Now, a new Trump administration program is sidestepping the regulatory system that's overseen the nuclear industry for half a century. The program will fast-track construction of new and untested reactor designs built by private firms, with an explicit goal of having at least three nuclear test reactors up and running by the United States' 250th birthday, July 4, 2026.

If that goal is met, it will be without the direct oversight of America's primary nuclear regulator. Since the 1970s, safety for commercial reactors has been the purview of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. But the NRC is only consulting on the new Reactor Pilot Program, which is being run by the Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy.

The existing staff of that office recently asked outsiders for help. In an email seen by NPR, the Office of Nuclear Energy requested volunteers from universities to assist in speeding up safety reviews. "DOE is currently evaluating creative ideas to help manage anticipated resource constraints," read the Nov. 17 email, which was addressed to members of the National Organization of Test, Research and Training Reactors.

The new pilot program may be an unproven regulatory path run by an agency with limited experience in the commercial sector, but supporters say it's energizing an industry that's been moribund for decades.

As those companies prepare to test their designs, their path is now being helped by the executive order Trump signed on the day he met with the nation's nuclear executives. The order explicitly placed oversight of commercial test reactors with the Energy Department, and it required Energy Secretary Chris Wright to "approve at least three reactors pursuant to this pilot program with the goal of achieving criticality in each of the three reactors by July 4, 2026." [emphasis added]

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[The NRC] was set up in 1975 by Congress as an independent safety watchdog, said Allison Macfarlane, the former NRC chair. Part of the reason the NRC was formed was because the predecessor to the DOE, known as the Atomic Energy Commission, oversaw both safety and promotion of nuclear power at the same time.

"This was a very strong conflict of interest," Macfarlane said.

In 2022, the NRC rejected a combined license application for Oklo, a new nuclear startup. Oklo had submitted an application to build and operate its small reactor, called the Aurora powerhouse. But the NRC denied the application because it contained "significant information gaps in its description of Aurora's potential accidents as well as its classification of safety systems and components."

Then at the May signing of the executive order [taking things out of NRC's hands], Oklo's CEO Jacob DeWitte appeared behind President Trump applauding the new reactor program at DOE.

Oklo had another connection to the Energy Department — the secretary of energy, Chris Wright, was a member of Oklo's board of directors until he took the helm at the DOE. Wright stepped down following his confirmation in February.

A licensed clinical psychologist who often works with men seeking help for unwanted same-sex attraction says clients should be free to pursue their own therapeutic goals — an approach he hopes will increasingly be considered in mainstream psychological circles.

"Clients deserve the right to pick their own therapy goals," Dr. Joseph Nicolosi Jr. told The Christian Post. "Our clients are people whose goal is to live a life consistent with their values, including as it relates to their sexuality. We want to support them to live in accordance with their deeply held values."

'Disordered urge'

Nicolosi, who practices in California and serves as president of the nonprofit Reintegrative Therapy Association, drew widespread attention earlier this month when political commentator Milo Yiannopoulos mentioned his therapeutic approach during an hours-long conversation with Tucker Carlson.

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My son wants to go out of town to see his Girlfriend but financially this is very hard. Oh please pray for his happiness. Either way please ask God for a financial breakthrough and my son Jakeb's happiness. Oh please pray. Thank you and God bless you. I ask in the name of Jesus.

I've seen an Orthodox Advent wreath for sale with six candles, but I don't actually know of anyone who uses one. I've only heard one person even mention their existence. Out of curiosity, does anyone here have one or know of anyone who does?

I'm aware that the Advent wreath is traditionally a Protestant thing, just wanted to see if it had any notable presence in Orthodoxy.

The website of California's second-largest school district includes a section that walks students through altering their name and gender identity, in addition to promoting materials that claim there are nine genders and 28 sexual orientations.

The parental rights advocacy group, Defending Education, released a reportlast Thursday detailing the San Diego Unified School District’s “Equity & Belonging” website. Framing its mission around “dismantling systems of oppression,” the website uses materials from the Zinn Education Project, Black Lives Matter and GLSEN.

