Conservative Blogger
Monday, November 30, 2015
Principal accused of fixing failing grades behind teachers’ backs
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| Santiago Taveras |
The principal of DeWitt Clinton HS, a struggling Bronx school in Mayor de Blasio’s multimillion-dollar Renewal program, changed students’ failing grades to passing without teachers’ knowledge or consent, insiders told The Post.
In one case, Santiago Taveras gave a senior who received a “no show” in a global-history class a 75 and changed her failing 55 grade in gym to a minimum passing 65, records show. She then got a credit for each class, which she didn’t deserve, several staffers charged.
“He thinks he’s God and can do whatever he wants.”“He thinks he’s God and can do whatever he wants,” one said.
- DeWitt Clinton staffer
The office of the Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools is probing the allegations, said spokeswoman Regina Romain. Taveras did not return a call or email seeking comment.
Taveras, 50, a former deputy chancellor in the city Department of Education who closed failing schools, left a private job to lead DeWitt Clinton in 2013, vowing to revive the once-great Kingsbridge school. Its many VIP alumni include p
Fiorina: Obama 'delusional' about magnitude of climate change as security threat
Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina on Sunday called President Obama “delusional” to think climate change is the country’s biggest terror threat and criticized liberals and others trying to make a political statement about the recent Planned Parenthood shootings.
“That’s delusional for President Obama, Hillary Clinton or anyone else to say that climate change is the biggest security threat,” Fiorina told “Fox News Sunday.”
Obama has made several speeches in which he has said climate change is “an urgent and growing threat,” including his 2015 State of the Union address in which he said: "No challenge poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change."
Fiorina spoke one day before world leaders meet in France to try to reach a global pact to reduce carbon output and about two weeks after 130 people were killed in terror attacks in Paris.
“Terrorists don’t care that we’re going to Paris, other than it provides a target. President Obama is delusional on this,” continued Fiorina, with 3.5 percent of the popular vote and sixth in the GOP primary field of 13, according to the most recent averaging of polls by the nonpartisan website RealClearPolitics.com.
Fiorina, a former Hewlett-Packard chief executive, also condemned the fatal attack Friday on a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colo., saying the shooter is “deranged’ and should be tried for murder.
However, she said trying to link the killings to those who support the pro-life movement or oppose Planned Parenthood selling fetal tissue for research is “typical left-wing tactics.”
“The vast majority think what they’re doing is wrong,” Fiorina said.
She also addressed reports that the alleged shooter, Richard Lewis Dear, said “no more baby parts,” an apparent reference to the non-profit research sales.
Fiorina said Planned Parenthood stating recently that it would not long continue the practice “sounds like an indication they were.”
Supreme Court justice blocks Native Hawaiian vote count
HONOLULU – A U.S. Supreme Court justice on Friday issued a temporary stay blocking the counting of votes in an election that would be a significant step toward Native Hawaiian self-governance.
Justice Anthony Kennedy's order also stops the certification of any winners pending further direction from him or the entire court.
Native Hawaiians are voting to elect delegates for a convention next year to come up with a self-governance document to be ratified by Native Hawaiians. Voting ends Monday.
A group of Native Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians is challenging the election, arguing Hawaii residents who don't have Native Hawaiian ancestry are being excluded from the vote. It's unconstitutional for the state to be involved in a racially exclusive election, they say.
The ruling is a victory on many fronts, said Kelii Akina, one of the Native Hawaiian plaintiffs and president of public policy think-tank Grassroot Institute of Hawaii.
"First, it's a victory for Native Hawaiians who have been misrepresented by government leaders trying to turn us into a government-recognized tribe," he said in a statement. "Secondly, it is a victory for all people of Hawaii and the United States as it affirms racial equality."
Nai Aupuni, the nonprofit organization guiding the election process, is encouraging voters to continue casting votes, said Bill Meheula, an attorney representing the group.
"Reorganizing a government is not easy and it takes the courage and will of the candidates to take the first step to unify Hawaiians," he said in a statement. "Help them by voting now."
Attorneys representing the state have argued that the state isn't involved in the election.
"The state has consistently supported Native Hawaiian self-governance," state Attorney General Doug Chin said in a statement. "This is an independent election that may help chart the path toward a Native Hawaiian government. Today's order does not prevent people from voting in this election. It only places a hold on counting those votes until the Supreme Court determines how to proceed."
Former U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka spent about a dozen years trying to get a bill passed that would give Native Hawaiians the same rights already extended to many Native Americans and Alaska Natives.
When it became clear that wouldn't happen, the state passed a law recognizing Hawaiians as the first people of Hawaii and laid the foundation for Native Hawaiians to establish their own government. The governor appointed a commission to produce a roll of qualified Native Hawaiians interested in participating in their own government.
Some of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit say their names appear on the roll without their consent. The non-Hawaiians in the lawsuit say they're being denied participation in an election that will have a big impact on the state.
The lawsuit points to nearly $2.6 million from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, a public agency tasked with improving the wellbeing of Native Hawaiians, as evidence of the state's involvement.
Nai Aupuni is a private, nonprofit corporation whose grant agreement specifies the Office of Hawaiian Affairs won't have any control, Meheula said.
U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright in Honolulu ruled last month the purpose of the private election is to establish self-determination for the indigenous people of Hawaii. Those elected won't be able to alter state or local laws, he said.
The challengers appealed and also filed an emergency motion to block the votes from being counted. Last week, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the emergency motion, prompting the challengers to appeal to the high court.
The election is a divisive issue among Native Hawaiians. University of Hawaii law professor Williamson Chang is one of about 200 candidates vying for 40 delegate positions representing Native Hawaiians across the state and those living on the mainland. Chang doesn't agree with the process, but said he's running because it's an opportunity to fight federal recognition.
Those who support the election say it's an opportunity to create their own government for the first time since 1893, when American businessmen — backed by U.S. Marines — overthrew the Hawaiian Kingdom.
