Sanders projected to win Washington, Alaska, Hawaii Democratic presidential caucuses

Sen. Bernie Sanders was projected to win the Alaska, Washington and Hawaii Democratic presidential caucuses -- victories he hopes will spark a Western states comeback and help him cut into frontrunner Hillary Clinton’s substantial lead.
The Associated Press projected Sanders the winner of the Alaska and Washington contests Saturday, while the results of Hawaii's presidential contest weren't announced until early Sunday morning.
"We knew things were going to improve as we headed west," Sanders said at a rally in Madison, Wis. "We are making significant inroads in ... Clinton's lead ... We have a path toward victory."
Clinton leads by roughly 300 pledged delegates, with 142 up for grabs Saturday. Washington had the biggest prize, 101 delegates, followed by Hawaii with 25 and Alaska with 16.
Sanders, a democratic socialist, on Saturday acknowledged his struggles in recent contests across the South, with its strong conservative voting bloc. But he remained optimistic about upcoming contests in the more liberal West including those in Oregon and California, which alone offers 546 delegates.
The next Democratic and Republican primaries are April 5 in Wisconsin.

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Sanders is popular among younger and more progressive Americans but continues to struggle to connect with Hispanic and African-American voters.
He will win at least nine delegates in Alaska. And all of them are elected to the state Democratic convention, not the party's national nominating convention in July in Philadelphia.
Going into Saturday, Clinton had a 1,223-to-920 lead on Sanders in so-called pledged delegates, who are bound to candidates by their states' elections.

Data curated by InsideGov

It takes 2,383 delegates to clinch the nomination.
Sanders was expected to do well in Washington, considering residents of Seattle, the biggest city in the Pacific Northwest, are among the most liberal in the country and major campaign contributors.
He drew more than 10,000 supporters to a rally Friday evening at Safeco Field in Seattle. And by Saturday afternoon, the state appeared to be having a record voter turnout, which has helped keep alive Sanders’ insurgent campaign.
In Spokane, a huge line of caucus attendees had already snaked around a high school parking by Saturday morning.
"I think one of the biggest things is free tuition for students and getting big money out of politics," said Savannah Dills, 24, a college student who supports Sanders. "He's not paid for by billionaires."
Top Sanders adviser Ted Devine recently told FoxNews.com that he was optimistic about the campaign cutting Clinton’s lead this weekend to under 300 delegates “with a couple of thousands more delegates to go.”
Most of the Washington’s Democratic leadership had endorsed Clinton, including Gov. Jay Inslee, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell.
Still, Sanders entered Saturday’s contests optimistic after winning more delegate than Clinton in three contests earlier this week -- nearly 20 in the Idaho and Utah caucuses, despite losing the marquee Arizona primary to the former secretary of state.
Sanders has done significantly better in caucus contests, now winning nine of the last 11.
Most of his 14 primary-season wins have been in states with largely white populations and in the caucus contests, which tend to attract the most active liberal Democrats.
Yet Sanders still needs a dramatic surge to catch Clinton or even hold her under the number needed to clinch the nomination, despite the optimism and fundraising numbers, which also include collecting more than $140 million from 2 million donors.
Clinton did not hold a public event after the Alaska and Washington results were announced.
While Sanders faces a steep climb to the nomination, a string of losses for Clinton would highlight her persistent vulnerabilities, including concerns about her trustworthiness and weak support among younger voters.
Clinton’s delegate advantage, before Saturday, increases to 1,692-to-949 once the superdelegates, or party officials who can back either candidate, are included.
Based on that count, Sanders still needs to win 58 percent of the remaining delegates from primaries and caucuses to have a majority of those delegates by June's end.
His bar is even higher when the party officials are considered. He needs to win more than 67 percent of the remaining delegates overall -- from primaries, caucuses and the ranks of uncommitted superdelegates -- to prevail.
Because Democrats allocate their delegates on a proportional basis, meaning that the popular vote loser can still pick up a share, his Saturday victories netted Sanders a gain of at least 27 delegates to at least five for Clinton.
Clinton has been looking past the primary contests and aiming at potential Republican challengers. In interviews, rallies and speeches this week, she largely focused on Tuesday's deadly attacks in Brussels, casting GOP front-runner Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz as unqualified to deal with complicated international threats.
Her campaign sees the April 19 contest in New York as an important one, not just because of the rich delegate prize but because losing to Sanders in a state she represented in the Senate would be a psychological blow. She hopes to lock up an even larger share of delegates in five Northeastern contests a week later.

Gay Cartoon

Majority versus the Minority.

Scottish police investigate killing of Muslim shopkeeper

LONDON –  Scottish police say the killing of a Muslim shopkeeper who wished Christians a happy Easter is being investigated as "religiously prejudiced."
Vigils were held Friday night in memory of 40-year-old Asad Shah, who was killed Thursday night in Glasgow.
He had apparently posted messages on Facebook calling for religious harmony: "Good Friday and very happy Easter, especially to my beloved Christian nation x!"
Police say a 32-year-old man has been arrested in connection with Shah's death. The suspect, who police say is Muslim, has not been identified or charged.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon joined the vigil in support of Shah and his family. Many lit candles and left flowers.
The police promise a full investigation into Shah's death.

Cruz responds to 'garbage' affair accusations, blames Trump

The Donald Trump-Ted Cruz mud-slinging took another bizarre twist Friday, driven by an Internet frenzy over a tabloid report alleging Cruz had extramarital affairs.
Cruz addressed the salacious report in the National Enquirer at an event in Oshkosh, Wis., calling the claims “garbage” and “complete and utter lies.” He also placed the blame around the neck of front-runner Trump.
“It is a tabloid smear and it is a smear that has come from Donald Trump and his henchmen,” Cruz said, claiming the only on-the-record source for the story is Roger Stone – who formerly served on the Trump campaign as an adviser.
Trump, in a written statement, denied Cruz’s claims.
“I have no idea whether or not the cover story about Ted Cruz in this week's issue of the National Enquirer is true or not, but I had absolutely nothing to do with it, did not know about it, and have not, as yet, read it,” he said, adding he does not surround himself with “political hacks and henchman and then pretend total innocence.”
He said: “Ted Cruz's problem with the National Enquirer is his and his alone, and while they were right about O.J. Simpson, John Edwards, and many others, I certainly hope they are not right about Lyin' Ted Cruz.”

