Archive for March 10th, 2011

Pro-abort prof argues babies not ‘persons’ til 18 months, not an ‘offense’ against child to kill it

Thursday, March 10th, 2011

Individuals are not special by virtue of their “species membership,” he said, but become “persons” and worthy of protection because they possess certain “ethically salient properties” such as the ability to experience pain or pleasure, self-consciousness, and rationality.

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, March 9, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pro-abortion activists sought, unsuccessfully, to disrupt a debate on abortion at Dalhousie University Tuesday night by ripping down ads, setting off stink-bombs, and covering the ceiling with helium balloons featuring pro-abortion slogans. In the end, they even turned on the pro-abortion speaker.

Representing the pro-life side of the debate was Stephanie Gray, co-founder and executive director of the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform. Facing Gray was Dr. Mark Mercer, chairperson of the philosophy department at Halifax’s St. Mary’s University, who has in the past won the ire of pro-abortion activists for defending the rights of pro-lifers to express their opinions on university campuses.

While Gray argued that the unborn should be protected in law because abortion is the violent killing of innocent human life, Mercer argued that there is nothing ethically troubling about abortion, at one point suggesting that a baby isn’t a “person” until around 18 months of age.

Read more at Life Site News

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County supervisors still alarmed.

Thursday, March 10th, 2011

Although SB 1411 failed a third reading vote in the Arizona Senate, it may come up for a reconsideration vote next week.

Republican Senator Don Shooter, of District 24, motioned to reconsider whereby the Senate failed to pass SB 1411 on Third Reading on March 1, 2011. Motion carried.

Republican majority whip Steve Pierce is opposed to the measure. In an email to TEA party members, Mr. Pierce indicated that giving the other elected officials their money in lump sum would remove necessary controls.

“I agree with you,” he wrote to TEA Party member Steve Dudley. “we need the controls and I want to keep them.”

Mr. Dudley responded to the email, in part, “I find your use of ‘controls’ in scope and application rather narrow and limited. With a state budget deficit of 1.4 billion dollars, how are state legislators supposed to track allocated monies if County Supervisors and County Boards of Sups are allowed to unilaterally and arbitrarily redistribute funds from the state contrary to submitted County budgets?”

The Sonoran Alliance charges abuses by Maricopa County and Pima County supervisors concerning Sheriffs Joe Arpaio and Paul Babeu.

“The Supervisors have done everything they can to take out officials like Sheriff Arpaio and former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas because they disagreed with their efforts combating illegal immigration. But Arpaio and Thomas are being vindicated. Just today the Republic ran a story on how there has been a 40% drop in illegal immigrants in county jails,” The Sonoran Alliance web site says.

The key change in the measure is that County Supervisors would have to approve the budgets for other elected county officials and give them their budget in lump sum. It adds Justices of the Peace to the list of elected County Officials.

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Pension Reform Plan Passes Senate, Moves to House

Thursday, March 10th, 2011

Steve Yarbrough, District 21

(STATE CAPITOL, PHOENIX) – A new bill that will reform Arizona’s public safety retirement system passed out of the Senate March 3 with 21 votes. Sen. Steve Yarbrough’s pension plan, outlined in SB1609, provides extensive results-based reforms which will provide and preserve excellent benefits for its employees.

SB1609 makes common-sense reforms to the ailing public safety pension system by restricting benefit increases to times when the fund experiences stable rates of return. It also asks employees to contribute a reasonable amount toward protecting their future benefits. To promote long term sustainability, new hires will be required to work 25 years to achieve “normal” retirement and a minimum age is established for retirement.

SB 1609 addresses the issue of double-dipping by reforming current return-to-work policies so that the system would be prevented from taking a loss when a retiree returns to work and prohibits a person convicted of a felony involving official duties from collecting a pension. SB 1609 also reforms the Elected Officials Retirement Plan by scaling back the rate at which benefits accrue and capping the pension at 75%. To make this plan more sustainable in the immediate future, all elected officials will be required to accept these changes and become “new hires” by virtue of being re-elected, or in the case of judges, retained. Elected officials will also pay more toward their benefits.

Sen. Yarbrough believes the pension plans are currently underfunded, and that SB1609 will play a key role in preserving the pension systems for public safety employees. “I want police officers and firefighters to have the maximum assurance that their pensions will be secure when they retire. The reforms I have proposed with this new legislation will help this goal be realized timely and effectively,” says Sen. Yarbrough, a Chandler Republican.

SB1609 received overwhelming support from Senate members this past week and is expected to do so again when it is heard in the House.

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