One of the first women to sign up to become an Army combat engineer is now considered a deserter after being AWOL for 30 days.
Pvt. Erika Lopez was supposed to report to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, on Jan. 4 after convalescent leave. She was considered absent without leave on Jan. 5 when she didn’t show. Lopez was dropped from the rolls Thursday, which means she’s considered a deserter, said Tiffany Wood, a spokeswoman for Fort Leonard Wood.
“After 30 days in AWOL status, a soldier is considered a deserter, and a federal warrant is issued for his or her arrest,” Wood said.
Lopez arrived at Fort Leonard Wood Sept. 22, Wood said. She started training on Oct. 5 and was on week 11 of training when she was sent home on convalescent leave.
Engineer soldiers conduct one station unit training at Fort Leonard Wood, which includes the 10-week basic training followed by advanced individual training. In all, the training is almost 15 weeks long. There are 92 women currently in 12B OSUT, Wood said. (Read more from “One of the Army’s 1st Female Combat Engineer Recruits Is a Deserter” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/F-15_pilots_Elmendorf.jpg19603008kathleenhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngkathleen2016-02-06 01:00:562016-04-11 10:52:59One of the Army’s 1st Female Combat Engineer Recruits Is a Deserter
A new video at Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast and newly-released documents from a Texas Public Information Act request show how Planned Parenthood used accounting gimmicks to hide its illegal sale of fetal tissue.
The video highlights previously overlooked footage from the April 9, 2015 site visit of investigative journalists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt from The Center for Medical Progress to Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast’s abortion center in Houston. The site visit took place with PPGC Director of Research Melissa Farrell, who has overseen the organization’s fetal tissue supply program since 2006.
“We had two levels of invoicing for them. We had it worded as ‘per consent,’” explains Farrell as she describes a previous fetal tissue deal that took place at PPGC. Farrell indicates that “per consent” is the phrase used in PPGC budgeting in place of “per specimen” for fetal tissue.
Farrell is aware that while a patient may consent to supply fetal tissue, the specimen itself may not be useable for experimentation: “There’s probably some situations where somebody would consent and then just not, we didn’t get a sample, or she changed her mind, or something happened to the specimen.”
Addressing this dilemma, Daleiden says: “Now obviously, we don’t want to end up paying for material that we can’t use,” and suggests that there be a line item fee of “something else that represents the specimens.” “Obviously,” Farrell agrees, “Yep. Yeah.”
“I just don’t want it to turn into a situation that is not financially beneficial for you,” says Merritt. “Yeah, yeah. And we’ll, I’ll take you up on that. I’ll take you up on that. I’ll take you up on that,” Farrell repeats three times, laughing, and continues, “We definitely want to do that, because that’s what staff and management need to see.”
The video also includes footage of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast CEO Melaney Linton advising that Farrell will “work on all of that with you” when it comes to “remuneration” and “compensation” for fetal tissue. Farrell told Daleiden and Merritt during lunch that her department “contributes so much to the bottom line of our organization here.”
The system of accounting gimmicks and dual invoicing for “consent” payments in place of fetal specimens that Melissa Farrell describes in the video bears a striking resemblance to invoices submitted by Farrell on behalf of PPGC to the University of Texas Medical Branch in 2010 and 2011. In these documents, obtained through a Public Information Act request, two PPGC invoices for the exact same billing period charge $25 per “Consents obtained,” with a total quantity of 32, and in the same time period charges $150 per “Consent payment” for a smaller quantity of 25. This is consistent with a scheme where Planned Parenthood charged $25 to consent abortion patients to supply fetal tissue, and then charged another $150 for each usable fetal specimen that UTMB could procure.
The total billing from Planned Parenthood for this tissue procurement was over $8,000. The sale, offer to sell, or transfer of human fetal tissue for valuable consideration is a crime under Texas Penal Code 48.02. Planned Parenthood is currently under investigation by the Texas Attorney General’s Office, the Texas Department of Health, and the U.S. Congress for violations relating to its treatment of aborted infants and aborted body parts sales.
“The evidence that Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast charged exorbitant amounts of taxpayer money in exchange for fetal specimens that it provided at nearly zero cost is overwhelming,” notes David Daleiden, CMP Project Lead. “Governor Abbott and Attorney General Paxton need to send a strong message that Houston’s children are not for sale, and they must immediately appoint a special prosecutor to hold Planned Parenthood accountable to the law.” (For more from the author of “Planned Parenthood Houston Admits Accounting Gimmicks Hide Baby Parts Sales, Invoices Charge Thousands of Dollars” please click HERE)
Photo Credit: Corpus Christi Cross ProjectThe largest cross in the US is coming to the “Body of Christ,” also known as Corpus Christi, Texas.
