Ray Mossholder: January 2014

CHRISTIAN NEWS FROM RAY

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News selected and edited by Ray Mossholder

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

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DROPPING THE C WORD: “I HAVE CANCER”

I’d never seen tears shoot straight out of someone’s face. But that changed a few weeks ago.

After bumping into a close friend at a Christmas Eve service, I decided to tell her what I’d recently learned myself: I have thyroid cancer. The news was so sudden and raw that her tears just shot right out. She grabbed my arm and declared, “You can’t just drop the C word!”

Hearing the Word “Cancer” is Hard

It had only been the week before when my doctor had dropped the C word on me. A routine checkup led to the discovery of a lump on my throat, which led to an ultrasound, which led to a biopsy, which led to the life-altering pronouncement: we found some cancer. Papillary thyroid cancer to be exact.

Over the past month my emotions have been on a roller coaster. Not the mega-thrill-ride variety, but more like the community carnival type: nothing completely overwhelming, but still enough to bring about a noticeable increase of anxiety (just ask my wife and kids!).

My variety of thyroid cancer is highly treatable, with an excellent prognosis for the future. But it’s still life changing. I’ve come to discover that the thyroid gland is a completely necessary piece of equipment, controlling the body’s energy and metabolism levels. It impacts nearly everything, from sleep and weight to the ability to concentrate. To compensate for the thyroid removal, I’ll take a hormone replacement pill every day for the rest of my life.

While all this information has taken my emotions for a ride, there have been two other C words that have more positively impacted me and deepened my experiences over these past weeks.

Compassion — What I’ve Received

As immediately shown by family and my tear-shooting friend, many have expressed genuine care and love for me. They have been a healing force, letting me know that I’m not alone. The phone calls, texts, emails, and face-to-face conversations have all been significant in evening out the low spots of my emotional roller coaster.

Three conversations in particular have helped to encourage me (literally putting courage back into me). These have been with others who’ve had similar diagnosis and surgeries, and who came to me to share their stories and to let me know I’m going to make it through this. Thank you!

Other friends have prayed over me or sent me scriptures. Craig sent me this great promise from the first verses of Isaiah 43.

But now thus says the Lord, he who created you… “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”

And Dennis, a friend who is recovering from his own cancer surgery, sent me this prayer that’s been deeply meaningful to him on his journey.

O God, the source of all health: So fill my heart with faith in your love, that with calm expectancy I may make room for your power to possess me, and gracefully accept your healing, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

This concept of “making room” for God’s work has become important in my own story as well. So many things want to crowd out what God is up to in my life — especially this final C word.

Control — What I’m Giving Up

The one thing this cancer diagnosis has forced me to deal with more than any other: I’m a control freak. The thought of “losing control” of my energy levels has been jarring to my psyche. I don’t want a pill to be in control. I want to be in control of my life!

Can any other control freaks relate?

But what I’ve been settling into is the truth that I’ve never fully been in control anyway. Sure, God allows each of us to shape much of our environment by the choices we make (includingour relationship with Him.) But ultimately he is in control — and that is a good thing.

Long ago, King David penned lyrics that remind me of this reality…

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.
The world and all its people belong to him. Psalm 24:1

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works. Psalm 145:3

Not only is God in control, but he sees the big picture and his faithfulness and kindness toward us is complete. He is fully worthy of our trust no matter what we’re going through.

So, I’ve made the choice to view my pills as daily reminders that God is in control — not cancer, medication, or any other circumstance. I’m placing my life once again in his very capable and loving hands. I hope you’ll join me there.

What’s Next for Me?

Surgery: January 29, 2014 You’ll find more of Tim’s writings at:

. a lot more ahead Unsolicited Hope

PLEASE BE PRAYING FOR TIM

PRESIDENT OBAMA BEGINS USING HIS PEN

President Obama, in the first of potentially many executive actions tied to his State of the Union address, will unilaterally increase the minimum wage for workers under new federal contracts to $10.10 an hour, from $7.25, in an effort to build momentum for a minimum wage hike for all Americans.

The executive order, which had been pushed by progressive Democratic lawmakers, applies to all contractors performing services for the federal government and would affect more than 2 million employees, according to an administration official.

The president will use tonight’s State of the Union address to press Congress to pass a Democratic plan to increase the federal wage to $10.10 over three years, then indexing it to inflation, while also raising the minimum wage for tipped workers, the official said.

The president, who does not have the power to unilaterally raise the minimum wage for private sector workers, said in last year’s State of the Union speech, “Let’s declare that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty and raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour.”

The new executive order affects only future contracts, not existing ones, and would only apply to contract renewals if other terms of the agreement changed. As a result, the order would benefit far fewer workers than the number foreseen by advocates of federal contract employees.

In December, Reps. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., co-chairmen of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, wrote the president urging him to take the “bold step” of signing an executive order to increase wages for federal contractors. you

At the time, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney issued a lukewarm response when asked about the lawmakers’ request, according to the report.

At the time, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney issued a lukewarm response when asked about the lawmakers’ request, according to the report. “This has always been done legislatively. And it has been done with support from Republicans and not just Democrats in the past.”

Obama, in an effort to avoid the appearance of being a lame duck president, is expected to use tonight’s State of the Union address to make clear his intentions to use his executive powers to achieve his goals when Congress fails to pass legislation.

Minimum wage is a perennial issue that has taken on a higher profile amid the slowly recovering economy and growing public debate about income inequality. A Quinnipiac University poll this month found 71 percent of Americans in favor of raising the minimum wage — including more than half of Republicans polled.

Five states passed minimum wage measures last year, and advocates hope that number will grow as states from New Hampshire to Washington consider proposals. Many would push families above the federal poverty line, which is $15,730 for a family of two. In Iowa, a bill would hike the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10.

Democrats across the political spectrum have lobbied for a higher minimum wage this year, after Obama got the ball rolling on the issue by calling for an increase in his February budget speech. Since then, union-organized demonstrations in front of profitable mega-chains such as Wal-Mart and McDonald’s have kept it in the public eye.

Fox News’ Ed Henry and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

. WATER DRYING UP IN SEVERAL WESTERN STATES

For years, experts have been warning people in the American West they will have to make do with less water in the future. That dryer future already may have arrived. This year, for the first time in history, lower flows in the Colorado River have prompted the federal government to reduce the amount of water flowing into Lake Mead reservoir outside Las Vegas. Bureau of Reclamation officials say if the river’s level doesn’t increase soon, there’s a 50 percent chance that by next year, residents in Arizona, southern Nevada and California will have to start rationing water.

