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Full Text of Readings [DAY TITLE] The Saint of the day is Mary, Mother of God The Story of Mary, Mother of God Mary's divine motherhood broadens the Christmas spotlight. Mary has an important role to play in the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. She consents to God's invitation conveyed by the angel (Luke 1:26-38). Elizabeth proclaims: “Most blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1:42-43, emphasis added). Mary's role as mother of God places her in a unique position in God's redemptive plan. Without naming Mary, Paul asserts that “God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law” (Galatians 4:4). Paul's further statement that “God sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out ‘Abba, Father!'” helps us realize that Mary is mother to all the brothers and sisters of Jesus. Some theologians also insist that her motherhood of Jesus is an important element in God's creative plan. God's “first” thought in creating was Jesus. Jesus, the incarnate Word, is the one who could give God perfect love and worship on behalf of all creation. As Jesus was “first” in God's mind, Our Lady was “second” insofar as she was chosen from all eternity to be his mother. The precise title “Mother of God” goes back at least to the third or fourth century. In the Greek form Theotokos (God-bearer), it became the touchstone of the Church's teaching about the Incarnation. The Council of Ephesus in 431 insisted that the holy Fathers were right in calling the holy virgin Theotokos. At the end of this particular session, crowds of people marched through the street shouting: “Praised be the Theotokos!” The tradition reaches to our own day. In its chapter on Mary's role in the Church, Vatican II's Dogmatic Constitution on the Church calls her “Mother of God” 12 times. To learn more, visit our Seven Days with Mary page. Reflection Other themes come together at today's celebration. It is the Octave of Christmas: Our remembrance of Mary's divine motherhood injects a further note of Christmas joy. It is a day of prayer for world peace: She is the mother of the Prince of Peace. It is the first day of a new year: Mary continues to bring new life to her children—who are also God's children.Saint of the Day, Copyright Franciscan Media
Thomas Mirus discusses Leo XIII's 1880 encyclical Arcanum, on Christian marriage. This was "the first formal and synoptic teaching on marriage since the Council of Trent" – a gap of four centuries. Arcanum is focused on what the Church has done to uplift and protect marriage throughout history. Leo argues at length that the state has no right to usurp the Church's governance of marriage. LINKS Thomas's article on Arcanum https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/leo-xiii-on-what-marriage-owes-to-church/ Pope Leo XIII, Arcanum https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_10021880_arcanum.html Audiobook of Pius XI's Casti Connubii https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/pope-pius-xi-casti-connubii-on-christian-marriage-full/ DONATE to make this show possible! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters
For almost two centuries, Ancient Athens—the most successful democracy in history—selected citizens by lottery to fill government positions. Athens adopted sortition—a random lottery system—to select most public officials and the members of the Council of 500, a reform pioneered in 508 BC to break aristocratic control and distribute power equally among ordinary citizens. Some say it worked much better than the Assembly of Athens. In 406 BC, the Assembly rashly voted to execute all six victorious generals following a victory over Sparta because a storm prevented them from recovering the bodies of those who were lost at sea during a terrible storm. The Council of 500 later intervened by carefully reviewing the case, exposing procedural illegalities, and helping restore calmer judgment that tempered the Assembly's impulsive decision. This governing system soon disappeared from the earth. The Council of 500 was disbanded in 322 BC when Macedonian forces crushed Athens’ democracy. Rome never adopted it because its republican system favored election of magistrates and a powerful Senate of lifelong aristocrats, viewing random selection as too chaotic and unfit for a large, conquest-driven state. Athens' ancient sortition has made a modern comeback in America through randomly selected jury trials for fair justice and in new "citizens' assemblies"—which have re-emerged from Oregon to France--where ordinary people are lottery-picked to deliberate and recommend policy. Today’s guest is Terry Bourcious, author of “Democracy Without Politicians.” He is a former politician from Vermont, and he argues we should return to the Athenian model, adapted for modern governance through "multi-body sortition," where randomly selected citizen bodies, with expert staff, would draft legislation, set agendas, review proposals, and make final decisions.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey begrudgingly slams down a Somali meal. Dana reacts to a viral video of a “doll mom” who is a grown woman who takes care of baby dolls like they are real kids. A Wisconsin woman has been fired from her Cinnabon job after a Somali couple repeatedly antagonized her, recorded her, and pushed her to the point where she finally snapped and dropped the “N” word. A Black man is acquitted of stabbing a white man by a Portland jury. Joe Biden spoke at an LGBTQ conference over the weekend and had a hard time pronouncing the United States of America.Actor Richard Gere trashes Trump and sympathizes with immigrants who are defrauding our welfare system. Did Ilhan Omar know about the $1B welfare fraud case in her Minnesota district? Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy encourages everyone to dress better at the airport and “try not to wear slippers and pajamas”. A biological man is crowned the 'World's Strongest Woman', spurring rightful Internet outrage.Pope Leo criticized Catholics who see Muslim immigration to Europe as a threat to Christian identity. Florida is designating the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as foreign terrorist organizations. Michelle Obama blames White people for forcing her to have to straighten her hair.Thank you for supporting our sponsors that make The Dana Show possible…Patriot Mobilehttps://PatriotMobile.com/Dana OR CALL 972-PATRIOTWhat are you waiting for? Switch today during the Red, White, and Blue sale. Use promo code DANA for a Samsung A16 5g smartphone. Sale ends soon.Relief Factorhttps://ReliefFactor.com OR CALL 1-800-4-RELIEFDon't let pain stop you from living the life you want with Relief Factor. Get their 3-week Relief Factor Quick Start for only $19.95 today! PreBornhttps://Preborn.com/DANAYou have the power to help save a life. Donate today by dialing #250 and say “Baby,” or give securely online. Make your end of year gift today.Subscribe today and stay in the loop on all things news with The Dana Show. Follow us here for more daily clips, updates, and commentary:YoutubeFacebookInstagramXMore Info
Send us a textWe explore why calling Mary Theotokos protects the truth of the Incarnation and how her yes leads us to the Eucharist. Scripture, the Council of Ephesus, Old Testament types, Cana, and the liturgical year form one clear path from Nazareth to the altar.• Mary as Theotokos grounded in Scripture• Council of Ephesus safeguarding Christ's unity• Old Testament types pointing to Mary and the Eucharist• Mary as Ark, Queen Mother, and living tabernacle• Cana as Eucharistic sign and model of obedience• Liturgical feasts that unite Marian devotion and Communion• Ecumenical insights and hope for Christian unity• Invitation to join our mission and grow Eucharistic faithBe sure to click the link in the description for special news itemAnd since there is more to this article, finish reading and check out the special offerVisit journeysoffaith.com website todayOpen by Steve Bailey Support the showJourneys of Faith brings your Super Saints Podcasts ***Our Core Beliefs*** The Eucharist is the Source and Summit of our Faith." Catechism 132 Click Here “This is the will of God, your sanctification.” 1Thessalonians 4“ Click Here ... lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven...” Matthew 6:19-2 Click Here The Goal is Heaven Click Here Please consider subscribing to this podcast or making a donation to Journeys of Faith we are actively increasing our reach and we are seeing good results for visitors under 40! Help us Grow! Why you should shop here at Journeys of Faith official site! Lowest Prices and Higher discounts up to 50% Free Shipping starts at $18 - Express Safe Checkout ...
The Council returns! This week Dom, Kathy , Raven , Bubbles and Ram are Joined by The Gameplan 2077. We give you our thoughts, theories and more on Season 2 Episode 2 of the Fallout series and laugh along the way. Grab a Nuka Cola, gather around the Radiation King and enjoy!Check out Bubbleonia streams here: / @bubbleoniarising Catch Ravenswift streams here: / @raven_swift Catch Ram here: / @ramethzer0gamingyt Find The GamePlan here: / @lastmangameplan You'll thank us later#fallout #amazonprime #spoilers #vaultboy #happynewyear
This is an audio recording of the opening panel - Ecosocialism not barbarism - at the Ecosocialism 2025 conference held in Naarm/Melbourne September 5-7, 2025. This panel featured: Sue Bolton (Sue Bolton is a veteran socialist activist, member of Socialist Alliance National Executive, and councillor on Merri-bek City Council), Ammar Ali Jan (Ammar Ali Jan, general secretary of the Haqooq-e-Khalq (Peoples Rights) Party and a member of the Council of Advisors of the Progressive International), Cyn Huang (Cyn Huang is member of the Bread & Roses caucus inside the Democratic Socialists of America). Recordings of Ecosocialism 2025 can be found here: https://www.greenleft.org.au/2026/1445/analysis/videos-and-podcasts-ecosocialism-2025-conference Ecosocialism 2026 will be held in Magan-djin/Brisbane September 11-13, 2026.
Full Text of Readings [DAY TITLE] The Saint of the day is Saint Sylvester I Saint Sylvester I's Story When you think of this pope, you think of the Edict of Milan, the emergence of the Church from the catacombs, the building of the great basilicas—Saint John Lateran, Saint Peter's, and others—the Council of Nicaea, and other critical events. But for the most part, these events were planned or brought about by Emperor Constantine. A great store of legends has grown up around the man who was pope at this most important time, but very little can be established historically. We know for sure that his papacy lasted from 314 until his death in 335. Reading between the lines of history, we are assured that only a very strong and wise man could have preserved the essential independence of the Church in the face of the overpowering figure of the Emperor Constantine. In general, the bishops remained loyal to the Holy See, and at times expressed apologies to Sylvester I for undertaking important ecclesiastical projects at the urging of Constantine. Reflection It takes deep humility and courage in the face of criticism for a leader to stand aside and let events take their course, when asserting one's authority would only lead to useless tension and strife. Sylvester I teaches a valuable lesson for Church leaders, politicians, parents, and others in authority.Saint of the Day, Copyright Franciscan Media
The Council of the Moon attempts to catch up of business in Aboulant before a mysterious figure from Vlad's past appears.
Do you know what's really starts to rub me the wrong way? It's governments telling us to do more things. This morning, we've got the government coming out with yet another hotline. Sounds fancy. Sounds efficient. It's a hotline to report road cones. A road cone tipline. Sorry, but if the problem is that there are too many road cones on the road, and they're unnecessary for the work being carried out —which half of them appear to be— then why do you need us to tell you that? Surely if we just had better, clearer rules and less bullshit, we wouldn't need a road cone tipline. A pothole tipline. A 105 theft tipline. A beneficiary tipline. Either you know what you're doing and you've got smart people and smart systems, or you don't. And every time I hear of another tipline I realise, they have no idea. Tiplines are the equivalent of a safety calming measure. Those weird speed bumps or narrowing roads, designed to make people feel better when driving around. All they really do is piss people off and reveal how rubbish your road designs are to begin with. Just think about this: There's a bunch of road cones in a dumb place on a busy road. WorkSafe and NZTA and Council people drive past this busy spot every day. Barbara in her little Honda Civic, she drives past. She calls it in. Barry in his truck and trailer. He calls it in. Sally picks the kids up at 3pm from school every day. They all ring the tipline. They all report the same thing. It will then be somebody's job to sort through the tips. Somebody else will triage the tips. That's two jobs. In three weeks, Barry, Sally, and Barb get a letter. Because the post only runs two days a week. The letter says we're looking into the issue for you. Meanwhile, 100 government or council people have walked or driven past the road cone Armageddon and nothing's changed. Tiplines are plasters over grenades. The only time I want to ring a tipline is speak to the actual dump. In its first 156 days in office, the National-led government has set up 37 reviews, inquiries or advisory panels – some of which are being led by former ministers, including Bill English, Steven Joyce, Murray McCully and Roger Sowry.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
All of the TIR clan come together to have a serious talk that will be led by master Varn.. Check out our new bi-weekly series, "The Crisis Papers" here: https://www.patreon.com/bitterlakepresents/shop Thank you guys again for taking the time to check this out. We appreciate each and everyone of you. If you have the means, and you feel so inclined, BECOME A PATRON! We're creating patron only programing, you'll get bonus content from many of the episodes, and you get MERCH! Become a patron now https://www.patreon.com/join/BitterLakePresents? Please also like, subscribe, and follow us on these platforms as well, (specially YouTube!) THANKS Y'ALL YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG9WtLyoP9QU8sxuIfxk3eg Twitch: www.twitch.tv/thisisrevolutionpodcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Thisisrevolutionpodcast/ Twitter: @TIRShowOakland Instagram: @thisisrevolutionoakland Read Jason Myles in Sublation Magazine https://www.sublationmag.com/writers/jason-myles Read Jason Myles in Damage Magazine https://damagemag.com/2023/11/07/the-man-who-sold-the-world/
Frank Yiannas, M.P.H. is a renowned food safety leader and executive, food system futurist, author, professor, past president of the International Association of Food Protection (IAFP), and advocate for consumers. Most recently, he served under two different administrations as the Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy and Response at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a position he held from 2018–2023, after spending 30 years in leadership roles with Walmart and the Walt Disney Company. After retiring from FDA, Mr. Yiannas founded Smarter FY Solutions to help organizations address critical food safety and supply chain challenges. He also advises several well-known companies, offering consultancy services to modernize compliance strategies and ensure that clients meet regulatory requirements and industry standards. Throughout his career, Mr. Yiannas has been recognized for his role in strengthening food safety standards in new and innovative ways, as well as building effective food safety management systems based on modern, science-based, and tech-enabled prevention principles. Drew McDonald is the Senior Vice President of Quality and Food Safety at Taylor Fresh Foods in Salinas, California, where he oversees the quality and food safety programs across the foodservice, retail, and deli operations under both FDA and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) jurisdictions. Mr. McDonald works with an impressive team developing and managing appropriate and practical quality and food safety programs for fresh food and produce products. He has more than 30 years of experience in fresh produce and fresh foods. Over the course of his career, Mr. McDonald has worked with growers and processors of fresh food and produce items across the globe. He currently serves on numerous food safety-related technical committees and has participated in the authorship of many produce safety articles and guidelines. He serves on the Food Safety Summit Educational Advisory Board and is a former chair of the Center for Produce Food Safety's Technical Committee and United Fresh's Technical Council. Mr. McDonald received his education from Lawrence University in Wisconsin. John Besser, Ph.D. worked for ten years as Deputy Chief of the Enteric Diseases Laboratory Branch at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where he was involved in national and global programs to detect, characterize, and track gastrointestinal diseases. Prior to CDC, Dr. Besser led the infectious disease laboratory at the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) for 19 years and served as a clinical microbiologist at the University of Minnesota Hospital for five years. He currently works as an independent contractor and consultant. Dr. Besser is the author or co-author of more than 70 publications. He received his Ph.D. and M.S. degree from the University of Minnesota. Craig Hedberg, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Division of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Minnesota and Co-Director of the Minnesota Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence. He promotes public health surveillance as a prerequisite for effective food control, and his work focuses on improving methods for collaboration among public health and regulatory agencies, academic researchers, and industry to improve foodborne illness surveillance and outbreak investigations. With a background in public health practice, Dr. Hedberg also focuses on public health workforce development and works with state, local, and tribal public health partners to build capacity for preparedness and emergency response. He is a member of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, the Minnesota Environmental Health Association, and IAFP. Dr. Hedberg holds a Ph.D. in Epidemiology and an M.S. degree in Environmental Health, both from the University of Minnesota. In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak with Mr. Yiannas, Mr. McDonald, Dr. Besser, and Dr. Hedberg [6:43] about: The increasing rate of food recalls issued by federal regulatory agencies, and what that might imply about the current systems for outbreak investigation and disease surveillance How federal and state public health agencies conduct foodborne illness outbreak investigations and the current success rates of these investigations Elements of the foodborne illness outbreak investigation process that are working well Potential areas for improvement for foodborne illness outbreak investigations and the metrics for "success" An idea for a National Foodborne Outbreak Investigation Board, similar to the model used for airlines with the National Transportation Safety Board, and how such a system might help improve food safety in the U.S. Sponsored by: Michigan State University Online Food Safety Program We Want to Hear from You! Please send us your questions and suggestions to podcast@food-safety.com
As Heidi Hammond prepares to take her seat as Grantsville mayor, she also prepares to leave her seat on the city council, leaving a space for prospective councilors. Now, the city of Grantsville is calling upon its citizens to take up the mantle of local politics. Greg and Holly discuss how people can get involved, as well as today's fun facts!
