Coast Guard repatriates 28 Cuban migrants

MIAMI — The Coast Guard Cutter Isaac Mayo crew repatriated 28 Cuban migrants Thursday to Cuba, following two separate interdiction cases.

A Coast Guard Air Station Miami HC-144 Ocean Sentry fixed-wing aircraft crew located a rustic vessel traveling northbound approximately 20 miles north of Cuba, Saturday. The Coast Guard Cutter Kathleen Moore crew arrived on scene and safely embarked 19 Cuban nationals who attempted to enter the United States illegally.

The Kathleen Moore crew interdicted a second illegal entry attempt by stopping a 25-foot rustic vessel with 10 Cuban migrants aboard approximately 58 miles northeast of Matanzas, Cuba on Monday with assistance by a Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater HC-130 Hercules fixed-wing aircraft crew.

One of the 19 individuals interdicted at sea was transferred to local Miami-Dade Police law enforcement due to an open arrest warrant for grand theft auto in Miami-Dade County.

“The Coast Guard and our partners continue to maintain a constant presence in the Florida Straits with both air and surface assets,” said Capt. Mark Vlaun, staff judge advocate of Coast Guard 7th District. "Today's safe and swift repatriation is reflective of our interagency commitment to stop illegal and unsafe entry by sea into the United States before these voyages end in tragedy on the open ocean."

Once aboard Coast Guard cutters, all migrants receive food, water, shelter and medical attention.

"We cannot stress enough that these illegal migration attempts are dangerous, futile, and often times fueled by rumor or coaxed by criminals who will lie to or exploit migrants," said Capt. Willie Carmichael, Deputy Chief of Enforcement of Coast Guard 7th District.

Approximately 144 Cuban migrants have attempted to illegally enter the U.S. via the maritime environment since Oct. 1 in fiscal year 2018 compared to 1,951 Cuban migrants in fiscal year 2017. These numbers represent the total number of at-sea interdictions, landings and disruptions in the Florida Straits, the Caribbean and Atlantic.

The cutter Kathleen Moore is a 154-foot Sentinel class cutter homeported in Key West, Florida. The cutter Isaac Mayo is a 154-foot Sentinel class cutter homeported in Key West, Florida.

Jim Jordan Roasts Comey Double Standard

Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio said the American people are tired of the way former FBI Director James Comey and Democrats have been favored with a double standard, Thursday on “Fox & Friends.”

“This is ridiculous,” Jordan said. “The American people are so fed up with this two standards. One standard for us regular folk and a different standard if your name is Clinton, Comey, Lynch, Lerner. That’s what American people are fed up.”

“The fact that five of the top people. This is what should concern Mr. Comey,” Jordan continued. “He’s been fired. Andrew McCabe has been fired for lying four times, three times under oath. Jim Baker, former chief counsel has been demoted and reassigned at the FBI. Peter Strzok deputy head of counter intelligence, demoted, reassigned. Lisa page, FBI council demoted, reassigned. These are the top people at the FBI. That’s what he should be concerned about.”

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E. coli-infected salad saga rages on: 31 more sickened, bringing the total to 84

The E. coli outbreak linked to tainted romaine lettuce has grown and sickened 84 people from 19 states, US officials say.

The US Centers for Disease Control said Wednesday that at least another 31 cases are believed to be tied to romaine lettuce grown in Yuma, Arizona.

The agency says those infected range in age from 1 to 88. More than half of are female.

Forty-two people have been hospitalized, including nine battling kidney failure as the agency scrambles to sniff out the source of the E. coli outbreak.

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Attorneys General Urge Trump Administration to Not Strip Consumer Protection Financial Bureau of Investigative Authority

BALTIMORE, MD – Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh, joining a coalition of 16 attorneys general, called on the Trump Administration to respect the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) investigative authority. Since its inception, the CFPB has issued civil investigative demands to companies and individuals who may be violating the law and taking advantage of consumers. Civil investigative demands are a critical law enforcement tool that enable the CFPB to carry out investigations by obtaining documents, financial records, and company policies and procedures. However, the Trump Administration is now considering weakening the CFPB’s use of civil investigative demands.

