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Monday, December 14, 2015

The Governor, Mayor, Ravens, television and sports personalities singing a classic holiday song

Our Christmas present to you: Hear the vocal talents of the Governor, Mayor, Ravens, television and sports personalities singing a classic holiday song, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."

Posted by The Baltimore Sun on Friday, December 11, 2015

After Paris Jihadi Attacks, Northern Italy Bans Burqa

The northern Italian region of Lombardy has passed regulations forbidding access into hospitals and public buildings to anyone wearing face-covering garments, such as the burqa and niqab; this is the first regional law to explicitly outlaw Islamic face coverings in Italy.

Lombardy Governor Roberto Maroni announced the new regulation for access to regional structures, prompted in particular by the Northern League after the November 13 jihadist attacks in Paris. The text makes reference to national legislation already in place, which prohibits people from going about in public dressed in a way that prevents facial recognition without a “justifiable motive.”

The secretary of the Lombard League, Paul Grima, said that current legislation is not respected or enforced, “as thousands of Muslim women go about undisturbed with their faces completely covered by the burqa or the niqab, making it impossible to identify them.”

The new regulation, which will take effect on January 1, 2016, authorizes personnel to stop people from entering public buildings if their faces are not clearly visible, and thus prohibits not only the burqa, but also helmets and other headgear.

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Police Officer Shoots man after he flips his vehicle female passenger is fatally ejected during crash

The Paradise police officer who investigators say accidentally shot a man in the neck last month will not face criminal charges, Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey announced Thursday.

Ramsey said the evidence in this case shows the shooting to be accidental, and possibly negligent, but not criminally so. “This shooting is not justified, but also not criminal."

Paradise Police Officer Patrick Feaster, a five year veteran of the department, was parked on the Skyway around midnight Thanksgiving morning, when he saw a Toyota Four-Runner speeding out of the Canteena Bar parking lot without headlights on.

Feaster followed in his patrol car, as the Toyota ran a red light and turned onto Pearson Road where the driver, 26-year-old Andrew Thomas struck the median and flipped, ejecting his 23-year old wife Darien Ehorn from the vehicle. Ehorn was killed in the crash.

Ramsey said Feaster drew his gun when Thomas “popped” out of the car, believing he would flee. As Officer Feaster moved towards Thomas, the gun discharged and struck Thomas in the neck. The shot hit Thomas in the C7 and T1 vertebrae and could lead to him being paralyzed for life.

When backup arrived on the scene, Feaster did not mention anything about having fired his weapon. According to Ramsey, Feaster notified his commanding officer about the discharge only after Thomas’ gunshot wound was found.

As the commanding officer suggested an officer return to Canteena and try to find out if Thomas had been shot at the bar, Feaster revealed that he may have shot Thomas.

Ramsey said nearly 11 minutes passed before any other officers, medics or firefighters learned Thomas had been shot.

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Maryland Man Charged with Attempting to Provide Material Support to ISIL


Defendant Allegedly Received Money from Individuals Overseas to be used for “Operational Purposes” in the United States; When Confronted by the FBI the Defendant Allegedly Lied to the FBI and Concealed his Support for ISIL

Mohamed Elshinawy, 30, of Edgewood, Maryland, was arrested on Friday, Dec. 11, 2015, on a federal criminal complaint charging him with attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a designated foreign terrorist organization; obstruction of agency proceedings; and making false statements and falsifying or concealing material facts. Elshinawy will have his initial appearance today at 2:45 p.m. EST before U.S. Magistrate Judge Beth P. Gesner of the District of Maryland in Baltimore.

The criminal complaint was announced by Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin, U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein of the District of Maryland and Special Agent in Charge Kevin Perkins of the FBI’s Baltimore Division.

“According to the allegations in the complaint, Mohamed Elshinawy received money he believed was provided by ISIL in order to conduct an attack on U.S. soil,” said Assistant Attorney General Carlin. “When confronted by the FBI, he lied in order to conceal his support for ISIL and the steps he took to provide material support to the deadly foreign terrorist organization. He will now be held accountable for these crimes. The National Security Division’s highest priority is counterterrorism and we will continue to pursue and disrupt those who seek to provide material support to ISIL.”

