Kansas Legislature Passes Fourth Abortion Bill This Session
After working through the night and with several stops and starts, both houses of the Legislature passed a bill that will require most women who want an abortion to pay the full cost of the procedure themselves.
House Bill 2075 bars insurance companies from including abortion coverage in their regular health coverage plans. Under the bill’s provisions, general insurance plans could cover termination of pregnancy only in emergency situations to save the life of the mother.
It is the fourth major anti-abortion law to pass the Legislature this session.
The bill passed the Senate easily Thursday night but temporarily stalled in the House, which initially voted to send it back to a conference committee for a revision, but then reversed course and approved the bill 10 minutes short of 6 a.m.
Final passage, 28-11 in the Senate and 86-30 in the House, came after two lengthy rules fights that were ultimately decided by floor votes.
Opponents in both chambers challenged whether the provision, which had not passed either chamber this year, could be brought to the floor through a conference committee report under House and Senate rules. –Sun News
After working through the night and with several stops and starts, both houses of the Legislature passed a bill that will require most women who want an abortion to pay the full cost of the procedure themselves.
House Bill 2075 bars insurance companies from including abortion coverage in their regular health coverage plans. Under the bill’s provisions, general insurance plans could cover termination of pregnancy only in emergency situations to save the life of the mother.
It is the fourth major anti-abortion law to pass the Legislature this session.
The bill passed the Senate easily Thursday night but temporarily stalled in the House, which initially voted to send it back to a conference committee for a revision, but then reversed course and approved the bill 10 minutes short of 6 a.m.
Final passage, 28-11 in the Senate and 86-30 in the House, came after two lengthy rules fights that were ultimately decided by floor votes.
Opponents in both chambers challenged whether the provision, which had not passed either chamber this year, could be brought to the floor through a conference committee report under House and Senate rules. –Sun News
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Tribe's New Law Recognizes Gay Marriage
Standing up before dozens of Suquamish Tribal members at a general council meeting in March, Heather Purser told them she was a lesbian, and asked her people to recognize same-sex marriages at the tribe's Washington state reservation.
Even after four years of lobbying tribal members, the 28-year-old didn't know how much support she had.
"When I turned around to sit back down I was shaking," Purser recalled Tuesday.
Then the council put the issue to a voice vote of the people. "Everyone said aye. No one said nay," Purser said.
On Monday, the Suquamish Tribal Council ratified the people's wishes and recognized gay marriage, making it only the second tribe in the country known to do so.
The new law allows the tribal court to issue a marriage license to two unmarried people, regardless of their sex, if they're at least 18 years old and at least one of them is enrolled in the tribe.
It will be up to other courts to decide if unions granted under the Suquamish ordinance will be recognized elsewhere in Washington, said the tribe's attorney, Michelle Hansen.
Gay marriage is still illegal in the state, but the Legislature this year approved a measure recognizing same-sex unions from other jurisdictions, which include other nations. State lawmakers also have approved a so-called "everything but marriage" law, granting same-sex couples many rights.
"I wanted to feel accepted by my tribe," Purser said. "I was expecting a fight to be ugly. But I was so shocked. I guess I was expecting the worst out of people. I was expecting the worst out of my people."
Purser came out to her family when she was 16 and decided to campaign for gay marriage in her tribe after college.
She approached the Tribal Council, which she said was supportive but not encouraging. She said council members told her to talk to elders about the issue and assigned a tribal attorney to work with her.
But Purser became discouraged, thinking the tribe was taking too long. She moved to Seattle, to a gay-friendly neighborhood, where she met her partner.
Purser, who is a seafood diver for the tribe, returned to the reservation in March, this time intent on voicing her campaign to the people at the annual general membership meeting.
She stepped to the microphone and repeated her plea for the tribe to recognize gay couples. Tribal Council members said they would continue considering it. She sat down. But people around her encouraged to stand up again. She then asked for a voice vote.
"Everyone said aye. No one said nay," Purser said. Her father and brothers looked on.
"I'm proud that she stood up for herself and took a stand. You bet," said Heather's father, Rob Purser. "A father's main concern is that your children are happy, and you do what you can to help them."
Suquamish Tribal Chairman Leonard Forsman said Heather Purser's lobbying helped the issue jump to the top of the council's priorities.
"I'm just happy that we're able to get the work done that will allow the same rights and privileges to all people, regardless of sexual orientation," Forsman said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "It was a process that took longer than expected. We have a lot competing needs."
Hansen said other jurisdictions will have to decide whether to uphold same-sex unions performed on the Suquamish's reservation.
