Woman killed by ex-boyfriend was granted protection order

Woman killed by ex-boyfriend was granted protection order
By KOMO Staff & News Services
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Police say a 26-year-old man forced his way into a Renton apartment Tuesday and killed his estranged girlfriend before turning the gun on himself, while their kids hid in a back room. Two days ago, the man had been served with a permanent protection order.

California fires:Coming to grips with devastation

Coming to grips with devastation
Firefighters making progress on wildfires as residents return to homes -- or rubble
By Alexandra Zavis and Christopher Goffard
11:17 AM PST, November 18, 2008
Winds remained calm today and the air started to clear, allowing firefighters to make more headway against wildfires that have burned through Southern California.

Residents who fled the flames steeled themselves for the worst as authorities prepared to escort more people back into the Oakridge Mobile Home Park in Sylmar -- the "Beverly Hills of mobile home parks" -- now a devastated neighborhood that looks more like a war zone than a country club.
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California fires:'This dude saved a ton of houses'

'This dude saved a ton of houses'
10:22 AM, November 18, 2008
Jeff Reeves became a local hero in one Yorba Linda neighborhood after spending a day and a half spraying down his neighbors' homes with his water truck.

Reeves, a grading contractor, heard that people in his neighborhood were encountering a fierce fire. So he pulled the water truck out of his yard, filled it with 2,250 gallons of water and, at 10:15 a.m. Saturday, when the fire hit, began spraying homes with loads of liquid.

He kept going all day and all night, repeatedly spraying dozens of threatened homes with gushes of water, which emerged from a nozzle on the side of the white vehicle bearing a U.S. flag. He sprayed out 49 loads, finishing up at 5 o'clock the next morning.
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Campbell wife charged in fire that killed kids

Campbell wife charged in fire that killed kids
The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Nov 18, 2008 14:19:49 EST

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — A federal grand jury has charged a Fort Campbell soldier’s wife with setting a house fire on post that killed her two children.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Kentucky announced Tuesday that Billi Jo Smallwood has been charged with maliciously setting fire to her home in March 2007. She is also charged with attempting to destroy a residential facility for members of the Army that caused the death of two minors.

Smallwood’s two children, 9-year-old Sam Fagan and 2-year-old Rebekah Smallwood, were killed in the fire and her husband, Army Spc. Wayne Smallwood, was injured.

Smallwood, 35, could face death or life imprisonment if convicted. A spokeswoman for the attorney’s office said Smallwood does not have an attorney and she is currently in federal custody.

Pastor Mark Holick "Thou shall not bear false witness"

When a pastor bears false witness, it is a sin! How can anyone believe what you say?

When I was getting gas this morning, I had a wonderful conversation with a woman down from Georgia about President Elect Obama. She saw the stickers on the back of my car and I told her I was a Chaplain. This is a kind, Christian woman, said she was praying for Obama because above all, "he's a Muslim" and she wanted to pray for what he has ahead of him. I told her to rest her heart because he is not a Muslim, not that it would make him a bad person or incapable of being President, but simply because it was a lie she heard, apparently from too many.

I told her to listen to the words he uses and then look at his life, what he's done with his life because Christ Himself told us that "then ye shall know them by the fruits of their deeds" and what Obama has done, is a wondrous thing. Instead of going after the riches of this world, he made the choice to work in Chicago with the people who needed him. This is just a part of what he's done.

He is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was president of the Harvard Law Review. Obama worked as a community organizer and practiced as a civil rights attorney before serving three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004. He also taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. Following an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000, he announced his campaign for the U.S. Senate in January 2003, won a primary victory in March 2004, and was elected to the Senate in November 2004. Obama delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama

Or is it you have a problem with the kind of Christian he is?

Religion
United Church of Christ

The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination principally in the United States, generally considered within the Reformed tradition. The UCC formed in 1957 with the union of the Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches. These churches in turn arose from the merger of various Protestant churches in the United States, tracing their roots back to Switzerland, John Calvin, and the Protestant Reformation.

According to the 2007 yearbook, the United Church of Christ has approximately 1.2 million members and is composed of approximately 5,518 local congregations.

The UCC maintains full communion with several other mainline Protestant denominations and participates in worldwide ecumenical efforts. The UCC has historically favored progressive, or liberal, views on gay rights, women's rights, and other issues. Congregations have extensive, perhaps definitive, authority over matters of doctrine and ministry, though, and may or may not support the national body's theological or moral stances.

I brought up how there was a problem with Rev. Wright and one of his sermons. Then I asked her how a Muslim would attend a Christian church all those years, get married in that church and have his children raised in that church. Her eyes opened.


