Category Archives: Freedom

MORGANTON --

Freedom played host Patton even for both the first and last periods in Thursdays Conference 9 lacrosse matchup.

But the Panthers converted key shots in the middle two periods to cruise to an impressive 12-4 triumph. Patton held a 34-27 edge in shots on goal.

Freedom senior Scott Ammalathithada put the Patriots on top early in the first period before Panther senior Jacob Mayfield tied the game.

Patton outshot the visitors 9-6 in the second frame but more importantly outscored the Pats 5-0 as Mayfield (three), Garrett Lilly and senior Roger Hernandez garnered goals to push the Panthers to a 6-1 halftime advantage.

Midfielders Drew Lewis and Zack Griffin along with Mayfield (two) provided assists in the second-period flurry.

Patton scored the first four goals of the third period. Hernandez (unassisted), Lilly (unassisted), midfielder Matt Randall (assist by Demetri Broadbent) and Lilly (unassisted) scored for the Panthers.

Freedoms Ammalathithada, off an assist by midfielder Kevin Burnett, scored with 1:27 remaining as Patton led 10-2 at the end of the third.

The Panthers final two goals were tallied by Hernandez (unassisted) and Mayfield (assist by Zach Buchanan). The defense was led by goalie Will Link (13 saves) along with defenders Matt Corn, Dexter Rowland and Jesse Bunton.

Freedom (0-3 Conf. 9) outshot the home squad 8-6 in the final period. Ammalathithada tallied the final two scores for the Patriots. Senior Matthew Watson accounted for one assist on the final goal scored with 6:56 left in the game.

See more here:
Patton lacrosse sweeps Freedom, improves to 3-1 in league play

24 March 2012 Last updated at 11:51 ET

The Police Service of Northern Ireland was awarded the Freedom of North Down in a ceremony in Bangor on Saturday.

It is the highest accolade the council can give and marks the 10th anniversary of the formation of the PSNI.

It is the first time any council has given the honour to the PSNI. North Down mayor James McKerrow said it was the "right time" to bestow it.

"It means a lot to us and I believe it means a lot to the recipients," he said.

"It's the highest honour the borough can grant to a person or an organisation. We don't do it too often.

"The RUC were granted the freedom of the borough nearly 30 years ago, the Royal Irish Regiment have the freedom of the borough.

"I think it will mean a lot to the men and women of the PSNI."

Sixty PSNI officers paraded through the town and attended the awarding of the freedom.

District commander Ch Supt Nigel Grimshaw said the honour was evidence of "growing confidence" in the PSNI.

See the rest here:
PSNI receive freedom of borough

Melissa Schechinger doesn't consider herself a political activist. But just before noon Friday, the mother of three from West Peoria found herself in Downtown Peoria, as part of a national Rally for Religious Freedom.

"I want to make sure we can practice our religion and not be infringed upon," Schechinger said as she stood aside a stroller that carried her 10-month-old daughter Mariah. "We're really at a crossroads right now with religious freedom."

The Schechingers joined about 250 others gathered at Main Street and Jefferson Avenue, in front of the Peoria County Courthouse.

As they stood near a statue of former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, speakers criticized a contraception-coverage mandate endorsed by the current Oval Office occupant, Barack Obama.

The mandate issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services would require the health plans of many religious institutions and employers to include free contraceptives, sterilizations and abortion-inducing drugs.

Employers with religious objections to contraception will not be required to cover birth control for employees. But employees will be able to obtain contraceptives directly from their insurers at no additional cost.

"I'll go to jail before I pay for abortion," said one rally participant, Don Castelli of rural Edwards.

Defiance also was evident in the public remarks of Bishop Daniel Jenky, the leader of the Catholic Diocese of Peoria.

"No government can tell us what our ministry is and what our ministry is not," Jenky told the crowd. "We will not cooperate."

Catholics have been perhaps the most vocal foes of the HHS mandate. But Jenky said 52 Eastern Orthodox Church bishops also have expressed opposition.

Continue reading here:
Religious freedom at 'crossroads'

Enlarge Alex Brandon/AP

Protesters rally for religious freedom in front of Philadelphia's Independence Hall on Friday. Rallies took place nationwide to protest the mandate that some religious organizations cover the cost of contraception.

