SIMON HENDERY

Last updated15:52, July 31 2017

MARTY SHARPE/FAIRFAX NZ

Major Keelan, seen here begging in Emerson St, central Napier, says he is delighted police have dropped charges against him. (File photo)

Police have dropped charges against three Napier beggars who were preparing to go to court to fight charges of breaching city bylaws by soliciting for money.

The three menTurei Cooper, Major Keelan andMylesHemopo hadpleaded not guilty to charges of breaching a council bylaw that forbids them from soliciting for money without permission.

The triowere due to appear for a judge-alone trial in Napier District Court on August 15, but on MondayInspector Andrew Sloan said police would not be pursuing the case against the men.

MARTY SHARPE/FAIRFAX NZ

Myles Hemopo, outside Napier District Court, where he was facing charges that will now be withdrawn. (File photo)

"After consultation with the local city council, police have elected not to proceed with these prosecutions and the charges are to be withdrawn," Sloan said.

READ MORE: * Beggars go to court arguing that begging is a 'fundamental freedom of expression' *Napier beggar's life of struggle, hope and ascent out of a 'dark, dark place' *Napier to start using security officers as part of council clampdown on beggars *Police find and arrest wayward Napier beggar Frank Lovich

"Police will continue to respond to reports of anti-social behaviour in the city, including any which may accompany the act of 'begging'," he said.

In a case that was being watched with interest by other councils around the country, the men had been planning to argue that, by denying them the right to beg for money, the Napier City Council was breaching their fundamental freedom of expression under the Bill of Rights.

It was an argument thatleading human rights lawyerMichael Bott previously said had merit because no council could construct a bylaw that was inconsistent with Bill of Rights.

"By outlawing begging, the council has basically behaved unlawfully," Bott said.

Keelan said on Monday he was delighted with the decision to drop the charges, but remained concerned police had indicated beggars would remain potential targets for prosecution.

"I beat the Government!" he said. "I just hope the cops don't keep picking on me."

He said he had no plans to change his behaviour, and a "Homeless Donation Thank You" sign he displayed in the CBD did not amount to soliciting for money.

"Everybody's got the right to ask for a little bit of help in New Zealand. 'Donation' doesn't mean we're askingfor money. It could just be listening to us," he said.

"At the end of the day, I appreciate people coming up and talking to us that's a donation."

Napier City Council community strategies managerNatasha Carswell said in reviewing the charges, police had asked the council for its stance on the bylaw.

"We confirmed that we did not intend to enforce the bylaw to address begging for two reasons: the first is that we prefer a longer-term approach, and second we didn't think it would act as a strong deterrent."

The council had implemented a "street management programme that provides a presence in the CBD in an effort to reduce the anti-social behaviour associated with some who are also begging, working in with police".

Through the programme, the council was"engaging with people who beg to try to link them with the help they need", Carswell said.

-Stuff

See the rest here:

Charges dropped against beggars who claimed 'freedom of expression' - Stuff.co.nz

Smooth operator Will Young at the I Feel Love concert in Hull. Photograph: James Stack/BBC

Headlined by Will Young, Marc Almond and Alison Moyet, this concert to celebrate the 50th anniversary of sexual freedom simultaneously broadcast on Radio 2 - doesnt lack party atmosphere. There are ticker-tape explosions and massed singalongs of the Village Peoples YMCA and Donna Summers I Feel Love, led by the Gay Abandon choir. The celebratory piece de resistance is surely the guy in the crowd singing along with a ventriloquists dummy, which has been glammed up in a silver wig. Yet for all the outbreaks of joy, the most effective moments are more downbeat. Presenter Ana Matronic from the Scissor Sisters reminds us that in the 1967 so-called Summer of Love, a section of society could be dragged before a magistrate for holding hands in the street. Actor Allan Corduner reads from Oscar Wildes De Profundis, written while the literary giant served two years hard labour for indecency. He dreamed of a quiet life by the seaside but was dead within three years.

The format of spoken word alternating with stars performing one song per appearance probably works better on the radio. Despite a slightly disjointed feel, however, the performances are often very moving. Marc Almond draws deep for What Makes a Man a Man and Lavender, an impassioned tale of hiding his sexuality as a teen and finding escape through David Bowie. Opera singer Noah Stewarts Youll Never Walk Alone and Nessun Dorma are obvious choices, but he brings down the house. Will Youngs breezy, jazzy renditions of Sades Smooth Operator and Terence Trent DArbys Wishing Well feel lightweight, but Moyet is surely singing better now than in her 80s commercial heyday.

Corduner describes how the great John Gielgud returned to the stage after his 1953 court appearance for cottaging and was cheered to the rafters, as the public and the arts led pressure for legal change. And who knew that Tom Robinsons hit, 2-4-6-8 Motorway, was inspired by an old gay lib chant (2-4-6-8, gay is twice as good as straight)? The BBC once banned his song Glad to Be Gay; now they employ him as DJ. To mark how far weve come he sings the 1978 song queer insults, police brutality and all every bit as furiously as he did then. Its a spine-tingling reminder that, for the 74 countries where LGBT relationships remain illegal, there is a very long way to go.

On BBC iPlayer until 27 August.

Continue reading here:

I Feel Love review a moving celebration of sexual freedom and LGBT rights - The Guardian

TIM NEWMAN

Last updated15:07, July 31 2017

Kavinda Herath / stuff

freedom campers in Lumsden

At onetime Lumsden was known as the "hub" of Northern Southland.

Threerailway lines converged on the town: north to south through the Kingston branch, to the west along the Mossburn branch, and linking to Gore in the east on the Waimea Plains railway.

While the town's last line shut down more than 30 years ago, duringthe past two years the railway station has been as busy as ever.

TIM NEWMAN/STUFF

Earlier this year freedom campers congregated outside the old train station at the Lumsden Information Centre.

Lumsden is making a name for itself as a hub again, but in 2017 it is tourists, not trains, being drawn to the town.

READ MORE: *Offbeat New Zealand: St Bathans, Central Otago's ghost town *An undercover freedom camper: My eight days on the road *Freedom campers turn campsite into a 'zoo'

During this time, Lumsden's population has grown by as much as one quarter, from 400 to more than500.

ROBYN EDIE/STUFF

Currently freedom campers are only allowed to stay in the car park directly adjacent to the railway station, although during summer there have been issues with the camp stretching beyond its set limits.

Home to a few cafes, a Four Square, and a defunct railway carriage, Lumsden doesn't immediately scream "tourist trap".

Migrating from their wintry Northern Hemisphere climes, flocks of young, educated, and perhaps slightly whiffy sojourners descend on the town's railway station.

While compared to spots like Queenstown, Te Anau, and the Catlins, Lumsden might seem like an odd tourist destination, for some reason it has become a haven for freedom campers.

KAVINDA HERATH/STUFF

Lumsden CDA chairman Rob Scott by the old railway station where freedom campers congregate in Summer.

Freedom campers: a dirty word for half of Lumsden, and a beacon of opportunity to the rest.

While there has been no end of debate over what to do about the town's newest institution, it was a development that no-one seemed to have anticipated.

In the Freedom Camping Act 2011, central government made provision for people to freedom camp in any local authority area, unless prohibited through a bylaw or any other enactment.

KAVINDA HERATH/STUFF

Lumsden Motel co-owner Brian Ross said residents have been waiting two years to have their say on the freedom camping bylaw.

The legislation was brought in before the 2011 Rugby World Cup in anticipation for the high tourist numbers that would come through then.

In 2015, the Southland District Council enacted its ownbylaw, designating thelevels of freedom camping allowed throughout the district.

The various Community Development Area subcommittees were able to choose what level of freedom camping, if any, they would allow in their territory.

KAVINDA HERATH/STUFF

Lumsden resident Chris Henderson.

Some opted for a blanket ban, while others like Lumsden chose to allow it in certain spots, with the latter designating asmall area chosen right in the middle of the town, adjacent to the railway station.

