CHARLESTON COOKS!: 194 East Bay St., Charleston. Call 722-1212 or visit www.charlestoncooks.com to register.

My Account

I notice that Richard Dawkins, world famous God hater, is coming to Vancouver. For $500 a person, $750 a couple, or $5,000 a table (of ten) people can hear him rail against God and the Bible. Mr. Dawkins is the author of the book, The God Delusion. He will be speaking on Evolution and Religion at The Four Seasons Hotel.

I think the predominant religion of British Columbia is no longer Christianity or the Judeo-Christian religion for that matter. It is a Pantheistic religion of nature with humanism as its driver and evolution as its foundation. Evolution is not a tenable scientific theory and goes against the Bible. I am a young earth creationist and the Bible is supported by science. The prevalent view in public universities is that science can only entertain a naturalistic worldview and I contend this is wrong because nature's beginning is untenable within purely naturalistic boundaries. There can be no origin to a universe that somehow occurs by accident.

Mountain High

Every traveler has a landscape that, for him, contains the wonder and mystery behind all travel. It could be the beach, or a cathedral square, or the rain forest, or a volcanic island — for me, it is the mountain pass. The mountain pass, roughly defined, is that point on the map where the winding road up is transformed into the winding road down. It marks the border where valleys meet, and often is where provinces divide, where one nation becomes another, with a corresponding change in language and road signs. To get to the mountain pass, you begin on a fertile plain, often crossed by a river, and drive through terraced fields and sleepy villages until the road gets steeper, the switchbacks get scarier and signs of human settlement fall away behind you.

If you are in Tyrol — the proud region straddling northern Italy and western Austria — and you ascend through the Val Passiria to the mountain pass known in German as the Timmelsjoch, small vineyards and neatly tended orchards give way to a desolate moonscape fringed with ice, and the tractors from the lower altitudes, carrying bins of apples, are replaced by swarms of motorcycles.

Assam govt launches free cancer treatment scheme

Assam government today launched free cancer treatment facilities, including chemotherapy and anti-cancer drugs, at Dr B Barooah Cancer Institute here.

Launching the scheme, chief minister Tarun Gogoi said that it was a part of the state government's endeavour to improve the healthcare system through a slew of initiatives undertaken in the past couple of years.

"The scheme of providing anti-cancer drugs to the patients will give them much-needed relief as the treatment is very expensive", he said.

The chief minister said that with the availability of chemotherapy drugs free of cost in the Cancer Institute equipped with the state of art technology, the patients need not go outside the state for treatment.

"It is indeed heartening to note that patients who had gone outside the state for treatment has returned to the Cancer Institute for further treatment and the government will continue to help develop the institute into a well-equipped one for cancer treatment, research and training," he said.

Downtown Happenings Through March 31

Enjoy Chattanooga with the following Downtown events happening through Monday, March 31.

The City of Chattanooga Parks and Recreation Department will offer free Tai Ji classes on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 7-8 a.m. Classes are scheduled to be held at Miller Park, but will be held at Miller Plaza during inclement weather. The clases are free to the public. For more information about Tai Ji, visit www.TaiJiCommunity.com . To register for the classes, please call 643-6079.

Siskin Children's Institute will present a free workshop on play-based leraning activities this Tuesday, March 25, from noon to 1 p.m. Then on Thursday, March 27, from 6:30-8:30 p.m., they will host a free Summer Camp & Recreation Forum for planning your child's summer fun. Call 648-1758 for more information on either of these programs.

From tote bags to junkets, pols' assets, gifts revealed Internal Affairs

While sports fans are fixated on March Madness basketball brackets, political junkies look forward to another annual ritual: California Form 700.

That's the document also known as the Statement of Economic Interests, released by public officials each March, to explain what they own and how much it's worth.

Here are highlights on the assets and gifts reported in 2007 by the 11 lawmakers who represent Santa Clara County:

- Sen. Elaine Alquist, D-San Jose: Her Home Depot stock was valued between $10,001 and $100,000.

- Sen. Ellen Corbett, D-San Leandro: Chabot Community College gave her an $8 tote bag.

- Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-San Luis Obispo: The only Republican in our delegation also may be the wealthiest, thanks to numerous $1 million-plus business interests related to his family's Agro-Jal farming empire, rental company and real estate holdings.