Poll: Majority of Small Business Owners ‘Very Concerned’ About the Cost of Health Care in 2018

Roosevelt Opinion Research recently surveyed 500 small business owners at the behest of the Job Creators Network, and found that the cost of health care is a significant concern going into 2018.

When asked: “What is the biggest threat your business faces in 2018?” 16.2% replied “health care mandates.” While that ranks far below “finding qualified workers” (27.3%) and “other” (22.1%), 16.2% (approximately one sixth) is a significant number.

Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), businesses with 50 or more full-time equivalent (FTE) employees must offer affordable health insurance for those employees and their dependents, or face a fine.

When asked: “Is the cost of health care a concern to you in 2018?” 55.9% said that they are “very concerned,” and 20.6% said they are “somewhat concerned.” A combined 20.2% said they are either “somewhat unconcerned” or “very unconcerned.” . . .

In early January, the Trump administration’s Department of Labor announced a proposal that would let a larger number of small businesses and sole proprietors than is currently allowed to band together and form associations. These groups could then use their collective power to negotiate lower health insurance costs. (Read more from “Poll: Majority of Small Business Owners ‘Very Concerned’ About the Cost of Health Care in 2018” HERE)

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Report: FBI Agents Used ‘Private’ Devices While Investigating Hillary’s Private Server

Two anti-Trump and pro-Clinton FBI agents caught in the middle of a massive scandal regarding corruption and political bias at the nation’s leading investigative bureau allegedly used “private” devices to communicate with each other about government work while investigating former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.

In a letter, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) told FBI Director Chris Wray that FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page may have used private devices while investigating Hillary Clinton for “similar” practices, Fox News reported Friday . . .

This latest revelation comes after Grassley released new text messages on Thursday between Strzok and Page, who were having an affair, that showed the two talked about using private devices to communicate about work-related matters while investigating Clinton. Fox News notes:

In an April 10, 2016 text, Strzok messaged Page to say: “Gmailed you two drafts of what I’m thinking of sending Bill, would appreciate your thoughts.”

In other messages, on June 3, Strzok told Page: “Dude. It’s all unclassified…Type on home computer and email to yourself.”

(Read more from “Report: Fbi Agents Used ‘Private’ Devices While Investigating Hillary’s Private Server” HERE)

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Trans-Age: Accused of Assaulting 3 Young Girls, Man Claims He’s a 9 Year Old ‘Trapped’ in Adult’s Body

A Chicago man accused of sexually assaulting three young girls told prosecutors he considered himself a boy in a man’s body, according to Cook County court documents.

Joseph Roman, 38, is charged with predatory criminal sexual assault stemming from repeated attacks on three girls who were 6 to 8 years old at the time, according to prosecutors. Roman was a friend of the girls’ families at the time of the attacks between 2015 and January of this year.

During a hearing Wednesday, prosecutors said Roman admitted to some of the attacks and told Chicago police “he is a 9-year-old trapped in an adult’s body.” He was ordered held without bail.

Prosecutors said the attacks began when the family of one of the girls moved into Roman’s home for 10 weeks. Roman is accused of regularly assaulting her between August 2015 and December 2017 while the other family members were sleeping. The girl was 6 when the assaults began.

In October 2016, Roman is accused of assaulting an 8-year-old girl while her family stayed with him for 10 weeks. Her mother worked a night shift, and Roman would help take care of the children, prosecutors said. One attack occurred while two younger children were in the room watching a video on a cellphone, prosecutors said. (Read more from “Trans-Age: Accused of Assaulting 3 Young Girls, Man Claims He’s a 9 Year Old ‘Trapped’ in Adult’s Body” HERE)

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‘Black, Queer-Owned’ Brewery in ‘Beer City’ Says It Closed Because of ‘White Supremacy’

A brewery in Asheville, North Carolina that boasted it was black and queer woman-owned shut down, and offered this reason for the closing: “white supremacy.”

Black Star Line Brewing Co. of Hendersonville was one of numerous breweries near the city of Asheville; according to exploreasheville.com the city has more breweries per capita than any U.S. city.

But last week, the brewery bemoaned its closing on Facebook. On Monday, the brewery stated, “Like many people of color on this land, displacement at the hands of white supremacists policies and institutions is not past, but present.”

That was followed by a post on Wednesday that acknowledged the brewery had bought “oversold” supplies and utilized hand-me-down equipment. The post added, “Black Star Line was sabotaged by white supremacists, government officials (J. Edgar Hoover), and policies and procedures that were invoked to intentionally end the operations of Black Star Line.”

Company founder L.A. McCrae complained to Munchies, “White supremacy shut us down. Our world has been rocked,” although McCrae admitted that the brewery had been underfunded when it opened last summer. She claimed a lender had given the brewery $50,000 but the brewery could not contact the lender before the brewery was evicted from its premises. (Read more from “‘Black, Queer-Owned’ Brewery in ‘Beer City’ Says It Closed Because of ‘White Supremacy’” HERE)

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‘Lies’ About 9/11 Apparently ‘Approved by Mueller’

By WND. . .Now there is an eye-opening report at Judicial Watch with evidence indicating Mueller approved a series of “lies” about a federal investigation of links between a Florida family and the 9/11 terror attack on the United States.

