Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi freed from Mexican jail, immediately returns to US

After 214 days in a Mexican prison, Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi crossed the US – Mexican border Friday night, boarding a private jet for Florida shortly after 9 p.m., after a strong diplomatic push convinced a judge to release the former Marine on humanitarian grounds.
His release comes after a lengthy trial and a Congressional hearing in September highly critical of Obama Administration efforts to secure his release and Mexico’s refusal to let him go.  Tahmooressi said he made an innocent mistake the evening he crossed into Tijuana with three weapons in his truck on March 31.
While his defense rested its case several weeks ago, Tahmooressi’s release came only after a strong diplomatic push from former Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico and Reps. Ed Royce (R-CA) and Matt Salmon (R-AZ).
The three officials, along with Tahmooressi’s mother Jill, have spent the last week in Tijuana pressing officials for his release.
Speaking by phone on his way to board a plane with Tahmooressi, Richardson said the trio, along with talk show host Montel Williams, met with Mexico’s Attorney General and Ambassador to the US, advocating for his liberation.
Upon release, Mexican officials processed him quickly through immigration, Richardson said.
“He was happy.  He was smiling.  He's looking good.  His spirits are high,” Richardson told Fox News, adding that Tahmooressi said he wants a steak dinner and stone crabs.
But Richardson also said Tahmooressi is seeking privacy and still needs to receive treatment for his Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, something that wasn’t available in Mexican prison-- a key argument put forth by defense attorney Fernando Benitez.
FoxNews.com covered Tahmooressi's seven-month ordeal extensively, with numerous reports from the Tijuana court where hearings were held, interviews with the jailed Marine by telephone and several guest opinion columns by military, medical and legal experts critical of his treatment in Mexico. 

Fox News Channel's Greta Van Susteran also covered the case extensively, even driving the poorly-marked and confusing route Tahmooressi took the night he was detained and going to the prison where he was held. But other national media outlets largely ignored the plight of Tahmooressi, and the White House was heavily criticized for not doing more to secure his release despite the fact that Tahmooressi  served two tours of duty in Afghanistan and suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Benitez said that Tahmooressi was continuing to deteriorate and Mexico didn’t have the expertise or facilities to treat his PTSD, which he suffered after two tours in Afghanistan.  
The defense attorney also alleged that customs agents held Tahmooerssi illegally, denying him access to a translator, lawyer and consular access.
But after the seven-month ordeal, it was the PTSD argument that ultimately pressured the judge to acquit Tahmooressi.

Stepped In It Cartoon

Warrant issued for husband of Delaware lawmaker over GOP sign swiping

Sen. Bethany Hall-Long

WASHINGTON –  Police in Delaware are looking for the husband of a state senator who was caught on video taking down political signs put up by Republican challengers.
Middletown police reportedly have issued an arrest warrant for Dana Armon Long, the husband of state Sen. Bethany Hall-Long, for allegedly stealing campaign signs.
Police responded Wednesday following complaints about the repeated theft of the political signs. 
In a video that was posted to YouTube on Wednesday, Long is shown carrying an armful of Republican signs. The takedown was filmed early Wednesday morning and was posted online. In the clip, which was taken over several hours, a man with a video camera appears to take Long by surprise.  
The man videotaping Long asks him, “What are you doing this for?” to which Long replies, “Hey, don’t stop me."
Long did not comment on the allegations when contacted by the Delaware News Journal.
Both Republican and Democratic party leaders condemned the thefts on Wednesday.
"When you only have a track record of high taxes, unemployment and lower wages for private sector employees to stand on, the Democrats must resort to breaking the law to win elections because they are scared of being held accountable for their dismal performance," John Fluharty, executive director of the state GOP, said in a written statement to the newspaper.
John Daniello, chairman of the state Democratic Party, said in a statement that, "Each campaign season, we deal with candidates removing their opponent's signs. This behavior is absolutely unacceptable. There are more positive ways in which to support your candidate regardless of party affiliation."
If he’s found guilty of the Class A misdemeanor, Long could spend up to a year in prison and face a $2,300 fine.

