By Miriam Raftery

May 4, 2017 (Washington D.C.) – President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order today that would order the IRS to take a hands-off approach to churches that endorse political candidates. It also orders federal agencies to exempt some religious groups from a requirement to provide birth control to employees.  

But a third provision has been scrapped, which would have allowed businesses to discriminate based on sexual orientation and other moral grounds.

Source:  Center for Biological Diversity

May 3, 2017 (San Diego) -- The Center for Biological Diversity, a national nonprofit conservation organization, today filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking public records on whether planned prototypes for President Trump’s border wall in Southern California comply with laws meant to protect wildlife, people and wild places.

By Miriam Raftery

May 3, 2017 (Washington D.C.) – House Republican leadership is pushing for a rushed vote on a revised proposal to repeal the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare and replace it – without bothering to wait for a nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis. But the American Medical Association (AMA), the nation’s largest doctors’ organization, has sent a Tweet warning patients to contact their representatives and urge a no vote.

Writing to Save a Life: THE LOUIS TILL FILE, by John Edgar Wideman (Scribner, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc, New York, NY, 2016, 193 pages).

Book Review by Dennis Moore

“Unclassifiable and harrowing. The path through the very specific ‘American darkness that disconnects colored fathers from sons’ is found and lost and found again through prose that jumps and shimmers, punches and croons. This is one of those books virtually impossible to write…yet it has been written. And by a great American writer.”

• JOY WILLIAMS, author of Ninety-Nine Stories of God and The Visiting Privilege

May 3, 2017 (San Diego) - John Edgar Wideman, has written an insightful and provocative book that is full of ironies; Writing to Save a Life: THE LOUIS TILL FILE. It is the story of Louis Till, the father of Emmett Till, the young boy from Chicago who was lynched in Mississippi allegedly for whistling at a white woman. Wideman’s book is the untold story of Louis Till, a man of color who suffered a miscarriage of racial justice a full decade before the infamous lynching of his son, Emmett. This really is about a cruel twist of fate and circumstance that is painful to envision.

Part II of our special investigative report on the East County Mayors Prayer Breakfast speaker.

View Part I here.

 

By Miriam Raftery

May 4, 2017 (El Cajon) – On Monday, an East County Magazine special report  revealed objections raised by some local residents to the controversial “Christian nation” advocate David Barton chosen to speak at the annual East County Mayors prayer luncheon this Thursday, May 4th at the Crystal Palace in El Cajon.  

Now the controversy has intensified, with a First Amendment watchdog group sending a letter to mayors of  El Cajon, La Mesa, Lemon Grove and Santee objecting to their participation and asking them to disassociate themselves from the event. The letter was signed by Andrew Seidel , staff attorney with the Freedom from Religion Foundation. At least two of those mayors have since cancelled their plans to attend the prayer luncheon.

 In addition,  local residents are asking why alternate versions of the flyer were circulated to religious and secular groups – the latter omitting all mention of Barton and presenting the event as "progressive" oriented.

May 3, 2017 (San Diego’s East County) - East County Magazine's World Watch helps you be an informed citizen about important issues globally and nationally. As part of our commitment to reflect all voices and views, we include links to a wide variety of news sources representing a broad spectrum of political, religious, and social views.  Top world and U.S. headlines include:

U.S.

• Congress reaches deal to keep government open through September (Washington Post)
• Babies and children listed in Homeland Security’s database of alleged criminals (Los Angeles Times)
• ICE data shows half of immigrants arrested in raids had traffic convictions or no arrests (Washington Post)
• Here are the national monuments at risk under Donald Trump (Buzzfeed)
• Access to Obama White House Brought Companies Better Stock Performance, Study Shows (Reason)
• Tornadoes, storms kill nine in U.S. south (Reuters)
• Trump administration kills Michelle Obama’s girls’ education program (CNN)
• U.S. Chief Justice alarmed at Trump administration immigration stance (Reuters)
• Afghans who helped U.S. forces get more visas under funding bill (Reuters)
• All 100 senators sign letter asking for equal treatment of Israel at the U.N. (Jewish World Review)
• The FBI translator who went rogue and married an ISIS terrorist (CNN)
• Passenger who was dragged off jetliner settles with United (KUSI)
• Sold for parts   (Pro Publica)

WORLD

• A week from presidential runoff, Macron summons shame of France’s wartime history (Toronto Star)
• North Korea launches missile after U.S. demands world pressure Pyongyang (CNN)
• Dozens of Yazidis enslaved by ISIS in Iraq are now free (BBC)
• U.S. led fight on ISIS has killed 352 civilians: Pentagon (Reuters)
• Slavery in the Amazon: Thousands forced to work on Brazil’s cattle ranches (CNN)
• In Mexico, ‘It’s Easy to Kill a Journalist’ (NY Times)
• Russian police detain gay rights activists at May Day march (Reuters)
• Jehovah's Witnesses as 'extremists': Court sharpens edges of Russia's religious space (CS Monitor)
• Palestinian Authority pulls the plug on Israeli electricity to Gaza (CS Monitor)
• Turkey blocks access to Wikipedia (Reuters)
• Does Saudi Arabia deserve a place on UN Women's Rights Commission? (SD Union-Tribune)
• Hezbollah Plays Up Efforts to Oppose Israel (NPR)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

By Jose A. Alvarez, County of San Diego Communications Office

Image via PhotoSpin

May 3, 2017 (Ramona) - High rental prices and low vacancy rates have made it extremely difficult for many San Diegans to find affordable places to live.

To help address the need, the County Board of Supervisors today approved spending $4.5 million towards the construction of two affordable housing developments consisting of 143 units. Those units, combined with an additional 118 units of Section 8 housing, will result in the creation of 261 new affordable housing apartments in the County.

Pair of homers in the ninth send SDSU to victory over Bruins

Source:  goaztecs.com

Photo:  Andrew Martinez's two-run homer in the ninth provided the margin of victory in the 8-6 win at UCLA Tuesday night.  Courtesy goaztecs.com

May 2, 2017 (Los Angeles) - San Diego State scored three runs in the top of the ninth with a pair of home runs as it defeated UCLA 8-6 Tuesday night at Jackie Robinson Stadium in Los Angeles. The rally brought the Aztecs back from the brink as they had trailed since the fourth inning.

East County News Service

May 2, 2017 (Fresno) -- Attorneys for seven individual gun owners and four gun rights advocacy organizations have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the State of California’s ban on so-called “large-capacity” firearm magazines that hold more than 10 rounds “on their own behalves, and as representatives on behalf of the class of individuals who are or would be affected by the Large-Capacity Magazine Ban.”

By Jerry Jones, Council Member, Lemon Grove; Jennifer Mendoza, Council Member, Lemon Grove; Bill Baber, Council Member,  La Mesa; Kristine Alessio, Council Member,  La Mesa;  Bill Wells, Mayor , El Cajon, and Ben Kalasho, El Cajon Council Member

May 2, 2017 (San Diego’s East County)--Assembly Bill AB 805 is moving through the legislature and threatens our quality of life, self-determination and identity in East County.  Among other things this bill would restructure the voting system at SANDAG and give a weighted super majority veto, as well as the Chair, to the cities of San Diego and Chula Vista.

“So what does that mean to me,” you say?

By Rebecca Jefferis Williamson

May 1, 2017 (San Diego) -- “When imagination walks, she writes letters to the earth,” reads an excerpt from J. Ruth Gendler’s The Book of Qualities.  Her book is quoted in sermons and speeches, turned into theatrical pieces, and kept on bedside stands to be read before retiring.   Commendable for a book that got its start as a self-published book in 1984 and now has over a quarter of a million copies in print.