Clinton opened State Department office to dozens of corporate donors, Dem fundraisers
WASHINGTON – As secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton opened her office to dozens of influential Democratic party fundraisers, former Clinton administration and campaign loyalists, and corporate donors to her family's global charity, according to State Department calendars obtained by The Associated Press.
The woman who would become a 2016 presidential candidate met or spoke by phone with nearly 100 corporate executives and long-time Clinton political and charity donors during her four years at the State Department between 2009 and 2013, records show.
Those formally scheduled meetings involved heads of companies and organizations that pursued business or private interests with the Obama administration, including with the State Department while Clinton was in charge.
The AP found no evidence of legal or ethical conflicts in Clinton's meetings in its examination of 1,294 pages from the calendars. Her sit-downs with business leaders were not unique among recent secretaries of state, who sometimes summoned corporate executives to aid in international affairs, documents show.
But the difference with Clinton's meetings was that she was a 2008 presidential contender who was widely expected to run again in 2016. Her availability to luminaries from politics, business and charity shows the extent to which her office became a sounding board for their interests. And her ties with so many familiar faces from those intersecting worlds were complicated by their lucrative financial largess and political support over the years -- even during her State Department tenure -- to her campaigns, her husband's and to her family's foundation.
In its response to detailed questions from the AP, the Clinton campaign did not address the issue of the candidate's frequent meetings with corporate and political supporters during her State Department tenure. Instead, campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said "Secretary Clinton turned over all of her work emails, 55,000 pages of them, and asked that they be released to the public.áSome of that will include her schedules.áWe look forward to the rest of her emails being released so people can have a greater window into her work at the department."
The State Department turned the Clinton calendars over to AP under the federal Freedom of Information Act earlier this month after censoring many meeting entries for privacy reasons or to protect internal deliberations. The State Department's release of Clinton emails has so far turned up at least 155 planning schedules, called "mini schedules," but they account for about only 7 percent of the 1,159 days covered by those email releases.
Merrill said Clinton was not sent the planning "mini-schedules" every day or when she traveled, "which would account for why you see some on some days and not on others."
The AP found at least a dozen differences between Clinton's planners and calendars involving visits. A June 2010 Clinton planning schedule that the State Department released uncensored shows a 3 p.m. meeting between Clinton and her private lawyer, David Kendall. But Clinton's formal calendar lists the 20-minute session only as "private meeting -- secretary's office," omitting Kendall's name.
The Clinton campaign could not explain those discrepancies but said the candidate had made a good-faith effort to be transparent by giving her work-related emails to the State Department for public release.
American Federation of Teachers chief Randi Weingarten met Clinton three times, in 2009, 2010 and 2012. She saw Clinton for a half hour in October 2009, the same year the union spent nearly $1 million lobbying the government. The union also spent at least $1 million on lobbying in 2010 and 2012.
Weingarten's union endorsed Clinton's 2016 presidential bid in July, and Weingarten is on the board of Priorities USA Action, a super PAC supporting Clinton in 2016. The union has also given $1 million to $5 million to the Clinton Foundation.
PepsiCo Inc. CEO Indra Nooyi also had at least three scheduled contacts with Clinton. In February 2010, Nooyi and General Electric Co. CEO Jeff Immelt met Clinton as part of the State Department's efforts to secure corporate money for an American pavilion in China's Shanghai Expo in May of that year. Nooyi talked twice with Clinton by phone in 2012, a year when PepsiCo spent $3.3 million on lobbying, including talks with State Department officials.
PepsiCo's foundation pledged in 2008 to provide $7.6 million in grants to two water firms as a commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative. The Clinton charity also listed a PepsiCo Foundation donation of more than $100,000 in 2014, the same year the soda company's foundation announced a partnership under the charity to spur economic and social development in emerging nations.
A PepsiCo spokesman declined to discuss conversations it said its senior leaders may have had.
Sunday, November 29, 2015
Carson says Syrian refugees don't want to come to US
Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson finished touring Syrian refugee camps in Jordan Saturday and suggested that camps should serve as a long-term solution for millions, while other refugees could be absorbed by Middle Eastern countries.
“I did not detect any great desire for them to come to the United States," Carson told The Associated Press in a phone interview from Jordan. "You've got these refugee camps that aren't completely full. And all you need is the resources to be able to run them. Why do you need to create something else?"
Carson toured the Azraq camp in northern Jordan under heavy Jordanian security. The tour was closed off to journalists. Carson’s campaign also limited access, not providing his itinerary.
Upon finishing his tour, Carson reiterated his opposition to allowing any Syrian refugees to come to the U.S., saying he didn’t learn anything that gives him confidence in authorities’ ability to screen potential terrorists.
"What I learned is that you're going to get a different answer from everybody depending on what their slant is," he said. "I always oppose doing unnecessary things, particularly dangerous and costly unnecessary things.”
Carson also urged Americans to launch a “humanitarian drive” to raise billions of dollars that officials say is needed to improve the conditions for refugees settled across several countries in the Middle East. Carson told the Associated Press said all the refugees needed is “adequate funding.”
“They were quite willing to stay there as long as it takes before they can get back home."
Carson has often taken a harsh tone when discussing the refugee crisis, including how the U.S. handle resettling the refugees on American soil, amid concerns about terrorists foiling the vetting process.
Last week, he likened blocking potential terrorists posing as Syrian refugees to handling a rabid dog.
He also suggested Saturday that it would be best to absorb Syrian refugees in Middle Eastern host countries, which have given temporary shelter to most of the more than 4 million Syrians who have fled civil war in their country since 2011.
In a separate statement, he described Syrians as "as very hard working, determined people, which should only enhance the overall economic health of the neighboring Arab countries that accept and integrate them into the general population."
And he broadened his call for financial support beyond Americans: "The humanitarian crisis presented by the fleeing Syrian refugees can be addressed if the nations of the world with resources would provide financial and material support to the aforementioned countries as well as encouragement."
More than 4 million Syrians fled their homeland since 2011, after a popular uprising erupted against President Bashar Assad and quickly turned into a devastating civil war. Most initially settled in neighboring countries, but conditions there have become increasingly difficult.
