University of California to end lavish spending on dinners

The University of California has announced it will no longer pay for the meals of its governing board after a newspaper reported lavish spending on dinners.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported Sunday that UC President Janet Napolitano 's office reimbursed regents for more than $225,000 in dinner parties since 2012, including $17,600 for a banquet held the night before the board voted to raise tuition.
UC Board of Regents Chair Monica Lozano and Napolitano said in a statement that regents will "absorb their costs for board dinners" to avoid questions over how money is spent.
The newspaper reports Monday the reversal was the idea of regent Richard Blum.
Dinner costs are paid out of a private endowment designated for university business costs not covered by state or tuition funds.
Earlier this month, California Gov. Jerry Brown announced that he is withholding $50 million from the University of California in light of an audit last month that claimed to have found a stash of $175 million in secret funds while officials requested more money from the state.
A state audit found that under university system President Janet Napolitano, former Department of Homeland Security chief, UC administrators hid $175 million from the public while increasing tuition and asking the state for more money.
The UC Board of Regents in January voted to increase in-state tuition and fees by $336 next academic year. Some lawmakers called for a reversal of the tuition hike in the wake of the audit.

'Sanctuary Cities' protests interrupt Texas House session

Texas becomes first state to ban sanctuary cities

Protests erupted in the Texas capitol building on Monday over Gov. Greg Abbott’s new law cracking down on ‘sanctuary cities,’ interrupting the final day in this year’s regular session of the Texas Legislature.
Hundreds of protesters chanted in opposition to the new law, forcing House leadership to stop the session and send state troopers to clear the gallery.
Activists wearing red T-shirts reading "Lucha," or "Fight," quietly filled hundreds of gallery seats as proceedings began. After about 40 minutes, they began to cheer, drowning out the lawmakers below.

Some protesters held banners that said, “See you in court” and “See you at the polls,” while others chanted “Hey, hey. Ho, ho. SB-4 has got to go.”
The demonstration continued for about 20 minutes as officers led people out of the chamber peacefully in small groups. There were no reports of arrests.
Abbott signed SB-4 into law earlier this month in an effort to remain consistent with federal immigration law. The law effectively bans sanctuary city policies in Texas and gives law enforcement officers the ability to ask the immigration status of anyone they stop. Under the law, officers who fail to comply, or cooperate, with federal immigration agents could face jail time and fines reaching $25,000 per day.
“What it means is that no county, no city, no governmental body in the state of Texas can adopt any policy that provides sanctuary, and second, what it means, is that law enforcement officials, such as sheriffs, are going to be required to comply with ICE detainer requests,” Abbott said on “Fox & Friends” the day after signing the bill into law.
He added, “Isn’t it quasi-insane that we have to pass a law to force law enforcement officers to comply with the law?”
Texas is the first state to officially ban sanctuary cities under President Trump. Colorado passed a law in 2006 outlawing sanctuary cities, but the measure was repealed in 2013. So far, only Texas, Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee have officially passed bills into law banning ‘sanctuary policies.’ Virginia attempted two measures in the Republican-led legislature, but both were suspended after Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe threatened to veto.
The Texas law is set to take effect on Sept. 1, and opponents have vowed to challenge it in court, after slamming it as the nation’s toughest on immigrants since Arizona’s crackdown in 2010. But Abbott said key provisions of Texas’ law had been tested at the U.S. Supreme Court, which struck down several components of Arizona’s law.
Mayors throughout the Lone Star State were in opposition to the bill’s passage, claiming it would weaken the relationship between law enforcement officials and the public, but Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton already filed suit against local jurisdictions that had been accused of not cooperating with federal immigration agents.
Paxton filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, just days after Abbott signed SB-4 into law.
“Unfortunately, some municipalities and law enforcement agencies are unwilling to cooperate with the federal government and claim that SB-4 is unconstitutional,” Paxton said.
But opposition groups are pushing back.
Just last week, the Texas Civil Right Project filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the Texas Organizing Project Education Fund, alleging SB-4 is a “discriminatory, unconstitutionally vague” bill that encourages “racial profiling.”

