Warning - Advisory -- Conditions from Snow Melt & Warm Front

Monday afternoon (Jan. 28, 2013):
National Weather Service
North Webster, Indiana

Updated Jan 28, 2013, 4:40p.m. EST

... PATCHY DENSE FOG LATE THIS AFTERNOON...

FOG WILL REDUCE VISIBILITIES TO A QUARTER MILE OR LESS ACROSS PORTIONS OF NORTHWEST INDIANA AND SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN LATE THIS AFTERNOON.

PEOPLE TRAVELING ACROSS THE AREA LATE THIS AFTERNOON SHOULD USE EXTRA CAUTION AND EXPECT DELAYS. THE DENSE FOG WILL LIKELY PERSIST THROUGH THE EVENING.

Lecture - "Direct Examination of Shroud of Turin" -- Notre Dame Prof. of Aerospace & Engineering - Jan. 29, 2013

Thirty-five years ago an expedition was mounted to examine the Shroud of Turin, take data and samples in an attempt to establish the possibility that the Shroud could be the burial cloth of Jesus of Nazareth. Dr. Jumper was one of two co-directors of that expedition. This presentation will relate the preparation and testing of the Shroud and discuss the specific findings regarding the chemical makeup of the various stains and images on the cloth. C14 dating, performed in the early 1980’s, showed that the samples of the cloth that were analyzed had a Carbon date that placed them in the Middle Ages. Although no conclusive method has been established on the specific mechanism responsible for the cloths images, the presumption has been that the cloth could not be the authentic burial cloth of Jesus. Dr. Jumper’s position, since the time that the C14 dating was made public, is that the Shroud cannot have a first century origin; however, new information has come to light that has introduced some doubt to his previous certainty.

Professor Eric J. Jumper

Start:

1/29/2013 at 3:30PM

End:

1/29/2013 at 5:00PM

Location:

Lower Level Auditorium, Geddes Hall

Host:

College of Engineering Administration

Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

>Click to learn more

Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

ame@nd.edu

http://ame.nd.edu/seminars/professor-eric-j.-jumper

Religious Holiday - "New Year's Day for Trees"

January 26, 2013

Tu B’Shvat (Jewish)
New Year’s Day for Trees, and traditionally the first of the year for tithing fruit of trees. Now a day for environmental awareness and action, such as tree planting.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/multifaith-calendar/

What is "al Qaeda 3.0"? Brookings Institution expert on Islamic Maghreb / Mali

Posting by Bruce Riedel, senior fellow, Saban Center for Middle East Policy -- http://www.brookings.edu/research/opinions/2013/01/15-al-qaeda-mali-riedel

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is a group with ambitions. Similar to its partnership with the Taliban in Afghanistan, the group last year successfully gained the support of Ansar al Dine, a local jihadist group in Mali, and together they now control a huge expanse of territory. In the same way that al Qaeda and the Taliban destroyed Afghanistan's historical treasures in the years leading up to 9/11, they are destroying the cultural heritage in Timbuktu. And as it happened in Afghanistan, jihadists from across the region are now flocking to Mali to get access to training, money, and weapons.

The jihadi offshoot in the Maghreb used to be ranked as one of al Qaeda's weaker franchises. Created from an Algerian terrorist group in 2006, the group at first focused on petty criminal enterprises, such as kidnapping Westerners traveling in the remote deserts of Algeria, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger. However, the ransoms paid into what became a sizable war chest, counting over $100 million. And in 2007, it launched its first successful larger scale attack: blowing up the United Nations headquarters in Algiers with twin car bombs.

After the fall of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, the group began to accumulate huge amounts of weapons from the North African country, which remains unstable. This windfall was followed up by the strategic partnership with Ansar al Dine that allowed the two groups to sweep out government forces from northern Mali, before turning on a Tuareg independence movement, an erstwhile ally, gaining control of an area of the Sahara the size of Texas. The mix of al Qaeda in the Maghreb, Ansar al Dine, and the Tuareg rebels is combustible. After the looting of the Gaddafi arms depot in Libya, they are all very well armed; indeed, al Qaeda in the Maghreb is likely the best armed al Qaeda franchise operating in the world today.

It is also the fastest-growing al Qaeda franchise in the world today. And most of Mali's neighbors are horrified at what is taking place in the north. The Moroccan foreign minister told me recently that the jihadists present the greatest threat to regional stability in more than a decade. As previous experiences in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere have taught us, once al Qaeda establishes a presence in a failing state, it becomes very difficult to dislodge.

So France, the former colonial ruler of Mali, has stepped into the fray. In early January 2013, French troops stopped an attack by the jihadists on the capital, Bamako, and is now attacking terrorist bases in the north.

The intervention is a mixed blessing. The French know more about Mali than anyone else. They should—it is their creation—an artificial state whose borders Paris created. French intelligence has better insights into Tuareg and jihadi militants than their counterparts in the U.S. or the U.K. But Paris also carries a lot of baggage from the colonial era, and many Africans and Arabs resent French interference.

Algeria, Mali's big neighbor to the north with the largest army in Africa and extensive spy networks across the Sahara, is especially sensitive and nervous about the French campaign. Algiers opposed NATO's role in Libya and now blames NATO for starting the Mali mess.

So what should the United States do? Well, Washington can help with diplomatic efforts in the United Nations and elsewhere.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton weighed in with a visit to Algiers in 2012; after calling the French plan for Mali intervention (expletive: cr*p) last month, the U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice has secured the organization's blessing for fighting AQIM.

Going forward, American drones and other surveillance assets should assist the French, who also, urgently, need more smart bombs and munitions, because it is clear al Qaeda will strike back. It can kill hostages and kidnap more.

