| Hoda Muthana: US bars Alabama woman who joined Isis from returning Posted: 21 Feb 2019 04:31 AM PST  US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has said the state department will block an American-born woman who left Alabama to join Islamic State in 2014 from returning to the US. Hoda Muthana, 24, told the Guardian this week that she regretted leaving the US to join the terrorist group and wants to return from Syria with her 18-month-old son. Pompeo said on Wednesday that the US will refuse to take Muthana back, saying she is "not a US citizen".
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| Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez refuses to back Bernie Sanders for 2020 election run against Trump Posted: 20 Feb 2019 11:30 PM PST  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has refused to endorse Bernie Sanders for the 2020 Democratic nomination, despite working on the senator's first presidential campaign. A spokesperson for Ms Ocasio-Cortez, like Mr Sanders a self-described democratic socialist, refused to comment directly on the 77-year-old's Tuesday announcement he is running for a second time. "We're excited to see so many progressives in the race," spokesperson Corbin Trent said.
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| The Teen From the Lincoln Memorial Protest Is Suing the Washington Post for $250 Million Posted: 19 Feb 2019 11:38 PM PST  The family of Nicholas Sandmann, the teen caught up in a viral encounter in January, has sued The Washington Post for $250 million
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| With Top Investor in Jail, Putin Hits at Business Climate Posted: 20 Feb 2019 05:21 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said honest business people shouldn't have to live under "constant fear of criminal prosecution," days after the arrest of one of the country's top foreign investors.
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| Canada looks to reunite Syrian family after fire claims seven kids Posted: 21 Feb 2019 10:18 AM PST  Canada is looking to quickly bring over siblings of a Syrian refugee distraught over the loss of her seven children in a Halifax house fire, the prime minister said Thursday. "The immigration minister is seized with this particular case," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said when asked if Ottawa would fast-track the immigration or asylum process to bring the woman's brothers to Canada in order to provide her with family support. The family was among tens of thousands of Syrian refugees welcomed by Canada over the past four years.
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| Britain, EU closer to possible agreement on Brexit: EU diplomats Posted: 21 Feb 2019 04:35 AM PST ![Britain, EU closer to possible agreement on Brexit: EU diplomats]( "Britain, EU closer to possible agreement on Brexit: EU diplomats") The backstop is an insurance policy designed to avoid border controls between EU member Ireland and British-ruled Northern Ireland after Brexit. "We are also looking at updating the declaration on future EU-UK ties after Brexit to give more prominence to the 'alternative arrangements' sought by Britain," said one EU diplomat who deals with Brexit. "But May won't get any firm wording before Feb. 28." A second diplomat, briefed on the May-Juncker talks on Wednesday evening, confirmed the EU would only signal this was the direction of travel before the British prime minister faces another round of Brexit votes in the UK parliament.
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| Trump apparently not familiar with his administration's push for global decriminalization of homosexuality Posted: 20 Feb 2019 02:54 PM PST  The president expresses confusion when asked about one of his administration's own policies.
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| Meet the 'New' F-21 Fighter: An F-16 On Steroids (With F-22 and F-35 DNA)? Posted: 20 Feb 2019 05:00 PM PST  Is this the fighter India needs?
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| The Latest: Lawyer says woman who joined IS a US citizen Posted: 20 Feb 2019 09:45 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the Alabama woman who left home to join the Islamic State group in Syria and now wants to return to the U.S. with her child (all times local):
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| Charity says 24 Polish bishops covered up sex abuses of minors Posted: 21 Feb 2019 09:00 AM PST  A Polish charity helping victims of child abuse committed by Catholic priests accused 24 bishops on Thursday of concealing perpetrators of sexual molestation of minors. The "Have No Fear" charity made the allegation in a report released as Pope Francis convened Catholic leaders from around the world to address scandals over child sexual abuse by priests that have ravaged the Church's credibility over the last three decades. The report, which has been delivered to the pope, named Polish bishops whom it said had "concealed clerical crimes and moved pedophilic priests from one parish to another".
