Sony Cancels Release of 'The Interview'; FBI Links North Korea to Cyberattack on the Company

/1 Comment/in , /by

Credit - Sony Pictures

Credit – Sony Pictures

LOS ANGELES – The FBI has connected North Korea to the Sony Pictures cyberattack, a federal law enforcement source told Fox News Wednesday, hours after the company announced it had scrapped the Dec. 25 release of “The Interview” after a number of major movie chains said they would not show the film.

The administration reportedly will call out North Korea on its role on Thursday.

However, the source also told Fox the hacking attack did not necessarily come from inside the borders of North Korea.

Until Wednesday, the Obama administration had been saying it was not immediately clear who might have been responsible for the computer break-in. North Korea has publicly denied it was involved.

In canceling he Christmas day release, Sony released a statement saying, “In light of the decision by the majority of our exhibitors not to show the film The Interview, we have decided not to move forward with the planned December 25 theatrical release. We respect and understand our partners’ decision and, of course, completely share their paramount interest in the safety of employees and theater-goers.”

Later, a Sony spokesman said the company had no further release plans for the film, Variety reported.

Read more from this story HERE.

Citizen's Arrest: Alabama Family Holds Burglary Suspects at Gunpoint

/3 Comments/in , /by

Credit - Fox News

Credit – Fox News

Last week, a surveillance camera at an Alabama family’s home captured burglars stealing Christmas presents and two televisions.

On Sunday, the Wyatt family was being interviewed by a local news station about the robbery when they recognized the car used in the crime from the surveillance video.

The quick-thinking – and well-armed – family jumped into action and held the burglars at gunpoint until police arrived.

‘Every Day Is a Bonus’: WWII Vet Recounts His Time as a German POW

Sarah Wyatt and her cousin, Sandy Boyd, appeared on “Fox and Friends” this morning to discuss what unfolded on Sunday.

Wyatt explained that the bandits were near Boyd’s house, likely scouting out more homes, when her family recognized their vehicle.

Read more from this story HERE.

Small Businesses Dropping Healthcare Coverage, Shifting Employees to ObamaCare

/1 Comment/in , /by

Credit - Getty Images

Credit – Getty Images

For two decades Atlanta restaurant owner Jim Dunn offered a group health plan to his managers and helped pay for it. That ended Dec. 1, after the Affordable Care Act made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.

Health-law subsidies for workers to buy their own coverage combined with years of rising costs in the company plan made dropping the plan an obvious – though not easy – choice.

“I had a lot of regrets going into it,” Dunn, who owns three Italian Oven restaurants in suburban Atlanta, said of his decision. “I don’t think I have as many now — only because I’ve seen the affordability factor for my managers improve.”

Dunn and five managers are now covered under individual plans bought on healthcare.gov. How many other owners make the same decision will help set the future of small-business health insurance. Although the evidence so far is mixed, brokers expect more firms to follow in the next few years.

Companies like Dunn’s — those with fewer than 50 workers — provide medical coverage to roughly 20 million people. Unlike larger employers, they have no obligation under the health law to offer a plan. Now they often have good reason not to.

Read more from this story HERE.

Vermont Drops Plan for Single-Payer Healthcare for All Citing Cost

/1 Comment/in , /by

Credit - Daily Caller

Credit – Daily Caller

Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin is canceling his dream plan to create a single-payer health system in the state, he announced Wednesday.

“I am not going to undermine the hope of achieving critically important health care reforms for this state by pushing prematurely for single payer when it is not the right time for Vermont,” Shumlin said in a statement Wednesday. “In my judgment, now is not the right time to ask our legislature to take the step of passing a financing plan for Green Mountain Care.”

The problem is, of course, how to pay for it. Even while plans were moving forward for a 2017 launch of the single-payer system, to be called Green Mountain Care, Shumlin had held off on releasing a plan for how to pay for the system, waiting until his announcement Wednesday.

