Daily Archives: April 17, 2017

Though Trinity Lutheran qualified under the program's terms, the state rejected the application, citing a provision in the Missouri constitution that says "no money shall ever be taken from the treasury, directly or indirectly, in any of any church, sect, or denomination of religion."

The church sued but lost in the lower courts. Now it's asking the Supreme Court to rule that it cannot be excluded from a program that benefits other schools except those run by churches.

But late Thursday, Missouri's newly elected Republican governor, Eric Greitens, said religious organizations must be permitted to apply for and be eligible for state grants.

Their request for state money will be "judged on the merits like any other applicant," a statement from his office said.

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It was a clear reversal of the policy under his predecessor, Jay Nixon, a Democrat. In response, the Supreme Court directed lawyers for both sides to submit letters by Tuesday on how the policy change affects the case.

A group that sided with the state's earlier position, Americans United For Separation of Church and State, said the court should now dismiss it.

"The governor made Trinity eligible to receive this grant," said Richard Katskee, the group's legal director. "The church no longer has anything to ask of the Supreme Court."

In legal briefs filed earlier with the court, lawyers for the church said the state's denial of funds for the playground project was unconstitutional.

"This religious exclusion wrongfully sends a message that some children are less worthy of protection simply because they enjoy recreation on a playground owned by a church," said David Cortman of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a conservative organization representing Trinity Lutheran.

He argues that government should be neutral toward religion and that blocking the church from a widely available public program "imposes special burdens on non-profit organizations with a religious identity."

That amounts to "an undeniable hostility to religion," Cortman said.

Missouri responds that the constitutional provision does nothing to interfere with a church's religious activities.

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"Trinity Lutheran remains free, without any public subsidy, to worship, teach, pray, and practice any other aspect of its faith however it wishes. The state merely declines to offer financial support," said James Layton, Missouri's solicitor general.

The US Constitution prevents the government from prohibiting the free exercise of religion, Layton said. "It does not guarantee churches opportunities for public financing."

Both sides will say that a 2004 Supreme Court decision helps them. The court ruled that Washington state did not violate the Constitution's free exercise clause when it declined to provide financial aid for students studying theology.

Trinity Lutheran says there's no such religious obstacle in its case, because the state grant would be used for an entirely secular purpose. "The surface that children play on as they enjoy recess is about as far as one can get from the devotional training of clergy," ADF's David Cortman said.

Not so, the state counters. "Money is fungible, and a dollar saved on capital improvements is an extra dollar that can be spend for religious teaching, salaries for church staff, or other religious purposes," said Missouri's James Layton.

The case has attracted widespread attention among groups defending religious liberties. Some claim that state bans like Missouri's are rooted in anti-Catholic bigotry and modeled after an effort by Rep. James G. Blaine, who unsuccessfully proposed a federal constitutional amendment in 1875 to ban government aid to churches.

A group representing Christian schools says a victory for Missouri could jeopardize government-funded loans to students who attend religiously affiliated colleges, including BYU, Georgetown, and Yeshiva University.

A total of 39 states have restrictions that either, like the Missouri provision at issue, ban state support for churches or forbid taxing their citizens in order to aid churches.

A decision is expected by late June.

Continued here:

Supreme Court Scheduled to Hear Important Freedom of Religion Dispute - NBCNews.com

Today is Easter Sunday, Christianity's defining event and most solemn feast day. It is the culmination of Holy Week, which commemorates the arrest, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In recent years Christians have joined their savior in becoming targets of torture and execution. Just a week ago, on Palm Sunday, which starts Holy Week, two bomb blasts at Coptic Christian churches in Egypt killed 44 people. Islamic State terrorists claimed responsibility.

The slaughter of innocent Christians at the hands of Islamic terrorists has become an everyday event, an outrage no longer rising to the level of a news story except when perpetrated on the scale just seen in Egypt.

Other forms of persecution persist as well.

According to a new Pew Research Center report, global restrictions on religion rose in 2015, reversing a years-long trend. A quarter of the world's countries now have "high" or "very high" levels of government restriction on religion. The share of countries with social hostilities toward religion, involving non-governmental forces, increased to 27 percent.

Overall, two out of every five nations (40 percent) on Earth have high or very high levels of restriction, an increase from 34 percent in 2014. Of the 198 countries Pew studied, a majority, 105 (53 percent), experienced widespread government harassment of religious groups, up 10 percentage points from 2014.

