Wednesday, July 29, 2015

In the news, Wednesday, July 15, 2015


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JUL 14      INDEX      JUL 16
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Information from some sites may not be reliable, or may not be vetted.
Some sources may require subscription.

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from Breitbart

AZ SHERIFF: OBAMA HAS MADE US ‘A SANCTUARY NATION’
Pinal County, AZ Sheriff Paul Babeu (R) declared that President Obama has made the entire US “a sanctuary nation when it comes to immigration” on Tuesday’s “Cavuto: Coast to Coast” on the Fox Business Network.

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from Dc Gazette
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

[Watch] Obama Tells Reporter “You Should Know Better” Than To Ask A Probing Question
At a White House press conference Wednesday where Barack Obama took on the critics of the latest disaster that will make up his legacy, with the biggest of the big names in reporting and television broadcasting in attendance, CBS’s Major Garrett got up and asked The Occupier of the Oval Office a rather simple, but important question
Read more at http://dcgazette.com/watch-obama-tells-reporter-you-should-know-better-than-to-ask-a-probing-question/

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from The Farmacy (REALfarmacy.com)
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

How To Grow 25 Pounds of Sweet Potatoes in a Bucket
Sweet potatoes are becoming a popular food, so it’s about time I talk about how you can grow this plant yourself in a bucket. This article will give you every detail you need to get started growing your own sweet potatoes in 20 gallon buckets – from buying your first seed potato all the way to harvesting boatloads of potatoes at the end of it all.

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from Forward Progressives
[Information from this site may be distorted.]

Ben Carson Will Attend Iowa “Religious Liberties” Conference Held By Radio Host Who Wants Gays Executed

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from KHQ Local News (NBC Spokane)

Update: Douglas County complex fire burns over 22,000 acres; 100% contained

UPDATE: Missing Montana plane wreckage found
The Skagit County Sheriff's Office confirms search and rescue crews located missing Montana plane wreckage. Two bodies have been recovered from wreckage which is in the Rainey Pass area near Highway 20. The wreckage from the Beech aircraft was still smoldering and flaring up when they arrived.The United States Forest Service firefighters came to deal with a small brush fire that the plane crash caused.

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from Mad World News
[Information from this site may be unreliable.]

Black Girl Drops The Truth About The Rebel Flag On “Sensitive Black People”
“The Confederate flag SHOULD NOT be taken down due to hurt feelings. That is the issue, we have set a precedent that society has a duty not to offend on a legislative level. This is wrong, there is no right not to be offended.”

Sheriff Gets A Call About Confederate Flags … His Response? AWESOME

Sharpton Starts War With Kid Rock, Was NOT Expecting What Happened Next

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from Mother Jones

The Technical Experts Weigh In, And They're Pretty Impressed With the Iran Deal
Arms control guru Jeffrey Lewis has long been skeptical that we could conclude a nuclear deal with Iran. Now that we have, he's pored through the entire document and he says he's impressed.



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from NBC News (& affiliates)

Oskar Groening trial: ‘Accountant of Auschwitz’ sentenced to 4 years in jail
The 94-year-old former guard known as the “accountant of Auschwitz” was convicted Wednesday on 300,000 counts of accessory to murder. Oskar Groening was sentenced to four years in jail by the state court in the northern German city of Lueneburg, where a small group of protesters stood outside carrying a white “Don’t forget Auschwitz” banner. Presiding judge Franz Kompisch noted the importance of such prosecutions even after decades had passed. “Even after 70 years, one can create justice, and one can find a verdict,” he told the court. “There is a hope that the victims could find some peace and some reconciliation.”

The failure Cheney doesn’t want to talk about
President Obama and his team, working with our allies and negotiating partners, reached a historic diplomatic agreement with Iran yesterday, effectively ensuring that a dangerous Middle East foe will not acquire nuclear weapons. Let’s not forget that Iran didn’t have a meaningful nuclear weapons program until Tehran developed one – during the Bush/Cheney administration. It was on Cheney’s watch that Iran’s total number of centrifuged grew from 164 to 8,000.

from POLITICO

Barack Obama shuts down reporter: 'You should know better'
President Barack Obama’s patience grew short during his news conference on Wednesday, telling CBS News correspondent Major Garrett “you should know better” after he asked a question relating to the four Americans being held in Iran. Obama bristled when Garrett said the president should have to answer for the celebration around the deal, when the detained Americans remain in Iran.

