Hundreds of protesters gather outside Phoenix mosque under close police watch

Nearly 500 protesters gathered outside a Phoenix mosque Friday as police divided the two groups sparring about Islam.
A Phoenix man who says he is a former Marine who fought in the Iraq war organized the event and believes Islam is a violent religion. He led about 250 people who carried pistols, assault rifles, American flags and drawings of the Prophet Muhammad to the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix.
The group was met by another group of similar size, some holding signs promoting love and peace, who came to show their support for the Mosque and Muslim community.
As the two sides argued and yelled at each other, dozens of police officers formed a line separating the groups. There were no reports of injuries or arrests at the protests, which lasted a few hours and gained attention around the country on social media. Phoenix police estimate about 500 protesters showed up, roughly 250 on each side.
The protest came about a month after a shootout outside a Prophet Muhammad cartoon-drawing contest in a Dallas suburb. Two Phoenix men showed up at the Dallas event with assault rifles and were killed by police. The men formerly worshipped at the Phoenix mosque where Friday’s protest was held.

Murder capital: Baltimore’s homicide explosion in wake of Freddie Gray case dwarfs rate of similar cities

The double murder Thursday of a young mother and her 7-year-old boy brought Baltimore's bloody monthly homicide tally to 38, a figure that dwarfs that of similar-sized cities and even exceeds the total for the same period in New York.
Jennifer Jeffery-Browne, 31, and her son, Kester, were found shot to death in their southwest Baltimore home, leaving friends and family heartbroken and city officials scrambling to reverse a tide of carnage that began following the racially-charged death of a black man in police custody. Police say the way City Hall and the local prosecutor handled the Gray case, which sparked several days of rioting and looting and led to the indictments of six cops, has handcuffed them and emboldened criminals.

"Criminals feel empowered now. There is no respect. Police are under siege in every quarter. They are more afraid of going to jail for doing their jobs properly than they are of getting shot on duty."
- Lt. Gene Ryan, President of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3

“The criminals are taking advantage of the situation in Baltimore since the unrest,” Lt. Gene Ryan, President of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3, which represents officers in Baltimore, said in a statement provided to FoxNews.com. “Criminals feel empowered now. There is no respect. Police are under siege in every quarter. They are more afraid of going to jail for doing their jobs properly than they are of getting shot on duty."
With two days remaining in the month of May, the 38 homicides seen in Baltimore, whose population is about 622,000, is cause for alarm. Year-to-date homicides stand at 111, up from 71 for the same period last year, and this year on pace to be the Charm City’s deadliest since 2007. If May's pace cannot be slowed, all bets are off.
Compared to other U.S. cities of similar size, the May homicide rate is truly staggering, according to data compiled by FoxNews.com. Nashville, Tenn., with a population of about 658,000, has only seen six homicides this month and 21 for the year so far. Louisville, Ky., whose population is about 20,000 less than Baltimore's, has only had three homicides for the month and 28 for the year.
Las Vegas (603,488) has recorded 12 homicides in May 2015 and 41 for the year; Denver, Colo., (663,862) has logged just two homicides this month and its yearly total matches Baltimore's monthly tally.
Boston, which has a population 645,966, has had just one homicide for the month of May and 15 for year-to date.

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Police pick up a pair of shoes after a double shooting in Baltimore. Residents in West Baltimore.One month after riots erupted, homicides and shootings are up and residents feel like they've been left to fend for themselves.(Colin Campbell/The Baltimore Sun via AP)

The largest city in the country, New York, has seen 30 homicides for the month as of May 28, and at 8.5 million, its population is nearly 14 times that of Baltimore.
Law enforcement experts say police cannot be proactive if they believe politicians and prosecutors are treating them unfairly. In Gray's case, the career criminal suffered fatal injuries while being transported in a police van. Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, in announcing indictments that included murder charges against one of the of six police officers involved in the case, struck a tone that many in the police department considered anti-cop.
“This is going to be a fairly routine occurrence – double digit shootings, high homicide rates over the course of the next three months,” said one Baltimore police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity to Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity earlier this week. "It’s a definitely direct result of the indictment of the six officers. When you have officers out there… and those that are doing their jobs are indicted for murder… you couldn’t help but have repercussions where police are afraid to go out there, that they are apprehensive about putting their hands on people…”
Police morale across the nation has reeled in the wake of several racially-charged incidents, including the shooting of an unarmed black man, Michael Brown, last August in Ferguson, Mo., followed by a grand jury's decision not to indict an NYPD cop in the death of Eric Garner and most recently the death of Gray.
“In case people ever needed a reminder, the increase in Baltimore’s murder rate shows how important police are," John Lott, president of Crime Prevention Research Centerand a Fox News contributor said. “As police are worried about being called criminals themselves, the sudden increase stands in sharp contrast to how murder rates are changing in the rest of the country."

 Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby

 (Miss Goofy)

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Fiorina making splash on campaign trail with counter-Clinton ops – but still behind in polls

She's an accomplished businesswoman, a media-savvy campaigner and the only woman in the Republican presidential field. 
But so far, Carly Fiorina is still struggling to translate that into a voter following.
The latest sign of the high hill she has to climb was a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday. It showed Fiorina at just 2 percent, tied with Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who unlike Fiorina has not announced a 2016 bid. The silver lining for Fiorina is that she wasn't in last place and did crack the top 10 -- an important measure for which candidates will be allowed in the Fox News and other debates later this year.
But perhaps more than any other candidate, there remains a big gap between the attention she's getting -- not to mention the energy she brings to the stump -- and the standing in the polls.
To date, the former HP exec has been zig-zagging across the country, stressing her business experience and squaring her record up against Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton's -- a central part of her campaign strategy.
On Wednesday, she even piggybacked off a Clinton appearance in South Carolina by holding an impromptu press conference outside the event. Underscoring the counter-Clinton approach, her campaign also unveiled a new website, www.ReadyToBeatHillary.com.

More on this...

• Will Fiorina's media strategy connect with voters?

Fiorina got plenty of coverage. The top of the popular Drudge Report, from Wednesday afternoon into Thursday morning, displayed a screaming, bold-faced headline: "CARLY SLAMS HILLARY: LOOK IN THE MIRROR!"
And yet the RealClearPolitics average of national polling still has Fiorina in second-to-last place among candidates tracked -- with 1.5 percent, just ahead of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who has not announced a 2016 bid.
Sarah Flores, Fiorina's deputy campaign manager, argues people just aren't tuned in to the 2016 race yet and says Fiorina is continuing to meet with voters, speak at events and answer questions about why she should be the Republican presidential nominee.
John White, political science professor at Catholic University of America, suggested part of the problem is Fiorina has to fight that much harder to be heard this cycle, with so many candidates on the field -- most with high-level government experience.
"You have sitting governors ... former senators," White said. "In 2012, people like Herman Cain could get attention."
This time, he said, "Fiorina isn't getting the attention at the moment and while the base thinks she's making some good points, I don't think the base is inclined to vote for her because there are better presidential candidates."
It will be Fiorina's challenge to change that perception.
Basil Smikle Jr., Democratic strategist and founder of Basil Smikle Associates, questioned the strategy of spending so much time hammering Clinton when she needs to "differentiate herself" from her Republican opponents. He said it will be "really difficult" for her if she can't qualify for the Republican debates.
Conservative political consultant T.J. McCormack, though, called the Clinton shadowing a "bold move." As for the GOP primary, he said playing up her "strong suits" -- as a business executive, and the only woman in the primary field -- should help. He suggested Fiorina could benefit from voters saying "not another Bush" or worried about the libertarian leanings of candidates like Sen. Rand Paul.
"Everybody's got to wait and see, especially Republicans," he said.
Fiorina, meanwhile, has deftly sparred with the media. She recently responded to questions from "Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd and late-night host Seth Meyers about a cyber-squatter snapping up www.carlyfiorina.org, by buying ChuckTodd.org and SethMeyers.org -- to show how easy it was.
At Wednesday's press gaggle, she made clear to the 20 or so reporters in attendance that unlike Clinton, she would answer their questions. Fiorina, who repeatedly has attacked foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation, also told reporters she didn't regret participating at one Clinton Global Initiative event herself but doubted she'd be asked back anytime soon.
Fiorina, whose net worth has been estimated between $30 million and $119 million, has drawn a steady stream of conservative voters to her campaign events. At a dinner in Iowa in April, 300 people showed up to watch her give the keynote address.
The Quinnipiac poll showed the current GOP primary leaders are former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (who has not yet announced), retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (who also has not announced). They were tied at the front with 10 percent each.
Other measures of candidates' impact are also being produced. Using a comprehensive platform, the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management and Zignal Labs were able to track and analyze more than 10.3 million mentions of potential presidential candidates in the news and social media.
"We're quantifying the old vaudeville and marketing phrase about how well messages 'play in Peoria' and everywhere else," GW professor Michael Cornfield said in a statement. "Whose brands are catching on -- and whose are catching flak?"
On the GW "Public Echo" scale, which rates the candidates on a scale from 1 (crickets) to 11 (historic), Fiorina tied Huckabee at 3. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz topped the GOP list at 7 while Carson ranked at the bottom with 1. Clinton scored an 8.