Carson and his GOP rivals have criticized the administration’s plan to welcome 10,000 Syrian refugees this budget year.
The retired neurosurgeon has repeatedly struggled to discuss international affairs as they become a greater focus in the 2016 presidential contest.
Those close to him concede his foreign policy fluency isn't yet where it needs to be. And they hope missions like this will help change that.
"I'd say he's 75 percent of the way there," Armstrong Williams, Carson's longtime business manager and closest confidant, said last week of the candidate's grasp of foreign policy. "The world is a complex place, and he wants to get it right."
Obama to Paris for climate summit amid global terror concerns, GOP vow to pull deal money
President Obama arrives Sunday in Paris to finalize a global climate-change pact that if completed would be a legacy-defining part of his presidency. But he awaits challenges at home and abroad, including questions about who will pay for the changes and whether terrorism is a more imminent concern.
On Capitol Hill, Senate Republicans suggested last week that the GOP-led chamber must approve the Paris deal, or it will withhold billions that the U.S. has pledged, as part of the pact, to help poor countries reduces their carbon output.
“Congress will not be forthcoming with these funds in the future without a vote in the Senate on any final agreement as required in the U.S. Constitution,” Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and 36 other GOP senators said in a letter to Obama.
They also made clear that any deal including taxpayer money and a binding timetable on emissions must have Senate approval. And they argue that Obama has already pledged $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund “without the consent of Congress.”
The United Nations talks will take place on the outskirts of Paris, where 130 people were killed roughly two weeks ago in terror attacks, which has also sparked concerns about whether world leaders should now be more focused on stopping terror groups.
Obama said Tuesday at a White House press conference with French President Francois Hollande that the summit will be a “powerful rebuke” to terrorists, including the Islamic State, which has claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks.
“The world stands as one and shows that we will not be deterred from building a better future for our children,” Obama also said.
Still, Paris and the surrounding area will essentially be locked down for the 12-day summit. And climate-change activists have reportedly agreed to cancel a march Sunday, after an appeal from French leaders.
“I have to salute the responsibility of the organizations who would have liked to demonstrate but who understand that if they demonstrate in a public place there is a security risk, or even a risk of panic,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told The Guardian.
About 150 heads of state are set to join Obama for talks on Monday and Tuesday as the deal nears the finish line. The goal is to secure worldwide cuts to emissions of heat-trapping gases to limit the rise of global temperatures to about another 2 degrees from now.
The concept behind a Paris pact is that the 170 or so nations already have filed their plans. They would then promise to fulfill their commitments in a separate arrangement to avoid the need for ratification by the U.S. Senate.
Such dual-level agreement could be considered part of a 1992 treaty already approved by the Senate, said Nigel Purvis, an environmental negotiator in the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations.
But it's not just about whether or not to ratify.
Latin America countries attending the negotiations reportedly will demand that the wealthiest countries and those that pollute the most pay for the reduction of carbon emissions.
In the United States, the talks are entangled in the debate about whether humans really are contributing to climate change, and what, if anything, policymakers should do about it. Almost all Republicans, along with some Democrats, oppose the steps Obama has taken to curb greenhouse gas emissions, arguing they will hurt the economy, shutter coal plants and eliminate jobs in power-producing states.
Half the states are suing the administration to try to block Obama's unprecedented regulations to cut power plant emissions by roughly one-third by 2030. The states say Obama has exceeded his authority and is misusing the decades-old Clean Air Act. If their lawsuit succeeds, Obama would be hard-pressed to deliver the 26 percent to 28 percent cut in overall U.S. emissions by 2030 that he has promised as America's contribution.
Opponents also are trying to gut the power plant rules through a rarely used legislative maneuver that already has passed the Senate. A House vote is expected while international negotiators are in Paris.
And Republicans running for president are unanimous in their opposition to Obama's power plant rules; many say that if elected, they immediately would rip up the rules.
The administration mostly has acted through executive power: proposing the carbon dioxide limits on power plants, which mostly affect coal-fired plants; putting limits on methane emissions; and ratcheting up fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks, which also cuts down on carbon pollution.
Trump insists he didn't insult reporter with disabilities, now wants an apology for the accusation
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said again on Saturday that he didn’t mock a New York Times reporter with physical disabilities, but this time called for an apology from the newspaper and said the reporter is taking advantage of the allegation to a “horrible degree.”
“I don't mock people that have problems, believe me,” Trump said at a campaign rally in Sarasota, Fla.
The controversy began last weekend when Trump said at a rally in Alabama that thousands of people in New Jersey celebrated terrorist-hijacked airplanes on Sept. 11, 2001, toppling of the World Trade Center towers across the Hudson River in Manhattan.
Trump used a story by the reporter, Serge Kovaleski, then at The Washington Post, that included details about authorities detaining people for such alleged activity.
After Kovaleski essentially said his reporting didn’t justify Trump’s claims, Trump attack him at a rally in South Carolina, apparently imitating Kovaleski by using awkward arm motions and saying, “Uhh, I don’t remember.”
The front-running Trump has since said he never met, or at least doesn’t recall meeting Kovaleski, even after the New York Daily News published a story Friday that appeared to show they met in the late 1980s.
“The reporter took back what he said 14 years ago,” Trump continued Saturday. “Everybody knows it's true that Muslims were cheering. … The Muslims worldwide were celebrating during 9/11. And all of sudden I was mocking somebody?”
To be sure, this is not the first time Trump has faced accusations of mocking people, which now appears to have the Republican establishment and fellow 2016 GOP candidates concerned enough to mount a concerted ad-campaign effort to stop Trump from winning the nomination.
Since announcing his campaign this summer, Trump has in part suggested that the Mexican government is sending “rapists” and “drug dealers” across the border and has called primary rivals Jeb Bush and Ben Carson “low energy.”
Still, the billionaire businessman leads the GOP primary with 27.5 percent of the vote, according to the most recent averaging of polls by the nonpartisan website RealClearPolitics.com. His closest primary challenger, Carson, trails by 7.7 percentage points, according to the website.