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from The Raw Story
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]


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from Right Wing Watch
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]


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from Slate
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

Unhealthy Fixation
The war against genetically modified organisms is full of fearmongering, errors, and fraud. Labeling them will not make you safer.

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from The Spokesman-Review

Reward offered in tribal boat vandalism
The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation is offering a $2,500 reward for information leading to the arrest of individuals who vandalized a tribal fishing boat. Employees arriving for work on Tuesday morning found a racist message on the Dream Catcher and items taken from the boat, which was moored at Mosquito Park near Brewster, Washington. The line to the purse seine, used to net fish, was cut.

Steve Gleason Act passes House, heads to president’s desk
The bill named for Spokane native and Washington State University athlete Steve Gleason, allowing for Medicare coverage of communication software, is headed to President Barack Obama’s desk. The Steve Gleason Act had been championed by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who said the rules blocking access to eye-tracking software for patients with neurodegenerative disorders “bureaucratic nonsense” on a visit to Spokane to discuss the bill with health care professionals in March. She introduced the bill to the House in January.

2-year-old dies in Bonner County motorhome fire
A 2-year-old girl died in a fire that consumed a motorhome Tuesday night in Oldtown, Idaho. Genevieve Winn was alone inside the camper when the fire ripped through it around 8 p.m. The incident took place at 4038 Hoo Doo Loop. Bonner County Undersheriff David Hale said several adults were at or near the camper and were unharmed. He said criminal charges may be filed if investigators determine one of them is at fault for Winn’s death.

Spokane police officer accused of armed burglary
A Spokane police officer was arrested by officers of his own department Tuesday night after he allegedly busted open the front door of his girlfriend’s house during an argument. Officer John Yen, 25, was arrested on a first-degree armed burglary charge in the 1100 block of East 11th Avenue after police responded to a witness report shortly after 9 p.m.

Two dead after crash near Steptoe
Two people died early this morning in a one-car wreck near Steptoe. The call came in around 2 a.m., and Whitman County sheriff’s deputies responded to the crash off Hume Road, about eight miles north of Colfax and two miles outside of Steptoe. The sheriff’s department identified the victims as Jonathan Thomas Scholz, 37, of Steptoe and Kimberly Ann Blowers, 32, of Tampa, Florida.

Explosion rips through Zodiac Aerospace in Newport
An explosion ripped through an aerospace company in Newport Tuesday night, shattering glass and causing a section of the roof to collapse. The blast, which occurred shortly before 9 p.m., sent five people to the hospital. At least one person was taken by helicopter to Spokane. Zodiac Aerospace is a multinational corporation that’s a key supplier to Boeing. The Newport plant is part of Zodiac’s “Cabin and Structures” division, and makes components for cabin interiors. The business press is questioning whether the explosion in Newport could affect Boeing’s commercial jetliner production. 

Airway Heights mayor rejects calls to resign over online comments
The Airway Heights mayor is refusing to resign after posting comments last week to his personal Facebook page that City Council members say are racist. Mayor Patrick Rushing, who compared President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama to monkeys, said he did not realize his comments were racist.

Spacecraft completes 9 ½-year, 3 billion-mile trip to Pluto
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft got humanity’s first up-close look at Pluto on Tuesday, sending word of its triumph across 3 billion miles to scientists waiting breathlessly back home.

Retired INHS CEO Tom Fritz dies on fishing trip
Tom Fritz, former CEO of Inland Northwest Health Services, died Monday while fishing on Lake Coeur d’Alene, just six months after he retired from the organization he led for 16 years.

Iran nuclear deal opens debate
Overcoming decades of hostility, Iran, the United States and five other world powers struck a historic accord Tuesday to check Tehran’s nuclear efforts short of building a bomb. The agreement could give Iran access to billions in frozen assets and oil revenue, stave off more U.S. military action in the Middle East and reshape the tumultuous region.

