Reply |Ahsh Ahparayam to yahanna
show details May 1 (6 days ago)


Circumcision ban in San Francisco considered



By Gabrielle Saveri
Reuters 
updated 4/27/2011 2:01:08 PM ET 2011-04-27T18:01:08
SAN FRANCISCO — A group opposed to male circumcision said on Tuesday they have collected more than enough signatures to qualify a proposal to ban the practice in San Francisco as a ballot measure for November elections.
But legal experts said that even if it were approved by a majority of the city's voters, such a measure would almost certainly face a legal challenge as an unconstitutional infringement on freedom of religion.
Circumcision is a ritual obligation for infant Jewish boys, and is also a common rite among Muslims, who account for the largest share of circumcised men worldwide.
The leading proponent of a ban, Lloyd Schofield, 59, acknowledged circumcision is widely socially accepted but he said it should still be outlawed.
"It's excruciatingly painful and permanently damaging surgery that's forced on men when they're at their weakest and most vulnerable," he told Reuters.
His group submitted about 12,000 signatures supporting his proposed ban, said Rachel Gosiengfiao, campaign services manager for the city's Department of Elections. The agency has 30 days to verify the petitions. He needs 7,200 valid signatures to qualify.
Measure would make circumcision a misdemeanor
The measure, which would only apply in San Francisco, would make it a misdemeanor crime to circumcise a boy before he is 18 years of age, regardless of the parents' religious beliefs. The maximum penalty would be a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.


Schofield, who would not discuss his current occupation but previously worked for hotels in the San Francisco Bay area, has found allies for his cause in the anti-circumcision groups Intact America and the National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers, according to his group's website.
However, some experts said it was doubtful such a measure would withstand legal scrutiny if challenged.
"The practice of Judaism requires a boy to be circumcised. I suspect the California courts would ultimately require the city to demonstrate the practice is harmful," said Jennifer Rothman, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
"I don't think there's sufficient medical evidence that it is, which would place the law's constitutionality in question."
But Josh Davis, professor and associate dean for faculty scholarship at the University of San Francisco School of Law, said the U.S. Supreme Court has previously indicated in rulings that "religions don't get a free pass."
"So if circumcision is the harm that's being targeted — because circumcision is perceived as causing harm, and not because it is a religious practice — it might well be a constitutionally valid law," he said.
Schofield's proposal would make exceptions for boys who need a circumcision for health reasons.
Nevertheless, Davis and Rothman both said voters would be likely to reject the measure at the polls.
"I think that people are very likely to react to it as interfering with religious practices," Davis said.
Acts 7:8-  And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so [Abraham] begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac [begat] Jacob; and Jacob [begat] the twelve patriarchs.

Gen 17:11-  And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.

Gen 17:12-  And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which [is] not of thy seed.

Gen 17:13-  He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.

Deut 10:16-  Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.

Jer 4:4-  Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench [it], because of the evil of your doings.
________________________________________________________________________

State House sends affirmative action ban to voters
Rep. Sally Kern
>>Show All Photos
Rep. Sally Kern

By RANDY KREHBIEL World Staff Writer
Published: 4/27/2011  10:00 PM
Last Modified: 4/29/2011  9:18 AM

The Oklahoma House of Representatives has approved a proposed constitutional amendment that would eliminate affirmative action in state government.

The proposed amendment passed by a vote of 59-14 Wednesday evening, with 28 members absent or not voting. It had already passed the Senate and will go to a vote of the people next year.

House Joint Resolution was presented by Rep. T.W. Shannon, R-Lawton, in the absence of House author Leslie Osborn, R-Tuttle. Shannon, a man of African and Chickasaw heritage who is angling to become the state’s first black speaker of the House, said he believes that Affirmative Action has failed.

“I believe discrimination exists,” he said. “I don’t think affirmative action has been as successful as we like to believe.”

Watch Sally Kern's comments
(Starts at 1:16:08 -- Video from state House of Representatives website. It is slow to load and requires Microsoft Silverlight to be installed)


Rep. Sally Kern, R-Oklahoma City, said minorities earn less than white people because they don’t work as hard and have less initiative.


“We have a high percentage of blacks in prison, and that’s tragic, but are they in prison just because they are black or because they don’t want to study as hard in school? I’ve taught school, and I saw a lot of people of color who didn’t study hard because they said the government would take care of them.”


Kern said women earn less than men because “they tend to spend more time at home with their families.”

Rep. Mike Shelton, D-Oklahoma City, said: “This body will quote the Bill of Rights and then talk about Muslims every day. They’ll talk about illegal immigrants every day. They’ll talk about homosexuals.

“Oklahoma is a great state — as long as you fit the profile.”