Lynch calls Planned Parenthood shooting crime against women
Attorney General Loretta Lynch called the shooting at a Colorado Planned Parenthood Saturday a crime against women receiving health care services.
Lynch said in a statement the attack was not only a crime against the local community but a crime against law enforcement seeking to protect and to serve, against other innocent people, and against the rule of law as well as Americans’ right to safety and security.
The nation's top law enforcement officer said federal officials stand ready to offer any and all assistance to the district attorney and state and local law enforcement in Colorado as they move forward with their investigation.
Lynch also says her thoughts and prayers are with the shooting victims, including police officer Garrett Swasey. She said Swasey gave his life in order to keep others safe.
Robert Lewis Dear, 57, a North Carolina native, allegedly killed three people, including officer Swasey, and wounded nine others after storming the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs. Dear was wearing a trench coat and carrying a rifle.
Although Colorado Springs mayor John Suthers said that authorities weren’t ready to discuss a possible motive for the attack, an unnamed law enforcement official told the Associated Press that Dear apparently made a “no more baby parts” remark following his arrest.
The official said he could not elaborate about the comment, and spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly about the ongoing investigation.
Planned Parenthood said late Saturday that witnesses said the gunman was motivated by his opposition to abortion
The attack thrust the clinic to the center of the ongoing debate over Planned Parenthood, which was re-ignited in July when anti-abortion activists released undercover video they said showed the organization's personnel negotiating the sale of fetal organs.
Planned Parenthood has denied seeking any payments beyond legally permitted reimbursement costs for donating the organs to researchers. Still, the National Abortion Federation says it has since seen a rise in threats at clinics nationwide.
The anti-abortion activists, part of a group called the Center for Medical Progress, denounced the "barbaric killing spree in Colorado Springs by a violent madman" and offered prayers for the dead and wounded and for their families.
The regional head of Planned Parenthood Vicki Cowart said Saturday that Dear "broke in" to the clinic but didn't get past a locked door leading to the main part of the facility.
Cowart said there was no armed security on Friday when Dear launched his attack but she defended the level of security in place at the time, saying people going to a health clinic shouldn't have to walk through metal detectors.
Those who knew Dear told the AP Saturday he seemed to have few religious or political leanings. He also was described as a longer who lived in a mountain cabin in the North Carolina woods without electricity or running water.
"If you talked to him, nothing with him was very cognitive -- topics all over place," said James Russell, who lives a few hundred feet from Dear in Black Mountain. A cross made of twigs hung Saturday on the wall of Dear's pale yellow shack.
Neighbors of Dear’s in North Carolina said the man kept mostly to himself and Russell said that two topics he never heard Dear talk about during his ramblings were religion or abortion.
Dear's cabin is a half-mile up a curvy dirt road about 15 miles west of Asheville, N.C. He also had a trailer in the nearby town of Swannanoa.
Other neighbors knew Dear but didn't want to give their names because they said they were fearful he might retaliate, the Associated Press reported.
In the small town of Hartsel, Colorado, about 60 miles west of Colorado Springs, about a dozen police vehicles and fire trucks were parked outside a small white trailer belonging to Dear located on a sprawling swath of land. Property records indicate Dear purchased the land about a year ago.
A law enforcement official said authorities searched the trailer Saturday but found no explosives. The official, who has direct knowledge of the case, said authorities also talked with a woman who was living in the trailer. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly about the ongoing investigation.
Dear was in jail Saturday on what officials said were "administrative holds." Charges apparently won't be lodged until he appears in court Monday.
Saturday, November 28, 2015
Americans agree with Trump: The illegal immigrants must go
Most Americans agree with Donald Trump -- the illegal aliens have to go. Head 'em up, move 'em out.
A new Fox News poll shows 52 percent of the nation favors deporting the millions of illegals back to their home countries. Republicans and Democrats support Mr. Trump’s plan.
Click here to join Todd’s American Dispatch – a must-read for Conservatives!
But the numbers among Republicans are astronomical. Seventy percent agree with Mr. Trump -- a super-majority.
So why does the Republican establishment continue to support pro-amnesty candidates?
Jeb Bush accused Mr. Trump of preying on people's deep-seated fears.
“This whole idea of preying on people’s deep-seated fears of what the future looks like is not going to work as a campaign tactic over the long haul,” he told CNN.
In remarks reported by The New York Times, Jeb asserted his long-held belief that illegals were violating American sovereignty because of an “act of love.”
"This is the world we are in, when you can’t express a pretty commonsense thing," Jeb said. "The great majority of people come here want to provide for their family."
But the truth is that Jeb's position on the illegals is at odds with the overwhelming majority of Republican voters.
And so is Marco Rubio -- who may or may not favor amnesty -- depending on which day of the week it is.
Americans are frustrated -- they see illegals taking away our jobs. They see our tax money funding sanctuary cities and funding social programs that a good many legal citizens don't have access to.
They see a government that turns a blind eye to the illegals as they murder American citizens and pillage and plunder local economies.
They see a White House that favors the illegals over immigrants who are trying to enter the United States legally.
Republican voters are sending a very clear message to their presidential candidates.
President Obama lived up to his promise to fundamentally change our nation. And now we want a president who will change it back.
Todd Starnes is host of Fox News & Commentary, heard on hundreds of radio stations. His latest book is "God Less America: Real Stories From the Front Lines of the Attack on Traditional Values." Follow Todd on Twitter@ToddStarnes and find him on Facebook.
Messy legal process could challenge Trump's mass deportation plan
Donald Trump has made some controversial campaign promises lately – including vows to monitor certain mosques, track Syrian refugees and bring back waterboarding – but the debate is still raging over perhaps his biggest-scale proposal: mass deportation of the country’s illegal immigrants.
The plan remains short on specifics, yet the current state of the backlogged immigration enforcement system demonstrates just how difficult it could be. As it stands, deporting a relatively tiny fraction of the total illegal immigrant population has clogged U.S. immigration courts.
According to TRAC (Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse), there are 459,219 cases pending, with most of them in California, Texas and New York. The vast majority are immigrants who either overstayed their permission to be here, or came into the country illegally. A smaller number involve criminal, terrorism or national security charges -- 25,561 as of September.
