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Clinton Family Foundation donated $100G to NYT group same year paper endorsed Hillary

A little-known private foundation controlled by Bill and Hillary Clinton donated $100,000 to the New York Times' charitable fund in 2008, the same year the newspaper's editorial page endorsed Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary, according to tax documents reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.
The Clinton Family Foundation, a separate entity from the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, has been the family's vehicle for personal charitable giving since 2001.
It is funded directly by the Clintons and distributes more than $1 million a year to civic and educational causes.
The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund is a charity affiliated with the newspaper that assists underprivileged New Yorkers. It is run by members of the New York Times Company's board of directors and senior executives.
The Times' editorial board endorsed Clinton against Democratic challengers John Edwards and Barack Obama on January 25, 2008, writing that she was "more qualified, right now, to be president."
At the time, there were reports that the Times board had leaned toward endorsing Obama, but was overruled by then-chairman and publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., whose family controlled the paper. Sulzberger's cousins and Times Company directors, Lynn Dolnick and Michael Golden, chaired the New York Times Neediest Cases Fund in 2008.
The Clinton Family Foundation did not list the specific date the donation was made in its public tax disclosure forms. Neither the Times nor a representative of the Clintons responded by press time to a request for comment. Clinton ended her presidential campaign on June 7, 2008.
The CFF's $100,000 contribution to the New York Times Neediest Cases Fund is larger than its typical donations.

Obama under fire for saying no ‘complete strategy’ yet for training Iraqis

President Obama took heat Monday for admitting he doesn't yet have a "complete strategy" in hand for training Iraqis to fight the Islamic State -- months into the coordinated campaign to defeat the deadly terrorist network.
"When a finalized plan is presented to me by the Pentagon, then I will share it with the American people," Obama said, adding, "We don't yet have a complete strategy."
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul said in a statement: "It is no surprise this administration does not have a 'complete strategy' for training Iraqis to fight ISIS. What is surprising is that the president admitted it."
The president addressed the ISIS fight during a press conference on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Germany. He appeared to be speaking specifically to a new strategy for accelerating the training and equipping of Iraqi security forces. "We're reviewing a range of plans for how we might do that," Obama said.
A U.S. official afterward stressed to Fox News that Obama was indeed talking only about optimizing that train-and-equip mission, "including integration of Sunni fighters," and not "overall strategy." State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke also said Obama was not speaking to overall strategy.
But the comments nevertheless fueled critics' concerns about the direction of the U.S. mission, particularly on the heels of ISIS gains in Ramadi, and the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria.

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• Obama meets with Iraqi PM to discuss ISIS strategy

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., tweeted: "Pres Obama admits: 'We don't yet have a complete strategy' to combat #ISIS"
Republican National Committee spokesman Michael Short cited a similar comment Obama made 10 months ago, saying in a statement, "the fact he still doesn't have a final plan for the deteriorating situation in Iraq is unacceptable."
A military official also took issue with Obama's claim that he was waiting for options from the Pentagon. "What the f--- was that? We have given him lots of options, he just hasn't acted on them," the official told Fox News.
Obama, similarly, said last August that the U.S. did not "have a strategy yet" for confronting ISIS in Syria. The administration later approved airstrikes in Syria.
Underscoring the work to be done training Iraqi forces, a Pentagon official told Fox News that zero soldiers are being trained at the al-Asad Air Base in Anbar -- the province where ISIS seized the city of Ramadi last month.
However, the Pentagon says 2,598 are in training at other locations in Iraq. And 8,920 Iraqi soldiers have been trained to date by the U.S. military.
Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren backed up the president on his assertion he was still awaiting a "finalized plan" from the Pentagon. He said Defense Secretary Ash Carter has assembled a group of "experts" to develop courses of action to "increase support" to Iraqi forces. Warren would not give a timeline on when this "finalized plan" would be presented to the White House.
A separate defense official told Fox News that any potential increases in the size of the U.S. military presence would likely be in the "train-and-equip" mission and not tactical air controllers to call in close air support against ISIS forces by U.S. aircraft flying overhead.
Echoing the president, the official said, "the problem is the number of recruits" that the U.S. military can train. "We are sending weapons as quickly as we can to Iraq, I don't think we can send anymore," he said.
Obama put some of the responsibility on the Iraqis themselves, urging them to be more inclusive. Speaking Monday, shortly after meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, Obama said a "big part" of the solution is "outreach to Sunni tribes."
"We've seen Sunni tribes who are not only willing and prepared to fight ISIL, but have been successful at rebuffing ISIL. But it has not been happening as fast as it needs to," he said. "And so, one of the efforts that I'm hoping to see out of Prime Minister Abadi and the Iraqi legislature when they're in session is to move forward on a national guard law that would help to devolve some of the security efforts in places like Anbar to local folks and to get those Sunni tribes involved more rapidly."

