Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Church offers drive-thru for Ash Wednesday

'It’s a drive-thru,' Ohio pastor says, 'Not a drive-by'

CINCINNATI — An Ohio church is offering a drive-thru Ash Wednesday blessing for parishioners who might be pressed for time.

The Rev. Patricia Anderson Cook of Mt. Healthy United Methodist Church in suburban Cincinnati plans to provide the service for people of all faiths and services beginning around 5 p.m. in the church's parking lot.

“Some people are very busy, and some people get a little intimidated walking into a church, this is for them," Cook told the Cincinnati Inquirer.

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Christian season of Lent, which concludes after 40 days with the celebration of Easter.

In addition to ashes, Cook will provide a church brochure and a Lenten booklet.

“It’s a drive-thru,” she said. “Not a drive-by.”

The church is also offering a more traditional Ash Wednesday service inside at 7 p.m.


Source

Ash Wednesday: Episcopalians Take 'Ashes To Go' To The Streets


First Posted: 02/21/2012 12:33 pm Updated: 02/21/2012 12:33 pm





By Piet Levy

Religion News Service

(RNS) Five years ago, the Rev. Teresa K.M. Danieley had an epiphany of sorts. If people can grab breakfast on the go or pay a bill from their cell phone, she thought, why shouldn't they be able to get their ashes in a flash?

That's why, on Ash Wednesday 2007, Danieley planted herself in full priestly regalia at a busy intersection in St. Louis, smudging the sign of the cross on the foreheads of bicyclists, drivers and bus passengers.

This year, at least 49 Episcopal parishes across 12 states will offer ashes to passersby at train stations, bus stops and college campuses on Ash Wednesday (Feb. 22) as Danieley's "Ashes to Go" concept spreads nationwide.

"We live in a time where we can't just sit back and wait for people to come to us," said Bishop Stacy F. Sauls, chief operating officer for the New York-based Episcopal Church. "We have to meet people where they actually are."

Danieley, the rector of St. John's Episcopal Church in St. Louis, said the idea was born in a Bible study discussion in late 2006 or early 2007. That first year, she offered a brief Ash Wednesday liturgy to about 75 or 100 people who crossed her path.

"It started sort of half-jokingly, but it became something pretty profound," Danieley said. "It's fulfilling a spiritual need but also a pragmatic need. It's showing flexibility in an institution often seen as very inflexible."


For at least some people, it's working. Kathleen Dimmich, a 26-year-old real estate agent, became an active St. John's parishioner after getting her ashes from Danieley in 2009.

"I had been in St. Louis for maybe a month and hadn't found a church yet," Dimmich said. The mobile Ash Wednesday program showed that St. John's "was obviously an active parish in my neighborhood, which was important to me."

That very same day that Dimmich first experienced Ashes to Go, the Rev. Emily A. Mellott held a 7 a.m. Ash Wednesday service at Calvary Episcopal Church in Lombard, Ill. Only three people showed up.

In 2010, Mellott decided to give her friend Danieley's idea a try and offered Ash Wednesday ashes during the morning rush hour. Within a year, she had 25 area churches participating.

"In my congregation, a lot of folks can't get to church, not just on a Wednesday but on a Sunday," Mellott said. "But there's a lot of people who really want to be able to claim the symbols of their faith and that relationship with God."

Last year, the Episcopal Church Foundation asked Mellott to write an Ashes to Go resource guide. It generated so much interest that Mellott created AshesToGo.org to detail churches' activities. In Dayton, Ohio, Christ Episcopal Church will host an ecumenical effort with Baptist, United Methodist and Presbyterian ministers; in College Station, Texas, St. Thomas Episcopal Church is offering tacos with the ashes.

While the program may never gain churchwide approval, it has the support of top church leaders like Sauls -- especially as active membership in the Episcopal Church has dropped 11 percent in the past five years.

"It's a really creative idea for how to crack the door open and engage people in a small way in their spiritual life this time of year," Sauls said.

Still, supporters acknowledge that convenience comes with compromises. Sauls said Ashes to Go misses the "full life of the community" experienced in a traditional church setting.

And within the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, where Ashes to Go is most popular, only about 20 to 25 percent of churches are participating, Mellott said. Some have declined for logistical reasons, while other leaders feel it's too lighthearted a concept for the start of the church's most solemn season of the year.

But Danieley rejects any notion that Ashes to Go is cheap grace.

"We can't pretend that the way we did things 50 years ago is what we should be doing today," she said. "When a church is seen as inflexible, it's seen as not in touch. What is more important: that someone participates in a meaningful liturgy or that they do it in a particular space?"





Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Missouri 4.0 earthquake felt across 13 states

U.S. - US

Published February 21, 2012


SIKESTON, Mo. – A magnitude 4.0 earthquake struck early Tuesday in the southeast corner Missouri, waking up residents in as many as 12 other surrounding states.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake hit at 3:58am local time (4:58am ET). Its epicenter was located a shallow 3.1 miles (5km) underground, about 150 miles (240km) south of St. Louis, near the New Madrid fault line.

Hundreds reported feeling the quake in Missouri, according to the USGS, with the most significant shaking occurring in Sikeston, a small city about nine miles away from the epicenter.

Outside of Missouri, the temblor was felt in Illinois, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas and Indiana. Residents also reported feeling the ground shake in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Kansas and Oklahoma.

Save for a few reports of items falling off shelves and windows cracking, the rumbling caused no real damage.

But experts said it serves as an important reminder of how earthquakes in the eastern part of the US, though they occur more rarely, have the potential to cause damage over a much wider region than on the West Coast.

The earth's deep crust in the eastern US is "very hard, cold and dense like a slab of concrete," allowing seismic waves to travel a much greater distance than in the west, said Gary Patterson of the Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI) at the University of Memphis.

East Coasters and Midwesterners were reminded of that in August when a 5.8 magnitude earthquake in Mineral, Va., shook buildings as far away as New York and Chicago.

Magnitude 4.0 quakes are not uncommon along the New Madrid fault line, with about a dozen occurring over the last decade, Patterson said. And the one that struck early Tuesday does not necessarily change the forecast for future earthquakes in the area.

