Photo Credit: The Weather Channel
This was only the eighth time that a high in the 80s has occurred in Death Valley in July or August, and there hasn’t been a high less than 90 since 1984. Weather records in Death Valley go back to 1911.
Locations that were hotter than Death Valley yesterday include Spokane Wash. (93), Missoula, Mont. (91), Casper, Wy. (92), and Boise, Idaho (99).
Read more from this story HERE.
Photo Credit: IJ Review
Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-Connecticut) has found another revenue stream for the federal government: sugar-sweetened soft drinks. Whether you call it pop, soda or coke, DeLauro wants to impose a 1 cent excise tax per teaspoon of caloric sweetener (either sugar or corn syrup) used in sodas, sports drinks, energy drinks, and sweet teas.
Elizabeth Harrington of the Washington Free Beacon writes that DeLauro has gained the support of activists who banned smoking indoors and other health advocates who called sodas “toxic.” The goal is to reduce soda consumption in the country.
From the Free Beacon:
DeLauro introduced the Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Tax Act, also known as the “SWEET Act,” on Wednesday, which would impose a 1 cent excise tax per teaspoon of caloric sweetener in soda, energy drinks, sports drinks, and sweet teas.
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Photo Credit: AP
By Eric Scheiner.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) introduced this week the Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Tax (SWEET Act), which aims to institute a tax of one cent per teaspoon – 4.2 grams – of sugar, high fructose corn syrup or caloric sweetener.
The measure (HB 5279), introduced Wednesday says, “A 20-ounce bottle of soda contains about 16 teaspoons of sugars. Yet, the American Heart Association recommends that Americans consume no more than six to nine teaspoons of sugar per day.”
Even though the manufacturers’ of the sweet drinks are targeted to pay the tax, the text of the bill itself notes that the goal is to reduce public consumption through a price increase.
Read more from this story HERE.
Photo Credit: Daily Caller
Ben Rhodes, the 37-year old little brother of CBS News president David Rhodes, is a national security adviser to President Obama. He also happens to be an Upper East Side literary type who took a Master’s in Fiction from NYU. Real serious artist. Rhodes was the one who edited the White House’s Benghazi talking points to focus the blame on spontaneous reaction to a YouTube video, rather than an al-Qaeda attack.
Ben even published a short story in the spring 2002 edition of Beloit Fiction Journal called “The Goldfish Smiles, You Smile Back,” about an extremely good note-taker who edits talking points. “Goldfish” appears to be Rhodes’ only credit.
So what went wrong, Ben? No takers on that screenplay you had rattling around in the glove compartment? Seed money running out and still couldn’t pop a weekend piece in Reader’s Digest? Find yourself on Gower Avenue staring in your empty coffee cup, listening to the air conditioner hum? Had to take a little day job in politics to tide you over? No shame in that.
One minute you’re sipping kambucha with your peer-workshop buddies, the next you’re in a suit working on “The YouTube Video Project.” Happens to the best of us. So tell us the story, Ben. Tell us of the YouTube video talking points. Spin us this tale of power, romance, and intrigue. This is your Washington thriller. Finally. Make it count.
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Photo Credit: Wikipedia
The newly signed legislation, SF 874, corrects that injustice. Now the government can only take property if it obtains a criminal conviction or its equivalent, like if a property owner pleads guilty to a crime or becomes an informant. The bill also shifts the burden of proof onto the government, where it rightfully belongs. Previously, if owners wanted to get their property back, they had to prove their property was not the instrument or proceeds of the charged drug crime. In other words, owners had to prove a negative in civil court. Being acquitted of the drug charge in criminal court did not matter to the forfeiture case in civil court.
As Lee McGrath, the executive director of the Institute for Justice’s Minnesota chapter, put it, “No one acquitted in criminal court should lose his property in civil court. This change makes Minnesota’s law consistent with the great American presumption that a person and his property are innocent until proven guilty.”
The bill faced stiff opposition from law enforcement and a bottleneck in the legislature. In March, the Star Tribune called it an “outrage” that lawmakers were “dragging their feet on one of the big, common-sense changes” to the state’s forfeiture laws. Ultimately, SF 874 found wide, bipartisan support, passing the state senate 55 to 5 and the state house unanimously. The reforms will go into effect starting August 1, 2014.
Read more from this story HERE.
Photo Credit: Fox and Friends
Higbie saw this politicization affect the lives of others through death of a fellow SEAL, killed while following an “obsolete”–but required–“Standard Operating Procedure” in Iraq, and in the manner in which three SEALS were treated after being “falsely accused of physically abusing Ahmed Hashim Abed, following his capture in 2009.”
