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An explosion at a historic chocolate factory in southeastern Pennsylvania left two people dead, several missing and eight injured Friday afternoon. West Reading Borough Police Department Chief Wayne Holben confirmed two fatalities and nine missing after an explosion at the R.M. Palmer Co. chocolate factory in West Reading shortly before 5 p.m.

A debate on diversity, equity and inclusion is scheduled to soon take place at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. An esteemed panel of scholars will tackle the question: “Should academic DEI programs be abolished?” One group of individuals who will not be defending DEI at the upcoming event is the phalanx of highly paid diversity, equity and inclusion deans at MIT. They were asked. They declined.

More than 5,000 former criminals have been pardoned after finishing their contracts to fight in Russia's Wagner mercenary group against Ukraine, the founder of Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said on Saturday. Wagner Group, originally staffed by battle-hardened veterans of the Russian armed forces, took on a much more prominent role in the Ukraine war after the Russian army suffered a series of humiliating defeats last year.

The U.S. originated as colonies of a global empire. It won its independence with the help of foreign powers that intervened with money, weapons, and troops. French soldiers and warships helped General Washington win at Yorktown, and the Spanish siege of Gibraltar played its part as well. War and diplomacy paved the way west for the new United States. By the end of the 19th Century, the U.S. was the largest industrial economy in the world, which gave it the means to become the Arsenal of Democracy and leader of the Free World in the 20th Century, beating back the...

A new congressional report delves into the catastrophe that would result should Congress fail to raise the debt ceiling. On Thursday, the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) — a congressional group that reviews economic policy — released a report analyzing the consequences of failing to raise the debt ceiling. Since Republicans took over a majority in the House, they have expressed their intent to use raising the debt ceiling, and keeping the US on top of paying its bills, as leverage to achieve their own priorities, largely in the form of major spending cuts. With the US expected to run out...

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack...

I find this hilarious, for some reason. A singer named “Afroman” has created a music video out of the home security footage taken during a police raid at his house. The video is called: “Will You Help Me Repair My Door?” I love it. I want to give this man a medal. So what’s hilarious about this? He is being sued by the officers who broke into his house with a search warrant–when he wasn’t there, but his wife was–for causing them emotional distress. In the suit, the officers say Afroman’s music videos, social media posts and merchandise related to...

...Car-charging Software company SAP's office in Feltham, west London, has 10 parking spaces with free electric car-charging points. There are 600 employees, so these parking spots are highly sought-after explains Paul, who works there. ...Free Food A typical offering of free food at the office of firm Time Etc includes veggie chicken, chicken, cheese, veggie sticks and dips, and wraps ...Dog Hotel Sausage-maker Heck has built a 'dog hotel' at its headquarters in Bedale, Yorkshire, where it has 130 employees. ... Team Holidays "We've previously gone to Bansko in Bulgaria for skiing and we've been quad biking in Marrakesh," says...

Best to keep an eye on Canada’s “Medical Aid in Dying” policies. The American Left does—and they like what they see. Invariably, no matter the issue, whenever the Left aims to implement a policy proposal it deems innocuous, a triggered Right declares it part of a slippery slope on the road to serfdom. Invariably, too, the Right is correct—as recent developments regarding Canada’s assisted-suicide law show. Why should you care about Canada and assisted suicide? Well, in the first place, the American Left is constantly importing other nations’ insane and injurious policies. The Left is not necessarily engaged in this...

At least 23 people died overnight after a tornado ripped through central Mississippi, destroying homes and leaving at least one town in ruins. Officials said dozens more were injured and at least four people are still missing after what was likely multiple tornadoes tore through the region in the dead of night, according to the Mississippi Department of Emergency Management. The agency said that the numbers are expected to rise.

Two people were killed and nine others were missing after a powerful explosion ripped through a chocolate factory in West Reading, Pa., on Friday, sending a plume of smoke into the air and shaking houses blocks away, officials said. R.M. Palmer, founded in 1948, employs 850 people, according to its website, and is known for making seasonal chocolates, including hollow milk chocolate bunnies for Easter. The explosion sent a column of debris, flames and dust shooting into the air, as shown in a video that was captured by weather cameras and shared on Twitter by a reporter for Fox 29...

