Former U.S. Army Soldier Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Kill Federal Agent and Informant

By BBC. A former US soldier who allegedly formed an international band of snipers as mercenaries has confessed to a murder plot in New York.

Joseph Hunter, nicknamed Rambo after the hero of the 1980s action films, pleaded guilty to conspiring to kill a federal agent and an informant.

The 49-year-old faces up to 10 years in prison.

He believed he had been working for drug traffickers who were actually working for the US anti-drugs agency.

He is accused of recruiting ex-military snipers with the aim of carrying out murders on behalf of drug organisations. (Read more about the soldier conspiring to kill the federal agent HERE)

__________________________________________________

A Family Was Not Told Their Mother’s Death Was a Suicide Until They Saw News Report on Television

By Sheboygan Press Media. The family of a soldier from Kiel who died last year in Kosovo from a gunshot wound had not been informed by military investigators that they had concluded their daughter had committed suicide until they read about it in the Sheboygan Press on Wednesday.

Stars and Stripes newspaper reported Monday that Army Staff Sgt. Heidi Ruh died on May 9, 2014, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo, citing the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command. Stars and Stripes is published by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Ruh’s parents, Catherine and Scott Ruh, who live in rural Newton, learned about it from friends and relatives who read a story that appeared in Wednesday’s Sheboygan Press and online at sheboyganpress.com.

News of the investigation’s conclusion was carried by many other media outlets.

A family relative, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Sheboygan Press Thursday that Ruh’s two sons, who were 8 and 11 when she died, saw the news that their mother had committed suicide while watching TV in Texas, where they live. (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Democrat Congresswoman to Colleagues: ‘Man Up’ and Strip Military Benefits

By Brendan McGarry. A U.S. congresswoman implored her colleagues to “man up” and accept the recommendations from a blue-ribbon panel to overhaul military benefits.

Rep. Jackie Speier, a Democrat from California and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, praised the recent work of the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission. The panel called for offering troops 401(k)-like retirement plans and military families a choice of commercial health insurance plans in lieu of Tricare, among other proposals.

“We’ve just now have got to inject a little guts into all of us to do the right thing,” she said Wednesday during a hearing of the committee’s military personnel subcommittee, which received testimony from commission members.

The hearing was the latest in what will be a series of debates on Capitol Hill over the future of military compensation. Members of the congressionally mandated panel have said their 15 recommendations were designed to give troops, military families and retirees more benefits choices while saving the Pentagon an estimated $12 billion a year in personnel costs by 2040. (Read more about the congresswoman telling colleagues to strip military benefits HERE)

____________________________________________________

Wounded Warrior Abused by Doctor and Social Worker

By Richard Sisk. A soldier currently at the Fort Carson, Colo., Warrior Transition Unit (WTU) suffered mistreatment by a doctor and a social worker for several months last year, an Army investigation concluded.

The soldier was mistreated at the Embedded Behavioral Health clinic while he was assigned to 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment before he joined Fort Carson’s WTU.

The fact-finding investigation under Article 15-6 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice found that the two heath care providers engaged in “problematic encounters” with the soldier between February and May of 2014, the Army said.

At a roundtable session with Pentagon reporters Friday, Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Patricia Horoho said that the doctor and the social worker “showed a lack of dignity and respect to one soldier” and had been disciplined. (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Governor John Kitzhaber Announces His Resignation

Photo Credit: Oregon LiveBy Beth Nakamura. Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber resigned effective Wednesday, Feb. 18, in a letter submitted to Secretary of State Kate Brown.

“I am announcing today that I will resign as Governor of the State of Oregon,” he wrote in a statement released just after noon Friday . . .

In just four months, a public corruption scandal involving Kitzhaber and his fiancee, Cylvia Hayes, has hobbled one of Oregon’s most durable politicians. Kitzhaber, a public official for 37 years, was sworn in for a historic fourth term as governor just a month ago. Facing not only a state criminal investigation and an ethics review, Kitzhaber watched his support from fellow veteran lawmakers crumble this week.

The governor’s resignation does not end either the criminal investigation or ethics review. (Read more about Governor John Kitzhaber announcing his resignation HERE)

______________________________________________________

Oregon Governor Agrees to Resign but Says He “Broke No Laws”

By Jonathan J. Cooper. Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber resigned Friday, giving in to mounting pressure to abandon his office amid suspicions that his fiancee used her relationship with him to land contracts for her green-energy consulting business.

In a lengthy statement, the state’s longest-serving chief executive insisted he broke no laws. He said the resignation would be effective Wednesday.

“Nonetheless, I understand that I have become a liability to the very institutions and policies to which I have dedicated my career and, indeed, my entire adult life,” he said.

