The town of Pismo Beach, California will no longer have any form of prayer in their council meetings after bowing to the demands of the virulent anti-Christian groups Freedom From Religion Foundation and Atheists United San Luis Obispo.
The city claims they are trying to save taxpayer dollars by giving in to the demands of the anti-Christianists.
The two groups had filed a lawsuit against the city six months ago claiming the city was violating the mythical separation of church and state because the prayers were mostly Christian in nature. They said the city’s volunteer chaplain was a Christian and thus had a Christian tone to his prayers.
They also said that the volunteer chaplain, Rev. Paul E. Jones, would tell people to live a life “in accordance with the Bible.”
The city agreed in their settlement to eliminate the volunteer chaplain position but claimed no liability in the lawsuit.
David Leidner, a member of the anti-Christian Atheist United, said he was “very happy” that the Christian chaplain was no longer part of the meetings and that there will be no prayers allowed.
A California school district has ruled that teachers violated the rights of Christian students when they prohibited the distribution of a series of Bible coins.
The students were giving classmates coins that were printed with different Bible verses including John 3:16 and John 3:36.
“We’re going to make sure that students are protected,” Apple Valley School District Superintendent Thomas Hoegerman told the San Bernadino Sun. “There was no malicious intent but we clearly had folks who didn’t fully understand the implications.”
The children were giving the coins to their friends during recess periods and not during actual class time when they were stopped by teachers.
One of the teachers, Stormy DeHaro, told her student she hated the coins and they were a distraction to her class. A second teacher removed them from Valentine’s cards a student brought to her class and returned them to the child saying they were a violation “of the Ed Code.”
The superintendent says he regrets the incident and the problems it caused to the student’s family.
Five high school seniors are among the ten people dead in a fiery crash after a tractor-trailer slammed into their bus on a California highway.
Investigators say the crash happened around 5:30 p.m. on Interstate 5 near Orland, California. The bus was filled with seniors who were planning a visit to Humboldt State University to see if they wanted to attend in the fall.
The working theory in the investigation is that the FedEx driver was swerving to avoid a passenger car but was unable to avoid them. The passenger vehicle was involved in the accident with the truck and bus.
In addition to the students, the truck drivers and three adult chaperones were killed in the crash. At least 37 others sustained injuries, some critically, and about half remained hospitalized.
“As we mourn the loss of those who died, we join all Californians in expressing our gratitude for the tireless work of the Red Cross and emergency personnel who responded bravely to this terrible tragedy,” California governor Jerry Brown said in a statement.
Despite no tsunami warnings being issued for California, the West Coast has been experiencing unusual water movements since the 8.2 magnitude earthquake struck Chile’s northern coast.
Tide fluctuations, abnormal wave heights, and current changes have been reported and no tsunami warnings have been issued.
Tsunami waves hit the southern town of La Jolla, California and progressed north according to Bill Knight, an oceanographer with the National Tsunami Warning Center.
It is unlikely the tides will damage boats in the harbor, but boat owners could experience problems if they are returning to dock. California harbors have experienced three-to-four knot fluctuations that can push boaters and their vessels into the dock.
Knight added that the fluctuations could last a full day, but called the situation “pretty typical.”
“I think there’s nothing to worry about here, but we want to do our due diligence,” he said. “We haven’t seen anything yet to make us worry. And we don’t expect to.”
Californians have been keeping an eye on the San Andreas Fault for years fearing a “big one” would strike and cause massive damage.
Now, scientists say that a quake of 7.5 or bigger on a lesser known fault might be even more catastrophic than a quake along the San Andreas Fault line.
The Puente Hills thrust fault, which was the fault which brought Friday night’s 5.1 magnitude quake, runs from northern Orange County through downtown Los Angeles and all the way into Hollywood. The San Andreas Fault runs along the outskirts of Southern California’s metro areas.
