Heroic Veterans Save Wives in Horrible Accident With Texas Train (+video)

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Police have identified the four servicemen who died in Midland, Texas when a freight train plowed into a parade float carrying wounded veterans and their spouses at a crossing, two of whom saved their wives by pushing them to safety before they died.

Army Sgt. Maj. Gary Stouffer, 37, and 47-year-old Army Sgt. Maj. Lawrence Boivin were pronounced dead at the scene, police said, after the float carrying wounded veterans and their families to an honorary banquet was struck by a Union Pacific train around 4:30 p.m. Thursday afternoon. The train struck as the parade was crossing the tracks, turning the honorary event into a scene of destruction.

Army Sgt. Joshua Michael, 34, and 43-year-old Army Sgt. Maj. William Lubbers were transported from the scene and later pronounced dead at Midland Memorial Hospital, according to the Midland Police.

Seventeen people in all were transported to the hospital and 10 were treated and released. Four people were in stable condition and one is in critical condition as of this morning.

Michael was killed in the crash but was able to save his wife, his mother-in-law told the Amarillo Globe-News. Read more from this story HERE.

Meghan McCain Wants GOP to Go Left or She’ll Leave

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Meghan McCain wants Republicans to wake up or else she just might leave the party.

The Republican daughter of Sen John McCain, who famously blogged from her father’s presidential campaign bus about fashion on the campaign trail, is saying the GOP’s positions on social issues are outdated and irrelevant.’I don’t fit into the traditional Republican box that the ‘wingnuts who have hijacked my party think all Republicans should,’ she wrote in an opinion piece.

In an opinion piece penned for the Daily Beast, McCain notes that if the Republican Party does not adapt and start showing signs of social tolerance the GOP will not survive and that if she does not see signs of moderation on social issues she ‘will consider registering as an Independent in 2016.’ The realization hit her election night as she was choking back tears over the Mitt Romney’s campaign loss to President Barack Obama.

‘It’s not like he’s a close friend,’ she wrote. ‘Looking back to last week, I think that I was mourning something else. For the last four years, writing on this website, I’ve been calling for the Republican Party to come to terms with reality and modernize. Last Tuesday, Mitt Romney lost—and he lost big. As Republicans, we lost again. I felt sad, exhausted, beaten down, and heartbroken. It was the first time that I considered that the Republican Party, which I love so much, might die.’

Read more from this story HERE.

Hispanic Female GOP Governor Says Romney “Set Us Back as a Party”

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After two days of meetings at the Republican Governors Association conference this week, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez heard a lot about the party’s need to reach new constituencies–particularly women and ethnic minorities–but few specifics about how.

As a Republican governor of Mexican descent who won all but four counties in a Democratic state, Martinez has ideas for how the party can reach voters who traditionally support Democrats. But it’s going to take some work–and a touch of humility–from her colleagues.

“Republicans need to stop making assumptions, and they need to start talking to younger people, people of color, and ask them–not talk to them–ask them, What is it that we can do better? How do we earn your vote? How do we earn the ability for you to see that we can be the party that will make your life better and that of your children?” Martinez said in an interview after the conference here. “But we can’t be the ones that come and tell them how things are going to be and how we have all the solutions.”

President Barack Obama in 2012 expanded his lead among Hispanics, black voters, Asians and women, according to exit polling, leaving many Republicans wondering what they need do to adapt to the nation’s rapidly shifting demographics.

The topic has dominated much of the party’s post-election soul searching. Some have placed part of the blame on the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, who wrote off nearly half the electorate as inevitable Obama voters when he told donors at a closed-door fundraiser last spring that 47 percent of the population would support Obama “no matter what.” Martinez criticized Romney’s comments when they were reported in September, and on Wednesday reiterated that she found them “ridiculous.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Holocaust Survivor Returns US Flag to Family of Soldier Who Rescued Him

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A Holocaust survivor returned an American flag to the family of a soldier who had given him the gift, the sole memento from his war-torn childhood that he kept for 67 years.

