HUD Official Pleads Guilty To Stealing $843,000 In Taxpayer Funds

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Photo Credit: Daily CallerFormer Housing and Urban Development loan specialist Brian Thompson pleaded guilty Thursday to stealing $843,000 of taxpayer money in a wire fraud scheme.

Thompson was responsible for selling properties acquired by the government after borrowers defaulted on their HUD-guaranteed mortgages. Specialists like Thompson were tasked with ensuring the sale of these properties at the best possible price to reimburse the government for taxpayer funds made to mortgage lenders for insured loans. Instead, he funneled portions of the proceeds into bank accounts he controlled, netting himself $843,000 in the process.

Thompson scheme went undetected for nearly a year. To conceal his fraud, he fabricated settlement documents with false sales prices and even buyer names.

“Brian Thompson exploited his government job to rob the American taxpayer of more than $800,000,” said U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen. “This crooked HUD employee diverted the proceeds of real estate sales from the U.S. Treasury to his own pockets through lies and trickery. He now faces serious prison time as a result of criminal breach of the public trust.”

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Obama To Questioner On Rising Health Costs: You’re Doing It Wrong

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Photo Credit: Daily CallerWhen a company manager asked President Obama about his company’s rising health care costs on Friday, Obama’s first response was to blame the company.

Speaking at Millennium Steel Services in Princeton, Indiana, the president said that if the company’s health insurance costs were still rising, the management simply isn’t “shopping” correctly.

“We are seeing almost a double-digit increase in health-care costs every year,” Millennium Steel general manager Mihir Paranjape told President Obama. “Do you think that trend is going to go down, and what can we do to control that trend?”

“I think that’s really interesting, you’re gonna have to talk to Henry,” Obama replied, referring to Henry Jackson, Millennium Steel’s CEO. “No, no, no, this is serious,” he continued, when several audience members laughed, “The question is whether you guys are shopping effectively enough.”

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U.S. Soldiers in “War” with ISIS Not Eligible for Medals?

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With 1,600 military “advisers” on the ground in Iraq, 2,300 of our troops being deployed to the Middle East as a “special purpose marine air ground task force,” and ongoing airstrikes being conducted in Iraq and Syria against ISIS’s jihadist army, it is absolutely stunning that our military personnel are NOT eligible for certain military medals.

Why? Because the Obama Administration refuses to call our fight against ISIS terror a military campaign.

It’s not only outrageous; it’s insulting to the brave men and women our Commander-in-Chief has put in harm’s way, has sent into a war zone, to defend freedom.

Make no mistake; ISIS is at war with America. They are slaughtering Christians. They have amassed huge wealth and sophisticated weapons. They are a jihadist army.

To tell those who we’ve tasked with defeating them – and President Obama told the American people that’s what we are going to do – that they can’t receive commendation medals in this fight is preposterous.

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Toll Worker: Boss Told Me Not to Say 'God Bless You'

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsA former New Jersey toll booth worker said she was told by her supervisor to stop saying “God bless you,” because it might offend motorists.

Cynthia Fernandez has filed a lawsuit against the Garden State Parkway claiming her former boss violated her First Amendment rights.

“I was so upset, I was crying” the mother of three told me. “There’s nothing wrong with saying ‘God bless you.’”

From day one she had always greeted motorists with a smile and a “God bless.”

A few weeks ago she was meeting with her supervisor when he laid down the law on her toll booth language.

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Abortionist Admits: “Of Course We Know It’s Killing” Babies

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Photo Credit: LifeNewsBy Sarah Terzo.

Abortionist Neville Sender was quoted saying:

“Of course we know it’s killing, but the state permits killing in certain circumstances.”

Monica Migliorino Miller Abandoned: the Untold Story of the Abortion Wars (Charlotte, North Carolina: St. Benedict Press, 2012) 183

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: LifeNewsThese Premature Babies Survived, So Why Is it Okay to Kill Them in an Abortion?

By Sarah Zagorski.

According to the Office for National Statistics, 80% of babies born extremely premature will survive. Professor Neil Marlow, a consultant neonatologistat University College London Hospital said, “We found that babies born at 27, 28, 29 weeks, which had really high mortality rates when I was doing the first study, are now doing well and living normal lives.”

