FBI investigating security of Hillary Clinton's private email server

The FBI has begun investigating the security of Hillary Clinton's private e-mail server, an attorney for the Democratic presidential front-runner confirmed to Fox News late Tuesday.
The probe, which was first reported by The Washington Post, comes days after watchdogs from the State Department and the intelligence community asked the Justice Department to explore whether classified material was improperly shared or stored on the former secretary of state's private e-mail account.
The Post reports that the FBI has contacted Kendall about the security of a thumb drive he possesses that contain copies of work emails sent by Clinton during her time as America's top diplomat. The paper also reported that the FBI had contacted a Denver-based technology firm that help manage the server.
"Quite predictably, after the [intelligence community's inspector general] made a referral to ensure that materials remain properly stored, the government is seeking assurance about the storage of those materials," Kendall told Fox News. "We are actively cooperating."
Clinton has not been formally accused of any wrongdoing. Andrea Williams, a spokeswoman for the intelligence community inspector general's office, told Fox News last month that the office had requested a "counterintelligence referral" from the Justice Department, not a criminal referral.
Clinton has repeatedly denied sending or receiving any classified information on her personal account. Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill repeated that denial to Fox News late Tuesday, saying "She did not send nor receive any emails that were marked classified at the time. We want to ensure that appropriate procedures are followed as these emails are reviewed while not unduly delaying the release of her emails. We want that to happen as quickly and as transparently as possible."
Merrill's denial that Clinton sent emails "marked classified at the time" contradicts her claim to reporters in March that no classified material, retroactive or otherwise, had ever passed through the private account.
"I did not e-mail any classified material to anyone on my e-mail. There is no classified material,"  Clinton said at the time. "I'm certainly well-aware of the classification requirements and did not send classified material."
The Post also reported that the server installed in Clinton's New York home just prior to her becoming secretary of state was originally used by her 2008 presidential campaign, and replaced a server that former president Bill Clinton had been using. According to the paper, the server originally used by Bill Clinton was deemed to be too small to accommodate the correspondence of a sitting Cabinet official.
Responsibility for the first server was held by a longtime Bill Clinton aide with no security clearance and no expertise at safeguarding computers. Bryan Pagliano, a former IT director for Clinton's 2008 campaign, was brought into oversee the second server. He was paid by a political action committee tied to Clinton through April 2009, when he was hired by the State Department as an IT specialist.
The Post report, citing people briefed on the server setup, described it as occasionally unreliable, going down for days after Superstorm Sandy struck the New York area in October 2012.
The existence of the e-mail server has raised repeated 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 also 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.

Brady Clinton Cartoon

Pennsylvania rep indicted on racketeering charges vows re-election bid

PHILADELPHIA –  U.S. Rep Chaka Fattah is vowing to run for re-election next year despite a federal racketeering indictment and says he expects to resume his leadership position on a powerful congressional committee by year's end.
The 11-term Democrat said Monday he is "innocent of any and all of these allegations," telling reporters he hasn't been involved in the misappropriation of funds as an elected official.
Fattah, 58, was indicted last week, accused of engaging in bribery, fraud, money laundering and other crimes involving hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Two of the four schemes alleged by prosecutors involve efforts to erase debts from Fattah's failed 2007 mayoral bid. Despite that, he said he had "no regrets" about the mayoral run.
Fattah referred to other members of Congress accused of wrongdoing who were later exonerated and criticized prosecutors for what he called "efforts to attack" his family. Fattah's wife, TV news anchor Renee Chenault-Fattah, hasn't been charged but was accused by prosecutors of involvement in a sham transaction involving a Porsche that she maintains was "a legitimate sale."
He also took issue with the accusation that a higher-education conference for which a former staff member obtained $50,000 in federal grants never took place.
"There was a conference. ... It took place. It's on video," he said.
Fattah has stepped down from his leadership post on the House Appropriations Committee but emphasized that he remains on the panel with seniority that will allow him to make a "tremendous impact" on the process.
"I believe by the end of the year we'll get some more clarity on this and I'll be able to resume my leadership position again," he said.
He is scheduled for an initial court appearance on Aug. 18, defense lawyer Luther Weaver III said Monday.
Also Monday, the House Ethics Committee announced that it voted unanimously last week to investigate the matter. House rules generally require the ethics panel to launch an official investigation when a lawmaker is indicted, and the bipartisan panel assigned several lawmakers to a special subcommittee. The committee, however, traditionally steers clear of actively pursuing cases while criminal probes are ongoing.
The Ethics Committee has the power to recommend Fattah be expelled, but it would take a vote of the full House to do so.

Senate fails to advance Planned Parenthood defund effort

The Senate failed Monday to advance a Republican-led measure to halt federal aid to Planned Parenthood, but leaders of the GOP-controlled chamber appear ready to continue the fight, galvanized by a series of unsettling videos about the group.
The vote to bring debate on the bill was 53 against to 46 in favor.
The measure had not been expected to get the 60 votes needed to move it toward a final vote because Republicans needed several “yeas” from Democrats, who largely support Planned Parenthood.
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin was among the Democrats who voted to defund the group. Manchin, whose state has increasingly become more Republican leaning, was undecided until a few hours before the vote.
“I am very troubled by the callous behavior of Planned Parenthood staff in (the) recently released videos, which casually discuss the sale, possibly for profit, of fetal tissue after an abortion,” he said before voting. “Until these allegations have been answered and resolved, I do not believe that taxpayer money should be used to fund this organization.”
Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly was the only other Democrat to vote yes. The only Republicans to vote no were Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. He voted no so he could again bring up the measure.
On the GOP side, Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa said, "The American taxpayer should not be asked to fund an organization like Planned Parenthood that has shown a sheer disdain for human dignity and complete disregard for women and their babies."
The first of the videos were released late last month and show group officials negotiating the price of aborted fetal tissue for research.
Federal law prohibits the sale of fetal tissue for profit. And whether the officials were indeed negotiating a for-profit price, as critics charge, may never be settled.
Planned Parenthood says it only recovers costs of the procedures and gives the tissue to researchers only with a mother's advance consent.
However, the videos have sparked renewed efforts by pro-life organizations and others to restrict abortions and undermine Planned Parenthood.
The group provides abortions and such health and family-planning services as contraception and sexual-disease treatment to roughly 2.7 million people annually, mostly women.
By law, federal funds are already barred from being used for abortions except for cases of incest, rape or when a woman's life is in danger.
The White House says it would block legislation to defund the group.
Still, Republicans could try to gain leverage for the defund effort when Congress returns from August recess by threating to vote against spending bills to keep the government running after Sept. 30 if they include Planned Parenthood funds.
GOP leaders are reluctant to force a shutdown fight that could haunt them in the 2016 elections.
In 2013, firebrand Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, now a 2016 presidential candidate, led a showdown against Washington Democrats over funding for ObamaCare that resulted in a partial government shutdown that voters largely blamed on Republicans.
Planned Parenthood leader Cecile Richards told Fox News on Monday that a shutdown effort would be “politically unpopular” but that her group would be prepared for such a fight.
The furtively recorded videos released in July -- with close-ups of aborted fetal organs and Planned Parenthood officials describing how "I'm not going to crush that part" -- have forced the group and its Democratic champions into a defensive crouch.
Democrats are sounding a theme they have employed in recent elections, characterizing the GOP drive as an assault on health care for women.
"It's our obligation to protect our wives, our sisters, our daughters, our granddaughters" from the GOP's "absurd policies," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev, said before the vote. "The Republican Party has lost its moral compass."
The videos were made by anti-abortion group Center for Medical Progress, which has so far released four videos in which people posing as representatives of a company that purchases fetal tissue converse with Planned Parenthood officials.
In the longer term, GOP leaders are hoping that three congressional committees' investigations, plus probes in several states and the expected release of additional videos, will produce evidence of PlannedParenthood wrongdoing and make it harder for Democrats to defend the organization.
Their measure calls for funneling Planned Parenthood’s federal dollars to other providers of health care to women, including hospitals, state and local agencies and federally financed community health centers.
Republicans say that transfer would enable women to continue receiving the health care they need because PlannedParenthood's nearly 700 clinics are far outnumbered by other providers.
PlannedParenthood and Democrats contest that. They say many of the organization's centers are in areas with few alternatives for reproductive health care or for other services for the low-income women who comprise a majority of its clients.

