Press Releases

Calls on Congress to Pass Real Conscience Protection

CHICAGO, Feb. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- CatholicVote.org, a leading national grassroots Catholic advocacy organization, denounced President Obama's empty "compromise" on the HHS mandate.

CatholicVote.org President Brian Burch issued the following statement:

"President Obama has introduced an accounting gimmick to appease voters over his recent Health and Human Services mandate.  The so-called compromise announced today will continue to force virtually all employers, including religious institutions, to pay into insurance policies that cover abortion drugs and other immoral medicines and procedures. 

"Separating the premiums paid to insurance companies does not change what these policies will cover.  The policies funded by religious institutions will continue to cover contraception, birth control, and abortion drugs for every employee of these organizations.  To pretend, by an accounting gimmick, that the premiums paid by the employer will not subsidize these services is simply absurd.

"All Americans should shudder at what has just transpired.  Despite repeated promises during the healthcare debate in 2009, the President of the United States has ordered all insurance companies to pay for abortion drugs.  And all religious institutions will be forced to pay into these plans.

"The Catholic Church in America has been reduced to begging for the freedom to continue to carry out its mission, effectively turning the First Amendment on its head.  The president owes every American an apology, not an accommodation.  We urge Congress to immediately introduce legislation that will protect the conscience rights of all Americans.

"Catholics don't want an accounting gimmick.  They want freedom."

Background on CatholicVote.org:

CatholicVote.org was launched in September 2008 as a new effort to educate, organize, and mobilize the Catholic vote.  The national group was responsible for one of the most watched online commercials during the 2008 presidential campaign, watched by nearly 3 million viewers on YouTube alone.  The group also received national attention for a second life-affirming viral ad depicting ultrasound images celebrating the life of President Obama.  The popular website hosts the award winning American Papist blog, along with other political commentary relevant to Catholic voters.  The organization regularly communicates with nearly 600,000 email subscribers and supporters.

SOURCE CatholicVote.org

MORRISTOWN, N.J., Feb. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Electric rates for residential customers of Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) will be reduced by $114 million annually beginning March 1, 2012.

The decrease will total about 3 percent or $41.22 a year for the average residential customer using 650 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity a month.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) today approved the company's request to lower rates based on costs associated with 950 megawatts of electric supply contracts from non-utility sources that JCP&L was originally required to enter into under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA).  The reduction is part of a stipulated settlement with the BPU Staff and the Division of Rate Counsel. 

JCP&L serves 1.1 million New Jersey customers in the counties of Burlington, Essex, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren.

FirstEnergy (NYSE: FE) is a diversified energy company dedicated to safety, reliability and operational excellence. Its 10 electric distribution companies comprise the nation's largest investor-owned electric system.  Its diverse generating fleet features non-emitting nuclear, scrubbed baseload coal, natural gas, and pumped-storage hydro and other renewables and has a total generating capacity of nearly 23,000 megawatts.

