States Amend Constitutions to Ban Gay Marriage In states that already have Defense of Marriage Acts, Republican lawmakers are seeking to amend their constitutions to specify that marriage must be between a man and a woman. The Federal Government and 37 states already have Defense of Marriage acts. Ohio may soon be the 38th state. Arizona, Georgia, Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Michigan already have state amendment acts, and similar acts are expected in Alabama and Idaho. The American Friends Service Committee joined the campaign against the proposed amendment in Michigan this week and urged people to e-mail their legislators. On Wednesday, about 30 gay-rights supporters gathered at the state Capitol in Kentucky, holding signs like, “Anti-marriage amendments hurt my family.”
Israel and Hezbollah trade prisoners Thursday
After negotiating for years, Israel and Hezbollah, a Lebanese terrorist group, agreed to trade their prisoners Thursday in Germany. Dropoff was by plane at an undisclosed airfield in Germany. Israel released 35 prisoners to Hezbollah and 400 Palestinian prisoners to the West Bank and Gaza. Israel also gave Lebanon information on 24 missing Lebanese people as well as the bodies of 59 Lebanese citizens who were killed by Israeli forces. Hezbollah will release Elhanan Tennenbaum, who is an Israeli businessman and colonel who was kidnapped by Hezbullah while on a trip abroad three years ago, and the bodies of three Israel Defense Forces soldiers.
New Pictures of Mars Rover
Opportunity landed on Mars at 12:05 a.m. on Jan. 25 just three weeks after Spirit, its twin rover, landed on the other side of the planet. Hours later, NASA received pictures of Mars and information indicating that the rover was functioning normally. Opportunity landed on a smooth plain near Mars’ equator that NASA believes to contain iron-bearing hematite, which usually forms on Earth near liquid water. Scientists think this means water used to flow on part of Mars.
Florida Judge Denies Lawsuit Against Wal-Mart
On Jan. 24, Glenn Hess, a Panama City, Fla., circuit court judge, ruled against granting class-action status to a lawsuit accusing Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of not paying low-level employees for extra work. Hess said such a case would overwhelm the court system by causing 900 to 2,300 trials if even 1% of the 90,000 to 230,000 Florida Wal-Mart employees since 1997 joined the lawsuit. A former night shift manager at Panama City Beach’s Wal-Mart Supercenter and several former employees at Chipley’s Wal-Mart sued the retailer in 2001, saying they had been forced to work through breaks, skip meals, and finish tasks after clocking out. Steve Agan, lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the next step is to try to file a federal class-action suit under the Fair Labor Standards Act.