Calls for Judge to Resign After She Released Man Who Allegedly Threatened to Kill Cops

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judge-gangbangerBy Josh Saul and Jamie Schram. A Brooklyn judge cut loose a gang member who had posted online threats to gun down cops in the hours after two NYPD officers were executed in their patrol car — ignoring prosecutors’ pleas to keep him behind bars, The Post has learned.

Criminal Court Judge Laura Johnson let Devon Coley, 18, waltz free without bail despite the fact that he faces seven years behind bars on charges he made a terroristic threat — complete with an image of a killer shooting cops in their car — and is awaiting trial in two unrelated cases involving assault and gun possession.

Johnson’s stunning no-bail decision came just two days after Saturday’s broad-daylight slayings of Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu by a gunman bent on avenging the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown at the hands of police.

It also came after Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plea earlier Monday for New Yorkers to “call 911” if they suspect someone is planning to attack the NYPD.

“She should resign from the bench,” said Dennis Quirk, head of the state court officers union. “She’s not fit to be a judge.” Read more about the pressure on this judge to resign HERE.
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After NYC Deaths, a Surge of Support for Police

By David Crary. Rocker Jon Bon Jovi donned a New York Police Department T-shirt on stage. Well-wishers delivered home-baked cookies by the hundreds to police in Cincinnati. In Mooresville, North Carolina, police and sheriff’s officers were treated by residents to a chili dinner.

At a time when many in the nation’s police community feel embattled, Americans in cities and towns across the country are making an effort to express support and gratitude.

“I’m showing a little solidarity for my brothers in the NYPD and all of those who protect and serve us every day,” Bon Jovi told a cheering crowd at his concert Monday in Red Bank, New Jersey.

The surge of support is linked to two distinct but overlapping developments.

The immediate catalyst was the killings of two New York City police officers as they sat in their patrol car in Brooklyn on Saturday. For many of those making appreciative gestures, there also was a desire to counter the widespread protests steeped with criticism of police that followed grand jury decisions not to charge white officers for their roles in the deaths of black men Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York. Read more from this story HERE.
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JetBlue Offering Free Flights to Cops Wishing to Attend NYPD Officers’ Funerals

By Daniel Prendergast and Natasha Velez. JetBlue airlines said Wednesday it will be offering free flights to police officers from around the country who wish to attend the funerals for the two slain NYPD cops killed over the weekend.

The airline said it will allow up to two cops from each department to fly at no charge from anywhere across its route network to New York City.

“We’re honored to do what we can to support the communities we serve, and our team has made flights available to law enforcement agencies … who wish to send representatives to New York to support their brethren,” said JetBlue spokeswoman Sharon Jones. Read more from this story HERE.

After 70% of Illegal Alien Families Fail to Show for Hearings, Feds Plan to Track Them with GPS

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Ankle BraceletThe Department of Homeland Security will reportedly track more illegal immigrants with GPS devices because a whopping 70% of illegal immigrants who traveled to America as a family unit failed to show up to their immigration hearings.

This summer, illegal immigrants from Central America flooded across the border, believing that “notices to appear” that illegal immigrants receive after being released were “permisos” to remain indefinitely in America. . .

According to an Associated Press report, as a result, “Immigration and Customs Enforcement earlier this month launched a program to give GPS devices to some parents caught crossing the Mexican border illegally with their children in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley.” The program will reportedly track 250 “heads of households” with GPS ankle bracelets.

Read more about tracking illegal alien families with GPS HERE.

Video: Tylenol Attempts to Normalize Four-Parent, Lesbian Family

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Lesbian FamilyAmong the individuals featured in the [Tylenol Pain Reliever’s] “For What Matters Most” video series is the Beser Carr Schneider Musich family, a mixed unit that is comprised of a four parents, including a lesbian couple, the ex-husband of one of those women and another individual.

The two-minute clip, which offers a modernized, re-imagination of Norman Rockwell’s famed “Freedom From Want” painting, describes how the Beser Carr Schneider Musich family formed, while also showing the four adults and their children seated together around the Thanksgiving table.

“[My husband] and I were married for 10 years. We’ve known each other since we were 12,” one of the mothers proclaims in the clip. “When we divorced we had Cole and Elias and we decided that they should never be divided between the households.”

