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Relatives gather to mourn Bosnian man murdered in St. Louis hammer attack

 

As relatives of Zemir Begic prepare for his funeral Saturday, neither they nor police detectives appear to have any idea what caused a pack of teens to beat him to death with hammers on a St. Louis street.
Begic, who emigrated from war-torn Bosnia almost two decades ago in search of a better life, was bludgeoned to death Sunday, allegedly by a group of hammer-wielding teenagers, one of whom has been charged as an adult. 
Begic was driving with his fiancee, Arijana Mujkanovic, and a male passenger at about 1:15 a.m. Sunday in St. Louis when five teenagers began pounding his vehicle with a hammer, according to police. When Begic confronted them, he was struck in the mouth, face, head and body with hammers and died at a nearby hospital.
Robert Joseph Mitchell, 17, has been charged with first-degree murder, while two other suspects, ages 15 and 16, remain in police custody. A fourth suspect is still at large.
On Saturday, relatives will bury him in Waterloo, Iowa, where Begic, the oldest of four siblings, used to live with his father and stepmother.
"When he walked into the room, somehow everything shined," Begic's cousin, Alma Begic, told FoxNews.com from her home in Waterloo. "He loved music and soccer."
"I don’t think there's a person who can say anything bad about him," she said. "He was so loved." 
According to a criminal complaint released Tuesday, Begic and his fiancee were walking to their car when they heard a group, including at least one of the defendants, yelling. As Begic drove away, one of the teenagers, "jumped on the back of his car and began hitting it," the complaint said. Unsure of what was happening, Begic stepped out of his vehicle and was approached by the individuals, one of whom "taunted" him and "challenged him to a fight," according to the document. Begic was then allegedly assaulted by four men and struck with a hammer and fell to the ground. Three others continue to beat him before the group fled on foot, police said.
No motive has been identified in the Begic murder, according to investigators. But members of the close-knit Bosnian community are questioning whether Begic's death and other crimes committed within the past year in the neighborhood are racially charged -- and they're calling on a larger police presence on St. Louis's south side. Begic was white, while Mitchell and one of the two juveniles are black, and the other is Hispanic.
Seldin Dzananovic, a 24-year-old Bosnian, claims he was attacked by a group of teenagers with hammers in the same neighborhood about an hour before Begic's murder. Dzananovic said he sustained only minor cuts and bruises.
A resident of the Bevo neighborhood who spoke to FoxNews.com on condition of anonymity due to safety reasons claims he and his family experienced a similar attack and said there is a disturbing pattern of violence against white Bosnian residents in the area.
"Investigators do not believe the attack on Mr. Begic had any connection to him being of Bosnian descent," St. Louis Police spokeswoman Schron Jackson said in a statement to FoxNews.com. In subsequent emails, Jackson made clear: "Investigators don't believe the incident is in any way related to Ferguson" and "The incident is not being investigated as a hate crime."
The St. Louis Police Department is now working in conjunction with the city prosecutor to determine a motive. Authorities told FoxNews.com there is no evidence at this time suggesting the murder was racially motivated.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Begic's fiancee, Arijana Mujkanovic, suggested the attack was targeted and involved her mother's former boyfriend. Mujkanovic, however, told FoxNews.com that she had "no solid evidence" to support what she described as a "hunch."
"I didn't say I was 100 percent certain that it was a setup," Mujkanovic said of her comments to the Daily Mail.
Mujkanovic told FoxNews.com that Zemir and her mother's ex-boyfriend had a physical altercation almost three months ago when Zemir stepped in to defend his fiancee's mother.
"He [the former boyfriend] stopped his car and got out and he was going to attack my mother and Zemir defended her, Mujkanovic claims. 
"He was going around saying how Zemir was going to be gone and how I was going to be left without him," she said of the ex-boyfriend. She claims her family reported the threats to police and they "really didn’t do anything."
Mujkanovic, however, acknowledged she had no proof the murder was targeted and said she "had no idea" whether the teens knew her mother's ex-boyfriend, who is Bosnian. 
"All we want is justice for Zemir," said his younger brother, Rasim, a 20-year-old pre-med student at the University of South Dakota.
Rasim said he is not ruling out the possibility the murder was racially motivated, saying he wants police "to investigate everything." 
Begic was a teenager when he and his family fled Bosnia in the aftermath of a bloody civil war in 1996. In America, he found work, friends and love before meeting a cruel fate.
"He was my role model," Rasim said. "He would have given you the clothes off his back."
Alma Begic, who declined to speculate on a motive, described her cousin as race-blind. She said Begic loved his sister's children who are African-American on their father's side.
"He was so accepting in a culture where there's a lot of pressure to marry within your own ethnicity and religion," she said of Begic. "He never judged anybody."

US, South African hostages 'murdered' during failed rescue attempt in Yemen

American hostage Luke Somers died during a joint rescue mission by the U.S. and Yemen Saturday morning.
Somers was still alive, but badly injured when U.S. Special Forces reached him in the rescue mission, a Yemeni national security official told Fox News. The official also said it was Al Qaeda militants who shot Somers
Somers would die later as he was being transported away for medical treatment.
Ten militants were killed between the rescue attempt and the drone strike prior to the mission, the Yemeni official confirmed.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in a statement that Somers and a non-U.S. hostage were "murdered by the AQAP during the course of the operation."
South African hostage Pierre Korkie was the other hostage killed in the operation, the Gift of the Givers, a South African aid group confirmed.
President Obama released a statement early Saturday morning condemning the "barbaric murder" of Somers by the Al Qaeda terrorists.
The United States will spare no effort to use all of its military, intelligence, and diplomatic capabilities to bring Americans home safely, wherever they are located," Obama said. "And terrorists who seek to harm our citizens will feel the long arm of American justice."
Obama also said he authorized the mission because the U.S. had information that Somers' life was in imminent danger.
A Yemen top security official said Somers was set to die Saturday at the hands of Al Qaeda militants.
Obama, Hagel and Secretary of State John Kerry all expressed their condolences to Somers' family.
The sister of Luke Somers first learned of her brother's death from FBI agents. Lucy Somers told the Associated Press her family asks for peace.
Yemen's local Al Qaeda branch, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, posted a video Thursday that showed Somers, threatening to kill him in three days if the United States didn't meet the group's demands, which weren't specified.
The news of the failed rescue comes after a U.S. drone strike in Yemen that numerous alleged Al Qaeda militants early Saturday, a security official said. The drone struck at dawn in Yemen's southern Shabwa province, hitting a suspected militant hideout, the official said.
At least six suspected militants were killed in an airstrike in the same province last month. Later Saturday, tribal leaders said they saw helicopters flying over an area called Wadi Abdan in Shabwa province.
In a video Saturday, Lucy Somers and her father pleaded for the group to let Luke Somers live.
In a statement Thursday, Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby acknowledged for the first time that a mysterious U.S. raid last month had sought to rescue Somers but that he turned out not to be at the site.
The U.S. considers Yemen's Al Qaeda branch to be the world's most dangerous arm of the group as it has been linked to several failed attacks on the U.S. homeland.
Somers was kidnapped in 2013 leaving a supermarket in Yemen. He was working as a freelance photographer for the Yemen Times at the time.