There is also a lesson packet intended for students in third through sixth grades that includes topics such as “Trans kids in the Boy Scouts” and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

“The San Diego Unified School District is committed to creating equitable and inclusive schools that ensure that students have what they need to be successful in school and life,” the web hub’s introductory statement reads.

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University of Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza thanked God for allowing him to chase a "pipe dream" after he won college football's most decorated individual award on Saturday.

Mendoza, 22, was announced as the winner of the Heisman Trophy at a ceremony Saturday night. As a devout Catholic, he expressed gratitude to God during his acceptance speech.

“First, I want to thank God for giving me the opportunity to chase a dream that once felt a world away," Mendoza began. He insisted that “standing here tonight holding this … bad boy representing Indiana University” still “doesn’t feel real."

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As abortion continues to wane as a top issue of concern for American voters, some pro-life groups are resorting to “peaceful civil disobedience” by organizing abortion clinic blockades and using their arrests to bring greater awareness to the fight to save babies in the womb.

Earlier this month, over a dozen pro-lifers were arrested and jailed for one to three days after blocking the entrance to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Memphis, Tennessee.

Rescue Resurrection is the "umbrella name" that Randall Terry, founder of the pro-life organization Operation Rescue, told The Christian Post is being used for pro-life groups willing to participate in "large-scale peaceful civil disobedience.”

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Former special counsel Jack Smith told a congressional committee Wednesday that his team found "proof beyond a reasonable doubt” that President Donald Trump engaged in a “criminal scheme” to overturn the results of the 2020 election,according to portions of his opening statement obtained by NBC News.

Trump also “repeatedly tried to obstruct justice” to keep secret his retention of classified documents found during an FBI search in Mar-a-Lago, Smith told members of the House Judiciary Committee during a closed-door hearing.

Smith said his team turned up “powerful evidence that showed Trump willfully retained highly classified documents after he left office in Jan. 2021, storing them at his social club, including in a bathroom and a ballroom where events and gatherings took place.”

House Oversight Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, subpoenaed Smith to testify as part of Republican efforts to investigate the special counsel's office.

Pushing back at criticism over his team's decision to obtain and analyze the phone call records of nine congressional Republicans, Smith told members of the committee that those records “were lawfully subpoenaed and were relevant to complete a comprehensive” investigation.

"President Trump and his associates tried to call Members of Congress in furtherance of their criminal scheme, urging them to further delay certification of the 2020 election.”

“I didn’t choose those Members," Smith added, “President Trump did.”

Smith is not expected to testify about Volume II of his report, which focused on Trump’s handling of classified documents.

After Trump’s team moved to block its release, [Judge] Cannon banned the release of that report, as well as the sharing of “any information or conclusions in Volume II” with anyone outside the Justice Department.

In 2006, when the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, released the first-ever Arctic Report Card, scientists already knew the top of the world was in trouble.

It’s now much worse, according to the 20th edition of the report, which tracks the health of the polar region across multiple indicators.

The last 10 years have been the Arctic’s hottest 10 on record. Warm Atlantic waters have pushed into the central Arctic Ocean, hastening the loss of sea ice. With less ice to reflect sunlight back into space, and faster-melting snow, the region is primed to warm further. And as Arctic permafrost thaws, it releases more heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

• From October 2024 to September 2025, Arctic-wide surface air temperatures were the warmest in at least 125 years. (Hydrologists typically measure the year from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30 to better align with seasonal rainfall and snowmelt cycles.)
• Precipitation over the same period was the highest since 1950. Overall, the atmosphere over the Arctic is becoming more moisture-laden, causing more extreme precipitation events, including atmospheric rivers that can cover large expanses with rain or snow.
• The yearly peak coverage of sea ice in March was the smallest observed in 47 years of satellite records, while summer sea ice coverage was 28% smaller than two decades ago.
• The ice isn’t just shrinking; it’s also getting younger and thinner. The oldest, thickest ice in the Arctic — the kind that stays frozen for four years or more — has declined by more than 95% since the 1980s.
• As permafrost thaws, it appears to be releasing iron and other elements into rivers and streams. This may explain why over 200 watersheds in Alaska have turned orange in the past decade, a phenomenon called rusting.