MORE THAN EXPECTED

Lumsden Community Development Area Subcommittee chairman Rob Scott said the initial expectations for the summer season were low.

ROBYN EDIE/STUFF

Lumsden residents Robyn Gleye, left, and Mick Ellis.

Looking out the window of his Route 6 Cafe to the railway station across the road, Scott spies about half a dozen vehicles congregated in the freedom camping zone.

"Initially the expectation was half a dozen to 10 or 12, sort ofwhat we're getting now in the winter was what we thought we'd be getting at the peak."

Scott said the town had never been known as a real destination for tourists, and was off the main tourist route between Queenstown and Te Anau by about 15km, being bypassed by State Highway 97.

KAVINDA HERATH/STUFF

Lumsden CDA chairman Rob Scott and freedom camping liason Wallace Drummond.

"The very first day the bylaw came into action there wereabout 6 or 7 [vehicles].

"The next there was 10 or 11, then 13 or 14, then it peaked at about 30 or 40 at for that first year.

"One dayI was counting them and thought'whoa, this is quite a lot more than I'd expected'."

Retired farmer Wallace Drummond was given the task of monitoring the campsite and liasing with the campers.

Drummond said this summer was the busiest yet, with the total number of campers per day pushing 100.

"One night we had 108, we've had some people claiming there's been 130 with tents but that's bullshit.

"108 was the most, but we were at overload."

WHY LUMSDEN?

According toDrummond, word travels fast among the freedom camping community.

"We're averaging about 4500 people coming to Lumsden, and they're all finding it on their phone on thatapp - about 99 per cent of them."

"That app" Drummond is referring to is Camper Mate, launched in 2011 by New Zealander Adam Hutchinson.

It uses GPS to locate "points of interest" for potential campers, including things like toilets, accommodation, and tourist sites throughout the country.

Accommodation sites are then broken down into categories such as free, low-budget, or premium, and can be voted and commented on by app users.

Lumsden's freedom camping area has been singled out for special praise, with several commenters even calling it the best freedom camping site in New Zealand.

"We're getting the good ratings because of the facilities we've got and that it just naturally works here", Scott said.

"Having the toiletsthere and the nice safe environment, they're all commenting on how safe it is.

"We can see them and they can see us, so it's all contained in the centre of town."

Indeed, the Lumsden site is something of an anomaly, compared to the other freedom camping sites in the Southland District specified by the 2015 bylaw.

While there are 19 sites dotted around the district, only six of them allow non self-contained freedom camping (camping where toilet and washing facilities are not self-contained, as they would be in a campervan).

Of those six, Lumsden is the only one in the middle oftown, with most of the rest located in parks or by beaches well away from any settlements.

With freedom camping banned in tourist destinations such as Te Anau and Queenstown, Drummond said Lumsden was being used as a base to explore the rest of the south.

"They're going out of their way to come here... they stayhere for a day or two, and then go on to walks like the Kepler and the Routeburn.

"If everything was set up like this here in Mossburn, this site wouldn't exist."

Whatever the reasons for them descending on Lumsden, freedom campers have divided the town.

There are few fence-sitters on the subject, with the tourists described alternately as either the potential saviours of destroyers of the town.

In the "pro" camp, it is argued that the freedom campers are bringing an economic windfall to Lumsden, presenting business opportunities that would never otherwise happen.

Whether going to the pool, the pub, or stopping for a pie, the new visitors are creating a burgeoning tourist economy.

Scott said everyone in town had a chance to cash in.

"We've got a lot of businesses for a small town,so having that boost is really important for them, it's keeping people employed.

"We haven'tgot a very wealthy population, so all of a sudden getting 100 to 150 people a day is bringing outside money into the mix and is actually expanding our economy."

Some of the town's neglected assets were also receiving a boost, with the Lumsden pool now able to re-open during summer.

"Now there's actually people in the pool, benefiting it to about the tune of around $3000.

"This has been an asset to the community which has been struggling for years, it couldn't stay open over Christmas due to thelack of people...last year was the first Christmas holidaysthe pool's been open in about three years."

As well as an economic shot in the arm, supporters also say the freedom campers bring a vibrancy that has been missing in Lumsden for some time.

Former schoolteacher Chris Henderson said the youth of the new visitors was something the town sorely needs.

"When you've been here for 40 years, you can see the peaks and troughs and effects of government decisions on Lumsden.

"We used to have two banks, a post office, and a bus company,all taken away from us apart from the post office.

"One of the things we miss in a place like this is this demographic,young people and their families.

"I love the fact that more young people are around.

"At the beginning we were caught a bit short, but Rob and his team have scrambled well, and as the market matures we'll become more organised."

However, that "vibrancy" is not appreciated by all residents in Lumsden.

Duringthe past two years, tales of unsavoury behaviour have followed the freedom campers around like a bad smell.

Reports of unhygienic campsite practices, public nudity, and other unsavoury incidents have made the rounds in Lumsden.

Retiree Mick Ellis andpartner Robyn Gleyeare strongly against freedom camping, after experiencing its effects up close through their job cleaning the town's public toilets.

"The thing that gripes people is that [the camp] is so unsightly", Ellis said.

"We came down from Auckland 14 years ago and we bloody love it here...the fear is that people are going to start avoiding the place."

Ellis said during the peak of the tourist season, the toilet blocks used by the campers were dirty, wet, andfilled with wet toilet paper and items such as discarded tampons.

"They're mainlyEuropeans, and they've got a totally different bloody standard of hygiene compared to us...Southlanders aren't like that.

"We've put up notices in the toilets asking them to respectthe facilities, they get ripped off or just ignored...the standard of respect for the property hasjust gone out the window."

The campers were also using the toilets as washing facilities, Ellis said.

"It's just not set up for that...we've had cases where 300m of toilet paper hasgone in as little as a couple of hours."

Some of this behaviour was experienced first-hand by Southland District Council mayor Gary Tong.

Tongsaid he was in Lumsden for a community meeting at about 5.30pm one evening, when he saw a completely naked man "having a wash" beside his vehicle.

A family would not want to see that, he said.

According to those against the bylaw, the economic benefits of freedom camping were also dubious at best.

Lumsden Motel owners Brian and Tracy Ross saidthe presence of the campers mightactually be driving potential customers awayfrom both their business and the town.

Positioned just on the other side of the road from the camping site, during summer the rows of tents are mere metres away from the motel and its guests.

"Our motel guests have made us very aware they don't like the negative impact on their Lumsden experience by the presence of the freedom campers...the worry is they may choose to stay somewhere else.

"No-one else in Lumsden lives closer to the tenting area, which apart from being outside the designated camping area, it's also only 20 metres or less away from our house."

While there are many criticisms regarding the visual effects of the site and the lack of enforcement of the bylaw, for people like Ross and Elliswhat is most upsetting is the perceived lack of public consultation.

While most starkly illustrated in Lumsden, issues with the freedom camping phenomenon are present all over Southland.

See the rest here:

Lumsden: A town divided over freedom campers - Southland Times

WASHINGTON, D.C. Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, President Trumps nominee for international religious freedom ambassador, describes religious freedom as the choice of what you do with your own soul.

If confirmed, the 60-year-old, two-term Republican governor, former U.S. senator and one-time presidential candidate would be the first politician confirmed as the ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. Previous ambassadors were religious or nonprofit leaders, and Brownback would follow a rabbi and a Protestant minister.

Religious Freedom is the first freedom, he said in a tweet responding to Trumps announcement. I am honored to serve such an important cause.

Here are five faith facts about this Methodist-turned-Catholic politician:

As senator, he supported the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act, which also created the ambassadorial post.

During his two terms as governor, his actions on international religious freedom would be minimal, said Rabbi David Saperstein, the most recent international religious freedom ambassador. But Brownbacks support of the State Department office while he was senator, and his efforts to end the South Sudan civil war, were noteworthy, Saperstein said.

