Calls for Judge to Resign After She Released Man Who Allegedly Threatened to Kill Cops

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judge-gangbangerBy Josh Saul and Jamie Schram. A Brooklyn judge cut loose a gang member who had posted online threats to gun down cops in the hours after two NYPD officers were executed in their patrol car — ignoring prosecutors’ pleas to keep him behind bars, The Post has learned.

Criminal Court Judge Laura Johnson let Devon Coley, 18, waltz free without bail despite the fact that he faces seven years behind bars on charges he made a terroristic threat — complete with an image of a killer shooting cops in their car — and is awaiting trial in two unrelated cases involving assault and gun possession.

Johnson’s stunning no-bail decision came just two days after Saturday’s broad-daylight slayings of Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu by a gunman bent on avenging the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown at the hands of police.

It also came after Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plea earlier Monday for New Yorkers to “call 911” if they suspect someone is planning to attack the NYPD.

“She should resign from the bench,” said Dennis Quirk, head of the state court officers union. “She’s not fit to be a judge.” Read more about the pressure on this judge to resign HERE.
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After NYC Deaths, a Surge of Support for Police

By David Crary. Rocker Jon Bon Jovi donned a New York Police Department T-shirt on stage. Well-wishers delivered home-baked cookies by the hundreds to police in Cincinnati. In Mooresville, North Carolina, police and sheriff’s officers were treated by residents to a chili dinner.

At a time when many in the nation’s police community feel embattled, Americans in cities and towns across the country are making an effort to express support and gratitude.

“I’m showing a little solidarity for my brothers in the NYPD and all of those who protect and serve us every day,” Bon Jovi told a cheering crowd at his concert Monday in Red Bank, New Jersey.

The surge of support is linked to two distinct but overlapping developments.

The immediate catalyst was the killings of two New York City police officers as they sat in their patrol car in Brooklyn on Saturday. For many of those making appreciative gestures, there also was a desire to counter the widespread protests steeped with criticism of police that followed grand jury decisions not to charge white officers for their roles in the deaths of black men Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York. Read more from this story HERE.
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JetBlue Offering Free Flights to Cops Wishing to Attend NYPD Officers’ Funerals

By Daniel Prendergast and Natasha Velez. JetBlue airlines said Wednesday it will be offering free flights to police officers from around the country who wish to attend the funerals for the two slain NYPD cops killed over the weekend.

The airline said it will allow up to two cops from each department to fly at no charge from anywhere across its route network to New York City.

“We’re honored to do what we can to support the communities we serve, and our team has made flights available to law enforcement agencies … who wish to send representatives to New York to support their brethren,” said JetBlue spokeswoman Sharon Jones. Read more from this story HERE.

After 70% of Illegal Alien Families Fail to Show for Hearings, Feds Plan to Track Them with GPS

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Ankle BraceletThe Department of Homeland Security will reportedly track more illegal immigrants with GPS devices because a whopping 70% of illegal immigrants who traveled to America as a family unit failed to show up to their immigration hearings.

This summer, illegal immigrants from Central America flooded across the border, believing that “notices to appear” that illegal immigrants receive after being released were “permisos” to remain indefinitely in America. . .

According to an Associated Press report, as a result, “Immigration and Customs Enforcement earlier this month launched a program to give GPS devices to some parents caught crossing the Mexican border illegally with their children in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley.” The program will reportedly track 250 “heads of households” with GPS ankle bracelets.

Read more about tracking illegal alien families with GPS HERE.

Obamacare Taxpayer Funded Insurance Company Insolvent

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Don't Tread On ObamacareAn Obamacare-created and taxpayer-funded insurance company in Iowa has been taken over by the state due to a financial crisis.

CoOportunity Health is Iowa’s insurance cooperative — a nonprofit insurance company created by the Affordable Care Act to supposedly undercut the large, for-profit insurers that Democrats castigated as “greedy” and “evil” during the debate over health care reform.