The report card itself.

The Story

Another moving story from Open Doors that highlights Christ I'd like to share with you.

We learn of a man from Nigeria, Joshua, he went through the horror of being blinded by militants.

But that wasn't all- his wife also left him after his injuries. Family members- they kept their distance. I don't think many of us reading would comprehend the feelings he must have gone through. Praise God for Open Doors helping him through a trauma relief centre.

Joshua knows that in this life he will remain blind but, in Christ, in heaven and the new earth his sight will be restored and he will worship Christ throughout all eternity.

Joshua worships Christ- Lazarus had two funerals, the second being his last and his bones remaining, but Christ's tomb has long been empty and it will forever be so!


Christ in all this

This just shows that in this life, even what appeared to be the strongest of bonds can shatter- whether by ourselves, other people or some other circumstance. But you know who never left Joshua and who will never leave those of us believers? Christ (God the Son). He never left Joshua and He will never leave you!

This Christmas let us reflect on the glory of Christ, God the Son, the One who created the universe, coming into the manger in order to save His people from their sin (and the hell they deserve with it). Let us reflect that after He came, the world would never be the same!

Meet Saint Bartolo Longo: A Satanist Freed by the Rosary

Bartolo Longo was born in 1841 in the Italian village of Latiano. His parents were devout Catholics and prayed the Rosaryevery day.

A Young Radical

However, the sympathy of the young Bartolo lay with the revolutionary Italian nationalists. This radical group advocated atheism and Masonic practices. They viewed the Catholic Church as an obstacle to the unification of Italy. The sovereignty of the pope in the Vatican was a thorn in their side. The nationalists, therefore, wanted to abolish the papacy altogether.

Supported by many intellectuals and inspired by the military victories of Giuseppe Garibaldi, the nationalists gained prestige among students. One of them was the law student, Bartolo Longo.

The nationalist struggle against the Church in the 1860s had a spiritual aspect. Occultism was advancing. Séances invoking the spirits of the deceased gained popularity. Longo participated in these practices. Eventually, he had himself ordained as a satanic priest. The fight against Catholicism dominated his life.

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Camille Benson allegedly tampered with loaves across multiple Walmart locations​

A woman accused of placing razor blades in multiple loaves of bread at two Walmart stores in Mississippi was arrested Tuesday, officials said, according to Fox 26 Houston.

The Biloxi Police Department identified the suspect as 33-year-old Camille Benson, of Texas, who was charged with attempted mayhem, the local station said. She is currently in jail with a bond set at $100,000, the outlet added.

Over the course of more than a week, several customers reportedly found razor blades in their purchased bread at two nearby locations, a Walmart Supercenter and a Walmart Neighborhood Market.

The first complaint was made on Dec. 5 at the Supercenter, where a customer told employees that they had found a razor blade in their purchased loaf, The Associated Press (AP) reported. A similar complaint followed at the Neighborhood Market on Dec. 8, the outlet added.

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Warning: video contains prolonged violence.

A couple killed in the Bondi Beach shooting tried to stop one of the alleged attackers by grabbing his gun, dramatic dashcam footage shows.

Boris Gurman, 69, and his wife Sofia, 61, courageously stepped in to try and protect others before being shot themselves, their family said in a statement.

Video of the incident shows Mr Gurman, who was retired, wrestling with one of the gunmen and taking the weapon off him, before they both fall onto the road.

Mr Gurman then gets up and appears to hit the attacker with the gun. The attacker is then thought to have got another gun which he used to kill them.

"While nothing can lessen the pain of losing Boris and Sofia, we feel an overwhelming sense of pride in their bravery and selflessness," the couple's family said.

“This encapsulates who Boris and Sofia were - people who instinctively and selflessly tried to help others."

