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Shutting down sharia in U.S.

OneNewsNow

A California-based constitutional attorney has joined a group in urging state legislatures across the U.S. to pass a law to prevent sharia law from transcending the nation's criminal law.

Karen Lugo, an attorney based in southern California, serves as The Federalist Society's expert on sharia law and was recently appointed to the California Advisory Committee's Commission on Civil Rights. She reports that 25 of the 50 U.S. states have taken it upon themselves to stand up for constitutional freedoms through legislation and court cases, as many state legislators are concerned about a recent ruling from a judge in New Jersey.

"A judge ruled that a former husband was not guilty of rape or violating his former wife's rights when he had harassed her through the period of a separation because the man acted according to what he perceived as his sharia right," Lugo explains.

Why illegals anticipate April 15

OneNewsNow

While Congress wrangles over what to cut from the government's spending, one economic consultant says the Internal Revenue Service is refusing to take steps to prevent $13 billion from being doled out to illegal aliens every year.

As millions of Americans brace themselves to pay taxes this month, Ed Rubenstein, president of ESR Research and former research director at the Hudson Institute, says millions of illegal aliens get ready to celebrate receiving a cash bonus of up to $5,750 from the IRS.

In his recently updated report, "Defrauding the American Taxpayer - The Earned Income Tax Credit," Rubenstein explains how illegal aliens are among the chief beneficiaries of the $62.5 billion transfer scheme known as the Earned Income Tax Credit, which is part of the tax code.

"If your income is below a certain amount, and if you have children, you are entitled to a tax credit that in many cases is larger than the total amount of taxes that you paid to the federal government," Rubenstein reports. "Right now, it is the most expensive cash transfer program in the federal government."

And he points out that more than half of the people who claim the income tax credit are illegal aliens.

BRICS demand global monetary shake-up, greater influence

Reuters

The BRICS group of emerging-market powers kept up the pressure on Thursday for a revamped global monetary system that relies less on the dollar and for a louder voice in international financial institutions.

The leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa also called for stronger regulation of commodity derivatives to dampen excessive volatility in food and energy prices, which they said posed new risks for the recovery of the world economy.

Meeting on the southern Chinese island of Hainan, they said the recent financial crisis had exposed the inadequacies of the current monetary order, which has the dollar as its linchpin.

What was needed, they said in a statement, was "a broad-based international reserve currency system providing stability and certainty" -- thinly veiled criticism of what the BRICS see as Washington's neglect of its global monetary responsibilities.

Big banks are government-backed: Fed's Hoenig

Reuters

Big banks like Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc should be reclassified as government-sponsored entities and have their activities restricted, a senior Fed official said on Tuesday.

The 2008 bank bailouts at the height of the financial crisis and other implicit guarantees effectively make the largest U.S. banks government-guaranteed enterprises, like mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, said Kansas City Fed President Thomas Hoenig.

"That's what they are," Hoenig said at the National Association of Attorneys General 2011 conference.

He said these lenders should be restricted to commercial banking activities, advocating a policy that existed for decades barring banks from engaging in investment banking activities.

"You're a public utility, for crying out loud," he said.

UN document would give 'Mother Earth' same rights as humans

Canada.com

Bolivia will this month table a draft United Nations treaty giving "Mother Earth" the same rights as humans — having just passed a domestic law that does the same for bugs, trees and all other natural things in the South American country.

The bid aims to have the UN recognize the Earth as a living entity that humans have sought to "dominate and exploit" — to the point that the "well-being and existence of many beings" is now threatened.

The wording may yet evolve, but the general structure is meant to mirror Bolivia's Law of the Rights of Mother Earth, which Bolivian President Evo Morales enacted in January.

That document speaks of the country's natural resources as "blessings," and grants the Earth a series of specific rights that include rights to life, water and clean air; the right to repair livelihoods affected by human activities; and the right to be free from pollution.

Democratic senator wants Internet sales taxes

CNET News

A Democratic senator is preparing to introduce legislation that aims to end the golden era of tax-free Internet shopping.

The proposal--expected to be made public soon after Tax Day--would rewrite the ground rules for Internet and mail order sales by eliminating the ability of Americans to shop at Web sites like Amazon.com and Overstock.com without paying state sales taxes.

Dick Durbin of Illinois, the second most senior Senate Democrat, will introduce the bill after the Easter recess, a Democratic aide told CNET.