Judicial Watch says the evidence comes from court documents in a long-running cause involving a Saudi family whose members fled their Florida home just days before the terror attack, leaving behind cars and personal belongings.

The documents, Judicial Watch explains, “further rock the credibility of Russia Special Counsel Robert Mueller because they show that as FBI Director Mueller … worked to cover up the connection between a Florida Saudi family and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The documents reveal that Mueller was likely involved in publicly releasing deceptive official agency statements about a secret investigation of the Saudis, who lived in Sarasota, with ties to the hijackers.” . . .

The Bulldog reported it had issued a report in 2011 disclosing the existence of an FBI investigation about the family and the fact that it had been concealed from Congress.

What followed were statements from FBI officials in Miami and Tampa that “sought to discredit the story, asserting that agents had found no connection between the Sarasota Saudi family and the 9/11 plot.” (Read more from “‘Lies’ About 9/11 Apparently ‘Approved by Mueller'” HERE)

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As FBI Director Mueller Helped Cover up Fla. 9/11 Probe, Court Docs Show

By Judicial Watch. Director Mueller he worked to cover up the connection between a Florida Saudi family and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The documents reveal that Mueller was likely involved in publicly releasing deceptive official agency statements about a secret investigation of the Saudis, who lived in Sarasota, with ties to the hijackers. A Florida journalism nonprofit uncovered the existence of the secret FBI investigation that was also kept from Congress.

Under Mueller’s leadership, the FBI tried to discredit the story, publicly countering that agents found no connection between the Sarasota Saudi family and the 2001 terrorist plot. The reality is that the FBI’s own files contained several reports that said the opposite, according to the Ft. Lauderdale-based news group’s ongoing investigation. Files obtained by reporters in the course of their lengthy probe reveal that federal agents found “many connections” between the family and “individuals associated with the terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001.” The FBI was forced to release the once-secret reports because the news group sued in federal court when the information wasn’t provided under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

The disingenuous statements were issued by FBI officials in Miami and Tampa in a desperate effort to disparage a 2011 story exposing the agency’s covert investigation of the Sarasota Saudis as well as reporting that it had been concealed from Congress. Mueller is referenced in a document index that was ordered by a federal judge to be created in late November 2017. The south Florida judge, William J. Zloch, a Ronald Reagan appointee, asked the FBI to explain where it had discovered dozens of pages of documents in the public-records case filed six years ago. The index reference to then-FBI Director Mueller appears in an item involving an agency white paper written a week after the publication of a news story about the abrupt departure of Saudis Abdulaziz and Anoud al-Hijji from their Sarasota area home about two weeks before 9/11. The couple left behind their cars, clothes, furniture, jewelry and other personal items. “It was created to brief the FBI Director concerning the FBI’s investigation of 4224 Escondito Circle,” the al-Hijjis’ address, the index says. (Read more from “As FBI Director Mueller Helped Cover up Fla. 9/11 Probe, Court Docs Show” HERE)

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Since Global Warming Didn’t Happen, Humans Are Now Accused of Making the World Colder

By WND. After insisting for more than three decades that human activity was driving the earth’s temperatures to dangerous levels, climate scientists and activists now contend that same activity is keeping the planet artificially cool and that cleaning up the atmosphere will leave us feeling the heat.

On Jan. 22, an online article for Scientific American makes the claim that certain parts of the pollution created by human behavior are actually preventing us from feeling the impact of the other emissions we spew into the air.

“Pollution in the atmosphere is having an unexpected consequence, scientists say – it’s helping to cool the climate, masking some of the global warming that’s occurred so far. That means efforts worldwide to clean up the air may cause an increase in warming, as well as other climate effects, as this pollution disappears,” wrote Chelsea Harvey for the Scientific American story.

“New research is helping to quantify just how big that effect might be. A study published this month in the journal ‘Geophysical Research Letters’ suggests that eliminating the human emission of aerosols – tiny, air-polluting particles often released by industrial activities – could result in additional global warming of anywhere from half a degree to 1 degree Celsius,” added Harvey.

So after years of telling people their activity is responsible for the climate we experience, climate activists are now claiming our behavior is responsible for not feeling what we’ve supposedly caused? (Read more from “Since Global Warming Didn’t Happen, Humans Are Now Accused of Making the World Colder” HERE)

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Macron Jokes About Trump’s Climate Change Stance at Davos

By The Hill. French President Emmanuel Macron poked fun at President Trump’s climate change denial while giving a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“Obviously and fortunately, you didn’t invite anybody skeptical with global warming this year,” Macron joked Wednesday at the annual gathering of global elites.

