Free Republic

A married Texas pastor who claims he was only counseling a 15-year-old girl and her family is now in jail after police say he groomed her, gave her methamphetamines and then raped her multiple times in the last month, including at church. The teenager was hospitalized after her most recent encounter. Brian Pounds, 45, who was listed as the lead pastor at First Assembly of God in Vernon along with his wife, Amy, has been charged with sexual assault of a child and delivery of a controlled substance to a child, according to his redacted arrest warrant.

The state of our nation is politically polarized, controlled by forces beyond the purview of the average American, and rapidly moving the nation away from its freedom foundation. Over the past year, due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans have found themselves repeatedly subjected to egregious civil liberties violations, invasive surveillance, martial law, lockdowns, political correctness, erosions of free speech, strip searches, police shootings of unarmed citizens, government spying, the criminalization of lawful activities, warmongering, etc.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Norwich, Connecticut, is seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy to help pay for more than 60 pending lawsuits over alleged sexual abuse. The lawsuits stem from former students at the Academy of Mount St. John in Deep River. Gale Howard is a leader of the Connecticut chapter of Survivors Network of those Abused By Priests, or SNAP. Howard said the bankruptcy limits fair compensation, especially for those who have yet to come forward.

CNN’s Anna Coren reports from Kabul, Afghanistan, with new evidence of atrocities committed by the Taliban. Video has emerged of Afghan commandos being shot dead after an apparent surrender. The Taliban rejects the video, saying it is fabricated.

Camilla Canepa was operated on by Gianluigi Zona, director of the neurosurgical and neuro-traumatological clinic of the San Martino hospital: “I had never seen a brain that was affected by such an extensive and severe thrombosis.” ...Zona recounted the experience: “All venous sinuses were blocked with thrombi, a scenario I have never seen in my many years in this profession."

A COVID-vaccinated teenager from Tel Aviv, Israel infected at least 83 of his peers with the COVID-19 virus after catching it from a relative who has also been vaccinated. The case of mass transmission is one of many across Israel in recent weeks, where lawmakers and health officials have threatened new restrictions on civil liberties to supposedly help stop the spread of COVID-19, despite the country having one of the world’s highest rates of full vaccination against the disease.

The Austria Center Vienna (Donaustadt) is of crucial importance for the city’s vaccination strategy. Around 5000 Viennese are vaccinated against the Corona here every day. But unfortunately there are always side effects. An Impfstrasse employee told Austrian daily Heute that around 50 people per day collapsed last weekend. Almost all of them had previously received a dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

A French priest with a history of campaigning against gay rights faces a Catholic Church trial over allegations that he sexually assaulted men to “heal” their homosexuality. Msgr. Tony Anatrella, a Vatican adviser and psychotherapist, will stand trial in church court after multiple allegations of abuse and inappropriate sexual relationships with his male clients, per the National Catholic Reporter.

Re Marking Tragedy (Letters, July 6): As the revelations continue and more graves are discovered, I think the sins of the church are hard to ignore. I once considered it my north star of moral high ground. Now I am left bereft.

Alison Anderson and her husband, a Border Patrol agent, moved from a remote ranch near Big Bend, Texas, after one too many armed encounters with illegal aliens on their property... “Having three little girls and having convicted sexual predators in and or around your property is terrifying,” she said. Her girls are aged 5, 3, and 1.

June 30 (Reuters) - Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) Vice Chairman Charlie Munger praised China's move to impose a sweeping restructuring on Jack Ma’s Ant Group, the fintech giant whose record $37 billion IPO was derailed by regulators in November. The 97-year-old told CNBC in an interview alongside Berkshire CEO and billionaire investor Warren Buffett that the United States should take a leaf out of China's book and "step in preemptively to stop speculation". "I don't want the, all of the Chinese system, but I certainly would like to have the financial part of it in my own country," he said...

WARSAW, Poland — The Catholic Church in Poland announced Monday that it had received 368 allegations of clerical abuse in the past two and a half years. The claims relate to abuse reportedly committed by 292 priests and religious between 1958 and 2020. A report released June 28 by the Institute of Statistics of the Catholic Church said that the allegations were made between July 1, 2018, and Dec. 31, 2020.

Thomas Webster, a decorated Marine and ex-NYPD officer with no criminal record, was arrested in February and charged with seven counts including assaulting the officer with a flag pole that was attached to his U.S. Marine Corps flag. (He did not hit the officer with the pole.) ...Had the government decided to include video of the situation several minutes before Webster’s meltdown, it would have shown, according to court filings, police officers attacking and provoking protesters outside the Capitol who were doing nothing wrong.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) held a news conference Monday to discuss adverse reactions related to the COVID vaccines — giving individuals who have been “repeatedly ignored” by the medical community a platform to share their stories. The group that spoke was put together by Ken Ruettgers, a former Green Bay Packers offensive lineman, whose wife suffered an adverse reaction after receiving a COVID vaccine. Ruettgers, who now lives in Oregon, started a website to bring awareness of COVID vaccine reactions to the medical community.

VIDEO The big news yesterday is that after months and months of intense investigation, there will be NO indictment of President Donald Trump by the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr.. Therefore Rachel Maddow who has been acting like her life depends on Trump being indicted had to feign joy over charges possibly being brought against the Trump organization (NOT Trump) for a few officials possibly not paying taxes on fringe benefits. Yeah, all that INTENSE investigation and that is all they came up with. Oh, and NOTHING against Donald Trump himself. Perhaps Maddow knows if she acknowledges...

DES MOINES — Citing “overwhelming” incidents of abuse and "extensive" cover-up that spanned decades, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller issued a report Wednesday detailing 50 complaints his office received about allegations of sexual impropriety by Catholic clergy, non-clergy or spiritual leaders — including 17 victims who had not previously come forward to report abuse to authorities.

The death rate from COVID-19 is dramatically low at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, TX compared to other hospitals across the nation and the world. Despite Dr. Joseph Varon's popularity on TV, news personalities avoid questions of why he's having success treating his patients. As it turns out, he's using drugs the WHO and CDC recommend against.

Less than a year ago, Elana Fishbein was a happy stay-at-home mother, raising her three boys in a well-off Philadelphia suburb. She’d noticed the school that two of her boys attended would push out some lessons and activities that she considered politically biased or inappropriate, but each time was able to resolve the situation by opting her children out. In June last year, however, she saw no other choice than to take action.

The sex abuse trial of an ex-priest in Timor-Leste has been put on hold for a fifth time after a bid to hold the hearing by video link was stopped due to “technical issues.” The district court in Oecusse, 200 kilometers from Dili, resumed the trial that started in February via video conference on June 9 after Richard Daschbach failed to appear for four previous hearings, supposedly due to Covid-19 travel restrictions.

I’m not inclined to hire a graduate from one of America’s elite universities. That marks a change. A decade ago I relished the opportunity to employ talented graduates of Princeton, Yale, Harvard and the rest. Today? Not so much.