Protesters rally for religious freedom in front of Philadelphia's Independence Hall on Friday. Rallies took place nationwide to protest the mandate that some religious organizations cover the cost of contraception.

Across the country, thousands of people skipped lunch Friday to protest what they see as a threat to religious liberties in the United States.

The protesters' specific complaint was the birth control mandate in the new health care law, but the discontent runs far deeper.

It didn't take much for the Rev. Pat Mahoney, an evangelical minister, to warm up the crowd in Washington. He gazed out at hundreds of people who filled the plaza in front of Kathleen Sebelius' office at the Department of Health and Human Services.

"Come on," Mahoney urged the crowd. "We want Secretary Sebelius to hear you!"

Beyond Birth Control

Earlier this year, Sebelius announced that the nation's new health care law would require some religious organizations, like Catholic hospitals and universities, to provide birth control coverage to employees.

Many conservative Catholics and evangelicals not to mention the Catholic bishops were furious at the announcement. That anger sparked the nationwide rallies, dubbed "Stand Up For Religious Freedom."

The rest is here:
Thousands Rally For Religious Freedom Nationwide

The United States Capitol, much like this citys other architectural glory, the National Cathedral, is as much a work in progress as a finished product. Completed nearly a century and a half ago, it has been repaired and improved almost nonstop. The famous statue of Freedom, the magnificent dome upon which it stands, the stunning paintings and frescoes by Constantino Brumidi, the hidden systems by which the vast building is heated and cooled all these and countless other features have been worked on and, wherever possible, modernized, a process that seeks to maintain the Capitols 19th-century grandeur while making it a hospitable environment in which to conduct the nations business when, that is, Congress is in the mood.

Still, the construction of the Capitol as the world has known it since Freedom was put in place in the late autumn of 1863 is a story unto itself the story of the buildings expansion in the 1850s and 60s from the comparatively small early 19th-century original and Guy Gugliotta tells it superbly in Freedoms Cap. He takes his title from the original design submitted in 1856 by Thomas Crawford, an American sculptor based in Rome, in which the elegantly draped figure of a woman wore a liberty cap, the symbol from classical antiquity of a manumitted slave. This was disagreeable to the secretary of war, Jefferson Davis, who had taken a powerful interest in the Capitols improvement but did not want anything associated with anti-slavery sentiments to be memorialized in the building. As Gugliotta explains, eventually the liberty cap was replaced by the somewhat bizarre crest of feathers and a birds head with which it has been adorned to this day, but he chooses, properly, to see the Capitol itself as the cap, worn by a nation whose people are now far more free than they were when the statue was installed.

(Hill & Wang) - Freedom's Cap: The United States Capitol and the Coming of the Civil War by Guy Gugliotta

Gugliotta is a freelance writer who has worked for a number of newspapers in various capacities including The Washington Post, though his path and mine never crossed. With this book, he joins that estimable group of non-professional historians who have revived the practice of narrative history, one cherished by serious readers but too often scorned these days in academic history departments. From time to time he strains to maintain narrative pace with unnecessary foreshadowing As time passed, Walter would have even more reason to worry about Meigs, Many things would happen to make Meigs repudiate those words but this may not annoy most readers as much as it does me. On balance, Gugliotta writes lucidly and engagingly, he brings to life a huge cast of characters, he captures the physical setting of Washington in the mid-19th century and the mood of a city where every transaction seemed to be poisoned by the issue of slavery, and he has done a stupendous amount of research.

What Gugliotta calls the seed of the Capitols expansion was planted in 1850 by Davis, then the junior senator from Mississippi, in communication with a Washington architect named Robert Mills. Davis wanted a set of drawings and estimates for an enlargement of the U.S. Capitol by adding new wings to either end of the existing building. Nothing as ambitious as that happens quickly in Washington, but the letter was the beginning:

View post:
“Freedom’s Cap: The United States Capitol and the Coming of the Civil War” by Guy Gugliotta

MADRID Freedom of information in Spain came one step nearer Friday after the recently-elected government agreed to introduce a bill in response to widespread disgust over corruption and mismanagement by elected officials of both main political parties.

The country's Cabinet agreed to put forward legislation that will allow Spaniards to find out more about how their money is spent by government. Spain, which is struggling to get its public finances under control, is one of Europe's few countries without wide-ranging freedom of information legislation.

"It is a law whose main goal is improve the credibility of and trust in our institutions, especially government ones," Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said.

