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Rain, snow, go away

11 Jan 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

This Sunday's first reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah tells of how the "rain and snow come down" from heaven. People across the nation can attest to that situation, as the miserable mix of heavy snow, freezing rains, and flooding that hit many parts of the country during the holiday season continues to plague residents in many areas. In regions of New York State and New England, up to a foot of new snow is expected this week. Farther south, rain and freezing rain have hit much of the area this week. In the West, parts of Oregon, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado are suffering from high winds, heavy rain, and melting snow that is sending many rivers toward record flood levels. No area of the country has escaped harsh weather this winter, with the Midwest recently recovering from near record low temperatures and heavy snowfall, only to face more cold weather on its way. The Midwest and Northeast can expect an extended winter chill, including bitter cold temperatures next week that should boost demand for home heating fuels, forecasters and oil traders said on Tuesday. "This cold snap will bring some of the coldest temperatures of the winter to the Midwest and the Northeast," meteorologist David Streit said. "It looks like Chicago will go below zero by next week." Source: Articles by Haitham Haddadin for Reuters and Buzz Bernard for Weather.com

cold ice snow rain west northeast midwest weather

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Testy health care reform passes test vote

18 Oct 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Jesus, the "high priest" described in this Sunday's reading from the Letter to the Hebrews, was "tested in every way." Contentious health care reform legislation wending its way through the U.S. Congress barely passed a bipartisanship test Tuesday when the Senate Finance Committee bill managed to gain the support of Republican Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine. A second Maine Republican, Senator Susan Collins, signaled Wednesday she's open to voting for sweeping health care legislation this year. The 10-year, $829 billion bill was approved on a 14-9 vote after Snowe broke ranks with her Republican colleagues to support the plan, considered the most cautious and limited of those passed by various Senate and House committees. Collins said that the bill approved Tuesday still needs substantial improvements to make coverage more affordable, contain costs, and protect Medicare. Nevertheless, she joined Snowe in endorsing the goal of far-reaching changes. Source: An article by Ricardo Alonso Zaldivar for the Associated Press

health care reform us congress senate finance committee olympia snowe susan collins

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The weather outside is frightful

08 Nov 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Elijah promises the starving woman in this Sunday's reading from 1 Kings that the Lord will not let the jar of flour go empty or the jug of oil run dry until the day the Lord sends rain. Chinese meteorologists took matters into their own hands, easing a drought by seeding rainclouds with silver iodide. The "Weather Modification Office" sprayed clouds with 186 doses of the chemical over the weekend to produce rain for the wheat crop. A cold front then caused heavy snow, China's earliest snowfall in decades. Snow fell over Beijing for 11 hours Sunday and disrupted road, rail, and air travel. Cloud seeding is often used in China in an attempt to bring on rain. Much of the country's farming still relies on rainfall because many of its communities have poor irrigation systems. In addition to cloud seeding, the government is building a huge network of tunnels and waterways that will funnel water from the south to the north, but the project is still five years from completion. Source: Articles by TimesOnline.co.uk

china snow cloud seeding silver iodide beijing irrigation

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Winter is getting old, man

14 Feb 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The one who does not trust the Lord is like a barren bush “that enjoys no change of season,” states the prophet Jeremiah in this Sunday’s first reading. Much of the country is more than ready for a change of season this week, but Old Man Winter continues to pile it on. Still digging out from up to 3 feet of weekend snow, the mid-Atlantic region was hit hard again at midweek. Other regions are struggling with wintry weather as well. As a blizzard howled up the East Coast on Wednesday, roads from Baltimore to New York City became treacherous to the point that even plow drivers were ordered off the streets in some areas. In Pennsylvania the governor closed large stretches of three major highways because the second major storm in less than a week was making travel too risky. Snow fell so hard in Washington that people on the National Mall could not see the Capitol. Many people in the region were still without power from the historic storm over the weekend, and more were expected to lose it during this one. “The snow has just been relentless,” said Washington Fire Chief Dennis L. Rubin, a D.C. native who said the back-to-back storms are like nothing he has ever experienced. Airlines canceled hundreds of flights, disrupting air travel and cargo services across the country. All three major airports in the Washington area were closed until crews could clear the snow-clogged runways and visibility improved. “The problem is everything,” said Tara Hamilton, spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. “The problem is this is day six.” The Midwest did not escape the misery either. The 12.6 inches of snow that fell on Chicago Tuesday is the highest amount of snow on a February 9 since records have been kept in the area--a record not only for that date but one for any day in February, according to the National Weather Service. The previous record was 11.5 inches set on February 18, 1908. Baltimore has already broken the previous record for the snowiest winter--62.5 inches in 1995-96--and Washington was poised to break the record of 54.4 inches set in the winter of 1898-99. “It’s hard to find anything in the history books of these types of storms back-to-back,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Stephen Konarik. Forecasters warn that another storm with heavy snow could hit the Northeast by Monday. Source: Articles by James Barron for the New York Times, Nafeesa Syeed for the Associated Press, and Bob Drogin and Richard Simon for the Los Angeles Times

snow washington dc chicago tara hamilton baltimore stephen konarik dennis l rubin snowstorm winter

