Colorado Senate Continues Restrictions on Teachers Seeking to Leave Unions

On Tuesday, the Colorado Senate voted against a bill that would've made it easier for teachers to leave unions.

The vote came down completely on party lines, both in the House, where it passed, and in the Senate where it failed. Republicans were completely for giving teachers the ability to choose. Whereas Democrats voted for union control.

House Bill 1333 would have required school districts to stop deducting union or teacher association dues for from a teacher's paycheck, within 30 days of receiving a written request to do so, as well as gotten rid of the requirement that teachers resubmit the request every year.

It would also have granted all professional teaching associations, not just unions, the ability to have dues deducted from member paychecks and required labor organizations to make annual disclosures to members about how their dues are spent.

Currently in Colorado, teachers have an unannounced two week period within which to send their request. They also must do so every year, or they are automatically enrolled back into the unions. Union dues can come near $1000 a year. Teachers do have the right to have their dues refunded, but heavy fees have been place, leaving a net result of a max of only $63 being given back.


Tim Farmer, membership director for the Professional Association of Colorado Educators, says that, "Teachers are paying union dues against their will". PACE, a nonunion teachers association which heavily supported the bill, provides teachers liability insurance and legal representation in employment disputes, but does not collectively bargain or engage in political activism. Dues at PACE come to $180 a year.

Josh Hamilton Has 4 Home Run Night

Texas Ranger Josh Hamilton was on fire Tuesday night, as he led the team to a nine to three victory over the Baltimore Orioles.

He went five for five, with four home runs and a double. This gave him an American League record eighteen bases in one game.

With his home run from Monday night, he currently is six for six, with five home runs.

Hamilton became the sixteenth player in Major League Baseball history to hit four homers in one game.

Currently, he leads baseball with fourteen home runs on the year.

North Carolina Outlaws Gay Marriage

On Tuesday, North Carolina became the thirtieth state to pass an amendment defining marriage as only being between a man and a woman. It also made the state the nineteenth to ban same sex civil unions.

The voting in North Carolina crossed racial and political lines. Voters, came in at sixty-one percent for the amendment, thirty-nine percent against.

The bill takes effect January 1, 2013. Sixteen years ago, the state passed a law banning same sex marriages.

Six states, and the District of Columbia, have laws that allow same sex marriage.

Minnesota has a vote on a marriage amendment, coming in November. Maine's 2009 ban on same sex marriage is up for rescinding, at that time as well.

Russian Airliner Goes Down in Indonesia

A Russian airline jet went missing after flying near a volcano, on it's way to Indonesia.

The Sukhoi Superjet 100, Russia's newest civilian airliner, was carrying forty-five passengers and crew when it disappeared from radar.

Sukhoi had sent the plane on a series of demonstration flights, throughout south east Asia. The first leg went smoothly, but twenty-one minutes after takeoff, the second leg seemingly ended.

Helicopters were dispatched to search, but were forced to turn back due to high winds and unusual weather. They hope to get back in the air, Thursday morning. Ground crews are working their way to the area.

Update: The Indonesian government has confirmed that one of their helicopters has found the wreckage of the plane.

The remains of the plane are near Salak Mountain. Ground teams are on their way to the crash site.

Lugar Set for Retirement With Help From the Indiana Tea Party

Richard "Dick" Lugar, a six term incumbent and the longest serving Republican in the Senate, was defeated yesterday by the Tea Party backed Richard Mourdock in the Indiana Republican primary. This happened despite claims on both sides of the aisle that the Tea Party is no longer influential. Mourdock, who was out-spent roughly 3 to 1 by the establishment's preferred candidate, was led by a grassroots effort to replace the incumbent, with a more conservative alternative.

Mourdock's campaign may have had $4.7M less than that of Lugar's, but his super PAC had a $1.2M advantage. One advertisement by Mourdock's super PAC labeled Lugar: "President Obama's favorite Republican", showing clips of Obama saying, "I've worked with Republican Senator Dick Lugar to pass a law" and "What I did was reach out to Senator Dick Lugar."