The Corpus Christi Cross Project broke ground at the Abundant Life Fellowship campus off Interstate 37 on Sunday. Pastor Rick Milby says the massive cross will eventually stretch 95 feet wide and 210 feet high, making it the biggest in the Western Hemisphere, reports the Houston Chronicle.
The idea for the project came to Milby after he first spotted a huge cross in Houston and heard about “lives that were changed, suicides that were aborted, relationships that were restored because of the influence of the cross,” he writes on the project’s website . . .
The Corpus Christi cross will be so big that the design allows for “a two-foot deflection at the top — it will actually sway in the wind two feet back and forth,” Milby tells KRIS TV.
And as for whether such winds can topple it, Milby says the concrete foundation’s 24 piers will be anchored 48 feet deep, “so if it were to blow over, it would pull up about three acres of land with it.” (Read more from “Texas-Sized! America’s Largest Cross to Be Built” HERE)
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The Rev. Franklin Graham is urging parents to vigilantly defend religious freedom after a Maryland public high school forced a 16-year-old student to take classes that promoted Islam over Christianity and acknowledge the Muslim prophet Mohammed as her spiritual leader.
According to a report from the Daily Mail, John Wood, a former Marine, and his wife Melissa Wood, recently filed a civil rights complaint against La Plata High School, alleging their daughter – identified only as C.W. – was forced to spend two weeks studying Islam in a modern history class. In turn, the class covered just one day of Christianity, and did not mention the Bible or the Ten Commandments.
Court documents reveal that as part of the class, the 11th grader “had to profess the Shahada by claiming “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.'”
Students were also required to memorize and recite the Five Pillars of Islam and were subjected to disparaging teachings about Christianity. The lawsuit claims that those who refused to engage in the course would receive a failing grade.
When John Wood, who served eight years in the Marine Corps and was deployed in Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm, attempted to confront the board regarding the class, he was reportedly escorted from school property. (Read more from “Franklin Graham Is Urging All Parents in America to Defend Religious Freedom” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/franklin-graham-1.jpg310413kathleenhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngkathleen2016-02-03 00:57:002016-04-11 10:53:09Franklin Graham Is Urging All Parents in America to Defend Religious Freedom
Dr. Joseph Berger, a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, states that from “a scientific perspective,” being “transgendered” is a psychological issue – “emotional unhappiness” – and “cosmetic surgery” is not the “proper treatment.”
Dr. Berger, who also is a past president of the Ontario District Branch of the American Psychiatric Association, presented his remarks before the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights when it was considering a bill (C-279) in 2013 to “include gender identity as a prohibited ground of discrimination.”
The proposed legislation, popularly known as the “bathroom bill,” essentially would prohibit discrimination against the transgendered. In the bill, “gender identity” is defined as “the individual’s deeply felt internal and individual experience of gender, which may or may not correspond with the sex that the individual was assigned at birth” . . .
“‘Transgendered’ are people who claim that they really are or wish to be people of the sex opposite to which they were born, or to which their chromosomal configuration attests,” he stated. “Sometimes, some of these people have claimed that they are ‘a woman trapped in a man’s body’ or alternatively ‘a man trapped in a woman’s body.’”
“Scientifically, there is no such thing,” he said. (Read more from “A Prominent Psychiatrist Says Being Transgender Is a Psychological Issue” HERE)
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The influential Muslim cleric lives quietly on a gated 26-acre compound in the Pocono Mountains, where he prays, works, meets admirers and watches from afar as terrorism accusations that have landed him on Turkey’s most-wanted list unfold in court.
Rarely seen in public, Fethullah Gulen has long been one of Turkey’s most important scholars, with multitudes of followers in his native country and around the world. More recently, Turkey’s increasingly autocratic president, Recip Erdogan, has accused Gulen of plotting to overthrow the officially secular government from his Pennsylvania idyll some 5,000 miles away.
Gulen’s supporters call the charge baseless and, so far, the U.S. has shown little inclination to send him back to Turkey to face a trial that began without him Jan. 6 and is expected to last several months. A second trial, involving accusations that his movement took part in espionage, opened Monday . . .
“He said that the United States has a long tradition of democracy and rule of law,” said Y. Alp Aslandogan, who sees Gulen about once a week as president of the New York-based Alliance for Shared Values, a group that promotes Gulen’s ideas. “They will see that these are politically oriented charges, and they will not allow Erdogan to spread his ambition into the United States.” (Read more from “Mystery Surrounds Muslim Cleric in U.S. Mountain Compound” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/hqdefault-10.jpg360480kathleenhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngkathleen2016-02-01 23:30:432016-04-11 10:53:11Mystery Surrounds Muslim Cleric in U.S. Mountain Compound
A prominent Seattle cancer advocate and fundraiser has been accused of lying about her breast cancer diagnoses while she raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, KOMO News reported.
