Did you know that certain medical needs may qualify you or someone in your home for savings every month on your gas and electric bill? Apply for SDG&E’s Medical Baseline Allowance program if you need to use more energy due to a qualifying medical condition or to prevent an existing condition from getting worse. Examples include:

1. A requirement for permanent space heating or cooling due to paraplegia, quadriplegia, hemiplegia, multiple sclerosis, scleroderma, a compromised immune system or a life-threatening illness.
2. Required use of a life-support device, such as an aerosol tent, apnea monitor, kidney dialysis machine, motorized wheelchair or respirator (devices used for therapy don’t qualify; only medical devices that sustain life or are needed for mobility qualify).

To get a Medical Baseline Allowance application and more information, visit sdge.com/medical or call 1-800-411-7343. Eligibility requirements include having a physician sign your application to certify the medical need.

Spending more time at home this winter means energy use could be higher and your monthly bill may be, too. SDG&E has some helpful tips on ways to save on your energy bill. We know that every little bit helps, especially now.

1. Being on the right pricing plan can make a difference on your bill. Compare pricing plans to ensure you are on the best plan for your household at sdge.com/pricing.
2. Use appliances before 4 p.m. or after 9 p.m. when demand for power is lower.
3. Use your exhaust fans sparingly. Your bathroom fans and oven hoods are overlooked sources of heat loss in the winter because they can pull warmth from your home.
4. Get a more predictable bill by signing up for the Level Pay Plan at sdge.com/LPP. Level Pay averages your bill every three months; you don’t pay less or more.
5. Let the sunshine in. Take advantage of the world’s best furnace — the sun! Open your curtains during the day to naturally heat your home.
6. When you’re asleep or not home, turn your thermostat back 7 to 10 degrees for eight hours and save around 10% a year on your heating and cooling costs.
7. Check your home’s insulation. It’s like a winter coat for your house. The heavier it is, the warmer your home will be.
8. Hot air rises so run your ceiling fan clockwise, at the lowest speed, to help push the warmth back down to you.
9. Use less hot water as it takes energy to heat up water; wash your clothes in cold water and install low-flow faucets and showerheads.
10. Move furniture and belongings away from heating vents so they can deliver all the heat you’re paying for.

Visit sdge.com/winter for more energy-saving ideas. 

By:  MICAIAH BILGER/LifeNews.com
1/13/2021

Abortion activists praised Samantha Power, President-elect Joe Biden’s choice to lead the U.S. Agency for International Development, as a “steadfast voice for human rights” on Wednesday.

Biden’s transition team announced Power as his choice for USAID administrator this week. She is one of a growing list of pro-abortion leaders slated to fill the new presidential administration.

In the position, Power will assist Biden in restoring taxpayer funding to Planned Parenthood and other global abortion advocacy groups – funds that President Donald Trump cut through his Protecting Life policy.

Power previously worked in President Barack Obama’s administration as a representative to the United Nations. Before that, she served on the National Security Council where she advised Obama and Biden on “women’s rights,” which, to Democrat leaders, includes abortion on demand.

This week, Planned Parenthood Global and Biden both praised her as a “human rights” advocate even though she supports their efforts to destroy human rights for unborn babies.

“Samantha Power is a world-renowned voice of conscience and moral clarity — challenging and rallying the international community to stand up for the dignity and humanity of all people,” Biden said in a statement. She will “fight for the value of every human being,” his transition team added.

Planned Parenthood Global also praised Power in a tweet: “As a steadfast voice for human rights, Amb @SamanthaJPower has the experience and the opportunity to advance sexual and reproductive healths [sic] and rights for people around the world as USAID Administrator.”

It urged her to “prioritize the needs of women and families bearing the brunt of the pandemic.” For Planned Parenthood, that means more abortions.

Under the Trump administration, funds through USAID prioritized real health care for women and girls and human rights for all human beings, including those not yet born.

