Pro-Life Professor Wins Discrimination Lawsuit Against University of North Carolina

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: William Yeung / Creative Commons

Photo Credit: William Yeung / Creative Commons

By Ashley Herzog.

More than seven years after filing a lawsuit against the University of North Carolina-Wilmington for religious and political discrimination, pro-life professor Mike Adams won his case in March. He is now using his case to make people more aware of this type of bias, which is rampant on college campuses.

Back in 2006, Adams, an associate professor, applied for promotion to full professor. He had published more peer-reviewed articles than most of his colleagues and had won three teaching awards, including Faculty Member of the Year. But Adams was nonetheless denied a promotion, and UNCW refused to provide a written explanation.

Why? Adams believed that it was because he is also an evangelical Christian and a popular conservative author at Townhall.com. After years of litigation, a jury in a U.S. District Court agreed.

“They concluded that the University of North Carolina Wilmington retaliated against Dr. Adams by denying him a promotion in 2006 and they retaliated against him because they did not like the views he expressed in his books and columns and speeches,” Adams’s lawyer, Travis Barham, told a local news station. “Basically, they didn’t like what he said in his own time.”

Needless to say, Adams’s colleagues really didn’t like what he had to say about abortion. He’s well-known for attacking abortion in a mocking, satirical fashion – one that drives humorless leftists nuts.

Read more from this story HERE.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Photo Credit: LifeNews

Photo Credit: LifeNews

Judge Sides With NAACP’s Attempt to Silence Black Pro-Lifer

By Steven Ertelt.

A judge has issued a ruling in the NAACP lawsuit against a black pro-life leader who exposed its pro-abortion views in an article appearing at LifeNews.com.

In February, the NAACP threatened to sue LifeNews.com and Ryan Bomberger, a LifeNews blogger , for a column that took the civil rights organization to task over its abortion position. The NAACP is upset about a column Bomberger wrote at LifeNews titled, “NAACP: National Association for the Abortion of Colored People,” which notes the organization’s 44th Annual Image Awards.

Following the piece, the NAACP sent Bomberger, the director of the Radiance Foundation, and LifeNews a threatening letter claiming infringement on its name and logo for including it in the opinion column. The letter accuses Bomberger (left) and his group, the Radiance Foundation, of “trademark infringement” over an ad campaign that exposes the NAACP’s pro-abortion position.

Stating that while “you are certainly entitled to express your viewpoint, you cannot do so in connection with a name that infringes on the NAACP’s rights,” the letter demands a response within a self-imposed time period.

In response to the letter, Bomberger asked a federal court to declare that the First Amendment protects his and the Radiance Foundation’s exercise of free speech and that his speech does not infringe on any of the NAACP’s trademarks or other rights. The lawsuit does not seek any damages.

Read more from this story HERE.

Rhetoric vs. Reality on Obamacare

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AFP / Nicholas KAMM

Photo Credit: AFP / Nicholas KAMM

President Barack Obama once again came out swinging in defense of his signature healthcare law.

Countless times since the rollout, and again last week, he proclaimed that Obamacare is working, called on Democrats to defend it, and chastised conservatives for their opposition that he believes is entirely political. But people should look beyond Obama’s rhetoric and consider reality – Obamacare is bad medicine for America.

The president’s definition of success is a curious one. More than six million cancelled plans, lost doctors, and higher costs aside, Obama is in essence celebrating the expansion of the welfare state. In order to get more people insured, it was not necessary to raise taxes, restrict choice, drive the debt up to $27 trillion, and make millions more people dependent on the government.

But that is precisely what Obamacare is doing. And President Obama insists that it is working as he intended.

But even beyond the negative consequences on the nation’s well-being, claiming victory from a practical sense is a stretch, to say the least. Obama “spiked the football” as he touted seven million enrollees, but there is still no clear estimate of how many of those seven million were previously uninsured and have actually paid a premium signifying they are covered. The president’s vague claim that “a sizeable part of the U.S. population” is enjoying health insurance for the first time remains completely unquantifiable.

Read more from this story HERE.

WATCH: Cruz Calls on Kerry to Resign After ‘Apartheid’ Remark

/12 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore

Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) demanded on the Senate floor Monday that Secretary of State John Kerry resign from his post following highly controversial remarks about the state of Israel.

Kerry came under fire from lawmakers and a variety of pro-Israel organizations after he told world leaders in a closed door meeting that Israel risks becoming “an apartheid state” if it fails to reach peace with the Palestinians.

Israel cut off peace talks late last week after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas formed a unity government with the terror group Hamas, which announced that it would not renounce violence or recognize Israel’s right to exist.

Cruz said in a speech on the Senate floor that Kerry should immediately offer his resignation to President Barack Obama.

