Chicago Braces After Video of Police Shooting Is Released

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A white Chicago police officer was charged with first-degree murder on Tuesday in the death of a 17-year-old black man, just hours before city officials appealed for calm as they released a chilling video of the officer shooting the teenager as he lay crumpled on the ground.

The grainy, nighttime dashboard camera video, which a judge ordered released last week, shows the young man running and then walking past officers in the middle of the street and spinning when bullets suddenly strike him down. For a moment, lying on the ground, he moves but then is still after he appears to be shot several more times. An officer kicks an object away from his body. The video shows none of the officers on the scene offering assistance to the teenager, Laquan McDonald.

Standing with community leaders before releasing the video, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Garry McCarthy, the Chicago police superintendent, said they expected demonstrations in response to the graphic nature of the video, and urged people to avoid violence. “It’s fine to be passionate, but it is essential that it remain peaceful,” Mr. Emanuel said.

The officer, Jason Van Dyke, 37, who has been with the Police Department for 14 years, is the first Chicago police officer in decades to be charged with murder in an on-duty shooting. The city previously fought to keep the video private, citing a continuing investigation into the shooting.

Officer Van Dyke was charged and the video released just over a year after Mr. McDonald was shot 16 times, even after he had stepped slightly away from the officer, prosecutors said. Witnesses said Mr. McDonald, who was carrying a three-inch folding knife, never spoke to Officer Van Dyke or any of the other officers and did not make threatening moves toward him. None of at least seven other police officers on the scene fired their weapons. (Read more from “Chicago Braces After Video of Police Shooting Is Released” HERE)

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Meat Tax: Influential Report Calls for Meat to Be Taxed Like Cigarettes

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An influential think-tank with close ties to government has co-authored a report advocating so called meat tax as a means to lower meat consumption worldwide.

Tackling climate change and improving public health can be achieved by forcing consumers to eat less meat in their diets, and it is up to government to force that change, finds a new report. Co-authored by the University of Glasgow and Chatham House, one of the world’s most influential think-tanks, the paper claims “our appetite for meat is a major driver of climate change”.

Finding global meat consumption has reached “unhealthy levels” and cutting consumption is key to “keeping global warming below the ‘danger level’ of two degrees Celsius”, the paper calls for urgent government intervention. Far from being a potentially fatal move for democratic governments around the world, the report findings insist the public won’t actually react badly to the State taking meat off the table.

The changes and government intervention should be packaged and served up to the public in the same way punitive taxation and gradual banning of tobacco products were, reports The Guardian.

Speaking on the findings, report author Laura Wellesley of Chatham House said: “Governments are ignoring what should be a hugely appealing, win-win policy. (Read more from “Meat Tax: Influential Report Calls for Meat to Be Taxed Like Cigarettes” HERE)

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Here’s the Shocking Number of Americans Who Don’t Have a Toilet

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Did you celebrate World Toilet Day? The recent holiday is a good reminder to rejoice as you read this article on your phone, maybe even while sitting comfortably on a modern, porcelain toilet, which flushes with water so crystalline clean you could, in hard times, drink it without too much fear of dying. (We do not recommend doing that, by the way.)

Going to the toilet wasn’t always such a pleasant, risk-free experience for everyone, and even today, many people in America still go without proper sanitation. As recently as 1990, the rural stereotype of dropping trou in a shack out back was a reality for more than 1.1 million American households. If you think that’s a lot of people, here’s a little math for you. That represented 0.04 percent of the U.S. population back in 1990. Right here in 2015, a full 13 percent of the entire world’s population are still living without access to an improved sanitation facility and are forced to defecate in the open. That’s close to a billion people.

The problem overwhelmingly affects sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, but Census data shows 1,136,157 U.S. households were still using outhouses in 1990 because they lacked access to a public or private sewer or septic tank. In 2014, almost half a million U.S. households still did not have complete plumbing facilities, defined as having access to all of these items: hot and cold running water, a toilet that flushes, and a shower or bathtub. (Read more from “Here’s the Shocking Number of Americans Who Don’t Have a Toilet” HERE)

Editor’s note: Alaska hold the U.S. record for residents without a toilet. A whopping 12% of Alaskans go outside.

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US Issues Travel Warning in Wake of Terror Attacks

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Americans should be alert to the possible travel risks, especially during the holidays, following increased terrorist threats around the world, the State Department warned on Monday.

A travel alert, which is to be in effect until Feb. 24, said current information suggests that militants with the Islamic State, al-Qaida, Boko Haram and other terrorist groups continue to plan attacks in multiple regions. U.S. authorities said the likelihood of terror attacks will continue as members of IS return from Syria and Iraq, and other individuals not affiliated with terror groups engage in violence on their own.