Democrat running for lieutenant governor of Arkansas used to be a stripper

Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor in Arkansas John Burkhalter said being a male stripper in Little Rock was one of the many “tough jobs” he had in his past.
“I did have that job for a while, a very short time,” Burkhalter told Larry Henry in an interview for 5NEWS, a CBS affiliate in Arkansas. He was asked about being portrayed as a candidate with a “different background, from Chippendales dancer to multi-millionaire.”
“It was when I was in Little Rock,” Burkhalter said. “I’ve always been an athlete, and I was actually buying cows from a farm.”
“I had like 17 acres in a little place called Billy Goat Hill, which is in North Pulaski County, and I was trying to make my way in life,” he said.
On a message board entitled “Old Chippendales,” a user going by the name “verymarried,” recalled Burkhalter’s stripper days.
“John was once a major body builder and moonlighted as a male stripper in so called straight strip joints in a low-end southern Chippendale style circuit,” the message said. “He wore white tuxes with tails and handed out long stem roses to ladies, then took everything off.”

Former Marine banned from daughter’s school after dispute over Islam lesson

A former Marine who served in Iraq says he's been banned from his daughter's Maryland high school after a heated argument over a lesson on Islam.
Kevin Wood told MyFoxDC.com that he went to La Plata High School in La Plata, a town about 30 miles southeast of Washington, and challenged a history assignment requiring students to list the benefits of Islam. He said the meeting with the vice principal got heated; the school said he made a threat and banned the Iraq veteran from school property.
"[Wood] was threatening to cause a disruption or possible disruption at the school," a district spokesperson said.
Wood did not deny getting worked up over the issue, but said he was standing up for the Constitution and is against any religion being taught at the public school.
"I have witnesses that have said I did not threaten anybody," he told the station. "I don't force my religious views on them, so don't force your religious views on me."
The school is allowing his eleventh-grade daughter to spend the class time in the school's library, but defended its assignment and said it is teaching world history, not religion.
Wood's wife, Melissa, wondered how teaching about one religion is considered a history lesson while teaching about Christianity would be viewed diffrerently.
"We cannot discuss our Ten Commandments in school but they can discuss Islam's Five Pillars?"
The three-page assignment asked questions including, "How did Muslim conquerors treat those they conquered?"
A homework assignment obtained by MyFoxDC.com showed the correct answer was, “With tolerance, kindness and respect."

Colorado election law prompts concerns about voter fraud

Colorado's new election system is being panned by critics as a "ridiculous experiment" that could lead to more voter fraud -- in a year of very tight races with nothing less than control of the Senate on the line. 
This election year, every eligible Colorado voter is getting their ballot in the mail. It's a system used by only two other states -- Oregon and Washington. 
"We are only the third state in the United States trying this ridiculous experiment," said Marilyn Marks, an anti-voter fraud advocate with the Rocky Mountain Foundation. What's more, she warns, "We have added to it a toxic mix by adding same-day registration."
One of the most worrisome aspects of the new system, for some, is that once ballots are filled in, they are not required to be mailed back. The ballots can be taken to drop-off locations to avoid paying postage. And the law allows for what is known as "ballot harvesting." One individual can collect the ballots of up to 10 people to drop off.
"I'm as worried about undo influence as I am about straight up fraud," Marks said. "There are ballot harvesting groups going door-to-door, asking people to hand over their ballots. You can imagine some more vulnerable members of the community, particularly the elderly, who may feel under pressure."
"Colorado has no effective way of determining whether an individual has collected more than 10 ballots," cautioned El Paso County Clerk Wayne Williams, who also is a candidate for secretary of state. Williams complained that the state has no requirement that "your vote will count if you give it to a ballot harvester who then never turns that ballot in." 
Adding to the potential confusion, every registered voter will get a ballot. "The new law requires ballots to be sent to people who may not have voted in decades," Williams said. "In El Paso County, we've had voters report to us that they've received ballots from a voter registration drive for a person who has never lived at that address."
Election officials offer reassurances that all ballot signatures will be verified against voter registration records. Yet Colorado's new same-day voter registration law does not require a photo ID.
"You have to provide a driver's license number, specific to Colorado, a state ID number or your last four of your social," Denver Elections Director Amber McReynolds said.
"If the signature that was provided [for registration] was not accurate to begin with," Williams points out, "there is still a very real possibility of a fake registration resulting in a vote that counts and negates the vote of someone who was legitimately entitled to vote."
Those who still want to vote the old-fashioned way can do so, by bringing their unused mail-in ballots to a polling place and handing them in before voting.
While a small amount of voter fraud might not make a difference in the outcome of most races, the Real Clear Politics polling average has the governors' race in Colorado, between incumbent Democrat John Hickenlooper and GOP challenger Bob Beauprez, tied at 45 percent each. 
In the U.S. Senate race, the RCP average has GOP challenger Cory Gardner up by only 3.6 percentage points over Democratic Sen. Mark Udall, who is fighting to win a second term. 
The new election laws were passed by a Democratically controlled state legislature. So far, though, voter turnout numbers provided by the Colorado secretary of state's office show that Republicans are turning in ballots in much larger numbers than either Democrats or those registered as unaffiliated.