Obama announces power plant regulations, GOP lawmakers vow fight

WASHINGTON –  President Obama on Monday announced new regulations on power-plant carbon emissions that will have a dramatic impact on how Americans make, store and use energy.  
The president, speaking at the White House, touted the plan as a necessary step to combat global warming, even as the coal industry gears up to challenge the controversial regulations in court and Republicans prepare to fight them in Congress.
"There is such a thing as being too late when it comes to climate change," Obama said.
The plan calls for a 32 percent emissions cut by 2030, as compared with 2005 levels. The goals are even steeper than previously expected.
But already, the plan faces tough resistance. The Murray Energy Corporation, a coal mining company, announced Monday it would sue, and more than a dozen states and other companies were expected to take similar action.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, vowed to use legislation to thwart the president.
"President Obama will deliver another blow to the economy and the middle class," McConnell said on the Senate floor.
House Speaker John Boehner, who had previously described the draft plan as "nuts," called the final plan rolled out Monday "an expensive, arrogant insult to Americans who are struggling to make ends meet."
Some of the changes Obama announced go further in cutting the heat-trapping gases blamed for global warming. Other changes include delaying implementation and eliminating certain options that states could use to show they're cutting emissions.
"Time is not on our side here," the president said.
Republicans in Congress say they will fight the changes, and industry officials have expressed hesitation over the plan's cost and ambitious timetable.  
Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., arguably the Senate's most vocal climate change skeptic, called the new rules "unachievable without great economic pain" and said it was a "burden President Obama thinks the American people should bear for the sake of his legacy."
The new regs on greenhouse gases are been the latest blow to the coal industry by the administration. Companies like Walter Energy and Alpha Natural Resources, one of the nation's largest coal producers, have seen their market value virtually wiped out since Obama became president in 2009.
Alpha, which operates about 60 coal mines in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Wyoming and Pennsylvania, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday, two weeks after its rival Walter Energy.
Alpha is the fourth large coal producer to file for bankruptcy protection in the past two years.
Obama announced the plan Monday as part of a broader push by his administration to position the United States as a global leader tackling climate change.
The rule would require a 32 percent cut in power-plant carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 from 2005 levels, an increase from the 30 percent target proposed last year.
It also gives states another two years – until 2022 – to comply with the cuts, conceding to some critics who said the original deadline was too soon. States will also get another year to submit their implementation plans to the government.
In a sign some see as compromise, the final version of the rule keeps the share of natural gas in the nation’s power mix at current levels. In the draft proposal, there was a push to increase it.
"The plan issued by President Obama today appears to be more flexible than was originally proposed, providing states with more time to submit plans and to achieve compliance with the requirements to reduce their carbon pollution from power plants," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said in written statement.
Murray Energy Corp., the largest privately held coal mining company in the country, announced Monday it was filing five federal lawsuits to fight the new rule changes. The company plans to file a lawsuit against each of the three individual regulations the EPA revealed Monday. It also plans file a lawsuit against the entire regulatory package. The company will also appeal a lawsuit it lost in June that challenged one of the then-unfinished regulations.
The White House has pushed back on claims by the coal industry that as many as 50,000 jobs will be eliminated. In its fact sheet, the White House argues the new rules will create tens of thousands of jobs while ensuring grid reliability.
According to the White House, if the rule is implemented in all 50 states, the average American family can save $85 on their annual energy bill in 2030, though critics say it will raise energy bills.
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, drew from her Boston background and called the rollout “an especially wicked-cool moment.”
A day earlier, she said the rule would result in an estimated annual cost of $8.4 billion by 2030 and have total benefits, including public-health benefits, of $34 billion to $54 billion per year by then.
Though the new EPA rule is key to Obama's legacy and comes despite the Supreme Court recently challenging EPA mercury rules, it will be up to Obama’s successor to implement the plan. That could prove difficult if a Republican candidate is voted into office.
In November, Obama rolled out an aggressive climate deal with China, and has made a climate change a top priority when meeting with world leaders. He's also expected to discuss it next month when Pope Francis visits.