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Stone also tweeted in response:
The article in the Enquirer cites sources saying the Texas senator is facing allegations he had at least five affairs, including with a political consultant and a “high-placed D.C. attorney.”
The Internet has been abuzz with speculation as to the identities of the alleged mistresses and #CruzSexScandal was trending on Twitter on Friday.
The latest campaign trail eruption caps a week of fighting between the two candidates over attacks on their wives.
On Thursday, Cruz called Trump a “sniveling coward” after Trump retweeted an image late Wednesday that showed a picture of Trump’s wife Melania alongside an unflattering image of Cruz’s wife Heidi, with the caption “a picture is worth a thousand words.”
The spat began when Trump objected earlier this week to a Facebook ad that showed Melania posing nude with the caption: “Meet Melania Trump, your next first lady. Or you could vote for Ted Cruz on Tuesday.”
Though the ad makers are not affiliated with Cruz, Trump tweeted that Cruz should “be careful” or he would “spill the beans on your wife.”

Nearly 20,000 support petition to allow guns at Republican National Conventio

Nearly 20,000 people have signed a petition to allow the open carry of firearms at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July.
The group Americans For Responsible Open Carry started the petition on Change.org on Monday, according to the Akron Beacon-Journal. The petition had a goal of 5,000 signatures and by Wednesday it had reached the goal. As of early Saturday morning, the group had reached just over 18,000 signatures.
The GOP Republican National Convention is going to be held at the Quicken Loans Arena from July 18-21. The Ohio Republican Party told the Beacon-Journal it wasn’t aware of the petition.
The Secret Service along with Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, state and federal officials are handling the security at the event. The Secret Service banned guns at the GOP Convention in Florida four years ago.
“They are coordinating and will be continuously refining security plans leading up to the national convention,” Republican National Convention spokesperson Alee Lockman told the newspaper.
The group has a list of demands for the convention.
First, the group wants the arena to suspend its open-carry ban during the convention. The group then wants the NRA has to condemn Ohio’s law banning guns in some public places.
“Policies of the Quicken Loans Arena do not supersede the rights given to us by our Creator in the U.S. Constitution,” the petition reads.
Americans For Responsible Open Carry also want presidential contender Ohio Gov. John Kasich to use his executive power to override the so-called gun-free zone loophole in Ohio’s law. RNC Chairman Reince Preibus also must explain how “a venue so unfriendly to Second Amendment rights was chosen for the Republican Convention and have a backup plan to move the site if  the group’s demands aren’t met.
Finally they call for the three other candidates to pressure the GOP to protect the Second Amendment.
Ohio is an open-carry state, but they are not permitted in the Statehouse and even if concealed, could be banned by businesses and property owners, according to the Beacon-Journal.
Quicken Loans Arena forbids guns and weapons of any kind from “heavily attended” events.
The arena said it is following the state’s concealed carry law and the right for private businesses  to ban firearms on its property.
The petition claims that because Cleveland is one of the most dangerous cities in the world, forcing attendees to leave their weapons at home is putting everyone at risk.
“Without the right to protect themselves, those at the Quicken Loans Arena will be sitting ducks, utterly helpless against evil-doers, criminals or others who wish to threaten the American way of life.”

San Francisco mayor bans city workers from traveling to North Carolina

Is this guy a dictator telling his workers where they can and can not go. Forcing his beliefs on others.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said in a statement Friday he doesn’t want any city workers to travel to North Carolina unless necessary in wake of its legislation which blocks anti-discrimination for gay, lesbian and transgender people.
“We are standing united as San Franciscans to condemn North Carolina’s new discriminatory law that turns back the clock on protecting the rights of all Americans including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals,” Lee said in the statement.
“Effective immediately, I am directing City Departments under my authority to bar any publicly-funded City employee travel to the State of North Carolina that is not absolutely essential to public health and safety.”
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signed a bill this week to void a Charlotte ordinance that would’ve provided protections against discrimination in public accommodations.
McCrory, who was the mayor of Charlotte for 14 years and had criticized the local ordinance, signed the legislation Wednesday night that he said was "passed by a bipartisan majority to stop this breach of basic privacy and etiquette."
Although 12 House Democrats joined all Republicans present in voting for the bill in the afternoon Wednesday, later all Senate Democrats in attendance walked off their chamber floor during the debate in protest. Remaining Senate Republicans gave the legislation unanimous approval.
"We choose not to participate in this farce," Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue of Raleigh said after he left the chamber.

Sexual Orientation & Gender Non-Discrimination Laws | InsideGov

The law also prevents other cities and counties from passing anti-discrimination rules and imposes a statewide standard that leaves out protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity, according to KTVU-TV.
Gay rights leaders and transgender people said the legislation demonizes the community and espouses bogus claims about increasing the risk of sexual assaults. They say the law will deny lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people essential protections needed to ensure they can get a hotel room, hail a taxi or dine at a restaurant without fear.
"McCrory's reckless decision to sign this appalling legislation into law is a direct attack on the rights, well-being and dignity of hundreds of thousands of LGBT North Carolinians and visitors to the state," Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin said in a statement. Civil liberties groups pledged to push for repeal and were weighing legal options
Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts, who pressed to get the anti-discrimination ordinance approved, said she was appalled by the legislature's actions.
"The General Assembly is on the wrong side of progress. It is on the wrong side of history," Roberts said in a prepared statement. But McCrory said in a release "the basic expectation of privacy in the most personal of settings" was violated by "government overreach and intrusion" by Roberts and the city council.
Lee applauded Roberts in his statement Friday for taking “steps at the local level to protect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people from discrimination. I also applaud Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed who is a champion for equality for all.”
Georgia is also embroiled in a religious liberty bill, which has passed the Georgia Legislature but Gov. Nathan Deal has yet to sign.
KTVU-TV reported that Facebook and Apple have expressed its displeasure with the North Carolina law.
The NBA has also mulled relocating its 2017 All-Star Game which was scheduled to be played in Charlotte. “[We] do not yet know what impact it will have on our ability to successfully host the 2017 All-Star Game in Charlotte,” the statement read. "The NBA is dedicated to creating an inclusive environment to all who attend our games and event," the association said.

