Panel's landmark denial frees NYC mosque site

NEW YORK – A New York City panel has denied landmark status to a building near ground zero, freeing a group to convert the property into an Islamic community center and mosque.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission's voted 9-0 against granting landmark status to the 152-year-old building, which is blocks from the site of the Sept. 11 attacks.

National and New York politicians and the Anti-Defamation League have come out in recent weeks against plans for the mosque, saying it disrespects the memory of Sept. 11 victims. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has supported the mosque.

Commissioners said the building didn't meet historic criteria to qualify as a landmark.

Suicide suspected in death of city councilor's wife

CARLSBAD — The wife of a Carlsbad City Council member died Sunday afternoon in what police are calling an apparent suicide.

According to a news release from Detective Capt. Daniel Fierro of the Carlsbad Police Department, officers were called to the 600 block of North 10th Street at about 2:30 p.m. on a report of an attempted suicide.

There they found 44-year-old Joyce Graves with a severe gunshot wound.

She is the wife of Richard Graves, councilor from Ward 2.

She was taken to Carlsbad Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

A man whom police have declined to identify was at the scene of the shooting. He was interviewed by detectives and evidence was collected from the scene.

Joyce Graves' body was sent to Albuquerque for autopsy by the state Office of the Medical Investigator.

Fierro said the investigation into the incident is ongoing, pending autopsy results.

Mysterious ocean bacteria can spark illness, cost lives

A naturally occurring warm-water bacteria may make you think twice about going in the ocean with a scrape or an open wound.
Contrary to popular belief, wading in the ocean to heal cuts and scrapes isn't always the best idea.

A little-known, deadly bacteria called Vibrio vulnificus, which naturally occurs in warm coastal waters, can infect the open wounds of beachgoers and incite a life-threatening illness in those with weakened immune systems.

Between 2005 and 2009, 138 people were infected with the bacteria in Florida -- 31 died, according to the Florida Department of Health.

``The high mortality rate makes it a big deal,'' said Juan A. Suarez, a regional environmental epidemiologist for FDH, who said the bacteria proliferates in waters where temperature and salinity are increasing, particularly between the months of April and November.

There are two main ways of contracting an infection from the bacteria: Through direct contact between sea water and an open cut or by consuming raw or undercooked shellfish, particularly contaminated oysters.

In Miami-Dade County, there have been two Vibrio vulnificus deaths in the past five years.

Georgia pastor fired up over school's demon mascot

WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — Pastor Donald Crosby moved to Warner Robins about a year ago was furious when he found out his ninth-grade son would soon become a "demon."

Crosby, who is pastor of Kingdom Builders Church of Jesus Christ, is on a mission to get rid of the Warner Robins High School Demons' mascot.

"A demon never has a good connotation. Never," says Crosby. "If you look it up in Webster's Dictionary, there's nothing good about a demon."

He's been collecting signatures of protest and has about a thousand signatures on his petition, many from his church and from the Internet, where he posted an online petition.

Crosby says a pitchfork-wielding mascot sends the wrong message to teens.

"Hundreds of children gather into one place at one time chanting 'Go Demons.' It's the equivalent of us gathering into a church on Sunday morning and shouting 'Go Jesus' or 'Hallelujah Jesus,'" says Crosby.

Arizona Sheriff: ‘Our Own Government Has Become Our Enemy’

(CNSNews.com) – Pinal County (Ariz.) Sheriff Paul Babeu is hopping mad at the federal government.

Babeu told CNSNews.com that rather than help law enforcement in Arizona stop the hundreds of thousands of people who come into the United States illegally, the federal government is targeting the state and its law enforcement personnel.

“What’s very troubling is the fact that at a time when we in law enforcement and our state need help from the federal government, instead of sending help they put up billboard-size signs warning our citizens to stay out of the desert in my county because of dangerous drug and human smuggling and weapons and bandits and all these other things and then, behind that, they drag us into court with the ACLU,” Babeu said.

The sheriff was referring to the law suits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the U.S. Department of Justice challenging the state’s new immigration law.