After just beginning to offer plans in 2013, the company’s already insolvent and has now been taken over by the state of Iowa, insurance commissioner Nick Gerhart announced Wednesday. CoOpportunity doesn’t have enough cash on hand to be sure it can pay claims for its 120,000 customers, if necessary. The company has only $17 million in cash and assets, Gerhart said.

The federal government’s Obamacare administrator the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services initially gave CoOportunity a $112 million loan award in Feb. 2012, but doled out an additional $32.7 million emergency award to keep the company solvent in September of this year.

That wasn’t enough to keep it in business. CoOpportunity’s management expected to receive more federal money than they did, putting them in continuing financial peril.

Read more about how this Obamacare taxpayer funded insurance company went insolvent HERE.

Obama Admin. Publishes Over a Thousand New Regs During Holidays

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Photo Credit: White House

Photo Credit: White House

The Obama administration is cramming like a college student trying to study for a final exam, publishing more than 1,200 new regulations in the last 15 days alone, according to data from Regulations.gov.

Energy and environment rules are the biggest category, with 139 published by the federal government in the last 15 days, according to Regulations.gov.

One of the most contentious new regulations is the EPA’s coal ash rule. The rule has been criticized by the coal industry and environmental groups — though for entirely different reasons — and has a price tag of up to $20.3 billion. The rule was finalized last Friday.

Before that, the Obama administration finalized a new ozone standard that could become the costliest rule ever proposed by the EPA. The EPA released the rule while millions of Americans were getting ready to eat some turkey and pie for Thanksgiving.

Regulations listed on Regulations.gov include “Notices from the Federal Register; Proposed Rules; Final Rules.” The government website shows that 309 rules were proposed or finalized in the last 15 days and 892 notices from the federal register were received — some of which could lead to new rulemakings.

Read more about Obama’s new regs HERE.

Unexpected Christmas Miracles

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Christmas WWIIDad used to tell us his favorite Christmas story. In the boiling Pacific of World War II, Dad was on USS Cleveland and saw the intensity of naval warfare at places such as Midway, Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal and Manila.

On Christmas Eve, 1944, the men got good news: A priest would come aboard for Midnight Mass! Dad would recall how they sure needed the “good news” of the birth of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, during those clashing days.

But, when the priest arrived for Mass, the hundreds of gathered, expectant sailors began to growl, “He’s a Jap!” (to use the politically incorrect word of that time).

Dad would tell us that, although they would later learn he was actually a Filipino priest, the understandable hostility of the war still led the men to grumble, as they wondered about the worthiness of this “Oriental” (to use another outdated term) to offer Mass. . .

But . . . then came “O Come All Ye Faithful”; then came the sign of the cross; then the gospel of the first Christmas, and the suspect priest’s simple and sincere sermon of love for family at home and longing for peace on earth and sea; then came prayer and Holy Communion; finally came the priest’s blessing and “Silent Night,” with men crying and hugging, and the “Jap priest” cheered and engulfed with affection as he left the ship to visit another awaiting congregation.

Prejudice, hatred, suspicion and antagonism were changed into love, acceptance and joy on USS Cleveland. That’s the miracle of Christmas!

Read more from this story HERE.

Americans having a Holly Jolly, Stress Free Christmas

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Christmas Cheer‘Tis indeed the season to be jolly for Americans, who are experiencing their lowest levels of holiday stress in years, according to a new CNN/ORC nationwide poll.

The poll suggests they’ve already decked their halls with boughs of holly, as only 30% of the public said they’re feeling a great deal or fair amount of stress from all the things they need to do to get ready for Christmas.

That’s a steep drop from 2005, when a vast majority of Americans must’ve left the tree-trimming to the last minute, as 86% said they felt a great deal or fair amount of stress that year. In 1989, 76% felt the same, perhaps because they waited too long to buy the new Nintendo Game Boy, the hot toy released that year.

