Edward Snowden’s Privacy Tips: “Get Rid Of Dropbox,” Avoid Facebook And Google

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Photo Credit: TechCrunchAccording to Edward Snowden, people who care about their privacy should stay away from popular consumer Internet services like Dropbox, Facebook, and Google.

Snowden conducted a remote interview today as part of the New Yorker Festival, where he was asked a couple of variants on the question of what we can do to protect our privacy.

His first answer called for a reform of government policies. Some people take the position that they “don’t have anything to hide,” but he argued that when you say that, “You’re inverting the model of responsibility for how rights work”:

When you say, ‘I have nothing to hide,’ you’re saying, ‘I don’t care about this right.’ You’re saying, ‘I don’t have this right, because I’ve got to the point where I have to justify it.’ The way rights work is, the government has to justify its intrusion into your rights.

He added that on an individual level, people should seek out encrypted tools and stop using services that are “hostile to privacy.” For one thing, he said you should “get rid of Dropbox,” because it doesn’t support encryption, and you should consider alternatives like SpiderOak. (Snowden made similar comments over the summer, with Dropbox responding that protecting users’ information is “a top priority.”)

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama: I Hugged and Kissed Emory Hospital Nurses and I Don't Have Ebola …

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Photo Credit: TownHallBy Daniel Doherty.

White Press Secretary Josh Earnest answered questions today at the White House about why the president cancelled two out-of-state fundraising visits in order to meet with “cabinet agencies” about the growing Ebola threat. The president rarely if ever cancels fundraisers so the maneuver certainly raised some eyebrows in Washington.

“The president was not able to host that meeting and travel at the same time,” his spokesman said. “If the president determines it’s time to return to the White House to fulfil his responsibilities as president and commander in chief…he will alter his schedule accordingly.”

His spokesman, however, also sought to assuage concerns that a mass Ebola outbreak is imminent in the United States. He reminded the public that the chances of that happening are exceedingly slim.

“The way that Ebola is transmitted is very clear,” he said. “And is something that is not likely to happen in the United States. Ebola is not like the flu….the only way that a patient can get Ebola [is through bodily fluids].”

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Handout photoSecond Texas nurse tests positive for Ebola

By EMILY SCHMALL and NOMAAN MERCHANT.

The Ebola crisis in the U.S. took another alarming turn Wednesday with word that a second Dallas nurse caught the disease from a patient and flew across the Midwest on an airliner the day before she fell ill, even though government guidelines should have kept her off the plane.

Amid growing concern, President Barack Obama canceled a campaign trip to address the outbreak and vowed that his administration would respond in a “much more aggressive way” to Ebola cases in the United States.

Though it was not clear how the nurse contracted the virus, the case represented the latest instance in which the disease that has ravaged one of the poorest corners of the earth — West Africa — also managed to find weak spots in one of the world’s most advanced medical systems.

The second nurse was identified as 29-year-old Amber Joy Vinson. Medical records provided to The Associated Press by Thomas Eric Duncan’s family showed she inserted catheters, drew blood and dealt with Duncan’s body fluids.

Duncan, who was diagnosed with Ebola after coming to the U.S. from Liberia, died Oct. 8.

Read more from this story HERE.

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21 Days Not A Long Enough Quarantine For Ebola, New Study Suggests

By Jon Fortenbury.

A 21 day quarantine, after being infected with the Ebola virus, has become the standard quarantine recommendation for avoiding the spread of the virus. That’s not long enough to eliminate the risk, suggested a new study published yesterday in PLOS Currents: Outbreaks.

By looking at data from past Ebola outbreaks, as well as the first nine months of the current Ebola outbreak, Drexel University environmental engineering professor Dr. Charles Haas pointed out that between 0.1 and 12 percent of the time, the incubation period for someone infected with Ebola was longer than 21 days. The 0.1 figure comes from the 1976 Ebola outbreak in Zaire, which had far fewer cases analyzed than the other Ebola outbreaks looked at in this study that have had a higher number of cases with longer incubation periods, such as the Ebola outbreak in Congo in 1995 and the current outbreak in West Africa.