Tubing on 800-foot hill: Buchanan Michigan's "Thrill on the Hill" (Jan. 25-26 night and day)

Thrill On the Hill

From: Buchanan Area Chamber of Commerce

1/25/2013 - 1/26/2013
In: Buchanan

Bring your family and come tubing on our 800-foot long hill. The City of Buchanan, Michigan closes its main thoroughfare (Front Street) and invites you to use our tubes to fly down Front Street's hill! The road is closed for tubing only and happens just once a year! Tubing fun, games, contests, great food and a winterland playground for the youngsters. Outdoor music. Frosty and Rudolph show up to frolic with kids and grownup kids alike! Family Fun on Friday January 25, 2013, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wristband entry $5. Grown-Up’s Midnight Run 11 p.m. - 1 a.m. $5 wristband entry includes free taco bar at the Legion. Family Fun returns Saturday January 26th, 2013 from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. wrist-band entry $5. For more information, call (269) 695-3488.

http://www.michigan.org/events/thrill-on-the-hill/

Birthday of the Prophet (Holy day in Islam) - January 24 annually

from Religion & Ethics Newsweekly "Multi-faith Calendar" 2013:

January 24, 2013

Milad Al-Nabi (Islamic)
Celebrates the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad, founder of Islam. Shi’a Muslims celebrate it five days later than Sunni Muslims.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/multifaith-calendar/

Silent March on Washington -- 1MM4GC -- Saturday 1/26/2013

from One Million Moms for Gun Control website = Washington, District of Columbia

Silent march in Washington, DC

When: Saturday, January 26, 2013 at 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Eastern Time Zone

Where: Beginning at the Capitol Reflecting Pool on 3^rd Street NW (across from the Museum of the American Indian), the march will progress down Constitution Ave., ending in a rally with speeches and music at the Washington Monument NE quadrant.

About this event: Thousands of citizens, spurred by the Newtown, CT gun massacre, plan a silent march to support President Obama’s gun-control plan and call on Congress and state legislators to protect Americans from gun violence. The march will unite concerned parents, pastors, actors, gun-violence survivors, law enforcement officers, elected officials and others who want common-sense gun control regulations.

http://onemillionmomsforguncontrol.org/

To Roll One's Eyes at a Chain-Smoker's Teasing Comments to you as a Spouse of an ex-Smoker

from WASHINGTON POST columnist's research from the Jan. 21 Inauguration Broadcast events (Washington, D.C. -- Dinner at Congress):

Eye rolling

What's your take on the First Lady's eye rolling at John Boehner during one of the Inaugural events? She certainly didn't look very pleasant in that video.

Answer (chat-discussion)

Roxanne Roberts :

Inside Edition (TV nightly show) had a lip reader look at the video and said the eye roll was a response to Boehner (a chain smoker) teasing the president about Michelle not allowing him (Pres. Obama) to smoke anymore.

http://live.washingtonpost.com/the-reliable-source-012313.html

Rev. Adam Hamilton of Kansas - anecdote about "Knocking Holes in Darkness" - National Prayer Service 2013

part of the Sermon -- "Compassion Vision Perseverance: Lessons from Moses" (Tuesday Jan. 22, 2013 at National Cathedral's Prayer Service for Inauguration of Pres. Obama and V-P Biden) :

During Dr. Martin Luther King weekend a few years ago I heard on NPR an interview with Rev. Billy Kyles, who was with Dr. King on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel when he died. The interviewer asked Kyles what he’d be preaching that weekend, and Reverend Kyles told a story you’ve undoubtedly heard before, but one that bears repeating. He said, “I’ll be telling the old story told about Robert Louis Stevenson.” Stevenson, the 19th century author, once told how as a boy he’d been sitting in the window, nose pressed against the glass in rapt attention as the lamplighter came to light the gas street lamps. Climbing up and down the ladder in the darkness – it was a fascinating sight to a little boy. His father walked in the room, and seeing how intently his son was looking out the window asked, “Son, what are you looking at?” To which the young Stevenson replied, “Father, I’m watching the man out there knock holes in the darkness.”
There’s a lot of darkness in the world. Lead us to be a compassionate people, concerned for the marginalized. Help us rediscover a vision for America that is so compelling that it unites us and calls us to realize the real potential of America to be that “shining city upon a hill.” And, when you feel your lowest, don’t give up. Lead us Mr. President, to knock holes in the darkness!

http://www.nationalcathedral.org/worship/sermonTexts/ah20130122.shtml

Secretary of State - Statement to Senate Foreign Relations meeting (Jan. 23, 2013)

from State dot-gov official website:

We’ve also been moving forward on a third front: addressing the broader strategic challenge in North Africa and the wider region, because, after all, Benghazi did not happen in a vacuum. The Arab revolutions have scrambled power dynamics and shattered security forces across the region. Instability in Mali has created an expanding safe haven for terrorists who look to extend their influence and plot further attacks of the kind we saw just last week in Algeria.
And let me offer our deepest condolences to the families of the Americans and all the people from many nations who were killed and injured in that recent hostage crisis. We are in close touch with the Government of Algeria. We stand ready to provide assistance. We are seeking to gain a fuller understanding of what took place so we can work together with Algerians and others to prevent such terrorist attacks in the future.
Concerns about terrorism and instability in North Africa are of course not new. They have been a top priority for the entire Administration’s national security team. But we have been facing a rapidly changing threat environment, and we have had to keep working at ways to increase pressure on al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and the other terrorist groups in the region.
In the first hours and days, I conferred with leaders – the President of Libya, Foreign Ministers of Tunisia and Morocco – and then I had a series of meetings at the United Nations General Assembly where there was a special meeting focused on Mali and the Sahel. In October, I flew to Algeria to discuss the fight against AQIM. In November, I sent Deputy Secretary Bill Burns to follow up in Algiers. And then in December, in my stead, he co-chaired an organization we started to respond to some of these threats: the Global Counterterrorism Forum, which was meeting in Abu Dhabi, as well as a meeting in Tunis of leaders working to build new democracies and reform security services.
We have focused on targeting al-Qaida’s syndicate of terror – closing safe havens, cutting off finances, countering extremist ideology, slowing the flow of new recruits. And we continue to hunt the terrorists responsible for the attacks in Benghazi and are determined to bring them to justice. We are using our diplomatic and economic tools to support these emerging democracies and to strengthen security forces and help provide a path away from extremism.
But let me underscore the importance of the United States continuing to lead in the Middle East, in North Africa, and around the world. We’ve come a long way in the past four years, and we cannot afford to retreat now. When America is absent, especially from unstable environments, there are consequences. Extremism takes root; our interests suffer; our security at home is threatened.
That’s why I sent Chris Stevens to Benghazi in the first place. Nobody knew the dangers better than Chris, first during the revolution, then during the transition. A weak Libyan Government, marauding militias, terrorist groups; a bomb exploded in the parking lot of his hotel, but he did not waver. Because he understood it was critical for America to be represented there at that time.
Our men and women who serve overseas understand that we accept a level of risk to protect the country we love. And they represent the best traditions of a bold and generous nation. They cannot work in bunkers and do their jobs. So it is our responsibility to make sure they have the resources they need, and to do everything we can to reduce the risks.
For me, this is not just a matter of policy. It’s personal. I stood next to President Obama as the Marines carried those flag-draped caskets off the plane at Andrews. I put my arms around the mothers and fathers, the sisters and brothers, the sons and daughters, and the wives left alone to raise their children.
It has been one of the great honors of my life to lead the men and women of the State Department and USAID. Nearly 70,000 serving here in Washington; more than 270 posts around the world. They get up and go to work every day, often in difficult and dangerous circumstances, because they believe, as we believe, the United States is the most extraordinary force for peace and progress the world has ever known.
And when we suffer tragedies overseas, as we have, the number of Americans applying to the Foreign Service actually increases. That tells us everything we need to know about what kind of patriots I’m talking about. They do ask what they can do for their country, and America is stronger for it.
So today, after four years in this job, traveling nearly a million miles, visiting 112 countries, my faith in our country and our future is stronger than ever. Every time that blue and white airplane carrying the words “United States of America” touches down in some far-off capital, I feel again the honor it is to represent the world’s indispensible nation. And I am confident that, with your help, we will keep the United States safe, strong, and exceptional.

