Obama Pushes for Unemployment Benefits Extension

Days after the expiry of long-term unemployment benefits for 1.3 million Americans, President Barack Obama is pushing Congress for another extension of the program that many Republicans oppose due to high government spending.

People affected by the expiry of the benefits will join Obama for an event planned for Tuesday at the White House.

"The president will talk about the toll that allowing unemployment benefits to expire has had on 1.3 million Americans, and he'll warn of the negative consequences for the broader American economy if Congress fails to act quickly on this urgent priority," the White House said in a statement.

Congress passed the two-year budget deal last month without extending federal unemployment paychecks for people out of work for longer than six months – a program that had been renewed every year since it was introduced in 2008.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, has said he will hold a vote on temporarily extending federal jobless benefits when Congress returns from its holiday recess Monday. The bill will likely pass in the senate.

However, the Republican-controlled House is not expected to follow suit, as some GOP leaders argue the benefits were meant to be temporary. Besides, even a three-month temporary extension would add another $25 billion to the federal deficit. Republicans says the cost should be offset by spending cuts elsewhere in the budget.

Canadian Uses Electric Car to Power House During Storm

THORNHILL, Ontario, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- A Canadian man said he used his Toyota Prius as a generator to power his furnace, lights, refrigerator and TV during the recent ice storm.

Bob Osemlak, a retired Air Force mechanic who lives in Thornhill, lost power for nearly a full day on Dec. 21, the Toronto Star reported.

Osemlak prepared for the outage by installing an outlet on his furnace. He then ran a cord through the basement to his hybrid electric car.

When the power went out, he conserved his car's battery by rotating between using it for heat and electricity.

"When the furnace comes on, and the house gets up to temperature, I go to the thermostat and shut the furnace off," he said. "Now I can plug something else in: the TV, the fridge or the floor lamp."

He used the car to power his house for nine hours, and the car's battery went down by less than one bar--equivalent to a gallon of gas.

He spoke to his experience as a mechanic and warned others not to try using their car as a generator.

"I've been an aircraft technician for over 50 years, and I've also worked on cars," he said.

County Public Works Committee to Look at Buses, Roads

Anderson County Council's Public Works Commission will meet Monday at 1:30 p.m. in the historic courthouse downtown. Items on the agenda include an update on bus lines and roads.

The public is invited.

Jim Stephens will be Missed

By Greg Wilson

“Our huffing and puffing to impress God, our scrambling for brownie points, our thrashing about trying to fix ourselves while hiding our pettiness and wallowing in guilt are nauseating to God and are a flat out denial of the gospel of grace.” - Brennan Manning

Fellow travelers are always missed the most, and that’s why in the past 48 hours I have pondered how many people it will take to fill the holes by the loss of my friend Jim Stephens.  

Jim grins last summer as he ponders the fact he needs technology he neither likes nor understands.

More than a quarter of a century ago, I crossed paths with Jim for the first time when he opened Crossway Ministries in Anderson. He was convinced in the years that followed, though not always thrilled by that conviction, that God wanted him in Anderson for a purpose that reached far beyond the counseling he offered in his office.  

A lot of us are glad Jim was tuned into that voice, because in the years that followed his impact on the lives of people around these parts has been immeasurable. Jim never saw ministry as something that started when he turned the key to his office. To him it was something he did from the time he woke up in the morning until he closed his eyes each evening to sleep.  

Thinking back on the sheer number of people he took out for breakfast or lunch or coffee to encourage or counsel or just enjoy their company offers a great snapshot of the kind of disciple of Jesus Jim was. A biscuit at Chick-fil-a or a steak at Longhorn’s often became something just shy of communion with Jim (although he would smirk at me writing such a line).

His community wide Good Friday Prayer Breakfast events at the civic center and later other venues drew hundreds from dozens of different churches every year to hear what Jim considered the central event of the Christian faith: the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Many are still talk about some of the life-changing celebrations that went on at those events. 

