Homeless in Arizona

Chicago's second-oldest church has finally found something that may predate itself.

On Sunday, Holy Family Church — which survived the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 and near-demolition more than a century later — will formally unveil three relics that the church says are more than 2,000 years old. A neighboring church donated the Vatican-approved artifacts, which are said to be crumb-size fragments from the manger where Jesus Christ was born, the cloak of St. Joseph and the veil of the Virgin Mary.

The Rev. Jeremiah Boland believes the rare vestiges will allow his parishioners to witness the Christmas story in its most organic form.

"The Holy Family is not just a pretty statue or something you see on a Christmas card," Boland said. "The Holy Family was an actual family that our Lord was born into. It helps to make it more real that way."

According to Christian tradition, Jesus Christ was born Dec. 25 more than two millenniums ago in a Bethlehem manger. Many depictions of the birth show Christ's father, Joseph, wearing a cloak and his mother, Mary, a veil.

During a preview for the news media Thursday, the nearly microscopic relics were enclosed in the small glass compartment of a decorative cross on Holy Family Church's altar. None is larger than a fifth of an inch in diameter.

Boland predicted even such a "tiniest connection" will move his parishioners when they see the artifacts for the first time Sunday. During that Mass, the Rev. Richard Fragomeni of the nearby Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii will officially present the relics to Holy Family Church.

The shrine obtained the relics shortly after the Vatican made them available in 1972, according to a news release. Fragomeni, the shrine's pastor, thought it would only be right for the Holy Family's namesake church to own the artifacts and arranged the gift to celebrate its 155th anniversary this year.

Although the relics came with a certificate of authenticity from the Vatican, Boland is not concerned about their scientific credibility. For example, carbon testing may or may not pin down the relics' origin during Christ's time, he said. [Yea, they always say that when the carbon dating says the stuff was created recently, not 2,000 years ago. And for some odd reason the carbon test always show the stuff was create AFTER the alleged birth of Jesus, never before the birth]

"We'll never get anywhere with that," Boland told reporters, pointing to the objects' intangible value. "These are objects of faith and devotion." [Well, when the carbon dating tests fail all you have left is faith and devotion]

Instead, he said he hopes the relics are viewed as social unifiers in the church's Near West Side neighborhood, where ethnic tensions have subsided but still simmer. With the University of Illinois at Chicago steps away and the Illinois Medical District down the street, Boland sees what he calls a "very transitional" population every week. "These relics touch everybody," he said.

Erin Kelly, a Catholic high school teacher from Chicago's Beverly neighborhood, said the relics remind her that Christmas is about more than shopping and entertainment. She has been attending Holy Family Church since the 1980s.

"That connection between the first Holy Family and what that means to us in our own modern times — our own modern family, in our busyness, our hubbub, the holidays — really focuses it with our faith and the true meaning of it," said Kelly, 44. "It brings us all together through that symbol."

Boland wants parishioners to imagine the religious figures behind every Christmas tradition.

The fragments "help us remember that these were real people," Boland said. "They really lived. They influenced their culture and their society, and they made a contribution that we're still benefiting from many, many years later."

The relics can be seen starting 9:45 a.m. Sunday during Holy Family Church's 155th anniversary Mass. The church is at 1080 W. Roosevelt Road.

Islamists’ Harsh Justice Is on the Rise in North Mali

BAMAKO, Mali — Moctar Touré was strapped to a chair, blindfolded, his right hand bound tight to the armrest with a rubber tube. A doctor came and administered a shot. Then Mr. Touré’s own brother wielded a knife, the kind used to slaughter sheep, and methodically carried out the sentence.

“I myself cut off my brother’s hand,” said Aliou Touré, a police chief in the Islamist-held north of this divided nation. “We had no choice but to practice the justice of God.”

Such amputations are designed to shock — residents are often summoned to watch — and even as the world makes plans to recapture northern Mali by force, the Islamists who control it show no qualms about carrying them out.

After the United Nations Security Council authorized a military campaign to retake the region last week, Islamists in Gao, Mr. Touré’s town, cut the hands off two more people accused of being thieves the very next day, a leading local official said, describing it as a brazen response to the United Nations resolution. Then the Islamists, undeterred by the international threats against them, warned reporters that eight others “will soon share the same fate.”

This harsh application of Shariah law, with people accused of being thieves sometimes having their feet amputated as well, has occurred at least 14 times since the Islamist takeover last spring, not including the recent vow of more to come, according to Human Rights Watch and independent observers.

But those are just the known cases, and dozens of other residents have been publicly flogged with camel-hair whips or tree branches for offenses like smoking, or even for playing music on the radio. Several were whipped in Gao on Monday for smoking in public, an official said, while others said that anything other than Koranic verses were proscribed as cellphone ringtones. A jaunty tune is punishable by flogging.

At least one case of the most severe punishment — stoning to death — was carried out in the town of Aguelhok in July against a couple accused of having children out of wedlock.

Trials are often rudimentary. A dozen or so jihadi judges sitting in a circle on floor mats pronounce judgment, according to former Malian officials in the north. Hearings, judgment and sentence are usually carried out rapidly, on the same day.

“They do it among themselves, in closed session,” said Abdou Sidibé, a parliamentary deputy from Gao, now in exile here in the capital, Bamako. “These people who have come among us have imposed their justice,” he said. “It comes from nowhere.”

The jihadists are even attempting to sell the former criminal courts building in Gao, Mr. Sidibé said, because they no longer have any use for it. In Timbuktu, justice is dispensed from a room in a former hotel.

Many of the amputation victims have now drifted down to Bamako, in the south, which despite suffering from its own political volatility has become a haven for tens of thousands fleeing harsh conditions in the north, including the forced recruitment of child soldiers by the Islamists.

Moctar Touré, 25, and Souleymane Traoré, 25, both spoke haltingly and stared into the distance, remembering life before the moments that turned their worlds upside down and made them, as they felt, useless. They gently cradled the rounded stumps that now serve as arms, wondering what would come next.

The two young men had been truck drivers before Gao was overrun last spring. Both were accused of stealing guns; both said they merely acted out of patriotic feeling for the now-divided Malian state, with the intention of helping it regain the north.

In September, Mr. Traoré said, he was summoned from his jail cell after three months of a brutal prison term in which he was often fed nothing. Acquaintances had denounced him to the Islamist police; he was stealing the extremists’ weapons at night, he said, and burying them in the sand by the Niger River.

As ten other prisoners watched, he was ordered to sit in a chair, and his arms were tightly bound to it. With a razor, one of his jailers traced a circle on his forearm. “It pains me to even think about it,” he said, looking down, cradling his head in his remaining hand.

Mr. Touré’s brother, Aliou, the police chief, sawed off his hand. It took three minutes. Mr. Traoré said he passed out.

Moctar Touré had his hand amputated several weeks later. He said it took 30 minutes, though he fainted in the process, awakening in the hospital bed where the Islamists had placed him afterward.

“They asked my own brother three times if that was the sentence,” Mr. Touré said. “He’s the commissioner of police in Gao, and he wants to die a martyr,” Mr. Touré said quietly. “He joined up with the Islamists when they came to Gao.”

Aliou Touré, reached by telephone in the Sahara, said the decision was a simple one.

“He stole nine times,” he said of his brother. “He’s my own brother. God told us to do it. God created my brother. God created me. You must read the Koran to see that what I say is true. This is in the Koran. That’s why we do it.”

Moctar Touré had a different story. The Islamists had pressed him into joining their militia, he said, but the training was brutal and Mr. Touré quit. One day they saw him carrying some guns, and they accused him of wanting to subvert the new order. He was jailed.

Sweat streamed down Mr. Touré’s forehead as he recalled the terrible memories, sitting on a bench at a busy bus station here, 600 miles from Gao.

The Islamists had called out five prisoners that morning; four were to be witnesses. They took them all to an unused customs post at the edge of Gao, and Mr. Touré was ordered to wash himself. The Islamists told him what his sentence was to be.

Now, Mr. Touré spends his days hanging out at the bus station near a cousin’s house. Mr. Traoré hopes to learn a new trade, given that “I can’t be a driver anymore,” he said.

Mr. Touré, for his part, is in despair. “I have no idea what I am going to do,” he said. “I’m completely lost. Night and day, I ask myself, ‘What is going to happen?’ Nobody has helped me.”

The people in Gao have protested the amputations several times, according to Human Rights Watch, even halting them once by throwing stones at the Islamic police and blocking the entrance to the main square.

“To come to Gao and inflict these sentences they call Islamic, I say it is illegal,” said Abderrahmane Oumarou, a communal councilor there, reached by telephone after last week’s amputations.

As for the Islamists’ justice, “I don’t give credit to their accusations,” Mr. Oumarou said. “You can’t replace Malian justice.”

Mr. Oumarou said the Islamists had been busy lately writing “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great,” in Arabic on the former Malian administrative buildings in Gao.

“Their accusations are false,” he said. “They said weapons were stolen. But these are lies.”

Students are free to pray in school

Teacher-led prayer has been done away with in order to keep church and state separate and avoid favoring one religion over another. I am sure many Christian parents would frown on a Muslim teacher leading Muslim prayers to their children and vice versa.

However, if students wish to pray, it is entirely up to them. They may pray to the God of the Bible or the math god before the big test or even the football god to help with those touchdowns.

Removing teacher-led prayer gives everyone the freedom to pray (or not) to whichever god they choose, and that is something we can all be thankful for.

City Council members use discretionary accounts to rip off taxpayers???

A Phoenix councilman [Phoenix Vice Mayor Michael Johnson who is a former Phoenix Police Officer] used more than $20,000 to attend conferences.