The Gurman couple, who were Jewish, were the first two people killed in Sunday's attack, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

At least 15 people have been confirmed dead in the shooting, which happened during an event to mark the first day of Hanukkah.

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Christ tells us the cost of discipleship: not only must we carry our cross, but we must 'hate' father, mother, wife and children—even our own life. But what did he mean?​

Editor’s Notes
​

This is the last part of the chapter which deals with the episodes read at Mass on the Second and Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost. It deals with the challenging words of Christ:

“If any man come to Me, and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.”

Click to expand...

Was Christ really saying, in this Gospel episode, that we must actually hate our family members?

No, he was not – nor is this how the Church has understood it.

The fourth commandment requires us to honour our parents, and the idea that Christ enjoined a violation of this commandment is as unthinkable as him enjoining a violation of the first commandment, or the fifth, sixth, or any other.

Further, we have natural duties of love and piety towards those who are closest to us in the so-called “ordo amoris.” We also have many examples of the saints who did indeed love their family members.

However, there is an important lesson to be learnt here. Fr Coleridge explains what Christ’s teaching meant, and how it has been understood by his Church ever since.

For more context on this section, and its place in the Gospel and the Liturgy, see Part I.

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Exotic mystical beliefs have always been a mark of pagan culture. So what does it mean when these obsessions go mainstream in formerly Christian nations?

In 2017, I became fiercely interested in the subject of UFOs or UAP (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena). This began for me with a New York Times article revealing Pentagon videos of an encounter between U.S. Navy jets on a training exercise and an anomalous object off the coast of San Diego. Initially, my thought was that this represented a kind of novel propulsion breakthrough, the “phenomenon” being a cover story to shield black budget programs.

Then, whistleblower and Air Force officer David Grusch testified to Congress that the government had actually recovered and was reverse-engineering craft of “unknown origin.” (It is also important to note that Grusch has since told members of Congress that he believes some of these “beings” are living among us.) As of this past month, other senior U.S. Government officials have reiterated the existence of nonhuman intelligence in a documentary titled The Age of Disclosure. Some notable appearances include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, former DNI director James Clapper, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, and Sen. Mike Rounds.

Flying saucers and alien bodies are admittedly a tall order, and while I am not a journalist, an interesting interaction with an aerospace contractor convinced me that enough was there to do some investigating of my own. Over several years, I attended scientific conferences and met with officials and journalists who all were seriously interested in the subject. I sourced FOIA documents and discovered—among other things—a slew of accounts pertaining to activity around sensitive U.S. military installations as early as the late 1940s. These were reports from employees at nuclear stockpile sites and power plants that described various objects of different shapes and sizes interfering with security systems and missile readiness.

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Sources close to the Dicastery for Bishops confirmed the appointment to The Pillar.​

Pope Leo XIV is expected to appoint Bishop Ronald Hicks of Joliet as the next Archbishop of New York, The Pillar has confirmed, with an announcement expected as early as Dec. 18.



Bishop Ronald Hicks.

Rumors about the prospect of a Hicks move to New York began circulating Monday, following a report forecasting the move at the Spanish Religión Digital website. Chicago media figures fueled speculation online about an imminent appointment, with rumors continuing to circulate among ecclesiastical figures and Church-watchers.

Sources close to the Dicastery for Bishops in Rome confirmed the appointment to The PillarDec. 16, indicating that the move is likely to be announced Thursday.

Hicks will succeed Cardinal Timothy Dolan, 75, who has served in New York since 2009. The bishop’s appointment will bring to an end months of speculation about Dolan’s successor, with several candidates speculated for the position.

The task of leading the New York archdiocese is not likely to be easy.

Dolan announced last week that the archdiocese is selling off real estate to put aside some $300 million, into a fund meant for the compensation of sexual abuse survivors. Real estate sold off for the fund includes the $100 million sale last year of the archdiocesan headquarters at 1011 First Avenue, after which chancery operations were moved to a former Catholic high school.

