First United Methodist Church, 237 W. Silver St., Sharon, Pa., will have a rummage sale from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday. Lunch will be available from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and there will be live music and a bake sale all day. There will be a $1-a-bag sale on Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon. For more information, contact (724) 983-0200.

Westinghouse Electric said it has signed an agreement to acquire a 52 percent stake in Japan’s sole producer of nuclear fuel used for reactors of the boiling water and the pressurized water type.

The acquisition of a stake in Nuclear Fuel Industries Ltd., expected to be finalized in May, will cost about $100 million, according to the Monroeville company’s announcement.

Conneaut Lake Joint Municipal Authority members voted Wednesday to hold a special meeting May 13 at 8 p.m. to take action on whether to accept the lone bid of $200,000 for nearly $900,000 the amusement park owes the authority. The debt is from a 2003 mortgage to repair the park’s sewer system as well as four municipal liens for unpaid sewer bills.

Members of the five-member authority unanimously voted to hold a special meeting after receiving only one bid for the debt. The lone bid for $200,000 was from First Capital Finance Inc. of Ohio. The authority wants to review the bid with its attorney, Alan Shaddinger, before taking action, according to Dean Callendar, authority chairman.

The group says a mis-step could end up closing the park, rather than taking it further out of debt.

The Apology read in part: 

Because of an electrical problem with the Tribune presses, today’s print edition will be home-delivered a minimum of three hours later than normal. We apologize for any inconvenience.

The swine-flu scare has prompted a number of recommendations from the Catholic Diocese of Dallas, including a big one about attendance at Mass.

“If you are not feeling well, especially during this time of concern, please stay at home and do not risk spreading infection to others,” said the Rev. Michael Dugan, the diocese’s director of the Office of Liturgy, in a statement posted on the diocese Web site.

The diocese also posted on its Web site a letter from Bishop Kevin Farrell, who said he has encouraged priests to consider suspending the use of wine during communion, since it’s offered from a common cup.

Bishop Farrell also said he has asked the priests to be sure that all Eucharistic ministers use “proper hygiene” when distributing the bread or host during communion.

At the Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe, in downtown Dallas, priests already had been equipped with hand sanitizers. But now those have been placed at the doors of the doors of the cathedral for parishioners’ use, said Sandra Cortinas, director of business administration.

The Diocese of Dallas covers nine counties, and has an estimated Catholic population of 1.1 million, in more than 70 parishes.

Editors Note: Wheres Benny Hin When You Need Him. Your Healed……… Smack!!!!!!!!!

The Madonna of Orgasm Church (Orgasmens Madonnas kyrka) has suffered a disappointing reversal following a Swedish court ruling that the church’s name is unacceptable and offensive.  

The church’s founder, artist Carlos Bebeacua who resides in Lövestad in southern Sweden, has been fighting a lengthy legal battle in his bid to have the Madonna of Orgasm Church registered as a faith community in Sweden.

Founded by Bebeacua in the early 1990s, the Madonna of Orgasm Church is centered on a similarly named painting by Bebeacua which sparked protests during the 1992 World’s Fair in Seville, Spain.

“The orgasm is God, the orgasm should be worshiped,” Bebeacua once told the Kvällsposten newspaper.

“The orgasm is the ultimate feeling of lust, it shouldn’t be limited to ejaculation. You can reach it through art or by looking at a landscape and thinking ‘Wow!’”

Bebeacua hoped that registering the Madonna of Orgasm Church as a faith community in Sweden would encourage more people to consider the orgasm as God.

In November 2008, he achieved an important victory when the county administrative court overruled Sweden’s Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency (Kammarkollegiet), which had refused to register the Madonna of Orgasm Church because its name was offensive.

But Kammarkollegiet appealed the ruling to the Administrative Court of Appeal, which on Tuesday overturned the lower court’s decision.

According to the appeals court, the name of Bebeacua’s Madonna of Orgasm Church “violates what is considered acceptable praxis” and therefore can be denied registration as a faith community.

Specifically, the court took issue with juxtaposition of the words “Madonna”, “orgasm”, and “church”.

“In the opinion of the administrative court of appeal, the intention of such a combination of words, even in relation to the registration of a community for religious activities, must be to offend, not only for those within the wider circles of the general public who have Christian leanings, but also in society in general,” wrote the court.

Editors Note: This is why we need freedom of religion, if we celebrated this subject when I was 14 I would of been the most religious kid in town.

Now here’s an interesting spin on the Arlen Specter switch. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) appeared on Fox News today, where he presented the case that Specter’s switch is the first evidence that people are rebelling against Obama, and that the Republican Party is coming back!

Inhofe explained that this was a sign that Obama and the Democrats were overreaching, just as Bill Clinton did in 1993, and the people are rebelling against it just as they did in 1994:

“Now the evidence of this was found out when Arlen Specter made his decision,” Inhofe explained. “And that is all of a sudden, we find out that Arlen Specter is down in the Republican Party, down in terms of his popularity. The guy that ran against him and was defeated by Arlen Specter in, six years ago, now is so far ahead of him that Arlen Specter’s own advisers said there’s no way that you can win this thing unless you change to the Democratic Party. Now to me, that’s the evidence it’s coming.”

Inhofe appears to be thinking here that the state of opinion in the Republican Party is tantamount to the nation’s opinion overall. This might be true enough if it’s just applied to his home state of Oklahoma. But as we’ve learned in 2006, 2008 and recent months, this doesn’t exactly apply to the whole country.

Pittsburgh Steelers receiver and Super Bowl MVP Santonio Holmes was arraigned Wednesday on a misdemeanor marijuana charge stemming from a traffic stop.Holmes’ attorney, Robert DelGreco Jr., appeared at the brief hearing where charges were formally presented.

Holmes did not appear, nor was he required to.

Girard Historical Society will meet at 10 a.m. Saturday at Barnhisel House. The house will be open for tours from 1 to 4 p.m. May 10 and 24. Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for senior citizens, and $2 for children. Those under 6 are admitted free. To schedule a special tour, call Colette Chuey, (330) 545-6162.

New Wilmington Kiwanis is sponsoring a book sale through Saturday at the garage area behind Jameson Health Center on South Market Street. The hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Paperbacks are 50 cents, and hardbacks are $1.Proceeds support local community programs.