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Aug 10
Posts: 5196
kevinhiatt says:
Guess what Sabrina is in Season and found herself a boyfriend really flirting. Now has anyone any tips to calm her down as Mares are a newish problem for me as had a gelding for many years, then Lara who was not too bad but Sabrina thats a different thing altogether.
Gypsy Gold does not chink & glitter.It gleams in the sun and neighs in the dark.Tonka &
Lara my beautiful horses RIP, Nelson,Chloe & Kitty the cats.
Jul 11
Posts: 884
DuffyDuck says:
D&H moody mare and a magnesium supplement....
Jun 09
Posts: 89
roshankarkhairan says:
Oestress from NAF is very good, works on my chestnut TB mare, who is a total flirt!
In riding horses, we borrow freedom.
I did try Naf Oestress and it did not seem to make much of a difference, but then I had nothing to check it against as I am unaware how bad she is, will have a go at trying all again but its an unknown area for me.
Nov 08
Posts: 246
cindars says:
Oh I do sympathise. I've had a few mares but this year Sami has been awful. Nothing nasty but bucking if her "new best friend" a mare, went away, I stopped riding for two weeks and started feeding her stroppy mare - sorry maker has gone out of my mind - she seems much better and has stopped spraying and making a mess of her stable and much better has stopped loving the other mare.
Feb 10
Posts: 451
SarahR123 says:
I've found Frisky Mare Plus (Global Herbs) sorts my extremely flirty, squirty mare out. She gets so bad without it she can't walk a few paces in front of any horse (male or female) without squirting - yuck! Tehya does well on Lunar Eclipe (Simple System) but I don;t think she is quite as overt as Missy albeit that she goes very moony! If she's really bad behaviourally you might need some advice from your vet but their solutions tend to be expensive! ;o)
Posts: 818
3MoodyMaresMum says:
Good Old Fashioned Chamomile herb and Red Clover herb a handful of each a day will keep the demon at bay !!!
There is no greater gift than to share time with a creature of such beauty - The Horse.
I am making a note of all this, as many of us are having the same problems, what also has been said and I don't know but taking her off Alfafa products will help as well, This is a very interesting project and will tackle this as when I was at work with Engineering projects. The only way is by finding out and asking getting information from those who have met up with this problem but sometimes is the blind leading the blind, but not in this case, it really comes over that I should have kept to geldings but when I have a horse I will keep it for life. Mares seem to be harder to bond with taking longer but possibly stronger when they do.
Apr 10
Posts: 304
AMLS says:
I feel mares are harder to bond with ... having said that my little 3 year old is so attached to me it's unreal, comes when she's called and an angel in all ways the easiest horse to deal with like a little lamb. But I've owned her since 10 months old so I think that time does make a difference to win trust.
Mares are harder to bond with but when you do get the bond it is so strong, I wouldn;t swap my gang for anything - well maybe Welshie!!
Alfalfa contains naturally high levels of calcium, potassium, magnesium and iron, as well as vitamins B12, A, C, D,E and K. As we all know magnesium is a natural calming mineral so combining pure alfalfa (no molasses or added bits and pieces) with a calming herbs like chamomile and red clover will work wonders. Red Clover can be slightly sedatory and I know a lot of mares that are on this herb from Spring to Autumn, whereas Chamomile is used more for calming and relieving stress, it is also for the girls out here good for menstural cramps which is probably why it works well with mares coming into and in season.
And there ends todays lesson on herbs and their properties
Apr 12
Posts: 3
jmt1 says:
Hello. I am new on this site but thought I would add! Feedmark do a great thing called hormonease.
It has chasteberry, black cohosh, red clover. My mare Maddison is a new girl on this :-)
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In this book you will find the skatepark adventures of Jakob Ljubic, a wonderful 9yr old boy. Gracing the pages you will find photos depicting how enthusiastic and expressive he is, something to cherish... just a boy, youthful and exuberant!
Michael Pavlov - Canadian based fine art black and white photographer specializing in traditional hand printed images. Michael Pavlov.
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A People's coup by Thailand's minority
Author: Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Chulalongkorn University
Never has Thai politics degenerated so quickly from uneasy accommodation to outright insurrection in just a month.
It started with a broad-based opposition to an expansive amnesty legislation that would have absolved former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra from corruption and abuse of power but it has ended up as a civilian putsch by anti-Thaksin forces, led by the opposition Democrat Party and its erstwhile heavyweight MP Suthep Thaugsuban. On an anti-corruption crusade and intent on uprooting what they call the 'Thaksin regime', these forces incorporate previous yellow shirts and other anti-Thaksin columns from recent years. Whether they succeed in removing the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, Thaksin's younger sister, from power and installing their own government will determine the direction of Thai democracy.
After sailing through the lower house, dominated by the ruling Pheu Thai Party, the amnesty legislation was effectively aborted in the senate on government instructions. Alarmed by the popular anti-amnesty movement, Yingluck backtracked on support for the bill, a signal for pro-government senators to follow suit. But by that time the anti-amnesty movement had gained traction as the scattered anti-Thaksin columns found common ground and renewed energy to take the Yingluck government to task. Even the red-shirt supporters of the Pheu Thai Party felt betrayed by the amnesty bill because it would have exonerated those they see as the perpetrators of the violent crackdown against their street demonstrations in May 2010.
As the amnesty debacle played out, a constitutional amendment to make the senate from a half-appointed to a fully elected chamber was nullified by the Constitutional Court. However, the Pheu Thai Party has refused to accept the Court's authority. The same court previously dissolved the Pheu Thai Party's preceding vehicles twice in 2007–08 and banned 220 elected politicians along the way, not to mention disqualifying a sitting prime minister from power for having hosted a cooking show. Pheu Thai and the Yingluck government would certainly be of the opinion that the Court is biased against them. Constitutional Court judges, who in Thailand swear an oath of allegiance to the King, were adamant against a fully elected senate because it would then be like the money politics of the lower house and unable to perform a checks-and-balance function.
It is now clear from Suthep's public statements that the anti-government demonstrations and his protest movement are motivated by the government's refusal to accept the Constitutional Court decision that the senate amendment bill violated the Thailand's constitution. According to Suthep, the King would come under pressure to either countersign or see the bill become law if government MPs stick to it. In response, Suthep has formed and led the 'People's Democratic Reform Committee' into physically occupying government ministries and state agencies. Their objective is to take back the reins of government and institute political reforms that would elevate the role of the monarchy in Thai democracy. His people's committee also has told television stations to only broadcast its activities, not the government's.
For its part, the Yingluck government thus far has matched Suthep's provocation with so much restraint that it looks inept and impotent. The authorities have allowed protesters' takeovers of state installations for fear of violence and bloodshed. In 2008, a similar street protest led by yellow shirts against a pro-Thaksin proxy government faced police dispersal after the army refused to follow government orders. Two protesters died, and the police have been seen as the bad guys since. The Queen presided over the funeral of one of the two protesters. This time, the Yingluck government knows that it cannot survive if there is bloodshed of any kind in the streets.
Supported by the roughly two fifths of the voting electorate who have lost successive elections to Thaksin's parties, Suthep's civilian putsch has brought Thailand to yet another brink. His anticipation is for a government overreaction and ensuing violence, prompting an outside intervention from the army or the judiciary to restore order and break the deadlock. If he succeeds, the red shirts are likely to come back for more protests, as they did in 2009–10 after their government was disbanded to the benefit of the opposing Democrat Party. If Suthep fails, he will have exposed the chasm between the monarchy and electoral democracy in Thailand's political future, and further weakened the Democrat Party's electoral base.
There is now no easy exit option. Thailand's murky road can only move forward by returning the mandate to the electorate under clearer circumstances. If she survives the immediate hours ahead, Prime Minister Yingluck should apologise for the amnesty bill and accept for now the senate verdict by the Constitutional Court. She can then announce an earlier election, perhaps in mid-2014 which is the third-year mark of her four-year term.
Many Thais want the Democrat Party to do better in the electoral arena and parliament. The Democrats boycotted an election in 2006 and may do so again to lay conditions for an outside intervention. Their core supporters need to revamp the party with new leadership, new policy ideas, and renewed commitment to parliamentary democracy. If the Democrats fare better at the polls, they will be less likely to resort to street-based and extra-parliamentary outcomes.
Elections are not a panacea. Majority rule must accommodate more minority grievances. The lawmaking standards and personal integrity of Thai politicians must be improved. Endemic corruption must be vigorously tackled. The impartiality of checks-and-balance institutions, such as the Constitutional Court and the anti-corruption commission, must be strengthened. If there is a longer-term silver lining, Suthep's brinkmanship and Yingluck's ability to survive and to emerge more from Thaksin's shadows may actually bode well for democratic entrenchment in Thailand.
Thitinan Pongsudhirak is Associate Professor and Director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok. A version of this article was published in The Wall Street Journal Asia on 2 December 2013.
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The editors retain the right to refuse and edit comments at any time.
We get the impression in the article that the present mass mobilization by Suthep has grown out of an uneasy accommodation within just one month. It is correct that we have passed a period of fewer political demonstrations compared to earlier but we have witnessed some significant protests and political cases that have paved the way for Suthep's civil movement.
Both the white mask protests (Guy Fawkes masks), farmers protest against the rice pledge scheme and the doctors pay-for-performance scheme protests are important in this context as they enhanced dissatisfaction and distrust towards the government on a nationwide basis. These demonstrations gained national media attention. The white mask or V for vendetta protests are very similar in the content and articulation to Sutheps civil movement. Corruption and anti-Thaksin views are on the agenda as well as the rice pledge scheme case, disbursement of budget funds and the amnesty bill. The latter three issues were actually a part of the speech on the white mask venues already in June. However the white mask protest never grew to became a mass movement but it has obviously increased a general anti-government sentiment feeling in the population that laid the ground for further mobilization.
The parliament had to convene and pass the amnesty bill and amendment of the Senate before a trigger for further mobilization occurred. Finally a proper organization had to be established before a massive protest movement could appear. Thus we got all the ingredients for a social movement to emerge. Sentiment, concrete events or political cases and the organization to gather all the various small movement organizations that are the backbone of every social movement. It is worth mentioning that the Rural Doctors Society organized the doctors protest against the government in March-June and it has also played a role in providing organizational and mobilization resources to Suthep's social movement.
This social movement did not just arise over one month but over several months. Perhaps Suthep's social movement would never have gained momentum to such a huge extend without the protests in the spring 2013. It is likely a recurrence of a social movement that has existed for a long time but that is taken new forms in relation to the current political cases and events. It's support base changes slightly over time but it is basically an urban and rural middle class phenomenon. At least you can identify its democratic ideas back to 1995 and it has earlier merged together with individuals who attended the Assembly of the Poor and later the Yellow Shirt movement. The fight against corruption and Thaksin has been kept intact all the way through.