The decision capped a wild week in which Kitzhaber seemed poised to step down, then changed his mind, but ultimately bowed to calls from legislative leaders that he quit the state’s top elected position.

The announcement is a stunning fall from grace for a politician who left the governor’s office in 2003 and then mounted a comeback in 2010 and won back his old job. (Read more from this story HERE)

_______________________________________________________

Democratic Leaders Abandon Oregon Governor

By Hannah Hoffman. Kitzhaber is under criminal investigation by Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum’s office for the role his fiancee, Cylvia Hayes, has held in his office and whether she used that role to obtain private consulting work.

He appears to be the first Oregon governor to face an AG investigation. He is also under review by the Oregon Government Ethics Commission, although it is on hold until Rosenblum completes her work.

Calls for his resignation have mounted as new allegations against him and Hayes have come to light.

Democratic leaders officially asked Kitzhaber to step down on Thursday. They originally thought he planned to do it Wednesday, but he apparently changed his mind that afternoon. (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Expert: Illegal Aliens Now Able to Vote in US Elections Due to Obama’s Illegal Amnesty

By Stephen Dinan. President Obama’s temporary deportation amnesty will make it easier for illegal immigrants to improperly register and vote in elections, state elections officials testified to Congress on Thursday, saying that the driver’s licenses and Social Security numbers they will be granted create a major voting loophole.

While stressing that it remains illegal for noncitizens to vote, secretaries of state from Ohio and Kansas said they won’t have the tools to sniff out illegal immigrants who register anyway, ignoring stiff penalties to fill out the registration forms that are easily available at shopping malls, motor vehicle bureaus and in curbside registration drives.

Anyone registering to vote attests that he or she is a citizen, but Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted said mass registration drives often aren’t able to give due attention to that part, and so illegal immigrants will still get through.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris W. Kobach said even some motor vehicle bureau workers automatically ask customers if they want to register to vote, which some noncitizens in the past have cited as their reason for breaking the law to register.

“It’s a guarantee it will happen,” Mr. Kobach said. (Read more about the illegal amnesty HERE)

_______________________________________________________

Illegal Alien Caught Sneaking into United States with “Obama” Shirt

By Michelle Moons. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sees people from around the world attempting to cross into the U.S. illegally–and San Diego is no exception. Apprehensions of illegal aliens from countries other than Mexico surged last October, including foreign nationals from Ebola-affected countries, according to a source within CBP that spoke on condition of anonymity. One of those caught at the time sported a shirt that bore the name “Obama,” as shown in the above photo.

The men pictured were taken into custody during a massive influx of illegal aliens coming from Africa through San Diego’s San Ysidro Port of Entry during October 2014. The foreign nationals flooding the border crossing were turning themselves in, claiming “credible fear” in pursuit of political asylum, the source told Breitbart California. (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Teacher Passes Out Pornographic Fifty Shades of Grey Puzzle to Middle School Students

Photo Credit: WTAEBy Bob Hazen. At least five students at a Westmoreland County middle school were given word puzzles based on the erotic novel and movie “Fifty Shades of Grey” this week, and school district officials said they are investigating how it happened.

James Carter said the word search, filled with explicit sexual terms, was passed out Monday to his son and other students in his eighth-grade class at Monessen Middle School.

“I asked my son who passed it out, and he said the teacher passed it out,” Carter told said. “I don’t think this is what they should be doing in the eighth-grade level” . . .

At a school board meeting Tuesday night, Monessen City School District officials said they could not comment on who gave the puzzles to students, citing personnel issues. (Read more about the Fifty Shades of Grey puzzle given to Monessen middle school students HERE)

_________________________________________________________

Fifty Shades Of Grey Premiere: Domestic Abuse Campaigners Protest on Film’s Opening Night

By Danny Walker and Nina Massey. Domestic abuse campaigners have turned out to protest at the London premiere of Fifty Shades of Grey.

Stars of the film, which is based on books by E.L James, are walking the red carpet ahead of its release on Valentine’s Day.

But protesters have also turned out to call on the public to consider whether they should endorse the movie.

One campaigner held up a sign which read: “Some Ana’s don’t survive their Christians” . . .

“50 Shades is domestic abuse,” another sign said. (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Alabama Official Ordered to Issue Marriage Licenses to Homosexual Couples

Photo Credit: IB Times By Reuters. A federal judge on Thursday ordered an Alabama official to comply with her earlier ruling striking down the state’s ban on same-sex matrimony and start issuing marriage licenses to gay couples, while advocates said couples in most counties were still unable to obtain licenses.

U.S. District Judge Callie Granade’s order clarified that Mobile County Probate Court Judge Don Davis should follow her directive despite a contravening order from Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore that led many state judges to refrain from issuing marriage licenses to gay couples.

