NY bus driver catches girl, 7, in three-story plunge

View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com.

Dramatic video captured a seven-year-old falling from a third-story window and being caught by a neighbor. NBC's Katy Tur reports.

By NBCNewYork.com

A city bus driver says he was thinking of his own young daughter when he rushed to catch a 7-year-old girl plunging three stories from a New York building Monday – an action caught on video.

View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com.

"Please let me catch her, please let me catch her," Stephen St. Bernard, 52, recalled thinking. "That's all I could say. Let me catch the little baby."
"I think about my daughter, and you know, she's a little kid," he said.
St. Bernard, an MTA bus driver of 10 years, was returning home to Coney Island from his job at about 2 p.m. when he heard screams coming from a building courtyard.
He rushed toward the commotion and saw a girl standing on top of a third-floor window air conditioning unit. He immediately ran underneath the window.
She just stood up there teetering, teetering," he said.

Amateur video shows St. Bernard shouting up to the girl, trying to talk the girl into going back into her apartment. Suddenly, the girl falls, eliciting horrified screams from neighbors.
But St. Bernard catches her in his arms, stumbling slightly forward to the ground with the girl still firmly in his grasp.
"I picked her up and carried her, and I was holding her, rubbing her, and she just more or less kept looking around," he told NBC 4 New York. "She never closed her eyes, she didn't lose consciousness."
The girl was not wearing pants, and St. Bernard wrapped her in his MTA uniform shirt as he waited for paramedics to arrive.
She was taken to Coney Island Hospital with very minor injuries.
"He's my hero," said the girl's aunt, Monique Harding. "He definitely did our family a favor today."
Police sources said the girl has autism. Her mother was inside the apartment watching her other child and did not see the girl standing outside on the A/C, the sources said.
St. Bernard sustained a torn tendon in his shoulder but he is expected to be OK.
The girl's mother did not want to speak with reporters Monday.

AP NewsBreak: Feds OK Fla. access to citizens list By CHARLES BABINGTON  Associated Press  Jul 14, 9:15 PM EDT

