These Are the Victims of America’s Horrible Holiday Storms

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The names of 19 of the at least 47 people who were killed over the weekend after tornadoes, blizzards, severe thunderstorms and foods swept the middle part of the United States have been revealed.

In all, 11 were killed in Texas, ten in Mississippi, six in Tennessee, eight in Missouri, five in Illinois, two in Alabama, two in Georgia and one in Arkansas.

As some survivors of the storms begin to clean up their towns, and others prepare for more severe weather potentially on its way, names of those who have died have begun to pour in.

In Texas, seven of the 11 victims have been named as 30-year-old Kimberly Tippett and her one-year-old son Camryn Cain; Petra Ruiz, 27; LaShondra Whitaker, 32; Sharva Sanders, 42; Timothy Harris, 58; and Cecil Lowrie, 77.

All of the named Texas victims were from Garland, a Dallas suburb that was hit by a tornado on Saturday night. The National Weather Service has said the EF-4 tornado, which is the second-most powerful with winds up to more than 200mph, hit the community at about 6.45pm Saturday. (Read more from “These Are the Victims of America’s Horrible Holiday Storms” HERE)

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Family of Brain-Dead Jahi McMath Sues to Have Her Declared Alive

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It’s been two years since Jahi McMath’s tonsil surgery went wrong, she suffered brain death, and was declared dead, and now her family wants that death certificate revoked for the now-15-year-old who remains on life support.

Jahi’s mom, Nailah Winkfield, is suing in federal court various entities that include the state of California to have her daughter declared legally alive, reports Courthouse News Service.

She “wishes to have her daughter’s basic human right, to life, restored to her so that she can return to California” from New Jersey. Jahi is currently under care in the latter state, which allows a religious exemption to rulings about brain death, notes CBS News.

“I want her to have the same rights as any other disabled kid,” says Winkfield, per the AP. Should Jahi leave New Jersey without such a declaration, per the suit, “she could be refused treatment, unplugged, even shot, without repercussion as she is legally dead in California.” Getting the death certificate overturned would allow the family to move Jahi back to Oakland and have insurers cover her medical bills, the family attorney tells AP. (Read more from “Family of Brain-Dead Jahi McMath Sues to Have Her Declared Alive” HERE)

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Hollywood Megastar: ‘Of Course I Have Guns, and I Shoot Them’

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‘Sure I believe in the right to bear arms, as guaranteed under the Second Amendment of the American constitution,’ explains 64-year-old Kurt Russell, Hollywood A-lister and long-term partner of Goldie Hawn . . .

‘This is what people need to understand,’ he continues when asked about gun reform after the most recent school shootings in the States and the terrorist attack in San Bernardino that left 14 dead and 22 injured.

‘Now is not a good time to lay down your weapons – how will you protect yourself?

‘I am a libertarian, a hardcore one, and of course I have guns. I shoot things with them. I hunt game.’

Lose the last three and they are words that could quite easily be escaping from beneath the unkempt but extravagant whiskers of his character John ‘The Hangman’ Ruth – a 19th-century bounty hunter handcuffed to his wretched female prize (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and trapped by a blizzard in a remote staging post with a rum collection of coves. It is the premise of the latest Quentin Tarantino epic, The Hateful Eight. (Read more from “Hollywood Megastar: ‘Of Course I Have Guns, and I Shoot Them'” HERE)

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Actor David Spade Slams Obama and FLOTUS for Lack of Dignity

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Actor David Spade had nothing kind to say about [the] President and Mrs. Obama recently, claiming that each are becoming publicity hounds.

“A president should have a little more dignity,” he told TMZ.

He was referring to Obama’s appearance on “GQ” . . .

He also had a few words about the first lady.

“Michelle is on ‘Ellen’ more than I am,” he observed. “It’s a whole new world.” (Read more from “Actor David Spade Slams Obama and FLOTUS for Lack of Dignity” HERE)

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Why Women Are Buying More Guns

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A recently released New York Times/CBS poll included headline-grabbing findings about America’s evolving attitudes on gun control. The poll found that the number of Americans supporting a ban on assault weapons is 19 points lower today than it was after the shooting of former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and others in 2011.

Perhaps more significant, it found that the number of Americans supporting stricter gun control in general has slipped 7 points in just two months. While these numbers may come as a surprise to many, they shouldn’t, because in the last few years the backbone of the gun control movement has been undergoing an evolution of its own. More and more women are buying guns. As the number of female gun owners has risen, so has the number of women expressing skepticism of gun control.

More than a third of the women who participated in the National Sports Shooting Foundation’s most recent survey identified as new gun owners. This data are consistent with those of other organizations, including the National Sporting Goods Association. According to the NSGA’s Annual Sports Participation Report, the number of women who practice target shooting increased nearly 36 percent (from 4.31 million to 5.86 million) between 2004 and 2014, while the number of women participating in hunting increased 23 percent (from 2.68 million to 3.3 million). In response to a request for comment, an NRA spokesman reported tracking a 77 percent increase between 2004 and 2011 in the number of women who own firearms.

