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Friday, July 23, 2010

Join us for KKLA's "Faith and Family Day" with the Los Angeles Dodgers, tomorrow Saturday, July 24th when they take on the New York Mets.  Come early to attend the free pre-game Christian concert with Press Play that starts at 11am right behind center field!  Great tickets are still on sale for just $8!  Go to KKLA.com for more info.

400-412 Michael Barone, senior Political Analyst for the Washington Examiner (washingtonexaminer.com), resident fellow with the American Enterprise Institute, a Fox News contributor, and co-author of The Almanac of American Politics.   Today we talk about the big issues:  Shirley Sherrod, Journolist, the 3.7 trillion deficit, next year's midterms, the failure of cap & trade, nuclear Iran, and the "physical response" threatened by North Korea.

413-423 – • USA Today (7/23/2010) Young evangelical writer: 'Move on' from evolution-creationism debate.

428-437 Dr. Jason Lisle, is an astrophysicist with Ken Ham's Answers in Genesis (answersingenesis.org), and his latest book is The Ultimate Proof of Creation: Resolving The Origins Debate.  Jason lays out three arguments against evolution.  1) The origin of information in DNA can only come from a mind.  2) The appearance of C-14, with a half-life of 5,700 years, appears in coal and diamonds claimed to be millions of years old.  And 3) Science presupposes the uniformity of nature, that the future will be similar to the past, and this only makes sense if there is a law-giver that sustains the laws of nature.  I add the Four Big Bangs:  the origins of matter, life, mind, and conscience.

443-452 Dr. Jason Lisle

458-508 • Fox News (7/23/2010) Calif. City Officials Resign in Salary Scandal.

BELL, Calif.-- Three administrators whose huge salaries sparked outrage in this small blue-collar suburb of Los Angeles have agreed to resign, the City Council said Friday.

Council members emerged from an hours-long closed session at midnight Friday and announced that they'd accepted the resignations of Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo, Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia and Police Chief Randy Adams.

Rizzo was the highest paid at $787,637 a year -- nearly twice the pay of President Barack Obama -- for overseeing one of the poorest towns in Los Angeles County.

Spaccia makes $376,288 a year and Adams earns $457,000, 50 percent more than Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck.

// Rizzo would be entitled to a state pension of more than $650,000 a year for life, according to calculations made by the Times. That would make Rizzo, 56, the highest-paid retiree in the state pension system.

Adams could get more than $411,000 a year.

Spaccia, 51, could be eligible for as much as $250,000 a year when she reaches 55, though the figure is less precise than for the other two officials, the Times said.

512-523 • IBD (7/21/2010) The Tax Tsunami On The Horizon.

My Summary:

1) As of midnight Dec. 31, the death tax returns:  55% on estates of $1 million or more.

2) The lowest personal income tax bracket goes up 50%: from 10% to 15%.  The 25% bracket rises to 28%.  The 28% rises to 31%. The 33% rises to 36%.  And the 35% becomes 39.6%

3) The marriage penalty returns.

4) The capital gains tax will jumps 33%, from 15% to 20%.

5) The tax on dividends jumps 164%, from 15% to 39.6%.

6) The child tax credit will be cut in half, from $1,000 to $500.

7) The standard deduction for couples will be reduced to that of single filers.

8) The Medicine Cabinet Tax.  "Americans will no longer be able to use health savings account, flexible spending account, or health reimbursement pretax dollars to purchase nonprescription, over-the-counter medicines (except insulin)."

9) The HSA Withdrawal Tax Hike. "This provision of ObamaCare increases the additional tax on non-medical early withdrawals from an HSA from 10% to 20%, disadvantaging them relative to IRAs and other tax-advantaged accounts, which remain at 10%."

10) Brand Name Drug Tax. Makers and importers of brand-name drugs will be liable for a taxes they will pass on to consumers, meaning, you're going to be paying more for your medicine.

11) Economic Substance Doctrine.  "The IRS is now empowered to disallow perfectly legal tax deductions and maneuvers merely because it judges that the deduction or action lacks 'economic substance.'"

12) The AMT will now hit 28.5 million families in 2011, up from 4 million this year.

13)  "Small businesses can normally expense (rather than slowly deduct, or 'depreciate') equipment purchases up to $250,000," says ATR. "This will be cut all the way down to $25,000.  Larger businesses can expense half of their purchases of equipment.  In January of 2011, all of it will have to be 'depreciated.'"

