Salisbury News: 10/26/17

Thursday, October 26, 2017

Black death warning in NINE countries - including Brit holiday hotspots - amid fears PLAGUE could spread on flights from Madagascar

The deadly plague outbreak has struck Madagascar's major cities sparking fears it has yet to 'peak' and could spread into the surrounding region

PLAGUE warnings have been issued for NINE countries surrounding Madagascar amid fears the disease could spread via sea trade and flight routes.

The outbreak is considered a much bigger threat to the region than in previous years because it has taken on its pneumonic form - meaning it is airborne and spread by sneezing and coughing.

And experts say the epidemic could still worsen as the death tolls hits 124 and more than 1,300 are left infected.

The medieval disease famously wiped out ONE THIRD of Europe's population in the 13th and 14th centuries in one of the most devastating pandemics in human history known as the Black Death.

Dr Ashok Chopra, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Texas, told The Sun Online the crisis in Madagascar had yet to peak.

He warned it was possible for the deadly plague to move further into the region given the regular flights going in and out of the country.

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Cohn Said "Likely To Leave The White House" After Tax Plan, Won't Be Fed Chair

While bookies' odds for Gary Cohn to be the next Fed Chair were already low to minimal, Bloomberg reports that, according to three people familar with the mater, President Donald Trump does not intend to appoint National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn to lead the Federal Reserve. ,

As Bloomberg reports, Trump said in at least one private meeting last week that Cohn has no chance of being Fed chair, according to a person present for the remarks.

Trump has privately told advisers that Cohn is doing a great job in his current role and that he wants to keep him at the White House through congressional consideration of his proposed tax overhaul, according to a person familiar with the conversations.

“No decision has been made and no candidate has been ruled out but Gary’s role is too crucial to getting tax reform done,” a senior administration official familiar with the president’s thinking said. It may be “too important for him to continue to be the lead, for him to announce a change at this time.”

Cohn's odds have been tumbling since Charlottesville...

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DOJ Clears FBI Informant In Clinton-Era Russian Bribery Scandal To Testify

Update (8:40 pm ET): The FBI informant who helped the Justice Department secure a conviction against the top official from the US subsidiary of Rosatom, the Russian atomic energy agency, but was blocked by the Obama Justice Department from testifying about Russian efforts to bribe and extort their way into possession of North American uranium assets - a process which was cleared by both Hillary Clinton's State Department and Robert Mueller's FBI - has as of moments ago been cleared to testify, the Justice Department announced on Wednesday evening.

The informant, who has yet to be named - perhaps out of concerns about his or her life - is being represented by Victoria Toensing, a former Reagan Justice Department official and former chief counsel of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Toensing joined Grassley in urging Attorney General Jeff Sessions to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Uranium One deal, which was approved in 2011 by a committee on which former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sat. Around the time the deal was approved, Bill Clinton received a $500,000 speaking fee from a bank with ties to the Russian government, as well as millions more in "charitable contributions" to the Clinton Foundation from entities with ties to the Russian government. Russia’s Tenex nuclear sales arm also secured billions in new American nuclear fuel contracts around the same time.

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Frank Gaffney: Mueller Has Been ‘Absolutely, Indisputably’ Compromised by Latest Clinton-Russia Collusion Revelations

Center for Security Policy President Frank Gaffney joined SiriusXM host Raheem Kassam on Wednesday’s Breitbart News Daily to talk about the latest revelations regarding the Clinton campaign, the Democratic National Committee, the politicized Obama Justice Department, and actual collusion with Russia in the 2016 presidential campaign.

Gaffney said the current news environment provided a “target-rich environment” for punditry, but was regrettably “hard on the country.”

“I particularly am thinking of this dossier business and the attacks on Donald Trump that have been relentlessly pursued,” he said. “Interestingly enough, with the help – in some cases more than just help, the active participation – of some people who have prominently featured in an actual case of Russian collusion at the highest levels of the United States government.”

“You can’t make this stuff up,” he exclaimed. “It’s an extraordinary tale. It’s worth exploring.”

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"The Hoax Turned Around": Trump Responds To News Hillary Funded "Fake Dossier"

Responding to Tuesday's WaPo report that Hillary Clinton was the mystery financial source behind the "Russia Dossier", Trump blasted Hillary Clinton, calling the project a “disgrace” and claiming the tables have turned on Democrats over the “Russia hoax.”

"I understand they paid a tremendous amount of money and Hillary Clinton always denied it, the Democrats always denied it, and now only because it's going to come out in a court case they said "yes, they did it" and they’re embarrassed by it, but I think it’s a disgrace,” Trump told reporters, before heading to Texas for a briefing on Hurricane Harvey recovery efforts and a Republican fundraiser. “It’s a very sad commentary on politics in this country.”

