State Department, intelligence watchdogs reportedly call for criminal probe of Clinton emails

The inspectors general for the State Department and the intelligence community reportedly have asked the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into whether Hillary Clinton mishandled classified information by using a personal e-mail account while secretary of state.
According to The New York Times, an initial joint memorandum dated June 29 and sent to State Department Under Secretary for Management Patrick Kennedy said that a review of Clinton's e-mail archive contained "hundreds of potentially classified emails".
Clinton, who served as secretary of state during President Barack Obama's first term, has repeatedly denied sending or receiving any classified information on her personal account. However, the inspectors general wrote in a second memorandum last week that at least one of Clinton's emails that had been made public by the State Department contained sensitive information.
Clinton presidential campaign spokesman Nick Merrill issued a statement early Friday denying that Clinton had handled classified materials inappropriately.
"As has been reported on multiple occasions, any released emails deemed classified by the [Obama] administration have been done so after the fact, and not at the time they were transmitted," Merrill said.
The Times reported that senior Justice Department officials had not said whether they will open an investigation.

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• Hillary Clinton's presidential bid runs into a summer stall

The existence of Clinton's private e-mail account was first revealed in March of this year. Subsequent reports revealed that the account was run through a personal so-called "homebrew" server based at her New York home. The arrangement has raised questions about Clinton's adherence to federal open records laws and whether she used the account to shield herself from information requests by journalists and government transparency groups.
Clinton has maintained that she turned over all relevant federal records before deleting her emails off her sever. Amid heavy public criticism, she later asked the State Department to release 55,000 pages of emails she had turned over to them. An initial batch of 3,000 pages was made public June 30.
The next day, State Department spokesman John Kirby confirmed to Fox News that the department had retroactively deemed about 25 of the Clinton emails to be classified. The Times reports that in May, the State Department also acceded to a request by the FBI to retroactively classify a section of emails related to the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. The Department's decisions don't mean Clinton knowingly sent classified information during her tenure as America's top diplomat.
The New York Times reports that the inspectors general also criticized the State Department for over-reliance on former Foreign Service officers to determine which information should be classified and failure to consult with the intelligence community on such matters.

Turkey agrees to allow US to use air base for strikes against ISIS

The United States may now launch manned and unmanned military strikes against ISIS from inside Turkey after the government there agreed to allow Washington expanded use of a key air base, a senior defense official confirmed to Fox News Thursday.
Prior U.S. airstrikes against the Islamic State have originated from aircraft carriers in the Gulf. However, Turkey has agreed to allow the U.S. expanded use of its Incirlik Air Base, located near the Turkish-Syrian border.
The U.S. military had been using the base in Turkey previously for drone missions and other support operations such as launching and recovering refueling aircraft. Military officials told The Wall Street Journal the agreement also opens up other bases in Turkey for potential use in the campaign against Islamic State.
The Defense Department released a statement Thursday night confirming that there had been discussions with Turkey about counter-ISIS efforts, but did not go into specifics about Incirlik.
"The United States and Turkey have held ongoing consultations about ways we can further our joint counter-ISIL efforts," the statement said. "We have decided to further deepen our cooperation in the fight against ISIL, our common efforts to promote security and stability in Iraq, and our work to bring about a political settlement to the conflict in Syria."
While the U.S. is planning to launch air strikes against ISIS from Turkey, the defense official who spoke to Fox News remained skeptical if Turkey would do the same and said that was the real question.
The news comes amid increasing violence along Turkey’s 560-mile long border with Syria. ISIS is believed to have been behind a suicide attack on Monday that killed 32 and injured 100 mostly Kurdish activists. Kurdish militants, many of whom blame Turkey for not doing more to stop ISIS, reportedly responded by killing two Turkish police officers. A border-area gunfight erupted Thursday between suspected-ISIS extremists and Turkish police, leaving at least one dead on each side.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest was asked about the reported air base agreement during his Thursday briefing but also declined to discuss specifics.
President Obama spoke with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday night in a conversation the White House said focused on Turkey’s border security.
“The two leaders discussed efforts to deepen our cooperation in the fight against ISIL,” Earnest said.

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Poll shows Clinton trailing Republicans in every swing state tested