14) The deduction for tuition and fees will no longer be available and there will be limits placed on education tax credits. Teachers won't be able to deduct their classroom expenses and employer-provided educational aid will be restricted. Thousands of families will no longer be allowed to deduct student loan interest.

15) Then there's the tax on Americans who decline to buy health care insurance (the tax the administration initially said wasn't a tax but now argues in court that it is) plus a 3.8% Medicare tax beginning in 2013 on profits made in real estate transactions by wealthier Americans.

• CNS News (7/23/2010) Liberals, Conservatives Agree: Re-Imposing the Death Tax Designed to Penalize the Wealthy.

• CNBC (7/23/2010) Mortgage Securities Pose Sticky Problem for Fed.

528-538David French, head of the ADF Center for Academic Freedom (speakupmovement.org, telladf.org, 1-800-TELL-ADF), the only litigation unit of its kind dedicated to fighting for religious freedom on campus.  Today we talk about a huge case out of Augusta State University in Augusta, Georgia.

(1:40) Jennifer Keeton  Speakupmovement.org (7/22/2010) Jennifer Keeton, In Her Own Words.

• World Net Daily (7/22/2010) 'Lose Christianity or face expulsion'.

School officials Mary Jane Anderson-Wiley, Paulette Schenck and Richard Deaner demanded student Jen Keeton, 24, go through a "remediation" program after she asserted homosexuality is a behavioral choice, not a "state of being" as a professor said, according to the complaint.

Also named as defendants in the case that developed in May and June are other administrators and the university system's board of regents.

The remediation program was to include "sensitivity training" on homosexual issues, additional outside study on literature promoting homosexuality and the plan that she attend a "gay pride parade" and report on it.

// School spokeswoman Kathy Schose today declined to address the allegations in the case but agreed to discuss the counselor teaching program in general.

// "Schenck told Miss Keeton that it was unethical for her to believe that her convictions should also be shared by other persons. … Schenck explained that while Miss Keeton was free to have points of view about how she personally should conduct and define herself, she may not believe that others should adopt the standards she personally is convinced are true," the lawsuit said.

"Anderson-Wiley confirmed that Miss Keeton will not be able to successfully complete the remediation plan and thus complete the ASU counseling program unless she commits to affirming the propriety of gay and lesbian relationships if such an opportunity arises in her future professional efforts," it continued.

// According to the complaint documentation, which also seeks a preliminary injunction in the case, Keeton asked Anderson-Wiley how her Christian convictions are any less acceptable than those of a Buddhist or Muslim student. Anderson-Wiley responded, "Christians see this population as sinners."

• ADF (722/2010) Augusta State Univ. to counseling student: change your beliefs or get out: ADF attorneys file suit after university officials require counseling student to abandon her beliefs to get a degree.

// The plan assails Keeton's beliefs as inconsistent with the counseling profession and expresses suspicion over "Jen's ability to be a multiculturally competent counselor, particularly with regard to working with gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (GLBTQ) populations." The plan requires her to take steps to change her beliefs through additional assignments and additional "diversity sensitivity training." It also orders her to "work to increase exposure and interactions with gay populations. One such activity could be attending the Gay Pride Parade in Augusta."

Each month, Keeton is required to complete a report on how the "remediation" assignments have influenced her beliefs so that faculty can "decide the appropriateness of her continuation in the counseling program." The plan concludes by noting that "failure to complete all elements of the remediation plan will result in dismissal from the Counselor Education Program."

• David French (7/22/2010) Get Thee to a Gay-Pride Parade!

• Fox News (7/23/2010) Legal Challenges to Prayer on the Rise.

544-554David French

558-608 Open Line Friday

612-623Open Line Friday

628-638 Open Line Friday

644-652Open Line Friday

• Jonah Goldberg (7/23/2010) An Open Conspiracy To Slant the News:  JournoList is a symptom, not the disease, of liberal media bias.

• AP (7/23/2010) Church blasts gay priests leading 'double life'.

• Patrick Buchanan (7/22/2010) Obama team's panic over losing whites.

• Peggy Noonan (7/23/2010) The Power of Redemption: Shirley Sherrod's speech, and her story, has lessons for us all.