Middle Eastern and North African worshipers are most threatened. A year ago, Secretary of State John Kerry declared that genocide was being waged by the Islamic State against Christians and other religious minorities.

Persecution is everywhere and targets people of different faiths. In China, the communist government criminalizes unregistered, underground churches and has recently required official ones to install surveillance cameras so it can keep tabs on members of their congregations. In Nigeria, Boko Haram, perhaps the world's deadliest terrorist group, razes churches. In Europe, rising anti-Semitic violence is prompting many Jews to consider leaving the continent for good. Jews in nearly three-quarters of European countries now face social hostility, Pew reports.

Recently the Religious Freedom Institute published a list of recommendations for President Trump to restore religious liberty as a matter of high priority. They recommended that he "state clearly and often" that international religious freedom is important to his administration.

They recommend that Trump nominate an ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom and give that person the resources necessary to address the issue. U.S. diplomats need to be trained to understand the importance of religious freedom to American interests and values, and how to advance it in foreign policy.

Domestically, Trump should order the Department of Education to remove from its website a "shame list" of colleges seeking an exemption to the Title IX discrimination law, which was first published by the Obama administration, reflecting former President Barack Obama's intolerant secularism. Colleges with a particular religious faith in their very bricks and mortar seek exemptions because Title IX, as interpreted by Obama, otherwise forces them to violate their faith and accommodate the demands of transgendered people and those demanding the freedom to engage in same-sex relationships in dorm rooms.

America has historically been a leader in promoting religious freedom. After eight years under an administration that at best ignored threats faced by religious believers and at worst led the triumphalist secularism that marauds them, Trump should resurrect the government's role in protecting this fundamental freedom.

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President Trump, resurrect religious freedom - Washington Examiner

Although a devout Christian, Eva Aboona missed the Palm Sunday church services that launched Holy Week last Sunday.

But she tried.

At St. Michaels, one of El Cajons two Chaldean Catholic churches, Aboona encountered bumper-to-bumper traffic, a jam-packed parking lot and an overflow crowd of worshippers.

I couldnt get in, she said.

Her husband tried to take the children to Mass at the other Chaldean church, St. Peters. No luck.

There was no room to park, said Raied Aqrawi, 51, through an interpreter. We had to drive around and go home.

Lesson learned. For Sundays Easter Mass at St. Peters, these Iraqi immigrants plan to arrive hours early.

Since landing in the United States on Jan. 10, these Iraqi immigrants have made numerous adjustments. Aqrawi, a chemist and plumber, is seeking work inside and outside those trades. The entire household, including sons Yousif, 14, and Frank, 6, is learning English as fast as possible.

Despite financial worries and language barriers, they are grateful and relieved. Thats especially true as they safely celebrate Easters message of renewal and hope.

Four years ago, they celebrated Palm Sunday in their Iraqi village, Alqosh, under threat from nearby ISIS forces. The family fled to Turkey, where their faith was targeted by local officials and neighbors. Last years Easter Mass was halted by a bomb.

So while they face struggles in their new home, they cherish the freedom of worship they enjoy here, due to the efforts of local Christians and Jews.

Here we feel there is law, there is security, there is protection, Aqrawi said. Here we dont have the fear that someone will come to convert us to another religion.

Among practicing Christians, no week is more significant than the one bookended by Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. This is true around the world, and certainly among the Chaldeans of El Cajon.

This is a rapidly growing group. There are now 60,000-plus local Chaldeans, double what this population was in 2010. Yet there are only two Chaldean churches, each with room for 700 worshippers.

The churches are always full, always full, said Besma Coda, chief operation officer at Chaldean & Middle Eastern Social Services in El Cajon. We need a new church in El Cajon. There are seven different Masses a day and they are all full.

Thats seven Masses during ordinary Sundays. For Easter services, there are 12 Masses at St. Peters and 10 at St. Michaels over two days.

This is the most important week of the year, said Bishop Bawai Soro, vicar general for the local Chaldean Catholic Diocese. The whole Christian faith is validated because of the resurrection of Christ.

For believers, Holy Week commemorates Jesus Christs journey from life to death and back again. Gospels describe his triumphant entry into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday), last supper (Holy Thursday), crucifixion (Good Friday) and final victory over death (Easter). For immigrants escaping persecution, this narrative has powerful echoes.

