Kansas must remove Dem candidate from Senate ballot, state court rules

The Kansas Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that the state must remove the name of the Democratic candidate running against Republican Sen. Pat Roberts from the November ballot, adding another twist to a now-hotly contested race. 
The court's decision leaves independent Greg Orman, who has been rising in the polls, as the only major opponent currently in the running to take on the 78-year-old incumbent. 
The court agreed with Democrat Chad Taylor, saying his formal letter of withdrawal to the secretary of state's office was sufficient to get his name off the ballot.
The court also said it did not "need to act" regarding Secretary of State Kris Kobach's "allegation" that the Democratic party must name a new candidate for the race. Kobach said earlier Thursday that the Democratic Party is legally obligated to pick a new nominee and set a Sept. 26 deadline.
The Roberts campaign has repeatedly accused Democrats of playing dirty politics after national Democrats such as Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill reportedly nudged Taylor out of the race earlier this month to make way for Orman. 
Roberts' campaign manager Corry Bliss said in a statement the court's decision is deliberately disenfranchising "over 65,000 voters" for "political purposes." 
"In a bow to Senators Claire McCaskill and Harry Reid, liberal activist Supreme Court justices have decided that if you voted in the Democrat Primary on August 5th, your vote does not matter, your voice does not matter, and you have no say in who should be on the ballot on Election Day," he said. "This is not only a travesty to Kansas voters, but it’s a travesty to the judicial system and our electoral process."
The National Republican Senatorial Committee also decried the decision, saying the Democratic party now has a "clear legal obligation" to name a new candidate. 
"Greg Orman and his liberal friends like Barack Obama might not like it, but they have to abide by the law just like everyone else," spokesman Brad Dayspring said. 
Orman's campaign manager said in response to the decision Orman would run against a broken political system no matter how many candidates were on the ballot.
"Kansas voters from across the political spectrum are fed up with the mess in Washington, and that's why Republicans, Democrats and independents are supporting Independent Greg Orman for Senate," Jim Jonas said. 
Taylor announced his withdrawal earlier this month, but Kobach, a conservative Republican publicly backing Roberts, declared that Taylor didn't comply with a state election law limiting when nominees can withdraw. Taylor petitioned the Supreme Court to remove his name from the ballot.
Kansas law says party nominees can have their names removed from the ballot if they declare that they'll be incapable of fulfilling the duties of the offices they seek. Taylor's letter said that he was leaving the race "pursuant to" the relevant law but did not say why, and he's never publicly given a reason for dropping out.
"We conclude the plain meaning of 'pursuant to (the law)' contained in Taylor's letter effectively declares he is incapable of fulfilling the duties of office if elected," the justices said.
Kobach argued that Taylor must explain himself, even if he simply says he can't serve as a senator, without giving more details.
Republicans need to gain six Senate seats to take the majority from Democrats and Kansas is one of about a dozen races nationally that could determine the outcome.
Kobach had said a quick decision was needed because ballots need to be printed Friday.
In another wrinkle, a registered Democratic voter in the state filed a new petition with the Kansas Supreme Court Thursday night asking it to force the party to name a new nominee.
David Orel of Kansas City, Kansas, filed the petition after his attorney sent the party a letter saying Orel wants to vote for a Democratic candidate.

Lawmakers renew call to roll back military cuts amid ISIS, Ebola fights

Defense hawks on both sides of the aisle are pointing to the new war against the Islamic State to revive efforts to roll back across-the-board Pentagon budget cuts.
Citing President Obama’s calls for an expanded bombing campaign against the terror group — whose videotaped beheadings of three western hostages drew international revulsion — longtime foes of what’s known as sequestration say now is no time to slash military funding.
Rather, they argue, the Islamic State, or ISIS, is just the latest threat that underscores the need to undo the $487 billion in automatic Defense spending cuts required under the 2011 Budget Control Act.
“Even before these things erupted, it was not adequate,” Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., said of Pentagon funding at a Senate Armed Services Hearing earlier this week. “As we all know, risk increases when adequacy is not met.”
The Oklahoma Republican was pressing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey on whether the Defense Department has enough money to carry out Obama’s goal of destroying ISIS. While the Obama administration has requested an additional $500 million to pay for arming and training Syrian rebels, more than a month of airstrikes against the terror group have already cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
The fact the administration wants to expand operations has fueled renewed worries over Defense funding, including among those who support the White House’s proposed strategy.
“I am troubled by the hit that readiness has taken through some of the budget cuts,” Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., told the Council on Foreign Relations last week, adding that while lawmakers have had some success restoring the funding, “the whole sequestration decision, looking back at it, was wrong.”
Beyond the task of fighting ISIS, crises like the Ebola pandemic in West Africa -- where U.S. military personnel are being deployed -- and the armed struggle in eastern Ukraine have military officials joining lawmakers in sounding the alarm.
“If sequestration occurs, we are going to have to continue to downsize the Army,” Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno told reporters in Germany this week, according to Reuters. “We are going to have to decide where we do it.”
Though top Democrats and Republicans have called for “fixing” the Defense portion of the sequester by reallocating federal dollars, the cuts themselves were the product of a congressional vote to drastically rein in spending — a reality many believed would never come to pass. Indeed, though Congress last year approved a bipartisan, two-year budget outline that provided some relief to the Pentagon, the agency faces another deep cut of about $45 billion next fiscal year, which begins next month.
Of course, Congress has other avenues it could use to appropriate money to the department, including war-fighting funds. But those efforts, along with what Hagel hinted would be a more robust budget request for fiscal 2016, are sure to encounter resistance among deficit-minded members intent on shrinking federal spending.
Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate budget panel, told Politico this week he’s not prepared to say “we’ve got to obliterate the sequester” to deal with the new threats. “We lived with the Budget Control Act numbers last year,” he said. “We’ve lived with them this year, and savings that the Defense Department was then executing are just now being harvested.”
For now, those eyeing a re-upping of the Pentagon budget are hoping polls that show public opinion surging in favor of striking ISIS -- coupled with bipartisan backing of the administration's initial request for $500 million to train and equip Syrian rebels -- will lay the groundwork for rethinking the Defense sequester before the next round of cuts kicks in.

Hayes: Obama’s ISIS approach 'the wrong way to begin a concerted campaign’

Steve Hayes said Wednesday on “Special Report with Bret Baier” that the mixed messages the Obama administration is sending to the public about the campaign being waged against the Islamic State militants are damaging to the administration's effort.
Hayes, a senior writer for the The Weekly Standard, said the administration's stance is sending the wrong message to the militant group, which is also known as ISIS and ISIL.
“I mean, the president gives a speech, a nationally televised, prime-time speech, in which he announces a non-war, and then we spend a week debating extensively and nationally about what we are not going to do," he said. "You have the president and his team, can’t decide whether to call it a war… They can’t agree whether there will be boots on the ground or not.”
Hayes called the messaging “exactly the wrong way to begin a concerted campaign” against a critical threat to our nation.
Moreover, he said that President Obama is sending a signal that while the Islamic State is a threat to our core interests, the U.S. is relying on other nations’ ground troops to solve the problem.
“[President Obama] is saying… ‘We’re going to get some other people to fight [ISIS],’” he said.