Mourdock has spent 30 years in the private sector and his political career has included three victories, with one of them being a statewide race.  He's also been a featured speaker at several large tea party engagements.

Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and John McCain (R-AR) have avoided similar situations by moving more ideologically to the right prior to their respective primary elections.

Hopefully this is a sign of what's to come in the November elections across the country. Much like the Tea Party sweep of '10, It appears voters are fed up with Democrat pandering, career politicians. I guess this also means we get a week off from the media's claims that the Tea Party is "dead". That's OK, that will give them more time to find ways to distract the public from the violent behavior of the Occupy movement.

Inmate Almost Beats Obama in West Virginia Primary

Keith Judd is a federal inmate in Beaumont, Texas.

Despite his current condition he is on the Democrat primary ticket, in some states, against President Obama.

To add to it, on Tuesday, West Virginia voters, gave him forty-one percent of the vote.

That's right a federal convict was chosen by two out of five, West Virginian Democrats, over Obama.

Very few if any of the voters actually were voting for Judd. They were however making a very strong statement about their thoughts on Obama.

Obama has repeatedly tried to end the US use of coal, and West Virginia is coal country. Coal miner unions, are about the only organized labor, who refuse to stand by the President.

Canada Working to Make it Illegal to Wear a Mask in a Riot

Currently in the Canadian House of Commons is a private members bill C-309 “An Act to amend the Criminal Code (concealment of identity)”. This enactment amends the Criminal Code to make it an offense to wear a mask or other disguise to conceal one's identity while taking part in a riot or an unlawful assembly.

Currently the Conservative government and other police agencies are for this bill as this would definitely make it easier to identify guilty parties in a riot.

With the Vancouver Stanley Cup Riots, Occupy Wall Street Riots, and the Quebec Student Riots as examples, police have become frustrated in being able to identify those who have vandalized or destroyed property, etc. while wearing a mask.

People feel more inclined to commit acts of vandalism or violence if there is sense of anonymity. There is a sense of entitlement that they can protest and do whatever they believe is their right to do. Once the masked rioters arrive, chaos is soon to follow. These rioters take over the protest and the original message becomes lost. These are organized takeovers and those who are protesting are being used to further the rioter's goals.

Politicians and officials can be placed in precarious position of ensuring people’s safety or infringing on people right to assembly and their freedom of speech. How do they ensure the public's safety and or protection of property without infringing on those rights? This is a slippery slope; protecting the public, versus the right of assembly.

On the civil liberties side, there are concerns that the bill is too vague and could be used against peaceful protestors. Micheal Vonn, policy director at the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said that many future demonstrations in British Columbia will revolve around environmental concerns where protesters prize their anonymity in the face of increased governmental scrutiny, referencing what she said was an unprecedented amount of police surveillance of activists in the lead-up to Toronto's 2010 G20 protests.

What people forget is that with every right comes a responsibility with it. If you want to protest then you need to conduct yourself in a civil manner. Rioting should never be an acceptable form of protest. Unless those peacefully protesting are prepared to separate themselves from the rioters, they will lose peoples support and will open themselves up to be arrested.

Yes, it does complicate their ability to peacefully protest but if they are serious about their cause then they need to ensure that it is not taken over by those who would use them (rioters) to further their goals. It is the protesters choice on how their protest is conducted.

If you are not ready or willing to do this, then don’t protest. Taking away the anonymity of the rioters will help deter them from performing vandalism or acts of violence on people and or property.

White House Considers Unborn Babies a Security Threat

The White House is now requiring that visitors, when signing up for the White House tour, list unborn children as a separate human being.

Yet at the same time the Obama administration has made it extremely clear that they are pro abortion rights, which do not recognize unborn children, as a living entity, let alone a human being.

According to White House Visitors Office director Ellie Schafer the new procedure is happening for security reasons.