Seismologists estimate there is a 25 to 40 percent chance a magnitude 6.0 or greater earthquake will strike the region in the next 50 years, Patterson said, and just a seven to 10 percent probability a massive 7.5 to 8.0 magnitude temblor will occur within the next half-century.

Tuesday's shaking comes nearly 200 years to the day after a powerful earthquake in nearly the same spot destroyed New Madrid, Mo., and heavily damaged St. Louis.

The Feb. 7, 1812 quake, which seismologists today guess was about 7.7 in magnitude, reportedly cracked sidewalks in Washington, D.C., and caused church bells to ring as far away as Boston and Toronto. It was the last in a series of four earthquakes that struck the region from December 1811 to February 1812.


Source: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/21/missouri-40-earthquake-felt-across-13-states/#ixzz1n4nCUuND
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Who Brought the Slaves to America? - Walter White Jr.




Uploaded by on Aug 17, 2011


Hidden facts of history about the slave trade.


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Monday, February 20, 2012

World's biggest biometric ID scheme forges ahead

12 February 2012 Last updated at 19:47 ET







India to complete identity number database by 2014


The world's largest biometric identity exercise, which is taking place in India, is well on its way to reaching its target of half the country's population, reports the BBC's Sanjoy Majumder.




Jahangirpuri is one of the biggest slums in the Indian capital, Delhi, home mostly to rubbish pickers and daily wage labourers.

Today many of them are lined up outside a tiny, single-room office, waiting patiently.

As each one of them goes inside, two young men and women enter their details into a computer before they are photographed and their fingerprints and iris are scanned.




'Every nook and corner'




It's a process that's being repeated at similar centres around India.

For the past two years, the Indian government has been creating the world's largest and most sophisticated database of personal identities. It's part of an ambitious project to hand over a unique identification number (UID) to each of the country's 1.2bn people.

"From the time we began this centre, we've had hundreds of people come by every day," says Col Ravinder Kumar, who manages the Jahangirpuri UID centre.

Among those in the queue is Kamala, a daily wage labourer.








UID chairman Nandan Nilekani says one million are enrolling every day





It's people like her, the poorest of the poor, who are expected to benefit the most from the UID. They have no proper identity papers and therefore no access to services such as subsidised food rations, a phone connection, even a bank account.

"It's so difficult to get anything done without a proper identity," she says. "We're often forced to pay bribes to get subsidised grains or fuel.

"With the UID I hope things will improve - we can buy cheap food and I can help educate my children."

Since its launch in 2010, nearly 200 million UIDs have been generated. The goal is to cover half the population by 2014.

Nandan Nilekani, who used to head one of India's biggest IT companies, Infosys, is now the chairman of the UID project and gives a sense of the logistical scale of the operation.

"We are enrolling at the rate of one million a day. We have over 20,000 locations across the country where this is happening."

"Now we are confident that we have built a system to scale and it's just a question of widening the reach and taking it to every nook and corner."




Furious debate

It's in Jharkhand, 1,200km east of the capital and one of the country's poorest states, that you get a sense of the potential of the UID on the ground.

Villagers line up at the local council office to collect their wages under a flagship government rural employment programme.

Only this time, their pay is being handed out against their newly acquired UID numbers, after their fingerprints are verified.

"The estimate is that the government spends some $60bn each year on welfare programmes," says Rajesh Bansal, assistant director general at the UID headquarters.

Not all of this money reaches those it is meant for. Some of it is held up by red tape, siphoned by middlemen or simply lost due to corruption.

"It makes the system much more transparent because the UID ensures that only the intended beneficiary gets the money and the whole system can easily be monitored," says Mr Bansal.

The UID has also tied up with state-owned banks to enable migrant workers to transfer money from the cities to their families in the villages, using their UID numbers.
But the project has also sparked a furious debate.

There are concerns over its cost, implications for national security and fears that the data could be misused.







Nearly 200 million UIDs have already been issued




"You say you are going to cut out corruption and leakage. Who are the people who are going to control this? The assumption is that technology is neutral and cannot be manipulated," says Usha Ramanathan, an independent law researcher who has been campaigning against the UID.

"What technology does depends on who controls it. You are saying the whole system is corrupt, so let's centralise data and hand it over to the same people. What sense does that make?"



For now the governmenthas agreed to build in safeguards and the UID project is gathering pace.


Many see this as a potential game-changer in India, bringing the country's poorest citizens into the mainstream, reducing waste while ensuring federal welfare money reaches those who need it most.

If handled right, many believe it could change the face of India.


Source
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Debt Slavery: 30 Facts About Debt In America That Will Blow Your Mind

Posted: 02/09/12


When most people think about America's debt problem, they think of the debt of the federal government. But that is only part of the story. The sad truth is that debt slavery has become a way of life for tens of millions of American families. Over the past several decades, most Americans have willingly allowed themselves to become enslaved to debt. These days, most of us are busy either going into even more debt or paying off the debt that we have accumulated in the past. When your finances are dominated by debt, it makes it really hard to ever get ahead. Incredibly, 43 percent of all American families spend more than they earn each year. Even while median household income continues to decline (now less than $50,000 a year), median household debt continues to go up. According to the Federal Reserve, median household debt in America has risen to $75,600. Many Americans spend decades caught in the trap of debt slavery. Large numbers of them never even escape at all and die in debt. It can be a lot of fun to spend lots of money and go into lots of debt, but it can be absolutely soul crushing to toil and labor for years paying off those debts while making others wealthy in the process. Hopefully this article will inspire many people to try to escape the chains of debt slavery once and for all.

Because the truth is that the American people need a wake up call. Consumer borrowing rose by another $19.3 billion in December. Right now it is sitting at a grand total of $2.5 trillion according to the Federal Reserve.

Overall, consumer debt in America has increased by a whopping 1700% since 1971.

We always criticize the federal government for going into so much debt, but we rarely criticize ourselves for our own addiction to debt.

Debt slavery is destroying millions of lives all across this country, and it is imperative that we educate the American people about the dangers of all this debt.

The following are 30 facts about debt in America that will absolutely blow your mind....

