Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin Announced as CPAC 2012 Closing Speaker

January 5, 2012

Contacts: Kristy Campbell, (202) 347-9388, KCampbell@conservative.org

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin Announced as CPAC 2012 Closing Speaker

Former Vice-Presidential Candidate will Conclude Three-Day Event with Address to America’s Oldest, Largest Annual Gathering of Grassroots Conservative Activists

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Conservative Union (ACU) today announced former Vice Presidential candidate and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will deliver a special keynote address at CPAC 2012 – the 39th annual Conservative Political Action Conference.  America’s largest gathering of conservative leaders and activists will be held Thursday, February 9 – Saturday, February 11, 2012, in Washington, DC.  The FOX News contributor and New York Timesbestselling author will conclude the three-day event, a slot occupied by Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and U.S. Congressman Allen West in the past three years.     

“Few national conservative leaders in America today energize and inspire our grassroots activists like Governor Sarah Palin. Her strong record of leadership, championing of our shared principles and magnetic personality have made Sarah Palin a hero to millions of conservatives across the country,” said ACU Chairman Al Cardenas. “As we ready for the critical 2012 election, I’m honored to welcome Governor Palin to the Conservative Political Action Conference for the first-time ever.”

Every year, the ACU brings thousands of grassroots conservatives and conservative leaders together in Washington, DC for three days of blockbuster speeches, policy discussions and networking opportunities – all celebrating the shared principles of smaller government, a strong national defense and traditional values.

CPAC 2012 features an all-star line-up that also includes Ann Coulter, Senators Jim DeMint and Marco Rubio, former Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Governors Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney, Congressmen Jim Jordan, Steve King, Paul Ryan and Allen West, former Senator Rick Santorum, Governor Scott Walker and many more.

The American Conservative Union is America’s oldest and largest grassroots conservative organization and was founded in 1964. The ACU has hosted CPAC in the Nation’s Capital since 1973.  To register for CPAC 2012, receive more information on this exciting event or learn more about the American Conservative Union, visit www.conservative.org

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Flood of new laws in 2012 will change abortion and immigration policies across the country - is your state on the list ?

Girls seeking abortions in New Hampshire must first tell their parents or a judge, some employers in Alabama must verify new workers' U.S. residency, and California students will be the first in the country to receive mandatory lessons about the contributions of gays and lesbians under state laws set to take effect at the start of 2012.

Many laws reflect the nation's concerns over immigration, the cost of government and the best way to protect and benefit young people, including regulations on sports concussions.

Alabama, with the country's toughest immigration law, is enacting a key provision requiring all employers who do business with any government entity to use a federal system known as E-Verify to check that all new employees are in the country legally.

Georgia is putting a similar law into effect requiring any business with 500 or more employees to use E-Verify to check the employment eligibility of new hires. The requirement is being phased in, with all employers with more than 10 employees to be included by July 2013.

Supporters said they wanted to deter illegal immigrants from coming to Georgia by making it tougher for them to work. Critics said that changes to immigration law should come at the federal level and that portions of the law already in effect are already hurting Georgia.

"It is destroying Georgia's economy and it is destroying the fabric of our social network in South Georgia," Paul Bridges, mayor of the onion-farming town of Uvalda, said in November. He is part of a lawsuit challenging the new law.

Tennessee will also require businesses to ensure employees are legally authorized to work in the U.S. but exempts employers with five or fewer workers and allows them to keep a copy of the new hire's driver's license instead of using E-Verify.

A South Carolina law would allow officials to yank the operating licenses of businesses that don't check new hires' legal status through E-verify. A federal judge last week blocked parts of the law that would have required police to check the immigration status of criminal suspects or people stopped for traffic violations they think might be in the country illegally, and that would have made it a crime for illegal immigrants to transport or house themselves.

California is also addressing illegal immigration, but with a bill that allows students who entered the country illegally to receive private financial aid at public colleges.

Many laws aim to protect young people. In Colorado, coaches will be required to bench players as young as 11 when they're believed to have suffered a head injury. The young athletes will also need medical clearance to return to play.

The law also requires coaches in public and private schools and even volunteer Little League and Pop Warner football coaches to take free annual online training to recognize the symptoms of a concussion. At least a dozen other states have enacted similar laws with the support of the National Football League.

People 18 and under in Illinois will have to wear seat belts while riding in taxis for school-related purposes, and Illinois school boards can now suspend or expel students who make explicit threats on websites against other students or school employees.

Florida will take control of lunch and other school food programs from the federal government, allowing the state to put more Florida-grown fresh fruit and vegetables on school menus. Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam says the change will help children eat healthier.

A California law will add gays and lesbians and people with disabilities to the list of social and ethnic groups whose contributions must be taught in history lessons in public schools. The law also bans teaching materials that reflect poorly on gays or particular religions.

Opponents have filed five potential initiatives to repeal the requirement outright or let parents remove their children while gays' contributions are being taught.

In New Hampshire, a law requiring girls seeking abortions to tell their parents or a judge first was reinstated by conservative Republicans over a gubernatorial veto. The state enacted a similar law eight years ago, but it was never enforced following a series of lawsuits.

In Arkansas, facilities that perform 10 or more nonsurgical abortions a month must be licensed by the state Health Department and be subject to inspections by the department, the same requirements faced by facilities that offer surgical abortions in the state.

It affects two Planned Parenthood facilities that offer the abortion pill, though they're not singled out in the statute.

Among federal laws, a measure Congress passed last week to extend Social Security tax cuts and federal unemployment benefit programs raises insurance fees on new mortgages and refinancings backed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration by 0.1 percent beginning Jan. 1.

