A facade shields Obama
SourceA facade shields Obama
Thu Mar 14, 2013 7:34 PM
During my working career, I sometimes conferred with consultants in an effort to solve building-construction problems. On occasion, I interviewed people who pronounced that they could solve all the problems that I faced.
These consultants could talk very well, but in reality, they provided very few good solutions.
The one constant that some of these consultants had was a way with words, a golden tongue, so to speak. I am constantly reminded of this type of person whenever I hear President Barack Obama speak. He talks a good game but doesn’t produce anything worthwhile.
His everyday solution to our country’s problems is to spend more money. Hell, anybody can do that. That’s a crutch, not a solution.
President Obama has a facade. He speaks extremely well, but his intelligence leaves a lot to be desired.
Unfortunately, he has pulled the wool over many Americans’ eyes much as many consultants have attempted to do to me in my business career.
— R. “Dick” Gira
Sun City West
Justice Department wins the Rosemary Award - Again
Just what the h*ll is the Rosemary Award????The Rosemary Award, a distinction given by the National Security Archive annually to a public agency whose performance on transparency and openness is downright dismal.
The Rosemary Award is named after Rose Mary Woods, secretary to President Richard Nixon. Woods who famously erased a crucial 18 minutes of White House tapes.
Posted at 08:00 AM ET, 03/15/2013
Justice Department ‘wins’ award for secrecy
By Emily Heil
In the category of dubious achievements, the Justice Department is now a back-to-back winner of the Rosemary Award, a distinction given by the National Security Archive annually to a public agency whose performance on transparency and openness is downright dismal.
Congrats, or something to the Justice Department (as our colleagues at The Fix say to the winners of their Worst Week in Washington)!
To merit the eighth-annual award, Justice obstructed and cloaked its doings in secrecy, the Archive says, much like the award’s namesake, Rose Mary Woods, secretary to President Richard Nixon. Woods famously erased a crucial 18 minutes of White House tapes (an innocent mistake, she claimed, that accidentally happened when she stretched to answer a phone call).
Justice “clinched the intensely competitive award “ just this week with its performance at a Senate hearing in which an official refused to answer questions about litigation that could undermine an open-government law Congress adopted in 2007 to speed up requests from the public filed under the Freedom of Information Act.
And Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy might have tipped the scales in the Rosemary sweepstakes when got in this zing chiding Justice for slow-walking its rewrite of its own FOIA policies to comply with the 2007 law:
“It’s been five years since we changed the law,” Leahy said. “It took me less time to get through law school.”
What rubbish. If I have to use the restroom really, really bad and all the men's restrooms are occupied I won't hesitate to use a woman's restroom.
This silly law would make it a crime to do that.
I guess Cathi Herrod wants me to poop in my pants if all the men's rooms are occupied rather then do the sensible logical thing and use an empty women's restroom.
‘Show me your papers’ — before you p**
I was talking to City of Phoenix staffers a few weeks ago about expanding the anti-discrimination ordinance to cover LGBT residents — you know, the “bathroom bill.”
This was a few days before the six-hour City Council hearing — an endless stream of public comments — where the ordinance was approved.
One of the staffers told me he believed that Arizona law was silent on whether a man could enter a women’s public bathroom or a woman could enter a men’s room (I checked; he was right).
“Don’t let Cathi Herrod know,” he said. “She might try to change it.”
I think she does. I think she is.
Now there is a “bathroom bill” before the state Legislature — “show me your papers” before you pee. Read it:
Legislators had told me that Herrod, leader of the Center for Arizona Policy faith group and lobbying powerhouse, was shopping for a sponsor for a bill to strike back at the City of Phoenix ordinance.
SB 1432 is a “strike-everything” bill inserted in the shell of another bill that had the same number.
I haven’t confirmed Herrod wrote it. It’s just hard to imagine anyone else dreaming it up. Phoenix’s approval of the LGBT ordinance was a personal defeat for Herrod.
The hearing on this latest “show me your papers” bill is at 2 p.m. Wednesday before GOP State Rep. John Kavanagh’s House Appropriations Committee. Same time as his first hearing on the governor’s proposed Medicaid expansion.
This one could go longer than six hours.
Bathroom bill? Really, Rep. Kavanagh?
Forget about showing your birth certificate to vote. You soon may need to tote the thing around in order to use the bathroom in Arizona.
No really, I mean it.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman John Kavanagh plans to introduce a proposal Wednesday aimed at heading off an army of transgendered people who apparently stand ready to invade public bathrooms and wreak all manner of hygenic havoc.
Or not.
But that, really, is beside the point.
The right wing has been in a dither for several weeks now, ever since the Phoenix City Council had the colossal gall to approve a city ordinance declaring that you can’t discriminate against gay and transgendered people in the areas of employment, housing and restaurants and such.
Naturally, the hysterics among us went right to the toilet – and, coincidentally, to the Arizona Legislature.
And so comes Wednesday’s strike-everything amendment, wiping out an already-approved House bill dealing with state massage therapy bureaucrats and replacing it with this:
And how would the potty patrol really know that a person with the wrong equipment was about to use the facilities?
I suppose someone could be deputized to peek under the stalls to see which way the high heels are pointed or to peek under the dresses of all who look suspect.
Otherwise, how do you know it’s not a girl who just looks like a dude in a dress?
I guess we’ll find out the answers to these and other vital questions soon enough. The threat is dire enough that this bill contains an emergency clause, meaning it would take effect immediately upon becoming law rather than the usual 90-day wait.
Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, didn’t return a call to explain why there is such a pressing need for this bill or who pressed it upon him. Odds-on favorite would have to be Cathi Herrod, president of the Center for Arizona Policy and a woman on every right-wing legislators’ speed dial.
Having already pressured the Legislature into deciding that for purposes of abortion, life begins on the first date, I imagine she’s got plenty of time on her hands these days.
Pity she won’t use it to encourage our leaders to close the gaping loophole that allows deep-pocketed special interests to finance entire political campaigns without having to disclose their identities.
Or to require background checks before someone can buy a gun.
Or to improve mental-health care in this state or public education in this state or countless other things that are actually important in this state.
Instead, we have the emergency bathroom bill, being heard at 2 p.m. Wednesday, to head off the renegade city of Phoenix.
The legislator who is pushing privacy for lottery winners wants you to show your birth certificate – or perhaps your pertinent private parts — to gain entry to a public bathroom.
Which brings us to perhaps the most pressing question of all.
Has there been a problem?
I confess to not spending a lot of time thinking about where transgendered people go when they’ve got to go. But doesn’t it make sense that they probably already are and long have been quietly using the bathroom of their choice?
And if they do and there’s been no trouble, why is it the state’s business where they do their business?
(Column published March 20, 2013, The Arizona Republic.)
A number of times when I have to go really bad and all the men's restrooms are occupied I have used the women's restroom.
SB 1432 would criminalize that act and require that I poop in my pants or go jail.
Law governing transgender use of restrooms proposed
By Dustin Gardiner The Republic | azcentral.com Tue Mar 19, 2013 10:51 PM
The furor surrounding Phoenix’s new anti-discrimination law has found its way to the state Capitol, with opponents pushing a bill that would block many transgender people from using the public bathroom of their choosing.
Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, wants to create Arizona’s first law governing restroom privileges. Under Senate Bill 1432, someone would be guilty of disorderly conduct if he or she uses a bathroom, locker room or dressing room that’s not designated for the sex listed on his or her birth certificate.
The House Appropriations Committee will hear the issue at 2 p.m. Wednesday, and dozens are expected to turn out for the testimony.
Some Phoenix City Council members see the proposal as a rebuke to their vote last month to broadly outlaw discrimination against the city’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender residents. A council majority approved the changes after more than five hours of emotionally charged testimony.
Councilman Tom Simplot, who is openly gay and pushed the reforms, said if SB 1432 becomes law, it would criminalize the “very nature” of being transgender, a term used to describe people who identify as a sex different than that they were born as.
“They’re creating a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist,” Simplot said of the proposal. “This kind of extremist legislation is exactly what brings criticism to Arizona and compromises our work to make Phoenix an accepting and competitive city.”
At the center of the controversy is a debate over whether Phoenix’s new ordinance allows a person born a man but identifying as a woman to use the women’s restroom and vice versa. There’s no legal consensus, but city attorneys have said that a transgender person might, in some cases, have a discrimination claim under the law if blocked from using the restroom.
Critics of Phoenix’s move have repeatedly raised fears that the city opened the door for sexual predators to share bathrooms with women and girls. They labeled it the “bathroom bill,” a nickname gay-rights advocates said was an inflammatory distraction.
“This is about the person who will use gender identity or expression as their ruse to gain access to opposite-sex facilities,” Cathi Herrod, president of the conservative Center for Arizona Policy, said after the council approved the ordinance.
Kavanagh, who could not be reached for comment, submitted the proposal as a “strike everything” amendment to an existing bill, meaning it strikes out all the original language and uses its shell to advance an entirely different proposal. Because it has an emergency clause, the law would go into effect immediately if the governor signs it.
SB 1432 would make it illegal to enter a bathroom if signage indicates it is exclusively for the opposite sex. Authorities could charge violators with a Class 1 misdemeanor, punishable by a $2,500 fine and up to six months in jail.
It includes exemptions for children who need assistance, the physically disabled, people giving aid to others and those who must enter a bathroom as part of their job responsibilities, such as a janitor or maintenance worker.
News of the latest so-called bathroom bill quickly spread online Tuesday and attracted the attention of national gay-rights groups. It follows several high-profile U.S. cases involving bathroom use for transgender people, including several school districts that have struggled with such policies.
Much of the recent attention has focused on the case of a 6-year-old born a boy but identifying as a girl who was prohibited from using the girls bathroom at a public school. Her parents are now fighting the school district, citing Colorado’s 2008 anti-discrimination law.
Michael Silverman, director of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, said the bill puts Arizona in the minority of states that are curtailing rights. He said 16 states and more than 160 cities and counties, including Phoenix, have passed laws protecting against discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression.
“Many transgender people do not look like the sex that’s designated on their birth certificate,” Silverman said. “This bill will put transgender people in serious danger.”
Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff are the only Arizona municipalities that have adopted similar laws.
Pastor gets life sentence for killing 2nd wife
Associated Press Mon Mar 18, 2013 9:48 AM
STROUDSBURG, Pa. — A former Pennsylvania pastor was sentenced Monday to life in prison without parole in the fatal bludgeoning of his second wife in 2008.
Arthur “A.B.” Schirmer, 64, was sentenced in Monroe County Court nearly two months after a jury convicted him of first-degree murder in the death of Betty Schirmer. The conviction brought an automatic life sentence.
Schirmer is charged separately with killing his first wife, Jewel Schirmer, in 1999. He awaits trial in that case.
Prosecutors said he clubbed Betty Schirmer on the head with a crowbar, then loaded her into their car and staged a low-speed accident in an effort to conceal the crime. The former Methodist clergyman took the stand in his own defense and testified that he was driving her to the emergency room for treatment of jaw pain when he swerved to avoid a deer and hit a guard rail.
A jury deliberated about 90 minutes before returning its verdict.
Local police initially believed Betty Schirmer’s July 2008 death was the result of a car crash. State police began a more thorough investigation months later, when a man committed suicide in Schirmer’s office after learning the pastor was in a relationship with his wife, the church secretary.
Authorities ultimately concluded the fender-bender could not have caused Betty Schirmer’s extensive head and brain injuries. Police also found her blood on the garage floor, along with evidence that someone had tried to clean it up.
The investigation into Betty Schirmer’s death prompted police and prosecutors to take another look at Jewel Schirmer’s case. Arthur Schirmer has long claimed he was out for a run on April 23, 1999, when he returned home to find Jewel Schirmer’s body in a pool of blood at the bottom of the basement steps.
He was charged last September with killing her.
He has maintained his innocence in both cases.
Sadly when government thugs showed up at the home of
Shawn Moore for exercising this Second Amendment rights
and giving his son Josh a .22 rifle nobody seems to be outraged.
Boy’s gun photo draws unwanted visit
Associated Press Tue Mar 19, 2013 4:31 PM
The ruddy-cheeked, camouflage-clad boy in the photo smiles out from behind a pair of glasses, proudly holding a gun his father gave him as a present for his upcoming 11th birthday.
The weapon in the photo, posted by his dad on Facebook, resembles a military-style assault rifle but, his father says, is actually just a .22-caliber copy. And that, the family believes, is why child welfare case workers and police officers visited the home in Carneys Point last Friday and asked to see his guns.
New Jersey’s Department of Children and Families declined to comment specifically on the case but says it often follows up on tips. The family and an attorney say father Shawn Moore’s Second Amendment rights to bear arms were threatened in a state that already has some of the nation’s strictest gun laws and is considering strengthening them after December’s schoolhouse massacre in Connecticut.
In this case, the family believes someone called New Jersey’s anonymous child abuse hot line.
Shawn Moore said he gave his son Josh the gun as a present to use on hunting trips. The elder Moore was at a friend’s house when his wife called, saying state child welfare investigators, along with four local police officers, were at the house, asking to inspect the family’s guns.
Moore said he called Nappen, who specializes in Second Amendment cases, and had him on speaker phone as he arrived at his house in Carneys Point, just across the Delaware River from Wilmington, Del.
“They said they wanted to see into my safe and see if my guns were registered,” Moore said. “I said no; in New Jersey, your guns don’t have to be registered with the state; it’s voluntary. I knew once I opened that safe, there was no going back.”
[When the police want to search your home you shouldn't waste your time calling a lawyer.
The automatic answer should be "NO!!! Get lost and don't come back unless you have a search warrant." And of course you should also always take the Fifth Amendment and refuse to answer any and all police questions. Last the police will almost always lie to you and tell you that you don't have any stinking 4th or 5th Amendment rights, and you should be firm and say "You don't have my permission to search me, my car, my property or my home, and I want my lawyer before I answer any questions. ]
With the lawyer listening in on the phone, Moore said he asked the investigators and police officers whether they had a warrant to search his home. When they said no, he asked them to leave. One of the child welfare officials would not identify herself when Moore asked for her name, he said.
The agents and the police officers left, and nothing has happened since, he said.
“I don’t like what happened,” he said. “You’re not even safe in your own house. If they can just show up at any time and make you open safes and go through your house, that’s not freedom; it’s like tyranny.”
State child welfare spokeswoman Kristine Brown said that when it receives a report of suspected abuse of neglect, it assigns a caseworker to follow up. She said law enforcement officers are asked to accompany caseworkers only if the caseworkers feel their safety could be compromised.
“It’s the caseworker’s call,” she said. “It is important to note the way an investigation begins is through the child abuse hotline. Someone has to call to let us know there is a concern.”
Carneys Point Police Chief Robert DiGregorio did not answer a call late Tuesday to his office, which said only he would be able to comment.
Lindh lawyer to push for 5 daily group prayers
Associated Press Wed Mar 20, 2013 11:59 AM
INDIANAPOLIS — A lawyer who helped American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh and other Muslim inmates win the right to hold daily group prayers in a high-security unit said he’ll ask a judge to order that they be allowed to pray together five times a day, as Islam requires.
Chris Burke, a Bureau of Federal Prisons spokesman, said that since March 12, inmates of all religions housed in the Terre Haute federal prison’s Communications Management Unit have been allowed to pray together three times per day.
American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana legal director Ken Falk, who represented Lindh in his lawsuit against the prison bureau, said U.S. District Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson’s Jan. 11 ruling requires that the prison allow five daily group prayers.
“Basically, it’s our contention that they’re not complying with the court order,” Falk said Tuesday. “The judge’s order is pretty clear.”
A prison bulletin dated March 12 says only 10 inmates at a time can use the unit’s multi-purpose room for group prayer during the hours the room is open. It wasn’t clear how prison officials arrived at the limit of three prayers a day.
Those housed in Lindh’s unit are considered extreme security risks and their interactions are closely monitored. Until this month, inmates housed in the unit were only allowed to pray together once per week or during Ramadan or on other significant religious holidays. At other times, inmates had to pray alone in their cells and hope to hear each other through the walls.
Magnus-Stinson found the policy violated a 1993 law banning the government from curtailing religious speech without showing a compelling interest, and the government chose not to appeal her ruling.
Magnus-Stinson said in court documents that it was clear that 32-year-old Lindh sincerely believed that Islam mandates that Muslims pray together five times a day and federal law requires the prison to accommodate his beliefs — which praying simultaneously inside their cells did not do. She also noted that Muslim inmates in other federal prisons were allowed to hold daily group prayers.
“A central tenet of the Islamic faith is the obligation for adult Muslims to engage in five daily prayers, or Salat,” she wrote. “By prohibiting Mr. Lindh and the other Muslim prisoners who hold similar beliefs in the CMU from praying in each other’s presence, the Warden has denied Mr. Lindh and these other prisoners the religious exercise of daily group prayer,” she said elsewhere.
Prison officials said during the trial on Lindh’s lawsuit that allowing group prayers every day would pose a security risk and that inmates had used religion as cover for gang-like activity, but the judge dismissed those arguments as insubstantial.
The lawsuit was originally filed in 2009 by two Muslim inmates in the unit. Lindh joined the lawsuit in 2010, and the case has drawn far more attention because of his involvement. The other plaintiffs have dropped out as they were released from prison or transferred to other units.
In 2001, Lindh was captured in Afghanistan by U.S. troops and accused of fighting for the Taliban. Raised Catholic, the California native was 12 when he saw the movie “Malcolm X” and became interested in Islam. He converted to Islam at age 16. Walker told Newsweek after his capture that he had entered Afghanistan to help the Taliban build a “pure Islamic state.”
In 2002, Lindh pleaded guilty to supplying services to the now-defunct Taliban government and carrying explosives for them. He had been charged with conspiring to kill Americans and support terrorists, but those charges were dropped in a plea agreement. He was transferred to the Terre Haute prison in 2007. He is eligible for release in 2019.
Westboro Baptist Church's new neighbor is a rainbow-painted house
By Matt Pearce
March 20, 2013, 11:53 a.m.
Aaron Jackson got his colorful idea while stalking the Westboro Baptist Church on Google.
The 31-year-old activist wanted to see what the notorious church looked like. For years, Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro protesters have been picketing soldiers' funerals with anti-gay messages. Jackson, who runs a global orphanage and antipoverty nonprofit, was seized by curiosity.
He panned the camera around on Google Earth to get a ground-level view of the neighborhood and saw a house for sale across the street. "Oh, no way," Jackson recalled in a phone interview with the Los Angeles Times. "That’s too good to be true.”
Jackson didn't end up buying that Topeka house. But after some haggling with a local owner, he bought the one next to it. And on Tuesday, he hired a Navy veteran to paint the house like a rainbow -- the symbol of gay pride and equality, and a thumb in the eye of the Westboro Baptist Church across the street.
With the rainbow paint and quite a bit of pluck, the "Equality House," which will help kickstart a new anti-bullying initiative, was born.
The home at 1200 Southwest Orleans St. appraised at $88,320, is an ordinary house in an extraordinary neighborhood. ("The ZIP code, believe it or not, is 6-6-6-0-4” Jackson said, delighting in the irony that the first three digits are a symbol of the devil.)
As the Equality House began its transformation from a home to a protest symbol, Topekans stopped to smile at the playful but resonant jab at the church whose protests have tested the limits of patience and free speech.
Mike McKessor of Kansas City, Mo., whom Jackson hired to paint the house, wondered if other painters were scared to take on a job that is more of a statement against a church known for its political statements.
"I’m a veteran too, and those guys mess with veterans, not just the gay people. They mess with everybody," said McKessor, who says he spent four years in the Navy in the 1980s.
But when the painting began on Tuesday, the neighborhood immediately brightened up, so to speak. Three women driving by stopped their car, got out and started to dance, McKessor said.
“Every neighbor that I encountered was so happy, and everybody was smiling when they go by," McKessor said, with a chuckle. "It was on a busy street, and everybody slowed down and took pictures. I’m not exaggerating. Dang near every car stopped and said, 'Good job! Good job!' ... I’ve never had people so happy for painting a house."
He also liked what Jackson planned to do with the place. "Anytime anybody’s going to help people, I’m willing to help, so I said, 'Sure, let’s do it,' " McKessor said.
Jackson, who hails from Destin, Fla., is a co-founder of Planting Peace, which undertakes a variety of initiatives around the world, including environmental projects. Planting Peace is registered as a nonprofit under the title Awake Inc.
Jackson said he's been living in the house for about three months and was waiting for the weather to get warmer before starting the paint job.
“I always wanted to get into equality [work] and just haven’t," Jackson said in a phone interview, citing statistics about high suicides among gay teens. "I knew when I saw that [the house was for sale], that would be perfect, that would be a great launching pad” for a new project. He set up a donation page on his website, www.plantingpeace.org.
Targeting the Westboro Baptist Church, at least symbolically, seemed like a good place to start, Jackson said.
"It’s not like they’re pumping millions of dollars into marriage campaigns, but they are the poster child of hate, you know, especially for the gay community," he said.
The Westboro Baptist Church responded to the new house with fervor.
"We thank God for the Sodomite Rainbow House!" the church said in a written statement. "Think about it! This is not a novel idea – there are hundreds of similarly painted houses around the world – the ONLY reason why this one is a story is because of WHERE it is!"
The church's theology holds that supporting homosexuality means damnation in Hell. Its most well-known slogan, "God Hates Fags," is also the name of the church's website.
"It’s not OK to be gay, it never was OK to be gay, and it never will be OK to be gay," the Westboro statement continued. "The Sodomite Rainbow house is another instance where someone has declared their sin as Sodom – and it shines a huge spotlight on our message - you can paint rainbows on every house in America, and homosexuality will still be an abominable sin in the eyes of God."
Because the home is in a residential neighborhood, Jackson said it can't serve as an office. But it gives equality-project volunteers a place to stay if needed.
A Topeka city spokeswoman told the Topeka Capital-Journal that painting the house didn't violate city code.
America, along with the European countries that colonized the Middle East pretty much stole the land from the native peoples and gave it to the Israelis.
And until those people get their land back there will never be peace in the Middle East.
Sadly America has always been part of the problem in the Middle East, not the solution to the problem.
Yes, I know, the Jews got screwed by the Nazis and Russians.
But the solution to that problem isn't to steal the land from the Palestine people and give it to the Jews.
If you ask me we should let the Jews come to America. Something that our government refused to do in the Hitler era.
Obama vows unwavering support for Israel
By Julie Pace and Matthew Lee Associated Press Wed Mar 20, 2013 1:15 PM
JERUSALEM — Vowing eternal support for America’s top Mideast ally, U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday assured Israel of his personal commitment to its security and delivered a blunt warning to its foes that the United States has the Jewish state’s back.
Arriving in Israel on his first trip to the country as president, Obama told the Israeli people at an extravagant welcoming ceremony that “peace must come to the Holy Land” and that goal would not be achieved at Israel’s expense. U.S. backing for Israel will be a constant as the Middle East roils with revolution and Iran continues work on its nuclear program, he said.
“The United States is proud to stand with you as your strongest ally and your greatest friend,” Obama said, accepting profuse thanks from Israeli President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the tarmac at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport.
“Across this region the winds of change bring both promise and peril,” he said, calling his visit “an opportunity to reaffirm the unbreakable bonds between our nations, to restate America’s unwavering commitment to Israel’s security, and to speak directly to the people of Israel and to your neighbors.”
Seeking to alter a perception among many Israelis that his government has been less supportive of Israel than previous U.S. administrations, Obama declared the U.S.-Israeli alliance “eternal.”
“It is forever,” he said to applause as Israeli and U.S. flags fluttered in a steady breeze under clear, sunny skies.
Even before leaving the airport for Jerusalem, Obama offered a vivid display of the U.S. commitment to Israeli security by visiting a missile battery that is part of Israel’s Iron Dome defense from militant rocket attacks. The United States has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in developing the system with Israel.
Obama and Netanyahu toured the battery, brought to the airport for the occasion. They met and chatted with soldiers who operate the system that Israel credits with intercepting hundreds of rockets during a round of fighting against Gaza militants last November.
“Let me say as clearly as I can: The United States of America stands with the State of Israel because it is in our fundamental national security interest to stand with Israel,” Obama said.