It means that God is with us and is with us especially through our dark experiences, our difficult days, Soro said. This is what Jesus himself went through when he continued to obey the message of his Father despite the pain, the suffering. Our faith tells us that whoever believes in the Bible, believes in Jesus and God the Father, will have the same resurrection experience.

The Holy Week experience, though, is different in San Diego County than in rural Iraq. Aboona was disappointed last Sunday when El Cajons streets were not filled with chanting, palm-waving residents as they were in Alqosh.

Because we dont live in villages, we live in urban communities, Soro said, and you cannot offend your neighbors. There are noise limitations, movement limitations.

The bishop chuckled. The reality is that the newcomers will take a few years to adjust themselves to the American lifestyle.

Already, these adjustments have been coming with staggering speed. Four Easters ago, Aqrawi, Aboona and their children marched past stone buildings to the pealing bells of Alqoshs ancient monastery. Palm Sunday was a noisy, village-wide affair in this settlement nestled by the mountains near Iraqs northern border.

On the Nineveh plains below Alqosh, though, Christian settlements had been leveled by ISIS fighters. Women had been raped, men killed, children abducted.

Seeking safety, the family journeyed to Ankara, Turkeys capital, where they registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. That office found temporary shelter for the family in Amasya.

In that northern Turkish city, they were safe from ISIS but not from religious persecution. Amasya had no Christian churches, and the mayor rejected Chaldean pleas to open one. Yousif quit a part-time job at a barber shop whose owner repeatedly pressured the boy to attend services at the local mosque.

On their first Easter in Turkey, the family conducted their own service behind the closed doors of their apartment.

On their second Easter, a Chaldean priest visited from Detroit, celebrating Mass in a rented hall. Black curtains covered the halls windows and police stood outside, ostensibly to protect the Christians within.

The following Easter, last year, was supposed to be a repeat celebration same priest, same hall, same police cordon. This time, though, the police halted the service and ordered everyone to leave.

There was a bomb outside the hall. The family was almost home when the device detonated.

We heard it, Aboona said. Thats how we knew it was a real bomb.

Like all refugees, this family went through interviews and background checks by the U.N. and the authorities of their new country in this case, the U.S. State Department.

They were then routed to El Cajon, because of its existing Chaldean population, and assigned to one of San Diego Countys four resettlement agencies.

In this case, that was Jewish Family Service.

Its not unusual for Christian refugees to be referred to this Jewish group, explained Etleva Bejko, the agencys director of refugee and immigration services. We are federally funded for those programs, she said. If you participate, you have to serve all refugees regardless of religion.

Helping needy people of other faiths, Bejko said, is consistent with Jewish values. She quoted Mark Hetfield, president and CEO of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.

He said, We dont serve refugees because they are Jewish. We serve refugees because we are Jewish.

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For El Cajon's Chaldeans, an Easter blessing: freedom to worship without fear - The San Diego Union-Tribune

SPRINGFIELD Glenn Welch, president and CEO of Freedom Credit Union, announced a promotion within the credit union and the appointment of a new mortgage loan originator.

Edward Nuez has been promoted to assistant vice president of Member Business Lending at Freedom. He has more than 19 years of experience in the financial services industry, 15 of which have been at Freedom. Most recently, Nuez led the credit unions business development department and led its youth banking, credit union partners program, and financial literacy programs.

He is active in the community, and serves on numerous boards and committees, including the Roger L. Putnam Technical Fund, Elms College Board of Trustees, the Basketball Hall of Fame Finance Sub Committee, the Executive Committee for the Credit for Life Financial Literacy Fairs, and the Greater Springfield Visitors Convention Bureau Howdy Award Committee, to name a few. He is West Springfield Rotarian and treasurer for the Springfield Puerto Rican Parade Committee. In 2012, Nuez was named one of BusinessWests 40 Under Forty award winners and was one of the first recipients of the Warren Groups Credit Union Hero awards recognizing credit union leaders throughout Massachusetts.

Also, Lisa Mish has joined Freedom as a mortgage loan originator and is responsible for real estate origination throughout Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin, and Berkshire counties.

As she helps expand Freedoms mortgage services to its members throughout the Pioneer Valley, she will offer her expertise in conventional, FHA, Masshousing, Mass. Housing Partnerships One Mortgage, as well as USDA and VA loans. Mish has 14 years of experience in the finance industry, including expertise in residential mortgage origination, first-time home buyer assistance, and secondary-market sales.