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Good day

I story is often told about how CHS was challenged by someone with regard to his smoking of cigars (being sinful). The story goes on to say that based upon this challenge CHS quit smoking his cigars. I heard this so many times and no one could give me a primary source for this story, come to find out it is just that a story with no basis in historical facts.

Phil Johnson's 2021 presentation on the question first (13 mins)

Login to view embedded media
And the web site with the source information that he points to:

Spurgeon's Love of Fine Cigars

In Him

Bill

What are the advantages, perils and unwanted consequences of Pope Leo XIV’s Tuesday evening ‘doorstep’ exchanges with the press at Castel Gandolfo?

It has become a new papal convention.

Every Tuesday evening, as Pope Leo XIV departs for the Vatican after his now routine day of rest at the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo just outside Rome, he will stop and chat with the press.

Reporters ask the Holy Father questions relating to whatever is in the news, usually to do with world politics or the Catholic Church, and the Pope spontaneously responds with unrehearsed answers. The format resembles a “doorstep scrum” or “press gaggle,” which is common for politicians or celebrities when engaging with the media.

For a pope, however, this is a first. No supreme pontiff, not even Pope Francis, who liked to be interviewed as pope, has stopped to speak to the press in such an ad hoc way. In-flight papal press conferences, begun by Pope St. John Paul II, are similar but they are infrequent and more controlled.

Pope Leo’s own motives for taking this media approach remain unclear. He first started the practice in June when journalist Ignazio Ingrao from Italy’s state broadcaster RAI collared the Holy Father as he left Vatican Radio territory near Rome.

The Holy Father seemed comfortable answering Ingrao’s questions, especially as they were on topics that interest him: sustainability, the environment and threats to world peace. But the exchange was striking in that, for the first time outside of a papal trip, it removed a certain recognized distance the pope naturally enjoys as the Vicar of Christ.

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Good day

I story is often told about how CHS was challenged by someone with regard to his smoking of cigars (being sinful). The story goes on to say that based upon this challenge CHS quit smoking his cigars. I heard this so many times and no one could give me a primary source for this story, come to find out it is just that a story with no basis in historical facts.

Phil Johnson's 2021 presentation on the question first (13 mins)

Login to view embedded media
And the web site with the source information that he points to:

Spurgeon's Love of Fine Cigars

In Him

Bill

This abandonment of theological sanity and pastoral responsibility coincides with the sixtieth anniversary of the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, in which German bishops played significant roles.

When it was first published in 1993, Pope St. John Paul II’s encyclical on the reform of Catholic moral theology, Veritatis Splendor(The Splendor of Truth), dealt a severe blow to the pride of many German theologians, who had long thought themselves the cutting edge of Catholic intellectual life.

Indeed, within a year of the encyclical’s publication, a book composed entirely of essays critical of John Paul’s deeply humanistic explication of Catholic teaching on the path to happiness and beatitude was published in Germany — because, its editor explained, Germany had a special obligation to police the Church’s theological precincts. Who had appointed German theologians to this supervisory role was left unstated. So was the idea that seemed to undergird much of the German Catholic intellectual resistance to John Paul II: German theologians must be smarter than a Pole.

German resistance to the papal magisterium antedated John Paul II, of course; it would be hard to find a prominent German theologian (or bishop, for that matter) who defended Pope Paul VI after he issued the 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae on the morally appropriate means of regulating fertility. But much has changed since then, and the locus of progressive Catholic revisionism in moral theology has shifted from contraception to homosexuality.

And now the German resistance to the truths taught by Humanae Vitae and Veritatis Splendor has metastasized into what seems to be an embrace of the claims of gender ideology and the “trans” movement by most of the country’s bishops.

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We often mistake intelligence for wisdom, but only goodness helps us see reality as it truly is.

I had to tell a Catholic woman I know, a kind and thoughtful woman, that someone she had known had been a sex abuser. “But how could he have been?” she said, mentioning how nice he had been, and then added, “He was so smart.”

