U.S. job growth picks up, unemployment rate falls to 3.9 percent

A help wanted sign is posted at a taco stand in Solana Beach, California

U.S. job growth increased less than expected in April and the unemployment rate dropped to near a 17-1/2-year low of 3.9 percent as some out-of-work Americans left the labor force.
The Labor Department’s closely watched employment report on Friday also showed wages barely rose last month, which may ease concerns that inflation pressures are rapidly building up, likely keeping the Federal Reserve on a gradual path of monetary policy tightening.
“Fed officials can rest easy that there is not any wage-based inflation on the horizon,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at MUFG in New York. “There is no need to speed up the path of interest rates because inflation isn’t heating up in a worrisome manner.”
Nonfarm payrolls increased by 164,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department reported. Data for March was revised to show the economy adding 135,000 jobs instead of the previously reported 103,000. That was the fewest amount of jobs created in six months and followed an outsized gain of 324,000 in February.
While cold weather in March and April probably held back job growth, hiring is moderating as the labor market hits full employment. Employers, especially in the construction and manufacturing sectors, are increasingly reporting difficulties finding qualified workers.
The drop of two-tenths of a percentage point in the unemployment rate from 4.1 percent in March pushed it to a level last seen in December 2000 and within striking distance of the Fed’s forecast of 3.8 percent by the end of this year. It was the first time in six months that the jobless rate dropped.
But 236,000 people left the labor force in April, adding to the 158,000 who quit in March. The labor force participation rate, or the proportion of working-age Americans who have a job or are looking for one, fell to 62.8 percent last month from 62.9 percent in March. It was the second straight monthly drop in the participation rate.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast payrolls rising by 192,000 jobs in April and the unemployment rate falling to 4.0 percent. Average hourly earnings rose 0.1 percent last month after a 0.2 percent gain in March. That left the annual increase in average hourly earnings at 2.6 percent.
The dollar shrugged off the employment data, rising to its highest level this year against a basket of currencies. Stocks on Wall Street rallied, with all three indexes closing more than 1.0 percent higher. U.S. Treasury yields were little changed after dropping to multi-week lows.
‘SUSTAINABLE PACE’
Sluggish wage growth and a slowdown in hiring threaten to undercut the Trump administration’s argument that its $1.5 trillion income tax cut package, which came into effect in January and is highlighted by a sharp drop in the corporate income tax rate, would boost wages and hiring.
Companies like Apple have used their tax windfall for share buybacks and dividends.
President Donald Trump cheered the drop in the unemployment rate on Friday.
“I thought the jobs report was very good. The big thing to me was cracking 4,” Trump told reporters. “That hasn’t been done in a long time … we’re at full employment. We’re doing great.”
Democrats, however, reiterated their criticism of the tax cuts, saying more than $390 billion in share buybacks had been announced since the passage of the tax bill.
“President Trump promised American families that they would see a $4,000 annual raise after the tax plan, so far, average weekly wages have increased $11.69,” Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich said.
But average hourly earnings could be understating wage inflation. The Employment Cost Index, widely viewed by policymakers and economists as one of the better measures of labor market slack, showed wages rising at their fastest pace in 11 years during the first quarter.
Inflation is flirting with the Fed’s 2 percent target.
The Fed’s preferred inflation measure, the personal consumption expenditures price index excluding food and energy, was up 1.9 percent year-on-year in March after a 1.6 percent rise in February.
The U.S. central bank on Wednesday left interest rates unchanged and said it expected annual inflation to run close to its “symmetric” 2 percent target over the medium term.
Economists interpreted symmetric to mean policymakers would not be too worried with inflation overshooting the target.
Two Fed officials who are currently voting members of the central bank’s rate-setting committee showed little concern on Friday about price pressures heating up and said they were keeping an open mind on the total number of rate increases needed this year.
The Fed hiked rates in March and has forecast at least two more increases for 2018.
Economists expect the unemployment rate will drop to 3.5 percent by the end of the year. Monthly job gains have averaged about 200,000 this year, more than the roughly 120,000 needed to keep up with growth in the working-age population.
A broader measure of unemployment, which includes people who want to work but have given up searching and those working part-time because they cannot find full-time employment, dropped to 7.8 percent last month, the lowest level since July 2001, from 8.0 percent in March.
Construction payrolls rebounded by 17,000 jobs last month after recording their first drop in eight months in March. Manufacturing employment increased by 24,000 jobs in April after a gain of 22,000 positions in March.
Payrolls for temporary help, seen as a harbinger of future permanent hiring, rose by 10,300 after falling by 2,100 in March. There was a modest gain in leisure and hospitality employment while wholesale traders laid off workers.
Government payrolls fell 4,000 in April amid a decline in education employment at state governments.
“The moderation in job gains over the past two months may mark the beginning of the slow deceleration to a sustainable pace of job gains, which we estimate to be around or a little below 100,000 per month,” said Michael Feroli, an economist at JPMorgan in New York.

