Christopher Vondracek

DeVos’ sexual harassment rules take effect on college campuses

New federal rules governing how colleges will treat claims of sexual harassment are going into effect Friday, after clearing a final legal challenge.

August 14, 2020

L.A. church sues over indoor worship restrictions

A church in Los Angeles flaunting pandemic restrictions to hold indoor services sued Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Eric Garcetti on Thursday, alleging violation of constitutional guarantees of religious freedom.

August 13, 2020

1 out of 3 Americans would hesitate to get coronavirus vaccine

Infectious disease experts are eyeing the next battle once a vaccine for the coronavirus is developed in the U.S.: how to get Americans to take it.

August 12, 2020

Megachurches split on holding in-person services

Megachurches are increasingly divided on whether to return to in-person worship, now months into the COVID-19 pandemic.

August 11, 2020

COVID-19 worsens substitute teachers shortage

School districts nationwide are rushing to fill substitute teaching slots ahead of an anticipated labor shortage due to COVID-19 this school year.

August 10, 2020

South Dakota embraces Sturgis motorcycle rally: ‘We’ve been back to normal for three months’

Officials inside and outside South Dakota are expressing concern about the potential spread of the coronavirus during an annual motorcycle rally that opened Friday in the Black Hills and typically attracts hundreds of thousands of bikers. But officials in Sturgis, the town of 7,000 residents that has hosted the rally for 80 years, are not quite as worried.

August 8, 2020

Sturgis motorcycle rally officials dismiss coronavirus spread worries

Officials inside and outside South Dakota are expressing concern about the potential spread of the coronavirus during an annual motorcycle rally that opens Friday in the Black Hills and typically attracts hundreds of thousands of bikers. But officials in Sturgis, the town of 7,000 residents that has hosted the rally for 80 years, are not quite as worried.

August 6, 2020

Calls mount for Netflix to pull Polish erotica ‘365 Days’

The head of a parental TV watchdog group is calling on Netflix to remove from its lineup "365 Days," a graphic Polish film about a woman imprisoned for a year, ostensibly as a concubine.

August 5, 2020

Americans’ distrust in media at alarming levels, poll reveals

Americans' distrust for the news media to tell the story straight has reached unprecedented levels, an alarming development for any functioning democracy, a new poll reveals.

August 4, 2020

Converse College ripped for diversity mandates ‘coercive imposition’

Colleges and universities are implementing policies and programs to address issues arising from George Floyd's death, but some faculty and staff say those efforts represent political conformity for more conservative members of the campus community.

August 4, 2020

D.C., Maryland, Virginia officials prepare for heavy rains from Isaias

Tropical Storm Isaias was expected to strengthen into a hurricane and make landfall along the Carolinas late Monday, then continue crawling northward up the coast Tuesday to Virginia and Maryland, the National Weather Service said.

August 3, 2020

D.C. cancels free COVID-19 testing sites due to tropical storm

All free-testing sites for the novel coronavirus in the nation's capital will stop on Tuesday due to inclement weather poised to hit the region from Tropical Storm Isaias.

August 3, 2020

Red state school districts require wearing masks

A number of school districts in conservative regions are requiring masks if schools reopen this fall — sometimes against the guidance of political leaders.

July 29, 2020

Freedom Summit panelists hit Marxism at universities

Conservative commentators warned of neo-Marxist indoctrination on college campuses, lambasted coronavirus mask mandates and criticized alliances between U.S. churches and the Black Lives Matter movement during a roundtable discussion Tuesday sponsored by Liberty University's Falkirk Center for Faith and Liberty.

July 28, 2020

DOJ releases new religious liberty guidance on grants

The Justice Department has issued a new guidance on awarding grants to religious groups, citing a recent Supreme Court ruling in favor of private schools.

July 28, 2020

71% of churches meeting for in-person worship, study finds

For most U.S. congregations, in-person worship has returned to mid-March levels despite a nationwide rise in coronavirus cases, a new report says.

July 27, 2020

D.C.-area private schools craft plans for reopening

Like their public school counterparts, D.C.-area private schools are weighing safety and students' needs in their reopening plans amid the pandemic. But some are finding the logistics less cumbersome, given their smaller classes and fewer students to bus.

July 26, 2020

Over half of Americans say faith not necessary to be moral, survey finds

Less than half of Americans say faith in God is needed to have good values, according to a new global survey from the Pew Research Center.

July 24, 2020

American, British diplomats turn up heat on Russia after massive raids on Jehovah’s Witnesses

The U.S. and British delegations to a European security organization are attacking Russia's human rights record, one week after armed Russian authorities raided more than 100 homes of Jehovah's Witnesses.

July 24, 2020

Theodore McCarrick, disgraced ex-cardinal, accused of running beach house child sex ring

A new lawsuit accuses former cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, of managing a "sex cabal" among seminarians, altar boys and priests at a New Jersey beach house in the 1980s.

July 22, 2020