Daily Caller – by Ethan Barton

Oregon’s governor received a last-minute political donation from the president of a company that raked in $1 billion from taxpayer-funded contracts and has nearly $444 million at stake, an investigation has uncovered.

Phil Fogg, CEO and President of Marquis Companies – an Oregon-based provider for assisted living, rehab and Alzheimer’s facilities – donated $5,000 to Kate Brown two days before she was elected governor, Oregon campaign data shows. That was Fogg’s only donation to the 2016 gubernatorial race.   Continue reading “Oregon Governor Took Last-Minute Donation From Contractor With $444 Million At Stake”

Fox Nation – by Stephen Dinan, The Washington Times

The IRS has discovered more than 1 million Americans whose Social Security numbers were stolen by illegal immigrants, but officials never bothered to tell the taxpayers themselves, the agency’s inspector general said in a withering new report released Tuesday.

Investigators first alerted the IRS to the problem five years ago, but it’s still not fixed, the inspector general said, and a pilot program meant to test a solution was canceled — and fell woefully short anyway.   Continue reading “IRS Doesn’t Tell 1 Million Taxpayers That Illegals Stole Their Social Security Numbers”

The Captain’s Journal – by Herschel Smith

There are a lot of articles and discussion forum threads on barrel twist rate for AR-15s.  So why am I writing one?  Well, some of the information on the web is very wrong.  Additionally, this closes out comment threads we’ve had here touching on this topic, EMail exchanges I’ve had with readers, and personal conversations I’ve had with shooters and friends about this subject.  It’s natural to put this down in case anyone else can benefit from the information.  Or you may not benefit at all.  That’s up to you.   Continue reading “AR-15 Ammunition And Barrel Twist Rate”

RT

US investment bank Citi has posted a bullish prediction about oil prices. As supply and demand levels continue to rebalance, crude is likely to reach $70 per barrel by the end of 2017, the bank said in a note.

However, the increase will come gradually, and a surge is to be expected a few months later, said Citi.   Continue reading “Oil prices will surge to $70 per barrel by year-end – Citi”

Mail.com

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — In statehouses across the country, lawmakers with loved ones who fell victim to drugs are leading the fight against the nation’s deadly opioid-abuse crisis, drawing on tragic personal experience to attack the problem.

A Minnesota state senator whose daughter died of a heroin overdose in a Burger King parking lot — a friend hid the needles instead of calling for help — spearheaded a law that grants immunity to 911 callers. In Wisconsin, a state representative has introduced more than a dozen opioid-related bills in the years since his daughter went from painkillers to heroin to prison. A Pennsylvania lawmaker whose son is a recovering heroin addict championed a state law that expanded availability of an antidote that can reverse an overdose.   Continue reading “State lawmakers channel grief into fight against opioids”

Mail.com

CANNON BALL, N.D. (AP) — The last people remaining at a Dakota Access pipeline protest camp prayed and set fire to a handful of wooden structures on Wednesday, hours ahead of a deadline set by the Army Corps of Engineers to close the camp.

Some of the praying protesters said burning the structures — which appeared to include a yurt and a teepee — was part of the ceremony of leaving. As heavy rain turned to snow, some said they expected no trouble during the eviction, despite a heavy law enforcement presence.   Continue reading “Pipeline protesters pray, set fires ahead of camp closing”

Mail.com

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s government-sanctioned paramilitary forces, made up mainly of Shiite militiamen, launched a new push Wednesday to capture villages west of the city of Mosul from Islamic State militants, officials said.

The forces’ spokesman, Ahmed al-Asadi, said on Wednesday that the villages being targeted are located southwest of the town of Tal Afar, still held by the Islamic State group. The spokesman for the Hezbollah Brigades, Jaafar al-Husseini, said the troops captured the villages of Sharia and Khirbat al-Jahish.   Continue reading “Iraqi Shiite militias push to take villages west of Mosul”

Washington Examiner – by Adam Steinbaugh

Universities are the cradle of free speech, where ideologies and ideas clash, where academics and activists can agree, disagree, or be disagreeable. This is particularly true in the United States, where the First Amendment zealously guards against government surveillance and intrusion into free speech.

