Saturday, May 16, 2015

WEEKLY PORT ANGELES DIGEST: SISSI BRUCH A SHOO- IN WHILE OTHERS CONTESTED---UPDATE!

These are the final Talley of candidates for the Port, County, and City of PA races

Running for Port Commissioner: Rick (Doc) Robinson, Lee Whetham, Connie Beauvais, Michael Breidenbach

Running for Port Angeles City Council: Shan Pak, Michael Merideth, Marolee Smith, position 5

Sissi Bruch--position 6

Cherie Kidd, Dan Bateham Position 7

County Commission: Jim McEntire, Mark Ozias, Bryan D. Frazier

(Looks like Sissi Bruch will be in the only uncontested race for city council, while Cherrie Kidd will face Dan Bateham for the Position 7, Shan pak will be in a primary with , Michael Merideth, Marolee Smith, position 5. So looks like Sissi won't really need to campaign or anything since she is a shoe in. And here I was fully prepared to have a headline today that would read: " Council Candidate in a non election, election." But that's out the window because filers for those contested races now filed on Friday the last day for candidates to file. Up until then Shan Pak, and Cherie Kidd were also heading for non contested races, but now those two will have to actually earn their spots on the council and convince the voting public they are up for the task.

In another primary race which was probably a surprise to our pal Lee Whetham, who only served 15 months on the City Council. Has Three contenders running against him: Connie Beauvais, Michael Breidenbach, and Rick (Doc) Robinson. My! Lee do these folks knows something about you we don't?

Like for the example of you waffling over that fireworks ordinance. Something that Whetham suggested to happen so he can appease those who are against private fireworks. Then he saw that the cops were going to have issues enforcing it, he ended up voting against the ordinance and said more discussion is needed. I think he just didn't want to look bad to the cops.

And the most recent during a speech he made at the Port O Call event, he mention he wants the city council to get a pay raise, and include medical benefits! All this while the city is in a $238,000 deficit! You tell me, does that make sense? So what do these guys have on him that's the question of the day.

In another primary looks like County Commissioner Jim McEntire, will face; Mark Ozias, Bryan D. Frazier. So looks like a full election, except for one on the city council Sissi Bruch who is running uncontested. Now, I sent emails to these candidates offering them the opportunity to have their say on their elections; thus far I heard from one of the City Council Candidates who is now in a primary: Marolee Smith

Here is here press release she offered:

Port Angeles, WA, (May 15, 2015) -- Marolee Smith today has announced her candidacy for the council seat vacated by Dan diGuilio.

Smith is a 20 year Port Angeles native who is concerned about the future of her town.

“I am particularly concerned about the lack of long-term planning, increased utility rates and questionable new fees that now plague the town,” says Smith. “This is all the responsibility of your city council which has become a rubber stamp at the expense of the public. There needs to be a change.”

There are three candidates contesting for position #5. This, means there will be a primary election on August 4, 2015, to narrow the field to two candidates. The other two candidates are Shan Pak and Michael Merideth. Ms. Smith has not met either of her opponents, yet. She said, “Clearly we are going to end up with, at least, one new face on the city council. That, alone, makes me hopeful. The more new blood we can infuse in the council, the better it will be for everyone.”

She makes it clear that she wants to listen to the residents, and give them a represented voice. “I think we (as a community) need to stop having our council approve everything the city asks for, without more discussion, and without careful thought.”

Ms. Smith, a former downtown business owner, has great empathy for those trying to do business in town. Her goal is to find ways to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit, and aid the established small- to medium-sized businesses that are so vital to our community’s financial health as well as its future.

She says her biggest hope, is that we can unify the Port Angeles vision. This begins with getting rampant costs and last minute desperate measures under control, and work to create a cohesive positive vision for the future of Port Angeles.

MORE PRESS RELEASES RECEIVED: UPDATE!

Bryan Frazier Files For County Commissioner

For Immediate Release: Bryan Frazier Announces Candidacy for Clallam County

Commissioner District 1

Bryan Frazier 30 resident of rural Carlsborg filed today to run for the position of Clallam County Commissioner-District 1.

