Senator Sharon Brown a Republican from Kennewick, Washington introduced the legislation that would allow any business the right to deny goods or services if they felt doing so was against their philosophical beliefs, religious beliefs or matters of their conscience.

The legislation would not be applicable in denial of services to people who under federal law are in a protected class such as disability, religion or race.

Senator Brown said the bill seeks to protect religious organizations or people from legal persecution. She said state law has a big lack of protection for religion. Ten other lawmakers in Washington state signed the bill.

The new proposed legislation has not been referred to any committee and has not been scheduled for a hearing in front of the public.

It is unlikely this will take place prior to the regular session of the legislator ending this Sunday. Nevertheless, if someone succeeds in having a special session called, as is expected, the legislation could be heard at that time.

In early April, a lawsuit was filed by the ACLU after Baronelle Stutzman would not provide flowers for the wedding of a gay couple even though the couple had been long time clients of her floral shop.

President Bush said his brother did not need his counsel since he already knows he should run. Jeb Bush is a former governor of the state of Florida.

The former president said whether his younger brother ran or not was a personal decision only Jeb could make. However, the former president received some stern words from his mother Barbara, the former first lady, who said that she believes there has been enough President’s named Bush in the White House.

Bush gave his comments about his brother prior to the opening of his new presidential library in Dallas on the campus of Southern Methodist University.

Bush even spoke about a possible matchup in 2016 between his brother Jeb and the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The former president said it was very early to make any speculation about who would or would not run in the next presidential election. He also said it would become much clearer once the midterm elections have been held in late 2014.

Bush appeared at the inauguration of his library with all of his fellow former presidents, who are still living – George H.W. Bush his father, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. Also attending was Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Hagel will use this first visit as the Defense Secretary to underscore his opinion that Israel has to decide for itself whether or not to use military force in Iran.

Hagel told reporters during his flight to Israel from Washington that Israel had the right to defend its country and the U.S. and Israel shared the same objective of preventing a nuclear weapon to be made in Iran.

Even though he said the U.S. was together with Israel on stopping Iran from producing a nuclear weapon, Hagel did say the two allies could have some difference on the time when Iran might decide when to move ahead with a bomb.

Hagel will first visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum on Sunday afternoon in Jerusalem. On Sunday night, Hagel will be a dinner guest of Moshe Yaalon the Israeli Defense Minister.

During his stay in Israel, Hagel is also scheduled to have meetings with Shimon Peres the Israeli President and Benjamin Netanyahu the country’s Prime Minister.

Hagel will discuss anticipated arms sales to Israel of military equipment from the U.S. including helicopters and refueling aircraft along with radar systems for fighter jets and systems for anti-radiation.

Officials in Israel said the arms deal would help Israel preserve its military superiority in light of different weapons contracts in other countries in the Middle East.

The visit by Kerry, his first since taking the position as the top diplomat in the U.S., had not been announced beforehand for security. His trip comes following a number of disputes between the U.S. and Afghanistan over detainees’ transfers from U.S. custody to Afghan custody, the expelling of U.S. special forces and a recent accusation by Karzai that U.S. authorities were colluding with members of the Taliban to increase violence in Afghanistan.

Over the past four years, Kerry has met on five occasions with Karzai and the two have a pleasant relationship, said officials from the U.S. that spoke to reporters traveling with the Secretary of State. Officials said that Kerry is not there to lecture Karzai but rather wants to hold an open and frank discussion with the Afghan head of state.

Officials from both countries are attempting to redefine their relationship ahead of the withdrawal of combat troops before the end of 2014. It has not yet been announced by President Obama as to how many troops might stay in Afghanistan following the pull out date. The U.S. and Afghanistan are currently in talks about the status of those troops that remain.

Afghanistan and U.S. officials agreed over the weekend that Parwan detention facility prisoners would be turned over to officials from Afghanistan on Monday. This should eliminate a discord between the two nations if the accord holds and if Afghan officials do not release prisoners the U.S. said have participated in acts of terrorism.

The visit to Petra followed his visits to Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The diplomatic portion of the trip was capped off by Obama’s brokering of a new agreement between Turkey and Israel, but offered only symbolic gestures between Israel and the Palestinians over real peace.

Prior to going to see Petra, Obama increased his criticism of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, but would not commit to military aid for the rebels in Syria to help bring an end to the civil war of two years that has killed over 70,000 people.

Officials from the U.S. voiced quiet satisfaction with results of the first trip to Israel for Obama and his first international trip during his second term.

Obama was flown by helicopter to Petra and went on a walking tour of the city that is over 2,000 years old. Much of the city was carved out of sandstone cliffs.

The U.S. president had the place to himself as all ordinary tourists had to leave prior to his arrival. He was followed by a group of guards, but was able to enjoy and comment on how amazing the ruins were.

Obama arrived Friday night in Jordan and announced at that time the breakthrough between Turkey and Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu the Israeli Prime Minister apologized on behalf of Israel for the deaths of nine citizens of Turkey in a naval raid in 2010 on a flotilla bound for Gaza. The two countries promised the U.S. they would normalize relations.