A West Valley councilwoman [Glendale Councilwoman Norma Alvarez] used $18,000 to pave a road in her district.

A small-city mayor [Surprise Mayor Lyn Truitt] spent nearly $70 to buy shirts and monogram “mayor” on them.

All three tapped so-called discretionary funds, public money that is spent at a council member’s discretion with little public scrutiny.

In the last two years, 10 Valley cities have spent $1.2 million in taxpayer funds for meals, travel, construction projects and iPads, an investigation by The Arizona Republic has found.

The money also was used to pay for more run-of-the-mill expenses like photos, picture frames, candy for a parade and appreciation plaques. [Stuff that is really needed by the taxpayers - at least that's what these royal rulers say]

These purchases were made as recession-battered cities have cut jobs, delayed maintenance and asked residents to cope with fewer services.

Supporters of discretionary funds say they are a useful tool and can pay for neighborhood projects, charity donations, lobbying trips and training for newly elected leaders. [And increasing their income without the taxpayers finding out, well except when articles like this are published]

Critics worry that the main beneficiaries are council members themselves. [and the critics are right] While the funds are just a sliver of a multimillion-dollar city budget, local politicians can use the money to take pricey trips or raise their profile by splurging on favored projects in their districts, some say.

Despite city leaders’ best intentions, discretionary funds are ripe for misuse or even abuse, according to ethics experts and some city leaders.

“You can spend on just about anything you want,” said Surprise City Councilman Mike Woodard, who has been critical of the funds and helped change how they are handled in his city.

A discretionary account is a pool of money, often taken from a city’s general fund, that is set aside for an individual council member to use at his or her discretion. It’s a common practice among city councils around the country. In the Valley, 10 cities, including Phoenix, Peoria, Glendale, Mesa, Chandler and Avondale, maintain discretionary funds, which range from $500 to more than $30,000 a year.

Council members vote on the amount they are allowed to spend each year. In some cities, mayors receive more than other council members. [If a council member votes themselves a $5,000 pay raise everybody finds out about it. If instead they vote themselves a $5,000 increase in discretionary money nobody finds out.]

Although the amounts are outlined in the city budget, details on how the money is spent is not discussed in public meetings.

Still, most communities have discretionary-fund policies, though they vary widely in the level of oversight. Some cities won’t cut a check unless an expense meets discretionary-fund rules. Others merely ask council members to provide receipts.

Avondale’s policy, for example, is informal. “Council member discretionary funds ... can be used for any legal public purpose such as official City travel, educational opportunities such as training or conferences, support of non-profit organizations, etc.,” it states. [And the taxpayers rarely find out when they are used for illegal purchases]

Several cities allow council members to “roll over” unused dollars to the next year or to borrow money from council colleagues when they run out of cash. [Sounds more like an illegal slush fund then a discretionary fund!!!]

The Phoenix council has an executive assistant who acts as a gatekeeper approving each expense. [Yea, an executive assistant that works for the person spending the money. Ask an accountant if this is a good "internal control" to keep the money from being used illegally and they will tell you it isn't!!!!]

Tracking the spending often falls to a city administrator, who can’t hold a public official accountable, said Judy Nadler, a senior fellow in government ethics at Santa Clara University, in Santa Clara, Calif.

The Republic examined council and mayor discretionary funds with travel and capital spending for fiscal years 2010-11 and 2011-12.

Other Valley city councils without discretionary funds pay for these expenses through the budget process. The Republic did not examine those budgets.

The Republic analysis shows that about 15 percent of discretionary funds were spent on travel and conference-related expenses in 2010-11 and 2011-12. [So it's really travel and party money, that is kept secret from the taxpayers???]

Officials in Valley cities without discretionary funds also use taxpayer money to travel but do it through the budget process, allowing public input.

Local leaders who support the out-of-town trips say they help cement federal support for local programs. Conferences help council members learn how to better represent their constituents. [These guys were elected to city government officers, there is no need for them to hobnob with government officials in Washington D.C.]

The benefits of such travel, supporters and critics agree, can be hard to quantify. [And that's why city council members love these discretionary accounts]

Phoenix Vice Mayor Michael Johnson spent more than $22,000 in discretionary funds on conference-related hotels and travel. He spent more discretionary funds on hotels and travel than any other council member or mayor in the Valley. That included hotel bills for National League of City conferences totaling more than $5,000 for two stays at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel. [Wow! I wonder when he has time to work at his real job in Phoenix as a Phoenix Council member]

For those conferences, he stayed in the hotel for at least a week, said Johnson, who serves on the Advisory Board of the National League of Cities. He was also the president of the National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials, a group within the league.

The benefits to the city of his trips far exceed the money he spent on travel, Johnson added. [Of course he didn't give the Arizona Republic any hard numbers] In addition to attending the conferences, he met with the state’s congressional delegation and had a sit-down meeting with President Barack Obama.

However, it is difficult to calculate how many dollars exactly those trips brought to Phoenix, Johnson said. “It’s hard to say, ‘Well, can you tell me the exact amount you were responsible for?’ That would be difficult to say,” he said.

Those meetings helped Phoenix get utility subsidies for the poor and allowed the city to keep its share of Community Development Block Grants, a federal program that aims to spur development in low-income neighborhoods, the councilman said. The trips also helped bring the league’s 2011 Congress of Cities conference to Phoenix, which generated $4.5 million in direct spending, Johnson said.

Avondale Mayor Marie Lopez Rogers, who is president of the National League of Cities, said conferences are valuable for new and experienced city leaders alike. At league conferences, council members learn about open-meeting laws, new technological advances and how to handle the relationships between city leaders and city employees, Rogers said. She used discretionary funds for her travel to conferences but was reimbursed for most of it by the national league.

But Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio said he doesn’t see the value in extensive conference attendance. “Quite frankly, if it was that important for someone to go, you don’t have to have more than one person go to those things to represent your city,” DiCiccio said.

And in the age of teleconferencing, such travel can be reduced, said Kevin McCarthy, president of the Arizona Tax Research Association.

But Rogers said that in politics a conference call is not always as effective as an in-person visit. When Goodyear and Litchfield Park needed to prod federal officials about polluted groundwater or when federal grants to cities were on the chopping block, local leaders had to travel to Washington, she said. [Of course the city council members will use any lame excuse they can to take the money and run.]

“Certainly we can use technology,” she said. “We use technology as much as we can, but politics is about relationships, and if you don’t build those face-to-face contacts, you lose something.”

Some city leaders pour discretionary funds into neighborhoods, using it to pay for projects that might not otherwise receive funding but also to bolster council members’ political profiles. The money can pay to stucco old walls, paint graffiti-covered fences, and help local homeowners associations pay for improvements. For example, Peoria City Councilwoman Joan Evans spent $1,275 for community-pool improvements at Lake Pleasant Estates.

Council members say this is often an ideal way to spend the money, making small, badly needed upgrades in their community. [So if the money is spent this way it means the normal way government operates isn't working???]

Ethics experts warn that this kind of spending may encourage council members to use the money for political advantage.

In February, Glendale Councilwoman Norma Alvarez paid Vulcan Materials Co. $18,138 from her discretionary account to provide asphalt for repairs to Griffin Lane, a quarter-mile-long, dead-end neighborhood street. City workers paved the road. [I bet everybody on that block voted to reelect Glendale Councilwoman Norma Alvarez. Of course she will say the $18,138 wasn't used to buy votes]

It was legitimate discretionary spending: Glendale’s policy allows each council member to spend up to $15,000 on construction or equipment. [Legitimate doesn't mean ethical. ]

Alvarez said that south Glendale is not the city’s priority but that the repaving was something constituents wanted. The city could not otherwise have afforded it at a time when Glendale was cutting library services and recreation programs. [Well if the city couldn't have afforded it she shouldn't have spent the money]

“The project was needed,” she said. “I was told I had miscellaneous money to go to conferences and so forth. ... I have spent all the money in the neighborhoods.”

Stuart Kent, Glendale executive director of public works, said Griffin Lane was on a list of streets identified as below standards and in need of work. City employees repaved the road at Alvarez’s request, he said.

In Peoria, Vice Mayor Ron Aames spends almost 75 percent of his discretionary funds on neighborhood-improvement projects, [buying votes in his district??? I'm sure he will have a lame excuse to deny that] some of which he features prominently in newsletters he sends to constituents. The articles feature photographs of Aames and residents smiling in front of the improvements such as neighborhood-entry signs.

Aames, who was unopposed in his bid for a second term in the November 2010 election, said he isn’t campaigning using discretionary funds. He defended the newsletters, saying his constituents have a right to know what he is doing. [But he didn't say it's a lot cheaper to spend the taxpayers money to get himself reelected, then spending his own money]

“Communication is important,” he said. “I do it primarily so people know who I am and are aware that they can make such requests, and we do this in the district.”

It is difficult to say whether officials are touting such projects to lay the groundwork for their next election, said James Svara, a professor in the School of Public Affairs at Arizona State University. “Is that a project of sufficient importance that it warrants being done, compared with other uses that money could be put to?” he asked. [Then if this stuff is so questionable, then it probably shouldn't be done]

Aames said the projects return tax money to citizens. [Liar, liar, pants on fire???] Using discretionary funds allows him to work directly with residents, instead of directing them to a city program. [And it sure buys a lot of votes when it comes to getting reelected]

Another popular, and significant, discretionary expenditure is donating money to charity. [There is nothing I hate more then charity at gun point. That's when our government rulers tax you so they can give YOUR money to THEIR favorite charity.]

