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Benecia Police Department Lt. Frank Hartig said Teresa Gilmete Badger was booked into the Solano County Jail on Friday on suspicion of poisoning. The 47-year-old Badger’s arrest capped a month-and-a-half-long investigation that started with a tip from the Benicia Unified School District’s superintendent.
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“San Francisco has a long history of being at the cutting edge of things that we have turned out to be very right on… and I would like to see this one be another of those things that we were right about before the rest of the country catches on,” says Laura Thomas, HPPC representative.
The HIV community activist admits that this “great program” of offering fresh pipes to crack addicts may seem “counter intuitive.” She points out, however, that unlike dirty hypodermic needles, crack pipes don’t transmit HIV. Thomas explains, “Once you can bring people into your program, make them feel respected, taken care of, then they’re more likely to come back and get on HIV meds and want to be engaged and taking care of their health.”
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Schumer argues that Democrats can exploit the Tea Party ties to big money donors in an effort to turn blue collar voters against fiscally conservative candidates within the GOP who eschew big government spending.
“The tea party elites, with little rebuttal, have been able to make government the bogeyman,” Schumer said during a speech at the liberal Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C. “They have convinced too much of America that government is the explanation for their ills.”
Schumer also said that Democrats must double down on their support of government programs.
“We must stop playing defense and go on offense when it comes to the need for government. We must state loudly and repeatedly that we believe government is often a necessary force for good,” said Schumer.
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In a State of the Union a president tries to put his stamp on things. Here we are, here’s where we’re going, all roads lead forward. We can face whatever test, meet whatever challenge, united in the desire that we be the greatest nation in the history of man . . .
What great moments this tradition has given us. JFK’s father thought his son’s first State of the Union was better than his Inaugural Address. It had a warmth. “Mr. Speaker . . . it is a pleasure to return from whence I came. You are among my oldest friends in Washington—and this House is my oldest home.” Friends, home—another era. LBJ taking the reins in 1964: “Let this session of Congress be known as the session which did more for civil rights than the last hundred sessions combined.” And you know, that’s what it became. Nixon enjoyed dilating on history, and was interesting when he did.
Reagan dazzled, though he told his diary he never got used to it: “I’ve made a mil. speeches in every kind of place to every kind of audience. Somehow there’s a thing about entering that chamber—goose bumps & a quiver.” There was his speech after he’d recovered from being shot—brio and gallantry. And of course Lenny Skutnik. Just before Reagan’s 1982 speech Mr. Skutnik, a government worker, saw Air Florida Flight 90 go into the Potomac. As others watched from the banks of the frozen river, Mr. Skutnik threw off his coat, dived in and swam like a golden retriever to save passengers. The night of the speech he was up there in the gallery next to the first lady, and when Reagan pointed him out the chamber exploded. This nice, quiet man who’d gone uncelebrated all his professional life, and then one day circumstances came together and he showed that beneath the bureaucrat’s clothing was the beating heart of a hero.
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Federal prosecutors announced the charges Thursday against Dinesh D’Souza, who made the anti-Obama documentary “2016: Obama’s America.” They say he’ll be arraigned Friday on charges he directed $20,000 in illegal contributions to be made in the New York Senate race in 2012. The funds allegedly headed to the Wendy Long campaign, who unsuccessfully ran for Hillary Clinton’s U.S. Senate seat.
D’Souza found out he was being investigated by the feds in the mid-2013, months after his anti-Obama documentary earned roughly $33 million at the box office, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The film went on to become the second most popular political documentary in U.S. history.
Prosecutors say the San Diego resident was charged with causing the illegal campaign contributions to be made and causing false statements to be made in connection with them. They say the criminal case resulted from a routine review by the FBI of campaign filings by various candidates after the Senate race.
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The controversial provision authorizes the military, under presidential authority, to arrest, kidnap, detain without trial and hold indefinitely American citizens thought to “represent an enduring security threat to the United States.”
Journalist Chris Hedges is among the plaintiffs charging the law could be used to target journalists who report on terror-related issues.
A friend-of-the-court brief submitted in the case states: “The central question now before this court is whether the federal judiciary will stand idly by while Congress and the President establish the legal framework for the establishment of a police state and the subjugation of the American citizenry through the threat of indefinite military arrest and detention, without the right to counsel, the right to confront one’s accusers, or the right to trial.”