“The CFPB was created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to protect consumers from financial scams and abusive financial business practices,” said Attorney General Frosh. “CFPB investigations of big banks like Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, and Bank of America have returned millions of dollars to consumers. Stripping the CFPB of its investigative authority would clear the way for Wall Street to return to the illegal policies and practices of a decade ago.”

Read more in the full press release:http://www.marylandattorneygeneral.gov/press/2018/042618.pdf

Stephen Foster statue removed from Pittsburgh park amid criticism

A 118-year-old statue of the 'Oh! Susanna' songwriter was removed from a Pittsburgh park Thursday after criticism that the work is demeaning because it includes a slave sitting at his feet, plucking a banjo.

In October, the Pittsburgh Art Commission voted to take the Stephen Foster sculpture out of Schenley Plaza and find it a new home. For now, it will remain in a storage lot, out of the public view.

On Thursday, workers used straps and construction equipment to lift the 10-foot-bronze statue off its base. It was strapped to a flatbed truck and taken away.

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Trey Gowdy: James Comey's definition of a leak 'is what the rest of us call a felony'

Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., disputes ex-FBI Director James Comey's definition of a "leak."

During an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier on Thursday, Comey denied that he ever leaked the content of his memos, which recount his interactions with President Trump. He rationalized that his memos were personal documents, like a "diary," and claimed he did not think the contents of his memos were classified, including one conveyed to the media through a friend.

Speaking with Fox News' Tucker Carlson afterwards, Gowdy said Comey "has a definition of the word leak that no one else has."

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Who Will Bail America Out Then?

It begins to look like The USA will litigate itself into Civil War Two with the first battle being half the lawyers in the Department of Justice prosecuting the other half until Anthropogenic Global Warming puts the DC Swamp completely underwater and all parties concerned scuttle off into the deep blue sea.

It was rather a shock to see the photo lineup of all those familiar faces — Comey, Hillary, McCabe, Loretta Lynch et. al. — in the criminal referral “matters” sent over to the DOJ by congress on Wednesday, as if they were some mob of goombahs caught running a waste management kickback racket in the Hackensack mud-flats. But the evidence trail has been in plain sight for more than a year that Justice Department officials of various ranks and stripes colluded to bring off a legalistic coup d’etat against the loathed and despised winner of the 2016 election — with a little help from (of all things and personae) Russia, as in that political smallpox blanket known as the Steele Dossier.

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Finland's 'basic income' program a failure

The Finnish government reportedly announced Tuesday that it will end the country’s universal basic income program by year's end -- and appears to be taking on new measures to cut benefits to those who do not actively seek employment.

Finland was considered the first European country to pay a monthly check of $685 to its unemployed between ages 25 and 58. It was considered a pilot program -- serving 2,000 randomly selected jobless people -- that its founders hoped to expand.

“It’s a pity that it will end like this,” Olli Kangas, who oversees the Finnish government agency that focuses on social welfare and helped design the program, told the New York Times.

David Whitley summed up Finland's decision in the Orlando Sentinel.

"Proponents said the program wasn’t comprehensive enough to gauge its merits," Whitley wrote. "Critics say it would have required a 30 percent tax increase on an already over-taxed population to be viable."

But some cities, including San Francisco, continue to look into the basic income theory, the Times wrote. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in 2017 said that basic income should be explored “to make sure that everyone has a cushion to try new ideas.”

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Weekly Fishing Report

Patience is supposed to be the hallmark of an angler, but many had theirs strained this past opening weekend for trophy striped bass season.

In the past couple of days we have seen water temperatures finally reach acceptable temperatures for the fish.

Most understand it has been a chilly spring, and low water temperatures have delayed striped bass spawning in the tidal rivers.

There was a big spawn on the Choptank River, and the Nanticoke, Patuxent and Potomac rivers should be on the same general schedule. 

Read more.

