Alaska Assistant District Attorney Fatally Shot

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FACEBOOK - New York Daily News

FACEBOOK – New York Daily News

A former Washington state legislator serving as an assistant district attorney in Alaska was shot and killed Monday night, authorities said.

Brian Sullivan, 48, was killed in a home at 5318 Laura Madison St. in Barrow at about 10 p.m., according to Kristine Hilderbrand, an assistant to Borough Mayor Charlotte Brower. Barrow is the northernmost community in the U.S.

An adult male suspect, whose name has not been released, has been taken into custody in the homicide investigation, North Slope Borough officials said. No charges were filed as of noon Tuesday.

Authorities have not released details of the crime or a motive.

Sullivan’s death may be the first time an Alaska state prosecutor has been killed in a homicide, according to KTUU-TV.

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Assistant District Attorney Brian Sullivan shot and killed in Barrow

By Jillian Rogers

A respected Barrow lawyer is dead following a shooting that took place in the North Slope community Monday night.

Assistant District Attorney Brian Sullivan, the father of three daughters, was shot and killed shortly before 10 p.m., the North Slope Borough confirmed Tuesday…

Sullivan was 48. Next of kin have been notified and the incident is being investigated as a homicide. Police have a suspect, an adult male, in custody.

Sullivan was a well-respected member of the community and a friend to many.

Further information will await a charging decision by the prosecutor’s office. As of Tuesday afternoon, the Alaska State Troopers were en route to Barrow to investigate at the request of acting North Slope Borough police chief Darryl Holman.

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WATCH: Navy's New Laser Gun in Action at Sea

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Screen Shot 2014-12-10 at 11.33.07 PMA new laser gun mounted on the USS Ponce has been operational for months in the Persian Gulf, and it has exceeded expectations as far as its range and durability, senior Navy officers said Wednesday.

The Navy calls it the LaWS, short for laser weapon system. It was installed on the Ponce over the summer, and deployed this fall. Video released by the service on Wednesday shows it taking out an incoming speedboat in a test at a long, undisclosed range with directed energy. No laser beam can be seen, but the boat bursts into flames.

“It’s almost like a Hubble telescope at sea,” said Rear Adm. Matthew L. Klunder, the Navy’s chief of naval research. “Literally, we’re able to get that kind of power and magnification.”

The USS Ponce conducts tests of the Office of Naval Research-funded Laser Weapons System (LaWS) while in the Persian Gulf on Nov. 14. Directed energy weapons can counter asymmetric threats, including unmanned and light aircraft and small attack boats. (John F. Williams/U.S. Navy)

The weapon has been in development for years. In a 2011 test, a laser was used to take out multiple small boats from a U.S. destroyer. In 2012, the LaWS downed seeral downed aircraft, Navy officials said.

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Hagel Stumped By Soldiers Question…

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Defense secretary Chuck Hagel was stumped by an Army staff sergeant who asked him for an assurance that the security situation in Afghanistan wouldn’t deteriorate after the withdrawal of American forces the way broad areas of Iraq succumbed to the Islamic State.

“In the end each country must take the responsibility for their own futures and for their own fate and for governing themselves,” Hagel replied.

The outgoing Pentagon chief insisted that Iraq and Afghanistan are “more different” than they are alike, although he noted some troubling similarities.

“But yes, some similar threats: terrorism,” he said. “Some of the same factors, some of the same organizations that wanted to do everything they can to destroy the United States as well as Western values and Western civilization. So there are common interests. There are common challenges. But how we work and cooperate with other countries is always — is always a little different. And I think that in this case that’s the case.”

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WATCH – Hannity: Boehner 'Grubered' Conservatives with Cromnibus

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Credit - Fox News

Credit – Fox News

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives — driven forward by arm-twisting, deal-making Speaker John Boehner — narrowly passed a massive government spending bill late Thursday and sent the measure to the Senate for final approval.

By a vote of 219-206, the House okayed the $1.1 trillion measure after Boehner and company cobbled together enough votes — Republican and Democrat — to avoid a possible government shutdown with only hours to spare.

A number of conservative Republicans are angry with Speaker Boehner, who they feel essentially broke trust with the voters by giving the president and his Democrat allies what they need to keep ObamaCare going and to move forward with Obama’s executive actions on amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants.

Among those thoroughly ticked off at Boehner is Fox News host Sean Hannity. On his show Thursday, Hannity blasted Boehner, saying that he is “everything that is wrong with Washington.”

Hannity went on to say that Boehner should not be Speaker of the House and “should be replaced.”

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Cromnibus Chock-Full of Special Interest Give-a-Ways

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Credit - Washington Examiner

Credit – Washington Examiner

Both Left and Right rebelled Thursday afternoon against the “Cromnibus” — the combination continuing resolution/omnibus appropriations bill.

The problem wasn’t the spending levels, it was the non-spending items stuck into the must-pass bill without proper debate. Cromnibus was a fruit basket of special-interest provisions that K Street had been requesting for years.

If you read to the very end of the bill — page 1,602 of 1,603 — you would find a section titled “Modification of Treatment of Certain Health Organizations.”

