A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – Nearly four months after two hurricanes hit this island, the chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s operations in Puerto Rico says he has never before had to continue emergency relief efforts like delivering food, water and temporary roofing so long after a natural disaster.

“So this far into a disaster in my experience, at least in the last 20 years, we never do that, we’re never — the food and water would have stopped weeks ago. But we can’t, and one of the driving factors for that is power,” Michael Byrne, an acting regional administrator for FEMA, told The Washington Times.

Since Sept. 6, FEMA had been responding to a state of emergency on Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma when Hurricane Maria made landfall on the U.S. territory on Sept. 20. About 1 million islanders had lost power during Irma, when Maria killed electricity for nearly the entire 3.5 million population. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The Supreme Court announced Monday it would not hear cases challenging a Mississippi law that allows religious organizations to refuse to hire persons or provide services in situations that run afoul of their sincerely held religious beliefs.

Gay-rights groups had challenged Mississippi’s 2016 law, HB 1523, which was aimed at affirming rights of those who believe marriage is between a man and a woman, an individual’s gender is determined at birth and sexual relations are reserved for married couples.

The law prevents the state of Mississippi from pursuing discrimination complaints against organizations or people that make decisions based on moral and religious beliefs about sexuality. Among the decisions covered are hiring, adoption or foster care, provision of gender reassignment health care, and providing personal services such as baking or photography. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Senior officials from North and South Korea began the rivals’ first formal talks in about two years Tuesday to discuss how to cooperate in next month’s Winter Olympics in the South and how to improve their long-strained ties.

The talks in the border village of Panmunjom were arranged after North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un recently made an abrupt push for improved ties with South Korea and are closely watched by the outside world after a year of elevated tensions over North Korea’s expanding nuclear and missile programs.

“I think we should be engaged in these talks with an earnest, sincere manner to give a New Year’s first gift – precious results (of the talks) to the Korean nation,” chief North Korean delegate Ri Son Gwon said at the start of the negotiations, according to media footage from the venue. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]