Deut 28:50-  A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young:

Isa 42:22-  But this [is] a people robbed and spoiled; [they are] all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore.

Isa 30:1-  Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:

Isa 30:5-  They were all ashamed of a people [that] could not profit them, nor be an help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.

Isa 30:7-  For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength [is] to sit still.

Jer 2:14-  [Is] Israel a servant? [is] he a homeborn [slave]? why is he spoiled?

(The below link is to watch the video)
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20110427_11_0_TheOkl298226&rss_lnk=11
                              
                                  or on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=so88DwF4X0c
___________________________________________________


6 dead in early Easter fire in Vancouver, Wash.


A Washington state house fire that initial reports said claimed two lives became an even larger tragedy as investigators picking through the rubble found four more bodies.


Residents of the Vancouver neighborhood said they were awoken by an explosion early Sunday as the fire tore through the single story home.
The flames were brought under control around 2 a.m. and reports said two died. The deaths for the other four were reported at nightfall, bringing the toll to six.
Investigators haven't determined the cause of the deaths or the identities of the victims, Vancouver police department spokewoman Kim Kapp said.
She told The Associated Press that investigators are still trying to find out how the blaze erupted. While it hasn't been labeled it as suspicious, they haven't yet ruled out arson.
"The arson team hasn't made a determination," she said. "On an investigation like this, with multiple deaths, we utilize many investigative angles."
Kapp said that the police department's major crimes as well as the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were also investigating.
The Clark County medical examiner's office is expected to perform autopsies Monday.
Neighbors in the Countyside Woods neighborhood told The Columbian of Vancouver that they were wakened by an explosion.
"I ran out barefoot," said Kathy Larsen, who lives next door. "The flames were just intense and people were yelling that it could blow again. We were all yelling and trying to get the occupants awake."
Neighbor Jon Himes, who lives two houses away, told The Columbian his surveillance camera recorded a man going into the residence at 12:38 a.m.
"The blast happened exactly one hour later," he said.
A man, his wife and three children had vacated the house about six weeks earlier, Larsen said. The man had come back several times, she said.
Vancouver Fire Capt. Chris Moen said 20 firefighters with 11 rigs fought the fire.
The blaze was under control at 2:06 a.m. Moen said the house has extensive damage. The fire apparently broke out in the back bedroom on the east side.
"This (fire) has left a mark on everybody who is working on it," he told The Columbian.
(RELATED)
Convicted sex offender arrested at Mont. egg hunt
Authorities in Montana say a convicted sex offender was arrested at a Missoula-area Easter egg hunt after one of his victims recognized him there.


Deputy Ken White tells the Missoulian that 67-year-old William Harvey Suthers was arrested Saturday afternoon in East Missoula and was being held in the county jail on a probation violation.
Suthers was convicted of two counts of sexual assault after a girl told police Suthers assaulted her while he was babysitting her and her brother in 1992. She was 10 at the time.
He was given a suspended sentence in 1998 and was forbidden from having contact with anyone under the age of 18 except his sons.

Amos 5:21-  I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.


Jer 7:18-  The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead [their] dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.

Ezek 22:7-  In thee have they set light by father and mother: in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the stranger: in thee have they vexed the fatherless and the widow.
____________________________________________________


Toyota car production plummets after tsunami

Toyota's car production in Japan plummeted a staggering 62.7 percent in March due to a parts supply crunch following the earthquake and tsunami.

   Share     Print
Send to a friend
RSS
Menéame
del.icio.us
Google
Toyota's car production in Japan plummeted a staggering 62.7 percent in March due to a parts supply crunch following the earthquake and tsunami.


