Eric Holder: No Plans at DOJ to Investigate Secret Waiting Lists and Veteran Deaths at VA Hospitals

Photo Credit: Weekly Standard

Photo Credit: Weekly Standard

Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that the Department of Justice doesn’t have any plans to investigate allegations that veterans placed on secret waiting lists at VA hospitals died while waiting for care.

“Well, obviously these reports if they’re true are unacceptable, and the allegations are being taken very seriously by the administration. But I don’t have any announcements at this time with regard to anything that the Justice Department is doing,” Holder told reporters at a press conference.

“This is something on our radar screen at this point, but there is an investigation being done by the [VA] inspector general, and we’ll see what happens as a result of that inquiry and other information that comes to light in some form or fashion,” Holder added.

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Russia to Ban US from Using Space Station

Photo Credit: Camera Press / Ria Novosti

Photo Credit: Camera Press / Ria Novosti

Russia is to deny the US future use of the International Space Station beyond 2020 and will also bar its rocket engines from launching US military satellites as it hits back at American sanctions imposed over Ukraine crisis.

Russia’s deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin announced a series of punitive measures on Tuesday against the US in response to sanctions imposed after Russia annexed Crimea.

The two countries have long cooperated closely on space exploration despite their clashes in foreign policy.

The Space Station is manned by both American and Russian crew, but the only way to reach it is by using Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft.

The US is keen to keep the $100 billion (£600) ISS flying until at least 2024, four years beyond its original target.

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This Common Core Math Problem Is So Absurdly Difficult It Stumps College Students and Teachers (+video)

College students at George Mason University were recently shown the Common Core method- being taught to many of America’s elementary school students- for solving this basic math problem: 32 – 12 = ?

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Former Madam Claims Hawaii ICE Agent Raped, Abused Her in Graphic Civil Suit

Photo Credit: REUTERS

Photo Credit: REUTERS

The plaintiff, Malia Arciero, outlined a string of serious allegations in the 18-page complaint filed against ICE special agent Ryan Faulkner.

The 33-year-old Arciero’s most graphic claim involves an undated incident in which he allegedly handcuffed her in an ICE storage room and forced her to perform oral sex, according to the suit filed March 27 in a Honolulu court.

Her attorney, Gary V. Dubin, told FoxNews.com that two regional officers from the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, are coming to Hawaii this week to interview his client and look into the allegations.

“They have to,” Dubin said. “ICE is too big. There’s lots of money, graft, corruption and self-interest.” He also said attorneys will start submitting pretrial motions in the coming weeks. Arciero’s complaint had requested a trial.

An ICE official declined to comment directly when asked about the case and about Dubin’s claim that regional officers would be visiting, saying they could not discuss pending litigation. The agency stressed that it places the “highest priority on protecting the safety of those it serves” and has “strict safeguards and protocols in place” to ensure security of agents and those they deal with.

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WATCH: Dem Congressman Picks His Ear, Eats The Wax On Live TV

Democratic Florida Rep. Joe Garcia appeared to pick something out of his ear and then eat it on live TV last week.

During a House Judiciary Committee markup broadcast live on C-SPAN May 7, Garcia blatantly stuck a finger in his ear, picked at it, examined his catch, and then ate it.

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Tea Party-Backed Candidate Sasse Wins GOP Senate Primary in Nebraska

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Tea Party favorite Ben Sasse won the Republican nomination for an open Senate seat in Nebraska Tuesday night, after a heated and costly primary battle that drew heavy national attention.

Sasse, a university president, was able to hold off former state treasurer Shane Osborn, and dark horse candidate Sid Dinsdale who had begun to surge in recent weeks. Sasse grabbed 48 percent of the vote with Dinsdale finishing second and Osborn finishing third, according to preliminary returns.

“We were never doing this because we need another job,” said Sasse. “We were only going to do this if we were going to talk about big bold conservative ideas.”

The win makes Sasse a huge favorite in November’s general election, where he’ll face Democrat Dave Domina, an Omaha attorney. The winner will replace Republican Mike Johanns, who didn’t seek a second term.

Sasse, the president of Midland University, had steadily gained the backing of some of the most influential conservative groups and figures. His victory is a huge win for the Tea Party as the movement has struggled to gain traction this year in the primaries.

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Over 200 Dead, Many Trapped in Turkish Coal Mine

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

An explosion and fire in a coal mine in western Turkey killed at least 201 workers and left some 200 more trapped deep inside, officials said Tuesday.

A massive rescue operation was underway at the mine in Soma, Turkey, about 150 miles south of Istanbul.

Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz updated the death toll and number of missing after earlier saying 787 people were inside the coal mine at the time of the accident and 363 of of them had been rescued.

He said 80 mine workers were injured, at least four of them in serious condition.

He said most of the deaths were from carbon monoxide poisoning, and those trapped were nearly 500 yards underground..