Bryan is running for County Commissioner because he believes that Clallam County can achieve better solutions to simple and complex issues when the citizens are listened to and fully involved before making decisions that affect the quality of life in the county. He is dedicated to revitalizing the Clallam County Economy and improving the existing infrastructure that is vital to support existing businesses and employment and would make Clallam County a desirable and dependable area to locate families, new businesses and create opportunities for living wage employment.

Bryan’s Priorities are:

Revitalizing Clallam County’s Economy
Provide approachable, open and transparent government for all citizens at all levels.
Improve existing infrastructure
Cut unnecessary wasteful spending to provide funding for vital and necessary public programs and services.

For information or to get involved, please call (360) 683-4424 or (360) 670-1416

Bryan Frazier Biography:

Bryan Frazier (D)

Clallam County Commissioner (District 1)

Community Based Leadership

Summary: Bryan Frazier is an experienced former small business owner and community organizer who helped found the 501 4C Citizens For The Preservation Of Carlsborg Community Action Group when his neighbor needed him most. Bryan dedicated 15 years of service to Clallam County Fire District #3 as a volunteer Firefighter/EMT, in- service instructor and training officer. He attended Officer Training School and achieved the rank of Lieutenant. Bryan was simultaneously employed as an EMT with Olympic Ambulance Service in Sequim for 8 years and served as interim manager for one and a half years. Bryan has tirelessly, always answered the call of his community with dedication and professionalism.

Core Qualifications:

Former small business owner
Managerial and workforce training experience
Experience with Land Use Planning Codes and Regulations
Experience working within budgetary guidelines and policies to achieve fiscally responsible and financially desirable outcomes
Successes in bringing local citizen together to achieve a common goal
Knowledgeable of water quantity and quality issues facing Clallam County

Status:

Sequim resident since 1986

Clallam County resident since 1983

Married to wife Florence for 32 years

Opinion Contributor to Port O Call News

Dan Bateham: City Council Candidate

I am Dan Bateham (my last name is pronounce like the words "bay dum")     I took a look at your blog and see you are doing good work. Thank you for this opportunity.

Here is a little information for you, see below ...

- Please note In the next few days I will have a website up at danbateham.com where you can learn more in depth about who I am and why I am running for office on the Port Angeles City Council, Position No. 7.

Attached you will find a picture of me taken yesterday, May 15, 2015, at the Clallam County Elections Office filing to run; and  I am including a link to a short (about one minute) video of myself with my first announcement of running for office and why.  -- YouTube link: https://youtu.be/YghVTS_s_fc

I have been a resident of Port Angeles for fifteen years. I retired from the military after after serving our country in the U.S. Army for twenty years from 1977-1997. I am getting involved now because I see we, in this beautiful city, need a voice at city hall and we need to get things back on track. I see a need for us to challenge the status quo.

- Families need real sustainable wages.
- Businesses need an environment in which they can thrive.
- Our children and grandchildren, truly our future, need opportunities to get involved.
- And we all need to know Port Angeles is a safe and healthy place to live.

To make this happen, the people who live in this beautiful city, all of us, need a voice and we need to be heard. I can promise I will fight the status quo; and we will be heard.

I will fight for all of us to have ...

- Transparency, accountability, and fiscal responsibility in local government.
- Incentives and common sense solutions working with our local businesses.
- Real opportunities for our young people to get involved.

It's time to get the American Dream back and on track here this beautiful city, our home, Port Angeles.

Again, thank you Peter, for this opportunity.


Dan Bateham
207 Wolcott St, Port Angeles, WA 98362
cell phone: (360) 775-7712
email: danbateham@gmail.com
website: danbateham.com (will be live sometime during the week of May 17 - May 23)
Candidate for Port Angeles City Council, Position No.7
Be sure to vote! Let your voice be heard!

Saturday, May 9, 2015

WEEKLY PORT ANGELES DIGEST: MAJORITY OF PA WANTS THE OIL RIGS TO WINTER HERE!