Credit Card Debt

#1 Today, 46% of all Americans carry a credit card balance from month to month.

#2 Overall, Americans are carrying a grand total of $798 billion in credit card debt.

#3 If you were alive when Jesus was born and you spent a million dollars every single day since then, you still would not have spent $798 billion by now.

#4 Right now, there are more than 600 million active credit cards in the United States.

#5 For households that have credit card debt, the average amount of credit card debt is an astounding $15,799.

#6 If you can believe it, one out of every seven Americans has at least 10 credit cards.

#7 The average interest rate on a credit card that is carrying a balance is now up to 13.10 percent.

#8 According to the credit card calculator on the Federal Reserve website, if you have a $10,000 credit card balance and you are being charged a rate of 13.10 percent and you only make the minimum payment each time, it will take you 27 years to pay it off and you will end up paying back a total of $21,271.

#9 There is one credit card company out there, First Premier, that charges interest rates of up to 49.9 percent. Amazingly, First Premier has 2.6 million customers.

Auto Loan Debt

#10 The length of auto loans in America just keeps getting longer and longer. If you can believe it, 45 percent of all new car loans being made today are for more than 6 years.

#11 Approximately 70 percent of all car purchases in the United States involve an auto loan.

#12 A subprime auto loan bubble is steadily building. Today, 45 percent of all auto loans are made to subprime borrowers. At some point that is going to be a massive problem.

Mortgage Debt

#13 Total home mortgage debt in the United States is now about 5 times larger than it was just 20 years ago.

#14 Mortgage debt as a percentage of GDP has more than tripled since 1955.

#15 According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, approximately 8 million Americans are at least one month behind on their mortgage payments.

#16 Historically, the percentage of residential mortgages in foreclosure in the United States has tended to hover between 1 and 1.5 percent. Today, it is up around 4.5 percent.

#17 According to Dylan Ratigan, 46 percent of all mortgaged properties in Florida are underwater, 50 percent of all mortgaged properties in Arizona are underwater and 63 percent of all mortgaged properties in Nevada are underwater.

#18 Overall, nearly 29 percent of all homes with a mortgage in the United States are underwater.

#19 If you can believe it, the mortgage lenders now have more equity in U.S. homes than the American people do.

Medical Debt

#20 Medical debt is a major problem for a growing number of Americans. One study discovered that approximately 41 percent of all working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt.

#21 Sadly, the number of Americans that are protected by health insurance continues to decline. An all-time record 49.9 million Americans do not have any health insurance at all right now, and the percentage of Americans covered by employer-based health plans has fallen for 11 years in a row.

#22 But even if you do have health insurance, there is still a good chance that you could end up with huge medical debt problems. According to a report published in The American Journal of Medicine, medical bills are a major factor in more than 60 percent of the personal bankruptcies in the United States. Of those bankruptcies that were caused by medical bills, approximately 75 percent of them involved individuals that actually did have health insurance.

Student Loan Debt

#23 Total student loan debt in the United States is rapidly approaching 1 trillion dollars.

#24 If you went out right now and starting spending one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend one trillion dollars.

#25 In America today, approximately two-thirds of all college students graduate with student loan debt.

#26 The average student loan debt load is now approximately $25,000.

#27 After adjusting for inflation, U.S. college students are borrowing about twice as much money as they did a decade ago.

#28 One survey found that 23 percent of all college students actually use credit cards to pay for tuition or fees.

#29 The student loan default rate has nearly doubled since 2005.

#30 Student loans made to directly to parents have increased by 75 percent since the 2005-2006 academic year.

At this point, most Americans are up to their eyeballs in debt. According to a recent study conducted by the BlackRock Investment Institute, the ratio of household debt to personal income in the United States is now 154 percent.

Our entire economy has become based on credit.

Do you need a car?

Just get an auto loan.

Do you need a house?

Just get a mortgage.

Do you need to fill up your house with stuff?

Just get a credit card.

Do you need an education?

Just get a student loan.

In fact, if you are anything like a typical American, you probably have a mortgage you can barely afford, you probably have at least one auto loan, you probably have several credit card balances and you probably have a student loan that you deeply regret.

So what should you do if you are drowning in debt?

First, make a firm decision that you are going to break the chains of debt slavery once and for all.

Secondly, come up with a plan to reduce your debt. Paying off debt that carries a high rate of interest first (such as credit card debt) is usually a good idea.

The big financial institutions want to get us into as much debt as possible, because all of this debt makes them incredibly wealthy.

Don't play their game.

Yes, that may mean that you may have to put off certain purchases until you can come up with the money, but in the long run you will be much better off.

So do any of you have any debt slavery stories to share? Please feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts below....

Distributed by www.worldviewweekend.com
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Sunday, February 19, 2012

FBI Arrests DC Muslim After Another Phony ‘Terror Plot’



FBI Agents Pretended to Be al-Qaeda, Made Fake Suicide Vest


by Jason Ditz, February 17, 2012


The FBI has uncovered another FBI-created terrorist plot in the DC Area today, this time ending with the arrest of an unnamed Moroccan-American in his 30′s, apparently the only non-FBI agent in the entire scheme.

The FBI says the operation was a “lengthy and extensive” one, and their agents pretended to be members of al-Qaeda, furnishing the arrested man with a phony suicide vest they had created and told him to attack Capitol Hill with it.

After receiving the FBI-created non-explosive vest, the man went to a local mosque to pray, and was arrested shortly thereafter on Constitution Avenue, not far from the Capitol building.

The FBI insisted that Congressmen were never in any danger from the manufactured plot, assuring everyone that it was “all very controlled.” Arrests in such “attacks” are fairly common. The FBI approaching someone, usually after an offhand comment made on Facebook, and then giving them fake explosives before arresting them, seems to be standard operating procedure.




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What FACEBOOK and GOOGLE are Hiding from world.






Uploaded by on Sep 14, 2011


No description available.


Clashes continue in Senegal ahead of elections

By the CNN Wire Staff
updated 10:02 PM EST, Sat February 18, 2012


Protesters stand near a burning barricade as they clash with riot police in Dakar on February 18, 2012





(CNN) -- Police and anti-government protesters in Senegal clashed for a second straight day Saturday, just over a week before the country is set to vote in presidential elections, state media reported.

