CHRISTIAN NEWS FROM RAY
A free service of Jesus Christ is Lord Ministries
News selected and edited by Ray Mossholder
MORNING EDITION March 11, 2014
POWERFUL EVANGELIST STEVE HILL DIES AT 60
Steve Hill, the evangelist of the Brownsville Revival, passed away at his Alabama home Sunday after fighting a long battle with cancer. He was 60 years old. Hill is best known as one of the leaders of a revival that began on Father’s Day in 1995 at Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Florida.
A reported 4 million people from 150 countries attended the services, reporting deliverance from drug and alcohol addictions and a fresh desire to preach God’s word.
“A great warrior has fallen,” Billy Wilson, president of Oral Roberts University, said. “”Today Steve crossed the finish line. Steve lived every day with eternity in view, today he finally saw it with his own eyes. The Church has lost a general in the faith. Heaven has gained a saint. One of the great evangelists of our generation is standing in God’s presence today. My heart grieves for us, yet, my heart rejoices for Steve-he has made it. I have lost a friend, a cheerleader, and a fellow laborer in Christ. We love you, Steve.”
RUSSIA STRETCHING FURTHER INTO UKRAINE
Ukrainians in the Kherson province just north of Crimea say Russian operatives have moved into the territory, an incursion which, if true, could show Vladimir Putin has more than just the Black Sea peninsula in his sights. Residents of the village of Chonhar, in the Kherson region of Ukraine, say Russian troops showed up last week in armored personnel carriers, prompting the dispatch of Ukrainian troops and a standoff. The suspected Russian troops pulled back and established a checkpoint on a major road leading north from the Crimean capital of Simferopol.
“Local residents confronted the men and asked them who they were, but they refused to answer. We immediately suspected that they were from the Russian Armed Forces,” a Chonhar resident who asked that only his first name, Anatoly, be used, told FoxNews.com.
Several locals reported dozens of men wearing camouflage fatigues riding armored personnel carriers crossed over Crimea’s border to Kherson region, where they established a base along the Kharkiv-Simferopol highway on the Kherson region’s side of the border. The website Mashable reported Sunday that Russians may have planted land mines near Chonhar. That account included several photos of a purported Russian checkpoint, and one set up by Ukrainians some 15 miles north.
Ukrainian News reported Saturday that Chonhar residents said Russians had placed land mines near the town of 1,500. Local residents told the newspaper area residents responded by planting Ukrainian flags on their houses as a sign of protest.
Parents in Chonhar kept their children home from school last week as the standoff played out, Anatoly said. Villagers hung Ukrainian flags outside their homes and asked Kherson officials to set up a Ukrainian checkpoint to defend local residents. On Saturday, several hundred villagers banded together to block the road.
Most residents of the Kherson province are Russian speakers, with Ukrainian Surzhik (a mix of Russian and Ukrainian) spoken in rural areas. Yet 76 percent identify themselves as Ukrainians and 20 percent consider themselves Russian, according to government statistics.
Both Ukrainians and Russians say they fear a war breaking out with Russia. Yuri Odarchenko, Kherson’s new governor, told FoxNews.com that Ukrainian forces are in control of the situation. “Army checkpoints are operating on all land routes connecting Kherson region with the Crimean peninsula. They have been put there to provide security for residents of the region and the Ukrainian state.”
But those assurances have not allayed the fears of Kherson residents that the invasion under way in neighboring Crimea is widening. It is unclear what percentage of the Kherson region’s 1.1 million residents support the Kremlin’s move on Crimea, but those who talked to FoxNews.com were adamant that they neither want to fight Russia nor be absorbed into the Russian Federation.
There have been no separatist-driven conflicts in Kherson since Ukraine became independent in 1991, although Kiev’s move to make Ukrainian the official national language was contested in the region.
Residents of the province’s capital, Kherson, about 150 miles northwest of Chonhar, say they feel an artificial conflict has been foisted upon them, according to Valetntyna Krytsak, an accountant who traveled to Kiev to take part in the protests that led to the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych. She said the pro-Russian Ukrainian Choice organization operating under Viktor Medvedchuk, a Ukrainian ally of Putin, has been stirring up trouble in the city with an advertising campaign designed to pit supporters and foes of Russia’s annexation against one another.
IRAN ARRESTS ANOTHER PASTOR
Iranian authorities arrested another pastor last week, according to Present Truth Ministries. Pastor Amin Khaki and two members of his fellowship were taken into custody Thursday by Iranian intelligence. Present Truth Ministries reports that intelligent officers attacked a group of Christians during a church picnic, pulling their guns and beating them before taking all of them into custody. They were blindfolded and held for six hours in interrogation rooms. All but the pastor and two others were released. Pastor Khaki, Rahman “Ziya” Bahmani, and Hossein “Daniel” Baroun are still in custody pending charges. According to the report, they could be held for a month without being charged while authorities investigate.
