Three Years After Texas Woman’s Suicide, a Question Lingers: Who Was She?

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

To her husband, she was Lori Kennedy. But to a dogged federal investigator, she is “Jane Doe,” a Texas mother who killed herself three years ago in her family’s driveway after spending decades using stolen identities to erase a past that remains mired in mystery.

For two years, Social Security investigator Joseph Velling has been working to uncover the real identity of Lori Erica Ruff, who was Lori Erica Kennedy before marrying into an East Texas family in 2004. Prior to that, she was known as Becky Sue Turner, an identity forged with the birth certificate of a long-dead child. Velling, a seasoned government sleuth, has been stumped in figuring out the true name and background of this Jane Doe, who took on aliases with spy-like sophistication.

“She created a false identity for the sole purpose of getting lost in America,” Velling told FoxNews.com. “It must have been for some horrific reason…either she was running away from a crime or an abusive family or relationship.”

“She wanted a complete break from her past,” said Velling. “By changing her name, she created a clean identity – a person with no past.”

The mystery surrounding Jane Doe’s identity begins in May 1988, when the unknown woman requested the Bakersfield, Calif., birth certificate of a 2-year-old girl, Becky Sue Turner, who died in a 1971 house fire in Fife, Wash., Velling said.

Read more from this story HERE.

What’s the Secret to Magician’s ‘Bus Levitation’ Trick? (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTube

Photo Credit: YouTube

A British magician working with Pepsi Max wants people to “live for now” and witness the “magic that’s all around us.”

In order to capture their attention, the magician who goes by Dynamo performed a “bus levitation” trick. While the double-decker rolled along London streets, Dynamo appeared to be floating in the air alongside the bus with nothing more than what seems to be his arm holding him up.

Naturally, onlookers were amazed, but the first thing they do, as you can see in the video, is whip out their phones to take photographic evidence.When you watch the clip, see if you can count how many people have their phones out to document the trick.

Read more from this story HERE.

Breast-Fed Babies Achieve Higher Social Status

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Photo Credit: Getty Images

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Studies suggest that breast-feeding can be good for a baby’s health, and now there’s fresh evidence that it may help children to climb the social ladder as well.

What does breast-feeding have to do with social status? According to the researchers from University College London, who reported their findings in the journal BMJ, breast-feeding can impact cognitive development, and that accounted for just over a third of nursing’s effect on improvements in social status. What’s more, the practice also seemed to lower the chances of downward mobility.

To assess the impact of breast-feeding on later social status, the researchers compared two cohorts of people, including more than 17,400 individuals born in 1958, and over 16,700 people born in 1970. When their kids were about 5 years old, mothers in both groups were asked if they had breast-fed their children. The researchers used the children’s fathers’ income and job to determine the youngsters’ initial social status when they were about 10 to 11 years old and compared this with their social status decades later, when they reached age 33 or 34. And to get some idea of the way in which breast-feeding might be influencing social status, the scientists also evaluated the children’s cognitive skills and stress responses when they were about 10 or 11.

Read more from this story HERE.

Supremes Open Marriage to Homosexuals, Prop 8 in Question

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Homosexual Supreme COurtBy WND.com. The U.S. Supreme Court today struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act as a violation of the constitutional provision for equal protection.

It was one of two major marriage decisions. The court dismissed the second case, California’s Proposition 8, deciding that the citizens who appealed the California Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the law protecting traditional marriage did not have “standing.”

The DOMA dispute was triggered by a lesbian whose same-sex partner died and left her an estate. The lesbian sued because she was assessed taxes on her inheritance while the survivor of a married spouse would be exempt.

The opinion said marriage laws long have been determined by states, but DOMA rejected that concept.

President Obama had refused to defend DOMA, which was signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996. The provision simply said that for federal purposes, such as benefits, marriage is limited to a man and a woman. Read more from this story HERE.

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Prop 8 General Counsel Announces that Supremes Did Not Rule Against Prop 8

By Andy Pugno. Just moments ago, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision in the Proposition 8 case.

It is widely being mis-reported that the Court ruled against Prop 8. IT DID NOT!

