LAW & POLICY
“Private foundations offer millions to ensure accurate census count.” By Matt O’Brien. Contra Costa Times. December 27, 2009. With the state strapped for cash, a crew of about 20 private foundations has pumped $9 million into outreach efforts designed to help the Bay Area and all of California get counted properly in the 2010 U.S. Census. The charities say they have awarded grants to more than 125 community organizations that have intimate connections to people the U.S. Census Bureau had difficulty counting in the past. The list of hard-to-reach residents includes immigrants who do not speak English, college students, people who live in crowded or inaccessible housing, people who move frequently and those who might be wary of authorities. Grant recipients range from Fremont’s Afghan Coalition to the Bananas baby-sitting network of Berkeley to the NAACP of eastern Contra Costa County.
“Club, Church Clash in Texas; Comedians Gripe About Gospel Music, Bishop Claims Religious Bigotry and Racism.” By Ana Campoy. Wall Street Journal. December 28, 2009. The music was coming from Fresh Oil Family Fellowship, a boisterous nondenominational congregation that occupies the adjacent storefront in a strip mall here. Mr. French’s ad-lib drew some laughter from the crowd that evening several weeks ago, he said. But since then, the issue of music seeping through the church walls has erupted into a brouhaha. The comedy club complained about the noise; the landlord asked Fresh Oil to leave the building by the end of the year. But Bishop Nathan Thomas, the founder and leader of the Pentecostal-charismatic church, isn’t going without a fight. Using the slogan “Jokes vs. Jesus,” he organized several protests earlier this month, objecting to what he says is religious bigotry and racism. Across the country, religious congregations are entering nontraditional spaces at an increasing rate, religious experts say, as churches seek to lower their rent and attract worshipers with an informal atmosphere. A bill Congress passed in 2000 that prohibits zoning authorities from discriminating against religious groups is also encouraging churches’ migration into former bowling alleys, old furniture stores and strip malls.
“Rhode Island football field fight highlights church-state issues.” By Eric Tucker. Wall Street Journal/Associated Press. December 28, 2009. A fight over athletic fields in this city goes beyond who gets to play soccer where and raises thorny questions about separation of church and state and public aid to religious institutions — divisive issues that have flared repeatedly in heavily Catholic Rhode Island. Parents of public school students accuse the city of favoring Saint Raphael Academy — a prominent Catholic school and alma mater of city and state power brokers — by granting its football team exclusive use of a public field. They say it’s unconstitutional to give a religious school priority access to a field meant for public use.
“Columbia Gets a Lesson in Property Rights.” By Julia Vitullo-Martin. Wall Street Journal. January 2, 2010. Columbia University is one of New York’s largest landowners, and perhaps the one with the most to gain from the city’s power to seize private property. But in a surprise ruling in early December, a state court struck down the city’s attempt to take private land in West Harlem and give it to the university. Now that case is becoming an important beachhead in the fight over eminent domain. Columbia wants the land as part of its 17-acre plan to build a research and academic facility. A decade ago it started acquiring as much of the land as it could. In recent years, however, a few holdouts were impossible to dislodge. The university turned to the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), a public company that has the power to compel landowners to sell through eminent domain. Columbia contends that its academic center will upgrade the neighborhood, create 6,900 jobs, and make immense contributions in biotechnology and health research. There is little reason to doubt any of these assertions. Columbia is one of the nation’s leading research institutions and New York City’s seventh-largest private employer. But should its importance entitle the university to take property owned by others?