“We stand together because peace must come to the Holy Land,” he added. “For even as we are clear-eyed about the difficulty, we will never lose sight of the vision of an Israel at peace with its neighbors.”
Speaking first at the ceremonial welcome, the nearly 90-year-old Peres offered Obama heartfelt thanks for American defense of Israel.
“A world without America’s leadership, without her moral voice, would be a darker world,” he said, his voice quivering with emotion. “A world without your friendship would invite aggression against Israel.”
Netanyahu, who sparred frequently with Obama over the course of the U.S. president’s first term, was equally lavish in his praise.
“Thank you for standing by Israel at this time of historic change in the Middle East,” he said. “Thank you for unequivocally affirming Israel’s sovereign right to defend itself by itself against any threat.”
Although preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon is a top priority of both Israel and the United States, Netanyahu and Obama have differed in the past on precisely how to achieve both ends.
Israel repeatedly has threatened to take military action should Iran appear to be on the verge of obtaining a bomb. The U.S. has pushed for more time to allow diplomacy and economic penalties to run their course, though Obama insists military action is an option.
Obama, who joked that he was “getting away from Congress” by visiting Israel, will meet privately Wednesday with both Peres and Netanyahu before visiting several cultural and religious sites aimed at showing his understanding of the deep and ancient connections between the Jewish people and the land that is now Israel.
He will also meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank and travel to Jordan before returning home on Saturday.
But on an itinerary filled more with symbolism than substance, Obama’s main focus is on an Israel that is increasingly wary of developments in Syria and Iran. Adding yet another dimension to the trip, Obama landed amid new questions about the Syrian regime’s possible use of chemical weapons.
Obama has declared the use, deployment or transfer of the weapons would be a “red line” for possible military intervention by the U.S. in the Syrian conflict. Ahead of Obama’s visit, authorities in Israel said they believed that chemical weapons may have been recently used in Syria, although U.S. officials have said they had no evidence to support the Syrian regime’s claims that rebels were responsible for a chemical attack.
Even though U.S. officials have set expectations low and previewed no major policy pronouncements, a clear measure of the success of Obama’s Israel trip will be how much he is able to reverse negative perceptions.
The centerpiece of the visit will be a speech to Israeli university students on Thursday, during which Obama will again renew U.S. security pledges to Israel as it seeks to counter threats from Iran, protect its people from any spillover in the Syrian civil war and maintain its shaky peace accord with an Egypt that is now controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood.
Obama will make an almost perfunctory visit to the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority’s headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah, where he will meet the embattled Abbas and assure him that an independent Palestinian state remains a U.S. foreign policy and national security priority.
As Israelis warmly greeted Obama, Palestinians held several small protests in the West Bank and Gaza. Demonstrators in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip burned posters of Obama and U.S. flags, accusing the U.S. of being biased toward Israel.
In the West Bank, about 200 activists erected about a dozen tents in an area just outside of Jerusalem to draw attention to Israel’s policy of building settlements. The tents were pitched in E1, a strategically located area where Israel has said it plans on building thousands of homes. The U.S. has harshly criticized the plan.
Israeli forces have swiftly dismantled similar encampments built by Palestinians in the past. Abdullah Abu Rahmeh, one of the activists, said Israeli forces surrounded the tent camp but had not moved in.
Despite not coming with any new plan to get the stalled peace process back on track, Obama plans to make clear that his administration intends to keep trying to get talks re-launched.
Obama will close out his Mideast trip with a 24-hour stop in Jordan, an important U.S. ally, where his focus will be on the violence in Syria. More than 450,000 Syrians have fled to Jordan, crowding refugee camps and overwhelming aid organizations.
In his talks with Jordan’s King Abdullah, Obama also will try to shore up the country’s fledgling attempts to liberalize its government and stave off an Arab Spring-style movement similar to the ones that have taken down leaders elsewhere in the region.
New legislation would provide religous protections
By Alia Beard Rau The Republic | azcentral.com
Thu Mar 21, 2013 12:56 PM
A group of Arizona religious groups and conservative lawmakers quietly introduced legislation Thursday that would offer significant new religious protections.
The legislation was introduced as a strike-everything amendment to Senate Bill 1178 and given a hearing on one of the last days allowed for public hearings of bills. No one showed up to testify against it and civil rights groups were left scrambling to figure out what it actually does.
Conservative advocacy group Center for Arizona Policy, which was behind the amendment, says it simply updates current law and clarifies protections. The ACLU of Arizona disagrees.
“What you’re doing is creating an entirely new path for people to sidestep laws they don’t like by claiming religious freedom,” said ACLU of Arizona public policy director Anjali Abraham.
The amendment, which passed the House Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote with Republican support, makes it more difficult for a state or local government to enforce any law or rule that an individual says burdens their exercise of religion.
For example, instead of allowing an exception for laws that further a compelling governmental interest — such as public safety — the law under the proposed change would have to be “essential” to furthering the interest. It also adds protections for someone who feels a governmental action “is likely to” burden their religious freedom if the action is taken.
The legislation adds a definition of “burden” that covers “any action that directly or indirectly constrains, inhibits, curtails or denies the exercise of religion by any person or compels any action contrary to a person’s exercise of religion.” It covers criminal issues as well as civil ones.
Bill sponsor Sen. Steve Yarbrough, R-Chandler, said the bill brings Arizona’s religious freedom law up to date and requires courts to use a high legal bar called “strict scrutiny” when determining whether the state or local governments have the right to overrule someone’s religious freedom.
“It ensures Arizona maintains the highest level of protection for Arizona’s free exercise of religion,” he said.
He said he had been asked by other media whether the bill had anything to do with the issue of transgender individuals using certain bathrooms.
“My bill has nada, nothing, zero to do with a recent ordinance passed by the city of Phoenix,” he said, adding later that it also has nothing to do with proposals to add oversight in the FLDS enclave of Colorado City. “It’s not directed at any specific individual issue.”
Center for Arizona Policy legislative counsel Josh Kredit said the bill just tightens current law, particularly by adding a definition of burden.
He said part of the goal of the amendment is to prevent situations like that which occurred in Gilbert in 2005 when officials said a church sign advertising Sunday services was put up too early, in violation of the town’s sign ordinance.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last month upheld the sign ordinance, saying it didn't infringe on the First Amendment rights of Good News Presbyterian Church. Alliance Defending Freedom, the organization representing the church in court, has requested a hearing before the full 9th circuit.
Abraham said they were given no advance notice that the bill amendment was coming. She spent the morning trying to determine its impact and called it a “backdoor” attempt to sneak the legislation through late in the session. As a “striker” amendment, it only needed one public hearing instead of the usual two.
“It allows anybody to sidestep any state or local law or regulation in the name of exercising their religion,” Abraham said. “It is extremely broad. It could cover medicine, education, child welfare, domestic violence, the law, anything that falls under state and local governance.”
Abraham dismissed Yarbrough’s statement that the bill is simply a necessary update of existing law.
“This goes well beyond updating the law,” she said.
The bill still needs a vote of the full House and the full Senate before going to the governor.
North Dakota lawmakers move to ban abortion
Associated Press Fri Mar 22, 2013 12:56 PM
BISMARCK, North Dakota — North Dakota lawmakers moved Friday to outlaw abortion in the state by passing a bill defining life as starting at conception.
The bill is one of a series of anti-abortion measures the Republican-controlled Legislature has passed this year despite critics’ insistence that they are unconstitutional and violate a landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortion until a fetus considered viable, which is usually at 22 to 24 weeks.
The North Dakota House approved the bill 57-35 Friday, sending it to the Republican governor, who has not yet said whether he will sign or veto it. The Senate approved it last month.
The so-called personhood measure bestows human rights on fertilized human eggs. Efforts to pass similar measures in other states have failed, but anti-abortion legislation has had strong momentum in North Dakota this year with lawmakers introducing a slew of measures aimed at closing the state’s sole abortion clinic in Fargo and challenging the 1973 ruling, known as Roe v. Wade.
Before the House voted on the personhood bill, the Legislature had already passed measures that would ban abortion as early as six weeks, or as soon as a fetal heartbeat is detected, and because of genetic defects such as Down syndrome. Together, those bills would give North Dakota the strictest abortion laws in the nation.
Abortion-rights activists have said that if Gov. Jack Dalrymple signs any of them into law, they will fight them in court.
The threat of costly litigation may be less of a deterrent in oil-rich North Dakota than in other states, however. Booming oil production has helped the state avoid the kind of budget cuts seen elsewhere and left it with comfortable surpluses.
Lawmakers’ Friday agenda also included other anti-abortion bills, including one outlawing abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy based on the disputed premise that at that point, fetuses feel pain. Lawmakers passed another measure that requires a doctor who performs abortions to be a physician with hospital-admitting privileges.
Many of the North Dakota bills are modeled on legislation from other states.
Hitler joins gun debate, but history is in dispute
By Adam Geller Associated Press Sat Mar 23, 2013 8:26 AM
When the president of Ohio’s state school board posted her opposition to gun control, she used a powerful symbol to make her point: a picture of Adolf Hitler. When a well-known conservative commentator decried efforts to restrict guns, he argued that if only Jews in Poland had been better armed, many more would have survived the Holocaust.
In the months since the Newtown, Conn., school massacre, some gun rights supporters have repeatedly compared U.S. gun control efforts to Nazi restrictions on firearms, arguing that limiting weapons ownership could leave Americans defenseless against homegrown tyrants.
But some experts say that argument distorts a complex and contrary history. In reality, scholars say, Hitler loosened the tight gun laws that governed Germany after World War I, even as he barred Jews from owning weapons and moved to confiscate them.
Advocates who cite Hitler in the current U.S. debate overlook that Jews in 1930s Germany were a very small population, owned few guns before the Nazis took control, and lived under a dictatorship commanding overwhelming public support and military might, historians say. While it doesn’t fit neatly into the modern-day gun debate, they say, the truth is that for all Hitler’s unquestionably evil acts, his firearms laws likely made no difference in Jews’ very tenuous odds of survival.
“Objectively, it might have made things worse” if the Jews who fought the Nazis in Poland’s 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising had more and better guns, said historian Steve Paulsson, an expert on the period whose Jewish family survived the city’s destruction.
But comparisons between a push by gun control advocates in the U.S. and Hitler have become so common — in online comments and letters to newspaper editors, at gun rights protests and in public forums — they’re often asserted as fact, rather than argument.
“Absolute certainties are a rare thing in this life, but one I think can be collectively agreed upon is the undeniable fact that the Holocaust would have never taken place had the Jewish citizenry of Hitler’s Germany had the right to bear arms and defended themselves with those arms,” former Major League Baseball pitcher John Rocker wrote in an online column in January.
After some gun advocates rallied at New York’s capitol in February carrying signs depicting Gov. Andrew Cuomo as Hitler, National Rifle Association President David Keene said the analogy was appropriate.
“Folks that are cognizant of the history, not just in Germany but elsewhere, look back to that history and say we can’t let that sort of thing happen here,” Keene, who was the lead speaker at the rally, told a radio interviewer March 1.
Those comparisons between gun control now and under Hitler joined numerous other statements, including the one by the Ohio school board president, Debe Terhar, on her personal Facebook page in January and by conservative commentator Andrew Napolitano, writing in The Washington Times.
The comparisons recently prompted the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights group, to call on critics of gun control to keep Hitler and the Nazis out of the debate.
The rhetoric “is such an absurdity and so offensive and just undermines any real understanding of what the Holocaust was about,” said Ken Jacobson, the ADL’s deputy national director. “If they do believe it, they’re making no serious examination of what the Nazi regime was about.”
But some gun rights advocates firmly disagree.
“People who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” said Charles Heller, executive director of Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, which has long compared U.S. gun control to Nazi tactics. “I guess if you’re pro-Nazi, they are right. But if you’re pro-freedom, we call those people liars.”
Comparing gun control activism to Hitler is not new. In a 1994 book, “Guns, Crime and Freedom,” NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre wrote that “In Germany, firearm registration helped lead to the Holocaust.”
But the history of civilian gun ownership under the Nazis, scholars say, is far more complicated than the rhetoric indicates.
After World War I, Germany signed a peace treaty requiring dismantling of much of its army and limiting weapons import and export. But many of the 1 million soldiers returning home joined armed militias, including a Nazi Party force that saw Communists as the leading threat.
“Technically, they (the militias) were illegal and the guns were illegal, but a lot of government officials didn’t care about right-wingers with guns taking on Communists,” said David Redles, co-author of “Hitler and Nazi Germany: A History,” a popular college text. By 1928, however, officials decided they had to get a handle on the militias and their weapons and passed a law requiring registration of all guns, said Redles, who teaches at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland.
Soon after Hitler was named chancellor in 1933, he used the arson of the Reichstag as an excuse to push through a decree allowing for the arrest of many Communists and the suspension of civil rights including protections from search and seizure. But as the Nazis increasingly targeted Jews and others they considered enemies, they moved in 1938 to loosen gun statutes for the loyal majority, said Bernard Harcourt, a University of Chicago professor of law and political science who has studied gun regulations under Hitler.
The 1938 law is best known for barring Jews from owning weapons, after which the Nazis confiscated guns from Jewish homes. But Harcourt points out that Hitler’s gun law otherwise completely deregulated acquisition of rifles, long guns and ammunition. It exempted many groups from requiring permits. The law lowered the age for legal gun ownership from 20 to 18. And it extended the validity of gun permits from one year to three years.
“To suggest that the targeting of Jews in any of the gun regulations or any of the other regulations is somehow tied to Nazis’ view of guns is entirely misleading,” Harcourt said, “because the Nazis believed in a greater deregulation of firearms. Firearms were viewed, for the good German, were something to which they had rights.”
With the 1938 law, Nazis seized guns from Jewish homes. But few Jews owned guns and they composed just 2 percent of the population in a country that strongly backed Hitler. By the time the law passed, Jews were so marginalized and spread among so many cities, there was no possibility of them putting up meaningful resistance, even with guns, said Robert Gellately, a professor of history at Florida State University and author of “Backing Hitler: Consent and Coercion in Nazi Germany.”
[Of course the Jews fighting a normal war against the Nazi's would have been impossible. But when minorities are oppressed, the never fight a normal war, but instead fight a guerrilla war and only choose to fight in battles they can win. That's what happened in the American Revolution when the Americans fought the British]
U.S. gun rights advocates disagree, pointing to the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising by about 700 armed Jews who were able to fend off a much larger force of German troops for days until retreating to tunnels or fleeing. The Nazis won out by systematically burning the ghetto to the ground, house by house.
“Once the Germans began adopting that strategy there really wasn’t very much that people armed with pistols, or even rifles and machine guns, could do,” said Paulsson, the historian and author of “Secret City: The Hidden Jews of Warsaw.”
[Again I disagree, in these situations the Jews would have chosen to fight a guerilla war and only picked to fight battles which they could win.]
Paulsson said it is possible that if Polish Jews had limited their resistance, Nazi troops might not have destroyed the ghetto, allowing more to survive in hiding or escape. When armed Jews shot at mobs or troops at other times in 1930s and 1940s Poland, it incited more vicious counter-attacks, he said.
But to Heller, the gun rights activist, the Warsaw uprising is proof of power in firearms. Giving Jews more guns might not have averted the Holocaust, but it would have given them a fighting chance, enough that perhaps a third of them could have shot their way out of being marched to the concentration camps, he said.
“Could they have fought back? They did (in Warsaw). You know why they (the Nazis) destroyed the ghetto? Because they were afraid of getting shot,” he said. “Now, will it get to that in the U.S.? God, I hope not. Not if (U.S. Attorney General Eric) Holder doesn’t start sending people to kick doors down.”
But Paulsson, whose mother was freed from the Auschwitz concentration camp at the end of the war, dismisses that argument as twisting the facts.
“Ideologues always try to shoehorn history into their own categories and read into the past things that serve their own particular purposes,” he said.
But I certainly think it is wrong for the government to force anyone to pay for a woman's abortion, especially when many religious people consider abortion a sin or crime. And in that case I think it is a violation of the First Amendment separation of church and state issue to force someone who thinks abortion is wrong to pay for abortions.
Washington may require insurance to cover abortions in state
By Jonathan Kaminsky Associated Press Sat Mar 23, 2013 9:04 AM
OLYMPIA, Wash. — In 1970, Washington became the first — and remains the only — state in the country to legalize elective abortions by a popular vote.
A generation later, and 40 years removed from the landmark United States Supreme Court Roe v. Wade ruling that extended abortion access nationwide, Washington is once again poised to stand out.
With 21 states having adopted bans or severe restrictions on insurance companies from paying for abortions, Washington is alone in seriously considering legislation mandating the opposite.
The Reproductive Parity Act, as supporters call it, would require insurers in Washington state who cover maternity care — which all insurers must do — to also pay for abortions.
The bill passed the state House earlier this month by a vote of 53-43, though it faces an uncertain future in the Senate. (A similar bill in the New York state Assembly has been introduced each session for over a decade but has never received a public hearing.)
“This is a core value for Washingtonians,” said Melanie Smith, a lobbyist for NARAL Pro-Choice Washington. “We should protect it while we still have it and not leave access to basic health care up to an insurance company.”
The proximate cause of Washington state’s measure is the federal Affordable Care Act. Thanks to language in it pushed by congressional Republicans, insurers selling their plans on the state exchanges taking effect next year will have to segregate the premiums they collect for abortion coverage.
In addition to that built-in disincentive to insuring abortion, the law also invites states to enact stricter rules of their own. Thus far, 16 states have followed suit, barring or restricting insurance companies on their exchanges from covering the procedure. Three of those states are joining the five that have barred or limited all insurers from covering most abortions since the early 1980’s.
Supporters of Washington state’s proposed abortion insurance mandate are careful to stress that it wouldn’t lead to a dramatic uptick in abortions or require carriers with a religious bent to cover the procedure. They also note that a pair of federal plans that will be sold on all 50 state exchanges will be barred from covering elective abortions.
“It’s not expanding abortion coverage,” said Democratic Rep. Eileen Cody of West Seattle, the bill’s primary sponsor. “It’s ensuring the rights of women to get what they’re paying for now and to continue their freedom of choice.”
Opponents counter that the measure would require businesses and individuals to pay for abortion coverage they’d rather not have.
“Washington state would be the only state in the country that would force employers to pay for abortion,” said Peggy O’Ban, spokeswoman for Human Life of Washington.
If passed, she said, it would amount to “the first conscience coercion act in American history.”
Its passage, however, is not assured.
Proponents of the measure say they have the votes they need in the state Senate, but it’s not clear that Senate leaders will allow it to get to the floor.
Ironically, the man bill supporters will likely blame if it fails to get a vote counts himself as a proud backer of the measure.
Sen. Rodney Tom of Medina, a fiscal conservative and social moderate, and one other like-minded Democrat crossed party lines to caucus with Republicans in December, handing a one-vote majority to the GOP. Seizing power for the first time in nearly a decade, elated Senate Republicans reciprocated by installing Tom as Majority Leader.
Last month, Tom addressed about 250 advocates rallying for the measure’s passage on the state Capitol steps.
“I’m down here making sure that my 17-year-old daughter has the kind of protections that we need in Washington state and that all of our kids have those same kinds of protections,” Tom said to cheers.
Moments later, Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat and fellow bill supporter, delivered a not-so-subtle challenge to Tom’s political will.
Washington state “deserves a vote in the state Senate on the Reproductive Parity Act,” Inslee said. “We are going to insist that we are not going to let anybody close the door to democracy in this state.”
Another irony: though the bill has proved to be among the most hotly contested of the session, its broader impact if passed may be less than sweeping.
For one thing, most abortions are paid for out-of-pocket. According to the Guttmacher Institute, only 12 percent of abortions nationwide are paid for by private insurers, with 20 percent footed by Medicaid.
For another, because most abortions cost less than a live birth — the procedure typically runs about $500, though late-term abortions are far more expensive — insurers may be disinclined to stop covering them.
At present, all major insurers in Washington state cover abortions, and Cody, the bill’s sponsor, said she knows of no carrier with plans to change. Insurers new to Washington state on its exchange may be tempted to adopt different policies, she said.
No matter its immediate impact, said Elizabeth Nash, states issues manager with the Guttmacher Institute, the bill’s passage would be a watershed event.
“It would be a model for other states to follow,” she said.
Don’t tear down this wall
By Jentry Lanza
March 18, 2013 at 8:16 pm
Students should be able to individually express their religious views in public schools, but they should hardly be permitted to deliver sermons from a school podium.
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant recently signed into a law a new statute that gives schools the ability to “develop policies that will allow students to pray over school intercoms, at assemblies and at sporting events.”
This is in part an effort to blur the legal lines, the “wall of separation,” between church and state.
Mississippi is not the only state to try and insert religion into schools. In 2012, Gov. Jan Brewer signed a new law that allows schools to offer elective courses on the history and literature of both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.
The law’s sponsors stressed that they did not mean to infringe on the Constitution and the First Amendment and attempted to highlight the fact that the class would be about the cultural and historical influence of the Bible on Western culture.
Even if this was true, the elective class would only focus on the two texts, spend a significant amount of time on the text itself and would not include other important global religions that have had a significant influence on world history and modern politics, such as Islam or Buddhism.
Are these any less important in the modern world to make well-informed citizens?
The efforts of many state legislatures to pass laws guaranteeing this apparently endangered right to pray in schools reflects how divisive religion has become in American politics.
Proponents of the Mississippi law have argued that it clarifies what religious expression is allowed in schools, but the issue is not the constitutionality of students expressing their religion.
The U.S. Supreme Court has said in its previous decisions that students can express their religious views at schools, including through individual prayers and forming student groups concerning religion.
The issue is with state-sanctioned religious expression and prayer.
Though supporters cite the legislation’s stipulation that the school offer a disclaimer, in reality the prayers that students can offer under this bill will serve the exact same purpose.
In 2000, the Supreme Court ruled in Santa Fe Independent School District vs. Doe that student-led prayers over school intercom systems violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment, as government policy had authorized the public speech and it took place on government property at school-related events.
This new law does not respect the Court’s decision in Santa Fe vs. Doe. Students at school gatherings will be able to effectively sermonize to those attending, despite the fact that these events are state-sanctioned through public schools.
While the disclaimer in the law is meant to make clear that the school does not support the religious message, it is simply a workaround to allow de facto state-sanctioned prayer in public schools.
American citizens certainly have the right to hold their own religious beliefs and generally practice them, but the Constitution — at least in the current understanding — prohibits the establishment of any state-sanctioned religions or any endorsement of a particular religion’s doctrine.
The allowance of these prayers in schools would effectively be the public school sanctioning the prayers given by students.
Mississippi is yet again toeing the line, which leads to the question: If the student giving a prayer is Christian, will an equal opportunity be given to those students of other faiths? What about those who adhere to no religion? What if an offered prayer offends someone?
And are those listening meant to be a captive audience, forced to stay silent through prayers to a God or gods they don’t believe in?
True, students could always leave in protest, but at a cost. In a highly religious state like Mississippi, speaking out against public prayer can have serious consequences. Students are therefore forced to participate in a religious activity, even if they are just passively listening.
The legislatures of Arizona and Mississippi are aiming to bring religion and state closer, and they are thus far succeeding.
Religion should remain in the private sphere and not in state-sanctioned school activities and policies.
Reach the columnist at jelanza@asu.edu or follow her at @jentrylanza
Supreme Court to hear gay rights cases affecting Arizona
By Alia Beard Rau The Republic | azcentral.com Mon Mar 25, 2013 7:43 AM
The future of Arizona’s ban on same-sex marriage rests in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court, which will hear two unrelated lawsuits on gay rights this week.
While neither originates from Arizona, both address issues that the state has tackled in recent years: bans on same-sex marriage and limits on domestic-partner benefits for same-sex couples.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday in Hollingsworth vs. Perry, a case in which same-sex couples allege California’s 2008 voter-approved Proposition 8 violates the equal-protection clause of the 14th Amendment. Proposition 8 defines marriage as the union between a man and a women, and is identical to the measure Arizona voters passed that same year.
On Wednesday, the court will hear arguments in United States vs. Windsor, which alleges that the part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act that defines marriage as being only between a man and a woman violates the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection. Because of this federal definition, same-sex couples, even in states that allow them to marry, aren’t eligible for any of the federal benefits heterosexual married couples get, including tax breaks and Social Security benefits.
