Feds Ban Cod Fishing in Northeast for Six Months, Could be Permanent

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Photo Credit: ROBERT F. BUKATY / AP FILE

Photo Credit: ROBERT F. BUKATY / AP FILE

In an effort to halt dramatic declines in the cod population, federal officials overseeing the fishing industry on Monday announced unprecedented measures that effectively ban all commercial fishing of the region’s iconic species in the Gulf of Maine.

The new rules, which fishermen say will be devastating for their livelihood, will take effect this week and last for at least the next six months.

They expand areas where commercial fishing for cod was already banned and now also apply the ban to recreational fishermen. The restrictions reduce the allowed accidental catch of cod to just 200 pounds per boat, tighten reporting requirements, and reduce the size of nets that fishermen are allowed to use.

“We’re trying to absolutely shut down fishing where there are concentrations of cod, so there will be zero cod caught,” said John Bullard, Greater Atlantic regional administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “Anything that can catch cod is not allowed in these areas.”

The temporary measures could be made permanent when the next fishing season begins in May, Bullard said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Judge Served On the Board of Planned Parenthood and Pro-Kids Inc. At the Same Time

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Photo Credit: LifeSiteNews

Photo Credit: LifeSiteNews

Pro-life advocates in Cincinnati say a federal judge who once served on the board of Planned Parenthood has a blatant conflict of interest if he hears a case to determine whether a Cincinnati Planned Parenthood abortion facility will remain open. Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati found the disclosure on a questionnaire filed with the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee when President Obama named Black to the bench in 2010.

But that’s not the only conflict the questionnaire presents.

At the same time that Judge Timothy S. Black was president of Planned Parenthood, he also served on the board of a group called Pro-Kids Inc.

Read more from this story HERE.

Another Tape Surfaces of ObamaCare Architect Calling American People ‘Stupid’

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber apparently doesn’t think much of the intelligence of the American people.

A new tape has surfaced showing Gruber, once again, claiming the health care law’s authors took advantage of the “stupid” American public.

The tape, played on Fox News’ “The Kelly File,” showed Gruber speaking at an October 2013 event at Washington University in St. Louis.

Referring to the so-called “Cadillac tax” on high-end health plans, he said: “They proposed it and that passed, because the American people are too stupid to understand the difference.”

Gruber specifically was referring to the way the “Cadillac tax” was designed — he touted their plan to, instead of taxing policy holders, tax the insurance companies that offered them. He suggested that taxing individuals would have been politically unpalatable, but taxing the companies worked because Americans didn’t understand the difference.

Read more from this story HERE.

Christian School’s ROTC Under Attack

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

Do Christian colleges have the right to require that ROTC officers be followers of the Christian faith?

That’s the crux of a controversy surrounding the ROTC program at Wheaton College, one of the nation’s most prominent Christian schools.

The U.S. Army says they have launched a review of ROTC policies nationwide after the Military Religious Freedom Foundation raised concerns about an ROTC assignment listing for an assistant professor of military science at Wheaton.

The MRFF noted that the person hired “must be of Christian faith.”

“While Wheaton is a private Christian college, and can impose a religious test on its own faculty members, it cannot impose that same religious test on the faculty members provided by the U.S. Army for its ROTC program, and the U.S. Army unequivocally cannot require a religious test for any ROTC assignment, regardless of the religious preference of the college at which that ROTC assignment exists,” MRFF founder Mikey Weinstein wrote in a letter sent in November to Secretary of the Army John McHugh.

Read more from this story HERE.

UN Official Rips US States Over Legal Pot Policies

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

By Fox News.

A Russian diplomat who heads the United Nations’ drug policy office reportedly chided U.S. states for legalizing recreational marijuana and vowed to take up his concerns with officials in Washington — in the latest incident of a U.N. official meddling in local U.S. affairs.

In response, one American advocacy group suggested the U.N. agency has no authority here, and has outlived its usefulness.

Yury Fedotov, director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, addressed the ballot measures on Wednesday, on the heels of last week’s midterm elections. Last Tuesday, Oregon, Alaska and Washington, D.C., voters approved measures allowing marijuana use – following the pot path blazed by Colorado and Washington state.

But according to Reuters, Fedotov told reporters that the moves defy international drug “conventions.”

“I don’t see how [the laws] can be compatible with existing conventions,” he reportedly said, claiming he would take it up with State Department and U.N. officials next week.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: M.Scott Mahaskey / POLITICO

Photo Credit: M.Scott Mahaskey / POLITICO

Marijuana Patient Sues After Firm Won’t Hire Her

By MICHELLE R. SMITH.

A graduate student has sued a textile company for refusing to hire her for a two-month internship because she uses medical marijuana to treat frequent and debilitating migraine headaches, a decision her lawyer calls discrimination.

Christine Callaghan, who is studying textiles at the University of Rhode Island, sued Westerly-based Darlington Fabrics Corp. and its parent, the Moore Company, on Wednesday. The Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing Callaghan, said it believes it’s the first lawsuit of its kind in the state.

A lawyer for the company, Timothy Cavazza, said it had not yet been served with the lawsuit and it was company policy not to comment on litigation. He added that they were confident they acted in compliance with state and federal law and that the lawsuit would be dismissed.

Carly Iafrate, the attorney who filed the lawsuit for Callaghan, said if employers are allowed to discriminate against medical marijuana patients, then its legalization would become “an empty promise.”