According to The Daily Beast, these two events spurred Higbie to write Battle on the Homefront: A Navy SEAL’s Mission to Save the American Dream.
After the book’s release, Higbie felt the politicization of the military in his own life, as his July 2012 Honorable Discharge was changed to a General Discharge in September 2012. It was the first of many ramifications he would face for trying to do what he thought necessary to return accountability to military leadership.
Read more from this story HERE.
Photo Credit: AP
Liberal commentator Juan Williams touched off a firestorm on “Fox News Sunday” by suggesting racism drives the “white, older group of people” that support President Obama’s impeachment, with Heritage Action head Michael Needham accusing him of “demonizing good people.”
The Fox News contributor made the remarks after he claimed the Republicans had “demonized” President Obama by calling him “lawless” on issues like immigration and the implementation of Obamacare.
“Do you think that the Republican opposition to this president is racial?” Wallace asked him. “Or do you think it’s based on principles and policies?”
“Well, all I can do is look at the numbers,” he replied. “If you look at the core constituency — the people who are in, let’s say, tea party opposition, support of impeachment — there’s no diversity. It’s a white, older group of people.”
Read more from this story HERE.
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You Really Need to See Chris Matthews Try ‘Not to Get ETHNIC’ On Ted Cruz, and FAIL
By Soopermexican.
I’m still not sure what “getting ethnic” means, but whatever that is, Chris Matthews definitely did it when he implied that Ted Cruz was somehow betraying his Hispanic heritage by advocating that immigration law be followed.
Read more from this story HERE.
Photo Credit: REUTERS / Kevin Lamarque
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid may be in trouble.
NBC/WSJ/Marist has published a new poll, conducted July 28-31, that shows a plurality of registered voters want a Republican majority in both the House and Senate.
Respondents were first asked if they thought Congress had been very productive, somewhat productive, somewhat unproductive or very unproductive. 50 percent of registered voters said they thought Congress had been very unproductive, with only 3 percent saying Congress had been very productive.
Even though the 50 percent who think Congress was very unproductive are in part talking about the Republican House, they don’t want the majority to change.
They were asked if they would like to see the majority in the House stay Republican, or become Democrat. 43 percent of registered voters wanted Republicans in the majority and 41 percent wanted Democrats in the majority, with 16 percent unsure.
Read more from this story HERE.
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Photo Credit: AP / J. Scott Applewhite
By Washington Examiner.
House Republican leaders on Thursday last week had to pull from the floor their bill to deal with the current crisis of child migration at the border. The Beltway media pounced instantly with a stale narrative about how this was embarrassment to the new House leadership team.
Then late Friday, the House actually passed a border bill. It won’t become law as written, but it’s still one bill more than the Democrat-controlled Senate – by then already out of town for the August recess – had approved in response to the deteriorating situation on the border.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had already declared that the border was secure and no legislation was needed. He followed through on his stated indifference by blocking all amendments to a Senate border bill. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a strong advocate of comprehensive immigration reform, took to the floor and berated Reid for this, repeatedly shouting, “Shame on you!”
Read more from this story HERE.
Photo Credit: TownHall
American Enterprise Institute scholar Robert Doar testified before the House Committee on Agriculture recently to examine this exact question. Doar notes that changes in the SNAP program that took place during this time period may disincentivize work requirements – and keep SNAP participation among working-age population artificially high.
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Photo Credit: IJ Review
…Because of NSW’s celebrity, it’s even more important for SEALs to look at how they conduct themselves in the public eye and on social media. “Will what I’m about to do reflect positively on the SEAL community?” It’s a question I’ve been asking myself a lot these days, and the crux of my problem with Jesse Ventura.
…The smartest thing I’ve heard come out of Jesse’s mouth was when he was quoted after the recent verdict saying, “There are no winners in this.” In fact, Jesse is the biggest loser in the end (next to the NSW community itself). This is a career ender for him, and an irrecoverable PR nightmare. His career as he used to know it is over.
Read more from this story HERE.
Photo Credit: Natural News
To set the stage, back in February the U.S. Bureau or Reclamation released its first outlook of the year, in which the agency found insufficient water stocks in California to release to farmers for irrigation. That was the first time in the 54-year history of the State Water Project that had happened.
“If it’s not there, it’s just not there,” said Water Authority Executive Director Steve Chedester, who noted that it would be tough finding water in the coming year or more. Farmers were to be hardest hit, the official added, stating, “They’re all on pins and needles trying to figure out how they’re going to get through this.”
‘Paying as much as 10 times more’
One way to deal with the drought is for farmers to plant fewer fields, which would mean that early on there would be fewer crops; in the law of supply and demand, when supply is reduced but demand remains high, prices rise.
Read more from this story HERE.