U.S. Funded Idle Time at Battery Factory

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Photo Credit: Wall Street JournalThe Obama administration’s electric car efforts took another hit on Wednesday after a federal inspection found a South Korean advanced battery maker never scaled up U.S. production despite receiving $142 million in federal grants.

A Holland, Mich., factory owned by LG Chem Ltd., part of LG Corp., was half-funded by a government grant and estimated to add some 440 jobs building battery cells for General Motors Co.’s Chevrolet Volt and other vehicles.

When demand for the plant’s batteries didn’t meet expectations, the company filled orders with cells made at a factory in South Korea, leaving the Michigan plant largely idle, according to the report by the Department of Energy’s Inspector General, Gregory Friedman.

LG Chem said in a statement that production delays at the Michigan facility were “market-driven,” adding that it is “developing specific plans for the start of production.” The company said it regretted that it applied for reimbursement for “employment costs that were not allowed” under its U.S. grant.

The inspector general said that to avoid layoffs at the factory LG Chem paid idle workers $1.6 million in the third quarter of last year, about half of which was covered by its U.S. grant, even though there was nothing for them to do. The workers played board games, watched movies, and volunteered at local animal shelters during regular work hours, Mr. Friedman said. LG Chem has since paid back the government’s share of those charges.

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Obama Continues Radical Social Engineering of the Military

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Photo Credit: frontpagemag.comThe progressive revamping of the military has gotten another boost. Outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has offered an array of new benefits to the same-sex partners of service members, both active and retired, whether they are married or not. They include child care services, member-designated hospital visits, and the issuance of military ID cards to same-sex partners, granting them access to on-base commissaries, movie theaters and gyms. “Taking care of our service members and honoring the sacrifices of all military families are two core values of this nation. Extending these benefits is an appropriate next step under current law to ensure that all service members receive equal support for what they do to protect this nation,” said Panetta in a statement announcing the development. Yet all service members are not receiving equal support: unmarried heterosexual partners and their families are not getting these benefits.

All the new benefits were previously denied by the Pentagon. The federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) mostly prohibits more than 85 other benefits now granted to heterosexual military spouses and their children from being given to same-sex partners. These include medical care, housing allowances, death benefits and burial at Arlington National Cemetery. They will remain prohibited because making such changes “presents complex legal and policy challenges due to their nexus to statutorily-prohibited benefits and due to ongoing reviews about how best to provide scarce resources,” Panetta explained.

Such policy challenges are reflected by the reality that same-sex couples are not legally prohibited from qualifying for on-base housing. But Pentagon officials were concerned that following the “spirit of the law” outlined in DOMA required further review. Those concerns centered around fairness and the reaction of other military members, including married couples who could be bumped from housing lists by same-sex couples.

In a statement issued Monday decrying this development, the Center for Military Readiness (CMR) noted that by “equating same-sex domestic partnerships with natural marriage, the lame-duck Secretary of Defense has created a new inequity. Unmarried same-sex couples signing Secretary Panetta’s on-paper-only ‘Declaration of Domestic Partnership’ will have special rights, status, and benefits that are denied to opposite-sex domestic partners and their dependents.”

CMR was equally upset with the incrementalist nature of the move, and where it will inevitably lead. “Eventual correction of this inequity in the name of ‘consistency,’ and eventual extension of medical, housing and other costly benefits on an incremental basis, will rob even more funds from limited defense budget accounts that are devoted to traditional family support.”

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Video: ICE Agent Blows Whistle in Congressional Testimony, Criminal Illegal Aliens Not Being Deported

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Chris Crane, president of the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council 118, made a number of stunning revelations during his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday — and he’s begging Congress for help. The ICE union boss argued that agents are no longer allowed to arrest illegal aliens solely for illegal entry or expired visas and morale is at an all-time low.

Most Americans would be shocked to find out that immigration agents are regularly “prohibited from enforcing the two most fundamental sections of United States immigration law,” he said. Instead, the administration has ordered that only illegals charged or convicted of “very serious criminal offenses” may be arrested or charged by ICE agents and officers.

“In fact, under current policy individuals legally in the United States must now be convicted of 3 or more criminal misdemeanors before ICE agents are permitted to charge or arrest the illegal alien for illegal entry or overstaying a visa,” he added. That is unless the misdemeanors involve assault, sexual abuse or drug trafficking.