Especially in bad economic times, discretionary money helps non-profits provide valuable services to residents, council members say. But the donations can raise questions about relationships between city leaders and those who benefit from the gift.

Phoenix City Councilwoman Thelda Williams spent almost $3,000 at Turf Paradise for a dance and dinner to raise money for the Pioneer Arizona Living History Museum and Village, a city park in her district. She said the Pioneer ball raised $15,000 for the museum. [Maybe, since the party was pay with taxpayer money, the public should have been invited to attend it free of charge. But Phoenix City Councilwoman Thelda Williams probably wouldn't like that!!]

“I do an annual fundraiser for them, and we do it there, because they give us the best price,” she said of Turf Paradise, a horse-racing track, which isn’t in her district.

Williams received a $430 campaign donation from Ronald Simms, a co-owner of Turf Paradise. But Williams said the donation had nothing to do withher choosing the racetrack for the event. “You’re talking horses. It’s in the pioneer theme,” she said. [Honest, it's not a bribe. Honest, it's not a bribe]

In 2010, Woodard, the Surprise councilman, donated $1,200 to a holiday-lights extravaganza at a private home known as the “Christmas House.” Woodard said he was criticized for giving money to private citizens, and people speculated that he bought decorations for the house or paid the electric bill. Rather, the money paid for toys to give to hundreds of children who came to see the house, Woodard said.

“I would do it again given the opportunity, but the way it is now, it would have to be approved by the council,” he said.

Another Surprise politician, former Mayor Lyn Truitt, made several unusual purchases using discretionary funds. While Truitt was mayor, the council bought iPads using the funds. He said council members had a choice between iPads or laptops. Other cities have purchased iPads for council members but went through the public budgeting process to buy them.

Truitt also spent $68 on shirts and a jacket, which he had embroidered with his title and name. That way, residents and visitors who didn’t know him could identify him, he said. “I believe it was an appropriate council expenditure,” he said. [and the rest of us believe that he ripped off the taxpayers]

While some city leaders are uneasy about how discretionary funds are being spent, few outside groups monitor them.

The money is a small fraction of overall city budgets. For example, in Phoenix, City Council and mayoral discretionary spending totals about $80,000 annually, while the city budget is $3.5 billion. [I think what they are saying is since the city of Phoenix annually spends $3.5 billion it's no big deal if the members of the Phoenix city council rip off the taxpayers for $80,000 annually???]

In Surprise, Woodard has successfully pushed for change. This year, the council agreed to cut its discretionary budget and pool the money in a community-outreach pot. Any spending from the community-outreach fund requires a council vote.

Earlier this month, Glendale’s City Council offered to reduce each council member’s discretionary fund from $33,000 to $9,000 annually. The decision comes as city leaders consider eliminating 64 full-time positions to save $6 million during the next fiscal year.

Nadler, the university ethics fellow, said she doesn’t see any movement across the country to end discretionary funds or revise how they are handled. But, she said, given cities’ financial struggles, the time has come to do so. “We’ve reduced police forces. We’ve reduced the hours at the library,” she said.

“So we cannot afford to waste one dime on expenses that are not legitimate and that do not advance the work elected officials are charged to do on behalf of the public,” Nadler said.

Phoenix: Spending limit not exceeded - Honest that's what the mayor says!!!!

Former Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon overspent his discretionary funds while he was in office.

City figures show that in fiscal year 2010-11 Gordon spent $17,000 more than the $5,000 limit on the taxpayer-funded account. [I'm sure he will say that this looks bad, but honest, he didn't rip off the taxpayers for $12,000]

A city spokeswoman sees it differently. [Well let's say a city spokeswoman that works for Mayor Gordon and is paid by Mayor Gordon, and is only accountable to Mayor Gordon sees it differently] Since Gordon’s total spending that year was lower than his total $1.6 million mayoral budget, it’s not important if the former mayor overspent in one category.

The Arizona Republic requested discretionary-fund spending data from 10 cities — including Phoenix — that have such accounts for city-council members. The other cities are Glendale, Peoria, Mesa, Avondale, Chandler, Tolleson, Litchfield Park, Goodyear and Surprise.

The funds are supposed to be spent on expenses that ultimately help residents. In many cities, council members and mayors must follow some guidelines. For some, however, there is little oversight and city leaders spend the money as they see fit.

Toni Maccarone, a Phoenix spokeswoman, said Gordon’s total office budget in fiscal year 2010-11 was $1,588,202. His year-end actual spending was $1,338,332, she said.

“That is what is important for the overall city budgeting process, not whether one particular line item in the budget was over or under, because departments can make up for it with underspending in other areas of their budgets,” Maccarone said.

In Phoenix, the mayor’s and council members’ budgets are divided into several categories, said Mario Paniagua, Phoenix budget and research director.

Gordon’s overall $1.6 million budget included discretionary funds as well as money for personnel services that covered staff costs, contractual services and office supplies.

The discretionary budget is for the mayor and council’s miscellaneous expenses including constituent services, outreach and travel, Paniagua said.

In an interview, Gordon said he filled out proper paperwork for the discretionary-account expenses, which were approved.

According to city documents, Gordon spent $14,085 of his discretionary funds over the two fiscal years on conferences and business travel.

The rest of his discretionary money paid for event-support services and office supplies.

In addition to the taxpayer-funded money, Gordon controlled an account that was funded by donations from developers and other political supporters.

“What I call my discretionary funds, I raised all privately and had the downtown partnership oversee that,” he said.

Valley officials' purchases using discretionary funds

In the last two years, 10 Valley cities have spent $1.2 million in taxpayer funds for meals, travel, construction projects and iPads, an investigation by The Arizona Republic has found.

Phoenix City Councilwoman Thelda Williams spent almost $3,000 at Turf Paradise to help pay for a museum fundraiser. The horse-racing track is co-owned by a campaign donor.

Glendale Councilwoman Norma Alvarez paid more than $18,000 to repave a road. Without her help, she says, the road would have remained a low city priority.

Former Surprise Mayor Lyn Truitt bought an iPad with discretionary funds. He said the council chose to purchase iPads because they are less cumbersome than laptops and help with constituent email and keeping a city calendar.

Truitt also spent $68 on shirts and a jacket, which he had embroidered with his title and name. He said that helped residents because people who didn’t know him were able to identify him when he was in public and could approach him. [Sorry Mayor Truitt a 50 cent name tag would have been a lot cheaper!!!]

Phoenix City Councilman Michael Nowakowski paid $5,822 over two years to a children’s inflatable bounce house business to rent a screen and projector used for a movies in the park program in Southwest Phoenix.

Former Surprise Councilman Mike Woodard, a foe of most discretionary spending, donated $1,200 to the “Christmas House” which featured many holiday lights. Woodard was criticized by residents for giving money to private citizens. He said the money was used to buy toys for children, and he would do it again.

Mayoral and city council discretionary fund spending

A discretionary account is a pool of money, often taken from a city’s general fund, that is set aside for an individual council member to use at his or her discretion. The use of discretionary funds is a common practice among city councils around the country.

In the Valley, 10 cities, including Phoenix, Peoria, Glendale, Mesa, Chandler and Avondale maintain discretionary funds. Funds across the Valley range from $500 a year to $33,000.

Some cities allow their councils and mayors to roll over unspent discretionary funds into next year's budgets. Peoria, Glendale and Avondale all allow for this. Avondale and Goodyear allows council members to give some of their discretionary budget to other members.

The following individuals spent more than their budgets in either Fiscal Year 2011 or Fiscal Year 2012: Avondale Mayor Marie Lopez Rogers went over $500 in FY 2012 and Vice Mayor Stephanie Karlin went over her FY 2011 budget by $872.

[To see the graphs that came with this article check out the original article in the Arizona Republic here]

Catholics use "Natural Law" to spread their hate of gays.

When Illinois legislators approved civil unions last year, gay-marriage opponents turned to Scripture and church teachings to explain their resistance. But with state lawmakers poised to consider approval of same-sex marriage, Roman Catholic bishops and other advocates of traditional marriage have changed their tack.

They say church teaching has nothing to do with it; gay marriage simply violates natural law.

"Marriage comes to us from nature," Chicago's Cardinal Francis George said in a recent interview. "That's based on the complementarity of the two sexes in such a way that the love of a man and a woman joined in a marital union is open to life, and that's how families are created and society goes along. … It's not in our doctrine. It's not a matter of faith. It's a matter of reason and understanding the way nature operates."

State Sen. Heather Steans and state Rep. Greg Harris, both Democrats from Chicago, could introduce the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act to legalize same-sex marriage as early as this week. Steans has said she and Harris will not put the legislation up for a vote unless they believe it will pass the current General Assembly. A new set of lawmakers will be sworn in Jan. 9.

George figures the bill's introduction has some "inevitability to it now," but he's dismayed that natural law largely has been left out of the public debate.

Supporters of gay marriage call the renewed effort to highlight natural law a clever but disingenuous appeal to the masses.

"On sexual ethics, nature is neutral," said Bernard Schlager, executive director of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, Calif. "We're moral beings. We may look to nature for some aspects of how we are in our lives, but we answer to a higher standard. Sexual behavior is an expression of human love."

According to the tradition of natural law, every human being must seek a fundamental "good" that corresponds to the natural order to flourish. Natural-law proponents say heterosexual intercourse between a married man and a woman serves two intertwined good purposes: to procreate and to express a deep, abiding love.

"You want to be sure that everybody has a chance at happiness. That's a very persuasive argument," George said. "But we all want that, and nobody should be disdained or persecuted because of their sexual orientation. … But when we get behind the church and behind the state, you've got a natural reality that two men or two women … cannot consummate a marriage. It's a physical impossibility."

