Wal-Mart Says No To Living Wage, Could Leave Washington DC

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Photo Credit: APThe country’s largest private employer dared Washington D.C. lawmakers to call its bluff. Just 24 hours before a key vote, executives and lobbyists from Wal-Mart issued the following threat to D.C. council members “try to force us to pay our employees a living wage, and we will not build stores in the District.”

The council was voting to pass a living wage bill, which would require retailers such as Wal-Mart, Lowes, Costco and Home Depot to pay higher wages to their employees. Wal-Mart’s plan was to pack up and leave, promising to cancel plans for at least three of the six Wal-Mart stores if the proposal becomes law. One lawmaker said it felt like Wal-Mart was “sticking guns to council members’ heads.”

Still D.C. council members held their ground and voted 8-5 this afternoon to require retailers with corporate sales of $one billion or more and operating space of 75,000 sq ft or larger to pay their employees no less than $12.50 an hour.

That would equate to a $26,000 annual salary in a town listed as number nine on a list of most expensive places to live in the country.

But the eight votes still leaves the council one vote shy of being able to override a potential veto from D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray, who has pushed Wal-Mart to plan stores in the city in underserved neighborhoods.

Read more from this story HERE.

Texas Passes Historic Abortion Restrictions While Protesters Attempt to Bring Feces, Urine into Capitol

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Photo Credit: APBy Fox News. The Texas Senate late Friday passed tough new abortion restrictions after weeks of protests, sending them to Gov. Rick Perry to sign into law.

The vote came after weeks of protests and rallies drew thousands to the Capitol and made Texas the focus of the national abortion debate.

Republicans used their majority to pass the bill nearly three weeks after a filibuster by Democratic Sen. Wendy Davis and an outburst by abortion-rights supporters in the Senate gallery disrupted a deadline vote.

Called back for a new special session by Perry, lawmakers took up the bill again as thousands of supporters and opponents held rallies and jammed the Capitol to testify at public hearings.

In a statement released just after the vote, Perry said, “Today the Texas Legislature took its final step in our historic effort to protect life. This legislation builds on the strong and unwavering commitment we have made to defend life and protect women’s health.” Read more from this story HERE.

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Texas Department of Public Safety Press Release Confirms Feces, Urine Taken from Pro-Abortion Protesters Trying to Gain Entrance to Capitol

AUSTIN – The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) today received information that individuals planned to use a variety of items or props to disrupt legislative proceedings at the Texas Capitol.

Therefore for safety purposes, DPS recommended to the Texas Senate that all bags be inspected prior to allowing individuals to enter the Senate gallery, which the Texas Senate authorized.

During these inspections, DPS officers have thus far discovered one jar suspected to contain urine, 18 jars suspected to contain feces, and three bottles suspected to contain paint. All of these items – as well as significant quantities of feminine hygiene products, glitter and confetti possessed by individuals – were required to be discarded; otherwise those individuals were denied entry into the gallery.

In the interest of the safety and security of Texas legislators and the general public, these inspections will continue until the conclusion of Senate business.

Washington Mayor: Mystery Helicopters “Terrorized” City

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Photo Credit: Reuters An Army official apologized Friday for conducting an unannounced training mission around the small city of Port Angeles, Wash., using special operations helicopters that the mayor said “terrorized” his city.

Dozens of alarmed residents called police to ask what was going on and said the noise and light from the mystery helicopters buzzing around the city panicked horses and other livestock, The Peninsula Daily News reported.

The Army said the helicopters involved included both twin-engine Chinooks and Blackhawk attack helicopters.

“No one had any warning about the helicopters, no one said anything afterward, and today city officials had to spend hours just trying to find out what had happened — who had invaded Port Angeles,” said Cherie Kidd, mayor of the Olympic Peninsula city about 60 miles west of Seattle.

The training exercise involved part of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, which is based at Fort Campbell, Ky., but has individual units in various locations, said Sgt. Jimmy Norris, an I Corps spokesman at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Wash. Part of the 160th is based at Lewis-McChord, he said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Unanswered Questions Plague Seal Team 6 Losses

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Photo Credit: WNDEveryone knows about the U.S. military’s SEAL Team Six and its involvement in the Pakistan raid that left terror leader Osama bin Laden dead – heck, Hollywood made a movie about the members after the Obama administration reportedly dished out classified information to those working on the production.

But there are many, many questions that remain unanswered about the brave Navy SEAL team members who put on the boots and weaponry and defended America and how they may have been used as political pawns in a White House campaign to “reach out and coddle Islamist fundamentalists.”

The new case has been launched by FreedomWatch’s Larry Klayman, whose complaint is on behalf of several families of Navy SEAL Team members who died when their helicopter was shot down by Taliban jihadists on Aug. 6, 2011, in Afghanistan…

Defendants in the case are Vice President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who are accused of disclosing classified information about the team’s success in Pakistan and putting a “target on the backs” of the heroes and their families.

“Predictably, the Taliban retaliated by blasting the helicopter out of the air and killing all on board,” FreedomWatch said in its announcement about the case.

Read more from this story HERE.

Tom Marino, GOP Congressman, Floats Idea Of Filing Criminal Charges Against Obama

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Photo Credit: Tom Williams/CQ Roll CallRep. Tom Marino (R-Pa.) revealed in a Thursday interview that he is exploring avenues by which members of Congress could try to pursue criminal charges against President Barack Obama.

Earlier this month, the Obama administration announced a delay in the implementation of an Affordable Care Act provision that will require businesses employing more than 50 people to provide them with health insurance. The delay, which puts off the requirement until 2015, drew much criticism from the GOP. The Treasury Department has since released a letter defending the decision as a means of providing “transition relief” for companies.

