Front-runner status challenged? Polls show Clinton trailing Sanders in Iowa, NH

Just days after a New Hampshire poll showed Hillary Clinton slipping further behind Bernie Sanders in the vital early primary state, a fresh survey shows the Vermont senator narrowly edging ahead of her in Iowa as well. 
The Quinnipiac University poll shows Sanders leading Clinton 41-40 percent.
The results are well within the margin of error and represent a virtual tie in the first-in-the-nation caucus state. But together, the polling in New Hampshire and Iowa indicates Clinton's front-runner status is now being challenged in the primary season's two lead-off contests.
"Obviously the campaign is delighted," Sanders Press Secretary Lilia A. Chacon said in a statement. "People and Iowans are responding to a message based on issues. The more people know about Bernie the more they like him."
The Clinton campaign is stressing that they always thought this would be a "close race."
"No non-incumbent candidate other than Sen. Harkin has gotten more than 50 percent in the [Iowa] caucus -- which is why we are working hard to earn every vote," a campaign official said in an email, while touting Clinton's growing ground game in the Hawkeye State.
Despite the latest set of polls, Clinton continues to lead by a comfortable margin in national surveys.
The Iowa contest also is more than four months away. And even if Clinton lost the two lead-off contests, she could soldier on in other early-voting states like South Carolina and gather the delegates needed. She leads by double digits in virtually every poll in South Carolina, and in Florida.
But as with other recent polls, Sanders' rise underscores a potential vulnerability for Clinton who for months was the unquestioned front-runner but lately has faced growing questions about her personal email controversy.
While other rivals -- like former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley and former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb -- have failed to catch fire with voters, Sanders is gaining ground and Vice President Biden is still weighing a Democratic bid. The latest Quinnipiac poll suggests the VP has a built-in base of support; in Iowa, 12 percent said they back Biden.
And Sanders' 41 percent marked a major jump from a July survey by the same polling outfit. At the time, Sanders had 33 percent, to Clinton's 52 percent.
The Iowa poll follows an NBC/Marist survey Sunday showing Sanders with a 9-point lead in New Hampshire.
Sanders himself downplayed the daily drip-drip of polling results.
Asked about the Quinnipiac survey on Thursday, Sanders said, "Polls are polls -- today there is one poll, tomorrow there is another poll."
The Quinnipiac poll of 832 likely Iowa Democratic caucus-goers was taken Aug. 27-Sept. 8. It had a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.

America to mark 14th anniversary of September 11, 2001 attacks

From New York City to Shanksville, Pa., from the White House to baseball stadiums around the nation, America will pause once again Friday to mark the 13th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
The largest ceremony will take place at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum near the site of the World Trade Center's twin towers, which were brought down when two hijacked passenger jets slammed into them that day. Families of the victims will gather at the memorial's plaza for what has become a tradition of tolling bells, observing moments of silence, and reading the names of those who died.
The plaza is reserved for victims' relatives and invited guests for the morning ceremony, but will be open for the public to pay their respects in the afternoon. An estimated 20,000 people flocked to the site last year, the first year the public was able to visit on the anniversary.
"When we did open it up, it was just like life coming in," National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum President Joe Daniels told the Associated Press this week, adding "the general public that wants to come and pay their respects on this most sacred ground should be let in as soon as possible."
The Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville in western Pennsylvania is marking the completion of its visitor center, which opened to the public Thursday. At the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and other officials will join in remembrances for victims' relatives and Pentagon employees.
President Obama is scheduled to observe a moment of silence with the first lady and White House staff on the mansion's South Lawn before visiting Fort Meade in Maryland, in recognition of the military's work to protect the country.
Ohio's statehouse will display nearly 3,000 flags — representing the lives lost — in an arrangement designed to represent the World Trade Center towers, with a Pentagon-shaped space and an open strip representing the field near Shanksville. Sacramento, Calif., will commemorate 9/11 in conjunction with a parade honoring three Sacramento-area friends who tackled a heavily armed gunman on a Paris-bound high-speed train last month.
Major League Baseball will pay its own tribute to mark the anniversary of the attacks. At every stadium where a big league game is played Friday, there will be moments of silence, as well as other remembrances. Players, managers, coaches and umpires will wear caps with flag patches
In Washington, some members of Congress plan to spend part of the anniversary discussing federal funding for the ground zero memorial. The House Natural Resources Committee has scheduled a hearing Friday on a proposal to provide up to $25 million a year for the plaza.
The memorial and underground museum together cost $60 million a year to run. The federal government contributed heavily to building the institution; leaders have tried unsuccessfully for years to get Washington to chip in for annual costs, as well.
Under the current proposal, any federal money would go only toward the memorial plaza. An estimated 21 million people have visited it for free since its 2011 opening.
The museum charges up to $24 per ticket, a price that initially sparked some controversy. Still, almost 3.6 million visitors have come since the museum's May 2014 opening, topping projections by about 5 percent, Daniels said.
Any federal funding could lead to expanded discounts for school and other groups, but there are no plans to lower the regular ticket price, he said.
This year's anniversary also comes as advocates for 9/11 responders and survivors are pushing Congress to extend two federal programs that promised billions of dollars in compensation and medical care. Both programs are set to expire next year.
But some of those close to the events aim to keep policy and politics at arm's length on Sept. 11.
Organizers of the ground zero ceremony decided in 2012 to stop letting elected officials read names, though politicians still can attend. Over the years, some victims' relatives have invoked political matters while reading names — such as declaring that Sept. 11 should be a national holiday — but others have sought to keep the focus personal.
"This day should be a day for reflection and remembrance. Only," Faith Tieri, who lost her brother, Sal Tieri Jr., said during last year's commemoration.

