Category Archives: Freedom

With so much attention focused on in highly restrictive countries such as China, Iran and Syria, the discussion of global Internet freedom often has tended to exclude the large class of more moderate nations with rapidly growing online populations with only a rudimentary set of laws and policies for the Web.

To the extent that the issue has received coverage in the mainstream press, the banner headlines have generally been reserved for the higher-profile flare-ups, recently seen in various Internet crackdowns amid the Arab spring uprisings or Google's 2010 standoff with China over online censorship.

But for Bob Boorstin, Google's director of corporate and policy communications, the greater uncertainty, both for U.S. businesses looking to new markets overseas and global Internet users, is found in the countries that have neither made forceful affirmations of online freedom nor implemented rigid, state-sanctioned censorship frameworks.

"The countries that I'm most concerned with in the next couple of years and that I think are most worth looking at are those in the middle -- the Brazils and the Indias and Argentinas and the Chiles and the North African countries and Southeast Asian [countries], like Indonesia, the Philippines. And the question I want to put on the table is which way are they going to go?" Boorstin said here at an event hosted by the Media Access Project, a nonprofit public-interest law firm and advocacy group. "That's the question that I'm focused on at the moment."

Clinton Shines Light on Internet Freedom

Shortly after Google went public with the revelations that it had been targeted by a series of cyber attacks emanating from China and announced that it would no longer comply with that country's Internet censorship rules, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made Internet freedom the subject of a major policy speech in January 2010, an issue she has revisited in subsequent remarks.

Secretary of State ClintonClinton cast the issue in terms of human rights and freedom of expression, and signaled that Internet freedom would become an integral part of U.S. foreign policy and diplomatic strategy.

Ben Scott, policy adviser for innovation at Clinton's office, called that speech a "sea change" that served to elevate Internet issues to a first-tier item on the global policy agenda.

"Virtually everyone has woken up to the fact that the Internet matters to foreign policy," Scott said on Tuesday. "This is an issue that no one can ignore anymore."

But that broad acceptance that the Internet matters is not to be mistaken for anything close to consensus on the subject, Scott said.

He acknowledged that there is a rudimentary understanding that "technology is a catalyst for economic growth" throughout the international community, but added that he regularly meets with senior government, academic and business leaders around the world who do not believe that the Internet represents a net good, a starting point that is bound to prescribe a policy framework very different from that found in the United States and other countries where the Web is a generally open platform for expression.

"I think we have an erroneous tendency to project our own assumptions and our own familiarities in this debate on other capital cities. And we forget the fact that in most of these middle countries it's really only in the last two years -- thanks to the smartphone -- that significant percentages of their populations are online," Scott said. "These are new questions in a lot of these countries."

In India, for instance, the percentage of residents using the Internet still numbers in the single digits, according to Scott. Yet that country, with the world's second largest population and a thriving tech economy in cities such as Mumbai and Bangalore, represents a hive of opportunities for U.S. tech firms. At the same time, it has exhibited some worrisome signs of heavy-handed oversight that could mute the enthusiasm with which businesses eye the market.

Google and Facebook Comply

Just this week, word surfaced that Google and Facebook had each taken down certain content on their domains in India to comply with a court ruling that upheld a lawsuit against a larger group of Internet companies seeking mechanisms to block sensitive religious material.

"That's the kind of thing that we're going to run up against all the time. The question is will they come out in the defense of an open Internet," Boorstin said of his company's situation in India.

He explained that he is hopeful that countries still developing the building blocks of their Internet policy will ultimately land on the side of openness. Even if they are not compelled by a philosophical allegiance to free expression, the pragmatic understanding that a cross-border flow of communication through social media and cloud computing technologies will be an essential piece of the 21st century economy should be motivation enough to loosen their Internet policies.

"They will recognize that without that free flow of information they're going to stifle if not strangle their growth," he said.

Kenneth Corbin is a Washington, D.C.-based writer who covers government and regulatory issues for CIO.com.

Read more about government in CIO's Government Drilldown.

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Internet Freedom: Next Battlefields

CALGARY, ALBERTA--(Marketwire -02/17/12)- Agriculture minister Gerry Ritz addressed the Western Barley Growers Association's 2012 Annual General Meeting today to highlight the economic benefits of marketing freedom for the barley industry.

"Our government has delivered on our long-standing commitment to give western Canadian barley farmers the marketing freedom they want and deserve," said Minister Ritz. "With the Marketing Freedom for Grain Farmers Act, western Canadian farmers can now decide how to market the crop based on what is best for their own business, all the while strengthening Canada's economy."

The Government of Canada remains focused on the economy, and strengthening Canada's barley industry will help create jobs and keep our economy strong. An open grain market attracts investment, encourages innovation, creates value-added jobs, and builds a stronger economy for all Canadians.

"The Harper Government's top priority continues to be the economy, in which the barley industry plays a vital role," said Minister Ritz. "With the global economy still very fragile, we continue to work on strengthening the agriculture industry, a significant driver of jobs and economic growth."