Fallen Angel: New Extortion 17 Film will Seek to Press Presidential Candidates to Change Rules of Engagement

I've written pretty extensively on Extortion 17, the worst loss of life in the Afghan War, which included 17 Navy SEALs and 13 other US military and National Guard personnel, along with 8 Afghans. Both Billy Vaughn, father of fallen SEAL Aaron Vaughn, and Don Brown have written on the shoot down of Extortion 17 from two different perspectives: one was from a father's point of view, the other from a former JAG's explanation of the evidence. Now, the Extortion 17 story, aptly titled "Fallen Angel," is set to hit the big screen on the fifth anniversary of the downing of Chinook helicopter by Taliban forces, and producers are looking to force presidential candidates to deal with the rules of engagement that are jeopardizing the lives of America's finest and are responsible for the downing of Extortion 17.

Fallen Angel is being produced by The United West.

I spoke with Tom Trento, who heads The United West, about the production in an exclusive interview.

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Full moon will light up Christmas for the first time since 1977

Santa Claus can use the light of a full moon to deliver gifts this year.

A full moon will occur on Christmas for the first time since 1977 and will reach its peak size at 6:11 a.m. ET, a NASA spokesperson told ABC News on Friday.

The next full moon to fall on Christmas day will not be until 2034 and it will peak at 3:54 a.m., according to NASA.

Every year, December’s full moon, which is the last of the year, is called the Full Cold Moon, Full Long Nights Moon or the Moon before Yule, according to the Farmer’s Almanac. This is because December nights are at “their longest and darkest” and during this month “the winter cold fastens its grip,” the Farmer’s Almanac notes.

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Yezidi Leader Tells Congress: ‘Because We Are Not Muslims...We Are Being Burned Alive’

(CNSNews.com) – Chaldean and Yezidi leaders described the genocide of their people at the hands of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to members of Congress Wednesday at a hearing on assisting victims of ISIS.

“Because we are not Muslims, and because our path is the path of peace… we are being burned alive,” Mirza Ismail, chairman of the Yezidi Human Rights Organization-International, told members of the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations.

Ismail went on to describe the desperate plight of the Yezidis, an indigenous ethno-religious group from Kurdistan who are being targeted by ISIS because they are not Muslim.

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Nativity Taken Down To Make Way For Atheist Event In State Capitol

An atheist group has forced Nebraska to remove a nativity from its state capitol and replace it with an atheist display.

The nativity is allowed to stay up until Dec. 18 when it must be taken down so that an atheist display can be put up. The atheist display will feature a small model church and model capitol building with a large wall between them to symbolize the separation of church and state, The Lincoln Journal Star reports. The atheist display will be up through Christmas, but not the nativity.

The Christian legal group, The Thomas More Society, sponsored a nativity last year, which raised questions about a possible violation of the Establishment Clause. This year, though, the Lincoln Atheists group preempted the Christians by reserving all the available space in August.

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DHS Official Unable to Give Number of Syrians in U.S. or Number of Expired Visas

Senior official stumped on questions concerning immigration problems

A senior Department of Homeland Security official was unable to tell Congress the number of Syrian refugees who have entered the United States in the last year and the number of Americans who have travelled to Syria and returned, in testimony on Capitol Hill that angered many lawmakers.

Kelli Ann Burriesci, a deputy assistant secretary in the department’s office of policy, could not provide statistics about immigration when the House’s national security subcommittee grilled her about potential flaws in the visa waiver program.

While lawmakers had requested that its secretary, Jeh Johnson, testify before the committee, the agency sent Burriesci instead, saying that she is the resident expert on these issues.

However, Burriesci struggled to answer questions, prompting anger from lawmakers and concerns that the department is failing to track potentially dangerous immigrants.

“How many Syrian refugees have entered the U.S. in the last year” Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) asked Burriesci.

“Sorry, I didn’t bring any of the refugee numbers with me,” she responded.

Jordon then asked: “Do you know how many Americans have traveled to Syria in the last year?”

“I don’t have that number on me either,” the official responded.

“So you wouldn’t know how many Americans have traveled there and returned?” Jordan pressed.

“I don’t have that number on me,” Burriesci stated.

When asked by Jordan, “How many visa waiver program overstays are there currently in the U.S.,” Burriesci again responded that she does not “have information” on that subject.

The lack of answers led to frustration.

Rep. Mark Meadows (R., N.C.) noted that the last time Congress was provided with accurate information about the number of people still living in the United States with expired visas was in 1994.

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Inmates build toys, spread holiday cheer

Towson, MD — Western Correctional Institution in Cumberland donated 150 wooden toys built by inmates with physical disabilities to local charities for underprivileged children this holiday season. The inmates, who otherwise might not be able to perform a job while incarcerated, skillfully created toys ranging from rocking horses to helicopters in the program that began in 2007. “The inmates who build toys are passionate and proud of their accomplishments knowing they have made a child smile that otherwise may have not received a present for Christmas,” said Debbie Kisamore, the institution’s toy shop coordinator.

