When Pope John Paul II visited Damascus in May 2001, Bashar used his welcoming speech to denounce the Jews, saying, “They tried to kill the principles of all religions with the same mentality in which they betrayed Jesus Christ and the same way they tried to betray and kill the Prophet Muhammad.”   read more

The NFL, Apple and other behemoths have cajoled Republicans into rejecting or softening bills in recent years that supporters say protect people who oppose same-sex marriage on religious grounds. The pushback retreads ground from a 2014 Arizona clash. That state's legislature approved a bill allowing business owners with strongly held religious beliefs to deny service to gays and lesbians. American Airlines and Apple joined with business groups to oppose the measure.   read more

Tens of thousands of people didn't realize they had enrolled in a political party that opposes abortion rights and same sex marriage. The mistake could prevent people from casting votes in the June 7 presidential primary, considered California's most competitive in recent years. The AIP's roots date to 1967 when George Wallace, a segregationist, launched his second run for the White House. Wallace, who had run as a Democrat in 1964, helped create the party and ran on its ticket.   read more

University at Buffalo spokesman John DellaContrada says the mistaken email was sent Wednesday to students whose applications hadn't been fully reviewed. He says the university sent a second email about three to four hours later notifying the students of the gaffe and apologizing for it. The university posted a statement on its website saying the "miscommunication occurred when an incorrect email list was generated from an applicant database."   read more

A California school district refused to include scholarship offers from two atheist groups in the lists they distribute to students, the groups claim in court. Both say the district and Palmdale High refused to make their scholarship offers available to students. The high school does, however, announce a scholarship named after L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology. The refusal suppresses speech and denies equal access to the school's scholarship distribution system, said the complaint.   read more

The U.S., Russia and China are aggressively pursuing a new generation of smaller, less destructive nuclear weapons. The buildups threaten to revive a Cold War-era arms race and unsettle the balance of destructive force among nations that has kept the nuclear peace for more than a half-century. The concern is that the precision and less-destructive nature of these new weapons raises the temptation to use them. “We are witnessing the opening salvos of an arms race,” said analyst James Acton.   read more

With racial protests roiling U.S. cities, an unusual collection of Georgetown professors, students and alumni is trying to find out what happened to those 272 enslaved men, women and children. And they are confronting a particularly wrenching question: What, if anything, is owed to the descendants of slaves who were sold to help ensure the college’s survival? The 1838 slave sale organized by the Jesuits, who founded and ran Georgetown, stands out among others for its sheer size, historians say.   read more

Defending a Texas law banning the sale of sex toys, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz argued in a 2007 court brief that people have no legal right to use them, even in the privacy of their own bedrooms. But these days he makes no mention of that decade-old case he lost. Cruz defended the Texas ban as "protecting public morals — discouraging prurient interests in sexual gratification" and argued that in doing so the state had a vested moral interest in discouraging "autonomous sex."   read more

Manners matter to Americans. "He's a bully," says independent voter Kellie Zangrillo of Donald Trump. Trump not only may have set the tone in the campaign, she suggested, but his nasty words could have real consequences if uttered as president. "I think he'd get us into World War III." Eight in 10 people say remarks about race or gender and sexuality are unacceptable in public places, and that political leaders should be held to a higher standard of behavior than other people.   read more

Cathy and Melvin Duren appeared in court on Thursday to each face a misdemeanor charge of failure to return rental property. They lost a Dr. Seuss book their teenage son borrowed for their granddaughter in 2014. In December, the Durens received a letter informing them they could be charged with a crime. "I can't image going to jail over it, but I certainly will fight these charges because I'm not guilty," Cathy Duren said. The couple said they probably will never check out a library book again.   read more

Saudi Arabia has told the U.S. that it will sell off hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of American assets it holds if Congress passes a bill that would allow the Saudi government to be held responsible in U.S. courts for any role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The Obama administration has lobbied Congress to block the bill’s passage. “It’s stunning to think that our government would back the Saudis over its own citizens,” said Mindy Kleinberg, whose husband died in the 9/11 attacks.   read more

The authors analyzed the behavior of U.S. presidents during international conflicts from 1816 to 2010 that involved either the threat of force, a show of force, or the use of force. Their analysis shows that when militarized disputes occurred under Southern presidents, they were twice as likely to result in the use of force, lasted on average twice as long, and were three times as likely to result in an American victory.   read more

Robert Gates and Leon Panetta, both former secretaries of defense under Obama, criticized the NSC and the growth of its influence. Panetta said NSC advisors shade their views in order to please the president and "try to influence the direction of policy through the back door." "[This] undermines the very process that a president needs in order to get the best discussion and information possible to be able to make the right decision," Panetta said.   read more

Now the tables have turned--ChemRisk is trying to drop the lawsuit. But the writers are saying, not so fast, arguing that ChemRisk should not be allowed simply to withdraw its lawsuit. Instead, they say the company should pay their lawyers, who have represented them on a pro bono basis, and issue an apology for dragging them through years of litigation. “ChemRisk knows that Karen and Cherri will not be intimidated and will prevail if ChemRisk continues the action,” said one of their lawyers.   read more

Alexander Hamilton has achieved unlikely heights in the lights on Broadway more than 200 years after his untimely death. The first Treasury secretary, in the 18th century, Hamilton has become a 21st-century rap-musical phenomenon, with adults shelling out up to thousands of dollars a ticket and teenagers rapping Hamilton’s life story at the dinner table. Now the fed is leaning toward keeping Hamilton on the $10 note and relegating a vignette of female historical figures on the bill's back side.   read more

The report comes amid growing criticism of unaffordable drug prices from patients, doctors, insurers, Congress and presidential candidates, who have pledged to rein in drug prices. Drug spending keeps growing due to factors including rising prices, fewer blockbuster drugs getting new generic competition and a 10% jump last year in the number of prescriptions filled, to nearly 4.4 billion. Total drug spending rose by $24.3 billion last year.   read more

Presidential candidates like Trump and Sanders may vow to bring back millions of American jobs lost to foreign competitors. But a mere 9% say they only buy American. Asked about a real world example of choosing between $50 pants made in another country or an $85 pair made in the U.S., 67% say they'd buy the cheaper pair. Only 30% would pony up for the more expensive American-made one. People in higher earning households earning more than $100,000 a year would also go for the lower priced item.   read more