“There’s a great deal of dependence upon the water supply from the Colorado River,” explained Larry Walkoviak, regional director with the Bureau of Reclamation. “There are seven states in the United States, but we also have the Republic of Mexico. So you have more than 30 million people that rely on the use of the water for municipal purposes, agricultural purposes, industrial purposes.”

“Las Vegas is literally the canary in the coal mine,” said John Entsminger, senior deputy general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority. “We’re the only major municipal area with our intakes in Lake Mead. As recently as 1999, Lake Mead was completely full, but the [13-year-long] drought we’ve seen in the 21st century has resulted in Lake Mead going down over 120 feet.”

The last two years were the driest in recorded history for the Colorado River. This prompted federal regulators to announce the historic reduction of the amount of water released from Utah’s Lake Powell reservoir to Mead. The reduction will lower the reservoir’s level another 20 feet by July.

Enstminger said the arid situation actually may not be unusual for the West. “We know from the paleo-tree ring record that the 20th century was one of the two wettest centuries of the last 1,200 years.” That means a drier West would be expected this century even without climate change projections showing the region becoming hotter and more arid. Add to the equation the fact that the population in the West is one of the fastest growing in the country. “Demands on the river have been creeping up over the last hundred years now,” according to Doug Kenney, director of the Western Water Policy Center at University of Colorado Law School. “You take that demand trend, look at the drought, look at longer-term climate change projections, and all the trends are going in the wrong way.”

Kenney said the future will be very challenging but does not necessarily need to be grim. “We can accommodate more people in the West, but we’re going to have to be smart about it. Our cities are going to have to continue on their conservation efforts and we’re going to have to talk about how we use water in agriculture (which is) still the single greatest use. Certainly there’s a value in doing that but as you go forward do we want our cities going dry while we’re growing cattle feed?”

FROM THE SOUTHWEST TO THE EAST COAST EVERYBODY’S COLD

ATLANTA – Across the Deep South, residents stocked up on fuel and groceries, schools and offices closed, and road crews were at the ready as a storm moved in today from the central U.S., threatening to bring snow, ice and subzero temperatures to a region more accustomed to air conditioners and sunscreen than parkas and shovels.

Even with the exact timing and severity of the blast of freezing precipitation uncertain, officials from parts of Texas to southeastern Virginia warned motorists to stay off the roads and remain inside.

Popular warm-weather tourist destinations including Charleston, South Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Pensacola, Florida; Virginia Beach and New Orleans were expecting ice and snow over the next two days– rare occurrences in places that seldom even see prolonged sub-freezing temperatures.

Delta Air Lines officials say more than 1,850 flights have been canceled ahead of the winter storm expected to pelt areas of the Southeast with sleet and snow. The cancellations began at 11 a.m. this morning. Of that number, Talton says 840 flights from Atlanta have been affected.

Forecasters were predicting snow and ice from Texas to Virginia by mid-week as precipitation moving in from the south met with cold air already chilling the region. Meanwhile, in the Midwest, plummeting temperatures and increasing winds took root for another day even as the storm moved south. In Minnesota, forecasters said wind chills could reach 35 to 50 degrees below zero.

“This is a very dangerous situation because snow and ice are very rare for extreme southern Mississippi,” Robert Latham, executive director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, said in a news release. “We need everyone to have an emergency plan together for this.”

In Louisiana, state Public Service Commission Chairman Eric Skrmetta told residents to be prepared by stocking up with food, fueling cars and making sure to have cash on hand, calling the icy forecast for the next couple of days “decidedly grim.”

ISRAEL STRIKES SYRIA

HAIFA, ISRAEL – Growing evidence suggests that the Israeli Air Force carried out a secret mission in Syria Sunday night, targeting Russian-made missile launchers deployed by forces loyal to President Bashar Assad. A few minutes before midnight, a number of regional news sources reported a loud explosion in the coastal town of Latakia, where the S-300 systems are thought to be located. Those reports came on the heels of Lebanese media describing sightings of Israeli aircraft in Lebanese airspace, which Israeli planes would have to cross in order to reach targets on the Syrian coastal plain. The final report on the incident, issued by the NNA Lebanese Ministry of Information website, was published on yesterday morning.

“On Sunday at 10:45 p.m., two Israeli war planes violated Lebanese airspace off west Batroun, executed circular flight over the Lebanese regions; and then left at 11:55 p.m. off west Nakoura village,” it read.

For those who have been closely watching the bloody civil war in Syria, Assad’s alliance with the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, a sworn enemy of Israel, has been troubling. Israel allegedly ordered a similar mission in the fall. “There is constant concern that the Assad regime will transfer advanced weaponry to Hezbollah,” retired Brigadier Gen. Shlomo Brom, a senior research associate at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, told FoxNews.com. “Assad has become so dependent on the assistance of Hezbollah and Iran, that the assumption in Israel is that it cannot say no when there is a demand from one of the parties to supply anything to Hezbollah.”

As usual, both Israeli and Syrian officials are remaining tight-lipped about the alleged targeting of the site. Israel has made it clear on numerous occasions that it will not allow the transfer of missiles from the Assad regime to Hezbollah under any circumstances.

Early in the Syrian civil war Israel warned of the danger of Syrian chemical weapons reaching the Iranian-backed Hezbollah. While the Syrian chemical stockpiles have reportedly been neutralized by inspection teams from the international community, highly dangerous conventional weapons such as the S-300 surface-to-air missile systems remain a big danger to Israel should they reach Hezbollah’s hands. Major Israeli cities such as Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are believed to potentially be within range of a variety of Hezbollah missiles should hostilities break out between the two old enemies.

Hezbollah already has a reported 100,000 missiles of various ranges pointed at Israel despite the UN peacekeeping force (UNIFIL) having been charged since the end of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict in 2006 with ensuring that arms wouldn’t reach the internationally recognized terrorist organization.

Last July, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, reportedly made clear his position on the S-300 issue, spelling out his opposition to the weapons system reaching Syria. Two months earlier, according to Israel’s Ha’aretz newspaper, Yaakov Amidror, national security adviser to Netanyahu, made clear to European diplomats that Israel would “prevent the S-300 missiles from becoming operational.”

In November, the White House, to the chagrin of Israel, confirmed that Israel had targeted “missiles and related equipment” in an airstrike on Latakia. The U.S. leak caused uproar in Jerusalem and put significant strain on relations between the two allies. So far there has been no repeat of the U.S. comments with regard to the latest alleged Israeli operation.