So apparently, an unborn child, while not being recognized as alive, is fully capable of committing terrorist acts. If the unborn are security threats, we are truly in trouble. They're clearly striking out in revenge for the legalized murder of millions of their number. Or maybe they're just angry over the amount of taxes they'll be paying by the time they're adults, due to the ridiculous amounts of spending by the Obama administration.

Perhaps the White House is worried that potential terrorists will pretend to be pregnant, to bring in an explosive device or weapons. Couldn't just have a place to indicate you are pregnant on the form. That would be ridiculous

And of course it's not like there are any security measures at the White House to prevent such things. Anyone can just walk in, it's not as if everyone goes through metal detectors, past armed security with top security devices, or anything.

Here we yet again have a double standard of this administration. Unborn children are terrorist threats. So is grandma, your toddler, and bunny too.

At the same time the government consorts with known terrorists, allowing them free reign in various parts of the world. They sell guns to Mexican gun cartels, and then try to cover it up when Mexican and American citizens are killed with those same weapons.

This is the world we live in. Babies are terrorists, but murderers and conspirators run the country.

Kings vs Coyotes for NHL Western Conference

The NHL Western Conference has come down to two teams. Only the Los Angeles Kings and Phoenix Coyotes remain standing.

This marks the first time since the NHL's playoff format was changed, for the 1993-94 season, that the Western Conference final will come down to two Pacific Division teams.

The Pacific Division, was the only one without a team below eighty points. Despite that, the Central Division was thought to be the strongest in the West, but both LA and Phoenix took down two central teams each, on their way to the conference final.

Phoenix took down both Nashville and Chicago, each in six game series. LA, who had been given the eight seed, first faced off the defending Western champion Vancouver Canucks. They then went on to sweep the second seeded Blues.

Both teams have done so with amazing goal tending. Coyote goaltender, Mike Smith, has faced 400 shots over eleven games this postseason and turned aside 379 of those pucks for a .948 save percentage and 1.77 GAA. During his nine games Jonathan Quick, of the Kings, has posted a 1.55 goals against average and .949 save percentage.

A Conference Championship series between these two teams, could very well be the best series of the entire NHL playoffs.

Alabama County Not Allowed to Post Storm Shelter Signs

DeKalb County, Alabama fought for most of a year, for the right to build storm shelters. On April 27, 2011, thirty-three people lost their lives in the county due to lack of shelters. The federal government tried to make them tear down the ones they built after that, but the county finally won it's court battle to have them.

Now, the state of Alabama is telling them they can not post signs to direct people to the shelters. The signs would be placed along a state highway, and the state has refused to allow the signs to be put up.

Superintendent Charles Warren, of the county schools, and DOT traffic engineer Travis Kilgore have been having a back and forth exchange over the signs.

Kilgore wrote in an email, "The use of shelter directional signs have not yet been approved for installation on state roads. The overuse and overcrowding of signs can be a distraction to motorist (sic) and often lead to a disregard or disrespect of necessary regulatory and roadway warning signs." He continued on to insist that residents already know where the shelter is, so signs are unnecessary.

Warren responded by pointing out that, as it is a busy state highway, many people from out of town go through daily. And they would not automatically know where to seek shelter. Warren even offered to have the signs remade, at cost to the county, to which ever specifications the state insisted.

But Kilgore still denied them saying, "I admire your persistence in pursuing the 'Tornado Shelter' signs and commend the DeKalb County Schools for constructing the shelter, however, I cannot approve installation of the signs on AL-35. The Federal Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices requires States to develop a comprehensive plane (sic) to address miscellaneous guide signs and their installation on State roads. We limit guide signs, other than the primary destinations (Towns and Cities), to those destinations that a large number of motorists may be looking for. Our State Traffic Engineer has determined these signs are not approved for installation on State roads and has previously denied requests for shelter signs in South Alabama."

 The county is now appealing to Alabama Governor Robert Bentley, to try and finally get the signs posted. Bentley has yet to respond on the matter.