Read more from this story HERE.

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CDC Demands 132 Passengers That Flew With 2nd Ebola Patient Report For Testing

By Tyler Durden.

But, but, but they said it wasn’t contagious unless you came into contact with bodily fluids. According to the CDC, the 2nd health-care worker infected with Ebola traveled on Frontier Flight 1143 from Cleveland to Dallas on October 13th and are asking all 132 passengers on the flight to get tested. One question… what about the thousands of people that those 132 passengers came in contact with in the last 2 days?

NEW TEXAS EBOLA PATIENT FLEW DOMESTICALLY NIGHT BEFORE FEVER APPEARED — CDC

Via Bloomberg,

Second health-care worker with Ebola traveled on Frontier flight 1143 from Cleveland to Dallas on Oct. 13, CDC says in e-mailed statement.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: APMEDICAL RESEARCH ORG CIDRAP: EBOLA TRANSMITTABLE BY AIR

By CHRISS W. STREET.

The highly respected Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota just advised the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) that “there is scientific and epidemiologic evidence that Ebola virus has the potential to be transmitted via infectious aerosol particles,” including exhaled breath.

CIDRAP is warning that surgical facemasks do not prevent transmission of Ebola, and healthcare professionals (HCP) must immediately be outfitted with full-hooded protective gear and powered air-purifying respirators.

CIDRAP since 2001 has been a global leader in addressing public health preparedness regarding emerging infectious diseases and bio-security responses. CIDRAP’s opinion on Ebola virus is there are “No proven pre- or post-exposure treatment modalities;” “A high case-fatality rate;” and “Unclear modes of transmission.”

In April of 2014, CIDRAP published a commentary on Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) that confirmed the disease “could be an aerosol-transmissible disease, especially in healthcare settings,” similar to the known aerosol transmission capability of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

Although CIDRAP acknowledges that they were “first skeptical that Ebola virus could be an aerosol-transmissible disease,” they are “now persuaded by a review of experimental and epidemiologic data that this might be an important feature of disease transmission, particularly in healthcare settings.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Vice President Biden's Son Kicked Out of Navy for Using Cocaine

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Photo Credit: APBy MarketWatch.

Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter was discharged from the Navy Reserve this year after testing positive for cocaine, according to people familiar with the matter.

Hunter Biden, a lawyer by training who is now a managing partner at an investment company, had been commissioned as an ensign in the Navy Reserve, a part-time position. But after failing a drug test last year, his brief military career ended.

Biden, 44 years old, decided to pursue military service relatively late, beginning the direct-commission process to become a public-affairs officer in the Navy Reserve in 2012. Because of his age—43 when he was to be commissioned—he needed a waiver to join the Navy…

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Getty ImagesAshley Biden’s past is full of weed and wild parties

By Dan Mangan.

A decade before a friend came forward trying to sell a video that he claimed showed her snorting cocaine, Vice President Joseph Biden’s daughter was busted for pot possession.

Ashley Biden “was a hot freshman that every guy wanted to be with,” said Nat Berman, a Tulane University classmate, who said he bailed Ashley out of jail after her 1999 marijuana arrest in New Orleans, for which no conviction was recorded.

“She was very attractive.

“Everybody at Tulane knew that she was a party girl,” Berman said. “She wore some pretty short shorts — a lot.”

Berman, 30, wrote on his blog, Uncoached.com, after Joseph Biden’s election as vice president last November about Ashley’s partying.

Read more from this story HERE.

'Global Warming Scare' Declared 'Over'

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Photo Credit: WNDScientists and others on a team assembled by the Chicago-based Heartland Institute, which focuses on free-market solutions to today’s problems, say the “scare” of global warming from the use of carbon fuels and other human activities “is over.”

