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FAITH-BASED EXEMPTIONS: BYU Regulates Dating On-Campus
Feds Open Investigation On BYU's Dating Ban For LGBTQ Students
Students who hold hands or kiss someone of the same sex face harsher discipline than heterosexual couples at the school operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The U.S. Department of Education has opened a civil-rights investigation into how LGBTQ students are disciplined at Brigham Young University, a private religious school.
The complaint under investigation came after the school said it would still enforce a ban on same-sex dating even after that section was removed from the written version of the school’s honor code, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. Students can be punished for holding hands or kissing someone of the same sex, harsher discipline than that faced by heterosexual couples at the school operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Federal scrutiny like this is rare at church-owned schools, and typically happens only in places where there are believed to be potential systemic or serious issues, said Michael Austin, a BYU graduate and vice president at the University of Evansville, a private Methodist school in Indiana.
“It’s really significant that investigators are stepping in now,” he told the newspaper. The new investigation appears to be about whether those exemptions allow faith-based discipline for LGBTQ students even if the behavior is not directly related to education or expressly prohibited in its written honor code.
The school’s president argued those exemptions do apply, and everyone who attends or works at BYU agrees to follow the honor code and “‘voluntarily commit to conduct their lives in accordance with the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ,’” according to a letter Kevin Worthen wrote to the Department of Education in November 2021.
In a response obtained by the Tribune, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights affirmed the school does have some religious exemptions but the department had to investigate whether the complaint it received falls under those exemptions.
LGBTQ rights have been a major issue in recent years at the school located in Provo, Utah. A lawsuit filed by several students last year alleges discrimination, with one recent graduate who is a lesbian alleging she lost her job at the school because she didn’t look “feminine enough” to her boss.
That clarification sparked protests on BYU’s campus and outside church headquarters and contributed to a handful of BYU and BYU-Idaho students joining a federal lawsuit last spring challenging faith-based schools’ ability to access government funds if they don’t follow LGBTQ anti-discrimination rules.
The institution has also banned protests near its large letter “Y” posted on a mountainside after protesters lit the letter with rainbow colors. Last fall, a top-ranking church leader publicly criticized faculty members and students who challenge the faith’s teachings on same-sex marriage."
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BYU responds to federal investigation of its LGBTQ policies
Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights affirms BYU’s religious exemptions to federal law in 15 areas, including housing and admissions.
The U.S. Department of Education is investigating BYU’s policies regarding LGBTQ students and whether they are covered by Title IX exemptions issued to the religious-based university in Provo, Utah.
The investigation by the federal department’s Office of Civil Rights began on Oct. 21, a department spokesman confirmed on Thursday. The BYU investigation is one of more than 1,400 ongoing investigations at U.S. schools and is based on a March 2020 complaint. . . "
ARIZONA CORPORATION COMMISSION Staff Open Meeting Notice & Agenda 02.08.2022
STAFF OPEN MEETING
OF THE ARIZONA CORPORATION COMMISSION
Tuesday, February 8, 2022
8:30 A.M.
Hearing Room One
1200 W. Washington St.
Phoenix, AZ 85007
This shall serve as notice of an open meeting at the above location for consideration and discussion of the items on the agenda and other matters related thereto. Commissioners may attend the proceedings in person, or by telephone, video, or internet conferencing,and may use this open meeting to ask questions about the matters on the agenda. The parties to the matters to be discussed or their legal representatives are requested, though not required, to attend telephonically. The Commissioners may move to executive session, which will not be open to the public, for the purpose of legal advice pursuant to A.R.S. § 38-431.03 (A) (3) on the matters noticed herein.
Because of the guidance issued by state and federal officials regarding the Covid-19 pandemic, only essential Commission staff will attend in person. The public is strongly discouraged from attending in person. The public will be able to participate by either watching and listening to the meeting online or listening to the meeting via telephone.
Persons with a disability may request reasonable accommodations by contacting the Commission Secretary listed above at least 48 hours before the scheduled commencement of the Open Meeting.
Agendas are also available online at: http://www.azcc.gov/live
Dial-in Phone Number: 1-888-450-5996 Passcode to Listen Only: 3063803
NOTE: The Commission may choose to take testimony under oath.
AGENDA
- Arizona Corporation Commission – Legislative Update and Commission discussion, consideration, and possible vote to support, oppose and/or be neutral on any bills listed in the bill summary (link for bill summary to follow). (Nick Debus)
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This shall serve as notice of an open meeting at the above location for consideration and discussion of the items on the agenda and other matters related thereto. Commissioners may attend the proceedings in person, or by telephone, video, or internet conferencing,and may use this open meeting to ask questions about the matters on the agenda. The parties to the matters to be discussed or their legal representatives are requested, though not required, to attend telephonically. The Commissioners may move to executive session, which will not be open to the public, for the purpose of legal advice pursuant to A.R.S. § 38-431.03 (A) (3) on the matters noticed herein.
Because of the guidance issued by state and federal officials regarding the Covid-19 pandemic, only essential Commission staff will attend in person. The public is strongly discouraged from attending in person. The public will be able to participate by either watching and listening to the meeting online or listening to the meeting via telephone.
