Texas Gov. Rick Perry will be signing House Bill 2 into law at the state capitol Thursday morning, as pro-abortion protests continue throughout the state. According to Perry, the legislation will not only protect the unborn, but it will also advance the health and safety of women in Texas. …read more
Source: The Christian Post
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas Senate passed sweeping new abortion restrictions late Friday, sending them to Republican Gov. Rick Perry to sign into law after weeks of protests and rallies that drew thousands of people to the Capitol and made the state the focus of the national abortion debate.
Republicans used their large majority in the Texas Legislature to pass the bill nearly three weeks after a filibuster by Democratic Sen. Wendy Davis and an outburst by abortion-rights activists in the Senate gallery disrupted a deadline vote June 25.
Called back for a new special session by Perry, lawmakers took up the bill again as thousands of supporters and opponents held rallies and jammed the Capitol to testify at public hearings. As the Senate took its final vote, protesters in the hallway outside the chamber chanted, “Shame! Shame! Shame!”
Democrats have called the GOP proposal unnecessary and unconstitutional. Republicans said the measure was about protecting women and unborn children.
House Bill 2 would require doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, allow abortions only in surgical centers, limit where and when women may take abortion-inducing pills and ban abortions after 20 weeks.
Abortion-rights supporters say the bill will close all but five abortion clinics in Texas, leaving large areas of the vast state without abortion services. Only five out of 42 existing abortion clinics meet the requirements to be a surgical center, and clinic owners say they can’t afford to upgrade or relocate.
The circus-like atmosphere in the Texas Capitol marked the culmination of weeks of protests, the most dramatic of which came June 25 in the final minutes of the last special legislative session, Davis’ filibuster and subsequent protest prevented the bill from becoming law.
The Senate’s debate took place between a packed gallery of demonstrators, with anti-abortion activists wearing blue and abortion-rights supporters wearing orange. Security was tight, and state troopers reported confiscating bottles of urine and feces as they worked to prevent another attempt to stop the Republican majority from passing the proposal.
Those arrested or removed from the chamber included four women who tried to chain themselves to a railing in the gallery. One of the women was successful in chaining herself, prompting a 10-minute recess.
When debate resumed, protesters began loudly singing, “Give choice a chance. All we are saying is give choice a chance.” The Senate’s leader, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, told officers to remove them.
Sen. Glen Hegar of Katy, the bill’s Republican author, argued that all abortions, including those induced with medications, should take place in an ambulatory surgical center in case of complications.
Democrats pointed out that childbirth is more dangerous than an abortion and there have been no serious problems with women taking abortion drugs at home. They introduced amendments to add exceptions for cases of rape and incest and to remove some of the more restrictive clauses, but Republicans dismissed all of the proposed changes.
Sen. Royce West, a Dallas Democrat, asked why Hegar was pushing restrictions that …read more
Source: Worthy Christian Forums
Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Tesla Motors
Tesla is no stranger to strong resistance, shall we say, from auto dealers to its unusual method of selling the all-electric Model S in certain parts of the US. A lawsuit by the Massachusetts State Automobile Dealers Association was thrown out late last year, but it was later appealed. Tesla has also been sued in New York. The company has staunchly defended its right to sell cars via its company-owned stores – or, at least, to use the stores as a way to direct potential customers to its website to order a vehicle – but it’s facing its biggest hurdle yet in Texas. The size of the problem is so Texas-sized that CEO Elon Musk spoke at the state capitol in Austin yesterday.
“Franchise dealers have an inherent conflict of interest between selling gasoline cars and electric cars.”
At issue is House Bill 3351, which was filed by State Representative Eddie Rodriguez (D), that would allow electric vehicle companies to sell their wares directly to the public and not have to go through a dealer. Musk said the issue was a matter of “life or death” for Tesla, according to the Austin Business Journal. Tesla says the testimony at a hearing on the bill was “overwhelming … in favor of Tesla.”
Musk’s point is that selling an electric vehicle is different than selling a traditional gas-powered car, and that direct sales are “the best chance a new electric car company has of succeeding.” The company’s official statement continues:
Electric vehicles simply cannot be sold side by side with gas vehicles because they will always be a minority item in terms of sales and service volume. Existing franchise dealers have an inherent conflict of interest between selling gasoline cars, which constitute the vast majority of their business, and selling the new technology of electric cars. It is impossible for them to explain the advantages of going electric without simultaneously undermining their traditional business. Simple math shows no traditional dealer is incented to sell an electric vehicle with the same enthusiasm as the rest of their inventory.
The way things stand in Texas now, the Tesla stores – excuse us, galleries – cannot offer test drives, cannot discuss the price of the car (or any financing terms) and cannot refer potential customers to out-of-state stores to actually order their cars. Tesla employees can’t be on hand when its cars are delivered in Texas and registering a new Model S sounds like a frustrating experience, if Tesla’s description is accurate, with the sales tax not being rolled into the financing payments. Oh, and there’s even a special subsidiary, Tesla Motors TX, with service centers in Austin and Houston that, “cannot advertise that they do warranty repairs nor can they discuss any additional repair needs or concerns with the customer. Tesla Motors TX then bills Texas Motors, Inc. for the work. If customers have additional warranty
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog
By Tim Beyers, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
What’s that? You’ve ponied up $1,500 for a pair of Glass, Google‘s interactive spectacles? Great. Just remember to take them off before you hit the road in West Virginia.
