U.S. Customs and Border Protection Newsroom Update

CBP Officers from the Hidalgo Port of Entry Seized Over 100 Pounds of Cocaine in One Day

06/28/2017 03:35 PM EDT

HIDALGO, Texas—U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Office of Field Operations (OFO) at the Hidalgo Port of Entry seized 108.77 pounds worth of alleged cocaine in separate, unrelated incidents. “Our officers continue to uphold the CBP mission by...

Philadelphia CBP Seizes more than $93k in Unreported Currency from Travelers on Qatar-bound Flight

06/28/2017 03:10 PM EDT

PHILADELPHIA — U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers seized more than $93,000 from a Qatar-bound family for violating federal currency reporting regulations Tuesday at Philadelphia International Airport. Philadelphia CBP seized $93,393...

CBP Extends Global Entry Enrollment Center Hours in Baltimore, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh

06/28/2017 03:08 PM EDT

BALTIMORE – U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is extending enrollment center hours during the summer in Baltimore, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh for conditionally-approved applicants to complete interviews for CBP’s widely popular Global Entry...

Laredo Sector Border Patrol Seizes Over 2,000 lbs of Marijuana

06/28/2017 02:58 PM EDT

LAREDO, Texas – The first seizure took place on June 23, 2017, after Border Patrol agents seized 1,731.71 pounds of marijuana in Laredo, Texas. Agents at the Border Patrol Checkpoint on Interstate Highway 35 encountered a U-Haul truck at the primary...

OCEAN PINES’ JULY FOURTH FIREWORKS, CARNIVAL CELEBRATION AND FREEDOM 5K

One of Ocean Pines’ most anticipated celebrations will take place on Tuesday, July 4, when residents and guests will gathered to celebrate the nation’s independence.

“Our annual Fourth of July celebration in Ocean Pines has become a hallmark day of events for families, friends and vacationers,” said Ocean Pines Marketing and Public Relations Director Denise Sawyer.

The patriotic celebration starts early at 8 a.m. with the annual Freedom 5K Race along a scenic route around the South Gate Pond, at the Worcester County Veterans Memorial in Ocean Pines. The celebration will then continue at 10 a.m. with Ocean Pines’ annual July Fourth Carnival Celebration, which will happen also at the Worcester County Veterans Memorial in Ocean Pines. The event will feature a DJ, water slides, carnival games, refreshments and more. Waterslide wristbands for unlimited rides will be sold for $6; tickets may be sold for additional games and rides. 

Entertainment will be continuous throughout the day. Local band, Still Rockin’, will perform live at The Cove at Mumford’s in Ocean Pines from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. Tranzfusion will rock the house with an electrifying live musical performance at The Cove at Mumford’s in Ocean Pines from 6 p.m. until 10 p.m. Then First Class, an Eastern Shore-based band, will blaze the evening with a dazzling live performance at 8 p.m. until midnight at The Cove at Mumford’s in Ocean Pines.

Brandon Banks found guilty in Vanderbilt rape trial

A former Vanderbilt University football player has been found guilty of aggravated rape in the 2013 gang rape of an unconscious female student.

After deliberating for 15 hours, a jury found Brandon Banks guilty of two out of seven charges on Friday evening, including one count of aggravated rape and one count of aggravated sexual battery.

The 23-year-old was found not guilty on five other counts.

Banks now faces up to 15 years in prison for the aggravated rape charge alone. He will be sentenced on August 18. He was emotionless as the verdict was delivered and was taken into custody immediately after.

He was one of four ex-players charged with assaulting the 21-year-old woman in a dorm room at the university in Nashville, Tennessee four years ago.

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DEA Releases 2017 Drugs of Abuse Resource Guide

(Washington, D.C.) – The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration today released the 2017 edition ofDrugs of Abuse, A DEA Resource Guide.

The Drugs of Abuse guide is released on a periodic basis and designed to be a reliable resource on the most commonly abused and misused drugs in the United States. The guide provides important science-based information about the harms and consequences of drug use, describing a drug’s effects on the body and mind, overdose potential, origin, legal status, and other key factors. The 2017 edition updates the 2015 Drugs of Abuse publication with the most current information on new and emerging trends in drug misuse and abuse, including fentanyl, other opioids, and synthetic drugs.