US Army website hacked, Syrian Electronic Army takes credit

WASHINGTON –  The U.S. Army's official website was hit Monday by hackers claiming to be with a group known as the Syrian Electronic Army, Fox News has learned.
The site, which was down Monday afternoon, is a declassified public website.
Various screenshots that appeared on Twitter reportedly showed pro-Assad propaganda on the site before it crashed.
"Today an element of the Army.mil service provider's content was compromised," Army Brig. Gen. Malcolm Frost said in a statement. "After this came to our attention, the Army took appropriate preventive measures to ensure there was no breach of Army data by taking down the website temporarily."
The SEA is a hacker group that has claimed in the past to disrupt major news websites, including the New York Times, CBS News, the Washington Post and the BBC.
The SEA website launched its website in May 2011 stating the group’s mission: to attack the enemies of the Syrian government, mainly those who “fabricated” stories about the Syrian civil war. They wrote that they were not officially affiliated with the government but were a group of Syrian youths.
In April 2013, the SEA successfully hacked the AP’s Twitter page, sending out a false message that there had been two explosions at the White House and that President Obama had been injured.

ISIS captures 86 Eritrean Christians in Libya, US official confirms

The ISIS terror group kidnapped 86 Eritrean Christians from a people-smugglers' caravan in Libya last week, a U.S. defense official confirmed Monday.
The defense official confirmed initial reports of the mass kidnapping to Fox News after seeing a recent intelligence report. The independent Libya Herald newspaper reported that the convoy was ambushed by militants south of Tripoli before dawn this past Wednesday morning.
Meron Estafanos, the co-founder of the Stockholm-based International Commission on Eritrean Refugees, told the paper that the group of migrants included "about 12 Eritrean Muslims and some Egyptians. They put them in another truck and they put 12 Eritrean women Christians in a smaller pick-up".
Estafanos said that the militants had initially stopped the truck and demanded that the Muslims on board make themselves known. Everyone who responded was asked about the Koran and their religious observance in an attempt to catch Christians pretending to be Muslims.
The main body of the group was put back on the original truck. As the militants drove the vehicle away, Britain's Daily Telegraph reported that at least nine men attempted to escape by diving off the back of the truck. Estefanos said three of those who had escaped were safe, but still trying to get out of Libya. The fate of the others was not known.
Libya has become a jumping-off point for thousands of migrants from the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa who attempt the dangerous Mediterranean crossing to southern Europe. However, Libya's ongoing instability has led to an increased presence by ISIS and other terror groups, increasing the risk for Christians and other non-Muslims attempting the crossing.
In February, Libyan militants proclaiming loyalty to ISIS released a video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians at the edge of the Mediterranean Sea. Two months later, another video showed the militants shooting and beheading an indeterminate number of Ethiopian Christians. Estefanos told the Libya Herald that the video released in April had been edited and that 64 people had been massacred, including several Eritreans.
"Ever since the kidnapping by ISIS in Libya last February," she said,  "many are taking different routes. Some go from Khartoum [Sudan] to Turkey, then Greece. Others are now leaving via Khartoum to Cairo, then Alexandria and from there by boat to Italy. I think we will see an increase towards Turkey and Cairo instead of Libya".
Libya is divided between rival governments and hundreds of militias in the aftermath of its 2011 civil war that ousted dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
The violence has impacted the country's oil revenues heavily. U.N. envoy to Libya Bernardino Leon has warned that the country only has enough money to pay salaries for another six weeks, urging warring parties to agree on a unity government. Negotiators are currently meeting in Morocco to discuss a power-sharing agreement.

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Superintendent not backing down, defends warrants for 'excessive cheering' at graduation

A group of people in Senatobia, Miss., have been charged with disrupting a high school graduation ceremony by hootin’, hollerin’ and carryin’ on like their mommas didn’t raise ’em right.
Three family members were served warrants for allegedly disturbing the peace at the Senatobia High School graduation ceremony on May 21. The warrants threaten jail time and a $500 bond. A fourth excessive shouter is still on the loose and has not been served.
“It’s crazy,” Henry Walker told television station WREG. “The fact that I might have to bond out of jail, pay court costs or a $500 fine for expressing my love, it’s ridiculous, man. It’s ridiculous.”
Ursula Miller got collared after she gave her niece a shout-out.

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Now Playing Commencement crime? Family charged for cheering at ceremony

“I can understand they can escort me out of the graduation, but to say they going to put me in jail for it. What else are they allowed to do?”
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Foster has been castigated in both the mainstream media and the conservative media. But he said he believes he did the right thing – and I guarantee you that folks will think about misbehaving in the future.

