Oregon Health Plan - we wont pay for your chemotherapy, but we will cover the costs of your assisted suicide!

Opponents of physician-assisted suicide are fired up this summer, and rightfully so, over an ethically questionable provision of the Oregon Health Plan. The conflict came to light in a recent report in The Register-Guard of Eugene. The newspaper described the sad plight of Barbara Wagner, a 64-year-old Springfield woman with lung cancer. After her oncologist prescribed a cancer drug that would cost $4,000 a month, the newspaper reported, “Wagner was notified that the Oregon Health Plan wouldn’t cover the treatment, but that it would cover palliative, or comfort, care, including, if she chose, doctor-assisted suicide.”

That presents an unacceptable conflict. The state health program should not be in the position of denying chemotherapy to terminally ill patients while offering to pay the cost of helping them die.

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Study: Trade deficit with China cost 2.3M US jobs

China's soaring trade deficit with the U.S. cost Americans 2.3 million jobs and $19.4 billion in lost wages between 2001 and 2007, according to an Economic Policy Institute study released Wednesday.

The Alliance for American Manufacturing blamed unfair trade policies for encouraging U.S. companies to ship jobs to China, where labor is cheaper and its currency undervalued.

"Our flawed trade relationship with China is destroying good jobs," executive director Scott Paul said in a prepared statement.

Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census Bureau and United States International Trade Commission, the Washington-based think tank said high-tech workers were hit especially hard after China entered the World Trade Organization in 2001.

Imports of computers and electronic parts accounted for nearly half of the $178 billion increase in the trade deficit during that time period.

It also blamed the trade imbalance for pushing down wages an average of $8,146.

Overall, California suffered the most losses, with 325,800 fewer jobs. It was followed by Texas at 202,900, New York at 127,000, Illinois at 102,800 and Ohio at 102,700.

More from Buisness Week

Restaurant Chains Close as Diners Reduce Spending

Several national restaurant chains were shuttered on Tuesday, possibly offering an early taste of what’s in store this year for businesses that depend on free-spending consumers whose budgets are now being squeezed.

The parent company of Bennigan’s, an Irish-themed bar and grill with about 200 sites across the country, filed for bankruptcy, a move that will put hundreds of employees out of work and leave many landlords with empty retail space during a painful time in the real estate market.

A sister brand, Steak & Ale, will also close. Franchise units of Bennigan’s will remain open for now, a spokeswoman, Leah Templeton, wrote in an e-mail message.

The restaurants are the latest casualties in the so-called casual dining sector, considered a cut above fast food. Soaring food costs and a surfeit of locations have hurt the companies’ bottom lines just as Americans are choosing to take more meals at home.

The closings are “something we’re going to see more of over the next 6 to 12 months,” said Amy Greene, a director at Avondale Partners who tracks the restaurant industry.

More from The New York Times

Prayer targets world's 3rd largest mission field – America

A blanket of prayer for America is being proposed for Sept. 11, 2008, the seventh anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, because it no longer is the Christian nation it once was, according to a coalition of organizations.

"America used to send out missionaries," Matti Stevenson, a spokeswoman for the effort, told WND. "Now it's the third-largest mission field itself. People from Africa are coming to help us. What does that say?

"It just takes my breath away," she said.

The project is called "Cry Out America" and intends to have a prayer vigil in every county – all 3,141 of them – on that day. It's being assembled by the Awakening America Alliance, a non-partisan, broad coalition of Christian leaders, denominations, churches, ministries and others.

"America is a nation in great spiritual decline evidenced by current statistics which show that only 17 percent of Americans attend church on any given Sunday and that America is the third largest mission field in the world," the organization said.

More from WorldNetDaily

No Bomb Sniffing Dogs Please, We Don't Want to Offend the Jihadist

Bomb sniffing dogs used by British Transit Police in the U.K. are no longer allowed to come in contact with Muslims. Why? It's against their religion of course. In the Muslim faith, dogs are deemed to be spiritually “unclean”.

Studies by Islamic Jihadist have shown that actually wearing suicide vests renders the devices more effective in lieu of checking them with the rest of their luggage. Nonetheless, a report for the Transport Department has stated that the animals should only touch passengers’ luggage because it is considered “more acceptable”.

