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Atheist Group Opposes Holocaust Memorial on Ohio Statehouse Grounds

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Photo Credit: daniel-libeskind.comA Wisconsin-based atheist group has expressed its opposition to a Holocaust memorial set to be built on the ground of the Ohio statehouse, arguing that its location violates the separation of church and state and calling the Star of David “exclusionary” in memorializing victims of the Nazis.

But Ohio Gov. John Kasich and proponents of the memorial say it will teach people about man’s inhumanity to man and that, contrary to the atheists’ claim, it will include all those killed by the Nazis — including U.S. soldiers, ethnic and religious minorities, homosexuals and the mentally ill.

Joyce Garver Keller, executive director of Jewish Communities, an organization that represents Jewish groups across the state, said the memorial is intended “mostly to honor those who had survived and who had come to Ohio to build a life.”

Keller said it is appropriate to build the structure on state grounds because it will “remind lawmakers and those who work in and around government of the important role and responsibility they have in speaking out in the face of hatred, anti-Semetism and genocide.”

“The Holocaust did not begin in concentration camps in the ovens with smoke stacks and mass graves,” Keller told FoxNews.com. “It began in the halls of government with the passage of laws that targeted Jews, taking their properties, their businesses, their home, their freedom and ultimately their lives.

Read more from this story HERE.

Atheist Group Seeks to Block Star of David on Holocaust Memorial

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Photo Credit: BreitbartAn atheist activist organization wants a proposed Ohio statehouse Holocaust memorial to remove the Star of David symbol, which, the group claims, is an “exclusionary” religious symbol.

According to The Columbus Dispatch, the non-profit Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), known for its activism concerning church-state separation, claimed that the inclusion of the Judaic symbol is a breach of the U.S. Constitution.

In a June 14 letter to Richard H. Finan, chairman of the Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board, two FFRF officials said they have no objections to a Holocaust memorial at the statehouse, but claimed that the cut-out version of the six-pointed Star of David would be a violation of the separation of church and state as provided for in the Constitution.

“Permitting one permanent sectarian and exclusionary religious symbol… would create the legal precedent, for instance, to place an equally large or larger permanent Latin cross on Capitol grounds,” wrote Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-presidents of the Madison, Wisconsin group. Gaylor is the daughter of Anne Nicol Gaylor, author of Abortion Is A Blessing. Barker said that the Holocaust memorial, as currently proposed, would amount to a “constitutionally problematic endorsement of religion.”

The FFRF officials said the memorial excludes five million non-Jews killed in the Holocaust, including Roma Gypsies, homosexuals, the disabled, and others.

Read more from this story HERE.

Ohio Mayoral Hopeful Doles out Free ‘Weed’

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Campaigning for the chance at mayor of Cincinnati, Jim Berns doled out supposed free “marijuana plants” to potential constituents near the University of Cincinnati to receive dozens of people in line hoping to snag some dope.

The catch? He was handing out harmless, but familiar-looking tomato plants.

Berns posits that the legalization of medical marijuana could raise the city’s economy.

He explained his position by attempting to prove how the money can be saved, mainly by not using up police officers’ time. ”The state can make millions, if not billions, of dollars making this into a legal industry, and that we don’t have to have all these police chasing petty criminals around,” he said.

In an effort to rally the crowd, Berns shouted, ”How many people want to grow marijuana on their back porch?”

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IRS Told Pro-Life Group to Swear It Would Not Protest Planned Parenthood (+video)

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Photo Credit: APSen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) said Tuesday that a pro-life group in Iowa was told by an IRS agent that its application would not be approved until the group’s board of directors swore it would not protest Planned Parenthood.

“This comes directly from Iowa, one of my constituents attempted to establish 501(c)(3) charity called Coalition for Life of Iowa. She told my staff that an IRS agent told her ‘Your application’s ready to go. However, it will not be approved until you send a letter signed by your entire board under penalty of perjury saying that you will not protest at Planned Parenthood,’” Grassley said at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on the IRS’ targeting of conservative groups.

Read more from this story HERE.

Prosecutor May Seek Death Penalty Against Alleged Cleveland Kidnapper For Murdering Unborn Children

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Photo Credit: abbybatchelderAriel Castro, the Cleveland man police say kidnapped and held captive three women for a decade, could also face aggravated murder charges for allegedly terminating the pregnancies of his captives.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty said Thursday that based on the facts of the case, his office intends to seek charges not only for the sexual assaults endured by the victims, but also “each act of aggravated murder he committed by terminating pregnancies.”

Castro is accused of separately abducting two teenage girls and a young woman and holding them in his home for about 10 years. One of the victims, Amanda Berry, escaped with her 6-year-old daughter. Castro is set to undergo a paternity test to confirm he is the girl’s father. Another victim, Michelle Knight, alleges she became pregnant five times and that each time Castro starved her and punched her in the stomach until she miscarried, according to a police report reviewed by the Wall Street Journal.

McGinty said he may seek the death penalty against Castro.

Castro was arraigned Thursday in Cleveland Municipal Court, where the judge set bail at $8 million.

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Alleged Cleveland Kidnapper Ariel Castro’s Daughter Slashed Her 11 Month Old Baby’s Throat (+video)

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsBy Fox News. Monday night’s revelation that Ariel Castro allegedly kept at least three women as prisoners in a Cleveland, Ohio, home for almost a decade is not the first time a spotlight has been placed on the family.

