Residents Have Enough Signatures to Stop Mosque

DETROIT FREE PRESS, May 19 — Residents of a Detroit suburb turned in enough petition signatures to stop a mosque from broadcasting the Islamic call to prayer over a loudspeaker.

Petitioners submitted 632 signatures to the city clerk's office May 18. Only 552 signatures were needed to force the Hamtramck City Council to reverse its unanimous April 27 decision to allow the mosque to carry the call to prayer five times a day, the Detroit Free Press reported.

The signatures had to be certified and the council notified of the certification by May 25. Otherwise, the law was to become effective May 26.

If the council chose not to rescind the ordinance, it would have automatically been suspended and placed on the ballot for voters to decide. A vote could have been held in August or earlier.

The blue-collar city of 23,000 once was overwhelmingly Polish and Catholic. Some Muslims say the call is the equivalent of church bells. Opponents say allowing the Islamic call gives that religion preferential treatment.

Bush and Senate Agree on Judicial Nominations

THE WASHINGTON POST, May 19 — President Bush and Senate Democrats have reached an agreement on judicial-appointee nominations — some of whom are Catholic and many of whom are pro-life.

Bush said from now until his current term ends Jan. 20, 2005, he will not use his constitutional power to bypass the Senate and give temporary judicial appointments during congressional recesses, as he has done twice during the past several months. In turn, Democrats agreed to allow votes on 25 “noncontroversial” appointments to district and appeals courts, the Washington Post reported.

However, Democrats have refused to include seven appeals-court nominees they have been blocking or have threatened to block because of their views on abortion, labor rights and other issues.

Bush appointed U.S. District Judge Charles Pickering Sr. of Mississippi to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in January and former Alabama attorney general William Pryor Jr. to the 11th Circuit Court in February.

The newspaper noted the only “seriously controversial” nominee on the list is James Leon Holmes, a pro-life Catholic whose nomination was sent directly to the Senate for approval rather than to committee for recommendation.

Solar-Power Stained-Glass Windows?

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH (Ohio), May 14 — Two Catholic churches in Ohio not only have new beautiful stained-glass windows, but they also have a new source of energy because of them.

At St. Catharine on Columbus’ East Side and St. Andrew in Upper Arlington, ar tist Sarah Hall of Toronto arranged grids of photovoltaic cells and sandwiched them between layers of glass, the newspaper repor ted. The inner aspect of the windows includes figures and other patterns normally found on stained glass.

“Those solar cells are hooked up to a battery, and then we illuminate the narthex at night with this energy or pump the [water in a] font,” Hall said during a recent visit to St. Catharine.

In the United States, energy from photovoltaic cells costs more than energy from other sources. However, it would prove a cheaper alternative in Europe, where Hall hopes to sell many of her designs.