Obama said if direct negotiations can be started again, he believed the potential is there for a deal. The U.S. president also said not only would the majority of Palestinians and Israelis support a peace plan, but the region and the rest of the world would as well.

The president made these remarks while appearing with the President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas at a joint news conference.

Obama said Palestinians deserve to have an independent, sovereign state and an end to Israeli occupation.

When asked about Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Obama said the most important issue was to get sovereignty for the people of Palestine.

Abbas said he and Obama spoke and he told Obama that peace between the Palestinians and Israel should not be reached through occupation, settlements, violence, arrests or through denying the rights of refugees.

The message Obama gave to emphasize how important reaching peace was for Palestinians and Israel was underscored Thursday when militants in Gaza launched rockets across the border into southern Israel.

Obama will make an appeal to both the Palestinians and Israelis to stop unilateral actions that continue to make it more difficult to hold negotiations. Those actions include repeated efforts by the Palestinians to achieve U.N. recognition because of the absence of a peach accord and the continued building of Jewish housing on landed that has been claimed by Palestinians.

As thousands of Israelis hope to be invited to listen to the U.S. President speak at the Jerusalem Convention Center, one young woman was lucky enough to be invited to be the U.S. president’s dinner guest.

White House organizers preparing the president’s trip to Israel included Aynaw on the list of dinner invitees. The newly crowned Miss Israel, who was born in Ethiopia appeared on the exclusive list of guests to the gala dinner that will be hosted by Shimon Peres the Israeli President in honor of the U.S. president.

The beautiful Aynaw, who is just 22, admitted on Wednesday that she had butterflies in her stomach. The White House organizers who arrived in Israel days ago, started to look for Miss Israel as soon as they arrived. On Monday, the group asked activists who were born in Ethiopia if they could help find the young woman. On Tuesday, the organizing group finally made contact with Aynaw and she was invited to dine next Thursday in Jerusalem at the President’s home.

Just 120 people are on the invitation list to the dinner, including Benjamin Netanyahu the Prime Minister, the speaker of the Knesset and the Chief of Staff of the IDF.

Aynaw was born in Gondar and raised with her brother by her mother alone, after their father was killed when she was just two years old. When she was only 12, her mother died and she and her brother eventually emigrated to Israel.

Ten leaders came to the White House to meet with Obama only four days after he held talks with the leaders of Jewish organizations in his preparation for traveling to Israel, Jordan and the West Bank.

The Obama administration has not announced the official dates of Obama’s planned trip, but news media in Israel has reported that the U.S. president would start his trip on March 20 in Israel.

Obama, in his meeting, was seeking input for his different meetings while in the Middle East. He is schedule to hold talks separately with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, Mahmoud Abbas the Palestinian president and King Abdullah Jordan’s ruler.

An official from the White House said Obama wanted to demonstrate the commitment by the U.S. to the people of Palestine and at the same time reiterate the commitment of America to the security of Israel.

Many Palestinians expressed their disappointment in the failure of Obama to bring about an advancement in the peace process, despite calling diplomacy in the Middle East a high priority for his second term in office.

As part of his preparation for his trip, Obama met with Jewish community leaders in the U.S. this week at the White House. His trip did not have a goal of resolving just one specific issue of policy, said one White House official.

Previously the Obama administration had taken steps to quiet rumors that the president would use this visit to push the U.S. led effort to find peace between the Palestinians and Israel, following a failure of an initiative during Obama’s first term.

However, White House officials are setting up the trip as a way to reconnect with Benjamin Netanyahu the Prime Minister of Israel, with whom the president has had a rather delicate relationship from the time he took office in 2009 and to coordinate with Israel over key issues such as Syria and Iran.

One official at the White House said that President Obama had reiterated the country’s unshakeable support for the country of Israel and thanked the Israeli leaders for their strengthening of ties between the two countries.

A list of the Jewish Community leaders that took part in the meeting with Obama at the White House was not immediately provided. The meeting was not on the public schedule of President Obama.

Marc Stanley, one of the participants, is the chairman for the National Jewish Democratic Council. He concurred that President Obama said there would be discussions in Israel over Iran, Syria and the peace process.

Hagel appeared to be surprised by the Lt. General’s greeting but quickly saluted the Lt. General back and smiled. Hagel will have Waldhauser by his side often, as the new Defense Secretary will have the Lt. General as his military aide.

Waldhauser also served in the same capacity for Leon Panetta the previous Secretary of Defense, whose position Hagel has taken after being confirmed by the Senate earlier this week and sworn in Wednesday morning.

Hagel along with Lillibet his wife walked into the Pentagon and turned to acknowledge the camera crews and reporters that had gathered to record the new Defensive Secretary’s arrival for his first day on the job.

Shortly afterward, the swearing in ceremony took place at around 8:30 am. The ceremony was private and held inside Hagel’s new offices. Michael Rhodes, the Director of Administration and Management at the Pentagon, performed the swearing in of Hagel.

Now that the drama of the confirmation hearings is behind Hagel, he can get down to performing his job as the U.S. Secretary of Defense. He is scheduled to hold meetings with other members of the Pentagon on Wednesday morning before traveling to the White House to hold meetings there.