Marriage Lite in the UK. I guess the British courts decided that turnabout is fair play. The U.K.’s highest court has ruled that a 2005 law establishing civil partnerships exclusively for same-sex couples violates the human rights of opposite-sex couples. A heterosexual London couple — Rebecca Steinfeld, 37, and Charles Keidan, 41 – said they have a right to civil partnerships instead of marriage, an institution they said had “patriarchal baggage.”  However, according to WORLD, “pro-family advocates, far from being pleased, said the ruling enshrines an inferior alternative to marriage into British law.” Ciaran Kelly, deputy director for the Christian Institute, said, “This is yet another fundamental attack on marriage from a court system that seems determined to do all it can do undermine it. The couple who brought this case objected to what they called the ‘sexist trappings’ of marriage. But that is to fundamentally misrepresent what marriage is about.”

Abortionist Sentenced. Abortionist Robert Rho pleaded guilty last month to Criminal Negligent Homicide for causing the death of Jaime Morales, 30, during a botched second trimester abortion. On June 26, he was sentenced yesterday to serve fifteen months to four years in state prison. By his own attorney’s estimate, Rho has committed 40,000 abortions over a 23-year career. Troy Newman of Operation Rescue has been following the case. “We are very glad that Rho is going to prison,” Newman said. “We pray he serves the full four years, but even that is a short amount of time to pay for taking Jaime Morales’ life. We wish it could have been more, especially since he remained unremorseful and arrogant throughout the trial.”

Remembering David Krider. David Krider is a name you probably don’t recognize, unless you are an Indiana basketball fan. Krider served as sports editor for Indiana’s “LaPorte Herald Argus” for more than 28 years, and is the only writer who focused primarily on high school sports writer ever inducted into the U.S. Basketball Writers Hall of Fame. He was also a committed Christian – a rarity in a secular paper’s newsroom – who was a decades-long advocate of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He died July 4 at age 79. FCA President and CEO Shane Williamson issued a statement: “Our hearts are heavy today at the news of the passing of David Krider, however, we rejoice that he is with his Savior. Dave’s faithful service was never aimed to garner awards or accolades. For decades he went unnoticed. Unrecognized. Unthanked. A modern-day FCA pioneer, he epitomized Christ-like service in the FCA ministry. Although we are grieving, it is with joy that we remember and honor our faithful brother in his homegoing to spend eternity with Christ our Lord!”

Starbucks and Transgenderism. Starbucks is now offering cosmetic surgery to transgender employees. An announcement from the company said the new benefits will be “lifesaving,” but data suggests that transitioning from one gender to the other may actually be contributing to the high rate of suicide among transgender people. A Swedish study found that 10 to 15 years after sex change surgery, study participants had a suicide rate nearly 20 times that of comparable peers. Starbuck’s has been covering sex-change surgery for its transgender employees since 2012.

Milestones. Henry Hazlitt died 25 years ago Sunday (July 8, 1993). His book Economics in One Lesson remains one of the best introductions to economics ever written.