Trump repeatedly said Wednesday that this information only came out because the court case would have revealed it. Amid a series of Russia-related controversies that have Democrats – at least for now – on defense, Trump suggested the allegations of Russia collusion with his campaign were a "hoax" and have boomeranged and are hurting Democrats.

“The whole Russia thing … this was the Democrats coming up with an excuse for losing the election,” Trump told reporters. “They lost it and they lost it very badly. And they didn’t know what to say, so they made up the whole Russia hoax.”

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Trump rips Clinton link to Fusion GPS dossier as a 'disgrace,' says Russia 'hoax is turned around'

President Trump, in a wide-ranging sparring session with reporters Wednesday afternoon, blasted Hillary Clinton over new revelations her campaign helped fund a salacious anti-Trump dossier last year – calling the project a “disgrace” and claiming the tables have turned on Democrats over the “Russia hoax.”

“They’re embarrassed by it, but I think it’s a disgrace,” Trump told reporters, before heading to Texas for a briefing on Hurricane Harvey recovery efforts and a Republican fundraiser. “It’s a very sad commentary on politics in this country.”

In the midst of a court case that threatened to reveal the dossier’s funding, it emerged Tuesday night that political consulting firm Fusion GPS was retained last year by Marc E. Elias, an attorney representing the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign. The firm then hired former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele to write the dossier that contained unverified and lurid allegations about Trump and his team’s ties to Moscow.

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http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/10/25/trump-rips-clinton-link-to-fusion-gps-dossier-as-disgrace-says-russia-hoax-is-turned-around.html

Pence Breaks Tie as Senate Votes to Repeal Banking Rule

The Republican-led Senate narrowly voted Tuesday to repeal a banking rule that would let consumers band together to sue their bank or credit card company to resolve financial disputes.

Vice President Mike Pence cast the final vote to break a 50-50 tie. The banking industry had been lobbying hard to roll back the regulation from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The bureau had moved to ban most types of mandatory arbitration clauses found in the fine print of agreements consumers often enter into when opening a checking account or getting a credit card.

The vote reflects the effort of the Trump administration and congressional Republicans to undo regulations that the GOP argues harms the free market. The measure now moves to President Donald Trump's desk for his signature. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the president applauded the vote.

"The rule would harm our community banks and credit unions by opening the door to frivolous lawsuits by special interest trial lawyers," Sanders said.

More here

Kudlow: Congress Needs to Use 3 Percent Growth Forecast for Tax-Cut Estimates

Larry Kudlow, the Reagan administration economist who also advised the Trump campaign, said he’s worried that the House of Representatives isn’t estimating how fast the U.S. economy will grow if taxes are cut.

The lower growth forecast may mean lawmakers won’t approve some cuts, such as for corporate tax rate.

“I’m hearing, for example, they may not use a 3 percent growth baseline, which is worth several trillion dollars,” Kudlow said on financial news channel CNBC. “That they will use a joint tax committee baseline which means no dynamic scoring – will cost them a fortune. The only way they can get this done is a 3 percent growth path, the mother of pay-for’s.”

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The liberal media’s meltdown

Mainstream media goes after the president with a series of shoddy half-truths

How do you know when the liberal media meltdown is approaching an apex? Just look for apples, bananas and a strong smell of smug.

Reaching deep in their drawer of smug, CNN unleashed a “Facts First” initiative, starting with an ad featuring an apple, with a voice-over warning viewers that some awful, yet unnamed, person or network is trying to convince you the apple is a banana. While a juvenile attempt to discredit President Trump’s complaints about the network’s shoddy news coverage, they manage only to remind us of why they’re in this fix in the first place.

What CNN reveals with this abject sanctimony is their contempt for the viewers themselves. “This is an apple. Some people might try to tell you that it’s a banana. They might scream banana, banana, banana, over and over and over again. They might put BANANA in all caps. You might even start to believe that this is a banana. But it’s not. This is an apple.” And then the words “Facts First” appear on screen.

This is 30 seconds of CNN condescendingly treating news consumers as idiots, unable to judge for themselves. Think about this: Someone at CNN thought it would be a great idea to suggest people who don’t trust CNN are either brainwashed or just plain stupid.

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One in Three College Students Expect Taxpayers to Absorb Student Loans

Majority do not know their loan interest rates

The majority of college students ignore the costs of their student loans and more than a third expect taxpayers to cover the tab, according to a new poll.