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| Rubio Predicts Maduro’s Troops Won’t Block Humanitarian Aid Posted: 21 Feb 2019 12:30 PM PST  Senator Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) said Wednesday that Venezuelan troops have already begun to disobey orders and will likely refuse to block the thousands of volunteers who plan to escort a humanitarian-aid caravan across the country's border on Saturday."Saturday's a day when we're going to find a lot about the Maduro regime," Rubio told Bloomberg in a telephone interview. "I have reason to believe that rank-and-file military are not going to violently suppress aid workers."Opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who is officially recognized as the president of Venezuela by the Trump administration and 30 other nations, has urged the military to defect and refuse Maduro's orders to block aid shipments at the border."There's already significant resistance" by rank-and-file troops, causing military leaders to doubt "whether the people under their command are going to do what they're asking them to do," Rubio said.More than 600,000 Venezuelans have preemptively signed up to escort large shipments of much-needed food and medicine across the country's border with Colombia, according to Guaidó, who vowed the aid will enter the country "one way or another."The supplies have been accumulating at the border due to the Maduro regime's refusal to accept foreign aid intended to ease starvation and sickness. Maduro has repeatedly cast the foreign-aid efforts as a "political show," designed to serve as a pretext for invasion.
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| Every Photo From Our EV Battle Between the 2019 Chevrolet Bolt EV and 2019 Hyundai Kona Electric Posted: 20 Feb 2019 11:30 AM PST |
| France Says Internet Platforms Could Be Fined for Racist Content Posted: 21 Feb 2019 02:11 AM PST ![France Says Internet Platforms Could Be Fined for Racist Content]( "France Says Internet Platforms Could Be Fined for Racist Content") President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday night told the annual meeting of France's largest Jewish organization that a law could be presented in May in response to a recent spate of anti-Semitic incidents. "There will be an obligation for results: if the content is not taken down then there will be a fine, and a large fine," Mahjoubi said on France Info radio.
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| Colorado Man Fatally Beat Fiancee with Bat on Thanksgiving, Officer Testifies Posted: 19 Feb 2019 08:23 PM PST  Kelsey Berreth was beat to death with a baseball bat at the hands of her fiance after he failed to persuade a woman he was having an affair with to commit the killing, investigators said Tuesday.
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| Pakistani-held Kashmir on alert as tensions with India rise Posted: 20 Feb 2019 04:15 PM PST  Bunkers are being rebuilt and a blackout has been ordered, but schools and bazaars remained open Thursday in Chakothi, a border village in Pakistani-held Kashmir, after a deadly attack sent tensions with neighbouring India soaring. Residents were worried but life was going on in the village of some 3,000 inhabitants just three kilometres (two miles) from the "Line of Control", the de facto border which divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan. India and Pakistan, both nuclear powers, have been fighting for seven decades over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, now one of the most militarised zones in the world.
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| Tesla Model 3 Loses CR Recommendation | Reliability Posted: 21 Feb 2019 09:34 AM PST  Tesla Model 3 Loses CR Recommendation Over Reliability Issues Consumer Reports can no longer recommend the newest Tesla—the Model 3 electric sedan—because members say they've identified a number...
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| After surgery, Michael Cohen's prison date postponed to May Posted: 20 Feb 2019 05:26 PM PST  NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump's former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen was granted a few more weeks of freedom Wednesday after his lawyers said he's still recovering from surgery and hasn't had time to get his affairs in order because he's preparing to testify before Congress next week.