Paul Alster is an Israel-based journalist who can be followed on twitter @ paul_alster and at www.paulalster.com

CHRISTIANS BEING WIPED OUT IN SYRIA

As the Syrian civil war presses on, the minority Christian community in the country is seeing an increase in attacks targeted specifically at them, according to leading clergy officials in Syria.

Fox News National Security Analyst KT McFarlandspoke to Reverend Dr. Riad Jarjour and H.E. Bishop Dionysius Jean Kawak. Jarjour is a Presbyterian clergyman from Homs, Syria, which has beared the brunt of attacks between the Assad regime and opposition forces. Kawak is a metropolitan, or high-ranking bishop, for the Syrian Orthodox Church.

Christians make up roughly 10 percent of Syria’s population, according to the C.I.A. Factbook, but that number has been increasingly shrinking during the Syrian war.

Kawak says his religious community has come under increasing attack: “At the beginning of the Syrian crisis we didn’t have a real problem against Christians, but nowadays because of the growing radical groups, Christians are being targeted.” Jarjour says churches in Homs “have been destroyed or burned.” He said the occupation of the town center by militants has displaced 80,000 Christians who live in that Christian quarter. “When the militants make it difficult for them, they cannot stay,” said Jarjour. “Some of them were killed, others had to run away.”

Kawak and Jarjour are hoping current peace talks in Geneva will lead to a deal to end violence in Syria. If not, their future looks grave. “If the Geneva talks do not end in a peaceful resolution that will end the violence and end the war in Syria, we will witness more plights of the Christians,” said Jarjour. “More of them will be internally displaced, [and] more of them will be seeking refuge outside Syria.”

At the beginning of the conflict, Kawak said Christians tried to be neutral, but wanted some change in the political system. However, Kawak said they discovered the rebellion was “somehow an Islamic movement,” and stepped back.

“We have many places in Syria where radical groups have taken control of and many of the Christians have left. We have now many areas where there are no more Christians.”

AFGHANISTAN PRESIDENT CHARGES U.S. GOVERNMENT WITH MURDER

Afghan President Hamid Karzai reportedly believes that the U.S. government and military have been a hidden force behind recent insurgent attacks in Afghanistan, such as an attack earlier this month that killed 21 people, including three Americans, in Kabul.

The Washington Post, citing an Afghan official who it said was sympathetic to Karzai’s view, reported that the Afghan leader believes that dozens of attacks blamed on the Taliban have been planned by the U.S. to weaken his government and foment instability in the country. The official did acknowledge that Karzai had no concrete evidence of American involvement in any attack.

The report is another sign of the deepening rift between the U.S. and Karzai, who has continued to refuse to sign a tentative security agreement allowing for American troops to remain in Afghanistan beyond 2014, preferring to leave the issue for his successor following Afghanistan’s April presidential election.

iU.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan James B. Cunningham told the Post that Karzai’s reported suspicions represented “a deeply conspiratorial view that’s divorced from reality … It flies in the face of logic and morality to think that we would aid the enemy we’re trying to defeat.”

General Joseph Dunford Jr., the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan added, “We have spent 12 years trying to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan in the face of threats from terrorist and insurgent networks. To suggest otherwise does a grave disservice to those who have sacrificed for the people of Afghanistan.”

According to the Afghan official quoted by the Post, Karzai’s theory is based on suspicions that the attacks are intended to draw attention away from civilian casualties caused by U.S. airstrikes. In addition, the official contends that attacks like that on the Kabul restaurant were “too sophisticated to be the handiwork” of the Taliban.

For their part, the Taliban have rejected any possibility of the U.S. playing a role in their attacks, with spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid telling the Post, “Whatever claims [of responsibility] we make, those are attacks that have genuinely been carried out by our forces.”

Afghani officials freed 37 insurgents and Taliban fighters with “blood on their hands” in what the Pentagon called a “major step backward” for the rule of law in the war torn nation. The hardened fighters were among 88 prisoners who were being held by the U.S. and being transferred to the emerging Afghan criminal justice system. U.S. authorities said many had directly participated in attacks that wounded or killed scores of U.S. military personnel and Afghan citizens, yet were freed by the Afghan Review Board.

“The ARB is releasing back to society dangerous insurgents who have Afghan blood on their hands,” the United States Forces-Afghanistan said in a statement. “This extra-judicial release of detainees is a major step backward in further developing the rule of law in Afghanistan.”

Many of those freed were Taliban fighters who were connected by forensic evidence to specific IED attacks. Several were captured in possession of bomb materials and some even admitted taking part in attacks on coalition forces. At least two had been captured, freed and recaptured.

“These guys have all been caught, clearly engaged in activities designed to kill people,” said retired U.S. Army Lt. Col Tony Shaffer, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Advanced Defense Studies. “There is zero justification for releasing them.”

Among the detainees freed over U.S. objections were:

Haji Abdullah, described as a “high-level foreign fighter facilitator” who helped mount the August. 16, 2012, attack that brought down a U.S. Helicopter. Abdullah escorted Pakistani and Arab suicide bombers into the area to facilitate their attacks, and directed a cell of 10 fighters which carried out attacks ordered by the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Mohammad Khan, a Taliban commander who coordinated suicide bomber missions, one of which killed a U.S. soldier and wounded four more.

Habibulla Abdul Hady, a Taliban fighter linked to multiple IED attacks in Kandahar.

Nek Mohammad, a bomb expert who transferred money to Al Qaeda before he was captured last May in possession of bomb making materials.

Akthar Mohammad, a suspected Taliban commander who planned and conducted numerous attacks on U.S. and Afghan forces.

“Khalil,” a Haqqani network operative and suspected member of a Taliban cell captured last July in Kandahar. In addition to testing positive for trace amounts of explosives, he failed a polygraph test that asked if he had been involved in attacks on coalition forces.

Nurullah, a suspected Taliban commander who carried out bomb and rocket attacks against coalition forces that killed at least one U.S. service member and injured four more.

Shaffer said the freed fighters will almost certainly return to the battlefield, continuing to undermine the emerging civilian government.

“We have sacrificed 12 years of blood and treasure to help secure a stable future for the Afghan people,” Shaffer said. “By doing this, they are not only undermining the security investment of NATO and the Afghani forces, they are increasing the likelihood that these guys will come back and attack their governance when we leave.”

He speculated that the decision had likely come down from President Hamid Karzai, who has increasingly tried to show his independence from the coalition. “He’s trying to play both sides against the middle,” Shaffer said. “He’s trying to look like he’s not close to us. It will blow up in his face.”

