Published News
Unbelievable.
Federal regulators Tuesday accused two large employers of improperly using criminal-background checks in hiring, the latest salvo in a contentious debate over whether such screening amounts to discrimination against black applicants.
In complaints filed in federal courts in Illinois and South Carolina, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said two companies discount retailer Dollar General Corp. and a U.S. unit of German auto maker BMW AG generally barred potential employees based on the criminal checks, when they should have reviewed each applicant. The commission said the policies had the effect of discriminating against black applicants.
The suits underscore increasing government scrutiny of criminal and credit checks, which are widely used to screen job applicants. Some 92% of employers use criminal-background checks for some or all job openings, according to a 2010 survey by the Society of Human Resource Management.
The EEOC issued guidance to employers last year, shortly after a unit of PepsiCo Inc. PEP -0.18% agreed to pay $3.1 million and change its screening policy to settle charges of discriminating against blacks by improperly using criminal checks. In some cases, the Pepsi bottling unit screened out applicants who had been arrested but never convicted.
The guidelines don’t bar the use of criminal checks, but urge employers to consider the crime, its relation to an applicant’s potential job, and how much time that has passed since the conviction. The guidelines also recommend that employers review each case individually, and allow applicants to show why they should be hired despite a conviction.
People convicted of crimes don’t get special protections under civil-rights laws, but the EEOC can sue if it believes information about prior convictions is being used to discriminate against a racial or ethnic group.
The right, guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, to express beliefs and ideas without unwarranted government restriction.
Democracies have long grappled with the issue of the limits, if any, to place on the expression of ideas and beliefs. The dilemma dates back at least to ancient Greece, when the Athenians, who cherished individual freedom, nevertheless prosecuted Socrates for his teachings, claiming that he had corrupted young people and insulted the gods.
The Framers of the Constitution guaranteed freedom of speech and expression to the citizens of the United States with the First Amendment, which reads, in part, "Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech." Almost since the adoption of the Bill of Rights, however, the judiciary has struggled to define speech and expression and the extent to which freedom of speech should be protected. Some, like Justice hugo l. black, have believed that freedom of speech is absolute. But most jurists, along with most U.S. citizens, agree with Justice oliver wendell holmes jr., who felt that the Constitution allows some restrictions on speech under certain circumstances. To illustrate this point, Holmes wrote, "The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic" (schenck v. united states, 249 U.S. 47, 39 S. Ct. 247, 63 L. Ed. 470 [1919]).
During the two centuries since the adoption of the First Amendment, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that some types of speech or expression may be regulated. At the same time, the Court has granted protection to some areas of expression that the Framers clearly had not contemplated.
The copying and posting of data published in the public domain is also protected. (new york times v. sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 84 S. Ct. 710, 11 L. Ed. 2d 686 (1964)
On this day in 1987, in one of his most famous Cold War speeches, President Ronald Reagan challenges Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down" the Berlin Wall, a symbol of the repressive Communist era in a divided Germany.
In 1945, following Germany's defeat in World War II, the nation's capital, Berlin, was divided into four sections, with the Americans, British and French controlling the western region and the Soviets gaining power in the eastern region. In May 1949, the three western sections came together as the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), with the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) being established in October of that same year. In 1952, the border between the two countries was closed and by the following year East Germans were prosecuted if they left their country without permission. In August 1961, the Berlin Wall was erected by the East German government to prevent its citizens from escaping to the West. Between 1949 and the wall's inception, it's estimated that over 2.5 million East Germans fled to the West in search of a less repressive life.
Well America, here we are again one step closer to the ever approaching, abysmal pit…. of tyranny. There were a lot of things reported today that likely went completely unnoticed. The Santa Monica shooter for instance, it turns out he was a Muslim and seven years ago he was actually investigated by California police for having bomb making material in his apartment. While we are being told that we absolutely must be spied on to keep us safe from these kinds of people, the mental disease of political correctness is actually letting them go so they don’t have hurt feelings. My question is why it has to be innocent people who suffer from the delusions of men with an agenda? I wouldn’t refer to that as “social justice” would you?
Glenn Beck reported on his radio show that 56% of Americans are o.k. with the government conducting surveillance on them because they have nothing to hide. Wow! I bet if they realized that nearly 30,000 new laws were added to the books in 2012 alone they wouldn’t be so naive. Its unfathomable to them that the information being collected by the government could someday be used against them. The way our public schools are turning our children into pansies these days it is likely this percentage will increase because they will be scared to death of anything that looks like a gun, even if it is just an edible pastry. California public schools are currently hosting “toy gun buyback programs.” These kids will be the first generation of Americans to voluntarily surrender their family’s firearms.
In a meeting in the 1990s, U.S. Muslim Brotherhood groups decided to 'play victim' for the purpose of 'beating down critics.'
