‘Bomb Cyclone’ Forces World’s Largest Passenger Jet to Land at Small New York Airport

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A Singapore Airlines Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger plane, was forced to land at a small New York airport Thursday after the “bomb cyclone” storm system forced the closure of runways at John F. Kennedy International.

Singapore Airlines Flight 26, flying from Frankfurt, Germany to New York City, landed at Stewart International Airport in New Windsor – 80 miles north of its intended destination, according to CNBC.

Manoel Gerlach, one of the 325 passengers on the flight, told CNBC that passengers were able to get off the plane at 5 p.m. using the outdoor stairs. He said he was traveling with his wife and toddler son.

Stewart International Airport bills itself as an “efficient diversion airport,” according to CNBC. The jumbo jet – and its 262-foot wingspan – is too big for the airport’s gates so passengers were forced to walk in the frigid temperatures to reach the terminal.

(Read more from “‘Bomb Cyclone’ Forces World’s Largest Passenger Jet to Land at Small New York Airport” HERE)

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Trump Tweets Explosive White House Tell-All ‘Full of Lies,’ Author Fires Back

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An explosive White House tell-all hit the bookshelves Friday as President Trump ramped up his attacks on the author’s credibility, saying overnight that Michael Wolff’s account is “full of lies.”

Trump, in a late Thursday tweet, said he “authorized Zero access to White House (actually turned him down many times),” adding that he never spoke to Wolff. Trump did not mention the author by name.

Trump also rolled out a new nickname for ex-adviser “Sloppy” Steve Bannon, who is featured repeatedly in the book talking trash about his family members . . .

Wolff fired back at Trump in an interview on NBC’s “Today” Friday morning, claiming that he did, in fact, interview the president.

“I absolutely … spoke to the president, whether he realized it was an interview or not –it certainly was not off the record,” Wolff said. “I had spent about three hours with the president over the course of the campaign and as president.” (Read more from “Trump Tweets Explosive White House Tell-All ‘Full of Lies,’ Author Fires Back” HERE)

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Trump Administration Issues Major Decision on American Oil Production

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In what is sure to seem a controversial move to some, the Trump administration proposed Thursday that it is considering permitting drilling in most U.S. continental-shelf waters.

The plan includes drilling in areas such as the Atlantic and Arctic, considered protected areas and staunchly opposed by governors along the east coast and more than 100 U.S. lawmakers, according to The Washington Post.

According to Interior secretary Ryan Zinke, the proposal would exclude oil and gas exploration in only one of 26 planning areas in the Arctic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.

However, the Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management recently identified 47 potential areas where companies within the industry can buy leases between 2019 and 2024 — the duration when the proposal would begin and end.

Yet, even though those such as The Draft Five Year Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program seem to be on board with the decision, the administration is expecting to face opposition from numerous state officials and environmentalists.

“Nothing is final,” Zinke said during a news conference. “This is a draft program. The states, local communities and congressional delegations will all have a say.”

And many conservatives, including Zinke, state the proposal is consistent with the president’s executive order in April when he made a pledge to widen energy exploration.

Zinke added that there was a clear difference between Trump’s plan and the previous administration’s policies.

The Obama administration, heeding the call of many environmentalists, had considered a five-year plan that would have permitted drilling in the Atlantic but abandoned the proposal by March of 2016 after concerns that the Navy conducted military exercises near those particular areas.

“This is a clear difference between energy weakness and energy dominance,” Zinke said, adding that the current administration would be cautious of environmental safeguards put in place.

However, environmental disasters of the past remain on the minds of many state officials along the east coast, specifically those who oppose drilling in the four planning regions all the way from Maine to the Florida Keys.

During a bipartisan call, both Republicans and Democrats have rejected to the uncertain terms that oil and gas drilling proposals have given.

“I’m not in favor of offshore drilling,” said Republican Maryland Governor Larry Hogan.

And even Henry McMaster, the Republican governor for South Carolina, has expressed concern over the impact to natural resources when drilling is performed.