It did so through Trump’s expanded Mexico City policy, which prohibits international aid funds to groups that promote and/or perform abortions. The policy defunded Planned Parenthood’s international arm of about $100 million and the British abortion chain Marie Stopes International of about $73 million in U.S. tax dollars.

The pro-life policy did not reduce access to healthcare. A USAID review earlier this year found that the U.S. has maintained global health assistance to 98 percent of the overseas healthcare organizations that received funding prior to the policy’s implementation.

However, Biden has promised to reverse that policy and restore funding to the British abortion chain as well as Planned Parenthood, which does more than 345,000 abortions each year in the U.S. alone.

​The pro-abortion leaders slated to fill Biden’s administration also include:
U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California as vice president
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh as secretary of labor
Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo as commerce secretary
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
New Mexico Congresswoman Deb Haaland as secretary of the interior
Former Obama and Clinton administration leader Ronald Klain as chief of staff

Lower temperatures and spending more time at home may increase your energy costs. Here are some no-cost and low-cost ideas to help you save energy and money while staying comfortable during the colder winter months.  

1. Take advantage of heat from the sun: Open curtains on your south-facing windows during the day to allow sunlight to naturally heat your home. Close the curtains at night to reduce the chill you may feel from cold windows. 
2. Cover drafty windows: Use a heavy-duty, clear plastic sheet on a frame or tape clear plastic film to the inside of your window frames during the cold winter months. Make sure the plastic is sealed tightly to the frame to help reduce infiltration. Install tight-fitting, insulating drapes or shades on windows that feel drafty. Find out about other window treatments and coverings that can improve energy efficiency here. 
3. Adjust the temperature: When you are asleep or not home, turn your thermostat back 7 to 10 degrees for eight hours and save around 10% a year on your heating bills. A smart or programmable thermostat can make it easy to set back your temperature.  If you have a heat pump, maintain a moderate setting or use a programmable thermostat specially designed for use with heat pumps. 
4. Find and seal leaks: Seal the air leaks around utility cut-throughs for pipes ("plumbing penetrations"), gaps around chimneys and recessed lights in insulated ceilings, and unfinished spaces behind cupboards and closets. Find out how to here. Add caulk or weather-stripping to seal air leaks around leaky doors and windows
5. Maintain your heating systems: Schedule service for your heating system. Replace your filter once a month or as needed. Find out how to efficiently maintain furnaces or boilers and heat pumps at energy.gov. Wood or pellet burning appliances are cleaner burning and more efficient. Clean the flue vent regularly and the inside of the appliance with a wire brush periodically to ensure that your home is heated efficiently. Energy.gov also has other maintenance recommendations for wood-and pellet-burning appliances. 
6. Reduce heat loss from the fireplace: Keep your fireplace damper closed unless a fire is burning. Keeping the damper open is like keeping a window wide open during the winter; it allows warm air to go right up the chimney. When you use the fireplace, reduce heat loss by opening dampers in the bottom of the firebox (if provided) or open the nearest window slightly – around 1 inch – and close doors leading into the room. Find more techniques to improve your fireplace or wood-burning appliance's efficiency and which wood to burn at epa.gov/burnwise.

For more tips on how to save energy this winter, visit sdge.com/winter.  

SOURCE:  pregnancyhelpnews.com/unexpected-pregnancy-brings-hope-to-many
By:  Laura Roesler

Babies are a part of God’s plan to bring hope and joy into the world. The story of the birth of John the Baptist to Elizabeth and Zechariah is intertwined with the Christmas story. Elizabeth’s pregnancy gives us a window into life before birth. Her reaction to an unexpected pregnancy was the opposite of our current worldly reaction.

She reacted with faith and understood that “The Lord has done this for me” (Luke 1:25). Yes, she was married, but being quite old, her pregnancy was in the high-risk category. There would be too many doctors today who’d recommend an abortion.

She reacted with joy. She said that through it God had “shown his favor and taken away my disgrace…” (Luke 1:25). She saw pregnancy as something that removed her humiliation instead of creating humiliation and embarrassment, as too many people see it today.