University Idiot Cartoon

Students terrified by 'Trump 2016' chalk drawings

Has America brought up a Nation of Idiots?

Emory University in Atlanta is under siege at this hour from a chalk-wielding Donald Trump supporter who caused a massive outbreak of micro-aggressions among frightened students.
Terrified collegians are hunkered down in their safe spaces – traumatized by whoever wrote “Trump 2016” and “Accept the Inevitable: Trump 2016” on campus sidewalks.
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“That was a bit alarming,” one panicked student told The Emory Wheel. “What exactly is inevitable? Why does it have to be accepted?”
Another student whimpered that she did not feel safe.
“I’m supposed to feel comfortable and safe [here],” she told the campus paper. “But this man is being supported by students on our campus and our administration shows that they, by their silence, support it as well…I don’t deserve to feel afraid at my school.”
The Emory Latino Student Organization posted a Facebook message calling the drawing “an act of cowardice.”
“They did not do this merely to support the presidential candidate, but to promote the hate and discrimination that goes along with him,” they wrote.
Oh, the humanity!
Dozens of students protested the chalk drawings in the university’s quad – demanding the administration take action against the pro-Trump supporter.
“You are not listening! Come speak to us, we are in pain,” students shouted as reported by the campus newspaper. “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”
I’m not a clinical psychologist, but those kids are freaking nuts, folks.
Emory University President Jim Wagner later met with the protestors and acknowledged in an email that they had voice “genuine concern and pain in the face of this perceived intimidation.”
“I cannot dismiss their expression of feelings and concern as motivated only by political preference or over-sensitivity,” he wrote in an email to students. “Instead, the students with whom I spoke heard a message, not about political process or candidate choice, but instead about values regarding diversity and respect that clash with Emory’s own.”
President Wagner vowed to launch an investigation and round up the pro-Trump graffiti artists, the newspaper reported.
He said if the individuals are students they will go through a conduct violation process and if they are not students they will face trespassing charges.
Meanwhile, Fox Sports reports that the university’s student government association is providing “emergency counseling for students triggered by the Trump 2016 campus chalkings.”
That’s actually not a bad idea. Based upon my observations there are many students at Emory University in dire need of professional help.
The student newspaper also took a few jabs at Mr. Trump – calling him “an offensive man” who has made “racist, sexist and xenophobic statements.”
Mr. Trump is also a close friend to New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick – but that’s a topic for another day.
But Editor-in-Chief Zak Hudak also defended free speech and suggested that the protesters should be allowed to protest and the chalkers should be allowed to chalk.
“If we shut down the opposition, we lose our purpose as a university,” he opined. “We lose the courage to inquire, and we lose the ability to engage with the contention that we will encounter outside of the Emory community.”
Ironically, there was no outrage from liberal students or the university administration or the campus newspaper in 2014 when protesters drew chalk outlines of bodies during a Black Lives Matter demonstration.
I reckon at Emory University black lives do matter, but the lives of Trump supporters do not.
It’s unclear at this point when the unrest at Emory will subside. It may be necessary for Georgia’s governor to call out the National Guard.
And there are unconfirmed reports that a FEMA caravan was spotted traveling South on Interstate 75 – with piles of baby blankets and crates of pacifiers.
But a source at the Centers for Disease Control tells me there are grave concerns that what happened at Emory University is not an anomaly.
And they fear that if the Republicans nominate Donald Trump – it could spawn an epidemic of micro-aggressions on university campuses across the United States.

Federal appeals court slams IRS in Tea Party case, demands documents

In a blistering rebuke of the IRS, a Cincinnati-based federal appeals court has ordered the tax-collecting agency to quit stalling and produce the names of organizations it targeted based on their political leanings.
The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6^th Circuit gave the IRS two weeks to turn over the documents sought as part of a class-action lawsuit brought by the NorCal Tea Party Patriots.
“The lawyers in the Department of Justice have a long and storied tradition of defending the nation’s interests and enforcing its laws … The conduct of the IRS’s attorneys in the district court falls outside that tradition,” the opinion said.
Mark Meckler, president of Citizens for Self-Governance which is funding the class-action lawsuit, applauded the court's bold comments.
“We are very pleased that the 6^th Circuit had smacked down the IRS and its thuggish DOJ lawyers,” Meckler told FoxNews.com, adding that he felt the IRS is an “unredeemable organization.”
The NorCal Tea Party Patriots sued the IRS in 2013 after a Treasury inspector general concluded the IRS had unfairly singled out for extra scrutiny conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
For the civil suit, the NorCal Tea Party Patriots requested information from the IRS detailing the organizations targeted -- information  they say they have not received or has been wrapped up in legal red tape. The panel of federal judges agreed.
“The lawsuit has progressed as slowly as the underlying applications themselves: at every turn the IRS has resisted the plaintiffs’ requests for information regarding the IRS’s treatment of the plaintiff class, eventually to the open frustration of the district court,” the judges claimed in court documents.
The IRS has pushed back on the allegations and maintains that handing over the names and organizations on its “Be on the Look Out” list would violate privacy laws.  A lower district court has twice ordered the IRS to produce the documents. In response, the IRS sought a “writ of mandamus” to block the court order.
Tuesday’s angry reprimand by the federal appeals court is in response to the IRS’s writ of mandamus.
“The district court ordered production of those lists, and did so again over an IRS motion to reconsider. Yet, almost a year later, the IRS still has not complied with the court’s orders. Instead the IRS now seeks from this court a writ of mandamus, an extraordinary remedy reserved to correct only the clearest abuses of power by a district court,” Judge Raymond Kethledge wrote. “We deny the petition.”
The panel of judges gave the IRS two weeks to start handing over the documents.
In the 17-page opinion, Kethledge laid out a list of requests NorCal made to the IRS that were either ignored entirely or stuck in a legal runaround. In one, the IRS demanded NorCal provide 3,000 pages of what the inspector general called unnecessary information. In turn, the IRS then claimed it would be "unduly burdensome" for it to provide such information as the names of IRS employees who worked on the case.
The IRS told FoxNews.com it does not comment on pending litigation.

