ISIS Defiant: Las Vegas Gunman Dubbed ‘Abu Abdul Bar Al-Amriki’

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The shooter in Sunday night’s mass slaughter of 59 concert goers in Las Vegas, identified as 64-year-old Stephen Craig Paddock, a man with no criminal history, is now being investigated for possible ties to Islamic terrorists . . .

ISIS claimed credit in an Arabic-language website, but authorities immediately tried to debunk the claim, saying they had no evidence to support it.

“We will investigate that down to the end,” but thus far nothing has been found to connect Paddock to international terrorism, Lombardo said at one of four news conferences held Monday on the shooting . . .

After media continued to discredit the ISIS claims, the terrorist organization doubled down by sending out an official communique identifying Paddock as “Abu Abdul Bar al-Amriki” . . .

Steven Stalinsky, executive director of Middle East Media Research Institute, noted the language posted on the group’s Amaq news agency site matched the language of previous claims that turned out to be true. (Read more from “ISIS Defiant: Las Vegas Gunman Dubbed ‘Abu Abdul Bar Al-Amriki'” HERE)

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Customs Agents Make ‘Largest of Its Kind’ Discovery After Seizing North Korean Ship, Sparking International Investigation

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In August, a cargo ship flying Cambodian colors sailed from North Korea with unknown cargo until it was intercepted in Egyptian waters and its contents sparked an international investigation.

Upon entering Egyptian waters, the “Jie Shun” was seized by customs agents who discovered a cache of nearly 24,000 rocket launchers and components for 6,000 more weapons hidden beneath bins of iron ore.

A United Nations report later called the interception the “largest seizure of ammunition in the history of sanctions against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.”

According to a report in The Washington Post, Egyptian customs agents were informed about the suspicious bulk freighter by the United States.

An investigation by the U.N. revealed that the Egyptians were actually the buyers of the weapons, an arrangement in which Egyptian business executives ordered millions of dollars of North Korean rockets for Egypt’s military while keeping the transaction secret.

Washington has accused Egypt of attempting to conceal the transaction, contending that the Egyptians failed to act until U.S. intelligence officials alerted Egyptian authorities to the Jie Shun.

Despite Egypt’s attempt to conceal the deal, a spokesman for the Egyptian Embassy in Washington, D.C., focused on Cairo’s “transparency” and cooperation with U.N. officials in finding and destroying the weaponry.

According to the spokesman, “Egypt will continue to abide by all Security Council resolutions and will always be in conformity with these resolutions as they restrain military purchases from North Korea.”

David Thompson, a senior analyst and investigator for the Center for Advanced Defense Studies in Washington, D.C., reported that North Korea has been utilizing similar undercover weapon shipments to finance Kim Jong Un’s attempts to build a nuclear missile.

“These cover materials not only act to obfuscate shipments, but really highlights the way that licit North Korean businesses are being used to facilitate North Korean illicit activity,” Thompson said.

U.S. officials confirmed that the discovery of the weapons shipment was among the factors leading to the Trump administration’s decision in July to freeze or delay $290 million in military aid to Egypt. (Read more from “Customs Agents Make ‘Largest of Its Kind’ Discovery After Seizing North Korean Ship” HERE)

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Transgender ‘Failures’ Spark Epic PC Battle

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A psychotherapist who counsels transgenders sought to conduct a study on people who make the surgical transition but want to reverse it; however, a university killed the project because it was “politically incorrect.”

The conflict developed at Bath Spa University in Bath, England, when James Caspian wanted to write a thesis on people who “detransition” . . .

Caspian is a trustee of The Beaumont Trust, a group pursuing a “society where all gender diversity is valued and celebrated,” the report said.

“For his latest research he wanted to study people who were now living in their birth sex after previously identifying as transsexuals. The work was prompted by a surgeon telling him of ‘reverse gender reassignment’ operations he had recently performed,” the institute said.

However, Bath Spa’s ethics subcommittee said: “Engaging in a potentially ‘politically incorrect’ piece of research carries a risk to the university. Attacks on social media may not be confined to the researcher but may involve the university.” (Read more from “Transgender ‘Failures’ Spark Epic PC Battle” HERE)

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Here’s How Much the NFL Rakes in From Taxpayers

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The Department of Justice announced Thursday it has filed a lawsuit against a Colorado corporation for allegedly discriminating against U.S. workers.

The complaint alleges that in 2016, Crop Production discriminated against at least three United States citizens by refusing to employ them as seasonal technicians in El Campo, Texas, because Crop Production preferred to hire temporary foreign workers under the H-2A visa program.

“In the spirit of President Trump’s Executive Order on Buy American and Hire American, the Department of Justice will not tolerate employers who discriminate against U.S. workers because of a desire to hire temporary foreign visa holders,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement. “… Where there is a job available, U.S. workers should have a chance at it before we bring in workers from abroad.”

