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ELCA NEWS SERVICE July 1, 2009 ELCA Pastor, Others Speak Out on Health Care Reform 09-144-JD WASHINGTON (ELCA) - During the Fourth of July congressional recess, a faith-based ad campaign will launch nationally to address the need for health care reform. The campaign includes airing radio ads featuring local pastors June 30 to July 4 in Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Nebraska and North Carolina, as well as meetings with members of Congress and building a grassroots movement to raise awareness of health care issues. The radio ads will air on Christian and mainstream radio stations featuring pastors from each of the...

The Nebraska man who abandoned his nine children under the state's Safe Haven law last year is expecting to become the father of twins, FOXNews.com has learned. > Kathie Osterman, a spokeswoman for Nebraska's Department of Health and Human Services, said the Staton family had received more than $995,000 in government aid as of last fall, including an estimated $600,000 in food stamps and more than $100,000 in Medicaid. >

Crawford’s suspended police chief Richard Thompson was acquitted of second degree assault charges after more than a day of testimony before North Platte Judge John Murphy. Murphy announced his not guilty ruling Thursday afternoon. Thompson was indicted by a grand jury in November 2007 after he and Game and Parks Officer Dan Kling were involved in a shooting at the Frontier Bar in Crawford Oct. 3, 2007. Jesse Britton, 16, a suspect in a string of burglaries, was killed. Thompson has maintained he fired his weapon in self-defense, while special prosecutor Jean Rhodes contended he was reckless in his decision...

A former Lincoln Public Schools bus driver and pastor of a north Lincoln church has been charged in Council Bluffs, Iowa, with sexually assaulting four people, including a young girl. Lincoln police arrested Efrain Umaña, 53, on June 11 for extradition, said Capt. Anthony Butler. Umaña, 1906 Hartley St., is pastor of El Nuevo Nacimiento Church at 2441 N. Ninth St., according to the church’s Web site. He faces charges in Pottawattamie County, Iowa. According to court documents filed there, police say Umaña forced a 10- to 11-year-old girl to have sex with him in a Council Bluffs church in...

June 15, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In the wake of the murder of his close friend and colleague George Tiller, Nebraska late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart has stated that he will continue offering third-trimester abortions. In a telephone interview with the Associated Press last week Carhart said, "there will be a place in Kansas for the later second- and the medically indicated third-trimester patients very soon."Carhart said that he has never performed third-trimester abortions at his facility in Nebraska, but that he has done so at Tiller’s facility in Wichita. Carhart would occasionally perform late-term abortions at Tiller’s facility to avoid...

Bruning: GM circumventing state laws LINCOLN (AP) — Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning is accusing General Motors of trying to circumvent state consumer protection laws. In a letter Monday to other states' attorneys generals, Bruning says GM is claiming states' laws protecting consumers and dealerships can be ignored. Bruning's letter comes as GM plans to close some 1,300 dealerships nationwide as part of it's plan to emerge from bankruptcy as a new company. Bruning says GM is insisting current dealers sign new dealership agreements in order to be part of the new operation. Bruning says those agreements force current dealers...

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Friday that Americans need a new government-sponsored insurance plan to guarantee choice and competition — especially in rural America. “What the president feels is important is to have some competition and to have a choice,” Sebelius said at a roundtable discussion in Omaha, where she delivered a sales pitch for President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. Her appearance was part of an aggressive new administration push to build a groundswell of public support for action by Congress in time for Obama to sign legislation in the fall. Obama himself brought the same...

An Arizona Department of Public Safety officer and Tucson resident was killed in a plane crash in Nebraska Thursday. Officer Allen Peterson, 51, was piloting the aircraft when it crashed in Arthur County. The cause is under investigation. The crash was reported at 4 p.m. after a property owner discovered the wreckage and called the Arthur County Sheriff’s Office. Peterson was the sole occupant of the plane, according to the Nebraska State Patrol. He was visiting family in Minnesota and was returning to Arizona at the time. “Officer Allen Peterson served the department and the citizen’s of Arizona with dignity...