Issues of religious freedom were very much at stake in his lead work on the Sudan Peace Act, he said, adding he thinks Brownback will be an effective ambassador-at large.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, at far right, and three bishops attend the religious freedom rally on Feb. 17, 2016, in Topeka, Kan. With Gov. Sam Brownback is, from left, Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Bishop Edward J. Weisenburger of Salina, and Bishop Carl A. Kemme, of Wichita. (Credit: Photo courtesy of Joe Bollig/The Leaven.)

Brownback has been a bit of a Christian church hopper. He grew up a Methodist butconverted to Catholicism in 2002.Today he attends Topeka Bible Church, said Teresa Jenkins, a spokeswoman for the nondenominational evangelical church with an average weekly attendance of 1,400.

Sometimes, he rises early for Mass before joining his family at the church, calling the routine, according to author Jeff Sharlet, a great mixture of the feeding.

Sharlets book,The Family, about a secretive Christian group to which Brownback belonged, said the governor was baptized not in a church but in the Catholic Information Center, a Washington chapel run by Opus Dei.

In 2016, he joined a Rally for Religious Freedom alongside Catholic bishops, the lead pastor of Topeka Bible Church and Barronelle Stutzman, a Washington state florist who was sued after she cited her religious beliefs in refusing to create an arrangement for a gay wedding. I have never seen a bigger rally at this statehouse than this one, Brownback told the demonstrators, according to a Catholic diocese website. It is fantastic.

When then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry, now U.S. energy secretary, invited 49 other governors to attend The Response: A Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis in Houston in 2011, Brownback was the only other governor who showed up in person. (One other sent a video.)

In 2012, he was criticized by church-state separationists for promoting a ReignDownUSA.com prayer event for which he said, Weve been favored like no nation in history and yet too often weve forgotten God.

The National Association of Evangelicals called Brownback a strong candidate. Faith and Freedom Coalition declared help is on the way after dozens of reports of Christian persecution abroad in the last month alone. Southern Baptist ethicist Russell Moore noted Brownbacks dealing with AIDS in Africa and advocating on behalf of persecuted religious minorities. Focus on the Family founder James Dobson called him a man of deep personal faith.

The 2016 bill allows religious organizations to establish religious belief as qualification for membership, he said at that time.

The ACLU, reacting to his nomination, said, In Gov. Brownbacks view, religious freedom has meant issuing a license to discriminate against others, especially against LGBT Kansans.

University of Vermont political science professor Peter Henne said a Brownback appointment could change emphasis on LGBTQ issues abroad: If there are countries repressing LGBTQ people for reasons they claim are related to religion, we might not push back on that as much as we would otherwise, he said.

More here:

5 faith facts about Sam Brownback: Political champion of religious freedom - Crux: Covering all things Catholic

Kansans will be glad to see the last of Gov. Sam Brownback, whose disastrous supply-side economic policies have turned the state into a dysfunctional Brownbackistan with spiraling deficits and public services in tatters.

But Brownback, President Donald Trumps pick to lead the State Departments Office of International Religious Freedom, brings to the office a religious rsum that is bizarre to say the least.

A practicing Catholic himself, Brownback is closely linked with the New Apostolic Reformation. He has appeared at numerous NAR events, including The Response, the huge 2011 prayer vigil hosted by then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry (Brownback was the only other governor to attend); the Kettle Tour, a national series of events meant to link prayers to those of past generations; and four iterations of The Call, prayer rallies organized by NAR leader Lou Engle. Brownback was once even roommates with Engle for several months after his Washington, D.C., condominium burned down.

Brownback was pressured to denounce the movement, which many Pentecostal Christians believe to be a cult, in the 2010 gubernatorial election. He refused to do so, though he said Engle has said things I dont agree with and that they only worked together on human rights and helping people live better.

When Brownback won, NAR leader Chuck Pierce boasted that his prayers had gotten Brownback elected.

Modern Day Prophets

Its easy to see why Brownback wants to distance himself from the NAR as soon as you start learning about the NAR.

NAR founder C. Peter Wagner, Engle, Pierce, and other NAR leaders believe themselves be modern day prophets who will establish dominion over all aspects of American society to prepare it for the Kingdom of God.

For the NAR, the restoration of the Kingdom of God will be the result of active efforts on the part of these new prophets, including the dominion of Christians over the seven mountains of culture and the mass conversion of Jews to Christianity. When apostles hear the word of God clearly and when they decree His will, history can change, Wagner said in 2001.

The churchs vocation is to rule history with God, said Engle.

Because the NAR derives its authority not just from the Bible but also from present day prophecies, the results can be bizarre. For example, NAR leaders have ascribed the problems of citiesliberalism in general, but also specific disasters like earthquakes and terrorist attacksto the cities being controlled by demons. The demon Baal controls the Freemasons; the demon Jezebel controls the Democratic Party.

As The Daily Beast reported two years ago, Wagner said in 2011 that the nuclear meltdown at Fukushima was a result of the Japanese emperor having had sex with the sun goddess, that there is a lot of demonic control in Congress, that it is important to cast spells to protect politicians from witchcraft, and that non-Christian religions are part of the kingdom of darkness.

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His successor, Pierce, said in 2011 that God told him in 2005 that a black man would be elected president; that, in 2008, God said President Obama would cause the United States to split into two nations by abandoning Israel; and that the resulting civil war would tear down, raise up, overthrow, [and] rebuild our society. He added that Obamas 2011 speech about Israel had caused tornadoes in Missouri and that his own prayers can cause earthquakes (as well as electoral results).

Dominion Over United States Politics

Among all the various sects of the American fundamentalist right, the NAR is the most overt about seeking dominion over politics, culture, and all other aspects of daily life. As Pierces comments indicate, the NAR sees no distinction between secular and religious. It is uniquely unapologetic about obliterating the church-state line in order to bring about the End Times.

And, paradoxically, it is open about working in secret, holding that deceptive tactics are necessary to do Gods work.

In 2009, for example, two NAR prophets told Rick Perry that God had anointed Texas to lead the United States into revival and that Perry himself would play a central role. Perry, in turn, organized the Christians-only prayer rally the Response, which drew 30,000 people and which, Perry said, was based on a prophecy from the Book of Joel, which NAR leaders often cite.

Perrys 2012 and 2016 runs for president may have been a sideshow for most people, but for the NAR, they were the hoped-for culmination of dominion over United States politics. Sen. Ted Cruzs candidacy was also framed in explicitly messianic, dominionist terms by his father, Rafael Cruz, a well-known dominionist pastor not affiliated with the NAR.

It Is Time to Cause a Revolution

In this context, seemingly innocuous statements begin to take on a sinister resonance.

For example, at a Washington gathering of the Kettle Tour, Brownback said, Weve made it up the mountain a long way, but we have to make that final assault on the peak. We can make that final leap to the top, if we stay on our knees.

Innocent metaphor? Or reference to Seven Mountains dominionism, which refers to government and other institutions as mountains that must be conquered by believers?

Later, after becoming governor, Brownback declared several statewide Days of Restoration. Does restoration simply mean restoring Christianity to the center of American religious life, or does it refer to the NAR doctrine of restoration of Christian rule over the Earth?

In 2014, Brownback spoke at a Topeka prayer gathering whose organizer said, We need revival, we need a Great Awakening, but it is time to cause a revolution. We need to get some freedom fighters up and going to take this country back.

Typical Christian right rhetoric? Or something more literal and more ominous?

Or, as is more likely the case, something in between, with meanings elastic enough to mean different things to different people?

Even the human rights work that Brownback said he did with Engle, including staged apologies to Native Americans and African Americans, were part of the NAR policy of Identificational [sic] Repentance and Reconciliation, aimed at removing barriers that prevent non-white people from becoming evangelical Christians.

According to Wagner, these barriers are actually demons such as Baal, Leviathan, and the Queen of Heaven, fed by the sins committed against these groups. Brownbacks apology to Native Americans was literally an exorcism.