Defense Bill Includes Authorization of Military Parade in Capitol

President’s Trump’s’ plans to hold a military parade in the nation’s capital are one step closer to taking place.
According to a summary of the National Defense Authorization Act released Friday, the bill will include a provision to authorize a military parade in the nation’s capital.
The provision would also authorize Defense Secretary Mattis to prohibit the use of certain units or equipment if it would hamper readiness.
The Defense Department is aiming to conduct the parade on November 11, which is the 100th anniversary of the conclusion of the first world war.
A full version of the defense bill is set to be released next week.

Trump to host South Korean president amid planning for U.S.-North Korea summit, White House says

The White House announced Friday that President Trump will host the South Korean president in late May, as plans progress for a meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Trump and President Moon Jae-in will meet on May 22, the press release from Press Secretary Sarah Sanders' office said, marking the third summit for the pair.
The meeting “affirms the enduring strength” of the “alliance and deep friendship between our two countries,” the press release said.
It went on to say that the two leaders would “continue their close coordination of developments regarding the Korean Peninsula following the April 27 inter-Korean Summit,” referring to the recent historic meeting of North and South Korean leaders.
Trump and Moon are expected to talk about the president’s upcoming meeting with Kim, the leader of the Hermit Kingdom, the press release said.
The president on Friday shared new details about that meeting but without specifics. "We now have a date and we have a location,” Trump told reporters prior to leaving for Dallas, where he was set to speak at the National Rifle Association annual convention. “We'll be announcing it soon.”
Trump has previously said the summit with North Korea will unfold in May or early June.
A possible meeting between Trump and Kim came to light following a trip then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo took to the rogue nation over Easter weekend.
Trump later acknowledged that Pompeo, who has since been confirmed as secretary of state, had met with Kim.
“Mike Pompeo met with Kim Jong Un in North Korea last week. Meeting went very smoothly and a good relationship was formed,” Trump tweeted. “Details of the Summit are being worked out now. Denuclearization will be a great thing for World, but also for North Korea!”

FBI officials Jim Baker, Lisa Page resign from bureau

Cleaning House.

Two FBI officials who worked closely with embattled former bureau director James Comey have left the agency, Fox News has confirmed.
Jim Baker, a top FBI lawyer who was reassigned in late 2017 after being linked to a journalist who wrote about the so-called "Trump dossier," is reportedly looking to join the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.
Lisa Page, whose electronic communications with another FBI employee drew accusations of political bias, "resigned" Friday to "pursue other opportunities," an FBI spokesperson told Fox News.
Comey acknowledged Baker’s departure in a tweet, commending his former colleague’s “integrity” and “commitment to the rule of law.”
Baker had been the subject of a Justice Department investigation on suspicion of leaking classified information about the so-called “Trump dossier” – a document that supposedly contained evidence about the Trump campaign's connection to Russia.
He had been reassigned in December as an adviser to current FBI Director Christopher Wray.
“I love the FBI,” Baker told the New York Times. “I have tremendous respect for the bureau. The FBI was great, is great and will be great.”
Page, who was previously a member of Robert Mueller’s special counsel team, came under fire for allegedly sending “anti-Trump” text messages to a colleague.
She was one of Comey’s advisers in 2016 when the former director announced the bureau would not pursue criminal charges against Hillary Clinton for her handling of classified emails.
Comey has said he would have removed Page from any relevant investigations had he known of her anti-Trump bias.

Hypocrite Democrat Cartoons

Dem to resign after ethics report linked to charges against husband

Massachusetts state Sen. Stanley Rosenberg speaks in Boston, March 14, 2016.  (Associated Press)

State Sen. Stanley Rosenberg, for decades one of the most powerful Democrats in Massachusetts, announced Thursday that he will resign Friday after 31 years as a lawmaker because of a scandal involving his estranged husband.
His decision follows Wednesday’s release of an ethics report that states Rosenberg “failed to protect the Senate” from his estranged husband, who faces charges of racially and sexually harassing Senate employees.
“In light … of the disciplinary measure recommended by the ethics committee, it would not be fair to my constituents to have a representative in the Senate who lacked the authority to represent their interests fully,” Rosenberg said in a letter to the Senate clerk, the Boston Herald reported.
Rosenberg, 68, of Amherst, a former president of the Massachusetts Senate, was the first openly gay lawmaker to lead a legislative chamber in the Bay State, Boston’s Fox 25 reported.
He stepped down as president in December, after the Boston Globe reported in November that four men alleged that Rosenberg’s husband, Byron Hefner, had sexually assaulted and harassed them, and boasted of his influence in the Senate.
Hefner was indicted in March. Rosenberg claims to have been unaware of Hefner’s alleged crimes.
Rosenberg’s resignation will take effect at 5 p.m. Friday, State House News Service reported.
Following the release of the ethics report, both Republican Gov. Charlie Baker and Democratic Attorney General Maura Healey called for Rosenberg to resign, Fox 25 reported.
According to the station, the report was prepared by independent investigators hired by the Senate Ethics Committee. It said that while Rosenberg did not violate any formal Senate rules, he showed poor judgment and violated the Senate's information technology policies by granting Hefner “unfettered access” to Rosenberg's Senate email account.
That access began before Rosenberg became Senate president in 2015 and ended in March 2017, after staffers detected two instances of Hefner allegedly sending emails to public officials under Rosenberg’s name.
Rosenberg "knew or should have known Hefner had racially and sexually harassed Senate employees" and failed to address the issue adequately, the report said.
Hefner, 30, pleaded not guilty in Suffolk Superior Court in April to charges of sexual assault, criminal lewdness and distributing nude photos without consent. He was released on his own recognizance pending further court action.

