Candidate reaches out to Muslims

Alicia Robinson

In a bid to boost Libertarian Party ranks, Judge Jim Gray of Newport

Beach visited with the Islamic Society of Corona/Norco at the Embassy

Suites hotel in Garden Grove on Sunday.

Gray, the Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate, urged those in

attendance to help present a positive image of Muslims by getting

involved in the political process.

“They are people -- good hearted, family-oriented people,” Gray

said in a written statement. “And they are being unjustly used as a

scapegoat for people who use terror in the name of peace.”

The effort to reach out to Muslim voters is part of a larger

strategy to add grass roots and minority organizations to the

Libertarian Party. Gray will continue those efforts Sunday, when he

speaks at the Anaheim Convention Center at an event honoring Indian

spiritual leader Pramukh Swami Maharaj.

Gray will face incumbent Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and

Republican Challenger Bill Jones in the November election.

Rohrabacher urges Congress

to make space flight easier

In the wake of Monday’s trip to the Earth’s atmosphere by

commercial astronaut Mike Melvill, the first-ever privately funded

space flight, longtime space travel proponent Rep. Dana Rohrabacher

urged Congress to streamline regulations to make it easier for

entrepreneurs to build space planes to take people and cargo into

space affordably.

He said in a statement that the House in March had passed the

Commercial Space Launch Amendments act, and he hopes to work with the

Senate to get the bill to the president to sign by this summer.

Cox remembers birthday

of the Civil Rights Act

Rep. Chris Cox on Wednesday hailed the Civil Rights Act, a

landmark law prohibiting discrimination based on race, religion or

nationality.

July 2 will be the 40th anniversary of when the Civil Rights Act

was passed in 1964.

“This legislation finally said to the world that if you’re an

American, our government will protect your freedom, not only from

outside aggressors but from those in your own country who would deny

employment benefits to you or deny you access to a public place

because of your race, color, religion, sex or national origin,” Cox

said in a statement.

Bill to streamline homeland

security moving along well

Cox’s bill to streamline homeland security funding for first

responders cleared another hurdle last week when the House Judiciary

Committee passed it.

The bill would scrap the current funding formula for the

Department of Homeland Security’s terrorism preparedness funding and

replace it with a more subjective method that doles out funding based

on a community’s risk level.

Cox is hoping the bill will get a vote on the House floor before

the July 4 recess.

Brandt event scheduled

for today moved to July

Democratic congressional candidate Jim Brandt, who is challenging

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher for the 46th Congressional District seat, has

rescheduled an event that was set for today.

A gala party hosted by Brandt’s supporters at the Coast Hotel in

Long Beach will be held on July 16 instead because of scheduling

conflicts with the earlier date. For information on the event, call

(562)624-8989 or visit https://www.friends4brandt.com.

Resident remembers former

President Ronald Reagan

The recent funeral of former President Ronald Reagan was

particularly poignant for Newport Beach resident David Kernan, who

had been a member of Reagan’s advance team and helped plan the

funeral.

In a recent letter to the Pilot, Kernan recounted the service and

how afterward he and Reagan’s closest friends shared stories for

several hours before the former president was buried.

“So now it is over and the sadness is overwhelming ... as long as

we were all working and planing he was somehow with us ... now he is

a part of history, and we can no longer keep him to ourselves,”

Kernan wrote.