Forward-Looking Statements: This news release includes forward-looking statements based on information currently available to management. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. These statements include declarations regarding management's intents, beliefs and current expectations. These statements typically contain, but are not limited to, the terms "anticipate," "potential," "expect," "believe," "estimate" and similar words. Forward-looking statements involve estimates, assumptions, known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially due to: the speed and nature of increased competition in the electric utility industry, the impact of the regulatory process on the pending matters in the various states in which we do business including, but not limited to, matters related to rates, the status of the PATH project in light of the PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (PJM) direction to suspend work on the project pending review of its planning process, its re-evaluation of the need for the project and the uncertainty of the timingand amounts of any related capital expenditures, business and regulatory impacts from ATSI's realignment into PJM, economic or weather conditions affecting future sales and margins, changes in markets for energy services, changing energy and commodity market prices and availability, financial derivative reforms that could increase our liquidity needs and collateral costs, the continued ability of FirstEnergy's regulated utilities to collect transition and other costs, operation and maintenance costs being higher than anticipated, other legislative and regulatory changes, and revised environmental requirements, including possible GHG emission, water intake and coal combustion residual regulations, the potential impacts of any laws, rules or regulations that ultimately replace the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) including the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR), which was stayed by the courts on December 30, 2011, and the effects of the EPA's recently released Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rules, the uncertainty of the timing and amounts of the capital expenditures that may arise in connection with any NSR litigation or potential regulatory initiatives or rulemakings (including that such expenditures could result in our decision to shut  down or idle certain generating units), the uncertainty associated with PJM's review of FirstEnergy's plan to retire its older unscrubbed regulated and competitive fossil units, adverse regulatory or legal decisions and outcomes with respect to our nuclear operations (including, but not limited to, the revocation or non-renewal of necessary licenses, approvals or operating permits by the NRC, including as a result of the incident at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant), issues that could result from our continuing investigation and analysis of the indications of cracking in the plant shield building at Davis-Besse, adverse legal decisions and outcomes related to Met-Ed's and Penelec's ability to recover certain transmission costs through their transmission service charge riders, the continuing availability of generating units and changes in their ability to operate at or near full capacity, replacement power costs being higher than anticipated or inadequately hedged, the ability to comply with applicable state and federal reliability standards and energy efficiency mandates, changes in customers' demand for power, including but not limited to, changes resulting from the implementation of state and federal energy efficiency mandates, the ability to accomplish or realize anticipated benefits from strategic goals and our ability to improve electric commodity margins and the impact of, among other factors, the increased cost of fuel and fuel transportation on such margins, the ability to experience growth in the distribution business, the changing market conditions that could affect the value of assets held in FirstEnergy's nuclear decommissioning trusts, pension trusts and other trust funds, and cause FirstEnergy to make additional contributions sooner, or in amounts that are larger than currently anticipated, the impact of changes to material accounting policies, the ability to access the public securities and other capital and credit markets in accordance with FirstEnergy's financing plan, the cost of such capital and overall condition of the capital and credit markets affecting FirstEnergy and its subsidiaries, changes in general economic conditions affecting FirstEnergy and its subsidiaries, interest rates and any actions taken by credit rating agencies that could negatively affect FirstEnergy's and its subsidiaries' access to financing or their costs and increase requirements to post additional collateral to support outstanding commodity positions, LOCs and other financial guarantees, the continuing uncertainty of the national and regional economy and its impact on the major industrial and commercial customers of FirstEnergy's subsidiaries, issues concerning the soundness of financial institutions and counterparties with which FirstEnergy and its subsidiaries do business, issues arising from the completed merger of FirstEnergy and Allegheny Energy, Inc. and the ongoing coordination of their combined operations including FirstEnergy's ability to maintain relationships with customers, employees or suppliers, as well as the ability to continue to successfully integrate the businesses and realize cost savings and any other synergies, the risks and other factors discussed from time to time in FirstEnergy's and its applicable subsidiaries' SEC filings, and other similar factors. The foregoing review of factors should not be construed as exhaustive. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for management to predict all such factors, nor assess the impact of any such factor on FirstEnergy's business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. FirstEnergy expressly disclaims any current intention to update, except as required by law, any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

www.firstenergycorp.com

SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The White House has announced what it would like us to call an "accommodation" on access to insurance coverage for birth control.

Jon O'Brien, president of Catholics for Choice, said: "We are glad to see that the administration did not choose to cave completely to the bishops. But the reality is that this compromise relies on insurance companies doing the right thing, and gives victory #1 to the bishops on their 'religious liberty' shopping list.

"Previous compromises of this nature, such as that in Hawaii, may have made some conservatives happy, but they have also meant that some women have not been able to access coverage in a timely and easy manner. That is unacceptable.

"It's unfortunate that on this issue, as many others, far too many in the administration and Congress have sacrificed women's health to get something they want more. Rejecting the FDA's advice on Plan B, the continued implementation of the Hyde Amendment, attacks on funding for Title X, lack of abortion coverage in the Affordable Care Act—the list goes on and on. This administration has shown that it will not stand with women when it comes to supporting access to, and easing the availability of, reproductive healthcare services. Not only that, it means that those advocates and champions in Congress who fought hard over the past three weeks to support the administration's proposal on birth control have been hung out to dry.