It's another Saturday and I imagine all you local readers are all awaiting with baited breath on what I have to say all of the local goings on! Let's start with this poll which the PDN was running on Thursday, and by the look of things majority of those who voted favored the oil rig fleet to winter here. But, we don't know the final result of the poll because the PDN took it down and replaced it with another poll result instead of posting the final result of the poll they had up! Guess they didn't like how the tide was going in favor of having the oil rigs docked here they just made that poll disappear! But, luckily yours truly got the numbers before they took it down and you can see the following results:

PDN POLL Question 5.7.15: Since Seattle appears not to want to host the Polar Pioneer and other Shell Oil rigs for winters, should Port Angeles invite them to winter in the harbor?

yes: 73.2%

no: 22.5%

Undecided: 4.3%

Number of votes cast: 768 as of Thursday when published.

(As you can see majority of this town including yours truly is thankful in having the extra revenue from the visiting oil rig fleet. I would go far as saying if I were sitting on the city council, or Port Commission I would be on the horn with Shell oil negotiating with them to winter their rigs here, because it's quite clear by the tones of some area newspapers like in Seattle and Everett that they are less than welcome. That comes when you allow leftist environmental groups who often act like spoiled brats, have their way in begrudging others for whatever is their cause. Maybe these folks be better off traveling back in time and try their hand living in the late 1800's I doubt they would make it, because back then those people would treat them like kooks! Leftist usually tries to pin the blame of criminal activities such as drug abuse, or whatever the hot topic of the day on big business or whatever to put forth their agenda. Yours truly was in attendance at the last city council meeting when a young woman, who admitted to be benefiting from the Shell oil rig being here because she works at a local tavern. But, this didn't stop her from dishing out her leftist rant of trying to pin the blame of the increase of heroin addictions on big business, and drilling for oil! I was shaking my head with disbelief what I was hearing. She apparently assumes that Shell oil pays no taxes! Because she was asking the council to tax them if they stay! One media outlet in town was buying this liberal drivel, I wasn't because I saw this pony act before many times when liberals wanting their way would use something like Heroin addictions as an excuse to blame it on big oil companies! In essence what she was doing blaming the presents of an oil rig for the increase of Heroin addiction in town. In reality the Heroin addictions were around long before any oil rig came into town! After she gave her little speech however, Council members said nothing, and only one person in the audience of perhaps around 50 applauded, that pretty much said a lot on how the majority of folks in this town sees the value of these oil rigs being in town don't you think? )

Other local news stories

Port Angeles City Council ends flat water rate in light of expected shortage

PORT ANGELES — The City Council has rescinded a seasonal flat water rate that would have benefited gardeners and green-lawn proponents to encourage conservation in light of an anticipated water shortage.

By a 5-2 vote Tuesday —with Lee Whetham and Dan Gase opposed — council members decided to stay in a tiered-rate structure for June rather than impose a uniform seasonal-rate system that would have encouraged gardens and lush lawns.---Peninsula Daily News

( The report didn't mention Lee Whetham's reasons for voting no, so I will have to do that task! What Whetham was grumbling about mainly was that the city didn't include their industrial customer in the mix. Meaning they were leaving Nippon out of paying additional water rates. Something which Whetham said would make him not vote for the rates because it puts the payment of water rates solely on the residents. But I am skeptical of the motives here, something about this reminds me of the ploy liberals usually take in sticking it to big companies like Nippon or Shell Oil. )

OMC's Expansion Requests OK'd by City Council

Port Angeles -- Olympic Medical Center's expansion efforts are another step closer to reality as the Port Angeles City Council approved two measures that will close off a street and allow a rezoning of mixed commercial overlay.--KONPRADIO

Clallam Charter Review Commissioner closer to recommendations

(PORT ANGELES) The Clallam County Charter Review Commission has neared the parring down process of proposals for a public hearing, that could be on the ballot this November.---KONP RADIO

Connie Beauvais Announces Candidacy

Port Angeles, WA, May 7, 2015 — Connie Beauvais, Vice Chair of the Clallam County Planning Commission and 2015 Charter Review Commissioner, has announced her candidacy for the District 3 position of Commissioner, for the Port of Port Angeles.---PORT O CALL

(Well, this must have disappointed our pal Lee Whetham who is running for Port Commissioner after only serving 15 months on the city council! I imagine he we thinking he have a free ride to the Port seat!)