Rather, the Court said it could not reach a decision because California government officials refused to defend the law. So it did not rule on Prop 8’s validity.

In doing so, the Court also nullified the Ninth Circuit’s ruling against Prop 8, which is a great victory in itself!

So, the voter-passed Constitutional Amendment to protect man-woman marriage remains the law of the land in California, because only an appellate court can strike down a voter proposition statewide.

But it remains to be seen what California officials will do now.

Right now we are heading down the steps of the Supreme Court building to a long bank of TV cameras and reporters, to deliver this statement:

“We are pleased that the Supreme Court has reversed the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ misguided decision that sought to invalidate Proposition 8. For the more than seven million Californians who have seen their vote stripped away from them, little by little, over the course of five years, that decision is gratifying.

“While it is unfortunate that the Court’s ruling does not directly resolve questions about the scope of the trial court’s order against Prop 8, we will continue to defend Prop 8 and seek its enforcement until such time as there is a binding statewide order that renders Prop 8 unenforceable.

“We are also especially grateful and humbled by the consistent prayers and support of traditional marriage supporters everywhere throughout this long and difficult case.”

US Supreme Court Ruling Keeps Alaska in Driver Seat to Define Marriage

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Photo Credit: dmcdevit

Photo Credit: dmcdevit

Today’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling regarding the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and Prop 8, California’s successful citizen initiative that defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman, highlights how important it is that Alaska was the first state in the nation in 1998 to define natural marriage in our own State Constitution.

Thank God we as citizens of Alaska ignored the advice of those who said we should wait for the Court to determine what this essential institution means.

Although you will hear from most media sources that DOMA was dismantled today, Justice Kennedy, acknowledges in his majority opinion the inherent right of individual states to define and regulate marriage as they see fit.

For most Americans, the big picture is more of what the Court did not do:

*It did not create a constitutional right to same-sex marriage as it did for abortion in 1973.

*It also did not declare same-sex marriage a civil right on the order of ethnicity or nationality.

The critical role of natural marriage is not diminished by these rulings today. The essential need for children to have both a married mother and father is not lessened by the opinions of five unelected black robes on the U.S. Supreme Court. The work of Alaska Family Action to strengthen marriage and families continues, as well.

Now more than ever, Alaskans must not stay silent on cherishing and promoting the truth of natural marriage. Whatever journalists, intellectuals and other elites may tell us, the only way to guarantee future political losses is to sit idly by.

We must step up and frame our message, strengthen our coalitions, devise strategies and bear witness to a culture looking for answers.

Though Alaska Family Action disagrees with aspects of the Court’s decision, we are grateful that the Court did not undermine the will of Alaska voters who defined marriage in our State Constitution.

In DOMA, we believe that the court erred in claiming that a state that has redefined marriage can force that definition on the federal government for purposes of federal marriage laws.

In Prop 8, the court has ensured that the state-by-state debate about marriage is allowed to continue. Truly the debate over marriage has just begun.

Marriage is more than just a personal promise, it serves a public purpose. It is society’s best guarantee of a limited government that stays out of family life. Social science data has proved this time and time again.

Alaska Family Action is committed to continuing to stand for marriage and to defeat any efforts to redefine this essential union.

Stay tuned and stay engaged.

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Thank you for your interest in the Alaska Family Action. We are an Alaska-based pro-family, public policy organization formed to provide a voice on social and cultural issues impacting Alaskan families. We are funded entirely by the generous contributions of individual Alaskans who believe in helping us to compete in the marketplace of ideas. By strengthening families in Alaska through informed citizenship, community involvement and improved public policy, the Alaska Family Action intends on being engaged in the important issues of our day on a long-term, ongoing basis. We look forward to serving you and ask you to join us financially, prayerfully and as an active volunteer partner.

Standing for families,

Jim Minnery

President

Alaska Family Action

Radical Muslim Preacher Whose Organization Supports Killing US Soldiers Met at White House this Month

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

An Islamic scholar who serves as vice president of an organization that supports the terrorist group Hamas and whose president sanctioned the killing of American soldiers in Iraq met with senior Obama administration officials at the White House earlier this month.