Landrieu battles stiff headwinds ahead of weekend's Senate runoff

NEW ORLEANS –  If Mary Landrieu loses the runoff election for the U.S. Senate in Louisiana this weekend, it won’t be for lack of trying.
The three-term Democratic senator has been barnstorming the state this week, driving some 1,200 miles in a rented SUV, stopping in little towns and bigger cities, making one last appeal to voters to give her a fourth trip to Washington.
“This election Saturday is going to be close,” she told an audience of mostly black voters in Grambling. “But we have had victory before and we are claiming victory again.”
Indeed, Landrieu has had some tough races. In her first Senate campaign, in 1996, she won the runoff by one-third of 1 percent. But this year, she faces headwinds quite different than the ones the rookie candidate did 18 years ago.
First is the changing political direction of Louisiana. Since 1996, the state has been steadily tilting right. White voters have been abandoning the Democratic Party here in ways that may make it impossible for a Democrat to be elected to federal office in all but the most heavily minority congressional districts.
Second is President Obama. He is deeply unpopular here – in particular – because of the oil and gas drilling moratorium he declared in the wake of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.
While Landrieu plays down the president’s effect on her campaign, it’s like she is towing a trailer with its brakes fully locked behind that rented SUV.
But when asked who would be to blame should she lose on Saturday to Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy, Landrieu is quick to say responsibility rests on her shoulders.
“I would imagine that people just didn’t think that I didn’t work hard enough or deliver more for the state and they decided to elect someone that they thought would be better,” Landrieu told Fox News.
In an effort to turn her fortunes around, Landrieu has thrown a couple of namesake long bombs deep downfield. The first was right after the November election, when she used all of her influence to ram a vote on the Keystone XL pipeline through the Senate. But her own team swatted the Hail Mary down, coming up a single vote shy of the 60 needed to pass.
Late last week, Landrieu tried another throw into the end zone, spinning up a controversy about Cassidy’s part-time job teaching at Louisiana State University’s medical school. Landrieu claims Cassidy was paid for work he didn’t do – including billing LSU during days he was in Washington, D.C. She went so far this week as to suggest Cassidy had committed “payroll fraud” and would face subpoenas over the matter. She also charged that Cassidy violated ethics rules by earning a salary outside his duties as a member of Congress. The Louisiana Democratic Party even found a willing medical practitioner to put their name on an official complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics. Another Democratic group in Washington filed a second complaint.
While Landrieu does have a smattering of LSU time sheets, as well as emails discussing Cassidy’s reduction from full-time professor to part-time, what she lacks is any smoking gun to back up her allegations. 
When asked about that absence of hard evidence, she deflected. “Well, my opponent’s the one who has to prove that he worked, and there’s no evidence at all that he worked to pick up $50,000 a year,” Landrieu told Fox News. 
It’s unclear which voting bloc Landrieu believes the charges will resonate with. But she has stridently pushed it for the past week.
“I wish I had known about this a month or two ago, because I really would have worn him out over it,” she told Fox News.
Cassidy’s only public comments on the charges came during last Monday’s sole runoff debate. “Absolutely false” is how he described them. His supervisor at LSU backs him up on that assertion. The congressman also sought and received permission from the House Ethics Committee to continue teaching at LSU.
But Cassidy has ducked any further inquiries from the press about it. After Monday’s debate, he scooted out a side door while Landrieu fielded questions from the media. On Wednesday, Cassidy abandoned the campaign trail and showed up in Washington to participate in several House votes. When approached by Fox News in the halls of Congress, Cassidy refused to talk about the LSU controversy, saying to do so would only serve to perpetuate the story and benefit Landrieu.
Even if Cassidy did play fast and loose with time sheets and ethics rules, it likely comes too late to make any difference. Many voters made up their minds long ago.
Landrieu’s best – perhaps only -- hope for victory is a huge black voter turnout. But indications from early voting are that she may not get it. Democratic early votes for the runoff were down 18 percent from the Nov. 4 election -- 18,000 fewer blacks voted early. At the same time, Republican votes were up 4 percent. The potential net change for Cassidy is 26,000 votes. That’s more than Landrieu’s entire margin of victory on Nov. 4.
At campaign stops, Landrieu tries to mobilize black voters, deriding Cassidy as “disrespectful” to the president, suggesting that if Cassidy is elected, Republicans will try to impeach Obama.
Voters nod in acknowledgement and engage in a lively call-and-response with the senator when she makes such charges. Whether that enthusiasm will translate to the polls on runoff day, though, is an open question.
This election is significant in that it may extend the Republican majority in the Senate to nine seats.
But it is also important from the perspective of political history. Should Landrieu lose, the last vestiges of the old Democratic South will be swept away. She is the last remaining Democratic statewide officeholder across the entire region. Should Cassidy defeat her, Republicans will hold every Senate seat, governorship and legislature from Texas to the Carolinas.
Polls suggest that will be the likely outcome of Saturday’s election. In the RealClearPolitics average, Cassidy is up a whopping 18 points.
Landrieu is desperately fighting for a last-minute big score, but at the moment, Cassidy has the ball and is merely trying to run out the clock.

Whistleblower alleges agency cover-up over $300M ‘boondoggle’ to protect Obama nominee

Senior officials at the Social Security Administration (SSA) tried to hide a damning report on a $300 million computer system that lawmakers have called a “boondoggle” in order to protect President Obama’s nominee to lead the agency, a whistleblower claimed in an interview with FoxNews.com.  
Whistleblower Michael Keegan told FoxNews.com that McKinsey & Company, a consulting firm, issued a draft report in December 2013 saying the agency had spent $288 million over six years for a new computer system processing disability claims that has yet to launch.
But Keegan said he was present at a meeting of senior officials in May of this year where they decided to sit on the report as long as Carolyn Colvin’s nomination for commissioner was pending.
“They hid the report,” he told FoxNews.com.
Keegan said it was discussed at that May meeting that Colvin, the acting commissioner, had been briefed on the findings.
He added: “There is absolutely no way that [Colvin] could be in the dark” on the effort to hide it.
Keegan spoke with FoxNews.com after Republican senators threatened earlier this week to block Colvin’s nomination until a probe of the computer project is done. Keegan, who worked as associate commissioner for facilities and left the agency earlier this year, explained that he brought his concerns to Congress over the summer.  
The McKinsey report itself, a final version of which was released in June, said the project, which remains in the testing phase and predated Colvin’s time at the helm, was beset by delays -- and agency leaders had decided to “reset.”
The study found that while the plan is “conceptually sound,” execution “has fallen short.” For the past five years, the report said, the release date “consistently” was projected 24-32 months out.
The report, together with Keegan’s allegations and the concerns of lawmakers, point to trouble ahead for Colvin’s nomination. Obama nominated Colvin, who has served as acting head since early 2013, in June of this year to be commissioner.
Several top-ranking lawmakers have been beating the drum about the $300 million computer system since the summer, including about the possibility of a cover-up.
House oversight committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and other lawmakers wrote in July that whistleblowers had told them “senior agency staff placed a very close hold” on the report to make sure details were kept “secret” until after Colvin’s confirmation. They called these claims “deeply disturbing.”
Further, they wrote that the agency effectively “wasted” $300 million on the “IT boondoggle.”
Around the same time, Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Texas, who leads the House Social Security subcommittee, wrote to Colvin questioning whether the agency had “something to hide.” He called the “wasted” taxpayer dollars a “disgrace.”
Lawmakers’ concerns culminated earlier this week when all Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee wrote to Colvin complaining about the “disturbing” allegations over “mismanagement and waste.”
They cited an “interim” report by the agency’s inspector general “that raised, but did not resolve” issues with officials’ conduct, and an ongoing “criminal investigation.”
They wrote: “Moreover, we have received information from whistleblowers that the ongoing investigation has centered around the activities of certain members of your immediate office, including several high-level agency officials. We cannot in good faith allow a nomination for any position that requires the advice and consent of the Senate to proceed to a vote as long as the specter of a potential criminal investigation surrounds the nominee and/or those in their inner circle.”
The lawmakers urged Colvin to address her role regarding this inquiry before they can vote on the nomination before the full Senate.
A Social Security spokeswoman told the Associated Press, in response to the senators’ letter, that Colvin “is not personally the subject of any criminal investigation."
Spokeswoman LaVenia LaVelle said agency officials previously briefed lawmakers on this matter and "the acting commissioner will respond timely and fully to the members' requests, and continue to cooperate with Congress and any related investigation."
Colvin also told the AP that she's "always met the highest ethical standards." 
Asked Friday about Keegan’s specific claims, LaVelle told FoxNews.com the agency “cannot comment on an open investigation.”
She referred FoxNews.com to the inspector general’s office, which also could not comment and said the case is now being handled by its counterpart in the Small Business Administration. An aide in that office would not discuss the probe, but confirmed they were reviewing an "allegation of wrongdoing involving SSA personnel." 
The finance committee advanced Colvin’s nomination earlier this year, but it still hasn’t passed the full Senate. The problems could mean her nomination is pushed off to the new Congress next year, when Republicans have full control.
Morris Fischer, an attorney representing Keegan, called the computer project a “debacle.”
Keegan left the agency over the summer, after he says he was retaliated against for earlier complaints.
He said he first brought his concerns to Congress after watching Colvin claim during a House subcommittee hearing in February that the agency’s IT projects were on track and under budget.
“I knew that that was totally false,” Keegan said.

