Now Facing Hostile Black Lives Matter Protesters, Garcetti’s South L.A. Forum Ends Abruptly

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Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti faced throngs of hostile protesters at a community meeting Monday night as chaos descended on a gathering that had been intended as a forum for him to improve his fraught relationship with the black communities of South L.A.

The meeting at Holman United Methodist Church, attended by several hundred, was quickly overtaken by about 50 protesters from organizations including the national activist group Black Lives Matter, which was formed in the wake of high-profile police killings of young black men. As Garcetti spoke to a full house in the church’s cavernous sanctuary hall, the demonstrators stood and turned their backs to him.

Toward the end of the hourlong session Garcetti, ringed by police officers, struggled to reach his car as he was swarmed by a crowd of chanting activists — and once inside the vehicle, he was forced to wait amid blaring sirens until the crowd was dispersed by the LAPD.

“The mayor has neglected, disrespected and abused the black community for far too long,” Melina Abdullah, a professor of Pan African Studies at Cal State L.A. and organizer for Black Lives Matter, said at the meeting. “We are here today because this is real for us. This is not a political game. This is not about your reelection. This is about our lives.”

Others voiced exasperation at what they described as the usurping of a general-purpose community meeting by a small and unrepresentative group of protesters. Many of those seated in the pews as the meeting began rose and left as the faction of protesters became more strident in questioning Garcetti. Others tried to quiet the demonstrators when they interrupted Garcetti. (Read more from “Now Facing Hostile Black Lives Matter Protesters, Garcetti’s South L.A. Forum Ends Abruptly” HERE)

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Genetically-Engineered, Extra-Muscular Dogs Created by Chinese Scientists

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Photo Credit: The Independent Chinese scientists have created genetically-engineered, extra-muscular dogs, after editing the genes of the animals for the first time.

The scientists create beagles that have double the amount of muscle mass by deleting a certain gene, reports the MIT Technology Review. The mutant dogs have “more muscles and are expected to have stronger running ability, which is good for hunting, police (military) applications”, Liangxue Lai, one of the researchers on the project, told the magazine.

Now the team hope to go on to create other modified dogs, including those that are engineered to have human diseases like muscular dystrophy or Parkinson’s. Since dogs’ anatomy is similar to those of humans’, intentionally creating dogs with certain human genetic traits could allow scientists to further understand how they occur . . .

Recent developments in genome editing allow scientists to edit out or change genes relatively easily. The scientists said that the muscular dogs were mostly a proof of concept, and that they hope to go on to create more edited dogs. (Read more from “Genetically-Engineered, Extra-Muscular Dogs Created by Chinese Scientists” HERE)

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Compassion International: Releasing Children From Poverty in Jesus’ Name

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Photo Credit: Compassion In a world where more than a billion people live on less than U.S. $2 per day, child sponsorship is the most strategic way to end child poverty, particularly when it is integrated into a holistic approach to child development.

All of our programs are rooted in our Christian faith and are implemented by the commit to honor Jesus Christ in all we do.

We are a “love thy neighbor” ministry. We are advocates for children in poverty. We see them as whole beings with bodies, minds, souls and spirits. We see them as unique and precious in God’s sight. We give them an opportunity to learn about Jesus.

Who We Are

What is Compassion? Compassion means “to suffer with” and is an emotional response of sympathy. But it’s not just a feeling. The feeling is combined with a desire to help. Because we have compassion, we want to take action and help the person who is suffering.

Notice the last word of the definition above — “with.” We are called to suffer with someone, to suffer together. This is what differentiates compassion from empathy.

Who is Compassion International? Compassion International is a child-advocacy ministry that pairs compassionate people with those who are suffering from poverty. The ministry releases children from spiritual, economic, social, and physical poverty. The goal is for each child to become a responsible and fulfilled adult.

Compassion’s work has grown from modest beginnings in South Korea in 1952 when American evangelist Rev. Everett Swanson felt compelled to help 35 children orphaned by the Korean conflict. Today it is a worldwide ministry where millions of children are now reaping the benefits of one man’s clear, God-given vision.