Doc plans to offer 3rd-term abortions in Kansas Staff from Dr. Tiller's clinic may join the Nebraskan to help train others  Wed., June 10, 2009 OMAHA, Neb. - A Nebraska doctor says he'll perform third-term abortions in Kansas after the slaying of abortion provider George Tiller, even though Tiller's clinic is closed.Dr. LeRoy Carhart declined to discuss his plans in detail during a telephone interview with The Associated Press, but insisted "there will be a place in Kansas for the later second and the medically indicated third-trimester patients very soon." "I just think that until everything is in place, it's...

Doctor slaying thins ranks of third-term abortion providers By Eric OlsonAssociated Press Posted: 06/02/2009 08:22:07 PM PDT OMAHA, Neb. — Physician LeRoy Carhart wants to continue providing third-term abortions after the brazen slaying of his friend and colleague George Tiller, but the Nebraska doctor doesn't have anywhere to perform them — and he's one of only a handful of providers that will.snipCarhart, 67, is one of a handful of remaining doctors in the United States who perform third-trimester abortions, and it is uncertain if a new generation of providers will take over the cause. Schools and universities don't offer many programs...

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - A Nebraska doctor says he'll perform third-term abortions in Kansas after the slaying of abortion provider George Tiller, even though Tiller's clinic is closed. Dr. LeRoy Carhart declined to discuss details with The Associated Press on Wednesday, a day after Tiller's family announced his Wichita clinic was permanently shutting its doors. Carhart isn't saying whether his plans include opening a new facility or offering the abortions at an existing practice. He says such details are "something that doesn't need to be talked about" until everything is in place.

Organizers of a campaign that emphasizes unity and strengthening communities are spreading their message in a Nebraska city that’s been embroiled in debate over illegal immigration. The “Nebraska Is Home” campaign launched Saturday in Fremont with organizers pledging they won’t delve into policy and say they just want residents to get to know their neighbors. “Nebraska Is Home is a positive community campaign that seeks to promote Fremont’s unity and strength,” said Kristin Ostrom, who helps lead the local group. “We are doing that neighbor to neighbor.” More than two dozen supporters gathered for the unveiling of a billboard that...

Nebraska’s Mexican American Commission is trying to blunt the momentum of a Hispanic evangelical group that wants to boycott the 2010 census to create leverage for national immigration reform. The National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders is organizing a nationwide prayer rally for noon Friday that is also meant to call attention to the plight of undocumented workers and a lack of action on immigration policy at the federal level. Angel Freytez, acting director of the Mexican American Commission in Lincoln, doesn’t see failure to cooperate with census takers next year as a proper strategy. “We are partners...

The phone calls usually come in the evening after the machinery goes silent on farms across the country. The callers speak of dwindling cash flows, crumbling marriages. Some admit they're holding a loaded gun. Across a wide swath of rural America, increasing numbers of farmers are considering taking their lives. The nation's largest network of crisis hotlines for agricultural workers reports a spike of 2,000 calls through May compared with the same period last year — a 20 percent increase. In Colorado, the number of suicides among farmers and ranchers has risen in the past five years: Fourteen took their...

LeRoy Carhart wants to continue providing third-term abortions after the slaying of his friend George Tiller, but the Nebraska doctor doesn’t have anywhere to perform them — and he’s one of only a handful of providers who will. Tiller’s Wichita, Kan., clinic was shuttered Sunday after the 67-year-old was gunned down at church. His family said Tuesday they were unsure when it would reopen, posing a problem for Carhart, who wants to carry on his friend’s mission. Carhart, 67, is one of a handful of remaining doctors in the United States who perform third-trimester abortions, and it is uncertain if...

OMAHA, Neb. — Physician LeRoy Carhart wants to continue providing third-term abortions after the brazen slaying of his friend and colleague George Tiller, but the Nebraska doctor doesn't have anywhere to perform them — and he's one of only a handful of providers who will. Tiller's Wichita, Kan., clinic was shuttered Sunday after the 67-year-old physician was gunned down at his church. His family said Tuesday that they were unsure when it would reopen, posing a problem for Carhart, who wants to carry on his friend's mission.