Toyota Motor Corp., the world's top-selling automaker last year, said Monday its domestic production in March was 129,491 vehicles _ the lowest since 1976 when Toyota began maintaining production figures.
The magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11 destroyed many factories in northeastern Japan, causing severe parts shortages for Toyota and other automakers.
Given Toyota's production woes after the tsunami, General Motors Co. is likely to reclaim the title of world's largest automaker that it lost in 2008.
Toyota sold 8.42 million vehicles last year, just keeping its lead over a resurgent General Motors Co., which sold 8.39 million, thanks to booming sales in China.
Toyota said in December that its global production would total 7.7 million vehicles in 2011. But Tokai-Tokyo Securities analyst Mamoru Kato said that number would fall to around 6 million due to disrupted production.
Toyota's global production in March dropped 29.9 percent year-on-year to 542,465 vehicles, while its sales in Japan tumbled 45 percent for the month.
Honda Motor Co. said its domestic production in March plunged 62.9 percent to 34,754 vehicles, with worldwide production falling 19.2 percent to 282,254 vehicles. Nissan Motor Co. said its production in Japan dropped 52.4 percent to 47,590 vehicles.
The parts supply crunch forced Toyota to suspend manufacturing in Japan for several weeks, resulting in a production loss of 260,000 cars. Toyota said Monday it is still struggling to secure around 150 types of auto parts.
"The impact of the tsunami disaster on Toyota is extremely severe," said Kato. "Since Toyota depends so much on domestic parts suppliers, any major disruptions in supply chains could cripple its output."
Kato said Toyota could suffer a net loss of 1 trillion yen ($12.2 billion) in the April-June quarter and a net loss of 500 billion yen in the July-September quarter.
Another auto analyst, Masataka Kunugimoto from Nomura Securities, has said Toyota would likely post an operating loss of 328 billion yen in the April-June quarter and an operating loss of 78 billion yen in the July-September quarter.
Toyota is currently running all its Japanese auto plants at half capacity, and the car maker said last week its car production will not return to normal until November or December.
Honda said Monday its auto factories in Japan will operate at half capacity until the end of June, and the company doesn't expect to return to full production in Japan until the end of the year.
__________________________________________________
Wash. MLK parade bomb suspect pleads not guilty
The man charged with planting a bomb along the route of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade in Spokane pleaded not guilty on Monday to the four charges against him, including new hate crimes charges.

Kevin Harpham, 36, entered the pleas before U.S. Magistrate Cynthia Imbrogno. Harpham, who has extensive ties to white supremacist groups, remains without bail in the Spokane County Jail.
Public defender Roger Peven said afterward that the additional charges of a committing a hate crime and using a firearm during a violent hate crime _ which carries a minimum sentence of 30 years _ raise the stakes for his client.
"This is very serious," Peven said. But two of the charges also carry maximum sentences of life, and "that's kind of high, too," Peven said.
Harpham replied only to the magistrate's questions during the brief court appearance. Trial is set for May 31 in federal court. The bomb was found the morning of Jan. 17 and was disabled before it could explode.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Rice could not say if any more indictments are anticipated in the case.
Harpham last month pleaded not guilty to attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and unauthorized possession of an unregistered explosive device. A grand jury this month added the two additional charges. The superseding indictment contended Harpham planted the device in advance of the Spokane parade "because of actual or perceived race, color and national origin" of participants.
Legally, the bomb is considered a firearm, Peven said.
The Hate Crimes Prevention Act was passed by Congress in 2009, and this is its first use in the Eastern District of Washington, Peven said. This will be his first defense of a client charged with a hate crime, he said.
Despite the charges, little about the motivations in the case are known because federal prosecutors have been granted their request to seal court documents about the investigation that led authorities to arrest Harpham on March 9.
Prosecutors contend releasing details would hamper an on-going investigation, and could taint the jury pool.
The Associated Press, Cowles Publishing Co., and The Seattle Times have argued that the documents should be released because Harpham is in jail. However, U.S. District Court Judge Justin Quackenbush ruled last week that Harpham's right to a fair trial outweighs the media's right to the documents. He also ruled that the press does not traditionally have the right to see search warrant and grand jury materials.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, has said that Harpham made more than 1,000 postings on an Internet site used by racists called the Vanguard News Network. The SPLC has also said that Harpham belonged to a neo-Nazi group called the National Alliance.
His father, Cecil Harpham, has said his son talked to racists on the Internet regularly, but never acted on racial hate.
Kevin Harpham lived on 10 acres near Addy in rural Stevens County, 50 miles north of Spokane.
Zech 11:5-  Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty: and they that sell them say, Blessed [be] the LORD; for I am rich: and their own shepherds pity them not.

____________________________________________________
Paper: Leaked documents describe al-Qaida plots
Classified military files obtained by the WikiLeaks website reveal a range of potential al-Qaida plots against the United States, including post-9/11 aircraft attacks on the West Coast, The New York Times reported Monday.


The schemes _ none of which were executed _ are described in U.S. military assessments of terrorism suspects being held at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Those detainees include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.
One of the dossiers described by the Times concerns Saifullah Paracha, a New York travel agent for years who allegedly worked with Mohammed on plots to follow up on the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. One plan suggested by Paracha involved smuggling plastic explosives in shipments of clothing bound for the U.S., the Times reported.
The U.S. assessment of Mohammed, posted on the WikiLeaks site, describes an early 2002 meeting with former Chicago gang member Jose Padilla. The file says Mohammed directed Padilla to rent an apartment in Chicago and "initiate a natural gas explosion to cause the building to collapse." Mohammed also told Padilla to "study the feasibility" of setting fire to a hotel or gas station, the assessment says.
Padilla was accused in 2002 of plotting to blow up a radioactive "dirty bomb." though those claims were eventually dropped. He was later convicted along with two others in an unrelated terrorism plot.
The Mohammed file also includes discussions of plots to hijack cargo planes, hack into bank computers and cut the cables holding up the Brooklyn Bridge.
The Times said the assessments were obtained last year by WikiLeaks but provided to the newspaper by another source.
The Defense Department on Monday condemned the release of information from the classified documents, which it said were written between 2002 and early 2009 and "based on a range of information available then." The leaked files "may or may not represent the current view of a given detainee," the Pentagon said.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney echoed that statement, telling reporters Monday that "a detainee assessment brief in 2006 may or may not be reflective of the administration or the government's view of that particular detainee in 2011."
247 people on terror watch list buy guns in 2010
More than 200 people suspected of ties to terrorism bought guns in the U.S. last year legally, FBI figures show.