Most recently, she was loan originator at Lee Bank. Currently, Mish is a board member of the Western Mass. Homebuilders and Remodelers Assoc., a member of the Realtor Association of Pioneer Valley, and participates on several committees. She is working at Freedoms main office branch in downtown Springfield.

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Freedom Credit Union Announces Promotion, Addition - Business West (blog)

President Donald Trump's proposed changes to the American health-care system failed largely because of opposition from the far-right Freedom Caucus within the Republican party, seen here outside the Capitol. ( GABRIELLA DEMCZUK / The New York Times )

WASHINGTONJane Bilello, a retired teacher in North Carolina, wants a wall on the Mexican border and a ban on Syrian refugees and just about everything else Donald Trump promised.

One afternoon last week, Bilello, the leader of the Asheville Tea Party, sat in her spare bedroom for two hours and fired off tweets in support of the people Trump was attacking.

#StandWithHFC, she wrote again and again during the tweetfest.

The House Freedom Caucus, a group of about three dozen of the most right-wing people in the House of Representatives, had just helped to defeat Trumps plan to replace Obamacare. Living up to its reputation for inflexibility, the caucus simply ignored Trumps pleas and threats.

Trump launched a series of angry Twitter salvos at the caucus and its leader Mark Meadows, portraying them as betrayers of the party. But in Meadowss district around the Great Smoky Mountains, where Bilello lives, Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan were themselves being called sellouts.

Whats hurting the party is the GOP. We are disgusted with the GOP leadership, Bilello said. The way they govern is you sit down, shut up and be quiet. The reason this countrys circling the drain: we know where the Democrats stand; the problem is, the GOP caves to the left. They constantly do that. We have a voice, we the people, in the Freedom Caucus. And we will stand behind them.

The unwavering backing of Tea Party groups is one of the reasons the Freedom Caucus has managed to keep defying the people who are theoretically in control of the Republican party while some of those same people call them misguided, unrealistic and extreme. A year and a half after engineering the ouster of House Speaker John Boehner, a two-year-old group representing just one-seventh of the Republican delegation in the House is now a thorn in the side of Ryan and Trump.

The Freedom Caucus has little fear of either man. Which means that while the most visible opposition to Trump might come in the form of liberals street demonstrations and town-hall swarms, Republican congressmen in suits may prove to be among his most effective short-term antagonists.

A lot of these members have built fundraising and grassroots infrastructures outside of the party structure. So theyre quite independent, said Matt Kibbe, former president of a top Tea Party group and now president of the libertarian group Free the People. Because they were elected with Tea Party support, theyre more independent of Republican leadership, theyre more independent of presidential arm-twisting. And theyre also anchored to these ideas, and they feel accountability to the people that put them there.

Of 32 Freedom Caucus members studied by the political website FiveThirtyEight, 27 did even better in their districts in the 2016 election than Trump did. And in part because of conservative gerrymandering of district boundaries, almost all of them represent deeply conservative communities whose voters are unlikely to punish them for being too far right.

If somebody can get to the right of me in the primary, God bless him, Arizona Rep. Trent Franks, shrugging off Trumps attacks, told Roll Call in March.

The official Freedom Caucus membership list is secret, but the caucus is understood to be made up entirely of men, all but one of them white. The majority live in the south and southwest.

Meadows, 57, is an affable former restaurateur and real estate developer. The original caucus leader, Jim Jordan, 53, is a former Ohio state legislator and wrestling champion. Prominent member Raul Labrador, 49, is a Hispanic lawyer from Idaho who crossed the country to campaign for Trump.

The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they dont get on the team, & fast. We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018! Trump wrote on Twitter in March.

Freedom Caucus stood with u when others ran. Remember who your real friends are. Were trying to help u succeed, Labrador responded.

The caucuss ability to influence legislation reflects the severe partisan polarization in the House. If Trump and Ryan have no hope of securing votes from Democrats and little appetite to try, they need almost the entire Republican delegation on board to pass bills which means any organized group within that party conference can hold you hostage, said Sarah Binder, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Many of their fellow Republicans would not be so polite as to call the Freedom Caucus hostage-takers. When Meadows successfully led an extraordinary effort to shove out Boehner in 2015, Republican Rep. Peter King said: This is a victory for the crazies. When Meadows and other future Freedom Caucus members successfully pushed the party in 2013 to shut down the government rather than fund Obamacare, conservative pundit Charles Krauthammer dubbed them the suicide caucus.