Extremists have targeted sporting events, theaters, open markets and aviation targets. In the past year, there have been multiple attacks in France, Nigeria, Denmark, Lebanon, Turkey and Mali. IS has claimed responsibility for the Oct. 31 bombing of a Russian airliner in Egypt, killing 224 people. (Read more from “US Issues Travel Warning in Wake of Terror Attacks” HERE)

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‘Clock Kid’ Ahmed Mohamed, Family Suing Texas City, School for $15 Million

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Attorneys for [Ahmed] Mohamed, 14, and his family want $15 million in damages and apologies from several officials stemming from Mohamed’s September 14 arrest, when he brought to school a homemade clock that a teacher flagged as a possible bomb.

“As American citizens, all of us — even the ones with ‘Muslim-sounding’ names like Ahmed Mohamed — are entitled to have public officials with whom we come in contact to respect our rights,” a letter addressed to Mohamed’s former school district states.

The so-called “clock kid” incident prompted outrage from some who claimed Mohamed was profiled for being a Muslim and wrongfully arrested by police and suspended by MacArthur High School for a simple misunderstanding. The media circus that quickly enveloped the Texas high school freshman eventually even reached the White House. President Obama tweeted Mohamed an invitation to a White House event after complimenting the clock design. Mohamed has contended he built the clock to display his love of electronics. Detractors have suggested the clock was purchased pre-made and the entire episode was a carefully staged event.

In the aftermath of the incident, Mohamed’s attorneys assert, the teenager’s name and likeness will be “forever associated with arguably the most contentious and divisive socio-political issue of our time” . . .

Demand letters issued by Mohamed’s attorneys on Monday sought $5 million from the Irving Independent School District and $10 million from the City of Irving in addition to written apologies from the Irving ISD and the city’s mayor and police chief. (Read more from “‘Clock Kid’ Ahmed Mohamed, Family Suing Texas City, School for $15 Million” HERE)

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Dumping Donald: GOPe Donors, Operative Fueling New Anti-Trump Ad Blitz

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Republican donors with links to several presidential candidates – as well as a prominent GOP operative – are pooling their resources in a new effort to go after Donald Trump and keep the party’s presidential front-runner from winning the nomination.

The most recent bid is a reported “guerrilla campaign” led by a group called Trump Card LLC and run by Liz Mair, former communications official for the Republican National Committee.

The group’s goal, according to The Wall Street Journal, is to collect money from anonymous donors to “defeat and destroy” Trump, who has essentially led the GOP presidential field since declaring his candidacy this summer.

Further, the super PAC supporting fellow GOP candidate and Ohio Gov. John Kasich is planning to air attack ads against Trump in New Hampshire. And, in a sign of the project’s appeal among donors, it is starting to get funding from donors backing candidates other than Kasich . . .

The group confirmed most of those donors are supporting other candidates, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. Among them, California donor Jeffrey Le Sage told Reuters, which first reported on the new donations, that he wants to help “stand up to Donald Trump.” (Read more from “Dumping Donald: Republican Donors, Operative Fueling New Anti-Trump Ad Blitz” HERE)

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Hillary Clinton Just Made This Insane Claim About What Will Happen If We Block Refugees

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Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton said Monday that blocking Syrian refugees from entering the United States would impair the ability of police officers to connect with the Muslim community.

Clinton, who wants to import thousands of Syrian refugees, told reporters in Reno that it would look bad not to let in Syrian refugees, and that might inflame Muslims against law enforcement.

“If you’re in law enforcement, … you want the people in the communities that you are looking to get information from to feel like they want to help you,” Clinton said at a Nevada roundtable. “And if the message from people who are running for president, for example, is that we don’t want to take any Muslims whatsoever, that’s not good for law enforcement.” (Read more from “Hillary Clinton Just Made This Insane Claim About What Will Happen If We Block Refugees” HERE)

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REPORT: 30% of Nashville School Children Not Native English Speakers

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Over the past year, Conservative Review has published numerous reports illustrating how the current protracted wave of immigration is unlike anything this country has ever experienced since our founding. Today, I’d like to draw attention to the following article from the Tennessean demonstrating just how fundamentally transformed the city of Nashville has become in recent years and what it portends for the rest of the country.

With about 85,000 kids enrolled in the district, those who speak a first language other than English sits at about 30 percent of the district’s population — or just over 25,300 students. Of that number, more than 12,300 need English language services, with the majority of those students, 62 percent, attending elementary schools.

