Free Republic

Three Democratic members of the Staunton, Virginia, city council were ousted by Republicans on Tuesday despite receiving more votes than they did four years ago. Republican candidates Mark Robertson, Amy Darby, and Steve Claffey all joined incumbent Andrea Oakes in a four-seat GOP sweep, WHSV reported. The three incoming council members replaced Democratic incumbents Erik Curren, Ophie Kier, and James Harrington all almost doubled their vote totals from 2016, yet still lost.

I'm proud of my daughter, but I can't deny that she stopped us in our religiously disinterested, bleeding-heart liberal tracksFor decades, god and religion have played no part in my life. I was baptised as a baby, but didn't make it as far as first communion. That may officially make me a Catholic in the broadest sense, but if it does, I'm one who's not so much "lapsed" as "stalled before I started". Apart from morning assemblies and weekly hymn practices at primary school, followed by a couple of years of religious education classes at comprehensive (which I dropped as...