GOP candidates talk illegal immigration, slam Democrats at New Hampshire forum

MANCHESTER, N.H. –  The Republican Party's presidential class demanded aggressive steps to curb illegal immigration, seizing on a delicate political issue while facing off in New Hampshire on Monday night during a crowded and pointed preview of the 2016 primary season's first full-fledged debate.
All but three of the 17 major Republican candidates for president participated in what was essentially a debate lite, which -- unlike Thursday's nationally televised debate in Cleveland -- didn't have a cut-off for participation.
Without exception, the candidates aimed their criticism at Democrats instead of each other in a two-hour meeting where they had more in common than not. Not mentioned was the candidate making the most news headed into Thursday's debate: Donald Trump. The billionaire businessman declined to participate in Monday's gathering, but is poised to take center stage later in the week.
Monday's meeting offered a prime-time practice round for the GOP's most ambitious, appearing on stage one at a time, who addressed several contentious issues, immigration topping a list that also included abortion and climate change.
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who may not qualify for the upcoming debate as one of the GOP's top 10 candidates in national polling, called the flow of immigrants crossing the border illegally "a serious wound."
"You want to stanch the flow," he said as his Republican rivals watched from the front row of the crowded St. Anselm College auditorium. On those immigrants who have overstayed visas, Perry charged, "You go find `em, you pick `em up and you send `em back where they're from."
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum went further, calling for a 25 percent reduction of low-skilled immigrants coming into the country legally.
"Everyone else is dancing around it. I'm going to stand for the American worker," Santorum declared.
Just an hour before the forum began, the Senate blocked a GOP-backed bill to strip funding from Planned Parenthood, reviving a debate on social issues that some Republican officials hoped to avoid in 2016.
Three of the four senators participating in Monday's event --Marco Rubio of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky -- did so via satellite from C-SPAN's Washington studio so they wouldn't miss the high-profile vote.
"We had to be here to vote to de-fund Planned Parenthood," Cruz said.
It's a welcome debate for Democrats who see women -- married women, particularly -- as a key constituency in 2016. Leading Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who would be the nation's first female president, lashed out at the attacks on Planned Parenthood in a web video released before the GOP forum.
"If this feels like a full-on assault for women's health, that's because it is," Clinton said in the video, criticizing by name former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Perry.
Democrats are also eager to debate Republicans on immigration.
GOP leaders have acknowledged the need to improve the party's standing among Hispanic voters. Yet while many Democrats favor a more forgiving policy that would allow immigrants in the country illegally a pathway to citizenship, most Republicans in the field instead focus on border security.
Rubio, once a lead salesman for a comprehensive immigration overhaul, said Americans want the border fence completed and more border security agents before there's any discussion of what to do with those 11 million immigrants in the country illegally.
Rubio, once a lead salesman for a comprehensive immigration overhaul, said Americans want the border fence completed and more border security agents before there's any discussion of what to do with those 11 million immigrants in the country illegally.
Others offered a softer tone. Ohio Gov. John Kasich said "law-abiding, God-fearing" immigrants should be allowed to stay. Those who break the law, he said, "have to be deported or put in prison."
Bush said fixing the nation's immigration system is a key part of his plan to help the economy grow 4 percent each year. He also called for reducing legal immigration, particularly the number of people allowed to enter the country to rejoin family.
President Barack Obama injected another contentious issue Monday when he unveiled new emissions limits on power plants designed to address climate change. He called it a moral obligation and warned anew that climate change will threaten future generations if left unchecked.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker called the move "a buzz saw to the nation's economy."
"I want to balance a sustainable environment with a sustainable economy," Walker said.
Several candidates involved Monday night won't make the cut for Thursday's debate. Those on the bubble include South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and former technology executive Carly Fiorina, who charged that Clinton has repeatedly lied during investigations into her use of a private email server and an attack on an American embassy in Libya while she was secretary of state.
"These go to the core of her character," Fiorina said.
Monday's participants included seven current or former governors, four senators, a businesswoman, a retired neurosurgeon and one former senator. Trump, who launched his presidential bid by calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals, was among only three major candidates who didn't participate.
Monday's event was broadcast live on C-SPAN and local television stations in Iowa and South Carolina -- states that, along with New Hampshire, will host the first contests in the presidential primary calendar next February.
After the debate, Kasich was asked about Trump's absence.
"I never thought about him," the Ohio governor said. "It'd have been great if he'd have been here."

VW Cartoon

Is Trump the one-man, 2016 Tea Party wave?

Donald Trump’s run for the Republican presidential nomination is channeling the kind of energy that helped 2010 Tea Party-backed candidates sweep establishment Republicans and Democrats alike out of Congress, Michael Needham, leader of the conservative Heritage Action for America group, suggested Sunday.
“There’s going to be a candidate who says it’s time for us to change,” Needham, the super-PAC’s executive officer, told “Fox News Sunday.” “That candidate is going to be someone who unites traditional Republicans, the Tea Party, all sorts of independents and former Democrats. … It’s not just Tea Partiers. For a lot of Americans right now, they feel disconnected from Washington.”
Needham and his group, the political arm of the long-influential Heritage Foundation, have frequently led the charge against the positions of GOP House and Senate leadership, most recently House Speaker John Boehner’s support of the Export-Import Bank, which critics say perpetuates "crony capitalism" by giving disproportionate government assistance to large corporations that don't need it.
The group also supported Tea Party-backed Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz’s 2013 successful attempt to partially shut down the federal government over funding ObamaCare.
The self-funded Trump, a billionaire New York real estate tycoon, now sits at or near the top of numerous polls.
He has eschewed the support of wealth political donors and the Washington establishment, including at times the Republican National Committee.
And he has repeatedly attempted to take down some of the Republican guard’s most established members, including senior Arizona Sen. John McCain and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a member of the Bush family political dynasty who also is at the top of most polls.
The Tea Party movement was a grass-roots effort based on the principals of less taxes and smaller government.
“People are sick of the establishment and hate their party,” said Needham, who is not a Trump supporter. “And that’s what needs to be addressed. The reason Donald Trump is generating a lot of enthusiasm is that he's ticking off the right people."

Hillary Clinton campaign launches first TV ads Tuesday in Iowa, New Hampshire

The first television advertisements in support of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign will air Tuesday in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire in a move to shore up support for the Democratic front-runner.
People close to the Clinton campaign told Fox News late Sunday that they felt it was time to enter the next phase of the 2016 campaign amid a strengthening challenge from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and increased speculation that Vice President Joe Biden will make a late entry into the race.
The ads will focus on Clinton's legal work on behalf of families and her relationship with her late mother Dorothy, central themes of her early campaign.
"After law school she could have gone to a big firm but instead went to work for the Children's Defense Fund. In Arkansas, she fought for school reform to change lives forever. Then as first lady she helped get health care for eight million kids," says a narrator in one of the ads. " You probably know the rest."
Though Clinton remains the heavy favorite for the 2016 Democratic nomination, recent surveys have show declines in her favorability and trustworthiness ratings amid ongoing controversy over her use of a private e-mail address to handle correspondence while secretary of state.
On Thursday, Fox News reported that Clinton aides were growing increasingly nervous about the possibility of a Biden run after the vice president’s White House chief of staff was spotted having breakfast recently with major Democratic donor Louis Susman, a Clinton friend who served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom under President Obama. The New York Times reported Sunday that Biden had discussed entering the race with friends, family, and Democratic donors.
Meanwhile, Sanders has drawn large crowds in early voting states with his left-wing populist economic message. However, the self-described socialist has resisted attacking Clinton, focusing instead on contrasting his more liberal views with hers on issues like Wall Street regulations and the Keystone pipeline.
"I have a lot of respect for Hillary Clinton," he ABC News' "This Week" on Sunday. But, he added: "She and I disagree on many issues."
Clinton aides, meanwhile, have been trying to lower expectations for her primary performance by arguing that both Iowa, where the state's caucuses bring out the most passionate party voters, and New Hampshire, next door to Sanders home state of Vermont, favor their competition.
The emphasis on family issues is a change in course from Clinton's failed White House bid in 2008, when her campaign focused on her experience and toughness. Though Clinton has spent decades on the American political stage, her team insists that voters don't really know much about her background. They've focused on reintroducing the former Secretary of State, presidential candidate, and New York senator as a grandmother-in-chief, highlighting her family relationships and embracing her role in history as the first potential female president.
A number of Republican candidates have already begun airing ads, attempting to distinguish themselves in a crowded primary field. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's campaign has invested more than $12 million in ads that start airing at the end of the year in Iowa, New Hampshire and other states. Ohio Gov. John Kasich has spent $1 million and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's presidential campaign nearly $500,000 on spots in New Hampshire.

