In a brief order made available Friday, a federal judge considering challenges to the Arizona ban said he’s all but convinced that Arizona’s laws and constitutional provision against gays being able to marry are illegal.

Amazing Part of Arizona History – Thank You Terry Pochert and Joe Connolly

Doc 85 – Submit Supplemental Briefs – JUDGE SEDWICK TEXT ORDER re: 47 MOTION for Summary Judgment AND 58 MOTION for Summary Judgment.

In October 2005, George Takei figured his long, successful Hollywood career would screech to a halt.  His reasoning? Then 68, the actor best known as Star Trek’s Hikaru Sulu came out as a homosexual.

“If I could marry you, I would ask you right now,” Joe Connolly said from across the table to Terry Pochert. The two men exchanged onion rings at that very moment, a silly gesture that meant much more. Despite how much they loved each other, it was 1995, and the thought of same-sex couples having the freedom to marry was a distant dream. Instead, Terry and Joe made a promise to one another that they would live their lives together in love.

Declaration of all the Plaintiffs in the Arizona Marriage Equality Law Suit

he first case filed with the State of Arizona, Connolly v. Roche, is now being requested by Lambda Legal to have their case transferred into the first case filed Connolly v. Roche

Now that the revised complaint has been filed with the …

Terry Pochert and Joseph Connolly – Across the country the legal landscape for same-sex marriage is changing, and fast.  In the Southwest in recent weeks, courts in New Mexico and Utah have delivered victories to gay marriage proponents.  Now in neighboring Arizona, some gay and lesbian couples are challenging their state’s definition of marriage.

This Order addresses challenges to state and federal laws relating to same-sex marriage. The Court holds that Oklahoma’s constitutional amendment limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Court lacks jurisdiction over the other three challenges.

Luis Ortega plans to spend Father’s Day with his son, Robert, at their favorite park – where they will honor the memory of Luis’ late partner and Robert’s other dad, Christian Barco, who died suddenly last year.

The suit filed Monday claims a voter-approved ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional. It seeks to allow same-sex couples to be married and recognize same-sex marriages conducted in other states.

Suzanne Cummins was raised in Mesa, Arizona and Holly Mitchell was born in Oklahoma and raised in Texas. Suzanne and Holly met on the job and began dating in 2007. They would like to marry but Arizona laws discriminate against same sex couples.

Photographs and Biographies of Plaintiffs and Attorneys

Clark Rowley was born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa. He left Iowa to attend Arizona State University. David Chaney was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and moved with his family first to Tucson, Arizona and later Sierra Vista. David also attended Arizona State University and the University of Arizona earning degrees from both institutions.

Joe Connolly was born and raised in Munhall Pennsylvania, a Pittsburgh suburb. Terry Pochert was born and raised in the “thumb” of Michigan on the family farm near Port Hope Michigan.

If you asked me what the best investment I ever made, I would have to say it was the $12 I paid to take the Christopher Leadership Course back in 1957.

When I was a kid growing up in Michigan there was a radio show I sometimes listened to and it began with that above statement.

Last week, a fair number of you got a kick out of my …

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This past Saturday, I was trimming shrubs around the pool. I was a little stressed because I wanted to finish the job that afternoon. As I walked around the corner of the pool to get a trimmer, I lost my balance.

Most of us are aware of campus ministry alum Ian Lee and his work reporting for  CNN and Fox on Tarhir Square, Egypt.  He has since gone on to Libya to work for Time magazine and CNN.

Evan Moilan was our Campus Minister for several years. Wife Heather was one of our students and a member of ULC.  Their current community of Bastrop, Texas was devestated by recent fires in Texas.

…unhappiness in our lives. Art Fettig’s …

While many New Year’s resolutions such as losing weight, getting organized or expanding your horizons can be difficult to follow through on, here’s one that isn’t: be kind. All you need to do is smile and say something positive to the people you come into contact with.

There’s a very seductive trap that people often fall …

The above quote from actress Geena Davis says it all …

I first met Sue in Atlanta when I worked with her husband, Richard, while I was doing some speeches for Alabama Power there.

“The secret of success…is making your vocation your vacation.” – Mark Twain As I read this quote I started looking back on my career and I can honestly say that I did just as Mark Train suggested many years ago.

I had another of those phone calls yesterday. It began like most of them do, “Art, I heard you speak ten (or fifteen or twenty) years ago and you talked about positive interaction. You persuaded our entire work force to sign a commitment to safety and we have signed that commitment again and again each year pledging to look out for our own safety and the safety of our fellow worker.”

YPSILANTI, July 27, 2009 – Eastern Michigan University has named Walter Kraft as its new vice president for communications, pending approval by the Board of Regents. The appointment is effective August 10, 2009.

Whenever the President nominates someone for an important position in government the Senators get their bird dogs out and they start searching for any paper trail the candidate might have left to be exposed in hearings. Just for the heck of it I went to the Internet to see just what kind of a paper trail I might have left behind in my career.

It seems like most of the work I do lately ends up on a pile some where.  Some of the things that used to take me an hour now take me a day or even two.

It takes real courage to work in the safety field. Sometimes resistance is coming at you from all directions at the same time. Here is something I wrote some time ago in my book Serenity! Serenity! Living the Serenity Prayer.

People don’t do what you tell them to do, they do what they see you doing and if you don’t like the way your children are turning out then take a look at yourself. Remember when you point one finger at them you have three fingers pointing right back at you. Don’t like the way your teenagers are driving and smashing up your cars? Take a good look at your own driving, after all you have been teaching them by your example for years.

Right now, nobody seems to be happy with President …

In the very early seventies I started working with a noted psychologist from Notre Dame University to learn more about employee behavior.  I was trying to figure our why we had such a rotten safety record and what we might do about it. 

On May 26, 2009 the California Supreme Court issued a ruling upholding the constitutionality of Prop 8 which bans gay marriages in the state. Soulforce of Colorado held a nonviolent direct action that same afternoon to protest the ruling and also remind Colorado that marriage equality does not exist here either.

For years now I have been saying that for every negative thing that happens there is an equal positive force if you can only find it.  Well, today I read that GM is closing over a thousand of its dealerships

Two dogs, 3 and 6 months of age, were presented with painful, swollen shoulder and carpal joints; reluctance to stand; and pyrexia. Radiographs in both cases revealed an irregular lucent zone in the metaphysis of the proximal humerus, parallel and adjacent to the physis.

We’ve known for nearly a century that the better you treat people, the harder they’ll work. It’s a pretty straightforward relationship. This being the case, it seems logical to conclude that the job of every team leader, supervisor, manager and executive should be to treat their employees as well as possible so they become excited about coming to work and applying their best efforts toward performing their jobs every day. Unfortunately it turns out that such behavior is the exception rather than the rule.

Whenever the President nominates someone for an important position in government the Senators get their bird dogs out and they start searching for any paper trail the candidate might have left to be exposed in hearings.

University Lutheran Church, Tempe, Arizona

A moment of truth is an opportunity to come through when the people around you don’t expect you to. I was on a Hertz Rental Car bus in Chicago one time when a pregnant woman traveling with three kids and six suitcases was about to get off.

Some relatives of mine, Dick and Lucille, own and manage a hardware store in a small town in Michigan.  The hardware store they own is part of a chain of hardware stores that specializes in serving small communities.