The high-court opinions in these two cases could be used to decide an Arizona federal lawsuit seeking to protect benefits for same-sex partners of state employees. But they could also be written broadly enough to tell Arizona and 37 other states whether they may continue to ban same-sex marriage.
“This could be the biggest decision by the Supreme Court since Brown versus the Board of Education,” said Phoenix attorney Dan Barr, one of the attorneys challenging the state regulation eliminating benefits for same-sex domestic partners. “You are singling out these people for no reason other than who they are.”
The conservative advocacy group the Center for Arizona Policy has led the move to ban same-sex marriage in Arizona, first pushing to define marriage as being between only a man and a woman in state statute in 1996 and then in the Arizona Constitution in 2008.
Group President Cathi Herrod said she hopes the high court will let states decide the issue.
“On every social indicator, marriage between one man and one woman is the best living arrangement for children,” Herrod said. “No other relationship provides the benefits to society in the way marriage does. A lifelong, faithful union between husband and wife promotes healthy families today and for future generations.”
State law
Arizona is among 38 states to define marriage as being between a man and a woman. Nine states allow same-sex marriage, and Colorado will soon join them.
In Hollingsworth vs. Perry, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled California’s proposition unconstitutional, saying states must have a legitimate reason for passing laws that treat different classes of people differently and declaring that California had no such reason. The Appeals Court dismissed the argument that the intent of the proposition was to promote childbearing.
Although Arizona is within the 9th Circuit, the ruling was narrowly applied to California and did not halt Arizona’s law.
Voters passed California’s Proposition 8 after the court had already begun allowing marriage licenses for same-sex couples. Part of the Appeals Court’s opposition was based on its feeling that the state was stripping a group of people of rights it had previously been granted. Arizona has never allowed marriage licenses to be issued to same-sex couples.
The impact of the Supreme Court’s action on this case depends on how broadly the court chooses to make its ruling.
It could uphold the law’s definition of marriage as constitutional, leaving Arizona’s intact as well.
It could uphold the Appeals Court ruling, striking down only California’s proposition.
It could rule all state same-sex marriage bans unconstitutional, nullifying Arizona’s ban immediately.
Or it could establish a legal threshold for states to set laws restricting rights of same-sex couples, which could impact Arizona but would likely take time and lawsuits.
“We’ll have rulings likely by June 30, so then we’ll know what the next steps are,” Herrod said. “My hope is that the U.S. Supreme Court defers to the will of the voters, to be decided by the people either through initiative or legislative body.”
Federal law
President Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act into law in 1996. He stated earlier this year that he now believes DOMA to be unconstitutional.
The Obama administration has refused to defend the law in the lawsuit. Instead, a group of Republican U.S. House members is defending the law.
Tara Borelli, staff attorney for Lambda Legal, a national organization that advocates for gay rights and is involved with the Arizona case, said she doesn’t think United States vs. Windsor will affect Arizona much.
“DOMA is about, once you are married, does the federal government have to recognize that marriage?” she said. “It won’t have an immediate impact on the people living in Arizona because (same-sex couples) aren’t permitted now to become married.”
But while Barr agreed the impact likely wouldn’t be immediate, he said it could have more long-term impacts.
“Ruled narrowly, the DOMA case would only apply to this congressional statute,” Barr said. “But ruling more broadly, it could wipe away similar laws (defining marriage) in the states.”
Herrod also said a ruling against the DOMA clause in this case could still affect Arizona eventually.
“A ruling that opens the door to the constitutional right to same-sex marriage certainly will lead to lawsuits in Arizona,” she said. “We’ll see more legal challenges to try to get the courts to redefine marriage.”
Arizona case
Arizona does have a related case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
In Diaz vs. Brewer, same-sex partners of some state employees are challenging a 2009 law that Republican Gov. Jan Brewer signed prohibiting heath-care coverage for domestic partners of state employees. The law overturned a 2008 executive order by Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano that granted coverage to this group. The Legislature, in its support of the law, argued it was a cost-saving measure.
The Arizona federal court granted a preliminary injunction in the case that required the state to continue providing health-care benefits while the underlying case proceeds. The state appealed the injunction, and the 9th Circuit upheld it. The state then asked the Supreme Court to weigh in.
The Supreme Court did not agree to hear arguments in this case, or several other related cases, this term. But it also did not issue any decision on the case, meaning it could still rule in the future.
“What we anticipate will be the most likely is they will issue an order when they rule in the Hollingsworth and Windsor cases,” Borelli said.
Elizabeth Gill, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBT and AIDS Project and one of the attorneys on the Windsor case, said the biggest impact to the Diaz case and Arizona as a whole is the fact that the high court has agreed to hear a case on this subject.
“They’ve created a national dialogue about the issue of marriage and the freedom to marry for same-sex couples,” Gill said. “It feels like this is a watershed moment.”
Legal arguments
In both the Hollingsworth and Windsor cases, Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne joined several states in filing an amicus or friend of the court brief defending the definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman and arguing that states have the authority to define and regulate marriage.
“Traditional marriage focuses on protecting children and creating optimal child rearing environments, not on celebrating adult romantic relationships,” the brief states. “While same-sex couples may do an excellent job of raising children, they cannot provide the family structure states seek to encourage with traditional marriage: where those who raise children combine both legal responsibility for and a biological connection with that child.”
The briefs argue that the courts for more than 150 years have left the regulation of domestic issues to the states, where they should remain.
“Traditional marriage is not about imposing disadvantages on homosexuals, but about promoting behavior exclusive to opposite-sex couples, namely procreation,” the briefs state. “States may rationally conclude that, all things being equal, it is better for the biological parents also to be the legal parents, and that marriage promotes that outcome.”
Without such a limited definition, the briefs go on to argue, any grouping of adults could have an equal claim to marriage, including polygamists.
“For this court to mandate that all states recognize same-sex marriage would be to wreak revolutionary change on American marriage jurisprudence,” the briefs state.
Barr called the arguments nonsense, saying it essentially says that people who get married and don’t have children or who have children through adoption or with the help of fertility treatments are somehow inferior.
“To say that people who are married and procreate are somehow different than parents who adopt, whether they are married or not, just leaves me speechless,” he said. “It’s insulting to all those people.”
Karen Bailey, 73, and Nelda Majors, 74, of Scottsdale, have been together for more than 50 years.
They will be on the Supreme Court steps Tuesday as groups gather to rally before the first hearing.
They said they would marry if it were legal in Arizona.
“Nelda and I met when we were in college. We have raised two wonderful girls. We are a loving family,” Bailey said. “We think we should have the rights of marriage.”
Majors said she doesn’t see how the Supreme Court could rule any other way.
“We should have the legal rights that everybody else has,” she said. “We’re praying they will see it our way.”
Majors said they don’t have to get married to prove their commitment to each other.
But as they get older, they worry about not having the legal protections of a married couple to visit each other in the hospital, protect their estate from inheritance taxes or legally care for the nieces they’ve raised since they were babies.
“There are 1,138 laws that apply to married couples that don’t apply to us,” Majors said. “We don’t want any special rights, we just want the same laws that apply to everybody else.”
Herrod said she never predicts Supreme Court rulings.
“But certainly my hope is the U.S. Supreme Court will not determine public policy and will defer to the states to define marriage according to the will of the people,” she said.
Crece polémica de "baños transgénero"
Phoenix, Arizona
por Eduardo Bernal - Mar. 22, 2013 10:43 AM
La Voz
El pasado miércoles 2 de marzo un panel legislativo comenzó a deliberar una iniciativa que penalizaría como un crimen menor a individuos transgénero y transexuales que utilicen "inapropiadamente" un baño, duchas públicas y vestuarios en lugares públicos.
La iniciativa SB1432, propuesta por el representante John Kavanagh de Fountain Hills, llega a menos de un mes de que la ciudad de Phoenix aprobara una ordenanza municipal anti discriminatoria que permite a cualquier persona utilizar un sanitario de acuerdo al género o sexo con el que se identifique, y no necesariamente el que esté indicado en su acta de nacimiento.
Introducida por Kavanagh como una enmienda "strike everything" (la cual permite eliminar el propósito original de un proyecto de ley y reemplazarlo por otro completamente distinto), ha generado preocupación entre grupos que abogan por los derechos civiles de la población, en especial de comunidades LGBT (lesbianas, gays, bisexuales y transgénero) ya que lesionarían sus derechos constitucionales relacionados con la segunda enmienda de la Constitución Política del Estado.
De acuerdo con una provisión dentro de la actual ley de estatutos de Arizona, una persona practica "conducta desordenada" cuando intencionalmente ingresa a un vestidor, baño, o ducha pública, del género opuesto al que indica su certificado de nacimiento o identificación.
Básicamente la propuesta de ley de Kavanagh criminaliza a quienes utilizan el baño del sexo con el que se identifican o expresan. Quienes se oponen a la medida, la desestiman primero por los métodos para proponerla, y segundo por la manera cómo se aplicaría: ¿se pedirán identificaciones o certificados de nacimiento para saber el sexo de la gente?
"Están creando una solución a un problema que no existe", declaró el concejal Tom Simplot quien es abiertamente gay. "Este tipo de legislaciones son precisamente las que atraen críticas a Arizona y arriesgan nuestro trabajo para hacer de este estado tolerante y competitivo", acotó Simplot.
De encontrarse culpable, el individuo que infrinja esta esta ley podría recibir una pena de hasta seis meses en prisión y/o 2 mil 500 dólares de multa, sin mencionar el hecho de que podrían agregarle cargos de ofensas sexuales, los cuales obligarían al individuo a registrarse como agresor sexual.
Quienes están a favor de la medida, incluyendo a la senadora Nancy Barto, Kavanagh y representantes del Center for Arizona Policy, alegan que depredadores sexuales utilizarán esa excusa para ingresar al baño del sexo opuesto y cometer delitos sexuales.
Kavanagh declaró que es inaceptable que cualquier hombre que se identifique como mujer, pueda ingresar al baño o vestuario de mujeres y desvestirse.
De acuerdo a grupos que representan a comunidades LGBT esta medida sería una de las más rigurosa en la nación en materia de violación a los derechos civiles.
Transgender restroom bill will be revamped, lawmaker says
By Dustin Gardiner The Republic | azcentral.com Mon Mar 25, 2013 2:25 PM
A bill that would have made it illegal for many transgender Arizonans to use the public bathroom of their choice has been gutted.
Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, said he plans to introduce a new version of Senate Bill 1432 this week, removing any potential criminal penalties for transgender residents who enter the restroom of the opposite sex.
His original proposal would have made it a misdemeanor for a person to use a bathroom, locker room or dressing room that’s not designated for the sex listed on his or her birth certificate. Violators would have been guilty of disorderly conduct.
But Kavanagh said the new version seeks to take government entirely out of the business of regulating bathroom privileges.
He said it will prohibit local governments from passing ordinances that could subject businesses to lawsuits or criminal penalties if they forbid a transgender person from using a restroom.
Kavanagh said he decided to scrap the original proposal after it drew criticism from transgender advocates across the country and some of his fellow lawmakers, who felt it unnecessarily extended the reach of state government into bathrooms stalls.
Both versions of his so-called bathroom bill are a rebuke to Phoenix leaders, who voted last month to broadly outlaw discrimination against the city’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender residents. The protections apply in the areas of housing, employment and public accommodations, such as restaurants and hotels.
“I’m just saying, you know what, that’s not government’s concern,” Kavanagh told The Republic. “We’re simply going to go right back to where it was the day before Phoenix passed its overreaching ordinance with respect to showers, dressing rooms and bathrooms.”
Rebecca Wininger, president of the gay-rights watchdog Equality Arizona, said Kavanagh’s new proposal does nothing to alleviate her concerns. She said it still singles out a group of people for discrimination.
“It’s no better to deny anyone the basic right of being able to use the restroom,” Wininger said. “I really don’t hink there’s anything behind it except for fear and possibly hate.”
Supporters of the city’s move said Kavanagh’s bill is a solution in search of a problem. They point to the 16 states and more than 166 cities and counties that have passed similar laws prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity, which includes those who identify as a different sex than they were born.
Phoenix city attorneys have said the ordinance could extend to bathroom use in some cases. For instance, a person with male genitalia who identifies as a woman might have a discrimination claim if they are barred from using the restroom of their choosing and vice versa.
Sadly Arizona is already the
Recall effort launched against Rep. John Kavanagh
By Mary Jo Pitzl The Republic | azcentral.com Mon Mar 25, 2013 10:01 PM
Rep. John Kavanagh, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, is the latest target of a recall effort launched against high-profile state politicians.
A committee called Raise the Bar Arizona filed paperwork on Monday for a recall election, citing what it called Kavanagh’s hypocrisy on pledging to reduce the size of government while introducing legislation that would extend government’s reach. Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, dismissed it as misguided political harassment.
“He’s not limiting government; he’s extending it into bathrooms,” said Ray Ceo Jr., co-chairman of the newly formed committee.
Ceo was referring to Kavanagh’s introduction last week at the Legislature of a bill that would impose a disorderly-conduct charge on anyone who uses a public bathroom, dressing room or locker room if the gender designation on the facility doesn’t match the gender on the individual’s birth certificate.
Kavanagh, a four-term lawmaker, said recall organizers apparently aren’t aware of the changes he’s proposed to the bill, which will get a committee hearing Wednesday. The changes would remove the criminal penalties for bathroom use, but would bar local governments from enacting ordinances that would punish business owners if they deny bathroom use to a transgendered person.
Ceo said the committee’s problems with Kavanagh’s conduct go beyond the bathroom issue. The committee is critical of Kavanagh’s support of a bill that would defund the Arizona Students Association by taking away a fee that has benefited the group. Ceo’s co-chairman, Brianna Pantilione, is treasurer of the student group, which sued the Arizona Board of Regents for free-speech violations when the board suspended the group’s access to the student fee.
“Representative John Kavanagh has spent his time in office unconstitutionally attacking specific groups such as students rather than fulfilling his campaign promises to limit government and use taxpayer’s money effectively,” Raise the Bar said in a press release.
Ceo, a librarian and Valley native who’s also active within the gay community, said he’s tired of seeing Arizona being a “laughing stock” nationally.
The committee will need the valid signatures of 16,920 voters in Kavanagh’s northeast Valley district for a recall election.
Kavanagh said the recall would be a waste of time and money. “If they succeed, they’ll recall me five months before my primary,” he said.
The earliest a recall election could be staged is March 2014; the GOP primary for the Legislature is in August. Although term limited in the House, Kavanagh is eying a state Senate seat.
“It’s not politically wise,” he said, adding that it appears people are increasingly using the recall process as a way to harass elected officials, rather than to make a sincere effort to oust them.
“It gives new meaning to March madness,” he quipped.
The Raise the Bar committee is the latest recall effort; earlier this month, a group of central-Phoenix Republicans filed a committee to recall House Minority Leader Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix.
A committee seeking to recall Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio conceded it has fallen far short of the money needed to mount an effective countywide effort. Organizers vowed to press on.
Traditional marriage is foundation of our future
By Cathi Herrod Tue Mar 26, 2013 7:21 AM
If you watch much of what’s portrayed about the marriage debate today,
you’d be left wondering why anyone would support the true definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
Sadly, in the political discourse and media hype about marriage, the honest conversation about the meaning and purpose of this essential union is lost.
Yet the reality is that marriage is the engine that drives our country.
That may sound a little overstated, [and it is a little overstated]
but it is in the union of one man and one woman that you’ll find the
ideal environment for personal independence,
wealth creation and, most importantly, the nurturing of future generations,
or in other words, our kids.
Here’s an example of what I mean:
Joe and Sara have been married for 41 years. They raised their two kids in Arizona, and now their two kids have 11 children of their own.
By no means are Joe and Sara perfect parents; there’s no such thing. But they complement each other well as mother and father, husband and wife, each bringing something unique to the relationship and to the lives of their children.
Joe and Sara now are watching as their two kids work through the joys and trials of raising their own children.
It was because of the example set by Joe and Sara that one of their kids decided to adopt. Now four children who were left in desperate situations without a home are blessed with a mom and dad.
This isn’t a blockbuster story, nor something that would get a lot of ratings on prime-time TV. But the truth is, more than any great battle, historical document or pivotal court decision, stories like theirs have sustained and strengthened our nation through the generations.
The data back this up. According to a study from Princeton University, kids raised in an intact household with a married mother and father do better in school, are less likely to live in poverty, are less likely to depend on government assistance and are less likely to get in trouble with the law than children from any other environment.
As Ryan T. Anderson of the Heritage Foundation puts it, “Marriage is society’s least restrictive means of ensuring the well-being of children.”
Similarly, marriage benefits the husband and wife more than any other arrangement. Did you know that married men and women have longer life expectancy? Or that median household incomes of married men rose 60 percent from 1970 to 2007 and unmarried men’s income rose by only 16 percent?
This is why in 2008, 56 percent of Arizonans voted to protect marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and why the U.S. Supreme Court absolutely cannot undermine the most essential cornerstone to our country’s future.
There is more on the line than most people realize when our nation’s high court considers Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act. For all the Joes and Saras, let’s hope and pray that the court rules on the side of true marriage.
Cathi Herrod is president of the Center for Arizona Policy.
Column by Herrod ironic
Tue Mar 26, 2013 8:38 PM
Poor Cathi Herrod, president of the Center for Arizona Policy, seems oblivious to the fact that her entire guest column underscored why gay people want and should be allowed the equality to marry (“Traditional marriage is foundation of our future,” Opinions, Tuesday).
She says studies support that married people live longer and that children with married parents do better in school, are less likely to live in poverty and are less likely to get in trouble with the law. She continues saying median household incomes of married men are higher than unmarried men.
Her entire piece focuses on how the bonds of marriage are important. I agree, marriage is a good thing! Marriage is a human right, for all the reasons mentioned and more.
So, I “hope and pray that the court rules on the side of true marriage” and will support marriage equality.
— Leeann Spangler, Phoenix
Personally my view is if you don't like abortions, then don't have one. That's pretty simple!
North Dakota governor signs three laws that limit abortion
By Michael Muskal
March 26, 2013, 12:38 p.m.
North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple has signed into law the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation, including one that bans abortions after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, which can come as soon as six weeks after conception.
A second bill signed by the Republican governor bans abortions solely for the purpose of gender selection and genetic abnormalities. And another requires that any physician who performs abortions must have staff privileges at a nearby hospital.
The three new laws -- and a previously approved resolution calling for a November referendum on a constitutional amendment that is designed to protect life at any stage of development -- places the state at the forefront of efforts to limit abortion rights.
Supporters of abortion rights have said they will fight the referendum and will seek to have the laws blocked in the courts.
The laws test the current standards established by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1973 Roe vs. Wade and other cases. In general, the Supreme Court has held that a woman has a constitutionally-protected right to an abortion until the fetus is viable outside of the womb, generally at between 22 and 24 weeks.
In a statement, Dalrymple acknowledged that the state’s new laws, especially the heartbeat requirement, will face legal challenges.
“Although the likelihood of this measure surviving a court challenge remains in question, this bill is nevertheless a legitimate attempt by a state legislature to discover the boundaries of Roe vs. Wade,” the governor stated. “Because the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed state restrictions on the performing of abortions and because the Supreme Court has never considered this precise restriction ... the constitutionality of this measure is an open question.”
Dalrymple urged the state Legislative Assembly to appropriate additional funds so that the attorney general can defend the measures in court.
The governor also noted that the law requiring hospital privileges could be challenged in the courts.
“The added requirement that the hospital privileges must include allowing abortions to take place in their facility greatly increases the chances that this measure will face a court challenge,” he stated. “Nevertheless, it is a legitimate and new question for the courts regarding a precise restriction on doctors who perform abortions.”
The measures would go into effect Aug. 1.
North Dakota is the first state to ban abortions based on genetic defects, but at least three other states ban abortion based on gender selection.
Other states have lowered the effective date beyond which abortions are no longer legal, though North Dakota's would be the most stringent. Arkansas passed a 12-week ban earlier this month that prohibits most abortions when a fetal heartbeat can be detected using an abdominal ultrasound.
Phoenix transgender restroom bill clears House committee
By Dustin Gardiner The Republic | azcentral.com Thu Mar 28, 2013 1:09 AM
A panel of Arizona state lawmakers voted late Wednesday to advance a bill aimed at rolling back a portion of the non-discrimination ordinance Phoenix leaders adopted last month.
Senate Bill 1045 would prohibit local governments from passing ordinances that could subject businesses to lawsuits or criminal penalties if they forbid a transgender person from using a restroom.
Bill sponsor Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, said the measure is a response to Phoenix’s new city ordinance, which bans discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender residents. The law applies to public accommodations such as stores, restaurants and hotels.
City attorneys have said the ordinance could extend to bathroom use in some cases. For instance, a person with male genitalia who identifies as a woman might have a discrimination claim if the facility bars that person from using the restroom, and vice versa.
“We’re simply saying that government has no business in this area,” Kavanagh said. “The store owners can work it out as they have always done.”
After more than two hours of emotional and contentious testimony from residents, the House Appropriations Committee voted 7-4 along party lines to advance the measure. SB 1045 now moves to the House Rules Committee before heading to the House floor.
Gay-rights advocates and transgender residents said the bill essentially gives business owners the right to discriminate against those who appear too masculine or feminine. They said it could create unintended consequences by broadly defining “gender identity or expression.”
Democrats on the committee called the bill an embarrassment to the state. They questioned which bathroom Republican lawmakers expect transgender residents to use in place of the one they identify with.
“You’ve all shown why this is a horrible idea,” Rep. Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix, told the audience. “I believe we have spent a lot of time and money discussing an issue that doesn’t have any merits.”
Dozens of residents filled the hearing room, with the vast majority of speakers arguing against the so-called bathroom bill. Several talked about the discrimination they’ve experienced trying to use public bathrooms.
Kavanagh said the bill is a matter of “civility,” not civil rights. He said Phoenix’s law, which is similar to ordinances in Tucson and Flagstaff, allows a person with male genitalia but who identifies as a woman to change clothes in the female locker room, potentially exposing himself.
After it was clear the bill had passed, the audience burst into outcries. Many opponents shouted “shame” as committee members began to clear the room.
The version of the proposal that passed the committee was a far cry from what Kavanagh originally proposed. He submitted it as a “strike everything” amendment to an existing bill, meaning it strikes out original language and uses its shell to advance a different proposal.
Kavanagh’s original proposal, which drew national media attention, would have made it a misdemeanor for a person to use a bathroom, locker room or dressing room that’s not designated for the sex listed on his or her birth certificate. Violators would have been guilty of disorderly conduct.
He said he changed his mind about the original bill after it drew criticism from transgender advocates across the country and some fellow lawmakers, who felt it unnecessarily extended the reach of state government into bathroom stalls.
Phoenix city leaders who sup ported the anti-discrimination ordinance did not attend the hearing. Councilman Tom Simplot has called Kavanagh’s efforts an extremest solution to “a problem that doesn’t exist.”
Lancaster City Council prayers again ruled constitutional
By Cindy Chang, Los Angeles Times
March 27, 2013, 6:25 p.m.
Since the Lancaster City Council began opening its meetings with a prayer from local religious leaders, people have become more tolerant of unfamiliar beliefs, according to Mayor Rex Parris.
The invocations have come from Muslims, Sikhs and Wiccans as well as from Christians. Parris says the exposure has had a "unifying effect," with people in the High Desert city no longer flinching at mentions of Allah.
But to Shelley Rubin and Maureen Feller, a prayer at an April 2010 council meeting crossed the line, amounting to a government endorsement of Christianity.
"Bring our minds to know you and in the precious, holy and righteous and matchless name of Jesus I pray this prayer," said Henry Hearns, senior pastor at Living Stone Cathedral of Worship and a former mayor of the city, according to court documents.
The two women sued, enlisting Roger Jon Diamond, known for representing strip clubs in 1st Amendment cases, as their attorney.
On Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court decision, ruling that the prayers were constitutional because the city had invited people of all faiths to lead them.
Sectarian prayers are not prohibited at government meetings, the court said, and the city has not endorsed one religion over another, even though a majority of the prayers are Christian. Eliminating the word "Jesus" would not work as a practical matter, since the city would have to edit every prayer for similar references, the court said.
