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A Texas man is charged with murder after allegedly posing as a minor to meet and kill a convicted sex offender, according to authorities. The Houston Police Department alleges that in May 2023, James Spencer III, 22, shot and killed victim Sean Connery Showers, 37. Police claim Showers approached a vehicle in the early morning hours of May 29 and then was shot by the suspect, who at the time was unidentified. Upon further investigation, police arrested Spencer, who they claim admitted to the killing. Showers was found in a ditch with multiple gunshot wounds, police say. Citing authorities, Click...

He doesn’t do, he dithersWhat do you think of the apothegm “Better late than never?” I think it is often dubious. For confirmation, I adduce the airstrike the Biden administration just conducted against eighty-five targets in Iraq and Syria. The attacks, against infrastructure associated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, are billed as the opening salvo in response to last week’s drone attack by Iranian assets in Jordan that left three Americans dead and more than forty injured. Taking a page from an earlier, square-jawed time, officials from the administration tersely commented that America’s “multi-tiered” response would continue at a “time and...

News that Trump's "election interference" trial originally scheduled to start on March fourth has been taken off the calendar has some leftist "journalists" miffed. Politico reporters Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein complained that "this delay may result in Trump's conviction coming too late to ensure his defeat in the November voting." Similar complaints were expressed by MSNBC legal analyst Jordan Rubin and Columbia University law professor Daniel Richman. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) tried to assuage their angst by pointing out "we anticipated this possibility and arranged for James Goldston, former president of ABC News, to create a documentary...

Likely Latino voters in Texas prefer Donald Trump over President Joe Biden in an expected rematch this November as the presidential candidates vie for their support, a University of Houston survey released Tuesday found. Trump, who won Texas in 2020 but garnered only 40% of the state’s Latino electorate, has support from 47% of the state’s likely Latino voters compared with Biden’s 41%, according to the UH Hobby School of Public Affairs survey. Latinos planning to vote in the March 5 Republican primary in Texas overwhelmingly support Trump (86%) over fellow GOP challenger Nikki Haley (13%). In the Democratic primary,...

I have previously reported on my concern about the rise in stable cancer relapses that I have witnessed in my melanoma clinic. None of these patients of mine presented with the classic prodrome of relapse that I had always noticed previously, such as severe depression due to bereavement, divorce or bankruptcy. Indeed the only thing I found they had in common was to have had a recent booster mRNA covid vaccine. I phoned around my colleagues not only in the UK but also in Australia to check their experience. In no case did they deny such a link. Indeed, they...

Nicholas Wise is a fluid dynamics researcher who moonlights as a scientific fraud buster, reports Science magazine. And last June he "was digging around on shady Facebook groups when he came across something he had never seen before." Wise was all too familiar with offers to sell or buy author slots and reviews on scientific papers — the signs of a busy paper mill. Exploiting the growing pressure on scientists worldwide to amass publications even if they lack resources to undertake quality research, these furtive intermediaries by some accounts pump out tens or even hundreds of thousands of articles every...

Step-by-step time-lapse video of how to make a Roman sword from what appears to be leaf stock.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said on this week’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday” that President Joe Biden’s military strikes to dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria used by Iranian-backed militias only killed “some @#&$@##.” Graham said, “They have four oil refineries you can see from space. If you knocked one of them out, they would stop this. Our American troops are in harm’s way. If the goal is to deter Iran, you’re failing miserably. If the goal is to protect American troops, you’re not achieving your goal. If you’ve convinced Iran you don’t want a wider war, they believe...

As a Biden inspired migrant crime wave sweeps through America, a mob of illegal aliens (aka "migrants") attacked the police in New York City near Times Square a few days ago. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/embed/video/3112497.htmlSeveral were arrested but soon after were released without bail. Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg (aka Fat Alvin) was asked why the perps were released without bail despite even the Governor of New York's displeasure, he at first had nothing to say. It has been suggested that Bragg was too busy throwing the book and those purchasing false vaccination cards to be concerned with physical attacks on police. A judge...