Mic drop: With one hardcore question, Trump DESTROYS Saudi Prince who slammed him

GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump continues to get slammed for his proposal to temporarily ban Muslims from entry to the United States until we can shore up our process to protect against terrorist infiltration. Even Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal added his voice to that criticism of Trump late last week, tweeting Trump was a “disgrace.”

Naturally, the Donald didn’t let this slam go unanswered.

 


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Think Tank: Paris Global Warming Agreement Is ‘Paper Tiger’

The energy industry is already saying Saturday’s Paris global warming agreement is “unenforceable, underfunded, and non-binding.”

“There is nothing historic about this deal,” said American Energy Alliance President Thomas Pyle in an email to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The Obama administration clearly doesn’t have the support of Congress or the American people—making the agreement nothing more than a paper tiger. Unfortunately, this won’t stop the president from pursuing a domestic climate agenda that will raise energy prices on American families, but will have no impact on the climate.”

The Obama administration states that the deal will encourage nearly 200 countries to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, slowing global warming. Despite the doubt, President Obama is already celebrating the deal, as shown by the Tweet below.

This is huge: Almost every country in the world just signed on to the #ParisAgreement on climate change—thanks to American leadership.

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) December 12, 2015

However, members of Obama’s own cabinet disagree. Secretary of State John Kerry admitted that reducing carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. and developed world will not help the environment or even slow down global warming at the Paris summit Wednesday.

Kerry previously stated that the talks would not deliver a “treaty” that legally requires countries to cut carbon dioxide emissions. However, European Union previously asserted that the deal will be a legally binding treaty, contradicting Kerry’s direct statements.

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Ben Carson: Can GOP Be ‘Reasonable’ and ‘Responsive’ to Voters?

Dr. Ben Carson, a 2016 GOP presidential candidate, told Breitbart News that he’s questioning whether the Republican Party can be any better than the Democrat Party moving forward.

Carson’s comments, made on Breitbart News Saturday on SiriusXM 125 the Patriot Channel, come in the wake of a report from the Washington Post this week about a backroom meeting with high-level GOP insiders at which a brokered convention for the presidential nominating contest was discussed.

One of the Post reporters who broke the story, Robert Costa, appeared on the show as well on Saturday to detail his report. In the appearance, he laid out how representatives from the GOP presidential campaigns of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush—but not those of Donald Trump or Carson—were present at the meeting. The meeting was attended by Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Reince Priebus and Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

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Rep. Hurd: Tightening Visa Waiver Program Key for US Security

Getting the right information to the right people is key for keeping terrorists out of the United States, and tightening the nation's visa waiver program is key to doing that, Rep. Will Hurd, a former undercover CIA officer, said in Saturday's GOP address.

"I spent nine years as an undercover officer in the CIA," the Texas lawmaker said. "I was the guy in the back alleys at four o’clock in the morning, chasing bad guys like al-Qaeda and the Taliban. So when we talk about the threat we’re facing right now — from ISIS and other terrorist groups — I know from first-hand experience, that they are a clear and present danger to the United States".

But the threat can't be contained, he said; it must be defeated.

"That’s why the House passed a bill that requires the president to come up with a real strategy to defeat ISIS," Hurd said. "Taking down ISIS will not be easy and there are many things we need to do. One of them is to tighten up the visa waiver program."

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Missouri Cops Made Alarming Find Buried By Where Muslims Bought Cellphones

The mystery into the Missouri Muslims buying up hundreds of cellphones from several Walmart stores, just took a concerning turn for the worst, because of what was discovered buried near where the purchases were made. One alert man noticed something strange about the ground and called police to the scene, but nobody was prepared for what was found right under foot.

Since the suspicious activity first leaked last week, the investigation has progressively revealed worse details, working retroactively to bring to light every alarming thing that happened before two men were stopped in a Lebanon Walmart. Now, it seems to have reach a head, after an incident in October provides some potential answers as to what is being plotted from the center of our country, and what targets are at imminent risk.

A man who was hunting in the Mark Twain National Forest, just 30 minutes from Lebanon, was about to set up camp in a spot he uses each season, when he noticed something about the ground that didn’t seem right. After poking around at the ground a bit, he got concerned about what he found and urgently called police. The Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department came running, bringing along with them a massive team of expert personnel they called in for assistance.

