$300,000 Worth of Rolex Watches Stolen from Florida, Sheriff Deputy’s Truck Used in Getaway

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100 dollars[Robbers] got away with about a dozen Rolex watches valued around $300,000, police [in Tampa] said Wednesday. . .

The noise of the thieves hammering the display case sounded similar enough to gunfire that it sent people running from the mall. It prompted what Tampa police said was an “active shooter” response, followed by a flood of false reports over social media that gunfire had erupted.

“We had over 100 law enforcement officers respond to this place. We had the FBI, the U.S. Marshals, the Florida Highway Patrol, Tampa International Airport,” TPD Deputy Chief Brian Dugan said. . .

Police said the suspects fled through the garage in a gray Dodge Ram Sport pickup truck with a black soft cover over the truck bed. They believe the suspects ditched the truck in the International Mall parking lot.

According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, the truck belongs to one of their deputies, and it was reported stolen from Brandon Mall Tuesday shortly before the International Mall robbery. (Read more from this story about Rolex watches stolen in Florida HERE).

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Suspect Who Threatened to Kill Cops on Youtube Fatally Shot (+video)

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Photo Credit: Free Patriot

Photo Credit: Free Patriot

By Jason Howerton. Police officers fatally shot a suspect in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday night after he allegedly tried to “run down a couple cops” with his vehicle.

Officers were initially attempting to arrest the man for making terroristic threats against law enforcement officials in rants posted on YouTube, according to police.

Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood told reporters officers were trying to serve an arrest warrant at a home in Clifton, Pennsylvania, when they saw the suspect leaving the scene, according to WPVI-TV. Officers pursued the suspect, but they tried to stop him in his vehicle, he allegedly tried to run over the cops.

It was reported that several officers fired shots at the suspect, killing him. Officers with the Clifton Heights, Upper Darby and Haverford Police Departments were reportedly involved in the incident, which unfolded at around 4:35 p.m. on Tuesday. (Read more about the suspect who threatened to kill cops HERE)

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NYC Mayor de Blasio’s Pick for NYPD Oversight Board Linked to Group in Cop-Killer Video

By Evin Gahr. The lawyer who chairs the New York City agency responsible for investigating police brutality allegations has ties to the federally funded legal-aid group featured in a cop-killer video.

Richard Emery, chairman of the city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board and his own civil-rights law firm, told The Daily Signal that any perceived conflict of interest is absurd.

Bronx Defenders, which received at least $1.5 million from the Obama Justice Department since 2009, says on its website that assistance from Emery’s firm, Emery Celli Brinckerhoff and Abady, “makes the work we do possible.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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Homosexual Accuses Church Members of Beating Him to Remove Demons

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inside church2 SCAn embattled North Carolina church is defending itself after five of its members were indicted earlier this month following allegations that they beat a young man in an attempt to rid him of demons they purportedly believed were making him gay.

Word of Faith Fellowship in Spindale, North Carolina, recently released a statement on its website claiming that Matthew Fenner, the now 21-year-old student who claims he was hit, strangled and held against his will during an alleged incident in 2013, isn’t telling the truth about what happened to him.

The church asked for prayer as the five church members — Brooke McFadden Covington, Sarah Covington Anderson, Justin Brock Covington, Adam Christopher Bartley and Robert Louis Walker Jr. — ”fight to prove their innocence,” according to a statement published on the church’s website. . .

The five individuals accused of beating him have been charged with second degree kidnapping and simple assault, with Sarah Covington Anderson facing an additional charge for purported strangulation. (Read more from the story, “Homosexual Accuses Church Members” HERE)

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Story of Man Shot in Neighbor’s Yard Turns out to have a Heartbreaking Twist

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Photo Credit: The Blaze

Photo Credit: The Blaze

A heartbreaking twist has been revealed in the story of a Texas man shot dead on a neighbor’s porch at 4 a.m. after police say he came knocking and demanding to be let in. According to the victim’s family, Spencer Crandall had been suffering from two ruptured discs in his back and had been taking muscle relaxers.

That, his wife said, led him to sometimes sleepwalk. . .

According to his family, he took his faith very seriously, having done his own mission. He was also an Eagle Scout.

Ryan added: “His favorite was to go out with missionaries. He loved missionary work, and teaching other people about Jesus Christ.”

