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I disagree with Scott Walker on everything, except this. Scott Walker and I are rarely on the same side of political issues. He's the Republican union-busting governor of Wisconsin and I'm a bleeding-heart coastal liberal, and yet here we are coming together on one of the most important issues of the day. In some ways, it's almost inspiring for its bipartisanship. https://twitter.com/ScottWalker/status/793450901092438017 Scott Walker is absolutely right. If you loved the last eight years with the president who currently has a 52 percent approval rating, then you should vote for Hillary Clinton. If you're happy that gay marriage is legal and that the White House has prioritized protecting the civil rights of marginalized groups, you should vote for Hillary Clinton. If you're glad that there are 16.5 million fewer uninsured Americans than there were eight years ago, then you should vote for Hillary Clinton. If you like that the economy has added over 10 million jobs since Barack Obama took office, you should vote for Hillary Clinton. If you like that the unemployment rate is well below historical norms, then you should vote for Hillary Clinton. If you like that Barack Obama is not a xenophobic orange goblin, you should vote for Hillary Clinton. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video So, yeah. Again, Scott Walker makes a great point here.

When I was fourteen or sixteen – pardon me, but I don’t remember precisely, nor did these things make any impression in the international mainstream media – mom and I went to what was probably an illegal demonstration in downtown Porto, Portugal. No, I am not sure if it was illegal, or even honestly what the demonstration was for. Around that time it might have been for anything, including in support of whoever was the most right-wing candidate available. (Don’t get excited. It was never further to the right than social democrat, and at one time it was the socialist candidate.) What I remember of that demonstration — one in a string of them — were the shots from above. If my memory serves me (and understand that after these many years things run together, but be patient, there’s a point to this), the demonstration was in Avenida dos Aliados, which despite the name is a plaza, hemmed in between tallish, nineteenth/early twentieth century stone buildings. I’d guess from memory four or five stories high. The shots came from either the upper windows or the roof of one of these buildings. As someone in the crowd, I remember people startled, starting to move, eddies in the packed multitude, and then someone ahead of us going down, bloodied. At that point, the running started. I don’t know how I ended up running near a wall (we were pretty much in the center of the space) but I remember the moment a hand shot out, grabbed me, and pressed me flat against the wall. The shots continued through this, btw. The person who grabbed me was my mom, and for the next few minutes, we resisted the crowd going by so close they might pull us with them. I don’t remember how many people were shot. Maybe four. Far more died in running down an underground passage, trying to get away/to the train station. That last is what my mom saved me from. This is also why my blood boiled this morning when Hillary Clinton ran her ill-informed, loud mouth about the shooting in Las Vegas. We’ll leave alone the fact that the “silencer” doesn’t indeed render guns silent. Larry Correia covered that recently in a wonderful post at his blog. But even if it were possible to silence shots completely, would it be a bad thing, to prevent panic and the subsequent trampling? Unfortunately, Hillary Clinton wasn’t the only person speaking while wearing a stylish colon hat. Facebook and probably all the news media — I’m working on a book and at any rate have no intention of subjecting my blood pressure to that kind of hammering — are full of “experts” and “observers” and “commenters” talking about how this wouldn’t have happened if we had only banned private gun ownership.

Mining is one of the most destructive forces currently on the face of the planet. Mines, since the Industrial Era, have poisoned the environment and its workers alike. Gold mining is particularly destructive as its waste carries mercury and cyanide, which are typically used to extract gold from rock. These potent neurotoxins persist in the environment, poisoning the soil, and contaminate water supplies permanently. Gold mining also releases hundreds of tons of elemental mercury into the air annually. In addition, this type of mining is considered particularly destructive because of its wastefulness – over 20 tons of rock and soil must be “treated” and then dislodged to produce enough gold for a single ring. Recently, in the US, the toxic consequences of gold mining were on full display when the Environmental Protection Agency’s incompetence in cleaning out an abandoned gold mine turned the Animas river orange after heavy metal-laden mining waste drained into the river. Before this tragic accident, the EPA had reported that 40% of Western US watersheds had been permanently contaminated by mining. Now that gold mining is not as common as it once was in the US, many other countries have been exploited by gold mining firms in its absence. One of these countries is Australia. Mining in Australia is a major industry with gold mining in Western Australia alone generating over $10 billion every year. However, some of the gold mines there have been experiencing a costly and unexpected problem as nature has apparently decided to fight back against its incursions. Drones that are used to survey the territory around gold mines are being destroyed by native wedge-tailed eagles. Rick Steven, a mine surveyor in the region, said that he had lost nine of his Trimble UX5 drones to eagles, which he labeled “the natural enemy” of drones. After the attacks began, Steven camouflaged his drones as baby eagles. However, the ruse only worked temporarily as 50 flights later the eagles realized the disguised drones were not what they seemed. Each of these drones costs an impressive $20,000, meaning that gold mining companies are losing money fast thanks to the eagles’ intervention. One of these companies, Gold Fields, has already lost over $100,000. This isn’t the first case of animals fighting back against the degradation of the environment in recent months. Less than a month ago, a herd of wild buffalo appeared out of nowhere in a seeming show of support to the Native Americans and their allies protesting the Dakota Access pipeline. The buffalo, who are considered sacred by the Sioux tribe, appeared by the thousands in a stampede that interrupted a confrontation between protestors and police. After the event, many speculated that the buffalo had appeared to show their solidarity with the protestors and indicated that nature was fighting back against exploitative corporate practices. Hopefully, these acts of defiance from the natural world will inspire people to follow their lead in taking a stand against the corporations destroying the planet. What are your thoughts? Please comment below and share this news! This article ( Eagles Destroy Corporate Drones, Cost Mining Company More Than $100,000) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and TrueActivist.com

Quick: what is the appropriate response to the stabbing death of a human? And let's just never mind the fact that the stabbing was completely random and unprovoked. Or that the victim just happened to be days away from graduating from Bowie State University and had recently been commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army and was preparing to move to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, for training in defending the country against chemical attacks. What is important here, since it seems to be the only thing that is ever important in these situations, is that the victim - Richard Collins III, 23 - was Black. His murderer, Christopher Urbanski, 22, who saw fit to plunge a knife into Collins's chest for reasons no one apparently knows but the FBI is investigating as a "possible" (possible!!!) hate crime, is white. Yes, "possible." As a matter of fact, Urbanski, who was charged with assault and first- and second-degree murder and is being held without bail, is a member of the white supremacist Facebook group Alt-Reich: Nation, according to NBC 4 Washington. So yes, it is fair to say that it is certainly "possible" this was a hate crime. Ah, but the story doesn't end there, because why would it. After Collins died, a civilian employee of the Anne Arundel County Police Department in Maryland took to social media to praise the act. Welby Burgone, a police-academy recruit and obvious national treasure in Trump's America, worked in the Anne Arundel County Police Department’s communications department as a civilian employee. He was also a classmate and presumable "boy" of Urbanski's. When one Matt Worth posted on Twitter: "Fuck Yeah Sean!!!! That’s what happens when n***as try and get frosty with an OG. Talk shit, stabbed, lol." To which Burgone replied with a meme that he apparently found funny, even though it objectively isn't funny under ANY circumstances, and certainly not when it refers to the slaying of a fellow human being. Thankfully, because sometimes the world isn't a completely awful place, the Anne Arundel Police Department also didn't find it funny and immediately suspended Burgone, issuing the following statement: "The actions of this employee are a betrayal of the values of the Anne Arundel County Police Department. Any employee who espouses or supports hateful or racist ideology will be held accountable and we will not allow the public’s trust in their police department to be eroded." This person is, however, still alive and freely roaming the streets being a good ol' 'Murican and contributing to the "dialogue" on his possible pro-hate crime radical extremist white supremacist group, and will go on to find employment elsewhere and ban together with like-minded fragile white men and possibly even reproduce and indoctrinate his progeny into his viciously racist ideology, all the while hiding behind his God and guns, so, awesome. Honestly it's hard to say what the most disturbing part of this story even is.

It’s no secret that Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has great disdain for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Shortly before the Democratic National Convention, the activist released incriminating email showing that the DNC had worked against Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in favor of a Clinton nomination. Though that did much to shake up supporters of the American political system and infuriate supporters of Sanders, the Vermont Senator pledged his support to Clinton nonetheless. He cited that it was important to unify the party and prevent a Trump presidency. Rigged or not (and it’s most definitely rigged), is this truly the reason Bernie Sanders gave up the good fight? According to Assange, Bernie Sanders was threatened. During an interview with Australian journalist John Pilger, who is based in the United Kingdom, Assange disclosed some very concerning information. Pilger, who is working on a documentary about Assange, asked: “Julian, we cut you off earlier when you were talking about what you felt were the most significant emails that you have released. Is there any last one that you’d like to mention? And also, do you have any thoughts on Bernie Sanders? I mean what is your opinion why Bernie Sanders drop out of the race?” Assange responded: “Look, I think—you know, we know how politics works in the United States. Whoever—whatever political party gets into government is going to merge with the bureaucracy pretty damn fast. It will be in a position where it has some levers in its hand. And Bernie Sanders was independent candidate trying to get the nomination trough the Democratic Party and if you ask me he did get the nomination, but he was threatened to drop out.” Again, Assange has promised to release incriminating emails which are sure to result in Clinton’s indictment. He says he has evidence that Hillary made deals with an alleged Islamic state sponsor, as well as damning information about the Clinton Foundation. The Clinton campaign knows he’s on to her, too, which is why a strategist called for an assassination of Assange on TV. “Of course, we’re very interested in revealing the truth about any candidate and yes we have some material about Bernie Sanders that will be published,” Assange added. What are your thoughts? Please comment below and share this news! This article ( Julian Assange: This Is The REAL Reason Bernie Sanders Dropped Out Of The Race) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and TrueActivist.com

Michael Douglas has jumped ahead of allegations he masturbated in front of a former employee, insisting he’s not about to sit back and become the villain of a harassment story. The Basic Instinct star claims staff at both The Hollywood Reporter and Variety have reached out for feedback concerning accusations he pleasured himself in front of an employee three decades ago, and he’s keen to get ahead of the story, before he joins the likes of Harvey Weinstein, Louis C.K., Jeremy Piven, and Brett Ratner, among others, who have been accused of sexual misconduct. Douglas has turned to movie news website Deadline to set the story straight, stating, “I felt the need to get ahead of this.” Revealing that The Hollywood Reporter contacted him via his attorney regarding the woman’s claims that he used “colourful language” in front of her, “spoke raunchily, or dirtily with friends of mine in private conversations on the phone”. The woman’s third claim was that the actor masturbated in front of her, to which Douglas responds, “I remembered this woman: sophisticated intelligent, good sense of humour, a novelist, who has written books and published novels and was an active feminist, and proud of it. My head was reeling. I just couldn’t put this together.” Insisting she “could have excused herself” if she was offended by the language he used in private conversations, Douglas adds the allegations he blackballed the unnamed women are “completely untrue”. He adds that the claims he masturbated in front of her are “a complete lie, fabrication”. According to the actor, the journalist at The Hollywood Reporter agreed to sit on the story over the holidays, but in the New Year the publication got back in touch and said, “‘She’s (accuser) running around, possibly trying to give this story to other people, so we’re going to run with it’. “I said, ‘I don’t think that’s justification, just because you might get scooped, to run a story like this’… I was floored,” he continues. “I didn’t know what to say and I tried to digest it. The accusations are minimal, except of course for the idea of masturbating in front of her. She supposedly had three friends who would back her up, that she had mentioned this to… “How am I, in a 50 year career in this industry, dealing with an employee 33 years ago who perhaps is disgruntled that I let her go, even though I have never heard from her in 32 years. And a legitimate trade publication is going to try and print this story? There is no corroboration, just that they found out somebody else might run the story.” Douglas calls the whole saga “extremely painful”, adding, “I pride myself on my reputation in this business… I’m bewildered why, after 32 years, this is coming out, now. “The part that hurt the worst is having to share something like this to your wife and your children. My kids are really upset, have to go to school worrying this is going to be in some article about me, being a sexual harasser. They’re scared and very uncomfortable.” Douglas also states this isn’t “the New Year I had anticipated”, adding he’s worried the drama may affect upcoming work he has booked. “I’m fearful,” he says. “I have jobs going with studios who all seem to be supportive at this time. I’m hurt, really hurt and offended and I wonder if people realize when you do something like this, it hurts a lot more than just one person.” Play Video Play Loaded: 0% Progress: 0% Remaining Time -0:00 This is a modal window. Foreground --- White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan --- Opaque Semi-Opaque Background --- White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan --- Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window --- White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan --- Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Default Monospace Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Sans-Serif Casual Script Small Caps Defaults Done ATLANTA — Desmond Marrow rejoiced when the officer he said choked him during an arrest was fired soon after a video of the encounter went viral. But now his lawyers say police and elected…

President Trump holds a joint press conference with Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah of Kuwait. Trump on Thursday also seemingly touted his administration's success against ISIS compared with his predecessor, former President Obama. "What we do is kill ISIS," Trump said of America's involvement in Syria. "We have done better in eight months in my presidency that was accomplished during the last eight years. ISIS is disappearing rapidly." President Trump on Thursday said it would be a "very sad day" for North Korea if the U.S. military needed to use force against it. "Military action would certainly be an option," he said during a press conference. "Nothing is inevitable. I would prefer not going the route of the military, but it could certainly happen." "Our military is stronger now," Trump added. "Each day new and beautiful equipment is delivered, by far the best in the world. Hopefully we don't use it on North Korea. But if we do use it on North Korea, it will be a very sad day for North Korea. I will tell you that North Korea is behaving very badly and it's gotta stop." President Trump on Thursday praised Kuwait for its contributions to defeating the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and other terrorist groups. "The United States is proud to have contributed to the liberation of Kuwait and the friendship we have built together in the years since," he said, referencing the First Gulf War from 1990 to 1991. "We also thank Kuwait for its humanitarian leadership and its partnership in the fight to destroy ISIS," Trump added in a joint press conference with Kuwaiti leader Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah. President Trump and Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, the leader of Kuwait, on Thursday are appearing together in a joint press conference after meeting in Washington, D.C. Thursday's meeting comes as Kuwait tries mediating an ongoing diplomatic crisis between Qatar and its Arab neighbors in the Middle East. Trump initially seemed to side with Saudi Arabia on the disagreement, but he then instructed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to back the Kuwaiti mediation initiative. Tillerson and other U.S. diplomats have since traveled through the region to boost Kuwait's efforts, but the dispute has dragged on despite their efforts. Trump was also expected to discuss global efforts to isolate North Korea by halting employment of its guest workers during his talks with Al Sabah. Kuwait has about 6,000 North Korean guest works within its borders as worldwide tensions rise over the Asian nation's pursuit of nuclear weapons. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

After months of criticism that GoDaddy was providing a platform for hate speech, the Web hosting company announced late Sunday that it will no longer house the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website that promotes white supremacist and white nationalist ideas. GoDaddy said in a tweet that Daily Stormer had been told it had 24 hours to move its website domain to another provider because it had “violated” the Web host’s “terms of service.” “We informed The Daily Stormer that they have 24 hours to move the domain to another provider, as they have violated our terms of service. GoDaddy’s announcement was in response to an appeal from a Twitter user who called attention late Sunday to an online post by Daily Stormer founder Andrew Anglin. The post disparaged Heather Heyer, the 32-year-old woman killed Saturday in Charlottesville, police say, after a man plowed into a crowd with his vehicle. GoDaddy Drops White Supremacist Site 'Daily Stormer' Google and GoDaddy give a neo-Nazi website the boot GoDaddy responded to The Daily Stormer's vulgar article about Charlottesville victim Heather Heyer by banning the white supremacist site from its service. The Daily Stormer then tried to transfer its domain registration to Google. Google terminated The Daily Stormer's registration soon after, saying: - Google statement to Business Insider TheStreet.com http://launch.newsinc.com/share.html?trackingGroup=90108&siteSection=gatehouse&videoId=32829648 BACK Embed <iframe width="590" height="332" src="http://launch.newsinc.com/?type=VideoPlayer/Single&widgetId=1&trackingGroup=69016&playlistId=19132&siteSection=gatehouse&videoId=32829648" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" noresize marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen></iframe> Privacy Policy | Terms of Use Heyer was among the hundreds who had turned out to protest against the controversial rally being held by white supremacist groups, including neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members. The suspect, James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Ohio, has been charged with one count of second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and another count related to the hit-and-run, police said. In the Daily Stormer post, Anglin characterized Heyer as dying in a “road age incident.” He said she was a “drain on society” and disparaged her appearance. “Most people are glad she is dead,” he wrote. ″ @GoDaddy you host The Daily Stormer - they posted this on their site,” Twitter user Amy Siskind said in an appeal to the Web hosting company. “Please retweet if you think this hate should be taken down & banned.” Siskind’s post was shared more than 5,000 times. GoDaddy spokesman Dan Race confirmed the company’s decision to boot the Daily Stormer in an email to The Washington Post. He said the article about Heyer violated GoDaddy’s terms of service, Race said. “Given The Daily Stormer’s latest article comes on the immediate heels of a violent act, we believe this type of article could incite additional violence, which violates our terms of service,” Race wrote in the email. Early Monday, just hours after GoDaddy made its announcement, a note appeared on the Daily’s Stormer’s website claiming it had been taken over by the hacking activist group Anonymous “in the name of Heather Heyer a victim of white supremacist terrorism.” But a Twitter account claiming to be linked to Anonymous said it could not confirm that the Daily Storm was hacked. “Remain cautious,” it advised. The Daily Stormer and other websites characterized as espousing racist or anti-Semitic views have registered domain names with GoDaddy and use a privacy service called Domains by Proxy that is affiliated with GoDaddy, the Daily Beast reported last month. Critics have pushed GoDaddy to ban these sites from its service, arguing that providing them a platform enables hate speech. GoDaddy has previously said that the content, however “tasteless” and “ignorant,” is protected by the First Amendment. The company told the Daily Beast in July that a Daily Stormer article threatening to “track down” the family members of CNN staffers did not violate Domains by Proxy’s terms of service. “We do not see a reason to take any action under our terms of service as does not promote or encourage violence against people,” Ben Butler, GoDaddy’s director of network abuse, told The Daily Beast. “While we detest the sentiment of this site and the article in question, we support First Amendment rights and, similar to the principles of free speech, that sometimes means allowing such tasteless, ignorant content.” The Daily Stormer has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as the “top hate site in America,” and publishes content disparaging Jewish people, people of color Muslims and women.

Gov. Pat McCrory Sunday called the weekend firebombing of a North Carolina Republican headquarters “an attack on our democracy,” while one GOP official called it an act of “political terrorism.” In a tweet, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump blamed “Animals representing Hillary Clinton and Dems in North Carolina.” Hillsborough police said somebody threw a bottle of flammable liquid through the window of Orange County’s GOP headquarters, setting campaign signs, supplies and furniture ablaze before burning itself out. A swastika and “Nazi Republicans get out of town or else” were spray painted on the side of an adjacent building. No damage estimates were available. The afternoon's latest local news Recaptcha requires verification. protected by reCAPTCHA Privacy - Terms Privacy - Terms “The firebombing of a local political headquarters in Orange County is clearly an attack on our democracy,” McCrory said in a statement. “Violence has no place in our society – but especially in our elections. … I will use every resource as governor to assist local authorities in this investigation.” Hillsborough Mayor Tom Stevens said, “This highly disturbing act goes far beyond vandalizing property; it willfully threatens our community’s safety … and its hateful message undermines decency, respect and integrity in civic participation.” Hillsborough police and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were continuing to investigate. The incident took place in Orange County, home of the University of North Carolina in nearby Chapel Hill. The county is overwhelmingly Democratic. Democrats and independents outnumber Republicans 5-1. ALL SAFE IN ORANGE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA. With you all the way, will never forget. Now we have to win. Proud of you all! @NCGOP Animals representing Hillary Clinton and Dems in North Carolina just firebombed our office in Orange County because we are winning @NCGOP Thank you Mr. @realDonaldTrump. We will not be silenced nor suppressed by this evil act. We will pray for those who seek to harm us. While Democrats condemned the bombing, Trump tweeted: “Animals representing Hillary Clinton and Dems in North Carolina just firebombed our office in Orange County because we are winning @NCGOP.” But Clinton’s campaign tweeted, “The attack on the Orange County HQ @NCGOP office is horrific and unacceptable. Very grateful that everyone is safe.” The North Carolina Republican Party responded, “Thank you for your thoughts & prayers, Sec. @HillaryClinton.” Later, the party responded to Trump, “Thank you Mr. @realDonaldTrump. We will not be silenced nor suppressed by this evil act. We will pray for those who seek to harm us.” The attack on the Orange County HQ @NCGOP office is horrific and unacceptable. Very grateful that everyone is safe. Thank you for your thoughts & prayers, Sec. @HillaryClinton. North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Patsy Keever called the bombing “outrageous.” “The North Carolina Democratic Party strongly condemns this attack,” she said. “Violence has no place in our political system. … Our deepest sympathies are with everyone at the North Carolina Republican Party.” Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper tweeted, “Violence has no place in our democracy and can not be tolerated. The culprits must be caught and brought to justice.” Dallas Woodhouse, executive director of the state GOP, called the bombing “political terrorism.” “The office itself is a total loss,” he said. “The only thing important to us is that nobody was killed, and they very well could have been.” Later, Woodhouse said, “Whether you are Republican, Democrat or Independent, all Americans should be outraged by this hate-filled and violent attack against our democracy. … Everyone in this country should be free to express their political viewpoints without fear for their own safety.” The flaming bottle, which Woodhouse described as a significant Molotov cocktail, and bomb, was thrown through a window that bore the words “Freedom spoken here.” “This is a horrific, horrific act of political terrorism, one that we will not succumb to and one that we will answer,” he said. “When people try to stifle freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, you must come back with more speech and aggressively defend your rights.” Woodhouse also mentioned the graffiti that said “Nazi Republicans leave town or else.” “Or else what? That is what we all wonder, or else what,” he said. “Because we’re not going anywhere.” Woodhouse said a van had already been brought in from Durham, and campaigners would go back to work in the heavily Democratic county. Volunteer Bob Randall was there to clean up Sunday. He said he believes that the bombing was an act of political terrorism and that it would get people angry and motivated to vote Republican. “The idea is to intimidate us, to make us crawl back in the shadows,” he said. “But I think it’s going to backfire on them.” The incident comes barely three weeks before an election marked by heightened tensions and passion on both sides. On Sunday the Bangor Daily News reported that about 20 cars were vandalized with spray paint outside a Saturday rally for GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump. Earlier this year violence broke out with protesters at a Trump rally in Chicago. And one protester was sucker-punched at a Trump rally in Fayetteville. “You hope (the firebombing) is an isolated incident,” said Ferrel Guillory, a political analyst at UNC Chapel Hill. “It always happens that toward the end of the campaign, emotions get both frayed and intensified.” The Rev. William J. Barber, president of the North Carolina NAACP, condemned the act. Barber told the Associated Press, “While vigorous debate on issues is acceptable, we in the NAACP denounce any kind of violence that is perpetrated toward our citizens or any political party.” Woodhouse said he’s sending an advisory to county Republican offices across the state warning them to take extra caution. Anyone with information is asked to call the police department’s tip line at 919-732-3975. The (Raleigh) News & Observer’s Chris Cioffi and The Associated Press contributed. Jim Morrill: 704-358-5059, @jimmorrill

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Saturday the second flight test of an intercontinental ballistic missile demonstrated his country can hit the U.S. According to analysts, North Korea's missiles would be capable of reaching Los Angeles, New York or Chicago. The Korean Central News Agency said Kim expressed "great satisfaction" with the test. The Pentagon confirmed Friday morning that North Korea launched another ballistic missile. "We are assessing and will have more information soon," said Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman. Japanese government spokesperson Yoshihide Suga said the missile flew for roughly 45 minutes and landed off the Japanese coast in waters near Japan and the Korean Peninsula. Japanese public broadcaster NHK said the coast guard has issued safety warnings to aircraft and ships. The launch occurred one day after Congress approved a legislative package that includes economic sanctions against North Korea. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the projectile may have landed in the sea. He also confined that he has confirmed a meeting of the National Security Council. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Dear Lefties: It’s official! You are very special, according to science. Throughout history, being left-handed has been viewed as a weakness or something to overcome. Heck, just 20 years ago, studies said that left-handed people die sooner and were prone to more accidents. Why? It’s not your fault, lefties—you’re living in a world built for right-handed people! Doors are made for the right hand. Simple household items like scissors and can openers are made for the right hand. Even writing can be more of a challenge for lefties. But studies have revealed some interesting facts about left-handedness. And, it turns out, there are some serious perks to being a leftie—including a higher likelihood of excelling at sports and better problem-solving skills (take that, righties!). Read on for some fun facts about and great perks of being left-handed. In spite of a good deal of research over the years, there still isn’t a definitive answer as to why some humans are left-handed. It could be partly hereditary from the mother’s side of the family tree. Another theory is that if there is more testosterone in the womb, there’s a greater chance the baby will be left-handed. In one study, twins were twice as likely to be left-handed as compared to the rest of the world. Various studies estimate that between 5 and 26 percent of the population is left-handed. But those numbers vary depending on culture and region being studied. RELATED: Here are some more things you might not know about left-handed people: About 25 percent of all MLB players are left-handed (or “southpaws”). And baseball’s not the only sport that’s advantageous for lefties. Interactive sports like tennis give lefties the upper hand. In fact, one report showed a whopping 40 percent of top tennis players are left-handed. Since left-handed athletes’ movements are different, opponents aren’t used to reacting to them. Athletes are built on routines, and when you disrupt their routine, it throws off their game. Back in the day, left-handed students were forced to write with their right hands in an attempt to correct what was seen as a problem. Even with these questionable practices going on, the trait of left-handedness has not died. Instead of survival of the fittest, left-handedness is sort of a “survival of the unexpected.” For instance, in primitive cultures, 27 percent of people living in war-like regions were left-handed, compared to 3 percent in peaceful regions. Perhaps that’s because the right-handed fighters never saw the left hook coming. Scientists believe lefties are better at divergent thinking, or coming up with multiple solutions to a problem. As a result, they are more likely than right-handed counterparts to pursue careers in science, art and technology. Famous lefties who made names for themselves in those fields include Marie Curie, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Pablo Picasso, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Bill Gates, Julia Roberts, Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman and Jean-Paul Gaultier—an impressive lineup! Doctors can tell if a baby is left-handed through ultrasound. Most babies, or 90 percent of them, move their right arm and suck on their right thumbin the womb. That other 10 percent? Future lefties! While studies about whether left-handed people are officially “better” thinkers are inconclusive, there is anecdotal evidence that lefties are very smart. Famous left-handed brainiacs include Albert Einstein, President Barack Obama, Bill Gates, as mentioned above, and Neil Armstrong. Not bad company to keep! One study showed that most lefties were born between March and July. From this information, we can deduce that most lefties were conceived between June and October. As to what this indicates, well, researchers aren’t quite there yet—but it is an interesting finding nonetheless!

Warning: Image below is NSFW. Lena Dunham has always used sexuality to drive a conversation about real-world issues, and that was evident with her Halloween costume. On Monday night, the “Girls” creator and star posted on Instagram this photo of what she was dressing as for Halloween: That’s right, she went out as a “Grabbed P—y,” as she called it. She’s of course referring to the now-infamous remark Donald Trump made while shooting a segment for Access Hollywood back in 2005, which leaked in October. “I know that hearing those words was painful for everybody,” she told People of the inspiration behind the costume. “I think women, and people of colour, and Muslims who have been searched at the airport, and transpeople who have been denied their rights, all know what it feels like to have their body taken from them. Those comments aren’t just about women — they were about everyone whose body is treated like the property of other people.” Follow Business Insider Australia on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

(Newser) – Miss America chairman and CEO Sam Haskell resigned Saturday—just a day after saying he wouldn't, the New York Daily News reports. He was joined by chairman Lynn Weidner, president and COO Josh Randle, and board member Tammy Haddad. The resignations of Miss America leadership come after HuffPo published internal emails Thursday that feature Haskell calling a former Miss America winner "fat and gross" and joking that he's one of very few people who haven't had sex with her, according to USA Today. He also mused about renaming Miss America winners "c--ts," as per the Hollywood Reporter. On Friday, Haskell was suspended pending an investigation as 49 former Miss America winners signed a petition calling on pageant leadership to resign. Haskell remained adamant that he wouldn't resign over what he said were false accusations and a "mistake of words." In a statement, the Miss America Organization says Haskell's resignation will take effect immediately. Randle and Weidner will stay on for the coming weeks to "facilitate a smooth transition." "The board thanks Lynn and Sam for many years of tireless work for, and significant financial support to, both the Miss America Organization and thousands of young women," the statement reads. In addition, the board says it "will be conducting an in-depth investigation" into the emails.

by Walter W. Murray, reporter The easily triggered college students of the left won’t let facts stand in the way of their false outrage. In a hilarious video that’s going viral, students at the University of California, Santa Barbara were hopping mad over President Donald Trump’s plan to send troops to the U.S.-Mexico border just 200 miles away… not knowing they were trashing former President Barack Obama, too. “It’s not justified!” seethed one of the students. “It is, like, a totally uncalled-for act of power.” Sponsored: Did Russians “hack” the secret to eternal energy? Another came right out and admitted to Cabot Phillips of Campus Reform, who filmed it, that “I’m not a huge fan of the military to begin with.” The footage shows student after student steaming over the plan to increase border security. Take a look here — Just one problem: The very act they’re livid over — the actions they blame on Trump — are the same exact moves made by former President Barack Obama, the hero of the young leftists. When that fact is dropped on them, it leaves the liberals stunned into silence. Sponsored: Wow! Scientists discover blood pressure-improving effects of 3 common foods In 2010, Obama sent up to 1,200 troops to the border as part of the $110 million Operation Phalanx. Those troops assisted border patrol with more than 17,000 apprehensions of people caught trying to cross illegally. They also intercepted massive amounts of drugs, including 56,342 pounds of marijuana with a street value of more than $100 million. Liberals didn’t make a peep at the time! Sponsored: Is this Ronald Reagan’s secret cancer cure? When told that Obama did the same thing, these young leftists were left stammering and one was literally speechless. They couldn’t approve the move because Trump did it — but they couldn’t condemn it anymore, either, since their hero did the same thing. “That’s kind surprising,” was the best response one of the students could manage. “People have been so conditioned to think anytime they hear ‘President Trump’ they have to oppose it,” Phillips observed in a Fox News interview. “They’re taught in the classroom, they’re taught by society and the media, it must be horrible, it must be racist.” Sponsored: Did you see this news? It’s not just Obama did the same thing. California Gov. Jerry Brown has also authorized sending National Guard troops to the border both during the Obama administration and now again under Trump. While his most recent act also involved sending a sulky letter filled with textbook liberal gripes, he also was forced to admit that National Guard troops play an essential role in U.S. border security. “Your funding for new staffing will allow the Guard to do what it does best: support operations targeting transnational criminal gangs, human traffickers and illegal firearm and drug smugglers along the border, the coast and throughout the state,” Brown admitted in the letter to Trump. “Combating these criminal threats are priorities for all Americans — Republicans and Democrats.” For your eyes only (personal matter) [sponsored] Quote that letter to the left – tell them Trump said it – and you can bet they would take to the streets. Resist! Just don’t ask them who or what they’re resisting because clearly, they don’t know. — Walter W. Murray is a reporter for The Horn News. He is an outspoken conservative and a survival expert, and is the author of “ America’s Final Warning.”

The King County executive shared strong words as conservative, pro-Trump group known as “Patriot Prayer” descended on downtown Seattle in the wake of violent clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia. Demonstrators billed its “freedom rally" supported freedom and free speech. Executive Dow Constantine issued this statement as the demonstration was underway Sunday afternoon: “To the white supremacists and fascists who gathered today at Westlake Center under the false pretense of patriotism the day after the violence that a similar group sparked in Charlottesville, I have a message to share on behalf of the people of King County.” “We fought a Civil War against slavery, and you lost. We fought a World War against fascism, and you lost. Today, we stand united against the hateful rhetoric you have brought to our community. And you will lose again.” >> See photos from the demonstration here Other Washington state leaders, including Sen. Patty Murray, condemned the actions and made a call for people to "stand up and fight back." Portland-based Patriot Prayer’s Facebook event on its rally didn’t give clear reasons on why people were demonstrating. But the event page listed a variety of items the group claimed it was worried about – including sexual allegations against the Seattle mayor and what the group called “communist ideologies.” Leader Joey Gibson started the rally with the Pledge of Allegiance and a prayer asking for peace on the West Coast. Speakers in the rally called the Charlottesville incident an act of terrorism, said that white supremacists were not welcome at their event, and asked anyone who attended for racist reasons to leave. Gibson, who hosted a Patriot Prayer event earlier in the summer at The Evergreen State College, spoke to KIRO Radio on Monday and further spoke on his group's message. He said that he was not at Westlake Park to preach hate. “I have no idea what the hell they’re thinking about [this weekend] with the torches, David Duke and [Richard] Spencer, but I do not stand with that. The whole thing. I don’t understand what the hell happened yesterday. But they did it on purpose to tear apart this country,” Gibson told KIRO Radio. The “freedom rally" message was met by boos in the crowd as counterprotesters with the “solidarity met by hate” demonstration converged. "We don't want fascism in America," said counter-protester Mave Bowman, who lives in Los Angeles. "We don't tolerate violence like what happened [this weekend] so this is our way of saying no to like the Trump regime." Counterprotesters marched from Denny Park through downtown Seattle to Westlake Park, but many of those protesters were prevented from reaching the "freedom rally" location. But some counter-protesters made it. A barricade separated the groups of protesters in downtown Seattle. Police officers stood by dressed in black, riot gear. Police said they used pepper spray and blast balls to disperse crowds after fireworks were thrown at officers. Three people were arrested: a 40-year-old man for obstruction, a 37-year-old man for assault and a 25-year old man for assault. Council member Mike O'Brien expressed frustration over the crowd being kept away from Westlake Park. "Why weren't the demonstrators not allowed to get to Westlake Park?" O'Brien said. "I don't know what the call was. I'm not in a position to second-guess that at the moment." Seattle was just one of the cities in the United States on Sunday that had protesters decrying hate and racism. In Charlottesville over the weekend, neo-Nazis, skinheads, Ku Klux Klan members and other white nationalists gathered to "take America back" and oppose plans to remove a Confederate statue in the Virginia college town, and hundreds of other people came to protest the rally. The groups clashed in street brawls, with hundreds of people throwing punches, hurling water bottles and beating each other with sticks and shields. Eventually, a car rammed into a peaceful crowd of anti-white-nationalist protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer. A Virginia State Police helicopter deployed in a large-scale response to the violence then crashed into the woods outside of town. Both troopers on board died. President Donald Trump condemned what he called an "egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides," a statement that Democrats and some of the president's fellow Republicans saw as equivocating about who was to blame. The White House later added that the condemnation "includes white Supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi and all extremist groups." Some of the white nationalists at Saturday's rally cited Trump's victory, after a campaign of racially charged rhetoric, as validation for their beliefs. Some of the people protesting Sunday also point to the president and his campaign, saying they gave license to racist hatred that built into what happened in Charlottesville. The Associated Press contributed to this report. © 2018 Cox Media Group.

Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft on the outrage over the Clinton email investigation. With FBI Director James Comey announcing the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email scandal would be reopened, Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft weighs in on the backlash as well as the political fallout as Election Day quickly approaches. “Well, first of all, I’m deeply saddened by what’s happened by the Justice Department,” Ashcroft told the FOX Business Network’s Neil Cavuto. Ashcroft then brought up claims that the Department of Justice blocked the FBI from using many of the investigative tools available to it in its investigation of the Clinton Foundation. “There’s been a pervasive perversion of the Justice Department process over and over again and recent reports like in The Wall Street Journal that suggest that, not only suggest, allege that the Justice Department has denied investigative tools to be used in investigations related to the Clinton Foundation and frankly, the absence of the use of tools that should have been used in the initial investigation of Hillary Clinton.” As a result, Ashcroft explained, “The Justice Department sent the FBI in to investigate the Clinton Foundation with its hands tied behind its back.” The fact that the investigation is being reopened now, so close to the election, was not a surprise to Ashcroft, but the result of stonewalling by Hillary Clinton and her staffers. “This isn’t an October surprise in my judgment, this is the continuity of an issue which had been stonewalled, for which information had been requested which was not fully given and there was an erroneous statement earlier, much to the acclaim of the people who did the stonewalling, that the investigation was over.” According to Ashcroft, it is unfair for the Clinton campaign to blame the FBI for the timing of the announcement when the campaign’s stonewalling is ultimately at fault due to its lack of transparency and delays in providing information requested. “There’s a sense in which it’s a little disingenuous to be complaining about information coming out late when you are the cause of the information coming out late because of a significant stonewalling effort that’s been unfortunately facilitated by the way in which the Attorney General and others have allowed this particular investigation to be conducted.” Ashcroft viewed this investigation as damaging the credibility of the Justice Department he once knew. “This is not the Justice Department that I knew, in which I trusted, which I admired.”

这一周实在太糟糕了，每天打开手机都会觉得这个世界已经疯了。无论国内还是国外都陷入了无止尽的混乱，糟糕的天气也并没有起到任何调剂的作用。在这一周的最后一天，穿的像一个无忧无虑的男孩子吧，整身牛仔布的 Loewe 配上一双拖鞋，用打扮来逃离这个疯狂的世界。 如果你足够看的开，也可以用这个皮拖鞋踩水。 近日，三星公布两项专利。其中一项是通过利用面板和电极组成的“人造肌肉”，让智能手机即使被折叠成了不同的外形，仍然可以利用内部控制器对电压进行控制，让手机可以被使用。另外一个折叠屏幕的专利，展示了双屏折叠的设计。 部分领域三星确实走在了前面，但是折叠的意义是？ 来自俄罗斯的汽车设计师 Grigory Gorin 设计了一款特别的奥迪概念车。在“恐怖伊万”的设计中，这款车搭载的是核动力系统。这款概念车的名称为 Mesarthim F-Tron Quattro，在后轴前方安装了一套核动力装置，该装置产生的电能为电池充电，最后由电池为电机供电。 开着这辆车上街，绝对所有人都绕着走。 昨天下午，针对停止烧钱大战甚至进行合并的传言，滴滴和 UBER 中国都正式给予否认。滴滴官方表示，我们并无将 UBER 中国并入滴滴这种类似计划，也不对市场流言做过多评论。UBER 中国方面则表示对谣言和揣测不予置评。 也可能是因为名字的问题，“步滴”、“滴步”都够难听的了。 在不到一个月的时间里，星巴克的彩虹色饮料在互联网上相关话题数已经超过了百万，可是在菜单上我们却找不到它们。虽然星巴克的“秘密菜单”我们都很熟悉，但这次就连星巴克的咖啡师也一头雾水并且在社交平台上询问：“我们该对一杯橙色特饮收多少钱？”不过，看到彩虹饮料这么受欢迎后，星巴克还是在不久前提供了一份官方的配方。 星巴克最后看上去像是回应消费需求而给出的各种颜色饮料配方，也太快了吧？ 除了竞选总统，Donald Trump 还能干吗？他亲自参与设计一块手表。48mm 的表盘，印满了 Trump 的 Logo，采用18K黄金打造，售价100万美金，表背有他的签名刻字。对于本次设计，Trump 本人满意到不得了，连着说出三次“Great”肯定了自己在腕表设计上的好品味。当然他本人也是黄金表款的忠实爱好者，百达翡丽、劳力士等只要是黄金款的，都被他戴上过手腕子。比起克林顿、奥巴马等美国领导人在购表上选的平民款（几百美金左右），Trump 表示：我选择，我喜欢。 黄金，自古富商们的通用审美标志。 亚马逊最近上线了一个新的作品类别 Singles Classics，它可以让你读到来自杂志和文集中的经典短文。具体来说，Kindle 找到散落在各类期刊中的知名论文、新闻报道，将它们单独上架。现在这个类别包含有140篇文章，来自《时代周刊》、《名利场》、《大西洋月刊》、《纽约客》、《花花公子》……它们的年代久远，有些甚至发表于上世纪60年代。 这对杂志出版商也许是个好事。 传奇影业获得了《口袋妖怪》真人电影的拍摄权，但故事可能和我们想象中的不太一样。电影将基于“侦探皮卡丘”的故事展开，但是关于影片的其他细节均处于保密之中。据悉，影片将于2017年开始制作。 一想到皮卡丘是主角，还是真人版，不禁心头一凉。 里约奥运会在即，近日，自称“巴西哈里发国”的组织将 ISIS 首领巴格达迪称作“信众的埃米尔，穆斯林的哈里发”，并承诺将完全服从他，建立反抗“敌人”的“安拉的宗教”。面对上述情况，巴西情报机构认为，极端恐怖教义的传播以及针对讲葡萄牙语的受众，这些都增加了反恐的复杂性。 里约刚刚削减了奥运会期间的安保预算…而且据悉，里约的警察已经有五个月没拿到工资了。 贝克汉姆为天空体育拍摄全新预告片。在影片中，小贝直接在晨跑中经历一年四季，还时不时停下来跟球迷一起庆祝胜利，在人群中各种闪避动作。另外，在影片中还出现了他经典的抓金发动作。 但是最后却被狗狗狂追……

Imgur | floridali There's a sweet sense of justice when people get exactly what they had coming to them. It's like even the universe is rooting against jerks, along with all of us. All of these people are going to think twice next time they try something that turns us into the eye roll emoji. And yet she had no idea that her own hand was betraying her! In the end, she just gave herself bunny ears. But left their license plate on the car that they hit! What justice is this? Pretty sure they will never hit and run again. But left their really expensive sunglasses at the table. Also, dining and dashing on a $25 bill? Really? What kind of sick people do such things! " Runs after hitting my car in parking lot. Workers get info and call the police. She gets caught because she ran out of GAS. Received two tickets as she only had a permit." Little did they know they were stealing from a genius. This girl had truly the perfect plan to get her bike back. Look at her proud smile! But ended up pranking himself even more. The fact that it's a donkey only makes it more hilarious. He just can't win. "Lava butt" is seared into my brain and I will never be able to get it out. What a rude awakening this person is in for. If you live in a city where parking enforcers are basically walking panic attack-inducing humans, then this is truly a welcome sight. And the sign then being crushed by said rock slides. Whoops. It's almost a better warning though. Don't ever mess with garbage men! They definitely showed this person up and I'm here for it. Good luck getting out of that. Can't help but laugh over this photo. Cats always walk across our keyboards, maybe it's time they know what it feels like! This has to be the worst feeling in the entire world for this woman, but also the best feeling for the dude. Karma, baby! Joke's on him! Even driving a fancy car doesn't matter when it comes to cement. And trying to cut people off, to boot. It's restricted for a reason! Let's all hope that this car floats because they're going to have a hard time, that's for sure. And then this happened to them. Yup, I'd say that got exactly what they had coming. You know, like the one thing that could easily identify who he is. This is why you don't ever hit and run, people! And the person driving the Smart car was not going to deal with that today. Smart car person is doing the work of the people. It's also a good way to get your motorcycle run over. Worth it? But she just put the candy in the cabinet with the plates. She deserves him eating her candy if she can't find a better hiding spot. And then got that on their tire. Oh man. When you park like that though, you absolutely deserve the boot. There's no way around it. I hope that kid learned his lesson. Being a decent human being includes not shaming or making fun of somebody trying to better themselves. This mom is awesome. Don't be this guy. Does anyone else want to know what restaurant manager had the guts to post something like this? Note: don't be a terrible human and leave your taxi driver without paying. It's stealing and you deserve whatever you have coming to you. Don't worry, I'm sure she just shook it off. And then said bike was promptly thrown into the bushes. Really, though. How are you going to park your bike in a full spot? Not that I ever want to find myself in this situation but...you know.

At least 58 people are dead and 518 more wounded after a gunman opened fire on a country music festival in Las Vegas Sunday night. The assailant opened fire with a fully automatic weapon just as Jason Aldean was beginning his show at the Route 91 Harvest Festival. Videos posted on social media show Aldean, one of the biggest names in the genre, singing as very rapid gunfire begins in the background. He can be seen running from stage as he, and the thousands in the crowd who came to see him, realized the horror of what was happening. No matter how often these tragedies occur (and it is far too often), one never goes into an event thinking it will happen then or there. The terror is unimaginable. In this case, it was also protracted. A gunman continued to rain bullets on the audience for up to two terrifying hours, reports indicate. Victims ran to safety, according to NBC News, during momentary breaks in the violence, at which point the shooter presumably reloaded. He was found on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Casino, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said, and shot dead. “Right now we believe it’s a solo act, a lone wolf attacker,” Lombardo told reporters. “We are pretty confident there is no longer a threat.” The gunman has not yet been identified. Aldean said he was safe in an Instagram post early Monday, sharing an image of the city and asking for prayers for the victims: “Tonight has been beyond horrific. I still dont know what to say but wanted to let everyone know that Me and my Crew are safe." "My Thoughts and prayers go out to everyone involved tonight,” he wrote, clearly as stunned and traumatized as anyone else. “It hurts my heart that this would happen to anyone who was just coming out to enjoy what should have been a fun night.” Aldean’s wife Brittany Kerr posted her own message on Instagram, saying, “We are safe… our angels were definitely watching over us tonight." "No words for what happened," she added. "Just horrific. Praying for everyone.” Witness accounts are what you would expect - unable to fully do justice to what happened as you read this, but terrifying nonetheless. Country star Jake Owen was one of the witnesses, having just finished his set and was still on stage when the shooting started. "There was blood on people and you could see a couple of people in the streets that looked like they had been shot,” Owen added. Ivetta Saldana told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “It was was a horror show. People were standing around, then they hit the floor.” Robyn Webb, who was at the concert along with her husband last night, told the newspaper, “It just kept coming. It was relentless.” Authorities, meanwhile, are searching for a 62-year-old woman named Marylou Danley, whom they believe is the gunman’s roommate. Police have searched a home in Mesquite, Nevada, 85 miles from Las Vegas, where it is believed the gunman lived with Danley. She is considered a person of interest in the case. UPDATE: Police have identified the assailant as Stephen Paddock, 64. He is shown above with his companion, Danley. Paddock is believed to have begun his attack around 10:00 pm local time and to have continued shooting for two hours. Police were reportedly able to locate Paddock quickly due to the smoke from his weapon setting off hotel fire detectors. Paddock's motives for the shooting remain unclear. Early reports indicate that he was not a member of any militant group. He was not known to hold extremist political or religious beliefs, though the investigation into the matter is just hours old. Danley was apprehended for questioning at 3:40 a.m. In any case, reports indicate that several guns, including at least eight rifles, were found in the room rented by Paddock and Danley. “We have no idea what his belief system was,” Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said during his press briefing early this morning. More details to follow as this shocking story develops ... UPDATE: The death toll is now 58 and climbing, according to an ABC News report, with more than 518 people wounded. Expect that to tragically rise as the day progresses.

One lucky person is about to be a few hundred million dollars richer. A massive $447.8 million jackpot is up for grabs for the lucky person who picked the winning numbers. The winning numbers are: 20, 26, 32, 38, 58 and Powerball number: 3. The single winning Powerball ticket matching all six numbers was sold in Sun City, California. California Lottery officials said Sunday morning that the winning ticket was sold at Marietta Liquor & Deli in southern California's Riverside County, about 80 miles south of Los Angeles. Officials say the earliest the ticket could be redeemed is 8 a.m. Monday morning. The winner has one year to claim the prize. The retailer where the winning ticket was sold will receive a $1 million "retailer bonus." The estimated prize is based on a winner choosing an annuity, which pays off over 29 years. The cash prize would be $273.1 million. Both prize amounts would be before taxes are deducted. Powerball is played in 44 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A former Secret Service officer who published an explosive tell-all from his days guarding the Bill and Hillary Clinton White House is planning to file a defamation lawsuit against his detractors, The Post has learned. A lawyer for Gary Byrne, whose book “ Crisis of Character: A White House Secret Service Officer Discloses His Firsthand Experience with Hillary, Bill, and How They Operate,” has sent notices to Media Matters for America and David Brock informing them that he intends to file suit. “Officer Byrne will bring legal action against you, in your personal capacity, and against Media Matters,” a lawyer for the former Secret Service officer wrote to Brock, a loyal Clinton ally and the founder of the liberal advocacy group Media Matters. The letter requests Brock and Media Matters to “hold” all records and communications associated with their communications regarding Byrne — including “Any communication(s) between David Brock and The Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton” regarding the former Secret Service officer, suggesting there might be collusion between the campaign and her defenders. It also demands Brock “immediately and publicly retract any statement or inference by yourself and/or Media Matters to the effect that Officer Byrne was not fully truthful in recounting within ‘Crisis of Character’ details from any previous testimony.” Additionally, Byrne’s attorney demanded a retraction for “the utterly false statement(s) that Officer Byrne was not in close proximity to President William Jefferson Clinton.” His lawyer states that “some of our best witnesses to such immediacy are George Stephanopoulos, John Podesta, Leon Panetta, Bruce Lindsey, Hillary Rodham Clinton and President Clinton himself — who appear to have already confirmed … under oath … the regular proximity of Officer Byrne to the President for many years.” Byrne claims the liberal advocacy group tried to hurt his credibility to defend the Clintons. Lawyers for Brock and Media Matters, Marc Elias and Ezra Reese, acknowledged receiving the letter from Byrne’s lawyer. Elias is also a lawyer for Hillary Clinton’s presidential election campaign. Byrne, who has been a surrogate for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, told The Post, “We’re moving forward with the suit regardless” of whether retractions are issued. My goal here is to get the message out – that everything in my book is true.” Byrne has sent a similar letter — and has threatened similar legal action — to Jan Gilhooly, president of the Association of Former Agents of the United States Secret Service, who also questioned the claims made in “Crisis of Character.” Byrne expects the legal filings to come after the November presidential election.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The U.S. government improperly spent $84 million to help plan for a massive project to ship Northern California water to Southern California, a new federal audit said. Federal officials gave $84 million to help finance the water districts' planning, backed by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, to build two giant water tunnels to re-engineer the state's water system, according to the audit by the inspector general's office of the U.S. Interior Department obtained by The Associated Press. By California law and by an agreement by the water districts, California water districts and not federal taxpayers are supposed to bear the costs of the $16 billion project, the audit said. The proposed tunnels are part of Brown's decadeslong push for a project that would more readily carry water from green Northern California south, mainly for use by cities and farms in central and Southern California. Voters rejected an early version of the proposal in a statewide vote in the 1980s. California water districts are making final decisions on whether to go ahead with the controversial project. The inspector general says federal authorities did not fully disclose to Congress or others that it was covering much of the cost of the project's planning. The actions by the Bureau of Reclamation, which is part of the Interior Department, mean that federal taxpayers paid a third of the cost of the project's planning up to 2016, the audit said. Central Valley water districts that were supposed to pay 50 percent of the tunnels' planning costs contributed only 18 percent, the audit found. California officials, meanwhile, have consistently said no taxpayer money was being spent on the project. Asked if auditors wanted contractors to repay the money, Interior spokeswoman Nancy DiPaolo said, "We certainly hope so." That decision was up to California, she said. Thomas Birmingham, general manager of the sprawling Central Valley rural water district Westlands, which received one of the largest shares from the government, said he knew of nothing about the arrangement that was "inconsistent with either state or federal law." "The state was aware of it," Birmingham said of the federal payments. "No one indicated this was somehow a violation of the letter or spirit of the agreement" guiding the costs of the project. Birmingham said water districts would be responsible for reimbursing the federal money if the project went forward and benefited those districts. Spokespeople for the Bureau of Reclamation, Brown's office and the state Department of Water Resources either had no immediate comment Friday or did not respond to requests for comment. The audit's findings were "appalling," said Doug Obegi of the Natural Resources Defense Council environmental group, which has opposed the project on the grounds that it would speed up the extinction of several endangered native species. "The public is paying for what a private party is supposed to pay for," Obegi said. "That is taking the public's money, and that's not OK." A former lobbyist for Westlands, David Bernhardt, has been a top official in the Interior Department under the George W. Bush administration and again under Trump. Critics long have said Westlands has benefited from its ties to the federal agency, which the water district and Interior deny. "I wish I were surprised to learn that the Westlands Water District colluded with the Interior Department to hide millions of dollars in unauthorized payments from Congress, but this is typical of the longstanding and incestuous relationship between the largest irrigation district in the country and its federal patrons," said U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, a California Democrat.

Barack Obama, 56, and wife Michelle Obama, 53, finally released an official statement on Oct. 10, about the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment accusations and it’s not pretty, according to media outlets such as TMZ. “Michelle and I have been disgusted by the recent reports about Harvey Weinstein,” the statement reads. “Any man who demeans and degrades women in such fashion needs to be condemned and held accountable, regardless of wealth or status.” The former U.S. president and first lady’s daughter Malia Obama, 19, interned at Harvey’s company, The Weinstein Company, before attending Harvard University and Harvey even donated $680, 000 for Barack’s 2012 re-election campaign. “We should celebrate the courage of women who have come forward to tell these painful stories,” the statement continued. “And we all need to build a culture – including by empowering our girls and teaching our boys decency and respect – so we can make such behavior less prevalent in the future.” Barack and Michelle’s statement comes just hours after a video message from the Republican National Committee, first reported by Daily Mail, condemned him for his silence in the case. Harvey has been accused of sexually harassing multiple women including many actresses he’s worked withsuch as A shley Judd, 49. The film producer continues to make headlines from the unfortunate situation with the most recent one involving an announcement that his wife, Georgina Chapman, 41, is leaving him. It’s been five days since the first allegations surfaced and since then, more and more women are coming forward with their own shocking stories. Harvey’s made various iconic films over the years, including Pulp Fiction, The Crying Game, and Shakespeare in Love. HollywoodLifers, what do you think about the Obamas’ opinion on the Harvey Weinstein scandal? Tell us your thoughts here.

Yesterday, Twitter announced that it would be testing out a new feature — changing its character limit from 140 to 280. AND PEOPLE FLIPPED OUT. No one likes change, and as much as everyone makes fun of Twitter, we want it to stay the same. LISTEN TO US, @JACK! Here are some of the best reactions to Twitter’s proposed character limit change! old twitter: send nudes bb new 280 char twitter: dearest Penelope, it's been a harsh winter's time since thou booty has graced thy screen — Licensed Esthetician (@SortaBad) September 26, 2017 me: i will never tweet 280 charactersalso me: (checking twitter every minute) why havent they given me 280 characters, ddo i not deserve it — jomny sun (@jonnysun) September 27, 2017 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⣠⣦⣤⣀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢡⣤⣿⣿⠀⠀⠀⠀⠠⠜⢾⡟⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠹⠿⠃⠄⠀⠀⠈⠀⠉⠉⠑⠀⠀⠠⢈⣆⠀⠀⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢶⣷⠃⢵⠐⠰⣷⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⢟⣽⣆⠀⢃⠰⣾⣶⣤⡼⢳⣦⣤⣴⣾⣿⣿⠞⠀⠈⠉⠉⠛⠛⠉⠉⠉⠙⠁⠀⠀⡐⠘⣿⣿⣯⠿⠛⣿⡄⠀⠀⠁⢀⣄⣄⣠⡥⠔⣻⡇⠀⠀⠀⠘⣛⣿⣟⣖⢭⣿⡇⠀⠀⢀⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣿⣽⡇⠀⠀⢸⣿⣿⣿⡇⣿⣿⣿⣇⠀⠀⠀⢹⣿⣿⡀⠸⣿⣿⡏⠀⠀⠀⢸⣿⣿⠇⠀⣿⣿⣿⠀⠀⠀⠈⣿⣿⠀⠀⢸⣿⡿⠀⠀⠀⠀⣿⣿⠀⠀⢀⣿⡇⠀⣠⣴⣿⡿⠟⠀⠀⢸⣿⣷⠀⠉⠉⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⢸⣿⣿⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈you know i had to do it to em — ?ߠߛߋߕ?⁰⁰? (@NO_BOOT_DEVICE) September 27, 2017 If you're upset about the 280 characters thing, just imagine what John Kelly must be thinking — Amir Tibon (@amirtibon) September 26, 2017 ┳┻|┻┳| ┳┻|┻┳| ┳┻|┻┳|┳┻|┻┳|┳┻|┻┳|┳┻|┻┳|┳┻|┻┳|┳┻|┻┳|┳┻| ┻┳| ┳┻|┻┳|┳┻|┻┳|┳┻|┻┳|┳┻|┻┳|┳┻|┻┳|┳┻|┻┳|┳┻|┻┳|┳┻| _┻┳| •.•) this seems excessive┳┻|⊂ﾉ┻┳| — dan mentos (@DanMentos) September 27, 2017 a better idea is to instead start taking away one character at a time, every night, until no one can tweet anymore — pilot (@pilotbacon) September 26, 2017 The 280-character limit is a terrible idea. The whole beauty of Twitter is that it forces you to express your ideas concisely (1/47) — James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) September 26, 2017 the world: trump gonna get us kilt via tweets twitter: ok here's more characters! — Desus Nice (@desusnice) September 26, 2017 twitter: tweets in english are harder to fit in 140 charactersme: pic.twitter.com/foYz4M4gl3 — bubtebdi durect (@xenobIade2) September 26, 2017 looking forward to being able to do the big tweets pic.twitter.com/ikJYcK6XDg — jon hendren (@fart) September 27, 2017 Okay, hear me out, maybe the new character limit will destroy twitter and we'll all finally be free — Sarah (@thetigersez) September 27, 2017 literally my only talent was being able to think of tweets exactly 140 characters long. i don't know if I will be able to alter this to 280. — christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) September 26, 2017 . @realDonaldTrump has been wrecking America 140 characters at a time. Imagine what he could do with 280 now. — Vicente Fox Quesada (@VicenteFoxQue) September 27, 2017 Prediction: Every 280 character tweet will be a reply from a man to a woman and begin with the word "Actually." — (((OhNoSheTwitnt))) (@OhNoSheTwitnt) September 27, 2017 *sees 280* CONSCIENCE: "don't do it." *still 223 left* "srsly don't." *closes eyes* SOMEBODYONCETOLDMETHEWORLDISGONNAROLLMEIAIN'TTHESHARPESTTOOLINTHESHEDSHEWASLOOKINGKINDOFDUMBWITHHERFINGERANDHERTHUMBINTHESHAPEOFANLONHERFOREHEADWELL, — Sean O'Kane (@sokane1) September 27, 2017 So funny they're making tweets longer since the ideal tweet is still 0 characters — Megan Amram (@meganamram) September 27, 2017 This is 280 characters exactly. COINCIDENCE???? pic.twitter.com/YkkDBgPhRw — Ryan Nanni (@celebrityhottub) September 26, 2017 every 280 character tweet pic.twitter.com/jyAG0YpU1V — Hector Diaz (@iamHectorDiaz) September 26, 2017 Is it a bad sign that Twitter personally reduced me to just 70 charact — Zack Bornstein (@ZackBornstein) September 27, 2017 bitch just 'cause you can do 280 characters doesn't mean you SHOULD, if your tweet is long i'm SKIPPIN' IT, boy bye — Tyler Oakley (@tyleroakley) September 27, 2017 TWITTER USERS: It would be nice if you stopped people making death threats. TWITTER: OK, but what if those death threats could be LONGER? — Mike Drucker (@MikeDrucker) September 26, 2017

The FBI has discovered a batch of new emails that “appear to be pertinent” to the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, according to a letter FBI Director James Comey sent to the chairs of pertinent Congressional and Senate committees Friday. The FBI’s investigative team briefed Comey Thursday about the new emails and is now assessing, Comey wrote, “whether or not this material may be significant.” In his letter, the FBI director also warned the committee chairs, “I cannot predict how long it will take us to complete this additional work.” Law enforcement sources told CBS News’ Jeff Pegues that the sheer volume of emails and the process of examining them will take days. Investigators are looking into whether they contain classified information. In a hastily arranged press conference Friday night, Clinton said it was “imperative” for the FBI to “explain this issue ... without delay.” Clinton said she is “confident” the conclusion reached in July about her emails will not change and downplayed its potential effect on the election. “I think people a long time ago made up their minds about the emails,” she said. The new emails -- which potentially number in the thousands -- came from a laptop that had been shared by top Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her now-estranged husband, Anthony Weiner, CBS News’ Jeff Pegues reported. Asked if Abedin had shared with her what might have been discovered, Clinton said she had no information and “we don’t know what to believe.” “We’ve heard these rumors, we don’t know what to believe, and I’m sure there are going to be even more rumors, which is why it is incumbent on the FBI to tell us what is going on,” Clinton said. “Right now, you’re guess is as good as mine, and that’s not good enough.” Clinton’s campaign said it had no advance knowledge of Comey’s letter, and the campaign staff found out about it only after the news had broken Friday afternoon, while Clinton was on a two-hour,15-minute flight traveling with staff and with reporters to Cedar Rapids, all of whom had little or no Wi-Fi access for most of the duration of the flight Reporters shouted questions to Clinton as she walked from the plane in Cedar Rapids to the car that took her to her rally. She just smiled and waved, ignoring the questions. House Oversight Committee chair Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, announced the FBI’s discovery of the emails. FBI Dir just informed me, "The FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation." Case reopened Pegues confirmed Friday that the new batch of emails was discovered during the investigation into the August sexting scandal of Anthony Weiner, the husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin, after the agency seized electronic devices belonging to the couple. Weiner was alleged to be exchanging sexually explicit messages with a 15-year-old girl. Comey’s letter to Congress informed lawmakers that he was supplementing his previous testimony on the matter of the investigation, which was completed in July. At the time, Comey recommended no charges against Hillary Clinton, which was accepted by the Justice Department. Following the release of the FBI letter, House Speaker Paul Ryan reiterated his call for the Director of National Intelligence to stop giving classified briefings to Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee. “This decision, long overdue, is the result of her reckless use of a private email server, and her refusal to be forthcoming with federal investigators,” Ryan said in a statement. “I renew my call for the Director of National Intelligence to suspend all classified briefings for Secretary Clinton until this matter is fully resolved.” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Friday that the Department is trying to figure out what these emails pertain to and whether they’re relevant to Clinton’s time as secretary of state. Toner said they can’t make any assumptions that they are, “but they may be.” If so, Toner said the State Department is ready to cooperate with the FBI, but as of Friday afternoon, the department had not been contacted by the agency. Donald Trump weighed in on the news at a Friday rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, saying that “perhaps justice will be done” after the FBI takes further investigative steps on the emails. The audience roared, “Lock her up! Lock her up,” as Trump declared, “Hillary Clinton’s corruption is on a scale we have never seen before...We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office.” Trump also commended the FBI for now being “willing to have the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made” in announcing its investigation was complete. “This was a grave miscarriage of justice that the American people fully understood and it is everybody’s hope that it is about to be corrected,” he said. Later, Trump said of the “system” he has claimed to be “rigged” for several weeks: “It might be not be as rigged as I thought. I think they’re going to right the ship, folks. I think they’re going to right this yet.” John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chair, called on Comey in a statement to “immediately provide the American public more information than is contained in the letter” sent to Senate and House committee chairmen. “Director Comey’s letter refers to emails that have come to light in an unrelated case, but we have no idea what those emails are and the Director himself notes they may not even be significant,” Podesta wrote Friday afternoon. “The Director owes it to the American people to immediately provide the full details of what he is now examining. We are confident this will not produce any conclusions different from the one the FBI reached in July.” He added that, in the months since the email investigation was completed, partisan efforts have continued to undermine the agency. “Donald Trump and his Republican allies have been baselessly second-guessing the FBI and, in both public and private, browbeating the career officials there to revisit their conclusion in a desperate attempt to harm Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign,” Podesta said. The timing of the revelation has angered some former Department of Justice employees. Former spokesman Matthew Miller called the disclosure “inappropriate” on Twitter and suggested that Comey had broken a cardinal rule: But today's disclosure might be worst abuse yet. DOJ goes out of its way to avoid publicly discussing investigations close to election. 5/ CBS News’ Jeff Pegues, Catherine Reynolds, Nancy Cordes, Andres Triay, Steven Portnoy and Hannah Fraser-Chanpong contributed to this report.

August 2016 was the warmest August on record for global land/ocean surface combined, according to NOAA. Records go back to 1880. This is the 16th consecutive month that a new, record high global temperature average has been set. Fourteen of the fifteen highest monthly global temperature anomalies have occurred since February 2015. August 2016 averaged 0.92 deg. C above the 20th century average, breaking the old August record of +0.87 just set in August of 2015. In terms of land surface only, August 2016 averaged 1.29 deg. C. above the 20th century average, breaking the old record of +1.10 deg. C. set in August 2015. For ocean surface, August 2016 was the 2nd warmest August on record averaging 0.77 deg. C. above the 20th century average. The warmest August on record occurred last year (+0.79). For the record, the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) was neutral for the month of August. Weak La Nina or neutral conditions are predicted for the remainder of this year. ---------- Warmest June-August period on record The June-August 2016 period was the warmest such period on record, according to NOAA. June-August 2016 averaged 0.89 deg. C. above the 20th century average, beating out the record of +0.85 set in 2015. The 10 highest three-month global temperature departures in the record have all occurred since August-October 2015. ------------- Warmest January-August period on record globally The January-August 2016 period was the warmest such period on record, according to NOAA. So far this year, the average temperature anomaly was +1.01 deg. C., which easily beat out the previous record of +0.85 set last year. Based on these numbers I conclude that 2016 will easily end up as the warmest year on record globally. ------ All images courtesy of NOAA.

BUTLER COUNTY, Ohio (WKRC) - Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones has written a letter to President Trump, asking him to send Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to Ohio, specifically to his county. In the letter, Sheriff Jones also calls for ICE to shut down businesses that hire illegal immigrants. He asks President Trump to come to Butler County, sit down with him and work on a plan to start "Work Place Enforcement". Sheriff Jones says he's also tired of illegal immigrants committing crimes here, bringing in drugs and risking the health and safety of citizens "every day that this country allows them to be here". Sheriff Jones spoke at a Trump rally in Sharonville last July.