In January, Iranian secret police raided Pastor Khaki’s home and confiscated his laptop and other Christian materials
The Iranian government finally allowed doctors to perform surgery on imprisoned Pastor Benham Irani. Irani suffered from a herniated disc and bleeding intestines and urgently needed medical care. According to Present Truth Ministries, the pastor is doing much better since the surgery was performed February 22. Jailed since May 2011, the evangelist is serving a five-year sentence for committing crimes against Iranian National Security. Irani’s wife and two children are thankful for the small act of mercy, but they’re asking Christians to pray for his early release from prison.
BY ANUGRAH KUMAR, CHRISTIAN POST CONTRIBUTOR
Two Christian pastors in the tiny Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan are being held in a detention center in a southern district for over three days while area believers are being summoned repeatedly by police, said sources inside the nation that doesn’t officially recognize the Christian minority. The pastors, identified only as Lobzang and Tandin, were picked up by police Thursday afternoon while they were holding a prayer service to dedicate a place of worship in the Khapdani village in Dorokha gewog (cluster of villages) of Samtse district, a source from the area told The Christian Post.
About 30 believers, including women and children, were also taken to the area police post for the recording of their statements, the source added. The two pastors were later moved to the Samtse Detention Center, while the others were allowed to return home.
The Christian Post made several attempts to speak to the Superintendent of Police of Samtse but the calls were not answered. An official who took a phone call at the SP’s office denied that police made any arrest. “We don’t arrest people for religious reasons,” he said, refusing to identify himself.
At least six sources, including local residents, confirmed the arrest of the two pastors. A Bhutanese pastor said no one was being allowed to speak with the arrested pastors. An area resident added that the Christians who were part of the prayer service were being asked to report to police several times.
Between 1.2 and 2 percent of the 740,000 people of Bhutan are Christian. More than 80 percent of the population is Buddhist, and Hindus make up about 18 percent. One of the world’s most isolated countries until the late 20th century, Bhutan transitioned to a constitutional democratic monarchy after a century of absolute monarchy in 2008. The tiny Christian community remained underground until 2008.
Bhutan, which is known for its policy of “gross national happiness,” lays emphasis on preservation and promotion of the state-endorsed religion of Mahayana Buddhism, which is the country’s “spiritual heritage,” according to its constitution.
Section 4 of Article 7 of the constitution says a Bhutanese citizen shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. However, only Buddhists and Hindus are legally recognized in the country.
The government maintains that Christians are free to worship in private, but sporadic incidents of harassment have been reported in the past also.
VETERAN NEWS REPORTER MURDERED IN AFGHANISTAN
The Times of India newspaper reported early this morning that a foreign national had been killed in the Afghan capital near the restaurant where 21 people, including 13 foreigners, were murdered in January.
Sveriges Radio (SR) later confirmed on its website that the man was their South Asia correspondent Nils Horner. “This is one of the worst days in the history of Sveriges Radio,” said SR’s CEO Cilla Benkö. “Nils was one of our absolute best and most experienced correspondents and what has happened to him today is horrible.”
The AFP’s Kabul bureau described the attacks as a rare daylight murder of an expatriate in a city often hit by Taliban suicide attacks. Urban Hamid, an experienced Swedish war correspondent, said it was easy to downplay the risks of working in Afghanistan when spending time in the capital.
“When you are out and about in Kabul you usually feel quite safe,” Hamid told The Local. “But maybe if feels safer than it actually is, because there are a lot of soldiers, police officers and checkpoints everywhere. Foreign reporters and aid workers are easy targets as they move about without guards,” he added. “The problem now is that people have come to realize you can kill a journalist without any repercussions. It’s a dangerous trend because on-the-ground reporting is so important. You have to be able to stand in the epicentre to give people a picture of what has happened. You can’t solely rely on the news wires,” Hamid said.
The Taliban denied responsibility for the killing
“We understand he had British nationality in addition to his Swedish nationality. His family has been informed,” said Sweden’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Peter Semneby.
A witness at the scene described hearing a single gunshot before seeing the victim fall to the ground.
“There were two guys who ran away. They were perhaps in their twenties and security guards chased them,” said the witness, who did not want to give his name.
Security forces rushed to the scene and cordoned off the street, where there was blood visible on the ground. A doctor at Kabul’s emergency hospital said Horner was dead on arrival.
Horner’s last story was broadcast on Monday, in which his signature gravelly voice informed radio listeners about Afghan women’s fears about the resurgent influence of the Taliban.
Additional reporting by Anders Sjölin
PALESTINIAN–JORDANIAN JUDGE SHOT DEAD AT ISRAELI BORDER
Israeli troops at a border crossing shot dead a Palestinian-Jordanian judge. The shooting took place on Monday at the Allenby Bridge crossing between the West Bank and Jordan, with the Israeli military saying troops had opened fire after a man tried to snatch a weapon from one of its soldiers. A spokesman said, “In response the forces at the scene opened fire towards the suspect. A hit was identified.” The Palestinian Authority sharply condemned the incident and Amman summoned the Israeli chargé d’affaires to protest, demanding an “immediate investigation”.
