ICE removes 36 Cambodian nationals

Criminal convictions include murder, manslaughter, and assault

On Monday, December 17th, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) ICE Air Operations (IAO) flight departed El Paso, Texas carrying 36 Cambodian nationals, of whom 34 are criminals, to their home country of Cambodia in accordance with their final orders of removal.

Criminal convictions included two counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, manslaughter, voluntary manslaughter, accessory after the fact of a homicide, sexual assault, three counts of sexual offenses, child abuse, domestic violence, aggravated assault, aggravated assault with a weapon, aggravated robbery, two counts of assault, arson, auto theft, two counts of robbery, robbery with a gun, two weapons offenses, theft, larceny, stolen property, fraud, and five drug convictions.

“As a result of continued diplomatic efforts in coordination with our partners at the Department of State, the implementation of visa sanctions, and the tireless efforts of the ERO Removals Division, removals to Cambodia increased 279% from Fiscal Year 2017 to Fiscal Year 2018. However, there are still nearly 1,900 Cambodian nationals present in the United States with a final order of removal, of whom almost 1,400 are convicted criminals. This most recent removal flight took 34 criminals, many convicted of the most heinous possible crimes, off our streets and made our communities safer. We will continue these efforts to carry out lawfully issued final orders of removal, prioritizing as always the removal of threats to public safety,” said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Executive Associate Director Nathalie Asher.

The flight arrived in Phnom Penh on Tuesday, December 18th, where the Cambodian nationals were turned over to Cambodian authorities.

Public Notice - County Council Meeting January 2, 2018

The regularly scheduled County Council meeting for the first Tuesday of January 2019 has been rescheduled due to it falling on New Year’s Day. 

Instead, the meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 2, 2019 at 10 a.m. in Council Chambers of the Government Office Building, 125 N. Division Street, Salisbury, Maryland. 

Those unable to attend the public meeting in person are welcome and encouraged to watch the live video on the Public Access Channel – PAC 14.

The Left's War on Parenting

Last month, the New York State Education Department made a crucial decision: Commissioner MaryEllen Elia handed authority to local school boards to veto the right for private schools to operate. Those school boards must now determine whether private schools provide an education "substantially equivalent to that received in district public schools." According to Jewish educators Elya Brudny and Yisroel Reisman, "The state government now requires private schools to offer a specific set of classes more comprehensive than what students in public schools must learn." This isn't a problem for Jewish schools alone -- Catholic schools in New York have bucked the legislation, with James Cultrara, executive secretary of the New York Council of Catholic School Superintendents, explaining, "We simply cannot accept a competing school having authority over whether our schools can operate."

Now there's a case to be made that the state has an interest in children learning basic secular studies, and to that end, Cultrara has called for an objective standard for evaluating whether or not schools are properly educating their students. That case is far stronger in a welfare state, in which insufficient education often ends with the public bearing the brunt of such failures.

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Public Notice - December 24, 2018 Council Meeting Cancelled

The Monday, December 24, 2018 Council Meeting has been cancelled.

The Public Notice is attached and posted on the website at the link below:

https://salisbury.md/12/19/2018/public-notice-of-meeting-cancellation-12-24-18

Subject: Here's What Newly-Diagnosed Amnesiac James Comey "Did Not Recall" On Day 2 Of Testimony

Former FBI Director James Comey appeared December 17th, 2018, for a second round of questions by a joint House committee oversight probe into the DOJ and FBI conduct during the 2016 presidential election and incoming Trump administration.

The Joint House Committee just released the transcript online (full pdf below)

Director Blue blog's Doug Ross read through most of the septic backflow so you don't need to. You're welcome:

1. Double Standard: Obama vs. Trump

Trey Gowdy grilled Comey on his vastly different handling of comments by Trump and Obama. When Trump asked Comey whether he could see his way clear to easing up on Flynn, Comey memorialized the conversation in a memo and distributed it to his leadership team, including Andrew McCabe and James Baker.

However, when President Obama on 60 Minutes publicly exonerated Hillary Clinton's mishandling of classified information -- setting the stage for true obstruction of justice -- Comey did nothing. He never talked to the president about potential obstruction, he never memorialized his observations, and he didn't leak anything to the press. These were all things he did with Trump.

He might call it a "higher loyalty", but it looks to us peons like a true double-standard. Democrats get Wall Street Bankster treatment, while the rabble get tossed in the slammer.

2. According to Comey, Flynn had no right to counsel

This is interesting:

Mr. Gowdy. Did Mr. Flynn have the right to have counsel present during that interview?

Mr. Comey. No.

Oooooooookay.

3. Comey confirmed McCabe called Flynn to initiate "entrapment"; contradicts himself on counsel

And:

Mr. Gowdy. Why not advise General Flynn of the consequences of making false statements to the FBI?