http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2013/01/203158.htm

Snow Emergency -- Campuses Closed

Lake Michigan -- Napier Ave., Benton Harbor, MI // Bertrand Crossing, Niles, MI // South Haven, MI

Road conditions and winter lake effect warning conditions -- too much snow -- January 24, 2013

Statehood Anniversary -- Events at State Historical Museum (also Bicentennial of WAR of 1812)

from State DNR website (Saturday, January 26, 2013)

This year, our annual Statehood Day celebration honors the 176th birthday of the Great Lakes State and the bicentennial of the War of 1812. Come join the fun—and come early: The first 200 visitors receive a piece of birthday cake and a poster of a historic map!

In the Forum Auditorium - First Floor

• 11:30 a.m. - See the new documentary, "Michigan at War: The Struggle for the Old Northwest, 1812‑1815," introduced today in person by executive producer and secretary of the Michigan Commission on the Commemoration of the Bicentennial of the War of 1812, Dr. Jim McConnell.
   
• 1 p.m. - Historian Ralph T. Naveaux, also a member of the 1812 bicentennial commission, discusses his book, Invaded on All Sides: The Story of Michigan's Greatest Battlefield. (Post-discussion book signing at the Museum Store.)
   
• 2 p.m. - Author Don Burzynski presents his book, The First Leathernecks, which highlights the role of the U.S. Marines in the Great Lakes during the War of 1812.

Lincoln Inaugural Bible (used in 1861 as well as 2009 & today-2013): Library of Congress information

www.loc.gov/

The Lincoln inaugural Bible used by Barack Obama when he took his first presidential oath of office in 2009—which will be used again by the president along with Martin Luther King’s Bible at the second inaugural ceremony on Jan. 21—will go on display at the Library of Congress later this week up to Feb. 18 (Presidents Day - The Third Monday of Feburary 2013).

The Lincoln Bible, bound in burgundy velvet with a gold-washed metal rim, will be on view from Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013 through Monday, Feb. 18, 2013 in the exhibition "The Civil War in America" in the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First St. S.E., Washington, D.C. The exhibit is free and open to the public from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday.

On March 4, 1861, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney administered the oath of office to Abraham Lincoln using a Bible provided by William Thomas Carroll, clerk of the Supreme Court, because Lincoln’s family Bible was packed with other belongings that were still en route to Washington from Springfield, Illinois.

In the back of the velvet-covered Bible, along with the seal of the Supreme Court, the volume is annotated: "I, William Thomas Carroll, clerk of the said court do hereby certify that the preceding copy of the Holy Bible is that upon which the Honble. R.B. Taney, Chief Justice of the said Court, administered to His Excellency, Abraham Lincoln, the oath of office as President of the United States."

The 1,280-page Bible was published in 1853 by the Oxford University Press. In the center of the front cover is a shield, made of gold wash over white metal, with the words "Holy Bible" engraved into it.

On Jan. 20, 2009, President-elect Obama took the oath of office on this Bible that is steeped in history. He will use it again on Jan. 21, 2013 in addition to one Martin Luther King’s Bibles. The two historically significant Bibles will be stacked one on top of the other, as the president takes the oath of office for a second time.

http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2013/13-015.html

Winter Preparedness (Red Cross and local YMCA) - Jan. 21, 10 - 4:30

at Niles-Buchanan YMCA -- www.nb-ymca.org/

The Niles-Buchanan YMCA will host a Community Winter Preparedness Day in collaboration with the American Red Cross of Berrien County in celebration of Martin Luther King Day. The public is invited to participate in this informative event held at the YMCA from 10:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.

Supplies to build basic first aid kits will be provided by The Red Cross along with discussions about preparedness kits. Two presentations about Hurricane Sandy and Winter Preparedness will be at 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.

If you would like further information, please contact Amber Redmond at 269-556-9619 or Doris Higgins at 269-683-1552.

Niles-Buchanan YMCA

905 North Front Street
Niles, Michigan 49120
http://www.nb-ymca.org/niles-buchanan-blog/community-winter-preparedness-day

DATE: LOCATION: TIME:

Monday, January 21st 2013 Niles- Buchanan YMCA 905 North Front Street Niles, MI 49120 10:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Squirrel Appreciation Day - Berrien County, MI nature preserve activity - Jan. 20, 2013

from Sarett website (Benton Harbor, MI) -
This unique nature center, located in southwestern Michigan's Berrien County, has eight miles of trails meandering through its 1000 acres. Our trail system includes boardwalks, observation platforms, and an easily accessible barrier-free walkway. Trails running along the Paw Paw River bluffs provide great views of the river valley below. Boardwalks and observation platforms in the flood plain give you an up-close look at wetland wildlife and habitats including wet forests, cattail marshes, shrub carrs, and even a unique alkaline wetland called a fen. 

