Office of Senate President Pro Tempore Del MarshPress Clips

Saturday, May 06, 2023

Judge denies request to move up Alabama same-sex marriage deadline; unions start Monday (AL.com)

Federal court won't stay same-sex marriage ruling (Montgomery Advertiser) Bentley, Strange ‘disappointed’ Alabama failed in appeal to block same-sex marriage

(Yellowhammer News) Program gives students workplace headstarts (Times Daily) Alabama lawmakers respond to Gov. Bentley’s suggested tax increase (ABC 33/40) Hyundai sets sales record but others pull ahead (Montgomery Advertiser) Obama seeks $50 million to restore Selma trail, other civil rights sites to honor Voting Rights

Act (AP) Author’s hometown excited, perplexed by ‘Mockingbird’ sequel (AP) Alabama’s Republican governor suggests he might propose a tax hike (Washington Post) The UK voted yes on ‘three-parent babies’ today. Here’s how one baby can have three

people’s DNA (Washington Post) Everything you need to know about measles (Washington Post)

Judge denies request to move up Alabama same-sex marriage deadline; unions start MondayA federal judge Tuesday denied a request to let her order striking down Alabama's same-sex marriage ban to take effect immediately. That means that - barring last-minute intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court - gay couples in the Heart of Dixie will be able to get marriage licenses on Monday.

In her two-page order, U.S. District Judge Callie V.S. "Ginny" Granade indicated that she believes state officials should have time to prepare for implementation.

"If the Supreme Court denies a stay or does not rule before February 9, 2015, this court's stay will still remain in place until that date to allow the Probate Court of this state to be completely prepared for compliance with the rulings in this case (and a similar case)," the judge wrote.

Granade's decision comes hours after the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request by Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange to extend the delay until the U.S. Supreme Court rules later this year on a same-sex marriage challenge from Cincinnati.

Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond School of Law professor who has tracked same-sex litigation across the country, said he believes the Supreme Court will rule on the request by Friday and may sooner. He said past decisions to stop same-sex marriages from taking place in other states offer clues as to how the justices are likely to rule in this case.

At least five of the nine justices must vote for a delay to stop Granade's order from taking effect Monday.

"I just don't see the votes there to grant a stay at the high court," he said.

Tobias said he does not think it is unreasonable to give state authorities a few extra days to get ready for the ruling. While processing marriage licenses of gay couples is fairly straightforward, he said, issues like adoption are "in fairness" more complicated.

"My sense is the judge has been respectful of everyone. ... Monday makes sense to me," he said.

After months of trading shots via court filings, the same-sex marriage fight in Alabama came down to this question: Will gay couples have to wait until Monday, or will they be able to get marriage licenses sooner?

A federal appeals court declined to extend a delay Granade had agreed to impose after she struck down Alabama's ban on same-sex marriage. On the other hand, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also declined a request by lawyers for plaintiffs Kim McKeand and Cari Searcy to lift the delay immediately.

Shortly after learning of the appellate ruling, attorneys for the couple asked Granade to lift the "stay." The Alabama Attorney General's Office filed a quick response.

The issue is not complicated. And the two sides took four pages combined to make their cases.

"Plaintiffs respectfully submit that there is no reason for this Court's stay to remain in place until February 9, 2015, as this Court made clear that this Court's stay was to allow the Defendants time to seek appellate relieve form the Eleventh Circuit on that issue," the lawyers wrote. "The Defendants have done so, and the Eleventh Circuit has denied their motion."

The Alabama Attorney General's Office counters that the issues that justified a reprieve while the state sought an indefinite delay remain valid while the state seeks the same relief from the U.S. Supreme Court.

"In addition, the officials who enforce Alabama's marriage laws have likely relied on the present expiration date of February 9 as they have considered the application of the Courts orders to their duties," the court filing states. "An abrupt change in the expiration date of this Court's stay would likely add to the confusion."

_________Federal court won't stay same-sex marriage rulingSame-sex marriage in Alabama, a seeming impossibility just five years ago, could become reality on Monday.

