Free Republic

It was on this date that the Jesuit missionary Saint Jean de Brébeuf was martyred by indigenous Iroquois near present-day Midland, Ontario. Brebeuf was of Norman stock, kin to poet Georges de Brebeuf. Ordained in 1622, Brebeuf soon decamped to the New World to Christianize the natives. There he teamed up with another Jesuit missionary named Gabriel Lalemant and established the Sainte-Marie among the Hurons mission. As the name advertises, this outpost aimed to minister to the Hurons (Wyandot); to that end, Brebeuf — who learned the local tongue well enough to write a catechism and a dictionary — composed...

Democrats are scrambling to deal with the strong possibility that a 19-year-old candidate for a Kansas House seat in Kansas City will unseat a veteran lawmaker despite making incendiary comments on social media and acknowledging abusive behavior online toward girls in middle school. Aaron Coleman, a dishwasher and community college student, holds a five-vote lead over seven-term state Rep. Stan Frownfelter, a 69-year-old small business owner. Officials in their home of Wyandotte County are scheduled to meet Monday to review provisional ballots and decide whether to count them, potentially altering Coleman's 807-802 lead in voting. Coleman is running a liberal...