What’s interesting in the news today?

I guess we start with some good news from North Dakota. 🙂

From LifeNews

““Gov. Jack Dalrymple today signed HB 1305, HB 1456 and SB 2305 and provided the following statements to the Legislature:”

“I have signed HB 1305 which would ban abortions performed solely for the purpose of gender selection and genetic abnormalities.

I have signed HB 1456 which would ban abortions after the detection of a fetal heartbeat. Although the likelihood of this measure surviving a court challenge remains in question, this bill is nevertheless a legitimate attempt by a state legislature to discover the boundaries of Roe v. Wade. Because the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed state restrictions on the performing of abortions and because the Supreme Court has never considered this precise restriction in HB 1456, the constitutionality of this measure is an open question. The Legislative Assembly before it adjourns should appropriate dollars for a litigation fund available to the Attorney General.

I have signed SB 2305 which requires admitting and staff privileges at a nearby hospital for any physician who performs abortions in North Dakota. The added requirement that the hospital privileges must include allowing abortions to take place in their facility greatly increases the chances that this measure will face a court challenge. Nevertheless, it is a legitimate and new question for the courts regarding a precise restriction on doctors who perform abortions.””

More here on the banning of abortion based on Down Syndrome, as well as gender preference based abortions. Also via LifeNews

“With the governor’s signature on the ban today, North Dakota has become the first state to ban abortions based on genetic “defects” like Down Syndrome. When diagnosed before birth, such genetic abnormalities prompt couples to have abortions 90 percent of the time.”

“The measure would also ban abortion based on gender selection, an issue of increasing concern in the United States has people from nations like China and India migrate to the United States and bring their cultural preference for boys with them.”

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Then some possibly good news. Or just wishful thinking. But the quicker we lame duck the current President, the better.

From Bloomberg

“U.S. Senator Tim Johnson’s announcement that he’ll retire after the 2014 election just made the Democrats’ job of holding their Senate majority a lot tougher.

Johnson, 66, the Senate banking committee chairman, is the second Democrat from a state won by Republican nominee Mitt Romney last year to say he won’t seek re-election in 2014. The announcement today means his party must defend two open seats and support five other Democratic incumbents running for re-election in Republican-leaning states.”

““The battle for the Senate will come down to Democrats’ability to hold seats in Republican-leaning states,” said Nathan Gonzales, deputy editor of the non-partisan Rothenberg Political Report, based in Washington. “A lot depends on how popular the president is” next year “because if people are dissatisfied, their option is to vote against the president’s party.””

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And then it starts to go downhill. 😦

It sounds like good news for a change due to ObamaCare, more jobs. But there’s a catch.

From HotAir

“Today, the Washington Post discovers that the Law of Unintended C0nsequences applies to ObamaCare, too.  Thanks to the massive costs added to hiring full-time workers, businesses now want to operate on cash-only relationships with labor:

The health-care law could prove to be a boon for temporary-staffing companies as employers outsource jobs to sidestep complex requirements for medical insurance.

But some experts say the Affordable Care Act’s exceptions for temporary employees could undercut the goal of expanding coverage to more American workers.

“That could lead to an increase in part-time workers” who lack insurance, said Susan N. Houseman, an economist at the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research who studies staffing companies. “You regulate something and people will always try to find a way around the regulation.”

Gee, nobody saw that comin’ huh? 🙄

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Then we get a GRINCH ALERT!!! and it’s not even Christmas. 😦

From FoxNews

“Boys and girls at an Alabama elementary school will still get to hunt for eggs – but they can’t call them ‘Easter Eggs’ have the principal banished the word for the sake of religious diversity.”

““We had in the past a parent to question us about some of the things we do here at school,” said Heritage Elementary School principal Lydia Davenport. “So we’re just trying to make sure we respect and honor everybody’s differences.””

““Kids love the bunny and we just make sure we don’t say ‘the Easter Bunny’ so that we don’t infringe on the rights of others because people relate the Easter bunny to religion,” she told the television station. “ A bunny is a bunny and a rabbit is a rabbit.”

🙄 And you’re a weasel Ms. Davenport. They’d probably lock the school down if anybody dared mention Jesus’ name in connection with Easter.

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But I guess as annoying as that is, it’s nothing compared to the persecution other believers face. And this is who our govt. is supporting and funding.

From FoxNews

“Islamic hard-liners stormed a mosque in suburban Cairo, turning it into  torture chamber for Christians who had been demonstrating against the ruling  Muslim Brotherhood in the latest case of violent persecution that experts fear  will only get worse.

Such stories have become increasingly common as tensions between Egypt’s  Muslims and Copts mount, but in the latest case, mosque officials corroborated  much of the account and even filed a police report. Demonstrators, some of whom  were Muslim, say they were taken from the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters in  suburban Cairo to a nearby mosque on Friday and tortured for hours by hard-line  militia members.

“They accompanied me to one of the mosques in the area and I discovered the  mosque was being used to imprison demonstrators and torture them,” Amir Ayad, a  Coptic who has been a vocal protester against the regime, told MidEast Christian News from a  hospital bed.”

““There is no longer anything to hold them back. The floodgates are  open.”

And in Libya more of the same, from CNSNews

“On Feb. 12, about two years after the U.S. government first militarily intervened in Libya to advance the cause of Libyan revolutionaries and five months after Libyan terrorists murdered Amb. Chris Stevens and three other Americans in that country, the  post-revolutionary Libyan government arrested a U.S. citizen for  allegedly “proselytizing” Christianity in Benghazi.

As of today, according to both a senior administration official and a State Department spokesperson, this U.S. citizen remains imprisoned in  post-Qaddafi Libya.

The Libyan government also arrested seven other Christians in Benghazi in connection with the same alleged case of Christian proselytizing. These include a South African woman, a South Korean man  and five Egyptian men.”

And again, this is who we’re propping up.

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