Alicia Robinson
In a bid to boost Libertarian Party ranks, Judge Jim Gray of Newport
Beach visited with the Islamic Society of Corona/Norco at the Embassy
Suites hotel in Garden Grove on Sunday.
Gray, the Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate, urged those in
attendance to help present a positive image of Muslims by getting
involved in the political process.
"They are people -- good hearted, family-oriented people," Gray
said in a written statement. "And they are being unjustly used as a
scapegoat for people who use terror in the name of peace."
The effort to reach out to Muslim voters is part of a larger
strategy to add grass roots and minority organizations to the
Libertarian Party. Gray will continue those efforts Sunday, when he
speaks at the Anaheim Convention Center at an event honoring Indian
spiritual leader Pramukh Swami Maharaj.
Gray will face incumbent Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and
Republican Challenger Bill Jones in the November election.
Rohrabacher urges Congress
to make space flight easier
In the wake of Monday's trip to the Earth's atmosphere by
commercial astronaut Mike Melvill, the first-ever privately funded
space flight, longtime space travel proponent Rep. Dana Rohrabacher
urged Congress to streamline regulations to make it easier for
entrepreneurs to build space planes to take people and cargo into
space affordably.
He said in a statement that the House in March had passed the
Commercial Space Launch Amendments act, and he hopes to work with the
Senate to get the bill to the president to sign by this summer.
Cox remembers birthday
of the Civil Rights Act
Rep. Chris Cox on Wednesday hailed the Civil Rights Act, a
landmark law prohibiting discrimination based on race, religion or
nationality.
July 2 will be the 40th anniversary of when the Civil Rights Act
was passed in 1964.
"This legislation finally said to the world that if you're an
American, our government will protect your freedom, not only from
outside aggressors but from those in your own country who would deny
employment benefits to you or deny you access to a public place
because of your race, color, religion, sex or national origin," Cox
said in a statement.
Bill to streamline homeland
security moving along well
Cox's bill to streamline homeland security funding for first
responders cleared another hurdle last week when the House Judiciary
Committee passed it.
The bill would scrap the current funding formula for the
Department of Homeland Security's terrorism preparedness funding and