Redefining Religious Freedom for the World

Once again, the trouble with people like Brownback isnt the beliefsits the actions.

As governor, Brownback delivered on his dominionist promises. He convened multiple prayer gatherings and campaigns. He regularly consulted with Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council. And he issued a wild executive order in 2015 decrying the recent imposition of same sex marriage by the United States Supreme Court and specifically exempting all religiously affiliated organizations from having to recognize legal same-sex marriages or accommodate them in any way.

As the United States new point man on religious freedom, Brownback will surely take his expansive redefinition of religious freedom onto the international stage. Programs that empower women violate the religious freedom of religious conservatives. LGBT equality is against religious freedom. Promoting anything other than the so-called natural family is against religious freedom as well.

Indeed, its an easy step from the dominionist notion that religion must be all-pervasive in all aspects of society to the redefinition of religious freedom to allow discrimination in the workplace, discrimination on the part of public employees, and nullification of legal marriages. There is no place for the secular in this understanding of religion.

Brownback and his allies in the NAR already have a built-in international network of religious extremists. The sponsors of Ugandas Kill the Gays law, for example, were trained by Kansas Citys International House of Prayer, affiliated with Lou Engle, and Engle frequently exhorted his followers to support the backers of the bill.

We dont know, thanks to Brownbacks equivocation, how much of the dominionist theology of the NAR he believes and how it might impact his actions in his new international role.

Does Brownback see his role as a secular one promoting the value of religious freedom for people of all faiths? Or does he, like his partners in numerous religious events and political initiatives, see it as a divinely ordained mission? Or, once again, somewhere in between? Does the United States chief international representative for religious freedom believe that he must rule history with God?

Originally posted here:

Does Trump Religious Freedom Pick Sam Brownback Believe in Dominionism? - Daily Beast

ATLANTA-- How do you define freedom? Gwinnett County teacher Alex Robson is completing a 48-state tour to ask everyday people how they define it.

Robson is asking people what freedom means to them, where they live and how they express freedom. He calls it the "Freedom Summer," and along the way he is collecting note cards - asking people to write how they define the term.

Traveling around his summer school teaching schedule, Robson made it a point to drive to each of the 48 states and 78 cities during the Freedom Summer tour so that he could reach as many people as possible.

Over the last 10 years of Robson's Freedom Cards project, Robson has interviewed celebrities, politicians, and everyday people to see how they define freedom.11Alive reached out to Robson about his Freedom Summer project.

His interview is below:

What is the most powerful story you've heard while collecting the Freedom Cards?

While I was in Kansas, I met a Gold Star Mother who is a mother who lost a child while serving in the military. She and I had quite a connection because I have the same name as her son, Alex. She made his favorite meal and we talked a lot about how for everyday people Alex was a soldier who died in battle and that it was an honorable way to die. To his parents, he wasn't a soldier. He was their son and he never came home. They didn't just sacrifice a soldier; they sacrificed their son. On their Freedom Card, they had a picture of their son and the words "this is the face of freedom."

How do you define freedom?

My definition of freedom is that you can have dreams and you can act on those dreams without people telling you not to. As a teacher, some of my students don't have the same opportunities that other students have. Many of them face obstacles, whether it is socioeconomic or have families that are not able to support them. I believe that being a teacher helps me spread freedom in America.

"All of these stories are connected and interwoven in a complex way," Robson says. "Even though we are inherently different, we are all connected that we get to share the same freedom."

To participate in the Freedom Cards project, send a 3x5 note card to: The Freedom Cards PO Box 606 Atlanta, Georgia 30301

Excerpt from:

Defining Freedom: Metro Atlanta teacher completes 48-state tour to find true meaning - WXIA-TV

Ad will collapse in seconds CLOSE / the national interest July 27, 2017 07/27/2017 10:59 pm By Jonathan Chait Share Photo: Yuri Gripas/AFP/Getty Images

Shortly after 10 p.m., the Senate Republican leadership introduced the Health Care Freedom Act. As advertised, the bill would eliminate the individual mandate, a key underpinning of the exchanges that allow insurance to be made affordable to people too affluent for Medicaid who cant get it through work. But the changes would not end there. States could have more leeway to weaken consumer protections. Health-savings accounts, a tax shelter used by affluent people, would grow. Planned Parenthood would lose federal funding, as would the Centers for Disease Control, whose public health budget would be cut 14 percent.

More detailed analysis is difficult given the time constraints. That is, of course, the point. Since their unexpected election victory forced them to actually write and pass replacements for Obamacare, the Republican proposals have been a series of public-opinion disasters on a scale unseen in the annals of polling. The partys response to the publics disgust has been to conceal its intentions, and the Senate vote is the ultimate expression of that furtive impulse. Mitch McConnells sincere belief is that his plan can only pass if experts and authorities the Congressional Budget Office, insurance actuaries, think tanks cannot inform his members of its likely effects.

A handful of recalcitrant Republican senators called the preliminary outlines of this bill a disaster, and insisted they would vote for it only if the House promised not to pass it into law. Even this absurd condition was not met. House Speaker Paul Ryan released a statement indicating that he would like to go to conference and write a different bill, but pointedly refusing to rule out passing the Senate bill unaltered. Attempts to further clarify his position simply underscored Ryans outright refusal to commit himself to the simple and clear promise not to pass the law.

Republican aides say it is a coin flip whether the House will pass the Senate bill. There really is no cover for senators who vote for this, no room to insist they have been fooled if it passes into law unaltered. Their cooperation in the charade has been given willingly.

The public, on the other hand, has ample grounds for complaint. The Senate is engaged in a mockery of legislating. The Senate vote is a scandal, a crime against the public good.

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The first major legislation passed during Trumps presidency will be a bill he opposed and now has no choice but to sign.

A hack forever tainted in Trumps eyes by his one moment of decency.

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If the climactic vote on the skinny repeal had gone the other way, the result would have probably been the same: GOP failure, with much time lost.

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Kasich has never bent the knee to Trump. But viable primary challengers to sitting presidents come from the fever swamps, not the sensible center.

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Republicans couldnt come up with a workable health-care plan, so they kept kicking the can down the road. The road finally ended in the Senate today.

An eight-year crusade to destroy universal coverage has failed, and a social achievement endures.

Three Republicans Susan Collins, John McCain, and Lisa Murkowski voted against the bill.

More:

The 'Health Care Freedom Act' Is a Scandal - New York Magazine

News & Observer

Freedom Park will be an inspirational addition to Raleigh if it ever gets built News & Observer In Raleigh, once its $5 million price tag has been raised, a design by the Durham office of Perkins+Will for the North Carolina Freedom Park will offer an optimistic take on slavery and the African-American experience here. Slated for a postage-stamp ...

See the rest here:

Freedom Park will be an inspirational addition to Raleigh if it ever gets built - News & Observer

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, speaks to reporters on March 23 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP

'Unquestionably the leadership at the top is responsible. The buck stops there,' says Rep. Mo Brooks.

By LOUIS NELSON

07/28/2017 10:36 AM EDT

House Freedom Caucus members lashed out Friday morning at the Senates dramatic failure to move forward on an Obamacare repeal bill, complaining that their colleagues on the other side of Capitol Hill let the American public down.

Let's be clear about what's happened over the last 24 hours in the United States Senate. It was an abject failure of the United States Senate to do what America needs doing, Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), a member of the conservative House group, told CNNs New Day Friday morning. He urged his Senate colleagues not to leave for August recess without making progress on health care and suggested that perhaps a change in Senate Republican leadership might be in order.

Story Continued Below

If they're going to quit, well then by God, maybe they ought to start at the top with Mitch McConnell leaving his position and letting somebody new, somebody bold, somebody conservative take the reins, Brooks said. It's not necessarily anything bad about Mitch McConnell himself personally, but he's got a job to do, and if he can't do it, then as The Apprentice would say, you're fired. Get somebody who can.