   
The 247 people who were allowed to buy weapons did so after going through required background checks as required by federal law.
It is not illegal for people listed on the government's terror watch list to buy weapons. For years, that has bothered Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., who is trying again to change the law to keep weapons out of the hands of terrorists.
The secret, fluid nature of the terror watch list has made closing what Lautenberg calls a "terror gap" in the nation's gun laws a challenge. About the same number of people suspected of ties to terrorism also successfully purchased guns in the U.S. in 2009. The FBI provided the new numbers to the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, and the figures were obtained by The Associated Press.
The government can only prevent people from buying guns for any of 11 reasons. Convicted felons and illegal immigrants, for example, cannot buy weapons. But the terrorist watch list is different. People become convicted felons only after a court process and an opportunity to defend themselves. The watch list is secret and generated at the government's discretion. It is not a list of people convicted of terrorism crimes.
The list of about 450,000 people includes suspected members of al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations, terror financiers, terror recruiters and people who attended training camps. People's names are added to and removed from the watch list every day, and most people never know whether they're on it.
Lautenberg and two dozen other members of Congress want the attorney general to have the authority to prevent someone on the terror watch list from buying a gun if the attorney general believes that person will use it in a terrorist act. The Justice Department under both the Bush and Obama administrations has supported this effort.
"This is a homeland security issue, not a gun issue, and there's no reason we shouldn't be able to stop a terrorist from buying a dangerous weapon in the United States," Lautenberg told the AP.
Between February 2004 and December 2010, 1,453 people on the terror watch list have attempted to buy firearms or explosives. Of those, 90 percent of the people were allowed to go through with their purchases. There is no public information about anyone on the watch list who was allowed to buy a firearm using it in a crime.
The National Rifle Association, which wields significant political influence in Washington, is opposed to a law that would give the attorney general the authority to deny someone on the watch list the ability to buy a firearm. NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said the watch list lacks integrity and includes law-abiding citizens who are mistaken as having ties to terrorists.
"We think it's wrong to arbitrarily deny a law-abiding person a constitutional right," he said. Further, he said, the NRA does not think a political appointee, such as the attorney general, should have the discretionary authority to decide that someone on the watch list is so dangerous that he should not be allowed to buy a gun. Arulanandam said if a terrorist is legitimately on the watch list, that person should be arrested, prosecuted and punished.
President Barack Obama has steered clear of politically sensitive gun-control issues. But the Justice Department would support a bill that would help prevent terrorists from getting firearms.
"The department is committed to doing everything within its power to keep firearms out of the hands of persons who may intend to use those weapons to commit terrorist acts," Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said. "To the extent Congress wishes to provide the department with additional tools that would improve the status quo, we remain committed to working with them to achieve that goal."
Every time someone tries to buy a gun in the U.S., the background checks include the terror watch list. When there is a match, the information is shared with the FBI case agent who is leading the terrorism investigation, according to a counterterrorism official who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the process.
To deny all people on the watch list from purchasing a weapon would mean the government would have to tell someone he or she is on the list. A person who knows he is on a watch list could change his behavior or even his identity to avoid detection, the official said.
Nah 3:13-  Behold, thy people in the midst of thee [are] women: the gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies: the fire shall devour thy bars.

Job 18:11-  Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet.
__________________________________________________


Blacks more willing to spend all for cancer care


Blacks and other minorities with cancer are more likely than whites to say they would spend everything they have on aggressive treatments that might prolong their lives, a study found.