It’s “past time” for the world to realize that and “stop the madness of wasting great sums of money on EPA’s imaginary threat,” contends Kenneth Haapala, the executive vice president of the Science and Environmental Policy Project at the Heartland Institute.

Institute experts said Thursday the Remote Sensing Systems, which provide data to NASA, NOAA and the National Science Foundation, have confirmed “the global mean surface temperature has not risen for 18 consecutive years.”

“This extends the so-called ‘pause’ in global warming to a new record, one not predicted by the climate models of the United Nations’ International Panel on Climate Change,” the organization said.

Craig Idso, senior fellow in environment for the Heartland Institute and co-editor of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, a counterpart to the IPCC, said that to “the world’s climate alarmists, atmospheric carbon dioxide is a dangerous trace gas, and for years, they have been insisting its increase will raise global temperatures and wreak havoc upon Earth’s climate and biosphere.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Viral Suicide: Obama DHS Now Expediting Visa Requests From Ebola-Infected Countries

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Wondering how Thomas Eric Duncan was able to enter the U.S. while suffering from Ebola? He asked for a visa and received one in August.

In fact, the Department of Homeland Security is proudly advertising its “Ebola Outbreak-related Immigration Relief Measures to Nationals of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone Currently in the United States.”

You read that right. Not only are the Obama Democrats leaving our doors wide open to those seeking entry from Ebola-infected countries, they’re actually expediting visa requests!

Here’s a more legible version:

With a 70 percent mortality rate and an incubation period in excess of three weeks, what possible reason could the Obama Democrats have for banning travel from West Africa?

Oh, that’s right. Sorry, I forgot. They hate America.

Update: The inimitable Thomas Lifson notes that the notice “ONLY applies to nationals currently in the USA. IOW, no new arrivals. Mainly, I think to avoid kicking out people and forcing them to return to the hot zone.”

Thanking him for his note, I responded that: “…the problem with this notice is that there is no cutoff date. In other words, if I make it into the U.S. today, then I presumably still qualify.”

Consider the notice: it doesn’t say “…in the United States as of 16 August 2014…”; no, if you make it into the U.S., you can apply for an extended stay and see your request expedited. Perfect, just perfect.

Posted in-full courtesy of Doug Ross, blogger and cartoonist at Doug Ross @ Journal. Please visit his website for more updates, and check out his novella “Hard-Boiled” at Amazon.com

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Photo Credit: Olivier Douliery-Pool / Getty Judicial Watch: Obama to Admit Non-Citizens for Ebola Treatment

By Newsmax.

The government watchdog group Judicial Watch alleged Friday the Obama administration is formulating plans to admit Ebola-infected non-U.S. citizens into the United States for treatment.

The group, which cited one unidentified source, said the administration would aim to bring Ebola patients into the United States for treatment within the first days of diagnosis, and that it’s not clear who’d pay either for the transportation or treatment.

The group alleged the plan for treatment includes special waivers of laws and regulations that ban the admission of non-citizens with a communicable disease; Judicial Watch cited its source saying the administration has not told Congress about the plan.

Read more from this story HERE.

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URGENT: Congressman Comes Forward to Show How Obama is HELPING Ebola Come to the U.S.

By Conservative Tribune.

U.S. Rep. Ed Royce sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry suggesting that his department take the “prudent measure” of ceasing to issue visas in Ebola-stricken countries for travel to the United States.

The chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee said that he was “deeply concerned” to learn that the U.S. Embassies in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone are continuing to process about 100 visa applications daily, according to Western Journalism.

“I was surprised that the Department of State has not already exercised its authority to suspend consular services,” the California Republican wrote, “which is standard procedure in countries experiencing a major security disruption.”

Royce recommended that the U.S. suspend not only visa processing, but all consular services in the three West African nations.