School tells kids to remove American flags on 9/11

Sometimes good intentions have unintended consequences. Just ask the principal of Woodruff High School in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Principal Aaron Fulmer made national headlines this week after he directed students to remove American flags from their pickup trucks on September 11.
The patriotic teenagers had mounted large American flags in their truck beds – in violation of a longstanding school policy.

American flag bumper stickers are fine. So are American flag T-shirts. But students simply cannot fly American flags in their pickup trucks.

The policy, which has been in place for more than 20 years, bans anything that creates a disturbance on campus or draws an unusual amount of attention to itself.
“A bumper sticker is not going to do that from a distance, but a pole flag is,” Superintendent Rallie Liston told me in a telephone interview. “The American flag was never an issue for us. It was never anti-American flag. It was just no pole flags – period.”
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Liston said the original rule was created to prevent students from showing up at school with Confederate flags.
“It was inflammatory,” the superintendent told me. “Finally, we reached a point where we said no more pole flags.”
American flag bumper stickers are fine. So are American flag T-shirts. But students simply cannot fly American flags in their pickup trucks. Such behavior is impermissible.  
As the superintendent explained, it prevents someone from showing up with something offensive.
“If it’s an American flag – everybody is excited about it,” he said. “But what if it’s the Nazi flag or another flag you might not be congruent with?”
As you might imagine, the school’s decision has led to lots of protests and name-calling. A group of parents even stood outside the school waving American flags.
Superintendent Liston says all the anti-American accusations are just as far from the truth as can be.
“These are the most God-fearing, flag-waving, patriotic people you will ever find,” he said. “They are God and Country.”
But he said that with the growing fears over the Islamic State as well as the 9/11 commemoration – he realized at bit of hindsight was necessary.
“We dropped the ball with 9/11,” he told me matter-of-factly. “In hindsight we apologize to any veteran or service person for this happening. That was not our intent. It was just a rule that has been consistently enforced.”
In the meantime, he said there’s a good chance that next year the school will host a special program commemorating 9/11.
“I don’t want to ever get in the position where we take the American flag down again,” Liston told me.
Superintendent Liston seems like a true Southern gentleman – and I believe his apology is sincere.
As we say in the South – you know when somebody’s cooking your grits. And Superintendent Liston was not cooking my grits.
Nevertheless, it’s deeply troubling when any public school suppresses the patriotism of American teenagers.

Jonathan Dwyer, Cardinals' running back, arrested on aggravated assault charges

NFL running back Jonathan Dwyer was arrested on aggravated assault charges Wednesday in connection to two altercations at his home in July involving a woman and an 18-month-old child.
Dwyer, who plays for the Arizona Cardinals, is the latest in a string of NFL players to be involved in domestic violence cases.
The Cardinals said they became aware of the situation on Wednesday and are cooperating with the investigation. 
"Given the serious nature of the allegations we have taken the immediate step to deactivate Jonathan from all team activities," a statement released Wednesday said.
"We will continue to closely monitor this as it develops and evaluate additional information as it becomes available."
The NFL said the case will be reviewed under the league's personal-conduct policy.
Police told Reuters that the incidents involved a 27-year-old woman and an 18-month-old child. One of the counts was "aggravated assault causing a fracture" to the 27-year-old victim on July 21. The victim alleged that Dwyer threw a shoe at her 18-month-old son, Fox10Phoenix.com reported. Police said Dwyer admitted to the incidents, but denied physical assaults during an interview with detectives.
Neighbors heard a fight and called police, who showed up at the residence. Police Sgt. Trent Crump said Dwyer hid in the bathroom until police left. The next day, Crump said Dwyer snatched the woman's cellphone and threw it from the second floor of their home to prevent her from calling police about another dispute.
The woman came forward last week, providing police with information about her injuries and text messages that indicated Dwyer "was going to harm himself because of what had been going on," police said.
The NFL has been rocked by domestic violence issues ever since a videotape surfaced that showed former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice knocking out his then-fiancee in an Atlantic City elevator. Then Minnesota Vikings star running back Adrian Peterson was indicted on child-abuse charges.
Critics have been calling on NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to step down after Rice only received a two-game suspension for the attack before the video emerged.
Dwyer, 25, signed with the Cardinals earlier this year and was their second-string running back after spending the last four years with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Australia raids foil reported ISIS beheading plots

Australian counterterrorism forces detained 15 people Thursday in a series of suburban raids after receiving intelligence that the Islamic State movement was planning public beheadings in two Australian cities to demonstrate its reach.
About 800 federal and state police officers raided more than a dozen properties across 12 Sydney suburbs as part of the operation -- the largest in Australian history, Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Andrew Colvin told the Associated Press. Separate raids in the eastern cities of Brisbane and Logan were also conducted.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the plan involved kidnapping randomly selected members of the public off the streets in Sydney and Brisbane, beheading them on camera, and releasing the recordings through Islamic State's propaganda arm in the Middle East. 
Police allege that orders for the attacks came from Mohammad Ali Baryalei, a 33-year-old former Sydney nightclub bouncer who is believed to be the highest-ranking Australian in Islamic State, also known as ISIS. A 22-year-old Sydney man, Omarjan Azari, appeared in court Thursday and is accused of conspiring with Baryalei and others to act in preparation for or plan a terrorist act or acts. 
Prosecutor Michael Allnutt said he was involved in a "plan to commit extremely serious offenses" that was "clearly designed to shock and horrify" the public. It is not immediately clear what sentence Azari faces if convicted. The accused did not apply for bail and did not enter a plea. His next court appearance was set for November 13.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott told reporters that he had been briefed on Wednesday night about the operation and discussed the planned beheadings.
"That's the intelligence we received," he told reporters. "The exhortations -- quite direct exhortations -- were coming from an Australian who is apparently quite senior in ISIL to networks of support back in Australia to conduct demonstration killings here in this country." ISIL is another name for the militant group that has established control over large parts of Iraq and Syria. 
The planned public attacks resemble the murder of Lee Rigby, a British soldiers who was attacked and killed in May 2013 by two Nigerian-born Muslim converts near the Royal Artillery Barracks in southeast London.
"This is not just suspicion, this is intent and that's why the police and security agencies decided to act in the way they have," Abbott added.
The arrests come just days after the country raised its terror warning to the second-highest level in response to the domestic threat posed by supporters of ISIS.
"Police believe that this group that we have executed this operation on today had the intention and had started to carry out planning to commit violent acts here in Australia," said Colvin, who is also the acting Federal Police Commissioner. "Those violent acts particularly related to random acts against members of the public. So what we saw today and the operation that continues was very much about police disrupting the potential for violence against the Australian community at the earliest possible opportunity."
"Right now is a time for calm," New South Wales Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said. "We need to let people know that they are safe, and certainly from our perspective, we know that the work this morning will ensure that all of those plans that may have been on foot have been thwarted."
Last week, Australian police arrested two men in Brisbane for allegedly preparing to fight in Syria, recruiting jihadists and raising money for the Al Qaeda offshoot group Jabhat al-Nusra, also known as the Nusra Front. Colvin said the raids conducted in Brisbane on Thursday were a follow-up to that operation. It was not yet clear how the investigations in Sydney and Brisbane were linked, he said.
However, Fairfax Media reported that the arrests of the men averted a terror attack by mere days.
The government raised its terrorism threat last week from "medium" to "high" on a four-tier scale on the advice of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization. The domestic spy agency's Director-General David Irvine said the threat had been rising over the past year, mainly due to Australians joining ISIS to fight in Syria and Iraq.
When announcing the elevated threat level, Abbott stressed that there was no information suggesting a terror attack was imminent.
Police said at the time there was no terrorist threat to the Group of 20 leaders' summit to be hosted by Brisbane in November which will bring President Barack Obama and other leaders of the world's 20 biggest economies to the Queensland state capital.
Australia has estimated about 60 of its citizens are fighting for ISIS and the Nusra Front in Iraq and Syria. Another 15 Australian fighters had been killed, including two young suicide bombers.
The government has said it believes about 100 Australians are actively supporting extremist groups from within Australia, recruiting fighters and grooming suicide bomber candidates as well as providing funds and equipment.

