GUN DEBATE President Trump backed off his call for raising the minimum age to buy a gun, but he did pledge to help states pay for firearm training for teachers. The president also pushed to improve the background check system for gun purchases. http://cvote.it/2FK5jkc
REPEAL TAX CUTS? Congressional Democrats have released a tax hike plan they promise to implement if they win the House and Senate after the 2018 midterm elections. The plan would increase the highest marginal tax rate from 37% to 39.6%, and would increase the corporate tax rate from 21% to 25%. http://cvote.it/2FN0FSB
DEMOCRATS 2020 Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, says she won’t run for president in 2020. http://cvote.it/2FKI3m4
WIN FOR DECENCY Those creepy sexual ads next to news stories might be a thing of the past. http://cvote.it/2FMvSoS
GAY MYTH REVEALED? Shocking new evidence has come to light involving the 49 people slaughtered in a mass shooting at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando in 2016. Despite what the mainstream media and LGBT groups have long claimed, the killer was not motivated by anti-gay hatred. In new testimony in the trial of the killer’s wife, she claims he had no idea that Pulse was a gay nightclub. http://cvote.it/2FGFYrg
PENSIONS & TUNNELS States and cities are buried in debt because of massive costs of pensions for government employees. Nicole Gelinas says Uncle Sam should provide a solution: “Offer states credit, in the form of more federal infrastructure money, if they pare back their pension and health-care obligations to future retirees.” http://cvote.it/2Hpsu0b
SEXUAL IDENTITY Dr. Paul McHugh of Johns Hopkins University writes that because biological sex is unchangeable, those who undergo sex-reassignment surgery merely “become feminized men or masculinized women.” http://cvote.it/2Hsa675
IT’S ABOUT TIME The Florida Legislature overwhelmingly approved legislation to stay on daylight savings time all year. The bill sponsor, State Sen. Greg Steube, said he got the idea from a barber: “One of the barbers had young children and it had such a negative impact every time they set their clocks back [that they had trouble] getting their kids up for school.” http://cvote.it/2FEUMH1
HUMANAE VITAE Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, stressed that any attempts to change the Church’s teaching on contraception outlined in Humanae Vitae would be “a crime against the Church.” http://cvote.it/2HqghZ0
PAPAL TRIP The Vatican has confirmed that Pope Francis will visit the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania this September. http://cvote.it/2HokH2F
SAINT OF THE DAY Blessed Angela Salawa was a maid for many years, and eventually became a Secular Franciscan who worked with wounded and sick soldiers during World War I. Abandoned by everyone before her death, she died on March 12, 1922. http://cvote.it/dailysaint
DAILY MASS READINGS “I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.” (Ps 30:2) – http://cvote.it/Daily-Readings
BEAUTY One artist’s quest for liturgical beauty. http://cvote.it/2FL1f35