U.S. Rep. Kilmer iN port Angeles Friday to promo launch of Olympic Peninsula Collaborative

On Friday, May 8, U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-Wa.) will be in Port Angeles to join in the official launch of the Olympic Peninsula Collaborative.---SEQUIM GAZETTE

Anderson Lake closed due to toxin

The lake at Anderson Lake State Park is closed again to public use in what has become an annual decision since toxic algae became a known problem in 2006.---PT LEADER

FORKS FORUM: SMOKE HOUSE REOPEN? (green edition)

Thequestion the article is addressing will be used for another Pothouse!?

From across the Strait:

Rules tighten for doctors who prescribe medical marijuana

Doctors who prescribe medical marijuana to their patients are being directed by their regulatory body to follow a new professional standard that may reduce legal access to the drug.---Victoria News

City of Victoria to add parking ambassadors

The City of Victoria is looking to hire roughly two dozen people to act as on-street parking ambassadors to enhance the parking experience in the downtown core.---VICTORIA NEWS

Two Capital Region mayors want advance sewage-treatment tax cancelled

Capital region taxpayers in seven municipalities have been forking over for too long for a sewage-treatment plant deep-sixed last year, say two mayors unhappy with the situation. ---TIMES COLONIST

WHAT'S ON TAP FOR NEXT WEEK!?

PORT WILL HEAR STATUS REPORT ON COMPOSITE FUNDING

During their next scheduled Port meeting on Tuesday one of the highlight items on their agenda will be a verbal report regarding Composites Recycling Technology Center Funding Report

(Like I said kodo points if the Port pulls off getting a composite recycling center here, but at some point it has to be run by private contractors. )

As for the rest of the Agenda:

2015 Quarter Financial Operating Report

Total operating revenues are $1.8 million, which is ($485k) or (21%) lower than budget. The operating expenses are $1.7 million, which is ($176k) or (9%) under budget. Operating net surplus before depreciation is $88k which is an unfavorable variance of ($309k) or (78%). Due to the significant impact of the recent decline in the log export market staff analyzed the potential year-end net decrease (lower revenues offset by cost savings) as $1 to $1.2 million, which results in approximately $.5 million net surplus (cash flow) before depreciation at year end. A separate presentation will address historical trends as well as revised budget considerations in light of the unpredictability of the log export market. (read more)

2015Quarter 1 Department Highlights

2015 Northwest Aerospace & Defense Symposium May 27-28 (verbal report)

KPly Concrete Demolition Contract

The cleanup of the KPLY site is scheduled for this summer and fall (August – October 2015). The cleanup consists of contaminated soil excavation that is currently overlain by approximately 7,000 tons of concrete mill foundations and footings. To meet the aggressive cleanup timeline the concrete structures will be demolished, crushed, and stockpiled on-site this June. The concrete spoils will be used as backfill during the cleanup excavation work. (read more)

Excavator Purchase

The 2015 Capital Budget includes $100,000 for an excavator. A thorough search was made for a used excavator in good condition. However, it was determined that the nominal savings of buying used equipment was not as beneficial to the Port as purchasing a new excavator with full warranty. (read more)

Community Partner Program (verbal report)

Seefull port agenda

COUNTY COMMISSION TO HOLD HEARING ON: Proposed ordinance amending Clallam County Code 5.06, Additional Sales or Use Tax, to reduce sales tax from .5 percent to .3 percent effective July 1, 2015

That's the agenda highlight on the County Commission agenda this coming Tuesday meeting along with these other items:

REPORTS AND PRESENTATIONS Introduction of new code enforcement field officer Barbara McFall CONTRACTS AND AGREEMENTS

2a Agreement with Peninsula Behavioral Health for screening and case management services in the Clallam County Jail; and public health syringe services program

2b Amendment 2 with the Washington State Department of Health adding and amending statement(s) of work

2c Agreement with the Washington State Military Department and the US Department of Homeland Security for “Operation Stonegarden”

2d Agreement with BergerABAM for the Ward Bridge scour repair and the McDonald Creek seismic retrofit projects 2e Agreement with Anthony N. Dougherty for a right of way easement to fix a roadside drainage problem adjacent to Edgewood Drive