Newt Gingrich, Mary Mayhew: Hope for those trapped in welfare dependency -- Thanks to Trump

Republicans and members of the Trump administration must keep up the pressure and focus on achieving welfare reform.
When President Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, many believed that the law would indeed “end welfare as we know it.” It’s what we intended when Congress created the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program and implemented work requirements to restore welfare to its original intent as a springboard to self-sufficiency.
These policies were intended to be the beginning of welfare reform – the beginning of a nationwide policy focused on ending dependency. Instead, President Obama launched a war on the very thing we know is most successful at achieving this goal: work.
Over the past decade, too many of our fellow citizens have fallen deeper into the welfare trap, ensnared by government policies that pay people to not work. The so-called “War on Poverty” has left our nation with record-high levels of welfare enrollment – despite a 17-year record-low unemployment rate and more than 6 million open jobs across the country.

Over the past decade, too many of our fellow citizens have fallen deeper into the welfare trap, ensnared by government policies that pay people to not work.

Many of these new enrollees are able-bodied adults with no disabilities keeping them from working. They are not the individuals our welfare system is designed to aid – the disabled, the elderly, and others who are truly in need.
There are now nearly 21 million able-bodied adults dependent on food stamps – three times as many as in 2000. Some 28 million able-bodied adults are now dependent on Medicaid, quadrupling the number of those enrolled in 2000.
This is not what we envisioned in Congress – on either side of the political aisle – when we passed welfare reform in 1996 with bipartisan support. We included work requirements in the legislation because we knew the power of work. The reforms were compassionate – they gave people the opportunity to build better lives and create their own American dreams.
We know this not only because the research has proven it, time and time again, but because we’ve seen the transformational power of promoting work firsthand.
When Maine enforced time limits on its TANF program and refocused the program on employment and job training, it drew criticism from those on the left who called the reforms uncompassionate.
But the results spoke for themselves: Over the four-year period after the reforms, enrollees with records of prior earnings saw their wages increase by 237 percent on average. Throughout the duration of the evaluation period, these people dramatically increased their total earnings from $2.6 million to $8.6 million.
In October 2014, Maine began requiring able-bodied and childless adults who were receiving food stamps to work, train, or volunteer – at least part-time – in order to receive their benefits.
The reform drew criticism from the Obama administration – but once again, the power of work emerged. Those who left the program saw their incomes, on average, more than double within the first year, offsetting any lost welfare benefits. And the number of able-bodied adults receiving food stamp benefits fell from approximately 16,000 to 1,500.
But Maine was unfortunately the exception. Instead of empowering able-bodied adults to work to lift themselves out of dependency, most states implemented work requirement waivers, allowing adults to collect taxpayer-funded benefits without being required to work at all.
Loopholes have been exploited by federal and state bureaucrats who have robbed these able-bodied Americans of the opportunity to escape welfare and create better lives for themselves and their families.
Rather than viewing welfare as a temporary safety net, many government leaders have instead implemented policies that have turned welfare into a permanent trap.
Thankfully, President Trump’s recent executive order – Reducing Poverty in America by Promoting Opportunity and Economic Mobility – delivers a welcome policy change that offers hope to those trapped in welfare dependency.
The executive order lays the groundwork for federal agencies that administer welfare to prioritize work and encourage economic mobility, particularly for able-bodied adults. It reiterates the principle that those of us who have worked within the government know all too well: Government assistance is not the answer to ending poverty and dependency. Work is.
If Congress and agency leaders deliver on President Trump’s initiative, our welfare system can return to the truly compassionate policies of its past. Its success should once again be wholly measured by the number of people moved off the welfare rolls, not the number of people trapped on them. Only then will state successes like Maine’s become the norm rather than the exception.
Mary Mayhew served for six years commissioner of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, where she spearheaded transformational welfare reform. She currently serves as a senior fellow with the Opportunity Solutions Project.
Newt Gingrich is a Fox News contributor. A Republican, he was speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. Follow him on Twitter @NewtGingrich. His latest book is "Understanding Trump."

