STAR – State Rep. Dan Flynn of Van wants to make sure that any Texas teacher who wants to display the Ten Commandments in his or her classroom may do so. That’s why he filed House Bill 307 that says school officials — particularly school board trustees — cannot prevent copies of those commandments from…

AP – Biometric screening is expanding to the rental car industry. Hertz said Tuesday it is teaming up with Clear, the maker of biometric screening kiosks found at many airports, in an effort to slash the time it takes to pick up a rental car. Clear hopes it will lead more travelers to its platform,…

CHRONICLE – A former minister at Houston’s First Baptist Church took more than $800,000 over a six-year period from the megachurch’s coffers, spending money on overseas trips for his family, for groceries and to pay for a doctorate degree in divinity from a Pennsylvania bible college, authorities said. Jerrell G. Altic, 40, a one-time missions…

FOX – One Missouri town planned to turn off the lights on a cross featured in a Christmas display in a park. The city of Ozark was contacted by the legal department of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. They were going to honor their request to take down the religious symbol. Then the story went…

KCRG – An Atheist holiday banner an eastern Iowa man made is heading to the State Capitol. It marks the first time in state history that two secular displays will stand together. The banner, which the American Atheist group designed, will go up on Dec. 12. It reads, “This season, no matter what you celebrate…

INDIAN EXPRESS – The database reviewed by The New York Times, a sample of information gathered in 2017 and held by one company, reveals people’s travels in startling detail, accurate to within a few yards and in some cases updated more than 14,000 times a day. The millions of dots on the map trace highways,…

FOLHA – Twelve women have come forward with allegations of sexual abuse against world-famous Brazilian medium and spiritual healer João de Deus (John of God). According to the victims, he abused them when they sought spiritual healing in the House of Dom Inácio de Loyola, in Abadiânia (GO), where thousands of people from all over…

SCMP – About 100 worshippers at an unofficial church in southwestern China were snatched from their homes or from the streets in coordinated raids which began on Sunday evening. Chinese authorities targeted members of the Early Rain Covenant Church across various districts of Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan, in what appeared to be an…

YAHOO – Some 3.9 billion people are now using the Internet, meaning that for the first time more than half of the global population is online, the United Nations said Friday. The UN agency for information and communication technologies, ITU, said that by the end of 2018 a full 51.2 percent of people around the…

CNS – It sounds like the stuff of eschatological literature, but the idea of companies forcibly implanting their employees with microchips is making waves in Britain – although the government says it doubts the practice would be legal. In recent years, companies marketing microchip implants have touted them as a convenient shortcut to many routine…