2f Amendment 1 with the Washington State County Road Administration Board increasing funding for the paving of Old Olympic Highway from US 101 to the Sieberts Creek Bridge

2g Agreement with the Washington State County Road Administration Board for construction proposal for paving and improvements to Dry Creek Road from US 101 to Edgewood Drive ADMINISTRATION

3a Resolution authorizing a grant from the Opportunity Fund to the City of Port Angeles

3b Resolution authorizing a grant from the Opportunity Fund to the Port of Port Angeles

H2 Proposed ordinance creating a new chapter in the Clallam County Code titled “Carlsborg Sewer System”

Details of these agendaitems are here

Other meetings on the docket:

REGULAR MEETING AGENDA SEQUIM CITY COUNCIL

Agenda highlight: Aerationand Headworks Construction Contract Award

Full agenda

PORT TOWNSEND CITY COUNCIL BUSINESS MEETING AGENDA
highlight agenda item:
YMCACapital Project Presentation

Fullagenda

Forks City Council meetingagenda.

Across the Strait

AGENDA - VICTORIA CITY COUNCIL

Agenda highlight: Council is to consider an application to construct a new office area and to convert the existing office to a hotel room.

See full agenda

Final note:

I recently posed the question to local elected officials on their feelings on the whaling issue

One gave me a verbal answer to my email, Commissioner Bill Peach said he favors the whale hunt because of the cultural heritage of the Makha tribe. The second answer I got via email from City Council member Dan Gase: Thanks for your question. Since this is not a topic on which the City council will debate or vote on my personal opinion statement would not benefit the citizens. If the tribe has a legal right to hunt then that is their right.

UPDATE: The following message is from Bill Peach sent via email: "My personal take is that the hunt will reinforce the Makah appreciation of their cultural history. There is tremendous value in having this conversation."

Bill Peach

Now I gave the other elected officials plenty of time to answer this question, goes to show how some will speak up on such issues while others remain deadly silent. Proving my point so far that it is conservatives who favor Indian rights as appose to liberals! Yet, the tribe votes democratic every time! Go figure!

DAILY DEVOTIONAL

[ Free from Indwelling Sin ] There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

Romans 8:1-2 NKJV

Sunday, May 3, 2015

FOREIGN ACCENT SHOULDN'T PREVENT SERVING ON COUNCIL

In yesterday's edition of the Port Angeles Digest page I made some remarks about a city council candidate's foreign accent. That I could barely understand what he was trying to say. After some thought I didn't like what I posted it sounded like I was being a bully, so I deleted those lines I posted, I just mishandled that story. I was trying to make a point that if you are running for office you need to be clearly understood. Like I said, I mishandled that and I corrected the error. I don't like being made to look like I am some mean spirited person. I just wished a written report was given along side the video I watched on the PORT O Call webpage, would have made it clear what Shan Pak, had to say During that function that PORT O CALL was putting on. I know how it feels in being not understood clearly. So with that I apologize if I came across being a meanie.

My Grumbling pays off!

All Call, Oh What a Night!
Port O Call, Smart Awareness and the Justice Restoration Group we want to share some of the thoughts expressed and worthwhile comments from various people.

(Someone must have read my report, because just today I took a look at the Port O Call webpage and found this article about the rally they sponsored earlier in April how about that. At times my grumbling pays off!)

OTHER NEWS COMMENTARIES

Baltimore's Hero Mom Under Fire

I read an opinion piece this week by liberal writer Joan Walsh decrying the presumed jubilation of "white America" and the media over a mother's public spanking of her son for participating in the Baltimore riots.---NEWS MAX/ David Limbaugh

If Only Al Sharpton’s Mother Gave Him a Good Smack Upside the Head

My colleagues Paula Boylard and Michael Walsh have declared Baltimore’s Mother of the Year, Toya Graham, a “bad parent” for slapping her rioting teenager upside the head. The essence of their argument: had she raised him better from the beginning, with good, solid biblical values, he wouldn’t have been there in the first place. That’s taking Bible-thumping to a new, bizarre level.----PJMEDIA