“To say you could just go and pick up 11 million or 12 million individuals and in just a couple of years deport them is just illogical, it’s just not possible,” said Maurice Goldman, an immigration lawyer in Tucson, Ariz., which according to TRAC has over 1,000 pending cases in its immigration court. TRAC is a project by Syracuse University that compiles up-to-date federal law enforcement records.
Politically speaking, Trump’s proposal continues to get mixed support, at a time when candidates and voters are focused largely on security issues in the wake of the Paris attacks.
In a recent Fox News poll, 52 percent said they favor Trump’s idea of deporting illegal immigrants, while 40 percent opposed it. But when specifically asked how they felt about “identifying and deporting millions of immigrants who are living in the U.S. illegally,” just 41 percent called it a “smart idea” that should be “seriously considered.” Thirty percent called it “silly” and “impossible,” while 24 percent said the idea is “wrong and shouldn’t be done even if it were possible.”
Trump may have mastered the art of the deal – but on the matter of mass deportation, the adage that politics is the art of the possible can’t be overlooked.
The government still is deporting thousands -- according to the latest DHS data, the government deported 438,000, 418,000 and 387,000 in 2013, 2012, and 2011 respectively -- but each case typically takes a long time to process.
Today, the average wait time for a case in the immigration court -- which can end in deportation -- is 643 days. In 2008, it was 438 days. Goldman, describing one of his own clients, a man who came to the U.S. illegally in 1992 and was brought before the court in 2010, said wait times can be much longer. It was five years before his client’s case was “administratively closed,” meaning he won’t be deported this time but his charge is still “pending.” He can be put back before a judge at any time.
The backlogs, too, have been steadily rising since 1998, the first year represented in the TRAC assessment. At that time, during the Clinton administration, there was a backlog of 129,505 cases. In 2008, a year before President Obama took the Oval Office from President George W. Bush, there was a backlog of 186,108.
Trump, though, has been resolute about not only building a U.S.-Mexico wall but the deportation plan. During the Nov. 10 presidential primary debate, Trump advocated mass deportations like those pursued by President Dwight Eisenhower, otherwise known as “Operation Wetback,” in 1954.
According to historians, hundreds of thousands of people were removed under that operation, including Mexican-American citizens, who were forcibly rounded up and sent over the border to Mexico. The months-long federal operation has been described as inhumane and generally ineffective in stopping the number of Mexicans coming over the border.
Still, Trump defends his plan, recently telling Fox News he would do it humanely.
"I've heard it both ways. I've heard good reports, I've heard bad reports," Trump told "The O’Reilly Factor" earlier this month about the mass deportations under Eisenhower. "We would do it in a very humane way."
Speaking with Fox News' Bret Baier, Trump dismissed the logistical concerns.
"If we do this job right, there shouldn't be a big court situation. Nobody knows legal situations better than Trump," he said. "They have to go back."
But critics say that while Trump could tweak federal regulations to streamline the process, he would have to change the law to pursue a strategy to avoid the immigration courts entirely. Currently, the government can fast-track deportations for violent criminals, but most immigrants, illegal and legal, have a constitutional right to due process as upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
There’s where the trouble lies in mass deportation. “The immigration courts are so underfunded, and that is why there is such a terrible backlog,” said Wendy Feliz, spokeswoman for the American Immigration Council. “[Judge positions] go unfilled, and even if they were filled, they still wouldn’t be sufficient.”
Doug Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum, a fiscally conservative policy group that assessed the cost of mass deportation in a study earlier this year, told FoxNews.com that sending 11 million people home would “harm the economy in ways it would normally not be harmed.”
His group estimates it would cost upwards of $620 billion to apprehend, detain and deport every illegal immigrant. “We would need more courts, more detention facilities, more police -- it would change the climate of America.”
“I am 100 percent sympathetic with those who do not like illegal immigration,” he said. “But what strategy you have for dealing with illegal immigrants is important. I’m not a fan of this one.”
Fate of ObamaCare co-ops uncertain after half collapse
The fate of a network of alternative “co-op” health plans started under ObamaCare remains uncertain going into 2016, after half of them collapsed amid deep financial problems.
The co-ops are government-backed, nonprofit health insurers propped up with over $2 billion in taxpayer loans. Twelve of the 23 co-ops established under the Affordable Care Act, though, have gone or are expected to go under by the end of the year, leaving customers who used them scrambling for coverage and taxpayer money at risk.
But, as lawmakers on Capitol Hill demand answers on what’s being done, the Obama administration is offering few predictions on the program’s future other than to say no more money will go toward new co-ops. As to whether that future will crystallize next year, a top federal health official said: “It’s impossible to say right now.”
Kevin Counihan, insurance marketplace CEO at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, described the co-op failures and other changes as simply “inevitable” in the health care industry.
“Things change,” Counihan told Fox News. “There is a natural ebb and flow to this business. You see this in start-ups in all industries, and it’s also true in health care.”
The answer may not satisfy lawmakers worried about the unrest caused by the co-op failures, and the taxpayer money at stake. But as for what comes next, analysts suggest it could take another year before anyone knows whether the remaining co-ops can survive or not.
“This was a fairly risky exercise to begin with,” Ed Haislmaier, senior research fellow in health policy at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News.
According to Haislmaier, it is possible other co-ops fail in the near term, but he doesn’t expect more announcements before next fall – since state regulators already moved against the weakest co-ops before the current enrollment season, giving consumers a chance to pick a new plan.
“State regulators have gone through a process, to review and shut down co-op programs that were too weak to continue for another year,” he said. “… It explains why you saw a big bunch of them announce they were closing in October – because it was the drop dead [date]. If you’re going to pull the plug, October was the time to do it.”
The most immediate question may be whether the loan money – which was for start-up and reserve funds – will be repaid.
Tarren Bragdon, CEO of the Foundation for Government Accountability, said he doesn’t have high hopes for that. And he voiced concerns about consumers left seeking coverage on the exchanges.