Researchers don't know why this is so and didn't ask, but some think it may reflect differences in beliefs about miracles, distrust of doctors among minorities, and a misunderstanding of just how ugly and painful end-of-life care can be.
About 80 percent of blacks said they were willing to use up all their money to extend their lives, compared with 72 percent of Asians, 69 percent of Hispanics and 54 percent of whites.
"It is interesting just how far minority patients, particularly black patients, are willing to go to extend their life," said Ellen McCarthy, a Harvard University researcher who has studied racial disparities in cancer care but was not involved in the new study.
The findings, published online Tuesday by the journal Cancer, were based on telephone surveys of more than 4,100 people newly diagnosed with lung and colon cancer. About 17 percent of the colon cancer patients and 31 percent of the lung cancer patients were in the most advanced stages of their disease.
Those two cancers were chosen because they are common and deadly when diagnosed in late stages. Patients with breast or prostate cancer _ the most common types in women and men, respectively _ were not included, and it's unknown if their attitudes would differ.
The cost of cancer care has soared in recent years, with many treatments priced at $100,000 or more sometimes adding only a few months of life.
Final days under aggressive treatment can be grim. Patients might have tubes in the nose and down the throat and be unable to eat or talk. They may be in pain or barely coherent.
"Some think being alive under any circumstances is an absolute good, which suggests an underappreciation of the burdens and overappreciation of the benefits of life-prolonging care," said Holly Prigerson, another Harvard researcher who heads a Dana-Farber Cancer Institute center that studies social and psychological influences on cancer care.
The study asked: Would you want treatment that extended your life as long as possible, even if it caused you to go broke? Or would you opt for less expensive treatment that did not keep you alive as long?
Researchers gave no examples of what aggressive care could involve _ surgery or chemotherapy, for instance _ and did not specify how much longer the patient might live.
The results revealed racial differences even when other factors were taken into account.
For example, people with spouses and children to support were generally less willing than single people to exhaust their financial resources for their own care. But among these family people, blacks were the most willing to go for broke.
The same racial pattern held regardless of how sick patients were, their income and savings, age, time since diagnosis and how long they thought they had left to live.
"It was surprising," said lead author Michelle Martin of the University of Alabama-Birmingham.
The study found blacks more often had a "try it" attitude. That seems to contradict previous studies that have indicated blacks have a greater distrust of the medical system.
But distrust could still be a factor. Perhaps a higher proportion of minorities worry that doctors might withhold care from them, and so they might be seeking the most aggressive options available, McCarthy said.
Minorities tend to be diagnosed at later stages of cancer than whites. At least one study of patients with advanced cancer found that blacks who wanted intensive end-of-life of care were less likely to receive it than whites with the same preference.
Faith may be another factor. The study did not assess how religious the participants were, but other studies have found that very devout people tend to want and get life-prolonging treatment, Prigerson said.
"Many religious patients assert, `There's a higher authority than my doctors. God, not my doctors, decides whether it's my time or not.' Such patients believe it is a demonstration of their faith to hold onto life as long as possible to await the granting of a miraculous cure," she said.
Deut 28:60-  Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee.
Deut 28:61-  Also every sickness, and every plague, which [is] not written in the book of this law, them will the LORD bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed.

Psa 38:4-  For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.

____________________________________________________
Judge's gay partner raised in Proposition 8 case
Proponents of California's same-sex marriage ban filed a motion Monday seeking to vacate the historic ruling that overturned Proposition 8 because the federal judge who wrote it is in a long-term relationship with another man.


Lawyers for the ban's backers said that Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker should have removed himself from the case, or at least disclosed his relationship status, to avoid a real or perceived conflict of interest.
"Only if Chief Judge Walker had unequivocally disavowed any interest in marrying his partner could the parties and the public be confident that he did not have a direct personal interest in the outcome of the case," attorneys for the coalition of religious and conservative groups that put Proposition 8 on the November 2008 ballot wrote.
They are now asking the judge who inherited the case when Walker retired at the end of February to toss out Walker's August 2010 decision. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals already is reviewing its legal merits at the request of the voter-approved measure's sponsors.
Walker has said that he did not consider his sexual orientation to be any more a reason for recusal than another judge's race or gender normally would be. A spokeswoman said Monday that the judge wouldn't comment on the motion.
American Foundation for Equal Rights President Chad Griffin, whose group has funded the legal effort to strike down Proposition 8, scoffed at the notion that the judge's personal life could imperil his ruling.
Griffin noted that the Obama administration recently had decided to stop defending the federal law that bans recognition of same-sex marriage after determining that it, too, was unconstitutional.
"This motion is another in a string of desperate and absurd motions by the proponents of Proposition 8, who refuse to accept that the freedom to marry is a Constitutional right," he said.
Walker, a 67-year-old Republican appointee, declared Proposition 8 to be an unconstitutional violation of gay Californian's civil rights last summer.
Rumors that the judge was gay circulated during the 13-day trial that preceded his decision and after he handed down his ruling.
Lawyers for Protect Marriage, the coalition that sponsored Proposition 8, however, had purposely refrained from raising his sexual orientation as a legal issue until Monday.
But they decided it gave them grounds for getting Walker's decision struck down after the judge disclosed his 10-year relationship this month to a group of courthouse reporters, Protect Marriage general counsel Andy Pugno.
The issue is not that Walker is gay, but that his relationship status made him too similar to the same-sex couples who sued for the right to marry, Pugno said.
"We deeply regret the necessity of this motion. But if the courts are to require others to follow the law, the courts themselves must do so as well," Pugno added.
Indiana University Law School professor Charles Geyh, an expert on judicial ethics, said he was strongly inclined to agree with Walker that a judge's sexual orientation is irrelevant to his ability to render a fair decision.
Without more evidence that Walker stood to personally benefit if same-sex marriages were legal in California, the Proposition 8 defense team's raising of his relationship is likely to fail or could even backfire, Geyh said.
"It really implies it would be fine if he were essentially surfing at bars and had a new partner every night because he wouldn't want to be married," he said. "I don't see that as advancing their cause."
Proposition 8's sponsors also have been trying to get the federal appeals court to order Walker to return his personal video copy of the trial. The judge has been using a three-minute segment of a defense witness being cross-examined for a lecture he's been giving on cameras in the courtroom.
____________________________________________________
Fire deaths prompt NYC to eye illegal subdivision
City fire and buildings officials will search for new ways to target landlords who unlawfully subdivide their properties, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday in the wake of a fire that killed a family living in illegal housing.