The Telegraph shares more:

In 1974 the outlook for a baby born before 26 weeks – two thirds of the way through a normal pregnancy – was poor. ‘They almost certainly wouldn’t have survived,’ Dr Mike Smith, a paediatric consultant who started working with premature babies that year, says.

Before 1995 evidence about the survival and care of premature babies was – like this – largely anecdotal. Then a groundbreaking study called EPICure recorded all births in the UK between 20 and 25 weeks, six days. Out of 4,001 births, the first EPICure study (another study took place in 2006 and the latest, following the original children, now aged 19, is due to be finished next year) found that 311 babies survived and were eventually discharged, including two babies born at 22 weeks, six at 23 weeks, 100 at 24 weeks and 186 babies at 25. The study concluded that babies born before 24 weeks who survived were still ‘unusual’.

But now, thanks to medical advances, more and more micropreemies, that is babies born before 26 weeks, survive. The Telegraph shared that from the 1970s to the 1990s doctors typically would not treat a baby born before 23-24 weeks. Sometimes they would ventilate the baby, but otherwise the baby was left alone. The medical problems these babies faced included everything from unformed lungs to a damaged brain to tissue, but these issues are no longer considered “untreatable. ”

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: ReutersAppeals court allows Texas to begin enforcing tough new abortion restrictions

By AP.

A federal appeals court Thursday gave Texas permission to fully enforce a sweeping abortion law signed by Republican Gov. Rick Perry last year that would effectively close all but seven abortion facilities in America’s second-most populous state.

Two years ago, Texas had more than 40 abortion facilities. Many clinics have already closed under a part of the law requiring doctors who perform abortions to obtain hospital admitting privileges, and now more than a dozen remaining clinics are set to shutter as well.

The decision by a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court in New Orleans wipes out what was a fleeting victory for abortion rights groups — a lower court in August blocking requirements of the law that say clinics must meet hospital-level operating standards to stay in business.

The ruling is only a stay pending a full appeal, but the court wrote that Texas is likely to prevail. If it does, the clinics would have to make costly upgrades to meet the new standards and reopen.

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Judicial Watch Sues DHS For Information Surrounding Release of 36,000 Criminal Aliens

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Photo Credit: TownHallBy Katie Pavlich.

Government watchdog Judicial Watch has filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security for information surrounding the release of 36,000 criminal aliens into American communities earlier this year. The lawsuit comes after DHS officials failed to respond to a May 15, 2014 FOIA request in the amount of time required by law.

In the lawsuit, Judicial Watch is seeking “Any and all records of communications including, but not limited to, emails and memoranda, to or from personnel in the office of the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (including its component offices, such as the Office of Public Affairs), from May 1 to May 15, 2014, concerning, regarding, or related to the report published by the Center for Immigrations Studies concerning the release of 36,000 criminal aliens.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: GettyGOP Chairman Touts Immigration For Economy, Sidelines Obama’s Amnesty

By Neil Munro.

Republican Party chairman Reince Priebus outlined a November immigration platform that emphasized the contribution of immigrants to economic growth, but downplayed opposition to President Barack Obama’s immigration-boosting actions.

“We need to make sure America remains a place where people aspire to work and dream and live,” Priebus said in a morning speech in Washington D.C. “Our country should be a welcoming place for those who want to come here and do it the right way,” he said in a speech that was intended to offer a GOP alternative to Obama’s policies.

But GOP populists pushed back, saying Priebus is not sufficiently anti-amnesty.

“The elephant in the room is amnesty for illegal immigrants, and if the Republicans fail to take a strong stand against it, they will squander an opportunity and continue to lose elections,” warned Jenny Beth Martin, head of the Tea Party Patriots, in a press statement.

“Americans oppose amnesty, and it is a winning issue for conservatives,” she said, and added a sharp warning to Priebus.

Read more from this story HERE.

Mark Levin Calls for Investigation into Obama Intel Briefings

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Photo Credit: White HouseBy Wynton Hall.

On Tuesday, conservative radio talk show host Mark Levin called for an investigation into the contents of President Barack Obama’s daily intelligence briefings that warned of the Islamic State’s (ISIS) rise years ago–a claim substantiated by Obama’s own national security staff in comments to the Daily Mail.