Even last week he was still reminding anyone who would listen that the message of Christmas is really about what happened at Easter.  

Jim’s Wednesday Men’s Bible Study, held weekly in his office during the mid-week lunchtime, and which I refer to as the Anderson Third Day Adventist church, remains one of the most eclectic groups of Christian men ever to gather in Anderson. Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Pentecostals and those representing other churches or none at all attend the group. Professional, blue collar, unemployed and everything in-between, the group has paused to pray and study the bible for nearly two decades. It is a room filled with a lot of laughter and compassion, and unlike most anything else I have experienced in my 40 years of following Jesus. 

Jim’s teaching always pointed to two things: Jesus and His grace. He quietly (well most of the time he was civil) dispelled notions that church duties, good works or behaving ourselves had much to do with who we are in Christ. Period.

He was convinced that this message was at the heart of the scripture which he loved. And he did love it. Jim always, and I mean this literally, corrected those who called him a “Christian” counselor.

“I am a biblical counselor, and there is a difference,” he would say, pointing out a variety of things he saw that were in stark contrast between the two. 

But above all, Jim was my friend.

When we first met, it took a few weeks to size each other up (we really weren’t sure we liked each other then) as we sparred over biblical passages, bible translations, church and the wildly radical nature of grace. 

Over lunches and breakfasts that often stretched into hours of chatter, challenge and debate, we forged a rare iron and steel friendship that has grown deeper every year since, forged by the conviction that message of grace was sorely missing in most presentations of the gospel, both in word and deed. Our shared love for Luther’s commentary on “Galatians,” (which he borrowed from me twice and kept both copies, by the way), seemed to always steer us back to this message. 

In the very early 1990s, Jim and I put together a seminar in Anderson by Steve Brown, which drew more than 2,000 from more than a dozen churches to hear the message that Christians should live lives with such a freedom and joy that uptight Christians will doubt your salvation.

Later we opened Books for Missions (include stores in Anderson and Commerce) to raise money for local, regional and national missions groups, again with the idea of getting more materials (and Bibles) in the hands of as many people as possible. 

In recent years, Jim began writing more, starting his healingthehurts.org website and was dragged kicking and screaming into the age of technology by a team of friends, family and others who also convinced to begin recording podcasts of his bible study, which can be found here. 

But while what he did will not be soon forgotten, it was the man himself that left a lasting imprint on my life.  

Never one to much appreciate shiny saints, Jim was my friend because he just refused to play such games. Alternately generous, hilarious, grumpy and wildly opinionated, my love for my friend is deeply seated in his authenticity and honesty.  

Never shy to tell you what he thought on most any topic, nevertheless it never seemed to impact his compassion for those who did not agree with him. His generosity remains legendary, amazing since almost all of it was done very quietly, as was his devotion to his family and his crazy affection for his wife, children and grandchildren.  

And in recent weeks, Jim suffered the loss of one of his closest friends, writer Jim Reimann, and the wife of another of his best friends. We were talking about it Monday and he just shook his head and sighed, a very unusual response from those who knew Jim. 

Seeing in 2014, Jim had big plans. He was already asking me Wednesday about helping him edit material for the Good Friday Prayer Breakfast, and he sent out the following email message Dec. 29:

 “The Bible tells us that we “will know the truth and the truth

        will make us free.”   The freedom is to follow God with

        confidence.  The same confidence the disciples, later

        Apostle’s, had in the truth Jesus taught them.

As we enter another New Year it is important that we remember

that we are all “learners” about Jesus and His love for us. 

That love He has for you led Him to the Cross for you.  It

pleased God to crush Him for you.  That is the love that

instills in us the confidence of the disciples.

They knew they were loved by Him.  It was years after the

Resurrection that they began to understand the depth of that

love; love that laid down His life for you. Why? Simply

because you are worth it! Not because of what you do for Him or

how much you love Him.

It is not how much you love Him that matters, it is how much He

loves you.