A poll of college students and recent graduates found that 56 percent of borrowers did not know the interest rates on the loans enabling them to attend college, according to Millennial Personal Finance. Additionally, 21 percent of borrowers believe their grade point average influences how much they will pay for their education and 34 percent of respondents said "the federal government was going to forgive their loans" if they were unable to make payments.

Only 14 percent of those who took out loans are confident they will be able to repay them, according to the survey.

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UPDATE: YouTube deletes Maxine Waters promise to ‘go and take out Trump’

EDITOR’S NOTE: YouTube has deleted the original video of Waters’s appearance. Another version has been embedded here and will be visible until it is removed, too.

It’s been only four months since Rep. Steve Scalise was shot by a Bernie Sanders fan, but did one of his colleagues advocate violence against the president of the United States?

The one-note impeachment minstrel Maxine Waters promised a group that benefits “homeless LGBTQ youth” that she will “take out” the president — and the liberal audience wildly applauded.

Appearing recently at the Ali Forney Center gala in New York City, it only took Waters 27 seconds before she slammed Trump.

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FEC Complaint Alleges Hillary, DNC Broke Election Law By Not Disclosing Trump-Russia Dossier Funding

Today the Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign committee violated campaign finance law by failing to accurately disclose the purpose and recipient of payments for the dossier of research alleging connections between then-candidate Donald Trump and Russia. The CLC's complaint asserts that by effectively hiding these payments from public scrutiny the DNC and Clinton "undermined the vital public information role of campaign disclosures."

On October 24, The Washington Post revealed that the DNC and Hillary for America paid opposition research firm Fusion GPS to dig into Trump’s Russia ties, but routed the money through the law firm Perkins Coie and described the purpose as “legal services” on their FEC reports rather than research. By law, campaign and party committees must disclose the reason money is spent and its recipient.

“By filing misleading reports, the DNC and Clinton campaign undermined the vital public information role of campaign disclosures,” said Adav Noti, senior director, trial litigation and strategy at CLC, who previously served as the FEC’s Associate General Counsel for Policy. “Voters need campaign disclosure laws to be enforced so they can hold candidates accountable for how they raise and spend money. The FEC must investigate this apparent violation and take appropriate action.”

“Questions about who paid for this dossier are the subject of intense public interest, and this is precisely the information that FEC reports are supposed to provide,” said Brendan Fischer, director, federal and FEC reform at CLC.“Payments by a campaign or party committee to an opposition research firm are legal, as long as those payments are accurately disclosed. But describing payments for opposition research as ‘legal services’ is entirely misleading and subverts the reporting requirements.”

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Weekly Fishing Report: Oct. 25, 2017

It seems hard to believe but the month of October is slipping away and November is just around the corner. Temperatures continue to be somewhat mild, and it is a wonderful time to take the young ones out fishing after school or on the weekends.

The fall trout stocking program for October is almost over; these put-and-take areas offer some of the best opportunities for young anglers to enjoy success. Many thanks to the efforts of the trout hatchery and stocking biologists.

Politico: GOP Senators Plan No-Safeguards Amnesty by Spring

Establishment GOP Senators are trying to assemble a cheap-labor amnesty for young illegals which will not protect Americans workers from unscrupulous employers, nor reduce the huge annual inflow of migrants and workers, according to a report in Politico.

The site reported:

"Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) said the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, has convened a working group on immigration that includes himself and GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and James Lankford of Oklahoma, as well as other lawmakers. Sens. David Perdue of Georgia and Jeff Flake of Arizona also are among the Republicans who have been engaged in the talks, according to sources.

“There’s a solution to be had there,” Cornyn said. “But we just need to get on with it.”

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Troopers Investigate Fatal Motor Vehicle Crash-Georgetown

Georgetown - At the request of the Georgetown Police Department, the Delaware State Police are currently investigating a fatal motor vehicle crash involving a pedestrian that occurred on Monday, October 23, 2017 on South DuPont Highway.

The initial investigation has determined the incident occurred at approximately 9:50 p.m., on Monday, October 23, 2017 when a 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier, operated by a 27-year-old Dagsboro woman, was traveling southbound on S. DuPont Highway in the left lane, approaching College Park Drive in Georgetown.

A 23-year-old male from Georgetown, Delaware then proceeded to walk eastbound across the southbound lanes of South DuPont Highway, into the path of the Chevrolet. The male was struck with the front of the Chevrolet, ultimately coming to rest in the median of South DuPont Highway. The operator of the Chevrolet immediately stopped and remained at the scene.

The pedestrian, identified as Dimitri Rich, 23, of Georgetown, Delaware, was transported from the scene to Beebe Hospital with significant traumatic injuries. Once stabilized, Rich was transferred to Christiana Hospital where he was admitted in critical condition. On Wednesday, October 25, 2017 at 7:08 p.m. Mr. Rich succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead.