“He was aware of all of it, if he had read his intelligence briefings,” said Levin. “He is the commander-in-chief. The reason they put together that daily intelligence briefing–Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and sometimes two or three times a day, depending–is so he’ll read it. That’s the least he can do, because most presidents, all previous presidents, have had it explained to them, so they can ask questions right there on the spot and interact. But not Obama.”

Levin said an investigation is needed to find out “what Obama knew and when he knew it” about the Islamic State’s rise to power.

Read more from this story HERE.
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Photo Credit: Mark Levin: ‘Have You Noticed Nothing Really Works Under This President?’

By Susan Jones.

“[H]ave you noticed really works under this president, from the Secret Service to immigration to the economy?” conservative talk-radio host Mark Levin asked Fox News’s Sean Hannity Wednesday night.

“Is there anything this president, from your perspective, has done well?” Hannity asked Levin.

“No. There’s not a thing he’s done well,” Levin replied. “And here’s the problem, Sean. People who support big government, centralized government, liberalism — well, congratulations, you have it. And it’s an absolute disaster.

“And here’s what’s remarkable to me. He doesn’t go back and actually look at something, have some circumspection, say, You know, we’re going to fix Obamacare. Let’s pull back. Maybe we bit off more than we can chew. It’s full speed ahead, the foot on the gas pedal.

Read more from this story HERE.

Rand Paul: ‘Can You Imagine If A Whole Ship Full Of Our Soldiers Catch Ebola?’

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Photo Credit: Richard Ellis / GettySen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is questioning President Barack Obama’s decision to send 3,000 U.S. military personnel to West Africa to help combat Ebola, worrying that troops might contract the virus.

Speaking to “The Laura Ingraham Show” Wednesday about the first case of Ebola inside the U.S., the potential 2016 presidential contender stated it has to be a concern about having thousands of soldiers on the same ship who could have been in contact with the deadly virus.

“You also have to be concerned about 3,000 soldiers getting back on a ship. Where is disease most transmittable? When you’re in a very close confines on a ship, we all know about cruises and how they get these diarrhea viruses that are transmitted very easily,” Paul told Ingraham. “Can you imagine if a whole ship full of our soldiers catch Ebola?’

Paul said he felt “political correctness” is getting in the way of government officials making sound decisions to deal with the Ebola threat.

“I really think that it is being dominated by political correctness and I think because of political correctness we’re not really making sound, rational, scientific decisions on this,” Paul noted.

Read more from this story HERE.

Iraqi Vicar: No Communion in Nineveh this Week for First Time in 2,000 Years

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Photo Credit: Reuters The Islamic State’s goal of eradicating Christianity from its ancient home in northern Iraq is nearly complete, report Christian officials remaining in the area. According to one Vicar, last week marked the first time in millennia that Christians did not receive Holy Communion in Nineveh, northern Iraq.

As the Telegraph reports, Canon Andrew White, the only Anglican Vicar remaining in Iraq, reported that Communion did not take place in Nineveh this year. “All [churches] are closed, all their people have run away.” Canon White noted that the few Iraqis remaining in the region are there due to poverty or immobility, and that those remaining fear for their lives constantly.

He added that many in the area expressed concern over the possibility of airstrikes on the region, citing the possibility of civilian casualties. “From the Iraqi point of view, the only way we can gain some kind of real safety and real removal of the Islamic State, as they call themselves, would be by having troops on the ground,” he noted. President Obama has categorically refused to entertain the option of ground troops in Iraq during this operation.

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Michelle Obama Tells Students to Stop Rebelling Against Her… Says “Change is Hard”

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Photo Credit: WisPolitics.com / Creative CommonsFirst Lady Michelle Obama has a simple message for students across the nation who don’t like her school lunch program: “Don’t be mad.”

Obama said during a recent interview cited by The Hill that she understood a certain amount of “grumbling” because “change is hard” (H/T WZ).

The first lady’s signature Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act has limited the amount of calories, fat, salt, and other ingredients in foods served to students in school breakfasts and lunches. This year, additional regulations covering vending machines took effect.

The report said that Obama thought children would enjoy “vegetables that have a little flavor, sweetness.” Examples given were broccoli, celery, and carrots.

Ah, yes … the sweet savor of broccoli. It’s almost enough to put one into a diabetic coma, just thinking about it.

Read more from this story HERE.