UKRAINE PRIME MINISTER REPEALING BUT NOT APPEALING

Ukraine’s parliament repealed controversial laws aimed at curbing political protests Tuesday, hours after the country’s Prime Minister submitted his resignation in a pair of moves aimed at calming violent unrest across the country. In a statement that appeared on the Ukraine government’s website Mykola Azarov offered his resignation in order to encourage what he called “social-political compromise.” It was not immediately clear whether Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych had accepted Azarov’s resignation.

In recent days, Yanukovych had twice offered the post of Prime Minister to opposition leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk, with the latter man turning him down both times.

The twin moves were significant concessions to the protesters who have occupied the capital’s main square for two months and fought sporadically with police for the last 10 days. It was not likely that the protests would end without having other demands met, including Yanukovych’s resignation and the calling of early elections.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

THE STATE OF THE UNION TONIGHT

An estimated 30 million people will watch President Obama’s prime time TV address before Congress, compared to the 55.9 million who watched the Jan. 19 San Francisco 49ers vs. Seattle Seahawks game.

President Obama will announce a host of proposals to reshape America in his annual State of the Union address on Tuesday. But if past is prologue, only a handful of them will come close to execution. From repeated calls to lower the corporate tax rate to last year’s declaration that the “time has come” to pass immigration reform, Obama’s State of the Union vows frequently have either run into congressional gridlock or been drowned out by other priorities.

This year’s laundry list of promises is expected to focus on addressing “income inequality” and other economic issues. Obama will try to forge ahead with a few holdovers while quietly dropping several initiatives touted in his 2013 speech.

One item prominent in last year’s address, which came on the heels of the Newtown school shooting, was a pitch for tighter gun control. Though Obama may revisit it in tonight’s address, the push largely has been dropped after an intense but ultimately failed effort to get legislation passed on Capitol Hill.

Tax and entitlement reform also were big agenda items in last year’s State of the Union address, but have lately fallen by the wayside — considering White House officials who spent the weekend previewing the address did not mention them as a priority.

Obama, instead, will for the third straight year make the major theme of his address economic opportunity and bridging the income inequality gap for the poor and middle class. However, he appears likely to make a subtle shift, focusing more on worker protections and job training than job creation. The White House says Obama will announce that he will sign his executive order increasing the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 for new federal contracts.

Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz saying Sunday that the president’s existing economic policies are “not working” and “exacerbating” income equality. Cruz, whose effort last year to defund ObamaCare fueled a partial government shutdown, is also calling on the president to announce new investigations into the fatal Benghazi attacks and the IRS scandal and to admit his economic program has failed — and that passing ObamaCare on a party-line vote was a mistake.

“I would expect … he would call for some accountability now [on Benghazi], that he would join me and 24 other senators who have called for a joint select committee to get some answers,” Cruz told Fox News on yesterday.

The president will also push for the passing of his illegal immigrant policies.

Here’s a description of what will happen tonight by Juan Williams, liberal cohost of The Five on Fox News:

Here’s your scorecard for tonight when you watch President Obama deliver his fifth State of the Union address:

Obama will walk into the House Chamber amidst a flurry of bad press and with a 42 percent approval rating, according to the latest Gallup poll. His recent interview with The New Yorker magazine paints the picture of a president who has all but given up the ghost on his last three years in office.

We learned from the piece that Obama has spoken with prominent historians about the power of what Teddy Roosevelt called “The Bully Pulpit” – the unique platform the president has to advocate for his agenda. The president knows the power a single speech can have to recapture the political agenda and change the media narrative.

Some like presidential speechwriter Peggy Noonan believe the president may have exhausted the limits of that power. In a recent column for the Wall Street Journal, Noonan writes: “No one is really listening to the President now. He has been for five years a non-stop wind-up talk machine. Most of it has been facile, bland, the same rounded words and rounded sentiments, the same soft accusations and excuses.” I’m not so sure.

2014 will be a vitally important year for the Obama administration’s foreign policy.

In Afghanistan, the president has promised to end the longest war in American history by bringing the troops home by the end of the year. After 13 years at war, one should not underestimate how eager the American people are to move on from that bloody and costly conflict.

Despite strong opposition from even some members of his own party, the president and Secretary of State John Kerry brokered a deal with Iran last year to restrict their nuclear program in exchange for easing the crippling economic sanctions on their country. By mid-year, we will have a clear sense of whether or not the deal was a success.

On domestic policy, the president’s signature legislative achievement – the Affordable Care Act aka “ObamaCare” – continues to be the favorite political cudgel of the Republicans and many Democrats. However, we learned last week that the program is beginning to work as predicted. The Department of Health and Human Services reports that 3 million people have signed up in the private insurance markets so far. Eight hundred thousand of those were in January 2014, bringing the administration close to its goal of 1.1 new million signups by February 1.

The unemployment rate has fallen to 6.7 percent – the lowest in four years. The housing market is rebounding. The stock market is booming. And the federal budget deficit continues to shrink just as it has for the last three years under the president’s leadership.

Still, the president faces many challenges. Not the least of which are Republicans in the House and the Senate who are hell-bent on continuing their unprecedented obstructionism and determined to run out the clock on the Obama presidency. Combined with hammering away on the failures of “ObamaCare,” Republicans see this as their best way to win back control of the Senate in November.

The ambitious goals laid out by President Obama in last year’s State of the Union address – immigration reform, gun control, action on climate change – have been hopelessly stalled by political reality. That is not likely to change in the coming months.

There may, however, be new opportunities for bipartisan solutions to pressing national problems 2014. The most promising of these opportunities is to reform the corporate tax code – an idea which has received support from the administration and Congressional leaders of both parties.

There is also bipartisan legislation in the Congress to establish a fund to rebuild America’s crumbling infrastructure to spur economic growth and create employment opportunities.

And earlier this month, the president followed up on a proposal he announced in his 2013 State of the Union to establish “promise zones” in America’s poorest neighborhoods.

In announcing the first five of these promise zones — in San Antonio, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Southeastern Kentucky and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma — the White House says it is “partnering with local communities and businesses to create jobs, increase economic security, expand educational opportunities, increase access to quality, affordable housing and improve public safety.”

As Winston Churchill might say, the challenge for the president tonight will be to dispel the notion that it is not the beginning of the end of his presidency but merely the end of the beginning of his second term.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS PROPOSE THEIR OWN PLAN ON

HOW TO DEAL WITH HEALTH INSURANCE

Seizing on the public’s continued anxiety over the ObamaCare rollout, a trio of Republican senators on Monday unveiled a sweeping alternative proposal they say would gut the law’s mandates and taxes while preserving consumer protectIon. Senators Orrin Hatch of Utah; Tom Coburn of Oklahoma; and Richard Burr of North Carolina, announced their plan yesterday, one day before President Obama delivers his State of the Union address.