Below is the 2023 Massachusetts State Police payroll. It includes those who earned from $400,000+ on down. Go to the “Your Tax Dollars at Work” main page for more as the Herald keeps adding to this project. To search on this database, click the magnifying glass icon (at right) and enter names and more. Use the scroll bar at the bottom to move the data over to the right to sort by highest to lowest. Send any tips or questions to joed@bostonherald.com. Follow the Watchdog newsletter for related coverage.

Daily Readings from the USCCBWhen it was evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons. The whole town was gathered at the door. He cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons, not permitting them to speak because they knew him. Mark 1:32–34Jesus was in the home of Simon Peter whose mother-in-law He had just cured. “The whole town gathered at the door” when evening came. This was Jesus’ first time being in Capernaum after beginning His public ministry, and already people were flocking to Him in...

Do climate change deniers bend the facts to avoid having to modify their environmentally harmful behavior? Researchers from the University of Bonn and the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) ran an online experiment involving 4,000 US adults, and found no evidence to support this idea. The authors of the study were themselves surprised by the results. Whether they are good or bad news for the fight against global heating remains to be seen. The study is published in the journal Nature Climate Change. A surprisingly large number of people still downplay the impact of climate change or deny that it...

President Biden's team is concerned that special counsel Robert Hur's investigation into Biden's handling of classified documents will hurt his re-election campaign. Why it matters: Biden aides don't expect criminal charges in the case, but they believe Hur's report will include embarrassing details — possibly with photos — on how Biden stored documents.

The president’s approval rating has fallen to a new low in NBC News polling, as Trump narrowly leads in a 2024 general election matchup... All together, these numbers explain why the poll shows Trump leading Biden by 5 points among registered voters in a hypothetical 2024 general-election matchup, 47% to 42%. While the result is within the poll’s margin of error, the last year of polling shows a clear shift.

The reported appearance of former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in the Russian capital has sparked intense speculation over the purpose of the conservative media personality's visit to Moscow. Carlson arrived in Moscow on February 1, and was spotted attending the Bolshoi Theater in the capital, according to Russian outlet Mash. Questions quickly swirled over why the TV anchor would have traveled to Moscow, and whether he intended to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin during the visit.

On this date in 1926, a man went to the gallows over his headwear. An Islamic religious scholar, Iskilipli Mehmed Atif Hoca (English Wikipedia entry | German) was deeply out of step with the secular-nationalist turn of Atatürk‘s Turkey. Among Ataturk’s many modernizing reforms was a 1925 law banning traditional fezzes and turbans in favor of western lids — part of a much more comprehensive project to push religious authorities out of public influence.....

From: Navy Lookout - Independent Royal Navy news and analysis 2/3/2024 During last-minute checks ahead of sailing for NATO exercise Steadfast Defender, it has been discovered that HMS Queen Elizabeth has a significant issue with her starboard propeller shaft. The ship will not sail on 4th February as planned and instead, HMS Prince of Wales will be readied to replace her. The RN has instituted additional checks on the aircraft carrier’s shaft lines as a result of the painful lessons learned from past experience with HMS Prince of Wales. In the course of an inspection, concerns have arisen around one...

A group of teachers in Massachusetts remain on strike as schools in Newton, Massachusetts, have been closed for over a week and the striking teachers plan to gather at different bars and restaurants in the area. The teachers are under fire for what an opponent of the strike, Fran Yerardi, described to a local Boston NBC News outlet as a "pub crawl," as they planned four events at different restaurants and bars in Newton. "If you're not doing everything you can to put kids in school, you should be ashamed of yourselves," Yerardi told the media outlet.

Quite a few scholars have written in favor of developing new institutions of higher education, since most of our current ones have been captured by ideological activists. For example, in this Martin Center article, Robert Wright advocates a “parallel university system.” On that score, there is some good news—it’s happening. The Universidad de las Hespérides is a start-up, online, classical-liberal endeavor. It is an exciting exercise in academic entrepreneurship, combining virtual courses for students around the globe, a blend of synchronous and asynchronous classes, and rigorous scientific inquiry that is firmly based in an appreciation for the philosophical and institutional...