Justice: Dick’s Blindsided by Lawsuit Just Days After Banning AR-15s

/0 Comments/in , /by

Just days after Dick’s Sporting Goods announced that it would no longer be selling the AR-15, an Oregon man sued the store and Walmart for refusing to sell him a rifle.

Twenty-year-old Tyler Watson claimed that the stores discriminated against him because of his age, according to the New York Post.

Although Oregon law allows people to purchase shotguns or rifles at the age of 18, Dick’s and Walmart raised the age to purchase firearms from their stores to 21 after the Feb. 14 school shooting.

Watson said that he faced age discrimination when he tried to buy a .22-caliber Ruger rifle from Field & Stream, owned by Dick’s Sporting Goods, on Feb. 24, four days before the sporting goods store’s announcement that it was not going to sell firearms to anyone under 21. Walmart made a similar announcement on the same day.

After he was denied the purchase at Field & Stream, Watson went to Walmart and was also told he couldn’t buy the rifle.

“In light of recent events, we reviewed our policy on firearm sales,” Walmart spokesman Randy Hargrove told The Oregonian. “As a result, we raised the age restriction for the purchase of firearms and ammunition to 21 years of age. We stand behind our decision and plan to defend it. While we haven’t seen the complaint, we will respond as appropriate with the court.”

Watson’s attorney, Max Whittington, said that his client didn’t know about the policy when he went to make his purchase.

“He was really just trying to buy a rifle,” Whittington said.

In the lawsuit, Watson says that the new policies violate Oregon laws that protect residents against discrimination based on “race, religion, sexual orientation or age.”

The statutes add that the state can ban alcohol or marijuana sales based on age, but does not mention firearm sales, according to The Oregonian.

Watson wants Dick’s Sporting Goods and Walmart “to stop unlawfully discriminating against 18, 19, and 20 year-old customers at all Oregon locations.”

During the announcement of their new policy, Dick’s Sporting Goods also revealed that the shooter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School had actually purchased a firearm from one of its stores. However, the sporting goods retailer noted that the firearm purchased at one of its locations was not one used in the shooting.

The retailer said in a statement, “Clearly this indicates on so many levels that the systems in place are not effective to protect our kids and our citizens.”

CEO and chairman Edward Stack appeared on “Good Morning America” Wednesday to discuss the company’s freshly implemented policy.

When asked to explain the rationale behind the recent change, Stack responded, assuring viewers that his company “did everything by the book.”

“We did everything that the law required and still he was able to buy a gun,” he continued. “When we looked at that, we said, ‘The systems that are in place across the board just aren’t effective enough to keep us from selling someone a gun like that.’” (For more from the author of “Justice: Dick’s Blindsided by Lawsuit Just Days After Banning AR-15s” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Loyal Dog Won’t Leave Hospital Where Owner Died 5 Months Ago

/0 Comments/in , /by

His owner died five months ago after being fatally stabbed, but a loyal dog who chased the ambulance that was transporting his owner still won’t leave the hospital.

The dog, which apparently has no name, has made a home outside the Santa Case de Novo Horizonte hospital in Brazil, and he refuses to leave, according to posts on Facebook by a woman named Cristine Sardella.

He arrived at the hospital in October after his 59-year-old homeless owner was stabbed in a street fight, Brazil’s O Globo newspaper reported . . .

Hospital staff provided food and water for the dog. A local kennel agreed to take him in.

But even though a new owner tried to adopt the dog, he escaped from the kennel and returned to his spot in front of the hospital. (Read more from “Loyal Dog Won’t Leave Hospital Where Owner Died 5 Months Ago” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

After Florida Shooting, More Than 600 Copycat Threats Have Targeted Schools

/0 Comments/in , /by

Breathless and whispering through the phone, a 13-year-old student called for help from her Ohio high school.

“Help,” she said in between whimpers. “He’s got a gun. He’s got the gun in my mouth.” . . .