Dozens of people were injured when police fired tear gas to disperse the crowds, Agence de Presse Senegalaise reported. One of those injured was Cheikh Bamba Dieye, a presidential candidate for the Socialism and Democracy Front. Party officials told APS that Dieye was "assaulted by police ... and was left with a head injury."

Police confirmed Dieye was injured, saying the incident occurred while the candidate was taking part in an unauthorized demonstration, according to APS. Protests have been banned in downtown Dakar.

At least four people have died in protests in Senegal since January 27, when the country's highest court, the Constitutional Council, cleared President Abdoulaye Wade, 85, to run for a third term, government officials have said. The opposition says that the court was compromised and the constitution limits presidents to two terms. Wade has been in office since 2000.

A court ruled in his favor last month after the incumbent argued that he is exempt because he took office before the term limit was put in place.

Similar clashes broke out after Friday prayers in the Muslim-majority country when police blocked protesters from reaching the capital's Place de L'Independence.

In addition to their opposition to Wade's candidacy, some protesters are also demanding that the Constitutional Council allow three independent candidates, including Grammy-winning musician Youssou N'Dour, to seek the presidency.

The court rejected their candidacies last month in the same ruling that granted Wade and 13 others spots on the February 26 ballot.

It ruled that the three rejected candidates had failed to gather 10,000 valid signatures.

The opposition June 23 Movement, or M23, is named after the date of protests last summer that forced Wade to withdraw a constitutional amendment that would have nearly guaranteed his victory in this month's election.

West Africa has a history of political strife, but Senegal has largely maintained peace and has never experienced a military coup.

CNN's Amir Ahmed and journalist Nick Loomis in Dakar contributed to this report.




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Providence Seeks Aid From Ivy League Resident


XListen to the Story

Weekend Edition Sunday

February 19, 2012
The mayor of Rhode Island's largest city is calling on the city's tax-exempt hospitals and universities to chip in and help Providence stay out of the red. From member station Rhode Island Public Radio, Ian Donnis reports on how this has made for a sharp battle between Providence and its Ivy League university.


http://www.npr.org/2012/02/19/147115870/providence-seeks-aid-from-ivy-league-resident
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Saturday, February 18, 2012

CIVILIAN COUNTERTERRORISM TASK FORCE





Uploaded by on Jan 16, 2012


The Strategic Implementation Plan + The NDAA =A CIVILIAN THOUGHT CRIME TASK FORCE THAT WILL WEED OUT "EXTREMISTS", WHOM WILL BE LOCKED UP INDEFINITELY IN MILITARY DETENTION FACILITIES. Get Ready.


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Friday, February 17, 2012

Cardinals and bishops during the meeting on the New Evangelisation



Cardinal Dolan introduces the New Evangelization: “Over the fifty years since the convocation of the Council, we have seen the Church pass through the last stages of the Counter-Reformation and rediscover itself as a missionary enterprise.” And Mgr. Fisichella comments on the vital importance of a strong and responsible faith






vatican insider staffRome




The Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan opened the College of Cardinal’s day of prayer and reflection – ahead of the Concistory – by talking about evangelisation in a world of secularism marked by contradictory religious imagery.

The theme of evangelisation is the order of the day in this meeting of cardinals who are busy preparing for the Year of Faith called by Benedict XVI, which is due to begin next October 11th.

Dolan is one of the 22 clerics who are to receive the red biretta from Benedict XVI. The Archbishop of New York - a city which “might” appear to be “the “capital of a secular culture”… but is also a very religious city” – outlined seven points for an efficient evangelisation strategy. He called for trust and courage in the mission, reminding listeners that Christianity means having faith in a Person not a concept. Dolan also spoke of “catechetical illiteracy” as a “challenge” that needs to be overcome in the Year of Faith called by the Pope.

“The New Evangelization is accomplished with a smile, not a frown,” he said. And “the Church is about a yes! not a no!” The announcement of the Gospel is an act of “love” that may require “the shedding of…blood.” “Sadly, today we have martyrs in abundance,” he said.

Dolan also took a stab at speaking some Italian to win over his audience. “Thank you, Holy Father and brethren, for your patience with my primitive Italian. When Cardinal Bertone asked me to give this address in Italian, I worried, because I speak Italian like a child.”

Adopting a serious tone again, he reiterated his call to theologians to “speak of the faith like a child”. And – he said –maybe that’s a fitting place to conclude: we need to speak again as a child the eternal truth, beauty, and simplicity of Jesus and His Church.”

In his speech on the Year of Faith, the President of the Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, Rino Fisichella, affirmed that the main goals are: “To renew and fortify faith at a moment of great crisis such as this, in which Christians seem indifferent, detached from life and the community and often confused by history’s events which have led to a serious crisis of identity and social responsibility.”

“The key aspects of faith are no longer known – Fisichella continued – and there has been an unprecedented decrease in participation in sacramental life.” According to Fisichella, “the missionary enthusiasm that had once led many to leave their own Countries to move to lands where the name of Jesus Christ was not yet known has been significantly dampened.”

Fisichella also emphasised “the deep fragmentation of culture in general, which often prevents people from achieving a common vision and undertaking a joint commitment.” In this context, the Year of Faith proclaimed by Benedict XVI with its programme of initiatives that are in the process of being defined, “presents itself as an ideal opportunity for the whole Church to offer one common and unified testimony of its faith.”





Let brotherly love continue




Let brotherly love continue.

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.

Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.

For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.

By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.

But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.


Hebrews 13:1-3, 5, 13-16


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Wednesday, February 15, 2012

TCU Football Players Among 17 Caught in Drug Sting

FORT WORTH, Texas February 15, 2012 (AP)

Four Texas Christian University football players were among 17 students arrested Wednesday in a campus drug bust, police said.

Police said those arrested were caught making "hand-to-hand" sales of marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy and prescription drugs to undercover officers.

"There is no doubt," TCU Police Chief Steve McGee said at a morning news conference following the arrests. He did not immediately identify the students.


