Forbes – by Seth Chandler

The General Accountability Office, the government’s non-partisan watchdog agency, issued a ruling today holding that the Obama administration’s diversion of billions of dollars from the United States Treasury to insurers selling individual policies on the ACA Exchanges was illegal. The GAO joins the Congressional Research Service, another non-partisan agency, in finding that these payments, which the Obama administration has insisted are lawful, are in fact completely unauthorized and inappropriate. For what it is worth, the GAO opinion is also largely consistent with views I have expressed on several occasions (here and here).
Continue reading “Busted: GAO Finds Payments To Insurers Under Affordable Care Act Are Illegal”

The Hill – by Christina Marcos

A House Republican introduced legislation to prevent the U.S. government from granting immigrants citizenship, responding to a report found that several hundred people slated for deportation were accidentally naturalized.

The bill, offered by Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) before Congress departed this week for its pre-election recess, would halt any new naturalizations until the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) finishes modernizing its fingerprint record database.   Continue reading “GOP bill proposes freeze on US naturalizations”

Reuters – by Ernest Scheyder

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 28 (Reuters) – The chief executive of North Dakota’s largest oil producer, Whiting Petroleum Corp , says the standoff over the $3.7 billion Dakota Access pipeline could be solved by giving economic opportunities, including supply and delivery contracts, to the Standing Rock Sioux and other Native Americans.

Thousands of protesters from all over the world have joined with the Sioux to oppose the pipeline, which would transport oil within half a mile of tribal land in North Dakota. Federal regulators temporarily blocked construction of the pipeline earlier this month under the Missouri River, mollifying opponents but irking the fossil fuel industry.   Continue reading “Tribal service deals could help Dakota pipeline impasse -Whiting CEO”

NPR

A commuter train in New Jersey has crashed into a train station in Hoboken, N.J., resulting in multiple injuries and heavy damage.

At least 100 people are injured, New Jersey Transit officials tell Stephen Nessen of WNYC.

WNYC’s Nancy Solomon arrived on the scene shortly after the crash, and says she personally saw 20 to 30 injured people, including at least four who were unable to walk.   Continue reading “Train Crashes Into Station In Hoboken, N.J., Injuring At Least 100”

NewsMax – by Michael Reagan

Most American citizens don’t know this, but when an “unaccompanied minor” illegal alien is captured by the Border Patrol, he isn’t sent back to his country. Instead he’s placed with a sponsor in our country.

This is why the U.S. is a magnet for illegal immigration. Our government is run by fools who put a higher priority on the welfare of non-citizens than they do the welfare of the people who pay their salary.   Continue reading “Immigration Policy Favors Illegals Over Citizens”

Yahoo News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Congress approved a stop-gap funding bill on Wednesday that averts a looming federal government shutdown and provides urgently needed money to help battle an outbreak of the Zika virus.

Passage of the bipartisan legislation came shortly after Republicans and Democrats ended a months-long fight over whether Washington should provide aid to the city of Flint, Michigan, as it struggles with a crisis over contaminated drinking water.   Continue reading “Congress passes funding bill averting government shutdown”

PJ Media – by Debra Heine

Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy, of South Carolina, is not a fan of the Obama Justice Department’s sanctuary city policies.

“Time and time again, our nation has witnessed the tragic consequences of this administration’s failure to enforce immigration law,” he said in his opening statement at a hearing on sanctuary cities Tuesday. “Witnessing these tragedies is unsettling enough, but it pales in comparison to the grief and the anguish and the separation experienced by the families of those victimized.”   Continue reading “Trey Gowdy: DOJ Aiding and Abetting Local Governments in Their Failure to Enforce Immigration Law”

WYFF 4 News

TOWNVILLE, S.C. One student was injured and airlifted to Greenville Memorial Hospital and a second student and a female teacher were taken by ambulance to AnMed after a shooting at Townville Elementary School, according to officials.

The coroner was called to the scene, but he confirmed that none of the injuries are life-threatening.   Continue reading “2 students, teacher injured in shooting at Townville Elementary School”

Bloomberg

Wells Fargo & Co. Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf, fighting to keep his job amid a national political furor, will forgo more than $41 million of stock and salary as the bank’s board investigates how employees opened legions of bogus accounts for customers.