"Jesus is not a dirty word," said Parris, a Baptist. "Really what this lawsuit was about was making it one."
The case law for prayer at government meetings is somewhat unsettled and is considered separate from school prayer cases, where students are a more vulnerable and captive audience than adults in city council chambers.
Diamond plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court after seeking a rehearing with the 9th Circuit.
The decision does not square with those from other circuit courts, which could prompt the Supreme Court to jump in, said Peter Eliasberg, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.
Aaron Caplan, who teaches constitutional law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, agreed that the justices might take the case, or a similar case, if they want to make a uniform national rule.
"That said, they might not be in the mood for controversy. They might be controversied out for the next few years," Caplan said, referring to this week's gay marriage cases and other closely watched issues on the docket this term.
Rubin is the widow of longtime Jewish Defense League Chairman Irv Rubin, whom Diamond represented in a similar lawsuit against Burbank. She lives in Arcadia and came to the 2010 council meeting after Lancaster voters approved a ballot measure endorsing the prayers. Feller is a Christian who lives in Lancaster.
"It's offensive, and it makes you feel like an outsider," Diamond said. "If it's that important to do this prayer, there's nothing that prevents them from having a private session before the meeting."
cindy.chang@latimes.com
Procreation idea is weak
Thu Mar 28, 2013 8:15 PM
The opponents of marriage equality, in their oral arguments this week before the Supreme Court as well as in the amicus curiae brief, seem to focus in part on the purpose of marriage as procreation.
My husband and I choose not to have children. If procreation defines marriage, then my husband and I are not legally married in Arizona and we did not just celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary. Oops!
Further, Cathi Herrod of the Center for Arizona Policy points out in her guest column that married couples have longer life spans and higher incomes and that “marriage is the engine that drives our country” (“Traditional marriage is foundation for our future,” Opinions, Tuesday).
If that is the case, why would she wish to deny these benefits to anyone?
[Well, because Cathi Herrod and the Center for Arizona Policy want to force THEIR Christian beliefs on YOU using the force of government and could care less about your First Amendment right to pick your own religious beliefs]
All our brothers and sisters deserve the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, regardless of whom they love and wish to marry.
[Well not according to Cathi Herrod and the Center for Arizona Policy]
Lynn DeMuth
I suspect if George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were alive today they would tell us that these FBI tyrants are far worse then King George and that it's people like them that they passed the Second Amendment for.
Can you imagine how people would complain if the FBI demanded the right to open and read our snail mail letters? Well this is far worse and I don't hear any public out cry against the FBI tyrants.
On the other hand I suspect the people in Nazi Germany were just as passive when Hitlers goons turned Nazi Germany into a police state.
FBI Pursuing Real-Time Gmail Spying Powers as “Top Priority” for 2013
By Ryan Gallagher
Posted Tuesday, March 26, 2013, at 4:58 PM
For now, law enforcement has trouble monitoring Gmail communications in real time
Despite the pervasiveness of law enforcement surveillance of digital communication, the FBI still has a difficult time monitoring Gmail, Google Voice, and Dropbox in real time. But that may change soon, because the bureau says it has made gaining more powers to wiretap all forms of Internet conversation and cloud storage a “top priority” this year.
Last week, during a talk for the American Bar Association in Washington, D.C., FBI general counsel Andrew Weissmann discussed some of the pressing surveillance and national security issues facing the bureau. He gave a few updates on the FBI’s efforts to address what it calls the “going dark” problem—how the rise in popularity of email and social networks has stifled its ability to monitor communications as they are being transmitted. It’s no secret that under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the feds can easily obtain archive copies of emails. When it comes to spying on emails or Gchat in real time, however, it’s a different story.
That’s because a 1994 surveillance law called the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act only allows the government to force Internet providers and phone companies to install surveillance equipment within their networks. But it doesn’t cover email, cloud services, or online chat providers like Skype. Weissmann said that the FBI wants the power to mandate real-time surveillance of everything from Dropbox and online games (“the chat feature in Scrabble”) to Gmail and Google Voice. “Those communications are being used for criminal conversations,” he said.
While it is true that CALEA can only be used to compel Internet and phone providers to build in surveillance capabilities into their networks, the feds do have some existing powers to request surveillance of other services. Authorities can use a “Title III” order under the “Wiretap Act” to ask email and online chat providers furnish the government with “technical assistance necessary to accomplish the interception.” However, the FBI claims this is not sufficient because mandating that providers help with “technical assistance” is not the same thing as forcing them to “effectuate” a wiretap. In 2011, then-FBI general counsel Valerie Caproni—Weissmann’s predecessor—stated that Title III orders did not provide the bureau with an "effective lever" to "encourage providers" to set up live surveillance quickly and efficiently. In other words, the FBI believes it doesn’t have enough power under current legislation to strong-arm companies into providing real-time wiretaps of communications.
Because Gmail is sent between a user’s computer and Google’s servers using SSL encryption, for instance, the FBI can’t intercept it as it is flowing across networks and relies on the company to provide it with access. Google spokesman Chris Gaither hinted that it is already possible for the company to set up live surveillance under some circumstances. “CALEA doesn't apply to Gmail but an order under the Wiretap Act may,” Gaither told me in an email. “At some point we may expand our transparency report to cover this topic in more depth, but until then I'm not able to provide additional information.”
Either way, the FBI is not happy with the current arrangement and is on a crusade for more surveillance authority. According to Weissmann, the bureau is working with “members of intelligence community” to craft a proposal for new Internet spy powers as “a top priority this year.” Citing security concerns, he declined to reveal any specifics. “It's a very hard thing to talk about publicly,” he said, though acknowledged that “it's something that there should be a public debate about.”
Same-sex marriage
Fri Mar 29, 2013 7:39 PM
Years ago I had the privilege of teaching a writing class to young women at Black Canyon Juvenile Correction Center. Not one had been raised by two parents of the same gender.
Does that mean that according to my study (admittedly a small sample group) same-gender couples are much more successful parents than those of mixed gender?
It could, if none ended up in the system.
Rather, I think it reminds us there are “lies, damned lies and then statistics” and calls into question Cathi Herrod’s statement that “kids raised in an intact household with a married mother and father do better in school, are less likely to live in poverty, are less likely to depend on government assistance and are less likely to get in trouble with the law than children from any other environment.”
I’d like to see the numbers on a slightly different group: of children raised in an intact household with a married mother and mother, or married father and father.
I suspect the success has far more to do with intact household than gender of parent, or hair or eye color of parent; also traits determined by genetics and before birth.
Lisa Schnebly Heidinger
Phoenix
Posted on April 2, 2013 11:44 am by EJ Montini
Trying to bully Bisbee
Bisbee officials should have expected the drawbridge to be lowered around the moat at the state capitol and the mob let loose upon them with torches and pitchforks.
The Phoenix-based right wing Center for Arizona Policy and the Republican legislators who cower before it are hoping to bully the town of Bisbee into not passing an ordinance allowing for civil unions between same-sex couples.
The Center had its attorney send a letter to Bisbee’s lawyer reading in part, “…The Arizona Constitution and Arizona statutes recognize only the marriages of one man and one woman. The City of Bisbee’s attempt to do an end-run around those laws, by offering a marital-type relationship with the benefits and responsibilities of marriage, is in violation of this state requirement for charter cities.
“If the City of Bisbee enacts a law recognizing a quasi-marital relationship not provided for by Arizona law, it will likely find itself involved in expensive and time-consuming litigation, which it is likely to lose.”
Bisbee’s ordinance, which is expected to pass tonight, would provide same-sex couples with rights in terms of “property ownership, guardianship in cases of illness, and disposition of remains upon death” according to the city’s attorney.
Last week, Bisbee Councilman Ken Budge told me, “Our attorney looked at it pretty hard. We’re not dealing with marriage. We’ll leave that to the Supreme Court. But there is nothing in our law about civil unions. Granted, our ordinance will only apply here, but it will take care of our own citizens and it’s our way of making a statement. I refer to us a blue dot in a sea of red.”
Where the CAP goes, so go the Republican politicians who supposedly run our state, like Attorney General Tom Horne, who drafted his own letter to the town of fewer than 6,000 residents. His office doesn’t consider such action “threatening.” Oh, no. The big bad state going after tiny Bisbee.
Horne said in a statement that he was acting on behalf of legislators representing the Bisbee area, adding, “I emphasize that I am not expressing any opinion on the policy of the ordinance. My job is to enforce the laws that exist and I am obligated to respond to complaints from state legislators. If the ordinance is passed, the Office will initiate a special action in the Courts to enjoin it.”
Sure. No threat there. No guts, either.
Bisbee’s ordinance would only be valid within city limits. But what if it catches on? What if bigger and bigger towns enact similar ordinances? Then a place like Phoenix?
What if the rest of Arizona suddenly got the urge to leave the 17th Century and travel all the way to the 21st Century?
It’s going to happen. No amount of lobbying will be able to stop it.
Young people these days don’t cower before stodgy old political hacks or the stodgy old lobbyists who pull their strings. They believe gay couples should have the same rights as any other couple.
They don’t carry pitchforks or torches.
Although there’s probably an app for that on their smartphones.
Is Tom Horne using Bisbee to launch his re-election bid?
Attorney General Tom Horne – perhaps sensing his best shot at re-election next year — has announced that he’ll sue the city of Bisbee for having the effrontery to break state laws.
So says the top law enforcement official in the state, a guy who stands accused of breaking the state laws.
Horne, at the urging of southeastern Arizona legislators and the conservative Center for Arizona Policy, has worked himself into a legal lather over the Bisbee City Council’s vote Tuesday to approve civil unions within city limits. Yesterday, he sent the city a letter threatening to sue.
“The ordinance seeks to change seven separate state statutes within the boundaries of the city, dealing with issues such as community property, inheritance of property, and appointment of personal representatives,” Horne said, in a press release. “The only proper way to change a statute is through the Legislature, not through actions of the City Council attempting to change a State statute within its boundaries. I emphasize that I am not expressing any opinion on the policy of the ordinance. My job is to enforce the laws that exist and I am obligated to respond to complaints from state legislators.”
Goodness. He is worked up. Instead of worrying so much about what one tiny Arizona town is doing, perhaps Horne and the state legislators who are so exercised should instead step up, act like leaders and seek a solution to this vexing problem of inequality so that we can move on in this state and in this country.
Instead of fighting Bisbee, how about following Bisbee?
How about calling for an end to state regulation of marriage? I’ve been married a long time and have always wondered what business it is of the government whom I chose to marry.
Government ought to be in the business of allowing a legal arrangement between two consenting adults who choose to tie their lives together — much as Bisbee has approved. A simple civil contract, setting out all the rights and responsibilities, would serve the purpose, allow for equality and take this issue of state- approved morality out of the equation.
OK, I can feel Cathi Herrod fainting, even as I type. But for those who want to enter the state of holy matrimony, shouldn’t that really be an issue between them, their church and their God?
And of course without their guns the people of Connecticut won't be able to
do much about it.
Conn. governor signs sweeping new gun bill into law
Tribune newspapers and wire reports
11:44 a.m. CDT, April 4, 2013
Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy today signed a tough new gun law that, among several key provisions, restricts sales of the sort of high-capacity ammunition clips that a gunman used to massacre 26 people in minutes in a December attack on a school.
Lawmakers in the state's Democratic-controlled House approved the measure, which supporters described as one of the toughest such laws in the United States, early on Thursday morning. The Senate approved the measure hours earlier.
The House debate stretched past midnight, with opponents of the law arguing that it infringed on the rights to gun ownership protected by the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and that efforts to prevent attacks such as the Newtown, Conn., school shooting should focus on providing better mental-health services.
Connecticut's law passed hours after Maryland's House of Delegates on Wednesday approved their own gun law, which also limits magazine size and requires that gun buyers be fingerprinted.
The Connecticut law also requires background checks for private gun sales, expands the number of guns covered by the state's assault-weapons ban and establishes a $15 million fund to help schools improve security infrastructure.
It bans specifically the sale of ammunition clips that hold 10 bullets or more and requires owners of such clips to register them by January 1, 2014. After that date, owning an unregistered high-capacity clip will become a felony offense.
The legislation was proposed after the Dec. 14 slayings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in which a gunman used clips that held 30 bullets to fire off 154 rounds in less than five minutes.
"The content of this legislation speaks for itself as really the strongest gun control legislation in the country," House Speaker Brendan Sharkey, a 50-year-old Hamden Democrat, said in a statehouse interview. "The details of this package, when reviewed by other states, will be a terrific blueprint for how to do this in a comprehensive way."
Newtown school massacre
Passage came more than three months after gunman Adam Lanza, 20, stormed into the Newtown school and mowed down students and teachers, reviving debate over gun control. Connecticut joins New York and Colorado in tightening firearms limits in the wake of the tragedy. Maryland’s House of Delegates passed a similar measure yesterday.
In Washington, congressional action on the issue has been stymied by opposition from the National Rifle Association, the nation’s biggest gun-rights lobby. President Barack Obama went to Colorado yesterday to praise that state’s new restrictions, and plans to visit Connecticut next week to pressure Congress
"Colorado is proving a model of what's possible," Obama said in Denver. "It's now been just over 100 days since the murder of 20 innocent children and six brave educators in Newtown, Connecticut, an event that shocked this country."
Lanza carried 10 30-round magazines into Sandy Hook, court documents show. He reloaded six times and fired 154 bullets from his Bushmaster AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle in less than five minutes, according to the documents. The measure approved yesterday bans sales of the weapon and similar models.
Lanza's victims front and center in debate
This week, some parents of Lanza's victims handed out pictures of their children to lawmakers who met April 1 to review the limits proposed in an accord hammered out by legislative leaders. Family members sought an outright ban on possession of high-capacity magazines, rather than the registration requirement that’s part of the final measure.
During one of the most emotional moments of the six-hour Senate debate yesterday, John McKinney, the Republican leader who represents Newtown, explained why he pins a green ribbon and a guardian angel on his lapel.
"I try to put it on my jacket every day to remember those that we've lost because I stand here, I stand here as their voice," McKinney, 49, said. He then read the names of each of the Sandy Hook victims, his voice wavering a times. Six of the 14 Republicans in the chamber voted for the measure.
Before the voting began, activists on opposite sides of the issue sparred verbally in the Capitol’s hallways.
A poll released on Thursday found that 91 percent of U.S. voters support regulations requiring all gun buyers to undergo background checks. However, 48 percent of all respondents and 53 percent of those owning guns said those checks could lead to the government's confiscating legally owned weapons.
That Quinnipiac University poll of 1,711 registered voters was conducted from March 26 to April 1 and had a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points.
Vote makes 'everyone in this room a criminal'
"I don’t want 30-round magazines that can wipe out our children," said Dan Garrett, 53, of Hamden, speaking to a group of men wearing Connecticut Citizens Defense League stickers. Greg Kozeman, 44, of New Britain said improving mental-health access is a better solution than tighter gun limits.
Earlier, gun-rights advocates filled statehouse lobbies.
"The vote on this bill will make everyone in this room a criminal," said Warren Stevens, 58, a Plantsville gun owner. He wouldn’t say what type of guns he owns or how many.
“It is no business of the state what I own,” he said. "Their authority does not extend into my house."
Connecticut, with a long history of weapons production, is still home to six gunmakers. The companies include Sturm Ruger & Co., Connecticut Shotgun Manufacturing Co., Colt Defense LLC, Stag Arms, Charter Arms, O.F. Mossberg & Sons Inc., and Ammunition Storage Components LLC, which makes 30-round magazines. Some have threatened to leave if the new limits pass.
The industry employs about 7,300 people in the state and contributed $119 million in tax revenue in 2011, according to the Newtown-based National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade group. Charter Arms calls the region “the cradle of the American firearms industry.”
Reuters and Bloomberg
Saudi Arabia's punishment by paralysis condemned as 'grotesque'
By Emily Alpert
April 4, 2013, 10:34 a.m.
Alarmed by reports that Saudi Arabia will paralyze a man as punishment for allegedly stabbing a friend who ended up paralyzed, Britain urged the kingdom Thursday to abandon the “grotesque punishment.”
The Saudi Gazette reported last week that Ali Khawahir was sentenced to be paralyzed if he could not pay 1 million riyals – roughly $270,000 – to the friend he allegedly stabbed a decade ago. Khawahir was reportedly 14 years old when he was first jailed.
Amnesty International called the eye-for-an-eye punishment “utterly shocking” and a violation of international law. “Paralyzing someone as punishment for a crime would be torture,” its Middle East and North Africa deputy director Ann Harrison said in a statement Tuesday.
The British Foreign Office echoed the human rights group. “Such practices are prohibited under international law and have no place in any society,” it wrote Thursday on its website.
The BBC called it "an unusually strong plea," noting that "British governments have struggled at times to harmonize their concerns about human rights in Saudi Arabia with the fact that the kingdom remains a key ally." The U.S. State Department did not appear to have issued any statement on the punishment as of Thursday morning.
Saudi Arabia has been excoriated by rights activists for its harsh punishments, which include amputation, flogging and the death penalty. In “retribution” cases such as this, victims can demand punishment, seek payment or pardon the convict, according to Amnesty International.
The human rights group said it was unclear whether a paralysis sentence imposed in a different case in 2010 was carried out. The Saudi Gazette reported that in August of that year, a court in the city of Tabuk rejected demands for such a punishment, saying it was “impossible to conduct such an operation.”
Supporters have started a campaign to raise the money for Khawahir to avoid suffering paralysis, the Saudi Gazette reported. “We don't have even a 10th of this sum," his mother told the Al Hayat daily, according to a translation by Reuters.
Marriage drives U.S.
Fri Apr 5, 2013 6:50 PM
I completely agree with Cathi Herrod of the Center for Arizona Policy that marriage is the engine that drives this country.
My wife and I have been together for 17 years and have known each other since high school. We certainly aren’t perfect, but we complement each other and support each other.
After 17 years, we are still in love, hold hands and talk every night if one of us is traveling for work. We live in the house of our dreams in a nice neighborhood in Phoenix, filled with families just like ours.
We don’t have children ourselves, but we do have nieces and nephews we love and adore and who love and adore us back. I cannot imagine a life without her.
Oh yes, there is one more thing to point out. I’m a woman too. And families just like mine have strengthened and sustained this nation for generations. It’s now time to recognize that, and honor that, and give us the full rights of citizenship and marriage.
Beth McEldowney
Horne intenta anular ordenanza
Phoenix, Arizona
por Eduardo Bernal - Apr. 5, 2013 10:40 AM
La Voz
El procurador estatal Tom Horne anunció que intentará anular la nueva ordenanza municipal aprobada por la ciudad de Bisbee, Arizona, el pasado martes la cual permite que dos personas del mismo sexo puedan formar una unión civil.
La controversial medida fue aprobada en el cabildo de Bisbee con 5 votos a favor y 2 en contra, convirtiendo a esta pequeña ciudad en la primera del estado que otorga derechos a parejas del mismo sexo que a matrimonios tradicionales. Horne decidió tratar de anularla alegando que es inconstitucional.
La ordenanza fue aprobada con la motivación de eliminar prácticas discriminatorias hacia las comunidades LGBT para que estas personas puedan tener relaciones significativas y duraderas.
De acuerdo con la ordenanza, las parejas que deseen contraer matrimonio en el Condado Cochise, deberán pagar -como todos los demás-, los 76 dólares de cuota para emitir una licencia de matrimonio.
La disposición de esa municipalidad se limita a todas las dependencias de esa ciudad y no a entidades privadas, como hospitales.
Una vez más el Center for Arizona Policy, entidad que encabezó la batalla en contra una ordenanza antidiscriminatoria de la ciudad de Phoenix e iniciativas en la legislatura relacionadas con ese mismo tema, se encuentra batallando esta disposición alegando que atropella leyes estatales del matrimonio.
La oficina de Horne aseguró que someterá una demanda en las próximas semanas antes de que la ordenanza entre en efecto en 30 días.
Por su parte, el abogado de la ciudad de Bisbee mencionó que prevé que exista una demanda y está preparado para defender la ordenanza sin cobrarle un dólar a esa ciudad.
La demanda, según la oficina de Horne, estaría basada en una ley aprobada por el electorado en 2008, que prohíbe los matrimonios de personas del mismo sexo.
Bangladesh protesters demand blasphemy law
Last Modified: 07 Apr 2013 02:32
Hundreds of thousands of people have held protests in Bangladesh to demand that the government introduce an anti-blasphemy law that would include the death penalty for bloggers who insult Islam.
Protest organisers called Saturday's rally the "long march", with many travelling from remote villages to the capital, Dhaka's Motijheel area that became a sea of white skull caps and robes.
Supporters of Hefazat-e-Islam, an Islamist group which draws support from tens of thousands of religious seminaries, converged on Dhaka's main commercial hub to protest against what they said were blasphemous writings by atheist bloggers, shouting "God is great - hang the atheist bloggers".
"I've come here to fight for Islam. We won't allow any bloggers to blaspheme our religion and our beloved Prophet Mohammed," said Shahidul Islam, an imam at a mosque outside Dhaka who walked 20km.
"I've come here to fight for Islam. We won't allow any bloggers to blaspheme our religion and our beloved Prophet Mohammed."
- Shahidul Islam, an imam at a mosque outside Dhaka
The religious group, which has the backing of country's largest party Jamaat-e-Islami, organised the rally in support of its 13-point demand including enactment of a blasphemy law to prosecute and hang what they call atheist bloggers.
They defied a pro-government national strike by secular protesters - who staged a smaller rival protest in Dhaka - aimed at foiling the Islamists' march.
"Around 200,000 people attended the rally," Dhaka's deputy police commissioner Sheikh Nazmul Alam told AFP news agency, while protest organisers put the number at over half a million.
A local leader of the ruling Awami League party was killed in Bhanga, a town southwest of Dhaka, when Hefazat-e-Islami party supporters clashed with pro-government activists.
Deepening tensions
Al Jazeera's correspondent, who cannot be named for safety reasons, speaking from Dhaka, said that very huge crowds had gathered.
She said that while there was a lot of support for the march from the countryside where Hefazat-e-Islam is good at mobilising people from, the country is very divided.
It was the latest protest to rack Bangladesh, deepening tensions between secularists and the largest Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami, whose leaders are under trial for crimes committed during the country's 1971 war of independence.
Follow in-depth coverage of war crimes trials in Dhaka
The bloggers, who deny they are atheists, have sought capital punishment for those found guilty of war crimes during the nation's liberation war.
Both secular and conservative Muslim protesters have taken to the streets over the war crimes trials, and more than 70 people have been killed in the violent protests that have taken place since February when a prominent Jamaat leader was sentenced to death.
A well-known protester and blogger, Ahmed Rajib Haider, was killed reportedly by Jamaat supporters.
Bangladesh says as many as three million people were killed and thousands of women raped by Pakistani troops and local collaborators during the war.
Sheikh Hasina, the current prime minister and Awami League leader, initiated the war crimes trials in 2010. Ten of the defendants convicted or on trial are from Jamaat-e-Islami, while two others belong to main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist party.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Shakil Ahmed of Ekattor television in Bangladesh, said that the protests on Saturday were peaceful and had been fuelled by misinformation on both sides.
"Wrong information has been spread out by some of the activists," said Ahmed.
'More of a reaction'
Zafar Sobhan, editor of the Dhaka Tribune, speaking to Al Jazeera's via Skype from Dhaka, said that while the government was had maintained a "neutral line" and was "scrambling" to prevent an "explosive" situation, he believed it was unlikely that a blasphemy law would be introduced.
Sobhan said that the march was less about a blasphemy law but was more of a reaction to calls for the death penalty for political party leaders being tried for war crimes.
Our correspondent said that the real pressure would be felt on the country's economy.
Saturday's 'long march' was organised by the Hefazat-e-Islam, which draws support from thousands of seminaries [AFP]
"Every time there is a strike it shuts down the economy ... Economic issues are likely to put pressure on the ruling Awami party."
Last week, four online writers were arrested on charges of hurting religious sentiment through their Internet writings against Islam.
Sobhan said the arrests were being seen as a "heavy-handed measure" to appease Islamists.
Muhiuddin Khan, Bangladesh home minister, said on Wednesday the government had identified 11 bloggers, including the four detainees, who had hurt the religious sentiments of the nation's majority Muslim population.