God showed her and her husband that their future son was part of His plan. This unborn baby would be involved in bringing hope and salvation to the whole world.

What will the babies rescued from abortion grow up to do in our time? What hope and joy will they bring to the world?

Tweet This: What will the babies rescued from abortion grow up to do in our time? What hope and joy will they bring to the world?

What help will their mothers and fathers need to raise them? So many of you in pregnancy help ministry are doing just that – rescuing babies and their parents from the heartache of abortion and continuing to help after the baby is born. You can speak words of blessing, making predictions of hope and good things to come when talking about an unborn child to an unsure mother or father.

The angel Gabriel told Zechariah and Elizabeth that their baby would “be a joy and a delight to you” (Luke 1:14). A distraught woman with an unplanned pregnancy should know that this is a possibility for her as well.

The world does the opposite of what God does at the news of an unexpected pregnancy. 

The world predicts misery; God predicts joy. The world predicts poverty; God predicts mercy. The world predicts lost dreams; God knows that a child can bring to life bigger dreams than anyone can imagine.

​Just because a baby changes a life and changes plans, does not mean the plans will change for the worse – they can change for the better. Unplanned for us is well-planned for God.

Daniel Schludi/Unsplash
15 December, 2020
Written by  Judie Brown (American Life League) ​
Published in NEWS 

Americans are concerned. The questions keep coming about the vaccines being developed to protect folks from COVID-19. Many have asked us what they should do. To be injected or not: That is the question.

Far be it from us to tell anyone what they should decide with regard to COVID vaccines, but we can provide you with the facts and our position on these vaccines.

First the facts - 

Rushed vaccines and safety concerns:

Unfortunately, the vaccine development process is in dangerous overdrive due to the escalating number of cases and fear that the winter will bring even more cases—and of course, deaths. As one distraught writer puts it: “In times of crisis, we need to have flexibility in drug approval standards, and FDA recognizes that. A few more weeks of safety data from a vaccine trial is not going to give us what we want, which is certainty.” 

Perhaps months or years from now, we will be sorry that the FDA was pressed to move forward without enough research. It is clear that Operation Warp Speed was not the prudent route to take. The World Doctors Alliance, Dr. Theresa Deisher, and many more make it clear that human lives are indeed at stake—from faulty tests for the virus, scientific errors in their research “data,” and severe immune reactions!

Aborted baby body parts:

The facts about how some of these vaccines are being produced is not pretty. Children of God for Life has worked to provide an update on which vaccines are with fetal parts and which are tainted. Note that aborted baby parts can be used in the initial designing, in testing, in development of vaccines, or in all three.

Children of God for Life’s Debi Vinnedge has confirmed research that shows that Moderna used the aborted fetal cells in its original research, development, design, and testing.

Additionally, Dr. Stacy Trasancos has expressed concern regarding the morality of developing these vaccines.

Vinnedge tells American Life League: “Pfizer did use aborted fetal cells ONLY for testing the final product—but Moderna used them from start to finish. Once they finished the original vaccine, the cells are not used again.”

A few Catholic prelates, including Bishop Joseph E. Strickland of Tyler, Texas, have issued a joint statement on this question. This statement, created with the assistance of scientists and others, says in part: “Why did murder-based technology emerge in medicine, whose purpose is instead to bring life and health? Bio-medical research that exploits the innocent unborn and uses their bodies as ‘raw material’ for the purpose of vaccines seems more akin to cannibalism than medicine.”

Genetically engineered vaccines:

Some in the scientific community have warned of even graver dangers involving some of these vaccines that use a certain type of genetic engineering (the use of messenger-RNA) that involves “gene editing,” where the genetic changes are also passed down through all of one’s future generations.

Never have any vaccines been produced using genetically engineered m-RNA. Such vaccines are dangerous. They change the functioning of the DNA in the mitochondria in one’s human genome (i.e., “genome” = all the DNA in a cell—both nuclear and mitochondrial).

