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(Daily readings from the USCCB)“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:20–21As we begin the Fourth Week of Advent, we focus ever more directly upon the miracle that took place over 2,000 years ago. The passage quoted above presents us with the words of the angel of the Lord who spoke to Joseph in...

A 14-year-old and 16-year-old were killed, and others injured, after a social media dispute turned into guns being drawn and shots fired between two groups Saturday evening in Democrat-run Atlanta. The New York Times noted, “Officers responded to a report that multiple people had been shot at an apartment complex around 14 miles southwest of downtown Atlanta at about 5:09 p.m.”

(The Center Square) - California is launching a universal basic income pilot program, Governor Gavin Newsom’s office announced. California is launching its Guaranteed Income Pooled Fund. The program is, “a philanthropic endeavor to help organizations fund their Guaranteed Income Pilot Programs by helping pilot projects unlock more than $25 million in grants from the state,” according to the release.“As people across the country struggle with global inflation, this guaranteed income pilot program provides some much-needed support and breathing room for the most vulnerable Californians,” Newsom said in the press release. “This public-private partnership will accelerate our ability to get money...

This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of equipment destroyed is significantly higher than recorded here. Small arms, ATGMs, MANPADS, loitering munitions, drones used as unmanned bait, civilian vehicles, trailers and derelict equipment are not included in this list. All possible effort has gone into avoiding duplicate entries and discerning the status of equipment between captured or abandoned. Many of the entries listed as 'abandoned' will likely end up captured or destroyed. Similarly, some of the captured equipment might be destroyed if it can't be recovered. When the...

(The Center Square) - Two new laws regarding people on the streets will take effect in California next year.One law deals with sex workers and could result in fewer prostitution arrests. The other will result in fewer penalties for jaywalking.Both laws will go into effect on January 1, 2023. In June, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 357 into law. The bill, sponsored by state Senator Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, decriminalizes "loitering with the intent to engage in prostitution."When signing the bill into law earlier this year, Newsom reiterated that it didn't legalize prostitution; he argued that it would offer...

I just produced a PowerPoint Chanukah card. It came out very cute. Now I'd like to send it to all my friends. I'd like it to automatically play when they click on the attachment, and not need mouse clicks to activate all the animations I put in. How do I do that? Thanks in advance, PP maven FReepers, and a happy Chanukah.

Snapping shots of a school teacher’s Z-size breast implants is X-rated and penalized at a Canadian high school. Students at Halton School District have been “threatened with suspension” for taking any photos or videos of Oakville Trafalgar High School teacher Kayla Lemieux, who’s regularly seen at the school with her massive chest and blond wig, parents told the Toronto Sun. Yet video circulated last week of the teacher walking down the hallway on crutches with a cast on her right foot at Dr. Frank J. Hayden Secondary School in Oakland, where she was substitute teaching, the outlet reported. Lemieux —...

Recently disclosed internal communications between top election officials in Arizona's Maricopa County in the immediate aftermath of Election Day reveal that they struggled to reconcile a discrepancy of almost 16,000 in outstanding ballot totals. The governor's race in Arizona was decided by a margin of just over 17,000 votes. Maricopa County was plagued by numerous issues with ballot machines at many of its vote centers on Election Day, resulting in delays and long lines. Prior to a Maricopa County press conference with Board of Supervisors Chair Bill Gates and Recorder Stephen Richer on Nov. 10, Richer sent an email to...

Oregon’s first-in-the-nation drug decriminalization measure has been highly scrutinized since voters passed it two years ago, but as state funding finally starts to make its way to addiction service providers, proponents say they’re starting to see results. “We have to stay the course because this is life and death and this really is building an entirely new future for the state that the state deserves.”

A majority of voters are unwilling to pay more than $10 out of their own pockets monthly to mitigate climate change, according to a poll released Friday. Over 40% of respondents said that they would not pay a single dollar of their own money each month to reduce the impact of climate change while only 17% said they would be willing to spend $10 or less, according to a CRC Advisors poll conducted for the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a libertarian think tank. About 25% of young voters (ages 18-24) aren’t willing to pay anything to combat climate change and...