CLICK HERE FOR A WEALTH OF PHOTOS AND INFORMATION "Doctor" LeRoy Harrison Carhart is Nebraska's notorious partial birth abortionist. He travels to Wichita at least once a month to kill babies for Tiller. Associated Press For several years Carhart sold aborted baby parts to the University of Nebraska for use in research. Carhart gained worldwide fame when he fought Nebraska's ban on partial birth abortion. He took his fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court which ruled largely in his favor (Carhart vs. Stenberg). Carhart is now fighting the new Federal ban on partial birth abortion. Carhart...

Building a fence along the Mexican border and fighting over proposed immigration restrictions in Fremont are a lot more visible right now than any new paths to citizenship. But that didn’t stop Nebraska advocates of a more welcoming attitude from stepping forward to make their case in Lincoln and Omaha Monday. “I can’t tell you how devastating it is to me to see that fence as an American citizen,” the Rev. Chuck Bentjen said at the Lincoln launch of the National Campaign to Reform Immigration for America. Bentjen, based in Lincoln with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, was one...

Forty senators gave their blessing Friday to a bill that Nebraska Right to Life hailed as one of the strongest abortion ultrasound bills in the country, and one that could reduce abortions in the state. The bill (LB675), introduced by Lincoln Sen. Tony Fulton, requires providers of abortions to tell women of the medical risks of the procedure they are seeking, and that they cannot be forced to have an abortion. They also can request and be provided a list, compiled by the state Department of Health and Human Services, of healthcare providers and clinics that offer free ultrasounds performed...

The uses for the Title I stimulus money outlined to the school board Tuesday include: * $214,300 to hire a coordinator and half-time bookkeeper to help administer Title I programs started with stimulus money. * $642,675 for professional development programs, including Quantum Learning, which applies brain-based research to student learning, and a program to help teachers promote social and emotional growth. * $450,000 to hire three social workers to join the 14 the district now employs. * $200,000 to contract with mental health agencies to work with students with mental health issues. * $1.05 million to hire math coaches, kindergarten...

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE)--who's been giving Barack Obama a tough time of late--has released a statement on the Sotomayor nomination. "President Obama is to be commended for selecting a nominee with a significant breadth and depth of legal experience to replace retiring Justice David Souter," Nelson says, "I look forward to learning more about Judge Sonia Sotomayor's background, record and qualifications -- and to meeting with her to discuss her judicial philosophy -- as this important United States Supreme Court nomination moves forward." Nelson supported both of George W. Bush's Supreme Court nominees, and gave the previous President wide latitude...

WASHINGTON – A leading Democratic senator warned Sunday his party could support a potentially polarizing obstruction of President Barack Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court if he names an "activist" to the bench. Parties in opposition to a sitting president traditionally call for moderation in a pick to the country's highest court, but moderate Democrat Ben Nelson issued a blunt warning from Obama's own party that the president should not choose someone seen as out of the mainstream. "I don't care whether they're liberal or conservative," Nelson told Fox News Sunday in an interview. "I just want to make sure...

LINCOLN -- Two state senators hailed the signing of a new law on carrying handguns as a way to make certain law-abiding citizens aren't breaking the law. Nebraska has had a concealed carry law for three years. More than 4,500 permits have been issued. But State Sens. Tony Fulton of Lincoln and Mark Christensen of Imperial said passage of LB 430 this year will make sure that holders of permits will not run afoul of city ordinances that prohibit concealed carry. Christensen cited the example of a motorist speeding down Interstate 80 through Kearney, where concealed handguns were banned. Under...

The link has not worked for too many so I will post the abstract below. I hope a freeper can access and if copyrighted, send me the article by freeper email. The train is on track to permanently removing our grandchildren (3 and 1 yr old) from our lives, forever. We suspect that we have an activist judge presiding over our family case and because of the color of different people involved, we may not be able to get a fair and balance outcome. So far the hearings have consistently gone against the biological paternal grandparents, solely based on social...