It’s important to note that we are not talking about Las Angeles, Miami, or New York City. Nashville is a microcosm of what is happening to small and mid-sized cities across the country. A number of smaller, heartland cities are being rapidly transformed without the spirit of any democratic decision-making deriving its legitimacy from the existing population. For 30% of a smaller southern city’s school-age population to be non-English speakers is a poignant reflection of the broader transformation.

And it’s quite evident that the wave has not crested yet, and is in fact, increasing more rapidly than ever. The number of students in Nashville “needing English language services” increased 41% over the past four years.

It’s also noteworthy that Arabic is the #2 most common foreign language spoken, with Somali checking in at fourth place. As we’ve been chronicling over the past few months, immigration from the Middle East is the fastest growing subset of our recent migrant population.

This is why it is extremely dishonest for the political elite to focus on the debate over 10,000 Syrian Muslims without taking into account the context of the existing record growth in immigration and its future effect on the cohesion of this great nation.

Since our founding, our country has been a melting pot united by what George Washington referred to as a “Common Cause.” The past few decades of immigration have clearly dismantled the great melting pot. The question we must ask at this point is whether we will continue to function as a sovereign nation state. (For more from the author of “REPORT: 30% of Nashville School Children Not Native English Speakers” please click HERE)

Watch a recent interview with the author below:

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The Democratic National Committee Is Broke

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The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is financially insolvent heading into the 2016 election year, Breitbart News has learned.

Federal Election Commission records reveal that the DNC is millions of dollars underwater and running up a deficit each month, lagging far behind its financially savvy counterpart, the Republican National Committee.

Just last month, the DNC turned a nearly million-dollar debt, marking the fourth month in a row that the DNC spent more money than it took in. In fact, the committee chaired by Debbie Wasserman Schulz took a loss in seven of the last ten months.

The DNC raised $4,456,789 in the month of October, according to its most recent filing. But the committee spent $5,254,928, for a net loss of $798,139 . . .

Four years ago, when it filed its November 2011 FEC report in preparation for President Obama’s re-election run, the DNC had more than $11 million in cash on hand, more than twice as much as it has now. (Read more from “The Democratic National Committee Is Broke” HERE)

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Trump Changes His Mind, Still Might Make Independent Run for President

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By Newsmax. Republican Donald Trump on Sunday made an about-face, saying he might run as an independent candidate for president in 2016 after all — despite signing the GOP loyalty pledge that he wouldn’t.

Asked on ABC’s “This Week” whether he would consider a third-party run if GOP opponents try “to take you out,” Trump said, “I will see what happens. I have to be treated fairly. If I’m treated fairly, I’m fine.”

The billionaire and former reality show star is leading the race for the GOP nomination for the fourth straight month, with Republican establishment candidates such as Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio far behind. All the GOP candidates have signed a pledge to support the party’s eventual presidential nominee and forgo independent runs in 2016. Trump announced on Sept. 3 that he had signed the pledge.

He suggested that his lead in the polls, unshaken by disparaging remarks he’s made about ethnic groups or his lack of specifics on foreign policy, has vexed the Republican party . . .

His standing in national polls has only solidified since recent Islamic militant attacks in Europe, particularly the Nov. 13 strikes on Paris that killed 130 people and wounded hundreds of others. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for those attacks. The upsurge in violence has put pressure on the candidates from outside government, primarily Trump and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who have little foreign policy or national security experience. (Read more from “Trump Changes His Mind, Still Might Make Independent Run for President” HERE)

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Trump on Rally Protester: ‘Maybe He Should Have Been Roughed Up’

By Jenna Johnson and Mary Jordan. Donald Trump said Sunday that the protester who interrupted his rally at a convention center here on Saturday morning was “so obnoxious and so loud” that “maybe he should have been roughed up.”

Mercutio Southall Jr. — a well-known local activist who has been repeatedly arrested while fighting what he says is unfair treatment of blacks — interrupted Trump’s rally and could be heard shouting, “Black lives matter!” A fight broke out, prompting Trump to briefly halt his remarks and demand the removal of Southall.

“Get him the hell out of here, will you, please?” Trump said on Saturday morning. “Get him out of here. Throw him out!”

At one point, Southall fell to the ground and was surrounded by several white men who appeared to be kicking and punching him, according to video captured by CNN. A Washington Post reporter in the crowd watched as one of the men put his hands on Southall’s neck and heard a female onlooker repeatedly shout: “Don’t choke him!”

As security officers got Southall on his feet and led him out of the building, he was repeatedly pushed and shoved by people in the crowd. The crowd alternated between booing and cheering. There were chants of “All lives matter!” (Read more from “Trump on Rally Protester: ‘Maybe He Should Have Been Roughed Up'” HERE)

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