Even more shocking, Crane said ICE agents or officers who witness a violation of immigration law are prohibited from making arrests and even from asking questions “under the threat of disciplinary action.”

Citing a recent morale survey disseminated throughout federal agencies, Crane said ICE ranks 279 out of 291 in employee morale and job satisfaction. He has previously asked the Obama administration to help address the plummeting morale and dissatisfaction among ICE agents.

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New Jersey ‘Muslim’ Man Accused Of Cutting Off Victims’ Heads And Hands In Grisly Murder Case (+video)

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Photo Credit: The Blaze Authorities found two beheaded men buried in Buena Vista, N.J., last week after being notified about suspicious activity at a local home. According to police, Yusuf Ibrahim, a 27-year-old man from Jersey City, allegedly killed the two Egyptian foreign nationals by shooting them in the chest; then, he reportedly cut off their heads and hands, burying the bodies and parts in a wooded area behind the house.

An investigation was launched last Thursday, using cadaver dogs to locate soil that had recently been dug up. Under it, the two corpses were found. Later, at a nearby location, police also discovered the accompanying heads and hands, WNBC-TV reports.

The bizarre details extend well beyond the murder, though. The accused was allegedly spotted last week driving a white Mercedes Benz that belonged to one of the victims. Later, he purportedly attempted to set the car ablaze in Philadelphia and subsequently abandoned it. Police suspect that the killings might have unfolded inside of this vehicle.

According to sources, the three men lived near one another, although their associations are not entirely clear. Sources did say that the victims were roommates. In a press release, New Jersey State Police announced that they were ages 25 and 27, but their identities have been held, as authorities have reportedly had difficulty notifying their relatives.

“These were grisly murders in which the defendant allegedly shot both victims in the chest at close range,” said New Jersey Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa. “We allege that the defendant was ruthless and calculating in the manner in which he carried out the killings and attempted to prevent identification of the victims by cutting off their heads and hands before burying their bodies.”

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Rubio Introduces Bill to Stop Secret Abortions on Teenagers

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Photo Credit: Life NewsSenator Marco Rubio is introducing a a major pro-life bill, the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act, today that would stop secret abortions on teenagers.

The bill would require an abortion practitioner to notify a parent before performing an abortion on a minor who resides in a different state. It would also make it a crime for a non-parent to transport a minor across state lines to evade a parental notification law.

National Right to Life originally helped develop the bill in 2005 and the House of Representatives approved it 2005 and again in 2006, but died in the Senate when most Democratic senators supported a filibuster.

In a February 12 letter urging senators to co-sponsor the new bill, NRLC said, “Parental notification or parental consent laws, consistent with existing Supreme Court case law, are in effect in more than half the states. However, these laws are often circumvented — activity that is actively encouraged by abortion clinics’ out-of-state advertising in non-notification states, highlighting the avoidance of parental notification as a selling point. Only Congress has the authority to deal with this interstate activity, and the CIANA would do so.”

In the House of Representatives, the CIANA will be re-introduced by Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, also a Florida Republican. During the 2011-2012 Congress, her bill gathered 172 cosponsors in the House.

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Video: Massacre Survivor Tells Senate ‘I’m Not A Victim Of Guns, But Of Lawmakers Who Legislated Me Out Of The Right To Protect Myself And My Family’

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Photo Credit: Getty ImagesDr. Suzanna Hupp became a case study in gun control after testifying in front of Congress as a survivor of the 1991 “Luby” massacre in Texas where both of her parents were killed. On Monday, more than a decade later, she spoke once more on the issue, examining it through the lens of the debate currently gripping the nation.

During her first appearance, Hupp explained how a friend had given her a gun when she was 21 and, though she doesn’t like guns or hunting, she agreed to get some training and carry it in her purse.

Not long after, a man crashed his car into a restaurant where she was eating with her family and started shooting people.

“It took me a good 45 seconds to realize that this man wasn’t there to commit a robbery,” she said. “He was there to simply shoot as many people as he possibly could.”

“When I finally realized what was occurring, I thought, ‘I got him,” she said, snapping her hand. “And I reached for my purse. He was maybe 12 feet away…But then I realized a couple of months earlier, I had made the stupidest decision of my life. I took my gun out of my purse and left it in my car, because as you well know in the state of Texas, it’s sometimes a felony offense to carry a gun in your purse.”

See video:

See video of original testimony:

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Illegal Immigrant, Conservative Congressman Get In Heated Exchange

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A conservative congressman got into a heated exchange over immigration last week with one of his constituents who is living in the country illegally.