Mr. Comey. ...the Deputy Director [McCabe] called him, told him what the subject matter was, told him he was welcome to have a representative from White House Counsel there...

So Comey is saying that Flynn didn't have the right to counsel (item 2), and then states that he does have the right to a White House counsel attending the meeting.

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Immigration: The Hidden Driver of the Opioid Epidemic

More than 900 Americans died every week from opioid-related overdoses in 2017. Every American community, big or small, has experienced the epidemic’s merciless, corrosive advance across our cities and towns. It is human tragedy, a family tragedy, and a national crisis.

The issue is complicated by the fact that tens of thousands of Americans need prescription pain medications for legitimate medical reasons. Pharmaceutical companies have been innovative in creating potent opioid based medicines and they were, and remain, rewarded with successful sales.

Some patients, however, abuse legitimate drugs, lie to treating physicians, and illegally sell otherwise lawful drugs. But the real problem is not from frazzled doctors, bad patients or bad medicine. The overwhelming source of the problem is cheap but powerful drugs coming in from Mexico by way of China.

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Each Chicagoan Owes $140,000 To Bail Out Chicago Pensions

As of the 2017 City of Chicago Actuarial Report, each Chicagoan would have to pony up $140,000 to make pensions solvent.

WirePoints reports Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel wants a Constitutional Amendment to address Illinois Pension Woes.

The mayor's plan cannot possibly work because Chicago is far too deep in pension debt to do anything but default.

Nonetheless there is some benefit in the idea for the simple reason it may force the legislature to think about things as they are, not as they want them to be.

Kudos to Rahm Emanuel for broaching the subject of a constitutional amendment for pensions and for using cost-of-living adjustments as an example of why the amendment is so necessary.

The possibility of an amendment in Illinois has experienced a revival of sorts since Arizona recently amended its constitution for a second time. Already, the Chicago Tribune, Crain’s and Mayoral candidate Bill Daley have supported an amendment in some form. And COLAs are finally being recognized as a key driver of Illinois’ pension crisis.

However, it would be a mistake – as some may be tempted to do – to think that an Illinois fix is as simple as COLA reforms via a narrow, Arizona-style constitutional amendment. Instead, Illinois needs an amendment that’s as broad as possible if it hopes to fix the pension crises playing out all over the state.

Collectively, Illinois governments owe more than $400 billion in pension debts alone, based on Moody’s most recent methodology.

Its a particular problem for Rahm Emanuel, as Chicagoans are the most swamped of all. Each city household is on the hook for $140,000 in overlapping state and local retirement debts.
Piecemeal Approach Cannot Work

WirePoints discusses changes in Arizona and accurately concludes piecemeal changes won't work for Illinois.

Here's a hint, they won't work for Arizona or any other state or municipality either. Ridiculous COLA adjustments are only a tiny piece of the problem.
More Substantial Fixes Needed

WirePoints concludes and I agree:

"Any Illinois amendment should repeal the protection clause and say expressly that the state may modify past and future pension benefits notwithstanding the state constitutional contract clause or anything else in the Illinois constitution that might conflict."

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Gingrich: 'The Democratic Party Is Refusing to Protect Americans'

Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich President Donald Trump is “hardly caving in” if he accepts a one or two-week extension to avoid a government shutdown over Christmas.

Gingrich explained while Democrats may be winning a short-term victory, their message on border security is flawed.

Speaking about Trump, Gingrich said, “He will come back again and again. The Democratic party is refusing to protect Americans, and presently, every time somebody who is here illegally kills somebody it is going to show up and the president will say, this is because the Democrats refuse to protect Americans. I don’t know that’s a good position for them to look out to 2020, as a party that doesn’t want to protect America.”

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Public Notice: Changes to Recreational and Commercial Tautog Fishery

The secretary of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources pursuant to the Code of Maryland Regulations 08.02.05.20, announces changes to the recreational and commercial tautog season and catch limits from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2019. This action is consistent with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Amendment 1 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Tautog.

Effective 12:01 a.m. Jan. 1, 2019, the season and catch limits are:
Jan. 1-May 15: 4 fish/person/day
May 16-June 30: Closed
July 1-Oct. 31: 2 fish/person/day
Nov. 1-Dec. 31: 4 fish/person/day

All other rules remain the same.

Safety Commission Recommends Scrapping Obama Race-Based School Discipline Policy

A federal school safety commission led by members of the Trump administration is recommending that the Departments of Justice and Education rescind the Obama-era school policy that urged more lenient forms of discipline in public schools for students of color and those of other minority groups.

In its final report released Tuesday, the commission concluded the “guidance” issued by the Obama administration in 2014 “may have paradoxically contributed to making schools less safe.”

Some education policy experts have observed the Broward County school district’s policy that includes consideration of race and minority status where discipline is concerned, inspired the Obama administration’s guidance and may have played a role in the fact that Nikolas Cruz remained under the radar until his shooting rampage in Parkland, Florida, on February 14.

