(You Know Which State) Dumb Criminals: Fleeing burglars hop fence into police parking lot

Two Florida burglary suspects running from police thought they could escape by hopping a fence.

One problem — on the other side was the Boca Raton Police Department parking lot.

Video released by Police Chief Dan Alexander on Thursday shows numerous gun-wielding officers running toward suspects to capture them. Officer Sandra Boonenberg said she and other officers heard the suspects were nearing the station Wednesday, so they went outside in case they were needed.

A neighbor had spotted the two men and a woman burglarizing a house and called police, giving officers a description of the suspects.

Judge orders immediate start of Michigan recount

Source: Detroit Free Press

A federal judge early Monday morning ordered a recount of Michigan's presidential ballots to begin at noon on Monday, and for the state to "assemble necessary staff to work sufficient hours" to complete the recount by a Dec. 13 federal deadline.

Lawyers for Green Party candidate Jill Stein urged the action in an emergency request, and U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith held a rare Monday hearing in federal court. It lasted three hours, and Goldsmith issued a written opinion just after midnight on Monday morning.

Goldsmith said a state law requiring a two business day waiting period to start the recount likely violates voting rights.

"With the perceived integrity of the presidential election as it was conducted in Michigan at stake, concerns with cost pale in comparison," Goldsmith said in his opinion.

Read more: http://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2016/12/04/michigan-recount-decision-jill-stein-donald-trump/94952282/

Pope recognizes first US-born martyr

Pope Francis has recognized the martyrdom of Father Stanley Rother of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, making him the first martyr born in the United States.

The Vatican made the announcement Dec. 2. The recognition of his martyrdom clears the way for his beatification.

Father Rother, born March 27, 1935, on his family's farm near Okarche, Oklahoma, was brutally murdered July 28, 1981, in a Guatemalan village where he ministered to the poor.

He went to Santiago Atitlan in 1968 on assignment from the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. He helped the people there build a small hospital, school and its first Catholic radio station. He was beloved by the locals, who called him "Padre Francisco."

Segways and selfies: It's the hipster nativity

Few iconic cultural events have such clear hipster readings as the birth, or startup if you prefer, of Jesus. There is the stable – an ancient form of glamping. And the candlelight – very hygge. The three wise men have the kind of names hipsters give their children – Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar. There are the beards. And shepherds (very now – look at the success of James Rebanks’ memoir about sheep rearing).

Still, one company has decided that nativity scenes need an overt hipster makeover. And lo!, San Diego-based company Modern Nativity has created a set featuring three wise men on Segways, bearing boxes containing gifts from Amazon Prime, Mary and Joseph taking a selfie over the baby Jesus in their stable with its solar-powered roof, and an organically reared cow eating gluten-free feed.

The company’s founder, Casey Wright, has described the response as “very polarised. It’s usually, ‘This is hilarious. I need one,’ or ‘This is sacrilegious. I hope you burn in hell,’ and almost nothing in between those two extremes.” Although Wright added, to CNBC, that what is perturbing many people is the authenticity of the hipster details. The company has had comments such as: “Segways aren’t hipster. They’re technically early-stage millennial with a tinge of east coast liberal.”

DiNardo, Gomez to lead USCCB

To no one's surprise, the first ballot of this Tuesday's election produced the next President of the United States (Bishops) – keeping with the body's half-century custom, the incumbent VP, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, was given the chief's chair with an easy 55 percent of the vote.

Once the traditional formality wrapped up, the selection of DiNardo's deputy indeed produced a choice between the respective lead contenders from the "messenger" and "manager" schools, with the premier option among the former – Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles – taking the post in a 131-84 result over one of the top masters of Mothership process, New Orleans' Archbishop Gregory Aymond.

