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Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 3/4/2017 11:01:23 AM
	Two Suspected MS-13 Gang Members Accused of Killing Houston Teen in ‘Satanic’ Ritual Harriet Sokmensuer PeopleMarch 3, 2017 Two Suspected MS-13 Gang Members Accused of Killing Houston Teen in ‘Satanic’ Ritual Two suspected members of the MS-13 gang have been charged with allegedly murdering a Houston 15-year-old girl as part of a “Satanic” ritual, PEOPLE confirms. Miguel Angel Alvarez-Flores, 22, and Diego Alexander Hernandez-Rivera, 18, were charged with murder Wednesday, a Harris County Clerk official tells PEOPLE. The victim has not been publicly identified. The pair have also been charged in the kidnapping of another girl, 14, who alleged she was held against her will and raped by the gang members for 14 days, according to Fox News. Police allege the fatal victim, a 14-year-old, and a 16-year-old were all held hostage in the same Houston apartment. Alvarez-Flores and Hernandez-Rivera were arrested Feb. 27 after the apartment was raided, Sgt. Chris Sturdivant of the Houston Police Department said at a Friday press conference. On Wednesday, Alvarez-Flores and Hernandez-Rivera appeared in a Harris County courtroom on kidnapping and murder charges. During the hearing, Harris County prosecutors detailed an eye-witness account given by the 14-year-old, who police said escaped from the apartment and was reunited with her parents, KPRC reports. According to prosecutors, the 14-year-old alleged that while being held at the apartment on Glenmont Road, gang members raped her and forced her to drink alcohol and take drugs, KPRC reports. The girl also said that during her time at the apartment, she met another girl who investigators believe was the fatal victim. The 14-year-old alleged to investigators that the fatal victim disappeared from the apartment one night after she disrespected the gang’s Satanic shrine, which allegedly led Alvarez-Flores to announce that the “Beast” required a soul sacrifice, the Houston Chronicle reports. Following their arrest, both Alvarez-Flores and Hernandez-Rivera allegedly admitted to being involved in the 15-year-old’s killing, Sturdivant said at the press conference. Prosecutors allege that Hernandez-Rivera told investigators he and Alvarez-Flores took the fatal victim from the apartment and drove her to a patch of grass on the side of the road, according to the Chronicle. Moments before the teen’s death, Alvarez-Flores allegedly told Hernandez-Rivera that it was “time to take action.” Hernandez-Rivera allegedly shot the girl in the head, and as they walked back to the vehicle, Alvarez-Flores allegedly turned around and fired another shot into her torso, KPRC reports. On Friday, Sturdivant announced that there was a third girl found at the apartment— a 16-year-old— who has since been reunited with her family. “We are dealing with 14, 15, 16-year-old girls who are very impressionable young women,” Sturdivant said. “Regardless if they were there willfully or against their will, what happened is against the law and was wrong.” Officials believe Alvarez-Flores and Hernandez-Rivera are living in the country illegally after coming from El Salvador, Sturdivant said. The Department of Homeland Security is currently investigating their immigration status. Both suspects remain in Harris County jail under $300,000 bond. It is unclear at this time whether they have entered pleas or have been appointed attorneys. (Yahoo News)
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
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Luis Miguel

1162

61587

Lima

RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?

3/4/2017 4:37:50 PM

NYC Teachers Must Refer to Transgender Students by Preferred Pronouns, Memo Says

BY SAMUEL SMITH , CP REPORTER

Mar 2, 2017 | 2:33 PM

The New York City Department of Education has instructed teachers and faculty to address transgender students by their preferred pronouns — whether that be "he," "she," "they" or "ze."
Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/nyc-teachers-must-refer-to-transgender-students-by-preferred-pronouns-memo-says-176442/#4tyPDvO82itvijfi.99

The New York City Department of Education has instructed teachers and faculty to address transgender students by their preferred pronouns — whether that be "he," "she," "they" or "ze."

(Photo: Reuters/Jonathan Drake)A sign protesting a recent North Carolina law restricting transgender bathroom access is seen in the bathroom stalls at the 21C Museum Hotel in Durham, North Carolina, May 3, 2016.

The directive was issued on Wednesday and came in the form of a 10-page memo detailing how schools and faculty should treat transgender students. The memo states that "all students have the right to have their gender identity recognized and respected by their school community."