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That Ernest Moniz-John Kerry High Five Was ‘Just About Crepes’

A picture of John Kerry and Ernest Moniz high-fiving in Lausanne, Switzerland, was used all over the place and taken by many as a sign that negotiations were going well but really it was “just about the crepes,” according to Moniz, who was asked about the March picture during an Esquire interview.

“John was coming out of a crepe restaurant that I had introduced him to some days earlier as I was heading there for lunch,” explains Moniz. “And he came out, a big, beaming smile on his face, and we did a double high-five.”

“Pictures all over the place. ‘They must have a deal.’ "

"It was just about the crepes.”

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SCOTUS: Do Illegals Dilute One Person, One Vote?

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in a case that could have serious implications for congressional representation. In the 1960s, the Supreme Court ruled that the 14th Amendment guaranteed a principle that became known as “one person, one vote.” In other words, legislative districts must be drawn with equal populations. Now, the question is whether that means general or voting population, and whether clusters of illegal immigrants dilute the power of legitimate voters.

Evenwel v. Abbott was brought by two Texas residents who argue that the power of the vote in their districts is diluted because of disparities due to the distribution of the non-voter population — in this case illegal immigrants. Each state legislative district in Texas has 811,000 total people, regardless of their eligibility to vote. Titus County, one of the districts in question in this case, has 574,000 eligible voters. The nearby rural district that encompasses the city of Brownsville has 372,000 eligible voters. This means that a vote from Titus county carries two-thirds the weight of a vote in Brownsville.

One of the main reasons for this disparity is the distribution of illegal immigrants in Texas and other states. Illegals tend to gather in close proximity to one another, thus skewing the total population and therefore congressional representation.

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Brawl Ensues at the DMV After Irate Woman Kicks Police Officer

Nobody likes a trip to the Department of Motor Vehicles, but this woman takes her DMV hatred to the next level.

In video posted to Facebook by Victoria Nascimento, a woman appears to argue with staff for reasons that aren't entirely clear before the fed up personnel asked a police officer to escort her from the building, WSVN reports.

The woman, identified by police as 31-year-old Eleanor Stern, doesn't feel like leaving quite yet. In the shocking video, Stern first appears to respond with outrage to the officer's requests that she leave.

When the officer takes Stern by the arm to lead her from the premises, she appears to kick him as other customers in the Deerfield Beach office gasp in shock.

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Alexander: Warriors on Leadership

Advice From American Patriots in Uniform

This week, Barack Obama’s penchant for vacuous rhetoric was on full display. His national addressconcerning the bloody Islamist attack on a San Bernardino office Christmas party was indicative of why hiscatastrophic foreign policy failures are becoming ever more costly — and dangerous.

Clearly, our nation is in desperate need of a commander in chief.

My touchstones for presidential leadership are George Washington at the dawn of our Republic and Ronald Reagan during one of its most challenging economic and national security eras. The good news is that there is substantial leadership capability in the lineup of conservative presidential candidates this year. The next president will face formidable foreign and domestic policy challenges, the effluent of the current administration’s colossally failed policies.

But I think the best examples of leadership come from those whose lives, and the lives of those they lead, are on the line. There are a handful of American military leaders, in addition to those of the American Revolution, whom I study closely and rely upon for the wisdom that informs my own sense of duty in defense of Liberty.

Among those are Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson: “Always mystify, mislead, and surprise the enemy, if possible; and when you strike and overcome him, never let up in the pursuit so long as your men have strength to follow; for an army routed, if hotly pursued, becomes panic-stricken, and can then be destroyed by half their number.”

Here are a few more…

Bernard Kerik: Bad Guys Know Mosques Hide Terrorists' Activities

Terrorists are hiding out in mosques because they know that political correctness is shutting down surveillance programs by authorities, former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik told Newsmax TV on Friday.

"That's happening all across the country," Kerik, who oversaw the city's forces on 9/11, told "Newsmax Now" host Miranda Khan. "But the reality is these bad guys know it."

"It's just like in Iraq, in Syria: If you don't want anyone to come near you, you run to the mosque. We had a lot of problems like that in Baghdad."

"These guys know it," Kerik added. "They know that's where they can meet in secrecy."

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Terror Groups Hard At Work Manufacturing Rockets To Strike Tel Aviv

TEL AVIV – Hamas in the Gaza Strip has been hard at work attempting to manufacture rockets capable of reaching Tel Aviv. It has also shared its rocket-making capabilities with other terrorist organizations in the coastal enclave, according to security sources here familiar with the matter.

The fear is that Gaza’s Hamas rulers are deliberately aiding other jihadist groups so they can blame outside organizations for future rocket fire.