The Chevrolet operator sustained no injuries. Drug or alcohol involvement is not being considered a factor on her behalf.

The Delaware State Police Reconstruction Unit are continuing their investigation into this incident. No charges have been filed at this time.

The southbound lanes of DuPont Boulevard were closed for approximately 2 hours while the crash was investigated and cleared.

George H.W. Bush Apologizes for 'Sexual Assaulting' Actress Heather Lind

George H.W. Bush has apologized to AMC’s Turn: Washington Spies actress Heather Lind after she accused the former president of “sexual assault” while posing together for a publicity photo.

According to Deadline, Lind made the bombshell accusation in a now-deleted Instagram post. The alleged “assault” occurred in 2014 during a photo-op for the now-canceled AMC show. The elder Bush, who was 89 at the time and wheelchair-bound, allegedly “touched” the actress and told a “dirty joke.”

“He didn’t shake my hand. He touched me from behind from his wheelchair with his wife Barbara Bush by his side,” Lind claims. “He told me a dirty joke. And then, all the while being photographed, touched me again. Barbara rolled her eyes as if to say ‘not again.'”

Lind says she told other cast members about the alleged assault and they “helped me that day and continue to support me.”

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Columbia University Republican leaders 'doxed,' harassed by Antifa group

The leader of a College Republican group in New York City said he felt like there was "a target on my safety" after an Antifa group distributed pictures and personal information about all of the group's members, imploring opponents to let them know "what you think."

The flyers – spread online and littered around the Columbia University campus as early as Friday, ahead of an event with right-leaning political blogger Michael Cernovich – identified the board members of the Columbia University College Republicans student group.

“It’s crazy,” Ari Boosalis, CUCR president, told Fox News on Tuesday. “It put a target on my safety.”

A Columbia University spokesperson told Fox News in an email that "student safety is our top priority."

NYC Anti-Fascist Action was identified as the group behind the posters.

More here

Trump says classified files on JFK assassination will be released Thursday

President Trump announced on Twitter that the classified files on the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy will finally be released Thursday.

“The long anticipated release of the #JFKFiles will take place tomorrow,” Trump tweeted Wednesday. “So interesting!”

Trump arrived Wednesday afternoon in Dallas, where he received a briefing on Hurricane Harvey recovery efforts.

The move to release classified files could shed light on a tragedy that has stirred conspiracy theories for decades.

The National Archives has until Oct. 26 to disclose the remaining thousands of never-seen government documents on the 1963 assassination.

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Actor backs actress' story she was assaulted by Bush Sr.

An actor who was pictured next to the woman who claims she was sexually assaulted by George H. W. Bush from his wheelchair has backed her story.

Heather Lind, 34, who starred in AMC's series 'Turn: Washington's Spies', alleged on social media that the 93-year-old former president had grabbed her from behind during the photo shoot at a private screening of the series premiere in March 2014.

Now her costar Kevin McNally, who was stood next to Lind in the photograph, has confirmed her claims.

'My full support for @heatherglind for speaking out about the horrible event in Houston. All of which is true,' tweeted the Pirates of the Caribbean star on Wednesday.

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Donald Trump: ‘I Think I Know’ Republican Who Funded 'Fake' Russia Dossier

President Donald Trump hinted he knew the name of the mysterious Republican donor who kicked off the Fusion GPS investigation of the fake Russia dossier that was widely spread around political and media circles.

“I think I would know but I won’t say,” Trump said in response to questions from reporters at the White House, “If I were to guess, I have one name in mind.”

He made his remarks to reporters prior to leaving the White House for his trip to Dallas Texas

The president indicated that the name would surface as part of an ongoing court case surrounding the deal.

Trump said that Hillary Clinton and the Democrats finally came clean about the dossier in response to an investigation about the details about it.

“Hillary Clinton always denied it, the Democrats always denied it, and now only because it’s going to come out in a court case they said, ‘Yes, they did it,” he said.

Trump said that it was sad that politics had become so vicious, calling the dossier “fake” and “made up.”

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'Ruled Out': GOP Amnesty Plan Excludes E-Verify, Allowing Employers to Continue Hiring Illegal Aliens

Senate Republicans crafting legislation to give amnesty to millions of illegal aliens have entirely “ruled out” including the popular initiative to mandate that employers use E-Verify, a system that weeds out illegal aliens from taking American jobs.