What We Do

We are the world’s leading authority in holistic child development through sponsorship.

Holistic child development means we begin, in some cases, with prenatal care and go all the way through leadership development for qualified young adults. It means we take a long-term approach to what we do and go beyond simple involvement in the lives of the children and families we serve.

All of our child development programs provide opportunities that encourage healthy development in four areas — spiritual, physical, social and economic.

And when it specifically comes to child sponsorship, our Child Sponsorship Program is the only child sponsorship program validated as effective through independent, empirical research.

Want to know how you can get involved in the mission to release children from poverty? Click HERE to find out.

Make a Donation Today

Share the love of Jesus Christ with children today when you make a tax-deductible donation to one of the critical needs HERE.

Sponsor a Child Today

As you exchange letters, send photos and offer encouragement in Jesus’ name, your love will bring hope to a child that will last a lifetime. Sponsor a child today!

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George W. Bush Unleashes on Ted Cruz

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By Eli Stokols. Inside a sleek Denver condominium, George W. Bush let a hundred donors to his brother’s campaign in on a secret. Of all the rival Republican candidates, there is one who gets under the former president’s skin, whom he views as perhaps Jeb Bush’s most serious rival for the party’s nomination.

It isn’t Donald Trump, whose withering insults have sought to make Jeb pay a political price for his brother’s presidency. It isn’t Marco Rubio, Jeb’s former understudy who now poses a serious threat to his establishment support.

“I just don’t like the guy,” Bush said Sunday night, according to conversations with more than half a dozen donors who attended the event.

One donor in the room said . . . “I was like, ‘Holy sh-t, did he just say that?’ . . . I remember looking around and seeing that other people were also looking around surprised” . . .

Bush took a harsh view of Cruz’s apparent alliance with Trump, who stood with the senator at a Capitol Hill rally last month in opposition to the Iran deal. While Trump, the current GOP poll leaders, has attacked most of his competitors in the 2016 field, he has avoided criticizing Cruz. (Read more from “George W. Bush Unleashes on Ted Cruz” HERE)


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George W. Bush Reportedly Rips Ted Cruz to Jeb Bush Donors

By Fox News. Former President George W. Bush reportedly ripped into Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at a weekend gathering of donors to his brother’s presidential campaign, according to a published report Monday.

Politico reported that Bush said of Cruz, “I just don’t like the guy,” at the event, which was held Sunday night in Denver.

According to the report, which cited at least six donors who were at the event, Bush said he did not like Cruz’s de facto alliance with Republican front-runner Donald Trump, who has notably spared Cruz from the criticism he has ladled onto other members of the 15-candidate Republican field.

“He said he found it ‘opportunistic’ that Cruz was sucking up to Trump and just expecting all of his support to come to him in the end,” one donor told Politico when asked to describe Bush’s remarks about Cruz. The report added that the former president had been engaging with amiable discussions about the state of the GOP race when Cruz’s name came up . . .

The report also said that Bush warned the donors to not underestimate Cruz’s strength in the South and in Texas, where his message of religious liberty is expected to play very well with voters. (Read more from “George W. Bush Reportedly Rips Ted Cruz to Jeb Bush Donors” HERE)

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Ben Carson Just Called on Every Christian in America to Do THIS, and It Shouldn’t Be Ignored

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Dr. Ben Carson told an audience of thousands at the Faith and Freedom Coalition Presidential Forum on Saturday that inviting God back into America is part of his prescription for what ails the nation. He encouraged the evangelical crowd that they have an important role to play in bringing about a renaissance of faith and liberty in the culture.

“It is time to bring God back into our country,” Carson stated. “Our faith gives us our freedom.”

The former neurosurgeon used his own life as an illustration of God’s ability to transform the individual, who can then turn around and spread the good news and help change the culture. Breitbart reports that Carson spoke about the anger issues that he had as a teenager. “At one point, he described a fight he got into with another man where he actually stabbed the man with a knife because of his rage. Fortunately, the man was wearing a large metal belt buckle that broke the blade. The man safely fled, but Carson was shocked at what happened because of his temper,” according to the news outlet.