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Package Thief vs. Glitter Bomb Trap

Danish Minister Tells Somalis ‘Go Home and Rebuild Your Country’

Denmark’s migration minister Inger Støjberg has told the country’s Somali migrants to return home and work on improving their own country after the Danish government ruled parts of Somalia safe.

Since the Immigration Service began its review of refugee residency permits in early 2017, nearly 1,000 Somalis have had their Danish residency permit revoked, reports the Danish Broadcasting Corporation.

Of those, 516 had been directly granted asylum while another 412 were family members who joined them as through chain migration, also known as “family reunion” or “family reunification”.

“If you no longer need our protection and your life and health are no longer at risk in your home country, and specifically in Somalia, you must of course return home and rebuild the country from which you came from,” Ms Støjberg said.

The automatic right to asylum from countries like Somalia was revoked in Denmark’s 2015 amendment to its Immigration Act.

As a result, the Immigration Service announced in autumn 2016 that it would use the new legal basis to review about 1,200 residence permits given to Somalis because of changes to “general conditions” in parts of their country, whereby “there is no longer a basis for asylum, simply because they come from there”.

More here

DOJ handling of Trump, Clinton probes shows potential ‘abuse of prosecutorial discretion’

The Justice Department's divergent handling of the Clinton email and Russia investigations -- avoiding false-statement charges in one, while pursuing several in the other -- could demonstrate an "abuse of prosecutorial discretion," The Federalist senior editor Mollie Hemingway argued on the “Special Report” All-Star Panel Monday night on Fox News.

She discussed the DOJ and FBI's conduct ahead of former national security adviser Michael Flynn's sentencing, set for Tuesday, on a false-statement charge to which he pleaded guilty. Several other individuals also have been charged for false statements in the Russia case -- though no such charges were pursued during the lengthy investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email use while secretary of state.

“We have a really good test case. We have the FBI and the Department of Justice going after Hillary Clinton for breaking the law on classified information in which we saw the Department of Justice and FBI just bend over backwards, you know, giving immunity -- handing it out like candy, getting nothing in return, declining to prosecute anyone for false statements even though a ton of people have made false statements," Hemingway said.

More

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dojs-handling-of-trump-clinton-probes-show-potential-abuse-of-prosecutorial-discretion-mollie-hemingway

Border Wall ‘Only Humanitarian Way’ to Prevent Deaths

Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, said a border wall is “the only humanitarian way” to deal with a “crisis” of migration across the U.S.-Mexico border, offering his remarks in an interview on Monday with Breitbart News Senior Editors-at-Large Rebecca Mansour and Joel Pollak on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight.

Following a discussion about the death of a seven-year-old Guatemalan migrant girl while in the Border Patrol’s custody, Judd recommended construction of a border wall as a humanitarian measure to dissuade migrants from undertaking dangerous journeys to enter the United States.

Customs and Border Protection officials released a detailed timeline relating to the death of seven-year-old Jakelin Amei Rosmery Caal Maquin. The young girl crossed the New Mexico-Mexico border on December 6 as part of a group of 163 migrants and died shortly after midnight on December 8. Nery Gilberto Caal, the girl’s father, reportedly told the Guatemalan Consul General he had “no complaints” about how Border Patrol agents treated him and his daughter, saying agents did everything possible to help his daughter.

Judd wrote in an opinion editorial published in July:

If Democrats and the media elite truly cared about the safety of illegal immigrants, they’d be down on the border right now working to build the wall President Trump wants America to have.

As a veteran Border Patrol agent, I know firsthand that a secure border with the big beautiful wall the president is building is the only humane and permanent solution to the crisis at the border.

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They Have You Trained...

*Update* Troopers Seek Public's Assistance Identifying Armed Robbery Suspect-Laurel

Laurel– The Delaware State Police are seeking the public’s assistance in identifying the pictured suspect who is wanted in connection with an armed robbery at a truck stop.

The incident occurred on Monday, December 17, 2018 at approximately 8:32 p.m. when Troopers were dispatched to the Oasis Travel Plaza located at 30759 Sussex Highway in reference to an armed robbery. It was determined that a subject had entered the business displaying a handgun. The suspect demanded cash from the female store clerk and proceeded to order another female patron who was in the store to the ground.

Anyone with information regarding this incident or the identity of the pictured suspect is asked to contact Troop 4, Major Crimes Unit, Detective K. Archer at 302-752-3791. Information may also be provided by calling Delaware crime stoppers at 1-800-TIP-3333 or via the internet at http://www.delaware.crimestoppersweb.com

Troopers Investigating Armed Robbery of Laurel Truck Stop

Laurel - The Delaware State Police are investigating an armed robbery that occurred at a truck stop last evening.