The Most Innovative City in the Country? Fayetteville, N.C.

Fayetteville, N.C., population 205,000, is the most innovative city in the country, according to a new report from Governing in collaboration with the nonprofit Living Cities.

The second annual Equipt to Innovate report, released this week, assesses municipal governments on a range of metrics -- including data use and strategic planning, racial equity in decisionmaking, and citizen engagement.

Fayetteville was a high performer in last year's inaugural report, in which Phoenix was ranked No. 1, but the North Carolina city rose to the top in this year's evaluation.

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Progressive Democrats say Steny Hoyer should resign over primary shenanigans

Progressive liberals called Thursday for the resignation of Rep. Steny Hoyer after a secret recording emerged in which the second-ranking member of House Democratic leadership urges a congressional candidate to pull the plug on his campaign in a Colorado race to clear the way for the preferred choice of the national party.

The Intercept unearthed the secretly taped audio in which Mr. Hoyer, Maryland Democrat, urges Levi Tillemann, who served in the Obama administration, to drop out of the race in Colorado’s 6th Congressional District and says the party supports his primary opponent Jason Crow.

Mr. Tillemann secretly taped Mr. Hoyer when they met at a hotel in December.

Charles Chamberlin, executive director of Democracy For America, responded by demanding that Mr. Hoyer resign or abandoned his leadership post as House Minority Whip.

“The secret recordings of Steny Hoyer trying to push a grassroots progressive candidate out of a race for Congress exposes the work Hoyer has done for years actively undermining progressive power in Congress and ensuring the Democratic Party is filled with elected officials who are politically incapable of standing up to the corporate interests who profit off the country’s growing racial and economic inequality,” Mr. Chamberlin said.

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Bavaria Places Christian Crosses in State Buildings to Reflect 'Christian Values'

The government of Bavaria has ordered that Christian crosses be placed in the entrances of all its public buildings, a rule that goes into effect on June 1, reported BBC News.

Markus Soder, the minister president of Bavaria and member of the Christian Social Union political party, said the crosses are not to be viewed as state-sanctioned religious symbols but as a "clear avowal of our Bavarian identity and Christian values."

Crosses already are compulsory in Bavaria's public school classrooms and in courtrooms.

Bavaria is located in the southeast corner of Germany and its largest city is Munich.

"The cross is a fundamental symbol of our Bavarian identity and way of life," said President Soder in a statement, as reported by the BBC. "It stands for elemental values such as charity, human dignity and tolerance."

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Religious Liberty Attorney Confirmed to Federal Bench

Religious liberty advocates received a boost in federal courts after the Senate confirmed one of the nation's leading First Amendment attorneys to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Senate voted to approve President Trump's nominee, Kyle Duncan, to Louisiana's Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday. Duncan is the former general counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a nonprofit law firm that "exists to defend the free exercise of all faiths, from Anglican to Zoroastrian," as it says on its website. The group has been involved in some of the most high profile religious liberty cases in the nation in recent years, helping nuns at the Little Sisters of the Poor and religious business owners at Hobby Lobby resist the Obama administration's contraception and abortifacient mandate.

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ICE boss takes on NY Gov. Cuomo, calls slams 'insult' to agency

The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) accused New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo of making "grandstanding" and "inaccurate" comments Wednesday after armed agents raided an upstate dairy farm last week and allegedly handcuffed a man who tried to record an arrest.

Cuomo, a Democrat rumored to be a contender for the party's 2020 presidential nomination, said that the agency "is violating the law and endangering public safety" and threatened to sue ICE if such raids continued.

"The reckless and unconstitutional practices ICE is deploying in our communities violate everything we believe in New York and are an assault on our democracy," Cuomo added. "I demand ICE immediately cease and desist this pattern of conduct, and if they fail to do so, I will pursue all available legal recourse and commit to doing everything in my power to protect the rights and safety of all New Yorkers."

In response, ICE Deputy Director Thomas Homan said Cuomo's remarks were "an insult to ICE's sworn law enforcement officers who conduct their lawful mission professionally and with integrity."