More From On The wRite Side

Wikipedia publishes suicide instructions - From beheading to electrocution, site becomes manual to kill self

Wikipedia, the online "free encyclopedia" written and edited by its users, now includes dozens of detailed suicide methods with descriptions of ways in which people can mutilate or kill themselves.

The following are among such techniques described in vivid detail: beheading, cutting oneself, drowning, suffocation, electrocution, use of explosives, hanging, vehicular impact, jumping from bridges and towers, drug abuse, inhaling and ingesting poisons, suicide by fire, stabbing, shooting, starvation and suicide attack.

When WND contacted a representative of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, she said, "A site detailing the different methods someone could use to kill themselves could definitely be harmful to the public."

The researchers published their findings in an April 12, 2008, article titled, "Suicide and the Internet." The study found, "The top four sites provided not only information but also evaluation of methods of suicide. This included, for instance, detailed information about speed, certainty, and the likely amount of pain associated with a method."

Of the three most frequently appearing websites, one is openly satanic and all are pro-suicide, the study reported. "Wikipedia was the fourth most frequently occurring site."

More from WorldNetDaily

S&P: Home prices drop by record 15.8 pct. in May

Home prices tumbled by the steepest rate ever in May, according to a closely watched housing index released Tuesday, as the housing slump deepened nationwide.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city index dropped by 15.8 percent in May compared with a year ago, a record decline since its inception in 2000. The 10-city index plunged 16.9 percent, its biggest decline in its 21-year history.

More from Yahoo News

Toxic Chemicals Found In Common Scented Laundry Products, Air Fresheners

A University of Washington study of top-selling laundry products and air fresheners found the products emitted dozens of different chemicals. All six products tested gave off at least one chemical regulated as toxic or hazardous under federal laws, but none of those chemicals was listed on the product labels.

"I was surprised by both the number and the potential toxicity of the chemicals that were found," Steinemann said. Chemicals included acetone, the active ingredient in paint thinner and nail-polish remover; limonene, a molecule with a citrus scent; and acetaldehyde, chloromethane and 1,4-dioxane.

"Nearly 100 volatile organic compounds were emitted from these six products, and none were listed on any product label. Plus, five of the six products emitted one or more carcinogenic 'hazardous air pollutants,' which are considered by the Environmental Protection Agency to have no safe exposure level," Steinemann said.

More from Science Daily

Teen & Adult Drug Use Statistics that will blow your mind

Drug use (and abuse) over the course of the twentieth century has fluctuated significantly. As new drugs have been introduced into the public, popularity has shifted between a number of legal and illegal substances. With these popularity shifts have come changes in social acceptance, legal tolerance, and use rates among the public.

Drugs Over the Decades

Dozens of illicit substances are used daily around the nation. 5 of these substances have emerged as the most popular (and therefore most abused) over the years. Looking at these drugs based on their number of users gives a clear picture of the magnitude of national popularity, as well as a clear snapshot of the past four decades of use.

More from Vista Bay

More than 1,000 fentanyl deaths tracked to Mexican drug operation

More than 1,000 deaths linked to the painkiller fentanyl were reported nationally during a two-year span, traced to a drug operation in Mexico, according to a report released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The source was the same one identified in a 2007 Free Press investigation into the deadly cocktail of heroin and fentanyl that plagued metro Detroit. The CDC came to Detroit in 2006, as well as other major cities, as fentanyl-related deaths were peaking.

Fentanyl is used for pain management in severe cases, but was often mixed with heroin during the outbreak.

There likely were more fentanyl-related deaths, Schmidt noted, but not every hospital would test for fentanyl.

More from Freep.com

Pickens: Oil at $300 a barrel? Maybe

Oil prices could hit $300 a barrel if the United States does not take drastic action to reduce its heavy dependence on foreign oil, but neither of the top presidential candidates is addressing the crisis, Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens said Monday.

To prevent economic bankruptcy as a result of sending $700 billion a year overseas to unstable oil producers in the Middle East and Africa, the nation needs to mobilize behind a plan to shift toward domestic energy sources such as natural gas, wind and solar power, he told reporters and editors of The Washington Times.

"We are getting in trouble fast" and the economy is "already in the tank" because the nation is importing 70 percent of the fuel it needs each day, he said.