In a posting on his website, brought to The Daily Caller’s attention by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, Shaykh Abdullah Bin Bayyah revealed that he met at the White House on June 13 with Gayle Smith, senior director of the National Security Council, and Rashad Hussain, President Obama’s special envoy Organization of the Islamic Conference, among other officials.

The posting also initially stated that the “national security adviser” was at the meeting, without naming him directly, though that part of the post was removed shortly after TheDC contacted the White House to see if National Security Adviser Tom Donilon was in fact at the meeting. According to the Investigative Project on Terrorism, the Arabic version of the post was also changed to say that the deputy national security adviser attended, not the national security adviser.

Among the topics the post says Bin Bayyah addressed at the meeting was how to “lift the injustices from vulnerable peoples such as the Syrian people, the Palestinians, and the Muslims in Myanmar” and for the U.S. to do more to aid the Syrian revolution.

Read more from this story HERE.

Speaker John Boehner Headlining Alaskan Fundraiser with Randy Ruedrich and Commissioner Dan Sullivan in Anchorage

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) is set to raise money in Alaska with the former chair of the Alaska GOP that Sarah Palin took on for corruption.

Politico reported on Thursday that Boehner will raise money in Alaska on July 2, and former Alaska GOP Chair Randy Ruedrich is listed on the invitation to the event.

According to Politico, Boehner will “headline a July 2 event at a private home in Anchorage to collect donations for the Boehner for Speaker joint fundraising committee, which benefits his campaign, PAC, the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Ohio Republican Party.” The maximum donation allowed is $52,600.

Rep. Don Young (R-AK), who has faced numerous ethics charges in Congress, is also on the host committee for the event.

Ruedrich ultimately resigned “his job as a state oil and gas regulator” in 2003 after Palin joined Democrats to call his political fundraising a conflict of interest for drawing money from industries he regulated.

Read more from this story HERE.

Was NSA Whistleblower Snowden Really in Hong Kong? (+video)

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Photo Credit: Kin Cheung

Photo Credit: Kin Cheung

By Aaron Klein. While NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden continues to baffle world governments and the news media with his exact whereabouts and travel plans, one question apparently not being asked is whether he was ever in Hong Kong in the first place.

Or, if Snowden was in Hong Kong, did he leave the region the weekend, when he was reported to have departed for Moscow?

Snowden is currently a high-profile figure in the news. Yet not a single picture or video that places him in Hong Kong has emerged, including during his purported arrival at the airport with a small entourage of lawyers and a WikiLeaks representative.

The South China Morning Post claimed Snowden took off from the Hong Kong airport at 10:55 a.m. local time on Sunday on flight SU213 and was due to arrive at Moscow’s Shermetyevo International Airport at 5:15 p.m.

Upon the flight’s arrival, Russian and international camera crews caught no glimpses of Snowden. Read more from this story HERE.

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U.S. loses secrets, prestige as China, Russia defy Obama over Snowden

By Dave Boyer. It doesn’t look good when the most powerful man in the world can’t get his hands on one of the most wanted men in the world.

Edward Snowden, the confessed National Security Agency leaker, has eluded U.S. authorities since early June, even as President Obama’s administration pleaded with officials in China and Russia to send the fugitive back to America.

The traditional rivals of the U.S. have even seemed to enjoy the Obama administration’s distress. Russian President Vladimir Putin declared Mr. Snowden “a free man” Tuesday, confirming that Mr. Snowden had been at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport since Sunday. He explicitly refused to comply with the U.S. request to turn over Mr. Snowden, noting that the two countries don’t have an extradition treaty.

The episode is making the U.S. look weak in the eyes of Russia and China, said Leon Aron, a foreign policy analyst at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute.

“From the point of view of the Russians and the Chinese, definitely,” Mr. Aron said. “In their systems, legitimacy comes from being treated with fear and respect. And clearly, they’re choosing not to treat the United States that way.” Read more from this story HERE.

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The Age of American Impotence: As the Edward Snowden saga illustrates, the Obama administration is running out of foreign influence.