McGee said the arrests came after a six-month investigation prompted by complaints from students, parents and others in the community. Police would not rule out more arrests, but said only people caught selling drugs had been arrested Wednesday.

School chancellor Victor Boschini called the students' actions "simply unacceptable."

Police said they had not determined whether any of the football players arrested were selling to other athletes. But Boschini suggested the four players' involvement was not a sign of a larger issue.

"I don't think it's a football problem," Boschini said.

A message seeking comment was left for TCU football spokesman Mark Cohen.

TCU is located in Fort Worth and has an enrollment of about 9,500 students. The Horned Frogs are set to join the Big 12 later this year in a move expected to be a boon for their athletic program.



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Anti-papal Minaj pomp is circumstantial

Tuesday February 14, 2012 9:12 AM




Nicki Minaj with her escort


A performer who wants to pretend to be daring can’t go wrong mocking Christianity, particularly the Roman Catholic Church.

Its symbols are familiar and its reactions predictable: expressions of outrage that fade rapidly until the next time a performer needs a booster shot of notoriety.

The only thing that offends me about the performance of Nicki Minaj on Sunday at the Grammy Awards is the idea of it as daring.

On the contrary, it perfectly fit the offense template that has been used by everyone from the photographer who in 1987 depicted a crucifix in a jar of urine to Lady Gaga in her 2010 Alejandro video: Simply juxtapose religious symbols with something crude or sexual. The controversy will roll in like the tide and recede just as predictably.

Minaj pushed all the buttons with her Roman Holiday performance. She had a man in papal garb, stained-glass windows, altar boys and — as the online magazine Salon put it — “monks getting groped by hot leather babes.”

A choir sang a less-than-reverent version of O Come, All Ye Faithful, too.

Minaj was ostensibly portraying an exorcism, but the only thing comprehensible about the whole mess was that she was dutifully checking off all the offensiveness boxes.

The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights obliged her by reacting as expected, complaining that similar irreverence toward Islam or Judaism would never be attempted.

Well, of course not. That would be dangerous. The offense template is meant to minimize risk, remember.

I was raised Catholic and am now a Methodist, and I think Christianity is just as ripe a target for satire as anything else. But at least do it with some originality and wit. (See Huckleberry Finn, The Producers or any number of Simpsons or South Park episodes.) We’ve seen this Minaj act a million times from Madonna, Lady Gaga and many others.

My biggest objection to pop stars falling back on religious mockery is that they seem to be making no point beyond “Hey, look at me being all naughty now that I’m successful and safely beyond the reach of a Catholic school principal.”

The odd thing about that type of posturing is that religion’s hold on the culture isn’t even that formidable. Consider the teeth-gnashing last week over birth control, which many people in the real world happily use no matter what their spiritual leaders say.

If Minaj wants to impress people by twisting the dragon’s tail, she ought to find a stronger dragon.

No religious authority will threaten Minaj with anything worse than disapproval — and that boosts her celebrity. So she, in fact, did something both predictable and safe. For an artist, aren’t those mortal sins?


Source
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Iran cuts oil exports to Europe, declares nuclear advances



By Thomas Erdbrink, Updated: Wednesday, February 15, 9:47 AM

TEHRAN — In a new show of defiance against tightened sanctions, Iran on Wednesday cut oil exports to six European countries and announced advances in its nuclear fuel programs.

Responding to European Union sanctions on Iran’s banking and energy sectors, including a boycott of new oil contracts with Iran, the government said it would no longer export oil to Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Greece and Portugal, the official Press TV reported. The announcement helped drive the price of crude to nearly $102 a barrel Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. Europe accounts for about 18 percent of Iran’s crude exports, with Greece, Italy and Spain among the main buyers, AP said.

The cutoff was announced after state media reported that Iran has started loading fuel rods into an aging nuclear reactor used to make medical isotopes and was set to formally declare that an underground bunker complex for uranium enrichment is now fully operational.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was unveiling a total of three nuclear projects on Wednesday in a ceremony in Tehran being shown live on state television, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported. The third project is a line of new carbon fiber centrifuges, which state television said have more output and enrich uranium faster than older centrifuges.

The developments had been previously announced or alluded to by Iranian officials, though with less fanfare than was on display during Wednesday’s television broadcast, which featured Ahmadinejad in a white lab coat and portraits of Iran’s recently slain nuclear scientists on prominent display.

State television said each of the projects would adhere to Iran’s nuclear slogan: “nuclear energy for all, nuclear weapons for none.”

But their unveiling will undoubtedly add to the significant build-up of tension between Iran and the United States, Israel and many Western nations over concerns that Iran is intent on developing nuclear weapons.

The war of words between Iran and Israel has grown louder every day this week, the result of a bombing in New Delhi and two other incidents involving explosives in Thailand and the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Israel has accused Iran in each of the incidents. Iran, in turn, denies responsibility and blames Israel for the assassinations of several scientists who have worked in Iran’s nuclear program over the years.

In a televised appearance before Wednesday’s scheduled announcement, Ahmadinejad appeared to be pressing buttons on electronic switchboards in a laboratory. A presenter said the president was initiating the loading of fuel rods into the 43-year-old, U.S.-designed Tehran research reactor.

The announcement about the underground bunker involves the Fordow enrichment site, near the central city of Qom, which Iran says has become fully operational. Iran says that it wants to secure parts of its enrichment activities at Fordow so that its nuclear program can survive a military airstrike, which Israel has openly threatened.

Israel and its Western allies charge that the moving of centrifuges to a mountain site said to be impregnable by bunker-busting bombs is a sign that Iran is trying to hide parts of its nuclear program.

The International Atomic Energy Agency — the U.N. watchdog that monitors all known Iranian nuclear activities, including those at the Fordow bunker site — confirmed last month that Iran had started enriching uranium there.

The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Fereydoun Abbasi, said in January that the cascades of centrifuges in Fordow and at Iran’s main enrichment facility in Natanz are enriching uranium up to 20 percent — not enough to make a nuclear weapon, but enough to power up the medical research reactor.

