Free Republic

A former priest accused of sexually abusing children Diocese of Scranton has been permanently defrocked, diocesan officials said Tuesday. The process authorized by Catholic Church's disciplinary arm concluded against Martin M. Boylan, more than eight years after the church first removed him from priestly ministry. Boylan, 76, was found guilty under canon law of sexually assaulting two children, but he was credibly accused by five. The diocese referred the allegations to law enforcement, as well. Boylan has not been criminally charged, records show. Once convicted under canon law, the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the arm of...

Rising social disorder in a post-Covid, defund-the-police America has forced cities and states to address new kinds of criminal outbreaks—from mass retail theft to squatting. Authorities have increasingly formed special police and prosecution units and toughened penalties in places as varied as New York City, Tampa, and Las Vegas to deal with these eruptions. Now added to the growing ranks of policing challenges is the latest lawless craze: street takeovers. In recent months, authorities in Texas, California, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Ohio, to name just a few places, have had to reorganize their increasingly undermanned police resources to confront these...

It depends. If you mean, “What happens to those who die rejecting Christ?” the Church’s answer is uncompromising: They will go to hell. But no one goes to hell by accident. If someone is simply ignorant of the name of Christ through no fault of his own, there is no sin in that. He has not rejected Christ. Moreover, we know Christ is not constrained by our knowledge. He can work in a heart even when that heart is only dimly aware of it. Jesus speaks of this in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats. The ones judged...

Remember the poplar vote compact? Following the 2016 election, several blue states began to pass bills, that would give their states electoral votes to the winner of the popular votes… as of today 17 states and the District of Columbia have passed such legislation, ever single one of them has been a traditionally blue state, at least for the last several election cycles. Now, we are closing in on the 2024 election and it certainly appears the Donald Trump, has a legitimate chance for, and is actively making a play for the national popular vote. Several polls have the national...

California police aren’t loving their Tesla cop cars Elon Musk on Thursday night rolled out the latest tech from Tesla, saying of its sleek Cybercab robotaxis and a prototype of its new electric van that “the future should look like the future.” Back in the present day, however, California police departments are beginning to regret the decision to replace their fleets with Tesla Y models. Though climate friendly — preparing the departments for a zero-emissions future — turns out the Teslas pose a lot of other challenges, per SFGate interviews with three Northern California police chiefs. Once modified, for example,...

I recently received a call from CVS pharmacy. The caller wanted to update my information (full name, date of birth, etc.). Except that I have never once dealt with CVS pharmacy. And the caller had the typical Indian scammer accent. So I suppose they’re just calling random people, hoping to eventually reach an actual CVS customer. Just a heads up, especially for your older (and often trusting) relatives.

The Israeli military said it uncovered a trove of Hamas weapons hidden inside a clinic in northern Gaza belonging to the embattled United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) group.The Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday that their troops were attacked by Hamas gunmen operating inside the clinic in Jabalia, with an airstrike called to kill the terrorists.The IDF claimed that a secondary explosion from the clinic proved the existence of a weapons warehouse hidden in the medical buildings.

While regular IDF brigades like Golani and the Paratroopers fight in southern Lebanon border villages, reserve brigades are tasked with deeper missions as part of Israel’s ground operation to eliminate Hezbollah's Radwan Force threat to the Galilee. Now in its third week, the mission focuses on clearing the border region of this invasion threat...On Monday, the 8th Armored Brigade uncovered Hezbollah’s largest combat tunnel found by the IDF in Lebanon. Located on the outskirts of a major village in the eastern sector, the tunnel was designed to launch hundreds of Radwan fighters toward Kiryat Shmona.The concealed underground complex, stretching about...

Pressed on the matter by the interrogator, the Radwan fighter posited that those who fled had “little faith,” having chosen to join Hezbollah for the money rather than ideology...Pausing momentarily before answering, the operative responded that the first objective was to respond to any strikes that came their way. The second long-term goal was “to perhaps push forward to the Galilee.”...The remark on a plan to invade the Galilee was consistent with briefings from the army in recent weeks in which they revealed that days after Hamas’s October 7 mass onslaught in southern Israel, thousands of terrorists had been positioned...

Democrats are trying everything they can to hold onto judicial power in case Trump wins in November.. During President Donald Trump’s first term, many left-wing interest groups ran to courts chock-full of leftist federal judges in, among other places, California, Hawaii, and Washington state. Because of the Senate’s “blue slip” policy — an unwritten rule that allows home-state senators to veto district court judicial nominees — there was no real doubt that these groups would draw a judge ideologically similar to them. These district court judges proceeded to issue sweeping injunction after sweeping injunction, and various Trump policies were bogged...

