Video: Controversial Pastor Punches Back After Tebow Cancellation, Rips ‘Wimping Out’

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Photo Credit: Alex Trautwig The controversial pastor of a megachurch in Dallas spoke to his congregation on Sunday about “a wild week,” which centered around a scheduled appearance by Jets backup quarterback Tim Tebow.

Tebow canceled his April 28 visit to First Baptist Dallas on Thursday amid a firestorm, sparked by past comments from the church’s head, Dr. Robert Jeffress, who has made headlines for his comments on gays and religions other than Christianity.

On Twitter, Tebow cited “new information” as the reason he scratched the date off his calendar.

Jeffress thanked his supporters during services at First Baptist Dallas, and then appeared to take a swipe at Tebow without using the quarterback’s name.

“I am grateful for men of God like these who are willing to stand up and act like men rather than wimping out when it gets a little controversial and an inconvenient thing to stand for the truth,” Jeffress said on Sunday. “God bless men like that.” The news of Tebow’s cancellation broke last last week while Jeffress was appearing on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas.

Watch video here:

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Taking One for the Team: Tom Brady Signs Cap-Friendly, Three-Year Extension With Pats

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Photo Credit: Robert DeutschNew England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has taken a steep discount on the going rate for elite NFL quarterbacks to help the team allocate money elsewhere and make at least one more title run in his career, according to a person familiar with the agreement.

The person spoke to USA TODAY Sports on condition of anonymity because the team has not yet announced the move.

Sports Illustrated’s Peter King first reported Brady has agreed to a three-year extension at $27 million, less than half the $20 million-per-season rate the New Orleans Saints’ Drew Brees received last year and the mark the Baltimore Ravens’ Joe Flacco hopes to eclipse this year.

The person familiar with the agreement said Brady will receive a signing bonus of $3 million, along with base salaries of $7 million, $8 million and $9 million in 2015-17, respectively.

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NASCAR: Final Lap Crash At Daytona Injures 33, 2 Seriously

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Photo Credit: APAt least 33 fans were injured Saturday during a NASCAR race when a car flew into the fence at Daytona International Speedway, hurling a tire and large pieces of debris into the stands.

The accident happened on the last lap of the second-tier Nationwide Series race on the eve of Sunday’s Daytona 500, which officials said would go on as scheduled.

The crash began as the field approached the checkered flag and leader Regan Smith attempted to block Brad Keselowski to preserve the win. That triggered a chain reaction, and rookie Kyle Larson hit the cars in front of him and went airborne into the fence.

The entire front end was sheared off Larson’s car, and his burning engine wedged through a gaping hole in the fence. Chunks of debris from the car were thrown into the stands, including a tire that cleared the top of the fence and landed midway up the spectator section closest to the track.

The 20-year-old Larson stood in shock several yards away from his car as fans in the stands waived frantically for help. Smoke from the burning engine briefly clouded the area, and emergency vehicles descended on the scene. Ambulance sirens could be heard wailing behind the grandstands at a time the race winner would typically be doing celebratory burnouts.

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Have You Read Evan Todd’s Letter To Obama Yet?

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Photo Credit: RLEVANSEvan Todd is a Columbine survivor. And he wasn’t just AT Columbine on the fateful day where students lost their lives. He was shot and was wounded himself. And he’s got something to say to Obama. BEHOLD:

Mr. President, As a student who was shot and wounded during the Columbine massacre, I have a few thoughts on the current gun debate. In regards to your gun control initiatives:

Universal Background Checks

First, a universal background check will have many devastating effects. It will arguably have the opposite impact of what you propose. If adopted, criminals will know that they can not pass a background check legally, so they will resort to other avenues. With the conditions being set by this initiative, it will create a large black market for weapons and will support more criminal activity and funnel additional money into the hands of thugs, criminals, and people who will do harm to American citizens.

Second, universal background checks will create a huge bureaucracy that will cost an enormous amount of tax payers dollars and will straddle us with more debt. We cannot afford it now, let alone create another function of government that will have a huge monthly bill attached to it.

Third, is a universal background check system possible without universal gun registration? If so, please define it for us. Universal registration can easily be used for universal confiscation. I am not at all implying that you, sir, would try such a measure, but we do need to think about our actions through the lens of time.

It is not impossible to think that a tyrant, to the likes of Mao, Castro, Che, Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, and others, could possibly rise to power in America. It could be five, ten, twenty, or one hundred years from now — but future generations have the natural right to protect themselves from tyrannical government just as much as we currently do. It is safe to assume that this liberty that our forefathers secured has been a thorn in the side of would-be tyrants ever since the Second Amendment was adopted.

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Toddler In Wheelchair Heading To Disney Cries During Run-In With TSA Agents (+video)

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Photo Credit: GMAA family’s run-in with Transportation Security Administration screeners at Missouri’s Lambert-St. Louis International Airport as they were heading to Orlando on vacation was caught on camera, and is raising questions about airport security rules.

Annie Schulte said it all started when TSA agents asked to pat down her 3-year-old daughter, Lucy, who is disabled and in a wheelchair. The agents also wanted to screen Lucy’s wheelchair.

Schulte recorded the incident on her cellphone. In the video, Lucy begins to cry and says, “I don’t want to go to Disney World.”

What made the toddler so distraught, her parents said, was the run-in with the agents. Agent: “It’s illegal to do that.” Schulte: “You can’t touch my daughter, unless I can record it.” Schulte said she asked to record the incident.

“To me, it was pretty offensive because I was really tuned in. When she said that, immediately I’m like, ‘OK, hold on, something doesn’t seem right.’ So, I did tell her I was going to wait because I was going to grab my phone,” said Schulte.