But it was all a hoax.

It’s a stunt that other teens and kids across the nation have pulled after tragedies, creating fear in communities and bringing costly investigations by police and federal agents who have no choice but to take the threats with deadly seriousness. . .

More than 130 threats were reported and analyzed by the USA TODAY NETWORK in the nine-day span after the Valentine’s Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland left 17 dead. Also, non-profits such as the Educator’s School Safety Network have compiled a list of the threats using news media reports. The group found that a jarring 638 threats targeted schools in the two weeks after the Parkland shootings, a number they say is probably on the low side. (Read more from “After Florida Shooting, More Than 600 Copycat Threats Have Targeted Schools” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Sexism Law: Man Who Insulted Female Officer First to Be Convicted

/0 Comments/in , /by

A man who insulted a female police officer because of her gender has become the first person to be convicted of sexism in a public space in Belgium.

The man, who has not been named, was stopped in June 2016 for violating the highway code and told the officer that her job did not suit women.

A court in Brussels fined him €3,000 (£2,690; $3,725). He can still appeal.

The law was introduced in 2014 after an outcry over a documentary showing the abuse women faced on the streets.

It condemns any act or statement meant to “express contempt”, that considers a person inferior due to their gender or reduces someone to a sexual dimension. (Read more from “Sexism Law: Man Who Insulted Female Officer First to Be Convicted” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

North Korean Nukes Could Hit U.S. Within Months

/0 Comments/in , /by

Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton says North Korea has no intention of scrapping its nuclear program, it’s trying to sucker the United States into relaxing sanctions, and it’s now just months away from being able to deploy nuclear weapons capable of reaching any point in the United States.

Bolton’s comments came just as North Korea sent a letter to President Trump inviting him to a formal meeting with Kim Jong Un, and Trump reportedly accepted the offer. A senior U.S. official said North Korea has also claimed it will suspend its nuclear missile testing. The meeting could take place in May.

Earlier this week, South Korea had trumpeted the news that North Korea is allegedly willing to suspend nuclear testing in exchange for direct talks and may even be open to ending its nuclear program altogether. . .

“The only thing they’re trying to do is get us to abandon the pressure that we’re putting on them and hopefully forswear the possible use of military force, which nobody wants but nobody wants North Korea with nuclear weapons, either,” he said. “That’s what this is about.”

“They are very close to achieving their long-sought objective of deliverable nuclear weapons,” he warned. “CIA Director Mike Pompeo said recently that the North was within a ‘handful’ of months – his phrase, a handful of months – of being able to land a thermonuclear weapon on any target in the United States they want.” (Read more from “North Korean Nukes Could Hit U.S. Within Months” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Magazine Inadvertently Exposed Trump Dossier Lie

/0 Comments/in , /by

A lengthy, glowing New Yorker magazine profile on the anti-Trump “dossier” author, Christopher Steele, reported the former MI6 agent knew that his work was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

That claim conflicts with the FBI’s explicit statement in its October 2016 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance application that Steele was unaware of who financed his work for Fusion GPS, the opposition-research company hired by the Democrats’ law firm Perkins Coie, reports investigative reporter Sara Carter.

Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe has testified to Congress that the dossier was essential to obtaining the warrant to spy on former Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page.

New Yorker writer Jane Mayer wrote that several months after Steele was subcontracted by Fusion GPS in the spring of 2016, he learned his research was being jointly subsidized by the Clinton campaign and the DNC.

But in a footnote on the warrant application to the FISA court on Oct. 21, 2016, the FBI stated “Source #1,” meaning Steele, was “never advised” as to “the motivation behind the research into Candidate #1’s (Trump’s) ties to Russia.” (Read more from “Magazine Inadvertently Exposed Trump Dossier Lie” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Scientists Develop Pigs for Human Transplants

/0 Comments/in , /by

A team of scientists says it has created a pig that can be used in transplantations in humans.