Historically there has been a significant gender divide on the issue of gun control. But according to a 2012 Pew Research Center report, there was a 9 point increase in the number of women declaring their support for gun rights between 2008 and 2012. Experts believe there is a connection between more women feeling empowered by gun ownership and shifting their perspective on gun control. (Read more from “Why Women Are Buying More Guns” HERE)

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Miracle Baby Comes Back from the Dead 30 Minutes After Life Support Is Switched Off

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Eighteen-month-old Bella Moore-Williams’ parents could only watch helplessly as their sedated daughter took what they thought was her last breath.

Mother Francesca, 41, and father Lee, 44, wept and took one last photograph with her brother Bobby, five, before her ventilator was switched off.

They had also made prints of her hands and feet as a memento and invited family members to the hospital to say farewell.

Doctors had told them three times that it was unlikely she would survive after they diagnosed a genetic disease.

But 30 minutes later, she began kicking and screaming. (Read more from “Miracle Baby Comes Back from the Dead 30 Minutes After Life Support Is Switched Off” HERE)

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Christmas Miracle: Dog Found in Metro Detroit 3 Years After Going Missing in Ohio

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A dog who was missing for three years has been reunited with his family just in time for Christmas after being found almost 200 miles away from home.

Earlier this month, Donna Wreford found a small Yorkshire Terrier wandering around her Romulus home. After asking around the neighborhood, Wreford took the dog to the Romulus Animal Shelter.

Workers at the shelter used an electronic wand to scan the dog and determined he had a microchip implant that had owner information on file with the American Kennel Club. Workers contacted the AKC, who confirmed that the dog was reported missing by a family located in Columbus, Ohio more than three years ago.

The AKC contacted the owners, Ta-Shina and Darrin Green — who were still currently living in Columbus — and advised them to contact the Romulus Animal Shelter for some good news regarding their lost dog.

The Green family immediately contacted the shelter and finally heard the news they had been waiting so long for — that after three years of being missing, their long-lost dog “Rexxn” was found in Romulus, around 200 miles north of his home. (Read more from “Christmas Miracle: Dog Found in Metro Detroit 3 Years After Going Missing in Ohio” HERE)

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#NotMiAbuela: Clinton Compares Herself to Latina Grandmas, Twitter Responds with Outrage

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A GIF-filled campaign post aimed at winning over Latino voters has backfired and instead is drawing the ire of many social media users for purportedly playing up ethnic stereotypes.

The campaign’s “7 ways Hillary Clinton is just like your abuela” (the Spanish word for grandmother), which came on the same day Clinton’s daughter Chelsea announced she is pregnant with what will be Clinton’s second grandchild, was quickly derided by many online users as using vague stereotypes, basic Spanish vocabulary and even a photo of the candidate with singer Marc Anthony to show she is in touch with a younger generation.

“It’s no secret that Hillary is loving her role as grandma,” the campaign post says. “And she was thrilled to learn that next summer, her granddaughter Charlotte will have a sibling to play with.”

The post then goes on to make numerous uses of the word respeto (Spanish for respect) paired with numerous GIFs, including one where she goes after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump by saying she had one word for him: “Basta! Enough!” The post ends with “Everybody loves abuela—even this guy,” which shows a picture of Clinton alongside Anthony.

The post was quickly met with derision. Twitter users expressed their outrage using the hashtag #NotMiAbuela or #NotMyAbuela. (Read more from “#NotMiAbuela: Clinton Compares Herself to Latina Grandmas, Twitter Responds with Outrage” HERE)

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Finally: White House Admits a Child Is a Child

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The Executive Office of the President of the United States — aka Barack Obama — released a document in the days leading up to Christmas that proves once again that reality conspires against even the most careful liars.

The White House intended the document in question — dryly titled “Long-Term Benefits of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program” — to build the case for expanding the value and availability of food stamps.

What the document demonstrates is that even the Obama White House knows that an unborn child is a child . . .

When Obama was an Illinois state senator in 2001, as this column noted in 2008, state Sen. Patrick O’Malley introduced a trio of bills designed to protect the right to life of babies surviving abortions. One of these defined a fully born abortion-surviving baby as a “person,” “human being,” “child” and “individual” . . .

The paper says women are “mothers” while still only pregnant. And one of the paper’s key points — printed in bold in the executive summary — is: The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’s “positive impact on children begins even before birth and lasts well beyond their childhood years.” (Read more from “Finally: White House Admits a Child Is a Child” HERE)

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10-Year-Old Boy Robbed at Gunpoint for Only $3

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Tommy Mendez went out with $3 to buy cookies at the corner store — but even in leafy Carroll Gardens, that proved to be perilous.

The 10-year-old was held up at gunpoint on one of Brooklyn’s safest streets by three men who forced him to hand over the three singles — and threatened to kill him if he snitched.

“I got really scared,” Tommy told The Post. “I didn’t want to tell my parents because I thought they would get mad at me for going out without permission. It was a big mistake.”

The crime took place at 4:30 p.m. Dec. 8 near the boy’s home and across the street from PS 149, also called The Brooklyn New School. (Read more from “10-Year-Old Boy Robbed at Gunpoint for Only $3” HERE)

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