Day: November 12, 2025
City officials back down after rejecting nativity display at Christmas farmers’ market
A woman who has organized a local farmers’ market for years in the city of Pataskala, Ohio, was prohibited from putting on a live nativity display for a Christmas-themed market until officials backed down.
Susan Conley requested in September to be allowed to set up the nativity scene on public grounds this year after previously having it located on private property. The city denied the request, despite allowing other displays that included the Grinch, Santa Claus, and Buddy the Elf.
‘Pataskala cannot ban religious displays on public property just because they’re religious.’
The First Liberty Institute, which represents Conley, said in a press release that city officials backtracked after the organization sent a letter to them on her behalf.
“This is nothing new for Susan. She has worked with the city for nearly a decade to set up a live Nativity as a part of Pataskala’s annual Mainstreet Christmas event,” reads the statement from the organization.
Conley said she had organized live nativity displays on private grounds in the city for about 16 years.
“It was very frustrating. I couldn’t understand really why the city would deny my request,” she said to WKEF-TV.
“For many in the community, celebrating the season means coming together to celebrate Jesus,” she continued.
Mayor Mike Compton admitted that he and other officials initially had concerns about religious expression on public grounds. “This was brand new, and we just said, ‘Hey, you know what? Staying with our normal policy, not mixing religion on city property, your permit is approved, but you cannot do the nativity. You will have to find another location,'” Compton said, according to WBNS-TV.
After Conley and FLI threatened a lawsuit, city officials reconsidered their decision.
“We are grateful that the city administration recognized that the Constitution protects Ms. Conley’s right to put up a nativity at the farmers’ market,” said First Liberty Institute senior counsel Nate Kellum.
“Pataskala cannot ban religious displays on public property just because they’re religious,” he added.
Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy released a statement on his social media siding with Conley.
“The city of Pataskala, Ohio recently denied a petition from local residents to set up a live nativity scene at a holiday-themed farmers market in December. This is blatantly unconstitutional,” he wrote.
“Denying permits for religious displays on public property because of their content is a First Amendment violation & has a chilling effect on all religious faiths. In recent years, Christianity has been unfairly targeted by secular political leaders; in the future, it could easily be other faiths too. But it’s always wrong, unconstitutional, and un-American,” he added.
“I stand ready to help local residents in my home state who stand up for their constitutional rights,” Ramaswamy concluded.
Ramaswamy later posted that he had discussed the issue with Mayor Compton and that it had been “resolved.”
“Thank you to the leaders of the great city of Pataskala for handling the matter promptly!” he wrote.
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Nancy Pelosi’s daughter announces run for blue state Senate seat
The daughter of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a campaign for a California state Senate seat after her mother said she would not seek re-election.
Christine Pelosi, 59, has worked as an attorney, an author, and the chair of the California Democratic Party’s Women’s Caucus, and she believes that experience qualifies her to become a state senator.
‘Fighting for consumer rights, women’s rights, gun violence survivors, immigrants, and our most vulnerable communities against the threat we face.’
“I’m running to represent you, San Francisco, in Sacramento,” Pelosi said in a video she posted to social media Monday. “Fighting for consumer rights, women’s rights, gun violence survivors, immigrants, and our most vulnerable communities against the threat we face.”
Her mother announced Thursday that she was not seeking re-election to the U.S. House after 38 years in the same office, where she was the first and only female speaker of the U.S. House in history.
“What do we do when our freedoms are under attack?” Christine Pelosi continued. “We speak up, we fight back, and we organize power for the people, and that’s what I want to do for you.”
She is currently on the executive committee of the Democratic National Committee and previously worked as a special counsel in the Clinton administration.
Some had speculated that the daughter might seek Nancy Pelosi’s office after she retired, but Christine Pelosi decided against it.
“I like the thought of forging my own path,” Christine Pelosi said in an interview.
RELATED: Video shows Nancy Pelosi exploding with fury at reporter over Jan. 6 claims: ‘SHUT UP!’