According to the team, which includes researchers from Meiji University and Kyoto Prefectural University, the animal is the first to be developed for transplantation based on national guidelines for xenotransplantation, in which animal organs and cells are transplanted into humans.

The team will present its findings at a forum of the Japanese Society for Xenotransplantation in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, on Saturday, and plans to jointly supply the pigs with a private company early next year.

More than 200 pig-to-human xenotransplantations have been conducted in New Zealand, Russia and other countries in response to a shortage of organs for transplant, as pig organs are functionally similar to those of humans. No such xenotransplantations have been conducted in Japan.

In 2016, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry revised guidelines on the production of animals for transplantation, among other matters. The guidelines require pigs to be raised in a clean, isolated environment and to be tested for 40 kinds of viruses to prevent infections and ensure the safety of humans. (Read more from “Scientists Develop Pigs for Human Transplants” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Australian Amb. Who Prompted Trump-Russia Probe Has Decade Long Relationship to Clintons

/0 Comments/in , /by

By Christian Datoc. The Australian diplomat whose account of a 2016 conversation with embattled Trump campaign staffer George Papadopoulos prompted the FBI to formally open its Russia collusion probe has a decade-long, multi-million dollar connection to the Clinton Foundation.

The Hill reported that Alexander Downer — who at the time served as Australia’s foreign minister — helped launch a $25 million partnership between Australia and The Clinton Foundation to help fight AIDS back in 2006.

Not only was the initiative one of the single, largest charitable endeavors undertaken in The Clinton Foundation’s 21 year history — Australia was one of only four countries to pledge $25 million to The Clinton Foundation — but Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan now says that the FBI failed to alert Congress of Downer’s connection to the Clintons.

Congressman Jim Jordan says this new revelation shoots down claims made by House Intelligence ranking member Adam Schiff. He added the news further necessitates Attorney General Jeff Sessions to appoint a second special counsel to probe the FBI and Justice Department’s handling of the initial counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign.

“Schiff made a big point of this in his memo and comments he’s made, where he said ‘the dossier wasn’t the most important thing they were investigating, and the catalyst for the Russian investigation was this Papadopoulos meeting,” the Ohio Republican told The Daily Caller. “Now we’ve learned, the thing they kept hanging their hat on was the Papadopoulos meeting with Ambassador Downer, and it turns out that Mr. Downer now had ties to the Clintons as well.” (Read more from “Australian Amb. Who Prompted Trump-Russia Probe Has Decade Long Relationship to Clintons” HERE)

_______________________________________

Pavlich: Hillary Would Have Lost Even If Obama Was Tougher on Russia

By The Hill. It’s the latest Democratic talking point: Former President Obama knew about Russian meddling and should have done more to stop it.

“You know, big fan of President Obama’s, obviously, but there’s no question that things were going on, that meddling was occurring in the presidential race — and there’s even evidence now to indicate in other races — in a real way,” former Hillary Clinton campaign surrogate Christine Quinn told CNN this week. “And I think it was a frustration for all of us close to the Clinton campaign towards the end, and after the election, about why … President Obama didn’t move more quickly and aggressively.”

Mary Anne Marsh, a former adviser to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry who I often debate on Fox News, has been saying the same for two years.

“The fact is, the Obama administration did too little, too late to deal with the Russian interference in our election. That is a fact,” Marsh said during a recent interview, adding the Trump administration and its allies are also responsible. “The Obama administration did not do enough.”

But while it is true Obama could have and should have done more to stop the Russians on a number of fronts, it is complete fantasy to believe those actions would have somehow changed the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. Further, this narrative continues to displace responsibility away from where is belongs: with Clinton. (Read more from “Pavlich: Hillary Would Have Lost Even If Obama Was Tougher on Russia” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

2nd Ambulance in 2 Weeks Spotted at ‘Safe, Legal, and Rare’ Abortion Provider Planned Parenthood

/0 Comments/in , /by

One Planned Parenthood facility in Missouri is facing backlash from some pro-life activists not only for the sheer number of ambulances reportedly called to the clinic but the way those ambulances are allegedly asked to operate upon arrival.

According to a recent Life News report, witnesses involved in protests outside of the St. Louis facility reported an ambulance arriving to pick up a patient without its siren or lights activated, which critics argue is an apparent violation of a law meant to combat actions that might delay proper medical treatment.

Activist Kathy Forck relayed second-hand information from a witness on the scene during the incident this week, asserting that “the ambulance lights were on coming down Forest Park, turned off when entering” the Planned Parenthood property.

“When the ambulance left, the lights were initially on and the ambulance proceeded down Forest Park with the lights off,” said Forck, the 40 Days for Life campaign director for Columbia, Missouri.

A similar incident was reported just 11 days earlier, after which witnesses also indicated the ambulance’s lights and siren were not used.

Operation Rescue also covered the recent complaints, but presented the story as one of the dozens involving that particular Planned Parenthood clinic in recent years.

The Feb. 24 emergency response was “so significant” because it represented the “sixty-eighth time an ambulance has transported a patient from this abortion facility since mid-2009,” the organization wrote.

That track record, according to writer Cheryl Sullenger, is enough to place the St. Louis facility “among the worst in the nation for abortion patient safety.”

Operation Rescue President Troy Newman said the evidence indicates a need for additional regulation of the abortion industry and its primary provider nationwide.

“There needs to be an investigation into whether Planned Parenthood is in compliance with the law,” he said. “If they are delaying emergency medical care to patients, they should be held accountable in court like anyone else who commits crimes.”

The controversy comes as abortion providers in St. Louis are in the news for another reason.

City leaders continue to debate the merits of a proposed buffer zone surrounding the Planned Parenthood clinic, which supporters say will provide additional patient and doctor protection against protesters.

If successful, the measure would require individuals to remain eight feet or more from the sides of a health care facility-adjacent sidewalk. A vote on the proposal was delayed earlier this month.

With a razor-thin margin expected, its sponsor said pushing for a vote would not be in the best interest of its passage.

“I think it gives both sides opportunity to get people who may be on the fence, but I’m still feeling confident that regardless of both of our efforts, I will have the votes to get this thing out of here,” said Christine Ingrassia, a Democrat representing the city’s 6th Ward.

Among those opposed to the proposal are Missouri state Rep. Holly Rehder, the Republican behind a bill that would mandate “no city, town or village shall pass or enforce any law, ordinance or resolution that restricts a person from exercising a right enumerated in Amendment 1 of the Constitution of the United States while such a person is on a public sidewalk, street, avenue, alley, or other public place unless state law authorizes such a restriction.” (For more from the author of “2nd Ambulance in 2 Weeks Spotted at ‘Safe, Legal, and Rare’ Abortion Provider Planned Parenthood” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Ex-California State Sen. Leland Yee, Gun Control Champion, Heading to Prison for Weapons Trafficking

/0 Comments/in , /by

. . .From 2006 onwards, Yee served as a state senator and was plotting a secretary of state campaign when his political visions were curtailed by a federal indictment in March 2014 . . .

It was one thing for the public to learn that Chow, a known convict, may have become embroiled in more objectionable schemes. But it was quite another to hear that Yee, a respected public figure who had supposedly distanced himself from San Francisco’s corrupt past, was being accused through the same undercover FBI investigation.

This Wednesday, Yee received a five-year prison sentence for accepting bribes and trafficking in arms . . .

Breyer was unsympathetic to the calls for leniency. While holding public office, Yee had accepted thousands of dollars in campaign contributions in exchange for political favors. And on the side, he and two associates had been involved in a weapons trafficking plot. (Read more from “Ex-California State Sen. Leland Yee, Gun Control Champion, Heading to Prison for Weapons Trafficking” HERE)