High-ranking officials from the IAEA are scheduled to visit Iran on Tuesday for a second round of talks, possibly signaling that Iran is ready to provide more transparency on the intentions of its nuclear program. Such transparency is a key demand by the United Nations in recent resolutions against Iran.

Staff writer William Branigin in Washington contributed to this report.


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Tuesday, February 14, 2012

JobsMiner.com - Job Search gone Social




Uploaded by JobsMinerVids on Feb 8, 2012

http://www.jobsminer.com
The first Job Search engine covering all Social networks, Blogs and Forums.

http://www.jobsminer.com
Job Search gone Social
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How Much Stress Can the System Take?




Uploaded by TheEconoMonitor on Feb 8, 2012

Nouriel Roubini, co-founder and chairman of Roubini Global Economics, sits down with Patrick Chovanec, associate professor at Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management in Beijing, China for a discussion on the likelihood of a hard landing in China and consider the short and medium term implications of policy adjustments, leadership transitions, and technology advancements.
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AGENDA 21: THE END OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION



PART 1

By Kathleen Marquardt
January
21, 2012
NewsWithViews.com

Wake-up call, Part 1

“Global sustainability requires the deliberate quest of poverty, reduced resource consumption and set levels of mortality control.” -Professor Maurice King

Birth of an abomination

In simple terms Agenda 21/Sustainable Development is the end of civilization as we know it. It is the end of private property, the elevation of the collective over the individual. It is the redistribution of America’s wealth to the global elite, it is the end of the Great American Experiment and the Constitution. And, it is the reduction of 85% of the world’s population.

In 1992, twenty years ago this summer, Agenda 21/Sustainable Development was unveiled to the world at the UN’s Earth Summit in Rio. (While Agenda 21 was introduced in June, 1992, it was already installed as public policy in communities across the country as early as 1987.)

In his opening remarks at the ceremonies at the Earth Summit, Maurice Strong stated: “The concept of national sovereignty has been an immutable, indeed sacred, principle of international relations. It is a principle which will yield only slowly and reluctantly to the new imperatives of global environmental cooperation. It is simply not feasible for sovereignty to be exercised unilaterally by individual nation states, however powerful. The global community must be assured of environmental security.” If this is true, then he and his cohorts must be even more against individual sovereignty. Keep this quote in mind as you read about Agenda 21.

George H.W. Bush was in Rio for the ceremonies and graciously signed on for America so that our Congress did not have to spend the time reviewing the treaty and learning then what dastardly deeds were in store for us -- that protecting the environment would be used as the basis for controlling all human activity and redistributing our wealth.

Definitions of Sustainable Development

U.N. definition of Sustainable Development:

“meeting today’s needs without compromising future generations to meet their own needs.”

In actuality, Sustainable Development is not sustainable unless the population actually is reduced by the 85% called for by the globalists. The true purpose of Sustainable Development and all of its policies is the control of all aspects of human life -- economic, social and environmental (see 3 Es of Sustainable Development further into article).

Here is how the UN described Agenda 21 in one of its own publications in a 1993 article entitled “Agenda 21: The Earth Summit Strategy to Save our Planet:” “Agenda 21proposes an array of actions which are intended to be implemented by EVERY person on Earth…it calls for specific changes in the activities of ALL people… Effective execution of Agenda 21 will REQUIRE a profound reorientation of ALL humans, unlike anything the world has ever experienced.”

So George H.W. Bush signed the Rio Accord and a year later Clinton established his President’s Council for Sustainable Development which would render the guidelines of Agenda 21 into public policy to be administered by the federal government via all departments. In doing this, Bush and Clinton set up Agenda 21 as ruling authority, i.e, implementing a U.N. plan to become U.S. policy across the whole nation and into every county and town. And every succeeding president has fully endorsed and implemented Agenda 21 through every department of the federal government.

If one were to research the source of U.S. policy, one would find that much of our policy of the last few decades is the outcome of agreements we have entered into via treaties with the U.N. And that policy has trickled, no gushed, down into every state and into almost every other jurisdiction -- county, city, town -- in the nation; Sustainable Development is the official policy of our country even though many citizens are yet ignorant of its existence. And this policy encompasses an entire economic and social agenda.

So what is Sustainable Development?

According to its authors, the objective of Sustainable Development is to integrate economic, social and environmental policies in order to achieve reduced consumption, social equity, and the preservation and restoration of biodiversity (the 3Es of sustainability). They insist that every societal decision be based on environmental impact, focusing on three components; global land use, global education, and global population control and reduction.

Look at these words, they are part of the new vocabulary:

Free trade, open space, smart growth, smart food, smart buildings, regional planning, walkable, bikeable, foodsheds, viewsheds, consensus, partnerships, preservation, stakeholders, land use, environmental protection, development, diversity, visioning, social justice, heritage, carbon footprints, comprehensive planning, critical thinking, community service, regional planning.


All of these words are part of the Newspeak, the altering of the English language as a tool to promote a global government through a diabolical agenda called Agenda 21. In fact, the world will be retooled from top to bottom through this agenda and using the new vocabulary. This is not just policy but a complete restructuring of life as we know it. We not only will be taught how we must live, but where we are allowed to live; taught how to think and what is acceptable thinking; told what job we will be allowed to have; taught how we can worship and what we will be allowed to worship; and we will be brainwashed into believing that the individual must cede all to the collective.

Private property will be a sin that will be eradicated as will be free-market economics which will be replaced by public private partnerships and a planned central economy. Individualism will be rooted out and social justice will rule the land. Social justice is described as the right and opportunity of all people "to benefit equally from the resources afforded us by society and the environment." – in other words, the redistribution of wealth. This will be achieved through an organizational structure of land use controls; control of energy and energy production; control of transportation; control of industry; control of food production; control of development; control of water availability; and control of population size and growth. And all of this will be decreed under the guise of environmental protection.

The 3 Es of Sustainable Development

The 3Es of sustainability which make up the Sustainable Development logo consists of three connecting circles labeled Social Equity; Economic Prosperity; and Ecological Integrity. These Es together encompass every aspect of human life.

First E - Social Equity

Social Equity is based on a demand for “social justice.” -- in non-Newspeak, redistribution of the wealth.