Denver student protesters cheered when car struck officer, union official says

Real Classy IDIOTS!

Denver high School students in Colorado reacted in disrespectful ways when four bicycle officers were struck by an automobile at the end of Wednesday’s protests, the Denver Police Protective Association said.
Officer John Adsit underwent six hours of surgery Thursday for his injuries sustained in the accident. He is in critical, but stable condition.
The Denver Post reports students chanted, “Hit him again,” after the officer was struck.
The students were mainly marching in support of people protesting the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was killed by officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Mo. Wilson was not indicted on any charges by a Ferguson grand jury last week.
Students were heard chanting and cheering after the officers were hit. Teachers looked on and did not intervene while the students chanted, Fox31 Denver reports.
“The Denver Police Protective Association has learned that immediately after the horrible accident yesterday injuring four Denver Police Officers, several parties in the protesting group cheered and chanted “hit him again.” These actions are not only reprehensible but quite possibly the most disturbing thing this Association has ever heard,” a statement released by the police officers’ union Thursday night said.
“This group of high school students not only broke DPS rules by leaving school without authorization, but broke laws of the City and County of Denver and State of Colorado regarding traffic regulations and the right to assemble with a permit. The DPPA recognizes citizens’ rights to assemble lawfully. This, however, was not a lawful assembly, which ultimately cost four Denver Police Officers a trip to the hospital. One of which is in critical condition,” the statement continued.
“We have no knowledge of the alleged comments,” the Denver Public Schools said in a statement. “We would deplore any such comments and will look into the allegation, and would welcome any evidence that would assist us in an investigation. All afternoon yesterday and all day today, students at East expressed their deep concern for Officer Adsit and his family and their appreciation for the police assistance in ensuring student safety during the march.”
In a statement of its own, the Denver Police said it could not confirm the claims made by the union that students cheered when the officers were struck.
Denver Public Schools said they have no plan to stop the protests after the second day of massive student walk outs from high schools in the area.
Students told Fox31 Denver certain teachers tried to discourage students from walking out.

No evidence linking lane closures to Christie, report says

No evidence was found by New Jersey lawmakers that show New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was involved in a plot to close lanes near the George Washington Bridge last year.
Investigators found no conclusive evidence of whether or not Christie was aware of the closures. However, the investigation did find that two former aides of Christie acted with little regard for public safety when they closed lanes near the bridge, a 136-page interim report reveals.
A report commissioned by Christie previously cleared him of any wrongdoing and a lawyer for the governor said in a statement Thursday that the report corroborates that investigation.
"The Committee has finally acknowledged what we reported nine months ago — namely, that there is not a shred of evidence Governor Christie knew anything about the GWB lane realignment beforehand or that any current member of his staff was involved in that decision," Christie attorney Randy Mastro said in a statement.
The report will be supplemented if needed because several critical witnesses did not testify and some important questions remain unanswered.
Christie aides Bridget Anne Kelly and David Wildstein acted with “perceived impunity” by closing the lanes, the report says. It also said the Christie administration did not act quick enough to resolve the closures.
Documents released earlier this year showed that Wildstein, then an official at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Kelly, then an aide to Christie, orchestrated the shutdown, apparently as retribution toward Fort Lee's Democratic mayor. In one email, Kelly told Wildstein, "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."
Wildstein later contended that Christie knew about the lane closures as they happened. Christie, a possible 2016 Republican presidential contender, denies that he had any role in or knowledge of a plot to shut down the lanes.
An investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office is continuing. No one has been charged.
The legislative panel is scheduled to meet on Monday to formally release the report to the public.

'Game we can’t win': Coal states brace for growing number of plant closures over EPA rules