“So who has partnered with the ACLU?” Babeu said in a telephone interview with CNSNews.com. “It’s the president and (Attorney General) Eric Holder himself. And that’s simply outrageous.”

Oil Dispersant Safety Questions Won't Go Away

(CBS) There are lingering questions about the safety of using so much chemical dispersant to break up the oil in the Gulf even as life on some beaches is getting back to normal, reports CBS News correspondent Don Teague.

In Pensacola, Fla., there are crowded beaches for the first time in months, welcome news for business owners who say the worst of the oil spill depression may have passed.

"I think we have more tourists. There are a lot of people from out of town being here," said a woman on the beach.

Special Section: Disaster in the Gulf

The reality for most Gulf beaches is that oil from the BP blowout hasn't reached shore and probably won't. The massive effort to skim, burn and break down the oil with chemical dispersants is proving effective.

"Oil - particularly fresh oil - globs to itself and dispersants are soap. They break the oil into tiny little droplets and allow the bacteria to degrade it," said Ed Overton, professor emeritus of environmental science at Louisiana State University.

Still, there are serious concerns about the possible toxic effects of "Corexit," the primary dispersant used by BP. A Congressional subcommittee says documents show Coast Guard officials allowed BP to use much more dispersant than previously reported despite an order from the EPA to use it rarely.

"There has been an unprecedented underwater scientific experiment going on for months," said Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), "where toxic chemicals have been shot into toxic oil."

BP officials say the company did cut back on dispersant use after the government order and has worked closely with federal agencies since.

3.1 earthquake shakes Chino Hills area

CHINO HILLS, Calif. -- A magnitude 3.1 earthquake rattled east Los Angeles County about 3:42 p.m. Sunday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

It was centered near Chino Hills on the L.A. and San Bernardino county line, about 5 miles east of Diamond Bar.

It's the same area where a couple smaller quakes hit earlier Sunday. One was a magnitude 1.4 quake at 3:38 a.m., the other a magnitude 1.1 quake at 7:22 a.m.

There have been no reports of injuries or damage.

Prince Charles: 'My duty is to save the world' | Mail Online

The Prince of Wales says he believes he has been placed on Earth as future King ‘for a purpose’ - to save the world.

Giving a fascinating insight into his view of his inherited wealth and influence, he said: ‘I can only somehow imagine that I find myself being born into this position for a purpose.

‘I don’t want my grandchildren or yours to come along and say to me, “Why the hell didn’t you come and do something about this? You knew what the problem was”. That is what motivates me.

‘I wanted to express something in the outer world that I feel inside... We seem to have lost that understanding of the whole of nature and the universe as a living entity.’

Many Messianic s of the 2 house believe that Prince Charles is the anti-Christ. According to Orthodox sources, he is Jewish and can waltz on in to the temple as King and Priest.

NEW MEXICO FIREBALL

NEW MEXICO FIREBALL: Dawn came early to New Mexico on Saturday, July 31st, around 4:54 am local time when a brilliant meteor exploded near Santa Fe. "It turned night into day," says amateur astronomer Thomas Ashcraft who recorded the fireball using an all-sky video camera: must-see movie. The movie's soundtrack is the signal from a 61 MHz forward-scatter meteor radar also operated by Ashcraft. Ghostly echoes from the meteor's debris continue long after the meteor itself explodes.

COMPLEX ERUPTION ON THE SUN: On August 1st around 0855 UT, Earth orbiting satellites detected a C3-class solar flare. The origin of the blast was sunspot 1092. At about the same time, an enormous magnetic filament stretching across the sun's northern hemisphere erupted. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the action:

The timing of these events suggest they are connected, and a review of SDO movies strengthens that conclusion. Despite the ~400,000 km distance between them, the sunspot and filament seem to erupt together; they are probably connected by long-range magnetic fields. In this movie (171 Å), a shadowy shock wave (a "solar tsunami") can be seen emerging from the flare site and rippling across the northern hemisphere into the filament's eruption zone. That may have helped propel the filament into space.

In short, we have just witnessed a complex global eruption involving almost the entire Earth-facing side of the sun.

450 Grooms Wed GIRLS Under Ten In Gaza

A gala event has occurred in Gaza.

