News from The Marie Award‏

اضيف الخبر في يوم السبت ٢٤ - أبريل - ٢٠١٠ ١٢:٠٠ صباحاً.

The Marie Award Board of Directors is pleased to announce that it will be awarding the 2010 Marie to State Senator Joyce Elliott.

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Torture within Quranist Viewpoint (15): Preaching by Bringing News of Bliss or Torment
About a Forgotten Religious Duty: Preaching the Big Criminals by Bringing to Them 'Good News' of Their Hell Torment
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A news release
Breaking news: exclusive new information on the Boston terror plot‏
MENA Women News Brief
The arrest of 3 suspects in Sharqia on charges of reviving the "Quranic" movement in Egypt (details)
The Egyptian Quranists .. A reading of their thoughts and their relationship with the state and Al-Azhar

The Marie Award Board includes the Rev. Stephen Copley, Arkansas Supreme Court Associate Justice Robert Brown, Rabbi Gene Levy, Derrick Williams , Esq., and Sara Wacaster. The Board has chosen IMMIGRATION: THE ECONOMIC BENEFITS TO ARKANSAS as the theme for the 2010 Marie Award.

The Marie Award Board appointed a Steering Committee which chose Senator Elliott for this honor. This Steering Committee includes Rabbi Gene Levy, Rev. Stephen Copley, Paul Charton, Esq., Bishop Anthony Taylor, Dr. Andre Guerreo, Lee Gordon, Dr. Eddie Ochoa, Rev. Wendell Griffen, Charles Cervantes, Penelope Sur and Michel Leiderman.

The centerpiece of The Marie Award event will be a panel discussion examinig the economic benefits of immigration from the perspective of Education, Corporations, Cultural competency, Health Care, Economics and Entrepreneurism.

The 2010 Marie Award event will be on Sunday, May 9^th (Mother's Day) beginning at 2:30 p.m. with a reception and the main event beginning at 3:00 p.m. It will be held at the Temple B'nai Israel on Rodney Parham Road in Little Rock.

Marie Award Winner State Sen. Joyce Elliott and Immigration

During two separate legislative sessions, Marie Civic Leadership Award Recipient State Sen. Joyce Elliott has sponsored legislation that would allow undocumented immigrants who attended high school in Arkansas to receive in-state tuition rates. Though both bills failed to pass, Sen. Elliott's championing of the immigration issue remains. Originally, the bill was supported by Gov. Mike Huckabee. Her position was opposed by many anti-immigration advocates.

In 2005, Elliott introduced HB1525, which would provide in-state tuition prices to undocumented immigrants if they attended high school in Arkansas for no fewer than three years, graduated from an Arkansas high school or received a general education development diploma and had been admitted to an institution of higher learning. "The idea behind this is to provide opportunity for kids," Elliott said. Though HB 1525 passed the House, it was defeated by the Senate. After the bill failed 13-20, she had to be accompanied by a state Capitol policeman when she appeared on the senate floor, and it later became public that she received death threats from sponsoring the bill.

In 2009, Elliott again filed legislation to grant in-state tuition to the children of undocumented immigrants. "We're going to have to decide, are we doing to take definitive steps to challenge what is out there in the interest of these kids and our state or are we just going to acquiesce?" Elliott said. Despite receiving support from University of Arkansas at Fayetteville chancellor David Gearhart, the bill failed in the Senate.

"The bottom line is this: they are in our state. They are not leaving," Elliott said. "We can choose to have them here as educated people, or we can choose to have them here as folks that we deny an education to. That's our choice."

2010 Marie Award Winner State Sen. Joyce Elliott