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Joe Biden made a big deal about inflation falling this week, to 7.1%, down from a 9.1% high last June, and lower than last month's 7.7%.That was the slowest pace in nearly a year and better than analysts expected....wrote the BBC, echoing much of what's been parlayed in the press.Biden found that something to crow about, according to the New York Post:“In a world where inflation is rising at double digits in many major economies around the world, inflation is coming down in America,” Biden said at the White House, referring primarily to European inflation, which slightly outpaces US rates...

BERLIN (AP) — Coal use across the world is set to reach a new record this year amid persistently high demand for the heavily polluting fossil fuel, the International Energy Agency said Friday. The Paris-based agency said in a new report that while coal use grew by only 1.2% in 2022, the increase pushed it to all all-time high of more than 8 billion metric tons, beating the previous record set in 2013. “The world’s coal consumption will remain at similar levels in the following years in the absence of stronger efforts to accelerate the transition to clean energy,” the...

Mark Rivera, a former lay pastor at the center of several sexual abuse allegations in a conservative Anglican denomination, was found guilty of five counts of felony child sexual abuse and assault on Thursday morning. Judge John Barsanti of Illinois’ 16th Judicial Circuit Court in Kane County found Rivera guilty of two counts of predatory sexual assault of a victim under 13 years old (a Class X felony) and three counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a victim under 13 (a Class 2 felony). The defense has 30 days to file a motion to request a new trial, and...

The Biden administration faces a difficult decision early next year — whether to block the National Archives from releasing hundreds of Obama-era documents related to first son Hunter Biden and his relationship with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma while Joe Biden was vice president. The White House has been mum about whether it will invoke executive privilege to stop papers from becoming public Feb. 28, 2023, Insider reports. The records include 69 images and 260 email messages that mention Burisma and date back to 2014, when Hunter, now 52, had a lucrative seat on the company’s board — a shady...

Last week, Congress passed the "Respect for Marriage" Act. As usual, the name the proponents (or, sometimes, opponents) invent for the bill does not accurately represent its purpose. You may remember that the "For the People" Act was a lot less useful to the people than it was to the Democrat party. The "Inflation Reduction Act" did nothing to reduce inflation. And the "Don't Say Gay" bill did not ban the word "gay.""Respect for Marriage" Act purportedly "legalizes" same-sex "marriage." Because the Supreme Court already ruled on this matter, the law does not expand legal protection for same-sex couples in...

Musk vs. FauciWell, maybe you had the seeming transhumanist Big Tech Czar going after Emperor Fauci on your 2022 bingo card, but I sure didn’t. Yet, as Pope Francis loves to say, we do have a “God of surprises,” and I think Elon Musk looking like a veritable white knight against one of the greatest criminals in American history is a surprise, to say the least. If you weren’t aware, Musk went after Fauci—and gender pronouns, I might add—with a tweet from a few days back, stating: “My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci.” Now, if there is ever a Twitter Hall of...

European natural gas inventories fell by -163 BCF over past week. EU nat gas storage 86% full. Current inventories at 3304 BCF.

Harsh words were exchanged in the German parliament amid calls from various leftist politicians to ban the country’s most successful populist party. Leftists in Germany are now openly calling for the populist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party to be outright banned over alleged links to the so-called “Reichsbürger” movement in the country which questions the legitimacy of the current German state. Many legacy politicians and activists have been especially keen to link those in the party to the movement amid claims that the country’s police recently unearthed an attempt by a number of Reichsbürger adherents to violently overthrow the country’s...

Four Republican senators joined Democrats in shooting down an amendment to a massive defense authorization package that would have reinstated troops discharged for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine. The 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed the Senate 83-11 Thursday night, and along with it a provision overturning the Biden administration’s service-wide vaccine requirement. Republican Senators Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Mike Rounds of South Dakota voted no on a last-minute amendment to the bill re-enlisting thousands of troops separated for refusing the vaccine mandate, collapsing the proposal 54 to 40....

Labor Relations Board Says Student-Athletes Should Be Classified as Employees Andy Berg Dec 16, 2022 The National Labor Relations Board asserted this week that the NCAA is breaking the law by refusing to classify student athletes as employees. According to Politico, NLRB officials in Los Angeles determined that the NCAA, along with the Pac-12 and University of Southern California are joint employers of athletes. NLRB general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo said Thursday that the NCAA's refusal to classify student-athletes as employees is in violation of the their labor rights. “This kind of misclassification deprives these players of their statutory right to...