A stunning new poll shows trouble brewing for Hillary Clinton in key swing states, with the Democratic presidential front-runner trailing potential Republican rivals in every match-up tested. 
The Quinnipiac University poll put Clinton head-to-head against Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in three states: Colorado, Iowa and Virginia.
In every hypothetical contest, the former secretary of state was either clearly trailing or, as Quinnipiac phrased it, "on the wrong side of a too-close-to-call" race. A majority of voters in all three states also said they found Clinton not honest and trustworthy.
The gap between Clinton and GOP candidates was most pronounced in Colorado and Iowa. She trailed Rubio by 8 points in Colorado, 38-46 percent; and Walker by 9 points, 38-47 percent. She trailed Bush by 6 points in Iowa, 36-42 percent; and Rubio by 8 points, 36-44 percent.
The survey raises troubling questions for the campaign, which has struggled to shed the image of a candidate who is closed off to the media and the public, despite her decisive lead over the Democratic field. The latest results reflect a drop from a similar poll in April.
"She has lost ground in the horserace," Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said in a statement.
In another troubling sign for the Democratic candidate, voters gave her poor marks on being trustworthy. In Colorado, for instance, voters said 62-34 percent she is not honest and trustworthy.
Clinton wasn't the only one taking a hit in the latest poll. Though Donald Trump has narrowly led the GOP presidential field in some recent polls, the Quinnipiac survey showed voters, by roughly 2-1, had a negative view of the billionaire real estate magnate. Brown said that means his "growth potential" is lower than that of his GOP rivals.
The polls were taken July 9-20, of 1,231 Colorado voters; 1,236 Iowa voters; and 1,209 Virginia voters. Each had a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points.

Seattle sees fallout from $15 minimum wage, as other cities follow suit

Seattle’s $15 minimum wage law is supposed to lift workers out of poverty and move them off public assistance. But there may be a hitch in the plan.
Evidence is surfacing that some workers are asking their bosses for fewer hours as their wages rise – in a bid to keep overall income down so they don’t lose public subsidies for things like food, child care and rent.
Full Life Care, a home nursing nonprofit, told KIRO-TV in Seattle that several workers want to work less.
“If they cut down their hours to stay on those subsidies because the $15 per hour minimum wage didn’t actually help get them out of poverty, all you’ve done is put a burden on the business and given false hope to a lot of people,” said Jason Rantz, host of the Jason Rantz show on 97.3 KIRO-FM.
The twist is just one apparent side effect of the controversial -- yet trendsetting -- minimum wage law in Seattle, which is being copied in several other cities despite concerns over prices rising and businesses struggling to keep up.
The notion that employees are intentionally working less to preserve their welfare has been a hot topic on talk radio. While the claims are difficult to track, state stats indeed suggest few are moving off welfare programs under the new wage.
Despite a booming economy throughout western Washington, the state’s welfare caseload has dropped very little since the higher wage phase began in Seattle in April. In March 130,851 people were enrolled in the Basic Food program. In April, the caseload dropped to 130,376.
At the same time, prices appear to be going up on just about everything.
Some restaurants have tacked on a 15 percent surcharge to cover the higher wages. And some managers are no longer encouraging customers to tip, leading to a redistribution of income. Workers in the back of the kitchen, such as dishwashers and cooks, are getting paid more, but servers who rely on tips are seeing a pay cut.
Some long-time Seattle restaurants have closed altogether, though none of the owners publicly blamed the minimum wage law.
“It’s what happens when the government imposes a restriction on the labor market that normally wouldn’t be there, and marginal businesses get hit the hardest, and usually those are small, neighborhood businesses,” said Paul Guppy, of the Washington Policy Center.
Seattle was followed by San Francisco and Los Angeles in passing a $15 minimum wage law. The wage is being phased in over several years to give businesses time to adjust. The current minimum wage in Seattle is $11. In San Francisco, it’s $12.25.
And it is spreading. Beyond the city of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors this week also approved a $15 minimum wage.
New York state could be next, with the state Wage Board on Wednesday backing a $15 wage for fast-food workers, something Gov. Andrew Cuomo has supported.
Already, though, there are unintended consequences in other cities.
Comix Experience, a small book store in downtown San Francisco, has begun selling graphic novel club subscriptions in order to meet payroll. The owner, Brian Hibbs, admits members are not getting all that much for their $25 per month dues, but their “donation” is keeping him in business.
“I was looking at potentially having to close the store down and then how would I make my living?” Hibbs asked.
To date, he’s sold 228 subscriptions. He says he needs 334 to reach his goal of the $80,000 income required to cover higher labor costs. He doesn’t blame San Francisco voters for approving the $15 minimum wage, but he doesn’t think they had all the information needed to make a good decision.

Immigrant parents suing Texas for withholding birth certificates to US-born kids

Only in America can stupid stuff like this happen.