During the Israel-Gaza War of 2014, Hamas and other Palestinian factions in Gaza fired dozens of rockets toward Tel Aviv and satellite cities. Some rockets fired by Hamas were manufactured inside the Gaza Strip. Others were reportedly Iran-provided Grad and Fajr rockets.

Separately, Palestinian Authority security officials told Breitbart Jerusalem that Palestinian organizations in Gaza conduct five to ten rocket tests per week by firing projectiles into the Mediterranean Sea.

The rocket manufacturing and testing was confirmed by a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces.

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Dem Senator Unsure If ‘Enemy Is Connected to Islam’

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) struggled to explain whether he believes there is a connection between Islam and terrorist forces aiming to launch strikes at the United States when questioned by another leading lawmaker Thursday evening on the Senate floor, according to video of the exchange.

Asked by Sen. Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) during an exchange on the Senate floor if he believes “there is any connection between our enemy and Islam,” Brown appeared confused and struggled to respond.

“I’m sorry, excuse me?” Brown said in response to Sasse’s question.

When asked again if he believes there is any connection between the radicals waging terrorist attack on the West and Islam, Brown said he is not sure.

“I guess, I don’t know, I’m not here to debate this,” he said. “I don’t know exactly what that means, ‘A connection between our enemy and Islam.’”

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This Dumb, Dishonest Attack On Justice Scalia Takes The Cake

A lot of arguments and attacks in politics are not totally fair, honest, or logical. But sometimes, the combination of unfairness, idiocy, and brazen hypocrisy still has the capacity to surprise. So it is with the past 24 hours’ apparently coordinated Two Minutes’ Hate against Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia over questions he asked at oral argument in Fisher v. University of Texas, the Court’s latest case on racial preferences in college admissions.

Fisher is on its second trip to the Supreme Court after two decades of lawsuits over the University of Texas’ various efforts to incorporate race as a factor in admissions. In an effort to ensure racial, geographic, and economic diversity in its in-state admissions after the Supreme Court started taking a more skeptical view of racial preferences, Texas passed a law (signed by then-Gov. George W. Bush) admitting the top 10 percent of every high school class in the state into the University of Texas.

But UT still uses race as a factor in admissions for the rest of its student body. Fisher is yet another in a line of cases challenging that policy, which the Supreme Court has never explicitly approved or banned, but rather has subjected to a series of balancing tests, with recent decisions tightening the level of scrutiny to be applied. While the Court’s conservatives would plainly prefer to do away with making race a factor in college admissions, the need to persuade Justice Kennedy to that position (or away from it) has led to a lot of briefs and arguments focused on the practical impact of doing so.

Enter Gregory Garre, the lawyer defending the university, who was in the midst of making the following argument in response to questions by Justice Kennedy:

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Katie's Christmas Trees closed

Katie's Christmas Trees of Hebron, a Wicomico County institution and a Christmas tradition for countless local families, has closed following the untimely death of its warm-hearted owner. Praying for the family. Mr. Cubbage was a kind and generous man. He will be missed.

City pledges support for third year of vet banners

Before the Ocean City Council approved the resort Elks Lodge’s annual military banner program Monday evening, 11 military personnel had already signed up for 2016.

“There’s really never a shortage of people who want to do this,” said Pat Riordan of the Elks’ Veterans Committee. “It fills up pretty fast and we try to get a variety of service and ethnicity out there.”

The Hometown Hero Banner Program has been honoring 20 active-duty service members from Worcester County with banners on Boardwalk light posts from the pier to Fourth Street since 2014. The banners are about 5-feet long and display the service member’s name, rank and military photograph.

The council unanimously approved the program, making it the third year in a row, Riordan said.

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University of Maryland Insists Illegals Be Referred To As ‘Citizens’

The University of Maryland is sponsoring a poster campaign encouraging students to refer to illegal immigrants as “undocumented citizens.”

The inaccurate term, first noted by Campus Reform, is promoted by the school’s “Inclusive Language Campaign,” which is throwing up posters around campus to encourage the use of friendlier language.

UMD’s Multicultural Involvement and Community Advocacy office, an official organ of the university, is running the campaign. The posters tell students that “words have power” and people should be cautious, lest they offend people with the terms they use.

“Would you say [illegal alien] if you knew I am an undocumented citizen?” the poster asks passersby.

Nicole Mehta, the program director of UMD’s Common Ground Multicultural Dialogue Program, told Campus Reform the term “undocumented citizen” was deliberate, and was chosen based on surveys of students.