Yet at hundreds of campuses across the country, administrators encourage students to report one another, or their professors, for speech protected by the First Amendment, or even mere political disagreements. The so-called “Bias Response Teams” reviewing these (often anonymous) reports typically include police officers, student conduct administrators and public relations staff who scrutinize the speech of activists and academics.   Continue reading “Hundreds of campuses encourage students to turn in fellow students for offensive speech”

World Events and the Bible

WEB Notes: Of course that is the media’s job and anything that comes out from the mainstream is taken as truth and Gospel by most of the world. Critical thinking is lacking in these end times.

Controlling “exactly what people think” is the job of the media, MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski boldly declared Wednesday morning.   Continue reading “MSNBC Brzezinski: ‘Our Job’ Is To Control ‘Exactly What People Think’”

World Events and the Bible

WEB Notes: There is nothing wrong with protecting your borders. All of our borders should be protecting and you can start doing that by removing the candy that attracts some of them to this nation. Free welfare and healthcare would be a prime example along with the anchor baby regulations. Let’s start by removing these things which cost nothing and are common sense approach. Instead they work to continually divide the people. What I want you to note is how men will use rhetorical speech to fire up a people and gain support.
Continue reading “Trump Administration Issues New Immigration Enforcement Policies, Says Goal Is Not ‘Mass Deportations’”

AirTalk – by Brian Markus

Before fighting everyone in the room to plug your smartphone into the communal charger: please don’t.

Or at least, beware.

Coffee shops, airports and almost every other kind of public meeting space have become regular safe havens whenever we’re desperate for that extra juice. But with the ubiquity of USB ports built into today’s phone chargers, this flow of “juice” isn’t just power anymore – it’s data. Important data.   Continue reading “‘Juice-jacking:’ how hackers steal your private data from public charging stations”

US News

(Reuters) – A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld Maryland’s ban on assault rifles, ruling gun owners are not protected under the U.S. Constitution to possess “weapons of war,” court documents showed.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit decided 10-4 that the Firearm Safety Act of 2013, a law in response to the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, by a gunman with an assault rifle, does not violate the right to bear arms within the Second Amendment.

Continue reading “Maryland Ban on Assault Rifles Upheld in Court”

Reuters

China, in an early test of U.S. President Donald Trump, has nearly finished building almost two dozen structures on artificial islands in the South China Sea that appear designed to house long-range surface-to-air missiles, two U.S. officials told Reuters.

The development is likely to raise questions about whether and how the United States will respond, given its vows to take a tough line on China in the South China Sea.   Continue reading “China finishing South China Sea buildings that could house missiles – U.S. officials”

CBS SF

SAN JOSE (CBS SF) — As flooding along Coyote Creek in San Jose continued into the night Tuesday, San Jose officials issued expanded evacuation notices for an area stretching from Capitol Expressway to State Route 237.

At about 10:20 p.m. Tuesday night, San Jose city officials issued at mandatory evacuation for the rectangular area north of E. William and south of Santa Clara streets specifically for the homes on the creek side along South 17th Street to South 19th Street.   Continue reading “New Flood Evacuation Orders Issued In San Jose”

Tech Dirt – by Tim Cushing

In news that will surprise no one, police officers decided they must do something about someone filming the police department building from across the street. That’s where this Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision begins: with a completely avoidable and completely unnecessary assertion of government power.

Phillip Turner was filming the police department. He was accosted by two officers (Grinalds and Dyess). Both demanded he provide them with identification. He refused to do so. The officers arrested him for “failure to identify,” took his camera, and tossed him in the back of a squad car. Given the circumstances of the initial interaction, it’s surprising the words “contempt of cop” weren’t used on the official police report. From the opinion [PDF]:   Continue reading “Appeals Court Says Filming The Police Is Protected By The First Amendment”