That wasn’t so odd a response as it may seem. We Americans, I think, tend to connect intelligence with insight and wisdom, as if having the first meant having the second, and to connect insight and wisdom with goodness. It’s more instinct and attitude than conviction. We think of Doctor Who more than of Dr. Frankenstein, Gandalf and Galadriel more than Sauron and Saruman. I’ve heard and read a lot of people say what the Catholic woman said.

The most famous, indeed notorious, example is the collective “best and brightest” who led America into the Vietnam War. The only aspect of their characters that made them the “best,” as they were called at the time, was being part of America’s intellectual elite. They were “best” because “brightest,” but it turned out that in trying to shape the world to America’s demands, they weren’t that bright, because they weren’t wise or good enough to see that they couldn’t control the world the way they thought they could.

The Limits of Intelligence​

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Uganda’s defense authorities have confirmed that a priest serving the Catholic Diocese of Masaka, whose disappearance earlier this month sparked concern and prayers from the bishop, is in the custody of security forces over alleged criminal activities.

In a Dec. 12 statement, the acting director of defense public information, Col. Chris Magezi, said Father Deusdedit Ssekabira was arrested in connection with what the military says is “involvement in violent subversive activities against the state.”

Magezi added that Ssekabira is being held as investigations continue. “Reverend Father Deusdedit Ssekabira is currently in lawful custody to assist with further investigations into the matter,” the Ugandan defense official further said.

According to Magezi, the case will proceed through formal judicial channels. “He will be produced in the courts of law and charged accordingly,” he said in his one-page statement but did not provide further details on the alleged activities or the duration of the investigation.

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Pastors Justin and Kasey Greenwell have resigned from their positions as online pastors at Greg Locke’s Global Vision Bible Church (GVBC), in Lebanon, Tennessee, alleging spiritual abuse and a lack of spiritual and financial accountability. They have called upon Locke to repent. Locke denies the allegations, maintains the church is financially transparent, and says that he has already repented of what he needs to repent of.

Locke is known for brash, controversial preaching, including telling congregants not to wear masks in 2021, claiming in 2022 that children with autism are under demonic attack, and calling for Catholic items and games like Dungeons and Dragons and Pokémon to be burned.

The pastor has received criticism and even death threats over the years. In September 2024, his home was subjected to a drive-by shooting while his daughter (who ended up unharmed) was inside.

Greenwells’ Letter to Greg Locke Alleges Lack of Accountability​

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Pastors Resign From Greg Locke’s Church, Allege Spiritual Abuse; Locke Disputes Claims

Pastors Justin and Kasey Greenwell have resigned from their positions as online pastors at Greg Locke's Global Vision Bible Church.

churchleaders.com

Apologist Frank Turek recently offered his perspective on whether Christians should attend the wedding of a family member who cheated on his previous spouse.

Turek is an author and podcaster. He is the founder and president of the Christian apologetics ministry CrossExamined, and he is the author or co-author of several books, including “I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be an Atheist.”

Turek spoke to the issue of divorce and remarriage in the context of a reply to an audience member’s question at a speaking event.

The questioner explained, “My brother committed adultery against his wife, and they got a divorce. And then my brother then wanted, sometime later, to marry the person that he committed adultery with. And he wanted me to come to his wedding, and I told him that I would not come to his wedding.”

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Christian leaders and influencers have been quick to blast President Donald Trump’s comments that followed the murder of beloved filmmaker and actor Rob Reiner (78) and his wife, film producer Michele Singer Reiner (68).

According to reports, Rob and Michele were allegedly murdered by their 32-year-old son, Nick, on the afternoon of Sunday (Dec. 14). One of Reiner’s daughters alerted authorities after discovering Rob and Michele in their home with both of their throats slit. Nick was later arrested and is being held without bond. Rob was previously married to actor Penny Marshall from 1971-1981. He married Michele in 1989.

Reiner is known for directing the films “A Few Good Men,” “The Princess Bride,” “Misery,” “Stand by Me,” “This Is Spinal Tap,” “When Harry Met Sally,” and “The American President.”

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