Could the EPA Chief Really be ‘Worse than Lois Lerner’?

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Photo Credit: APA new court ruling may force more transparency out of the Environmental Protection Agency.

That’s the hope of Chris Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. He points out the EPA has been involved with false identification in e-mail accounts, conducted agency business on private e-mail accounts and is now being held accountable for destroying thousands of public records in the form of text messages.

Horner goes so far as to say EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy is “worse than Lois Lerner,” the central figure in the Internal Revenue Service targeting scandal.

“I don’t think any agency can compare with this agency,” Horner told TheBlaze, regarding the EPA. “For once, the EPA has been told it cannot do whatever it wants to do under the law. That is news.”

Horner was referring to a federal judge’s ruling Thursday that called it “implausible” that EPA officials could be missing 5,000 text messages from government-issued mobile phones and not suspect the destruction of records. The decision allows a lawsuit to proceed seeking an injunction to prevent further document destruction by the agency.

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Internal Medicine Specialist: Ebola Cases Massively Under Reported, Virus Much More Contagious Than Public is Being Told

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Photo Credit: CELLOU BINANI / AFP / GettyDespite knowing that he had symptoms of the Ebola virus, a Nigerian diplomat boards a plane in Liberia and flies from that small country to his nation’s capital city of Lagos, a city with 21 million people. The man was fleeing a quarantine meant to contain the Ebola virus. Instead, his body — now a host for the disease — was transporting the highly contagious and deadly, single-strand virus to Nigeria’s largest city. . .

The Nigerian doctor who visited the diplomat in his hotel room and became infected with Ebola also saw hundreds of patients — operating on at least two of them before he ultimately passed away from the disease. . .

With the possibility of the Ebola outbreak widening in the region and eventually spanning the globe, this writer reached out to Board Certified Internal Medicine specialist Dr. Jorge Rodriguez for more information. . .

In the brief discussion about the mysterious disease, Rodriguez shared some startling information, including, ”This thing is a lot more contagious than we’re being given . . . or we’re being told about.”

“What scares me the most . . . doctors and nurses are the ones getting this, dying from it and transmitting it,” Rodriguez added. “So, I think there’s a lot more about Ebola and how it’s transmitted that we don’t know . . . The head of the CDC said, ‘It’s much worse than what’s being reported . . . I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s double or triple what we’re told.”

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Can IRS Collect Obamacare Taxes When It Can’t Handle Tax Complaints?

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Photo Credit: APThe Internal Revenue Service is on the hot seat again as federal auditors blast the agency for not responding to taxpayer complaints in a timely manner.

The latest report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) reveals that between 2012 and 2013, the IRS failed to address at least 47 percent of complaints filed against tax preparers. The report also said that another 49 percent of the complaints sat unaddressed for at least two months.

This is significant auditors said because “the burden on taxpayers can include receiving an incorrect refund amount or even owing the IRS penalties and interest.”

There’s even more at stake than delays in handling complaints. This is the second scathing report in less than a month to question the agency’s productivity and work quality. In August, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said the IRS was struggling to collect a new tax that’s critical to financing the president’s health care law; auditors say the IRS’s flawed collecting process is allowing it to raise only three-quarters or so of the revenue that was originally expected.

The IRS had originally estimated that the tax would bring in about $1.2 billion in the second and third quarters of 2013 – but it’s only received $913.4 million.

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Unidentified Respiratory Virus Likely to Hit Kids Across Country

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Photo Credit: Getty Images A respiratory illness that has already sickened more than a thousand children in 10 states is likely to become a nationwide problem, doctors say.

The disease hasn’t been officially identified but officials suspect a rare respiratory virus called human enterovirus 68. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention the virus is related to the rhinovirus, which causes the common cold.

According to Mark Pallansch, director of the Division of Viral Diseases at the CDC, similar cases to the ones in Colorado have been cropping up across the U.S. At least 10 states — Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Iowa, Colorado, Ohio, Oklahoma, North Carolina, and Georgia — have reported suspected outbreaks of human enterovirus 68 and requested CDC support.

“Viruses don’t tend to respect borders,” ABC News Chief Health and Medical Editor Dr. Richard Besser said. “It is only 10 states now, but it’s going to be across the country. So if your state doesn’t have it now, watch for it, it’s coming.”

Doctors say they are not even sure yet how this particular virus spreads, though the back-to-school season is a normal time for illnesses to spread among children.


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Small Meteorite Strikes Nicaragua, Government Says

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Photo Credit: APNicaragua’s government said Sunday that a mysterious boom heard overnight in the capital was made by a small meteorite that left a crater in a wooded area near Managua’s airport.

Government spokeswoman Rosario Murillo said a committee formed by the government to study the event determined it was a “relatively small” meteorite that “appears to have come off an asteroid that was passing close to Earth.”

Murillo said Nicaragua will ask international experts to help local scientists in understanding what happened.

The crater left by the meteorite had a radius of 12 meters (39 feet) and a depth of 5 meters (16 feet), said Humberto Saballos, a volcanologist with the Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies who was on the committee. He said it is still not clear if the meteorite disintegrated or was buried.

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Obama Says His Comment About Extremists Being a JV Team "Wasn’t Specifically Referring To" Islamic State

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Photo Credit: APBy Steve Contorno, Politifact.

President Barack Obama granted an exclusive sit down to Meet the Press for new host Chuck Todd’s inaugural show.

As expected, Todd and Obama had a long discussion about the administration’s strategy for dealing with Islamic State, the terrorist group responsible for the beheading of two American journalists, with Obama stating “we’re going to defeat them.”