The incident occurred on Monday, December 17, 2018 at approximately 8:32 p.m. when Troopers were dispatched to the Oasis Travel Plaza located at 30759 Sussex Highway in reference to an armed robbery. It was determined that a subject had entered the business displaying a handgun. The suspect demanded cash from the female store clerk and proceeded to order another female patron who was in the store to the ground.

The suspect obtained an undisclosed amount of cash prior to fleeing the scene. The clerk and the patron were not injured as a result of this incident.

The suspect was described as a black male wearing a dark colored shirt, jeans and a mask covering a portion of his face.

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact Troop 4, Major Crimes Unit, Detective K. Archer at 302-752-3791. Information may also be provided by calling Delaware crime stoppers at 1-800-TIP-3333 or via the internet at http://www.delaware.crimestoppersweb.com

Judge Rejects Topless Preliminary Injunction

OCEAN CITY — Convinced Ocean City officials have a better understanding of the public sensibilities than the plaintiffs in the case, a federal judge on Thursday ruled against a preliminary injunction that would have allowed women to go topless where men can in the resort

Last January, a civil suit filed in U.S. District Court challenged an emergency ordinance passed by the Mayor and Council in June 2017 prohibiting females from going topless in the same areas as men. The plaintiffs, including local resident Chelsea Eline and four others, filed a motion for a preliminary injunction that would allow them to go topless while the case was decided.

A hearing on the preliminary injunction was heard in federal court on Dec. 7, during which Mayor Rick Meehan, Council Secretary Mary Knight and Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Melanie Pursel testified on behalf of the town. The plaintiff’s lone witness was noted University of Indiana professor Dr. Debra Herbenick, who testified about the changing public sensibilities on female bare-chestedness.

U.S. District Court Judge James Bredar essentially ruled the town’s own representatives, including Meehan, Knight and Pursel, were better judges of the public sensibilities in the resort.

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Indiana girl’s cold case murder solved via DNA website

Indiana prosecutors have obtained a guilty plea in the cold case murder of an 8-year-old girl that was solved using a genealogy website.

John Miller, 59, agreed to serve an 80-year prison sentence as part of the plea deal, according to reports.

Miller was charged in July with raping and killing the girl, April Tinsley, in Fort Wayne 30 years ago.

His arrest came after DNA from the crime scene was uploaded to the GEDmatch website.

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2 Students Explain Why They Defended Teacher Fired Over Transgender Pronouns

Two high school students say they organized a walkout in support of a teacher fired for not using pronouns preferred by a transgender student because they thought they should speak out on a cause they believe in.

“When I wanted to speak out about this, I just found this a great opportunity,” Forrest Rohde, a junior at West Point High School, told The Daily Signal in an interview. “I knew that a lot of people in my school would follow with me.”

School officials, Rohde said, are pushing “a false ideology” on teachers and students.

Rohde’s friend Wyatt Pedersen, a senior at the school in West Point, Virginia, said he thought school administrators were “suppressing” French teacher Peter Vlaming’s First Amendment rights.

The West Point school board voted 5-0 on Dec. 6 to fire Vlaming, saying his refusal to follow orders to use male pronouns in referring to the transgender student “harassed and discriminated against the student” and meant the teacher was “insubordinate.”

Vlaming, 47, told the school board that he did not use male pronouns in referring to the student, who was born female, because of his own religious convictions. He said he also didn’t use female pronouns to refer to the student.

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The Flynn sentencing devolves into a fiasco of misinformation

Well, that was bizarre. We’re referring to the fiasco Tuesday of what was supposed to be the sentencing of Michael Flynn. The sentencing was postponed until next year, but not before federal Judge Emmet Sullivan damaged his own reputation with an extraordinary public attack on the former national security adviser for a crime he’s not been charged with or admitted to.

Mr. Flynn pleaded guilty a year ago to a single count of lying to the FBI. Yet after being assured that the former three-star general is sticking with his plea, Judge Sullivan unloaded on the defendant over his supposed violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA.

“All along, you were an unregistered agent of a foreign country while serving as the National Security Adviser to the President of the United States. That undermines everything this flag over here stands for. Arguably you sold your country out,” said the judge. He also used the words “treason” and “treasonous.”

But Mr. Mueller has never charged Mr. Flynn with violating FARA, though the former general did represent the government of Turkey before he joined the Trump Administration. A judge isn’t supposed to lose his cool on the bench and berate a defendant for crimes that haven’t been adjudicated in court, much less spread false information.

More here
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/the-flynn-sentencing-devolves-into-a-fiasco-of-misinformation

Susan Collins feels the 'love' from the Left

Sen. Susan Collins is speaking out on the threats she received during the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation process, sharing with Fox News some of the vulgar, vitriolic and sexist voicemails her office received from callers during that period.

