MSDE Awards More than $43 Million to Local Systems to Strengthen Literacy

Funding Via a Three-Year Competitive Federal Grant

BALTIMORE (July 30, 2018) – The Maryland State Department of Education has awarded $43.3 million in grants to local school systems to help advance literacy among students from birth to grade 12.

All 24 Maryland school systems received funding, with grants ranging from $1 million to $2.8 million across the three-year grant cycle. 

"Every child in Maryland deserves access to a world-class education, regardless of the neighborhood they happen to grow up in," said Governor Larry Hogan. "These grants will help provide the vital and necessary literacy skills that lead to greater success in the classroom and in the workforce."

Funds for the program came through the three-year $45 million federal Striving Readers’ Comprehensive Literacy Grant, awarded to MSDE last year.  It was the largest competitive grant awarded to MSDE in nearly three years.

“Better literacy programs will provide a stronger foundation for all learning throughout Maryland,” said Dr. Karen Salmon, Maryland State Superintendent of Schools. “This important program will enhance learning at the local level and provide stronger professional development in all corners of the State.”

Funding amounts were determined by peer reviewers using priority areas developed by the US Department of Education. Reviewers looked at each application for adherence to federal grant guidelines and placed emphasis on disadvantaged students; use of strong and moderate evidence; alignment of birth to grade 5; partnerships with nonprofit providers of early childhood education; and use of strategic professional learning.

The following three-year grants to school systems are being distributed:

Allegany - $1.7 million

Anne Arundel - $1.4 million

Baltimore City - $2.8 million

Baltimore County - $1.75 million

Calvert - $1.7 million

Caroline - $1.7 million

Carroll - $1.51 million

Cecil - $2 million

Charles - $2.78 million

Dorchester - $1.72 million

Frederick - $2.8 million

Garrett - $1 million

Harford - $1.31 million

Howard - $2 million

Kent - $1.2 million

Montgomery - $2 million

Prince George’s - $2 million

Queen Anne’s - $1 million

Somerset - $2.8 million

St. Mary’s - $1.6 million

Talbot - $1.78 million

Washington - $2 million

Wicomico - $1.7 million

Worcester - $1.2 million

The total grant awards topped $43.25 million, more than 95 percent of the federal grant was received by MSDE last year.

Delaware man sentenced to prison for production of child pornography

WILMINGTON, Delaware — A Dover, Delaware man was sentenced July 23 to 25 years in prison for production of child pornography, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Delaware State Police.

Daniel Arthur Hill, 30, pleaded guilty to two counts of production of child pornography on Nov. 9, 2017. A U.S. District Judge from the District of Delaware sentenced Hill to serve 300 months in prison followed by 15 years of supervised release.

According to admissions made as part of his guilty plea, Hill was arrested by the Delaware State Police Department for solicitation of a minor on Dec. 16, 2015. Hill had met a person online who he believed was a 14-year-old girl and with whom he had arranged to engage in sexual intercourse. Following his arrest, a court-authorized search of Hill’s electronic devices revealed evidence that Hill had produced images of child pornography depicting two minors under the age of 12. Hill had also distributed child pornography to others via online chat groups. On Aug. 11, 2016, Hill was indicted in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware for enticement of a minor and for possession, production, and distribution of child pornography.

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Troopers Arrest Georgetown Man on Multiple Weapons Charges

Georgetown- Delaware State Police arrest a Georgetown man after an argument led to him obtaining a shotgun.

The incident occurred on Friday, July 27, 2018 at approximately 10:35 p.m. when Troopers were dispatched to the 20000 block of  Donovans Road for a domestic incident.  Upon arrival, Troopers made contact with a 26-year-old female of Georgetown, who advised that 55-year-old Leeron Sabb, pulled into the driveway at the residence and began arguing with his 19-year-old nephew and a 37-year-old male from Georgetown.  The argument escalated into a pushing match, in which the 19-year-old male punched the 37-year-old male, knocking him to the ground.

The 26-year-old female advised that while she was tending to the 37-year-old male, Leeron aggressed towards them, and a struggle ensued on the ground.  While the female was on the ground, the 19-year-old male grabbed her by the neck with both of his hands.

Leeron then proceeded to walk across the street to his residence where he obtained a shotgun.  He aimed the shotgun at the 37-year-old male and threatened to shoot him.

Troopers learned that Leeron Sabb is prohibited from possessing a firearm or ammunition due to a prior violent felony.  He was transported back to Troop 4 where he was charged with Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a Felony, Possession of a Firearm or Ammunition by a Person Prohibited, Aggravated Menacing, Possession of a Deadly Weapon by a Person Prohibited, Terroristic Threatening, and Possession of a Firearm While Under the Influence.  He was arraigned before the Justice of the Peace Court 3 and committed to the Sussex Correctional Institution on $81,000.00 cash only bond.

The 19-year-old male was also transported back to Troop 4 where he was charged with Offensive Touching.  He was arraigned before the Justice of the Peace Court 3 and released.

No Joke: University Dean Forced To Apologize For Having Republican Friend

Freedom of association now under attack by leftist mob

A University of Georgia professor was forced to apologize after congratulating a friend who happens to be a Republican candidate for governor, according to Campus Reform.

Davis, dean of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at UGA, was a classmate of Georgia’s GOP gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp, and called him a “nice guy,” and “kind to a fault” in a congratulatory tweet following Kemp’s primary win last week.

“I went to high school with GOP guv candidate @BrianKempGA. We played YMCA ball from childhood. Politics be damned. He’s a nice guy, always was. Kind to a fault. He’s a friend, always has been, and will be when we’re old(er) and grey(er). That’s how this should work, people,” Davis tweeted last week.

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Opioid-Related Deaths In Maryland Are "Staggering", New Report

Maryland’s opioid crisis is showing limited signs of abating with the latest report highlighting a record number of fentanyl-related deaths.

According to the report, published last week by the Maryland Department of Health, the number of drug and alcohol-related intoxication deaths occurring in the state jumped 9 percent between 2016 and 2017, reaching a record high of 2,282. In fact, this is the seventh consecutive year of increases in the overall rate of substance-related deaths.

Baltimore Business Journal notes that “illegal and prescription opioids” are the primary causes of the opioid crisis in all 24 Maryland counties.

Though heroin-related deaths declined by 134 to 1,078 overall from 2016 in Maryland, fentanyl-related deaths continue to surge, increasing from 1,119 in 2016 to 1,594 in 2017, according to Maryland health officials. The agency’s statistics include deaths in 2017 and the first three months of 2018.

“While Maryland is starting to see a decline in heroin-related deaths, fentanyl-related deaths continue to rise in staggering numbers,” said Maryland Department of Health Secretary Robert R. Neall in a statement.

Neall emphasized that Marylanders with an addiction problem need to “immediately seek treatment” and consult with officials about acquiring naloxone, a drug that is used to reverse an overdose from opioids.

Baltimore Business Journal said data from the first quarter of 2018 showed that there were 653 unintentional drug and alcohol-related intoxication deaths across the state. There were 579 opioid-related deaths, 500 of which involved fentanyl.

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Democrat Struggles to Explain Incurring $185,000 in Unpaid Income Taxes

Aaron Ford, the Democrat nominee for Nevada attorney general, is struggling to explain how he incurred over $185,000 in unpaid taxes to the Internal Revenue Service.

