Good morning!
We are expecting a spring snowstorm in Colorado today. For perspective, the latest recorded snow in Colorado Springs was June 10, 1975 when 1.1 inches was recorded. But see story #11. Feel better?
Here are some of the other headlines we’re following this morning:
1, Times Square to be Ground Zero for Late-Term Abortion Debate
The Washington Examiner’s Paul Bedard writes:
When it comes to promoting abortion, pro-life champion Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family, has seen it all. Well, almost.
The lighting of New York’s One World Trade Center and other state landmarks in pink by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to celebrate passage of new rights allowing abortions until birth crossed a line for him.
On May 4, Focus on the Family is answering back by taking over many of the Jumbotrons at Times Square to show a real-time, 4D ultrasound of a third-trimester baby in a challenge to the legislation and celebration of abortion that followed.
2. Americans Are Beginning to See Life More Clearly
Jim Daly’s commentary for Townhall:
Good news for pre-born babies in last weekend’s box office headlines: To the shock of many in Hollywood, the movie Unplanned opened by making $6.1 million. Unplanned features the story of former Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson who defected from the organization and became a pro-life activist.
Now I’m no Hollywood expert, but I was not surprised by how well the movie performed. People are growing frustrated with out of touch politicians who have overreached by allowing abortion rights right up until birth, and even after being born. Yes, that’s infanticide.
To show your support for life, join Focus on the Family in Times Square for “Alive from New York” on May 4th. We’re going to show live 4D ultrasounds. After seeing these images no one should question whether life inside the womb is a human being. Americans are beginning to see life more clearly, and maybe even Hollywood.
3. Netanyahu Triumphs in Israeli Election
While both candidates are claiming victory, the Jerusalem Post reports:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won Tuesday’s election and will be able to form a governing coalition that will enable to withstand a bribery indictment by Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit, according to the results with 97% of the vote counted. Mandelblit indicted Netanyahu pending a hearing on February 28, details of the indictment that were not permitted to be released during the election could be leaked as early as Wednesday. The hearing is expected to take place in July and the decision on the final indictment some six months later.
4. Candace Owens Shows How to Stand Up to Liberal Bullies
From FOX News:
Owens soon made clear she felt Lieu had intentionally misrepresented her views to drive a false narrative not just against Owens, but also Trump and Republicans in general.
“I think it’s pretty apparent that Mr. Lieu believes that black people are stupid and will not pursue the full clip in its entirety,” Owens said.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-NY., interrupted, telling Owens, “It is not proper to refer disparagingly to a member of the committee. The witness will not do that again.”
After clarifying that she had not, in fact, called Lieu stupid, Owens continued: “As I said, he is assuming that black people will not go and pursue the full two-hour clip. He purposefully cut off — and you didn’t hear the question that was asked of me. He’s trying to present as if I was launching a defense of Hitler in Germany, when in fact the question that was presented to me was pertaining to wheher I believed in nationalism, and that nationalism was bad.”
5. Illinois Billboards Encourage Women to Get An Abortion
The ironically named “Hope” Clinic for Women is betting residents of Missouri, where strict abortion laws exist, will consider coming to Illinois instead. More from Fox News:
“Welcome to Illinois, where you can get a safe, legal abortion,” the Hope Clinic for Women billboard reads near the Missouri-Illinois border.
“The goal of this billboard is to remind people coming in from Missouri that they are now in a state that trusts and allows pregnant people to make their own healthcare and family planning decisions,” Erin King, Hope Clinic executive director, said in a statement.
The Granite City, Ill., abortion clinic, located just 10 minutes outside of downtown St. Louis, got the idea from a liberal group that put up a similar billboard in Colorado near the Utah border.
6. Colorado Springs Resident Alleges LGBT Hate Crime
Local NBC affiliate KOAA reports on the alleged attack:
Emmitt Davis, 22, says the attack happened Saturday afternoon. “My partner and I were sitting in my front yard, enjoying the nice weather, smoking a cigarette, the usual,” Davis said. That’s when Davis alleges two young men jumped a backyard privacy fence, came around to the front yard, and began using homophobic slurs against the couple.
Davis says the trespassers briefly left, only to return with a third man and began getting physically aggressive. “He swung at me. I swung back in self-defense. He swung again,” Davis said. Davis says he was struck specifically in the back of the neck and on the right eye and bridge of the nose. Purple bruising and bloody hemorrhage are apparent in Davis’ right eye. “It was very apparent they were just there to attack,” Davis said.