Her partner then explains that the two women met while the husband and wife were separated and began dating with the husband’s blessing. After the divorce, the lesbian couple, the ex-husband and another adult essentially became a mixed family that tries to parent together.

Read more about the lesbian family portrayed in the Tylenol video HERE.

Must Watch: Ultra HD Video Shows Extraordinary Images of Earth from Space

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ESAWatch Earth roll by through the perspective of ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst in this six-minute timelapse video from space. Combining 12,500 images taken by Alexander during his six-month Blue Dot mission on the International Space Station, this Ultra High Definition video shows the best our beautiful planet has to offer.

Marvel at the auroras, sunrises, clouds, stars, oceans, the Milky Way, the International Space Station, lightning, cities at night, spacecraft and the thin band of atmosphere that protects us from space.

Often while conducting scientific experiments or docking spacecraft Alexander would set cameras to automatically take pictures at regular intervals. Combining these images gives the timelapse effect seen in this video.

Obamacare Taxpayer Funded Insurance Company Insolvent

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Don't Tread On ObamacareAn Obamacare-created and taxpayer-funded insurance company in Iowa has been taken over by the state due to a financial crisis.

CoOportunity Health is Iowa’s insurance cooperative — a nonprofit insurance company created by the Affordable Care Act to supposedly undercut the large, for-profit insurers that Democrats castigated as “greedy” and “evil” during the debate over health care reform.

After just beginning to offer plans in 2013, the company’s already insolvent and has now been taken over by the state of Iowa, insurance commissioner Nick Gerhart announced Wednesday. CoOpportunity doesn’t have enough cash on hand to be sure it can pay claims for its 120,000 customers, if necessary. The company has only $17 million in cash and assets, Gerhart said.

The federal government’s Obamacare administrator the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services initially gave CoOportunity a $112 million loan award in Feb. 2012, but doled out an additional $32.7 million emergency award to keep the company solvent in September of this year.

That wasn’t enough to keep it in business. CoOpportunity’s management expected to receive more federal money than they did, putting them in continuing financial peril.

Read more about how this Obamacare taxpayer funded insurance company went insolvent HERE.

Obama Admin. Publishes Over a Thousand New Regs During Holidays

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Photo Credit: White House

Photo Credit: White House

The Obama administration is cramming like a college student trying to study for a final exam, publishing more than 1,200 new regulations in the last 15 days alone, according to data from Regulations.gov.

Energy and environment rules are the biggest category, with 139 published by the federal government in the last 15 days, according to Regulations.gov.

One of the most contentious new regulations is the EPA’s coal ash rule. The rule has been criticized by the coal industry and environmental groups — though for entirely different reasons — and has a price tag of up to $20.3 billion. The rule was finalized last Friday.

Before that, the Obama administration finalized a new ozone standard that could become the costliest rule ever proposed by the EPA. The EPA released the rule while millions of Americans were getting ready to eat some turkey and pie for Thanksgiving.

Regulations listed on Regulations.gov include “Notices from the Federal Register; Proposed Rules; Final Rules.” The government website shows that 309 rules were proposed or finalized in the last 15 days and 892 notices from the federal register were received — some of which could lead to new rulemakings.

Read more about Obama’s new regs HERE.

Asia Marks 10th Anniversary of Worst Natural Disaster in Modern History

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tsunamiBeachside memorials and religious services were held across Asia on Friday to mark the 10th anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami that left more than a quarter million people dead in one of modern history’s worst natural disasters.

The devastating Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami struck a dozen countries around the Indian Ocean rim. It eradicated entire coastal communities, decimated families and crashed over tourist-filled beaches the morning after Christmas. Survivors waded through a horror show of corpse-filled waters . . .

The disaster was triggered by a 9.1-magnitude earthquake, the region’s most powerful in 40 years, that tore open the seabed bed off of Indonesia’s Sumatran coast, displacing billions of tons of water and sending waves roaring across the Indian Ocean at jetliner speeds as far away as East Africa. . .

More than 160,000 people died in Indonesia, more than half of the total 230,000 people killed across the region. . .

In Sri Lanka, the water swept a passenger train from its tracks, killing nearly 2,000 people in a single blow. A symbolic recreation of the train journey was planned as part of Friday’s ceremonies.