AP Photo/J Pat Carter WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a victory for Republicans, the federal government has agreed to let Florida use a law enforcement database to challenge people's right to vote if they are suspected of not being U.S. citizens. The agreement, made in a letter to Florida Gov. Rick Scott's administration that was obtained by The Associated Press, grants the state access to a list of resident noncitizens maintained by the Homeland Security Department. The Obama administration had denied Florida's request for months but relented after a judge ruled in the state's favor in a related voter-purge matter. Voting rights groups, while acknowledging that noncitizens have no right to vote, have expressed alarm about using such data for a purpose not originally intended: purging voter lists of ineligible people. They also say voter purges less than four months before a presidential election might leave insufficient time to correct mistakes stemming from faulty data or other problems. Democrats say that the government's concession is less troubling than some GOP-controlled states' push to require voters to show photo identification. But Republicans count it as a victory nonetheless in their broad-based fight over voter eligibility, an issue that could play a big role in the White House race. That's especially true in pivotal states such as Florida, Colorado, Nevada and North Carolina. Republican officials in several states say they are trying to combat voter fraud. Democrats, however, note that proven cases of voter fraud are rare. They accuse Republicans of cynical efforts to suppress voting by people in lower socio-economic groups who tend to vote Democratic. The Homeland Security decision may affect places beyond Florida, because Colorado and other states have asked for similar access to the federal database. After a judge recently ruled against federal efforts to stop Florida's aggressive voter-list review, Homeland Security agreed to work on details for how the state can access the federal SAVE database - Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements - to challenge registered voters suspected of being noncitizens. Florida has agreed that it can challenge voters only if the state provides a "unique identifier," such as an "alien number," for each person in question. Alien numbers generally are assigned to foreigners living in the country legally, often with visas or other permits such as green cards. Unless they become naturalized citizens, however, they cannot vote. The agreement will prevent Florida from using only a name and birthdate to seek federal data about a suspected noncitizen on voter rolls. The SAVE list is unlikely to catch illegal immigrants in any state who might have managed to register to vote because such people typically would not have an alien number. Scott, whose administration had sued Homeland Security for access to the SAVE list, said the agreement "marks a significant victory for Florida and for the integrity of our election system." "Access to the SAVE database will ensure that noncitizens do not vote in future Florida elections," Scott said in a statement Saturday. In a letter Monday, the department told Florida it was ready to work out details for providing access to the SAVE list. The letter was signed by Alejandro Mayorkas, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. It follows a flurry of legal actions between Florida and the federal government. On June 11, the Justice Department said it would sue Scott's administration on grounds that the state's voter-purge efforts violated voting rights laws. The same day, Scott announced a lawsuit against Homeland Security seeking access to the SAVE list. He said it could be a valuable tool in determining who is a citizen. Two weeks later, a U.S. judge blocked the federal attempts to stop Florida's voter review efforts; the Mayorkas letter soon followed. A Homeland Security spokesman said Saturday the agency had no further comment. Department officials told the Orlando Sentinel last month they had concerns about using the SAVE list for voter-review purposes. They said the list's information is incomplete and does not provide comprehensive data on all eligible voters, the newspaper reported. Scott's administration hopes to restart a suspended voter registration purge that was hampered this year by faulty data and bad publicity. The review, using driver's license information, initially produced 180,000 voters' names considered worthy of checking. County election supervisors examined 2,625 people on the list. But more than 500 were soon found to be citizens, and the review was halted. State records show that 86 noncitizens were removed from the voter rolls since April 11, and more than half of them had voted in previous elections. Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner asked election officials Saturday to restart the review. He said it will "include a carefully calibrated matching process" between the state's driver and voter data "before any records are verified through SAVE." But Florida Sen. Arthenia Joyner, a Tampa Democrat, said Scott and his team should not be purging voter lists so close to a big election. "This is just another in the continuing saga of his efforts to suppress the vote, along with a lot of the other Republican governors," Joyner said. "They are all caught up in trying to keep this president from getting re-elected." While some noncitizens who are legal residents may knowingly try to register and vote, others apparently do so unwittingly. After obtaining a driver's license, some assume they also can vote, officials say. Access to the federal SAVE list may catch such ineligible voters in Florida. They presumably would have an alien number and be listed in state motor vehicle records. Voter-rights groups expressed concerns about Florida's efforts. "No matter what database Florida has access to, purging voters from the rolls using faulty criteria on the eve of an election could prevent thousands of eligible voters from exercising their rights," said Jonathan Brater, a lawyer with the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law. "Florida must use a more transparent and accurate process and must leave enough time for voters targeted for removal to be notified and correct errors," he said. Some state governments have sought access to the federal database for years. Federal officials told Washington state in 2005 they saw no way to compare voters and the Homeland Security information. Colorado has sought the federal data for a year. Colorado, which has a Democratic governor but a Republican secretary of state, Scott Gessler, has identified about 5,000 registered voters that it wants to check against the federal information. Officials in the politically competitive states of Ohio, Michigan, New Mexico and Iowa - all led by GOP governors - are backing his efforts. Gessler said 430 registered voters have acknowledged being ineligible, but an "unenforceable honor system does not build confidence in our elections." Although Republican activists have repeatedly said fraud is so widespread that it has corrupted the political process and, possibly, cost the party election victories, about 120 people have been charged and 86 convicted as of last year. In 2007, five years after the George W. Bush administration launched a crackdown on voter fraud, the Justice Department found virtually no evidence of organized efforts to influence federal elections with ineligible voters. --- Associated Press writers Gary Fineout in Tallahassee, Fla., and Mike Baker in Olympia, Wash., contributed to this report.

McDonnell Declares Bain Off Limits

 Drawing a line in 1999.  Who made him chief cook and bottle washer. And he should talk, Gov. VaJaJa Sonogram.