The Canadian Wheat Board is preparing for an open market and will be a viable marketing option for farmers. Western Canadian farmers now have the freedom to choose how to sell their products, whether that means selling on an open market or to the Canadian Wheat Board.

The Western Barley Growers Association has been a leader within the Canadian agricultural sector in support of marketing freedom and continues to work toward strengthening the barley sector.

See original here:
Western Barley Growers Welcome Marketing Freedom

The Cedar Rapids Freedom Festival Celebration of Freedom Fireworks are launched from May's Island in downtown Cedar Rapids on Monday July 4, 2011. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette)

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Freedom Festival, which last year experienced its largest turnout in 6 years, is hoping to build on that momentum during this summer’s events.

Organizers say the festival, which will run from June 21-July 4, will have more to offer, with perhaps the biggest addition being a second location to spend the Fourth of July.

Nearly 105,000 people turned out to watch fireworks along the Cedar River last year, and festival organizers said they saw an opportunity to accommodate more people.

“On the Fourth of July this year, we won’t just be downtown, we will also be at the Kernel’s stadium,” said Erika Elles, vice president of the Freedom Festival Board of Directors.

The festival also will offer a range of new activities leading up to the fireworks that day.

“We are going to start out the Fourth with a pancake breakfast, then a concert,” said Robyn Rieckhoff, the festival’s new executive director. “Then there will be the baseball game which will be followed by another concert.”

The festival also will last two weeks instead of three weeks this year, but organizers will still hold the flag-raising event on Flag Day, June 14.

“That was based on feedback we received from volunteers, people on the board, citizens of Cedar Rapids that attended the events,” Elles said.

Organizers have been using that feedback to decide what to include in the festival, and what to leave out.

“We are going to have a couple more bands coming, but we are not ready to release who that is going to be yet,” Rieckhoff said.

Elles said that organizers have decided not to hold events that had low attendance, like the cardboard regatta, this year.

But events like the Balloon Glow and the Firefighter Challenge drew so much interest, organizers are expanding them. The Firefighter Challenge will now be a two-day event where children can also compete.

“One of the comments we got from people who attended that event was ‘you have to bring this back, we just loved it,’” Elles said.

Rieckhoff said organizers still want to hear from the public about what they would like to see at this year’s festival. She said residents can leave feedback on the festival’s Facebook page or on their web site.

Excerpt from:
Freedom Festival organizers prepare for 2012

Reporting from Istanbul, Turkey—

One ofTurkey'sbest known publishers and human rights activists is sitting in prison — again — waiting for a court case that appears to be at a virtual standstill. He is far from alone.

Ragip Zarakolu was arrested in October along with dozens of other people suspected of having links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, also known as the PKK.

While he sits in a high-security prison in northwest Turkey, dozens more journalists are in jail around the country on orders of the nation's judicial system. Some say the number of those incarcerated is as high as 100.

"Everything is proceeding in an exceedingly Kafkaesque manner since the start," Zarakolu, 63, wrote in a letter to the Hurriyet Daily News in late December. "If lies pass as the truth, and denials have replaced apologies, then everything is rotten."

Turkey is often held up in the United States and Europe as a model of how democracy can work in a Muslim country. But human rights activists say the arrests of journalists is putting a damper on press freedoms that have been steadily eroding in recent years.

Zarakolu is a veteran of Turks' battle with censorship. He began in the early 1970s by publishing controversial works by Kurdish, Armenian and Greek authors. He was jailed in 1971 for three years on charges of belonging to a communist organization, and was barred from leaving the country until 1991. His office was bombed in 1995, and he has been charged over the years with many violations of censorship laws.

He is not the only prominent journalist arrested in recent months. Others include investigative reporter Nedim Sener, who has been writing about government corruption for 20 years, and Ahmet Sik, who has written about how a cult-like Islamic movement has found its way into the state security forces.

Last month, tens of thousands of people took to the street to remember ethnic Armenian Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, who was gunned down five years ago by an ultranationalist teenager. The number of people who turned out underscored the level of discontent about how the media are treated in Turkey.

"Without belittling the achievements of the government, the roof has fallen in on freedom of expression," said Hurriyet columnist David Judson.

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders recently published its annual press freedom index, which dropped Turkey 10 places to 148th in the world, just behind countries such as Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"The unprecedented extension of the range of arrests, the massive phone taps and the contempt shown for the confidentiality of journalists' sources, have helped to reintroduce a climate of intimidation in the media," the organization said.

Last month, noted American author Paul Auster said he would not visit Turkey as long as so many journalists and writers remained behind bars.

The issue goes well beyond the arrest of journalists and writers. Over the last year, hundreds of people, among them politicians and high-ranking members of the military, have been arrested as suspects in a plot to overthrow the government.

The arrest of journalists has drawn the attention of the European Union, which Turkey for years has been trying to join.