Stephan Ross, now 81, was found by U.S. serviceman Steve Sattler, emaciated and terrified at Dachau concentration camp in Germany. After handing over his rations to the boy during the 1945 liberation, Sattler then gave him his handkerchief decorated with the Stars and Stripes.

On Veteran’s Day this Sunday, Mr Ross had the opportunity for the first time to thank the family of the man who rescued him.

He hugged the children and grandchildren of Mr Sattler during the emotional meeting at the State House in Boston. Mr Ross wore a striped jacket and hat, like the camp uniform, along with his identification number.

The 81-year-old gave Mr Sattler’s family a boxed flag, saying: ‘God Bless, America’.

Read more from this story HERE.

Petraeus’s Mistress Paula Broadwell’s Driver’s License Found in Capital Park (+video update)

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A Maryland National Capital Park Police spokesman confirmed that a jogger found a North Carolina license in Rock Creek Park belonging to Paula Broadwell. Park Police planned to hold it for 90 days, per policy, and then send it back to the North Carolina Department of Transportation.

The Park Police also alerted the FBI, says Bill Kellogg, a spokesman for the Park Police. The FBI did not initially return calls for comment on the report.

Broadwell’s attorney, Robert F. Muse, confirmed that Broadwell, a North Carolina resident, lost her driver’s license in the park…Muse did not immediately return calls regarding Broadwell’s current whereabouts. Read more from this story HERE.

Fox News Anchor Suspended for Calling Rachel Maddow an “Angry Young Man”

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A Fox News anchor in Cincinnati, Ohio has returned to work after a two-day absence from her nightly newscast and an apology for calling MSNBC host Rachel Maddow an ‘angry young man.’

Tricia Macke of WXIX-TV was off the air Sunday and Monday, several days after she issued an apology for referring to the openly gay Maddow as ‘such an angry young man’ on her Facebook page. Maddow is an author, liberal commentator and host of the 9 p.m. nightly ‘Rachel Maddow Show’ on MSNBC. When a viewer reprimanded Macke for her remarks about Maddow, Macke initially didn’t back down.

‘I am sorry. I should have said antagonistic,’ she wrote. When another viewer criticized her, Macke again stood by her statements. ‘I knew what I was saying,’ she responded. Macke is a star anchor for Cincinnati’s Fox 19 News who hosts the 6:30 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. nightly newscasts. She has been with the station since 1993.

Fox 19 did not address Macke’s remarks, which she made in mid-October, until last week, as the station was facing mounting pressure from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, a national advocacy group.

‘Referring to Maddow as a “man” because she is a gay woman is completely unacceptable for someone in the business of journalism,’ said Aaron McQuade, a spokesman for GLAAD.

Read more from this story HERE.

FBI Agent Yanked From Petraeus Investigation After “Growing Obsessed” With Other Woman in Probe

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A federal agent was pulled off the investigation into David Petraeus’s illicit contact with Paula Broadwell when the agent reportedly became obsessed with another woman involved in the probe, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The FBI found that the agent had sent shirtless photos of himself to Jill Kelley, the Tampa woman who reportedly received a half dozen emails from Broadwell that warned Kelley to stay away from Petraeus. The emails were sent from anonymous accounts.

That same agent was a friend of Kelley’s and he had started the FBI investigation into the emails — which eventually led to Petraeus’s downfall — after Kelley came to him for help upon receiving the anonymous threats. The FBI declined to identify the agent, who is now under an internal investigation by the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility.

After Kelley, a married mother of three, told the agent about the emails, he referred the matter to a cyber crimes unit. Shortly thereafter, the agent was barred from the case over concerns that he ‘might have grown obsessed with the matter,’ the Journal reports.

Even after he was prohibited from involvement in the case, the agent decided to contact a member of Congress, Republican David Reichert, about the matter. He complained that senior FBI officials were going to ‘sweep the matter under the rug,’ the FBI learned.

