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Dear Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, As Chair and Vice Chair of the Sonoma County Community and Local Law Enforcement Task Force (CALLE), ... The California Supreme (Court Copley Press v. Superior Court 2006) effectively changed California Penal Code, so that all independent oversight agencies, such as civilian review boards, oversight panels, and civil service commissions, must now cloak all officer records and findings of misconduct in strict confidentiality..., any independent investigation that would yield specific information about officer misconduct and patterns is stifled, and must come through an internal law enforcement investigation, or motions approved by a judge. Even...

California’s health insurance exchange has awarded $184 million in contracts without the competitive bidding and oversight that is standard practice across state government, including deals that sent millions of dollars to a firm whose employees have long-standing ties to the agency's executive director. Covered California’s no-bid contracts were for a variety of services, ranging from public relations to paying for ergonomic adjustments to work stations, according to an Associated Press review of contracting records obtained through the state Public Records Act. Several of those contracts worth a total of $4.2 million went to a consulting firm, The Tori Group, whose...

ADV Responds to Appeal by The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia (April 7, 2009) - In response to the appeal in the Virginia church property litigation filed on Tuesday, April 7 by the Diocese of Virginia and The Episcopal Church, the Anglican District of Virginia Vice-Chairman Jim Oakes issued the following statement: "We are saddened that The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia find it necessary to continue this litigation with an appeal filed during Holy Week. The appeal process will cost additional millions of dollars that could be spent on mission and ministry. Both sides have...

The Bishop of Virginia, Peter James Lee will shortly retire and head to the ultra-liberal revisionist Diocese of California as Dean of its cathedral. Before stepping away from 25 years as bishop of the largest East Coast diocese, he gave an interview to the "Washington Post" in which he made a number of statements that stand in direct contradiction to the Christian Faith and historic Anglicanism. When asked what the most important ways in which the Anglican Communion, the worldwide church of which Episcopalians are a part, has changed in the past 25 years, Lee said this, "The awareness of...

The Rt. Rev. Peter James Lee, who has been bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia for 24 years, announced today that he will step down Oct. 1 to make way for a successor who was named in 2007. The diocese, which covers northern and eastern Virginia and includes 80,000 members, is one of the largest in the Episcopal Church, the U.S.-based branch of the global Anglican Communion. Starting this fall the diocese will be overseen by the Rt. Rev. Shannon Johnston, 50, an Alabama native who has worked in dioceses in the South and is known for his work...

Virginia Episcopal Bishop Peter J. Lee has ejected 20 of his former clergy from the priesthood after they quit the denomination in December over the 2003 consecration of New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson, who is openly homosexual. In a document signed Aug. 1, the bishop defrocked 18 men and two women, saying they had "abandoned the communion of the Episcopal Church." The widely anticipated document came seven months after 11 churches — along with their clergy — voted to leave the diocese and the denomination. Bishop Lee retaliated Jan. 22 by issuing an "inhibition" order forbidding 21 clergy affiliated...

January 18, 2007 Dear Friends: Today, the leadership of the Diocese of Virginia, supported by the prayers of faithful Episcopalians in this Diocese and around the world, took action to preserve the sacred mission entrusted to us by previous generations for the future of the Church here in Virginia and across the Episcopal Church. At the heart of our faith, is the reliability of the promises of God to God’s people. Nowhere is that reliability more clearly affirmed than in the promises of God that his exiled people will be returned to Jerusalem, to their spiritual home. (Jer. 36) Because...

Make no mistake.  The Episcopal left is terrified: The Anglican Communion News Service has announced that the Archbishop of Canterbury, after consultations with the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, has asked Bishop Peter Lee of Virginia and Bishop John Lipscomb of Southwest Florida to convene a group of bishops from the Episcopal church “to meet together to discuss some of the difficult issues facing the Church and to explore possible resolutions.” This announcement raises a number of serious concerns. Consider the following. ONE By what authority is Archbishop Rowan Williams calling for meetings of bishops of the Episcopal Church?...

The Episcopal Diocese of Washington voted yesterday to approve same-sex blessing ceremonies at its annual convention at the Washington National Cathedral, while the Diocese of Virginia, meeting in Richmond, passed an omnibus resolution that touted unity.     The Washington diocese has unofficially allowed same-sex ceremonies for years, and it has had a same-sex rite on the books since June 2004.     However, that rite has been put on hold until a meeting of the Episcopal General Convention in June in Ohio, when the denomination's future stance on homosexual clergy and same-sex blessings will be decided.     The Virginia diocese's resolution, passed in the...