With the outcome, the incoming executive team already enjoys a solid relationship, DiNardo and Gomez having spent five years together as the twin archbishops of Texas. Given the fresh charge for solidarity with immigrants shared by Pope Francis and the Stateside bench, however, the collision course between the church's stance and that of the impending Trump administration makes the choice of a Mexican-born migrant, as well as the first Hispanic ever raised into the USCCB's topmost leadership – and with it, Gomez's positioning as the body's first Latino chief come 2019 – an all the more potent signal. (To be sure, from the outset of last weekend's committee meetings, the LA prelate's searing homily in defense of the undocumented at a sudden prayer service for healing in the secular campaign's wake was seen to have made a profound impact among this electorate.)

Considering DiNardo's longstanding all-in role helping to guide the Texas' bishops decades-old focus on immigration issues as the state's top prelate, the body's movement to put Gomez at his side on the national stage indeed represents a doubling-down on the premier fault-line between the US' largest religious body and January's reality of a Republican White House and Congress.

Suggestive costume at Trunk or Treat event prompts outrage from village residents

Several citizens in the village of Shepherd are furious after a young man showed up at a Trunk or Treat event dressed as a penis.

The Shepherd Police Department received several 911 complaints as well as messages on its Facebook page. Shepherd Police Chief Luke Sawyer took to Facebook to explain the situation in a video posted on Tuesday, Nov. 1.

Sawyer said it's too bad the incident is overshadowing an otherwise incredible event and that the department talked to the young man before sending him on his way.

He added that as a father himself, he thought the costume was inappropriate, but as a police chief there was nothing that could be done.

Alabama church elects lesbian pastor with a message of inclusion

The Rev. Jennifer Sanders, an openly lesbian community minister, has been elected as the new pastor of Beloved Community Church in Avondale.

Beloved is affiliated with the United Church of Christ, one of the more liberal mainline denominations.

“I’m a woman, a lesbian, a member of a progressive faith tradition,” Sanders said.

Beloved Church, founded in 2000, voted 34-0 to elect Sanders. The church has about 120 members on roll.

Alabama church elects lesbian pastor with a message of inclusion

The Rev. Jennifer Sanders, an openly lesbian community minister, has been elected as the new pastor of Beloved Community Church in Avondale.

Beloved is affiliated with the United Church of Christ, one of the more liberal mainline denominations.

“I’m a woman, a lesbian, a member of a progressive faith tradition,” Sanders said.

Beloved Church, founded in 2000, voted 34-0 to elect Sanders. The church has about 120 members on roll.

For Clinton, a Daily Dose of Faith Along With Politics

It's no secret that Clinton is a lifelong Methodist. But Shillady — who officiated at Chelsea Clinton's wedding, led a memorial service for Clinton's mother, Dorothy Rodham, and gave the closing benediction at the Democratic National Convention — feels that many people don't really know how much her faith "is a daily thing."

He says this is because Clinton's faith is of a personal variety, one she's not very comfortable with broadcasting.

As Clinton said at a presidential forum in 2007: "I take my faith very seriously and very personally. And I come from a tradition that is perhaps a little too suspicious of people who wear their faith on their sleeves ... a lot of the talk about and advertising about faith doesn't come naturally to me."

Arturo Sosa, S.J., elected Superior General of the Jesuits.

The 36th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus has elected Father Arturo Sosa Abascal, of the Venezuelan Province, Superior General.

Father Arturo Sosa was born in Caracas, Venezuela, on November 12, 1948. He is the Delegate of the General for the Interprovincial Houses and Works of the Society of Jesus in Rome. He is a doctor in political sciences from the Universidad Central de Venezuela and has a license in philosophy from the Andrés Bello Catholic University. Father Arturo Sosa speaks Spanish, Italian, English and understands French.

Alan Fogarty, S.J., the president of the Gregorian University Foundation, has Father Sosa as his superior. This morning he told America that Father Sosa is “man of great faith, a real leader, because he has a vision coming from a strong sense of the history of the Society. He is a great listener, a man of patience, and believes deeply in discernment, in the tradition of St. Ignatius of Loyola.”

“He is very friendly, very easy to talk to, and is sensitive, and has a deep concern for others. He is a true companion of Jesus,” Father Fogarty added.