Bloomberg said city inspectors are unable to gain entry to roughly half the properties that are the subjects of complaints, as was the Bronx home where 12-year-old Christian Garcia and his parents, 36-year-old Juan Lopez and 43-year-old Christina Garcia, died early Monday _ all of them cut off from fire escapes because of the illegal changes to the three-story building.
"The real disgrace here is building owners who put profits ahead of people's lives by illegally converting apartments to make more money and allowing extremely dangerous conditions to persist," Bloomberg said at a press conference.
Such makeshift warrens are all over the nation's biggest city _ where most people live in apartments, rents are high, residents are looking for a way to save and landlords are looking for a way to make more money. The Department of Buildings gets about 20,000 calls of illegally converted apartments annually. Inspectors respond at least twice to every complaint and try to gain access to the building, but they are often turned away by tenants, or no one answers the door. If that happens, they must find evidence that the law is being broken and apply for a warrant to get inside.
At the Bronx building, inspectors had looked for evidence but couldn't find any, and no warrant was filed there, the agency said.
The mayor said that constitutional protections against illegal search and seizure often present an insurmountable obstacle to city officials seeking to assure the safety of properties, especially because savvy landlords don't put in extra mailboxes or doorbells where they're visible to the public. Two-thirds of city requests for access warrants are denied by the courts, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said.
Apartment owners often plead ignorant, saying they have little control over tenants because they rarely see what goes on within the units. But renters say owners are just as guilty.
The burned Bronx building has been in foreclosure, and ownership has passed through various banking institutions _ making it more difficult for authorities to determine who was responsible for it.
The city is still investigating the cause of the fire, which broke out at about 3:30 a.m. in the Tremont section of the Bronx. The three victims lived on the top floor of the property, which had been ordered vacated by authorities in 2009. Inspectors' attempts to follow up on the order to see if people were still living there were fruitless: They weren't allowed back into the building, Bloomberg said.
Most recently, a caller complained on April 14 that the blighted building was illegally converted into single rooms and people were living there. Department of Buildings inspectors hadn't responded to the call. Local residents told reporters the victims were a family of immigrants from Mexico. It's unclear how many people were staying in the building.
The last owner on record for the three-story home, Domingo Cedano, did not answer calls to his business Tuesday. Calls to the foreclosure company also weren't returned.
The address has seen a number of complaints in recent years. One in October 2009 said there was no secondary way out from illegal rooms and there was improper electrical wiring throughout the building. That complaint resulted in the fire department ordering third-floor residents to move out. The other complaints logged were about illegal wiring, illegal single-occupancy rooms and the removal of a boiler.
Inspectors visited 10 times since the first complaint was filed in December 2008, and fire officials visited as well. But they were only able to enter the property once, the city said.
Over the last 28 months, the Department of Buildings has obtained twice as many warrants to enter apartments as it did in the six years before that, the mayor said. Last year, the city issued about 1,300 orders to vacate apartments that had been illegally subdivided.
Buildings officials also went undercover between May 2010 and September 2010, posing on the Craigslist classified-ads website as tenants to gain access to 62 apartments around the city, writing violations for 54 of them. Since 2009, the department also has distributed more than 120,000 fliers on the issue, warning New Yorkers in many different languages on the dangers of illegal conversions.
In January 2005, two firefighters were killed after leaping out a window and another four were hurt when responding to a blaze in a building that had been illegally partitioned. Firefighters have access to building floor plans, but they weren't expecting a deadly maze of walls. Two tenants and the building owner went on trial in the deaths because of the creation of the illegal warrens, but a jury acquitted the tenants, and a judge later overturned the building manager's conviction on charges of criminally negligent homicide in the deaths.
(ALSO)

Home prices falling in most major US cities
Home prices are falling in most major U.S. cities, and at least 10 major markets are at their lowest point since the housing bubble burst.