WASHINGTON –  The energy industry and coal-producing states are projecting a wave of power plant closures in the final two years of the Obama administration as Environmental Protection Agency regulations take hold. 
The goal of the agency's campaign is to cut down on carbon pollution. However, industry groups and agencies say the EPA’s demands are simply too difficult to meet and will lead to powering down many facilities -- eliminating hundreds of jobs and hurting cash-strapped state economies.
“It’s a game we can’t win,” Alan Minier, chairman of the Wyoming Public Service Commission, told FoxNews.com.
The number of projected closures has steadily risen. Though estimates vary, according to the Institute for Energy Research a total of 37 states including Wyoming are seeing closures. The group lists nearly 170 plants that have closed or are closing, or are being converted to other purposes. 
IER cites a handful of existing EPA regulations, as well as a major proposal to cut emissions from existing power plants. That calls for cutting emissions nationally by 30 percent of 2005 levels by 2030. The plan assumes emissions can be curbed through remedial action in four general areas: improved efficiency of coal plants, enhanced energy conservation measures, increased natural gas and renewable power generation.
But industry groups say in many cases, it's too heavy a lift. And they say not only jobs, but the nation's power supply will suffer. 
The Institute for Energy Research, in its latest report, predicts more than 72 gigawatts of "electrical generating capacity" are going offline. “To put 72 GW in perspective, that is enough electrical generation capacity to reliably power 44.7 million homes – or every home in every state west of the Mississippi River, excluding Texas,” IER report says. 
The EPA has received hundreds of thousands of comments on the proposal as it pushes to finalize the rules. 
The agency calls it a "commonsense plan" that will tackle the health and economic risks of climate change, including avoiding thousands of premature deaths. 
But as the agency claims to be giving states flexibility, those trying to meet the new eco-friendly rules say they are up against unrealistic standards. 
In Wyoming, for example, four coal-fired power plants are set to be prematurely shuttered because they fall short of the requirements imposed by the Obama administration to curb carbon emissions. 
Minier, who wrote a Nov. 21 letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, believes the federal proposal overestimates utilities’ ability to improve the efficiency of their coal-fired power plants, overstates the potential growth of renewable power and makes incorrect calculations concerning Wyoming’s natural gas generation.
“I’m trying not to sound alarmist, but it seems to me the scale at which this would affect us, because we are exporters of  electricity and coal, I think it will impact our economy in a materially adverse way,” Minier said in a recent interview with the Casper Star-Tribune.
In August, the Government Accountability Office estimated the number of coal-fired power plants that will close by 2025. The GAO, a watchdog agency, had initially estimated that 2 percent to 12 percent of U.S. coal capacity would retire, but the August estimates have it even higher at 13 percent. 
“This level of retirements is significantly more retirements than have occurred in the past,” the GAO said. 
Other estimates say the proposed carbon rules could close “hundreds” of plants.
States have until June 30, 2016 to come up with a plan to meet and implement the changes.
The problem, at least in states like Wyoming, is the EPA requirements may be too ambitious. Wyoming isn’t going to fall short in one area, Minier told FoxNews.com -- the state will fail all four. 
The GAO’s report reinforced concerns many Republicans have that the EPA’s rules are closing down plants. House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, this week urged McCarthy to scrap the "outrageous" power plant proposal. 
The EPA argues that efficiency improvements will pay for themselves in terms of fuel costs and other health and environmental benefits. 
While Wyoming has a tough climb to meet the standards, its neighbors are no better off. 
Colorado and South Dakota need to cut carbon emissions by 35 percent, Utah by 27 percent, and Montana by 21 percent -- while Idaho faces a 33 percent reduction.
But the Obama administration still has plenty of defenders in its regulatory push. 
Dean Baker, a D.C.-based economist and the co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, says shutting down coal plants could be good for not only the environment but also the economy.
Baker told Think Progress that clean alternatives to coal – not just natural gas but wind and solar – are competitive, so switches should come with minimal economic hassle. He also believes that renewables can work in tandem with natural gas to make the transition smoother. Indeed, some of the plants on IER's closure list are converting to natural gas.

GOP lawmakers highly critical of Petraeus’ Benghazi explanation, testimony shows

Newly declassified testimony shows at least five Republican lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee, including its chairman, suggested former CIA Director David Petraeus provided bad information, or even misled them, after the 2012 Benghazi attack when he blamed an obscure Internet video and downplayed the significance of mortar attacks that night.
The testimony comes from a Nov. 15, 2012, closed, classified session where the committee heard testimony from the nation's most senior intelligence officer, James Clapper; then head of the National Counterterrorism Center, Matt Olsen; Under Secretary of State Patrick Kennedy; and then-acting CIA Director Michael Morell, who stepped in after Petraeus resigned, citing an extramarital affair.
The testimony shows lawmakers recalling how Petraeus stressed protests over an anti-Islam video as the impetus -- an explanation that would later unravel -- while brushing off concerns that mortar attacks indicated a planned terror attack.
During that testimony, Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, who takes the gavel of the House Armed Services Committee in January, said: "Mr. Morell, my strongest memory (w)as Director Petraeus on the Friday after this event coming in and telling us this was all a spontaneous demonstration caused by a video."
In the same session, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., went further, saying Petraeus was "definitive" in his assessment the video was to blame, and unlike the intelligence community witnesses present, the general did not talk about "shifts in the line of analysis."
King said, "the 90 percent conclusion that General Petraeus reached was that this was caused by the video, and it was a spontaneous demonstration." King continued,"the one thing he was ruling out was terrorist involvement. I remember when the chairman [Mike Rogers] specifically mentioned to him about the mortar rounds, three mortar rounds landing at the Annex, could that be an indication of terrorist involvement. [Petraeus] said no.He said anybody in Libya could do that."
The House committee report -- while having been criticized by other GOP lawmakers as incomplete -- nevertheless provides new detail and images of the precision mortar strike at the CIA base known as the annex.Three on-target rounds, fired over 69 seconds, killed former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty who were defending the annex from its roof.
Kris Paronto, one of the CIA contractors who witnessed the attacks, said: "It's highly, if not 99.99 percent unlikely, that somebody just threw up a mortar tube and drop some mortars in and hit, hit, hit the compound. It's, it's not possible."
John Tiegen, who was also part of the CIA security team, and wrote, "13 Hours: the Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi," with his fellow contractors, said it is beyond belief a four-star general would make such a basic mistake.
"I'd like to see him grab a mortar tube and launch it and get it within a 2,000 square-foot building in five shots," Tiegen added
The House Intelligence Committee report states the mortar team likely used a spotter to calibrate the shots, more evidence of pre-meditation and planning. The mortar strike was the third wave of the attack which began at 9:40 p.m. at the State Department consulate.
And while Morell, along with other unnamed CIA officers in the transcript, defended Petraeus, saying his talking points from the agency included the identification of the Al Qaeda-linked terror group Ansar al-Sharia, Rogers said the general went off-script.
"I want to be clear that our notes do not reflect that he said that.What you were talking about for the record was his talking points," Rogers said. Rogers was the first lawmaker on Capitol HIll to call publicly call Benghazi a coordinated, military commando-style assault, in an interview with Fox News on Sept. 12, 2012.
Democrats on the committee, including the ranking member Dutch Ruppersberger, were less critical of Petraeus. “My recollection was that Petraeus, when I walked way, he basically said that he felt that his opinion at that time it was kind of an attack based on what happened with respect to the video. But he did give caveats…that (it) could change, and it evolved,” Ruppersberger said.
Unlike the November 2012 testimony -- when lawmakers did not know that Morell made key edits to the talking points -- by May 2013, during a second round of classified testimony, email traffic showed Morell had been at the heart of the process, cutting some 50 percent of the text.
Significantly, during the May testimony, Morell distanced the agency from the video explanation. Morell said "the CIA never [said] that what happened in Benghazi was a result of the film."
If the lawmakers’ recollection is accurate, that means Petraeus' brief on Sept. 14, 2012, was instead in line with the White House, and then-Secretary Hillary Clinton's State Department. It was a State Department press release at 10:07 pm ET, before the attack was even over, that first made the link to the obscure anti-Islam video. The newly declassified testimony says $70,000 was spent on advertising in Pakistan, denouncing the anti-Muslim film.
During this testimony, GOP Rep. Jeff Miller questioned Petraeus' original testimony, stating the former CIA Director "even went so far as to say that it had been put into Arabic language and then was put on this TV station, this cleric's TV station. I mean, [Petraeus] drove that in pretty hard when he was in here. "
Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., added "it was said in here a little bit earlier that the CIA never said Benghazi was part of a Cairo protest and of the video. And we were given just the opposite message by the Director of the CIA on the [September] 14th [2012.]"
Rogers noted there was no transcript for the brief, only staff notes, but after the Petraeus incident in September 2012, the practice was changed to always run a transcript on the briefings.The September 14th 2012 brief was a coffee meeting with members.
Fox News was first to report in April that an FBI investigation into the general had been left open, after classified information was reportedly mishandled. This week, after additional reporting by Bloomberg News, Republican Sen. John McCain questioned the decision in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, suggesting politics may be at play.
"The fact that you and others within your Department have weighed-in publicly on the case raises questions about whether this investigation is being handled in a fundamentally fair and appropriate manner,” he wrote.
The FBI investigation into Petraeus began as early as late spring 2012, which means he was under investigation when the Benghazi attack unfolded. Facing the implication that knowledge of the investigation might have influenced Petraeus’ or Morell's actions during the Benghazi aftermath, Morell testified he did not know what was going on with the general until the day before he resigned.
Petraeus has not spoken formally to the media about the scandal and was in the news when a new biography of Hillary Clinton was released in February, called "HRC."It quoted the former CIA director regarding her handling of Benghazi.
"She'd make a tremendous president," Petraeus told the authors of "HRC." "Like a lot of great leaders, her most impressive qualities were most visible during tough times. ... In the wake of the Benghazi attacks, for example, she was extraordinarily resolute, determined and controlled."
Jack Keane, a retired four-star Army general and Fox News analyst was a mentor to Petraeus. “David believed he was providing the best available information to the committee from the CIA analysts, which included identifying the terrorist organization, Ansar al-Sharia, and that it was terrorism. The motivation was harder to identify, and initial CIA reporting about the video turned out to be wrong within a matter of days,” he said.
Asked about the open FBI investigation, Keane said McCain’s letter to Holder summed up his feeling best.