Tracy Dart, who has raised more than $400,000 over the past decade for the Komen Foundation, is under fire for reportedly lying about her three cancer spells.
A Washington state car dealer who helped Dart raise thousands to fight the disease said a member of Dart’s “Team Tracy” contacted him to reveal that Dart had never been ill.
“She doesn’t have cancer—she never had cancer,” the representative said, according to Auburn Volkswagen owner Matthew Welch. (Read more from “Seattle Woman Who Raised $400G as Cancer Survivor Reportedly Never Had the Disease” HERE)
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While attending a church service in Iowa Sunday, Donald Trump momentarily mistook the silver communion plate for an offering plate and started to dig into his pockets for cash.
The candidate, who was attending the First Christian Church – Orchard Campus in Council Bluffs with his wife Melania, quickly realized his mistake and took the communion element instead . . .
Trump gave an offering to the church (which is part of the Four Square denomination) several minutes later, when the appropriate plates were passed, the Associated Press reported.
“As Trump was leaving, one of the church pastors put his hand on Trump’s shoulder and offered a prayer, ‘That Jesus would guide his decisions and that only Christ could guide his decisions,’ the pastor later said. Trump gladly accepted, bowing his head,” according to the AP . . .
Last summer, Trump spoke about partaking in Holy Communion. “When I drink my little wine — which is about the only wine I drink — and have my little cracker, I guess that is a form of asking for forgiveness, and I do that as often as possible because I feel cleansed,” he said, according to CNN. “I think in terms of ‘Let’s go on and let’s make it right.’”
On Saturday, Trump released a new video with him holding up a Bible, which he said was given to him by his mother. “In fact, it’s her writing, right here,” he said opening to a page near the front of the Holy book. “She wrote the name and the address, and it’s just very special to me.” (Read more from “Trump Just Made an Embarrassing Mistake in Church That Has Many Shaking Their Heads” HERE)
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Portland, Ore., is No. 1 on the list of metropolitan areas with the most religiously unaffiliated residents (42%), according to the nonpartisan and nonprofit Public Religion Research Institute’s American Values Atlas, a survey of 50,000 people. Seattle and San Francisco were tied at second place (with 33%) on the list, and Denver (32%) and Phoenix (26%) were third and fourth.
On the other end of the spectrum, Nashville was the metropolitan area with the fewest people without any religious affiliation (15%), followed by Charlotte, N.C. (17%), and Atlanta, Dallas, Orlando and Pittsburgh (all with 18%). Some caveats: While many people who don’t believe in God may not attend religious services, there are (of course) faith traditions such as Unitarian Universalism that welcome and include humanists and atheists; many people who might not believe in God may just as likely go to church for spiritual reasons too, or merely because they like it . . .
“The strong religious culture in the South reflects a variety of factors, including history, cultural norms and the fact that these states have high Protestant and black populations — both of which are above average in their self-reported religious service attendance,” according to a separate Gallup survey of over 177,030 U.S. adults this year on church attendance. And 10 of the 12 states with the highest self-reported religious-service attendance are in the South, along with Utah and Oklahoma. (Utah ranked as No. 1 because of the 59% Mormon population there, and Mormons have the highest religious attendance of any major religious group in the U.S.) (Read more from “This Is the Most Godless City in America” HERE)
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Photo: Screenshot of Satanic Temple websiteMembers of a satanic group are set to give the prayer at an upcoming meeting of the Phoenix City Council, triggering a debate about religious freedom and whether such a display is appropriate for the venue.
Satanic Temple members Michelle Shortt and Stu de Haan are expected to give the invocation at the council’s Feb. 17 meeting after the group submitted a request in December. Despite the objections of some council members, the city has decided to let the satanists speak as scheduled.
Phoenix City Attorney Brad Holm released a statement Thursday evening, defending the city’s position. The city typically holds a short invocation at the start of formal council meetings and has included members from a variety of faiths, including Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Sikhism.
“Consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court’s direction, the city cannot dictate religious viewpoints or the content of a prayer,” Holm wrote. “In addition, government may not exclude a denomination or a religion from praying under these circumstances.”
Councilman Jim Waring said he thinks the city should have told the Satanic Temple members “no,” and let them fight the issue in court. He said he thinks the action is intended to be offensive to residents and questioned whether it’s a gimmick to get the city to stop doing a prayer at council meetings altogether. (Read more from “Satanists to Give ‘Prayer’ at Arizona City Council Meeting” HERE)
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