CIA Says it was flying UFOs and Takes Responsibility for UFO Sightings for Decades (+video)

1004530-6-20141230101401-cia-all-those-1950s-ufo-sightings-it-was-usThe CIA tweeted a link this past week to a document that referenced its spy plane program from 1954 through 1974 and correlated flights of its spy planes with public UFO reports. Newsweek reports:

Through the program, the CIA secretly flew U-2 spy planes at altitudes of 60,000 feet above target countries, like the Soviet Union. At the time, most commercial flights flew between 10,000 and 20,000 feet, and military aircrafts flew below 40,000 feet. Most people thought man couldn’t reach such heights and assumed alien life was behind the mysterious objects in the sky.

“Consequently, once U-2s started flying at altitudes above 60,000 feet, air-traffic controllers began receiving increasing numbers of UFO reports,” the document reads.

The CIA cross-referenced UFO sightings and U-2 flight logs, which “enabled the investigators to eliminate the majority of the UFO reports” the document reads. But the agency never revealed to the terrified people the truth behind the mysterious flying objects, until this year. Instead, investigators from Project BLUE BOOK, the Air Force program tasked with investigating UFO reports, attempted to attribute the sightings to natural phenomena.

The report was part of a series of documents that were declassified in 2013, along with those that detailed the existence of Area 51 in Nevada.

(Read more from this story about the “flying UFOs” HERE).

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No UFOs Or Drones – Mysterious Lights Over Dallas Solved

By CBS Local. There was lots of interest after some saw strange lights in the North Texas sky. Rumors pegged them as a UFO. And while they weren’t alien — they were illegal.

The culprit in this case – sky lanterns. You’ve probably seen the small, hot air balloon-like, paper lanterns being lifted high into the air by a small fire at the bottom.

A lot of cities have banned the floating lanterns, so when they show up in the sky many people don’t know what they’re seeing.

Islam Sesalem said, “It’s kind of funny. I didn’t know it was gonna get that kind of reaction.”

Sesalem says he organized the release of 37 Chinese sky lanterns. “The last couple years we set off balloons. This year I thought we’d do something different.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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Multi-Platinum Superstar Rapper Nicki Minaj: My Abortion has Haunted Me All My Life

Photo Credit: The Daily Signal

Photo Credit: The Daily Signal

By Philip Wegmann. In a new interview with Rolling Stone, rapper Nicki Minaj openly discussed her decision to have an abortion, a choice that she says has “haunted me all my life.”

While attending the prestigious LaGuardia Performing Arts High School in New York and dating an older man from Queens, Minaj discovered she was pregnant. “I was a teenager,” Minaj says. “I thought I was going to die”. . .

In “The Pinkprint,” an album critics have called her most personal work yet, Minaj raps about the decision. On the track “All Things Go,” she mourns that “my child with Aaron would’ve been 16 any minute”. . .

Through emotion-driven rhymes, she raps, “Please baby forgive me, mommy was young, mommy was too busy trying to have fun,” and sings, “Wish I could touch your little face or just hold your little hand; if it’s part of God’s plan, maybe we can meet again.” (Read more about Nicki Minaj saying, “My abortion has haunted me all my life” HERE)

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What the Battle Over Abortion Will Look Like in 2015

By Tierney Sneed. The recent surge in abortion laws — more were enacted between 2011 and 2013 than in the previous decade — met both success and defeat in court challenges in 2014. That fight over women’s access to abortion likely will continue in the months to come, as both houses of U.S. Congress will be Republican-led, as will even more state houses. What issues will be at the battle lines?

Ten states have laws in place banning abortion after 20 weeks; Nebraska was the first to pass theirs, in 2010. . .

As litigation continues, there is reason believe that Congress — with both houses led by Republicans — may also consider a federal ban on abortions performed after the 20th week of pregnancy. The House passed a 20-week ban in 2013, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., refused to bring the Senate version to the floor. At a National Right to Life Conference in July, Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R.-Ky.​, who will take over for Reid come January, promised to revive the legislation. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Fireworks Stand Worker Shoots Robber

Photo Credit: Scott Olson / Getty

Photo Credit: Scott Olson / Getty

By Samantha Ptashkin. An employee at a fireworks stand turned the tables on a couple of crooks, after they try to rob his shop. . .

According to investigators, at around 10pm two men pulled up to the fireworks stand in a green Ford Mustang. One of the guys got out of the vehicle, approached the clerk, then pointed a gun at him and demanded cash.

“They told him we want the money and he tried to talk him out of it, so he said ‘I have to go to this little room and get the money’,” said Richard Treichel, who owns the fireworks stand.