The ruling marked the latest twist in the controversy over gay marriage in Alabama, where probate judges have faced conflicting orders from federal and state courts. The resulting disarray has allowed some same-sex couples to marry in places such as Birmingham, while those applying for marriage licenses in dozens of counties were turned away.

Granade’s order applied specifically to Mobile County, where, within an hour of the ruling, same-sex couples who had been waiting in line at a county building began to receive licenses.

Judges in the other 43 of Alabama’s 67 counties that have refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples did not immediately begin issuing them in the wake of Granade’s order, advocates said. (Read more from ‘Alabama Official Ordered to Issue Marriage Licenses HERE)

_________________________________________________________

Here’s What Your State’s View of Homosexual Marriage Is

By Victoria Taft. A new survey shows American tolerance or support of same-sex marriage has increased a whopping 21% between 2003 and 2013.

The Public Religion Research Institute, which routinely polls issues pertaining to abortion and LGBT issues, says the differences are stark from one decade to the next . . .

Here’s what your state’s voters think about same-sex marriage.

(Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Veterans Group Demands Apology From VA Secretary Who Asked Iraq War Veteran, ‘What Have You Done?’

By Pete Kasperowicz. A key veterans group on Wednesday demanded that Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald apologize for insulting a member of Congress who just happens to be a 22-year Marine Corps veteran.

McDonald got the attention of Concerned Veterans for America during the day when he got angry at a series of questions from Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.). Coffman was asking about the VA’s failed hospital construction project in his home state, when McDonald stunned the room by trying to shift the blame to Coffman.

“You’ve been here longer than I have,” McDonald said. “If there’s a problem in Denver, I think you own it more than I do.”

McDonald then seemed to imply that Coffman wasn’t qualified to question the VA’s activities, by saying, “I’ve run a large company, sir. What have you done?”

Pete Hegseth, the CEO of Concerned Veterans for America, said McDonald was “disrespectful” of Coffman, who is the only member of Congress to serve in both Iraq wars, and demanded an apology. (Read more about the Veteran group demanding an apology HERE)

__________________________________________________________

Obama Signs Suicide Prevention Bill

By Bryant Jordan. President Obama signed the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act Thursday that will provide $22 million to help boost programs that look to reduce the veteran suicide rate that has climbed to 22 veterans each day.

The suicide prevention legislation is named for a former Marine who died by suicide in 2011 after losing his battle with mental health issues related to his service in Afghanistan. Hunt was 28.

In remarks before signing the bill at the White House, Obama said Hunt did everything he could to fight against the post-traumatic stress symptoms that plagued him.

He sought help from the VA, got involved in helping other veterans, and even volunteered with a relief organization assisting people in Haiti. He also made a public service announcement encouraging other veterans with mental health issues to get help, Obama said.

But the right combination of help, therapy and medication was not found for Hunt in time, Obama said. (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

How This Phony CIA Agent Pulled Off a ‘Scam’ While Imposing the Most Expensive EPA Regs in History

Photo Credit: Daily Signal By Kevin Mooney. Remember the EPA bureaucrat who got caught receiving $900,000 in pay without working because he claimed he also was employed by the CIA?

According to a report from the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the man, former climate policy expert John Beale, “retired” when questions arose about his spotty attendance and expense records.

Only he didn’t file his retirement paperwork and continued to draw an active-duty salary for some time after. His boss at the time in the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, now-EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, knew this for about seven months and did nothing to stop it.

“On March 29, 2012, an OAR official raised concerns about Beale’s retirement when he informed McCarthy that Beale was still on payroll,” the report stated.

“Despite being aware of the fact that one of her subordinates was collecting a paycheck without providing any work product, this arrangement continued for seven more months before McCarthy ever contacted Beale.” (Read more about the phony CIA agent HERE)

___________________________________________________

EPA Under Fire for Concealing Controversial Scientific Data, Silencing Skeptics

By Kevin Mooney. For more than 15 years, the Environmental Protection Agency has resisted releasing data from two key studies to the general public and members of Congress. Government regulators used those studies to craft some of the most expensive environmental rules in U.S. history.

When skeptics within the federal government questioned and challenged the integrity of the studies—the Harvard Six Cities Study and an American Cancer Society study known as ACS II—they were silenced and muzzled.

That’s when the Republican staff on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee stepped in to shine light on the situation, revealing the scope of the scandal in in a report titled, “EPA’s Playbook Unveiled: A Story of Fraud, Deceit and Secret Science.”

The key player in the scandal is John Beale, who was sentenced to serve 32 months in federal prison on Dec. 18, 2013, after pleading guilty to stealing almost $900,000 from U.S. taxpayers.