Puerto Rico cannot become a state of the Union unless Congress admits it. It cannot become independent unless Congress agrees to it. It cannot enter into a free association arrangement unless Congress provides for it. In other words, for Puerto Rico to cease being a colony, Congress must do its part.

This is the moment a smug Vladimir Putin is taken down a peg by one of his top energy officials in a dispute during a tense discussion about Russia's Arctic infrastructure projects. Director General of Russia's state atomic energy corporation Rosatom Alexei Likhachev yesterday visited the Kremlin where he delivered a presentation about the company's performance and ongoing projects under Vladimir's steely gaze. After a lengthy speech in which he boasted of Rosatom's 24 per cent annual revenue growth and lauded the successes of the company's work to establish Russia as a major player in nuclear energy globally, the director...

Thanks to the surgeon-like precision of my researcher Haley McLean, this timeline (we believe) represents the most exhaustive one to date showing the requests and denials related to the deployment of the D.C. National Guard before and on January 6, 2021. Events have been curated from a number of resources including congressional testimony, internal agency investigations, media coverage, videos, and book excerpts. We preface the timeline with critical context and information about the lead-up to January 6 involving key political operatives and known foes of President Trump. Summer 2020 Jamie Fleet, then-Democratic staffer for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi...

Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) believes the solution to the border crisis is to open the floodgates by passing the Senate’s pro-migration border bill, he said in a Tuesday night debate with Republican Dave McCormick. Casey and McCormick spent several minutes of the heated debate sparring over immigration and border security, with Casey — and one of the moderators — spending time deriding Republicans for alleged anti-immigrant rhetoric instead of discussing policies. McCormick’s numbers surged throughout the summer, and the race is now deadlocked with McCormick trending as early voting has begun in the commonwealth. Casey touted the failed Senate bill,...

VIDEO AT LINK................. Oct. 15 (UPI) -- The unusual British sport of conkers has erupted into controversy after the winner of the men's title at this year's world championships was accused of cheating with a steel chestnut. The World Conker Championships featured more than 200 participants, with two competitors in each round using a chestnut on a leather string to try to break their opponents chestnut. David Jakins, 82, a long-time competitor known as King Conker, won his first men's title at Sunday's event in Southwick, Northamptonshire. Jakins lost the overall contest to women's title winner Kelci Banschbach, 34, an...

Cash-starved Boeing, contending with massive financial losses from a crippling strike and years of operational and safety problems, is turning to major banks and Wall Street to raise tens of billions of dollars in cash. In a regulatory filing early Tuesday, the company announced plans to borrow $10 billion from a consortium of banks. It also separately announced plans to raise $25 billion by selling stock and debt. The $10 billion borrowing plans would be included in the $25 billion that Boeing filed to raise. The company’s debt surged in the last six years as Boeing reported core operating losses...

North Korea claims more than a million young people have signed up to join or rejoin the army this week, state media reported, after accusing South Korea of sending propaganda drones to Pyongyang and blowing up border roads. The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Wednesday that 1.4 million young people, including students and youth league officials, signed the petition to join the army. “Millions of young people have turned out in the nationwide struggle to wipe out the ROK scum who committed a serious provocation of violating the sovereignty of the DPRK through a drone infiltration,” KCNA...

The presidential race is swinging in former President Donald Trump’s direction, according to a national poll released by Marquette. The latest survey shows both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris tied with 50 percent support each in a two-way race with leaners included. This reflects a four-point swing in Trump’s direction, as the last poll — released August 1 — showed Harris up by four points, garnering 52 percent support to Trump’s 48 percent support. The survey also took a look at the results with a “full field” and found Harris up by a single percentage point — 48 percent...

Key Points * Solid-state batteries have long been billed as the “holy grail” of sustainable driving. Proponents say they offer safer, cheaper and more powerful batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), as well as faster charging times. * There could be another option, however: semi-solid-state batteries, which use a hybrid design of solid electrolyte and liquid electrolyte. * “Five years ago, if we talked about this, I would have been so excited about solid-state batteries,” Transport & Environment’s Julia Poliscanova said. “But somehow ... there is some kind of barrier today.” ============================================================================================= PARIS, France — The push to commercialize solid-state batteries...

Kamala Harris is responding to Democratic panic about her White House prospects by turning up the heat on Donald Trump. The vice president warned Monday that the ex-president was “unstable,” “unhinged” and out for “unchecked power” as she sent a jolt of urgency though her campaign with 21 days to go. “Watch his rallies. Listen to his words. He tells us who he is, and he tells us what he would do if he is elected president,” Harris told a large crowd in Pennsylvania after a weekend when Trump’s authoritarian rhetoric reached chilling new levels and hinted at the extreme...