Plot twist: Long ignored, California could be deciding factor in GOP race

Just one month before the Republican presidential convention, the fate of the party's primary race could be determined in the unlikeliest of battlegrounds: California. 
The state, voting alongside several others on June 7, was never expected to be a major factor this year due to its late position on the primary calendar. But now, the tight state of the race means territory long known as a bastion for liberal Democratic politics will have incredible sway over the GOP contest.
With 172 delegates in play, the largest haul of any state on the primary map, California could help decide whether Donald Trump is able to clinch the nomination before the July convention -- or whether the party will be looking at a floor fight in Cleveland.
“We’re not used to talking about California being an important state in the general or primary election -- particularly the Republican side in the primaries. But this year, every delegate matters, and California, which is sitting right at the end of the calendar on June 7, is a huge prize,” said Nathan Gonzales, head of the Rothenberg & Gonzales Political Report, an election handicapper.
While California is the land of Reagan, the imperative to court the state's voters represents an obvious challenge for Republican candidates.

Delegates Awarded to Republican Candidates | InsideGov

Hollywood, San Francisco ... these aren't exactly hubs of the conservative cause. But the state is vast -- 163,000 square miles -- and candidates will have to figure out where their message plays best.

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Bill Whalen, politics research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, said the battle will be waged across a diverse population, which ranges from the Latino strongholds of Southern California to the wealthy Silicon Valley tech elites in the north to the socially conservative evangelicals of the "inland empire."
The successful candidate here will have to navigate those ramparts and everything in between.
The most recent poll shows front-runner Trump with the edge.
According to a Public Policy Institute of California poll of likely voters taken in the 12-day period leading up to Marco Rubio’s departure from the race on March 15, Trump had a comfortable lead in the state with 38 percent, followed by Ted Cruz with 19 percent and John Kasich with 12 percent. After Rubio suspended his campaign, the PPIC recalculated, taking Rubio out of the mix and working in voters' second choice. This gave Cruz a bump to 27 percent and Kasich to 14 percent, while Trump remained at 38 percent.
Whalen, though, said Cruz could have an advantage.
“There’s going to be a premium on the ground organization and that favors Cruz,” he said.
As of this week’s contests, Trump has 739 delegates, Cruz has 465, and Kasich has 143. One of these candidates has to reach 1,237 to win the nomination outright, or else the process moves to a contested convention this summer.
The way California's primary system is set up, the winning candidate there has the potential to take home a huge stash of delegates.
That's because the 172 delegates will be awarded by congressional district, meaning the three delegates in each of the 53 districts go to the winner of that district -- plus 13 bonus delegates to the candidate who gets the most votes statewide.
“I think California is going to matter a lot,” Gonzales said, adding, “It’s going to be a challenge for these candidates. There are hundreds of miles of opportunity to make their mark.”
Candidates stand to win or lose not only in the state’s few GOP bastions like the Central Valley 23rd District -- home to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy -- but in congressional districts that are typically a no-go for Republicans, like the 13th, which includes Berkeley and Oakland and went 87 percent for President Obama in 2012.
It doesn’t matter the district; each has three delegates in play.
While candidates will have difficulty traveling to each district and television media in the state is expensive, resources will have to concentrate on direct mail and targeted email, Internet advertising and social media, said Gonzales. Candidates will need a game plan to solidify the voters already in their corners, and reach out to new ones who could help tip the scales on June 7.
California also is a closed primary, which means only Republicans can vote -- a potential plus for Cruz, who has done better in closed state primaries and caucuses.
So what does the California Republican look like?
According to David Brady, political science professor at Stanford University, it depends where you go.
“California Republicans are somewhat divided, with the majority being fiscal conservatives, but more socially liberal than Republicans in other regions of the country,” he said. “This is particularly true in the coastal populated regions while the interior has more social conservatives which is associated with evangelicals.”
He predicted "Cruz will do well in the interior regions" and could pick up support from voters opposing Trump. "However, in terms of pure ideology, most coastal Republicans are closer to Kasich,” he said.
As far as issues go, Whalen noted that what plays in the rest of the country is resonating in California, too. “The California Republican Party is a microcosm of the national GOP,” he said. “The party is struggling over immigration.” Brady added that the economy and terrorism continue to be hot-button issues in the state, with the water shortage of local importance.

