Latest news with #Balliet
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Midstate students donate nearly 2k items, hundreds of dollars to Lebanon VA Medical Center
LEBANON COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) — Midstate students delivered thousands of items and hundreds of dollars in checks and gift cards to the Lebanon VA Medical Center. The Williams Valley Vikings for Veterans organization was launched by Williams Valley High School senior Kaitlyn Balliet. She says she started the group to honor vets from her family. Items gathered and donated included things like soap, toothpaste, and clothing. 'It was kind of a slow pace when we first started,' Balliet said, 'I had gone to my history teacher and then I asked if we thought we could do something like this and we proposed it to my principal, then I went to a school board meeting and they thought it was a great idea.' 'We put bins in every single classroom and there were kids bringing stuff in about everyday,' she added. Download the abc27 News+ app on your Roku, Amazon Fire TV Stick, and Apple TV devices She said some local businesses and others also committed a little more than $500 to the cause, which was donated as checks and gift cards. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Boston Globe
13-03-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
North Dakota Legislature close to asking US Supreme Court to undo landmark same-sex marriage ruling
Advertisement When the Legislature considers such resolutions, attorney and North Dakota National Guard member Laura Balliet said she wonders why she stays in her home state. The measure makes her feel unwanted, unwelcome and judged because of who she is, she said. She married her wife in 2020. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'I don't know what this resolution does other than to tell people like myself, my friends and my family that we're not welcome here, and I'm angry about that because I want to be welcome here. This is my home,' Balliet told the Senate panel that heard the measure on Wednesday — one in a stream of opponents who testified against it. A push across states Massachusetts-based MassResistance, which describes itself as an 'international pro-family group' but has been labeled 'anti-LGBTQ hate group' by the LGBTQ+ advocacy organization GLAAD, is pushing the resolution across the country. Massachusetts became the first state to recognize same-sex marriage, in 2004. Over the next 11 years, most states began to recognize it through laws, ballot measures or court decisions before the Supreme Court made it legal nationwide. Outside of Idaho and North Dakota, the measures have not progressed far, according to an analysis of legislation collected by the bill-tracking service Plural. By contrast, there have been additional protections for same-sex marriage over the years, including a federal law in 2022. Since 2020, California, Colorado, Hawaii, and Nevada have repealed old constitutional amendments that defined marriage as being allowed only between a man and a woman, and Virginia lawmakers advanced a similar measure this year. It could be on the ballot there in 2026. Advertisement Differing views The North Dakota measure states that the Legislature 'rejects' the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision and urges the US Supreme Court 'to overturn the decision and leave unaddressed the natural definition of marriage as a union between one man, a biological male, and one woman, a biological female.' In the court's 2022 ruling that overturned the constitutional right to an abortion, Justice Clarence Thomas said the court should reconsider its precedents in the marriage decision and other past cases. Soon after the measure passed the North Dakota House last month, several Republican state reps who voted for it stated they meant to vote no or regretted voting yes. Republican Rep. Matt Ruby said he wished he had voted against the measure, saying his yes vote was for a different intent he realized wasn't going to happen. The vote sent a bad message 'that your marriage isn't valid and you're not welcome,' Ruby said. He said he supports the right for same-sex couples to be married. Republican Rep. Dwight Kiefert said he voted for the resolution because of his Christian faith and that the institution of marriage was established in the Bible in the Garden of Eden between Adam and Eve. 'Slap in the face' The measure is a slap in the face to North Dakotans who are happily married and invested in their state, said Democratic Sen. Ryan Braunberger, who is gay and sits on the Senate panel that heard the resolution. The measure sends a dangerous message as North Dakota wants to grow its population and expand economically, he said. Advertisement 'We want to make sure that we bring everybody in the best of the crop, and that runs the gamut of all sorts of different races, ethnicities, sexual orientations through that,' Braunberger said. The measure is a declaration, if passed, that lawmakers would want to define marriage through what is arguably a religious lens, which dangerously gets close to infringing upon the Establishment Clause of the US Constitution, said Cody Schuler, advocacy manager for the American Civil Liberties Union's North Dakota chapter. 