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Biden signed legislation giving millions of federal employees Friday off to celebrate Saturday’s new federal holiday, Juneteenth. This makes 44 paid days off for the average federal employee annually, which is nearly nine full weeks of paid-time off each year. Juneteenth is celebrated on June 19 to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States. The Civil War was America’s bloodiest war, with between 752,000 and 861,000 soldiers dying on the battlefield. 49 states have already recognized Juneteenth as a holiday (South Dakota is the only holdout), though only a handful give it as a paid holiday to state...

Today @POTUS will sign the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, establishing June 19th as a federal holiday. As the 19th falls on a Saturday, most federal employees will observe the holiday tomorrow, June 18th.

Under the legislation, the federal holiday would be known as Juneteenth National Independence Day.

The Senate passed a bill Tuesday that would make Juneteenth, or June 19th, a federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. The bill would lead to Juneteenth becoming the 12th federal holiday. It is expected to easily pass the House, which would send it to President Joe Biden for his signature. […] “Making Juneteenth a federal holiday is a major step forward to recognize the wrongs of the past,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “But we must continue to work to ensure equal justice and fulfill the promise of the Emancipation Proclamation and our...

President Trump on Friday signed an order giving federal workers a paid day off work on Christmas Eve.The news was a welcome surprise for workers who expected at most a half day.Trump’s order says, “All executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government shall be closed and their employees excused from duty on Thursday, December 24, 2020, the day before Christmas Day.”Former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton only gave half days when Christmas fell on a Friday, as it does this year.Obama allowed a half day in 2015 and 2009, GovExec reported. Clinton also allowed a half day in...

Remember! On Memorial Day Msgr. Charles Pope • May 29, 2016 • What is honor? The full etymology of the word is debated, but what seems most likely is that it comes from the Latin word honos, which, though translated as “honor,” also points to the word “onus,” which means “weight” or refers to something heavy. Hence, to honor someone is to appreciate the weight, significance, or burden of something he has done. It is to acknowledge that he carried a great burden well, that he withstood a heavy load, that what he did was weighty, significant.For many, Memorial...

It’s been a very Merry Christmas season for me, or will that offend someone? Wow, Christmas Day isn´t even here yet and I´ve been so excited to be with friends and loved ones that I don´t know what to do. I thought for sure the ACLU would make its way to our little town and threaten the live nativity scene at the annual Christmas festival, but it didn´t happen. The choirs were able to use the original words to the Christmas carols, so double WOWs . . . we´re celebrating Christmas just like old times. But what about next year?...

It is rarely pleasant to look at the feet of the great, for they are too often made of clay. And so it is with Martin Luther King, Jr. On the evidence, there can be little doubt that he plagiarized his Ph.D. dissertation at Boston University from an earlier one by a man, now deceased, named Jack Boozer. Pappas compares eight or more passages from Boozer's thesis with passages from King's in which the ideas and phrasing are virtually identical. He also cites several passages in which King and Boozer make almost identical mistakes in citation or punctuation. King plagiarized...