Author: Admin

Reuters

A U.S. appeals court on Monday overturned a jury’s finding that Bank of America Corp was liable for mortgage fraud leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, tossing a $1.27 billion penalty and dealing the U.S. Justice Department a major setback.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled that the proof was insufficient under federal fraud statutes to establish liability in connection with a mortgage program called “Hustle” run by the former Countrywide Financial Corp.   Continue reading “Bank of America wins reversal of $1.27 billion penalty in U.S. mortgage case”

Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) — The head of the Transportation Security Administration warned travelers Friday to expect long airport security lines to continue during the peak summer travel season despite Congress’ shifting of $34 million to the agency.

Peter Neffenger briefed officials in Chicago on Friday about efforts to address crushing delays in getting passengers through security checkpoints at major airports around the country. Congress agreed to shift forward the $34 million in TSA funding to let the agency pay overtime to existing staff and hire an extra 768 screeners by June 15. The agency is funneling many of those resources to major hub airports like Chicago’s O’Hare International.   Continue reading “TSA head: Expect more airport security delays despite funds”

Fox 43 – by Taniel Orr

DERRY TOWNSHIP, Dauphin County, Pa. —Hersheypark officials released a statement Friday saying guests at the park may use the restrooms with which they gender-identify.

According to Hersheypark Public Relations Manager Kathy Burrows, transgender guests visiting the theme park may use the bathroom that matches their gender identity, or a family restroom if they wish.
Continue reading “Hersheypark guests may use restrooms based on their gender-identity”

Washington Post – by Joe Scarborough

One may have to go all the way back to the founding of the United States to find a time when the established economic and political order was as threatened politically as Wall Street financiers, party leaders and Washington insiders find themselves today.

In the years following the Declaration of Independence, the former colonies operated as a loose collection of individual states governed by the Articles of Confederation. Experience with the British crown had ingrained such a deep distrust of centralized power that the former British subjects organized their governments around powerful state legislatures that shared radical democratic sentiments with their constituents. As Isaac Kramnick noted in an introduction to the Federalist Papers, state legislators between 1776 and 1787 flooded their states with cheap money, passed radical debtor relief, promoted laws that set aside legal contracts, confiscated property at will and even stopped the repaying of debts.   Continue reading “Alexander Hamilton’s warning to 2016 voters”

ABC News

The suspect in the killing of a 42-year-old Massachusetts police officer was shot and killed Sunday evening during a shootout at a home just miles from the initial incident, officials said.

A state trooper was also wounded in the exchange of gunfire with the suspect, who was identified as 35-year-old Jorge Zambrano, who officials said had an extensive criminal history.   Continue reading “Massachusetts Cop Killing Suspect Fatally Shot After Standoff”

Fox News

President Obama lifted the 41-year-old U.S. arms embargo against Vietnam Monday in an apparent effort to shore up the communist country’s defenses against an increasingly aggressive China.

Obama announced the full removal of the embargo at a news conference in Hanoi alongside Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang. The American president said the move was intended as a step toward normalizing relations with the former enemy and to eliminate a “lingering vestige of the Cold War.”   Continue reading “US lifts Vietnam arms embargo in move to counter China”

Yahoo News

An unidentified person is in critical condition after being shot on a street beside the White House Friday afternoon, authorities said.

A uniformed Secret Service officer, the AP reports, shot an armed person on West Executive Ave. NW, a street that borders the White House to the west.   Continue reading “Secret Service shoots armed person near White House”

Breitbart – by Caroline May

The vast majority of illegal immigrants the Border Patrol apprehends are released into the U.S., the head of the agents’ union testified before a Senate panel Thursday.

“We’re releasing basically everybody as long as you’re not from the country of Mexico. And even if you’re from the country of Mexico and you claim that you have a credible fear and you’re asking for asylum for one reason or another — we’re still releasing those individuals,” Brandon Judd, the president of the National Border Patrol Council, said before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest.   Continue reading “Border Patrol Agent: 80 Percent of Illegals the Agency Apprehends Are Released into U.S.”

Fox News Latino

WASHINGTON (AP) –  The Supreme Court is making it easier for the government to deport or otherwise remove people who are not U.S. citizens if they are convicted of seemingly minor state crimes.

The justices ruled 5-3 Thursday that a man who spent 23 years living in New York as a lawful permanent resident can be barred from re-entering the country because of a 1999 conviction for attempted arson.   Continue reading “High court rules non-U.S. citizens can be deported if convicted of minor crimes”

Washington Examiner – by Joel Gehrke

A federal judge has ordered annual ethics classes for Justice Department attorneys as a punishment for being “intentionally deceptive” during litigation over President Obama’s executive immigration orders.

“Such conduct is certainly not worthy of any department whose name includes the word ‘Justice,'” U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen wrote in a withering order released Thursday.   Continue reading “Judge orders ethics classes for ‘deceptive’ DOJ attorneys”

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WINK News

NAPLES, Fla. – Collier County Public Schools officials are ready to break with the federal government and forfeit $57 million over a U.S. Justice Department directive about the use of school facilities by transgender students.

Pres. Barack Obama launched the directive and told media outlets it is about protecting children.   Continue reading “Collier schools consider parting with federal funding over transgender directive”

ABC News

How do you teach the history of the world in California schools, where nearly two-thirds of students are Latino or Asian, many from newly immigrated families?

That’s the challenge facing a California panel charged with establishing a new history and social studies framework for the state’s 6.2 million public school students.

On Thursday, the Instructional Quality Commission is scheduled to consider whether to forward a proposed plan to the California Board of Education. The framework will guide publishers in choosing material for textbooks. It was last overhauled in 2000.   Continue reading “California Aims to Reflect Diversity in Classroom Studies”

Reuters

Two Chinese fighter jets carried out an “unsafe” intercept of a U.S. military reconnaissance aircraft over the South China Sea, the Pentagon said on Wednesday, drawing a rebuke from Beijing, which demanded that Washington end surveillance near China.

The incident, likely to increase tension in and around the contested waterway, took place in international airspace on Tuesday as the U.S. maritime patrol aircraft carried out “a routine U.S. patrol,” a Pentagon statement said.   Continue reading “Chinese jets intercept U.S. military plane over South China Sea: Pentagon”

Reuters

“He’s a magician, he’s a magician,” the partisan crowd chanted as a beaming Benjamin Netanyahu strode into his party headquarters a little over a year ago to declare a come-from-behind victory in Israel’s election.

Now, with the expected entry into his right-wing government of ultranationalist Avigdor Lieberman as defense minister, it looks like Netanyahu, in his fourth term as premier, has pulled off another piece of political sleight of hand worthy of a “House of Cards” script.   Continue reading “Netanyahu pulls off coalition surprise to upend Israeli politics”