NFL Cartoon

Vikings tell Adrian Peterson to stay away from team until child abuse case resolved

The Minnesota Vikings issued a statement early Wednesday saying that running back Adrian Peterson must remain away from all team activities until his felony child abuse case is settled. 
The statement, from team owners Zygi and Mark Wilf, said that Peterson was being placed on the Exempt/Commissioner's Permission list. The move was an about-face for the team, which reinstated Peterson to the active roster Monday after deactivating him following the All-Pro running back's indictment Friday. 
"In conversations with the NFL over the last two days, the Vikings advised the League of the team's decision to revisit the situation," the team's statement read, in part. "After giving the situation additional thought, we have decided this is the appropriate course of action for the organization and for Adrian."
Peterson has an initial hearing scheduled for October 8 in Montgomery County, Texas on a charge of reckless or negligent injury to a child. He is accused of beating his four-year-old son with a wooden switch, leaving bruises and other wounds that were visible days later. Peterson told police that he was merely inflicting discipline and had not intended to hurt the boy. 
"We want to be clear," the Vikings statement continued, "we have a strong stance regarding the protection and welfare of children, and we want to be sure we get this right. At the same time, we want to express our support for Adrian and acknowledge his seven-plus years of outstanding commitment to this organization and this community."
"This is the best possible outcome given the circumstances," Peterson's agent, Ben Dogra, told The Associated Press. "Adrian understands the gravity of the situation and this enables him to take care of his personal situation. We fully support Adrian and he looks forward to watching his teammates and coaches being successful during his absence."
On Tuesday, a Houston television station reported that the mother of another Peterson's children filed abuse allegations with the state's Child Protective Services agency last year, claiming that Peterson had left a head wound while striking her son. 
Peterson missed the team's 30-7 loss to the New England Patriots Sunday, but would have been eligible to return for this week's game against the New Orleans Saints. 
The decision to reinstate Peterson prompted criticism from fans, former players and sponsors. Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton said Peterson's actions were "a public embarrassment to the Vikings organization and the state of Minnesota." Hall of Fame Vikings quarterback Fran Tarkenton told Fox News.com that he was "embarrassed" by the team's decision to reinstate Peterson. 
"These are serious accusations, Tarkenton said. "And the only way you’re going to get the attention of an NFL player is to take away his paycheck and take him off the field. This is way above winning or losing a football game."
The Radisson hotel chain suspended its sponsorship of the Vikings following Peterson's reinstatement Monday. On Tuesday, Castrol Motor Oil, Special Olympics Minnesota and Mylan Inc. all severed ties with Peterson, and Twin Cities Nike stores pulled Peterson's jerseys from its shelves.

Curtain, reviews come down on taxpayer-funded climate change musical

The curtain has come down on Climate Change: The Musical and reviews of the taxpayer-funded play about global warming are downright icy.
The play, which is actually entitled "The Great Immensity," and was produced by Brooklyn-based theater company The Civilians, Inc. with a $700,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, ended its run early amid a storm of criticism from reviewers and lawmakers alike. It opened a year late, reached just five percent of its anticipated audience and likely fell short of its ambitious goal of informing a new generation about the perceived dangers of man-caused climate change. 
Plus, it apparently wasn't very good.
“Despite fine performances, the musical mystery tour is an uneasy mix of fact and credulity-stretching fiction. It’s neither flora nor fauna,” New York Daily News reviewer Joe Dziemianowicz wrote in a review at the time. “[The] songs — whether about a doomed passenger pigeon or storm-wrecked towns — feel shoehorned in and not, pardon the pun, organic.”
The play, which featured songs and video exploring Americans’ relationships to the environment, opened in New York in April with a three-week run before going on a national tour that was supposed to attract 75,000 patrons. But it stalled after a single production in Kansas City, falling short of the lofty goals outlined in a grant proposal. It was envisioned as a chance to create "an experience that would be part investigative journalism and part inventive theater,” help the public "better appreciate how science studies the Earth’s biosphere” and increase “public awareness, knowledge and engagement with science-related societal issues.”
According to a plot description on the theater company’s website, "The Great Immensity" focuses on a woman named Phyllis as she tries to track down a friend who disappeared while filming an assignment for a nature show on a tropical island. During her search, she also uncovers a devious plot surrounding an international climate summit in Auckland, New Zealand.
The description touts the play as “a thrilling and timely production” with “a highly theatrical look into one of the most vital questions of our time: How can we change ourselves and our society in time to solve the enormous environmental challenges that confront us?”
Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, said the dramatic debacle was a waste of public money.
“There is no doubt that the Great Immensity was a great mistake,” Smith told FoxNews.com. “The NSF used taxpayer dollars to underwrite political advocacy dressed up as a musical. And the project clearly failed to achieve any of its objectives.” 
In a statement to FoxNews.com, the NSF said it is too soon to tell if the grant funds were wasted.
“This particular project just concluded in August and the final report has not yet been submitted to NSF,” the statement said. “Final reports are due to NSF within 90 days following expiration of the grant. The final report will contain information about project outcomes, impacts and other data.”
But Smith and others in Congress said the foundation owes an explanation to lawmakers - and taxpayers.
“The NSF has offered no comment, neither a defense of the project nor an acknowledgement that funding was a waste of money,” Smith said. “The NSF must be held accountable for how they choose to spend taxpayer dollars.”
Other reviews of the play were similarly dismal.
"Even the best adventurers can wander off course, and the Civilians do so on a global scale in The Great Immensity,” read a review from Time Out New York. “The inventive troupe’s latest effort is all over the map… It’s not easy preaching green.”
The Civilians, Inc. did not return requests for comment.
FoxNews.com first reported on the House Committee’s dismay over the grant program back in March. Smith had also questioned the validity of other grants from the NSF including; $200,000 towards a three-year study of the Bronze Age, Another $50,000 towards the survey of archived lawsuits from 17th century Peru and $20,000 for a study on the causes of stress in Bolivia.
“All government employees and their agency heads need to remember they are accountable to the American taxpayer who pays their salary and funds their projects,” Smith said at a March hearing.

