and the frightening face off was all caught on the store's security cameras. "It's not his first rodeo," said a woman named Marnie, who works for the store's owner, 80-year-old Craig Cope. "He saw on the surveillance, he saw them coming out of the vehicle with weapons."