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| Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders Have a Plan to Kill the Stock Market Posted: 20 Feb 2019 03:30 AM PST  Senators Chuck Schumer of New York and Bernie Sanders of Vermont want to penalize "self-indulgent" corporations that buy back their own stock. In a recent article in the New York Times, they argued that when companies repurchase shares, not only do the vast majority of Americans not benefit, but income inequality is exacerbated since only wealthy shareholders and corporate management profit.Despite decades of extraordinary success that the United States has enjoyed and that we enjoy today, Schumer and Sanders believe that something sinister is taking place in the corporate world. They call buybacks a form of "corporate self-indulgence." Why? Because> corporate boardrooms have become obsessed with maximizing only shareholder earnings to the detriment of workers and the long-term strength of their companies. . . . Companies, rather than investing in ways to make their businesses more resilient or their workers more productive, have been dedicating ever larger shares of their profits to dividends and corporate repurchases.Now even some Republicans are getting on board. Florida senator Marco Rubio has suggested changes in the tax law to discourage buybacks because he says they "inflate" the prices of stock "at the expense of future productivity & job creation."These senators don't seem to fully understand that the purpose of a business is to allocate resources in a way that maximizes per share results over the long run. To think that this can be achieved at the expense of workers, at the expense of investing in research, at the expense of developing new and better products, at the expense of investing in equipment to both lower the cost and increase the quality of production, etc. is sophomoric. This underscores their lack of knowledge about investing and financial markets.Companies have several options with regard to the use of excess cash. They can (1) retain the funds in the company, (2) invest in the capital needed to grow the company, (3) make acquisitions, (4) pay out the excess cash in the form of dividends, or (5) repurchase shares from existing shareholders.These senators see little value in share buybacks, but they should listen to Warren Buffett, who is unequivocally a long-term investor. His financial success is a result of making exceptional long-term investments in resilient companies. Unlike Schumer and Sanders, Buffett is an enthusiastic proponent of utilizing excess cash to repurchase shares when conditions are favorable (or opportune).Here is what he said in his 1984 annual report: "The companies in which we have our largest investments are all engaged in significant share repurchases at the times when a wide discrepancy exists between price and value." He has made this point repeatedly throughout the years. These companies repurchase shares and continue to grow, continue to invest in research, in capital that will improve the quality and lower the cost of products. He has even bought back $1 billion of shares of his own company, Berkshire Hathaway, not because he is "self-indulgent" but because he thinks the firm is undervalued.Schumer and Sanders—and in some cases they are joined by Rubio—provide two main reasons we are in a stock buyback "crisis":> First, stock buybacks don't benefit the vast majority of Americans.> > Second, when corporations direct resources to buy back shares on this scale, they restrain their capacity to reinvest profits more meaningfully in the company in terms of R&D, equipment, higher wages, paid medical leave, retirement benefits and worker retraining.The first point is utter nonsense. More than 100 million average Americans own stock. Americans invest in mutual funds and index funds and buy and sell stock every day. Tens of millions more have 401K plans, and most union pension funds have hundreds of billions of dollars invested in stocks.The second point is equally absurd. A corporate board of directors is elected by shareholders, the owners of the company. When a board makes the decision to repurchase shares, it is a sign of confidence in the firm's long-term profitability. It raises share values, which obviously benefits shareholders and puts firms in better financial shape — which also benefits the employees. Essentially, Schumer and Sanders believe, and Rubio seems to believe, that they have the right to tell the owners of a corporation the best way to allocate their profits.Studies show that firms that buy back their own shares have strong long-term growth.Consider Apple. It has become the most valuable company in the world. This exceptional success was achieved because of the enormous investments they made to develop revolutionary products. Companies cannot develop revolutionary products by underpaying talented workers or without investing billions of dollars in research, factories, and equipment. Not incidentally, Apple has repurchased billions of dollars of its own stock.The hyper-competitiveness and efficiency of U.S. companies is a major reason that unemployment is at a near 50-year low. Today, no company can survive if its workers are treated poorly. Walmart, which Schumer and Sanders attacked in their article, and many other companies recently raised their wage rates substantially, starting with entry-level positions.What is most disturbing about Schumer and Sanders's proposal is their hubris in believing that they know how every company should handle its excess cash better than the CEOs, the boards of directors, and shareholders do. That is a rather all-encompassing statement. One would be hard-pressed to find a more vivid example of what Friedrich Hayek called "the fatal conceit," the distorted notion that one knows more than is knowable. Would Buffett invest in a company if Schumer and Sanders were in charge of allocating its resources?We doubt it. Who in their right mind would?If approved, what Schumer and Sanders propose would not only hurt U.S. companies. It would harm the entire U.S. economy and financial system. It would raise the cost of capital for companies. What they advocate would tell domestic and foreign investors that our government is interfering with how companies allocate their resources.What is the difference between going after a large company with lots of shareholders and a small company with one owner? How long before Senators Schumer and Sanders tell the tire-shop owner that he has not paid his employees enough and that therefore he has withdrawn too much of the profit as an owner distribution?Every shareholder and business owner in America should rise up in loud protest against what these senators are proposing.Thomas A. Smith is the president of the Smith Foundation and ran a successful investment company for 40 years. Stephen Moore is a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and an economic consultant with FreedomWorks.