The Coquille Indian Tribe on the southern Oregon coast is the only other tribe that recognizes same-sex marriage, said Matthew L.M. Fletcher, a law professor at the Michigan State University Indigenous Law Center.
The Coquille adopted its law sanctioning gay marriage in 2008. Most tribal law doesn't address the issue. In 2005, efforts to grant marriage rights at the nation's largest tribe, the Navajo, were defeated.
Same-sex marriage licenses also are granted by New York, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont, plus Washington, D.C.
The Suquamish Tribe has about 1,000 enrolled members, according to its website. Its reservation is on the shores of the Puget Sound, about an hour from Seattle. The city of Seattle is named after its most famous member, Chief Seattle, who led a confederation of tribes in the first half of the 1800s.
While Heather Purser lobbied for marriage, she said she's not yet taking that step. But her victory has helped her deal with many personal issues.
"I have a lot of bitterness inside of me," she said. "Ever since (the vote), a lot of that pain is just gone." -Sun News
Standing up before dozens of Suquamish Tribal members at a general council meeting in March, Heather Purser told them she was a lesbian, and asked her people to recognize same-sex marriages at the tribe's Washington state reservation.
Even after four years of lobbying tribal members, the 28-year-old didn't know how much support she had.
"When I turned around to sit back down I was shaking," Purser recalled Tuesday.
Then the council put the issue to a voice vote of the people. "Everyone said aye. No one said nay," Purser said.
On Monday, the Suquamish Tribal Council ratified the people's wishes and recognized gay marriage, making it only the second tribe in the country known to do so.
The new law allows the tribal court to issue a marriage license to two unmarried people, regardless of their sex, if they're at least 18 years old and at least one of them is enrolled in the tribe.
It will be up to other courts to decide if unions granted under the Suquamish ordinance will be recognized elsewhere in Washington, said the tribe's attorney, Michelle Hansen.
Gay marriage is still illegal in the state, but the Legislature this year approved a measure recognizing same-sex unions from other jurisdictions, which include other nations. State lawmakers also have approved a so-called "everything but marriage" law, granting same-sex couples many rights.
"I wanted to feel accepted by my tribe," Purser said. "I was expecting a fight to be ugly. But I was so shocked. I guess I was expecting the worst out of people. I was expecting the worst out of my people."
Purser came out to her family when she was 16 and decided to campaign for gay marriage in her tribe after college.
She approached the Tribal Council, which she said was supportive but not encouraging. She said council members told her to talk to elders about the issue and assigned a tribal attorney to work with her.
But Purser became discouraged, thinking the tribe was taking too long. She moved to Seattle, to a gay-friendly neighborhood, where she met her partner.
Purser, who is a seafood diver for the tribe, returned to the reservation in March, this time intent on voicing her campaign to the people at the annual general membership meeting.
She stepped to the microphone and repeated her plea for the tribe to recognize gay couples. Tribal Council members said they would continue considering it. She sat down. But people around her encouraged to stand up again. She then asked for a voice vote.
"Everyone said aye. No one said nay," Purser said. Her father and brothers looked on.
"I'm proud that she stood up for herself and took a stand. You bet," said Heather's father, Rob Purser. "A father's main concern is that your children are happy, and you do what you can to help them."
Suquamish Tribal Chairman Leonard Forsman said Heather Purser's lobbying helped the issue jump to the top of the council's priorities.
"I'm just happy that we're able to get the work done that will allow the same rights and privileges to all people, regardless of sexual orientation," Forsman said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "It was a process that took longer than expected. We have a lot competing needs."
Hansen said other jurisdictions will have to decide whether to uphold same-sex unions performed on the Suquamish's reservation.
The Coquille Indian Tribe on the southern Oregon coast is the only other tribe that recognizes same-sex marriage, said Matthew L.M. Fletcher, a law professor at the Michigan State University Indigenous Law Center.
The Coquille adopted its law sanctioning gay marriage in 2008. Most tribal law doesn't address the issue. In 2005, efforts to grant marriage rights at the nation's largest tribe, the Navajo, were defeated.
Same-sex marriage licenses also are granted by New York, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont, plus Washington, D.C.
The Suquamish Tribe has about 1,000 enrolled members, according to its website. Its reservation is on the shores of the Puget Sound, about an hour from Seattle. The city of Seattle is named after its most famous member, Chief Seattle, who led a confederation of tribes in the first half of the 1800s.
While Heather Purser lobbied for marriage, she said she's not yet taking that step. But her victory has helped her deal with many personal issues.
