Suspicious Package Containing Explosive Material sent to Arizona Sheriff Arpaio

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Photo Credit: AP

Arizona authorities say a package addressed to Sheriff Joe Arpaio would have exploded if opened, leading to serious injuries or death. Maricopa County Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan made the comment Friday at a news conference in Phoenix.

The package intercepted in Flagstaff late Thursday was addressed to Arpaio at his downtown Phoenix office. It had been left in a parcel locker in a rural part of Coconino County.

U.S. Postal Inspection Service spokesman Keith Moore said a courier brought it into the main Post Office in Flagstaff, and authorities used a water cannon to neutralize the package.

Arpaio, the self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff in America,” said this isn’t the first time he’s been threatened. Arpaio is known nationally for his strict treatment of jail inmates and cracking down on illegal immigration.

“Of course you worry. I’m a victim, I’m a witness. When you convict people, the victim has to be somewhat concerned. I’m a little concerned about my family,” Arpaio said at the news conference. “I didn’t ask for all these threats.”

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Cops: Anti-Gun Mayor Demanded Sex at Gunpoint

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Photo Credit: WND

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s “Mayors Against Illegal Guns” organization was revealed last fall to include a long list of mayors who, because of their convictions, were no longer eligible to own weapons themselves.

Now another embarrassment has surfaced for the organization.

According to a report from the Second Amendment Foundation, Mayor James Schiliro, of Marcus Hook, Pa., now is facing a long list of charges for allegedly trying to force an underage boy to perform sex acts – and then firing one of three handguns he grabbed at a wall when the boy refused.

“Mayor Schiliro is one more example of why we started the ‘Gun Owners Against Illegal Mayors’ campaign,” said Alan Gottlieb, the organization’s executive director.

“He joins recently convicted former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, and recently indicted former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, both of whom were MAIG members.”

SAF launched its campaign last fall, and “the list keeps growing,” Gottlieb said.

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The Obamas' Falling Tax Rate

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Photo Credit: AP

President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, paid the lowest effective tax rate since they moved into the White House by taking advantage of the most popular — and expensive — benefits in the tax code.

Tax returns released by the White House on Friday show that the Obamas paid an effective tax rate of 18.4 percent on more than $608,000 in adjusted gross income earned in 2012. Last year, their rate was 20.5 percent.

They were able to lower the amount of income on which they were taxed by more than $258,000 by claiming several big-ticket deductions.

The first family’s biggest deduction by far stems from the $150,034 in donations they made to 33 charities, including the Fisher House Foundation, a charity that helps the families of wounded veterans, and the Sidwell Friends School, where the president’s daughters attend school.

The Obamas’ return serves as an interesting test case for how some of the proposals outlined in the White House budget released this week would raise taxes on high earners. For instance, the budget calls on lawmakers to impose a 28 percent cap on deductions for taxpayers that fall into the top tax brackets.

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Gun Bill Championed by Democrats Limits Rights of Homosexual Gun Owners

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Gay couples living in states that do not recognize their marriage will now be unable to transfer firearm ownership to their partners without undergoing a background check, should federal gun legislation recently proposed by Democratic Sen. Harry Reid become law.

According to the “Safe Communities, Safe Schools Act of 2013,” which was introduced in the Senate this week, only couples in a government-sanctioned relationships will be allowed to privately transfer ownership of their firearms without first having to pass the federal background check.

“It shall be unlawful for any person who is not licensed under this chapter to transfer a firearm to any other person who is not licensed under this chapter, unless a licensed importer, licensed manufacturer, or licensed dealer has first taken possession of the firearm,” the bill reads.

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GOP Establishment Keeps RNC Rules Rammed Through by Romney Campaign Last Year

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Photo Credit: AP

In the GOP’s ongoing establishment vs. grassroots saga, chalk one up for the establishment.

Since Mitt Romney’s loss, the Rand Paul wing of the party has been on the ascendency. But libertarians hit a roadblock Friday as the Republican National Committee opted at its spring meeting to keep in place a host of rules rammed through by the Romney campaign at last year’s national convention.

The move represents at least a small setback to Rand Paul’s 2016 hopes, potentially making it more difficult for him or another candidate with strong grassroots support to pick up delegates. Had the rules been in effect last year — they were adopted after Mitt Romney secured the nomination — the former Massachusetts governor would likely have wrapped up the nomination much earlier and avoided the drawn-out warfare that weakened him heading into the general election against Barack Obama.

One plank that was maintained, for example, allows more states to award delegates on a winner-take-all basis, instead of proportionally. An attempt to overturn another rule that bounds a state delegation to support whoever won a statewide vote received only 49 votes; 107 committee members voted to keep it in place.

The vote followed a heated debate. Paul backers argued that the Romney rules favor big-money candidates at the expense of contenders with devoted followings among activists.

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FBI Wants $41 Million Boost To Cyber Monitoring Capabilities (+video)

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Photo Credit: ALAMY

The FBI has requested more than $41 million to improve the bureau’s ability to collect and analyze cyber information and address “critical gaps” in its capability to monitor web activities.