'Sales are next to nothing': Merchants worry crime crisis could cast pall over Baltimore downtown

BALTIMORE –  An epidemic of murder that has gripped Baltimore in the month following the Freddie Gray riots is threatening to undo decades of rebirth in the city's popular downtown -- and in the process, wipe away tens of millions of tourist dollars. 
“Sales are next to nothing,” said Kenneth Robinson, manager of the Fudgery, an iconic candy store tucked in the heart of the Inner Harbor. 
Local merchants were just starting to see business bounce back after last month's riots. But a crime crisis has since gripped Baltimore, with police saying criminals have taken advantage of the situation to wreak havoc on Charm City. 
Nine people were killed and nearly 30 wounded over the holiday weekend, about three weeks after the rioting. With 38 homicides so far in May, Baltimore is seeing its deadliest month since 1999. The number of killings this year is now at 111, compared with 211 for all of 2014. 
Store owners, restaurateurs, pub owners and others in and around the Inner Harbor say the long Memorial Day weekend did help them recover losses associated with the looting and rioting sparked by the April 19 death of 25-year-old Gray in police custody. 
But merchants worry the national attention on Baltimore's crime wave will have many potential visitors scratching the city off their vacation calendar.

Washington DC transit officials bar issue-oriented ads through end of year

Washington D.C. transit officials voted Thursday to suspend all issue-oriented advertising on the city's rail and bus system after the agency was asked to consider an ad featuring an image of the Muslim prophet Muhammad. 
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority's (WMATA) board of directors voted to suspend all issue ads until the end of this year while it examines its own policy. The agency did not say the move was made in response to a particular ad.
However, the head of the group behind the Muhammad ad, the American Freedom Defense Initiative's Pamela Geller, confirmed to the Associated Press Thursday that she had submitted the cartoon, which depicts Muhammad raising a sword and saying "you can't draw me," for consideration about two weeks ago.
Muslims generally believe any physical depiction of Muhammad is blasphemous. The cartoon, by artist Bosch Fawstin, was the winner of the group's Muhammad cartoon contest in Garland, Texas, earlier this month. Two would-be terrorists ambushed security officers outside the event and were killed by local police.
Geller said she submitted the cartoon with the caption "support free speech." She said her group is exploring its legal options and looking at other cities to potentially run the ads.
"Look, this is an end run around the First Amendment," she said in a telephone interview after the board's ruling. She called transit officials "cowards" for not being willing to run the ads and said "rewarding terror with submission is defeat."
This is not the first time an American Freedom Defense Initiative ad has sparked controversy. In 2012 the group took transit agencies in New York and Washington to court to force them to display a different provocative ad which read: "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad."
WMATA said in a statement Thursday that officials will be reviewing the agency's ad policy.
"In the coming months, Metro will fully consider the impact that issue-related advertisements have on the community by gathering input from riders, local community groups and advocates. Metro will also carefully examine the legal concerns related to displaying, or discontinuing the display of, issue-related advertisements. Following this internal review and outreach period, the Board of Directors will make a decision about how to move forward with its advertising policy," the agency said in a statement.
Issue ads bring in approximately $2 million dollars annually, so suspending those kinds of ads for the remainder of the year could cost the agency approximately $1 million, spokesman Dan Stessel said. Advertising throughout the bus and train system, including both issue ads and commercial advertisements, brings in approximately $11 million, Stessel said.

