US governor signs bill legalizing gay marriage

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland?? Maryland's governor signed a measure legalizing gay marriage Thursday, joining seven other states.

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Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, signed the bill a week after its final passage in the Legislature. The law is scheduled to take effect in January 2013.

However, opponents ? backed by many churches ? are expected to petition the law to a referendum on the November ballot.

"Religious freedom was the very reason for our state's founding and at the heart of religious freedom is the freedom of individual conscience," O'Malley said just before adding his signature to the legislation, referring to the state's origins as a British colony that was a haven for Catholics.

Referendum organizers need to collect almost 56,000 signatures to put the measure before voters and are expected to rely heavily on churchgoers who oppose same-sex marriage as a matter of faith, to reach that goal. Even gay marriage advocates expect the referendum to end up on the ballot.

Six states and the Washington capital district already recognize gay marriages. The state of Washington has also legalized gay marriage, and its law takes effect in June. Voters there are expected to petition the measure to referendum this November.

Maine legalized the unions for same-sex couples in 2009, but later that year became the only state overturn a such a law passed by a legislature.

Meanwhile, about 30 states have constitutional amendments that seek to prohibit gay marriage, most by defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

In Maryland, many African American church leaders oppose gay marriage in the liberal-leaning state that's nearly one-third black, and President Barack Obama's re-election campaign is expected to drive many of their congregants to the polls.

Donald Norris, chairman of the department of public policy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, said black churches could heavily influence the referendum, but liberal voters who come out to support Obama's re-election could offset the votes against same-sex marriage.

A number of factors could tip the vote on a referendum, Norris said. For example, a weak Republican presidential candidate could mean conservative voters stay home and don't cast ballots against the law.

Gay marriage advocates are hoping that young voters ? whom they expect to support their cause ? will turn out for Obama as they did in 2008.

"I think Obama's election turns out a number of different people," said Sultan Shakir, campaign manager for Marylanders for Marriage Equality, a coalition of gay rights groups that worked to get the bill passed. "(There is) a lot of attention around people who attend church, but there are plenty of other demographics who are going to be turned out."

The advocates also think it is inappropriate to leave what they consider a civil rights issue to the discretion of voters.

"It's sad to me that anyone would think that it's OK to put up the rights of a minority to a popular vote," said Lisa Polyak, chairwoman of the board of directors for the gay rights organization Equality Maryland. "We have children, we have lives, we have jobs and we just want to go about them with integrity."

Proponents of gay marriage are also counting on religious leaders who support of the bill to influence their congregations and for labor unions to urge their members to vote to keep gay marriage legal. Some black pastors who supported the measure as a matter of civil rights appeared publicly with O'Malley, a Democrat, during the legislative debate.

Babatunde Adedayo, a 29-year-old African-American, said the president and his stance on gay marriage will likely influence his peers in November. Obama supports civil unions, but has not endorsed marriage for same-sex couples

"I think this affects every facet of our culture," Adedayo said after the service at Hope Christian. "As a black African-American in America, it is something the black church takes seriously and depending on Barack Obama's stance on this, it will affect a lot of people."

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46592488/ns/us_news-life/

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The New OHS Manual: Harmonized Work Health And Protection ...

Posted by : Emma Roberts | On : March 2, 2012

There?s a new sheriff around town and its name is WHS; that?s work health and safety legislation for you. The WHS basically replaced the occupational health and safety (OHS) guidelines in the beginning of 2012. The brand new guideline is said to give an improved constancy, certainty, and understanding within Australia to have an easy idea of the workplace safety duties of the firm. This, as a result, transforms the OHS manual. If you haven?t done any modifications to it, it?s about time you did so your workplace complies with the newest rules.

But do not worry. Transitional schemes have been completely designed to give your business sufficient time to ease into the completely new program. According to the WorkCover Authority of the NSW, the transitional arrangement facilitates a 12- to 18-month period of adjustment if training standards for your place of business should be done. This is just in the event when there is a serious difference in demands from the old rules. The adaptation also acknowledges existing documentation and information that are considerably the same as the WHS considerations. Companies that could involve much more time complying with all the brand new legislation as a result of new obligations that are given approximately 24 months.