A federal appeals court refused to stay a district court's decision striking down Alabama's bans on the practice. Attorney General Luther Strange almost immediately appealed the Tuesday decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a separate ruling, U.S. District Judge Ginny Granade, who struck down the state's 1998 law and 2006 constitutional amendment banning the practice in two separate rulings on Jan. 23 and Jan. 26, declined to lift a stay of her ruling until Feb. 9.

Still, attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the same-sex suit and supporters of same-sex marriage were celebrating throughout the day.

"We don't believe any Alabamian should be treated in an unequal manner or have their rights denied that are guaranteed by (the) U.S. Constitution," said David Kennedy, who represents Cari Searcy and Kimberly McKeand, the Mobile couple at the heart of the case, following the 11th Circuit's decision Tuesday. Christina Hernandez, another attorney for the couple, said Searcy and McKeand were "absolutely thrilled" with the ruling.

Granade initially stayed her decision to allow Alabama's appeal to go forward. Strange sought a lengthier stay, arguing that implementing the decision before an expected Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of marriage later this year would cause confusion in the state. A three-judge panel for the 11th Circuit refused Strange's request; as is usually the case, the judges did not give a reason for their decision.

In denying Kennedy and Hernandez's request for an immediate lift of the stay order, Granade wrote that she wanted "to allow the Probate Courts of this state to be completely prepared for compliance with the rulings in this case."

Restates arguments

In his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, Strange reiterated many of the arguments made in the lower courts, saying that requiring Alabama to issue same-sex marriage licenses before the Supreme Court settles the issue would create confusion.

"A stay would serve the public interest by avoiding confusion among local officials and additional litigation in Alabama's other district courts," the appeal said. "The law on this issue can only be settled by a ruling from an appellate court that is binding on all district court judges and state officials."

Strange's petition goes first to Justice Clarence Thomas, who is the justice assigned to hear petitions from Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Thomas can either rule on Strange's request himself or refer it to the full court. Thomas or the court would grant the stay if it's likely that at least four justices might want to review the entire case on its merits, or if there would be irreparable harm if the stay is denied.

There are other possibilities. Thomas could deny Strange's request without comment, at which point Strange could petition the other justices. Thomas could also ask same-sex marriage advocates to respond before he rules on Strange's petition. If Thomas grants Strange's request for a stay, a written order would likely explain how long it would remain in effect.

The 11th Circuit had previously declined to intervene when Florida's ban on same-sex marriage was struck down last year. If the U.S. Supreme Court rejects Strange's petition, Alabama will become the 37th state where same-sex marriage is legal.

The Williams Institute, a think tank at the UCLA School Law, estimates there are 6,000 cohabiting same-sex couples in Alabama, of whom some 3,300 could get married in the next three years.

Searcy and McKeand, who were married in California, wanted Searcy to adopt McKeand's 8-year-old son. Their adoption petition was denied by the Mobile County Probate Court, which cited Alabama's ban. Searcy and McKeand sued, saying the ban denied them their equal protection and due process rights under the 14th Amendment. Strange argued the state had a compelling interest in ensuring children were united with their biological parents.

Granade disagreed, writing the state failed to show any "rational, much less compelling" link between prohibiting same-sex marriage and having more children raised in "the biological family structure the state wishes to promote."

"The Attorney General does not explain how allowing or recognizing same-sex marriage between two consenting adults will prevent heterosexual parents or other biological kin from caring for their biological children," wrote Granade, who was nominated to the federal bench by President George W.

Bush, a Republican, in 2001. "He proffers no justification for why it is that the provisions in question single out same-sex couples and prohibit them, and them alone, from marrying in order to meet that goal."

In a second case, Granade ruled that the ban unconstitutionally denied another Mobile couple the rights of a married couple. James Strawser and John Humphrey had sought to give Strawser's power of attorney to Humphrey in advance of Strawser undergoing a risky surgery, but were told the state ban on same-sex marriage would prevent that.

In his request for a stay, Strange argued that allowing marriages to go forward before the expected U.S. Supreme Court ruling would cause the state "irreparable harm," and that a stay would simply maintain the "status quo."