"One wonders what has been gained by this 'accommodation.' It certainly isn't the support of Catholics. The majority of Catholics are in favor of contraceptive access for women, regardless of where they work. And despite hopes and promises, the bishops won't be throwing their support behind this administration, or women's health, or true religious liberty anytime soon.

"The US bishops will move on to the other items on their list, demanding special treatment in federal contracts, allowing them to opt out of providing reproductive healthcare services and condoms for HIV prevention, forcing compromises in those states that have marriage equality statutes and allowing religious employers to discriminate in hiring practices. If successful, it means that people who have been trafficked, refugees, recipients of foreign assistance, Catholics and non-Catholics working for Catholic institutions and many others may experience state-sanctioned discrimination.

"Given that the administration has said that the 'accommodation' will leave religiously affiliated organizations with clean hands if they do not want to cover birth control, it is doubly disappointing that the White House did not agree to extend the new plan to churches and others who were granted an exemption. It means that the gardeners, secretaries, cleaners, cooks and all those who work for churches around the country will continue to be discriminated against.

"It's now clear that there are members of both parties who have decided that women's health coverage is a bargaining chip they are willing to deal away at the first sign of trouble. As the election season heats up, we can only fear for what further compromises will be made for presumed political gain. And unfortunately, too many women will have to put their hope in insurance companies—hired by employers opposed to contraception—to get the healthcare that is not only basic, preventive and safe, but guaranteed to every other American employee who doesn't have to sneak around their boss to get it. The administration has left women relying on a wing and a prayer that they will be able to access the services they need in a timely manner."

Catholics for Choice has been at the forefront of the campaign to point out what happens when political leaders defer to the bishops. An ad titled "What Catholics Believe about Birth Control" appears in the  the Washington Post today and will appear in newspapers around the country over the weekend.

SOURCE Catholics for Choice

BRUGGE, Belgium, February 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

It is no coincidence that Denis De Gloire is shining on Times Square in New York, as he brought an impressive homage in the halls of the Belfry in Bruges, dedicated to the 100th birthday on 28 January of Jackson Pollock, creator of Action Painting, who died in a car crash in 1956.

 

     (Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20120127/507748 )


For this occasion, painter Denis De Gloire, his coach Dan Cornette of Galerie IDA and Art Promotion Tuteleers&Tuteleers realised an exhibition that is definitely unique both wmaterially and spiritually.

Denis De Gloire succeeded in giving the term and idea of 'Action Painting' a fresh and astonishing contemporary allure.

The astonishing aspect was expressed grandly in the 13th century upper room where four literally and figuratively monumental canvases, each eight by three metres, had been installed.
They represented the four seasons in a respectively serene, fresh, passionate and meditative interpretation: the luminescence of snow and ice and the slender slant of plants and crops, the fiery power of the summer and the introverted loss in the autumn (it is a detail of autumn that shone on Times Square).
The four paintings set the tone and prepared the visitor for what he would be seeing in the next exhibition halls, where fifty canvases displayed the spirit of action painting in several guises: fiery and passionate, more ethereal with sudden areas of colour, daring in the use of colour, heavy and light matter, painted on the floor with dripping paint or with delicate brushes, built up tenderly and carefully as on an easel.

This indicates what a gifted painter Denis De Gloire is, how he, as an excellent colourist, exceeds the concept of homage and profiles himself as a fully-fledged representative of a tempestuous and spiritually superior action painter.

This exhibition was a huge event and a true revelation in the world of painting; this was proved by its many visitors in word and deed. More than thirty canvases were sold during the exhibition.

If you did not have the opportunity to visit this unique exhibition, then you can still visit it virtually <<http://youtu.be/yF02a1MwibQ>>
In any case, this summer Galerie IDA will put him back in the spotlight for you at Art Nocturne Knocke artnocturneknocke.com

You can download the high-resolution image at <<http://tuteleers.com/mailings/POLLOCK-TRIBUTE.jpg>>

SOURCE Tuteleers & Tuteleers