Read more from this story HERE.

SWAT Teams Posted After Gang Members Threaten to Attack NYPD Station Houses

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Two NYPD cops shot deadThe NYPD set up SWAT teams at two Bedford-Stuyvesant police precincts Tuesday night — after a confidential informant told cops about overhearing a gang plot to “shoot it out” at the station houses.

Four Emergency Services Unit officers, outfitted with helmets and assault weapons, were stationed at the 79th precinct. Another two were at the 81st.

The beefed up security was prompted by a confidential informant, who told cops of overhearing a member of the Baltimore-based Black Guerrilla Family talking with fellow gang members about plans to “shoot it out with police” at the two precincts, law enforcement sources told The Post.

The gang member served three years in jail for robbery and attempted murder.

Read more from this story HERE.

State Dept Offering Millions to Recapture Terrorist Freed From Gitmo

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

On December 18, 2014, the State Department put Ibrahim al-Rubaysh, a senior leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, on a Specially Designated Global Terrorist watch list. Al-Rubaysh plays a key role in operational planning for the terrorist group and provides justification for their attacks. He’s also made public statements on more than one occasion calling for war against the United States. For these reasons, there’s been a $5 million reward offered since October for information that could lead to his capture.

The problem is not the terrorist per se, or the State Department’s decision to place him on the global watch list; it’s the fact that the U.S. already had him once—and let him go.

Judicial Watch explains:
“Hundreds of Gitmo terrorists have been discharged over the years under a program that started with President George W. Bush and continued full-throttle with this administration. Intelligence report after intelligence report has revealed that many rejoin terrorist missions after leaving the military prison. In fact, Judicial Watch has been reporting this for years. Back in 2010 JW wrote about a report that the Director of National Intelligence gave Congress documenting that 150 former Gitmo detainees were confirmed or suspected of “reengaging in terrorist or insurgent activities after transfer.” At least 83 remained at large, according to the document.”

Read more from this story HERE.

George H.W. Bush Rushed to Hospital

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Photo Credit: Helen Thorgalsen/Facebook

Photo Credit: Helen Thorgalsen/Facebook

Former President George H.W. Bush was hospitalized on Tuesday after experiencing what a spokesman called a “shortness of breath.”

Bush, 90, was taken by ambulance to Houston Methodist Hospital Tuesday evening as a precaution. The former president will remain there under observation.

In late 2012, he was admitted to the hospital with a bronchitis-related cough. Bush was released Nov. 19 but returned the day after Thanksgiving with a persistent cough. He was later admitted to intensive care with a stubborn fever. Bush spent that Christmas at the hospital, only leaving intensive care on Dec. 30.

He spent nearly two months at the hospital until his release in mid-January 2013.

The oldest former president, Bush has health problems that have forced him in recent years to rely on a wheelchair or motorized scooter to get around.

Read more from this story HERE.

Rand Paul Hints at 2016 Run in ‘Festivus’ Grievances

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Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore

Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, hinted at a possible 2016 run for president Tuesday in his annual airing of grievances for Festivus.

In a lengthy series of tweets — some mostly serious, all at least somewhat humorous — Mr. Paul said having a “fashion forward” campaign is one key to success in politics, posting pictures of both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and former presidential candidate Rick Santorum in sweater vests, but said he prefers to wear something different.

“Of course, everyone has to be themselves, and I have my own style. I think this will be a popular item this year,” he said, posting a picture of a black sweatshirt that said “Rand Paul 2016.”

Mr. Paul and Sen. Marco Rubio, Florida Republican, have been feuding over the president’s recent change to U.S. relations with Cuba, but in the holiday spirit, Mr. Paul left the other possible 2016 contender out of his annual grievance list, a “custom” of Festivus.

“Tempting to air a grievance @marcorubio again, but we’ve done that enough for this week. Instead I will say an early Merry Christmas,” he said.

Read more from this story HERE.