Zeke MillerBuzzFeed Staff

McDonnell and Romney in June. Image by JASON REED / Reuters

Posted Jul 13, 2012 9:28am EDT

WILLIAMSBURG, Virginia — Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, a leading Republican figure, said Friday that Mitt Romney's time at the helm of Bain Capital isn't part of the record voters should consider in choosing a president.

Asked during a press conference here whether he thought Romney's experience at Bain should be part of his "record," McDonnell shook his head and said "No. No."

"All of these attacks are things that happened after Mitt Romney left as the managing director of Bain — he left to run the Olympics, some of the best Olympics in history in 2002," McDonnell said. "He left to do that in 1999. To the degree that there is any truth to these sorts of outsourcing allegations, they happened after 1999 when he was not the managing director."

McDonnell added that Obama "ought to pull those ads," that attack Romney on Bain.

McDonnell also rejected the notion that Romney would need to release more tax returns, saying "he’s released everything he needs to and more," and accusing President Barack Obama of running a negative campaign.

Providing Obama with "a warm welcome" to the Commonwealth of Virginia today, McDonnell sharply criticized Obama's plan to raise taxes on the wealthy, and highlighted his opposition to the health care exchanges implemented by ObamaCare.

All 5 Of Mitt Romney's Network Interviews On Bain In 60 Seconds

In case you missed all five interviews, you can watch the highlights in 60 seconds.posted Jul 14, 2012 8:47am EDT

Matt Wilsteintop100 Community Contributor

35 Questions Mitt Romney Must Answer About Bain Capital Before The Issue Can Go Away

TJ Walker,

|

7/14/2012 @ 12:25PM |

Mitt Romney conducted numerous TV and other media interviews yesterday in order to minimize the damage his campaign has received regarding discrepancies surrounding his tenure at Bain.

During times of crisis it is often a smart strategy to give virtually unlimited access to the media in order to push out your message aggressively and satisfy reporter curiosity so that the issue can be pushed off the front burner. John McCain famously did this well earlier in his career when dealing with his own Keating Five controversies.

Unfortunately for the Romney Campaign, the slew of TV interviews did little to satisfy the media. In times of crisis, a strong candidate will come up with answers that satisfy the basic questions surrounding the controversy and will make people want to move on to another subject. Romney, however, could not seem to come up with basic messages that resolved the controversies. Many of his answers seemed evasive or overly legalistic. The biggest problem for Romney is that all of his interviews have only increased the questions that political observers, voters and the media have regarding the subject of Bain Capital.

Specifically, Romney is going to have to answer the following 35 questions before this issue subsides:

1. Are you contending that an individual can simultaneously be the CEO, president, managing director of a company, and its sole stockholder and somehow be “disassociated” from the company or accurately classified as someone not having “any” formal involvement with a company?

2. You have stated that in “Feb. 1999 I left Bain capital and all management responsibility” and “I had no ongoing activity or involvement.” It depends on what the definition of “involvement” is, doesn’t it? Clearly you were involved with Bain to the extent that you owned it. Are you defining “involvement” in a uniquely specific way that only means “full-time, active, 60-hours-a-week, hands-on manager?”

3. How exactly are you defining “involvement?”

4. Surely someone from Bain occasionally called you up and asked your opinion about something work-related from 1999 to 2002. Wouldn’t that qualify as “involvement,” if only on a minor level?

5. You earned at least $100,000 as an executive from Bain in 2001 and 2002, separate from investment earnings according to filings with State of Massachusetts. Can you give an example of anyone else you personally know getting a six figure income, not dividend or investment return, but actual income, from a company they had nothing to do with?

6. What did you do for this $100,000 salary you earned from Bain in both 2000 and 2001?

7. If you did nothing to earn this salary, did the Bain managers violate their fiduciary duty by paying you a salary for no discernible reason?

8. Are there other companies that pay you six figures a year as earned income, not investment income, for which you have no involvement?

9. In 2002, you are listed as one of two managing members of Bain Capital Investors LLC in its annual report. What does this mean?

