Rose Mula Writes: What’s more, the priest is speaking English — not Latin! And though said priest is still a he, he is often now assisted by altar girls — not always boys. And shocker of shockers — yesterday's sonorous organ music is often replaced by rocking guitars. Can it be? The 20-year-old me remembers weddings where the leading lady's entrance could not be heralded with Here Comes the Bride, which was considered secular and thus banned from the church. Bummer! A wedding without Here Comes the Bride was like lasagna without ricotta cheese... Also, when I was young, a cousin married a non-Catholic (shameful!), and the ceremony had to be performed in the rectory. Such a "sacrilege" could be permitted only in the priests' house — not God's... That it was allowed at all was probably to prevent the couple from seeking a non-Catholic church to marry them. A few years later, however, still another cousin had the gall to fall in love with a Protestant, and they actually were allowed to take their vows inside the church — but only outside the altar rail — not on the altar itself. more »

"The financial toll on middle-class and upper-income people needing long-term care was examined by reviewing data that the HRS collected from 2000 to 2021 on wealthy Americans, those whose net worth at age 65 was in the 50th to 95th percentile, totaling anywhere from $171,365 to $1,827,765 in inflation-adjusted 2020 dollars. This group excludes the super-wealthy. Each individual’s wealth at age 65 was compared with their wealth just before they died to calculate the percentage of affluent people who exhausted their financial resources and the likelihood that would occur among different groups. To calculate how many people were likely to need long-term care, how many people needing long-term care services were receiving them, and who was providing care to people receiving help, we looked at people age 65 and older of all wealth levels in the 2020-21 survey, the most recent." more »

Combating Hate by Investigating and Prosecuting Hate Crimes Pursuing Hate Crimes Prosecutions: Since January 2021, charged 100 defendants in over 85 cases and secured more than 85 convictions of defendants charged with bias-motivated crimes. Elevating Hate Crimes Threat Level: Elevating civil rights violations and hate crimes enforcement for prioritization among the FBI’s 56 field offices. Expediting Review of Hate Crimes: Designating the chief of the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division to serve as a facilitator for the expedited review of hate crimes. Enhancing State and Local Law Enforcement Training: Launching a hate crimes recognition and reporting training aimed at line-level state and local law enforcement officers and holding trainings for state and local law enforcement on assessing and managing hate crime and domestic extremist violence threats. This training is provided for free to state, local, tribal, territorial, and campus law enforcement agencies via the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services technical assistance program: https://cops.usdoj.gov/cri-tac. more »

A bill to modify the ten-year marriage rule relating to spouse’s and surviving spouse’s insurance benefits in cases of domestic violence; A bill to implement Title IX with respect to elementary and secondary schools, encouraging confidential reporting of sexual assault and sex-based discrimination so students are not deterred from seeking help; A resolution expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the relationships between firearm violence, misogyny, and violence against women, and reaffirming the importance of preventing individuals with a history of violence against women from accessing a firearm. more »