The GOP proposal, dubbed the Patient Choice, Affordability, Responsibility and Empowerment Act, would repeal the president’s marquee legislative achievement while instituting new reforms the senators say would give states and individuals more flexibility and purchasing power. “Americans deserve a real alternative, and a way out,” Coburn said.

Under the plan, insurances companies would not be able to impose lifetime limits on patients and would be required to allow dependent coverage up to the age of 26, as ObamaCare currently does. The Republican proposal would address the issue of pre-existing conditions by creating a new “continuous coverage” standard that would prevent any individual moving from one insurance plan to another from being denied on the basis of a pre-existing condition so long as that individual was continuously enrolled in a health plan.

The requirements on individuals to buy insurance, and on mid-sized and large businesses to provide it, would be repealed.

Senate aides describing the proposal acknowledged there’s little chance of movement in the current Congress, where Democrats control the Senate and have resisted all Republican-led House attempts to repeal or chip away at ObamaCare. Still, the aides said they hope continued public dissatisfaction with the way the law is being implemented might shore up the efforts of Hatch, Coburn and Burr. A new Associated Press-GfK poll shows that while negative perceptions of the new exchanges have eased, 66 percent of Americans say the rollout is not going well.

In their most notable legislative assault on the law, Republicans late last year tried to defund the law in a standoff that fueled a partial government shutdown. Democrats consistently have hit the GOP for criticizing the law without offering a comprehensive alternative — something the Burr-Coburn-Hatch measure is surely aimed at countering.

Their proposal calls for the targeted use of tax credits to help individuals buy health care. Employees who work for a small business with 100 or fewer employees would be able to receive a credit while those whose annual income is 300 percent of the federal poverty level could receive an age-adjusted refundable tax credit to buy health coverage. Small businesses would also be allowed to band together and purchase insurance, even across state lines.

To help offset the costs of the plan, the senators would maintain ObamaCare’s cuts to Medicare and also eliminate the unlimited tax exclusion of employer-provided health coverage, instead capping the employer’s tax exclusion at 65 percent of an average plan’s cost. There is currently no official estimate of the bill’s cost. However the group said it is designed to be “roughly budget neutral” over a 10-year period.

Under the plan, Medicaid reforms would enable eligible individuals to opt out and take advantage of a health credit to purchase coverage, while enrollment would be capped. Federal funds would be distributed to states according to the number of low-income individuals at or below 100 percent of the federal poverty line but would reflect demographic and population changes, according to the senators.

Rounding out the plan would be a series of medical malpractice reforms and disclosure rules that would require insurers to list covered items and services as well as any limitations or restrictions. Eventually, the senators said they hope to work with colleagues and introduce formal legislation to implement these reforms.

“It’s critical we chart another path forward,” said Coburn, a medical doctor. “Our health care system wasn’t working well before ObamaCare and it is worse after ObamaCare.”

MAN DIES WHILE WAITING MANY HOURS IN ER

Jon Verrier came into the emergency room at St. Barnabas Hospital in Brooklyn complaining of a rash. Eight hours later he was found “stiff, blue, and cold” in a waiting room chair, having died unnoticed several hours earlier, an emergency room worker told ABC 7.

The 30-year-old arrived at the Bronx hospital at 10pm on January 19, and the hospital says his name was called three times between then and 2am. Security footage shows he was alive as late as 3:45am. Finally, at 6:40am, a security guard noticed that Verrier was dead.

The hospital has concluded that “all guidelines were met,” a spokesperson says. But his brother has a more harsh assessment: “He died because [of] not enough staff,” he said. “For me, it feels like a cover-up.” Indeed, Verrier’s family didn’t know the circumstances of his death until after ABC 7′s report aired, the New York Daily News reports.

“You’re just a number no matter where you go,” his brother lamented. “That’s how they treated him, like a number.” The New York Post adds that Saint Barnabas’ emergency room has an average turnaround time of 306 minutes, more than twice the national average.

NURSES ARE REALLY NEEDED

Arnold Relman was in pretty good shape for a 90-year-old—until the day he fell down the stairs and fractured three vertebrae in his neck, he writes in the New York Review Of Books. He was rushed to Massachusetts General, where a crack medical team saved his life by performing an emergency tracheotomy (he couldn’t breathe with a hemorrhage pressing on his windpipe) and restarting his heart three times.

When he came to—plugged into machines, unable to speak or breath well—he began 11 days at the hospital’s top-notch intensive care unit and a month at the so-so Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital.

Through a haze of pain, sleepless nights, and his family’s comforting presence, Relman, a senior Harvard physician, witnessed “the current state of medical care in the US”:

Anonymous doctors come and go, giving cursory exams and walking off to fiddle on computers—when you really need a primary physician to take charge, preferably your own. The US has a growing lack of primary care physicians, which makes hospitalization fragmented and scary for patients.

What personal care you get comes mostly from nurses. “I had never before understood how much good nursing care contributes to patients’ safety and comfort, especially when they are very sick or disabled.”

Health care is—surprise, surprise – expensive. The two hospitals charged his Harvard-faculty insurer $478,000, much of which wasn’t itemized. The insurer balked and paid only $332,000.

Now Arnold is back home with his wife, walking gingerly on a cane but feeling better, and living up to a note he scrawled his wife in the hospital: “I intend to hang around for a while longer, to love and bother you.” (And he’s not alone: People are recovering even from broken-neck paralysis, an expert tells the Union Leader and the Guardian.

FEDERAL APPEALS COURT DECISION COULD CHANGE THE INTERNET

The great digital divide that President Obama repeatedly has pledged to fix could grow even wider, after a recent federal court ruling put the president’s promise of leveling the tech playing field in jeopardy.

Last year, during his State of the Union address, the president pitched a plan aimed at making sure “99 percent of students across the country” would receive access to high-speed broadband and wireless Internet at their schools within the next five years. During his 2011 State of the Union address, he stressed the need to upgrade all Americans. “This isn’t just about faster Internet or fewer dropped calls,” Obama said at the time. “It’s about connecting every part of America to the digital age.”

But on January 14, a federal appeals court struck down the Federal Communications Commission’s Open Internet Order pertaining to so-called “net neutrality.” The decision paves the way for Internet service providers to potentially block any website or app of their choosing. Senator Al Franken, D-Minn., called the net neutrality ruling “a major setback” that “threatens access to the Internet as we know it.”

The court ruled that because of a quirk in how the government regulates Internet service providers, the FCC didn’t have the legal basis for its own policy. The decision cripples the regulatory agency’s ability to enforce net neutrality, which is based on the founding principle that the Internet enables and protects free speech. That means ISPs could technically censor the sites its customers visit.