Palestinian security officials identified the man as 38-year-old Raed Zeiter, and Amman confirmed he also held Jordanian nationality. A Jordanian security official confirmed that Zeiter worked as a judge in Amman and had left for the West Bank early on Monday. Jordan’s justice ministry said he worked at a magistrates court in the capital.
Nazmi Muhanna, the Palestinian official in charge of border crossings, said authorities were questioning about 50 people who had been with Zeiter on the bus going from the Jordanian side to the Israeli side of the crossing. “We are investigating with all the witnesses who were on the same bus. We will verify everything,” he said. “There are no surveillance cameras there so we cannot get to the truth without the witnesses who were on that bus.”
“The Jordanian government is expecting a comprehensive report on the incident from the Israeli government. Jordan wants an immediate investigation without any delay,” a statement quoted foreign minister Nasser Judeh as saying.
The Palestinian Authority also strongly condemned the incident and demanded an “international investigation” into the circumstances of Zeiter’s death. Palestinian security officials said Zeiter was originally from the northern city of Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, but had left the territories in 2011 and not returned.
Zeiter, who leaves behind a wife and two young children – one of whom is in a coma in hospital – was to be buried in Nablus on Tuesday morning, his family said.
Around 200 people demonstrated outside the Israeli embassy in Amman, demanding the Jordanian government expel the Israeli ambassador. “We don’t want a Zionist embassy on Jordanian territory! Down with the peace agreement [between the two countries],” they chanted.
Zeiter’s father said he was in shock over the shooting.
“We did not know that Raed was in the West Bank. I went to the court to check if he was working and I was told that he did not go to work today,” said 70-year-old Alaa Zeiter, himself a former judge. “My son is peaceful and professional. I am shocked,” he said before breaking down in tears.
Zeiter and his wife left later on Monday to travel to Nablus for his son’s funeral.
The shooting was a rare incident of violence at the crossing, which is located in the Jordan Valley, just east of the Palestinian oasis town of Jericho. The crossing, which lies 30 miles (50km) west of Amman, is also known as the King Hussein Bridge.
DEBRIS FROM MISSING MALAYSIAN AIRLINER MAY HAVE BEEN SPOTTED
Hong Kong’s Air Traffic Control Center reported on Mar 10th 2014 around 17:30L (09:30Z) that an airliner enroute on airway L642 reported via HF radio that they saw a large field of debris at position N9.72 E107.42 about 80nm southeast of Ho Chi Minh City, about 50nm off the south-eastern coast of Vietnam in the South China Sea and about 281nm northeast of the last known radar position. Ships have been dispatched to the reported debris field.
ENGLAND’S UNION BOSS BOB CROW DEAD AT 52
Bob Crow, Britain’s best known and most divisive trade union leader, has died at the age of 52. The Rail, Maritime and Transport Union said Crow, its general secretary since 2002, died early Tuesday. It did not disclose the cause.
One of the few British union leaders to be a household name and recognizable face, Crow led his union through a series of disruptive strikes on London’s busy public transit system. Critics called him confrontational, and he was a villain to right-wing newspapers, but many union members saw him as a leader who got results. With his bald head and cloth cap, Crow affected an old-fashioned, working-class demeanor, but he faced criticism for his six-figure salary and subsidized home.
OBAMA GIVES FULL BENEFITS TO ILLEGAL MILITARY FAMILIES
Immigration reform may be stalled in Congress, but a new Obama administration policy is extending legal status and military benefits to thousands of illegal immigrants who are the spouses, parents and children of American military members. Supporters say the policy — which applies to active-duty military, reservists and veterans — is long overdue.
“Those veterans and those men and women who serve in the National Guard certainly deserve the peace of mind that their family members will not be deported,” immigration attorney Faye Kolly said. But critics say the policy is tantamount to backdoor amnesty.
“A whole class of aliens with no right to be in the United States are suddenly going to be allowed to live and work here on the basis of their relationship with military and veterans,” said Dan Cadman, with the Center for Immigration Studies.
The exemption, called parole in place, came in the form of a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services “policy memorandum.” It was not submitted to or approved by Congress, and the regulations were not published in the Federal Register, which allows for public comment prior to a rule taking effect. “I don’t want to overstate it, but it sounds very similar to imperial decree if you ask me,” Cadman said. “The public had no chance to comment on this new policy. I believe the way this was done was illegal.”
Obama administration officials say the new rules do not require congressional action because they’re based on existing statutes. “It’s clearly within the president’s authority to enforce the law and choose which immigrants he thinks are the priority,” said Brent Wilkes of the League of United Latin American Citizens. “These folks aren’t threats. They’ve got a relative that’s serving our nation.”
William La Jeunesse joined FOX News Channel (FNC) in March 1998 and currently serves as a Los Angeles-based correspondent
OBAMA FLIP-FLOPS AGAIN ON OBAMACARE
The Obama administration says it’s pulling the plug on proposed changes to the Medicare prescription program that ran into strong opposition on Capitol Hill.
