The jobless claims figures follow the employment report for March, which showed an increase in non-farm payrolls of only 120,000, less than half the average increase over the previous three months and not even sufficient to keep pace with normal population growth._____
These signs of a faltering jobs market were reinforced by dismal manufacturing data released this week. The Federal Reserve issued a report on manufacturing across the country that showed a 0.2 percent decline in March, the biggest drop since April of 2011.
Obituary: Charles Colson, 80, former Nixon hatchet man who turned evangelist after being "born again" in prison, of complications resulting from a brain hemorrhage.
"He had this reputation as being this ruthless guy. Even Richard Nixon thought he was ruthless," said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, who compared Colson to Buckley. "That is so different than the Chuck Colson I knew. He was the least ego-driven and one of the most friendly, kind people I've ever known."
The fact that Colson was "born again" into evangelical Christianity as he was about to be charged in the Watergate scandal caused much snickering in the press. But Colson's conversion proved genuine and lasting. After serving seven months, mostly at the Maxwell Correctional Facility in Alabama, he founded Prison Fellowship Ministries, which says it operates in 1,367 prisons in the U.S. and has more than 200,000 inmates participating in its programs.
Colson turned PFM into a respected conglomerate of organizations and programs dedicated to serving prisoners, ex-prisoners and their families and encouraging them to embrace Jesus Christ. And as his organization grew, so did his fame with evangelicals. His daily four-minute BreakPoint radio commentary was carried by 1,300 stations.
He didn't get rich off his evangelical efforts, either.
No comments:
Post a Comment