Texas leads coalition of states in lawsuit against Obama immigration actions

Texas Gov.-elect Greg Abbott announced Wednesday that Texas is leading a 17-state coalition suing the Obama administration over the president's executive actions on immigration. 
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Texas on Wednesday, and names the heads of the top immigration enforcement agencies as defendants. 
Abbott, in a news conference in Austin, said the "broken" immigration system should be fixed by Congress, not by "presidential fiat." 
He said President Obama's recently announced executive actions -- a move designed to spare as many as 5 million people living illegally in the United States from deportation -- "directly violate the fundamental promise to the American people" by running afoul of the Constitution. 
"The ability of the president to dispense with laws was specifically considered and unanimously rejected at the Constitutional Convention," he said. 
Abbott specifically cited Article 2, Section 3 of the Constitution which states the president "shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed." 
He said the lawsuit asks the court to require Obama to go through Congress before enforcing laws, "rather than making them up himself." 
However, a White House official defended the actions as perfectly within the president's authority.
“The Supreme Court and Congress have made clear that federal officials can set priorities in enforcing our immigration laws, and we are confident that the President’s executive actions are well within his legal authorities," the official told Fox News.
The announcement opens a new front in the roiling debate across the country over the immigration actions. 
The legal action comes as a separate legislative battle plays out on Capitol Hill. Some Republicans want to use a must-pass spending bill as leverage to defund the president's immigration initiatives. But House Speaker John Boehner is trying to push off that battle until next year, when his party will control both chambers. 
Under Obama's order, announced Nov. 20, protection from deportation and the right to work will be extended to an estimated 4.1 million parents of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents who have lived in the U.S. for at least five years and to hundreds of thousands more young people. 
In the lawsuit, Texas is joined by 16 other, mostly southern and Midwestern states, including Alabama, Georgia, Idaho and Indiana. 
Abbott argued Wednesday that Obama's action "tramples" portions of the U.S. Constitution. 
The lawsuit raises three objections: that Obama violated the "Take Care Clause" of the U.S. Constitution that limits the scope of presidential power; that the federal government violated rulemaking procedures; and that the order will "exacerbate the humanitarian crisis along the southern border, which will affect increased state investment in law enforcement, health care and education." 
Wednesday's announcement marks the 31st time the Texas attorney general has brought action against the federal government since Obama took office in 2009. The only other high-profile lawsuit against the immigration action has come on behalf of Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio. 
Potential 2016 presidential candidate and current Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who leaves office in January, also spoke out against the executive order earlier Wednesday, saying it could trigger a new flood of people pouring across the Texas-Mexico border. Perry and Abbott also have said the order will promote a culture of lawlessness. 
Perry said at a news conference that Obama's 2012 executive order delaying the deportation of children brought into the U.S. illegally by their parents triggered an unprecedented wave of unaccompanied minors and families, mostly from Central America, crossing into the U.S. this summer. 
"In effect, his action placed a neon sign on our border, assuring people that they could ignore the law of the United States," said Perry, who has deployed up to 1,000 National Guard troops to the border. 
The federal lawsuit involves the following states: Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Republicans vow to probe EPA paid leave linked to 'alleged serious misconduct'

EXCLUSIVE: Republican legislators, as they prepare for the incoming 114^th Congress in January, are vowing to keep a wary eye on the Environmental Protection Agency and its practice of granting paid administrative leave to staffers involved in possible “serious misconduct,” lawmakers tell Fox News.
“Bringing transparency to the EPA will continue to be at the top of our agenda with the new conservative majority,” says Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana, ranking member of the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee and one of the EPA’s leading critics in the outgoing 113^th Congress.  “EPA has allowed a number of employees to waste millions of taxpayer dollars in the last few years through lax internal controls and substandard management.”
His sentiments are echoed by Rep. Darrell Issa of California, who is finishing up a three-year term as chairman of the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Issa clashed often with EPA over the strange case of John Beale, a top EPA official who was jailed a year ago for taking more than $800,000 worth of time off from his job while falsely claiming to be a CIA agent.

“Bringing transparency to the EPA will continue to be at the top of our agenda with the new conservative majority.”- Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana

The Beale case, in turn, sparked a recent “early warning” report of EPA’s Office of the Inspector General that revealed eight other agency employees had taken a total of ten years of officially-mandated leave from their jobs. EPA subsequently told Fox News that all eight were involved in alleged serious misconduct cases, and that three had since left the agency.
The agency provided little other information, declaring that it could not comment on any of the three staffers who had left EPA, and in the other cases was constrained to address them “in a way that is consistent with the law.”
So far as Issa is concerned, however, the probing needs to continue.
“As this Committee has investigated over the past year and examined in multiple hearings,” he told Fox News, “EPA management appears to persist in its ongoing pattern of failure to properly address employee misconduct at the agency. Questions remain regarding the EPA’s management of these cases of misconduct -- and taxpayer money being wasted by keeping these individuals on the payroll instead of taking common-sense disciplinary actions.”
The big question is whether the Republicans who chair both of those powerful committees will share that sense of priority.
The new chairman of the Republican-controlled EPW committee starting in January is James Inhofe of Oklahoma, one of the leading critics of the Obama administration’s aggressive climate change agenda.
Inhofe is likely to have plenty to do in addressing that agenda, where EPA is taking a leading role in propounding a wave of new clean-air regulations, for example, that its critics declare are excessive and likely to be crippling to U.S. industry, as well as highly expensive for consumers.
Issa’s successor in the House Oversight job is Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, a highly regarded congressman who played an aggressive role in the committee’s probing of the Benghazi scandal, among other things.
Setting the agenda of both committees, however, is a task that the newly reconstituted membership can only take up in January.

