Bush submits budget plan to Congress

the fact that they promoted intelligent design for religious reasons. They were replaced by a new group of school board members, all of whom are opposed to the intelligent design theory.

The landmark decision even made waves as far away as Rome. The official Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, published an article in Jan. that supported Jones’s ruling that intelligent design should not be taught in public schools. This newspaper is considered to be representative of the views of the Vatican, but is not in any way official church doctrine. According to an article in the New York Times the author of the L’Osservatore article, Dr. Fiorenzo Facchini, wrote, “God’s project of creation can be carried out through secondary causes in the natural course of events, without having to think of miraculous interventions that point in this or that direction,”

It seems that the school district will not appeal the decision for a number of reasons. The absence of support within the school board and the broad criticism of intelligent design handed down by Jones are the two major reasons.

“If you have a unanimous decision, that affects appeal as well, and it is harder to break down that ruling,” said Dr. James Hedtke, professor of political science. All of these factors suggest that an effort to appeal the decision is unlikely.

The ruling will most certainly also affect future attempts to promote the teaching of intelligent design in schools. There are at least two other states, Georgia and Kansas, that are facing potential battles over intelligent design. No doubt the issues and conclusions raised by this ruling will seriously affect the outcome of these pending controversies.

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President Bush has submitted a new $2.77 trillion budget plan to Congress. This plan will limit both the growth of Medicare and the money that is spent on anything that does not relate to national security. If Bush’s new budget is passed, an increase would be seen in money that goes towards the Department of Defense and Homeland Security. Bush says that he has given the people who are fighting in the war on terrorism, the money they need to discover and stop terrorism.

The Senate and Attorney General square-off about domestic spying

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales backs the Bush Administration’s views on domestic spying. Gonzales believes that the administration did not break any laws. According to The New York Times, Gonzales feels that this “surveillance program” is necessary to assure safety. He refers to domestic spying as an “early warning system.” Gonzales’s views were not taken well by members of the Senate. Senator Arlen Specter went against Gonzales and pointed out that federal law does not allow “any electronic surveillance without a court order.”

Bush tries to halt Iran’s nuclearprogram

President Bush recently conveyed that the world is not going to allow Iran to gain nuclear weapons, according to The New York Times. However, many of Bush’s own advisers believe that it is going to be difficult to stop Iran’s nuclear program. Many of the advisers believe that the creation of Iranian nuclear weapons is inevitable. The United Nations has invested the workings of Iran’s nuclear program. Although Iran does have many elements needed to create nuclear weapons, such as technology and facilities, it will be years before there are Iranian nuclear weapons.