Monday , May 29 Memorial Day 2017 in United States of America

Intel Spies Hurting the Government Cartoons

These 5 Acts of Kindness Reveal There's More to Donald Trump Than Just His Celebrity Persona

Since Donald Trump announced he was running for president, he has seen no shortage of the media spotlight.

But one thing that fails to receive coverage: how Trump has touched the lives of others.

Here are 5 acts of kindness that reveal there's more to the billionaire than just his big celebrity persona.

1. The time he gave sanctuary to Grammy Award winning singer Jennifer Hudson after three of her family members were murdered:

When Hudson's mother, brother and nephew were gunned down in Chicago, she put everything on hold for a while. She stayed at Trump Tower to grieve, where The Donald didn't charge her a dime and also provided security for her and a few of her family members.

2. Airlines wouldn't accommodate a boy who had serious medical issues, so Trump offered his jet to help:Three-year-old Andrew Ten needed to go to New York to receive some special medical attention. But there was one big problem: The airlines refused to board him because Ten required several different pieces of medical equipment on the flight. Ten's parents put in a call to Trump, who then dispatched his private jet to meet their pressing needs.

3. He helped save a family's working farm that was going into foreclosure:

In 1986, Annabell Hill was in danger of losing her family farm. On top of that, her husband had just committed suicide hoping that his life insurance policy would cover the remaining balance that they owed. When Trump saw her tragic story, he decided to do something about it.
According to the New York Times:

Donald Trump, the New York real estate tycoon, helped prevent foreclosure today on a family farm whose owner had committed suicide to try to save his land.
Mrs. Hill proposed to bank officials that the land be sold privately so she could keep some of the 705 acres. Parts of the farm have been in the Hill family for three generations.

4. After Sergeant Andrew Tahmooressi was released from a prison in Mexico, The Donald sent him a big check to help get him back on his feet:Tahmooressi spent seven months in a Mexican prison. During that time, he was beaten and even chained to a bed. When he was released, Trump sent him a check for twenty five thousand dollars.

5. What Trump did for a bus driver who helped save a woman from jumping off a bridge:

Darnell Barton was driving his bus across a bridge when he spotted a woman on the other side of railing, staring down at the traffic below. Barton stopped the bus and approached the woman. After one of his passengers explained they didn't want to “see someone die,” he managed to put his arm around her and she agreed to come to the other side of the bridge.
After hearing about what Barton did, The Donald sent him ten thousand dollars.
Trump said:

"I thought that was so beautiful to see. I think he is a great guy with an amazing heart and I said that man should be rewarded.

Clearly, Donald Trump isn't just a good businessman, he's a Good Samaritan, too.

By Justen Charters, Justen is a content specialist and viral editor for Independent Journal Review.

Huma Abedin wants $2M for a tell-all memoir

Reward a Criminal?

Huma Abedin is ready to tell all – for a cool $2 million.
The estranged wife of disgraced ex-Congressman Anthony Weiner and former top aide to Hillary Clinton has been meeting over the past few weeks with top literary agents to discuss her writing a book, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Abedin, 40, is seeking as much as $2 million for the book, which would likely detail her husband’s sexting scandal and her role in Clinton’s failed presidential bid, according to the report.
Clinton has reportedly given the green light for the purported book.
The tome “is envisioned as a reflection on how her personal and professional lives collided during the campaign,” according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Despite being placed in the spotlight, Abedin hardly ever gives interviews.
“She’s more interesting than her husband. We know who he is. She’s the ongoing mystery,” Princeton University presidential historian Julian Zelizer told the Hollywood Reporter. “But she’ll have to put herself out there. That’s what the publisher will be looking for.”
Aside from appearing in the 2016 documentary “Weiner,” Abedin has not commented publicly on her husband’s repeated lewd Web dalliances with women he met online.
Abedin filed for separation in August 2016 in the middle of the presidential campaign after it was disclosed that Weiner included pictures of their 4-year-old son in one of his sex-charged messages.
But the couple is still together.
Sources told The Post in March that Abedin was giving the marriage another try.
“Both [his and her] families are hoping they will reconcile,” said one source.
“A lot of [their] friends believe this is an illness, that he is sick,” said another source.
But “Huma takes it into consideration that there’s been no affair, or physical contact that anybody is aware of. He never met [the women].”

