Jumping into the issues of the day, Pope Francis opened his visit to the United States with a strong call Wednesday for action to combat climate change, calling it a problem that "can no longer be left to a future generation." President Barack Obama, in turn, hailed the pontiff as a moral force who is "shaking us out of our complacency" with reminders to care for the poor and the planet.
The White House mustered all the pageantry it had to offer as the pope arrived at the White House before an adoring crowd of thousands and a nation that seemingly cannot get enough of the humble pontiff who is rejuvenating American Catholicism while giving heartburn to some of its conservatives.
The pope at White House: Climate change action can't wait
Clinton comes out against Keystone XL
Hillary Clinton says she opposes building the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline.
Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for president, made the announcement Tuesday after years of pressure from environmentalists to oppose the project.
“I think it is imperative that we look at the Keystone pipeline, as what I think it is, as a distraction to the important work we have to do on climate change,” Clinton said Tuesday at a campaign event in Iowa. "And unfortunately, from my perspective, on that interferes with our ability to move forward with all the other issues."
Building the Bomb: The full story of the Nevada test site
The US conducted most of its early nuclear tests in the Pacific, but they became too costly to continue so in 1950, the US government began to look for a safe place to test nuclear weapons on its mainland.
The Nevada Test Site was established a few years after the end of the second world war, against the fear of an all-out nuclear attack from the Soviet Union. As the Cold War took hold, America needed a convenient place to design and build its nuclear arsenal.
In clash with pope's climate call, U.S. Church leases drilling rights
Casting the fight against climate change as an urgent moral duty, Pope Francis in June urged the world to phase out highly-polluting fossil fuels.
Yet in the heart of U.S. oil country several dioceses and other Catholic institutions are leasing out drilling rights to oil and gas companies to bolster their finances, Reuters has found.
And in one archdiocese -- Oklahoma City -- Church officials have signed three new oil and gas leases since Francis's missive on the environment, leasing documents show.
Officials: South Dakota man killed wife, 4 kids then himself
Authorities believe a man fatally shot his wife and four children, set their rural South Dakota house on fire, then turned the shotgun on himself, the state's attorney general's office said Tuesday.
Preliminary autopsy results show all six members of the Westerhuis family died of shotgun wounds. The bodies of Scott and Nicole Westerhuis and their children Kailey, Jaeci, Connor and Michael were found in the burned ruins of their home in Platte on Thursday.
Reykjavik Declares Boycott of All Israeli Products
The Icelandic capital city of Reykjavik has declared a boycott of all Israeli goods. The measure is clearly symbolic, as the city itself can’t do enough trade with Israel, or any other country, for such an action to have any impact. The responses to the action, however, are worth examining.
A retiring official, Björk Vilhelmsdóttir, of the Social Democratic Alliance, a center-left party, brought the motion for the boycott. The motion compels the city to boycott all Israeli products “as long as the occupation of Palestinian territories continues.” The memo that explains the reasoning behind what it terms a “symbolic” decision states that the city condemns “the Israeli policy of apartheid” in the Occupied Territories.
Carly Fiorina, Crackpot Warmonger
...Iran: “On Day One in the Oval Office, I will make two phone calls, the first to my good friend Bibi Netanyahu to reassure him we will stand with the state of Israel.
“The second, to the Supreme Leader, to tell him that unless and until he opens every military and every nuclear facility to real anytime, anywhere inspections by our people, not his, we, the United States of America, will make it as difficult as possible and move money around the global financial system.
Israeli leader of counterfeit U.S. currency ring sentenced to 15 years
The leader of an international counterfeit currency ring responsible for over $70 million in fake U.S. bills was sentenced to 15 years in prison Friday.
Itzhak Loz, an Israeli national, was also ordered to turn over $20 million and specific assets including a warehouse in New Jersey where the counterfeit money was most recently printed.
Obama nominates openly gay man to lead Army
President Barack Obama nominated Eric Fanning to be the next secretary of the Army, the White House said Friday, paving the way for the first openly gay leader of a military branch in U.S. history.
Fanning is currently serving as acting Army undersecretary and previously worked as an Air Force undersecretary and a chief of staff to Defense Secretary Ash Carter. His nomination to the post must be confirmed by the Senate.
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