Gay pride banners cause flap in San Francisco

Gay Pride Banners Cause Flap In San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO -- The future of rainbow Gay Pride flags that have flown for years along the main stretch of San Francisco's Castro District has come under threat as they bump against another city icon: lampposts with early 20th century origins. A neighborhood association near the heart of the city's gay and Lesbian community contends the flags were illegally hung on the metal lamp posts. City law only allows temporary banners on the posts, which were designated city landmarks in 1991, out of conc...

News from a different perspective
Original Source GRAPHICAL PDF VERSION THE GLORIOUS HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE (Friday Church News Notes, December 17, 2010, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143) - We celebrate the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible in 2011, and it is not merely another translation. Its heritage and the manner in which it was created are unique. The early record of the English Bible is one of the most fascinating chapters of church history and reads almost like a novel. The history ...

San Jose's convention center expansion caught in the crossfire
In some ways, the drama playing out around San Jose's multimillion-dollar downtown convention center couldn't come at a worse time. The center's operator, Team San Jose, bounced its Controversial chief last week, just days after the City Council approved the contract for a major expansion of the aging facility, the most significant since it opened 21 years ago. For years, the center -- the supposed anchor of downtown's Economic Development -- has been staying afloat by draining millions annuall...

Rejecting Bigotry and Bitter-Ender McCain, Senate Scraps Ban on Gays in the Military
Bill Clinton was elected president in 1992 with the strong support of the LGBT community and allies who believed that his election would usher in an era when gays and Lesbians could serve openly in the Military. John Nichols, a pioneering political blogger, has written the Beat since 1999. His posts have been circulated... With the deal now done, key Democrats warn about mounting Deficits and threat to social programs, with Oregon's Peter Defazio declaring: "This is a raw deal for seniors, ...

White House Staff: It Gets Better
Hot in the inbox from the WH...the blog post is here. As you can see, it leads off with Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement (aka the LGBT liaison) Brian Bond. Inspired by President Obama’s It Gets Better video, several LGBT White House Staffers decided to add their voices to the project. President Obama has more LGBT appointees than any previous administration and he is committed to making his administration reflect the diversity of our nation. If you’re...

Top 10 Hoaxes Perpetrated by the Left and Trumpeted by a Complicit Media
There’s nothing the left loves more than a Victim. Our entire victim-culture can be summed up into one Oprah Winfrey Show, complete with boxes of Kleenex and clichéd advice about “moving forward” and “finding one’s inner beauty.” Admittedly, it’s tempting to get sucked in. Who doesn’t feel the heart strings tighten when a true story of hardship is presented, complete with video clips of beach walking and wailing orchestral instruments? But ̶...

Gays See Repeal As A Civil Rights Milestone
NEW YORK (AP) — Allowing gays and Lesbians to serve openly in the U.S. Military is a step toward equality, advocates say, but a fight for other social changes such as Gay Marriage still lies ahead. The Senate voted Saturday to end the 17-year ban on Openly Gay Troops, overturning the Clinton-era policy known as “don’t ask, don’t tell.” “It’s one step in a very long process of becoming an Equal Rights citizen,” said Warren Arbury of Savannah, Ga., w...

Sit Back In Your Easy Chair: An HRC VP Believes Passage Of ENDA Is On Auto-Pilot
[S]ome gay Activists say the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Repeal will inevitably lead to more successes in their effort to erase the official barriers to complete parity in society. "If you can fight and die for your country, there's absolutely no reason why you can't be granted the full set of rights" that others have, including the ability to marry a same-sex partner, said Fred Sainz, a vice president at the Human Rights Campaign, a Gay Rights group. With the Military's policy repealed, he said,...

Gays see repeal as a civil rights milestone
Dec. 18: Cassandra Melnikow, foreground left, and her sister Victoria Melnikow, right, sit in New York's Times Square as news of the Senate approving the Repeal of 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' is displayed outside ABC Television's Times Square studios. NEW YORK - Allowing gays and Lesbians to serve openly in the U.S. Military is a step toward equality, advocates say, but a fight for other social changes such as Gay Marriage still lies ahead. The Senate voted Saturday to end the 17-year ban on op...

The trouble with Harry
Building a bit on my last post, Harry Reid is feeling victorious. And it's true he's has some successes to point to: He ultimately won a fifth term — and a raft of legislative victories in a chamber best known recently for gridlock. Repeal over the weekend of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy barring gay, Lesbian and Bisexual members from serving openly in the Military joined the economic stimulus package, the national Health Care Legislation, new Financial Regulations and

Russia reacts to Senate GOP posturing: Warns of changes to treaty
There's nothing like antagonizing a Nuclear Power in a fit of pique over gays being allowed to serve in the Military. The Republican obstruction of and posturing over START Treaty ratification is not amusing Moscow: WASHINGTON — Russia warned the United States Senate on Monday not to rewrite the new Arms Control treaty being debated on Capitol Hill as American lawmakers clashed about the politics of ratification in the waning days of the Congressional session.... “I can only undersc...

No Labels Hails Tax Cut Vote
Cleaning out my in-box, I came across this e-mail from the “No Labels” co-founders, Nancy Jacobson and Mark Mckinnon, who cited the Bipartisan passage last week of President Obama’s Tax Cut deal as proof that the area between the “warring factions” on the left and the right is “where we can find common ground.” “(F)or the first time in a long time, Democrats and Republicans came together to pass a new package of tax cuts and benefits for those faci...

Democrat Murkowski Must Go
Senator Lisa Murkowski is a Democrat, despite what she may have told her constituents over the past several years, and it’s time for her to leave the Republican party.   She has become THE most reliable Democrat supporter of Legislation in the entire United States Senate. “One of President Obama’s biggest supporters in the Senate in the past week is not even a member of his own party: Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). Murkowski supported the president’s position on...