Scientists: New subatomic particles found
A new kind of subatomic particle called the pentaquark has been detected for the first time, the European Organization for Nuclear Research said Tuesday. The lab, known by its French acronym CERN, said the findings were made by a team of scientists working on the LHCb experiment, one of the four at its Large Hadron Collider. The existence of pentaquarks was first proposed in the 1960s by American physicists Murray Gell-Mann and Georg Zweig. Gell-Mann, who received the Nobel Prize in 1969, coined the term “quark” to describe the building blocks that make up hadrons – subatomic particles such as the proton and the neutron.

Feds seek assets in Philippines scandal
The U.S. Department of Justice took action Tuesday to seize $12.5 million in California property and assets from a businesswoman who is at the heart of a massive corruption scandal in the Philippines. The agency filed a civil forfeiture complaint, contending that Janet Lim Napoles bought the assets for herself and her daughters with a decade’s worth of stolen money intended to fight poverty in the Philippines.

Shifting cargo blamed in Afghanistan air crash fatal to 7
A military vehicle aboard an overloaded plane in Afghanistan broke free and struck critical operating systems, likely leading to the 2013 crash that killed all seven crew members, federal officials said Tuesday. The National Transportation Safety Board said an improperly secured mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle, known as an MRAP, went through the bulkhead and disabled two hydraulic systems, rendering the aircraft uncontrollable. The Dubai-bound Boeing 747-400 plane crashed just after takeoff from Bagram Air Base on April 29, 2013, killing six crew members from Michigan and one from Kentucky. It was operated by National Air Cargo Group Inc. and carried 207 tons of cargo, including five MRAPs, weighing 12 to 18 tons each.

Two dead, six missing after Kentucky flash flooding
Doris Hardin watched the water rise from the window of her mobile home in rural Johnson County. Her lights flickered off then her neighbor banged on the door, shouting for her to flee. She ran for her car but it was already gone. The floodwaters rising around Hardin on Monday afternoon killed one man and one woman, left six more missing and sent rescue crews to comb the hilly Appalachian terrain Tuesday, as the threat of more floods bore down on rescue efforts. Authorities called off the search about 8 p.m. Tuesday, with plans to resume this morning.

Monk’s death stirs criticism of China
U.S. lawmakers held a moment of silence Tuesday and expressed anger and sadness over the death in prison of a prominent Tibetan monk, and lamented that U.S. criticism of China’s conduct is failing to stop repression of the minority group. House members called for a tougher U.S. policy to pressure China at a hearing on Tibet by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. They also demanded Chinese authorities return the body of Tibetan lama Tenzin Delek Rinpoche to his family members for a funeral.

Missouri executes man in ’01 killing
A Missouri inmate who sexually attacked a 19-year-old woman before tying her to a cemetery tree and killing her was executed Tuesday after the U.S. Supreme Court and the governor declined to intervene. David Zink, 55, was put to death at a state prison near Bonne Terre, south of St. Louis, hours after the nation’s high court rebuffed his last appeals and Gov. Jay Nixon rejected his clemency request. Corrections Department spokesman Mike O’Connell said the lethal injection began at 7:33 p.m. and Zink was pronounced dead at 7:41 p.m.

Greeks rankled by finance plan
Greece’s left-wing government launched a frantic 24-hour effort late Tuesday to push more austerity measures through Parliament and meet demands from European creditors as it faced down mounting anger at home. Hard-liners in Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ own Syriza party were in open revolt, and unions and trade associations representing civil servants, municipal workers, pharmacy owners and others called or extended strikes to coincide with today’s Parliament vote.

Obama pushes array of criminal justice reforms
Calling it an issue America can’t afford to ignore, President Barack Obama laid out an expansive vision Tuesday for fixing the criminal justice system by focusing on communities, courtrooms and cellblocks. He announced a federal review of the use of solitary confinement and urged Congress to pass a sentencing reform bill by year’s end.