Virginia's largest Episcopal parish, in a letter to the church's 2,200 members, yesterday called on Virginia's the Rt. Rev. Peter J. Lee to "repent and return to the truth" over supporting the ordination of the openly homosexual bishop of New Hampshire. Leaders of the Falls Church Episcopal said in their eight-page, single-spaced letter that "no compromise on this issue is possible," although they refrained from specific threats. In the past, the parish's rector has threatened schism. "A Christian leader does not approve of sin, or purport to declassify it," the letter said to Bishop Lee, who backed the 2003 consecration...

A Virginia congregation says it has left the Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA) -- and the pastor of that congregation fears his former bishop may take retaliatory action against the parish. South Riding Church is the first parish to leave the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia after two years of conflict over ECUSA's ordination of an openly homosexual bishop in New Hampshire. But Pastor Phil Ashey says his problems with the Episcopal Church run much deeper than its approval of Bishop V. Gene Robinson. "Really the issue of Robinson's consecration and the blessing of same-sex unions is simply the presenting issue of...

Contact: The Rev. Phil Ashey (o)703-961-1983 (M) 703-963-3185Mr. Paul Branch(H) 703-327-3318South Riding Church Disaffiliates from the Episcopal Church, Joins Anglican Province of Uganda South Riding Church, established in 2000 as a new church plant in Fairfax, Virginia, has ended its affiliation with the Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA) and the Diocese of Virginia. The church is now under the jurisdictional authority of Bishop Kisembo in the Diocese of Rwenzori, Anglican Province of Uganda.South Riding is a biblically faithful church committed to the authority of Scripture, traditional Christian teaching and the historic faith and practice of Anglicanism. The decision to disaffiliate with...

True legacy?? A Chinese company is honoring ex-president Bill Clinton by naming a new line of condoms after him - along with a companion line of condoms that will be named after his ex-girlfriend, Monica Lewinsky........

Provincial Synod, Pinetown, KwaZulu Natal 7th July 2005 Your Grace and leaders in the Church of this Province: Thank you for giving me this opportunity. I am billed to give a biblical exposition and I will try to do that with a broad brush in the context of wider theological and pastoral concerns, focussing mainly on the attitudes and words of our Lord Jesus Christ as far as we can know them. I will not quote every passage in full but you will find the references in the text to be distributed. We must always ask what the meaning of...

Borrowing a page from President Bush, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton told a Boston audience this week that prayer has always played a meaningful role in her life - though accounts from her days as a student radical suggest that's probably not true. "I've always been a praying person," Clinton told a crowd of more than 500, including many religious leaders, at Boston's Fairmont Copley Plaza. According to the Boston Globe, the newly religious former first lady "invoked God more than half a dozen times" as she urged society to accommodate religious people who "live out their faith in the...

You don't have to take it from us about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 's desire to run for president. Her brothers, Hugh and Tony Rodham, say it's true. Friends tell us that the two are cheering Sis on and say she's making all the moves to get ready for the race--presuming she is re-elected by New Yorkers in 2006.

On the eve of President Bush's second inauguration, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton is blasting him as the "fear factor" president who tries to sell his irresponsible agenda by scaring the voters. "The fear factor has become the overriding strategic approach that this administration uses," Clinton complained to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. The likely 2008 presidential candidate told the paper that Bush has used scare tactics to rally public support on issues ranging from U.S. policy in Iraq to privatization of Social Security. On Iraq Clinton griped that Bush had even botched the election process, saying that regional balloting...

Hillary Clinton on Environment Supports oil reserve release & fund conservation Q: Do you support conserving energy?A: I’ve spoken about an energy policy that would include conservation tax credits that the Republicans have blocked. The administration has put forth an energy policy that we couldn’t get through that Republican leadership that my opponent is part of. We need a new Congress. I was pleased when the president did release some oil from the reserve. So we have work to do and it needs to be led by Democrats who understand that we shouldn’t be beholden to big oil. Source:...

WASHINGTON - Tomorrow night, with the nation's capital awash in inaugural events, Sen. Hillary Clinton will be delivering a high-profile speech in Boston about politics and youth. She is the keynote speaker at a fundraiser for a group headed by outspoken Boston minister, Rev. Eugene Rivers. Aides to Clinton, a possible Democratic presidential contender in 2008, said she agreed to give the speech a long time ago and said nothing should be read into the timing.

New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has long been rumored as desperately seeking the democratic nomination for president in 2008. And while many political observers fully expect the power hungry former First Lady to hit the campaign trail within only a few months of being re-elected as a US Senator in 2006, US News & World report claims to have a confirmation of sorts. From USNews.Com's Washington Whispers: Hillary's in… You don't have to take it from us about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 's desire to run for president. Her brothers, Hugh and Tony Rodham, say it's true. Friends...