10. On the very day after you took over the Winter Olympics, the BostonHerald reported that “Romney said he will stay on as a part-timer with Bain, providing input on investment and key personnel decisions.” Do you now contend this was factually inaccurate?

11. Do you have records of having written to the Boston Herald asking them to make a correction on this story?

12. On July 19, 1999, a news release about the resignation of two Bain Capital managing directors describes you as CEO and “currently on a part-time leave of absence to head the Salt Lake City Olympic Committee.” Was this wrong?

13. Did you ask for a retraction?

14. Why would Bain say this if you had severed all ties in Feb 1999?

15. Isn’t it possible that if Bain had made an investment during 1999 to 2002 that you felt was truly odious, for example ownership of a legal Nevada brothel, that you could have and would have used your authority to veto such a decision?

16. If, in fact, you did not veto any major investment decision during your 1999 though 2002 ownership, doesn’t that imply your broad consent of management’s decisions?

17. According to the Boston Globe, “In a November 2000 interview with the Globe, Romney’s wife, Ann, said he had been forced to lessen, but not end entirely, his involvement with Bain Capital.” Did your wife misspeak?

18. Did you correct her?

19. According to the Boston Globe, “Romney also testified that ‘there were a number of social trips and business trips that brought [him] back to Massachusetts, board meetings’ while he was running the Olympics. He added that he remained on the boards of several companies, including the Lifelike Co., in which Bain Capital held a stake until 2001.” You testified that while running the Olympics you took a number of business trips to Massachusetts  for board meetings for companies including Lifelike Co. Bain had a stake in this company until 2001. Are you contending that you could attend board meetings for Lifelike Co. at the same time Bain Capital had a stake in Lifelike Co and at the same time you owned the stock of Bain Capital, but that somehow your attending a board meeting for a company partially owned by Bain had nothing to do with Bain because you were on the board as Mitt Romney the individual, not as the representative of Bain?

20. If yes to the previous question, do you understand that anyone who did not graduate in the top 5% of his class from Harvard Law School, as you did, may have a hard time understanding this?

21. You seem to be suggesting that once you stepped down from full-time, 7-day-a-week, 18-hour-a-day management that you were no longer “involved.” You claim you had “no role whatsoever in the management.” Assume for the moment that everyone, even in the Obama campaign concedes that after Feb 1999 you were no longer the 100% full-time, hands-on manager of Bain. Isn’t it fair to suggest that an individual could still have a role in managing a company through the occasional phone call, meeting and email, even if they didn’t involve monumental decisions, such as hiring and firing?

22. When you demanded an apology from the Obama Campaign you seem to suggest that they have stated that you deserve blame for outsourcing done at Bain from 1999 to 2001 because they stated that you were the full-time active manger of Bain during that time. Can you cite a single ad, press release or statement from the Obama Campaign where they specify that you were the full-time manager of Bain from 1999 to 2001?

23. Every time a reporter asks you “why were you listed by Bain in SEC documents as the CEO in 2000-2002,” you respond that everyone knows you were no longer the active manger after Feb. 1999 and that you owned stock in Bain but did not manage anything. That may well be, but that doesn’t answer the question as to why Bain listed you as CEO, president and managing director. Why won’t you answer a simple question that involves basic facts that are undisputed?

24. Why do SEC documents claim you were Chief Executive Officer, President, and Managing Director of Bain Capital 2000 and 2001 if you were merely the sole owner?

25. Did you sign this SEC document?

26. Is this accurate or not?

27. If you didn’t sign it, is someone guilty of lying to the SEC?

28. True or false, it is a felony to lie on SEC filings?

29. When asked “Did you attend board meetings for Bain after 1999,” you responded by saying “I did not manage Bain after 1999,” or that you didn’t attend any meetings involving things like firing people. This seems to suggest the possibility that you did attend Bain meetings in 2000 and 2001 that did not involve hiring or firing people or where you made the final decisions on investments. Is that possible?