The problem is rampant.

One report on Watchdog.org said that over the past two decades, the NFL has raked in about $7 billion of taxpayer money to spend on stadium renovation and building.

Another study from the Brookings Institution showed that federal taxpayers have subsidized the construction of 36 stadiums at a cost of over $3.2 billion since 2000.

Michael Sargent, an infrastructure expert at The Heritage Foundation, wrote about how sports teams use specially crafted tax breaks to get the public to finance their massive projects.

“Tax-exempt municipal bonds are typically reserved for public-use projects such as bridges, water systems, and other infrastructure,” Sargent wrote for The Daily Signal. “Yet because of a loophole in the tax code, private-use stadiums can take advantage of this tax break, and have done so prolifically.”

In fact, only a handful of NFL and other major league teams use privately-financed venues to host their games.

It would seem after sinking enormous investments into sports franchises, cities would reap serious financial benefits in return.

But this isn’t the case at all.

Research from George Mason University has shown that not only do communities gain almost no economic benefits from subsidized sports teams, but some findings “indicate harmful effects of sports on per capita income, wage and salary disbursements, and wages per job.”

Recently released polls show national anthem protests are deeply unpopular with the American people, but polls also show that the taxpayer funding of sports is also widely disliked.

When likely voters in Nevada were asked if they favored or opposed using $500 million in taxpayer dollars to fund a stadium for the Oakland Raiders to move to Las Vegas, they overwhelmingly said “no.”

According to the KTNV-TV 13 Action News/Rasmussen Reports poll, 60 percent of Nevada voters opposed the funding, and only 28 percent supported it.

Given the massive discontent over national anthem kneeling and rampant politicization of the once unifying sport of football, perhaps now Americans will turn a more skeptical eye toward how their sports teams rely on public money and actually do something about it.

There are some in Congress who have taken notice.

“In America, if you want to play sports, you’re free to do so. If you want to protest, you’re free to do so,” Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said in a Tuesday speech, according to The Washington Post. “But you should do so on your own time and on your own dime.”

Recent bipartisan legislation on Capitol Hill aimed to strip federal funding from sports teams. A bill sponsored by Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., would prevent teams from using municipal bonds that are exempt from federal taxes.

Rep. Steve Russell, R-Okla., introduced a similar bill in the House.

Lankford said in a statement in June:

The federal government is responsible for a lot of important functions, but financing sports stadiums for multimillion—sometimes billion—dollar franchises is definitely not one of them. Using billions of federal taxpayer dollars for the subsidization of private stadiums when we have real infrastructure needs in our country is not a good way to prioritize a limited amount of funds.

This movement has picked up steam in recent weeks, according to Kerry Picket of The Daily Caller.

On Tuesday, Gaetz became the lead sponsor of legislation that would end the tax-exempt status of professional sports leagues.

NFL and other sports teams have a deep financial interest in getting taxpayers to pay their bills, so it will take a widespread concerted effort on the part of the public to end this gravy train.

Since NFL billionaire owners have gone out of their way to accommodate millionaire players in standing down for the national anthem, perhaps taxpaying Americans should start withholding money from the privileged and let them all stand on their own two feet.

Now may be the perfect time to finally do it. (For more from the author of “Here’s How Much the NFL Rakes in From Taxpayers” please click HERE)

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Schools Are Ditching AD and BC in Religious Education Lessons

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Schools across the country have stopped using the terms BC and AD in religious education lessons for fear of offending non-Christians.

The traditional terms BC, Before Christ, and AD, Anno Domini, are being ditched for BCE – Before Common Era, and CE – Common Era.

The new terms still denote the periods before and after the birth of Christ.

Local authority committees drawing up religious education syllabuses say the old terms may upset minorities or non-believers. But critics blasted the move as a ‘capitulation to political correctness’.

Former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey said the rulings by the religious education committees were a ‘great shame’. (Read more from “Schools Are Ditching AD and BC in Religious Education Lessons” HERE)

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U.S. House Will Vote on Banning Late-Term Abortions of Babies Who Feel Pain

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Next week, the U.S. House will vote on banning late-term abortions on babies who can feel pain.

The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act would prohibit abortions on babies older than 20 weeks. It contains rape and incest exceptions. For an abortion to take place, the abortionist must file a medical report with a state or federal agency saying an act of rape or incest conceived the child.

The U.S. House will vote on it on October 3.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 2013 there were at least 5,770 late-term abortions on babies older than 20 weeks.

“Next week, I’m bringing legislation to the House floor that will respect the sanctity of life and stop needless suffering,” said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-CA. “The Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act will protect the voiceless, the vulnerable, and the marginalized.” (Read more from “U.S. House Will Vote on Banning Late-Term Abortions of Babies Who Feel Pain” please click HERE)

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Google, Facebook May Have to Reveal Deepest Secrets

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The investigations into Russia’s role in the 2016 election are threatening to pry the lid off tech companies’ most prized possessions: the secret inner workings of their online platforms.

