A federal lawsuit filed Monday claims Roman Catholic bishops are wrongly imposing their religious beliefs on victims of human trafficking by prohibiting grant money to be used for emergency contraception, condoms and abortion care.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the complaint in federal court in Boston against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The suit claims the agency, which distributes money to help trafficking victims, has allowed the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to limit the services its subcontractors provide. The ACLU claims the bishops' conference is misusing taxpayer money and attempting to impose its religious beliefs on trafficking victims.

 

(What a shock the Catholic church doesn't want people to use condoms or have abortions. This is a reason faith based groups need to be careful anytime they take money from Uncle Sam. My question is what is the ACLU doing to help the victims of human trafficking . The ACLU has never backed  a faith based group including those who are trying to help those who have needs. Read more of this story ACLU says Catholic bishops are misusing grant money. - )

 

When his wife needed a kidney transplant, Dr. Richard Batista gave her one of his, attorney Dominic Barbara said.

Now that Dawnell Batista has filed for a divorce, Richard Batista wants his kidney back as part of his settlement demand. Or, Barbara said Wednesday, his client wants the value of that kidney: An estimated $1.5 million.
Barbara said his client, a 49-year-old doctor from Ronkonkoma who graduated from Cornell University Medical School in 1995, married Dawnell Batista on Aug. 31, 1990. The couple had three children, now ages 14, 11 and 8.

 

(This is sad and shows there is hate in this world and I am sure both parties should share the blame. My heart breaks for their children. This is a reason we need to pray for marriages in our nation and how people need to keep the home fires alive in their own homes. Read more on this issue Divorcing husband wants kidney back.)

The California Supreme Court (yes, the same court  that  dismissed the will of the people in Proposition 8 and forced same sex marriages on the state's citizens) ruled unanimously yesterday that, although each church held a deed to their land in their own names, three parishes that left the Episcopal Church over its policy of ordaining homosexual ministers must forfeit their property to the Episcopal Church.
OK it might have cost these churches their land still they did right. This reminds me of  Gal.1:10; which reads Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. I would rather lose everything and have God pleased with me than please men. Good for these churches.  Still it would have been better if  this court had stayed out of this issue.

  A parent is suing the Huntington County Community School in Indiana . in federal court, saying religious education classes held on school property violate the establishment clause of the Constitution.

Here is part of a letter which was in my local newspaper.

 

  I feel sorry for Donald (Dec. 24 Pulse) and his belief that Christmas is a false spiritual holi­day. He feels that the human race can­not advance unless we cease this un­necessary tradition.   I hope Christmas will always be here for my son and me to enjoy. I couldn’t imagine facing the cold of winter without the thought of my son waiting with eager anticipation for the magic of finding his presents un­der the Christmas tree.

 For more information and my views to do with the above two items watch a video I just posted last night,  Christmas All Year Aroud and Lawsuit against Government schools .

  A parent is suing the Huntington County Community School Corp. in federal court, saying religious education classes held on school property violate the establishment clause of the Constitution.    ( read more at    WHAS11.com  )

A complaint filed by attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union in Indiana on behalf of an unnamed woman and her 8-year-old son asks a federal judge to shut down the program and bar the school district from providing it with utilities or any other support.

The boy, identified only as "J.S.," attends Horace Mann Elementary School, which offers third- and fourth-grade students a "release time" program for "By the Book Weekday Religious Instruction" through the Associated Churches of Huntington, the complaint filed Wednesday states.

 

Huntington's program is voluntary. Classes meet once a week in mobile trailers near school buildings, and children who don't participate remain in their classrooms with school staff, according to a brochure for the program filed with the lawsuit.

On Sept. 11, one week before the program began, J.S. was taken from his classroom to one of the temporary classrooms and given a pamphlet regarding parental consent. His mother, identified only as "H.S.," did not give consent.

 

The suit alleges the school district violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment by allowing religious instruction to occur on school property during instructional time, by allowing the use of school utilities by a religious organization conducting religious instruction, and by supervising and promoting the "By the Book" program.

 

(OK so those on the left have no problem with children being taught  sex before marriage is ok, or a school leader taking my child for an abortion both things which  go against my values and faith. But those on the left get an outrage about children being taught about God. Now it is one thing for a parent to say their child can't be taught about God but this mother is trying to keep other children including those who have parents who have given the ok if their child to learn about God. Could things like this be the reason why so many parents are removing their children from the government schools.)

 

A defiant Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Tuesday appointed a former state attorney general to Barack Obama's former Senate seat, a suprise move that put his opponents in the uncomfortable position of trying to block a veteran political trailblazer from becoming the Senate's only black member. Blagojevich's appointment of Roland Burris injected race into the drama surrounding the embattled governor, who sought to make the issue more about the man he selected rather than the seat he's accused of trying to sell. ( 'Don't let allegations against me taint appointment'...    )

"Please don't allow the allegations against me to taint a good an honest man," the governor said, turning to the smiling 71-year-old standing by his side.

Burris said he discussed the appointment with Blagojevich Sunday night. "I was asked if he would appoint me, would I accept, and the answer is yes," Burris said.

 

Burris said he has no connection to the charges against Blagojevich, who was arrested earlier this month on charges that he tried to sell Obama's Senate seat to the highest bidder.