Social justice is described as the right and opportunity of all people “to benefit equally from the resources afforded us by society and the environment.” Redistribution of wealth. Private property is a social injustice since not everyone can build wealth from it. National sovereignty is a social injustice. Universal health care is a social injustice. [To understand Agenda 21, click here]

Equity is a system of “social justice” that works to abolish the American concept of equal justice in order to pursue the globalist ideal of the “common good.” Individuals rights must be abolished for the good of the collective, just as in Communism; in fact, Karl Marx was the first person to use the term social justice. Social justice is an unnatural leveling of all wealth (other than that of the global elites); no one person is supposed to profit more than another.

Second E - Economic Prosperity

From Wikipedia comes this discussion of economic prosperity promoted under Sustainable Development:

Economic growth is often seen as essential for economic prosperity, and indeed is one of the factors that is used as a measure of prosperity. The Rocky Mountain Institute has put forth an alternative point of view, that prosperity does not require growth, claiming instead that many of the problems facing communities are actually a result of growth, and that sustainable development requires abandoning the idea that growth is required for prosperity. The debate over whether economic growth is necessary for, or at odds with, human prosperity, has been active at least since the publication of Our Common Future in 1987, and has been pointed to as reflecting two opposing worldviews.

Keep in mind that almost every concept under Agenda 21 is written in Newspeak -- words often have the opposite meanings of those in your Webster Dictionary so that the general public might be deceived, at least for a time (and it has been). Economic prosperity under Agenda 21 is anything but prosperity -- other than for the global elites who are controlling the system. It is economic ruin for the ordinary people of the entire globe.

Agenda 21 proponents would have you believe that all of the wealth in the world was made on the backs of the poor and that the only way that this inequity can be corrected is to redistribute that wealth. While they claim that the wealth must be taken from the American middle class and given to the poor of the world, in actuality the money will be taken from that American middle class and given to the global elite (as if they didn’t control most of the world’s wealth already -- but that is not the issue; it is to reduce us to slaves at best). The poor, in Africa and other parts of the world, will never see a dime of the redistributed wealth, they are only the pretense for taking our money.

Agenda 21 encompasses the so-called free trade movement that created both NAFTA and Public/Private Partnerships which were incorporated into a government-driven economy called “corporatism.” These public/private partnerships are nothing more than government sanctioned monopolies -- Mussolini style economics.

Third E - Ecological Integrity

To understand the power of the transformation of society under sustainable development, consider this quote from the UN’s Biodiversity Treaty (which also was introduced at the Rio Earth Summit:

“Nature has an integral set of different values (cultural, spiritual and material) where humans are one strand in nature’s web and all living creatures are considered equal. Therefore the natural way is the right way and human activities should be molded along nature’s rhythms.”

This quote says it all; that we humans are nothing special – just one strand in the nature of things or, put another way, humans are simply biological resources. No better than slugs or dung. In fact, in the eye of the globalist, we are of less value than slugs or dung. Their policy is to oversee any issue in which man interacts with nature – which, of course, is literally everything. This is necessary, they say, because humans only defile nature.

And private property ownership and control, along with individual and national sovereignty, are main targets of Sustainable Development. Consider this quote from the report of the UN’s Habitat I conference:“Land …cannot be treated as an ordinary asset, controlled by individuals and subject to the pressures and inefficiencies of the market. Private land ownership is also a principle instrument of accumulation and concentration of wealth, therefore, contributes to social injustice.”

This mixture of socialism, fascism and corporatism (as Tom DeWeese so aptly pegs it), called Agenda 21, is the ruling force in our government today from the federal to the local. Not one of those ingredients would be allowed by our forefathers and not one is in sync with the Constitution; so how have we allowed all three to be combined into a recipe for global government and served to our unwitting nation? For part two click below.

Click here for part -----> 2,

© 2012Kathleen Marquardt - All Rights Reserved

Source

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Monday, February 13, 2012

US Christian unity summit identifies common challenges

February 13, 2012

At the invitation of Cardinal William Keeler, the retired Archbishop of Baltimore, representatives of four ecumenical organizations--Christian Churches Together in the USA, Churches Uniting in Christ, the National Council of Churches of Christ, and the National Association of Evangelicals--met at St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore in January to discuss common challenges.

“Among these challenges are reduced financial resources in many communions and organizations, a post-Christian secular environment, intensified interfaith engagements, and both continuing and new challenges regarding poverty, racism, the environment and religious freedom,” according to a statement from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.




Source
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Atlanta River Home - Reduced 60k

Normally, I don't use this venue for advertising; I decided I didn't want to compromise my intended goals, or have a conflict of interest with ads. This is a totally non-profit endeavor. However, my longtime friend Irving Rivera is selling his home in the Greater Atlanta, Georgia area, and I thought this would be an exception to the rule. Irving is offering a remarkable 3 story home on 3 Acres, for an incredibly low price. Anyone looking to move south into the Sunbelt should consider this spectacular home. It's priced to sell quickly! Please take a look at the info below and contact him for any questions:


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UD women freshman draws crowd during game

JIM WITMER
University of Dayton freshman Andrea Hoover launches a 3-point shot Wednesday against Charlotte. Hoover, who was cheered on by students from her former school, Spring Valley Academy, finished with 18 points in UD's 91-68 win.




By Tom Archdeacon, Staff Writer12:39 AM Thursday, February 9, 2012

Terri Hoover didn’t mince any words:

“I don’t want my daughter made into a poster child for controversy,” she said with a bit of an edge in her voice. “She’s just a 19-year-old kid. Please don’t use her as a tool to create controversy.”

Mama need not worry.

A day after those concerns were voiced, at Wednesday’s annual Math Day women’s basketball game at UD Arena, her daughter wasn’t relegated to any unwanted poster. Instead she was celebrated on a large, proudly-held sign that simply said “Andrea 24.”

It was being waved all game long in Section 102 by sixth-grader Zachariah Alexander, who had gotten up early to make his tribute. And once the University of Dayton women tipped off against Charlotte at 11 a.m., he was surrounded by nearly 200 other kids from his Spring Valley Academy, all focused on one special Flyer.