Kanye West banned from radio station over recent comments

A Detroit radio station said it will ban Kanye West's music over controversial comments the rapper made earlier this week that slavery “was a choice.”
Hosts Shay Shay and BiGG of 105.1 the Morning Bounce made the announcement Thursday on Facebook with the hashtag “Mute Kanye.”
“Kanye has gone too far” with his latest comments, they said. They wrote that they are refusing to give him a platform,” according to New York Post.
"We don't want to hear Kanye's music, we don't want to play Kanye on our show, we don't want to talk about Kanye anymore,” the post read. “So we are taking a stand and we aren't playing his music anymore; we just are refusing to give him a platform."
The ban will be for the entire hip-hop station and will include tracks that West produced or is featured in as well, the Detroit Free Press reported.
West faced swift backlash following an interview with TMZ on Tuesday, where he said "when you hear about slavery for 400 years. For 400 years?! That sounds like a choice."
The music mogul took to Twitter shortly after to try and walk back his comments and compared himself to both Nat Turner and Harriet Tubman.

"when you hear about slavery for 400 years. For 400 years?! That sounds like a choice."

“If this was 148 years ago I would have been more like Harriet or Nat," West tweeted, before clarifying the reason he “brought up the 400 years point is because we can’t be mentally imprisoned for another 400 years. We need free thought now. Even the statement was an example of free thought…It was just an idea.”
The two morning DJs didn’t announce how long the ban will last, and left it open to a “gut feeling.”
“That’s what it is right now. We need a break,” Shay Shay, told the paper. “I think it’s a gut feeling of when we’ll be able to feel comfortable playing it again, when we’ll want to hear it again, and more importantly, when will our listeners want to hear it again.”
West was banned from a Hot 103.5 in Sacramento in 2016 after he attacked radio stations and fellow artists during a concert for his Saint Pablo Tour, USA Today reported. 

Fresh embarrassment for NBC as embattled network has to correct itself on Cohen wiretap story

For NBC News, it was another in a series of embarrassments on Thursday as it had to correct a story saying federal investigators had placed a wiretap on the phone lines of President Donald Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen.
As Fox News is reporting, the feds were monitoring only what calls were being made but weren’t listening in — contrary to NBC’s earlier reporting. The Peacock Network’s major turnabout was made more than four hours after the original story moved online Thursday, when it caused immediate chatter in the cable news universe.
NBC had attributed its original story to two anonymous sources with knowledge of the legal proceedings against Cohen. In an editor’s note preceding the rewritten story, NBC explains that three senior U.S. officials disputed the account, saying that the phones were monitored by a pen register, which records the phone numbers on both ends of the conversation, not the substance of the calls themselves.
The erroneous NBC report added to widespread speculation about what exactly the feds were able to seize in their April raid. Cohen’s lawyers and President Trump’s legal team have been battling in court over access to those materials.
NBC moved its original story online shortly after 1 p.m. on Thursday, and it became immediate fodder on MSNBC and other cable networks. The correction was issued online at 5:27 p.m. with that editor’s note, and was discussed on MSNBC’s “Meet the Press Daily.”
The correction offered ammunition to the nation’s highest-ranked media critic: Trump has frequently criticized the mainstream media for catering to America’s left wing and coastal elite with “fake news.”
The screw-up also gave media watchdogs a chance to mock NBC online for its latest blast of “fake news.”
The Washington Post’s Fact Checker, Glenn Kessler, tweeted that the mistake was “pretty big.”
The correction is just the latest storm for a network reeling from them. It is currently dealing with unflattering stories involving sexual misconduct, secrecy, homophobia and bad decision-making, causing headaches for NBC and its news chairman, Andy Lack.
There’s the controversy over the findings of an internal review to determine who knew about disgraced “Today” host Matt Lauer’s bad behavior but didn’t report it in a timely manner; antigay slurs connected to MSNBC star Joy Reid’s blog posts; and the accusations that legendary anchor Tom Brokaw engaged in forceful and unwanted kissing of then-NBC correspondent Linda Vester in the 1990s.
Also still in play are persistent questions over why NBC sat on two major sex harassment stories: the “Access Hollywood” tape of Trump and the blockbuster reporting on alleged Hollywood sex predator Harvey Weinstein by Ronan Farrow, which won him the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for public service.
Then there’s the foundering and hugely expensive experiment with former Fox News star Megyn Kelly, who reportedly has been dragging down NBC News’ most important show by far, “Today.”
NBC has been silent on the Reid and Brokaw matters, the two most recent humiliations before the news story correction.
“If legendary icons like Matt Lauer and Tom Brokaw can be accused by apparently responsible individuals, the company should act as others have done and dispense with internal investigations and engage a high profile, independent investigator to determine the root causes as well as the specifics of these horrendous accusations,” famed reporter-turned-entrepreneur Porter Bibb previously told Fox News, adding that NBC was “seriously derelict” in not ordering an independent investigation of the entire company’s policies, protocols, and past performance.