"The price of oil will be $300 a barrel if you sit here and let it go" for another 10 years, said Mr. Pickens, chairman and chief executive officer of BP Capital. "We have no control over the price of gasoline and diesel. Whatever they're going to stick us with, we'll pay it." Oil closed Monday at $131.04 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

More from The Washington Post

Want to gain weight? Here's 8 great ways to do it.

First, I have a confession: I used to never care about what I ate. Not only that, I also loved take-out foods—mostly because of my crazy work schedule. And oh, I wasn’t the most athletic guy. In fact, I didn’t start exercising until I was in my thirties, when suddenly I realized that I had to do something to keep my body healthy.

Does this sound familiar? Honestly, it seems like we’ve all got some pounds we could shed—and we’re in big company (yes, pun intended). But seriously, this is no joking matter: the statistics about obesity in this country are far from funny. Can you believe that by 2010, three-quarters of the U.S. population will be overweight? And if that didn’t shock you, check this out: statistics show that 80% of our kids are suffering from weight-related afflictions, like arthritis? The consequences of extra weight are devastating. So here’s my question: how did we get here?

The Big 8 from Dr. Manny

WHY ARE THE NETWORK NEWS ANCHORS GOING TO IRAQ WITH OBAMA?

Could There be Bias in the Media? Say it Ain't So!

More from Fox News

San Fran's next step: Legalized prostitution? City to vote on ballot measure D.A. calls 'welcome mat for prostitutes and pimps'

Petitioners have succeeded in moving a measure that would effectively decriminalize prostitution in the city of San Francisco to the Nov. 4 ballot.

While prostitution is unlawful under the California Penal Code, the measure – if passed by voters – would ban the San Francisco Police Department from allocating any financial resources for the investigation and prosecution of sex workers on prostitution charges.

Section four of the ballot measure – under the heading "Prostitution Shall Be Decriminalized" – further states that the city, county, and district attorney "shall not subject sex-workers to life long economic discrimination associated with having a criminal record."

San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris criticized the measure, unofficially titled "Enforcement of Laws Related to Prostitution and Sex Workers." Harris told the San Francisco Chronicle, "This measure is nothing more than a welcome mat for prostitutes and pimps to come and hang out in San Francisco."

More from WorldNetDaily

State Dept. promotes 'Mosques in America' - Publishes '09 calendar featuring worship sites for only 1 religion

This now available from the U.S. State Department: "2009 Mosques of America Wall Calendar: Limited Edition for Ramadan."

"Yep, you read that correctly. It's 'perfect for Muslim outreach efforts," according to a commentary at the Gates of Vienna blog. "Where's the ACLU on this one?"

The product was being advertised by "Global Publishing Solutions," a division of the U.S. State Department, until bloggers started talking about it.

Officials then apparently hid the page behind the security of a password-protected wall. However, the page is still viewable in a Google cache of the website.

This item is on sale until August 1st, 2008 in shrink-wrapped packs of 20 pieces.

"Remember," said the Internet commentator, "This was on an official State Department (state.gov) web page. GPS describes itself this way: 'The Global Publishing Solutions, manages this site as a gateway to information and transactions for their U.S. State Department clients."

More from WorldNetDaily

Movie Warns of Pending Economic Crisis

A film that warns Americans of an impending economic crisis due to exponentially increasing national debt will be shown to delegates at both political conventions and debuts nationwide in August in selected theaters.

The film, entitled “I.O.U.S.A.,” is part of a grassroots campaign sponsored by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation to engage young people and the business sector and mobilize them to take action.

The foundation claims that America is currently burdened with $53 trillion in obligations -- $175,000 per American -- due to an addiction to debt, near-zero national and personal savings, and the rising costs for social programs like Social Security and Medicare.

The film, which was screened for members of Congress and others in D.C.’s policy establishment Wednesday night, focuses on what it calls America’s “four key deficits” – budget, savings, balance of payments/trade, and leadership.

“America is getting mired in more and more debt and unsustainable promises at both the national and personal levels,” Peterson said in a news release announcing the project. “This is a vicious cycle that must be broken, before it breaks us.”

More from cnsnews.com

Analysts say more U.S. banks will fail - Maybe Dozens?

As home prices continue to decline and loan defaults mount, U.S. regulators are bracing for dozens of American banks to fail over the next year.