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Sessions Challenges Obama, GOP Leaders: Hold Vote Now on Obamatrade

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) released a statement warning against the possibility that a lame-duck session could be used to pass President Obama’s “deeply unpopular 5,554 page Trans-Pacific Partnership.” Sessions wants to eliminate the fast-track authority granted to Obama by Congress earlier this year that is “being used to create this new, binding international union.”

“It seems clear the goal of TPP supporters is to hold the vote when the public will be least able to hold their representatives accountable, because the pact’s boosters know that it is deeply unpopular across all voters,” Sessions stated.

Sessions’ press release comes after a report by The Hill in which Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) hinted that Obama wouldn’t be able to pass the TPP until after the election in 2016.

Sessions argues:

"Congress under no circumstances should vote on this sweeping international accord in a lame duck post-election session of Congress. We should take it off the fast-track, consider it now under regular constitutional order, and let the American people hold their elected officials and candidates accountable."

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Peggy Noonan: Trump 'Owes It To His Country To Become Disciplined'

Conservative Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan thinks it's time for Donald Trump to pull back on the very thing that seems to have gotten him where he is: his mouth.

In her latest column, Noonan, who is not a Donald Trump supporter, said as a matter of patriotism, the GOP front-runner should refine his language, which he proudly brags is lacking a shred of political correctness or sensitivity.

"A continuing mystery of Mr. Trump is his failure to impose on himself political discipline," Noonan wrote. "He has been front-runner for six months but he doesn't act as if he has absorbed the fact that he could become the nominee. At this point he owes it to his country — he owes it to his own ambition! — to become disciplined in terms of statements and policy."

She continued, "It is possible for candidates to be vivid but careful, dramatic but responsible. When you're winning you can't just keep pulling it out of your orifices. Mr. Trump's lack of discipline should worry his supporters. I know it doesn't, but it should. Because indiscipline shows disrespect. And people pick up on it, they see it."

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Democrats Eye Taxpayer Bailout for 2016 Convention

Already struggling with finances, the Democrat Party has drafted a plan to have taxpayers help pay for next summer’s nominating convention, reversing a change Congress approved just a year ago.

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who is also a congresswoman from Florida, has drafted a bill that would restore the money both parties formerly had access to to help defray the costs of running their quadrennial conventions.

The Congressional Budget Office revealed the move in a letter released Friday, which said Ms. Wasserman Schultz’s proposal to tap a presidential campaign fund would likely mean each party could get about $20 million in taxpayer money to help with their costs.

The DNC is facing tough financial circumstances, with the latest report showing it with just $6.1 million cash on hand-- less than the $6.9 million in debts the committee reported.

By contrast the Republican National Committee reported $20.4 million in cash, offset by just $1.9 million in debts.

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Annapolis Yacht Club Vows To Rebuild After Massive Blaze

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ)–A landmark in the city of Annapolis is gutted by a massive fire.

Owners of the Annapolis Yacht Club are now vowing to rebuild after flames devastated the building yesterday. The fire broke out just hours before the city’s annual Parade of Lights was set to take place.

WJZ’s Meghan McCorkell has the latest.

Nearly 100 firefighters battled flames for hours inside the Annapolis Yacht Club.

Sunday– with the fire out, the damage is devastating.

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Amnesty Activists Launch Campaign to Naturalize Immigrants, Register Them to Vote

Amnesty activists are engaged in a new effort to encourage immigrants in the U.S. to naturalize and register to vote.

The Latino Victory Foundation and the National Partnership for New Americans launched the New American Democracy Campaign this week in an effort to increase immigrant participation in elections.

The government estimates there are about 8.8 million legal permanent residents who are eligible to apply for naturalization. According to the groups that launched the NADC Thursday, their goal is to increase the rate of naturalization in 2016 by 38 percent so that 1 million immigrants to become citizens next year.

Once citizens, NADC plans to assist the newly eligible with voter registration. Additionally the group will be encouraging the citizen children of immigrants to register and vote as well.

NADC organizers cited the recent political rhetoric as a mobilizing factor that compels those immigrants — and Latinos in particular — who are eligible to vote.

“Our community is under attack and our future is at stake,” Cristóbal J. Alex, Latino Victory Foundation president, said in a statement. “Now more than ever it’s important that those who are able to naturalize do so and make their voices heard at the polls.

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Ex-DHS Employee: Obama Shut Down Operation That Could Have Stopped San Bernardino Attack

Phillip Haney, a former Homeland Security employee who was part of an operation in California to investigate possible terrorists, told Fox News that if the Obama White House had not shut down his program in 2012, he could have prevented last week's San Bernardino attack that killed 14 people.