The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city index showed home prices declined in 19 metro areas from January to February and 11 markets experienced faster price declines compared with the previous month.
The index, which was released Tuesday, fell for the seventh straight month. It is slightly above the level hit in April 2009, the lowest point since the bubble burst. Analysts expect the March index will fall past the low point.
High unemployment, stricter lending rules and fears that prices will fall further are among the reasons why few people are buying and selling homes. A record number of foreclosures are forcing down home prices in most metro areas, and prices are expected to keep falling through this year.
"There is evidence that potential sellers are holding their properties off the market, waiting for housing prices to stop falling," said Bricklin Dwyer, an analyst at BNP Paribas.
Detroit was the only market to show a monthly gain, although the Motor City is one of five cities where home prices are now below their January 2000 levels.
Prices in Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Las Vegas, Miami, New York, Phoenix, Portland, Ore., Seattle and Tampa are all at their lowest point since 2006 or 2007, at the height of the housing boom. The cities with the steepest declines from January were Minneapolis, San Francisco, Chicago and Miami.
In many depressed markets, a significant percentage of buyers are investors and private equity firms looking to cash in on cheap real estate.
The housing sector is struggling even while much of the economy is recovering slowly but steadily. Some of the worst declines in home prices are in cities hit hardest by unemployment and foreclosures.
Foreclosures are expected to rise to 1.2 million this year as many banks revisit thousands of foreclosure cases, spurred into action by federal regulators who have ordered top-to-bottom reviews of how foreclosures were carried out over the past two years.
"It's hard to sell when buyers have the leverage and foreclosures continue to create a gap between distressed sale prices and non-distressed sale prices," said Jonathan Basile, an economist at Credit Suisse Securities. More than 90 percent of homeowners say it's a bad time to sell their home, according to the Reuters/University of Michigan Survey of Consumers.
The Case-Shiller index measures sales of select homes in those cities compared to January 2000. For each of the 20 metro areas it studies, the index provides an updated three-month moving average price. By measuring the sales price of the same homes over time, the index attempts to gauge true market values.
Ecclesiasticus 13:19
As the wild ass is the lion's prey in the wilderness so the rich eat up the poor
Ecclesiasticus  13:20
As the proud hate humility so doth the rich abhor the poor
________________________________________
Sharpton, national union leaders rally in NJ
The Rev. Al Sharpton has accused New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie of balancing the state budget on the backs of the working class.


Sharpton spoke Tuesday during a rally with national union leaders at a Vineland residential center for severely disabled women that faces closure. He was joined by Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers and Lee Saunders of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Sharpton urged the Vineland Developmental Center workers to demand justice for themselves and the center's 350 residents.
Christie's proposed budget calls for saving $1.6 million a year by shutting the center.
The governor's office didn't return a message for comment.

Ecclesiasticus  23:17
All bread is sweet to a whoremonger he will not leave off till he die

Jer 3:3-  Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore's forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.

___________________________________________________


Girl's mom sues over NYC anti-abortion billboard



A New Jersey mother is suing an anti-abortion organization that used her 6-year-old daughter's image on a massive billboard in New York City that some people denounced as racist and offensive.


Tricia Fraser filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Texas-based Life Always over the billboard that went up briefly in Manhattan earlier this year.
Life Always did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The billboard pictured Fraser's daughter, who is black, along with the words, "The most dangerous place for an African-American is in the womb."
The lawsuit claims the use of her daughter's image was "defamatory, unauthorized and offensive." It called the billboard "racist."
Though the photograph was obtained legally, the lawsuit claims its license prohibited the use of the image in "defamatory" ways.
____________________________________________________
MasterCard CEO got $11.9M in 2010 compensation
The CEO of MasterCard Inc. received 2010 compensation valued at nearly $11.9 million after taking over the credit card company's top job midway through the year, according to an AP analysis of documents filed with regulators on Friday.


