Shooting at Colo. Pot Holiday Gathering Injures 2

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Photo Credit: AP

Gunfire erupted at a Denver pot celebration Saturday, injuring two people and scattering a crowd of thousands who had gathered for the first 4/20 counterculture holiday since the state legalized marijuana.

The man and woman who were shot were expected to survive, and police were looking for one or two suspects, said Denver Police spokesman Sonny Jackson. Police asked festival attendees for possible photo or video of the shootings, and had no immediate motive.

Witnesses described a scene in which a jovial atmosphere quickly turned to one of panic at the downtown Civic Center Park just before 5 p.m. Several thought firecrackers were being set off, then a man fell bleeding, his dog also shot.

“I saw him fall, grabbing his leg,” said Travis Craig, 28, who was at the celebration, saw the shooting and said he used a belt to apply a tourniquet to the man’s leg.

“He was just screaming that he was in pain, and wanted to know where his girlfriend was. She was OK. And then the cops showed up real quick, like, less than a minute. They put him on ambulance and left.”

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Dr. Ben Carson: ‘We’re Being Crucified by Political Correctness’

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Presidential Medal of Freedom winner Dr. Ben Carson, a neurosurgeon and best-selling author, spoke about how even regular reading by young people can improve their lives and society, but he stressed that a social hurdle is that “we’re being crucified by political correctness,” an unwillingness to tell the truth because it might offend someone or be deemed judgmental.

In an interview with black conservative activist Star Parker, founder of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education, she asked Dr. Carson, “Now, this is where you seem to put a lot of emphasis with your life’s work, is that you can break poverty, you can break this cycle even in your family, even if everything around you is broken as you just described in this particular environment, with reading is it really that simple?”

Dr. Carson said, “That’s one of the major components

Watch video here:

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Captured Bombing Suspect: Pot Head, Obama Supporter and Other Quirky Details

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

By Robby Soave. Boston bombing suspect and fugitive Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was a “normal pot head” who supported President Obama for re-election last November, according to friends and his Twitter account.

Chris Barry, who attended the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth with Tsarnaev, described him as normal teenager who loved to smoke pot and cigarettes every day.

“He was a pot head, a normal pot head,” said Barry in an interview with Politico. “I couldn’t even imagine him being mad at someone let alone hurting someone.”

Tsarnaev, a Muslim, did not come across as strongly religious, said Barry.

“He never brought it up. It seemed like he could care less,” he said. Read more from this story HERE.

“Barack, You My Dawg,” and other Pro-Obama Tweets

By Matthew Sheffield. Several posts on what several news organizations have confirmed as the Twitter profile of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev indicate that that the 19-year-old Chechnyan immigrant was a supporter of Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election.

If that is indeed the case, it does not mean that Obama has any sort of connection with or responsibility for the bombing suspect or his brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev. It does, however, completely reverse the fantasy that many American liberals were openly hoping for: that the bombing suspects might be revealed as Timothy McVeigh 2.0, someone whose very name they could use to smear and deride anyone who stands against their belief system. In other words, one of those “dog whistles” we keep hearing so much about.

Now that information has emerged which not only indicates the suspected bombers were not radical conservatives but that one of them appears to be a supporter of President Obama, how widely will it be spread in the endless series of reports trying to report as many details about the two suspects? Read more from this story HERE.

Father of Captured Bombing Suspect: ‘Tell the Police Everything’

By Bianna Golodryga. The father of a suspected Boston Marathon bomber started to cry when ABC News told him that his son had been captured alive.

“Thank God,” Anzor Tsarnaev said, speaking in Russian, thanking ABC News for relaying word that his son, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was in custody and alive.

Asked what he wanted to tell his son, Anzor Tsarnaev said, “Tell police everything. Everything. Just be honest.”

Tsarnaev spoke to ABC News on more than one occasion today from his home in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, Russia, as Boston police carried out an intense dragnet for his son.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev survived a running gun battle with police during the night that left an MIT security officer dead and a Boston police officer badly wounded. His older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died in the shootout. Read more from this story HERE.