McConnell (R-Ky.), the Senate majority leader, and the rest of the GOP leadership team had worked furiously this week to shore up support for legislation that could advance the Republican goal of repealing and replacing Obamacare. After previous efforts at compromise failed to garner the necessary votes, Republicans settled early Friday morning on a skinny repeal intended to advance legislation out of the Senate such that negotiations on a final repeal bill could begin in a conference committee with House members.

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But in a dramatic vote Friday morning, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) joined with the Senates 48 Democrats in voting against the skinny repeal, defeating the measure and leaving Republicans without a clear path forward that does not include cutting a deal with the minority. It was McCains vote just after 1:30 a.m., cast with a dramatic thumbs-down gesture from the well of the Senate, that struck down the skinny repeal and sent an audible gasp through the chamber.

Brooks, in his interview with CNN, noted that House Republicans had successfully negotiated a compromise on health care, but not without great gnashing of teeth and a lot of intense emotion. He called the Senates Friday morning vote a failure from the newest member Luther Strange at the bottom to the very top with Mitch McConnell as majority leader, specifically name checking the Alabama senator whose seat he will attempt to take beginning with next months Republican primary.

Other GOP House members were similarly disappointed but sought to deliver an optimistic message that their partys repeal-and-replace efforts were not dead. House Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), flanked by three other conservative members, said Friday morning on Fox News Fox & Friends that the Senate vote was certainly disappointing and not what we promised the American people but that President Donald Trump had already begun reengaging on the issue.

Appearing with Meadows on Fox News was his predecessor as Freedom Caucus chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who called for a little bit of a shift in how we approach health care. He said efforts by some Republicans in the House to force a vote on a so-called clean repeal that does not include a replacement would put pressure on the Senate to act.

I'm optimistic we can still get it done. People are losing faith but I can tell you we are still staying in, Meadows told Fox & Friends, adding that he spoke with Trump by phone Friday morning after the vote. I can tell you who is staying in: the president is staying in on this fight. He is going to deliver. He made it clear this morning.

Meadows and Jordan both expressed frustration that they and their House colleagues were likely to be sent home for August recess next month with health care left unfinished. Meadows told Fox News that it blows my mind that were probably not going to be here in August.

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), in his own Fox & Friends interview, said his vision for transformational health care reform would require the cooperation of at least some Democrats.

If you're going to fail, fail doing what you really fundamentally believe, said Gowdy, who is not a member of the Freedom Caucus. It's not going to get done with 24 hour's notice and a bill that has the word skinny in it. It's hard to persuade people.

Brooks suggested that a failure on healthcare could spell doom for much of the rest of the presidents ambitious conservative agenda, a list that includes an overhaul of the tax code, a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and a major infrastructure package. Health care was placed first in line, Brooks recalled, because an Obamacare repeal would make subsequent goals easier to attain. Without an undoing of former President Barack Obamas signature legislation, Brooks asked, how will the rest of Trumps agenda get done?

Unquestionably the leadership at the top is responsible. The buck stops there. That's why you take on that kind of responsibility, he said. And if Mitch Mcconnell cannot get the job done on this, how is he going to get the job done on the rest of President Trump's agenda over the next three-and-a-half years. As I see it right now, this is a killer.

Jake Lahut contributed to this report.

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Freedom Caucus blasts Senate GOP's 'failure' to pass Obamacare repeal - Politico

WASHINGTON Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, President Donald Trumps nominee for international religious freedom ambassador, describes religious freedom as the choice of what you do with your own soul.

If confirmed, the 60-year-old, two-term Republican governor, former U.S. senator and onetime presidential candidate would be the first politician confirmed as the ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. Previous ambassadors were religious or nonprofit leaders, and Brownback would follow a rabbi and a Protestant minister.

Religious Freedom is the first freedom, he said in a tweet responding to Trumps announcement. I am honored to serve such an important cause.

Here are five faith facts about this Methodist-turned-Catholic politician:

1. He was a key sponsor of the legislation that created the office he may lead.

As senator, he supported the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act, which also created the ambassadorial post.

During his two terms as governor, his actions on international religious freedom would be minimal, said Rabbi David Saperstein, the most recent international religious freedom ambassador. But Brownbacks support of the State Department office while he was senator, and his efforts to end the South Sudan civil war, were noteworthy, Saperstein said.

2. He is a Catholic convert but attends evangelical churches with his family.

Brownback has been a bit of a Christian church hopper. He grew up a Methodist but converted to Catholicism in 2002. Today he attends Topeka Bible Church, said Teresa Jenkins, a spokeswoman for the nondenominational evangelical church with an average weekly attendance of 1,400.

Sometimes, he rises early for Mass before joining his family at the church, calling the routine, according to author Jeff Sharlet, a great mixture of the feeding.

Sharlets book,The Family, about a secretive Christian group to which Brownback belonged, said the governor was baptized not in a church but in the Catholic Information Center, a Washington chapel run by Opus Dei, another secretive group.

3. He has supported religious liberty issues and rallies with conservative Christians.

In 2016, he joined a Rally for Religious Freedom alongside Catholic bishops, the lead pastor of Topeka Bible Church and Barronelle Stutzman, a Washington state florist who was sued after she cited her religious beliefs in refusing to create an arrangement for a gay wedding. I have never seen a bigger rally at this statehouse than this one, Brownback told the demonstrators, according to a Catholic diocese website. It is fantastic.

When then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry, now U.S. energy secretary, invited 49 other governors to attend The Response: A Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis in Houston in 2011, Brownback was the only other governor who showed up in person. (One other sent a video.)

In 2012, he was criticized by church-state separationists for promoting a ReignDownUSA.com prayer event for which he said, Weve been favored like no nation in history and yet too often weve forgotten God.

4. His nomination has been hailed by a range of evangelicals.

The National Association of Evangelicals called Brownback a strong candidate. Faith and Freedom Coalition declared help is on the way after dozens of reports of Christian persecution abroad in the last month alone. Southern Baptist ethicist Russell Moore noted Brownbacks dealing with AIDS in Africa and advocating on behalf of persecuted religious minorities. Focus on the Family founder James Dobson called him a man of deep personal faith.

5. He signed legislation allowing religious campus groups to restrict membership.

The 2016 bill allows religious organizations to establish religious belief as qualification for membership, he said at that time.

The ACLU, reacting to his nomination, said, In Gov. Brownbacks view, religious freedom has meant issuing a license to discriminate against others, especially against LGBT Kansans.

More:

5 faith facts about Sam Brownback: Political champion of religious freedom - STLtoday.com

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) believes Congress will adopt a continuing resolution (CR) instead of passing spending bills for 2018 by October and that a clean debt ceiling hikewill pass with Democratic support, contrary to the wishes of conservative Republicans.

September is going to be a very difficult month. I mean, obviously all of this is coming into play right away, all the fiscal issues and deadlines are going to make it extremely difficult to get everything done in a piece-by-piece basis, Meadows saidFridaymorning.

Were almost anticipating a bigger bill with a whole bunch of things put together that would maybe bring a whole lot of Democrats on board and pass with less than a majority of the majority.

That omnibus policy package or a similar piece of legislation, he predicted, would include a clean debt ceiling lift with mostly Democratic support.

I think they end up passing it with some reauthorization to get Democrats on board and 40 or 50 Republicans and get it done, he said.

On appropriations, Meadows said that the timeline was simply too short to reach a deal by the end of September, when funding will run out.

I think that there is no way to work quick enough to do a normal appropriations process, so a CR will be the result, because of inactivity in the Senate, Meadows saidFriday.

A CR would keep current spending levels in place while averting a government shutdown. But administration officials have spoken unfavorably of a CR, as it would put off increases to military spending and impose a series of restrictions on government functioning.

Just dont have the next showdown in late December, Meadows pleaded.

What I dont believe it needs to be is one that comes due right before Christmas. Either we do a 30-day or a 45-day or we do something that gets us on the other side of Christmas, because Christmas decisions are not good decisions when theyre fiscal, he said. Lets face it, it makes everybody make bad decisions.