GOP lawmakers, Benghazi survivors fume over House report

A recent report by a GOP-led committee that was seen as going easy on the Obama administration's Benghazi response is drawing stinging complaints from a number of Republicans on the panel, as well as survivors of the attack. 
Some GOP members on the House Intelligence Committee grumble that the final product "might as well have been written by the minority," while other House Republicans say they are frustrated with the committee's decision to release a report with so many "holes." 
Several lawmakers point their fingers at the committee's chairman, Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich. Some members who disagreed with the findings said they stopped going to meetings because of concerns with his handling of the report, and didn't even take part in the final version. 
The report, released last month, found no intelligence lapses in connection with the fatal terror attack. Republican heavyweights like Sen. Lindsey Graham have blasted the findings as "garbage." 
But the findings also drew complaints from survivors, who testified behind closed doors, and caused deep divisions on the committee itself ahead of the report's release. Critical lawmakers wished to remain anonymous due to fear of blowback from Republican leadership. 
While House committee members have remained mostly silent, due to the secretive nature of the committee, some have complained to House Speaker John Boehner about the proceedings for months. Among the concerns was that Rogers was focusing strictly on the debate over the changed so-called "talking points" -- the administration's flawed narrative of the attack that initially blamed a protest over an anti-Islam film. Other Republicans on the committee, though, wanted the focus to be broader. 
Frustrations with Rogers have been boiling for more than a year, but nobody wanted to openly question the chairman with a midterm election looming, fearing it would give the media the chance to focus on Republican infighting rather than the issues. 
Even one Democrat on the committee said, "Rogers was more dismissive at times than Democrat members." 
No members would officially give consent to use their names, but all continue to question controversial maneuvers by Rogers and some members of his staff. 
"Rogers' staffers know more about some highly sensitive issues than some members. There is major stonewalling with information to other Republican members of the committee from Mike and some of his staffers," one House member who asked to go unnamed due to fear of backlash from GOP leadership told Fox News. "There is a lot of fighting and pressures behind the scenes and even some members oddly defending the Obama administration." 
Committee spokeswoman Susan Phalen said late Wednesday, "All members of HPSCI were given numerous opportunities to voice their views, comment on the report, or speak publicly or privately about the process. If any member disagreed with the process or outcome, every opportunity was made available for that member to voice his or her concerns."
She added no member wrote to express any frustration.
So why the internal battles? Why the struggle with members of the same party over a scandal that still has so many questions unanswered and an administration that still is vulnerable and unwilling to fully cooperate with the investigation? 
Now, at least five survivors contacted by Fox News say they too are frustrated and concerned their testimony is not fully represented. Kris Paronto and John Tiegan, both members of the CIA Annex Security Team who responded to the attack in Benghazi, say the report has major flaws. 
Paronto said: "Mike Rogers asked me ... 'Do you think that the delay cost lives?' ... and I looked him squarely in the eyes saying 'yes ... definitely.' We were told to wait and delayed three times which caused the deaths of Ambassador Stevens and Sean Smith. Why would the report say otherwise or our words be disregarded?" 
Paronto's concern is echoed by others on the ground that night in Benghazi. While official timelines have differed and stories from the State Department and administration changed, the story from the men and women on the ground has remained steadfast. 
"As I stated for the FBI, CIA and House intel committee, we were delayed, held back, told to stand down, however you want to put it," Paronto said. "We finally left without authorization. I only wish we had disobeyed orders sooner, because not only would we have rescued the five State Department security guys, we would have stopped the terrorists before they killed the ambassador and Sean Smith." Yet this account doesn't jibe with the report released by Rogers' committee last month.   
Tiegan adds, "We provided the same unchanging and accurate information of what took place in Benghazi on September 11, 2012 through September 12, 2012 to our immediate chain of command in the CIA's office of security, during several FBI interviews, and to Congressman Rogers and his committee. So it comes as a very big disappointment to us as those on the front lines that this report is full of inaccuracies and bias." 
Phelan, while calling the loss of American lives in Benghazi a "tragedy," added "ultimately the opinion of one witness about what could have or might have happened is not credible evidence."
Their frustrations and concerns are echoed by members of the committee and others who have watched the hearings closely. Paronto, who along with Tiegen and others testified in front of the committee behind closed doors, said, "I think some people in Washington knew what was going on that evening in real time, and could not, or worse, would not make the tactically correct decisions ... and when Ambassador Stevens died, they wanted to cover their butts." 
The State Department and CIA weren't the only entities involved. Some operators in Benghazi on the night of the attack, who are still working for U.S. agencies, insist there were at least eight elected members of Congress read in on controversial operations that were ongoing in the country, including some Republicans. Operators also tell Fox News that many of these operatives and operations were completely unknown to the Libyan government and that would have caused an international incident if they were revealed. They wonder whether that is the reason some Republicans have allegedly been treading lightly. 
The frustrations with House intelligence and leadership also has extended to the new Benghazi Select Committee chaired by Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C. Sources have said they were told to wait until after the midterm to truly go after information and even as they do, information leaks about witnesses, proceedings and details has hindered the process. 
As the investigation has picked up since the election, sources also say that the Gowdy-led commission has concerns about major pieces of information that the Rogers committee didn't take into consideration and important witnesses that were never called by the chairman. One survivor who has to remain anonymous because he still works on highly sensitive U.S. operations told Fox News, "I kept waiting for a phone call ... and nobody ever came."

Justice Department to investigate Eric Garner case

The Justice Department is planning to conduct a federal investigation into the chokehold death of an unarmed black male after a New York City grand jury declined to indict the white police officer who performed the move, Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday.
The probe will look for a potential civil rights investigations in the death of Eric Garner. Garner, 43, was confronted by police officers on July 17 on suspicion of selling loose cigarettes. A video shot by an onlooker shows a police officer choking Garner and Garner repeatedly saying he could not breathe.
Holder said this is one of "several recent incidents that have tested the sense of trust that must exist between law enforcement and the communities they are charged to serve and protect." Both cases have put law-enforcement officers under a microscope on how they use excessive force to arrests minorities.
"This is not a New York issue or a Ferguson issue alone," Holder told reporters late Wednesday. "Those who have protested peacefully across our great nation following the grand jury's decision in Ferguson have made that clear."
Separately, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said he had spoken with Holder and Loretta Lynch, the U.S. attorney for the eastern district of New York who has been nominated as Holder's successor, and was told that the federal investigation into the death will now move forward.
The investigation was announced Wednesday night, hours after the Staten Island grand jury’s decision not to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo. The grand jury could have considered charges ranging from murder to reckless endangerment.
The Justice Department had been monitoring the outcome of the local investigation before announcing its own probe. That investigation will be similar to a separate federal one already underway into the Aug. 9 shooting death in Ferguson of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old. A county grand jury in that case decided last week to not indict the white officer, Darren Wilson.
To mount a federal prosecution in police misconduct cases, officials have to satisfy an extremely difficult legal standard — that the officer willfully violated a victim's civil rights and used more force than the law allowed. Though the legal standard will be the same in both the Ferguson and New York cases, there are important differences between the two investigations, said William Yeomans, a former Justice Department civil rights official.
"One big difference, and one thing I think makes this an easier investigation, is the existence of videotape," Yeomans said. "We didn't have that in Ferguson, and we would know much more about what happened in Ferguson if we had."
The chokehold maneuver is banned under New York Police Department guidelines. Police union officials and Pantaleo’s lawyer both argued that he used a legal takedown move because Garner was resisting arrest.
The medical examiner ruled Garner's death a homicide and found that a chokehold contributed to it.