11 confirmed shootings in Arizona prompt serial shooter fears

Authorities in Arizona are investigating 11 confirmed shooting incidents within two weeks—most reported along the I-10— that include a confirmed gunshot early Thursday that left a hole in the side of a commercial tractor-truck.
The shootings have rattled nerves and heightened fears of a possible serial shooter, and some motorists have started avoiding using the freeways, instead taking city streets. No one has been seriously hurt in the shootings, although one bullet shattered a windshield and the broken glass cut a 13-year-old girl.
Authorties say that eight of the damaged vehicles were hit by bullets and three by projectiles such as BBs and pellets.
Department of Public Safety Director Frank Milstead has called the incidents "domestic terrorism crimes."
"Anytime that you have multiple shootings against American citizens on a highway, that's terrorism," Milstead said. "They're trying to frighten or kill somebody." He did not elaborate.
The latest incident happened just before 6 a.m. local time Thursday, when a commercial truck driver found a bullet hole in his cargo area after making hours of deliveries, so it was impossible to know where or exactly when it happened.

"Anytime that you have multiple shootings against American citizens on a highway, that's terrorism"
- Frank Milstead, director of Department of Public Safety

Milstead's agency brought in the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and local police to assist in the investigation. Authorities have been conducting surveillance and deploying undercover detectives and members of the SWAT team and a gang task force.
Investigators are also appealing for help via social media, news conferences, TV interviews and freeway billboards. The messages have morphed from "report suspicious activity" to "shooting tips" to the more ominous "I-10 shooter tip line" on Thursday. Earlier this week, police quadrupled the reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction to $20,000.
Thousands of tips have come in, many proving to be false leads based on road hazards routine in Arizona, like windshields cracked by loose rocks sent airborne by the tires of other vehicles. On Thursday alone, drivers reported possible shootings of an armored truck, two cars and two tractor-trailers. Authorities and TV crews scrambled to these scenes, only to discover minor damage.
Juan Campana works at an appliance business near where many of the shootings occurred. He was surprised to look up and see helicopters on Wednesday after the 10th reported shooting.
Campana said he's not taking the freeway anymore.
"I go through the streets when I go home," he said.
Raul Garcia, a state trooper public information officer, told FoxNews.com that anyone who witnesses a shooting should call 911. He did not describe the firearm used and would not confirm media reports that there may be copycats.
"What we have is a very dangerous situation and somebody knows something," he said. "You need to let law enforcement know."
Milstead said drivers are fortunate that no one has been killed or seriously hurt, but if the incidents continue,"it's just a matter of time before there is a tragedy."
The shootings haven't fit any obvious pattern. Most happened on Interstate 10, a main route through Phoenix. Bullets have been fired at various times of the day, striking a seemingly random assortment of vehicles, from an empty bus to tractor-trailers to pickup trucks, cars and SUVs.
Helicopters flew up and down Interstate 10 on Thursday as an officer monitored a wall of TV monitors carrying live surveillance video from every freeway in metro Phoenix. The Arizona Department of Public Safety has enlisted the help of the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, local police and undercover law enforcement officers.
"We have a number of officers ... both uniformed, non-uniformed, plainclothes, undercover vehicles, marked vehicles on the road patrolling, looking for the suspect, looking for leads," said Bart Graves, another DPS spokesman.
Many longtime Phoenix residents still remember the random shootings that terrorized the public a decade ago. Nearly 30 people were shot, and eight killed, including a cyclist who was riding down the street and a man who was sleeping at a bus stop. Two men were eventually caught and convicted.