In response, Kennedy and Hernandez filed motions last week saying granting such a stay would be "irrational." Attorneys for Gov. Robert Bentley also filed an amicus brief before the 11th Circuit last week, which argued that Granade would have to define what marriage is in the wake of her decision.

Bentley said in a statement he was "disappointed" with the decision and supported the attorney general's appeal.

"The issue of same sex marriage is a complicated one that involves all levels of government," the statement said. "My request to the 11th Circuit was simply to ask that the stay be held until the Supreme Court can rule once and for all this year or pending the fully briefed 11th Circuit appeal of the issue."

The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT rights group that is waging a campaign to extend state discrimination protections to LGBT people, welcomed the ruling.

"The time has come for loving and committed couples from Florence and Huntsville to the Gulf Coast to be able to marry in the state they call home," HRC Alabama State Director Ashley Jackson said.

'Business as usual'

Montgomery County Probate Judge Steven Reed, who has consistently said he would issue same-sex marriage licenses when allowed to, said Tuesday his office may consider extending hours for wedding ceremonies should the U.S. Supreme Court reject Strange's appeal. However, he expected it to be "business as usual" on Monday, regardless of the court outcome.

"For our part, we may have a little more demand, but it might not be any more than we have on Valentine's Day, or near the end of the year when people get married," he said.

Some Alabamians vehemently oppose the decision. William Kendrick, a retired pipe fitter from Owassa, said he had no problem with same-sex couples enjoying the benefits of marriage, but state voters had voted for the 2006 constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and their will should be respected.

"Let them call themselves united, or togetherness, but don't use that word 'marriage,' because the Bible says that marriage is between a man and woman, not between two men or two women," he said.

But others welcomed it. The Lattice Inn on South Hull Street began advertising a "Marriage Equality Special" on Tuesday morning for couples looking to tie the knot.

"I have had some inquiries, and it's why I was prompted to put something together," said Jim Yeaman, owner of the business. "Let's see if someone (would like) an affirming venue for an event."

Yeaman said he was personally excited by the decision.

"I've got a number of friends who are going to take advantage of it," he said.

____________Bentley, Strange ‘disappointed’ Alabama failed in appeal to block same-sex marriageAlabama Governor Robert Bentley and Attorney General Luther Strange each released statements Tuesday slamming the 11th Circuit Court’s decision to not delay a lower court ruling legalizing gay marriage in the state.

“I am disappointed by the 11th Circuit’s decision today,” Gov. Bentley said. “The issue of same sex marriage is a complicated one that involves all levels of government. My request to the 11th Circuit was simply to ask that the stay be held until the Supreme Court can rule once and for all this year or pending the fully briefed 11th Circuit appeal of the issue.”

The Governor also expressed support for AG Strange’s appeal to the US Supreme Court to stay the decision until the high court makes its final decision this summer.

“I am disappointed in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court’s decision not to stay the federal district court’s ruling,” Attorney General Luther Strange said in his statement. “The confusion that has been created

by the District Court’s ruling could linger for months until the U.S. Supreme Court resolves this issue once and for all.”

As Yellowhammer wrote earlier Tuesday, the 11th Circuit is widely considered one of the most conservative federal appeals courts in the country.

Their ruling is another signal that the Supreme Court will likely rule gay marriage bans to be unconstitutional when it makes its decision this summer.

__________Program gives students workplace headstartsJust more than a dozen Muscle Shoals High students are on the path to a career through a first-of-its-kind workforce training program.

Pathfinders Alabama is a student worker program that gets Muscle Shoals Career Academy students in jobs in their chosen fields earlier than had been possible before.The juniors and seniors are working in hospitals and manufacturing facilities, putting their classroom-learned skills to the test in the real world.

Cody Hovater is working at North American Lighting with equipment engineers. Growing up, he dreamed of a career in law enforcement, but the industrial systems program at the career academy and a job at North American Lighting changed his mind.

“I’m still in the learning phase,” Hovater said. “But we do everything — setup and installation of different machines and programming, and trouble-shooting.

