West Virginia senators voted to dismantle one of the nation’s strictest school vaccination policies Friday by greenlighting an exemption for families who say mandated inoculations conflict with their religious or philosophical beliefs. If approved by the House, the bill is expected to be signed into law by Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey, who has made allowing religious exemptions to vaccines a priority of his administration. (Willingham, AP News)
Read MoreJust 2.5% of the faculty members in the nation's 5,905 Catholic elementary and high schools are religious or clergy members, according to a 2024 report by the National Catholic Educational Association. Nuns make up just 1.5% of Catholic schools' faculty. More than 92% of Catholic school teachers are lay teachers (not nuns, priests, brothers or other clergy). (Trethan, USA Today)
Read MoreWhen the service began in this small weatherboard church in a remote part of West Virginia, the atmosphere was one of pious restraint. Now, it’s unbridled euphoria as each member of the church yields to their emotions in an attempt to reach spiritual transcendence. (Styllis, The Telegraph)
Read MoreLightcap pointed to the “natural progression” of ChatGPT as it becomes more useful and familiar to a broader group of people. “People hear about it through word of mouth. They see the utility of it. They see their friends using it.” (Rooney, CNBC)
Read MoreThe pilgrimage is believed to have originated in the 16th century — before the temple was built on the huge rock that gave the pilgrimage its name Peddagattu, or “large rock” in the local Telugu language. Devotees, who arrived from faraway places, cooked their sacrificed animals on open fires outside their tents on the grounds surrounding the temple. (Kumar & Bhatia, AP News)
Read MoreNewly released figures for 2024 show it's now 9.3%. The rise is largely driven by younger adults increasingly identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, with the higher numbers of people calling themselves bisexual. (Weise, USA Today)
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