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Sunday, May 31, 2026
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Catholics Are Going Green

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Pope Francis

After last year’s Laudato Si speech held by Pope Francis, Catholics are going green. A lot of parishes decided to implement eco-friendly changes in their churches and their homes thanks to the awareness spread by the current Pope.

For example, Kansas’ St. Thomas Parish nominated a green team a short time after the encyclical (a formal papal letter usually sent to all of the Catholic bishops).

This team was busy over the past year. They replaced the church’s lighting with eco-friendly LED lighting, installed state of the art solar panels on the school and the church, and invested in sturdy recycle bins that were placed in all of the town’s meeting spaces.

For June 12th, the green team was planning to treat the parishioners with coffee (served in biodegradable cups, of course), doughnuts, and a video featuring Pope Francis, which is entitled “Care for Creation.”

The video in question tackles the subject of climate change and how humans should protect the planet that God offered them.

Furthermore, the team that organized the event gave a couple of sturdy advice for the parishioners that attended last Sunday’s mass.

The men and women were advised to:

  • Explore nature more by taking longer walks in the parks and
  • Study the encyclical and discuss some of the passages that they don’t understand with their family or friends.
  • Try and reduce the waste of food. If food in the fridge is starting to show signs that it’s going to spoil, people can always cook it and take it to a shelter where others need it.
  • Donating to Water.org, an organization that makes sure that everybody gets a drink of clean water, daily.
  • Walking, taking the bus or carpooling. The environment is in dire need of less automobile pollution.

Catholics are going green at the advice of Pope Francis. Besides the fact that they are doing everything in their power to protect the planet, they are also more invested in helping others.

“We are making sure the moral imperative that Pope Francis talks about in terms of the impact of climate change on the poor is one of the things that we’re focused on,” declared Jody Craig, one of the green team members.

We would love to hear your opinion on climate change and the advice of Pope Francis. Please let us know in the section below.

Image source: Wikipedia

Bill to Ban Abortions after 19 Weeks Heads to South Carolina Gov’s Desk

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'Gov. Nikki Haley Celebrating the Month of the Military Child'On Tuesday, the state legislature approved a bill designed to prevent women from having abortions after 19 weeks. It is now up to South Carolina governor Nikki Haley (pictured above) to decide whether the state will become the 17th to pass abortion restrictive legislation.

In March, Gov. Haley said she would certainly sign it off but she needed to check details before it reached her office.

About a dozen more states ban abortions after 19 weeks. In three states, legislation has been blocked by courts at feminists’ initiative. The U.S. Supreme Court hasn’t ruled yet whether the ban was constitutional.

South Dakota passed a similar law, which is slated to come into effect this summer. Utah now asks doctors to use anesthesia on the unborn babies if they are being aborted after 20 weeks.

In other states, regulators passed laws requiring admitting privileges for clinicians and one day of thought before the procedure for mothers. Many states have banned a popular abortion method used in the second trimester to crush the skulls and bones of the babies before taking them out.

Rep. Wendy Nanney, who proposed the new piece of legislation in South Carolina, is confident that the new rules would help the state “get rid of abortion altogether.” Nanney added that life begins at the conception so the new legislation does nothing less than protecting human life.

The bill passed in the House by a 79 to 29 vote. The Senate passed it by 36 to 9 two months prior.

Nevertheless, there are some exceptions to the new regulation. If the mother is in danger of losing her life or a doctor decides that the baby cannot be delivered alive, abortion is legal. But viable babies with severe ‘fetal anomalies’ can no longer be aborted under the new law.

The issue around fetal anomalies has been keeping the bill blocked in the Senate for years since Senators have fiercely debated over whether it should be a woman’s choice to terminate her baby if the child will be born disabled. In the end, opponents were able to obtain only an exception for the woman’s life.

Only four of the other 16 states with restrictive abortion legislation allow children to be aborted if a doctor believes that they would be born dead or die during delivery. South Carolina lawmakers copied Georgia’s legislation on this particular matter. Georgia banned 20-week abortions four years ago.

