Daily Archives: May 12, 2011

The bill — which had passed the Senate weeks ago by a veto-proof margin — would make it a felony to perform an abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, unless the woman’s life is endangered, the woman risks permanent damage to a major bodily function because of the pregnancy, or the fetus is non-viable.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida has hired two more lawyers and is planning to add another to help handle an expected workload increase resulting from the Republican-led Legislature’s recently ended session.

wxii12.com: Representing Forsyth County, Alliance Defense Fund attorney Mike Johnson said each attorney’s argument was slated to be heard for 20 minutes, but each attorney answered questions and presented arguments for an hour and a half. “A lot people are watching for the outcome of this, and we hope it comes out well,” Johnson said.

New American: Before Daniels signed the measure, ADF Senior Counsel Steven Aden advised: “The Indiana Legislature has worded a bill that allows them to be good stewards of the people’s money in this regard without fear of jeopardizing other funding that is clearly not at issue in this bill. In fact, if the governor signs the bill and it is ever attacked in court, ADF would offer to assist in mounting a legal defense of the law free of charge.”

Ohio.com: “The Ohio House of Representatives is considering legislation that would make those vouchers available to any parent who met income requirements, regardless of the quality of the public schools their children attend.”

Wasau Daily Herald: Milwaukee’s voucher school program would be expanded under a Republican-backed bill expected to pass the state Assembly on Tuesday.

Conservatives have long argued that “gay marriage” legalization would have negative consequences on religious freedoms, and they may have found another example in Canada, where Sportsnet TV host Damian Goddard was fired the day after he stated his opposition to “gay marriage” in a Tweet.

Washington Post: The Senate unanimously confirmed Michael Urbanski Thursday to serve as a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia.

Christian Newswire: Operation Rescue announces that progress is being made in Texas Medical Board investigations of abortion abuses involving 14 abortionists in the Lone Star State.

Newson6.com: Planned Parenthood and members of several other women’s rights groups rallied at the state Capitol Thursday afternoon to stop legislation the group says will hurt women in Oklahoma.

LA Times: “A hasty legal maneuver by top Los Angeles school officials will not fend off a legal challenge of their decision to turn over low-performing Clay Middle School to a charter-school organization, The Times has learned.”

AFP: A young Egyptian woman whose complicated love life led to Muslim-Christian clashes that killed 15 people in Cairo was arrested on Thursday and charged with polyandry, a judicial source told AFP.

Daily Caller: Last week, Christie told attendees of a local town hall that he believes decisions on teaching creationism should be left to local school districts, NJ.com reports

Daily Reporter: The Louisiana House has backed a proposal to add requirements to what a woman must be told about alternatives before receiving an abortion.

LifeNews: Nebraska has become the latest state to join several others in exercising its right to opt out of funding abortions under the Obamacare health care law that contains massive abortion funding loopholes.

CBC.ca: Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson defended his decision on Wednesday to sign a proclamation recognizing a Respect for Life Day that would coincide with an anti-abortion march.

Des Moines Register: Iowa Senate Republican Leader Paul McKinley said today that a new bill aimed at blocking a Council Bluffs abortion clinic “would do nothing to prevent Iowa from becoming the late-term abortion Mecca of the Midwest.”

School Law Blog: It has been nearly a half century since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark decisions striking down state-sponsored prayers in the public schools. On Tuesday evening at the court, a scholarly lecture about one of those decisions kicked off what is likely to be a good deal of nostalgia and renewed debate about the cases.

MidlandsConnect.com: South Carolina lawmakers are proposing a bill that would give the state another form of legal tender. Sen. David Thomas, a Republican from Greenville, wants to make gold and silver coins another option in the Palmetto State. Lawmakers are calling it the Sound Money Legislation.

Grand Forks Herald: In a switch that highlights enormous changes in the American family, married couples no longer make up the majority of households in the Twin Cities area.

TopNews.Net.nz: Study results published in the journal “Human Reproduction” discovered that there was a strong link between the number of eggs taken from a woman’s ovaries during an IVF (in-vitro fertilization) cycle and the chances of having a live birth as a result.