Belgian government admits errors hindered effort to stop Brussels attacks

Belgium's government admitted Thursday that more could have been done to prevent Tuesday's suicide bombings in Brussels, as two high-ranking ministers offered to resign over law enforcement's failure to act on a warning from Turkey last year that it had arrested one of the would-be bombers. 
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel asked Interior Mininster Jan Jambon and Justice Minister Koen Geens to stay on, given the current challenge the government is facing. However, Geens admitted to reporters that authorities "don't have to be proud about what happened," adding, "We perhaps did things we should not have done."
The attacks on the Zaventem airport and a subway train killed at least 31 people and injured 250 others. Revelations that the attacks were carried out by the same ISIS cell behind last November's attacks in Paris that killed 130 people have led to uncomfortable questions for Belgian counterterrror intelligence and policing.
Many of the questions were prompted by Turkey's disclosure Wednesday that it had apprehended one of the airport suicide bombers, Ibrahim El Bakraoui, near Turkey's border with Syria, in June 2015. El Bakraoui was deported to the Netherlands at his request, but was later set free by the Dutch for lack of proof of his involvement with jihadis.
Turkey said it had warned Belgium that it had flagged El Bakraoui as a "foreign terrorist fighter." El Bakraoui had a criminal record in Belgium at the time he went to Turkey, but Belgian authorities also could find no links to terrorism.
Geens appeared on a Belgian TV news show and was asked who was to blame for the failure to follow up on the Turkish warning.
"It is clear it is not one single person, but it is true that we could have expected from Ankara or Istanbul a more diligent communication, we think, that perhaps could have avoided certain things."
"Our own services should perhaps have been more critical about the place where the person had been detained," he added, referring to Turkey's border area with Syria.
"When someone is arrested there in a city few people know, it is clear enough for insiders that it could be a terrorist," Geens said. "Here, though, he was not known as a terrorist. It is the only moment we could have linked him to it. And that moment, perhaps, we missed."
The justice minister acknowledged that "we have to be very self-critical."
But Geens added that "such events have also happened in nations with the best intelligence services in the world," pointing to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
Authorities had been unable to find Salah Abdeslam, one of the Paris ringleaders and described as one of Europe's most wanted men, until a breakthrough led them to a Brussels apartment where he was arrested Friday.
Abdeslam evaded police in two countries for four months before his capture, and the attackers in Brussels may have rushed their plot because they felt authorities closing in.
The intelligence shortcomings have prompted European authorities to once again call for quicker and more efficient intelligence cooperation.
Rob Wainwright, the head of Europe's police agency Europol, told the Associated Press his agency is trying to make sure investigators have access to needed information.
"You have a fragmented intelligence picture but we're trying to help with that," he said. "Our databases contain thousands of names of suspected foreign fighters which have been submitted by member states, and even the United States. But we also have records on arms smuggling, money laundering, forgery and other elements which are particularly relevant given that many of these guys had petty crime backgrounds."
He said the threat goes beyond France and Belgium and that it is impossible to reduce it to zero.
"We are looking at large numbers of foreign fighters who have returned as potential terrorists," he said. "And we are faced with a strategic decision by the Islamic State to aggressively target Europe. These are all very challenging dimensions. As for how large the community is and who has been sent back - that is the golden question."

John Kasich Cartoon

Spoiler

Belgian bloodbath shakes up campaign as Trump is first to call morning shows

When the awful news broke about the terrorist attacks in Belgium, the “Today” show asked Donald Trump to call in, which he promptly did.
Matt Lauer said the NBC show also asked for a phoner with Hillary Clinton, and she declined. Later, though, she apparently had a change of heart and phoned in as well.
A small thing, to be sure, and I hesitate to inject presidential politics into a tragic event that left more than 30 people dead at the Brussels airport and a subway station.
But terrorism is a central issue in this campaign, and the news came on a day when Utah, Arizona and Idaho were voting in primaries and caucuses.
The fact that “Today” and “Fox & Friends” had Trump call in underscores how he’s now thought of as a potential commander-in-chief. When he told Lauer that “I would be very, very tough on the borders,” it was a reminder that Trump’s terror talk—bomb the S out of ISIS, temporarily ban Muslims from entering the U.S.—has boosted his popularity among Republican voters.
Trump’s aggressive stance—he called Brussels “a total mess” and also talked about the need to waterboard terror suspects—set up a stark contrast with the former secretary of State. She said that torture is not effective and would put our own citizens and soldiers at risk. And, Clinton said, “It's unrealistic to say we're going to completely shut down our borders to everyone. That would stop commerce, for example, and that's not in anybody's interest.” She also phoned in to “Good Morning America.”

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The death toll in Belgium is going to change the tenor of the campaign for some time to come, even though it is difficult to hold the Obama administration accountable for every attack around the world. The president was out of position, going through the planned activities on his historic visit to Cuba. He asked his Cuban hosts to “please indulge me” as he devoted a total of six sentences to condemning “these outrageous attacks against innocent people.”
That is reminiscent of Obama’s tepid reaction to the Paris attacks, which caused him to try several more times to appear more empathetic. The Paris massacre, followed by the mass killing in San Bernardino, also transformed the campaign and, in my view, helped Trump. But given the media’s notoriously short attention span, coverage of those two calamities eventually faded as the campaign turned into a festival of insults.
Ted Cruz and John Kasich also responded aggressively to the Belgian bloodbath yesterday, but the twin “Today” invitations to the front-runners tells you something about how the media view the race.
While Clinton can draw on her diplomatic experience in talking about terror, she is to some degree hamstrung by the need not to break openly with the president she served.
The violence in Brussels took place hours after Trump, Clinton, Cruz and Kasich—but not Bernie Sanders—addressed AIPAC and spoke of the U.S. role in protecting Israel. The attack on a NATO ally also happened the day after Trump told the Washington Post that the U.S. should diminish its role in NATO and is bearing too much of the financial burden—something we’re likely to hear more about in the coming days.
Indeed, Clinton later told MSNBC that some candidates don't understand the importance of NATO.
The media have been obsessed lately with delegate math and the skirmishes that have broken out at Trump rallies. Unfortunately, it took far more damaging violence to remind everyone of the stakes in this campaign.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz.