These shootings also recall other random highway and roadside shootings, most notably the sniper attacks that terrorized the nation's capital more than a decade ago before two men were captured there.
The Phoenix shootings have brought back memories of other random highway and roadside shootings in recent years, most notably the sniper attacks that terrorized the nation's capital more than a decade ago.
A series of apparently random roadside shootings in northern Colorado earlier this year raised alarm that a serial shooter might be trolling areas roads.
A member of the task force investigating the northern Colorado shootings that left a cyclist dead and a driver injured called authorities in Arizona to see if there were any similarities, said David Moore, a spokesman for the Larimer County Sheriff's Office. Investigators found no links, he said.
A man was convicted last year of terrorism charges after opening fire on a busy Michigan highway because he believed the drivers were part of a government conspiracy against him. An Ohio man took shots at several cars and houses over several months in 2003, killing one person, before being caught and sent to prison.
Making an arrest in such cases requires a large number of officers who are ready to flood an area immediately after shots are fired, said Lt. Ron Moore, who commanded a Michigan task force that investigated the 2012 spree in which 23 vehicles were shot on or near Interstate 96.
"You have to bring all the resources you can to bear on the problem - and that's exactly what we did," said Moore, an officer in Wixom, Michigan.

Carly Fiorina Cartoon

Donald Trump insults Fiorina's appearance in magazine profile

Donald Trump is under fire yet again after insulting the physical appearance of fellow GOP presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine.
"Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president," the Republican frontrunner said in the interview. "I mean, she's a woman, and I'm not s'posedta say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?"
Trump has been criticized for his insults against women. During last month's Fox News' GOP debate he was asked about calling some women "fat pigs" and "disgusting animals," and said he couldn't remember using such words.
Fiorina told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly on “The Kelly File” Wednesday that Trump’s comments “speak for themselves” and are “very serious.”
“Maybe just maybe I’m getting under his skin a little bit because I’m climbing in the polls,” she said.
Fiorina has been rising in the polls since her strong performance in the Aug. 6 debate for second-tier GOP candidates sponsored by Fox News and Facebook.
The former Hewlett-Packard chief executive has fought to be included in the main event for CNN’s Republican presidential debate to be held Sept. 16th.
The deadline to qualify for the networks national televised, main-stage debate is Sept. 10.

Dispute among House GOP jeopardizes vote on Iran nuclear deal

Conservative House Republicans forced an abrupt about-face from party leaders Wednesday as a rule to debate a resolution disapproving the Iran nuclear deal was scrapped in favor of an approach involving votes on three related measures.
The first measure specifies that the Obama administration had not properly submitted the accord to Congress. The second is a bound-to-fail vote to approve the deal, and a third would prevent Obama from lifting congressionally mandated sanctions on Iran. Debate and votes were to begin Thursday.
"We need to pull every tool out of the toolbox to stop this bad deal," said Rep. Bill Flores, R-Texas.
The rebels were egged on by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who has repeatedly allied himself with House conservatives to thwart the plans of GOP leaders. He and others argued that the disapproval vote should be delayed, contending the 60-day deadline clock on the congressional review period can't really start until lawmakers get information on separate agreements negotiated with Iran by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
"I don't believe the [60-day] clock has started," said Rep. Pete Roskam, R-Ill. "Either stop the clock or disclose the documents."
Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kansas, one of the conservative rebels, told reporters that he believed there were two so-called "side agreements" that had not been disclosed to Congress.