"Every student is entitled to be addressed by the name and pronoun that corresponds to the student's gender identity that is consistently asserted at school," the guidance reads. "Students are not required to obtain parental consent or a court ordered name and/or gender change as a prerequisite to being addressed by the name and pronoun that corresponds to their gender identity."

Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/nyc-teachers-must-refer-to-transgender-students-by-preferred-pronouns-memo-says-176442/#4tyPDvO82itvijfi.99

(PHOTO: REUTERS/JONATHAN DRAKE)

A sign protesting a recent North Carolina law restricting transgender bathroom access is seen in the bathroom stalls at the 21C Museum Hotel in Durham, North Carolina, May 3, 2016.

"Teachers and other school staff should be made aware of and honor a student's request to be referred to by the name and gender that corresponds to their gender identity," the memo continues. "It is important to note that for students who are gender non-conforming or who do not prescribe to the gender binary, they may prefer gender neutral pronouns such as they, ze, or other pronouns."

The memo also explains that schools should use a student's preferred name and gender in records and documents that are "not permanent pupil personnel records," such as guidance logs, anecdotal records, yearbooks, graduation programs.

"Student IDs should be issued in the name that reflects a student's gender identity that is preferred and consistently asserted at school," the memo asserts.

Although the memo explains that parental consent is not needed for the school to accommodate the child's preferred gender, it advises administrators to "meet with the parents and student to discuss the school's role in supporting the student's transition, make resources available to parents who have questions or concerns, work with the family to prepare for a formal gender transition at school and put in place measures for supporting the child and creating a sensitive supportive environment at school."

"This meeting should include, but not be limited to, discussion of the timing of the transition, planning responses to questions from school staff and students, and changing the student's information in school records," the memo explains.

However, the memo warns administrators to be cautious about talking to parents because many transgender children do not want their parents to know about their gender identity and nonconformity experience. In cases like those, "the school principal or their designee should confer with their Senior Field Counsel about how to proceed."

According to the memo, the only way for a transgender student to change the name on his or her permanent record is by going through the process of a legal name change, which requires a "court order or birth certificate demonstrating the student's new name."

"For a legal change of gender, the student must provide a birth certificate indicating the student's legal gender, or a valid passport indicating the student's legal gender," the guidance reads.

Guidelines for other issues that transgender students might face in school are also outlined.

The memo states that transgender students must be provided access to restrooms, locker rooms and changing rooms that are "consistent with their gender identity consistently asserted at school."

It also leaves open the door for transgender students to go back and forth on their perceived gender.

"A student whose gender identity is fluid should work with their school to facilitate restroom and locker room access that affirms their identity," the education department says in its guidelines.

The document also tells schools to allow transgender students to have the same opportunity to participate in sports teams, adding that "students must be permitted to participate in physical education and intramural sports in accordance with the student's gender identity that is consistently asserted at school."

"Participation in competitive athletic activities and contact sports will be resolved on a case-by-case basis," it asserts.

Regarding how school nurses should handle transgender students, the guidelines state that nurses are required under law to "maintain patient records that contain all pertinent information which identifies a patient and that accurately document clinical information relating to their patients, and to keep such records confidential."

The memo comes after the Departments of Justice and Education sent a guidance letter to public school districts last week, telling them that the Donald Trump administration has rescinded a guidance issued by the administration of former President Barack Obama last year telling schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity.

"These updates provide additional clarity and strengthen the guidance that's shared with school communities, and build on our work to ensure all students, including transgender and gender nonconforming students, are provided with a safe, supportive and inclusive learning environment," New York City Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña said in a statement to The Christian Post on Thursday.

The Trump administration guidance effectively lets states and local school districts determine their own bathroom policies. New York City Schools has had policies in place since 2014 that have allowed transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity.

(christianpost.com)

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

Luis Miguel

1162

61587

Lima

RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?

3/4/2017 5:26:22 PM

Antarctica hits record high temperature at balmy 63.5 Fahrenheit

Wednesday, 1 Mar 2017 | 8:32 PM ETReuters2.5K

Mark Ralston | AFP | Getty Images

A frozen section of the Ross Sea at the Scott Base in Antarctica on November 12, 2016.

An Argentine research base near the northern tip of the Antarctic peninsula has set a heat record at a balmy 63.5 Fahrenheit (17.5 degrees Celsius), the U.N. weather agency said on Wednesday.

The Experanza base set the high on March 24, 2015, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said after reviewing data around Antarctica to set benchmarks to help track future global warming and natural variations.