At that point the employee grabbed his own gun and started firing at the crook. He was shot in the face, wrist and back, then rushed to the hospital via Life Flight in critical condition,

The employee was not injured. “I’m just very glad he didn’t get hurt,” Treichel said. “He’s a nice guy and he didn’t deserve this.” (Read more about the firework stand worker shoots robber HERE)

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Teenager Dead After Attempted Robbery of Coveted Shoes

By Natalie Tendall. Miami Township Police are confirming the shooting that left a juvenile male dead Saturday started over an attempted robbery of athletic shoes.

According to police, three juvenile males from Middletown approached two adult males outside the Dayton Mall around 10:00 a.m. Saturday. They say one of the juveniles produced a gun and demanded merchandise from the adult males. Police say one of the males, who had a valid concealed carry weapon permit, pulled out a gun of his own and shot the teen who had the gun. That teen, identified as Jawaad Jabbar, 16, died from a single gunshot wound.

The men were at the mall to attend a limited athletic shoe release sale. Police say the two groups did not know each other and the only motive known is that of aggravated robbery to gain control of another’s property.

Sgt. Jay Phares said the teen didn’t make it to the mall in time to get in line for the shoes. “This was a random act of ‘I want something that person has and I’m going to take it from them by any means’,” said Sgt. Phares. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Hamas Stopped Palestinian Children from Going to Israel for Postwar Peace Trip

Photo Credit: NY Daily News

Photo Credit: NY Daily News

By Fares Akram. Gaza’s Hamas rulers prevented a group of children from entering Israel on Sunday for a postwar conciliatory trip meant to foster peace, Hamas and organizers said.

The 37 children, most of whom have lost a parent in fighting between Hamas and Israel, were to enter Israel on Sunday and spend a week visiting Jewish and Arab communities and a zoo. They were also going to travel to the West Bank for a meeting with the Palestinian president.

But a bus carrying the children and their adult chaperones was turned back when it reached the main crossing between Gaza and Israel. Hamas spokesman Eyad Bozum said the decision was made “to protect the culture of our children and our people” from normalizing relations with Israel. He said Hamas would make sure such a trip “will never happen again”. . .

Yoel Marshak, an Israeli organizer, said the visit was meant to a show a positive side of Israel and promote peace. (Read more on why Hamas stopped Palestinian children from their Israel peace trip HERE)

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UAW Teachers Branch Joins Israel Boycott

By Sean Higgins. A local branch of the United Auto Workers has become the first U.S. labor organization to join the international movement to boycott Israel, according to liberal groups.

UAW Local 2865, which represents teaching assistants at the University of California, voted to join it on Dec. 4, saying that Israel was engaging in “ongoing human rights violations” against the Palestinians.

A total of 66 percent of the members backed joining the movement, which supporters call “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel.” Only 2,168 members participated in the Dec. 4 vote, a small fraction of Local 2865’s reported 13,000 members.

The ballot language asked members to support the boycott and to call on both the university and the UAW to join in by “divest[ing] their investments, including pension funds, from Israeli state institutions and international companies complicit in severe and ongoing human rights violations as part of the Israeli oppression of Palestinian people.” It also called on UAW and the university not to do business with any such companies and for the federal government to end economic aid to the country. (Read more from this story HERE)

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7th Grader Stopped by Gov’t School from Handing Out Fliers for Religious Event (+video)

Photo Credit: KAZUHIRO NOGI / AFP / Getty Images

Photo Credit: KAZUHIRO NOGI / AFP / Getty Images

A Kansas school blocked a seventh-grader from handing out fliers inviting students to join her in prayer at the school’s flagpole.

Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano called the school’s ban “so obviously wrong and misguided,” noting that students “theoretically” have the same constitutional rights as anyone else.

“Schools can restrain speech if the speech is disruptive,” Napolitano said. “But when the speech is not disruptive and when it’s especially protected by the Constitution, like speech about religion or speech about non-religion, they cannot interfere with it.”

The school issued a statement to Fox News outlining its policy, which prohibits the distribution of religious material on school property before, during and after the school day.

Napolitano says this is unconstitutional unless the school can show that the “mere distribution” interferes with school activity. Napolitano does not believe it has done so. (Read more about the child who was stopped from handing out fliers for religious event HERE)

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Anti-Cop Protesters Fail to Disrupt New Year’s in Times Square

Photo Credit: Breitbart

Photo Credit: Breitbart

By Kerry Picket. The demonstrators marched from Union Square to 38th and Broadway, where they were prohibited from going any further uptown towards the celebration when the clock struck 12. Protesters were beckoned by the organization Stop Mass Incarceration to participate in the march on New Year’s Eve.

The New York Police Department passed out flyers to protesters at Union Square telling the marchers that they must walk on the sidewalk during their march and not go into the streets and block vehicle traffic. A recording that looped numerous times played the NYPD flyer’s message through a loudspeaker during the night.

