| Religious liberty or right to discriminate? High court to hear arguments in wedding cake case Posted: 04 Dec 2017 03:44 PM PST ![Religious liberty or right to discriminate? High court to hear arguments in wedding cake case]( "Religious liberty or right to discriminate? High court to hear arguments in wedding cake case") In July 2012, Charlie Craig and David Mullins walked into a cake shop in Lakewood, Colo. Across the counter was Jack Phillips, owner of the bakery he had opened 24 years earlier. Before they could open it, Mr. Phillips told them that while he would be happy to make them other products, he did not sell baked goods for same-sex weddings because of his Christian beliefs. Mr. Craig and Mr. Mullins left embarrassed and, they say, distraught.
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| Republicans say tax plan will boost growth. How much, and for how long? Posted: 04 Dec 2017 01:52 PM PST ![Republicans say tax plan will boost growth. How much, and for how long?]( "Republicans say tax plan will boost growth. How much, and for how long?") The Republican tax rewrite that has now passed both House and Senate represents a legislative triumph for one core idea: that lighter tax burdens mean more economic growth. Right now, it's not just the sales pitch behind the tax plans, it's arguably the idea that most unites a Republican Party challenged by internal divisions and electoral uncertainty. "If we can't do better than 1.9 percent [growth], we've got real problems in this country," Sen. Rob Portman (R) of Ohio said last week, citing the current growth rate projected for the next decade by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
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| Lift the ban on sports gambling? Posted: 04 Dec 2017 01:35 PM PST ![Lift the ban on sports gambling?]( "Lift the ban on sports gambling?") The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Dec. 4 about the federal ban on sports gambling, with many of the justices appearing to lean toward overturning the ban in order to uphold state rights. Illegal sports gambling may already be widely practiced and mostly underground. Congress was not wrong when it passed the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992, which imposed a national ban while grandfathering the practice for four states that already allowed it.
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| In Atlanta, some black voters weigh backing city's first white woman mayor Posted: 04 Dec 2017 12:17 PM PST ![In Atlanta, some black voters weigh backing city's first white woman mayor]( "In Atlanta, some black voters weigh backing city's first white woman mayor") James Morgan feels in his bones that being a "descendant of slaves" is still a defining quality of his existence as a black man in America. In that way, the retired gas-line worker takes particular pride in Atlanta's nearly five decades of black leadership, epitomized today by Mayor Kasim Reed, a descendant of Nigeria's Igbo tribe who has overseen a spectacular economic run for the South's preeminent trade and culture hub. Born and raised on the city's rapidly-gentrifying east side, Mr. Morgan, wearing a fedora and leather jacket, understands the importance of the city as a paragon of black competence – a legacy that to him seems especially important as the FBI in November reported an uptick in racial hate crimes nationally against both whites and blacks.
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