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Arlington National Cemetery Marks 150 Years

Photo Credit: Mark Wilson, Getty

Photo Credit: Mark Wilson, Getty

ANC 150, the five-week commemoration of 150 years of Arlington National Cemetery, kicked off Tuesday with an Army wreath-laying ceremony at the grave site of Army Pvt. William Christman, the first military burial at Arlington.

Christman enlisted in the 67th Pennsylvania Infantry on March 25, 1864, at the age of 20. He was hospitalized for measles five weeks later and died. Christman was buried at Arlington on May 13 of that year.

After the wreath ceremony, members of the Christman family will spend time at his grave. Rick Bodenschatz, representing the Tobyhanna Township Historical Association, will also place a stone of remembrance from the original Christman home. The family home, located in Pocono Lake, Pa., was built from funds received from Christman’s Army service.

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Jihadists Execute Seven in Syria, Two by Crucifixion

Photo Credit: The Daily Star

Photo Credit: The Daily Star

The jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant announced it had executed seven prisoners in its bastion in northeastern Syria on Tuesday, two of them by crucifixion.

ISIL, which has been disavowed even by Al-Qaeda, said it held the seven responsible for a grenade attack on one of its fighters earlier this month in the Euphrates Valley city of Raqa, which it rules with an iron fist.

“Ten days ago, attackers on a motorbike threw a grenade at an ISIL fighter at the Naim roundabout. A Muslim civilian had his leg blown off and a child was killed,” the group said on Twitter.

“Our fighters immediately set up a roadblock and succeeded in capturing them. They were then able to detain other members of the cell.”

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights posted a photograph of the two prisoners being crucified at the roundabout with passer-by walking past apparently unfazed.

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Benghazi Hearings Are a Truth Hunt, Not a Witch Hunt

Photo Credit: REUTERS

Photo Credit: REUTERS

By Charlie Daniels.

In the early days of the inquiry into the Benghazi debacle, it became obvious that the Obama administration was going to stonewall efforts to find out what happened when they tried to feed the American public the lie about the whole thing being caused by some obscure piece of film that insulted Mohammed and was played on television in the Muslim world.

They even stood at the coffins of the four murdered Americans, President Obama and Hillary Clinton still maintaining to the parents of the four men who had given their lives in service to this nation and let them believe that their sons and loved ones had been slaughtered by a random group of Muslim fanatics who just happened to be in the area and decided to kill some Americans.

The lie was soon exposed, but there were others like myself who never believed it to start with. I told my Twitter partners in 2012 that I was going to bring up Benghazi every day until the truth was known and I have, every day since.

People question me as to why I continue to post the Benghazi reminders daily because it’s old news, or they claim that the situation has been adequately explained, all the questions answered and it’s time to move on.

I vehemently disagree with those positions. To me, Benghazi is a symbol of a government that is poorly-led and out-of-control, an example of the indifference of a president who calmly went to bed and flew off to Las Vegas the next morning for a fundraiser.

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Photo Credit: NEWSCOM

Photo Credit: NEWSCOM

Who’s Crazy?

By Stephen F. Hayes.

Benghazi, crazy. That’s the association the White House and its allies want to encourage as a House Select Committee begins what should be the most thorough investigation of the Benghazi attacks to date. The White House wants to delegitimize the process before it begins and preemptively discredit the findings. So last week senior White House adviser David Plouffe claimed that “a very loud, delusional minority” is driving the Republicans on Benghazi, and former representative Jane Harman compared questions about Benghazi to conspiracy theories about Vince Foster and aliens.

At first blush, it might seem an odd strategy. A Fox News poll taken in mid-April found that 60 percent of voters want Congress to continue investigating the Benghazi attacks—a total that included 77 percent of Republicans, 61 percent of independents, and 42 percent of Democrats. The same poll found that 61 percent of Americans believe the Obama administration is “trying to cover up” the real Benghazi story—87 percent of Republicans, 66 percent of independents, and 33 percent of Democrats. Just 26 percent think the administration has been “open and transparent.” Notably, this poll was taken before the court-ordered release last month of previously withheld White House emails and talking points, a revelation that provided fresh evidence of White House stonewalling.

But the Obama administration’s strategy isn’t intended for the country at large so much as it is for the Washington press corps. The goal is to convince reporters that by investigating Benghazi they are doing the bidding of crackpots and political hacks. The White House is betting that journalists are more cynical about House Republicans and their motives than they are about the Obama administration’s mendacity on Benghazi. There’s some evidence that’s right.

Most of the reporting after John Boehner’s announcement of a select committee hinted at political motives. The New York Times, in a story that typified the coverage of the latest developments, led this way: “House Republicans on Friday escalated their battle with the White House over the continuing investigations into the 2012 attack that killed four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, ensuring that the issue will not recede in the midst of a fierce partisan fight for control of Congress.”

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