Veterans Benefits Administration chief suspended in relocation scam

WASHINGTON –  The Department of Veterans Affairs is suspending the head of the Veterans Benefits Administration for allowing two lower-ranking officials to manipulate the agency's hiring system for their own gain.
Deputy VA Secretary Sloan Gibson says acting VBA chief Danny Pummill will be suspended without pay for 15 days for his role in a relocation scam that has roiled the agency for months.
Pummill failed to exercise proper oversight as Kimberly Graves and Diana Rubens forced lower-ranking managers to accept job transfers and then stepped into the vacant positions themselves, keeping their senior-level pay while reducing their responsibilities, Gibson said Tuesday.
Pummill is one of VA's five highest-ranking officials and leads VBA's employees across 56 regional offices nationwide that provide compensation and pension benefits, life insurance, home loans and other services to millions of veterans.
Under VA rules, Pummill can appeal his suspension to an independent arbiter.
Pummill was the VBA's deputy chief when Rubens and Graves implemented the job relocations, which put both of them closer to their families. Pummill replaced former VBA chief Allison Hickey, who retired as allegations against Rubens and Graves were made public.
Rubens earns $181,497 as director of the VBA's Philadelphia regional office, while Graves receives $173,949 as head of the St. Paul, Minnesota, benefits office.
Graves and Rubens were reprimanded Tuesday and had their pay cut by 10 percent. The two women were reinstated to their positions last month after administrative judges overturned their demotions.
The judges based their rulings, in part, on the fact that more senior officials such as Pummill had not been disciplined in the case. In a related action, the VA said it has reprimanded Beth McCoy, director of field operations for the VBA. Gibson said McCoy did not exercise proper judgment in taking over for Rubens as heads of field operations.
Gibson said the disciplinary actions were in the best interests of veterans and taxpayers. "Ultimately, that is what these decisions are about: getting back to the work of serving America's veterans," he said.
Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, called the actions "a weak slap on the wrist."
Accountability at the VA "is almost non-existent," Miller said. "One thing is clear: this dysfunctional status quo will never change until we eliminate arcane civil service rules that put the job security of VA bureaucrats ahead of the veterans they are charged with serving."

Cruz, not Kasich, snags mainstream GOP endorsements

Top GOP "establishment" figures keep lining up behind self-described “outsider” Ted Cruz in what appears to be a concerted bid to keep front-runner Donald Trump from running away with the nomination -- yet raising the question of whether they've ruled out John Kasich entirely.
Jeb Bush’s Wednesday endorsement of the Texas senator is the latest backing that would have been almost unthinkable even six months ago.
Bush’s thumbs-up for the firebrand conservative follows similar support from 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney and, perhaps even more surprising, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham -- who once remarked that if someone shot Cruz in the Senate, no senator would convict the shooter.
The endorsements have all been carefully tailored to show they are uniting behind Cruz as the best bet to thwart Trump.
“For the sake of our party and country, we must move to overcome the divisiveness and vulgarity Donald Trump has brought into the political arena, or we will certainly lose our chance to defeat the Democratic nominee and reverse President Obama’s failed policies,” Bush said in a statement Wednesday.
“The only path that remains to nominate a Republican rather than Mr. Trump is to have an open convention,” said Romney in backing Cruz last week. “At this stage, the only way we can reach an open convention is for Senator Cruz to be successful in as many of the remaining nominating elections as possible.”

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While it seems apparent that the endorsements are more anti-Trump than pro-Cruz, it is notable that the so-called establishment appears to be ignoring the more moderate Ohio Gov. Kasich.
The most obvious reason for this is the sheer delegate count. Behind Trump’s 739 delegates, Cruz has 465 and Kasich has 143. While Cruz’s path is slim to an outright majority, Kasich has no path to clinching the nomination without a contested convention in Cleveland in July.

Delegates Awarded to Current Republican Candidates | InsideGov

Cruz's performance to date, as Romney suggests, also could make him the best vehicle for drawing delegates away from Trump in the remaining contests and holding him under the 1,237 delegate threshold to clinch the nomination.
GOP strategist Ron Bonjean says the logic makes sense.
“Establishment Republicans are now gravitating towards Cruz because of the simple delegate math that shows there is absolutely no way Kasich can win unless there is a brokered convention,” he told FoxNews.com.
Yet, Bonjean notes that should a contested convention arise, things could change, and these same Republicans might move to back Kasich.
“Of course, this support for Cruz could change the very minute there is a brokered convention to Kasich or someone else," Bonjean said.
Team Kasich has a powerful argument in its pocket.
While Kasich is significantly behind Cruz in terms of delegates, his head-to-head polling numbers against likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton blow Cruz’s out of the water. A Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday gives Kasich an eight-point lead against Clinton in a general election matchup, while finding Trump loses to Clinton by six and Cruz by three.
The Kasich camp is hammering this point, perhaps hoping those siding with Cruz now might indeed reconsider at a contested convention.
In a campaign memo released Wednesday, chief strategist John Weaver cited a number of polls showing Kasich to be the best bet against Clinton, and called him the key to stopping Trump.
“Moving forward, Gov. Kasich is the key to our party’s hope of stopping Donald Trump and the potential disastrous consequences of his nomination,” Weaver wrote. “Assertions to the contrary are misleading. They are disingenuous attempts to mislead Republicans and hand the nomination to Donald Trump.”
Weaver went on to write that Kasich is the best candidate to have for candidates down the ballot, and to unite the party.
That argument appears to have been ineffective with many senior Republicans. Romney, in his statement endorsing Cruz, recognized how he has campaigned with Kasich, but suggested backing Kasich is a non-starter.
“I like Governor John Kasich. I have campaigned with him. He has a solid record as governor. I would have voted for him in Ohio. But a vote for Governor Kasich in future contests makes it extremely likely that Trumpism would prevail,” Romney said.
Kasich’s campaign memo seems to indicate something similar. Perhaps recognizing that Kasich’s best path to the nomination lies in a contested convention, Weaver calls Kasich “the best choice at the Convention.”
Trump, meanwhile, is keeping busy taunting those Republicans suddenly endorsing Cruz. He tweeted Wednesday:

Fox News Poll: Cruz, Kasich ahead of Clinton in 2016 hypothetical matchups

Republicans are eager to win back the White House in 2016.  A new Fox News national poll finds both John Kasich and Ted Cruz ahead of Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in hypothetical matchups, while Donald Trump trails her.
Kasich does best against Clinton.  He has a double-digit advantage and also comes in above the 50 percent mark:  51 percent to Clinton’s 40 percent.
Cruz is preferred over Clinton by three percentage points (47-44 percent).
Clinton tops GOP front-runner Donald Trump by 11 points (49-38 percent).
CLICK HERE TO READ THE POLL RESULTS
The Ohio governor’s advantage comes mostly from independents; they support him over Clinton by 36 points.  Plus, Kasich steals the largest number of Democrats (17 percent).