Ford, who serves as the majority leader of the Nevada senate, had three different liens filed against him by the IRS for failing to pay over $185,000 in income taxes between 2010 and 2013, according to financial disclosures filed with the Nevada secretary of state.

The first lien was issued by the IRS against Ford in October 2013 after it was determined he failed to pay over $85,000 in taxes for income garnered between 2010 and 2011. A subsequent lien was filed in April 2014 indicating Ford owed more than $42,000 in unpaid income taxes for 2012. In December 2014, the IRS filed a third and final lien against Ford for failing to pay over $58,000 in taxes for 2013.

Ford cited the liens on official financial disclosure forms he was required by law to submit to the Nevada secretary of state's office in 2014 and 2015. The debts were not cited in Ford's 2016 financial disclosure as the liens were released that year.

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Democrats Are In Love With Elizabeth Warren. Why?

The Left is dreaming of Elizabeth Warren.

On Sunday, David Leonhardt of The New York Times wrote a fantasy piece about how Donald Trump will lose his re-election bid in 2020. The basic premise of the piece is that Trump’s 2016 victory was a political outlier, a blip; Trump will fall back to earth. Of course, this was the same theory that failed in 2016:

In hindsight, the extraordinary nature of the circumstances that propelled Trump in 2016 have become obvious: the unpopularity of his opponent, Hillary Clinton; the help from Russia; the late involvement of James Comey, the then-F.B.I. director who now hosts an ABC talk show; and Trump’s razor-thin victories in several states. … Exit polls showed disillusionment across the swing states that Trump won four years ago and lost this year, including Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. In a sign of the country’s changing political map, he held on to Ohio and Iowa, two relatively old and white states — but became the first Republican since 1992 to lose Georgia.

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Trump’s Tweets End the Myth of Fed Independence

Auditing, then ending, the Fed is key to permanently draining the welfare-warfare swamp

President Trump’s recent Tweets expressing displeasure with the Federal Reserve’s (minor) interest rate increases led to accusations that President Trump is undermining the Federal Reserve’s independence. But, the critics ignore the fact that Federal Reserve “independence” is one of the great myths of American politics.

When it comes to intimidating the Federal Reserve, President Trump pales in comparison to President Lyndon Johnson. After the Federal Reserve increased interest rates in 1965, President Johnson summoned then-Fed Chairman William McChesney Martin to Johnson’s Texas ranch where Johnson shoved him against the wall. Physically assaulting the Fed chairman is probably a greater threat to Federal Reserve independence than questioning the Fed’s policies on Twitter.

While Johnson is an extreme example, history is full of cases where presidents pressured the Federal Reserve to adopt policies compatible with the presidents’ agendas — and helpful to their reelection campaigns. Presidents have been pressuring the Fed since its creation. President Warren Harding called on the Fed to lower rates. Richard Nixon was caught on tape joking with then-Fed chair Arthur Burns about Fed independence. And Lloyd Bentsen, President Bill Clinton’s first Treasury secretary, bragged about a “gentleman’s agreement” with then-Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan.

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Boaters Beware...

Trump supporters pelted by eggs, punches can sue San Jose cops after attack, court says

Supporters of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump who were met with flying eggs and punches from counter protesters during a June 2016 San Jose campaign rally can sue the city’s police for allegedly failing to protect them, a new court ruling said.

Trump supporters – many sporting red Make America Great Again hats – who were attending a rally at the McEnery Convention Center were met with hundreds of anti-Trump protesters as they were shepherded out of the building via a single exit.

The suit's 20 plaintiffs claim in a lawsuit that police knowingly ordered them to leave through an exit where protesters were waiting, despite the existence of a safer route and other exits, the San Francisco Chronicle reported last week.

The plaintiff's said they were beaten or struck by objects thrown by the protesters. Initial accounts of the events also said at least one woman was pelted by an egg after a crowd of demonstrators surrounded her, as seen in video of the incident.

One plaintiff claims an officer told her police had been instructed not to intervene in the melee.

The lawsuit says police arrested three people for allegedly assaulting officers at the scene, but no one for attacking Trump supporters, the Chronicle reported.

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Netanyahu Calls on World to Help Repressed Iranians

The world can help Iranians improve their lives by standing up to “a regime that oppresses them and denies them a life of dignity, prosperity and respect” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday night.

Mr. Netanyahu’s message was contained in a video released across social media in which he told the story of an imaginary 15-year-old girl called Fatemeh to illustrate the challenges that face contemporary Iranians.

Fatemeh, Mr. Netanyahu says, has no water, electricity shortages, can’t remove her head-covering outside the home, and her school is cancelled due to air pollution.

“She stops at her favorite bakery in the Aladdin mall to eat cake yazdi but there’s a nation-wide strike,” he continues. Firefighters cannot afford the proper equipment to extinguish fires.

“Fatemeh is completely exasperated,” the prime minister related. “‘Why is everything in my country falling apart?’ she asks.

More/video here

Congratulations To Reel Tight For Winning This Tournament Sunday

Trump Supporting Veteran Violently attacked by LA Mob

A viral video from Thursday night shows a violent mob attacking a Marine veteran who was wearing a Trump shirt near President Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The video begins with an enraged man shouting at Los Angeles-based journalist Elijah Schaffer, who showed up with singer Joy Villa and the veteran, wearing pro-Trump attire. The man, shouting at Schaffer, repeats the phrase "I can say nigger if I want to," before Schaffer tells the man to "get out of my face."

Then, a scuffle breaks out between an Asian man and an individual referred to as a Marine veteran, reports Infowars' Paul Joseph Watson.

The anti-Trump agitator throws the first punch at the veteran and then the man involved in the first confrontation physically assaults the veteran and Schaffer.

Other anti-Trump agitators join in the fight before one of them launches a kick at a man filming the scenes on a large camera.

A group of teenagers then break out in a chant of “fuck Donald Trump” as Schaffer and the veteran, who ably defended themselves against the mob, leave the area. -Infowars

Schaffer tweeted "We stood our ground," however he says his $3,000 camera was stolen.

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Boatload of Illegals Migrants storm Spanish Tourist Beach

Pressure on Spain’s maritime border is increasing, with videos showing boatloads of illegal migrants crashing into busy tourist beaches circulating online as the country overtakes Italy and Greece as the EU’s major weak point.

Footage shared by Diario de Cádiz on Twitter shows an entire boatload of migrants landing in the middle of the packed tourist beach of Zahora on Saturday, July 28th, and disgorging onto the sand, before scattering into the interior unregistered and unvetted.

The incident follows hot on the heels of another illegal landing on Friday at Tarifa, a nudist beach which was not as busy as Zahora due to the time of day.

Footage of the Tarifa landing shows a coast guard or other patrol vessel attempting to stop the migrant boat without success, with the passengers storming the beach while apprehensive locals look on.

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Housing agency head Mel Watt blasts 'selective leaks' of harassment lawsuit

Mel Watt, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt, confirmed he is under investigation for alleged sexual harassment and blasted 'selective leaks' of detailed accusations against him.

'The selective leaks related to this matter are obviously intended to embarrass or to lead to an unfounded or political conclusion,' Watt said in a statement Friday.