Rio Arriba County Fire Marshal Carlos Esquibel (center) watches an ambulance, Dec. 22, after a man in a red Ford Edge was reported to be overdosing off Riverside Drive. The man was transported to the Española Hospital and his car was towed. The police blotter is published to give readers an abridged look at criminal activity in their community and neighborhoods. It is simply an illustration of what local law enforcement, funded by taxpayers, must deal with daily throughout the Española Valley. Española Police officers, Ohkay Owingeh Tribal Police, Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s deputies or State Police responded to the following calls: Daughter is in no danger Dec. 19 7:35 a.m. A State Road 76 caller said someone shattered a store window. 8:55 a.m. A Fairview Lane caller said her nephew broke into her house. 2:38 p.m. A Saiz Lane caller said a man wearing a beanie was next door, taking copper from a house. 4:14 p.m. A Chama Middle School caller said her mother’s car window was broken. 4:24 p.m. A Private Drive in Hernandez caller said her boyfriend was threatening to hurt her and her daughter and he also damaged her car, as well as her mother’s car. 6:10 p.m. A County Road 48 caller said her daughter was in danger because the daughter’s boyfriend kidnapped her, had a wire, may choke her and threatened to kill her if she called the police. She said he is also armed with a knife. She refused to give dispatchers her name. The daughter then called dispatchers and said she had an argument with her mother and the mother falsely claimed she had been kidnapped. Mail theft is a federal crime Dec. 20 11:17 a.m. A County Road 40 caller said she lent her car to her brother, but he has not returned it and she wanted to report it as stolen. She said he borrowed it at 9:40 a.m. and said he would be back within five minutes. 11:37 a.m. A West Jonathan Drive caller said she works in the soup kitchen and two women were fighting outside. She said they left once they heard someone was going to call the police. 1:22 p.m. A County Road 41 caller said he was driving in Alcalde when someone shot at his white Cadillac. 2:08 p.m. A Ghost Ranch caller said he had a box in the mail, and it was stolen from the mailbox. He said this is the second or third time it’s happened. 4:14 p.m. A Spruce Street caller said she is receiving text messages from her ex-boyfriend, who wrote that he is going to damage her and her aunt’s cars. 7:52 p.m. A North Riverside Drive caller said two girls and three guys were beating up a man on the ground. 10:08 p.m. A Subway on Riverside Drive caller said an older man was sitting at a table, refusing to leave and he was intoxicated. The employees told the man they needed to close the restaurant, but he still refused to leave and told them to go ahead and call the police. He was taken to the Española Hospital, per his request. 10:44 p.m. A Giant gas station caller said two women were hitting each other at one of the gas pumps. Do him a favor and leave Dec. 21 12:45 p.m. A Rio Chama Chevron gas station caller said there was a couple by one of the pumps and the male was refusing to hand a baby to the female The woman then yelled for him to give the baby back to her or else the police would come and take the baby. 4:15 p.m. A man walked into the Española Police Department to report a case of identity theft. 4:45 p.m. A Calle de Pajarito caller said a man came by in the morning, accused her of stealing from him, and said he would kill her and her family for it. 5:05 p.m. A Wal-Mart caller said a woman was inside one of the bathrooms, refusing to come out, and there was a lot of drug paraphernalia in there. It was an employee. 5:54 p.m. A State Road 215 caller said her son was riding his dirt bike home from his grandpa’s house when a truck tried to run over him. 6:25 p.m. A Paseo de Paulina caller said a woman came by to do him a favor, but now she won’t leave. An Española police officer told her to leave. Too much vodka Dec. 22 6:35 a.m. A County Road 158 caller said she tried to start her car and found that it would not start and her radio and other things were missing. 9:45 a.m. A Valley Drive caller said someone took their manger scene from their front porch during the night. She said they took everything, but left the baby Jesus. Noon An Española Elementary School caller said a fifth grade student broke a window. 1:23 p.m. A Cañada Court caller said someone broke into a house and stole all the appliances. She then found them next door after she learned the former tenant had given them to the neighbor. 1:30 p.m. A Private Drive caller said it appeared a man was overdosing on alcohol and there were empty vodka bottles around him. 8:43 p.m. A Private Drive caller said an 18-year-old man appeared to be overdosing, he was unconscious and snoring. Sheriff’s deputies administered the overdose-reversing drug Narcan. 11:08 p.m. A Camino Cielo Grande caller said her neighbors were yelling and breaking things and they had a 15-year-old child in the house. Officers found no evidence of a fight. Laying it down Dec. 23 12:11 a.m. A Rio Chama Chevron gas station caller said someone broke the windows and doors to his business but nothing was missing. He said it appeared rocks had been thrown through the windows. 1:01 a.m. A Private Drive in Chimayó caller said someone broke into her truck and stole a drill. The truck was left unlocked. 1:58 a.m. A Calle Ramon Espinosa caller said she could hear someone knocking and ringing her door bell. She said she did not know who it was and did not want to check and see. 12:14 p.m. A Wal-Mart caller said a customer punched him in the back. He did not want to file a police report. 12:16 p.m. A Private Drive caller said a man who lives down the road got into her garage and tried stealing a chainsaw, but he was caught in the act by her father-in-law. 4:06 p.m. A Private Drive in Alcalde caller said his neighbor came to his house and broke his kitchen window. 6:38 p.m. A North Riverside Drive caller said a man was passed out on the cement in front of a business. He was breathing, but unresponsive. The man was transported by ambulance to the emergency room. 8:48 p.m. A South Riverside Drive caller said a drunk man walked into the business and he told him to leave. Instead of leaving, the man laid down on the ground and complained he could not walk due to severe leg pain. He was transported to the Española Hospital. 9:08 p.m. A Calle Cristobal caller said his ex-wife came to his house and smashed things that they both own. Holiday cheer overcomes fight Dec. 24 3:29 a.m. A U.S. Highway 285 caller said some people were at her house, trying to steal a truck, driving all over her property and hitting trees with the truck. 3:38 p.m. A North Riverside Drive caller said a bald man was beating a woman. 6:35 p.m. A Silver Lane in Ohkay Owingeh caller said her drunk 43-year-old daughter was causing a disturbance. 8:08 p.m. An Allsup’s caller said a blonde, dark-complected woman appeared to be prostituting herself, along with a couple other women, outside of the gas station. 9:04 p.m. A U.S. Highway 84 caller said her 46-year-old father was not conscious, but breathing, after he took all of his medications at once. She said she just got home and found him like this, but she had received a text message from him at 8:40 p.m., saying goodbye. The man was transported to the Española Hospital, alive. He left a suicide note. 11:14 p.m. A Calle del Sol caller said she was talking to her cousin, when she got into it with a woman driving an Escalade, and the woman pulled a knife on her. An Española police officer was down the street when the incident occurred and he told dispatchers neither side wanted to press charges and instead, continue with the holiday. The Escalade was towed. Watch your step Dec. 25 5:13 a.m. A South Monterey Lane caller said a man in a gray hoodie was yelling things and he wanted him checked out. 4:06 p.m. A North McCurdy Road caller said an intoxicated man was walking around in the area and he wanted him checked out. 4:25 p.m. A Santa Claran Hotel Casino caller said a drunk man wanted an ambulance because he thought his ribs were broken. 6:37 p.m. A State Road 399 caller said he needed an ambulance because he fell in a hole while playing with his dog. 7:07 p.m. A Camino Santa Cruz caller said three boys were throwing rocks at cars as they drove by. 8:08 p.m. A Fairview Lane caller said a woman threw him out of the house and stole his money, as well as his shoes and hat. He did not want to press charges against her.

In June 2008, when she conceded the Democratic presidential race to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton famously noted that "we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time." More than eight years later, she will literally be standing underneath one as the final votes are counted on Nov. 8. On Wednesday, the Clinton campaign announced her election night party would be held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. The building has a literal glass ceiling. Let’s hope the campaign has insurance for it if she wins. Reminder: The Javits Center, where Hillary Clinton is holding her election night party, has a literal glass ceiling pic.twitter.com/RvGLDx9cAc The Javits Center, which opened in 1986, is the busiest convention center in the country and contains a massive 840,000 square feet of exhibition space. The center just finished a $460 million renovation. The election event will be for supporters and volunteers.

A racial slur was found on a boys bathroom stall at a Kansas City, Kan., school, according to reports. “Kill all n------,” someone wrote on a stall at Piper High School, Fox4 reported. The message was discovered Wednesday, and a special assembly was held Thursday to address the issue, according to KSHB. In response to the incident, Fox4 reported some students planned to protest for the first 20 minutes of class on Friday. The local news you need to start your day Recaptcha requires verification. protected by reCAPTCHA Privacy - Terms Privacy - Terms Piper High administrators could not immediately be reached Friday morning. “We should all just be getting along. It doesn’t matter what color our skin is,” Delaney Degroot, a freshman, told KSHB. Piper High Principal John Nguyen sent an email home to parents addressing the incident, Fox4 reported. “PHS maintains a zero-tolerance stance regarding racist, discriminatory, and threatening comments,” he wrote. “School administration is working diligently with our School Resource Officer in conducting an aggressive investigation to determine the origin of the comment. At this time, the investigation has revealed no credible safety threat whatsoever to PHS students or staff.” About a year ago, a similar incident upset students, according to Fox4. Then a student wrote, “Kill all Blacks.” The student was later disciplined. Max Londberg: 816-234-4378, @MaxLondberg

Permission Details DMCA Donald Trump continued his campaign of incendiary statements over the weekend, threatening to launch a war with North Korea that could unleash a nuclear catastrophe. On Saturday afternoon, the US president tweeted that past administrations "have been talking to North Korea for 25 years." This "hasn't worked," he wrote, adding: "Sorry, but only one thing will work!" Asked later to elaborate on what he meant, Trump replied, "You'll figure that out pretty soon." These threats came three weeks after Trump's tirade at the United Nations General Assembly September 19, when he declared that the US was "ready, willing, and able" to "totally destroy" North Korea, a country of 25 million people. Four days later, Trump threatened to assassinate the North Korean leader. If the North Korean foreign minister's speech at the UN "echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man [Kim Jong-Un]," Trump wrote, "they won't be around much longer!" On Thursday, Trump organized a White House dinner with US military leaders, which had all the hallmarks of a meeting of a war cabinet. During a photo op before the dinner, Trump, surrounded by generals in military uniform, likened the moment to "the calm before the storm." Asked what storm he was talking about, Trump would only say, "You'll find out soon." To the extent that Trump's words are interpreted as a genuine expression of the policy and plans of the United States government, the inescapable conclusion is that the world stands on the brink of the most devastating military conflict since the outbreak of World War II. Were language and reality in correct political alignment, the present situation would be described officially as an "Imminent danger of war." Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, embroiled in a political conflict with Trump, warned that the president's reckless threats were leading the United States "on the path to World War III." But despite Corker's statement on Sunday, there is, within the ruling elite and its media, a staggering disconnect between consciousness and reality. The public declarations emanating from the White House are being reported by the media as if they will have no consequences. The thinking seems to be that Trump doesn't mean what he says. The consequences of a war would prove to be so catastrophic that Trump is simply bluffing. But what if he isn't? What if the North Korean government takes the threats of the American president, as it must, seriously? With Trump having publicly declared that he will destroy North Korea and that the doomsday hour is fast approaching, how will the Pyongyang government interpret American military actions near the borders of its country? With only minutes to make a decision, will the regime view the approach of a US bomber toward North Korean airspace as the beginning of a full-scale attack? Will it conclude that it has no choice but to assume the worst and initiate a military strike against South Korea? Will it fire missiles, as it has threatened, in the direction of Japan, Guam, Australia, or even the United States? From a purely legal standpoint, North Korea can claim, in light of Trump's threats, that such action on its part would be an act of self-defense, a legitimate response to an imminent military threat. Aside from the calculations of Pyongyang, one must assume that the regimes in Beijing and Moscow are also looking at the unfolding developments with increasing alarm. While the American media, as is its wont, responds complacently and thoughtlessly to Trump's threats, the Chinese regime cannot avoid viewing them with deadly seriousness. Trump is, after all, the commander in chief of the American military. He has the power -- which Congress has shown no interest in challenging -- to order military actions. A US attack on North Korea would pose an overwhelming threat to China. As in 1950, a war against North Korea would -- even if it did not rapidly escalate into a nuclear exchange -- lead inexorably to an American incursion across the 38th Parallel. The last time the US military crossed the border into North Korea, the Chinese responded with a massive military counterattack. There is no reason to believe that the present-day regime in Beijing would remain passive in the face of a new US invasion of North Korea. It would view an American invasion as an unacceptable violation of a geopolitical arrangement on the Korean peninsula that has been in existence for nearly 65 years. Beijing's reaction would be influenced by the already tense conditions that exist in the Asia-Pacific region. For years, the US has been systematically building up its military forces in the South China Sea under the "Pivot to Asia" initiated by the Obama administration. The purpose has been to militarily encircle China, which dominant sections of the ruling class consider the major competitor to US interests. Over the weekend, China's main regional competitor, Japan, declared that it fully backed Trump's threats against North Korea. Thus, the outbreak of war between North Korea and the United States would inevitably involve China, which, in turn, would draw all of Asia, as well as Australia, into the bloody maelstrom. Nor would it be possible for Europe and Latin America, which have their own interests in Asia, to stand aside. Little has appeared in the American media about the consequences of war with North Korea. An article in Newsweek in April concluded that a war would leave one million people dead, assuming that it did not involve the use of nuclear weapons or any other outside powers. In a comment in the Los Angeles Times last month, retired Air Force Brigadier General Rob Givens calculated that 20,000 South Koreans would die every day in a war on the peninsula, even without the use of nuclear weapons. If the war were to develop into a nuclear exchange -- as the Trump administration has threatened -- the consequences would be catastrophic. In addition to the millions or tens of millions killed outright, climate experts warned in August that even a regional nuclear war would cool the planet by up to 10 degrees Celsius, potentially sparking a global nuclear winter that would wipe out agricultural production. Despite all the evidence that war could break out at any time, the American media persists in its refusal to take the events seriously. The New York Times epitomized this media effort at chloroforming the population in its October 6 article on Trump's remarks before the generals, which stated that Trump has a "penchant for provocative statements" and takes "an obvious delight in keeping people guessing." Writing as if what was involved was merely a matter of White House gossip and intrigue, the Times stated that the "timing" of the "calm before the storm" statement was "particularly tantalizing." "But it is equally plausible," the article concluded, "that Mr. Trump was merely being theatrical, using the backdrop of military officers to stir up some drama." The efforts of the media to downplay the danger are contradicted by signs of serious divisions within the Trump administration. There are rumors that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will be forced out or could resign, following statements from Trump last month directly undermining Tillerson's moves to resume negotiations with the North Korean government. Thursday's meeting of top advisers in the White House, decked out in their uniforms, may have been an effort by Trump to ensure that he has the military on his side in advance of war. These divisions, however, are tactical in character. In the final analysis, Trump speaks not simply for himself, but for the US ruling class. The dominant factions of the ruling oligarchy are united on the basic strategy of using its military force to maintain its hegemonic position abroad. Trump uses exceptionally crude and brutal language to justify American foreign policy. But he is not the author of Washington's hegemonic strategy. The United States has been at war almost continuously for more than 25 years. This weekend marked the sixteenth anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan. The Pentagon is conducting military actions all over the world, usually without the American people being informed of the deployment of military personnel. The death in combat this past week of four American soldiers in the African country of Niger came as a total surprise to the public. A war with Korea could break out at any time. This is the reality of the situation. Rather than speculating idly over whether Trump is merely bluffing, the critical task is the building of a powerful movement, based on the working class, against the drive to war. The very fact that the American president smirks and laughs as he threatens millions with annihilation is itself sufficient proof that the US political system is terminally sick and capable of any crime. Permission Details DMCA Donald Trump continued his campaign of incendiary statements over the weekend, threatening to launch a war with North Korea that could unleash a nuclear catastrophe. On Saturday afternoon, the US president tweeted that past administrations "have been talking to North Korea for 25 years." This "hasn't worked," he wrote, adding: "Sorry, but only one thing will work!" Asked later to elaborate on what he meant, Trump replied, "You'll figure that out pretty soon." These threats came three weeks after Trump's tirade at the United Nations General Assembly September 19, when he declared that the US was "ready, willing, and able" to "totally destroy" North Korea, a country of 25 million people. Four days later, Trump threatened to assassinate the North Korean leader. If the North Korean foreign minister's speech at the UN "echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man [Kim Jong-Un]," Trump wrote, "they won't be around much longer!" On Thursday, Trump organized a White House dinner with US military leaders, which had all the hallmarks of a meeting of a war cabinet. During a photo op before the dinner, Trump, surrounded by generals in military uniform, likened the moment to "the calm before the storm." Asked what storm he was talking about, Trump would only say, "You'll find out soon." To the extent that Trump's words are interpreted as a genuine expression of the policy and plans of the United States government, the inescapable conclusion is that the world stands on the brink of the most devastating military conflict since the outbreak of World War II. Were language and reality in correct political alignment, the present situation would be described officially as an "Imminent danger of war." Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, embroiled in a political conflict with Trump, warned that the president's reckless threats were leading the United States "on the path to World War III." But despite Corker's statement on Sunday, there is, within the ruling elite and its media, a staggering disconnect between consciousness and reality. The public declarations emanating from the White House are being reported by the media as if they will have no consequences. The thinking seems to be that Trump doesn't mean what he says. The consequences of a war would prove to be so catastrophic that Trump is simply bluffing. But what if he isn't? What if the North Korean government takes the threats of the American president, as it must, seriously? With Trump having publicly declared that he will destroy North Korea and that the doomsday hour is fast approaching, how will the Pyongyang government interpret American military actions near the borders of its country? With only minutes to make a decision, will the regime view the approach of a US bomber toward North Korean airspace as the beginning of a full-scale attack? Will it conclude that it has no choice but to assume the worst and initiate a military strike against South Korea? Will it fire missiles, as it has threatened, in the direction of Japan, Guam, Australia, or even the United States? From a purely legal standpoint, North Korea can claim, in light of Trump's threats, that such action on its part would be an act of self-defense, a legitimate response to an imminent military threat. Aside from the calculations of Pyongyang, one must assume that the regimes in Beijing and Moscow are also looking at the unfolding developments with increasing alarm. While the American media, as is its wont, responds complacently and thoughtlessly to Trump's threats, the Chinese regime cannot avoid viewing them with deadly seriousness. Trump is, after all, the commander in chief of the American military. He has the power -- which Congress has shown no interest in challenging -- to order military actions. A US attack on North Korea would pose an overwhelming threat to China. As in 1950, a war against North Korea would -- even if it did not rapidly escalate into a nuclear exchange -- lead inexorably to an American incursion across the 38th Parallel. The last time the US military crossed the border into North Korea, the Chinese responded with a massive military counterattack. There is no reason to believe that the present-day regime in Beijing would remain passive in the face of a new US invasion of North Korea. It would view an American invasion as an unacceptable violation of a geopolitical arrangement on the Korean peninsula that has been in existence for nearly 65 years. Beijing's reaction would be influenced by the already tense conditions that exist in the Asia-Pacific region. For years, the US has been systematically building up its military forces in the South China Sea under the "Pivot to Asia" initiated by the Obama administration. The purpose has been to militarily encircle China, which dominant sections of the ruling class consider the major competitor to US interests. Over the weekend, China's main regional competitor, Japan, declared that it fully backed Trump's threats against North Korea. Thus, the outbreak of war between North Korea and the United States would inevitably involve China, which, in turn, would draw all of Asia, as well as Australia, into the bloody maelstrom. Nor would it be possible for Europe and Latin America, which have their own interests in Asia, to stand aside. Little has appeared in the American media about the consequences of war with North Korea. An article in Newsweek in April concluded that a war would leave one million people dead, assuming that it did not involve the use of nuclear weapons or any other outside powers. In a comment in the Los Angeles Times last month, retired Air Force Brigadier General Rob Givens calculated that 20,000 South Koreans would die every day in a war on the peninsula, even without the use of nuclear weapons. If the war were to develop into a nuclear exchange -- as the Trump administration has threatened -- the consequences would be catastrophic. In addition to the millions or tens of millions killed outright, climate experts warned in August that even a regional nuclear war would cool the planet by up to 10 degrees Celsius, potentially sparking a global nuclear winter that would wipe out agricultural production.

Members of a Houston mosque barricaded themselves inside and refused to help people evacuating Hurricane Harvey. On 31 August 2017, repeat offender TheLastLineOfDefense.com published a “ report” on the “Ramashan Mosque” in Houston, which according to them, refused to help people seeking relief from the flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey: The building can easily hold over 500 people, much more than the 27 currently inside. But the imam of the mosque, Aswat Turads, says that they absolutely cannot accept any non-Muslim people because it’s against their religion. “The Quran is very clear,” Turads told local news radio station WXTX, “we are forbidden from helping infidels, no matter how much we want to. If we allow Christians and Jews inside, we are violating a fundamental tenant of Islam and will be punished by Allah. The original version of the story (and an equally fake follow-up post) also included a picture of Canadian imam Ibrahim Hindy, who publicly refuted the story, saying that not only was he in Saudi Arabia completing the hajj Islamic pilgrimage at the time the massive storm hit Texas, he has never been to that state in his life at all: The site quickly swapped out its photographs in response. The current version of the story now includes an Associated Press picture of a Lebanese cleric, Ahmad al-Assir, who was arrested by authorities in his country in August 2015. This story is a complete fabrication, and neither the “Ramashan Mosque” or “Aswat Turads” exist. The radio station named in the article, WXTX-FM, is actually based out of Columbus, Georgia and not Texas. TheLastLineOfDefense.com is a known purveyor of fake news stories. Its disclaimer reads: America’s Last Line of Defense is a satirical publication that may sometimes appear to be telling the truth. We assure you that’s not the case. We present fiction as fact and our sources don’t actually exist. Names that represent actual people and places are purely coincidental and all images should be considered altered and do not in any way depict reality. In other words, if you believe this crap you’re a real dumbass. Despite its complete lack of any factual content, the hoax story was shared thousands of times; it was also picked up and run verbatim as true by other web sites. In reality, several Houston mosques have taken people in and performed volunteer food and donation drives to help victims of the storm. Snopes.com has long been engaged in the battle against misinformation, an effort we could not sustain without the support of our readers. If you'd like to learn more about how you can support us, click here.

It used to be pretty easy to tell the difference between advertising and editorial content on Facebook. If a post had a little "sponsored" label on it, that was a red flag telling you, "Hey, a brand paid for this, you should treat it as an advertisement." But that line has gotten blurrier for Facebook users, especially over the last few months as Facebook has limited how far posts from media companies can spread on their own (so-called "organic reach"). In January, Facebook announced that it would de-emphasize publisher content in favor of " friends and family" posts. One of the main complaints I heard from folks on the publisher side was that Mark Zuckerberg didn't actually want less publisher content on Facebook: He wanted publishers to pay him to help their articles spread. "Facebook is now pay to play," was a lament I heard many times. And that is what many publishers - from The New Yorker, to The Wall Street Journal, to Marie Claire (and Business Insider) - have been doing for certain articles, with more frequency since the algorithm change. They have paid Facebook to help their editorial, journalistic articles spread. The Facebook posts that link to these articles are labeled "sponsored," because they are technically ads, but they link to normal news articles. When you follow the link to the publisher's website, the article isn't a piece of "sponsored content," even though the Facebook post is labeled "sponsored." Confusing, right? But that's only the start of the rabbit hole when it comes to the blurring of the lines between advertising and editorial content on Facebook. Traditionally, media companies have worked to separate advertisements from journalistic writing (and to properly label "advertorial" content). But in the world of Facebook, these outlets don't always even have control over how posts appear to readers. Positive articles about companies like Uber (for instance) are being turned into promotional ads, sometimes without the media organizations being made aware. It can be hard for readers to wade through, so we decided to break it down for you in a way that is easy to digest. We'll walk you through the various types of "sponsored" posts on Facebook and what they mean. Let's start with the one I just mentioned: Purely editorial articles that are being promoted with "sponsored" posts on Facebook. This basically happens when a publisher wants to boost an article it thinks has viral potential, and can bring the publisher in much more advertising (or subscriber) revenue than it is paying Facebook to push it into your feed, or get new readers. Here is what that looks like from The New Yorker on an editorial article titled " The Great Sadness of Ben Affleck": And here's one from The Wall Street Journal on an editorial article titled " Silicon Valley to Washington: Why Don't You Get Us": Just scrolling through my Facebook feed casually, I noticed many such articles from outlets ranging from those above to Marie Claire (as mentioned), Ranker, Screen Rant, Elite Daily, U.S. News and World Report, and so on. They really run the gamut editorially. Okay, so this type of post is easy enough to understand. Here is where it starts to get more confusing. Sometimes, the subject of an article pays Facebook to promote an editorial article written about them - presumably one that paints them in a positive light. These are also technically "ads" on Facebook, but the journalism they are promoting was not paid for by the subject. The article itself is not "sponsored content," even though the Facebook post is "sponsored." Here's an example with Uber and CNET: CNET wrote this article about Uber's new CEO, titled " Uber's U-turn: How the new CEO is cleaning house after scandals and lawsuits." To be clear, this was written by a reporter at CNET and was not paid for by Uber. It's just a regular news article. But Uber clearly liked the piece and is now paying Facebook to spread it far and wide. Here is an example from the video world. This editorial video (not an ad) by NowThis Money is being promoted by the subject of the video, Adam Khafif. Adam Khafif's Facebook page is sharing a NowThis Money post from its Facebook page, and that share is being "sponsored" (i.e. boosted by paying money to Facebook). See, it gets very convoluted. But the main point is that the underlying video, and in this case even the underlying original Facebook post, isn't an ad - but the subject of the video is paying for a "sponsored" Facebook post to promote it. Sometimes these "sponsored" posts are even geo-targeted, like the one on this article from The New Yoker titled " Divinity on the Dance Floor," which is being "promoted" not even by its subject (DJ Robert Hood), but by the nightclub where he performs regularly ( Schimanski): Now let's get to influencers and celebrities. Sometimes publishers pay influencers (people with big Facebook followings) to promote their articles. This used to be done a lot through organic Facebook reach ( here's an article on this about George Takei.) But now I've only seen it recently in the form of "sponsored" posts. Here's an example from Snoop Dogg and FashionBeans: Snoop Dogg in this instance is technically paying Facebook to promote an article from FashionBeans, titled "Here Are The Most Obnoxiously Rich Suburbs Of America's Biggest Cities," that really has nothing to do with him. But most likely what is happening is that FashionBeans is paying him to promote it, then he is paying Facebook. So the idea is that while FashionBeans could directly pay Facebook to promote the post, the promotion is more effective (dollar for dollar) if Snoop Dogg's name is attached. Now we get to the last category: actual "sponsored content" from a media company. This is an instance of "advertorial," where the advertiser is directly paying the media company to sponsor the actual article itself. Here's an example from BuzzFeed and NBC Sports: In these cases, the word "with" is usually employed in the Facebook post to denote which company is paying for the underlying content. It's marked again if you follow the link to BuzzFeed's site: Notice that the "Brand Publisher" is NBC Sports. So this is actually an ad - not only on Facebook but on BuzzFeed's site as well. And there you have it, we've come to the end of our guide to understanding who is paying to get journalism or advertising in front of you on Facebook. One last thing to remember is that no matter who is paying for a "sponsored" Facebook post - outlet, subject, or influencer - if you check the actual article after following the link, it should clearly mark whether the article is an advertisement or a journalistic piece.

A Michigan woman who sacrificed the chance to prolong her own life so she could give birth has died. Nick DeKlyen told the Associated Press that his wife, Carrie DeKlyen, died Saturday morning surrounded by family. "I'll see you in Heaven," was among the last things Nick DeKlyen said to his wife. Doctors removed Carrie DeKlyen's feeding and breathing tubes on Thursday after she gave birth to the couple's sixth child, Life Lynn DeKlyen. The little girl was born prematurely and weighs 1 pound, four ounces, but is doing well. Carrie DeKlyen chose to forgo chemotherapy to treat her brain cancer so she could give birth to her daughter. "Me and my wife, we are people of faith," Nick DeKlyen told the Detroit Free Press. "We love the Lord with everything in us. We talked about it, prayed about it." The couple from the western Michigan city of Wyoming was married for 17 years. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

“Saturday Night Live” takes swings at all political candidates, regardless of party. And with Alec Baldwin and Kate McKinnon portraying Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, they keep hitting the mark. The show has a long history of making fun of everyone with their impersonations. Both Baldwin and McKinnon have been praised for their spot-on impressions of celebrities, musicians and politicians. Trump has even joined in on the fun in the past while acting as a host. On Saturday’s broadcast of the show, the actors took on the second debate between Trump and Clinton, and the GOP nominee was the focus of some pointed satire from Baldwin. “Tonight, I’m going to do three things. I’m going to huff. I’m going to puff. I’m going to blow this whole thing,” Baldwin, as Trump, said in the sketch. After the show, Trump took to Twitter to let people know that once it gets personal, he’s no longer laughing. While Trump and his supporters seem convinced that “Saturday Night Live” is trying to bring down his campaign, a lot of people took to Twitter to remind everyone that the show is all in the name of satire. Regardless of where you stand, one thing is for sure -- whether Trump likes it or not, these sketches will continue at least through November 8th.

Earlier this year, two hunters suffered gun-related injuries while camped out at the Circle Dug Ranch, a Texas ranch near the U.S.-Mexico border. According to Texas Monthly, a 26-year-old hunting guide named Walker Daugherty was shot in the abdomen. One of his clients, 59-year-old Edwin Roberts, was shot in the arm. When Daugherty reported the incident to law enforcement officials, he and his fiancée claimed that the gunfire came from illegal Mexican immigrants who were attempting to steal the Daugherty’s RV and kidnap their clients. After the incident, a GoFundMe page was launched to help Daugherty pay for his medical expenses. According to KOSA CBS 7, the now-inactive campaign page stated that Daugherty was shot by illegal immigrants who were trying to steal his RV. More than $25,000 was raised to cover Daugherty’s medical expenses. Upon hearing the story, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller posted a message to Facebook calling Daugherty a hero and pledging his support for a border wall. “This is why we need the wall and to secure our borders,” wrote Miller. According to the Dallas News, the post was shared 6,500 times before Miller deleted it. Weeks later, law enforcement officials determined Daugherty’s story was false. According to KOSA CBS 7 in Texas, an investigation by the Presidio County Sheriff’s Department found that the gunfire did not come from immigrants crossing the border — it came from the hunters themselves. That’s right: friendly fire. Investigators determined that Daugherty shot Roberts and that another hunting guide, Michael Bryant, shot Daugherty. The Daugherty family reportedly released a statement about the Presidio County Sheriff’s investigation that was published on the blog The Westerner. “We do not deny that our hunter client was hit by a bullet that resulted from a horribly fearful and confusing situation. However, the bullet that shot our son was not. That shot came later and from an entirely different direction. We are unable to reveal all the details of the event at this time but we do not agree with the Sherriff’s stated conclusion to the incident.” Read their full statement here. Daugherty and Bryant have since been indicted on charges of deadly conduct by discharging firearms in the direction of others, reports the Austin American-Statesman.

During Drew Brees' media whirlwind in New York on Tuesday, the New Orleans Saints quarterback levied yet another serious criticism of the NFL. He said that the suspended Saints coaches are afraid of speaking out about their situation. "I've been informed a lot of those coaches feel there are further sanctions being held over their head if they don't cooperate with the investigation," Brees said on The Dan Patrick Show, via ProFootballTalk. "If they were to speak out on behalf of the players, maybe that's the fear they have." NFL spokesman Greg Aiello has told a variety of outlets that there is simply no truth to Brees' claims. "Of course people are free to speak, as Joe Vitt has done," Aiello told Around the League on Wednesday. ProFootballTalk's Mike Florio reported that Sean Payton and Gregg Williams fear further retribution if they say anything. As Aiello points out, Saints interim coach Joe Vitt has spoken out against the league. Vitt wondered aloud if NFL evidence has been tampered with. After Williams' indefinite suspension was announced, the league indicated that Williams' cooperation with future proceedings would be a factor in his possible reinstatement. "Commissioner Goodell said he will give close attention to the extent to which Coach Williams cooperates with the NFL in any further proceedings," the league explained in a March 21 statement detailing Williams' punishment. Cooperating with proceedings doesn't mean Williams has to take a vow of silence. But that's essentially what he's done to this point. The back-and-forth between the players and the league over the bounty evidence is seemingly never-ending. We would be surprised if the coaches got involved publicly. Payton and Williams have openly apologized, admitted their mistakes, and seem to want to move past the controversy as much as possible.

Ex-FBI Director James Comey went rogue, according to testimony Wednesday from Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Sessions said in a Senate hearing that by clearing Hillary Clinton from prosecution for leaking and transmitting classified and top secret emails, Comey acted as investigator, judge and jury. And that is why he was fired. Sessions was addressing questions from Sen. Diane Feinstein about why Comey was fired as FBI chief. AG Sessions “I don’t think the significance of the ERROR that Comey made on the Clinton matter is fully understood”! pic.twitter.com/5LrYvbBYNO — ‘GITMO’ BAMA ▪️ (@President1Trump) October 18, 2017

Three House Democrats on Wednesday introduced a resolution to censure and condemn President Trump over his response to recent violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. The measure was introduced by Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ), Jerry Nadler (NY) and Pramila Jayapal (WA). The trio’s resolution calls for Trump’s censure over his “inadequate response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.” The proposal also cites Trump for “his failure to immediately and specifically name and condemn the groups responsible for actions of domestic terrorism” in Charlottesville. The group’s resolution additionally demands that Trump “fire any and all advisors who have urged him to cater to the alt-Right movement in the United State.” The document criticizes Trump “for employing people with ties to white supremacist movements in the White House.” White House officials with ties to white supremacy include chief strategist Steve Bannon and national security aide Sebastian Gorka, according to the resolution. Bannon previously served as the executive chairman of Breitbart, which he characterized as “the platform for the alt-right” last year. Gorka formerly worked as a national security editor at Breitbart, an outlet which has faced accusations of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and misogyny. Trump insisted Tuesday that there is “blame on both sides” for bloodshed in Charlottesville last weekend. “What about the alt-left that came charging at the – as you say, the alt-right?” he asked a reporter. “Do they have any semblance of guilt?” “What about the fact they came charging with clubs in their hands, swinging clubs?” Trump continued at Trump Tower in New York City. “Do they have any problem? I think they do.” “I have condemned neo-Nazis. I have condemned many different groups, but not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me.” White nationalists descended upon Charlottesville last weekend to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. One person died last Saturday when a car drove into people protesting the white nationalists in the city. Two other Virginia State Police Department officers were killed the same day in a helicopter crash authorities linked to the unrest.

Tucker Carlson said that Hillary Clinton spun a yarn of conspiracy theories about her election loss during a speech on Wednesday. Mike Huckabee joined "Fox & Friends" to discuss Hillary Clinton's return to the public eye with a speech over the weekend in the Poconos. A retired NYPD detective and private investigator running against New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio posted a video to Facebook challenging the Democrat to a push-up contest. A professor at a southern California college went on a diatribe against President-elect Donald Trump, and the unnamed student who recorded her may be facing punishment.