"Verification of maximum and minimum temperatures help us to build up a picture of the weather and climate in one of Earth's final frontiers," said Michael Sparrow, a polar expert with the WMO co-sponsored World Climate Research Programme.

Antarctica locks up 90 percent of the world's fresh water as ice and would raise sea levels by about 60 meters (200 ft) if it were all to melt, meaning scientists are concerned to know even about extremes around the fringes.

The heat record for the broader Antarctic region, defined as anywhere south of 60 degrees latitude, was 19.8°C (67.6°F) on Jan. 30, 1982 on Signy Island in the South Atlantic, it said.

And the warmest temperature recorded on the Antarctic plateau, above 2,500 meters (8,202 feet), was -7.0°C (19.4°F) on Dec. 28, 1980, it said.

Wednesday's WMO report only examined the highs.

The lowest temperature set anywhere on the planet was a numbing -89.2°C (-128.6°F) at the Soviet Union's Vostok station in central Antarctica on July 21, 1983.

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"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 3/4/2017 6:16:54 PM
	Artificial human life could soon be grown in lab after embryo breakthrough Artificial mouse embryos grow in the lab CREDIT: CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY By Sarah Knapton, science editor 2 MARCH 2017 • 7:00PM Artificial human life could soon be grown from scratch in the lab, after scientists successfully created a mammal embryo using only stem cells. Cambridge University mixed two kinds of mouse stem cells and placed them on a 3D scaffold. After four days of growth in a tank of chemicals designed to mimic conditions inside the womb, the cells formed the structure of a living mouse embryo. The breakthrough has been described as a ‘masterpiece’ in bioengineering, which could eventually allow scientists to grow artificial human embryos in the lab without the need for a sperm or an egg. Growing embryos would help researchers to study the very early stages of human life so they could understand why so many pregnancies fail, but is likely to prove controversial and raise ethical questions about what constitutes human life. Currently only embryos life over from IVF procedures can be used in research, but they are in short supply CREDIT: ALAMY Currently scientists can carry out experiments on leftover embryos from IVF treatments, but they are in short supply and must be destroyed after 14 days. Scientists say that being able to create unlimited numbers of artificial embryos in the lab could speed up research while potentially removing some of the ethical boundaries. “We think that it will be possible to mimic a lot of the developmental events occurring before 14 days using human stem cells using a similar approach to our technique using mouse stem cells," said Professor Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz from the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience at Cambridge, who led the research. "We are very optimistic that this will allow us to study key events of this critical stage of human development without actually having to work on (IVF) embryos. Knowing how development normally occurs will allow us to understand why it so often goes wrong." The embryos were created using genetically engineered stem cells coupled with extra-embryonic trophoblast stem cells (TSCs) which form the placenta in a normal pregnancy. How the embryo developed over 96 hours CREDIT: CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY Previous attempts to grow embryos using only one kind of stem cell proved unsuccessful because the cells would not assemble into their correct positions. But scientists discovered that when they added the second ‘placental’ stem cells, they two types began to talk to each other, effectively telling each other where to go. Together they eventually melded together to form an embryonic structure, with two distinct clusters of cells at each end, and a cavity in the middle in which the embryo would continue to develop. The embryo would not grow into a mouse because it lacks the stem cells which make a yolk sack. Britain is currently leading the world in fertility research, and last year a group at the Francis Crick Institute was granted permission to genetically modify human embryos, the first time in the world such a procedure had been approved by regulators. Our work will improve the chances of having a healthy baby \| Professor Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, University of Cambridge However such work raises important ethical questions about the sanctity of human life and whether it should be manipulated or created in the lab at all. Critics warn that allowing embryos to be grown for science opens the door to designer babies and genetically modified humans. Dr David King, director of the watchdog group, Human Genetics Alert, said: "What concerns me about the possibility of artificial embryos is that this may become a route to creating GM or even cloned babies. "Until there is an enforceable global ban on those possibilities, as we saw with mitochondrial transfer, this kind of research risks doing the scientific groundwork for entrepreneurs, who will use the technologies in countries with no regulation." The scientists would need to seek permission from the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority (HFEA), before attempting to create human embryos using the technique, and experts called for 'international dialogue' before going ahead. Prof James Adjaye, Chair of Stem Cell Research and Regenerative Medicine, Heinrich Heine University, in Germany, said: “A regulatory body will ultimately decide on whether human stem cell embryos can be generated and for how long they can be left in the petri dish to develop further. Prof