It’s a swift turn for one of the industry’s most exalted leaders, marking the biggest forfeiture of compensation from a major U.S. bank chief since at least the 2008 financial crisis. But it may not be enough to spare Stumpf another lashing when he returns to Capitol Hill on Thursday. Last week, Senator Elizabeth Warren demanded he resign for “gutless leadership” after he blamed abuses on low-wage employees.   Continue reading “Wells Fargo’s CEO Forfeits $41 Million in Fight to Keep Job”

NBC News

The Department of Defense is poised to dispatch 600 more U.S. troops to Iraq to help government forces oust ISIS from the city of Mosul, officials said Wednesday.

The Pentagon is expected to make the official announcement Wednesday afternoon.

The soldiers will provide logistics support for the Iraqi forces and not spearhead the attack, U.S. officials said. The troops, who will deploy in the coming weeks, will be logistics support, enablers and advisers.   Continue reading “U.S. Officials: 600 More Troops Heading To Iraq”

USA Today

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to override President Obama’s veto of legislation allowing lawsuits against foreign sponsors of terrorism, setting up an almost certain and historic defeat for the White House on the bill.

The House is expected to follow suit within hours, making it the first veto of Obama’s presidency that has been overturned by Congress.    Continue reading “Senate overwhelmingly votes to override Obama veto on 9/11 bill”

Patch – by Colin Miner

For nearly thirty minutes, two FBI agents showed off guns that had been seized from the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge after the 41-day armed occupation was over. When the FBI agents were done with the 44 weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition, the prosecution rested.

The case against Ammon Bundy, his brother Ryan and five others on charges stemming from the takeover of the refuge goes to the defense on Wednesday   Continue reading “Oregon Standoff Trial Day 10: The Prosecution Rests”

Yahoo News

In the four-dimensional chessboard on which the politics of gun control plays out, anything can happen — and for a brief moment in Monday night’s presidential debate, it did, as Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton found themselves in agreement on at least one small aspect of it.

At issue was a ban on gun sales to people on the government’s terror watch lists, a move which has taken on huge symbolic importance since Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., began pushing for it earlier this year in the wake of the deadly attack on an Orlando nightclub. Murphy made the hyperbolic but politically effective charge that Republicans who oppose the measure “want to sell weapons to ISIS.”   Continue reading “The surprising agreement between Trump and Clinton on gun control”

Fox News

FBI documents related to the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server show an employee at Platte River Networks, the company that managed the server, refer to the “Hillary cover-up.”

That unnamed employee apparently satisfied FBI agents with the explanation that his 2014 email reference to the “cover-up” was merely a joke.   Continue reading “Judge Nap: It Appears FBI Was Told to Exonerate Hillary ‘at All Costs’”

The Globe and Mail

TransCanada Corp. is offering about $848-million (U.S.) cash to buy all the equity in Columbia Pipeline Partners LP that it doesn’t already own – strengthening its grip on a pipeline network that stretches from New York to the Gulf of Mexico.

The Calgary-based company’s offer to other investors in the Houston-based limited partnership follows TransCanada’s purchase of the Columbia Pipeline Group. That deal was valued at $13-billion, including $2.8-billion in debt.   Continue reading “TransCanada bids $848-million to buy rest of Columbia Pipeline Partners”

The Hill

The IRS announced Monday that it plans to start a new private debt-collection program in the spring.

The program was authorized by a transportation funding law enacted last December. Contractors will work on the government’s behalf to collect debts from taxpayers who owe money but whose accounts are no longer being worked on directly by the IRS.   Continue reading “IRS set to use private debt collectors”

RT

The suspect in a Houston, Texas spree shooting has been killed, police said. At least six people sustained injuries. The scene is now “contained,” but residents have been asked to avoid the area.

The Houston Police Department has confirmed “an active shooter situation in a shopping center near the corner of Weslayan and Bissonnet in southwest Houston.”   Continue reading “Houston shooting suspect is dead – police”