30. If not, why not just give a blanket statement that you never attended a single board meeting for Bain after Feb. 1999?

31. If Obama owned slum apartments in Chicago that horribly mistreated poor people and didn’t provide them heat or running water, but Obama hired a real estate management firm to manage the building and collect rent, do you think it would be fair to criticize him for being a hypocritical slum lord who showed no compassion for poor people?

32. You seem to stress the word “management” a great deal. You had no role in active “management” of Bain after Feb 1999. You then seem to suggest that the only other role for a person to be involved with a company is as an investor. Isn’t there a third role?

33. Couldn’t you have been an active adviser or consultant, the way many chairmen of the board are?

34. You are obviously bright, hard working and energetic. Isn’t is possible that you put in 60 hours a week on the Olympics but still put in 5 hours a week as an active consultant or adviser by phone, email and the occasional meeting with the full time managers of Bain?

35. In general, don’t full-time hired managers often seek the “advice” of absentee owners and then do everything they can to implement that “advice?”

Ships that pass in the pixels

check it out pretty kool; you can see where the ships are destination speed  try it out.

;Will Femia   By - Sat Jan 14, 2012 3:29 AM EST

Ships Map

 

  
 

Notation & Display options:
 Show Ship Names
 Wind 

  More...
 Passenger Vessels
 Cargo Vessels
 Tankers
 High Speed Craft
 Tug, Pilot, etc
 Yachts & Others
 Fishing
 Navigation Aids
 Unspecified Ships

Way at the southern tip of Manhattan Island in New York City is the riverfront neighborhood of Battery Park City. Battery Park City is served by a tiny, hyperlocal newspaper called The Battery Park City Broadsheet - an extra large, four-page fold out that looks like this. (pdf)

There isn't a lot of space on those pages, but every edition includes a "Riverwatch" photo of a ship on the Hudson River or in New York Harbor, as well as the "Arrivals & Departures" schedule (scroll down to the top of page 4 of the pdf above) for the cruise ships that dock up in midtown. I don't know if you've ever seen a cruise ship roll by but it's impressive enough that you really would want to know when the next one was coming so you could plan to see it again.

Anyway, before I digress too far, being fluent in river traffic is a cool thing and the fact that someone on what I presume is a small staff has taken it upon themselves to inform the members of their community what's passing by is also a cool thing.

The map above is a real time depiction of marine traffic around the world. The squares are docked. The pointy ones are moving. When you click them to get details and often even a photo. That's the mouth of the Hudson, above, but the site is hosted by the University of Aegean, Greece, and if you wanna see some boat activity, scroll over their neck of the Mediterranean. It's madness!

The project is open and community-based, which means if you live near the water, you can get the software and some equipment and contribute to the data. The data comes from the the ships AIS (Automatic Identification System) transponders. According to the FAQ, AIS was initially meant to keep ships from crashing into each other. The signal carries identification information as well as position and movement and reaches 10-15 miles. If you want to participate, you hook up an antenna to receive the signal and the software does the rest.

As soon as I read about the community aspect I immediately thought of the Broadsheet guy taking pictures of passing ships out his apartment window. I bet he or she would be into this. So I googled up the the Broadsheet's website to see if they have a tip line or something for sharing. Wouldn't you know, right there next to the masthead, that thumbnail picture of a cruise ship is linked to MarineTraffic.com.

Mitt Romney's Own 2002 Testimony Undermines Bain Departure Claim

Posted: 07/12/2012 6:54 pm Updated: 07/13/2012 8:51 am

WASHINGTON -- Mitt Romney's repeated claim that he played no part in executive decision-making related to Bain Capital after 1999 is false, according to Romney's own testimony in June 2002, in which he admitted to sitting on the board of the LifeLike Co., a dollmaker that was a Bain investment during the period.