Yet, Zinke didn’t address the other potential resistance from the Pentagon, but Assistant Secretary Kate McGregor stated that a task force has been implemented between the Interior and Defense departments in order to cool any misunderstanding and deal with the conflicts.

“We believe things can be done safely,” McGregor said. “In fact, in the central Gulf of Mexico planning area, 36 percent of leases are in military planning areas.

“We intend to continue a very strong relationship with DoD.” (For more from the author of “Trump Administration Issues Major Decision on American Oil Production” please click HERE)

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Legal Marijuana Expansion Across the US Is About to Hit a Big Speed Bump

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Attorney General Jeff Sessions ended an Obama-era policy that led to the expansion of legalized marijuana across the U.S., The Associated Press reported.

The new stance will replace the “lenient-federal-enforcement policy” passed by then-Deputy Attorney General James Cole with federal prosecutors able to decide how strongly they want to enforce the federal law prohibiting legal marijuana.

“In deciding which marijuana activities to prosecute under these laws with the Department’s finite resources, prosecutors should follow the well-established principles that govern all federal prosecutors,” Sessions’ one-page memo read.

Republican Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado quickly voiced his opposition to the policy change on Twitter.

In 2013, Barack Obama’s administration said that it would not get in the way of states that wanted to legalize marijuana as long as the drug was kept out of the hands of criminals and minors.

Now that the policy has been rescinded, federal law enforcement officials can interfere with marijuana sales in states where it is legal.

Political reporter Brandon Rittiman had asked President Donald Trump in 2016 about his view on marijuana, to which he responded that “it should be up to the states.”

Trump’s attorney general, on the other hand, has compared marijuana to heroin and blamed it for violence, the AP reported.

Sessions had met with with anti-marijuana advocates last month including president and CEO of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, Kevin Sabet.

“There is no more safe haven with regard to the federal government and marijuana, but it’s also the beginning of the story and not the end,” Sabet said. “This is a victory. It’s going to dry up a lot of the institutional investment that has gone toward marijuana in the last five years.”

The new policy will likely cause confusion in states where the drug is legal for recreational use, right after shops opened in California at the start of the year, as well as states where marijuana is legal for medical purposes.

Vice president of the Colorado Drug Investigators Association Jim Gerhardt told KATV the dangers of legalized marijuana in 2016.

“A week ago we had a 14-year-old shot and killed when he jumped into the backyard of a man’s house trying to take marijuana out of the backyard,” Gerhardt said.

Marijuana advocates voiced their opposition of Sessions’ policy change, and the executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance asserted that the attorney general “wants to maintain a system that has led to tremendous injustice … and that has wasted federal resources on a huge scale,” the AP reported.

“If Sessions thinks that makes sense in terms of prosecutorial priorities, he is in a very bizarre ideological state, or a deeply problematic one,” Maria McFarland Sanchez-Moreno said. (For more from the author of “Legal Marijuana Expansion Across the US Is About to Hit a Big Speed Bump” please click HERE)

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Justice Department Looking Into Hillary Emails Again

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Days after marked-classified information turned up in the release of State Department emails found on the laptop of Anthony Weiner, the Justice Department once again is looking into Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of government secrets while she served as secretary of state, according to a report.

The Daily Beast cited an ally of Attorney General Jeff Sessions who said officials are looking into “how much classified information was sent over Clinton’s server; who put that information into an unclassified environment, and how; and which investigators knew about these matters and when.”

The Sessions ally, according to the Daily Beast, also said officials have questions about immunity agreements that Clinton aides, presumably including longtime top aide Huma Abedin and counsel Cheryl Mills, may have made.

WND reported last Friday documents belonging to Abedin that were discovered on the personal computer of her estranged husband, Weiner, during an FBI investigation were released by the State Department, including at least four that were marked classified.