His daughter, Emily, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for slashing the throat of her then 11-month-old daughter, Janyla, according to the Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

The incident happened in 2007, a day after she broke up with the child’s father, prosecutors said.

According to the paper, police showed up at her home on April 4th and saw the baby’s maternal grandmother, Grimilda Figueroa, holding the bleeding infant, who had severe cuts on her throat.

During the trial, the family argued that Castro suffered from severe depression and that it pushed her to paranoia – to the point where she believed her family was trying to kill her and her daughter. Read more from this story HERE.

Amanda Berry: Three captive women chained up in grim dungeon for a decade gave birth to five babies

By Chris Bucktin and Ben Rossington. Three women held captive in a dungeon for a decade gave birth to five babies during the ordeal.

Gina DeJesus, 23, Michelle Knight, 30, and Amanda Berry, 26, and her six-year-old daughter fled the house in Cleveland, Ohio.

Ariel Castro, 52, and his two brothers have been arrested.

Frantic Amanda choked back tears as she told police “I’m free” after she escaped the dungeon.

Amanda fled the hell-hole thanks to a hero neighbour before her dramatic 911 call ended the victims’ ordeal.

It had been feared that Amanda and the other captives – Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight – had been murdered. Read more from this story HERE.

Cops Arrest 3 Brothers After 3 Ohio Women Missing for a Decade Found Alive

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Photo Credit: Reuters Authorities say three brothers have been arrested after three women who vanished about a decade ago in separate cases were found alive Monday in a residential area just south of downtown Cleveland, just a few miles from where they disappeared.

Police said one of the brothers, a 52-year-old, lived at the home, and the others, ages 50 and 54, lived elsewhere. Authorities released no names and gave no details about them or what charges they might face. Earlier, authorities described one of the suspects as a Hispanic male but said they planned to provide more information at a news conference Tuesday.

Cheering crowds gathered Monday night on the street near the home where police said Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight were found earlier in the day. Police said a 6-year-old also was found in the home, but the child’s identity or relationship to anyone in the home wasn’t revealed.

Police didn’t immediately provide any details of how the women were found but said they appeared to be in good health and had been taken to a hospital for evaluation, where they would be reunited with their relatives.

Cleveland’s police chief says he thinks three women were tied up in the house where they were found and had been there since they disappeared.

Read more from this story HERE.

Gosnell Fallout: Another Ohio Abortion Clinic Forced to Close its Doors

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Photo Credit: bradbrundageThe state is shutting down an abortion provider in Cuyahoga Falls.

The Ohio Department of Health recently issued an order to Capital Care Network, 2127 State Road, saying it was revoking the clinic’s Health Care Facility license to operate an outpatient surgical facility. The clinic is prohibited from “performing medical services, including surgical procedures, pharmaceutical services and anesthesia services,” according to an April 16 adjudication order.

The state health department did an annual inspection at Capital Care on Feb. 14 and found numerous Ohio Administrative Code violations. The department issued a notice that it planned to revoke the clinic’s license.

The clinic didn’t request a hearing.

Tess Pollock, a spokeswoman for the state agency, said the clinic “had a long list of violations, so we needed to move forward.”

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Conservatives Revolt As Gay Marriage Lobbyist Appointed Head of Ohio Republican Party

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Photo Credit: Lifestyle News

The Republican Party of Ohio has appointed as its executive director a registered lobbyist actively campaigning to redefine marriage in the state, deepening the conflict between voters and the party elite. The move triggered swift backlash, as a coalition of 80 conservatives from across the state issued a letter warning party bosses they “will not support them” in the future.

The new GOP leader is Matt Borges, a lobbyist for Equality Ohio, the group pressing to overturn the state’s constitutional amendment against same-sex “marriage.” He was hand-selected by retiring state GOP chairman Bob Bennett, who has led the party since 1988, and is seen as Bennett’s heir apparent.

“With this letter we put the party bosses on notice that we reject their betrayal of the party platform and our conservative values,” said Tom Zawistowski, the executive director of the Portage County Tea Party. “We will not support them going forward but will instead support those who are true to our cause.”

The letter represents the views of a broad coalition, “not just liberty group members and social conservative voters, but rank and file registered Republican voters,” it states.

“Some of our Republican officials seem hell-bent on alienating conservative voters and volunteers, which reduces voter turnout,” said Lori Viars, Vice President of Warren County Right To Life, who also serves as Vice Chair of the Warren County Republican Party. “They ignore the GOP platform, choosing to put themselves outside the mainstream of our party base.”

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Did Obama Supporter Vote 6 Times In 2012? Ohio Poll Worker Target Of Investigation (+video)

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsThe Obama/Biden lawn sign remains proudly planted in front of Melowese Richardson’s Cincinnati home, three months after the presidential election. It seems that President Obama has an especially ardent supporter in the veteran Ohio poll worker.

Richardson told a local television station this month that she voted twice last November. She cast an absentee ballot and then voted at the polls as well.

“Yes, I voted twice,” Richardson told WCPO-TV. “I, after registering thousands of people, certainly wanted my vote to count, so I voted. I voted at the polls.”

Authorities also are investigating if she voted in the names of four other people, too, for a total of six votes in the 2012 presidential election.

“I’ll fight it for Mr. Obama and for Mr. Obama’s right to sit as president of the United States,” Richardson vowed when asked about the voter fraud investigation that is now under way.

Read more from this story HERE.