"Why should out-of-state companies that sell their products online have an unfair advantage over Main Street bricks-and-mortar businesses?" Durbin said in a speech in Collinsville, Ill., in February. "Out-of-state companies that aren't paying their fair share of taxes are sticking Illinois residents and businesses with the tab."

Iron Dome intercepts first rocket

Ynet News

Residents in Ashkelon reported Thursday seeing Israel's new Iron Dome defense system intercept a Grad rocket fired towards the southern city from the Gaza Strip. IDF officials called the interception a "historical moment", saying it was the first of its kind in the world.

Two intercepting missiles were fired at the rocket, but the first succeeded in hitting it, an army official said.

Eyewitnesses told Ynet they saw the rocket explode in midair and realized that the system had intercepted its first rocket.

Homosexual influence = 'tyranny of the minority'

OneNewsNow

According to one researcher's findings, a small segment of the population seemingly has overwhelming influence over the rest of America.

California demographer Gary Gates has done the math and estimates that roughly four million adults claim they are homosexual, which equals about 1.7 percent of the population.

Matt Barber, vice president of Liberty Counsel Action, says the findings fly in the face of "the 'ten percent' myth -- that somehow ten percent of the population [is] gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender," which he points out has been touted by radical activists for decades. "This shoots a major hole through that propagandist nonsense," he decides.

Without Reforms, U.S. Funding for U.N. ‘Will Be in Jeopardy,’ Republicans Warn Obama

CNS News

The battle over funding for the United Nations is heating up in Congress, as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon each visited Capitol Hill this week, pressing the U.N.’s biggest contributor to pay up, in full and on time.

The flurry of activity comes amid congressional initiatives aimed at withholding or cutting back on funding for the U.N.

H.R.1, a House-passed appropriations bill for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2011, includes significant cuts to international affairs spending. The Senate has not taken up that Republican-authored bill, however.

NBC’s Brokaw: Saudis ‘So Unhappy' With Obama They Sent Emissaries to China, Russia Seeking Enhanced Ties

CNS News

Reporting from Baghdad, Iraq yesterday, NBC’s Tom Brokaw said the Saudi Arabian monarchy is “so unhappy with the Obama administration for the way it pushed out President Mubarak of Egypt” that it has sent senior officials to the Peoples' Republic of China and Russia to seek expanded business opportunities with those countries.

After remarking on the difficulty of establishing democracy in the Middle East, Brokaw said that Defense Secretary Robert Gates “will face some tough questions in this region about the American intentions going on now with all this new turmoil, especially in an area where the United States has such big stakes politically and economically.”

“And a lot of those questions presumably will come from King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia,” reported Brokaw on the Nightly News. “I was told on the way in here that the Saudis are so unhappy with the Obama administration for the way it pushed out President Mubarak of Egypt that it sent high level emissaries to China and Russia to tell those two countries that Saudi Arabia now is prepared to do more business with them.”

Surgeons raise alarm over waiting

BBC News

Surgeons say patients in some parts of England have spent months waiting in pain because of delayed operations or new restrictions on who qualifies for treatment.

In several areas routine surgery was put on hold for months, while in many others new thresholds for hip and knee replacements have been introduced.

The moves are part of the NHS drive to find £20bn efficiency savings by 2015.

The government said performance should be measured by outcomes not numbers.

Surgeons have described the delays faced by patients as "devastating and cruel". Peter Kay, the president of the British Orthopaedic Association (BOA), says they've become increasingly frustrated that hip and knee replacements are being targeted as a way of finding savings.

Medicare Cost Would Rise for Many Under Ryan Plan

Wall Street Journal

The House Republican plan for overhauling Medicare would fundamentally change how the federal government pays for health care, starting a decade from now, likely resulting in higher out-of-pocket costs and greater limits to coverage for many Americans.

The current spending level on seniors in Medicare is widely viewed as unsustainable, given rising medical costs and the aging population. Medicare calculates that it spent an average of $11,743 on beneficiaries in 2009, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan's solution is to end the current Medicare program for people born in 1957 and after. Starting in 2022, when those Americans begin turning 65, they would no longer get their medical bills paid directly by the government, which the Wisconsin Republican in his blueprint released Tuesday calls an unsustainable "blank check commitment."

Judge’s Retraction Could Unravel Campaign to Send Israel to International Court

CNS News

A judge’s startling retraction of the most damaging aspects of a U.N. report he authored accusing Israel of war crimes could begin the unraveling of a process that the Palestinian Authority had hoped would land Israel before the International Criminal Court.