Though some have argued that a basic tenet of natural law is equality, the Rev. Robert John Araujo, a law professor at Loyola University Chicago, said same-sex couples are not equal to heterosexual couples. Objective intelligence demonstrates that heterosexual couples have the capacity to populate the planet and same-gender couples do not, he said.

"It is this very intelligence that is at the core of the natural law upon which the cardinal is relying when he asserts that the marriage question is not restricted to religious concerns but is also of concern to the natural-law legal reasoning that gave us the American republic," Araujo said.

Other people of faith disagree. Last Sunday, more than 250 Illinois clergy members, mostly Protestant and Jewish, endorsed the gay marriage bill as "morally just to grant equal opportunities and responsibilities to loving, committed same-sex couples."

Alice Hunt, president of Chicago Theological Seminary, said the natural-law argument seems like a "strategic move."

"They quickly saw biblical marriage wasn't going to work," she said. "It doesn't work for me because you're still depending on one person or some group of people's interpretation of natural law. When you look at the history of marriage, there are many ways marriage has taken shape over time."

Christopher Wolfe, a professor emeritus of constitutional law at Marquette University who now serves as the co-director of the Thomas International Center, a Raleigh, N.C., institute devoted to the teachings of Thomas Aquinas, said natural law plays a role no matter what side of the debate one takes.

"Everybody's argument on marriage comes down to some kind of natural-law argument," Wolfe said. "But there are differences as to what that nature is. Are children central to it or not?"

Polling by the Public Religion Research Institute has found that most American Catholics support legal recognition of same-sex relationships.

Though that might be true of parishioners, the church hierarchy is of one mind and speaks the truth, according to Robert Gilligan, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Illinois, the church's lobbying arm in Springfield.

"The reason we're vocal about laws that unite more than a man and a woman in marriage is it's incompatible with human nature," he said. "We're talking to more than people in the pews. This is something that pertains to believers and nonbelievers."

At Israel School, Anyone Can Learn to Be a Prophet

Instead of long beards and robes, they wear track suits and T-shirts. Their tablets are electronic, not hewn of stone, and they hold smartphones, not staffs. They may not look the part, but this ragtag group of Israelis is training to become the next generation of prophets.

For just 200 shekels, about $53, and in only 40 short classes, the Cain and Abel School for Prophets says it will certify anyone as a modern-day Jewish soothsayer.

The school, which launched classes this month, has baffled critics, many of whom have dismissed it as a blasphemy or a fraud.

On a religious level, Jewish tradition recognizes a few dozen prophets from the biblical era — from the monumental figures of Abraham, Moses and Elijah to lesser known foretellers of doom and tormented questioners like Micah the Morashtite and Habakkuk. Tradition says no one can be a prophet ever since the Romans destroyed the second temple in Jerusalem in the year 70 and the era of prophecy can only be revived with the arrival of the Messiah and the temple's rebuilding. As one Talmudic phrase puts it, the only prophets now are children and fools.

But also, on a philosophical level, how do you learn divine inspiration in school? And can anyone learn?

"There is no way to teach prophecy," said Rachel Elior, a professor of Jewish thought at Jerusalem's Hebrew University. "It's like opening a school for becoming Einstein or Mozart."

That hasn't deterred the school's founder and sole teacher Shmuel Hapartzy, a follower of Chabad, a worldwide Orthodox Jewish outreach and worship movement that has come under fire because part of its membership crowned its late leader the Messiah. The Chabad movement in Israel has distanced itself from the school.

Anyone looking in the curriculum for "Parting the Sea 101" or "How to Predict the Future" or even "Principles of Proclaiming A Jeremiad" will be disappointed. Instead, students learn about the meaning of dreams, the classification of angels, the mysteries of the holy spirit. They learn how to discern a person's inner feelings from his or her external behavior and appearance.

Hapartzy can't guarantee his course will give his students a direct line to God. But, he says, the syllabus provides the essential tools to bring out the prophet in anyone.

"In the past there were prophets but even now, in our time, divinity is being revealed to everyone. We just need to open our eyes to it," said Hapartzy at his introductory course, which is held at a religious center in grungy south Tel Aviv, known more for its licentious street parties than piety.

There's little "profit" motive to the venture. Hapartzy said the token fee is to prove students' dedication and is donated to the religious center hosting the school. There's no application process — anyone who wants to become a prophet can do so by just showing up for the course.

The school's inaugural class this month welcomed a mixed bag of 12 students ranging in age from 18 to 50. One man had scruffy stubble and wore a blue track suit. Another walked in with a guitar slung over his back. Others fiddled with their phones during the lecture or stepped out to smoke. Two had long beards and wore Jewish skullcaps.

Darya Popdinitz, who drove in from Jerusalem for the course, wore a pink hat with dangling pompons. She said her knowledge of biblical prophets was limited, but she was "curious" about the course.

The class itself is a modest study group. In the small room, the men sat in a circle around Hapartzy, with the women separately in a corner, following Orthodox Judaism's segregation of the sexes. Hapartzy lectures and hands out study material — photocopied excerpts of holy books — and a question period follows. The students' homework is to conduct good deeds and pray.

The 34-year-old Hapartzy has a varied background. A software engineer and Russian immigrant, with a long beard and dressed in black ultra-Orthodox garb, he said he was originally an atheist. He dabbled in "sciences, mysticism, Chinese philosophy, astrology, black magic and Christian cults" until, he said, he turned to Judaism.

He compiled the study materials from writings he said could be found in any religious library — including, no surprise, the books of the biblical prophets. Since there's no traditional set course for becoming a prophet, Hapartzy used his own judgment for what subjects would be appropriate.

Like some in the Chabad movement, Hapartzy believes that the Messiah has already come and that the age of redemption is nigh, so it has possible to have prophets again. Claims by some that late leader Rabbi Menachem Schneerson was the Messiah split the Chabad movement and brought harsh criticism from other Jews.

Hapartzy said his school aims to prepare everyone for the new messianic era. The school is named after the sons of Adam and Eve — Cain was the first murderer and Abel the first victim. The name represents a person's different spiritual poles, which the school aims to unite, Hapartzy said.

The desire to open up the realm of prophecy to anyone has raised hackles in some circles.

"It's completely crazy," said Menachem Brod, a Chabad spokesman. Facebook commenters have accused the school of "charlatanism and blasphemy."

Roie Greenvald, a 27-year-old tennis instructor attending the classes, also showed some skepticism. While he expressed interest in the spiritual development the course offers, one crucial detail stands in the way of his religious elevation.

"I'm not going to become a prophet," he said. "I don't think it pays very well."

Muslim hater mistakenly shoves Hindu on subway tracks

NEW YORK -- A woman suspected in the death of an immigrant who was pushed off a New York City subway platform has been ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

Erika Menendez, 31, was arraigned Saturday night on a charge of murder as a hate crime. She had told police she has hated Muslims since Sept. 11 and thought the victim was one. Judge Gia Morris ordered that Menendez be held without bail and be given a mental health exam.

Menendez is charged in the death of Sunando Sen, who was crushed by a train in Queens on Thursday night. Friends and co-workers said Sen, a 46-year-old Indian immigrant, was Hindu.

“I pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers I’ve been beating them up,” Menendez told police, according to the district attorney’s office.

“The defendant is accused of committing what is every subway commuter’s worst nightmare,” Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.

Menendez was incoherent at her arraignment in Queens criminal court, at one point laughing so hard that the judge told her defense lawyer, “You’re going to have to have your client stop laughing.”

Menendez admitted shoving Sen, who was pushed from behind, authorities said. She was arrested after a tip by a passer-by who saw her on a street and thought she looked like the woman in a surveillance video released by police.

Angel Luis Santiago, who used to work at the Queens building where Menendez’s mother and stepfather live, said he was shocked by her arrest.

Sen was the second man to die after being pushed in front of a New York City subway train this month. Ki-Suck Han was killed in a midtown Manhattan subway station on Dec. 3. A photo of Han clinging to the edge of the platform a split second before he was struck by a train was published on the front page of the New York Post, causing an uproar about whether the photographer, who was catching a train, or anyone else should have tried to help him.

A homeless man was arrested and charged with murder in that case and is awaiting trial. He claimed he acted in self-defense.

It’s unclear whether anyone tried, or could have tried, to help Sen on Thursday.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg urged residents Friday to keep Sen’s death in perspective as he touted new historic lows in the city’s annual homicide and shooting totals.

“It’s a very tragic case, but what we want to focus on today is the overall safety in New York,” Bloomberg told reporters following a police academy graduation.

But commuters still expressed concern over subway safety and shock about the arrest of Menendez on a hate crime charge.

“For someone to do something like that … that’s not the way we are made,” said David Green, who was waiting for a train in Manhattan. “She needs help.”

Green said he caught himself leaning over the subway platform’s edge and realized maybe he shouldn’t do that.

Such subway deaths are rare, but other high-profile cases include the 1999 fatal shoving of aspiring screenwriter Kendra Webdale by a former psychiatric patient. That case led to a state law allowing for more supervision of mentally ill people living outside institutions.

Transit officials said last week they would consider installing barriers with sliding doors on some subway platforms. Other cities including Paris and London have installed such barriers.

Drone War Spurs Militants to Deadly Reprisals

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — They are dead men talking, and they know it. Gulping nervously, the prisoners stare into the video camera, spilling tales of intrigue, betrayal and paid espionage on behalf of the United States. Some speak in trembling voices, a glint of fear in their eyes. Others look resigned. All plead for their lives.

