Leonardo Blair

Latest

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  Jan 17, 2022

  Pastor Michael Todd draws ire for wiping spit on congregant’s face during sermon

  Popular Pastor Michael Todd of Transformation Church in Bixby, Oklahoma, drew the wrath of the internet and became a trending topic on Twitter as a clip from his message on vision Sunday showed him wiping globs of spit on a congregant's face even as the coronavirus pandemic rages.

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  Jan 14, 2022

  Up to 88K COVID-19 deaths, 1 million hospitalizations possible over next 4 weeks: CDC forecast

  A high-end estimate of up to 88,000 deaths and over 1 million hospital admissions could follow the ongoing wave of the COVID-19 pandemic over the next four weeks as the virus moves toward claiming nearly 900,000 lives in the United States alone, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

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  Jan 13, 2022

  Summit Church fires pastor for stealing $1K from Christmas Eve offering

  Summit Church, a multi-campus congregation in Florida, has fired Jim Hines, one of its directing elders, after he was caught stealing from a Christmas Eve offering and admitted it wasn’t his first time.

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  Jan 12, 2022

  American families fall deeper into debt as prices rise, median incomes slide: study

  With the rising cost of housing, food, gas, transportation and medical care, more Americans are now falling deeper into debt as median incomes fell 3% over the last two years, according to NerdWallet’s annual study on credit card and other forms of household debt.

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  Jan 12, 2022

  Pastor Tavner Smith announces time off to spend 'with God' after staffers quit over affair rumors

  Weeks after a video surfaced online allegedly showing him kissing a woman who is not his wife and multiple members of his staff quit, Pastor Tavner Smith of Venue Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee, has announced he will take a few weeks off work to get counseling and  “spend time with God.”

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  Jan 12, 2022

  Teen mom who confessed to tossing newborn in dumpster is charged with attempted murder

  A New Mexico teenager who confessed to police that she was the mother of a newborn baby found discarded in a dumpster and that she was the one who left the child has been charged with attempted murder and felony child abuse.

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  Jan 11, 2022

  Tennessee pastor, step-daughter die after domestic shooting

  Members of the Mosheim Church of God in Tennessee mourned the loss of their pastor, Kenneth Cook, on Sunday, after a domestic-related shooting at a Pilot gas station in White Pine.

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  Jan 11, 2022

  In historic surgery, man gets new heart from genetically-modified pig

  Faculty members at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore announced Monday that they successfully transplanted a genetically-modified pig heart into a human in a “first-in-the-world surgery,” giving hope as thousands are stuck on a transplant waiting list annually and die in the process.

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  Jan 10, 2022

  Pastor whose church paid him nearly $390K in 1 year apologizes for not paying taxes, fraud

  North Carolina Pastor Frank Jacobs, 51, who led the Rock Worship Center Church in Charlotte from at least 2009 to 2018 and Quest Church in Charlotte from at least 2019 to 2021, pleaded guilty to tax and wire fraud earlier last week.

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  Jan 10, 2022

  Jamal Bryant among 25 faith leaders on hunger strike for voting rights

  Megachurch pastor Jamal Bryant, who leads New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Georgia, is among 25 faith leaders who have embarked on a hunger strike in a bid to push Congress to pass voting rights legislation by Martin L. King, Jr. Day on Jan. 17.