Captured Suspect: ‘I Don’t Have a Single American Friend’

By CBS Boston. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a Boston Marathon bombing suspect who was killed early Friday, once described himself as not having a single American friend and aspired to be a U.S. Olympic boxer.

As police continue the extensive manhunt for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev hours following a fatal shootout that killed his older brother, more details about Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s personal life and past athletic aspirations are coming to light.

In Johannes Hirn’s photo essay, “Will Box for Passport,” Hirn profiled Tamerlan Tsarnaev on his road to the National Golden Gloves competition in Salt Lake City. Throughout the 15-picture photo essay, which has since been made a private gallery, Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s life is on display, talking openly about his religion, his straight-edge lifestyle, his boxing dreams, and the difficult time he had adjusting to living in the U.S. for five years.

“I don’t have a single American friend, I don’t understand them,” Tamerlan Tsarnaev said in the photo essay. Read more from this story HERE.

Background on the Capture of the Second Bombing Suspect

By Sheldon Alberts, Daniel Strauss and Jonathan Easley. “We are exhausted folks, but we have a victory here tonight,” Massachusetts State Police Col. Timothy Alben said.

After a long day of tension and uncertainty, Tsarnaev’s capture happened in a burst of action Friday evening. It started shortly after an update on the investigation in which law enforcement announced that a daylong lockdown on Boston and the surrounding area had been lifted.

Just after that, gunshots sounded in Watertown, where officials suspected Tsarnaev had been hiding. A fleet of police cars sped to surround the suspect. What followed was a standoff as law enforcement officials eventually closed in on Tsarnaev, who was hiding in a boat behind a Watertown home.

Just before 9 p.m., Boston police tweeted that the suspect was custody.

“CAPTURED!!! The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won. Suspect in custody,” the department wrote on Twitter. Read more from this story HERE.

Gosnell Trial Witness: Baby Abortion Survivor Was 'Swimming' in Toilet 'Trying to Get Out'

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Photo Credit: AP

By Elizabeth Harrington. On the last day of testimony before the prosecution rests in the murder trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell, a former worker at Gosnell’s clinic testified that she saw one late-term baby who survived an abortion “swimming” in a toilet and “trying to get out.”

Kareema Cross, a “medical assistant” who worked at Gosnell’s Women’s Medical Society clinic for four-and-a-half years, testified in a Philadelphia court today, telling of the horrors of babies who survived abortions only to have their necks snipped with scissors.

“Did you ever see those babies move?” asked Prosecutor Joanne Pescatore.

“Yes, once in the toilet,” said Cross.

The baby “was like swimming,” she said. “Basically, trying to get out.” Read more from this story HERE.

Gosnell Worker: Baby Surviving Abortion ‘Breathing for about 20 Minutes’ Until Neck Was Slashed

By Cheryl Sullenger. While she worked for Gosnell, Cross testified that at least twice a day, six days a week, at least two babies would “precipitate” or be birthed before Gosnell ever arrived. She said “Dr. Steve,” Steven Massof, an unlicensed medical school graduate with a ghoulish curiosity about abortions, would be there to snip the babies’ necks. She saw him do it around 50 times. When babies “precipitated” in Gosnell’s presence, he would do the dirty deed himself.

Cross sometimes worked from 8:00 am until 3:00 the next morning helping with procedures. She routinely saw babies born alive, moving, breathing, and moaning.

Once in Gosnell’s absence, Cross saw a large baby delivered into the toilet. She saw his little arms and legs moving in a swimming motion as he struggled to get out of the toilet bowl. Cross held her hands 12-16 inches apart to demonstrate to the jury how big the baby was. Adrienne Moton, who was the first worker to testify for the prosecution, snipped the baby’s neck in front of the mother while she sat bleeding into the toilet. Moton then took the body away and put it into a container.

In 2009, Cross testified that another co-worker, Linda Williams, called Cross over to see a baby that had just been born. Cross saw the baby’s chest heaving up and down in steady breathing motions. Linda reached down and lifted the baby’s hand up, but the newborn pulled it away on its own strength. Cross said she saw the baby breathing for about 20 minutes before Williams murdered the child by severing its spinal cord with scissors. Cross demonstrated again with her hands that the baby was about a foot long. Read more from this story HERE.

