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Quote of the day. "There's fire in the ashes and good things happening everywhere. There are reserves of life and strength in us that we never imagine are there until we absolutely need them." Jerry Smith, a Capuchin friar who runs two soup kitchens in Detroit that serve 2,000 meals a day. (USA Today)
Sotomayor & abortion. White House Tries to Quell Abortion Rights Supporters' Fears About Sotomayor “The White House scrambled yesterday to assuage worries from liberal groups about Judge Sonia Sotomayor's scant record on abortion rights, delivering strong but vague assurances that the Supreme Court nominee agrees with President Obama's belief in constitutional protections for a woman's right to the procedure.” Pro-life Catholic leader roots for Sotomayor “William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, said Judge Sotomayor's record has more bright spots than conservative Catholics can reasonably expect to get from an appointee of President Obama.”
Abortion. Catholic lawyers debate Obama abortion policy “Two Catholic lawyers went head-to-head Thursday night on whether the Obama administration has any common ground with the pro-life movement and came down on opposing sides on the goals of the new president.”
Immigration. Majority of Hispanic Children in United States Have Immigrant Parents “A majority of Hispanic children are now U.S.-born children of immigrants, primarily Mexicans who came to this country in an immigration wave that began about 1980, according to a report released yesterday.” Most Latino children born in U.S. have immigrant parents, study finds “The majority of Latino children born in the United States are sons and daughters of immigrants, most of whom arrived in the U.S. from Mexico and Central America in the 1980s.” Amid Slump, Fewer Mexicans Are Going to United States and Sending Money Home “There are hundreds of sleepy little towns in Mexico just like this one. The old church is restored, but there is no priest. The roads are newly paved, but there are no cars. The homes are tidy, but there are no families inside. The doors are locked with chains.”
Foreclosures rising. Foreclosures, mortgage delinquencies climb at record rate “A record 12 percent of all U.S. mortgages were at least one payment behind or in the foreclosure process during the first three months of this year, a report said Thursday.” Rising Unemployment Levels Help Push Record Numbers of Homeowners Into Delinquency or Foreclosure “Rising unemployment levels helped push record numbers of homeowners into delinquency or foreclosure during the first quarter, according to industry data released yesterday.”
Economy. Still Working, but Making Do With Less “Even if workers have managed to avoid being laid off, many employers have cut back in other ways, reducing employees’ hours, imposing furloughs and even sometimes trimming salaries.” Detroit works for new glory days “Despair shows on the faces of many people at soup kitchens and in unemployment lines here. And desperation is evident in Craigslist posts from a single mom who needs $950 for medical bills and a man who can afford to pay just $650 for a used car he needs to job hunt. There is something else, though, in this shrinking city beset by chronic poverty and the unraveling of the industry that once made it great: hope."
Nuclear weapons & cyberwar. Program to refurbish aging nuclear warheads faces setbacks “A decade-long effort to refurbish thousands of aging nuclear warheads has run into serious technical problems that have forced delays and exacerbated concerns about the Energy Department's ability to maintain the nation's strategic deterrent.” Pentagon Plans New Arm to Wage Wars in Cyberspace “The Pentagon plans to create a new military command for cyberspace, administration officials said Thursday, stepping up preparations by the armed forces to conduct both offensive and defensive computer warfare.”
Aung San Suu Kyi. Suu Kyi health a 'grave concern' “The health of jailed Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is a cause for 'grave concern,' her National League for Democracy (NLD) party has said.”
Gaza. Misery Hangs Over Gaza Despite Pledges of Help “Dozens of families still live in tents amid collapsed buildings and rusting pipes. With construction materials barred, a few are building mud-brick homes. Everything but food and medicine has to be smuggled through desert tunnels from Egypt. Among the items that people seek is an addictive pain reliever used to fight depression.”
U.S.-Israel. U.S. insists on settlement freeze “Barack Obama has repeated his call for Israel to stop settlement construction after holding talks with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president.” Obama Calls for Swift Move Toward Mideast Peace Talks “President Obama called on Israelis and Palestinians on Thursday to move swiftly toward peace talks, as his administration embarked on its first public dispute with Israel.” Israel rebuffs U.S. call for total settlement freeze “Israel will press ahead with housing construction in its West Bank settlements despite a surprisingly blunt demand from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that all such building stop, an Israeli official said Thursday.” U.S.-Israel rift becomes an unusually public one “President Obama and top Israeli officials staked out sharply opposing positions over the explosive issue of Jewish settlements Thursday, propelling a rare dispute between the two close allies into full public view just days before the U.S. leader is due to deliver a long-awaited address in Egypt to the world's Muslims.”
Iran. Iran blames U.S. over mosque bomb “A provincial official in Iran has accused the United States of being behind Thursday's bombing of a mosque that killed at least 19 people.” Deadly explosion at Iranian mosque “An explosion in a mosque in the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan has killed at least 19 people and wounded scores more, the official Islamic Republic news agency (Irna) says.”
North Korea. The new reality -- a nuclear North Korea “North Korea's second nuclear test has forced the United States to grapple with the idea that Pyongyang may never give up atomic weapons, current and former U.S. officials said this week.” Gates says North Korea's weapons tests not a crisis “Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said today that weapons tests this week by North Korea pose problems for the United States, its allies and countries in the region, but do not constitute a crisis or require additional American troops.”
Pakistan. Peshawar tense in bombs aftermath “Authorities in the Pakistani city of Peshawar have banned public gatherings a day after at least 10 people were killed in two separate attacks.” Pakistan on alert after blasts “Heavy security was deployed in the capital, Islamabad, and other cities on Friday as people braced for further violence in an apparent backlash to the military offensive in Swat valley.” Pakistan extremists attack again, threaten wider war “Islamic extremists attacked two marketplaces and two police posts Thursday in northwest Pakistan, killing at least six civilians and five soldiers, and they also took credit for a deadly vehicle bombing Wednesday in Lahore and threatened more attacks in major cities throughout the Punjab heartland."
Climate change. Warming 'causes 300,000 deaths a year' “Climate change is already responsible for 300,000 deaths a year and is affecting 300m people, according to the first comprehensive study of the human impact of global warming.” Climate change killing 300,000 a year - report “A report by the Global Humanitarian Forum, led by Kofi Annan, the former U.N. Secretary-General, says that the effects of climate change are growing in such a way that it will have a serious impact on 600 million people, almost ten per cent of the world’s population, within 20 years.”
Opinion. Tutu, an archbishop for unbelievers (John Harris, The Guardian) “Come Dawkinsites and Hitchenistas, militant atheists and unrelenting secularists: not that I am a believer, you understand, but if you want a sobering lesson in the fact that religion can be a thoroughly progressive force and a source of hope in otherwise desperate circumstances – to quote Karl Marx out of context, 'the heart in a heartless world' – well, you really should spend an hour and a bit in the company of the former archbishop of Cape Town.” Sonia Sotomayor, the New Face of America (Eugene Robinson, Washington Post) “President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, is a proud and accomplished Latina. This fact apparently drives some prominent Republicans to a state resembling incoherent, sputtering rage.” On Sotomayor, Republicans Must Enter Obama's Trap (Michael Gerson, Washington Post) “It is a trap. Republicans are poised to oppose an accomplished Latina federal judge for the Supreme Court, further alienating Hispanic voters the GOP has recently driven away in droves.”
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