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Musings on publications and studies relevant to EM & otherwise.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Viral or Bacterial Infection? A Blood Test
As usual, the breathless commentary is a little ahead of the actual research results. What the authors did was a data-mining experiment from 69 patients, each of whom had been diagnosed (through standard clinical practice) with either a viral infection, or a bacterial infection. They ran all the polymorphonuclear leukocytes through their assay, recorded several different sorts of chemoluminescence, and then let computer software do a partitioning analysis to determine the most predictive patterns for bacterial and viral infections.
The software trained to 94.7% accuracy on the "knowns", and then, when tested on a confusion sample with 18 "unknowns" it was 88.9% accurate.
So, still not good enough for clinical use as a dichotomous result, but if it were allowed to return an equivocal range that quantified the assay uncertainty, then perhaps it could have a role in clinical practice. In theory, an assay such as this might otherwise reduce additional testing and help reduce the number of viral infections that receive antibiotics.
"Differentiation Between Viral and Bacterial Acute Infectious Using Chemiluminescent Signatures of Circulating Phagocytes"
2 comments:
This may be a little late for clinical medicine...it is already becoming clear that many of the infections we know to be bacterial - Strep throat specifically and probably otitis media and bronchitis (usually viral but bacterial often enough) - don't really need to be treated with antibiotics anyway. Notwithstanding the recent NEJM article to the contrary re: Otitis Media (Secondary endpoints!!)ReplyDelete
The way I envisioned this test mostly would be to ideally reduce antibiotic usage for commonly diagnosed conditions that are frequently viral but usually treated as bacterial - such as otitis media or pediatric pneumonias.ReplyDelete
Now, whether OM/strep/bronchitis/sinusitis derives any benefit from antibiotics is an entirely separate debate. There is clearly a subset of OM/bronchitis/sinusitis that is bacterial and may benefit from antibiotics, but there usually aren't any useful identifying clinical criteria that differentiate that group. Unilateral purulent nasal discharge seemed to be predictive for sinusitis in the large, retrospective analyzes, nothing helps with OM, and the only group that seems to benefit from antibiotics for bronchitis is in the elderly to prevent subsequent pneumonia. For strep, the NNT to prevent peritonsillar abscess is on the order of 4000, while the NNT (in the U.S.) to prevent rheumatic fever is probably at least 100,000.


text:
Pistons snap 6-game losing skid with rout of Wizards
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- After the month the Detroit Pistons have had, they will take a victory over any team.
Greg Monroe had 15 points and nine rebounds and rookie Andre Drummond added a double-double as the Pistons ended a six-game losing streak with a 100-68 rout of the Washington Wizards on Friday night.
It was Detroit's first win over anyone other than Cleveland since late November.
"We can't worry about who is playing and who isn't playing on the other team," Monroe said. "We just have to go out there and do our job, and we finally did that tonight."
Washington has been decimated by injuries, with John Wall, Trevor Ariza, Bradley Beal and Nene among the unavailable players, and lost their sixth straight.
"That was an embarrassment, and I apologize to our ownership and to our fans," Washington coach Randy Wittman said. "I especially apologize to anyone who watched that entire game. I would have turned it off after the first five minutes."
Jordan Crawford led Washington with 20 points, but no one else scored more than 10 points.
"This was a situation where we had some key guys out, which meant our other guys had a chance to step up and prove that they belong in the NBA," Wittman said in a postgame news conference that only lasted one question. "That didn't happen. We may only have nine guys, but I need to find five of them who are willing to show me that they deserve to be here."
The Pistons, who never trailed, got 15 points from Brandon Knight and 11 points and a career-high 14 rebounds from Drummond. The Wizards passed on Drummond this summer in the draft, taking Beal instead.
"Why wouldn't I be aware of it? I worked out for them, and they were on the schedule," Drummond said of his first matchup with Washington. "It doesn't really matter, though. I'm with Detroit now, and I'm just trying to beat them."
The teams meet again Saturday night in the nation's capital, but the Wizards will have to play a much better game to have a shot at splitting the home-and-home series.
"It's not fun when these games happen, but they haven't happened too often with this team," Washington's Emeka Okafor said. "You try to fight against it, but the more you fight, the more you feel like you are in quicksand."
Detroit's biggest problem may have been a fourth-quarter injury to Rodney Stuckey, who went immediately to the locker room after getting hit in the mouth on a fourth-quarter drive. Stuckey didn't lose any teeth, but did not return to the game. He is expected to travel to Washington for Saturday's rematch.
"He got one tooth bent back, but you always want to embellish these stories and make them look good, so in five years, he'll have had a tooth knocked out," Pistons coach Lawrence Frank said. "I feel bad for him, because I'm a little squeamish when it comes to teeth."
With Stuckey unable to shoot his free throws, the Pistons chose Slava Kravtsov to take them. In his NBA debut, the Ukrainian rookie made 1 of 2. Kravtsov dunked in the final seconds for his first field goal.
"It was great to play in a game, but it isn't my goal to come in to shoot someone else's free throws," he said. "I wasn't very comfortable out there tonight, but I want to show that I'm capable of playing more minutes and helping our team."
The game got off to an ugly start, as the teams combined to miss 17 of their first 19 shots. Detroit finally got enough offense going to build a 9-2 lead midway through the first, and the game never got much better.
Washington shot 26 percent in the first quarter and 32 percent in the first half, and only Crawford's 14 points kept them from being behind by more than 53-34 at the intermission.
In contrast, Detroit had three scorers in double figures by halftime and had 13 assists on 19 field goals.
The Pistons didn't let up in the third quarter, moving the advantage to 26, and they were up by as many as 34 down the stretch.
Game notes
Crawford picked up a third-quarter technical for arguing a call, and had to be led away from referee Michael Smith by Okafor. Later in the quarter, when Crawford didn't get a call on a drive to the basket, Wittman yelled "Don't hold a grudge, Mike. Give us a call." ... In an attempt to boost their struggling attendance, the Pistons will have halftime concerts from MC Hammer (Dec. 28) and Sheila E (Dec. 30) at their next two home games. After leading the league in attendance during much of the past decade, Detroit has trouble filling half the arena for most games. ... Cartier Martin was called for a flagrant foul for a hard screen on Drummond in the fourth.
ESPN Fan Shop Powered By
NBA News
New Orleans Pelicans all smiles as they turn page with Buddy Hield pick
With their ugly 30-52 season behind them, the Pelicans are feeling good about landing upbeat scorer Buddy Hield with the No. 6 pick in the draft.
Rose to Chicago: 'Thank you' for trading me
Newly acquired Knick Derrick Rose tosses some shade to the Chicago Bulls by thanking them for sending him to New York.
Spurs to bring aboard Ryan Arcidiacono
The Spurs, who had just one draft pick this year, have agreed to a two-year deal with Final Four standout Ryan Arcidiacono of Villanova.
Regular Season Series
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Imagine what would happen in a sporting event or big game if the referees kept adding new rules and changing old ones.
Most likely people involved would become outraged, there would be chaos brought to the game as coaches and their players wondered about what would be allowed and what was going to next be declared illegal by a vascillating uber-referee. Oh, and there might be charges of corruption made if the ever-changing rules favored one team over another.
Vista Councilwoman Amanda Rigby made it clear last Tuesday evening that she still does not agree with her colleagues on the selling of properties here in Vista, California. She again was the lone vote against selling off properties purchased in the 1990s, saying she believes "... we could do better."
Colleagues brought up clearing the books, having to pay property taxes, and even mentioned that if the market did improve the rules currently say only a fraction of the proceeds can come back to city coffers. Four against one, why delay the matter any more? So the majority voted in a pragmatic step to sell several sites on or near North Santa Fe.
Redevelopment, Successor Agencies, et cetera
In recalling events of 2011, before Rigby ran and was elected to her council seat, when Governor Jerry Brown shut down all of California's Community Redevelopment Agencies, rules changed by official decree. Yes, the Redevelopment Agencies were created to "shepherd development" in blighted areas, but all of a sudden many properties were left open on the books. So "Successor Agencies" were created.
Those new agencies were responsible for dealing with the properties left in limbo by the legal rule changes.
Recently Governor Brown signed something called AB471 into law. It now amends a section of the California Government Code to allow "infrastructure financing districts" (IFDs) to finance a project or portion of a project located within a redevelopment project area or former redevelopment project area.
Some say Governor Brown wanted to get rid of the corruption of the Redevelopment Agencies. Apparently they were seen as using eminent domain to "steal property" from owners, then giving it to friends and big time developers. Well, if so then he helped to end that, but more recently Brown signed a bill which looks to some as if it maybe will start up all over again.
Says one blogger, Stephen Franks in a piece on CApoliticalnews regarding the issue:
"Worse in specific language this is no longer about blighted areas—a home in the foothills of Beverly Hills can now be taken by a greedy developer with friends in government."
This AB 471, according to CaliforniaLegInfo website, was authored by new Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins "... clarifying current law governing the dissolution of local redevelopment agencies (RDA)" it states.
The article also reports:
"The bill, AB 471 (Atkins), represents a second attempt by the Speaker-Elect to address RDA dissolution issues after the Governor vetoed her previous bill, AB 662, last year. AB 471, which passed unanimously in its final form, makes several helpful changes affecting the dissolution process and clarifies that infrastructure finance districts can be established on territory within a former RDA project area. The League appreciates the continued work and efforts of the Speaker-Elect to develop solutions that address issues affecting redevelopment dissolution."
And as City of Vista Councilwoman Amanda Rigby stated in a previous council meeting, covered in the Examiner, the dash to finish selling/clearing taxpayer-funded properties off the books, and forking over the majority of proceeds to other entities is something that does not sit well with her. She stated in the previous meeting:
"I don't know. I'm just feeling kind of like we're getting the short end of that stick...."
Councilman Dave Cowles also mentioned at the same meeting being "forced to dissolve the redevelopment properties" by the State. His understanding seemed to be that these were properties that the City of Vista intended to hold for redevelopment in the future, but now the city is in the position of having to get the properties "off the books."
The Legislative Analyst Office website, LAO analysis, has thoughts about the IFDs which are also of interest. They do ask a very good question:
Is the Governor's Proposal Constitutional?
To which they state:
"As discussed previously, the State Constitution requires cities and counties to obtain approval from two-thirds of their voters prior to issuing long-term debt. Because the Governor's proposal would not amend existing law in order to clearly distinguish
IFDs as a legal entity separate from their sponsoring cities or counties, the constitution's two-thirds voter-approval requirement of a city and county may extend to its IFD. If so, implementing the Governor's proposal would require a
constitutional amendment."
The idea is one which worries some.
"... the Governor's proposal to lower the voter-approval threshold for IFD debt may conflict with provisions of the State
Constitution requiring voter approval of city and county debt. In addition, the Governor proposes to maintain somewhat problematic rules related to voter approval of IFDs. Therefore, we recommend the Legislature reject the Governor's proposed changes to the voter-approval requirements for IFDs. Instead, we suggest the Legislature consider two alternatives: (1) restructure IFDs to resemble similar types of local entities that do not have voter-approval requirements or (2) expand voter-
approval requirements to allow all residents of the communities affected by an IFD to vote."
With talk of RDAs going away in back in 2011, an article from the San Francisco firm of Reuben,JuniusRoseLLP shed a bit more light on why the IFD idea arose:
"Tax increment financing is a tool that redevelopment agencies are able to take advantage of, and the idea currently building a head of steam in the city is that IFDs could fill the void left if and when redevelopment agencies are eliminated." They also stated:
"... cities are scurrying to find new ways to fund economic development activities, infrastructure improvements and affordable housing. IFDs could be one solution to these problems."
Infrastructure and affordable homes are a good thing for people in a community. A look back at some of the Proposition 13 (1978) HowardJarvisTaxpayerAssociation information online, it seems that the advocates for the original proposition believed it would give predictability for California property owners and also provide for community stability. Many understood that increased property taxes would take a higher percentage out of lower-incomed community members if they owned a high-valued property.
Writing on AB 471 legal changes, Brad Kuhn at CaliforniaEminentDomainReport wrote earlier this year a few important points about the newest changes from on high:
- "Local agencies can now form an infrastructure financing district over a redevelopment project area to finance redevelopment projects that were not yet completed prior to the dissolution of redevelopment agencies."
- "The newly formed infrastructure financing district can issue bonds to pay for real or other intangible property and certain public capital facilities of communitywide significance, and such bonds will be secured by any increase in property tax revenue over the assessed value of the property within the infrastructure financing district."
- "The new law also encourages local agencies to wrap up their redevelopment affairs, as a redevelopment project cannot be financed until the successor agency to the former redevelopment agency receives a finding of completion."
Kuhn adds another piece of information as well. "The infrastructure financing district idea passed the Legislature in the early 1990s as an alternative to redevelopment, permitting the use of tax-increment financing for infrastructure without requiring a finding of blight. But the idea has rarely been used, primarily because they require two-thirds voter approval to be created or issue bonds. While there was discussion about reducing this requirement, as part of the new law the the two-thirds vote requirement was not changed."
Which makes Councilmember Amanda Rigby's thought that "we can do better" an important one for voters who care about the issue and continue to watch legislative actions.