As the probes unfold into social media’s role in spreading misinformation, U.S. lawmakers are beginning to show an interest in the mechanics of everything from how Facebook weights news items to how Google ranks search results. The questions, which echo European regulators’ interventionist approach to technology, are a stark change for Silicon Valley companies accustomed to deference from U.S. officials on how they run their operations.

Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, warned Sept. 24 about “the use of Facebook’s algorithms and the way it tends to potentially reinforce people’s informational bias.” He added, “This is a far broader issue than Russia, but one that we really need to know more about.”

A source close to the Senate Intelligence Committee said staff investigators are eager to learn whether Russian elements used Twitter to boost disinformation in Google’s search rankings. While Google has previously said it uses Twitter and Facebook links in calculating search rankings for content, it hasn’t revealed specifics on how social media mentions factor into its algorithm. Google is famously closemouthed about how its immensely valuable search engine works, only parceling out small clues over the years.

Critics of the tech industry say the time has come for the companies to let policymakers take a closer look. (Read more from “Google, Facebook May Have to Reveal Deepest Secrets” HERE)

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Clinton Never Returned Donations From Owner of Site Linked to Underage Prostitution

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Hillary Clinton’s campaign appears not to have returned or donated to charity the more than $5,000 in contributions from the former co-owner of a website linked to underage prostitution and whose donations have backed a number of current and former Democratic politicians into a corner.

Controversy surrounding donations from the owners of Backpage.com, an online classified website that has come under fire from politicians including Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.), has forced a number of politicians—particularly in the state of Arizona—to return or donate the tainted contributions.

Jim Larkin, a former co-owner of Backpage, gave a $5,400 contribution on July 26, 2016, to the Hillary Victory Fund, a joint fundraising effort between the Clinton campaign, the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and more than 30 state Democratic parties. The money was then transferred to Hillary for America, Clinton’s campaign committee.

The campaign appears to have not returned the money to Larkin, a search of Federal Election Commission records shows.

A number of Democratic politicians in Arizona have come under fire as a result of the contributions they received from Backpage’s former co-owners as their legal troubles began to mount. (Read more from “Clinton Never Returned Donations From Owner of Site Linked to Underage Prostitution” HERE)

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Who Is Stephen Paddock? Police Say He Killed 59 in Las Vegas Shooting Rampage

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The man who carried out the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history was a retired accountant with a taste for high-stakes poker who had moved to Nevada just a couple of years earlier.

While investigators were still piecing together the attack by Stephen Paddock at a country music concert that left at least 59 dead and 527 wounded, the gunman’s younger brother said the gunman had shown no signs of volatility.

The brother, Eric Paddock, added that he was “dumbfounded” as he searched for an explanation for why his brother, an affluent man — who appeared to be enjoying retired life taking cruises and visiting casinos — would decide to carry out such a brutal attack. . .

Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said officers determined the gunshots were coming from a room on the 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay complex on the Las Vegas Strip. Authorities said it appeared Paddock killed himself.

Lombardo said 16 weapons were found in the gunman’s hotel room. Investigators also found 10 suitcases in the room that they believe were used to bring the arsenal of weapons into the hotel. (Read more from “Who Is Stephen Paddock? Police Say He Killed 59 in Las Vegas Shooting Rampage” HERE)

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New Book Sheds Light on Anti-Trump Agenda in Public Schools and Politicization of the Classroom

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In his newly published book, The Corrupt Classroom, Lance Izumi of the Pacific Research Institute illustrates how the public school classroom has become increasingly politicized, with liberal teachers indoctrinating students with an anti-Trump and leftist agenda.

Izumi makes the case that while many school choice supporters rely on academic school performance data to show that public schools are failing, there are many other equally important reasons to support it.

“Many parents, for example, are rightly concerned about the growing politicization of the classroom,” Izumi explains. “Far from being mere anecdotal incidents—and there are lot of those—political bias is becoming systemic in public school systems and has turned many public schools into indoctrination centers for progressive ideologies and causes.”

For example, the United Educators of San Francisco, a teachers’ union, created an anti-Trump lesson plan and distributed it to 6,000 members. In the lesson plan, Trump was labeled a “racist and sexist man” and included only reports from left-wing sources such as Mother Jones. Teachers were instructed to tell students, “we will keep fighting” and “we must and will fight for justice against an unjust system and an unjust people.”

Izumi also cites the example of Yvette Felarca, a teacher at a middle school in Berkeley, Calif., who is the leader of By Any Means Necessary, which was described as a militant, radical group that uses violence to spread its message. (Read more from “New Book Sheds Light on Anti-Trump Agenda in Public Schools and Politicization of the Classroom” HERE)

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