Image Source: Flickr

Clinton Charity Steered $2M to Clinton Friends’ For-Profit

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'Bill and Hillary Clinton'

Bill and Hillary Clinton’s non-profit foundation allegedly redirected $2 million to their close friends’ for-profit.

According to an investigative reporting from The Wall Street Journal, Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) redirected a $2 million pledge to a for-profit owned by family friends and fellow Democrats of the Clintons.

The move was highly unusual since CGI is committed to attracting funds and grants and redirecting them to non-profits to make the world better. But in 2010, the funds mysteriously went to Energy Pioneer Solutions Inc., a privately owned firm that makes homes more energy efficient through insulation.

The Journal also found that Mr. Clinton pulled some strings at the Energy Department and with help from former Energy Secretary Steven Chu he managed to obtain an $820,000 federal grant for his friends’ company. Mr. Chu recently denied any involvement in the issue.

The CGI is a program run by the Clintons and their daughter Chelsea. The group has been under fire for its shady businesses with some of the world’s governments and corporations that may influence Hillary’s decisions if she makes it to the Oval Office

Nevertheless, CGI has claimed ever since that it has “strong donor integrity and transparency practices.”

Yet, the deal with Energy Pioneer Solutions Inc. is also borderline illegal as tax-exempt non-profits such as CGI are expected to act in the public interest. According to the Internal Revenue Service, such entities are not allowed to act “for the benefit of private interests.”

And there are a lot of private interests in Energy Pioneer Solutions, which was founded by Democrat Scott Kleeb, who owns 29 percent of the company. Another 29 percent belongs to Julie Tauber McMahon, a close acquaintance of Mr. Clinton while 10 percent is owned by fellow democrats and long-time friends of the Clinton family, Mark Weiner and Andrew Tobias.

The Clinton Foundation denied the allegations on Thursday when the charity’s spokesperson Craig Minassian said that no federal law was broken in 2010.

Minassian explained that the Clintons made many friends and professional connections throughout their political careers. Therefore, it should not be a surprise that the family decided to work with these people to make a better world through CGI afterwards.

The spokesperson added that CGI is committed to reducing dependency on fossil fuels and tackle climate change challenges. So, it was only natural to redirect some funds to a company that strives to make homes less dependent on fossil fuels.

Image Source: YouTube

Alabama Top Judge Ousted from Office over His Stance on Gay Marriage

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'Gay Pride Fest in Madrid'

Alabama’s top justice Roy Moore was removed from office and could face charges over his year-long fight against same-sex marriage.

Justice Roy Moore, the chief of the Alabama Supreme Court, was suspended by the Alabama Court of the Judiciary for allegedly hindering the acceptance of same-sex marriage across the state.

On Friday, the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission charged Justice Moore with the violation of judicial ethics when he opposed gay marriage.

According to the commission, Moore obstinately opposed same-sex marriage in Alabama though the U.S. Supreme Court and a federal judge in Mobile deemed it legal in the state last year. Moore instructed other judges to ignore the rulings and decline to issue marriage licenses to LGBT couples.

The commission received a complaint against Moore from the Southern Poverty Law Center. The judicial group decided that the case was serious enough to be forwarded to the Alabama Court of the Judiciary, which suspended the justice.

Justice Moore’s crusade against same-sex marriage began early last year when he told a local newspaper that the state’s power over marriage stem’s from God’s authority, so the concept of marriage cannot be redefined through state and federal orders.

In March 2015, the Alabama Supreme Court blocked all marriages as Justice Moore asked judges to refuse to issue marriage licenses. Three months later, Justice Moore argued that he and his colleagues as public officials are merely ministers of God with the scope of punishing the wicked and shielding the righteous.

“You cannot serve two masters: you must pick — God or Satan,” he added.

Yet, the man’s bold statements were not enough to get him suspended. This January’s move, however, was. Five months ago, he issued an order that defied the law and tried to halt the issuance of licenses to LGBT couples across the Yellowhammer State.

In a four-page order, he used his authority to reinforce his previous order that barred all probate judges from producing licenses to same-sex couples. Citing the Alabama Sanctity of Marriage Amendment, he also reminded judges that they are ministers of God and they have a ‘ministerial duty’ to oppose licensing gay marriages across their state.

