E.P.A. Broke Law with Social Media Push for Water Rule, Auditor Finds

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The Environmental Protection Agency engaged in “covert propaganda” and violated federal law when it blitzed social media to urge the public to back an Obama administration rule intended to better protect the nation’s streams and surface waters, congressional auditors have concluded.

The ruling by the Government Accountability Office, which opened its investigation after a report on the agency’s practices in The New York Times, drew a bright line for federal agencies experimenting with social media about the perils of going too far to push a cause. Federal laws prohibit agencies from engaging in lobbying and propaganda.

“I can guarantee you that general counsels across the federal government are reading this report,” said Michael Eric Hertz, a professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York who has written on social media and the government.

An E.P.A. official on Tuesday disputed the finding. “We use social media tools just like all organizations to stay connected and inform people across the country about our activities,” Liz Purchia, an agency spokeswoman, said in a statement. “At no point did the E.P.A. encourage the public to contact Congress or any state legislature.”

(Read more from “E.P.A. Broke Law with Social Media Push for Water Rule, Auditor Finds” HERE)

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Investigators Looking into Suspicious Activity at Walmart in Arkansas, Possible Terror Plot

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Investigators with the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office, Deputy Prosecutors Office and Walnut Ridge Police are looking into suspicious activity that took place at the local Walmart located in Walnut Ridge over the weekend.

According to sources, a tip was received by the Deputy Prosecutors Office stating that a person or persons of middle-eastern descent was seen at the local Walmart in Walnut Ridge buying a large amount of Trac Phone type cell phones. The tip was then passed to local law enforcement who then contacted the local store and requested video from the store. According to sources the store only had 10 of these type phones and all 10 were purchased at one time by this person.

This activity came on the same weekend that a Walmart in Lebanon Missouri had 60 cells phones purchased, Laclede County Investigators were called in to investigate this and confirmed that the phones were purchased by persons of middle eastern descent with cash money, no charges were filed in the incident. A similar incident was also reported in Columbia Missouri last weekend as well.

Local law enforcement has contacted the Laclede County Sheriff’s Office (Lebanon Missouri) and requested video to compare to the local video taken. A similar incident took place in Michigan where arrest were made after suspects purchased a large number of cell phones.

Although there has been no direct link to any terror plots or groups in the recent string of purchases, law enforcement states people should be suspicious and report activity to local law enforcement. Reports after the recent San Bernardino incident stated neighbors saw suspicious activity but failed to report it to authorities stating racial profiling. (Read more from “Investigators Looking into Suspicious Activity at Walmart in Arkansas, Possible Terror Plot” HERE)

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YouTube Suspends Investigative Reporter Sharyl Attkisson’s Full Measure News

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Sharyl Attkisson, formerly an investigative reporter with CBS, recently launched Full Measure News. Those who have followed Attkisson on Twitter know that she has been relentless in her pursuit of stories that have been abandoned by the mainstream news, such as the Fast and Furious scandal and Benghazi.

Full Measure News was to be an independent outlet for investigative reporting, but tonight Attkisson is reporting that the entire Full Measure News account has been pulled by YouTube.

(Read more from “YouTube Suspends Investigative Reporter Sharyl Attkisson’s Full Measure News” HERE)

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New $360 Million Navy Ship Breaks Down

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One of the Navy’s newest ships had to be towed more than 40 miles to port after it broke down Friday less than a month after it was commissioned into service.

The littoral combat ship USS Milwaukee, which boasts a $360 million price tag, broke down Thursday evening, days after the ship’s crew discovered “fine metallic debris in the port combining gear filter system,” the Navy said in a news release. The crew later discovered similar debris in the ship’s oil filter . . .

The ship is now undergoing a full inspection in Little Creek, Virginia. The incident was first reported by the Navy Times.

The breakdown happened as the ship was on its way to its home port of San Diego after it was commissioned in Milwaukee. The long journey took it through the Great Lakes and Halifax, Canada. It was scheduled to stop next in Florida.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain called the ship’s “complete loss of propulsion … deeply alarming, particularly given this ship was commissioned just 20 days ago.” (Read more from “New $360 Million Navy Ship Breaks Down” HERE)

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Crude Falls Below $35 per Barrel in New York for First Time Since 2009

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Oil held gains after rebounding from the lowest price since February 2009 as the U.S. Congress sought to advance on a deal to allow unfettered crude exports for the first time in 40 years.

Futures were steady in New York after rising 1.9 percent Monday, the first increase in seven days. Senate leaders faced resistance from some Republicans and House Democrats, who were willing to discuss lifting trade restrictions depending on concessions they’d get in exchange, according to a Democratic leadership aide. Oil prices won’t continue at current levels, OPEC Secretary-General Abdalla El-Badri said in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Oil is trading at levels last seen during the global financial crisis after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries effectively abandoned output limits as it sought to defend market share. Hedge funds and other large speculators raised bets on falling U.S. crude prices to a record while the International Energy Agency predicted the market will remain in surplus at least until late 2016.

“If the U.S. starts to ship its crude to Asia, this will further intensify competition with OPEC producers,” Kang Yoo Jin, a commodities analyst at NH Investment & Securities Co. in Seoul, said by phone. If oil drops to about $30 a barrel, OPEC “will find the need to protect prices as internal discord and conflicts among themselves persist.” (Read more from “Crude Falls Below $35 per Barrel in New York for First Time Since 2009” HERE)

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The 7000+ Men in the US Special Forces UNANIMOUSLY Oppose Women in Their Ranks

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The men in the U.S. military’s most dangerous jobs have a message for their political leadership: women have no place on their teams.

In a survey conducted by the Rand Corporation, more than 7,000 members of America’s Special Operations Forces unanimously objected to having women do their jobs. . .

