GEORGETOWN ---- The question of what public prayers can be offered during Sussex County Council meetings may be decided in a fourth-floor Wilmington conference room this morning.
A U.S. magistrate judge ordered the Sussex County Council and a group of residents suing the county, claiming council's ritual recitation of the Lord's Prayer at the beginning of its meetings is a constitutionally banned establishment of religion, to send representitives to mediation conferences. The first is scheduled for today and another could take place on June 14 if the first meeting doesn't lead to an agreement.
The talks come three weeks after U.S. District Court Judge Leonard P. Stark issued an injunction barring the council from leading the crowds at their meetings in reciting the Lord's Prayer. Four Sussex County residents, one of them a Lutheran pastor, had sued to stop the practice because they argued it was an uncomfortably blatant endorsement of Christianity by the government. Sussex County defended its ritual, saying it meant to give no preference to any religion and that the plaintiffs hadn't proven the the practice harmed them.
Stark issued a ruling May 15 that didn't end the lawsuit outright, but favored the plaintiffs and put Sussex on the defensive. The judge noted he was "likely to conclude that the Council's practice... constitutes government endorsement of the Christian faith," and he encouraged the two sides to agree to mediation. Other government bodies around the country, Stark said, use more amorphous prayers than the Lord's Prayer which don't run afoul of the Constitution's establishment clause, or invite a rotating cast of preachers and worshipers to recite prayers at public meetings. By June 15, Stark said in mid-May, the council had to change its ways.
A letter to Stark from an attorney for the four plaintiffs, telling him the two sides were ready to have a mediator hold settlement talks in the Mullin v. Sussex County case, says Sussex County wanted the June 15 deadline pushed back because "30 days will be insufficient to complete the settlement negotiations."
But the plaintiffs' attorneys, which include Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said it is "perfectly feasible for the parties to reach an agreement in time for the Council to approve an agreement at its June 5th or June 12th meeting," and discouraged Stark from extending the deadline. The court record doesn't indicate that Stark altered the June 15 date.
Sussex County spokesman Chip Guy said Council President Michael H. Vincent would represent the county at Friday's conference, along with attorneys.
At the May 22 County Council meeting, the first one held after Stark's order was published, council members said nothing about the order looming over them. They began the meeting with the Lord's Prayer as usual, just before reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and then voting to approve the day's agenda.
Source: www.delmarvanow.com
"Once you kill and taste blood it's impossible to stop": Manhunt for 'London' cannibal who hacked man to death with ice pick - Daily Mirror
A porn star who filmed himself hacking a man to death with an ice pick before eating his flesh once lived in London, it emerged last night.
As police continued their manhunt for Luka Rocco Magnotta, it was revealed that the 29-year-old was feared to have been the cat killer who stalked the capital last December and uploaded a video of himself feeding a kitten to a python.
In the footage a kitten is placed next to a Burmese python which then pounces, swallowing the screaming animal whole.
Canadian Magnotta boasted in an email: "Once you kill and taste blood it's impossible to stop."
The victim's dismembered body parts were sent to political parties
His foot was posted to Canada's Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper and a hand to the Liberals.
Police said they believe Magnotta has gone on the run based on evidence they found at his Montreal apartment, and on a blog where he wrote about how to disappear.
Magnotta has been added to Interpol's wanted list with France a suggested destination.
"We believe he may be in a foreign country," said Montreal Police Cmdr Ian Lafreniere.
"He left a letter on a website mentioning how to disappear for good, and secondly, our investigation brought us some details that might let us think that he could be away from the country."
Police have confirmed he once dated Karla Homolka, who killed two teenage girls as well as her own sister.
They are also trying to take down an online video which they believe shows Magnotta killing his victim.
In it one man stabs another with an ice pick while the victim lies naked and tied up.
The first man later reveals he has slashed the other man's throat. He also dismembers the corpse and performs sexual acts with it.
Mr Lafreniere said they were able to take down the video last night but that it keeps reappearing online.
"It's horrible. I can't believe people take advantage of watching this," he said.
Magnotta had become notorious among animal rights activists after a man tortured and killed cats and posted videos of it online.
A video shows a man who looks like Magnotta committing violent acts against kittens. The video contains at least one photo made available by Montreal police that identified the man as Magnotta.
The hunt began on Tuesday when police found a man's torso in a suitcase behind Magnotta's apartment and a severed foot was found in a package mailed to the Conservative Party headquarters in Ottawa.
A hand was found in a separate package at a postal facility, addressed to the Liberal Party of Canada.
Other body parts remain missing, and Lafreniere said police think other body parts might have been mailed.
Police said Magnotta is also known by the names Eric Clinton Newman and Vladimir Romanov. They described him as white and 5 ft 8 ins tall (1.78 metres) with blue eyes and black hair.
His internet presence indicates he is a bisexual porn actor and model.
Magnotta changed his name from Eric Clinton Kirkman in 2006, and online posts suggest he had a long-time fascination with identity change and escape.
In a post on the Digital Journal website dated 2009 that police confirmed, a six-step article under Magnotta's name describes how to disappear.
"When making the decision to disappear, it is very important to understand that this is not a process that can be successfully accomplished overnight," it reads.
"For best results under normal circumstances, a minimum of four months is really necessary to successfully carry out the heroic actions necessary to leave your old life behind.
"This is certainly not an undertaking to be entered into lightly - be completely sure of yourself before you commit to this."
Magnotta, from Peterborough, Ontario, was renting an apartment in a working-class Montreal neighbourhood. Police in masks combed through the blood-streaked apartment yesterday.
Mike Gauthier, who has lived in the building for three years, said Magnotta's apartment was emptied before he apparently vanished in recent days. There were no clothes and no books inside.
Few tenants said they knew Magnotta, who had only lived in the building for around four months. They described him as a feminine man who was quiet and aloof but pleasant at times.
Police discovered the severed foot on Tuesday after Jenni Bryne, a top political adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, opened a bloodstained box at Conservative party headquarters.
Source: www.mirror.co.uk
London firms stumble over trademark hurdles - The Guardian
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
London stocks rise in opening trade - YAHOO!
London's leading stock market rose slightly at the start of trading on Friday as investors awaited the publication of key US jobs data amid ongoing eurozone strains.
The benchmark FTSE 100 index climbed 0.21 percent to 5,331.87 points after minor losses Thursday.
Elsewhere in Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.37 percent to 3,028.30 points while Frankfurt's DAX 30 dipped 0.07 percent to 6,259.76 points.
Investor sentiment had been undermined Thursday by poor US economic indicators and concern about the prospects for progress in the eurozone debt crisis.
GDP growth in the January-March period slowed to an annual rate of 1.9 percent from the 2011 fourth quarter's pace of 3.0 percent.
The US government will later report May jobs numbers in what could be a crucial test of the economy's momentum following a sluggish start to the year.
Analysts have forecast that the US economy added a net 150,000 jobs in May, better than April's meager 115,000 jobs but still just barely keeping up with population growth in the labor force.
Source: news.yahoo.com
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