“As the dust settles, we see the people who are being hurt the most are those whose health care was being provided by these artificially affordable plans,” Bragdon told Fox News. “Now, they will have to face the nightmare of HealthCare.gov or one of the crumbling state exchanges for a new plan for which premiums are averaging double-digit increases.”
Counihan, though, said they’re working to make sure consumers do not see a “coverage gap.”
“It is our primary importance that consumers are protected, consumers are given options, and consumers do not have a gap in coverage. That’s why you see these co-ops winding down in the fourth quarter – so the American people have coverage until the end of the year and new coverage starting on January 1st,” he said.
According to CMS, nine of the closing co-ops will be operating under the federal HealthCare.gov, and the agency plans to help those consumers to “shop and compare” plans.
“It’s not like people don’t have the choice to shop and compare for the best deal,” he said.
But other states with closing co-ops -- like New York, Kentucky and Colorado -- all operate on their own state-based exchange, which would likely absorb the co-ops’ ex-customers.
In Colorado, for example, Connect for Health Colorado opened in October of 2013 as the state exchange and will now take the co-op customers. “We have a lot of options for them,” Luke Clarke, spokesman at Connect for Health Colorado, told Fox News, referring to the roughly 80,000 consumers who will need to shop for new insurance after the-co-op flop.
“We are proud to work with these people who need to shop for new coverage, and roughly half of the consumers are already existing customers of ours,” Clarke said.
Both Counihan and Haislmaier – though on opposing sides of the issue – agree that the creation of future co-ops does not appear in the cards.
“There isn’t any money left in the program to create new co-ops, but the co-ops that are succeeding will have expansion opportunities,” Counihan said. “These are businesses that are responding to the unique pressures of their respective markets.”
According to CMS, the co-ops were implemented to add more “choice and competition” for consumers. But while ObamaCare supporters blamed Congress for the failures to date, Haislmaier says the co-ops are at fault.
“I would place most of the blame on the management of the companies because they were counting on money that was uncertain to begin with,” Haislmaier said, referring to faulty enrollment estimates. “The companies that counted their chickens before they hatched got into trouble; the ones that did not, didn’t get into trouble.”
3 dead, 9 injured in shooting at Colorado Planned Parenthood, gunman identified
A law enforcement official tells the Associated Press the gunman in a shooting at a Colorado Planned Parenthood Friday has been identified as Robert Lewis Dear.
The shooter is from North Carolina, the unidentified official told AP. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak about the ongoing investigation.
Three people, including one police officer, were killed in Friday’s attack. The gunman was taken into custody after an hours-long standoff and shootout. Authorities have yet to determine a motive behind the shooting or whether the gunman had any connection to Planned Parenthood.
The University of Colorado in Colorado Springs police department identified the officer killed as Garrett Swasey, 44, a six-year veteran of the force. Nine other people, including five police officers, were shot and are in good condition, police said.
Colorado Springs Police have yet to confirm the identity of the shooter and said they will not confirm the identity of the gunman Friday night.
Buckley also said the unidentified man had brought "items" with him inside the building and left some outside, meaning officers had to make sure they were not "any kind of devices."
The gunman apparently began his deadly spree at the Planned Parenthood building, although it was not clear if his motive was related to the organization.
"We don't have any information on this individual's mentality, or his ideas or ideology," Buckley said.
After a brief lull, he began shooting again at police, who had gotten inside the building.
Buckley said there was no information indicating the gunman himself had been shot.
Multiple police vehicles and ambulances were parked outside the building in a snowstorm and 17 degree temperatures.
Police closed Centennial Boulevard in both directions and customers were locked down at a King Soopers grocery store and several nearby shops in the strip mall area. Buckley said officers were working through the process of releasing them.
Witnesses described a chaotic scene when the shooting first started.
Ozy Licano was in the two-story building's parking lot when he saw someone crawling toward the clinic's door. He tried to escape in his car when the gunman looked at him.
"He came out, and we looked each other in the eye, and he started aiming, and then he started shooting," Licano said. "I saw two holes go right through my windshield as I was trying to quickly back up and he just kept shooting and I started bleeding."
Licano drove away and took refuge at a nearby grocery store.
"He was aiming for my head," he said of the gunman. "It's just weird to stare in the face of someone like that. And he didn't win."
Denise Speller, manager at a nearby haircut salon, told the Gazette she heard 10 to 20 gunshots in the span of less than five minutes.
She said she saw a police cruiser and two officers outside near Chase Bank, not far from the Planned Parenthood facility. One of the officers appeared to fall to the ground and the other office knelt down to render aid, then tried to get the officer to safety behind the car, she said. Another officer told Speller to seek shelter inside the building.
“We’re still pretty freaked out,” Speller said by phone. “We can’t stop shaking. For now we’re stuck back here not knowing.”
Some people managed to escape the building and flee to a nearby bank. An armored vehicle was seen taking evacuees away from the clinic to ambulances waiting nearby.
With the immediate threat over, authorities swept the building and turned their attention to inspecting unspecified items the gunman left outside the building and carried inside in bags. They were concerned that he had planted improvised explosive devices meant to cause even more destruction. As of late Friday, police did not say what was found.
Friday, November 27, 2015
Trump called out for appearing to mock disability
2016 Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump defended himself Thursday after being criticized for a speech in which he appeared to mock a reporter with a disability – although the business mogul says his mimicking had nothing to do with the reporter’s condition.
Jay Ruderman of the Ruderman Family Foundation in Boston said the Republican presidential contender should apologize to Serge Kovaleski of The New York Times and the public.
Trump was challenging recollections by Kovaleski and many others about the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks. Trump has been criticized for claiming that thousands of Muslims in New Jersey were seen celebrating the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.
Trump and his supporters have cited articles written at the time that appeared to back Trump’s claims, at least to an extent.
In 2001, Kovaleski, then with The Washington Post, and another Post journalist wrote a week after the 9/11 attacks about authorities in New Jersey detaining and questioning "a number of people who were allegedly seen celebrating the attacks."