You will find several ideas in the OHS policies and procedures manual that are modified for the WHS manual. One term is ?person conducting a business of undertaking? (PCBU), which will include organisations and people that have principal duty of care to ensure that personnel are not in contact with dangers whenever at work. Additionally there is a new idea of ?worker,? which is now understood to be ?any man or woman who carries out work in any capacity? which include work hire personnel, volunteers, work experience students, contractors, sub contractors, apprentices, trainees, and outworkers.?

The definition and terminology may have changed to expand the scope of the law, that has graciously considered the diversity of the working atmosphere, but the motive of the newest legislation still remains the same. It seeks to ensure every single employee, each person which comes into your working environment (clients, business partners, as well as other guests) is secured from the probable risk to their health and well being. A secure environment, safe instruments and machinery, suitable areas, satisfactory training, and regular supervising, these are generally all in the new rules of practices of the WHS.

To make certain that your firm complies with its legal responsibilities and then your staff are protected, obtain the new WHS manual template from a reliable and competent consultancy firm. If you possess the old OHS manual template, then your consultation firm may already be hard-at-work studying it to adjust to the new guidelines. Ensure your work area complies with the WHS because ? and this, always remember- a safe business is a good firm.

Learn more about ohs policies and procedures manual. Stop by www.myohsmanual.com.au now.

Source: http://www.3deyecustom.com/the-new-ohs-manual-harmonized-work-health-and-protection

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Gaza marathon draws hundreds in rainy weather (AP)

[unable to retrieve full-text content]AP - Some 2,200 school children and 300 adults ran a relay race Thursday traversing the Gaza Strip north to south, roughly the distance of an Olympic marathon, to raise money for U.N. summer camps.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120301/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_palestinians_gaza_marathon

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There?s Something About Bango: The Billing Company Behind Facebook, BlackBerry And Soon Amazon

There are a number of companies that offer carrier billing for companies in the mobile space -- that is, services that let people buy content on their devices and charge it right to their carrier -- but there is only one that has secured deals with Facebook, Amazon and RIM to do it: an unassuming, Cambridgeshire, UK-based billing and analytics company by the name of Bango. And while you may not know who they are, chances are that the folks at Bango probably know you.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/bi_dtSJdDFM/

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Raise Your Self Esteem www.practicalhappiness ... - Self-Improvement

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Source: http://self-improvement.biz/blog/2012/03/02/raise-your-self-esteem-www-practicalhappiness-com/

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The Proview v. Apple China Trademark Dispute ... - China Law Blog

Just read a Bloomberg News article, ?Proview Using ?IPad? Name is Harmful: Apple,? that quotes me on the Apple-Proview dispute, as follows:

?It?s not really trademark law, it?s about whether the trademark was legally transferred or not,? Dan Harris, a Seattle-based lawyer with Harris & Moure who handles cases on intellectual property in China, said before the hearing. ?Proview Taiwan agreed to sign over the trademark, but Proview Taiwan didn?t own the trademark.?

I see the case as being about authority. Authority to sell the iPad trademark. Who had the authority to sell the iPad trademark to Apple back when Apple (acting through a third party intermediary) thought it purchased the trademark for iPad in China back in 2009?? Let me explain.

If you bought the Brooklyn Bridge from me, you would not own it. Why not? Because I cannot transfer title in the Brooklyn Bridge to anyone because I do not own it in the first place. This analysis should be the starting point for analyzing the Apple-Proview case. I say this because it appears that Apple bought the iPad China trademark from a company that did not own it. Apple (again, acting through a third party intermediary) bought the iPad China trademark from a Taiwanese company called Proview Electronics Company, Ltd. (?Proview-Taiwan?) at a time when a Shenzhen company called Proview Technology Shenzhen Co, Ltd. (?Proview-Shenzhen?) actually owned it.

So the big legal issue in China is not really a trademark issue, it is an ownership and authority issue. The ownership of the trademark when it was allegedly sold is not really in doubt; it was owned by Proview-Shenzhen. The real question is whether Proview-Shenzhen authorized Proview-Taiwan to sell the iPad trademark to Apple and that is mostly what is being argued in the Chinese courts.

To modify the Brooklyn Bridge analogy, let?s say that you bought a house from Mr. Jones and it turned out that Mr. Jones did not own the house, but rather, his wife, Mrs. Jones, owned the house. If Mr. Jones and Mrs. Jones were in the midst of a divorce and she had told him not to sell the house and had told you that she owned the house and so Mr. Jones could not sell it to you, your claim to own the house through the purchase would probably be pretty weak. But let us suppose that Mr. and Mrs. Jones were happily married and Mrs. Jones was right there during the negotiations for the sale of the house and never said a word about how she was the one who actually owned it. Well your claim to own the house would be a lot stronger.