Obama Official Admits Religious Institutions May Be Punished

The biggest news from [Tuesday’s] Supreme Court arguments isn’t news at all to conservatives: Same-sex “marriage” is a threat to religious freedom. For once, that revelation didn’t come from one of the lawyers on our side but from the Obama administration’s own attorney. ---PATRIOT POST

The Challenge: Silent Toward God

With tax season still lingering in our minds and a new election cycle on the horizon, it’s easy to find ourselves annoyed with laws and politicians and discouraged about the direction of our country.---THE PATRIOT POST

Hill and Bill can’t hide from shady deals exposed in ‘Clinton Cash’

The Clintons have been playing the political press for idiots.---NY POST

For Baltimore post-riots, a role for clergy

During Monday's riots in Baltimore, more than a dozen clergy members helped end the violence. Police have only begun to work with faith-based institutions, which can also help reform the police.---CSMONITOR

The 'Upgrading' of Bruce Jenner

The last year could be described as The Year of Transgender Propaganda. The Hollywood and news media push on the latest frontier of "gender fluidity" demonstrates the libertine left's absolute arrogance that the LGBT revolution is an unstoppable juggernaut.---CNSN/ Bozell

Rev. Graham: Indiana ‘Surrendered' to 'Sexually Immoral Agenda of Gays and Lesbians’ – U.S. ‘Has Forgotten and Forsaken God’

“Make no mistake: This is a watershed moment in the battle for the moral soul of our nation,” said Rev. Graham in his column for the May issue of Decision magazine. “Media, government and business all aligned their influence to override the initial legislation and severely weaken genuine protections for people of faith.”---CNSN/ Chapman

Here’s 14 Fun Facts About Hillary Clinton’s First Democratic Challenger for President

Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has represented Vermont as an independent in the House and Senate for nearly 25 years, has provided Hillary Rodham Clinton with a challenger for the Democratic nomination for president.---DAILY SIGNAL

Searching for Space to Destroy

Major new contributions to a city’s crumbling condition.

A prisoner riding in the same police van as Freddie Gray says the Baltimore drug dealer spent his time “banging against the walls,” reports the Washington Post. That’s an apt metaphor for Baltimore’s response to Gray’s death.---AMERICAN SPECTATOR

"Wolf Hall" and the burden of wielding power in hellish times

"Wolf Hall,” the Man Booker Prize-winning historical novel about the court of Henry VIII — and most dramatically, the conflict between Thomas Cromwell and Sir Thomas More — is now a TV series (presented on PBS). It is maddeningly good.---NY DAILY NEWS/ KRAUTHAMMER

From ‘Hamlet’ to Hillary

IF Hillary Clinton goes the distance, she may have Shakespeare to thank.---NT TIMES/ Bruni

Charlie Hebdo cartoonists: heroes or racists? The answer's not that simple

Is Charlie Hebdo racist? And how can you tell a racist cartoon from one that merely references racial stereotypes?---LA TIMES/ Crain

Sheriff Clarke: Baltimore cops ‘offered up as human sacrifices’ to ‘an angry mob’

Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke said on Friday that he would not “silently stand by” and watch as Baltimore police officers were “offered up as human sacrifices” by State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby.----WASHINGTON TIMES/Ernst

Want millennials back in the pews? Stop trying to make church ‘cool.’

Bass reverberates through the auditorium floor as a heavily bearded worship leader pauses to invite the congregation, bathed in the light of two giant screens, to tweet using #JesusLives----WASHINGTON POST

How to take Christ out of Christianity

"Christianity is the dominant religion in the United States, but the cultural experience of Christianity here varies at least as widely as its practice does across denominations, families and individuals. " ---WASHINGTON POST

BOLI's cake crusaders' proposed judgment in Sweet Cakes discrimination case is excessive: Editorial

It's easy to sympathize with Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer over the embarrassment and outrage they felt when a Gresham bakery chose to decline their business rather than make a cake for the lesbian couple's wedding. --THE OREGONIAN

(They picked a bakery run by Christians on purpose to harass them, and force their twisted way of life on others plain and simple, what I can't stand are these dirty tricks being played by people who claim that they have no intentions in forcing themselves on anyone. There were other bakeries they could have gone, but they choose this because they wanted to make a seen, harass the owners for what they believe.)

