Cruz, Lee Hit HHS Nominee Burwell Over Obamacare Transparency

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Drew Angerer / Getty Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee sent a letter Friday asking Health and Human Services secretary nominee Sylvia Burwell to come clean about how she would implement Obamacare if confirmed.

“So far, Ms. Burwell’s testimony has been less than forthcoming and suggests she plans to follow the lead of her predecessor in blocking Congress’s ability to do proper oversight for the America people,” the senators wrote in a statement. “The questions we propose in the letter have not only been asked repeatedly, but deal with issues she should have been prepared to answer at her hearings but did not.”

Cruz and Lee asked the current Office of Management and Budget director a host of questions about the status of the health care law, asking for her commitment to provide data about the health care exchanges to Congress and the public before confirmed by the full Senate.

The duo asked that Burwell promise to reveal information on the final enrollment tally, taking into account duplicate enrollments reported by insurance officials; percentages of paid premiums, broken down by age; the number of previously uninsured exchange customers; and a list of insurers who offer elective abortion in their coverage, which current HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius reportedly promised to provide but did not.

Read more from this story HERE.

Chipotle: Don’t Bring Guns in Our Stores

/8 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk / Creative CommonsChipotle is asking customers not to bring firearms into its stores after it says gun rights advocates brought military-style assault rifles into one of its restaurants in Texas.

The Denver-based company notes that it has traditionally complied with local laws regarding open and concealed firearms.

But in a statement Monday, the company said that “the display of firearms in our restaurants has now created an environment that is potentially intimidating or uncomfortable for many of our customers.”

The announcement came after a petition by Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, which has called on other companies to ban firearms in their stores as well. The group said its petition was in reaction to open-carry gun activists appearing at a Dallas-area Chipotle restaurant over the weekend.

Erika Soto Lamb, a spokeswoman for the group, said she thought the move by Chipotle was a “bold statement,” especially considering its previous stance of complying with local laws.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Criticizes Republicans for Focusing on Benghazi, Obamacare

/8 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: REUTERS / KEVIN LAMARQUEPresident Barack Obama chastised his Republican opponents on Monday for focusing criticism on the events surrounding the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, and on his signature healthcare law.

“The debate we’re having now is about what, Benghazi? Obamacare? And it becomes this endless loop. It’s not serious. It’s not speaking to the real concerns that people have,” Obama said.

He was speaking to more than 60 people at a fundraising dinner for Democratic candidates for the House of Representatives.

The event took place at a physician’s home in the Washington suburb of Potomac, Maryland, as Obama seeks to persuade Democrats to organize for a voter turnout effort to prevent Republicans from ousting Democrats from control of the Senate and from building on their majority in the House.

Republicans in the House have begun a new investigation of the deaths of the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, and three other Americans during a militant attack on September 11, 2012.

Read more from this story HERE.

Illinois Spending $1,166 Per Bird to Bring in Prairie Chickens

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Watchdog Our cash-strapped state government has found a new use for its fleet of aircraft – flying birds into Illinois.

I kid you not.

State aircraft are flying to Kansas and transporting prairie chickens back to the Land of Lincoln.

And at a time state lawmakers are looking at raising the state income tax, Illinois state employees have been hiking across Kansas trapping these chickens.

Talk about fowl fiscal deeds.

State pilots have flown between Illinois and Kansas not once, not twice but 14 times this year taking prairie chickens to downstate Jasper and Marion counties.

Read more from this story HERE.

Mom of Marine Jailed in Mexico Says Son ‘Not a Criminal,’ Hopes for White House Response

/6 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Fox News The mother of a U.S. Marine being held in a Mexican prison on weapons charges told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren Monday that her son is “not a criminal,” and she is hoping President Obama will respond to his plight.

Jill Tahmooressi said on “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren” that she recently saw her son Andrew after he was transferred to a new prison. She said she was able to bring him clothes and books but not food, and that her son told her he was always hungry.

Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, 25, has claimed he was headed to dinner in San Ysidro, California on March 31 when he mistakenly wound up at a border crossing point in Tijuana. According to his mother, Tahmooressi said he made a wrong turn, and Mexican authorities found three guns in his truck.

In an interview on the Mexican border, Jill Tahmooressi told Van Susteren her son would have never intended of smuggling or selling his guns, adding he had them for self-defense.

“He needed those firearms for his own sense of security,” she said. “He never – not for any price – would he have sold those guns.”

Read more from this story HERE.

