400-408 – • AP (12/27/2010) U.S. Storm Strands Travelers, Vexes Drivers.
• Judah Cohen, NYT (12/27/2010) Bundle Up, It's Global Warming. Judah Cohen is the director of seasonal forecasting at an atmospheric and environmental research firm.
• Rasmussen (12/24/2010) Americans Strongly Believe in the Divinity of Jesus Christ.
• 87% of Americans celebrate Christmas, 70% of these consider it a religious holiday, 27% a secular one.
• Among those who celebrate Christmas, 81% believe in the divinity of Christ, 83% believe he was a real person (not a myth), and 73% believe in the virgin birth. [How can you believe in his divinity, but not the virgin birth?]
413-423 – Why you need both the virgin birth and the divinity of Christ to accomplish the redemption of man.
428-437 – • USA Today (12/22/2010) Jobless couples manage to find holiday spirit. Brian and Selena Smith, and their two toddlers, get some national attention – they're now living in her parent's garage in Whittier, trying to sell the home in Fontana for less-than-half of the $420,000 they bought it for, and they are among the 300,000 married couples where both spouses had once been unemployed, but are now unemployed.
• USA Today (12/27/2010) Churches bolster jobless families out of work, not spirit.
Pastor Bill Ankerberg of Whittier Area Community Church gets some national attention for their "job services, marriage encouragement groups and food donations."
Doug Brockbank, from Bluffdale, Utah, talks about the help he's getting from his Mormon church, "Last night, driving home with all the kids in the car, we talked about the top 10 people who have been there to help us. I reflected on someone who fixes our car when it breaks down. My wife thought about how the relief society (also part of their church) came in to assist when she was unable to clean the house. You can be stripped of a lot of things in life but you can keep sweet memories. We made a point this Christmas of telling our kids to be grateful."
443-452 – Calls. How did God show up at your Christmas? Anything "special" happen in your family that you credit the Lord with? Those of you who faced hard times this past year, how has God provided for you? Maybe through friends, family or your church? What can we, as the church, do better for those who will be struggling in 2011?
458-508 – • Orlando Sentinel (12/27/2010) Mich. man faces charges for reading wife's e-mail. Calls: Marrieds, where is the privacy line in your marriage? Do you have a "private place" that your spouse can't go? Did the guy do the right thing or the wrong thing? Should he be charged? Have you ever been in a relationship where there was "yours" "mine" and "ours"?
512-523 – Calls
528-539 – Calls
544-554 – Calls
558-608 – Calls
612-623 – • ABC News (12/23/2010) Critics say DUI checkpoints target immigrants. Do you think the locations of checkpoints are racially motivated? Don't you want drunk drivers off the road in ethnic neighborhoods? Do mean you get to call a legal buddy before or after the breathalyzer test? Do you want the Oakland DUI "phone a friend" policy in your neighborhood?
Two local advocate groups for undocumented immigrants have publicly accused the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department of using DUI checkpoints to legally seize thousands of cars.
The Southern California Immigration Coalition and the South Central Neighborhood Council claim DUI checkpoints are strategically placed in and around Hispanic communities as a trap to catch unlicensed and undocumented drivers.
These groups say the state of California made $40 million in profit in 2009 from these checkpoints.
"In one impound, four cars were impounded because of drunk driving and 60 cars were impounded because of a lack of a license," said Julia Wallace of the South Central Neighborhood Council. "It's obvious to us that for one, these things are targeting working class people, undocumented immigrants, that do not have a license but are really just abiding the law otherwise and are not drunk."
However, sheriff's department officials deny that claim.
"DUI checkpoints are used to prevent people from driving under the influence of alcohol," the department said in a statement. "It is to get people off the street -- out from behind the wheel of a car so people do not suffer tragic and totally unnecessary injuries that many times lead to death. DUI checkpoints historically have proven to be a successful tool in combating drunk drivers."
A spokesman for the LAPD's union said the claim that the state profited from the checkpoints is "absurd" and not supported by facts.
"The truth is that checkpoints cost money and local law enforcement, such as the ones operated by the LAPD, are fortunate to receive funding for the DUI checkpoints from the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS)," Eric Rose told Eyewitness News.
He says the checkpoints operate in accordance with guidelines mandated by the Supreme Court's ruling in "Ingersol vs. Palmer."
The two groups want the city of Los Angeles to adopt a policy similar to the policy in Oakland, where undocumented or unlicensed drivers are allowed to pull over and wait for a licensed driver to come and get their vehicle rather than have their vehicle impounded.
628-639 – Calls
644-656 – Calls
• Michelle Malkin, NYP (12/27/2010) Catholic hospitals face ACLU inquisition.
• AP (12/26/2010) Man quits job, makes living suing e-mail spammers.
• LAT (12/27/2010) Environmentalists clash over giant art project in Colorado. Some fume at a Sierra Club group's OK for a plan to hang fabric over 5.9 miles of river canyon.
• Charles Krauthammer, NRO (12/24/2010) Obama's New Start. Republicans no longer have the wind at their backs.
• Stephen Clark, Fox News (12/24/2010) Conservative Organizations Slam Law Center for Labeling Them 'Hate' Groups.
• Holman Jenkins, NRO (12/27/2010) Net Neutrality and the TV Wars. The broadband market is more dynamic than ever.