Justin Hibbard continues our series on the 21 Ecumenical by examining the history between the Councils of Vienne and Constance. Why did the papacy move from Rome to Avignon? Who were the seven French Popes that make up the Avignon Papacy? And how did the return of the papacy to Rome lead to the Great Western Schism where three men claimed to be the rightful Pope? SOCIAL LINKS* Follow Why Catholic on Instagram.* Subscribe to Why Catholic on YouTube.* Follow Justin on Facebook.SOURCES:* The Ecumenical Councils of the Catholic Church: A History by Joseph Kelly* Nine Popes in Avignon* Catholic Answers: Was Avignon the Babylon of the West* Video: General Councils 11: The Council of Constance - Fr Timothy Matkin - St Francis Dallas* Unam Santam - Pope Boniface VIII* Video: The Palace of the Popes in AvignonPREVIOUS EPISODES IN THIS SERIES* Episode 146: Introduction to the 21 Ecumenical Councils* Episode 147: The World that Led to the Council of Nicaea* Episode 148: The First Council of Nicaea (325)* Episode 149: From Nicaea to Constantinople* Episode 150: The First Council of Constantinople (381)* Episode 151: The Council of Ephesus (431)* Episode 152: The Council of Chalcedon (451)* Episode 153: The Second Council of Constantinople (553)* Episode 154: War Among the Monotheists* Episode 155: The Third Council of Constantinople (680-681)* Episode 156: The Second Council of Nicaea (787)* Episode 157: Reflections on the First Seven Ecumenical Councils* Episode 158: The Fourth Council of Constantinople (869-870)* Episode 159: The Great Schism* Episode 160: The First Lateran Council (1123)* Episode 161: The Second Lateran Council (1139)* Episode 162: The Third Lateran Council (1179)* Episode 163: The Fourth Lateran Council (1215)* Episode 164: The First Council of Lyon (1245)* Episode 165: The Second Council of Lyon (1274)* Episode 166: The Council of Vienne (1311-1312) Get full access to Why Catholic? at whycatholic.substack.com/subscribe
Clare County Council has restored almost 100 bikes to their former glory for community use. Following a campaign for donations in October, the local authority received 91 bicycles from the public that were in various states of disrepair. The bikes were then refurbished, before being distributed to adults and children that needed them for work or education purposes. Clare County Council Waste Enforcement Executive Engineer Maria Carey says the campaign was a huge success.
Mac Kiel is back in studio to preview committee and council week in La Crosse. The holidays pack all the big meetings into one week, highlighted by discussions on deregulating little free food pantries, asking for new proposals for a downtown bike lane and parking plan, and tackling homelessness as the community marks the two-year anniversary of Pathways Home. Kiel talks about her experience working with the homeless, as both La Crosse’s city council and county board — and the community — can attend a Pathways Home update at 6 p.m. Monday in the County Administrative Center. Before that, we discuss how both committees will meet next Tuesday, with Judiciary and Administration starting at 4 p.m. and Finance and Personnel following at 6 p.m., before the full city council will take those recommendations to its 6 p.m. Thursday meeting. We also talked about how the major zoning code overhaul affects the area, including the La Crosse River Marsh seeking a 500-foot “buffer zone,” plus a proposal to end council invocations, which Kiel explains. The biggest topic, however, was the little free food pantries and the "Community Fridge" idea — allowing refrigerators as part of that plan. We end the show with a quick talk on the council asking the Wisconsin DOT to develop alternative plans for 3rd and 4th streets downtown, which could include protected bike lanes or bigger sidewalks. We note that the DOT has held 19 public meetings since 2024 on the Downtown Corridor Study and presented proposals to the council, which were apparently not good enough. The council postponed voting on those proposals for 90 days, ending next month.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sara Eisen, and David Faber began the hour with a look at the precious metals rally - and why it's tied to the debasement trade - before discussing the broader market outlook with Trivariate's Adam Parker. Plus: is it time to go from hardware to software? Hear one veteran tech investor's take on why 2026 will see "mindblowing" advancements in the latter sector - and what it means for stocks... and former DOJ antitrust watchdog Jonathan Kanter's opinion on whether Nvidia's GROQ deal is a new way for companies to avoid scrutiny from regulators. Also in focus: a high stakes meeting today between the President and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - the team discussed the latest and what's at stake with former Council on Foreign Relations head Richard Haass. Squawk on the Street Disclaimer Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
December 29 is upon us and this is perhaps the final sonic edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement for the year. This certainly is the antepenultimate day of 2025, a year in which there is still much to say in the coming week or so before 2026 begins to find its identity. In any case, today there are four editions of stories that have already gone out in newsletter form but are now assembled with soundbites, actualities, and the occasional double-breath.I'm Sean Tubbs, and I'm glad for those who take a listen.In this edition:* Charlottesville City Council briefed on potential new areas of spending on housing (read the story)* Charlottesville City Council agrees to sell cul-de-sac to Jefferson Scholars Foundation (read the story)* Albemarle Supervisors get a briefed on the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, also known as the annual audit (read the story)* Charlottesville's Annual Comprehensive Financial Report to be published by December 31 (read the story)Charlottesville Community Engagement is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Today's shout-out: Town Crier ProductionsWhen I was a kid decades ago, I dreamed of creating my own newspaper or having my own radio show. I lived on a cul-de-sac in a neighborhood in a community that was not the most exciting, but my imagination put me on the pathway to now when I've somehow managed to cobble together a newsletter with over 4,600 subscribers.This week I'm trying to clear out the backlog from 2025 which includes at least a couple of newsletters of regular content before there will be a series of editions that look back on the specifics of the year.My upbringing as a first generation American fueled me with a passion to understand a country so different from where my parents had grown up. For an entire career now I've been powered by a desire to know what's going on, and to share what I know with people who also are curious, thoughtful, and independent.What I am not is a business person, and the growth of Town Crier Productions has been slow and steady because my focus is on putting forward as much information as possible while pointing people to the places where they can contribute should they want to do so. Here are some current options:* Take out a paid subscription to Substack with the yearly option being the most beneficial* Consider a Patreon contribution to support more than just this newsletter* Send a check to Town Crier Productions, PO Box 1754, Charlottesville, VA 22902* Consider becoming an experimental sponsor of both this newsletter and Information Charlottesville.I'm still dreaming of what this could all be, knowing I've got a lot of growth to do in terms of being a business person. I believe there is value in what I do each and every day, and I am able to pay my bills because there are enough of you who agree.If you're not sure, please keep reading and listening to the content. Share with friends. Share links to social media. Leave a comment!The goal of this work is intended to advance conversation about complex topics in a country experiencing a lot of soul-searching as the 21st century steam-rolls on. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe
January is School Board Appreciation Month! We'd like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank our seven elected School Board members for their voluntary service to the District and to the greater Hillsboro community: Chair Ivette Pantoja, Vice Chair See Eun Kim, and Directors Yessica Hardin Mercado, Patrick Maguire, Katie Rhyne, Nancy Thomas, and Mark Watson. We would also like to recognize and thank our three student representatives to the Board: Nicole Ayala Congachi from Glencoe, Jocelyn Trejo-Reyes from Hilhi, and Hazel Cleveland from Oak Street Campus. Board members put in countless hours overseeing and providing community voice to District operations, as well as advocating for the resources and opportunities students need to be successful. For all you do, School Board members, we thank you!Our feature this week is holiday heroes! The holiday season brought us many heroes of the giving sort, here are just a few of them. Our local Hillsboro Elks Lodge was back and bigger than ever with their holiday program for families in need. Thanks to a tremendous response from the community with donations of food, toys, clothing, and money, as well as their own impressive cadre of volunteers - including Century High School's student council! - the Elks were able to support over 740 families representing more than 2100 children on Saturday, December 19. Across town, Glencoe High School's Annual Holiday Toy Shoppe was open for business, allowing families to select gifts for children, receive boxes of food, and even take home a Christmas tree if they needed one! More than 150 families were served by that effort. And just before the break, Home Depot delivered four full-size refrigerators to the food pantries at Rosedale, Tobias, Witch Hazel, and South Meadows! That donation was coordinated by the Hillsboro Schools Foundation. Our deepest thanks go out to you and other individuals and organizations whose generosity helped make the holidays a little brighter for others. You make us Proud to be HSD!HSD is very grateful to the Hillsboro City Council for providing $80,000 to support students experiencing housing instability and those accessing online education. The fund disbursement was approved during a special work session of the Council on Monday, November 24, 2025.Hot News is produced and emailed to HSD families and staff each week school is in session. Please add the address to your “safe sender” list to make sure you always receive the latest issue. Please also bookmark our district website: hsd.k12.or.us to stay informed about what's happening in our district and schools.
January is School Board Appreciation Month! We'd like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank our seven elected School Board members for their voluntary service to the District and to the greater Hillsboro community: Chair Ivette Pantoja, Vice Chair See Eun Kim, and Directors Yessica Hardin Mercado, Patrick Maguire, Katie Rhyne, Nancy Thomas, and Mark Watson. We would also like to recognize and thank our three student representatives to the Board: Nicole Ayala Congachi from Glencoe, Jocelyn Trejo-Reyes from Hilhi, and Hazel Cleveland from Oak Street Campus. Board members put in countless hours overseeing and providing community voice to District operations, as well as advocating for the resources and opportunities students need to be successful. For all you do, School Board members, we thank you!Our feature this week is holiday heroes! The holiday season brought us many heroes of the giving sort, here are just a few of them. Our local Hillsboro Elks Lodge was back and bigger than ever with their holiday program for families in need. Thanks to a tremendous response from the community with donations of food, toys, clothing, and money, as well as their own impressive cadre of volunteers - including Century High School's student council! - the Elks were able to support over 740 families representing more than 2100 children on Saturday, December 19. Across town, Glencoe High School's Annual Holiday Toy Shoppe was open for business, allowing families to select gifts for children, receive boxes of food, and even take home a Christmas tree if they needed one! More than 150 families were served by that effort. And just before the break, Home Depot delivered four full-size refrigerators to the food pantries at Rosedale, Tobias, Witch Hazel, and South Meadows! That donation was coordinated by the Hillsboro Schools Foundation. Our deepest thanks go out to you and other individuals and organizations whose generosity helped make the holidays a little brighter for others. You make us Proud to be HSD!HSD is very grateful to the Hillsboro City Council for providing $80,000 to support students experiencing housing instability and those accessing online education. The fund disbursement was approved during a special work session of the Council on Monday, November 24, 2025.Hot News is produced and emailed to HSD families and staff each week school is in session. Please add the address to your “safe sender” list to make sure you always receive the latest issue. Please also bookmark our district website: hsd.k12.or.us to stay informed about what's happening in our district and schools.
In this episode, we're diving deep into how your spirit guides are actually assigned to you, and it's completely in alignment with your Divine Plan. Your spirit guides aren't just floating in and out of your life, they're here with a sacred purpose. Some have been with you for lifetimes. Others arrive during soul activations, spiritual initiations, or major life shifts. And yes… you chose many of them in collaboration with your higher self and Council of Light before you incarnated. In this session, I'll walk you through how spirit guides are selected based on your soul blueprint, purpose, and karmic lessons. We explore primary guides, phase-based guides, ancestral support, and even “divine plan adjusters” who step in when life takes a detour (or quantum leap!). What We Cover Understand how spirit guides are assigned pre-birth in collaboration with your Council of Light to support your soul mission and karmic lessons. Learn the difference between primary guides (who stay with you for life) and phase-based guides who appear during key soul shifts and activations. Discover why your soul chooses your personality, path, and gifts, before incarnation, and how your guides are matched accordingly. Explore the roles of ancestral guides, angelic beings, cosmic support, and divine deities like Isis or Lakshmi in your spiritual team. Find out what happens when you deviate from your soul path, and how “divine plan adjuster” guides intervene to realign you. Get clear on the impact of free will on your soul plan and why asking for divine interference can quantum leap you back into alignment. Learn how to consciously choose and call in guides to support your next level of expansion, healing, or service. ✨ Whether you've felt disconnected from your spiritual team or you're ready to deepen your relationship with them, this episode will help you understand how supported you truly are, and how to consciously call in more guidance, love, and alignment.
WE JUST HIT 300,000 SUBSCRIBERS!So we're celebrating with our BIGGEST GIVEAWAY EVER.To honour this milestone, we're giving back the only way that feels right — from our heart to yours:Over $5,000+ in gifts:
Host Piya Chattopadhyay speaks with The New York Times' Stephanie Nolen, Council on Foreign Relations fellow Ebenezer Obadare and international affairs expert Suparna Chaudhry about the consequences of recent cuts to foreign aidWe revisit our conversation with the late conservation icon Jane Goodall about keeping hope for our planet aliveChef and cookbook author Samin Nosrat shares how grief reframed her relationship with food
This week's Open Mic guest is Jim Sutter, CEO of the U.S. Soybean Export Council. Prices and trade policy have challenged U.S. soybean exports, especially as large volumes of Brazilian soybeans have displaced traditional sales to China. Having met with Chinese industry and government officials, Sutter says the Chinese want a better trade relationship with the U.S. but he is also focused on market diversification. He believes the higher quality of U.S. soy and sustainable production practices should lead to a rebound in global sales.
In this episode, we turn to the Council of Chalcedon (AD 451) and its four defining boundaries that shaped how the church speaks about Christ. Rather than explaining the mystery away, Chalcedon draws firm lines—protecting the truth that Jesus is fully God and fully man, one person, without confusion or division.