7. Massachusetts Becomes 16th State to Ban ‘Gay Conversion Therapy’
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker on Monday signed into law HR 140, a bill that bans gay conversion therapy on minors, making Massachusetts the 16th state to prohibit the medically discredited and controversial practice.
Baker’s press secretary, Brendan Moss, said the governor, a Republican, “is proud of the commonwealth’s history of support for equal rights and protecting all citizens against discrimination.” The bill made it out of the state House and onto the governor’s desk with overwhelming support: the House vote was 147-8, and the Senate vote 34-0.
Following the November release of the star-studded and critically acclaimed conversion therapy drama, “Boy Erased,” which was based on a true story, national attention has turned to the jurisdictions where conversion therapy is still legal. In 2018 alone, Washington, Maryland, Hawaii, New Hampshire and Delaware all passed bans. This year, New York and Puerto Rico banned the practice. And in Congress, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., introduced a federal bill to ban Medicaid funding for conversion therapy.
8. Tony Evans Describes How Satan is Attacking Manhood to Destroy our Society
Pastor Tony Evans sat down with the Christian Post to talk about his views on the spiritual attack against manhood, and his new movie coming out later this month to address the problem.
“What we’re seeing, and will continue to see, is the decimation of the family, because the man is the foundation of the family, and the family is the foundation of society. So, if we want to unravel the family and society, the best way is to get rid of men fulfilling their roles.”
The current chaplain of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks explained that the reason behind the current attack on manhood is twofold: “First of all, men have failed to be the men that God wants them to be, which has opened up a gap which has been filled with a re-definition of manhood and attacks against men,” he said. “So, it’s in part due to men’s failure.”
9. How Should Parents React to Fighting Children?
The New York Times reports reacting in anger yourself isn’t the way to go:
Behavior problems in children, especially aggression and defiance, don’t get a great deal of sympathy, said Dave Anderson, a psychologist who is senior director of national programs at the Child Mind Institute in New York City. “For a child to get better requires just as much empathy and scaffolding as for a child who might be depressed, but behavioral issues inspire nowhere near as much empathy.”
There is a persistent belief that these behaviors reflect poor parenting, he said, but in fact, there is often a strong biological component to behavioral issues, and the responses which come naturally to most parents faced with these behaviors may not have the desired results.
“If you’re going to have persistent behavior problems involving aggression and defiance, it’s already elevated at 2,” said Michael F. Lorber, a senior research scientist with the Family Translational Research Group at New York University.
10. Your Pregnancy App May Not Be As Private As You Think
Like millions of women, Diana Diller was a devoted user of the pregnancy-tracking app Ovia, logging in every night to record new details on a screen asking about her bodily functions, sex drive, medications and mood. When she gave birth last spring, she used the app to chart her baby’s first online medical data — including her name, her location and whether there had been any complications — before leaving the hospital’s recovery room.
But someone else was regularly checking in, too: her employer, which paid to gain access to the intimate details of its workers’ personal lives, from their trying-to-conceive months to early motherhood. Diller’s bosses could look up aggregate data on how many workers using Ovia’s fertility, pregnancy and parenting apps had faced high-risk pregnancies or gave birth prematurely; the top medical questions they had researched; and how soon the new moms planned to return to work.
11. Best Places to Live? Austin, Denver and Colorado Springs
U.S. News & World Report just released data for its 2019 Best Places to Live in America.
For the third year in a row, Austin, Texas, took the No. 1 spot. Although the number of people moving to the state capital has decreased, it scored high in desirability, and its net migration score was still higher than that of most cities.
Colorado cities took the next two spots, with Denver and Colorado Springs ranking second and third, respectively. Fayetteville, Arkansas, and Des Moines, Iowa, rounded out the top five, proving that coastal cities are no longer dominating.
12. Parents at UC Berkeley Easter-Egg Hunt Must Sign Waivers Due to Kids’ Risk of ‘Death’
Strange but true, from National Review:
According to Reason, parents had to stand in line for up to half an hour to hand in the waiver before their kids could attend the 25th Annual Easter Egg Hunt Learning Festival. The waiver, which was obtained by Reason, listed risks including “minor injuries, such as scratches, bruises, and sprains,” “major injuries such as eye injury or loss of sight, joint or back injuries, heart attacks, and concussions,” and even “catastrophic injuries including paralysis or death.”