A proposed law — House Bill 3057 of the state legislature — proposes a ban on using “a wearable computer with a head-mounted display” while driving. Apparently, an article from CNET writer Chris Matyszczyk was the catalyst and Google has since responded in a statement that says the company believes there is “tremendous potential to improve safety on our roads.”
Does Glass factor into Google’s math about improving safety? Should it? In the following video, Tim Beyers of Motley Fool Rule Breakers and Motley Fool Supernova says that while Glass has Rule-Breaking potential, Google would do well to make sure users don’t have to break rules to use it.
For further analysis of Google’s various “moonshot” projects, I invite you try our newest premium research report in which we dissect the search king’s sprawling empire and assess the risks and opportunities for your portfolio. Access your report now by clicking here.
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
By The Huffington Post News Editors
The North Dakota State Senate passed two anti-abortion bills on Friday that would be the first laws of their kind in the United States and would ban most abortions in the state. One bill would prevent women from having abortions as soon as the fetal heartbeat can be detected, as early as six weeks into the pregnancy, and the other bans abortions in cases of fetal abnormalities such as Down Syndrome.
House Bill 1456, the heartbeat ban, passed the North Dakota House of Representatives earlier this year and now heads to Gov. Jack Dalrymple’s (R) desk to be signed. The law would subject doctors to a $5,000 fine and up to five years in prison if they perform an abortion after the fetal heartbeat can be detected, surpassing Arkansas’ new 12-week abortion ban to become the strictest abortion law in the country. The Republican-controlled Senate voted to pass it on Friday without any discussion.
The Senate also passed House Bill 1305, which bans abortions that are performed based on gender selection or a genetic defect. Three other states — Pennsylvania, Oklahoma and Arizona — have laws banning abortions based on gender selection, but North Dakota would be the first state to prevent a woman from aborting a fetus diagnosed with Down Syndrome or other fetal anomalies.
On Thursday, March 14, the Kansas House of Representatives approved House Bill 2199, the Second Amendment Protection Act, which would nullify any new federal restrictions — passed either by Congress, presidential executive order, agency order, rule, or regulation — on firearms, magazines, and ammunition.
The bill originally passed Wednesday, March 13, by a voice vote, but the actual official recorded vote was not taken until Thursday, when it passed 94-29.
On Tuesday, during a debate over the bill on the floor, one representative who was against the bill stated that Kansas should not “punish” federal agents ordered to enforce federal gun controls in the state of Kansas. “The citizens of Kansas belong to the United States,” said the speaker.
State Representative Brett Hildabrand (R-17) took to the podium and replied:
The citizens of Kansas do not belong to the United States. The United States belongs to the citizens of Kansas! We cannot allow the response, “I was following orders” to be an excuse for violating our Constitutional rights. How many atrocities have been committed in history by people simply following orders?
For the first time in three years, members broke chamber rules and erupted into applause, according to Hildabrand’s Facebook page.
Read More at The New American . By Christian Gomez.
By The Huffington Post News Editors
A bill that bans the manufacture and sale of high-capacity magazines in Colorado and places a limit on them to only 15 rounds per magazine passed in Colorado Senate committee, Monday evening.
The Senate Judiciary Committee passed House Bill 1224 on a 3-2 party line vote as hundres of gun rights advocates filled the state Capitol in protest of the seven gun control bills being debated today in the state legislature. Read the full text of HB-1224 here.
“This bill is an attempt to reduce the slaughter,” Senate sponsor of the bill Sen. Mary Hodge (D-Brighton) said, The Denver Post reports.
Read More…
More on Gabrielle Giffords
By The Huffington Post News Editors
The State Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee passed a measure Monday evening requiring gun buyers to pay a mandatory background check fee.
The fee, likely $10 or $12, would cover the costs of an instant background check for gun purchasers. The bill, House Bill 1228, passed on a 3-2 party line vote and will move on to the the Senate Appropriations Committee Wednesday before heading to the full Senate. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation, which conducts the background checks, faced backlogs during the increased demand for guns over the holidays and after the mass shootings in Aurora and Newtown, Conn.
Supporters have pointed out that other states have enforced similar fees.
By Evann Gastaldo 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
An Illinois state representative has proposed levying a special tax on all sales of athletic shoes in the state, with revenue from the tax going to fund youth programs.
House Bill 978, the Athletic Shoe Retailer Tax Act, was introduced on Jan. 28 by Rep. William Davis and would impose a 25-cent tax on every pair of sneakers sold in the state after July 1. All proceeds would go to Illinois YouthBuild, a nonprofit that provides job training for disadvantaged youth. The Chicago Sun-Times reports…
‘Sneaker Tax’ Eyed as Answer to an Illinois Nonprofit’s Problems originally appeared on DailyFinance.com on 2013-02-11T16:10:00Z.
By Evann Gastaldo 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