Once this Harvey Weinstein debacle is completely finished, Hollywood will be a haven of racial, gender and financial equality. Ha, ha — right. The ongoing saga of Harvey Weinstein’s downfall continues with news about the former mogul possibly being stripped of his Oscar. As police in New York and London investigate the many complaints against him of sexual assault, rumours persist that Weinstein will be booted from the Producers Guild of America. Meanwhile, the name of The Weinstein Company will be changed and Weinstein’s name will be taken off future projects. Even the man’s political contributions are being returned or handed over to women’s charities. Other industry bigwigs and political leaders are being pilloried for not condemning Weinstein fast enough. His wife has left, his adult daughter feared he was suicidal, and people are lining up to savage the guy. Soon, he’ll be drawn and quartered in a public place, no doubt. On the business side, it’s been reported that The Weinstein Company is a shambles, with agents and talent trying to get themselves and their projects away from the bad smell, and upcoming films such as The Current War and The Upside in release limbo. The Financial Times says that Goldman Sachs is “exploring options” for its small stake in The Weinstein Company — and really, people, if the Goldman Sachs is taking the moral high ground, consider yourself toast. So why — just out of interest — is a 30-year problem coming to light now? Did we reach a tipping point? Was Mr. Weinstein’s career in decline? Is there a power struggle nobody knows about in the offices of the company? Have we reached some sort of landmark in the ongoing saga of sexual impropriety and the war between men and women? Doubtful. Still, it’s interesting that several formerly untouchable guys have been taken down recently, including Bill Cosby, Bill O’Reilly, Roger Ailes and Donald Trump, that last dude being just a bit tougher to get rid of than the others. Why is the Weinstein case different? It’s not as if Harvey Weinstein varies much from all the other handsy creeps in his business — oohhh, the names we’d insert here — and casting couch stories have plagued the industry since Florence Lawrence first fluttered her eyelashes circa 1906. Some of the more interesting fallout from the Weinstein case involves the support weasels — every Weinstein staffer who knew things were rotten is under a cloud, and so is every agent, manager, casting agent, publicist or assistant who knowingly sent some poor girl to talk to Weinstein in a hotel room. And how about the lawyers who handled the hush money all those years? Be interesting to see who gets tackled next. Since Weinstein is no doubt just a difference in degree, not in kind, it’s tough to say if this uproar will change anything on a permanent basis in his industry. Still, it would be interesting to know why Hollywood is such a sleazy place. The movie industry really is a cesspool of sexual harassment and bullying; hard to know how so many people go to work every day in such an atmosphere of fear and loathing. Many an analyst has decreed that vast amounts of money and power will do it every time, and maybe that’s true — look at Dominique Strauss-Kahn, or Silvio Berlusconi, or even l’il old home-grown Jian Ghomeshi. People will risk a lot to get anywhere near rich and famous, and an industry that allows ordinary people — capable of memorizing dialogue and playing make-believe — to be treated like gods is an industry in which every sort of predatory behaviour will no doubt thrive. How to explain the sexually predatory behaviour of men in every other industry is a bit more of a mystery. Play Video Play Loaded: 0% Progress: 0% Remaining Time -0:00 This is a modal window. Foreground --- White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan --- Opaque Semi-Opaque Background --- White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan --- Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window --- White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan --- Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Default Monospace Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Sans-Serif Casual Script Small Caps Defaults Done Riley Fleming and Wes Heffernan have been going back and forth all year, so why wouldn’t you expect them to do the same thing in the PGA of Alberta Championship? “We’ve been so close, it’s…

On 'Hannity,' Republican lawmaker from South Carolina says he wants to give John McCain the send-off he deserves.

— George and Amal Clooney have donated $1 million to Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit that strives to put an end to domestic hate groups and extremists, in response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, earlier this month. “What happened in Charlottesville, and what is happening in communities across our country, demands our collective engagement to stand up to hate,” the actor and humanitarian lawyer said in a joint statement. >> Related: More than 900 active hate groups in the U.S., report says On Aug. 12, a rally in Charlottesville turned violent when a group of white nationalists clashed with counterprotesters. One woman was killed when a car plowed into the crowd at the rally. According to Reuters, the donation comes from the Clooney Foundation for Justice, which the couple created in 2016 to promote justice worldwide in courtrooms and classrooms. Southern Poverty Law Center President Richard Cohen released a statement thanking the Clooneys for “standing with (the organization) at this critical moment in our country’s fight against hate.”

As the GOP divides at the rate of human cells, and a self-destructive President Trump causes his own supporters to question how he can succeed, Democrats have refused to fill the leadership void with a better vision of governance. Instead, they are partnering with the flailing Republicans and their president in failure. Democrats are leaning indulgently on the politics of race and gratuitous opposition to Trump, and they appear content to be the party of sanctuary cities, safe spaces and single-payer health care. Weeks ago they released an “agenda” designed to offer voters “A Better Deal,” but who would know what’s in it since all they talk about is Trump? Meanwhile, if Trump’s trajectory doesn’t improve, the party may face the weakest, most unpopular president in modern times in 2020 -- but with who? Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are running, or think they are. Why are they being encouraged? Sounding like a garden-variety conservative, liberal New York Times columnist Charles Blow asked last week on Twitter: “Serious question: What is the Dem party now in addition to anti-Trump? What does it stand for now? Also, who’s leading? #GhostParty.” The last two weeks have been Trump’s worst in office, yet it seems the lower he sinks, Democratic leaders do likewise. The president’s pathetic and irresponsible response to a white supremacist demonstration in Charlottesville -- where a protester was mowed down by a driver and killed -- has prompted not only fellow Republicans to criticize Trump but now his own National Economic Council director, Gary Cohn, as well. Still, Democrats went overboard. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is calling on Congress to censure the president for the “repulsiveness of his words and actions,” adding that “every day, the president gives us further evidence of why such a censure is necessary.” Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, which is investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election and any potential ties the president and his campaign had to those activities, responded Friday, saying in a Twitter post that he will co-sponsor a censure resolution because Trump “expresses views inimical to our values.” Rep. Jackie Speier, another member of the committee, has called for Trump’s removal under the 25th Amendment. Speier tweeted that “POTUS is showing signs of erratic behavior and mental instability that place the country in grave danger.” Rep. Keith Ellison, deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said on CNN Monday that POTUS has “sympathy” for white supremacists. He’s not just a congressman anymore but a party official -- no wonder the DNC’s fundraising is at a record low. Rep. Maxine Waters, whose late-in-life internet fame recently landed her on “The View,” tweeted the day after Charlottesville that “Trump has made it clear - w/Bannon & Gorka in the WH, & the Klan in the streets, it is now the White Supremacists House. #Charlottesville.” Should Democrats win back the House next year, Waters would be chairman of the Financial Services Committee, an influential voice at the leadership table. Former Vermont Gov. and DNC Chairman Howard “The Scream” Dean said last week, “If you want to vote for a racist in the White House, then you better vote for Republicans.” The party elder recently declared he would stop contributing to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee because it will consider recruiting pro-life candidates. After all these years, eight of them during President Obama’s two terms, Pelosi is now calling on the House Speaker Paul Ryan to remove Confederate statues -- which “have always been reprehensible” -- immediately from the halls of Congress “if Republicans are serious about rejecting white supremacy.” Polling after the events in Charlottesville show that while a majority of Americans disapprove of Trump’s response, 62 percent said monuments to Confederate leaders should remain. Yet these monuments are suddenly a pressing federal issue to national Democrats. Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, who enjoys great respect across aisle, has gone a step further than his party’s left, saying the statue removal is “not a matter of political correctness,” but “of public safety and homeland security.” This from the man who never made the issue a priority as head of DHS. While countering Trump is essential -- after all, Republicans are doing the same -- the focus should remain on even more fundamental matters: guarding the Constitution and the separation of powers; stressing facts over falsehoods; preventing a government shutdown that Trump’s lobbying for; defending the right to a free press to hold him accountable; urging him to pay cost-sharing reduction payments under the Affordable Care Act to provide more certainty to the fragile exchanges; and pushing for any bipartisan cooperation possible on health care, tax reform and infrastructure projects. Democrats must leave the fight to stop him and his family from running a kleptocracy, an issue the GOP remains silent on, to outsiders who have filed lawsuits. Leave the statue debate to the states. Leave the questions of his stability to Republicans like Sen. Bob Corker. Leave the Russia investigation to special counsel Robert Mueller. Let the media report on West Wing dysfunction or how much Trump television watches. Democrats should leave all that alone. Democrats must also decide whether they want President Obama back in the spotlight. Rudderless and leaderless, some party operators long for him swoop in and right the ship, yet they still blame him for sinking it with epic election losses from 2009 to 2016. As they attempt to plot a path forward and regain seats in state legislatures, governorships, the U.S. House and Senate -- and someday the White House -- Democrats need new faces and leaders and can’t lean too heavily on the 44th president. Yet some are calling for him to be a loud voice: “None of the potential Democratic presidential candidates have the visibility or credibility to be effective,” party strategist Brad Bannon told The Hill. Finally, as Democrats like Reps. Brad Sherman, Al Green and Gwen Moore continue to push for impeachment, party leaders must avoid what Obama’s onetime senior adviser David Axelrod warned would likely be a costly mistake. “Remember: A third of the country supports this president," he said on CNN. "That's a very dangerous road to go down. And if you ever did go down that road, you’re opening a Pandora’s box that will never end." What’s already in that box is widespread voter disgust. People are turning away from both parties and the pool of gettable voters is shrinking, which means base politics will be less and less effective in the years to come. Democrats must convince voters they take governing more seriously than partisan politics and will focus on economic growth instead of statues, tweets and Russia. Or they can stay in the minority a lot longer. A.B. Stoddard is associate editor of RealClearPolitics and a columnist. She is also host of "No Labels Radio" on Sirius XM's POTUS Channel.

Major League Baseball, the sport of Jackie Robinson and long ago a touchstone of civil rights, saw its first athlete join the movement started by Colin Kaepernick and inflamed this weekend by President Trump. Oakland Athletics catcher Bruce Maxwell, who hinted at such an action earlier in the day, knelt during the national anthem before Saturday night's game against the Texas Rangers. From the @sfchronicle’s Santiago Mejia, here is A’s rookie Bruce Maxwell becoming the first MLB player to take a knee for the anthem: pic.twitter.com/q8QVY9hW15 Maxwell, a 26-year-old catcher from Alabama, composed several tweets Saturday in the wake of President Trump's comments Friday night to "fire the sons of (expletives)" in the NFL who kneeled for the anthem. Kaepernick's protest was conceived in the wake of social injustices and the shooting of unarmed African Americans by law enforcement. Maxwell's tweets Saturday made it clear that Trump's verbiage took the movement to another level: "This now has gone from just a BlackLives Matter topic to just complete inequality of any man or woman that wants to stand for Their rights!" This now has gone from just a BlackLives Matter topic to just complete inequality of any man or woman that wants to stand for Their rights! In a profane Instagram post, he implored "every single NFL player" to kneel on Sunday, and then he followed up his words with actions before Saturday night's game in Oakland, kneeling in the dirt in front of the A's dugout at the Coliseum. There was immediate support from his organization. Teammate Mark Canha kept a hand on Maxwell's shoulder as he engaged in his protest as the anthem played, and wrapped him in a hug once it concluded. And the A's sent out a message of support moments after the protest. Maxwell has played in 104 career games and has a lifetime .256 batting average. He entered the season as the A's 10th-best prospect, according to Baseball America. Maxwell, like Kaepernick an African American of mixed race, was born in Germany while his father was stationed there in the Army. He was raised in Alabama, site of Trump's Friday night speech during which the president blasted NFL players for kneeling during the anthem and also bemoaned what he seemed to consider an overriding concern within the league for brain injuries. Saturday morning, Trump took umbrage at Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry's reluctance to visit the White House and rescinded any invitation. Trump's speech and morning-after tweets aroused a sports world that had largely let Kaepernick - currently without an NFL job - kneel alone since his protest began in August 2016. As NFL players geared up for what may be a significant day of protest before Sunday's games, and NBA players blasted the president on social media as well, Maxwell's Twitter and Instagram feeds went beyond his usual penchant for Alabama Crimson Tide football. A post shared by bruce_maxwell (@bruce_maxwell) on But until he took a knee before Saturday's game, baseball did not yet have a player join in anthem protests that started with Kaepernick and continued through various NFL players and even to U.S. women's national soccer team star Megan Rapinoe. The NFL and NBA are both majority African American leagues. Major League Baseball's decline in African American participation has been well-documented and this year, just 7.1% of players on opening-day rosters were black, according to a USA TODAY Sports analysis. That's the lowest percentage since 1958. In September 2016, shortly after Kaepernick's protests began, Baltimore Orioles All-Star outfielder Adam Jones told USA TODAY Sportsthat a similar protest in MLB was unlikely because African-American players "already have two strikes against us, so you might as well not kick yourself out of the game. In football, you can’t kick them out. You need those players. In baseball, they don’t need us. “Baseball is a white man’s sport.’’ Saturday night, Maxwell took that risk, inspired to act by what he saw around him and unafraid of any consequences.

Hillary Clinton is beginning to increase her odds of winning Florida in many election forecasts, while other models say that Donald Trump is now likely to capture the state. On November 6th, FiveThirtyEight was forecasting a Donald Trump victory in Florida, giving him a 52.5 percent chance of winning. The state has flipped from red to blue in the past 24 hours; as of November 7th, the FiveThirtyEight model now gives Donald Trump a 48.5 percent chance of winning Florida, with Hillary Clinton having the better odds of 51.6 percent. On their forecast, we can see a clear dip that occurs in the immediate aftermath of the news that the FBI would be looking into new emails relevant to the Hillary Clinton investigation, but now her lead is beginning to rise again. FiveThirtyEight is also forecasting that Hillary Clinton will win 48.2 percent of the popular vote in Florida, while Donald Trump will receive 48.0 percent of it. But in The New York Times’ The Upshot, Florida is actually beginning to move in Donald Trump’s direction. On November 6th, the Times’ model gave Hillary Clinton a 70 percent chance of winning the state, but now, this number has gone down to 66 percent. And two weeks ago, before the FBI news was released, Hillary Clinton had an 80 percent chance of winning Florida on The Upshot. The model currently gives Clinton an 84 percent chance of becoming the next president. Clearly, Clinton does not absolutely need Florida to win, while Donald Trump almost certainly can’t reach 270 Electoral College votes without it. On PredictWise, Hillary Clinton now has better odds of winning Florida than she did yesterday. On November 6th, Clinton was given a 73 percent chance of winning Florida by PredictWise, but now that has gone up two points to 75 percent. Surprisingly, PredictWise is actually giving Clinton better odds of winning Florida today than she had prior to the FBI announcement on October 28th. Hours before that news dropped, Clinton’s odds of winning Florida were at 72 percent. In the aftermath of that bombshell, her odds fell all the way down to 58 percent, but she has now more than recovered from it. Nationally, PredictWise gives Clinton an 89 percent chance of winning the election, up two points since yesterday. Meanwhile, a dramatic shift has taken place on The Huffington Post’s forecast. On Sunday, this model gave Clinton a 93 percent chance of winning Florida, and the state was placed in the “probable Clinton” column. Twenty-four hours later, Florida has been moved into the “battleground” column, and her odds of winning the state have dropped down to 89 percent. The Huffington Post has also moved North Carolina from “probable Clinton” into “battleground.” One day ago, Clinton’s projected minimum number of Electoral College votes was 317, but now that has dropped down to 273. Clinton has seen a very slight bump in DailyKos‘ election forecast, though. On November 6th, they gave her a 74 percent chance of winning Florida, but that has now gone up one point to 75 percent. This bump also came as DailyKos released its final election prediction. They expect Hillary Clinton to win 323 Electoral College votes – including that of North Carolina and Florida – and Donald Trump to win 215 votes. It’s easy to see why all these shifts have taken place, as several key Florida polls were released on Monday that show the race to be much tighter than it was just one day ago. Yesterday, Hillary Clinton was ahead in Real Clear Politics’ Florida polling average by 0.9 percentage points, but today, Trump leads by 0.3 percent. No polls have yet been released that reflect the FBI’s recent announcement that they would still not be recommending charges against Hillary Clinton after reviewing the new set of e-mails, so it remains to be seen if Clinton will be able to recover even more of her lead in the aftermath of that news. 6 Comments

Geopolitical tensions are mounting after state-run North Korean news media released footage of what appears to be the successful test of a devastating missile dropkick. In newly released footage, North Korean President Kim Jong-Un is seen celebrating as missile dropkick collides feet-first with an ocean target, causing a huge “bump.” The missile dropkick was reportedly launched from the country’s Technical Operations Pad for Thermonuclear and Underwater Reconnaissance Networks of Ballistics Used for Catastrophic Kinetic Launching Exercises, or T.O.P. T.U.R.N.B.U.C.K.L.E. International weaponry experts have long known that North Korea is capable of launching a Powerbomb — perhaps even an Exploder Suplex — but the possibility that the country now has a missile dropkick in its arsenal has caused alarm worldwide and throughout the WWE Universe. U.S. President and WWE Hall of Famer Donald Trump has insisted he has “zero tolerance” for North Korea’s missile dropkick tests and will, if necessary, send Bobby Lashley over to “take care of them” before Trump himself shaves Kim Jong-Un’s head.

The killer left a cryptic note on a table in his room the night of the attack. There are now reports that the cryptic note was full of random numbers. The Metro reported: A cryptic note full of random numbers has been found in the Las Vegas shooter’s hotel room, police say. Authorities are still trying to find out what drove Stephen Paddock to launching the worst mass shooting in US history. The mystery piece of paper was found near his dead body and Sheriff Lombardo said it’s been sent off for analysis. It is not believed to be a suicide note. The 64-year-old to killed 58 and injured 489 when he opened fire on people at the Route 91 Harvest Festival off the Las Vegas strip on Sunday night. Investigators are looking into whether Paddock also planned a car bombing. Investigative journalist Laura Loomer noticed something interesting. The killer targeted the Harvest 91 festival on October 1 or 10-1. I was thinking about the numerology surrounding the #LasVegasShooting at Harvest 91 on October 1. 91 10-1 That would be 9/11/01. Eerie. pic.twitter.com/NExJJHQi8S — Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) October 7, 2017 Sponsored Sponsored

It’s not often that a suspect’s attorney calls the police officer who arrested him a “true hero;” but in John Picerno’s eyes, that exactly what Overland Park Police Sergeant Scott Ferguson is. Back in April, Ferguson was on night patrol when he spotted a vehicle driving along the wrong side of road with no headlights on. He pulled the car over, but the driver quickly took off again…only to crash into a fire hydrant. Dash cam footage from Ferguson’s patrol car then shows the drunk driver exiting his vehicle. He stood there hunched over with his hands behind his back, until Ferguson began approaching. That’s when the driver pulled out a pistol. Rather than brandishing his own weapon, Ferguson wrestled the gun out of the driver’s hands – and the driver to the ground where he was finally handcuffed. At his hearing in August, the suspect pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and battery on a law enforcement officer, as well as driving under the influence. After serving 170 days of his sentence, he was placed on probation. But according to Picerno, his lawyer, he should just be thankful he’s alive. “He is very lucky and both he and his family are very grateful for the officer, Sgt. Scott Ferguson, who exercised extreme discretion during the incident,” Picerno said according to the Kansas City Star. He added that Ferguson likely would’ve been justified in firing his weapon in that situation. “No one is tougher on law enforcement than me,” he continued. “I have to say Sgt. Ferguson is a true hero in my book. He is an example of what good policing looks like.” We couldn’t agree more. You can watch the dash cam video here.

A roundup of some of the most popular, but completely untrue, headlines of the week. None of these stories are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked these out; here are the real facts: NOT REAL: Charlottesville Killer Was Hillary Supporter, Funded By Soros THE FACTS: James Fields, who's charged with murder after police say he drove his car into a Charlottesville, Virginia, crowd last weekend, supported President Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign, his former teacher told the AP. GoFundMe confirmed that it removed "multiple campaigns" to raise money for Fields; none were started by billionaire George Soros, who has been a frequent target of hoax sites. The stories shared by YourNewsWire and other sites claim Fields' arrest is part of a "false flag" aimed at sparking a civil war. ___ NOT REAL: President Trump Fires All 14 Muslim Federal Judges THE FACTS: There aren't any Muslims on the federal bench and the president has no authority to fire federal judges. Abid Qureshi, a Washington, D.C., attorney, was nominated last year by former President Barack Obama to be the first Muslim federal judge, but he wasn't confirmed by the Senate. The hoax story by a site named As American As Apple Pie and shared by others also claimed Trump used the "evacuation clause" to remove the judges. There is no such clause that is part of federal law. ___ NOT REAL: MYSTERIOUS NAZI SUBMARINE FROM WWII DISCOVERED IN GREAT LAKES THE FACTS: Divers didn't find a German U-boat at the bottom of the Lake Ontario despite a story posted last year by admitted hoax outlet World Daily News Report, shared recently by other sites. The story suggests the ship may have sunk during the non-existent Battle of Niagara Falls. The photos included with the article show in reality a rusted Soviet submarine and two divers from a 2010 expedition to the North Pole by a French team. ___ NOT REAL: British PM Theresa May: Pedophiles Should be Allowed to Adopt Children Too THE FACTS: The story by Neon Nettle is based on a 2010 article by a British law professor that called for May, who was the U.K.'s home secretary at the time, to relax rules banning sex offenders from caring from children. May had previously ordered a review of vetting procedures for adults coming into regular contact with children other than their own, but May's spokesman said at the time that her office wouldn't consider allowing pedophiles to adopt. ___ NOT REAL: What Adam Sandler is Saying About Mormons THE FACTS: The comedian didn't come to the defense of Mormons on a recent podcast, despite a slew of identical articles on websites designed to look like local news outlets. The story claims Sandler stepped into say Mormons were "decent people" when an unnamed interviewer began to disparage them. All of the sites include a disclaimer saying the stories on them aren't real. ___ This weekly fixture is part of The Associated Press' ongoing efforts to fact-check claims in suspected false news stories. ___

We’re talking the real deal here, not that namby-pamby chemical castration. An Alabama lawmaker introduced a bill Monday that would require certain sex offenders to be permanently and physically castrated prior to being released from prison. The offenders that the bill targets are the worst of the worst — predators of young children. Republican Rep. Steve Hurst introduced the measure requiring anyone older than 21 who is convicted of “certain sex offenses” against children age 12 or younger to pay for the surgical procedure before they serve the end of their prison sentence. This isn’t a first for Hurst — he’s introduced similar legislation seven times since 2006, but most of his efforts never made it out of committee, according to CBS News. He was prompted to begin this crusade as the result of a visit from a foster parent advocacy group that relayed a “horrible” story of abuse. “I’ve often wondered what that child went through, physically and mentally, and what kind of shape he’s in now,” Hurst said Monday. “They (sex offenders) have marked these children for life. They will never get over it. And if they’ve marked children for life, they need to be marked for life.” CBS News reported: Hurst in 2005 agreed to remove castration requirements from legislation setting tougher sentences for sex offenders. Several House members at the time told The Associated Press they feared the castration language would have made the bill unconstitutional. In 2011, Hurst co-sponsored a bill that classified the sexual abuse of a child 6 years or younger as a capital offense, allowing courts to sentence offenders to life without parole. Alabama residents have mixed feelings about the measure. “Somebody that wants to mess with a little girl or little boy that age should be castrated, and they should not be able to mess with any other kids,” Keith Dison told CBS affiliate WIAT. “I understand prison and going to prison for a long time for some kind of crime like that, but to physical mutilate someone…that’s a little out there…it’s crazy,” Jessica George told the station. Watch the report via CBS News.

A convoy used by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has become a death trap for fighters with the radical Islamic terrorist group. American planes have carried out a number of air strikes on ISIS forces while largely avoiding civilian casualties. According to multiple reports and Pentagon spokesmen, the convoy consisted of 17 buses that were departing an ISIS-held enclave after striking a deal with the radical Islamic terrorist group Hezbollah and the Syrian army. However, the United States scrambled assets to attack the convoy, and cratered the road ahead of the busses. While six of the vehicles turned back towards the city of Palmyra, the other 11 have been stranded for at least 10 days. Since then, they have become almost irresistible bait for the terrorist group. Over 85 terrorists have been hit by coalition air strikes since the convoy was stranded. This has saved the United States and the rest of the anti-ISIS coalition the time and effort of hunting them down. The U.S.-lead anti-ISIS coalition has allowed deliveries of food and water to the convoy, to which ISIS fighters have been drawn to "[l]ike moths to the flame," according to comments by DOD spokesman Ryan Dillon, an Army colonel. "We were able to exploit it and take advantage," he said, noting that over 40 vehicles, from technicals to a tank, have been hit trying to aid the convoy. "We were able to continue to just observe and pick them off one at a time," Col. Dillon added. The experienced ISIS troops have also apparently grown frustrated during the siege. During one of the deliveries, an internal squabble broke out. "You could clearly tell they were going to fisticuffs," Dillon said. There was no word on whether the internal fighting among the ISIS terrorists saved the coalition additional trouble.

So there is a new meme going around on Twitter, that is becoming so popular even Kenny G is getting in on the action. It’s basic set up is a multiple choice dating profile questionnaire asking you who you are and what you’re looking for. It’s been around for almost a week, but really took off in the last few days, and I’m not even sure what to call it since it doesn’t seem to have an official name. There are a million great spins on this, but here are some of our faves! I'm: ⚪️a man⚪️a woman?coming out of my cage And I've: ⚪️never felt this way before⚪️had the time of my life?been doing just fine — bumblegoat (@NECROMANClNG) August 19, 2017 Some:⚪️Man⚪️Woman?Body Once told me, the⚪️Man⚪️Woman?World was gonna roll me I ain't the:⚪️Man⚪️Woman?Sharpest tool in the shed — Noah Oxendale (@noahoxendale) August 20, 2017 And they were: ⚪ Very nice⚪ Walking? Roommates Oh my god, they were: ⚪ Dead⚪ Nearby? Roommates — Kristian (@celestialmiller) August 20, 2017 I am a: ? Man⚪️ Woman Looking for: ⚪️ Men⚪️ Women? Beyonces 2016 LEMONADE album to receive the album of the year Grammy it deserved!! — Jack (@Shnapped) August 15, 2017 I am a: ?Man⚪️Woman Looking for: ⚪️Men⚪️Women?That damn fourth Chaos Emerald pic.twitter.com/izBw8Y1FPo — Lonely Goomba (@LonelyGoomba) August 20, 2017 steve: big man in a suit of armor, take that away what are you? tony: ? genius? billionaire? playboy? philanthropist — m (@tjhmmnd) August 20, 2017 I'm a ⚪️ Man⚪️ Woman? G Looking for: ⚪️ A Relationship⚪️ Casual Sax? Serious Sax — Kenny G (@kennyg) August 20, 2017 I am a: ?Gundam Fighter ⚪️Woman Looking for: ⚪️Men ⚪️Women ?This man. Have you seen him around town? pic.twitter.com/UzJAYWwa2p — Kraker (@kraker2k) August 20, 2017 I am a ⚪️man ?bro ⚪️woman looking for ⚪️woman ?another bro to chill five feet away from in a hot tub because i'm not gay⚪️man — em (@parkerisadork) August 19, 2017 I am a:⚪ Male⚪ Female? Clown Fish Looking for:⚪ A boyfriend⚪ A girlfriend? My son Nemo — Trevor Jones (@jonestm97) August 19, 2017 two: ⚪️men⚪️women?bros sitting in a: ⚪️pool⚪️jacuzzi?hot tub five feet apart cause they're not: ⚪️straight⚪️ace?gay — ari (@aurorahowlter) August 20, 2017 I am a: ⚪️Man⚪️Woman?Father Looking for: ⚪️Men⚪️Women?MY SON HAVE YOU SEEN MY SON pic.twitter.com/Ituz9wenYt — Scampi (@lmScampi) August 20, 2017 I am a: ⚪️Man⚪️Woman?Gordon Ramsey Looking for: ⚪️Men⚪️Women?THE LAMB SAUCE — lis (@abratasas) August 20, 2017 Where did you: ?come from?⚪️go? Where did you: ⚪️ come from??go? Where did you: ?come from?⚪️go? Cotton-Eyed Joe — ? (@oscarewilde) August 19, 2017 I am a⚪️ man⚪️ woman? evil sorcerer Shang Tsung Seeking⚪️ men⚪️ women? to challenge Earthrealm's greatest champions in MORTAL KOMBAT — Jared Rosen (@notquitefrodo) August 20, 2017 what team?⚪️cobras?wildcats⚪️ravens what team?⚪️bulldogs?wildcats⚪️panthers WILDCATS?GET'CHA HEAD IN THE GAME — beth (@midtownhoIIand) August 20, 2017 i am a: ⚪️ man? woman looking for: ⚪️ men⚪️ women? thor: ragnarok getting the hype it deserves — pinned (@gaytonys) August 17, 2017 I am a: ? Man⚪️ Woman Looking for: ⚪️ Men⚪️ Women? Mariah Carey's Grammys that were wrongfully snubbed from 1995 masterpiece Daydream — . (@illcurable) August 15, 2017 I am a: ⚪️Man⚪️Woman?Pac-Man Looking for: ⚪️Men⚪️Women? The ability to press Z without immediately falling into a dark depression pic.twitter.com/iuvzfohak4 — its_me_klc (@its_me_klc) August 20, 2017 AHHH: ⚪️OOO⚪️AHHH?ᵃʰʰʰʰʰʰ stop i could've dropped my: ⚪️donut ⚪️bagel ?croissant — juliah (@spideystights) August 20, 2017 I am a:⚪️ Man⚪️ Woman? Genji Looking for:⚪️ Man⚪️ Woman? Healing — Tina ? (@TinaDayton) August 20, 2017 I am a:⚪️ Man⚪️ Woman? Young Boy Looking for:⚪️ Man⚪️ Woman? My father to take me into the city to see a marching band — Spiciest Emo Meme (@ThyArtIsMemes) August 20, 2017 I'm:⚪️ a man⚪️ a woman? guy fieri and I'm:⚪️ running⚪️ walking? rolling out looking for americas greatest diners drive-ins and dives — Chance Harbour (@ChanceHarbour) August 20, 2017

Via Daily Caller: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt announced he would sign a proposed rule to repeal the centerpiece of former President Barack Obama’s plan to fight global warming. Pruitt announced his intention to withdraw the Clean Power Plan (CPP) to applause from a crowd gathered at a mining event on Monday. EPA has been working to repeal the CPP for months. The Obama administration finalized the CPP in 2015, which aims to cut carbon dioxide emissions from power plants 32 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. Obama used the CPP as part of his plant to meet the goals of the Paris climate accord.

Before taking her life, August Ames left a suicide note behind in her car. Within the note that was addressed to her family and friends, August allegedly apologized for killing herself in a public park, The Blast reports. However, according to the Medical Examiner, August failed to mention the bullying and online harassment she suffered in the days leading up to her suicide at any point in her message, which was discovered by authorities. We reported earlier how the Ventura County Medical Examiner spokesperson said that the official cause of death was asphyxiation from hanging herself, an act which she committed in a park 20 minutes away from her home. Immediately after her death, many of her friends initially believed that she had taken her life as a result of cyberbullying after August tweeted about refusing to do a scene with a male adult performer who had done gay porn. While the suicide note did not indicate that bullying was an impetus for August taking her own life, we reported earlier how Dr. Jenn Mann informed us that bully victims are 229 times more likely to commit suicide than non-victims, according to a study by Yale University. It’s now also come to light that August reportedly had mental health issues that stemmed from when she was allegedly sexually assaulted as a kid. One of August’s friends and fellow porn star Alison Tyler said that the porn industry could have been a lot more supportive of August, and that August had never been “homophobic” despite claims that a controversial tweet she posted was potentially gay-bashing. Click here to see the saddest celebrity deaths of 2017. HollywoodLifers, do you think more light will be shed on August’s death? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.

Regarding Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post, Oct. 7: The Washington Post has the audacity to call out Fox News and the GOP while writing its liberal garbage defending Hillary Clinton and Democrats, who have led this country down a dangerous path of socialist leaning. I know this paper is being led by an ex-Post employee, but please give your readers a break. The Statesman must have an editorial department; why not use them instead of importing this junk. Karl Betar, Meridian Be the first to know when big news breaks Recaptcha requires verification. protected by reCAPTCHA Privacy - Terms Privacy - Terms

It was one year ago today. During the second presidential debate in St. Louis, Missouri, candidate Trump told Hillary Clinton, “You’d be in jail!” when he enters the White House. IT WAS THE BEST DEBATE LINE EVER!!!! TRUMP to Hillary: BOOM! It’s now been one year and Trump supporters are still waiting to see Crooked Hillary behind bars. Trump supporters weren’t kidding when they chanted, “Lock her up!” at Trump rally after Trump rally. In 2015 former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani famously said Hillary Clinton should be investigated for breaking 15 federal laws. Rudy Giuliani: General Petraeus was got prosecuted for doing approximately one-tenth of what she’s alleged to have done… There are specific federal crimes, I could give you a list of fifteen of them if you’d like, that she should be investigated for, for which there needs to be an answer. According to the public record, the answer to many of those is there is probable cause to believe she committed a crime. I qualify that by saying the public record. It’s been a year since President Trump told Hillary Clinton to her face that he would lock her up. Americans are tired of a two-tiered judicial system — one for the elites and one for the common man. Sponsored Sponsored

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Tuesday January 17, 2017: Eric hopes for a breakthrough, Thomas and Steffy chat about their lives, and Bill counsels Liam to have patience. In San Francisco, Ridge pours a drink and Quinn accepts another as well. She asks him to leave, but he’s not going anywhere. Quinn warns Ridge that if he thinks she’d betray Eric, he doesn’t know a damn thing about her. Ridge invites her to make him understand. Quinn opens up about feeling disrespected and used repeatedly. She recalls how Bill tossed her aside, and all the men who came after him were the same. Ridge notes he’s nothing like Bill Spencer. Incredulous, Quinn points out what Ridge was planning to do to her – he’s exactly like him! She says Eric is the first man to respect her and she’s not giving that up…ever. Ridge explains it’s his job to protect his dad from people like her. Quinn counters if she was a golddigger she would have gone after Bill’s millions. She becomes emotional describing what it was like to raise Wyatt while poor and trying to start a business. Ridge sees why she built a wall around herself, but says she went too far, with Liam for example. Quinn screams that she hates who she was then, but finally she has a life worth living because of love. “I am not letting you take that away from me!” Ridge reiterates that he wants to protect his father since Quinn goes through the world pushing people away. Quinn protests that she had to, to survive, but Eric saw through that and took a chance on her. She sobs that after years of being alone anymore, she’s not now, and she doesn’t ever want to be alone again. Ridge softens, and assures her she’s not alone. He can see why his father fell for her – he sees the beautiful woman she hides from the world. “It’s going to be fine.” Ridge warns she has to stop spinning webs and building walls. “You’re amazing. Trust that.” They embrace…and then kiss. Both look stunned. At the Forrester mansion, Katie is concerned about being alone with Eric while Quinn’s out of town. He reassures his neighbor that Quinn trusts him as much as he trusts her. They joke about Ridge and Quinn being in San Francisco. Eric is hoping for some sort of breakthrough. In Malibu, Bill and Liam discuss Spencer Publications business, but Liam is distracted. He wants Steffy to come home. Bill opens up about his frustrations with Brooke. He counsels that sometimes you just have to know that things will work out even if it takes time. Bill predicts Steffy will move back in with Liam and Brooke’s marriage to Ridge won’t happen. Bill is certain Ridge will mess up; he always does. Just in: B&B’s Linsey Godfrey reveals photos of herself as a zombie for Living With the Dead role At the loft, Thomas tells Steffy he doesn’t know when Caroline is coming back. He hints that when she and Douglas do arrive, it would be nice not to have a roommate. Steffy explains that she’s waiting to move back into Liam’s out of fairness to Wyatt. Talk turns to Quinn. Steffy will never trust her. Thomas wonders why she hasn’t had a meltdown yet. Steffy just hopes Eric’s not too badly hurt when she does. Next on The Bold and the Beautiful: Ridge and Quinn are surprised by their changing feelings toward one another. Photo credit: Howard Wise/JPI - Candace Young

Ashley Judd is the absolute worst. I want to like her, I really do. Sometimes she chooses a good cause, like speaking up for trafficked and abused children. Those are the activities she should stick to. Unfortunately, Judd had to go to the "Women's March," where hundreds of thousands of women wore pink "pussy" hats while claiming to be upset that Trump had used that word once. She performed ridiculous slam poetry, screeching defamatory accusations about the president wanting to have sex with his daughter and about other terrible things about which she had no first-hand knowledge. (You can watch the video below if you have the stomach for it.) But at no time did she ever discuss a man who she did know did horrific things. No "by the way, Harvey Weinstein is a dirtbag who tried to get me to watch him shower for a part." Why didn't that come up? I find it very difficult to believe Judd is this angry at Donald Trump, a man who has never done anything to her, or provably to anybody, when there is a man who did do something horrible to her whom she could be screeching about. She needs therapy. And possibly tranquilizers. Jennifer Lawrence was recently interviewed for her epic fail of a movie, Mother, and gave Democratic talking points like "equality for women in the workplace," blamed Trump for hurricanes, and rattled off the same tired Leftist arguments we've heard forever. During another interview, she claimed that she is terrified of Trump and wanted to make a video of herself saying "F*** you!" to him. Lawrence claimed she felt she could be a spokesperson for women who are underpaid: That seems disingenuous, because she kept quiet about the creepy mogul who everyone in Hollywood appears to have known was abusing women. Why stay quiet over that? Don't you have a responsibility to alert other women that there is a serial sexual predator in their midst? Lawrence hasn't alleged any harassment from Weinstein, although she is seen looking awkward in many photos with him while he holds her too close to his massive girth. It wouldn't surprise me if she had first-hand knowledge of his depravity. Gwyneth Paltrow is the most apolitical in this list. While she supported Obama, she never had anything more interesting to say beyond how handsome she thinks he is. Mostly she spends her life divorcing people and selling outrageously priced trinkets to rich women online. While she doesn't fit in the category of commenting on Trump, she bears much responsibility in this scandal.