‘Incredibly serious’: Cover-up claims in spotlight ahead of Benghazi hearing

Allegations that Hillary Clinton allies may have tried to shield the former secretary of State in the wake of the Benghazi terror attack are coming to the forefront ahead of the first public hearing of the special congressional committee probing the attack and its aftermath.
Speaking with Fox News, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., chairman of the select committee, on Tuesday made clear he eventually plans to call former acting CIA director Mike Morell to testify – alleging the former boss “intentionally scrubbed” the so-called talking points that were the basis for the administration’s flawed public narrative about the attack.
Gowdy made clear he would question Morell on why he allegedly removed information damaging to Clinton’s State Department. (Morell now works for Clinton’s former spokesman, Philippe Reines.)
Gowdy also responded to new and separate allegations from a former State Department official that Clinton confidants hid politically damaging files from the supposedly independent board probing the attack. Gowdy called the allegations “incredibly serious,” but stressed that they are only allegations at this stage.
It is unclear how deeply the hearing on Wednesday might delve into the actions of any of these officials. The topic for the hearing, set for 10 a.m. ET, is the implementation of the recommendations from the independent board, known as the Accountability Review Board.
Among those set to testify are Greg Starr, the department's assistant secretary for Diplomatic Security, and Mark Sullivan and Todd Keil, members of the Independent Panel on Best Practices, created to review the accountability board's efforts.Morell is not part of Wednesday’s hearing.
But the hearing, following weeks of private interviews and investigation, marks the first public airing of the committee’s work.
Gowdy, speaking with Fox News on Tuesday, continued to raise questions about the administration’s claims that murky intelligence initially led them to conclude, wrongly, the attack grew out of a demonstration on the ground over an anti-Islam film. Gowdy said there is “overwhelming” evidence of pre-meditation and “overwhelming” evidence of pre-planning in the 2012 attack, in which four Americans were killed.
Morell was involved in editing the so-called talking points on the attack, and Republicans have long questioned his role. But Morell said in a statement to Fox News earlier this year that “neither the Agency, the analysts, nor I cooked the books in any way."
A CIA spokesman also told Fox News earlier this year that the talking points were originally written for Congress’ purposes and were never meant to be “definitive.”
Gowdy also hinted Tuesday that he will call National Security Adviser Susan Rice and any others with direct knowledge of the administration’s initial statements about the attack.
Meanwhile, Gowdy did not comment in detail on the allegations that Clinton confidants hid politically damaging documents from the ARB.
The account from Raymond Maxwell, former head of the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs (NEA),was first published in The Daily Signal. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, confirmed to FoxNews.com on Monday that Maxwell told him and other lawmakers the same story when they privately interviewed him last year about the attacks and their aftermath.
Chaffetz said that Maxwell claimed Clinton's chief of staff and deputy chief of staff were overseeing the document operation, which allegedly took place on a weekend in a basement office of the State Department.
"What they were looking for is anything that made them look bad. That's the way it was described to us," Chaffetz said.
According to Chaffetz' account of his interview with Maxwell, as well as the Daily Signal report, Maxwell said those scrubbing the documents were looking for information that would cast Clinton and senior leaders in a "bad light."
Chaffetz said such documents were said to be removed, so that Congress and the Accountability Review Board would not see them.
State Department spokesman Alec Gerlach denied the allegations in a written statement.
"That allegation is totally without merit. It doesn't remotely reflect the way the ARB actually obtained information," he said in an email. He explained that an "all-points bulletin"-type request went out department-wide instructing "full and prompt cooperation" for anyone contacted by the ARB, and urging anyone with "relevant information" to contact the board.
"The range of sources that the ARB's investigation drew on would have made it impossible for anyone outside of the ARB to control its access to information," he said.
On Tuesday, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., top Democrat on the House oversight committee, said Maxwell was interviewed by their committee and never talked about this.
Maxwell was one of four State Department officials disciplined in the wake of the 2012 Benghazi attack. He was put on administrative leave, and has spoken out before about how he felt he was scapegoated.
Maxwell was eventually cleared, but retired last year.

Top general says half of Iraqi army incapable of working with US against ISIS

The U.S. military's top officer said Wednesday that almost half of Iraq's army is incapable of working  against the Islamic State militant group, while the other half needs to be rebuilt with the help of U.S. advisers and military equipment. 
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey made the remarks to reporters while traveling to Paris to meet with his French counterpart to discuss the situation in Iraq and Syria. The general said that U.S. assessors who had spent the summer observing Iraq's security forces concluded that 26 of the army's 50 brigades would be capable of confronting the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. Dempsey described those brigades as well-led, capable, and endowed with a nationalist instinct, as opposed to a sectarian instinct. 
However, Dempsey said that the other 24 brigades were too heavily populated with Shiites to be part of a credible force against the Sunni ISIS. 
Sectarianism has been a major problem for the Iraqi security forces for years and is in part a reflection of resentments that built up during the decades of rule under Saddam Hussein, who repressed the majority Shiite population, and the unleashing of reprisals against Sunnis after U.S. forces toppled him in April 2003. Sunni resistance led to the relatively brief rise of an extremist group called Al Qaeda in Iraq, led by the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. That group withered but re-emerged as the Islamic State organization, which capitalized on Sunni disenchantment with the Shiite government in Baghdad.
On Tuesday, Dempsey told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he would consider recommending the return of ground forces to Iraq if an international coalition sought by the Obama administration proves ineffective. 
On Wednesday, Dempsey said no amount of U.S. military power would solve the problem of ISIS's takeover of large swaths of northern and western Iraq. The solution, he said, must begin with formation of an Iraqi government that is able to convince the country's Kurdish and Sunni populations that they will be equal partners with the Shiites in Iraq's future.
"I'm telling you, if that doesn't happen then it's time for Plan B," he said. He didn't say what that would entail.
Dempsey also said that ISIS fighters in Iraq have reacted to weeks of U.S. airstrikes by making themselves less visible, and he predicted they would "literally litter the road networks" with improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, in the days ahead. That, in turn, will require more counter-IED training and equipment for the Iraq army, he said.
According to the general, a renewed U.S. training effort might revive the issue of gaining legal immunity from Iraqi prosecution for those U.S. troops who are training the Iraqis. The previous Iraqi government refused to grant immunity for U.S. troops who might have remained as trainers after the U.S. military mission ended in December 2011.
  "There will likely be a discussion with the new Iraqi government, as there was with the last one, about whether we need to have" Iraqi lawmakers approve new U.S. training, he said. He didn't describe the full extent of such training but said it would be limited and he believed Iraq would endorse it.
  "This is about training them in protected locations and then enabling them" with unique U.S. capabilities such as intelligence, aerial surveillance and air power, as well as U.S. advisers, so they can "fight the fight" required to push the Islamic State militants back into Syria, Dempsey said.
A Pentagon plan for training Syrian rebels is another, more controversial element of the plan, which also includes potential airstrikes in Syria; building an international coalition to combat the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq; and efforts to cut off finances and stem the flow of foreign fighters to the Islamic State group.
President Obama is to be briefed on the planned campaign against ISIS Wednesday in Tampa, Florida, when he meets with Gen. Lloyd Austin, head of U.S. Central Command, which manages U.S. military operations and relations across the Middle East.