Thus, scientists say, a massive quake along the Puente Hills fault would cause significantly more damage and likely brings hundreds or thousands of deaths. One estimate from the U.S. Geological Survey estimated as many as 1,800 deaths and $250 billion in damage.
The same fault in 1987 had a 5.9 quake that killed eight people and caused $350 million in damage.
One USGS staffer said that a 7.5 quake centered in Los Angeles would be so intense that it would throw heavy objects like a grand piano into the air.
A mystery virus that is causing polio-like symptoms in children has spread to southern California.
Lucian Olivera, 2, is the latest child to be confirmed to have the illness. Lucian was 11 months old when he had an ear infection before suddenly being unable to stand or use his legs.
Stanford University confirmed on Friday it was the mysterious virus.
Now, doctors are trying to determine if the weakness in the child’s legs is permanent.
“Really, it’s unknown the severity of this for each individual. The thought is that it is permanent, but we don’t know all the things that will happen to every patient,” Dr. John Dingilian said.
Olivera is wearing a brace on his legs and his parents are preparing that he may never be able to walk on his own.
California residents shaken by an early morning 4.4 magnitude earthquake yesterday are concerned that the quake was not the main event.
Many residents are wondering if the quake was a foreshock of something bigger in the near future.
“Always the possibility that it’s a foreshock,” Robert Graves, a U.S. Geological Survey seismologist, told reports. He added that it would be more likely a more significant quake would happen hours after the foreshock rather than days later.
Graves did say it was likely there would be more aftershocks.
Seismologists at the USGS have not yet been able to determine the fault line where the quake happened but have called it a “rather typical earthquake.”
However, a CalTech seismologist said the quake happened in the northern edge of the Santa Monica Mountains area. He called it surprising because there had not been seismic activity in that region in many years.
Two California students are fighting back against a college professor who assaulted them and took away their pro-life signs.
Thrin and Joan Short were part of an pro-life event at the University of California when Associate Professor Mireille Miller-Young ripped the signs they were carrying form their hands. When the girls attempted to get their signs back, the professor kicked and pushed them.
The professor, who teaches feminist studies, claims she had a “moral right” to take the signs from the people who were opposing abortion. The professor is also known for showing pornography in her classes to her students.
Joan Short told Fox News the real offending matter in this incident is abortion itself and that if someone is offended by the process of abortion they should stand up for the life of unborn children.
Santa Barbara police are investigating the incident.
California residents may have dodged a big bullet.
A 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck Sunday night off the coast of northern California, making it the strongest quake to hit west coast since the 2010 Baja California quake that measured 7.2 on the Richter Scale.
The quake struck 50 miles west of Eureka, California in the Pacific Ocean at a depth of four miles. Several aftershocks struck closer to land, including a 3.4 magnitude shock that struck about 16 miles off the coast, but none were centered inland.
Police throughout the region reported no significant injuries.
“My car was rocking back and forth,” Sgt. Brian Stephens of the Eureka Police Department told the LA Times. “I thought someone was shoving my car back and forth, looked around and no one was there. Then I realized what was happening.”
Another resident described the quake as almost like ocean waves, slowly rolling and rocking their home but not causing any real shock.
Ticks around San Francisco, California have been discovered to be carrying a newly discovered bacterium with unknown health effects.
The Stanford University study said that the bacteria, Borrelia miyamotoi, have been found on ticks that were also carrying the bacteria that cause Lyme disease. The study is due to be published in the March issue of Emerging Infectious Disease.
The researchers said the amount of ticks with both bacteria were very small, as little as two percent of the entire amount found during the study. However, the bacteria was found on ticks in all of the 12 recreational areas around San Francisco that was part of the study.
The first human case of infection from B. miyamotoi was discovered in 2013 and other than the patient developing symptoms similar to Lyme disease, little was learned about the bacteria.
One researcher says that patients who are treated for Lyme disease and do not recover could likely be infected with the new bacteria.
The Centers for Disease Control says that Lyme cases are rising because doctors are more familiar with signs of the infection.