Here we go again: Serial drunk driver. Countless trips through the revolving door. Immigration status ignored. Now, a four-year-old girl dead. Her mother and brother hospitalized. The community is outraged. Politicians claim to be perplexed. And the pro-illegal alien amnesty group is ready to pounce on anyone who dares talk about this case as a right-wing, hate-mongering extremist. Same old, same old bloody, open-borders nightmare:

A 27-year-old Omaha man has pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from a collision that fatally injured a 4-year-old Omaha girl this week. Eleazar Rangel-Ochoa appeared in Douglas County Court on Friday to enter his plea on charges of misdemeanor motor vehicle homicide and felony driving under suspension. His bail has been set at $1 million. He also waived his right to a preliminary hearing. Police say he ran a red light and struck a minivan driven by Jayme Bluhm on a west Omaha street early Tuesday. Bluhm’s 4-year-old daughter, Josie, was thrown from the van and suffered critical injuries....

Rangel-Ochoa, whom police arrested after he was treated for his injuries, remained in jail today, accused of driving with a suspended license. He is not in the U.S. legally, according to police; they did not know his country of origin. Authorities said Rangel-Ochoa's license had been suspended and revoked numerous times for offenses ranging from failure to complete driver improvement classes to driving under the influence. In 2003 his driver's license was revoked for 15 years following a conviction for third-offense DUI. He now will face a charge of misdemeanor motor vehicle homicide, Sgt. Doug Klein said in a police...

The little girl flung from a minivan yesterday morning in west Omaha has died, according to the Omaha Police Department. Josie Bluhm, 4, was in a 2007 Chrysler Town & Country driven by her mother when the crash occurred. Her mother's minivan was southbound on 180th Street about 7:25 a.m. Tuesday when a 2007 Ford F-150 pickup driven west on West Center Road by Eleazar Rangel-Ochoa, 27, ran a red light and slammed into it, authorities said. Josie was the most severely hurt of those injured in the crash. She suffered brain hemorrhaging and was eventually declared brain dead. Life...

Too many American lawyers remained silent while the United States conducted illegal torture and the Constitution was violated by disregard for the rule of law, Ted Sorensen told law graduates Saturday. In a commencement address at the University of Nebraska College of Law, his alma mater, Sorensen urged the graduates to act with courage and embrace integrity in their professional pursuits. “Most of you as new lawyers will soon find it easy to make a buck but find it hard to make a difference,” he said, according to an advance copy of the speech obtained by the Journal Star. Sorensen,...

LINCOLN — An Omaha man who once expressed homicidal and suicidal thoughts was wrongly denied a state handgun buyer’s permit by the Douglas County sheriff, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled Friday. Joseph D. Gallegos had never been "committed" to a mental institution under the definition of the 1968 federal gun law, according to the court’s unanimous opinion. He should not, therefore, have been denied a handgun permit in 2007, the court said. In 2001, Gallegos, a veteran, sought voluntary treatment at the VA hospital in Omaha for post-traumatic stress syndrome and depression. A doctor there asked the Douglas County Board...

The Iowa State Register praised Nebraska's innovation, calling Arbor Day a holiday "devoted to pleasurable business and happy usefulness." What a contrast to preachy Earth Day with its anti-business overtones and message of guilt and limits.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman will give a free presentation, “Return of Depression Economics,” at Lincoln North Star High School at 7 p.m. May 8. “The Lincoln Public Schools District is indeed fortunate – especially in this era of economic downturn – to host the current, reigning Nobel Prize winner in economics,” said Randy Ernst, social studies curriculum specialist at LPS. Krugman is an economist, columnist, author and professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University. [+]Enlarge Story Photo Paul Krugman, Nobel Prizewinning economist (AP Photo/Mel Evans) Story Photo Paul Krugman, Nobel Prizewinning economist (AP Photo/Mel Evans) He was...

City officials and frustrated neighbors are trying to figure out whether a group of abortion opponents is violating Bellevue's new picketing ordinance with its "truth truck." The truck displays huge, graphic photos of aborted fetuses, and protesters have been repeatedly driving it through the neighborhood of a woman who works at an abortion clinic. Many residents of the Nob Hill neighborhood near Virginia Avenue and North Fourth Street are fed up with the truck. One lay down in front of the truck this week to prevent it from re-entering the street in front of their houses. He later was arrested....