Freedom Caucus members say they stand for liberty, small government, the Constitution and the rules of the House. To followers like Bilello, they are authentic conservatives rather than the so-called RINOs Republicans in name only.

To Norm Ornstein, a veteran scholar of Congress at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, they are radicals.

Ornstein laughed at the argument, made by conservative writer George Will in the Washington Post on Thursday, that the caucus cares about protecting the institution of the House.

The way the institution works is through negotiation and compromise, Ornstein said. Two words that are utter anathema to the Freedom Caucus.

The health care bill failed in part because of united Democratic opposition, in part because other Republicans were concerned about the loss of insurance coverage for more than 20 million people. But Barack Obamas signature legislation was also saved in part because the Freedom Caucus believed that the bill didnt go far enough: it wasnt the full repeal they had run on.

Their strange bedfellows in the battle against the legislation, the liberal Indivisible movement, could hardly bring themselves to acknowledge they had shared a bed at all. The advocacy group was started by Democratic former congressional staffers in the wake of Trumps victory.

The people that we were working with were acting to save as many people as possible, trying to preserve as much access to health care. And this other group of members was basically trying to be as mean and as nasty as possible, said Indivisible co-founder Angel Padilla. So we would never consider ourselves to be on the same side.

Indeed, the Freedom Caucus will not be part of the resistance to most of Trumps initiatives. Caucus members support his tax-cutting, regulation-slashing agenda, and their libertarian streak does not extend to support for immigrant-friendly immigration reform.

But there may well be more intraparty battles to come.

Trump, who has shown little commitment to right-wing orthodoxy, shifted toward the establishmentarian centre this week on several issues. One of the flip-flops was to support the Export-Import Bank, an entity the Freedom Caucus wants abolished. Members of the caucus have sounded skeptical of the tariffs and border adjustment tax Trump has floated.

Trump has not yet figured out how to deal with them. The self-styled master negotiator has seemed confused about how to persuade a group that is more interested in making points than making deals.

A half-joking Trump threat to come after Meadows if he didnt fall in line on health care was a crucial misreading that only steeled the congressmans resolve, Politico reported. And the caucus was dismayed, Politico reported, when Trump cut off a discussion of the provisions of the health-care bill by telling them to forget about the little s--t.

The Freedom Caucus first made its name railing against Boehners leadership on arcane procedural grounds. They alleged that he was circumventing the rules of the House in order to curb the power of rank-and-file members.

These guys care about the small s--t, said Kibbe. Its not about politics, its not about passing the bill. Its about getting it right. And you cant sort of BS your way past that.

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Donald Trump bedevilled by right-wing House Freedom Caucus - Toronto Star

And they're off! Anxious riders were ready to hit the pavement and get underway, sparked by the perfect weather.

And they're off! Anxious riders were ready to hit the pavement and get underway, sparked by the perfect weather.

A sea of hands show off blue bands worn in support of Constable Justin Johnson. Johnson was injured in a near fatal accident about a month ago and is making a miraculous recovery.

A sea of hands show off blue bands worn in support of Constable Justin Johnson. Johnson was injured in a near fatal accident about a month ago and is making a miraculous recovery.

Riders came from all walks of life, male and female, young and old and all found the trip a lot of fun. Immaculate Conception Catholic Church provided a nice backdrop to the kickoff of the ride.

Riders came from all walks of life, male and female, young and old and all found the trip a lot of fun. Immaculate Conception Catholic Church provided a nice backdrop to the kickoff of the ride.

Motorcycle riders were an important part of the Liberty Freedom Ride. Riders not only enjoyed the route on their own, but also helped police provide escorting and protection getting out of town.

Motorcycle riders were an important part of the Liberty Freedom Ride. Riders not only enjoyed the route on their own, but also helped police provide escorting and protection getting out of town.

Volunteers give directions to riders on which direction for the 61-mile ride and the 79-mile ride. A wrong turn could take them a long way back home.

Volunteers give directions to riders on which direction for the 61-mile ride and the 79-mile ride. A wrong turn could take them a long way back home.

Rows of bicycles of various sizes and types lined the parking lot of Liberty City Hall as riders prepped for the Liberty Freedom Ride Saturday, April 8.

