Unitarians to discuss ‘certainty’ Sunday
The Rev. Katie Kandarian-Morris will present “Letting Go of Certainty” at 10 a.m. Sunday at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Durango, 419 San Juan Drive.
For more information, visit www.durangouu.org.
Questionable signs hang in Ky. Capitol
FRANKFORT, Ky. – Kentucky lawmakers will debate legislation in committees next year beneath “In God We Trust” signs.
The Lexington Herald-Leader reports state officials hung the new signs in 11 committee rooms in the Capitol and Capitol Annex, where legislators have offices and meeting rooms. Republican Senate President Robert Stivers said the signs were paid for with private donations, not taxpayer dollars.
The ACLU of Kentucky and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State are not happy about the signs, but say there is little chance a judge would order them removed.
Legislators approved the signs earlier this year by passing an amendment sponsored by Republican state Sen. Albert Robinson of London. Similar signs already hang in the state House and Senate chambers.
African Israelites’ spiritual leader dies
JERUSALEM – The spiritual leader of the African Hebrew Israelites, a polygamous vegan group that believes some black Americans descended from a Jewish tribe, has died aged 75.
Ben Ammi Ben Israel died Dec. 27, the group announced Sunday. He was born Ben Carter in Chicago in 1939.
He maintained that some black Americans descend from the tribe of Judah, who migrated to Africa after the destruction of the Second Jewish Temple in A.D. 70.
In 1966, he had a vision the angel Gabriel told him to “return to the holy land by way in which we came,” a spokeswoman for the group said. He led a few hundred followers to Liberia, the West African republic settled by freed slaves in the 19th century. In 1969 they moved to Israel.
Indiana diocese wants jury award cut
FORT WAYNE, Ind. – A northern Indiana Roman Catholic diocese wants to reduce a jury’s nearly $2 million award to a former teacher fired by church officials for trying to get pregnant through in vitro fertilization.
A motion filed Monday by the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend seeks to cut Emily Herx’s federal jury award to about $300,000, arguing that such damages are partly capped by the size of the diocese’s workforce.
The Journal Gazette reports diocese attorneys argue state law caps pain-and-suffering damages at $300,000 for employers with more than 500 employees and states the diocese has more than 870 teachers alone.
Extremists in Uganda kill 2 Muslim clerics
KAMPALA, Uganda – A police official says an extremist group is responsible for killing two Uganda Muslim clerics days apart.
The clerics were separately shot dead by armed men who used motorbikes to run away after killing the victims.
In 2012, five clerics were assassinated and police also linked these killings to the Allied Democratic Forces, a Uganda group based in Congo.
Herald Staff & Associated Press