“People with disabilities simply cannot be denied equal employment opportunities on the basis of the type of medication required to treat their particular condition,” she said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Ninth Circuit Denies California Appeal: Eased Concealed Carry Requirements Stand

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Photo Credit: AFP

Photo Credit: AFP

On February 13 Breitbart News reported that a three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down California’s “good cause” requirement for concealed carry permits in the state.

Two weeks later, California Attorney General Kamala appealed, asking for the full 11-judge panel to hear and reverse the decision. Her request for appeal was joined by The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

On November 12 the Ninth Circuit rejected Harris’ appeal.

Read more from this story HERE.

Over Half of EPA Inspector General's Credit Card Charges Were 'Improper'

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Photo Credit: Free Enterprise

Photo Credit: Free Enterprise

A review of “high risk” credit card charges by Environmental Protection Agency auditors found that more than half were “improper,” including for police equipment and “novelty items.”

The EPA’s inspector general plucked a few charges out of those made by the office from October 2012 to April 2014 to review. Of the $62,012 charged by workers, $36,488 were improper, according to the review titled, “Spending Taxpayer Dollars: Ineffective Oversight of Purchase Cards Resulted in Improper Purchases at EPA OIG.”

The IG found no illegal purchases, but said that many were made by IG workers who lacked the authority. Several purchases weren’t cleared by bosses, records weren’t retained and in two unidentified cases, sales taxes weren’t recovered; Uncle Sam doesn’t pay taxes.

Read more from this story HERE.

New Federal Program to Double SNAP Value When Used to Buy Fresh Fruit and Vegetables

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Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

When the farm bill was passed earlier this year, there was a little-hyped program included that seeks to double the value of SNAP (food stamp) dollars when they’re spent at farmer’s markets for fresh fruits and vegetables.

The program is an expansion of smaller programs at farmers markets throughout the country. The Crossroads Farmer’s Market was the recipient of a $5,000 grant from the National Watermelon Association, and used that money to redeem SNAP funds for double their value in the market. (A person would redeem 15 dollars of SNAP funds from their EBT card for 30 dollars worth of tokens to spend in the market.) Another program located in Harlem and the South Bronx gives SNAP recipients four additional “HealthBucks” coupons for fruits and vegetables for every ten dollars of SNAP funds spent at a farmer’s market.

The program has received support from both sides of the aisle, according to NPR:

He invited one of Michigan’s senators — Democrat Debbie Stabenow — to see Double Up Food Bucks for herself. And last year, Stabenow, who is chairwoman of the Senate’s Agriculture Committee, proposed including it in the so-called farm bill.

Read more from this story HERE.

Rosetta Mission’s Probe Makes Historic Comet Landing

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A robotic probe has landed on a comet, in an unprecedented moment for space exploration that could provide a trove of insights into what comets are made of and how they behave.

Photo Credit: ESA/NASA - SOHO/LASCO

Photo Credit: ESA/NASA – SOHO/LASCO

Rocket scientists at the European Space Agency’s mission control here erupted in cheers, as they received the first signal that the probe that was released from the Rosetta spacecraft had touched down more than 300 million miles away from earth on the forbidding landscape of a small comet known as 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

There were even more cheers, hugs and handshakes when other signals suggested it had done so safely.

Photo Credit: ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA

Photo Credit: ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA

The landing, first envisaged more than 20 years ago, marks the crowning moment of Rosetta’s decadelong cruise through the solar system to get up close and personal with a comet. During its 4 billion mile journey on a track to meet the comet, Rosetta bounced around the inner solar system like a cosmic billiard ball, circling the sun almost four times.

Read more from this story HERE.

Investigation: Illegal Aliens Faking Crimes to Stay in USA (+video)

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Photo Credit: WSOCTV

Photo Credit: WSOCTV

By Mark Becker.

Six years ago, Cristian Fernandez’s world changed when he was shot in the back outside a club on Albemarle Road. After months in the hospital, doctors told Fernandez he would be paralyzed from the chest down for the rest of his life, and he has spent most of the last six years on a bed in his family’s small living room in east Charlotte.

Because he came to the United States illegally as a child, his mother could not get the help he would need to pay the mounting medical bills, so in 2013 he applied for a special visa that would give him a start on legal residency and eventually U.S. citizenship.

It’s called a U-Visa, and the government hands out 10,000 of them a year to victims of certain — mostly violent — crimes and their family members. Fernandez and his mother received theirs in July and it immediately began opening doors.

Read more from this story HERE.

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albuenasc-e1415741760194Illegal Immigrant Drunk Driver Hits And Kills 3-Year-Old Waiting For Ice Cream (+video)

By Chuck Ross.

An illegal immigrant driving drunk and without a license crashed through a fence Sunday, hitting and killing a 3-year-old girl as she was waiting in line for ice cream in Porterville, California.

Adolf Balbuena, 18, mowed down the toddler, Angeles Moreno, as she and several others, including an 8-year-old boy, were waiting line at an ice cream truck.

After hitting Moreno, Balbuena backed up and drove away. He was arrested at his home around an hour later,the Fresno Bee reported.

Initial reports did not state Balbuena’s immigration status, but KMPH reported on Tuesday that he is an illegal immigrant from Mexico. Though the local district attorney is handling the case, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will ultimately decide whether he will be tried in the U.S. or deported back to Mexico, the TV station reported.

Both the Fresno Bee and KMPH noted this was the third hit-and-run to have occurred in the San Joaquin Valley in the past few months.

Read more from this story HERE.