The anti-Christian group Military Religious Freedom Foundation has forced the Air Force to remove a nativity scene from Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina.
The plastic nativity scene included traditional Christmas elements like Mary, Joseph, assorted animals and Baby Jesus. According to the MRFF, the site emotionally troubled some Airmen from the base.
The Air Force removed the display within hours of the anti-Christian group contacting the Pentagon.
Shaw Air Force Base’s public affairs office did not return calls to Fox News’ Todd Starnes for comment about why they removed the display. However, Fox News’ commentator Sarah Palin said the action was not surprising.
“We see stories like this every day and yet leftwing pundits still claim that the so-called ‘War on Christmas’ is a figment of the imagination,” Palin told Starnes. “The War on Christmas is just the top of the spear in a larger battle to marginalize expressions of faith and make true religious freedom a thing of the past.”
The Catholic group Priests For Life has joined with individual plaintiffs to file a lawsuit against Obamacare’s demands that employers provide free contraceptives to employees.
Father Frank Pavone of PFL said that forcing his group to provide no-cost access to contraception that can actually induce abortions violates their religious freedom. He also said that even if the group is given an exemption from the law requiring them to provide the plan, the requirement they facilitate employees finding access to another provider on their own brings unacceptable costs.
The lawsuit is now one of 80 by religious groups across the country regarding the health care law’s infringements on religious rights. The University of Notre Dame and the Fellowship of Catholic University Students filed suits last week.
“I think the Obama administration’s attempts to take religious freedom away from anyone are bound to fail,” Matthew Bowman, the senior legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, told Fox News.
Franklin Graham told a Charlotte area TV station that his father’s health has shown significant decline in recent days.
Graham told WSOC-TV at an event to celebrate this year’s Operation Christmas Child that Billy Graham obtained an infection after his birthday and that he “just hasn’t been able to get his strength back.”
“His vitals are good, but he’s just extremely weak,” Franklin Graham said.
Billy Graham has preached to people about Jesus. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association says that more than 215 million people in 185 countries have heard Rev. Graham share the love of Christ.
“My one purpose in life is to help people find a personal relationship with God, which, I believe, comes through knowing Christ,” Billy Graham has said.
A major winter storm caused horrible weather conditions from Texas through the East Coast over the weekend.
Parts of Texas remain without power and hundreds of thousands from Texas to Ohio were without power as a result of a massive winter storm that brought up to 2 inches of ice in some locations.
Northern parts of the U.S. were receiving heavy blankets of snow resulting in airport closures and fight delays. However, airports in the south were not immune from the problems, as many flights from Dallas, Oklahoma City and Little Rock had to be cancelled because of ice and cold temperatures.
The ice coating in Texas reached levels that were not expected by government officials. Some parts of Interstate 35 had to be scraped by a grader with blades to break up the thick ice.
The storm rolled into the East Coast Sunday evening with one Virginia Emergency Management official saying the storm could bring a “historic ice event” to the state.
Forecasters say that warmer temperatures are coming in the next few days but that ice will likely coat the entire Midwest for the next few days.
The Centers for Disease Control is warning the “eliminated” disease is becoming a threat again to the United States.
The CDC says because measles runs rampant overseas that travelers are bringing the disease back with them from foreign travel.
“A measles outbreak anywhere is a risk everywhere,” the CDC said in a press release. “The steady arrival of measles in the United States is a constant reminder that deadly diseases are testing our health security every day. Someday, it won’t be only measles at the international arrival gate; so, detecting diseases before they arrive is a wise investment in U.S. health security.”
The CDC reported that 18 children every hour around the world dies from measles.
Statistics for 2013 show 175 confirmed cases in the U.S. this year, almost three times the number of average cases each year since 2000.
Officials from Texas to Ohio are telling residents to prepare for the possibility of days without power and impassable roads as a major ice storm moves into their region.
The storm that dumped several feet of snow on the Rocky Mountains moved south thanks to the jet stream moving significantly further south than normal. The storm stretches from south of Dallas, Texas to north and east of St. Louis, Missouri. The storm is expected to bring anything from sleet to inches of ice.
Arkansas is believed to be receiving the brunt of the storm with parts of the northeastern part of the state forecasted to receive up to 2 inches of ice through Friday. Ice storm warnings were issued for parts of Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky.
Officials said that major power outages are likely in areas forecasted for higher amounts of ice. They encouraged residents to prepare by stockpiling food and making arrangements to be ready to be without power for days.
Transportation experts said residents should also be ready to shelter in place as the ice could make roads impassable for at least a day.
Researchers have borrowed tools used by weather forecasters to create a system that could predict weeks in advance the peak of a city’s seasonal flu outbreak.
The scientists at Columbia University in New York say having greater advance warning of the timing and intensity of outbreaks could help cut down on the number of cases.
The system combines data from Google Flu Trends, which tracks search inquiries for flu related search information with data from the Centers for Disease Control. The system then estimates the number of flu-like illnesses that are likely to actually be cases of the flu.
The system will also have information about how the flu spreads through populations.
A study conducted in 2012 showed the system had a 60% accuracy rate in predicting the time and intensity of outbreaks.
The researchers say they plan to put the system online to allow people the chance to track the flu in their area.
A severe winter storm hit the western U.S. bringing hazardous travel conditions, dangerously lowering temperatures and threatened crops as far south as California.
Meteorologists say the jet stream has moved significantly further south than normal bringing arctic temperatures into the northwest. AccuWeather reported that temperatures could fall as much as 40 degrees below normal this weekend and a second winter blast could follow in a few days.
Areas of Montana saw temperature forecasts as low as the minus-20s. Officials say that when temperatures reach that low, even a little breeze can cause enough wind chill to be dangerous.
The storm also dumped heavy snow across the northwest part of the country including up to 2 feet in the Rocky Mountains. Ice and snow created dangerous driving conditions and contributed to a four car crash in Montana that killed a 21-year-old woman.
The system is pushing so far south that forecasters say Texans currently experiencing 80 degree days will see lower 40s by Thursday.
In a blow to religious freedom, the lawsuit brought by Liberty University concerning controversial parts of the Obamacare law has been dismissed after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case.
The filing by Liberty covered a variety of objections to the law including the individual mandate requiring individuals to purchase health insurance.
The dismissal comes as the court agreed to hear two challenges to Obamacare regarding the requirement of Christian business owners to pay for medical procedures that go against God’s word such as abortion. That case will be heard before the end of June.
The court’s refusal of the case also dismissed claims made by two individuals against Obamacare.