Iphone Cartoon

Second child abuse allegation against Vikings' Peterson comes to light

Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson was accused of abusing another of his children in an incident more than a year before the All-Pro was indicted on felony charges last week, a Houston television station reported Monday.  
KHOU-TV reported Monday that the incident occurred in June 2013, while the boy, then four years old, was visiting Peterson from out of state. The station reported that the child suffered a head wound that left a scar above his right eye. The scar was still visible weeks later. 
The station also obtained text messages between Peterson and the boy's mother in which Peterson said he had disciplined his son for cursing at a sibling. 
"I felt so bad," one of Peterson's messages says. "But he did it to his self [sic]." Peterson never answers when asked what he hit the child with, but later says "Be still n take ya whooping he would have saved the scare [scar]. He aight [all right]."
A law enforcement official confirmed to KHOU that authorities had known about the allegations, and the station reported that the mother had filed a report with Child Protective Services. TMZ reported that the CPS investigation determined that the child had sustained the head injury accidentally while Peterson was punishing him and no charges were filed. Texas law permits parents to administer "reasonable punishment" to children.
The latest allegation surfaced hours after Peterson was reinstated to the Vikings' active roster after being deactivated from the team's 30-7 loss to the New England Patriots Sunday. The team released a statement to NBC Sports' ProFootballTalk.com late Monday confirming that they had known about the 2013 allegation when the decision to reinstate Peterson was made. 
Peterson's attorney Rusty Hardin responded to the allegation by saying "This is not a new allegation, it's one that is unsubstantiated and was shopped around to authorities in two states over a year ago and nothing came of it. An adult witness adamantly insists Adrian did nothing inappropriate with his son. There is no ongoing or new investigation."
On Monday, the Radisson hotel chain said it was suspending its sponsorship of the Vikings, citing its "long-standing commitment to the protection of children." Radisson's sponsorship includes a press banner that is behind those speaking at Vikings news conferences. On Monday, the banner was behind Vikings general manager Rick Spielman as he discussed the team's decision to reinstate Peterson.
Peterson is scheduled to appear in court in Montgomery County, Texas Oct. 8. He faces charges of reckless or negligent injury to a child. Peterson is accused of using a wooden switch on another of his sons this past May, leaving deep bruises that were visible several days later. 

Businesses reported cutting jobs due to ObamaCare

Businesses are cutting jobs due to ObamaCare, according to surveys by several regional Federal Reserve Banks.
Health economist John Goodman noted that "three Federal Reserve Banks in Philadelphia, New York and Atlanta have surveyed the folks in their area and roughly one fifth of the employers are saying they cut back on employment.
“Roughly one fifth are saying they're moving from full time to part time,” Goodman added. “More than one in ten are saying they're doing more outsourcing - all this because of the new health care reform."
Doug Holtz-Eakin, former Director of the Congressional Budget Office, said “for the smaller employers -- those that have between 20 and 49 employees -- you get a negative impact on jobs, you get a negative impact on wages in those jobs. What this means for small business as a whole is over $22 billion of earnings gone for their workers and 350,000 jobs."
Small business is responsible for the vast majority of job creation in the U.S.
The president repeatedly has delayed the mandate requiring businesses with more than 50 employees to provide insurance. But businesses know it's coming, so many avoid hiring to keep their worker rolls below 50.
Also, the mandate applies only to those who work more than 30 hours a week -- an incentive for employers to reduce hours.
Merrill Matthews of the Institute for Policy Innovation noted, "you have a kind of a natural cliff there, that keeping your employees under that magic number" relieves employers of the mandate to provide insurance.
"The 30-hour cutoff is how the administration determines whether you're full time or part time," Goodman explained. "And so we see this everywhere that people are restricted, they're pushed below 30 hours, they count as part time and when they're part time, the employer doesn't have to provide health insurance."
More than a third of manufacturing firms in the NY Fed survey said they're raising prices to cover the costs of health care, and about half the businesses surveyed by the Dallas Fed said ObamaCare is raising insurance costs for their employees.
"Yes we are going to see increased cost to employers who are trying to provide health care for their employees,but employers don’t just take that lying down," said Tevi Troy of the American Health Policy Institute.
Goodman added, "Even among full-time workers, their take home pay is going to go down because one thing that almost all the employers are doing in response to ObamaCare is raising the deductibles, raising the co-payments and making the employee pay more of the premium."
On Monday, the administration reported that 279,000 people have yet to clear up discrepancies in their income data, which could mean their premiums will go up, as well.
Officials also say 115,000 still have not resolved their immigration status. Their insurance will end if they don't clear things up by Sept. 30.

White House officials warn Syria over ISIS mission

The United States would retaliate against Syrian President Bashar Assad's air defenses if he were to go after American planes launching airstrikes in his country, a senior Obama administration official said Monday.
Officials also told Fox News that the U.S. has a good sense of where the Syrian air defenses, along with their command and control centers, are located. If Assad were to use those capabilities to threaten U.S. forces, it would put his air defenses at risk, a senior official told Fox News.
President Obama has authorized U.S. airstrikes inside Syria as part of a broad campaign to root out the Islamic State militant group, though no strikes have yet been launched in the country.
Asked Monday about the prospect of striking Assad's regime if his forces were to target Americans, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said there will be "rules of engagement that are related to any military orders the president directs."
"It won't surprise you to know that there are contingencies related to self-defense when it comes to these sorts of rules of engagement," he said.
The mere discussion of launching strikes in Syria has highlighted the complexity of taking U.S. military action inside a country locked in an intractable civil war. The conflict has created odd alliances, with both the U.S. and the Assad regime now fighting the Islamic State militant group.
However, U.S. officials have ruled out direct coordination with Assad and insist that a campaign against the Islamic State will not strengthen the Syrian dictator's hold on power. Obama is seeking congressional authorization to train and arm Western-backed rebels in the country in hopes they can both fight the Islamic State and eventually the Assad regime.
Officials told The Associated Press that Obama has been making phone calls in recent days to lawmakers in both parties pressing for them to authorize the train-and-equip mission before lawmakers leave town Friday for an almost two-month recess in preparation for November's midterm elections.
The rise of the Islamic State group has put Obama on the brink of being drawn into a Syrian conflict he has long sought to avoid. Administration officials have long insisted that one of their concerns with taking airstrikes against the Assad regime is the government's formidable air defenses, which could put American forces at risk.
Those air defense capabilities are less prominent in the more desolate stretches of eastern Syria where U.S. warplanes are likely to fly in order to launch airstrikes. However, officials have said that air defense systems can be moved and thus must be monitored as the U.S. mission ramps up.

'OFFER' REJECTED: Iran says it won't help Obama in fight against ISIS

Bailey: "Can you believe the Obama Administration asked one of our Biggest Enemy Iran to help us fight ISIS?  What a bunch of Idiots we elected to run our government!"

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S EFFORT to build broad international support to destroy the Islamic State has become a long-distance dispute between the US and Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said on Twitter he rejected a US offer to help thwart the group.