January 20, Sunday, 3:00 p.m.
SQUIRREL APPRECIATION DAY
Learn  why squirrels test our limits and why we love them so.   Race to find the acorns and test your wits on a squirrel trail.   Fun for the whole family.

http://www.sarett.com/weekend.html

Sci-Fi Time Travel Drama Series - "Fringe" - concludes with Fifth season Finale

http://www.fox.com/fringe/

J.J. Abrams - series co-creator - website for charity "The Mission Continues" highlights aspects of the Fox Network series (2008-13) :

We encourage you to vote for your favorite Fringe events, to help them become limited edition screenprints, created by some of Gallery1988's most sought-after artists and designers. Stay tuned to this website for more information, including how to own these pieces of art, and help The Mission Continues at the same time.

http://fringebenefitsproject.com/fr/

Flu Season and Worshipping with those in your Faith Community (on handshaking, et cetera)

from Posted article at www.religionnews.com/

For Dr. Faheem Younus, a Muslim and infectious disease specialist, distributing free flu shots is a matter of faith as well as health.

“I gave out my first free flu shot 12 years ago at a mosque in Queens, New York, after the service,” recalled Younus, now a clinical associate professor at the University of Maryland.

In the intervening years, he’s asked for spare vaccine from hospitals and health organizations and he’s distributed free flu shots at churches, mosques, homeless shelters and other institutions. At mosques, he said, there is often an immigrant population with little access to health care.

A member of the Ahmadiyya branch of Islam, Younus quotes the Quran as his inspiration: “God says, ‘You must exhort others to goodness and forbid that which is evil.’ Goodness to mankind is the first thing.”

Younus also noted that the ritual washing, called wudu, before Muslim services may help check the flu’s spread, although it is usually a water rinse that doesn’t use soap.

“Community and keeping the community safe is very important in Islam. Among the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad – blessings and peace be upon him – is that if there is an outbreak of infection, ‘stay in your place, don’t go to another place,’” Younus said.

Edgar Allan Poe: his poem "The Raven"

from "Writer's Almanac" (American Public Media: Garrison Keillor):

January 19 is the birthday of Edgar Allan Poe, born in Boston, Massachusetts (1809). His poem "The Raven" is one of his best-known works, and it is also one of the most popular poems in the English language. Even people who have no interest in poetry can usually recite a line or two. It's narrated by a studious young man who is mourning the loss of his lover, Lenore. When a talking raven visits him on a bleak December night, we follow his descent from amusement into madness. At the time he was writing the poem, Poe's young wife, Virginia, was slowly dying of tuberculosis. Poe may have gotten the idea for a talking raven from a Dickens novel: Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty (1841). There was a talking raven in the Dickens book too, but it didn't bear much resemblance to the sinister bird of Poe's poem.
Poe brought the poem to his friend George Rex Graham, hoping he would publish it in Graham's Magazine. Graham turned him down, but gave him $15 anyway. The American Review agreed to publish it, and paid the poet $9. It appeared in the magazine's February 1845 issue, under the name Quarles. It was also published around that time in the Evening Mirror under Poe's name.
"The Raven" was an instant sensation and made Poe a household word. One critic called it subtle, ingenious, and imaginative, and predicted, "It will stick to the memory of everybody who reads it." Over the next several months, "The Raven" appeared in journals throughout the country and it was such a rousing success that Wiley and Putnam published two of Poe's books that year: a collection of prose called Tales and also The Raven and Other Poems (1845). That was his first book of poetry in 14 years.

Happy 307th Birthday, Benjamin Franklin! Founding Father's date of birth in 1706

from "Writer's Almanac" (American Public Media, Garrison Keillor):

January 17th is the birthday of Benjamin Franklin, born in Boston, Massachusetts (1706). He was a printer, a scientist, an inventor, a writer, the founder of America's first lending library, and one of the Founding Fathers of America itself. He recalled in his Autobiography (1794) that writing well became "of great Use to me in the Course of my Life, and was a principal Means of my Advancement."
He was fond of writing adages and aphorisms:
"Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead."
"How many observe Christ's birthday! How few, his precepts! O! 'tis easier to keep Holidays than Commandments."
"Beware of the young doctor and the old barber."
"He that lives upon hope will die fasting."
"Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment."

Religious Freedom Day - Jan. 16 annually - Virginia Statute on Freedom (Presidential Proclamation)

from White House dot-gov Proclamations

A PROCLAMATION

Foremost among the rights Americans hold sacred is the freedom to worship as we choose. Today, we celebrate one of our Nation's first laws to protect that right -- the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. Written by Thomas Jefferson and guided through the Virginia legislature by James Madison, the Statute affirmed that "Almighty God hath created the mind free" and "all men shall be free to profess . . . their opinions in matters of religion." Years later, our Founders looked to the Statute as a model when they enshrined the principle of religious liberty in the Bill of Rights.
Because of the protections guaranteed by our Constitution, each of us has the right to practice our faith openly and as we choose. As a free country, our story has been shaped by every language and enriched by every culture. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, Sikhs and non-believers. Our patchwork heritage is a strength we owe to our religious freedom.

Americans of every faith have molded the character of our Nation. They were pilgrims who sought refuge from persecution; pioneers who pursued brighter horizons; protesters who fought for abolition, women's suffrage, and civil rights. Each generation has seen people of different faiths join together to advance peace, justice, and dignity for all.

Today, we also remember that religious liberty is not just an American right; it is a universal human right to be protected here at home and across the globe. This freedom is an essential part of human dignity, and without it our world cannot know lasting peace.