Two very different accounts have emerged from the Feb. 6 meeting between Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) and an 18-year-old college student. But both sides say the discussion escalated into shouting that cut the meeting short, left the student in tears and stunned some staffers in Rohrabacher’s office.

The clash took place as President Obama and lawmakers are trying to pass legislation on immigration reform, one of the most divisive issues facing the 113th Congress.

Jessica Bravo, a freshman at Golden West College in Huntington Beach, Calif., claims Rohrabacher initiated the hostility upon learning she is an “undocumented” immigrant. She said the congressman raised his voice, waved his finger in her face, claimed to “hate illegals” and made a veiled threat to deport her and her family.

“The moment I said that word [undocumented], it just completely changed the mood of the room,” Bravo said in a telephone interview. “He kept interrupting me and he was just, like, ‘Oh, you know, I love Mexicans, but I hate illegals.’ He was just yelling at us and pointing his fingers. I couldn’t even talk anymore because I was crying.”

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War On Everything But Islamic Terror

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Photo Credit: frontpagemag.comOver a decade after thousands of New Yorkers were murdered by Muslim terrorists, the city’s mayor is declaring victory in the War on Salt. Next up he plans to wage a spring offensive on Styrofoam cups. After that, who knows?

We live in surreal times. In the Middle Ages, cats and rats were put on trial. In this modern age, we are fighting wars on food ingredients, the bags we carry them in and the containers out of which we eat and drink them.

There’s no telling what surreal enemy our wise and brilliant leaders will declare war on next. Shoes? Pepper? Umbrellas? Mathematics? The color blue? There’s just no way to know anymore.

The United States has lost the War in Afghanistan, a minor matter that no news outlet can find the time to report on because they’re too busy covering a breaking story about a Republican senator taking a sip of a water. Maybe a War on Water can be next. Was there a Styrofoam cup involved? It’s time for one of those hard-hitting investigations that reminds us what a loss it will be when the last newspaper is strangled with the entrails of the last news network.

But who can find the time to fight a war against Islamic terrorists, when there are more pressing wars to be fought? Like a war on being fat.

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Murkowski Joins Dems in Failed Attempt to Force Confirmation Vote on Hagel Nomination For Defense Secretary

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Photo Credit: Secretary of DefenseSenate Republicans in a 58-40 vote Thursday blocked former Sen. Chuck Hagel’s (R-Neb.) nomination as Defense secretary from proceeding to a final up-or-down vote.

Four Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Thad Cochran (Miss.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Mike Johanns (Neb.)— joined 55 Democrats and Independents in supporting the nomination. Sixty votes were needed to cut off debate, leaving Democrats one vote short.

The final 58-40 tally reflected a no vote from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who switched his vote from yes to preserve his ability to bring up the nomination again.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) voted present and Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) missed the vote. Republicans said it was too early to clear Hagel’s nomination, but that they would consider allowing an up-or-down vote after the Senate returns to business on Feb. 25.

They blamed Democrats for rushing the vote and the White House for not providing additional information about Hagel’s compensation for paid speeches.

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Toledo Football Player To Forgo Last Year Of Eligibility To Be With Sick Fiancee

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Photo Credit: The BladeA football player at the University of Toledo who has been playing the sport since he was a kid told his coach that he will forgo his last eligible season so he could be at his fiancee’s side while she undergoes treatment for leukemia, The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported.

Ben Pike, 22, a 6 foot, 3-inch 260-pound defensive lineman who is coming off his best season and was likely to start next year, learned in January that leukemia returned to his fiancée Ashlee Barrett, the report said.

“I know in some people’s terms, he’s giving up things,” Becky Pike, Ben’s mother, told the paper. “But he’s really not giving up. He’s not giving up anything. He’s really fighting for life. And he’s just turned his forces to he’s going so win a battle for life instead of winning on the football field.”

The attraction between the two appeared to be immediate. They met during a bible study class. Barrett, herself a basketball player at Toledo, was taken by Pike’s confidence when he would discuss various topics in class, the report said. Pike couldn’t help but notice the pretty blonde’s energy.

They began dating and fell in love. Pike took Barrett to Washington, D.C., in December 2011 and proposed, the paper reported. He somehow managed to talk White House security guards into giving them clearance so he could pop the question on the main driveway leading to the White House. They set the date for the summer of 2013.

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