But first Judge Richard Goldstone will have to request that the U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC), which commissioned the fact-finding mission that resulted in his 575-page report, withdraw it.

Unions, Health Insurance Companies Biggest Beneficiaries of Obamacare Waivers

CNS News

After labor unions, health insurance companies are the largest beneficiaries of waivers to the health care overhaul law, when measured by the number of workers affected, according to the most recent numbers released by the Department of Health and Human Services.

As of March 4, the number of health care waivers granted to various companies, unions and non-profit organizations stood at 1,040, up from 222 in December. A total of 2,624,720 people are covered by the 1,040 waivers.

Nuclear Energy Will Remain An Essential Energy Source, Says Obama

CNS News

Despite the nuclear crisis in Japan, nuclear energy will remain a safe and important source of electricity in the U.S., President Obama said on Wednesday. The stance puts himat odds with environmental activists.

“America gets one-fifth of our electricity from nuclear energy,” the president said in a speech at Georgetown University. “It has important potential for increasing our electricity without adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. But I’m determined to ensure that it’s safe.”

Obama said he has directed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to conduct a thorough review of the 104 reactors in use throughout the U.S.

On March 15, Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a congressional panel that “the American people should have full confidence that the United States has rigorous safety regulations in place to ensure that our nuclear power is generated safely and responsibly.”

ECB FOCUS-Europe rates to lead U.S. as global power shifts

Reuters

After following the Federal Reserve's lead for over a decade, the European Central Bank is poised to launch a series of interest rate hikes before the U.S. central bank for the first time in the ECB's history.

The change from the traditional pattern reflects the ECB's greater preoccupation with inflation pressures, as well as its higher level of discomfort with the emergency bond-buying programmes run by central banks.

But the "decoupling" of ECB and Fed policies is also the result of an historic shift in the global economy: the increased influence that Asia, rather than the United States, is having on the euro zone's economy.

"I think we are in a new world where global interest rate cycles are not initiated by the Fed," said Jens Sondergaard, senior European economist at Nomura.

Obama’s Actions on U.S. Energy Production ‘Diametrically’ Opposed to His Rhetoric, Says Natural Resources Chairman

CNS News

President Barack Obama speaks a good game about expanding U.S. energy production but his actions contradict his words, said Rep. Richard “Doc” Hastings (R-Wash.), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, who added that Obama’s actions show he “is not in favor of expanding American energy production and creating American jobs.”

At a press conference on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, CNSNews.com asked Hastings, “Do you agree with Senator [James] Inhofe (R-Okla.) who recently said that higher gas prices are an explicit policy goal of the Obama administration?”

“Let’s put it this way,” Hastings said. “What I have observed during my time as chairman of the committee, is that actions speak louder than words, and that the president said on a number of occasions that he wants to expand American energy production.”

“But his actions are diametrically and 180 degrees opposite that,” said Hastings. “And I mentioned the reinstatement of the moratorium, for example, and the de facto moratorium on the Gulf of Mexico. Those are actions that suggest to me very clearly that this president is not in favor of expanding American energy production and creating American jobs.”

Middle East conflicts reveal media bias

OneNewsNow

A conservative media watchdog says mainstream television networks have shown a blatant double standard when it comes to the coverage of two major incursions under different presidents.

When President George W. Bush made the decision to invade Iraq in 2003, many in the media chastised him, even though he had prior congressional approval to authorize force based on reports that Saddam Hussein possessed "weapons of mass destruction."

However, when President Barack Obama recently ordered air strikes on Libya without congressional approval, the same media failed to challenge him, even reporting it was the right thing to do. Since the operations began last week, the consensus appears to be that Libya does not pose any national security risks for the U.S.

Rich Noyes (Media Research Center)Rich Noyes, director of research at the Media Research Center, says about the Libya situation: "When you listen to liberal reporters, they seem more excited about the fact that the United States is spending its treasure and risking the blood of its sons in something that has no national security implications for United States -- and yet this seems to be where liberals get most excited. They don't like it when we actually do have a security interest."

