NY top court to consider gay marriage benefits

Oct 13, 2009 - ALBANY, N.Y. – New York's top court is set to hear arguments against providing government benefits to same sex couples married in Canada or other jurisdictions where such marriages are legal. The state Department of Civil Service extended health insurance benefits to those spouses of state and local government workers in 2007. - 0 Comments

The Frank Marshall Davis Network in Hawaii

Aug 20, 2009 - By Andrew Walden July 29, 2008 In a July 14 news release the “Honolulu Community Media Council” (HCMC) denounces Accuracy In Media and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review for “shoddy journalism and smear tactics.” HCMC, headed by Chris Conybeare of the University of Hawaii, “finds” that “there is no substance to the claim” that “Frank Marshall Davis was a lifelong Communist and a mentor to (presidential candidate Barack) Obama.” Conybeare may be hoping that nobody else knowing the post-WW II history of Hawaii is willing to talk. Davis, it turns out, was just one member of a network whose works continue to exert influence to this day. Connecting the Dots A faculty member of the UH-West Oahu Center for Labor Education and Research (CLEAR), Conybeare is producer of a many-part PBS series on the history of labor organizing in Hawaii, focusing on the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). - 4 Comments

DEATH for Converting

Aug 12, 2009 - PUBLIC POST http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/orl-bk-ohio-teen-convert-custody-dispute-081009%2C0%2C4993216.story She looked more like a timid child clinging to her protector than an Ohio teen runaway brazen enough to flee her Muslim family out of fear for her life. The girl, who turned 17 on Monday, is at the center of a custody dispute in Orlando, where she sought help from a family she barely knew -- a pastor and his wife willing to take in a teen who feared her own family's retribution because she converted to Christianity. The Orlando Sentinel is not identifying the teen because of her age. - 8 Comments

Pharmacists can't refuse Plan B pill, appeals court says

Jul 10, 2009 - http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-pill-ruling9-2009jul09,0,6469894.story Pharmacists are obliged to dispense the Plan B pill, even if they are personally opposed to the "morning after" contraceptive on religious grounds, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. In a case that could affect policy across the western U.S., a supermarket pharmacy owner in Olympia, Wash., failed in a bid to block 2007 regulations that required all Washington pharmacies to stock and dispense the pills. Family-owned Ralph's Thriftway and two pharmacists employed elsewhere sued Washington state officials over the requirement. - 19 Comments

Town Fights Big Coal Over Community Control

Jun 15, 2009 - TAYLORSTOWN, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - A small Pennsylvania town is trying to ban coal mining in a battle being played out across the state as rural communities try to assert control over mining, gas drilling and other businesses. Blaine Township, a community of 600 about 40 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, hopes to trigger a legal battle that could determine the rights of municipalities throughout the United States to control corporate activity . Some legal experts say the township is highly unlikely to win that fight. - 3 Comments

Atlas Shrugs

Jun 08, 2009 - by Pam Geller Pamela "Atlas" Geller began her publishing career at The New York Daily News and subsequently took over operation of The New York Observer as Associate Publisher. She left The Observer after the birth of her fourth child but remained involved in various projects including American Associates, Ben Gurion University and being Senior Vice-President Strategic Planning and Performance Evaluation at The Brandeis School . You can find more of what she is about at her website called Atlas Shrugs. - 5 Comments

For Gov. Palin, a Rough Return to the Day Job

Apr 16, 2009 - New York Times Statehouse Journal By WILLIAM YARDLEY Published: April 15, 2009 JUNEAU, Alaska — Before Tina Fey and “Drill, baby, drill,” there was mud season here in the Alaskan capital. This soggy, socked-in spring has been no exception, but it sure has been different in other ways. For Gov. - 12 Comments

Christian law group loses fight - can't discriminate

Mar 21, 2009 - Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer SFGate.com SAN FRANCISCO -- UC Hastings College of the Law can deny recognition and funding to a Christian student group because it excludes gays, lesbians and non-Christians, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. The San Francisco law school is entitled to require official student organizations to "accept all comers as members, even if those individuals disagree with the mission of the group," the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled. - 0 Comments

Pat Dollard on Obama and the future of the USA

Feb 19, 2009 - Pat Dollard has a web site and is on talk radio. http://patdollard.com/2008/11/discovered-2006-audio-obama%E2%80%99s... History Unfolding By Pat Dollard (http://www.tcunation.com/) I am a student of history. - 66 Comments

The Importance of India

Jan 15, 2009 - The Importance of India Bush deserves credit for boosting relations with New Delhi. by Duncan Currie 01/15/2009 12:00:00 AM BILL EMMOTT, a former editor of the Economist magazine, has written that George W. Bush's "bold initiative" to strengthen U.S. - 2 Comments