[Listen to this activist’s overview of the forum in Texas and who came out on top:]

Immediately following the incident, he locked himself away and prayed and read Bible verses on anger for two hours. What came out of that time was a recognition that his violent outbursts (which had happened on previous occasions as well) were not his strength, but his weakness. He told the Faith and Freedom audience that he has never had an outburst of anger since that time with the Almighty. “God doesn’t just do a paint job, he fixes things,” Carson said. (Read more from “Ben Carson Just Called on Every Christian in America to Do THIS, and It Shouldn’t Be Ignored” HERE)

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United Nations Moving Forward With Plan to Declare Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall A Muslim Holy Site

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Israel said Monday that it is working to thwart a Palestinian bid to have the Western Wall in Jerusalem declared a Muslim holy site by the UN’s cultural body in a vote [today].

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry called the proposal “an attempt to distort history and blur the connection between the Jewish people and its holiest place and to create a false reality.”

The Western Wall is one of the few remnants of the ancient retaining wall that held up an artificial plateau on which a refurbished Second Temple stood in the reign of King Herod the Great. The Temple and much of the wall were later destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E.

For Jews, who are forbidden from praying on the Temple Mount by Israeli regulations, the Western Wall is the prayer site closest to the ancient site of the Holy of Holies inside the destroyed Temple. It is considered the holiest site where Jews are allowed to pray.

According to Muslim tradition, the Temple Mount is where Mohammad tied the winged animal Buraq, which he rode on the night he ascended to heaven. Atop it lies the Dome of the Rock — a Muslim shrine — and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. (Read more from “United Nations Moving Forward With Plan to Declare Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall A ‘Muslim Holy Site'” HERE)


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UPDATE: UNESCO has decreed that the second and third holiest sites in the Jewish faith are actually Muslim. At the same time, the initial draft proposal declaring that the Western Wall was also a Muslim holy site was withdrawn after facing widespread criticism

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has adopted a resolution condemning Israel for restricting the freedom of worship at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque and for mishandling holy sites.

The resolution submitted by Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates on behalf of Palestine, was adopted Wednesday with 26 votes in favor, six against, including the United States, Britain and Germany, and 25 abstentions, including France.

The adopted resolution referred to Jerusalem as “the occupied capital of Palestine”. It condemned “restrictions of freedom of worship at the Al-Aqsa mosque”, reaffirmed other complaints about Israeli management of holy sites and Israeli actions in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza.

The head of UN’s cultural body, Irina Bokova, called on the UNESCO board Tuesday “to take decisions that do not further inflame tensions on the ground and that encourage respect for the sanctity of the holy sites”. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Why Did Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio Promise an Alternative Plan to Obamacare but Never Deliver? [+video]

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As Congress comes back this week to additional speculation about whether or not Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) will throw his hat into the race for Speaker, there’s another question surrounding the House Ways and Means Committee Chairman:

Where’s the Obamacare alternative that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said he was working with Paul Ryan on…?

Eighteen Months—And Counting

In an interview with a Denver radio station just before the midterm elections, Sen. Rubio, when asked what would happen with Obamacare in the new Congress, said “I’ve actually been working on one [Obamacare alternative] with Paul Ryan that we hope to introduce soon.” He then went on to outline some general principles for an alternative, including more personalized health insurance options, and equalizing the tax treatment of health insurance.

That was nearly one year ago—and eighteen months since the first rumors appeared that Rubio and Ryan were working on a plan. Since then, the rumor mill among health wonks on and off Capitol Hill has speculated about what was, or was not, in this supposed alternative.

Since then, Sen. Rubio has written two health care op-eds—the first around the time of the Supreme Court heard arguments in King v. Burwell, and the second days before Gov. Scott Walker released his own health care proposal. Chairman Ryan co-signed neither. Both pieces included three carefully-parsed paragraphs outlining an alternative—and I know they were carefully parsed because those three paragraphs are nearly identical in each article.