(The Center Square) – With Title 42 enforcement ending Wednesday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the leaders of other border states are preparing for an expected deluge of illegal entries into the U.S.The anticipation of the end of Trump-era public health authority, which allowed Border Patrol agents to immediately expel illegal crossers for fear of spreading COVID-19, has already led to a surge of new entries, with the El Paso Sector at the southern border and the northern sector including Vermont seeing record numbers of illegal crossings."While the federal government abandons its constitutional duty to defend America and secure the...

This is a Ukrainian language performance of the Ukrainian Bell Carol which is often performed in English as the Carol of the Bells. It was introduced by a visiting Ukrainian Chorus in America a century ago.

(The Center Square) – President Joe Biden signed a G20 Bali Leaders’ Declaration agreeing to adopt vaccine passports to “facilitate” all international travel.Paragraph 23 of the declaration pertains to “facilitating seamless international travel” by pledging to commit to international dialogue and collaboration to establish a “trusted global digital health networks that should capitalize and build on the success of the existing standard and digital COVID-19 certificates.”The White House states it supports “the WHO mRNA Vaccine Technology Transfer hub” as well as other tracing programs used throughout the world designed to share technology, joint research and joint production of vaccines, “including...

The one-sided fight took place in one of the halls of Scott High School in Taylor Mill, Kentucky. The video, which has been removed from social media, shows a black high school student walking up to a white student doing his work and saying “I’m gonna give you 5 seconds to be as Racist as possible”, the white kid said “No.” If he did do it, he would have been beaten, he didn’t, and he was beaten anyways.

Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that former President Donald Trump’s influence in the Republican Party is “waning.” Anchor Jake Tapper said, “Do you think Republicans are increasingly receptive to that message? Do you think Donald Trump’s hold on your party is finally slipping?” Toomey said, “Absolutely I do. First, I think his influence was waning, not as quickly as I had hoped it would. I think it was waning. But the election outcome from last month, I think, dramatically accelerates the waning, and, frankly, his unbelievably terrible rollout of his re-election, his election...

Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that former President Donald Trump “violated multiple criminal laws.” Anchor Jake Tapper said, “You’re a former federal prosecutor before you became a member of Congress. Do you think the evidence is there that Donald Trump committed any of the crimes I just mentioned and that the cases are prosecutable, that you could get a conviction?” Schiff said, “I think that the evidence is there that Donald Trump committed criminal offenses in connection with his efforts to overturn the election. Viewing it as a former prosecutor, I think there’s...

Pfizer trial whistleblower, Brook Jackson, knows of at least 10 cases of anaphylaxis in the Pfizer trial, but 0 cases were reported to the FDA. This is fraud.Steve Kirsch 18 hr ago Executive summaryWe have yet another piece of evidence suggesting Pfizer understated certain life-threatening serious adverse events by a factor of 10X or moreIntroductionI’ve written about the COVID vax clinical trial fraud before. These things never get investigated by anyone and the medical community ignores all of them without investigation. That’s the way science works I guess.But Brook Jackson just noted this:Brook was involved in the Pfizer trial. She...

Real estate tycoon Dmitry Zelenov died December 9 in French town of Antibes He is said to have tumbled down stairs after feeling unwell at dinner with friends Zelenov was rushed to hospital but his death was confirmed the following day Yet another oligarch has met a mysterious end as the death toll among the Russian elite continues to climb amid Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine. Dmitry Zelenov, a real estate tycoon, died on December 9 in the French Riviera town of Antibes. The oligarch, 50, was out to dinner with some friends when he began feeling unwell and tumbled...

A recent report from the New York Post claims that Twitter’s top ranks are filled with ex-FBI agents and executives. Many of these employees were swept away by Elon Musk’s massive layoffs, but some feds are likely still on the payroll. The New York Post reports that many of Twitter’s top executive roles were staffed with ex-FBI agents, connecting the company even closer to the federal agency which is being criticized for allegedly leaning on Twitter before the 2020 elections.

(NEXSTAR) – Inflation may be easing, but households are bracing for at least one monthly bill to go up next month. The Energy Information Administration estimates the average natural gas heating bill will go up 28% this winter when compared to last winter. About half of homes nationally rely on natural gas for heating, according to U.S. Census data. While the U.S. doesn’t rely heavily on natural gas imports, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has still been affecting prices here at home because American natural gas producers have been exporting so much of their production to Europe, reports NPR.