St. Louis’ Bosnian community sees hammer murder as hate crime

Insistence by St. Louis officials that the beating death of a Bosnian man was not a hate crime is being met with skepticism and anger, according to leaders of the city's 70,000-strong Bosnian community, and the victim's brother is calling on authorities to "investigate every possible motive."
Zemir Begic, a 32-year-old man who emigrated from war-torn Bosnia almost two decades ago in search of a better life, was bludgeoned to death Sunday, allegedly by a group of hammer-wielding teenagers, one of whom has been charged as an adult. Begic was driving with his fiancee, Arijana Mujkanovic, and a male passenger at about 1:15 a.m. Sunday in St. Louis when five teenagers began pounding his vehicle with a hammer, according to police. When Begic confronted them, he was struck in the mouth, face, head and body with hammers and died at a nearby hospital. 
"Zemir was a good person who would have given you the clothes off his back," his 20-year-old brother, Rasim Begic, told FoxNews.com Tuesday. "He never had any problems with anyone."
"He was my role model and a hero," the younger Begic said of his brother, noting that he pushed his fiancee out of harm's way during the attack.

"Bosnians right now have an impression that this was a hate crime."- Sadik Kukic, president of St. Louis' Bosnian chamber of commerce

The murder early Sunday of Begic has sparked protests, some consciously patterned after those taking place just 20 miles away in Ferguson, where the police shooting of a black man and a subsequent grand jury decision not to indict a police officer prompted racial anger and a federal civil rights probe. But the St. Louis Police Department and Mayor Francis Slay are insisting Begic’s death, allegedly at the hands of black and Latino teenagers, was not based on racial or ethnic hate.
"Investigators do not believe the attack on Mr. Begic had any connection to him being of Bosnian descent," St. Louis Police spokeswoman Schron Jackson said in a statement. In subsequent emails, Jackson made clear: "Investigators don't believe the incident is in any way related to Ferguson" and "The incident is not being investigated as a hate crime."
The St. Louis Police Department is now working in conjunction with the city prosecutor to determine a motive. Authorities told FoxNews.com there is no evidence at this time suggesting the murder was racially motivated.
But a string of previous crimes involving poor minorities and Bosnians in a tough area on the southwest side of the city has many in the Bosnian community questioning whether Begic's death was racially motivated.
"Bosnians right now have an impression that this was a hate crime," said Bosnian Chamber of Commerce president Sadik Kukic, who met Monday with the city's mayor and police chief to discuss the murder.
"We don't know if it's a hate crime," Kukic cautioned, though he claims there have been several racially-charged crimes against his community, including last year’s murder of a Bosnian convenience store clerk.

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One of the suspects, 17-year-old Robert Mitchell, has been charged with first-degree murder.

According to a criminal complaint released Tuesday, Begic and his fiancee were walking to their car when they heard a group, including at least of the defendants, yelling. As Begic drove away, one of the teenagers, "jumped on the back of his car and began hitting it," the complaint said. Unsure of what was happening, Begic stepped out of his vehicle and was approached by the individuals, one of whom "taunted" him and "challenged him to a fight," according to the document. Begic was then allegedly assaulted by four men and struck with a hammer and fell to the ground. Three others continue to beat him before the group fled on foot, police said. 
Robert Joseph Mitchell, 17, has been charged as an adult with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in early morning attack. Two others, ages 15 and 16, are in custody, and a fourth suspect remains at large, according to police.
Kukic said hundreds of protesters rallied the past two nights in the Little Bosnia neighborhood in response to Begic's killing, with many chanting "Bosnian lives matter" -- an echo of the "Black lives matter" chant heard in Ferguson after 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by a police officer.
Zemir Begic was a teenager when he and his family fled Bosnia in the aftermath of a bloody civil war. In America, he found work, friends and love before meeting a cruel fate, his family said. 
"We were all born in Bosnia and we came here in 1996," Rasim Begic said of Zemir and two other siblings. "We came to America thinking it was going to be a better life. Our family and friends were being killed over there."
"He loved every race," Rasim Begic said of his older brother, a karate instructor who will be buried in Waterloo, Iowa, where some of his family lives. "He had friends all over the world."
"He loved kids. He loved music," Begic said. "Our family will never be the same."

National debt exceeds $18T, sparking renewed criticism of spending under Obama

The national debt has passed the $18 trillion mark, sparking renewed criticism Tuesday from Republicans and other fiscal conservatives over the soaring trajectory of government spending under President Obama.
“This is a sad milestone for America,” Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said Tuesday.
The debt was at $10.6 trillion when Obama took office in 2009 but has increased by 70 percent during his roughly six years in office.
“The national debt has skyrocketed by over $7.3 trillion,” Priebus said. “President Obama once said it was ‘unpatriotic’ and ‘irresponsible’ to add $4 trillion to the debt. By his own reasoning then, (he) has reached a new level of irresponsibility.”
The federal debt, which topped $18 trillion last week, is the sum of two numbers.
The first is $12.92 trillion in public debt, which consists of all the outstanding Treasury bills, notes and bonds held by individuals, corporations, foreign governments and others.
The second is the $5.08 trillion in so-called “intra-governmental” holdings, special securities held by U.S. government trust funds and special funds – or basically IOUs from the federal government for money that it “borrowed” from Social Security and Medicare.
The new figure, reached late Friday, likely drew little attention because the federal deficit -- how much the U.S. government spends annually in excess of revenue -- has dropped under Obama, from roughly $1.4 trillion to $483 billion. 
But fiscal conservatives argue the climbing national debt is still a big problem. Kevin Broughton, spokesman for the Tea Party Patriots, calculates the debt when divided equally among the U.S. population means “every man, woman and child” in the country owes $56, 250. 
He and Priebus used the new number to renew calls for cuts in government spending to protect future generations and to garner support for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.
“Our children and grandchildren deserve better,” Priebus said.
Said Broughton: “American families live within their means. It's time for the American government to follow suit."

House moves to extend tax breaks to end of year

Millions of businesses and individuals could be in luck as the House moves to extend a $45 billion package of expired tax breaks through the end of the year.
Businesses and individuals would be able to claim them on their tax returns this year, but there is no certainty they would have the same luck beyond Dec. 31.
Time is short because the House plans to adjourn for the year next week, and the Senate could as well.
"Let's see what they send us," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., "and we'll make a decision then."
The $45 billion would be added to the budget deficit.
The tax breaks would benefit big corporations and small businesses. Commuters, teachers and people who live in a state without state income tax would benefit from the breaks as well. One in six taxpayers would be affected by the extension.
Congress routinely extends the package of tax breaks every year or two. But they were allowed to expire in January.
Technically, the bill is a one-year, retroactive extension of the tax breaks, even though it only lasts through the end of the month.
Advocates and lawmakers from both political parties said the short-term measure is the product of a divided Congress that has trouble passing routine legislation.
"It's just unworthy of the world's greatest economy to have a tax code for two weeks," said former Michigan Gov. John Engler, who is now president of the Business Roundtable, an association of corporate CEOs.
Talks between House Republicans and Senate Democrats to make the tax breaks permanent fell through last week after the White House threatened to veto the emerging package saying it too heavily favored big business.
Among the biggest breaks for businesses are a tax credit for research and development, an exemption that allows financial companies such as banks and investment firms to shield foreign profits from being taxed by the U.S. and several provisions that allow businesses to write off capital investments more quickly.
There is also a generous tax credit for using wind farms and other renewable energy sources to produce electricity.
The biggest tax break for individuals allows people who live in states without an income tax to deduct state and local sales taxes on their federal returns. Another protects struggling homeowners who get their mortgages reduced from paying income taxes on the amount of debt that was forgiven.
NASCAR racetrack owners, film and theater producers, electric motorcycle manufacturers, commuters who use mass transit and teachers who pay out of pocket for classroom supplies will also benefit from the tax breaks.
The package leaves out a tax credit that helps some laid-off workers pay for health insurance and a tax credit for buying an electric motorcycle, which makes some Democrats unhappy.
"The House proposal on a number of important particulars really clobbers working-class families," said Sen. Ron Wyden D-Ore., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. "For example, the health care tax credit is particularly important to people who may have been laid off.
The credit for electric motorcycles was left out because of "an oversight," said Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.