OAKLAND, Calif. - Three alleged gang members have been arrested and charged in the shooting death of a toddler on an Oakland freeway last year, the Alameda County District Attorney said Thursday. The suspects, Trevor Green, 22, Ivory Bivins, 24, and Johnny Jackson, 28, face charges of murder, shooting at an occupied vehicle, and possession of a firearm by a felon, said District Attorney Nancy O'Malley at a news conference on Thursday.

When Alexandra Barkovskaya spoke at the Palm Beach County school board meeting, she may not have expected to get treated well, but it’s doubtful she thought she’d get yelled at by a clownish-looking School Board Chair wearing a Christmas suit. Barkovskaya, who often uses the last name Berk for convenience’s sake when she addresses the school board, started out by criticizing radical leftist and neo-racist District 2 school board member Alexandria Ayala’s three-thousand dollar “equity” junket. Earlier this month, the Palm Beach County School Board voted 6-1 to send Ayala on the trip.

Senate Votes Against Measure to Reinstate Troops Kicked Out over COVID Vaccines By Eric Lendrum December 16, 2022 On Thursday, the United States Senate overwhelmingly rejected a measure that would have ordered the Department of Defense (DOD) to reinstate military personnel who had been discharged or otherwise separated from their branch due to refusing to take a COVID-19 vaccine. As reported by the Washington Examiner, the measure was defeated with 54 votes against and just 40 votes in favor. The vote precedes the coming vote on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), an annual bill that funds the DOD. Republicans...

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Denver issues emergency declaration as hundreds of migrants continue arriving from Central, South America By: Óscar ContrerasDec 15, 2022 DENVER – Mayor Michael Hancock on Thursday issued an emergency declaration to prevent what he called a “local humanitarian crisis of unsheltered migrants” as hundreds of people from Central and South America continue to arrive in the Mile High City. Speaking to reporters Thursday afternoon, Hancock said that while the city had been prepared to welcome groups of migrants that had been coming to the city over the past several months, it’s been only recently that the migrants started to arrive...

Geneva (AFP) – Climate change is fuelling a global cholera upsurge, the WHO said Friday, warning the situation was compounded by vaccine shortages and will only worsen unless it is stamped out soon. The World Health Organization is responding to cholera outbreaks in 29 countries, including Haiti, which has more than 1,200 confirmed cases, more than 14,000 suspected cases and more than 280 reported deaths. This week, Haiti received almost 1.2 million doses of oral cholera vaccines. But the WHO said that vaccine stockpiles were extremely low -- and that manufacturers were not enthusiastic about producing a vaccine chiefly aimed...

he biggest pay raise for troops in two decades is headed to President Joe Biden's desk for his signature after the Senate approved the annual defense policy bill late Thursday. This year's National Defense Authorization, or NDAA, endorses a basic pay raise for 2023 of 4.6%, far higher than 2022's 2.7%. The bill, a piece of compromise legislation that had been debated for months, was approved with overwhelming support with 83 votes for and 11 opposed. That follows House passage last week, meaning all that's needed for the bill to become law is Biden's signature.

16 December 2022 Friday of the 3rd week of Advent St. Adelaide Parish, Peabody, MA Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Violet. Year: A(I).First readingIsaiah 56:1-3,6-8 ©My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoplesThus says the Lord: Have a care for justice, act with integrity, for soon my salvation will come and my integrity be manifest. Blessed is the man who does this and the son of man who clings to it: observing the sabbath, not profaning it, and keeping his hand from every evil deed. Let no foreigner who has attached himself to the Lord say,...

According to the sheriff's office, the 19-year-old lives in Georgia and told them that he came to Orlando a couple of days ago to try to enroll in a local university. The sheriff's office said Houston told them that he went to Westgate Lakes Resort on Wednesday and got frustrated when the hotel said he could not check in because he is not 21. According to the arrest affidavit, Houston then drove to a store where he bought ammunition and magazines and loaded an AR-15 rifle that he brought with him. The report said he drove back to the resort,...

The Bible In Paintings ~ Encouragement for Appreciating and Applying God's Word ~ JESUS' APOSTLES: Philip, Nathanael, Matthew, Thomas ֎ Featuring 16 Paintings, 8 Statues and 8 Windows ֎ P H I L I P 1 PETER PAUL RUBENS "St Philip" 2 ALBRECHT DÜRER "Saint Philip" 3 ANTHONY VAN DYCK "The Apostle Philip" 4 JAMES TISSOT "Saint Philip" 5 Source 6 Source 7 Source 8 Source N A T H A N A E L Called BARTHOLOMEW 9 PETER PAUL RUBENS "St Bartholomew" 10 ANTHONY VAN DYCK "The Apostle Saint Bartholomew" 11 Source 12 Source 13 Source 14 Source...