Pakistan militants punish accused informers aiding drone attacks by taping their confessions and executions.

“I am a spy and I took part in four attacks,” said Sidinkay, a young tribesman who said he was paid $350 to help direct C.I.A. drones to their targets in Pakistan’s tribal belt. Sweat glistened on his forehead; he rocked nervously as he spoke. “Stay away from the Americans,” he said in an imploring voice. “Stay away from their dollars.”

Al Qaeda and the Taliban have few defenses against the American drones that endlessly prowl the skies over the bustling militant hubs of North and South Waziristan in northwestern Pakistan, along the Afghan border. C.I.A. missiles killed at least 246 people in 2012, most of them Islamist militants, according to watchdog groups that monitor the strikes. The dead included Abu Yahya al-Libi, the Qaeda ideologue and deputy leader.

Despite the technological superiority of their enemy, however, the militants do possess one powerful countermeasure.

For several years now, militant enforcers have scoured the tribal belt in search of informers who help the C.I.A. find and kill the spy agency’s jihadist quarry. The militants’ technique — often more witch hunt than investigation — follows a well-established pattern. Accused tribesmen are abducted from homes and workplaces at gunpoint and tortured. A sham religious court hears their case, usually declaring them guilty. Then they are forced to speak into a video camera.

The taped confessions, which are later distributed on CD, vary in style and content. But their endings are the same: execution by hanging, beheading or firing squad.

In Sidinkay’s last moments, the camera shows him standing in a dusty field with three other prisoners, all blindfolded, illuminated by car headlights. A volley of shots rings out, and the three others are mowed down. But Sidinkay, apparently untouched, is left standing. For a tragic instant, the accused spy shuffles about, confused. Then fresh shots ring out and he, too, crumples to the ground.

These macabre recordings offer a glimpse into a little-seen side of the drone war in Waziristan, a paranoid shadow conflict between militants and a faceless American enemy in which ordinary Pakistanis have often become unwitting victims.

Outside the tribal belt, the issue of civilian casualties has dominated the debate about American drones. At least 473 noncombatants have been killed by C.I.A.-directed strikes since 2004, according to monitoring groups — a toll frequently highlighted by critics of the drones like the Pakistani politician Imran Khan. Still, strike accuracy seems to be improving: just seven civilian deaths have been confirmed in 2012, down from 68 the previous year, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which has been critical of the Obama administration’s drone campaign.

And civilian lives are threatened by militants, too. As the American campaign has cut deeply into the commands of both the Taliban and Al Qaeda, drone-fearing militants have turned to the local community for reprisals, mounting a concerted campaign of fear and intimidation that has claimed dozens of lives and further stressed the already fragile order of tribal society.

The video messages from accused spies are intended to send a stark message, regardless of whether innocents are among those caught up in the deadly dragnet. The confessions are delivered at gunpoint, and usually follow extensive torture, including hanging from hooks for up to a month, human rights groups say.

“In every civilized society, the penalty for spying is death,” said a senior commander with the Pakistani Taliban, speaking on the condition of anonymity from Waziristan.

Although each of myriad militant factions in Waziristan operates its own death squads, by far the most formidable is the Ittehad-e-Mujahedeen Khorasan, a shadowy group that experts consider to be Al Qaeda’s local counterintelligence wing. Since it emerged in 2009, the group, which is led by Arab and Uzbek militants, has carefully cultivated a sinister image through video theatrics and the ruthless application of violence.

Black-clad Khorasan militants, their faces covered in balaclavas, roam across North Waziristan in jeeps with tinted windows. In one video clip from 2011, Khorasan fighters are seen searching traffic under a cluster of palm trees outside Mir Ali, a notorious militant hub. Then they move into the town center, distributing leaflets to shoppers, before executing three men outside a gas station.

“Spies, your days are numbered because we are carrying out raids,” chants the video soundtrack.

Thought to number dozens of militants, the Khorasan cooperates closely with the Afghan warlord Jalaluddin Haqqani, who is based in North Waziristan. A sister organization in Afghanistan has been responsible for 250 assassinations and executions, according to American military intelligence.

“Everyone’s frightened of them,” said Mustafa Qadri of Amnesty International, which recently published a report on human rights abuses by both the military and militants in the tribal belt. “No one really knows who is behind them. But they are very professional.”

The videotapes produced by Khorasan and other groups offer a stark, if one-dimensional, picture of their spy hunt. A review of 20 video confessions by The New York Times, as well as interviews with residents of the tribal belt, suggest the suspects are largely poor tribesmen — barbers, construction workers, Afghan migrants.

The jittery accounts of the accused men reveal dramatic stories of espionage: furtive meetings with handlers; disguising themselves as Taliban fighters, fruit sellers or even heroin addicts; payment of between $150 and $450 per drone strike; and placing American-supplied electronic tracking devices, often wrapped in cigarette foil, near the houses and cars of Qaeda fugitives.

But the videos are also portraits of fear and confusion, infused with poignant, even darkly comic, moments. Curiously, some say they have been hired through Pakistani military intelligence officials who are identified by name, directly contradicting the Pakistan government’s official stance that it vehemently opposes the drone strikes. An official with Inter-Services Intelligence, speaking on the customary condition of anonymity, said any suggestion of Pakistani cooperation was “hogwash.”

Quite clearly, the video accounts are stage-managed. Behind the camera, an unseen militant prompts the prisoners to speak. Some say they have been told they will be freed if they tell the “truth.” Others are preparing for death. “Tell my parents that I owe 250 rupees to a guy from our village,” Hamidullah, a bearded Afghan migrant, said in a quavering voice. “After I die, please repay the money to him.”

Death is not inevitable, however. Suleman Wazir, a 20-year-old goat herder from South Waziristan, said militants abducted him in September on suspicion of being a spy. “They held me in a dungeon and flogged me hundreds of times. They told me I would die,” he said in a video interview recorded through an intermediary in Waziristan. But after some weeks, Mr. Wazir said, his relatives intervened through tribal elders and persuaded the Taliban of his innocence. Upon presentation of five goats to the militants, he was set free, he said.

The Taliban and Al Qaeda have become obsessed with “patrai” — a local word for a small metallic device, now synonymous with the tiny electronic tagging devices that militants believe the C.I.A. uses to find them. In 2009 Mr. Libi, the Qaeda deputy, published an article illustrated with photographs of such devices, warning of their dangers. He was killed in a drone strike near Mir Ali in June.

This year, the Taliban released a video purporting to show one such device: an inchlong electronic circuit board, cased in transparent plastic, that, when connected to a nine-volt battery, pulsed with an infrared light. A spokesman for the C.I.A. declined to comment on details of the drone program. But a former American intelligence official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that the agency does use such GPS devices, which are commercially available in the United States through stores that supply the military.

As a result, the Taliban are adapting. Wali ur-Rehman, a senior Taliban commander, said in an interview last spring that his fighters had started to scan all visiting vehicles with camcorders set to infrared mode in order to detect potential tracking devices.

Still, the Taliban may be overestimating the importance of such devices. A former Obama administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the classified nature of the subject, said that satellites and aerial surveillance planes — whose powerful sensors sweep up mobile phone, Internet and radio intercepts from the tribal belt — provide much of the drone program’s electronic intelligence. Other experts said many American intelligence informers in Waziristan are recruited in Afghanistan, where a C.I.A. base in the border province of Khost was attacked by a suicide bomber three years ago.

On the ground, though, the spy war has further destabilized a tribal society already dangerously weakened by years of violence. Paranoia about the profusion of tracking chips has fueled rivalries between different clans who accused one another of planting the devices.

“People start to think that other tribes are throwing the chips. There is so much confusion and mistrust created within the tribal communities. Drone attacks have intensified existing mistrust,” one tribesman told researchers from Columbia Law School, as part of a study into the effects of the drone campaign, last May.

The Khorasan’s brutality has alienated even some of its putative allies. In September 2011, Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a leading warlord in North Waziristan, publicly withdrew his support for the group after coming under pressure from tribal supporters over the number of apparently innocent tribesmen who had been executed as spies. In a statement, the Khorasan responded that it would pursue its objectives “at all costs and not spare anyone.”

Amid the long knives and paranoia, some tribesmen believe there is no option but to flee. Some of those accused of espionage run to the gulf states; others make it to the sprawling slums of the port of Karachi. In an ethnic Pashtun neighborhood of that city, one elderly man described how he fled with his family after the execution of his son in 2009.

“I was afraid the militants would also kill me and my family,” said the man, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Still now, his life remained in danger, he added, because the Taliban believed he was spending what they said was his son’s ill-gotten money. But it was simply untrue, the old man insisted: “My son was innocent.”

Reasonable Restrictions on your First and Second Amendment rights

Imagine that the First Amendment is subject to just a few 'reasonable restrictions.'

This Federal job pays $186,000 to do nothing!!!!!

Federal bureaucrats put on PAID leave can get stuck in an ill-defined limbo for years

I bet some poor smuck who is making minimum wage doing backbreaking work would dream about this job.

The article also seems to say that the Feds have flushed the First Amendment down the toilet and give Federal employees PAID leave to attend religious events.

If the Boy Scouts are your cup of tea, I see nothing wrong with that. But since it is a quasi-religious organization you should not be paid with tax dollars to attend Boy Scout events.

These government bureaucrats in DC are not alone. In Arizona, Phoenix police officers who are accused of misconduct often are placed on PAID leave for months or years at a time waiting for their case to be resolved. Phoenix cops start at around $50,000/yr or $25/hr and many make over $100,000/yr or $50/hr.