House GOP Bites Back: Bill Would Roll Back Michelle O’s School Lunch Rules

/5 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: REUTERSHouse Republicans are taking on school nutritional standards championed by first lady Michelle Obama, proposing to let schools opt out of healthier lunch and breakfast programs if they’re losing money.

A GOP spending bill for agriculture and food programs — which included the provision — was released Monday.

The House Appropriations Committee said in a release that the waiver language is in response to requests from schools.

The new standards, touted by the first lady, have been phased in over the last two school years, with more changes coming in 2014. The rules set fat, calorie, sugar and sodium limits on foods in the lunch line and beyond.

The first lady was holding a call to rally supporters of the healthier food rules Monday, as a House subcommittee is expected to consider the bill on Tuesday.

Read more from this story HERE.

GOP Congressman Pushes for Immigration Vote

/7 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: David McNewDefying House Republican leaders, a GOP congressman on Monday moved toward forcing an election-year decision on his immigration legislation.

Rep. Jeff Denham of California filed his bill, known as the ENLIST Act, as an amendment to the sweeping defense policy measure that the House will consider this week. The measure would create a path to citizenship for immigrants who were brought illegally to the U.S. as children and serve in the military.

The bill “provides an avenue for those who want to perform the ultimate act of patriotism – serving their county – to earn legal status,” Denham said in a statement. “As a veteran, I can think of no better way to demonstrate your commitment to our nation.”

His move comes three days after House GOP leaders took steps to block a vote on the immigration legislation, dealing a significant blow to efforts to overhaul a system widely disparaged as dysfunctional.

The Rules Committee will decide on Tuesday what amendments the House will consider and vote on as part of its work on the National Defense Authorization Act.

Read more from this story HERE.

Patient Dies After Dentist Extracts 20 Teeth

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: myfoxnyThe state has suspended the license of an Enfield dentist after the death of a patient who was having 20 teeth extracted.

The Journal Inquirer reports that Dr. Rashmi Patel faces a June 18 hearing before the Connecticut State Dental Commission.

Read more from this story HERE.

Diabetic Pastor Sues After Being Arrested, Denied Food and Water for Holding Pro-Life Sign

/5 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: LifeSiteNewsA pastor who says he was arrested and denied food and water for hours because he held a pro-life sign has sued, saying city laws violate his First Amendment right to free speech.

On March 30, 2011, Pastor Stephen Joiner was driving through the streets of Columbus, Mississippi, when he saw dozens of members of Pro-Life Mississippi peacefully holding signs supporting the unborn child’s right to life. He pulled over and learned they were trying to build support for the state’s Personhood Amendment, which failed to pass the following November.

Joiner, the pastor of the city’s Church of the Nazarene, supported the cause, so he picked up a sign and stood alongside them. Some were displaying photographs of victims of abortion, sometimes called “graphic images.” Others merely showed an unborn child in the womb.

Joiner says that Police Captain Frederick Shelton told him to move, because he was blocking traffic, although he was several feet from the road.


“Captain Shelton then told Pastor Joiner that he was ‘refusing to move when an officer tells him to move,’” according to a legal complaint filed in U.S. District Court on Joiner’s behalf by Liberty Counsel. Captain Shelton charged him with violating the city’s Parade Ordinance and Handbill Ordinance.

Read more from this story HERE.

Even NYT Thinks Colleges Are Taking Political Correctness Too Far

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Daily Caller Trigger warnings–the authoritarian left’s latest attempt to patrol speech at college campuses–have been on the radar of civil libertarians for some time, but now even The New York Times is upset about them.

In a news article titled, “Warning: The Literary Canon Could Make Students Squirm,” NYT writer Jennifer Medina bemoaned that students at many campuses are eager to force professors to post warning labels on their syllabi:

Should students about to read “The Great Gatsby” be forewarned about “a variety of scenes that reference gory, abusive and misogynistic violence,” as one Rutgers student proposed? Would any book that addresses racism — like “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” or “Things Fall Apart” — have to be preceded by a note of caution? Do sexual images from Greek mythology need to come with a viewer-beware label?

Colleges across the country this spring have been wrestling with student requests for what are known as “trigger warnings,” explicit alerts that the material they are about to read or see in a classroom might upset them or, as some students assert, cause symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in victims of rape or in war veterans.

The Times notes that University of California-Santa Barbara students have been most successful at pushing trigger warnings, though notable calls to embolden the speech police have come out of Rutgers University, Wellesley College and George Washington University as well.

Read more from this story HERE.