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The single-shot firearm, which resembles a pen in size and shape, was found during X-ray screening of the man’s luggage at about 1:30 p.m. on Aug. 13, a representative for the TSA confirmed. Massachusetts State Police were called to the security checkpoint, where they interviewed the passenger. After speaking with police, the male traveler was allowed to continue through the airport and ultimately to his destination in Portland, Oregon — sans pen gun. He also would have been allowed to transport the item had he packed it properly in his checked baggage, the TSA said.

A long-awaited study at the University of Minnesota has found that the controversial drug ivermectin is not effective at treating COVID-19. The findings, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, add to a growing body of scientific evidence pushing back against the use of the antiparasitic drug that has been promoted by some prominent voices on social media. The U of M’s study focused on three common drugs: ivermectin, metformin, and fluvoxamine. Researchers determined that none of the drugs proved effective at preventing low oxygen levels, ER visits, hospitalization or death. The study showed some promise for the...

President Biden called Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., after her overwhelming defeat in Tuesday's Republican primary, according to a new report from Bloomberg.

An interesting take on identity, as in transgenderism, identity politics, with a heavy dose of psychology. Peterson reads an article he wrote because we wanted to really think about the topic, versus just talking off the top of his head. It’s good stuff if you can get past the way he reads. (Not the typical Jordon Peterson speech)

There are five most famous and usable operating systems – Microsoft Windows, Linux, Apple macOS, Android, and Apple’s iOS. However, no matter what OS was chosen, more users started to think about their safety. Safety for everybody includes different parameters such as anonymity, no tracking by Third Parties, no leaking of personal data, no danger of virus/worms catching, no harmful advertisements, and no eavesdropping. Some advice for protection includes two-factor authentication, usage of high-quality long, not repeated passwords, usage of antivirus programs, and avoidance of phishing emails and links. But there are also existing other smart protection methods using special...

Keller ISD has opted to remove all challenged books from its schools, seemingly voiding the results of a long and meticulous review undertaken by staff and parents.Administrators at Dallas-Fort Worth's Keller ISD announced Tuesday that the district will pull all books challenged within its system—a sweeping action that includes the removal of all variations of the Bible and a graphic novel depicting the life of Anne Frank. The move is a seemingly abrupt course reversal for the district, which began a high-profile and months-long review of challenged works in its schools following a Texas Education Agency investigation into alleged sexual...

During portions of an interview with ABC News aired on Wednesday’s edition of “Nightline,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) said Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) program busing migrants to New York City is “hateful politics” that is “taking away the respect and dignity of people who are in need” and “just so anti-American.” And said that Abbott should talk to the mayors in the cities and governors in the states that the busses have to pass through in order to get to New York and figure out “how do we do this together?

The head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced plans to overhaul the agency Wednesday — while admitting to major “mistakes” in handling the pandemic. “For 75 years, CDC and public health have been preparing for COVID-19, and in our big moment, our performance did not reliably meet expectations,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement. “I want us all to do better and it starts with CDC leading the way,” she said of her agency’s more than 11,000 staff.

The population of Puerto Rico was overcounted by 5.7%, or 174,000 people, when the Census Bureau conducted its 2020 count. The overcount came to light Tuesday after the bureau announced it concluded a post-enumeration survey used to measure the accuracy of the census by independently surveying a sample of the population on the island. The effort is being used to inform improvements on the 2030 census. On April 2021, the Census Bureau announced Puerto Rico’s population fell 11.8% to nearly 3.3 million over the past decade. But the latest post-enumeration survey suggests that Puerto Rico's total population may be closer...

​Allen Weisselberg, ​the longtime chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, pleaded guilty to tax fraud charges in Manhattan on Thursday as part of a deal that will require him to testify about business practices at former President Donald Trump’s real estate company. The 75-year-old was charged with accepting more than $1.7 million “off the books” by Trump’s company over the years to avoid taxes, including perks like free rent at a Manhattan apartment, luxury cars and tuition payments for his grandchildren. Weisselberg admitted to all 15 felonies leveled against him by prosecutors during a hearing in Manhattan state court...