Deep State Cartoons

Hillary Clinton says being a capitalist likely hurt her among socialist Dems

Former U.S. Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton speaks in Washington, Nov. 2, 2017.  (Reuters)

Hillary Clinton agreed Wednesday that being a capitalist likely damaged her 2016 campaign because nearly half of Democrats say they are socialists.
"Probably," Clinton said at the Shared Values Leadership Summit in New York City, after being asked whether support for capitalism hurt her at the polls.
"It's hard to know, but if you're in the Iowa caucuses and 41 percent of Democrats are socialists, or self-described socialists, and I'm asked, ‘Are you a capitalist?' And I say, ‘Yes, but with appropriate regulation and appropriate accountability,' you know, that probably gets lost in the ‘Oh my gosh, she's a capitalist.'"
Clinton won the Iowa caucus by a mere half-point.
The former U.S. secretary of state was challenged from the left during the Democratic primaries by self-described democratic socialist Bernie Sanders, the U.S. senator from Vermont who repeatedly criticized her for being bankrolled by Wall Street and not going after capitalism and with the same hostility as the Democratic grassroots hoped for.
During the first Democratic debate in 2015, Sanders refused to identify himself as a capitalist.
“Do I consider myself part of the casino capitalist process by which so few have so much and so many have so little?” he asked. “By which Wall Street greed and recklessness wrecked this economy? No I don’t.”
Clinton, meanwhile, offered a defense of capitalism, saying: “When I think about capitalism, I think about all the businesses that were started because we have the opportunity and the freedom to do that and to make a good living for themselves and their families … We would be making a grave mistake to turn our backs on what built the greatest middle class in the history.”
Following a short hiatus from promoting her election post-mortem book "What Happened," Clinton returned to political activities Monday, just six months before the midterm elections.
The former candidate attended a gathering of nearly a dozen progressive groups supported by Onward Together, the post-election political organization she founded that's aimed at “advancing the progressive vision that earned nearly 66 million votes in the last election.”
“I don’t want to see us go backwards,” Clinton said. “But organized interests fueled by ideology and huge amounts of money are trying to take us backwards. So I feel as strongly today as I ever have that we all have to stand up and defend our country, and most importantly, our democracy.”

Deep state has 'weaponized' security clearances against Trump, conservative Pentagon official's lawyer says

Political opponents of President Donald Trump have "weaponized" the security-clearance process against him in an undemocratic "power grab," stalling his nominations and systematically impeding White House operations, the lawyer for a top Defense Department official wrote Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal.
The charge comes less than a month after U.S. Sen. Rand Paul revealed that two romantically involved FBI officials who were removed from special counsel Robert Mueller's team over a series of anti-Trump text messages still have Top Secret security clearances.
National security attorney Sean Bigley wrote that his client, Adam Lovinger, is just one example of the ongoing war against Trump appointees. Lovinger served for more than a decade as a Pentagon strategist before being tapped to become an analyst for the National Security Council.

"Unelected partisans are quietly usurping presidential prerogatives ..."

But shortly after Lovinger turned whistleblower -- by raising concerns about the possible misuse of contractors to perform government functions -- his security clearance was suspended and he lost the NSC post, Bigley wrote.
JARED KUSHNER'S SECURITY CLEARANCE DOWNGRADED
According to Bigley, the Pentagon cited only "[s]pecious, and constantly evolving, claims of misconduct" against his client to justify the punishment. Government officials failed to provide any specific evidence for their claims, and Lovinger remains on administrative leave, the attorney wrote.
"One of Mr. Lovinger’s alleged transgressions was that Pentagon officials had improperly marked an academic report he took aboard an airplane for reading," Bigley wrote.
The root of the problem, according to Bigley, is systemic partisan bias among career government bureaucrats who have openly expressed their contempt for President Trump.
"In Mr. Lovinger’s case, those weaponizing the security-clearance process include a senior official who remains on the job despite publicly disparaging President Trump as 'unfit' to lead, a Pentagon attorney who instructed colleagues on the importance of concealing retaliatory motives behind their actions, and the Defense Department’s security adjudications chief, who persists in advancing false allegations," Bigley wrote.
"They and other unelected partisans are quietly usurping presidential prerogatives through a litany of seemingly small but slowly compounding abuses of bureaucratic power," he said.
TRUMP-HATING FBI BIGWIGS STILL HAVE TOP-SECRET SECURITY CLEARANCE
The White House's handling of security clearances came under fire earlier this year, in the wake of revelations that former White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter had worked for more than a year with only interim clearance.
Porter, whose job gave him constant access to the most sensitive of documents, had been accused of domestic abuse by his two ex-wives. The White House repeatedly adjusted its timeline about who knew what and when about the allegations.

