Previously Deported Aliens Kidnapped American Teen for Extortion on US Soil

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By Brandon Darby.

A Tucson, Arizona kidnapping and extortion plot of an American teen on U.S. soil was committed by previously deported illegal aliens from Mexico and a U.S. citizen who was arrested multiple times by Border Patrol agents for alleged alien smuggling and let go without prosecution by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. A group of six or seven men kidnapped the American teen in Tucson and mistakenly thought he belonged to a wealthy family. The men tortured the teen and insisted his parents hand over $400,000.

Breitbart Texas has exclusively confirmed that three of the subjects are Mexican nationals who have been previously deported from the United States. A Situational Awareness Report from the Joint Intelligence and Operations Center was sent to law enforcement agents in the region and it stated, “On September 2nd, Tucson Police received a report that a 16-year-old male had been kidnapped … TPD officers were able to apprehend four of the subjects from the residence that ran out of the house when they approached … the 16-year-old victim also exited the house, he had a blindfold on his face and his hands were tied. The victim had obvious signs of trauma that appeared to be from physical assault … in the residence, officers found an assault rifle, several handguns, and narcotics … Record checks reveal that three of the subjects are citizens of Mexico that have been previously deported from the U.S., the other two subjects are U.S. citizens … one of the U.S. citizens had been arrested on two prior occasions by the Nogales Border Patrol Station for alien smuggling … on both occasions, prosecutions was not sought.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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Illegal Immigrant Kills 2 Kids in Hit-and-Run, Avoids Deportation and Prison

By Fox News.

An illegal immigrant who killed two children in a hit-and-run accident is not only avoiding deportation from the United States, she won’t receive any prison time at all.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: APCONVICTED DRUG MULE SMUGGLED DRUGS SEVEN TIMES BEFORE GETTING CAUGHT

By ILDEFONSO ORTIZ.

A Mexican national who crossed into the country with various types of drugs, at least seven different times, pleaded guilty to federal drug trafficking charges.

Ricardo Garza Ramirez pleaded guilty to drug conspiracy just moments before his trial was about to start before U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez.

Garza, 55, is due back in court in November where he faces a possible life term in prison for the charge.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsCost of educating new class of illegal immigrant minors estimated at over $760M

By Dan Springer.

A new report puts the price of educating the thousands of illegal immigrant children who recently crossed into the U.S. at a whopping $761 million this school year — as some school systems push for the feds to pick up the tab.

The estimate comes from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which issued a report on the 37,000 “unaccompanied minors” – who mainly are from Central America – after analyzing data from the Department of Health and Human Services and education funding formulas in all 50 states.

The numbers underscore the concerns critics have raised for months about the burden the surge is putting on local school systems and governments.

“We’re not doing American students any favors by dumping in tens of thousands of additional illegal alien children,” FAIR’s Bob Dane told Fox News.

The report breaks down the costs by state. The biggest impact reportedly will be seen in California, Texas, Florida and New York. The Empire State leads the list with a bill of more than $147 million.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Immigration court backlog keeps growing

By ALICIA A. CALDWELL.

The backlog of pending deportation cases in federal immigration court has risen to nearly 400,000 amid a crush of tens of thousands of unaccompanied children and families caught crossing the Mexican border illegally this year, according an analysis of court data released Friday.

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University said in its latest report that as of the end of July, 396,552 cases were pending in the Justice Department’s 59 immigration courts. TRAC collects and studies a variety of federal prosecution records.

The backlog has grown by more than 75,000 cases since the start of the budget year in October, according to TRAC.

Read more from this story HERE.

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La Raza Pushes Obama To ‘Fulfill His Promise’ On Amnesty

By Brendan Bordelon.

In the face of a White House backtrack on executive amnesty, National Council of La Raza spokeswoman Janet Murguia pressed President Obama to “fulfill his promise” to approximately six million illegal immigrants, declaring that “we’re done waiting.”

Murguia spoke with MSNBC’s Jose Diaz-Balart on Friday about Obama’s attempt to give Senate Democrats cover by putting off a promised amnesty for illegal immigrants until after the 2014 election. The White House has said for months that action would come by the end of the summer.

Read more from this story HERE.

Military Experts: With ISIS in El Paso, Ft. Bliss in Danger of Terrorist Attack

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Photo Credit: Marines / Creative CommonsThe recent increase in security at a key Army base near a Mexican border city where Islamic terrorists are confirmed to be operating and planning an attack on the United States indicates that the facility is a target, according to senior military experts contacted by Judicial Watch.