Macron has frequently criticized Trump’s denial that climate change exists, especially after Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris climate accord over the summer.

Macron said that was a mistake and announced in December that he would give grants to American climate scientists to conduct research in France during the remainder of Trump’s presidency. The “Make Our Planet Great Again” grants, totaling around $70 million, will go toward 50 climate research projects. (Read more from “Macron Jokes About Trump’s Climate Change Stance at Davos” HERE)

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Muslim Who Shot Cop for Islam Was ‘Lying in Wait’

An ISIS-inspired gunman who shot a Philadelphia police officer multiple times “in the name of Islam” in 2016 was “lying in wait” before the ambush attack on the unsuspecting cop who was merely sitting in his patrol car, prosecutors say . . .

Archer is accused of firing 13 shots at Officer Jesse James Hartnett, a four-year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department, on the evening of Jan. 7, 2016. Hartnett was shot multiple times in his left arm as he shielded his head from the rounds of Archer’s stolen 9 mm Glock handgun.

In court Thursday, Archer refused to enter a plea, the Associated Press reported.

“I don’t plead to anyone but Allah,” he said . . .

The gunman reportedly gave a full confession in 2016, saying he did it in the name of Islam, according to CBS News. Sources also told Eyewitness News that Archer provided the confession in written form, and his police testimony was recorded on camera, as well. (Read more from “Muslim Who Shot Cop for Islam Was ‘Lying in Wait'” HERE)

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Opioid Sellers in China Exploit U.S. Postal Service Flaw

U.S. Congressional investigators said Wednesday that Chinese opioid manufacturers are exploiting weak screening at the U.S. Postal Service to ship large quantities of illegal drugs to American dealers.

In a yearlong probe, Senate investigators found that Chinese sellers, who openly market opioids such as fentanyl to U.S. buyers, are pushing delivery through the U.S. postal system. The sellers are taking advantage of a failure by the postal service to fully implement an electronic data system that would help authorities identify suspicious shipments.

At a time of massive growth in postal shipments from China due to e-commerce, the investigators found that the postal system received the electronic data on just over a third of all international packages, making more than 300 million packages in 2017 much harder to screen. Data in the Senate report shows no significant improvement during 2017 despite the urgency. (Read more from “Opioid Sellers in China Exploit U.S. Postal Service Flaw” HERE)

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Senate to Vote on Abortion Ban After 20 Weeks

The U.S. Senate will soon vote on a pro-life Senate bill to ban late-term abortions — a bill that would save as many as 18,000 unborn babies form abortions each and every year.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) informed members of the Senate lat Thursday that the Senate will vote on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act next week. During his remarks, McConnell lamented how the United States is one of just a handful of nations worldwide that allow babies to be killed in late-term abortions.

“Last week, Americans from all across the country—including many from Kentucky—came here to Washington to speak up for unborn children whom our legal system has denied the right to life. Now, Congress has an opportunity to take a step forward,” said.

“The United States is currently one of just seven countries – including China and North Korea – that permits elective abortion after 20 weeks. It is time we begin to remedy this obvious and tragic moral wrong. This long-overdue legislation would do just that,” the Senate Republican leader added. “I am pleased to have filed cloture on this bill to protect unborn children who are capable of feeling pain. I am proud to co-sponsor it, along with many of my colleagues. And I look forward to voting for it early next week.”

The House has already approved the legislation but Democrats are expected to filibuster the bill in the Senate, requiring it to get 60 votes to move forward. (Read more from “Senate to Vote on Abortion Ban After 20 Weeks” HERE)

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Soros Threatens: Trump ‘Will Disappear in 2020 or Even Sooner’

On Thursday, far-left billionaire George Soros, who is the financial backbone of the Democratic Party, attacked President Donald Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Soros, who spent millions backing failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, claimed that Trump was leading the world to nuclear war and that he is trying to establish a dictatorship in the United States, CNBC reported.

“Indeed, the United States is set on a course towards nuclear war by refusing to accept that [North] Korea has become a nuclear power,” Soros said. “This creates a strong incentive for North Korea to develop its nuclear capacity with all possible speed, which in turn may induce the United States to use its nuclear superiority pre-emptively, in effect to start a nuclear war to prevent a nuclear war, obviously a self-contradictory strategy.”

Soros claimed, without evidence, that Trump is trying to institute a “mafia state” in the U.S. but can’t “because the Constitution and the institutions and a vibrant society won’t allow it.” He also said that he is using his Open Society Foundation, a radical left-wing organization to which he just gave $18 billion, to “protect the democratic achievements of the past.” [He also issued a veiled threat to Trump:] “Clearly I consider the Trump administration a danger to the world,” Soros continued. “But I regard it as a purely temporary phenomenon that will disappear in 2020 or even sooner.” (Read more from “Soros Threatens: Trump ‘Will Disappear in 2020 or Even Sooner'” HERE)

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