Ajay Banga's compensation last year rose 4 percent from the $11.3 million he received in 2009 as president and chief operating officer. He took over as CEO on July 1 from Robert Selander, who retired. Before joining MasterCard in August 2009, Banga left Citigroup as part of a leadership shake-up.
Banga's base salary was $850,000, according to documents that the Purchase, N.Y.-based company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The 51-year-old also got a bonus of $2.1 million. He received stock awards that were valued at $4.6 million at the time they were granted, and options valued at $2.2 million. He also got a performance-based cash bonus of $1.9 million. His other compensation totaled $149,286, including perks such as personal use of a corporate leased aircraft.
When Banga joined MasterCard, he was brought in for the top job. His contract with the company allowed him to leave the company with a $4.2 million signing bonus if it failed to offer him promotion to CEO before June 30, 2010. He was awarded a $2.1 million signing bonus in September 2009, before receiving the 2010 bonus, which totaled $2,123,906, and included a pro-rated profit-sharing payment.
After stepping down as CEO, Selander served as executive vice chairman and a board member until his retirement on Dec. 31. He had been the company's CEO since 1997.
In February, MasterCard reported its net income in 2010 totaled $1.85 billion, or $14.05 per share, compared with $1.46 billion, or $11.16 per share for
The Associated Press formula calculates an executive's total compensation during the last fiscal year by adding salary, bonuses, perks, above-market interest the company pays on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock and stock options awarded during the year. The AP formula does not count changes in the present value of pension benefits. That makes the AP total slightly different in most cases from the total reported by companies to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The value that a company assigned to an executive's stock and option awards for 2010 was the present value of what the company expected the awards to be worth to the executive over time. Companies use one of several formulas to calculate that value. However, the number is just an estimate, and what an executive ultimately receives will depend on the performance of the company's stock in the years after the awards are granted. Most stock compensation programs require an executive to wait a specified amount of time to receive shares or exercise option

Isa 56:11-  Yea, [they are] greedy dogs [which] can never have enough, and they [are] shepherds [that] cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.
___________________________________________________


Israel mourns 6 million Jewish Holocaust victims


Israel's prime minister warned Sunday that the nation must not dismiss Iran's threats to its existence, drawing a parallel at a ceremony in memory of the 6 million Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust of World War II, a mass murder that still reverberates in the Jewish state more than six decades later.


Iran and its allies, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, openly call for the destruction of Israel, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and "Iran is even arming itself with nuclear weapons to accomplish that goal."
He said the most important lesson of the Holocaust for the Jewish people is, "if someone threatens to destroy us, we must not ignore their threats."
Netanyahu addressed a crowd of hundreds of Holocaust survivors, diplomats and Israeli leaders at Yad Vashem, Israel's official Holocaust memorial center.
"The threat against our existence and our future is not theoretical," he said. "It must be stopped." Iran denies it is making nuclear weapons.
For years Israel has called for world action to stop the Iranian nuclear program, backing diplomatic efforts and sanctions but never taking the option of a military strike off the table.
At the memorial ceremony, six Holocaust survivors lit symbolic torches to mark the beginning of the annual observance.
At midmorning Monday, air raid sirens were to sound around the country to mark two minutes of silence in honor of the victims, followed by ceremonies called "Each Person Has a Name," in which people read out the names of victims at Israel's parliament and other public locations.
Organizers explain that listing names gives the huge number of 6 million a personal element, as well as countering those who claim the Holocaust did not happen.
Israel has also been marking 50 years since the trial of Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi master planner who was abducted from Argentina and brought to Israel to face charges.
The 1961 trial marked a turning point in Israel's attitude toward survivors, at first denigrated for being helpless victims. The stories that emerged from the trial, revealing the inhuman conditions Jews faced at the hands of the Nazis and relating their mostly ineffective attempts to rebel, won new sympathy for the survivors.
Just hours before the commemoration began, Moshe Landau, the chief judge at the Eichmann trial, died. He was 99.
The Holocaust ended with the defeat of Nazi Germany by the Allies in 1945, but the Nazi goal of killing all Jews and their ability to wipe out a third of the Jewish people in death camps still provide a prominent motif for Israeli politics and society.
About 200,000 aged survivors of the Nazi genocide live in Israel, some of them alone and destitute. On Sunday, Israel's Cabinet took a small step toward giving additional aid to the survivors, recognizing their umbrella group as their official representative.
Because entire European families and communities were eliminated by the Nazi death machine, millions of dollars in bank accounts and other valuables remain unclaimed.
Project HEART, The Holocaust Era Asset Restitution Taskforce, has amassed a database listing over 650,000 pieces of property owned by Jews in prewar Europe.
Bobby Brown, the executive director of Project HEART, said the campaign hopes to deliver restitution to aging survivors before it is too late.
"Now is the time for us to do our utmost to give these heroes some of the compensation that has been denied them for so long," he said.
The campaign is a joint initiative of the Israeli government and the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency.
Rev 2:9-  I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and [I know] the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but [are] the synagogue of Satan.

Rev 3:9-  Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee