In today’s News:
Attendance is up at Concordia, Ann Arbor.
Despite pandemic-driven plunges in undergraduate enrollment for colleges nationwide, Concordia University, Ann Arbor, Mich., has reason to celebrate this year with a record high enrollment. The fall 2020 total undergraduate enrollment count is — 1,010 — is up 34 students from last fall’s census number, and the 250-person freshman class beats out last year’s total by 27. The freshman class also has the highest average GPA since the merge with the Mequon campus in 2013.
Senator opposes pro-abortion Cabinet selection
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky called out the hard-line, pro-abortion stance of former Vice President Joe Biden’s pick to run the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in his administration, saying he would “hate to have” Xavier Becerra in charge of dispensing government money for late-term abortion. On Monday, Biden announced his selection of Becerra, the Democrat attorney general of California, to serve as his HHS secretary.
Ohio to recognize the personhood of aborted babies
An Ohio bill recognizing the humanity of unborn babies killed in abortions is on its way to Gov. Mike DeWine’s desk after The State Senate passed it Wednesday. The final vote on the Unborn Child Dignity Act was 23-7, according to cleveland.com. The State House passed the bill last week, and DeWine, a pro-life Republican, is expected to sign it into law. The legislation requires the Ohio Department of Health to establish rules for the proper and humane burial or cremation of unborn babies who are killed in abortions. It creates penalties for violations and requires abortion facilities to pay for the babies to be cremated or buried. Such laws not only ensure that aborted babies’ bodies are treated with dignity and respect, they also are a safeguard against abortion facilities trying to sell aborted baby body parts.
Colorado’s governor says worship is ‘essential’
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has finally dropped Colorado’s COVID-19 unconstitutional limits on religious gatherings and declared that houses of worship are essential and removed attendance caps on worship effective last Monday. Polis reversed course and took this action because of the Supreme Court’s decision last week in Liberty Counsel’s case of Harvest Rock Church and Harvest International Ministry in California and the court’s ruling on Thanksgiving eve in favor of New York churches and synagogues.
In-person worship restrictions thrown out on appeal
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a lower court decision that upheld California’s restrictions on in-person worship gatherings and has ordered the lower court to reconsider the case considering recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings. In a lawsuit challenging California’s worship restriction, South Bay United Pentecostal Church, based in Chula Vista, Calif., argued that there was a double standard between the restrictions imposed on places of worship and restrictions imposed on secular businesses. The church, which draws 200-300 congregants, argued the disparity in treatment demonstrated hostility toward the right to worship guaranteed by the First Amendment and is therefore unconstitutional.
Woke Grinch complains of neighbor’s Christmas lights
In an anonymous letter sent to the home of Kim Hunt of St. Anthony, Minn., a person claiming to be one of Hunt’s neighbors chastised her and her husband for hanging up Christmas lights. The letter itself, obtained by Crime Watch Minneapolis and posted to social media Monday, suggested that innocuous displays such hunt’s constituted “a reminder of divisions that continue to run through our society” and “a reminder of systemic biases against our neighbors who don’t celebrate Christmas or who can’t afford to put up lights of their own.”