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| 20 Affordable Indoor Planters We Love Posted: 21 Feb 2019 02:03 PM PST |
| Working While Receiving Social Security Disability Posted: 20 Feb 2019 07:35 AM PST ![Working While Receiving Social Security Disability]( "Working While Receiving Social Security Disability") To become eligible for Social Security disability benefits, you must be unable to engage in substantial gainful activity. "It is possible to qualify for Social Security disability benefits and still work in a limited capacity," says Nick Ortiz, a board-certified Social Security disability attorney and owner of Ortiz Law Firm in Pensacola, Florida. Read on for a look at what's involved with Social Security disability benefits, as well as the rules related to working while receiving benefits.
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| United Airlines: Three new routes for fast-growing Denver hub Posted: 20 Feb 2019 05:39 AM PST ![United Airlines: Three new routes for fast-growing Denver hub]( "United Airlines: Three new routes for fast-growing Denver hub") United Airlines will add three new domestic routes at its Denver hub, all of which will go head-to-head against budget rival Frontier Airlines.
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| Designer Karl Lagerfeld to be cremated without ceremony Posted: 20 Feb 2019 06:05 AM PST  Karl Lagerfeld will be cremated without ceremony and his ashes are likely to be scattered with those of his mother and lover, his label said Wednesday. "His wishes will be respected," a spokeswoman for his Karl Lagerfeld brand told AFP a day after the legendary designer died at the age of 85. Lagerfeld had previously said that his ashes would be mixed with those of his longtime lover, the French dandy Jacques de Bascher, who died of AIDS in 1989.
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| The Latest: Smollett gave false information in 2007 case Posted: 20 Feb 2019 02:35 AM PST  CHICAGO (AP) — The Latest on the attack reported by Jussie Smollett (all times local):
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| Tesla prepares Model 3 leasing option to boost demand Posted: 20 Feb 2019 01:45 PM PST  The timing for lease deals are still up in the air.
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| Bernie Sanders announces run for presidency in 2020: 'We're gonna win' Posted: 19 Feb 2019 06:31 PM PST  Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont whose 2016 presidential campaign helped energize the progressive movement and reshaped the Democratic party, has entered the 2020 race for the White House. Sanders, a self-styled democratic socialist who spent much of his nearly 30-year congressional career on the political fringe, cast his candidacy as the best way to accomplish the mission he started three years ago when he ran against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination.
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| Parents dead in murder-suicide at Sugar Land home as 16-year-old daughter slept inside Posted: 21 Feb 2019 06:59 AM PST  Their family says they were involved in volunteering and believed in giving back before they died.
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| Carbon dioxide in our atmosphere may soar to levels not seen in 56 million years Posted: 21 Feb 2019 12:17 PM PST  Emissions of carbon dioxide – the greenhouse gas most responsible for global warming – could soar to levels not seen in 56 million years, scientists warned.
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| Serbia Lashes Out at U.S. After Diplomat's Warning on Venezuela Posted: 21 Feb 2019 02:12 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Serbia rejected a warning from the U.S. over its support for embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro a week after Belgrade hosted a delegation from the Latin American state.
