POLITICS
New gay-rights battleground: Virginia

By ALEXANDER BURNS
Thursday, May 23, 2013

Welcome to the gay rights battleground of Virginia. Yes, you read that right. In the 2013 off-year elections, a state that once leaned solidly to the center-right has become the newest focal point in the national debate over same-sex relationships. A gubernatorial race already defined partly along culture-war lines has grown even more contentious.......................more -

Neighborhood Clinics Issue Funding Plea to Avert Shutdown

By Lara Cooper, Noozhawk Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 22, 2013 3:25 PM

Running short on cash and facing an imminent shutdown, Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinic officials issued an urgent plea Wednesday for the community’s help in raising the money needed to cover operating costs while they work to revamp their business model by the end of the year.“We are at risk of closing our doors today,” Acting CEO Mark Palmer told reporters gathered in a conference room at the organization’s Eastside Clinic.The clinics, located on the Eastside and Westside of Santa Barbara, and in Isla Vista, serve as the only health-care option for many low-income people in the area...................more -

Mosque of Nasreen opens its doors to teach about Islam

By Jonah Owen Lamb
Thursday, May 23, 2013

Faysal Kolkailah knelt on a colorful Pakistani rug, his palms on the floor, and placed his forehead on the ground. “I am not kissing the ground,” he said, using an all-too-common slur disparaging Muslim prayer as a lesson for a group of about 20, mostly non-Muslims learning the basic tenets of his faith, Islam. They had been invited to the Mosque of Nasreen’s second annual open house — part of a decades-old effort by local Muslims to open a dialogue with non-Muslims, said Hisham Assal, a 53-year-old computer science lecturer at Cal Poly.............more -