Paul Brachfeld, the inspector general for the National Archives, plans to ring in the new year with his wife with a relaxed visit to their vacation home near Bethany Beach, Del. In October, the couple took a cruise to Puerto Rico. Brachfeld runs every morning in Silver Spring, hikes with Spree, his Jack Russell terrier, in the woods most afternoons and catches up with his adult daughters in the evening. All while collecting his $186,000 government salary.

These days, his life seems like one long vacation. The veteran watchdog for the historical records agency is entering his fourth month on paid time off, one of an unspecified number of federal employees who are collecting paychecks and benefits to do . . . nothing. At least nothing to advance the immediate interests of the government.

Brachfeld, 54, was put on paid administrative leave in September after an employee on his staff accused him of misconduct. He has not yet been interviewed by the panel that investigates complaints against inspectors general. It meets just four times a year.

Cases like his, in which a civil servant is accused of breaking rules, can go on for months and even years. Some involve accusations of cut-and-dried misconduct — threatening violence, for example — that lead to paid leave while the case is investigated. Other employees are caught up in more ambiguous circumstances, like blowing the whistle on wrongdoing or filing a complaint of employment discrimination.

In a system that rarely fires people, no one can say how many are on paid administrative leave. It’s one number the government apparently doesn’t track.

“It’s the federal government’s dirty little secret, how much they do it,” said Debra D’Agostino, founding partner of the Federal Practice Group, an employment law firm.

Brachfeld, who was put on leave by the Archives chief after a dispute with an agent on his staff, said he was “placed under virtual home detention” based on “untested smears” to which has not been able to respond. The agent claims the inspector general altered audits, used vulgar language and gave CBS News’s “60 Minutes” sensitive information before its release was authorized.

There are 64 reasons listed in the “Administrative Leave/Excused Absence” section of the Office of Personnel Management rule book that officially allow government employees paid time off. They range from giving blood to attending a Boy or Girl Scout jamboree. And then there are the Brachfelds of the federal world, who are paid to do nothing or banished to perform telework with the kind of flexible schedule in which no meaningful assignments materialize.

The status is not, as some critics of public-sector workers might conclude, a day at the beach — Brachfeld actually had to put in for vacation time to take get his.

“I’ve had clients [on paid leave] for long periods of time who absolutely hated it,” said William Bransford, general counsel for the Senior Executives Association, which represents 7,000 government executives. “The perception that’s spun is that this is a paid vacation. But employees want to know what’s going to happen to them as quickly as anybody else.”

Getting paid not to work supposedly requires close supervision by managers. It means moving up the General Schedule pay scale, accruing a pension and vacation and sick days until you’re either fired or cleared to return to the office. While they’re not working, idled employees are not allowed to take another job.

Blake DeVolld, a civilian Air Force intelligence officer, was stripped of his top- secret security clearance in 2006 after his ex-wife, in a bitter divorce, told the FBI she had found 15 classified pages in a box in his basement.

For three years, while he was under investigation, DeVolld, 52, scanned personnel records into a computer in a glass-enclosed room at the National Air and Space Intelligence Center in Springfield, Ohio. Then he was suspended without pay for two more years.

After six years, the Air Force exonerated him last June and reinstated his clearance.

“They can put you in this status and leave you in there forever,” he said of the 1,000 days he drew a $93,000 salary to push papers. “It wasn’t really meaningful work, I’ll tell you that. I caught up on my reading.”

Much the same story unfolded for Maria Jones and William Porter, program analysts at the Energy and Health and Human Services departments, respectively, after they filed equal-employment-opportunity complaints with their agencies alleging racial discrimination by their supervisors.

Jones, 49, says she was put on paid leave for eight months, receiving her $89,750 salary until she was fired last March. She said her boss, who was black, had created a hostile work environment with disparaging comments about white employees. Jones is black.

At home in Prince George’s County, she was instructed to call her supervisor at the Office of Fossil Energy at 7:30 every morning to “find out what my schedule was.” But he was never in the office at that hour, so she left a voice mail. She says she talked to him twice in eight months.

“It benefited me because I was getting paid,” Jones said. “But it was a waste of federal dollars. Why did it take that long to fire me?” Like all of the six employees, Jones says her performance reviews became unfavorable before she was put on leave.

Porter, who makes $112,000, says his duties billing for reimbursement for disaster expenses were taken away and he was sent to an office with no work for a year after he complained that his boss, who is white, created a hostile work environment with negative comments about blacks, including Louis Farrakan. Porter, who is black, then told managers he has an anxiety disorder that was triggered by his agency’s failure to give him meaningful work.

He was dispatched to a year-long detail for Tricare, the military health system, which assigned him to telework. But Porter says months passed without his ever hearing from a supervisor, and he was given very few assignments. “They’re having me sit and do nothing and I’m collecting six figures.”

Peter Van Buren, a former foreign service officer who penned an unflattering book in 2011 about his year leading two reconstruction teams in Iraq, was sent home to Falls Church for two months on administrative leave after he wrote an offensive post about Hillary Clinton on an unauthorized blog just as his book was published. Then he was assigned to telework that consisted of copying Internet addresses into a file from a computer in his bedroom. This continued for 11 months while he drew his $150,000 salary.

“Telework is a great way to deep-six somebody,” Van Buren said. “And the State Department can say, ‘We’ve got another guy teleworking!’ ” He retired in September under an agreement with the agency, years sooner and with a smaller pension than he had planned.

And Stephen Patrick, a courier who transports nuclear material and drove a government car 340 miles without authorization, was finally fired from the National Nuclear Security Administration, which is part of the Energy Department, in August. His tug-of-war with his bosses after he challenged a 30-day suspension lasted five years. For four of them, Patrick, 45, was on administrative leave in Canton, Ohio, making $47,000 plus automatic raises.

Their agencies declined to comment on DeVolld, Jones, Porter, Van Buren, Patrick and Brachfeld, saying they were not authorized to discuss personnel issues.

Private companies tend to tackle thorny personnel issues differently. A problem employee can be placed on leave with pay. “But the notion of extending it indefinitely? It’s anathema to a private employer,” said Barbara Brown, a Washington employment attorney.

In government, civil service protections mean that firing someone is not so easy, even when they deserve it.

“Every time I hear these kind of stories, I think, ‘Ye gods! It takes government a long time to make a decision!’ ” said Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), a longtime advocate for whistleblowers and critic of government inefficiency. “It’s a culture within all of government — we’ve been handling personnel issues this way for 40 years, so we’d better keep doing it this way.”

“Resolving these cases gets put to the bottom of the to-do list,” said D’Agostino, the employment lawyer. “Meanwhile, the employee is still accruing time. At agencies that are downsizing, it makes it hard to function.”

Unions and managers say it is rare for do-nothing status to draw out. But it’s an area where managers have wide discretion.

Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said paid leave is used “in rare circumstances” while an employee who is “considered a potential threat to themselves or others in the workplace” is being investigated.

There are no official limits on how long the limbo can go on. In 1990, in the case of a Forest Service employee put on paid leave for 22 weeks, the comptroller general ruled, “We are unaware of any legal basis where . . . an employee can be placed on extended administrative leave with pay.”

“It’s used for employees who are not meeting conditions of employment,” said Terry Sutherland, spokesman for the Pentagon Force Protection Agency. He said administrative leave decisions are made “at a very senior level” and “looked at very closely.”

“The intent is it’s supposed to be very quick and simple,” Sutherland said. “When it goes beyond those normal situations, we ask, ‘What did this individual do? Would bringing them back be disruptive?’ ”

He acknowledged that long-term leave “is not good for the person, and not good for the agency.”

The six employees say their experience showed an ugly side of due process. They all say that after conflicts with their supervisors, they were marginalized in an attempt to get them to quit. That’s often easier for the government than firing, which, as Patrick’s case shows, can take years and end up in litigation.

It took the Energy Department four months to officially fire Patrick after they sent him a termination notice. This followed a slew of psychological evaluations, accusations, memos and appeals by him and his supervisors. He fought them at every step, won an appeal in 2008 and was ordered back to his courier job by a top Energy official.

But the agency kept blocking his certification to guard nuclear materials, and without it he could not keep his job.

“I appealed a 30-day suspension and they were hellbent to get rid of me right then and there,” he said. “I took a freaking government vehicle out to dinner. When all is said and done, you’re talking to a federal employee who got paid a government salary for five years and didn’t do a damn thing.” He is suing to get his job back based on his bosses’ failure to reinstate him after he was ordered back to work.

DeVolld says his ordeal so sapped his pride that he chose to leave the Air Force after he was cleared. He now teaches intelligence and national security at a Christian college near his home.

“This thing took five years and ruined my career,” he said. He filed a lawsuit against the Air Force in federal court in Ohio in December, charging that his two-year suspension without pay violated his due process rights.

Porter is now back at Health and Human Services on administrative leave. He has given his supervisors doctors’ notes certifying his readiness to work. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission did not advance his complaint, but he is suing HHS in federal court, alleging that the government denied his rights under the Americans With Disabilities Act.

He cared for his dying mother-in-law and is now digging a hole for a patio in his garden in Upper Marlboro. “My doctors tell me to keep busy,” he said.

Paul Brachfeld, meanwhile, continues to collect his paycheck, and awaits the opportunity to tell his side of his story.

Religious Grand Canyon University wants a government handout???

Civic leaders are pledging to resist a regional bidding battle as Phoenix-based Grand Canyon University solicits economic-incentive packages for its planned satellite campus in the southeast Valley suburbs.