How much money did it cost the nation's taxpayers for Vice President and Official Glarer at North Korea Mike Pence to spend just enough time in Indianapolis on Sunday to storm out of a Colts game in protest of a protest? CNN has an estimate just for the plane alone: According to the Air Force, flying a C-32, the model of plane used for Air Force 2, for one hour costs about $30,000. Pence's flight from Las Vegas to Indianapolis Saturday took about three hours and 20 minutes, so it cost about $100,000. Pence then flew from Indianapolis to Los Angeles on Sunday, which took about four hours and 45 minutes, costing about $142,500. The grand total: about $242,500. Keep in mind this is just for the plane. It does not include any of the ancillary costs that accrue anytime the vice president travels anywhere. There were increased security costs to local police once Pence was on the ground in Indianapolis. Costs to locals stuck in traffic as roads were likely closed for his motorcade. Costs to the Colts to increase security at the stadium. And so on. All so Pence could release a statement that was the equivalent of his infamous stern gaze across the Demilitarized Zone at North Korea: I left today's Colts game because President Trump and I will not dignify any event that disrespects our soldiers, our Flag, or our National Anthem. At a time when so many Americans are inspiring our nation with their courage, resolve, and resilience, now, more than ever, we should rally around our Flag and everything that unites us. While everyone is entitled to their own opinions, I don't think it's too much to ask NFL players to respect the Flag and our National Anthem. I stand with President Trump, I stand with our soldiers, and I will always stand for our Flag and our National Anthem. Pence's office would like you to think this was just a spontaneous reaction by a man proud of his flag and his nation. This is belied by the fact that his reporters traveling with him were not allowed out of their vans when they arrived at the Colts' stadium but were told ahead of time that “there may be an early departure from the game by VPOTUS.” It is also belied by this tweet sent Sunday afternoon by Donald Trump: I asked @VP Pence to leave stadium if any players kneeled, disrespecting our country. I am proud of him and @SecondLady Karen. The Colts were playing the San Francisco 49ers, the former team of Colin Kaepernick, who started the kneeling protests a year ago. The chances that Mike Pence would see players kneeling were approximately 100 percent. He knew this ahead of time, yet he still chose to fly from Las Vegas to Indianapolis despite the fact that he had to fly back to California immediately afterwards for fundraisers, just so he could get a picture of himself holding his hand over his heart (a picture his staff immediately made the header photo on his Twitter page) before theatrically storming out and scolding the NFL players for offending him. A real leader might have tried to find out exactly why the players started kneeling in the first place, which was to protest police brutality and racism, and then spoken with them and tried to figure out ways to address their concerns. Mike Pence did the exact opposite. As of Monday morning, he has yet to make a peep about the white nationalists returning to Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday night to once again rally around the Robert E. Lee statue there. That he is seemingly far more concerned with staging a political stunt slapping down African-American players protesting systemic racism tells you all you need to know about him. Oh, and to top it off, one of the fundraisers Pence is attending in California is for Dana Rohrabacher, the strongly pro-Russia congressman. Fiction writers could not make this up. Please note: This is a commentary piece. The views and opinions expressed within it are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the editorial opinion of IJR.

Governor Cuomo of New York is threatening to sue the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to stop its ongoing raids to detain illegal immigrants wanted for serious crimes like assault and rape. A staggering 80% of those apprehended in recent ICE raids in New York were either convicted criminals or charged with crimes. But Mr. Cuomo is siding with criminals over their victims. He’s playing politics. Faced with a challenge on his left flank from Cynthia Nixon, he’s desperate to prove his liberal bona fides. Public safety be damned. The governor is parroting Democrats across the nation who claim ICE should be abolished because it’s breaking apart families and peaceful communities. The facts prove otherwise. Eighty-eight percent of the illegal immigrants arrested in recent Los Angeles ICE raids and 81% arrested throughout California, according to the latest ICE data, had criminal convictions. These are bad guys. So when House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi claims that “unjust and cruel” ICE raids “terrorize innocent immigrant families,” don’t buy it. Mr. Cuomo is making the same bogus claim. Last Thursday, the governor denounced an ICE raid on an Upstate farm looking for Marcial DeLeon-Aguilar, a three-time deportee convicted for felony aggravated assault. Mr. Cuomo complained that Aguilar’s children had to watch their father being pinned by officers to block his escape. What about families victimized by violent illegals? Since January 2016, at least 25 Long Island youths have been executed by the MS-13 gang of Central American illegals. Some of the victims were left so mutilated they could hardly be identified. MS-13 beats the youngsters with baseball bats, puts plastic bags over their heads to suffocate them and then slices off their noses, ears and lips with machetes. No one reads these victims their constitutional rights. ICE’s Operation Matador targets MS-13 gang members. Yet Mr. Cuomo seems angrier at the ICE agents than at the MS-13 butchers. Laughably, Mr. Cuomo issued a “cease and desist” letter to ICE last week, ordering federal agents to touch base with local police before taking enforcement action. Mr. Cuomo doesn’t have a leg on which to stand. Check the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution: Uncle Sam doesn’t need Andrew Cuomo’s permission to enforce federal laws. Why the surge in visible, violent sweeps? ICE is forced to conduct sweeps out in residential communities because New York’s sanctuary laws are preventing the agency from taking custody of criminal aliens before they’re released from jail, like the agency used to do. As ICE’s Deputy Director Thomas Homan points out, these sanctuary policies are needlessly exposing New Yorkers to violence. Mr. Cuomo is mimicking California Democrats, who are in open rebellion against federal law enforcement. In February, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf issued a public alert about a planned ICE raid in her city before it took place, tipping off hundreds of wanted criminals to scatter. Attorney General Sessions said to Ms. Shaaf, “How dare you needlessly endanger the lives of law enforcement just to promote your radical open borders agenda?” Political pandering is driving this agenda. An amazing 27% of California’s population are immigrants. Immigrants disproportionately favor big government. California hasn’t elected a statewide Republican since 2006. New York is moving in the same direction, with 23% of its population foreign-born and Democrats gaining increasing control of state government. Mr. Cuomo and other Democrats have been resisting the federal crackdown on immigrant-related crime and calling for increased spending on after-school music and sports programs to provide an “alternative” to gang activity in immigrant communities. That’s nonsense. Brutes willing to torture and mutilate a human being with a machete will not be dissuaded by learning to play the flute. President Trump calls them “animals” who have turned peaceful neighborhoods “into bloodstained killing fields.” He’s got the right plan: “We will find you. We will arrest you. We will jail you. And we will deport you.” Ms. McCaughey is a senior fellow at the London Center for Policy Research. receive the latest by email: subscribe to the new york sun's free mailing list

The media’s reporting has now become one of the most central issues being covered by the media. Trump’s fitness to serve is simply a piece of fake news that his enemies are using to relentlessly attack him. The issues are not the central matters that concern Trump’s opponents – they just seem focused on one thing – bringing President Trump down – with no red lines as to how to achieve that goal. Let’s hope political discourse takes a step upwards and we can return to discussing the main issues. Some corners of the media seem to have totally lost focus on what their jobs are supposed to be. The State of Israel is very used to this entire idea of fact inventing and fact-bending. Just like Donald Trump has been saying, the New York times has been using headlines such as: “Ten die in PLO Fighting” as far back as the 80’s. Instead of reporting that warring Arab factions in Lebanon had killed other Arab factions in Lebanon, the clear implication was that the Israeli Army killed 10 more Arabs. This was noted by US Ambassador to the UN, Jeane Kikpatrick. The key aspect was not whether or not the news was fake or not, but whether or not the implication that the publications were hoping to get across would stick. In the case of the New York Times, it was a clear anti-Israel bias that spread across ABS, NBC, and CBS during their War in Lebanon. The bias against Israel has continued to this day and has been augmented by CNN’s slanted reporting. Fox News is occasionally a breath of fresh air on Israel, but not always;. So, when Donald Trump takes on the biased media with terms like fake news, it is a pleasure to see and watch the pompous anti-right wing media cringe. Indeed, most of the mass media has completely lost it. Add to favorites. To view your favorites click here This video has 2 votes

Opinion editorial Modal Trigger As soon as FBI Director James Comey announced the revival of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server, Democrats went on the attack — against Comey. The lowest is the party’s top smear-meister: Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. The same Harry Reid who flat-out lied in 2012 in claiming a “confidential source” told him Mitt Romney had paid no income taxes for a decade. (In fact, Romney paid millions.) The same Harry Reid who still calls that lie “one of the best things I’ve ever done” — simply because “Romney didn’t win.” Now he’s wildly accusing Comey of suppressing evidence about Donald Trump’s “close ties and coordination” with Vladimir Putin’s government. And he’s not alone: Democrats and their media allies have unleashed an unbridled attack on Comey, accusing him of violating federal law with his Friday letter to Congress. He’s endangering democracy, they say, and deliberately sabotaging Clinton. What a load of hypocritical hooey. In June, Democrats praised Comey to the skies after he gave Hillary a free pass on her private server. Never mind that, as former Attorney General Michael Mukasey argued, her actions appear to have violated several statutes, and others have been prosecuted for far less. Now that Comey wants to check the e-mails from Anthony Weiner’s devices, he’s become an agent of the “vast right-wing conspiracy” that Clinton says has been hounding her for 25 years. Sorry: After clearing Clinton four months ago, Comey had no choice but to announce the discovery of potential fresh evidence in the case — evidence that should’ve been handed over long ago. If he’d tried to keep a lid on it, the political impact would be far bigger when the news inevitably leaked. We’re glad to see the White House playing it cool, announcing that President Obama doesn’t believe Comey is trying to influence the election outcome. The fault here is not with the FBI but with the Democrats’ own candidate, Hillary Clinton, who plainly believes the law doesn’t matter if it conflicts with her desire for secrecy. Just as Harry Reid believes the truth doesn’t matter — as long as the Democrats win.

The 1st Amendment is the most well known to Americans of all the amendments in the Bill of Rights. It contains some of the most familiar phrases in political discussion, such as freedom of religion, freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The 1st Amendment reads like this: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." The 1st Amendment protects your right to believe and practice whatever religious principles you choose and your right to say what you believe, even if it is unpopular or against the will of elected officials. It also protects your right to publish any information you want, join together with whomever you want and ask the government to correct its own errors. What exactly does the 1st Amendment mean and how does it apply to people today? Does it have relevance to you today? It sure does. In fact, it affects just about everything you do. The 1st Amendment has seven clauses. This page has a brief description of each clause with links to more detailed information about the history and purpose of each section. The Opening Phrase of the 1st Amendment says "Congress shall make no law." This opening phrase immediately tells exactly who this amendment is aimed at... and that entity is Congress. So the 1st Amendment specifically prohibits Congress from making laws interfering with the rights mentioned in the amendment. It does not however, prohibit the states from making such laws, nor does it prohibit individuals from restricting these rights to those who may be under their authority, such as a parent and child or an employer and an employee. For one hundred years the 1st Amendment was understood to only apply to the federal government, but after the Civil War and the 14th Amendment was added to the Constitution, courts began to forbid the states to interfere with these rights as well due to an idea called "due process of law." Learn more about the Opening Phrase of the 1st Amendment here. The Establishment Clause is the part of the 1st Amendment that says Congress shall make no law "respecting an establishment of religion." This is a very crucial part of the American Constitution. It prohibits the government from establishing a state religion or denomination and from directing people in what they must believe. Without the Establishment Clause, the government could choose a state religion and force everyone to participate in it. It could also punish anyone who didn't adhere to its chosen faith. This clause has been the focus of much debate in the last half century. Some Americans believe that whenever the government is involved, absolutely all religious expression must be forbidden in order to comply with the Establishment Clause. For example, they might say a public school football team should not pray at a football game because the school is a government funded school. Other Americans believe the government must make certain allowances for religious expressions in public events and buildings because Americans are a very religious people. They belive a high school football team prayer or a government employee displaying a cross at work does not violate the Establishment Clause because it is simply a personal expression and not an expression endorsed by the state. Indeed, in the minds of some, banning expressions of religious faith like this is a violation of another clause of the 1st Amendment - the Free Exercise Clause, because it seeks to control the religious expressions of citizens. Learn more about the history and purpose of the Establishment Clause here. The Free Exercise Clause is the part of the 1st Amendment that says Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or "the free exercise thereof." This phrase deals with the restriction on Congress to regulate anyone's religious practices. In general, Congress cannot tell people how they can or cannot express their religious beliefs. Such things as telling people when or how to pray, when they should go to church or to whom they should pray, are off limits to lawmakers. In general, this is the case, but sometimes, minority religious groups may want to practice something that is not generally accepted or that the state has a very strong interest in regulating. For example, polygamy, ritual sacrifice and drug usage have been banned at times, because there is a compelling public interest in eliminating these behaviors. In such cases, the Supreme Court has often ruled that the Free Exercise Clause does not apply. In other words, the Free Exercise Clause does not give free license to any behavior that someone says is their religious belief. You can learn all about the Free Exercise Clause here. The Freedom of Speech Clause is the part of the 1st Amendment that says, "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech." British history contained a long string of suppression by those in authority of those with whom they disagreed. Many British subjects had been thrown in prison for voicing their religious and political beliefs. The Americans intended to prevent this from ever happening in their newly formed republic. This is one of the protections in the Constitution that Americans hold most dear. They value it because it allows them to speak out against government policies they don't like. It also allows them to express the religious beliefs of their choosing. Negatively speaking, many people abuse this right by slandering people they disagree with, or using ugly and offensive language, racial epithets or hateful language about people who are different than they are. Generally, freedom of speech is considered to be not only the words people speak, but any type of expression that is used to convey an idea. Such things as picketing, wearing symbols or burning the flag are considered protected forms of speech because they are expressing the ideas of the people participating in them. You can learn more about the Freedom of Speech Clause by clicking here. The Freedom of the Press Clause states that "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom... of the press." This was a very important principle to the Founding Fathers of America because of the importance the press played during the Revolutionary War. Without the press, the Founding Fathers would have found it very difficult to distribute their views to people in other parts of the country. The press turned out to be a very important instigation in getting Americans to consolidate their views against England and in spreading the concepts that would justify a break with England. English history contained no freedoms for the press whatsoever. All publications were subject to governmental review before publication. Criticisms of the government were strictly prosecuted as sedition. All Americans wanted the right to criticize their government freely as well as to discuss other topics whenever they chose. If you would like to learn more about the Freedom of the Press Clause, please click here. The Freedom of Assembly Clause is the part of the First Amendment that reads like this: "Congress shall make no law... abridging... the right of the people peaceably to assemble..." This clause is also sometimes referred to as the Freedom of Association Clause. This clause protects the right to assemble in peace to all Americans. The Freedom of Assembly was very important to early Americans because without the right to assemble, they could not coordinate their opposition to the British government. The Freedom of Assembly was recognized to be of utmost importance if the Americans were to be successful in establishing a government of the people. The Freedom of Assembly Clause has been relied upon by many groups in American history, such as civil rights groups, women's suffrage groups and labor unions. Government officials in each case tried to restrict the speech of these groups and prevent them from meeting, organizing and getting their message out. The Freedom of Assembly proved to be an important factor that allowed these groups to prosper and see their visions fulfilled. You can learn more about the history and importance of the Freedom of Assembly Clause here. The Freedom of Petition Clause of the 1st Amendment reads like this: "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom... of the people... to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." The freedom to petition the government was very important to early Americans because of their experience with trying to get King George III and Parliament to respond to their grievances. The colonists were so angry about the Monarchy's refusal to acknowledge their grievances that they mentioned this fact in the Declaration of Independence. The freedom to petition the government for redress of grievances has come to include the right to do such things as picketing, protesting, conducting peaceful sitins or boycotts and addressing government officials through any media available. You can read more about the history and meaning of the Freedom of Petition Clause here. Preamble to the Bill of Rights Learn about the 1st Amendment here. Learn about the 2nd Amendment here. Learn about the 3rd Amendment here. Learn about the 4th Amendment here. Learn about the 5th Amendment here. Learn about the 6th Amendment here. Learn about the 7th Amendment here. Learn about the 8th Amendment here. Learn about the 9th Amendment here. Learn about the 10th Amendment here. Learn more about the Bill of Rights with the following articles: Last updated 8/7/12

Recently, Erin Elizabeth from HealthNutNews wrote up an expose about the past year’s findings concerning the many disappearances of holistic doctors. In case you’re not aware, the confusing conundrum first began when Dr. Bradstreet was found dead exactly one year ago – yes, on Father’s Day – in the U.S. The noted autism doctor, researcher, and parent was found in a river with a gunshot wound to the chest. While authorities at first thought his death was a result of suicide, it has since been confirmed that Dr. Bradstreet was murdered and that the wound was not self-inflicted. His family, like the families of many other missing and dead naturopathic practitioners and MD doctors, believe that he was murdered for using and promoting controversial therapies, such as GCMaF. According to Elizabeth, nearly 50 doctors have now died or gone missing under mysterious circumstances. This riveting finding has resulted in some exposure on the topic – including articles by the New York Times, The Independent UK, and network affiliates such as ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, but the whole story – or the many threads connecting the various murders– is not being told. For this reason, the activist took to the internet today, on the one-year-anniversary of the first of the mysterious deaths, to express how serious of a concern these events are. Right now in the United States, consumers are being told that they are not enough and that they must purchase more items on credit, eat high-fat, high-sugar foods, take prescription pills they cannot afford, and buy into the fear-mongering propaganda. In effect, America – perceived to be one of the most “developed” nations in the world – spends more on ‘health care’ than any other affluent nation, yet still has the worst state of health as a collective. Many suspect this is because a small elite controls the majority of corporations and mediaand, in effect, the government. Unhealthy ideals are being pushed on the public for the sake of profit. In fact, according to one Berkeley doctor, conventional treatments for concerns such as cancer are less effective than forgoing treatment in the first place. Of course, if the public knew that eating healthier, getting exercise, thinking positive thoughts, simplifying their life, and letting go of toxic people and situations would dramatically transform their health, the world would be a much different place. It seems that health practitioners that promote the idea that every individual can be their own doctor by taking responsibility for their own health rather than waiting for emergency medicine are being targeted, as they are going against a system which is corrupt and toxic. Click KEEP READING to read the full story. Or, at least, that’s what Elizabeth’s findings have concluded. The activist’s attention on this topic may have earned her – and her colleagues – death threats, but the efforts have paid off. A documentary is actually being made to shed more light on the mysterious deaths, and more information on that up-and-coming film will soon be shared. Below is a detailed timeline of 34 doctors’ deaths within the last year. We’ll let you be the judge on whether or not the untimely demise of many of these practitioners is fate or suspect. What matters most is that if these doctors were killed because they’re practicing true medicine, the injustice is uncovered and the parties responsible pay for their crimes. Dr. Bradstreet formerly of Florida, and now practicing in Georgia, was found with a gunshot wound to his chest in a river. The small town locals ruled the death almost immediately as a suicide, but many have their doubts. This same day in Mexico, June 19th, 2015, three doctors were traveling to the State Capital to deliver some papers and were reported missing. This is the only case outside of the U.S. Authorities said they found the bodies, but the families say those bodies look nothing like their family members and they are demanding more proof and more testing. A sad but riveting article was written about those details here. I also did an exclusive interview with the Bradstreet family as they publicly said I was the only journalist they trusted to talk about the horrific incident. Father’s Day, Florida East Coast: Two chiropractors are found dead. Their names are Dr. Baron Holt and Dr. Bruce Hendendal, both fathers. Dr. Hedendal also held a PhD in nutrition from Harvard. Both were presumably healthy and described as very fit. There is still no cause of death listed, for either doctor in any articles we find. A few people have contacted me about Dr. Hedendal, 67, but admit that they were surprised by his death and still find it shocking. (Update: Family and loved ones of Dr. Hedendal have spoken to the media that they are suspicious of his death and want answers. Interestingly, Dr. Holt (33), lived in North Carolina which is the state where Dr. Bradstreet’s body (the first doctor to be found) was discovered two days prior. Dr. Holt was visiting Jacksonville, Florida, though, when he died there. Dr. Bradstreet (see story #1) was living in Georgia at the time of his death and before that he lived in the neighboring state of Florida. A few mutual friends of Dr. Holt have contacted me. They are doctors and have shared with me a cause of death that I find rather shocking and cannot confirm, therefore, out of respect for the family, I will not list that here. Both were well loved by their patients, community, friends and family.) The beloved holistic Theresa Sievers, MD was found murdered in her home. Her co-worker says she was known as the “Mother Teresa of South Florida.” Her husband and children were in Connecticut at a family reunion when she was murdered. The authorities have been investigating for two weeks “around the clock,” and now say that she was targeted. Her murder was not random nor was it a home invasion and when the facts come out, “books and movies will be written about it.” It’s that big of a story. On the very same day, June 29th, Jeffrey Whiteside, MD, a pulmonologist, went missing- vanishing when he simply “walked away”. Dr. Whiteside, known for his successful treatment of lung cancer, disappeared in Door County, Wisconsin while vacationing with family. He was on foot and numerous reports have called it “mysterious,” saying he vanished without a trace. They’ve been searching now for three weeks and even colleagues have joined in (along with bloodhounds, drones search parties, and helicopters) but not one shred of evidence has surfaced. (UPDATE: Two arrests were made in the death of Teresa Sievers and one of the assailants called himself the “Hammer” on Facebook (Dr. Sievers was allegedly killed with a hammer). The other was one of her husband’s childhood friends who was just recently extradited to Florida. His attorney says there is evidence to show he had no involvement whatsoever with the crime. Her husband, Mark Sievers, has not been arrested at this time.) Patrick Fitzpatrick, MD goes missing. He was traveling from North Dakota to neighboring Montana (which he did often as his son lives there) and his truck and trailer were found on the side of the road. The search has expanded but authorities say it’s as if he vanished without a trace. He’s 6′ tall and described as Irish-looking with a goatee (details can be found in the links). Lisa Riley, 34 years old, DO (Doctor of Osteopathic medicine) is found in her home with a gunshot wound to her head. Her husband who found her and called 911, has a prior record. He was previously charged with the attempted murder of his ex, Ms. King, before charges were eventually dropped. Evidence showed that there was gun residue found on Ms. King’s hand and not Mr. Riley’s. Riley’s story corroborated this, but King’s allegedly didn’t, and her story kept changing (click link in this paragraph for their story with details on all of this). Mr. Riley has since been charged with the death of his wife, Lisa Riley. We’ll see what happens in court. Prev Next A month to the day after the first doctor (Jeff Bradstreet, MD) was found dead with a gunshot wound to his chest, Dr. Ron Schwartz was found murdered in his E. Coast Florida home.Sadly, he was shot to death. We don’t know if he was holistic, but he was licensed and lived between Florida and Georgia. He was a gynecologist who lived in an unincorporated part of Jupiter, Florida on a few acres of land and there are reports he ran an organic lawn service on the side. Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez, a holistic MD, dies suddenly. The same day another holistic doctor is also found dead (see below). They both allegedly died of heart attacks, though their own friends and family say publicly it doesn’t add up. I had met Dr Gonzalez and his amazing wife, and my better half has interviewed him several times. His official website says that while they initially thought it was a heart attack, his autopsy does not support that belief and shows no heart attack. They are awaiting further tests. “Dr Gonzalez was in excellent health otherwise so his passing is quite unexpected.” It is reported that he was alone at the time of his death. Countless people every week (including close friends) write me questioning the fact that he died “naturally”. He also said in several interviews (including the last one before he died) that he thought big pharma wanted him to get hit by a bus or that he might die suddenly. Frightening metaphors and a mystery we hope to get to the bottom of soon. Dr Abdul Karim, an outspoken and loved holistic (biological) dentist, 41 years of age, is found dead alongside the road by a passerby. He had been preparing for a half marathon and was allegedly out training that night. His old fraternity brother (lifelong friends), friends of many years, and patients said it didn’t add up. He was in perfect shape and ate an extremely healthy diet. Mainstream news said he had a “massive heart attack” but many who knew him have written to me with their sincere doubts. Authorities announce they have found the body of Dr Jeffrey Whiteside who has been missing for over 3 weeks. Chief Deputy Pat McCarty said at the news conference on Thursday that a .22 caliber gun was recovered at the scene. Investigators believe the body was there for “some time”. Osteopath Mary Bovier is found slain to death in her home in Pennsylvania. Her significant other, who we are told is also an osteopath, was questioned and released. At this time there have been no arrests and there are no suspects. I report that Jeffrey Whiteside’s death is officially ruled as a suicide but the local press calls the investigation a “mess” (described here in detail). Many are shocked at how long it took for details to emerge and countless people write me with their doubts. Even local authorities were asked by the local press if they’d heard of my stories. They admitted they had, but hadn’t been contacted by the feds on the case. I broke the news to the health community of 29 holistic doctors (also referred to in the German press as homeopaths/ND’s/psychiatrists) who were found poisoned by an overdose of a hallucinogenic drug. I’ve done several updates of the articles, using a German translator, but the whole story of what really happened has still not been revealed. One thing most can agree on; it was a large overdose and mainstream German news reports that some were in “life threatening situations” when dozens of ambulances and a helicopter arrived to the chaotic scene. The good news? All lived and have allegedly made a full recovery (though some had to be restrained for their safety for some time). I reported that our colleague, best selling author and holistic MD, Mitch Gaynor, is found dead outside his country home; an hour or so from Manhattan where he practiced. We knew Dr Gaynor and had just finished an advanced copy of his book that he had sent to us. It was quickly called a suicide by the local sheriff. The NY Times wrote me asking for details and we had a nice exchange. Even though I have gently broken the news on this and many other stories, the NY Times fails to source me (I didn’t expect them to source HealthNutNews, though the Guardian UK and other mainstream sources have for some time). UPDATE: Mitch Gaynor, MD had been on RT not long before he died. We wanted to contact them for comment, but soon after Mitch was found dead? the founder of RT was found dead in his Washington DC hotel room. We announce that Dr Marie Paas is found dead of an alleged suicide. She was well known for her animal advocacy. People on her Facebook page seemed shocked and in disbelief about her death. Unlike the 3 others by this date who were alleged suicides (one who has been officially confirmed) we don’t know the location where Dr Paas was found, nor the details of her alleged suicide. Many seem concerned for her pets, who they say she loved very much. Prev Next Jerome E. Block, M.D, jumped to his death from Central Park West residence. Authorities say Block jumped from the 20th floor of his residence around 9:30 a.m. Details and video can be found here. ;besides the 13 doctors covered thus far who died in non accidental deaths, we have 5 chiropractor deathsthat were accidents. We also have more deaths of doctors here: some described as freak accidents. Again, we didn’t include them in the official unintended series. We have the famous holistic ABC News doctor, Jamie Zimmerman, who allegedly slipped and fell and hit her head in Hawaii while on vacation, and who was carried out to sea. We also have more accidental deaths of holistic doctors here in NY (accidental), and yet another here of a famous holistic MD! We literally couldn’t keep up at times there were so many. January 2016 I didn’t include PhD’s in the series (unless they were also an MD, DO or DC) but then just this past few weeks we saw 2 Canadian PhD’s/researchers killed. One was stabbed in what his friends called a safe neighborhood. Another, a Phd (who was a wife and mother of two) was hit while jogging near the beach and then buried in a shallow grave on the tourist island of Grenada. Then days later a holistic doctor is also attacked there with his wife (physician’s assistant) on this same tiny island of Grenada (see #18). This is where we suddenly start seeing a spate of cancer researchers killed which hadn’t happened previously and then suddenly we have a one every few days. A top MD, John Marshall, 49, who was a former 4th generation Marine, had served in Afghanistan, and had survival training, was found dead in the Spokane river and they pulled his body out that day. He was said to be in great shape and was doing his usual run in Spokane, near the river. Authorities say he somehow must have fallen into the river and drowned and almost immediately said it was death by drowning. (UPDATE: Dr Marshall’s wife (also a doctor and surgeon) has hired her own investigator and is questioning the quick call by Seattle PD. Again, more families are questioning these deaths and what some find absurd rulings by authorities.) Our own friend of ten long years, holistic doctor Rod Floyd, was found dead at his home here in Florida. He just miles from us and I’d been to their home and they’d been to mine. It was definitely not suicide in any way and his wife of 37 years says he was “hearty and healthy” and calls it an accident. That’s all I’ll elaborate on right now, as even I don’t know all the details. Dr Floyd did buy a sauna from me (but that wasn’t involved in his death which I was told initially). Besides being a chiropractor, Dr Floyd was also a clinical professor at Palmer Chiropractor College near where we live. He and his wife have also run the Natural Awakenings magazine for some time. Our whole community is shocked and saddened by his death. Believe it or not just a few short weeks later, a holistic MD and his wife (a physician’s assistant) were attacked, while on a relaxing beach stroll, by a sword wielding man in the same place- the tiny island of Grenada. The holistic MD survived. Sadly his wife was murdered and raped by the machete wielding attacker. Both perps in each attack of the doctors in Grenada in a couple of weeks are reported to have been recently released from prison and in both crimes (allegedly unrelated) the men just nonchalantly turned themselves in after the crime. Some experts have their theories on this. I won’t elaborate at this time. Grenada locals are shocked and say they’ve never seen anything like this- let alone twice in a row. The new spate of cancer researcher/doctors who are killed or found dead doesn’t slow down and this might be the strangest of them all: Yet another cancer researcher, Professor Alan Clarke, 52, was found dead in the wood in hanging from a tree in a rubber body suit on December 28th, 2015 and they ruled it accidental. Just a week later, to the day, after losing our local friend and holistic doctor; Rod Floyd we lost another local friend also right here in our same local holistic community. The wonderful young Paige Adams FNP, B-C, also lived just up the road here locally in Florida was found dead at her home. She had worked closely for many years with her good friend and colleague Dr Bradstreet. The problem is Dr Bradstreet started off this whole holistic series when he was found dead in a river. Now we have his close friend (and our friend!) and his colleague of many years found dead. She was so young so this is particularly heartbreaking. Paige Adams had asked to stop by the house to see us days before she died. I feel awful for not taking her up on that, and my heart goes out to her family and patients. She is the only one in this entire series I’ve ever written about who is not a doctor of some sort (DC, MD, DO, and even a PhD at the end) But she was a board certified Nurse Practitioner whose patients rave about her endlessly. She also stated publicly (which you’ll see in the link) that if anything happened to her don’t assume it was an accident. Cancer HIV Researcher in Seattle- Cheryl Deboer is found dead in a culvert with a plastic bag over her head. Investigators quickly state they can’t see any evidence that it’s a homicide, but her mother and other relatives state publicly there is no way she crawled 1.5 miles through brambles and water and mud to put a plastic bag over her head in a culvert. They stated that if she would have wanted to take her life (and listed plenty of reasons why she wouldn’t with a happy family and job at the famous cancer research lab) she could have done it much more easily. The general public tends to agree with the family. Families are now starting to question these ridiculous statements called so quickly by local authorities. Some are hiring their own investigators and doubting local authorities. Many are wondering if the local authorities are to be trusted. Prev Next Yet another cancer researcher found dead in a field. He was only 34, and found in a safe quaint area in the countryside and people are astounded. Nearly immediately authorities announce his death is ‘not suspicious’, but there is a public outcry of how that could be so. We still have zero answers as to his cause of death. Wednesday, Triple homicide: Prominent Holistic doctor Henry Han, was found murdered on his 7 acre Santa Barbara estate, along with his wife and daughter, only 5 years of age. All were shot and wrapped in plastic. An arrest is quickly made of a young man who has no priors and lived with his father oceanside in Santa Barbara. His father was EX CIA. We will update as details emerge. Dr Harsch, 59, a self described holistic medicine MD was killed while riding his bicycle with a group of friends. He was the only one hit and none of the others were injured whatsoever. See details here.(Editor’s note: We had another holistic doctor earlier in the series also killed on a bicycle ride last year and many of her friends and loved ones contacted me about their concerns and questions on her death). Dr Rose Polge, 25 apparently walked off her job where she worked at Torbay Hospital in Devon, and was missing for almost two months. She allegedly wrote a letter to the Health Secretary about her feelings on a political situation there with the doctors. Police later recovered her body from the sea more than 50 miles away from where a hoodie (believed to belong to her) was found. There is now an inquest into her death after post-mortem results proved inconclusive. A holistic doctor and well known professor, Dr Rasmussen, 76, in the Boston area, was found dead. She taught classes at a local University and discussed natural health, nutrition and biology, was found stabbed to death in her home. She was stabbed over 30 times and no arrests have been made at this time. Not to be confused with the case of Pennsylvania Osteopath Mary Bovier, also found stabbed to death in her home. No arrests have been made in either murder. One of the strangest cases yet is holistic MD and acupuncturist Dr Clogston, 68, who was missing 3 weeks and eventually found dead in his car which was allegedly found off the route some say he took to work for 30 years. The peculiar part is Dr Clogston went missing on March 14, was reported missing on March 15, but then seen by someone who “knew him well” according to local authorities (they say this on video on the news). So how then- was he found dead weeks later in his car? Many would like to know. This is one of the strangest to me out of around 40 mysterious deaths. Dr Suutari, an outspoken holistic doctor in the Los Angeles area, who had a beautiful family and new child, allegedly took his own life on Mother’s day in the garage.Here are what details we know on this sad death. Prominent investigator hired by Dr Marshall’s wife (She’s also an MD and a surgeon) and investigator says on CBS news that the “accidental death” of Dr Marshall (that I reported on first in January) is most likely a professionally staged murder by someone in military or police. A must watch… An arrest was made in the death of holistic doctor Mary Louise Yoder. The curious part is that Dr. Yoder actually died in or around July 22nd 2015 (last year – a very busy week for holistic doctor deaths) and authorities almost immediately said she died of natural causes despite being fit, uber healthy and just 60 years old. I did not include her in the series originally since the authorities mistakenly said it was natural. So oftentimes we have authorities making these quick calls only to find out later they were completely false (why the rush officers?) So for months, Yoder’s death was considered “natural” until reports say a family member demanded an investigation. Now, this June, her employee (who was listed as her daughter on her obituary – they were so close) was arrested and it’s said she poisoned her. The employee is only 23 years old and had said Yoder meant the world to her. Keep updated on this story as new details may emerge. A man stormed into a holistic doctor’s office and gunned the man down and then turned the gun on himself – taking both their lives. A client walked in and saw them on the ground with a woman who worked there screaming. The very next day – see #34) another man went into another holistic doctor’s office and killed him. These could be total coincidence, but we report all mysterious murders/suicides/unexplained sudden deaths of holistic doctors so are including them on this recap. Another man stormed into a holistic doctor’s office (just a day later) and murdered the alternative MD in cold blood with a knife. The victim was Dr. Tiejun Huang Ph.D./MD R.Ac, RMT, DTCM. Dr Huang was a sports medicine specialist at the Beijing Olympic Games, a professor in sports medicine and rehabilitation and performs acupuncture and Chinese “Tuina” massage. You can read all the details here. Dr Huang allegedly knew his assailant (authorities said immediately) but we had a holistic doctor gunned down by a man the day before in his office (see #33) who they say knew his assailant too. 2 holistic doctors in under 2 days murdered in their offices does raise eyebrows. What are your thoughts? Please share this news and comment below! This article ( 50 Holistic Doctors Have Mysteriously Died In The Last Year, But What’s Being Done About It?) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and TrueActivist.com Prev Next