Haney, appearing Thursday on Fox News Channel's "The Kelly File," said his program identified the mosque attended by Syed Farook, who with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, carried out the mass shooting, as being the home of a group of individuals already being investigated.

"As we were tracking them, we would have put the red light on them," Haney said.

Haney, a founding member of the Department of Homeland Security, said he filed a Freedom of Information Act request to find out why the plug had been pulled on his program.

The reason, he said, was because the administration said the case was based on targeting a specific Islamic group.

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TX Imam Forced To Resign Because Of Trump Comments

A political conflict is playing out within the walls of the Muslim community in Southeast Texas. A man who was the leader of Muslims in the area said Thursday the conflict has resulted in his ousting.

"Don't get me involved in any political games in the name of religion. I am not here a political man," Dr. Nidal Alsayyed said.

But it's political motivations he said have forced him to resign as Imam.

"Sadly, it's Clinton versus Trump," he said.

Dr. Al Sayyed told KFDM News he was forced to resign as religious director of the Islamic Society of the Triplex after making comments Monday in which he agrees with Donald Trump's statements that the U.S. should temporarily stop accepting any new Muslim immigrants into the country.

While the religious leader said he expected the call to resign eventually, he said it was sped up by politics.

"I think any future candidates, presidents who do not support the fact that we need to be more safe and more cautious about whom to bring into this country, whether a Muslim or not," Dr. Alsayyed said.

His comments he said had nothing to do with politics, but the former Imam said Trump's comments are in line with the Islamic religion.

"The text of the holy Qur'an says the loss of one life is equivalent to killing the whole mankind," he said.

"But the way it happens when you see this mass shooting and you see some people coming with such a very peaceful background and all of a sudden the intelligences... agencies are not able to figure out what's happening, why all of a sudden this guy or this girl or that lady open fire and kill 15 people, because American Muslims are not doing their job in the country. So we need to stop, we need to stop taking new ones until we fix the existing situation," Dr. Alsayyed said.

The religious leader said there is a problem with some American Muslims seeing a conflict between following their religious beliefs and their patriotism to the U.S., and an issue differentiating the religious community and its political role. He said the two should not mix.

"I came to know this morning from some close contacts and friends over 102 Imams, religious people in Houston, were fired and forced to be basically leave their jobs, leave their mosques only because they did not get along with the political agenda for their board members," he said.

Dr. Alsayyed said he took the position to help young people here understand Islam, and it's the youth where Islamic leaders should focus their attention.

"Nobody is investing a dollar to basically raise the understanding what does it take for a Muslim to live in the United States," he said.

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Maryland Panel to Discuss Issues on Daily Fantasy Sports

A Maryland legislative panel is scheduled to discuss concerns about daily fantasy sports.

The Joint Committee on Gaming Oversight is scheduled to meet in Annapolis Monday.

In 2012, Maryland enacted a law legalizing fantasy sports betting. But it was largely tailored to apply to small social groups that play all season long, not the new industry that regulators in other states have been grappling with in recent months.

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Surplus spending

Maryland is looking at about a $500 million budget surplus — larger than April’s predictions following the end of the last legislative session, and already lawmakers in the Maryland General Assembly, which is under Democratic control, are looking for ways to spend it on new programs. In other words, the Democratic leadership is continuing its well-worn tradition of fiscal recklessness.

What makes this happy-sounding fiscal report tenuous is that the extra $500 million is only a windfall, coming from a one-time bump in capital gains tax revenue and 60,000 fewer enrollments in Medicaid from people who could renew their enrollment in the future, according to The Daily Record.

If anything, it’s a time for caution. Take this prediction from a 2015 Brookings Institution report on the national capital region’s economy, which notes that “recent economic signs for Greater Washington have been less than encouraging. While the region weathered the Great Recession better than most, it has recovered more weakly. Recent job growth has been concentrated in lower-paying sectors of the economy. Federal ‘sequestration’ budget cuts have already affected the region’s workforce and federal contractors, and looming discretionary spending pressures are likely to limit the federal government’s future contributions to the region’s growth as well.”

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Clintons Return White House Furniture

Former President Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, have sent $28,000 worth of household goods back to Washington after questions arose over whether the items were intended as personal gifts or donations to the White House.

“We have been informed that it is being shipped back, and the National Park Service is ready to receive it, take possession of it and take custody of it,” Jim McDaniel, the National Park Service’s liaison to the White House, said Wednesday.