Among other changes, the regulation proposed to remove three classes of drugs from a special protected list that guarantees seniors access to a wide selection of critical medications. The three classes of drugs facing removal were antidepressants, anti-psychotics and drugs that suppress the immune system to prevent rejection of a transplanted organ.
The administration hoped to save a total of $729 million by 2019 with the change. But patient groups including the National Kidney Foundation and the National Alliance on Mental Illness pushed back hard.
Medicare administrator Marilyn Tavenner said Monday in a letter to Congress that the administration will not move forward with the changes
A SIMPLE BLOOD TEST MAY SOON BE ABLE TO PREDICT ALZHEIMER’S
CNN)– In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers have developed a blood test for Alzheimer’s that predicts with astonishing accuracy whether a healthy person will develop the disease. Though much work still needs to be done, it is hoped the test will someday be available in doctors’ offices, since the only methods for predicting Alzheimer’s right now, such as PET scans and spinal taps, are expensive, impractical, often unreliable and sometimes risky.
“This is a potential game-changer,” said Dr. Howard Federoff, senior author of the report and a neurologist at Georgetown University Medical Center. “My level of enthusiasm is very high.” The study was published in Nature Medicine.
DRUG COMPANY REFUSES TO GIVE MEDICINE TO BOY WHO WILL OTHERWISE DIE
(CNN) – In an intensive care unit in Memphis, a virus ravages the body of a 7-year-old who’s in heart and kidney failure. He vomits blood several times an hour as his family gathers in vigil.
In a cabinet in Durham, North Carolina, there’s a drug that could likely help Josh Hardy, but the drug company won’t give it to him. They’re adamant that spending the time to help Josh and others like him will slow down their efforts to get this drug on the market. Helping Josh, they say, means hurting others.
When asked how he will feel if Josh dies — and he’s in critical condition, so sadly that could happen soon — the president of the company that makes the drug doesn’t hesitate to answer. “Horrible,” said Kenneth Moch. He would feel horrible and heartbroken. But still, he said there’s no way he’s going to change his mind. There’s no way he’s going to give Josh this drug.
‘We’re begging them,” Todd Hardy, Josh’s father said. “The FDA calls it ‘compassionate use.’ If someone has a serious or immediately life-threatening disease and has tried and failed other available treatments, they can ask a drug company for an experimental drug, one that they’re still studying and has not yet been approved by the FDA. I’m asking for compassionate use, but the drug company isn’t being compassionate.
Companies often do say yes: The FDA approved 974 compassionate use arrangements in fiscal year 2013. But pharmaceutical companies often say no, as they did to Josh Hardy.
“Our son will die without this drug,” said Todd Hardy, Josh’s father. So now, like many families, the Hardys have turned to the media, Facebook, and change.org to pressure the drug company to change its mind.
Countless members of “Josh’s army” have responded with angry tweets to @chimerix, telling them to “open their hearts,” and asking the executives how they can sleep at night.
“Everyone is watching,” one tweeter warned the company. Others have tweeted out the e-mail addresses of the company’s board members. Chimerix executives say they’ve received physical threats.
Thomas Moch, the company president, has read these tweets and said he is very sad, but the issue is complex and unsuitable for a 144-long character debate.
According to Moch, Chimerix is going full speed ahead to get the drug on the market hopefully by the end of 2016, and if they spend time and money on compassionate use cases, it would greatly hinder their effort to get the drug, brincidofovir, on the market and available to everyone.
The company would have to dish out $50,000 per compassionate-use patient, since insurance doesn’t usually pay for experimental drugs, Moch said. And perhaps even more important than the money, it would divert manpower in this 50-person company, since they’d have to handle the requests and then get the patient’s records and follow up with them, as required by the FDA. “If this were just one patient wanting this drug, then this would be a very different question,” he said. “But it’s yes to all or no to all.”
From 2009 to 2012, the company did give out the drug under compassionate use to 451 patients, Moch said, but at least at that time, the information gleaned from those 451 compassionate use patients was helpful to the Chimerix study and helped move the science along. But currently doctors don’t really learn very much, if anything, from compassionate use patients, so the patients don’t help get the drug to market.
Josh’s journey began when he was diagnosed with a rare form of kidney cancer at 9 months old. Over the years, cancer turned up in his thymus, lung, and bone marrow, and each time Josh beat it. But a bone marrow transplant left Josh without much of an immune system, and in February doctors diagnosed him with an adenovirus that spread through his body. They gave him an antiviral drug, an intravenous form of brincidofovir, but it ravaged his kidneys.
His doctors at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital said not to give up hope. Since they’d been part of the brincidofovir studies, they’d seen how in sometimes just a week or two, the the oral form of the drug could get rid of an adenovirus without damaging the kidneys. Now all they had to do was ask the company that makes brincidofovir: Chimerix, Inc.