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Winter is getting old, man

14 Feb 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The one who does not trust the Lord is like a barren bush “that enjoys no change of season,” states the prophet Jeremiah in this Sunday’s first reading. Much of the country is more than ready for a change of season this week, but Old Man Winter continues to pile it on. Still digging out from up to 3 feet of weekend snow, the mid-Atlantic region was hit hard again at midweek. Other regions are struggling with wintry weather as well. As a blizzard howled up the East Coast on Wednesday, roads from Baltimore to New York City became treacherous to the point that even plow drivers were ordered off the streets in some areas. In Pennsylvania the governor closed large stretches of three major highways because the second major storm in less than a week was making travel too risky. Snow fell so hard in Washington that people on the National Mall could not see the Capitol. Many people in the region were still without power from the historic storm over the weekend, and more were expected to lose it during this one. “The snow has just been relentless,” said Washington Fire Chief Dennis L. Rubin, a D.C. native who said the back-to-back storms are like nothing he has ever experienced. Airlines canceled hundreds of flights, disrupting air travel and cargo services across the country. All three major airports in the Washington area were closed until crews could clear the snow-clogged runways and visibility improved. “The problem is everything,” said Tara Hamilton, spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. “The problem is this is day six.” The Midwest did not escape the misery either. The 12.6 inches of snow that fell on Chicago Tuesday is the highest amount of snow on a February 9 since records have been kept in the area--a record not only for that date but one for any day in February, according to the National Weather Service. The previous record was 11.5 inches set on February 18, 1908. Baltimore has already broken the previous record for the snowiest winter--62.5 inches in 1995-96--and Washington was poised to break the record of 54.4 inches set in the winter of 1898-99. “It’s hard to find anything in the history books of these types of storms back-to-back,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Stephen Konarik. Forecasters warn that another storm with heavy snow could hit the Northeast by Monday. Source: Articles by James Barron for the New York Times, Nafeesa Syeed for the Associated Press, and Bob Drogin and Richard Simon for the Los Angeles Times

snow washington dc chicago tara hamilton baltimore stephen konarik dennis l rubin snowstorm winter

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Privacy advocate goes public as intelligence leak source

16 Jun 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Questions of law, guilt, and justification are front-and-center in this Sunday’s readings. “Blessed is the one whose fault is taken away,” says the psalmist, while the second reading reminds us that “by works of the law no one will be justified.” Now that the source of the recent leaks of classified intelligence has been revealed to be a 29-year-old National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, the debate has begun: Has Edward Snowden committed a crime that should be punished or an act of public service worthy of praise?Snowden’s emergence from the shadows puts him at risk of prosecution by the U.S. government. It also has made him a hero to critics of government secrecy. More than 15,000 people already have signed a petition demanding that Snowden be given "a full, free, and absolute pardon for any crimes he has committed or may have committed related to blowing the whistle on secret NSA surveillance programs."Others are not convinced that Snowden qualifies as a whistle-blower in the sense of someone who discloses government information in order to expose illegal activity. The two surveillance efforts he was apparently responsible for revealing—an electronic dragnet of Americans' phone records and the monitoring of the contents of foreigners' electronic communications—are legal, authorized by the U.S. Congress, and overseen (at least to some extent) by federal judges.Even more complex is the question of whether the widespread surveillance programs Snowden exposed last week, though technically legal, are ethically justified in a society that values the right to privacy. Army Gen. Keith Alexander, head of the NSA, certainly thinks so and told Congress Wednesday that the snooping helped thwart dozens of terrorist threats.But pressure has mounted this week on the intelligence community to curb its surveillance activities or at least make them more transparent. The American Civil Liberties Union Tuesday filed a lawsuit challenging the NSA's extensive collection of telephone records, while members of Congress have started filing legislation on the matter. A bipartisan group of senators on Tuesday introduced a bill that would mandate declassification of significant Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court opinions.Homily hint: One commentator on this story pointed out that while we protest government surveillance of bundles of communications data, we seem perfectly fine handing over much more sensitive personal information to huge corporations that use it to make money, even selling it to others to do the same. At any rate, all this talk of invasion of privacy should encourage us to lead our lives in such a way as to have nothing to hide! Sources: Articles by Stephanie Condon for CBS News and the Los Angeles Times

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Snowden stirs international storm