“John Kerry should offer President Obama his resignation and the president should accept it,” Cruz said.

Read more from this story HERE.

_________________________________________________________________________

Photo Credit: Brendan Smialowski / Reuters

Photo Credit: Brendan Smialowski / Reuters

Kerry Warns Israel Could Become ‘An Apartheid State’

By Josh Rogin.

If there’s no two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict soon, Israel risks becoming “an apartheid state,” Secretary of State John Kerry told a room of influential world leaders in a closed-door meeting Friday.

Senior American officials have rarely, if ever, used the term “apartheid” in reference to Israel, and President Obama has previously rejected the idea that the word should apply to the Jewish state. Kerry’s use of the loaded term is already rankling Jewish leaders in America—and it could attract unwanted attention in Israel, as well.

It wasn’t the only controversial comment on the Middle East that Kerry made during his remarks to the Trilateral Commission, a recording of which was obtained by The Daily Beast. Kerry also repeated his warning that a failure of Middle East peace talks could lead to a resumption of Palestinian violence against Israeli citizens. He suggested that a change in either the Israeli or Palestinian leadership could make achieving a peace deal more feasible. He lashed out against Israeli settlement-building. And Kerry said that both Israeli and Palestinian leaders share the blame for the current impasse in the talks.

Kerry also said that at some point, he might unveil his own peace deal and tell both sides to “take it or leave it.”

“A two-state solution will be clearly underscored as the only real alternative. Because a unitary state winds up either being an apartheid state with second-class citizens—or it ends up being a state that destroys the capacity of Israel to be a Jewish state,” Kerry told the group of senior officials and experts from the U.S., Western Europe, Russia, and Japan. “Once you put that frame in your mind, that reality, which is the bottom line, you understand how imperative it is to get to the two-state solution, which both leaders, even yesterday, said they remain deeply committed to.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Doctor’s Declaration of Independence: Time to Defy Healthcare Mandates Issued by Bureaucrats…

/8 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Corbis

Photo Credit: Corbis

In my 23 years as a practicing physician, I’ve learned that the only thing that matters is the doctor-patient relationship. How we interact and treat our patients is the practice of medicine. I acknowledge that there is a problem with the rising cost of health care, but there is also a problem when the individual physician in the trenches does not have a voice in the debate and is being told what to do and how to do it.

As a group, the nearly 880,000 licensed physicians in the U.S. are, for the most part, well-intentioned. We strive to do our best even while we sometimes contend with unrealistic expectations. The demands are great, and many of our families pay a huge price for our not being around. We do the things we do because it is right and our patients expect us to.

So when do we say damn the mandates and requirements from bureaucrats who are not in the healing profession? When do we stand up and say we are not going to take it any more?

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services dictates that we must use an electronic health record (EHR) or be penalized with lower reimbursements in the future. There are “meaningful use” criteria whereby the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services tells us as physicians what we need to include in the electronic health record or we will not be subsidized the cost of converting to the electronic system and we will be penalized by lower reimbursements. Across the country, doctors waste precious time filling in unnecessary electronic-record fields just to satisfy a regulatory measure. I personally spend two hours a day dictating and documenting electronic health records just so I can be paid and not face a government audit. Is that the best use of time for a highly trained surgical specialist?

This is not a unique complaint. A study commissioned by the American Medical Association last year and conducted by the RAND Corp. found that “Poor EHR usability, time-consuming data entry, interference with face-to-face patient care, inefficient and less fulfilling work content, inability to exchange health information between EHR products, and degradation of clinical documentation were prominent sources of professional dissatisfaction.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Judge OKs Decision to Sell Widow’s Home Over $6.30 Debt

/14 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Eric Allix Rogers

Photo Credit: Eric Allix Rogers

A widow was given ample notice before her $280,000 house was sold at a tax auction three years ago over $6.30 in unpaid interest, a Pennsylvania judge has ruled.

The decision last week turned down Eileen Battisti’s request to reverse the September 2011 sale of her home outside Aliquippa in western Pennsylvania.

“I paid everything, and didn’t know about the $6.30,” Battisti said. “For the house to be sold just because of $6.30 is crazy.”

Battisti, who still lives in the house, said Monday that she plans to appeal to Commonwealth Court. That court earlier ordered an evidentiary hearing, which led to last week’s ruling.

Beaver County Common Pleas Judge Gus Kwidis wrote that the county tax claim bureau complied with notification requirements in state law before the auction. She had previously owed other taxes, but at the time of the sale she owed just $235, including other interest and fees.

Read more from this story HERE.

BLS: In 20% of American Families, No One Works

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons photo

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons photo

In 20 percent of American families in 2013, according to new data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), not one member of the family worked.