The ruling also could allow Internet companies to create a tiered pricing system for certain types of online traffic, akin to how people purchase premium channels like HBO or Showtime at an extra cost by their cable providers.

Manorama Talaiver, director of the Institute for Teaching through Technology & Innovation Practices at Longwood University in Virginia, says rural students could be among the hardest hit. “Why are we expecting our students to be globally competitive when we take away their opportunity?” Talaiver told FoxNews.com. “This lack of access hurts us all.” Talaiver says a recent spot check of broadband access in rural Virginia revealed that more than 50 percent of students and teachers did not have access to computers or updated technology at home. “We are asking teachers to blend their teaching with creative online projects.”

“It’s going to be potentially a race to the bottom, where those who can afford to pay to get priority of access get more eyeballs — more readers and viewers — and public institutions that don’t have those kind of financial resources are going to be left behind,” John Windhausen, president of Telepoly Consulting, told the The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Barbara Stripling, president of the American Library Association, argues that by allowing ISPs to preferentially charge for a tiered access, not only will public libraries suffer, but so will the communities that rely on them. She believes the hardest hit would be school children in grades K-12. “Schools, public and college universities rely upon public availability of government services, licensed databases, job-training videos, medical and scientific research, and many other essential services.”

According to a 2013 report in The Washington Post, fewer than 20 percent of the nation’s educators believe that the Internet connections at their schools meet their teaching needs. Many worry that the FCC ruling will only deepen the divide between the haves and the have nots. At stake is the economic prosperity for students and their communities.

In a letter dated January 16 to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, Franken pressed the regulatory agency to exercise the power it has to ensure equal access to information is had by all. “Simply put, the Internet — once an open platform for innovation, entrepreneurship and free speech — could become a closed forum, accessible only to the highest bidder,” Franken said.

For its part, Verizon — the company that sued the FCC over net neutrality — says the company will remain “committed to the open Internet” and that the ruling would not “change consumers’ ability to access and use the Internet as they do now. Instead, Verizon says the court’s decision will “allow more room for innovation, and consumers will have more choices to determine for themselves how they access and experience the Internet.”

AGRICULTURAL COMMITTEES IN CONGRESS

GIVE STAMP OF APPROVAL TO FOOD STAMPS

Leaders from the House and Senate Agriculture committees announced yesterday that they have reached a bipartisan agreement on a massive farm bill that would scale back a House plan to make major cuts to food stamps. The measure keeps food stamp benefits for most Americans, and is expected to cut the benefits by about $800 million a year, or around 1 percent.

“This bill proves that by working across party lines we can save taxpayer money while at the same time strengthening efforts helping to create jobs,” Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, said in a statement.

The final bill released Monday would cost almost $100 billion a year over five years, with a cut of around $2.3 billion a year overall from current spending. Republican House leaders said they would support the deal, with House Speaker John Boehner calling it a “step in the right direction.”

Still unclear, though, was how the full House would give the votes they needed to pass the final bill on the House floor. The House of Republicans and Democrats rejected an earlier version of the farm bill in June.

The bill eliminates a $5 billion-a-year farm subsidy called direct payments, which are now paid to farmers whether they farm or not.

GOVERNMENT WORKING TO STOP SPYING ON SURVEILLANCE

WASHINGTON – The U.S. government is looking at ways to prevent anyone from spying on its own surveillance of Americans’ phone records. As the Obama administration considers shifting the collection of those records from the National Security Agency to requiring that they be stored at phone companies or elsewhere, it’s quietly funding research to prevent phone company employees or eavesdroppers from seeing who the U.S. is spying on.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has paid at least five research teams across the country to develop a system for high-volume, encrypted searches of electronic records kept outside the government’s possession. The project is among several ideas that would allow the government to no longer store Americans’ phone records but still search them as needed.

Under the research, U.S. data mining would be shielded by secret coding that could conceal identifying details from outsiders and even the owners of the targeted databases, according to public documents obtained by The Associated Press and AP interviews with researchers, corporate executives and government officials.

The administration has provided only vague descriptions about changes it is considering to the NSA’s daily collection and storage of Americans’ phone records, which are presently kept in NSA databanks. To resolve legal, privacy and civil liberties concerns, President Barack Obama this month ordered the attorney general and senior intelligence officials to recommend changes by March 28 that would allow the U.S. to identify suspected terrorists’ phone calls without the government holding the phone records itself.

One federal review panel urged Obama to order phone companies or an unspecified third party to store the records; another panel said collecting the phone records was illegal and ineffective and urged Obama to abandon the program entirely.

A DNI spokesman, Michael Birmingham, confirmed that the research was relevant to the NSA’s phone records program. He cited “interest throughout the intelligence community” but cautioned that it may be some time before the technology is used.

The intelligence director’s office is by law exempt from disclosing detailed budget figures, so it’s unclear how much money the government has spent on the SPAR project.

Leading Internet companies and the government have agreed to a compromise allowing companies to reveal how often they are ordered to turn over information about their customers in national security investigations.

The Justice Department announced the deal Monday with Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc., Facebook Inc. and LinkedIn Corp. Other companies are expected to participate once it’s approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Companies wanted to make the disclosures to alleviate public speculation about their cooperation with the government. The government opposed the companies’ request, saying it could interfere with national security investigations.

Under the compromise announced Monday, Internet companies will be able to report the number of criminal-related orders from the government. They also will be able to release, rounded to the nearest thousand, the number of secret national security-related orders from government investigators; the number of national security-related orders from the FISA court and the number of customers those orders affected, and whether those orders were for just email addresses or covered additional information.

In a statement, the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan public policy institute, said the deal was “an important victory” for those looking to make the NSA more transparent, but said “The commitment made by the Justice Department today falls far short of the level of transparency that an unprecedented coalition of Internet companies, privacy advocates and civil liberties organizations called for this summer,” the statement said. “As that coalition made clear in July, meaningful transparency means giving companies the ability to publish the specific number of requests they receive for specific types of data under specific legal authorities.”

The agreement extends to all tech companies and content providers, not just the six companies who were involved in litigation with the federal government.

Fox News’ Jake Gibson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

LOTS OF PROBLEMS WITH THE SUPER BOWL BUT THE GAME GOES ON

(CNN) – This Sunday will not be your typical Super Bowl Sunday. But it will be Super Bowl Sunday.

There are things that are down. The temperature, for instance.

A few things are up. The cost of the ads many people will be tuning in for — a record $4.5 million.

The security presence, even by Super Bowl standards, will be big.

