Southern California town stands up to state, votes to reject sanctuary law

California city could challenge state's sanctuary law

Councilman Warren Kusumoto joins 'Your World' to discuss why believes the city of Los Alamitos, CA should opt out of the state's new sanctuary law, which limits cooperation between law enforcement and immigration authorities.

A Southern California town council rebelled Monday night and voted to reject the state’s sanctuary law.
Los Alamitos Council members voted 4-1 to opt out of a state law that limits cooperation between local police and federal immigration agents.
The law, signed by Gov. Jerry Brown last year and became effective on Jan. 1, includes prohibiting state and local police agencies from informing federal authorities in cases when illegal immigrants facing deportation are released from detention.
Los Alamitos’ adopted ordinance claims the new state law “may be in direct conflict with federal laws and the Constitution.” The council, therefore, “finds that it is impossible to honor our oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States,” if they do not opt out of it.
The vote caused diverse reactions among over 150 people participating in the council meeting.
“They are asserting their right to ensure the constitutional remains the main law of the land,” Arthur Schaper, who supported the motion, told Fox Los Angeles.
Moti Cohen, an immigrant from Israel, said he came to the U.S. legally and that everyone should follow that path too. He became a legal resident after marrying his American wife.
"The law is the law and has to be enforced all over the country," he told The Los Angeles Times. "The country is a law-and-order country and you have to come here legally."
Others, upset that a council in California chose to decide whether to ignore state laws aimed at protecting illegal immigrants, showed up to protest the vote – causing a temporary delay.
“What we don’t understand what we fear we kill. And that’s what we’re doing we’re killing the spirit of this nation which is American,” Joanne Abuqartoumy told the newspaper.
The only dissenting voice on the council, Mark Chirco, wrote on Facebook after the vote that “I could not see how the ordinance proposed tonight would benefit our city” and will instead “place our city in danger of a costly and uphill battle with the State of California.”
But many believe the example of the Los Alamitos Council may be a game-changer in California, where state officials have positioned themselves as against the immigration policies of the Trump administration.

Los Alamitos’ adopted ordinance claims the new state law “may be in direct conflict with federal laws and the Constitution.”  (AP)

"Perhaps it could be the leader. We are heartened that body politics is taking an action that supports federal laws," Robin Hvidston, executive director of pro-immigration enforcement group We the People Rising, told the LA Times.
"We're just calling on the federal government to stand up on behalf of the city," she said, hoping the U.S. Department of Justice will support the city.
The newly passed law will have to have a second reading in a month. It is expected that the ordinance will pass again.

China's Xi takes swipe at Trump's new 'doomed to failure' Taiwan policy in nationalistic speech

Chinese President Xi Jinping took a veiled shot at President Donald Trump on Tuesday during his nationalistic address to parliament regarding Taiwan.  (Reuters)

Chinese President Xi Jinping took a veiled shot at President Donald Trump on Tuesday during his nationalistic address to parliament regarding Taiwan.
Xi, speaking to nearly 3,000 members of the rubber-stamp National People’s Congress, declared that the Chinese people were “closer than at any time in history to realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
"In the face of national righteousness and the tide of history, all attempts or tricks aimed at dividing the motherland are doomed to failure. All will receive the condemnation of the people and the punishment of history,” he said.
The Chinese people have the will and the ability to "foil all activities to divide the nation" and are unified in their belief that "every inch of our great motherland absolutely cannot and absolutely will not be separated from China," Xi added.

"All will receive the condemnation of the people and the punishment of history."

The confrontational comments came just days after Trump signed a new law allowing high-level officials visits to Taiwan – a move now condemned by Beijing at the highest levels of government.
“China is strongly opposed to that,” The Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said in a statement on Saturday, according to AFP. “We urge the US side to correct its mistake, stop pursuing any official ties with Taiwan or improving its current relations with Taiwan in any substantive way.”
The Taiwan Travel Act, signed by the White House on Friday after it passed through Congress, encourages visits between US and Taiwanese officials “at all levels.”

Xi, speaking to nearly 3,000 members of the rubber-stamp National People’s Congress, declared that the Chinese people were “closer than at any time in history to realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation."  (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Washington has no formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan since 1979 because of the “one China’ policy. China sees Taiwan as its territory and has expressed a desire to reunify.
Xi, who convinced parliament to scrap term limits for the president and paved a way for him to rule indefinitely, also dismissed on Tuesday any accusations that China is a threat and seeks domination.
"China's development does not pose a threat to any country," he said. "Only those who habitually threaten others will look at everyone else as threats.”