Bullet 333Barry Asmus, Senior Economist, National Center for Policy Analysis
Bullet 333Michael Barry, Director of Pastoral Care, Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Phila.
Bullet 333Phil Clements, Managing Director, Center for Christian Business Ethics Today, LLC.
Bullet 333Chuck Colson, Prison Fellowship
Bullet 333Jeffrey Conway, Former CFO, Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse
Bullet 333Tom DeLay, Former House Majority Leader, United States House of Representatives
Bullet 333William Devlin, National President, Redeem The Vote
Bullet 333Chuck Donovan, Senior Research Fellow-DeVos Center for Religion a, The Heritage Foundation
Bullet 333William Edgar, Professor of Apologetics, Coordinator of the Apolo, Westminster Theological Seminary
Bullet 333Ron Ferner, Dean of the School of Business and Leadership, Philadelphia Biblical University
Bullet 333Frank Gaffney, Founder and President , Center for Security Policy
Bullet 333Paul "Dave" Gaubatz, Owner-Director, Wahhabi CT Publications
Bullet 333Lou Giuliano, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer (r, ITT Corporation
Bullet 333Mike Gottfried, Founder, Team Focus
Bullet 333Rick Green, President, Torch of Freedom Foundation
Bullet 333Wayne Grudem, Research Professor of Theology and Biblical Studie, Phoenix Seminary
Bullet 333Colin Hanna, Colin Hanna, President, Let Freedom Ring USA
Bullet 333Dr. Janice Hollis, Bishop, Progressive Believers Ministries
Bullet 333Bishop Harry R. Jackson, Senior Pastor, Hope Christian Church
Bullet 333Julius Kim, Westminster Seminary California
Bullet 333Phillip Kim, Assistant Professor of Management and Human Resour, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business
Bullet 333Cliff Kincaid, President, America's Survival, Inc.
Bullet 333Peter Lillback, President, Westminster Theological Seminary
Bullet 333Jennifer Marshall, Director of Domestic Policy Studies, The Heritage Foundation
Bullet 333Gary Marx, Executive Director, Judicial Confirmation Network
Bullet 333Alex McFarland, President, Southern Evangelical Seminary
Bullet 333Fran McGowen, Founder and President , CarSense
Bullet 333David "Mac" Mcquiston, President/CEO, CEO Forum, Inc.
Bullet 333Ryan Messmore, William E. Simon fellow in Religion and a Free Soc, The Heritage Foundation
Bullet 333Joe Murray, Columnist, The Bulletin
Bullet 333Jeff Myers, Incoming President, Summit Ministries
Bullet 333Grover Norquist, President, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR)
Bullet 333K. Scott Oliphint, Professor of Apologetics and Systematic Theology, Westminster Theological Seminary
Bullet 333Andrew Peterson, Reformed Theological Seminary, Virtual Campus
Bullet 333Vern Poythress, Westminster Theological Seminary
Bullet 333Gale Radebaugh, Vice President, Pharmaceutical Sciences (Ret.), Pfizer Research
Bullet 333Phil Ryken, President-Elect , Wheaton College
Bullet 333Chuck Stetson, Co-founder and Managing Director, PEI Funds
Bullet 333John Weiser, Board Member, Westminster Theological Seminary , In Medias Res
Bullet 333David Wheaton, Author, Speaker, Radio Talk Show Host, TheChristianWorldview.com

Teacher pushes true history in ethnic studies

OneNewsNow

A California university hosted a forum last week aimed at protecting ethnic studies on college campuses.

In the months since an Arizona law went into effect threatening to cut state funding to school districts that designed courses promoting certain ethnic groups, many Arizona teachers and students have been migrating through California schools to save ethnic studies in The Golden State.

On Wednesday, the "La Raza Tour: Save Ethnic Studies" landed at California State University - Fullerton, where students were informed of the importance of preserving Mexican-American studies. But Diane Lenning of Lenning School Watch tells OneNewsNow that schools cannot abandon the essential teachings of American history in order to accommodate ethnic studies.

Diane Lenning (Lenning School Watch)"I cannot stress enough how important it is to know the United States Constitution, your state Constitution, and our tri-level legal system," Lenning shares.

Obama strongly defends US military action in Libya

Associated Press

Defending the first war launched on his watch, President Barack Obama declared Monday night the United States intervened in Libya to prevent a slaughter of civilians that would have stained the world's conscience and "been a betrayal of who we are." Yet he ruled out targeting Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, warning that trying to oust him militarily would be a costly mistake.

Obama announced that NATO would take command over the entire Libya operation on Wednesday, keeping his pledge to get the U.S. out of the lead but offering no estimate on when the conflict might end.

He never described the U.S.-led military campaign as a "war" and gave no details on its costs, but he offered an expansive case for why he believed it was in the national interest of the United States and allies to act.

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