A halfway house is moving to a Northeast Charlotte neighborhood. The house will give women who had good behavior in prison an opportunity for a second chance.

But their neighbor isn't happy the house is coming there.

The halfway house's neighbor isn't some old stick in the mud woman, it's a church.

A church. This doesn't seem very Christ-like.

According to the Charlotte Observer, Harbor Baptist Church thinks these women will harm the 500 children the church ministers to.

Sounds like these kids are getting hurt from the intolerant people who are supposed to be helping them.

Not what Jesus would do.

Project supporters broke ground for the Center for Women on Friday. But Harbor Baptist Church on Old Concord Road remains optimistic it can stop the project.

The next episode in the controversy takes place today: At the order of Superior Court Judge Robert Ervin, the city's Zoning Board of Adjustment reconsiders a previous decision to give the site a zoning variance that allowed work to begin.

Church officials filed a court challenge to that decision in February.

However, backers of the center said that, even if the zoning decision is reversed, the project will go ahead, with adjustments. Construction is set to begin in September.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine it would be a church that would oppose this,” said Myra Clark of the Center for Community Transitions, which is behind the project.

“I would think that reaching out to people who have lost their way is a core value for most churches. And I had hoped the women would be able to worship at that church.”

On that point, the church agrees. Harbor Baptist Pastor J.R. Farrington said he'd be thrilled to host the women at his church, which has up to 700 in its pews on Sundays.

Here's hoping that these women will find a better church to worship in. A church where the pastor is not an asshole.

Gearing up for Halloween, right alongside retailers, some media outlets are doing their best to scare the crap out of people about swine flu.

(Oh, I'm sorry -- the P.C. term is H1N1. We don't want to upset the pork industry, now do we CDC?)

Be smart. Wash your hands. Stay away from sick people. If you're sick stay home. And, most importantly, don't freak out. Let me repeat: Do.Not.Freak.Out.

Swine flu may hospitalize 1.8 million patients in the U.S. this year, filling intensive care units to capacity and causing “severe disruptions” during a fall resurgence, scientific advisers to the White House warned.

Swine flu, also known as H1N1, may infect as much as half of the population and kill 30,000 to 90,000 people, double the deaths caused by the typical seasonal flu, according to the planning scenario issued yesterday by the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology. Intensive care units in hospitals, some of which use 80 percent of their space in normal operation, may need every bed for flu cases, the report said.

More from Bloomberg.com.

Meanwhile, there are reports that the vaccine might make you sick too.

Atalaya Capital Management.

Outgoing CEO Ben Eason lost control of the company his parents founded in 1972 to the New York hedge fund from whom he borrowed $30 million to buy the Chicago Reader and Washington City Paper.

Atalaya won the auction with a $5 million cash bid. Eason’s highest offer was a $2.3 million bid, $1.5 million of which was “in-kind contributions.” Had Eason won, he also would have had to repay Atalaya at least $12 million.

Read the details here.

No surprise here: Big business leaders are abusing the legislative process in their ongoing attempt to stifle progress and sell our future so they can continue to feed their addiction to money.

While Big Business and the EPA are busy measuring their johnsons, you might be interested to know that a recent study on global warming includes our fair city. Charlotte is not only listed as one of the 30 cities at risk, but it's listed at the top of the at-risk list -- right up there with Los Angeles, New York and Dallas.

The nation's largest business lobby wants to put the science of global warming on trial.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, trying to ward off potentially sweeping federal emissions regulations, is pushing the Environmental Protection Agency to hold a rare public hearing on the scientific evidence for man-made climate change.

Chamber officials say it would be "the Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century" -- complete with witnesses, cross-examinations and a judge who would rule, essentially, on whether humans are warming the planet to dangerous effect.

"It would be evolution versus creationism," said William Kovacs, the chamber's senior vice president for environment, technology and regulatory affairs. "It would be the science of climate change on trial."

The goal of the chamber, which represents 3 million large and small businesses, is to fend off potential emissions regulations by undercutting the scientific consensus over climate change. If the EPA denies the request, as expected, the chamber plans to take the fight to federal court.

The EPA is having none of it, calling a hearing a "waste of time" and saying that a threatened lawsuit by the chamber would be "frivolous."

EPA spokesman Brendan Gilfillan said the agency based its proposed finding that global warming is a danger to public health "on the soundest peer-reviewed science available, which overwhelmingly indicates that climate change presents a threat to human health and welfare."

Environmentalists say the chamber's strategy is an attempt to sow political discord by challenging settled science -- and note that in the famed 1925 Scopes trial, which pitted lawyers Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan in a courtroom battle over a Tennessee science teacher accused of teaching evolution illegally, the scientists won in the end.

In the coming weeks, the EPA is set to formally declare that the heat-trapping gases scientists blame for climate change endanger human health, and are thus subject to regulation under the Clean Air Act. The so-called endangerment finding will be a cornerstone of the Obama administration's plan to set strict new emissions standards on cars and trucks.