Moore argued that the gay-marriage-legalizing Obergefell ruling was issued by the Supreme Court in a different federal circuit which doesn’t include Alabama.

But the SPLC was irked by Justice Moore’s religious beliefs and filed a complaint with the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission against him. As a result the commission, which has a grand jury status, removed him from office. If no settlement is reached, Justice Moore risks to be tried before the Alabama Court of the Judiciary.

Image Source: Wikimedia

Pornography Declared a Public Health Crisis in Utah

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utah porn

Utah is the first American state to call pornography for what it is: a “public health crisis.” But will other states follow suit, using the momentum to create a shift on the subject? Experts think so.

However, it’s impossible for such decisions not to be strongly opposed. Some medical practitioners, as well as activists for the LGBT community, see the move as a form of religious conservatism.

But Utah’s stance represents a breakthrough for researchers who have long said pornography is an industry that harms men, women, children, and human relationships.

After the Utah Senate and House of Representatives unanimously passed the resolution on Tuesday, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R) also signed it.

According to Gail Dines, a professor of sociology at Wheelock College in Boston, the Utah resolution is promising because “pornography is not defined as a moral issue, but as a harms-based issue.”

Meanwhile, people on both sides of the pornography debate put question marks on the scientific data presented by the other side. Dr. Dines is one of those who claim that more than 40 years of peer-reviewed research says it loud and clear: pornography is damaging.

She stated that using a public-health approach is justifiable in a society where “pornography is the major form of sex education, and hardcore pornography is now mainstream porn.”

For decades, feminists have tried raising public awareness of pornography’s contribution to the elevated levels of sexual violence against women. There is also a plethora of pediatricians, psychologists, and parents who talk about the negative effects, especially on children.

The Utah resolution looks at pornography through a long list of problems associated with it, such as sex trafficking, the abuse of women, family breakdown, and the fact that the average boy is first exposed to graphic material at the young age of 11.

On the other side of the debate, some members of the medical community argue that using the term addiction can be manipulative and fear-inducing.

According to David Ley, a clinical psychologist in Albuquerque, N.M., added that “by telling a teenager to be afraid of something and not do it, we are creating a situation where that teen is going to be compelled to be interested in it.”

However, Dr. Dines said that other states are already thinking of joining the trend and adopting Utah-like resolutions. Pornography in 2016 can be likened to smoking in the 1950s; people say it’s not harmful, but eventually, research trumps all, and scientific reason wins.
Image Source: Desert News

Asian Camel crickets widespread in US basements

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The scientists have ignored the camel crickets since last several decades. Recently, a novel science project unveiled that the insects may have exceeded in quantity as compared to the humans in the United States.

The study revealed that in the beginning the species of camel crickets came from Asia. However, now they are more widespread in American basements as compared to their native region.

The other names of camel crickets are “sprickets”, spider crickets and cave crickets. The camel crickets which are found in North America have thick bodies and mottled brown color. Whereas, the normal ones have an arched back and long hind legs.

Diestrammena asynamora, an invasive species of camel cricket set up in the United States at the start of the 19th century. Scientists named  them as “greenhouse camel crickets” since it was hardly found outside the greenhouse. It has a pattern of stripes on its legs and is relatively smaller than the American ones.

Holly Menninger, co-author of the study with her colleagues of North Caroline State tried to ascertain how common this specie is.  They reckoned it out with the help of a survey which demonstrated that camel crickets are way more common as compared to the Ceuthophilus insects.

The researchers caught nearly 50 Diestrammena asynamora from a single yard in a short time period  of two days.

Mary Jane, the leader of the study stated that the scientist are still unaware about the influence of this species on local ecosystems.

The study is printed in the open access journal Peer J.

Good news for Ebola patients – an experimental drug

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An experimental drug has been given to two patients suffering from Ebola. This drug is invented by a U.S company and doctors have no thought whether it is safe for humans or not. The name of this drug is ZMapp and it is manufactured by San Diego Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc.