Because education plays a critical role in preventing substance abuse, this comprehensive guide is intended as a tool not just for medical practitioners and law enforcement officials, but also for educators, families, and communities. Drugs of Abuse also offers a list of additional drug education and prevention resources, including the DEA websites: www.DEA.gov, www.getsmartaboutdrugs.comfor parents, www.justthinktwice.com for teens, and www.operationprevention.com for teachers.


For more information and to view the 2017 Drugs of Abuse resource guide, visit https://go.usa.gov/xN7Qm.

Trump Defies Globalists, Calls for US Dominance in Energy

President Trump has openly defied a technocratic plan by the globalists to shut down US energy independence.

In a reversal of Obama administration policies that suspended domestic energy production, particularly coal, Mr. Trump wants the US to once again become a net exporter of energy.

“The fact that we’re no longer in the age of energy scarcity – that we’re in the age of energy abundance – positions the United States in a totally different place,” said Dave Banks, a Trump energy advisor. “This gives access to affordable, reliable energy in the United States, and gives the U.S. a major competitive advantage.”

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Breaking News: A top adviser to Pope Francis, Cardinal George Pell, has been charged with sexual assault in Australia, where he is the senior prelate

Australia’s senior Roman Catholic prelate, and one of Pope Francis’ top advisers, has been charged with sexual assault, the police in the Australian state of Victoria said on Thursday.

The prelate, Cardinal George Pell, became the highest-ranking Vatican official in recent years to face criminal charges involving accusations of sexual offenses.

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Tooth found in Lyon sisters search disappears before Welch murder trial

WASHINGTON – A key piece of physical evidence that helped prosecutors charge Lloyd Lee Welch with murder for the deaths of Sheila and Katherine Lyon has been lost by the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office, WTOP has learned.

A tooth recovered during searches in recent years on Taylor’s Mountain, in remote Thaxton, Virginia – where investigators believe Welch burned the bodies of the 12- and 10-year-old girls in 1975 – disappeared before it could be forensically tested to see if it belonged to one of the Lyon sisters.

The tooth was in the custody of the sheriff’s department.

Contacted by WTOP, a spokesperson with the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office declined to address how the tooth disappeared.

According to court records, the tooth was a key piece of physical evidence prosecutors had at their disposal as they attempt to prove that Welch killed the girls.

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Canary In The Coal Mine: Unfunded Liabilities Have Turned Illinois Into A "Banana Republic"

The state is buried debt, and hasn’t passed a budget in over 700 days. 100% of their monthly revenue is being consumed by court ordered payments, and the Illinois Department of Transportation has revealed that they may not be able to pay contractors (who are working on over 700 infrastructure projects) after July 1st if the state doesn’t pass a budget. To top it all off, the state’s credit rating is one step away from junk status, the lowest of any state. Because of these factors, Illinois may become the first state to declare bankruptcy since the Great Depression.

Governor Bruce Rauner has gone so far as to call his state a “banana republic.”

The state’s comptroller has admitted that “We are in massive crisis mode.”

And a reporter for the Chicago Tribune thinks Illinois has gone so far past the point of no return, that the state should be broken up. He recently wrote what basically sounds like a suicide note for Illinois.

Dissolve Illinois. Decommission the state, tear up the charter, whatever the legal mumbo-jumbo, just end the whole dang thing.

We just disappear. With no pain. That’s right. You heard me.

The best thing to do is to break Illinois into pieces right now. Just wipe us off the map. Cut us out of America’s heartland and let neighboring states carve us up and take the best chunks for themselves.

The group that will scream the loudest is the state’s political class, who did this to us, and the big bond creditors, who are whispering talk of bankruptcy and asset forfeiture to save their own skins.

But our beloved Illinois has proved that it just doesn’t deserve to survive.

So how did it get to this point?

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This is what Antifa group is doing now to combat ‘increasingly violent’ Trump America

A Chicago Antifa group named “Haymaker” recently crowdfunded a startup for a “self-defense” training gym and this week, the group got their gym on its feet.

