California judge forces LA Times to alter story about detective with alleged ties to Mexican mafia

A federal judge on Saturday directed the Los Angeles Times to amend a story about a California police detective who was accused of working with the Mexican mafia after sealed court documents were accidentally made available online.
The article described a plea agreement between prosecutors and 45-year-old detective John Saro Balian. But the plea deal, which was supposed to be filed under seal, was accidentally made available in a public online database of federal court documents, according to the Times.
Shortly after the article was posted on Saturday morning, Balian’s attorney sought a temporary restraining order, which the judge granted later that afternoon.
“To the extent any article is published prior to issuance of this order, it shall be deleted and removed forthwith,” U.S. District Judge John F. Walter’s wrote in a ruling.
Following the decision, the Times removed any references about the sealed agreement, though pledged to challenge the ruling.

"We believe that once material is in the public record, it is proper and appropriate to publish it if it is newsworthy."
- The Los Angeles Times’ executive editor Norman Pearlstine.

“We believe that once material is in the public record, it is proper and appropriate to publish it if it is newsworthy,” said the Times’ executive editor Norman Pearlstine.
“Typically, courts take into account if information was already published. Where it is no longer secret, the point of the restraining order is mooted,” said Kelli Sager, an attorney representing newspaper. “To order a publication to claw it back doesn’t even serve the interest that may be intended.”
Peter Scheer, former executive director of the First Amendment Coalition, told the outlet that writing about the plea deal was “fair game” as it was put in the public domain.
“A news organization that wishes to write about the content has the right to do so under the 1st Amendment,” he said. “Whether or not a journalist should is a matter of editorial discretion or journalistic ethics. It’s a separate matter. It’s not a legal matter.”
Detective Balian pleaded guilty last week to three counts, including lying to investigators about his ties to organized crime, accepting a bribe and obstructing justice after tipping off a top criminal about a federal raid, the Los Angeles Times reported.
His stint as an allegedly corrupt detective came to an end after the FBI’s Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force identified him as a person of interest after investigating links between the Mexican Mafia and Armenian organized crime.
One informant told the authorities that Balian tipped off a gang member in Los Angeles about an incoming raid. “Tell your boy Bouncer that he’s the No. 1 on the list for tomorrow,” Balian allegedly said, according to the Times.
Balian also allegedly gave the informant locations of marijuana grow and stash houses and told him to “hit them” before the authorities could sweep the locations.
He currently remains on unpaid leave and last Friday a judge denied his request to be released on bond.

Mexican national gets prison time for faking citizenship, stealing $350G in benefits

Andres Avelino Anduaga, a Mexican national, was ordered to pay back $360,908.85 in restitution to the Social Security Administration and other agencies

Andres Avelino Anduaga, a Mexican national who impersonated an American citizen for more than 30 years, was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison for stealing more than $350,000 in government benefits from government agencies, Fox 5 San Diego reported.
He was also reportedly ordered to pay back $360,908.85 in restitution to the Social Security Administration, the California Department of Health Care Services and the county of San Diego.
The report, citing court documents, said in 1980, he used a birth certificate belonging to a U.S. citizen to obtain a California driver’s license and a Social Security card, then used his new false identity to commit a variety of crimes.
“This is one of the longest frauds, and one of the highest-dollar losses, if not the highest, that I’ve ever seen,” Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey D. Hill, told The San Diego Union-Tribune. Hill was assigned to investigate fraud cases. “It’s also the longest custodial sentence (for Social Security fraud) at least since I arrived in 2014.”
Immigration records showed he'd been deported in 1994 and again in 2000.
Fox 5 San Diego, citing prosecutors, reported that through 2016, he pulled in nearly $250,000 in illicit Social Security benefits. As a result, he also got MediCal health benefits that he was not eligible for and caused a loss to the state of California at above $100,000, the report said, citing the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
He reportedly admitted that he was able to travel freely between the U.S. and Mexico using a passport that he obtained via the same stolen identity he used to defraud public assistance programs.

Air Force paid about $10G for toilet seat cover: report

The Air Force last week admitted to paying out about $10,000 apiece to replace three toilet seat covers on a Vietnam-era cargo plan that is still being used, a report said.  (U.S. Air Force)

Now that’s a royal flush.

The Air Force last week admitted to paying out about $10,000 apiece to replace toilet seat covers on a Vietnam-era cargo plan that is still being used, The Washington Post reported.