“A lot of what I had seen in the classroom, I’m now seeing in the real world.”The students are able to enter jobs that employers normally would have scoffed at hiring a 17-year-old high school student to fill because of liability concerns. Those were alleviated after Lyons HR, a local employing agency, began providing liability coverage for the student workers.

This group of students is the first to be part of the Pathfinders programs. Muscle Shoals Career Academy Director Gary Dan Williams and his teachers have been working to put the program in place for more than a year.

Starting in April, a second round of students will begin interviewing for job placements during the 2015-16 school year.

Erin Askew is a patient care technician at Shoals Hospital. She takes patients’ vital signs and helps with baths and other patient needs. She’s planning on going to nursing school at the University of North Alabama.

This new job has given her a glimpse at her future, and she’s more excited.

“What I learned in my classes is really helping me here, especially knowing the proper ranges for vital signs and knowing when to report it to a nurse,” she said. She’s working on the medical-surgical floor at Shoals Hospital.

On her second day at the hospital, the floor was short staffed and nurse call lights started going off.

“Erin said ‘I can do this, this and this and whatever else you need,’” said Nancy Bowling, Shoals Hospital human resource director.

Jesika Juarez is working at Helen Keller Hospital. She was able to quit her job at McDonald’s.

“I want to be a registered nurse, and this is going to help with that,” she said.Trace Reynolds moved from a minimum wage job at TASUS to quality control, inspecting the parts as they come off the assembly line.

“I look to make sure they are right, look good without any scratches or anything,” Reynolds said. “If they are good, I package them; if they aren’t, they get recycled.”

Williams said the Pathfinders Alabama program is reserved for the best students in each program.

Williams said he envisions this program being emulated across the state as early workforce development.

____________Alabama lawmakers respond to Gov. Bentley’s suggested tax increase“I will propose what has to be raised,” said Republican Governor Robert Bentley. “But you know when I send a budget over, the legislature always changes it some. They may agree with many of the things I send over. They may not.”

Governor Bentley is putting everyone on notice. He expects a tax increase will be needed in the upcoming legislative session.

State Senator Jabo Waggoner (R- Vestavia Hills) tells ABC 33/40 he does not believe the Senate is ready to talk about increasing any taxes.

On the other side of the aisle, some democrats are thrilled the governor is taking on this issue.

“I'm surprised and I'm impressed,” said State Senator Linda Coleman (D- Birmingham.) “I think it's a bold move on his part and I commend him for really standing up and addressing this issue which is really long overdue.”

Coleman is talking about the governor's comments Monday at a luncheon in Mobile.

“There are a lot of tax deductions,” said Bentley. “There are a lot of unequally paid taxes we want to look at. We want to make sure that what is paid is done fairly and so I have a number that I have been given. We just are not quite ready to say exactly what we're going to."

"He's the governor and he can say what he wants to about raising revenue,” said Waggoner. “…I'm not going to criticize him or what he's thinking but we just got to find a way to solve this huge hole in our general fund budget.”

Waggoner does not believe the Senate will support any tax increase, even with a budget shortfall expected to be up to $700 million.

"I know the leadership in the legislature is going to talk about continuing to downsize state government, making it more efficient, eliminating duplication and in the process we save a lot of money,” said Waggoner.

If that's not enough, Waggoner says they will have to look at other options.

“But I'm not going to say we are going to raise taxes,” explained Waggoner. “I just don't think the legislature is ready to talk about that. I know the leadership in the Senate is not ready to talk about taxes.”

"We are on critical life support right now,” said Coleman.

Coleman believes more taxes are needed and the governor needs to get his party on board.

"Most of the republicans ran on no new taxes,” said Coleman. “Sometimes I have the feeling it would be no taxes period. But we know that we are a government that is run by taxes. We cannot manufacture our own money."

___________Hyundai sets sales record but others pull aheadHyundai Motor America on Tuesday reported its second straight record sales month, part of a wider surge for the auto industry.

But while other automakers reported big gains over last January, HMA sold just 500 more vehicles than in January 2014, a 1 percent increase. By contrast, General Motors reported an 18 percent sales jump and Toyota said its sales rose 16 percent.

