From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
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The Daily Caller – by Chuck Ross
There appears to be no love lost between Attorney General Eric Holder and one of his most pointed critics, Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke.
“What’s up with the hat?” Holder asked Clarke during a meeting of sheriffs and police chiefs at the Marriott Hotel in Washington, D.C. late last month, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Continue reading “Eric Holder Asked Sheriff David Clarke Why He Was Wearing A Cowboy Hat”
During the 1980’s hundred of Savings and Loan Banks failed. Those bank failures cost U.S. taxpayers over $500 billion to cover federally insured losses, and much more to investigate the bank failures (Pizzo, Fricker, and Muolo, 1989; Brewton, 1992; Johnston, 1990). More than 75% of the Savings and Loan insolvencies where directly linked to serious and often criminal misconduct by senior financial insiders (Pizzo, Fricker and Muolo, 1989: 305). In fact, less than 10 percent of bank failures are related to economic conditions, the rest are caused by mismanagement or criminal conduct (Pizzo, Fricker and Muolo, 1989: 305). Continue reading “The Savings & Loans, the Mob and the Bushs”
PORTLAND, Ore. — The measles outbreak is of particular concern in Oregon, home to the highest rate of unvaccinated children in the country. Parents have been warned to get their children vaccinated by Wednesday or face expulsion from school.
The state of Oregon is making Jolynn Reynolds watch an educational video before she can opt out of having her child vaccinated. Reynolds is claiming a philosophical exemption, allowing her kids to go to school without their required vaccinations. Continue reading “Oregon mulls banning personal belief exemption for vaccines”
Wall Street Journal – by JAMES V. GRIMALDI And REBECCA BALLHAUS
The Clinton Foundation has dropped its self-imposed ban on collecting funds from foreign governments and is winning contributions at an accelerating rate, raising ethical questions as Hillary Clinton ramps up her expected bid for the presidency.
Recent donors include the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Australia, Germany and a Canadian government agency promoting the Keystone XL pipeline. Continue reading “Foreign Government Gifts to Clinton Foundation on the Rise”
Towns and cities in Ohio cannot regulate hydraulic fracturing on their own, the state’s Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.
The court ruled 4-3 that Ohio’s legislature gave state agencies exclusive authority over all aspects of oil and natural gas drilling, including fracking, in a 2004 law, and any local ordinances would violate that exclusivity.
“We have consistently held that a municipal-licensing ordinance conflicts with a state-licensing scheme if the local ordinance restricts an activity which a state license permits,” Justice Judith French wrote in the majority opinion. Continue reading “Ohio court strikes down local fracking bans”
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Las Vegas mother of four killed in a road rage shooting last week got in her car with her adult son and his gun and drove around their neighborhood looking for the assailant who ended up shooting her in a residential cul-de-sac, police said Tuesday.
In a change from earlier accounts, police Lt. Ray Steiber said 44-year-old Tammy Meyers had her teenage daughter run in the house to fetch her armed son, who then went with her as she drove to find the driver who had earlier stopped his car in front of hers, got out and approached her with angry words. Continue reading “Police: Vegas mom, son searched for vehicle before shooting”
Jihadist militants from Islamic State (IS) have burned to death 45 people in the western Iraqi town of al-Baghdadi, the local police chief says.
Exactly who these people were and why they were killed is not clear, but Col Qasim al-Obeidi said he believed some were members of the security forces.
IS fighters captured much of the town, near Ain al-Asad air base, last week. Continue reading “Islamic State militants ‘burn to death 45 in Iraq’”
West Coast ports that were closed to incoming cargo vessels during the holiday weekend reopened in full on Tuesday as Labor Secretary Tom Perez arrived in San Francisco seeking to broker a settlement ending months of shipping disruptions.
Perez was sent to meet with the two sides in the conflict at the behest of President Barack Obama, who has come under mounting pressure to weigh in on a labor dispute that has cascaded through the U.S. commercial supply chain and beyond. Continue reading “West Coast ports reopen as labor secretary arrives for talks”
LA Times – by MOLLY HENNESSY-FISKE, KATHLEEN HENNESSEY AND MICHAEL MUSKAL
The Obama administration on Tuesday said it would appeal a move by a federal judge in Texas that temporarily stopped the president’s executive actions on immigration, an anticipated judicial roadblock that was greeted with partisan reactions.
In a decision released late Monday night, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen put on hold Obama’s executive action to protect between 4 million and 5 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally from deportation. The first of the actions, expanding a program that protects young immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children, was set to launch on Wednesday. Continue reading “White House to appeal ruling blocking Obama’s immigrant protections”
The White House on Tuesday will begin hosting a three-day summit to examine ways to counter violent extremism.