Authorities identify suspect wanted in fatal shooting of Memphis police officer during traffic stop

A suspect has been identified in the search for a gunman who shot and killed a Memphis police officer during a traffic stop, the city's police director said Sunday night.
A warrant for first-degree murder has been issued for 29-year-old Tremaine Wilbourn, who is believed to be the shooter, Police Director Toney Armstrong said at a Sunday evening press conference.
Wilbourn is currently on supervised release for a 121 month sentence for robbery of a banking institution, Armstrong said.
Officer Sean Bolton, 33, may have interrupted an illicit drug transaction when he encountered a Mercedes-Benz illegally parked on a Memphis street Saturday night, according to Armstrong.
After Bolton illuminated the Mercedes with his spotlight, he approached the vehicle and was confronted by its passenger, who allegedly shot Bolton multiple times after a struggle, the director said.
Armstrong told reporters that 1.7 grams of marijuana was found inside the vehicle.
 "He's a coward," Armstrong said of the suspect, Wilbourn, "you gunned down, you murdered a police officer, for less than 2 grams of marijuana. You literally destroyed a family."
“Last night we lost an officer and a great man, a dedicated servant and family member,” Armstrong said.
The police director said that the White House has contacted the department and is aware of the incident.
The United States Marshals Service has offered a $10,000 reward for Wilbourn’s capture.
The driver of the vehicle turned himself in to authorities Sunday morning, and has since been released without charge, Armstrong said at the press conference.
Police were initially alerted about 9:18 p.m. Saturday that an officer had been shot multiple times. Armstrong said the officer was transported in critical condition to a hospital, where he died.
In a statement Sunday morning, Memphis Police said that a civilian had used Bolton's radio to notify police about the shooting.
Armstrong said police are using all available resources to find the shooter and that officers are grieving, adding that "this is just a reminder of how dangerous" the job is.
"Sadly to say, we've been here before," he said.
Bolton is the third Memphis officer to be fatally shot in slightly more than four years. Officer Tim Warren was killed while responding to a shooting at a downtown Memphis hotel in July 2011. In December 2012, Officer Martoiya Lang was killed while serving a warrant.
Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton Jr. said Bolton's death "speaks volumes about the inherent danger of police work" and asked others to "pray for the family and pray for our city."
"The men and women in blue have certain rules of engagement that they have to follow, but at any given minute in a 24-hour day they're dealing with folks who have no rules of engagement

Senate to vote Monday to defund Planned Parenthood, first step in renewed battle

The Republican-controlled Senate is set to vote Monday to halt federal aid to Planned Parenthood, a fast response to the series of unsettling videos exposing the group's little-noticed practice of providing fetal tissue to researchers.
The measure is not expected to pass because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the other 53 Republican senators will need support from several Democrats to reach the 60-vote threshold, with some moderates on both sides still apparently undecided.
However, the effort appears to be another step in the effort by pro-life groups and others to ban abortions and put an end to Planned Parenthood, which provides health services, family planning and abortions in clinics across the country.
"I think most Americans don't want their tax dollars going to this,” 2016 presidential candidate and Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “So I think when something is so morally repugnant to so many people, why should tax dollars go to this?”
Paul and other Republicans want the millions that go to Planned Parenthood given instead to community health centers across the country that provide similar services with the exception of abortions.  
"So it would be much less emotional for everyone if we just funded community health centers and didn't fund Planned Parenthood,” Paul said.
Democrats largely supported the group and argue the videos and the congressional Republican response is politically motivated and another attack on women.
"They're attacking women's health,” said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada.
The White House says it would block legislation to defund the pro-choice group.
Still, the furtively recorded videos -- with close-ups of aborted fetal organs and Planned Parenthood officials dispassionately describing how "I'm not going to crush that part" -- have forced the group and its Democratic champions into a defensive crouch.
The Center for Medical Progress, which recorded the videos and started releasing them late last month, accuses Planned Parenthood of profiting from selling fetal organs, which violates a federal criminal statute that lets providers recover only their expenses.
They also say Planned Parenthood is altering abortion procedures to better recover usable tissue.
Conservatives view the videos as a huge political opportunity to galvanize support for banning abortions and, some hope, prohibiting fetal tissue research. But the issue is cutting both ways, with both sides using it for fundraising solicitations.
Planned Parenthood has apologized for comments in the video but says it has broken no laws.
There are roughly 1 million U.S. abortions yearly. In its most recent annual report, Planned Parenthood said it performed 328,000 of them.
The group and its supporters have sought to shift the focus, saying abortions represent just 3 percent of the 10.9 million services the organization provides annually in nearly 700 clinics.
Group officials also says the yearly workload includes 4.5 million tests and treatments for sexually transmitted diseases; 3.6 million contraception procedures and devices; 1.1 million pregnancy tests and 900,000 cancer tests and treatments.
Of Planned Parenthood's 2.7 million annual clients, mostly women, it says 4 in 5 earn 150 percent of the federal poverty level or less. Democrats say an attack on Planned Parenthood is an effort to keep women, many of them poor, from needed health services.
Planned Parenthood says of $1.3 billion in revenue last year, $528 million came from taxpayers, including state funds that help finance Medicaid.
Supporters of Planned Parenthood say cutting federal aid wouldn't affect the abortions it provides because federal money cannot be used for abortions except for cases of rape, incest or when a woman's life is in peril.
Opponents say squeezing money from Planned Parenthood makes it choose between spending its remaining funds on abortions or other services.
Republicans say the nearly 9,100 federally funded community health centers, more than 10 times the number of Planned Parenthood locations, could pick up the slack.
Planned Parenthood disagrees, saying their sites serve disproportionate numbers of low-income women and are often where no other alternatives exist.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, is sponsor of the Senate bill, a female face Republicans hope will blunt repeated Democratic accusations that the GOP is waging war on women.
Underscoring the sensitivity, some of the moderates will likely cross party lines Monday. Sens. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, are among several saying little about how they will vote.
Some Republicans, include the more socially conservative members, say they won't vote for spending bills keeping the government open starting Oct. 1 with any Planned Parenthood funds.
 But GOP leaders are reluctant to force a shutdown fight that could haunt them in the 2016 elections, as are some of the party's presidential candidates.

P.P. Cartoon

Big Labor defends Planned Parenthood, calls attacks 'extremist,' 'politically motivated'

Two of the country’s biggest and most powerful labor unions have come to the defense of Planned Parenthood, amid a series of recently released videos in which leaders of the group are seen bargaining for the sale price of fetal tissues and organs, according to Watchdog.org.
“We stand united with our allies at Planned Parenthood, champions of quality healthcare and a cornerstone of vital services to millions of Americans for decades,” Mary Kay Henry, Service Employees International Union president, said in a statement this week.
Henry made the statement after the release of at least two videos and after the Republican-controlled Congress began to take action to stop federal funding for the group, which provides abortions and other women’s medical services.
The for-profit sale of aborted body parts by Planned Parenthood for research is illegal. The group has apologies for the statements made in the videos but says the discussions were about the cost of covering expenses and that there has been no wrongdoing.
"Efforts in Congress to de-fund Planned Parenthood by anti-women, anti-choice extremists must be stopped,” Henry also said in the statement.
The union coalition AFL-CIO is also backing Planned Parenthood, which receives about $500,000 annually from the federal government.
Union President Richard Trumka called the stealthy recorded videos “doctored” and said efforts to defund Planned Parenthood are “politically motivated and wrong.”
The membership ranks of the AFL-CIO’s two largest affiliates -- American Federation of Teachers and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees -- include government workers. And many of AFT’s members are nurses.
None of the union groups contacted by Watchdog.org responded to a request to comment.
AFL-CIO, AFSCME and SEIU helped pass ObamaCare through Congress early in President Obama’s first term and continue to work together.
AFSCME, for example, paid Planned Parenthood’s political action wing $400,000 in 2014, $20,000 in 2013 and $20,000 in 2011. And the payments were reported to the Labor Department as a “political program support” expenses, according to Watchdog.org.