Romney has consistently insisted that he was too busy organizing the 2002 Winter Olympics to take part in Bain business between 1999 and that event. But in the testimony, which was provided to The Huffington Post, Romney noted that he regularly traveled back to Massachusetts. "[T]here were a number of social trips and business trips that brought me back to Massachusetts, board meetings, Thanksgiving and so forth," he said.

Romney's sworn testimony was given as part of a hearing to determine whether he had sufficient residency status in Massachusetts to run for governor.

Romney testified that he "remained on the board of the Staples Corporation and Marriott International, the LifeLike Corporation" at the time.

Yet in the Aug. 12, 2011, federal disclosure form filed as part of his presidential bid, he said, "Mr. Romney retired from Bain Capital on February 11, 1999 to head the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. Since February 11, 1999, Mr. Romney has not had any active role with any Bain Capital entity and has not been involved in the operations of any Bain Capital entity in any way."

Bain, a private equity firm, held a stake in the LifeLike Co. until the end of 2001, including during the period in which Romney claimed to have no business involvement with Bain entities. Bain had heavily invested in LifeLike, a company that Romney identified personally as an opportunity, in 1996 and sold its shares in late 2001. His involvement with LifeLike contradicts his assertion that he had no involvement with Bain business. His testimony is supported by his 2001 Massachusetts State Ethics Commission filing, in which he lists himself as a member of LifeLike's board.

Romney has long said that he took a leave of absence from Bain because the work of organizing the 2002 Winter Olympics was so grueling, which has allowed him to deny responsibility for Bain activities during 1999 and 2002.

His activities during that period also included Staples board meetings: "I returned for most of those meetings. Others I attended by telephone if I could not return."

Bain was involved with Staples early in its life, taking the company public in 1989. Romney used his Bain position to obtain a seat on the board, which he held into 2002. He regularly cites the jobs that Staples created as reflecting positively on Bain's record.

The Boston Globe on Thursday blew a giant hole in Romney's claim that he left the private equity firm in 1999. The Globe reported that Bain's own filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission suggest that Romney remained deeply tied to the company until sometime in 2002.

Bain described Romney in 2001 SEC filings as the "sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president." Another form stated that he owned 100 percent of the company in 2002 and received a six-figure salary from Bain in 2001 and 2002. His listed title: "Executive."

Earlier reporting on the topic by Talking Points Memo and Mother Jones had already begun to chip away at the Romney narrative.

The Romney campaign is still sticking with its candidate's story.

"The article is not accurate," spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in a statement released to reporters following the Globe story. "As Bain Capital has said, as Governor Romney has said, and as has been confirmed by independent fact checker multiple times, Governor Romney left Bain Capital in February of 1999 to run the Olympics and had no input on investments or management of companies after that point."

Yet Romney's sworn testimony appears to back up the SEC filings and contradict his personal disclosure forms submitted to Massachusetts officials in 2002, in which he said that he retired from Bain on Feb. 11, 1999.

Romney's lawyer at the Massachusetts hearing said that Romney's work in the private sector continued "unabated" while he ran the Olympics: "He succeeded in that three-year period in restoring confidence in the Olympic Games, closing that disastrous deficit and staging one of the most successful Olympic Games ever to occur on U.S. soil. Now while all that was going on, very much in the public eye, what happened to his private and public ties to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts? And the answer is they continued unabated just as they had."

Instead of leaving in 1999, Romney suggested in his testimony that he only left Bainafter the Olympics in 2002: “I left on the basis of a leave of absence indicating that I, by virtue of that title, would return at the end of the Olympics to my employment at Bain Capital, but subsequently decided not to do so and entered into a departure agreement with my former partners. I use that in the colloquial sense, not legal sense, but my former partners."

The opening statement delivered by Romney's lawyer in the 2002 hearing said Romney "continued to serve on the board of directors of a significant Massachusetts company and to return here for most of its board meetings."