text:
Posts Tagged As: Mississippi
May 26th, 2016
The House rejected a appropriations bill for the Energy Department, Army Corps of Engineers, Interior Department's Bureau of Reclamation and several other commissions. The huge $37.4 billion spending bill went down 112-305. Dems lined up against the measure, citing such poison pill provisions as amendment targeting the Iran nuclear deal and prohibiting the Obama administration from revoking Title IX funds previously appropriated for North Carolina and Mississippi over those states' anti-trans bathroom bills. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) was among those voting against the bill:
Ultimately, though, Maloney said he voted 'no' on the Energy-Water bill, which included his LGBT anti-discrimination amendment. He pointed to a subsequent amendment by Rep. Robert Pittenger, R-N.C., which prohibits the Obama administration from blocking North Carolina from receiving federal funds in retaliation to its transgender bathroom law. That measure was adopted 227-192.
"I wasn't about to support the Pittenger amendment … having fought all week to get workplace protections," Maloney said. "We won the vote last night. That's an important victory. It shows there is a majority in the House that supports work place protection."
Update: Politico adds this bit of inside baseball:
Some GOP lawmakers were furious over Rep. Rick Allen's (R-Ga.) comments on the LGBT issue at a GOP Conference meeting prior to the vote.
Allen read a passage from the Bible and questioned whether members would violate their religious principles if they supported the bill.
But moderate Republicans were stunned by Allen's remarks, and some walked out of the meeting in protest, according to GOP lawmakers.
"A good number of members were furious," said one Republican, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity. "There was some Scripture that was read and the like … Nothing good was going to happen to those that supported [the LGBT provision.] A good number of members were furious."
An amendment offered by Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA) added a line saying that Maloney's provision, which restored Obama's Executive Order requiring federal contractors to provide anti-discrimination protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity, would not conflict with "the First Amendment, the Fourteenth Amendment, and Article I of the Constitution." The hope was that this caveat would reassure more conservative members of the caucus. But this morning, those conservatives informed leadership that they would not support the appropriations bill with Maloney's amendment attached. Those conservatives said that GOP leadership never should have allowed Maloney's amendment to be vote on in the first place. Meanwhile, Democrats also abandoned the bill over the Title IX amendment and other provisions targeting climate change science and withholding federal funds from "sanctuary cities."
January 17th, 2015
A tweet from HRC's Chad Griffin:
On same day #SCOTUS granted marriage cases, @HRC Mississippi flagged this hateful graffiti in downtown Jackson. pic.twitter.com/tPMs99DY14
— Chad Griffin (@ChadHGriffin) January 16, 2015
January 9th, 2015
Today the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is hearing argument on three marriage equality cases, separately, one from each of Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi. First in line was Robicheaux vs Caldwell, the case from Louisiana.
The Fifth Circuit panel consists of two Reagan appointees (Jerry Smith and Patrick Higginbotham) and an Obama appointee (James Graves). It was known, going in, that Smith was not sympathetic with the notion that gay people hold the same constitutional rights as heterosexuals and that Graves favored equality. The wild card was Higginbotham.
We cannot, of course, know the outcome until it is determined and announced. However observers are reporting good news from the Louisiana hearing. Higginbotham joined Graves in expressing skepticism towards the arguments presented by the state and those who were there are predicting victory.
UPDATE: the oral arguments have been made available here
December 4th, 2014
Alas, before the stay issued by Judge Carlton Reeves expired on his ruling overturning Mississippi's ban on same-sex marriage, the
Tenth Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals extended the stay. So there will be no same-sex marriages in that state this year.
However, the wait is not interminable. The
Tenth Fifth Circuit is scheduled on January 9th to hear oral arguments on similar rulings from Texas (favorable) and Louisiana (unfavorable). Assuming it makes its determination shortly thereafter, it is likely that this ruling will also apply in short order to Mississippi.
November 27th, 2014
Dark Purple – marriage equality states
Light Purple – marriage equality ruling but only some localities are granting marriage licenses
Red – federal judges have ruled for equality but the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals overruled
Pink – favorable rulings are stayed for appeal
Baby-puke – unfavorable ruling on appeal
Same-sex couples in Mississippi have something to be thankful for this year; by Christmas they might be married. (Geidner)
A federal judge in Mississippi on Tuesday night ruled that Mississippi's ban on same-sex couples' marriages is unconstitutional — but the decision has been put on hold for two weeks.
"Today's decision may cause uneasiness and concern about the change it will bring," U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves wrote. "Mississippi continues to change in ways its people could not anticipate even 10 years ago. Allowing same-sex couples to marry, however, presents no harm to anyone. At the very least, it has the potential to support families and provide stability for children."
(sorry folks, it looks like I forgot to click "publish" on this – so here it is late)
April 28th, 2014
The American Family Association is no longer able to live out the dictates of their Christian faith and conscience. They are being persecuted terribly and it's ever so sad.
You see, some people in the state are selling goods and services to gay people. Knowingly. And not even giving them a dirty look.
Oh the misery.
It all started when the state legislature passed a bill (much like the Arizona bill that was vetoed) which says that "Government should not substantially burden religious exercise without compelling justification". And while those words are probably not something I'd disagree with, the unspoken intention of the bill was to block any local ordinances that prohibit discrimination against gay people.
And as there are no such provisions anywhere is Mississippi, it was just the Mississippi Legislature reconfirming to the world that it's comprised of a bunch of back-woods, redneck, gay-hating yahoos.
Well, this seemed a bit mean to some businesses, so they decided to come up with a way of telling gay customers that they were welcome in their stores. A couple of gay business owners and a "straight, white, Southern, Christian conservative male" Republican up the street designed a sticker that a shopkeeper could put in their window.
Which is all sorts of bullying and silencing of the rights of those who don't want gay people to be able to buy goods and services. Or something. (AFA's OneNewsNow)
Buddy Smith, executive vice president of Tupelo-based American Family Association, offers his take on the sticker campaign.
"It's not really a buying campaign, but it's a bully campaign," he says, "and it's being carried out by radical homosexual activists who intend to trample the freedom of Christians to live according to the dictates of scripture.
"They don't want to hear that homosexuality is sinful behavior – and they wish to silence Christians and the church who dare to believe this truth."
And what is one to do about those who break the Scriptural dictates prohibiting selling stuff to gay people?
Smith offers a word of caution for those who do business with facilities posting the decal supporting homosexual activism. "If you do that, you are agreeing with these businesses that Christians no longer have the freedom to live out the dictates of their Christian faith and conscience," he tells OneNewsNow.
Kidding aside, this is hysterical in pretty much every meaning of the word. Please please, AFA, keep saying stuff like this.
April 2nd, 2014
The Mississippi Senate and House have passed a bill (similar to that vetoed by Arizona Governor Brewer) which would formally legalize discrimination in that state, so long as such discrimination is "substantially motivated by one's sincerely held religious belief, whether or not the exercise is compulsory or central to a larger system of religious belief".
It is a rather nasty piece of work which was formulated out of animus and is intended as a tool to deny rights to gay people.
But I'm not particularly worried about this bill.
Instances of actual anti-gay discrimination in the provision of services are infrequent. Even in the Deep South, there is little advantage to be had by turning down business from gay customers.
There's just not much to be gained by alienating customers. Maybe a few moments of internet celebrity and the promise of a few new strident anti-gay sales, but "we don't sell to those type of people" is not a very effective marketing plan. Most folks would rather stay out of your war – and out of your store – irrespective of their own beliefs.
And the evidence of that can be seen in that despite the anti-gay industry's ever-vigilant search for fresh martyrs to parade, only a handful of Jesus-lovin', sin-hatin', concerned Christians have been found nationwide who have been willing to destroy their livelihood for the cause. Elane Photography, a couple of bakers, and a florist or two. Oh, and some cookie baker and a venue in Texas. Most of whom were not even required by ordinance or law to offer service to gay people.
But even if such discrimination were ubiquitous in Mississippi, this bill changes nothing. There is no corner of the state in which gay people are protected from discrimination. No bakers or florists or bed and breakfast inn masters are limited from turning away gay people at the door. There is not even one city ordinance in the state that requires equal service to gay customers.
As for the anti-gay efforts, this bill gains them nothing. It's merely a public statement of derision towards a segment of their population.
However, it does have the potential to facilitate some outcomes that hardcore conservative Christians do not predict, and will not like. These bills almost always do.
Those, such as the Mississippi legislators, who seek laws that advantage conservative Christians suffer from too much belief in their own rhetoric. They are part of a worldview that has some misperceptions:
1. They are the only real people of faith.
It baffles me how this perception manages to keep hold when all evidence is to the contrary. But in the minds of these people, if you are a person of faith then you obviously believe the Levitical commands in precisely the same way they do.
They don't consider that them there liberal sin-compromisin' feel-goody pseudo-Christians will get the exact same legal rights under these sort of laws as True, Bible-believing, born-again People of God.
2. They are a persecuted people.
It may be hard to take seriously the notion that the state and local officials in Mississippi are in some way out to get the Christians. But when you believe that Satan is using the principalities and powers of the world to attack the Body of Christ, you can hear about some preacher who was arrested in Sweden and fear that Sheriff Billy Bob Honeycutt is about to do the same.
It hasn't occurred to these legislators that real persecuted people – the religious minorities in Mississippi – may now actually have a tool by which to empower their freedom.
3. God's hand is in whatever they do
There is a form of circular reinforcement that can result in astonishing stupidity. Much of what you hear from Pat Robertson is based in this thinking. It goes like this:
I am a child of God. I seek God's will in my life in what I do and say. I believe that God speaks to my heart and inspires me to move in the direction that he knows is best in my life. Therefore, when I strongly believe something, I know that it is inspired by God. And as God never lies or works against that which is good, whatever batpoop idiotic nonsense that I am spouting at any given moment is backed up by the creator of the universe.
Because they all agree that God wants them to stand up against the homosexual agenda, and because the homosexaul lobby opposes this bill, then it must be inspired by God and a wonderful victory for His Kingdom.
And so they've passed a phenomenally stupid bill that is likely to bite them in the ass. In fact, it's likely to have the exact opposite impact of what they expect.
It certainly wouldn't be the first time. Remember in the 80's when there was a big ruckus because some Bible Clubs had been restricted at some school or other? Well Congress rushed to fix that with the Equal Access Act, which required that if a school allowed any extra-curricular organizations then it had to allow all such groups.
And for about ten minutes there were Bible Clubs on a handful of campuses (until students realized that the idea of a Bible Club was much sexier than actually trying to read the book). But the largest impact of this law is the opposite of its intention; mostly, this law is what requires schools to allow gay-straight-alliances on campus. In court case after court case, anti-gay school boards have been told that if they want to ban support groups for LGBT kids, they also had to ban the chess club and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
It is, of course, far too early to know what kind of repercussions will result from the Mississippi Freedom Restoration Act. But here are a few scenarios that the language of the law would appear to cover:
Should there be a Muslim woman who is a state employee, local concerns or sensibilities will now have no say in her choice of clothing, provided that she has a sincerely held religious belief. Burka, baby!
Rastafarians, Native Americans, and others whose religious beliefs incorporate use of mind altering substances now have a much higher bar by which they are to be denied access to the implements of their worship. Now drug enforcement officers must prove "a government interest of the highest magnitude that cannot otherwise be achieved without burdening the exercise of religion". I predict a large conversion to such faiths.
The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan are a religious organization. They have lost favor in the nation, even in the South, as social and civil disapproval has taken the forefront. And the federal Civil Rights Laws disallow discrimination against people on the basis of race, so this law will not override that protection. But it would protect the state employee who wants to wear KKK insignia to work. And it will cause all sorts of havoc.
And, most ironically, they were blind to the most obvious scenario, the one jumping up and down in front of them waving its arms:
"Exercise of religion" includes, but is not limited to, the ability to act or the refusal to act in a manner that is substantially motivated by one's sincerely held religious belief, whether or not the exercise is compulsory or central to a larger system of religious belief.
One of the phenomena that we have seen recently is the deeply-held religious conviction on the part of some people of faith that denying gay people equality is an injustice and an immoral attack on a child of God. Some are rather visible, such as Episcopalians or UCC or Lutherans, in which the denomination is on their side. But some, such as a recent spate of Methodists, are willing to defy their church and risk defrocking in order to fulfill their fealty to God.
Even if no denomination states that it is sinful to discriminate against gay people, some clergy have made this case. And surely there is among the 82 counties in Mississippi at least one clerk who compelled by his faith to offer marriage certification to same-sex couples just as he would to opposite-sex couples. And this law says that state action cannot burden his religious act of faith.
Mississippi just opened for themselves a colossal can of worms. Funny how animus, arrogance, and self-righteousness can work that way.
April 2nd, 2014
Both houses of the Mississippi legislature approved S.B. 2681 yesterday. The bill passed the GOP-controlled House in a 78-43 bipartisan vote, and the GOP-controlled Senate by a 38-14 bipartisan vote. The bill states that "State action or an action by any person based on state action shall not burden a person's right to exercise of religion, even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability…" It also provides that "A person whose exercise of religion has been burdened or is likely to be burdened (emphasis mine) in violation of this section" can go to court for "injunctive relief, declaratory relief, compensatory damages, and the recovery of costs and reasonable attorney's fees."
The same law, designated as the "Mississippi Religious Freedom Restoration Act," also adds the words "In God We Trust" to the state seal. The law now goes to Gov. Phil Bryant (R) for his signature. Bryant said on Monday that he plans to sign the bill into law. Mississippi's anti-discrimination law currently does not offer any protections on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, which means that even without this bill, discrimination against LGBT people is already perfectly legal in Mississippi.
Like the Arizona bill which was vetoed by Gov. Jan Brewer (R), the Mississippi bill doesn't single out sexual orientation or gender identity as allowed grounds for discrimination, which leaves it open to employers and individuals claiming rights to discriminate on any basis — race, religion, gender, perceived national origin, etc., — as long as they can claim a religious reason for doing so. As with the Arizona legislation, atheists and agnostics will have no such specific license to discriminate. Similar bills are before the legislatures in Oklahoma and Missouri, and a bill is expected to be introduced in North Carolina when its legislative session begins in May. Similar bills in Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, and Ohio have been rejected.