Trump has pointed to the Post story as backing up his claim and took issue with Kovaleski's recent statement that he did not remember anyone alleging that large numbers of Muslims were celebrating.
Kovaleski has a congenital condition that affects joint movement. In a speech Tuesday in South Carolina, Trump said: "poor guy, you oughta see this guy," and gestured in a jerky fashion as he imitated the reporter.
“‘Uh, I don't know what I said, uh, I don't remember.’ He's going like, I don't remember,’" Trump said, while shaking.
After Trump’s latest comments, The New York Times expressed outrage afterward that Trump would "ridicule the appearance of one of our reporters."
Ruderman said Trump would benefit from a "series of sensitivity training sessions" and offered to provide them.
"It is unacceptable for a child to mock another child's disability on the playground, never mind a presidential candidate mocking someone's disability as part of a national political discourse," he said.
However, in a statement released to Twitter, Trump denied that he had mocked Kovaleski’s disability.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 26, 2015
“I have no idea who this reporter, Serge Kovalski [sic] is, what he looks like is his level of intelligence,” Trump said.“In my speech before over 10,000 people in Myrtle Beach, SC, I merely mimicked what I thought would be a flustered reporter trying to get out of a statement he made long ago,” Trump said.
Trump went on to cite his respect for disabled people and how he has spent millions of dollars making his buildings handicapped accessible. He then went on to criticize the New York Times for attacking him on the issue.
“”This is just another example of the dishonest New York Times trying to make a story out of nothing. They should focus on the survival of their newspaper and not on dishonest and very bad reporting about me,” Trump said.
'Needless experiment': Cities weigh gov't-backed broadband, critics see tax $$ at risk
A push by cities across the country to get into the business of the Internet is raising concerns that local governments, with Washington’s blessing, are meddling where they are not needed -- and wasting taxpayer dollars in the process.
The push was fueled earlier this year, when President Obama in January introduced a plan for municipal broadband projects which, according to the administration, would encourage “competition and choice” while offering a “level-playing field” for high-speed Internet access.
But critics say municipal broadband projects – or Internet services provided at least in part by local governments -- are an example of government overreach, and a bid to compete with private service providers that have successfully operated for years.
“This is a case of local bureaucrats saying that this is a high-tech ‘sexy’ project that will win voters, but it’s actually a needless experiment,” Kevin Glass, director of policy and outreach at the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, told Fox News.
Earlier this year, the Federal Communications Commission issued an order aimed at laws that restricted community broadband in two states, North Carolina and Tennessee. The FCC overturned those laws, and in the process created a framework for 20 states to break down other barriers restricting community broadband services. President Obama urged the FCC action, which passed on a narrow 3-2 vote.
The FCC’s ruling and the president’s policy are now encouraging local governments to expand these projects. Newark, Del., is one of the cities tapping into the idea of creating its own broadband Internet service for residents
“We’re certainly not looking to take anything away from the private sector,” Ricky Nietubicz, community affairs officer for the city, told Fox News. “It’s a huge project, so we want to make sure we’re going into this with eyes wide open.”
Newark’s City Council has implemented a feasibility study to look at the potential costs and subscription rates for the community.
“Within the next four-to-six weeks, we’ll make a decision whether or not to proceed,” Nietubicz said.
But Glass said that Newark already has some of the fastest Internet speeds in the nation.
“This is a case on how politicians are not going to be dissuaded, even in a situation where there is no need at all,” Glass said. “The only thing this is going to do is be a waste of taxpayer money, and when they fail, it’s an absolute disaster.”
Watchdog.org reports that the local council in Georgia’s Peachtree City also could vote next week on a $3.2 million bond to pay for a local broadband system.
And according to Glass, Provo, Utah already implemented a municipal broadband program that reportedly cost the city $39 million, and ultimately was sold to Google for a whopping $1.
“They built this massive project for millions of dollars, but sold it to Google to get out,” Glass explained. “They’re still on the hook to pay, but were willing to cut their losses.”
FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, who voted against the FCC plan earlier this year, told Fox News the projects are “expensive and difficult to maintain,” in reference to the attempt in Utah.
“From a federal level it is interesting, because we have a disagreement over whether or not the federal government can do anything one way or another,” he said.
Pai dissented on the FCC decision in February based on the rationale that there was no clear federal law allowing the agency to preempt state laws in this area.
The FCC order issued in February is currently being argued in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. According to Pai, the Department of Justice typically signs onto FCC briefs – but not this time.
Pai provided a letter written by a Justice Department attorney to the court notifying them that they wouldn’t take a position on these cases. The letter is dated Nov. 5, 2015. The Justice Department has not responded to a request from Fox News for comment.
“It is exceptionally rare to have the Department of Justice refuse to sign onto an FCC brief, but this says that the DOJ doesn’t trust that this is legal,” Pai said. “President Obama’s own Department of Justice implicitly is questioning whether or not this is government overreach. “
Colorado is another state considering a municipal broadband project, and Kevin Fellman, a Colorado-based attorney whose practice focuses on communications and broadband utility issues, said most local governments just want better and more affordable broadband Internet -- and the governments have the access to promote just that.
“These communities want to use this as an economic development tool,” Fellman told Fox News. “Anyone that wants to be involved in creating more broadband infrastructure should be able to do that.”
But Pai also raised privacy concerns: “How and to what extent can you restrict what activity and communications go on in these internets if the government is in control?”
FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, who also dissented on this year’s order, said it’s “dreadful public policy to encourage municipal governments to become communications carriers.”
“Municipal broadband networks have a track record of overpromising and under-delivering, wasting taxpayer money while also harming any current or potential private competitors,” he said in a statement to Fox News.
DNC deep in debt as RNC builds up $20 million war chest
The Republican National Committee keeps building its cash advantage over its Democratic rivals, strengthening the party’s position going into the election year – with the latest monthly reports showing the DNC with a major debt, while the RNC has accrued a $20M war chest.
The Republicans announced last week that they had raised $8.7 million in October, which they say broke a record for presidential off-year fundraising record.
“With just under a year until Election Day 2016 we’re seeing great enthusiasm for the GOP,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said in a press release.