'Marriage defined as 'one man, one woman' is a particular religious view. It is not held by all religions, all societies or by nonreligious people, and so therefore it is dangerous to be making that kind of statement because it puts legislators on record as to how they might vote on law, on a binding law versus this nonbinding resolution,' Schuler said. Associated Press writer Geoff Mulvihill contributed from Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Flooded kitchen has church looking for a miracle
The flood, when it came, came with no warning. A 'catastrophic failure' of water pipes in the downstairs Kingsley Hall kitchen at Stone United Methodist Church, home of the Meadville Soup Kitchen, was discovered Saturday as an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting using a nearby room was wrapping up, the Rev. Kendra Balliet said Tuesday. By the time Balliet arrived on the scene shortly afterward, water in much of the kitchen was about ankle deep before the water supply could be shut off. 'There are all kinds of problems in Kingsley's kitchen now, which the Soup Kitchen depends on and our community depends on to feed anywhere between 60 and 90 folks a day,' said Balliet, who is Stone's pastor. 'We need help because our community depends on us.' Ripple effects from the broken pipe in the kitchen were quickly evident. The failing pipes included a portion encased in concrete surrounding a support pillar in the basement. Balliet said much of the concrete had been eaten away by the leak and would have to be repaired. The building's electrical system had been affected as well, though she said repairs had it back to normal early Tuesday. The emergency led to the cancellation of in-person worship over the weekend and the cancellation of daycare services at the Stone Children's Center on Monday, Balliet said. The Soup Kitchen provided bag lunches on Monday and on Tuesday moved upstairs to use a small catering kitchen to provide a scaled-down lunch of beef stew and bread. As volunteer Jeff Kittka brought out another large serving tray of beef stew, Josh Henry, the Soup Kitchen's director, said he was glad to have the chance to remain open despite not having access to the usual headquarters. 'We wanted to do today as a test run,' Henry said. 'It's going well so far, so my intention is to be open all week.' Balliet and Henry spoke at lunchtime inside the lobby just upstairs from the Soup Kitchen. Around them, visitors followed signs directing them past the makeshift serving area and into a larger meeting room with plenty of seating. Also present was church member Armendia Dixon, one of numerous people with plans to use church space in the coming weeks who received an email notifying them of the water line failure over the weekend and its potential impact on their plans. Dixon is scheduled to give a presentation on her book 'Meadville Ebony Genealogy of Sorts' at the church on March 8. The event is part of Meadville 1825, a year-long celebration of a formative period in the city's history. Stone was one of three congregations still located adjacent to Diamond Park that was founded that year. 'We're in a mess here and no money to fix it,' Dixon said as a few more visitors used to heading downstairs instead wandered past to where Kittka was wielding a large ladle. 'And all these people coming in already.' In addition to the Soup Kitchen, numerous organizations use Kingsley Hall space to meet for free, Balliet said, including six 12-step programs, four Girl Scout groups and others. With water service restored to part of the building Tuesday, the daycare was open again and a Girl Scout troop was scheduled to meet in the evening. With about 300 members, some 50 of whom typically attend worship services each week, the various groups extend the church's reach well beyond what it might otherwise be. After several days of one issue leading to another following the initial leak, Balliet was uncertain how much the electrical, plumbing and concrete repairs plus cleanup would ultimately cost the church. She was certain of one thing, however: Things could have been much worse. It was easy to imagine the damaged electrical system leading to a fire like the one that gutted the church's sanctuary in 1927, she said. Instead of the lengthy rebuilding process that followed that disaster, Balliet was optimistic of soon returning operations to normal. 'God was watching out for us,' she said. 'So many people are depending on us. I don't want to let them down.' You can help To donate to Stone United Methodist Church, go to or text the word 'GIVE' to (833) 494-0299. For more information, contact the church office at (814) 724-6736.