Hurdles for ObamaCare in 2nd sign-up season

Potential complications await consumers as President Barack Obama's health care law approaches its second open enrollment season, just two months away.
Don't expect a repeat of last year's website meltdown, but the new sign-up period could expose underlying problems with the law itself that are less easily fixed than a computer system.
Getting those who signed up this year enrolled again for 2015 won't be as easy as it might seem. And the law's interaction between insurance and taxes looks like a sure-fire formula for confusion.
For example:
-- For the roughly 8 million people who signed up this year, the administration has set up automatic renewal. But consumers who go that route may regret it. They risk sticker shock by missing out on lower-premium options. And they could get stuck with an outdated and possibly incorrect government subsidy. Automatic renewal should be a last resort, consumer advocates say.
--An additional 5 million people or so will be signing up for the first time on HealthCare.gov and state exchange websites. But the Nov. 15-Feb. 15 open enrollment season will be half as long the 2013-2014 sign-up period, and it overlaps with the holiday season.
-- Of those enrolled this year, the overwhelming majority received tax credits to help pay their premiums. Because those subsidies are tied to income, those 6.7 million consumers will have to file new forms with their 2014 tax returns to prove they got the right amount. Too much subsidy and their tax refunds will be reduced. Too little, and the government owes them.
--Tens of millions of people who remained uninsured this year face tax penalties for the first time, unless they can secure an exemption.
"It's the second open enrollment, but the first renewal and the first tax season where the requirements of the Affordable Care Act are in place," said Judy Solomon, vice president for health policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which advocates for low-income people, and supports the law.
"The fact that it is all going to be occurring within an overlapping and relatively short time frame ... means that there will be many issues," she added.
At Foundation Communities, an Austin, Texas, nonprofit serving low-income people, Elizabeth Colvin says more volunteers will be needed this year to help new customers as well as those re-enrolling. Last time, her organization's health insurance campaign lined up 100 volunteers. She figures she will need a minimum of 50 more.
"We have less than half the time than last year, and it's over the holidays," she said. "We have a concern about trying to get more people through the system without shortchanging education, so that consumers know how to use the insurance they're enrolling in,"
Some congressional supporters of the law are worried about more political fallout, particularly because of the law's convoluted connections with the tax system.
"It seems to me there ought to be some way to better educate folks on what they may face in this process," Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., told Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen at a hearing last week.
Thompson wasn't impressed when Koskinen said the IRS has put information on its website and is using social media to get out the word.
Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., said in an interview that he disagrees with making people pay back part of their premium subsidy. That would happen if someone made more money during the year and failed to report it to HealthCare.gov.
"Why should individuals be punished if they got a bump in salary?" said Pascrell. "To me, this was not the ACA I voted on."
Last year the federal website that serves most states crashed the day it went live, and it took the better part of two months to get things working reasonably well. This year, the Obama administration is promising a better consumer experience, but officials have released few details. It's unclear how well system tests are going.
"This coming year will be one of visible and continued improvement, but not perfection," said Andy Slavitt, a tech executive brought in by the Department of Health and Human Services to oversee the operation.
Insurers say they continue to worry about connections not fully straightened out between their computer systems and the government's.
They also are concerned about retaining customers. One quirk troubling the industry is that policyholders who want to update their subsidies and stay in the same plan will have to type in a 14-character plan identifier when they re-enroll online. That's longer than a phone number or a Social Security number, and customers may not know where to find it.
Administration spokesman Aaron Albright says consumers will have several ways to do that. The number will be mailed to them by their insurer as part of their renewal notice, they can get it from a HealthCare.gov call center or they can select the same plan while browsing other options online.
Alex Stevens, a dishwasher at an Austin pizzeria, got covered this year and said he's planning to re-enroll. A skateboarding enthusiast in his late 20s, Stevens broke a leg skating with friends this summer. It was a bad break and he had major surgery the next day.  But his insurance paid most of the $55,000 bill, and he only owed $750.
"My mom said she was glad that I have insurance," said Stevens.
As the share of Americans remaining uninsured declines, it's clear the health care law has filled a need for millions of people like Stevens, who work but don't have coverage on the job.
That demand was strong enough to overcome a dysfunctional website the first year of the coverage expansion. The second year will show whether the full program is workable for the people it was intended to serve, or if major retooling will be needed.

Hillary Clinton in Iowa stirs 2016 speculation

INDIANOLA, Iowa –  Hillary Clinton returned to Iowa on Sunday for the first time since her 2008 Democratic presidential primary loss in the state, telling the crowd at the 37^th annual Harkin Steak Fry -- “I’m back.”
Clinton, the clear Democratic frontrunner should she make a 2016 White House bid, was greeted with loud cheers at the fundraising event. The event was held in honor of Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who is retiring from Congress this year.
The former secretary of state told the crowd of several hundred that her immediate focus is helping fellow Democrats in the midterm elections but that she also thinks about “that other thing,” hinting at a 2016 run.
"It's true, I've been thinking about it," she said. “People get excited about presidential campaigns, look I get excited about presidential campaigns, too.”
Missing in her speech were remarks on President Obama's recent efforts to destroy the Islamic State militant group and on other pressing foreign policy issues.
However, she praised Obama for his attempts to bring the country out of the recession, saying the country is on its way to recovery.
She was joined at the event by husband and former President Bill Clinton, who also spoke.  Clinton urged guests to vote for Democrats on Nov. 4 to "pull this country together, to push this country forward.”
The last time Hillary Clinton was in Iowa she finished third in the state's first-in-the-nation caucus in 2008, behind now-President Obama and John Edwards.    
On Sunday, Clinton delivered a keynote speech that focused on such issues as equal pay for women and increasing the minimum wage. She also thanked Harkin for all of his hard work and talked about the changes he had made during his time in the Senate, particularly his efforts to help people with disabilities.  
Harkin was critical of Clinton in a recent ABC News interview, saying he still had questions about her foreign and economic policies.
However, on Sunday, Harkin stood side by side with the Clintons, then introduced Hillary by talking about her accomplishments in the Senate and as secretary of state.  
Though Clinton has not officially made a decision about a run for the White House, many are already building a network for her run. The Super PAC Ready for Hillary has been drumming up support across Iowa and other key voting states.
Clinton finished her speech by telling the crowd she would not “let another seven years go by.”
“It’s time to write a new chapters in the American dream,” she said.

White House claims Arab nations offer to join airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq, Syria