A fine line between bullying and free speech

In her response to news that the man she accused of sexual assault was suing their university over the way it — and she — harassed him after he was exonerated, Emma Sulkowicz claimed that what she was doing was art.---WASHINGTON EXAMINER

A Century Later, a New Look at the Sinking of the Lusitania

Owning a fragment of history — a Gettysburg bullet, a Coolidge campaign button — is fun, so in 1968 Gregg Bemis became an owner of the Lusitania. ---NATIONAL REVIEW/Will

Censorship is at play in Baltimore’s crisis

BALTIMORE BURNS, shops are looted, rioters attack firefighters with bottles and bricks. And amid all the violence and ruin, what drives the chattering class into a froth of indignation? That anyone would use the word “thugs” to describe the vandals and criminals reducing Baltimore to rubble.----THE BOSTON GLOBE

No, Calling the Baltimore Rioters ‘Thugs’ Does Not Make You a Racist

"The mayor of Baltimore, who will spend the rest of her days living light-years from the word “Churchillian,” recently apologized for two gaffes. First, she walked back her statement that she gave rioters space to “destroy.” That’s not what she meant, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said."---NATIONAL REVIEW

Glenn Beck: If Gay Marriage Is Legalized, 50 Percent of Congregants Will ‘Fall Away From Their Churches Within Five Years---THE BLAZE

"“What does your church do if they are currently saying ‘No, we aren’t going to marry same-sex couples.’ What happens?” Beck asked on his radio program. “They lose their tax exempt status and a lot of them will fall away.”

NY Times Blamed Reagan/Bush for LA Riots, But No Blame in Baltimore

Is President Obama responsible for the Baltimore riots? If you take a look at how The New York Times portrayed the reaction to the Los Angeles riots of 1992, apparently so ----NEWS BUSTERS

MSNBC’s Roberts Surprisingly Presses Baltimore Attorney on Freddie Gray Case

On Saturday’s Today, fill-in host Thomas Roberts interviewed Baltimore state attorney Marilyn Mosby about the recent charges filed against 6 Baltimore police office for the death of Freddie Gray and actually pressed her on the case as well as her qualifications to lead the investigation. ---NEWS BUSTERS

INSPIRATIONAL MESSAGE

From Gospel Way:

How Were People under the Old Testament forgiven?

Anyone who is saved, no matter when they lived, will be saved by Jesus. Heb. 9:15 says that, though Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant (Moses was the mediator of the Old Covenant), yet Jesus' death was also the redemption for the transgressions under the first covenant. So Jesus died for both the people before He lived and the people after He lived.

However, what that means is that people who lived under the Old Covenant did not have a means of lasting forgiveness as a part of the covenant under which they lived. By contrast, our forgiveness is available to us as part of the new covenant which we have now. This is the sense in which the law came by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ (John 1:17). Under the Old Covenant, people had laws to live by, but they had no sacrifice that could take away their sins permanently. Instead their sins were remembered every year. Study Heb. chap. 10, esp. v1-18. So they lacked grace in the sense that the means of their forgiveness had not yet come.

When Jesus came and died, He removed the Old Covenant (all of it) -- Col. 2:14,16 -- and instituted the New Testament (Heb. 10:9,10; 9:16,17). Under the New Covenant we still have laws and commands to obey. These are the commands and laws of the New Covenant, not those of the Old Covenant (1 Cor. 14:37; Matt. 28:18-20; Heb. 1:1,2; John 14:15; 1 John 5:3). But the difference is that, when we sin, we have a means of forgiveness as a part of the very covenant under which we live. We do not have to look forward to some future event to obtain our forgiveness.

People under the Old Covenant had no lasting forgiveness under their covenant. The only way they could ultimately be forgiven was for their covenant to be removed and replaced by the New Covenant (Heb. 8:7-13). Salvation for all people, regardless of when they lived, is available only through Jesus.

To learn more about the removal of the Old Testament law, see our online article about the Old Testament for Today at our Bible Instruction web site at www.gospelway.com/instruct/.

ref. http://www.gospelway.com/topics/bible/forgiveness-old_testament.php

DAILY DEVOTIONAL

rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer;

Romans 12:12 NKJV