In a statement released Thursday, Bain defended Romney. "Mitt Romney left Bain Capital in February 1999 to run the Olympics and has had absolutely no involvement with the management or investment activities of the firm or with any of its portfolio companies since the day of his departure," the statement reads. "Due to the sudden nature of Mr. Romney's departure, he remained the sole stockholder for a time while formal ownership was being documented and transferred to the group of partners who took over management of the firm in 1999. Accordingly, Mr. Romney was reported in various capacities on SEC filings during this period."

UPDATE: 9:15 p.m. -- The Romney campaign responded by focusing on Romney's involvement with Bain itself, and argued that the state Ballot Law Commission validated the argument that Romney was not involved in day-to-day Bain matters.

"After extensive hearings the Ballot Law Commission came to the same conclusion as numerous independent fact checkers in finding that Mitt Romney ended his active employment with Bain Capital in 1999," said Romney spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg. "Every public judgment, including a unanimous one from the Ballot Law Commission, has confirmed this fact."

Henneberg called the controversy over Romney's employment at Bain "just another distraction from a desperate campaign that is willing to say anything to divert attention from President Obama’s failed record in office.”

However, the purpose of the Ballot Law Commission inquiry was to determine Romney's residency, not whether he had done any part-time work on behalf of Bain. Indeed, in two days of testimony, the Democratic lawyer didn't question Romney about his role at Bain, as the issue wasn't a live one. That question only arose in recent years when Romney categorically denied any active involvement with Bain.

In addition, the Romney campaign's response does not address whether by sitting on LifeLike's board until 2001, Romney's 2011 disclosure form statement that he had "not been involved in the operations of any Bain Capital entity in any way" was false.

This Week in God

By Steve Benen

  -  

Sat Jul 14, 2012 9:29 AM EDT

First up from the God Machine this week is a behind-the-scenes push by Mitt Romney's presidential campaign to "engage" the religious right in ways the American mainstream probably won't hear anything about.

On the surface, most voters hear quite a bit about the Republican candidate's focus on a far-right economic agenda, but the Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody had a reportthis week on a very different focus away from the spotlight on social issues.

The Brody File has learned that Mitt Romney's campaign has begun a serious push to engage evangelical leaders behind the scenes, including weekly meetings, personal phone calls from Romney, discussions about appearing at more faith-based events, and serious dialogue about convening a gathering this fall with national evangelical leaders.

In just the last few weeks, Mitt Romney has spoken on the phone a couple times with popular evangelical pastor Rick Warren, and there have been efforts to try and schedule a face-to-face meeting between Romney and Dr. James Dobson, one of the most respected evangelical leaders in the country.

Peter Flaherty, a senior advisor for the Romney campaign, has been the main liaison when it comes to outreach within the conservative Christian community.

The CBN report added that the Romney campaign's frequent-outreach list reads like a who's who of religious right heavyweights, including Tony Perkins, Ralph Reed, Richard Land, and Gary Bauer.

One can only speculate about what's being said, but it stands to reason the Romney campaign, which probably fears a lack of enthusiasm from Christian evangelicals, is making a series of promises related to abortion rights and LGBT rights -- promises the religious right would expect Romney to keep if elected.

Also from the God Machine this week:

* Some religious right activists are pushing a boycott of Google because of the company's support for marriage equality. Lawrence O'Donnell had a segment on this the other day that I found especially entertaining.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

* A Gallup report this week found Americans' confidence in religious institutions has hit an all-time low. Researchers believe the shift is partly the result of the Roman Catholic Church's international scandal involving the sexual abuse of children and the subsequent cover-up.

* Republicans in Florida's state legislature are trying to bring more religion into official public-school events, writing legislation that would allow students to read and recite "inspirational message[s]" at all non-compulsory school events, including graduations, assemblies and sports events. Proselytizing would, by all accounts, be permitted.

* A lengthy story in Bloomberg Businessweek hit newsstands yesterday on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' vast financial holdings. Mormon officials are reportedly offendedby, among other things, the magazine's cover image.

* And regional German court's recent ban on circumcision has, oddly enough, brought togetherJewish and Muslim organizations that are outraged by the ruling (thanks to R.P. for the heads-up).