In a report titled ‘Roy Moore’s Facebook page shared inflammatory memes, article praising Russia’s anti-gay laws,’ CNN (Cable News Network), one of most rabid left-wing, anti-conservative channels in the United States, sternly criticized the conservative contents of the Facebook page belonging to Roy Moore, the Republican nominee for US Senate in Alabama. Among Moore’s Facebook posts hated by CNN the most highlighted was the BarbWire article “ Conservative Russians Give Moral Lesson to Facebook’s Homosexual Propaganda,” written by me. CNN said, Moore’s Facebook page also shared an article from the religious conservative website BarbWire.com in July 2015 with the headline, “Conservative Russians Give Moral Lesson to Facebook’s Homosexual Propaganda.” The article highlighted efforts by some Russians to counter a feature on Facebook that allowed users to overlay a rainbow over their profile picture. Trending: English Professor Assigns Trump-Bashing Books “The strongest reaction came from conservative Russians who overlaid an image of the colors of their country’s flag — white, blue and red — over their profile picture,” the article read, adding that users also “countered the homosexual #LoveWins hashtag with #pridetobestraight and #pridetoberussian.” The article also described Russia’s efforts to crack down on the LGBT community, including the country’s so-called “gay propaganda law,” as a “strong stance in defense of traditional family values.” CNN added, Moore shared an article in July 2015 that praised Russia’s anti-gay laws and Russians who opposed Facebook’s feature that allowed users to change their profile pictures to celebrate same-sex marriage: I considered it a privilege to have a my conservative BarbWire article shared by Judge Roy Moore. I considered it an even greater privilege to have my name connected with fine conservative leaders such as James Dobson and Chuck Norris, in the official list of endorsements of Moore. As a conservative evangelical Christian, I am not surprised that CNN attacked Moore just because he shared one of my BarbWire articles. After all, what expect from the Communist News Network? Portuguese version of this article: CNN ataca Roy Moore só porque ele compartilhou meu artigo no portal conservador BarbWire The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Barb Wire.

Opinion Modal Trigger Hillary Clinton boasts that her experience traveling to 112 countries as secretary of state qualifies her to be president. Don’t believe it. Evidence shows she left the State Department in shambles and our nation weaker. Her record at Foggy Bottom disqualifies her to be president. Her failures go beyond leaving four Americans to die in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012, the ridiculous Russian “reset” and the carnage in Syria that she and President Obama idly watched unfold — and that gets more horrific daily. A string of investigative reports from the Obama administration shows that she botched key management jobs as secretary of state, threatening American lives and our diplomatic secrets. Clinton’s State Department repeatedly rebuffed requests for additional security for the vulnerable compound at Benghazi, Libya. The result? Heavily armed terrorists were able to storm the compound and kill Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. But Benghazi wasn’t an isolated case. Clinton failed to secure diplomatic posts in Pakistan, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and other global hot spots. Internal State Department reports show the posts lacked emergency plans in case of attack. Guards assigned to them had no training in chemical or biological threats and, amazingly, some hadn’t undergone background checks. Clinton tried to weasel out of taking the blame for Benghazi, testifying to Congress that she wasn’t personally involved in embassy security. But emails later revealed that was false. Investigators also point to Clinton’s total neglect of cybersecurity. The Bush administration — reeling from the attack on the World Trade Center — had made it a top priority to protect information flow among embassies, the CIA and the FBI. But Clinton dropped the ball, creating what the department’s inspector general called “undue risk in the management of information.” In November 2013, the IG issued an alert to the State Department’s top executives about the urgent “recurring weaknesses” in cybersecurity that had been red-flagged in six previous reports between 2011 and 2013, almost all on Clinton’s watch. The “recurring weaknesses” had still not been addressed, including vulnerabilities to hackers. One of those previous reports — from July 2013 (shortly after Clinton’s departure) — described how much of the cybersecurity work was actually being done by contractors rather than department staff, contrary to government policy. John Bentel, in charge of State’s cybersecurity during Clinton’s tenure, is one of the five State Department staffers who demanded immunity before talking to FBI investigators about Clinton’s private-server scheme. He apparently took his duties regarding Clinton’s secret server more seriously than his duties to safeguard national cybersecurity. According to an IG report, Bentel “instructed his subordinates not to discuss the secretary’s email.” Rudy Giuliani said on Saturday Clinton’s use of a private email service for official business was like taking “all our top-secret material and throwing it out on Fifth Avenue.” Outrageous, but still a lesser offense than Clinton’s neglect of the entire department’s digital security — exposing communications between thousands of agents and diplomats across the globe. Even after WikiLeaks released 250,000 confidential State Department documents in 2010, Clinton didn’t plug the obvious holes in State’s cyber setup. Yet during Monday’s debate, Clinton had the nerve to claim that she takes threats to the nation’s cybersecurity very seriously. That’s a laugh. Hillary’s management of finances at State was also slipshod, according to inspector general reports that point to a whopping $6 billion unaccounted for during her tenure. Clinton’s chaotic mismanagement created “conditions conducive to fraud,” the IG warned, and made it harder “to punish and deter criminal behavior.” She must have felt right at home. True to Clinton’s instinct to cover up problems rather than fix them, she thwarted several investigations of sexual misconduct and prostitution at State. Investigators complained of “an appearance of undue influence and favoritism.” So what are the odds Hillary would run the federal government with integrity, keep the nation safe and get taxpayers more for their money? Zero. Betsy McCaughey is a senior fellow at the London Center for Policy Research.

In response to Joyce Newman’s recent letter about a conversation about guns: According to the National Right to Life Organization, approximately 600,000 babies are murdered every year by Planned Parenthood with more than 52 million murdered since Roe v. Wade. This makes Planned Parenthood the biggest mass murderer in the history of the world. Is she willing to have a serious conversation about that? Where is her outrage over that? More people die every year from overdoses or auto accidents then from guns. More people die every year from obesity then from guns. Where is her outrage over those issues? The left’s obsession with gun “control” is just that, control. It has always been about Democrats wanting to control every aspect of your life. They support Planned Parenthood but go ballistic when a gun is used to kill someone. It’s the old game of “don’t pay any attention to what’s going on over there, but look what’s happening here.”

There is apparently nothing wrong with America that can’t be blamed on Donald Trump. He is single-handedly destroying the Republican Party, trashing presidential debates and spoiling the reputation of locker-room talk. And — breaking news alert! — Trump is even changing journalism. His habit of saying things that nobody ever said before is forcing reporters to unleash their partisan views instead of just giving the facts. Some of these charges may be true, but the one about Trump changing journalism is demonstrably false. All the more so because it comes from the editor of the New York Times, who happens to be the actual guilty party. Dean Baquet, the Gray Lady’s boss for two years, recently claimed that Trump’s campaign had forced the paper into a new way of covering politics. “I think that he’s challenged our language,” Baquet told an interviewer. “He will have changed journalism, he really will have.” The claim is presented as one of those chin-stroking insights about a new paradigm that liberals spot around every corner. In fact, it is just another example of the Times getting it all wrong. Trump didn’t change the Times — Baquet did. He’s the one who authorized reporters to abandon the paper’s standards when covering Trump and express their personal political opinions. Or, as Baquet said in the interview with Nieman Lab’s Ken Doctor, the struggle for fairness is over. “I think that Trump has ended that struggle,” Baquet boasted. “I think we now say stuff. We fact-check him. We write it more powerfully that it’s false.” Fact-checking, of course, is often in the eye of the beholder, and quickly morphs into opinion when there is no restraint or neutral standard. The result is the paper’s relentless, daily assault on Trump, to the advantage of Hillary Clinton. Opinions, all uniformly anti-Trump, now ooze from the paper’s every pore, with headlines on front-page “news” articles indistinguishable from daily denunciations on the editorial and op-ed pages. This is not a mere continuation of the old liberal bias that infected the Times, the Washington Post and the broadcast networks for years. This is a malignant strain of conformity that strips away any pretense of fairness in favor of strident partisanship. The signal that the Times abandoned its traditional church-state separation of news and opinion came in an article by the paper’s media reporter two months ago. In his August piece, Jim Rutenberg declared that most reporters saw Trump “as an abnormal and potentially dangerous candidate,” and concluded they had a duty to be “true to the facts, in a way that will stand up to history’s judgment.” Baquet, in the interview, cited the Rutenberg piece, saying it “nailed” his thinking. He also said he started “down this track” years ago, during the dispute over weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and made it clear he believed then-President George W. Bush and then-Secretary of State Colin Powell lied to take America to war. The Trump treatment, he said, was a logical extension: “I think he gave us courage, if you will. I think he made us — forced us, because he does it so often, to get comfortable with saying something is false.” This is not a mere continuation of the old liberal bias that infected the Times, the Washington Post and the broadcast networks for years. This is a malignant strain of conformity that strips away any pretense of fairness in favor of strident partisanship. Baquet offered another example that got him to this point. He accused Republicans of lying in their “swift-boat” charges against Democratic nominee John Kerry in the 2004 campaign. It is not incidental that his examples all involve allegedly dishonest Republicans, and none involves dishonest Democrats. Nothing better explains why the Times fails to give Clinton the same scrutiny it gives Trump. More than 60 percent of voters regard her as fundamentally dishonest, but Baquet sees only Republicans as liars. Simply put, his political bias precludes fair journalism. And once standards are gone, they are gone forever, meaning anyone wanting to work at the Times will face a political litmus test. Baquet’s defense of slanted coverage is reflected in the trove of emails WikiLeaks released from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. Times reporters and columnists repeatedly show up in partisan ways. Washington correspondent John Harwood sends Podesta his private approval of Hillary Clinton appearances, as if he’s on the team. Columnist Nicholas Kristof, in advance of an interview with Bill Clinton, emails his questions, which Podesta’s team passes around to staffers to shape Clinton’s answers. A Washington reporter gives Hillary Clinton veto power over quotations he can use from an interview. Another reporter is praised as someone who has “never disappointed” in delivering stories the campaign wants “teed up” for public consumption. As the editor, Baquet should be outraged that his staff secretly compromised the paper’s integrity. But as the editor who eliminated the Times’ standards, he’s getting the biased paper he wanted. Mayor Bill de Blasio won’t take questions from The Post these days, so here are questions all City Hall reporters should insist he answer. No. 1: Has the mayor or his lawyer been informed that de Blasio is a target of federal and state investigations? No. 2: Has the mayor been ordered to testify before a grand jury? Has he voluntarily offered to do so? No. 3: Did the mayor ask teachers union president Michael Mulgrew for the $350,000 contribution the union gave to de Blasio’s political slush fund, the Campaign for One New York, a month before the union got a $9 billion contract? No. 4: Did de Blasio or his wife, Chirlane McCray, personally receive any money, gifts or other things of significant value from the consultants paid millions of dollars by the Campaign for One New York? No. 5: Who is paying the legal fees of de Blasio and City Hall aides? How much, if any, taxpayer money has been spent representing them? The public has a right to know what the mayor knows about the investigations, including the possibility he will face criminal charges. The reporters in Room 9, the legendary home of the City Hall press corps, should ask these questions every day until they get answers. Reading the emails hacked from John Podesta’s account, I felt squeamish. But two facts settled my stomach. First, the emails reveal the greed and backstabbing among the Clinton clan. There is no honor among those thieves. Second, the claim that the messages are forged or a Russian plot illustrate how the family fudges facts it can’t deny. That means the emails offer the unvarnished truth, making them unique in Clinton land. Alan Schulkin will never eat lunch in New York again. The Manhattan Democratic representative on the city’s Board of Elections was caught telling an inconvenient truth, saying, “I think there is a lot of voter fraud.” Schulkin was being secretly taped by an undercover journalist, so maybe his party will forgive him for saying what everybody knows to be true. Otherwise, he’s going to be a very hungry man.

John Legend has added his voice against those speaking out against disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, who has been accused of sexual harassment, assault and rape by multiple women in Hollywood. He was recently fired from the Weinstein Company but has reportedly vowed to continue making movies. TMZ spoke with Legend and asked for his thoughts on the matter. He said: “I think he did some despicable things and he is rightfully being shamed for it. He shouldn’t be working in Hollywood if he’s abusing his position that way. I think it’s good we’re bringing light to this issue and hopefully more women will be able to tell their stories. Men need to listen and change their behavior.“

UPDATE May 22, 2018: The Little Rock Police Department has recovered human remains in Chalamont Park, the last place Ebby Steppach was seen. May 25, 2017: Crime Watch Daily joins in the hunt for a missing Arkansas teenager whose parents fear she may have been kidnapped and forced into the dark world of sex-trafficking. Ebby Steppach, 18, was planning to go to the Little Rock Police Department to report an alleged sexual assault. But before she could make talk to cops -- she vanished. She's a young woman who has become famous in Little Rock, Arkansas for all the wrong reasons. "Everyone knows Ebby," said KARK-TV reporter Mitch McCoy. "Ebby is the 'Little Rock Girl.' You can say the name Ebby Steppach and most people will know who you're talking about." She went to a house party to kick off the weekend. But that was the end of the good times for 18-year-old Ebby. "Ebby went to a party on a Friday night and had been assaulted, and there was a videotape," said Ebby's mother Laurie Jernigan. And it's the beginning of a nightmare for her and her family. "She got extremely upset about it and was threatening to go to the police about it. And then two days later she disappears? Yes." And now only Crime Watch Daily tracks down a key witness who sheds light on the frightening possibilities. Laurie Jernigan says her daughter Ebby is a joy to have around. But Ebby has an independent streak too. "When she started pushing the boundaries, it was 'I have a car of my own, I should be able to come home when I want,'" said Laurie. When Ebby got that first car, a whole new world opened up, and she's taking the ride all the way. "She didn't realize the danger," said Laurie. One night Ebby heads to a party in Little Rock. "She did have bad influences on her life, some that I didn't know," said Laurie. The next morning Ebby sends a frightening text message to her friend Gage Fulton. Gage read the text out loud on a phone call to private investigator Monty Vickers, who recorded the conversation. "I was hanging with some dudes last night and we smoked and I had sex with one of them and he [----]ing recorded me dude, like when I wasn't looking." Videotaped during a sexual encounter -- Ebby doesn't tell Gage who did it. But he tells Vickers that she is horrified and confused. Vickers: "Did she tell you that she was raped?" Fulton: "She said she felt forced into it. Her last text message to me is 'I am going to go kill myself.'" But Ebby doesn't kill herself. She is enraged, and plans to do something about it. That same night, she again sends a text, this time to her stepfather Michael Jernigan while he is at dinner with the family. "An incident had occurred at that party that she wanted to discuss, and discuss with the police," said Michael Jernigan. "There had been an encounter with a particular individual at that party that he had videotaped." Michael leaves a message with Ebby that he's heading to her grandparents' house where she is staying. But he gets no response. "I called over to her grandparents to ask if she was over there. They stated that she left, said that she was going to meet me," said Michael. But Michael says there hadn't been an arrangement to meet anywhere. And it is the last contact he ever has with his stepdaughter. But suddenly the family hears from Ebby the next day when she answers a phone call from her brother Trevor. Like everyone else he has been trying desperately to reach her. "She answered and he said 'Where are you?' And she said 'I'm out in front of your house,'" said Laurie Jernigan. "So he hung up and says cool and he goes out there and she's not there. So he calls her back. She answers and she says she's messed up and he said 'Where are you?' And she said 'I'm in my car,' and he said 'Where is your car?' And she said 'I don't know,' and hung up. And that's the last time anyone's talked to her." And now the family is truly alarmed and terrified for the fate of their Ebby. "He called the police immediately, and he said 'You've got to look for her car. I know something is wrong. Something's happened,'" said Laurie. "They listed her as a runaway and they weren't going to look for her." No possibility that she just decided to leave town on her own for whatever reason? "She would move out and hang out, which was really unusual, but she would never run away and not talk to her family," said Laurie. And Ebby's family is searching for her everywhere. Until days after her disappearance, they suddenly get news that leaves them thunderstruck once more. Ebby's abandoned car is reported at a nearby city park by security guard Guy Hooper. A surveillance image shows her car on the road shortly after she went missing. But police are not saying exactly where or if anyone was in the car with her. "I called Little Rock and notified them that the car had been sitting there for three days, and they had gotten the car and taken it in," said Guy Hooper. "It was devastating. I can't describe to you how bad that was that night. Finding her car and not her, you might as well tell me she was dead. It was unimaginable," said Laurie. And what police find in her car only deepens the family's fear that something terrible has happened to Ebby. "What 18-year-old leaves her cellphone or their clothes? Her makeup? She spent all of her money on makeup. Her contact lenses, she can't see without contacts," said Laurie. But Laurie says she still cannot convince police that Ebby is a victim of foul play and not a runaway. "No matter how hard I tried I could not get detectives to do anything about it," said Laurie. Not only that, Ebby's family says they still don't know if some of the people who were with her at that party have even been questioned by police. Stepdad Michael Jernigan says Ebby gave him some names in that last text conversation, but he will not reveal them for fear of jeopardizing the ongoing investigation. "I know two of the individuals," said Michael. Do the police know who they are? "Yes." Ebby Steppach, 18, has been missing for weeks after disappearing on Oct. 25, 2015. And the alarming possibility that she has been sex-trafficked haunts everyone who knows this case. How does the sex-trafficking work? "They pick up this girl, lock her up in a room, feed her with heroin, keep her doped up," said private investigator Monty Vickers. "They charge guys to have sex with her, to the point where she is just a zombie slave." The best-case scenario is Ebby is still alive, but being sex-trafficked. "That's the worst-case scenario to me," said Ebby's mother Laurie. "If she's not with us anymore, she's in peace." The search for any sign of her goes on, with no results. Ebby's family hires private investigator and former Little Rock Police detective Monty Vickers. He says he tries to help the department work better with the family. "The last thing that we need to do is to run out here and start our own investigation and interfere with the police investigation in some way, so we basically did nothing other than try to communicate with the police department and stay in communication with the family," said Vickers. But he still does a lot of digging himself. About five months after Ebby goes missing, he visits security guard Guy Hooper, the man who reported Ebby's abandoned car at a city park. We tracked down Guy Hooper ourselves, and he gave us the shocking details about seeing Ebby with two young black men in the park only days before she disappeared. "It was late evening, I advised them all, everybody to leave the park, which they did," said Hooper. "Then a few days later I run into her again with another young black gentleman. This time they were in the back seat of the car. And the third time she was back with another couple gentlemen." He's sure it was Ebby? "Yes sir," said Hooper. "After I saw the pictures of her later on, of course -- I didn't have a name at the time." And Hooper says he notices one guy in particular, who he says is there all three times. "They were hugging, kissing back and forth," said Hooper. Does he remember what these guys looked like, especially the one she was close to? "He was about five-foot-six, five-seven, had long dreads," said And his eyewitness account is about to go ballistic when we show him what we've brought along with us. There was a bust involving sex-trafficking that took place in Louisiana but the individuals that were arrested many of them have connection to Little Rock. We showed Hooper their mug shots to see if he recognized any of them. "It's this middle one on the top and the gentleman on the left," said Hooper. Which individual was the one kissing and hugging Ebby? "This gentleman right here, the guy with the dreads," said Hooper. How positive is Hooper? "About 70 percent. I'm pretty sure this was the gentleman that was directly with her," said Hooper. It is a stunning development that could have a major impact on the search for Ebby. The man with the dreadlocks is Keith Pruiett, 21, of Little Rock. Police in Arkansas have not connected him with Ebby's disappearance. But Pruiett was recently charged with human-trafficking and promoting prostitution near Shreveport, Louisiana. Also charged in that case in Louisiana is 23-year-old Gary Jackson of Little Rock. Gus Hooper also pointed out Jackson as the second man he believes he saw in the park with Ebby. Both men are currently in jail in Louisiana awaiting trial, and we have been not been able to contact them or anyone representing them. Little Rock Police have not named either man, or any suspects, in Ebby Steppach's disappearance. We don't know if the Little Rock Police Department has ever seen the potential bombshell evidence that Crime Watch Daily has brought to the table. So Crime Watch Daily went right over to the station and hand it to them personally. We couldn't get the lieutenant or a detective on camera, but we ran into Public Information Officer Steve Moore out front. "I'm trying to find him and I'm going to call the assigned detective and give him this also," Moore said. Police say they are actively pursuing the information we provided them. "I think there's a lot more to the story," said KARK-TV's Mitch McCoy. McCoy from has been on the story since Ebby first went missing. "I think that there are a lot of unknowns with this case that sooner or later will come out. The question is when," said McCoy. McCoy interviewed retired detective Tommy Hudson, who recently worked on the case. Today Hudson says the investigation is back on track. He won't discuss sex-trafficking, but he does lean toward foul play. "My opinion is is somebody has her and somebody's done something to her," McCoy tells Crime Watch Daily. And Ebby's family says that they are now satisfied that police are doing everything possible to find their daughter. "I have full confidence in who has her case now," said Ebby's mother Laurie Jernigan. "I can actually sleep at night knowing that there are those looking for her. Thank God we have someone now, we have people now that understand that and check on that as soon as they can." Ebby Steppach stands 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighs about 110 pounds. She also may have dyed her blond hair black after her disappearance.

Donald Trump’s first week The Republican billionaire made a victory speech in New York yesterday, just after Hillary Clinton conceded defeat to him by phone. Mr Trump promised to put America first, saying: “I will be President for all Americans and this is so important for me.” He later tweeted: “The forgotten man and woman will never be forgotten again. We will all come together as never before.” The real estate developer is due to meet outgoing President Barack Obama at the White House today to discuss the transfer of power. Despite their differences, Mr Obama said: "We are now all rooting for his success in leading and uniting the country." Mr Trump, who has never governed before, is also starting putting together a top team to run his administration. Hillary Clinton gave an emotional speech yesterday, saying: "This is painful and will be for a long time." Donald Trump’s first months Over the next two months, Mr Trump will get ready to take power before he enters the White House on January 20. His victory will be confirmed though an Electoral College vote and he will official announced as the next President on January 6. Mr Trump will also work to repair relations with the Republican Party, which has retaken control of the Senate and House of Representatives. House speaker Paul Ryan said: “We are eager to work hand-in-hand with the new administration to advance an agenda to improve the lives of the American people." One of his first battles with Congress is likely to be over his controversial plans to build a vast wall along the border with Mexico. Donald Trump’s first 100 days Once in the White House, Mr Trump will immediately set about undoing as much of Mr Obama’s legacy as possible. He has proposed bringing Congress back for a special session to repeal Obamacare - the outgoing President’s landmark health reforms. In his first 24 hours as President, Mr Trump has pledged to suspend immigration from “terror-prone” regions of the world. He also says he will begin removing more than two million illegal immigrants from America and introduce “extreme vetting”. Wed, November 9, 2016 Other immediate actions include tax cuts, appoint a new Justice to the Supreme Court and axing funding for UN climate change projects. He will also announce the US’s withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and start reviewing all of America’s trade deals. The new President has vowed to rip up trade deals that do not serve America's interests. He has attacked the US free trade deal with Mexico and Canada. Mr Trump will also start to develop relationships with world leaders and looks set to have good relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Don't freak out the next time you see President Barack Obama sans wedding ring—he and Michelle are still #goals. In fact, the reason why Obama often goes ringless has us loving the First Couple—who recently celebrated their 24th wedding anniversary on October 3—all the more. Prepare to melt... It appears that President Obama keeps his left-hand naked because he wants to keep his most precious valuable safe, and doesn't want to risk anything happening to his wedding band. A video recently surfaced on the Washington Post of President Obama discreetly slipping off his wedding ring and placing it in his pocket as he approached a small crowd to shake hands—seemingly indicating that he wants to keep it close and out of any potential harm's way. (Like snatchers or who-knows-what-else. People be crazy.) Even with all of the Secret Service agents surrounding him, Obama still takes the utmost precautions with his beloved wedding ring. How's that for a sweet husband? However, if Obama were to lose his wedding ring—say it slips out of his pocket—he could always call the Ring Finders.

At Price Hill Chili Restaurant in Hamilton County, Ohio, Tuesday morning, they served up hot coffee, scrambled eggs and a side of politics. CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller asked voters there whether the FBI’s decision to re-open Hillary Clinton’s email investigation is changing any minds. “I am standing by Hillary,” one said. “I am really rooting for Trump this year,” said another. Watch the video above for more reaction from swing state voters.

Ia bertujuan meningkatkan tentangannya terhadap pengiktirafan Baitulmaqdis sebagai ibu negara Israel oleh Donald Trump. ISTANBUL: Presiden Turki, Recep Tayyip Erdogan menyatakan kesediaan Turki membuka kedutaannya di Baitumaqdis Timur dalam usaha meningkatkan tentangan terhadap pengiktirafan kota itu sebagai ibu negara Israel oleh Presiden Donald Trump. Erdogan sebelum ini mengetuai kecaman umat Islam terhadap langkah AS itu dengan mengadakan sidang kemuncak bersama pemimpin Pertubuhan Kerjasama Islam (OIC) minggu lalu di Istanbul, yang menggesa dunia mengiktiraf Baitulmaqdis sebagai ibu negara Palestin. Baitulmaqdis Timur dikuasai Israel selepas dirampas dalam perang 1967, tindakan yang tidak pernah diiktiraf oleh masyarakat antarabangsa. “Kerana ia diduduki, kita tidak boleh ke sana dan membuka kedutaan,” kata Erdogan dalam ucapan kepada partinya di kota Karaman. “Tetapi, Insya Allah hari tersebut hampir tiba dan … kita akan secara rasminya membuka kedutaan kita di sana,” katanya tanpa memberikan tarikh yang tepat. Turki kini mempunyai konsulat umum di Baitulmadis. Ankara turut mempunyai hubungan diplomatik penuh dengan Israel, dan seperti negara lain, kedutaannya berada di Tel Aviv. Erdogan yang membantah keputusan Trump termasuk memindahkan kedutaan Amerika Syarikat (AS) ke Baitulmaqdis berkata ia sejajar “logik dan pemahaman zionis dan evangelis.” Beliau berkata orang Yahudi tidak mempunyai hak untuk “merampas” Baitulmaqdis yang merupakan “ibu negara umat Islam”. “Sila berhenti di mana anda berada dan jangan cuba melakukan operasi zionis,” katanya. “Jika anda cuba, anda harus membayarnya dengan harga yang mahal.” Erdogan memuji hasil sidang OIC pada 13 Disember lalu yang katanya menunjukkan “dunia memilih untuk bersatu”. Bagaimanapun sekutu AS iaitu Arab Saudi dan Emiriyah Arab Bersatu hanya menghantar pegawai rendah, bukan pegawainya menghadiri sidang tersebut. Erdogan memberi amaran kepada umat Islam dalam ucapannya agar menentang “perang saudara” di mana pertempuran antara satu sama lain “hanya membantu negara pengganas seperti Israel”. Israel bertindak balas dengan kenyataan Erdogan beberapa hari kemudian. Perdana Menteri Israel Benjamin Netanyahu berkata beliau “tidak terkesan” dengan kenyataan tersebut. Ketika dihubungi AFP, jurucakap kementerian luar Israel enggan memberi komen mengenai kenyataan terkini Erdogan. Bantahan berlaku hampir setiap hari di Turki terhadap langkah Trump. Di kebanyakan bandar di tenggara Diyarbakir, Kurdish, beribu-ribu orang mengibar bendera Palestin dan melaungkan slogan seperti “pembunuhan beramai-ramai tidak akan berhenti jika semua umat Islam tidak bersatu.” Dalam ucapan berasingan, Perdana Menteri Binali Yildirim berkata “mulai sekarang kita mengisytiharkan Timur Baitulmuqaddis yang diduduki sebagai ibu negara Palestin”, sambil menambah Turki ingin melihat penyelesaian untuk Baitulmaqdis yang akan memuaskan hati kedua-dua belah pihak dalam konflik itu. Jurucakap Erdogan, Ibrahim Kalin – penasihat dasar luar negeri utama presiden – menulis dalam akhbar bahawa langkah Trump mewakili “campuran bertoksin populisme dan unilateralisme”. Menerusi Daily Sabah pula, beliau menulis salah satu akibat positif ialah isu rakyat Palestin sekali lagi menjadi pusat perdebatan global. “Momentum baharu ini harus digunakan untuk mencari keamanan yang adil dan berkekalan,” kata Kalin. Tahun lepas, Turki dan Israel mengakhiri perselisihan yang dicetuskan Israel pada 2010 yang menyebabkan 10 aktivis Turki mati selain ketegangan diplomatik. Kedua-dua pihak sejak itu meningkatkan kerjasama, terutamanya melalui pelan saluran paip gas yang diketuai menantu Erdogan dan Menteri Tenaga, Berat Albayrak. Tetapi Erdogan yang menganggap dirinya sebagai “Wira Palestin” membuat serangan lisan terhadap dasar Israel. OIC akan mengadakan mesyuarat tergempar di Turki pada 13 Disember ini bagi menyelaraskan respons terhadap keputusan Washington. Trump mungkin sedang mewujudkan satu platform untuk meminta konsesi daripada Israel nanti.