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| Abbas says will reject reduced tax reimbursement from Israel Posted: 20 Feb 2019 09:02 AM PST  Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said Wednesday he would not accept partial payment of tax transfers owed by Israel, which decided to withhold reimbursements in retaliation for payments to prisoners jailed for attacks. "We shall not accept the (tax) money if it is not paid in full," Abbas told a central committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. Israel's security cabinet on Sunday approved the freezing of $138 million (122 million euros) over the Palestinian Authority's payments to prisoners jailed for attacks on Israelis.
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| 14 Designers Decorate the Modernism Week Show House With Flair Posted: 21 Feb 2019 01:07 PM PST |
| Statue of Polish Solidarity priest accused of pedophilia removed Posted: 21 Feb 2019 04:57 AM PST  A statue of a priest who was leading figure in the movement that toppled Communism in Poland was removed by protesters, who accused the Catholic Church of neglecting accusations that he sexually abused minors. The statue of Henryk Jankowski in central Gdansk - the birthplace of the Solidarity movement - was lifted from its plinth overnight by three men who then handed themselves in to police, Gdansk police spokeswoman Karina Kaminska said on Thursday.
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| IRS Analyst Charged with Leaking Michael Cohen’s Bank Records to Avenatti Posted: 21 Feb 2019 01:32 PM PST  An Internal Revenue Service analyst was charged Thursday with leaking confidential reports that revealed President Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen sought to profit from his White House access.The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California charged analyst John Fry for leaking a suspicious activity report (SAR) to Michael Avenatti, the attorney who represented pornographer Stormy Daniels in her defamation case against President Trump.Avenatti published the SAR on Twitter last May, revealing to the public that Cohen set up a shell company known as Essential Consultants in order to collect payments from a number of corporations hoping to influence Trump administration policy. Cohen used the same shell company to make a $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels.During the Trump campaign and transition period, Cohen received hundreds of thousands of dollars from corporations, including Korea Aerospace Industries, AT&T, and Columbus Nova, a New York affiliate of the Russian corporation Renova Group which is owned by a Russian oligarch who donated to Trump's campaign and has been sanctioned by the U.S.According to the indictment filed Thursday, Avenatti also shared Fry's information with the New Yorker's Ronan Farrow.
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| 9 Great Utility Stocks to Buy for Income Posted: 21 Feb 2019 09:26 AM PST ![9 Great Utility Stocks to Buy for Income]( "9 Great Utility Stocks to Buy for Income") When investors think of low-risk investments, they often think of utility stocks. When times get tough it's much easier to cut back on discretionary spending like travel or apparel than it is to materially reduce your energy use. Income investors are particularly drawn to energy utilities because consistent demand fuels consistent profits -- and regular dividends are the result.
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| Driver hurt by air bag shrapnel as investigation drags on Posted: 20 Feb 2019 12:23 PM PST ![Driver hurt by air bag shrapnel as investigation drags on]( "Driver hurt by air bag shrapnel as investigation drags on") DETROIT (AP) — Nearly four years ago, the U.S. government's highway safety agency began investigating air bag inflators made by ARC Automotive of Tennessee when two people were hit by flying shrapnel after crashes.
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| Funeral held for youngest victim of factory shooting Posted: 20 Feb 2019 07:00 PM PST  SHERIDAN, Ill. (AP) — A small funeral home was packed with hundreds of mourners for a 21-year-old college student who was killed on the first day of his internship when a worker opened fire inside an Illinois manufacturing facility.
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| Johnson & Johnson stock price falls after federal subpoena on alleged asbestos in baby powder Posted: 21 Feb 2019 01:08 PM PST ![Johnson & Johnson stock price falls after federal subpoena on alleged asbestos in baby powder]( "Johnson & Johnson stock price falls after federal subpoena on alleged asbestos in baby powder") The Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission investigate the alleged asbestos contamination of Johnson & Johnson's baby powder.