"The right of freedom of expression is undermined by the large number of legal cases and investigations against journalists, writers, academics and human rights defenders," Stefan Fule, the commissioner overseeing EU expansion, recently wrote to the president of the European Federation of Journalists. "This leads to self-censorship and, together with undue pressure on the media, raises serious concerns."

Until recently, the response of the Turkish government has generally been to dismiss the criticism. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan characterized it as nothing more than a "smear campaign" to discredit the judicial system.

"We have a situation here that Western intellectuals have never experienced," Erdogan recently told a group of media executives. "In the West, journalists do not take part in coup plots, they do not write books to lay the ground for coups."

Ozgur Ogret, an Istanbul journalist who has written extensively about the crackdown, said much of the problem lies in Turkey's anti-terrorism law, which gives the judiciary a free hand in deciding who might be an enemy of the state. Those jailed can spend months, even years, not knowing what charges have been leveled against them, he said.

Because of Turkey's robust economy and emerging role as a regional leader, Ogret said, the government, has been less inclined to bow to outside pressure.

"They don't think they need support anymore," he said.

But there are signs that Turkey is beginning to take the criticism more seriously. The parliament is scheduled in coming days to take up the question of pretrial detention of journalists. And Erdogan said last month that he would consider dismissing cases against journalists accused of crimes that would have sentences of less than five years.

As for Zarakolu, his lawyers are challenging his detention in a suit filed with the European Court of Human Rights. Meanwhile, he has been able to win one small victory behind bars. At the time of his arrest, his 36-year-old son, Deniz, was also taken into custody on suspicion of having links to the PKK, but he was sent to a different prison. The elder Zarakolu campaigned to be confined in the same prison, and that wish was granted.

Ogret said there are many other journalists with equally compelling stories.

"I can give you dozens of people who would also be a symbol," he said.

Kennedy is a special correspondent.

See original here:
Jailed journalists a sign of declining press freedom in Turkey

Benji Kimble never pushed Edgar Zepeda about it. But anytime the first-year Freedom High School boys soccer coach had a chance, he’d ask Zepeda the same question that everyone involved with the Eagles’ soccer program wanted an answer to: Was Zepeda going to play this season?

If Zepeda chose not to play this spring for Freedom and focus only on competing with D.C. United Academy like he did a year ago as a junior, Kimble would have been disappointed, but supportive of Zepeda’s decision.

Time, though, was becoming an issue as the starting date for spring sports season crept closer and quite honestly, Freedom needed Zepeda perhaps more than he needed them.

Although one kid on the soccer field may not make an entire difference between a win or a loss, Zepeda came darn close. When Zepeda anchored his team’s defense from his sweeper position as a sophomore, the Eagles had their best season in school history, going 7-7-2.

Without him last year, Freedom went winless. Granted, the Eagles lost some other key players from that 2010 team, but it was clear Zepeda’s loss made a huge impact, enough that the coaching staff believed Zepeda’s presence could have easily resulted in at least six wins in 2011. He was that important.

So the question remained: Was Zepeda going to play or not?

After a few weeks of checking in with Zepeda, Kimble finally got his answer.

“He said, ‘I’m playing for you,’ ” Kimble said.

Still to ensure everyone was on the same page, Kimble wanted to make sure Zepeda was in this for the long haul and that Freedom soccer would be the priority, even though he’d still have his academy commitments when the spring high school sports season begins Tuesday with tryouts.

“If we start making exceptions at Freedom, we’re running into problems,” Kimble said.

Zepeda assured Kimble Freedom was No. 1. He’d talked to his academy coaches about it and even his coaches at George Mason University, the college he signed with for men’s soccer earlier this month.

No one had an issue with it.

“My sophomore year when I did play, I had an impact,” Zepeda said. “This year, it’s going to be fun. I hope we can make progress.”

Besides his desire to enjoy his final year of high school, Zepeda’s decision to play for Freedom was aided in large part by the fact he had made his college decision already. One of the major factors for Zepeda playing for D.C. United Academy was to get more exposure, especially from colleges.

He was spotted at a tournament one day by someone from the academy and was brought in for a tryout. He earned a spot, but realized that between his studies (he was taking three AP classes at the time) and his academy commitments, there would be no time for high school soccer.

His coach then, Chris Valenti, understood Zepeda’s decision. But he’s glad to see him back on the field this season for the Eagles.

“I am very happy to see Edgar had decided to help us lead the team this season during his senior year,” said Valenti, who stepped down as head coach to work with an after-school credit recovery program, but will still serve as the head junior varsity coach. “I guess we will have to wait and see how the season goes, but I guarantee that a lot of the teams this year will have a hard time getting past him on defense.”

Beyond his soccer abilities, Zepeda is held up by Freedom coaches to other students and players as an example of how to conduct yourself. Zepeda is only the second Division I signee in the school’s history with the other one being basketball player Cam Long, who starred at George Mason.