'Mexican Mafia' crackdown results in 85 arrests in Southern California

Weapons, cash and other items seized from so-called "Mexican Mafia" suspects in "Operation Scarecrow" are seen in Orange County, Calif., May 2, 2018.  (Orange County Sheriff's Department)

A major gang crackdown aimed at so-called Mexican Mafia operations in Orange County, Calif., has led to 85 arrests of “middle management” gang leaders, officials said Wednesday.
The three-month investigation, dubbed “Operation Scarecrow,” was one of the largest operations in county history, Orange County Undersheriff Don Barnes told the Orange County Register.
Authorities confiscated 36 firearms, 14 pounds of methamphetamine and three pounds of heroin, the report said.
The investigation was also the largest crackdown on gang activity in California this year, the OC Breeze reported.
The name “Operation Scarecrow” came from its connection to a Mexican Mafia shot-caller with the street moniker “Crow,” the Register reported.
The investigation targeted the Surenos street gang and its criminal activities directed by the Mexican Mafia, the report said.
“We will continue to hold accountable those who terrorize our communities and jeopardize our public safety,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said, according to the Register. “All families in California deserve to know that their loved ones, especially their children, are safe.”

“We will continue to hold accountable those who terrorize our communities and jeopardize our public safety.”

The operation was a joint effort involving the California Department of Justice, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and the California Highway Patrol, Becerra said.
“The success of this operation highlights the importance of collaborative partnerships amongst law enforcement agencies,” Sheriff Sandra Hutchens said in a statement. “The shared communication amongst our respective agencies have resulted in the removal of significant threats from our community. My hope is that these actions will send a message to criminal gangs that you are not welcome in Orange County.”
Prosecutors have filed charges in 31 cases in Orange County and two in Los Angeles, including weapon and drug violations, conspiracy, fraud and criminal street gang enhancements, the report said.
However, Barnes said the arrests were a “drop in the bucket” compared to the organization’s “mass control over street gangs statewide,” the Register reported.
“We share this information not to scare the public but to remind the residents of Orange County that this is a reality we face,” he said. “Criminal gang enterprises still continue to prey upon our community and we have to do everything we can to fight back.”

Giuliani says Trump paid $130G to Cohen for 'expenses' over several months

In a wide-ranging interview on Fox News' "Hannity" on Wednesday night, Rudy Giuliani told host Sean Hannity that President Donald Trump reimbursed his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, $130,000 that Cohen paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels days before the 2016 election in exchange for her silence about a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006.
"That money was not campaign money," said Giuliani, a recent addition to Trump's legal team who is also a former mayor of New York City and Republican presidential candidate. "It's not campaign money. No campaign finance violation."
"They funneled the payment through [Cohen's] law firm," Hannity said.
"Funneled it through the law firm and the president repaid it," Giuliani said.
But Giuliani later clarified for Fox News that the money Trump paid to Cohen was for unspecified "expenses," and that the president was unaware that money would be going to Daniels.
A spokesman said the White House had no comment on the matter, citing an ongoing investigation.
'Over several months'
On "Hannity," Giuliani said Trump repaid Cohen "over several months" by putting him on a "retainer of $35,000 when he was doing no work for the president."
"I said, 'That's how he's repaying it, with a little profit and a little margin for paying taxes,'" said Giuliani, who added that Trump "didn’t know about the specifics of [the payment], as far as I know, but he did know about the general arrangement that Michael would take care of things like this. Like I take care of things like this for my clients. I don’t burden them with every single thing that comes along."
Last month, Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he had no knowledge about the payment Cohen made to Daniels. When asked why Cohen sent Daniels the money, the president answered: "You'll have to ask Michael Cohen - Michael's my attorney."
Days later, federal agents raided Cohen's home, office and hotel room in New York City.
After Giuliani's appearance on "Hannity," sources familiar with the matter told Fox News that Trump did in fact repay Cohen the $130,000 Cohen paid to Daniels, over several months.
While the source did not know why Trump said he had no knowledge of the payments in the Air Force One gaggle, the source confirmed that the president knowingly paid Cohen back.
The net effect of the disclosure, the source said, is that it takes any potential Federal Election Commission violation off the table as Trump paid the money from his personal funds. The argument here is that if Trump paid the money himself, there was no illegal campaign contribution.
The source said that while the matter was “embarrassing for the president, it strikes a blow to the heart of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York’s case.
The source did not know the exact timing of when the payments to Cohen began and ended. The source believes the repayments started after the transaction with Daniels was completed.
Later Wednesday, Giuliani clarified to Fox News that the president reimbursed Cohen for "expenses," not for a payment to Daniels.
Giuliani said Cohen told the president that he had incurred the expenses on Trump’s behalf and they required repayment. The former mayor said Trump was not aware that the expenses included a $130,000 payment to Daniels.
Trump became aware of it, Giuliani said, only after the case became public.
Giuliani said the payments continued into 2017, but were completed before the Daniels non-disclosure-agreement story broke. He said he spoke with Trump before his appearance on "Hannity" and that Trump was aware of what Giuliani was going to say on the show.
Porn star's lawyer responds
Meanwhile, Michael Avenatti, attorney for Daniels, tweeted his reaction to Giuliani's "Hannity" comments.
"We predicted months ago that it would be proven that the American people had been lied to as to the $130k payment and what Mr. Trump knew, when he knew it and what he did in connection with it," Avenatti wrote. "Every American, regardless of their politics, should be outraged...
"...by what we have now learned. Mr. Trump stood on AF1 and blatantly lied. This followed the lies told by others close to him, including Mr. Cohen. This should never be acceptable in our America. We will not rest until justice is served. #basta"
"Basta," in Spanish and Italian, means "Enough!"
Later, in an appearance on "Fox News @ Night" with Shannon Bream, White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said White House officials were unaware of what topics would be discussed on the "Hannity" show, and declined to comment on the $130,000 payment, citing an ongoing investigation.
"I have to refer anything on this matter to the president's outside counsel," Gidley told Bream.
Comey a 'liar'
Also in Giuliani's "Hannity" interview, Giuliani told Hannity that Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should end Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials "in the interest of justice."
"There's been too much government misconduct," Giuliani said. "The crimes now have all been committed by the government and their agents."
The former mayor also called for former FBI Director James Comey to be prosecuted for leaking classified information, at one point calling him "a disgraceful liar."
"I have never, ever... leaked a damn thing," said Giuliani, referring to his time as a U.S. Attorney. "I would have considered resigning if I ever did that."
Comey, who was fired by Trump as FBI director in May 2017, has admitted giving memos about his conversations with President Trump to at least three people -- including members of his legal team. He has claimed that the memos were personal documents, not government property.
Giuliani said that Trump had dismissed Comey because "Comey would not, among other things, say that [Trump] wasn't a target of the [Russia] investigation. He's entitled to that. Hillary Clinton got that [during the email investigation.] And he couldn't get that.
"You can't blame the president for feeling, 'I am not being treated the same way [Clinton was]," Giuliani said.
At one point, Giuliani addressed Comey directly, saying that "every FBI agent in America has his head down because of you. It would be good ... if God had kept you out of being the head of the FBI."