Tax hikes required to pay for the system would include a 11.5 percent payroll tax as well as an additional income tax ranging all the way up to 9.5 percent. Shumlin admitted that in the current climate, such a precipitous hike would be disastrous for Vermont’s economy.

“Pushing for single payer health care when the time isn’t right and it might hurt our economy would not be good for Vermont and it would not be good for true health care reform,” Shumlin said. “It could set back for years all of our hard work toward the important goal of universal, publicly-financed health care for all.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Texas Plumber's Old Truck Resurfaces in Syria, Mounted with Terrorists' Guns

/0 Comments/in , /by

Credit - Fox News

Credit – Fox News

A Texas plumber has been receiving threats after a photo emerged of Islamic extremists in Syria firing a high-powered gun from the bed of his old pickup, which still bears his company’s logo on the door.

An extremist group, Ansar al-Deen Front, posted the photo of its fighters aboard the Ford F-250 sometime on Monday. That prompted a flood of calls to Mark Oberholtzer, who owns Mark-1 Plumbing in Texas City, and has nothing to do with Syria’s bloody civil war.

“How it ended up in Syria, I’ll never know,” Oberholtzer told The Galveston Daily News.

Oberholtzer told the paper that he traded in the truck three years ago. The Houston dealership he turned it over to, AutoNation, told KHOU.com that the truck was auctioned and was likely traded from owner to owner over the course of three years.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Has Issued More Executive 'Memoranda' Than Any Previous President

/7 Comments/in , /by

Credit - AP

Credit – AP

President Obama has issued a form of executive action known as the presidential memorandum more often than any other president in history — using it to take unilateral action even as he has signed fewer executive orders.

When these two forms of directives are taken together, Obama is on track to take more high-level executive actions than any president since Harry Truman battled the “Do Nothing Congress” almost seven decades ago, according to a USA TODAY review of presidential documents.

Obama has issued executive orders to give federal employees the day after Christmas off, to impose economic sanctions and to determine how national secrets are classified. He’s used presidential memoranda to make policy on gun control, immigration and labor regulations. Tuesday, he used a memorandum to declare Bristol Bay, Alaska, off-limits to oil and gas exploration.

Like executive orders, presidential memoranda don’t require action by Congress. They have the same force of law as executive orders and often have consequences just as far-reaching. And some of the most significant actions of the Obama presidency have come not by executive order but by presidential memoranda.

Obama has made prolific use of memoranda despite his own claims that he’s used his executive power less than other presidents. “The truth is, even with all the actions I’ve taken this year, I’m issuing executive orders at the lowest rate in more than 100 years,” Obama said in a speech in Austin last July. “So it’s not clear how it is that Republicans didn’t seem to mind when President Bush took more executive actions than I did.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Fed Judge Rules Executive Amnesty Unconstitutional

/3 Comments/in , /by

Credit - AP

Credit – AP

By Caroline May

A federal district court judge in Pennsylvania ruled Tuesday that portions of President Obama’s executive amnesty are unconstitutional, according to the Washington Post.

Western Pennsylvania District Judge Arthur Schwab concluded in his opinion that Obama’s executive actions go “beyond prosecutorial discretion” and into the realm of legislating.

“President Obama’s unilateral legislative action violates the separation of powers provided for int he United States Constitution as well as the Take Care Clause, and therefore, is unconstitutional,” Schwab wrote in his opinion.

Schwab’s ruling, the Washington Post notes, is the first judicial opinion rendered about President Obama’s executive amnesty.

Read more from this story HERE.
___________________________________________________________

Federal Judge: Obama Immigration Actions Unconstitutional

By Josh Siegel

A federal judge today ruled that President Obama’s executive actions on immigration are unconstitutional—the first time a court has weighed in since the president’s Nov. 20 announcement.

“President Obama’s unilateral legislative action violates the separation of powers provided for in the Constitution as well as the Take Care Clause, and therefore, is unconstitutional,” wrote U.S. District Court Judge Arthur Schwab, in a 38-page opinion.

