Singapore News Channel, Singapore News Network

BALTIMORE, MD (January 8, 2020) � Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh joined a multistate coalition in filing an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in support of the plaintiffs in Little Rock Family Planning Services v. Leslie Rutledge, a lawsuit that seeks to protect a woman�s right to safe and legal abortion care. The multistate coalition supports the last surgical abortion clinic in Arkansas in its challenge to four state laws that would restrict women�s access to safe and legal abortion by banning abortion after 18 weeks and otherwise restricting women�s access to reproductive care.

�The Arkansas laws put women�s health and safety at risk,� said Attorney General Frosh. �Chipping away at abortion services by placing burdensome restrictions on providers will not stop abortions from taking place; it will just make them more dangerous.�

In the brief, the coalition argues that the Arkansas laws violate women�s constitutional right to choose under Roe v. Wade. The coalition further argues that limiting or eliminating women�s access to safe and legal abortion leads to worse health and socioeconomic outcomes for women. These outcomes include forcing women to endure negative pregnancy side effects, the limitation of physical activity, restriction from full-time employment, and increased reliance on publicly funded safety-net programs. The brief describes the different ways that states promote women�s health without impeding women�s rights upheld by the constitution.

In 2019, the Arkansas state legislature passed several laws intended to restrict access to abortion services. The laws would criminalize abortions performed after 18 weeks and impose other undue burdens on women�s constitutional right to safe and legal abortion. Plaintiffs argue that Arkansas� laws would make abortion care either unavailable or less safe for women.

On July 28, 2019, the U.S. District Court granted the plaintiff�s motion for preliminary injunction, which temporarily blocked the Arkansas laws restricting abortion care. Arkansas appealed the decision to the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eighth District shortly thereafter.

Joining Maryland in filing today�s brief are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.

OCEAN CITY � One of the most significant changes from the closed session meetings addressing an unsanctioned motorized event is moving the signature Sunfest event to the first weekend in October this fall.

Following a spirited Mayor and Council meeting after another troublesome unsanctioned motorized special event last September, resort officials promised everything was on the table in terms of possible solutions to the reckless activity and embarked on a series of closed session meetings throughout much of the fall and early winter to explore remedies.

In the months since the unsanctioned H2O International (H2Oi) event wreaked havoc in Ocean City again, law enforcement officials and the Mayor and Council have been working in earnest, albeit behind closed doors, to explore and any all alternatives to curtail some of the behavior associated with the event.

For the record, the official H2Oi event, featuring tricked-out Volkswagens and Audis, for example, has been held for the last few years in Atlantic City. However, in the years since the official event moved from its venue in northern Worcester County to Atlantic City, hundreds of enthusiasts continue to show up in Ocean City during the last weekend in September and the outcome has not changed, but rather has gotten worse.

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I predict that 20% of colleges and universities will shut down or merge in the next 10 years, and probably more.

It was a good run.

Most people fail to understand that higher education is in itself countercyclical. When the economy is bad, and people lose jobs, many of them will go back to school.

You have probably heard about the for-profit education boom and bust. That is old news. You might not have heard that total enrollment has been declining for the last eight years as the economy has improved.

What comes next will pulverize nearly every institution of higher learning in the country, private and public.

The reason: demographics. Basically, an echo of the baby bust of the early seventies.

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Teachers who object to paying union fees on religious grounds are too political, some union leaders in Pennsylvania argue in a new twist on long-standing complaints about organized labor�s involvement in elective politics.

But at least two of those teachers, who just had their day in court to put state labor laws under scrutiny, see more than a little irony at work in the union complaints.

Lawyers for Jane Ladley, who taught in public schools for 25 years before retiring in 2014 from Avon Grove School District in Chester County, argued her case Dec. 11 before the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg.

Joining Ladley in suing the Pennsylvania State Education Association, a teachers union, was Chris Meier, a history and economics teacher at Penn Manor High School in Lancaster County for the past 10 years.

Neither teacher is a member of PSEA, but the union secured contractual agreements with their respective school districts that require non-members such as Ladley and Meier to pay what the union calls �fair share fees.�

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I recently receiver this from Choptank electric , possible good news for us rural folks

Choptank Electric is inviting Somerset county members to participate in an informative presentation about Broadband. The presentation will feature speakers Craig N. Mathies, Board Director for Somerset County, and Matthew Teffeau, Manager of Government Affairs. The town hall-style event will include a brief presentation and Q. & A. session.

Somerset County Technical School

7994 Tawes Campus Drive, Westover

January 13, 2020

6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

We hope to see you there!

MPs have finally given their formal backing to Boris Johnson�s Brexit deal after more than three years of bitter parliamentary wrangling over the UK�s departure from the European Union.

The historic EU Withdrawal Agreement Bill cleared the Commons this afternoon – despite Labour opposition – as MPs gave the draft legislation its third reading by 330 votes to 231, a majority of 99.

It is the final major Commons hurdle which the so-called WAB had to navigate and it will now head to the House of Lords next week for further scrutiny before the UK leaves the EU on January 31.

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Potential terrorist sleeper cell operations in the United States are a credible threat in the wake of Tuesday’s Iranian missile strikes, former CIA officer Bryan Dean Wright said.

Appearing on “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday, Wright said that there are “unquestionably” sleeper cells operated and directed by the Iranian regime in the U.S.

“The CIA and the FBI have long had a pulse on this threat…So we know that the risk is there,” he said. “The other deep concern is that we have to be right 100 percent of the time to mitigate these individuals [and] find this threat. And, unfortunately, we’re not going to be able to do that every time.”

“So, what’s important now is [if] the Iranians want to strike back, they know we will take a disproportionate attack against them,” he told the “Friends” hosts.

“That is powerful. That is important. And, the American people should sleep much, much, easier knowing that we have somebody in the White House who is willing to take that kind of a step,” said Wright.

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https://www.foxnews.com/media/bryan-dean-wright-cia-iran-sleeper-cells-us-threat

Democrats in the state of New York may soon give illegal aliens the ability to automatically register to vote when they apply for a driver�s licenses at any state Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) office.

Reports have circulated that Democrats in the New York State Senate are looking this year to quickly pass a new law that automatically registers New York residents to vote in elections so long as they obtain a state-issued driver�s license.

Those licenses, available at DMVs, are now provided to all eligible New York residents � including illegal aliens.

Last year, Democrats sought to give automatic voter registration to all illegal aliens who obtained driver�s licenses with the state�s new law that allows the illegal population to legally drive.

Currently in New York, American citizens only need a driver�s license to register to vote, and although applicants are required to swear that they are eligible to vote, state election officials have previously admitted that �it�s basically an honor system.�

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Iran mistakenly shot down the Ukrainian plane that crashed on Wednesday near Tehran with 176 people on board, US media report.

US officials say they believe the Ukrainian International Airlines Boeing 737-800 was hit by a missile, CBS says.

Ukraine earlier said it was examining whether a missile strike brought down the aircraft – but Iran ruled this out.

The crash came just hours after Iran carried out missile strikes on two airbases housing US forces in Iraq.

CBS News quoted US intelligence sources as saying a satellite detected infrared “blips” of two missile launches, followed by another blip of an explosion.

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