Video of police shooting ordered released
A federal judge ordered a suburban Los Angeles city on Tuesday to release video of police fatally shooting an unarmed man two years ago. The public should be able to see what led the city of Gardena to pay $4.7 million to settle a lawsuit with the family of the dead man and another man wounded in the shooting, Judge Stephen V. Wilson said. But the order was stayed by a federal appeals court late in the day – hours after the court had released what Wilson said were “potentially upsetting and disturbing because of the events they depict,” but “not overly gory or graphic” videos.

People: GM sticks with Kid Rock, but will talk flag
General Motors said Tuesday it’ll continue its sponsorship of Kid Rock’s summer concert tour, despite a request by a Detroit activist group that the automaker cut financial ties with the musician if he displays the Confederate flag onstage. Members of the National Action Network and Detroit chapter president, the Rev. Charles Williams II, will meet Thursday with representatives from GM’s Chevrolet brand. The two sides have been in discussions recently over Kid Rock, who has been criticized in the past for displaying the rebel battle flag during performances.“We need to let some open and constructive dialogue occur as a first step, and we’ll go from there,” GM spokesman Patrick Morrissey said. It’s not clear whether Kid Rock still displays the flag during his concerts, though Morrissey noted: “The only flag on stage during the Chevy-sponsored summer concert tour is the American flag, and to our knowledge, Kid Rock has not used the Confederate flag on stage for several years.”
Goldberg backpedals on Cosby
Bill Cosby’s biggest public defender, Whoopi Goldberg, is backing off her support after getting some legal advice Tuesday on the daytime talk show “The View.” Goldberg said that “all of the information that’s out there kind of points to (Cosby’s) guilt.”

‘Watchman’ released to Lee fans worldwide
Shortly after sunrise Tuesday, the doors opened at the Old Courthouse Museum in Monroeville, Alabama, and a bell tolled. In the hometown and residence of Harper Lee, it was time to start a marathon and occasionally painful reading of “Go Set a Watchman,” the second book no one ever thought they would see from the author of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

Spokane City Council sends immigration initiative to county for verification
Upward of 200 people converged on Spokane City Hall Monday night to voice both support and concern with a police department policy that says the immigration status of an individual “shall not be the sole basis for a contact, detention or arrest.” The policy, which has been on the books for a decade and was  reaffirmed by the Spokane City Council last fall in a city ordinance, has come under attack by people who argue it turns Spokane into a “sanctuary city” and encourages lawlessness. Detractors have gathered signatures to place a repeal of the immigration law on an upcoming ballot. After three hours of testimony Monday, the council voted to ask the county to verify the signatures.

DNA of bicyclist found on patrol car’s bumper
A teenage bicyclist’s DNA was found on the bumper of a Spokane County Sheriff’s Office patrol car even though investigations have found that a deputy did not hit the boy before he died. An attorney for the family of Ryan Holyk received that information in response to questions submitted to the Sheriff’s Office as part of the discovery process in the civil suit the Holyk family has filed against Deputy Joe Bodman and the Sheriff’s Office.

GU researchers’ antenna eases wireless network traffic jam
Dropped calls, unsent texts and badly buffered cat videos are no fun. But there’s a more serious side to overburdened wireless networks. They can wreak havoc during crises. Public safety radios have their own network, and cellphones have theirs. However, the two can interfere, especially during emergencies when the data load is increased by worried people contacting relatives or looking for news, said Steve Schennum, Gonzaga University electrical engineering professor. That’s why researchers at Gonzaga have developed antennas that manipulate the direction in which the radio waves they emit travel. “It allows you to cram more data into the airspace,” Schennum said.

Sex abuse charges against Joshua Dolezal dropped
Colorado prosecutors have dropped four counts of sexual abuse against Joshua Dolezal, the white biological brother of Rachel Dolezal, who last month left her post as president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP amid allegations she was lying about her race.