FBI Director James Comey cited the emails recovered on Weiner’s laptop as the reason he reopened the investigation of Clinton’s mishandling of classified information 11 days before the November election. (Read more from “Justice Department Looking Into Hillary Emails Again” HERE)

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US Muslim Population Expanding Rapidly

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Pew Research Center came out this week with an updated estimate of the American Muslim population, which is sure to cause a stir on all sides of the issue.

The new numbers come in at 3.45 million Muslims living legally in the U.S. in 2017. That represents only 1.1 percent of the U.S. population but it’s up, by Pew’s estimates, from 3.31 million in 2016.

The U.S. Muslim population grows by about 100,000 every year, according to the Pew study.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, says Pew’s estimates are way off, and that the true number is roughly double, in the 6 to 8 million range – and that was more than two years ago.

“Muslim advocacy groups such as the Council on American Islamic Relations routinely cite a span of 6 million to 8 million people in describing the size of Islam in America. That would be between 2 percent and 3 percent of the U.S. population and make Muslims greater in number than Mormons or Jews,” CAIR stated on its website in March 2015.” (Read more from “US Muslim Population Expanding Rapidly” HERE)

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Trump Ditches Obama’s LGBT Global Agenda by Replacing Gay Ambassador With Family Man

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The Trump Administration recently installed a new Ambassador to Spain. The former Obama appointee who was a pro-LGBT openly gay man ‘married’ to a man was replaced with a family man who has a wife and three children.

Juan María Piñero of Spain’s Actuall.com reports that Trump’s new Ambassador to Spain signals that the U.S. president has “cut” with Obama’s plans to “impose the LGBT agenda in the world through diplomatic pressures.”

Richard Duke Buchan III has taken the place of former Ambassador James Costos, ‘husband’ of interior designer, Michael Smith, who redecorated the executive mansion for the Obamas.

When the Obama’s vacated the White House in January 2017, their first stop was at the Palm Springs home of Costos and Smith where they spent a few days before leaving the country for a ten day stay in the British Virgin Islands.

In June 2015, Costos was one of seven “openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex U.S. Ambassadors” issuing a joint letter explaining “how proposed trade agreements will export our values of equality and tolerance.” The eighth signatory was Randy Berry, Obama’s Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTI Persons. (Read more from “Trump Ditches Obama’s LGBT Global Agenda by Replacing Gay Ambassador With Family Man” HERE)

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Gun Range Owner Who Banned Muslims From Training Now Running for Governor

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Citizen activist Jan Morgan has officially announced her candidacy for the position of governor of Arkansas.

Morgan will reportedly be running as a Republican against incumbent Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson. The current governer has held the position since his election in 2014, according to The Kansas City Star.

The gun rights activist and owner of Gun Cave Indoor Firing Range in Hot Springs, Arkansas, reportedly made headlines back in 2014 for declaring that her range would be a “Muslim Free Zone,” according to The Daily Wire.

“I refuse to train the next Islamic terrorist,” she wrote on social media.

As reported by The Daily Wire, Morgan’s campaign announcement for the gubernatorial position came shortly before the new year with the launch of a campaign video.

In the video, Morgan denounces other Republicans elected to the state legislature who she says have “legislated like Democrats.”

Morgan asserts that critics have said Arkansans are uninformed about the issues affecting their state. However, she expressed optimism and insisted that the people of Arkansas are “smarter than they think.”

“I am excited about the future potential of our beautiful state, and her people,” Morgan said.

She continued: “I am excited because I have discovered the skeptics were wrong when they said, the people of Arkansas are not educated on the issues in their state, and believe the lies of professional politicians who are taxing them into poverty, regulating them out of business and enslaving them with government entitlements.”

“I know the skeptics are wrong about our people. Our folks are smarter than they think.”

Morgan went on to declare the Arkansas state government needed transparency, and insisted that legislators should not be able to “hide behind group votes.”

“We must demand roll call votes on all issues in the Senate and House judiciary,” she added. “Legislators should not be allowed to hide behind group voice votes, where there is no record of how they voted when representing their constituency.”