The legislation will take months to come into effect, after an unprecedented 15-day period in which the general public can make suggestions on what should be accessible to them and how the law should work. After that, the bill has to be go through normal Parliamentary procedures.

Though the salaries of the prime minister and government ministers are already public information, as are the national budget and much other money-related data, not all of it is easy to access.

But under the new bill, information on subjects including senior public servants' salaries and detailed data on government contracts and subsidies will be published online. Spaniards will also be able to file requests for other kinds of information providing it does not breach national security or personal privacy.

The goal of the new law is to make public officials at all levels much more accountable for how they spend taxpayer money. People will be able to get information just by the click of a mouse.

"It is a law that tries to give rigor to compliance with budget and financial obligations that were unknown until now, but will serve to restore credibility to all levels of government," Saenz de Santa Maria said.

News of the Cabinet's support for a package that should make for more open government comes as the country struggles to avoid the same fate as other indebted European countries. The newly-elected conservative government is trying to convince investors that it has a strategy to deal with its debts so it won't follow Greece, Ireland and Portugal in needing a bailout.

Concerns have swelled recently after figures showed the country's borrowing last year was way more than expected, due in large part to overspending by regional governments but also because the economy is shrinking and laying siege to tax revenues.

Read this article:
Spain edges closer toward freedom of information law

Team Andrews member Airman 1st Class Kevin Pertuit, 779th Medical Squadron medical logistics technician, demonstrates his skating skills during tryouts for the Freedom Belles roller derby league at the Waldorf Roller Rink on March 14.The Freedom Belles are a Class 3 Modern Athletic Derby Endeavors (MADE) flat-track rookie league. For more information on how to join the league or volunteer, visit the Freedom Belles roller derby open tryouts Facebook site.

Whoosh! An exhilarating breeze filled the air in the Waldorf Roller Skating Rink as military members and their dependents coasted over the high-shine wooden floor during tryouts for the Freedom Belles roller derby league on March 14.

Air National Guard spouse, Veronica Cecil, founded this Class 3 Modern Athletic Derby Endeavors (MADE) flat-track rookie league.

According to http://www.skatemade.org, the mission of MADE is to serve as a modern implement of roller derby; to protect and promote athletes while providing spectators with an organized and entertaining experience.

The Freedom Belles roller derby league was established primarily for military members and their families; however, civilians are welcome to tryout as well, said Cecil. When my husband, Senior Master Sgt. Kevin Cecil, Air National Guard superintendent of recruiting and retention, and I were stationed at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan for a year and six months; I was on a league there. Thats when I found that I loved this sport so much that I couldnt live without it. So I decided to start my own league here.

Cecil evaluated participants on balance and comfort level on skates during the tryouts and said a more in-depth assessment of crossovers, falls and other derby techniques will occur during an upcoming six-week clinic.

People trying out for the league ranged from experienced derbies with athletic prowess to novice skaters.

I was pretty intimidated at first because I havent really skated since I was ten, said Melissa Tripsy Sparkles Fowler, Freedom Belles Army spouse. Ive been at it for about four months and its a fun, really good workout.

The school of hard knocks seems to be the best teacher when it comes to learning the heart-pounding, fast-rolling sport of roller derby.

Falling is part of the fun, as noted by the chorus of applause and cheer from teammates who are there to help you get up and rolling again should you fall.

Read more:
Freedom Belles roller derby = Friendship, fitness and fun

The nonprofit Freedom House substance abuse center will remain open as a partner to a new state facility for homeless veterans, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie confirmed Wednesday morning during a visit to Hunterdon County.

Freedom House will provide services to neighboring Veterans Haven North, the governor announced during a visit to Freedom Houses location on the grounds of the states Sen. Garrett W. Hagedorn Psychiatric Hospital in Lebanon Township.

Christie was in the township to reaffirm the states plan to convert Hagedorn into the northern chapter of Veterans Haven, a state program that helps homeless veterans find jobs and homes.

Veterans Haven North is scheduled to begin operating July 1, the day after Christie has said Hagedorn will close to save the state money.

We need more places like this, Christie said after a tour of Freedom House. ... Im happy to see Hagedorn Psychiatric Hospital will help people who served our country.

But the governor was non-committal about the future of Hagedorn patients and workers.