As Breitbart News reported, the group of GOP senators is seeking to give permanent amnesty to an estimated 800,000 to 3.3 million eligible illegal aliens, the majority of which are shielded from deportation by the Obama-created Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

At the same time, a major pro-American immigration priority for President Trump’s administration, mandatory E-Verify — which prevents employers from hiring illegal aliens by forcing them to check each workers’ immigration status — has been totally excluded from any amnesty plan by the Senate Republicans.

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Kagan Releases Updated Retransmission Projections

U.S. TV Station Owners Retransmission Fees Expected to Reach Nearly $12.8 B by 2023

MONTEREY, Calif., June 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- According to Kagan, an offering of S&P Global Market Intelligence, U.S. TV station owners' retransmission (retrans) fees from multichannel operators and virtual service providers are now expected to reach nearly $12.8 billion by 2023, versus the projected $9.3 billion this year, up 18% from $7.9 billion in 2016.

While recent negotiations with multichannel operators have seen TV station owners continuing to secure higher retrans fees, including annual dollar-per-sub rate step-ups, station owners' margins have compressed due to their affiliation renewal contracts reflecting larger network programming expense increases. Kagan's reverse retrans projections call for major affiliate station group owners to send back $2.9 billion to the major broadcast networks in 2017, up 34% from an estimated $2.2 billion in reverse retrans in 2016.

Net affiliate multichannel retrans revenue growth is still expected to be in the low-single digits over the projection period, with reverse retrans as a percentage of affiliate gross retrans expected to rise in each renewal from 50% in 2017 to 53% in 2018, 54% in 2019 and 59% by the end of 2023. While the networks are getting more aggressive in affiliate negotiations, TV station owners' retrans contracts with the multichannel operators are renewed every three years. Their affiliation agreements average four to five years, so they have some visibility on their net retrans until the next renewal.

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Trump calls Russian uranium deal 'Watergate modern age'

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that an Obama-era uranium deal that Hillary Clinton had a hand in approving is the biggest political scandal in modern history.

'Well I think the uranium sale to Russia, and the way it was done, so underhanded with tremendous amounts of money being passed, I actually think that's Watergate modern age,' Trump told reporters as he prepared to board Marine One.

Watergate brought down Richard Nixon's presidency. The Republican leader resigned in disgrace before his second term in office was over.

Clinton was secretary of state to Democrat Barack Obama when the uranium deal went through that Trump was referring to. She sat on the federal committee that provided authorization.

Three committees with investigatory power have said in the last week that they are probing the sale along with claims that it came alongside a kickback to the Clinton Foundation. Hillary Clinton has called the charge 'baloney.'

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Hillary Clinton, DNC - and One Republican - Paid for Russia Dossier: Report

Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee paid opposition research firm Fusion GPS to compile the “Russian dossier” that triggered an FBI investigation into possible collusion between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and the Russian government, according to a report Tuesday by the Washington Post.

A Republican had contracted first with Fusion GPS, and Clinton and the DNC continued to fund Fusion GPS’s work, the report says.

According to the Post:

Mark Elias, a lawyer representing the Clinton campaign and the DNC, retained Fusion GPS, a Washington firm, to conduct the research.

After that, Fusion GPS hired dossier author Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer with ties to the FBI and the U.S. intelligence community …

Before that agreement, Fusion GPS’s research into Trump was funded by a still unknown Republican client during the GOP primary.

The Clinton campaign and the DNC, through the law firm, continued to fund Fusion GPS’s research through the end of October 2016, days before Election Day.

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Convicted felon among 3 men released into the community after ICE detainers ignored

NEW YORK— A twice-removed Dominican national with felony drug convictions was among three recently arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) New York after detainers lodged against them were ignored by local authorities.

The New York Police Department (NYPD) arrested Pablo Garcia-Taveras, 45, March 24, in the Bronx, New York, on local charges. Deportation officers lodged an immigration detainer with Bronx Central Booking. Garcia-Taveras was later released from NYPD custody without the detainer being honored and without notification to ICE.

“ICE is committed to promoting public safety, even when facing significant obstacles created by local elected officials’ obstructionist policies,” said Thomas Decker, field office director for ERO New York. “Every day, our officers put their lives on the line to arrest criminal aliens who could have easily been transferred to ICE custody within the confines of a secure jail environment.”

Garcia-Taveras was previously convicted of felony criminal possession of a controlled substance and felony attempted criminal possession of a controlled substance. He was removed to the Dominican Republic in July 2004, and again in 2008. In 2005, Garcia-Taveras was arrested by the NYPD on local charges. Garcia-Taveras was later arrested by ICE and subsequently convicted in federal court of federal re-entry after deportation charges, and sentenced to thirty-months imprisonment. He was then removed to the Dominican Republic following the completion of his federal prison sentence.