A family, as defined by the BLS, is a group of two or more people who live together and who are related by birth, adoption or marriage. In 2013, there were 80,445,000 families in the United States and in 16,127,000—or 20 percent–no one had a job.

The BLS designates a person as “employed” if “during the survey reference week” they “(a) did any work at all as paid employees; (b) worked in their own business, profession, or on their own farm; (c) or worked 15 hours or more as unpaid workers in an enterprise operated by a member of the family.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Big Chill: Feds Want to Scour Net, Media for ‘Hate Speech’

/18 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

If two Democratic lawmakers have their way, Barack Obama’s Justice Department will submit a report for action against any Internet sites, broadcast, cable television or radio shows determined to be advocating or encouraging “violent acts.”

This according to the text of a new bill from Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.

The Hate Crime Reporting Act of 2014 “would create an updated comprehensive report examining the role of the Internet and other telecommunications in encouraging hate crimes based on gender, race, religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation and create recommendations to address such crimes,” stated a news release from Markey’s office.

The one-page bill, reviewed by WND, calls for the Justice Department and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to “analyze information on the use of telecommunications, including the Internet, broadcast television and radio, cable television, public access television, commercial mobile services, and other electronic media, to advocate and encourage violent acts and the commission of crimes of hate.”

Read more from this story HERE.

China Accused of Anti-Christian Campaign as Church Demolition Begins

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Telegraph

Photo Credit: Telegraph

Demolition teams began destroying parts of a Chinese church that has become a symbol of resistance to the Communist Party’s draconian clutch on religion, activists and witnesses said on Monday.

Sanjiang church in Wenzhou, a wealthy coastal city known as the “Jerusalem of the East”, made headlines earlier this month when thousands of Christians formed a human shield around its entrance after plans for its demolition were announced.

Church members accused Communist leaders in Zhejiang province of ordering an anti-church crackdown and claimed there were plans to completely or partially demolish at least 10 places of worship.

Officials rejected those accusations, alleging the church had violated building codes.

After mounting their high-profile occupation in early April, many protesters withdrew from Sanjiang church after its leaders appeared to have negotiated a compromise with the government.

Read more from this story HERE.

Study: 1 in 25 Death Cases Likely Innocent

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Ken Piorkowski / Creative Commons

Photo Credit: Ken Piorkowski / Creative Commons

Science and law have led to the exoneration of hundreds of criminal defendants in recent decades, but big questions remain: How many other innocent defendants are locked up? How many are wrongly executed?

About one in 25 people imprisoned under a death sentence is likely innocent, according to a new statistical study appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. And that means it is all but certain that at least several of the 1,320 defendants executed since 1977 were innocent, the study says.

From 1973 to 2004, 1.6 percent of those sentenced to death in the U.S. — 138 prisoners — were exonerated and released because of innocence.

But the great majority of innocent people who are sentenced to death are never identified and freed, says professor Samuel Gross of the University of Michigan Law School, the study’s lead author.

The difficulty in identifying innocent inmates stems from the fact that more than 60 percent of prisoners in death penalty cases ultimately are removed from death row and resentenced to life imprisonment. Once that happens, their cases no longer receive the exhaustive reviews that the legal system provides for those on death row.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama’s Fading Dream of a Foreign Policy Legacy

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Photo Credit: Getty Images

President Barack Obama envisioned building a foreign-policy legacy in his second term: a nuclear deal with sanction-strapped Iran, an end to U.S. involvement in conflicts overseas, and a successful pivot to Asia, including a trans-Pacific trade pact.

Fifteen months after his second inaugural, those goals look more problematic, and Syria’s Bashar Assad and Russia’s Vladimir Putin have created new crises. Dashed foreign-policy dreams aren’t unique to this second-term president: Dwight D. Eisenhower had to contend with the downing of a spy plane by the Soviet Union, the Iran-contra scandal bedeviled Ronald Reagan, and the Iraq War turned into a nightmare in George W. Bush’s second term.

Obama’s woes are complicated by a sense — denied by the White House — of American disengagement. “The perception of American withdrawal is palpable,” says Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser to George W. Bush.

“The Europeans and the Gulf states think that we’re leaving,” says Bill Cohen, who served as defense secretary under President Bill Clinton. “The Asian countries think we’re not coming.”

Moreover, the president is caught in a contradictory, and unfair, squeeze. On issues such as Syria and Russia, he’s depicted as insufficiently aggressive or tough. At the same time, the American public, turned off by the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, wants no part of more aggressive foreign entanglements. Even some Republicans are taking cues from Senator Rand Paul’s quasi-isolationists stance.

Read more from this story HERE.