Quarantine Cartoon

Suspected shooter of US-born Israel activist killed by police, authorities say

The suspect in the shooting of U.S.-born activist Rabbi Yehuda Glick was reported killed by police in an East Jerusalem neighborhood early Thursday. 
The Times of Israel reported that police arrived at the suspect's house in the Abu Tor neighborhood and were attempting to arrest the suspect when they came under fire. Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld posted on Twitter that the suspect was killed in the ensuing shootout. 
The paper reported that the Shin Bet security service confirmed the death of the suspect, who they described as a 32-year-old Palestinian who had spent time in an Israeli prison. His identity was not confirmed, though some reports cited by the Times of Israel name him as Mu’taz Hijazi, an activist for the Islamic Jihad terror group. 
Glick remained hospitalized in serious condition after Wednesday night's shooting, which took place outside a memorial center in the Israeli capital by the motorcycle-riding gunman, who immediately fled the scene. The Times of Israel reported that Glick was shot three times, and quoted eyewitnesses who said the gunman briefly spoke to him, saying "You've made me very angry" in Hebrew with a heavy Arabic accent. 
Glick is chairman for the Joint Committee of Temple Organizations and has a long history of advocating for Jewish prayer rights at the Temple Mount, a hilltop compound in Jerusalem's Old City that has been a flashpoint for violence in the current tension over Jerusalem. Glick had been speaking on the topic at a conference promoting Jewish access to the holy site prior to the shooting.
"The writing was on the wall, the ceiling and the windows. Every Jew who goes up to the Temple Mount is a target for violence," Likud lawmaker Moshe Feiglin told the Associated Press. Feiglin pledged to visit the sacred site on Thursday morning, a move seen as a provocation by Palestinians.
In recent months, clashes have erupted at Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site between Palestinian stone throwers and Israeli police, over what Palestinians see as Jewish encroachment on the site, the holiest in Judaism and the third holiest in Islam. Israel maintains that it allows free prayer to all, but Palestinians claim Israel is unilaterally widening access to accommodate larger numbers of Jewish worshippers.
Amid the violence, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has recently called for Jews to be banned from the site, urging Palestinians to guard the compound from visiting Jews, who he referred to as a "herd of cattle."
The violence erupted over the summer after three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped and killed by militants in the West Bank. Jewish extremists retaliated by kidnapping and burning to death a Palestinian teenager in east Jerusalem, sparking violent riots.
The unrest continued throughout the summer after Israel attacked Gaza in response to heavy Hamas rocket fire. The arrival of Jewish nationalists into the heart of an Arab neighborhood, coupled with the clashes at Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site, has further fueled the tensions.

Holder says ‘subpoena’ to Fox News reporter is his one regret

Attorney General Eric Holder says he has one regret: his department's court order for Fox News reporter James Rosen's emails labeling him a criminal "co-conspirator." 
The outgoing attorney general, who recently announced his retirement, addressed the controversial episode during the "Washington Ideas Forum" on Wednesday. Asked what decision he wishes he could do over, Holder said: "I think about the subpoena to the Fox reporter, Rosen." 
Holder was referring to a 2010 search warrant application seeking Rosen's emails. The Justice Department at the time was investigating who leaked information contained in a series of reports by Rosen in 2009 about North Korea's nuclear weapons program. 
In the course of seeking Rosen's emails, an FBI agent submitted an affidavit claiming there was evidence that Rosen broke the law, "at the very least, either as an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator." The affidavit went so far as to invoke the Espionage Act -- pertaining to the unauthorized gathering and transmitting of defense information. 
On Wednesday, Holder said that application could have been done "differently" and "better." 
"I think that I could have been a little more careful looking at the language that was contained in the filing that we made with the court -- that he was labeled as a co-conspirator," Holder said, while claiming they did that "as a result of the statute." 
Rosen, who serves as chief Washington correspondent for Fox News, said in response that the attorney general's comments "scarcely address" his role in the case. 
"Throughout this ordeal for my family and me, I have tried to keep my head down and continue covering -- and breaking -- the news. I consider myself blessed to have an employer in Fox News, and a boss in Roger Ailes, who have stood by me and enabled me to remain focused on what matters most to me in professional terms: first-rate journalism," Rosen said in a statement. "At some later point, I may have more to say about this entire controversy, which -- as commentators from across the ideological spectrum have noted -- does indeed raise serious concerns about the state of press freedoms under the present administration. Suffice to say for now that the attorney general's latest comments about my case, like his previous remarks, scarcely address the relevant facts of his conduct." 
Though Rosen was never charged, the revelation about the affidavit -- and other details about the Justice Department's tracking of his communications and movement -- prompted outrage from media and free-press organizations. Days before the information about the affidavit was made public, Holder had testified he knew nothing of the "potential prosecution" of the press. House Republicans later issued a formal report accusing Holder of misleading Congress with "deceptive" testimony. 
Though the warrant application was from 2010, the incident only became public in May 2013 -- shortly after the Justice Department took heat for obtaining two months' worth of phone records for Associated Press employees. 
The cases led to a department review of how it interacts with the media. 
Holder, while stopping short of an apology, cited both those incidents on Wednesday in explaining why the department adjusted its policies. 
President Obama, in May 2013, also had said he was "troubled" over the impact his administration's leak probes could have on the press. The DOJ review culminated with new guidelines in July 2013 saying members of the media would "not be subject to prosecution based solely on newsgathering activities." They said the agency would exercise the right to use unspecified "tools" to gather evidence from media figures "only as a last resort." 
The updated review also called for Congress to consider implementing a media shield law-legislation to protect a reporter's right to refuse to testify. Congress has yet to enact the any legislation on the matter, though several states have similar laws on the books.