According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, they require more patients suffering from this disease in order to ascertain the safety and effectiveness of this drug. In Africa there is no proper treatment or remedy for this dangerous  disease therefore, it took the lives of several people in Africa.

 

Presently, Africa is facing the biggest outburst of this disease which occurred mainly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. The officials of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City stated that currently they are trying this drug on a man who is going through this disease. Although physicians are not certain  if that man is suffering for Ebola or not since the patient has an extremely high fever.

In the meantime., Nigeria has detected another case of ebola in the country. As per the report of the World Health Organization this year ebola has affected more than 1600 in West Africa

Researchers are struggling really hard to discover a treatment for this ailment.  Mapp and an affiliated company, LeafBio are working together to develop a medicine which will consist of three monoclonal antibiotics.

Symantec fold up nine Norton products into one service

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Symantec will merge its messy Norton Line of security software. It will fold up its nine products into one online service which can be utilized by desktop computers and mobile services.

According to the senior director of product management, Gerry Egan this new product would be known as “ Norton Security”. It will be available at price rate of $79 per year during the sale in North America, which will begin from 23 of this September. It swaps Norton Internet Security, Norton AntiVirus and Norton360.

Symantec is one of the biggest security seller of America. The company is struggling hard for more than one year for the modification of its product line. The chief reason behind this step is the rivals, which offers low- price products to the target market.

The organization makes an addition of some new products shortly after the pressure rises from the competitors. However, the clients are still perplexed with these fresh products as they are clueless, which product is suitable for them.

As stated by Egan that later on the company understood that most of its clientele are really puzzle because of these products.

Whereas, Norton Security will put up in the retail stores. Currently, Symantec is utilizing its website for the publicity of its new line of products. It also mentions how they are much beneficial for customers  as compared to the other products.

Moreover Egan said that the company is also retreating from some of the offers.

On the whole, Symantec has intended to form Norton Security an easy to manage online service.

Remnants of the Jonestown victims found- after 35 years

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300 years ago, 900 people were died in a suicide murder in Jonestown Guyana. These people were compelled to drink a cyanide –laced grape punch.Most of them were laid in a huge grave in California while the rest of the dead bodied were handed over to their families.

On Thursday a groundbreaking news was aired on the television that some of the remnants of nine dead bodies were found in the funeral home of Dover. Officials found 38 containers in total and 33 of them were identified, but the names of those nine people are not disclosed since their relatives are not yet called. The officials discovered five other containers of which are extremely complex to recognize.

Yulanda Williams, a survival as well as a sergeant of San Francisco police department grieved on this news and expressed that it is extremely difficult task to forget a horrible incident like this. Moreover, he said that several years he tried hard to heal the wounds and suddenly a big news revealed which again sprinkled salt on the wounds.

According to the funeral director William Torbert said that officers would do whatever the relatives of those nine people would ask them to do.

Amazon up with another dispute – Disney pre-orders

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The reports from Wall street journal reported  that Amazon has called off the pre-orders of Disney movies which are  CaptainAmerica: The Winter Soldier and Maleficent.  The company has entirely removed the choice of pre-order from its official website since Sunday.

This news of missing pre-order was first released by Home Media Magazine. Shortly, after this news a two page ad was published in the New York Times from the group named Authors United. More than 900 authors endorsed this advertisement that includes numerous popular writers as well like Stephen King and Donna Tart.

Amazon has engaged itself in several contract disagreements with some of the world largest companies in these few months. Previously Amazon fought with Time Warner Inc’s (TWX) Warner Bros, and the Hachette Book Group, which is the world’s fourth biggest publisher to reduce the cost of their products.

This time Amazon wishes to convince the Disney group through a reduction in its  revenue. This tact will certainly put Disney in a terrible state of affairs since the entire entertainment studio depends upon the DVD sales  Currently,. Amazon can be considered as an additional revenue generator for Disney because most of the people make use of internet for reservation. Therefore, Amazon has applied a strong technique in order to pressurize its vendor,

On the other hand, when Amazon was asked to make any commentary on this matter. It simply stated that sales always ascend when the cost is low and it is evidently proved through the data accumulated by the company.

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