Debate continues as 'don't ask, don't tell' policy nears end
An end to the policy preventing gay men and Lesbians from serving openly in the U.S. Military isn't coming soon enough to save Sgt. Anthony Bustos' Army career, but he couldn't be happier with the action by Congress. "I was completely overwhelmed and beside myself," says the 25-year-old, who served two tours in Iraq before being discharged this month under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ban on Openly Gay servicemembers. "I have an overwhelming sense of pride that we are one step closer to equality,...

Some who paid to play in Detroit corruption probe won't be charged
The reason, prosecutors said, is that they can be seen as Victims, forced to pay up for city contracts. "Sometimes it's hard for us to assess -- when you've got these companies who are involved in bribes and Extortions -- where they fall on the spectrum of victim to coconspirator," U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said Friday in an interview with the Free Press. More important, legal experts say, prosecutors also need witnesses to help them make their cas...

Grant to aid city in island cleanup
By summer, Sewall's Island should finally be cleaned of contamination from its industrial past. City Officials were recently notified of a $49,000 grant from the State Department of Environmental Conservation to remove a petroleum spill from the south span of the Pearl Street Bridge. The city must contribute a $5,444 match to get the work done. The Watertown City Council will be asked Monday night to accept the Environmental Restoration program funding and extend its 2006 contract with DEC...

LEAD: H5N1 bird flu strain detected from swan in Tottori Pref.+
TOTTORI, Japan, Dec. 18 (AP) - (Kyodo)—(EDS: UPDATING, CHANGING DATELINE) The deadly H5N1 strain of Influenza has been detected in a swan that died earlier this month in the western Japan city of Yonago, local officials said Saturday. The Tottori prefectural government unveiled the result of a test on the wild, young tundra swan, which was found reeling on the balcony of a residential house in Yonago on Dec. 4 and died the following day. The location is within 10 kilometers of a Poultry ...

Providence's downtown plan gains approval, already in action
PROVIDENCE — The new land-use and economic-development blueprint for downtown’s 271 acres will not collect dust on a shelf, City Officials say. Several initiatives identified in the Providence Tomorrow: Downtown Plan — unanimously approved by the City Plan Commission Tuesday — already are under way, and city planners have begun prioritizing the others. “This is years in the making, and we’re all glad it’s coming to completion,” said City Councilma...

City makes changes to waterfront plan
After making numerous changes to it Thursday night, City Officials hope to finish up Watertown's Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan, the city's effort to connect downtown with the riverfront. Mayor Jeffrey E. Graham, Councilman Jeffrey M. Smith and members of Advantage Watertown and the Riverfront Committee met for two hours Thursday to go through proposed zoning changes required by the State Department of State to make sure they will follow what will be in the water revitalization p...

Work stops at site of two hotels on Gaffney Drive
Construction has stopped at the site of two hotels on Gaffney Drive, with no announced plans of when the work will resume. Site work began this summer on a 118-room Town Plaza Suites Hotel, an adjacent 106-room Fairfield Inn and a restaurant on a seven-acre parcel off Gaffney Drive, but it abruptly stopped several weeks ago. Hemisphere Management, Rochester, is the developer for the two Marriott-brand hotels. City Officials have expressed concern for the project this week when asked about the...

Meting out justice in the Dallas City Hall bribery scandal
On Friday (12/17/10) the two people at the Epicenter of the 5+-year old Dallas City Hall Corruption Scandal, Brian Potashnik and his wife Cheryl Potashnik, finally received their sentences. The housing developer, Brian Potashnik and his wife were found Guilty of paying money to Dallas politicians so they would support his bid to build several low-income apartment complexed in south Dallas. Brian Potashnik was sentenced Friday to 14 months in federal Prison, was  fined $50,000 and was ordere...

Norfolk police officer's treatment of student criticized
NORFOLK Mayor Paul Fraim plans to apologize to a Booker T. Washington High School senior who was taken to school in handcuffs by a Police Officer. Fraim said he does not believe the police violated city procedure. "But I'm apologizing because we didn't have a process in place that would alleviate the situation without the need to handcuff the young man. "It's our fault we don't have a process in place." Dominique Marsh, a Quarterback for the school's football team, said he was sto...

San Jose convention center CEO kicked out
The CEO of San Jose's convention center, Dan Fenton, resigned under pressure of several of guilt over several ill fated Public Relations debacles. One of them was a change of which group of Teamsters could work the convention center amongst others. The center is located in downtown San Jose and is considered a multi-million dollar project for the city. It is operated by an outfit called Team San Jose and it has been under operation since 1989. Just last week the San Jose City Council approved a ...

Coney landlord warns of ghost town
EXCLUSIVE Coney Island’s amusement district will be flooded with shuttered storefronts next summer -- unless eight longtime boardwalk businesses served Eviction papers get out “very soon,” the area’s top landlord warned. Zamperla USA says it would hate to see the heart of the boardwalk go dark – especially after City Officials boasted that the firm’s May opening of Luna Park fueled the amusement district’s best season in 46 years. But Zamperla -- which...

Joel Bondy, N.Y.C. Payroll Office Chief, Is Suspended
The official in charge of the New York City agency at the heart of an alleged $80 million information technology Fraud scheme was suspended on Thursday without pay by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Comptroller John C. Liu. The official, Joel Bondy, was chosen by Mr. Bloomberg to be the Executive Director of the Office of Payroll Administration in April 2004. But the payroll agency has been repeatedly criticized for its handling of the CityTime project, an automated system devised to streamline ...