“I don’t think that there is a better representative or a better speaker in Washington, D.C., for San Francisco than Nancy Pelosi,” she continued. “And I wish everybody luck as they attempt to follow in those stilettos.”
Christine Pelosi is the second of five children of the former speaker.
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Biden FBI’s Arctic Frost surveillance of lawmakers could cost the government, thanks to ‘real teeth’ measure in funding bill
Republican lawmakers officially passed their funding bill to reopen the government on Monday night. In addition to getting the ball rolling on reopening the government, their bill sets the stage for possible retribution over the Biden FBI’s Arctic Frost operation.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) published damning documents last month regarding the Biden FBI’s Operation Arctic Frost, an investigation that ultimately morphed into former special counsel Jack Smith’s federal case against President Donald Trump regarding the 2020 election.
‘Arctic Frost was a grotesque abuse of power. It was Joe Biden’s Watergate.’
The documents revealed that the bureau not only subpoenaed records for over 400 Republican individuals and entities but secretly obtained the private phone records of numerous Republican lawmakers as part of what the Iowa senator called a “fishing expedition.”
According to the Grassley, those behind Arctic Frost “were spreading a wide net because they were looking for anything they could to hook on Trump, put Trump in prison, keep him from running for president, and things of that nature.”
The funding bill passed by the Senate this week contains a provision that would enable any senator whose phone records were “acquired, subpoenaed, searched, accessed or disclosed” without his or her knowledge to file a civil lawsuit against the government inside the next five years for at least $500,000 plus legal fees for each instance of a violation.
Senators would be able to take legal action if at the time their records were seized, they were a target of a criminal investigation; a federal judge issued an order authorizing a delay of notice to the senator in question; the government complied with the judge’s order; and the subpoena was faithfully executed.
RELATED: Republicans torch Obama judge over his role in Biden FBI’s ‘partisan vendetta,’ demand impeachment
Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images
The provision, which is retroactive to 2022, notes that “no officer, employee, or agent of the United States or of any Federal department or agency shall be entitled to assert any form of absolute or qualified immunity as a defense to liability” in relation to such violations.
“It’s designed to put real teeth into federal law that prohibits the executive branch from surveilling the Senate,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) — whose Senate office hard-line and cellphone records were reportedly targeted — told the Daily Caller. “Arctic Frost was a grotesque abuse of power. It was Joe Biden’s Watergate.”
“[It’s] a common-sense provision to ensure that no Department of Justice — Democrat or Republican — ever does that again,” added Cruz, who confirmed to Politico that Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) was “directly” responsible for the inclusion of the provision.
Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) told the Daily Caller the provision serves to protect against “a weaponization of government against members of the Senate” and stressed that “senators are going to take responsible action, and that’s what we’ve done here.”
Democrat lawmakers complained about the measure.
“I’m shocked that a huge change in policy would be dropped into a bill at the last minute, and the first that most senators learn about it is in the press,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) told the Caller. “This is one more way in which the bill that passed the Senate tonight is even worse for the American people.”
Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) similarly clutched pearls over the provision, telling Politico, “I am furious that the Senate minority and majority leaders chose to airdrop this provision into this bill at the eleventh hour — with zero consultation or negotiation with the subcommittee that actually oversees this work.”
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Half-naked woman ‘missing flesh’ and handcuffed in backyard was tortured for weeks, beaten with bat, shot with BB gun: Cops
Police found a half-naked woman handcuffed in a Texas backyard who had been tortured for a considerable period of time by five people she knew for years, authorities said.
The Austin Police Department said in a statement that officers conducted a welfare check just after 9 a.m. Oct. 30 after a report regarding a “woman in distress who appeared to be restrained and calling for help.”
The woman told investigators she ‘got in trouble’ the night before police found her because her pants fell down, according to the affidavit.
Police said they discovered a woman outside a home who was “handcuffed to a piece of exercise equipment.”
“The woman showed signs of physical distress and had visible injuries consistent with prolonged restraint,” the press release read. “The woman told officers she had been held at the residence for several months and was not allowed to leave.”