As part of an overall $86 million budget request for a “Next Generation Cyber Initiative,” the FBI wants to hire 36 employees, including 10 agents, to improve its cyber collection and analysis capabilities. The justification for that $41 million request, which includes over $33 million in nonpersonnel spending, was submitted in a classified report to Congress as part of the bureau’s 2014 budget request.

The FBI said it would use the new initiative to “help promote a whole of government approach to cybersecurity, as well as address critical gaps in the FBI’s current ability to investigate computer intrusions and identify, mitigate, and disrupt cyber threat actors.”

The FBI has long had concerns that new technologies are not “wiretap friendly” and create blind spots for law enforcement when targets use certain methods of communication. Last year, the FBI privately pressured Internet companies to create backdoors for government surveillance.

Watch video here:


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Video: 'Cops are the Only Ones Responsible Enough to Have Guns'

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In this video, an inner city police officer is demonstrating gun safety to a large classroom of children when the unthinkable happens: his gun goes off.

After inquiring with everyone as to whether they’re OK, he moves on to the next gun, an assault rifle.

The kids get a bit excited at that point.

Although this video is from 2010, it’s a great reminder for even the most-experienced gun handler to keep gun safety a top priority at all times.

See the classroom instruction followed by the accidental discharge and follow-on discussion all here:

Pentagon Slip May Cause Israel to Fast-Track Plans to Attack Iran

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Analysts fear a dramatic advance in North Korea’s nuclear missile technology, revealed inadvertently during a Congressional hearing Thursday, will quickly find its way to Iran — forcing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fast-track a long-contemplated attack against Tehran’s nuclear-enrichment facilities.

Pentagon officials are playing down a U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency assessment that North Korea probably has the ability to miniaturize a nuclear weapon and place it on an ICBM. U.S. officials say that miniaturization capability, if it exists, is untested and unreliable.

In February, North Korea detonated what is described as a “lighter, miniaturized atomic bomb.” At the time, there was speculation this could signal the Hermit Kingdom had developed a nuclear warhead that it could place on its long-range missiles. Pentagon officials, however, continued to insist North Korea was at least a year away from developing that capability.

Jerusalem Post defense analyst Yaakov Katz, author of “Israel vs. Iran: The Shadow War,” tells Newsmax that U.S. and Israeli intelligence officials have generally agreed that it would take Iran six to 12 months to build a nuclear device once it tried to break out and enrich its material from the 20-percent to the 90-percent level required. Beyond that, intelligence experts have projected, it would then take Iran another year or two to produce a miniaturized warhead that could be installed on a missile.

Now, Katz says, the time lag between reaching nuclear capability and Iran’s ability to arm a missile with a nuclear warhead appears to have vanished. That means Thursday’s revelation could reduce Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s nonmilitary options against Iran, forcing the Jewish state to step up its timetable for attacking the Persian nation should it acquire enough enriched uranium to be a significant threat.

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DeMint Calls on American Grassroots to Expose Gosnell Story Amid Media Blackout

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Photo Credit: Breitbart

Former South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint continues sending shock waves through the Washington establishment in his new post atop the conservative Heritage Foundation, this time calling on the grassroots citizenry to rise up and replace the mainstream media when it comes to their blackout of coverage of the atrocities of Kermit Gosnell.

“The murder trial of Kermit Gosnell has touched all Americans who have heard about it and brought home to them the unspeakable cruelties that have happened at abortion clinics in our own nation,” DeMint said in a Friday statement. “The trial is now nearing its first solid month of deliberation, holding the 72-year-old abortionist accountable for the unspeakable procedures committed to countless women and children in his abortion facility. Nobody who has read the testimony or seen the pictures can come away unshaken.”

Even so, DeMint argues that not enough Americans have seen this story because most major media outlets have ignored it. But, the former South Carolina senator notes that the mainstream media are hardly the only source of news anymore, and that new media are taking old media’s place.

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Students Asked to 'Argue that Jews are Evil' and Prove Nazi Loyalty in Assignment Linked to Common Core

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Photo Credit: The Blaze

Students in some Albany High School English classes were asked to participate in the unthinkable this week as part of a persuasive writing assignment. The objective? Prove why Jews are evil and convince the teacher of their loyalty to the Third Reich in five paragraphs or less.

“You must argue that Jews are evil, and use solid rationale from government propaganda to convince me of your loyalty to the Third Reich!” read the description on the assignment, which the school superintendent said reflects the kind of sophisticated writing expected of students under the new Common Core standards and was meant to hone students’ persuasive argument abilities.

The TimesUnion reports that students were asked to digest Nazi propaganda material, then imagine that their teacher was an SS officer who needed to be persuaded of their loyalty by arguing that Jews are the root of all the world’s ills.

“I would apologize to our families,” Albany Superintendent Marguerite Vanden Wyngaard said. “I don’t believe there was malice or intent to cause any insensitivities to our families of Jewish faith.”

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