WFAA-TV says the homeowner isn’t likely to be charged, especially because he said he only fired his weapon because Spencer was trying to force his way into the neighbor’s home. (Read more about the man who was shot in neighbor’s yard HERE)

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Jeb Bush Must Answer Whether He Stands with Boehner

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Photo Credit: Breitbart

Photo Credit: Breitbart

By Matthew Boyle. “We’ve had nonstop Jeb Bush talk the last two weeks,” Levin said in an email to Breitbart News late Tuesday evening. “Is there a reason why he’s silent now about the GOP leadership debacle in the House? They are his supporters after all.”

Reached earlier in the day by phone, Bush spokeswoman Kristy Campbell said, when asked for her boss’s thoughts on the scandal, that she hadn’t spoken with Bush about it yet. But she promised to track him down sometime on Tuesday and get a statement to Breitbart News about it later in the day—a statement that still hasn’t materialized.

Levin’s right that Bush’s silence about this GOP leadership scandal is intriguing since Bush was the talk of the political world in the days leading up to this scandal. Right after he announced he was actively exploring a run for the presidency in 2016, he topped a CNN-ORC poll of potential GOP candidates.

The poll found Bush far and away leading the pack of potential GOP candidates in a primary, with 23 percent of support. The next best potential candidate was New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie with 13 percent, followed by Dr. Ben Carson with 7 percent and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee tied with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) with 6 percent. (Read more on whether Jeb Bush stands with Boehner HERE)

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Why Jeb Bush Can’t Bypass Conservatives

By W. James Antle. Before Jeb Bush announced he was “actively exploring” a presidential bid came news he was just as actively seeking a way to avoid appealing to conservatives. (The Bushies prefer the word “pandering.”)

The would-be King Bush III consulted one of the country’s foremost experts on excelling in the Republican Party without being too conservative: Arizona Sen. John McCain.

“I just said to him, ‘I think if you look back, despite the far right’s complaints, it is the centrist that wins the nomination,’” McCain told Bush, according to The New York Times. (Read more from this story HERE)

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2 Year Old Accidentally Shoots Mother in Walmart

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

An Idaho nuclear research scientist who had taken her young relatives to Walmart to spend their holiday gift cards was killed Tuesday when her 2-year-old son pulled a loaded pistol from her purse and shot her.

Deputies who responded found Veronica Rutledge, 29, dead in the Hayden store’s electronics department in what Kootenai County sheriff’s spokesman Stu Miller described as a “tragic accident.” Rutledge, who worked at the Idaho National Laboratory, was from Blackfoot in southeastern Idaho, and her family had come to the area to visit relatives.

Rutledge had a concealed weapons permit. Miller said the young boy was left in a shopping cart, reached into his mother’s purse and grabbed a small-caliber handgun, which discharged once.

The victim’s father-in-law, Terry Rutledge, told The Associated Press that Veronica Rutledge “was a beautiful, young, loving mother.”

“She was not the least bit irresponsible,” Terry Rutledge said. “She was taken much too soon.” (Read more from the story “Two Year Old Accidentally Shoots Mother” HERE)

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36 Killed, 45 Injured in Shanghai Stampede

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

Thirty-five people died in a stampede during New Year’s celebrations in Shanghai’s historic waterfront area, city officials said Thursday — the worst disaster to hit one of China’s showcase cities in recent years.

A Shanghai government statement said another 46 people were receiving hospital treatment, including 14 who were seriously injured, following the chaos about a half-hour before midnight.

The microblog of the People’s Daily, which is run by the ruling Communist Party, said that 25 women and 10 men had died, aged between 36 and 16. The injured included 3 Taiwanese and one Malaysian, it said.

The official Xinhua News Agency quoted an unnamed witness as saying people had scrambled for coupons that looked like dollar bills that were being thrown out of a third-floor window. It said the cause of the stampede was still under investigation.

At one of the hospitals where the injured were being treated, police brought photos out of dead victims who they had not been able to identify, causing dozens of waiting relatives to crowd around the table. Not everyone could see, and young women who looked at photographs someone had taken on a cellphone broke into tears. (Read more about the Shanghai stampede HERE)

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GOP Won't be Happy About These Presidential Straw Poll Results

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Photo Credit: TPNN

Photo Credit: TPNN

By Matthew Burke. While the leftstream media, the GOP establishment, and the RINO political consultant class are busy pushing the narrative that squishy moderates like Bob Dole, John McCain, Mitt Romney, and now Jeb Bush are the most “electable,” a new 2016 presidential straw poll shows that the grassroots, as they did in the Reagan years, have a completely different preference.

