Dec. 18, 2009
The Public Observer offers a look at upcoming news and presents a photo roundup of recent images provided by The Associated Press.
HEALTH CARE REFORM
It's the endgame for President Barack Obama's signature initiative of revamping the nation's health care system. The Senate plans on working through the weekend again as Democrats hope to meet their self-imposed deadline and deliver a health care reform bill to Obama as a Christmas present.
CHRISTMAS
Christians will celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on Dec. 25 with gift-giving and celebrations among family and friends. The Vatican's traditional Midnight Mass will beging two hours earlier to give Pope Benedict XVI more time to rest for his busy Christmas Day schedule.
This Yuletide season is also the time of year when governments across the land are reminded about unconstitutional government endorsements of religion. A creche and menorah were removed from a Pennsylvania courthouse lawn this week after two civil liberties groups threatened legal action.
(AP Photo/New Zealand Herald, Sarah Ivey)
The above photo shows a billboard outside the St. Matthew-in-the-City Anglican church in Auckland, New Zealand, on Thursday before it was smeared with paint by a vandal. The billboard shows a downcast Josephy lying in bed with Mary with a heading that says "Poor Joseph, God was a hard act to follow." The billboard stirred up some heated debate in New Zealand and had some considering the meaning of Christmas in a different light.
BOWL-A-THON
The nation's best college football teams will square off against each other in a series of bowl games starting with the Dec. 19 New Mexico Bowl pitting Wyoming against Fresno St. The games culminate with the BCS national championship game Jan. 7 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., where Texas will play Alabama. The Associated Press' college football writer, Ralph D. Russo, offers his picks for the pre-New Year's Day bowl games here.
PHOTO ROUNDUP
Here's a look at some recent photos provided by The Associated Press.
Polish shipyard workers burn tires and shout slogans Tuesday as they demand that the government protect their jobs in Warsaw, Poland. Thousands of workers from the Solidarity trade union marched in the Polish capital to demand government protection for industrial jobs. The workers rallied Tuesday in front of Prime Minister Donald Tusk's office in central Warsaw, carrying the white and red flags of the Solidarity trade union, blowing on horns and setting a pile of tires on fire. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
A Palestinian model displays her dress Wednesday during a fashion show in Jerusalem. The show consisted of two Palestinian designers - Maro, whose designs reflected Jerusalem across the ages - and Hamada Atallah, whose pieces symbolized events, political situations, and moods from different eras in Jerusalem's history. (AP Photo/Tara Todras-Whitehill)
Lindsey Vonn of the United States celebrates Friday after winning a World Cup super-combined race in Val D'isere, France. (AP Photo/Giovanni Auletta)
People pass by a cross made of candles Wednesday in Timisoara, western Romania. Romanians, in small numbers, paid homage to the fighters who took to the streets of this Transylvanian city 20 years ago, sparking the revolution that swept Eastern Europe's most repressive dictator from power. It was here that residents flocked to the defense of an ethnic Hungarian dissident pastor who was being threatened with forced relocation, leading to rapidly escalating confrontations with police. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
The statue of Christ the Redeemer is seen Tuesday during sunset in Rio de Janeiro. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
A figure of Italian Premeir Silvio Berlusconi, displayed in a nativity scene, is shown Tuesday in Naples, southern Italy. Berlusconi was struck by a man holding a souvenir statuette during a rally in Milan on Sunday. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)
The sun shines over boat houses on the Kochelsee Lake in Schlehdorf near Murnau, southern Germany on Friday. The lake, with an area of around six square kilometers, sits on the edge of the Upper Bavarian Alps.(AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Evacuees cook their meals amidst lava cascading down the slopes of the Mayon volcano in Legazpi city, Albay province, at dawn Thursday, about 500 kilometers (310 miles) south of Manila, Philippines. Security forces will forcibly evacuate thousands of residents reluctant to leave their farms near the smoldering volcano in the Philippines despite fears of a major eruption, officials said. (AP Photo/Dan Amaranto)
A woman on a ski tour crosses the Aelpli towards the Stelli, 2052 meters above sea level, above Untervaz in the Rhinevalley, Switzerland, during a frosty day at minus 13 degrees Celsius (8.6 degrees Fahrenheit) on Thursday. (AP Photo/Keystone, Arno Balzarini)
Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers makes the game-winning basket over the Milwaukee Bucks' Charlie Bell (42) Wednesday during overtime of an NBA basketball in Milwaukee. The Lakers won 107-106. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
A collapsed worker is assisted as riot police use pepper spray during clashes with thousands of workers protesting layoffs near the headquarters of the ruling Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party, the AKP, in Ankara, Turkey on Wednesday. Riot police also used truncheons and shields to push back the workers of the Turkish state tobacco and liqueur company Tekel. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)
Immigrants take part in a protest in central Athens on Thursday. Several thousand supporters of a Communist-backed trade union marched through the city center Thursday to protest public spending cuts by Greece's Socialist government. The marches went ahead despite a split among unions over the government measures, which are aimed at curbing the country's huge deficit at a time when Greece is under pressure from European Union countries and financial markets. (AP Photo/ Marita Pappa)
Supporters of various left parties shout slogans against the government to protest the rising prices of food items and for implementation of job security in New Delhi, India on Wednesday. Hundreds of protesters participated in the rally urging the government to control prices of consumable items that have risen heavily in the past few months. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das)
A soldier stands behind a body identified by navy officials as that of alleged drug cartel chief Arturo Beltran Leyva in Cuernavaca, Mexico on Wednesday. Navy marines stormed an upscale apartment complex and killed Leyva along with six members of his organization in a two-hour gun battle. (AP Photo/Valente Rosas, Agencia El Universal)
A clown prays while holding an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe on Wednesday as they are doused with holy water during a pilgrimage to the Virgin's Basilica in Mexico City. (AP Photo/ Gregory Bull)
ESPN reporter Erin Andrews talks with reporters after Michael David Barrett, who secretly shot nude videos of Andrews, pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of stalking, in federal court in Los Angeles. Andrews repeatedly called her stalker a sexual predator and said she hopes he "never sees the light of day." (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
A flock of migratory flamingos is seen Tuesday in a pond on the outskirts of Ahmadabad, India. According to news reports, ornithologists have warned the number of birds migrating could be much less this year due to indiscriminate habitat changes. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)
--Paul Chavez, Clear365 News Editor
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