Teenage survivor of plane crash released from hospital
With her step-grandparents dead or dying in the burning wreckage of their small plane, 16-year-old Autumn Veatch needed to somehow find her way off the remote, thickly forested Washington mountainside where they crashed Saturday afternoon. Bruised by the impact, singed by the fire, fearing an explosion and knowing she couldn’t help the other victims, the girl did what she could: She headed down the steep slope, following a creek to a river. She spent a night on a sandbar, where she felt safer. She followed the river to a trail, and the trail to a highway. Two men driving by stopped and picked her up Monday afternoon, bringing her – about two full days after the crash – to the safety of a general store in Mazama. “She’s got an amazing story, and I hope she gets to tell it soon,” said Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers, who had interviewed Veatch and relayed details of her ordeal to the Associated Press. “It’s pretty impressive when you talk to her.” The teen was released from Three Rivers Hospital in Brewster on Tuesday evening.

In brief: Explosion injures people in Newport
Multiple people were injured Tuesday night in an explosion at an aerospace business in Newport, Washington, the Pend Oreille County sheriff’s dispatcher reported. Details were sketchy, but an explosion was reported about 9 p.m. at C and D Zodiac, also called Zodiac Aerospace, 501 N. Newport Ave. Multiple people were transported to Newport Hospital. One was airlifted to a hospital in Spokane.
Racist graffiti found on Tribes’ boat
Racist graffiti was scrawled on a fishing boat belonging to the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, the Tribal Tribune reported. Tribal employees arrived at the Dream Catcher on Tuesday morning to find “KKK” and “White Power” written on the front of the boat, according to the Tribune’s account. Some items were stolen and the line was cut to the purse seine, which is used to net fish, the tribal-owned newspaper reported. The Dream Catcher supports operations at the Chief Joseph Hatchery on the Columbia River near Bridgeport, Washington. The boat also is used for salmon fishing, with the catch distributed to tribal members.
Zoning move allows apartment complex
The Spokane County Commission on Tuesday gave the go-ahead to a controversial apartment complex near Wandermere Golf Course. The unanimous approval of a zoning change allowing Rudeen Development to build the complex came after the company and neighbors brokered their own, private agreement. The deal calls for a 310-unit complex, neighborhood approval of fencing, a tree buffer to be planted along Wandermere Road and limiting construction to after 7 a.m.
Governor signs education measures
Washington will delay class-size reductions from fourth grade through high school for four years and give high school seniors a two-year reprieve on the biology assessment test under bills signed Tuesday by Gov. Jay Inslee. The state will move forward on reducing the number of students in kindergarten through third grade, and a third bill signed provides some state money to help districts build some of the needed classrooms.
Man admits setting fire at business
A man pleaded guilty Tuesday to setting fire to a fledgling marijuana business in Spokane Valley last fall in what investigators are calling an insurance scam attempt. Pavel Shevchenko, 25, signed a plea agreement Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Spokane recommending a four-and-a-half-year prison sentence for his involvement in the blaze that scorched two units of a strip mall at 9827 E. Sprague Ave. on Sept. 27.
Murder suspects plead not guilty
Roy Murry, who is accused of killing three family members in May at a home in Colbert, and Richard Aguirre, who was linked through DNA evidence to a cold-case murder, entered not-guilty pleas Tuesday morning in Spokane County Superior Court.

Idaho court vacancy called ‘judicial emergency’
The nation’s federal courts have declared a “judicial emergency” in Idaho due to the vacancy in one of the state’s two U.S. district judge positions. The vacancy began when U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge took senior status on July 3 – with no replacement named. It’s one of 28 judicial emergencies currently in effect across the nation; it was declared Tuesday morning by the Judicial Conference of the U.S. Courts.

Pipeline agency criticized in aftermath of California oil spill
The federal agency that oversees the safety of the nation’s pipelines failed to follow through on congressional reforms that could have made a difference in a May break that created the largest coastal oil spill in California in 25 years, a House committee chairman said Tuesday. In a rare display of agreement on Capitol Hill, Republicans and Democrats on the Energy and Power Subcommittee expressed frustration with inaction by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, which has yet to complete more than a dozen requirements outlined in a 2011 federal law.