White House officials have claimed that Arab nations have offered to join the U.S. in airstrikes against the Islamic State militant group in Iraq and Syria, though no countries were specifically named. 
The New York Times reported that Secretary of State John Kerry had declined to say which states had offered to contribute air power, with White House officials saying that any announcement of specifics could wait until later this week. Kerry is scheduled to testify before congressional committees Wednesday and Thursday. 
Led by Kerry, U.S. diplomatic officials have raced to secure commitments from allies in Europe and the Middle East, as well as nations like Australia, since President Obama authorized expanded action against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, in a televised address last Wednesday. On Monday, Kerry attended international talks in Paris seeking to finalize a strategy against ISIS, which rocketed to prominence over the summer by seizing broad swathes of territory in northern and western Iraq. 
The Times reported late Sunday that any effort on the ground against ISIS would be dependent upon regular Iraqi troops, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in that country's north, and moderate Syrian rebels who have battled the forces of that country's President, Bashar al-Assad, in a bloody civil war since 2011. The paper said that the U.S. strategy calls for the Iraqi army to be guided by 12-man teams of advisers, with arms and other assistance going to the Peshmerga. The Obama administration has called on Congress to approve a $500 million arms package for the Syrian opposition, meant to serve as a prelude for the expansion of the U.S. effort against ISIS. 
According to the Times, State Department officials say that Arab nations could participate in non-lethal ways against an air campaign against ISIS, possibly by making reconnaissance flights or by flying arms to Iraqi or Kurdish forces. 
Reuters reported Monday that France has offered to take part in airstrikes against Iraq, and the Associated Press reported, citing a French official, that jets from that country were prepared to carry out reconnaissance flights beginning Monday. 
"The terrorist threat is global and the response must be global," French President Francois Hollande said in opening Monday's conference. "There is no time to lose." French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius acknowledged that a number of the countries at the table Monday had "very probably" financed ISIS's advances.
Muslim-majority countries are considered vital to any operation to prevent the militants from gaining more territory in Iraq and Syria. Western officials have made clear they consider Assad to be part of the problem, and U.S. officials opposed France's attempt to invite Iran.
In an exclusive interview on Sunday with The Associated Press in Paris, Iraq's President Fouad Massoum — a Kurd, whose role in the government is largely ceremonial — expressed regret that Iran was not attending the conference.
Massoum noted "sensitivities between some countries and Iran."
He also seemed not to welcome the possible participation Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in air strikes in Iraqi territory.
"It is not necessary that they participate in air strikes; what is important is that they participate in the decisions of this conference," he said, underscoring Baghdad's closeness to Iran and how tensions among the regional powers could complicate the process of forming a Sunni alliance.
Speaking in his first interview since becoming Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi told state-run al-Iraqiyya in comments aired Sunday that he had given approvals to France to use Iraqi airspace and said all such authorizations would have to come from Baghdad.
Earlier, Fabius said quick action was vital, insisting there was no comparison with the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, which France vocally opposed.
"It's the same geographic area but that's the only similarity," Fabius told France Info radio on Monday. "When you are a political leader you have to measure the cost of inaction."
U.S. Central Command has carried out more than 150 airstrikes against ISIS targets in Iraq since August 8. The militant group has responded by beheading three Western hostages, most recently British aid worker David Haines, whose killing was shown in a graphic video released Saturday.

Polls Cartoon

White House reportedly assures Hill lawmakers about executive action this year on immigration reform

The White House this week assured anxious Hispanic lawmakers on Capitol Hill that President Obama will use executive action before the holiday season closes to reform U.S. immigration law, after breaking his pledge to make changes by the end of summer.
The message was delivered in a meeting Thursday with White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and other administration officials, including domestic policy adviser Cecilia Munoz, a key player for Obama on the issue, according to Politico.
The president faced sharp criticism, including accusations of caving to election-year politics, from Hispanic lawmakers, immigration-reform advocates and others in his Democratic base when the White House revealed last weekend that he would delay action until after the Nov. 4 elections.
In 2012, Obama used executive action to delay deportation for many young immigrants brought to the United States illegally by their parents. He is expected to widen that effort to include millions more.
Roughly 11 million people are now living in the U.S. illegally.
This week’s meeting was apparently intended to restore the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’s faith in the White House, considering in part that a reform plan appears stuck in the GOP-led House.
Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., said he needs “constant reassurance” that the president will soon act.
“I don’t want to go down this path come November and then for some other reason, find that the immigrant community and the Latino community get thrown in the heap again,” he told Politico.
Multiple people familiar with the meeting told Politico that McDonough did not go into specifics about the executive action but made clear Obama will go as far as he can under existing law.
McDonough also declined to get into specifics.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., said the caucus will meet early next week to determine a formal response to the White House over delaying deportation relief.

Landrieu releases report on questionable flights, new safeguards, after repaying $34G

Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu, battling to keep her Senate seat, released a detail report Saturday on her air travel since 2002, after repaying the Treasury earlier this week nearly $34,000 in questionable travel expenses.
The three-term senator on Friday apologized for the mistakes that she blamed on “sloppy bookkeeping" and said that on Sept. 1 she put new procedures in place.
“I take full responsibility,” Landrieu said. “They should have never happened, and I apologize for this. A new system has been established that has been successfully used by a number of Senate offices to provide a safeguard from this happening in the future.”
The 11-page report shows 104 flights. It also states the campaign spent $202,330 for separate flights for campaign travel over the period in question, that the $33,727 repaid is the correct prorated amount and that lawyers will now determine the percentages that Landrieu’s campaign and Senate office should pay.
Louisiana Republican Party Director Jason Dore filed a complaint Sept. 2 with the Senate Ethics Committee, accusing Landrieu of billing taxpayers for campaign travel.
Republicans need to win a net total of six seats in November to take control of the Senate and have made Landrieu a top target since the start of the election cycle.
Over the past few weeks, state Republicans have also argued Landrieu shouldn’t be eligible for reelection because her true residence is in Washington, not her parents’ home in Louisiana.
“No matter how Senator Landrieu spins it, she billed taxpayers for dozens and dozens of private jet flights since the turn of this century," said the campaign for Republican Bill Cassidy, Landrieu’s closest challenger in the deadlocked race. “Even more problematic is the fact that she did not release any flight records from 1997-2002.”
Landrieu also released a letter on Saturday from her Washington, D.C.-law firm, Perkins Coie, to the Ethics committee in which the firm says it conducted the review and arrived at the repayment amount, on behalf of the senator and Friends of Mary Landrieu Inc.

ISIS video claims to show beheading of British hostage David Haines

Islamic State militants have released a video claiming to show the beheading of British aid worker David Haines, in what British Prime Minister David Cameron has described as "an act of pure evil."
The 44-year-old Haines was abducted in Syria in 2013 while working for an international aid agency. The British government had managed to keep his kidnapping secret out of concern for his safety until the most recent video identified him as a captive.
Prime Minister David Cameron described the apparent murder as "an act of pure evil" in a tweet from his official account. 
Sky News reports that Cameron is returning to Downing Street to chair a COBRA emergency response meeting.
The UK Foreign Office had said earlier in a statement that they were "working urgently to verify" the video.
"If true, this is another disgusting murder," the Foreign Office said in the statement.
"We are offering the family every support possible. They ask to be left alone at this time."
Islamic State militants have beheaded two American journalists, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, as well as Kurdish and Lebanese fighters, and posted video evidence online. At the end of the last video showing the beheading of  American journalist  Steven Sotloff, the Islamic State group threatened to kill Haines next and briefly showed him on camera.
In the video posted Sunday, the group threatened to kill another Briton.  Both British men were dressed in orange jumpsuits against an arid Syrian landscape, similar to that seen in the Foley and Sotloff videos.
The SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S. terrorism watchdog, reported the video, which was also posted online by users associated with the Islamic State group.
The video was entitled "A Message to the Allies of America." Haines' purported killer, who appeared to be the same man speaking with a British accent as in the previous videos, tells the British government that its alliance with the U.S. will only "accelerate your destruction" and will drag the British people into "another bloody and unwinnable war".
Late Friday, the family of Haines issued a public plea urging his captors to contact them.