Todd then remarked that Obama’s response was a “long way from when you described them as a JV team.”

“Was that bad intelligence or your misjudgment?” Todd asked.

“Keep in mind I wasn’t specifically referring to (Islamic State),” Obama replied. “I’ve said that, regionally, there were a whole series of organizations that were focused primarily locally, weren’t focused on homeland, because I think a lot of us, when we think about terrorism, the model is Osama bin Laden and 9/11.”

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On ISIS, Ted Cruz Tells President Obama to ‘Take Them Out’

By JEFF ZELENY and ARLETTE SAENZ.

Sen. Ted Cruz accused President Obama of underestimating and misjudging the threat posed by ISIS, but said he should seek congressional approval before deciding whether to escalate the military campaign against the Islamic extremists.

“What we ought to have is a directed, concerted, overwhelming campaign to take them out,” Cruz said in an interview on “This Week.” “The focus should be Iraq, but the real focus should be taking out ISIS. Within Syria, it should not be our objective to try and resolve the civil war.”

Cruz, a Texas Republican, said the president “has not demonstrated that he’s taking ISIS seriously.” Even as Cruz delivered a blistering critique of the administration’s foreign policy, he conceded that Republicans have their own foreign policy debate unfolding inside their party, which he said makes him more inclined to seek the presidency.

“The American people in 2014 and also November 2016 are going to be looking for leaders who want to work to restore America’s leadership in the world,” Cruz said.

When pressed whether the challenges abroad made him more inclined to open his own bid for the Republican presidential nomination, he declared: “It increases my interest in doing everything I can to change the direction we’re on.”

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Woman Starts GoFundMe Campaign to Pay for Her Abortion So She Can Party

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Photo Credit: LifeNewsPeople around the world use the GoFundMe web site and it’s normally a place for heartwarming campaigns to help people who have adverse medical conditions, who have been in accidents or who are raising money for other people in need or good causes. But one woman is using it to raise funds for her abortion.

Bailey’s Abortion Fund has already raised $1,654 of $2,500 by 106 people over the last two days who want to give her their hard-earned cash to pay to kill her baby in an abortion.

UPDATE AT 1:30 p.m. ET: The funding page has been taken down. LifeNews has reached out to GoFundMe for comment and has yet to receive a reply.

With the projected cost of the abortion well over the typical $450-$500 price for an early term abortion, it’s obvious that Bailey and her boyfriend are raising funds to take the life of their child in a late abortion near viability. The couple say they are raising funds for the abortion because insurance will not cover it.

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Romney: ‘Hillary Clinton And Barack Obama Are Two Peas In The Same Pod’

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Photo Credit: Alex Wong / Getty Former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney says there is no question in his mind that he would have been more effective in the White House than President Barack Obama. But he reiterates he has no plans to run again.

My time has come and gone, Romney told Fox News Sunday.

Romney cited continuing high U.S. unemployment and growing troubles abroad, and that some of those who voted for Obama might now have some buyer’s remorse.

Yet he said he didn’t want to dwell on the past, while admitting he had made mistakes in his campaign — and that the Obama campaign did a good job on picking up on them.

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War on Kids: Neighbor Begs Government to Shut Child’s Lemonade Stand

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Photo Credit: Chris Urso via TwitterOn the corner of Patricia Avenue and San Salvador Drive in a Dunedin, Fla., neighborhood, 12-year-old T.J. Guerrero operates a lemonade stand to raise money for summer activities with his friends and family.

His stand is usually open in the afternoon, and customers line up to sample his lemonade and baked goods. “I tried the strawberry before and it’s perfect,” one customer commented, according to the Tampa Bay Times. “That’s what it’s about. He’s willing to work.”

Hard work and business skills are the lessons learned in this venture. “It’s all about profit,” T.J. noted. He operates his stand with a little white table and yellow sign on the corner of a grassy lawn. The neighbors enjoy seeing the business flourish in the summer months, reminding them of their childhood. “I had one when I was a little kid. We all did,” said Vincent Titara, who lives nearby T.J.’s lemonade stand. “I think it’s cute.”

But not everyone in the neighborhood was happy with the young boy’s little business.

In a scenario reminiscent of the relationship between fictional characters Dennis the Menace and Mr. Wilson, an older neighbor became increasingly upset with the placement of T.J.’s lemonade stand near his house and tried to force the city government to shut down the boy’s business.

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Myth of Arctic Meltdown: Satellite Images Show Ice Cap is Thicker and Covers 1.7 Million Square Kilometers More than 2 Years Ago

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Photo Credit: Reuters Myth of Arctic Meltdown: Satellite Images Show Ice Cap is Thicker and Covers 1.7 Million Square Kilometres More than 2 Years Ago

The speech by former US Vice-President Al Gore was apocalyptic. ‘The North Polar ice cap is falling off a cliff,’ he said. ‘It could be completely gone in summer in as little as seven years. Seven years from now.’

Those comments came in 2007 as Mr Gore accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for his campaigning on climate change.

But seven years after his warning, The Mail on Sunday can reveal that, far from vanishing, the Arctic ice cap has expanded for the second year in succession – with a surge, depending on how you measure it, of between 43 and 63 per cent since 2012.


To put it another way, an area the size of Alaska, America’s biggest state, was open water two years ago, but is again now covered by ice.

The most widely used measurements of Arctic ice extent are the daily satellite readings issued by the US National Snow and Ice Data Center, which is co-funded by Nasa. These reveal that – while the long-term trend still shows a decline – last Monday, August 25, the area of the Arctic Ocean with at least 15 per cent ice cover was 5.62 million square kilometres.

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