The Maine Republican senator, who provided a critical “yea” vote in favor of the now-Supreme Court justice, discussed the experience in an exclusive interview with Fox News’ Martha MacCallum.

While Collins was under tremendous political pressure from both sides during the confirmation process, her office also was receiving disturbing threats.

In one voicemail, the caller warned that if she voted for Kavanaugh – who faced multiple sexual assault and misconduct allegations which he denied – she would be a “feckless woman” letting President Trump and his appointees “steal health care from millions.”

The caller then unleashed on Collins: “You are so f---ing naïve. You will go down in history as the most naïve person ever to be in Congress. You f---ing, f---ing feckless naïve woman. Trying to make Americans more equal. F--- you.”

More here

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/susan-collins-reveals-profane-threatening-voicemails-left-during-kavanaugh-confirmation

Bump Stock Ruling

On December 18, 2018, Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker announced that the Department of Justice has amended the regulations of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), clarifying that bump stocks fall within the definition of “machinegun” under federal law, as such devices allow a shooter of a semiautomatic firearm to initiate a continuous firing cycle with a single pull of the trigger.

The Final Rule

Please note: This is the text of the final rule as signed by the Acting Attorney General, but the official version of the final rule will be as it is published in the Federal Register.

The final rule clarifies that the definition of “machinegun” in the Gun Control Act (GCA) and National Firearms Act (NFA) includes bump-stock-type devices, i.e., devices that allow a semiautomatic firearm to shoot more than one shot with a single pull of the trigger by harnessing the recoil energy of the semiautomatic firearm to which it is affixed so that the trigger resets and continues firing without additional physical manipulation of the trigger by the shooter.

The rule will go into effect 90 days from the date of publication in the Federal Register.

What To Do

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This Florida veteran started a border wall crowdfunding campaign ***It's currently up to 650k***

A GoFundMe campaign titled "We The People Will Fund The Wall" has raised more than $1 million and counting to build President Donald Trump's border wall.

"It’s up to Americans to help out and pitch in to get this project rolling," according to the campaign page, which is attributed to Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage Jr.

The campaign was created Sunday by a "fundraising team" in Miramar, Florida, according to the campaign page.

It's beginning to gain traction. On Tuesday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told Fox News the administration is exploring "different" sources to pay for his proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexican border, according to reports.

The GoFundMe campaign's goal is set at $1 billion.

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CEO shares $4 million in bonuses with workers

LUDINGTON, MI (WCMH) -- Employees this time of year look forward to a holiday bonus from their employer, and workers at one business in Michigan have an especially generous boss.

The owner of FloraCraft announced he's giving each of his employees a share of $4 million.

For some, that adds up to tens of thousands of dollars!

From employees who have spent a few years on the line, to those who have spent upwards of four decades at FloraCraft, every single one is preparing to celebrate Christmas with the bonus of a lifetime.

"I knew something was up, you kind of sensed that, but it was a real shock, the fact that he did that for everybody, from the guys that have only been here a few years right on up, that was just incredible," Bert Daines told WWTV.

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Judge orders deported asylum seekers to be returned to US

A federal judge on Wednesday took the extraordinary step of ordering that asylum seekers who sued after their deportation be returned to the U.S. to have their claims heard anew, ruling against the Trump administration's revised asylum policies.

The ruling from U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington came a day after the same judge presided over a contentious sentencing hearing for former national security adviser Michael Flynn -- in which he questioned whether the ex-White House official committed “treason” and accused him of selling out the United States to foreign interests. He later delayed Flynn’s sentencing until 2019, as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

In his sweeping ruling Wednesday against the Trump administration's immigration policies, Sullivan said recent changes violated federal law.

“The Court holds that it has jurisdiction to hear plaintiffs’ challenges to the credible fear policies, that it has the authority to order the injunctive relief, and that, with the exception of two policies, the new credible fear policies are arbitrary, capricious, and in violation of the immigration laws,” Sullivan concluded.

Sullivan went a big step further by ordering that “the government to return to the United States the plaintiffs who were unlawfully deported and to provide them with new credible fear determinations consistent with the immigration laws.”

In addition to returning asylum seekers to the U.S., Sullivan blocked the Trump administration policies from being further applied.

In response to the decision, Justice Department spokesman Steven Stafford said: “Under the laws passed by Congress, asylum is only for those who have a legitimate fear of persecution on the basis of their race, nationality, religion, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. Attorney General Sessions’ ruling in Matter of A-B- was about following that requirement. We are reviewing our options with regard to this ruling, and we will continue to restore the rule of law in our immigration system.”

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https://www.foxnews.com/politics/judge-orders-deported-asylum-seekers-to-be-returned-to-us-in-trump-administration-rebuke

Antifa Leader Relies On Anonymity To Push Radical, Violent Communist Agenda

The Daily Caller News Foundation has determined that an influential Antifa leader, Joseph “Jose” Alcoff works with congressional Democrats as part of his day job as a manager with a DC-based advocacy group. But he spreads socialist and communist propaganda when going by the name “Jose Martin.”