“It’s something you can aspire to,” Kimble said. “He’s never led so much with his mouth, but he always does the right thing. That’s a great thing to hang your hat on. If you are not sure what to do, look at Edgar and think WWED, ‘What would Edgar do?’ ” Kimble said.

While he missed last year’s high school soccer season, Zepeda, who carries a 3.5 grade point average, did his best to keep tabs on the team. He’d come to a few games when he could and would always check in with the coaches when he saw them at school to offer words of encouragement.

But he has no regrets about missing last season. Beyond the college interest, Zepeda got the opportunity to play in Brazil and Holland. The one-year cost to participate in the D.C. United Academy program is $1,100, but to Zepeda the trade off was worth it.

“Technically, he’s so much better,” said Nolan Sheldon, Zepeda’s D.C. United Academy U-18 coach.

Last Wednesday inside the Freedom gym after school, Kimble held an informational meeting with those boys and girls interested in playing soccer for the Eagles. Zepeda was in the first row of bleachers, listening to his coach speak.

Later that evening, he’d have an academy game up in Arlington. But the good thing was there was time to do both. And Zepeda is glad for that, especially since this is his final year of high school.

“I kind of want to have fun,” Zepeda said. “I’ve made all my decisions. I’m kind of on the backburner.”

Sports editor David Fawcett can be reached at 703-530-3911

The rest is here:
Freedom's soccer program receives big lift with Edgar Zepeda's return

Every Friday throughout the run of From Asbury Park to the Promised Land: The Life and Music of Bruce Springsteen, we will publish dedicated content inspired by Bruce Springsteen and the First Amendment. “Freedom of Expression Fridays” will feature unique and original posts by musicians, writers, visual artists, and more, with a focus on issues such protest, dissent, and the role of art in politics and political campaigns.

One of the numerous drafts written by Bruce Springsteen of the lyrics for the song "Born to Run." Courtesy of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

In exploring the quest for the American ideal, Bruce Springsteen has used the freedom of expression to make powerful comments on his country, government and the lives of “We the People.” He is part of a long tradition of American protest songs. Here are five of his best.

“Born in the U.S.A.”

Famously co-opted by President Ronald Reagan for his 1984 re-election campaign (Springsteen objected), “Born in the USA” is the archetypal Springsteen protest song. On first listen, a prideful chorus of American patriotism, on closer examination it’s a poignant anti-war song. But this is not an idealistic call for world peace—Springsteen is writing from the point of view of a working-class Vietnam veteran adrift in the country he loves.

“The Promised Land”

In a speech on the streets of Philadelphia during the 2008 presidential campaign, Springsteen talked about his music: “I’ve spent most of my creative life measuring the distance between [the] American promise and American reality.” This thematic thread is perhaps most evident in “The Promised Land,” from 1978’s Darkness on the Edge of Town. The narrator has “done [his] best to live the right way…get up every morning and go to work each day” and though he may “feel so weak [he] want[s] to explode” he still believes in the promised land. The dogs on Main Street understand.

“Lost in the Flood”

Like “Born in the U.S.A.,” this song from Springsteen’s 1973 debut Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., sees a “ragamuffin gunner” returning home from Vietnam “like a hungry runaway.” More lyrical and enigmatic than the anthem it presages, “Lost in the Flood” is a complex commentary on the country to which veterans returned. The characters lose themselves in fast cars and guns while “everybody’s wrecked on Main Street from drinking unholy blood.”

“The Ghost of Tom Joad”

Inspired by the politically conscious protagonist of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, this song draws parallels between the Depression and the early 1990s, with “highway patrol choppers comin’ up over the ridge” while “families [sleep] in their cars.” Springsteen looked fondly on the social activism of the 1930s, and the refrain finds him “waitin’ on the ghost of Tom Joad.” Though Springsteen’s 1995 recording is stripped-down and subtle, the force of the lyrics is evident in a driving cover by Rage Against the Machine, the era’s most successful protest band.

“This Land is Your Land”

It’s not a Springsteen original, but this cover expresses the hopeful call for freedom of opportunity that runs through the singer’s work. According to Springsteen, this fixture of his live set was written by Woody Guthrie as “an angry song…a response to Irving Berlin’s ‘God Bless America.’” Like Guthrie’s classic folk ballad, Springsteen’s adaptation is a tender evocation of a beautiful nation which belongs to all of us, regardless of wealth or access to power.

From Asbury Park to the Promised Land: The Life and Music of Bruce Springsteen is on view at the National Constitution Center through September 3, 2012.

Christopher Munden is a Freelance Writer for the National Constitution Center. His favorite Springsteen album is Nebraska.

Also Read

Original post:
Let freedom sing: Springsteen’s five best protest songs

NEW YORK (AP) -- The big names at New York Fashion Week who are watched for trends include Marc Jacobs and Proenza Schouler. But now, Jacobs and Proenza designers Jack McCollugh and Lazaro Hernandez have more on their minds than mere creativity and innovation.