The toilet seat covers on the C-5 Galaxy is no longer in production so the government needed to purchase customized ones, the report said. The government purchased the covers three times and as recent as last year, the report said.
“We are not now, nor will we in the future buy that aircraft part at that price, because we can now do so more cheaply using 3-D printing,” a spokesman told the paper. “Using this new process allows us to make parts that are no longer in production and is driving major cost savings.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, pushed for an investigation into the spending, ABC News reported. The call came after an interview with Will Roper, the assistant secretary of the Airforce for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, and DefenseOne.
Grassely said government waste is not in itself new. During the President George H.W. Bush administration, oversight efforts uncovered soap dishes that cost $117 and pliers that cost nearly $1,000.
Roper told the website in May, "You'll think, 'There's no way it costs that, No, it doesn't, but you're asking a company to produce it and they're [busy] producing something else.”
Military.com reported that Roper was making the case for 3D printing in the Air Force.
The Air Force said it will now rely on 3-D printing that will lower the price tag to $300.

Trump celebrates making NATO 'strong and rich again' after summit just hours before meeting Putin

President Donald Trump on Monday touted his success for making NATO “strong and rich again” at a summit last week just hours before he is set to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Received many calls from leaders of NATO countries thanking me for helping to bring them together and to get them focused on financial obligations, both present & future,” Trump tweeted. “We had a truly great Summit that was inaccurately covered by much of the media. NATO is now strong & rich!”
The tweet came just hours before the president will be attending a highly-anticipated summit with Putin in Helsinki, Finland.
Last week, Trump raised concerns about other NATO countries not meeting the established obligations to spend two percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) on the military.
“What good is NATO if Germany is paying Russia billions of dollars for gas and energy? Why are there only 5 out of 29 countries that have met their commitment? The U.S. is paying for Europe’s protection, then loses billions on Trade. Must pay 2% of GDP IMMEDIATELY, not by 2025,” Trump tweeted Wednesday.
He took a swipe at Germany over its energy project with Russia, a project vehemently opposed by NATO members in Eastern Europe, which say it directly threatens the security of their countries as Russia will able to use its vast energy resources as a way to have leverage over Western Europe.
The harsh criticism prompted NATO leaders to pledge their “unwavering commitment” to boost spending on defense. The U.S. and European allies signed a declaration asserting they are “committed to improving the balance of sharing the costs and responsibilities of alliance membership.”
NATO PLEDGES TO BOOST DEFENSE SPENDING AFTER STERN WORDS FROM TRUMP
The Trump-Putin meeting also comes at a peculiar time for the Russian government. On Friday, the Department of Justice issued indictments charging a dozen Russian intelligence officers with hacking the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign and the Democratic Party during the 2016 election.
It’s yet to be seen whether Trump will attempt to pressure Putin to extradite the indicted intelligence officers to the U.S. to face justice.
In an interview with CBS News on Saturday, Trump said he “hadn’t thought” about asking Putin to extradite the Russian citizens, but later noted that he will “Certainly I'll be asking about it." He also blamed the DNC for "allowing themselves to be hacked."

Elizabeth Warren Pocahontas Cartoons

Will Hillary persist in 2020? Her actions suggest ‘yes’

There’s been buzz circulating lately that Hillary Clinton may still have her eye on the Oval Office and is considering stepping back in the ring to take another shot at the 2020 Democrat presidential nomination. Because quitters never win, or something.

On its face, it sounds like pure insanity. However, she’s spent the last year and a half fixated on the 2016 election, traveling all over and telling anyone who will listen why it’s not her fault she lost.

She even went so far as to write a book, “What Happened.”  Her publisher could have saved a few trees and sent her a two-word email - you lost.
Perhaps the basket of excuses she’s been carrying around is really her misguided attempt at trying to rehab her image and set the stage for round three in 2020.  When you think about it that way, the idea she’d actually run again sounds less like pure insanity and starts to sound absurdly believable.
This week former adviser to Bill Clinton, Lanny Davis, publicly discouraged her from running, “for her sake and her family’s sake.” Reading between the lines, she’s either seriously considering another run or someone important in Clinton world wants her to go for it. It’s highly unlikely that a former senior adviser like Davis would come out and make such a statement otherwise.
The Democrats are in such disarray with no known message or direction, it’s almost as if they’re spinning around in a game of musical chairs and they have no clue where they’ll end up next.
President Trump is an anomaly to them, they can’t wrap their mind around his appeal. While on one hand they think he should be easily beatable, their dirty little secret is they don’t really have a good candidate like Barack Obama they can all rally around. The Democratic Party is already fractured, and a third run for Hillary would only further demonstrate the extent of just how fractured.

If she’s really interested in breaking glass ceilings she will get out of the way and let someone else take a crack at it.