Beloved, As Christmas comes and goes, the world softens for a moment. The pace eases, the noise quietens, and something deeper becomes easier to hear.This season carries a powerful essential nature quality: returning to the foundation.Before goals. Before vision boards. Before the next becoming.Remember that at your core, there is an original design, steady, wise, and intact. Christmas offers a natural pause to reconnect with that inner architecture. The part of you that already knows who you are, how you function best, and what truly matters.So rather than pushing forward, this years' season is an invitation to come home. Home to your body. Home to your heart. Home to the intelligence that lives beneath effort and striving.From a divine nature and divine feminine perspective, alignment always begins here, in rest, resonance, and remembrance.As this year completes its cycle, my suggestion to you is to allow yourself to receive:• integration instead of urgency• clarity instead of pressure• nourishment instead of effortWhatever unfolded this year has shaped your field, refined your awareness, and strengthened your inner structure. Nothing has been wasted. Everything has informed your true essence.The Great Mother and Father that birthed your existence into form.As we know it takes two to make a baby, without that balance the offspring might be imbalanced. My wish for you is simple. May your foundation feel steady. May your hearts feel held and may your inner compass feel clear.RETURNING TO MOTHER | COMFORT & PEACE | FOR ALLI leave you with a remembrance of what was removed a long time ago in the name of power and control. The Holy Spirit is proven to be “female.” Make Gods in OUR image - was the foundation of the trinity of Elohim, Eshera and Yeshua. Mother, Father and Son/Daughter.The divine feminine - which is rising and bringing care, love and healing into our consciousness.The connection between Sophia theology and women's teaching authority is inseparable.Karen King, a professor of church history at Harvard Divinity School, suggests that the Nag Hammadi texts are not an aberration, but a window into a Christianity that flourished for the first two centuries.In this world, Sophia was a central theological concept, and women held significant positions of teaching authority.This was not a marginal movement; it thrived in major centers of thought like Alexandria, Rome, and Gaul.The texts preserve fierce debates, such as the Second Treatise of the Great Seth, which records a Christ figure ridiculing bishops who claim authority without knowing the truth.The Testimony of Truth directly attacks the institutional church, claiming its leaders possess the name of a dead man but lack the actual spirit of truth.These were not the writings of defeated heretics hiding in caves, but the arguments of sophisticated theologians claiming the institutional church had abandoned Christ in favor of political power.The historical pattern is clear: Sophia theology flourished wherever Christians had intellectual freedom and collapsed wherever bishops allied with imperial power.By the late 4th century, major centers of this tradition had been suppressed, and the texts survived only because monks buried them before the purges arrived.The Nag Hammadi discovery proved that an entire branch of Christianity was erased, not because it lost the theological argument, but because it lost a political war.The removal of Sophia was a metaphysical amputation that severed humanity from half of the divine image.For the first two centuries, women could look toward the heavens and see themselves reflected in Sophia, who was wisdom incarnate, present at creation, and a teacher of humanity.Her existence meant that femininity was ontologically divine, allowing women in these communities to teach, prophesy, and perform sacraments with divine authority.After the Council of Nicaea and the destruction of these texts, the reflection of the feminine divine disappeared.The Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—became conceptually MASCULINE, and the only remaining feminine figure was Mary, defined by her obedience and receptivity.If the divine image is exclusively masculine, then maleness is seen as godly, while women become derivative reflections or corrupted vessels.In the late 4th century, Augustine of Hippo codified this into doctrine, arguing that a woman is not the image of God by herself, but only when joined to a man.This theology shaped law, culture, and family structure, suggesting that female subordination was not social convention but a cosmic order.The slide toward devaluation reached a point where the Council of Macon in 585 CE debated whether women even possessed souls.Medieval theology continued this descent, with Thomas Aquinas characterizing women as “misbegotten males” and defective versions of the masculine ideal.These were not fringe ideas; they were the foundational doctrines of the intellectual authorities defining the Western Church for centuries.The practical consequences were catastrophic, as women were excluded from universities and prohibited from reading scripture in the vernacular.The witch trials of the early modern period eventually criminalized women's traditional knowledge of healing and midwifery, labeling it as a demonic theft of male authority.Beyond gender, the erasure of Sophia reshaped the human relationship with curiosity and wisdom.In the Sophia narratives, her defining characteristic is a desire to know and understand the depths of divine mystery.Though her desire led to error, that error was seen as correctable through knowledge, suggesting that seeking wisdom is better than blind obedience.In the post-Nicene narrative, however, Sophia's desire became the template for forbidden knowledge, and curiosity was reframed as the sin of pride.Independent thought became a rebellion, and education was placed under strict ecclesiastical control.The medieval church's multiple bans on the works of Aristotle and the trials of figures like Galileo were symptoms of this theological monopoly on truth.Even the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, which emerged as rebellions against this monopoly, largely excluded women from the new universities.The intellectual flowering of Europe happened in a world where half of humanity was still theologically barred from the pursuit of wisdom.Ultimately, Sophia represented a conviction that Western Spirituality desperately lacked: the belief that the pursuit of truth is a holy act of desire, not a sinful act of rebellion.IN CLOSING Thank you for walking this conscious path with me, for your trust, your openness, and your willingness to live in alignment with who you truly are.I look forward to guiding you into the next chapter, rooted, resourced, and ready.Love, KassandraThe Light Between is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thelightbetween.substack.com/subscribe
FOCOLARE WORD OF LIFE January 2026 “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling.” (Eph 4:4)During the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity,[1] we are invited to focus our attention on a particular theme found in Paul's letter to the Ephesians. In what is called to be his “prison letters,” he urges his readers to give credible witness to their faith by being united with one another. Their unity is based on having one faith, one spirit and one hope, and only with this unity can they bear witness to Christ as “a body.” “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling.”Paul calls us to hope. What is hope and why are we invited to live it? It is a seed, a gift, and a task that we have the duty to protect, cultivate, and bring to fruition for the good of all. “Christian hope assigns us to that very narrow ridge, that frontier where our vocation requires us to choose, every day and every hour, to be faithful to God's faithfulness to us.”[2] The Christian vocation is not only a relationship between the individual and God. A Christian is called to love everyone who is a neighbor in the present moment. Christ prayed in the garden just before he was crucified, “I pray for them…so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me…” (Jn 17:21) In Chiara Lubich's talks and writings, we often find explicit references to unity, the primary aspect of her spirituality. Unity is the fruit of the presence of Jesus among us - and his presence is a source of profound happiness. “If unity is so important for Christians, then it follows that nothing is more opposed to our vocation than failing to live unity. We sin against unity every time we yield to the temptation, which continually resurfaces, to be individualistic, to do things on our own, or to be guided only by our own judgment, personal interests, or desire for esteem. We sin against unity when we ignore or even disregard others and their needs and rights.”[3] “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling.” In Guatemala, there is a very active dialogue among members of different Christian Churches. Ramiro writes: “We prepared the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity with a group of people from various Churches. The program included an arts festival organized together with the youth, as well as several celebrations held in different churches. The Catholic Bishops' Conference asked our group to continue working together to plan a moment of sharing during a meeting of Catholic bishops and leaders of different Churches, who were coming to Guatemala from many other countries to celebrate the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. Through these activities, we experienced a very strong unity among all of us and the fruits that it brings: fraternity, joy and peace." The more united Christians become, the greater the possibility for all humanity to fulfill, in a more complete way, the prayer for unity that Christ prayed in the garden. Prepared by Patrizia Mazzola and the Word of Life team[1] The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity takes place throughout the northern hemisphere from January 18 to 25 and in the southern hemisphere during the week after Pentecost. This year's prayer texts were prepared by an ecumenical group coordinated by the Armenian Apostolic Church.[2] Madeleine Delbrêl, French Catholic author, poet, and mystic, considered by many to be one of the most significant spiritual figures of the 20th century.[3] Chiara Lubich, Founder of the Focolare Movement, Commentary to the Word of Life of July 1985.
In this interview I am joined by Dr Thomas Clough Daffern, philosopher, educator, peace activist, and peace officer for the Council of British Druid Orders. Dr Daffern explains the meaning of Christmas and the Winter Solstice, reflects on cyclic time and indigenous wisdom, and shares his own recent reckonings with death and loss. Dr Daffern reveals the esoteric and mythic symbolism of the Christmas tree, mistletoe, gift giving, and even Father Christmas himself. Dr Daffern also shares his thoughts on the current world situation, why he is an optimist about the future of civilisation, and why he believes it is the moral duty of those with knowledge and power to share it with the world. … Video version: https://www.guruviking.com/podcast/ep339-christmas-the-winter-solstice-dr-thomas-clough-daffern Also available on Youtube, iTunes, & Spotify – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast'. … Topics Include: 00:00 - Intro 00:50 - How Thomas spends this time of year 03:02 - The worst year of Thomas' life 04:19 - Death of Thomas' daughter 07:30 - Reckoning with death 10:14 - What the traditions say about the current world situation 12:14 - Druids and cyclical time 12:52 - Increasing wisdom in the world 13:18 - Sophia-phobia 15:11 - Why Thomas is an optimist about the future 18:07 - The meaning of Winter Solstice 18:12 - Christmas and Mithraism 19:34 - Megalithic civilisations and prehistorical religion 25:39 - The Golden Bough and indigenous European wisdom 26:54 - Death and rebirth 29:21 - Rituals and symbols of Christmas 31:23 - Symbolism of the Christmas tree 33:34 - The meaning of “Christmas” 34:31 - Symbolism of mistletoe 35:40 - Symbolism of present giving 36:37 - Thomas comments on peace in the Middle East 37:59 - Is symbolism and the esoteric only for an elite minority? 41:29 - The aristocratic hippy and sharing wisdom 42:37 - The moral duty to share knowledge and power 44:52 - Symbolism of Father Christmas / Santa Claus 46:15 - Concluding thoughts … Previous episodes with Dr Thomas Clough Daffern: - https://www.guruviking.com/search?q=daffern … To find our more about Dr Thomas Clough Daffern, visit: - https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-clough-daffern-phd-6a3463a - https://interfaithpeacetreaty.wordpress.com/ … For more interviews, videos, and more visit: - www.guruviking.com Music ‘Deva Dasi' by Steve James
Headlines from the week of December 24, 2025 - Two families to steward Orcas hotel into next chapter - Two bodies found in San Juan County waters - 250 pieces of stolen mail to be returned - Council passes budget but prepares for ongoing financial discussions - plus excerpts from the Sheriff's Log
How did the Catholic Church respond when Luther's hammer struck the church door? In this Christmas Day finale, Dr. Alan Strange and Jared Luttjeboer explore the other side of the Reformation story: Rome's counter-offensive. From the rise of the Jesuits as the Pope's "shock troops" to the monumental Council of Trent that would define Catholic theology for years to come, you'll learn how the Catholic Church navigated one of its greatest crises. Was it genuine reform or strategic resistance? The answer might surprise you. This episode also traces the surprising connections between 16th-century debates and the Catholic Church of today, and reveals why these centuries-old decisions continue to have relevance in modern Christianity.
How did the Catholic Church respond when Luther's hammer struck the church door? In this Christmas Day finale, Dr. Alan Strange and Jared Luttjeboer explore the other side of the Reformation story: Rome's counter-offensive. From the rise of the Jesuits as the Pope's "shock troops" to the monumental Council of Trent that would define Catholic theology for years to come, you'll learn how the Catholic Church navigated one of its greatest crises. Was it genuine reform or strategic resistance? The answer might surprise you. This episode also traces the surprising connections between 16th-century debates and the Catholic Church of today, and reveals why these centuries-old decisions continue to have relevance in modern Christianity.
Today, we're discussing what Christians confess about God the Son through the Nicene Creed—who he is, what he's done, and what he's doing right now for our salvation. In this episode, we ask and answer questions like:What is the nature of God the Son?What is the importance of different aspects of Christ's work from incarnation to salvation to Ascension to 2nd coming What happens if we miss each one of those elements?We also talk about the famous myth of St Nick slapping Arius at the Council of Nicaea. Connect With Us providenceomaha.org | Instagram | Facebook Email Us formation@providenceomaha.org
If you've ever wondered how spiritual protection actually works—and why Jesus repeatedly cast out "unclean spirits"—this video is your playbook. We break down the most common protectors (dragons, guardian angels, hawks, shapeshifters, turtles, unicorns… yes, really), the attacks they're built to handle (infiltrators, walk-ins, remote strikes), and the modern hygiene you need to keep your energy sealed. Here's the deal: the more you understand the system, the less you fear it and the better your decisions become. What you'll learn: Why guardian angels are only the beginning—and which protectors extend range, block ambushes, or vault your gifts. How "infiltrators" cripple channels (and why calling on Jesus to expel them works). Walk-ins: what they really are, the red flags, and why discernment protects your future. The close-down protocol that actually holds (seal → boring buffer → re-seal). A quick history gut-check (Council of Nicaea) so you don't get spiritually duped this season. If this helps you, hit Subscribe and comment with the protector you think you might have—your question might be a future deep dive. Chapters 00:00 Cold Open — Why protectors (and the Christmas link) 00:33 Guardian Angels: sword-drawn first line of defense 01:36 Jesus' Ministry: casting out demons (why it still matters) 03:39 Darkness, growth & the obstacle that is the way 05:05 Protectors A–Z: Centipede (short-range neutralizer) 05:58 Dragon (remote attacker takedowns, inter-dimensional) 06:39 Eagle (extends protection range for your team) 07:00 Gorilla (hand-to-hand, loyal in dimensional pulls) 07:49 Attack Map: humans as the initiating vector 08:09 Stealing gifts, "egg" symbolism & scrambling abilities 10:09 Infiltrators: what they are & clearing with Jesus 11:09 System sabotage: unplugging channels & health impacts 11:52 Walk-ins: how takeovers really happen (and timelines) 13:46 Hostage dreams: original soul signals & patterns 15:18 More Protectors: Hawk (anti-ambush), Horse (source boost) 16:07 Pegasus (border bouncer), Raven (close-range interference) 16:54 Walk-in tradeoffs: "feeling powerful" vs being shaved down 18:52 Expelling spirits vs. re-invites (why some fall back) 19:28 Denial & familiars: two flavors of trouble 20:07 Advanced Protectors: evolved "Komodo," Shapeshifter, Turtle vault, Unicorn (fast reframe) 23:00 Bringing it back to Jesus & effective protection today 24:02 Council of Nicaea: dates, edits & discernment—don't get duped 26:12 Skepticism, guide-checks & your 2026 resolution
The Fallout Series has returned to Amazon Prime! Which has inspired Dom, Kathy and their Fallout Friends Raven, Bubble and Ram to create a new Podcast. In this ep we Go over some of the highlights and easter eggs of the premiere, give some predictions of whats to come and have some laughs! Grab a Nuka Cola, gather around the Radiation King and enjoy!Check out Bubbleonia streams here: / @bubbleoniarising Catch Ravenswift streams here: / @raven_swift Catch Ram here: / @ramethzer0gamingyt You'll thank us later==================================Find us wherever you find Circle Of Debatehttps://linktr.ee/CircleOfDebate==================================The Wrestling Delorean Podcasthttps://linktr.ee/wrestlingdeloreanpo..==================================Get your TRWT Merch at the Link belowhttps://trwtmerch.threadless.com/==================================For all sports news, & entertainment news, pro wrestling & more go to https://gamebreakersports.com/==================================GETCHO PODCAST https://linktr.ee/getchopodcast#fallout #amazonprime #spoilers #vaultboy #happyholidays
Deze week hoor je in NRC Vandaag onze serie Wilde eeuwen, het begin. Een van de verhalende series die we dit jaar maakten: perfect voor tijdens de dagen rond Kerst.Het is 12.000 jaar geleden. Sjamaan Slata wandelt naar Göbleki Tepe, bakt brood en hallucineert op beschimmelde rogge. Zullen zijn visioenen de landbouw vooruit helpen?Heeft u vragen, suggesties of ideeën over onze journalistiek? Mail dan naar onze redactie via podcast@nrc.nl.Voor deze aflevering is onder meer gebruikt gemaakt van deze literatuur:Oliver Dietrich ‘Shamanism at Early Neolithic Göbekli Tepe, southeastern Turkey. Methodological contributions to an archaeology of belief' in Praehistorische Zeitschrift, in mei 2024. Steven Mithen ‘Shamanism at the transition from foraging to farming in Southwest Asia: sacra, ritual, and performance at Neolithic WF16 (southern Jordan)' in The Journal of the Council for British Research in the Levant, in September 2022.David Graeber en David Wengrow. ‘The Dawn of Everything, A New History of Humanity', bij Penguin in 2022. Li Liu e.a. ‘Fermented beverage and food storage in 13,000 y-old stone mortars at Raqefet Cave, Israel: Investigating Natufian ritual feasting' in in oktober 2018. Amaia Arranz-Otaeguia e.a. ‘Archaeobotanical evidence reveals the origins of bread 14,400 years ago in northeastern Jordan' in PNAS, op 13 juli 2018.Leore Grosman e.a. ‘A Natufian Ritual Event' in Current Anthropology, in juni 2016.Marion Benz ‘Symbols of Power - Symbols of Crisis? A Psycho-Social Approach to Early Neolithic Symbol Systems', Neo-Lithics, in januari 2014. Leore Grosman e.a. ‘A 12,000-year-old Shaman burial from the southern Levant (Israel)' in PNAS, op 18 november 2008. Zohar Kerem e.a. ‘Chickpea domestication in the Neolithic Levant through the nutritional perspective' in Journal of Archaeological Science, in augustus 2007.Tekst en presentatie: Hendrik SpieringRedactie en regie: Mirjam van ZuidamMuziek, montage en mixage: Rufus van BaardwijkBeeld: Jeen BertingVormgeving: Yannick MortierZie het privacybeleid op https://art19.com/privacy en de privacyverklaring van Californië op https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this Advent episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Dr. Joe Boot and Dr. Michael Thiessen continue the Think Christianly series by asking a world-shaping question: Who is the child in the manger? Marking the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, they explore the Arian heresy, the church’s defense of Christ’s full divinity, and why the Nicene confession—“begotten, not made”—is essential to Christian worship, salvation, and culture. The discussion also shows how Arianism persists today wherever Jesus is reduced to a moral teacher rather than confessed as Lord. This episode calls Christians, especially during Advent, to stand with the historic church and boldly confess Christ as fully God and fully man—the Word made flesh, for the life of the world.