'However, I am confident that the investigation currently in progress will confirm that I have not done anything contrary to law,' said Watt, who previously represented a North Carolina district in Congress.

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WICOMICO COUNTY COUNCIL P U B L I C N O T I C E NOTICE OF SPECIAL WORK SESSION

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the County Council of Wicomico County, Maryland will convene for a special work session on Tuesday, August 7, 2018 at 5:00 p.m. in the Government Office Building, Room 301, Salisbury, Maryland for the purpose of discussing the following:  Enterprise Fleet Management – Potential Contract  Forest Conservation Easement Relocation – Friendship Road  Cottage at Adkins Mill Park The regularly scheduled Legislative Session will commence at 6:00 p.m.

Fail: 9 Times Globalists Claimed Mass Immigration Is Necessary to Increase GDP

For decades, the big business lobby, ideologically globalist politicians, and economists have claimed that the only route to increasing the United States’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is through increasing legal immigration levels.

On Friday, thanks to President Trump’s “America First” economy, GDP soared to 4.1 percent for the second quarter of 2018, outpacing the first quarter, in which GDP was 2.2 percent.

While Trump was on the campaign trail throughout 2015 and 2016, he repeatedly said his economic nationalist agenda would bring the U.S. GDP to at least three percent.

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Not Just Massachusetts: 10 Other States Have Abortion Bans Still on the Books

With the future of Roe v. Wade uncertain, the state is on the verge of repealing its 173-year-old law that criminalizes abortion. Similar efforts are underway in some other states.

Massachusetts is on the verge of passing the NASTY Women Act. That is, the Negating Archaic Statutes Targeting Young Women Act, which will repeal a 173-year-old state law that prohibited "procuring a miscarriage."

Despite abortion being legalized by the U.S. Supreme Court 45 years ago, the antiquated law has remained on the books. The state's Republican governor, Charlie Baker, has a history of supporting abortion rights and has pledged to sign the bill.

But Massachusetts is just one of 10 states with an archaic abortion ban still on the books. All pre-date Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court case that legalized abortion.

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Facebook, Under State Pressure, Will End Discriminatory Ad Targeting

Facebook will be legally required to end its practice of allowing businesses to block certain groups like blacks, gays and immigrants from viewing ads under an agreement reached with the Washington State Attorney General's Office.

The Attorney General's Office said Tuesday it had launched an investigation into the social-media giant and successfully bought 20 fake Facebook ads that excluded various ethnic minorities in late 2016. The ads, all approved by Facebook, were in some cases blatantly racist: One housing ad contained a headline specifically stating that people of certain ethnicities need not apply; another was looking for a white tenant.

On Tuesday, under pressure from the investigation, Facebook signed a legally binding document in court in Seattle requiring it to shut down the advertising tool for businesses looking to exclude demographics protected under state law.

The practice, first unveiled in a series of ProPublica articles that sparked the attorney general's investigation, is one of several issues facing Facebook's lucrative advertising network, which allows anyone from presidential candidates to the local flower-shop owner to micro-target its billions of users.

When advertisers launch a campaign, Facebook offers a drop-down menu where they can select what types of people won't see their ads, which it calls "exclusion marketing." A landlord could advertise an open apartment and make sure black Facebook users couldn't see it, for instance -- an apparent violation of fair-housing laws.

The Attorney General's Office noted that this type of misuse did occur on occasion with real-world advertisers, though it did not cite any examples.

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Jeb Bush's Florida do-gooder with a $761,000 salary

Next time you hear President Obama, or Jeb Bush, or Bernie Sanders call for more funds and programs for some social issue, or else praise public-private "partnerships," take a gander at what goes on in such rackets over in Florida, from this Miami Herald report:

Tiffany Carr runs the state's top domestic violence organization, a nonprofit that uses public money – state and federal – to finance shelters and other essential services. And she makes a good living.

How good? In a June 30, 2017 report, the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence disclosed she is paid $761,560 annually, a salary that is approved by its board. She hit that mark after receiving pay raises totaling $313,475 over a two-year period.

"That's – it's ridiculous," said Dan Ravicher, a professor at University of Miami School of Law who focuses on nonprofits, business and social entrepreneurship. "We're talking almost 2 percent of the budget being paid to one person. That's pretty unusual."

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The Treasonous Democratic Party

If America had more honest, fact-based journalists with integrity like Tucker Carlson, we would not be, as we are today, dissolving as a country.

In this one TV broadcast, Carlson shows that the Democrats have gone far beyond “lying through their teeth political partisanship” into deranged hatred of President Trump and the American people who elected him.

The Democrats’ insane hatred of “Trump deplorables” has firmly allied the Democrats with the corrupt military/security complex in a plot to overthrow the elected President of the United States. (Read CIA/FBI/DOJ Plot To Overthrow The President Of The United States.)

Carlson presents the former heads of US intelligence in the corrupt Obama regime accusing President Trump of treason against the United States for trying to normalize relations with Russia and endangering the United States for trying to make peace.

What these former heads of intelligence mean is that Trump, by attempting to normalize relations with Russia, is endangering the $1,000 billion annual budget of the military/security complex and the multi-millions each of them expect to receive for their service in office not to US national security but to the security of the military/security complex’s budget.

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WATCH: Good Cop Charges Police Chief with a Felony and Is Immediately Fired

New Holland, OH — New Holland Police Sergeant Brad Mick was doing his job of trying to fight crime in the city of New Holland, and for his dedication to duty, he was fired. This good cop was relieved from duty because the alleged criminals he went after were part of the thin blue line.

Mick dared to call out corruption in his own department by executing a search warrant and filing charges against the mayor, the current police chief, and the former police chief. He was then immediately fired — but not before he tried to seek protection from termination.

According to the Fayette Advocate, Mick filed what is commonly known as a “whistleblower protection affidavit” under Ohio law with Fiscal Officer Mavis Yourchuck a week ago. On Monday night, he filed the same document with the mayor, police chief, and council vice president, Gregg Shaw.

“Pursuant to the Whistleblower Protection Act of Ohio and Revised Code 4113.52, let this serve as my notification that I believe felonies are being committed by New Holland Mayor Clair ‘Butch’ Betzko and New Holland Village Marshal David Conrad,” read the affidavit. “Pursuant to R.C. 4113.52(A)(1)(a), this is my complaint. The village and its administration are hereby put on notice that you are barred from seeking retaliatory measures against me, including but not limited to:

● Removing or suspending the employee from employment;
● Withholding from the employee salary increases or employee benefits to which the employee is otherwise entitled;
● Transferring or reassigning the employee;
● Denying the employee a promotion that otherwise would have been received;
● Reducing the employee in pay or position.”

After Mick discovered forgery crimes within the department, he obtained a search warrant and carried it out on Saturday. With the help of the Ohio Highway Patrol and the Pickaway County Sheriff’s office, Mick raided the department.

“For an officer to investigate his own boss when he has probable cause and evidence of a crime being committed is perhaps the most commendable act of all,” said criminal defense attorney Brad Jones of Mick’s bravery to cross the thin blue line. “This officer clearly takes his oath of office seriously and any law enforcement officer who cannot respect that should not have a badge or gun.”