The meeting will put a special emphasis on domestic and international efforts to prevent extremists and their backers from radicalizing young people. Continue reading “White House hosts summit on extremism”
The Free Thought Project – by Cassandra Rules
Wichita, KS– A Wichita mother and local business owner has taken to YouTube to express her anger over a violent no-knock raid that occurred on Friday morning at the home she owns and rents to her son and his friends.
Taylor Tymony, 22, and Michael Kostelecky, 21, were home on Friday around 10 am. That’s when officers, armed with rifles burst through the unlocked door to the home they share with another friend, with a battering ram. Continue reading “Cops No-Knock Raid, Stomp Necks, Destroy & Nearly Burn Down Home– To Find Broken Pot Pipe”
A federal judge has granted a request by 26 states to temporarily block President Obama’s executive action on illegal immigration, allowing a lawsuit aimed at permanently stopping the orders to make its way through the courts.
U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen granted the preliminary injunction Monday after hearing arguments in Brownsville, Texas last month. He wrote in a memorandum accompanying his order that the lawsuit should go forward and that without a preliminary injunction the states will “suffer irreparable harm in this case.” Continue reading “Federal judge temporarily blocks Obama’s immigration executive action”
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A security mission near the city of inner Samarra in Iraq has led to the arrest of the two relatives of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. A group from the Regiment Special Assignments has managed to detain the ISIS leader’s uncle Saleh Ibrahim Abdulmomen and the husband of al-Baghdadi’s niece Dhiya Nuori Sadoun.
Al Arabiya reports that Iraqi state television was told of the arrest by a security source from the southern Dhi Qar governorate’s police. The state-owned television channel had quoted an Iraqi government security official who confirmed the arrests of the two relatives known to be top-level ISIS commanders. Continue reading “ISIS Top Commanders Related To Al-Baghdadi Captured; Western Fighters Join Christian Militia Against ISIS”
The U.S. drilling frenzy is over. What’s not is the boom in oil production.
While companies have idled 151 rigs in five shale formations since reaching a peak of 1,157 in October, they’ll need to park another 200 for growth to stall, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Output there will reach a record 5.47 million barrels a day in March even though the number of rigs exploring for oil is the lowest since 2013. Continue reading “U.S. Rigs Are Being Idled, but the Oil Boom Is Not Ending”
ABC News – by HAMZA HENDAWI and MAGGIE MICHAEL
Security officials say Egyptian warplanes have staged a second wave of airstrikes against positions of the Islamic State group in neighboring Libya.
The officials said the warplanes struck on Monday in Darna, an extremist stronghold in eastern Libya. The first wave of airstrikes also targeted Darna. Continue reading “Egypt Stages 2nd Wave of Airstrikes After Video of Killings”
Jerusalem (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday urged European Jews to move to Israel after a Jewish man was killed in an attack outside Copenhagen’s main synagogue.
“Israel is your home. We are preparing and calling for the absorption of mass immigration from Europe,” Netanyahu said in a statement, repeating a similar call after attacks by jihadists in Paris last month when four Jews were among the dead. Continue reading “Netanyahu urges Jews to move to Israel after Copenhagen attacks”
Canadian Pacific Railway’s train engineers and conductors walked off the job on Sunday as a midnight deadline to reach agreement on a new contract passed, setting the stage for back-to-work legislation to be enacted by the government.
Canada’s No. 2 railway had reached a last-minute deal with another union, Unifor, which represents safety and maintenance workers minutes before the deadline. Continue reading “CP Rail’s train engineers, conductors go on strike in Canada: union”
Danish police said a man they shot dead early Sunday was likely behind the two shooting attacks Saturday in Copenhagen that killed two civilians and wounded five police officers.
Officials said no evidence suggests other gunmen were involved in the shootings, one of which took place at a free-speech event at a cafe and the other outside Copenhagen’s main synagogue. Continue reading “Danish Police Kill Suspect Believed Responsible for Deadly Attacks”
CS Monitor – by Patrik Jonsson
This week, lawmakers in New Hampshire, Kansas, Mississippi, and Montana advanced bills that, if made into law, would no longer require special permits to carry concealed weapons in public. Five states already have no concealed permit requirement – part of a broader trend toward so-called constitutional carry.
Also this week, Sen. John Cornyn (R) of Texas introduced federal legislation that would turn concealed weapons permits into something like state driver’s licenses, which are legal anywhere in the United States. The measure nearly passed a Democrat-controlled Senate last year, meaning it could well end up on President Obama’s desk in 2015. Continue reading “Concealed carry without a permit: Will crime go up or down?”
Criticism – by Gary W. Potter
CBS News
The Hill – by Timothy Cama
Yahoo News – by Ken Ritter
BBC News
The Hill – by Martin Matishak
Fox News
Bloomberg – by Asjylyn Loder
Yahoo News
Voice of America