South Park is one of television's longest-running shows, a 20-seasons-and-counting award-winning cultural behemoth that has spawned movies, imitations, and countless time-wasting memes. But could the show be, at least in part, responsible for one of the scariest political movements of the present moment? Lindsey Weedston thinks so. Weedston, a 29-year-old writer from Bothell, Washington, penned an article for The Establishment recently which argued that the show helped lead to the rise of the alt-right. The piece, " How 'South Park' Helped Empower the Alt-Right," grabbed my attention enough that I decided to call her up and see why exactly she thought Kyle, Cartman, and crew led us to Richard Spencer, 4Chan, and Charlottesville. Our conversation, edited lightly for length and clarity, is below. To start off, how does South Park treat what some people might think of as "PC culture"? I read a post that explained this really well—South Park’s highest moral goal is to not care. It treats PC culture as [if] the opposite of PC culture is not to care about anything. So caring about an issue is basically stupid, and pretty much every episode goes back to: it doesn’t matter, being PC is uncool, and not giving a fuck about anything is the way you should feel. In your article you trace a history of that attitude, starting with the misinterpretation of a character in an Oliver Stone movie. Can you take me through that? That was interesting. So [the 1987 movie] Wall Street, I didn’t know before I researched for the article that Oliver Stone actually meant it the opposite of how so many people took it. Wall Street was supposed to be an indictment of Wall Street and the type of person that thinks greed is good. It was very interesting to find that so many people actually went with the mantra "greed is good," and it seems like that has shaped a lot of our culture. Now we have prosperity Christianity—actually telling people that God wants them to collect as much wealth as possible. It’s not just Wall Street. For a long time, our capitalist society has led up to this idea that the ultimate goal is to collect as much wealth as possible. That movie accelerated the idea of collecting all the wealth and power you can. And then you talk about shock jock’s of the ’80s and ’90s, the Howard Sterns of the world. What does that have to do with the South Park-popularized attitude of caring being uncool? The original title of this article I pitched was actually "The History of Celebrated Assholes." My first draft of the piece, I ended up researching early forms of shock and asshole comedy. I found out the person considered the first shock jock was actually a black man, Petey Greene. Howard Stern was influenced by him. It’s really interesting to learn the kind of things he talked about. He was appealing because he was very down to Earth, and he spoke to the black community in a very straightforward way that no white disk jockey had ever before. When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, he went on air and started speaking to the community, and is credited with calming the situation down. You can go on YouTube and find some of the shows and listen to the way he speaks. It’s very colloquial. He just acts like a normal person. I think white people at the time looked at that as being shocking, and that’s why he was labeled as a shock jock. He was really active in the community. He promoted education and feeding the hungry. He wasn’t an asshole, but history is very interesting. In my original draft, I wrote about how he influenced Howard Stern. Howard Stern was actually invited onto his show. Stern went on in black face and used the n word, and Greene thought it was funny. Greene died fairly young, so then you move onto Howard Stern’s career. Howard Stern, I’m sure, has done some good stuff in his life. But he is very much associated with the shock jock label, and a lot of what he does is just to rile people up. I think it’s interesting how you have that transition from somebody who was just being real and communicating to his people in a way that made sense to him; and then you have Howard Stern, who makes a lot of money—and in fact an entire career—from pissing people off. How do you get to the alt-right from that? How does South Park's overall attitude connect to the alt-right? I believe that South Park's anti-PC messages paved the way for white supremacist groups to recruit much of the largely white male fanbase into what is now referred to as the alt-right, or other groups that are identical in all but name. Matt and Trey promoted this idea that you should be able to say or animate anything you want in the name of satire and humor, and any harm that it caused either didn't exist or didn't matter. When they experienced backlash for their intensifying mockery of already-vulnerable groups and their attitude of, "Repeating horrible things said by bigots up to and including Nazis is funny because it upsets people," they reacted by depicting their critics as free-speech-oppressing caricatures like the " PC bro." They promoted the idea that marginalized people—trans people, people of color, Jewish people, etc.—speaking out against harm caused by South Park's brand of "humor" and [the show's] "I do what I want" attitude are the real oppressors. White supremacist groups and their better-at-PR counterpart the "alt-right" use this message constantly to recruit young white men and boys. They tell these kids that they're the ones being oppressed by those telling them that they have privilege, and therefore need to make some effort to at least not use certain words and maybe examine prejudiced attitudes they might have picked up from a culture that is prejudiced in many ways. The alt-right promotes the idea of white male victimization, drawing in youth that has been told by South Park that the plight of marginalized groups doesn't matter and that "political correctness" is oppressing them. Once those groups have their loyalty, they can then indoctrinate these young guys into straight up white supremacist ideas under the guise that "the PC police don't want you to think about this." I don't think Matt and Trey meant to create an army for the alt-right, but they seem to be leaning into it rather than admitting that they might have messed up. Cartman plays a big part in your article. He’s often not the hero in the storylines of the individual episodes, but he is a fan favorite. Can you break down why that’s a problem? Cartman is a perfect representation of satire gone wrong. Just like with Wall Street, the people who view your content take the literal meaning of something instead of taking it as the indictment that it is. It’s pretty clear, especially in the earlier episodes, that you’re not supposed to like Cartman. You aren’t supposed to identify with him. You’re supposed to hate him, or at least understand he is the opposite of the ideal of a human being. That is supposed to be represented in his bigotry, his ignorance, and his appearance as well, with him being fat. And yet he is a fan favorite, and people do identify with him. I think it was Matt Stone who said he identifies with Cartman more than any of the other characters. I think their original intention was to say, okay, don’t be like Cartman. But instead, you have the opposite reaction of people idealizing his attitude and his selfishness and his desire to make people suffer and his bigotry. He has become a representation of how the fans feel that you should be. Can you talk about " South Park Republicans"—South Park being adopted by right wingers? That plays into what I think is the logical conclusion of the anti-PC movement. Like I said in the article, there has been a rebellion against this idea of being PC. Political correctness has evolved into a derogatory term meaning, you are being sensitive to someone. It has become this big boogeyman. There is an idea that there is this social justice warrior, PC police entity who will come and yell at you and punish you if you say what you are actually thinking. So there has been a rebellion against this strawman. It has come down to, if you care about anyone at all, if you want to be sensitive to anyone’s needs, then you’re this politically correct nerd or you’re a nun with a ruler or an authority figure telling people what to do. You are therefore uncool and the enemy. It’s very reactionary. But it’s so popular and so widespread on the right now, and you actually have people coming out with articles and people in the White House using that rhetoric to help further their political careers. So it’s really not surprising to me that there articles out there saying South Park is right on actual political issues. What has followed South Park’s wake? The first example that comes to mind is a lot of the cultural treatment of trans people. South Park has had some really transphobic content. Even before the Caitlyn Jenner episode, there was the whole treatment of Mr. Garrison and his sex change. I remember the episode where they included footage of an actual gender affirmation surgery, just saying, "look how gross this is." They had a caption like, "This is footage of the actual surgery," as though it’s supposed to be horrible and sad because it’s gross. But any surgery looks gross and disgusting. Their definite goal was to be like, this is gross and this is wrong. You see a huge amount of transphobia from a lot of alt-right groups. You have these bathroom bills that are trying to keep trans people out of public restrooms, which is basically keeping them out of public life. It’s trying to keep them from having access to any kind of normal life. The sudden emergence of the bathroom bills surprised me, but maybe it shouldn’t have. It seemed to come out of nowhere, but then you look at the timing and it does kind of follow Caitlyn Jenner’s coming out to the public as a woman. That in itself probably would have gotten some backlash, but then you look at how popular South Park is, and there’s no way it didn’t play a role in people reacting the way they did: reacting like, oh that’s just so gross—their existence is gross and wrong. You end your essay with a call for what you call radical kindness. What does that mean? Radical kindness comes from being around young people, specifically in communities that are more social justice-oriented. In my community, I’m seeing a shift towards memes being positive and used to uplift people. I think people are just tired of beating on each other and attacking each other, and the younger generations especially are starting to rebel against that. I feel like a lot of what my generation, millennials, has put out there has been negative. We’re kind of a depressed generation, so I think younger people are reacting to that and deciding, let’s be nice to each other. In a society where being mean to each other is the norm, kindness is punk. That’s rebelling. That’s what’s cool.

Luis Ruiz is a fifth-degree black belt in karate and a martial arts instructor. His stepson, Antonio Pina, happens to be a third-degree black belt. Perhaps it was that the two men knew they could handle themselves that they fearlessly engaged with an attacker. One night, they were walking to their home in Brooklyn, NY. Ruiz heard a piercing scream. When they looked around, they noticed a woman being brutally beaten by a man. “We notice that he’s grabbing her and slamming her on the ground,” Ruiz told CBS. The father told his son to call for help. Ruiz quickly approached the criminal. “So I say ‘hey, is everything OK, are you guys OK?’ The guy gets up like nothing, turns to his right and walks away like he wasn’t doing anything wrong,” he said. Ruiz then comforted the woman, whose face, he says, was swollen beyond recognition and bloodied. The father and son were able to identify the attacker as Todd Deas. Police say he had 19 prior arrests, including rape and sexual abuse, and had recently been released on parole. Had they not been there, who knows what would have happened. “Hero is a big word. I’d rather think we just did the right thing, and that everyone in the neighborhood and in the world would do the right thing,” Ruiz said. Please SHARE if you think what Ruiz and his son did was very brave! Due to restrictions, this video cannot be viewed in your region.

US President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump meet in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC. President-elect Donald Trump and future First Lady Melania Trump are meeting with President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House and are expected to discuss efforts toward a smooth transition of power. President elect Donald Trump , with his wife Melania Trump, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, gives the thumbs up after a meeting in the Majority Leaders office in the US Capitol in Washington, DC. Earlier in the day President elect Trump met with US President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.

You can see where this is headed, the once bright and shiny democracy going down the drain before the holidays are out. The Russians, the special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and his agents, desperate men flipped and singing to save their souls — all may soon be gone, by President Trump’s design. If there’s any outrage left in the tank, use it now, because Trump has signaled exactly what he’s going to do. First, he had to set some brush fires, impugning the legitimacy of the rule of law — an old dictator’s trick. Trump is no Hitler, but when the German Reichstag burned in 1933, it was all the Nazis needed to gut civil liberties. So, before Trump can fire the prosecutor who is hot on the corruption trail of those in the president’s inner circle, he needs a pretext. He could just work his way down the line at the Justice Department, until he found a quisling willing to remove the special counsel. But before he gets to that, he has to delegitimize the whole investigation. Thus, he’s now attacking the F.B.I., saying the agency is in “Tatters” and its standing “the worst in History.” Bashing cops — wasn’t that what those Black Lives Matter people did to disrespect Blue Lives? Thank God we have Sarah Huckabee Sanders as a moral clarion in a crisis. “When you’re attacking F.B.I. agents because you’re under criminal investigation, you’re losing,” she tweeted. Sorry — that was Sarah Huckabee Sanders of a year ago, before she was paid to defend the liar in chief. Trump’s lawyer, John Dowd, has been busy clearing out more brush, making the preposterous claim that the president cannot obstruct justice because he’s the nation’s chief law enforcement officer. If Trump shot somebody on Fifth Avenue — his own suggested redline — he could, as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, tell the cops to quash the investigation. See, when the president does it, it’s not a crime. This defense was floated during the two impeachment episodes of the 20th century. The third time will not be a charm. But Trump’s team already has gone from there is no collusion or obstruction to, so what? If it happened, it’s no biggie. They don’t appear to be the least bit troubled by a stunning report from a whistle-blower. As Trump was pledging to put America first during his Inaugural Address, his national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was texting a former business associate serving foreign clients. With Trump in, the sanctions against Russia would be “ripped up,” clearing the way for big money to be made on the inside, according to the report made public Wednesday. Ignoring that story, Trump’s media wing is doing its job. Sean Hannity, at state-run television, went on a vein-popping rant Tuesday against law enforcement, complete with conspiracy charts. He called the federal authorities “a team of so-called investigators.” As for their boss, he said that “Mueller is frankly a disgrace to the American justice system and has put the country on the brink of becoming a banana republic.” He’s certainly learned the art of projection from his master. The Wall Street Journal, channeling its owner and Trump whisperer Rupert Murdoch, has been making much of the same case, albeit without the spittle. Don’t forget, this is the same Robert Mueller who won wide bipartisan praise when he was appointed special counsel: a career prosecutor, the longest-serving director of the F.B.I. since J. Edgar Hoover, awarded the Bronze Star for his service as a Marine in Vietnam. Republicans love him. Or they did until he started closing in on Trump’s closest associates. Mueller should be fired, the Russian enablers now claim, because one of his agents said some bad things about Trump. This agent, Peter Strzok, was reassigned over the summer, as soon as his comments came to light. Wow, a G-man has opinions. The cops I know, a couple of longstanding friends, have more opinions than I. The facts are what matter. And the facts are pointing in a very bad direction for the gang that can’t collude straight. Trump has got to be sweating it; he was said to be “seething” when two of his campaign aides were indicted and a third pleaded guilty in October. He looked punch-drunk at recent public events. Now that he’s a felon from a guilty plea last week, Flynn is cooperating with Mueller. He knows plenty. Trump could pardon him and try to bring him back into the fold. The outrage would be minimal among the Banana Republicans. Sure, they got their tax-relief-for-the-rich bill passed, so they may no longer need Trump after he signs it. But now they’re dreaming of more — cutting Medicare and health care for children, so they have a reason to keep him around. If Trump fires Mueller, he can start the new year clean. His base will stick with him. Though voters believe, by a nearly 2-1 margin, that Russians interfered with the United States election, Republicans do not. Party before country — in the face of a dangerous turn toward authoritarianism, that’s all that matters.

Following the latest FBI developments in Hillary Clinton’s email probe, Donald Trump ripped the Justice Department and top Clinton aide Huma Abedin on Saturday, firing off a tirade during his triumphant swing through western states. “It’s reported today, this morning that the Department of Justice was fighting the FBI,” Trump said in Golden, Colorado. “And that’s because the Department of Justice is trying so hard to protect Hillary.” Trump was referencing reports that Attorney General Loretta Lynch recommended that FBI Director James Comey not publicly disclose the new emails -- what the Justice Department viewed as a violation of its long-standing practice not to comment on ongoing investigations. “There are those, and I happen to be one of them, who think Hillary offered Loretta Lynch a reappointment as attorney general. I happen to be one of them,” Trump said. Offering no proof, the Republican nominee posited that Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, had bribed Lynch with the position when the two had an impromptu meeting earlier this summer on a plane in Arizona. The two met just days before the FBI completed its probe into the private email server. “Perhaps, just perhaps, of course he said he only talked about golf and the grandchildren, but he was on the plane for 39 minutes, he went to Arizona, an unbelievable place, but there are those who think when he went onto the plane that’s what he discussed just prior to a decision being made,” Trump said. The New York real estate mogul then trained his biting attacks on Abedin and her husband, former Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner. The emails tied to the Clinton probe were found on the separated couple’s electronic devices from a separate FBI investigation into Weiner’s sexting scandal. “Did I call him correctly, did anybody see?” Trump asked, pointing to his prior criticisms of Weiner. “It’s called good judgement, it’s called good instincts. If you check out the tweets, or if you check out whatever it is I wrote about him, it is so perfect, I said. And that was done a long time ago, but they found, by looking at Anthony Weiner, a major, major, major sleaze, they found what may be some of the 33,000 missing and deleted emails.” Trump has, in the past, wondered whether Abedin was a national security concern because of her relationship to Weiner. “[Abedin’s] receiving very, very important information and giving it to Hillary. Who else is she giving it to?” Trump said back in August. “Her husband has serious problems and on top of that, he now works for a public relations firm...So how can she be married to this guy who’s got these major problems? She’s getting her most important information, it could be, in the world. Who knows what he’s going to do with it? Forget about her.” Trump’s speculation on what the newly surfaced emails contained, however, remains unfounded. The FBI has yet to release any further details about the information found in the emails. Clinton’s campaign, in the meantime, has defended Abedin, with campaign chair John Podesta telling reporters on a conference call that the staff stands behind her. “There’s no evidence of wrongdoing, no charge of wrongdoing, no indication that this was even about Hillary,” Podesta said Saturday. He added that Comey’s letter to top Republicans in the House and Senate was “long on innuendo and short on facts.” Podesta added that Comey knew “full well what Republicans in Congress would do with it” and blasted House Oversight Committee Chair Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, in particular for taking “the opportunity to distort the facts.” CBS News’ Hannah Fraser-Chanpong contributed to this report.

Donald Trump has, finally, all but united the Republican Party – in denunciation of his continued, race-based attacks on U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over the civil lawsuits against the candidate’s Trump University. “I disavow these comments. I regret those comments that [Trump] made,” said House Speaker Paul Ryan during a press conference Tuesday. “Claiming a person can’t do their job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment … it’s absolutely unacceptable.” And Sen. Mark Kirk, a Republican from Illinois facing a tough reelection battle this year, flat out withdrew his support for his party’s nominee, saying “Donald Trump’s belief that an American-born judge of Mexican descent is incapable of fairly presiding over his case is not only dead wrong, it is un-American.” Last week, Trump charged that his plan to build a wall between the U.S.-Mexican border was “an absolute conflict” of interest, charging to the Wall Street Journal that Curiel could not preside fairly over the Trump University case because he is “of Mexican heritage.” (Curiel was born in Indiana to Mexican immigrants.) Speaking again to CNN’s Jake Tapper last Friday, Trump maintained his position: “He’s a Mexican. We’re building a wall between here and Mexico.” When Tapper asked if, by saying that Curiel could not due his job because of his race, “is that not the definition of racism?” Trump responded, “No, I don’t think so at all.” Amid the fierce backlash from his own party, Trump put together a damage-control statement late Tuesday promising not to say anything more about Curiel or the lawsuit – after this: “It is unfortunate that my comments have been misconstrued as a categorical attack against people of Mexican heritage. I am friends with and employ thousands of people of Mexican and Hispanic descent. … While this lawsuit should have been dismissed, it is now scheduled for trial in November. I do not intend to comment on this matter any further.” Just one day earlier, Trump encouraged supporters on a private conference call on Monday to join his chorus by publicly questioning the judge’s credibility, two participants on the call told Bloomberg Politics. Several Republican politicians, including former Massachusetts senator Scott Brown, were involved in the call, during which Trump overturned a Sunday email from his staff that ordered his most prominent supporters – those surrogates who speak for him on cable news talk shows and at campaign appearances – to cease all talk of the lawsuit and Curiel. “Take that order and throw it the hell out,” Trump said on the call, according to Bloomberg Politics. Numerous other prominent Republicans have joined Ryan in disavowing Trump’s sentiments, including South Carolina’s junior senator Tim Scott – the Senate’s only black Republican – who told CNN the commentary is “racially toxic.” Added Arnold Schwarzenegger on Twitter, “Judge Curiel is an American hero who stood up to the Mexican cartels. I was proud to appoint him when I was Gov.” Freshly-minted presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton also issued a warning on Monday that Trump may next focus his attacks on “women judges … or maybe a judge with a disability, or perhaps one who was a former POW, or African-American.” “He’s trying to demean and defame a federal judge who was a very accomplished federal prosecutor,” she continued on MSNBC. “This is dangerous nonsense that undermines the rule of law, that makes him appear to be someone who has no respect for fellow Americans,” Clinton said. “And I think it is yet more evidence why this man is dangerous and divisive and disqualified from being president.”

Internet censorship is hurting conservative websites like DC Clothesline. If you enjoy our articles please consider making a small donation today. Thank YOU! ******************************************************************************** A self-proclaimed Alt-Left “leader” has vowed to use a baseball bat embedded with nails to “crush skulls” during a “Patriot Prayer” peace rally set to take place in San Francisco this weekend. The Twitter user, who goes by the handle @ibPrinceJordan, tweeted, “The Patriot Prayer rally is a nazi white supremacist event. I’ll be their to crush some nazi skulls.” He repeated the threat in a series of other tweets that have now been deleted. “Can’t wait! Going to bring this nailed bat for some nazi pounding,” read one. The user is located in San Francisco, which is where the event will take place at Crissy Field on Saturday, suggesting he does indeed plan to attend the march. His Twitter bio reads, “Alt-Left resistance leader. iraq war survivor. cute communist & catholic.” Despite numerous other prominent Twitter users drawing attention to the violent threat, the account has not been suspended. What makes the threat even more absurd is that organizers of the Patriot Prayer rally have specifically said its aim is to “promote peace, love and unity,” and that racists are not welcome. The leader of the “Patriot Prayer” rally, Joey Gibson, has vehemently denounced neo-nazis, yelling “F*** white supremacists!” at a recent rally. Even the SPLC, which routinely tars conservatives with a broad brush, does not consider Patriot Prayer to be a hate group, reports Fox News. To the alt-left, that doesn’t matter. Anyone to the right of Michael Moore is fair game for violent assault. Remember, in the aftermath of Charlottesville, the mainstream media relentlessly attacked Trump for saying both sides were responsible for violence, tacitly endorsing the violent alt-left. CNN even changed a headline at the request of Antifa to disguise the fact that the group routinely engages in violence. Given that the mainstream media has emboldened unhinged thugs by exalting them as “anti-fascists,” any violence that occurs at the “Patriot Prayer” rally will be their responsibility. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paul.j.watson.71 ********************* Paul Joseph Watson is the editor at large of Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com.

Sen. Richard Durbin discusses President Trump's immigration comments following the City of Chicago's 32nd Annual Interfaith Breakfast commemorating the life of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Jan. 12, 2018. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune) What did you say when President Donald Trump referred to Haiti, El Salvador and some African nations as “shithole countries”? What did you say when the president of the United States followed that comment by suggesting he’d rather see more immigrants from countries like Norway? No compatible source was found for this media. Whether now or in the future, you will be asked this question: What did you say? Did you call out the obvious racism behind those statements? Did you acknowledge that the leader of the free world — by title, anyway — had shown himself to be a white supremacist, casually expressing his dislike of brown-skinned immigrants and preference for white European immigrants? Were you outraged that such comments from a sitting president were antithetical to the ideals that have always made America a beacon of hope and opportunity? What did you say? Did you speak out? Did you denounce the comments, as Rep. Mia Love, a Utah Republican whose parents came to America from Haiti, did, saying in a statement: “This behavior is unacceptable from the leader of our nation. … The President must apologize to both the American people and the nations he so wantonly maligned.” Or did you keep quiet? Take note, because you will be asked. Trump’s has been a presidency filled with jaw-dropping moments of offensive behavior, but this one will stand out over time, both for its profane nature and its naked racism. So what did you say? Did you look for excuses? Did you toss out a “Well, what about …” scenario you thought might take the heat off? Did you scream something about “identity politics” and try to pretend that this is the fault of others, not the fault of the transparently racist old man in the White House? Did you say he has a point? Did you say, “Well, those countries are shitholes, aren’t they?” Did you forget how people once described immigrants from Italy and Ireland? Did you forget the words on a plaque at the Statue of Liberty? “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” Did you forget those words, or just ignore them? Did you smile about a tax break and say nothing? Did you not put the pieces together and consider all the other times Trump has shown us exactly who he is? Did you tamp down memories of his calls for the execution of the Central Park Five, even after the young men, four black and one Latino, were found innocent? Did you explain away what Trump was implying in this tweet from 2013: “According to Bill O'Reilly, 80% of all the shootings in New York City are blacks-if you add Hispanics, that figure goes to 98%. 1% white.” Did you disregard his years-long birther crusade against the nation’s first black president? His description of Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals? His regular criticism that immigrants coming from predominately nonwhite nations are examples of those countries’ “worst people”? Did you not let yourself see the pattern? Did you twist logic into knots and blame it on the media? On political correctness? What did you say when our president called other countries “shitholes” and you had to shield your children’s ears from profanity on the nightly news? What did you tell your children about this moment? How did you explain the president’s words? Tell me, what did you say? Mark it down, let it be known. Because you will be asked this again someday. And if you stayed silent, if you made excuses, if you tried to fool yourself into believing this is appropriate presidential behavior, if you let it slide because this presidency might somehow line your pocketbook, then you will be remembered as complicit, as one who stood by and let America’s decency get dragged through the mud. And if you laughed, or if you smiled, or if you nodded your head in agreement, you will be remembered just as Trump will: as a racist, a fool and an absolute embarrassment. rhuppke@chicagotribune.com RELATED President Trump owes the country an apology » What happened when I followed Trump's example and started lying all the time » Trump attacks protections for immigrants from 'shithole' countries in Oval Office meeting »

"Day One" is a multi-part series in which CBS News' Margaret Brennan speaks with former U.S. government officials on the major foreign policy issues the next president will inherit on the first day of their presidency. The next president will face countless challenges on day one. Among the biggest is the ongoing civil war in Syria. Margaret Brennan spoke with Leon Panetta -- a former CIA director, defense secretary, and White House chief of staff -- about the road ahead for U.S. involvement in the war-torn nation. LEON PANETTA: Inaction is not an option in Syria because if you stand back, the situation is gonna get worse. Look, the best-case scenario would be to have Assad step down, to have a transitional government be able to establish itself representing each of the factions that are there -- the Sunnis, the Kurds, the Shias. And then, frankly, have the Russians and whatever is left of the Syrian forces join with the United States in going after ISIS to truly defeat them. That would be the best-case scenario. MARGARET BRENNAN: What are the odds of that? PANETTA: Not very good. Not very good. BRENNAN: What's the worst-case scenario? PANETTA: The worst-case scenario is that Assad continues to remain in power, continues to kill Syrians. That refugees continue to flow out of Syria, that the Russians continue to have a presence there and continue to attack our moderate forces that we're trying to train in Syria. And that ISIS then uses that and creates an even bigger base from which to conduct attacks against this country. That's the worst-case scenario. BRENNAN: Sounds like you're describing what's happening now. PANETTA: It is what's happening now. And it's what can continue to happen in the future if we don't deal with it. BRENNAN: There are around 300 special operators in Syria right now. Will the next president have to commit more American boots on the ground? PANETTA: I think the likelihood is that the next president is gonna have to consider adding additional special forces on the ground to try to assist those moderate forces that are taking on ISIS, and that are taking on Assad's forces. And we have to increase our air strikes. We've got to do all of those things in order to put increasing pressure on ISIS but also on Assad. We can't surrender one objective for the other. We've gotta continue to press on both fronts. BRENNAN: Is it possible to defeat ISIS without challenging Assad? PANETTA: I think it's very difficult as we've seen to conduct effective operations against ISIS when we're dealing with Assad's forces pressing us in different places. And when we're dealing with the Russians who go in and literally bomb the very forces that we're training to go after Assad and to go after ISIS. We cannot have that situation continue in the future. Protect our forces there. BRENNAN: So the U.S. has to confront Russia? PANETTA: We are hoping upon hope that the Russians will do the right thing. They're not gonna do the right thing without pressure. They're not gonna do the right thing without giving our diplomats greater leverage than what they have now to deal with the Russians. To do that we have got to make very clear that we have objectives to achieve, that we intend to press to achieve those objectives, and that we will not allow them to divert us from the goals of defending ourselves. Here's where the candidates stand:

The world Is watching and so is oil as the death toll rises in the streets of Iran, where the people revolt against a terrible economy and the lack of any real freedoms and rights. At least 19 people were reported killed in street protests in Iran, while President Hassan Rouhani on one hand defended their right to protest but on the other hand warned he would show “no tolerance” for those who incite unrest. Many arrests have been made and the government of Iran says it may seek the death penalty, for what they say are crimes against God, in demonstrations that have gone on for over 5 days in a row. President Trump tweeted that ”Iran is failing at every level despite the terrible deal made with them by the Obama Administration. The great Iranian people have been repressed for many years. They are hungry for food & for freedom. Along with human rights, the wealth of Iran is being looted. TIME FOR CHANGE!” The uprising in IRAN is just another risk factor in a global oil market that is tightening. Strong global demand and shale oil production that is falling far short of what the Energy Information keeps telling us it is. Reports from the Texas Railroad Commission is telling us that Texas shale oil production has been stagnant and not rising as the production decline rate year over year is taking its toll. Total oil stocks are down a whopping 135M barrels just since April even as U.S. oil production is supposedly at a record high. Bad data is becoming a bigger risk as underinvestment has led to the least amount of oil discoveries in 70 years and the global oil replenishment rate ratio fell to 11 percent this year, down from more than 50 percent in 2012 according to a new report. That is a dangerous situation, especially because of the over estimates of shale oil output. ETF reports that this has led to the lowest ever volumes of oil discoveries in 2017, Rystad Energy said last week. While the low-level of discoveries is not an immediate threat to global oil supply, it could become a threat ten years down the road, according to Rystad Energy. In ten years’ time, U.S. shale production may peak, at least according to OPEC that sees shale peaking after 2025, although the cartel has conceded that U.S. tight oil has defied previous forecasts and has increased production more than initially expected and will continue to do so in the short-term. This year has seen less than 7 billion barrels of oil equivalent discovered globally, a volume as low as last seen in the 1940s, Rystad Energy has estimated. What worries analysts the most is the fact that this year the reserve replacement ratio–the amount of discovered resources relative to the amount of production–was a mere 11 percent, compared to 50 percent in 2012, Sonia Mladá Passos, Senior Analyst at Rystad Energy, said. The other ongoing risk is Venezuela. An explosion over the weekend that hit Venezuela’s largest refinery was an accident waiting to happen. Deferred maintenance and bad management as the Venezuelan government stole money and failed to do even the most basic maintenance for the facility according to sources. Reuters reported that a former oil minister excoriated Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a newspaper column on Sunday, accusing the leftist leader of behaving like biblical King Herod and plunging the oil-rich nation into economic devastation. Rafael Ramirez, who was the all-powerful head of the oil ministry and state energy company PDVSA for a decade, has long been a rival of Maduro. In recent months, Ramirez has grown increasingly critical of Maduro’s handling of a fourth straight year of recession that has triggered malnutrition, widespread food and medicine shortages, the world’s steepest inflation, and a surge in emigration. A furious Maduro ordered Ramirez to resign as the nation’s United Nations ambassador in New York last month after an article entitled the “The Storm” was perceived as an attack on his government. We haven’t even got to the cold. Wicked winter weather is causing a surge in oil and natural gas and coal demand. Demand for coal burns hit three-year high causing to temporarily put it above natural gas as the top s U.S. power sources. There are reports that they were shortages of natural gas in Northern Alberta county under state of emergency due to natural gas disruption. The report said that large parts of northern Alberta was under a state of emergency over the weekend due to low natural gas pressure and system outages. The Energy Report has kept our bullish outlook and we still believe that the double bottom at $26 a barrel was a generational low. Despite all the bearish hype that the market had last year and bad info this year oil looks poised for a big move. Make sure you are hedged! I am hearing from many folks still that were underhedged last year and are now paying the price. Thanks, Phil Flynn Questions? Ask Phil Flynn today at 312-264-4364 A Subsidiary of Price Holdings, Inc. – an Employee Owned Diversified Financial Services Firm. Member NIBA, NFA Past results are not necessarily indicative of future results. Investing in futures can involve substantial risk of loss & is not suitable for everyone. Trading foreign exchange also involves a high degree of risk. The leverage created by trading on margin can work against you as well as for you, and losses can exceed your entire investment. Before opening an account and trading, you should seek advice from your advisors as appropriate to ensure that you understand the risks and can withstand the losses. The information and data in this report were obtained from sources considered reliable. Their accuracy or completeness is not guaranteed and the giving of the same is not to be deemed as an offer or solicitation on our part with respect to the sale or purchase of any securities or futures. The Price Futures Group, its officers, directors, employees, and brokers may in the normal course of business have positions, which may or may not agree with the opinions expressed in this report. Any decision to purchase or sell as a result of the opinions expressed in this report will be the full responsibility of the person authorizing such transaction. Reproduction and/or distribution of any portion of this report are strictly prohibited without the written permission of the author. Trading in futures contracts, options on futures contracts, and forward contracts is not suitable for all investors and involves substantial risks. ©2017 Tune into the Fox Business Network (FBN) is the best in business! Make it your New Year TV Home! The MoneyShow Orlando is coming in February. Get out of the cold! Go to the Money Show! Sign up for my class talking about a historic bottom in oil and what it means for your future. Time Is running out Go to Flynn.OrlandoMoneyShow.com.

Anonymous have denied claims that they hacked the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer, after a post appeared claiming that the hacktivist group was “now in control” of the site. A post titled ‘END OF HATE: ANONYMOUS NOW IN CONTROL OF DAILY STORMER’ appeared on the far-right site earlier this morning, suggesting that Anonymous were going to bring an end to The Daily Stormer following the events of the Charlottesville “Unite The Right” rally, which saw white nationalists converge to protest plans to remove a Confederate statue. The rally led to multiple conflicts between the nationalists and counter-protesters, ultimately leading to the death of civil rights activist Heather Heyer, who was one of many hit by a vehicle driven by white supremacist James Alex Fields. Many outlets reported that Anonymous had infiltrated The Daily Stormer website in response to the events of Charlottesville, with the post on the site reading: “WE HAVE TAKEN THIS SITE IN THE NAME OF HEATHER HEYER A VICTIM OF WHITE SUPREMACIST TERRORISM. FOR TOO LONG THE DAILY STORMER AND ANDREW ANGLIN HAVE SPEWED THEIR PUTRID HATE ON THIS SITE. THAT WILL NOT BE HAPPENING ANYMORE”. However, Anonymous have stated that they believe the post was made by The Daily Stormer in a “stunt” designed to “woo their clueless base.” The clarifications were made by @YourAnonNews, the largest Anonymous Twitter account, who believe that The Daily Stormer had made the post themselves in order to explain away technical issues the site was experiencing, after web hosting company GoDaddy had banned them from using the service. We have no confirmation that "Anonymous" is involved yet. Looks more like a DS stunt. Wonder if they are having issues finding a new host. https://t.co/ikXXRBfC5p — Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) August 14, 2017 This is likely to be the derps from dailystormer engaging in a silly troll to woo their clueless base. If we're proven wrong, so be it. https://t.co/dkiXGCDEwY — Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) August 14, 2017 And all the old content is left up by a "UNITED FORCE OF ELITE HACKERS" on a shit post site "UNDER THE CONTROL OF ANONYMOUS." Doubtful. https://t.co/FNYRCYWEDx — Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) August 14, 2017 If goal of Daily Stormer was to get us to celebrate a BS claim, it backfired. Seriously, suck less. — Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) August 14, 2017 The neo-Nazi site has been given 24 hours to find a new host, otherwise it will be taken offline by GoDaddy. The post suggesting Anonymous were now in control of the site also stated that The Daily Stormer would be taken offline within 24 hours, suggesting that its creators are looking for a conspiratorial explanation as to why the site has disappeared if GoDaddy removes it from the internet.

