The year 2020 continues to make history for all the wrong reasons. The good news is that Hurricane Marco weakened overnight to a tropical storm before it makes expected landfall on the Louisiana coast later today. The bad news is that Tropical Storm Laura is forecasted to strengthen to a hurricane before it makes landfall late Wednesday or early Thursday.  Parts of Louisiana will start to see the effects of Laura by Wednesday morning, after Marco leaves the state Tuesday... Read more

When you see the word “plague,” what images come to mind? If you live in California, this is more than a theoretical question. Health officials in California revealed this week that a resident of their state has tested positive for plague. The patient is believed to have been bitten by an infected flea while walking their dog. The individual is currently under medical care and is recovering at home. Here’s the part of the story that especially troubled me: according... Read more

Listen to The Daily Article Podcast, then subscribe. Residents in Olten, Switzerland, woke up Friday morning in a town coated in chocolate powder. A resident tweeted in response: “Finally 2020 delivers!” There was a defect in the cooling ventilation for a line of roasted cocoa in the Lindt & Sprüngli factory. High winds combined with this ventilation error resulted in the spread of chocolate powder across the area. Local residents were suitably grateful.  Here’s another headline that caught my eye:... Read more

Listen to The Daily Article Podcast, then subscribe. I’m old enough to remember when “Disney” and “family” were synonymous. Walt Disney said, “Our greatest national resource is the minds of our children.” He also noted, “The most important thing is family. If you can keep the family together—and that’s the backbone of our whole business, catering to families—that’s what we hope to do.” I wonder what he would think about the announcement by the Disney Channel that its animated series... Read more

A physicist has calculated that the universe will end in the “next few trillion years.” According to other experts, it could end for us far sooner. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine recently testified before Congress that an asteroid strike is perhaps Earth’s biggest threat. Last Sunday, his fears were made real when an undetected asteroid made the closest pass without hitting our planet ever recorded.  Here’s the troubling part: NASA did not see the object until six hours after it flew... Read more

Following the death of President Trump’s brother Robert last Saturday, critics of the president tweeted the hashtag #wrongtrump. Their sentiment that the president should have died rather than his brother was the second-highest trending tweet by Sunday morning. The destructive vitriol of our current political climate is unlike any I have seen. Such hatefulness is not the only unprecedented factor in this election season, however.  The 2020 Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, began yesterday. Opening night featured Vermont Sen.... Read more

Robert Trump, the younger brother of President Donald Trump, passed away Saturday night at the age of seventy-one. The president stated: “It is with a heavy heart I share that my wonderful brother, Robert, peacefully passed away tonight. He was not just my brother, he was my best friend. He will be greatly missed, but we will meet again. His memory will live on in my heart forever. Robert, I love you. Rest in peace.”  Being elected leader of the... Read more

Two reports caught my eye this week. One: In 2007, 90 percent of evangelicals said their church forbid (63 percent) or strongly discouraged (27 percent) “homosexual behaviors.” In 2020, that figure has dropped to 65 percent (33.7 percent forbid, while 31.4 percent strongly discourage).  Two: In 2008, 34.4 percent of evangelicals between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five supported same-sex marriage. In 2018, that figure had risen to 56.1 percent.  Could this data be related? Are evangelical churches changing their... Read more

Was a Bible burned in Portland? Yes, but that’s only part of the story. On August 1, the story began circulating that “left-wing activists” burned a “stack of Bibles” in front of the federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon, the previous night. The story was shared widely, especially among conservative media.  However, the New York Times reported yesterday that the individual who first tweeted the story “has amassed a large Twitter following by playing a right-wing American raconteur on social media.”... Read more