So how about some good news? Weather forecasters say that by game time — note to party hosts, 6:30 p.m. ET — a clipper system will have moved through New Jersey, leaving just a few inches of new snow behind in East Rutherford. Temperatures will be in the mid-30s at kickoff. That’s not as nice as past Super Bowl sites like Miami (high of 79 on Sunday), Tampa (81) or next year’s host city, Glendale, Arizona (73), but compared with what might have happened this crazy winter, it must be the NFL’s best imagined scenario.

Not that they haven’t planned for other possibilities. “We feel like we’re prepared for every alternative,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told ESPN’s “Mike & Mike in the Morning” on Monday. That included moving the time of the game if league officials felt like the safety of the fans was in jeopardy. “We’re working with all the officials here. We’re pretty comfortable we’ll be playing at 6:30 on Sunday night.”

Goodell has said he will sit out in the stands, just as the late Pete Rozelle did at Super Bowl VI when it was 39 degrees for the kickoff in New Orleans at Tulane Stadium.

Huge sporting events like the Olympics and Super Bowl always draw large security forces as did prior events at MetLife Stadium, site of Sunday’s game. Lt. Col Ed Cetnar of the New Jersey State Police told CNN this is a different ballgame.

There will be more than 700 troopers in and around the stadium complex, he said. But they won’t be the only people guarding the game. “There’s eyes all over the place, whether it’s state, local, federal or county assets there,” he told CNN’s Alexandra Field.

That also includes 3,000 private security guards on site. And extra security for mass transit options because there will only be 12,000 parking spots at the game for 80,000 fans and 5,000 media members.

The proximity of the stadium to waterways and railways will mean extra Coast Guard boats on game day and more planes from federal agencies in the sky equipped with infrared and night-vision systems.

Homeland Security officials said federal agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, will deploy hundreds of employees to assist New Jersey and New York police secure what’s been officially designated “an event of national significance.”

And there is one noticeable difference for fans, a change instituted for this NFL season. In light of the bombings at the Boston Marathon, if fans want to bring a bag bigger than 4 ½ by 6 ½ inches, it must be clear plastic. (Even the garbage being taken out has to go in clear bags).

Prices of game day tickets on the secondary market have been sliding since the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks each won their conference championship games. On the NFL’s official ticket exchange site, more than 3,300 tickets were available, starting at a little more than $1,600. There were almost 4,800 tickets on StubHub, a popular online ticket reseller. $1,600 is for the cheap seats.

Seat Geek, which aggregates listings from ticket resellers, said the Super Bowl might be the least expensive since 2002, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Seat Geek said the prices for all seats has dropped 40% since the two conference championship games about nine days ago. The big drop in prices for the game have been in the end zone and upper deck seats, the paper reported. “Strong supply and uncertainty about the weather forecast has helped to keep prospective buyers on the sideline for now, driving prices downward at a record rate.”

So now that the weather will be practically balmy for this time of year, all seats may be filled after all. Many will stay home and just watch it on TV. Watching the game on television means seeing all of the famed Super Bowl commercials. That way people will get to see get to see all 32 minutes and 30 seconds with the other partygoers without having to watch online the next day.

For some companies the game is an opportunity to take $4.5 million to say “hi” to new potential buyers. “The Super Bowl for us is a risk. We do a lot of marketing, but it’s the first time we’ll hit a really mass consumer audience,” Squarespace CEO Anthony Casalena told the New York Times. Squarespace is among the companies that have posted a commercial on YouTube already. There are several other Super Bowl ads there already.

There will also be one ad from a small company that wins a 30-second commercial paid for by financial software company Intuit. The contest was open to any U.S.-based business with 50 or fewer full-time employees.

The commercial will air during the third quarter.

This year’s Super Bowl will have 43 advertisers, according to CNNMONEY.

CNN’s Chris Welch and Evan Perez contributed to this story.

AND NOW FOR THE OLYMPICS

As security concerns continue to mount leading up to the Winter Olympic Games, the NHL says it will reconsider sending its players to Sochi next month if something “significant” happens before FebRUARY 9, according to deputy commissioner Bill Daly. “As of now, we do not doubt that all necessary steps are being taken by the Sochi Organizing Committee, the Russian government and the IOC to ensure the safety of the athletes and guests in Sochi,”

Daly wrote yesterday in an e-mail to The Associated Press. “Obviously, if something significant were to transpire between now and February 9 that causes us to question that conclusion, we will re-evaluate. I don’t expect that that will become necessary.”

Russia is mounting what is believed to be the biggest security operation ever for an Olympics, deploying more than 50,000 police and soldiers to protect the games. The cordon includes naval warships, anti-aircraft batteries and drone aircraft. Two U.S. warships will be in the Black Sea to help if needed.

Russian security officials still haven’t found three potential female suicide bombers, one of whom is believed to be in Sochi itself. The suspects are known as “black widows,” women seeking to avenge husbands or male relatives killed in Russia’s fight against insurgents in the region. “We know some of them got through the perimeter,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. “What we don’t know is how many more black widows are out there. … How many potential cells could be in Sochi and the Olympic Village?”

The world’s focus remains squarely on the terror danger posed by the Islamic insurgency in the Northern Caucasus. The Islamic militant group in Dagestan that claimed responsibility for two suicide bombings killing 34 people in late December in Volgograd has vowed they will attack the games in Sochi.

About 3,000 athletes from more than 80 countries will be competing in 98 medal events. Twelve new events are on the program, with women’s ski jumping making its debut after being rejected for inclusion at the 2010 Vancouver Games.

Sochi’s preparations have also been clouded by the Western uproar against a Russian law enacted last year that prohibits gay “propaganda” among minors. Critics and gay activists say the law discriminates against homosexuals and could be used against anyone openly supporting gay rights at the games.

HILLARY CLINTON’S BIGGEST REGRET IS WHAT HAPPENED IN BENGHAZI

Hillary Clinton said yesterday on CNN, “My biggest regret is what happened in Benghazi.” And with her statement yesterday many viewers tweeted that her statement was pathetic.

Meanwhile, CNN yesterday apologized for airing – back to back — two clips of Clinton, one showing her laughing. Anchor Ashley Banfield told her audience at the end of her show, “Let’s be very clear. The secretary of state was not laughing about her previous comments about Benghazi.”

Whoops!

HILLARY HASN’T DRIVEN FOR A VERY LONG TIME

Hillary Clinton hasn’t gotten behind the wheel of a car in a long, long time. The former first lady and potential 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, who has had drivers for much of her three decades in public life, said yesterday. Clinton made the confession at the National Automobile Dealers Association meeting in New Orleans.