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New poll shows Ed Gillespie in the lead

Republican candidate Ed Gillespie, who is running for Virginia governor, is ahead of his Democratic challenger, Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, according to poll results released Wednesday.

Gillespie is ahead of Northam by 8 percent, the Hampton University Center for Public Policy found in a poll released Wednesday. Forty-one percent of voters said they would vote for Gillespie and 33 percent said they would vote for Northam. Meanwhile, 27 percent of respondents said they were undecided.

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Communism — A Centennial Celebration of Tyranny and Terror

In 1987, seven decades after Russia’s Communist Revolution and the generations of misery, mayhem and murder that it seeded worldwide, Ronald Reagan delivered a speech at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate where John F. Kennedy had delivered his condemnation of communism a quarter-century earlier.

Reagan, whose administration is credited by all fair-minded historians as engineering the 1991 fall of the Evil Empire, issued this challenge: “There stands before the entire world one great and inescapable conclusion: Freedom leads to prosperity. … General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

Those iconic words, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” did indeed set in motion the demolition of the much-hated Berlin Wall, just as it signaled the beginning of the end of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and freedom for its subordinate satellite states.

Russia’s “Red October” Revolution was inspired by the Communist Manifesto, published by Karl Marx in 1848. Marx wrote, “The theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property. … Take away the heritage of a people and they are easily destroyed.”

That same year, historian Alexis de Tocqueville offered a different perspective: “Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom, socialism restricts it. Democracy attaches all possible value to each man; socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.”

Read the rest of this here..

Report: Paul Ryan Planning to Slip DACA Amnesty into Spending Deal

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) is planning to slip amnesty for nearly 800,000 illegal aliens living in the United States into a spending bill, according to House Republicans.

Ryan, during a talk before the Republican Study Committee (RSC), reportedly said an amnesty for illegal aliens shielded from deportation by the Obama-created Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) would be included in an end-of-the-year spending deal.

“He did talk about the fact that that would be good if we could get ahead of that as opposed to being reactionary,” RSC Chairman Mark Walker (R-NC) told the Huffington Post following the meeting with Ryan.

Another two House Republicans confirmed to the Huffington Post that Ryan mentioned slipping DACA amnesty into the spending deal at the gathering.

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Just In From A Viewer

A fire has been burning at a warehouse that's become a dump for things Dupont can't legally get rid of for more than 4 days in Parkersburg, WV.

I'll be collecting all the updates I've found on social media here. The warehouse used to be the Ames Factory (I think they made shovels there), but for years has been a dump for things that Dupont can't legally get rid of. The state doesn't know what was in there, but there is possibilities of any number of these products being stored there - PVC, Nylon, Carbon black, Titanium dioxide, Fiberglass, Maleic Anhydride TLV 0.1 ppm, Formaldehyde, PTFE (Teflon), Styrene, Acrylonitrile, Polybutylene Terephthalate, and/or Acrylic Sheet all of which are not good things when burned.

Edit: Update from Reddit "There is also an underground storage tank from when it was ames that is full of trichloroethyene, lead, ethylbenzene, and toluene that is leaking. The fire suppression system for the warehouse failed last winter because one of the pipes froze and busted. They never had it fixed."

More with updates

DHS, FBI Warn Companies of Ongoing Cyber Attacks on Critical Infrastructure

The Department of Homeland Security and FBI issued rare public alert warning owners of U.S. critical infrastructure to battle an ongoing campaign of cyber attacks against their information and control networks.

Energy and industrial firms were notified Friday and again Saturday that sophisticated hackers are attempting to penetrate industrial control systems used by the electrical and nuclear power industry, as well as water, aviation, and manufacturing sectors.

"DHS assesses this activity as a multi-stage intrusion campaign by threat actors targeting low security and small networks to gain access and move laterally to networks of major, high value asset owners within the energy sector," the notice said.

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BREAKING SHOOTING IN SBY

Wicomico County Public Schools
Just now ·

Due to a reported shooting in the Church Street area of Salisbury, three Wicomico Public Schools are now on a Shelter In Place status as a precaution.

East Salisbury Elementaryl, Wicomico Middle School, and Wicomico Early Learning Center are now on a shelter in place status as a precaution.

The status means normal operations will continue inside the buildings; however, there will be no outside activities taking place at this time.

Holder: ‘Our Democracy Is Under Attack’

On Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show,” former Attorney General Eric Holder stated he didn’t know if he will ever run for office and argued that between gerrymandering and voter suppression laws, “our democracy is under attack.”

Holder responded to anchor Rachel Maddow’s question on whether he would run for office by saying he doesn’t know and is focused on his work with the National Democratic Redistricting Committee.

