Articles by Christopher Vondracek
The Trump administration issued a rule Friday barring groups that provide abortions or abortion referrals from participating in the $286 million federal family planning program, a long-expected move that would direct money away from Planned Parenthood and toward faith-based providers.
Published
February 22, 2019
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The meat-processing company that sued ABC News for calling its beef "pink slime" now is producing "100 percent ground beef," according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's labeling board.
Published
February 21, 2019
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Some conservative U.S. Catholics are dismayed by the official schedule for Pope Francis' Vatican summit with bishops on clerical sex abuse that begins Thursday, saying it ignores the root cause of the scandal: gays in the priesthood.
Published
February 20, 2019
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Congress has included $40 million for the D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant program in its appropriations bills, despite the Trump administration having erased the program in its budget proposal.
Published
February 14, 2019
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On Valentine's Day, Amazon broke up with New York City and turned all of its attention to Northern Virginia, announcing it would not set up half of its second headquarters in Queens and would move ahead with its plans for Crystal City.
Published
February 14, 2019
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A simple, spontaneous gesture -- a Norman Rockwell moment captured in a cellphone photo -- has uncorked an outpouring of praise and patriotism across social media: Two small boys place their hands over their hearts and recite the Pledge of Allegiance as the American flag is raised at their town's fire station in rural North Carolina.
Published
February 13, 2019
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A federal judge has ruled that the University of Iowa violated the religious liberty of Christian students by de-registering their business group for not allowing gay students to participate as leaders.
Published
February 12, 2019
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Congressional Democrats, backed by LGBTQ advocates, are looking to add gay and transgender protections to the 1964 Civil Rights Act -- a huge expansion of the seminal law -- but the legislation may stall in the Senate because of its axing of religious liberty protections.
Published
February 11, 2019
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Michael Forkner, 51, says he was duped by radio advertisements promising a miracle drug for erectile dysfunction. According to federal court records, his urologist says after a year of injecting TriMix into his penis, it is now effectively nonfunctioning and may need an implant.
Published
February 10, 2019
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A viral video of a high school debate contest last month in Arizona shows Utah students being disqualified for citing statements by conservative commentator Ben Shapiro and Canadian psychology professor Jordan Peterson, whom the judge calls "white supremacists."
Published
February 5, 2019
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Legislatures from the Bible Belt to the Dakotas are mulling bills that would establish biblical literacy courses in high schools, but some education analysts say classes focusing on the Bible's cultural and historical relevance already are offered in public schools in those states and elsewhere.
Published
February 3, 2019
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A Brooklyn psychotherapist who says he has helped men overcome same-sex attraction is suing New York City over its ban on gay conversion therapy, saying the city's prohibition is too broad and violates his religious liberty.
Published
January 28, 2019
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Union Pacific is asking a federal judge to allow it to fire a worker who defecated on one of the train company's railcars. But the labor union and are arbitrator are standing in its way.
Published
January 28, 2019
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A federal appeals panel this month vacated a lower court's injunction that prevented Texas from dropping Planned Parenthood from its Medicaid reimbursement rolls.
Published
January 24, 2019
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Education Secretary Betsy DeVos offered strong support Wednesday for the nation's only federal school voucher program, foreshadowing what could be a bitter appropriation process in the Democrat-led House.
Published
January 23, 2019
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A Washington state high school football coach who was let go for praying on the field after games won't get his free speech case heard by the Supreme Court — at least for now.
Published
January 22, 2019
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Vice President Mike Pence made a surprise cameo, a Montana senator announced a newly-formed Pro-Life Caucus, and thousands of marcher held signs and marched up Constitution Avenue Friday afternoon to the U.S. Supreme Court during Friday's annual mid-January March for Life in Washington D.C. President Donald Trump, who made history by being the first president to address the March for Life meeting by video last year, even squeezed in a sequel this year.
Published
January 18, 2019
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Overnight the bus carrying some students from Franciscan University in Ohio to Friday's March for Life in Washington D.C. got a flat tire. But they came anyway.
Published
January 18, 2019
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The 46th annual March for Life on Friday in Washington promises a diverse lineup of speakers to address tens of thousands of marchers -- including two elected pro-life Democrats, an increasing rarity on the national stage.
Published
January 17, 2019
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The Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday over a Tennessee law requiring liquor store owners to reside in the state for at least two years, prompting one justice to ask a big box store challenging the law if it aims to become the "Amazon of liquor."
Published
January 16, 2019
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