By Bret Stephens. At this writing, Edward J. Snowden, the fugitive National Security Agency contractor indicted on espionage charges, is in Moscow, where Vladimir Putin’s spokesman insists his government is powerless to detain him. “We have nothing to do with this story,” says Dmitri Peskov. “I don’t approve or disapprove plane tickets.”

Funny how Mr. Putin always seems to discover his inner civil libertarian when it’s an opportunity to humiliate the United States. When the Russian government wants someone off Russian soil, it either removes him from it or puts him under it. Just ask investor Bill Browder, who was declared persona non grata when he tried to land in Moscow in November 2005. Or think of Mr. Browder’s lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, murdered by Russian prison officials four years later.

Mr. Snowden arrived in Moscow from Hong Kong, where local officials refused a U.S. arrest request, supposedly on grounds it “did not fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law.” That’s funny, too, since Mr. Snowden had been staying in a Chinese government safe house before Beijing gave the order to ignore the U.S. request and let him go.

“The Hong Kong government didn’t have much of a role,” Albert Ho, a Hong Kong legislator, told Reuters. “Its role was to receive instructions to not stop him at the airport.”

Now Mr. Snowden may be on his way to Havana, or Caracas, or Quito. It’s been said often enough that this so-called transparency crusader remains free thanks to the cheek and indulgence of dictatorships and strongmen. It’s also been said that his case illustrates how little has been achieved by President Obama’s “reset” with Moscow, or with his California schmoozing of China’s Xi Jinping earlier this month. Read more from this story HERE.

Rush: Obama One of the Most Successful Presidents

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Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

With the U.S. still struggling to emerge from the economic malaise of recent years, the top-rated radio host who once said he hopes Barack Obama fails is now saying Obama “may be one of the most successful presidents that we’ve ever had.”

The remark from Rush Limbaugh was in response to complaints from others lamenting the state of the country, telling him, “Boy, this Obama. He’s really, really making a mess of things.”

“Wait a minute,” Limbaugh responded. “Obama isn’t ‘making a mess’ of anything. Obama may be one of the most successful presidents that we’ve ever had.”

“He’s getting everything he wants,” Limbaugh continued. “He’s transforming this country in ways that no one ever thought possible. He is succeeding at every turn, and he has a scandal pop up at just the right time every moment some big transformation’s taking place so that we’re all distracted. Everything the guy wants is happening one way or the other, sooner than later, later than sooner. Whatever. Nobody’s stopping Obama. Nobody’s stopping the Democrats. They’re getting everything they want.

“They’re getting everything they want with the Republican Party going along with most of it! Now, if your definition of a successful president or a failure as a president is somebody who is making a mess of things? Yeah, then he’s a miserable failure. But from his standpoint, Obama’s objectives, his goals? I’ll bet you Obama, in private, can’t believe how easy this has been. I’ll bet you when he and [Attorney General Eric] Holder and Valerie Jarrett and rest of them get together, they laugh and talk about how easy this has been.”

Read more from this story HERE.

84 Year Old Shoots At Robber, Now Under Investigation Himself for Assault (+video)

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Photo Credit: gfairchild

Photo Credit: gfairchild

For the second time this week, a gun owner is under investigation for shooting at a criminal who unlawfully invaded his property.

Tony DiSanto, 84, known simply as Mr. Tony, discovered a would-be robber stuffing stolen items into a Volkswagen parked in his driveway in Bradenton, Fla. After retrieving his firearm, Mr. Tony reportedly issued several warnings to the robber.

According to witnesses, the robber then rammed his car into a fence and into DiSanto’s vehicle in a bid to escape. When the criminal refused to listen to his multiple warnings, he shot at the vehicle multiple times.

One of the rounds missed its target and hit an SUV across the street, WFTS-TV reports. Police are still looking for the robbery suspect, who escaped by riding across a next-door lawn and backing all the way down the street.

DiSanto is cooperating with police, however, Dave Bristow, a spokesman with the Manatee Sheriff’s Office, said the case is under investigation and will likely be turned over to the State Attorney’s Office to determine if the man broke the law.

Read more from this story HERE.