Last week the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a $195,000 fine imposed on pro-life activist David Daleiden. District Judge William Orrick initially imposed the fine because he said Daleiden and his attorneys violated a gag order. The fine is intended to reimburse the National Abortion Federation for legal fees and added security.

The gag order is related to videos which are at the heart of both a civil and criminal trial. In 2014 and 2015, Daleiden and a coworker from the Center for Medical Progress went to the National Abortion Federation’s annual conventions. They posed as fetal tissue researchers and secretly recorded conversations in which participants discussed selling fetal tissue from abortion clinics.

In 2016, the National Abortion Federation sued to have the videos taken down. U.S. District Judge William Orrick III ruled that the duo recorded the videos fraudulently and ordered them to remove the posts and prohibited any further disclosure of them. A year later, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra charged Daleiden and his colleague Sandra Merritt with violating a state law which prohibited the secret recording of conversations.

Daleiden’s criminal attorneys, Steve Cooley and Brent Ferreira, posted the videos on YouTube to “protect Daleiden’s right to a fair trial” after they received them from the State Attorney’s…

A lesbian couple in Missouri says a restaurant canceled their wedding rehearsal because they are both women.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, bride-to-be Kendall Brown said she told Madison’s Cafe in O’Fallon, Mo. this week that she was marrying another woman. The restaurant had called to confirm details for the dinner and asked the groom’s name.

Brown said the restaurant then told her that she would have to find another venue. She said the woman told her that she didn’t condone the relationship and that her relationship was unhealthy.

“And then I just hung up the phone,” she said.

Madison’s Cafe declined to comment.

After Brown posted about the call on social media, she said many other places have offered to host the couple’s rehearsal dinner. She and partner Mindy Rackley, 36, are hoping to make a decision soon.

“It’s been extremely overwhelming, like the outpouring of love and support that we’ve had from friends and family and people we don’t even know and people in different states,” she said.

The couple said they did not pay the restaurant a deposit and will not be pursuing legal action.

“We really aren’t trying to harm them in any way,” she said. “We don’t want to fight hate with hate. And we’re really just wanting to bring about awareness… so nobody else has to feel the…

NAIROBI, Kenya, June 14, 2019 (Morning Star News) – One of two buildings of a Christian primary school in eastern Uganda was demolished after local Muslims who opposed it threatened “tough action,” sources said.

The building containing three of Hope of Glory Primary School’s seven classrooms was destroyed before dawn on June 2 in predominantly Muslim Kabuna village, Budaka District, following a series of threats that area Muslims sent to the school, officials said. The private school offers instruction in primary grades one through seven.

One of the aims of the school is to provide education to formerly Muslim children whose parents have disowned them for putting their faith in Christ, said a school official whose name is withheld for security reasons. Among the 173 students from eight districts, 57 are converts from Islam, he said. Another seven children were Muslims who became Christians after they began attending the school.

Complaining that worship at night was disturbing them, area Muslims had written several letters to Kabuna educational officials, the Budaka District police commander and the Budaka Resident District Commissioner demanding closure of the school, he said.

“If you do not stop night prayers, then we are going to take tough action against the school,” read one anonymous letter to school officials a week before the June 2 demolition, he said.

“We…

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders will leave the White House at the end of this month.

According to the Associated Press, President Trump announced in a tweet on Thursday that his trusted staff member will be leaving her position as his press secretary at the end of June and will head back to her home state of Arkansas.

“After 3 1/2 years, our wonderful Sarah Huckabee Sanders will be leaving the White House at the end of the month and going home to the Great State of Arkansas,” President Trump wrote in a tweet.

“She is a very special person with extraordinary talents, who has done an incredible job! I hope she decides to run for Governor of Arkansas – she would be fantastic. Sarah, thank you for a job well done,” the president added.

….She is a very special person with extraordinary talents, who has done an incredible job! I hope she decides to run for Governor of Arkansas – she would be fantastic. Sarah, thank you for a job well done!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2019

Sanders responded to the Presidents’ praises in a tweet of her own where she expressed her gratefulness for Donald Trump. 

The Press Secretary wrote, “I am blessed and forever grateful to @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to serve and proud of everything he’s accomplished. I love the President and my job.”

She continued, “The most important job…

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (RNS) — Southern Baptists, faced in recent months with hundreds of allegations of sexual abuse in its ranks, have overwhelmingly adopted changes to governing documents that will bring greater visibility to their desire to disaffiliate with churches that do not handle instances of abuse properly.

A new standing “Credentials Committee” also will consider whether churches are not “in friendly cooperation” for that and other reasons, including involvement in “discriminatory behavior on the basis of ethnicity.”

Delegates, called messengers, also voted Tuesday (June 11) at their annual meeting to amend the constitution of the Southern Baptist Convention so that it will make explicit that churches that mishandle cases of abuse or racial discrimination are not welcome.

“I believe this is a very, very significant moment in the history of the Southern Baptist Convention,” said new SBC Executive Committee President Ronnie Floyd.

He said the nation’s largest Protestant denomination has “given a clear signal not only about what we believe about sexual abuse, but we also stand against all ethnic discrimination in the United States and around the world.”

The constitutional amendments will need to be considered a second time at next year’s annual meeting before they can become official.

Moments after the votes, about 50 abuse victim…