Lack of physical strength and mental toughness were the main reasons given.

“I weigh 225 pounds, and 280 pounds in full kit, as did most of the members of my ODA (a 12-man Army Green Beret unit),” one respondent said. “I expect every person on my team to be able to drag any member of my team out of a firefight. A 130-pound female could not do it, I don’t care how much time she spends in the gym. Do we expect wounded men to bleed out because a female soldier could not drag him to cover?”

Another said, “. . .Most males in the area of the world I work in would rather back hand a female than listen to her speak. There is a reason we send men to do these jobs,” he said. (Read more from “The 7000+ Men in the US Special Forces UNANIMOUSLY Oppose Women in Their Ranks” HERE)

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The Last Person You’d Expect Just Stepped up and Defended Trump

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Rupert Murdoch, according to Brietbart, has been a foe of Donald Trump, and for quite some time has defied Trump on numerous occasions. For example, when the Donald came out against illegal immigration, Murdoch was pushing for amnesty for illegals. He even tried to debunk Trump’s argument that the presence of illegals actually created a rise in the crime rate in the U.S. . . .

And Murdoch’s support of amnesty coincides with his desire for corporations to have an unlimited supply of work visas for workers from outside of the U.S. Murdoch, according to Breitbart, said that action on allowing for the corporate visas couldn’t wait and needed to be acted upon as soon as possible . . .

For his part, Donald Trump called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States, a stance for which he has drawn an enormous amount of criticism. Murdoch, on the other hand, believes that a total ban on refugees to the U.S. is what is necessary.

Murdoch tweeted on Tuesday, “Has Trump gone too far? Regardless, public is obsessed on radical Muslim dangers, Complete refugee pause to fix vetting makes sense.” (Read more from “The Last Person You’d Expect Just Stepped up and Defended Trump” HERE)

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Mark Zuckerberg Backed Immigration Bill Would Allow Unlimited Muslim Immigration

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In January of 2015, a handful of Senators quietly introduced new legislation in Congress that would allow for virtually unlimited Muslim immigration into the United States – lifting caps entirely on several categories of visas favored by immigrants from Muslim countries.

The Mark Zuckerberg-backed legislation, S.153, is called the Immigration Innovation Act (or I-Squared), and it has taken on new significance following the terrorist attacks in San Bernardino. Those attacks were only possible due to Muslim immigration: Syed Farook is reportedly the child of Pakistani immigrants, and his jihadi bride, Tashfeen Malik, was reportedly born in Pakistan.

The I-Squared bill is significant for a second reason. One of the Senators who introduced the bill is also running for President: Sen. Marco Rubio. And several of Rubio’s most prominent financial backers are among the bill’s boosters.

I-Squared would expand five major visa categories used by Muslim migrants: the F-1 foreign student visa, green cards for foreign students, green cards for their family members, the H-1B foreign worker visa, and the H-4 spousal visa . . .

Under current law, the F-1 student visa operates under the assumption that foreign students have no intention of abandoning their home countries. It is intended to operate similar to a foreign exchange program, where the students return home after their studies are concluded. Current statute reads that an F-1 visa holder is “an alien having a residence in a foreign country which he has no intention of abandoning…” 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(15)(F)(i). (Read more from “Mark Zuckerberg Backed Immigration Bill Would Allow Unlimited Muslim Immigration” HERE)

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Conservative Group Calls for Federal Inquiry into Hillary Clinton Son-In-Law Request

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Photo Credit: Time A conservative watchdog group has called for another federal investigation into Hillary Clinton’s communications during her time as Secretary of State, accusing Clinton of giving special government access to an investor in a deep-sea mining company because of his connections to Clinton’s son-in-law.

The group, called the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), plans to file a complaint with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics on Monday.

“It appears that then Secretary Hillary Clinton gave a private company special access to the State Department based upon the company’s relationships with Secretary Clinton’s family members and donors to the Clinton Foundation,” the group says in the complaint first obtained by TIME.

The complaint comes two weeks after emails released by the State Department show that Clinton followed up on a special request from Marc Mezvinsky, Chelsea Clinton’s husband.

In May 2012, Harry Siklas, an investor in a deep-sea mining firm called Neptune Minerals, asked Mezvinsky to connect him with officials at the State Department in order to discuss mining regulations affecting his investments. Siklas noted he was lobbying for access on behalf of a friend who had founded the deep-sea mining firm. (Read more from “Conservative Group Calls for Federal Inquiry into Hillary Clinton Son-In-Law Request” HERE)

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Team Rand Mocks Mainstream Media for False Predictions About Debate

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The presidential campaign of Sen. Rand Paul is mocking the mainstream media after several inside-the-beltway reporters falsely predicted that Paul wouldn’t make the debate stage here on Tuesday evening.

Paul, CNN announced on Sunday morning, will be right there on the main stage—not relegated to the undercard debate like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was at the last debate.

“Some in the media have no integrity, instead of waiting until polling is actually announced they try to predetermine outcomes, only to once again find egg on their face,” Sergio Gor, Paul’s communications director, told Breitbart News exclusively.

Pretty much everyone from major media outlets, with the exception of Breitbart News Network, falsely reported ahead of CNN announcing the debate lineups that Paul wouldn’t be on the main stage.

“Kentucky Senator Rand Paul will almost certainly fail to qualify for the primetime stage at next Tuesday’s fifth Republican primary debate, according to an analysis of poll data conducted by Bloomberg,” Bloomberg Politics wrote. “Paul has been included in all four of the main presidential debates to this point in the campaign.” (Read more from “Team Rand Mocks Mainstream Media for False Predictions About Debate” HERE)

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