The woman also told me about the wisdom of her own son when he said that it was the character of a person that should matter. After a longer conversation, she was no longer torn and more hopeful. I have a feeling she's quite angry with the people who told her Obama was a Muslim because they lied to her.

So how is it pastor that your eyes remain closed? Is there no truth in you? Are you one of the false teachers Christ warned about? I wonder how many will sit in your service, looking at you with doubtful eyes every time you utter a single word looking for signs you are continuing to lie to them if you told this lie so easily. After all Pastor, if you lie about something this big are you also lying about the faith you have in Christ? Do you do the work of Christ or do you just talk about it? How can you stand there and preach the word of the Lord when He has not been allowed to enter into your own heart? Who is it that you are really working for? Is it the Lord Jesus or is it the dollars you collect for selling out Jesus? You are leading His flock astray and will not forget what you have done until and unless you repent!

Church sign: Obama election 'is sin against the Lord'
RAW STORY
Published: Monday November 17, 2008


CNN's Rick Sanchez reported on a church marquee that reads "America we have a Muslim president. This is a sin against the Lord." Mark Holick is pastor of The Spirit One Christian Center in Wichita, Kansas where the sign is being displayed.

Holick told KSNW, "The main point of the marquee is to cause the Christians to understand he is not a Christian, Again, they will call me and they will tell me that he's not a Muslim because he is a Christian. That's not the point. The point is he's not a Christian."

Sanchez talked to Wayne Slater who is the Sr. political write for the Dallas Morning News. "It's absolutely not true. He was born in the United States. Barack Obama. He is not a Muslim. Yet, there are people who hold on to this and part of this, i think, is an intent to believe what people want to believe about their environment because their environment is changing," said Slater.

This video is from CNN's Newsroom, broadcast Nov. 17, 2008.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Church_sign_Obama_election_is_sin_1117.html

MA:Arming vets in fight against smoking

Arming vets in fight against smoking
(By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff)

State to provide nicotine patches
By Stephen Smith
Globe Staff / November 18, 2008

There was, of course, the tin of beef stew. And the chewing gum and toilet paper, too, jammed inside the rations that sustained Warren Quinlan during his tour of duty in Vietnam. And, always, there were cigarettes, four of them, just enough to ignite a habit that would smolder for decades.

"When you're in combat and waiting and sitting around, if there's a cigarette there, that might ease a little bit of the tension," said Quinlan, now 61, who spent about a year and a half in Vietnam in the late 1960s. "So you puff away, and one leads to another, and here you are, 40 years later, and you're still smoking."

Until yesterday, when he became the public face of a state campaign to reduce smoking among military veterans by providing them with nicotine patches, at no cost.

To kick off the campaign, Quinlan bared his left arm, and the state's secretary of health and human services, Dr. JudyAnn Bigby, applied a nicotine-replacement patch. By calling a state-run hot line (800-879-8678), veterans and their families can receive a month's worth of patches, which retails for about $100, and a connection to telephone counseling.

There are thousands of others like Quinlan in the state, health authorities said. Officials said veterans use tobacco at a rate about 30 percent higher than Massachusetts adults overall.

About 18 percent of Bay State adults smoked regularly, according to figures from 2005 through 2007. The rate for veterans: 24 percent.
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Deer Hunter Charged After Stray Bullet Kills Toddler

Hunter Charged After Stray Bullet Kills Toddler
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A Queens man was arraigned on a charge of second degree manslaughter after a bullet he fired while deer hunting killed a 16-month-old girl, police said.

Published: November 17, 2008
SWAN LAKE, N.Y. (AP) — A toddler was killed by a stray bullet over the weekend when a New York City deer hunter fired his rifle too close to her grandparents’ home in the Hudson Valley, the police said.

The hunter, Edward Taibi, 45, of Queens, was being held without bail on Monday after being arraigned on a charge of second-degree manslaughter in the Bethel town court in Sullivan County, the authorities said. They said that Mr. Taibi was hunting from a tree stand on Sunday afternoon in a rural part of the county when he shot a deer. The police said he came down from the stand and fired his .30-caliber rifle again, about 400 feet from a trailer home in Swan Lake, a small community just south of the Catskill Mountains.

The bullet hit 16-month-old Charly Skala in the upper body, the police said, and she was flown to Westchester Medical Center, where she died. The police said the child’s parents lived in Woodbourne, near Swan Lake.
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Medal of Honor recipients honored at MacDill

Medal of Honor recipients honored at MacDill
Nov 17, 2008
November 17, 2008
Medal of Honor recipients honored at MacDill
TAMPA -- In two different war-torn countries a year apart, two members of the Navy SEALs did not hesitate to perform acts of heroism that define "above and beyond the call of duty."

