A recent ruling by a Texas appeals court has kept a Christian Science reading room in Austin exempt from property taxes. The court decided that even though the ownership setup is a bit tangled, the place still gets the break because it's used for religious stuff. The judge, Darlene Byrne, explained that if a religious group has the right to use the property for thei...
Wisconsin's political landscape is a battleground, with Republicans and Democrats locked in a power struggle over voting districts. The state's congressional map, drawn by Republicans after the 2010 census, heavily favors the GOP, despite the state's nearly even split between the two parties. This imbalance has long been a target for voting rights advocates, who argu...
Jair Bolsonaro, the former president of Brazil, has been ordered to start his prison term. The Supreme Court made this decision. Bolsonaro was found guilty of trying to stay in power after losing the 2022 election. He will serve his sentence in a federal police jail in Brasilia. Bolsonaro is 70 years old. He was accused of leading a plot to keep himself in power. Th...
A recent court decision in the UK has shaken up how religion is taught in Northern Ireland's schools. It all started when two parents, who are humanist and not religious, questioned the way their daughter's school was teaching Christianity. They felt it was being presented as the only truth, without any critical thinking or exploration of other beliefs. The UK Supre...
A recent court decision has put a halt to Texas' new congressional map, which was designed by Republicans to strengthen their hold on the House of Representatives. The ruling, made by a panel of federal judges, including Judge Jeffrey Brown, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, has ordered Texas to use the previous map from 2021 instead. The court foun...
A former pilot's life took a sharp turn in 2023 when he tried to shut down a plane's engines mid-flight. This event, which could have been disastrous, ended with the plane landing safely, thanks to the quick actions of the flight crew. The pilot, Joseph Emerson, was off-duty and sitting in the cockpit when he attempted to cut the engines. He later explained that he w...
Jeanine Áñez, the former interim president of Bolivia, has been released from prison after nearly five years. The supreme court overturned her conviction for allegedly staging a coup. Áñez, now 58, left the Miraflores women’s center in La Paz on Thursday. She referred to the end of nearly two decades of rule by the leftwing Movimiento al Socialismo (Mas) party as "th...
In a surprising turn of events, the president is not getting his way. He thought the government shutdown would be over quickly. He believed his tough moves would make Democrats give in. But they haven't. Instead, Democrats are standing firm on their demands. The president is not happy. He's publicly complaining about Democrats. He says they are being unreasonable. H...
In a bizarre mix of events, President Donald Trump found himself in a legal pickle over food assistance payments during the government shutdown. Two judges, one from Massachusetts and another from Rhode Island, ordered the White House to keep funding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps. Trump, however, seemed more focus...
Harvard University has recently instructed its alumni interviewers to steer clear of mentioning an applicant's race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin in their reports. This new rule is part of a broader shift in the university's admissions process, aimed at complying with recent legal developments. During training sessions held this autumn, admissions officia...