The for-profit university plans to build a 75- to 150-acre campus that could eventually boast 7,500 students and 2,000 employees. The school’s main campus is near 33rd Avenue and Camelback Road in Phoenix.

Grand Canyon last month invited five southeast Valley communities to propose sites for the new campus and offer incentives ranging from land giveaways and tax rebates to infrastructure improvements.

Besides asking Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, Tempe and Queen Creek to bid, the company invited Las Vegas and Albuquerque to join the competition.

But after years of border fights over coveted economic assets like auto malls and shopping centers, community leaders say the culture of competition is giving way to a spirit of cooperation.

City officials are now more inclined to work together in competing with major markets in California, Texas and overseas rather than fight among themselves, East Valley Partnership President Roc Arnett said.

Arnett said he expects civic leaders to take the same approach in negotiating an agreement for the Grand Canyon University campus.

“In the last two years, I’ve seen more cooperation between cities than I’ve seen in a long, long time,” Arnett said. “I think the cities will avoid at all costs a bidding war, and they’ll communicate together.”

Elected officials and city administrators in the southeast Valley echoed that sentiment.

Chandler Mayor Jay Tibshraeny said he has already spoken “in generalities” about the university bid with the other four mayors and does not anticipate a bidding war.

“We’re in this individually, but we have had some dialogue as a group that it’s not wise to jeopardize taxpayers’ dollars,” Tibshraeny said. “From Chandler’s perspective, it won’t happen.”

Mesa Mayor Scott Smith, whose city recently landed five small liberal-arts colleges without offering incentives, said he does not want to be “manipulated” by a for-profit company that’s looking to grow.

“The incentive for them (the five colleges) was that this is a great community where they can succeed,” Smith said.

Mesa will work with neighboring communities to find the best place for the new Grand Canyon campus, which will benefit the entire region regardless of which site is chosen, Smith said.

to come and invest in our community,” Smith said. “We’ll work with Grand Canyon and the other cities in a reasonable way to help them find the right place.”

Grand Canyon CEO Brian Mueller said the company is happy to work with a group of cities collectively if officials prefer that approach.

“We want the best location where we can serve the greatest number of students,” Mueller said. “We just think there’s going to be a trend of students wanting to stay closer to home to go to school and wanting to do it in the most economically feasible way possible.”

Grand Canyon officials pointed to several recent examples where public subsidies were used to support higher education, including $14 million from Phoenix for a University of Arizona cancer center and up to $2.5 million from Peoria for Trine University.

Plans for the new Grand Canyon campus include four 80,000-square-foot buildings with amenities such as a student union, laboratories, a recreational center, a bookstore and a library, according to the company’s request for proposals.

The university wants to open the first building in time for classes in fall 2014, company executives have said. The second building would likely open in 2016, followed by a third and fourth by 2020.

Gilbert Mayor John Lewis said civic leaders will want to be “ambassadors” for their own communities but must also realize the campus will be an asset for the entire region.

“Economic development and education go hand in hand,” Lewis said. “A strong workforce is important for retaining and attracting businesses.”

Queen Creek Economic Development Director Doreen Cott said the town is working with local landowners to identify potential sites and intends to submit a bid package that could include development incentives.

General tools the town has to offer include expediting plans through its development process, waiving building and permitting fees or helping improve infrastructure, she said.

Chandler Economic Development Director Christine Mackay said officials in her city are still poring through the request for proposals but expressed interest and excitement to “see something new.”

Tempe spokeswoman Nikki Ripley said the city is “staying engaged in the process and evaluating the situation” but declined to comment further.

Grand Canyon initially indicated that cities should respond with a notice of intent by Jan. 7, but Smith said the company should be “more realistic” with expectations.

Mueller, the Grand Canyon CEO, said that the Jan. 7 date is not a hard deadline and that the company does not need “anything substantial” from the cities until later.

The university’s proposal lists Feb. 15 as a deadline for cities to submit bids and says it will notify the winner by May 1.

Simple Things to Protect Your Privacy

Over the weekend, I wound up at Washington, D.C.’s Trapeze School with a group of friends. Before one of them headed up a ladder to attempt a somersault landing from the trapeze bar, she handed me her phone and asked me to take photos. “What’s the password?” I asked. “I don’t use one,” she replied. My jaw dropped as it often does when someone I know tells me they’re choosing not to take one of the very simplest steps for privacy protection, allowing anyone to snoop through their phone with the greatest of ease, to see whichever messages, photos, and sensitive apps they please.

So this post is for you, guy with no iPad password, and for you, girl who stays signed into Gmail on her boyfriend’s computer, and for you, person walking down the street having a loud conversation on your mobile phone about your recent doctor’s diagnosis of that rash thing you have. These are the really, really simple things you should be doing to keep casual intruders from invading your privacy.

1. Password protect your devices: your smartphone, your iPad, your computer, your tablet, etc. Some open bookers tell me it’s “annoying” to take two seconds to type in a password before they can use their phone. C’mon, folks. Choosing not to password protect these devices is the digital equivalent of leaving your home or car unlocked. If you’re lucky, no one will take advantage of the access. Or maybe the contents will be ravaged and your favorite speakers and/or secrets stolen. If you’re not paranoid enough, spend some time reading entries in Reddit Relationships, where many an Internet user goes to discuss issues of the heart. A good percentage of the entries start, “I know I shouldn’t have, but I peeked at my gf’s phone and read her text messages, and…”

If a police officer stops you and wants more information about you in addition to illegally searching you, your car and your home, they almost always will grab your cell phone and attempt to steal all the data on it. Password protecting your cell phone will usually prevent officer unfriendly from doing this. And don't use your birth date, middle name or any other information the police officer can steal from you for your password.

Remember the police officer has your driver's license which contains your birth date and you middle name.

And don't voluntarily give your cell phone password to the police officer as many people do according to this article.

You are under no obligation to tell the police anything including the password to your phone or the combination to your safe. Take the 5th Amendment and refuse to tell anything to the police.

Many of our ancestors died fighting to give us our 5th Amendment rights. Don't give us that right just because some crooked police officer threatens you.

2. Put a Google Alert on your name. This is an incredibly easy way to stay on top of what’s being said about you online. It takes less than a minute to do. Go here. [ http://www.google.com/alerts ] Enter your name, and variations of your name, with quotation marks around it. Boom. You’re done.

3. Sign out of Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, etc. when you’re done with your emailing, social networking, tweeting, and other forms of time-wasting. Not only will this slightly reduce the amount of tracking of you as you surf the Web, this prevents someone who later sits down at your computer from loading one of these up and getting snoopy. If you’re using someone else’s or a public computer, this is especially important. Yes, people actually forget to do this, with terrible outcomes.

4. Don’t give out your email address, phone number, or zip code when asked. Obviously, if a sketchy dude in a bar asks for your phone number, you say no. But when the asker is a uniform-wearing employee at Best Buy, many a consumer hands over their digits when asked. Stores often use this info to help profile you and your purchase. You can say no. If you feel badly about it, just pretend the employee is the sketchy dude in the bar.

And don't voluntarily give your cell phone password or any other information to the police. Many people do according to this article do.

The Fifth Amendment says you don't have to give ANYTHING to the police. If you don't use it, you will lose it.

5. Encrypt your computer. The word “encrypt” may sound like a betrayal of the simplicity I promised in the headline, but this is actually quite easy to do, especially if you’re a MacHead. Encrypting your computer means that someone has to have your password (or encryption key) in order to peek at its contents should they get access to your hard drive. On a Mac, you just go to your settings, choose “Security and Privacy,” go to “FileVault,” choose the “Turn on FileVault” option. Boom goes the encryption dynamite. PC folk need to use Bitlocker [ technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766295%28v=ws.10%29.aspx ].

And don't give the password to a police officer if he asks you! Take the 5th Amendment! It's your RIGHT.

Also remember cryptology experts can sometimes decrypt the data on you computer. If you are a big enough fish the police will call in the cryptology experts

If you don't want somebody to know about something it probably shouldn't be on your computer.

6. Gmailers, turn on 2-step authentication in Gmail. The biggest takeaway from the epic hack of Wired’s Mat Honan was that it probably wouldn’t have happened if he’d turned on “2-step verification” in Gmail. This simple little step turns your phone into a security fob — in order for your Gmail account to be accessed from a new device, a person (hopefully you) needs a code that’s sent to your phone. This means that even if someone gets your password somehow, they won’t be able to use it to sign into your account from a strange computer. Google says that millions of people use this tool, and that “thousands more enroll each day.” Be one of those people. The downside: It’s annoying if your phone battery dies or if you’re traveling abroad. The upside: you can print a piece of paper to take with you, says James Fallows at the Atlantic. Alternately, you can turn it off when you’re going to be abroad or phone-less. Or you can leave it permanently turned off, and increase your risk of getting epically hacked. Decision’s yours.

7. Pay in cash for embarrassing items. Don’t want a purchase to be easily tracked back to you? You’ve seen the movies! Use cash. One data mining CEO says this is how he pays for hamburgers and junk food these days.

8. Change Your Facebook settings to “Friends Only.” You’d think with the many Facebook privacy stories over the years that everyone would have their accounts locked down and boarded up like Florida houses before a hurricane. Not so. There are still plenty of Facebookers that are as exposed on the platform as Katy Perry at a water park. Visit your Facebook privacy settings. Make sure this “default privacy” setting isn’t set to public, and if it’s set to “Custom,” make sure you know and are comfortable with any “Networks” you’re sharing with.