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Maryland Lottery Dad’s Scratch-off Tradition Leads to $200,000 Lottery Payday

Wicomico County woman claims $200,000 Jackpot game’s top prize

A Salisbury woman is celebrating all of the great things that happen when family members come to visit – like winning the Lottery! When the 40-year-old and her father scratched a couple of $200,000 Jackpot instant tickets this week, she uncovered the $10 game’s $200,000 top prize.

The Medicare benefits coordinator said that her winning moment was a product of a family tradition that she and her father rekindled when her parents came to visit. “He always liked to scratch, so we picked up a couple of the $200,000 Jackpot tickets and scratched them at home,” she said.

The Wicomico County resident was standing up, talking with her family, when she revealed a match on her instant ticket and then the prize below. “When I saw the skinny zeroes, I knew I had something big,” she said. “I was pretty calm but I began to show the ticket to each of my family members to confirm what I was seeing.”

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New futuristic Israeli 'dune-buggy' is bristling with weapons

This fast attack buggy looks like it is made of Legos – and it reconfigures similar to Legos – but it is a lethal combat machine.

Foldable weapons systems, camouflage against thermal imagers, protection against nuclear weapons, tech to defeat chemical attacks, armor against explosions and machine gun fire … these are just a few of the options that forces can choose for this new vehicle, the Mantis.

The external looks are deliberately different, the inside is radically different as well. Rather than a typical ATV seat, the driver’s experience is like being sat in an aircraft cockpit.

The Mantis was revealed by Carmor at the Eurosatory event in Paris last week.

More here
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2018/06/22/new-futuristic-israeli-dune-buggy-is-bristling-with-weapons-ready-for-combat.html

Over 20 Percent of Incoming College Freshmen Claim to Be Disabled

At top colleges around the country, over 20 percent of incoming freshmen claim to be disabled.

22 percent at Pomona College in California. 18 percent at Pitzer College in California, Vassar College in New York, Reed College in Oregon, and Mount Holyoke in Massachusetts. 14 percent at Stanford Universty. These are the percentage of students who considered themselves disabled at top universities around the country. That means that almost one in five students in every classroom is classified as disabled by school officials.

Jan Collins-Eaglin, the Claremont consortium’s associate dean of students for personal success and wellness, says that anxiety and stress are likely behind the increase in the number of “disabled” students. “At Pomona, we have extremely talented bright students with very high expectations who are coming in with a good level of anxiety and are highly stressed,” she said in a comment to the Wall Street Journal. “Our job here is to help them really thrive.”

Despite the increase in the number of students that identify as “disabled,” top school officials say that the rigor of the curriculum hasn’t changed. Jodi Foley, the director of accessibility services at Amherst College, says that Amherst has only continued to strengthen its academic program as more and more students report mental health and anxiety issues. “The academic profile of Amherst’s student population continues to increase as it continues to diversify.”

Others, still, are upset at some advantages given to students who face certain types of anxiety. Some students who experience panic attacks received special accommodations during SAT exams. Some were offered special “distraction-free” environment. Others were offered additional time to complete the exam.

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Is George Soros Fueling Race Riots in DC Ahead of Midterms?

Nazi Leader Jason Kessler — a Former Occupy Wall Street Leader — Is Holding a Rally in Washington DC

Nazi Leader Jason Kessler Branding DC Rally As Alt-Lite, Pro-Trump

Deep State Plant Seeks To Galvanize #Resistance Against Trump Before Midterms – Bloodbath Predicted By Both Alt-Right Leaders and Antifa

Neo-Nazi and Charlottesville rally planner Jason Kessler is now ordering his followers to re-brand themselves as “Alt-Lite”, to carry American flags, and to align themselves with President Trump and the Republican Party at his upcoming “Unite the Right 2” rally in front of the White House on August 12, all in an effort to galvanize the Deep State #Resistance against the GOP right before the critical midterm elections.

In a recent YouTube video, Kessler, an admitted leftist provocateur and Occupy Wall Street organizer, has called for a march down Pennsylvania Avenue and speeches in front of the White House.

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Trump steels for possible government shutdown amid border wall impasse

President Trump said Monday that he wouldn’t flinch from shutting down the government over border wall funding, saying the years of talk about border security has gotten nowhere.

Funding for a border wall would be a major sticking point in spending bills due by Sept. 30 to keep the government open.

“We are the laughingstock of the world. We have the worst immigration laws in the world,” Mr. Trump said.

In the tweet, Mr. Trump demanded more border security including a border wall, end of catch-and-release policies and a move to a merit-based immigration system.

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Here are the SIX BIGGEST DEEP STATE LIES from the FISA Memo to Spy on Republican Candidate Donald Trump and His Campaign

The FISA memo used by the FBI to obtain a warrant to spy on President Trump was released last week. Although heavily redacted, the biggest lie in the FISA application is what was not shared.

We now know that the Steele Dosier was materially the sole support for the FISA application the FBI used to spy on President Trump.

The document was based on the work of an individual in the UK who supposedly interviewed Russians and who was paid by the Hillary Clinton campaign. We really have no idea who Steele purportedly interviewed to obtain [create] the salacious dossier, nor does the FBI. There have been no interviews of Russians who supposedly provided the salacious information in the dossier.

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Another Good #lipsyncchallenge

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Education: The Homeschooling Option

Americans have lost faith in the public school system. Only 36 percent of U.S. parents have a “great deal” of support for public schools, according to a 2017 study by Gallup. But despite this dismal reality, more than 90 percent of American children remain enrolled in public schools.

There is, however, a growing contingent of parents who are rejecting government schools and instead choosing to educate their own children at home. Although homeschoolers only currently make up about 3.4 percent of the total student population, homeschooling is a shining example of what education freedom can deliver. When it comes to standardized testing and other educational benchmarks, there is no denying that homeschoolers fare much better than their public school counterparts. After examining a compilation of nationwide studies, Dr. Brian Ray of the National Home Education Research Institute revealed that, “The homeschooled have consistently scored in these studies, on average, at the 65th to 80th percentile on standardized academic achievement tests in the United States and Canada, compared to the public school average of the 50th percentile.”

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The 10 Most Destructive Americans of My 8 Decades

America has undergone enormous change during the nearly eight decades of my life. Today, America is a bitterly divided, poorly educated and morally fragile society with so-called mainstream politicians pushing cynical identity politics, socialism and open borders. The president of the United States is threatened with impeachment because the other side doesn’t like him. The once reasonably unbiased American media has evolved into a hysterical left wing mob. How could the stable and reasonably cohesive America of the 1950s have reached this point in just one lifetime? Who are the main culprits? Here’s my list of the 10 most destructive Americans of the last 80 years.

10) Mark Felt – Deputy director of the FBI, aka “Deep Throat” during the Watergate scandal. This was the first public instance of a senior FBI officially directly interfering in America’s political affairs. Forerunner of James Comey, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page and Andrew McCabe.

9) Bill Ayers– Represents the deep and ongoing leftist ideological damage to our education system. An unrepentant American terrorist who evaded punishment, he devoted his career to radicalizing American education and pushing leftist causes. Ghost wrote Obama’s book, “Dreams of My Father.”