In February, the Mississippi House amended the bill to remove the license-to-discriminate language, leaving only the sections modifying the state seal. The Senate, however, rejected that move and restored a version of the original language, which moved the bill to a conference committee which hammered out the final version.
March 11th, 2014
Too often, the news coming from the South tends to have a shared and consistent theme, and not a pleasant one. It can leave the impression that there are no places or people in the South that do not approach gay issues without hostility and animus.
That, of course, isn't true. Polls show that many Southerners are supporters and allies. It's just that they are less visible.
So it is important to note some of the positive things that can provide some balance and perspective. And one such thing is the action taken last week by the city counsel of Oxford, Mississippi, home of the University of Mississippi ("Ole Miss").
From the Oxford, Mississippi, city press release
Tonight Oxford, Mississippi unanimously passed a resolution recognizing the dignity and worth of all city residents – including those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT). Oxford joins two other Mississippi cities – Starkville and Hattiesburg – which both passed similar resolutions earlier this year.
Also important to remember is that these things don't happen on their own. And, in this instance, we have some back-story on how the resolution came to be.
One of BTB's readers and regular commenters, TampaZeke, is an Oxford native and has family that is connected to the city government. With their support, and that of an alumni sports group, they reached out to the city to request the resolution and to point out that it would be good for the city's image to take this stance.
The resolution doesn't have much in the way of teeth. It's basically a confirmation that gay people are part of the city and valued.
But often that is the most important step. Once you recognize the value and worth of a person, it's much harder to justify discrimination or tolerate bigotry.
So thank you, TampaZeke, for your work on this project. And thank you, Oxford, for reminding us that even in the heart of the Deep South, there are those who recognize the dignity and worth of our community.
February 27th, 2014
It would appear that the outcry over Arizona's license-to-discriminate bill that was finally vetoed by Gov. Jan Brewer last night may have reached something of a high water mark. Major companies, business group, professional organizations, and major league sports all came out with strong statements denouncing the bill in the moments leading up to Brewer's veto. Typical was this one from Yelp's CEO Jeremy Stoppelman:
SB 1062 would serve to create an environment where consumers would not know how they would be treated – or whether they would even be served – when they patronize a business. This bill goes against the rule that every great business subscribes to, which is that the customer is always right. It will not only be bad for customers, but also bad for local business in the state. I also believe that it would be in consumers' interests to be made aware of businesses within the state that did engage in discriminatory behavior. Since early 2010, Yelp has hired over 650 employees in Arizona. Over the next few years, we hope to hire hundreds more. It would be unconscionable for the state to encourage discrimination against any of them.
Arizona joins three other states in putting an end to their license-to-discriminate bills in just the past twenty-four hours:
Over the past several weeks, license-to-discriminate bills have been defeated or withdrawn in Colorado, Kansas, Maine, Tennessee, and Utah. But we're not out of the woods yet. Similar bills are still working their way through Idaho, Missouri, South Dakota, and Georgia, where Atlanta-based Delta Airlines has announced its opposition. The Idaho bill was returned to a House committee last week, with the sponsor saying he wants to "find the right language." In addition, there's a push to put a similar measure on the ballot in Oregon in November.
November 4th, 2013
Several GOP-led states have vowed to resist Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's order requiring National Guard to issue ID cards to spouses of Guard members who are in same-sex marriages. Those ID cards are critical for accessing spousal benefits. According to Reuters:
Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin, the Republican head of the National Governors Association, called on President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to "stop using the National Guard as a pawn in a larger social agenda," her spokesman, Alex Weintz, said in a statement on Friday.
"The president has made it clear he supports gay marriage. He has the legal authority to order federal agencies to recognize gay marriages. He does not have the legal authority to force state agencies to do so, or to unilaterally rewrite state laws or state constitutions," Weintz said.
Josh Havens, a spokesman for Texas Governor Rick Perry, said, "Texas Military Forces is a state agency, and as such is obligated to adhere to the Texas Constitution and the laws of this state which clearly define marriage as between one man and one woman."
Nine states were initially identified as refusing to issue identity cards to same-sex spouses: Indiana, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina and West Virginia. Reuters reports, "Indiana notified the Pentagon on Friday it had begun issuing the cards after a month-long review, a move defense officials said they welcomed."
Louisiana has also confirmed that they will also defy Sec. Hagel's order, while Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin said she is exploring her legal options. Georgia's National Guard has said it will ignore Hagel's order.
November 1st, 2013
Since the Supreme Court struck down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act last June, the Defense Department has been rushing to implement policies designed to treat legally wedded same-sex couples equally with married couples generally. But several states have refused to issue Defense Department ID cards to same-sex spouses of National Guard members. Those states include Indiana, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, in a speech to the Anti-Defamation League, has announced that he is putting a stop to such discriminatory practices:
"Today, I directed the Chief of the National Guard Bureau, Gen. Frank Grass, to take immediate action to remedy this situation. At my direction, he will meet with the Adjutants General from the states where these ID cards are being denied. The Adjutants General will be expected to comply with both lawful direction and DoD policy, in line with the practices of 45 other states and jurisdictions."
A senior defense official told the Washington Blade that the Pentagon has some critical leverage to deploy against recalcitrant states:
"These are federal ID cards paid for with federal funding to provide federally mandated benefits," the official said. "I'm not going to speculate on our legal options."
March 14th, 2012
My favorite headline of the day came from the Associated Press yesterday morning: "Voting in Alabama, Mississippi could clarify race." As if. If anything's clear, it's that Republican voters don't want anybody to win the nomination, and it looks like they just might get their way.
The man with the money, the candidate with not only every issued covered but every position for each issue, the establishment's favorite who who came in second in the race for the 2008 nomination and is therefore "next" — that's who came in third in Alabama and Mississippi. Third! That's, you know, after second. Ronmey managed to pull in a first place showing in the Hawaii caucuses, and he also captured all nine delegates in the American Samoan caucuses.
In this race, every delegate counts. The delegate count, which is always an approximation, looks like this according to CNN.
A total of 1,144 delegates are needed to win the nomination. It's hard to see Romney getting there before the convention. According to the CNN count, there are still 1,356 delegates, including superdelegates, up for grabs. Romney needs to win 48% of all the remaining delegates to capture the nomination. The next big prize is Illinois, which if Michigan and Ohio are any indication, means that Romney will probably split that state. Whether its enough to make up for the loss he's likely to receive in Louisiana and the Missouri caucuses, it's hard to say. April will be kinder to Romney, with Deleware, Maryland, D.C., New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island coming up, but Santorum is likely to win Pennsylvania. Wisconsin may end up a tie like Ohio. But the primaries go south, literally, in May, with contests in Nebraska, Arkansas, Kentucky, West Virginia, North Carolina, and Texas. That will be rough territory for Romney.
The only way he can win is for the superdelegates to step in and throw their weight behind Romney. That is a very real possibility. Romney's picked up some powerful endorsements in the party, but those endorsement's haven't meant much when it comes to votes. Santorum or Gingrich won despite major establishment endorsements for Romney in Tennessee (Gov. Bill Haslam), Oklahoma (Sen. Tom Coburn), South Carolina (Gov. Nikki Haley), Minnesota (former Gov. Tim Pawlenty) and Kansas (former Sen. Bob Dole)
But as hard is it will be for Romney to wrap up the nomination, it'll be even harder for anyone else to catch up and surpass him. If Gingrich's ego were to somehow deflate like a popped balloon and all of his delegates went to Santorum, he'd only increase his haul to 373. (And there's no way Paul's giving up his delegates.) In the unlikely event that happens, Santorum would still have to pick up 57% of the delegates outstanding. Without it, he needs to win 67% of those remaining. Gingrich needs to pick up 74% and Paul needs 79%. So it means that when the Republicans hit Tampa this summer, there will still probably be a lot of horse trading going on.
December 16th, 2011
If you are the mayor of Southaven, Mississippi's third largest city, and
If you are married with three children, and
If you ran for Congress in 2008 as a "consistent conservative who will always vote with the conservative party", and
If city auditors allege that you own about $170,000 in improper charges to your city credit cards, and
If you are turning in credit card receipts to show that your expenditures were proper and to reduce your debt, and
If you don't want anyone to find out that you are really secretly gay,
Then, it probably isn't a really good idea to include the purchase you made at "Priape: Canada's premiere gay lifestyle store and sex shop."
Just saying.
Memphis Commercial Appeal:
As details emerged Thursday from the receipts, provided by state auditors to Southaven aldermen and subsequently obtained by The Commercial Appeal, Davis conceded publicly for the first time in an interview with The CA that he is gay and has struggled to keep the issue from affecting his public life as mayor of Mississippi's third-largest city.
"At this point in my life and in my career, while I have tried to maintain separation between my personal and public life, it is obvious that this can no longer remain the case," Davis said Thursday afternoon at his Southaven home. "While I have performed my job as mayor, in my opinion, as a very conservative, progressive individual — and still continue to be a very conservative individual — I think that it is important that I discuss the struggles I have had over the last few years when I came to the realization that I am gay."
Here's Greg Davis more or less promising to vote more conservative than the most conservative of Conservatives, conservatively.
Snark aside, I commend Davis for not trying to come up with some bogus excuse for the purchase. And I wish him well on his new path to self discovery.
April 7th, 2011
The Arkansas Supreme Court today ruled that a voter-approved initiative banning unmarried cohabiting couples, including gay couples, from adopting or serving as foster parents. The court found that because the law singles out cohabiting couples for the ban while allowing single individuals to adopt or foster children, it encroaches on a key right to privacy:
Act 1 directly and substantially burdens the privacy rights of "opposite-sex and same-sex individuals" who engage in private, consensual sexual conduct in the bedroom by foreclosing their eligibility to foster or adopt children, should they choose to cohabit with their sexual partner. The pressure on such couples to live apart, should they wish to foster or adopt children, is clearly significant. In Jegley, the burden perpetrated by the State was criminal prosecution for sodomy, although the act took place in the privacy of the bedroom. In the case before us, the burden dispensed by the State is either to remove the ability to foster or adopt children, should sexual partners live together, or to intrude into the bedroom to assure that cohabitors who adopt or foster are celibate. We conclude that, in this case as in Jegley, the burden is direct and substantial.
In 2002, the Arkansas Supreme Court struck down that state's sodomy law in the case of Jegley v. Picado, nearly a full year before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down sodomy laws nationwide in Lawrence v. Texas. A state judge struck down Arkansas' adoption ban last April. The attorney general then appealed to the Supreme Court, which led to today's ruling.
Because the court found that Act 1 infringes on a key right to privacy, the court determined that heighened scrutiny rather than rational-basis was the appropriate standard for the ruling:
We have held in this case that a fundamental right of privacy is at issue and that the burden imposed by the State is direct and substantial. We now hold, as an additional matter, that because of the direct and substantial burden on a fundamental right, the standard to be applied is heightened scrutiny and not a rational-basis standard. Using the heightened- scrutiny standard, because Act 1 exacts a categorical ban against all cohabiting couples engaged in sexual conduct, we hold that it is not narrowly tailored or the least restrictive means available to serve the State's compelling interest of protecting the best interest of the child.
Utah and Mississippi are the only states remaining with adoption bans affecting gay people. Utah, like Arkansas until today, bans cohabiting couples from adopting but allows single adults to adopt when married couples aren't available. Mississippi law allows unmarried and married adults to adopt regardless of cohabitation status, but contains a separate clause stating, "Adoption by couples of the same gender is prohibited."
Featured Reports
In this original BTB Investigation, we unveil the tragic story of Kirk Murphy, a four-year-old boy who was treated for "cross-gender disturbance" in 1970 by a young grad student by the name of George Rekers. This story is a stark reminder that there are severe and damaging consequences when therapists try to ensure that boys will be boys.
When we first reported on three American anti-gay activists traveling to Kampala for a three-day conference, we had no idea that it would be the first report of a long string of events leading to a proposal to institute the death penalty for LGBT people. But that is exactly what happened. In this report, we review our collection of more than 500 posts to tell the story of one nation's embrace of hatred toward gay people. This report will be updated continuously as events continue to unfold. Check here for the latest updates.
In 2005, the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote that "[Paul] Cameron's 'science' echoes Nazi Germany." What the SPLC didn"t know was Cameron doesn't just "echo" Nazi Germany. He quoted extensively from one of the Final Solution's architects. This puts his fascination with quarantines, mandatory tattoos, and extermination being a "plausible idea" in a whole new and deeply disturbing light.
On February 10, I attended an all-day "Love Won Out" ex-gay conference in Phoenix, put on by Focus on the Family and Exodus International. In this series of reports, I talk about what I learned there: the people who go to these conferences, the things that they hear, and what this all means for them, their families and for the rest of us.
Prologue: Why I Went To "Love Won Out"
Part 1: What's Love Got To Do With It?
Part 2: Parents Struggle With "No Exceptions"
Part 3: A Whole New Dialect
Part 4: It Depends On How The Meaning of the Word "Change" Changes
Part 5: A Candid Explanation For "Change"
At last, the truth can now be told.
Using the same research methods employed by most anti-gay political pressure groups, we examine the statistics and the case studies that dispel many of the myths about heterosexuality. Download your copy today!
And don't miss our companion report, How To Write An Anti-Gay Tract In Fifteen Easy Steps.
Anti-gay activists often charge that gay men and women pose a threat to children. In this report, we explore the supposed connection between homosexuality and child sexual abuse, the conclusions reached by the most knowledgeable professionals in the field, and how anti-gay activists continue to ignore their findings. This has tremendous consequences, not just for gay men and women, but more importantly for the safety of all our children.
Anti-gay activists often cite the "Dutch Study" to claim that gay unions last only about 1½ years and that the these men have an average of eight additional partners per year outside of their steady relationship. In this report, we will take you step by step into the study to see whether the claims are true.
Tony Perkins' Family Research Council submitted an Amicus Brief to the Maryland Court of Appeals as that court prepared to consider the issue of gay marriage. We examine just one small section of that brief to reveal the junk science and fraudulent claims of the Family "Research" Council.
The FBI's annual Hate Crime Statistics aren't as complete as they ought to be, and their report for 2004 was no exception. In fact, their most recent report has quite a few glaring holes. Holes big enough for Daniel Fetty to fall through.