Hyundai has been reluctant to expand and has strained to keep up with industry growth as it reaches the limit of the number of vehicles it can make in its existing facilities.

The company's Montgomery plant makes most of the cars Hyundai sells in North America. Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama builds Sonata and Elantra sedans, both of which sold over 12,000 units in January.

Hyundai's next-best seller was the Santa Fe CUV, at 7,749 units.

HMA has said expansion talks are underway and has indicated SUVs are the biggest potential source for sales growth.

SUVs helped lead the January sales growth for GM and others as plunging gas prices brought buyers back.

Trucks, vans and SUVs were expected to account for 55 percent of sales to individual buyers in January, the highest percentage since 2004, according to the forecasting firm LMC Automotive.

Analysts expect U.S. sales to increase this year, but at a slower pace than in recent years, as sales approach 17 million, their highest level in a decade.

That slowdown could be more pronounced for Hyundai as it works to build enough vehicles to meet demand.

The Montgomery assembly line rolls round the clock on weekdays and will also run one Saturday this month, HMA spokesman Robert Burns said.

The plant normally adds more overtime and weekend shifts as it gears up for the spring car-buying season. The company is expecting this spring to be especially busy.

"With consumer confidence at a seven-year high and gasoline and energy prices on the decline, more car buyers will be heading into the dealerships in 2015," Bob Pradzinski, HMA vice president of national sales, said.

____________Obama seeks $50 million to restore Selma trail, other civil rights sites to honor Voting Rights ActThe White House is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act by earmarking $50 million to restore key civil rights areas around the nation.

The president's budget includes money for the national historical trail from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, which commemorates in part the "Bloody Sunday" attack by police on civil rights demonstrators. Their march was portrayed in the Oscar-nominated film "Selma."

The attack helped boost the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which banned the use of literacy tests, added federal oversight for minority voters and allowed federal prosecutors to investigate the use of poll taxes in state and local elections. The White House said part of the money for the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail would be for museum collections, oral histories and online access to collections.

Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., said she was pleased Obama's budget "includes a commitment to preserve a critical part of our history."

Also in the request is money for improvements at the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site in Arkansas and the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent federal troops to Central High in 1957 to enforce a court order to let nine black children attend the school, which is still a working school as well as a national historical site. The King Historical Site includes the birthplace, churches and grave of King. All are controlled in part or in full by the National Park Service.

The money is part of a $4 trillion budget sent by President Barack Obama to Congress on Monday. The plans still have to be approved by the Republican-controlled House and Senate.

Obama plans to travel to Alabama in March to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act.

___________

Author’s hometown excited, perplexed by ‘Mockingbird’ sequelIn the small Alabama town author Harper Lee made famous with “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the Southern classic novel can be seen and felt everywhere.

Signs in Monroeville are decorated with mockingbirds. The old courthouse, a model for the movie version of the book, is now a museum that sells souvenirs including coffee cups, aprons and Christmas ornaments. A statue in the town square and a mural decorating the side of a building depict characters who inhabited a fictional version of the town Lee called “Maycomb, Alabama.”

So when it was announced Tuesday that Lee had written a second novel to be released this summer, Monroeville residents and visitors alike were pleased and excited — but they were also perplexed.

The first book centered on small-town attorney Atticus Finch, his children Scout and Jem, and racial injustice in the Jim Crow South. The new book, “Go Set a Watchman,” is described as a sequel that Lee actually wrote in the 1950s before “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

“I was really surprised,” said Jillian Schultz, 28, who owns a business in the town square. “You know there’s a lot of controversy about whether Harper Lee actually wrote the (first) book. There’s been so many years in between, and you have to wonder, ‘How did somebody forget about a book?’”

Located halfway between Montgomery and Mobile, Monroeville calls itself the “Literary Capital of Alabama,” a designation bestowed by the state Legislature in the late 1990s. Besides Lee, the city was home to novelist Truman Capote and Pulitzer Prize-winning editorialist Cynthia Tucker.

For years, the town of 6,300 was known as the home of a huge Vanity Fair mill and outlet, but the factory shut down nearly 20 years ago. That left Monroeville with “Mockingbird” and its literary heritage to attract visitors off the nearest highway, Interstate 65, about 25 miles away.