They have big businesses to run, and that has to enter the decision-making process at some point. When you're more of a startup, there's freedom.

And there might not be much money, so fashion shows are done on a much smaller scale. Models might work for clothes and other freebies. Fashionable friends might help with the styling. The shoestring approach worked for Zac Posen and Alexander Wang — and look at them now.

For Jason Wu it was more about a single dress: the first lady's inaugural gown. Prabal Gurung became the toast of the town with support from his old boss Cynthia Rowley and his appointed mentor Carolina Herrera.

Who could be next?

As part of Fashion Week, The Associated Press attended a handful of shows by designers who seem on the cusp. They are not household names, unless you live among the hipsters of SoHo or Brooklyn, but based on the buzz they had among front-row players, they seem to have potential as the next big things:

— Joseph Altuzarra is at the top of the list, winning in the past year both the Council of Fashion Designers of America award for up-and-coming talent and the Vogue/CFDA Fashion Fund prize, which gave him mentors and some seed money for his business.

In the first collection since then, Altuzarra drew on a gypsy's life, a wandering woman wearing jangling coin sequins and high leather boots.

There were other references, too, and they were oh-so-global: There was a bold, black-and-white African-inspired print in dresses and on a chunky, fur-trimmed jacket that would serve at a ski lodge or for every day.

He used wide panels of Moroccan blues and reds on some fronts, small red pompoms in a V design on others, along with shaggy fringe on heavy white knit tunics.

"I'm really thinking about my roots, what it means to be French and to be multicultural," he said backstage. "The fantasy really came from travel and this idea of an imaginary world traveler who kind of picks up things everywhere they go. From Morocco, North Africa, India, China."

The Swarthmore-educated Altuzarra, whose father is French-Basque and mother Chinese American, also had a favorite '70s comic book rapscallion in mind, Corto Maltese. Some of his strong shoulders and military tailoring were references to a "Viennese military cadet," he said.

"He's a half-gypsy, half-Venetian sailor who goes around the world and who has these adventures in the Middle East and North Africa and America. He's like a womanizer and he's very full of life. His mother was a gypsy witch."

While Altuzarra's past collections have been about deconstructing classic notions, this time he wanted to start with fabrics, shapes and tailoring that were "quite classic and quite French and very austere and strict" and make them new through the bits and pieces his imaginary traveler picked up along the way.

He played with fabrics a lot. "We were really interested in fabrics that could have a crispness and a strictness but that wouldn't necessary wear that way," Altuzarra said.

He went for 1950s and '60s silhouettes, some of which had very small waists, while emphasizing hips and shoulders.

— Parisian-turned-New Yorker Sophie Theallet spent four years working with Jean Paul Gaultier and 10 with Azzedine Alaia, but she feels settled into her own atelier, which she set up in 2007.

We continue to grow in a nice way, in a subtle way," over the last year or two, she said backstage. "I'm good. I'm happy. More and more people know about me."

She said her customers are "uptown clients, but it can be also the cool clients. It's like the same kind of woman, uptown or downtown."

Michelle Obama has on several occasions been spotted wearing Theallet.

For next season, Theallet bucked the Fashion Week trend and offered a wide range of color. A classic sleeveless cocktail dress in midnight blue was fitted through the waist but full at the bottom for a lively swing when walking.

She was inspired, she said, by an aristocrat "disowned" by her family. "She lives in the mansion, but she doesn't have any money. She just has a pension from an old uncle and with that money she spends everything on fashion, and she drinks champagne in crystal glasses."

Like her eccentric muse might have done, Theallet paired a knit turtleneck in burnt sienna under a vest of teal done in a large leaf motif with a shimmery skirt of the same pattern but in a deep purple, slit high on one thigh.

She sent out sheers in black and ice plum with dainty velvet dots. The party dress done that way in the plum tastefully draped for a deep V at the front and had the high thigh slit.

Her silhouettes were "kind of chic, strict and at the same time very free, that nonchalance, to present the education in fashion and the eccentricity," Theallet said.

— Carly Cushnie and Michelle Ochs have gained attention the past two years for their sexy, clingy dresses. Between the two women, they have an impressive list of designers they've learned from, interning at Proenza, Marc Jacobs, Ralph Rucci, Donna Karan, Oscar de la Renta and Issac Mizrahi.

They say their newest looks were inspired by Pedro Almodovar's "The Skin I Live In," in which Antonio Banderas plays a plastic surgeon who lost his wife in a fiery crash and is determined to create a stronger, synthetic skin.

Their runway stood out at Fashion Week because it went against the conventional wisdom that it would be a very covered up season.

They went wild with slits and cutouts: In the front, back, on the sides. At times, as in an emerald silk crepe "aperture" dress, the slit was right in the chest. In an azul blue number, also in crepe silk, the aperture — like the opening of a camera lens — cut right across the waist.