Carla Anne Robbins, senior fellow at the Council, and Matthias Matthijs, senior fellow for Europe at the Council, sit down with James M. Lindsay to answer listener questions about the major developments, initiatives, and changes in U.S. foreign policy over the course of 2025. Mentioned on the Episode: "2025 National Security Strategy of the United States of America," The White House Ivo H. Daalder and James M. Lindsay, “The Price of Trump's Power Politics,” Foreign Affairs Ivo H. Daalder and James M. Lindsay, The Empty Throne: America's Abdication of Global Leadership Rebecca Lissner, “America's Quasi Alliances,” Foreign Affairs Matthias Matthijs and Nathalie Tocci, "How Europe Lost: Can the Continent Escape Its Trump Trap?" Foreign Affairs Brad Setser, "How German Industry Can Survive the Second China Shock," Center for European Reform For an episode transcript and show notes, visit The President's Inbox at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/tpi/listener-mailbag-2025-review-carla-anne-robbins-and-matthias-matthijs
On today's Bible Answer Man broadcast (12/23/25), Hank resumes his special series leading up to Christmas Day featuring his acronym CHRISTMAS. Today he covers the next two letters in the acronym: “S” for Santa Claus, and “T” for Traditions. Believe it or not, even Santa can be saved! Far from being a dangerous fairy tale, Santa Claus in reality is an Anglicized form of the Dutch name Sinter Klaas, which in turn is a reference to Saint Nicolas, a Christian bishop from the fourth century. According to tradition, Saint Nick not only lavished gifts on needy children but also valiantly supported the doctrine of the Trinity at the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325. This Christmas as you celebrate the coming of Christ with a Christmas tree surrounded by presents, may the story of selflessness on the part of Saint Nick remind you of the Savior who gave the greatest gift of all. Moving on to the “T” in CHRISTMAS; it has become commonplace to hear Christians condemn trees adorned with ornaments as idolatrous while abusing Scripture to make their point. While the passage Jeremiah 10:2-4 may sound to modern ears like an uncanny description of Christmas trees, the historical and biblical context precludes this anachronistic reading of the text. This passage is in reference to wooden idols, not Christmas trees. In fact, Christmas trees originated in Christian Germany, from two Christian traditions that merged over time into the present Christmas tree tradition. As such, the Christmas tree began as a distinctively Christian symbol and can still be legitimately used by Christians today as part of their Christmas festivities.
Senior Editor Kelvin Kately sits down with one of the most popular pro wrestling stars on the planet in TNA Wrestling's Mike Santana. Born Nasty chats about the new AMC deal, the January 15th premiere in Dallas, TX, Genesis, TNA Immersed & More!! Powered by Twisted Shamrock Studios & Spa As Always The BCP is brought to you by our FAVORITE store, Funkenstein Wrestling Superstore located in The Englishtown Flea Market (NJ) from 8 am -3pm Sat & Sunday and online. Get your favorite wrestling merch, retro games, ninja turtles, Ghostbusters, and so much more!! Please welcome in our NEW sponsor, MANIA CLUB . Established in 2015, MANIA CLUB is a WWE recognized community for fans with an eclectic love for both the world of professional wrestling and raising money for Connors Cure. During WrestleMania weekend, we host the official Tailgate of WrestleMania while also celebrating Connor Michalek. They are the single largest donor within the V Foundation for Connors Cure with over $150K raised! Please donate and join the Facebook group at MANIA CLUB The BCP is also sponsored by The No Gimmicks Podcast !! The Pro Wrestling podcast that keeps it 100% real, 100% of the time!! The No Gimmicks Podcast is available wherever you get your podcasts. The No Gimmicks Podcast WRESTLING ALL DAY ALL NIGHT is the best wrestling discussion group on Facebook! We provide more of a community feel here, and have wrestling fans introduce other fans to something they may not have seen before, such as old school wrestling, indie wrestling, Japanese wrestling, and more! We also strive to be a source of information regarding upcoming wrestler meet & greets and signings. And remember, we're open 24/7. All Day. All Night! Be sure to follow on socials and join the group on Facebook at Wrestling All Day All Night Sweet Chin Musings is the creation of the reigning, rarely defending, highly disputed champion of wrestling podcasts, “Mr. Perfect” Mike Mueller, and his tag team partner in crime, Luke Kudialis. SCM focuses on the in-ring product of WWE and AEW (no dirt sheet rumors here), as well as backstage news, predictions and analysis of characters, storylines, and major pay per views. Old school fans, don't worry, we have you covered too, with a look back on classic matches, top 10 lists, and interactive tournaments that let the fans decide who is truly the best of all time. You can find us on Facebook at Sweet Chin Musings , and check out the podcast at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sweet-chin-musings/id1494699020 Please welcome in our returning pod sponsor for the show GPW Productions !! GPW provides your promotion or event with TOP TIER video, audio, production, live streaming, and more!! I can personally vouch for them in saying they are hands down THE BEST Production company I have ever worked with as they have and continue to work with the likes of AEW, GCW, Starrcast, MLW, not to mention the majority of the local independent Promotions in the tri-state area. They can even help you film a vignette or promo for your persona/gimmick. And guess what? GPW doesn't just work in wrestling. They cover MMA, boxing, basketball, or any other sporting event as well!! On a personal note I'd like to thank Michael James Sesko , Frank León , Oneil Andrews & the team for giving me multiple opportunities to work with them and some of the best talent in the world. BOOK GPW for your promotion or event today at contact@gpwproductions.com ISPW Wrestling brings the Independent Superstars of Wrestling to the Parsipanny PAL December 27th for a Steel Cage Christmas!! Alex Reiman challenges Justin Corino for the ISPW Championship in a steel cage match!! Also Santa takes on the Grinch, 6 vs 7, and more!! Get your tickets now at ISPWWrestling.com Please welcome in our newest podcast sponsor ISPW Weekly featuring host Totowa Tom Mele as he interviews the stars of the ring, uncover their stories, rivalries, and electrifying action that defines ISPW. Catch ISPW Weekly on The ISPW Facebook Page every week!! ISPW Wrestling Looking to press play on feeling good again? Twisted Shamrock Studios & Spa —Delaware County's Retro Recovery Rebels—are here to rewind time and reboot the way you heal. From therapeutic massage and assisted stretch therapy to glow-up facials and energy work—this is where function meets feel-good. Perfect for athletes, overachievers, and everyday Joes & Janes who need real relief with a vintage twist. Reboot your body. Recharge your soul. Rock the retro vibe. Call or text 484-574-8868 or visit And follow us for pop-up events, retro inspo, and more! Please welcome back our returning pod sponsor, Jay Adam Photography !! Jay provides quality, artistic, innovative photography with quick turnaround. Be sure to check out his latest pics from the top promotions here in the northeast and much more stellar content. Contact Jay at Jay Vogel for promo shots at events or off site, match photos, and much more!! Thank you Jay!! Jay Vogel Please welcome in our returning pod sponsor for 2026 the @Ropes N Riffs Podcast featuring maestro John Kiernan speaking with the Stars of professional wrestling about in ring, tunage, gear, and more!! Check out John's interviews with the likes of Lince Dorado, Mercedes Martinez, and more!! Find the Ropes N Riffs Podcast on all major Podcast platforms!! @Ropes N Riffs Podcast USDN Podcast is run by USDN_Chairman and the Council of Nerds. We bring you all the latest news and rumors from the World of Nerds and consolidate it right here at USDN. USDN is for the people, by the people and of the people. https://www.facebook.com/usdepartmentofnerds USDN Podcast Warriors Of Wrestling (W.O.W) returns to Brooklyn NY with TNA Stars Alicia & Eddie Edwards Saturday January 10th!! Get your tickets now at WarriorsofWrestling.com Brii Combination Wrestling returns to The Mecca in Ridgefield Park, NJ Sunday January 18th for Welcome to the New Year featuring BCW World Champion Darius Carter, Harleen Lopez, Journey Burke, Emily Jaye, and more!! Get your tickets now. Please welcome in our new podcast sponsor EM Collectibles featuring Live Signings, Collectibles, toys and more!! Be sure to follow them on Facebook and stay tuned for upcoming events: UPCOMING EVENTS!! March 28-29, 2026 Syracuse Collectors Con with Mr. Anderson, American Gladiators Malibu, Diamond, Blaze, and one more name TBA May 2, 2026- New England Fan Fest with Adam Bomb, Harvey Whippleman, The Headbangers and Powers of Pain! Be sure to follow EM Collectibles on Facebook! Please welcome back our returning podcast sponsor, From the Left Side Get hit From the Left Side with all the wrestling and sports news you can handle!! Thank you FTLS for sponsoring the BCP!! Please welcome in our NEW podcast sponsor The S.D.N. Podcast !! For in-depth WWE predictions, pay-per-view reviews, and insightful interviews with wrestling personalities, I highly recommend The SDN Podcast. They cover all the big events and give you expert analysis every week. Be sure to subscribe and stay updated on everything wrestling. Thank you S.D.N. Podcast for sponsoring the BCP! The SDN Podcast
Ryan, Maddy, and Todd celebrate the holiday season in the best possible way, which is reading the season finale of The Mutant Ages: The Comic Book. Our heroes finally confront the Council of Xaviers, with the help of Cloaky, Pluggy, and any number of our characters with an axe to grind against Professor X. Also, Santa is there, because this is a holiday special. The audio for the reading is ripped from our YouTube livestream on Dec. 21, so it preserves all of our naturalistic interruptions and is therefore a bit more messy than your typical read-through might be, but that's all part of the charm, right? Watch the full livestream here: https://www.youtube.com/live/8RIVmWiRUC8 Donate to our charity fundraiser for The Trevor Project: https://tiltify.com/@the-mutant-ages/the-mutant-ages-holiday-fundraiser-2025 Next episode: "Sunfire," Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends E-mail us questions and feedback at themutantages@gmail.com, or follow us on social media at TheMutantAges. If you like what you hear, please consider supporting us via patreon.com/themutantages. Thanks!
The Council of Nicaea has been trashed in pop culture as a smoke-filled backroom conspiracy where powerful bishops “invented” Christianity and edited the Bible to control people. In this episode of Worldview Legacy, Joel Settecase blows up the myths and walks you through what really happened 1700 years ago at Nicaea—and why it still matters for Christian men who want to lead their families today.This episode will help you:Destroy the myth that Nicaea “invented” the Bible or changed ChristianityUnderstand what the Nicene Creed actually says and why it's thoroughly biblicalSee how the doctrine of the Trinity safeguards the gospel itselfAppreciate the role of creeds and confessions without giving up Sola ScripturaGain confidence to talk about Nicaea with Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and skepticsIf you're a Christian man who wants to be the worldview leader in your home and church, this is church history you must know. Nicaea isn't just for scholars—it's ammo for dads, pastors, and everyday believers who need to defend the faith in 2025.• Join the Hammer & Anvil Society – The Think Institute's discipleship community for Christian men who want to become strong, clear-thinking worldview leaders. Get access to live cohort calls, courses on apologetics and theology, and a band of brothers who will sharpen you. https://thethink.institute/society• Partner with The Think Institute – Help us equip more men, churches, and families with solid, biblical worldview training. Prayerfully consider becoming a monthly financial partner so we can produce more episodes, courses, and resources. https://thethink.institute/partner
Today on the Christian History Almanac, we investigate the story of Santa slapping Arius at the Council of Nicaea. Show Notes: Germany / Switzerland - Study Tour Support 1517 Podcast Network 1517 Podcasts 1517 on Youtube 1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts 1517 Events Schedule 1517 Academy - Free Theological Education A Very CHA Christmas Apple Music playlist A Very CHA Advent Apple Music playlist What's New from 1517: Coming Home for Christmas: 1517 Advent Devotional Face to Face: A Novel of the Reformation by Amy Mantravadi Untamed Prayers: 365 Daily Devotions on Christ in the Book of Psalms by Chad Bird Remembering Your Baptism: A 40-Day Devotional by Kathryn Morales Sinner Saint by Luke Kjolhaug More from the hosts: Dan van Voorhis SHOW TRANSCRIPTS are available: https://www.1517.org/podcasts/the-christian-history-almanac CONTACT: CHA@1517.org SUBSCRIBE: Apple Podcasts Spotify Stitcher Overcast Google Play FOLLOW US: Facebook Twitter Audio production by Christopher Gillespie (outerrimterritories.com).
