Conservative Blogger
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
Ohio State police officer hailed hero for quick reaction to campus attacker
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| Officer Alan Horujko |
An Ohio State police officer was being hailed a hero for his quick reaction after killing a man a minute after he drove his car into a crowd and then stabbed multiple people Monday.
Officer Alan Horujko, who had only joined the department in January 2015, was responding to reports of a nearby gas leak when the suspect jumped a curb on campus at around 9:52 a.m.
Horujko ordered the attacker, later identified as Abdul Razak Ali Artan, to drop the butcher’s knife and then shot him when he didn’t obey the command, university president Michael Drake said.
"The officer encountered the individual by 9:53 — the subject was neutralized by 9:53," Drake said, underscoring how quickly events unfolded.
Director of Ohio State’s Department of Public Safety Monica Moll echoed Drake’s sentiments, saying Horujko is owed a debt of gratitude.
"He did a fabulous job today," she said.
University police Chief Craig Stone said it was fortunate Horujko had gone to investigate the gas leak at the same time the attack was unfolding. It helped him respond quickly to the attacker.
Artan, 18, plowed a small gray Honda into the crowd outside Watts Hall, an engineering classroom building. Two law enforcement sources told Fox News that Artan came into the United States as a Somali refugee, and was granted status as a legal permanent resident.
The motive behind the attack is still unclear, but law enforcement sources told Fox News the FBI was examining a Facebook post that may have been written by Artan earlier Monday. The post appeared to condemn U.S. military action in Muslim countries.
“There has never been a more dangerous or complicated and challenging time to be a police officer, and we had a dynamic well-trained professional today save the lives of many of our residents and students," Ginther added.
Horujko, 28, was placed on administrative leave Monday and the investigation turned over to Columbus police, consistent with protocol for police shootings. Horujko appears to be an avid runner, with several half-marathons under his belt, according to online race results.
Gov. John Kasich praised the speed with which Horujko and other officers acted.
Kasich, a Republican, described the response as "an unbelievable, amazing and outstanding and heroic performance on the part of our first responders."
The university police department is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. It has officers on the main campus in Columbus and on regional campuses in Lima, Mansfield, Marion, Newark and Wooster.
Trump wins Michigan's 16 electoral votes, state board says
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| President-elect Trump mocks efforts to recount the ballots |
President-elect Donald Trump has won Michigan's 16 electoral votes.
The Board of State Canvassers certified Trump's 10,704-vote victory on Monday, nearly three weeks after the election. The two-tenths of a percentage point margin out of nearly 4.8 million votes is the closest presidential race in Michigan in more than 75 years.
Trump's win in Michigan gives the Republican 306 electoral votes to Democrat Hillary Clinton's 232.
Trump is the first Republican presidential nominee to win Michigan since 1988.
Green Party candidate Jill Stein is expected to ask for a recount. She has until Wednesday. Trump would have seven days to file objections to her request.
Trump to nominate Rep. Tom Price for HHS secretary, sources say
President-elect Donald Trump will nominate Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., to head the Department of Health and Human Services, two sources close to the transition told Fox News late Monday.
Trump was expected to formally announce Price's nomination Tuesday morning.
If confirmed by the Senate, Price will play a central role in Republican efforts to repeal and replace ObamaCare. Trump has pledged to move quickly on overhauling his predecessor's signature measure, but has been vague about what he hopes to see in a replacement bill.
The president-elect has said he favors keeping provisions that allow young people to stay on their parents' health insurance and that prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions.
Price, a 62-year-old six-term congressman and orthopedic surgeon, has chaired the House Budget Committee for the past two years. A bookish conservative from the Atlanta suburbs, Price has worked closely with House Speaker Paul Ryan to assemble GOP budgets aimed at reducing the annual deficit.
Last week, Price said whatever Republicans do to replace Obama's health care law will bear a "significant resemblance" to a 2015 measure that was vetoed by the president. That bill would have gutted some of the health care law's main features: Medicaid expansion, subsidies to help middle-class Americans buy private policies, the tax penalties for individuals who refused to get coverage and several taxes to support coverage expansion. The bill would have delayed implementation for two years.
Price insisted that Republicans can keep the protections for those with existing medical conditions without mandating that all individuals carry coverage or pay a penalty to support an expanded insurance pool. Price said Republicans want to address "the real cost drivers" of health care price spikes, which he said were not necessarily sicker patients, but a heavy regulatory burden, taxes and lawsuits against medical professionals.
Plane crash in Colombia carrying members of Brazilian soccer team leaves at least 76 dead
At least 76 people died in a plane crash in Colombia and there were five survivors, police said Tuesday.
The chartered aircraft was carrying 81 people, including members of first division Chapecoense soccer team which was on its way to Colombia for a regional tournament final, crashed on its way to Medellin's international airport.
Gen. Jose Acevedo, head of police in the area surrounding Medellin, provided the information.
La Ceja Mayor Elkin Ospina, where the plane had crashed, confirmed at least three of the passengers were found alive. The British Aerospace 146 short-haul plane, operated by the charter airline LaMia, declared an emergency at 10 p.m. Monday because of an electrical failure.