Monday and Tuesday this week I will be in the office taking down

the Christmas decorations and getting the office back in shape

for another year of sharing the truth of God’s Word with those

God sends our way.  Often God will send end of the year gifts by

using other disciples.

Next year there will be some changes at the ministry…we will be expanding our

seminar schedule and adding more opportunities for people to

learn the truth that sets you free.”

Early Friday, Jim’s plans changed. He now sees face-to-face the one he has worshipped and served for so many years. It is for those of us left here to carry on the message of God’s grace until that day we rejoin Jim.

Meanwhile, no one will ever replace Jim Stephens, but no one will forget him either. I know I won’t. Fellow travelers really are hard to find.

Visitation for Jim Stephens will be from 3-6 p.m. at McDougalds Funeral Home on Sunday and the funeral at 2 p.m. on Monday.

Pat Robertson Predicts Obama will Resign to "Go Surfing"

During a segment on The 700 Club, televangelist Pat Robertson predicted that President Obama will resign his presidency in 2014 so that he can “go surfing.”

“The other thing is I think that the President is going to be severely, severely hampered. I think that America is going to turn against him much more so than now, as that Affordable Care thing starts biting hard as it is, he’s going to be discredited terribly,” Robertson said. 

“As a process, I think that he is going to withdraw. He likes Hawaii, he spent a lot of time in Hawaii and he probably figured, ‘Okay, I’ve done my thing, now let’s go surfing.’”

In addition to weighing in on Obama’s future, Robertson predicted that the global economy will be hampered by severe problems and that Iran will gain nuclear capabilities.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/Blog/2014/01/02/Televangelist-Pat-Robertson-predicts-President-Obama-will-withdraw-in-2014-to-go-surfing/3681388697867/#ixzz2pKdUtpiq

Original Cheeiros to End Use of GMOs

General Mills says some Cheerios made without genetically modified ingredients will start appearing on shelves soon.

The Minneapolis-based company said Thursday that it has been manufacturing its original-flavor Cheerios without GMOs for the past several weeks in response to consumer demand. It did not specify exactly when those boxes would be on sale.

Original Cheerios will now be labeled as "Not Made With Genetically Modified Ingredients," although that it is not an official certification. The labels will also note that trace amounts of GMO ingredients could be present due to the manufacturing process, said Mike Siemienas, a company spokesman.

The change does not apply to any other Cheerios flavors, such as Apple Cinnamon Cheerios or Multi Grain Cheerios.

"We were able to do this with original Cheerios because the main ingredients are oats," said Siemienas, noting that there are no genetically modified oats. The company is primarily switching the cornstarch and sugar to make the original Cheerios free of GMOs, he said.

The change comes after the group Green America started a campaign called GMO Inside asking General Mills to make Cheerios GMO-free. The group noted in a statement that its campaign prompted fans to flood the Cheerios page on Facebook with comments on the topic.

Todd Larsen, Green America's corporate responsibility director, said in a statement that the move is "an important victory in getting GMOs out of our food supply and an important first step for General Mills."

S.C. Democrats Renew Push for Prayer in Schools

A group of South Carolina lawmakers have renewed a push to allow students to pray in public schools.

The measure, originally introduced last spring, would require schools to provide a moment of silence each day, during which teachers would be allowed to lead students in prayer. Under the legislation, students who do not wish to participate in prayer would be allowed to leave the classroom.

A majority of the law's sponsors are Democrats in the state's House of Representatives.

While the bill was initially introduced in February by Democratic Reps. Wendell Gilliard, Robert Williams, Joseph Jefferson, Carl Anderson, Bill Clyburn, Lonnie Hosey, Robert Ridgeway III and Republican Reps. Liston Barfield, Heather Ammons Crawford and Don Wells, the measure has since stalled in the state House's judiciary committee.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the First Amendment protects students' rights to voluntarily pray in public schools; however, prayer must not be sponsored by the school under the criteria that statutes dealing with religion must not result in an "excessive government entanglement" with religion.