Occupiers of church closed by Boston Archdiocese years ago fight order to vacate

Members of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Roman Catholic Church, which the Boston Archdiocese closed 11 years ago, say they have no plans to end their longstanding occupation of the church -- even though the archdiocese originally gave them a Friday deadline to leave or else.
Since the announcement was made to close the church in October 2004, congregants have held vigils in shifts, 24 hours a day, seven days a week -- sleeping on the floor and in pews and holding Sunday service, during which the occupants recite prayers, listen to Bible readings and receive consecrated hosts secretly provided by area priests. The gatherings are lay-led services, and the Eucharist is given to the congregation by Eucharistic ministers.
To the Archdiocese of Boston, a dwindling congregation and a shortage of priests, among other factors, marked the church for closure, which the Vatican supported. But congregants say it is the 30 acres of prime, ocean-view Boston real estate the church sits on that has the hierarchy looking to sell -- and claim the archdiocese needs it to pay off clergy sex abuse cases.
"This is all about the money," Jon Rogers, the protesters' leader and a founder of the nonprofit support group, "The Friends of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini," told FoxNews.com, claiming the church was "thriving" with 3,000 registered parishioners when the decision was made to close it nearly 11 years ago.
"Here's the crux of the matter – we are sitting on one of the most valuable of piece of property in Boston," Rogers said Thursday. "And they need the money."
"You don’t get to hurt children and then steal our church to pay off your crimes," he said.
Earlier this month, a state judge ordered the protesters to vacate by as early as Friday. The occupants then filed an appeal and were granted a temporary reprieve, according to Rogers.
"There’s so much information that was submitted and the judge needs time to review it," he said.
The 30 largely undeveloped acres are worth over $4 million, by some estimates.
In an interview last August, Archdiocese spokesman Terry Donilon said the decision to close the church was part of a larger parish closure and cited a decline in Mass attendance and a "dramatic" drop in the number of priests.
Donilon strongly denied the charge that the church was being closed so the property could be sold to pay off prior legal settlements.
"We are not selling churches to pay for the legal fees of the sex abuse cases," he told FoxNews.com in August. The U.S. Catholic Church has paid close to $2.8 billion in legal costs related to clergy sex abuse cases, according to a 2013 report by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
"No plans" have been discussed about what will be done with the property, which sits about a half mile from the Atlantic Ocean, Donilon also said at the time. He called the claim by congregants that the property is to be sold to a condominium developer false. Donilon was not immediately available when contacted Thursday.

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Rogers and others say they believe the sweat equity they've poured into the church over the years makes it theirs, not the archdiocese's. Parishioners have maintained the 55-year-old building over the years, spending thousands of dollars on repairs and renovations, like painting and new woodwork, as well as purchasing a new furnace. The archdiocese still pays for the electricity and heat, as well as the occasional landscaping and snow plowing.
The archdiocese has declined to say what it plans to do if protesters refuse to leave. The rebel occupants say they are prepared to be arrested as trespassers, if necessary.
Rogers said he and the other congregants plan to fight the archdiocese to the very end.
"I have a spiritual belief that right will triumph over wrong," Rogers said. "In this case, we believe we are right."
"I think the higher up the chain we pursue this, the closer to vindication that we get," he said. "We will exhaust every avenue of appeal available to us. That promise hasn’t changed since Day 1."

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Santorum launches 2016 campaign, with focus on 'working families'

Rick Santorum announced his second campaign for the White House on Wednesday, striking a populist tone as he railed against "big government" and "big money." 
The former Republican Pennsylvania senator made his announcement surrounded by factory workers on the floor of a business near his western Pennsylvania hometown, a setting designed to showcase his focus on the working class.
He held up a piece of coal in one hand -- highlighting his family's working roots -- and an American flag in the other. In announcing "I'm running for president," he vowed to get rid of executive orders and regulations that are costing Americans jobs, as well as scrap the "corrupt federal tax code."
While hoping to build off his solid performance in 2012, Santorum begins the race as a heavy underdog facing a crowded field.
The former senator was the Republican runner-up in the 2012 presidential primaries and beat out nominee Mitt Romney in the Iowa caucuses. He also won 11 state races during the primaries. But Santorum faces a steep challenge this cycle in carving out a political niche for himself – as one of several social conservatives in contention.
As of Wednesday, the RealClearPolitics average of polls showed him ranking 10^th, behind such social conservatives as former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Ben Carson, both declared candidates.

