PUBLIC MARKS from jasontromm with tag carolina

A state senator whose first wife suffered a painful death wants the state to legalize medical marijuana use. Sen. Bill Mescher of Pinopolis says the issue has been on his mind for about 20 years. “My first wife died of lung cancer -- a long, agonizing death,” the Republican lawmaker said. A doctor said marijuana might help ease her pain and nausea from chemotherapy, but South Carolina law wouldn’t allow it, Mescher said. People won’t let dogs die with that kind of suffering, he said. “It’s been on my mind ever since.”

More than 1,100 people participated in the 16th Life Chain in Wilmington and they lined the streets with non-graphic pro-life signs saying women who have abortions can be healed and that they are praying for abortion to stop in the United States. However, some abortion advocates pelted participants with eggs and some activists took the signs away from the people holding them.

Earlier this week, Republican Sens. Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Mike Crapo of Idaho proposed an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2007 Budget Resolution that would have created a reserve fund to protect the Social Security surplus.

The state Board of Education voted today to reject a challenge to how evolution is taught in South Carolina high schools. On an 11-6 vote, the state board upheld its previous evolution-only science curriculum for 10th grade biology. Last month, the state's Education Oversight Committee voted to add the phrase "critically analyze" to the evolution guidelines. [soap] Gee, that's really intelligent. Discouraging students from critical thinking. Guess, it's true. Public schools want mind-numbed little skulls full of mush. What's wrong with asking students to talk about the holes in Darwin's theories?

First-time applications for U.S. unemployment benefits edged higher by 4,000 to 277,000 in the week ending Feb. 4, the Labor Department said Thursday. "Claims are a good leading indicator of the unemployment rate; these data suggest the rate will be nudging 4% by mid-summer," said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist for High Frequency Economics.