A news round up - 15 October 2014

Here are few items of news you might have missed:

• Police in Utah are searching for a woman who robbed a Super 8 motel while, according to witnesses, dressed like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume. Though she apparently wore a black mask over her face, my guess is she had Raphael in mind; this seems like something he might do when angry.

• The U.S. Department of Justice created a Facebook page under the name of a woman and with pictures taken from her cell phone  - without her knowledge or permission - to help, they say, in criminal investigations. She is now suing the government for a breach of privacy and is seeking more than $250,000 in damages.

• The budget deficit of the U.S. federal government has now fallen to just $486,000.000,000. This is down from a budget deficit of more than $1,000,000,000,000 in President Obama's first term and after hitting a record $1,400,000,000,000 in 2009. This fall of the budget deficit is, I suppose, good news. Still, I wouldn't mind a personal budget like this.

• After studying data collected from the temperature of the oceans at various depths, the National Aeronautics and Space and Administration reports that it is unable to explain why global warming (even in the waters) has slowed over the last ten years, in clear contradiction to the projections of the computer models.

• As further proof that saints are just like us, Saint John Paul II was a fan of the classic movie, The Princess Bride. According to Cary Elwes, the late Pope called the movie, "Very good film. Very funny." That's a good enough endorsement for me.

• A petition on the web site of the White House to "Investigate Jehovah's Witness' [sic] Leaders for Child Abuse Cover Up and Protecting Child Abusers" has 191 signatures since being posted on Monday. 

• I'm not sure how I managed to miss this one until today, but a prisoner in Santa Fe is suing the state of New Mexico because his First Amendment freedom to practice Satanism is not being respected.

• The tallest cow in the world - standing at 6'4" - lives in Orangeville, Illinois (I didn't know where it was, either).

A news round up - July 7, 2014

Some of the news you may have missed:

• Despite claiming "to providing primary care in a timely manner," a veteran just received an appointment with a doctor through the VA. There's just one problem: he died 22 months ago. And people actually want the federal government involved in their healthcare? 

• In a related story, another veteran died after waiting 30 minutes for an ambulance in a VA hospital.

• There is a 14th century castle for sale in Bavaria, though it looks to be in need of some repair.

• For the first time, a woman has been appointed rector of a Pontifical University: Sr. Mary Melone at the Pontifical University Antonianum in Rome.

• Writing in the Huffington Post, Ronald Lindsay suggests it is inappropriate to have six Catholic justices on the Supreme Court. If you think anti-Catholicism is not slowly growing again in the U.S.A., you are sadly mistaken and blind to the reality around you.

• 82 people were shot (14 of whom were killed) in Chicago over the July 4th holiday weekend. And some people wonder why don't like Chicago (35 people were shot [1 of whom was killed] in Chicago last weekend). And this for a city with some of the strictest gun restrictions in the country.