"It's a tragedy of huge proportions," Medellin Mayor Federico Gutierrez told Blu Radio.
Authorities and rescuers were immediately activated but an air force helicopter had to turn back because of low visibility. Heavy rainfall is complicating the nighttime search and authorities urged journalists to stay off the roads to facilitate the entry of ambulances and rescuers.
Images broadcast on local television showed three male passengers arriving to a local hospital in ambulances on stretchers and covered in blankets connected to an IV. All were apparently alive and one of them was reportedly a Chapecoense defender named Alan Ruschel.
A video published on the team's Facebook page showed the team readying for the flight earlier Monday in Sao Paulo's Guarulhos international airport.
The team, from the small city of Chapeco, was in the middle of a fairy tale season. It joined Brazil's first division in 2014 for the first time since the 1970s and made it last week to the Copa Sudamericana finals -- the equivalent of the UEFA Europa League tournament -- after defeating two of Argentina's fiercest squads, San Lorenzo and Independiente, as well as Colombia's Junior.
The team is so modest that its 22,000-seat arena was ruled by tournament organizers too small to host the final match, which was instead moved to a stadium 300 miles (480 kilometers) to the north in the city of Curitiba.
"Chapecoense was the biggest source of happiness in the town," the club's vice-president, Ivan Tozzo, told Brazil's SporTV. "Many in the town are crying."
Monday, November 28, 2016
Priebus: Trump will void Cuba deal unless Castro regime moves to concessions
President-elect Donald Trump will keep his campaign promise to void a 2014 deal that improves diplomacy and commerce between the U.S. and Cuba, incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said Sunday, a day after the announcement of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro’s death.
“President-elect Trump has been pretty clear,” Priebus told “Fox News Sunday,” in a wide-ranging interview. “We’ve got to have a better deal.”
Trump, during his successful White House bid, argued against President Obama’s 2014 executive action that attempts to “normalize” relations between the United States and the communist country.
Obama used executive actions to ease sanctions against Cuba. The president ended the 180-day ban on ships docking at U.S. ports after sailing from Cuba, paved the way for doctors to work with Cuban researchers on medical investigations and allowed Americans to travel to Cuba in cultural exchange programs.
Obama visited Cuba in March, becoming the first president since Calvin Coolidge to visit the island nation. Coolidge took the trip in 1928.
Trump, during a campaign stop in September, said if elected president he would void Obama’s deal unless Cuba met his demands, which included “religious and political freedom for the Cuban people and the freeing of political prisoners.”
The incoming Republican president and other critics said Obama's deal vastly improves the island nation’s isolated economy, while the U.S. gets nothing in return.
Priebus repeated that Cuban leader Raul Castro, the brother of Fidel Castro, will have to “meet our demands” for such a deal to continue.
He cited such issues as Cuba opening up its economic markets and putting an end to religious oppression and other human rights violations.
“These things need to change,” said Priebus, making clear that the continuing Castro regime has to at least show signs of moving in those directions.
“This isn’t going to be one way,” he said. “I think the president-elect has been clear on this.”
Priebus also slammed 2016 Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein’s efforts to have vote recounts in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, calling the effort, which Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton joined Saturday, a “fundraising scheme.”
He called the effort a “total waste of time.”
Priebus also downplayed rumors about vicious infighting within the transition team about whether Trump should pick former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani or former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney as his secretary of state.
“He’s going to have the best possible people,” said Priebus, while acknowledging “teams of rivals” in the debate over who will run the State Department. “He’s going to make the best decision for the American people.”
Police detonate IED found near US Embassy in Philippines
Authorities in Manila detonated an improvised explosive device Monday that was found in a trash bin near the U.S. Embassy. No one was reported hurt in the incident.
At least two explosions were heard as a bomb disposal unit detonated what Metropolitan Manila police Chief Oscar Albayalde later described as an IED. Authorities were forced to shut a portion of a major roadway where the device was found.
The improvised bomb fashioned from an 81-mm mortar round, cellphone, blasting cap and a small battery could have been powerful enough to kill people within 110 yards, police officials said.
"After analysis, we can link it to the Maute because of what happened in Davao, the same (bomb) signature," dela Rosa said.
He added that the Maute group may have wanted to create a diversion after suffering heavy losses in its war against military and police in the south.
Senior Supt. Joel Coronel, the Manila city police chief, said they were checking security cameras in the area and seeking information from at least two eyewitnesses.
The trash bin where the device was found was about 22 yards from the embassy compound.
Philippine troops, backed by bomber aircraft, have recently attacked the Maute militants, including an operation launched last Thursday based on intelligence reports that the group was continuing to make bombs after the Sept. 2 bombing in Davao city, the president's hometown, military spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said.
Military officials say that the militants, a loosely organized group that has more than 200 members, were initially affiliated with an Indonesian terror suspect but have lately used black flags and arm and head bands with Islamic State group symbols in a possible attempt to gain support from the Middle East-based group.
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