Versailles: A Palace Fit for the Sun King

Texas Governor Declares Disaster After Brain-Eating Amoeba Found in City’s Water

The governor of Texas declared a disaster after a brain-eating amoeba that killed a 6-year-old boy was found in a city’s water supply. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday declared a disaster (pdf) in Brazoria County and said that of 11 water tests conducted in the county, three found N. fowleri, the brain-eating amoeba. That is now “posing an imminent threat to public health and safety, including loss of life,” he said. “A proclamation certifying the presence of Naegleria fowleri, which can cause a rare and devastating infection of the brain called primary amebic meningoencephalitis, was identified in the water supply in Brazoria County; and declaring a state of disaster,” his order said. “TCEQ and city officials are actively working on a plan to flush and disinfect the water system. Until…

From 1682 until the French Revolution of 1789, successive kings of France lived, worked, and held court in the most opulent of accommodations: the Palace of Versailles.

King Louis XIV began the tradition after he expanded his father’s hilltop château, a luxurious rural retreat. Over a period of 50 years, the palace became the largest and most influential château in Europe and a source of great artistic invention in architecture, music, theater, and the decorative arts.

Versailles: A Palace Fit for the Sun King

Many of the nation’s greatest architects designed and built the Palace of Versailles. Architect Louis Le Vau, an early adopter of French Baroque architecture, added two symmetrical wings onto the original château, giving the palace its distinctive U-shaped design. Each wing, on either side of the forecourt, contained separate grand apartments for the king and queen. The king’s bedchamber was moved to the center of the U-shaped buildings in 1701.

Architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart, whom many scholars credit with representing the best of French Baroque architects, created the famed Hall of Mirrors and extended the palace estate further with sumptuous additions such as the Royal Chapel and the Grand Trianon. Louis XIV closely oversaw the building of the Grand Trianon, which he commissioned as a retreat from court life. Hardouin-Mansart described it as “a little palace of pink marble and porphyry [igneous rock], with marvelous gardens.”

Louis XIV’s great-grandson, King Louis XV, commissioned architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel to create the Royal Opera at Versailles, realizing in 1770 his great-grandfather’s idea.

In 1833, King Louis-Philippe afforded the palace an illustrious new role as the Museum of the History of France, which was inaugurated in 1837 and dedicated “to all the glories of France.”

Focus News: Versailles: A Palace Fit for the Sun King

Packing Supreme Court an ‘Empty Threat,’ Unlikely to Happen: Former FEC Member

The Democrats’ call to add more justices to the Supreme Court is but an “empty threat,” said Hans von Spakovsky, a Republican lawyer and former member of the Federal Election Commission. With President Donald Trump and the Republican-dominated Senate poised to nominate and confirm a conservative Supreme Court Justice to fill the vacancy left by liberal Ruth Bader Ginsburg, some Democrats have revived the radical idea of expanding the size of the high court. Von Spakovsky said the Democratic court packing is unlikely to happen. “The Constitution does not specify how many justices are on the U.S. Supreme Court that set by statute, but it has been nine justices now for a very, very long time,” said von Spakovsky during an interview on Epoch Time’s “Crossroads,” when asked about the…