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Home | Politics Tags: orrin hatch | ada | disabilities | act | lawsuits Orrin Hatch: Future of Americans With Disabilities Act 'Uncertain' former Sen. Orrin Hatch is seen in a pinstriped suit at a judiciary committee confirmation hearing Former Sen. Orrin Hatch (Tom Williams/CQ roll Call via AP) By Theodore Bunker | Monday, 27 July 2020 10:27 AM Short URL|Email Article|Comment|Contact|Print| A A The Americans with Disabilities Act has come under threat from “drive-by lawsuits,” that “target mom-and-pop shops searching for any sign of noncompliance,” former Sen. Orrin Hatch wrote in an opinion piece for USA Today on Monday....

Just noticed this site has more viewers than usual. (quite a few more, actually) This is a website which runs an ongoing news feed. It is a bit informal, I won't vouch for them, but then again I do check it occasionally, because they sometimes seem to be good about stories.

The Arab Spring is a series of events of truly world-historical importance. It has already reshaped the Arab World and the Middle East more fundamentally and more rapidly than any event in the past several centuries. Even the emergence of the modern Arab states after the fall of the Ottoman Empire was more protracted and gradual. The suddenness and scale of the events of the past three years has a disruptive and transformative power all its own. The outcome of that transformation is far from clear at this point. It is, in fact, highly contingent on a series of...

A roughly 20-minute YouTube video analyzing President Obama’s relationship with Israel, narrated by a 23-year-old former Obama supporter, has gone viral. In just three days, the little-reported on video “Absolutely Uncertain” has logged roughly 650,000 hits. Irina, the 23-year-old “Jewish New Yorker” who narrates much of the documentary, explains that she has always seen American-Israeli relations as a cornerstone of American politics, reaching into both parties. “So when it was time for me to vote for the first time in 2008, I didn’t doubt for a moment that the strong relationship would continue, no matter who won,” she states. Adding...

Girls ask themselves this question. Guys ask the same thing too. Movie stars ask this question. First grade teachers ask it as well. This question greatly troubles some individuals, while others don’t struggle with it too much. Yet, the question is there. There are people who make this the objective of their life. It does not matter what they have to do, they will do it to bring about the desired result. Many parents worry about this with their children. They do so to their own detriment. Politicians typically don’t care about this as long as they get votes. Someone...

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's dour assessment of the U.S. recovery hit stocks on Wednesday, as his comment that the economy faced "unusually uncertain" prospects rattled investors. Stocks tumbled after Bernanke acknowledged the labor market's continued weakness while offering few specific options to stimulate lending and investment. "The market sold off because unfortunately there is no remedy provided in Bernanke's commentary to the rising threat of deflation, the excess capacity in the economy and the malfunctioning of the credit system," said Joe Battipaglia, market strategist at Stifel Nicolaus in Yardley, Pennsylvania. "We are now giving up...

Washington (CNNMoney.com) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned Congress Wednesday that the economic outlook remains "unusually uncertain." In his prepared testimony for the Fed's semi-annual report to Congress, Bernanke offered the most extensive look yet at the Fed's plans for pulling money out of the system and raising short term rates, as the economy improves. But his outlook did not call for a quick recovery from the Great Recession.

WASHINGTON – Automakers General Motors and Chrysler will need to put billions of dollars into their pension plans over the next five years to meet their funding requirements, the Government Accountablity Office said Tuesday. The GAO concluded that GM will have to add $12.3 billion by 2014, while Chrysler is expected to need $2.62 billion more during that time for its pension plan to keep it properly funded. GM and Chrysler both went through government-orchestrated Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last year. They emerged as newly restructured companies that were able to shed huge debts but remained responsible for the pension...

WASHINGTON -- We shall fight in the air, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields, we shall fight in the hills -- for 18 months. Then we start packing for home. We shall never surrender -- unless the war gets too expensive, in which case, we shall quote Eisenhower on "the need to maintain balance in and among national programs" and then insist that "we can't simply afford to ignore the price of these wars." The quotes are from President Obama's West Point speech announcing the Afghanistan troop surge. What a strange speech it...

ALBANY, N.Y. – In a Republican Party struggling to find its identity, the surprise withdrawal of the chosen GOP candidate for a New York congressional race amid a rising conservative upstart renews a lingering national debate: Are moderates welcome in today's Grand Old Party? The question became even more relevant Sunday when the ex-candidate, state Assemblywoman Dierdre Scozzafava, threw her support behind the Democrat in the race rather than the Conservative Party candidate favored by fellow Republicans. The GOP leadership insisted on Sunday political TV talk shows the party is strong and inclusive while Democrats described a Republican party out...

Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you. 2 Thessalonians 2:13 Again, we come to the theme and prayer for peace. Now more than ever we need peace. One definition is the absence-of-war kind of peace. That’s good and any time countries can sit down and talk things through, it’s a good peace. I’m referring to the conscience-is-clear, the world-may-crumble-before-my-eyes-but-it’s-okay peace. That’s an inner peace that the world can’t give nor can the world take away. I say we’re in for hard times and...

WASHINGTON - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' hold on his job grew more uncertain Monday as the Senate debated removing his authority to unilaterally name U.S. attorneys and the White House said it merely hoped he would survive the tumult. Asked if Gonzales had contained the political damage from the firing of eight federal prosecutors, White House spokesman Tony Snow said, "I don't know." Snow declined to predict how long Gonzales would stay in his job but reiterated President Bush's support of him. "No one's prophetic enough to know what the next 21 months hold," Snow said. "We hope he stays."...

Eight House races remain without winners after Tuesday's election, with Republican incumbents in tight contests to keep their seats and state officials not rushing to end the dispute. Rep. Deborah Pryce, a member of the House Republican leadership, is ahead in her central Ohio race by 3,536 votes. In the Columbus, Ohio- area, elections officials are delaying the count of more than 9,000 provisional ballots by one day so it doesn't disrupt the much-vaulted Ohio State-Michigan football game on Nov. 18. Elections officials in that district will start counting Nov. 19. Ohio Republican Rep. Jean Schmidt, who called Democratic Rep....

Iraq's uncertain marshland revival By Andrew North BBC News, Hammar Marshes, southern Iraq Marsh Arabs lead hard poor lives despite the end of Saddam's rule The Iraqi government says it has successfully restored large parts of the country's unique marshlands over the past three years. Large areas were drained in the 1990s under the orders of Saddam Hussein - turning some sections to near desert. Thousands of the region's Marsh Arabs - who can trace their ancestry back thousands of years - fled to neighbouring Iran. But after the invasion, the Iraqi authorities began to tear down the dams that...

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (Dec. 6, 2005) -- Like many of his brothers-in-arms wounded in the line of duty, Lance Cpl. Brandon Love stoically accepts his fate while looking to the future with hopeful eyes. Love, an infantryman with 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, was presented the Purple Heart Medal Nov. 30 for wounds suffered while conducting combat operations in Iraq’s Al Anbar province in September. But despite the heavy weight of what this award represents, the 19-year-old native of Charlottesville, Va. spoke only of recovering and getting back in the fight. “I’m still motivated, and I hate...

SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK, Calif. - A Porterville minister accused of sexual abusing two teenage parishioners fell 400 feet to his death at Moro Rock, a National Park Service official said Monday. The Rev. Santos Teixeira's fall Sunday was under "uncertain circumstances," requiring the Park Service to notify the FBI of its investigation, said Alexandra Picavet, a Sequoia National Park spokeswoman. Picavet said park investigators have yet to determine the manner of death and cautioned it was standard procedure to notify the FBI about the case, which occurred on federal land. Teixeira, 56, fell to his death late Monday afternoon from...

SACRAMENTO -- State legislators wrapped up work Friday for a monthlong summer recess with focus already sharply shifted to the looming battle over the November special-election agenda and an August deadline for compromise on ballot measures. With a state budget approved and out of the way, the legislators will spend the next 30 days at home in their districts while legislative leaders ostensibly work with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to craft a compromise on his special-election agenda that both sides can live with. Yet with discussions currently occurring only at the staff level and Democrats having little motivation -- politically or...

In fall 1988, an epic political battle was in full swing in California. It pitted teachers unions against a Republican governor in a vitriolic fight over a ballot initiative to commit a portion of state tax dollars to K-14 education. Proponents pointed to overcrowded classrooms, dwindling course offerings and a lack of school counselors. Foes warned that the law would hamstring legislators and lead to inevitable tax increases. That November, by the narrowest of margins, Proposition 98 passed. Over the next 16 years, the law by which voters dictated the minimum portion of state tax revenue that must be spent...

Specter to Lead Key Panel as Industry Ally Hatch Steps Down In the final few weeks before the 2004 election, lobbyists for high-tech, entertainment and civil liberties interests were crammed into an icy room in the Dirksen Senate office building, trying to hammer out a bill that would have put Internet song-swapping networks like Kazaa and eDonkey out of business. It was a controversial measure on a difficult topic, and could have easily been lost in the end-of-year shuffle. But Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) was the lead sponsor of the measure and had ordered the warring...