On February 12, the St. Jude’s doctors called a Chimerix executive, Dr. Marion Morrison, and asked for permission to use brincidofovir. She said no.
On March 5, the doctors asked again. Two days later they got an answer by e-mail from another executive, Dr. Herve Mommeja-Marin, who said the company was not “in a position to provide drug for this and other subjects in similar circumstances due to a limited inventory and our limited resources. Mr. Moch wants you to know that he has children of his own, and if his child had an aggressive adenovirus like Josh, he’d be doing the same thing as Todd and Aimee Hardy. “There are no words to express our compassion for this young boy and his family and what they’re going through,” he said.
Art Caplan, a bioethicist at NYU Langone Medical Center, said he feels for both the Hardys and for Moch. “We can’t ask the company to turn into a philanthropy or their investors will back out,” he said. It’s not just the $50,000 per patient that might make investors squeamish, Caplan said, but compassionate cases can make a drug look bad. By definition, compassionate use patients are extremely sick, and might not do well with the drug. Companies have to report that poor outcome to the FDA in its application to market the drug.
Perhaps there’s another way to handle compassionate use requests, Caplan suggests. Perhaps a company like Chimerix could agree to give the drug only to the very most dire cases, and put a cap on the number of patients they help.
“They might want to open the door a little more broadly,” he said. “They might want to show a little compassion.” But right now, Chimerix stands firm that their compassionate use program is almost completely over.
“We’ve had employees who ask for the drug for family members who are close to death, and the answer has been no,” said Mommeja-Marin, the Chimerix executive. But that’s not good enough for the Hardys. “He holds our son’s life in his hands,” Todd Hardy said. “This is just beyond belief to me.”
CNN’s John Bonifield, Nadia Kounang and intern Arianna Yanes contributed to this report.
The United Kingdom has announced regulations for a new fertilization method that could create babies using sperm and eggs from three people. Doctors said the technique could eliminate debilitating and potentially fatal diseases passed from mother to child.
In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration is also considering the technique. “We want to replace these mutated genes, which by nature have become pathogenic to humans,” Dr. Shoukhrat Mitalipov, the leading researcher in the field, explained. “We’re reversing them back to normal, so I don’t understand why you would be opposing that,” he added.
But opponents in both the United Kingdom and the United States said it is unethical. They question whether the government should sanction the creation of genetically modified people, or so-called “designer babies.”
“It does initially look like something you would want to support,” Marcy Darnovsky, director of the Center for Genetics and Society, said. “But the safety concerns and the social and ethical concerns are really overriding.”
NATION’S TOP PEDIATRICIANS WANT FAR FEWER C-SECTIONS
Cesarean births, or “C-sections,” account for about a third of all deliveries in the United States, but some of the nation’s top doctors say that’s too many. A C-section is often performed to help a baby at risk. During the past 15 years, the number of C-sections has climbed more than 60 percent. Now, doctors at two major medical societies are looking to reduce that rate.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine are urging both women and doctors to have more patience during labor. They say that while the surgeries may help newborns, they sharply increase the risk of complications for the mothers. “My incision did not heal. I wasn’t able to breast feed due to this, I also had a little bit of post-partum depression. I think it was increased because of this,” Erica Cabrera said.
The death rate of mothers who undergo a C-section is three times higher than those who give birth naturally.
Many C-sections aren’t necessary, but doctors opt for the surgery hoping to head off birthing complications. “We live in the reality of litigation and so I think sometimes obstetricians are leaning toward ‘If I did the C-section, this is done and I’m okay,’” Dr. R. Gerald Zarlengo said.
According to the World Health Organization, C-sections are only needed in about 10 to 15 percent of deliveries. They say it’s especially important for first time moms to let nature take its course. Women who deliver naturally the first time can often do it again with later children.
CHILD OBESITY RATE HAS DROPPED TO NEARLY HALF
The obesity rate among very young children dropped sharply in the last decade, according to a study from the Centers For Disease Control. Ten years ago, 14 percent of children from ages 2 to 5 were obese. Now that figure is down to 8 percent, a 43 percent drop.
The drop off was seen in only preschool-age kids, not in older children.
Experts caution that it’s hard to know if this a permanent trend, but they said it’s enough of a decline to be optimistic. Cynthia Ogden, lead author and epidemiologist of the study said “We continue to see signs that, for some children in this country, the scales are tipping,” CDC Director Tom Frieden said. “This confirms that at least for kids, we can turn the tide and begin to reverse the obesity epidemic.”
TEENAGERS ARE DEVOURING INTERNET PORN
The largest consumer demographic for internet pornography is the 12-17 age group and 80 per cent of 15-17 year olds are experiencing multiple “hard-core” exposures. Ninety percent of 8-16 year-olds have viewed porn online, most while doing homework on their personal computers and laptops.
CBS NEWS REPORTER RESIGNING OVER LIBERAL BIAS
CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson has reached an agreement to resign from CBS News ahead of contract, bringing an end to months of hard-fought negotiations, sources familiar with her departure told POLITICO on Monday.