(So far I have heard on TV how Roland Burris has nothing to do with the problems that Gov. Rod is facing. However wouldn't it have said something to the voters if  Burris  had said I don't think it is right to accept this offer with all the charges against you Gov. Rod. Also now no matter what Burris  wants his name will be tide to the Gov. of Ill. )

 Ignoring threats from the U.S. Senate Democratic leadership to block his pick, Gov. Blagojevich this afternoon said he's appointing Roland Burris to President-elect Barack Obama's vacant U.S. Senate seat.

"The people of Illinois are entitled to have two U.S. Senators," said Blagojevich, whose arrest on corruption charges earlier this month places Burris' appointment under a cloud. "If I don't make this appointment then the people of Illinois will be deprived."

(Boy oh boy and you thought we couldn't get anymore exciting news at the end of this year. It looks like Gov. Blagojevich cares anything about the law and waiting for  the process of the courts to take place. This man needs to be removed from office ASAP. This kind of reminds me of the things which happen  when Clinton was our leader in regards to not following the courts. Read more on this issue Blago names Roland Burris to Obama's Senate seat..)

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In the matter or Orenthal James Simpson, justice was a little late, but last Friday -- 13 years after justice was delayed in a Los Angeles double murder trial -- it refused to be denied in a Las Vegas courtroom. Simpson was sentenced to between nine and 33 years behind bars for his role in last year's kidnapping and armed robbery of two sports memorabilia dealers at Palace Station Hotel and Casino.

Reva Evans and Ingrid Olson share a home. They share bank accounts. They share a son.

But they are not married.

With one simple line in Iowa state law, the women are prevented from joining their lives together legally: "Only a marriage between a male and a female is valid."

The Council Bluffs women make up one of six same-sex Iowa couples suing for the right to marry in Iowa. This week, their fate will be in the hands of the Iowa Supreme Court. Justices are scheduled to hear arguments Tuesday in the case Varnum v. Brien, which challenges the constitutionality of the state law banning same-sex marriage.

A ruling in favor of the plaintiffs would not directly affect gay couples in  other states, said Mark Kende, a Drake University law professor and director of the Drake Constitutional Law Center.

But, he said, its relevance could be seen in future challenges to laws banning gay marriage. Petitioners likely would seek to portray same-sex marriage as becoming more conventional, Kende said.

"If the heartland goes pink, it's a big deal, because this is middle America," Kende said. "That's a pretty strong argument this has gone mainstream."

Nebraska voters in 2000 approved a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. A federal judge ruled it unconstitutional, but a panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that ruling in July 2006. Marriage is not and should not be taken as a right for everyone. issue

 

(It is my hope the judges on the high court in Iowa will see it is their job to interpret the laws and not make law as some judges have done before in places like CA. Marriage is not and should not be taken as a right for everyone.  Read more of this issue Six gay couples seek validation of their unions.)

 Today's Wall Street Journal editorial  says  that the California Supreme Court's entrance into the Proposition 8 affair endangers not only the clear decision of the voters against same sex marriage, but it endangers the whole idea of  democracy  in America.
It's true that we've seen some wild things in the days since California voters approved Proposition 8 -- a measure on the state ballot prohibiting same-sex marriage. We've had the burning of the Book of Mormon. The mailing of envelopes filled with white powder to Mormon temples. And activists marching on Mormon churches with signs and shouts of "hate" and "bigot" directed at anyone who might have a difference of opinion.
The great achievement of our system was to create a political order where these great moral disputes, as a matter of policy, are left to the people -- with allowance for differences according to region and locale. Moral agents have a role to play, generally by shaping the larger culture in which these decisions are framed and debated. But the outcome is left to the people acting through their elected representatives, a process that inevitably involves compromise, trade-offs and messy accommodations.

(The people of CA. have spoken. The courts should stay out of it.)

Supporters of two former Border Patrol agents facing years in prison for the shooting of a fleeing drug smuggler are urging President Bush to commute their sentences. And if that fails, their lawyers plan to take their case to the Supreme Court.(  Convicted Ex-Border Agents Hope for Pardons From Bush   )

Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, former Border Patrol agents, were convicted two years ago of assault, discharge of a weapon in the commission of a crime of violence, deprivation of civil rights and tampering with an official.

Ramos was sentenced to 11 years in prison and Compean to 12, the bulk of the time coming from a mandatory 10-year minimum sentence for discharging their weapon.

 

The charges stemmed from a February 2005 incident involving a drug smuggler, Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, whom Ramos and Compean shot in the buttocks as he tried to flee from them in Fabens, Tex. The agents didn't report the incident, so it is unclear whether Davila possessed a weapon when he was shot. The agents say they thought he had a weapon; Davila says he didn't.

Now the men have two choices, take their appeal to the Supreme Court or hope for President Bush to commute their sentences.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., has spoken out in support of Ramos and Compean since he first heard about the case, and he will be lobbying members of Congress to rally to their side this week.

"All decent Americans are now calling on President Bush to show some mercy towards these unjustly convicted men who never should have been prosecuted in the first place," Rohrabacher said Thursday in a statement.

He and Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., are joining forces to get Congress to urge the president to act quickly and commute their sentences.

( It is an outrage that those in power would take the word of  a  drug smuggler over two of our own agents. We have enough problems with people coming into our nation in a non lawful way yet alone those who bring drugs with them. It is  my hope that  soon justice will be done for these two agents.)