8) Teddy Kennedy – Most folks remember Teddy as the guy who left Mary Joe Kopechne to die in his car at Chappaquiddick. The real damage came after he avoided punishment for her death and became a major Democrat force in the US Senate, pushing through transformative liberal policies in health care and education. The real damage was the 1965 Hart-Cellar immigration bill he pushed hard for that changed the quota system to increase the flow of third world people without skills into the US and essentially ended large-scale immigration from Europe.

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It's Now Or Never For Trump

There can be no better advertisement against Democrats, neoconservatives, and never-Trumpers than their display after the Helsinki summit. Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.

The Democrats’ destruction began long before Trump. They are wholly associated with government, their answer to all problems and the source of their identity and power. Where they once had a healthy hostility towards the military and the intelligence agencies, they are now among their stoutest defenders. Their ideology, such as it is, is simply more: more government, taxes, laws, regulations, revenues, power, surveillance, wars, and programs, in short, more blob.

Democrats and government is not just a marriage of convenience. They believe, to the core of their being, in its power with a fervor and conviction that surpasses most religious faith. Denied control of the government, they are fish on the bank, deprived of their element, flopping helplessly. The cardinal sin of whatever opposition they face is never rooted in ideology, it’s rather that the opposition has the temerity to seek control of their government.

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Arkansas woman shoots, kills husband over pornography, police say

An Arkansas woman was arrested Saturday after telling police she shot and killed her husband because he bought pornography, officials said.

The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office said in a news release it received a call around 2:30 p.m. from 69-year-old Patricia Hill, who told dispatchers she just shot her 65-year-old husband, Frank.

When police arrived at the home, located about 36 miles south of Little Rock, they found Frank Hill dead in a shed on the property. Hill sustained two gunshot wounds to the upper and lower body, according to police.

The sheriff's office said that during an interview with Hill, she told investigators she arrived home and went to the shed on her property to confront her husband, but there had never been any physical altercations between the couple.

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http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/07/29/arkansas-woman-shoots-kills-husband-over-pornography-police-say.html

Barbara Lee looks to seize her moment

The longtime liberal lawmaker is making a bid for House Democratic leadership amid rising enthusiasm on the left.

Rep. Barbara Lee has long been on the political periphery, but the party may now be coming around to her.

After finishing two votes shy of breaking into House Democratic leadership in 2016, the left-leaning California Democrat is counting on a stronger start — and a liberal base clamoring for hard-edged resistance to President Donald Trump — in her bid to win election as Democratic Caucus chair.

In an interview with POLITICO, Lee touted the “new wave” of progressive energy and noted that Democrats have never had an African-American woman in leadership.

“I want to be a voice at the table that really hasn’t been at the table,” she said.

Whether Lee gets the chance may depend on her ability to win over younger House Democrats calling for generational change in leadership.

The 72-year old Lee has been in Congress for 20 years and praises the caucus’ longtime leaders, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. That’s in stark contrast to her opponent in the race: Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.), who is demanding turnover at the top and who defeated Lee two years ago for the post of Democratic Caucus vice chair.

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Watch – Copenhagen Imam: ‘Jihad Necessitates the Muslim Invasion and Conquest of Europe’

“Europe must be invaded again.”

Imam Mundhir Abdallah, of the Masjid Al-Faruq mosque in Copenhagen, told his followers “the final solution to the problem of the Levant – after the establishment of the Caliphate and the elimination of the Jewish entity – will be through the conquest of Europe.”

Abdallah was speaking on a video first released in 2017. It has now been made public and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) just a week after he was charged with hate speech over a separate incident where repeated a call to kill Jews.

In the latest video, Abdallah lays out a plan whereby Muslims can conquer all of Europe and deliver a final blow to the “vileness” of the Jewish people.

“Europe must be invaded again,” he said, calling for a new Islamic conquest of Al-Andalus, the Balkans, and Rome, in order to fulfill the promise of the Prophet Muhammad.

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Resort Files Motion To Stop Preliminary Injunction In Topless Case

OCEAN CITY — Evoking the “character and moral balance of a historically family-oriented tourist destination,” the Town of Ocean City late last week fired back against a request for a preliminary injunction allowing women to immediately go bare-chested in the resort while the larger civil case trudges through the court system.

A little over a year ago, the Ocean City Mayor and Council passed an emergency ordinance prohibiting women from going topless in certain public areas, including the beach and Boardwalk, where men are allowed to go shirtless. The ordinance was passed in response to a request from Chelsea Eline of the Town of Ocean City, the Worcester County State’s Attorney’s Office and the Maryland Attorney General’s Office to clarify existing state laws prohibiting female toplessness in certain public areas.

Earlier this year, Eline and four other named plaintiffs filed suit in U.S. District Court against the town, challenging the ordinance that prohibits women from going topless and exposing their breasts in the same areas where men are allowed to go shirtless. In late June, the plaintiffs filed a motion for a preliminary injunction that would allow them, and ostensibly any other women who chose to do so, to go topless in Ocean City immediately while the larger civil suit makes it way through the courts.

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MAXINE WATERS THREATENS TO REVERSE TRUMP’S ‘TAX SCAM’ IF DEMOCRATS WIN CONGRESS

Rep. Maxine Waters on Sunday promised to reverse the GOP tax cuts — or “tax scam,” as she called them — if Democrats retake control of Congress. The California lawmaker also said President Trump would be “in trouble” if that happens.

WATCH:

Watchdog Finds $15B in U.S. Taxpayer Waste on Afghanistan Reconstruction

The U.S. has wasted at least $15 billion in taxpayer dollars on failed reconstruction projects in Afghanistan, according to a letter a government watchdog agency sent to members of Congress, which was released on Thursday.

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), a government watchdog office set up to monitor U.S. spending, identified $15.5 billion in waste, fraud, and abuse between its inception in 2008 through December 2017, according to the letter sent to Reps. Walter Jones (R-NC), Peter Welch (D-VT), and Tim Walberg (R-MI).

That $15.5 billion figure came from SIGAR’s examination of only $52.7 billion of the total $126 billion in U.S. taxpayer funds appropriated for Afghanistan reconstruction projects — or 42 percent of the funds examined so far.

Of the $15.5 billion wasted, $2.2 billion and $3.5 billion were spread across 643 instances, but the bulk of it — $12 billion — came from two government reconstruction efforts t

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Study: 'Medicare for All' Projected to Cost $32.6 Trillion

Sen. Bernie Sanders' "Medicare for all" plan would increase government healthcare spending by $32.6 trillion over 10 years, according to a study by a university-based libertarian policy center.

That's trillion with a "T."

The latest plan from the Vermont independent would require historic tax increases as government replaces what employers and consumers now pay for health care, according to the analysis being released Monday by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Virginia. It would deliver significant savings on administration and drug costs, but increased demand for care would drive up spending, the analysis found.

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Woman Charged After Jumping Off Route 50 Bridge

OCEAN CITY — An Ocean Pines woman was arrested for causing a disturbance in public hours after jumping off the Route 50 bridge on Sunday night and allegedly washing up on the rocks at the Ocean City end of the span.

Around 9:20 p.m. on Sunday, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Ocean City Police Department, the Maryland Natural Resources Police (NRP) and the Maryland State Police helicopter Trooper 4 were all dispatched to the area of the Route 50 Bridge to initiate a search effort for a reported jumper. Several people in the area had contacted the bridge tender and the Coast Guard and advised a woman had jumped off the bridge into the water.

