Suspended Grant Has Strange Bedfellows

Rogers announced as Probation, Parole and Pardon choice
Governor-elect Nikki Haley has announced her seventh cabinet post choice in Lynne Rogers for Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services. Ms Rogers is currently the Deputy Director and General Counsel for the SC Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. Rogers' career spans work for the 5th Circuit Solicitor’s Office as head assistant solicitor for Family Courts, assistant general counsel for the S.C. Department of Social Services, chief attorney for Richland County DSS, and s...

Frank Gaffney Appointed To Clarion Fund Board
Last month, the Clarion Fund announced a new Advisory Board "to help steer the editorial composition of the company’s productions, and assist in ongoing marketing and distribution efforts." The board includes the Center for Security Policy's Frank Gaffney, who is spearheading efforts to pressure Congress to investigate the supposed threat of shari'ah law, and who has been frozen out of the Conservative Political Action Conference because, a Muslim Board Member of the American Conservative ...

SC Budget and Control Board director quits, Haley announces replacement
Frank Fusco's office confirmed Friday that his last day as director of the Budget and Control Board will be January 14. Fusco has run the board since 2001. The panel oversees day-to-day management of much of the state's Bureaucracy. Chief of Staff Eddie Gunn also announced he will resign the same day as Fusco. Fusco and Gunn's Resignations come as Gov.-elect Nikki Haley prepares to take office Wednesday. Haley today said she would nominate Eleanor Kitzman to replace Fusco and would r...

Shocking: 41% Of Pregnancies In New York End In Abortion
Appalling, though not exactly a new development. This figure is actually down from 46% in 1998. New and eye-opening statistics about the rate of Abortions in New York City have been released by the Health Department. It raises questions about the effectiveness of current Birth Control education. 41% of all New York City pregnancies end in abortion. There may be some reason to believe that these numbers are a little inflated. Abortion clinics tend to be centered in major urban areas, and these st...

Becks built an amazing multimedia empire in a short amount of time
“What’s intriguing to me from a business perspective is bringing that community together online,” says Betsy Morgan, who was just named president of Glenn Beck‘s The Blaze. “It’s a site very much in its infancy. It’s of relatively the same size as HuffPost was when I joined [as chief executive], but it’s a fraction of the staff, and it’s been in business for a fraction of the time.” (Morgan is a Poynter National Advisory Board member.) ...

SC Budget, Control Board Director Resigns
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The Executive Director of South Carolina's Financial Oversight board has resigned. Frank Fusco's office confirmed Friday that his last day as director of the Budget and Control Board will be Jan. 14. Fusco has run the board since 2001. The panel oversees day-to-day management of much of the state's Bureaucracy. Fusco's Resignation comes as Gov.-elect Nikki Haley prepares to take office Wednesday. It's not the first time Fusco has resigned. He stepped down in January 2007 after ...

Shockingly, Women Need Contraceptive Services.
The Guttmacher Institute has updated its report on the need for contraceptive services at both the national and state levels in 2008. While the number of women of childbearing age has remained steady, the number of women seeking contraceptive services has risen 6 percent since 2000. That's mirrored in the rise in the number of women who need publicly-funded reproductive services. A lot of it is driven by a rise in the need among women of color. Publicly-funded clinics helped avoid more than 400,...

Do 41% of all New York City pregnancies end in abortions?
Drudge has this headlined, and Twitter is buzzing over the appalling statistic reported by ABC and CBS stations in New York City over the Abortion rate in 2009, as determined by the Big Apple’s Health Department.  For the year, New York City reported 214,454 Pregnancy outcomes, of which 126.774 were live births and just 407 were spontaneous terminations — miscarriages.  However, 87,273 Pregnancy outcomes were abortions (induced terminations), which constituted 41% of all pregnanc...

South Carolina scrambles to deal with budget shortfall
Wed Jan 5, 2011 3:34pm EST CHARLESTON, S.C., Jan 5 - South Carolina Governor-elect Nikki Haley and state Budget writers are scrambling for solutions as South Carolina faces a nearly $1 billion Budget shortfall in its $5 billion budget. The state has three agencies -- Health and Human Services, Social Services, and Corrections -- operating in unapproved Deficit this month. South Carolina's constitution requires that it operate with a Balanced Budget. Without relief, the Health Care agency has ...

Rep. Gruenhagen brings controversial views to Health and Human Services Committee
With the new Legislature sworn into session on Tuesday, one new official is coming under scrutiny for opinions he’s shared in the letters pages of local Newspapers. Republican Glenn Gruenhagen, elected to the Minnesota House in November to represent Glencoe after Rep. Laura Brod retired, has been assigned to the Health and Human Services Committee. His Controversial public statements about welfare, anal sex, Abortion and Alcoholism — areas the committee oversees — could ma...

Neighborhood Schools Bill for JCPS on track for senate vote
Related: Neighborhood Schools Bill up for discussion in Frankfort JCPS board hires firm to find new superintendent JCPS superintendent up for review, some parents critical of performance Candidates for JCPS School Board to meet with public tonight (WHAS11) – A bill that would force Jefferson County Public Schools to replace its Controversial Student assignment plan with neighborhood schools is expected to be approved by the Kentucky Senate on Friday, after a contentious Senate Education...

Absurd CPAC drama continues
The infighting amongst Conservatives escalated this week as Focus on the Family became the latest sponsor of CPAC to threaten a Boycott of the conference because of the role GOProud, a gay conservative group, is playing this year: Focus on the Family and other conservative ministries are boycotting or questioning their commitment to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C., next month because a gay Advocacy Group is cosponsoring the event. Tom Minnery, senior vice ...