Obama Cartoon

Vermont bans brownies, turns kids on to kale, gluten-free paleo lemon bars

It’s a best-seller at bake sales, a king of American confections, even a mandatory munchie of marijuana users. But the iconic chocolate brownie, that perfect blend of cake and cookie, is banned in Vermont schools.
In its place are new hoped-for kid favorites like fruit shish kebab, kale and even gluten-free paleo lemon bars.
The switch stems from nutrition mandates required under the new Smart-Snacks-in-Schools program in effect for public schools.
“The new school lunch pattern has low-fat, leaner proteins, greater variety and larger portions of fruits and vegetables; the grains have to be 100 percent whole-grain rich,” Laurie Colgan, child nutrition program director at the Agency of Education, told Vermont Watchdog.
The new rules, which evolved out of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, spell death to brownies, cupcakes, cookies and other bake sale goodies used to raise money for extracurriculars at money-strapped schools.

Military source: ISIS hostages dispersed after revelation of Foley rescue mission

After the administration released details of the July mission to rescue journalist James Foley and others in Syria, intelligence suggests ISIS dispersed the remaining hostages to multiple locations, making them harder to locate, a military source told Fox News.
In addition, the source added guard forces around the hostages doubled while widely publicized reporting about the scope of new aerial surveillance in the region caused ISIS to change its pattern of behavior on the ground.
"Any time you (disclose) very highly sensitive tactical information, you're giving away your road map if you will, your strategy,"  said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, who as chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee receives regular intelligence briefings. "It's very highly damaging to the hostages."
The details about the rescue mission were released by the Defense Department and National Security Council one day after a video was posted online Aug. 19 of Foley’s execution.
The administration said its hand was forced because unnamed reporters had learned about the raid to rescue Foley and other hostages, believed to include Steven Sotloff, who was also later executed by ISIS.
Asked about the ramifications of providing the information in such a public way, Defense Department spokesman John Kirby said Friday it was still the right call.
"We regret it at the time we had to talk about this," Kirby said. "There was absolutely no intention of ever having to talk about that rescue attempt but because of leaks to certain reporters, it forced our hand to try and provide some context to that. So it's not about do I now regret it. We regret it at the time. We still regret that we had to talk about it."
The military source said the disclosures, which included specific details about the mission itself -- including personnel and hardware -- increased the risk for special operations forces in the future. 
Two separate sources also told Fox the release of information was damaging because the Foley case was considered "an ongoing mission" after the raid did not locate him and the others near the ISIS stronghold of Raqaa, Syria.
Some Republicans, including McCaul, believe the administration shoulders some of the blame.
"It's all because the administration leaked this information that is highly sensitive,” he said. “And quite frankly is in violation of the law."
Asked about ISIS' response to the disclosures, a National Security Council spokeswoman said she could not discuss intelligence matters, adding the administration had nothing to do with the original leaks to reporters, describing those claims as "baseless."

Adrian Peterson indicted: Arrest warrant issued for Minnesota Vikings running back

MINNEAPOLIS –  Authorities in Texas issued an arrest warrant Friday for star Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson after he was indicted on a charge of child abuse for using a branch to spank his son. He was swiftly benched by his team for this weekend's game against New England.
Peterson's attorney, Rusty Hardin, said that the charge in Montgomery County, near Houston, accuses Peterson of using a switch to spank one of his sons. Hardin said Peterson didn't mean to hurt the boy, whose injuries and age were not disclosed.
"Adrian is a loving father who used his judgment as a parent to discipline his son. He used the same kind of discipline with his child that he experienced as a child growing up in East Texas," Hardin said.
"Adrian has never hidden from what happened. He has cooperated fully with authorities and voluntarily testified before the grand jury for several hours," he said. "Adrian will address the charges with the same respect and responsiveness he has brought to this inquiry from its beginning. It is important to remember that Adrian never intended to harm his son and deeply regrets the unintentional injury."
The Vikings, about an hour after issuing a statement acknowledging the case, said Peterson would be on the inactive list Sunday for their home opener against New England. Houston police and authorities in Montgomery and Harris counties declined comment.
Peterson will have to surrender to authorities, but there is no timeline for when he will appear in Texas, Hardin said.
"We are just obligated to try to get it done as soon as possible, which we intend to honor," he said.
Peterson is in his eighth season, all of them with the Vikings. Widely considered the best running back in the league, he has rushed for 10,190 yards and 86 touchdowns in his career.
The allegations against one of the NFL's biggest stars came during a week in which the NFL has been under heavy criticism and scrutiny for the way it handled a domestic violence case involving former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice and his then-fiancee. Commissioner Roger Goodell initially suspended Rice for two games, but he was suspended indefinitely this week after a longer version of security video surfaced showing Rice punching her in the face.
Critics are also closely watching how the league proceeds in the cases of Carolina Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy and Ray McDonald of the San Francisco 49ers, both still playing with domestic abuse cases pending. Hardy was convicted July 15 of assaulting a woman and communicating threats, but is appealing. San Jose police are still investigating an Aug. 31 incident involving McDonald.
The NFL didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Peterson's situation.
Peterson did not practice on Thursday because of what coach Mike Zimmer called a "veteran day," allowing experienced players to rest, but Peterson was at the team facility that day and spoke to reporters about the upcoming game against the Patriots.
He returned to practice on Friday and was in the locker room following the workout with the rest of his teammates for lunch. Shortly thereafter, Peterson posted a message on his Twitter account that said in part: "It's your season! Weapons may form but won't prosper! God has you covered don't stress or worry!"
A man who identified himself as Peterson's uncle, Chris Peterson, answered the door at the running back's home in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, and said Peterson wasn't there and that the family had no comment.
Peterson grew up in little Palestine, Texas. When he was 7, his 8-year-old brother Brian was riding his bicycle when he was killed by a drunk driver. Years later, his half-brother, Chris Paris, was shot and killed the night before Peterson worked out for scouts and coaches at the NFL combine.
His mother, Bonita Jackson, was a former Olympic sprinting hopeful and his father, Nelson Peterson, spent eight years behind bars for laundering drug money yet still managed to be a positive influence on his son's life.
"I told him to always introduce himself, look a man in the eye, give him a firm handshake and say, 'I'm Adrian Peterson,'" Nelson said at the Pro Bowl in 2009. "Respect others. That will take you a long way in life."
Peterson rushed for 2,960 yards and 32 touchdowns during his senior season at Palestine High School, then racked up an NCAA freshman record 1,925 yards in his freshman season at Oklahoma in 2004. He hasn't looked back, even with some bumps in the road.
Last season, not long after finding out that he had a 2-year-old son living in South Dakota, Peterson rushed to the hospital after authorities said the boy was brutally beaten by his mother's boyfriend. The boy died, and a 28-year-old man is scheduled to go on trial next month on second-degree murder charges in the case.
Hardin, the defense attorney, is a familiar name in sports circles. He successfully defended Roger Clemens in his recent perjury trial over the alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs and two years ago represented Los Angeles Lakers forward Jordan Hill, who was sentenced to one year of probation after pleading no contest to assaulting his former girlfriend.
He has worked with Peterson before, too: In 2012, he said Peterson was the victim after the player was charged with misdemeanor resisting arrest following an incident at a Houston nightclub.

ISIS Scared Cartoon