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Report: Europe, U.S. Flooded by Thousands of Jihadis After Islamic State Failure

A new report commissioned by the Soufan Center has outlined the threat posed by potential Western Islamic State (ISIS) fighters returning to their countries of origin as the caliphate continues to collapse.

The report, titled “Beyond the Caliphate, Foreign Fighters and the Threat of Returnees,” finds that at least 5,600 men, women, and children from 33 countries who traveled to support the Islamic State have now returned to their country of origin, many of which are in the West.

It also estimates that around 30 percent of the approximately 5,000 people who have gone to Syria from countries in the European Union have returned home. Seven of the 129 who went to join ISIS from the United States are now back on home turf, the report adds.

“It’s a hell of a problem,” Richard Barrett, a senior adviser at the Soufan Center told NBC. “It’s very resource-intensive to identify who these people are, track them down and then to do something about them.”

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Mueller Investigation Focusing on Clinton and Obama?

Forget the dubious Donald Trump/Russia collusion conspiracy that Hillary Clinton funded — it now appears that the real story is a much deeper and more insidious Russian collusion scenario, which goes back to Clinton’s time as head of the State Department. Tuesday evening, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson detailed information received from a source familiar with the ongoing Mueller investigation into Russian election interference. This new information essentially flips the script on the whole collusion narrative.

Carlson explained that Paul Manafort, the man who has been at the center of the Mueller investigation and who for several months worked as Trump’s campaign manager, used to work with the Podesta Group — an operation of Democrat hacks John and Tony Podesta — on behalf of Russian government interests. Manafort and the Podesta Group’s working relationship goes back to at least 2011. Carlson states, “He [the source] saw Paul Manafort in the Podesta Group offices, ‘All the time, at least once a month.’ Manafort was not there to socialize. He was representing Russian business and political interests, who sought to influence Capitol Hill, Hillary Clinton’s State Department and the Obama administration.”

Carlson continued:

BREAKING NEWS: Republicans' tax overhaul efforts advanced as the House passed a budget blueprint

The narrow 216-212 vote hinted at the tough road ahead.

The House on Thursday sounded the starting gun on legislative efforts to cut taxes by as much as $1.5 trillion over the coming decade, narrowly clearing a budget blueprint that will allow a tax bill to pass Congress without any Democratic votes.

But the 216-212 vote hinted at how difficult actually legislating a tax overhaul could be. The budget measure cleared Congress over the loud protests of House members from high-tax states like New York, New Jersey and California, who worry that the blueprint will doom the current deduction for state and local taxes — a deduction of great importance to taxpayers in their states.

Maryland Agency Approves Higher Health Insurance Rates

Maryland residents purchasing individual health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act can expect to pay higher premiums next year.

The Maryland Insurance Administration on Wednesday approved rates increases that are expected to affect roughly 96,000 people who buy silver plans through the state's health insurance exchange.

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Clinton, Democrats Losing Russia Story

Democrat politicians and pundits are quickly losing control of the story surrounding Russian influence efforts within the United States.

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Clinton campaign lawyer Marc Elias hired Fusion GPS on behalf of Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee. New York Times reporter Ken Vogel said Tuesday that Elias had “vigorously” denied being involved with the dossier, which is said to have relied upon Russian sources. Another NYT reporter, Maggie Haberman, similarly indicated that Democrats had repeatedly lied to reporters about their involvement with the dossier.

Prominent Democrats are now scrambling to distance themselves from the revelations. The DNC released a carefully-worded statement meant to distance current party leader from the dossier. The “new leadership” of the DNC, the statement said, was not involved with the dossier. Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who resigned as DNC chair last year amidst allegations that the DNC favored Clinton over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, has denied that she knew about the DNC’s involvement with the dossier.

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Walgreens Closing Stores, About 600, in Rite Aid Deal

Walgreens is closing 600 stores, mostly Rite Aids, as the company completes a $4.38 billion deal to buy nearly 2,000 stores from its rival.

Company spokesman Michael Polzin said Wednesday most of the closings will be Rite Aid stores, and the vast majority will be within a mile of another store in the Walgreens network, The Associated Press reported.

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Iran Paving Way to Abandon Nuclear Deal, Fortify Missile Program

Iran has taken steps in recent days to file what it claims are 18 instances in which America violated the landmark nuclear agreement, a move that could set the stage for Tehran to abandon the deal and lay blame on the Trump administration, according to regional reports and sources familiar with the matter.