Out of 16 potential Republican 2016 presidential candidates, Texas Senator Ted Cruz easily took first place, with over 26% of the vote, while Kentucky Senator Rand Paul came in second place, with 22%.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker also fared well in the straw poll, coming in third place while garnering just under 16% of the votes.

Considerably back in the field were Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, Ben Carson, Rick Perry, and Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican loser, all in the 5-6% range.

Pro-Common Core and Pro-Amnesty Jeb Bush received less than three percent, while Marco Rubio, perhaps still hurt by his earlier soft immigration position, received less than two percent.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie received little more than a rounding error, obtaining less than one percent of votes. (Read more from this story HERE)

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McCain’s big purge

By Alex Isenstadt. Nearly a year ago, tea party agitators in Arizona managed to get John McCain censured by his own state party. Now, he’s getting his revenge.

As the longtime Republican senator lays the groundwork for a likely 2016 reelection bid, his political team is engaging in an aggressive and systematic campaign to reshape the state GOP apparatus by ridding it of conservative firebrands and replacing them with steadfast allies.

The ambitious effort — detailed to POLITICO by nearly a dozen McCain operatives, donors, and friends — has stretched from office buildings in Alexandria, Virginia, where strategists plotted and fundraisers collected cash for a super PAC, to Vietnamese-American communities across Arizona, where recruiters sought out supporters eager to help the incumbent defeat the tea party.

Team McCain’s goal? Unseat conservative activists who hold obscure, but influential, local party offices. (Read more from this story HERE)

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City Shuts Down Glee Church Camp

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

By Todd Starnes. It appears that Jesus and jazz hands don’t mix.

That’s the gist of a legal battle in Auburn, N.Y., pitting City Hall against a summer glee camp hosted in the Case Mansion a building owned by the First Presbyterian Church.

The city’s code enforcement officer issued a cease-and-desist order in July — alleging the church’s musical theater glee camp was a zoning violation. And more than five months later – the wheels of justice are finally beginning to turn.

“Immediately cease use of property in an R-2 zone for commercial use,” the order read. “Cease operating a summer glee camp @100/camper in a residential district. This is not an allowable use here”. . .

“Why in the world is the city prosecuting the church over a glee camp?” asked Hiram Sasser, a Liberty Institute attorney defending the church against the city’s prosecution. Liberty Institute has a reputation for taking on religious liberty cases — and Sasser said First Presbyterian definitely has a case. (Read more about the glee church camp shutdown HERE)

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Chinese Authorities Tear Down Cross on Christian Nursing Home

By Sui-Lee Wee. Chinese authorities have dismantled a cross in a Christian nursing home a week before Christmas, an employee said on Tuesday, the latest example of a growing crackdown on Christianity.

Men dressed in plainclothes removed the cross that was on top of the nursing home in the eastern city of Hangzhou on Dec. 19, said Gao Huifang, a worker at the home.

Activists say the incident is part of a campaign targeting churches throughout Zhejiang province, which is known for its growing Christian population. Hangzhou is the provincial capital.

The dismantling of the cross had stunned residents, and three elderly people fainted on the spot, Gao said. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Nevada Rancher Taunts Feds by Still Grazing Cattle on Undisputed Lands

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Photo Credit: The Washington Times

Photo Credit: The Washington Times

Unbowed and unapologetic, Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy is still running his cattle on disputed grazing land eight months after his highly publicized standoff over public lands, but that doesn’t mean his feud with the federal government is over.

In a tense confrontation that generated international headlines, the 68-year-old Mr. Bundy won that round last spring: Bureau of Land Management officials agreed to leave the property and release his impounded cattle after hundreds of armed supporters descended on the Southern Nevada ranch in April. He says he hasn’t seen any sign of federal agents since.

“[W]e’ve really enjoyed some liberty and freedoms out here,” Mr. Bundy told the Las Vegas Review-Journal last month.

“Since the standoff, we haven’t seen one BLM vehicle on any of these country roads around this ranch. We haven’t seen one BLM ranger. We haven’t seen one [National] Park Service ranger. We haven’t really seen any undercover-type people,” he said. “We haven’t seen snipers on top of our hills. We haven’t seen high-tech communication equipment. We haven’t seen any of those things” . . .

His legal battle with the BLM over grazing rights, one that has resonated across the region, is ongoing. Mr. Bundy has refused to pay $1.2 million in grazing fees to the BLM, arguing that the land belongs to the state, not the federal government. The land rights issue is particularly heated in Nevada, where 85 percent of the land within the state’s borders is federally owned. (Read more about the Nevada rancher HERE)

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