“This would be a prudent measure to mitigate the risk of Ebola exposure and contain its spread—a bedrock principal [sic] of health crisis management.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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World fears mount that Ebola battle being lost

By Jonathan Fowler.

The World Bank warned Friday the fight to stop Ebola was being lost, as the UN pleaded for more money to combat the escalating epidemic and global travel fears mounted.

As the death toll from the world’s worst-ever outbreak of the virus shot past 4,500, a glimmer of hope came from Senegal, which was declared Ebola-free by the World Health Organization.

The United States, meanwhile, named an “Ebola czar” to coordinate its response, after criticism of how a Texas hospital handled a Liberian victim, with two nurses who treated him now infected.

And a researcher at British pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline said a vaccine may not be ready for commercial use until late 2016.

“We are losing the battle,” World Bank chief Jim Yong Kim warned, blaming a lack of international solidarity in efforts to stem the epidemic.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Reuters/StringerBritish Big Pharma warns Ebola vaccine will come ‘too late’ to halt spread

By RT.

One of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies says a vaccine to tackle Ebola will “come too late” to curb the current epidemic, as the UK and other European countries begin screening passengers for the virus at international airports.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), a British multinational that produces pharmaceuticals, biologics and vaccines, said a working vaccine would not be readily available until late 2015, by which time the epidemic may have spread far beyond West Africa.

The statement follows warnings from the United Nations and World Health Organization (WHO) that there could soon be more than 10,000 new cases of Ebola per week if the spread of the disease is not curbed quickly.

“We either stop Ebola now or we face an entirely unprecedented situation for which we do not have a plan,” said the UN’s Deputy Ebola Coordinator Anthony Banbury on Wednesday.

“The WHO advises within 60 days we must ensure 70 percent of infected people are in a care facility and 70 percent of burials are done without causing further infection,” he added.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Watchdog: Obama to bring non-American Ebola victims to U.S. for treatment

By PAUL BEDARD.

While the bipartisan voice grows to ban Ebola victims from entering the United States, a new report claims that President Obama is considering a plan to bring the world’s Ebola patients to the United States to be treated.

Judicial Watch, the conservative public watchdog group, says in a shocking report that the president is “actively formulating plans” to admit Ebola-infected non-citizens just to be treated.

“Specifically, the goal of the administration is to bring Ebola patients into the United States for treatment within the first days of diagnosis,” said the group.

Read more from this story HERE.

CDC Finally Admits that it Knows Little about How Ebola is Spread

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Photo Credit: KALLISTA / GETTY IMAGESBy Mike Lupica.

It was Ivy Baker Priest, former treasurer of the United States, who once said, “I’m often wrong, but never in doubt.” It is worth remembering the line now as you think of the conga line of famous doctors, led by Tom Frieden of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who kept assuring us they knew everything there was to know about transmission of the Ebola virus.

There was Frieden, who sadly starts to look like another government hack, going out night after night on television and offering tutorials on Ebola, even after the late Thomas Duncan had been diagnosed with it at Texas Health Presbyterian.

“We know how to stop Ebola,” Frieden said, with certainty on which cathedrals could be built.

Then two nurses at Texas Health, Nina Pham and Amber Vinson, were diagnosed with Ebola; two of more than 70 people at that hospital who came into contact with Duncan before he died. Before long, Frieden was talking about a “breach in protocol,” even though any fool can see that the protocol should have been sending a SWAT team from the CDC to Dallas to monitor Duncan’s treatment.

Finally Frieden, who acted all along as if saying “I don’t know” was an act of treason, had to say this to a House panel on Thursday afternoon, talking about two trained nurses who supposedly followed all of the proper protocols and are sick with Ebola anyway: “While we do not yet know exactly how these transmissions occurred . . . .”

Read more from this story HERE.

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MSNBC Calls GOP Ebola Criticism ‘Not Even Thinly-Veiled Racism’

By ALEX GRISWOLD.