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| Storm dropping snow on Las Vegas; 1 inch reported at airport Posted: 21 Feb 2019 09:39 AM PST  Las Vegas is getting a rare taste of real winter weather, with significant snowfall across the metro area.
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| US weighing options on American IS sympathizer in Syria Posted: 19 Feb 2019 06:21 PM PST  The United States said Tuesday it wanted to ensure foreign jihadists remain off the battlefield as it weighed options on an American detained in Syria who says she wants to return home. The United States has urged European powers to take back hundreds of their citizens who fought with the Islamic State movement in Syria, but acknowledged the situation was complex in the rare case of an American jihadist. Hoda Muthana, a 24-year-old from Alabama who became a prominent online agitator for the extremists, said in an interview published Sunday with The Guardian that she had been brainwashed online and "deeply regrets" joining the movement.
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| Sarah Isgur Flores: Former Trump aide hired as CNN political editor despite having no journalism experience Posted: 20 Feb 2019 02:29 AM PST  CNN has appointed a former Trump administration official with no journalism experience as a political editor, provoking consternation among the broadcaster's staff and Democrat politicians. Sarah Isgur Flores, who served as chief spokeswoman and senior adviser for the US Department of Justice under attorney general Jeff Sessions, is to join the network to coordinate coverage of the 2020 presidential election. Ms Isgur Flores has previously been communications director for Republican National Committee and worked on the campaign teams of former presidential hopefuls Carly Fiorina and Ted Cruz.
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| Social-Justice Hucksters and the Dumb, Blind Media Posted: 20 Feb 2019 03:30 AM PST  Is it any wonder that American news consumers are at the end of their ropes of patience with the "mainstream media"?Three weeks ago, when I first documented troubling questions, contradictions, and doubts about Trump-hating, attention-craving actor Jussie Smollett's absurd hate-crime claims, few in the "professional" journalism herd paid heed. Now, with a grand-jury investigation on the horizon, everyone's a Johnny-come-lately debunker.And everyone's making excuses: How could we have known? Why would anyone lie about racism? What could have possibly prepared us for such a scandalous swindle?I'm especially looking at you, Robin Roberts. You and ABC's Good Morning America willingly played public-relations agents for Smollett last week while his story was already falling apart, and he refused to be fully transparent with investigators. Now, you defend yourselves by hiding behind a veil of ignorance about hate-crimes hoaxes.Listen and learn, addled enablers of fraud. Fake Noose is a sick phenomenon that has run rampant across the country unchecked. I've chronicled the self-victimization pathology in my books, columns, and blog posts for years: * Columbia University, 2007. Remember black psychology professor Madonna Constantine? She made the rounds on none other than ABC's Good Morning America, claiming she found a "degrading" noose (made of hand-tied twine) hanging from her office door. Constantine led fist-waving protests, decried "systematic racism," and prompted a nationwide uproar, as I reported at the time in the New York Post. Things didn't add up when Columbia initially blocked investigators from obtaining 56 hours of surveillance video. No culprits could be found on the militantly progressive campus obsessed with diversity and multiculturalism. It turned out that Constantine was desperately trying to distract from a brewing internal probe of her serial plagiarism, for which she was eventually fired. The hate-crime probe hit a dead end, and Constantine faced no criminal charges over the Fake Noose incident. * Baltimore Fire Department, 2007. Another manufactured outrage erupted when black firefighter-paramedic apprentice Donald Maynard claimed he found a knotted rope and threatening note with a noose drawing on it at his stationhouse. A federal civil-rights investigation ensued, and the NAACP cried racism -- until Maynard confessed to the noose nonsense amid a department-wide cheating scandal. A top official revealed that Maynard admitted "conducting a scheme meant to create the perception that members within our department were acting in a discriminatory and unprofessional manner." Maynard faced no criminal charges over the Fake Noose incident. * University of Delaware, 2015. Black Lives Matter agitators and campus activists triggered a full alert when a student spotted a "racist display" of three "noose-like objects" hanging from trees. The