The allied agencies searched the area for over two hours, but did not locate anyone in the water or in the surrounding area. The Ocean City Fire Department fire boat was also launched from its berth at 14th Street to join the search efforts, but was later recalled. The MSP helicopter searched the area with several passes over the bayside in the downtown area.

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The Republican Party: Not Much of a Horse But the Only One in the Corral

The tragedy of American conservatism is that its only electoral home is in a party most of whose funds come from those who agree with the globalist agenda and whose privileged position insulates them from its disastrous cultural consequences. In short, America’s corporate elite is making tons of money from globalism -- chiefly, mass immigration and manufacturing outsourcing -- while they experience no negative effects in their privileged and insular world.

Oh sure, they advocate a bit of border protection here, a little improvement in US trade deals there, but basically they’re on board for free trade, relaxed borders and mass immigration. They have a wealthy person’s distaste for excessive government regulation and high taxes -- hence, they are “Republicans” -- but, stem the flood of cheap labor immigrants? Why on earth would they want to do that?

The first economic consequence of mass immigration is lower labor costs across the economy, from lettuce pickers to computer programmers, and that pushes historic quantities of money up to America’s corporate owners and executives. The working and middle classes endure the economic downside in the form of fewer jobs and much lower wages.

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Lawmakers Approve 2.6 Percent Military Pay Raise

A panel of House and Senate lawmakers on Monday reached a deal on a massive defense policy bill that includes a 2.6 percent pay raise for service members and an increase in troops, equipment and weapons for the Defense Department.

Senate and House Armed Services Committee staffers, who spoke with reporters on the condition of anonymity, said Monday that the National Defense Authorization Act, or H.R. 2810, will also address a series of other matters, including the next step in creating a space force and authorization for a military parade in November.

The House began debating the negotiated deal, known as the NDAA conference report, Monday night. The effort could draw a vote in the lower chamber as early as this week.

"This legislation will strengthen our military's readiness, provide our troops a pay raise, support effective implementation of the National Defense Strategy, drive further innovation in emerging technologies to secure our military advantage and continue to reform the Department of Defense," Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Jack Reed, D-R.I., Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., respectively the chairman, ranking Democratic member and a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a joint statement Monday.

The move signals the 2019 defense bill remains on track for on-time passage by Oct. 1, the start of the new fiscal year.

"This House is committed to rebuilding our military and ensuring our brave men and women in uniform have the equipment and training they need to successfully carry out their mission," said House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. "I look forward to another big bipartisan vote."

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California man, 32, charged with 15 felonies for California fires

A man has been accused of starting multiple fires that burned five homes on Friday and prompted thousands of evacuations from an entire Southern California mountain town.

Brandon McGlover was charged with 15 felony counts that carry a potential sentence of life in prison if convicted, according to the Riverside County District Attorney's Office.

McGlover was arrested on Wednesday and accused of starting at least nine fires in the Idyllwild, Anza and Sage areas of southern California, CBS News reported, located about 100 miles east of Los Angeles.

His bail has been set at $1 million. Charges include one count of aggravated arson, five counts of arson of an inhabited structure and nine counts of arson of forest or wildland.

One of the fires erupted Wednesday afternoon and quickly grew to seven-and-a-half square miles, fueled by dry brush and trees in rugged terrain.

It was burning in and around San Bernardino National Forest, prompting officials to order evacuations for Idyllwild and surrounding communities.

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Texas jury convicts doctor of sexually assaulting patient

DALLAS – A Texas doctor accused of sexually assaulting several patients was sentenced to 10 years in prison Friday after he was convicted of assaulting a woman who sought care for a physical disability.

Donald Ozumba, 45, was found guilty earlier Friday of aggravated sexual assault of an elderly person in a trial that Collin County prosecutors said was one of the most egregious they've ever encountered involving a physician victimizing patients.

The verdict came after almost 10 hours of deliberation. The Collin County jury deliberated about 2½ hours before arriving at the sentence. Ozumba's attorney has asked the jury to sentence the doctor to probation, while prosecutors asked for a 45-year prison sentence. The jury could have sentenced Ozumba to up to life in prison.

Six other sexual assault cases are still pending against the Nigerian-born doctor, who investigators say showed a pattern of abuse.

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http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/07/27/texas-jury-convicts-doctor-sexually-assaulting-patient.html

Housing Market Collapse 2.0 Accelerates Rapidly!

Just ten days ago, your Lone Ranger here laid out why one should see the barely beginning downturn of the housing market in Seattle as the bellwether for a national housing market bust. Naturally a snowflake or two of criticism landed on my nose to say I knew nothing about real estate. That being the case, look at how the world has changed in so little time to catch up with me. An idea that you may have read here first is now mainstream news in every housing fact being reported across the nation and around the world.

The Seattle slump

Let’s start with Bloomberg’s article that came out two days ago since Bloomberg also now sees Seattle as being an omen for what is developing nationally:

“The U.S. Housing Market Looks Headed for Its Worst Slowdown in Years” Sellers were getting jumpy, even here in the hottest of markets. Homes that should have vanished in days were sitting on the market for weeks…. The U.S. housing market — particularly in cutthroat areas like Seattle, Silicon Valley and Austin, Texas — appears to be headed for the broadest slowdown in years. Buyers are getting squeezed by rising mortgage rates and by prices climbing about twice as fast as incomes, and there’s only so far they can stretch.

That, of course, has been my own argument as to why the housing market would resume its collapse this summer. (As regular readers will recall, I predicted last summer that a collapse that had begun would be delayed due to all the hurricanes and wildfires, which destroyed over half a million houses. Subsequently, I showed how the housing market ramped up right after that season of storms for about three months and then began to decline again, and I said the decline would become a collapse by the end of this summer. Now here we are already seeing it rapidly build.)

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US cuts carbon emissions more than foreign nations that criticize Trump environmental policies

When President Trump announced his plan to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Accords in June 2017, the howling cries from left-wing environmentalists could be heard across the globe.

From Canada to China and throughout Europe, the world denounced the president’s decision as reckless and in contradiction to “settled science.” Without the Paris Climate Accords, they argued, Earth would soon find itself cascading off the global warming cliff.

One year later, Earth is still here, as you may have noticed.

And the U.S. economy – due in large part to the Trump administration’s commitment to deregulation and energy dominance – has continued to grow at breakneck speed. On Friday the federal government announced our nation’s gross domestic product grew at an annualized rate of 4.1 percent in the second quarter of this year – the highest growth rate in four years.

On top of this good news, despite the warnings of gloom and doom from President Trump’s opponents, America is now the world leader in cutting carbon dioxide emissions. Yes, you read that right.

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http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/07/28/us-cuts-carbon-emissions-more-than-foreign-nations-that-criticize-trump-environmental-policies.html

Nancy PELOSI & Maxine WATERS Meltdown on MSNBC, C-SPAN, & FOX News Live (Dumb and Dumber Ep. 11)

The story of the snowman: - how dumb today's world is!

It had been snowing all night. So at ...

8:00 I made a snowman.