Smash Racism DC organizer Jose Martin, also known as “Chepe,” is a radical communist and Antifa leader operating in the U.S. He advocates for the violent overthrow of the government and for the murder of the rich and claims to have international involvement in left-wing movements.

Smash Racism DC is the Antifa group that protested in front of Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s house and berated Senator Ted Cruz at a restaurant until he and his wife were forced to leave. It’s only one of the Antifa leader’s radical left-wing projects.

But the agitator has made great efforts to separate his fanatical personas from a third identity, his legal name: Joseph “Jose” Alcoff. Under that identity, the 36-year-old has worked as a payday campaign manager for Americans for Financial Reform since 2016, where he advocates for reforms of predatory loans before members of Congress.

More here

Baltimore Woman Says She'll Use Gun Buyback Cash to Buy a Bigger Gun

Over 500 guns were surrendered to Baltimore police within the first hour and a half of a citywide gun buyback program this week. Participants received anywhere from $25 to $500 for their unwanted firearms.

Mayor Catherine Pugh and Interim Police Commissioner Gary Tuggle announced a gun buyback program—the first in six years—last week. Pugh said that the program was intended to "get the guns off of our streets."

The program reportedly cost the city $250,000, but there is little evidence that buyback programs are effective in reducing violence, or even in reducing the number of firearms in circulation—as one woman ably demonstrated.

Kathleen Cairns, a WBFF Baltimore journalist, tweeted a picture of a woman who was surrendering a 9mm. She hoped to use the money from the program to buy an even bigger gun.

More here

Clues to a deadly medical mystery hide in Arizona's romaine lettuce fields

WELLTON, Arizona — A medical mystery hides in the cultivated rows of this farming community's biggest winter crop.

Leafy green heads of romaine lettuce poke through the soil and bring to the surface renewed fears of a deadly pathogen that ravaged the industry in 2018.

E. coli outbreaks tied to romaine ended the past three growing seasons in Arizona and California with food-safety alerts, nationwide case counts, hospitalizations and abandoned product.

Attempts by public health officials to trace the bacterial infections to a single source in these E. coli outbreaks have proved mostly unsuccessful — and sometimes misleading.

With no definitive answers, the first shipments of romaine from the new growing season in Yuma landed on store shelves this month. They carry new consumer labels meant to reassure: This lettuce was grown in unaffected fields. It is safe.

So far.

More here

Is It Okay That Christmas Is All About Materialism?

Today the “holiday season” lasts longer than ever

How would you feel about Christmas if there were absolutely no gifts at all?

That may sound like a very strange question, but I think that it is a very important one, because the truth is that our biggest holiday of the year by far is all about materialism. According to ABC News, the average American will shell out $700 for Christmas presents in 2018, and the National Retail Federation is projecting that total Christmas spending will surpass $465,000,000,000. Only 25 countries on the entire planet have a GDP that is greater than that number. Ultimately, Christmas is defined by what we give and what we get, but is that actually healthy?

When I was growing up, my siblings and I couldn’t wait for Christmas to arrive, and honestly it was all about the presents. We spent endless hours looking over the toy catalogs, we made long lists of stuff that we wanted, and we impatiently counted down the days as we waited for the 25th to arrive.

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North Carolina enacts voter ID law, overriding Dem governor's veto

North Carolina's Republican-led legislature enacted a new voter ID law on Wednesday, overriding Gov. Roy Cooper’s (D) veto from last week.

Under the new law, voters will be asked for photo identification when they go to the polls starting next year, local outlet the News & Observer reported. Cooper last week vetoed the measure, saying it served to "suppress the rights of minority, poor and elderly voters."

A nonprofit group, the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, after the override vote on Wednesday filed a lawsuit challenging the voter ID law, and the state's NAACP president said it would announce a lawsuit on Thursday, according to the News & Observer.

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The Insufferable James Comey

Never before has a former FBI director boasted about taking advantage of an administration’s disorganization for his own ends.

But never before has a former FBI director been as self-satisfied as James Brien Comey Jr.

In an interview this month with Nicolle Wallace at the 92nd Street Y in New York City, Comey delighted his Upper East Side audience with his tale of how he exploited the Trump White House’s disarray in its initial days to send two FBI agents to talk to then-national security advisor Michael Flynn without honoring the usual processes (e.g., working through the White House counsel’s office).

Comey said that in a different administration that’s “something I probably wouldn’t have done or maybe gotten away with.” He apparently didn’t consider how that might sound to anyone not already inclined to delight in the wit and wisdom of James Comey, or old enough to remember when an FBI director pushing to “get away” with things wasn’t so amusing.