President Trump and members of his White House have in recent months floated the idea of a good shutdown, in which funding would lapse for government operations absent a new spending deal or a CR.

Meadows said it seemed unlikely.

I dont see government shutdown as a real risk, he said.

On Wednesday, Republican Study Committee Executive Director Scott Parkinson also said he expects a CR in the autumn. The RSC is another conservative caucusand includes more thanhalf of House Republicans.

Go here to read the rest:

Freedom Caucus chairman predicts October CR, clean debt ceiling hike - The Hill

David Messenger, acquitted by reason of insanity in the 1998 beating death of his pregnant wife in their Chaplin home, has progressed so far in his treatment that he should be allowed to travel anywhere in the state except Windham County, have a smart phone, and stay out until midnight on weekends.

That was the testimony Friday of a forensic psychologist and the supervisor of Messenger's release in the community at a hearing before the Psychiatry Security Review Board.

Messenger had asked for the phone, a later curfew, and the ability to travel beyond Hartford County. Initially committed in 2001, Messenger has been living in a supervised apartment and receiving treatment at a regional mental-health center in Hartford since 2015, with no violations, according to testimony.

Assistant States Attorney Andrew Slitt, who works out of the Windham office, peppered psychologist Fred Storey and release-manager Archer Bridgeforth with questions about whether a further expansion of Messenger's freedoms would heighten the risk to the public. Both said it would not.

The Psychiatric Security Review Board, which supervises 150 people who were acquitted of crimes by reason of mental disease or defect, will vote on this new request by Aug. 25.

Ellen Lachance, who supervises the staff that supports the board, said it's common for community mental-health teams to ask for additional privileges for patients who are responding well to treatment in part so they can gauge how the person will do when he or she is no longer under any supervision.

In the early years of his commitment, Messenger was confined in the maximum security Whiting Forensic Division at Connecticut Valley Hospital. He has steadily gained freedom which has been unsettling to the family of Heather Messenger, who was 42 when Messenger beat her to death with a fireplace poker. The couple's son, then 5, witnessed the attack on his mother.

"We don't think a killer deserves any privileges and of course wonder how and why he can already have so many and yet ask for more," Hannah Williamson, Heather Messenger's sister, said Friday in an email from Michigan.

"We still believe he should be in jail. After all, Heather was the victim and she is still dead," Williamson said. "He seems to have more freedom than any other 'acquittee.'"

Messenger's 20-year commitment expires in 2021. A Superior Court judge would decide whether to grant a discharge. The prosecution can file a request for continued commitment.

Messenger's long push toward freedom hasn't been lost on Middletown officials. When they learned in 2006 that Messenger at that point was making trips into Middletown escorted by staff, then-Mayor Sebastian Giuliano said he would have a police officer "stapled to his butt" as soon as he left the hospital grounds. CVH in June 2006 voluntarily decided not to let Messenger go on any unsupervised visits. But that order has long since been lifted.

He still is not allowed to drive a car (he has no driver's license). He cannot leave Connecticut, and he must continue to wear his GPS device so his whereabouts can be monitored. He lives in a supervised residence in Hartford, which has a curfew of 11 p.m. on weeknights and midnight on weekends. Messenger's curfew had been 10 p.m.. He is now asking for permission to abide by the later curfew of the residence.

Heather Messenger's family has argued that Messenger should not have been released to the community because he has access to significant amounts of money that he could use to track them down.

"Our position has been well stated, and we regret the decision that was made and, in doing so, we fear for the people in Hartford who may inadvertently run into the killer," Daniel Williamson, Heather's brother, said in 2013.

Williamson and his wife, Melody, have raised Heather Messenger's son, Dane, from boyhood at their home in Illinois.

The Courant has reported that Messenger has access to nearly $2 million in property, bank accounts and investments, including an island house in Maine.

More here:

Acquitted Wife-Killer Asks For Smart Phone, Later Curfew, Freedom To Travel In State - Hartford Courant

Re: the July 28 column "What do we really have a 'right' to? Think principles, not entitlements."

In this guest column that identifies rights as "freedom of ACTION," we witness a common self-serving conservative philosophy. When rights are limited to liberties, the hard facts of life are ignored. What good is a liberty in a world where economic power determines access? People are free to be malnourished, homeless and sick without medical care. Human dignity is the necessary enrichment of rights as freedoms.

Freedom and dignity are the very foundations for a humane philosophy of human rights. It spares the human community from the raw capitalism of conservative politics, demonstrates awareness of the realities of the human situation and strives to create a truly civilized society.

The writer's invocation of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as a support for his minimalistic view of rights ignores this brave American's indefatigable struggle for poor people's right to decent jobs and meaningful benefits. Sorry, but King believed in the right to education, a job and health care!

Disclaimer: As submitted to the Arizona Daily Star.

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Letter: On freedom and dignity - Arizona Daily Star

The Senate is hurtling towards some resolution in the weeks-long saga of Obamacare repeal, and after several failed votes and amendments, the final draft is finally in view. At around 10 p.m. Thursday evening, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell unveiled the text of the Health Care Freedom Act, the more dignified official title for the skinny repeal.

The legislation, which was reportedly finalized over lunch today in the Senate, broadly resembles the details that have leaked out about the secret plan over the past week. It would repeal Obamacares individual mandate, and would repeal the employer mandate until 2025, where presumably that mandate would come back or would have to be re-repealed by Congress.

The skinny repeal extends a repeal of the medical-device tax through 2020 and defunds the Prevention and Public Health Fund. It would also more than double the limits of contributions to health-savings to allow people with HSAs more flexibility in paying for deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs. This provision is somewhat significant, because it would decrease federal revenues and would need a score from the Congressional Budget Office going forward in the process.

Although provisions in the original Senate Obamacare replacement bill to defund Planned Parenthood and allow states the ability to waive essential health benefits for some insurance plans on the exchanges were rejected under the Senate reconciliation rules by the parliamentarian, this bill devotes much of its language to creative rewrites to get around those rejections.

To start, the Health Care Freedom Act still bans funding from a number of different federal sources to public providers that provide abortionsa direct stab at Planned Parenthoodbut made those provisions more general. Originally, the Better Care Reconciliation Acts attempts to defund Planned Parenthood targeted all entities that received over $350 million in federal and state reimbursements, which would have only ensnared Planned Parenthood, because of its size. But this bill lowers that threshold to $1 million, which would presumably be less hyper-targeted, and only extends the ban for a year.

This bill also adds over $400 million to community health centers. Although that amount is not specified in the bill as an offset to defunding Planned Parenthood, the two were linked in the formal introduction of the bill to the floor by McConnell.

The second parliamentary-skirting action comes on the issue of state waivers. The BCRA attempted to give states wide flexibility to essentially ignore certain Obamacare rules for exchange plans (those sold in state insurance marketplaces set up by the law), including its requirements that plans cover certain services. It did that through expanding Obamacares existing State Innovation Waivers program, which allows states to create insurance programs that modify rules about plan benefits and the exchanges. Under that program, however, Obamacare implements guardrails specifying that these state waiver programs would have to still provide coverage that is as comprehensive and affordable as comparable exchange plans.

The BCRA plan to give states much more flexibility essentially violated those guardrails, but the skinny repeal bill keeps them in place. But theres a bit of a poison pill: Once states get the waiver, it appears their programs cant be revoked under law under the eight-year waiver window, which means states would be rather free to ignore guardrail rules for almost a decade at a time.

Reportedly, these tweakswhich clearly maintain at least some of the spirit of previous attempts to defund Planned Parenthood and allow insurers to offer less comprehensive coverageare enough to satisfy the parliamentarian and pass with a 50-vote majority.

According to a Congressional Budget Office score obtained by Senate Democratic staff, the effects of this bill are about what has been expected: 16 million more uninsured people and just under $200 billion in federal deficit savings. Although premium estimates were not part of the CBOs score tables, it appears this law will have comparable effects to a proto-skinny-repeal scored Wednesday, and will increase premiums by around 20 percent over the next decade.

