WASHINGTON — A measure to let voters decide whether to ban same-sex marriages in D.C. cannot go on the ballot because it would violate a city human rights law, the Board of Elections and Ethics ruled Tuesday.
The D.C. City Council is expected to approve gay marriage next month, but opponents wanted voters to weigh in.
The elections board said allowing residents to vote on a ban would conflict with the city's 1977 Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination.
Errol R. Arthur, chairman of the two-member board, suggested as much at an October hearing. He said in a press release Tuesday that the "laws of the District of Columbia preclude us from allowing this initiative to move forward."...
Obama: 'This is a Health Care Bill, Not an Abortion Bill'
President Says Still More Work to be Done on Legislation Passed by House
President Obama said today that Congress needs to change abortion-related language in the health care bill passed by the House of Representatives this weekend. "I laid out a very simple principle, which is this is a health care bill, not an abortion bill," Obama said. "And we're not looking to change what is the principle that has been in place for a very long time, which is federal dollars are not used to subsidize abortions."
Saying the bill cannot change the status quo regarding the ban on federally funded abortions, the president said, "There are strong feelings on both sides" about an amendment passed Saturday and added to the legislation, "and what that tells me is that there needs to be some more work before we get to the point where we're not changing the status quo...
(I'm taking this as meaning the President is against the Stupak Amendment)
Via The Hill:
Gibbs: Obama not taking sides in Stupak amendment debate
By Tony Romm - 11/09/09 02:38 PM ET
The White House on Monday signaled it would keep its distance in the increasingly vocal debate over whether health insurance reform should include language related to abortion.
When asked whether the president supported Rep. Bart Stupak's (D-Mich.) amendment to prohibit the public insurance plan from covering abortion services, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs dodged the question -- multiple times.
"Well, ask me that right before Christmas and the end of the New Year," Gibbs said during today's press briefing, noting the president still expected to sign a healthcare bill before the year's end.
The press secretary later clarified, "We will work on this and continue to seek consensus and common ground...
(I'll bet vasectomies and Viagra are covered)
via Center for American Progress
Census Shows Most Poor Adults Are Women, Particularly "Women on Their Own"
Elderly, unmarried women—many of whom are widows or divorced—are particularly susceptible to poverty, particularly as retirement funds dwindle in the recession.
By Liz Weiss | September 10, 2009
New data released today by the Census Bureau shows a statistically significant increase in the national poverty rate in 2008. Most adults (18 and over) in poverty are women; 59 percent of adults in poverty are women; and 13 percent of all adult women are in poverty. Three-quarters of these women are women on their own—widowed, divorced, separated, or never married—despite being less than half (47 percent) of the population of adult women. These unmarried women have appreciably higher poverty rates than married women—20.8 percent versus 6.2 percent. Yet unmarried women live in a variety of situations—they may be living with partners, they may be mothers, they may be elderly—and each group has unique circumstances and needs. Indeed, poverty rates vary greatly for women by family status, age, and race.
In 2008, 39.8 million people—13.2 percent of Americans—were in poverty, a statistically significant increase from 2007 (12.5 percent), and a marked increase since 2000 when poverty was at 11.3 percent—its lowest level in a generation. Unfortunately, we know that the poverty picture has worsened in 2009, and these new numbers reflect only the first part of the current economic downturn. Unemployment in August 2009 was at 9.7 percent nationwide and nearly 12 percent for unmarried women (seasonally unadjusted). What’s more, long-term unemployment has grown considerably and food stamp participation increased by more than 20 percent between June 2008 and June 2009.
Women are more likely even in better economic times to face poverty than men, and unmarried women have higher poverty rates than married women. Yet the marital disparity has worsened since early in the decade. The poverty rate of unmarried women was 13.4 percentage points higher than married women in 2000, but it was 14.6 percentage points higher in 2008. The risk of poverty for women of color is even greater, especially for those who are unmarried. Thirty percent of unmarried black women and 29.5 percent of unmarried Hispanic women—of any race—were poor in 2008, compared with 18.5 percent of unmarried white women.
Crazy world we live in... via BBC News
Abas Hussein Abdirahman, 33, was killed in front of a crowd of some 300 people in the port town of Merka.
An official from the al-Shabab group said the woman would be killed after she has had her baby.
Islamist groups run much of southern Somalia, while the UN-backed government only control parts of the capital.
This is the third time Islamists have stoned a person to death for adultery in the past year.
Al-Shabab official Sheikh Suldan Aala Mohamed said Mr Abdirahman had confessed to adultery before an Islamic court...