“The last time I actually drove a car myself was 1996,” the 66-year-old Clinton told the audience. “And I remember it very well, and so does the Secret Service, which is why I haven’t driven since then.”

Clinton also revealed: “I’ve always enjoyed stories about cars and adventure. And I have to confess that one of the greatest disappointments about my public life is that I cannot drive anymore. And my husband thinks that’s a blessing. But he’s the one who should talk.”

MAN ASKED TO FAKE AGONY DURING HIS EXECUTION?

COLUMBUS, OHIO – An attorney for a condemned Ohio inmate whose slow, gasping execution with a new drug combination renewed questions about the death penalty was temporarily suspended last week while officials investigated whether he had coached the condemned man to fake symptoms of suffocation.

The Office of the Public Defender said Robert Lowe, one of the attorneys representing inmate Dennis McGuire, was back at work Monday after an internal review failed to substantiate the allegation.

State prison records released Monday say McGuire told guards that Lowe counseled him to make a show of his death that would, perhaps, lead to abolition of the death penalty. But three accounts from prison officials indicate McGuire refused to put on a display. “He wants me to put on this big show in front of my kids, all right when I’m dying!” McGuire is reported as having told one guard. “I ain’t gonna do this. It’s about me and my kids, not him and his cause!”

Amy Borror, a spokeswoman for the public defender’s office, said all accounts from execution eyewitnesses — which did not include Lowe — indicate McGuire was unconscious at the time he struggled to breathe. “We have no way of knowing, obviously, because we can’t interview Mr. McGuire,” she said.

Borror said Lowe walked McGuire through the steps involved in an execution and McGuire’s statements may have arisen from an interpretation of those conversations. Borror said Lowe asked McGuire to give a thumbs-up during the execution as a way of determining when he lost consciousness.

Due to ongoing federal litigation, she said the public defender’s office closely monitors the sequence of events during the execution process.

Prisons officials alerted Governor John Kasich’s lawyer the night before the execution that McGuire had been overheard telling family members he’d been “encouraged to feign suffocation when the lethal injection drugs were first administered,” according to a statement released by the public defender’s office. The investigation was first reported by The Columbus Dispatch.

McGuire, 53, was put to death Jan. 16 for raping and killing a pregnant newlywed in 1989. He was executed with a combination of drugs — the sedative midazolam and the painkiller hydromorphone — that had never before been used in the U.S. and his fitful final moments sparked criticism and calls for a death-penalty moratorium.

McGuire took 26 minutes to die after the chemicals began flowing — the longest execution of the 53 carried out in Ohio since capital punishment resumed 15 years ago. Family members wept and later said the process amounted to torture; they have sued alleging undue cruelty.

One report from the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction suggests McGuire believed the signaling system he’d set up with his attorney — including the use of a thumbs-up gesture — could be used to save his life. The night before his execution, a corrections team leader reported being told by McGuire that he understood Lowe as saying “if he started to choke or jerk in any way” the governor would put a stop to the execution.

Two prison employees reported hearing McGuire say that, if it weren’t for his daughter being present at his execution, he would “really put on a show.”

Associated Press

CONTROVERSIAL PETE SEEGER DIES AT 94

NEW YORK – Pete Seeger, the banjo-picking troubadour who sang for migrant workers, college students and star-struck presidents in a career that introduced generations of Americans to their folk music heritage, died Monday at the age of 94.

Seeger’s grandson, Kitama Cahill-Jackson said his grandfather died peacefully in his sleep. Family members were with him. “He was chopping wood 10 days ago,” Cahill-Jackson recalled.

Seeger’s musical career was always braided tightly with his political activism, in which he advocated for causes ranging from civil rights to protests against Vietnam. Seeger said he left the Communist Party around 1950 and later renounced it. But the association dogged him for years. He was strongly anti-war.

He was kept off commercial television for more than a decade after tangling with the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1955. Repeatedly pressed by the committee to reveal whether he had sung for Communists, Seeger responded sharply: “I love my country very dearly, and I greatly resent this implication that some of the places that I have sung and some of the people that I have known, and some of my opinions, whether they are religious or philosophical, or I might be a vegetarian, make me any less of an American.” He was charged with contempt of Congress, but the sentence was overturned on appeal. He continued to take part in peace protests during the war in Iraq, and he continued to lend his name to causes.

“Can’t prove a thing, but I look upon myself as old grandpa,” Seeger told the AP in 2008 when asked to reflect on his legacy. “There’s not dozens of people now doing what I try to do, not hundreds, but literally thousands. … The idea of using music to try to get the world together is now all over the place.”

“Every kid who ever sat around a campfire singing an old song is indebted in some way to Pete Seeger,” Arlo Guthrie once said.

QUEEN ELIZABETH IS ONLY A MILLIONAIRE NOW

According to The Daily Telegraph, a report by the House of Commons’ Public Accounts Committee has found that the financial reserves of Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain have reached a “historic low,” dwindling to 1 million pounds ($1.66 million) from 35 million pounds ($58 million) in 2001.

BOTTOMS UP!

SITKA, Alaska, Jan. 28 (UPI) –Alaska State Troopers said that yesterday a man was sitting on the railing of a fishing boat and was nipped in the rear end by a sea lion that jumped out of the water.

EXTRA! EXTRA! WOMAN AFRAID OF NEWSPAPERS

ROCHESTER, England, Jan. 28 (UPI) –A British woman said yesterday that her phobia of newspapers is so powerful she finds it difficult even to look at them.

Diane Freelove, 49, of Rochester, England, said she has suffered from chloephobia, the fear of newspapers, for about 25 years and she can’t stand the look, smell or touch of a newspaper, the Mirror reported Tuesday.

“When I visit a shop I walk as far away as I can from the newsstand,” Freelove said. “I can’t go anywhere near someone who has got one, and if they approach me, I freak out. At one time I could touch a newspaper as long as I knew I could wash my hands thoroughly afterwards. But now I can’t even look at them.

“I don’t like the feel of them — if I touch a newspaper it feels like my skin is crawling. And I can’t stand the smell, which I think is quite strong and distinctive,” she said.

Freelove said the fear probably started in her childhood. “One day when I was a child, my mother hit my father over the head with a newspaper. She did it in a playful, friendly way, but it scared me,” she said. “I became more and moreafraid of newspapers over the past 25 years.”

(She needs to read Christian News From Ray!)

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

You will only fully appreciate the miracle of a sunrise

if you’ve been a long night in the dark.

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To See All Ray’s News Archives Click Below:

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Tuesday, January 28, 2014