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Ya’alon added: “In reality, there have been no negotiations between us and the Palestinians for all these months –but rather between us and the Americans. The only thing that can ‘save us’ is for John Kerry to win a Nobel Prize and leave us in peace.”
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It was the second time in a month that a federal judge has set aside a deeply conservative state’s limits on same-sex marriage, after Utah’s ban was reversed in December.
In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Terence Kern described Oklahoma’s ban on same-sex marriage as “an arbitrary, irrational exclusion of just one class of Oklahoma citizens from a governmental benefit.”
The decision drew criticism from the governor, attorney general and other elected officials in this state known as the buckle of the Bible Belt. A state lawmaker who once said gay people posed a greater threat to the nation than terrorism blasted rulings from “activist judges.”
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“The last week has certainly tested this administration. Mistakes were clearly made. We let down the people we’re entrusted to serve. I know our citizens deserve better, much better. I’m the governor, and I am ultimately responsible for all that happens on my watch – both good and bad. Now without a doubt, we will cooperate with all appropriate inquiries to ensure that this breach of trust does not happen again,” Christie said.
Christie’s comments come on the heels of recent accusations that in September, his administration closed down two of three lanes leading to the George Washington Memorial Bridge in Fort Lee, N.J., in an act of political retribution against the town’s mayor for refusing to endorse Christie.
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The Times cited NSA documents, computer experts and US officials in its report about the use of secret technology using radio waves to gain access to computers that other countries have tried to protect from spying or cyberattacks. The software network could also create a digital highway for launching cyberattacks, the Times reports.
The Times reported that the technology, used by the agency for several years, relies on radio waves that can be transmitted from tiny circuit boards and USB cards inserted covertly into the computers. The NSA calls the effort an “active defence” and has used the technology to monitor units of the Chinese Army, the Russian military, drug cartels, trade institutions inside the European Union, and sometime US partners against terrorism like Saudi Arabia, India and Pakistan, the Times reported.
Among the most frequent targets of the NSA and US Cyber Command, the Times reported, has been the Chinese Army. The United States has accused the Chinese Army of launching regular attacks on American industrial and military targets, often to steal secrets or intellectual property. When Chinese attackers have placed similar software on computer systems of American companies or government agencies, American officials have protested, the newspaper reported.
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Photo Credit: Heritage Foundation, Wall Street Journal
For 20 years, the Index of Economic Freedom has evaluated countries’ performances in 10 categories, including property rights, freedom from corruption, government spending, trade freedom and others. Scores from 0 to 100 are then averaged and the countries are classified as “free,” “mostly free,” “moderately free,” “mostly unfree” or “repressed.”
The “mostly free” United States sank to 12th place with an economic freedom score of 75.5, half a point lower than last year, when it ranked 10th.
The reason, according to editors of the report: “The overall economic policy direction of the United States in recent years has involved substantial growth in the size and scope of government, accelerating the erosion of economic freedom and contributing directly to America’s fall from the top 10 freest economies.”
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While the NSSF and National Rifle Association (NRA) have worked together on various issues regarding Second Amendment protections, the NSSF focuses on the business policies of the firearms industry, while the NRA’s focus is on the right to own a firearm.
“Retailers really need to wake up. I can’t tell you how many states I’ve been in where I asked a retailer, ‘Hey, can you put this alert out? Can you do this?’ [The retailer responds,] ‘I don’t want to get political.’ I don’t want to get political?” asked McGuigan, who is NSSF’s Director of Government Relations and State Affairs.
“That unfortunately hurts us, but people that depend on the firearms [for whom it’s their] livelihood, I think, really need to wake up. It’s not getting political. The opponents made it political. It’s not political. It’s your livelihood and it our constitutional right,” he emphasized.
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Photo Credit: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
United Way US CEO Stacey Stewart and 45 local United Way CEOs hit the Hill to urge “Support for the charitable deduction and expanding incentives for charitable giving in the U.S. tax code,” according to a press release issued on United Way’s behalf. The CEOs were also pushing to strengthen the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit.
United Way’s “Hill Day” was marked by predictable bipartisan photo ops but highlighted an uncomfortable rift between Obama and many economic and health charities and organizations that support most of his agenda.
Obama proposed a cap on charitable deductions in his 2014 budget proposal in April, and it is currently being debated in Congress. The proposal would cap charitable deductions with a 28 percent limit, down from its current 39.6 percent limit on high earners. Obama has tried every year since taking office to set a 28 percent cap.
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Photo Credit: Mark Wilson/Roswell Daily Record/AP Photo
The injured were a 13-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy who were “simply sitting in their gym waiting to go to class,” New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez said. The shooting occurred shortly before class was to begin at Berrendo Middle School.
The Eastern New Mexico Medical Center confirmed it treated two patients, who were then air lifted to the University Medical Center in Lubbock, Texas, located about 175 miles from the middle school.
A spokesperson for UMC said the boy, who the governor said was 12, is out of surgery and is listed in critical condition. The girl, 13, is also being treated at the hospital and is listed in serious condition, according to the spokesperson. A school staff member suffered a minor injury and declined treatment.
The names of the shooting victims have not been released.
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The FCC had previously attempted to enforce such rules illegally, but lost in the Comcast v FCC case. This time Verizon took them on, and the FCC lost again.
If we don’t win the next Presidential election, I expect an even more radical attempt next time, though a move called Title II Reclassification.
You see, back in the Clinton years, a bill passed with bipartisan support that freed the Internet from burdensome regulation. It was called the Telecommunications Act, and its specifically separated information services from telecommunications services, disallowing the FCC from imposing the same degree of regulations on Internet services that they can on the Phone company.
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The case, National Labor Relations Board vs. Noel Canning, is over whether the president acted legally when he made a series of temporary appointments to the National Labor Relations Board while the Senate was not conducting business but still gavelling in and out every day.
Clause three of the Constitution’s section on presidential powers states that, “The president shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.”
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