There were also striking "open-eyes" dresses, where eye-shaped slits appeared under the neckline.

Dress lengths were often at the knee, perhaps to counteract the sexiness quotient of what appeared above.

And if you were looking for the plastic surgery references, you had them in the "wrapped bandage" dresses, and zippers, zippers, zippers — down the front, down the sides, even under the breasts, as in a bone-colored dress that had the effect of a brassiere on top of a dress.

— Suno is a brand that since its start has wanted to start a trend, but it has nothing to do with hemlines. Max Osterweis and design partner Erin Beatty had the loftier goal of teaching Kenyans a sustainable craft that would boost local economies when it sold its first outfits made of vintage fabrics in 2009.

The company has grown and so has its mission: It now makes clothes and embraces local techniques and expertise in India, Peru and New York. Because of its roots, prints have always been important to this collection, and fall had plenty, including those with stripes, florals, toile, fish and one of people holding hands.

There was a more-the-merrier message and sometimes multiple prints were worn at once.

But that's for the runway. Peel back a few layers and there were a lot of wearable pieces that covered a fashion-forward w
oman's needs from day to night. The people-print boatneck T-shirt dress looked great with a felted wool gray jacket, and so did a gold pleated top over a plain tan one with a pleated mini made of metallic wool.

The finale look was a statement in how far the designers have come since those first easy cotton looks. A model wore a wool military-style vest over black leather top — with its peplum peeking out — and a black skirt with gold beads that created a feather pattern.

— Bibhu Mohapatra's specialty is eveningwear, and he'll often highlight the colors and luxurious fabrics associated with his Indian roots. This season, however, he found inspiration in imperial China, specifically a Chinese opera called "The White Haired Girl."

In his notes, he explained the look revolved around "the protagonist's strength, courage and passion for love."

On the runway, Mohapatra expressed his interest through his prints — red silk printed pants and a blue silk pencil skirt, for example. But he also couldn't ignore the luxury customer he began courting as an assistant designer for Halston, and later at J. Mendel, where he eventually became design director.

With that background, working with alligator and pony fur, blue-dyed fox fur and leather seemed to come easily.

The breakout looks included a pleated chiffon ombre gown that went from black to beige, and a metallic silk dress covered in red ribbon embroidery. If he could get his ivory crepe gown with a plunging sheer panel and ivory embroidery on the red carpet on the right star, it could be his big break.

— Since partnering last year on Nahm, Nary Manivong and Ally Hilfiger (yes, daughter of Tommy), the duo already has a signature item in the shirtdress. But how to put your own twist on such a basic? With double collars, dropped waists, contrast pleats and conversational prints in silhouettes that evoke the 1920s and '30s.

Manivong's favorite print this season certainly was a conversation starter: It featured ancient Egyptians doing tasks of 2012 — skateboarding, shopping, mowing the lawn and sipping tropical cocktails.

"The Nahm girl is growing up, as we are," he said.

In her closet, she'll add for fall schoolgirl-style pleated skirts with a sheer blouse and an extreme A-line navy maxi skirt and plum-colored chiffon-loop blouse under a zip-front tuxedo coat.

"Our customer — she thinks, she's smart, she's well read," said Hilfiger.

___

Follow AP fashion coverage at http://twitter.com/ap_fashion

___

AP National Writer Jocelyn Noveck and Associated Press Writer Leanne Italie contributed to this report.

Excerpt from:
Freedom in fashion startups for up and comers

Contraception controversy gets ugly

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Contraception debate opens up new front in culture wars Abortion, gay marriage? Politicians have moved on to religious freedom, other issues Some want to extend exemption for churches to any employer

The White House (CNN) -- Welcome to the culture wars 2.0, where the front lines now are religious freedom and contraceptives. Abortion? Gay marriage? Those are so last year.

The White House seems to have assuaged the concerns of liberal and moderate religious voices, particularly Catholics, who complained that the U.S. Health and Human Services mandate on contraceptive coverage violated religious freedom of conscience. The policy now includes a wide exemption for religious groups; requires insurance companies, instead of religious employers, to foot the bill; and still includes a year to hammer out the details.

But now, the issue is firmly entrenched in a political battle on Capitol Hill. Republicans are seizing on the issue as an opportunity to push back on the Affordable Care Act, which they gleefully call "Obamacare." Democrats, meanwhile, are punching back, saying that rolling back the mandate is a slap in the face to women and that this is exclusively a women's health issue.

Political shots were fired from both sides at a Thursday hearing convened by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

The hearing, titled "Lines Crossed: Separation of Church and State. Has the Obama Administration Trampled on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience?" featured conservative religious voices from across the spectrum, most of whom were male.

"Today's hearing is a solemn one. It involves freedom of conscience," Issa said at the beginning of the hearing.