But after a large mortgage lender in California collapsed late Friday, Wall Street analysts began posing two crucial questions: Just how many banks might falter? And, more urgently, which one could be next?

The nation's banks are in far less danger than they were in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when more than 1,000 federally insured institutions went under during the savings-and-loan crisis. The debacle, the greatest collapse of American financial institutions since the Depression, prompted a government bailout that cost taxpayers about $125 billion.

But the troubles are growing so rapidly at some small and midsize banks that as many as 150 out of the 7,500 banks nationwide could fail over the next 12 to 18 months, analysts say. Other lenders are likely to shut branches or seek mergers.

More from iht.com

When Human Rights Extend to Nonhumans

The environment committee of the Spanish Parliament last month voted to grant limited rights to the great apes — chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans.

The committee would bind Spain to the principles of the Great Ape Project, which points to apes’ human qualities, including the ability to feel fear and happiness, create tools, use languages, remember the past and plan the future. The project’s directors, Peter Singer, the Princeton ethicist, and Paola Cavalieri, an Italian philosopher, regard apes as part of a “community of equals” with humans.

If the bill passes — the news agency Reuters predicts it will — it would become illegal in Spain to kill apes except in self-defense. Torture, including in medical experiments, and arbitrary imprisonment, including for circuses or films, would be forbidden.

The 300 apes in Spanish zoos would not be freed, but better conditions would be mandated.

More monkey buisness from The New York Times

Pastor among suspects in illegal snake bust

The pastor of a Kentucky church that handles snakes in religious rites was among 10 people arrested by wildlife officers in a crackdown on the venomous snake trade. More than 100 snakes, many of them deadly, were confiscated in the undercover sting after Thursday's arrests, said Col. Bob Milligan, director of law enforcement for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife.

Most were taken from the Middlesboro home of Gregory James Coots, including 42 copperheads, 11 timber rattlesnakes, three cottonmouth water moccasins, a western diamondback rattlesnake, two cobras and a puff adder.

The snakes, plus one alligator, were turned over to the nonprofit Kentucky Reptile Zoo in Slade. Most appeared to have been captured from the wild, with some imported from Asia and Africa.

Zoo Director Jim Harrison said some of the animals would likely have become exotic pets had they not been seized.

"You can purchase anything off the Internet except common sense," Harrison said. "A venomous snake isn't a pet. You don't play with it. If you do, you're an idiot."

More at Yahoo News

Narcotics Sold Online, No Rx Needed - Study Shows Some Web Site Lack Controls to Keep Kids From Buying Drugs

Scores of web sites do not require a prescription to buy narcotics, stimulants, and other controlled substances -- and none of those sites has controls to prevent children from making such purchases, a study shows.

A report released today by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University reveals that 85% of web sites selling potent prescription drugs such as OxyContin, Valium, and Ritalin do not ask Internet users for a proper prescription from a doctor. Many explicitly state that no prescription is needed.

"Anyone of any age can obtain dangerous and addictive prescription drugs with the click of a mouse," Joseph A. Califano Jr., chairman and president of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse and former U.S. secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, says in a news release. "This problem is not going away."

The report, titled "'You've Got Drugs!' V: Prescription Drug Pushers on the Internet," details the advertising and selling of controlled substances online. It is the fifth annual report on the subject. The report tracks the availability of prescription opioids such as OxyContin and Vicodin, depressants such as Valium and Xanax, and stimulants such as Ritalin and Adderall.

More at WebMD

U.N. scheme to make Christians criminals Sharia-following Islamic nations demanding anti-'defamation' law

Dozens of nations dominated by Islam are pressing the United Nations to adopt an anti-"defamation" plan that would make Christians criminals under international law, according to a United States organization that has launched a campaign to defend freedom of religion worldwide.

"Around the world, Christians are being increasingly targeted, and even persecuted, for their religious beliefs. Now, one of the largest organizations in the United Nations is pushing to make a bad situation even worse by promoting anti-Christian bigotry," the American Center for Law & Justice said yesterday in announcing its petition drive.

The discrimination is "wrapped in the guise of a U.N. resolution called 'Combating Defamation of Religions,'" the announcement said. "We must put an immediate end to this most recent, dangerous attack on faith that attempts to criminalize Christianity."