In this gripping episode of Gangland Wire, host Gary Jenkins sits down with Robert “Bob” Cooley, the Chicago lawyer whose extraordinary journey took him from deep inside the Outfit's criminal operations to becoming one of the federal government's most valuable witnesses against organized crime. Cooley pulls back the curtain on the hidden machinery of Chicago's underworld, describing how corruption, bribery, and violence shaped the Chicago Outfit's power in the 1970s and beyond. As a lawyer, gambler, and trusted insider, Cooley saw firsthand how mob influence tilted the scales of justice—often in open daylight. Inside the “Chicago Method” of Courtroom Corruption Cooley explains the notorious system of judicial bribery he once helped facilitate—what he calls the “Chicago Method.” He walks listeners through: How defense attorneys worked directly with Outfit associates to buy favorable rulings. The process of approaching and bribing judges. Why weak forensic standards of the era made witness discrediting the key mob strategy. His personal involvement in the infamous Harry Aleman murder case, where clear guilt was erased by corruption. Life in the Outfit: Gambling, Debt, and Mob Justice Cooley recounts his early days gambling with Chicago Outfit associates, including Marco D'Amico, Jackie Cerrone, and John DeFranzo. Notable stories include: The violent implications of unpaid gambling debts in mob circles. Tense interactions with bookmaker Hal Smith and the chaotic fallout of a bounced check involving mobster Eddie Corrado. How D'Amico often stepped in—sometimes with intimidation—to shield Cooley from harm. These stories reflect the daily volatility of life inside the Outfit, where money, fear, and loyalty intersect constantly. Bob Cooley has a great book titled When Corruption Was King where he goes into even greater detail and has many more stories from his life inside the Chicago Mob. Hit me up on Venmo for a cup of coffee or a shot and a beer @ganglandwire Click here to “buy me a cup of coffee” Subscribe to the website for weekly notifications about updates and other Mob information. To go to the store or make a donation or rent Ballot Theft: Burglary, Murder, Coverup, click here To rent ‘Brothers against Brothers’ or ‘Gangland Wire,’ the documentaries click here. To purchase one of my books, click here. 0:06 Introduction to Bob Cooley 1:32 Life as an Outfit Gambler 2:00 My Relationship with Marco D’Amico 10:40 The Story of Hal Smith 11:05 A Dangerous Encounter 20:21 Meeting Sally D 22:23 A Contract on My Life 22:37 The Harry Alleman Case 34:47 Inside the Courtroom 51:08 The Verdict 52:26 Warning the Judge 53:49 The Case Against the Policewoman 58:36 Navigating the Legal Maze 1:08:14 The Outcome and Its Consequences 1:11:39 The Decision to Flip 1:24:38 A Father’s Influence 1:33:57 The Corruption Revealed 1:50:12 Political Connections 2:02:07 The Setup for Robbery 2:20:29 Consequences of Loyalty transcript [0:00] Hey, guys, my guest today is a former Chicago outfit associate named Robert Bob Cooley. He has a book out there titled When Corruption Was King. I highly recommend you get it if you want to look inside the Chicago outfit of the 1970s. Now, Bob’s going to tell us about his life as an outfit gambler, lawyer, and I use payoff to judges to get many, many not guilty verdicts. Now, I always call this the Chicago method. This happened for, I know, for Harry Ailman, a case we’re going to talk about, Tony Spolatro got one of these not-guilties. Now, the outfit member associate who is blessed to get this fix put in for him may be charged with a crime, even up to murder. And he gets a lawyer, a connected lawyer, and they’ll demand a bench trial. That means that only a judge makes the decision. A lawyer, like my guest, who worked with a political fixer named Pat Marcy. [0:53] They’ll work together and they’ll get a friendly judge assigned to that case and then they’ll bribe the judge. And all that judge needs is some kind of alibi witnesses and any kind of information to discredit any prosecution witnesses. Now, this is back in the olden days before you had all this DNA and all that kind of thing. So physical evidence was not really a part of it. Mainly, it was from witnesses. And they just have to discredit any prosecution witness. Then the judge can say, well, state hadn’t really proven their case beyond a reasonable doubt and issue a not guilty verdict and walk away. Now, our guest, Bob Cooley, is going to take us inside this world. [1:29] And it’s a world of beatings, murders, bribes, and other kinds of plots. He was a member of the Elmwood Park crew. He was a big gambler. He was a big loan shark. And he worked for a guy named Marco D’Amico, who was their gambling boss and loan shark in that crew. Among other bosses in this powerful crew were Jackie Cerrone, who will go on and become the underboss and eventually the boss for a short [1:55] period of time. and John no-nose DeFranzo, who will also go on to become the boss eventually. What was your relationship with Marco D’Amico? I talked about when I first came into the 18th district, when I came into work there, and they put me back in uniform, the first person I met was Rick Borelli. Rick Borelli, he was Marco’s cousin. [2:23] When I started gambling right away with Rick, within a couple of days, I’m being his face, and I’m calling and making bets. There was a restaurant across the street where every Wednesday and sometimes a couple days a week, I would meet with Ricky. And one of the first people he brought in there was Marco. Was Marco. And Marco would usually be with a person or two. And I thought they were just bookmakers. [2:55] And I started being friendly with him, meeting him there. Then I started having card games Up in my apartment And, Because now I’m making, in the very beginning, I’m making first $100 extra a week. And within a couple of weeks, I’m making $500, $600 extra a week. And within about a month, I’m making $1,000, sometimes more than that. So now I’m having card games, relatively big card games, because I’ve got a bankroll. I’ve got probably about $5,000, $6,000, which seemed like a lot of money to me. Initially uh and after a while that was a daily that was a daily deal but uh so we we started having card games up there and then we started socializing we started now he’d be at these nightclubs all the time when when i’d go to make my payoffs he was part of the main group there he was one of the call he was right he was right under jack right under at that time originally Jackie Cerrone, and then he was right under Johnny DeFranco. [4:07] But he was… And we became real good friends. We would double date and we spent a lot of time together. And we had these big card games. And that’s when I realized how powerful these people were. Because after one of the card games, there was somebody that was brought in, a guy named Corrado. I’m pretty sure his name was I can’t think of his first name, but Corrado was this person that somebody brought into the game. And after we finished playing cards, and I won all the time. I mean, I was a real good card player, and I wouldn’t drink. I’d supply liquor and food and everything, but I wouldn’t drink. And as the others drank, they were the same as at my office. After we finish up, this guy says, you want to play some? We can play maybe some gin. just human being. And he was there with another friend of his who just sat there and watched. So we played, not gin, but blackjack. We played and passed cards back and forth when you win. Then you’re the dealer and back and forth. And I lost, I think I lost about $4,000 or $13,000 to him. [5:26] I lost the cash that I had. I had cash about $5,000 or $6,000. And I gave him a check for the rest. You know, but everything I was doing was wrong, you know. Yeah, one of those nights. It’s in there. And it’s funny because you asked about Marco. [5:47] And I thought, you know, oh, well, and whatever. And I gave him a check. I said, no, it’s a good check. And it was. It was for my office. It was an office check that I gave him. And that next morning, I’m meeting with Ricky and with Marco at this restaurant across from the station before I go in and to work. And I said, son of a B. I said, you know, they had a bad night first ever. Marco wasn’t at that game, at that particular game. And what happened? I said, I blew about 12,000. Okay, but you? Wow. And I said, yeah, I said, one of the guys at the game played some, I played some blackjack with somebody. What was his name? Eddie, Eddie Corrado. Eddie Corrado. He said, that mother, he said, stop payment on the check. He said, stop payment on the check. He said, because it wasn’t nine o’clock. It was only like, you know, seven, you know, seven 30 or whatever. He said, and when he gets ahold of you, arrange to have him come to your house. Tell him you’ll have the money for him at your house. So that’s what I, that’s what I do. So I stopped payment on it probably about five after nine. I get a call from, from Mr. Corrado. You mother fucker. [7:17] I said, no, no. I said, there wasn’t enough money in the account. I said, I’m sorry. I said, all right, then I’ll be over. I said, no, no, no. I said, I’m in court right now. I said, I’m in court. I said, I’m going to be tied up all day. I’ll meet you at my place. I’ll meet you back there. Well, I’ll be there. You better have that. I want cash and you better have it. Okay. Oh, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m at home. Marco comes in. And he was there with Tony and Tony was there and Ricky was there. And Ricky was there. And they come over a little ahead of time and he comes in. I live on the 27th floor. The doorbell rings. Up he comes with some big mustache. [8:00] I open the door. You better have the fucking money and whatever. And I try to look nervous. I try to look real nervous. and when you walk into my apartment you walk in and you see the kitchen right in front of you and to the left to the left you’ve got an area away and you’ve got the the kitchen wall blocking what’s behind it over there and these three guys are standing marco and you are standing right there alongside of it and and when he walks in behind me, He sees Marco and all but shit in his pants. When he sees Marco, he goes, and Marco, you motherfucker. And, you know, oh, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t know he was with you. He says, how much money you got me right now? And, you know, he says, pull your pockets out. He had about, he had about three or 4,000 with him. [9:02] And he says, you give him that. He says, you, he says, you, and he says, you give him that right now. And you apologize to him. Oh, and he says, he says, and I may give you a number. I want you to call. He says, we can put you to work. Apparently this guy had done the same thing to them a few years before and got the beating of his life somebody brought him into one of their card games, did he have a technique a cheating technique or had some marked cards no it was a card mechanic he could play games with cards they call him a mechanic and, in fact the guy was great at it because he had his own plane and everything else. But again, he had moved from Chicago and had just come back in the area. And they mounted. And so anyhow, he leaves. And he leaves then, and Marco took the money. Marco took the money. Marco took the money. Typical Bob guy, man. [10:19] And I says, what about the cash I lost to him? He says, well, you lost that. He says, you lost that. That’s when I realized how powerful. That’s when I realized how powerful that [10:35] he was part of the mob, not only a part of it, but one of the operational. Yeah, important part of it. That brings to mind another unbelievable situation that occurred. [10:49] The, uh, this is probably the, we’ll know the year by when it happened. There was a bookmaker named Hal Smith. Oh yeah. I remember that name. He got, tell us about Hal Smith. [11:05] Well, Hal Smith was a, he was a big guy too. A real, a real big guy. I met him on Rush street. He knew I was a gambler. He knew that I was a big gambler and I started gambling with him. Thank you. And I was with him probably for about maybe five or six months. And I’d win with him. I’d lose with him. And he would take big places. He would take $5,000 a game for me. And as they say, so the numbers were big. At the end of the week, we were sometimes $60,000, $70,000. [11:42] They were big numbers back and forth. And he was always good for the money. I was always good for the money. And one particular week, it was about $30,000. And I was waiting for money. Somebody else was supposed to give me even more than that. And the person put me off. And it was a good friend of mine. And I knew the money would be there. But a lot of times, these guys are going to collect it at a certain time. And then they’re expecting to give it to somebody else. Well, he was short. So I said, look, I don’t have it right now, but I’ll have it tomorrow, I said, because I’m meeting somebody. Well, okay, it better be there. [12:31] And look, it’ll be there, okay? Not a problem. So the next day, the person I’m supposed to get it from says, I’ll have it in a couple of hours. I don’t have it right now, but I’ll have it by late this afternoon. And I’m in my office when Hale Smith calls me and I said, I’ll have it a little bit later. And he slams the phone bell. I’m downstairs in Counselor’s Row. In fact, I’m meeting with Butchie and Harry. We’re in a booth talking about something. They had just sent me some business or whatever, but I’m talking about something. And George, the owner of the restaurant, comes over and he says, somebody is asking who you are and they want to talk to you. And they point out this guy. It was a guy I had seen before, because a lot of times at two in the morning, I would go down on West Street, and they had entertainment upstairs. And there was this big English guy. He was an English guy, as you could tell by his accent, a real loud guy. And when I walk up to talk to him, and he’s talking loud enough so people can hear him, and he says, you better have that. I’m here for it. You better have that. You better have that money. [13:51] Bob Hellsmith sent me, you get the money and you better have that money or there’s going to be a problem or whatever. And I said, well, the money will be there, but people can hear what this guy, this guy talking that shit. And he leaves. And he leaves. He’s going to call me back. And he leaves. I said, I’m busy right now. I says, give me a call back when I’m in the office and I’ll meet with you. So Butch, he goes, what was that all about? And I said, you know, it’s somebody I owe some money to. Well, who is he? Who is he with? I said, Harold Smith. And he said, who’s Harold Smith? You don’t pay him anything. He said, you don’t pay him anything. And he calls, when he calls back, he says, you will arrange to meet him. And I said, you know, I said, well, where? [14:44] And they knew where I lived. They’d been to my place at that time. I’m living in Newberry Plaza and they said, there’s a, there’s a Walgreens drugstore in Chicago Avenue. Tell him you’ll meet him there at Walgreens, and we’ll take it. And he says, and we’ll take it from there. When he does call me, I said, look, I said, I’ll meet you tomorrow morning for sure at Walgreens. I’ll have the cash. I said, I’ll have the cash, and I’ll have all of it. I said, but, you know, I’m tied up on some things. I said, I’ll go to my own bank when I’m finished here and whatever, and I’ll see you tomorrow morning for sure at 9 o’clock tomorrow morning. Okay. I sit down with them and they just said, I said, they said, go there and go meet them. And we’ll take care of it. The Walgreens is a store right in the corner of Michigan Avenue and Chicago Avenue, south side of the street. And it’s all windows. Huge windows here. Huge windows here. And a bus stop, a bus stop over here. When I get there, I park in the bus stop and I’m looking to my right and here he is sitting in a booth by himself, right by the window. And I look around and I don’t see anybody. I mean, with a lot of people, I don’t see Butchie. [16:06] Uh or red or anybody around but i i go in there anyhow and uh sit down and i uh sit down in the booth across from him and he’s eating breakfast he’s got some food in front of him and uh the girl comes by right away the girl comes by and i says you know just get me a coke and and he says have you got the money and i said yes and why i got i got a lot i got a lot of money in my pocket but not the, whatever it was he wanted, not the 27 or 28,000. There’s nobody there. And, uh, so we’re talking for no more than about two or three minutes. They had a telephone on the counter. I hear the phone ring and the waitress, the waitress is on the phone. And then she comes walking over and she says, it’s a call for you. And, and when I go get in the phone, I woke up and there’s a phone booth there. And here’s Butchie in the phone booth. And he’s there with a couple of other people. I hang the phone up. I walk over and I had my appointment booked. And I walk over and I just pick up the book. And as I’m walking out there, walking in, we pass each other. And so now when I get in my car and he’s looking at me in my car and right next to him is Butchie. And across from him was a red old male and Fat Herbie. [17:34] Herbie Blitzstein? Herbie Blitzstein? No, it wasn’t Herbie. This is another one. That’s one thing of Herbie. We called Herbie Fat. It was Fat Herbie. And the third guy is like sitting facing him. This is like, that weighs about 300 pounds. Oh, Sarno. Make Mike Sarno. Mike Sarno. That was it. And that’s, that’s, that’s who it was. You know, and I, I drive off, go to my office and go about my business. I get a call later that day from, uh, Hale Smith. Where’s my money? Where’s my money? I said, I gave it to your guy. You what? I gave it to him. I met him at nine o’clock this morning and I gave him the money. You did. And I said, yeah. Um, okay. And he hangs, and he hangs up. I don’t hear anything for a while. I never saw him again. I saw Hale a couple of times because he was always in one of the other restaurants. I lived in Newberry right across from there, but he never talked to me. I never talked to him, never said anything. It was about maybe it had to be a good couple of months later, When I read about Hale, Hale’s no longer with us. [18:52] That’s obviously how they found out about him. I never saw the other guy again. I’m hoping they didn’t kill him, but I’m assuming that’s what probably happened to him. In a public place like that, they probably just scared him off. He probably said, you know, I’m way over my head. I’m out of here. [19:15] They didn’t kill him in the public place he wouldn’t have been in the newspapers my little thought is like with the three guys they took him for a ride, I don’t know they just told him to leave town and he realized what it was and he did Hal didn’t get a chance to leave town Hal had other problems if I remember right I’d have to look it back up but he had other problems with the outfit what I found out later what they had done, was they had gotten one of their guys connected with him to find out who his customers were. In other words, one of the other people that he didn’t realize, that Hale didn’t realize was with them, they got him connected with them where he’s the one who’s doing his collecting and finding out who the customers were because they wanted to get all his customers as well as his money. It turns out he was He was a huge bookmaker for years. That’s what happened to him. And they just took his book. Yeah, I remember something about that story because I killed him in his house, I believe. Yeah, Sally D. [20:22] Sally D, yeah. Sally D was one. When I first met Sally D, he was with Marco’s Fruit, too. [20:30] He owned a pizza place up on the north side, north shore, and I broke him. I was betting with him and beating him week after week. And one of the last times I played with him, he couldn’t come up with the money. It took him an extra couple of weeks to get the cash to pay me. But we were real close friends with him. He’s a bizarre character because he was a totally low level at that time. Yeah. When he then connected up with the Cicero crew, with Rocky and Felice, with Rocky and those people, he became a boss with them. It turns out it was after they killed Al Smith. He was part of all that. That’s Salih De Laurentiis. He’s supposed to be a boss. He moved on up after the Family Secrets trial. He didn’t go down with that, I believe, and he kind of moved on up after that. I don’t know what happened to him. What was so funny about that, when he would come into the club, Marco’s club, Bobby Abinati. [21:42] Who was strictly a very low-level player, although we indicted him with the Gambia star. He’s the one who set up the robbery. Would that have been great if that would have gone through? He’s the one who set up that robbery in Wisconsin. He’d be making fun of Salihide all the time. [22:03] When Salihide would come in, he would make fun of him and joke about him and talk about what a loser he was. This is when he’s a boss of that crew. I mean, just a strange, I mean, nobody talked to bosses like that, especially when, when you’re, when you’re what they call Bobby, you know, what was Marco’s nickname for Bobby Knucklehead? [22:23] That was his nickname, Knucklehead. Pat Marcy, uh, contacted me about, you know, handling me in the only own case. [22:32] I