According to Gilliard, the lawmakers hope to work around this by compromising on whether the teachers lead the prayer, saying that students may "pray to whomever they want to."

"The essential part of the bill, the important part, is putting prayer back in school,"Gilliard said. "There would be no noise, no disruption, no anything."

State: GOP Primaries a Weather Vane for S.C. Party

The battle for the future of the Republican Party in South Carolina will climax this year in June as U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham squares off against four primary challengers.

That fight has been brewing for years, pitting the state’s GOP business establishment against a mix of Tea Party libertarians and ideological purists. 

Those activists fault Graham largely for, they say, being too moderate. But establishment Republicans say that criticism comes from only a small, but vocal, minority within the S.C. GOP. 

The Tea Party libertarians appear to be gaining traction – backing several winners in recent congressional elections, for instance. Activists also have chalked up other wins in county parties, which have shifted more to the right as activists have become more involved.

The party’s Tea Party libertarian wing also has tried – but failed – to wrest control of the state party. That failure, establishment Republicans say, is evidence the activists remain an insignificant threat. 

But the Tea Party libertarians are angling for more power. 

Lawsuits have been filed to “close” GOP primaries, allowing only registered Republicans to vote and barring the independents who made the GOP South Carolina’s political majority. Thus far, those efforts have failed. 

But proposed state legislation also would allow political parties to drop primaries altogether and nominate candidates at conventions, a sign, some say, that Republicans are set on purifying the party, even if that means disenfranchising voters. 

The S.C. GOP’s push to the right has been most pronounced in the election of Tea Party-backed candidates to Congress, including Jeff Duncan, Trey Gowdy, Mick Mulvaney and Tim Scott, all first elected in the Tea Party wave of 2010. (Scott since has been appointed to the U.S. Senate.)

Graham’s June primary opponents are hoping to reignite that wave, invoking the names of national Tea Party favorites – including U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky – as they campaign.

But, thus far, Graham’s primary opponents – state Sen. Lee Bright of Spartanburg, Richard Cash of Easley, Bill Conner of Orangeburg and Nancy Mace of Charleston – are little known and financially outgunned by Graham, a two-term incumbent who has $7 million in his campaign re-election account. 

However, the fight to determine the future of the S.C. GOP will become more competitive if outside groups – including FreedomWorks, the Club for Growth and the Senate Conservatives Fund – decide to back one of Graham’s challengers, lifting them out of obscurity. 

Even if one Graham challenger can close the money gap, longtime supporters say the state’s GOP base – less vocal than the activists, but larger – is committed to candidates like Graham, who, allies say, embodies President Ronald Reagan’s political philosophy that disagreeing with someone 20 percent of the time does not make them an enemy.

S.C. Gas Cheapest in U.S. for 2013

South Carolina had the lowest average gas prices in 2013, at $3.24 a gallon, the travel group AAA said Tuesday.

AAA officials said drivers nationwide last year paid an average of $3.49 a gallon, making 2013 the least expensive year to fill up since 2010.

Last year’s average was significantly lower than in 2012 when consumers paid an average of $3.60, which was the most expensive ever, AAA officials said. Gas prices in 2011 were the second highest on record at $3.51, while 2013 holds the rank of third most expensive, the officials said.

“Gas prices should average slightly less in 2014 if everything goes as expected, but most drivers may not even notice because the difference could be relatively small,” Avery Ash, an AAA spokesman, said in a statement. “Increased refinery capacity and domestic crude oil production should help provide a cushion in case something goes wrong, but there are no guarantees when it comes to gas prices. There will remain an outside chance of paying higher prices due to unexpected global events or significant economic growth.”

Last year, the cheapest gas prices were in South Carolina for the second year in a row with an annual average of $3.24 a gallon. That was followed by Mississippi ($3.28), Tennessee ($3.29), Arkansas ($3.29) and Missouri ($3.29).

