Free Republic

More than 200 people rallied for Lincoln's gay and lesbian community on the steps of the Capitol on Wednesday night, one day after police said a lesbian woman staged a hate crime one month ago. The scene echoed the candlelight vigil the night after Charlie Rogers, 33, told police three men broke into her house, tied her up, carved anti-gay slurs into her skin and tried to light her house on fire. "We were all brought together by a woman who needs prayers and support," said Beth Loofe, a Lincoln woman who works as a chaplain at Inclusive Life Church...

The 33-year-old lesbian who told police she was brutally attacked spoke to an Omaha television station Thursday. Charlie Rogers spoke with KETV, Omaha’s ABC affiliate, saying the attack changed her life. “I’m not hiding from this anymore,” she said. “My world has been changed forever.” Rogers told police three masked men broke into her house early Sunday morning, bound her with zip ties and carved anti-gay slurs into her skin before trying to light her house on fire. Through her attorney, Rogers has declined interview requests from the Journal Star. Police are investigating the reported attack as a hate crime,...

A protest is planned Thursday in front of a Lincoln radio station to call for the removal of talk radio host Rush Limbaugh from the airwaves. The conservative talk show host is losing advertisers and being targeted after calling a law school student a “slut” and “prostitute” for advocating for insurance coverage of contraceptives. “Occupy Rush Limbaugh on International Women’s Day” is scheduled from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday at KLIN, 4343 O St. The protest is being sponsored by Occupy Lincoln, which has a tent camp on the mall in front of the state capitol in Lincoln....

According to the Kaiser Foundation's Health Reform Subsidy Calculator (via IBD), a 62-year-old in a high-cost area earning $46,000 a year without health insurance is entitled to a $7,836 government tax credit. Leaving aside how our strapped government can afford that, here's what's interesting: if the same person makes a mistake and earns an extra $22 in income, he loses the entire $7,836 credit. (The cutoff, according to Kaiser, is between $46,021 and $46,022.) That's a 35,618% marginal tax rate. Indeed, the problem is so severe that our 62-year-old subject will have more take-home pay if he earns $46,000 than...

Allow me to enter the debate about the use of our English word “immigrant” to translate the Hebrew Bible term ger and to apply it to our situation in the United States today Let’s correct one common misunderstanding. The ger was not a full citizen. There is no evidence that the ger could hold land in Israel, or participate in jurisprudence. The ger and the citizen remain rigidly distinguished. A ger can become a citizen only by conversion, i.e. circumcision. The ger has neither the right nor the obligation to celebrate Passover. The pro-illegal-immigration crowd wants to define oppression as...

I've previously argued that the benefits of so-called "civil Gideon" are overstated, and another example hit the news recently. In FY 1986, 89% of asylum claims were denied, and 52% of asylum seekers had counsel. In FY 2010, 50% of asylum claims were denied, and 91% of asylum seekers had counsel; the approval rates for without and with counsel were 11% and 54% respectively. Therefore, Syracuse's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse announces, legal representation helps asylum seekers in court, and more legal representation is needed?a claim repeated uncritically by an article by Marcia Coyle in the National Law Journal without any...

Vice President Joe Biden will visit Omaha this month to help raise money for Democrat Tom White, who is seeking to unseat Republican Rep. Lee Terry in Nebraska's 2nd House District. White campaign spokesman Ian Russell confirmed Friday that Biden will be at the Field Club of Omaha on Sept. 30. Russell said White, a state legislator from Omaha, looks forward to talking to Biden "about creating jobs and reducing the deficit." Dave Boomer, campaign spokesman for Terry, said Biden's visit "verifies what we've been saying all along: that Tom White is another vote for the Obama agenda that will...

First Amendment protects a Nebraska man's right to send fiery emails accusing his former political science professor, then a state legislative candidate, of being an al-Qaida sympathizer, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled, overturning the former pupil's conviction for disturbing the peace. Darren Drahota's conviction was based on a pair of anonymous emails he sent to University of Nebraska political science professor William Avery, who was running for the state Legislature. After the men exchanged 18 emails filled with fiery and sometimes profane political debate, Avery asked Drahota not to contact him again and threatened to call police if he did....

Germany is planning to introduce a digital identification card for foreigners in a move to combat illegal immigration. The ID card is only for non-EU citizens living in Germany, according to a newspaper report

ACLU Nebraska cautioned state school districts Wednesday against inviting speakers who proselytize to students under the guise of anti-drug and anti-alcohol messages. In letters sent to school superintendents, ACLU Nebraska legal director Amy Miller said there have been complaints about Christian messages during student assemblies. Miller singled out two speakers in particular, Keith Becker and Ron Brown. Becker speaks about the death of his teenage brother in a drunken-driving crash. His group's Web site notes the talk incorporates Scripture. Brown is an assistant football coach at Nebraska who helped found a nonprofit that spreads a Christian message.