9. Clear your browser history and cookies on a regular basis. When’s the last time you did that? If you just shrugged, consider changing your browser settings so that this is automatically cleared every session. Go to the “privacy” setting in your Browser’s “Options.” Tell it to “never remember your history.” This will reduce the amount you’re tracked online. Consider a browser add-on like TACO to further reduce tracking of your online behavior. [If the police arrest you or get a search warrant they will definitely look at your browser history. Erase it to make life difficult for police who want to make life difficult for you. Also remember that even if you erase your browser history, many web sites keep logs showing each time you visited their sites. ]

10. Use an IP masker. When you visit a website, you leave a footprint behind in the form of IP information. If you want to visit someone’s blog without their necessarily knowing it’s you — say if you’re checking out a biz competitor, a love interest, or an ex — you should consider masking your computer’s fingerprint, which at the very least gives away your approximate location and service provider. A person looking at their analytics would notice me as a regular visitor from Washington, D.C. for example, and would probably even be able to tell that I was visiting from a Forbes network address. To hide this, you can download Tor [ https://www.torproject.org/ ] or use an easy browser-based option.

These are some of the easiest things you can do to protect your privacy. Ignoring these is like sending your personal information out onto the trapeze without a safety net. It might do fine… or it could get ugly. These are simple tips for basic privacy; if you’re in a high-risk situation where you require privacy from malicious actors, check out EFF’s surveillance self-defense tips [ https://ssd.eff.org/ ].

Gunmen kill 5 female teachers in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Gunmen in northwest Pakistan killed five female teachers and two aid workers on Tuesday in an ambush on a van carrying workers home from their jobs at a community center, officials said.

The attack was another reminder of the risks to women educators and aid workers from Islamic militants who oppose their work. It was in the same conservative province where militants shot and seriously wounded 15-year-old Malala Yousufzai, an outspoken young activist for girls’ education, in October.

In another attack likely by militants in the southern city of Karachi, four people were killed and dozens injured when a bomb went off just as a large political rally was dispersing.

The teachers and aid workers in the northwest were killed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. It is an area where Islamic militants often target women and girls trying to get an education or female teachers.

Militants in the province have blown up schools and killed female educators. They have also kidnapped and killed aid workers, viewing them as promoting a foreign agenda.

Last month, nine people working on an anti-polio vaccination campaign were shot and killed. Four of those shootings were in the northwest as well.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, formerly called the Northwest Frontier province, borders the tribal areas of Pakistan along the frontier with Afghanistan to the west. Militant groups such as the Taliban have used the tribal areas as a stronghold from which to wage war both in Afghanistan and against the Pakistani government. Often that violence has spilled over into the mostly Pashtun province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

In 2007, the Taliban led by Maulana Fazlullah took over the scenic Swat Valley, marking the height of their strength there. The Pakistani military later pushed the militant group from the valley but the Taliban has repeatedly tried to reassert itself.

The teachers were killed along with two health workers, one man and one woman. Their driver was wounded. They were on their way home from a community center in the town of Swabi where they were working at a primary school for girls and adjoining medical center.

The injured driver told investigators that the gunmen stopped the vehicle and removed a boy — the son of one of the women — before indiscriminately opening fire, said police officer Fazal Malik.

Swabi police chief Abdur Rasheed said most of the women killed were between the ages of 20 and 22. He said four gunmen who used two motorcycles fled the scene and have not been apprehended.

The gunmen on motorcycles opened fire with automatic weapons, said Javed Akhtar, executive director of the non-governmental organization Support With Working Solutions. The NGO conducts programs in the education and health sectors and runs the community center in Swabi, he said. The group has been active in the city since 1992, and started the Ujala Community Welfare Center in 2010, he added. Ujala means “light” in Urdu.

The center is financed by the Pakistani government’s Poverty Alleviation Program and a German organization, said Akhtar.

He said the NGO also runs health and education projects in the South Waziristan tribal area, as well as health projects in the cities of Tank and Dera Ismail Khan and the regions of Lower Dir and Upper Kurram. All of those cities and regions are in northwest Pakistan, the area that has been most affected by the ongoing fight with militants opposed to the current government.

Aid groups such as Support With Working Solutions often provide a vital role in many areas of Pakistan where the government has been unable to provide services such as medical clinics or schools. In some areas like the northwest, they have had to work to overcome community fears that they are promoting a foreign agenda at odds with local traditions and values.

But many local residents in Swabi said the school and medical center provided a vital service to the community and mourned those who were killed.

Murad Khan said his daughter was studying at the primary school, which provided free books and uniforms to students. He said many people in the area are now worried that the school and clinic will close.

“This school is like a gift for all of us, the poor people of the village,” he said. “People in our area are sad.”

The NGO director said he has directed staff at all projects to stop working for the time being until security measures are reviewed but vowed that they would resume their work soon.

In Karachi, senior police officer Asif Ejaz Shaikh said the bomb that killed four was planted in a motorcycle parked amid a crowd of buses for political workers returning from the rally held by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. The MQM is the dominant political party in Karachi.

The provincial health minister Dr. Saghir Ahmed said four people were killed and 41 injured.

Associated Press writers Zarar Khan in Islamabad and Adil Jawad in Karachi contributed to this report.

Priest gets 8 years for looking at dirty pictures.

PITTSBURGH — A suspended Pittsburgh-area priest will serve more than eight years in prison for collecting thousands of images of child pornography on his computer, books and compact discs.

The sentence the Rev. Bartley Sorensen received Wednesday was more than the five-year mandatory minimum he sought but less than the 10-year maximum he faced.

The 63-year-old Roman Catholic priest was arrested by Allegheny County authorities in December 2011 after an employee at St. John Fisher Parish in Churchill noticed him looking at a photo of a pantsless young boy on his computer.

Federal officials took over the investigation after a computer search turned up thousands of child pornography images, some of them sadomasochistic.

Sorensen pleaded guilty in May. At his sentencing, he expressed remorse to everyone but the young boys depicted in the pornography

Saudi's top cleric warns against gender mixing as a "dangerous"

Saudi's top cleric warns against gender mixing as a "dangerous" breach of Islamic law

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabia's top cleric has warned against the mixing of the genders, saying that any attempt to violate a strict separation threatens female chastity and endangers society.

Grand Mufti Sheik Abdul-Aziz Al-Sheik said in his traditional Friday sermon that authorities must adhere to Shariah, or Islamic law, by ensuring men and women are separated as much as possible.

Al-Sheik said it is forbidden for women to unveil in front of men, warning that this will destroy the morals and values of society. The veil refers to the full face covering worn by most women in the ultraconservative kingdom.

Religious leaders in Saudi Arabia have spoken out against reforms introduced by King Abdullah, including allowing women to join the country's main advisory body and work in female apparel stores.

Sal Gomez says mix religion and government pass Obama Care???

I find the opposition to Obamacare a gross, contradictory, and hypocritical position held by certain elected officials who represent the citizens of this great country.

I ask, how can a God-fearing nation allow large enterprises to make exorbitant profits from someone’s afflictions. Is it not the moral obligation of the citizenship to help, assist, and heal those citizens who suffer health issues? It is in the Bible — the principle source of our guiding principles!

How can we, in good conscience, allow health insurance companies to benefit when someone needs a kidney transplant, suffers a stroke, or needs insulin injections for the rest of their life.

We are a nation that is guided by Christian principles of kindness and caring more. To allow a segment of our society to continue to charge exorbitant, uncontrolled and unregulated charges for medical procedures is unconscionable.

Mixing government and religion at the Gangplank????

I think Gangplanks main role is to bring high tech computers geeks businesses to Chandler, and that is why they get money from the city of Chandler.

The people at Jacob’s Well Church believe that the best way to learn to love their neighbors is to get to know them.

That’s why the church, a United Methodist congregation that meets in downtown Chandler, is hosting a series of talks designed to introduce people to different faith traditions. The series, “Jesus, Mohammed & Friends, an Uncommon Dialog,” continues each Sunday through Feb. 17. The talks take place at 10:30 a.m., at the Gangplank space at 250 S. Arizona Avenue (just north of Frye Road).

“The reason we’re doing this is because we see an ever-changing world,” Rev. Jay Cooper said. “We don’t want that to be something to be afraid of, or ignorant of, but to embrace it. The best way is to love our neighbors is to know them.”

The talks will feature a guest speaker representing various faiths including Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Mormonism. There will even an atheist to represent that point of view. Following a presentation by the guest speaker, there will be a question-and-answer period.

Cooper said he realizes the 15 minutes or so the guest speakers will have at the beginning of the talks isn’t much time to give much of an overview of a faith, but the purpose is just to start a conversation.

“I thought the Hindu’s answer to that was great,” Cooper said. “He said, ‘this is a 7,000-year-old religion, good luck cramming that into 10 minutes.

“The whole purpose is to have a good conversation. I’ve kind of vetted the people to make sure we have a good conversation. I want, when this person leaves, for our church to have a good impression of that Hindu, that Muslim, but it’s going to be an open dialog.”

Jacob’s Well is a relatively new church, just over a year old, based in the downtown Chandler. The church doesn’t have a permanent building, but has held services and gatherings at Gangplank and other locations in the area. Members of the church have been active in that part of town as well, particularly focusing efforts on volunteering with the Chandler Christian Community Center.

Cooper said the upcoming talks were another way to engage the community, even those who might not normally come to church.

“It can be hard to invite people to church because they think they’ll be out of their element,” Cooper said. “But something like this people have been inviting friends, too. I think it’s a perfect conversation starter. You don’t have to agree with what’s said. Just because we allow Muslims to speak doesn’t mean we’re going to become Muslim. We want to strengthen our faith and understand them more.”