New Years Ushered in with Strange Traditions in Some Places

When Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor — who will lead the Times Square New Year's Eve celebration Tuesday — touches off New York City's ball drop, the illuminated orb won't be the only thing falling around the country at midnight.

These days, cities are dropping an array of creative items to cheering crowds as locals mimic the massive Times Square countdown event that has come to symbolize the nation's New Year's moment.

Starting in Eastern Standard Time, there is a possum drop in North Carolina and a Peep drop in Pennsylvania (the marshmallow candy's home state). Moving west, Wisconsin hosts a cheese drop, and Prescott, Ariz., watches a boot drop — and these are just a few examples of oddball revelry.

"There is a real emotional connection" with the dropping ball, said Jeffrey Straus, president of Countdown Entertainment, an organizer of Times Square New Year's Eve. "It's a shared moment. So when you think about all other drops, that's a big sign of our success. It shows the tradition has multiplied."

For the last six years, Mobile, Ala., has been dropping a 12-foot electronic MoonPie logo, made of plastic and LED lights, from the 34-story RSA Trustmark building on New Year's Eve.

Though some were dismissive of the Mobile event at first, now people flock from out of state to watch the MoonPie descent, said Carol Hunter, president of Events Mobile.

Prior to the event's inception, hotels and restaurants were not so busy on New Year's Eve. Now, hotels in the area are almost always sold out, and the event generates an estimated $3 million in Mobile.

Atlanta has dropped an 800-pound, 8-by-8-foot fiberglass and foam peach since 1989, said Michelle Lawrence, director of marketing for Underground Atlanta, which organizes the event. It takes about 58 seconds for the peach to descend from a 138-foot tower of lights.

"People look forward to it every year," Lawrence said, noting there is always a large musical lineup with many artists from the area. Turnout is usually about 170,000 people, but this year the numbers are expected to be higher because the peach drop coincides with the New Year's Eve Chick-fil-A Bowl between Texas A&M University and Duke University.

Another tradition is just catching on in Arizona, where Prescott residents will watch an illuminated 6-foot cowboy boot be lowered from a fire engine ladder for the third year.

In a salute to Wisconsin's dairy industry, the city of Plymouth will drop a decorated metal cheese wedge from a truck ladder raised 100 feet high, according to the Plymouth Arts Center.

Although Easter is usually their busy time of year, Bethlehem, Pa., home to the marshmallow Peep factory, will drop a giant Peep from the top of its headquarters.

In the wildlife category, Brasstown, N.C., drops a live possum and Port Clinton, Ohio, lowers a fish.

The possum drop has stirred controversy in the mountain town because the celebration includes capturing, caging and dropping a possum at midnight. The possum is actually lowered slowly and then set free after the event, but that didn't appease People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which sued to try and stop event coordinators from using a live possum.

However, a judge recently ruled that Brasstown could continue its tradition and hold the 20th annual event.

In Port Clinton, a walleye is dropped to "reel in the new year." But it's made of papier mache, weighs 600 pounds and is 20 feet long, according to the event website, walleyemadness.com.

The ball drop that started it all wasn't initially part of New York's celebration, Straus said.

In 1904, over 200,000 people gathered in Times Square to watch fireworks and ring in the New Year at a celebration that then-New York Times owner Alfred Ochs had planned to simultaneously commemorate the opening of the newspaper's new headquarters.

After the city banned fireworks displays in 1906, Ochs had the chief electrician for the newspaper, Walter Palmer, come up with another idea.

Palmer was inspired by maritime tradition, particularly the use of time balls, which were dropped at predetermined times to help ships offshore keep their chronometers in line with Greenwich Mean Time.

"He took that maritime tradition and combined it with the then-new technology of the electric light bulb," Straus said.

Since then, the event has transformed from spectacle to tradition, Straus said.

"When you think about it we are all really doing the same thing — counting down to the New Year together," he said. "Whether it's a ball in Times Square or a peach in Atlanta … whatever it may be, the tradition all started right here, at the center, in New York City."

