Dozens Arrested in Pro-Amnesty Protest in DC

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Photo Credit: Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/MCTDozens of leaders in the immigration movement were arrested Thursday after they blocked a major intersection near the Capitol in a protest of Republican opposition to an immigration overhaul that would include a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s 11 million immigrants who are in the country illegally.

More than 40 leaders were taken into custody after they walked onto Independence Avenue and locked arms, chanting in Spanish “Si, se puede” – “Yes, we can.” Another, smaller group of activists were arrested later in the afternoon after they blocked the hallway outside the office of House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

As members of Congress prepared to leave Washington for a long summer recess, organizers said they wanted to send the “strongest message possible” to Republican leaders in the House of Representatives that they’re dissatisfied with progress on immigration and they’ll continue to fight for a comprehensive overhaul that includes a path to citizenship.

“We have to turn up the heat,” Jess George, the executive director of the Latin American Coalition in Charlotte, N.C., said minutes before she was arrested. “We have to let the House of Representatives know that America deserves a vote on citizenship. The vast majority of Americans want this. It’s democracy, and we need to make (House leaders) pay attention.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Senators Murkowski, Begich Vote to Confirm Obama’s Radical UN Ambassador Samantha Powers

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Photo Credit: US Mission GenevaThe Senate confirmed President Obama’s nominee to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

On an 87-10 vote Wednesday, the Senate approved the nomination of Samantha Power. Nearly 30 GOP senators voted with Democrats to approve her nomination.

“Having a strong voice in the United Nations is imperative,” Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) said ahead of the vote. “Power possesses the type of character, type of strong background, is a person of intellect and has the right kind of way to communicate to represent us at the United Nations.”

GOP Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.), Rand Paul (Ky.), David Vitter (La.), Mike Lee (Utah), Ted Cruz (Texas), Tim Scott (S.C.), Mike Enzi (Wyo.), Dean Heller (Nev.), Richard Shelby (Ala.) and John Barrasso (Wyo.) voted against Power’s nomination.

Power, who serves on Obama’s National Security Council, came under criticism for remarks she made during her academic career about Israel and “crimes” the United States has committed. She has since recanted those remarks.

Read more from this story HERE.

Not on Welfare or Living Below Poverty Line? Never Mind, Here’s Your Free Obamaphones

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Photo Credit: National Review The Federal Communications Commission oversees the so-called Lifeline program, created in 1984 to make sure impoverished Americans had telephone service available to call their moms, bosses, and 911. In 2008, the FCC expanded the program to offer subsidized cell-phone service, and since then, the expenses of running the program have soared. In 2012, the program’s costs had risen to $2.189 billion, up from $822 million before wireless carriers were included. As of June, there were 13.8 million active Lifeline subscriptions.

To be eligible for Lifeline, the applicant is supposed to be receiving some significant government benefit — food stamps, Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income, public housing assistance, etc. But because welfare eligibility has expanded under the Obama administration, more people than ever before are qualified to receive “free” cell-phone service — part of the reason why Lifeline mobiles have become commonly known as Obamaphones. Alternatively, applicants can qualify if their household income is less than 136 percent of the federal poverty line.

But as with any federal program with too much funding, too little oversight, and perverse financial incentives, Lifeline has become infamous for rampant fraud and abuse. There have been news reports about recipients flaunting dozens of subsidized phones. And in February, the Wall Street Journal reported on an FCC audit of the top five Lifeline providers, which found that “41% of their more than six million subscribers either couldn’t demonstrate their eligibility or didn’t respond to requests for certification.”

The FCC supposedly buckled down on eligibility standards last year and established other safeguards aimed at reducing fraud. I was curious about how tough it was to get one of these phones, so last month, I hit the streets of New York. And out of respect for the law and my journalistic integrity, I did not lie to obtain a phone.

Read more HERE about how the author acquired two free Obamaphones even though she didn’t lie and obviously didn’t qualify.

Major Drugstore Chains Now Selling Abortion-Inducing ‘Plan B’ Off the Shelf

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Photo Credit: CNSNewsThree major drugstore chains–CVS, RiteAid, and Walgreens–have moved “Plan B,” a drug that can induce an abortion, onto the open shelves in their stores, where it is now sold like aspirin or other non-prescription drugs.

In April, Judge Edward Korman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, ordered the Food and Drug Administration to make the drug available on a non-prescription basis to women “of all ages.”

On June 20, the FDA announced that it had approved the non-prescription sale of Plan B to all women who have “reproductive potential” no matter what their age.

“On June 10, 2013, [FDA] notified a United States District Court judge in New York of its intent to comply with the court’s April 5, 2013 order instructing the FDA to make levonorgestrel-containing emergency contraceptives available as an over-the-counter (OTC) product without age or point-of-sale restrictions,” said the announcement.

However, the Food and Drug Administrations also says it does not have any authority to require retailers to carry specific products, including Plan B. Thus, stores remain free to sell or not sell the abortion-inducing drug.

Read more from this story HERE.

Kurds Issue Ultimatum to Turkish Government

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Photo Credit: Getty ImagesThe Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has given a September 1st deadline to the Turkish government, to advance the Kurdish-Turk peace process, the AFP has reported.

“A step must be taken. September 1 is the deadline”, Cemil Bayik, the PKK’s new leader, was quoted as saying by pro-Kurdish Firat news agency.