The nonprofit Monroe County Heritage Museum opens the old courthouse to visitors and features a display about Lee’s life in her own words. Fans can sit in the courtroom balcony depicted in the Academy Award-winning screen version of the book.

Area residents put on a play based on the book each spring, holding the first act of sold-out performances on the courthouse lawn, then taking patrons inside for the climactic courtroom scenes. While visitors are few in shops right now, they’ll return once winter is over.

“It will be busy again during the play,” Schultz said.

Visitors likely won’t see the 88-year-old Lee, who lived in New York for years but now resides in an assisted living center not far from where she grew up. A longtime friend said she is deaf, blind and in poor health, spending much of her time in a wheelchair. She was last seen publicly in November at the funeral of her older sister, Alice Lee, who long represented the author and was known for being protective of her.Harper publisher Jonathan Burnham acknowledged Tuesday that the publisher has had no direct conversations about the new book with Harper Lee, but communicated through her Monroeville attorney, Tonja Carter, and literary agent Andrew Nurnburg.

The publisher says Carter came upon the manuscript at a “secure location where it had been affixed to an original typescript of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’”

Burnham said during a telephone interview that he had known both Carter and Nurnburg for years and was “completely confident” Lee was fully involved in the decision to release the book.

“We’ve had a great deal of communication with Andrew and Tonja,” said Burnham, adding that Nurnburg had met with her recently and found her “feisty and in very fine spirits.”

Some “Mockingbird” fans encountered in Monroeville on Tuesday said they are excited by the news of a new book.

“I bet it’s going to be great. The first one was,” said Judy Turberville, of nearby Frisco City. Turberville said she can’t wait to read “Go Set a Watchman,” which publisher Harper said will be released July 14.

Ginger Brookover, who lives in West Virginia, is among the tourists who have been lured to Monroeville by “Mockingbird.” In the middle of her second trip to town when the publisher announced Lee’s new novel, Brookover got goose bumps.

“I’m just absolutely shaking,” she said.

Worldwide sales of “To Kill A Mockingbird” have topped 40 million copies since its release in July 1960. Although occasionally banned over the years because of its language and racial themes, “To Kill a Mockingbird” has become a standard for reading clubs and middle and high schools.

_____________Alabama’s Republican governor suggests he might propose a tax hikeAlabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R) on Monday suggested that he may push a tax hike in his deeply conservative state.

Bentley told legislators and business leaders at a Monday lunch that he’s targeting tax deductions—which he says is not the same as raising taxes—and “unequally paid taxes,” AL.com’s Brendan Kirby reports:

“I’m going to do some bold things, folks,” he said, adding that when it comes time to ask the people of Alabama in a few months for more revenue, “It’s going to be my job. They’re going to look at me.”

The state faces a budget shortfall “that rises into the hundreds of millions of dollars,” Bentley said in his inaugural address two weeks ago. He has previously estimated the size of that gap to be about $700 million, including a roughly $250 million shortfall as well as repayments to the state’s rainy day and education funds. He ruled out raising property taxes in early January.

“I will propose what has to be raised,” he said on Monday, though AL.com reports that he did not provide specifics. “But whenever I send over a budget, they always change things.”

Republican legislators in attendance were cautious in responding to Bentley’s comments.

“I don’t know what he has in mind,” Rep. Randy Davis told AL.com. “Probably 75 percent of the legislature ran on no new taxes.”

While overall state revenues have recovered to pre-recession levels, that is not the case with Alabama, according to Pew Charitable Trusts data.

____________The UK voted yes on ‘three-parent babies’ today. Here’s how one baby can have three people’s DNAThe United Kingdom could become the first country to allow three people to parent one child -- after a fashion, anyway. The technique, which uses donated DNA from a third party to cut out the risk of certain genetic disorders that the parents might pass on, was put to a vote Tuesday in the House of Commons. If the bill (which passed 382-128) gets the backing of Parliament's upper chamber later this month, this method of DNA donation would become legal in the UK in October of 2015.

But how exactly does a baby end up with three "parents," and why is the technique so controversial?