Well, there’s a bit more to this story, according to Jay Foster, the superintendent of the school system – and the man who swore out those warrants.
Four years ago the high school graduation ceremony in Mississippi’s Five Star City resembled an episode of “The Jerry Springer Show.”
“That’s what we felt like our graduation ceremony had been turned into,” Foster told me. “It was who can be the loudest – who can take the attention away from the kids the most.”
That was Foster’s first year on the job, and what happened during that ceremony left an indelible mark.
“There was yelling and catcalling and people would get up and leave while we were calling out students’ names,” he said. “A family came up to me afterwards and said they had enjoyed their 12 years here but it was a shame that their last impression of Senatobia High School was graduation. They didn’t even get to see their daughter or hear their daughter because of all the noise and the way people acted.”
The district implemented a number of policies and procedures meant to restore order and decorum to high school graduation.
“We feel an obligation to all our graduates – not just the ones whose parents decide they want to excessively celebrate,” Foster said.
But that still did not stop a group of four individuals from disrupting this year’s festivities.
“They would get up and move around the coliseum and holler out – knowing someone was coming to get them – but basically they were saying to us, ‘There’s nothing you can do – we’re going to disrupt it anyway,’” he said. “It was a blatant disregard for authority.”
Some folks have tried to make the issue about race, but Foster pointed out that two of the individuals are black and two are white.
Foster has been castigated in both the mainstream media and the conservative media. But he said he believes he did the right thing – and I guarantee you that folks will think about misbehaving in the future.
“I am compelled to do what I think is right for all our graduates,” he said. “That’s part of what’s wrong with our society today. Everything is about ‘me.’ ‘I have a right to disrupt if it’s for my child.’
“But you are not thinking about the other 102 kids sitting there. They have every right to be heard and seen and recognized.”
Remember, folks … It’s a high school graduation ceremony – not a professional wrestling match. So stop acting the fool.

GOP-led states trying bolster budgets by limiting government assistance programs

WASHINGTON –  Kansas is bleeding money.
Lawmakers in the Sunflower State have been scrambling for years to make up a $400 million revenue gap following a 2012 income tax cut that left deep holes in the state budget.
Republican Gov. Sam Brownback wants recover some of the money by placing limits on government assistance.
Starting in July, people in Kansas who collect government assistance will be limited to a single ATM withdrawal not exceeding $25 per day. The Kansas law also prohibits public-assistance spending at swimming pools, tattoo parlors and video arcades.
Though it might sound extreme to some, Kansas is just the latest GOP-led state to launch campaigns to cut or limit public assistance.
A 2014 Pew Research Center survey found that 73 percent of Republicans and 32 percent of Democrats believe the government can’t afford to spend much more on assistance programs. The number of families receiving cash through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program stood at 1.5 million at the end of 2014.
When Brownback signed the bill in April he defended it by saying the primary focus isn’t a handout but instead to “get people back to work, because that’s where the real benefit is – getting people off public assistance and back into the marketplace with the dignity and far more income there than the pittance that government gives them.”
Shannon Cotsoradis, president of the advocacy group Kansas Action for Children, told Bloomberg News that state lawmakers “acted on anecdotes” about TANF cards being used on cruise ships and casinos and that the information used to sway lawmakers isn’t “data-driven.”
But lawmakers in a growing number of states believe chipping away at a budget shortfall can be done by limiting the amount of government assistance being doled out.
In Michigan, the state Senate recently passed a bill that would put families on the welfare chopping block if their children are regularly absent from school. The “Parental Responsibility Act” would give the state the ability to cut off assistance if a child whose parents are receiving assistance is chronically truant.
If the child is younger than 16, the whole family could lose its cash benefits.
“During the recession there were lots of blue states, for fiscally driven reasons, that were cutting welfare,” Liz Schott, a senior fellow at the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington think tank, told Bloomberg News. “This year’s cuts feel more ideologically driven.”
In May, Missouri’s Republican legislature overrode a veto by Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, to enact a bill that would take away assistance from more than 6,400 children -- 2,600 of them below the age of 5, his office said in published reports.
Nixon described the bill “a misguided measure that punishes poor children” in a “zeal to reduce reliance on government assistance.”
And in Arizona, lawmakers slashed the amount of time residents could stay on assistance to 1 year – the shortest window in the nation.
The Associated Press described the cuts as a reflection of the “prevailing mood” among lawmakers who believe that public assistance programs are what keeps the poor from getting back on their feet permanently.
But not everyone subscribes to the sentiment.
Jessica Lopez, 23, said cutting off benefits isn’t fair.
Lopez, who gets $133 per month, gave birth to her son while living in a domestic violence shelter and has struggled to hold onto jobs because she has dyslexia and didn’t finish high school.
“We’re all human,” she told the AP. “Everybody has problems. Everybody is different. When people ask for help, we should be able to get it without having to be looked at wrong.”