“If no step is taken before 1 September, it will be understood that the aim is not a solution,” he added. Without providing further detail, Mr Bayik said Kurds would then have to defend themselves.

The PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey and Western nations, had announced a ceasefire with the Turkish government back in March of this year.

The truce involved the PKK agreeing to remove its approximately 2000 fighters from Turkey back to northern Iraq, in return for greater constitutional rights for Turkey’s 15 million Kurds.

Read more from this story HERE.

Report: Colorado Now a Major Exporter of Illegal Marijuana

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Photo Credit: KDVRThe amount of illegal marijuana from Colorado and seized elsewhere quadrupled in the past few years, according to a report by a network of law enforcement organizations.

The report found that in 2012, there were 274 seizures where the marijuana was destined for other states. In 2005, the number was 54.

The most common destinations for the marijuana were Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Texas.

The size of the seizures also increased. From 2005 to 2008, the total average number of pounds seized was 2,220. From 2009 to 2012, it increased to 3,937.

Most of the marijuana came from Denver, Boulder and El Paso counties, the report found.

Read more from this story HERE.

A Piece of Jesus’ Cross? Relics Unearthed in Turkey

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Photo Credit: NBCTurkish archaeologists say they have found a stone chest in a 1,350-year-old church that appears to contain a relic venerated as a piece of Jesus’ cross.

The artifacts were unearthed during a dig at Balatlar Church in Turkey’s Sinop Province, and displayed this week by excavation team leader Gülgün Köroğlu. “We have found a holy thing in a chest. It is a piece of a cross,” the Hurriyet Daily News quoted her as saying.

Köroğlu, an art historian and archaeologist at Turkey’s Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts, said the team suspects that the chest served as a symbolic coffin for the relics of a holy person — and that the fragments within it were associated with Jesus’ crucifixion.

She showed reporters at the site a stone with crosses carved into it. “This stone chest is very important to us. It has a history and is the most important artifact we have unearthed so far,” she said. The chest has been taken to a laboratory for further examination.

Köroğlu said her team has been working since 2009 at the church — which was built in the year 660, during the Byzantine era. She said the ruins of an ancient Roman bath were also found at the site, along with more than 1,000 human skeletons.

Read more from this story HERE.

Literally Tons of Quarters Used to Pay Court Order in Wrongful Death Case (+video)

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Photo Credit: Sh4rp_iA strange payment rolled up to two local law offices in Southern Illinois. A truck carrying $150,000 in quarters. It was part of a protest by Roger Herrin about a court ruling in a wrongful death case.

Herrin’s son, Michael, died in a car accident in 2001. The 15-year-old was in a car with three other people when a truck failed to stop at an intersection. Since then, the families have been in a legal battle over how insurance money should be distributed.

Each one of the bags of quarters weighed 50 pounds and contained $1,000 worth of quarters. There were 150 of them on the truck…

This was Roger Herrin’s protest, 7,500 pounds of quarters, part of the amount he was ordered to pay by an appellate court in his son’s wrongful death case…

The legal battle between victims stems from the distribution of underinsured motorist coverage. The Jeep was covered up to $800,000. A judge ruled Herrin should get most of that money, $600,000, because his son died. The other victims appealed the decision and won.

Read more from this story HERE.

Startling Slide in Home Ownership, Now at 18-Year Low

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Photo Credit: APStartling new housing data released this week could take the pep out of President Obama’s blitz of economic rallies, as they show homeownership dropping despite the push — by him and his predecessors — to prop up the market.

The new Census figures show homeownership dropped in the second quarter to an 18-year low of 65 percent. The rate, which hit a record 69.2 percent in 2004, has now fallen to its pre-housing bubble days nearly two decades ago.

The president, on the heels of the report, plans to head to Phoenix on Tuesday for a homeownership-themed stop on his multi-city tour — part of his recent pivot back to the economy.

But it’s unclear whether, given the government’s track record, new federal policies could or should be used to help Americans realize their picket-fence dreams.

Richard Barrington, of Money Rates, argues that homeownership is returning to more reasonable levels, and that the government should not push folks into buying homes they can’t afford.

Read more from this story HERE.

Blind No More: ‘It’s Like I’m a Child All Over Again’

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Photo Credit: The Montreal GazetteWhen Pierre-Paul Thomas was a boy, he could not play hockey with his brothers and it broke his heart.

For Thomas had been born blind. He endured the triple misfortune of suffering from congenital nystagmus — a condition in which the eyes move from side to side involuntarily — along with damaged optic nerves and cataracts bulging behind his pupils…

But two years ago, at the age of 66, Thomas fell down the stairs in a St-Henri apartment building and fractured the bones of his thin face, including those around his eye sockets. He was rushed to the Montreal General Hospital with severe swelling around his eye.

A team of doctors operated on him and repaired those bones. One day, months later, he was examined by a plastic surgeon at the Montreal General, Lucie Lessard, renowned for her skills in micro-suturing.

During the consultation about repairing his scalp, Lessard asked matter-of-factly, “Oh, while we’re at it, do you want us to fix your eyes, too?”

…And so during two dates in February, Thomas underwent surgery at the Montreal General to remove the cataracts from his eyes. The operations, to put it mildly, were a success, for Thomas could now truly see for the first time in his life.

Read more from this story HERE.