Ebola nurse Kaci Hickox prepares for showdown with Maine officials over quarantine

With state troopers monitoring her home, a nurse in the eye of a growing storm over state-ordered quarantines for health workers who have treated Ebola patients met the media late Wednesday after vowing that she would leave her home if Maine officials did not lift their restrictions on her by the following day. 
State officials are seeking a court order to detain Kaci Hickox for the remainder of the 21-day incubation period for Ebola that ends on Nov. 10. While the request is pending, state police say they plan to monitor Hickox's movements and interactions, but cannot take her into custody without a judge's permission. 
Hickox, accompanied by her boyfriend, Ted Wilbur, met with the media in the driveway of her home in Fort Kent Wednesday night. The nurse, who returned from Sierra Leone last week after working with Doctors Without Borders, said that she had made no progress in her attempts to negotiate an end to her quarantine with state officials.
If a judge grants the state request, then Hickox will appeal the decision on constitutional grounds, necessitating a hearing, Hickox attorney Norman Siegel said.
"I'm not willing to stand here and let my civil rights be violated when it's not science-based," Hickox said. She contends there's no need for her to be quarantined because she's showing no symptoms of Ebola.
The Portland Press Herald reported that Hickox appeared healthy and spoke calmly. At one point, she shook the hand of a British reporter who offered to do so after she stated that she did not have the virus and denied being contagious.
"You could hug me. You could shake my hand. I would not give you Ebola," Hickox told the man.
The Press Herald reported that Wilbur had checked with state police before Hickox emerged from the house to ensure that she would not be arrested before she spoke.
Maine Gov. Paul LePage, who instituted the 21-day quarantine order Monday, has canceled campaign events to keep tabs on the situation. He maintains that the state must be "vigilant" to protect others.
Maine law allows a judge to grant temporary custody of someone if health officials demonstrate "a clear and immediate public health threat." Generally, states have broad authority when it comes to such matters. But Maine health officials could have a tough time convincing a judge that Hickox poses a threat.
"If somebody isn't showing signs of the infection, then it's kind of hard to say someone should be under mandatory quarantine," attorney Jackie L. Caynon III, who specializes in health law in Worcester, Massachusetts, told the Associated Press. 
Earlier Wednesday, Hickox told NBC's "Today" that she doesn't "plan on sticking to the guidelines" and is "appalled" by the home quarantine policies "forced" on her.
Ebola, which is spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, has killed thousands of people in Africa, but only four people have been diagnosed with it in the United States. People can't be infected just by being near someone who's sick, and people aren't contagious unless they're sick, health officials say.
Guidelines from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend daily monitoring for health care workers like Hickox who have come into contact with Ebola patients. But some states like Maine are going above and beyond those guidelines.
The defense department is going even further. On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered military men and women helping fight Ebola to undergo 21-day quarantines that start upon their return — instead of their last exposure to an Ebola patient.
President Barack Obama warned that overly restrictive measures imposed upon returning health care workers could discourage them from volunteering in Africa.