Nation & World A6
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THE DAILY HERALD
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WWW.HERALDNET.COM
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SATURDAY, 07.05.2014
Q&A on contraceptives Sorting out the claims of the left and right on the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby ruling. Chicago Tribune
California: Raise for actors
PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS / ASSOCIATED PRESS
Demonstrators react to hearing the Supreme Court’s decision on the Hobby Lobby case outside the Supreme Court in Washington on Monday.
Legally, however, it makes no difference. Most experts say that the methods in question usually work by preventing fertilization, not by keeping a fertilized embryo from implanting. But “usually” doesn’t rule out the possibility that the devices might sometimes prevent implantation. In any case, what matters for the court’s decision is that the people raising the objection have a “sincere” religious belief, not that the belief is scientifically proved. Q: How can the Supreme Court say that corporations are “persons” with rights? A: On the left, the idea that “corporations are people,” as Mitt Romney once put it, generates outrage, but it’s hardly new, nor controversial in other applications. Take a news organization, for example. Like most, it’s a corporation, but few people would argue that its corporate status prevents it from being covered by the First Amendment. Similarly, even though many medical offices and most hospitals are organized as corporations, police need a warrant before searching medical files because the Fourth
Amendment protects corporations just like individuals. What was new in this case was the question of whether for-profit corporations can assert rights under a 1993 federal law called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The five justices in the majority said yes. Two justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor, said no. Two others, Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan, didn’t take a position because they felt it wasn’t necessary to address it. Q: Doesn’t the ruling apply only to “closely held,” familyowned companies? A: No. Hobby Lobby and Conestoga are closely held companies. But the court’s opinion applies to all corporations. Q: Will the decision deprive tens of thousands of women of coverage for birth control? A: Probably not. A key point for the justice with the swing vote in the case, Anthony Kennedy, was that the Obama administration already has an alternative way to provide insurance coverage to some women whose employers object to paying for birth control. That alternative should be extended to employees of
companies such as Hobby Lobby, Kennedy said. Under the alternative plan, which currently covers religiously affiliated nonprofit employers such as charities and schools, the employer certifies that it objects to paying for some or all birth control devices. At that point, the company’s insurer steps in and provides the same coverage free of charge. Q: Won’t the ruling allow religious claims for exemption from all sorts of laws? A: Yes, but many of them won’t win. The court’s ruling will allow more companies to get their day in court to assert religious claims for opting out of other laws they don’t like. That will mean a lot of lawsuits. But the ruling doesn’t say religion holds a trump card that always wins. Instead, it says that courts need to weigh how much of a burden a particular law imposes on religious belief against the government’s need to achieve the law’s goals. In this case, the majority said that the balance tilted in favor of the religious objectors, in part because the government, as Kennedy wrote, had another way to achieve its goal. Often, that may not be the case.
Woman, 116, named oldest American Associated Press LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A south Arkansas woman celebrated her 116th birthday Friday with cake, a party and a new title — she’s now officially the oldest confirmed living American and second-oldest person in the world, the Gerontology Research Group said. Gertrude Weaver spent her birthday at home at Silver Oaks Health and Rehabilitation in Camden, about 100 miles southwest of Little Rock. This year’s festivities included the new award from the Gerontology Research Group, which analyzed U.S. Census records to determine that Weaver is the oldest living American, rather than 115-year-old Jeralean Talley, who was born in 1899. The group, which consults with the Guinness Book of World Records, found that the 1900 Census listed Weaver as 2 years old — putting her birthday in 1898, said Robert Young, the group’s database administrator and senior consultant for Guinness. That makes Weaver the second-oldest person in the world behind 116-year-old Misao Okawa of Japan and the 11th oldest person of all time, he said. “Normally, 116 would be old enough to be the world’s oldest person,” Young said. “There’s kind of heavy competition at the moment.” Weaver was born in Arkansas
Two fliers perish in P-51 Mustang crash DURANGO, Colo. — Authorities say two people were killed when the vintage plane they were in crashed. The P-51 Mustang was taking off at the DurangoLa Plata County Airport when it crashed at about 9:30 a.m. Friday. A Sheriff’s spokesman said he did not know where the plane was headed or what went wrong. The two who were killed were the only ones in the plane. The spokesman said investigators are taking photos of the wreckage and keeping the scene secure until the National Transportation Safety Board arrives from Denver. Before Friday’s crash, there were only 123 P-51 Mustangs in the United States, according to the Federal Aviation Administration registry.