Channel 4 have been accused of “brownfacing” in a row over a documentary showing a white woman disguised as a Muslim complete with darkened skin. Katie Freeman, 44, was given a prosthetic nose, fake teeth and darkened skin as she filmed My Week As A Muslim. The show documents Ms Freeman's experiences in Manchester in the week after a terror attack at the city's arena that killed 22 people. Described as an attempt to challenge stereotypes, the show aimed to give the the 44-year-old a "chance to meaningfully walk in the shoes of someone from a different background." However, when a trailer for the show aired on Tuesday, viewers took to social media to slam the nature of Ms Freeman's disguise. One wrote: "What the f*** is this? Channel 4 has totally missed the mark here. Who on earth thought it would be a good idea to put prosthetics on somebody to make them a caricature of people of a different race (as if being white and Muslim are exclusive anyway)? On primetime TV in 2017? Madness." Another bemused commenter simply wrote: "Did they...brownface her?" On Twitter, viewer Alice Beggs said: "Just saw Channel 4 have a show called 'My Week As A Muslim' where this white woman has brownface and prosthetics so she can learn about racism etc. Because god forbid we just listen to Muslims when they tell us what abuse they get." Another criticised Channel 4 for not "actually following a Muslim poc (person of colour) and documenting their life, instead of doing this". Before Ms Freeman underwent the transformation, she admitted she would avoid sitting next to a Muslim on public transport because "you see them and think they're going to blow something up", the Daily Mail reported. She later said she was shocked by the level of abuse she suffered in the course of the programme. During one incident in which someone shouted "f****** Muslims, in this town?" as she walked past her local pub. Ms Freeman lived with Saima Alvi, a Muslim woman, during filming for the show. The 49-year-old told of the abuse she suffers regularly. She said: "It's very humiliating that I am pigeon-holed or put in the same box as a terrorist. "What I have learnt is that there are genuinely nice people who are unfortunately misled about Islam." Speaking to the Daily Mail, Fiyaz Mughal, founder of community cohesion group Faith Matters, said: "This is trying to drive ratings by racial stereotyping. Channel 4 needs to apologise. "If you are trying to bridge divides, what message does it send to Muslim communities that people think of you in a certain way? That certain crude facial characteristics are what defines you as Asian?" The show's executive producer, Fozia Khan, defended the programme, told the Daily Mail: "The programme allowed Katie to meaningfully walk in the shoes of someone from a different background and to experience what it is like to be a part of the British Pakistani Muslim community rather than just observe as an outsider." My Week As A Muslim is due to be broadcast by Channel 4 on Monday at 9pm.

Are you tired of Liberals and lawmakers trying to undermine our Constitutional right to keep and bear arms? Then do something about it! We must get ahead of this storm because it is bearing down on us in full force! They preach that we need more and more gun control every single time there is some sort of mass shooting, even though the mass shootings are nearly always a crazed Democrat. The gun used by Stephen Paddock in the Las Vegas massacre on Sunday was already an illegal gun! Further more going to show that gun control does not work. Criminals DO NOT OBEY THE LAW! They will still have guns, even if they are illegal. As Sean Davis explains at the Federalist automatic weapons (or machine guns) are already banned or almost unattainable under existing federal law. Secondly, the concert was a “gun free zone.” All guns were already banned there. Thirdly, Paddock would have had to have done a lot of work beforehand to prepare for this unspeakable act. There is nothing that Congress could do to stop someone as committed as Paddock was. Finally, Ben Shapiro of the Daily Wire explains that making policy on the heels of a terrible event is usually a bad idea. Gun control laws remove guns from law abiding citizens, so that they can no longer defend themselves, and emboldens criminals, who won’t follow the laws anyway. In other words, without guns, we are sitting ducks! Taking rights away from law-abiding citizens is not the solution! If you agree, and want to have your voice heard, sign the petition to Congress! We WILL stand for what we believe in! MOLON LABE! The views expressed in this opinion article are solely those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by EagleRising.com

Junkbunny Who Tried Buying Xanax Off Turtleboy Tried Suing EMT After She Came After Him On An Ambulance Ride And Has Declared War On Turtle Riders Want to advertise with Turtleboy? Email us at Turtleboysports@gmail.com for more information. For the first time ever today two junkboxes messaged the Turtleboy business page to ask if we had Xanax for sale.One of them was Jessica Kane, who according to her Facebook page lives in Pawtucket, but she insists she lives in Smithfield, RI. Odds are she knows her way around the Bucket though, and could probably tell you which corners yield the highest dividends. Just sayin. Anyway, she reached out to us looking for zannies: But Jessica Kane was just warming up. Because it wasn’t enough to message a blog that frequently shames junkboxes and ratchets, looking for drugs, she had to take on turtle riders too……. “I’ll beat ur ass corn.” That’s a new one. As you can see she is alleging that we are the ones who solicited her to see if she wanted to buy drugs off us. Ya got that? This is what Turtleboys do every day. We scour the Internet looking for junkboxes to sell our excess zannies to. Definitely. Anyway, turns out she doesn’t have a drug problem, her “job” just doesn’t offer health insurance. Naturally then her only recourse was to message Turtleboy and see what he was charging. She can’t afford health insurance, but cash money sure ain’t a problem: That right there is a lot of mushroom tip participation trophies!! As you can see, she’s sticking to her story that we messaged her first, which obviously makes TONS of sense. She kept posting a screenshot showing what appears to be us contacting her first, asking if she was looking for zannies. She just forgot that in the very blog she was commenting on anyone could clearly see that she was the one who initiated contact: Oops!! After that it was time to bust out the CAPS LOCK!! Thirteen years is a long time to be prescribed Xanax. And by “prescribed” she means, “treated Diego to a basket lunch in exchange for illegal narcotics.” Up next was the “I’ll fuck everyone up” portion of the Gospel of Ratchet: Yea guys, she’s totally not a junkie. She just so happens to message random community Facebook pages looking to score drugs. And occasionally she gets busted with crack cocaine: Besides that she’s totally NOT a junkie. But it’s all good in the hood because she got that shit dismissed!! Therefore she never got caught with crack cocaine. (P.S. turtle riders are savage) Next up in the ratchet script was the threat to call the cops: So if you’re keeping score at home, this woman approached us about buying drugs, admitted to the cops that she did so, and the cops responded by turning their focus on cyberbullying. Because NOTHING IS MORE SERIOUS THAN CYBERBULLYING, EVEN ADDICTION!! You can’t make this stuff up. Only on Turtleboy. This is why we are the greatest blog that’s ever existed. Good luck finding this sort of entertainment at Barstool. But her story checks out because her uncle is the chief of police: We just don’t know what town he’s the chief of police in. Wherever he is, I’m sure her imaginary uncle would be thrilled to find his junkie niece name dropping him on Turtleboy. But wait, it gets better. Last year she made headlines when she was getting her biweekly free ambulance ride to the ER when she claimed she was abused by one of the first responders. And in one of the greatest MSM fails of all time, NCB “Investigative” Team fell for her act hook, line, and sinker: That interview was amazing. She literally puts on a blazer and some non-prescription glasses and the schmucks on this “I-Team” just assume she’s a law-abiding non-ratchet member of society. A local woman turned to the NBC 10 I-Team for answers after she captured a confrontation inside a North Providence ambulance on cell phone video. The video shows an EMT lashing out at her, appearing to slap her in the face and swearing at her several times. “He then smacked me across my face,” Jessica Kane said of the July 30 incident. North Providence officers were responding to a domestic disturbance call when they came into contact with Kane, who is epileptic. A police report obtained by NBC 10 shows the officers saw her have a seizure and lose consciousness. They called the North Providence Fire Department for medical aid, and an ambulance arrived a short time later. “As soon as I was put into the rescue, I was called a drug addict, which I am not,” she said. “I was just belittled so much. It made me feel like the people here to treat me were there to just accuse me.” Oh yea, she’s TOTALLY not a drug addict. She’s just been arrested for crack cocaine and messages random Facebook pages with 99,000 followers to see if they can sell her Xanax. Oh, and her raspy “life kicked the shit out of me and I’m only 26” voice wasn’t a dead giveaway or anything like that. The video shows the EMT appear to slap Kane in the face, causing her to drop her phone. “That’s assault!” she screams on the tape. “I’ll give you assault!” the man responds. Watch the video if you haven’t already. She’s all fucked up and aggressive and is taping the guy who probably knows her middle name, date of birth, and blood type because he deals with her so often. She won’t shut the fuck up and approaches him while taping. She gets too close. He pushes her away from him. Assault. That’s how stupid the NBC 10 “I-Team” is. The unidentified EMT can also be heard telling Kane to “shut the (expletive) up.” She said the verbal abuse continued once she arrived at the hospital, moments not captured in the video. “He said, ‘If you don’t get the F up off this stretcher, I’m going to rip you by your hair,’” Kane told NBC 10. Funny that none of that is on the tape. Guess we’ll just have to take this crackbunny’s word for it. NBC 10 also reviewed the police report from officers who arrived that day. They noted that Kane was difficult to deal with, writing that, “Jessica was yelling and screaming in the middle of the road” and was “extremely belligerent.” The police report continues, saying that Kane “became hostile, trying to unbuckle herself and get off the stretcher.” Boom. Mystery solved. Kane was released after spending about five hours at Fatima Hospital, and her cell phone was returned. That’s when she said she found the video she recorded in the ambulance in her iPhone’s “Recently Deleted” folder. She believes someone tried to erase it while the phone was out of her control. “I actually received my phone back and I saw that they tried to delete the video,” she said. Oh yea, I’m sure that’s what happened. Why would she lie? She’s wearing a blazer and glasses!! Kane hired an attorney and said she plans to file an assault complaint with Rhode Island State Police. As of Wednesday, state police said they had not yet received the complaint or been contacted by Kane about the incident. Translation – she called up Dick N. Vulva, never paid him, got high, and never followed through with her massive lawsuit. Anyway, we were still confused how the hell Jessica Kane got the impression that we were zanny salesmen. Turns out there was a whole background story: You can’t make this shit up. In August we blogged about this Lawrence ghettopoon selling Xanax on Facebook: Evidently Jessica Kane read the headline of this blog, assumed that we were the ones selling zannies, waited until she got her check on the first of the month, and then hit us up for the hookup. Just another day at Turtleboy. Shit like this never gets old. I love my job way too much. One guy suggested that it was a slow week: Dude, not one, but two junkbunnies messaged us assuming we sell Xanax from our Facebook page. If you don’t think that’s getting blogged about then you don’t know Turtleboy. Exactly!! Someone gets it! From now on I think this is what you people should start doing: Brilliant. This could be a weekly segment. We urge you to support the following local businesses. They provide terrific services for the community!

The Aspiring Ashanti Regional Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) Alhaji Mohammed Sani has called on the founder of Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG) Kofi Akpaloo to publicly apologise to Northerners in Ghana for saying they can never be Presidents. Mr Akpaloo in a recent interview with Abusua Nkommo hosted by Kwame Adinkra said ‘no Ghanaian will vote for a Northerner to be a President of Ghana’ after the abysmal performance by the former President John Dramani Mahama in the 2016 elections. According to Akpaloo, Northerners who were given the nod to lead the country failed Ghanaians and that Ghanaians will not vote for Northerners in 2020 elections. But speaking on Abusua Nkommo with Kwame Adinkra, Alhaji Sani described as ‘misguided missile’ the tribal comment by Mr Akpaloo that Northerners cannot be in the helm of affairs of the country. He advised the founder of Liberal Party of Ghana to retract his statement warning to retaliate in equal measure if he fails to do so. ‘…This is a misguided missile by Akpaloo, his comment is an insult to Northerners, what research has he conducted to come out with such comment?. If he has personal issues with John Mahama, he shouldn’t rope in all Northerners in his hatred. What kind of language is that, he should stop insulting a group of people, is he important than other people?. ‘He should withdraw and apologise, I am highly offended by his comment, if he refuses, I will be forced to wage war words against him,’ he stated. Alhaji Sani entreated Ghanaians to stop tagging people on tribal lines and judge them according to their performances.

Donald Trump will address the nation from New York City this evening as the president elect of the United States. The Trump campaign has been holding its election night party all night at the New York Hilton Midtown, with the festivities beginning at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Trump’s supporters have become more and more energized as the hours have ticked on, and Trump will take the stage to address them soon. The speech can be viewed live in the embedded YouTube player via Right Side Broadcasting. It’s not currently known when Trump will take the stage, as we’re still awaiting for many more results to come in. But at about 1:00 a.m., Decision Desk HQ officially made their call that Donald Trump has been elected president, and it looks incredibly unlikely that the election will end any other way at this point. It’s difficult to overstate how monumental of an event this is in the history of American politics. Donald Trump went into this election night being seen as having no real shot at the White House, with many Democrats not even expecting the race to be remotely close. Trump has pulled off what will likely go down as the most shocking political upset in history, and the election result proved nearly every single poll and electoral projection wrong. In fact, it seemed for a while that even Donald Trump himself wasn’t sure that he was going to win the election. After all, when he was asked during the presidential debate whether he would concede to Hillary Clinton if he loses, Trump refused to commit to doing so, saying, “I’ll keep you in suspense” seemingly because part of him doubted he could pull this thing off. Obviously, conceding to Hillary Clinton is no longer an issue. So what will Trump say in his speech tonight? Both supporters and detractors alike are hoping for the new president to start to heal the divide after an incredibly heated and contentious election cycle. It’s also unknown how Donald Trump may address Hillary Clinton, his opponent who he has repeatedly said should be in jail. Hillary Clinton is also expected to speak from the Javits Center in New York City, although many of her supporters have already left the arena in tears. Read more about Donald Trump and Melania in Spanish at AhoraMismo.com: Join over 240,000 people who get the most important news stories and the best shopping deals from Heavy – Delivered right to your inbox.

By Joe Boatwright: I’m amazed that there is still an argument surrounding global warming. Most of the literature is full of articles from organizations that deal with planetary weather issues or other political organizations that have joined the climate change movement. Conclusively, none of any of their global warming predictions have come to fruition. Almost every assertion has been debunked or proven false, sometimes by other parts of the same organization! Why should conservatives continue to debate liberals on this topic? Firstly, conservatives should always try to stop any insanity from the left, no matter what the subject. Secondly, the left continues to put forth their agenda on global warming, no matter how idiotic. So unfortunately, the right must respond against these arguments (again, no matter how absurd). Rush Limbaugh agreed by positing another reason: “The only reason we’re even talking about global warming — well, the real only reason — is its part of the left’s agenda of expanding government worldwide, raising taxes worldwide, and a key ingredient of this is blaming average citizens for the problem.” The conservative fight is to keep the left’s ‘one world order’ and worldwide tax increases from happening. We should not allow them to blame anyone for something that does not exist and can’t be proven. Back in August 2014 Alex Newman wrote in The New American, “Embarrassing Predictions Haunt the Global-Warming Industry.” This excellent article details in length the litany of failed global warming predictions. It also criticizes organizations like the UN that recanted some of their farcical claims, sometimes even before they could be proven wrong. In one instance, the UN discovered their ‘scientific’ evidence came from the World Wildlife Fund propaganda literature. The claims from the liberal agenda of these organizations are so outlandish that it wouldn’t be surprising for them to throw in some type of zombie apocalypse. Global Warming is not scientific; it has become a political issue with many commenters who act as experts. In addition, articles that have been debunked continue to be echoed in other commentaries. These commentaries continue to make further inane assertions based on information already proven wrong. Global warming theorists who act as though this information is the word of God have taken the definition of non-sequitur to another level. Neuman points this out: “the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has acted as the main scaremonger for the global warming lobby that led to the Kyoto Protocol.” However, “the IPCC is a political, not scientific, body.” Only liberal extremists still beat the global warming drum — you shouldn’t be listening. No compatible source was found for this video. However, global warming myths continue to circulate periodically, despite being dispelled at length. For instance, there is the worry of our ecosystems being disrupted by rising temperatures or increasing CO2. Numerous studies show that there is no proof of rising temperatures distinct from natural system variations, and atmospheric CO2 is a beneficial fertilizer for plants! Regardless of the causes of these variations, the planet’s ecosystems have been adapting since the beginning of time. Almost as an urban legend, abnormal ice melting claims about both the north and south pole regions continue. But the only thing that is abnormal is that anyone believes them. I had two liberal colleagues at the CIA who believed in global warming and neither had any proof to justify their opinions. One had just experienced a hurricane and said that he would crush anyone’s head who was a non-believer in global warming. He was later fired, not because of his global warming beliefs, but because of his poor analytical skills. Our very liberal office allowed the other colleague to show slides from a vacation trip to the Arctic Circle. In addition, an alleged diminishing local animal population was presented as further proof. Of course, no real proof was presented. As one of the senior analysts of the office, I took no real part in the discussions. Office politics aside, I took to heart Mark Twain’s saying, “never argue with a fool; onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.” However, in their defense, they never professed to be experts — they were just more misguided liberals (is that redundant?) who are plentiful everywhere including the intelligence agencies. How can you argue with the so-called global warming experts that use the inanest ‘evidence’ and arguments to support their claims? For instance, it is amazing how many ‘experts’ use fictional movies about global warming to support their claims! If Al Gore gives up on Global Warming, he should move on to vampires, werewolves, and zombies. There are plenty of movies with that type of scientific evidence! I’m surprised that people aren’t curious why there are no other climate claims other than global warming. For example, what happened to concerns about oceans. Seriously, decades ago severe pollution and rising sea levels was as big of a concern as global warming. I read that there was a swordfish in the Smithsonian that was over 150 years old, and that a group of global warming advocates would have conclusive proof of the effects of industrial man if the tissue in the swordfish was significantly different from fish of today. However, examination showed that it wasn’t. Thus, they had to go back to their old theory of rising oceans, which of course, can’t be proven either. When I was living in the D.C. area, one of the stations was particularly proud of their new Doppler radar that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. They touted that it could predict snow arrival, as well as depth. As a former Army air defender with a knowledge of this radar, I didn’t think they fully understood its capabilities or value. The other stations predicted the weather just as well without the radar, one station even used an old wooden yardstick to show the depth of the snow. Their depth measured the exact same as the station with the Doppler. Some cynics believe accuracy was never the goal in any global warming forecasts anyway; the goal was always to gain more money, power, and influence. I agree with other rational, logical ‘climate deniers’ that “the Earth’s climate has always changed, and very likely will continue to change, regardless of what humans do. What is now clear, though, is that the establishment has no idea what those changes will be — much less what drives the changes or how to control them.” However, does it really matter to a liberal what the truth is? They control almost all of the main stream media,which in turn presents their propaganda. It is shamefully evident why there are so few conservative messages from the media. If the left are so correct, shouldn’t they still compare and contrast their opinion with others to prove their point?

By T.A. Frank; VanityFair: With Donald Trump busy spreading havoc around the world—most recently tweeting about James Comey’s testimony, or feeding into the crisis over Qatar—it’s reasonable to ask who can be bothered to gripe about Hillary Clinton. But I can. One makes the time. Or maybe one doesn’t, but in a two-party system there’s only one alternative to the party of Trump, and the role of Clinton in that party is therefore important. Lately, it has been increasing. Hillary has been making high-profile public appearances and started talking frankly about her distaste for Trump and her dismay over the people and things that cost her the election. She has even founded a PAC called Onward Together, a 501(c)(4) that will “advance progressive values.” Whether we like it or not, the Clintons are back in the game. It’s up to the rest of us to figure out if we approve. Just about everything we do lends itself to a generous or hostile interpretation. Our friends think we feed the poor because we have genuine compassion, and our enemies think we do so because we want to look good. The benign take on motives isn’t always closest to the truth, but it’s the better bet. (On the occasions that I’ve had an inside view of something in the glare of the press, those with the darkest take on it have usually been wrong.) I’ve been tough on Chelsea Clinton—hard not to be—but Hillary Clinton has a much higher accomplishment-to-self-regard ratio. So why not start generously? To read rest of article visit VanityFair. No compatible source was found for this video. By Brian Brinker; OpsLens: Now that Hillary Clinton is making her way back into the public spotlight, we’re starting to hear a lot more about who’s to blame for her loss. Of course, President Trump is at the top of her list. So too are members of her campaign staff, pollsters, The New York Times, supporters who didn’t show up at the polls, James Comey, Putin and the Russians, and various others. You know whose name you’re not going to find? Hillary Clinton’s own. Save perhaps for President Trump, no one else is singularly so responsible for her loss than Hillary herself. Yet, she has so far proven unwilling to take any of the blame. As Hillary stated in a recent interview, “I take responsibility for every decision I make—but that’s not why I lost.” In other words, the blame doesn’t fall on Hillary’s shoulders, at least in her mind. However, as the nominee and candidate for president, no one else should have to shoulder as much blame as Hillary. And I say this as someone who does believe that sexism and other “unfair” factors played a role. Still, it wasn’t sexism that inspired Hillary to ignore voters in Michigan and Wisconsin and to jet set out to California to meet with rich donors. And it wasn’t sexism that inspired a largely negative campaign that focused on why people should vote against Donald Trump, rather than why they should vote for Hillary Clinton. Turns out that her campaign didn’t inspire a lot of people to the polls. Sexism may have been a factor in Hillary’s inability to connect with voters, especially working and middle class voters. But there were many other factors as well. Hillary has a tendency of coming off as an elitist. She can’t pour a beer, she hasn’t driven a car in years, and she always seemed to struggle to relate to people directly. Her campaign, meanwhile, was mostly tone deaf. After winning the DNC nomination, she largely blew off Michigan and Wisconsin. The problem is that if you want midwestern voters, you have to meet with them and respect them. You can’t ignore them and skip off to sunny California to eat triple-digit meals and hob knob with celebrities and millionaires instead. To read rest of article visit OpsLens.

BEIRUT, LEBANON (4:50 P.M.) – The battle for Al-Mayadeen proved to be a decisive victory for the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and their allies, as they were able to successfully uproot the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) from this large city in the Deir Ezzor Governorate. For ISIS, their defeat at Al-Mayadeen could not come at a worse time, as their battlefield woes in Al-Raqqa and central Syria have handicapped their remaining forces inside the country. On Sunday, Syrian news channels posted several videos showing the aftermath of the Al-Mayadeen battle and the recently liberated areas surrounding the city. The footage showed scores of dead ISIS terrorists and a large number of armored vehicles that were destroyed by the Syrian Arab Army during their one week long offensive. Gone. With Al-Mayadeen liberated, the Syrian Army will now turn their attention to the provincial capital and Al-‘Umar Oil Fields in order to expel the Islamic Sate from more areas in Syria.

Dozens of protesters gathered Saturday at Lawyers Mall in Annapolis to talk about President Donald Trump. This time, they were in support of him. About 50 people of diverse background who turned out for the Making America Great Again, Already! rally wore Trump T-shirts and hats, posed for pictures with Trump signs and waved Trump flags to show their support for the president’s agenda. It is the same site where numerous rallies have been held with speakers who have been critical of the president. Trump “has people against him … from within the party, from the media. We are here to support and endorse what he has been doing for the military and the economy,” said Sajid Tarar, a Muslim immigrant from Pakistan and founder of Muslim Americans for Trump. The rally comes at a time of intense controversy for the president. An ABC News/Washington Post poll from this month showed 66 percent of Americans said Trump has done more to divide the country than unite it. He recently criticized NFL players taking a knee during the national anthem to protest police brutality against African-Americans. And the rally was held the same day as marches with speakers expected to be critical of the president were staged across the country in support of racial justice. Another is planned Sunday at Lawyers Mall. But Saturday, the crowd outside the State House had a different message. The rally, co-sponsored by Muslim Americans for Trump and Sikh Americans for Trump, was intended to bring together minority communities not typically associated with Trump’s largely white base and demonstrate support for Trump’s ideas. Tarar has been a vocal Trump supporter from early on; he prayed onstage at the Republican National Convention and spoke favor of the then-candidate. Trump’s statements about Muslims and Islam are not directed at the faith as a whole, Tarar said, nor at every Muslim American. It would be impossible, Tarar said, to cast blame on every person belonging to the world’s second-largest religion. “As a Muslim, I saw him as a relief. I saw him as the person who can fight the terrorism,” Tarar said. He said Trump’s travel ban, which originally blocked immigrants from Iran, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Yemen and Sudan, isn’t a ban at all but a pause, to ensure thorough vetting of the people from these countries. The original restriction on travel from these six countries has expired and been replaced with an order that bans varying degrees of immigration from Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen. Tarar and Sikh Americans for Trump founder Jesse Singh both immigrated to the U.S. — “legally,” Singh told the crowd. Like Tarar, he attended the president’s inauguration. Singh said when he first arrived in Dulles International Airport in Virginia, he saw a futuristic marvel in the sleek terminals and busses that whisked passengers to and fro. But the bus that dropped him off in 1986 is the bus that he is still taking today, adding that the more impressive airports are now the ones in his home country of India. “Last year I went to India, and that airport I left is now looking futuristic,” Singh said. “When I came to Dulles Airport, the same 30-year-old bus with loose doors and torn carpet came to receive me. So, when Donald Trump says our infrastructure has gone down, he’s totally right.” Other speakers, including Republican strategist and commentator Ivan Garcia-Hidalgo, praised the president’s crackdown on illegal immigration and promise to build a border wall. At one point, a “Build that wall!” chant briefly broke out among the rallygoers. Garcia-Hidalgo spoke of a booming economy, a low unemployment rate and a strong stock market, and defended Trump’s response to the devastation to Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria. Michael Cohen, who serves as Trump’s personal lawyer, also spoke at the rally via phone and thanked those gathered for their support. Congress has not yet approved funding for the border wall, but the Trump administration has announced companies that are building prototypes. Additionally, Congress has not passed any economic legislation, but the administration introduced a tax reform plan Wednesday. Maryland is a predominantly blue state. More than 60 percent of state voters cast ballots for Hillary Clinton in the last presidential election, and she edged Trump by 6,016 votes in Anne Arundel County. But Marcus Anthony, a Fairfax County, Virginia, resident, said he attended the rally to “preserve the other side.” “We live in a highly liberal area,” Marcus said. “As it is today, a lot of our side is continuously oppressed … It’s our responsibility to retain our perspectives.” All minorities are not against the president, Singh said. “Minorities have the same agenda as any other Americans,” he said. “We want America to be great again.”

"I can't believe that I'm saying that a candidate for president of the United States has bragged about sexually assaulting women." And so First Lady Michelle Obama captured the sentiments of a majority of Americans during an emotional stump speech for Hillary Clinton on Thursday afternoon that lambasted Republican nominee Donald Trump's repeated demeaning and derogatory treatment of women. Speaking before a crowd in Manchester, New Hampshire, Mrs. Obama stated that the leaked Access Hollywood video of Trump bragging about groping, kissing, and trying to have sex with women has "shaken [her] to [her] core." "It would be dishonest and disingenuous to move on to the next thing like this was all just a bad dream," the first lady said. "We can't sweep this under the rug as another sad footnote in a disturbing election season. This was a powerful individual speaking freely and openly about sexually predatory behavior." Refusing to call Trump by name—only referring to him as Hillary Clinton's "opponent"—Mrs. Obama denounced the Republican candidate's defense of his past remarks as simple "locker room talk" while explaining how personal these comments felt to her—and for all women. For Trump, the 2005 Access Hollywood appearance was not an isolated incident. He has gone on record numerous times to comment on women in, typically, one of two ways: As objects of his own sexual gratification or as threats that should be wholly diminished for their intellect, ambition, or appearance. Though Trump has repeatedly claimed the "locker room talk" defense since the tape leaked last Friday, numerous women have since come forward to report their own sexual assaults at the hands of Donald Trump—meaning that this wasn't just talk, it was predatory action. Like millions of Americans, Mrs. Obama, felt shock and outrage over Trump's behavior, and could not believe that there are still people in this country who view women with such little regard, let alone the fact that one of them is trying to become the next president of the United States. "This is not normal. This not politics as usual. This is disgraceful," Mrs. Obama said. "It doesn't matter what party you belong to—Democrat, Republican, Independent—no woman deserves to be treated this way." Asserting that Trump is in no way qualified for the executive branch or be a role model for children who look up to the president, the first lady then praised Hillary Clinton for her longstanding commitment to public service (even saying that she has more experience than both "Barack or Bill"), before declaring that the former secretary of state would be the only candidate who could unite the country and guide the American public with strength and compassion. Making a call to undecided voters, Mrs. Obama urged them not to cast a protest vote or sit the election out entirely, saying that doing so would only help clear a path for Trump to the White House. She referenced the 2012 election, in which President Obama won New Hampshire by 4,000 votes. Though that figure might have seemed like a definitive win for the incumbent president, it broke down to a total of just 66 votes per precinct—or, dozens of votes that could make or break a candidate's victory. She additionally cited the power of women voters in this election, and the influence they can have in choosing the next president. A recent report from Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight election forecast suggested that if only women voted, Hillary Clinton would win by an overwhelming majority (which, horrifyingly, prompted a #Repealthe19th social media campaign among Trump supporters). Mrs. Obama invited all women to take this power seriously and use it to elect a candidate who has not only been a pillar of support for women, but would teach America's children that any kind of degrading, hateful rhetoric is wholly unacceptable. "We, as women, have all the power we need to determine the outcome of this election," Mrs. Obama said. "We have the knowledge, we have a voice, we have a vote. And on November 8, we as women, we as Americans, we as decent human beings, can declare that enough is enough and we do not tolerate this kind of behavior."

WASHINGTON — Former undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson is looking to crowdfund enough money to buy Twitter so President Donald Trump can’t use it. Wilson launched the fundraiser last week, tweeting: “If @Twitter executives won’t shut down Trump’s violence and hate, then it’s up to us. #BuyTwitter #BanTrump.” The GoFundMe page for the fundraiser says Trump’s tweets “damage the country and put people in harm’s way.” As of Wednesday morning, she had raised less than $6,000 of the billion-dollar goal. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders calls the fundraiser a “ridiculous attempt” to shut down the president’s First Amendment rights. Wilson’s identity as a CIA operative was leaked by an official in former President George W. Bush’s administration in 2003. She left the agency in 2005. If @Twitter executives won’t shut down Trump’s violence and hate, then it’s up to us. #BuyTwitter #BanTrump https://t.co/HhbaHSluTx

The FBI is advising people to hang up if they receive a call from a woman screaming for help. A decades-old virtual kidnapping scam is placing more U.S. residents at risk of becoming potential victims, the FBI warned on its website. The scheme takes many forms, but basically callers trick victims into paying ransoms to free family or friends who have been “kidnapped.” The virtual abductors coerce victims to pay a ransom before victims can find out that no one has been kidnapped. The FBI had been tracking virtual kidnapping calls primarily from prisons in Mexico between 2013 and 2015. The callers targeted individuals who spoke Spanish, the FBI said. Most of the victims were from the Los Angeles and Houston areas. The local news you need to start your day Recaptcha requires verification. protected by reCAPTCHA Privacy - Terms Privacy - Terms The FBI issued the warning because kidnappers have widened their pool of potential victims by no longer targeting only specific individuals and Spanish speakers. The callers also are cold-calling numbers in various cities. In a recent investigation, the FBI found that more than 80 people have fallen victim to the new tactics in California, Minnesota, Idaho and Texas. Those victims paid more than $87,000 in ransom. An FBI spokeswoman for the Kansas City offices said she was not aware of any instances that have occurred in Kansas or Missouri where the FBI was involved. The scam works this way: The potential victim answers a call and hears a woman screaming, “Help me!” The victim might blurt out a name, like Mary, asking her if she’s OK. At that point, the caller will tell the victim that Mary has been kidnapped and she will be harmed if ransom isn’t paid quickly. The scam is successful when victims don’t know the whereabouts of their loved ones. The scammers typically demand that the ransoms are wired to Mexico. The amount is typically less than $2,000 because of legal restrictions for wiring larger amounts across the border, the FBI said. However, two victims in Houston were coerced to pay larger ransoms by making money drops. A federal grand jury charged a 34-year-old Houston woman in July with 10 counts, including wire fraud and money laundering, for her involvement in the scam. The charges are the first federal indictment in a virtual kidnapping case, the FBI said. Robert A. Cronkleton: 816-234-4261, @cronkb How to avoid falling victim If you receive a call from someone demanding ransom for an alleged kidnap victim, the FBI suggests: If you believe a real kidnapping has taken place, call 911. Source: FBI

A remarkable thing happened recently. You might have missed it, because while it happened in plain sight, it also happened in increments. You had to put the pieces together to appreciate the magnitude of it. You see, America repudiated its president. This, of course, was in response to that pathetic performance in the wake of the tragedy in Charlottesville, Va., when he suggested moral equivalence between white supremacists and those who protest them. In response, America — a pretty broad swath of it, at least — has condemned him. The reference is not to the shellacking he took from pundits or the reprovals of GOP leaders Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan. These things were to be expected. But you did not expect the Chairman and CEO of Merck to quit the president’s American Manufacturing Council. And Ken Frazier’s departure, which he framed as “a matter of personal conscience,” was just the opening salvo. He was followed through the door by members of that panel and others. By week’s end, two presidential business advisory groups had ceased to exist and plans for a third had been scrapped. Members of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities also resigned en masse. Meantime, Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s club and de facto presidential getaway in Florida, saw a rash of charities canceling their fundraising events. The Washington Post listed the Salvation Army, the American Red Cross, Susan G. Komen and the American Cancer Society among those who have chosen to hold their galas elsewhere. And there is yet more. Bob Corker, a respected Republican senator who has heretofore sought to engage with the president, raised sharp questions not just about Trump’s competence, but also his “stability,” and called for “radical changes” in the White House. Five military chiefs also spoke out against the bigotry in Charlottesville, in a striking reproach of their commander. Graduates of Liberty University called on fellow alumni to return their diplomas to protest LU president Jerry Falwell Jr.’s support for Trump. And it was announced that the president would not be attending the Kennedy Center Honors in December, nor host the traditional White House reception for the five honorees after three of them had spoken of boycotting the event. And really: How toxic are you when Lionel Richie doesn’t want to shake your hand? It seems that a great many Americans reached a moment of decision and reacted as you would have hoped. Trump and his apologists and enablers should take note, because this does not bode well for them. For all its powers of law making, war making, budget drafting, and diplomacy, the presidency also embodies the power of moral suasion. A president uses what Theodore Roosevelt called “the bully pulpit” — the honor and prestige of his office — to stand for what is right and remind us to do likewise. Problematically, that office is occupied now by a man with no moral compass, a man whose only true North is self. So what happened was sadly predictable. What was not predictable was this chorus of castigation from such a wide spectrum of American life. The stunning rebuke offers heartening evidence that we have not yet completely abandoned who and what we are supposed to be. Again, this is a moment of decision. Those who chose to separate themselves from Trump declared their values — and character. Those who supported him did, too.