Attkisson, who has been with CBS News for two decades, had grown frustrated with what she saw as the network’s liberal bias, an outsized influence by the network’s corporate partners and a lack of dedication to investigative reporting, several sources said. She increasingly felt like her work was no longer supported and that it was a struggle to get her reporting on air.
At the same time, Attkisson’s own reporting on the Obama administration, which some staffers characterized as agenda-driven, had led network executives to doubt the impartiality of her reporting. She is currently at work on a book — tentatively titled “Stonewalled: One Reporter’s Fight for Truth in Obama’s Washington” — which addresses the challenges of reporting critically on the Obama administration.
Attkisson has been at CBS for two decades. During her time at the network, she has heavily scrutinized both Democrat and Republican administrations. Back in 2008, Attkisson debunked Hillary Clinton’s infamous claim that she dodged sniper fire in Bosnia. During the Bush administration, Attkisson won an Emmy for her reporting on shady Republican fundraising. In 2012, she won an Edward R. Murrow award and an Emmy for her reporting on Operation Fast and Furious. She has been equally critical of both political parties in Washington D.C.
DENVER (AP) — Colorado made roughly $2 million in marijuana taxes in January, state revenue officials reported Monday in the world’s first accounting of the recreational pot business. The tax total reported by the state Department of Revenue indicates $14.02 million worth of recreational pot was sold from 59 businesses. The state collected roughly $2.01 million in taxes.
Colorado legalized pot in 2012, but the commercial sale of marijuana didn’t begin until January. Washington state sales begin in coming months.
The pot taxes come from 12.9 percent sales taxes and 15 percent excise taxes. Including licensing fees and taxes from Colorado’s pre-existing medical marijuana industry, the state collected about $3.5 million from the marijuana industry in January. That’s a relative drop in the bucket for Colorado’s roughly $20 billion annual budget, but still a windfall that has numerous interests holding out their hands. By comparison, Colorado made about $2.7 million in liquor excise taxes in January of last year. Statewide liquor receipts for January 2014 were not yet available Monday.
Colorado tax officials say the January marijuana reports were in line with expectations, though they repeatedly said before the figures were reported that they couldn’t guess what tax receipts would be.
Other countries also are watching Colorado, which has the world’s first fully regulated recreational marijuana market. The Netherlands has legal sales of pot but does not allow growing or distribution. Uruguay’s marijuana program is still under development.
“Colorado’s going to help the nation learn what works and what doesn’t,” said Pat Oglesby, a former congressional tax staffer who now studies marijuana’s tax potential at the Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Center for New Revenue.
Colorado has about 160 state-licensed recreational marijuana stores, though local licensing kept some from opening in January. Only 24 recreational pot shops opened January 1.
Oglesby said Colorado’s pot sales could grow dramatically in future months as new stores open and marijuana sellers pay more wholesale taxes. Marijuana sellers were allowed a one-time tax-free transfer of medical pot inventory to the recreational market, a caveat that depressed January wholesale tax results.
Colorado’s pot revenue picture is further complicated by the state’s unique budget constraints, known as the Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights not only requires voter approval for tax increases, it limits budget-writers when those taxes earn more than the figure posed to voters. Last year’s pot vote guessed that the taxes would produce $70 million a year, and it’s unclear what lawmakers can do with tax money that exceeds that figure.
Colorado’s Joint Budget Committee plans a Wednesday briefing with lawyers to lay out their options for spending pot taxes beyond $70 million.
BOSTON SCHOOLS RETURN 40,000 CONDOMS BECAUSE OF WORDS ON THE PACKAGES
Boston Public Schools decided to pull thousands of donated condoms from its schools after parents complained about the suggestive messaging on the packaging, according to the Boston Globe.
One parent commented on Twitter on March 4, saying the wrappers were #misogynistic. The condoms displayed on her account showed wrappers with a camel and the words “hump one,” a shark chasing a fish with the message “tasty one” and Coca-Cola lettering with the saying “enjoy one.”
Boston Public Schools returned the remains of the 40,000 condoms donated by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to the school’s condoms program, according to WBZ News Radio.
“We made the decision to take all of those condoms out of school circulation and to go with some that had different, generic wrappers,” Boston Public Schools Director of Media Relations Brian Ballou told WBZ News Radio.
PERU WILL GIVE KILLER TO U.S. IN 24 YEARS
(CNN) – Twenty-four years. That’s how much time must pass before the prime suspect in the disappearance of American Natalee Holloway faces the American justice system. Peru has agreed to extradite Joran van der Sloot to the United States, but only after he finishes serving a 28–year murder sentence, the Peruvian news agency Andina reported. The Peruvian court system sentenced him in 2012, but he will be eligible for release in 2038 because of the time he already has spent in custody.
In the United States, he’s been indicted on federal charges of extortion and wire fraud. American authorities accuse him of extorting money from Holloway’s mother by offering bogus information about her daughter’s disappearance.