And by game’s end, most of the other 5,800 kids and accompanying adults were focused on No. 24 — Andrea Hoover — as well.

No matter how you added it up on this Math Day (including the game UD won 91-68), the freshman guard from Bellbrook was a star of the show.

She and senior Justine Raterman each had 18 points to lead UD, but Hoover’s effort was especially eye-catching because she mixed long-range 3-pointers with hard-nosed drives to the basket and contortionist shots — “really tough shots, acrobatic shots, circus shots,” coach Jim Jabir called them — and the same in-your-face defense that her teammates played.

In this 16-5 Flyers season, it was yet another installment by Hoover in what is becoming one of the best freshman seasons in UD women’s hoop history. She has started 17 of 21 games and is second on the team in scoring (10.3 points per game), rebounding (5.1) and steals (27 total).

“Hoover is an interesting kid ... I just love her,” Jabir said. “She just loves to play. She’s not aware of a lot of the other stuff around her. She doesn’t get caught up in a lot of the superfluous stuff. She’s not emotional, not needy, not full of drama.”

And when you’ve been in her situation that’s not always been easy to do.

Terri Hoover might not have wanted her daughter posterized, but some other folks didn’t have such reservations.

Spring Valley, where Hoover was a much-beloved student just a year ago and is its only Division I college basketball player ever, is a small Seventh Day Adventist college preparatory school in Centerville.

The sports teams there — in accordance with the Seventh Day Adventist faith — don’t play games on the Sabbath, which is from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.

An extraordinary basketball talent (as well as a devout Christian who believes she is “honoring Jesus with the basketball talent he has given me”), she also played AAU basketball for the Ohio Attack and often traveled and played on the Sabbath in years past.

It didn’t become an issue with some folks until she became a highly-sought college prospect and committed, as a junior, to play for the Flyers.

Suddenly her faith and how she practices it became a lot of other people’s business. Most people supported her basketball journey, a few did not and some became vocal about it.

“Unfortunately Andrea got a lot of flak from some people,” Jabir said. “She went through a lot, but she always took (the high road).”

The same issues are being faced now by Jermaine Lawrence, a 6-foot-9 junior prep sensation in New York who is also a Seventh Day Adventist. He’s being recruited by several major colleges, including Xavier* and last month he became such an unwanted poster child of debate that he abruptly left his high school and went to another that is not a basketball power.

A generation ago Magic Johnson — raised a Seventh Day Adventist — faced similar decisions.

“I’m a person who wants to avoid conflict at all costs and it was rough there for a while,” Hoover said quietly. “I love my church and all the people and don’t want to hurt anyone. Most support me and those who don’t? Well, we agree to disagree.

“I believe I can honor God every day of the week with the gift he has given me. I think people can tell I’m a Christian by the way I carry myself and act on the court — helping players up, not cursing or slamming the ball, showing respect — and I think that’s practicing your faith, too.

“I think there are a lot of ways to love and honor Jesus and show just how great he is.”

Turned down Stanford

Like her two older brothers, Hoover was home schooled through grade school, then went to Spring Valley.

Although the school is not known for its athletics (it offers just a few sports, is not a member of the Ohio High School Athletic Association and has trouble scheduling local teams), Andrea’s talent was so pronounced that she was playing varsity as an eighth- grader and soon was leading the program to new heights.

“In the beginning, though, I never thought about being a college basketball player,” she said. “When you go to Spring Valley no one ever talks about playing college basketball.”

But once she joined the Attack, she showed she could hold her own against some of the best in the nation. Although that began to draw some national interest, she said she didn’t like the flirtations of the recruiting process.

“She likes to be under the radar,” her mother said. “She’s very uncomfortable being the center of attention and the red carpet treatment that comes with recruiting made her uncomfortable.”

That worked in UD’s favor. The Flyers had begun recruiting her before anyone else and she felt so comfortable with the school and the coaches that she turned her back on programs like Stanford — which came to Spring Valley to recruit her.

“It was kind of funny,” Jabir said. “One of her last (AAU) games (after she had committed), I was sitting there watching her play and a lot of people still didn’t know her.

“A Vanderbilt assistant was sitting next to me and after she’d been watching Andrea a while, I see her take out her phone and start Googling her to find out more about her.

“I never said a word, I just sat there kind of giggling and the next thing she ends up punching me in the arm when she realized Andrea was coming to us. They loved her, too. Andrea could have gone almost anywhere.”

A loyal following

Wednesday morning at UD Arena, everyone saw much of Hoover‘s talent on display.

And no one was watching more closely than the contingent from Spring Valley. For the first time the school sent its entire student body — kindergarten through eighth grade — to join the Math Day kids from 45 other Miami Valley schools in what ends up being a party-like atmosphere that sprinkles a bit of schoolwork around a college basketball game.

The Spring Valley students — wearing blue or gold T-shirts that said “Know ... Follow ... Share ... Jesus” on the backs — commandeered all of Sections 101 and 102, putting them next to the players’ tunnel and UD bench and within shouting distance of their hero.

Thanks to Hoover, three of the Spring Valley students served as ball girls for the Flyers. Another student was part of a winning halftime challenge and a third — seen by all on the overhead video boards as he correctly answered a math question — won a pizza for himself and his friends.

“This has been good for all of our students today,” said Spring Valley vice principal Kari Schebo. “They’ve had fun and they all love seeing Andrea.”

Actually, Hoover has quite a following — students from her high school, former teachers, many from her church congregation, including her pastor — at every game.

“This is a huge deal for the school, they’ve never had anyone play on the Division I level before,” Terri Hoover said. “It’s really drawn a lot of our whole community together.”

And Wednesday as Zachariah waved his sign and the kids in the “Know and Follow” shirts cheered her every move, Andrea — who said she knew almost all of the Spring Valley students — seemed to feed off that on the court.

“I was feeling it out there today,” she said. “This ... was great.”

No more poster child, she was just “Andrea 24.”


Source
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*Xavier is a Jesuit institution:

Xavier University - Cincinnati, Ohio

www.xavier.edu/
A Jesuit, Catholic University in Cincinnati, Ohio since 1831.
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