| Mediation center honors peacemakers
LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. - To be a peacemaker, one doesn't have to match the feats of John L. Lapp, who helped start an organization mediating between the indigenous Miskito people of Nicaragua and the Sandinista government.
That was the message conveyed as the Lancaster Mediation Center honored 25 county residents, including Lapp, at its Peacemaker Celebration Saturday.
"If we can light a candle in our own little piece of real estate," the world could get along a little better, noted the Rev. Louis A. Butcher Jr., pastor of Bright Side Baptist Church and founder of Bright Side Opportunities Center.
Butcher, the keynote speaker for the event at Millersville University, told the 260 people present that world events are getting worse rather than better.
State Democrats back at negotiation table
OKLAHOMA CITY--For the first time in three years, House Democrats find themselves back at the budget negotiating table as a result of Democrat Gov. Henry's line-item veto of the proposed 2008 state budget.?That's the assessment of some Cleveland County lawmakers in the wake of the governor's decision this week to reject a $6.9 billion spending plan negotiated by leaders of House and Senate.?After returning from a family vacation in Mexico, Henry said he was using his line-item veto to strike everything from the budget bill except $92 million in emergency funds to help some cash-strapped state agencies make it to the end of the current fiscal year.?Henry said he was vetoing the $6.9 billion budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 because it shortchanged prisons, education and teacher retirement, and because his office and House Democrats were excluded from the negotiations that produced it.?It would take a two-thirds majority, or 68 votes, in the House to override the governor's veto.
Bankruptcy cases of strategic companies in Moscow court drops 50%
MOSCOW. April 18 (Interfax) - The number of bankruptcy cases of strategic facilities handled by the Moscow Arbitration Court at the beginning of this year has shrunk by approximately 50% compared to 2006. A court spokesman told Interfax that in the middle of March the court was handling five such cases. The court spokesman noted the fact that bankruptcy procedures against certain companies have been launched several times by the same or different claimants. Earlier Moscow Arbitration Court chairman Oleg Sviridenko said on several occasions that strategic facilities should have a separate bankruptcy law. .
DA calls for new Zim road map
Zimbabwe's 27th anniversary of independence on Wednesday should be marked with a plan clearly setting out successive steps to restore democracy and good governance to that country, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said. "The 27th anniversary of Zimbabwean independence ... is the most dismal in that country's history," DA spokesperson Douglas Gibson said in a statement. President Robert Mugabe had turned one of the "jewels of Africa", to use former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere's description, into a disaster area. Life continued, becoming worse for Zimbabweans instead of better, and Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party should accept full responsibility for what they had done, Gibson said. "This anniversary day may act as an impetus, spurring the African Union and SADC [Southern African Development Community] to start taking steps which will result in real change.
Second Week Of Strike Begins
Union officials say more than 2,700 United Steel Workers are beginning the second week of their strike against Appalachian Regional Healthcare. Negotiations broke off last Thursday after ARH officials say they presented their latest contract proposal. As of now, no future negotiation dates have been set. Both sides say they are waiting for a federal mediator to set those times. Union officials say they're also waiting on information from ARH officials regarding their proposed health care plan. .
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