The Top 10 Stories of September 14, 2011

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Quote of the day.
"There's the fear factor. Workers will say to me, 'If we complain, if we ask for that extra break, if we say anything, tomorrow we are no longer employed.' That's what's hard." - Lupe Quintero, director of community workers for California Rural Legal Assistance Inc. on why enforcing California's law on farmworker protections is difficult.
(Los Angeles Times)

1. U.S. cites religious freedom violators.
"The State Department under President Obama issued its first 'countries of particular concern' list Tuesday, maintaining the eight countries that were previously highlighted for egregious violation against religious freedom."
(Christian Post)

2. Religious leaders rally to support Troy Davis clemency.
"In a last-minute bid to stop a Sept. 21 execution in Georgia, religious leaders have rallied in previously unseen numbers to call for clemency for death row inmate Troy Davis."
(Religion News Service/Huffington Post)

3. Nearly one in six in poverty.
"Nearly one in six Americans was living in poverty last year, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday, a development that is ensnaring growing numbers of children and offering vivid proof of the recession's devastating impact."
(Washington Post)

4. Debt panel opens with bleak economic picture.
"The director of the Congressional Budget Office painted a grim near-term picture of the American economy on Tuesday and said 'cuts in federal spending and increases in taxes will tend to slow the economic recovery.'"
(New York Times)

5. Senate moves to freeze DOD budget.
"Putting on the brakes, the Senate Appropriations Committee gave initial approval Tuesday to a $513 billion defense bill that would freeze new budget authority for the Pentagon at current levels and halt a pattern of steady growth going back to the mid-1990s."
(Politico)

6. States stop funding prison work crews.
"Prison inmate labor programs, long considered a lower-cost option for needed public work projects such as clearing debris and cutting weeds on highways, are increasingly facing elimination or reduction because of budget issues."
(USA Today)

7. Troops end 20-hour Kabul attack.
"Afghan forces have killed the last insurgents who attacked the U.S. Embassy, NATO headquarters and police buildings in Kabul, after a 20-hour stand-off."
(BBC)

8. Palestinians face pressure to drop U.N. statehood bid.
"Efforts to persuade the Palestinians to change tack before next week's U.N. meeting on the creation of a state of Palestine accelerated this week with a series of high-level delegations sweeping through Jerusalem and Ramallah aiming to avert a diplomatic collision in New York."
(Guardian)

9. Islamists take aim at Libya rebels' secular leaders.
"A struggle between secular politicians and Islamists seeking to define the character of the new Libya burst into the open Tuesday, highlighting the challenge authorities face with reconciling demands repressed for decades by Maummar Kaddafi that are now suddenly coming to the surface."
(Los Angeles Times)

10. Epidemic of 'noncommunicable diseases' deaths grows.
"The world is facing a growing avalanche of death from heart attack, stroke, cancer, emphysema and diabetes, with many of the victims working-age people in poor countries."
(Washington Post)

Sojourners' Daily Digest is a compilation of the top news related to our commitments of life and peace, economic and racial justice, and care of creation, with a special focus on news of the engagement of faith in public life.