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"I believe those documents exist," Pompeo said.
However, that claim is contrary to how the House GOP leadership, including House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif, acted over the summer. After the final agreement was sealed in July, GOP leaders started a 60-day clock, which mandated that Congress consider and vote on the deal by September 17 under legislation passed earlier this year.
Republican leaders did not sound receptive to conservative attempts to change the terms of the debate.
"Right now we've got strong bipartisan opposition to this deal. It's my opinion that we're far better off focusing on the substance" rather than the timing of a vote, said Sen. Bob Corker, R- Tenn., chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.
The White House and Democratic lawmakers were dismissive of the conservative moves. "Sounds like a plan hatched up at Tortilla Coast on a Tuesday night," said White House spokesman Eric Schultz, naming a restaurant near the Capitol where congressional conservatives meet.
 In response to Schultz, Pompeo retorted, "I haven't been to Tortilla Coast in months."
The maneuvering appeared to be moving forward without the blessing of the powerful pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, which has led opposition to the accord. An official with the group said its preference was for a straight vote on the disapproval resolution — something Senate Democrats are trying to block with a filibuster.
The fate of that effort remained uncertain. In the Senate debate did begin on the resolution Wednesday, with some describing the vote, which could occur yet this week, as among the most consequential in their lifetimes. Underscoring the occasion, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., urged all senators to be present, though most Democrats and some Republicans ignored the request.
The international accord aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions will likely move ahead barring truly dramatic turnabouts. Even if Congress succeeds in passing legislation aimed at undermining it by next week's deadline, President Obama would veto such a measure and minority Democrats command enough votes to sustain the veto.

Amid ‘disaster of Biblical proportions,’ administration reportedly to accept 5,000 more refugees

WASHINGTON –  In response to international calls to help ease the burden of the Syrian refugee crisis, the Obama administration reportedly is prepared to increase the number of refugees the U.S. resettles -- by roughly 5,000.
The Associated Press reported Wednesday that, according to unnamed sources, Secretary of State John Kerry told members of Congress in a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill that the United States will boost its worldwide quota for resettling refugees from 70,000 to 75,000 next year, a number that could increase further. A fraction of those would be from Syria.
A 5,000-person increase would be far short of what aid groups and others have called for – the International Rescue Committee and other groups have urged the U.S. to resettle 65,000 Syrian refugees by the end of 2016.
The administration, though, has struggled to respond to the growing crisis -- and strike a balance between calls to accept more refugees and warnings that bringing in thousands from Islamic State-controlled territory would pose a grave security risk.
Kerry, without putting a number on it, said Wednesday that the U.S. would allow more refugees into the country.
"We are looking hard at the number that we can specifically manage with respect to the crisis in Syria and Europe," he said. "That's being vetted fully right now."
Europeans countries already are facing the prospect of hundreds of thousands of refugees, many from Syria, seeking entry. Australia announced Wednesday that their country would permanently resettle 12,000 Syrian refugees.
Without spelling out their own proposals, Obama administration officials have acknowledged the extent of the humanitarian crisis.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Wednesday that the current refugee crisis is a "disaster of Biblical proportions." At the same time, Clapper said he worries about the background of some of those fleeing Iraq and Syria.
"Exactly what's their background?" Clapper said during an industry conference. "We don't obviously put it past the likes of ISIL to infiltrate operatives among these refugees."
Clapper went on to say the U.S. has a program in place to screen those coming into the country but he is not as confident that some European nations possess that same capability.
The White House is facing pressure from all sides to do more to address the crisis.
Shortly after Kerry's meeting, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona went to the Senate floor to urge stronger leadership from Obama on stemming violence in the Middle East and North Africa. He stood next to an enlarged, close-up photo of the dead body of three-year old Aylan Kurdi, a Syrian boy who drowned along with his 5-year-old brother and mother when their small rubber boat capsized as it headed for Greece.
"This image has haunted the world," McCain said. "But what should haunt us even more than the horror unfolding before our eyes is the thought that the United States will continue to do nothing meaningful about it."
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday that the Obama administration has been looking at a "range of approaches" for assisting U.S. allies with 340,000 people freshly arrived from the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, Kerry's predecessor, called for an "emergency global gathering" at the United Nations General Assembly meeting later this month, where countries could pledge aid money and to accept some of the refugees.
The top three groups of people resettled by the U.S. are Burmese, Iraqis and Somalis.
While Germany braces for some 800,000 asylum seekers this year, the U.S. hadn't previously said if it would increase its worldwide quota. Throughout Syria's 4 1/2-year civil war, the U.S. has accepted only about 1,500 Syrians -- a tiny percentage of the 11.6 million people who have been chased out of the country or uprooted from their homes.
Asked directly if the Obama administration felt responsible to share Europe's refugee burden, Earnest stressed U.S. support thus far: $4 billion in humanitarian aid, more than any other country has provided, and ongoing diplomatic work to resolve Syria's conflict peacefully.
The diplomacy appears nowhere near ending violence that started in 2011 with a government crackdown on political opponents, spawning an armed insurgency and eventually leading to Islamic State extremists seizing much of the country.