The brief was submitted to the Supreme Court by attorneys with the U.S. Justice Foundation of Ramona, Calif., Friedman Harfenist Kraut & Perlstein of Lake Success, N.Y., and William J. Olson, P.C. of Vienna, Va.
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“We atheists and agnostics do not appreciate paying high prices for lodging, only to find Gideon Bibles in our hotel rooms, sometimes prominently displayed, knowing they contain instructions, for instance, to kill ‘infidels’ and ‘blasphemers,’ among other primitive and dangerous teachings,” FFRF Co-President Dan Barker said in a statement.
The organization of atheists, agnostics and “free-thinkers” got their sheets shorted when they discovered Gideon Bibles had been placed in rooms at Lowell Center, a lodge owned by the University of Wisconsin-Extension in Madison.
The Bibles were a gift from Gideons International, an evangelical Christian organization founded in 1899 whose primary ministry is to distribute free copies of the Bible.
The FFRF said a lodge guest recently complained that they had “encountered” a Bible in their room. Oh, the horror! The unidentified guest was apparently terrified by the presence of the Holy Bible and with trembling fingers contacted the FFRF.
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The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a politically entrenched synod of special interests. These fat cats do not represent the best interests of American entrepreneurs, American workers, American parents and students, or Americans of any race, class, or age who believe in low taxes and limited government. The chamber’s business is the big business of the Beltway, not the business of mainstream America.
If you are a business owner who believes your country should strictly and consistently enforce its borders and deport illegal immigrants who violate the terms of their visas, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce doesn’t represent you.
If you are a worker who believes that the feds should punish illegal aliens who use fake documents to obtain jobs instead of rewarding them with “legal status,” the U.S. Chamber of Commerce doesn’t champion you.
If you are a parent or educator who opposes top-down federal education schemes such as Common Core that undermine local control, dumb down rigorous curricula, and threaten family privacy while enriching big business and lobbying groups, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce doesn’t speak for you.
If you are a taxpayer who has had enough of crony capitalism and publicly funded bailouts of failing corporations, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce doesn’t work for you.
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By Tony Lee.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent more than $50 million on lobbying efforts last year and will surpass that this year as it ramps up its efforts on amnesty, Common Core, and the destruction of the Tea Party that is opposed to both measures.
According to disclosure reports, the Chamber of Commerce spent about $52.7 million last year, and much of that was spent on what has been described as the “top legislative priority for the business community”–amnesty for illegal immigrants. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office determined that the pathway to citizenship provision in immigration reform legislation would lower the wages of American workers.
In 2014, Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue said the group would be pulling out “all the stops” to try and pass amnesty. In addition, the group will reportedly spend $50 million to try to crush the Tea Party in the midterm elections, largely because the movement has fiercely been opposed to amnesty. During his “State of American Business” address this month, Donohue also said the Chamber “significantly supports” Common Core, as well, and will be looking to push Common Core programs.
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Al Jazeera’s John Seigenthaler asked Jill Abramson, who’s served as NYT’s executive editor since 2011, to grade the Obama Administration’s transparency with traditional media outlets, and Abramson gave him more than an earful:
Seigenthaler: Let me move on to another topic in the Obama administration. How would you grade this administration, compared to others, when it comes to its relationship with the media?
Abramson: Well, I would slightly like to interpret the question as “How secretive is this White House?” which I think is the most important question. I would say it is the most secretive White House that I have ever been involved in covering, and that includes — I spent 22 years of my career in Washington and covered presidents from President Reagan on up through now, and I was Washington bureau chief of the Times during George W. Bush’s first term.
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In his article published at National Review, “The Conservative Case for Universal Coverage,” Avik Roy writes:
I argue that no Republican health-reform plan will get anywhere until Republicans come to agree that it’s a legitimate goal of public policy to ensure that all Americans have access to quality health care, just as we agree that all Americans should have access to a quality education:
To credibly advance this approach, conservatives must make one change to their stance: They have to agree that universal coverage is a morally worthy goal. No conservative politicians oppose universal public education; instead, we champion reforms that improve the quality of public education that poor Americans receive.
The author thus makes the case — asserts it twice, in fact — that because conservatives support quality public schooling (“universal public education”), it follows that they ought also to approve of a federal universal health insurance program (“universal coverage”). This is a pernicious line of reasoning that undermines the very concept of limited government conservatives claim to champion.
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