Rabbi Robert Alper, who prefers to go by Bob, is 70 years old and lives with his wife in the rural town East Dorset, Vermont. “It used to be Alpert, but we dropped the T at a party in Boston,” the rabbi told PBS NewsHour in a phone interview. MORE

MONTGOMERY — An Alabama probate judge is asking the state’s Supreme Court for a way out of issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Elmore County Probate Judge John Enslen filed a petition Monday that says the federal government, not state offices, should issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The federal government is responsible for upholding and enforcing other laws created at the federal level and already issues licenses through numerous agencies, Enslen said in the petition. MORE

Traffic after the holidays tend to be pretty awful. But China may have just turned every driver’s worst nightmare into reality as hundreds of millions of people headed home at the end of a Golden Week, a week-long national holiday. USA TODAY MORE

This is a two edged sword, if passed. One it would help our trade deficit, countries who need oil but could also raise the price of oil in the U.S.

The House overwhelmingly approved a bill Friday that would lift the 40-year-old ban on exporting U.S. crude oil, a restriction that critics say hurts job creation and U.S. national security.

The House approved the bill on a bipartisan 261-159 vote. However, the White House has threatened to veto the bill should it make its way to the president’s desk, calling it unnecessary and arguing that the decision rests with the commerce secretary. MORE

One of the very first things I did when I first started prepping was to bolster my pantry with basic staples that could be used for a variety of purposes.  When it was suggested that I store salt, and lots of it, I was a disbeliever. After all, conventional mainstream wisdom had taught me that salt was the bad guy.

But is it really?

I made it my mission to determine whether salt is a good thing, a bad thing, or simply something best treated as an item to “use in moderation.” MORE

Life continues to deteriorate under the socialist regime in Venezuela, an oil-rich South American nation whose citizens’ quality of life has nearly collapsed in the throes of Marxist economic policy.

But no matter, because government officials are quick to offer solutions. In fact, the governor of the Venezuelan state of Bolivar has offered a very unique approach to staving off starvation: Citizens who are short on food can always fry up some rocks (that is, if they can find enough cooking oil, which has been a problem too). MORE

This simple, 2 ingredient solution is your key to getting a great night’s sleep. It will help your body relax and regroup from the day and prepare itself for the next morning.

All you need is:

• 5 teaspoons of organic raw honey
• 1 teaspoon of pink Himalayan sea salt

Mix these two ingredients together and store it in a glass jar. You can make as much or as little as you want, but a 5:1 ratio works the best. Just put a little bit of this mixture under your tongue every night before you go to sleep and let it dissolve naturally. MORE

ROME — A priest has lost his post in northern Italy after saying he can “understand” pedophilia within the church. The priest appeared to blame children for sexual abuse and described homosexuality as a sickness.

“Pedophilia I can understand, homosexuality I don’t understand,” the Rev. Gino Flaim, a priest in Trento, told Italy’s La7 channel. “Unfortunately there are children that look for affection, because they don’t have it at home. And perhaps if they find a priest, he could also give in.” MORE

This staggering image shows how our sun – which is so big it accounts for 99.86% of the mass in the solar system – would look next to the biggest star in the universe. MORE PHOTOS

Haifa, Israel – After Israel complained for years that it was surrounded by oil-rich states but didn’t have a drop within its own borders, it appears there’s a big-time turnaround with the announcement Wednesday that massive oil reserves have been located in the Golan Heights,close to the country’s border with Syria. MORE

VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican said Tuesday (Oct. 6) that “concrete steps” were being taken to arrange a papal trip to Mexico, with reports Pope Francis’ visit could come in early 2016.

Mexican media, citing the Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican’s chief spokesman, said Francis was scheduled to visit the country in the first few months of 2016. MORE

For decades, the world has known that the massive Israeli facility near Dimona, in the Negev Desert, was the key to its secret nuclear project. Yet, for decades, the world—and Israel—knew that Israel had once misleadingly referred to it as a “textile factory.” Until now, though, we’ve never known how that myth began—and how quickly the United States saw through it. The answers, as it turns out, are part of a fascinating tale that played out in the closing weeks of the Eisenhower administration—a story that begins with the father of Secretary of State John Kerry and a familiar charge that the U.S. intelligence community failed to “connect the dots. MORE

A Canadian archbishop told a major Vatican meeting on family issues Tuesday that the church should consider allowing women to serve as deacons.

Archbishop Paul-Andre Durocher, who was recently president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, was one of many top church leaders who gave short speeches to the hundreds of bishops meeting in Rome. MORE

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A proposed law in Florida would allow churches to refuse to hold gay marriages, a right the bill sponsor admits they already have.

The House Civil Justice Committee approved the bill Wednesday on a 9-4 vote.

Republican Rep. Scott Plakon said his bill would simply give churches another layer of protection. He acknowledged that he knows of no cases in which a church was forced to marry a gay couple. MORE