8:10 A feminist passed by and asked me why I didn't make a snow woman.

8:15 So, I made a snow woman

8:17 My feminist neighbor complained about the snow woman's voluptuous chest saying it objectified snow women everywhere

8:20 The gay couple living nearby threw a hissy fit and moaned it could have been two snowmen instead

8:22 The transgender person asked why I didn't just make one snow person with detachable parts

8:25 The vegans at the end of the lane complained about the carrot nose, as veggies are food and not to decorate snow figures with.

8:28 I am being called a racist because the snow couple is white..

8:31 The Muslim gent across the road demands the snow woman wear a burqa

8:40 The Police arrive saying someone has been offended

8:42 The feminist neighbor complained again that the broomstick of the snow woman needs to be removed because it depicted women in a domestic role

8:43 The ERA officer arrived and threatened me with eviction.

8:45 TV news crew from the ABC shows up. I am asked if I know the difference between snowmen and snow-women? I reply, "Snowballs" and am called a sexist.

9:00 I'm on the News as a suspected terrorist, racist, homophobic sensibility offender bent on stirring up trouble during difficult weather.

9:10 I am asked if I have any accomplices... My children are taken by social services

9:29 Far left protesters offended by everything are marching down the street demanding for me to be beheaded.

Moral: There is no moral to this story. It's just the world in which we live today and I hear it's going to get worse.

Why lb Is the Symbol for Pounds

Have you ever wondered why we use the symbol "lb" for the "pounds" unit? The word "pound" is short for "pound weight," which was libra pondo in Latin. The libra part of the phrase meant both weight or balance scales. The Latin usage was shortened to libra, which naturally was abbreviated "lb". We adopted the pound part frompondo, yet kept the abbreviation forlibra.

There are different definitions for the mass of a pound, depending on the country. In the United States, the modern pound unit is defined to be 2.20462234 pounds per metric kilogram. There are 16 ounces in 1 pound. However, in Roman times, the libra (pound) was about 0.3289 kilograms and was divided into 12 uncia or ounces.

In Britain, there has been more than one type of "pound", including the avoirdupois point and Troy pound. A pound sterling was a tower pound of silver, but the standard was changed to the Troy pound in 1528. The tower pound, merchant's pound, and London pound are obsolete units. The Imperial Standard Pound is defined as having a mass equal to 0.45359237 kilograms, which matches the definition of the international pound, as agreed upon (although not adopted by the U.S.) in 1959.

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What's The Point

Former Missouri sheriff, deputy had affair, now indicted on multiple felonies

A southern Missouri sheriff and a deputy with whom he had an affair were both indicted last week on felonies -- including assault, robbery and harassment -- in a scenario that the interim sheriff described as “wheels (falling) off.”

Former Texas County Sheriff James Sigman, 48, and Lt. Deputy Jennifer Tomaszewski, 38, also were indicted on child endangerment and unlawful use of a weapon.

Sigman hired Tomaszewski as a jailer in December 2016, which was around the time they began a romance, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported, citing court records. She was then promoted to administrator of the 72-bed jail seven months later, the report said.

The probable cause statement said she did not have “prior experience” when she was promoted.

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http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/07/28/former-missouri-sheriff-deputy-had-affair-now-indicted-on-multiple-felonies.html

The Danger of Dirty Dems

As stupid as they may at times seem, I often wonder if the Dirty Dems will ever become rational enough to realize that the underlying theme of their message — the fundamental transformation of America — will never again get them voted into power. Too many people who were taken in by the hype that gave us Barack Obama now realize that it was a carefully orchestrated scam.

After being lulled into a white-guilt slumber by the exciting idea of electing America’s first “black” president, millions of voters now regretfully understand the wisdom in the idiom “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” They are what the social media crowd refers to as “woke.”

These people may be embarrassed by being taken in by the Marxist hyperbole of a shiftless community organizer, they may even be ashamed by it, but they seem determined not to be fooled again. As a pretty smart fellow once said, you can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.

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Obama's Dying Vision: The Only Card in the Democratic Deck

As the Democratic Party continues to scrum ahead of the 2018 midterm elections – and ultimately the 2020 presidential election – Democrats of all stripes are eager to see who will be squeezed out of the pack and step up to articulate some kind of unified Progressive vision to challenge the Trump presidency.

Yet, even at this late date, Democrats appear rudderless and out of ideas – still clinging to their relentless intifada of resistance to shake off Donald Trump's occupation of the American government. As this approach hasn't proven to be an altogether winning strategy, recently, the DNC brain trust announced their intention to enlist the advice of Hollywood writers, directors, and producers to craft Tinseltown-style messaging in the hope of generating Democratic victories. Given the four-letter tirades of Robert De Niro, the vulgar tweets of Peter Fonda, the nightly broadsides of talk show hosts, and the rallying cries and rants of entertainment elites everywhere, the Hollywood message is loud and clear and can be reduced to two words: F--- you!

What Democrats don't seem to understand is that Hollywood is not a "messaging" apparatus, nor is parading Trump-hating celebrities into the spotlight a winning substitute for a clear enunciation of what the Democratic Party stands for and whom it represents. Let us not forget the bawdy conga line of Hollywood royalty who stepped up noisily during Hillary's 2016 campaign – and delivered nothing. Employing a "long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." approach to a TV political ad or get-out-the-vote appeal bereft of a lucid, straightforward liberal message is, as former Democratic Texas governor Ann Richards once remarked, like this: "you can put lipstick on a hog and call it Monique, but it is still a pig."

The truth is, the Democrats have no message. There is no vision. There is no agenda. There is no Democratic counter to "Make America Great Again." Nor is there a leader to voice such a vision and stamp it with his imprimatur if there were one.

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Americans' Intentions To Buy A Car Collapse As High Rates Crush Home-Buying Plans

We hate to be the ones to steal the jam out of President Trump's donut but UMich consumer sentiment slumped to six-month lows in June, despite the surging economic growth, as trade anxiety weighed on current conditions.

The headline sentiment index eased to 97.9 (est. 97.1) from prior month’s 98.2 as current conditions gauge, which measures Americans’ perceptions of their finances, fell to 114.4 from 116.5 in June (but the expectations measure increased to 87.3 from June’s 86.3).

“Consumers who had negative concerns about the tariffs voiced much more pessimistic economic outlook,” Richard Curtin, director of the University of Michigan consumer survey, said in a statement.

“These negative economic expectations could quickly disappear if the trade issues with Europe are promptly settled and immediately followed by agreements with China, Canada, and Mexico.”

Additionally, it seems the poor are feeling worse and the rich slightly better...

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'That's ... Ridiculous': Florida Domestic Violence Chief Earns $761,000

Tiffany Carr runs the state's top domestic violence organization, a nonprofit that uses public money -- state and federal -- to finance shelters and other essential services. And she makes a good living.

How good? In a June 30, 2017 report, the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence disclosed she is paid $761,560 annually, a salary that is approved by its board. She hit that mark after receiving pay raises totaling $313,475 over a two-year period.

"That's -- it's ridiculous," said Dan Ravicher, a professor at University of Miami School of Law who focuses on nonprofits, business and social entrepreneurship. "We're talking almost 2 percent of the budget being paid to one person. That's pretty unusual."