To say that Marino is critical of the decision may be an understatement. During an interview on local Scranton, Pa., station “94.3 The Talker,” the congressman slammed both the president for allegedly taking illegal action and Attorney General Eric Holder for failing to do anything about it.

“If the chief law enforcer of the country [Holder] will not enforce the law,” said Marino, “and the president decides to break the law because he doesn’t like it, there has to be another mechanism by which we in Congress can … see if there are criminal charges we can file.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Mystery Donor Posts Bail for Texas Teen Jailed for Allegations of Terrorist Threats on Facebook

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Photo Credit: FOX SAN ANTONIOThe Texas teen who has been in jail since April for making alleged terror threats on Facebook was released on bail after an anonymous donor posted his bond.

Justin Carter, 19, was released Thursday according to officials for the Comal County Jail near San Antonio. He was jailed on a terrorist threat charge for writing on the social media site that he was going to “shoot up a kindergarten” while playing an online computer game.

He later said in a letter to a judge from jail that what he wrote was “terrible, mean and downright stupid” but “the misunderstanding was that I wasn’t trying to scare anyone, I was trying to be witty and sarcastic. I failed and I was arrested.”

“This (release) came as a huge shock to his family,” Carter’s attorney, Donald Flanary told FoxNews.com. “They couldn’t make the bond. They were surprised that one person would be willing to donate the money.”

The attorney declined to discuss the identity of the donor other than saying that the large sum was from one person who is a U.S. citizen.

Read more from this story HERE.

Holder Living High on the Hog, Too: Spent Almost $1.5 Million on Travel in 2011

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Photo Credit: ReutersU.S. Attorney General Eric Holder took 62 out-of-town trips in fiscal year 2011 at a cost of at least $1.45 million, according to a set of disclosures sent to Bloomberg News.

Holder’s travel during the period included an April 2011 trip to Las Vegas, marked business and personal, that cost $46,358. Nine other trips, including visits to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, and Miami, were labeled “personal,” and cost a combined $169,502. He took an $83,002 flight to Krakow, Poland, to attend the G-6 summit.

Flight costs for seven trips, including journeys to China, Hawaii and Brussels, weren’t provided.

As attorney general, Holder is a “required use” official who is compelled by executive order to use government aircraft for all travel while in office due to “security and communications needs,” according to a February 2013 U.S. Government Accountability Office report.

For personal trips, Holder is required to reimburse the government for the equivalent commercial coach fare, which is often much less than the total trip costs, the GAO said.

Read more from this story HERE.

A Whopping 85% of Americans Believe Businesses Should Be Able to Turn Away Homosexual Customers

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Photo Credit: PargonThis is no idle hypothetical from Rasmussen. A photography studio in New Mexico was fined years ago under the state’s Human Rights Act for refusing to accept a lesbian couple’s request to photograph their commitment ceremony because it was contrary to the owners’ Christian beliefs. The studio lost several rounds of appeals because the state’s antidiscrimination law forbids “public accommodations” from discriminating on the basis of orientation. As Gabe Malor said a few weeks ago after the big SCOTUS DOMA decision, this is the next flashpoint in political skirmishing over gay rights. Does free exercise of religion extend to how you run your business?

A heavy, heavy majority says yep, sure does:

If a Christian wedding photographer who has deeply held religious beliefs opposing same-sex marriage is asked to work a same-sex wedding ceremony, 85% of American Adults believe he has the right to say no. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only eight percent (8%) disagree even as the courts are hearing such challenges.

You can, if you like, agree with the majority here without bringing free exercise into it. A strong-form libertarian would say that the photographer has a right to refuse for whatever reason he chooses, religious or not. It’s a matter of private property, not free exercise.

Read more from this story HERE.

Paul Ryan Has Been Working Behind the Scenes on Bipartisan Amnesty Deal Since Last Year

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Photo Credit: GARY CAMERONTwo weeks after the end of his failed vice-presidential bid, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) was already thinking ahead to another big fight: immigration reform. And he was thinking about it in a bipartisan way.

Ryan ran into his old friend, Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.), and urged him to restart his effort to get a comprehensive immigration package through Congress. Ryan’s arguments stemmed from a religious and economic foundation, not from the huge political liability the issue had become for the Republican Party during the 2012 presidential campaign.

“You’re a Catholic; I’m a Catholic; we cannot have a permanent underclass of Americans exploited in America,” Ryan told Gutierrez, according to the Democrat’s recollection of the November discussion.

Given those sentiments, and the drubbing the GOP ticket took among Latino voters, supporters of an immigration overhaul expected Ryan to emerge as the House’s most prominent public voice on the issue.

Instead, as the issue has grown more contentious with the recent passage of a sprawling 1,200-page Senate bill, Ryan has worked quietly behind the scenes, declining to become the public face of the issue and leaving the effort without any prominent sponsors among the House GOP leadership.

Read more from this story HERE.

White House Holds Obamacare Briefing With Left Wing Bloggers

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Photo Credit: myglesiasThe White House held a background briefing Friday to discuss Obamacare implementation with a handful of journalists from liberal and progressive outlets.

Slate blogger Matthew Yglesias posted a photograph to Instagram Friday featuring himself and other liberal journalists at the White House, with the caption “#thistown.”

Yglesias’ photograph features American Prospect staff writer Jamelle Bouie and MSNBC’s Benjy Sarlin attending the briefing.

Yglesias, who publicly cheered the death of conservative activist Andrew Breitbart, is known as a member of a tight-knit circle of progressive bloggers that includes Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein and low-rated MSNBC host Chris Hayes.

Read more from this story HERE.