Last week JW reported that the militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) is working in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez and planning to attack the United States with car bombs or other vehicle borne improvised explosive devices (VBIED). High-level federal law enforcement, intelligence and other sources confirmed to JW that a warning bulletin for an imminent terrorist attack on the border has been issued. Agents across a number of Homeland Security, Justice and Defense agencies have all been placed on alert and instructed to aggressively work all possible leads and sources concerning this imminent terrorist threat.

Juarez is a famously crime-infested narcotics hotbed situated across from El Paso, Texas. Ft. Bliss is the Army’s second-largest installation, spanning more than 1 million acres with an active duty force of 34,411 and headquartered in El Paso. Two days after JW broke the story on ISIS operating in Juarez, Ft. Bliss announced it was increasing security measures. A statement that went out to the media was rather vague, attributing the move to several recent security assessments and the constant concern for the safety of military members, families, employees and civilians.

But senior military officials contacted by JW this week reveal that military installations in the U.S. only make changes to security measures when there are clear and present threats. “It’s a significant issue when this is done,” says retired Army Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, former commander of the Army’s elite Delta Force who also served four years as Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence. “That means they’re getting a threat stream. Ft. Bliss had to have a clear and present threat.”

Read more from this story HERE.

New ISIS Threat: America's Electric Grid; Blackout Could Kill 9 of 10

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Photo Credit: APBy Paul Bedard.

Former top government officials who have been warning Washington about the vulnerability of the nation’s largely unprotected electric grid are raising new fears that troops from the jihadist Islamic State are poised to attack the system, leading to a power crisis that could kill millions.

“Inadequate grid security, a porous U.S.-Mexico border, and fragile transmission systems make the electric grid a target for ISIS,” said Peter Pry, one of the nation’s leading experts on the grid.

Others joining Pry at a press conference later Wednesday to draw attention to the potential threat said that if just a handful of the nation’s high voltage transformers were knocked out, blackouts would occur across the country.

“By one estimate, should the power go out and stay out for over a year, nine out of 10 Americans would likely perish,” said Frank Gaffney, founder and president of the Center for Security Policy in Washington.

At the afternoon press conference, Gaffney dubbed the potential crisis the “grid jihad.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: TownHallScary: Deceased, American-born ISIS Terrorist Used to Work at Midwestern Airport

By Daniel Doherty.

No, he didn’t just work there. More precisely, he had a security clearance and “unfettered access” to airplanes at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, according to Fox News’ local affiliate KMSP-TV.

For obvious reasons, this should concern all of us:

He was the second known American killed while fighting for ISIS in Syria, and the second from Minnesota — and a Fox 9 exclusive uncovering his employment history is raising a few eyebrows.

An airport is probably the last place anyone would want a suspected terrorist to work, but before he died overseas, that’s exactly what Abdirahmaan Muhumed did in the Twin Cities. In fact, he may have cleaned your plane at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

Read more from this story HERE.

Rev. Graham: ‘As I Read the News, I Can’t Help But Wonder if We're in Last Hours’

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Photo Credit: APRev. Franklin Graham, head of the international Christian aid group Samaritan’s Purse and son of world-renowned preacher Billy Graham, said that given all the “bad news” about the killing of Christians by Muslims in some countries, and attacks on Christians by the media and the government even in America, he cannot “help but wonder if we are in the last hours before our Lord Jesus Christ returns.”

“As I read the news, I can’t help but wonder if we are in the last hours before our Lord Jesus Christ returns to rescue His church and God pours out His wrath on the world for the rejection of His Son,” said Rev. Graham in a post on the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) website.

“I don’t know if we have hours, days, months, or years—but as Christians, God calls us to take the truth of the Gospel to the ends of the earth,” said Graham. “Our job is to warn sinners of the consequences of sin and show them that God is loving and gracious, willing to forgive if we come to Him in repentance and faith.”

The BGEA was founded in 1950 by Rev. Billy Graham, and Franklin Graham is vice chairman and CEO of the evangelical organization.

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Health Insurance Rates to Dramatically Increase in 2015

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Photo Credit: REUTERSNew Yorkers will have to dig a little deeper into their wallets for health insurance in 2015, state officials announced Thursday.

Rates for individual insurance plans – including those offered on New York’s Obamacare exchange – will rise on average 5.7% in the coming year, the state’s Department of the Financial Services reported. The increases, however, are only about half the amount sought by those insurers in their initial rate requests submitted this summer.