Politico: Permanent residents who hold green cards are allowed to contribute to campaigns and make expenditures supporting them. But Bluman and Steiman are temporary residents, and contend in their suit that the foreign contribution ban’s threat of civil or criminal penalties is keeping them “from expressing their political views in any of (those) ways” and represents an “arbitrary and irrational” violation of their First Amendment rights.

Christian Science Monitor: Egypt’s interim government said Wednesday it will draft a new law to ease restrictions on building churches, potentially rectifying one of the most apparent forms of discrimination against Christians in Egypt.The new law would also make it illegal to protest outside places of worship, or to use religious slogans in elections.

VPR (6 min. audio): Uganda’s parliament is expected to vote Friday on a bill that would impose harsh punishments on homosexuals. The Associated Press reports that the original bill requires the death penalty for “serial offenders,” life imprisonment for those convicted of homosexual acts, and a seven year prison sentence for those aiding and abetting homosexual acts. Host Michel Martin speaks with the author of Uganda’s anti-gay bill, David Bahati, about the bill’s potential impact in Uganda if it passes.

NY Times: More than a dozen Christian leaders in China have thrown their support behind an embattled underground church, calling for the government to end its persecution and for broader religious freedoms as well.

Kelly Shackelford, president/CEO of Liberty Institute. “The debate over same-sex marriage and divorce should play out in our democratic institutions and should not be short-circuited by activist judges.”

AP: Civil unions may make for good legislative compromise in Rhode Island’s gay marriage debate, but the proposal won nothing but scorn during a public hearing at the Statehouse on Wednesday.

San Diego Gay and Lesbian Network: The Rev. Canon Albert Ogle is a San Diego human rights activist and is president of St. Paul’s Foundation for International Reconciliation. He is an expert on Ugandan LGBT issues through his work with Bishop Christopher Senyonjo. As a cradle Anglican and Episcopalian priest, I was shocked to learn that out of 80 countries that currently criminalize homosexuality, 45 are former British colonies and whose modern elites are largely Anglicans . . .

TheStar.com: After a spate of tweets in support of a hockey agent’s stand against gay marriage, Rogers Sportsnet moved Wednesday to fire on-air host Damian Goddard.

Washington Post: Delaware Gov. Jack Markell has signed a bill into law that gives same-sex couples legal protections and recognition beginning in 2012.

USA Today: Caroline Kennedy has joined civil rights activists, celebrities and athletes in a national campaign urging President Obama to support same-sex marriage

MyFoxHouston: The American Civil Liberties Union is taking aim at 3 Texas school districts for their “viewpoint-based” censorship against web content geared for lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities.

NBC New York: More than 100 parents and alumni of Neptune High School in New Jersey turned out for a meeting Wednesday night after learning this year’s senior class may not be able to graduate in an historic auditorium in Ocean Grove because it features religious symbols

LifeSiteNews: As Canadian pro-lifers prepare to march for life in the country’s capital Thursday, a new poll is showing that 59% of Canadians want some restrictions on abortion.

LifeSiteNews: The Australian reports that the first major study comparing the risks of chemical and surgical abortion has just been published in the Australian Family Physician, a medical journal for Australia’s general practitioners.

LifeSiteNews: The oral contraceptive pill Dianette claimed another victim in late March when 17-year-old Charlotte Porter died of a blood clot that was apparently caused by the medication.

LifeNews: Thousands of Canadians will head to Parliament Hill tomorrow for the annual March for Life to mark the date on which Canada became one of the nations to allow abortions that destroy human life.

LifeNews: The Democratic state senator who was charged with shepherding a fetal-pain based ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy says he will introduce a much weaker measure because Democrats in the Senate don’t approve of a bill the House passed.

LifeNews: HB 1970 requires that abortion providers dispense abortion-inducing drugs only in the way tested and approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and outlined in the drug’s label.

LifeNews: But Delaware lawmakers on the House Health and Human Development Committee said no. They rejected on Wednesday a bill requiring girls under the age of 18 to get the consent of at least one parent before an abortion.