Thats the gist of what Senate Republicans will vote on, and what could very well end up on President Trumps desk, should House Republicans not follow through on Speaker Paul Ryans lukewarm commitment to add more provisions in conference.

The so-called skinny repeal is not as skinny as expectedit repeals the mandates, and includes provisions like a restriction of Planned Parenthood and some insurance deregulationsand its effects on coverage and premiums would be significant. And soon, it could very well be the law of the land.

Excerpt from:

The Health Care Freedom Act Hits The Senate Floor - The Atlantic

"I guess what disappoints me most about the Republicans who said they were for repeal, voted for it, and then no longer are, is that they've sort of forgotten," Paul said on the "Sean Hannity Show." "They think this is about actuarial tables and insurance, and all this stuff. No, this is about freedom. This is about whether we as Americans should be free to buy what kind of insurance we want. What's best for us and our families. And it's about whether the individual knows best or government knows best. Are we too stupid that President Obama has to tell us what kind of insurance? Does he think Americans are too dumb to make their own decisions?"

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated an additional 22 million people will become uninsured by 2026 under the proposed replacement for Obamacare which the Senate voted down this week (and which Paul voted against). The CBO estimated that 32 million would be uninsured under a bill to partially repeal Obamacare without an immediate replacement that Paul voted for but which also failed to pass the Senate this week.

"Are we gonna give up our freedom and say to the government you decide what kind of insurance I get and what it covers," continued Paul. "It's a freedom issue. It really isn't about actuarial tables. It isn't about all the ins and outs. We have always taken care of those who are sick in our country. We have never, ever turned anyone away. I'm a physician. I've operated in hospitals for 25 years. I have never, ever seen anyone turned away who needed care."

"But the people who are saying thousands of people are gonna die," said Paul. "That is such hyperbole and ignorance and over-the-top statements that I think they lose credibility by saying things like that. No one is going to die in America, we haven't let people die in America for hundreds of years because doctors take care of and hospitals take care of all comers."

He later added, "So it hasn't happened in generations and in fact even before Medicare and Medicaid people did not die in our country for lack of care."

More here:

Sen. Rand Paul: Health care debate about 'freedom,' not 'actuarial ... - CNN

The home secretary, Amber Rudd, has sought to reassure businesses over the Brexit transition. Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA

EU nationals will still be able to come to the UK during a transitional period after Brexit but must go through a registration and documentation process, Amber Rudd has said.

The home secretary reassured businesses that there will be no cliff-edge in the migration system when the UK officially leaves, after Brandon Lewis, her junior minister, said free movement would officially end in 2019.

Lewiss remarks caused a stir because Michael Gove and other senior political figures had said the cabinet was effectively united on allowing free movement to continue during an implementation phase for two to four years after 2019.

Rudd said free movement would end as a point of principle in March 2019 because it is part of being in the EU. But arrangements very similar to free movement could still carry on during the implementation phase lasting until around 2022.

There will be an implementation phase when new EU workers will need to register their details, Rudd said, adding that the full, new EU immigration policy would come into force only after this transitional period is over.

Rudd has commissioned the migration advisory committee to help work out what this final immigration system could look like, asking it to examine the costs and benefits of migration from the EU.

In her letter to the committee, she said: As part of a smooth and orderly transition as we leave the EU, the second phase of our immigration proposals is based on a temporary implementation period to ensure there is no cliff-edge on the UKs departure for employers or individuals During this period there will also be a straightforward system for the registration and documentation of new arrivals.

After this implementation period, we will move to the third phase, which will be our long-term arrangements covering the migration of EU citizens, designed according to economic and social needs at the time, and reflecting our future deep and special partnership with the EU. The government will want to ensure that decisions on the long-term arrangements are based on evidence. The commission that we are now asking the MAC [migration advisory committee] to undertake is very much part of this.

The government has already suggested it will ask all EU citizens currently living in Britain to officially register their interest in acquiring documentation allowing them to live and work in the country after 2019 when Britain is scheduled to leave the European bloc.

Rudds decision to commission her migration advisers a year after the Brexit vote was criticised by leading opposition figures as far too late. The committee will not report until September 2018 just six months before the UK leaves the EU.

Yvette Cooper, the chair of the Commons home affairs committee, said it was staggering that it has taken a year since the EU referendum for the government to finally commission the migration advisory committee to assess the potential impact of one of the most important issues facing our country ahead of Brexit.

The MAC has now lost 13 months in which they could have been working on assessing the EU migration issues for each sector and for the economy as a whole, and the impact of different policy changes. Delaying basic research like this, yet still promising its all going to be sorted out by March 2019 is completely irresponsible, she said.

The fact that the government has taken so long to ask these basic question must either be incompetence or internal disagreement. But neither bode well for the design and implementation of any new system to replace it.

Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, said it was right the government was seeking objective analysis but it must commit to publishing the report in full once it was finalised, for scrutiny in parliament. There must be no repeat of the buried Home Office reports into international students, or the Saudi funding of terrorism. And there should be no attempt to reform the immigration system until the report has been published and debated.

It was also noted that Rudds remit letter to the migration advisory committee contained no mention of Theresa Mays target of reducing numbers of new arrivals to the tens, not hundreds of thousands a year an aim held since 2010.

Lewis confirmed the target still exists but refused to say it would be reached within this parliament.

Labours Pat McFadden, a supporting member of the Open Britain group fighting for a soft Brexit, described the governments position as a shambles.

Only hours after the home secretary announces there will be no cliff edge when we leave the EU, her immigration minister announces a definite end to freedom of movement from March 2019, he said.

This mornings announcement throws a grenade into attempts to reassure the country that there will be no Brexit cliff edge. Yesterday, it was a row about chicken. Now its immigration. Ministers are contradicting one another by the hour. The country needs good leadership during this crucial period. It is certainly not getting it.

More here:

EU nationals can register to enter UK during Brexit transition - The Guardian

Moderate Republicans have watched for years as conservative hard-liners tanked legislation in the House all while dutifully falling in line with leadership and being knocked as "squishes" by some of their colleagues.

But lately, some in the centrist Tuesday Group have started to adopt the power-in-numbers strategy of the Freedom Caucus. And the get-tough approach is yielding results.

Story Continued Below

Resistance from moderates almost torpedoed the House Obamacare replacement this spring, and resulted in billions in additional funding to help people with pre-existing conditions a requirement for some centrists' support. Earlier this month, they banded with Democrats to sink two controversial amendments overwhelmingly supported by their GOP colleagues, including one barring the Pentagon from spending money on gender reassignment changes for troops.

Centrist Republicans have also told Speaker Paul Ryan they will not back a budget without a broader spending deal with Democrats. And this week, they helped crush a rank-and-file effort to pass a massive GOP appropriations package full of goodies for the base but that has no chance of passing the Senate. The spending bill was extremely popular with most of their Republican colleagues, infuriating those who supported the plan.

Tougher tactics from centrists will exacerbate Ryans already-difficult job of wrangling his fractious conference. The Wisconsin Republican and his leadership team find themselves twisted in knots trying to find 218 votes to pass almost anything of consequence. Now theyll need to take more seriously the demands of vulnerable swing-district members as well as rabble-rousers on the right.

I think theres a lot of us who are like, Dont put us in a position of having to vote for something that has tremendous political risk to us and, substantively, is just done for negotiation purposes, said Rep. Thomas Reed, one of several centrists who told leadership he would not back the 12-bill spending package.

Lacking the votes, leadership is set to pass a slimmed-down, less controversial measure that funds the Pentagon and a few other agencies.

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Its quite a change for the House GOP. Tuesday Group members are typically leaderships greatest sympathizers, always more eager than their ideologically driven colleagues to show that Republicans can govern.