CNN Poll: Half oppose Obama birth control insurance plan

The Most Rev. William Lori, the Catholic bishop of Bridgeport, Connecticut, testified on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which denounced the compromise last week, saying it still raised "serious moral concerns."

Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, director of the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University, testified: "The administration impedes religious liberty by unilaterally redefining what it means to be religious."

Craig Mitchell, an associate professor from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, said the HHS policy, "... is not just wrong for religious conservatives, it's wrong for all Americans."

The Democratic women on the committee slammed Republicans for not allowing a female witness on the first panel -- a Georgetown University law school student chosen by Democrats to appear in support of the policy.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-New York, took offense to the overwhelming majority of men on the witness list. "I want to know -- where are the women?" she asked.

Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., raised her voice against Issa's lineup. "We've been denied the right to have a witness!"

Two women invited by the Republicans -- Dr. Laura Champion and Allison Dabbs Garrett -- later testified during a second panel in the afternoon.

The Obama administration has largely satisfied moderate and liberal Catholics whose objections to the policy prompted the change. They point to religious groups like the Catholic Health Association, which initially opposed the HHS mandate but now support the compromise.

"The president's accommodation both recognizes the institution's religious identity while also maintaining affordable health care for all Americans," James Salt, the executive director of Catholics United, told CNN. Salt was part of the driving force of liberal Catholic groups that pushed the White House hard to make the change to the policy.

If the fight with moderate and liberal religious voices has ended, the battle on Capitol Hill continues. Both sides are appealing to their bases, with Republicans seeing an opportunity to chip away at the president's signature health care reform law. They have proposed legislation in the in the Senate and the House to repeal the contraception policy and allow any employer -- not just religiously affiliated ones -- to reject the requirement.

On Wednesday, Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Nebraska, said at a news conference on the new bills, "No American should be forced to choose between their faith and their job."

Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who led the charge in Congress to pass Obama's health care bill when she was speaker, said the issue was about women's access to health care. "Imagine, they're having a panel on women's health and they don't have any women on the panel. Duh. What is it that men don't understand about women's health and how central the issue of family planning is to that?"

"The Catholic vote, in particular those moderate Catholics in the middle who can swing one way or the other, they are always highly sought-after political prizes," said John Allen, a CNN Vatican analyst and reporter for the National Catholic Reporter.

"Forty-five percent of those Catholics are going to vote for the Democrat no matter what, and 45% of the Catholics are going to vote for the Republican no matter what. So the game is always for those 10% of Catholics in the middle. But of course, you're talking about a pool of people over the age of 18 who are eligible to vote, of about 4 million people, and they tend to be heavily concentrated in states that are battleground states, places like Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, the Southwest, Texas and so on," Allen said.

"There's a thick political subtext here, which is both Republicans and Democrats would like to define the other side as hostile to the interest of those centrist Catholics who could swing either way," he said.

Senior Obama administration officials say they are confident they have assuaged the concerns of those middle-of-the-road Catholics and were not aiming to win over Catholics and other religious leaders because they say nothing would have appeased them short of a complete reversal of the policy.

But one thing is for sure: This issue is not going away.

Original post:
Contraceptives, religious freedom: Are we in a new culture war?

Religious freedom in America is under attack from the right and the left. James Madison, the father of our Constitution, referred to the right of conscience as “the most sacred of all property” – our greatest possession.

That right is increasingly insecure. Under his expansive health care initiative President Obama mandated that all institutions provide insurance coverage for contraceptives, including the morning-after pill, even though this mandate violated the religious conscience of Roman Catholics.

The Obama administration narrowly averted a major political crisis when it later agreed to “balance” the government mandate by accommodating the free-exercise rights of Catholics. But now critics say the adjustment doesn't fully exempt the church from funding coverage for birth control, calling it a "shell game." And leaders in the Catholic church have said the compromise amounts to a "hill of beans" and have vowed legal action.

What is clear is that Mr. Obama had the power – and still does – to disregard the right of conscience, if political winds blew in another direction. Does the president really support the freedom of conscience or is his gesture a politically motivated charade?

OPINION: 8 ways to find common ground

Perhaps, but the trend away from religious freedom has been under attack long before the Obama decision.

In 1990, Justice Scalia, a conservative member of the Supreme Court, authored a decision in Employment Division v. Smith, a case considering whether the state of Oregon could deny unemployment benefits to two Native American men for their the use of peyote (a cactus with psychoactive properties when ingested), whose use and possession is illegal in the state, in the Native American Church.

With his ruling, Mr. Scalia rejected past Court precedent that provided stronger protection for the right of religious conscience – precedent that had served our nation well. Largely ignoring the track record under the old rule, his opinion stated that to exempt the men from penalties for their religious use of peyote would “make the professed doctrines of religious belief superior to the law of the land, and in effect to permit every citizen to become a law unto himself.”

Scalia essentially enunciated a new rule that permits the federal government to violate religious conscience so long as it does so with a general law that is not directly intended to discriminate against religious exercise. In that single act, the Court reduced religious conscience from a right to a mere privilege.

