California Pols Could Target Tax Status of Boy Scouts, Youth Groups Over ‘Discrimination’

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

California lawmakers are cruising toward a final vote on a bill that could threaten the tax-exempt status of American-as-apple-pie groups — ranging from the Boy Scouts to Little League — if their membership policies are found to be discriminatory.

If passed, the bill, SB 323, would remove an exemption from state taxes for any nonprofit youth group that discriminates on the basis of “gender identity, race, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, or religious affiliation.” Well-known organizations like Girl Scouts of the USA, Boy Scouts of America, and Little League International Baseball and Softball were cited in the bill, which was introduced in February by Democratic state Sen. Ricardo Lara.

Lawmakers are not accusing groups like Little League and the Girl Scouts of having discriminatory policies. The bill appears to be aimed more at the Boy Scouts, as Lara pushed the legislation on the heels of the controversy surrounding the Boy Scouts’ policy to exclude gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people as scouts or adult leaders. The national organization later voted to allow gay youth membership, but maintained its ban on openly gay adult leaders.

Lara told reporters earlier this month that the Boy Scouts’ decision was not good enough for him, and continued to push the bill.

Youth groups say they hope they won’t be affected. Brian McClintock, a Little League International spokesman, told FoxNews.com on Wednesday that the group already does not discriminate against any person on the basis of race, creed, color, national origin, marital status, gender, sexual orientation or disability.

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ObamaCare Faces Another Delay, Lawmaker Calls Implementation ‘Train Wreck’

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

The Obama administration has delayed another component of the federal health care law, leading a Republican lawmaker to call the law’s implementation a “train wreck.”

Reuters first reported that the Department of Health and Human Services informed insurance companies Tuesday it is delaying signing the final agreements between the government and insurance providers whose plans will be sold on federal health insurance exchanges.

The agreements were supposed to be signed between Sept. 5 and 9, but instead will be delayed until mid-September.

The department did not give a clear-cut reason for the delay, but attributed it to the need to be flexible in working with the insurance companies and to resolve unspecified technical issues.

“We remain on track to open the marketplace on time on October 1,” HHS spokeswoman Joanne Peters told Fox Business Network.

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Wal-Mart Offers Health Benefits to U.S. Workers’ Domestic Partners

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Tuesday it will offer health insurance benefits to domestic partners of its U.S. employees starting next year, following the lead of other major companies.

The world’s largest retailer, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, also plans to begin to offer vision care to its eligible employees and their dependents, according to information the retailer sent to workers this week.

Wal-Mart is the single biggest U.S. employer outside of the federal government. More than half of its 1.3 million U.S. employees are on its health-care plans. The company said it does not know how many workers would use the new benefits, which also include free hip and knee joint replacements.

Wal-Mart’s extension of health insurance to domestic partners comes after the U.S. Supreme Court in June forced the federal government to recognize same-sex marriages in states where it is legal. The Supreme Court also paved the way for same-sex marriage in California.

“Since we operate in all 50 states, we thought it was important to develop a single definition for all Wal-Mart associates in the U.S.,” spokesman David Tovar said.

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Missouri Poised to Enact Measure Nullifying Federal Gun Laws

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

The Republican-led Missouri Legislature is expected to override Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of a bill that would expand gun rights and make federal gun regulations unenforceable — even as similar laws in other states designed to buck federal gun rules face legal challenges.

Several of Nixon’s fellow Democrats told The Associated Press that they would vote to override his veto when lawmakers convene in September, even while agreeing with the governor that the bill couldn’t survive a court challenge. Many of them noted that in some parts of Missouri, a “no” vote on gun legislation could be career ending.

The legislation would make it a misdemeanor for federal agents to attempt to enforce any federal gun regulations that “infringe on the people’s right to keep and bear arms.” The same criminal charges would apply to journalists who publish any identifying information about gun owners. The charge would be punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Nixon said the bill infringes on the U.S. Constitution by giving precedence to state law over federal laws and by limiting the First Amendment rights of media.

The legislation is one of the boldest measures yet in a recent national trend in which states are attempting to nullify federal laws. A recent Associated Press analysis found that about four-fifths of the states have enacted local laws that directly reject or ignore federal laws on gun control, marijuana use, health insurance requirements and identification standards for driver’s licenses. Relatively few of those go so far as to threaten criminal charges against federal authorities.

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Senator Tim Scott Wasn’t Invited to Event Commemorating MLK March on Washington

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Tim Scott Senator Tim Scott, R.-S.C., the only African American serving in the United States Senate, wasn’t invited to the event commemorating the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s march on Washington, though a host of Democratic luminaries spoke on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

“Senator Scott was not invited to speak at the event,” Greg Blair, a spokesman for the South Carolina lawmaker, said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “The senator believes today is a day to remember the extraordinary accomplishments and sacrifices of Dr. King, Congressman John Lewis, and an entire generation of black leaders. Today’s anniversary should simply serve as an opportunity to reflect upon how their actions moved our country forward in a remarkable way.”

Wouldn’t it have made sense to have the first black president joined by the first black senator from South Carolina, which was a Jim Crow state when the original march on Washington took place?

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Agents Shocked as Cartel Boss Involved in Torture Death of DEA Colleague Slips Away

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Photo Credit; Reuters

Photo Credit; Reuters

Mexican and U.S. authorities are scrambling to find a 60-year-old former drug lord — who was behind the brutal killing of an American agent nearly two decades ago — following his recent, and unexpected, release from a Mexican prison.

Rafael Caro Quintero walked out of Jalisco State prison shortly after midnight on Aug. 9 — a free man on a legal technicality, a decision which drew international condemnation and which the White House warns could lead to the release of other drug criminals in Mexico.

