American Buddhist Net

...National Surveys on Drug Use and Health show a rate of lifetime inhalant use among 12 year olds of 6.9 percent, compared to a rate of 5.1 percent for nonmedical use of prescription type drugs; a rate of 1.4 percent for marijuana; a rate of 0.7 percent for use of hallucinogens; and a 0.1 rate for cocaine use.

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UTICA — A Buddhist temple finally received permission this week to erect a religious statue on its North Utica property.

The city’s Zoning Board of Appeals at its Tuesday meeting granted an area variance to the Dau Trang Minh Dang Quang Temple on Riverside Drive, putting an end to an issue that has been the subject of much debate in recent months.

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Be sure to read ABN's blog on this issue here. Robyn

...“These sexualized images are all commercially driven. The younger the demographic advertisers target, the more they can create cradle-to-grave consumers.” (And gone-to-early-grave parents.) Tweens were already the “most powerful consumer group since the baby boom" -- a $335 billion market -- in 2004. By 2007, according to Durham, the tween market had reached $700 billion worldwide.

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Kemp said Ivins repeatedly denied that he sent the letters or that he developed the deadly anthrax spores. And Kemp cited Ivins' fellow scientists, who insisted he was incapable of making such a high-grade, dried anthrax with the equipment available at his workplace at the Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases in Frederick, Md.

"There's not one shred of evidence to show he did it," Kemp said.

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Henry Judy, the pastor of Life Point Church in Bonita Springs, is being accused by parishioners of bilking them out of $60,000.

Judy could not be reached for comment, but the Lee County Sheriff’s Office is investigating.

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SALT LAKE CITY — Nearly two decades after vets began returning from the Middle East complaining of Gulf War Syndrome, the federal government has yet to formally accept that their vague jumble of symptoms constitutes a legitimate illness. Here, at the Society of Toxicology annual meeting, yesterday, researchers rolled out a host of brain images — various types of magnetic-resonance scans and brain-wave measurements — that they say graphically and unambiguously depict Gulf War Syndrome.

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A school in America has decided to cancel its prom dance after a lesbian student demanded she be able to attend with her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo.

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DETROIT | Detroit, the very symbol of American industrial might for most of the 20th century, is drawing up a radical renewal plan that calls for turning large swaths of this now-blighted, rusted-out city back into the fields and farmland that existed before the automobile.

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A 50-year mystery over the 'cursed bread' of Pont-Saint-Esprit, which left residents suffering hallucinations, has been solved after a writer discovered the US had spiked the bread with LSD as part of an experiment.

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New watchdog report says the Treasury Department sank billions into auto finance giant GMAC without an exit strategy or proof the company was viable - a decision that could cost taxpayers $6.3 billion.

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Socialism for corporations. ABN

An Ames man was arrested for second-degree burglary after allegedly entering the First Christian Church while it was closed and using electronic equipment at the church to watch pornography in the church’s basement.

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The House voted down a challenge to President Obama's conduct of the war in Afghanistan Wednesday, rejecting a measure that would have compelled U.S. armed forces to leave the country within 30 days.

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In this edition of CrossTalk host Peter Lavelle asks his guests why discussion of the events of 9/11 continue to attrack so much attention but is all but banned in the media mainstream.

With about $200,000 in donated labor from volunteers, many of them "just walking in the door, wanting to help," a three-story, $1.6 million Buddhist meditation center is nearing completion and will open for classes the first week of June.

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A Brooklyn rabbi faces decades behind bars - and sentencing on the eve of Passover - after a jury quickly convicted him of sexually assaulting a teenage boy.

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The US shrugged off Israel’s small settlement announcement yesterday, insisting that it would have no impact on peace talks, even as Palestinian officials were condemning it and analysts were wondering why Israel did so as Vice President Joe Biden was arriving in the nation. Today, the other shoe fell.

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(Reuters) - A television producer pleaded guilty on Tuesday to trying to extort $2 million from U.S. talk show host David Letterman by threatening to reveal his affairs with women who worked on his late-night program on CBS.

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Sierra Friends of Tibet and Tibetech.org announces a rare visit by the present abbot of Gaden Shartse Norling University, exiled in India.

Khen Rinpoche Jangchup Choeden was appointed abbot by His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet in 2009.

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Gay couples have exchanged vows in civil ceremonies and churches in Washington on the first day same-sex marriage was allowed in the US capital.

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Washington -- Minorities make up nearly half the children born in the U.S., part of a historic trend in which minorities are expected to become the U.S. majority over the next 40 years.

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With about $200,000 in donated labor from volunteers, many of them "just walking in the door, wanting to help," a three-story, $1.6 million Buddhist meditation center is nearing completion and will open for classes the first week of June.

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Internal CIA documents reveal a meticulous protocol that was far more brutal than Dick Cheney's "dunk in the water"

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ABC interviews Coleen Rowley (2 of 2)

TOKYO — Japan ended decades of denials on Tuesday by confirming the existence of secret cold war-era agreements with Washington that, among other things, had allowed American nuclear-armed warships to sail into Japanese ports in violation of Japan’s non-nuclear policies.

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Home-school mom Susan Mule wishes she hadn't taken a friend's advice and tried a textbook from a popular Christian publisher for her 10-year-old's biology lessons.

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Freedom of speech and expression, as well as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness must include the right to teach your beliefs and values to your children. These and more reasons can be given for not interfering in how parents educate their children. ABN

LOS ANGELES — James Gray once saw himself as a drug warrior, a former federal prosecutor and county judge who sent people to prison for dealing pot and other drug offenses. Gradually, though, he became convinced that the ban on marijuana was making it more accessible to young people, not less.

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This Tuesday: Meditation Service, 6-7pm. Please bring a zafu/meditation cushion.

Advanced Sutra Study, 7-8pm. Text: Nagarjurna, “Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way.”

Location: Eye of the Buddha, corner of Park and El Cajon Blvd., Hillcrest.

States and companies have started investing very differently when it comes to the billions of dollars they are safeguarding for workers’ retirement.

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FDIC wants pension funds to prop up failed banks