As we observe Religious Freedom Day, let us remember the legacy of faith and independence we have inherited, and let us honor it by forever upholding our right to exercise our beliefs free from prejudice or persecution.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 16, 2013, as Religious Freedom Day. I call on all Americans to commemorate this day with events and activities that teach us about this critical foundation of our Nation's liberty, and show us how we can protect it for future generations at home and around the world.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/01/16/presidential-proclamation-religious-freedom-day

The Dream @ 50 -- MLK Keynote Speech from 1963 -- Art Contest (Morehouse College details)

Posted at www.thekingcenter.org/

Saturday, January 19, 2013

The DREAM 50 Art Contest Awards Ceremony

Morehouse College – Martin Luther King, Jr. International Chapel    FREE Open to the Public

Hosted by the Morehouse College, Martin Luther King, Jr. Collection and The King Center - 2:30 p.m.

THE DREAM@50 is a tribute series in 2012/13 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. Including a student art contest (K-12), a world music/dance festival, and video PSAs, THE DREAM@50 is a celebration of creative collaboration in both the Civil Rights Movement and the arts as the foundation for a new paradigm for how we can live together.

THE DREAM@50 is produced by Karz Productions in partnership with the King Center, National Education Association, National Art Education Association, Americans for the Arts, National Council of Teachers of English, National Council for the Social Studies, Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, United Nations Academic Impact, and YouTube.   For more information contact: info@karzproductions.com

http://www.thekingcenter.org/king-holiday-observance-2013

Swearing-in ceremony (Jan. 20, 2013) on Sunday before Monday Inauguration Main event

from www.obamafoodorama.blogspot.com/

President Obama's official swearing-in ceremony on Sunday, Jan. 20 at the White House will take place in the Blue Room with immediate family present, Press Secretary Jay Carney said on Monday.  Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. will officiate, as he will the next day during the repeat ceremony on the steps of the US Capitol, where hundreds of thousands will witness the moment.  The Sunday ceremony will be held "prior to noon" and it will be quick, Carney said.

"I would not expect a pre-inaugural speech," Carney joked.  "It's not likely to take very long."

President Obama will take the oath of office with his hand atop a Bible from First Lady Michelle Obama's family. It was a gift from her father to her grandmother, LaVaughn Delores Robinson, on Mother’s Day in 1958. Mrs. Robinson was the first African American woman manager of a Moody Bible Institute’s bookstore in Chicago "and she used the Bible regularly,"
according to the Presidential Inaugural Committee.
There will be full live pool coverage of the White House ceremony, Carney said, including TV cameras. The Blue Room is the center drawing room on the State Floor of the Residence, and annually home to the Official White House Christmas Tree. It overlooks the South Lawn, with the Washington Monument on the National Mall framed in the windows.


http://obamafoodorama.blogspot.com/2013/01/white-house-provides-details-on.html

"Aquinas and Natural Law: Resources for Women's Equality" Jan. 31, 2013 symposium, St. Mary's College

Lisa Sowle Cahill, Theology professor at Boston College, is announced speaker for the 16th St. Thomas Aquinas Symposium at Student Center Lounge at St. Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana.  The event which begins at 7 p.m. Eastern Time is free and open to the public

Cahill for her lecture on the Medieval Church Father and Ethics / Natural Law will discuss how to make use of theology for a "solid basis on which to seek women's equality and to combat global problems such as poverty, rape, dometic abuse, war crimes, and human traficking.

The well-known canonized saint of the Roman Catholic Church has a feast day on Jan. 28; this event held annually is sponsored by the Joyce McMahon Hank Aquinas Chair in Catholic Theology.

Contact person at the Indiana private college is Barb Westra, administrative assistant in religious studies (574) - 284-4534.

Promotion of Democracy in Middle East - a Mistaken effort? -- Lecture Jan. 17, 2013

Sponsored by Notre Dame Kellogg Institute / Constitutional Studies Department
http://kellogg.nd.edu/

John Agresto
Former Provost and Dean of the Faculty, American University of Iraq, Sulaimani
"Is Promoting Democracy in the Middle East a Mistake?"
4:30 p.m. - Hesburgh Center Auditorium, Library, Campus of Notre Dame

Free and open to the public.

Burmese Python Hunt (Florida Everglades) January - February 2013

from WEATHER CHANNEL website -- www.weather.com/

Nearly 400 people have signed up to enter the Everglades and do battle with Burmese pythons, the giant constrictors that have emerged as the latest and weirdest threat to South Florida's wildlife.
The 2013 Python Challenge, which begins Saturday, has attracted participants and media interest from around the United States for a month long event that will feature prizes of $1,000 for catching the longest snakes and $1,500 for catching the most.
Participants do not need hunting licenses, unless they're under 18, or have experience with snakes. The only required training can be done online. Given those slender requirements, some have questioned the wisdom of encouraging amateurs with firearms, particularly non-hunters, to take on pythons in the wild.
But assuming people use caution, he said, they could kill enough of the giant snakes to help the Everglades.
"This is a very serious threat indeed," he said. "It could radically change the composition of the species that we find in the Everglades, and the Everglades have enough threats without the snakes. I think extreme measures are extremely appropriate."
Warren Booth, assistant professor of biology at the University of Tulsa and science director of the U.S. Association of Reptile Keepers, which represents the reptile industry, said he saw the hunt as a potential "disaster" for people and native snakes.
"You've got venomous species, like the eastern diamondback rattlesnake and the cottonmouth," he said. "I think we're going to see native wildlife being killed and a potential human safety issue with people being bitten."
Carli Segelson, spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which is supervising the hunt, said the commission will have extra law enforcement officers on the ground for the event and will provide training on identifying venomous snakes and avoiding harm to native wildlife.
"Of course any time you do something like this people are going to have concerns," she said. "I think that overall, people understand that this is a problem that needs to be dealt with and are very supportive and understand that these actions are warranted."
Participants have signed up from 17 states. Among them is Tyler Newbolt, of Lake Worth, who is having a friend fly down from Michigan for a week of python hunting. Newbolt, 27, an experienced hunter of hog and deer, is looking forward to the chance to go after an unusual species with his .22 caliber rifle.
"It's just something fun to do," he said. "I'm definitely interested in the Everglades and the ecosystem. I'm a big advocate for the Everglades."
Bruce Moore, of Pembroke Pines, plans to bring a pistol loaded with snake shot, pellet-filled cartridges that allow a pistol or rifle to function as a mini-shotgun.