Sort of.

The Indiegogo fundraiser asked for a “flexible” amount of donations totaling $50k, but ultimately fell about $44k short of their ambitious goal.

The “gym’s” description reads:

“In the wake of the election of Donald Trump and the emboldened far right, Haymaker: Popular Fitness & Self-Defense is bringing free martial arts training to Chicago for anyone who wants to learn self-defense. We are a new type of fitness center, based upon the principles of autonomy, strength, and solidarity.”

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Dallas cop get assault charge for killing pregnant woman

A grand jury has recommended an aggravated assault charge against a Dallas police officer who shot and killed a pregnant woman in a January confrontation involving a stolen car.

The Dallas County district attorney announced Friday that Dallas Police Officer Christopher Hess was indicted on the charge of aggravated assault in the shooting death of a pregnant 21-year-old Genevive Dawes.

Hess shot and killed a pregnant Dawes in a January confrontation involving a stolen car. It is the first time in 43 years that a Dallas Police officer has been indicted for an officer-involved shooting that resulted in death.

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DC, Baltimore drivers among the worst in the country

WASHINGTON — Drivers in the D.C. metro area are among the worst in the nation, according to insurance claims tracked by Allstate.

The safest drivers are in Kansas City, Kansas.

Allstate crunched data including average years between collisions and collision likelihood compared to the national average. It found the average driver in the U.S. will experience one collision every 10 years.

In Kansas City, drivers go an average of 14.9 years between collisions and are 32.8 percent less likely to get into a wreck compared to the national average.

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Former Fed Governor: "The Fed Isn't As Independent As Many Think"

With every passing day, the Fed is slowly losing the game, a point made earlier today by SocGen's Albert Edwards who wrotes that "Citizens Will Soon Turn Their Rage Towards Central Bankers."

And it is not just skeptical pundits, and former (and in some cases current) Fed presidents admitting central banks are increasingly powerless to boost the global economy and control inflation (or the Phillips curve) even if they still have sway over capital markets. What is far more insidious to the Fed's waning credibility is when former economists affiliated with the Fed start repeating mantras that until recently were only a prominent feature in the so-called fringe media.

This is what happened last April, when former central bank staffer and Dartmouth College economics professor Andrew Levin, special adviser to then Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke between 2010 to 2012, made the whocking announcement that "A lot of people would be stunned to know” the extent to which the Federal Reserve is privately owned. The Fed “should be a fully public institution just like every other central bank” he added during a call seeking to make the Fed more transparent and accountable to the public.

Why was that stunning? Because it has long been a bone of contention if only among the fringe media, that at its core the Fed is merely a private institution, beholden only to its de facto owners: not the people of the U.S. but to a small cabal of banks. Worse, the actual org chart of who owns what is not disclosed, even as the vast majority of the U.S. population remains deluded that the Fed is a publicly owned institution.

At its core, the question goes to Fed independence: something which the Federal Reserve has long claimed to be, yet an assumption which increasingly more are starting to question even in polite, establishment society.

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ANSWER: Riddle Me This 6-28-17

Click 'Read More' to see the answer

"We Can't Keep Losing Races" House Dems Meet To Plot Ouster Of Nancy Pelosi

Calls for the ouster of Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi are growing louder heading into the weekend as the blame for the Democrats’ 0-5 showing in a series of special house elections held this week has fallen squarely on her shoulders. While Pelosi has faced down previous threats, the present controversy looks like it’s snowballing into the biggest threat to her dominance during her 10-year reign as the party’s leader in the House.

Indeed, Pelosi's ouster is looking increasingly probable as more of the rank-and-file turn against her. And as the latest report from the Associated Press confirms, a group of a dozen house Democrats met in the office of New York Rep Kathleen Rice on Thursday to try and figure out a way to remove Pelosi from her leadership position. While it looks as if Pelosi's opponents are growing more emboldened, they're still struggling with one important problem…they still need to find a way to execute their coup and force Pelosi from her position. The AP's story relies heavily on quotes from New York Rep Kathleen Rice and Ohio’s Tim Ryan, who are already jockeying for positions in the next iteration of the Democratic Party's leadership.