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When NBC first started airing promos for their upcoming show based on the Thomas Harris novels, including the Silence of the Lambs, I actually mistook them for movie trailers. They seemed far too graphic to possibly be on broadcast television. The trailers looked like something you'd see on HBO or AMC, but not a public channel with a weak stomach like NBC. Add that in with the idea that the show would be based on a franchise that had been effectively driven into the ground and you certainly didn't have a formula that looked promising.
Of course, as I watched more footage my curiosity grew. The show is lead by producer Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies) and several great actors like Hugh Dancy, Mads Mikkelsen and Laurence Fishburne and it shows. The performances are delightfully understated and real. This show oozes intensity and isn't for the faint of heart.
For those who don't know, the show follows the blooming relationship between Will Graham (Dancy) and Hannibal Lecter (Mikkelsen). Graham works for the FBI on a part time basis and helps profile some of the most creative and grizzly murders in TV history. The scenes of horror are almost artistic in Hannibal. Beautifully horrible, if you will.
Graham has what Hannibal describes as "perfect empathy" and can assume the mindset of anyone, or any killer. He literally enters their mind and sees and feels what they feel. This process, however, takes a toll on Graham's psyche. It's as if he losses a bit of himself each time. Still yet, he feels compelled to do so to save lives. He comes across fragile, yet fiercely defiant at times.
Dr. Lecter is called in as Will's psychiatrist to examine him and confirm that he is able to do this job without losing his mind. Lecter is a former medical doctor who claims he quit when he lost a patient that rocked him especially hard. He is always finely dressed, polite and even kind. You'll like him.
Each week we follow Will as he chases a killer, all the while becoming more broken as Hannibal watches. Will has no idea that a prolific killer has befriended him in Hannibal. The subtlety with which Hannibal is shown to us is enticing. We rarely see him as a monster, but rather as a likable gentlemen. This makes the glimpses beneath his "human suit" all the more jarring and tense. Shots of him doing the terrible things he does are brief and shot in a way that makes them almost beautiful.
No piece of dialog seems needless and almost every scene has ramifications that ripple outward. Hannibal is truly a special show with a special cast that really shouldn't be missed.
Season 1 of Hannibal is currently exclusive to Amazon instant and season 2 is ongoing.