MyFox8.com: “We are in it for the long haul,” said Mike Johnson, Senior Legal Counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund. “We believe it is a tradition that is important to defend.”
. . . “It’s part of the fabric of our society. As the Supreme Court said, it is part of who we are as Americans and there’s no reason to change these centuries-old traditions because someone claims to be offended by them,” Johnson said.

One News Now: A New Hampshire church is going to the state Supreme Court over Concord officials’ attempt to tax part of its property . . . And Pastor Guzofski admits he is not relieved to learn from Alliance Defense Fund attorneys that his situation is similar to others around the country, where local governments are trying to find ways to tax churches.

WVMetroNews (includes video interview with Jeremiah Dys of the Family Policy Council of WV): “Our desire and our mission is to help people live lives that are congruent with their faith,” Exodus International Senior Director of Church Equipping and Student Ministries Jeff Buchanan said. | See also Engage Family Blog: Is the Gazette Right? Aren’t We All Defective?

AP: Driven by immigrants and young people moving to the South and West and older Americans who stay put elsewhere, the age gap between regions in the U.S. has grown to its widest level in decades, sharpening the divides on hot-button issues such as immigration and changes to Medicare.

AP: Evangelist Billy Graham remains in a North Carolina hospital after being admitted for treatment of pneumonia.

AP: “China’s state news agency says 40 people have been arrested for allegedly trafficking at least 22 babies for sale elsewhere in the country.”

AP: But the prospects for full Senate confirmation remain dim as Republicans strongly oppose President Barack Obama’s pick. The Senate Banking Committee sent Peter Diamond’s nomination to the Senate for consideration after taking a 12-10 party-line vote.

Blog of the Legal Times: According to The Daily Report, the five-member King & Spalding committee that reviews new clients did not know about the contract until April 18, the same day the public found out. The committee began reviewing the representation on April 19 and rejected it the next day.

Education News: Starkey says that throwing money and resources at the UK’s education problems is an effective solution.

Education News: Governor Tom Corbett, a former history and civics teacher, detailed his measures to increase school choice and combat teachers union power.

Tony Mauro at the Blog of the Legal Times: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas heads to his home state of Georgia next week to help dedicate a new courthouse, but not everyone there is eager to see him.

Bloomberg: Luis Picado’s mother remembers the day her son thought he had won the lottery. He came home to their tin-roofed cinder-block house in a Managua, Nicaragua, slum and said he’d found a way to escape poverty and start a new life in the United States.

ACLU: The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Alaska filed a motion for summary judgment in a lawsuit challenging the state’s tax-assessment rules, which discriminate against same-sex couples by denying them equal access to a property tax exemption for senior citizens and disabled veterans.

Dan Gainor at Fox News: When liberal investor George Soros gave $1.8 million to National Public Radio , it became part of the firestorm of controversy that jeopardized NPR’s federal funding. But that gift only hints at the widespread influence the controversial billionaire has on the mainstream media. Soros, who spent $27 million trying to defeat President Bush in 2004, has ties to more than 30 mainstream news outlets – including The New York Times, Washington Post, the Associated Press, NBC and ABC.

NASDAQ: The Treasury Department auctioned $56 billion in new debt Tuesday and Wednesday, enough to take the U.S. over its federal debt ceiling when the three- and 10-year notes settle on Monday.

John Cogan at the Wall Street Journal: Typical retired couples will collect $1 million or more in Social Security and Medicare. This is more than they paid in, and the cost will fall on today’s workers.

The Hill: House conservatives said Wednesday the budget deficit should be cut in half and spending should be reduced by as much as $381 billion next year in exchange for a higher debt ceiling.

The Hill: The epicenter of the crisis is in China, where four out of five PC software programs were stolen last year at a commercial value of nearly $8 billion. In the United States, four out of five PC programs are legally purchased. That discrepancy unfairly skews trade and competition.

Maine Family Policy Council: LD 1046 will allow schools, businesses and other entities with public accommodations to designate bathroom and shower facilities according to biological gender.

AP on Yahoo: A House panel approved a defense bill early Thursday that would delay President Barack Obama’s new policy allowing gays to serve openly in the military and limit the commander in chief’s authority on slashing the nation’s nuclear arsenal.