"I have a lot of bitterness inside of me," she said. "Ever since (the vote), a lot of that pain is just gone." -Sun News
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End Times? Texas Lake Turns Blood-Red
A Texas lake that turned blood-red this summer may not be a sign of the End Times, but probably is the end of a popular fishing and recreation spot.
A drought has left the OC Fisher Reservoir in San Angelo State Park in West Texas almost entirely dry. The water that is left is stagnant, full of dead fish — and a deep, opaque red.
The color has some apocalypse believers suggesting that OC Fisher is an early sign of the end of the world, but Texas Parks and Wildlife Inland Fisheries officials say the bloody look is the result of Chromatiaceae bacteria, which thrive in oxygen-deprived water.
"It's just heartbreaking," said Charles Cruz, a fish and wildlife technician with Texas Parks and Wildlife in San Angelo, Tex.
Blood red reservoir
Texas is experiencing major drought this summer, with 75 percent of the state's area in an "exceptional" drought, the highest level, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC). The state had hoped for some relief from Tropical Storm Don last week, but the system fizzled and brought only an inch or two of rain to areas near the coast.
The drought has taken its toll on a number of reservoirs in West Texas, Cruz told LiveScience. OC Fisher has never been completely full, Cruz said, but it was stocked with catfish, bass, sunfish and other popular targets for fishermen.
"We surveyed the lake, I believe it was last year, and we had a pretty good fish population out there," Cruz said. "It was pretty sickening going out there, watching lake levels just drop and drop and drop and seeing these nice trophy-sized bass just floating dead."
End times predictions
As of last week, all that remained of the lake was a small pond a few feet deep, Cruz said. There were thousands of dead fish, he said, but no sign of life.
Pictures of this blood-red pool circulated online in fishing forums and caught the notice of Indiana preacher Paul Begley, who said in a YouTube video that the lake might be evidence of the apocalypse as predicted by the Biblical book of Revelation. [End of the World? Top Doomsday Fears]
"The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead person, and every living thing in the sea died," the passage Begley cited reads. "The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood."
Begley may not have any more luck at predicting the end of the world than did Harold Camping, the radio preacher who set the date for May 21, 2011. But for as long as the drought persists, the OC Fisher reservoir is a reservoir no longer.
"I don't know what's left in there now. We haven't been back," Cruz said. "But I would guess it's probably pretty much gone already." - Yahoo News
A Texas lake that turned blood-red this summer may not be a sign of the End Times, but probably is the end of a popular fishing and recreation spot.
A drought has left the OC Fisher Reservoir in San Angelo State Park in West Texas almost entirely dry. The water that is left is stagnant, full of dead fish — and a deep, opaque red.
The color has some apocalypse believers suggesting that OC Fisher is an early sign of the end of the world, but Texas Parks and Wildlife Inland Fisheries officials say the bloody look is the result of Chromatiaceae bacteria, which thrive in oxygen-deprived water.
"It's just heartbreaking," said Charles Cruz, a fish and wildlife technician with Texas Parks and Wildlife in San Angelo, Tex.
Blood red reservoir
Texas is experiencing major drought this summer, with 75 percent of the state's area in an "exceptional" drought, the highest level, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC). The state had hoped for some relief from Tropical Storm Don last week, but the system fizzled and brought only an inch or two of rain to areas near the coast.
The drought has taken its toll on a number of reservoirs in West Texas, Cruz told LiveScience. OC Fisher has never been completely full, Cruz said, but it was stocked with catfish, bass, sunfish and other popular targets for fishermen.
"We surveyed the lake, I believe it was last year, and we had a pretty good fish population out there," Cruz said. "It was pretty sickening going out there, watching lake levels just drop and drop and drop and seeing these nice trophy-sized bass just floating dead."
End times predictions
As of last week, all that remained of the lake was a small pond a few feet deep, Cruz said. There were thousands of dead fish, he said, but no sign of life.
Pictures of this blood-red pool circulated online in fishing forums and caught the notice of Indiana preacher Paul Begley, who said in a YouTube video that the lake might be evidence of the apocalypse as predicted by the Biblical book of Revelation. [End of the World? Top Doomsday Fears]
"The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead person, and every living thing in the sea died," the passage Begley cited reads. "The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood."
Begley may not have any more luck at predicting the end of the world than did Harold Camping, the radio preacher who set the date for May 21, 2011. But for as long as the drought persists, the OC Fisher reservoir is a reservoir no longer.
"I don't know what's left in there now. We haven't been back," Cruz said. "But I would guess it's probably pretty much gone already." - Yahoo News