By David Lauter WASHINGTON — Halftruths and spin from both political parties have quickly come to dominate the debate over the Supreme Court decision on religious exemptions to the rule on insurance plans covering contraceptives. Both sides want to use the decision to motivate key blocs of voters in close midterm races this fall — religious conservatives for the Republicans, unmarried women for the Democrats. In that battle, accuracy about legal issues takes a back seat. Herewith, an effort to sort out some often-repeated claims: Question: Doesn’t the decision apply to only a few forms of contraception? Answer: No. As with most political claims, this one, which has become a favorite talking point for conservatives, starts with a nugget of truth and rapidly moves beyond it. The accurate part is that the families who brought the cases to the high court, one of which owns the Hobby Lobby chain of stores and another that owns a woodworking business called Conestoga Wood Specialties, object to four contraceptive methods. They believe those four, intrauterine devices and so-called morning-after pills, cause abortions by preventing a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus. But nothing in the court’s opinion limits the ruling to those methods. Another company could assert a religious objection to five or six or to all types of birth control. Those claims would be just as valid. “It is not for us to say” that a litigant’s “religious beliefs are mistaken or insubstantial,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the court’s majority. Q: Aren’t the plaintiffs wrong to believe that IUDs and morning-after pills are abortifacients? A: That argument, raised by opponents of the ruling, involves a disputed point.
ACROSS THE U.S.
Hollywood’s largest union representing actors and other performers has secured a new film and TV contract that will provide modest pay hikes for its approximately 165,000 members. SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers announced Friday that they had reached an agreement on a new threeyear film and TV contract to replace one that expired midnight June 30 and was extended three times. SAG-AFTRA was able to wrangle rate hikes of 2.5 percent in the first year of the proposed agreement, and another 3 percent in the second and third year.
Montana: Train derails A freight train derailed about 10 miles west of Alberton, sending three cars carrying aircraft components down an embankment and into the Clark Fork River. A Rail Link spokeswoman said 19 cars from a westbound train derailed at about 4 p.m. Thursday. Thirteen of the cars that derailed were carrying freight, mostly aircraft parts. She said crews were working to remove the aircraft parts from the water. She said the components were headed to Renton.
Bear attacks jogger & dogs State wildlife officials are trying to trap a bear that attacked a female jogger and her dogs on Forest Service land in northwestern Montana. Reports indicate the bear first attacked the woman’s dogs and then went after her Thursday morning north of Columbia Falls. The bear then left the area. A Fish, Wildlife and Parks investigator said the woman suffered several bites and claw wounds. She was treated and released from the hospital in Whitefish.
Arizona: Dust storm hits A blinding dust storm prompted the grounding of flights at Phoenix’s main airport. A Sky Harbor International Airport spokeswoman said the suspension of all inbound and outbound flights took effect about 8 p.m. Thursday. A National Weather Service meteorologist said the storm swept into the Phoenix area about 7:30 p.m. and was expected to linger for three to four hours. Officials reminded drivers that roads can be especially hazardous during dust storms.
New York: Hot dog champ High-ranking chowhound Joey “Jaws” Chestnut dropped to one knee and proposed to his longtime girlfriend before Friday’s annual hot dog eating contest in Coney Island, then packed away 61 franks and buns to hold onto his coveted mustard yellow winner’s belt. The San Jose, California, resident fell far short of his record last year of 69 dogs and buns, but he still easily beat second-place finisher Matt Stonie, also of San Jose, who downed 56. “Winning was the only option,” the newly engaged champion said afterward. “I wasn’t going to taint today with a loss.” DANNY JOHNSTON / ASSOCIATED PRESS
Gertrude Weaver speaks Thursday at the Silver Oaks Health and Rehabilitation Center in Camden, Arkansas, a day before her 116th birthday.
near the border with Texas, and was married in 1915. She and her husband had four children, all of whom have died except for a 93-year-old son. Along with Census records, the Gerontology Research Group used Weaver’s 1915 marriage certificate, which listed her age as 17, to confirm her birth year, Young said. Although no birth record exists for Weaver, she celebrates her birthday each year on July 4 and did the same this year. At her 115th birthday party last year, Weaver was
“waving and just eating it all up,” said Vicki Vaughan, the marketing and admissions director at Silver Oaks. “Most people want to know, ‘Well, can she talk?’ ” Vaughan said. “Her health is starting to decline a little bit this year — I can tell a difference from last year, but she still is up and gets out of the room and comes to all of her meals, comes to activities. She’ll laugh and smile and clap.” Weaver first stayed at the Camden nursing home at the age of 104 after she suffered
a broken hip, Vaughan said. But Weaver recovered after rehabilitation and moved back home with her granddaughter, before returning to the nursing home at the age of 109. Weaver cited three factors for her longevity: “Trusting in the Lord, hard work and loving everybody.” “You have to follow God. Don’t follow anyone else,” she said this week. “Be obedient and follow the laws and don’t worry about anything. I’ve followed him for many, many years and I ain’t tired.”
AROUND THE WORLD Vietnam: New patrol boats The government said it plans to build 32 new coastal patrol vessels to help defend its maritime sovereignty. Hanoi is locked in a territorial dispute with its much larger neighbor China in the South China Sea that has exposed its lack of maritime muscle and surveillance capabilities. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said the government would spend $540 million on 32 new coast guard and fishery patrol vessels. The decision was made Thursday, the government said. Vietnam and China have sparred for years over who owns what in the South China Sea. From Herald news services