It was in 1994 that Beale first began to beguile EPA employees and supervisors into believing he worked for the CIA. When he failed to report for work, Beale would enter “D.O. Oversight” on his calendar, which meant he was a director of operations responsible for covert operations at the CIA. (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Media Intentionally Fans Flames of Racial Hatred, Skewing Crime Numbers, Suppressing Facts

Photo Credit: Accuracy in Media The media have relentlessly fanned the flames of racial hatred, while engaging in a systematic pattern of misinformation and blatant suppression of facts surrounding the perpetrators and victims of crime. As a result, so-called “criminal justice reform” is now being proposed to release more criminals from jails, supposedly to make amends for the unjust “mass incarceration” of black men.

The figures come quickly but are never subjected to the necessary scrutiny. Last fall, for example, the George Soros-funded ProPublica published a claim that black youths are killed by the police at a rate 21 times higher than white youths. Mass media parroted that claim, but the data are incomplete and biased. They represent just 1.2 percent of police departments nationwide, and most reports come from urban areas, where the population is disproportionately black.

More reliable data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) suggest that in 2012, 123 blacks were killed by police using firearms while 326 whites, including 227 non-Hispanic whites, were killed. These data, however are also not entirely reliable, but represent a larger data set than the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR).

CNN’s Marc Lamont Hill, a racial agitator fired by Fox News for defending cop-killers, spread another misleading statistic about police shootings, claiming that “Every 28 hours, an unarmed black person is killed by police.” This too was trumpeted in the media. It became a twitter hashtag, “#every28hours,” and another mantra like “hands up, don’t shoot.” But it is demonstrably false. There were 313 blacks killed by police, security guards and other “vigilantes” in 2012. Dividing 313 into the number of hours in a year (8,760) yields 28. However, 177 of these “unarmed black persons” were actually armed with firearms. That leaves 136. Others may have been technically “unarmed” but were threatening the officer’s life, for example with their car—or as in Michael Brown’s case, attempting to take the officer’s gun. Many more were not the result of shootings, but accidents, e.g., during vehicular chases. Finally, some of the shooters were not police. When the hyperbole is removed, the facts present a much more reasonable explanation. Barring a small number of tragic mishaps, police shootings are usually justified.

Let’s look at the other side now. In 2013 alone, 49,851 officers were assaulted with firearms, knives and other weapons. Over the past 10 years, on average, 150 police officers have been killed in the line of duty every year. Fifty-seven of these were shot, stabbed, strangled or beaten. Of the 509 officers feloniously killed in the past 10 years, 46 percent of the perpetrators were black, despite their representing only 13 percent of the population. Do we call this a black war against the police?

Black Crime & Incarceration

Critics also argue that blacks’ 40 percent share among U.S. prison populations is direct evidence of institutional racism (see table). In a color-blind society, they charge, incarcerated black populations would reflect their 13 percent share of the general population.

However, if black crime rates were the guide, it would seem that blacks are, if anything, underrepresented in prison populations. The table below presents FBI data on homicide offenders. Blacks exceed all other groups in murders committed in 2013. In prior years it was actually worse.

(Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Atheist Tea Party-Hater, Fan of Rachel Maddow and Southern Poverty Law Center, Gunned Down 3 Muslims

Photo Credit: News Observer By Tammy Grubb. Police charged a Chapel Hill man Wednesday with first-degree murder in the deaths of three Muslim students in a quiet neighborhood near Meadowmont, just south of N.C. 54.

Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, is being held in the Durham County Jail on three counts of first-degree murder.

Hicks is accused of shooting his Finley Forest neighbors, Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, and his wife Yusor Abu-Salha, 21, and Abu-Salha’s sister, Razan Abu-Salha, 19, of Raleigh.

Police said in a statement Wednesday morning that a dispute about parking in the neighborhood of rented condominiums may have led to the incident.

“Our preliminary investigation indicates that the crime was motivated by an ongoing neighbor dispute over parking. Hicks is cooperating with investigators,” Lt. Joshua Mecimore, a police spokesman, said. (Read more about how the man murders 3 Muslims HERE)

_________________________________________________

Atheist Tea Party-Hater, Southern Poverty Law Center Fan Gunned Down 3 Muslims

By Carmine Sabia. The murder of three Muslim students on Tuesday, apparently by a self-proclaimed atheist, set social media ablaze with allegations that the victims were killed because of “Islamophobia,” but the truth was more complicated.

Not only is the suspect a political progressive who loves Rachel Maddow and hates the tea party, he appears to hate all religions, too . . .

According to PJ Media:

A review of the Facebook page of the man charged in these murders, Craig Hicks, shows a consistent theme of anti-religion and progressive causes. Included in his many Facebook “likes” are the Huffington Post, Rachel Maddow, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Freedom from Religion Foundation, Bill Nye “The Science Guy,” Neil deGrasse Tyson, gay marriage groups, and a host of anti-conservative/Tea Party pages.

(Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.