Immigrant parents living in Texas without proper identification papers are suing the state for withholding birth certificates from their American-born children, in a tricky case that pits Texas' strict ID laws against the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.
The suit was filed in May in U.S. District Court in Austin by a group of Mexican citizen parents living in Texas. The suit claims the state refused birth certificates for 23 children because the parents could not provide the proper photo identification under state law.
But the parents argue Texas is, in doing so, violating the 14th Amendment, which guarantees citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil regardless of their parents’ status.
The lawsuit does not outright say the parents are illegal immigrants, but strongly suggests it -- at one point alleging the state is denying their kids birth certificates due to their "immigration status."
“We’re trying to resolve this issue once and for all,” Efren Olivares, the plaintiffs' lawyer who also works with the Texas Civil Rights Project, told FoxNews.com. “Our two main objectives: obtain birth certificates for the 23 children and to obtain a clear statement from the state agency as to what people in this situation will have to produce in the future to get their birth certificate.”
The concept of birthright citizenship is controversial in its own right, with illegal immigration foes concerned that undocumented parents are having children inside the U.S. to help the entire family stay in the country.
But the right is nevertheless enshrined in the Constitution. Yet some illegal immigrant parents in Texas have had trouble getting a birth certificate for their kids because they themselves lack the right papers.
In 2013, local jurisdictions stopped accepting consulate cards, called “matriculas,” under state pressure. Immigrants had been able to get matriculas from their home country’s consulate in the state, but since have had to show their foreign driver’s license or border ID card as primary verification. Passports without U.S. visas don’t count.
Advocacy groups point out that many illegal immigrants don’t have these documents and going back home to get them would probably mean they couldn't return.
The state, however, says that blocking matriculas is just a matter of enforcing its own rule.
“Texas has never accepted the consular ID’s,” said Chris Van Deussen, press officer for the Texas Department of State Health Services. “Birth and death records are filed at the local registrar … so while we’ve never accepted them at the state level, I cannot say that every registrar rejected them.”
Van Deussen emphasized that matriculas weren’t secure forms of identification. He said “the issuer doesn’t verify data or documents that go into them.”
The purpose of enforcing the ID rules is in part to ensure parents are who they say they are. Van Deussen said while the agency is committed to getting people the documents, they also have a duty to ensure people provide valid information to prevent fraud and ID theft.
“This is not a policy that’s based on anybody’s immigrant status, it is based on the ID a person can present.”
Identification restrictions nevertheless have big implications for immigrants.
The suit claims that potentially thousands of Mexican and Central American parents have been denied birth certificates for their children. Families need certificates to register their children in school or enroll in appropriate health insurance and government programs.
Olivares said that children can be denied benefits over certificates, and that even churches sometimes don’t baptize children without their form. Some parents have been unable to get the certificates for several years, according to an NPR report.
Texas’ ID crackdown coincides with a boom in Central American children being born in the state. Last year alone, more than 55,000 families came to the U.S. from Central America. Three-fourths of them went to Texas, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Jennifer Harbury, another lawyer for the plaintiffs, said Texas’ certificate denials are politically motivated. She told the Los Angeles Times that they're part of the pushback to the Obama administration’s 2012 deportation protections and 2014 proposals to protect immigrant parents with American-born children.
Texas’ attorney general is expected to respond to the lawsuit in the coming weeks.

Islamic State bigger threat than Al Qaeda, FBI chief says

Wow, they're just now figgering this out?

The Islamic State terror group’s effort to inspire troubled Americans to extremism is a greater threat to the U.S. than an external attack from Al Qaeda, the FBI director said Wednesday.
FBI Director James Comey told an audience at the Aspen Security Forum that the group, commonly known as ISIS, has influenced a significant number of Americans through a year-long campaign on social media urging Muslims who can’t travel to the Middle East to “kill where you are.”
Twitter handles affiliated with the group have more than 21,000 English-language followers worldwide, Comey said, adding that thousands of those could be U.S. residents.
The FBI has arrested a significant number of people over the last handful of weeks who had been radicalized, Comey said. He also repeated his previous disclosure, without elaborating, that several people were arrested who were planning attacks related to the July Fourth holiday.
Comey said it was too soon to say how Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, the Chattanooga gunman who killed five U.S. troops last week, became radicalized.
Abdulazeez's relatives have said he had a history of drug use and depression. Comey noted that "the people the Islamic State is trying to reach are people that Al Qaeda would never use as an operative, because they are often unstable, troubled drug users."
Asked if the threat from the Islamic State group had eclipsed that of Al Qaeda, the rival organization that attacked the U.S. on September 11, 2001, Comey said, "Yes."
The U.S. has tracked dozens of Americans, ranging in age from 18 to 62, who have traveled to Syria or Iraq to fight with ISIS, he said.
"I worry very much about what I can't see," Comey added, because he said ISIS recruiters use encrypted communication software to avoid U.S. eavesdropping.
Comey’s remarks Wednesday signal a deepening concern among U.S. officials about the impact of ISIS efforts to inspire terrorist violence. As recently as September, senior U.S. intelligence officials were downplaying the group’s capacity to attack the U.S. Matt Olsen, then the head of the National Counter Terrorism Center, told Congress last year that the U.S. had "no credible information that ISIL is planning to attack the United States."
Intelligence officials last year were saying they worry about a mass casualty attack against a U.S. airliner by Al Qaeda’s Yemen affiliate or by the Khorasan Group, a cadre of Al Qaeda operatives in Syria.
But Comey said Wednesday the threat from the Khorasan Group has been "significantly diminished" by U.S. military strikes.
The Pentagon on Tuesday announced that it had killed the Khorasan Group's leader, Muhsin al-Fadhli, in a July 8 airstrike in Syria.

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