This provision would provide protection from an Obamacare provision for exactly one entity: Blue Cross Blue Shield. Conservative writer Yuval Levin explained:

“This section is, simply put, a special favor for Blue Cross/Blue Shield allowing them to count ‘quality improvement’ spending as part of the medical loss ratio calculation required of them under Obamacare. And it’s made retroactive for four years, saving them loads of money.”

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The Coming Liberal Civil War

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Screen Shot 2014-12-13 at 2.16.20 AM“Even as they publicly condemn Tea Party Republicans as hostage-taking legislative thugs, the truth is that some Democrats are quietly jealous of them,” wrote Bill Scher at Politico Magazine Monday. “Think of it,” he continued, “The Tea Party gang gets to intimidate party leaders, threaten legislation, block nominees, shut down the government and default on the debt if they don’t get their way. They cause major trouble.”

That was just a few days ago. Since then, Scher’s article has only proven more prescient as liberal Sen. Elizabeth Warren (as the Boston Herald writes) ”turned her guns on her own party — targeting even her top ally, President Obama.”

The Herald is, of course, referring to the populist revolt launched against a budget package supported by President Barack Obama and the Republican leadership — a rebellion which could trigger a government shutdown. (For what it’s worth, Warren may have some legitimate concerns about derivatives.)

The larger question is whether or not this is a harbinger of things to come. And most people I talk to tend to believe it is. On one hand, I’m surprised to see this development. Democrats have looked mature and disciplined these last few years, especially compared to the divided Republicans. Why mess with a winning formula?

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Is Obama Secretly Working to Replace the Israeli PM?

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Credit - Jerusalem Post

Credit – Jerusalem Post

A dispassionate look at the sequence of events shows that the Obama administration has generated an unprecedented crisis in US-Israeli relations.

Nurtured in the Saul Alinsky-style, ACORN-esque tactics of organizing revolution under the banner of “social change,” Barack Obama, as a young community organizer in Chicago in the 1980s understood early on the importance of a crisis and how to ride the waves of an emergency to effect the fundamental transformation of society.

As the nation’s chief executive, President Obama has demonstrated a particular specialty in the use and perpetuation of crises to push through policies that the public otherwise might not willingly accept, including the wildly unpopular healthcare law, immigration reform, and the first-term “stimulus” legislation. It is therefore unsurprising to detect the international export of the Obama’s “crisis” game plan to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A dispassionate look at the sequence of events shows that the Obama administration has generated an unprecedented crisis in US-Israeli relations, a crisis utilized at every twist and turn by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political rivals, most notably those within his coalition, to try to shake up the country’s leadership. There is more than a hint of White House interference in helping to agitate the coalition drama that provoked Netanyahu’s hesitant decision last Tuesday to dissolve parliament and schedule early elections that could potentially see the prime minister unseated.

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Michigan Lawmakers Propose Drug Screening for Welfare Recipients

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Credit - Western Journalism

Credit – Western Journalism

Following a 26 to 10 vote, the Republican-led Michigan state Senate is presenting Gov. Rick Snyder (pictured above) with a bill that would require certain welfare recipients to submit to drug screening. The program described in this proposed legislation would be enacted on a limited scale in as few as three counties and would only affect recipients suspected of abusing drugs.

Under the guidelines submitted to Snyder for approval, anyone whose tests show the presence of illegal drugs – or who refuses to submit to the test – would automatically be denied welfare for six months or more. After multiple positive results, individuals could become ineligible for benefits; however, they could petition for reinstatement upon a future negative screening.

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Illegal Immigrants Flocking to Amnesty Workshops at Churches, Islamic Centers from Coast to Coast

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Credit - Breitbart

Credit – Breitbart

From coast to coast, illegal immigrants are reportedly flocking to community centers, churches, and Islamic centers to see if they will qualify for President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty.

According to an Associated Press report, recent workshops for illegal immigrants have been held “at a high school in Knoxville, Tennessee, a church in Goshen, Indiana, and an Islamic Center in New York City.” In addition, events have been held throughout California and Seattle.

As many as 10,000 illegal immigrants could show up to an event at Los Angeles’s convention center on Sunday.

Eben Cathey of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition told the outlet that “every time we do an information session, it is full.”

Immigration advocates are also warning illegal immigrants to avoid various fraudulent schemes associated with Obama’s executive amnesty, like groups charging illegal immigrants exorbitant fees to fill out applications.

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Widow Places Diamond Engagement Ring in Salvation Army Kettle to Honor Late Husband

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Credit - AP

Credit – AP

BOSTON – The Salvation Army found an unusual surprise inside one of its red donation kettles: a diamond engagement ring given by a widow in honor of her late husband.

The charity said Monday the anonymous benefactor placed the diamond ring — valued at $1,850 — and her wedding band in one of the kettles placed outside Boston’s North Station last week.

It says the rings were accompanied by a note in which the woman said she hoped they would be sold and the money used to buy toys for needy children. She said her husband always had a giving spirit — especially at Christmastime.

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