Hamas sponsored a mass wedding for four hundred and fifty couples.
Most of the grooms were in their mid to late twenties; most of brides were under ten.

Muslim dignitaries including Mahmud Zahar, a leader of Hamas, were on hand to congratulate the couples who took part in the carefully staged celebration.

We are saying to the world and to America that you cannot deny us joy and happiness, Zahar told the grooms, all of whom were dressed in identical black suits and hailed from the nearby Jabalia refugee camp.

Each groom received a gift of 500 dollars from Hamas.

The pre-pubescent girls, dressed in white gowns and adorned with garish make-up, received bridal bouquets.

We are presenting this wedding as a gift to our people who stood firm in the face of the siege and the war.
Local Hamas strongman Ibrahim Salaf said in a speech.

The wedding photos tell the rest of the sordid tale.
The International Center for Research on Women now estimates that there are 51 million child brides now living on planet earth and almost all in Muslim countries.

Twenty-nine percent of these child brides are regularly beaten and molested by their husbands in Egypt; twenty six percent receive similar abuse in Jordan.

Every year, three million Muslim girls are subjected to genital mutilation, according to UNICEF. This practice has not been outlawed in many parts of America.

The Islamic practice of pedophilia dates back to the prophet Muhammad, who amassed eleven wives and many concubines after the death of his first wife Khadijah in 619 A.D.

After Muhammads elderly wife, Khadijah, died in 619 A.D., he amassed eleven wives. He arranged the visits to the tents of his women around their menstrual cycles. His capacity for sexual congress seemed to be boundless. Sahih Bukhari, one of the most revered Islamic texts, recounts: The Prophet used to visit his wives in a round, during the day and night, and they were eleven in number. I asked Anas, Had the Prophet the strength for it? Anas replied, We used to say that the Prophet had the [sexual] stamina of thirty [men]. (1)

For in-between treats, the Prophet kept a stable of concubines, including Reihana, his Jewish captive. His wives and mistresses were compelled by Islamic law to satisfy his sexual needs at any time of the day or night, and the Prophet reserved the right to enjoy them from the top of their heads to the bottom of their feet. (2)

This might not appear shocking to students of the Kinsley Report, except for the case of Aisha, Muhammads favorite wife. Aisha was the daughter of Abu Bakr, the Prophet's closest friend and most faithful follower. As soon as Muhammad laid eyes on Aisha, he came to fantasize having sex with her. There was a problem with this fantasy. Aisha, at that time, was a small child of four or five, while Muhammad was a middle-aged man of fifty. (3)

Still and all, the Prophet wasted no time in making his fantasy a reality. When Aisha turned six, Muhammad asked Abu Bakr for his daughter's hand in marriage. Abu Bakr thought that such a union would be improper - not because Aisha was a mere child but rather because he considered himself Muhammads brother. The Prophet quickly brushed aside this objection by saying that the union was perfectly right in the eyes of Allah. Abu Bakr consented. And Muhammad took the little girl as his new bride.

When they were married, Muhammad, in his mercy, permitted Aisha to take her toys, including her dolls, to their new tent. (4)

The marriage was consummated when Aisha was nine, and the Prophet fifty-three. (5)

The three year waiting period was not caused by Muhammad concern of sexually molesting a child but rather by the fact that Aisha contracted some disease which caused her to lose her hair. (6)

Pedophilia was not only practiced by Muhammad but also sanctioned by the Quran.
In its discussion of the waiting period required to determine if a wife is pregnant before divorce, the sacred text says if you are in doubt concerning those of your wives who have ceased menstruating, know that their waiting period shall be three months. The same shall apply to those who have not yet menstruated? (65:4)

N.Y. Woman Accused of Stabbing Nieces, Ages 7 and 9

A New York woman is accused of stabbing her two young nieces in a bloody rampage while baby-sitting the girls at a home across the street from Martha Stewart's farm.

Police said Lisa Turkki, 39, repeatedly stabbed Maeve and Annabel Kelly, ages 7 and 9, at her sister and brother-in-law's Katonah, N.Y. house while the couple attended a concert down the street Saturday night, the Journal News reported.