The government has blocked about a dozen websites and blogs to stem the unrest. It has also set up a panel, which includes intelligence chiefs, to monitor blasphemy on social media.
Under the country's cyber laws, a blogger or Internet writer can face up to ten years in jail for defaming a religion.
Hardline Muslims rally in Bangladesh seeking anti-blasphemy law amid nationwide shutdown
Published April 06, 2013
Associated Press
DHAKA, Bangladesh – Thousands of members of a hardline Muslim group are rallying in Bangladesh's capital to demand authorities enact an anti-blasphemy law punishing people who insult Islam.
Saturday's rally is taking place amid heightened security in Dhaka and elsewhere after the Hifazat-e-Islam members targeted a group of bloggers who they say are atheists. The bloggers, who deny they're atheists, are seeking capital punishment for those found guilty of war crimes during the nation's 1971 independence war and also want a ban on Jamaat-e-Islami, the country's largest Islamic party.
Top Jamaat-e-Islami leaders are accused of crimes against humanity during the 1971 war against Pakistan.
Meanwhile, about 25 liberal groups are enforcing a daylong shutdown across Bangladesh on Saturday to denounce the Hifazat-e-Islam rally.
Bangladesh Islamists rally for blasphemy law
By Farid Ahmed, CNN
updated 10:25 AM EDT, Sun April 7, 2013
Dhaka, Bangladesh (CNN) -- Tens of thousands of radical Muslims marched toward the capital on Saturday to demand laws to target bloggers they said denigrated Islam and the Prophet Mohammed.
The bloggers initiated a recent sit-in at Shahbagh Square demanding the death penalty for people involved in war crimes perpetrated more than four decades ago. Saturday's marchers termed them atheists who should be brought to justice for blasphemy.
The sit-in protesters at Shahbagh Square demanded the ban on Jamaat-e-Islami, the largest Islamic party in Bangladesh, which opposed the independence of Bangladesh in 1971.
Online activists who had a pioneering role in organizing the Shahbagh sit-in denied they were atheists.
Muslim hard-liners under the banner of Hefazat-e-Islam on Saturday rallied against bloggers and authors.
Meanwhile, some 25 liberal groups denounced the Hefazat rally and enforced a daylong general strike across Bangladesh, keeping capital Dhaka's communications cut off with the rest of the country on Saturday.
The Hefazat rally was supported by the large opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its allies, including Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami.
Earlier in February, a blogger was slain in Dhaka, reportedly for an anti-Islamic posting. Police last week detained four bloggers on charge of damaging religious sentiment.
The Hefazat rally branded the government as cohorts of the atheists and said they wanted it to meet 13 demands, including reinstatement of "absolute trust and faith in the Almighty Allah" in the constitution and capital punishment for those who would denigrate Islam and its prophet.
The demands included declaration of the Ahmadiyya Muslim sect as non-Muslim, a ban on free mixing of men and women, making Islamic education mandatory at all levels and no installation of any sculpture in any public place.
American says he would die for justice in Bangladesh
Italian priest held for $5m fraud
April 05, 2013
ROME - Italian police on Thursday arrested a priest accused of defrauding a Vatican-linked hospital in Rome that he managed of four million euros ($5.1 million), part of which he used to buy an 18-room villa in Tuscany set on 23 hectares of land. Father Franco Decaminada, a friar who took vows of poverty, has been placed under house arrest. He headed up the prestigious Immaculate Institute of Dermopathology between 2004 and 2011. The specialist hospital has been placed under administration after it registered losses of 600 million euros and pope Benedict XVI in one of his last acts as pontiff last month appointed a cardinal to resolve its economic woes.
The tax police said in a statement that Decaminada bought his villa in Tuscany for a million euros - “essentially with the proceeds of his crime”. “The investigation traced fraud for a total of 14 million euros,” the police said. Italian media said police linked four million euros of that total directly to Decaminada. Two businessmen are also under investigation and have also been placed under house arrest. The hospital belongs to the “Congregation of the Sons of the Immaculate Conception”, which was set up in the 19th century and became well-known for producing creams to treat ringworm. The congregation manages two other hospitals. The police said it had found daily operations in which the priest took money from the hospital as “reimbursement of costs” without justification. The hospital has not paid its 1,500 employees including 300 doctors for several months.
Rev. Franco Decaminada, Italian Priest, Accused Of Stealing 5.1 Million Dollars From Bankrupt Rome Hospital
By NICOLE WINFIELD 04/04/13 02:28 PM ET EDT AP
ROME — Italian police on Thursday arrested a priest accused of pocketing 4 million euros ($5.1 million) from a Catholic hospital he ran and helping run up 600 million euros ($769 million) in debts that forced it into bankruptcy.
Italy's financial police placed the Rev. Franco Decaminada, who until 2011 was the CEO of the IDI dermatological hospital in Rome, under house arrest. They also detained two other people while seizing a Tuscan villa that police say Decaminada built with stolen money.
The plight of 1,500 IDI workers who haven't received paychecks for months had prompted Benedict XVI in one of his last acts as pope to name a delegate in February to take over the religious order that owns the hospital to try to bring it back to financial health.
But in the end the Vatican refused to provide any financial assistance and last week a Rome court certified the hospital as insolvent.
IDI workers have occupied the hospital's management area and are buying food to help needy co-workers while continuing to work without pay in hopes of saving their jobs.
"After years of suffering and eight months without salary, we at least have the satisfaction of seeing that justice is starting to work," Bartolomeo Di Gregorio, 56, a biomedical lab technician, told The Associated Press on Thursday.
He welcomed the arrival of Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi as the papal delegate to head the religious order – the Congregation for the Children of the Immaculate Conception – which runs the hospital, but said in the end it didn't help "because we went into bankruptcy anyway."
The problems at the IDI are the latest in a series of financial scandals at Catholic-run health facilities in Italy that, while not directly involving the Vatican, have links to its No. 2, the secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.
According to leaked Vatican correspondence, Bertone looked into investing money from the Vatican bank into a failing Milan hospital, the San Raffaele, in 2011 after it accumulated millions in debt because of mismanagement. In the end, the hospital went to outside investors.
But Bertone's apparent interest in building up a Vatican health care network in Italy has been cited as evidence of his own administrative failings in running the Holy See by focusing too much on small Italian problems and not on global church issues.
On Thursday, Decaminada's order sought to distance itself from his crimes, saying it was a victim in the case and it was cooperating with investigators. It stressed that "no member of the congregation ever saw or visited the home in Tuscany built by Father Decaminada" and its construction was never authorized.
___
Producer Paolo Santalucia contributed.
City's ordinance on escorts, massages being beefed up
By Julian Osorio The Arizona Republic - 12 News Breaking News Team Mon Apr 8, 2013 2:37 PM
Scottsdale officials have been drafting a revised ordinance that would more strictly regulate massage facilities and escort services that operate in the city.
The move, city officials say, is designed to deter illegal activity, such as prostitution, conducted behind the business doors of some operators.
The changes would include tougher permitting requirements to operate and a new fee schedule.
The proposed changes would allow the city to strengthen the integrity and professionalism of each industry, according to the city’s website.
The Scottsdale Police Department has been investigating prostitution complaints in the escort and massage industries for years, said Sgt. Mark Clark, spokesman for the Scottsdale Police Department.
The proposed ordinance is a collaborative effort between the City Attorney’s Office and the Police Department, he said.
Officials have identified detrimental secondary effects from escort operations, including violent crimes, drug use, and health risks through the spread of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, according to the proposal.
The goal of the ordinance is to halt prostitution, protect legitimate escort patrons, and preserve the health and welfare of the community, a draft of the proposal says.
Among the proposed revisions to the escort industry is added mandatory jail time for individuals convicted of certain crimes, expanded list of violations, a requirement that any escort service post its city-permit license number in any advertisement, revised definitions and permit requirements for escort assistants, and a stipulation that no permit or license can be issued to a person convicted of prostitution as early as 10 years before an application submission.
Scottsdale last updated its escort services ordinance in 1988.
According to a report released by the Scottsdale Police Department, there have been 21 escort-related charges in Scottsdale since 2011. The majority were for lack of proper identification and permits.
A separate proposal targets unprofessional practices at massage facilities.
The requested ordinance includes requirements that a licensed on-site manager is present at a facility when any massage therapy is being performed.
In addition, all doors must be unlocked during massage therapy and mobile massage units will not be allowed to park on public streets except during special events.
Other changes includes verbiage regulating massages. The new language states that it is illegal to touch any other person’s genitals or anus, conduct any actions intended to sexually arouse or appeal to sexual desires, according to the proposal.
The current ordinance allows city officials to inspect any massage facility during normal business hours.
No specific incidents sparked the evaluation of the city ordinance but the city felt it was time to clarify and tighten up the ordinance, said Caron Close, Scottsdale city prosecutor.
Several massage therapists in Scottsdale contacted for this article said they supported city efforts to crack down on unsavory businesses, but none wanted to be identified and quoted.
The proposed changes are scheduled to be considered by the City Council on June 4.
Proposed fees
Here are proposed fees for massage businesses and escort services under a draft being consideration by Scottsdale. The City Council will review the proposal in June:
Escort bureau application, $100; massage facility application, $100.
Annual escort bureau license, $175. Annual massage facility license, $300.
Escort and assistant application, $100; late renewal penalty, $200.
Escort and assistant permit, $100.
City fingerprinting fee, $10; on-site manager ID card, $10; escort and assistant ID card, $10; change of location fee, $50.
Source: Scottsdale.
Few wrote 3 legislators over Bisbee civil unions
By Alia Beard Rau The Republic | azcentral.com Mon Apr 8, 2013 11:36 PM
Three state lawmakers who cited constituents’ concerns in triggering threats of a lawsuit against Bisbee for passing a new ordinance allowing civil unions received very few official calls or e-mails from people in their district.
A public-records request by The Arizona Republic showed only one e-mail opposing last week’s City Council approval of the ordinance and a phone call questioning its legality, while another e-mail supported allowing civil unions.
Two of the lawmakers, however, said they had been personally approached by constituents concerned about the constitutionality of the ordinance and asking them to look into it. They did not say how many people had approached them or under what circumstances.
Hours before the Bisbee City Council passed the ordinance to allow the city clerk to issue civil-union certificates that would allow gay couples to have official recognition of their partnerships, House Majority Leader David Gowan, R-Sierra Vista; Rep. David Stevens, R-Sierra Vista; and Sen. Gail Griffin, R-Hereford, sent Republican Attorney General Tom Horne a letter asking him to investigate whether the ordinance would violate state law and the state Constitution.
“We have been contacted by constituents who are expressing concerns that this proposed ordinance may be in violation of Arizona law and the Arizona Constitution,” read the letter from the three lawmakers, who represent the Legislative District 14 that includes Bisbee.
The Attorney General’s Office, which warned Bisbee not to proceed, is expected to file a lawsuit alleging the City Council’s decision violates the state Constitution’s definition of marriage, among other things, possibly later this week.
Bisbee resident Gayle Schasteen copied the lawmakers on a letter she sent to the Bisbee council opposing civil unions for religious reasons.
Another Sierra Vista resident sent Stevens an e-mail saying that she supports civil unions and opposed his getting involved.
Griffin’s legislative office got one phone call from someone asking if Bisbee had the legal right to pass such an ordinance, but not taking a stance one way or the other.
Griffin declined to comment on what prompted her to call on Horne to look into the matter. Both Stevens and Gowan said they had heard in person from constituents when they were back in their home communities.
Bisbee resident James Coull, who supports the ordinance, last week criticized state leaders for getting involved in a city issue.
“I don’t see how it affects them,” he said. “This state is always wishing the (federal) government would stay out of their business, yet they don’t stay out of the business of their municipalities.”
Legislative District 14 covers a large and mostly conservative block of southeastern Arizona that includes Safford, Willcox, Sierra Vista and Benson, as well as the more liberal Bisbee.
“Some people over the weekend asked me about it, so I looked into it,” Stevens said. “It violates the state Constitution and seven (state) statutes.”
Both the state Constitution and federal law define marriage as between only one man and one woman. [But the US Constitution doesn't even address the issue, meaning the Federal law is probably unconstitutional] Stevens said he took an oath as a state representative to uphold state and federal law, and that’s why he got involved with the Bisbee issue.
“Just like I would have if they had an ordinance that allowed bank robberies,” he said.
Gowan, who said he lives about 30 miles from Bisbee, said he also had constituents ask him to look into the legality of the ordinance.
“The vast majority of my district believes in the Constitution,” he said. “This is coming from me because it’s a constitutional issue. We told them we’d look into it.”
Bisbee became the first city in the state to legalize same-sex civil unions last week on a 5-2 vote of the City Council after more than three hours of emotional pleas from residents on both sides of the issue.
Bisbee’s ordinance, which goes into effect in May, creates a civil union recognized only within city limits. Any two unrelated, unmarried adults can seek a civil-union certificate from the city clerk for $76. It grants same-sex couples a civil-union certificate and allows them some of the rights of married couples.
So here we have another case of "Do as I say, not as I do" from our government masters.
Cop stood on porch nude, police say
Associated Press Mon Apr 8, 2013 5:11 PM
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — A Newport News police officer accused of standing nude on a porch has been charged with indecent exposure.
Police spokesman Lou Thurston says Newport News officers arrested 41-year-old Christopher Roush on Sunday morning.
Thurston said Monday in a news release that witnesses told police a man was standing nude on the front porch of a residence. One officer saw a nude man shut the front door as he approached the residence.
Roush was released on his signature. An arraignment is set for April 24 in Newport News General District Court.
Thurston says Roush has been with the police department for nine years. The department’s Professional Standards Office will conduct and administrative investigation.
And perhaps limit knife sales to knives with blades under 2 inches in length with dull blades. Society will be a safer place if people can only have dull butter knives, and only cops and government rulers are allowed to have sharp steak and other assault knives.
I'm just joking, but I wouldn't be surprised if some phoney
baloney Arizona Libertarians I know try to say I actually believe that rubbish.
Student charged in Texas college stabbing attack
Associated Press Wed Apr 10, 2013 7:54 AM
CYPRESS, Texas — A 20-year-old man from suburban Houston has been charged in a stabbing spree at a Texas community college that injured at least 14 people.
Sheriff’s officials say Dylan Quick is charged with three counts of aggravated assault in the Tuesday attack at Lone Star Community College in Cypress. The city is about 20 miles from Houston.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office says in a statement that Quick used a “razor-type knife” to cut his victims, and pieces of the blade were found at the scene.
The sheriff’s office says Quick told investigators he’d had fantasies about stabbing people to death since he was in elementary school.
Investigators also say Quick indicated he’d been planning the attack for some time.
The only good news about this article is that the crooks at the Arizona State Legislator seem to realize that they are crooks and need to protect themselves from the people they pretend to serve while they rob us blind.
Last if Rep. Bob Thorpe really is a "Tea Party" members who wants to protect us from the other government crooks, why is he trying to help protect his fellow crooks???
I suspect Rep. Bob Thorpe isn't really a "freedom fighter" and just ran on the "Tea Party" platform because it would help him get elected.
Posted on April 9, 2013 3:30 pm by Laurie Roberts
Rep. Bob Thorpe looking for protection — and not just from bullets
In the wake of Sandy Hook, the state of Connecticut last Thursday enacted some of the strongest gun laws in the country, including limits on the size of magazines, a ban on armor piercing bullets and universal background checks.
Meanwhile, in the state of Arizona, a legislator on Thursday offered a response to our own massacre.
“In the wake of Tucson shooting, I have been researching body armor in order to inform our members about the costs and options for those wishing to purchase a vest for their personal use, for example, at town halls, parades and other public events,” Rep. Bob Thorpe, wrote, in an e-mail to fellow legislators. “These vests have prices ranging from about $600-$800, and options that include their weight and comfort, bullet stopping ability and colors.”
You’ve heard of Tupperware parties? Thorpe invited the Arizona Legislature to a body armor party. On Wednesday, a salesman from Arizona Tactical was supposed to be on hand in the House basement to offer discounts and take orders on the latest in tactical fashion.
Alas, legislative lawyers put the kibosh on Thorpe’s sale-a-thon. It’s seems you’re not supposed to use the state Capitol to sell bulletproof vests. Or anything else.
Now Thorpe is apparently steamed that his “internal” e-mail invite – the one sent out on his public e-mail account — wound up in the hands of the media.
“I’d love to know who leaked my email to the press, because I want to present them with a ‘Members Only’ jacket, as a reminder that some things, like my internal e-mail invitation, are intended for members only,” the Flagstaff Republican wrote in an e-mail on Tuesday.
Like his first e-mail, this one made it to my inbox within 15 minutes of his sending it.
Thorpe is a freshman legislator who made headlines earlier this year for his bill to require students to sign a loyalty oath before they could graduate from school — a bill he withdrew once somebody explained to him that it was blatantly unconstitutional. He’s a Tea Party guy who ran on a platform of protecting the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law.
Including, presumably, the law that says the Arizona Legislature is a public body – not the Augusta National Golf Club. And the one that says e-mail sent out on a government account is government business.
Or put another way: the public’s business.
Thorpe didn’t return my call to discuss public records and body armor and such. Pity, as I would have liked to ask him if that Members Only jacket would be outfitted in Kevlar.
In his Tuesday e-mail, Thorpe takes a shot at Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego — whom he suspects of “leaking” his e-mail – and notes that he arranged to have the body armor salesman come to the Capitol after a Democratic legislator told him she’d requested a police presence at a recent town hall meeting.
“She was concerned about her personal safety,” he wrote. “By the way, I sent out my e-mail invitation to all the House and Senate legislators, both Democrats and Republicans, because of my concern for the safety of all our members.”
Given his concern for safety, Thorpe might want to take up the cause for banning the sort of ammunition that would blast right through those bulletproof vests he’s hawking.
Sadly, his Senate colleagues rejected a ban on armor piercing bullets last week, along with a ban on high-capacity magazines and a call for universal background checks.
The irony wasn’t lost on Democrats.
“There are just so many other things that we should be working on and not just focused on our own personal safety but the personal safety of the public and for the children in our schools,” said Gallego, D-Phoenix.
“It’s is sad to see that we are almost at the 100th day of our session and yet we have not had a comprehensive discussion on gun violence for our constituents of Arizona,” Sen. Anna Tovar, D-Tolleson, told me.
For his part, Thorpe has provided his fellow legislators with the name and number for his body armor salesman. “His store is about a 10-minute drive from the Capitol and he’d like to try and arrange a time where perhaps 5 (or more) legislators can come in at a time for a joint briefing in one of their classrooms,” he wrote.
No doubt, Thorpe’s pal will have plenty of takers.
In addition to strafing other gun bills last week, the state Senate also rejected a bid to require basic firearms-safety training before you can carry around a concealed weapon.
Thus, the need, I suppose, for legislative body armor — to protect our leaders from the public.
Now, if only there was a way to protect the public from our leaders…
Will Herrod go to Bisbee?
Tue Apr 9, 2013 7:07 PM
The tempest that has been created over the Bisbee City Council’s approval of a measure that would create civil unions for same-sex couples reminds me of a similarly hyperbolic event at the University of Alabama many years ago. George Wallace stood at the university door and attempted to stay the admission of Black students.
Will Cathi Herrod journey to Bisbee with her Center for Arizona Policy entourage and stage a similar symbolic act for the press while the rest of the country moves on toward the equality of same-sex unions?
Bob Ellis
I discovered that the FBI, Homeland Security, TSA, DEA, BATF, Secret Service,
or some other Federal agency is spying on me after I installed
Google Analytics
on my website.
Every day I get one or two hits from an IP address in the Washington, DC
suburb of Shady Side, Maryland which I suspect is a headquarters for some
Federal government site that spies on Americans.
I should say the city and the IP address changes over time, but it is pretty
obvious that somebody in the Federal government is spying on me.
For those of you who wish to use
Google Analytics
to see if the government is spying on you it is free and
this
link will tell you how to install the software.
To get
Google Analytics working on your web site
all you have to do is create a free account with them and then put the following lines of
code on each of your web pages.
Google will give you the following code, which you will have to cut and paste on to your
web pages. The account number which has been replaced with "*************" will be
replaced with your account number.
‘Show me your papers’ — before you p**
This law makes it a crime to use the wrong restroom!!!!
A PERSON COMMITS DISORDERLY CONDUCT IF THE PERSON INTENTIONALLY ENTERS A PUBLIC RESTROOM, BATHROOM, SHOWER, BATH, DRESSING ROOM OR LOCKER ROOM AND A SIGN INDICATES THAT THE ROOM IS FOR THE EXCLUSIVE USE OF PERSONS OF ONE SEX AND THE PERSON IS NOT LEGALLY CLASSIFIED ON THE PERSON’S BIRTH CERTIFICATE AS A MEMBER OF THAT SEX.
The targets are transgender residents of Arizona. They would be committing a crime (a misdemeanor) by using the wrong bathroom with the wrong birth certificate.
Cathi Herrod's potty police????
Source
“A person commits disorderly conduct if the person intentionally enters a public restroom, bathroom, shower, bath, dressing room or locker room and a sign indicates that the room is for the exclusive use of persons of one sex and the person is not legally classified on the person’s birth certificate as a member of that sex.”
Exceptions are made for the cleaning crew, kids and the physically disabled. All others would be guilty of a class 1 misdemeanor punishable by a $2,500 fine and up to six months in jail. Which, of course, begs the question: in which section of the jail would our leaders house the offenders?
Use the wrong restroom, go to jail???
SB 1432 would put people in jail for using the wrong restroom.
Pastor gets life sentence for killing 2nd wife
Source
Josh has a gun!!! Quick call Child Protective Services!!!!
If government thugs showed up at your home after you went to church
at an alleged "cult" religion people would be outraged at the government
for violating your First Amendment rights.
Lindh lawyer to push for 5 daily group prayers
Source
Westboro Baptist Church's new neighbor is a rainbow-painted house
Source
Obama vows unwavering support for Israel
As long as the American government takes this position there will never be peace in the Middle East.
Another law to force us to be good Christians???
I suspect this law, brought to us by Cathi Herrod's Center for Arizona Policy is one of those laws which claims to give us more "religous protections", but in reality will use the force of government to make us be good Christians.
North Dakota lawmakers move to ban abortion
Source
Hitler joins gun debate, but history is in dispute
I am not sure what is true. There is a lot of stuff out that that says
Hitler loosening gun control in Nazi German is just a bunch of
mythology created by people that love Hitler.
Washington may require insurance to cover abortions in state
My view on abortion is if you don't like abortions, don't have one. I support a woman's right to get an abortion 100 percent.
Don’t tear down the wall that separates church and state
aaa4_religion_goverment.html#donttearitdown
Don’t tear down the wall that separates church and state
Source
Cathi Herrod's Center for Arizona Policy hopes Supreme Court will trash gay rights???
Source
Crece polémica de "baños transgénero"
Source
Rep. John Kavanagh tweaks his homophobic "potty police" law
Source
Recall effort launched against Rep. John Kavanagh
Will Rep. John Kavanagh be recalled for making Arizona the
"Show me your genitals state"
with his silly SB 1432 which makes it a crime to use the wrong restroom???
"Show me you papers state"
with our racist SB 1070 law.
Christian fanatic Cathi Herrod give some lousy reasons against gay marriage
Source
Column by Cathi Herrod is ironic
Source
North Dakota governor signs three laws that limit abortion
Remember woman, it's not YOUR body, it's the governments body. Well at least that is how these tyrants in North Dakota feel.
Phoenix transgender restroom bill clears House committee
Don't these government idiots have any thing better to do then argue about "potty police" laws????
Lancaster City Council prayers again ruled constitutional
What part of the First Amendment don't these judges understand???
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; ...
Same for article 1 section 4 of the California Constitution
SEC. 4. Free exercise and enjoyment of religion without discrimination or preference are guaranteed.
Source
Procreation idea is weak
Source
Chandler, Arizona
FBI Pursuing Real-Time Gmail Spying Powers
FBI tyrants want to flush 4th Amendment down the toilet.
Cathi Herrod uses lies to push her hate towards gays???
Well according to Lisa Schnebly Heidinger,
Cathi Herrod seems to be using “lies, damned lies and then statistics”
to push her hate towards gays!!!