Want a selective travel ban? Think the Mexican border should be secured? Turns out you’re not concerned about the spread of Ebola, you’re actually a really horrible bigot. At least, that was the stance of MSNBC hosts Alex Wagner and Joy Reid. The host of “Now with Alex Wagner” played clips of Republican lawmakers and conservative commentators criticizing President Obama and the CDC’s handling of the Ebola crisis, accusing them of “not even thinly-veiled racism.”

“That stuff is incredible,” Wagner said, referring to criticisms from Republican lawmakers, Glenn Beck, and Bill O’Reilly. “He is their president, Joy. I mean, it’s not even thinly veiled racism at this point.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Daily CallerTop Doctor: CDC’s Ebola Safety Instructions Are Wrong, Could Lead To Contamination

By PATRICK HOWLEY.

Respected George Washington University hospital laboratory director Dr. Jonathan Reiner exposed the Obama administration’s flawed and inaccurate health advice for citizens during the Ebola outbreak.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention came under fire Wednesday after it was revealed that officials advised Dallas nurse Amber Vinson that she could board a Frontier Airlines flight to Ohio with a mild fever after she treated Ebola patient Thomas Duncan. Vinson was later diagnosed with Ebola.

Read more from this story HERE.

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NURSES: WE WERE TOLD TO CALL AUTHORITIES FOR EBOLA PROTOCOL

By Breibart TV.

A statement from National Nurses United on the treatment of Dallas Ebola patient said that “nurses were asked to call the Infectious Disease Department” to learn the policies on how to treat Duncan.

The statement, which was played in its entirety on CNN on Wednesday morning, also reports that Ebola training at the hospital was “optional,” “nurses have been left to train each other,” and that nurses who interacted with Duncan simply continued treating other patients.

According to the statement, “there was no advanced preparedness on what to do with the patient. There was no protocol, there was no system. The nurses were asked to call the Infectious Disease Department. The Infectious Disease Department did not have clear policies to provide either.”

The union added that “advanced preparation that had been done by the hospital primarily consisted of e-mailing us about one optional lecture or seminar on Ebola…

Read more from this story HERE.

Democrats Lied, People Died

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Photo Credit: ExaminerBy James Simpson.

The New York Times is now admitting that WMD always existed in Iraq, they were discovered many times, even injuring our soldiers, but the despicable leftists would crucify anyone who told the truth. So people lied to save their own skins. “Bush lied, people died,” as the slogan went. But the liars are, were and have always been the Left. Chief among them was presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton. . . The entire episode is a disgraceful example of just how vicious, selfish and dishonest official Washington and its media minders can be.

Consider: back in the 1990s, both Bill and Hillary Clinton swore up and down that Saddam Hussein had WMD. John Kerry and other assorted Democrats followed suit. That was the narrative of official Washington. But when Bush opted to invade Iraq – not merely because of that threat, but for many other equally justifiable reasons as well – suddenly they all became scoffers at the whole notion. They began to beat the drum “Bush lied, people died” . . .

People should be in jail, but in the Left’s world they become heroes. Meanwhile, Americans died while Democrats lied – relentlessly doing everything in their power to disrupt the war and hobble Bush for strictly partisan reasons, while our armed forces were forced to deal with their rampant interference.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Tyler Hicks / The New York TimesReport: Thousands of Abandoned Chemical Weapons Found in Iraq from 2004 to 2011

By C. J. CHIVERS.

The soldiers at the blast crater sensed something was wrong.

It was August 2008 near Taji, Iraq. They had just exploded a stack of old Iraqi artillery shells buried beside a murky lake. The blast, part of an effort to destroy munitions that could be used in makeshift bombs, uncovered more shells.

Two technicians assigned to dispose of munitions stepped into the hole. Lake water seeped in. One of them, Specialist Andrew T. Goldman, noticed a pungent odor, something, he said, he had never smelled before.