Read more from this story HERE.

Unexpected Christmas Miracles

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Christmas WWIIDad used to tell us his favorite Christmas story. In the boiling Pacific of World War II, Dad was on USS Cleveland and saw the intensity of naval warfare at places such as Midway, Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal and Manila.

On Christmas Eve, 1944, the men got good news: A priest would come aboard for Midnight Mass! Dad would recall how they sure needed the “good news” of the birth of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, during those clashing days.

But, when the priest arrived for Mass, the hundreds of gathered, expectant sailors began to growl, “He’s a Jap!” (to use the politically incorrect word of that time).

Dad would tell us that, although they would later learn he was actually a Filipino priest, the understandable hostility of the war still led the men to grumble, as they wondered about the worthiness of this “Oriental” (to use another outdated term) to offer Mass. . .

But . . . then came “O Come All Ye Faithful”; then came the sign of the cross; then the gospel of the first Christmas, and the suspect priest’s simple and sincere sermon of love for family at home and longing for peace on earth and sea; then came prayer and Holy Communion; finally came the priest’s blessing and “Silent Night,” with men crying and hugging, and the “Jap priest” cheered and engulfed with affection as he left the ship to visit another awaiting congregation.

Prejudice, hatred, suspicion and antagonism were changed into love, acceptance and joy on USS Cleveland. That’s the miracle of Christmas!

Read more from this story HERE.

Merry Christmas from Joe and Kathleen Miller!

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Watch Joe and Kathleen Miller in their timeless Christmas message. Merry Christmas to you and yours as you remember the Reason for the Season!

Defiant Christians Gather in Baghdad for Christmas Mass

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Iraqi Christmas EveBy Saif Hameed. Baghdad’s embattled Christian community worshipped defiantly Wednesday night at Christmas Eve mass.

The pews filled at Baghdad’s Sacred Heart church, as people remembered the darkest year in memory.

Blast walls shielded the church and seven policeman flanked the outside of the house of worship, in an indication of the government’s fear of an attack on the religious groups by jihadists who consider them non-believers.

The congregation sang in unison: “Praise Jesus, our Lord. Oh praise him” as incense burnt in the darkened church. Read more from this story HERE.

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In Iraq, displaced but defiant Christians gather for a somber Christmas

By Molly Hennessey Fiske. The children awoke the day before Christmas behind blast walls and armed guards, in a dingy Syrian Catholic schoolhouse strung with clotheslines. Their families have been cooking on hot plates and sleeping on pallets there in recent months, forced from their homes in northern Iraq by Islamic State militants.

They took turns showering in the communal bathroom, dressed in donated clothes and prepared to meet Santa.

This year, there would be no big holiday parties at Our Lady of Salvation, a local landmark topped by a towering cross that’s visible for miles. Christians are leaving Iraq, the population down from more than 1 million a decade ago to about 350,000, many of them displaced.

In the north, Islamic State fighters have forced thousands to flee. In Baghdad, where the security situation is still so tenuous that priests worried that celebrations could provoke an attack. Last Christmas, three bombings targeted Christians, including a Roman Catholic church, and killed 38 people.

Shortly before the 6 p.m. Christmas Eve service, the children and their families filed out of the school past concrete barriers topped with barbed wire and into the packed church for several hours of singing and prayer, the highlight of their day, hoping the strangers they met meant them no harm. Read more from this story HERE.
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Traditions of Christmas Found Only in Memory

By Tim Arango. For months now, since militants of the Islamic State stormed her hometown, Qaraqosh, in northern Iraq, near Mosul, and began killing and driving out Christians, home for Miriam and dozens of her old neighbors has been the run-down Al Makasid Primary School in Baghdad. To get by, they have relied on the kindnesses of the nearby church, and of local Muslims, too.

In the school’s dingy courtyard there is a tree, trimmed in balls and bells, and a Nativity scene. A few gifts have been donated — toys, clothes, dolls and candies. It is not much, and nothing like being at home, but Christmas has not been the same in Iraq for a long time now.

Two numbers tell that story. In 2003, when the Americans invaded, there were an estimated 1.5 million Christians living in Iraq. Today, experts say, there are fewer than 400,000, many of them on the run from the Islamic State. Read more from this story HERE.