The Apple-Proview case is dealing with similar factual issues, as can be seen in the Bloomberg article. In other words, it looks like a factual mess.

And that is not the only factual mess. Remember how I keep saying Apple used a third party intermediary to try to buy the China iPad trademark. Well, Proview-Taiwan is suing Apple in the United States about that, claiming that the way Apple sought to buy the iPad name constituted fraud and unfair competition. My initial reaction upon hearing of this lawsuit was to assume it had little validity. I assumed this because it is quite common for big companies (small ones too) to try to buy something through a third party intermediary so as to avoid revealing to the seller how much the desired item may really be worth and I had never heard of a lawsuit being brought over that.? But in reading, ?How Apple snookered Proview to get the iPad trademark,? I am not prepared to just laugh off that lawsuit.??

So what should your takeaway be from the Apple-Proview case? Nothing more than that you need to be sure that the company with whom you sign a contract is the right company. I know this sounds basic, but this sort of thing happens more than you can imagine in international deals.? I personally have worked on at least two joint venture deals gone bad where the American company had signed an agreement involving the wrong party. In both cases, the American company thought it had a deal to be the distributer of the Joint Venture?s products outside China, but in fact, the agreement actually said that the American company would be the distributer for its Chinese joint venture partners? products. And since the Chinese partner did make products that the American wanted to distribute?.

For more on the Apple-Proview case, check out ?Apple v. Proview. China Trademarks And So Much To Learn? and if you want still more, go over to China Hearsay, where Stan Abrams has written nearly a dozen posts on this case. And for you law-geeks out there, click here for a copy of the just-filed Amended Complaint (along with some interesting exhibits) in Proview?s U.S. litigation against Apple.?

Source: http://www.chinalawblog.com/2012/02/the_proview_v_apple_china_trademark_dispute_wanna_buy_the_brooklyn_bridge.html

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Video: Obama honors Iraq War veterans

>>> president obama will mark the end of the iraq war by hosting a white house gala tonight for iraq war veterans. about 100 iraq vets are invited along with about 100 of their guests. among those who will attend tonight, former marine staff sergeant eric alva . he was the first american wounded in iraq . thank you so much for your time. thank you for your service to this country. we great lit appreciate it. and i'm actually honored to have you on. how does it feel tonight to be attending the dinner?

>> you know, it's surreal, tamron. thank you for having me on your show. you know, i'm getting goosebumps as the clock tickets down.

>> a marine getting goosebumps. wait a minute. that's an breaking news. i've never heard that.

>> i'm excited. and i'm honored. and you node to represent you know, the hundreds of thousands and millions of people who, you know, participated in operation iraq freedom. and there's about 100 of us. i think some of us even are reconciling in our heads how did they get picked. it's an honor. i'm speechless i know you were an advocate to have don't ask the don't tell real estate peeled. you were there when the president took the honor of signing that away. that's a part of the controversy. it's 100 people there, all deserving. we know that more than a million served in iraq . how does that gel or jibe with you knowing there's so many others who will feel the love but they're not a part of a big parade like we saw with the giants or some of the other sports teams.

>> you know, there's -- we were having that discussion in the hotel last night. several of us that are attending the dinner that were meeting for the first time. some of us were actually talking about that going back like what i stated earlier like how did i get selected. we were reconciling that there are people be like so and so is more deserving to be there. it's a huge bumbling experience. you know, i know you're familiar with my story. i was only until iraq for three hours. i didn't spend a whole night when i got hit and became the first american injured. so it's sometimes difficult when you're paid homage because i think we have such big hearts like you don't want that attention but people want to give it to you. and that's all right. it's an honor to represent millions who participated and did their service to our country.

>> thank you so much. you're a fellow texan. i love that, as well. i know that several other states, missouri, for example, had a nice little parade that they pulled together, grassroots for vets in their community. several other cities have done the same. hopefully we can see a national event one day.

>> we will.

>> i know we will, too. enjoy your evening. i can't wait to see some of the pictures from the evening.

>> thank you so much.

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/newsnation/46576129/

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