Schwab, an appointee of President George W. Bush, issued the ruling in a criminal case that was not a direct challenge to Obama’s moves.

The case involved a once-deported Honduran immigrant, Elionardo Juarez-Escobar, charged in federal court with illegally re-entering the United States after being arrested earlier this year in Pennsylvania for drunk driving.

The court only considered Obama’s immigration policy changes in sentencing Juarez-Escobar to see if he could qualify for deferred deportation under the president’s new enforcement guidelines.

Read more from this story HERE.

Cruz and Lee Say They're Not to Blame for Confirmation of Obama Nominees

/6 Comments/in , /by

Credit - Daily Signal

Credit – Daily Signal

By Melissa Quinn

As the 113th Congress draws to a close, Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah are facing harsh criticism from colleagues for supposedly opening the door to confirmation of presidential nominees — a claim Lee’s office said is “a complete fabrication.”

Through a series of procedural moves, Lee and Cruz tried to slow passage of the $1.1 trillion government spending bill, which kept the Senate in session through the weekend — a rarity in Washington — instead of returning to address the measure Monday.

The move angered lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. According to The Washington Post, senators were forced to miss events like the Army-Navy football game in Baltimore, Md., and holiday festivities in their home states.

Now, Lee and Cruz stand accused of paving the way for Reid to push through more than two dozen pending presidential nominees.

Lee’s office, however, contends the Senate would have voted on the nominees before the session ended either way.

Read more from this story HERE.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Ted Cruz Strikes Back: ‘Too Many Republicans Willing to Be Complicit’

by Rob Bluey

In the midst of the debate over a mammoth government spending bill, Republicans and Democrats found something to agree on: their dislike for Sen. Ted Cruz, who forced a rare weekend session for the Senate.

But rather than back down, Cruz opted to call out Washington politicians on Sean Hannity’s radio show Monday.

“Enough is enough,” he told Hannity.

The outspoken Texas Republican joined with Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, to force the Senate to take a vote related to funding President Obama’s recent immigration actions. The measure was defeated, 74-22, after Cruz said Republican leaders urged senators to vote against the constitutional point of order. (View the roll call vote.)

“Too many politicians in Washington don’t believe we can stand and fight,” Cruz told Hannity.

He lamented that Republican leaders frequently plead to put off tough fights for another day, as they wanted to do on immigration. Cruz predicted Republicans once again would find an excuse not to act next year as well…

Read more from this story HERE.

White House Still Hasn't Approved Necessary Paperwork for Individual Mandate

/1 Comment/in , /by

Credit - AP

Credit – AP

Americans have to be prepared for an increased individual mandate tax to hit in just two weeks, but the White House still hasn’t gotten around to approving the Internal Revenue Service paperwork on the requirement…

The IRS’ workload was upped drastically by the individual mandate, which will require Americans to submit a tax form proving they have health insurance or pay a growing fine to the agency. It appears the Obama administration was running behind on the paperwork requirements as well as pretty much everything else.

Read more from this story HERE.

With Fuel Prices Plummeting, Why Do Airfares Remain High?

/0 Comments/in , /by

Credit - Fox News

Credit – Fox News

First time in more than five years, you can actually smile when you fill up, as gas prices fall below $2.80 per gallon.

You aren’t smiling, though, when you go online or call a travel agent to book an airline ticket these days. Prices seem to know only one direction: up. It’s not just the price of the ticket, as consumers get hit with a myriad of fees that know no limit.

If you want to board early you’ll have to pay up. Want a seat that won’t crush your knees and you’ll have to pay up again. How about food? There’s a fee there too.

With airlines earning record profits this year, while their fuel costs are plummeting, you’d think you might actually get a break on your next flight. Think again…

There’s a little bit of hope on the horizon as airfares are forecast to drop in 2015, but don’t get too excited. We are looking at an average drop in fares of 5 percent after some markets have seen their fares go up by 70 percent or more over the past two years.

Read more from this story HERE.