On the heels of an effort by the Trump administration to tighten the nuclear accord while still upholding U.S. commitments under it, the Iranian Foreign Ministry has submitted to European Union leaders a plethora of information recounting what it claims are 18 separate violations of the deal by the United States, according to Iran's state-controlled media.

The latest move is said to be part of an effort by Iran to abandon the nuclear agreement and save face by blaming the United States for its decision, according to national security insiders closely tracking the situation.

As the Trump administration makes moves to sanction Iran for its ballistic missile program and regional support of terrorism, Iran is increasingly frustrated with the United States' aggressive stance, which is being spearheaded by President Donald Trump and his congressional allies.

Iran's foreign ministry submitted a report to the country's Parliament outlining what it claims are at least 18 instances of the United States violating the agreement. The accusations come just days after Trump decertified Iranian compliance with the nuclear deal.

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Judge rejects bid to force Trump to resume Obamacare payments to insurers

A federal judge won't force the Trump administration to continue paying Obamacare insurers after he was skeptical about whether customers would be harmed by the abrupt cancellation.

The decision by a California federal court Wednesday means the payments will not be resumed while a lawsuit from 18 Democratic-led states is argued before the federal courts. The lawsuit from the attorneys general asked for an immediate injunction to keep the payments flowing. President Trump cut them off starting Oct. 18.

Federal Judge Vince Chabria said in the order that the emergency relief the states want could be counterproductive.

The cost-sharing reduction payments reimburse insurers for reducing out-of-pocket costs for low-income Obamacare enrollees.

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AMEN

Breaking News: President Trump will order that the opioid addiction crisis be deemed a public health emergency, freeing money and easing laws to address it

President Trump on Thursday will announce he is directing his Department of Health and Human Services to declare the opioid crisis a public health emergency, senior administration officials said, a move that would free up some federal money and ease certain laws and regulations to address a rapidly escalating epidemic of drug use in the United States.

Mr. Trump’s long-anticipated directive, to be announced in an address at the White House on Thursday afternoon, would fulfill a vow that he made when he assumed office to make tackling opioid abuse one of his top priorities, but has so far taken limited action to carry out.

Montana company dares San Juan mayor to remove workers helping to restore power

Whitefish Energy on Wednesday asked San Juan, Puerto Rico Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz if she wants the company to remove its workers who are helping to restore power on the island, after she called for the company's contract to be canceled.

"We've got 44 linemen rebuilding power lines in your city & 40 more men just arrived. Do you want us to send them back or keep working?" Whitefish wrote in a tweet to Cruz.

Cruz told Yahoo News on Tuesday night that she was alarmed by the $300 million contract Whitefish signed with Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority to rebuild 100 miles of power across the island.

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Vaccine Panel to Discuss Waning Effectiveness, New Shots

Two years ago, George Green got stabbing pain and bad blisters around his right arm. It was the worst case of shingles his doctor had ever seen.

"I said, 'Wait a minute, I had the vaccine! How come I got this?'" recalled Green, a 68-year-old engineer in Austell, Georgia, who got the shot seven years earlier.

His doctor at Emory University, Dr. Sharon Bergquist, said about 10 percent of the patients she's given the shingles shot have come back with the disease years later.

No vaccine is perfect, and it can take many years to find out how well a new vaccine works and how long it lasts.

The issue of waning protection is expected to be discussed when the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meets in Atlanta.

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Crucial Piece Of Evidence Is MISSING From Las Vegas Massacre Case

A KEY piece to the Las Vegas Massacre mystery may never be uncovered… because Paddock’s laptop hard drive is missing….

According to this:

A laptop computer recovered from the Las Vegas hotel room where Stephen Paddock launched the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history was missing its hard drive, depriving investigators of a potential key source of information on why he killed and maimed so many people, ABC News has learned.

Paddock is believed to have removed the hard drive before fatally shooting himself, and the missing device has not yet been recovered, sources told ABC News.

Investigators digging into Paddock’s background also learned he purchased software designed to erase files from a hard drive, but without the hard drive to examine it is impossible to know if he ever used the software, one source said.

Odd.

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Private College In Missouri Creates A Mandatory ‘Patriotism’ Class For Incoming Students

I actually really love this idea. And before you get your panties in a wad, realize this is a private Christian college.

College of the Ozarks in Missouri is unveiling a new course called “Patriotic Education and Fitness.” It’s aimed to “educate students on modern military customs, U.S. politics and flag protocol and procedures. It will also teach rifle marksmanship, map reading, land navigation and rope knotting.”

As in, it’s promoting ACTUALLY USEFUL skills. Most people don’t know jack squat about that stuff. We live in a world where students sit in class and analyze vagina art. (Think I’m kidding? My sister is dealing with that right now. Her stories are horrific.)

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