Trying to bully Bisbee
Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne and Cathi Herrod's
Center for Arizona Policy will do anything to prevent gay folks
from having the same rights as all us other folks.
Is Tom Horne using Bisbee to launch his re-election bid?
Source
Conn. governor signs sweeping new gun bill into law
I am sure King George, Hitler, Stalin and Mao are smiling in the graves and
know that Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy will be a great dictator just
like they were.
Saudi Arabia's punishment by paralysis
Religions always seem to come up with really sick things
Since the article uses the term "an eye for an eye"
I suspect this is a punishment out of the Old Testament,
which is the basis of the Muslim, Christian and Jewish religions.
Phoenix
Horne intenta anular ordenanza
Source
Muslims seeking anti-blasphemy law
Source
Italian priest held for $5m fraud
Source
Italian Priest, Accused Of Stealing 5.1 Million Dollars From Hospital
Source
Prudes on Scottsdale City Council try to stamp out prostitution???
Prostitution ain't called the worlds oldest profession for nothing. I can guarantee that his law will be a dismal failure like all the other laws designed to stop prostitution and drugs.
Millions of imaginary constituents complaining about gay marriage???
OK, like the problem with medical marijuana this alleged problem seems to be only in the minds of our narrow minded, biased politicians who want force their religious views on us using the force of government.
Cop stood on porch nude, police say
Personally I think any laws that make nudity illegal are silly, stupid and unconstitutional. But if our government masters expect us to obey them, they should also obey them.
Background checks on knife purchases????
Time to require background checks on knife purchases????
Rep. Bob Thorpe tries to protect his fellow crooks from us serfs???
I think I already posted the original version of this article. This version seems a bit longer and makes the legislative critters at the Arizona State Capital look more like the crooks and tyrants they are.
Will Cathi Herrod go to Bisbee?
Source
Phoenix
The IRS is monitoring your Facebook and Twitter accounts???
According to this
article
the IRS is monitoring your Facebook and Twitter accounts???
|
<script type="text/javascript">
var _gaq = _gaq || [];
(
</script> |
Last but not least you don't need to understand any of this computer mumbo jumbo to use Google Analytics.
Just cut and paste the code Google gives you and you will be on your way to seeing the government thugs that are spying on you.
Once you create the Google account you can visit the Google Analytics site and get reports on who is visiting your websites on an hour by hour basis.
I suspect if enough people start doing this Uncle Sam's goons will cut a deal with Google Analytics and order them not to tell you when Uncle Sam's goons visit your website.
BP murdered 16 year old Jose Rodriguez????
Border Patrol murdered 16 year old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez????New details in Mexico teenager's death by Border Patrol
By Bob Ortega The Republic | azcentral.com Thu Apr 11, 2013 12:18 AM
A new witness and new evidence seem to bolster the case that a Mexican teen shot to death by the Border Patrol in October in Nogales, Sonora, was walking down the street at the time he was killed — not, as the Border Patrol has maintained, throwing rocks over the fence at agents.
The new information also suggests that more than one agent may have opened fire on Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, 16. That information arrived as the family of the youth held a march on Wednesday in Nogales to protest what they called the FBI and Border Patrol’s “veil of silence” about the killing.
Both the bureau and the patrol have declined to comment on the boy’s death, citing an ongoing FBI investigation. They have declined to identify the agent or agents involved and have declined to release a surveillance video of the incident, shot by cameras mounted above the border fence.
Agents, along with Nogales, Ariz., police, were chasing two men they believed were fleeing back to Mexico after climbing over the fence to the U.S. side with drugs. The agents said rocks began flying over the fence at them as they tried to arrest the men climbing back over the fence.
The new witness, Isidro Alvarado, a private security guard, said on the night of Oct. 10, he was walking about 20 feet behind Elena Rodriguez down Calle Internacional, which runs parallel to the border fence, when two other youths suddenly ran past them. Then, he said, he heard gunshots from two separate places by the fence and saw Elena Rodriguez fall.
Alvarado said his brother, a Nogales police officer, persuaded him to come forward and speak to the Sonora Attorney General’s Office. Alvarado’s statements were first reported by Nogales radio station XENY. He also spoke at a news conference Wednesday in Nogales, Sonora.
Luis Parra, a Nogales, Ariz., attorney representing the Elena Rodriguez family, said he recently interviewed Alvarado and then confirmed with an attorney from the Sonora Attorney General’s Office that the first call to Nogales police reporting the shooting, immediately after it happened, came from Alvarado’s cellphone.
“But what has made the family even more distraught,” he said, “are the indications that two agents were involved in the shooting and that he (Elena Rodriguez) had to have been lying on the ground when five bullets penetrated his back.”
In a forensic scene-analysis report, investigators for the Sonora Attorney General’s Office concluded that at least five shots into Elena Rodriguez’s back must have hit him while he was lying on the sidewalk. This jibes with findings in an autopsy, previously reported by The Arizona Republic, that all but one of the bullets that hit the boy entered from behind and most at an angle suggesting he was prone when hit.
In their forensic report, investigators also describe how they climbed the story-and-a-half-high bluff on which the border fence sits and looked through the fence as Border Patrol agents and Nogales, Ariz., police conducted their investigation on the U.S. side of the fence.
They describe an area next to the fence, cordoned off with police tape, where they counted 11 shell casings, and another taped-off area, about 28 feet away, where they could see three more casings. This seems to suggest, Parra said, that agents fired from two different spots along the fence.
A Sonora ballistics report, meanwhile, describes the nine bullets recovered by Mexican police — six from the boy’s body, and three from the street — as hollow-point, .40-caliber slugs fired from one or more polygonal-rifled guns.
Michael Haag, a forensic scientist and ballistics expert based in Albuquerque, reviewed the report. He said this is a relatively uncommon type of rifling, a type used in the Heckler & Koch P2000 handgun, among others.
That is the standard-issue Border Patrol sidearm, a spokesman confirmed.
The ballistics report said polygonal rifling, which leaves a much smoother barrel than conventional rifling, makes it harder to distinguish whether all the bullets were fired by the same gun or different guns.
“Because it leaves no good marks on the bullets, it’s very rare by forensic science to identify the bullets back to a specific gun,” Haag agreed. He added, “You can ID it sometimes, so it should be attempted.”
He also noted that each Border Patrol agent should have told the FBI whether he or she fired shots that night.
The Sonora ballistics report identified the bullets as Starfire hollow points, but Haag said the poor-quality photocopies of the bullets show cannelures — a ring that runs around the circumference of the bullet — that are not found on Starfire rounds but are consistent with the similar Federal Premium HST .40-caliber rounds.
Those are standard-issue ammunition for the H&K P2000 handgun, a Border Patrol spokesman confirmed.
The Department of Homeland Security expects shortly to complete a review of the Border Patrol’s use-of-force policy, which allows agents to fire at rock-throwers, Secretary Janet Napolitano said in an interview with The Republic last week.
There have been eight incidents in the past three years in which agents have shot and killed alleged rock-throwers, among 20 deaths caused by agents since the beginning of 2010. In all but three of those cases, the FBI investigations remain open and the Border Patrol and the DHS have declined to release any information, including the names of the agents involved.
Reach the reporter at bob.ortega@arizonarepublic.com
Democrat Kyrsten Sinema a big fan of corporate welfare???
For the record Kyrsten Sinema is an atheist like most of the people on this listserver. Although like most politicians she refuses to publicly admit that and claims not to be an atheist, but not have a religion. She is also gay.Usually Democrats like Kyrsten Sinema are socialists who love to steal from the rich and give to the poor.
On the other hand Republicans usually steal from the poor and give to the rich. Like in this article where Kyrsten Sinema wants to steal billions of dollars from poor folks and give it to rich corporations.
Oddly Kyrsten Sinema seems to want to have it both ways. Like a Democrat, Kyrsten Sinema likes to steal money from the rich and give it to the poor in her socialist welfare schemes. And like a Republican, Kyrsten Sinema likes to steal money from poor folks and give it to rich corporations as in this $5 billion government welfare program for rich corporations that make solar panels.
Rep. Sinema’s bill seeks break for green technology
By Rebekah L. Sanders The Republic | azcentral.com Wed Apr 10, 2013 5:43 PM
Solar companies that assemble panels in Arizona and other renewable-energy manufacturers based in the United States could be in line for money from the federal government if U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema succeeds in pushing legislation through Congress.
Sinema, a Democrat from Phoenix, introduced Wednesday the Security in Energy and Manufacturing Act, a bill to spur domestic production of energy technology and create jobs. The legislation is part of a package of more than 40 bills that House Democrats have put forward as part of the party’s “Make It in America” initiative to re-energize the U.S. manufacturing sector.
Sinema, a closely watched freshman, could face challenges with her first bill in Congress. Similar versions introduced by House and Senate members failed in the past two sessions, and contentious budget debates in Washington have created an environment hostile to new spending.
Sinema argued there is wide support from both parties for encouraging the expansion of wind, solar and geothermal companies based in the United States.
“This bill provides an opportunity for bipartisan action to create more jobs,” she told The Arizona Republic after stumping for the bill on the House floor. “We’ve utilized this program before, and it created 180 additional manufacturing sites in 43 states. So we know it works.”
Sinema said the program gave companies leverage to secure additional private loans.
The legislation would set aside $5 billion to restart the program, known as the Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit program, or 48C. During the tax credit’s short run, from 2009 to 2010, about $3.2 billion was doled out before funding ran out.
Energy manufacturers would receive a 30 percent tax credit, or grant in lieu of the tax credit, to invest in new or bigger factories or buy additional equipment. The factories would have to be in the United States, a requirement designed to counter the rapid rise in manufacturing in places like China that boast lower costs.
Sinema said companies like Rioglass Solar Inc. in Surprise, which is expanding its factory, and Monarch Power Corp. in Scottsdale, a startup that wants to get into manufacturing, could benefit. Sinema mentioned Monarch in her speech and on Saturday will visit the company headquartered at Arizona State University’s SkySong. While campaigning last year, Sinema pledged to work on funding for renewable energy and research and development.
Monarch Chief Executive Officer Joseph Hui, an ASU engineering professor whose company is venturing into portable solar units, said the bill would be “tremendously helpful.”
Though his fledgling company has not yet sold its Lotus units, which fold up like a flower bud, Hui is betting on demand from emergency responders, outdoor vendors and electric-car owners as he looks to move into production soon.
Hui recently submitted a bid to purchase the Suntech Power Holdings Co. factory in Goodyear, which is slated to close this month. He said, if successful, he would hire back the 43 laid-off workers and aim to double the workforce by peak production. A tax credit would help him start that process, he said.
“It’s such a good opportunity,” Hui said.
NRA - Worlds largest gun control organization???
Some people like to say that the NRA is the worlds largest gun control organization.
I think this editorial cartoon by Steve Benson on April 11, 2013 gives credibility to that.
In the cartoon NRA leader Wayne LaPierre is picture on TV saying
We think it is reasonable to provide instant criminal background checks for every sale at every gun show. No loopholes anywhere for anyone.Then NRA leader Wayne LaPierre is pictured watching the TV show saying
Who is that idiotic bobblehead.And then to the side Wayne LaPierre wife or girl friend is pictured saying
It's you Wayne, don't you remember.And at the bottom of the cartoon Steve Benson puts a not that says:
Testimony before House Judiciary Committee on Crime, 27, May 1999
Five women detained in Israel over prayer shawls at Western Wall
Source
Five women detained in Israel over prayer shawls at Western Wall
By Emily Alpert
April 11, 2013, 12:45 p.m.
Israeli police detained five women for wearing prayer shawls at the Western Wall on Thursday, days after a new proposal emerged to set aside part of the holy site for men and women to pray together.
Female worshippers at the sacred site are barred from performing religious rituals that Orthodox Jewish religious authorities say are solely for men. Women have repeatedly been detained for violating those rules, a continuing clash between the Orthodox rabbis who steer Israeli religious institutions and more liberal strains of Judaism in which women can use prayer shawls and lead congregations as rabbis.
The five women were questioned and brought before a judge Thursday. No charges were ultimately brought against them. Women of the Wall, a group that opposes the restrictions and has gathered women at the site for decades, said police unsuccessfully sought to ban them from the wall for three months. Out of the hundreds of women who gathered for the monthly prayer, only a few were detained.
“The judge said she couldn’t see how these women could possibly be disturbing the public order,” said Shira Pruce, public relations director for Women of the Wall.
As the women were detained Thursday, Israeli media reported an ultra-Orthodox man was also in custody for allegedly burning a prayer book. Protesters have habitually tried to disrupt the female worshippers by shouting or throwing diapers or chairs at them, according to Women of the Wall. The liberal-leaning newspaper Haaretz reported that men heckled the women Thursday, shouting, “Reform Jews, get out of here.”
Hoping to quell the dispute, the head of the Jewish Agency for Israel recently floated the idea of setting aside a permanent area where men and women can pray together, in addition to the separate sections that now exist for men and women. The chairman of the group, which works closely with the Israeli government, had been asked by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to find solutions.
In a letter to the Jewish Agency board obtained by the Los Angeles Times, chairman Natan Sharansky said a platform would need to be built at the southern end of the wall, creating an area for "egalitarian prayer" at the same height as other sections. Sharansky did not specifically mention prayer shawls, but wrote that a solution must allow "all Jews to be able to pray in accordance with their tradition."
By making the changes, the wall “will once again be a symbol of unity among the Jewish people, and not one of discord and strife,” Sharansky said Tuesday. He later called the Thursday events "one more reminder of the urgent need to reach a permanent solution."
The Western Wall is the last standing remnant of the Second Temple that was the center of Jewish religious life for centuries until its destruction by the Roman Empire in the year 70.
The rabbi who oversees the Western Wall told Israeli media he would allow the changes that Sharansky had proposed and was infuriated Thursday after the women again wore prayer shawls at the wall. Doing so was "clear evidence that their purpose is to stir controversy and hurt other people's feelings,” Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz told the Jerusalem Post.
Women of the Wall has held back on judging the fledgling plan since nothing is in writing, Pruce said. However, even discussing the idea “feels like a turning point, and that’s a good thing,” she said. “If we can create pluralism at the Western Wall, we will begin to see a more open and pluralist Israel.”
The proposed changes would need to be approved by the Israeli government.
You get a fair trial??? Don't make me laugh!!!
Sadly this article applies just as much to the millions of American's arrested for victimless drug war crimes and other victimless crimes like DUI.The government views you as either an enemy that belongs in prison, or a source of cash with a big wallet they want to steal. And in both cases they ain't going to let a fair trial get in their way of putting you in prison and stealing your wallet.
Guantanamo dogged by new controversy after mishandling of e-mails
By Peter Finn, Published: April 11
The military justice system at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which has been dogged by charges of secret monitoring of proceedings and defense communications, became embroiled in a fresh controversy Thursday when it was revealed that hundreds of thousands of defense e-mails were turned over to the prosecution.
The breach prompted Col. Karen Mayberry, the chief military defense counsel, to order all attorneys for Guantanamo detainees to stop using Defense Department computer networks to transmit privileged or confidential information until the security of such communications is assured.
Army Col. James Pohl, the chief judge at Guantanamo, also ordered a two-month delay in pretrial proceedings in the military-commission case against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who is accused of organizing the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen. Defense attorneys in the trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed , the professed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and four co-defendants filed an emergency motion — via a handwritten note — seeking a similar pause in proceedings.
Pretrial hearings in both cases were set to resume this month.
“Is there any security for defense attorney information?” said James Connell, attorney for Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, one of the Sept. 11 defendants. “This new disclosure is simply the latest in a series of revelations of courtroom monitoring, hidden surveillance devices and legal-bin searches.”
The inappropriate transfer of the e-mails follows other questions about government intrusion and secrecy that have undermined the legitimacy of a judicial process that has struggled to establish itself as an effective forum for the prosecution of some terrorism cases.
In February, a military lawyer acknowledged that microphones were hidden inside devices that looked like smoke detectors in rooms used for meetings between defense counsel and their clients. The military said the listening system was not used to eavesdrop on confidential meetings and had been installed before defense lawyers started to use the rooms. The government subsequently said it tore out the wiring.
That same month, Pohl learned that the soundproofed courtroom at Guantanamo was wired with a “kill switch” that allowed an unknown government entity, thought to be the CIA, to cut audio feed of the trial to the public gallery. Pohl ruled that in the future only he could turn off the audio feed to protect classified information. But defense lawyers questioned whether the audio equipment in the courtroom had been manipulated to allow the government to monitor attorney- client conversations.
In the latest controversy, the prosecution gained access to about 540,000 e-mails from defense teams. It is not clear which cases or lawyers the e-mails concerned; a Pentagon spokesman declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation.
Defense attorneys said prosecutors told them that they stopped looking at the e-mails as soon as they realized that the messages contained confidential defense information.
The mishandling of the e-mails was detected when IT specialists were conducting a search of the government’s computer system on behalf of prosecutors in a particular case. When they did so, they came across not only the e-mails they were seeking but also those between defense lawyers.
Defense attorneys said military IT personnel unsuccessfully tried to refine their search parameters two more times — and in each case discovered more confidential defense material.
In another controversy, defense counsel recently complained that huge volumes of work files were lost when the Defense Department tried to upgrade its network and mirror at Guantanamo the computer system that is available to defense lawyers handling detainee cases in the Washington area.
“Entire files, months of work was just gone,” said Navy Cmdr. Stephen C. Reyes, an attorney for Nashiri. “I have no evidence of any nefarious conduct, but it demonstrates again that we don’t have confidence that our files and communications are secure.”
Reyes noted that a prosecution file also was recently found in the defense computer system.
The latest delay in the commission hearings comes as the Obama administration faces a widening hunger strike among the detainees at Guantanamo.
Attorneys for the detainees and the military have clashed over the number of participants in the protest. The Pentagon said Thursday that 43 of the 166 detainees were on hunger strike, of whom 11 are being force-fed, while defense attorneys said the overwhelming majority of the 120 or so detainees in Camps 5 and 6 are on hunger strike.
The military has refused requests from the media, including The Washington Post, to allow reporters to observe conditions at the camps. Human Rights groups also have requested unfettered access to the camps.
A team from the International Committee of the Red Cross is visiting the camp, but the organization does not make its recommendations public.
ICRC President Peter Maurer said Thursday in an interview at The Post that the hunger strike is born of detainees’ frustration at being held indefinitely without any further review, even in cases in which they have been cleared for transfer out of Guantanamo.
With Police in Schools, More Children in Court
Who cares about the kids???? These cops wouldn't have their high paying, cushy jobs as "school resource officers" if they weren't sending kids to jail for breaking silly school rules.Let's face it, it's not about the kids. It's about high paying, cushy jobs for cops.
Well at least that is probably how the cops and police unions feel about it.
With Police in Schools, More Children in Court
By ERIK ECKHOLM
Published: April 12, 2013 175 Comments
HOUSTON — As school districts across the country consider placing more police officers in schools, youth advocates and judges are raising alarm about what they have seen in the schools where officers are already stationed: a surge in criminal charges against children for misbehavior that many believe is better handled in the principal’s office.
Since the early 1990s, thousands of districts, often with federal subsidies, have paid local police agencies to provide armed “school resource officers” for high schools, middle schools and sometimes even elementary schools. Hundreds of additional districts, including those in Houston, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, have created police forces of their own, employing thousands of sworn officers.
Last week, in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., shootings, a task force of the National Rifle Association recommended placing police officers or other armed guards in every school. The White House has proposed an increase in police officers based in schools.
The effectiveness of using police officers in schools to deter crime or the remote threat of armed intruders is unclear. The new N.R.A. report cites the example of a Mississippi assistant principal who in 1997 got a gun from his truck and disarmed a student who had killed two classmates, and another in California in which a school resource officer in 2001 wounded and arrested a student who had opened fire with a shotgun.
Yet the most striking impact of school police officers so far, critics say, has been a surge in arrests or misdemeanor charges for essentially nonviolent behavior — including scuffles, truancy and cursing at teachers — that sends children into the criminal courts.
“There is no evidence that placing officers in the schools improves safety,” said Denise C. Gottfredson, a criminologist at the University of Maryland who is an expert in school violence. “And it increases the number of minor behavior problems that are referred to the police, pushing kids into the criminal system.”
Nationwide, hundreds of thousands of students are arrested or given criminal citations at schools each year. A large share are sent to court for relatively minor offenses, with black and Hispanic students and those with disabilities disproportionately affected, according to recent reports from civil rights groups, including the Advancement Project, in Washington, and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, in New York.
Such criminal charges may be most prevalent in Texas, where police officers based in schools write more than 100,000 misdemeanor tickets each year, said Deborah Fowler, the deputy director of Texas Appleseed, a legal advocacy center in Austin. The students seldom get legal aid, she noted, and they may face hundreds of dollars in fines, community service and, in some cases, a lasting record that could affect applications for jobs or the military.
In February, Texas Appleseed and the Brazos County chapter of the N.A.A.C.P. filed a complaint with the federal Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights. Black students in the school district in Bryan, they noted, receive criminal misdemeanor citations at four times the rate of white students.
Featured in the complaint is De’Angelo Rollins, who was 12 and had just started at a Bryan middle school in 2010 when he and another boy scuffled and were given citations. After repeated court appearances, De’Angelo pleaded no contest, paid a fine of $69 and was sentenced to 20 hours of community service and four months’ probation.
“They said this will stay on his record unless we go back when he is 17 and get it expunged,” said his mother, Marjorie Holmon.
Federal officials have not yet acted, but the district says it is revising guidelines for citations. “Allegations of inequitable treatment of students is something the district takes very seriously,” said Sandra Farris, a spokeswoman for the Bryan schools.
While schools may bring in police officers to provide security, the officers often end up handling discipline and handing out charges of disorderly conduct or assault, said Michael Nash, the presiding judge of juvenile court in Los Angeles and the president of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges.
“You have to differentiate the security issue and the discipline issue,” he said. “Once the kids get involved in the court system, it’s a slippery slope downhill.”
Mo Canady, the executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers, defended placing police officers in schools, provided that they are properly trained. He said that the negative impacts had been exaggerated, and that when the right people were selected and schooled in adolescent psychology and mediation, both schools and communities benefited.
“The good officers recognize the difference between a scuffle and a true assault,” Mr. Canady said.
But the line is not always clear. In New York, a lawsuit against the Police Department’s School Safety Division describes several instances in which officers handcuffed and arrested children for noncriminal behavior.
Many districts are clamoring for police officers. “There’s definitely a massive trend toward increasing school resource officers, so much so that departments are having trouble buying guns and supplies,” said Michael Dorn, director of Safe Havens International, in Macon, Ga., a safety consultant to schools.
One district in Florida, Mr. Dorn said, is looking to add 130 officers, mainly to patrol its grade schools. McKinney, Tex., north of Dallas, recently placed officers in its five middle schools.
Many judges say school police officers are too quick to make arrests or write tickets.
“We are criminalizing our children for nonviolent offenses,” Wallace B. Jefferson, the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Texas, said in a speech to the Legislature in March.
School officers in Texas are authorized to issue Class C misdemeanor citations, which require students to appear before a justice of the peace or in municipal court, with public records.
The process can leave a bitter taste. Joshua, a ninth grader who lives south of Houston, got into a brief fight on a school bus in November after another boy, a security video showed, hit him first. The principal called in the school’s resident sheriff, who wrote them both up for disorderly conduct.
“I thought it was stupid,” Joshua said of the ticket and his need to miss school for two court appearances. His guardian found a free lawyer from the Earl Carl Institute, a legal aid group at Texas Southern University, and the case was eventually dismissed.
Sarah R. Guidry, the executive director of the institute, said that when students appeared in court with a lawyer, charges for minor offenses were often dismissed. But she said the courts tended to be “plea mills,” with students pleading guilty in the hope that, once they paid a fine and spent hours cleaning parks, the charges would be expunged. If students fail to show up and cases are unresolved, they may be named in arrest warrants when they turn 17.
In parts of Texas, the outcry from legal advocates is starting to make a difference. Jimmy L. Dotson, the chief of Houston’s 186-member school district force, is one of several police leaders working to redefine the role of campus officers.
Perhaps the sharpest change has come to E. L. Furr High School, which serves mainly low-income Hispanic children on the city’s east side. Bertie Simmons, 79, came out of retirement 11 years ago to try to turn around a school so blighted by gang violence that it dared not hold assemblies.