“We closely scrutinized the proposed rate increases insurers requested and reduced them significantly where appropriate,” said Financial Services Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky. “While we have made substantial progress in reforming our health care market and holding down costs, there is much more work ahead. We will continue to engage with consumer groups, insurers, providers, and other stakeholders as we move forward with that effort.”

Lawsky said the new rates are sill, on average, about 50% lower than those charged before New York rolled out its Obamacare health exchange last year. The state held the line on increases despite a projected 8% increase in overall health care costs.

Read more from this story HERE.

EPA Fakes Regulatory Cost-Benefit Calculations

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Photo Credit: NewscomWhen pressed about the staggering increases in regulatory burden under his administration, President Obama says not to worry because the benefits exceed the costs. But a new and revealing set of charts from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce highlights the shameless deception used to calculate the bulk of these purported benefits.

In Charting Federal Costs and Benefits, Chamber researchers analyzed the benefits calculations of the Environmental Protection Agency, which is responsible for the largest portion of the most costly regulations in recent years. What they found obliterates the president’s claims that sky-high regulatory costs are justified.

Specifically, the researchers reviewed the 45 rules for which the agency calculated benefits between 2000 and 2013. (The fact that the EPA failed to calculate benefits for any of the other 7,570 rules imposed by the agency in that period is another serious problem.) Although the regulations were crafted to address a variety of emissions, including carbon dioxide, lead, mercury and sulfur dioxide, a whopping 97 percent of the benefits actually were derived from the reduction of a single element—fine particulate matter—that was incidental to the pollutant targeted by the regulation.

Read more from this story HERE.

Spying Cell Towers May be Spread Across US

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / Kacper PempelThere are at least 19 bogus cellphone towers operating across the United States that could be used to spy upon, and even hijack, passing mobile phones.

So says Les Goldsmith, head of ESD America, a company that imports and sells tightly secured mobile phones that can detect “baseband” hacking attempts. Goldsmith calls fake cell towers “interceptors.”

“Interceptor use in the U.S. is much higher than people had anticipated,” Goldsmith told Popular Science in a piece posted online last week. “One of our customers took a road trip from Florida to North Carolina, and he found eight different interceptors on that trip.”

The better to spy on you with

Cellphones communicate with cellular-service towers using the baseband processor, a chip that controls some or all of the radio signals sent to and from the device. Baseband processors run their own operating systems and are made by a handful of companies that zealously protect their trade secrets; not even phone makers know exactly how the baseband processors work.

Read more from this story HERE.

Record 92,269,000 Not in Labor Force; Participation Rate Matches 36-Year Low

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Photo Credit: AP / Mike GrollA record 92,269,000 Americans 16 and older did not participate in the labor force in August, as the labor force participation rate matched a 36-year low of 62.8 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The labor force participation rate has been as low as 62.8 percent in six of the last twelve months, but prior to last October had not fallen that low since 1978.

BLS employment statistics are based on the civilian noninstitutional population, which consists of all people 16 or older who were not in the military or an institution such as a prison, mental hospital or nursing home.

Read more from this story HERE.

Al Qaeda Wasn’t ‘on the Run’

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Photo Credit: Weekly Standard In the early morning hours of May 2, 2011, an elite team of 25 American military and intelligence professionals landed inside the walls of a compound just outside the Pakistani city of Abbottabad. CIA analysts had painstakingly tracked a courier to the compound and spent months monitoring the activity inside the walls. They’d concluded, with varying levels of confidence, that the expansive white building at the center of the lot was the hideout of Osama bin Laden.

They were correct. And minutes after the team landed, the search for bin Laden ended with a shot to his head.

The primary objective of Operation Neptune Spear was to capture or kill the leader of al Qaeda. But a handful of those on the ground that night were part of a “Sensitive Site Exploitation” team that had a secondary mission: to gather as much intelligence from the compound as they could.

With bin Laden dead and the building secure, they got to work. Moving quickly—as locals began to gather outside the compound and before the Pakistani military, which had not been notified of the raid in advance, could scramble its response—they shoved armload after armload of bin Laden’s belongings into large canvas bags. The entire operation took less than 40 minutes.

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IRS: Five More Employees Lost Emails In Computer Crashes

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Photo Credit: Daily CallerThe Internal Revenue Service (IRS) lost emails from five more employees due to computer crashes, likely bringing the total number of computer crash victims tied to the IRS targeting scandal to more than 20.

The IRS added five more employees to its computer crash list Friday, the Associated Press reported. The new computer crash victims are linked to congressional investigations into the IRS scandal and include two more Cincinnati-based tax exempt agents who worked under Lois Lerner.

Read more from this story HERE.