Top Stories
President to Reveal New Gun Law Proposals Today
President Obama is expected to unveil new gun control
proposals today that will reportedly include universal background checks and
bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Those proposals come from a task force led by
Vice President Biden. At the same time,
there is growing concern that these new measures will be instituted using
Executive Orders, bypassing the checks and balances of Congress. Since the new calls for gun control began,
the National Rifle Association has seen a spike of 250,000 new members.
New York Passes Strict Gun Law
New York
has passed the nation’s toughest gun control law. Governor Andrew Cuomo and the state senate
there agreed to the changes yesterday, which include new definitions for
assault weapons.
Sec. Clinton to Testify on Benghazi Attacks
After a month of health issues, Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton will testify later this month about the September 11th attacks at the
Consulate in Benghazi, Libya which led to the death of 4
Americans. The secretary’s testimony is
set for January 23rd.
Two Shooting Incidents at US Colleges
There were two more shootings on college campuses
yesterday. The first happened at a small
business school in downtown St. Louis,
when a man walked in and shot a school official before shooting himself. The shooter later died from his wounds. Later yesterday, a mother and daughter were
killed and a little girl wounded during a custody exchange at a community college
in Kentucky. Neither incident falls into the category of
mass shootings, however they could play a big role in the president’s unveiling
of new gun control measures today.
Veterans ‘Bad News Good News’
Hundreds of veterans may have been exposed to Hepatitis B,
Hepatitis C, and HIV. According to CNN,
it comes from medical oversights that allowed insulin pens to be used on more
than one patient at a VA hospital in Buffalo,
NY. A memo from the Department of Veterans
Affairs suggests more than 700 patients may have been affected. At the same time, Walmart says they’ve got
soldiers’ backs. The company has
announced it will hire any and all honorably discharged veterans – And they’re
making plans to buy an additional 50-billion dollars worth of American made
products over the next 10 years.
USA
“Happy Country” Rating Drops
If you’re happy and you know it, move away. The Legatum Institute every year comes out
with a Prosperity Index, which grades the world’s happiest and saddest
countries. And for the first time in history,
the US
is NOT in the Top 10. We ranked twelfth
in this year’s survey, which grades areas like governance, personal freedom,
and opportunity. The happiest place, according
to this list, is Norway,
followed by Denmark, Sweden, Australia,
and New Zealand. The Saddest place is Central African Republic.
Faith
Many Temptations Have Changed
No matter what your goals are here at the beginning of 2013,
one thing is for sure – you’re going to be tempted to break them. However a new study from the Barna Group
shows that the things that are tempting us are changing. Some of those new temptations are “spending
too much time on media” and “going off on someone with an angry text.” Most of the study, though, focuses on the
traditional “7 deadly sins” – and they found religious identity has an affect
here. For example, Protestants tend to
be tempted more by eating too much, procrastinating and being lazy. Catholics tend to struggle more with
gossip. The full study is available at www.barna.org.
Family & Relationships
Moms Day of Prayer
Nobody gets the job done like mom. A group of moms is planning to gather outside
the US Capitol this weekend for a time of prayer for our nation. The Blanketing Our Nation In Prayer event is
sponsored by the Worldwide Moms Day of Prayer, which has been doing similar
events for sixteen years – but this is the first time they’ve gathered in Washington. The goal this is to have events in all fifty
states.
Bible Moms Offer Advice
Some people have described the Bible as “Life’s Instruction
Manual”, and it was one Bible mom in particular that helped Kathi Macias as a
young military mom: “Eve didn’t have
any examples to learn from (older women relatives - to ask for help). I was a
young mom who lived away from family because of my husband being in the
military. So I feel like I could relate to Eve.” Macias’ new book is
called Mother’s Of the Bible Speak to
Mother’s of Today. Never hurts to go
right to the source.
Work
Businesses Shave Workers’ Hours to Save on Affordable Care
Act Mandates
More companies are tweaking their employees hours to save
cash because of the new health care law.
100 employees at a Wendy’s in Nebraska
were notified this week that their hours are being cut. Same thing at a Taco Bell in Oklahoma. The law requires businesses to offer health
insurance to employees that work more than 30 hours a week.
Finances & Economy
Money-Saving Mom: A More Disciplined Life
If one of your goals in the New Year is to get your
financial house in better order, raising your debt ceiling probably isn’t going
to get the job done. We have to make
changes to the way we spend, and that takes discipline. Money Saving Mom Crystal Paine wants to help
you with that in her new book, 21 Days to
a More Disciplined Life. She says, “Just getting started by putting good
habits in place will help you live a life that is more disciplined” in the
longer term. That’s available as an e-book when you check out her website, www.moneysavingmom.com.
Let Students Pay Their Own Way for College
Not exactly sure how you’re going to afford Junior’s
college? Don’t. Let him pay for it himself. A new study from the University of California
says that not only helps your pocketbook, but helps his grade point
average. Dr. Laura Hamilton found that
the more college money a parent provides, the lower the student’s grades. She says that shows that when you have
something invested, you appreciate it more.
Health
Report: Berries Good for Your Heart
Berries are berry, berry good for you. Researchers at Harvard say they’ve found
women who ate at least three servings of blueberries and strawberries per week
had fewer heart attacks. A 32-percent
reduction in hear attack events when compared with ladies who ate just berries
once a month or less.
Self-Diagnosing Via the Internet
When it comes to medical advice, more Americans are turning
to Dr. Google first. A new survey from
the Pew Center suggests that 35-percent of us
say we’ve used the Internet to try to diagnose what medical ailment we might
have, before we go to our doctor.
However, 70-percent still don’t take what we find there all that
seriously, and we go to our doctor when we want reliable information.
It’s The Calories
One of the reasons a lot of diets fail is that you starve
yourself all day and then cave at the end, or you cut out whole food groups and
the nutrients that come with them. Dr.
George Bray says if you want to take a more simple approach, try CiCo – Calories
In vs. Calories Out: “If you eat a
high level of protein it won’t influence the storage of calories, it’s the
calories you eat that’s important.” That’s
the same basic thing that Coca-Cola is saying in their new ads – don’t eat or
drink more calories than you burn.
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