He lifted a shell. Oily paste oozed from a crack. “That doesn’t look like pond water,” said his team leader, Staff Sgt. Eric J. Duling.

The specialist swabbed the shell with chemical detection paper. It turned red — indicating sulfur mustard, the chemical warfare agent designed to burn a victim’s airway, skin and eyes.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Bush lied, people died

By James Simpson.

In 2005, I wrote an article by that title. It was meant sarcastically. It has always been the Left that drives Americans into dangerous, deadly situations. And this time was no different. Before the Iraq war, official Washington, that is the entrenched political Left, was beating the drum over Saddam’s WMD program. Virtually every single prominent Democrat, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and many others, described in apocalyptic terms the danger Saddam posed with his WMD program. NOBODY believed Saddam was telling the truth when he claimed he no longer had a WMD program. Everyone, even the UN, believe it or not, made statements to the effect that he needed to fess up or go. So it was infuriating to see the Democrats flip like a swtich the minute G.W. Bush decided to do something about it. Suddenly it was all Bush’s fault. George W. Bush, i.e. “Chimpy Bushitler” according to leftists, the knuckle-dragging moron, suddenly became the Machiavellian genius who tricked the credulous, innocent Democrats into a war for WMD that suddenly never existed! And Saddam’s connection to 9-11? Oh perish the thought, thou fools!

Only the Left, with its practiced media allies could pull off such a fraud. And only the Left would continue to pump that narrative. Leftists lie. It is pretty much all they do and one of the few things they are actually accomplished at. So I wrote the following article. It is long but read every word. More facts in that article than any dozen from the New York Times or Washington Post. That is because it is based on facts, not an agenda, unlike the Post, Times and so many others whose facts must fit their agenda. I criticized Bush for many of the things he did. But he cannot be blamed for unilaterally suckering us into going to war. The Democrats share equal or more blame. And now, having utterly ruined our hard-won victories in Iraq, Obama can claim direct, personal and unitary responsibility for all those deaths and injuries being a horrific and pointless waste. Read on:

Bush Lied, People Died

That statement all by itself encapsulates the political Left’s modus operandi. It is at once deliberately provocative, crudely insulting and a calculated lie. Slogans like this are crafted for impact, not accuracy, and illustrate succinctly that the Left is never interested in facts, only results. It is one of the many reasons I find the American Left one of the most revolting and disingenuous movements in modern history, for these Leninist tactics shield the reality of a worldwide movement designed solely for its own advancement and whose 100 year history is steeped in blood, responsible for more death and oppressive misery than all the wars of history combined. This article is dedicated entirely to refuting the oft-repeated “Bush lied, people died” slander and should settle, for reasonable people at least, the debate over whether or not the Bush administration made the right choice in invading Iraq.

Read more from this story HERE.

City of Houston Demands Pastors Turn Over Sermons

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Photo Credit: TPNNThe city of Houston has issued subpoenas demanding a group of pastors turn over any sermons dealing with homosexuality, gender identity or Annise Parker, the city’s first openly lesbian mayor. And those ministers who fail to comply could be held in contempt of court.

“The city’s subpoena of sermons and other pastoral communications is both needless and unprecedented,” Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Christina Holcomb said in a statement. “The city council and its attorneys are engaging in an inquisition designed to stifle any critique of its actions.”

ADF, a nationally-known law firm specializing in religious liberty cases, is representing five Houston pastors. They filed a motion in Harris County court to stop the subpoenas arguing they are “overbroad, unduly burdensome, harassing, and vexatious.”

“Political and social commentary is not a crime,” Holcomb said. “It is protected by the First Amendment.”

The subpoenas are just the latest twist in an ongoing saga over the Houston’s new non-discrimination ordinance. The law, among other things, would allow men to use the ladies room and vice versa. The city council approved the law in June.

Read more from this story HERE.