A lot of people have been diminished by the Trump years, Comey among them. A best-selling author with more than a million followers on Twitter, he’s a bigger political figure than ever before, but has revealed himself to be exactly what his harshest critics always said — a politically savvy operator who matches his bureaucratic skills with an impregnable sense of self-righteousness.

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Nation of Islam receiving federal cash to teach prisoners

The Nation of Islam and its leaders have received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the U.S. government since 2008 to teach religious study programs for federal prison inmates, according to records reviewed by the Washington Examiner.

A black nationalist group led by Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam preaches that white people are “blue-eyed devils” and Jews are “the synagogue of Satan." Its leaders have received at least $364,500 in contracts and awards from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons and the Department of Justice between fiscal 2008 and fiscal 2019.

The funding was designed to provide "Nation of Islam religious services," "Nation of Islam spiritual guide services," "Nation of Islam study services," and other related programming led by the organization’s leaders, according to Bureau of Prison records. The Nation of Islam has been labeled a hate group by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

More here

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/nation-of-islam-receiving-federal-cash-to-teach-prisoners

Alexander: Will Democrats Get the Recession They Want?

Three months ago when stock prices were at record highs, The Washington Post’s Beltway elitists declared, “A record-breaking market doesn’t matter to most Americans.”

Really? Even though more than half of Americans own stocks and other types of investments, including their homes, that are dependent on a strong economy?

Of course, the WaPo was lamenting the fact that most of the value of equities held by Americans is in the hands of 20% of investors. Ironically, a sizable chunk of that is held by Jeff Bezos, the wealthiest individual in the world. Ironic because Bezos, who owns the WaPo, is a charter member of the mega-rich Archenemies of Liberty Club — leftists who use their wealth to fund Democrats and socialists and their free-enterprise wrecking-ball policies.

For the record, Bezos has an estimated worth in the $130 BILLION range. Or, to put it another way, Bezos makes more money in 10 seconds than his average Amazon employee makes in a year. Additionally, much of his newspaper’s elite Beltway readership lives in five of the nation’s richest counties.

The Bezos/WaPo hypocrisy notwithstanding, the wealth created in equity ownership is reinvested in companies and creates jobs for all Americans — which is to say, all Americans have an interest in a strong economy reflected in stable equity prices.

But that report was from August.

Now, according to financial analysts: “Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 are on pace for their worst December performance since 1931, when stocks were battered during the Great Depression. The Dow and S&P 500 are down 7.8 percent and 7.6 percent this month, respectively. December is typically a very positive month for markets.”

The Left’s primary print propagandist, The New York Times, assessed this situation:

Open Records Lawsuits Probe into Russian Support for U.S. Green Groups

The Treasury and State Departments have failed to respond to open records requests seeking "certain correspondence and related records discussing Russian funding of environmental pressure groups' advocacy in the United States," according to lawsuits filed today against Treasury and Monday against State.

Rep. Lamar Smith (R., Texas), who chairs the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, and Rep. Randy Weber (R., Texas), chairman of its energy subcommittee, sent a letter dated June 29, 2017, to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin asking him to "conduct a full and complete investigation" into allegations the Russian government has been funneling tens of millions of dollars into U.S. environmental groups to support misinformation campaigns aimed at suppressing U.S. natural gas development.

Smith's letter describes how the Russian government has "executed a political agenda with little or no paper trail" that allows funding to flow from Russia through a shell company into Bermuda and from there to U.S. environmental groups in the form of grants distributed through the San Francisco-based Sea Change Foundation.

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D.C. Attorney General Sued for Documents Related to Bloomberg Scheme

A D.C.-based think tank filed suit Wednesday against D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine, claiming his office has refused to produce any kind of response to several Freedom of Information Act requests seeking documents related to an environmental legal scheme largely funded by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

In that scheme, Bloomberg funded a new "center" of the New York University School of Law, and the school provides the funding for certain attorneys to be placed within attorney general offices (OAGs) around the country with the sole purpose of pursuing litigation and other legal work related to climate change.

The payment for these attorneys includes their ongoing salaries, so that the OAGs are able to essentially add an extra full-time staff member without having to dip into their budget.

Chris Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, estimates at least 10 such attorneys are known to have been placed with AG offices in Oregon, D.C., New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, Illinois, New Mexico, and Washington.

CEI said in a press release that it is certain Racine's office is in possession of the requests because various emails confirmed receiving them.

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Visa/Mastercard and the Assault on Civil Rights

Every day there is a new report about how Facebook, Google, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and other giants of social media censor content, banish certain commentators for incorrect views, and otherwise work in a steady if unsystematic way to homogenize political opinion within an acceptably progressive bandwidth. Ideas are scoured for “racism”—as contentiously defined by the intellectual style book of the hard-left Southern Poverty Law Center, which the media have set up as an “authority” on hate speech; freedom of speech is seen a nuisance rather than a guarantee of personal liberty and true diversity of opinion.