Honda settles discrimination claims
Honda reached a settlement Tuesday to resolve allegations that the company discriminated against minority car buyers by marking up interest rates on loans, a practice industry experts describe as common because of the discretion given to individual dealerships. Under the settlement, Honda is agreeing to pay $24 million to past victims of discriminatory lending and cap the interest-rate markups that dealers can charge to between 1 and 1.25 percentage points, depending on the length of the loan.

In brief: U.S. spending down in June at stores, restaurants
Americans cut back their spending at stores and restaurants last month, a sign that they remain cautious despite robust job growth in the past year. Retail sales fell 0.3 percent in June, the Commerce Department said Tuesday, the weakest showing since February’s harsh weather kept shoppers indoors.
Fake story on buyout sends Twitter stock up
Twitter’s stock briefly spiked on Tuesday after a fake story said the short messaging service received a $31 billion buyout offer. Although the hoax involves a knockoff news website set up by a secret owner targeting a social media company with a $24 billion market cap, experts said the events look like a modern twist on a stock scam as old as the markets themselves.
Woman sues Wal-mart over same-sex benefits
A woman from Massachusetts filed a class-action lawsuit Tuesday accusing Wal-Mart of wrongly denying employee benefits for same-sex spouses. Jacqueline Cote says Wal-Mart repeatedly denied medical insurance for her wife before 2014, when the retail giant started offering benefits for same-sex spouses. Wal-Mart issued a statement Tuesday noting it expanded benefits last year to include same-sex spouses and domestic partners. The Bentonville, Arkansas, company said its “benefits coverage previous to the 2014 update was consistent with the law.
Match Group acquires PlentyofFish site
The Match Group, the New York-based company that owns dating websites Match.com, OkCupid and Tinder, said Tuesday that it has purchased Vancouver-based dating website PlentyofFish for $575 million. Match Group CEO Sam Yagan said it was attracted to PlentyofFish’s consistent growth, and it plans to integrate the Canadian company’s mobile app into its existing family of digital and online dating services.

Investors hope high second-quarter earnings can lift market
After fretting over a Greek bailout, a collapse in Chinese stocks and the timing of an interest rate increase, investors are hoping U.S. corporate earnings will bring more reassuring news this month. Companies have started to report second-quarter results, and early announcements bode well for investors unnerved by worrisome headlines and a shaky U.S. stock market.

Air bag investigation grows
The problem of exploding air bags could be widening beyond Japanese manufacturer Takata Corp. U.S. safety regulators are investigating inflators made by ARC Automotive Inc. that went into about 420,000 older Chrysler Town and Country minivans and another 70,000 Kia Optima midsize sedans.

Shawn Vestal: Local psychologists had high-level backup for torture role

Doyle McManus: Aim for progress, not perfection in Syria

Editorial: Playing games with judges’ replacements does public an injustice

Lavender adds dimension, romance to summer lemonade
Lavender Lemonade
Lavender Butter
Lavender Sugar

Oma’s banana pancakes have dazzled two generations of the Kuney clan
Oma’s Banana Pancakes
Burrup

‘Chowderland’ New England dishes, sides sure to delight
Northwest Salmon Chowder with Leeks and Peas
Double Corn Summer Chowder

Masselow’s creates array of summery cocktails
Lake Country Tonic
Blueberry Bourbon Cocktail
Elderberry Mojito
Silk Road Lemonade
Blackberry Margarita
Strawberry Blonde
Angelica
Champagne Margarita

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from The Washington Examiner (DC)

Paul, Cruz, Jindal: Defund Planned Parenthood after 'sickening' fetal organ harvesting video

$360,000 to fly Michelle Obama, daughters, mom, to China

'Outfoxed': Early states seek to preempt Fox News debate
The New Hampshire Union Leader has partnered with major newspapers from Iowa and South Carolina to pre-empt Fox News' televised debate of GOP presidential candidates.

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from Zero Hedge

Santa Cruz County Votes To Cease Doing Business With 5 TBTF Mega Banks
The board ... voted to “not do new business for a period of five years with Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS as specified, and further direct that the County unwind existing relationships with these five banks to the greatest extent feasible."

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