Holloway, an 18-year-old from Alabama, was last seen in the early hours of May 30, 2005, leaving a nightclub in Aruba with van der Sloot and two other men.
She’d gone to the Caribbean island with 100 classmates to celebrate their graduation from Mountain Brook High School in suburban Birmingham, Alabama.
Holloway’s body has never been found, and she was declared legally dead in 2012. Nobody has been charged in her disappearance.
The courts in Peru convicted van der Sloot in 2012 of murdering Stephany Flores, 21, in his Lima hotel room. The judges gave him a sentence two years short of the 30-year maximum. Investigators have said they believe van der Sloot, a 26-year-old Dutch national, killed Flores after she found something related to the Holloway case on his computer while visiting his hotel room.
Van der Sloot confessed to robbery in addition to murder, admitting that he stole Flores’ belongings, including more than $300 in local currency, credit cards and the victim’s van as a means to leave the country. He fled to Chile and was arrested a few days later.
CNN’s Marilia Brocchetto contributed to this report.
PISTORIUS TRIAL MOST TALKED ABOUT INTERNATIONALLY SINCE O.J. SIMPSON
“Blade Runner” Oscar Pistorius broke down and vomited in a Pretoria, South Africa, court Monday as he heard a pathologist testify about his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp’s injuries after he shot her dead on Valentine’s Day last year. The testimony of pathologist Gert Saayman was interrupted by Pistorius’ sobbing and retching, leading to a pause in the proceedings.
Earlier, Judge Thokozile Masipa imposed a broadcast blackout on Saayman’s testimony. Masipa, who has been presiding over the weeklong trial in Pretoria, extended the ban to live reporting on Twitter.
Pistorius admits he shot Steenkamp, 29, but says that it was a tragic case of mistaken identity and that he thought she was an intruder who had broken into his home.
In court, Saayman confirmed that Steenkamp died from multiple gunshot wounds, consistent with having been hit in the head, arm and hip by three shots fired through the locked door of a toilet cubicle.
Pistorius appeared deeply physically distressed throughout the testimony, repeatedly making retching sounds and clutching his head in his hands. The track star, 27, appeared at times to try to cover his ears by clasping his hands behind his neck, or he put his fingers in his ears. His brother and sister came to check on him during the brief break in Saayman’s testimony.
Saayman is the first expert to testify at the trial, which has so far heard several witnesses who reported hearing a woman screaming before a volley of shots in the early hours of February 14, 2013, at Pistorius’ home. He said any of the three injuries to Steenkamp could have been fatal and all immediately incapacitating. He said it was probably the bullet to the skull that killed her almost immediately. It passed from the top of her head over her right eye to the base of her skull, suggesting that she was not standing when hit, he added. Saayman said the wounds were consistent with “ranger” bullets, which open up “like the petals of a flower” to cause maximum tissue damage.
Earlier on Monday, defense lawyers challenged a security guard’s statements about what happened on the night. Guard Pieter Baba said he talked by phone to Pistorius the night of the killing and Pistorius said “everything’s fine” or “everything’s OK.” But defense lawyer Barry Roux said Pistorius had said, “I’m fine.” Baba was adamant, saying, “What I just told the court is the truth.”
Baba’s testimony proceeded slowly because all questions and answers had to go through a translator. He gave two statements to police, months apart. On Friday, Baba said he could hear Pistorius was crying and he knew everything was not fine.
Baba arrived at the house in time to witness Pistorius coming down the stairs carrying Steenkamp. “I was so shocked, I couldn’t think for a few moments,” he testified.
Another witness who testified Friday, former Pistorius girlfriend Samantha Taylor, said their relationship ended when he cheated on her with Steenkamp.
Prosecutor Gerrie Nel asked Taylor if she was ever at Pistorius’ house when he thought there was an intruder. Taylor said yes. She said Pistorius once heard something hit a bathroom window and woke her up to ask if she’d heard it, too, before taking his gun and going to investigate. Taylor said Pistorius woke her up other times when he thought he’d heard a noise.
Taylor also testified that Pistorius slept with a pistol on his bedside table or on the floor beside his prosthetic legs and once became so angry after a traffic stop that he shot a gun through the sunroof of a car.
Taylor said she met Pistorius in 2010, when she was 17, and they started dating the following year. She said they broke up twice, the second time on November 4, 2012, after he took Steenkamp to a sports banquet.
Roux asked Taylor for details about the time he supposedly shot the gun out of the sunroof, but Taylor could not remember the name of the highway or the location in South Africa. She testified that Pistorius was angry and irritated after the traffic stop, even though he was not driving. She said he joked around about firing a shot and then laughed after he fired.
Nel put four neighbors of Pistorius on the stand in the first week of the trial, all of whom described hearing screaming and loud bangs they thought were gunshots the night of the killing. Roux then tried to find inconsistencies or uncertainty in their stories. The defense goal is to prove there is a reasonable doubt about the guilt of the accused.