Both paid the ultimate price to save their comrades: their lives.

In a ceremony at MacDill Air Force Base early today, U.S. Special Operations Command unveiled the names of Lt. Michael Murphy and Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael Monsoor on a memorial designed for special ops members who have died in training or combat.

With their families watching, Murphy and Monsoor joined 38 other Americans on a wall of the monument reserved for Medal of Honor recipients, the military's highest distinction. (SEAL stands for sea-air-land.)

"These men excelled at everything they did," said Adm. Eric Olson, SOCOM commander. "In the end, each willingly and knowingly sacrificed their lives to save others."
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Veterans For Common Sense Makes A Difference

Nov 18 VCS Update: VCS Makes a Difference

Libby Creagh, Development Director, VCS
Nov 18, 2008

VCS Makes a Difference
Dear VCS Supporters:
Veterans for Common Sense continues with our mission of publicizing problems and offering pragmatic solutions. This week's update contains four news items involving VCS. We also want your nominations for people who made a difference in 2008.

On November 10, our VCS Executive Director, Paul Sullivan, was interviewed by PBS Newshour. The news broadcast gave VCS a chance to highlight the causes behind the rising suicide rate among active-duty service men and women. Click here to watch the broadcast interview plus extended interviews with VA, DoD, and VCS about post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide.

Your donations keep VCS standing up for our veterans. Please set up a tax-deductible monthly contribution today so we can plan for next year. We want to make sure our "VCS Vision for a Vibrant VA in 2009" is acted upon by the new Obama Administration and the next Congress.

On November 14, Veterans for America released their new book, The American Veterans and Servicemembers Survival Guide. Craig Kubey and Paul Sullivan co-wrote Chapter One, "Basic Survivial Skills," that contains practical suggestions on how to fight for your VA healthcare and benefits.

VCS works hard year-round to get the word out to all Americans about our veterans' struggles. We can't do it without you. Please, click here to give a gift to VCS today.

On November 16, VCS was quoted in a Denver Post story about the spike in murders among soldiers deployed from Fort Carson to the Iraq War. While those convicted of crimes should face the legal consequences, VCS also believes that repeated deployments and a lack of mental healthcare are making an already bad situation worse.

On November 17, the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Illnesses released a comprehensive report confirming what many advocates already knew: that up to 210,000 Gulf War veterans remain ill and that VA deliberately sabotaged research.

Read our statement urging prompt action by VA and Congress for our Gulf War veterans.

Your donations help VCS stand strong for our veterans. Please take a moment and set up a monthly contribution today so we can plan for 2009.

Finally, VCS began preparations for our first Veteran Advocates of the Year Awards. Please send your nominations in for our five different categories - veterans, legislators, journalists, VA staff, and DoD staff - for people you feel worked hard this year to fight for our veterans' rights, civil liberties, and national security.

Send nominations to Paul@VeteransForCommonSense.org.

Thank you,
Libby Creagh, Development DirectorVeterans for Common Sense

Haitian mothers forced to choose which children will live or die

I remember watching interviews from Americans complaining about the economy and having to give up spending some money this Christmas. I complain about it myself. Things will be very simple in my house this year. Not that I've been extravagant in the past. My daughter gets to pick one big thing she really wants and the rest of what she's given are usually necessities. I have to admit that after reading this story, I feel horrible to have such a materialistic concern while mothers in Haiti are trying to figure out which child they feed so they can live and which child will be allowed to die from starvation. Imagine that being forced to have to make that kind of decision at all and know, as bad as things are here for some, there are other parts of the world where our problems seem like impossible dreams.

As children starve, world struggles for solution
Story Highlights
Global food system can't survive, author warns

Catastrophic weather and rise in oil prices contribute to food shortages

Food shortages now seen in the U.S.

Haitian mothers forced to choose which children will live or die



By John Blake
CNN

(CNN) -- Some mothers choose what their children will eat. Others choose which children will eat and which will die.


Those mothers forced to make the grim life-or-death choices are the impoverished women Patricia Wolff, executive director of Meds & Food for Kids, encounters during her frequent trips to Haiti.

Wolff says Haitians are so desperate for food that many mothers wait to name their newborns because so many infants die of malnourishment. Other Haitian mothers keep their children alive by parceling out food to them, but some make an excruciating choice when their food rationing fails, she says.

"It's horrible. They have to choose among their children," says Wolff, whose nonprofit group was formed to fight childhood malnutrition. "They try to keep them alive by feeding them, but sometimes they make the decision that this one has to go."

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. declared in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech that "I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies." Four decades later, King's wish remains unfulfilled. The global food market's shelves are getting bare, hunger activists say -- and it will get worse.
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http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/11/17/hunger.week/index.html