Captured Suspect Favorited This Tweet: 'The Battle Within is Defined by the Word Jihad.'

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Photo Credit: FBI.gov

Amid the mundane chatter of an ordinary digital teenager, a Twitter account believed to belong to the Boston Marathon bombing suspect who was captured after eluding authorities on Friday contains some chilling chatter.

The @J_tsar Twitter feed is believed to belong to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, one of two Chechen brothers police say carried out Monday’s terror attack in Boston. Buzzfeed on Friday reported that a high school classmate of Dzhokhar, Stefanie Gardner, confirmed that the account belonged to Tsarnaev.

A tweet Tsarnaev marked as a favorite was apparently sent just hours before the attack, at 1:07 a.m. on Monday, from someone going by “Steezy_Be_Eazy”:

“The ultimate sacrifice is within you, The battle within is defined by the word jihad.”

The last tweet orginating from the account believed to be Tsarnaev’s, on April 16, after the Monday bombing that killed three and left dozens gruesomely injured: “I’m a stress free kind of guy.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Rep. Peter King on Spread of Radical Islam: ‘We can’t be Politically Correct’

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

By Jeff Poor. New York Republican Rep. Peter King said Friday that the potential radicalization of members of the Muslim Chechen community should be investigated after the Boston Marathon bombing.

“We can’t be politically correct,” he said on CNN’s “The Lead.” “I think we have to see, has radicalization has extended into the Chechen community?”

Host Jake Tapper asked King about one of the suspect’s apparent YouTube pages, where a video had been posted featuring Feiz Mohammad.

Tapper asked if King knew anything about Mohammad, who is described as a “fundamentalist Australian Muslim preacher.”

“I’m not aware of that radical cleric, but I do know that the idea of radical clerics in the Muslim community — again, it’s a small percentage — but they have had a disproportionate influence,” King said. “And I think that is something that has to be looked at. We can’t be politically correct. Read more from this story HERE.

Allen West: ‘We have domestic radical Islamic terror problem in America’

By Caroline May. Former Florida Rep. Allen West issued a harsh attack on political correctness Friday, as authorities continued to pursue second Boston attack suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

“Let me be very clear, the terrorist attack in Boston and evolving events indicate we have a domestic radical Islamic terror problem in America,” the Republican wrote on his Facebook page.

According to the former congressman, America must reject “political correctness” and advocacy groups like the Council on American–Islamic Relations, the Islamic Society of North America, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, and the Muslim American Society, which he linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. Read more from this story HERE.

GOP lawmaker calls for ‘increased surveillance’ of Muslims after attack

By Julian Pecquet. Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) called for “increased surveillance” of Muslims on Friday, saying the Boston Marathon bombing suspects’ links to Chechnya represented a “new front” in the war on terror.

“Police have to be in the community, they have to build up as many sources as they can, and they have to realize that the threat is coming from the Muslim community and increase surveillance there,” the chairman of the House subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence told National Review. “We can’t be bound by political correctness. I think we need more police and more surveillance in the communities where the threat is coming from.”

He went on to suggest that the two suspects’ Chechen background and Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s visit to Russia last year suggested increased radicalization of the Chechen community. The two brothers immigrated to the United States in 2001 from Kyrgyzstan, and the FBI has so far not released any evidence that they did not act alone.
“There’s never been any history of any threats emanating in this country from the Chechen community,” King told the Review. “So in a way this opens up a new front in the war.” Read more from this story HERE.

Chechen Bombing Suspects Bring Fire on Rubio's Immigration Bill

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Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore

A powerful senator warned Friday that this week’s Boston marathon bombings should give Congress pause as it attempts to overhaul the nation’s immigration system.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, emphasized that it’s too early to know whether the perpetrators of the bombings exploited gaps in immigration law to help stage their attacks. But with the chief suspects said to be ethnic Chechens raised in Kyrgyzstan who have lived in the United States for roughly a decade, he suggested their story could serve as a cautionary tale as lawmakers attempt to revamp the system.

“Given the events of this week, it’s important for us to understand the gaps and loopholes in our immigration system,” Grassley said in his opening statement of a Judiciary hearing on reform. “While we don’t yet know the immigration status of the people who have terrorized the communities in Massachusetts, when we find out, it will help shed light on the weaknesses of our system.