Rows of bicycles of various sizes and types lined the parking lot of Liberty City Hall as riders prepped for the Liberty Freedom Ride Saturday, April 8.

Cyclists take to road for Freedom Ride

On what couldn't have been a more perfect morning, nearly 200 riders from all over the Gulf Coast area poured into the Liberty City complex on April 8 to begin their trek on the second annual Liberty Freedom Ride (LFR).

Riders were greeted with a cool, crisp morning that warmed up quickly as the sun peeked over the horizon and provided a most perfect backdrop for the mostly urban riders.

Bruce Wright, president of the Liberty ISD Education Foundation, estimated 185 riders had registered prior to the start of the race. Updated numbers weren't available at press time, but it is a near doubling of the first year's total, exciting organizers that they were on the right track.

"One of our primary goals is to fund classroom grants that the normal budget in the school doesn't provide for," Wright said.

"So if a teacher has a great idea, but they don't have the funding, that's where we step in. All the things we do, all 100 percent, goes to that funding."

Wright said the Liberty Freedom Ride brings in money through new donors outside of the community to help with existing donors without constantly bleeding them for more money.

"We love our existing donors, and they are they cream of the crop, but the bike ride brings in people from out of town who wouldn't normally be here. We believe this a community development project as well as a funding source for our students," he said.

Riders were more than pleased.

Paul Doming is from New Orleans and is now living on the west side of Houston and heard about the ride on bikemart.com.

"They have a super nice ride calendar that we follow," he said.

Doming and his friend have been biking for a year now and took the 79-mile ride as conditioning for the MS-150 ride coming up the last weekend in April.

"This is super nice weather. It's nice to get out in the country and out of the city," he said.

First-time LFR rider Brian Yates was on the road for TechnipFMC and enjoying the ride.

"It's a really nice route and the ride is well put together," he said.

The 10-year veteran lives in the Rice Military area in downtown Houston.

He, too, was warming up for the MS-150 ride.

His colleagues at work were on a team and encouraged him to join.

"Our company along with a number of others put on these kinds of rides and I enjoy them," he said.

Yates also said it was a way for him to stay in shape.

"It's a good challenging course for us, especially with the hills in there," said Christopher Delacruz with the LaPorte Cycling Team.

"The wind was pretty high and gave us some fits, but otherwise it's been fun."

He's been riding since 2007 and has fallen in love with a childhood memory.

"I always loved riding when I was a kid and picked it up again and just adding more and more miles," he said.

The 26-year-old said he and his teammates, both men and women, were having fun.

"There's a group of us and we all just hang out and joke around while we're riding," he said.

It's not all fun as the business of staying fit and keeping the pace falls on each rider.

The head rider leads the group and then Delacruz says he'll peel off and it's the next man up.

"We each have a turn at leading to keep our endurance up," he said.

Delacruz, who is from the Sagemont area himself, said he was so impressed with the scenery and was enjoying the fresh, clean air.

"We ride down to Kemah, Dickinson or Baytown on weekends. We usually do 30-40 miles, but we'll do the 79-mile ride today," he said.

Cody Allen has only been riding for a year after getting his bike two weeks after last year's event.

He sprained his ACL and bought a bike to get back into shape.

"It's a lot more fun with a group to stay motivated. We ride with the group in Liberty and most of the time in Beaumont," he said.

Allen was with his girlfriend, Bethany Williams, who was also enjoying the ride.

"This is my first Liberty Freedom Ride," she said.

"We ride with the Kickstand group in Beaumont. The air here smells so different!"

The couple was impressed with the support along the ride with the large number of rest stops.

"I've been on some rides where they didn't have hardly any support. This is really great," he said.

The couple was also appreciative of all of the signage that helped encourage and inform them, saying it gave them support to finish the race.

Samuel Congiundi was sporting all Texas A&M gear during his second appearance at the Liberty Freedom Ride.

"It's great! It has diverse routes, good scenery and some hills that make it challenging. The roads, for the most part, were great and the drivers courteous," he said. "I couldn't have asked for much more."

Congiundi had nothing but praise for the volunteers who were helpful and friendly.

"Great rest stops!" he said. "Lots of perfect food to get charged up."

Congiundi rides about once a week and has no plans for the MS-150.

"I'm just a moderate rider," he laughed.

He really began to cramp up the last few miles of his trek, just before entering the city limits.

"I worked through it, but I've got to find a way to overcome that," he said.

