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Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show live from Madison Square Garden, NYC. Check your cable for station.

Two more MPs have come out as gay to take the total number in the House of Commons to 35 -- more than any other parliament in the world. The SNP's business spokeswoman, Hannah Bardell, and Labour's shadow Welsh Secretary, Nia Griffith, revealed their sexuality at a photoshoot celebrating Parliament's growing diversity. At last year's election there were 32 lesbian, gay and bisexual MPs, which rose to 33 when Scottish Secretary David Mundell became the first openly out Tory cabinet member last month. ...

A pointer has won the annual dog show.

A Westminster diocesan initiative to extend a special welcome to lesbian and gay Catholics at a regular Mass has proved so successful that Cardinal Vincent Nichols would like it to be rolled out nationwide, his lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) liaison priest has said. The Masses, at the Jesuit Farm Street Church in central London, replaced the more controversial, so-called “gay Masses” that were designated for LGBT Catholics at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Soho until 2013. Key to the transition was that the Farm Street Masses are an extension of the diocese’s pastoral care for gay...

A Westminster man whose alleged abuse of his dog forced the pup to chew off part of a foot to get loose of a tether had his criminal charges dropped last week, after he took part in an animal neglect prevention program. Prosecutors agreed to dismiss misdemeanor failure to care for animals and cruelty to animals charges after Samer Ibrahim took an active role in completing a 10-class program teaching the 23-year-old how to properly care for dogs. He also agreed to voluntarily provide his DNA to the Orange County District Attorney’s office.

Vietnamese foodie guide: Critic Brad A. Johnson dishes about the 25 best things to eat in Little Saigon The scent of Little Saigon hits me in the face. An intoxicating perfume of jackfruit and bananas and the vanilla-y scent of pandanus leaves wraps itself around me in a warm, tight embrace. It’s a sunny Friday afternoon, and the line to purchase something cold and sweet at Thach Che Hien Khanh in Garden Grove stretches out the front door and down the sidewalk, past a vendor of exotic fruits and knickknacks — chopsticks, paper lanterns, plastic Buddhas, various figurines of the...

The competition was ruff, but it didn’t matter: Miss P, 4-year-old beagle extraordinaire, took down all comers at the Westminster Dog Show. “She is a princess,” handler Will Alexander told the Associated Press. But P’s royal bearing didn’t prevent her from totally humiliating all members of the species Canis lupus familiaris that dared enter Madison Square Garden to challenge her for Best in Show. Those with their eyes on the prize included a Skye terrier, a standard poodle, an English springer spaniel and a shih tzu owned by former kidnapping victim and pardoned bank robber Patty Hearst.

Just a reminder: MONDAY & TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16-17, 8PM-11PM (eastern) Monday night is LIVE ON CNBC from 8-11 PM Tuesday night is LIVE ON USA from 8-11 PM The American Kennel Club has made the Coton de Tulear (Non-Sporting Group) and the Wirehaired Vizsla (Sporting Group) eligible for competition in 2014 and they will be making their first appearance at Westminster in 2015.

Recently, the House passed, by an overwhelming margin, a resolution to condemn the Russian Federation for actions considered hostile and aggressive within its sphere of influence, specifically with regard to the politically torn country of Ukraine. Ten Members voted “nay,” myself among them. I wish to explain why I took this unpopular position. Above all, while Vladimir Putin’s government may well have engaged in questionable behavior toward neighboring countries, Resolution 758 was nothing more than gratuitous, needlessly provocative and shortsighted. Moreover, reasonable observers the world over can see it as tantamount to a declaration that Russia is America’s enemy. The...

A proposal that would have made the town the first in the nation to ban all tobacco sales has gone up in smoke. Westminster’s board of health voted 2-1 to drop the proposal at its regular meeting on Wednesday, a week after rowdy opposition led board members to end a public hearing early. The board had initially said the ban would help keep a variety of tobacco products from young people, but businesses strongly opposed it.

There’s a time and place for everything, but that isn’t the case for a small Massachusetts town that could have become the first municipality in the nation to ban tobacco sales. The Westminster Board of Health withdrew its proposal to ban all tobacco sales on Wednesday after receiving criticism and outrage from the audience at a meeting last week. Board of health members Peter Munro and Ed Simoncini voted against the ban while Chairwoman Andrea Crete voted to keep the proposal for consideration, reported the Boston Globe. “It is obvious the town is against it and therefore I am against...