Nun Dies, 2 Others Hurt in DUI-Related Crash, Cops Say

A multiple DUI offender was charged with killing a 66-year-old Catholic nun and injuring two others in a car accident Sunday morning in Prince William County, Virginia, the Washington Post reported Monday.

Carlos A. Martinelly Montano, 23, was allegedly drunk while driving about 8:00 a.m. when he collided head-on with another vehicle, carrying three nuns.

Sister Jeanette Marie Mosier, who was riding in the backseat, was pronounced dead at the scene, while Sister Charlotte Lange and Sister Connie Lupton were flown to INOVA Fairfax Hospital in critical condition.

The nuns were heading northbound to Bristow for an annual spiritual retreat when Montano allegedly left the southbound lane, hit a barrier, entered their lane, struck another barrier and hit their car.

Montano was charged with his third DUI count in five years, involuntary manslaughter and driving on a license revoked for DUI-related reasons.

The tragedy comes just weeks after a nun was knocked down and killed by an armed robbery suspect fleeing in a minivan from cops in Harlem, New York.

Sister Mary Celine Graham, 84, was struck after the minivan, a Chrysler Pacifica, collided with another minivan that was swerving to avoid a street sweeper.

Praying Outside Clinic Gets Man Disorderly Conduct Charge

A Chicago man says he's fighting charges of disorderly conduct for simply standing on a public sidewalk and praying.

Joseph Holland, a 25-year-old graduate student at Northwestern University, says he was standing still praying the rosary outside a Planned Parenthood facility in downtown Chicago July 3 when police arrested him for violating the city's new "Bubble Zone" ordinance.

The law, passed in October, states that a person cannot approach within 8 feet of another person without consent "for the purpose of passing a leaflet or handbill to, displaying a sign to, or engaging in oral protest, education or counseling" within 50 feet from any health care facility.

It also says a person cannot "by force or threat of force or by physical obstruction" intentionally interfere with any person entering or leaving any health care facility.

But Holland says he didn't approach or interfere with anyone.

ADL Opposes 9/11 Mosque at Ground Zero

The New York-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has joined a groundswell of opposition to a plan to build a large mosque next to Ground Zero.

The Jewish civil rights group, long committed to religious tolerance, says placing a Muslim cultural and religious center close to the spot where Islamist terrorists murdered some 3,000 people is just plain wrong.

In a statement to the media, the ADL declared over the weekend, “Ultimately, this is not a question of rights, but a question of what is right. In our judgment, building an Islamic Center in the shadow of the World Trade Center will cause some victims more pain – unnecessarily – and that is not right.”

The proposed 13-story, $100 million mosque is to be built just two blocks from the site of the “9/11” attack on New York by the international al-Qaeda terrorist organization, in the heart of the city's financial district.

Massive protests by various opposition groups have given the city pause, despite a decision by a city committee to approve the project. If the plan succeeds, hundreds of Muslims will worship daily at the Park Place site, barely 600 feet from the area where terrorists ignited an inferno that destroyed the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and killed nearly 3,000 people .

Opponents are now setting their sights on the upcoming meeting of the Landmark Preservation Commission, scheduled for Tuesday, when they hope to convince officials to abandon the plan.

Earthquakes Injure Hundreds in Iran; Nuclear Sites Not Damaged

Two powerful earthquakes devastated northern and southern areas of Iran late Friday night and Saturday, but the stricken areas did not include the Islamic Republic’s nuclear sites.

At least one person was killed, and 300 others were injured. The first earthquake, measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale, struck shortly before midnight Friday and was followed by 11 aftershocks. An estimated one-third of the buildings in four villages were demolished.

A second quake in the north, measuring 5.8, struck approximately 600 miles south of Tehran damaging hundreds of homes.

The Bushehr nuclear facility, which Iran says will begin operating next month, is located several hundred miles west of Kerman, one of the areas devastated by the earthquakes.

Iran is located on seismic fault lines and experiences at least one light earthquake everyday, while occasionally suffering mass casualty quakes, such as the one that killed an estimated 30,000 people in 2003.