One of the most dramatic witnesses was a neighbor, Johan Stipp, who rushed to the track star’s home the night he shot Steenkamp. Pistorius broke down in court as Stipp said he saw Steenkamp lying on the floor, her brain tissue mixed with blood and Pistorius praying for her to live. “I remember the first thing he said when I got there was, ‘I shot her, I thought she was a burglar and I shot her,’ ” Stipp told the court in Pretoria.
Although Stipp is a prosecution witness, his testimony may bolster the defense case, CNN legal analyst Kelly Phelps said after Thursday’s gripping testimony.
Prosecutors appear to have been trying to demonstrate that Pistorius and Steenkamp had a loud argument before the shooting, suggesting it’s the reason he killed her. But the defense is proposing that what neighbors thought was Steenkamp screaming in fear for her life was in fact Pistorius when he realized what he had done.
Pistorius and at least two neighbors made phone calls to security after the shooting, allowing the defense to use phone records to establish a timeline of events. Stipp’s version of events appears to coincide with the defense case, said Phelps, who teaches law at the University of Cape Town.
Judge Masipa will decide whether Pistorius is innocent or guilty. South Africa does not have jury trials. In South Africa, premeditated murder carries a mandatory life sentence, with a minimum of 25 years. Pistorius also could get five years for each gun indictment and 15 years for the firearms charge.
If he isn’t convicted of premeditated murder, the sprinter could face a lesser charge of culpable homicide, a crime based on negligence, and could be looking at up to 15 years on that charge, experts said. The trial is expected to take at least three weeks.
Pistorius and Steenkamp were a young, attractive, high-profile couple popular in South Africa’s social circles.
Pistorius, whose “Blade Runner” nickname reflects the special prostheses he uses while running, won six Paralympic gold medals and became the first double-amputee runner to compete in the Olympics, in London in 2012.
Steenkamp, a model who was soon to star in a TV reality show, was on the cusp of becoming a celebrity in her own right at the time of her death.
DAUGHTER AND HER BOYFRIEND TRY TO KILL HER MOTHER
(CNN) – Two teenagers in central Florida were charged Sunday with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder after an attack on the girl’s parents. Authorities say the teens — a 13-year-old girl and 15-year-old boy — lured the girl’s mother into the family’s garage in Ocala, where the boy slit her throat. When the girl’s father, who is also the woman’s husband, responded to the commotion, the boy put a knife to his throat, a statement from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office said.
The father took his wife to a hospital after pleading with the boy to let them go, officials say. She survived surgery and gave investigators details of the attack.
Both teens are being held without bond in Marion County Juvenile Detention, the statement said. The Sheriff’s Office released the names of the teens, but CNN is not identifying them because it wasn’t clear if they would be charged as adults.
NOT ONE CALIFORNIAN HAS RESPONDED TO NEW GUN LAW
Enforcement issues surround two Northern California cities’ – Sunnyvale and San Francisco – bans on high-capacity magazines. The Oakland Tribune reported Saturday that since Sunnyvale’s ban went into effect midnight Thursday, not one of the now-illegal magazines has been turned in. San Francisco police report that they have no system to track whether any magazines have been turned in for destruction under the new ordinance. San Francisco residents must surrender their high-capacity magazines to police by April 7, otherwise, if caught, they face the charge of committing a misdemeanor crime.
The two California cities enacted laws similar to several other municipalities banning magazines that hold more than 10 bullets in reaction to the 2012 mass-shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. The National Rifle Association has filed legal challenges to the bans in Sunnyvale, San Francisco and elsewhere. Judges have so far upheld the bans.
A WHOLE LOT OF SHAKING GOING ON
(CNN) – An offshore 6.9 magnitude earthquake and aftershocks shook the coast of Northern California and parts of Oregon on Sunday night, the U.S. Geological Survey said. No major damage or injuries were immediately reported.
The main quake, centered in the Pacific Ocean about 50 miles west of Eureka, California, happened at 10:18 p.m. PT, the USGS said. The depth was about 10 miles.
Mike Meltzer, in Ferndale, just southwest of Eureka, told CNN affiliate KTVU the he felt the quake for about 10 seconds. The only damage that he could see: A bottle fell over. “I’ve been through a number of these,” Meltzer, a bartender at Ferndale’s Hotel Ivanhoe, told KTVU, “It wasn’t a jolter; it was a wave.”
More than 15 aftershocks were reported in the area within five hours, the strongest of which was a 4.6 magnitude temblor in the ocean, according to the USGS. The strongest shaking was reported in the Eureka area, with weak motion felt in west-central Oregon and in the San Francisco area, according to the USGS.
There was no tsunami threat, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.
The shaking drew a number of comments on social media. Twitter user Amy Stewart posted: “Long rumble, no damage. Forgot to take the cat when we ran outside. Now he knows where he stands.”
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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Fear is the only thing that multiplies faster than rabbits.
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CHRISTIAN NEWS FROM RAY – MORNING EDITION March 11, 2014
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