But two op-eds—which dedicated more time bashing Obamacare than explaining what should replace it—do not a “plan” make. For instance, the op-eds propose a new refundable credit for health coverage, and says, “we should set the tax preference for employer-sponsored insurance on a glide path to ensure that it will equal the level of the credits at the end of the decade.” But that language doesn’t begin to explain how this quite novel approach to the tax treatment of health care would work in practice. And it also doesn’t explain why the Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, which happens to have jurisdiction over tax policy, decided not to endorse it.

The questions ask themselves: Where’s the Rubio-Ryan plan? Did Rubio decide to go off on his own? If so, why exactly did Paul Ryan decide not to endorse the Rubio plan?

The next Republican debate is a week from Wednesday. Perhaps we’ll find out then. (For more from the author of “Why Did Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio Promise an Alternative Plan to Obamacare but Never Deliver?” please click HERE)

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Mitt Romney Just Ripped Donald Trump’s ‘Hurtful’ Comments and Predicted They’ll Do This to the Race

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Romney (R) ratcheted up his criticism of real-estate magnate Donald Trump in a new interview released Friday.

Romney, the Republican 2012 presidential nominee, discussed Trump during a wide-ranging interview with David Axelrod, who, as President Barack Obama’s top campaign adviser, helped defeat Romney three years ago.

“I think Donald Trump has said a number of things which are hurtful — and he has said that they were ‘childish’ in some respects — and I think [they] will be potentially problematic either in the primary or a general election,” Romney said.

“And they relate to things he’s said about women, and things he’s said about members of the news media, things he’s said about Hispanics,” he added. “I think he’ll have some challenges if he proceeds to the next stage.”

As a Republican presidential candidate in 2012, Romney went out of his way to secure Trump’s endorsement. But as Trump has risen to become the Republican 2016 front-runner, Romney has let it be known that he shares the GOP’s establishment’s disdain for Trump’s candidacy. (Read more from “Mitt Romney Just Ripped Donald Trump’s ‘Hurtful’ Comments and Predicted They’ll Do This to the Race” HERE)

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This Is Ted Cruz’s Fiery Opinion of Republican Leadership [+video]

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In an exclusive interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told NBC’s Chuck Todd that the Republican leadership has “passed more Democratic priorities than Harry Reid ever could.”

“The truth of the matter is, Republican leadership are the most effective Democrat leaders we’ve ever seen. They passed more Democratic priorities than Harry Reid ever could,” Cruz said.

Cruz said the Republicans voted to fund Obamacare, amnesty for illegal immigrants, and funding for Planned Parenthood, in addition to confirming Loretta Lunch as U.S. attorney general – all Democratic priorities.

TODD: Have you overpromised? You were sitting there saying that you could stop Obamacare if you just did what you did and shut down the government and that Republicans could stop the Iran deal. The fact is, you couldn’t. The numbers weren’t on your side. There’s a Democratic president, so did you overpromise, because I understand you’re saying others, but didn’t you?

CRUZ: When it comes to promising, what I promised is that I would fight with every breath in my body to stop the out-of-control spending and the debt that is bankrupting our country, to stop Obamacare, to protect our nation, and all of those are promises that I have honored every single day in the Senate. And you know it’s amazing—so I was visiting with a colleague recently, who was making that pitch about, oh gosh, the problem is expectations. We need to define expectations. (Read more from “This Is Ted Cruz’s Fiery Opinion of Republican Leadership” HERE)

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Football Coach Refuses to Lose Religion, but Will He Lose His Job?

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The Washington state football coach defied the Bremerton School District on Oct. 16 by dropping to a knee and praying at midfield after the Friday night football game.

“I’m going to be bold in my faith, and fight the good fight,” he told the Kitsap Sun. “It’s beyond humbling to have so much support. Whatever happens — happens.”

The Bremerton School District issued a stern letter to the coach just hours before the football game – warning him not to pray . . .

“I appreciate Coach Kennedy staying true to his convictions,” [famed NFL coach Tony] Dungy wrote on Twitter.

“Glad I never faced anything like this in my career.” So the question is what happens now? Will Coach Kennedy be reprimanded? Will he be fired? (Read more from “Football Coach Refuses to Lose Religion, but Will He Lose His Job?” HERE)

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