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Kasich and Cruz also outperform Trump against Bernie Sanders. The Democrat leads Trump by 14 points -- and tops Cruz by a narrower four-point margin.  Kasich has a one-point edge over Sanders (44-43 percent).
Slightly more voters would be satisfied if the presidential race is ultimately a Clinton-Cruz matchup (72 percent satisfied with their candidate choices) than if it ends up being Clinton and Trump (67 percent satisfied).
If it is Clinton-Trump in November, more than four in 10 Cruz supporters say they would seriously consider voting for a third party candidate (34 percent) or just stay home (10 percent).  (There are too few Kasich supporters to facilitate a comparable breakout.)
Overall, only 16 percent of voters would feel “enthusiastic” if Clinton were to become the next president.  Even so, that’s enough for a “win” on this measure.  Fourteen percent would feel “enthusiastic” about a Sanders win, and 13 percent each about a Cruz or Trump win.
Almost half of all voters would feel “scared” if Trump (49 percent) were to win the White House, while 33 percent say the same about Clinton.  Trump has the largest number of Republicans saying they would feel scared if he wins (25 percent), while Kasich has the smallest (7 percent).
More Republicans would feel “enthusiastic” or “pleased” with a Cruz win (57 percent), than with a Kasich (48 percent) or Trump (51 percent) victory.
By comparison, 72 percent of Democrats would feel “enthusiastic” or “pleased” if Clinton won.  And Sanders is close behind at 61 percent.
Kasich is the only candidate who receives more positive reactions (enthusiastic/pleased) to him winning than negative ones (displeased/scared).  In addition, more voters -- some 37 percent -- would feel “neutral” about him becoming president than say the same of any other candidate.
When it comes to picking justices for the U.S. Supreme Court, majorities of Americans feel confident with Kasich (62 percent), Cruz (55 percent), and Sanders (54 percent).  Half feel confident about Clinton (50 percent) making those decisions, and fewer than 4 in 10 say the same about Trump (38 percent).

Honest & Trustworthy
The two current front-runners are also battling for the worst honesty ratings:  64 percent of voters say Clinton is not honest and trustworthy, while 65 percent feel that way about Trump.
Some 34 percent say Clinton is honest (a new low) and 64 percent say she’s not (a new high) -- for a net negative honesty rating of 30 points.  Trump’s net rating is about the same (-32 points).
Cruz (+2 points), Kasich (+38 points), and Sanders (+39 points) each get positive honesty scores.
Sanders (+71 points) dwarfs Clinton (+39 points) on net honesty among self-identified Democrats.
Among self-identified Republicans, each of the GOP candidates has a net positive honesty score, yet there is significant range in the scores: Kasich (+58 points), Cruz (+40 points), and Trump (+14 points).

Pollpourri
When the two leading major party candidates are distrusted by a majority of voters, it’s no wonder 82 percent of voters say they are nervous about American politics, while 11 percent are feeling confident.
Nearly three times as many are confident about the economy today (30 percent).
To be sure, people still have economic jitters:  61 percent are nervous about the economy, up a bit from 55 percent a year ago (March 2015).  Nervousness hit a high of 70 percent in 2010.
Republicans are about twice as likely as Democrats to feel nervous about the economy, however roughly 8 in 10 Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike are worried about American politics.
Some 49 percent of Democrats are confident about the economy, down from 61 percent last year.
Most Republicans continue to feel uneasy:  81 percent now compared to 75 percent in 2015.
The Fox News poll is based on landline and cellphone interviews with 1,016 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from March 20-22, 2016. The full sample has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.

Second suspect reportedly sought in Brussels subway bombing

Authorities are searching for a second possible suspect in Tuesday morning's suicide bombing of a subway in central Brussels, Belgian and French media reported Thursday.
The French newspaper Le Monde and the Belgian public broadcaster RBTF reported that a man carrying a large bag was seen on CCTV walking with Khalid El Bakraoui, whom authorities believe blew himself up on a train at the Maelbeek station, killing at least 20 people.
It was not immediately clear whether the unidentified man survived the blast. Neither media outlet published the CCTV images in their initial reports and Belgian prosecutors had no immediate comment.
The report came as Paris terror suspect Salah Abdeslam was due to appear in court to face magistrates after his arrest last week in the same Brussels neighborhood where he grew up. France is seeking his extradition to face potential terrorism charges for his involvement in the Nov. 13 attacks that killed 130 people in Paris. A judge is to decide whether Abdeslam should be held in custody another month.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks in Brussels and Paris, which have laid bare European security failings and prompted calls for better intelligence cooperation.
Belgian police were already searching for a man seen at Brussels Zaventem airport with two other suicide bombers, identified as Ibrahim El Bakraoui, Khalid's older brother, and Najim Laachraoui, who was already suspected of constructing the bombs used in the Paris attacks.
RTBF also reported Thursday that a message found on Ibrahim El Bakraoui's computer Tuesday night does not name Abdeslam, as had previously been suspected.
According to the broadcaster, El Bakraoui referenced Mohammed Bakkali, who was arrested last November following the Paris attacks and is suspected of renting out two hideouts to the ISIS cell in Belgium. He is also accused of spying on a top Belgian nuclear official.
"I don't know what to do, I'm in a hurry, people are looking for me everywhere," chief prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw quoted the message as saying. "If I give myself up I'll end up in a cell next to him."
The message points to a rising sense of panic among the three suicide bombers.
Police were drawn to the brothers' apartment Tuesday night thanks to a tip from a taxi driver who had unwittingly delivered them to the airport, Van Leeuw said. Inside the northeast Brussels residence they found an apparent bomb-making factory, including 33 pounds of homemade explosives and nails for use as shrapnel.
Neighbors told The Associated Press they had no idea of the brothers' activities and barely saw them until the taxi collected them and their visibly heavy bags Tuesday morning.
One neighbor, who was willing to give only his first name of Erdine, said he was about to drive his son to school when he saw the two men carrying their bags out of the building.
"The taxi driver tried to get the luggage. And the other guy reached for it like he was saying: No, I'll take it," the neighbor said.