couldn’t have been happier because that was a short time after they put a contract on me. So now i realized if they’re going to be making money you know they finally stopped because for good six seven months when i when i came back to chicago uh i was checking under my car every day in case there was a bomb i moved i moved from uh from a place that i own in the suburbs into an apartment complex so i wouldn’t be living on the first floor yeah it’d be impossible to somebody to break into my, you know, took them thrashing into my place. I changed my whole life around in that sense. [23:10] And when I drove everywhere I went, you know, I would go on the highway and then jump over. I would do all, I wanted to make absolutes. Even though nobody came around, I wasn’t taking any chances for a long period of time. And that was too when it cost me a fortune because that’s when I stopped dealing with the bookmakers because I wasn’t going to be in a position where I had to go meet somebody at any time to collect my money and whatever. [23:39] So what had happened, though, was somebody came to see me. And when I was practicing, there’s a lot of things I wouldn’t do. I set my own rules. I would not get involved. After the Harry Alleman case, I never got involved anymore myself fixing certain cases. But even prior to that, I wouldn’t fix certain cases. I wouldn’t get involved in certain cases, especially involving the police, because my father was such a terrific policeman, and I felt I was too in a lot of sentences. I loved the police. I disliked some of the crooked cops that I knew, but on the surface, I’d be friendly with them, etc. Harry Ailman was a prolific hitman for the Elmwood Park crew. He killed a teamster who wouldn’t help set up trucks for the outfit, a guy named Billy Logan. He was just a regular guy. He’s going to take us right into the meeting with the judge. He’ll take us into a counselor’s row restaurant where these cases were fixed. Now, Bob will give us a seat right at Pat Marcy’s table. Now, Pat Marcy was the first ward fixture, and he’s going to take us into the hallway with Pat Marcy where they made the payoffs. [24:57] Now, Bob, can you take us inside the famous Harry Aileman murder case? I know you fixed it. And tell us, you know, and I know there was a human toll that this took on that corrupt judge, Frank Wilson. Okay. The Harry Aileman case was, it was not long after I became partners with Johnny DeArco. I get a call from, I’m in Counselor’s Row at the restaurant. Whenever I was in there now, my spot was the first ward table. Nobody was allowed to sit there day or night. That was reserved for first ward connected people and only the top group of people. [25:40] I’m sitting there at the table and Johnny DeArco Sr. Tells me, you know, Pat wants to talk to you. About something. And I said, you know, sure. Not long afterwards, Pat comes downstairs. We go out. We go out in the hall because we never talk at the table. And he tells me, have you got somebody that can handle the Harry Alleman case? I had seen in the news, he was front page news. He was one of the main mob hitmen. He was partners with Butchie Petrucelli. But it was common knowledge that he was a hitman. He looked like one. He dressed like one. He acted like one. And whatever. And he was one. In fact, he was the one that used to go to New York. And I know he also went to Arizona to do some hits and whatever. He traveled around the country. I said to Pat, they thought the case was a mob hit on a team street. a teamster. I assumed that it was just that. It was people doing what they do. But I said to Pat, I said, well, get me the file. Get me the file. Let me see what the case looks like. Because I would never put a judge in a bad spot. That was my nature. [27:06] When I had cases, a lot of these judges were personal friends of mine. What I would do, if I wanted to have a case, if I wanted to fix a case to save all the time of having to go to a damn long trial, I would make sure that it was a case that was winnable, easily winnable. When I got the file, when I got the file from Pat, he got me the file the next day. The next morning, when he came in, he gave me the file. I looked at the file. It was a throw-out case. When I say throw-out case, absolutely a nothing case. [27:46] The records in the file showed that a car drove up down the street. Suddenly somebody with a shotgun blasted a guy named Billy Logan in front of his house and drove away. They were contacted by a neighbor, this guy, Bobby Lowe. Was it Bobby Lowe? Yeah, I’m pretty sure Bobby Lowe. Who indicated that he opened the door and let his dog run out. And when he looked, he saw somebody. He saw a car, and he gave a description of the car. And he saw somebody pull up, and he saw him shoot with a shotgun. And then he saw the person get out of the car and shoot him with a .45, and shoot him with a .45. And then the car sped away. That was pretty much the case. Some other people heard some noise, looked out, and saw a car driving away. A period of time after that, it had to be about a year or so after that, somebody was arrested driving to Pennsylvania to kill somebody. There was a guy who stopped. [29:16] Louie Almeida was his name. Louie Almeida was stopped in his car. He was on the way to Pennsylvania. And in front of his car, he had shotguns. And he winds up, when he gets arrested, he winds up telling the authorities that he can tell them about a mob murder back in Chicago and winds up cooperating with them. He indicates what happened. He indicated that, you know, he was asked to, you know, or he got involved in it. He got the car and whatever. They did this. They did that. And he pulled up alongside Billy and wound up shooting the victim as he came out of the house. [30:09] Now, I look at some other reports in there, some reports that were made out, new reports. They talk about the Louis Almeida. They talk about the witness that gave the first statement. and they said that they found, or he’s giving us a new statement now where he says he’s walking his dog. He hears a shotgun. His dog runs towards the car where the shooting was coming from. He saw Harry get out of the car and walk over and shoot him, walk over and shoot the victim, and he was looking at him, And then he jumped in the bushes and the car drove away. A complete new story. Yeah. A complete new story. And. I looked at the reports, and this is an easy winner. And so I told Pat, you know, I’ll take it. You know, I’m sure I can handle it. I said, I’m sure I can handle it, but, you know, I’ll let you know. [31:21] That’s when I contacted, I met my restaurant, Greco’s, and I had Frank Wilson there a lot. Well, I called Frank Wilson, invited him and his wife to come to the restaurant. I had done that many times before. When he gets there, I tell him, I have the case. You know, I told him I was contacted on this case, I said. And I said, it’s an easy winner, I said. And I explained to him what it was. I told him, you know, it’s the driver of the car who’s doing this to help himself. And this other guy, Bobby Lowe, that gave a complete new story from the original story that he gave. And I indicated, you know, can you handle the case? And he tells me, I can’t handle the case, he said, because I was SOJ’d. In Chicago, Illinois, they have a rule that makes it easy for people to fool around because for no reason at all you can ask to have a judge moved off the case. And you can name a second judge that you don’t want to handle the case. [32:34] Frank Wilson’s reputation was as such that the lawyer that turned out to be a judge later on, Tom Maloney, who had the case, named him in the SOJ. It was assigned to somebody else, and he indicated he wanted any other judge except Frank Wilson. Frank Wilson on the case. And this was Harry Aileman’s lawyer. Yeah. Okay. And who Tom Maloney, who then ends up being the judge years later. But yeah. Well, because we knew he was going to be a judge. Yeah. We knew ahead of time. I knew at that time. That’s what makes the story so unbelievably interesting. Yeah. Anyhow, he says, I can’t do it because… In Chicago, in Chicago, it’s supposed to keep it honest. I love this. To keep it honest. Yeah. To keep it honest, each judge is supposed to be picked by computer. [33:33] Same thing they’re doing to this day. Trump wondered why the same judge kept getting all his cases. Because they’re doing the same thing we did, some of us could do in Chicago. He was the chief judge in the area. he said to me, I don’t think I can get the case. I don’t think I can’t get the case. I said, I’ll get the case to you. I said, I’ll get, because I already, I, in fact, through Pat Marcy, anytime I wanted a case to go anywhere, I would contact Pat and I’d give him a thousand dollars and he would get me any judge I wanted. Uh, I said, well, I think I can. I said, I said, And I gave him $1,000. [34:16] I said, here, this is yours. And if I can’t get the case to you, you keep it. If I can’t get, I never said to him, will you fix it? Will you this or that? I mean, he understood what it was. I didn’t know how he would react to it. When I asked him, would you handle it? Were the words I used. I had never fixed anything with him before. [34:43] In case he was, you know, he would want to report it to somebody. I wasn’t worried because Frank had a reputation as being a big drinker. After I got the Harry Elliman file, Pat tells me, I’m going to have somebody come and talk to you. Who comes? And we meet in the first ward office, and then we go downstairs into the special room they had for conversations. It’s Mike Ficarro. He’s the head of the organized crime section. He’s the one who prosecutes all the criminals. He’s one of the many prosecutors in Chicago. That’s why there were over 1,000 mob murders and never a conviction from the time of Al Capone. Not a single conviction with over 1,000 mob murders because they controlled absolutely everything. He’s the boss. [35:35] I knew him. I didn’t like him. He had an attitude about him. You know, when I would see him at parties and when I’d see him at other places, and I’d walk by and say, hi, he just seemed coldish. [35:47] I found out later why. He was jealous of the relationship I had with all these people. [35:54] He says, I’ll help you any way I can, anything you need, whatever. So the prosecutors on the Harry Olliman case were our people. That’s who’s prosecuting the case anyhow. But they couldn’t get one of their judges apparently who would handle the case. So, but anyhow, uh, so, uh, when we, um, when we go, when we, when we go to trial, um. [36:25] Before to help me out, I told Pat, I’ll get somebody else to handle the case. I’ll have somebody else. I said, I won’t go in there. I won’t go in there because everybody knows I’m close to Frank, very close to Frank. I said, so I won’t go in there. I’ll get somebody. He says, no, no. He said, I’ll get somebody. And so he gets a guy named Frank Whalen, who I didn’t know at the time. He was a retired lawyer from Chicago. He was one of the mob lawyers. [37:00] He was one of the mob lawyers. And he lived in Florida. He lived in Miami. I think it was, no, Lauderdale. He lived in the Lauderdale area. He was practicing there. So I fly out. I fly out to meet him. I i do all the investigating in the case the i’m using an investigator that harry alleman got from me in fact he was the same investigator that got in trouble in in uh in in hollywood for what for a lot of stuff i can’t think of his name right now but he’s the one who got indicted in hollywood eventually for you know wiretapping people and whatever it was the same one. And he got me information on Bobby on this Bobby Lowe. He found out Bobby Lowe, Bobby Lowe was a drug addict. [37:59] When the FBI got a hold of him, Bobby Lowe was living out in the street because he had been fired from his first job. He had a job in some kind of an ice cream company where they made ice cream, and he got fired there for stealing. And then he had a job after that in a gas station, and he faked a robbery there. Apparently, what he did was he called the police and said he had been robbed. This is before they had cameras and all the rest of that stuff. He said he had been robbed. And somebody happened to have been in the gas station getting gas. It was a big place, apparently. [38:45] And when the police talked to him, he said, I didn’t see anything strange. He said, I saw the attendant walk out to the back about 10, 15 minutes ago. I saw him walk out to the back of the place and then come back in. And so they go out, and he had his car parked behind it, and they found the money that was supposed to have been stolen in the car. So not the best witness, in other words. Well, that’s an understatement, because that was why… That was why now he suddenly shows up, and they know all this. The FBI agents that obviously know all this, that’s their witness. That’s their case. To me, it’s an airtight, you know. Yeah. Anyhow, I developed the defense. I went back to see Frank a second time. I flew out to Florida a second time, gave him all this information. [39:48] I had talked to some other people to a number of people that were going to indicate that Harry played golf with them that day see how they remembered not golf but he was at a driving range with them with about five people they remember what they were three or four years three or four years before that what I also found out now, and I didn’t know and it changed my whole attitude on that this wasn’t a mob killing you, This guy that he killed was married to his, I think it was his cousin or some relation was married. I’m pretty sure it was to his cousin. She had told Harry, I got this from Butchie, Butchie Petrosselli, who had become a close friend of mine after I got involved with Harry’s case, his partner. And that was why he killed them, because apparently the sister, his sister-in-law, whatever she was, had told him, you know, when he was beating her up, she had said, well, my Harry Alameda won’t be happy about this. And he said, supposedly, he said, fuck that, Kenny. [41:02] And that’s why the shooting took place. Wow. This changed me. You know, I’m in the middle of it. There’s no getting out of it now. Yeah, they’ll turn it back. And by now, I’m running around all the time with Butch and Mary at night. I’m meeting them at dinner. They’re coming to one of my places where I have dinners all the time. You know, I’m becoming like close friends, close friends with both of them. Yeah. So anyhow, but anyhow, the lawyer that he got, Frank Whalen, who was supposed to be sharp, turned out like he was not in his, let’s just say he was not in his prime. [41:46] Charitable. And when he went in, you know, while the trial was going on, you know, while the trial was going on, I get a call from Frank. From Frank Wilson, because I told him, you don’t come back into the restaurant now. You don’t come back into the restaurant. I used his office as my office all the time, along with a bunch of other judges. I had a phone, but it cost about a dollar a minute to talk on my phone. I had to talk on my phone. So when I’d be at 26th Street in the courthouse, even though no lawyers are allowed back there in the chamber, so I’m back there sitting at his desk using the phone taking care of my own other business. I stopped going in there while the trial was going on. [42:35] So, anyhow, he calls me, and he wants to meet me at a restaurant over on Western Avenue. And, okay, he called me from one of the pay phones out there in front of the courthouse, and I go to meet him. What did he want? Was he complaining about the lawyer, Waylon? What was he complaining about, Waylon? and I was screwing it up. [42:59] When I meet him, I said, you know, he’s like, you know, he said, you know, we go into the bathroom and he and he said he’s all shooken up. He says, this is going to cost me my job. He said, he said, you know, they’re burying him. You’re burying him. You know, because I had given this information on the two witnesses. And he says, Frank Whalen, he said, isn’t doing a thing and cross-examining these people and whatever. [43:32] And he says, and he’s all upset. And I said, Frank, no, I’m shook up one of the few times in my life where it’s something I can’t handle. He had never told me, you know, I’ll fix the case, never. And I said to him, and I said, Frank, I said, if something goes wrong, I said, I’m sure they’re going to kill me, is what I said to him. Yeah. I said, if something goes wrong, I’m sure they’re going to kill me. And I left. I left the bathroom. Now, I have no idea what’s going on in his mind and whatever. Yeah. I see Pat the next day. And by something goes wrong in this case, you mean if he gets found guilty, that’d be what would go wrong and you would get killed. Is that that’s what you mean? Well, no question, because when I met, I didn’t go into that. I met with Harry Alleman. I get a call after I got involved in the case. A couple days later, I get a call from Markle. Meet me at one of the nightclubs where I was all the time at night with these people. [44:47] Above it, you’ve got a motel, a bunch of hotel rooms. I get a call from Markle. The reason everybody loved me and the mob, I never discussed what I was doing with anybody or any of the other dozens of mobsters I run with that I was involved in Harry’s case. Never said a word to anybody about any of this. That was my nature, and that’s why all these people love me. I never talked about one thing with anybody else or whatever. He says, I want to meet you. When I get over there, he says, let’s go upstairs. Somebody wants to talk to you. And we go upstairs, and there’s Harry Alleman. And Harry, how you doing? How are you? [45:27] And he says, listen, you’re sure about this? And I said, yeah. I said, I’m sure. And he said, well, if something goes wrong, you’re going to have a problem. Those were his words to me. You’re going to have a problem. And I said, you know, he says, because this judge, he says, this judge is a straight judge. And he said, Tom, you mean Tom Maloney. He says, and Tom wants to handle my case. And he tells me he’s going to be named a judge by the Supreme Court real soon. And he wants to handle and he wants to handle my case before he… Uh, you know, before he becomes a Supreme court, before he becomes a judge, I knew the moment he told me that I knew for sure that was the case because we control everything, including the Supreme court. I said, you know, I said, don’t, you know, don’t worry about it. I lied to him. And I said, uh, I said, yeah, the judge is going to, I said, yeah, he’s going to throw it out. He knows, I said, he knows what’ll happen if he doesn’t. That’s what I told Harry. I want to keep him happy. [46:34] I’m going to keep him happy probably for a few hours I’m a little nervous and then that’s all behind me like so many other problems I got in the middle of oh my god talking about walking a tightrope so now the lawyer came into Chicago he was in Chicago I met him when he came in he was staying at the Bismarck was at the Bismarck Hotel right around the corner from you know where Counselor’s Row was that’s where he was staying in the in the hotel right there by the first board office and there was a way to go in there without being seen and there was a, You go through another restaurant and you go through the alley and go up there. And I wouldn’t, I didn’t want to be seen walking into there because I know the FBI are probably, are probably watching and whatever. When he comes into town, they handle the case. So I go upstairs to see him. You know, I said, what the hell’s going on in court? He says, I’m going, it’s going great. It’s going great. I said, it’s going great. I just, you know, I just got a call last night. I had to go meet the judge. And he said, you’re not doing any cross-examining. Oh, I’m doing a great job. You know, I’m doing a great job. So after a few minutes of, I leave. Yeah. [47:52] That’s when I saw Pat Marcy, too. And I said, Pat, I said, the judge is upset about whatever’s going on. I said, maybe we should give him some more because I agreed to give him $10,000. And he said, you know, what a piece of work he is. You know, he said $10,000, and that’s all he’s going to get, not a nickel more or whatever. So now to say I’m nervous again is an ultra statement. The case, I walked over, and I wouldn’t go in the room, but I wanted to just be around that room for some reason. FBI agents all over the place. [48:30] FBI agents all over the place. And so now I’m at home and I’m packed. I’ve got my bags packed because if he finds it, I don’t know what he’s going to do. I’m worried he might find him guilty because of all that had happened. He, when the trial ended a given night, and the next day he was going to give the result. In fact, I didn’t go out and play that night. I was a little nervous, and I stayed home, and I packed up my bags. I packed up my bags, and about 9 o’clock, I got in the car, and I started driving. And by the time he gave the ruling, I was probably about 100, maybe 150 miles away. And I hear on the radio, you know, found him not guilty, found him not guilty. So I turn around. Hit the next exit, turn around and come back. I turn around. Northbound on I-55. [49:27] Probably a couple hours later, here I am parked in my parking spot. My parking spot was in front of my office, right across from City Hall. And I parked in the mayor’s spot when she wasn’t there. And drove probably to drive her crazy. But that