UD president called it "deplorable"; protesters wept that they were not being taken seriously. After investigating, police discovered the "nooses" were metal "remnants of paper lanterns" hung as decorations during an alumni weekend celebration. * Salisbury State University, 2016. Students, faculty, and administrators were horrified when a stick figure hanging from a noose on a whiteboard was discovered at the school's library. The N-word and hashtag WhitePower also appeared in the menacing graffiti. Campus authorities immediately launched an investigation, which exposed two black students as the perpetrators. Prosecutors declined to file criminal charges against the Fake Noosers. * Kansas State University, 2017. A paroxysm of protest struck K-State after someone reported a noose hanging from a tree on campus. Black students lambasted authorities for not acting quickly enough. They stoked anger online with the hashtag DontLeaveUsHanging and demanded increased security. But the "noose" was made of cut pieces of nylon parachute cord, which police believed had been discarded by someone who "may have simply been practicing tying different kinds of knots." * Michigan State University, 2017. When a student reported a noose hanging outside her dorm room, MSU administrators went into full freakout mode over the racial incident. Cops and the Office of Institutional Equity were immediately notified. "A noose is a symbol of intimidation and threat that has a horrendous history in America," the university president bemoaned. But it turned out the "noose" was a "packaged leather shoelace" that someone had dropped accidentally. * Smithsonian museums, 2017. NPR called the discovery of "nooses" lying on the grounds of two Smithsonian Institution museums the "latest in a string of hate incidents" after Trump's election. The African-American museum director called them a "reminder of America's dark history." But the museums refused to release surveillance video, and my public-records request filed last November yielded zero corroboration of any hate crime. The Washington Post, New York Times and ABC's Good Morning America, which all splashed the story front and center, have yet to follow up. * Mississippi State Capitol, 2018. ABC, CBS, CNN, and Yahoo were among the media outlets that blared headlines about seven nooses and "hate signs" found hanging in trees near the capitol building before a special runoff election for U.S. Senate. The stories created an unmistakable impression that the nooses were left by GOP racists intending to intimidate black voters. In truth, the nooses were a publicity stunt perpetrated by Democrats.IN THE NEWS: 'Jussie Smollett's 'Empire' Role Is Being Scaled Back'In the wake of Smollett's folly, media sensationalists bluster that there's no way they could have known they were being strung along. Thanks for the valuable admission, elite news professionals, that you are not only dumb and blind but incompetent to boot. It doesn't take a fancy journalism degree to learn from the long, sordid history of Fake Noose:When you've seen one social-justice huckster, you've seen 'em all.© 2019 Creators.com
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| North Carolina Republican's son says warned father about operative's past Posted: 20 Feb 2019 02:20 PM PST  A state probe into the election for the 9th Congressional District has uncovered the fraudulent scheme by a consultant working for the campaign of candidate Mark Harris. The probe could lead to a new election to fill the seat, which has remained vacant since state officials refused to certify Harris' apparent victory over Democratic rival Dan McCready by 905 votes out of 282,717 ballots cast. The five-member State Board of Elections heard evidence this week that the political consultant, Leslie McCrae Dowless, hired workers to solicit and collect absentee ballots from voters in violation of state law.
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| Southwest Air Drops on $60 Million Hit From U.S. Shutdown Posted: 20 Feb 2019 02:04 PM PST  The political stalemate that ended last month will reduce first-quarter revenue by $60 million as the aftereffects lingered on, Southwest said in a regulatory filing Wednesday. "With more of first quarter under our belt now, and a higher percentage of March bookings in place, we feel like we are at the point where we can reasonably quantify the total impact from the shutdown," Southwest said by email.
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| Mercedes-Benz Recall | Automated System Problem Posted: 21 Feb 2019 12:26 PM PST  Mercedes-Benz Vehicles Recalled for Partially Automated Driving System Problem Mercedes-Benz is recalling 6,200 S-Class sedans, coupes, and convertibles from the 2018 and 2019 model years becaus...
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