But there is an even more sinister threat to the first amendment than the social media, a threat that operates in a stealth way in the most crucial arena of our economic system. It is corporate giants Master Card and Visa, which now use their unparalleled financial power to determine what speech should be allowed and what speech should be silenced.

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Here Are 2 Ways Trump Can Help Americans Move From Food Stamps to Work

President Donald Trump has an opportunity to do what Congress should be doing, but isn’t: Help Americans who are on food stamps transition to work.

The farm bill—which reauthorizes the foods stamp program for five years—would have been a prime opportunity for Congress to enhance work requirements. Under current law, certain work-capable adults must work 20 or more hours per week, participate in a supervised job search or training, or volunteer in their communities in order to receive food stamps.

Most food stamp recipients are exempt from these requirements. These include people over 50 years old, the disabled, and minor children and their parents. That leaves 7 million people who are expected to fulfill work requirements.

Unfortunately, only 1.5 million of the 7 million actually satisfy the work requirement.

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Newt: Trump Won't Quit Fighting for Border Security

Democrats may be winning a short-term victory on keeping the government open, but President Donald Trump is "probably trying to get past the Christmas season," and he will keep fighting for border security, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Wednesday.

"I have always thought, having been through shutdowns when I was speaker, I don't think shutting the government down on Christmas Eve is a particularly big win for anybody," Gingrich told Fox News' "Fox and Friends."

"It's a pain in the neck for hundreds of thousands of families directly affected by it. I don't think the president has given up."

"He will come back again and again," said Gingrich. "The Democrat party is refusing to protect Americans, and presently, every time somebody who is here illegally kills somebody it is going to show up and the President will say, this is because the Democrats refuse to protect Americans."

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Palestinian Authority Puts $330 Million Toward Paying Prisoners, Family of ‘Martyrs’

The Palestinian Authority set aside $330 million in its 2018 budget to pay security prisoners and the families of terrorists who attacked Israel.

A report by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA), citing the PA’s detailed budget, shows millions going to convicted terrorists and their families in the form of stipends and salaries, according to the Jerusalem Post. The portion of recipients who are convicted terrorists is a matter of debate.

Also this week, the United Nations and the PA made a joint appeal for $355 million, which drew outrage from Palestinian Media Watch.

"Instead of the UN asking donor countries to contribute $350 million to provide for Palestinian humanitarian needs, the UN should be joining the unequivocal call from many governments that the PA immediately stop squandering the $355 million dollars of its own funds on its ‘Pay for Slay’ policy that incentivizes and rewards terrorism, and instead spend that money on needy Palestinians," a Palestinian Media Watch report said.

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Air Force attacked after volunteers partner with Salvation Army

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation has engaged in some pretty despicable behavior over the years -- from demanding that the Baby Jesus be removed from military bases to complaining about Bibles on Missing Man tables.

But their recent attack on the airmen at Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota is so outrageous even the Grinch is wondering, "Dude, what the hell?"

The MRFF is infuriated because airmen were encouraged to volunteer with the Salvation Army to hand out food baskets and gifts to families in need.

MRFF founder Mikey Weinstein said he was contacted by 40 military personnel who felt humiliated and oppressed by the invitation to assist the Salvation Army.

“We have no issue with the Salvation Army per se here as the total fault lies with the Air Force commanders who are effectively ordering their subordinates to assist the Salvation Army,” Weinstein told me. “The Salvation Army is not at fault in this scenario.”

He blamed U.S. Air Force commanders who sent the invitation to volunteer and told me they should be “court-martialed” for what he called an “unconstitutional outrage.”

“They have completely ripped asunder good order, morale, discipline, and unit cohesion,” Weinstein told Crooks and Liars. “Our clients feel humiliated, confused and, and terrified.”

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https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/todd-starnes-air-force-attacked-after-volunteers-partner-with-salvation-army-to-help-needy-families

Official Start Of Winter Coming Very Soon

Movie to be filmed in Ocean City this fall needs extras

Director Nick Belial is looking for area residents to play extras in his thriller, which will be filmed in Ocean City beginning this fall.

The feature film, “To Avenge,” needs 30 to 50 background actors for the opening night scene on the Boardwalk, which would require the extras to perform activities such as shopping, buying food and playing games.

“When I wrote the story for ‘To Avenge’ it was natural to place the bulk of the story and action in Ocean City,” Belial said. “It’s the perfect backdrop for filming. There’s so many iconic spots and beautiful views that I want to include in the cinematography.”

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They're NUTS!

Newark, Salisbury, What's The Difference...

Spot On

The Short Bus

Riddle Me This Liberals...

Perfect

You Big Dummy, Dummy!

Who Agrees?

Well?