The Democrat strategy moving forward seems to be disorganized chaos. Protesting by screaming in the streets, threatening reporters outside the Supreme Court, sending out press releases railing against “xx” for the Supreme Court before we even know who “xx” is.
They’ve jumped from DACA, to kids being separated from their parents at the border, to now Supreme Court justice nominations. Each one was the moral outrage of the moment for liberals, only to be left in the dust when the next political soundbite popped up for them.
Making sure the Clintons do their part to contribute to the moral outrage, and possibly positioning her for 2020, the Clinton-linked group Demand Justice was formed following the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. Its purpose is to put pressure on senators to oppose President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee and is run by Hillary’s 2016 press secretary, Brian Fallon.
Of note, the group has no restrictions on lobbying, can back candidates, and isn’t required to disclose donors. Keep in mind, this initiative was underway before the president even picked a nominee, adding to the hysteria and scare tactics the far left has engaged from the time Justice Kennedy announced his retirement until President Trump nominated Judge Kavanaugh to replace him.
Politics has pervaded government to the point that Hillary and her friends on the left now believe they are one and the same. If you listen to the - sometimes incoherent - rants, protests, and opposition to President Trump’s judicial nominees, it’s never about the rule of law or the Constitution. It’s about their demands. They want their boxes checked by activists who dress up as judges.
Outside of politics Hillary is lost. Her actions post-election reveal it’s all she ever aspired to, and she doesn’t appear to be letting it go.
If she were really interested in making the world better and helping those less fortunate, she would have spent the last 17 months focusing her efforts elsewhere rather than being obsessed with an election she lost.
From a purely political perspective I don’t know a Trump supporter who wouldn’t welcome her running for a third time. It would almost ensure him another four years in office.
However, from a woman’s perspective, it’s like watching another woman chase after the guy who keeps telling her to go away.  It’s embarrassing. 
If she’s really interested in breaking glass ceilings she will get out of the way and let someone else take a crack at it. Truly being a champion of other women sometimes means enthusiastically and graciously standing behind other women, instead of flaunting your sense of entitlement and continually bulldozing your way in front of them.
Opinion

Lauren DeBellis Appell, a freelance writer in Fairfax, Virginia, was deputy press secretary for then-Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., in his successful 2000 re-election campaign, as well as assistant communications director for the Senate Republican Policy Committee (2001-2003).

Judge has second thoughts hours after praising Trump administration for family reunifications

In this June 28 photo, protesters chant, "Families belong together!" as they walk to the front doors of the federal courthouse in Brownsville, Texas.  (AP)

The same judge who praised the Trump administration for its “collaborative” effort to reunite families separated at the border is now saying he's having second thoughts about whether the government is acting in “good faith.”

U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw criticized the administration late Friday evening, calling into question the safety of a new plan filed by the Department of Justice to reunite more than 2,500 children over the age of 5 by the July 26 deadline.

After Friday’s hearing, the DOJ filed a reunification plan that would meet the July 26 deadline via "truncated" procedures to verify parentage and perform background checks, which exclude DNA testing and other steps to reunify families of children under 5.
The administration said the abbreviated vetting puts children at significant safety risk but is needed to meet the deadline.
Chris Meekins, the deputy assistant health and human services secretary for preparedness and response, said that while he is committed to meeting the deadline, he does not believe "placing of children into such situations is consistent with the mission of HHS or my core values."
Sabraw fired back, second-guessing remarks he'd made hours earlier.
"It is clear from Mr. Meekins' declaration that HHS either does not understand the court's orders or is acting in defiance of them. … At a minimum, it appears he is attempting to provide cover to defendants for their own conduct in the practice of family separation, and the lack of foresight and infrastructure necessary to remedy the harms caused by that practice.”
He said that the official’s statement “calls into question” his earlier comment that the government was acting in “good faith.” Sabraw said that safe reunification could and will occur by July 26.

Pentagon: China Spying On Major U.S.-led Military Exercises After Being Disinvited

FILE – The Pentagon is seen in this aerial view in Washington, in this March 27, 2008 file photo. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 6:26 PM PT – Sat. July 14, 2018

The Pentagon is accusing China of spying on U.S.-led military exercises near Hawaii.
Navy officials confirmed the U.S. Pacific Fleet is monitoring a Chinese surveillance ship, in a statement to CNN.
It’s located just outside of U.S. territorial seas.
This comes after Beijing was disinvited from the exercises back in May, over its aggression in the South China Sea.
U.S. officials say they expect the Chinese vessel to stay put and don’t anticipate any disruption to the on-going exercises.
The exercises are held every two years and feature around 25 thousand personnel from over 20 countries.