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Heart Transplant Recipient Falls In Love With Donor’s Sister

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Photo Credit: Fox News Her brother’s heart ultimately guided her to the man that would fulfill her own heart.

After helping to find the right match for her deceased brother’s donated heart, one woman fell in love with her brother’s transplant recipient – and wedding bells may soon be in the air for the happy couple, West Seattle Herald reported.

When 22-year-old Kellen Roberts, from Seattle, Wash., died in 2005, his family decided to donate his organs to help others in need. His mother Nancy and his younger sister Erin began working with LifeCenter Northwest in Bellevue, Wash., to find the right match for Kellen’s heart.

Meanwhile, across the country in Minneapolis, Minn., 17-year-old Connor Rabinowitz had been diagnosed with a genetic disorder that caused his organs to become enlarged and weakened.

Without a heart transplant, Connor would not survive, the doctors said. A top-rated baseball catcher, Connor’s athletic career was officially over, and he began the 96-day waiting process for a brand-new heart. Finally, he was told there was a match: Kellen’s heart.

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Daughter Of WWII Soldier To Receive Dad’s Long-Lost Purple Heart

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Photo Credit: AP/Hyla MerinHyla Merin grew up without a father and for a long time never knew why. Her mother never spoke about the Army officer who died before Hyla was born. The scraps of information she gathered from other relatives were hazy: 2nd Lt. Hyman Markel was a rabbi’s son, brilliant at mathematics, the brave winner of a Purple Heart who died sometime in 1945.

Aside from wedding photos of Markel in uniform, Merin never glimpsed him. But on Sunday, decades after he won it, Merin will receive her father’s Purple Heart, along with a Silver Star she never knew he’d won and a half-dozen other medals.

“It just confirms what a great man he was,” Merin said tearfully. “He gave up his life for our country and our freedom. I’ll put it up in my house as a memorial to him and to those who served.”

Merin’s mother, Celia, married Markel in 1941 when he already was in the military. They met at a Jewish temple in Buffalo, N.Y.

About four months ago, the manager of a West Hollywood apartment building where Merin’s mother lived in the 1960s found a box containing papers and the Purple Heart while cleaning out some lockers in the laundry room, Merin said.

The manager contacted Purple Hearts Reunited, a nonprofit organization that returns lost or stolen medals to vets or their families.

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No Exams On Wiccan, Pagan Holidays At University Of Missouri?

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Photo Credit: ensign_beedrillStudents at University of Missouri don’t need to cram for exams that fall on Wiccan and Pagan holidays, now that the school has put them on par with Christmas, Thanksgiving and Hanukah.

The university’s latest “Guide to Religions: Major Holidays and Suggested Accommodations” — designed to help faculty know when and when not to schedule exams and other student activities — lists eight Wiccan and Pagan holidays and events right alongside more mainstream occasions. It’s all part of the school’s effort to include everyone’s beliefs, although some critics say listing every holiday associated with fringe belief systems is a bit much.

“The holidays and accommodations section of this guide is provided to faculty, staff and student leaders as an educational resource for the myriad of religious holy days celebrated at Mizzou,” the guide reads. “Not only does this section offer crucial information about dates and practices, we also hope that the information about recommended academic and food accommodations will be valuable to those planning classroom activities and other academic and co-curricular events.”

The first holiday on the list is the Hindu two-day festival celebrating the birth of Krishna, a god considered to be a “warrior, hero, teacher and philosopher.” During the observance, which occurs on Aug. 28 this year, Hindus are likely to forgo sleep in order to, among other things, sing traditional songs.

“Avoid scheduling major academic deadlines on this day, since it is likely that students will be operating on very little sleep,” the guide continues.

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Pennsylvania Pioneer Program Achieves Drop In Abortion

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Photo Credit; APA Pennsylvania program that empowers women to choose life over abortion has achieved a seven percent drop in the number of resident abortions in the state over the last 17 years.

Real Alternatives, a charitable nonprofit organization that is funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, is the nation’s first alternative program of its kind. The organization states that its mission is to “provide life-affirming alternatives to abortion services throughout the nation.”

The program offers support services to women throughout pregnancy, including maternity residences, adoption education, and parenting skills training. Real Alternatives has served more than 200,000 women throughout Pennsylvania since the program began in 1996. The organization offers free and confidential support, counseling, and guidance to pregnant women, in an effort to provide an alternative to abortion.

“It has been so gratifying over these years that so many women who were alone and facing a crisis pregnancy had another person to assist them and empower them to overcome obstacles and pressures so they could choose life for their preborn baby,” said Kevin Bagatta, president and CEO of Real Alternatives, in a Wednesday statement.

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Facebook Paid No Taxes Despite Record Profits

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Photo Credit: sherifer22Despite earning more than $1 billion in profits last year, social media juggernaut Facebook paid zilch when it came to federal and state taxes in 2012. In fact, the website will actually be getting a refund totaling $429 million thanks to a tax reduction for executive stock options.

In the coming years, Facebook will continue to get monster tax breaks, totaling about $3 billion.

“The employees cash in stock options, and at that point there is tax deduction for the company,” Robert McIntyre, of watchdog group Citizens for Tax Justice, said in an interview with Fox News Channel. “Because even though it doesn’t cost Facebook a nickel, the government treats it as wages and they get a deduction for it. And usually it doesn’t wipe out companies whole tax bill, although many companies get big breaks from it.”

The news comes after President Obama’s State of the Union speech in which he called for such tax breaks to end.

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