Hillary Clinton Cartoons

Hillary Clinton gears up to influence midterms -- whether Dems like it or not

Hillary Clinton has ramped up her efforts to influence the Democratic Party and its voters in upcoming midterm elections, a move that some say only hands ammunition to Republican candidates.
Many thought Clinton's 2016 presidential election defeat -- which followed a failed 2008 primary campaign -- would end her political life. But the subsequent tour for the book "What Happened" has helped keep the former U.S. secretary of state visible despite her devastating loss to Donald Trump.
On Monday, Clinton activated her political machine, attending a gathering of nearly a dozen progressive groups supported by Onward Together, the post-election political organization she founded that's aimed at “advancing the progressive vision that earned nearly 66 million votes in the last election.”

"So I feel as strongly today as I ever have that we all have to stand up and defend our country, and most importantly, our democracy.”

“I don’t want to see us go backwards,” Clinton told Bustle. “But organized interests fueled by ideology and huge amounts of money are trying to take us backwards. So I feel as strongly today as I ever have that we all have to stand up and defend our country, and most importantly, our democracy.”
The Clinton family also plans to restart fundraising efforts for the Clinton Foundation, which is being investigated for “pay to play” politics while Clinton headed the State Department (2009-13), inviting people to a benefit event on May 24 in New York, according to Axios. The price for attending ranges from $2,500 for a cocktail party and dinner – up to $100,000 for a special reception.
Her return to political life comes ahead of midterm elections this November, where energized Democratic voters hope to take back some control in Washington, D.C., following nearly two years of the contentious Trump presidency.
“Just as I’m working here today to try to make sure we’re prepared to do everything we can in November, there are thousands of people on the other side who are doing the same,” Clinton told Bustle. “Even though I think the energy is on our side, we have to translate that into a very strong electoral strategy.”
Clinton’s political organization boasts of giving over $1 million in grants in its first year to left-wing groups. The disclosed financial records show the organization raised only $115,000 in the last year, but because it’s registered as a nonprofit social welfare organization, the actual money raised and the identities of the donors do not have to be disclosed.
Among the groups that it gave money, according to the outlet, is Indivisible – a group that sent liberal activists to Republican town halls last year.
The Republicans, meanwhile, knowing that Clinton remains the most unpopular high-profile Democrat in the country, second only to House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi, have decided to make Clinton a target during the midterm elections.
"We're going to make them own her," Republican National Committee spokesman Rick Gorka said.
Remarks by Clinton have already forced some Democrats to disassociate from her. U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., slammed the former candidate for saying that voters in America’s heartland backed Trump for president because they wanted to move the country “backward.”
"For those of us that are in states that Trump won, we would really appreciate if she would be more careful and show respect to every American voter and not just the ones who voted for her," McCaskill said.
In North Dakota, Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, who faces a tough re-election fight in November, was asked in March in a radio interview when Clinton would “ride off into the sunset.”
“Not soon enough,” Heitkamp responded.

DACA should be overturned -- A new lawsuit might succeed in doing that

Demonstrators urging the Democratic Party to protect the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Act (DACA) rally in California.