30 Jun 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Jesus is on the move in this Sunday’s gospel, “determined to journey to Jerusalem,” and despite the risks he makes it clear there is no turning back. Despite a U.S. warrant for his detention, Edward Snowden was allowed to leave Hong Kong last weekend on a flight to Moscow. The U.S. is pressuring nations around the world not to grant exile status to the man who revealed details of U.S. secret surveillance programs.Snowden is still in transit at the Moscow airport as he awaits a response from Ecuador for his request for political asylum, but he may be waiting a while. A decision could take up to two months, the country's foreign minister said Wednesday, while he suggested that the U.S. fugitive could end his airport-layover limbo by seeking sanctuary inside the Ecuadorean embassy there.Russian President Vladimir Putin has encouraged Snowden to hurry up and leave. Snowden might be able to make it to the South American nation's embassy—about a 20-minute ride at night when traffic thins out—under the diplomatic protection of the ambassador's car. “If he goes to the embassy, we will make a decision,” said Ricardo Patino, Ecuador's foreign minister.Snowden, 30, was a contract analyst for the National Security Agency in Hawaii. He has acknowledged that he leaked data to British and U.S. newspapers about secret surveillance programs to collect domestic phone records and monitor Internet data. He then fled to Hong Kong.Homily help: Snowden has lost a fair amount of the sympathy and support for his actions since going on the run. At the same time the scope of government surveillance of private communications he revealed is somewhat breathtaking. Let’s work and pray for a world where we don’t have to be constantly spying on each other in the first place. Sources: Articles by Sergei L. Loiko and Richard A. Serrano for the Los Angeles Times

russia surveillance ecuador vladimir putin edward snowden national security agency ricardo patino

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Security agency leaves privacy advocates insecure

25 Aug 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In the first reading this Sunday, the Lord asserts that when it comes to the nations of the world, “I know their works and their thoughts.” The highly secretive National Security Agency (NSA) has similar ends in mind when it engages in extensive worldwide electronic surveillance. Under increasing pressure because of programs that at times capture communications of U.S. citizens, the agency is going to unusual lengths to try to reassure the public its activities are lawful and any infringements unintentional.In a sign of how much heat it has taken since former NSA contractor Edward Snowden started disclosing details of highly classified U.S. surveillance programs, the ultra-secretive federal intelligence organization held a rare conference call with reporters to counter public perceptions that NSA transgressions were intentional violations of rules against eavesdropping on Americans.The Washington Post reported that the NSA had broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since 2008, citing an internal agency audit and other top-secret documents. The NSA's presentation was an attempt to calm the latest firestorm."These are not willful violations, they are not malicious, these are not people trying to break the law," John DeLong, NSA director of compliance, told reporters. NSA employees know their actions are recorded and the agency's culture is to report any mistakes, he said, repeatedly stressing that "no one at NSA thinks a mistake is OK."New revelations this week suggest the NSA's surveillance network also has the capacity to spy on 75 percent of all U.S. internet traffic. According to current and former NSA sources who spoke with the Wall Street Journal, the agency can observe more of Americans' online communications than officials have publicly acknowledged.The new revelations differ from the programs described in the documents leaked by Snowden, which described a process to acquire Americans' phone records as well as another program, known as PRISM, that made requests from internet companies for stored data. By contrast, the internet monitoring systems revealed in recent days have the capability to track almost any online activity so long as it is covered by a broad court order.Homily hint: We live in an age where the lines have blurred between private and public, but there is one place we can go that no spy agency or internet spammer can reach: the deepest recesses of our hearts, where God is waiting for us. Encourage folks to make time each day for the most important conversation they will have—the one no one but God will hear. Sources: Articles by Tabassum Zakaria and Mark Hosenball for Reuters,citing the Washington Post, and Fox News, citing the Wall Street Journal

internet privacy online privacy edward snowden nsa national security agency john delong

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Spy outcry continues

03 Nov 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The Lord will “rebuke offenders” to warn them of their sins “that they may abandon their wickedness,” the first reading this Sunday says. European Union lawmakers this week rebuked the United States for alleged widespread spying, insisting that the surveillance stop. While justifying its national security interests, the U.S. has promised an extensive review of the monitoring programs.The 23-nation-member European Parliament met Monday with U.S. lawmakers and officials in several government agencies, including the National Security Council. U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein on Monday called for a '"total review'' of all U.S. intelligence programs in response to the allegations, which the California Democrat said she was not told about.But even with diplomatic efforts under way, European officials continue to look for a way to pressure the U.S. to provide details of past surveillance. They also want assurances that the practice will be curbed.On the domestic spying front it was learned Wednesday that the National Security Agency (NSA) has secretly broken into the main communications links which connect Yahoo and Google data centers around the world, according to documents obtained from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and interviews with knowledgeable officials.In a statement, Google’s chief legal officer, David Drummond, said the company has “long been concerned about the possibility of this kind of snooping” and has not provided the government with access to its systems. “We are outraged at the lengths to which the government seems to have gone to intercept data from our private fiber networks, and it underscores the need for urgent reform,” he said.There were also unconfirmed reports that the NSA may have intercepted communications at the Vatican before and during the recent papal conclave.Homily hint: While there are serious concerns about a government that seems to stop at no ends to gather information in the interests of national security, we also should strive to live personally in such as way that we have little to hide or be ashamed of. Integrity in public begins with integrity in private. Nothing is hidden from the God who sees into the human heart. Sources: Articles by by Barton Gellman and Ashkan Soltani for the Washington Post, Voiceof America, Adam Taylor for Business Insider, and Clelsea J. Carter and Jason Hanna for CNN

spying dianne feinstein edward snowden nsa national security agency intelligence european parliament

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