More at WorldNetDaily

Iranians consider mandatory execution for apostasy - Christians being interrogated on suspicion of crime of leaving Islam

A plan is being discussed by lawmakers in Iran that would require the death penalty for anyone who leaves Islam for Christianity or someone who promotes such a conversion even on the Internet, according to a new report from Compass Direct News.

Those discussions of a penal code that was drafted earlier this year bring urgency to situations such as the two men arrested recently and under interrogation for that very crime, the report said.

Under the existing sharia laws in Iran, the death penalty is available for the crime of apostasy, but not required.

The proposal, however, would change that.

"If passed, the penal code drafted last January would require execution of any Muslim who converts to Christianity," Compass said. Such punishments could not be "changed, reduced or annulled."

More from WorldNetDaily

Nearly Half of Nonsmokers Still Breathing Cigarette Fumes

Nearly half of nonsmoking Americans are still breathing in cigarette fumes, but the percentage has declined dramatically since the early 1990s, according to a government study released Thursday.

The new study found about 46 percent of nonsmokers had signs of nicotine in their blood in tests done from 1999 through 2004. That was a steep drop from 84 percent when similar tests were done in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

But health officials stopped short of celebrating.

"It's still high," said Cinzia Marano, one of the study's authors. "There is no safe level of exposure."

Cigarettes cause lung cancer and other deadly illnesses not only in smokers, but also in nonsmokers who breathe in smoke, studies have shown.

For nonsmoking adults, secondhand smoke increases their lung cancer risk by at least 20 percent and their heart disease risk by at least 25 percent. Children exposed to secondhand smoke are at increased risk of asthma attacks, ear problems, acute respiratory infections and sudden infant death syndrome, health officials say.

More from Fox News

'Gay' man sues Bible publishers $70 million for emotional distress because homosexuality cast as sin

A homosexual man who has a blog on Sen. Barack Obama's campaign website is suing two major Christian publishers for violating his constitutional rights and causing emotional pain, because the Bible versions they publish refer to homosexuality as a sin.

Bradley LaShawn Fowler, 39, of Canton, Mich., is seeking $60 million from Zondervan and another $10 million from Thomas Nelson Publishing in lawsuits filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, the Grand Rapids Press reported.

Fowler filed his claim against Grand Rapids-based Zondervan Monday, alleging its Bibles' references to homosexuality as a sin have made him an outcast from his family and contributed to physical discomfort and periods of "demoralization, chaos and bewilderment," the paper said.

He filed suit against Tennessee publisher Thomas Nelson in June.

Zondervan says that even if Fowler's claim is credible, he's suing the wrong party. A company spokesman told WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids that Zondervan doesn't translate the Bible or own the copyright for any of the translations but relies, instead, on the "scholarly judgment of credible translation committees."

Just assuming he could actually win, which is very unlikely, what good for him or anyone else to gain millions, or even the whole world and then loose their soul? And how can you sue a man or a company if you are in disagreement with God? It is His word after all.

More from WorldNetDaily

Al Qaeda Expanding Recruitment Of Children

Al Qaeda has successfully established a network for recruiting boys as young as 12 from across central Asia as it seeks new volunteers to enlarge its team of prospective suicide bombers and militants fighters, senior security officials from the Middle East have revealed to CBS News.

News of al Qaeda venturing into the former Soviet central Asian republics with a population that has a largely Muslim heritage marks a significant addition to reports earlier this year that the hardline group had recruited young boys in the Pak-Afghan border region.

Last May, a senior Pakistani security official showed a rare video clip to CBS News documenting a boy, barely 12 years old, using a machete to severe the head of a middle-aged man whom militants probably suspected as being a spy for the U.S.

In an execution which typified the Taliban brand of quick justice, that boy severed the head of his victim who was completely tied up and thrown on the ground as a crowd of hundreds of spectators cheered.

More from CBS News

Will the World End in 2012? - Thousands Worldwide Prepare for the Apocalypse, Expected in 2012

Two years ago, Patrick Geryl, then 51, quit his job as a laboratory worker for a French oil company. He'd saved up just enough money to last him until December 2012. After that, he thought, he wouldn't need it anyway.

Instead, Geryl, a soft-spoken man who had studied chemistry in his younger years, started preparing for the apocalypse. He founded a "survival group" for likeminded men and women, aimed at living through the catastrophe he knew was coming.