Having a child is the most emphatic statement of hope a person can make. I have three young kids, and yet I have trouble remaining optimistic about the world they and their children will inhabit in 2100 and beyond. The world 77 years from now is likely to be far hotter and more unstable, warmed in a way that depopulates entire metropolises and renders farmland nonarable. It's a world the latest report from the United Nations warns will become reality unless we make dramatic, immediate reductions in our fossil fuel use. We’re not on track to make those changes in...

(Daily readings from the USCCB)The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” Luke 1:26–28Imagine if the Angel Gabriel, the glorious Archangel who stands before the Most Holy Trinity, were to come to you and announce to you that you were “full of grace” and that “The Lord is with you.” What an indescribable and awe-inspiring experience that would be!...

The White House said Wednesday that the U.S. has "grave concerns" regarding the passage of the Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) in Uganda, and said U.S. economic support for the country could be at risk over the bill. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the legislation would hamper tourism and economic investment."If the AHA is signed into law and enacted, it would impinge upon universal human rights, jeopardize progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS, deter tourism and [investment] in Uganda, and damage Uganda’s international reputation," she told reporters at the daily press briefing."No one should be attacked, imprisoned, or killed simply...

The Bible In Paintings ~ Encouragement for Applying and Appreciating God's Word ~ •Drawings•Engravings•Facades•Frescoes•Illuminations•Miniatures•Mosaics•Photographs•Reliefs•Statues•Tapestries•Windows• JESUS CONVINCES DOUBTING THOMAS ֎ Featuring 26 Paintings, 1 Relief and 16 Windows ֎ J O H N «Chapter 20» Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.” A week later his disciples were...

"But I had begun to sense a truth inside myself: if in order to live it is necessary not to live, then what's it all for?" —Alexander Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago Unless it manages to change course, the West is transitioning toward a socialist utopia. Since this author defined socialism as a nihilist, spiritual sickness that craves death, and described its stranglehold on America, the symptoms have only escalated. As Pamela Geller writes, "[t]here are so many historic, unprecedented crimes, crises, etc going on all at once, One is almost in a constant state of intellectual whiplash." Socialism is the...

On this date in 1977, the former president of the Congo, Alphonse Massamba-Debat, was summarily shot after his successor was assassinated. A teacher by training and a member of the country’s powerful namesake tribe, Massamba-Debat (the link is to his French wikipedia page, which has considerably more information than the English entry) was a government minister who took power in a 1963 military coup that overthrew the former French territory’s first post-colonial government. In a revolutionary age, Massamba-Debat swung with a Marxist-Leninist ideology. He ran a one-party state — winning a post-coup 1963 election by the comfortable margin of 100-0...

ST. LOUIS, Tuesday, March 24. The Democrat learns from a gentleman just from Vicksburgh, that the steamer Diligent, with the Eighth Missouri Regiment, had succeeded in entering Yazoo River above Haines' Bluff. Her course was through Cypress Dayou, which debouches into the Yazoo opposite JOHNSON'S plantation, where Gen. SHERMAN'S troops landed last December; thence through Shelle's Bayou into the Sunflower, which empties into the Yazoo twenty miles above Haines' Bluff. The Diligent was accompanied by a light gunboat. As soon as it was found possible to get through, four iron-clads followed. Our informant also says that -- thousand men have...

It must not be easy to be Joe Biden’s attorney general. In that capacity, AG Merrick Garland is Biden’s chief lawyer, charged with carrying out the mission of the Department of Justice, on the one hand, and the agenda of Joe Biden, on the other. That’s an impossible task. Consider: According to its website, “the mission of the Department of Justice is to uphold the rule of law, to keep our country safe, and to protect civil rights.” The values of “independence,” “impartiality,” “the public’s trust,” and “honesty and integrity” — these are paramount. They are also prime targets of...

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