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By Kalea Hall
Canfield Township trustees instructed their administrator to apply for funding with the Ohio Public Works Commission for catch- basin and storm-sewer line replacement projects in residential developments.
The applications must be submitted to OPWC by Sept. 6.
One of the projects deals with replacing all catch basins in the Tippecanoe Estates development off Tippecanoe Road.
The brick basins are old, causing sinkholes, flooding and road problems, township officials said at Tuesday's meeting. Catch basins typically are made of concrete. The Pebble Beach Drive area inside Tippecanoe Estates also has shown signs of flood erosion.
"They [catch basins] are old, and the mortar is cracked and then some of the basins collapse," said Keith Rogers, township administrator.
The township has been attempting to fix certain roads in the development, but the catch basins need to be replaced.
The project's estimated cost and how long it would take to make the repairs still needs to be finalized. The township could pay 60 percent and the state would cover 40 percent, or the township could pay 40 percent, the state 40 percent, and the rest would be covered by a loan.
Another project trustees discussed was replacement of rotting storm sewer lines on Pheasant Run Drive, causing flooding and other problems, Rogers said.
This project is expected to cost approximately $90,000.
The township would pay 60 percent and the state would pay 40 percent for the replacement.
Trustees also approved hiring Butch & McCree Paving Inc. of Hillsville, Pa., to pave St. Ursula Drive, Garda Lane, St. Rosario Drive, Whispering Meadows, St. Angela Place, Revere Run, Dorado Beach Drive from Shields Road to Villa Rosa Drive, and the driveways of the Canfield Township Public Works Commission and the Cardinal Joint Fire Station II at a cost of $261,636.
Gotta wonder WHY Canfield Township cannot pay for their own catch-basin and storm-sewer line replacement projects in RESIDENTIAL developments ??? They live there, they can pay for it. BUT NO, the rest of people who live in Ohio must reach into their wallets and give money to help "poor" Canfield Township build out there residential area. What a CROCK !!!
"... The township would pay 60 percent and the state would pay 40 percent for the replacement...."
NO! The State of Ohio will not the pay 40%. The State of Ohio pays for NOTHING. The other 40% will be confiscated from the other residents in Ohio, who do not live in Canfield Township.