He started gathering materials necessary to survive — water purifiers, wheelbarrows (with spare tires), dust masks and vegetable seeds. His list of survival goods runs 11 pages long.

That's because Geryl believes the world as we know it will end in 2012. He points to the ancient Maya cyclical calendars, the longest of which last renewed itself approximately 5,125 years ago and is set to end again, supposedly with catastrophic consequences, in 2012. He speaks of the ancient Egyptians, who, he claims, saw 2012 as a year of great change too. And he points to science: NASA predicts a sharp increase in the number of sunspots and sun flares for 2012, he said, sure to cause electrical failures and satellite disruptions.

These may sound like the ravings of a madman, or perhaps the head of a small apocalyptic sect. But Geryl is not the only one who believes in the apocalypse. Thousands of people worldwide seem to be preparing, in one way or another, for the end of days in 2012. Survival groups exist in Europe, Canada and the United States. A simple Google search for "2012" and "the end of the world" brings up nearly 300,000 hits. And the video-sharing Web site YouTube hosts more than 65,000 clips informing and warning viewers about their fate in 2012.

More from ABC News

At $100 for Tank of Gas, Some Choke on ‘Fill It’

With gasoline prices high and rising, a new financial milestone has arrived: the $100 tank of gas. Bryan Carisone, a heating and air-conditioning contractor in Raritan, N.J., “absolutely loves” his new GMC Denali XL, an extra-large sport utility vehicle with televisions built into the leather seats. But in June, one week after he bought it, he pulled into a station on a near-empty tank and watched the total climb higher and higher — to $109.

“It just about killed me,” Mr. Carisone said.

For decades, the $100 barrel stood as a hypothetical outlier in doom-and-gloom conversations about future oil prices. And nobody could even imagine an American family paying $100 to fill the tank.

From The New York Times

Group Asks for Divine Intervention to Ease Oil Prices

As the price of oil continues to rise, some are turning to God and prayer for an answer to their financial troubles.

The Pray at the Pump Movement, founded by Rocky Twyman, has been holding prayer vigils at gas stations across the country. On Monday, Twyman decided to take his movement from Exxon and Shell stations straight to the steps of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, D.C., hoping to encourage the oil-rich country to raise the amount of barrels they release each day from 200,000 to 1.2 million.

Twyman, who is a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, spent the afternoon outside of the embassy praying and asking passersby to sign his petition for the release of more oil, which he hopes to deliver to the Saudi oil minister.

"Our people are really suffering through this crisis," Twyman told Cybercast News Service. "We need the Saudis to release at least 1.2 [million] barrels of oil per day for about the next six months until we can get everything settled in America ... (I)f they can just do that for us, than this will help us get through this crisis."

More from CNS

Change of plans for July 4 - gas too pricey

Many Americans will watch fireworks at home instead of hitting the road this July 4, according to a new poll released Wednesday, as record gasoline prices force people to make major changes in their daily lives.

According to a CNN/Opinion Research poll, 31% of Americans have canceled or shortened their planned holiday weekend vacation because of the recent increase in the price of gas.

"When consumers talk about their thinning wallets, high fuel expenses is the reason they would point to first," said Wachovia economist Tim Quinlan.

The average price of a gallon of gas rose to an all-time high above $4.09 a gallon Wednesday, according to a survey from motorist group AAA. Gas prices are now about 3% higher than last month and 38.5% higher than year-ago levels.

Of the more than 1,000 Americans surveyed from June 26 to 29, 72% said record gas prices have caused them to make changes in their daily lives, and 30% said those changes were major ones.

More from CNN

Presbyterians move to allow gay clergy, but fight remains

The nation's largest Presbyterian denomination on Friday (June 27) cracked open the door to ordaining non-celibate gay and lesbian clergy, though the decades-old fight is far from over.

Delegates at the Presbyterian Church (USA) meeting here voted 54 percent to 46 percent to remove a clause in their constitution that requires clergy to be either married and faithful or single and chaste.

In a related move, delegates approved an "authoritative interpretation" of church rules on gay clergy, a move that was meant to piece back together a delicate compromise forged two years ago that was rejected by the church's highest court. Under the new interpretation, gay and lesbian clergy would be allowed to declare a conscientious objection to rules that would otherwise prohibit them. Local bodies could then choose to ordain them, or deny them access to the pulpit.