Billionaires bankrolling 2016 campaign to unprecedented degree

Billionaires are bankrolling the early days of the 2016 presidential campaign to an unprecedented degree, with at least 40 of the wealthiest Americans plowing $60 million into super PACs aligned with the top tier of candidates.
The torrent of super PAC money is revolutionizing presidential politics in the wake of a 2010 Supreme Court ruling that opened the door to unlimited contributions from corporations, unions and individuals into these outside groups.
Super PACs backing 17 presidential candidates raised more than $250 million in the first six months of this year, roughly doubling the $125 million raised by the candidates for their campaigns, disclosure reports filed Friday with the Federal Election Commission show
The proliferation of the committees also is transforming how presidential campaigns will be run. Some candidates are exporting to outside groups some core components of their operations, including voter-turnout programs and television advertising. Since federal law prohibits coordination with super PACs, the candidates won’t have direct control over some essential tasks, pushing the 2016 race into uncharted territory.
The broad engagement by wealthy donors also helps explain why the GOP field, in particular, keeps expanding. Almost every one of the primary candidates has a billionaire at his back, which means the life of their candidacies is now divorced from their ability to directly raise money from voters.
Renaissance Technologies executive Robert Mercer is the biggest donor in the presidential race so far: he wrote an $11 million check to a group backing Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Diane Hendricks, the billionaire head of a roofing supply company, gave $5 million to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s super PAC, while auto dealer Norman Braman gave $5 million to a group supporting Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
Two super PACs supporting former Texas Gov. Rick Perry raked in more than $11 million from just two Texas billionaires. The super PAC backing New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie counts about a dozen billionaires among its supporters. And a group aligned with Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton received $7.5 million from at least eight billionaires, including financier Donald Sussman, investor George Soros and Haim Saban and his wife, Cheryl.
The committee backing Jeb Bush was the most aggressive in adapting to the less regulated political environment. Half of the 40 billionaires identified by The Wall Street Journal donated a combined $17.4 million to Right to Rise USA while it was on the way to raising an unprecedented $103 million. That super PAC far surpassed its rivals in a crowded GOP field as well as Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic front-runner.

Texas Attorney General indicted for felony securities fraud, prosecutor says

A grand jury has indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on felony securities fraud charges that accuse the Republican of misleading investors before he became the state’s top law enforcement officer, a special prosecutor said on Saturday.
Kent Schaffer, a Houston defense attorney appointed by a judge to the case, told The New York Times that a Texas grand jury indicted Paxton on two counts of first-degree securities fraud and a lesser charge of not registering.
Paxton also allegedly encouraged investment in McKinney-based tech startup company Severgy Inc., which is now under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Associated Press reported Paxton’s involvement with the company – and that a federal investigation was under way – last month.
Paxton was also fined last year for not disclosing to Texas securities regulators that he was getting commissions for soliciting investors.
Joe Kendall, Paxton’s lawyer, said in a statement on Saturday night saying the judge overseeing the case “has specifically instructed both parties to refrain from public comment on this matter and we are honoring the judge’s instructions.”
That came after Schaffer and his co-special prosecutor in the case, Brian Wice, issued a statement that only hinted at the indictment. The defense attorneys said they were dedicated to ensuring that anyone accused of a crime is guaranteed a presumption of innocence and a fair trial.
"Because our statutory mandate as special prosecutors is not to convict, but to see that justice is done, our commitment to these bedrock principles remains inviolate," they said.
Paxton’s aides have said the investigation in Collin County was politically motivated. That allegation has been rebuffed by Schaffer and Wice, the lead attorney in former Republic U.S. House Majority Leader Tom Delay’s successful appeal of his money laundering conviction.
Schaffer told The Times that the allegations regarding Servergy are first-degree securities fraud. He said Paxton is accused of encouraging investors in 2011 to put more than $600,000 into Servergy, while not telling them he was making a commission on their investment and misrepresenting himself as an investor. He said Paxton is expected to turn himself on Monday, the same day the new indictment is expected to be unsealed.
Conviction of a first-degree felony in Texas carries a punishment ranging from five years to life in prison.
Paxton is also accused to failing to register as a solicitor while taking commissions for referring law clients to a financial investor. That charge, a third-degree felony, could bring two to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Paxton accepted a $1,000 fine from the Texas State Securities board last year. At the time, the state board declined to pursue criminal charges. But the matter was revived after a complaint by the left-leaning watchdog group Texans for Public Justice, and a judge ultimately appointed the two special prosecutors.
"It is time for Paxton to face the consequences. This is yet another example of the corrupt culture that fester with one-party, unchecked Republican power," Texas Democratic Party Executive Director Manny Garcia said.
The cloud of a criminal investigation has shadowed Paxton while he emerged as a national Republican figure during his first six months as Texas' attorney general.
A tea party star in Texas, Paxton recently advised county clerks they could refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples on religious grounds after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized the unions nationwide.