Cities and states that are trying to work out their own solutions to illegal immigration are not making constructive changes and are slowing efforts in fixing what is a federal problem, a national immigrant-rights advocate said. Legislation aimed at curbing illegal immigration, whether on the state or local level, has instead amounted to costly legal battles and divided communities, said Lucas Guttentag, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, in an interview with The Associated Press. “They’ve diverted attention from addressing real problems, so I don’t think they’ve helped at all. In fact, I think they’ve hurt....

It's been said that conservatism has different meanings for different people. It may not be textbook, but without a whole lot of navel gazing, here's what it means to me and what Free Republic is all about: In a word, Freedom! In two words, Preserving Freedom. In a handful of words as stated by our Founding Fathers, to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity! America was founded on the proposition that all men are created equal by God and that our unalienable rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness are granted directly by God...

Except for the arguments over whether to create a public insurance option, the health care debate is still in what one prominent expert has called the “kumbaya” phase. Traditional opponents of reform are not yet attacking. Supporters of reform are stressing their common beliefs. Things will change once actual legislation emerges and inevitable differences over the details emerge. But, for now, everybody is playing nice. Everybody, that is, except for Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson. Nelson, a Democrat, distinguished himself a few weeks ago by voting against his fellow Democrats on the budget. Now, it seems, he’s prepared to do the...

A judge has ruled that residents of Fremont can vote on a proposal to bar anyone in the city from hiring or renting to illegal immigrants. Dodge County District Judge John Samson on Monday dismissed the city of Fremont’s claim that it can’t legally enact the proposed ordinance because it is pre-empted by federal law, among other arguments. Samson wrote that he didn’t have jurisdiction to rule on the matter unless the voters first approve the initiative. Petitioners turned in more than 3,100 valid signatures to force a special election on the proposal, which is similar to one the Fremont...

Do not believe the nattering nabobs of negativity. The Nationwide Tax Day TEA Party/Tax Revolt was a huge success!! What we need now is MORE and LOUDER!! Obama has no clue. Being confronted by millions of fed-up citizens is new to him. He never expected the otherwise docile American people to rise up against his wannabe Marxist/fascist totalitarian regime. He's now lashing out at us through the Dept of Homeland Security as if We the People are his enemy. Well, we are! And he now knows it. And he's scared witless!! And the media has been reduced to the speechless,...

FEW Americans have heard of Howard Conklin Baskerville, but most Iranians know his name. A native of Nebraska, Baskerville graduated from the Princeton Theological Seminary and moved to Iran as a Presbyterian missionary. He was 23. The year was 1907. Baskerville was an idealist at a time of idealism in Iran. The year before Baskerville’s arrival, the ailing king of Iran, Mozaffar ud-Din Shah, had bowed to popular demands for a constitutional monarchy and Iranians had drafted the first Constitution of their 25-century-long history. A parliament, the Majlis, was established and each city elected an assembly, or Anjoman. Tabriz —...

Congratulations FReepers and Patriots! According to Henchster's ongoing tallies, we've surpassed 750,000 participants in our nationwide Tax Day TEA Party/Tax Revolt! Woo hoo!! All 50 states fully engaged! Over 600 cities represented and reports still coming in! Huge turnout, huge SUCCESS!! Elected officials take note: DO NOT TREAD ON ME!! Tyranny, usurpation, corruption, overreaching, big spending, high taxing will no longer be tolerated! We the people are FED-UP and we're not going to take it anymore! Ignore us at your own peril! All Congressional seats, all elected offices throughout the land at risk! Revolution is in the air!!