Pack of teens beats man to death near Ferguson, but protests sparse

Zemir Begic

 Robert Mitchell, 17, was charged as an adult with first-degree murder.

Zemir Begic was a teenager when he and his family fled Bosnia in the aftermath of a bloody civil war. In America, he found work, friends and love before a pack of thugs beat him to death with hammers on a city street in St. Louis early Sunday.
The horrific attack occurred in southwest St. Louis, just 20 miles from Ferguson, where a police shooting of a black man and a grand jury's subsequent decision not to indict the officer sparked violent riots. Police have arrested three teens and were looking for one or possibly two more in the brutal murder of Begic, 32. The married immigrant who was driving his car when the teens approached at a traffic light and began striking it with hammers, prompting him to get out and confront them, according to police.
On Monday evening, Robert Mitchell, 17, was charged as an adult with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death, KMOV-TV reported. Mitchell turned himself in late Sunday after 15- and 16-year-old suspects were taken into custody.
“We come from Bosnia because we were getting killed and our homes and families were getting destroyed,” Denisa Begic, his 23-year-old sister, of Sioux Falls, S.D, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “Never in my life did I think he would get murdered.”
Although the victim was white and the suspects black and Hispanic, police said it does not appear to have been a hate crime.
"Investigators don't believe the incident is in any way related to Ferguson," St. Louis Police spokeswoman Schron Jackson told FoxNews.com. "The incident is not being investigated as a hate crime."
Several hours after Begic died at an area hospital, members of the city's close-knit Bosnian community held protests that seemed patterned after those sparked in Ferguson by the death of Michael Brown and the decision not to indict Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson.
“We’re going to have a little bit of fun blocking our own traffic,” Adnan Esmerovic, 27, told the Washington Post. “In Ferguson, they want to make a protest about nothing and yet that attracted attention across the nation. We’re just trying to keep more police down here because of these little thugs.”
St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson addressed protesters Sunday and pledged to crack down on crime in the area, but denied that Begic was killed because of his ethnicity.
“There is no indication that the gentleman last night was targeted because he was Bosnian,” Dotson said, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “There’s no indication that they knew each other.”
Police said Begic was hit in the head, face, mouth and body early Sunday morning around 1:15 a.m. at an intersection in southwest St. Louis and left to die on the street. Suad Nuranjkovic, 49, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he and Begic were heading home from a bar on Gravois Avenue when the teens began banging on the car.
Nuranjkovic said he got out of the passenger seat of the car and hid in a nearby parking lot during the attack.
“I was afraid that if one of them had a gun, they were going to shoot me, so I didn’t know what to do,” he told the newspaper.
Unlike the incident in Ferguson, the killing prompted members of St. Louis’ Bosnian community to call for a greater police presence.
“We’re just angry because we’re trying to protect our community,” said Mirza Nukic, 29, who was among 50 people who briefly blocked the intersection where Begic was killed.
Seldin Dzananovic, 24, said the teens with the hammers confronted him farther north on Gravois Ave about an hour before the attack on Begic, but he was able to fight them off, only suffering cuts to the hands and neck.
Begic and his family arrived in the United States from Bosnia in 1996, first moving to Utica, N.Y., before living in Iowa and Phoenix. He moved to St. Louis months ago to marry a woman whose family lives there.
Those who knew Begic said singing was his passion and that he “loved America.”
Denisa Begic said Zemir’s funeral would be in Iowa. A crowd-funding site has been set up to help finance the funeral. As of midday Monday, nearly $10,000 has been raised. On the page, his grieving sister wrote of her love for her brother.
"I will forever have a big piece of my heart destroyed," Denisa Begic wrote. "My big brother is gone, never coming back to us. [I] wish this was a terrible dream. He was a great brother, son, husband and helped anyone. I want my brother back. He always protected me."

St. Louis Rams, police squabble over apology

A St. Louis Rams official and a county police officer differed Monday about whether the team had apologized for five of its players raising their hands in unison to show support for the Ferguson protesters.
St. Louis County Police PIO Sgt. Brian Schellman said Chief Jon Belmar was contacted by Rams' COO Kevin Demoff. Belmar did not ask for the Rams to contact him.
Schellman said Belmar sent an e-mail to the police staff saying Demoff called to "apologize to our department" for the players' actions on Sunday. The email from Belmar said Demoff "clearly regretted that any members of the Ram's organization would act in a way that minimized the outstanding work that police officers carry out each and every day."
However, in an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Monday, Demoff denied apologizing to the police, but said he regrets and of the offenses the officers may have taken.
"We do believe it is possible to both support our players' First Amendment rights and support the efforts of local law enforcement as our community begins the process of healing," he said.
In an email sent to The Associated Press, St. Louis County police Sgt. Shawn McGuire said Belmar interpreted Demoff's comments as an apology.
Jared Cook, Kenny Britt, Chris Givens, Stedman Bailey and Tavon Austin made the "Hands up. Don't Shoot!" gesture protesters in Ferguson — a suburb of St. Louis — have been using since a grand jury did not indict police officer Darren Wilson over the Aug. 9 shooting of Michael Brown, who was black. Some witnesses said Brown had his hands up before being shot by officer Wilson. Wilson, who is white, told the grand jury that he shot Brown in self-defense.
Rams coach Jeff Fisher said Monday that neither the team nor the NFL would discipline the players. He said it was their "choice to exercise their free speech," but he would not comment further on their actions.
"It's my personal opinion, I firmly believe, that it's important that I keep sports and politics separate," Fisher said. "I'm a head coach. I'm not a politician, an activist or an expert on societal issues, so I'm going to answer questions about the game."
Fisher says he plans to talk to his players in a closed-doors meeting.
The NFL responded with a one-sentence statement Monday from spokesman Brian McCarthy: "We respect and understand the concerns of all individuals who have expressed views on this tragic situation."
After the game, the Rams players said they did not mean any disrespect from their actions.
"We just understand that it's a big tragedy and we hope something positive comes out of it," Bailey said, following his five catch 100-yard performance.
Added Cook: "We help build up the people around this community daily with our visiting schools and talking to kids, so coming out and showing that we're unified with the rest of them, it was key to us."

ISIS leader's wife, son have been detained in Lebanon

Lebanese officials say authorities have detained a wife and son of the Islamic State’s leader.
The two were detained 10 days ago using fake identification cards.
Both officials refused to give any details about the woman who is believed to be one of the wives of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the group's reclusive leader.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
The military official said Tuesday that the woman is a Syrian citizen.
The Lebanese daily As-Safir was the first to break the news, saying they were detained near a border crossing point with Syria. It added that the arrest was in "coordination with foreign intelligence agencies."