Also on Morgan’s agenda is cutting government waste, citing slashing spending and reducing the size of government as a way to revive The Natural State.

“We must cut waste in state spending. But this doesn’t mean sacrificing essential services to the poor, the elderly, the sick, and the disabled,” she said. “Nor does it mean cutting badly needed funds that our counties depend on.”

She added that “there is plenty of waste to cut.”

Morgan also noted Arkansas relatively high tax rates for income, state and property taxes and claimed that nearby states like Texas (which has no state income tax) were drawing business from the state.

Unsurprisingly, gun rights are another hot-button issue for Morgan. Furthering Second Amendment rights, including open carry laws are also on the candidate’s radar, according to The Daily Wire.

Morgan’s declaration of a “Muslim free zone” has attracted scrutiny before.

Civil liberties advocates have accused Morgan of violating the Civil Rights Act, according to The Guardian.

Reportedly the Department of Justice was monitoring the range for “constitutional violations” as of 2015, reported The Daily Wire. (For more from the author of “Gun Range Owner Who Banned Muslims From Training Now Running for Governor” please click HERE)

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Former FBI Asst Director: ‘Nothing About Clinton Investigation Was Right’

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The former assistant FBI director who oversaw the bureau’s office in North Carolina said “nothing about the [Hillary Clinton] investigation was right.”

Chris Swecker said that the FBI always uses grand juries and search warrants to obtain information about suspects or witnesses.

“It doesn’t take a Congressional investigation [to show that] nothing about that investigation was right,” Swecker said.

Tucker Carlson noted that James Comey’s FBI began drafting Clinton’s exoneration document before all evidence had been gathered and before all witnesses were interviewed.

“That’s not how a real, thorough… investigation is conducted,” Swecker said, adding that the FBI normally doesn’t go to witnesses and ask “mother, may I?” to obtain information. (Read more from “Former FBI Asst Director: ‘Nothing About Clinton Investigation Was Right'” HERE)

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Southeast Socked by Rare Snowstorm Ahead of ‘Bomb Cyclone’ Forecast to Hit Northeast

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By Nicole Darrah. Much of the southeastern U.S. was slammed by a brutal winter storm Wednesday, with Florida, Georgia and South Carolina seeing a rare blast of snow and sleet — the worst snowstorm to hit some cities in decades.

Forecasters have warned the same weather system could soon strengthen into a “bomb cyclone” as it continues to travel north on the East Coast. The storm could “produce strong, damaging winds — possibly resulting in downed trees, power outages and coastal flooding,” according to the National Weather Service (NWS).

At least 17 deaths have been blamed on dangerously cold temperatures that for days have gripped widespread areas of the U.S. from Texas to New England.

Floridians in Tallahassee saw snow for the first time in 28 years.

The National Weather Service on Wednesday recorded 5 inches of snow and significant accumulations of ice in Charleston, South Carolina. Across the Georgia-South Carolina state line, the weather service reported 1.2 inches of snowfall in Savannah. (Read more from “Southeast Socked by Rare Snowstorm Ahead of ‘Bomb Cyclone’ Forecast to Hit Northeast” HERE)

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Winter Storm Threatens East Coast, Bringing Temps Colder Than Mars

By CNN. A massive “bombogenesis” — an area of rapidly declining low pressure — will wreak havoc on the Northeast this week, threatening hurricane-force winter wind gusts and blinding snow.

The bombogenesis will result in what’s known as a “bomb cyclone.” And the bomb cyclone, expected to strike Thursday, will likely dump 6 to 12 inches of snow in New England and hurl 40- to 60-mph gusts.

By the end of this week, parts of the Northeast will be colder than Mars.

The impending storm led to more than 2,700 preemptive US flight cancellations for Thursday, according to Flightaware.com. (Read more from “Winter Storm Threatens East Coast, Bringing Temps Colder Than Mars” HERE)

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