Thousands Released After Immigration Holds Denied

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Photo Credit: APLocal Jails Refusing to Hold Illegal Immigrant Offenders, Forcing Feds to Track Them Down

By William La Jeunesse and Laura Prabucki.

Local police agencies across the country are frustrating efforts at the federal level to detain and deport criminal illegal immigrants, leaving immigration officials scrambling to track them down.

In the last nine months, 275 counties have refused to honor requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement that they be notified before releasing an illegal immigrant from custody.

In doing so, those jurisdictions have released some 9,000 with criminal records who otherwise would have been removed from the U.S.

In the past, these so-called “detainer requests” from ICE were routinely granted.

Now, however, the very counties that once turned over thousands of illegal immigrant felons to ICE are refusing — afraid of being sued for holding the wrong person or forced to renege by immigrant-friendly policies in Democrat-dominated districts.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Thousands Released After Immigration Holds Denied

By The Associated Press.

Immigration officials say local authorities released thousands of immigrants from jails this year despite efforts to take them into federal custody, including more than 3,000 people with previous felony charges or convictions.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice says roughly 8,800 of the agency’s requests for local authorities to detain arrested immigrants for up to 48 additional hours until they are placed in federal custody were denied during the first eight months of the year.

Read more from this story HERE.

Senior Republicans Criticize Ebola 'Czar' Choice for Lack of Medical Background

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Photo Credit: Manuel Balce Ceneta, APBy Fox News.

Senior Republicans on Capitol Hill Friday criticized Ron Klain, President Obama’s choice to be “Ebola czar,” as a figurehead with no health background.

“Given the mounting failings in the Obama administration’s response to the Ebola outbreak, it is right that the president has sought to task a single individual to coordinate its response, “said Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “But I have to ask why the president didn’t pick an individual with a noteworthy infectious disease or public health background?”

Klain, a longtime political hand, served as chief of staff to Al Gore and Vice President Joe Biden but has no apparent medical or health care background.

A White House official said Friday that Klain comes to the job with “strong management credentials, extensive federal government experience overseeing complex operations and good working relationships with leading members of Congress, as well as senior Obama administration officials, including the president.”

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called him an “excellent choice.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: TownHallGood News: Obama Appoints Ebola Czar

By Daniel Doherty.

Katie noted earlier today that the president has been toying with the idea of appointing an “Ebola Czar” to deal with this crisis – presumably because the CDC Director and others have failed to do so. Now he has.

According to CNN, the president has tapped Ron Klain for the job, a White House insider who was the point person on the stimulus act and has a reputation in Washington for managerial competence…

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Associated PressObama Names Democratic Operative to Coordinate Ebola Response

By SABRINA TAVERNISE and MITCH SMITH.

President Obama named a trusted political adviser on Friday to take over the government’s response to the deadly Ebola virus, as health officials in two states worked to track a growing list of people who may have been exposed because of missteps in quarantine and containment.

The appointment of Ron Klain, a seasoned Democratic operative and White House veteran, spoke of the seriousness of the situation for the administration, which was eager to put the management of the crisis back on track in the midst of a tough election season. The response has been criticized as sloppy, with two intensive care nurses in a Dallas hospital falling ill after treating a Liberian, Thomas Eric Duncan, who eventually died from the virus. One of the nurses had been allowed to take a commercial flight despite telling the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that she had a slight fever.

The appointment came a day after members of Congress lashed out at federal health officials and just hours after the disclosure by the State Department that yet another employee of the Dallas hospital, Texas Health Presbyterian, who had handled Ebola specimens in a lab, had traveled, boarding a Caribbean cruise ship. The government of Belize said the ship was in that country’s waters, but the authorities there have refused to allow American officials to evacuate the passenger. Mexico would not even allow the ship to dock, and it was headed back to Galveston, Tex., with the lab worker held in isolation. Officials said the risk of infection was very low, but the revelation deepened the impression that the administration was struggling to stay ahead of the virus and the public anxiety.

Read more from this story HERE.