Tag Archives: #specialfeature

Staycation Destinations – a Labor Day Weekend Special

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It’s “Staycation Destinations” on Family Life!

Each Friday afternoon, our Noon Report took you to a unique location in the Family Life listening area. Our goals were to find a variety of places which connect with a variety of interests, fairly close to home, and fairly affordable — whether for a day trip or a longer journey.

 

Click here {https://familyliferadio.blubrry.net/?s=staycation} to hear extended versions of these conversations, take a “radio tour” of other stops along our 2023 journeys, or scroll back into previous summers as Family Life took you to many, many other unique and intriguing places in New York and Pennsylvania.

(Use the older posts and newer posts links at the bottom of the page so you can scroll through more of these Staycation Destinations features across the years. You also can enter a specific item or location in the search bar.)

Family Life Interview – Election Integrity – 08/30/23

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A Christian law firm is suing the state of California for violating its own election laws. At issue is the inability to track whether mail-in ballots are actually cast by the voters who are legally allowed to cast a ballot.

Mariah Gondeiro is an attorney with Advocates for Faith and Freedom, which has already won one judgment from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. After a California judge ruled that the citizens group The Election Integrity Project was submitting simple “garden variety” voting irregularities, their lawyers have again appealed to the Ninth Circuit. The Election Integrity Project claims to have well over 1,000 signed affidavits proving violation of vote-counting laws over the past ten years in California alone.

Gondeiro gives Family Life News the concerns the Project has over ballot handling, an update on the lawsuit, and her take on why people in every state should be active in the push for election integrity.

The Election Integrity Project has now trained 20,000 Californians to be official poll watchers for 2024.

Family Life Interview – Christian comedian Jeff Allen – part 2 – 08/29/23

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Comedian Jeff Allen‘s comedy videos have amassed 400 million views online. The humor on stage was accompanied by desperation and a search for meaning and value in the rest of his life.

In this second segment of our conversation, the 40-year veteran performer tells of the sadness and desperation which led to his Christian conversion.

 

Here are some of Jeff’s comedy highlights: 

Listen for more from Jeff Allen this coming Tuesday, September 5, during the Family Life Noon Report, on our live stream and on the radio.

The full conversation with Family Life’s Mark Webster is here for listening, downloading or sharing.

Hear the full Family Life Interview with Jeff Allen:

From our News Podcasts page, you can listen, download, share or subscribe to any of your favorite Family Life features, podcasts, the Noon Report, and the 5 O’Clock Report.

Family Life Interview: Christian comedian Jeff Allen – part 1 – 08/22/23

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Comedian Jeff Allen has been honing his craft on the stand-up comedy circuit, on television, and in corporate and faith-based settings.

He works to keep his funny business “clean”, but in this exclusive Family Life interview, Allen acknowledges his life was messy, prior to his conversion to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

In this feature, he tells our Mark Webster about his Chicago upbriging, the work of creating comedy, and how faith reshaped his life.

Click this link for a video of some of Jeff’s comedy highlights.

(He is credited with coining the phrase “Happy wife…Happy life.”)

Our conversation with Jeff Allen aired across three consecutive Tuesdays during the Family Life Noon Report, on our live stream and on the radio.

 

Hear the full Family Life Interview with Jeff Allen:

From the News Podcasts page, you can listen, download, share or subscribe to any of your favorite Family Life features, podcasts, the Noon Report, and the 5 O’Clock Report.

Feature – The PRIME Act – 07/31/23

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Agricultural interests across the nation are looking for ways to maintain product safety while streamlining the regulation processes involved throughout the industry. Some proponents say legislation now being debated in D.C. — the “PRIME” Act — would make it easier for smaller operations and family farms to sell pork, beef and other products, without overbearing and sometimes-arbitrary USDA inspections.

Family Life’s Abigail Hofland compiles some of the testimony and commentary about the PRIME Act — “Processing Revival and Intrastate Meat Exemption” Act. New York Representative Claudia Tenney was among those speaking at the recent congressional hearing. Others in agri-business also offered their experiences and recommendations. The proposed legislation has 33 Republican and 6 Democratic co-sponsors in the House, including Pennsylvania’s Scott Perry and Lloyd Smucker.

School Choice Bill vetoed in PA – 07/06/23

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After a tenuous debate and weeks of negotiation, the Pennsylvania legislature agreed to a budget bill which would allow “the money to follow the student”. State Representative Clint Owlett authored the “Life-Line Scholarship” program which would have given families school-choice options, including to move their student from a school which does not serve the student well.

Gov. Josh Shapiro announced this week that he would use his executive authority to strike that element out of the new law.

Family Life News aired an extended interview with Owlett to get more background, plus his reaction to these latest developments.

Special Feature – Supreme Court Rulings on Religious Freedom – Jeremy Samek – 07/05/23

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“Ramifications of Recent Supreme Court Rulings”

The U.S. Supreme Court majority announced major rulings in the past week, deciding cases related to religious freedoms, affirmative action, and the write-offs of some students’ college loans.

Family Life News aired an extended conversation to get beyond the quick headlines — and past the partisan “spin” — and gather analysis on some of these major rulings from the the final days of the Court’s current term. Our guest is Jeremy Samek of the Independence Law Center. He was active in the lawsuits brought by a Christian postal worker in Pennsylvania and a website designer who was sued for discrimination, pushing against First Amendment rights of freedom of religious expression.

Special Feature – Dobbs Anniversary – 06/26/23

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Dobbs case overturns Roe v. Wade — One-Year Later

This past Saturday marked the one-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.  By a 6-3 majority, the Court remanded decisions on abortion law back the state courts and state legislatures. The determination confirmed that any “right to abortion” is not a Constitutionally-mandated requirement related to privacy rights.

In the year since, about half of the states have enacted some restrictions and oversight of the abortion industry, while the other half are enacting ways to help doctors end pregnancies via surgical or pharmaceutical means.

For local Pennsylvania and New York perspectives on the pro-life movement a year after Dobbs, Family Life interviewed Alexis Sneller (a pro-life advocate with the Pennsylvania Family Institute in Harrisburg) and John Gramlich (board president at Caring Choices Pregnancy Centers of Rochester and Webster).

    

 

 

 

 

(Family Life News has also reached out to Planned Parenthood clinics in both states, for their perspectives on the anniversary of the end of Roe v. Wade.)

 

Special Feature – Student Loans and College Costs – Paul Celuch – 06/23/23

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President Biden’s actions to write-off some of the college loans for some college students has been controversial. Some who would benefit from Executive Branch forgiveness of student debt wonder how they would add loan payments to their current personal budgets. Others though say it is unfair to force those loan costs onto people who paid up front for their education, didn’t take Federal loans, went to a Christian university which doesn’t get entangled with government funds — and anyone who never went to college.

A decision from the U.S. Supreme Court is expected any day.

A New York-based financial adviser predicts that the Court will rule that Mr. Biden had no legislative authority to simply write off some debts for some students. The wrangling has cost the government billions every month, and a ruling could through young people who haven’t begun paying off the loans they signed into financial crisis.

College loan expert Paul Celuch was a special guest on the June 23 Family Life Noon Report to discuss student loans, college costs, and options for every student and family who wrestles with debt. He talks about how higher education has relatively little reason to hold down costs, especially after a decade ago the student loan program was taken away from private lenders and solely rests with the government.

 

This podcast version of that interview also has some Bonus Content for students and their families, in addition to what was heard during this Noon Report.