“If you run into a 15-foot python, that's a powerful animal.”

Bruce Moore, Python hunter

"I love the Everglades," said Moore, 47. "I think the Everglades is very important. I want to do something to make a difference. I'm not going to be reckless about it. If you run into a 15-foot python, that's a powerful animal."
The FWC's recommended killing method is a bullet or shotgun blast to the head, or the use of captive bolt, a device used in slaughterhouses that drives a metal shaft into the brain. Decapitation is considered inhumane, unless the brain is immediately destroyed, because consciousness in snakes can persist long after the head is separated from the body.
Burmese pythons, native to southern Asia, became established in the Everglades through the exotic pet trade. They consume small mammals, wading birds, alligators and full-grown deer. The largest one caught so far stretched 17 feet, seven inches and contained 87 eggs.
The Python Challenge starts Saturday (Jan. 12, 2013) at 10 a.m. with a kick-off event of training and talks on identifying and handling pythons at the University of Florida's Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center in Davie. The hunt itself starts at 1 p.m. Saturday and ends at midnight Feb. 10, 2013. An awards ceremony will be held Feb. 16 at Zoo Miami.
http://www.weather.com/news/florida-python-hunt-20130107

Day of National Service - Holiday weekend upcoming (MLK Birthday 2013)

from some of the posted details at WHITE HOUSE dot-gov:

On January 21, 2013, our nation will celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (MLK Day), a national holiday during which we honor the legacy of the civil rights leader Dr. King through a day of service and volunteering.

This year, MLK Day commemorations will coincide with the Presidential Inauguration, so the President is asking all citizens to join him in participating in a National Day of Service on Saturday, January 19. Earlier today, the Presidential Inaugural Committee announced that it will host a wide range of volunteering events in Washington, DC and around the country.  Additionally, the Committee is encouraging people to pledge a commitment to serve after MLK Day throughout 2013.

Today, Americans are volunteering in increasing numbers and interest in national service and civic participation continues to grow. Building on this momentum, we encourage all Americans to serve on MLK Day and long after the Inauguration.  As President Obama has said, “America’s never been about what can be done for us; it’s about what can be done by us together.”
For more information about Presidential Inaugural Committee’s National Day of Service, go to http://action.2013pic.org/service. To learn more about MLK Day, visit MLKDay.gov.

blog URL is http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/01/04/join-president-obama-national-day-service-0

Today is the Birthday of the "King" - Elvis Presley in 1935

from Writer's Almanac (American Public Media, Garrison Keillor):

January 8 is the birthday of Elvis Presley, born in Tupelo, Mississippi (1935). He learned to play the guitar when he was 12 but never really learned to read music. He just knew how to mimic what he heard. He loved all kinds of music, and his friends said that he could reproduce perfectly almost anything he heard on the radio.
He had no clear ambition to become a professional musician. After high school, he got a job as a truck driver for the Crown Electric Company and he began studying to become an electrician. His career as a recording artist only came about because of his love for his mother.
At the time, the Sun Record Company had a special recording studio where anyone could come in and pay a small fee to record personal records for themselves. In the summer of 1953, Elvis scraped together $4 to record two songs, "My Happiness" and "That's When Your Heartaches Begin," as a present for his mother. When the woman at the front desk asked him what kind of a singer he was, he said, "I sing all kinds." She asked him whom he sounded like, and he said, "I don't sound like nobody."
The recording engineer that day liked Elvis's voice and somehow those recordings made their way into the hands of producer Sam Phillips who specialized in recording "hillbilly music." Phillips called Elvis back into the studio to see if he might have some real talent. Elvis sang a few slow ballads, which were his favorite songs to sing, and Sam Phillips wasn't too impressed. And then, in between takes, Elvis and the other musicians started fooling around and singing a blues tune called "That's All Right, Mama." Sam Phillips asked them to start over from the beginning and recorded the song. He then rushed the record to the biggest DJ in Memphis.
When Elvis found out that the song, which he considered a joke, would be on the radio, he was so embarrassed that he hid in a local movie theater until his parents made him come home. That night the DJ in Memphis played Elvis's new song on the radio for the first time, and he received 47 phone calls and 17 telegrams asking to play the song again. In the following week, Memphis stores sold some 6,000 copies of the record. A few weeks later, Elvis sang the song at a local music show at an outdoor park. He was extremely nervous while singing the song and started shaking his leg in rhythm to the music. The girls in the audience went crazy.
Elvis went on to record 149 songs that made the top 100 in the Billboard's pop charts, including "Heartbreak Hotel," "Hound Dog," "Jailhouse Rock," and "Are You Lonesome Tonight?"
He said: "Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine. Ain't nowhere else in the world where you can go from driving a truck to a Cadillac overnight."

Oscar Nominations - changes for 2013 "voting & winter ceremony" (Entertainment Weekly)

as weblinked at Internet Movie Database -- www.imdb.com/

In another break with tradition, Oscar host Seth MacFarlane will wake up early on Thursday January 10, 2013 to help announce the upcoming Academy Award nominations.
Usually, it’s the job of an actor (last year it was Jennifer Lawrence) and the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, but this year MacFarlane will join the mix, alongside The Amazing Spider-Man and Gangster Squad actress Emma Stone.
MacFarlane has proven to be a particularly engaged host who has gotten involved with the event well in advance of the Feb. 24 telecast, helping — among other things — to recruit college kids to serve as trophy handlers during the show.
The Academy’s announcement today (Monday January 7, 2013) that he’ll take part in Thursday’s pre-dawn revelation of the nominees marks the first time a host had taken part in that event since 1972, when Charlton Heston was the first — and only — host to do it.
The nominations will be revealed at 8:30 a.m. Eastern, 5:30 a.m. Pacific.

