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San Francisco voters rejected local sales and business tax increases, while two bond measures that would have raised property taxes to finance homeless and affordable housing development and preserve historic buildings failed to garner the two-thirds of the vote needed to pass, according to late election returns. Mayor Gavin Newsom had campaigned vigorously for the sales and business tax increases, calling them necessary to keep local government services intact.

NEW YORK - The city's decision to deny a permit to protesters for a rally on Central Park's Great Lawn on the weekend before the Republican National Convention is about preserving the lawn, not suppressing speech, lawyers for the city said in federal court Friday. The lawn would be ruined if 75,000 people gathered there for a rally on Aug. 28 and then 250,000 people used the lawn for another rally the next day, said Gail Donoghue, representing the city. "I think two is too many back to back. The lawn would have no time to recover," Donoghue told U.S....

Kerry Told to Speak Up, Shut Up About Religion Compiled by Ted Olsen | posted 06/22/2004 12:00 p.m. Kerry campaign muzzles religion outreach director as New York Times columnist urges religion talk David Brooks is supposedly The New York Times op-ed page's conservative columnist in a sea of more left-leaning writers. But in today's column, he notes, "Bush has had the worst year of any president since Nixon in 1973 or L.B.J. in 1968." So why isn't John Kerry dominating the polls? "One big reason," says Brooks, is that Kerry's campaign is too secular: Clinton seems to understand, as many...

Where Faith Flourishes While one should walk by faith in all of life, they are obvious times when it is activated more than others. Each person has his inner issues and outer issues in life. His inner issues involve such things as doubts, secret sins, feelings of rejection, worry, etc. Whereas, his outer issues tend to be much more visible and definitive, i.e., finances, health, family issues. I have long observed in my experience that the more tangible a circumstance is, the more taxing it is on my faith. It is much easier for me to dismiss the intangible issues...

THE UK Independence Party has won the support of one in five British voters in the European elections and is set to gain four times as many MEPs, senior party figures predicted last night. They forecast that the party, which wants to pull out of the European Union, has captured 20% of the vote, boosting their strength in the European parliament from three to at least 12 seats. The result would put it in third place just behind Labour, which is expected to poll only a few per cent more, and ahead of the Liberal Democrats. While the Tories are...

Opening Prayer Mary, my Mother, you were the first to live the Way of the Cross.You felt every pain and every humiliation. You were unafraid of the ridicule heaped upon you by the crowds. Your eyes were ever on Jesus and His Pain. Is that the secret of your miraculous strength? How did your loving heart bear such a burden and such a weight? As you watched Himstumble and fall, were you tortured by the memory of all the yesterdays-His birth, His hidden life and His ministry?You were so desirous of everyone loving Him. What a heartache it wasto see...

Genetically modified pig kidneys have survived long after being transplanted into baboons. Researchers hope that this early success may pave the way for animal-to-human organ transplants. The pigs used in the experiment were engineered to have human-friendly organs in 2002. They lack a key sugar molecule that normally prompts the human and monkey immune system to launch an aggressive and fatal attack on foreign tissues. Now David Sachs, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Cambridge, and his team have transplanted kidneys from the genetically modified pigs into eight baboons. The new organs enabled the animals to survive for up to 81...

<p>WASHINGTON — North Korea offered last week to scrap its long-range missile and nuclear weapons programs in return for fuel oil and other concessions, but an agreement with the Bush administration remains unlikely. "They did put forward a plan that would ultimately deal with their nuclear capability and their missile activities, but they of course expect something considerable in return," Secretary of State Colin Powell said Monday.</p>

Rumsfeld's rejection of Islamic state angers Shias By Phil Reeves in Baghdad 26 April 2003 Donald Rumsfeld, the US Secretary of State, will have won plaudits from his zealous friends by declaring that an "Iranian-style" Islamic government "is not going to happen" in Iraq. But his words fell on stony ground outside the al-Muhsen mosque in Baghdad yesterday. Members of the huge Shia crowd gathered for Friday prayers were quick to spot the contradiction in his position. "I thought the Americans said they wanted a democracy in Iraq," said Kassem al-Sa'adi, a 41-year-old merchant. "If it is a democracy, why...

  Protests May Say More About Protestors Than About What They Object To      COLLEGE STATION, March 26, 2003 - As the price of war continues to mount, both in lives and dollars, so too do the protests, but the act of protesting may say more about the protestors than it does about the subject they are demonstrating against, according to a study by Texas A&M University's Laboratory for Studies of Social Deviance.      Laboratory director Howard B. Kaplan says protesters may be attempting to reduce negative feelings about themselves that have been caused by repeated experiences of rejection and failure...

What happened to the posting seen earlier? Pulled? Assuming it was true, the address and direct dial telephone number of the motel is: RAMADA LIMITED, HELEN, GA 30545, (706) 878-1451 should anyone want to FReep them.

HILO - About 400 residents in the Pepeekeo area have signed a petition opposing C. Brewer Environmental Industries' proposal for a waste - to - energy plant in their backyard. At least that is what Pepeekeo Roy Skogstrom said Tuesday at a public hearing here on the draft addendum to the county's 1994 Integrated Solid Waste Management plan (ISWMP). Skogstrom said C. Brewer within the last year has conducted several public meetings in the Pepeekeo area, revealing its incinerator proposal would mean 250 tons of trash per day would trucked from Hilo to Pepeekeo, then 50 tons of ash generated...

The Archdiocese of Boston abruptly backed out of a settlement agreement with 86 people who have accused now-defrocked priest John Geoghan of child molestion,saying Friday that the deal would strip it of too many resources. Rejecting Cardinal Bernard Law's request to sign the deal, the archdicese's finance council refused to fund the agreement,estimated to be worth $15 million to $30 million.