Terrorist Cartoon

Cruz campaign clarifies call to 'patrol and secure' Muslim neighborhoods

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz’s campaign on Tuesday clarified controversial comments suggesting surveillance in Muslim neighborhoods should be intensified following the deadly bombings on Brussels' airport and subway.
Earlier in the day, the Texas senator said in a statement: "We need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized."
After facing criticism for the comments, the campaign said Tuesday afternoon that the candidate is trying to say that police should have “every tool available” to provide security.
"We know what is happening with these isolated Muslim neighborhoods in Europe. If we want to prevent it from happening here, it is going to require an empowered, visible law enforcement presence that will both identify problem spots and partner with non-radical Americans who want to protect their homes,” campaign Press Secretary Catherine Frazier said in a statement.
She went on to cite the example of New York City pulling back on law enforcement efforts with Muslim communities, and said: “Ted Cruz will never allow political correctness to drive decisions about our security. ... The police should have every tool available to follow leads and take action against those who would do us harm.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, earlier had condemned Cruz's suggestion of surveillance, saying it sends "an alarming message to American-Muslims who increasingly fear for their future in this nation and to all Americans who value the Constitution and religious liberties."

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The Islamic State has taken credit for the Brussels attacks that killed dozens Tuesday and wounded many more. The attacks quickly dominated the discussion on the U.S. presidential campaign trail.
Donald Trump, who spoke to Fox News as developments in Brussels were unfolding, said he had warned about such attacks. "Brussels was a beautiful city, a beautiful place with zero crime, and now it's a disaster city. A total disaster," he said.
Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders, campaigning in Arizona on Tuesday, said boosting national security and protecting civil rights must go hand-in-hand. He said he strongly disagrees with calls by some Republicans for heightened domestic surveillance of Muslims.
"That would be unconstitutional -- it would be wrong," Sanders said.
Asked about Cruz's earlier comment, none of a half-dozen conservative House Republicans meeting with reporters Tuesday criticized him and most spoke of the need to keep the country safe.
"Nearly every neighborhood is patrolled. That's what local law enforcement does," said Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., who has endorsed Cruz. He said he didn't know specifically what Cruz was referring to.

Immigrants from terror hubs claiming 'credible fear' to seek US asylum

How Syrian refugee crisis could impact sanctions on Russia

 

Hundreds of illegal immigrants from terror hotspots are using what critics describe as loopholes in U.S. immigration policy to try to remain in the country indefinitely, according to data obtained by Congress.
Taking a page from the playbook used by Central American women and children to gain U.S. entry, hundreds of immigrants from Egypt, Somalia, Pakistan, Iran and Syria caught entering the U.S. last year made asylum claims to avoid deportation – and, in doing so, asserted they had a “credible fear of persecution.”
This phrase is important because it allows them to be released and work in the U.S. Prior to 2009, the U.S. held in custody many asylum seekers entering the U.S. illegally until their cases were resolved in court -- but an Obama administration policy change allowed those fearing persecution to be released.
The finding that asylum seekers from turbulent Middle Eastern and African countries are now using this phrase to gain entry and remain on U.S. soil has raised security concerns on Capitol Hill.
"These numbers illustrate vulnerabilities throughout our immigration system," Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., said Tuesday. "Dangerous criminals and potential terrorists are gaming the system without consequence. The Obama administration is compromising our national security and safety for its political agenda."
DeSantis, chairman of the House Subcommittee on National Security, is set to hold a hearing Wednesday on the potential threat posed by these individuals in light of the Paris and Brussels attacks. His subcommittee obtained the findings on the methods being using to remain in the U.S. Witnesses set to appear at the hearing Wednesday are Ronald Vitiello, acting chief of the U.S. Border Patrol; and Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council.
Stats obtained by the subcommittee from October 2014 to September 2015 show that the bulk of the “credible fear” claims still are coming from Central American and Mexican immigrants. But 80 were from Syrian nationals, 191 were from Pakistani nationals, and 776 were from Somalian nationals.
"They are coming through the backdoor," Judd said. "Do I believe they have a credible fear? In a small percentage, maybe. But the vast majority we arrest are telling our agents that they are coming because they know they will be released. That's why they are coming."
Judd said illegal immigrants have found a second loophole as well. By claiming they arrived in the U.S. before 2014, immigrants are able to avoid detention and deportation.
Here's why:
In January 2014, President Obama announced his “priorities” program, which ordered agents to worry chiefly about criminals, national security risks and illegal immigrants who came into the U.S. after that date. Judd claims supervisors at the Mexican and Canadian borders have told agents not to bother turning other immigrants over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement since "they won't be deported anyway."
"President Obama said we need to take these people out of the shadows. The fact is we took them out, and now we are releasing them right back into the shadows. What was the point?” he said. “The court system is so backlogged, we're told they are never going to see a judge anyway. So just let them go."
In the past, illegal immigrants from outside Mexico were subject to expedited removal. The process allowed agents to deport non-citizens without going through a formal and lengthy removal proceeding before an immigration judge.
Now, however, Judd said anyone who claims they've been living in the U.S. continuously from prior to 2014 is not even being turned over to ICE and given a “Notice to Appear” in court. Fox News confirmed the practice with sources in two border sectors.
"At least a NTA required them to show up in court. What we have now is amnesty through policy," Judd said. "We are flat-out letting them go."
Requests for comment from the Department of Homeland Security were not returned.