Security guards were assigned to follow Quintero after his release, but the former cartel boss was able to shake them after only 10 minutes, a source familiar with the events told FoxNews.com.

As both governments now try to figure out a way to re-apprehend and detain Quintero, outrage continues to build in the U.S., with current and former federal drug agents vowing to seek justice. The turn of events already threatens to deeply damage ties between the U.S. and Mexico. Attorney General Eric Holder has contacted his Mexican counterparts about the release, the Justice Department confirmed to FoxNews.com this week.

The case of Quintero, for U.S. agents, is personal. Quintero spent the last 28 years locked up for the 1985 kidnapping and killing of American DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena. He was originally sentenced to spend 40 years behind bars.

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NYT, Twitter and HuffPo Attacked by Syrian Electronic Army

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By Danny Yadron, Shira Ovide and William Launder.

A pro-Syrian government group appeared to attack more than 10 websites, including Twitter, the New York TimesNYT -2.93% and HuffingtonPost.com, said security researchers citing digital evidence.

The attacks by the Syrian Electronic Army, a group of hackers that supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, come as the U.S. is considering action against Syria. In the past, the group has taken action against media organizations and websites it believes are sympathetic to Syrian rebels.

The websites, including the Huffington Post’s U.K. website, appeared to be compromised Tuesday by the group, said a security researcher who had seen digital evidence. HuffingtonPost confirmed the attack and said there was a “minimal disruption of service.”

The hackers, meantime, repeatedly claimed they had taken over Twitter’s Internet address, though they appeared to be unsuccessful.

The social media site never appeared to lose service. (The hackers used their own Twitter account to claim they had hacked the social-media website.)

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Adam Jeffery

Photo Credit: Adam Jeffery

New York Times website likely taken down by malicious attack

By Eamon Javers and Cadie Thompson.

The New York Times said its website has been taken down, in what was likely an external malicious attack Tuesday.

Eileen Murphy, VP of corporate communications, initially reported the outage via Twitter.

While the Times was down, Twitter also experienced some hiccups on its website. A Twitter account for the group of hackers called the Syrian Electronic Army claimed that it had attacked the social media website and changed the ownership listing of Twitter’s domain name registration.The same account later posted to Twitter that it had also taken over the registrations for the Times website and for the Huffington Post UK domain.

Twitter told CNBC that it was investigating the issue.

Twitter later issued a status update saying that its Domain Name System (DNS) provider had “experienced an issue in which it appears DNS records for various organizations were modified, including one of Twitter’s domains used for image serving, twimg.com.” As a result, “Viewing of images and photos was sporadically impacted.”

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Speaking Truth to Power About Obama

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Barack ObamaIt’s getting so that you have to be a true believer in the mainstream media not to notice that Barack Obama’s presidency is floundering. His signature legislative accomplishment Obamacare is a disaster and his foreign policy has belly-flopped. And now, we may be at the brink of highly unpopular military engagement in Syria with no prospect of an outcome that would be beneficial to the United States.

It’s so bad that important writers on our side are not mincing so many words anymore. As the first black president, Obama enjoyed a halo in the media that lasted for most of his first term. When tea parties sprang up in opposition to his policies, the media establishment immediately labeled them racist, in effect enforcing a taboo on criticism of the first black president.

But Obama’s race-driven immunity is wearing off, and respected and knowledgeable writers are being frank about what a historic disaster Obama has been as president. The low information voters remain blissfully ignorant, of course, lulled into believing Obama is competent and his critics racist.

Michael Barone, who is widely respected beyond conservative circles compiles a breathtaking list of Obama’s historic incompetence on IBD:

Evidence of the astonishing incompetence of the Obama administration continues to roll in…

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Fort Hood Shooting: Suspect Rests his Case Without Testifying at Sentencing

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

The Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people at Fort Hood decided not to call witnesses or testify Tuesday during his trial’s penalty phase, which is his last chance to plead for his life before the jury begins deliberating whether to sentence him to death.

Major Nidal Hasan rested his case without submitting any evidence to counter the emotional testimony from victims’ relatives, who prosecutors hope convince jurors to hand down a rare military death sentence. The same jury convicted Hasan last week for the attack, which also wounded more than 30 people at the Texas military base.

The judge dismissed jurors after Hasan declined to put up a defense. But she then asked Hasan more than two dozen questions in rapid fire, affirming that he knew what he was doing. His answers were succinct and just as rapid.

“It is my personal decision,” he said. “It is free and voluntary.”

The judge, Colonel Tara Osborn, then read him several court opinions to back up her decision not to introduce evidence in Hasan’s favor on her own.

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US Envoy to Travel to North Korea to Seek Release of Detained American Missionary

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

A U.S. envoy will travel to North Korea later this week to try and secure the release of an American missionary sentenced to 15 years hard labor in the country earlier this year.

The State Department says in a statement Bob King, who is special envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues, will travel to North Korea on a humanitarian mission Aug. 30 to request freedom and a pardon for 45-year-old Kenneth Bae.

“Ambassador King will request the DPRK pardon Mr. Bae and grant him special amnesty on humanitarian grounds so that he can be reunited with his family and seek medical treatment,” the statement said.

Bae, a tour operator and Christian missionary, was arrested in November and accused of subversion. In April, North Korea’s Supreme Court convicted him of committing hostile acts against the country and sentenced him to 15 years hard labor.

Bae was recently hospitalized and reportedly has lost 50 pounds since he was sentenced. While King’s visit is a humanitarian mission, it could help improve relations severely strained by Pyongyang’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.

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