“The kids hated the school police,” said Ms. Simmons, the principal. They arrested two or three students a day and issued tickets to many more.
Ms. Simmons searched for officers who would work with the students and build trust. She found them in Danny Avalos and Craig Davis, former municipal police officers who grew up in rough neighborhoods, and after years of effort, the campus is peaceful and arrests and tickets are rare. Discipline is usually enforced by a principal’s court with student juries, not summonses to the criminal courts.
“Writing tickets is easy,” Officer Avalos said. “We do it the hard way, talking with the kids and coaching them.”
With new guidelines and training, ticketing within the Houston schools was reduced by 60 percent in one year. Citations for “disruption of classes,” for example, fell to 124 between September and February, from 927 in the same period last year.
“Our role is not to be disciplinarians,” Chief Dotson said in an interview. “Our purpose is to push these kids into college, not into the criminal justice system.”
Government rulers all talk, no action on public records.
While the article is about San Jose, California, here in Arizona our public records laws are a joke.Arizona's public records laws, or freedom of information act which is A.R.S 39 §121 requires government bureaucrats and elected officials to answer all requests for public records as quickly as possible. That's the good news.
The bad news is there is no criminal or civil penalties for government bureaucrats and elected officials who refuse to obey the law.
And you can't call the cops to enforce the public records law. The only way you can do that is for YOU to sue the bureaucrat who refused to honor your request for public records.
And the Arizona's public records law doesn't even guarantee that your expenses for suing will be covered. It says "The court MAY award attorney fees and other legal costs"
San Jose fights disclosure of email, text message records
By John Woolfolk
jwoolfolk@mercurynews.com
Posted: 04/12/2013 06:21:01 AM PDT
SAN JOSE -- San Jose drew praise for its progressive approach to open government in the digital age by adopting a policy three years ago making elected officials' personal email and text messages about city business public records subject to disclosure.
But the City Council this week voted unanimously to appeal a judge's ruling last month that effectively applies that policy to the whole city workforce by declaring government employees' communications about public business subject to the California Public Records Act whether on official or private devices.
The case sets up a showdown that will be watched statewide and beyond over what open-government advocates say has become a gaping hole in public records law that was written in the typewriter era and didn't contemplate officials with Gmail, Facebook and iPhones. And they say, bring it on.
"I'm glad the city is appealing the ruling, since it is likely to be affirmed on appeal," said Peter Scheer, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition in San Rafael. "That will force all California cities and counties to treat emails about government business as public records, regardless of the status or ownership of the email accounts or devices. What matters is the substance of the message -- is it about government business or is it purely personal? -- not the technology."
San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, who ran as an open-government champion, had made the same argument in 2010 when he pushed a policy that would require disclosure of messages about city business sent or received by the mayor, council members and their staffs whether they were communicated on personal or city phones and networks. The City Council approved the policy unanimously in March 2010 on a trial basis and, citing no problems since, made it permanent in December.
Scheer said at the time the council adopted the policy that he knew of no other city that had gone so far in updating public records policy to account for modern technology. Most cities have fought efforts to force disclosure of officials' messages on private networks, citing both privacy concerns and practical questions of how a government could search for relevant documents and messages on phones and email networks it doesn't control.
Reed said that such disclosure rules covering private devices and networks can be justified and managed on a small scale involving a few dozen elected officials and their staffs. But he said the council appealed out of concern that applying those rules throughout a city organization of 5,500 full-time employees -- the practical effect of a decision that personal emails are subject to the California Public Records Act -- would be invasive and burdensome.
"It's about the scope of it," Reed said. "I think it's too broad. It sets up practical problems."
The case originated in June 2009 when activist Ted Smith requested voice mails, text messages, and emails sent or received by the mayor and council members related to a downtown redevelopment project in San Jose, whether on official or personal networks and devices. He sued in August that year when the city claimed it lacked authority to access any records on officials' private personal accounts.
Last month, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge James P. Kleinberg ruled in Smith's favor, stating that under the city's interpretation of public records law, "a public agency could easily shield information from public disclosure simply by storing it on equipment it does not technically own."
"Regardless of where a record is retained, if it is drafted by a public official," Kleinberg wrote, it "constitutes a 'public record.' "
Scheer said that while the practical and privacy concerns cities have raised are legitimate, they can easily be overcome by requiring public officials to copy messages about public business to their official email where the city can search for and retrieve it.
In the city's petition with the Sixth District Court of Appeal, San Jose argues that the council disclosure policy for private email and phone networks is irrelevant to Smith's case because it was adopted 10 months after his records request and was not retroactive. The city added that "local policies simply do not affect the courts' interpretation of the Public Records Act," and that the council had chosen to limit its policy to affect about 30 city employees.
But San Jose also advanced arguments that seemingly conflict with the policy that the council adopted for itself.
"A council member is not a governmental entity," San Jose's appellate filing stated. "A council member is an individual public official with no authority to act alone on behalf of the city. Consequently, emails and documents found on a council member's personal computer or personal electronic device do not fall within the definition of a public record because any record personally and individually created by a council member is not a documentation of a transaction or activity of the city as a local agency."
Contact John Woolfolk at 408-975-9346. Follow him on Twitter at Twitter.com/johnwoolfolk1.
Even if the Christian god is the one true and real God and she hate gay marriage,
I am fine with that, but we certainly shouldn't be mixing the religious rules of the
Christian church with our government laws.
RNC: Marriage should be between man, woman
By John McCormick Bloomberg News Fri Apr 12, 2013 12:25 PM
The Republican National Committee Friday reaffirmed its view that marriage should be only between a man and a woman, as the party sought to calm members of its base concerned that a rebranding effort might go too far.
Meeting in Los Angeles, the party’s 168-member governing body passed a resolution that says marriage between “one man and one woman” is the “optimum environment in which to raise healthy children for the future of America.”
The move is meant to assure core supporters that the party isn’t moving away from its bedrock tenets following the March 18 release of the “Growth and Opportunity Project” report commissioned by RNC Chairman Reince Priebus.
That document, a highly critical assessment of the party’s 2012 election efforts, among other things called for a more inclusive tone and attitude toward those who disagree with the Republican platform that opposes on abortion rights and same-sex marriage.
“For many younger voters, these issues are a gateway into whether the party is a place they want to be,” the report said. “If our party is not welcoming and inclusive, young people and increasingly other voters will continue to tune us out.”
A NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Friday shows 53 percent of Americans support allowing same-sex marriage, compared with 42 percent opposed. The survey of 1,000 adults was taken April 5-8 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
Tony Perkins, president of the Washington-based Family Research Council, which opposes same-sex marriage and abortion rights, called for contributions to be stopped to the RNC in a message posted online Thursday.
“Until the RNC and the other national Republican organizations grow a backbone and start defending core principles, don’t give them a dime of your hard-earned money,” he wrote. “If you want to invest in the political process, and I encourage you to do so, give directly to candidates who reflect your values and organizations you trust.”
The party’s Resolutions Committee had planned to consider language reaffirming the party’s platform, including the “sanctity” of human life, the right to keep and bear arms and that marriage should be between a man and woman, even before a letter was sent to the party this week demanding such action.
That letter, reported earlier by NBC News, came from a coalition of groups who oppose same-sex marriage and abortion rights. Addressed to Priebus, it said the party risks losing its base if it goes too far in adopting the approaches recommended by the RNC report.
“The Republican Party makes a huge historical mistake if it intends to dismantle this coalition by marginalizing social conservatives and avoiding the issues which attract and energize them by the millions,” the letter said.
Leaders from 11 groups, including the Family Research Council and American Values, signed the April 8 letter.
“Republicans would do well to persuade young voters why marriage between a man and woman is so important, rather than abandon thousands of years of wisdom to please them,” the letter says.
That isn’t likely to work, according to Republican strategist Mike Murphy. Speaking this week at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics, Murphy said the party needs to moderate its message on marriage if it wants to win.
“The question is how many elections we want to lose along the way,” he said. “The numbers are just too strong among young voters,” he added, referring to poll data showing strong support among young people for legalizing same-sex marriage.
Murphy, who worked on Arizona Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, said the party’s efforts must go beyond better voter outreach and technology.
“We are making a foolish mistake if we think the problem is simply mechanics,” he said. “What counts is message and policy, and we have to modernize the conservatism that works.”
Polling shows the depth of the Republican challenges. While both parties have relatively low approval ratings, Republicans are viewed more unfavorably than Democrats.
A CNN/ORC International poll released March 18 showed 54 percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of the Republican Party, compared with 48 percent for the Democratic Party. Two- thirds said Republicans favor the rich, and almost half think the party’s policies are too extreme.
A Gallup poll conducted March 20-21 showed one in five Americans, when asked to say what they most dislike about the party, think the Republicans are too inflexible and unwilling to compromise. The number is even higher — 26 percent — among Republicans, highlighting the conflict within the party.
But Linda Valdez is very naive expecting the cops to arrest and jail one of their own buddies for murder. It ain't going to happen.
I have posted 100's of articles on other police crimes and the police routinely do get away with murder and they rarely get more then a slap on the wrist, if that much for their crimes.
The crime I vividly remember happened around November, 2004 when a News 12 helicopter caught some Phoenix Police beating up a Mexican they arrested for hijacking a car. They had the evidence they needed to nail those crooked Phoenix cops on tape, but I believe Rick Romney who was then Maricopa County attorney decided not to press charges. See
News 12 video tapes Phoenix Police beating
and
Assault by police claimed
Yes, the Mexican who hijacked the car was a criminal. But so were the Phoenix Police officers who beat him up for his crime.
And of course we have Sheriff Joe's goons who routinely murder innocent people in his tent city gulag. Yes, Maricopa County has paid millions in out of court settlements for those murders, but I don't think the police criminals that committed the murders have received anything more then a slap on the wrist and a stern warning not to do it again [well except to criminals who deserve it, like the people they murdered - and that's from Sheriff Joe, not me]
Linda Valdez
Posted on April 11, 2013 10:13 am by Linda Valdez
We need answers in Border Patrol killing
The Border Patrol is a fast growing national police force whose power and secrecy should worry civil libertarians.
After six months, the public that funds this national police force doesn’t even know the identity of the agent or agents involved in killing a youth in Nogales, Mexico, with a barrage of bullets fired across the border.
It smacks of cover-up.
[Smacks??? It IS a COVER-UP!!!]
Can you imagine the outrage if Mexican police had gunned down an American youth with equal gusto?
Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, 16, was shot numerous times — and as many as 11 bullets hit him from behind.
The Border Patrol alleges he was throwing rocks at them – an activity that the distance and angle of the border fence would have made more futile than threatening.
A witness has come forward, according to reporting by the Republic’s Bob Ortega, to say Elena Rodriguez was not throwing rocks.
Does anybody know for sure?
After six months, does anybody believe the FBI investigation hasn’t found some answers? If that’s the case, somebody send the FBI some coffee. They need to get moving.
Or are they – and Homeland Security — just hoping the whole thing blows over?
Protests yesterday at the border show that this is not going to go away. Nor should it.
The Border Patrol has extraordinary power, and there have been other deadly encounters where rocks were met with bullets.
According to Ortega:
“There have been eight incidents in the past three years in which agents have shot and killed alleged rock-throwers, among 20 deaths caused by agents since the beginning of 2010. In all but three of those cases, the FBI investigations remain open and the Border Patrol and the DHS have declined to release any information, including the names of the agents involved.”
We need answers. We need them now.
[I agree with you Linda, but it ain't going to happen]
Those who paint dystopian scenarios about an out-of-control national government threatening civil liberties are often the same people who demand tougher border security. They ought to be careful what they ask for.
The Border Patrol needs to be accountable. Not secretive.
[Again it ain't going to happen. This is why we need the Second Amendment. When the government becomes tyrannical and the police and elected officials are above the law the only way to fix things is with armed citizens physically ousting the government tyrants]
From this article it sounds like the Scottsdale City Attorney’s Office and the Scottsdale Police Department are creating a jobs program for themselves to they can create more jobs for cops to arrest hookers and lawyers to prosecute them.
Oddly not one person other then the Scottsdale Police and Prosecutors complained about any problems with massage parlors or prostitutes in this article. So I suspect that as I said before this "problem" was invented by the cops and prosecutors, and the only solution to the problem is more laws, which will create jobs for more cops and prosecutors.
Scottsdale drafting ordinance to more strictly regulate escort, massage services
By Julian Osorio The Arizona Republic - 12 News Breaking News Team Mon Apr 8, 2013 5:55 PM
Scottsdale officials have been drafting a revised ordinance that would more strictly regulate massage facilities and escort services that operate in the city.
The move, city officials say, is designed to deter illegal activity, such as prostitution, conducted behind the business doors of some operators.
[Well and create jobs for cops and prosecutors who would enforce the law]
The changes would include tougher permitting requirements to operate and a new fee schedule.
The proposed changes would allow the city to strengthen the integrity and professionalism of each industry, according to the city’s website.
The Scottsdale Police Department has been investigating prostitution complaints in the escort and massage industries for years, said Sgt. Mark Clark, spokesman for the Scottsdale Police Department.
The proposed ordinance is a collaborative effort between the City Attorney’s Office and the Police Department, he said.
[Yea, to create more high paying police and prosecutor jobs]
Officials have identified detrimental secondary effects from escort operations, including violent crimes, drug use, and health risks through the spread of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, according to the proposal.
[Well if you legalized prostitution all of those problems except the sexually transmitted diseases would disappear over night. And even if these government morons made ALL sex illegal there is no way to stop the problem of sexually transmitted diseases, other then with education, which isn't solved by arresting people who have sex]
The goal of the ordinance is to halt prostitution, protect legitimate escort patrons, and preserve the health and welfare of the community, a draft of the proposal says.
[Yea, and MOSTLY TO CREATE JOBS FOR COPS!!!!!]
Among the proposed revisions to the escort industry is added mandatory jail time for individuals convicted of certain crimes, expanded list of violations, a requirement that any escort service post its city-permit license number in any advertisement, revised definitions and permit requirements for escort assistants, and a stipulation that no permit or license can be issued to a person convicted of prostitution as early as 10 years before an application submission.
Scottsdale last updated its escort services ordinance in 1988.
According to a report released by the Scottsdale Police Department, there have been 21 escort-related charges in Scottsdale since 2011. The majority were for lack of proper identification and permits.
[Big stinking deal!!! That is less then one charge a month!!! And it looks like they lied earlier in the article when they said the major problems were drug use, violent crimes and sexually transmitted diseases]
A separate proposal targets unprofessional practices at massage facilities.
[That sounds like a problem that could be handled better in the private sector with say the BBB or Better Business Bureau, rather then the police!]
The requested ordinance includes requirements that a licensed on-site manager is present at a facility when any massage therapy is being performed.
In addition, all doors must be unlocked during massage therapy and mobile massage units will not be allowed to park on public streets except during special events.
Other changes includes verbiage regulating massages. The new language states that it is illegal to touch any other person’s genitals or anus, conduct any actions intended to sexually arouse or appeal to sexual desires, according to the proposal.
The current ordinance allows city officials to inspect any massage facility during normal business hours.
[F*ck the 4th Amendment. I guess it's null and void in Scottsdale]
No specific incidents sparked the evaluation of the city ordinance but the city felt it was time to clarify and tighten up the ordinance, said Caron Close, Scottsdale city prosecutor.
Several massage therapists in Scottsdale contacted for this article said they supported city efforts to crack down on unsavory businesses, but none wanted to be identified and quoted.
The proposed changes are scheduled to be considered by the City Council on June 4.
RELATED INFO
Proposed fees
Here are proposed fees for massage businesses and escort services under a draft being consideration by Scottsdale. The City Council will review the proposal in June:
Escort bureau application, $100; massage facility application, $100.
Annual escort bureau license, $175. Annual massage facility license, $300.
Escort and assistant application, $100; late renewal penalty, $200.
Escort and assistant permit, $100.
City fingerprinting fee, $10; on-site manager ID card, $10; escort and assistant ID card, $10; change of location fee, $50.
Source: Scottsdale.
Lo and behold my sister magically recovered from her cold.
I wonder if that means Icky the iguana is also a miracle worker and a saint???
Vatican: Healing of Colo. boy is a miracle
Mon Apr 15, 2013 10:52 AM
DENVER — The wheels of canonization grind slowly, but a German nun who lived 100 years ago could be named a saint because the Vatican believes a Colorado Springs boy experienced a miracle in 1999.
Mother Theresia Bonzel, who founded the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration in Olpe, Germany, in 1863, is scheduled for beatification in November — a step toward sainthood — as a result of the boy's miraculous recovery.
Two Colorado Spring nuns prayed to Bonzel on behalf of 4-year-old Luke Burgie, and the events that followed — over the next 14 years — have been closely scrutinized and investigated by church officials and doctors.
Just before Easter, Pope Francis affirmed that Bonzel was responsible for the miracle required for her beatification. Two miracles are required for canonization, or sainthood.
Luke, now 18, doesn't remember being ill and doesn't remember suddenly getting well.
[Of course we wouldn't want that to get in the way of a miracle happening]
He doesn't like to talk about any of it, his mother said. He has been self-conscious about the event throughout his life.
"He didn't like being singled out as the miracle boy," Jan Burgie told The Denver Post on Friday.
[Yea, and he probably wasn't the miracle boy]
In 1998, Luke had just completed one day of preschool when he fell ill with a severe gastrointestinal condition his doctors couldn't relieve or even diagnose.
He suffered for six months. He experienced violent episodes of diarrhea eight to 10 times a day, Jan Burgie said.
Luke couldn't go to school. He stopped growing, his mother said. He was wasting away. And his doctors were at a complete loss. They began to suspect a tumor in his colon.
"He was the sickest child or person I'd ever been around," Burgie said.
But the test was never conducted because the illness vanished suddenly on Feb. 22, 1999, just as two members of Bonzel's order finished praying a novena.
Sister Margaret Mary Preister and the late Sister Evangeline Spenner had just recited a series of prayers over nine straight days asking Mother Bonzel, who died in 1905, to intercede for Luke.
[Wow it took their miracle 4 days longer then it took my miracle to happen when I prayed for Icky the iguana to make my sister recover from her cold]
Doctors couldn't explain Luke's sudden recovery, and the Vatican machinery for investigating alleged miracles began to churn.
"We were just an ordinary family — not ultra-holy," Burgie said.
She teaches yoga. Her husband, Mike, is a mechanical engineer.
The family also would be investigated, as Vatican officials and medical personnel would try to ascertain whether the parents had given their child something, such as laxatives, to make him so sick for so long.
"They wanted to make sure we weren't crazy," Burgie said. "I didn't mind."
[Gasp! You mean some people might think that praying to a 100 year old dead woman for a child to recover from his illness is crazy.]
Journalist Bill Briggs, who wrote in depth about Catholic Church investigations into such supernatural occurrences in his book "The Third Miracle," said the process is, in a word, "rigorous."
"I think what would surprise people outside the church is how very dubious investigators are," Briggs said. "To examine these claims, they look at hundreds, if not thousands, of medical records and other pieces of evidence. It's the furthest thing from a rubber stamp."
Briggs said the situation or illness doesn't have to be terminal or even dramatic.
The cure simply has to be rapid, complete and utterly inexplicable by ordinary means.
[Yea, like when I prayed to Icky the igauna for my ingrown toenail to go away and it magically went away a month after I started praying to Icky]
The church interviews the original doctors in the case,
and a team of independent medical experts then pore over all the records.
Colorado Springs Bishop Michael Sheridan on Friday congratulated the local motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration on the Vatican pronouncement of a miracle in the Burgie case.
Members of Bonzel's order first came to Colorado in 1932. The sisters number about 30 in Colorado Springs. Many are elderly and retired, and other sisters, also elderly, run a nursing home, retreat center and counseling center.
Sister Clarice Gentrup, the order's vicar general, jokes she's one of the younger sisters at age 75.
"We were hoping for word at Easter," Gentrup said of Luke's case. "We were very pleased when Pope Francis approved it."
She knows all about the Burgie family. Luke, who has been healthy most of his life, wrestled in high school and is an avid BMX racer who works in a bike shop.
He has a second job at a fast-food restaurant because he's saving money to buy a car, his mother said. He's temporarily postponing college.
Sister Evangeline Spenner, who had petitioned so hard for Luke, died a few years ago, but the family has kept close ties with Sisters Margaret Mary and Clarice.
The friendship began when Luke's sister, Jill, at age 8, had what her mother describes as a spiritual awakening. Jill had become very taken by Sister Evangeline when she visited the girl's religion class at St. Patrick's Catholic Church. The sisters soon became aware of Luke's terrible difficulties.
After Luke's cure, the sisters became surrogate grandmothers to the Burgie children.
Over the years, the family has suffered many medical trials. Jan Burgie survived breast cancer. She lost both her parents to cancer. Jill has had a heart condition since childhood and undergone three procedures. Husband Mike also has some heart disease.
"If we had one miraculous healing, could we have another?" Jan Burgie said she has asked herself more than once.
Briggs said despite the rigor of the canonization process, he's still a skeptic. He said he can't quite make the leap that these inexplicable events have supernatural origins.
"A lot of people pray every day for miracles and don't get them," he said.
Luke, the young man who can't remember his miracle, is now a strapping 6-footer with a clean bill of health from a recent physical.
Luke, Jill, now 23, and their brother Tim, 21, are not observant Catholics currently, Burgie said.
"God gives you time to search," she said.
She, like Albert Einstein, believes people should either consider nothing to be a miracle — or consider everything a miracle.
"There have been so many miracles in our lives — but just this one thing about my son had to be documented," she said.
This Chicago teenager was busted for the victimless crime of posting a Craigslist ad selling his pet alligator.
I also posted articles before about Phoenix and Tempe cops who work full time posting internet ads posing as hot, horny, underage teenager girls looking for old men to have sex with.
On these web pages I get at least one visit everyday from a site in the Washington D.C. area
(IP address 76.114.145.234 located in Shady Side, Maryland),
which appears to be a Homeland Security office that is spying on
me for my posts documenting crimes committed by the police.
The site that logs the visits was broken into several times, by
I suspect police with the Homeland Security, or perhaps hackers
hired by the Homeland Security and they modified the logging software.
Sadly only 30 years after 1984, America is beginning to look like the police state written in the novel 1984.
Police: Galewood neighborhood man tries to sell alligator on Craigslist
By Rosemary Regina Sobol Tribune reporter
2:30 a.m. CDT, April 16, 2013
A Northwest Side man accused of trying to sell a baby alligator on Craigslist for $300 was arrested Monday evening, police said.
Juan A. DeJesus, 19, of the 1700 block of Meade Avenue, was charged Monday with one count of misdemeanor possession of wildlife, police said.
A state Department of Natural Resources police officer responded to an advertisement that was posted on Craigslist and went to DeJesus' home Monday afternoon under the pretenses he was going to purchase the alligator, police said.
The ad, which has since been pulled from Craigslist, stated:
"Baby gator for sale, id consider a trade for a leachie gecko. Sale price is 300 obo asap."
DeJesus came out of his home with the alligator and said he would like to have $300 for it, but the officer identified himself and told DeJesus of the violation, police said.
The alligator was seized as evidence and given to other IDNR agents and DeJesus was transported to the Grand Central District police station to be processed, police said.
DeJesus could not be reached immediately Tuesday morning. He is scheduled to appear in court at the Daley Center on May 31.
rsobol@tribune.com
Tempe assistant prosecutor, boyfriend held in assaulting each other
By Cecilia Chan The Arizona Republic-12 News Breaking News Team Fri Apr 12, 2013 10:08 PM
A Tempe assistant city prosecutor and her live-in boyfriend were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of assaulting each other, according to Tempe police.
Kathy Matz and Keith Walls were arrested late Wednesday night at the Tempe home they shared and transported to the city jail, according to a police report. Both had been drinking, police said.
Each posted a $500 bail Thursday, police spokesman Michael Pooley said.
Police arrived at the home at about 11:10 p.m. Wednesday after Matz called 911.
According to the report, Walls and Matz were on the bed, watching television when he asked Matz to move over. When he returned from the bathroom, she still had not moved and as he laid down in bed, she told him to get out and sleep on the couch, the report said.
Walls told police he refused and when he sat up in bed, Matz punched him in the back of his head.