A Clarion Project reader sent us an intriguing article that shows how the cries of “Islamophobia” were used to win the affection of top officials as far back as 1996 -- five years before 9/11.
In this case, Hillary Clinton became the first wife of a sitting President to address a Muslim organization outside the White House. Perhaps unbeknownst to her, the group she honored was founded by Muslim Brotherhood supporters, including one who said her name would be “written in history in letters of light to the deed.”
The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), the group that Clinton addressed, was founded by Hassan and Maher Hathout, two brothers that were imprisoned in Egypt for their membership in the Muslim Brotherhood. Hassan Hathout called himself a “close disciple” of the Brotherhood’s founder and said they came to America to spread the “Islamic Movement” inspired by him.
An encroachment of Islamic law into the German legal system sets a dangerous precedent in Europe.
An appeals court in northwestern Germany has decided a contentious divorce case based on Islamic Sharia law.
The ruling is the latest in a growing number of court cases in Germany in which judges refer or defer to Islamic law because either the plaintiffs or the defendants are Muslim.
Critics say the cases -- especially those in which German law has taken a back seat to Sharia law -- reflect a dangerous encroachment of Islamic law into the German legal system.
As a citizen of Kenya, Malik Obama is the Executive Secretary of the Islamic Da’wa Organization (IDO), which is headquartered in Khartoum, Sudan and is an extension of the Sudanese government – a State Sponsor of Terror led by a President wanted for war crimes. The central purpose of the IDO is to spread wahhabist Islam within the African sub-continent.
The new country of South Sudan gained its independence in 2011 when it essentially voted by a near unanimous margin, to secede from Sudan, which is led by President Omar al-Bashir, a vessel of the Muslim Brotherhood and a genocidal butcher. A significant bone of contention between the now two nations is that South Sudan is the most oil-rich of the two, as the New York Times pointed out during the transition two years ago:
You would think that before a group of Egyptian (Muslim fundamentalist) politicians sat around a table to discuss intelligence strategies about how to deal with their enemies, someone would tell them they would be on live television. But, alas, no one did and well, these politicians – in a meeting chaired by President Mohammed Mursi – discussed, well… intelligence strategies about how to deal with their enemies.
A key moment occurs at the 2:35 mark when Ayman Nour, Chairman of the Ghad Al-Thawra Party begins by suggesting that what he is going to say may not be something that should be said. He then proceeds to enunciate suggestions on how to intimidate Ethiopia into not building a dam that could affect the Nile. One of those suggestions is to send a “task force that will deal with politics and intelligence” into that country instead of diplomats to an “embassy”. He then suggests that Egypt “should intervene in their domestic affairs” and “leak intelligence” of a military nature intended to intimidate Ethiopia.
A little bit later, at the 4:50 mark, comes the crescendo as another Party Chairman outwardly identifies America and Israel as enemies (Mursi does not object).
Throughout the Church’s history, it has warred with Islam. Yet, it has nothing to offer us today. This is the typical answer I get when I discuss Christian history with many Evangelicals. They tell me that beyond the Bible, there is nothing else we need. So next time you have a fire in the house, read the Bible, don’t forget to pray while you forget dialing 911 and enjoy the smoke and fire billowing inside the house.
I find it difficult to even ask questions: What was Christian history like, that withstood Islam’s evil and defeated it in Europe? Why and how did Christendom lose Egypt and Asia Minor to Islam? And what are we doing in our days to emulate or not emulate from that history?
The one million dollar question that no one can answer – although I will get many remarks from people damning me as a heretic – is this: Why did God choose Catholics to stop Islam in its tracks in all the major battles intended to destroy Christendom? Anyone who has the answer, please step forward.
Children between the ages of six and 16 in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip have been photographed doing life-like military training exercises, fire guns and jump over burning tires, according to the news agency AFP. The camp is organized by the Islamic Jihad movement during a summer school vacation in the town of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.
One of the pictures shows young boys dragging a Khaki-clad doll away from an Israeli flag, in what appears to be a re-enactment of the kidnapping in 2006 of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. He was finally released after more than five years in captivity, as part of a prisoner exchange between Hamas and Israel.
On the photos, boys are also pictured marching and standing to attention as orders were barked at them to instill military discipline. Visitors to the camp, called Generation of Faith, are given AK47s machine guns that are bigger than some of the children holding them. Participants wear black uniforms bearing the camp's slogan in Arabic, with a logo showing two fists, two guns and a map of the Gaza Strip.
AFP reports that the camp organizers expect the participation of up to 10,000 Palestinian children throughout the summer.
Moderate means lukewarm. It's time to blow either hot or cold. The country has suffered enough from moderate choices. It's time to change.