Figures show the Republicans now have over $20 million cash on hand, with only $1.8 million in debts owed. The RNC has raised a total of $89.3 million to date in the current election cycle.
The figures stand in stark contrast to the DNC, that has only $4.7 million cash in hand, with $6.9 million in debts owed, putting the DNC in the red, according to FEC figures. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the Democrats have so far raised $53.2 million this election cycle, significantly less than their Republican counterparts.
The DNC raised just shy of $4.5 million in October, but spent approximately $5.2 million.
The nearly $7 million in debt the DNC now has was in part due to a $2 million loan from union-owned Amalgamated Bank, The Washington Free Beacon reported.
The release of the numbers could increase pressure on DNC chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, and could hamper the DNC’s push to retake the House and Senate, while also keeping the White House in 2016.
The Democratic National Committee did not respond to a request for comment.
One Republican strategist said that the number show the DNC is simply unable to get its act together, and that Democrats will have to rely on other sources of support in 2016 as a result.
“What is clear is that the future Republican presidential nominee can count on strong support from its party while the Democrats will have to resort to only relying on outside resources because the DNC simply can’t get its act together,” Ron Bonjean, an unaligned GOP strategist, told FoxNews.com.
FBI using elite surveillance teams to track at least 48 high risk ISIS suspects
With as many as 1000 active cases, Fox News has learned at least 48 ISIS suspects are considered so high risk that the FBI is using its elite tracking squads known as the mobile surveillance teams or MST to track them domestically.
“There is a very significant number of people that are on suspicious watch lists, under surveillance," Republican Senator Dan Coats said.
Coats, who sits on the Select Committee on Intelligence, would not comment on specifics, but said the around the clock surveillance is a major commitment for the bureau. "The FBI together with law enforcement agencies across the country are engaged in this. It takes enormous amount of manpower to do this on a 24-7 basis. It takes enormous amount of money to do this," Coats explained.
These elite FBI teams are reserved for espionage, mob violence and high priority terrorism cases, like a joint terrorism task force case last June, where a 26 year old suspect Usaama Rahim, was killed outside a Massachusetts CVS. When a police officer and FBI agent tried to question him, the Boston Police Commissioner said Rahim threatened them with a knife, and was shot dead.
With at least a dozen agents assigned to each case, providing 24/7 coverage, this high level of surveillance reflects the severe risk associated with suspects most likely to attempt copycat attacks after Paris.
"It is a big resource drain. Yes it is. Almost overwhelming," Coats said when asked about the demand placed on the FBI. "There will be a lot of people over the Thanksgiving weekend that will not be enjoying turkey with their family. They'll be out there providing security for the American people and the threat is particularly high during this holiday period."
One of the lessons of Paris is that the radicalization process can be swift. According to published reports, friends of the female suspect who was killed in the siege of Saint Denis, Hasna Ait Boulahcen, abandoned her party life only a month before joining her cousin, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the plot's on the ground commander. He was also killed in the siege.
The FBI Director James Comey has consistently drawn attention to this phenomenon, calling it the "flash to bang," that the time between radicalization and crossing the threshold to violent action can be very short. Last week, in a rare public appearance with Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Comey would only say that "dozens" of suspected radicals have been under "tight surveillance."
"Together we are watching people of concern using all of our lawful tools. We will keep watching them and if we see something we will work to disrupt it," Comey said.
Contacted by Fox News, an FBI spokesman had no comment on the high risk cases, nor the use of elite surveillance teams.
Thursday, November 26, 2015
Turkeys flown from coops to troops stationed overseas for Thanksgiving
Our nation’s troops stationed overseas will feast on Thanksgiving dinners with all the trimmings this year, thanks to a federal service agency that provides everything from the actual birds to eggnog, marshmallows and stuffing.
Over 15,000 pounds of turkey and nearly 2,000 pies have been sent to troops in Afghanistan in time for a holiday meal, according to the Defense Logistics Agency, a federal service agency for the U.S. military.
"Being away from home and their families during the holidays is tough enough without considering the difficult and dangerous conditions our service men and women face,” Anthony Amendolia, with DLA Troop Support’s Subsistence supply chain, said in a statement to FoxNews.com. “Since they can't be home for the holidays, our employees are dedicated to bringing the holidays to them.”
DLA Troop Service is also sending another 37,000 pounds of turkey to service members in Iraq, Jordan and Kuwait.
Related Image
Volunteers
from various departments aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS
George Washington (CVN 73) serve food to Sailors during a Thanksgiving
lunch hosted by the ship. (U.S. Navy photo) (Public Domain)
- 25,970 pounds of beef
- 17,130 pounds of ham
- 706 gallons of eggnog
- 3,360 pounds of marshmallows
DLA employees began gathering holiday meal requirements from all four military branches last May to ensure they could order and deliver the food in time.
Related Image
Nov.
27, 2014: Soldiers with Task Force Lifeliner, Joint Forces Command and
United Assistance dive into one of the many pies and desserts offered in
the dining facility at brigade support area in Buchanan, Liberia. (U.S.
Army photo) (Public Domain)
The DLA’s subsistence division is tasked every year with making sure that the troops are well fed at Thanksgiving, but this year they had to work harder to ensure that the packages got to their various destinations on time. That was because the avian flu outbreak in the U.S. has caused many foreign countries to place restrictions on American poultry products.
“Countries set different parameters, causing us to take atypical approaches to meet all needs, such as buying from foreign approved sources and use of more pre-cooked poultry,” Amendolia said.
Back stateside, Fort Bragg in North Carolina will be holding its annual Thanksgiving dinner for the second day Thursday.
Related Image
Culinary
Specialist 1st Class John Mobley, from Philadelphia, prepares a turkey
for carving for a Thanksgiving meal aboard the guided-missile destroyer
USS Cole (DDG 67). (U.S. Navy photo) (Public Domain)
Fort Bragg's cooks have prepared 2,500 pounds of whole turkeys, 2,400 pounds of prime rib beef, 2,600 pounds of smoked ham, 1,400 pounds of shrimp and 3,000 pies.
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