A Nebraska newspaper is easing its ban on publishing gay marriage announcements to allow notices about legally recognized same-sex unions. Omaha World-Herald Publisher Terry Kroeger announced the change Tuesday. The paper had been criticized online for its refusal to print a lesbian couple's commitment notice. Kroeger says the World-Herald may have been slow to react to this issue, but the newspaper never hated gays and lesbians. Kroeger says the newspaper changed its policy because five states, including neighboring Iowa, and the District of Columbia have legalized gay marriage. The World-Herald will now accept paid announcements of weddings, engagements and anniversaries...

When the ELCA approved ordaining gays into the ministry last August, nearly two-thirds of the congregation at Seward's Faith Lutheran Church decided it was time to go. So nearly half of Faith Lutheran's members -- including its longtime minister and most of the church council -- broke away to start a new church. Thirty days later, last Sunday, Living Word Lutheran Church opened its doors in Seward's former First Presbyterian Church, which closed last winter. In the pulpit is the Rev. Jim Miller, Faith Lutheran's pastor for the past 11 1/2 years. On that same Sunday across town, many Faith...

Cross-posted from Shopfloor.org. Now, THIS is a blockbuster. Footage from the documentary-style film, "Crude," reveals that U.S. trial lawyers strategized with a supposedly independent court-appointed expert in Ecuador who went on to recommmend penalizing Chevron $27.4 billion for environmental damage in the Amazon. In a court filing today in U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, attorneys for Chevron detailed the collusion among Steven Donziger, the U.S. trial lawyer who has masterminded the suit, the Ecuadorian lawyers who serve as the public face of the anti-Chevron campaign, and Richard Cabrera, an engineer later appointed as the court's "special master"...

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition government decided today to raise fees as well as limit expected wage increases for a range of health care personnel. This is in response to a deficit in the German health care system that has grown much larger than can easily be controlled. “The center-right coalition has agreed to a far-reaching package of measures for a sustainable enhancement of the public health-care insurance,” German Health Minister Philipp Roesler said. “Expenditure will be limited, revenues will be stabilized.” Germany’s health insurance cover is mandatory and was once highly regarded. About 90 percent of the population, or some...

A pair of Nebraska investors has filed a class-action lawsuit against LPL Financial, saying that one of the company's brokers misled them about the costs and benefits of annuities. J.L. Spray, one of the investors' attorneys, said in court documents that broker Bob Bennie of Lincoln made multiple misrepresentations about the $366,500 in annuities he sold to Richard and Carol Ripley. Bennie, who used to lead the Lancaster County Republican Party, has helped organize tea party events in the state this year. Michael Rhodes, with the law firm defending LPL, which is based in Boston, says the company believes the...

Emboldened by passage of the nation's toughest law against illegal immigration, the Arizona politician who sponsored the measure now wants to deny U.S. citizenship to children born in this country to undocumented parents. "I think the time is right," said state Rep. John Kavanagh, a Republican from suburban Phoenix who is chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee. "Federal inaction is unacceptable, so the states have to start the process." An estimated 10.8 million illegal immigrants were living in the U.S. as of January 2009, according to the Homeland Security Department. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that as of 2008,...

For five years, Bryan Corkle taught undocumented students at O'Neill High School and didn't know it. He coached some of them in wrestling, became friends with some of them. About 10 months ago, he learned about the plight of these students: After high school, they have limited options without citizenship. He's become so personally involved with these teens that he started advising an organization, and Wednesday he rallied with students for legislation that would give them a path to citizenship. Standing on the steps of the Capitol on Wednesday afternoon, Corkle preached this message: "Providing undocumented students with an opportunity...

Five days, 195 miles from O'Neill to Lincoln -- on foot. That's the journey O'Neill High School graduate Daniel Dominguez is making in order to raise awareness for the federal DREAM Act legislation. "My feet are tired and sore," Dominguez said from Seward on Tuesday, "but I'm feeling good. I want this thing passed." Dominguez will arrive in Lincoln on Wednesday afternoon to take part in the Nebraska DREAM Walk, a rally in support of the act. If passed, the act would provide a path to citizenship for undocumented students. The federal bill -- although similar sounding -- is different...

Poll your political philosophy

About 100 people gathered Wednesday night to hear three panelists discuss racism and immigration law issues, with one panelist comparing a new Arizona law to the Jim Crow laws of the past. The panel, called "Brown Person, Show Me Your Papers," included S.A. Mora James, a Latina civil rights attorney; Norman Pflanz, an attorney for the Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest; and Paul Olson, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor and president of Nebraskans for Peace. James compared the stringent law in Arizona to the Jim Crow laws used against blacks. The Arizona law would make the...