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2013/01/07/seth-macfarlane-and-emma-stone-to-announce-oscar-noms/

Interfaith Prayer Service (occasion of Presidential Inauguration on Jan. 20-21, 2013): National Cathedral

www.nationalcathedral.org/

Washington National Cathedral today (Dec. 18, 2012) announced plans to host a national prayer service in celebration of the Fifty-seventh Presidential Inaugural. In partnership with the 2013 Presidential Inaugural Committee, the Cathedral will welcome President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with dignitaries and Americans of diverse faiths. The interfaith service will celebrate the previous day’s events through prayer, readings, and musical performances. The service on Tuesday, January 22, 2013 at 10:30 a.m., will be ticketed by invitation only and also webcast live at www.nationalcathedral.org.
“The Inaugural Prayer Service is an historic observance that Washington National Cathedral is honored to host once again for President Barack Obama,” said the Very Rev. Gary Hall, dean of the Cathedral. “The Cathedral has come to be known as a spiritual home for the nation, and as part of living into that calling, it is our prayer that the service will embody the hopes and vision of our nation, and that God’s purpose might shine forth with new clarity in our lives.”
“The beginning of President Obama’s second term will be marked by the acknowledgement and celebration of the role of people of faith in American life,” said Presidential Inaugural Committee Spokeswoman Addie Whisenant. “President Obama’s own faith has played an integral role in his life, his commitment to service and his presidency, and this important tradition will celebrate the values and diversity that make us strong.”

http://www.nationalcathedral.org/press/PR-5VTVS-V7001N.shtml

Happy Birthday, Carl Sandburg (b. 1878) !

from Writer's Almanac (American Public Media, Garrison Keillor):

January 6 is the birthday of Carl Sandburg, born in Galesburg, Illinois (1878). Many people know him because of his poetry, or perhaps because of his six-volume biography of Abraham Lincoln. But years before he first published his poems, he traveled all over the United States, collecting folk songs -- more than 300 in all -- which he eventually published in The American Songbag (1927).
Sandburg wrote three collections of stories for children: Rootabaga Stories (1922), Rootabaga Pigeons (1923), and Potato Face (1930). Sandburg believed there was a need for truly American fairy tales, since castles and knights didn't have any relevance to American kids. So he wrote fables about the American Midwest, stories about corn fairies, skyscrapers, and farms.

the Eve of Epiphany (Twelfth Day of Christmas) - January 5 - 6

from Writer's Almanac (American Public Media: Garrison Keillor):

Today (Saturday, Jan. 5, 2012) is Twelfth Night. It's the eve of Epiphany, the official end of the Christmas holiday season, and the day on which many people take down their Christmas decorations or risk bad luck for the coming year.

Poet Robert Herrick wrote: "Down with the rosemary, and so / Down with the bays and mistletoe; / Down with the holly, ivy, all, / Wherewith ye dress'd the Christmas Hall." It's a last Yuletide hurrah before everyone returns to the mundane workaday world of the rest of the year. Though the origin of the celebration dates back to the Roman Saturnalia, most of the traditional observances of the holiday that have survived date back to medieval England. It was the end of a holiday season that began with All Hallows Eve and, in some cultures, it also marks the beginning of the Carnival season.
It's a Twelfth Night tradition to choose a king and queen for the festivities. Usually, this involves beans and baked goods. In English celebrations, a plum cake is baked with a bean and a pea inside. If a man finds the bean, he is crowned the Twelfth Night King, also known as the Lord of Misrule. The woman who finds the pea is crowned Queen. But if a woman finds the bean instead of the pea, she chooses her own king.
Part of the Twelfth Night tradition involves pranks, role reversals, and general chaos. Servants dressed as masters, men dressed as women, and people roamed the streets in gangs, decked out in costumes and blackened faces. Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night features many of the traditional elements of the holiday.

In some parts of England, Twelfth Night was also traditionally associated with apples and apple trees. People would troop out to their fruit orchards bearing a hot, spiced mixture of cider and ale for the "wassailing of the trees." They would pour the wassail on the ground over the trees' roots, and sing songs, and drink toasts to the health of their orchards. They also hung bits of cider-soaked toast in the trees to feed the birds. The attention paid to the orchards during the wassailing would be repaid with a bountiful harvest the following fall.

English settlers in the Colonies brought the Twelfth Night tradition with them. In colonial Virginia, it was customary to hold a large and elegant ball. Revelers chose a king and queen using the customary cake method; it was the king's duty to host the next year's Twelfth Night ball, and the queen was given the honor of baking the next year's cake. George and Martha Washington didn't usually do much for Christmas except attend church, but they often hosted elaborate Twelfth Night celebrations. It was also their anniversary; they'd been married on January 5, 1759. Martha Washington left behind her recipe for an enormous Twelfth Night cake among her papers at Mount Vernon. The recipe called for 40 eggs, four pounds of sugar, and five pounds of dried fruit. It wasn't until the mid-1800s that Christmas became the primary holiday of the season in America, and at that point, Twelfth Night celebrations all but disappeared.

Electoral College ballots tallied (Joint Session of Congress: 332 - 206 reckoning)

Jan. 4, 2013 Politico coverage -- 1 p.m. Eastern Time:  www.politico.com/

The votes of the much discussed but quickly forgotten Electoral College were tallied and certified in a joint session of Congress on Friday (1/4/2013).

For Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, there were 332 votes cast. Republican Mitt Romney and running mate Paul Ryan received 206 votes.
Only a handful of members of the House and Senate attended the ceremonial proceedings, and Ryan, a Wisconsin congressman, wasn’t among them. There were more spectators in the galleries than members in the chamber.
The process, which in the early days of the nation would have been more suspenseful but is now simply a constitutional formality, went off without a hitch. The actual electors met in their respective states in December 2012 to cast their ballots. Friday’s process was the counting and certifying of those ballots that were sent to Washington, D.C.
The Electoral College, meant to provide a balance instead of a direct popular vote system, has come under fire in the past decade. But the actual proceedings were barely a blip on the radar, taking less than 30 minutes from start to finish.
Biden and Speaker John Boehner presided over the proceedings, as four members took turns reading the certificates that had been mailed by each state to Washington. The ballots arrived in the House chamber in locked wooden boxes, held together with aged leather straps, that were proceeded in by student pages. Staff used ceremonial letter openers to excise each form from its envelope.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Rep. Candice Miller (R-Mich.) and Rep. Kevin Brady (D-Pa.) were the designated tellers, tasked with reading each state’s certification and keeping the tally.
Occasionally, when the votes of a particular state were announced in favor of Obama, a member from there cheered. And applause erupted after Biden officially called the session to an end.


Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/electoral-college-count-affirms-obamas-re-election-85777.html#ixzz2H2SUPeFS

On this date in 1643 - Historic Mathematician born in England

from Writer's Almanac (American Public Media: Garrison Keillor):

January 4 is the birthday of Sir Isaac Newton, born in Woolsthorpe, England (1643). He was born very prematurely, and so small that it was said that he could fit into a quart pot. His father had died three months before Newton was born, and the plan was for the boy to take over the running of the family farm when he grew up. He wasn't a good farmer, and his uncle suggested that he be sent to the university instead. He went to Cambridge, and when it was shut down during a plague outbreak, Newton went home and studied mathematics and physics on his own. It was during this time that he first developed his theories of gravity and optics. His first published scientific achievement was the invention of a reflecting telescope.
At the age of 43, Newton published his Principia, which overturned nearly everything humankind had believed about the universe up to that point. He proved that the celestial bodies were governed by the same laws of physics as objects on Earth. He incorporated Kepler's laws of planetary motion into his own theories about gravity, and established his own Three Laws of Motion.
Sir Isaac Newton, who wrote, "I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."

Born on this date 121 years ago: J.R.R. Tolkien in S. Africa

from Writer's Almanac (American Public Media, Garrison Keillor):

January 3 is the birthday of J.R.R. Tolkien, born in Bloemfontein, South Africa (1892). He studied classics, language, and literature at Oxford. In 1925, Tolkien returned to Oxford University as a professor.
One day, while grading exams, he discovered that a student had left one whole page in his examination booklet blank. Tolkien, for reasons unknown even to him, wrote on the page, "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." This single line turned into a bedtime story that he told his children, and from there, a book: The Hobbit (1937).

Emancipation Proclamation (1/1/1863) and Homestead Act (also 1863) - Adam Goodheart perspective (HERE & NOW)

http://hereandnow.wbur.org/ (Jan. 1, 2012 interview transcript)

The document Lincoln signed on New Year’s Day 1863 was the final version of a preliminary proclamation Lincoln had produced after the Battle of Antietam in September 1862. That was the bloodiest day of combat in American history, but it was perceived as a Union victory and that gave Lincoln the cover to take, as Frederick Douglas called it “the first step” toward ending slavery.
That didn’t happen until Congress passed, and the states ratified, the 13th amendment two years later in 1865.

The amendment abolished slavery and the new film Lincoln tells that story, which Washington College historian Adam Goodheart says would have never been possible without the Emancipation Proclamation.
“If universal freedom had been proclaimed early in the war it would have probably split in half the already deeply fractured northern public and quite possibly actually ended the struggle to save the union almost before it had begun,” Goodheart, author of 1861: The Civil War Awakening, told Here & Now’s Robin Young.
The Emancipation Proclamation regalvanized the Union war effort, turning the struggle into one to end slavery as much as to preserve the Union.
The Emancipation Proclamation also made it possible for free black men to join the Union cause, and by the end of the war nearly 200,000 served in the Union Army and Navy.
The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment, the subject of the film Glory, was the first all-black unit mustered in the North. Those soldiers, led by the white officer Robert Gould Shaw, left Boston to great fanfare in May of 1863. Charles and Lewis Douglass, sons of Frederick Douglass, were part of that regiment.
Boston’s Museum of African American History is hosting a series of events in 2013 to mark the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, under the banner “Freedom Rising.”
And the Massachusetts Historical Society is opening two new exhibits related to the Emancipation. The historical society has the pen Lincoln used to sign the proclamation. President Lincoln presented the pen to abolitionist George Livermore.

January 1, 1863 would be a significant day if only for the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. But the day is notable for something else. It was the day the Homestead Act took effect.
The Homestead Act allowed people to claim ownership of federal land. One of the first to file a claim was a Union Army scout named Daniel Freeman who filed his claim in the Nebraska Territory, because Nebraska wasn’t even a state yet.
Goodheart believes there is a connection between the Homestead Act and the Emancipation Proclamation, because the Homestead Act declared that the western lands of the United States would be open to everyone, including slaves, who had been freed.

Guest:

• Adam Goodheart,  Washington College historian.

http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2013/01/01/emancipation-proclamation-anniversary

Bipartisan support in House (257 votes) follows Jan. 1 Senate action to avert fiscal cliff (Federal Govt.)

from Michigan Live! -- www.mlive.com/

Congressman Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, voted yes on the Senate bill to block the "fiscal cliff" on Tuesday night. 

Upton was one of 85 House Republicans to vote for the bill, which passed 257-167.
"This plan is not the one I would have written, but I would not sit idly by and watch taxes go up on every American, impacting the average Southwest Michigan family to the tune of thousands of dollars," Upton said in a statement.
The bill, which was passed early Tuesday morning in the Senate, includes increasing taxes on household incomes over $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for couples. It also delays dealing with the sequestered cuts to defense spending for two months.
"This deal is an important first step to protect middle class families and small businesses from higher taxes," Upton said in the statement. "But our work will not be complete until we tackle the driver of our debt – spending. Folks are looking for bipartisan solutions and concrete action to right the ship on spending."
The automatic spending cuts temporally averted are the result of the failed “super committee” that was charged to find $1.5 trillion in cuts over 10 years.
Upton was one of 12 members of the committee and has been involved with discussions since. Last week, Upton said he was “hopeful” that a deal could be reached before 2013.
Upton, who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has been one of seven House Republicans who have worked over the past two months on a plan to present to Democrats to avert some $500 billion in automatic tax increases and spending cuts. Other Republicans on the committee were including House Speaker John Boehner (who voted yes), Eric Cantor (voted no), Dave Camp (voted yes) and Paul Ryan (voted yes).