“How can individuals evade authorities and plan such attacks on our soil?” Grassley asked. “How can we beef up security checks on people who wish to enter the U.S.? How do we ensure that people who wish to do us harm are not eligible for benefits under the immigration laws, including this new bill before us?”

Friday’s Judiciary hearing — the first this year on the immigration reform issue that is one of President Obama’s top second-term priorities — came as law enforcers had shut down much of Boston in an unprecedented search for one of the suspects in Monday’s twin marathon bombings. The improvised devices killed three people and injured more than 170 when they detonated near the finish line more than four hours into the storied race.

Read more from this story HERE.

Buchanan: Will the GOP Embrace Amnesty?

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Photo Credit: Human Events

During President Eisenhower’s first term, 60 years ago, the United States faced an invasion across its southern border.

Illegal aliens had been coming since World War II. But, suddenly, the number was over 1 million. Crime was rising in Texas. The illegals were taking the jobs of U.S. farm workers.

Under Gen. Joseph May Swing, the Immigration and Naturalization Service launched “Operation Wetback” and began rounding up and deporting Mexican border-crossers by ship and bus. By the end of Ike’s second term, illegal entries had fallen by 90 percent.

Eisenhower, who had tapped his nuclear hole card twice — first, to force the Chinese to agree to a truce in Korea, then to halt their shelling of the offshore islands in 1958 — was a no-nonsense president.

Measured by population and gross national product, Eisenhower’s America was but half the size of today’s America. Yet, in the 1950s, we were in many ways a stronger and more self-confident country.

Read more from this story HERE.

14 Bodies Recovered after Texas Blast

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Photo Credit: gnislew

By Faith Karimi and Emanuella Grinberg. Two days after a massive fertilizer plant explosion leveled parts of a central Texas town and killed 14 people, residents moved into recovery mode Friday after investigators announced they had nearly finished search and rescue efforts.

The fiery explosion ripped through the heart of the close-knit town of West.

“It’s going to be a long recovery for this community,” Gov. Rick Perry said.

The death toll included the secretary, who was also a member of the volunteer fire department, said Mayor Tommy Muska.

In total, five West firefighters died battling the blaze, along with one Dallas firefighter and four emergency responders, the State Firemen’s and Fire Marshals’ Association of Texas said Thursday. Read more from this story HERE.

Texas town grieves for dead first-responders

BY Associated Press. Buck Uptmor didn’t have to go to West Fertilizer Co. when the fire started. He wasn’t a firefighter like his brother and cousin, who raced toward the plant. But a ranch of horses next to the flames needed to be moved to safety.

“He went to help a friend,” said Joyce Marek, Uptmor’s aunt. “And then it blew.”

Two days after the fertilizer facility exploded in a blinding fireball, authorities announced Friday that they had recovered 14 bodies, confirming for the first time an exact number of people killed. Grieving relatives filed into a church offering comfort for families, as volunteers nearby handed out food to those still unable to return to homes damaged by the massive blast.

Ten of the dead were first-responders — including five from the West Volunteer Fire Department and four emergency medics, West Mayor Tommy Muska said.

The dead included Uptmor and Joey Pustejovsky, the city secretary who doubled as a member of the West Volunteer Fire Department. A captain of the Dallas Fire Department who was off-duty at the time but responded to the fire to help also died. Read more from this story HERE.

Homosexual Marriage Amendment Could Harm Immigration Bill

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Gay-rights activists are concerned the Senate’s immigration reform proposal does not provide a path to citizenship for foreign-born partners of gay Americans, but changing the bill could jeopardize its future.

Same-sex marriages and civil unions are not recognized by the federal government, so the unions of an estimated 36,000 couples will not be considered legal under bill unless U.S. laws are changed – or the Supreme Court strikes down the Defense of Marriage Act, Politico reported Friday.

Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has made gay marriage rights a top priority in recent years, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) activists expect him or Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin to introduce an amendment to the bill to address the issue.

But that could cause a split among the so-called Gang of Eight senators who wrote the bipartisan measure.

Read more from this story HERE.