Most climate scientists agree that greenhouse gas emissions, caused by the burning of fossil fuels and other human activities, are warming the planet. Using computer models and historical temperature data, those scientists predict the warming will accelerate unless greenhouse gas emissions are dramatically reduced.

"The need for urgent action to address climate change is now indisputable," said a recent letter to world leaders by the heads of the top science agencies in 13 of the world's largest countries, including the head of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

Read more from The L.A. Times.

From National Geographic:

Further reading: Asia hits back on climate change (The Financial Times)

China and India have closed ranks on climate change, blaming developed countries for the lack of progress towards a deal.

"They have talked much, but not done much," said Xie Zhenhua, China's minister in charge of climate change, adding that the conflict between developed and developing nations was driven by commercial and political interest.

His remarks came during two days of talks with Jairam Ramesh, India's environment minister, which were aimed at -synchronising the two countries' positions as negotiations at Copenhagen, Denmark, on climate change draw near.

Mr Ramesh also rejected the notion that the two Asian giants were obstructing a deal. "The way the narrative seems to have evolved is that countries like India and China are holding back an inter-national agreement," he told foreign journalists before leaving for China. "Far from it."

The two countries are responding to intensifying criticism from western -governments and climate change activists for refusing to agree to binding -targets for carbon emissions as part of efforts to forge an international deal to combat global warming. But the negotiators' remarks also reflect their growing disillusionment with the talks.

"Developed countries just keep repeating the demand that China should commit to capping its emissions but they are not engaging in a sincere dialogue about the proposal China has put forward," said Zou Ji, a leading climate change scholar at Renmin University who has advised Beijing on its climate change policy and is head of the World Resources Institute in China.

Don't stop there. Read this: U.S. needs climate law before Copenhagen (Reuters)

Groups from the oil industry, agriculture and manufacturing have lined up to oppose climate change legislation, saying it would add costs for producers, farmers and consumers without guaranteeing environmental gains.

Vilsack and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke met with groups from the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states to press their message that a climate change law would be good for the environment and economy.

A U.S. Agriculture Department study shows farmers could boost their net income by $10 billion to $20 billion in the long term earning money from offsets -- contracts to plant trees or change the way they till land to lock more carbon in soils, Vilsack said.

And this: Report: Future U.S. heat waves will be worse (USA Today)

"The report highlights the current vulnerabilities from heat waves growing," says climate scientist Amanda Staudt of the National Wildlife Federation, a report sponsor. Average temperatures are expected to grow 4 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit nationwide over the next century, according to the federal climate research group.

The severity will vary with industrial emissions of greenhouse gases, but "heat waves will continue to get worse in the coming decades," the report warns. It lists the 30 major cities most at risk.

In June, the climate research program published a report that found average temperatures in the USA have increased more than 2 degrees in the past five decades, largely as the result of emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, which are produced by burning fossil fuels such as coal and oil. Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere, which drives up temperatures in the air and oceans.

Isn't Jesus' legacy all about love and forgiveness? Acceptance and faith?

So, what gives Harbor Baptist Church? In your version of religious reality does Jesus dislike people who've paid for their crimes, people who are trying to turn their lives around?

Yeah. Your actions — hiding behind the image of innocent children while behaving like judgmental hypocrites— aren't coming across as very Christian-y.

The (very successful) Center for Women, a halfway house for women, is moving into your 'hood -- like it or not. So, why don't you play like your savior and open your arms wide for a huge embrace.

A proposed halfway house for women transitioning from prison to the community has run into an unexpected opponent: the northeast Charlotte church next door.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine it would be a church that would oppose this,” said Myra Clark of the Center for Community Transitions, which is behind the project.

“I would think that reaching out to people who have lost their way is a core value for most churches. And I had hoped the women would be able to worship at that church.”

• Farrington

On that point, the church agrees. Harbor Baptist Pastor J.R. Farrington said he'd be thrilled to host the women at his church, which has up to 700 in its pews on Sundays.

But he views the proximity of the center as a potential threat to the hundreds of children who participate in the church's outreach ministry. Farrington said 500 kids from low-income neighborhoods attend Sunday services.

“This is not about us being exclusive, or thinking we're better than folks, or not wanting folks to have a second chance,” Farrington said. “I'm worried about the lack of supervision, and the fact that all these children are next door. … I'd be asking the same questions if this was located next to a public school.”

Only those who are within three years of finishing their sentences are eligible, and they must submit to regular drug testing, she added. Their crimes range from simple assault to theft, property crimes and drugs, she said; no sex offenders are allowed.

“I've offered to sit with (Farrington) and explain all this, so he will feel the children are safe, and he's yet to sit with me,” Clark said.

Read the entire article at Charlotte.com.