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http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/04/25/ice-boss-takes-on-ny-gov-cuomo-calls-slams-insult-to-agency.html

Carson wants poor to pay more rent, work for assistance

HUD Secretary Ben Carson on Wednesday unveiled a major overhaul of the rental-housing system, proposing to increase the share of rent that low-income households must pay before receiving assistance and allow public housing authorities to impose work requirements.

The proposal to reshape the way HUD helps 4.5 million people meet their rent is part of a broader Trump administration push to link anti-poverty programs to employment.

Carson — who often refers to his own up-from-nothing life story as a parable for the poor and said last year that poverty is "a state of mind" — has long called on HUD to focus on helping people get off assistance, rather than expanding the benefits it provides.

The current system, Carson said on a conference call with reporters, creates "perverse incentives, including discouraging these families from earning more income and becoming self-sufficient."

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Interview with Dr. Suzanne Humphries over vaccine troll "mass shooting" murder threat

Voting Rights for Felons Becoming a Key Issue for Democrats

Florida has emerged as a battleground in the fight over the 6 million people, in and out of jail, who can't vote because they were convicted of a felony.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott won a big legal battle Wednesday, but the fight over voting rights for felons in his state is far from over.

Scott was under a court order to revise the state's system for restoring voting rights. Currently, former offenders in Florida have to wade through a difficult and protracted clemency process, which a federal judge last month deemed "fatally flawed." He gave the state until April 26 to revamp its process.

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Cosby goes berserk moments after guilty verdict is read

NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Bill Cosby went berserk Thursday — just moments after he was convicted of sexual assault — as lawyers argued over whether he should be allowed ​to remain ​free on bail.

Prosecutors in Montgomery County Court were arguing that the fallen comedian was a flight risk and someone with “limitless wealth.”

“He has a plane,” District Attorney Kevin Steele told the judge.

That’s when Cosby suddenly stood up and screamed, “He doesn’t have a plane, you a–hole! That shows what you know!”

The explosive outburst p​​rompted Judge Steven O’Neill to yell, “That’s enough!” and Cosby’s publicist Andrew Wyatt to scramble to the well.

O’Neill ultimately ruled that Cosby could remain free on $1 million bail but must surrender his passport. He was ordered to stay in Montgomery County pending his sentencing, which was not scheduled.

“Because of his age, his medical issues, I am not going to simply lock him up because of this,” said O’Neill.

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America’s $1 trillion student debt problem heads into its sixth year

Student debt has been a $1 trillion problem for at least six years.

Six years ago, on April 25, 2012, activists took to the streets to mark the country’s outstanding student loan debt surpassing $1 trillion. And in the years since, many of the trends that pushed student debt levels to climb have persisted, and in some cases, they’ve gotten worse.

Focusing on the $1 trillion mark is somewhat “arbitrary,” given that it doesn’t change the debt burdens individuals are managing every day, said Mark Huelsman, a senior policy analyst at Demos, a left-leaning think tank. (Outstanding student debt reached $1 trillion during the second quarter of 2012, according to the Federal Reserve, which includes April.)

Still, Huelsman said these kinds of “big round numbers” can help galvanize people around the issue. “Rising student debt has really happened over a 20-year period,” he said.

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The Cost Of Raising Kids In America Is Soaring

Today, roughly one in five women in the U.S. doesn’t have children. Thanks in part to this decline in birthrate, for the first time in U.S. history, there may soon be more elderly people than children.

Based on trends in costs, it’s evident why many families are choosing to have fewer children — or in some cases, no children at all.

The cost of having children in the U.S. has grown exponentially since the 1960s, when the government first started collecting data on childhood expenditures. Between 2000 and 2010, the cost shot up by 40%.

As of 2015, American parents spend, on average, $233,610 on child costs from birth until the age of 17, not including college.This number covers everything from housing and food to child care and transportation costs. As a mother myself, as well as a sociologist who studies families, I have experienced firsthand the unexpected costs associated with having a child.

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