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JUST IN: Coast Guard, good Samaritan rescue 3 off Ocean City, Md.

BALTIMORE — The Coast Guard and a good Samaritan rescued three people from a boat taking on water approximately 40 miles off Ocean City Wednesday.

Watchstanders at Coast Guard Station Ocean City received a report from the owner of a 27-foot boat stating the vessel had taken a wave over the stern and began taking on water.

Coast Guard Sector Maryland-National Capital Region watchstanders issued an urgent marine information broadcast and launched a 47-foot Motor Lifeboat crew from Station Ocean City, an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Atlantic City, New Jersey, and diverted Coast Guard Cutter Lawrence Lawson to respond.

A good Samaritan arrived on scene and took all three boaters aboard his vessel.

A boatcrew from the Lawrence Lawson passed a dewatering pump to the boaters. Members from both Station Ocean City and the Lawrence Lawson helped dewater the vessel.

The three boaters were taken to Ocean City by the good Samaritan while the 47-foot MLB crew towed the vessel to the west Ocean City boat ramp.

No injuries were reported.

Man charged with abduction at Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel in 2015 pleads guilty

A man captured on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel after he kidnapped his former girlfriend at gunpoint pleaded guilty Tuesday to abduction and firearm charges.

In exchange, prosecutors agreed to seek a sentence of no more than five years for 23-year-old Phillip James Timmons, according to a plea agreement entered in the case. Timmons, of Delmar, Md., has been held without bond since his arrest on Oct. 4, 2015.

According to a stipulation of facts submitted by prosecutors, Timmons broke into his former girlfriend’s home in Maryland at about 2 a.m. and abducted her after she repeatedly told him not to come over.

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Gallup Poll: Hillary's High Unfavorability

Losing presidential candidates over the past quarter century have tended to become more popular in the months following the election. But former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has broken that trend, according to Gallup.

The latest Gallup poll reveals that a majority of Americans, 57 percent, continue to view Secretary Clinton unfavorably. There has been no change in this percentage since January 2017.

Clinton’s favorable rating hit an all-time low, 38 percent, early September last year. The highest it has ever been was 67 percent, which was in 1998 when she was first lady.

In 2011 and 2012, during her time serving as secretary of state, she received a 66 percent favorability rating.

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Two House Democrats and a Staffer Under Review By House Ethics Committee

Two Democratic members of the House of Representatives are under review by the House Ethics Committee for alleged wrongdoing.

Rep. Ben Ray Lujan (D., N.M.) and Rep. John Conyers (D., Mich.) are both being reviewed by the committee for different issues, Politico reports.

Lujan is being investigated in connection with the Democratic sit-in on the House floor a year ago. Lujan is being accused of having his campaign profit off the protest by using images of himself on the floor in campaign donation solicitations. Using any image of a member on the House floor for campaign purposes is illegal.

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Maxine Waters Under Siege: Congresswoman lives in $4.8M mansion, Paid daughter $750,000 to mail campaign flyers

California Congresswoman Maxine Waters has incurred the wrath of President Trump supporters. The fiery 78-year-old Democrat was heckled by several protesters at a town hall meeting in Inglewood, Calif. on Saturday.

Waters’ popularity has surged among left-leaning celebrities and Hillary Clinton supporters.

The protesters were escorted out of the meeting by police officers, while more protesters picketed outside Inglewood high school where the town hall meeting was held.

Waters, who for months has called for Trump’s impeachment, is now under threat of Impeachment herself, thanks to her anti-Trump stance.

Pro-Trump supporters are calling for Waters to be impeached amid allegations that she paid her daughter, Karen Waters, $750,000 out of taxpayer funds to mail campaign flyers.

In 2010, the House Ethics Committee investigated Waters for steering $12 million in bailout funds to a bank where her husband sat on the board and held stock.

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Katherine Dettwyler on Ratemyprofessors.com

Dettwyler is very hard for an intro class. I recommend not taking her for anything. Her tests are solely based off her textbook, and there are so many little details that you need to know from the textbook. I don't think ive studied for an exam more and I got an 81. Don't take this class, there are no notes or references online either.

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