Dozens of intelligence analysts reportedly claim assessments of ISIS were altered

Dozens of intelligence analysts working at the U.S. military's Central Command (CENTCOM) have complained that their reports on ISIS and the Nusra Front in Syria were inappropriately altered by senior officials, according to a published report.
The Daily Beast reported late Wednesday that more than 50 analysts had supported a complaint to the Pentagon that the reports had been changed to make the terror groups seem weaker than the analysts believe they really are. Fox News confirmed last month that the Defense Department's inspector general was investigating the initial complaint, which the New York Times reported was made by a civilian employee of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).
The assessments in question are prepared for several U.S. policymakers, including President Obama.
The Daily Beast report, which cited 11 individuals, claimed that the complaint being investigated by the Defense Department was made in July. However, several analysts reportedly complained as early as this past October that their reports were being altered to suit a political narrative that ISIS was being weakened by U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria.
"The cancer was within the senior level of the intelligence command," the report quotes one defense official as saying.
According to the report, some analysts allege that reports deemed overly negative in their assessment of the Syria campaign were either blocked from reaching policymakers or sent back down the chain of command. Others claim that key elements of intelligence reports were removed, fundamentally altering their conclusions. Another claim is that senior leaders at CENTCOM created a work environment where giving a candid opinion on the progress of the anti-ISIS campaign was discouraged, with one analyst describing the tenor as "Stalinist."

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The report alleges that when the analysts' complaints were initially aired, some of those who complained were urged to retire, and did so. Facing either resistance or indifference, other analysts self-censored their reports, the Daily Beast claims.
The defense official quoted by the Daily Beast said that some who spoke up did so out of guilt that they did not express doubts about former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's alleged chemical weapons program in the run-up to the Iraq. War.
"They were frustrated because they didn’t do the right thing then," the official said.
The House and Senate Intelligence Committees have been advised of the complaint that prompted the inspector general's investigation, which is required if Pentagon officials find the claims credible.
Government rules state that intelligence assessments "must not be distorted" by agendas or policy views, but do allow for legitimate differences of opinion.
Central Command spokesman Col. Patrick S. Ryder said in a statement Wednesday that they welcome the IG's "independent oversight."
"While we cannot comment on ongoing investigations, we can speak to the process and about the valued contributions of the Intelligence Community (IC)," he said, adding that intelligence community members typically are able to comment on draft security assessments. "However," he said, "it is ultimately up to the primary agency or organization whether or not they incorporate any recommended changes or additions. Further, the multi-source nature of our assessment process purposely guards against any single report or opinion unduly influencing leaders and decision-makers."
Earlier this summer, on the eve of the anniversary of the launching of airstrikes against Iraq, the Associated Press reported that U.S intelligence had concluded that the airstrikes had helped stall ISIS after sweeping gains in the summer of 2014. However, the report also said the terror group remained a well-funded army that could easily replenish its numbers as quickly as fighters were eliminated.