They both got out of bed and Matz began shouting obscenities and swinging her closed fists at him, hitting him in the eye and kneeing him in the groin, he said.
Walls said he then threw water on Matz from a cup before he walked out of the room and proceeded to pack his clothes.
Matz told police that Walls was upset with her being on his side of the bed and he began to push her off the bed causing her to fall to the floor.
The report said Matz told police that Walls also threatened to shoot her with her gun that she kept under her side of the bed. She then pushed Walls away from her and he picked up a plastic cup of water and threw it at her, hitting her in the eye, the report said.
Police found no visible injuries on Matz when they arrived, but doctors found a bruise on the back of her head that she claimed was from hitting the headboard when she was being assaulted by Walls, according to the report. Doctors were unable to determine when she received the contusion and she never told officers on scene about the injury, police
Matz also complained that Walls gave her two bruises to her left wrist when he grabbed her. But police said they were unable to determine when she received the injuries and she did not tell officers on scene about the bruises.
Walls had a small bruise under his right eye, according to the report.
Matz will be placed on paid administrative leave while the matter is reviewed under the city’s Personnel Rules and Regulations, according to the city spokeswoman Nikki Ripley.
Her case will be transferred to a different jurisdiction in Maricopa County, she said.
Matz has worked for the city since 1998 in a number of roles, including city clerk and assistant to former Mayor Neil Giuliano, Ripley said. Her current salary is $115,045 and she is one of seven prosecutors on the city staff.
Both Walls and Matz told police they would not aid in the prosecution. Walls told police that he just wanted the relationship to be over.
Tempe assistant prosecutor, boyfriend held in assaulting each other
By Cecilia Chan The Arizona Republic-12 News Breaking News Team Fri Apr 12, 2013 10:08 PM
A Tempe assistant city prosecutor and her live-in boyfriend were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of assaulting each other, according to Tempe police.
Kathy Matz and Keith Walls were arrested late Wednesday night at the Tempe home they shared and transported to the city jail, according to a police report. Both had been drinking, police said.
Each posted a $500 bail Thursday, police spokesman Michael Pooley said.
Police arrived at the home at about 11:10 p.m. Wednesday after Matz called 911.
According to the report, Walls and Matz were on the bed, watching television when he asked Matz to move over. When he returned from the bathroom, she still had not moved and as he laid down in bed, she told him to get out and sleep on the couch, the report said.
Walls told police he refused and when he sat up in bed, Matz punched him in the back of his head.
They both got out of bed and Matz began shouting obscenities and swinging her closed fists at him, hitting him in the eye and kneeing him in the groin, he said.
Walls said he then threw water on Matz from a cup before he walked out of the room and proceeded to pack his clothes.
Matz told police that Walls was upset with her being on his side of the bed and he began to push her off the bed causing her to fall to the floor.
The report said Matz told police that Walls also threatened to shoot her with her gun that she kept under her side of the bed. She then pushed Walls away from her and he picked up a plastic cup of water and threw it at her, hitting her in the eye, the report said.
Police found no visible injuries on Matz when they arrived, but doctors found a bruise on the back of her head that she claimed was from hitting the headboard when she was being assaulted by Walls, according to the report. Doctors were unable to determine when she received the contusion and she never told officers on scene about the injury, police
Matz also complained that Walls gave her two bruises to her left wrist when he grabbed her. But police said they were unable to determine when she received the injuries and she did not tell officers on scene about the bruises.
Walls had a small bruise under his right eye, according to the report.
Matz will be placed on paid administrative leave while the matter is reviewed under the city’s Personnel Rules and Regulations, according to the city spokeswoman Nikki Ripley.
Her case will be transferred to a different jurisdiction in Maricopa County, she said.
Matz has worked for the city since 1998 in a number of roles, including city clerk and assistant to former Mayor Neil Giuliano, Ripley said. Her current salary is $115,045 and she is one of seven prosecutors on the city staff.
Both Walls and Matz told police they would not aid in the prosecution. Walls told police that he just wanted the relationship to be over.
Retired cop drops gun, shoots self at Des Plaines school
By Jonathan Bullington Tribune reporters
8:18 p.m. CDT, April 16, 2013
A retired police officer accidentally shot himself when he dropped his gun inside a Des Plaines school while attending his grandson's Boy Scout troop meeting.
Police and school officials said the man was carrying his licensed, loaded gun inside a fanny pack Monday evening at Iroquois School, and that the gun went off and a bullet struck him in the leg after he dropped the pack.
The man, who school officials called a troop leader, was taken to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge. Des Plaines police Chief William Kushner said the man is a retired Chicago police officer.
No one else was injured, and police did not file charges because no laws were broken, Kushner said.
The retired officer is licensed to carry the firearm, according to a letter to the school community from Iroquois Principal Michael Amadei.
"Of course, the district does not condone bringing firearms on school grounds," the letter states.
Kushner said he initially heard that the retired officer was in serious condition, but school officials said the man's injuries were "not as serious as anticipated."
Amadei's letter said the school "will continue to work with" police and Scouting officials "to clarify any questions that arise. ... Student safety is our number one priority."
Representatives of the Boy Scouts of America Northwest Suburban Council could not be reached for comment late Tuesday.
Tribune reporter Robert McCoppin contributed.
jbullington@tribune.com
Iowa senator decries acceptance of homosexuality
Associated Press Wed Apr 17, 2013 1:55 PM
DES MOINES, Iowa — A Republican senator from northern Iowa said Wednesday that homosexual lifestyles pose a health risk to him and his family in comments that drew a sharp rebuke from an openly gay Democratic senator.
In a speech on the Senate floor, Sen. Dennis Guth, of Klemme said the media has “bamboozled” the public into a growing acceptance of gay relationships and argued his family faces “health risks” because of “sexually transmitted infections that this lifestyle invites.”
“Just as there are multiple ways that your smoking hurts me, such as secondhand smoke, increased insurance costs, cost to society of days lost for poor health, so it is with same-sex relationships,” said Guth, a freshman lawmaker. “There are health risks that my family incurs because of the increase in sexually transmitted infections that this lifestyle invites. For example there are more and more medical tests required before giving blood or giving birth.”
Guth’s comments were quickly condemned by Sen. Matt McCoy, of Des Moines, who said Guth was using “warmed over rhetoric that has been invented by the Christian-right extremist groups.”
“While somebody cannot choose to be gay, you certainly can choose to be ignorant,” McCoy said.
Guth said later that he stood by his comments. He said his remarks were inspired by a national event organized by conservative Christian group Focus on the Family scheduled for Thursday. Called the “Day of Dialogue,” the event is billed as a way to discuss sexuality and marriage. It was created in response to the national “Day of Silence” established by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, during which students pledge not to talk for a day to protest the bullying of gay students.
“The Day of Dialogue has been scheduled as the day before that so that we can have a more open dialogue about all types of relationships and the consequences,” said Guth, who said gay relationships had more health risks and negative emotional consequences than heterosexual relationships.
Through a spokesman, Senate Republican Leader Bill Dix declined comment. Guth said he had alerted fellow Republicans that he planned to speak, though he had not provided a copy of his remarks.
Guth’s remarks drew criticism from the Iowa Democratic Party and One Iowa, the state’s largest gay advocacy group.
Earlier in the legislative session, Guth proposed a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage. The measure, which would require approval twice in the Iowa Assembly before it went to a statewide vote, did not advance.
Gay marriage has been legal in Iowa since a unanimous 2009 state Supreme Court ruling, which found that a law limiting marriage to between a man and woman violated the state constitution’s equal-protection clause.
Porn filming declines sharply since L.A. condom law passed
By Kurt Streeter
April 17, 2013, 3:21 p.m.
Film permits issued for porn shoots in Los Angeles County have dropped to almost zero since a law was enacted requiring actors to use condoms during shoots.
So far this year, only two permits have been issued for pornographic filming, far off the pace for an industry that typically gets about 500 permits annually, according to Paul Audley, president of FilmLA, a nonprofit agency that oversees permitting throughout Los Angeles County. “It’s a steep drop,” Audley said, adding that “both of those applications came in January.”
Coupled with an apparent increase in filming in nearby Ventura County -- where one politician says some residents have complained about “seeing people naked” during film shoots -- the decrease has been seized on by porn industry insiders who have long claimed that efforts to regulate their industry would end up hurting Los Angeles’ pocketbook.
“We’re not surprised by this,” said Diane Duke, chief executive of the Free Speech Coalition, a film industry trade group. “Movie companies are beginning to look for other areas,” outside the San Fernando Valley, the longtime home base for most of the industry.
Duke said that Measure B, the ordinance passed by Los Angeles voters in November mandating condom use during film shoots, has created difficulties for the industry because most consumers want to see scenes without condoms. She added that many film companies are simply deferring production, waiting for the results of a lawsuit expected to be heard in U.S. District Court challenging the measure on free speech grounds. The new law also requires studios to apply to Los Angeles County for health permits.
Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which like many other public health groups has strongly advocated the restrictions, said that porn studios in Los Angeles simply need to accept the vote.
The industry’s prediction of a filming exodus that would create a deep economic hole was “heard by the voters in L.A. County, and 57 percent voted for Measure B.” Weinstein said. “We live in a democracy.”
Weinstein added that there was no evidence the industry has started filming elsewhere, nor was their evidence that nearby states such as Nevada were keen to allow X-rated filming.
But parts of Ventura County are already grappling with an increase in porn film permits since the Los Angeles law took effect, said Linda Parks, a Ventura County supervisor. Parks said residents of a neighborhood she represents near Thousand Oaks are upset because companies from Los Angeles have started shooting and “people are hearing moans and groans and seeing naked people.”
The supervisor said she is planning to introduce legislation modeled on Measure B -- and a similar law in Simi Valley -- in an effort to regulate porn filming in her county.
State Assemblyman Isadore Hall (D-Compton) has proposed an Assembly bill similar to Measure B that would cover all of California.
The decline in permits was first reported by the Daily News of Los Angeles.
OK, they are not bribes, they officially are campaign contributions, but for the man on the street it's hard to see the difference.
And of course people who give suitcases full of money to Congressmen, expect something in return for their cash.
U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema recently sponsored a $5 billion dollar corporate welfare program for corporations which make solar cells. I am sure she will say it wasn't a result of the campaign contributions she receive from the solar industry. But the rest of us have our questions.
Last but not least Kyrsten Sinema when she was a member of the Arizona State Legislator
sponsored a bill which would have slapped a 300 percent tax on medical marijuana in an attempt
to flush the will of the people down the toilet who voted for Prop 203 which legalized medical marijuana
in Arizona.
Sinema, Barber flex fundraising muscle
By Ronald J. Hansen and Rebekah L. Sanders The Republic | azcentral.com Wed Apr 17, 2013 3:51 PM
Though she is only a freshman on Capitol Hill, U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema has quickly established herself as one of the more prolific fundraisers in Congress.
Posting an impressive fundraising total in the beginning of an off-election year could help Sinema ward off potential challengers to her toss-up seat — or at least intimidate them. Two fellow Arizona Democrats, Reps. Ron Barber of southern Arizona and Ann Kirkpatrick of northern Arizona, were close behind in total fundraising, reflecting the importance of campaign cash for the three incumbents who took narrow victories last year.
Barber raised $297,000 and Kirkpatrick $314,000.
By contrast, Reps. Trent Franks of Glendale and Paul Gosar of Prescott, two Republicans holding among the safest conservative seats in the country, raised less than $100,000 combined. Both ranked near the bottom of fundraisers among incumbents, Federal Election Commission records show.
“The first quarter fundraising shows that Kirkpatrick, Barber and Sinema are taking their re-elections seriously,” said Nathan Gonzales, deputy editor of the non-partisan Rothenberg Political Report, based in Washington, D.C. “If you raise a lot of money early, it does give challengers pause. But I don’t think at this early stage potential challengers look at a fundraising number and think, ‘It’s too big, and there’s not enough time to get there.’ ”
“By the time we get to next summer and fall,” Gonzales added, when the election cycle will be at its peak, “both sides will be dumping money in.”
Among potential challengers to Sinema, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Wendy Rogers, a Tempe Republican, raised $103,000 in the first quarter. Rogers’ total was among the highest in the country among non-incumbents. Sinema represents parts of Phoenix, Tempe, Mesa, Chandler, Paradise Valley and Scottsdale.
Rogers, who has begun sending e-mails touting her campaign bid, ran in the district last year, as did Vernon Parker and Martin Sepulveda. Parker, who won the Republican primary and lost to Sinema in November, raised $11,000. Sepulveda took in 70 cents.
Republicans in Barber’s district appear to be pinning their hopes on retired Air Force Col. Martha McSally. Barber barely scraped by her in November, but easily raised more cash than McSally in the first quarter. McSally reported $8,400 in contributions, half of which came from a Georgia-based GOP PAC.
Barber’s district includes part of Tucson and all of Cochise County near the U.S.-Mexico border.
In recent months, McSally has appeared on national news shows, sent out e-mails from her campaign account and visited political groups in the district, sending signals that she will run again, but she has declined to make it official.
“If we see a couple more quarters from McSally with that showing, there will be concern on the Republican side,” Gonzales said. But “for someone like McSally who just got off the campaign trail, I think there’s usually a natural pause before getting things ramped up again.”
Rep. Raul Grijalva, a Democrat, raised $75,000; Rep. Ed Pastor, a Democrat, raised $90,000; Rep. Matt Salmon, a Republican, raised $94,000; and Rep. David Schweikert, a Republican, raised $172,000.
Senate filings were not yet available.
That is followed by the fire department which gets 22 percent of the budget.
And all other departments combined share the remaining 37 percent of the budget.
They had a second graph that showed the number of Glendale police employees was 550, the number of fire department employees was 250. All the other city employees on the graph were 500. So the police and fire departments have more employees then all the other departments combined.
Those numbers are typical for other city budgets I have seen and the money spent on the cops is usually twice as much at the fire department, and that the police and fire departments budgets are always more then that of all the other city departments combined.
Which leads me to say that America cities are police states because most of the money is spent on the police.
The sad part is that most of the arrests the police make are for victimless drug war crimes. I have read that at the Federal level two thirds of the people in prisons are there for victimless drug war crimes. I am not sure what percent of people in state prisons are there for victimless drug war crimes, but I suspect it is also a huge number.
RNC: Marriage should be between man, woman
Religious nut jobs have taken over the Republic Party????
In the old days the Republican Party used to be the party for limited government and limited taxes. It sounds like the religious nut jobs have taking over the Republican Party and it is now the party for mixing government and religion.
We need answers in Border Patrol murders???
I agree 100 percent with Linda Valdez on this murder by the Border Patrol.
Scottsdale uses sex laws to create jobs for cops????
Scottsdale shakes down massage parlors???
A miracle in Colorado Springs???
Is Icky the iguana eligible for saint hood???
Once my sister got sick with a cold and I prayed 5 days straight to our pet iguana, Icky, for her to recover.
Cops read everything you post online???
From this article it sounds like they have teams co cops reading everything that is posted on line looking for even trivial criminal violations.
Tempe prosecutor Kathy Matz arrested for domestic violence
More of the old "Do as I say, not as I do" from our government masters.
Tempe prosecutor Kathy Matz arrested for assault
More of the old "Do as I say, not as I do" from our government masters.
Only police officers can be trusted to handle guns properly!!!!
Source
Iowa senator decries acceptance of homosexuality
Source
LA shoots itself in foot with silly porn condom law!!!!
Source
Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema gets $333,000 in campaign contributions
When it comes to accepting bribes, oops, I mean campaign contribution U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema is a professional!!!!
Sinema, a Phoenix Democrat, collected $333,000 between January and March and ranked 55th among all incumbents in the House. Her haul wasn’t far behind the $345,000 raised by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Most Glendale tax dollars go to the POLICE!!!!
This article had a photo and graph which showed that the police in Glendale get 41 percent of the budget.
Glendale city finances could be nearing steep cliff
Source
Glendale city finances could be nearing steep cliff
By Paul Giblin The Republic | azcentral.com Wed Apr 17, 2013 8:59 AM
The mostly new Glendale City Council is contending with a mostly old problem. The city’s financial position has been on a downward slope for years.
In an effort to offset declines in tax revenues, the state’s fifth-largest city has nearly chewed through its financial reserves while it has shed employees and cut services.
Yet, according to the city’s projections, its financial position is about to get far worse.
According to current forecasts, the city will have $3.4 million in reserve in the general fund at the end of fiscal 2014. Without serious restructuring, by 2015 the city would be $3.8 million in the red, and by 2018, the city would have a $20.3 million shortfall.
One option city bookkeepers recommend is to make $3.5 million in cuts for the fiscal year opening in July, followed by $10.8 million in reductions for 2015, and an additional $8.2 million in cuts in 2018.
The seven-member council, with its four new members, is trying to determine how to shape a budget that will keep enough police on patrol and parks in good repair.
But those goals seemed to border on unachievable during an opening series of budget workshops in recent weeks.
If all goes as scheduled, the council will offer a draft of the 2014 budget and a 10-year capital-improvement plan May 28, then authorize a final budget June 11.
Glendale’s financial experts project the city to finish the current fiscal year with an $11.4 million reserve in the general fund.
Ending with any savings, or a reserve, in 2014 requires $3.5 million in reduced spending that would be accomplished by eliminating vacant positions and related costs, Financial Services Executive Director Sherry Schurhammer told the council.
With those cuts and deeper ones recommended by staff, the city could build its reserve to nearly $20 million by fiscal 2018.
Without changes, the city’s financial position is set to become particularly grim in 2018, because that year marks the first year without revenue from a current, but temporary sales tax.
“What I want to make clear here — or hope I’m making clear — is that this ongoing structural operating deficit exists even if that sales tax does not sunset, because you’ve got this negative fund balance,” she said March 27.
The general fund is important because it’s the city’s largest operating fund and it supports the widest range of programs, she said.
The city’s financial position is headed downward because municipal spending patterns were based on prerecession tax collections, and spending was not reduced enough to keep pace as tax collections tapered off during the recession, Schurhammer said.
Most city departments have reduced spending by letting vacant positions remain unfilled in recent years, but those efforts aren’t enough to balance the books, she said.
The heads of most municipal departments told council members that staffing cuts already have cut into their programs.
Acting Police Chief Debby Black and Fire Chief Mark Burdick told council members that they have run out of ways to cover the staffing cuts by adjusting employees’ work schedules and assignments. Both departments need more employees, they said.
Likewise, the number of positions in the Community and Economic Development Department has fallen from 78.5 in 2009 to 39.8 this year, according to city records. Projections call for the department to lose three more positions next year.
Yet the city’s economic development officials are handling more business prospects than they have in years, Executive Director Brian Friedman said.
In addition to anticipated budget expenses across the city, council members are expected to consider an array of new expenses in coming weeks. Among them:
Payments to the potential new owners of the Phoenix Coyotes or a separate management firm to operate Jobing.com Arena. Next year’s budget assumes the city could pay an arena manager $6.5 million.
Funding air-traffic controllers at Glendale Municipal Airport beginning in June when the federal government discontinues the service.
Securing permanent parking and perhaps even building a parking garage around University of Phoenix Stadium.
Possible pay raises or cost-of-living adjustments for city employees, whose pay has been frozen for years.
Texas lawmaker: Colleges shouldn’t discriminate against creationism research
By eric.berger@chron.com (Eric Berger)
A Texas lawmaker wants to make the state’s colleges and universities safe for creationism.
State Rep. Bill Zedler, from Arlington, has filed legislation (HB 285) that would prohibit discrimination by colleges and universities against faculty members and students who want to conduct research relating to intelligent design.
Here’s the principal text from the legislation:
Now I am the last person to advocate for discrimination. With that being said, it is not the law that should rule what is studied at institutions of higher learning, but rather the faculty and students themselves.
And if scientific faculty members decide they don’t want to conduct theology research in their scientific laboratories, then they should have the right to make that determination.
Posted: 4:39 p.m. Wednesday, April 17, 2013
DeKalb cop arrested for alleged assault at McDonald’s
By Alexis Stevens
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A sergeant with the DeKalb County police department was arrested Wednesday morning following an alleged assault against a teenager at a McDonald’s, according to police.
Scott A. Biumi, 48, of Cumming, was charged with aggravated assault for the April 9 incident at the McDonald’s on Old Atlanta Road, the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office said.
Biumi was in the drive-through of the restaurant at 10:30 p.m. when he allegedly became upset with another customer, according to police.
“He exited his car, and following a verbal exchange with the customer, Biumi drew a gun and pointed it at the victim,” Deputy Courtney Spriggs with the Forsyth sheriff’s office said in an emailed statement.
Video footage from McDonald’s and released by the sheriff’s office shows a man, identified as Biumi, lunging into a pickup truck at the drive-through window. The alleged teenage victim, Ryan Mash, told Channel 2 Action News that Biumi got mad because it was taking too long to get his order.
“He grabbed me on my right shoulder and pinned me against my driver’s seat, and the next thing I know, I have a gun in my face,” Mash told Channel 2. “He goes, ‘Do you know who you’re messing with,’ and ‘You shouldn’t be holding up the line’ and all this and that.”
While investigating the incident, deputies determined Biumi was employed as a detective sergeant with DeKalb police, Spriggs said. At the time of the alleged incident, Biumi was driving a department-issued, unmarked Chevrolet and had a department gold star badge on his belt.
Biumi’s bond was set at $22,000 and he was in the process of bonding out of the Forsyth County jail Wednesday afternoon, Spriggs said. Biumi’s court date was set for May 23.
At an afternoon press conference, DeKalb County police Chief Cedric Alexander said he is awaiting the outcome of the Forsyth County investigation, but does not tolerate this type of behavior.
Frustrated by delay, Georgia cop allegedly pulled gun in McDonald’s drive-thru line
By Michael Walsh / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Thursday, April 18, 2013, 3:17 PM
Food, folks and fun? More like gall, grouch and gun.
A young Georgia man was not "lovin' it" when a hold up in the drive-thru lane at McDonald's allegedly led to an armed holdup with an off-duty officer Tuesday night.
Student Ryan Mash, 18, was waiting for his order at the drive-thru window of a Forsyth County McDonald's when he was taken by surprise — and it was not a Happy Meal toy.
It was a gun allegedly brandished by Sgt. Scott Biumi, 48, a member of the DeKalb County Police Department for more than 20 years, authorities suspect.
Biumi apparently grew frustrated that the fast food experience was not faster, so he stepped out of his car and yelled, "Stop holding up the drive-thru line," according to Mash.
Mash claims Biumi thought his sincere apology was sarcastic. Then witnesses reported hearing Biumi scream, "You don't know who you are (messing) with!"
"And that's when he pulled the gun on me," Mash said, "and kept on yelling at me for about 30 more seconds. And then walked off."
A McDonald's security camera recorded the incident.
One of Mash's friends saw that the man had a police badge on his belt. The high school students also wrote down the man's license plate number.
Forsyth County Sheriff Duane Piper linked the license plate number to Biumi and the DeKalb County Police Department. The teenagers identified Biumi from a photo lineup, and he was arrested Wednesday, reported Atlanta station WXIA.
"It's a betrayal of a trust to the public," said Piper. "We're expected to handle ourselves correctly in high-stress situations, and it's very disappointing that an officer would snap like this. It's a break in judgment that can't be excused."
Biumi was booked at the Forsyth County jail and released the same day on a $22,000 bond.
"I'm just not going to stand for any behavior that goes outside that of the scope of the law," said DeKalb County Police Chief Cedric Alexander.
He is on administrative leave with pay from his job as the investigation proceeds. Mash, however, thinks Biumi should be stripped of his gun and badge permanently.
A backdoor way to mix religion and government? Probably!!!
Another backdoor way to mix religion and government? Probably!!!
No institution of higher education may discriminate against or penalize in any manner, especially with regard to employment or academic support, a faculty member or student based on the faculty member’s or student’s conduct of research relating to the theory of intelligent design or other alternate theories of the origination and development of organisms.
The bill will be heard this afternoon in the Higher Education Committee, chaired by Dan Branch.
Cop pulls gun on McDonal's customer for taking too long in line????
Remember only police officers can be trusted with guns - Honest
Other articles on mixing religion and government
Previous
article
on mixing religion and government.
More artilces on mixing religion and govenrment.