Take Reed for example. By all accounts, the New York Republican has always been considered a leadership ally. He helps muscle votes as a deputy whip, and he boasts a prized panel post on the powerful Ways and Means Committee.

But when Ryan and his team came up short on votes for their GOP spending package, Reed told them to look elsewhere for help. The fourth-term centrist said hes sick of taking tough votes for the team, then reeling from the political fallout back home only to see the conservative plan die in the Senate.

I think there is some frustration in a sense that we came here to govern," he said. "And to go through these exercises? I dont see a path to the finish line, and I dont see the strategy."

The Tuesday Group hasnt gone as far as the Freedom Caucus, of course. Its not churning out official positions against legislation and certainly isnt as vocal as the conservatives, who have nearly perfected their no-holds-barred tactics.

But GOP insiders said the change is notable, albeit subtler. For instance, most Republicans were shocked and furious when moderates sank the amendment on transgender troops during the defense authorization bill in early July. Moderates knew what was coming, whispering among themselves on the floor in a loosely laid plan to bring it down.

Before President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced a ban on transgender people serving in the military, some Republicans had been trying to persuade GOP leaders to do an end run around the moderates and tuck the amendment into the bill using a procedural loophole.

Sources say Tuesday Group leaders Elise Stefanik of New York and Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania were adamant that leaders better not go there. And centrists made it clear that if a ban on gender reassignment surgery was included, moderates wouldnt hesitate to take down the entire minibus measure of spending increases for the Pentagon.

Moderates also recently sunk a controversial amendment on Islam from Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona. It would have instructed the Pentagon to, essentially, make a list of good and potentially bad Muslim thought leaders. Moderates, who worried about religious profiling, put their foot down, rejecting the proposal with Democrats in a defeat that stunned opponents of the text.

I think a lot of members have learned from observing others, said centrist Republican Carlos Curbelo of Florida, referring to the Freedom Caucus.

On the GOP spending package, Curbelo continued: Everyone knows that at the end of the day were going to need a bipartisan deal and a bipartisan spending package, so lets get it done and focus less on messaging.

Rep. Dave Reichert, a centrist Republican from Washington, argued that moderates like him are the so-called Majority Makers. And since Republicans' hold on the House hinges entirely on them keeping their seats, they shouldnt be subject to controversial votes that could haunt them on the ballot.

That, Reichert said, is already happening too often: I think that there are some members who feel like a certain group of people within the conference are taking some votes that they dont necessarily need to take certain votes that might be bills that divide our constituency that we represent in our districts.

At some level, moderates have a certain amount of leverage conservatives dont even if theyve rarely used it. Leadership relies on them to support must-pass, often-controversial legislation that the far right refuses to back, including votes to avert government shutdowns.

This fall, House Republican leaders will look to these very members to help raise the debt ceiling since a majority of the GOP Conference likely wont be on board.

They rely on us to achieve outcomes that they cant always advocate themselves, OK? And please, use that on the record, said Dent, whos often referred to as the ringleader of the GOPs centrist flank.

Moderates say they'll be ready to support GOP leaders when they take steps toward bipartisan solutions. But until then, they can expect more resistance from the center.

I know how to push the red button, Dent warned.

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Pity Paul Ryan: Moderates adopt Freedom Caucus tactics - Politico

The White House wants to rebrand an Obamacare effort on Capitol Hill, endorsing the term freedom bill on Thursday over "skinny repeal," as people following the Senate Republican push have been calling the plan.

Look, the administrations been working hand in hand on pushing repeal and replace of Obamacare, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters. We actually like the term freedom bill a lot better because we think it addresses what this bill actually is.

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Senate Republicans believe the skinny repeal legislation that, rather than totally repealing the 2010 law, would gut Obamacares individual and employer coverage mandates may be their only hope to pass a bill and move to talks with the House about health care legislation.

Despite its nickname, health policy experts say the skinny repeal could destabilize Obamacares insurance markets, spiking premiums and raising the number of uninsured Americans by millions.

But the nickname also could make the skinny repeal a tough sell to constituents because it suggests its a minimized form of the full repeal of Obamacare that Republicans have campaigned on for seven years,

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell emailed his caucus Thursday outlining the bills provisions. The employer mandate would be repealed for at least six years or eight years, according to sources who viewed the email.

The chamber will hold a series of votes later Thursday in a "vote-a-rama" to test what senators will support in an Obamacare replacement bill.

It removes a lot of those mandates that allow people to have the type of freedom, have states have the freedom that they want, Sanders said of the skinny bill, and that was one of the big priorities for this administration. Were, you know, happy about that progress, and were gonna wait and see where this bill ends up later this evening.

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White House tries to rebrand 'skinny' Obamacare repeal as 'freedom bill' - Politico

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, seen here at a news conference last month, is being nominated by President Trump to be an ambassador for religious freedom. John Hanna/AP hide caption

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, seen here at a news conference last month, is being nominated by President Trump to be an ambassador for religious freedom.

President Trump is nominating Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback as an ambassador at large for religious freedom. The State Department post requires confirmation by the Senate, of which Brownback was a member from 1996 to 2011. He would be succeeded by Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer.

After the announcement Brownback tweeted, "Religious Freedom is the first freedom. The choice of what you do with your own soul. I am honored to serve such an important cause."

Jim McLean of member station KCUR reports:

"Brownback would leave office as one of the least-popular governors in the nation. That's largely due to the tax cuts he championed, which instead of igniting the Kansas economy as he promised sent state revenues plummeting, forcing lawmakers to deal with annual holes in the state budget. ...

Others hold him in higher esteem.

"'He inspires other people,' said Kathy Ostrowski, legislative director for Kansans for Life, the state's largest anti-abortion organization.

"'He's inspired some conservative leaders who had terrible bruises from the last couple of decades. He said "hang in there, stay with it. Let's keep working."'"

The New York Times notes, "Kansas lawmakers rolled back Mr. Brownback's tax policies this year, with Democrats and moderate Republicans banding together to override the governor's veto and raise taxes."

Before he was elected governor, Brownback served in Congress for 16 years.

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Kansas Gov. Brownback To Be Nominated Ambassador For Religious Freedom - NPR

Theres a second use for Freedom, a simple app that lets you block distracting sites like Twitter for a few minutes, hours, or days. As the apps blog points out, Freedom also works as a clickbait blocker that hides the gross and misleading Around the Web links at the bottom of news articles (aka the chumbox).

This is useful if you dont use an ad blocker, but the principle is the same: Freedom blocks all traffic from a specified domain. This is impractical for blocking most ads, which are served from a huge and ever-changing set of different domains. But most Around the Web links route through a few top publishers, which you can easily turn into a blocklist in Freedom.

Windows/Mac/Android/iOS: What good is blocking distractions on your computer if you can pick up

To block these annoying links, just install Freedom ($29/year or $119 forever), open your dashboard, select Add a blocklist, and enter these domains:

Save the list, then click Add a session and block these sites as long as you want. As with any Freedom session, you can apply it to any of your iOS, Mac, or Windows devices. (While Freedom doesnt support Android, subscribers also get free premium access to Offtime for desktop and Android.)

That will wipe out the vast majority of Around the Web links across your entire device, including all your browsers and apps. Once you start a session, you can only access blocked content by deleting the blocklist. So like any Freedom block, run a brief test session first.

Freedoms main function, blocking distractions, is well worth the $29/year; I use it to automatically block Twitter at night. But if you dont want to pay that much, you can still block two domains with a free account. That will cover Outbrain and Taboola.

Or you can add the above domains to your usual ad blocker. Heres how to block domains in Adblock and Adblock Plus, and in uBlock Origin.

Around the Web links bring in a lot of revenue for content sites, which until recently included Lifehacker. But theyre also a big traffic driver for fake news, and they creep up in inappropriate places. Plus its unpleasant to scroll past a serious news item and see body-horror close-ups and lurid headlines about child actors. So break free.

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Block "Around the Web" Links With the Freedom App - Lifehacker