That covers about 90 percent of them and effectively makes a borrower's monthly payment on a new $200,000 mortgage or refinancing about $17 a month more than it would have been if obtained before the first of the year.

Nevada's 3-month old ban on texting while driving will get tougher, with tickets replacing the warnings that police have issued since the ban took effect Oct. 1. In Pennsylvania, police are preparing to enforce that state's recently enacted ban on texting, scheduled to take effect by spring.

Election law changes in Rhode Island and Tennessee will require voters to present photo ID, a measure that supporters say prevents fraud and that opponents say will make it harder for minorities and the elderly to cast ballots.

In Ohio, a measure that creates one primary in March, instead of two that would have cost the state an extra $15 million, goes into effect later in January.

Ohio is also one of eight states with automatic increases in the minimum wage taking effect Jan. 1. The others, with increases between 28 and 37 cents, are Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Montana, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.

A few laws try to address budget woes. In Delaware, new state employees will have to contribute more to their pensions, while state workers hired after Jan. 1 in Nevada will have to pony up for their own health care costs in retirement.

Jan. 1 is the effective date in many states for laws passed during this year's legislative sessions. In others, laws take effect July 1, or 90 days after passage.

Apocalypse, or chance to make a few pesos ??? Mexico's Mayan territory starts the countdown to Dec. 21, 2012

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Seize the day.


Only a year is left before Dec. 21, 2012, when some believe the Maya predicted the end of the world.


While some doomsday theorists may suggest putting together survival kits, people in southeastern Mexico, the heart of Maya territory, plan to throw a yearlong celebration. And to make a profit while they party.


Mexico's tourism agency expects to draw 52 million visitors over the coming year just to the five states richest in Maya heritage. Mexico as a whole is expected to lure just 22 million foreigners this year.


It is selling the date, the Winter Solstice, as a time of renewal. Most Mexican archaeological authorities say that the 2012 reference on a 1,300-year-old stone tablet only marks the end of a cycle in the Mayan calendar, not an apocalypse.


"The world will not end. It is an era," said Yeanet Zaldo, a tourism spokeswoman for the Caribbean state of Quintana Roo, home to Cancun. "For us, it is a message of hope."


Cities and towns in the Mayan region are starting the yearlong countdown on Wednesday. The city of Tapachula on the Guatemalan border will start an 8-foot (2.5-meter) digital clock in its main park to begin the countdown exactly a year before the date.


In the nearby archaeological site of Izapa, Maya priests will burn incense, chant and offer prayers.


On Mexico's Caribbean coast, between the resorts of Cancun and Playa del Carmen, people are putting messages and photos in a time capsule that will be buried for 50 years. Maya priests and Indian dancers will perform a ritual at the time capsule ceremony.


"People who still live in Mayan villages will host rites and burn incense for us to go back in time and try to understand the Mayan wisdom," Zaldo said.


Yucatan state has announced plans to complete the Maya Museum of Merida by next summer.


And President Felipe Calderon recently announced there would be about 500 Maya-themed events throughout the year in southern Mexico, including workshops and dance and music festivals.


Officials are building a state-run tourist hotel at the natural reserve of Calakmul in the state of Campeche. And the National Institute of Anthropology and History is opening three additional ruins to tourists.


Some theorists have found evidence of a 2012 apocalypse in the Bible, the prophesies of Nostradamus or in the alignment of celestial bodies, and official assurances that the world is likely to continue have not convinced everyone.


An article on the website "survivalguide2012" advises readers that in addition to stocking up on emergency supplies, they might consider heading to mountains on Dec. 21, perhaps those in Alaska or Bolivia.


"Regardless whether the threat of December 21, 2012, is real or not, there is no harm in being prepared" said the author, writing under the name Yang Muffins.


The Mayan civilization, which reached its height from 300 A.D. to 900 A.D., had a talent for astronomy


Its Long Count calendar begins in 3,114 B.C., marking time in roughly 394-year periods known as Baktuns. Thirteen was a significant, sacred number for the Mayas, and they wrote that the 13th Baktun ends on Dec. 21, 2012.


The doomsday theories stem from a pair of tablets discovered in the 1960s at the archaeological site of Tortuguero in the Gulf of Mexico state of Tabasco that describe the return of a Mayan god at the end of a 13th period.


"The Maya are viewed by many westerners as exotic folks that were supposed to have had some special, secret knowledge," said Maya scholar Sven Gronemeyer. "What happens is that our expectations and fears get projected on the Maya calendar."


Gronemeyer of La Trobe University in Australia compares the supposed Mayan prophecies to the "Y2K" hype, when people feared all computer systems would crash when the new millennium began on Jan. 1, 2000.


For some reason, Gronemeyer says, people have ignored evidence that dates beyond 2012 were recorded in Mayan ruins.


"Human beings seem to be attracted by apocalyptic ideas and always assume the worst," he said.


Jonnie Channell of Albuquerque, New Mexico, says that 2012 "is going to be one of those things where people are definitely going to have to plan," not because of impending apocalypse, but because hotel rooms in the Maya region are probably going to be full.


Channell, who owns Maya Sites Travel Services, said she already has 24 reservations for three tour packages she is offering to major Mayan ruin sites in the week leading up to the solstice.


She named one "Beginning the New Calendar Era Under the Yucatan Stars."


"We put together these tours, and we've got lots of signups, and people are excited about it," she said. "If anybody think it's going to be the end of the world, then they better stay home."