A lawsuit filed Tuesday by Texas and six other states may finally result in the long-overdue termination of the DACA program, which was created without legal authority by President Obama in 2012 to allow children brought into the U.S. illegally to temporarily remain here under certain conditions.
The lawsuit does not address the question of whether allowing the roughly 700,000 illegal immigrants protected from deportation under DACA is a good policy or a bad one. Instead, the suit contends correctly that President Obama exceeded his authority under law and under the Constitution to create DACA without the approval of Congress and without taking other required steps.
Whatever the outcome of the suit, the ruling seems certain to be appealed and wind up in the U.S. Supreme Court.
DACA stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. President Trump announced in September that he wanted to phase out the program beginning in March, but federal judges blocked him from doing so after lawsuits were filed to keep DACA in place.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in U.S. District Court in Brownsville, Texas, correctly says DACA must be invalidated because President Obama had no legal right to create the program “without congressional authorization.”
The states contend that if Congress wants to, it has the authority under the Constitution to create whatever program it wants for the illegal immigrants affected by DACA. But the president doesn’t have that power acting alone.
This is a critical point. Under the Constitution, the president can’t change laws strictly on his own authority just because he thinks such a change is a good idea that will benefit the nation. Congress is a co-equal branch of government and must approve new laws.
If this were not the case, we could have one-person rule by the president – destroying the checks and balances between branches of government that are a key part of the separation of powers in the Constitution and that safeguard our freedom.
The state of Texas was joined by Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina and West Virginia in filing the lawsuit Tuesday.
In addition to lacking congressional authorization, the seven states say DACA should be thrown out because it:
· Violates federal immigration law.
· Was implemented without the notice-and-comment procedures required for all substantive government regulations and policies under the Administrative Procedure Act.
· Violates the “Take Care” Clause of the Constitution – the provision that requires the president to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.”
DACA essentially gives a free pass to illegal immigrants who arrived in the U.S. before turning 16 by June 2007, granting them “lawful presence” with access to a myriad of government benefits, including work authorizations and Social Security benefits.
The lawsuit filed by seven states claims that DACA is just as “contrary to federal law” as the 2014 Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) program, also created by President Obama.
The 5^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals halted DAPA in 2015. That decision was affirmed by a divided Supreme Court when it had just eight justices, following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.
The DAPA program gave illegal immigrants who were parents of children who were American citizens (usually because the children were born in the U.S.) or whose children were legal permanent residents the same type of amnesty and benefits as the DACA program gave to children brought to the U.S. illegally.
But as the 5th Circuit noted when it stopped the implementation of DAPA, letting a president exercise such power “would allow (the president) to grant lawful presence and work authorization to any illegal alien in the United States – an untenable position in light of the  intricate system of immigration classifications and employment eligibility” under federal law.
Texas and the other states involved in the successful lawsuit against DAPA had threatened to amend their lawsuit and add a claim against DACA. But when the Trump administration rescinded DACA – announcing it would not issue or renew DACA permits starting March 5 this year – the states dismissed their DACA lawsuit.
The seven states revived their lawsuit Tuesday to counter the errant injunctions blocking President Trump from ending DACA that were issued by U.S. district courts in California, New York and Washington, D.C.
In January, a California federal judge blocked President Trump’s decision to end DACA.
 A federal judge in the nation’s capital recently issued another decision that the seven states argue “took the remarkable additional step of vacating the executive’s decision to wind down DACA, granting summary judgment that the wind-down was substantively unlawful … and ordering the Executive to continue issuing new DACA applications as well,” although that judge stayed his order for 90 days.
In addition to all of the legal claims against DACA, the seven states point out that the Obama administration’s overall refusal to enforce immigration laws “caused a humanitarian crisis.”
The states cite a 2013 federal court decision that said the Obama administration “encouraged international child smuggling across the Texas-Mexico border” because even though the federal government arrested human smugglers, “it completed the criminal conspiracy … by delivering the minors to the custody” of their parents who were in the country illegally.
By promoting human trafficking, the Obama administration helped “fund the illegal drug cartels which are a very real danger for both citizens of this country and Mexico,” the lawsuit filed Tuesday says.
The states want the U.S. District Court to declare the original 2012 DACA program invalid. They also plan to file a motion asking the federal court to issue a preliminary injunction stopping the federal government from issuing or renewing any DACA permits in the future.
The seven states assert that their “lawsuit is emphatically about the rule of law.” The “policy merits of immigration laws are debated in and decided by Congress,” not the executive branch, which “does not exercise a lawmaking role.”
Here’s the bottom line:
President Obama had no constitutional or statutory authority to create DACA and provide what amounted to an administrative amnesty program for illegal immigrants.
It is bizarre for judges in California, New York and elsewhere to hold that a president cannot reverse the executive actions of a prior president – particularly when they were improper to start with. It is time the courts recognized that.
Hans A. von Spakovsky is a Senior Legal Fellow at The Heritage Foundation.  He is the coauthor of “Who’s Counting? How Fraudsters and Bureaucrats Put Your Vote at Risk” and “Obama’s Enforcer: Eric Holder’s Justice Department.”