By 10 p.m., about 100 protesters began walking up 6th Avenue toward Times Square as NYPD officers controlled the direction of the march. Police diverted the group as they approached 33rd street in Herald Square.

“NYPD – KKK, how many kids did you kill today?” protesters yelled, as they carried “I can’t breathe” signs, referencing the last words of Eric Garner as NYPD officers held him in a headlock after he resisted arrest. (Read more about the anti-cop protesters fail to disrupt NYC New Year’s Eve HERE)

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De Blasio Slaps NYPD in the Face on the Last Day of 2014

By Laurel Babcock, Kirstan Conley and Bruce Golding. Mayor de Blasio delivered another blow to New York’s Finest on Wednesday when he reappointed a Brooklyn judge who freed without bail two men who threatened cops just days after the Bed-Stuy double police assassination.

The stunning decision came even as one of the suspects — a gang member charged with posting police death threats online — skipped out on a court date and had a warrant out for his arrest, sources said.

Brooklyn Criminal Court Judge Laura Johnson had faced a midnight expiration of her term. She was appointed by Mayor Mike Bloomberg in January 2013.

Her one-year, interim reappointment by de Blasio outraged law-enforcement officials a day after he met with the heads of five police unions to heal his fractured relationship with cops.

“The mayor’s actions of reappointing this judge are completely hypocritical to his argument that he’s pro-police and counterproductive to what he claims to be an effort to open dialogue going forward,” said sergeants union chief Ed Mullins. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Lawsuit Filed Against Washington’s Gun Control Initiative

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

By Leah Barkoukis. The Second Amendment Foundation has never been one to let the rights of law-abiding citizens get trampled on without putting up a fight. It should come as no surprise, then, that they’ve taken Washington state’s gun control Initiative 594 to court. Well, parts of it at least.

Via SAF:

The Second Amendment Foundation today filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Tacoma, seeking a permanent injunction against enforcement of portions of Initiative 594, the 18-page gun control measure that took effect Dec. 4, alleging that “portions of I-594…are so vague that a person of ordinary intelligence cannot understand their scope,” and that other parts violate the Second Amendment outright.

Joining SAF in this action are the Northwest School of Safety, Puget Sound Security, Inc., the Pacific Northwest Association of Investors, the Firearms Academy of Seattle, six individual citizens including SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb and the Gottlieb Family Trust. They are represented by Seattle attorneys Steven Fogg and David Edwards, and Bellevue attorney Miko Tempski.

Named as defendants are Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste, in their official capacities.

“We took this action due to the confusing and arbitrary language and nature of I-594,” Gottlieb said in a statement. “Three of our plaintiffs, including my son, are residents of other states and cannot legally borrow handguns for personal protection while traveling in Washington. Under I-594, all transfers must be done through federally-licensed firearms dealers, but under federal law, dealers cannot legally transfer handguns to residents of other states. I-594 also essentially prohibits our non-resident plaintiffs from storing their own firearms here. (Read more about the lawsuit on Washington’s gun control initiative HERE)

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Governor McAuliffe Vows to Stick to His Gun Control Measures

By Tommie Mcneil. Despite criticism from gun-rights advocates and GOP legislative leaders, Governor McAuliffe is not retreating on a package of gun-control measures that he has proposed for the upcoming General Assembly session. McAuliffe says this was one of his campaign promises, so no one should be surprised.

Conservatives say the Governor is catering to the anti-gun agenda of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose Super PAC donated to his campaign. But McAuliffe says this is about keeping people safe.

The Governor proposes prohibiting anyone subject to a protective order or convicted of certain misdemeanor offenses from owning a gun. Those include brandishing a firearm, domestic assault, and stalking.

But Philip Van Cleave with the Virginia Citizens Defense League says that’s not how the law should be interpreted. . .

The Governor also proposes reverting back to Virginia’s “One-Handgun-a-Month” law, which was recently repealed. He says criminals exploit it and run guns out-of-state. (Read more from this story HERE)

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United States Advisers Stay Out of Combat but See ISIS Fight Edging Closer; Multiple Reports that ISIS Fighters Have Ebola (+video)

Photo Credit: Musadeq Sadeq

Photo Credit: Musadeq Sadeq

By Missy Ryan and Erin Cunningham. In Iraq’s western Anbar province, more than 300 U.S. troops are posted at a base in the thick of a pitched battle between Iraqi forces, backed by tribal fighters, and well-armed Islamic State militants.

The militants, positioned at a nearby town, have repeatedly hit the base with artillery and rocket fire in recent weeks. Since the middle of December, the U.S.-led military coalition has launched 13 airstrikes around the facility.