Carr's coalition, a nonprofit that reports its top salaries on annual Internal Revenue Service forms called 990s, is one of many private organizations that receive state funds to provide social services. In addition, the coalition operates as a pass-through, awarding public funds to smaller domestic violence organizations.

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Chicago Funnels A Third Of Property Taxes To Mayor-Managed Slush Funds

Nearly a third of property tax revenue in Chicago is diverted into 143 TIF districts controlled by the mayor, nearly half of which are located in affluent neighborhoods.

Tax increment financing, or TIF, districts in Cook County generated a record $1 billion in 2017, up nearly 18 percent from 2016,according to the Cook County clerk. Chicago accounted for most of these gains by generating $660 million, an 18 percent increase from 2016. As long as these TIF districts exist, however, struggling school districts in those districts won’t see a dime of this revenue. This comes at a time when Cook County and Chicago face budget shortfalls up to $95 million and $812 million, respectively, by 2020.

In theory, TIFs are a mechanism used to revitalize “blighted” neighborhoods by providing economic incentives for developers to invest in the area. TIFs freeze the Equalized Assessment Value, or EAV, of all properties in a designated TIF district and divert all property tax revenue above that EAV into a private TIF fund. The amount of property tax revenue collected by individual taxing bodies within a TIF district – school districts, libraries, et cetera – is effectively capped at the frozen EAV.

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ICE Banned From Using Philadelphia Arrest Database

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney announced Friday that the city will stop sharing their real-time arrest database with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) following protests at City Hall, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“I cannot in good conscience allow the agreement to continue,” the Democrat mayor said, adding "We’re not going to provide them with information so they can go out and round people up."

Kenny's decision means the city will not renew a contract with the agency that expires at the end of August.

The decision comes after months of consultation with community groups, lawyers and immigrant advocates, and follows weeks of tumultuous protests by anti-ICE demonstrators, who on Wednesday took over and held a City Hall stairway.

A formal announcement is scheduled for Friday afternoon at City Hall. ICE officials were informed Thursday in an emailed letter from City Solicitor Marcel Pratt.

Kenney said he had grown increasingly concerned that ICE was using the database “in inappropriate ways,” including to conduct investigations of undocumented immigrants in Philadelphia who had not broken any other laws. -Philly.com

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"There's No Way To Make This Work" Martenson Warns "A Big Reset Is Locked In"

Futurist and economic researcher Chris Martenson says we are not at the end of a business cycle but “. . . at the end of a credit cycle.”

Martenson warns, “Here’s why people need to be concerned. Credit cycles, when they blow up, are really, really destructive..."

"2008 to 2009 was very destructive. Instead of realizing the error of their ways, they went for a third. This is the most comprehensive credit cycle that we have seen. Remember, bubbles have two things that they need. Number one, a good story that people can believe in and, of course, it’s a false story. Number two, ample credit. That’s what the Fed and central banks of Japan and Europe have done. They just flooded the world with credit. Now, we have bubbles everywhere. When these burst, it will be the worst bursting in anybody’s lifetime because we have never seen anything like this.”

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College Course Disputes Idea That Hetersosexual Sex Is "Natural"

Eugene Lang College, part of The New School in Lower Manhattan, will offer a course next semester for students who wish to fight “heterosexist” explanations of animals and nature.

Taught by Heather Davis, “Queer Ecologies” is a four-credit course offered by the school’s Culture and Media department for students who wish to “disrupt prevailing heterosexist discursive and institutional articulations of sexuality and nature.”

According to the professor, these "heterosexist" explanations of sexuality and nature often involve referring to male/female animals.

According to the course description, students will be taught to “reimagine evolutionary processes, ecological interactions, and environmental politics in light of queer theory” by drawing from research in fields such as feminist science studies and environmental justice.

Students will also “draw important connections between the material and cultural dimensions of environmental issues, and examine the ways in which sex and nature are understood in light of multiple trajectories of power and matter,” the description adds.

During an interview with Campus Reform, Davis explained that queer ecologies is an “interdisciplinary field that examines the relationship between sexuality and nature, thinking beyond the boundaries of assuming that heterosexuality is the norm or standard.”

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Domestic Surveillance Being Conducted On Americans By TSA

TSA is tracking regular travelers like terrorists in secret surveillance program.

Federal air marshals have begun following ordinary US citizens not suspected of a crime or on any terrorist watch list and collecting extensive information about their movements and behavior under a new domestic surveillance program that is drawing criticism from within the agency.

The previously undisclosed program, called “Quiet Skies,” specifically targets travelers who “are not under investigation by any agency and are not in the Terrorist Screening Data Base,” according to a Transportation Security Administration bulletin in March.

The internal bulletin describes the program’s goal as thwarting threats to commercial aircraft “posed by unknown or partially known terrorists,” and gives the agency broad discretion over which air travelers to focus on and how closely they are tracked.

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Health Insurance Mafia & The Heroin Of 'Signing Up' For Obamacare

A good friend urges me to “sign up” for Obamacare.

He knows about the extortion letters I have been receiving from the federal thugs who are now the enforcers for the health insurance mafia – which succeeded in getting a law passed which forces us to buy their services.

Or else.

The “or else” being punishing fines – plus interest. These are called “shared responsibility” payments but – in the first place – nothing is being “shared” (I am being forcibly mulcted) and in the second place for whom am I “responsible”?

Myself, certainly.

But that is precisely the point and the fulcrum of my objection to Obamacare – to this business of being forced to be responsible for other people’s “care” at the expense of my own.

I could afford a high-deductible, catastrophic care insurance policy – something which would “cover” just that, a catastrophic and therefore not-likely event, such as a heart attack or cancer. And precisely because such an event is unlikely, the cost of such a “plan” would actually be insurance and so affordable.

I could therefore afford to be responsible for myself.

But Obamacare has turned the concept of insurance on its head. What is going on now is not insurance. It is wealth redistribution – mostly to the insurance mafia. The law forces me – and you – to pay for things we don’t need or use (for example, maternity care “coverage” for a divorced middle-aged man and “substance abuse counseling” for a man who doesn’t abuse any substances) which means no value received for the money extorted. The money lines the pockets of the mafia, which may perhaps dole out a portion to “cover” some portion of other people’s maternity care or substance abuse counseling.

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Tucker Carlson Reports the FBI Collaborates With Southern Poverty Law Center

Fox News' Tucker Carlson reported last night the Federal Bureau of Investigation has collaborated with the Southern Poverty Law Center, a controversial left-wing group that often promotes misguided and false accusations of hate against conservatives and right-leaning organizations, for input and advice on various investigations.

“Well as you already know if you’ve been paying any attention at all, the Southern Poverty Law Center is a fraudulent enterprise...It’s a left-wing political group that uses ‘hate crime’ designations to target its ideological enemies and to crush people,” Carlson said on last night’s episode of “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

“The SPLC has repeatedly been allowed to brief the FBI on alleged domestic terrorist threats to this country,” Carlson added. “Disturbingly though, the relationship is ongoing, if you can believe it…Despite multiple requests from this program, the FBI has refused to describe the extent of its collaboration with the SPLC, we’ve asked repeatedly, or even to explain why it continues to work with a group like that,” the Daily Caller founder noted.

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