Police said they had to cut through the “heavy metal links” to release the woman who soon was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
Officers discovered three children inside the house who were “safely removed and placed in the care of Child Protective Services for safety and support.”
Police arrested five people from the residence and charged them with aggravated kidnapping, aggravated assault, injury to elderly or disabled, and unlawful restraint.
The suspects were identified as 51-year-old Michelle Garcia, 32-year-old Mache Carney, 30-year-old Juan Pablo Castro, 21-year-old Crystal Garcia, and 21-year-old Maynard Lefevers.
The Austin American-Statesman said it obtained the arrest affidavit, which indicated the woman told police she was friends with one of the females who lived in the house and visited often — but “one day they decided they didn’t like her anymore and no longer allowed her to leave.”
The suspects said they had known the woman for years, the affidavit stated.
Carney told police they started restraining the woman to stop her from stealing from neighbors, the affidavit said.
Several of the suspects claimed the woman suffers from mental health issues, according to the affidavit.
Crystal Garcia told investigators that the woman was only “50/50” capable of consent, the affidavit stated.
Citing the affidavit, KVUE-TV reported that the woman had been at the home since July and had been “handcuffed inside and outside the house for months.”
Castro — the husband of Carney — admitted to purchasing the handcuffs, according to the affidavit.
According to the affidavit, the woman told detectives a male and a female repeatedly shot her with a BB gun and that she was beaten with a baseball bat and fed only once a day.
Michelle Garcia told investigators they fed the woman one meal a day because she had gotten “chunky,” according to the arrest affidavit. However, police noted that the woman appeared malnourished when she was found.
Police said the woman told them she was punished if she tried to leave and had open wounds, cuts, swollen wrists, missing flesh from her hands and feet, extensive scarring all over her body from BB gunshots, and a battered face, the American-Statesman reported, citing the affidavit.
KVUE, citing law enforcement, reported that the woman had “hundreds of small BB scars across her body and a swollen shut right eye from a pellet injury.”
The affidavit said the suspects confessed to shooting the woman with BB guns. Castro told police he bought an electric rifle-style BB gun “to shoot her” because he didn’t want to touch the woman.
According to the arrest affidavit, Castro told authorities he would come home from work, grab the BB gun from his closet, and “chase her around the yard,” firing pellets.
“I [expletive] hate her,” Castro told investigators when asked why he shot the victim, the affidavit stated.
A 4-year-old child who lived at the home told a specialist during a forensic interview that Castro — his father — shot the woman when she was “bad,” according to the affidavit. The child said he could hear the woman outside screaming, according to the affidavit.
The woman told investigators she “got in trouble” the night before police found her because her pants fell down, according to the affidavit.
The American-Statesman said as “punishment,” a number of suspects “allegedly shot her repeatedly with a BB gun,” secured her in the backyard with handcuffs, then left her there “overnight without pants or food as temperatures dipped into the 40s.” The paper, citing police, added that the woman said she “begged and cried to be released, but was threatened with more and worse violence” if she kept pleading.
The investigation is ongoing, and those with information about the case are urged to contact the Austin Police Department’s Human Trafficking Unit at 512-974-4786 or submit an anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers at austincrimestoppers.org or 512-472-8477.
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Philippines ranked 7th most affected country by extreme weather in 2024
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‘Goldenberg: The Concert Series XX’: PCSO Vocal Ensemble celebrates Filipino folk music, heritage
“Goldenberg: The Concert Series XX” featuring the PCSO Vocal Ensemble celebrated Filipino folk music and heritage on November 7 at the historic Goldenberg Mansion in Manila.
Suicide bombing in Pakistan capital kills 12, raises regional tension
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A suicide bomber killed 12 people in Pakistan’s capital on Tuesday in a sharp escalation of militant violence that the defence minister said had pushed the country into a “state of war”.
Student arrested after disrupting Dave Portnoy’s pizza review with antisemitic rant caught on video: police
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