Hillary Cartoon

Hillary Clinton tries to explain her comments on Trump voters after backlash

Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton attempted to explain her comments about American voters and the 2016 election in a lengthy Facebook post Saturday that claimed she "meant no disrespect to any individual or group."
During a recent trip to India, Clinton told attendees at a conference in Mumbai that Americans did not "deserve" a Trump presidency, said she won the states "that are optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward," and said that Trump's campaign was "looking backwards."
Clinton summed up Trump's message as "you know, you didn't like black people getting rights, you don't like women, you know, getting jobs. You don't want, you know, to see that Indian American succeeding more than you are."
"I understand how some of what I said upset people and can be misinterpreted," Clinton said in her Facebook post. "I meant no disrespect to any individual or group. And I want to look to the future as much as anybody."
But the former first lady criticized Trump for relying on "scare tactics and false attacks [that masked] the fact that he is otherwise no friend to most Americans."
Clinton also stood by comments implying that white women who voted for Trump were subject to "a sort of ongoing pressure to vote the way that your husband, your boss, your son, whoever, believes you should."
"[T]here is anecdotal evidence and some research to suggest that women are unfortunately more swayed by men than the other way around," Clinton insisted on Facebook. "As much as I hate the possibility, and hate saying it, it’s not that crazy when you think about our ongoing struggle to reach gender balance – even within the same household.
"I did not realize how hard it would hit many who heard it," Clinton added. "So to those upset or offended by what I said last week, I hope this explanation helps to explain the point I was trying to make."
Clinton's original comments drew backlash from Democrats, among them Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois, who told "Fox News Sunday" that the former secretary of state's remarks were "not helpful."
"Thirty percent of the people who voted for Donald Trump had voted for President Obama," Durbin pointed out. "Why? The same people who looked for change with President Obama thought there wasn’t enough as far as their personal lives were concerned and they supported Donald Trump.
"That is a reality that Democrats acknowledge."

proar after New Jersey high school allegedly suspends students over gun-range photo

A New Jersey high school came under fire Friday after it allegedly suspended two students over a gun photo taken during a family visit to a shooting range.
News of the unnamed students' suspension circulated through a Lacey Township Facebook group, according to NJ.com.
Amanda Buron, a Lacey resident and family friend of one of the suspended students said one of the photos shared on SnapChat featured four rifles, ammunition clips and a gun duffel with the caption "fun day at the range," NJ.com reported.
Buron said the two students received a five-day in-school suspension after the picture drew the attention of Lacey Township High School officials, who argued that it violated the school’s policy on weapons possession.
The school district shortly faced community backlash for the alleged suspension, with many calling for people to appear at the school board's next meeting on Monday to protest the decision.
The school, however, denied the students were suspended over the picture.
"Information posted on social media is incorrect,” Lacey schools Superintendent Craig Wigley told the publication last week. The officials declined to provide any additional details or point out what exactly was false.
The controversy brought the attention of a New Jersey gun advocacy group that sent the school district a cease and desist letter and threatened with a lawsuit if it does not overturn the suspension of the students and change the policies regarding the Second Amendment.
The Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs (ANJRPC) said in a letter that the school’s policies allow suspending students for up to a year if they are "reported to be in possession of a weapon of any type for any reason or purpose on or off school grounds."

"Information posted on social media is incorrect."

“The policy is clearly wrong and violates the Second Amendment. We hope that they're reasonable people and they will fix it. If they don't, we're prepared to take legal action,” ANJRPC executive director Scott Bach told NJ.com.
The group also demands the school to apologize to the two suspended teens.
“Schools do not have the authority to chill the rights of their students off of school grounds, and this blatant infringement of constitutional rights will not be tolerated," Bach added. "I don't care if no students were disciplined. The policy has got to go."
Overtly broad policies of the school district have been criticized in the past. Ed Cardinal, whose son attends a school in the same district, said the officials once demanded his son to remove a window sticker of a gun from his pickup truck that he drives to school.
"He was kind of heated about it and so was I," Cardinal said.
They abided by the demands and removed sticker after the district threatened to punish the teen.

Zinke defends 'konnichiwa' comment to Japanese-American lawmaker

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke defended his use of the Japanese greeting “konnichiwa” when responding to a question from a lawmaker.
Zinke told reporters Saturday that the phrase is innocent and inoffensive.
“How could ever saying ‘good morning’ be bad?” he said during his tour of the U.S.-Mexico Border in Arizona.
Zinke took heat last week after he said “konnichiwa” to a Japanese American congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa, D-Hawaii, who quizzed him over funding for the Japanese American Confinement Sites program.
“Will we see it funded again in 2018?," Rep. Hanabusa, asked Zinke last week.
"Oh, Konnichiwa," Zinke replied, sparking uproar among some lawmakers, civic groups and on social media who perceived the use of the phrase as perpetuating negative stereotypes about Japanese Americans.
"I think it's still 'ohayo gozaimasu,' but that's okay," Hanabusa corrected Zinke with a greeting normally used in the morning.
Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., called on Zinke to apologize for the remark: “Zinke's comment betrayed a prejudice that being Asian makes you a perpetual foreigner. Intentional or not, it's offensive. He should apologize.”
Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, also criticized the interior secretary.

“How could ever saying ‘good morning’ be bad?”

“The internment of nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans is no laughing matter, @SecretaryZinke. What you thought was a clever response to @RepHanabusa was flippant & juvenile,” Hirono tweeted.
Hanabusa issued a statement on Saturday, saying “the real issue here is that the administration ignored one of the most racially motivated periods in American history by defunding the Japanese American Confinement Sites (JACS) grant program.”
“When Secretary Zinke chose to address me in Japanese (when no one else was greeted in their ancestral language), I understood ‘this is precisely why Japanese Americans were treated as they were more than 75 years ago,” she said.