James Adjaye, Chair of Stem Cell Research and Regenerative Medicine, Heinrich Heine University, in Germany, said: “A regulatory body will ultimately decide on whether human stem cell embryos can be generated and for how long they can be left in the petri dish to develop further. “Of course, there should be an international dialogue on the regulation of such experiments.” But the study was welcomed by the scientific community who said it was a significant breakthrough. Dr Dusko Ilic, Reader in Stem Cell Science, King’s College London, said the research was ‘masterpiece’ in creating the earliest steps of life in a lab. “This report is significant. The group from Cambridge is actually making the embryos de novo, using two different cell types, mixing them in a specific ratio and letting them to assemble together the embryo. This is science at its best.” The research was published in the journal Science and was funded by the Wellcome Trust and the European Research Council. (telegraph.co.uk)
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Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 3/5/2017 10:20:19 AM
	In day of pro-Trump rallies, California march turns violent By Stephen Lam and Tim Branfalt ReutersMarch 4, 2017 By Stephen Lam and Tim Branfalt BERKELEY, Calif./LANSING, Mich. (Reuters) - Supporters of Donald Trump clashed with counter-protesters at a rally in the famously left-leaning city of Berkeley, California, on a day of mostly peaceful gatherings in support of the U.S. president across the country. At a park in Berkeley, across the bay from San Francisco, protesters from both sides struck one another over the head with wooden sticks and Trump supporters fired pepper spray as police in riot gear stood at a distance. Some in the pro-Trump crowd, holding American flags, faced off against black-clad opponents. An elderly Trump supporter was struck in the head and kicked on the ground. Organizers of the so-called Spirit of America rallies in at least 28 the country's 50 states had said they expected smaller turn-outs than the huge crowds of anti-Trump protesters that clogged the streets of Washington and other cities the day after the Republican's inauguration on Jan. 20. "There are a lot of angry groups protesting and we thought it was important to show our support," said Peter Boykin, president of Gays for Trump, who helped organize Saturday's rally in Washington. In many towns and cities, the rallies did not draw more than a few hundred people. At some, supporters of the president were at risk of being outnumbered by small groups of anti-Trump protesters who gathered to shout against the rallies. In Berkeley, the total crowd of both supporters and detractors numbered 200 to 300 people, police spokesman Byron White said. Three people were injured in the clash, including one who had teeth knocked out, and police made five arrests. One Trump supporter who took part in the violence came equipped with a baton, a gas mask and a shield emblazoned with the American flag. White said police did break up fights between the two sides. "We've made a number of arrests, it's one of those things where we monitor the situation and take action as necessary," he said. The violence comes a month after mask-wearing protesters at the University of California, Berkeley, shut down a planned speech by a provocative far-right commentator by lighting fires and smashing windows. On Saturday, smaller skirmishes broke out in other parts of the country. In Minnesota, 400 Trump supporters packed the state capitol rotunda in St. Paul and were met by a smaller group of counter-demonstrators, according to the Star Tribune. Scuffles erupted and six counter-protesters were arrested, the newspaper reported. In Nashville, Tennessee, Trump supporters and counter-protesters cursed at each other and occasionally made physical contact, but state troopers broke up the fighting, according to the city's public radio station. Most rallies appeared to take place without any disruption or violence, like one outside the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing. "How can anyone be disappointed with bringing back jobs? And he promised he would secure our borders, and that's exactly what he's doing," said Meshawn Maddock, one of the organizers of the rally which drew about 200 people. Brandon Blanchard, 24, among a small group of anti-Trump protesters, said he had come in support of immigrants, Muslims and transgender people, groups that have been negatively targeted by Trump's rhetoric and policies. "I feel that every American that voted for Trump has been deceived," Blanchard said. More than 200 supporters of the president rallied in downtown San Diego. "After this, I think people will take the hint," said former U.S. Marine David Moore, 42, a participant in the rally. "It’s okay to voice support for the president and the country." In Palm Beach, Florida, where Trump is staying this weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort, the president's motorcade stopped and Trump stepped outside his car to wave at a crowd of dozens of supporters. A smaller group of protesters stood across the street. In New York, about 200 people demonstrated their support for the president in front of Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan. In Washington, about 150 people marched from the Washington Monument to Lafayette Square in front of the White House to show their support for the president. (Additional reporting by Ned Randolph in San Diego, Melissa Fares in Palm Beach, Florida, and Jonathan Allen in New York; Writing and additional reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Dan Grebler and Mary Milliken) (Yahoo News)
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
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