More on this...

• Will GOP voters give Rick Santorum a second chance?

The prospective Republican field already includes four sitting senators, four governors, four former governors, two business leaders and a retired neurosurgeon. Santorum becomes the seventh candidate to have formally announced.
He tried Wednesday to position himself as the working-class candidate. In a dig at well-funded competitors, he said: "Working families don't need another president tied to big government or big money."
Santorum claims his experience could pay dividends the second time around. Most of the GOP's recent presidential nominees, Mitt Romney and President Ronald Reagan among them, needed more than one campaign to find success in the nomination race.
"This is a long process," Santorum told reporters recently. "One of the things that I feel very comfortable with -- I've been through this process before." He said it's a "completely wide open race."
Santorum served in the Senate from 1995 to 2007.
He began his political career in 1990 as a long-shot candidate for a House seat. In that race, he knocked seven-term Democratic incumbent Doug Walgren out of office. Santorum would go on to become part of the “Gang of Seven” in Congress made up of a new breed of GOP lawmakers. The group, which included now-House Speaker John Boehner, made headlines by going after House Democrats as well as focusing on the House banking scandal.
Santorum won election to the U.S. Senate in 1994. He was 36.
Six years later, he won re-election to a second term and would go on to chair the Senate Republican Conference -- the third highest-ranking party leadership position in the Senate.
Despite his past political record, Santorum is significantly trailing some of the GOP frontrunners vying for a shot at the White House.
Fox News, which will host the first Republican primary debate in Cleveland in early August, said it would limit participation to candidates who are in the top 10 of an average of national polling.
Three other Republicans also are expected to formally announce their White House campaign plans in the next two weeks: Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former New York Gov. George Pataki.
Democrat Martin O’Malley, the former governor of Maryland, is also expected to enter the race this weekend, joining declared Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Pentagon says ‘live anthrax’ inadvertently shipped across US

The Pentagon revealed Wednesday that "live anthrax" was shipped, apparently by accident, from a lab in Utah to as many as nine states over the course of a year. 
Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren assured "there is no known risk to the general public" and said an investigation is under way. But precautions are being taken for potentially exposed workers in labs where the samples were sent. A U.S. official told Fox News that four people in three companies are being treated for "post-exposure" and being prescribed prophylaxis.
All samples are in the process of being collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The material in question was prepared at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, as part of what was described as a "routine" research process. It was then sent out to Defense Department and commercial labs in nine states between March 2014 and March 2015 -- and the shipments were supposed to include only inactive, or dead, anthrax when they were transferred.
"These were supposed to be dead spores anthrax, called AG-1," a defense official said.
But a private lab in Maryland, on May 22, informed the CDC that they thought the samples contained live anthrax. The CDC then informed the Defense Department. According to the Associated Press, the government has confirmed the Maryland lab got live spores, and it is suspected the others did as well, though not yet confirmed.
When asked how many of the states that were sent anthrax received live samples, the defense official said that “out of an abundance of caution, it is safe to assume it’s all live."
Fox News also was told that one sample was sent to a South Korean base to be used in an anthrax detection exercise.
"The Department of Defense is collaborating with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in their investigation of the inadvertent transfer of samples containing live Bacillus anthracis, also known as anthrax, from a DoD lab in Dugway Utah, to labs in nine states," Warren said in a statement.
"There is no known risk to the general public, and there are no suspected or confirmed cases of anthrax infection in potentially exposed lab workers," he added. "The DoD lab was working as part of a DoD effort to develop a field-based test to identify biological threats in the environment."
An Army research center, after hearing from the CDC, had notified the eight companies that received samples across the nine states. Each company has locked down the samples.
The states that received the shipments are: Texas, Maryland, Wisconsin, Delaware, New Jersey, Tennessee, New York, California and Virginia.
Warren said the DoD has also "stopped the shipment of this material from its labs pending completion of the investigation."