Obama set to announce steeper emissions cuts from US power plants

President Barack Obama will impose steeper cuts on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants across the country than previously expected, senior administration officials said Sunday, in what the president called the most significant step the U.S. has ever taken to fight global warming.
The Obama administration is expected to finalize the rule at a White House event on Monday, a year after proposing unprecedented carbon dioxide limits. Obama, in a video posted on Facebook, said the limits were backed up by decades of data and facts showing that without tough action, the world will face more extreme weather and escalating health problems like asthma.
"Climate change is not a problem for another generation," Obama said. "Not anymore."
Initially, Obama had mandated a 30 percent nationwide cut in carbon dioxide emission by 2030, compared to 2005 levels. The final version, which follows extensive consultations with environmental groups and the energy industry, will require a 32 percent cut instead, according to White House officials.
Opponents said they would sue the government immediately. The also planned to ask the courts to put the rule on hold while legal challenges play out.
The steeper version also gives states an additional two years to comply, officials said, yielding to complaints that the original deadline was too soon. The new deadline is set for 2022. States will also have until 2018 instead of 2017 to submit their plans for how they intend to meet their targets.
The focus on renewables marks a significant shift from the earlier proposal that sought to accelerate the ongoing shift from coal-fired power to natural gas, which emits less carbon dioxide. The final version aims to keep the share of natural gas in the nation’s power mix the same as it is now.
The stricter limits included the final plan were certain to incense energy industry advocates who had already balked at the more lenient limits in the proposed plan. However, the Obama administration said its tweaks would cut energy costs and address concerns about power grid reliability.
The Obama administration previously predicted emissions limits will cost up to $8.8 billion annually by 2030, though it says those costs will be far outweighed by health savings from fewer asthma attacks and other benefits. The actual price is unknown until states decide how they’ll reach their targets, but the administration has projected the rule would raise electricity prices about 4.9 percent by 2020 and prompt coal-fired power plants to close.
In the works for years, the power plant rule forms the cornerstone of Obama's plan to curb U.S. emissions and keep global temperatures from climbing, and its success is pivotal to the legacy Obama hopes to leave on climate change. Never before has the U.S. sought to restrict carbon dioxide from existing power plants.
By clamping down on power plant emissions, Obama is also working to increase his leverage and credibility with other nations whose commitments he's seeking for a global climate treaty to be finalized later this year in Paris. As its contribution to that treaty, the U.S. has pledged to cut overall emissions 26 percent to 28 percent by 2025, compared to 2005. Other major polluting nations have also stepped up including China, which pledged to halt its growth in emissions by 2030 despite an economy that's still growing.
Power plants account for at least one-third of all emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases blamed for global warming in the U.S. Obama’s rule assigns customized targets for each state, then leaves it up to the state to determine how to meet their targets.
More than a dozen states have already made plans to fight the rule, even before it was revealed. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has urged some Republican governors to refuse to comply, setting up a confrontation with the EPA, which by law can force its own plan on states that fail to submit implementation plans.
Yet in those states, power companies and local utilities have started preparing to meet those targets. New, more efficient plants are replacing older ones have already pushed emissions down nearly 13 percent since 2005.
In Congress, lawmakers have sought to use legislation to stop Obama's regulation, and McConnell has tried previously to use an obscure, rarely successful maneuver under the Congressional Review Act to allow Congress to vote it down.
The more serious threat to Obama's rule will likely come in the courts. The Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, which represents energy companies, said 20 to 30 states were poised to join with industry in suing over the rule.
The Obama administration has a mixed track record in fending off legal challenges to its climate rules. Earlier this year, a federal appeals court ruled against 15 states and a coal company that tried to block the power plant rule before it was finalized. The Supreme Court has also affirmed Obama's authority to regulate pollution crossing state lines and to use the decades-old Clean Air Act to reduce greenhouse gases — the legal underpinning for the power plant rule.
But the high court in June ruled against his mercury emissions limits, arguing the EPA failed to properly account for costs. Federal courts have also forced Obama to redo other clean air standards that industry groups complained were too onerous.
With the end of Obama's presidency drawing nearer, his climate efforts have become increasingly entangled in the next presidential election. The power plant rule won't go into effect until long after Obama leaves office, putting its implementation in the hands of his successor. Among other Republican critics, 2016 candidate and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has said he would drastically scale down the EPA if elected and shift most of its duties to state regulators.

Candidate Debate Cartoon

Trashing Trump: Why the pundits are now eating their words

For a deep dive on how the mainstream media have utterly mishandled Donald Trump’s candidacy, there is no better place to start than Chris Cillizza.
The Washington Post’s “Fix” columnist is a seasoned political observer, MSNBC contributor and certifiably nice guy. And for a journalist who isn’t a bomb-thrower, he has also been unrelentingly hostile to Trump (now known as the Republican front-runner).
Back on May 13, Cillizza wrote: “Donald Trump will say almost anything to get a rise out of people. He is in the entertainment business, a professional provocateur of some renown. The business he is not in, of course, is politics.
That's a big problem for a party desperately working to prove it is ready, willing and able to take the reins of government back from Democrats…
“If Donald Trump takes the debate stage in Ohio come August, it's a big loss for a Republican Party desperately trying to prove itself anew to a skeptical public.”
So he basically dismissed Trump as a nuisance. But by June 17, Cillizza was taking pains to point out The Donald’s high negatives:
“You cannot and do not win anything when your numbers look like Trump's.  I can't say it any more clearly than that. There's nothing you can say or do -- not that Trump would ever even consider going on an image rehabilitation tour -- to change how people feel about you.  Republicans know Trump. And they really, really don't like him.
“Trump, of course, knows this. His goal is attention, not winning.”
In this formulation, Trump was all about building his brand and still not serious about seeking the White House. Not surprisingly, the billionaire fired back on Twitter:
“One of the dumber and least respected of the political pundits is Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post @TheFix. Moron hates my poll numbers.”
Undeterred, Cillizza made this comparison on June 23:
“Trump is sort of like the political version of the Kardashians -- people say they can't stand him but they also can't seem to take their eyes off him.”
And the columnist seemed genuinely ticked off at the people of New Hampshire after a poll there put Trump in second place. While professing his love for the state, Cillizza said: “But, seriously? Eleven percent of you want this guy?”
Those pesky voters—they’re making a big mistake!
Plus, Cillizza did a drive-by on “Meet the Press,” accusing Trump of a “car-accident candidacy.”
Now, with Trump leading in a plethora of polls, Cillizza, to his credit, is admitting he was wrong, both in print and on the air. Trump “has quite clearly tapped into a populist message that plenty of people…are responding to,” he wrote yesterday. And: “Trump has been right a heck of a lot more than I have about his rise in this race.”
I don’t mean to pick on Chris, because he has plenty of company in the media establishment. They viewed Trump as something of an alien, a sideshow, a clown (which is how he was pictured on the cover of New York’s Daily News). And there was a unified chorus of “now he’s going to implode” after each perceived misstep (the Mexican immigrant remarks, the McCain war record comments), followed by shock and amazement when Trump continued his climb in the polls.
Perhaps because I’ve been interviewing him on and off since 1987, I knew Trump was a media master and not to be underestimated (though even I’ve been surprised by the speed of his ascent).
Now we have the media elite finally trying to grapple with Trump’s appeal. After a Bloomberg focus group (cited by Cillizza), author John Heielmann said it was clear that people don’t think Trump is a summer fling, that they like his success, that he’s a billionaire seen as “one of us.”
As Heilemann’s partner Mark Halperin said on “Morning Joe,” people think Trump is “classy. The establishment has to understand that. Right now they just think of him as a joke.”
Not everyone in the media is convinced. Yahoo’s Matt Bai, who’s still smarting from writing a 1999 piece on Trump’s flirtation with a Reform Party run, says The Donald is amusing us to death:
“Oh yes, I know, Trump is a legitimate obsession because he is the 'Republican front-runner.' Look at the polls. Only an arrogant elitist would avoid covering everything the front-runner says and does just because you think him insufficiently qualified…
“Trump draws crowds because he is a genuine celebrity and a world-class entertainer. Politics is tedium and sameness, like network dramas in the age before cable. Trump is reality TV, live and unscripted.
“And let’s drop all the pretense: That’s why we in the media hyperventilate over his every utterance, too. I’m not saying, as the Huffington Post does, that Trump’s candidacy shouldn’t be covered as an actual candidacy. Only that, if there were any real proportion here, Trump would merit about half the coverage he gets, and we wouldn’t constantly be baiting him to hurl some new, headline-making epithet.”‎
I get that news outlets are in a symbiotic relationship with Trump, who produces big ratings and traffic. But what many pundits haven’t figured out is that commanding media attention is a skill, one that many candidates just aren’t much good at.
That doesn’t mean Trump will win the nomination. It doesn’t mean he would be a good president. But it does mean he is running circles around a press corps that made the yuuuge mistake of treating him with disdain.