Question of the day
* Rockford Register Star executive editor Linda Grist Cunningham and the paper’s senior editor Chuck Sweeny both took a swing at the upcoming inauguration festivities. Cunningham… How about a simple swearing in, like we do for mayors, council, school and county Board Members? How about no tux and tails, no champagne, no ballroom dancing? How about every nickel of public and private cash going toward the inauguration instead be routed to Deficit reduction — or at least paying a co...

Academy of the Fine Arts discloses sales of artworks
In a highly unusual effort to shed light on the reality of its own art dealing, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts has reported the sale of five works, the prospective sale of five others, and the purchases made from sales proceeds. "We wanted to be as open as possible," said David R. Brigham, president and chief executive of the academy. "It's a positive story, and we want to tell it," he added, discussing the sales - deaccessioning, in museum parlance - and the are...

Sanford pitches lower taxes at final press conference
Dressed in his usual blue blazer and holding one of his Trademark charts, outgoing Gov. Mark Sanford held his final Press Conference Thursday, outlining a plan to reform South Carolina’s tax structure, featuring lower Tax Rates that he says are needed to increase the state's competitiveness. Sanford, who leaves office Wednesday when Gov.-elect Nikki Haley takes the helm, made one final appeal to lawmakers to: -- Eliminate all tax exemptions and uniformly tax goods and services in the rang...

Tea Party: Group high on Haley
Gov.-elect Nikki Haley’s inauguration is a reason for revelry among South Carolina’s newest conservative Activists, but leaders said they do not plan any tea parties to celebrate. While Tea Party Leaders say they will attend Haley’s swearing-in Wednesday, the tax Protest groups — among Haley’s earliest supporters — do not plan any specific celebrations. Haley, a little-known, three-term Republican State Representative from Lexington, rode to victory in...

Sanford bows out, still urging tax cuts
Wearing his usual blue blazer and holding one of his Trademark charts, outgoing Gov. Mark Sanford held his final Press Conference Thursday, making a final pitch for Tax Cuts. Sanford, who leaves office Wednesday as fellow Republican Gov.-elect Nikki Haley of Lexington takes the state’s helm, may be a bit grayer at the temples than eight years ago, but some things haven’t changed: his pleas for Tax Reform and his love of charts. “One last time,” Sanford joked with re...

Haley Inauguration: A day of firsts for SC
When Nikki Haley takes the oath of office next week as the first Indian-American Governor of South Carolina, the ceremony at the State House will resonate not only across South Carolina but in her parents’ native India. Haley, a child of Sikh parents who emigrated from India and built a successful clothing company, earns a place in state history as the first minority Governor and its first female chief executive. The November election, pitting the 38-year-old Republican state representati...

Former prosecutor nominated to lead probation agency
COLUMBIA -- South Carolina Gov.-elect Nikki Haley has chosen a former prosecutor to lead the state's Probation and Parole agency and announced she believes it should merge with the corrections and juvenile justice agencies. Haley, who will soon become the state's first female and first minority Governor, on Thursday nominated Lynne Rogers to lead the Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services. She is Haley's first minority choice to lead a Cabinet agency, though her role would be dimini...

S.C. lawmakers aren't looking to tax increases to fill budget
COLUMBIA -- Legislative leaders in South Carolina said Thursday that Tax Increases are out of the question as they look to fill a Budget gap of more than $800 million. Republican House and Senate leaders said no agency will be spared deep Budget cuts they know will cause hardship to people across the state. However, while they could give few specific examples of what services they're willing to trim, they also wouldn't rule out further Tax Cuts. The state spending plan has been reduced from $7 b...

Cuomo names Medicaid redesign team
The panel, to be helmed by Jason Helgerson of Wisconsin fame, will also include lawmakers Kemp Hannon, Tom Duane, Richard Gottfried and Joe Giglio — the nominees from the majority and minority conferences of the Senate and Assemblu, doubly respectively. Here’s the Governor’s release: Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the members of his Medicaid Redesign Team. The Team, established by an Executive Order announced by Governor Cuomo in his State of the State address, is charg...

Cuomo Names Medicaid Redesign Team
Gov. Andrew Cuomo just released the names of the team tasked with coming up with ways to save money in the state’s behemonth Medicaid program in time to implement those suggestions in the 2011-2012 Budget. State Medicaid Director Jason Helgerson will serve as the team’s Executive Director and the state Budget Director (um, that would be Bob Megna, whose name is not included in the Press Release) will serve as a non-voting member. “This team is tasked with the challenge of reve...

How a Christian charity evolved into state-funded 'equality' campaigners
What would YWCA's founders think of today's equality dogma? (Photo: The Women's Library) The YWCA, formerly the Young Women’s Christian Association, has dropped its title after 156 years because “it no longer stands for who we are”. Instead the organisation will be known as “Platform 51”, a rather enigmatic-sounding name that could be a Wesley Snipes film, a band or the route to Hogwarts. In a sense the name doesn’t matter; what’s significant is how t

Forbidden Love: Taboo and Fear Among Muslim Girls
Young Muslim women are often forced to lead double lives in Europe. They have sex in public restrooms and stuff Mobile Phones in their bras to hide their secret existences from strict families. They are often forbidden from visiting gynecologists or receiving sex ed. In the worst cases, they undergo hymen reconstruction surgery, have late-term Abortions or even commit Suicide. Gülay has heard it from her mother so many times: An unmarried woman who has lost her virginity might as well be a

Study on Youth Abstinence and STDs: The Bigger Picture
A recent study hit the news waves earlier this week proclaiming that a statistically significant portion of young adults who say they are sexually abstinent are diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease (STD). According to the study, conducted at Emory University, 10 percent of youth that reported no Sexual Intercourse in the last 12 months tested positive for an STD, with 60 percent of that 10 percent saying they had never had sex in their lives. The proposed solution: require that all yo...