The response to Scalia’s opinion was dramatic. Congress, overwhelmingly and with strong support from President Clinton, passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1994, restoring a robust right of conscience. Unfortunately, in City of Boerne v. Flores, decided in 1997, the Court held that Congress had exceeded it powers, effectively leaving Obama free to disregard religious conscience in his health care initiative.

THE MONITOR'S VIEW: The Obama birth-control mandate

With the growth of government, religious conscience will likely continue to fall victim to these so-called general laws. It isn’t hard to predict that government will eventually extend its regulatory tentacles into private faith-based education, health care, and even social services.

This conflict over religious freedom and the reach of government is not new. George Mason and James Madison disagreed over the scope of the right of religious conscience when Virginia was adopting a declaration of rights.

Mason and Madison both acknowledged that religion is a duty owed our Creator. Mason, however, believed that while religious conscience “should enjoy the fullest toleration,” government was free to regulate conscience if it “disturb[ed] the peace, the happiness, or safety of society.”

Alarmed that Mason had transformed the most sacred of rights into a mere privilege granted by tolerant lawmakers, Madison responded that free exercise could only be limited when the exercise of that right deprived another of an “equal liberty” and when that exercise of conscience “manifestly endangered” the “existence of the state.”

For Mason, like Obama and Scalia, religious exercise was a privilege at the mercy of government. Madison, however, saw it as an inalienable right largely beyond the reach of government. Madison’s view became the basis for our First Amendment.

Madison understood what Scalia and Obama evidently do not, that conscience is our most significant possession.

THE MONITOR'S VIEW: Supreme Court's historic but unfinished ruling for religious liberty

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., had an experience during the early stages of the civil rights movement that demonstrated the importance of the right of conscience.

One night, Dr. King received a vicious call threatening his family. As he worried about his family, he realized “religion had to become real...[he] had to know God for [himself].” He prayed, “Lord, I’m down here trying to do what’s right.... I think the cause we represent is right. But Lord...I’m losing my courage. And I can’t let the people see me like this because if they see me weak...they will begin to get weak.”

King heard an inner voice saying, “Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness. Stand up for justice. Stand up for truth. And lo I will be with you, even until the end of the world.” He was “called” to lead a movement that transformed America.

Recognizing the importance of conscience King taught that, “If you haven’t found something worth dying for, you aren’t fit to be living.”

Madison would see Dr. King’s religious conscience as a right, not a mere gift from an occasionally tolerant government. It seems that Obama would have us believe that he would recognize it as a right as well, but his actions indicate he may not.

If Obama, Scalia, and others continue their overreach and disregard for this fundamental right of conscience, religious freedom in America will remain insecure. If Obama genuinely supports religious liberty, he can step forward and offer his support for an amendment adopting the language of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1994.

That amendment would restore religious liberty by requiring that the government prove that its regulation of religious exercise is necessary to a compelling state interest. The amendment would also require the government to prove that the regulation is the least restrictive manner in which the government’s compelling interest can be achieved.

OPINION: 5 standards for presidential leadership

That amendment would recognize that religious liberty is not a mere privilege. It would restore our most sacred possession – the right of religious conscience.

Rodney K. Smith is a First Amendment scholar who serves as a distinguished professor of law at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, Calif.

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Does Obama really care about religious freedom in America?

Freedom Valu Centers, with 65 stores located throughout the  Midwest, presented The Children’s Home Society President and CEO  Maureen Warren with a check for $37,563 on Feb. 7. 

The check is total proceeds raised during the 2011 Little Red Stocking campaign. 

Freedom stores supported the Little Red Stocking Campaign by selling red stockings in $1 and $5 amounts in their stores. Donors receive a personalized stocking to hang in the store where the donation was made.

The campaign ran Nov. 14 through Jan. 1. This is the  second consecutive year that Freedom Valu Centers supported the Red  Stocking campaign.
“We had some fun competition between the stores to see what store  teams could sell the most Red Stockings during the first three weeks of the campaign.” said Darren Forbes, senior vice president of Freedom Valu Centers. “Some stores had to get creative in where they pasted the stocking, because of overwhelming support from our customers  and the incredible number of stocking sold.”

“We sure are proud of the effort put forth by all of our associates for such a worthy cause.”

Children’s Home Little Red Stocking Campaign can be life changing. It works all year long to give kids in our community an opportunity to learn and grow, and lets them thrive in a safe and loving  family.

Since 1909, the Little Red Stocking campaign has been raising money to help our neighbors. It is an enduring symbol of  community giving, widely recognized and highly respected in the  Twin Cities and throughout Minnesota.

Based in St Paul, Children’s Home builds, strengthens and supports  families so that children can thrive. Through a wide range of  services including adoption, counseling and education, Children’s  Home works to ensure that every child has security, opportunity and a loving family.

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Freedom raises money for Red Stocking campaign