Read more from this story HERE.

State Forcibly Takes Disabled Child From Mother, Child Dies Next Day

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For 14 years, Marie Freye, who is severely disabled, was lovingly cared for by her mother at home living a happy life, despite her disabilities.

On April 26, 2011, the state ordered the 14-year-old, who suffers from cerebral palsy and seizures, be taken into care. She died screaming 24 hours later at a $506-per-day nursing home. Records show that on the evening Marie arrived, nurses did not give her life-sustaining medications, fed her only applesauce and neglected to tell a doctor she wasn’t breathing, it emerged today.

Florida social workers ordered that Marie be taken into the Florida Club Care Center against her mother’s wishes, insisting that it was the safest place for her because of her disabilities, according to the Miami Herald.

Marie’s mother Doris pleaded with the ambulance men not to take her daughter away, which was done despite a judge’s order that she remain under the care of her family. ‘When they took Marie out of my hands, it destroyed our family forever,’ Doris said.

But records show that on the evening Marie arrived nurses did not give her life-sustaining medications and allegedly fed her only applesauce, according to the Miami Herald. She arrived screaming on a stretcher at 5:30 pm, records show. At 9 pm she was given apple sauce and ‘comfort measures’. At 11 pm and 2 am it was recorded that she was screaming again. At 5:40 am, Marie’s breathing was described as labored. Five minutes later she was ‘unresponsive’. At 6:54 am, the 14-year-old died of a heart attack at the Jackson North Medical Center.

Read more from this story HERE.

Double Life of Top Federal Child Porn Enforcer Who Was a Pornographer Himself

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South Florida’s former chief of U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement has been sentenced to almost six years in prison on a child pornography charge.

Anthony Mangione, 52, offered sorrow but no explanation of his behavior when speaking to U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra. ‘I’m pretty much a broken guy,’ he told him. ‘I feel like I’m in a hole eight feet deep with six feet of dirt on top.’

Mangione cut a plea deal in October to provide evidence against other child porn collectors he met online. Mangione ran ICE’s South Florida office from 2007 to 2011, a job that included numerous child porn investigations and oversaw 450 federal employees.

He even spoke out against child pornographers. ‘ICE relentlessly pursues predators who sexually abuse children, whether that abuse is physical or whether it is accomplished by exploiting their images,’ he said after the 2009 sentencing of a Wellington man for enticing boys online to take off their clothes.

He was a respected, 27-year veteran of law enforcement when he retired shortly after April 2011, when investigators searched his home and office computers. Up to 150 images of child porn, some depicting ‘extreme abuse of children’, were found in his position, according to federal prosecutors.

Read more from this story HERE.

Husband of Wife That Had Affair With CIA Chief May Have Written the New York Times About It

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Did the cuckolded husband of Paula Broadwell send a letter to a New York Times advice column back in July that revealed he knew of her affair with David Petraeus?

That intriguing possibility has been raised after canny observers dug out the July 13th edition of Chuck Klosterman’s ‘The Ethicist’ and pointed to extraordinary coincidences between one readers letter and the now scandalous love tryst.

Writing about a deepening relationship he knew his wife was having with a ‘government executive’ whose job ‘is seen worldwide as a demonstration of American leadership’ the anonymous man offers up what could be considered in hindsight as striking information.

The letter writer explains that ‘exposing the affair will create a major distraction that would adversely impact the success of an important effort,’ and asks ‘The Ethicist’ whether it is OK for him to ‘suffer in silence for the next year or two for a project’. Indeed, he seems pained to make it clear he believes the mission ‘must succeed’ and wants to know if he should confront his wife in some way and ‘finally force closure’ or if he should ‘suffer in silence for the next year or two.’

The reader tells ‘The Ethicist’ that has ‘watched the affair intensify over the last year’ – which matches the timeline of the affair from August 2011 until around several months ago.

Read more from this story HERE.