Former president Donald Trump and close aides have spent the eight days since the FBI searched his Florida home rushing to assemble a team of respected defense lawyers. But the answer they keep hearing is “no.” “Everyone is saying no,” said a prominent Republican lawyer, who like some others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential conversations.

A restaurant in the U.K. has decided to stop catering to vegans because its owners were apparently fed up with their "holier-than-thou" attitude.The Kitchen at London House on the Isle Wight said it posted its new vegan-less menu for the owners’ new restaurant and received swift backlash.

A little background. My elderly singe mother lives locally, in her own home alone, with daily check-ins by relatives, household employees and friendly neighbors whom she compensates for help with her care. A few years ago, she was contacted by someone who identified themselves as a Census worker. She was requesting financial information a little more detailed than the decennial census would require. Mom says that the lady paid her a personal visit to help her fill out the form. My mom is very kind and tender-hearted, which makes her a little blind to scams and quite naïve about many...

Celebration of the Latin Mass now career-ending The Under-Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith becomes a parish priest in the mountains of the Diocese of Parma. An leading office holder has to resign immediately after a hint from the Apostolic Nunciature in the USA. Purges take place again at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome.

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) is condemning health care establishments for normalizing sex change surgery for minors, calling it "dangerous." During an interview, DeSantis claimed that "gender-affirming care is a euphemism for disfiguring kids," pointing out how absurd it is to push the left's woke gender ideology on children. "At the end of the day, if you look what's happening in our society, you see institutions being infected with ideology at the expense of facts and reality," DeSantis said, adding that "experts" who push radical ideologies of promoting sex change on minors are going down a very dangerous road. "We're fighting...

Irritation over sculptures made of bones in church. The local newspaper writes of "astonishment and sometimes horror" among some conservative Catholics. The Diocese of Fulda, which is responsible for Kassel, on the other hand, welcomed the opportunity for a meeting of cultures through the show. According to a media report, more works of art are causing discussion at the documenta in Kassel. The new case concerns sculptures by the artist collective, Atis Rezistans from the Caribbean state of Haiti, which are on display in the Catholic Church of St Kunigundis in Kassel.

As President Joe Biden's polls stagnate and the midterms approach, we are now serially treated to yet another progressive melodrama about the dangers of a supposed impending radical right-wing violent takeover. This time the alleged threat is a Neanderthal desire for a "civil war." The FBI raid on former President Donald Trump's Florida home, the dubious rationale for such a historic swoop, and the popular pushback at the FBI and Department of Justice from roughly half the country have further fueled these giddy "civil war" conjectures. Recently "presidential historian" Michael Beschloss speculated about the parameters of such an envisioned civil...

Ask meat eaters and most would likely agree that one of the carnivorous delights non-meat-eaters are most missing out on is bacon. Salty, smoky, chewy, delectable on sandwiches, crumbled up in recipes, or eaten by hand—there’s really nothing like it. Except now there is, according to startup MyForest Foods and its customers in New York and Massachusetts. The clincher? The vegetarian-friendly bacon substitute is made from mushroom roots. Mushroom roots are technically called mycelium, which isn’t the sort of root you’d see attached to most plants or trees; rather, it’s a root-like structure of fungus composed of a mass of...

(Translation) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke to a Latin American audience for the first time and asked regional leaders to cease trade with Russia as part of the economic sanctions due to the war in Ukraine. Zelenskyy had spoken through videoconferencing to international audiences, mainly in Europe and the United States, but this was Latin America's turn. He began his speech by telling about the situation in Ukraine in terms of economic losses and loss of life and then answered questions. The videoconference was organized by the Catholic University of Chile, with over 300 universities in the world connected to...

Indigenous Australian Boomerang. (Gift of the Royal Australian Historical Society, 1981) A wooden boomerang might not possess the many arms of a Swiss army knife, but the uses of this ingenious tool by Australia's First Nations peoples are manifold. This wooden, elbow-shaped instrument is popularly known around the world as an aerodynamic throwing stick. But depending on how the tool is made, it can also be used as a battle club, a digging stick, a hammer, a fire starter, a toy, a musical instrument – and even, it turns out, a sharpener of bone and stone tools. In a new...