People will be placed where they need to be placed, he said of patients at the 288-bed facility. He said the states Department of Human Services will decide how many workers are retained but, We probably will not need all of those employees.

The closing of Hagedorn angered employees and patients' families, and on Wednesday a group of protesters stood on Sanatorium Road near the hospital with signs urging the governor to keep Hagedorn open as a psychiatric hospital.

"It's a better transition than where I was" previously, Pyzik told the governor.

'Totally unacceptable reality'

See the rest here:
Gov. Chris Christie on Veterans Haven, Freedom House: 'We need more places like this'

But at a time when public sector budgets are being slashed, it can be difficult to defend the costs of freedom of information.

Ken Thornber, leader of Hampshire County Council, said: "We spent 365,000 in 2010 answering freedom of information requests. What else could I do with that money? More social workers, more school inspectors, more spent on road maintenance."

Although the majority of requests are borne of genuine concerns, a small but significant number are vexatious or frivolous, often cited by FOI's critics as an example of wasted resources.

Thornber added: "We were asked how many drawing pins the council owns, and how many of those are presently installed in pinboards. Others have asked how much we have spent on biscuits for council meetings or on bottled water in a year.

"It's a waste of staff time to answer these questions, and every response has to be researched, written and checked by a senior officer before it goes out. We need some mechanism of deterring frivolous requests - such as a 25 charge."

A 2010 survey of local government by UCL's Constitution Unit estimated the cost of FOI at 31.6m, and that civil servants spent 1.2m hours responding to nearly 200,000 requests.

Central government received 27,294 requests during the same period. If every request costs an average of 293 and takes 7.5 hours to process - figures calculated by Frontier Economics - the total spend across central government would total 7.9m, and take an estimated 200,000 hours.

It is this money - and time - that could be put to better use, claim many in the public sector, especially when frontline services are being cut back while 270,000 jobs have been lost over the past year.

Nevertheless, it is important to keep these figures in context.

In the NHS, one recent estimate put costs at 30m, roughly equivalent to the NHS annual spend on chaplaincy.

See the rest here:
What price freedom (of information)?

ORLANDO, Fla., March 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Freedom Environmental Services, Inc. (OTC: FRDM.OB - News) was featured today in a newly released GLX Sector Report on the business of waste treatment with focus on two notable growth segments: waste-to-energy (WTE) and waste-to-products (WTP).

An excerpt from the Sector Report that best outlines the essence of the information reads as follows:

Firms in the waste-to-energy segment take the waste that they treat and create usable energy from burning the waste (i.e., incineration) or create energy products from that waste (biofuels or other types of usable fuel). This has been a growing business as the input cost (waste) is often cheaper than ethanol or other types of energy creating inputs. Furthermore, the industry is supported by the Renewable Portfolio Standard and other government programs that incentivize the creation of renewable energy. Highlighting the growing nature of this trend, large players in this industry have entered the WTE business at an increasing pace over the past five years.

How to get exposure to the growing parts of the waste treatment industry:

To get the full GLX Sector Report go to http://www.GLX.com.

About Global Listing Exchange:

GLX.com is a groundbreaking social networking platform which serves as the world's most comprehensive resource to the global capital markets. The GLX platform will transform the way each and every member of the world's capital markets gets information, communicates, and transacts.

The GLX-IR team provides interactive advertising, digital IR/PR, journalism, market intelligence, media/marketing, news dissemination, research, conference and event coordination, video production and ancillary specialty communications services to publicly traded companies worldwide.

About Freedom Environmental Services, Inc.

Freedom Environmental Services (www.freedomwaterservices.com) is one of Florida's only 100% "Green" grease and wastewater collection, processing, and recycling companies headquartered in Orlando, Florida. FES provides the most comprehensive, cost-effective and reliable treatment systems and services. FES provides full capture and processing of organics and grease from both commercial and residential accounts. FES processes all wastewater and grease, normally sent to a dump site, and produces a reusable bio-fuel feedstock. Working in conjunction with the Department of Environmental Protection, major utility providers, and local health departments, FES provides Wastewater and Storm-water System Management, Grease and Organics Collection, Processing, and Disposition, Commercial Plumbing and Water System Management, Septic service and maintenance, lift station maintenance, line jetting and excavations.

See the original post:
Freedom Environmental Services, Inc. is Featured in the Global Listing Exchange's (GLX) Sector Report on the Waste ...