was where I parked. That was my parking spot. We’d see my big car with the RJC license plates parked in the bus stop. And so here I am. I parked the car and I go in. I go in. [50:01] And I’m sure Pat told some people, probably not, but I’m sure they told all the mobsters, all the top mobsters, because these guys all wanted to meet me afterwards and get the restaurant. I go in to see them. We walked into the janitor’s closet. You walk out of Counselor’s Row. You go to the left. It goes into the 100 North Building. Now, you’ve got the elevators to the right. And behind that, you’ve got a closet where the janitors keep all their stuff. And you’ve got some stairs leading up to the, there was a, what do you call it? There was an office there where the commodities, big commodity exchange was right there. that there was a stairway leading up to where the offices were with some doors with bars and everything on it. And Pat is standing on those stairs, about two or three stairs. You know, I said, wow. I said, you know, everybody’s going nuts. And he goes, well, you know, you did a good job. And he gives me an envelope. He gives me an envelope. And, you know, I put the money in my pocket. [51:09] We said we had some more. We said a couple other words about, you know, this and that. And then I just go in there. I go back in the counselor’s. [51:21] Now, after the feds started getting indictments, did you try and warn the Aleman case judge, Frank Wilson? Why did you do that? And when I went to see Frank Wilson, I went to help him. I said, Frank, I said, look, I said, I was contacted by, I said, I was contacted by the, by the, by the FBI. They were investigating the Harry Aleman case. I said to him, I said, they, they feel the case was fixed. I said, when they come to see me, I said, you know, I said, I’m not going to talk to them. I said, I’m not going to talk to them. I’m going to take the fifth. And in your case, you can do the same thing. When they, if they come to talk to you, you just take the fifth amendment. If they give you immunity, I said, you know, then you, then you testify, but you tell them the truth. I said, don’t worry about me. Tell them the truth. This is how I talk to him. When I’m talking to him like that, it’s almost like he’s trying to run away from me. [52:27] We’re at a restaurant in a big complex. It was in one of those resorts in Arizona. He’s all but running away from me. I was trying to help him. What I said to him was, Frank, I said, the statute of limitations ran on all this. It’s been more than five years. There’s nothing they can do to you or to me, I said, because the statute ran. I said, so don’t lie to them. What the feds were concerned about, and I don’t know why, that he would deny ever fixing the case when it went through. I don’t know why they’re worried about that, but they were, and I didn’t want to see him get in trouble. [53:13] That’s why I went there to protect him. Hey, Bob, you were asked to represent an outfit associate or an outfit associate’s son who was accused of breaking the jaw of a Chicago policewoman. And you know, when a cop is injured in a fight with somebody, the cops follow that case. And I do not want to see any shenanigans going on. So, so tell us about how you walked that line. And I bet those cops were, were not happy with you in the end. Some people think this is a reason you flipped. Take us inside that case, will you? [53:45] And the reason I mentioned that it had a lot to do with what I eventually did. Now we’ll get back to what made me do what I was going to do. When I was practicing law now, and now I have been away from all this for years, I was out of town a lot because I’m representing the Chinese all around the country. I’m their main lawyer right now. [54:10] And I get a call from Lenny Colella. And he says, my son, he said, my son is in trouble. I want to come in and I want to talk to you about handling his case. This was a heater case, too. This was a front page case because he was charged with aggravated battery and attempted murder. Supposedly, he had beat up a policewoman and it was all over the place. He was a drug addict and whatever, supposedly he did all this. And when he came into the office with his dad, he was high. When I talked to him, he’s got his kid with him. And the kid is a smart aleck. As we’re talking, the kid, and I asked the kid, well, whatever. The kid was a smart aleck. And I just said to him, I said, Len, I can’t help you. I said, get him out of here. I want nothing to do with him. I said, I can’t help you. You didn’t take cases that were involved with cops anyhow, for the most part. No. I didn’t know what had happened in this case. I know what I saw in the paper. I didn’t know what the facts or anything were or whatever. I mean, if it turned out that if I felt when I talked to him that he had done it, whatever, I would not have taken the case anyhow. [55:26] I mean, I would not have. That’s why I say, too, that may be, too, why I was as quick and as rude as I was when he came in there and was acting and was a little bit high. I just wanted nothing to do with him, period. I said to his dad, his father said, you know, if I get him cleaned up, you know, I said, well, if you get him cleaned up, then we’ll talk again. I said, but I can’t help him, and I can’t help him. [55:54] And off he goes. the father re-contacted me about a week later. And he said, I had him in rehab and he straightened out and whatever. And he brought him back in and it was a new person. And when he told me the facts of the case, when he told me what happened, because he was a big, tough kid. He was a big, you know, he was a weightlifter, but he was a big, tough looking kid. [56:19] And it’s a little police woman. When he told me what happened, I believed him. Because I’ve been out in the street and whatever. And he says, you know, he told me what happened, that he had gotten stopped. He was out there talking to her. And when she said, you’re under arrest for DUI, he just walked. He says, I walked. I was going to get in my car and drive away. And she grabbed me and was pulling me or whatever. And I hear all these sirens coming. And within a few minutes, there’s all kinds of police. There’s about half a dozen police there. He says, and then they started jumping on me. He said, she was under me. He was all beaten up. He was all bloody and whatever. And she apparently had her jaw broken. And there’s no doubt in my mind when he’s telling me that, you know, when they were hit with his clubs or with this thing that they claimed he had without his fingerprints, it was a metal bar. Right, a slapper. A chunk of lead covered by leather. Everybody used to carry a slapper. How about you carry a slapper? They claimed, but there was no cloth on this. It was just the metal itself. Yeah, oh really? [57:45] Anyhow, that makes it interesting during the trial when they flat out lied. No, he had no blood. I got the hospital reports. They wouldn’t take him in the station because he was too badly beaten up. But anyhow, he also had two other charges. He had been involved in a fight in a bar. And he had been involved in another situation with the police. And he was charged with resisting arrest and battery on a policeman out in Cicero. So he had these three cases. So I gave the father a fee on handling, you know, the one, I was going to, I gave him a fee one case at a time. I said, you know, first thing we’ll do, I want to get rid of those other two cases. I’ll take them to juries, I said. [58:36] I’ll take them to juries because I wasn’t going to put them. I knew both the judges on those cases, but I wasn’t going to put them in a position on a case like that. I take the first case to trial. And I get him a not guilty. That was the fight in the bar. [58:54] That was out in one of the suburbs. That was out in, I’m not sure which suburb, in the northwest side. After we get that case over with, before that case, I get a call from Pat Marcy. Pat Marcy, I hadn’t seen him probably even for a couple months, but I hadn’t talked to him for quite a long period of time. And he says to me, you got a case that just came in. He said, we’re going to handle it. And I said, there’s no need, Pat. I said, I can win these cases. I said, there’s no need. I can win these cases. And he said, we’re going to handle this. The case is going to go to Judge Passarella, he said, and we’ll take care of it. I said, Pat, there’s no need to. I said, I can win these cases. I said, they’re all jury trials, but I know I can win them all. And he says, you do as you’re told. Pat had never talked to me like that before. [59:54] Powerful as he was and crazy as I am, And he never, you know, you never demand that I do anything or whatever. We had a different type relationship. And although I hadn’t broken away from them by now, it’s been years. I had broken away from them for about, you know, two, three years. And he says, you know, take the case to trial. I said, well, he’s got some other cases, too, and I’m going to take the one. And she says, I’ll take it to a jury, and I’ll win it. You’ll see how I win it. I take her to trial, and I get her not guilty. The second case was set for trial about a month after that. Not even, yeah, about a month or so after that. And during that time, a couple of times I’m in counselors, and Pat says, when are you going to take the case to trial? I said, well, Pat, you know, I won the one case. I got the other case on trial, and it was before Judge Stillo. He was a judge that we eventually indicted. [1:00:51] Stillo was very, very well connected to the first ward. He’s one of the old-time judges out in Maywood. And I told him, you know, when I came in there, he assumed I’d take it to trial and he’d throw it out. And I said, no, no, no, there’s no need to. I says, I’m going to take the jury on this one. Number one, I had stopped fixing things long before this. And, but he was, to make money, he was willing that he would have thrown the case out. It was a battery with a Cicero policeman. And I says, no, no, I’ll take it. I’ll take it to, you know, I’ll take the jury. I said, I don’t want to put you in that pursuit. Oh, don’t worry about me. I take that one to trial and I win that one too. Now Pat calls me, when the hell are you going to take the case to trial? And that’s the original case with the police woman. That’s the main one. The main one. Okay, go ahead. [1:01:44] When are you going to take it to trial? And I don’t want to take it to trial. In fact. I had talked to the prosecutor, and I said, look, I said, because he was charged with, he was charged with, you know, attempted murder and arrest. I said, if you’ll reduce it, the prosecutor was an idiot. He knew me, should have realized that, you know, that I never lose cases. Yeah. You know, but I want to work out something. He was a special prosecutor on it. He said, we’re not going to reduce it. We said, you know, if you want to work out a plea, we went five years, we went five to ten or whatever in the penitentiary. And I said, well, that’s not going to happen. I said, well, then we’ll just have to go to trial. So now, while I’m at Counselor’s Row, on one of my many occasions, because I was still having some card games over there at somebody else’s other lawyer’s office, because I had had big card games going on there for years. I’m sitting at the counselor’s row table, and Judge Passarella comes in. There’s just him and me there, and when he comes in, I say, Oh, you’re here to see Pat? [1:02:56] And he goes, Pat, who? No more conversation. Who the fuck? No more. The guy’s treating me like I’m some kind of a fool or whatever. And I developed an instant disliking to him. I had never seen him around that much or whatever before that. So now, after the second case, you’re going to go to, you know. So I talked to Lenny. When Lenny came in, Lenny came in with him when we were starting to get prepared for the case. And, oh, this is before this is before I talked to the prosecutor. And I said, Lenny, I said, I says, if I can get it reduced to a misdemeanor, to a misdemeanor. I said, you know, can we work with, you know, and work out a plea, let’s say, for maybe a month or two, you know, a month or two. Is that OK with you? Oh, sure. He says, oh, sure. [1:03:57] Now, this Lenny, this was the kid’s dad, your client’s dad. This is his dad. Now, explain who he was, who Lenny was. His dad was. What’s his last name? Yeah, Karela. Karela, okay. Lenny Karela, I’m pretty sure was his name. He owned a big bakery out there in Elmwood Park area. Okay. And he was friendly with all the mobsters. Okay, all right. I got you. For all I knew, he may have been a mobster himself, but I mean, he may have been because we had thousands of people that were connected. He was a connected guy. All right, go ahead. I’m sorry. And he said, oh, yeah, sure, no, not a problem because the papers are meant, they’re still, after a year, they’re still mentioning that case will be going to trial soon and every so often. [1:04:43] What I had also done, I tried to make contact with the policewoman, not with her, but I put the word out and I knew a lot of police and I got a hold of somebody that did know her. And I said, look, I said, no, the case is fixed if I want it. Yeah. But I don’t want it. Even though I know that, you know, that it’s all BS, you know, I said, look, I said, get a hold of her and get a hold of her lawyer and tell them if they want to file a lawsuit, you know, you know, we can, they can get themselves some money on it. Uh, you know, he’ll indicate, you know, he’ll, he’ll, he’ll indicate that, you know, he, he was guilty or whatever, but I wanted to get her some money. The word I get back is tell him that piece of shit, meaning me to drop dead, to drop dead. You know, we’re going to put this guy in prison and that’s where he should be too. When the case now, now when the case goes to trial. [1:05:48] The coppers lied like hell and talk about stupid. I’ve got the police reports there. When they took him into the police station, they wouldn’t take him. The station said take him to a hospital. He goes to the hospital and the reports, you know, bleeding here, bleeding there, and, you know, marks here, marks there. They beat the hell out of him. [1:06:10] You know, nobody touched him. You know, nobody touched him. Nobody touched him. Was he bleeding? No, no, he wasn’t. He wasn’t bleeding. Didn’t have any, you know, along with, you know, along with everything else. Flat out lied. How many policemen were there? There were two or three. There were about 10 by the time it’s over. But it’s an absolute throwout. Any fingerprints on that metal? Well, we had some fingerprints, but not his. And on and on it went. It’s a throwout case to start with. The courtroom now where the case was, was very interesting. You walk in there, and when you walk in there, there’s about 20 people that can sit. And then there’s, it’s the only courtroom in the building where you have a wall, a glass wall, all the way up, all the way up. Covering in the door, opens up and goes in there. You go in there. It’s a big courtroom. A bunch of benches now in there. You go to the left, and here’s the judge’s chambers. You come out of the chambers, and you walk up about four steps. And here the desk is on like a podium. And it’s not where all the others are, you know, where you look straight forward. It’s over on the side. It’s over, you know, to the left as you walk out of his chambers. [1:07:40] When the judge listens to the case he goes in there I’ll come up back with my ruling he comes out about 10 minutes later he walks up the steps, And now he turns off the microphone. Somebody turns off the microphone so the people in the back can’t hear anything. The ones inside there can, you know, can hear. The one back there can’t hear anything because it’s all enclosed. [1:08:11] That’s why they got the microphone back there. Somebody shut it off. He says, basically, I’m not guilty in a real strange voice. And all but runs off the all but run and don’t ask me why this is what he did all but runs off all but runs off into the into his chambers, you know he’s afraid all those cops out in the audience were going to come and charge the stand I guess and put a whack on him. [1:08:43] But think about it this is Chicago he’s with the bad guys but I’m just saying I don’t know why he did all that, but that’s what he did. And so now, as I come walking out with Mike, and they’re all in uniform, and most of them are in uniform, and then you’ve got the press and all kinds of cameras and whatever there. And as I come walking out along with him, some of these guys I know, and these jerk-offs are like calling me names and whatever. I go, I go see Pat. [1:09:23] And when I go back into Counselor’s Row now, he’s there at the table. And when I come in, it’s a repeat of the Harry Allerman thing. He walks out. He walks directly. And I’m following him, and he walks in. He goes back into the same janitor’s closet and stands on the same steps just above me, you know, talking to me. And I said to him I said this judge is going to have a problem, I said, he’s going to have a problem. I said, what if he says something? And he said to me, nobody would dare. He said, nobody would dare cooperate against us. They know what would happen. Or words to that effect. And don’t ask me why. So many other things had happened before this. But now I’m looking at him and I’m thinking, you know, somebody’s got to stop this craziness. All this stuff. I’m thinking that at the moment, but then I’m worried for some reason, I think he can read my mind. [1:10:34] Stupid as all of this seems, I’m afraid to think that anymore. I’m almost, you know, cause Pat’s such a powerful person and every sense I know, I know his power, but anyhow, so I leave. And like I say, 10, 15 minutes later, that’s all forgotten about. He paid me the rest of the money I was supposed to get from them. [1:10:56] Obviously, he wanted to do it because he was probably charging a lot of money. That’s why he didn’t want me to take things. He wanted to collect the money because while the case was going on too, he puts me in touch with the head of the probation department because he was able to help in some way. He knew some of the, you know, some of the, some of the policemen involved in the thing had been contacted too. Yeah. But they were contacted and they messed up by, you know, they messed up by lying about all that. Yeah. When there’s police reports saying, oh, no, but anyhow, that was that particular case. Tell us why you decided to flip. [1:11:38] These had been your friends. You knew you had explosive information. You knew as a lawyer, you knew what you had to say would send these people to prison for many, many years. if not life. It had to be hard. As other things happened, why did I commit the, Probably two or three other times things happened. But the most important thing was to think when my dad was dying, and I was very close to my dad. When my dad was dyi
City Cast Denver listeners nominated Denver's new NWSL franchise, Denver Summit FC, as one of the biggest wins of the year at our Denver-est Denver Awards last week, and the city is undeniably abuzz with excitement over the prospect of a professional womens soccer team. But how much public money should the City of Denver put up to support the team? City Council is voting tonight on the proposal to spend $50 million to buy land and build support infrastructure for a new stadium, so we're revisiting a conversation host Bree Davies had earlier this year with one of the country's foremost experts on the politics of stadiums, CU Denver's own Dr. Geoff Propheter. Denverite reported on the details of the community benefits agreement that Denver Summit FC reached with neighbors of the proposed stadium site. For even more news from around the city, subscribe to our morning newsletter Hey Denver at denver.citycast.fm. Follow us on Instagram: @citycastdenver Chat with other listeners on reddit: r/CityCastDenver Support City Cast Denver by becoming a member: membership.citycast.fm What do you think about public funding to support a new soccer stadium? We want to hear from you! Text or leave us a voicemail with your name and neighborhood, and you might hear it on the show: 720-500-5418 Learn more about the sponsors of this December 22nd episode: Simply Eloped Looking to advertise on City Cast Denver? Check out our options for podcast and newsletter ads at citycast.fm/advertise
Eric welcomes Council on Foreign Relations President Mike Froman to discuss CFR's latest task force report on U.S. economic security. They explore the importance of AI, quantum computing and biotechnology as foundational technologies in today's strategic competition, the effort that China is investing in these technologies, and the market failures that have led the U.S. to underinvest in quantum and biotech. The conversation also covers supply chain vulnerabilities, human capital shortfalls in key areas of technology, and the tension in the Trump administration's effort to address China's growing technological dominance while simultaneously cutting funding for basic research at the NSF, NIH, and other institutions. U.S. Economic Security: Winning the Race for Tomorrow's Technologies: https://www.cfr.org/task-force-report/us-economic-security Mike Froman on Substack: https://mikefroman.substack.com/ Shield of the Republic is a Bulwark podcast co-sponsored by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.
