In The Days

A Year Marked by Shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Museum;
Bomb Threats, Anti-Jewish Pickets

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Last month, a Jordanian non-governmental organisation published an advertisement for candidates to join an environmental training project in the Jordan Valley. This neglected to mention the project was in co-operation with Israel, on the Israeli side of the border but it was identical to many previous ads. It prompted a storm of protest after an Islamic newspaper revealed the Israel connection.

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Barack Obama promised a new era of post-partisanship. In office, he’s played racial politics and further split the country along class and party lines.

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We mentioned yesterday how California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had declared a brand new budget emergency in California, where a $19.1 billion shortfall will force state employees to take time off, with the possibility that the state may bring back last summer IOUs to pay its debts.

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SAN FRANCISCO – Seven pastors who work in the San Francisco Bay area and were barred from serving in the nation’s largest Lutheran group because of a policy that required gay clergy to be celibate are being welcomed into the denomination.

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Not Yet Known If Oil Spill Was Factor

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Moody’s Investors Service on Tuesday lowered its outlooks to “negative” on certain ratings for Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co., citing a new law that is expected to reduce the likelihood of government bailouts of banks.

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VIVIAN, SD – A small South Dakota town is being recognized for a big find after last Friday’s storms.

(See Video below, sorry about the short commercial attached to the video)

Foretaste of Revelation

“And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.”
—Revelation 16:21

It was Friday afternoon when a line of thunderstorms fired up in central South Dakota. High winds, heavy rains and even a possible tornado rolled through the town of Vivian. But now days later, a hailstone picked up just moments after the storm is getting worldwide attention.

The damage is proof that it wasn’t a typical South Dakota thunderstorm. Holes were punched through the top of buildings, and Les Scott will never forget what it sounded like.

“A guy throwing bricks at the house and many of them and it was scary,” Scott said.

Scott watched as massive hailstones pummeled the ground. Tuesday, the dents in the ground are still visible, some as large and deep as coffee cans. But when the hail stopped, a certain stone grabbed his attention.

“I just happened to see this one fall and the only reason I went out and got it is because it has all these fingers sticking out of it and I thought, ‘Oh, that’s weird.’ So I thought I’d go get that one,” Scott said.

Scott originally wanted to make a daiquiri out of the hail, but decided to contact the National Weather Service instead. Tuesday, they were in Vivian. They carefully took the stone from the freezer and placed it in a cooler with dry ice. The next stop was at the post office where the hail had a date with the federally certified scale. Moments later, the hailstone weighed in at 1.9375 pounds.

“Officially, where records have been kept, this will be the U.S. record and world record for weight. So very impressive,” Mike Fowle of the National Weather Service said.

But the inspection of the new world record hail wasn’t done there. To ensure that the hailstone didn’t melt, it was then measured while inside a freezer at a local convenience store.

The hailstone is down to 17 inches around, but was measured just a few days ago at 18 and a half inches. That is another world record number.

“I didn’t think it was near that, but I’m glad I got it I guess. I’m just sad about the town of Vivian. I hope the insurance people help them out as much as they can because they need it,” Scott said.

As impressive as the size and weight are, it may have topped two pounds when it fell from the sky. While Scott placed it in the freezer, the power was out for six hours following the storm, and it likely melted a bit in that time.

Dozens of Orthodox leaders publish statement saying that although Judaism ‘cannot give its blessing and imprimatur to Jewish religious same-sex commitment ceremonies and weddings,’ community must still accept ‘practicing’ gay couples and their children into synagogues, schools

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Alliance Defense Fund
Jennifer Keeton, 24, has been pursuing a master’s degree in school counseling at Augusta State University since last year, but school officials have informed her that she’ll be dismissed from the program unless she alters her “central religious beliefs on human nature and conduct,” according to a civil complaint filed last week.

A graduate student in Georgia is suing her university after she was told she must undergo a remediation program due to her beliefs on homosexuality and transgendered persons.

The student, Jennifer Keeton, 24, has been pursuing a master’s degree in school counseling at Augusta State University since 2009, but school officials have informed her that she’ll be dismissed from the program unless she alters her “central religious beliefs on human nature and conduct,” according to a civil complaint filed last week.

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