WESTMINSTER — An unruly public hearing on a proposal to prohibit the sale of tobacco products came to a sudden and rowdy halt Wednesday evening after shouting and clapping opponents of the ban repeatedly refused the chairwoman’s request to come to order. The ban, proposed by the Board of Health in this Central Massachusetts town, would be the first of its kind in the state. It has led to angry reactions from residents who worry that it will hurt the local economy and allow government too much discretion in controlling private conduct. “This is about freedom; it’s my body and...

The cartons of Marlboros, cans of Skoal and packs of Swisher Sweets are hard to miss stacked near the entrance of Vincent’s Country Store, but maybe not for much longer: All tobacco products could become contraband if local health officials get their way. This sleepy central Massachusetts town of 7,700 has become an improbable battleground in America’s tobacco wars. On Wednesday, the Board of Health will hear public comment on a proposed regulation that could make Westminster the first municipality in the United States to ban sales of all tobacco products within town lines. …

The Central Massachusetts town of Westminster would become the first community in the state, and perhaps the nation, to ban all tobacco sales under a proposal made public Monday that regulators say is designed to improve health, especially among the young. Draft regulations posted on the town’s website would prohibit sales of products containing tobacco or nicotine, including cigarettes, chewing tobacco, and even electronic cigarettes, which use batteries to heat nicotine-laced liquid, producing a vapor that is inhaled. The plan has infuriated local store owners, who are circulating petitions to block the action, saying it would drive them out of...

Today [December 27, 2013] a Houston federal court delivered a major blow to the controversial HHS mandate ruling in favor of East Texas Baptist University and Houston Baptist University. In a 46-page opinion, the court ruled that the federal mandate requiring employers to provide employees with abortion-causing drugs and devices violates federal civil rights laws, and issued an injunction against the mandate. Religious plaintiffs have now won injunctions in 9 out of 12 such cases involving non-profit entities challenging the mandate. “The government doesn’t have the right to decide what religious beliefs are legitimate and which ones aren’t,” said Eric...

A Southern California city granted a private group a permit Wednesday night to hold a Vietnamese new year’s parade, despite objections over its exclusion of the community’s gay and lesbian residents. Members of a gay and lesbian group pleaded with the Westminster City Council to deny the permit to the Vietnamese American Federation of Southern California at a meeting, but the vote to grant it was unanimous. …

This is the 2nd & final night, culminating in Best in Show. Tuesday, February 14 - 8-11 p.m. (ET) live on USA Network Groups: Sporting, Working and Terrier Groups Best In Show

Group Results: TOY - 1st place - Ch Palacegarden Malachy Breed: Pekingese Sex: Dog Date of Birth: January 24, 2008 2nd place - Affenpinscher 3rd place - Miniature Pinscher 4th place - Silky Terrier NON-SPORTING: 1st Place - GCH Spotlights Ruffian Breed: Dalmatian Sex: Dog Date of Birth: March 02, 2007 2nd place - Chinese Shar-Pei 3rd place - Lowchen 4th place - Poodle (miniature) HERDING: 1st Place - GCH Babheim's Captain Crunch Breed: German Shepherd Dog Sex: Dog Date of Birth: March 10, 2007 2nd place - Bouviers des Flandres 3rd place - Old English Sheepdog 4th place -...

Tonight & tomorrow night 8PM ET... Begins on the USA channel and switches over to CNBC after the first hour All Hound, Toy, Non-Sporting and Herding breeds and varieties will be judged on Monday, with Groups judged on Monday evening. All Sporting, Working, and Terrier breeds and varieties will be judged on Tuesday, with Groups judged on Tuesday evening. Best In Show will also be judged on Tuesday evening. Six needs breeds will be added this year: AMERICAN ENGLISH COONHOUND (Hound Group) CESKY TERRIER (Terrier Group) ENTLEBUCHER MOUNTAIN DOG (Herding Group) FINNISH LAPPHUND (Herding Group) NORWEGIAN LUNDEHUND (Non-Sporting Group) XOLOITZCUINTLI...

Chapter XVI Of Good Works I. Good works are only such as God has commanded in His holy Word,[1] and not such as, without the warrant thereof, are devised by men, out of blind zeal, or upon any pretence of good intention.[2] II. These good works, done in obedience to God's commandments, are the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith:[3] and by them believers manifest their thankfulness,[4] strengthen their assurance,[5] edify their brethren,[6] adorn the profession of the Gospel,[7] stop the mouths of the adversaries,[8] and glorify God,[9] whose workmanship they are, created in Christ Jesus thereunto,[10]...