In this latest Director Clip Notes episode, host Nichel Anderson takes listeners on a reflective and cinematic journey through the evolving world of MOLIAE Short Stories. Episode 63, titled “Queen Hagar Enters the Realm of Orion,” explores the pivotal moment when Queen Hagar, wife of King Mahlon, steps into her destiny as the voice of reason within the Council of Ukneo in Orion. As the council prepares to vote on who will replace Hanee, the tension and wisdom of leadership come to the forefront, marking a defining moment in the MOLIAE saga. Nichel Anderson, also known as Nichel MOLIAE, uses this Director Clip Notes episode to share the creative process behind the storytelling—how each episode builds upon the last, weaving together the emotional and spiritual threads that define the MOLIAE Universe. She reflects on the journey of Queen Hagar's character, her strength, and her evolving role as a guiding force in the celestial and earthly realms. Listeners will gain insight into how the MOLIAE Short Stories have progressed over time, connecting the mythic world of Orion with the ancient lands of Mitsrayim (Egypt). Nichel discusses how the storylines intertwine across seasons, revealing the deeper meanings behind the choices, alliances, and destinies of the royal family and their council. In this episode, Nichel also revisits one of her personal favorites from Season 1—Episode 22, “Ancient Essence of the Nile River Heals All Wounds.” This beloved story captures a heartfelt moment when Queen Hagar's parents arrive in Ancient Mitsrayim to visit her and the royal family. The episode beautifully portrays the healing power of love, family, and the sacred Nile River, which symbolizes renewal and divine connection. Adding to the depth of this Director Clip Notes episode, Nichel takes time to discuss the Season 1 Character Profiles, offering listeners a closer look at the origins and development of key figures such as King Mahlon, Queen Hagar, Hanee, and others who shaped the foundation of the MOLIAE Universe. She shares how their personalities, motivations, and destinies were crafted to reflect universal themes of leadership, loyalty, and spiritual awakening. These insights give fans a deeper appreciation for how the MOLIAE storylines evolved from the written book to the immersive podcast experience. Beyond the storytelling, Nichel also provides exciting updates on the expanding MOLIAE World. She shares news about the upcoming PMTR (Pyramid Mystery Temple Reunion) NFT Collection relaunch, which will soon be available for minting, and how it connects to the MOLIAE mythology through digital art and blockchain innovation. Nichel also highlights the Nichel MOLIAE Music NFTs, which merge her music with the MOLIAE storylines, creating a multi-dimensional experience for fans who follow both her creative and musical journeys. Listeners tuning in to this episode will get the insider scoop on what's next for the MOLIAE brand—from new story developments and creative projects to the growing ecosystem that bridges storytelling, music, and NFTs. Nichel's passion for her work shines through as she reflects on the past, celebrates the present, and looks ahead to the future of the MOLIAE Universe. Episode 63 stands as both a reflection and a celebration—a look back at the origins of the MOLIAE story world and a glimpse forward into its expanding mythology. As the Council of Ukneo prepares for a crucial decision, Queen Hagar's emergence as the voice of reason reminds listeners of the timeless power of leadership guided by compassion and truth. Tune in to “Director Clip Notes: Episode 63 – Queen Hagar Enters the Realm of Orion” to experience the artistry, depth, and cinematic storytelling that define the MOLIAE Short Stories. This episode is a must-listen for fans who have followed the journey from the beginning and for new listeners ready to step into the world where ancient wisdom meets cosmic destiny. Check out and support MOLIAE and buy Nichel MOLIAE Music MOLIAE.com MOLIAEWorld.com Mint.MOLIAEWORLD.COM MOLIAEBeauty.com
Ahead of Pro Wrestling Magic Kingdom Come X VS. Darius Carter Dec 20th and ISPW Wrestling presents a Steel Cage Christmas against ISPW Heavyweight Champion Justin Corino in a Steel Cage Dec. 27th, Indie Wrestler Alex Reiman opens up about his exit and reemergence at Magic, losing the ISPW Heavyweight Championship shortly after losing his grandfather, the return of Gil Kay Marcels , his shattered relationship with The NOW Vik Hale and more...... Powered by Twisted Shamrock Studios & Spa As Always The BCP is brought to you by our FAVORITE store, Funkenstein Wrestling Superstore located in The Englishtown Flea Market (NJ) from 8 am -3pm Sat & Sunday and online. Get your favorite wrestling merch, retro games, ninja turtles, Ghostbusters, and so much more!! Please welcome in our NEW sponsor, MANIA CLUB . Established in 2015, MANIA CLUB is a WWE recognized community for fans with an eclectic love for both the world of professional wrestling and raising money for Connors Cure. During WrestleMania weekend, we host the official Tailgate of WrestleMania while also celebrating Connor Michalek. They are the single largest donor within the V Foundation for Connors Cure with over $150K raised! Please donate and join the Facebook group at MANIA CLUB The BCP is also sponsored by The No Gimmicks Podcast !! The Pro Wrestling podcast that keeps it 100% real, 100% of the time!! The No Gimmicks Podcast is available wherever you get your podcasts. The No Gimmicks Podcast WRESTLING ALL DAY ALL NIGHT is the best wrestling discussion group on Facebook! We provide more of a community feel here, and have wrestling fans introduce other fans to something they may not have seen before, such as old school wrestling, indie wrestling, Japanese wrestling, and more! We also strive to be a source of information regarding upcoming wrestler meet & greets and signings. And remember, we're open 24/7. All Day. All Night! Be sure to follow on socials and join the group on Facebook at Wrestling All Day All Night Sweet Chin Musings is the creation of the reigning, rarely defending, highly disputed champion of wrestling podcasts, “Mr. Perfect” Mike Mueller, and his tag team partner in crime, Luke Kudialis. SCM focuses on the in-ring product of WWE and AEW (no dirt sheet rumors here), as well as backstage news, predictions and analysis of characters, storylines, and major pay per views. Old school fans, don't worry, we have you covered too, with a look back on classic matches, top 10 lists, and interactive tournaments that let the fans decide who is truly the best of all time. You can find us on Facebook at Sweet Chin Musings , and check out the podcast at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sweet-chin-musings/id1494699020 Please welcome in our returning pod sponsor for the show GPW Productions !! GPW provides your promotion or event with TOP TIER video, audio, production, live streaming, and more!! I can personally vouch for them in saying they are hands down THE BEST Production company I have ever worked with as they have and continue to work with the likes of AEW, GCW, Starrcast, MLW, not to mention the majority of the local independent Promotions in the tri-state area. They can even help you film a vignette or promo for your persona/gimmick. And guess what? GPW doesn't just work in wrestling. They cover MMA, boxing, basketball, or any other sporting event as well!! On a personal note I'd like to thank Michael James Sesko , Frank León , Oneil Andrews & the team for giving me multiple opportunities to work with them and some of the best talent in the world. BOOK GPW for your promotion or event today at contact@gpwproductions.com ISPW Wrestling brings the Independent Superstars of Wrestling to the Parsipanny PAL December 27th for a Steel Cage Christmas!! Alex Reiman challenges Justin Corino for the ISPW Championship in a steel cage match!! Also Santa takes on the Grinch, 6 vs 7, and more!! Get your tickets now at ISPWWrestling.com Please welcome in our newest podcast sponsor ISPW Weekly featuring host Totowa Tom Mele as he interviews the stars of the ring, uncover their stories, rivalries, and electrifying action that defines ISPW. Catch ISPW Weekly on The ISPW Facebook Page every week!! ISPW Wrestling Looking to press play on feeling good again? Twisted Shamrock Studios & Spa —Delaware County's Retro Recovery Rebels—are here to rewind time and reboot the way you heal. From therapeutic massage and assisted stretch therapy to glow-up facials and energy work—this is where function meets feel-good. Perfect for athletes, overachievers, and everyday Joes & Janes who need real relief with a vintage twist. Reboot your body. Recharge your soul. Rock the retro vibe. Call or text 484-574-8868 or visit And follow us for pop-up events, retro inspo, and more! Please welcome back our returning pod sponsor, Jay Adam Photography !! Jay provides quality, artistic, innovative photography with quick turnaround. Be sure to check out his latest pics from the top promotions here in the northeast and much more stellar content. Contact Jay at Jay Vogel for promo shots at events or off site, match photos, and much more!! Thank you Jay!! Jay Vogel Please welcome in our returning pod sponsor for 2026 the @Ropes N Riffs Podcast featuring maestro John Kiernan speaking with the Stars of professional wrestling about in ring, tunage, gear, and more!! Check out John's interviews with the likes of Lince Dorado, Mercedes Martinez, and more!! Find the Ropes N Riffs Podcast on all major Podcast platforms!! @Ropes N Riffs Podcast USDN Podcast is run by USDN_Chairman and the Council of Nerds. We bring you all the latest news and rumors from the World of Nerds and consolidate it right here at USDN. USDN is for the people, by the people and of the people. https://www.facebook.com/usdepartmentofnerds USDN Podcast Warriors Of Wrestling (W.O.W) returns to Brooklyn NY with TNA Stars Alicia & Eddie Edwards Saturday January 10th!! Get your tickets now at WarriorsofWrestling.com Brii Combination Wrestling returns to The Mecca in Ridgefield Park, NJ Sunday January 18th for Welcome to the New Year featuring BCW World Champion Darius Carter, Harleen Lopez, Journey Burke, Emily Jaye, and more!! Get your tickets now. Please welcome in our new podcast sponsor EM Collectibles featuring Live Signings, Collectibles, toys and more!! Be sure to follow them on Facebook and stay tuned for upcoming events: UPCOMING EVENTS!! March 28-29, 2026 Syracuse Collectors Con with Mr. Anderson, American Gladiators Malibu, Diamond, Blaze, and one more name TBA May 2, 2026- New England Fan Fest with Adam Bomb, Harvey Whippleman, The Headbangers and Powers of Pain! Be sure to follow EM Collectibles on Facebook! Please welcome back our returning podcast sponsor, From the Left Side Get hit From the Left Side with all the wrestling and sports news you can handle!! Thank you FTLS for sponsoring the BCP!! Please welcome in our NEW podcast sponsor The S.D.N. Podcast !! For in-depth WWE predictions, pay-per-view reviews, and insightful interviews with wrestling personalities, I highly recommend The SDN Podcast. They cover all the big events and give you expert analysis every week. Be sure to subscribe and stay updated on everything wrestling. Thank you S.D.N. Podcast for sponsoring the BCP! The SDN Podcast
Recorded at the Nicaea Conference in Istanbul, this episode of The Westminster Podcast features a wide-ranging and incisive conversation with Pastor Leo de Chirico, a Reformed Baptist pastor serving in Rome, Italy. Drawing on his unique experience and years of evangelistic and theological engagement in a Roman Catholic context, Leo reflects on the significance of the Council of Nicaea, the purpose of the Nicene Creed, and what it really meant to confess Christ's divinity in the face of Arianism. Rather than treating the creed as a sentimental or purely ecumenical touchstone, Leo argues that Nicaea functioned as an exegetical workshop—a Scripture-driven response to heresy grounded in the authority of the Bible. From there, the conversation explores how different Christian traditions interpret the same creedal language within very different theological frameworks. Leo traces the divergent trajectories of Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and Protestantism, contending that the Reformation did not reject Nicene Christianity but sought to recover what Nicaea assumed: the supremacy of Scripture as the norma normans. The discussion also turns to contemporary issues, including the renewed attraction of Roman Catholicism among evangelicals, the legacy of Vatican II, and the challenge of engaging a Catholicism that is adaptive, plural, and often misunderstood. Throughout, Leo presses a consistent theme: Christians may use the same words, but they often inhabit very different worlds—and faithful dialogue requires clarity, historical awareness, and a renewed confidence in Scripture alone. If you enjoy this episode, you can access tons of content just like this at wm.wts.edu. If you would like to join us in our mission to train specialists in the bible to proclaim the whole counsel of God for Christ and his global church, visit wts.edu/donate. Thanks for listening!
Today on The Cosmic Womb: A cathartic and reverent debrief of 2025, honoring the medicine, grief, awakenings, and profound shifts Why 2025 served as a course correction, pivoting many into soul-aligned contracts, heart-led leadership, and higher consciousnessThe astrological and energetic themes of 2026 and what they mean for your life, purpose, intuition, and embodiment The importance of quickened choice, energetic discernment, intuitive intelligence, and removing distractions in this new paradigm How to walk into 2026 feeling held, supported, and guided by universal and cosmic forces, rooted in self-trust and inner authority Meet Today's Council: Connect with Ellie ClearyIG: @ellieclearycoaching Website: elliecleary.com Temple of Venus Mystery School Connect with Ellie StilesTikTok: @elevatewithelliestilesWebsite: elevatewithelliestiles.sellfy.storeConnect with Jana RoemerIG: @jana_roemerWebsite: janaroemer.com | attunetothemoon.com Insight Timer: Yoga NidraConnect with Karly AshworthIG: @thepsychicoach Website: thepsychicoach.com Connect with Maddison: IG: @endora.inc Connect with Nora Tabak:IG: @norainlight | @shescosmicallycodedWebsite: shescosmicallyencoded.com Connect with Emily: IG: @emilythemediumWebsite: emilythemedium.com Substack: @emilythemediumRead A Cosmic Bond: Communicating with your Spirit Babies from Preconception to Birth: bit.ly/42lUP24Other Resources:Use code EMILY10 to shop MILKMOON Fertility and Postpartum tonics https://bit.ly/3uoNYsn
Send us a textOn this episode, we discuss the young men's general council of 14, New temple announcements in the area where the temple will be built, and the use of different bible translations. Chase joins us behind the cameras to help with production and offer his personal insights as a young man. Support the Show!www.patreon.com/SaintsintheSouth(The thoughts, ideas, and beliefs we express on this channel do not officially represent The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For additional information or official statements, please visit the website below. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/?lang=eng)#biblestudy #oldtestament #religion #churchofJesusChrist #ldspodcast #christianpodcast #missionary #lds #biblestories #christ #faith #faithinchrist #scriptures #bookofmormon #doctrineandcovenants #pearlofgreatprice #temples #houseofthelord #mormon #mormonbeliefs #christiansandmormons #god #endure #ironrod #faithineveryfootstep #generalconference #prophets #followtheprophet #commandments #love #service #charity #keepstriving #keeponstriving #gospelgrowthandgoodtimes #become #newtestamentBeyond The BeaconJoin Bishop Kevin Sweeney for inspired interviews with Catholics living out their faith!Listen on: Apple Podcasts SpotifySupport the showThanks for listening! Keep on Strivin'! Support the Show & become a "Patron Saint"!