Dozens speak out against planned mosque near ground zero at NYC hearing on landmark status
FoxNews.com | Associated Press
Published July 13, 2010
NEW YORK
Dozens of opponents and some supporters of a mosque planned near ground zero attended a raucous hearing Tuesday about whether the building where the Muslim place of worship would be created warrants designation as a city landmark and should be protected from development.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio, who has sought an investigation into the funding of the mosque, was among the witnesses who testified in support of giving the building landmark status, which could complicate plans by Muslim groups to develop a community center and mosque there.
After noting the lower Manhattan building’s history and architectural significance, Lazio said it also warranted landmark designation because on Sept. 11, 2001, it was struck by airplane debris from the terror attacks against the nearby World Trade Center. That connection to the attacks, he said, made it “a place of deep historical significance and a reminder of just what happened on New York’s darkest day.”
Lazio has called on state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, his Democratic opponent in the governor’s race, to investigate the funding of the project. On Tuesday, he repeated that request and said the pace of the landmark designation process should be slowed to allow time to thoroughly investigate the matter.
Nearly 100 people attended the hearing at a college campus on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Fifty-six people testified at the hearing, which turned contentious at times, with some speakers drowned out by shouts from the audience and with one man escorted out by campus security.
“To deprive this building of landmark status is to allow for a citadel of Islamic supremacy to be erected in its place,” said Andrea Quinn, a freelance audio technician from Queens who said she had worked with people at the World Trade Center.
White House Shrugs Off Concern That Regulations Could Inhibit Job Growth
FoxNews.com
Published July 13, 2010
Robert Gibbs body language says he’s holding back something.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs briefs reporters at the White House July 7. (AP Photo)
President Obama’s aides are shrugging off warnings that proposed new financial regulations would be a jobs-killer, while pledging to continue reviewing those concerns.
A White House official said Tuesday that the administration has held “countless meetings” with business leaders and agrees that “it is important to avoid unjustified regulatory costs and burdens.” The official said that while they disagree with some business leaders on the need for a financial industry overhaul, business groups are welcome to pass along their regulatory suggestions.
But with the financial overhaul potentially on the verge of passing the Senate, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs explained why those regulations won’t be reconsidered. “So we don’t find ourselves celebrating the two-year anniversary of an economic collapse with rules the way they were two years ago,” he said.
That was after the administration received some troubling analysis from the Business Roundtable, which at the president’s request looked at new regulations in the pipeline and concluded there are so many — in the financial and health care bills, as well as the yet-to-be passed energy bill — that businesses will be reluctant to hire. The Roundtable is an association of CEOs from some of the largest firms in the country.
Reid: No illegals in the workforce in Nevada?
HotAir.com
posted at 1:36 pm on July 13, 2010 by Ed Morrissey
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How many different ways can the immigration debate backfire on Democrats? Harry Reid may have invented a new way to shoot himself in the foot. When confronted by the CBS affiliate in Las Vegas over Reid’s block of a vote to require e-Verify for construction workers, Reid offered the standard platitude that immigration enforcement can’t be done “piecemeal” but has to wait for an overhaul of laws to replace the laws that the federal government doesn’t feel like enforcing. When pressed on the topic by the reporter, Reid insists that there are no illegal workers in Nevada (via the Boss Emeritus):
The report doesn’t offer the big quote from the interview, however (emphasis mine):
REPORTER: Why didn’t you allow for a vote?
REID: That’s the reason we need to do comprehensive immigration reform. We cannot do it piecemeal.
REPORTER: You go to the unemployment office, though, and there’s many US citizens who are unemployed construction workers and they don’t have specific jobs because, right now, some of those construction companies find it easier to hire undocumented workers.
REID: I think that any information you have in that regard is absolutely without foundation
VOICEOVER: We told Senator Reid of a Pew Hispanic Center study showing 17% of all construction workers are here illegally.
REID: That may be someplace, but it’s not here in Nevada.
VOICEOVER: But their latest 2009 numbers show that Nevada is the state with the highest percentage of unauthorized immigrants in the labor force.
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