He works for ChevronPhillips as a process control engineer and occasionally rides with a team from Beaumont, but has a free spirit.

"I like to ride whenever and wherever I want without having to be dictated to on where I go," he said.

He doesn't mind riding alone and finds a lot of solace in the challenge and vows to be back again next year to finish without cramping.

Along the route, riders could find Liberty ISD Superintendent Cody Abshier, also an avid cyclist, placing more signs and stopping to help any riders in need.

"We're so glad we had good weather," Abshier said.

"That south wind was brutal and made it harder for them to get back to Liberty," he said, "but that just makes us that much prouder of what they've accomplished by riding today to support our kids and our teachers."

Abshier was appreciative for everyone who turned out to support the event.

"It's been a success this year as it was last year, thank you Lord for good weather, and we look forward to doing it again in the future and getting bigger and stronger and raising more funds for our teachers and students," he said.

Abshier said he thought the ride this year raised much more money this year, a lot because of the seed money donated by the Liberty Community Development Committee and sponsors.

Riders finished off their ride with a cup of beer and gumbo and many made the point that there are only a few rides on the eastside of the county that are offered as a precursor to the MS-150.

Wright and Abshier expect that word of the ride will continue to spread and bring more riders and sponsors to the event in the future.

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Cyclists take to road for Freedom Ride - Chron.com

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Monday boycotted Bihar governments programme to honour freedom fighters, after home minister Rajnath Singh pulled out at the eleventh hour.

President Pranab Mukherjee felicitated some freedom fighters at the event, organised in Patna to mark the 100th year of Mahatma Gandhis Champaran Satyagraha.

The BJP claimed that Singh had pulled out because RJD leader Lalu Prasad, convicted in fodder scam case, had been invited to share the dais with the President at the function.

Former BJP state president Mangal Pandey said that Singh was hurt because the state government was trying to politicise the programme.

Mahatma Gandhi was against corruption. How can the state government make someone facing serious corruption charges share the dais with the President at such a solemn function, regional TV news channels, quoted senior BJP leaders as saying.

State BJP president Nityanand Rai told HT, Neither I nor any NDA constituent is going to attend the function.

Asked whether the NDA was boycotting the programme, Rai said, We have authorised Mangal Pandey to brief the media later in the afternoon.

Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi tweeted early in the morning, asking chief minister Nitish Kumar if he was insulting or felicitating freedom fighters by inviting Lalu Prasad, convict in scam, and Rahul (Gandhi) on bail in NH (National Herald) case?

Sources said that the Union home minister called up Bihar chief minister and spoke to him before calling off his visit.

The BJP reportedly wanted to know why wasnt its national president Amit Shah invited to the function when leaders of other political parties had been called.

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Obliquely referring to the NDA and Union home ministers absence from the function, chief minister Nitish Kumar said, We invited everyone (leaders of political parties). I welcome those who have come and have no complaint against those who could not make it to the function.

His party, the JD(U), however, criticised the BJP for trying to politicise Mahatma Gandhi.

The BJP has shown disrespect to Mahatma Gandhi by deciding to stay away from the function. I condemn its action, JD(U) national general secretary KC Tyagi was quoted as saying by TV channels.

Defending the invites extended to Lalu Prasad and Rahul Gandhi, Tyagi said they had been invited in their capacity as leaders of their respective party. We have also extended invitations to Union ministers Ram Vilas Paswan and Upendra Kushwaha in their capacities as leaders of the Lok Janshakti Party and Rashtriya Lok Samata Party. We had also invited Jiten Ram Manjhi as leader of the Hindustan Awam Morcha (Secular) and Dipankar Bhattacharya of the CPI(ML).

The Bihar government is organising the felicitation programme to mark the 100th year of Mahatma Gandhis Champaran Satyagraha a non-violent agitation launched to protest the forced cultivation of indigo by the British planters in the then undivided Champaran district of north Bihar. The state will felicitate 254 freedom fighters from 19 states and 561 from different parts of Bihar.

The government had identified another 2,154 freedom fighters, who could not make it to the function on account of ill health. It had instructed district magistrates of respective areas to ensure that welcome kits, comprising khadi bag, Gandhi memento, shawl, charkha (spinning wheel), sticker, white Gandhi topi (cap) and a souvenir were handed over to them before the function began in Patna.

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Rajnath skips, NDA boycotts felicitation of freedom fighters attended by President in Patna - Hindustan Times