“The property is being returned to government custody until such time that the issues can be resolved. It may well turn out that that property is rightly the personal property of the Clintons.”

Giving Back

After they were criticized for taking $190,000 worth of china, flatware, rugs, televisions, sofas and other gifts with them when they left, the Clintons announced last week that they would pay for $86,000 worth of gifts, or nearly half the amount.

Their latest decision to send back $28,000 in gifts brings to $114,000 the value of items the Clintons have either decided to pay for or return.

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Tis the Season to Honor a Hero

Tis the Season...
Searching for the perfect gift for someone you love?  Honor a military, first-responder, or other hero (past or present) by sponsoring an American flag to be displayed Memorial Day 2016.
FLAGS FOR HEROES

 
The Rotary Clubs of Wicomico County proudly present Flags for Heroes, a project designed honor heroes in our community while supporting local veteran causes and Rotary's community projects including scholarships, wheelchair ramps and food distribution. Who is your hero? Examples include: a family member, a friend, a veteran, a member of the armed services, a favorite teacher, a police officer, a firefighter, or any other person who has made an impact in your life.

The "Field of Heroes" will be a spectacular visual display of American flags, measuring 3' x 5', standing 8 feet tall, in the highly visible location on the corner of Route 50 and Hobbs Road in Salisbury, next to Arthur W. Perdue Stadium. In the two weeks surrounding Memorial Day, passersby can pull over, walk among the flags, and reflect upon their own personal heroes. The display will inspire pride and patriotism among both the local community, and those who pass through town as they travel to Ocean City.

Heroes and sponsors will be recognized in a local newspaper insert in 2016, during a special flag display ceremony, and on signage at the site of the flags.

Sponsors may honor a personal hero by sponsoring a flag with a tax deductible $50 donation.  Each sponsor will receive a certificate honoring their chosen hero within  1-2 weeks.

To honor your hero in time for Christmas, please make your sponsorship no later than December 18th. You will receive your certificate in the mail prior to the holiday.


Presented by
Salisbury Sunrise Rotary Club  
The Rotary Club of Wicomico County
The Rotary Club of Salisbury

Questions?  Contact us via email at salisburysunrise@gmail.com or reach out to any of our local Rotary Presidents:

Wesley CoxAudrey Orr
Salisbury Sunrise RotaryRotary Club of WicomicoRotary Club of Salisbury

Delaware State Police Operation Christmas Wish

The Delaware State Police Community Outreach Unit sponsored an initiative to give children from less fortunate communities throughout Delaware an opportunity to receive Christmas Toys from Santa. This event was held on Saturday, December 12, 2015 at the 9-1-1 Emergency Operations Center in Sussex County, Troop 3 in Kent County and Troop 2 in New Castle County.

The Delaware State Police Community Outreach Unit made contact with elementary school counselors, student resource officers and community organizations in each county to determine which children participated in the event. Operation Christmas Wish received toy donations for elementary age children.

The Delaware Department of Safety and Homeland Security, the Delaware State Police and the Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Enforcement officers worked together with the communities of Delaware. The goal of the project was to assist our families throughout the state in making sure their children have a great holiday season. We serve the citizens every day in their time of need for law enforcement services and we really enjoyed the opportunity to interact with families in a friendly and cheerful setting. This holiday community program reached several families and approximately 150 excited children.

(Group photos of the event are attached and additional photos are located on our Delaware State Police Newsroom Facebook page)

Troopers assigned to the designated regions from the Community Outreach Unit are listed below:

Master Corporal Mike Austin (New Castle County) 365-8466
Corporal Heather Imhof (Kent and Southern New Castle County) 672-5431
Master Corporal Ricky Hargis (Eastern Sussex County) 856-5850
Corporal Juanita Huey-Smith (Western Sussex County) 232-3459



Registration open for St. Paddy’s Day Run

Registration is now open for the 17th Annual St. Paddy’s Day 5K Run/2K Walk, to be held at 3 p.m. Saturday, March 19, 2016, at the Salisbury Elks Lodge.

Registration will begin at 2 p.m. The cost is $25 and the first 200 registrants are guaranteed an event T-shirt. Event sponsors are also being sought.

Overall awards will be presented to the top three male and female finishers; awards also will be presented to the top three finishers in the various age divisions.

The theme of the run/walk is “Racing For a Reason.” All proceeds will support MAC Inc. programs and services for family members, caregivers and those living with Alzheimer’s Disease.

For race information, call 410-742-0505, ext. 118; email cfr@macinc.org; or visitwww.macinc.org/st-paddys-5k.html