The John Paul II Medical Research Institute reports:

While the federal government launched “Operation Warp Speed” (OWS) to produce several vaccine candidates, there are numerous concerns about these vaccines. The lead vaccines are being produced by Pfizer and Moderna, which will soon receive an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Their vaccines use a synthetic message ribonucleic acid (mRNA) to produce the COVID-19 “spike protein.” It is important to note that mRNA vaccines have never been approved for any prior infectious disease. mRNA vaccines theoretically create an immunity to the virus by delivering the gene of the spike protein into muscle tissue which, in turn, produces the spike protein and elicits an immune response.

The report goes on to say that Pfizer and Moderna have “recently release[d] a press release that their vaccines are over 90% effective. However, to date, that data has not been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, nor have these companies defined what they mean by effective.”


Summation:

This collection of information, the fact that vaccines normally take years to develop, and the recommendations made to us by scientists and others have led American Life League to take this position:

American Life League will not approve the use of any of the COVID-19 vaccines at this time.

If you, in consultation with your physician, choose to accept a COVID-19 vaccine, that is your decision. Our obligation is to provide you with the facts.

God bless you!

The election is over - but the votes have yet to be counted.  I don't know about anyone else, but I vacillate between wanting to be on social media all day to know who's ahead - and wanting to put my head in the sand and keep it there for the next four years.  So far I've been able to maintain a good balance - I check periodically - but I'm not obsessed with it.  It will be what it will be, and we'll soldier through whoever - and whatever - lies ahead.  Knowing that God is in control - that He will not be surprised by the outcome - that, in fact, He has PLANNED the outcome - is helping me keep my sanity.  I will not give in to fear or anxiety over this - and we will continue serving women and saving lives - no matter who is ultimately named the winner.

Living in Southern California means living with the possibility of wildfires happening in your community. During dangerous weather conditions, SDG&E might proactively turn off power to lower wildfire risk. This is known as a Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS). Even though SDG&E has been working to ensure power shutoffs are smaller in size and duration, it’s still important for our customers to be ready. Here are some tips to prepare in advance for a potential PSPS:
​

1. Consider purchasing a backup power source such as a backup portable generator, permanent standby generator or rechargeable home battery. system that uses solar – learn more at sdge.com/generator
2. Update your contact info at sdge.com/notifications so that SDG&E can reach you and notify you of a possible PSPS.
3. If you require electricity for a medical device, apply for SDG&E’s Medical Baseline Program at sdge.com/medical – you may qualify for a discount on your SDG&E bill.
4. If you have a garage, practice how to open your garage door manually.
5. Remember to pack or restock your emergency supply kit – get tips at sdge.com/wildfire-safety.
6. Download SDG&E’s new app at sdge.com/pspsapp to track PSPS outages, stay informed about estimated power restoration times and find the nearest open Community Resource Centers.

For more information on what you can do before, during and after a PSPS, visit sdge.com/psps. 

With the coronavirus pandemic causing financial hardships for many individuals and families, you may benefit from one of SDG&E’s assistance programs. You can apply online for these bill discount programs. Many people who previously couldn’t take advantage of these income-based programs may now qualify due to lost wages – even if they’re receiving unemployment benefits. These programs include:  
 
California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE) Program: Save 30% or more every month on your bill. Find out if you qualify at sdge.com/CARE.
 
Family Electric Rate Assistance (FERA) Program: If you don’t qualify for CARE and your household has 3 or more people, you may qualify for FERA. You could receive an18% discount on your electric use. Visit sdge.com/FERA to learn more.
 
Energy Savings Assistance (ESA) Program: You may qualify to receive free energy-saving improvements for your home, such as new appliances like refrigerators, furnace repair, lighting, insulation and more. Find details at sdge.com/ESAP.
 
Medical Baseline Allowance Program: If you need to use more energy to operate medical devices due to a qualifying medical condition, you may qualify for a discount on your SDG&E bill. Get more information at sdge.com/medical.
 
Online applications are easy, fast and convenient. To learn more, visit sdge.com/assistance.