EWTN sues over HHS rule on contraception
WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- Catholic media network EWTN has gone to federal court, challenging the Obama administration's rule mandating contraception coverage at religious institutions.
"We had no other option but to take this to the courts," EWTN President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Warsaw said when announcing the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court Wednesday. "There is no question that this mandate violates our First Amendment rights."
The Health and Human Services Department has issued an interim rule mandating health insurance plans for employees of Catholic hospitals and other religiously affiliated institutions include coverage for birth control, sterilization and other preventive services.
"Under the HHS mandate, EWTN is being forced by the government to make a choice. Either we provide employees coverage for contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs and violate our conscience, or offer our employees and their families no health insurance coverage at all. Neither of those choices is acceptable," Warsaw said.
Senate Majority Harry Reid Thursday blocked a measure by Republicans to add an amendment to the highway funding bill that would have provided conscience protections for healthcare providers, calling it "premature."
"This is a rule that hasn't even been made final yet. There's no final rule," the Nevada Democrat said. "Let's wait until there is at least a rule that we can talk about."
10 states get No Child Left Behind waivers
WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- Ten states got waivers from some No Child Left Behind education law requirements, which President Obama said gives them freedom coupled with accountability.
Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Tennessee no longer will have to meet 2014 targets set by the law, Obama and other White House officials said Thursday.
No Child Left Behind, the centerpiece of President George W. Bush's education agenda, requires all students to be grade-level proficient in reading and math by 2014. Critics maintain the goal is unrealistic, produces too much teach-to-the-test instruction and means too many schools are punished as failures.
The states receiving the waivers will get a break on the mandate in exchange for providing detailed plans for preparing their students for college and careers, setting new targets for improving student achievement, rewarding high-performing schools and getting help to the under-performers.
Obama announced the NCLB waiver plan -- which doesn't require congressional action -- in September as part of his "we can't wait" series of executive orders.
"I said [in September] the goals of No Child Left Behind were the right ones. Standards and accountability -- those are the right goals. Closing the achievement gap, that's a good goal. That's the right goal. We've got to stay focused on those goals," Obama said Thursday. "But we've got to do it in a way that doesn't force teachers to teach to the test, or encourage schools to lower their standards to avoid being labeled as failures. That doesn't help anybody. It certainly doesn't help our children in the classroom."
All states had the chance to seek the waivers, Obama said, and 39 states expressed interest.
Pentagon expands women's opportunities
WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- The Pentagon Thursday announced women in the U.S. military can consider thousands of new assignments and opportunities that would get them closer to combat.
"The Department of Defense is committed to removing all barriers that would prevent service members from rising to the highest level of responsibility that their talents and capabilities warrant," the department said in its "vision statement."
"Women are contributing in unprecedented ways to the military's mission," Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in a release. "Through their courage, sacrifice, patriotism and great skill, women have proven their ability to serve in an expanding number of roles on and off the battlefield.
"We will continue to open as many positions as possible to women so that anyone qualified to serve can have the opportunity to do so."
By lifting a 1994 policy barring women from jobs such as mechanic and radar operator, more than 14,000 positions will become available for the first time to female service members.
"The dynamics of the modern-day battlefield are non-linear, meaning there are no clearly defined front line and safer rear area where combat support operations are performed within a low-risk environment," the report says.
The Pentagon will wait until spring to put the new policy into practice once Congress has been in session for 30 consecutive days.
Egyptians to protest year of military rule
CAIRO, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- Egypt's rulers have deployed tanks and soldiers ahead of rallies planned to protest the slow transition to democracy since Hosni Mubarak's ouster a year ago.
More than 120 labor groups and organizations have announced plans for nationwide strikes and a campaign of civil disobedience, Bikyamasr.com reported Thursday. The campaign is an attempt to quicken the transition from military to civilian rule, the news Web site reported. The military had promised to remain in power for six months, but Saturday marks one year of junta power.
Salam Amr, a 27-year-old marketing assistant in Cairo, said he plans not to go to the office that day.
"I think we have had enough violence, enough death and the military is responsible, so I am going to join the protest and strike," he said.
Al-Azhar, a Sunni institution in Egypt, has labeled the planned strikes and civil disobedience "destructive" and "un-Islamic."
The ruling military council said in a statement it would patrol the country to "maintain the security ... of public, private and state buildings."