Border Patrol poster boy's arrest, new report bare agency's corruption issue

EL PASO, Texas –  The arrest last week of a onetime Border Patrol poster boy on charges of smuggling illegal immigrants followed a damning report on corruption within the Customs and Border Protection agency.
Supervisory Customs and Border Protection Agent Lawrence Madrid, 53, was arrested July 24 at his El Paso home by agents of Homeland Security Investigations and charged with alien smuggling. Madrid, a 20-year veteran, is one of 177 agents who have faced corruption charges since 2005, according to CBP spokesman Roger Maier.
“SCBPO Madrid was the ninth CBP employee arrested, indicted, or otherwise prosecuted this fiscal year on corruption related charges,” Maier said.

"Madrid was the ninth CBP employee arrested, indicted, or otherwise prosecuted this fiscal year on corruption related charges.”
- Roger Maier, CBP spokesman

The allegations against Madrid stem from 2010, when he appeared on the NPR report entitled "Drugs Cross Border by Truck, Free Trade and Chance," and the next year. In the report, Madrid was profiled on-duty interviewing illegal immigrants crossing from Ciudad Juarez into El Paso and discussing the techniques he uses to identify those involved in criminal activity.
"When they're handing you the documentation, the first thing you look at is their hands, whether they are trembling," Madrid told NPR staffer John Burnett. "Whether they...take time to answer the questions or that they're stuttering when they answer--just stuff like that you pick up."
But Madrid was nabbed years later when an informant told authorities in January, 2014, that the agent had allegedly smuggled illegal immigrants across the Bridge of the Americas in August, 2010. According to an arrest affidavit, the unnamed informant told officers that his wife paid a man to help smuggle him across the bridge and that a CBP officer he identified as Madrid assisted. The informant said he and two other Mexican citizens were allegedly smuggled through the pedestrian lane on the bridge Madrid was manning, according to the affidavit.
Agents also received information in May 2014 that another couple had been smuggled into the U.S. with the help of a CBP officer in 2011, the affidavit states. That informant allegedly identified Madrid in a photo lineup, and investigators corroborated both accounts through phone records, work schedules and interviews with other witnesses, the affidavit states.
Madrid's arrest put a human face on a report Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson ordered last year. That report, which was filed last month, identified an ongoing threat to CBP and the need to beef up the agency’s internal affairs investigative staff.
“The investigations are nearly all reactive and do not use proactive, risk analysis to identify potential corruption,” the report said.
The agency currently has 218 investigators in its Office of Internal Affairs for the agency that has 66,000 employees. The panel that produced the report called for 565 investigators.
In a June 11 interview for the El Paso Times, Stuart Harris, vice president of the National Border Patrol Council Local 1929 in El Paso, called allegations of widespread corruption raised in the CBP Integrity Advisory Panel a “publicity stunt to appease the special interest groups than anything else.”
A congressional aid speaking on background said that while polygraph tests are part of the pre-employment vetting process, union collective bargaining has prohibited testing of incumbent agents such as Madrid. The aide also said in the exponential growth the agency experienced between 2005-2007, where background checks may have been lax, more cases of corruption would not be surprising.
“I won't comment on details of this case but I strongly believe that all CBP officers should be held to the highest standards,” said Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) whose district includes El Paso.

Critics blast loophole that forces taxpayers to fund public sector union work

Bob Nicks has firefighting in his blood, but for the last four years, the Texas battalion chief has earned his six-figure salary sitting at a desk doing union work instead of running into burning buildings and saving lives.
As president of Austin Firefighters Association/IAFF Local 975, Nicks is office-bound by order of the chief, even though he believes he could handle union business with one weekly shift and spend the rest of his time on the job doing what he loves. He is paid for what is known as "release time," hours public sector union officials spend doing union business that are paid by their employers - taxpayers.
“Union release time is a plague on local, state and the federal governments’ finances," said Trey Kovacs, who authored a recent study of the issue for the Competitive Enterprise Institute. "The practice of allowing public employees to perform union business only benefits the labor union and serves no public purpose.”

"They could save $70,000 a year. It should be about the citizens.”
- Bob Nicks, President, Austin Firefighters Association

Nicks, who calls himself a "different kind of union president," hates getting paid to ride a desk. His rank earns him more than $100,000, he acknowledged, but he spends none of his 40-hour work week in a firehouse.
“I’ve been fighting to be put back to work at our fire department,” he told FoxNews.com. “The chief wouldn’t allow it. How much they have fought against me was crazy.”
Austin Fire Department Assistant Chief Doug Fowler said the system Nicks objects to has been in place for years.
"It was designed that way so that the union president wouldn’t have a chain of command, per se, and could focus and function unbiased in dealing with members’ issues with the department," Fowler said. "Additionally, Chief Nicks is eligible to work overtime on the weekends but has not done so according to our timekeeping system."
Release time costs local, state and federal governments hundreds of millions of dollars. Figures for states, counties and municipalities are not known, but at the federal level, release time costs taxpayers an estimated $122 million annually, according to the Michigan-based Mackinac Center for Public Policy. While no one disputes there is union business to be conducted, and release time is part of collective bargaining agreements, critics say the practice allows for waste and should be funded by union dues, not taxpayers.

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A recent study found that thousands of hours in release time has been doled out at public agencies in Texas, in possible violation of the state constitution's “gift clause,” which bans the grant of public funds to a private entity. (Austin Fire Department)

“It’s an egregious waste of taxpayer dollars,” said Greg Mourad, vice president of the National Right to Work Committee. “There’s no reason for it and that is the problem with unionizing the public sector. They [unions] have become the most powerful lobby group in politics."
The CEI study found that Texas cities pay thousands of hours in release time to teachers, cops and firefighters, and raised the possibility that such payments violate the Lone Star State’s constitution, which "prohibits the transfer of public funds to private entities that do not serve a public purpose,” Kovacs said.
After complaints that Phoenix, Ariz., spent nearly $4 million annually on release time, state lawmakers in 2013 introduced a bill that would make ban the practice of allowing taxpayers to pay union officials for work associated with their labor organizations. The bill never made it out of the state Legislature, but a legal battle over the same issue is working its way through state courts, after a Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled last year that release time was a violation of the state’s gift laws. Unions are appealing.
Pending legislation in Michigan would curb release time and also end a practice known as “pension spiking.” A pair of Michigan Senate bills was proposed in April after Michigan Education Association bargained for the Lansing school district to contribute $50,000 annually to the state pension system on behalf of state union President Steve Cook. The deal allowed him to collect a much larger pension despite not working for the school system.
Mourad, as well as F. Vincent Vernuccio, director of labor policy for Mackinac, said cash-strapped states are starting to look closely at deals that critics say allow public sector unions and their officials to collect taxpayer funds despite not always serving the public.
“It’s extremely troubling to see, when you have examples like union officials say there is not enough money going to public works yet they have teachers collect salaries from districts they don't even work for," Vernuccio said. "This does not help the taxpayer at all.”
Mourad said many of the practices, including release time, are hard to defend once taxpayers understand them.
“I think that is why we are starting to see a push back in general,” he said. “The free hand of the unions being held out has been a recipe for budgetary disaster and state lawmakers are starting to see that and looking for ways to reverse it.”