U.S. troops have suffered no casualties in the attacks. But the violence has underlined the risks to American personnel as they fan out across Iraq as part of the expanding U.S. mission against the Islamic State, even as President Obama has pledged that U.S. operations “will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil.” (Read more on what the United States advisers said HERE)

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US Veteran Says Fighting in Syria was Just as Easy as Buying a Ticket to Miami

By Catherine Herridge. All it took was a plane ticket, and an informal background check over Facebook. Then he was ushered to the front lines in Syria, fighting against the Islamic State.

In a rare, exclusive interview with Fox News, a U.S. military veteran with multiple tours in Iraq detailed his journey to Syria to fight against ISIS, on the condition his identity was protected.

The veteran, who asked to be identified as “John,” described a surprisingly simple process that took him from America to the dangerous Syrian civil war – and not as part of the U.S. military.

“I just went online and bought a ticket. It was that easy. It was like booking a flight to Miami Beach,” said “John.”

Then he found a Kurdish group known as the YPG. (Read more from this story HERE)
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Reports: ISIS Fighters Have Ebola

By Jordan Schachtel. Multiple Iraqi and Kurdish media sources have claimed that some Islamic State (ISIS) militants in Mosul, Iraq, have contracted the deadly Ebola virus, Mashable reports.

The Iraqi outlets reportedly claimed that Ebola had started to spread in a Mosul hospital. The city, known as ISIS’s most important strategic stronghold in Iraq, has been under the control of the Islamic State since June.

Christy Feig, the World Health Organization (WHO) director of communications, told Mashable, “We have no official notification from the Iraqi government that it is Ebola.” She said that WHO had reached out to authorities and asked if they needed help investigating the matter. (Read more from this story HERE)

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7 Biggest Liberal Fails of 2014

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Want to get your New Year started off right? Let’s recap 2014′s biggest blunders from the left. (Why only seven? Our time is limited.)

7. The child migrant crisis at the border. The Obama administration floated an amnesty for young illegal immigrants, preventing the removal of people who would have benefited from the DREAM Act — which Congress pointedly refused to pass — by executive fiat. Tens of thousands of teenagers and families from Central America came across the border, including unaccompanied minors.

Coincidence? The 1986 amnesty and six smaller subsequent amnesties were followed by an increase, not a decrease, in illegal immigration. Additionally, the Obama administration was warned at least a year in advance, according to The Washington Post, that a border crisis was brewing. Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions said “the rising crisis at the border is the direct and predictable result of actions taken by President Obama.”

Conditions in the country of origin aren’t likely to change soon. Neither are the conditions here in the United States. After the midterm elections, Obama made his proposed executive amnesty a reality. It’s not clear what, if anything, congressional Republicans will do about it in the New Year.

6. The Democrats’ abortion obsession backfired. The tide finally turned in the “war on women.” Democrat Wendy Davis ran for governor of Texas, of all places, on the color of her running shoes and the strength of her support for late-term abortion. Colorado Democratic Sen. Mark Udall campaigned for reelection with a heavy emphasis on abortion and his challenger’s supposed desire to ban birth control. (Read the rest of the liberal fails HERE)

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With Sites Set on 2016, Jeb Bush Has Resigned from All Boards

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

By Tom Hamburger and Lyndsey Layton. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush, moving closer to a possible presidential run, has resigned all of his corporate and nonprofit board memberships, including his own education foundation, his office said late Wednesday night.

He also resigned as a paid adviser to a for-profit education company that sells online courses to public university students in exchange for a share of their tuition payments.

Bush’s New Year’s Eve disclosure, coming in an e-mail from an aide to The Washington Post, culminated a string of moves he has made in recent days to shed business interests that have enriched him since leaving office in 2007. The aide said the resignations had been made “effective today”. . .

Aides said Bush wants to devote his time to exploring a return to politics rather than pursuing his business commitments. But separating himself from those interests now could also be a strategic attempt to prepare for the added scrutiny of a hotly contested campaign for the Republican nomination. (Read more about why Jeb Bush has resigned from all boards HERE)

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Jeb Bush Declines Offer to Speak at Steven King Summit

By Jonathan Easley. Likely 2016 presidential candidate Jeb Bush has declined an invitation to speak at a conservative summit in Iowa hosted by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa.), a sometimes controversial figure in the GOP.

A Bush aide told The Hill that the former Florida governor appreciated the offer to speak at the Iowa Freedom Summit in late January but that he would not be able to attend.

The Washington Post first reported on Wednesday that Bush had declined the invitation to the summit, which will feature a host of other potential GOP presidential contenders, including Gov. Chris Christie (N.J.), Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas), Gov. Rick Perry (Texas), former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and Dr. Ben Carson.

The summit in the early-voting state is a rite of passage for many Republican candidates seeking to shore up their support among the conservative base. Bush’s absence could fuel attacks against the governor from some on the right who say he’s too moderate to make it through the Republican primaries. (Read more from this story HERE)

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