“Since the mafias need popular consensus to control their territory, they need to be seen as close to the Church,” Gratteri told Reuters. “Pope Francis is saying clearly that there can be no compromises with mafias that extort and murder.”

The Budapest city council passed a law this afternoon making it illegal for homeless people to occupy paved sidewalks. parks, playgrounds, underpasses, overpasses, and areas within 50 meters of city roads.

Over recent months we learned from an authoritative source that the bomb fuse making at the Bulova Building put downtown Lancaster in considerable jeopardy. A mishap would have accelerated the redevelopment of the area in a nanosecond.

“There is evidence of deep-seated cultural and ethical failures at many large financial institutions,” Dudley continued. “Whether this is due to size and complexity, bad incentives or some other issues is difficult to judge, but it is another critical problem that needs to be addressed.”

Insurers will be required to disclose to customers that these new plans won’t include the new consumer protections in the law and explain that alternatives are available on Obamacare’s health insurance exchanges, and that tax credits to cut the cost of private insurance are only available on the exchanges.

f the law sounds familiar, that’s because it’s similar to legislation introduced in Pennsylvania in 2012. That bill prompted Gov. Tom Corbett to advise pregnant women making the heart-wrenching decision to terminate their pregnancies that “you just have to close your eyes” if they did not wish to view an ultrasound image of the fetus.

“It’s a long way off, and no one is officially a candidate yet, but the Hillary Clinton-Chris Christie race to the White House is neck-and-neck before the campaign even saddles up,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of Quinnipiac University Polling Institute…

Production has been booming partly because of hydraulic fracturing or fracking, which extracts oil by blasting water mixed with sand and chemicals underground to break apart shale rock. Meanwhile, consumption has been falling as high gasoline prices have reduced how much people drive and more efficient cars and buildings have also lowered energy use…

An interesting result of the recent off-year elections was another surge in demand for cannabis (“marijuana”) legalization. Legal pot was more popular at the ballot box than the Tea Party, Right Wing politicians, and the (fading} reputation of Barack Obama, whose job approval rating fell to a new low.

There has been some slight good news since we wrote our article, Japan is pledging more money to the effort — this could literally cost a trillion when it is all over which will take many years — and they are raising the salaries of workers.

The amateur model in college sports is in serious trouble, with a federal district judge on Friday certifying a class-action suit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Under N.C.A.A. rules, student athletes may not receive compensation — a policy that effectively blocks players from entering into group licensing agreements.

[President Xi Jinping ] has accompanied his vows of economic rejuvenation with a drive to stifle political opposition to one-party rule at home and a tougher position on foreign policy issues, particularly in maritime territorial disputes with Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Prisoners serving life without parole make up one of the fastest-growing populations in the prison system, according to the ACLU’s analysis of data from the United States Sentencing Commission, the federal Bureau of Prisons and state corrections departments.

The office of the County Treasurer reports that hotel room rental sales tax collected for 2013 through September amounts to $5,181,259.93, up from $5,050,954.56 during the same period in 2012.