Five Clinton-Russia Bombshells Progressives Yawned Over

You can get away with anything if you have enough money.

Given the establishment media’s focus on the “scandal” surrounding President Donald Trump and his administration’s contact with Russian officials, it is worth reminding Americans of the revelations involving Hillary Clinton and the Kremlin.

1. Hillary Clinton approved the transfer of 20 percent of U.S. uranium to Russia and nine investors in the deal funneled $145 million to the Clinton Foundation.
While Hillary Clinton’s State Department was one of eight agencies to review and sign off on the transfer of 20 percent of U.S. uranium to Russia — then-Secretary of State Clinton herself was the only agency head whose family foundation received $145 million in donations from multiple people connected to the uranium deal, as reported by the New York Times.
2. Bill Clinton bagged $500,000 for a Moscow speech paid for by a Kremlin-backed bank while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State.
Former President Bill Clinton delivered a speech in Moscow and received a $500,000 speaking fee from a Russian government-connected bank, while his wife’s State Department was getting ready to sign off on the transfer of 20 percent of U.S. uranium to Russia.
“And, in one case, a Russian investment bank connected to the deals paid money to Bill Clinton personally, through a half-million-dollar speaker’s fee,” reported the New Yorker.
3. Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman’s Joule energy company bagged $35 million from Putin’s Rusnano.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta sat on the executive board of an energy company, Joule Unlimited, which received millions from a Putin-connected Russian government fund. Podesta also owned “75,000 common shares” in Joule Unlimited, which he had transferred to a holding company called Leonidio LLC.
Podesta also failed to fully disclose his position on Joule Unlimited’s board of directors and include it in his federal financial disclosures, as required by law, before he became President Obama’s senior adviser in January 2014.
4.  Clinton Foundation chatter with State Dept. on Uranium Deal with Russia.
Senior staffers inside Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign were warned by Clinton Foundation senior vice president Maura Pally that the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), was asking the Department of Justice to investigate the State Department approval of the sale of American uranium assets to a Russian company.
The chain of emails proved the regular interaction between members of the Clinton campaign and senior staff at the Clinton Foundation.
5. Hillary Clinton hid $2.35 million in secret donations from Ian Telfer, the head of Russia’s uranium company.
Ian Telfer, the head of the Russian government’s uranium company, Uranium One, made four foreign donations totaling $2.35 million to the Clinton Foundation, as the New York Times reported.
“Uranium One’s chairman used his family foundation to make four donations totaling $2.35 million,” the Times reported. “Those contributions were not publicly disclosed by the Clintons, despite an agreement Mrs. Clinton had struck with the Obama White House to publicly identify all donors. Other people with ties to the company made donations as well.”

McMaster says ‘not concerned’ after Kushner back-channel reports

Asked about reports that Donald Trump’s son-in-law had tried to set up a secret channel of communication with Russia before the president took office, U.S. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said that so-called “back-channeling” was normal.
McMaster declined to speak specifically about the case of Jared Kushner, who serves as a senior adviser to Trump, but when asked if it would concern him if someone in the administration tried to set up a back channel with the Russian embassy or the Kremlin, he replied “no”.
“We have back-channel communications with any number of individual (countries). So generally speaking, about back-channel communications, what that allows you to do is communicate in a discreet manner,” McMaster said.
“So it doesn’t pre-expose you to any sort of content or any kind of conversation or anything. So we’re not concerned about it.”
Reuters reported last week that a proposal for a back channel was discussed between McMaster’s predecessor Mike Flynn and the Russian ambassador as Trump prepared to take office.
The Washington Post reported on Friday that Kushner participated in that conversation.