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-new-years-drops-20131231,0,4961138.story#ixzz2p34u9XPK

S.C. 11th Fastest-Growing State

South Carolina has the 11th-fastest-growing population of any state, growing faster than the nation as a whole and exceeding state forecasters’ expectations.

South Carolina had 4,774,839 residents on July 1, according to U.S. Census data released Monday. That’s an increase of 51,422, or 1.1 percent, from July 1, 2012.

That increase suggests that South Carolina is on track to surpass a projection by the S.C. Office of Research and Statistics that the state population will reach 4.8 million in 2015, said Mike MacFarlane, state demographer.

South Carolina added 138,478 residents since 2010. The economic downturn from five years ago has made it difficult to project the state’s growth, but led to predictions that growth would slow down, MacFarlane said. 

“We thought that the growth rate would be slow and build up through the decade, but it’s occurring much quicker than that,” MacFarlane said. “It’s surprising.” 

The cause for South Carolina’s recent boost in population is unclear without more specific data tracking births, deaths and migration locally, MacFarlane said.

South Carolina’s growth rate in the early 2000s was around 1 percent, according to annual Census estimates starting July 1 of each year. That rate jumped to more than 1.4 percent in the year starting July 1, 2003, and then hit 2 percent in the year starting July 1, 2005, declining to 1.3 percent in 2008-09 and lower in following years. 

According to the U.S. Census, the state’s growth rate in the year starting July 1, 2012, topped the nation’s population growth rate of .7 percent. During that period, nine states and the District of Columbia grew faster than South Carolina.

North Dakota, the fastest-growing state, is the only state whose population increased by more than 3 percent, followed by the District of Columbia, where the population increased by 2 percent. 

Only two states, Maine and West Virginia, saw their populations decrease slightly in the same period, losing a combined 2,575 residents.

South Carolina remained the nation’s 24th largest in population.

By New Year’s Day, the United States’ population will reach 317.3 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, up 2.2 million from the year prior.

Across the United States, a birth will occur every eight seconds and someone will die every 12 seconds in January, according to Census projections. 

The world population is expected to reach 7.1 billion on New Year’s Day, up 77.6 million, or 1.1 percent, from the previous year.

Anderson Democrats to Meet Saturday

The Anderson County Democratic Party will have its monthly meeting on Saturday at 9:00 AM at the Golden Corral Restaurant on Clemson Boulevard. Plans will be discussed for the upcoming precinct reorganization for the 2014 election cycle and the County and State Conventions for 2014.

All interested persons are invited to attend. For more information contact Stuart Sprague sprague_s@bellsouth.net, 864-314-5640

Crowder Announcement Could Shift Council Balance of Power

Anderson County Council Chairman Francis Crowder's decision not to seek re-election when his term ends in 2014 could shift the balance of power on council. Crowder, who though sometimes an independent voice on council, in the past year has more often than not ended up on the minority end of 4-3 votes. In these incidences, he has lined up with Council Vice Chair Cindy Wilson and Eddie Moore.

Crowder said after affirming a recent vote to continue legal action against former Anderson County Administator Joey Preston, the decision had been one of the most difficult he had ever made. 

Meanwhile, Crowder was a consistently public advocate for economic development for Anderson County and rarely let a meeting pass without praising the leadership of Economic Development Director Burris Nelson and Administrator Rusty Burns for continuing to bring jobs to the county. Crowder was also a driving force behind the planning and completion of the East-West Parkway, insisting on residential zoning for almost the entire track of parkway land.

It is unclear who will seek Crowder's Councy Council District 1 seat, but at least three potential candidates have begun exploring the idea. 

Crowder says after council, he plans to spend more time with his family and work at Concord Baptist Church where he has been a Sunday School teacher and served in other leadership roles for many years. 

Crowder who will turn 80 on Jan. 4, is a graduate of the University of Michigan and did graduate work at Clemson University and Furman University. He retired from the company he founded and ran for 30 years, QS, Inc., in 1999.