His excursion north of the Arctic Circle will make Obama the first sitting president to step foot in the Alaska Arctic, home to Alaska Natives who have received less attention amid Obama’s recent efforts to improve conditions for Native Americans. In a major show of solidarity, Obama announced on the eve of his trip that his administration is changing the name of North America’s tallest peak, Mount McKinley, to Denali, its traditional Athabascan name. MORE

Hawaii Governor David Ige signed an emergency proclamation on Friday afternoon in anticipation of the arrival of Hurricane Ignacio that activates the fund set aside for disaster relief for the state.

Ige was prompted to act after the National Weather Service advised that even though Ignacio’s path is still highly uncertain, the system has the ability to cause widespread damage across the state. MORE

For the first time over a billion people used Facebook on a single day, according to company founder Mark Zuckerberg.

The “milestone” was reached on Monday, when “1 in 7 people on Earth used Facebook to connect with their friends and family”, he said in a post. MORE

Vol 8 Issue 35 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
August 29, 2015 ~ Beheading of John the Baptist

1. Baptism: Means of Salvation (31)
2. Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
3. St Rose of Lima
4. Christ in the Home (6)
5. Articles and notices

Dear Reader: Continue reading →

The German public TV channel ARD reported yesterday that Assyrian villages in the Qandil mountains were hit by the recent Turkish air strikes against the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
The villages hit by air strikes were Sharanish, Baz, Barwary Bala, Hayes, Dawoodiya and Margerija. MORE

Florida has declared a state of emergency over Tropical Storm Erika as it approaches the US mainland after killing at least 20 people in the Caribbean. MORE

An Alaska company is planning to be the first to ship massive amounts of fresh water to drought-plagued California, potentially as much as 10 million gallons a month.

“We are prepared to deliver bulk water now, and we are currently working with customers who hope to be able to take delivery by the end of the year,” Alaska Bulk Water CEO Terry Trapp said in an email. MORE

He’s known as New Jersey’s Bad Boy, and it’s little wonder why: this wiseguy comedian has worked with some of the biggest names in the business, and he never forgets his heritage.

Logic and reason are vastly disappearing in AMERICA.

On a remote Utah ridge covered in sagebrush, pines and wild grasses, a Canadian company is about to embark on something never before done commercially in the United States: digging sticky, black, tar-soaked sand from the ground and extracting the petroleum.

The impending opening of the nation’s first tar sands mine has become another front in the battle across the West between preservationists and the energy industry. MORE

JERUSALEM (AP) — Ultra-nationalist Israelis took over a four-story building in the heart of an Arab neighborhood in east Jerusalem on Thursday, raising fears of fresh violence in the tense area.

A small group of activists from the Ateret Cohanim settler organization moved into the rundown white stone building. It was the latest in a wave of settler advances since nationalist Jews began buying up properties in densely populated Palestinian areas two decades ago. MORE

The 67-year old Wesolowski was found dead in on Friday, a Vatican representative said in a statement. The Polish-born defrocked priest was held under house arrest in the seat of the Catholic Church.

The initial checks “indicated that the death was from natural causes,” a press statement said, adding that Vatican prosecutors ordered an immediate autopsy.  MORE

He is not just the Pope of the world’s Catholics, no, not by a long shot. Francis has stepped out of the shadows and with each new undertaking continues to shore up his base of political power and influence. In just the past two years, Pope Francis has championed Climate Change with a papal encyclical, worked covertly with Obama behind the scenes to restore relations with Communist Cuba, and was a secret but key player in the current Iranian Nuclear Deal which will guarantee that a nuke will soon be pointed at Israel. Francis is the man with the New World Order plan, and he shows no signs of slowing down. And oh, yes, he has also signed a treaty with Palestine against Israel.  MORE

Pope Francis has sent his blessing to a lesbian author of children’s books dealing with same-sex families, wishing her and her wife well in their work, it emerged on Friday.

As Vatican officials scrambled to clarify that the message was simply a standard courtesy which did not signal any change in Church teaching on the subject, the author told AFP she had been pleasantly surprised to have received such a positive response. MORE