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*Best Rate Guaranteed
Mix a central London hotel with a fantastic bar, a few bloggers, snacks and a smattering of fabulous drinks and you will get the event that took place a few weeks ago at The Cavendish London. We wanted to spread the word about what we are capable of doing at our Lobby Bar, so we decided to invite a few bloggers in the industry, and that's how the 1st Annual Bloggers' Cocktail Masterclass came to be!
Our Bar Supervisor Gabor started with an introduction on what are the main ingredients in a cocktail, how to make sure that they don't clash with each other and on finding the perfect balance (easier said than done!). Warryn meanwhile showed everyone how to correctly prepare a White Lady cocktail.
Then we moved on to a team game where each team of bloggers had to come up with a cocktail, which would be sent to the kitchen for our kitchen staff to judge!
All in all, it was a really funny evening; we had Zoe Dawes from The Quirky Traveller, Emma from the Gin Monkey and Claire from Access London, as well as Barnaby from Bloom Gin. Zoe later visited our bar for a Berry Blazer and tells the story here.


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This weekend's FantasyCon isn't just for geeks, it's for families.
Whether you're there to meet a Hobbit, check out the vendors or see the three-story dragon, make sure the kids are there to experience it with you. Kids ages 10 and younger get in free (and you cans still get your ticket here).
Here are a few of the kid-friendly things to do at FantasyCon:
On Friday, July 4 at 8:30 a.m., take them to see the FantasyCon Parade at The Gateway. At 12 p.m., kids can sign up for the Youth Cosplay Contest at the actual convention in the Salt Palace. Learn why comic books are actually good for your kids' brains on July 4, 1 p.m. End your FantasyCon adventure with fireworks at The Gateway, July 5 at 9:30 p.m.
Find more to do with the kids and specifics on these activities here.


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PimpRig has one of those fancy "FLOWER" type HSF units for you. See what they thought of the Zalman 3000 Copper HSF. here's a snip:
"While this is supposed to be a fairly quiet HSF, which it is, anybody can see by the design of this bad boy that Zalman put their all into making this noise / performance ratio the best for the end user. The 80mm fan maxes at 38CFM, and in silent mode it is 28.0 CFM."


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Management & Labor
Drug Deals: A Pact to Lower State Employee Pill Prices
Driven by the effect of rising drug prices on state budgets, seven states are banding together to change the way they buy pharmaceuticals for their employee-benefit plans.
Driven by the effect of rising drug prices on state budgets, seven states are banding together to change the way they buy pharmaceuticals for their employee-benefit plans.
Their immediate goal is to use their combined market share--1.4 million state employees and drug purchases totaling $852 million--to change the business model. Instead of paying pharmacy benefits managers a percentage of the drug buy to manage their plans, the states want the PBMs to accept a flat fee to administrate the plans.
"In a time of rapid drug-price inflation, the percentage approach works well for the PBMs but not for the states," says West Virginia Governor Bob Wise. "The sicker we get, the healthier they get."
West Virginia has taken the lead in the cooperative purchasing group, which also includes Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico and South Carolina. In part, that's because West Virginia's problem is particularly acute: While most states are dealing with 20 percent annual inflation on drug prices, West Virginia's drug costs are rising by 35 percent a year. Drug costs account for one-fifth of total health care costs for employees in West Virginia's benefit plan.
The coalition took its first major step in October. West Virginia's Public Employees Insurance Agency, on behalf of health plans in the other states, issued a request for proposals for pricing based on volume. Bids from PBMs are due this month.
The fixed-fee approach, which is used by most Medicaid programs, isn't the only change the group hopes to make. It also plans to use market share to leverage lower prices from manufacturers. The seven-state effort is an offshoot of the Multi-State Rx Workgroup, a coalition of 15 state governments.
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PRINCETON, Ky. (AP) -- A grand jury has declined to indict a western Kentucky police chief in a fatal shooting during a bank robbery.
The panel in Caldwell County ruled that Princeton Police Chief Don Weedman was justified when he shot 67-year-old James E. Hamm on July 11.
Commonwealth's Attorney G.L. Ovey told The Paducah Sun he had already believed Weedman was justified before giving it to the grand jurors based on the Kentucky State Police investigation.
Ovey says Hamm had taken $107,000 in a robbery of the same bank two days earlier and investigators found $90,000 at his home with serial numbers corresponding with stolen cash.
Weedman placed himself on a 10-day administrative leave after the shooting and has been back at work since that time.


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Hello everyone,
It might sound a bit too easy for you, but I'm newbie in programming robots.
I have the Problem, that I want to program a path which the robot should follow. I don't know how I can write, how far the robot should go, I can use the method rotate() but I couldn't figure out how i can use this method simultaneously on two motors.
The other way I thought It would function is, that I use the method forward(), but there I don't know how I can control the time and the rotations.
thank you for your help


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Knightmare is a great game that somewhere along the line has been lost / forgotten / dismissed by the masses. For most it is seen as a poor mans Dungeon Master using the engine used for the captive game. While in my opinion it was one of the best games of its type.
The game is very loosely based on the childrens TV show of the time. In fact in less you really look hard you could not notice at all. Apart from the main objective (finding the 4 core items within the dungeons), the use a wells as stairwells, and mining cars as moving platforms you would not notice at all.


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Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (Ultimate Edition Blu-ray)
The extended cut of "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" includes 30 more minutes of story and action not seen in theaters!
Superman Lois Lane Rescue Fleischer Statue
Inspired by Fleischer Studio's animated shorts of the 1940s, this Superman Lois Lane Rescue Fleischer Statue captures a tender moment between Superman and Lois Lane.
The Big Blue Report is the Superman Homepage Newsletter sent out twice a month. It contains exclusive content not seen on the website. Subscribe now!
Cover date: July 2003
Writter: Chris Claremont
Penciller: Josh Hood
Inker: Sean Parsons
"Bloody Bones"
Reviewed by: Neal Bailey (firstname.lastname@example.com)
They pull Diana out, but the ice keeps returning. Flash can't vibrate her free. Manhunter and Superman can't burn her free. Superman uses his microscopic vision to see that the cold is far below absolute zero, impossibly.
Plastic Man has an idea.
Since the ice is not directly on Wonder Woman's skin, he slides into the small hole, coating Wonder Woman like a second skin. He then vibrates, creating a hairline fracture which the JLA exploit at Batman's command.
Wonder Woman is freed. She clutches a rifle desperately.
Conditions seem the same as they were just before the creatures attacked Superman, so Superman tells them to withdraw and leave him to fight. They start to object, but he tells them that he knows what he is doing.
Superman fights the beasts with heat vision, the only known weakness, and they splatter him with an anesthetic acid. As he's about to pass out, Jade and Lantern pull him in with improvised fishing poles.
Inside the hotel, the JLA barricade themselves, and realize, to their horror, that Wonder Woman is being taken over by the monsters. He arm, her eyes, her hair are perverted to evil.
Batman has Lantern and Jade set up security, and he sends Flash with a data recorder to take schematics of the castle. He tells Ms. Park, Flash's significant other, to keep the people calm. She tells him she's pleased with his faith in her.
Batman says, "I have no faith, Ms. Park. I know people."
Batman has J'onn go to speak with Kishana Lewis. He tells Plastic Man to go to the infirmary...Plastic Man is actually wounded from the battle, something that seems impossible even to him.
The director asks Batman to evacuate, but Batman thinks it will be too great a danger.
Superman calls it the Alamo, and Batman tells him he needs treatment. Superman tells Batman that he will be fine, just come get him in the Library when he is needed.
Superman explores Carmody's Folly, and the structures of the castle, as well as his large collection of Indian artifacts. Lois calls, and tells him that she loves him. He thanks her.
Batman and Flash find that the castle is stocked heavily with supplies and fire implements.
The league starts to move into the basement. The doctors are given guns, and they tell Flash that Diana's condition is worsening.
J'onn visits Kishana in the infirmary, and asks to again enter her mind. She agrees, and they are transported to the past, to Carmody. She sees the lake, evaporated by fire.
They see Wonder Woman, having taken the princess' weapon, frozen.
The wall in the real world explodes with monster, and Manhunter does his best to stave it off.
Kishana uses a gun to blow the beast apart in many places, but Manhunter is slashed brutally across the face.
Wonder Woman arrives just in time to save them, as does Superman. Green Lantern is on scene as well.
They flame the beasts, and they retract.
Wonder Woman tells them that Carmody's essense is in Kishana, and they want her dead.
Meanwhile, it is revealed that the director of the hotel is working with the creatures.
Kishana agrees to give whatever she needs to, and J'onn warns her she may have to.
Story - 5: This is a great story, so far. I thought the enemy would be standard, and the threat silly as the issues go on, but they took down Superman! They ripped J'onn's face off! They cut Plasty! This is some good stuff.
More important, as implausible as comics can be, there is actual coherence to the plot here, continuity. This is the problem with a lot of specials...no continuity, no coherence, just stuff that sounds cool. It is obvious that Claremont has a good eye for detail. The only flaws I found were the fact that the end seemed a bit rushed (space I'd imagine, but things are taken care of in due course. It's not so bad).
Art - 5: Hood continues to surprise me. There is a lot of stuff being asked by the writer here, and I can tell, just from personal experience, that the art is going the distance. Meaning, I've been toying around with writing a comic with an artist lately, to much success, but one of the hard thing is saying that I need eighteen things in a page, and only being able to physically fit 12. If you look at where Lantern appears in pseudo hologram, things are packed in there. Really packed in there. If the artist hadn't successfully accommodated the information, even the story of this comic, which I like, would have truly suffered.
And when the information level is small, meaning, full on shots, we have something so dramatic and detailed that it's hard to pull away from. Like the Diana shot with Plasty. Like Superman in the winds of the monsters.
My only problem is the slight errors in the coloration, or what seemed to be. There were two glaring color errors. First, Superman's heat vision on 8, or what seemed to be heat vision, had green coloring. This could just be my interpretation of the art, but then again, it is strange. Still, it could have been the acid. On page 14, Jimmy Olsen appears to have blue hair. Strange...or is it Jimmy. Either way, I just noticed those things.
Good work.
Cover Art - 4: Gotta knock one for depicting something that didn't explicitly happen in the issue (her hand was toast by then, and the JLA found her encased in ice), but otherwise, the cover is well drawn, hello, good cleavage, dynamic, in that it is a perspective we're not used to, and succinct. The dead are hard to see at first, and the expression is one of real panic. This is one of the better covers I've seen lately, when covers lack background, detail, or significance in favor of the modern art. Which I respect, but I like detail. This is chock full.
January 2003
Check out the Comic Index Lists for the complete list of Superman-related comics published in 2003.