Persons with a disability may request reasonable accommodations by contacting the Commission Secretary listed above at least 48 hours before the scheduled commencement of the Open Meeting.
Agendas are also available online at: http://www.azcc.gov/live
RED CROSS HACK...
Red Cross implores hackers not to leak data for 515k “highly vulnerable people”
Hack on Red Cross storage contractor follows a separate hacking incident last year.
"The Red Cross on Wednesday pleaded with the threat actors behind a cyberattack that stole the personal data of about 515,000 people who used a program that works to reunite family members separated by conflict, disaster, or migration.
"While we don't know who is responsible for this attack, or why they carried it out, we do have this appeal to make to them," Robert Mardini, the director-general of the International Committee for the Red Cross, said in a release. “Your actions could potentially cause yet more harm and pain to those who have already endured untold suffering. The real people, the real families behind the information you now have are among the world's least powerful. Please do the right thing. Do not share, sell, leak or otherwise use this data."
NOTE: Wednesday’s release said the personal data was obtained through the hack of a Switzerland-based subcontractor that stores data for the Red Cross. The data was compiled by at least 60 different Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies worldwide. The ICRC said it has no "immediate indications as to who carried out this cyber-attack" and is so far unaware of any of the compromised information being leaked or shared publicly.
Those affected had used Restore Family Links, a service the Red Cross operates in cooperation with the Red Crescent to reunite families. On Wednesday, the site was down. The Internet Archive last updated it on December 27, raising the possibility of the breach occurring a few weeks ago.
The release provided few details about the attack. It’s not clear if it was done by profit-motivated ransomware criminals, nation-state hackers, or others. . .
[...] Last September, the ICRC confirmed it was on the receiving end of a hack the previous April that compromised login credentials and other data that could be used to target agencies within the intergovernmental organization. The earliest known date the hackers obtained access to the UN's systems, Bloomberg News reported, was April 5, and the hackers remained active through at least August. The breach came to light when private researchers noticed login credentials for sale on the dark web."
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ARE THEY KIDDING OR WHAT? US accuses Russia of conspiring to take over Ukraine government...Remember Victoria Nuland
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Ukraine on Fire | Victoria Nuland and Geoffrey Pyatt phone call
Phone call intercepted between Conservative Republicans Victoria Neuland and Ambassador Geoffrey - who are 'interfering in the election' by essentially selecting who will be-in-charge,
Guy named YAZ for short ... Let's cut through the current bullshit
Watch and listen as the U.S. officials discuss and plan the overthrow of a democratically elected president Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine. This is undeniable proof of U.S. government and officials organizing bloody regime change in Ukraine.
Learn about some behind the scene truths about how Ukraine became the powder keg it is today. #Ukraineonfire
Strained relations between US & Russia could soon be on mend, Moscow says, despite key meeting with Biden’s envoy breaking down
“Of course, no one expected that some enchanting event would happen,” she said. According to Zakharova, Victoria Nuland, the US undersecretary of state for political affairs, “has no authority to resolve all the outstanding obstacles at once.”
“At the same time, we took stock of problematic issues that need to be solved before we can move forward even in principle,” she told the Zvezda news channel . . .
US accuses Russia of conspiring to take over Ukraine government
Treasury imposes sanctions on four current and former Ukraine government officials it says involved in alleged conspiracy
The US has alleged that Russian intelligence is recruiting current and former Ukrainian government officials to take over the government in Kyiv and cooperate with a Russian occupying force.
The US Treasury on Thursday imposed sanctions on two Ukrainian members of parliament and two former officials it said were involved in the alleged conspiracy, which involved discrediting the current government of the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
“Russia has directed its intelligence services to recruit current and former Ukrainian government officials to prepare to take over the government of Ukraine and to control Ukraine’s critical infrastructure with an occupying Russian force,” the Treasury statement accompanying the sanctions said.
The claims suggest US intelligence fears Russia is preparing a full-scale invasion and not the “minor incursion” that Joe Biden referred to as a possibility in remarks on Wednesday that triggered alarm in Kyiv. . .
[...]
The US has threatened unprecedented sanctions against Russia if it goes ahead with an invasion, though there are disagreements with European allies, as Biden admitted on Wednesday, on how extensive the punitive measures should be. European capitals have resisted the suggestion that Russia should be cut off from the international electronic payment system, Swift.
The US, the UK and other allies have also continued to supply arms to Ukraine, in a move aimed at raising the costs of an invasion, and potentially contributing to a Ukrainian insurgency in the wake of an invasion. . .
“There’s been a lot of speculation about President Putin’s true intentions, but we don’t actually have to guess. He’s told us repeatedly. He’s laying the groundwork for an invasion because he doesn’t believe that Ukraine is a sovereign nation,” the US secretary of state, Tony Blinken, said in a speech in Berlin.
Blinken is due to meet his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Geneva on Friday. . ."
READ MORE FROM THE ARTICLE BY JULIAN BORGER: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/20/us-russia-ukraine-government-sanctions
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Flash News: Ukraine Intercepts Russian Kh-59 Cruise Missile Using US VAMPIRE Air Defense System Mounted on Boat. Ukrainian forces have made ...