Baltimore killings soar to a level unseen in 43 years

Well! What did they expect when they undermined  their police??

BALTIMORE –  Baltimore reached a grim milestone on Friday, three months after riots erupted in response to the death of Freddie Gray in police custody: With 45 homicides in July, the city has seen more bloodshed in a single month than it has in 43 years.
Police reported three deaths — two men shot Thursday and one on Friday. The men died at local hospitals.
With their deaths, this year's homicides reached 189, far outpacing the 119 killings by July's end in 2014. Nonfatal shootings have soared to 366, compared to 200 by the same date last year. July's total was the worst since the city recorded 45 killings in August 1972, according to The Baltimore Sun.
The seemingly Sisyphean task of containing the city's violence prompted Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to fire her police commissioner, Anthony Batts, on July 8.
"Too many continue to die on our streets," Rawlings-Blake said then. "Families are tired of dealing with this pain, and so am I. Recent events have placed an intense focus on our police leadership, distracting many from what needs to be our main focus: the fight against crime."
But the killings have not abated under Interim Commissioner Kevin Davis since then.
Baltimore is not unique in its suffering; crimes are spiking in big cities around the country.
But while the city's police are closing cases— Davis announced arrests in three recent murders several days ago — the violence is outpacing their efforts. Davis said Tuesday the "clearance rate" is at 36.6 percent, far lower than the department's mid-40s average.
Crime experts and residents of Baltimore's most dangerous neighborhoods cite a confluence of factors: mistrust of the police; generalized anger and hopelessness over a lack of opportunities for young black men; and competition among dealers of illegal drugs, bolstered by the looting of prescription pills from pharmacies during the riot.
Federal drug enforcement agents said gangs targeted 32 pharmacies in the city, taking roughly 300,000 doses of opiates, as the riots caused $9 million in property damage in the city.
Perched on a friend's stoop, Sherry Moore, 55, said she knew "mostly all" of the young men killed recently in West Baltimore, including an 18-year-old fatally shot a half-block away. Moore said many more pills are on the street since the riot, making people wilder than usual.
"The ones doing the violence, the shootings, they're eating Percocet like candy and they're not thinking about consequences. They have no discipline, they have no respect — they think this is a game. How many can I put down on the East side? How many can I put down on the West side?"
The tally of 42 homicides in May included Gray, who died in April after his neck was broken in police custody. The July tally likewise includes a previous death — a baby whose death in June was ruled a homicide in July.
Shawn Ellerman, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Baltimore division of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said May's homicide spike was probably related to the stolen prescription drugs, a supply that is likely exhausted by now. But the drug trade is inherently violent, and turf wars tend to prompt retaliatory killings.
"You can't attribute every murder to narcotics, but I would think a good number" of them are, he said. "You could say it's retaliation from drug trafficking, it's retaliation from gangs moving in from other territories. But there have been drug markets in Baltimore for years."
Across West Baltimore, residents complain that drug addiction and crime are part of a cycle that begins with despair among children who lack educational and recreational opportunities, and extends when people can't find work.
"We need jobs! We need jobs!" a man riding around on a bicycle shouted to anyone who'd listen after four people were shot, three of them fatally, on a street corner in July.
More community engagement, progressive policing policies and opportunities for young people in poverty could help, community activist Munir Bahar said.
"People are focusing on enforcement, not preventing violence. Police enforce a code, a law. Our job as the community is to prevent the violence, and we've failed," said Bahar, who leads the annual 300 Men March against violence in West Baltimore.
"We need anti-violence organizations, we need mentorship programs, we need a long-term solution. But we also need immediate relief," Bahar added. "When we're in something so deep, we have to stop it before you can analyze what the root is."
Strained relationships between police and the public also play a role, according to Eugene O'Donnell, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Arrests plummeted and violence soared after six officers were indicted in Gray's death. Residents accused police of abandoning their posts for fear of facing criminal charges for making arrests, and said emboldened criminals were settling scores with little risk of being caught.
The department denied these claims, and police cars have been evident patrolling West Baltimore's central thoroughfares recently.
But O'Donnell said the perception of lawlessness is just as powerful than the reality.
"We have a national issue where the police feel they are the Public Enemy No. 1," he said, making some officers stand down and criminals become more brazen.
"There's a rhythm to the streets," he added. "And when people get away with gun violence, it has a long-term emboldening effect. And the good people in the neighborhood think, 'Who has the upper hand?'"

Top Clinton aide reportedly received overpayments at State Department

One of Hillary Clinton’s top aides was reportedly overpaid by nearly $10,000 because of violations of rules that govern vacation and sick time during her time as an official in the State Department, according to investigators.
The Washington Post reports the finding emerged on Friday after Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley sent letters to Secretary of State John Kerry, among others, about an investigation into possible “criminal” conduct by Huma Abedin over her pay.
The letters also sought the status of an investigation into whether Abedin violated conflict-of-interest laws related to her work for the State Department, the Clinton Foundation and another private firm founded by a Clinton ally, according to The Post.
The finding that Abedin, who now serves as vice chairwoman of her presidential campaign, had improperly collected taxpayer money could damage Clinton’s candidacy, a GOP lawmakers insist that government rules were bent to benefit Clinton and her aides and at the same time could bolster Democratic claims that Republicans are using their oversight role to purposely damage Clinton politically.
The Post reports that Grassley indicated in the letters he was describing an inquiry by the State Department’s Inspector General. Grassley wrote, in letters to Abedin, Kerry and the Inspector General, that staff of the inspector general had found “at least a reasonable suspicion of a violation” of law concerning the “theft of public money through time and attendance fraud” and possible conflicts to Abedin’s “overlapping employment,” according to the newspaper.
Grassley also noted the possibility that efforts to investigate the allegations were nixed because Abedin’s exchanges were sent through Clinton’s private email server.

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• Controversy over two-month gap with Clinton emails

The Post reports, citing the letter describing the investigation, Abedin’s time sheets said she never took a vacation or sick leave during her four years at the State Department, which started in January 2009 and last until February 2013. The senator did write the investigation found evidence that Abedin did take some time off, including a 10-day trip to Italy.
Attorneys for Abedin told the newspaper she learned in May that the State Department’s inspector general concluded she improperly collected $9,857 for the time she was on vacation or leave. Abedin responded to the allegations with a 12-page letter contesting the findings and a request for administrative review of the investigation’s conclusions.
In the letters, Grassley also contends Clinton’s private email server interfered with the investigation.
“The OIG had reason to believe that email evidence relevant to that inquiry was contained in emails Ms. Abedin sent and received from her account on Secretary Clinton’s non-government server, making them unavailable to the OIG through its normal statutory right of access records,” he wrote.
Grassley has been questioning Abedin’s “special government employee” status, which allowed her to take a job at the Clinton Foundation and Teneo, a firm led by former aide for Bill Clinton, Douglas Band. Abedin worked there for her final six months at the State Department.
Grassley’s letter to Kerry alleges that Abedin had exchanged at least 7,300 emails that “involved” Band, but didn’t expand on how many of those were between Abedin and Band.