The babies that result from this technique can only attribute around .1% of their DNA to the third party, so "parent" is a bit of a strong word. The donor provides only their mitochondria. Often called the "power plants" of the cell, the mitochondria converts energy from food into energy that can power a cell. When someone's mitochondria don't function properly, it's bad news indeed.

British lawmakers voted to allow scientists to create babies from the DNA of three people -- a move that could prevent some children from inheriting potentially fatal diseases. (AP)Mitochondrial diseases can cause a whole host of life threatening problems, and it's estimated that as many as 4,000 children are born with such conditions in the United States each year.

The technique up for vote, which was developed by British researchers, takes a mitochondria from a healthy female donor and combines it with the DNA of two parents in an in-vitro fertilization. This can be accomplished at either the egg stage or the embryo stage: In one method, two eggs are fertilized with the father's sperm -- one from the donor, and one from the mother -- and the parents' genetic information is inserted into the donor's embryo, which has had everything but the mitochondria cleared out. In another, the nucleus of a mother's egg cell is placed directly into a donor egg, replacing the original nucleus there.

Last week, 40 experts from 14 different countries signed a letter to The Guardian urging British politicians to support the donation protocol. But the Church of England has come out in opposition of the technique. Naysayers cite ethical concerns: Some take a pro-life stance, arguing against the embryo destruction that occurs during the process. Others have expressed concern that this technique opens the door to "designer babies" chosen for desirable physical or mental traits.

"The biggest problem is that this has been described as three-parent IVF. In fact it is 2.001-parent IVF," Gillian Lockwood, a reproductive ethicist, told the BBC. "Less than a tenth of one per cent of the genome is actually going to be affected. It is not part of what makes us genetically who we are.It doesn't affect height, eye color, intelligence, musicality. It simply allows the batteries to work properly."

There are already people out three with 2.001 parents. A similar technique was pioneered in the U.S. during the 90s, but was banned after less than 100 babies were born.

In fact, having a stranger's DNA in your body permanently isn't a novel idea at all.

"Think about bone marrow transplants,"Peter Braude, emeritus professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Kings College London, told the BBC. "Let's say unfortunately you have leukaemia and you have to have your bone marrow radiated for the cancer to be killed and then it is replaced by bone marrow from someone else - say me. Effectively from that time onwards, you will have circulating in your body DNA from me. You won't be related to me, you may be grateful to me, but you will have DNA from a third person circulating in your body."

______________

Everything you need to know about measlesMeasles is an extremely contagious respiratory infection caused by a virus. Once common in the United States, it was eliminated here in 2000 but is resurgent today, mostly because of the growing number of people who are refusing to vaccinate their children or delaying those vaccinations, experts say.

Here is the information you need to understand the burgeoning debate about measles.

Who gets the measles? What are the symptoms?

Mostly children, but unvaccinated adults who never have had the disease are at risk too. It starts with a fever, runny nose, sore throat and red eyes and is followed by the well-known rash of red dots that can cover your entire body, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But I've heard measles can be more dangerous than that.

Yes. Fatalities are rare in the United States, but one or two of every 1,000 children who contract measles will die from the disease, according to Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. More common complications include pneumonia, encephalitis (swelling of the brain) and deafness. Pregnant women who get the measles may give birth prematurely or deliver low-birth-weight babies.

How is it spread?

Mostly by coughing and sneezing. Also, measles can spread if you touch a surface where the virus is present and then touch your nose or mouth. The virus can live on a surface or hang in the air for as long as two hours after an infected person has coughed or sneezed. In fact, measles is so contagious that 90 percent of people who are not immune can get it from being near a single person with the disease, according to the CDC. People are contagious from four days before the rash appears until four days after it shows up.

When did the vaccine become available?

The vaccine, which uses a live virus to stimulate production of antibodies to the measles virus, became available in 1963. Widespread use began in the mid- to late 1960s. Before then, the United States averaged hundreds of thousands of measles cases every year. There were periodic outbreaks, mostly among unvaccinated children, until 2000, when endemic measles was declared eliminated in the United States.