"I think the word that best describes what we feel is grief," said Terry Schlossberg of Presbyterian Coalition, a group that sought to preserve the ordination standards. "We think the implications are very serious and will do a great deal of harm to the church." In the proposal that now heads out to local presbyteries, delegates voted to replace language in the church's Book of Order that required ordination candidates to live "in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness."

It's getting bad when the Clergy don't even read their Bible or worse when they choose to ignore what is in it.

More from The Pew Forum

9 in 10 see rising gas prices causing family hardship

Like a plague that does not discriminate by economic class, race or age, soaring gas prices are inflicting pain throughout the U.S. Nine in 10 are expecting the ballooning costs to squeeze them financially over the next half year, an Associated Press-Yahoo! News poll said Monday.

Nearly half think that hardship will be serious. To cope, most are driving less, easing off the air conditioning and heating at home and cutting corners elsewhere. Half are curtailing vacation plans; nearly as many are considering buying cars that burn less gas.

As the price has spiraled upward so, too, has the public's ire.

Two-thirds consider gas prices an extremely important issue, edging the economy and outpacing health care and Iraq as the country's most distressing problem. In November, when gas cost about $1 a gallon less than today, just under half rated it extremely important.

More from Yahoo News

Democratic Party official accused in satanic rape, kidnap

Joy Johnson

A Democratic Party official and her husband are facing charges in connection with alleged satanic rituals involving the kidnap, rape and starvation of another couple in North Carolina.

Joy Johnson, 30, a vice-chairwoman of the Durham County Democratic Party and vice chairwoman of the Young Democrats, made an appearance in court yesterday after she and her spouse, Joseph Craig, were arrested Friday.

Craig, 25, is charged with second-degree rape, second-degree kidnapping and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon for an incident in January and another in May. Johnson is charged with two counts of aiding and abetting.

According to published and broadcast reports, prosecutors said a man and a woman met Craig through a shared interest in Satan worship, although the couple never consented to any physical abuse.

Joseph Craig

Craig allegedly shackled his victims to beds, kept them in dog cages and starved them inside his home. Police say he beat the man with a cane and a cord, and raped the woman.

More from WorldNetDaily

US leads world in substance abuse, WHO finds

The United States leads the world in rates of experimenting with marijuana and cocaine despite strict drug laws, World Health Organization researchers said on Tuesday.

Countries with looser drug laws have lower rates of abuse, the researchers report in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine.

The survey of 54,000 people in 17 countries found that 16 percent of people in the United States had used cocaine in their lifetimes -- far higher than the next highest rate, found in New Zealand, where 4.3 percent of people reported having used cocaine.

More than 42 percent of Americans admitted to having tried cannabis, closely followed by 41 percent in New Zealand, Dr. Louisa Degenhardt of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia and an international team of colleagues found.

Americans were also the most likely to have smoked, with 74 percent saying they used tobacco at some time in their lives, although current smoking rates are far lower at 21 percent.

More from Reuters

Auto sales plunge - Buyers flee SUVs and pickups but can't find the cars they want, resulting in steep declines at most automakers.

June auto sales plunged, according to reports from the nation's major automakers, as Americans shunned pickups and SUVs in the face of record gas prices.

General Motors (GM, Fortune 500) reported that its U.S. sales fell 18% in June versus a year ago. Sales of GM's light trucks, which includes pickups, SUVs and so-called crossovers, tumbled 16%. GM's car sales dropped 21% in the month.

Still, the results were better than forecasts of an overall 25% decline in sales. And it was good enough for GM to hang onto the title of the No. 1 automaker in terms of U.S. sales.

Toyota Motor (TM) reported a 21% drop in U.S. sales in June from a year ago, far worse than the forecast from Edmunds.com of only a 12% drop in sales. It was the biggest year-over-year decline in U.S. sales in 10 years for Toyota.

Ford Motor (F, Fortune 500), the No. 3 automaker in terms of U.S. sales, posted a 28% decline in sales -- steeper than Edmunds.com's forecasts of a 25% drop. Ford saw demand for its SUVs plunge by more than half and for pickups and other trucks fall more than a third.

More from CNN Money