The director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Immigrants' Rights Project is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the upcoming ACLU Nebraska banquet. Lucas Guttentag will discuss the civil rights advocacy organization's efforts to defend the rights of new Americans. The annual dinner and banquet will be held in Lincoln on April 25. Besides his work with ACLU, Guttentag teaches immigrants' rights law at the University of California Berkley, School of Law and Stanford Law School. ACLU Nebraska also will recognize those who've worked to defend civil liberties, including those of new immigrants

ACLU Nebraska has issued warnings to five counties accused of discriminating against legal immigrants seeking marriage licenses. The group has investigated several reports of county workers turning away Spanish speakers seeking to marry who are in the country legally but aren’t citizens, said legal director Amy Miller. “Government employees who make up new rules based on an applicant’s skin color have no place in Nebraska,” she said Friday. Under state law, applicants for marriage licenses must show identification verifying their name and date of birth. However, Miller said, some counties have required other things, such as a Social Security number,...

Radio and TV talk show personalities are distorting the public debate on critical issues with bias and misinformation, Sen. Ben Nelson said Friday. Too many Americans “get their news from entertainers (who) tell them what to be angry about today,” Nelson said. Nelson pointed the finger at personalities on both the right and the left during a speech to the Nebraska Public Policy Center on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus. Both Jon Stewart on Comedy Central and conservative radio icon Rush Limbaugh “slant the news to fit their agenda,” Nelson said. Then he added Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck and Sean...

If the Obama administration has taken flak for suggesting that conservative groups might be home to domestic terrorists, it looks like some House Democrat leaders are willing to go even further: But in an interview on Fox TV in San Francisco, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) chalked up the GOP grass-roots effort as “AstroTurf.” “This initiative is funded by the high end; we call it AstroTurf, it's not really a grass-roots movement. It's AstroTurf by some of the wealthiest people in America to keep the focus on tax cuts for the rich instead of for the great middle class,” Pelosi said....

A Nebraska bill that would allow church security guards to carry concealed handguns advanced in the state legislature on Thursday. The church provision was tacked on as an amendment to a measure that prohibits cities from having their own ban on concealed weapons. State lawmakers voted 29-15 to adopt the amendment and 40-4 to advance the bill. The amendment was introduced by Sen. Beau McCoy of Omaha whose decision was prompted by recent shootings and violence at other churches. "A house of worship is a sacred place," McCoy said, according to Fremont Tribune. "And as such, it should be kept...

Thousands of patriots crowded into the the Douglas County Courthouse plaza this afternoon to "Say It Loud We're Mad and We're Proud". The mood was festive but tempered by serious frustrations with profligate government spending, illegal immigration, a Byzantine tax code and a headlong rush to socialism by the Bush and Obama administrations. The photos speak volumes about the event. I love the smell of freedom in the afternoon.

Capping a day of tax-related protests across the Midlands, an estimated 1,500 people filled the grounds outside the Douglas County Courthouse in Omaha Wednesday evening. Among the speakers was Nebraska State Treasurer Shane Osborn, who drew cheers from the crowd when he said that Congress and President Barack Obama are spending "our children into utter oblivion."

After the 2010 census has been held, the number of seats held by each state in the U.S. House of Representatives will change. The National Conference of State Legislatures recently estimated what the 2010 reapportionment will mean for each state. Eight states are expected to lose one seat each, in the U.S. House and in the Electoral College. They are Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. States that will gain will be Texas (3 seats), and one each for Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Utah. If the bill now pending in Congress to expand the...

Nineteen-year-old college student Garrett Kliewer got up Saturday, put on a black tuxedo, black top hat and dark sunglasses, and strolled over to the state Capitol for a protest. With a cigar hanging out of his mouth, he looked like a Blues Brother, but he actually had intended to look like a capitalist. “I didn’t wanna make a sign,” he explained. He was among roughly 150 people who were angry enough about government spending to descend upon the Nebraska capitol for a “tax freedom tea party.” They were there to protest federal stimulus legislation and runaway government spending, but the...

Hundreds of Nebraskans chanted no taxation without representation in protest of increased government spending spawned by the stimulus bill at the state capitol Saturday The tea party style protest is intended to mimic Revolutionary War era protests where citizens believed they were being unfairly taxed. But instead of throwing bags of tea in the water, protestors at today's rally brought cans of pork and beans to symbolize their unhappiness with pork barrell spending. Protestors say elected officials aren't listening to their concerns and the massive spending plans enacted by the government place an unfair tax on Americans. "They don't seem...