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License to Use
By Antony Reynolds-Oracle on Nov 28, 2008
License to Use or Tracking Service Usage
I was on a training course this week around an Oracle SOA Reference Architecture. This led to an interesting conversation about what is a service. There was a difference in opinion on some of the characteristics of a service, most noticeably does a service have to be re-used to be a service. There was however, general agreement that the definition of a service presented was a good one so I thought I would share it with you. The service definition had four parts
- Service Contract – the requirements document for the service in terms of what does the service do and what promises does it provide in terms of response time, scalability, availability.
- Service Interface – the formal definition of operations and data formats provided by the service.
- Service Implementation – the physical endpoint and code that provides the service.
- Service Usage Agreement – the contract between the client and the service.
The one that may not be immediately obvious is the fourth one, service usage agreement. This indicates the expected level of use of the service by the client, number of requests per time period, message size and concurrency for example. This is important because SOA is about using services in place, sharing not just the service code, but also its implementation resources such as network bandwidth, memory and cpu resources. Usage by one client may impact another and so it is important to set expectations of how a given client may use the service. Service usage agreements may be realised by policies within a service bus that enforce some of the constraints agreed within the usage agreement.
So all told I think a very useful way to think about services and I will certainly be making sure I do a better job of formalising the service usage agreement in future.


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Here's your chance to be part of the action as the Arizona women's basketball team takes on archrival Arizona State in Tempe on Saturday, Feb. 26.
You and your fellow Wildcat fans can board the Arizona Fun Buses that afternoon and head up to Tempe to cheer on the UA women as they zap the Sun Devils on their home court.
For only $20 per person, you will receive a reserved game ticket and transportation to and from Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe. The buses depart at 5 p.m. and return immediately after the game. Gametime that night is 8 p.m.
Space is limited, so contact the UA women's basketball office at (520) 621-4014 now to make your reservations and leave the driving to us!


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Enabling a Flexible Workplace
In our hyperconnected world, employees expect to work from anywhere … at any time … with any device. Each of these new access points, however, increases the IT security perimeter. In the flexible workplace, how can organizations balance the prom-ise of greater productivity that increased access provides with the security concerns increased access creates? And how can they do it without wreaking havoc with the budget? The new, more accessible workplace needs to be, in a word, manageable.
How IBM is making organization flexible
The most effective flexible workplaces provide mobile and remote staff with the tools they need to do their job more effectively. IBM believes that intelligent provisioning of these tools can actually reduce your company's overall costs while helping employees capture new business opportunities.
Explore the possibilities:
- Leverage cloud computing for security-rich desktop virtualization
- Simplify support, improve productivity and cut costs with the right support solution – with capabilities from innovative self-services to traditional one-on-one assistance
- Enable, support and scale anytime/anywhere access to enterprise content from mobile devices
- Develop a secure wireless network infrastructure to support communications and collaboration among mobile workers
- Enhance collaboration through integrated video, data and voice communications and save 10 – 20%
- Enable real-time, lifelike, high-definition video communications among multiple locations
Forrester report on workplace flexibility demand
Adoption Profile on flexible workplace technology adoption, commissioned by IBM and conducted in June 2012.
Transition to a Flexible Workplace and increase productivity
Transforming your voice, video and collaboration infrastructure
IBM embraces mobile technologies for business computing
Beginning the enterprise mobility journey
Webinar Podcasts
Power to collaborate: An all in one unified communications application
Ask an IBMer
Got questions? We're here to help.
- Request a conversation
Call Us: +1800 425 3333(Toll free) (Above Toll Free Line applies for calls within India ONLY from MTNL/BSNL Lines) Or call +91 80 26788990 Mon-Fri, 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. IST Tcode : 103HA05T+1800 425 3333(Toll free) (Above Toll Free Line applies for calls within India ONLY from MTNL/BSNL Lines) Or call +91 80 26788990 Mon-Fri, 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. IST Tcode : 103HA05T
Related Link
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IBM's mobile technology journey that enables a flexible, mobile enterprise
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IBM Business Solution
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Levels of mercury called "exceptionally high" in the fish of the Roseau River has prompted the state of Minnesota to launch a major study to find a cause.
Environmental bill SF 1899 passed through committee in the Minnesota Legislature on April 2. A part of it contains $743,000 to fund the second year of a study that is seeking to quantify the causes of high mercury in Roseau River fish.
The Roseau River is a preferred fishing venue for many folks in northwest Minnesota. It's a terrific place to snag northern pike and the occasional walleye.
All of the "usual suspects" for mercury pollution being looked at, including mercury contributed to the environment via the process of burning coal.
Unfortunately, a local power company, the Roseau Electric Cooperative, has recently been making a strenuous case, and has even enlisted the help of its members, in a campaign to stop the EPA from further regulating the dirty polluting coal emissions.
Roseau Electric Cooperative also recently published a series of scientifically inaccurate articles in its newsletter, attempting to convince co-op members that coal smog is a "harmless gas." (See: Roseau Electric propaganda )
The cause of the alarming mercury elevation in one of northwest Minnesota's most popular fishing spots is certainly complex -- drivers being looked at range from the broad effects falling out of climate change to increased sources of mercury coming into Minnesota from outside the United States.
China, for example, is burning more coal than ever, and its pollution is readily traveling around the globe.
Of course, among the most primary drivers of climate change is the burning of fossil fuels. Roseau Electric still gets almost 60% of its power from the dirtiest of fossil fuels -- lignite coal from North Dakota -- although Roseau Electric management maintains that "CO2 is harmless."
Northern Minnesota power co-ops are so eager to keep burning coal that they have recently joined a lawsuit by North Dakota that is suing Minnesota for its efforts to back away from using dirty fossil fuels. See story: Lawsuit
In the meantime, the recent increase in levels of mercury in river fish -- in addition to lake environments -- has caused surprise and alarm within the scientific community. Mercury accumulation is better understood for lakes and ponds where the water does not flow with the same dynamics as it does in rivers.
Thus, "exceptionally high" levels of mercury documented in Roseau River fish is a cause for concern, thus prompting this latest taxpayer-funded study to get to the root of the problem.
The $743,000 for the second year of the study will come from cash collected through Minnesota's Legacy project and will be funded to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, which is doing the legwork.
The bill calls for the Roseau River mercury study to be completed by June 30, 2017.
Similar stories by this author: Solar Woes, A Bad Idea, Oil Pipelines
Send Ken an email: firstname.lastname@example.com


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An Amish family who was ordered to give their daughter chemo has filed an appeal to remove the court appointed guardian. Fox News reports on Jan. 21 that the family has been hiding to avoid giving Sarah Hershberger chemotherapy for her leukemia, but a lawyer has filed the necessary paperwork to challenge the guardian.
The Amish family is too scared to return to Ohio while the court appointed guardian is still in charge of their daughter's medical decisions. Maria Schimer, who was selected by the judge to be the guardian, does not believe that she should be removed from her court appointed role. However, the lawyer for the Hershberger family argues that the order violates the family's constitutional rights.
Despite their religious views being blamed for the decision to stop chemotherapy, the Amish family states religion was not the reason behind their decision. Instead, they believe the chemo treatments were making their daughter ill and could kill her. For several months, the Hershberger family has been hiding from the public and doctors to avoid chemo while giving Sarah natural treatments.
The grandfather of Sarah Hershberger claims her cancer has been cured through the help of herbs and natural remedies, and her parents no longer trust the conventional medical community. He describes her as healthy and energetic, so he believes there is no need for chemotherapy at this point.
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Five dogs were left unattended for more than five hours while Maureen Gaffney, 51, was at a Bucktown neighborhood bar on Friday, according to a Chicago Tribune report on Saturday morning. The dogs were without heat, food and water while Gaffney's vehicle was parked in the 2400 block of North Artesian Avenue.
Someone saw the woman park at approximately 4:30 in the afternoon and called authorities approximately six hours later. Police had Chicago Fire Department personnel open the car door by force after police were notified. The dogs were then taken to the Chicago Animal Care and Control facility.
The woman reportedly said her dogs go with her everywhere – and also claimed that she loves dogs. Even though it got down to the upper 30s, temperature-wise, Gaffney said it wasn't all that cold for leaving the dogs in the car. Authorities disagreed.
After Gaffney – who resides in Chicago in the 2600 block of West North Avenue - was eventually found along Fullerton Avenue, she was charged under the owner's duties portion of Illinois' Humane Care for Animals Act. She is to appear in court on the charges on May 1.
Gaffney said she was watching a relative perform at Quencher's bar near Western and Fullerton on the city's West Side. One can only assume the woman who has great stamina for the cold attended a very long performance.