Rep. Keith Ellison, under fire for Farrakhan ties, claims he hasn't seen the controversial leader since 2013

Republican Rep. Todd Rokita gives the inside story on the resolution he introduced condemning the Nation of Islam leader for 'promoting ideas that create animosity and anger' toward Jewish Americans and the Jewish religion. #Tucker
Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., said Sunday that he had not met with or spoken to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan since 2013 -- despite the anti-Semitic minister's claim that the congressman visited him in Farrakhan's Washington D.C. suite more recently.
Ellison, the deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee, wrote in a blog post on Medium that "I do not have and have never had a relationship with Mr. Farrakhan, but I have been in the same room as him." According to Ellison, he and Farrakhan attended the same New York meeting with Iran President Hassan Rouhani "and nearly 50 others."
NATION OF ISLAM CALLS 3 BLACK MEMBERS OF CONGRESS 'SELLOUTS' FOR DENOUNCING FARRAKHAN
Ellison said he used the meeting to push "for the release of an American political prisoner," whom he did not name. The congressman added that he "didn’t know Mr. Farrakhan would be there and did not speak to him at the event."
"Contrary to recent reports, I have not been in any meeting with him since then, and he and I have no communication of any kind," Ellison wrote.
Ellison's article contradicts claims made by Farrakhan in an interview published on the minister's Facebook page in December 2016. At the time, Farrakhan told interviewer Munir Muhammad that Ellison and Rep. Andre Carson, D-Ind., "visited my suite and we sat down talking like you and I are talking."
Farrakhan did not specify when the meeting with Ellison and Carson took place. The Indianapolis Star reported that Carson met with Farrakhan in 2015. The Washington Post reported that Carson had met with Farrakhan in 2016 "to discuss critical issues that are important to my constituents and all Americans."
GOP RESOLUTION CONDEMNING FARRAKHAN PUTS PRESSURE ON DEMS
A spokeswoman for Carson did not immediately respond to questions from Fox News about the meeting, including when it took place, whether Carson and Ellison met with Farrakhan together or separately, and whether Ellison's article was true or false.
Farrakhan drew backlash after a speech in Chicago last month, when he said such things as “powerful Jews are my enemy” and “the Jews were responsible for all of this filth and degenerate behavior that Hollywood is putting out turning men into women and women into men.” Afterwards, the conservative publication The Daily Caller reported that seven congressional lawmakers – all Democrats and all part of the Black Caucus, including Ellison -- had current or past ties to the minister.
Ellison also disavowed what he called Farrakhan's "intolerant and divisive language" toward Jewish people.
"I believe my long record of fighting and condemning all prejudice, including anti-Semitism from whatever source, should speak for itself," he wrote. "But those who aim to make me guilty by false association have made themselves hard to ignore."
In the 2016 Facebook video, Farrakhan critized Ellison for distancing himself from Farrakhan when he ran for Congress and when he sought the chairmanship of the DNC following the 2016 election.
"If [Ellison] has to bash me in order to get a job, help yourself, brother," Farrakhan said. "Say whatever you think will get you your DNC job. But you have not diminished me one atom’s weight. What he’s done is diminished himself. He cannot say that he didn’t follow me at one time … He cannot say that we did anything to harm him or his aspiration."

Trade Deficit Cartoons

Pres. Trump Expected To Announce Tariffs On Imports From China

In this March 6, 2018, photo, President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Reports suggest the President wants to target nearly $60 billion in Chinese products, and push China to reduce the trade deficit by $100 billion
Incoming director of the White House National Economic Council Larry Kudlow said China needs a ‘tough response’ from the U.S. and its allies.
China – the largest source of the trade imbalance – is expected to respond to tariffs with higher import taxes on U.S. goods.

'We're Not an Environment for Snowflakes': College President Praises Trump

The president of a Missouri college and a member of his staff who sat at a roundtable with the Commander-In-Chief praised President Trump for his tax plan.
Jerry Davis of College of the Ozarks near Branson said he noticed that many American businesses were passing their tax savings to their employees.
"We want to be a part of that and be a good example," he said.
Davis said the College of the Ozarks is a "work college" where students are simultaneously employed while at school, and normally do not graduate with debt.

Bonnie Brazzeal: “It was an amazing experience, I never dreamed that I would meet [President @realDonaldTrump] and personally thank him for the bonus… He really cares for the American people.” pic.twitter.com/lJNbx8bP8T

— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 17, 2018

"[The bonuses] are especially appropriate because [we] are a work college," he said. "We're certainly not an environment for snowflakes."
Cafeteria worker Bonnie Brazzeal said each employee received $204 in bonuses.
Rachel Campos-Duffy asked Brazzeal about her emotional reaction during the roundtable with Trump and Boeing aerospace manufacturing executives.
Brazzeal said it was "an amazing experience" to meet the president and be able to thank him in person for the money, which she said she deposited in her retirement fund.