If I've had the measles, am I immune? What if I'm not sure?

Yes, you only get measles once. If you're older than 52, chances are good you've had the measles. If you're not sure, your doctor can perform a simple blood test to determine that. If you're younger, she may just skip the blood test and give you the measles booster injection because there is no harm in doing that, according to Mark Sawyer, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine.

How effective is the measles vaccine?

The first dose, given at 12 months, is about 95 percent effective. The second dose, given at age 4 to 6 years, improves those odds to 98 or 99 percent. So it's possible to get the measles even if you've had the two recommended doses. But it's extremely unlikely.

If so many people are vaccinated, why is measles spreading in the United States?

Last year, there were 644 cases of measles in the United States, the most since 1994. A month into 2015, there already have been 102 cases in 14 states. The CDC says last year's outbreak — and, most likely, this year's as well — was caused by unvaccinated travelers becoming infected abroad and bringing the virus into the United States. In parts of southern and northern California, where some communities have high rates of people who have not been immunized, the disease is more easily spread. Last year, for example it tore through an Amish community in Ohio where many people had not been inoculated.

Children less than a year old typically are not vaccinated, because their immune systems are not ready. And some people, children and adults alike, cannot be immunized for medical reasons. That makes both groups vulnerable to the virus.

All 50 states require vaccination for some or all of the following diseases before children can enter school: mumps, measles rubella, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus and polio, according to the CDC.

Why would anyone refuse to be vaccinated or to inoculate his children?

In 1998, a study published in the prestigious medical journal the Lancet suggested that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine could cause autism. The research by Andrew Wakefield was later discredited and the study was retracted by the journal in 2010. But the paper set off a movement among people who continue to believe that there could be a link between the vaccine and autism. It has been fanned by the support of some celebrities.

Vaccination is also opposed by some people on religious grounds, and some states allow parents to opt out of vaccinating their children based on "personal beliefs." California, epicenter of the current outbreak, is one of them.

Do children really get 10 vaccinations at once, as Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Monday?

Close, but not really. Under the standard recommended vaccine schedule, a child could receive five injections and an oral vaccine at two months. Some of those injections cover more than one illness — the DPT injection, for example, protects against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (whooping cough). At 12 months, the same child might receive six injections that protect against eight diseases, if the physician didn't use a combination vaccine, Sawyer said. But most do.

However, many physicians will spread those multiple injections over a few weeks if it makes parents uncomfortable to administer so many during a single visit, Sawyer noted. Doctors are free to tinker with the schedule a bit, he said.

But that becomes a problem when some parents decide to delay vaccinations by months and even years, he said. In that case, children are going too long without critically needed protections against very serious illnesses, he said. Right now, with a measles outbreak in Southern California, Sawyer said he would not recommend even a short delay in a measles immunization.

See the vaccination schedule recommended by the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics here.

Isn't measles a lot worse in some other countries? Why?

Yes. Twenty million people get measles annually and in 2013, about 145,700 of them, mostly children younger than 5, died. Consider the 2014 totals in the Philippines (53,357 confirmed cases) and China (50,960 confirmed cases), according to the World Health Organization.

In the Philippines, Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 disrupted vaccination programs and accelerated the measles outbreak there, according to Steve Cochi, senior adviser in the Global Immunization division of the CDC. In China, the disease has spread as the country failed to immunize its huge population of migrant workers, he said.

Still, conditions have vastly improved abroad as a result of a concerted vaccination campaign. The number of measles deaths worldwide dropped by 75 percent from an estimated 544,200 in 2000 to 145,700 in 2013, according to the WHO.

If I'm traveling to one of these places, what should I do? And what if I'm bringing young children?

Adults and teenagers who aren't immunized should get both doses of the vaccine, at least 28 days apart, according to the CDC. There's also no harm in any adult getting the booster. Children who are at least 12 months old should also get both doses, again separating the injections by 28 days.

Infants who are at least six months old can get one dose of the vaccine to help protect them, even though the recommended vaccine schedule doesn't call for them to be immunized until 12 months. However, those children will subsequently need two more doses to be fully protected, Sawyer said.