Groups Led by Inside Trader, Child Abuser got Obamacare Co-op Loans

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Federal officials approved Obamacare loans totaling $127 million last year to groups led by individuals whose backgrounds included an insider trading conviction and another with a long history of child sexual abuse, The Washington Examiner has learned.

The loans — which must be repaid at a future date — are to fund health insurance co-operative startups in Louisiana and Maine. They will compete with private sector health insurance providers under a $2 billion Obamacare initiative to fund 24 co-op startups nationwide.

Both the Maine and Louisiana co-ops are among 13 under investigation by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee headed by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.

In the Maine case, federal officials approved a $62 million loan to Maine Community Health Options even though its president had recently committed suicide after state police accused the co-op’s president of molesting teenage boys for decades.

Despite extensive media coverage of the scandal, federal officials approved the loan five months before Maine State Police made public a 104-page report detailing the abuse allegations over a 36-year period.

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Wisconsin Among Worst for Business Taxes, Now Considers Multimillion Circus Bailout

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Wisconsin led the nation in collective bargaining reform for public employees in 2011, but the state’s current tax and regulatory climate led the Tax Foundation to recently declare Wisconsin among the worst in the country for business taxes. But while lawmakers mull over how best to reduce taxes and streamline regulations, they are being asked by one state agency to spend $3.7 million on a circus museum…

Yes, Wisconsin taxpayers may have to spend millions of dollars to bailout a cash-strapped circus museum.

The proposed state budget under consideration by lawmakers is the largest in the state’s history. Included in its various proposals are provisions that would add 710 new employees to state government. That’s a jumbo-jet and a half of new state workers complete with pensions and health care plans financed by taxpayers. Hardly a small irony after Governor Scott Walker balanced his first budget in 2011 by forcing state workers to contribute more to their health insurance and pension plans.

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Tens of Thousands Obamacare 'Navigators' to be Hired

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Tens of thousands of health care professionals, union workers and community activists hired as “navigators” to help Americans choose Obamacare options starting Oct. 1 could earn $20 an hour or more, according to new regulations issued Wednesday.

The 63-page rule covering navigators, drawn up by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, also said the government will provide free translators for those not fluent in English — no matter what their native language is.

“The proposed requirements would also include that such entities and individuals provide consumers with information and assistance in the consumer’s preferred language, at no cost to the consumer, which would include oral interpretation of non-English languages and the translation of written documents in non-English languages when necessary to ensure meaningful access,” said the regulations.

The rules also addressed conflict of interest and other potential issues that navigators could face as the public’s first stop on the Obamacare trail.

It is still not clear how many navigators will be required. California, however, provides a hint. It wants 21,000.

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Democrats Push for $10K Fine for Gun Owners Without Liability Insurance

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A group of congressional Democrats has signed on to new legislation that would mandate liability insurance for all gun owners in the United States — and fine those who refuse to purchase it as much as $10,000.

The Daily Caller reports that New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney’s Firearm Risk Protection Act says that all gun buyers — before they buy — purchase and show proof of “a qualified liability insurance policy,” and that those caught owning a weapon without the insurance are subject to harsh fines.

“It shall be unlawful for a person who owns a firearm purchased on or after the effective date of this subsection not to be covered by a qualified liability insurance policy,” the text of the bill states.

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Rand Paul-Backed Group Attacks "Liberal" NRA, RINO's

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Sen. Rand Paul, the tea party favorite and possible 2016 presidential candidate, is raising money for a conservative gun rights group that’s targeting fellow Republicans, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

And when one congressman complained, the message from Paul’s camp was: too bad.

The Kentucky Republican has lent his name to fundraising pitches for the National Association for Gun Rights, a group that says the National Rifle Association is too willing to compromise on gun rights.

The group has blitzed the districts of Virginia Republicans Cantor and Rep. Scott Rigell with $50,000 worth of TV and radio ads accusing them of helping President Barack Obama pass gun control legislation.

Paul’s email pitches for the group don’t mention Cantor or Rigell by name, but his activity for an organization that attacks fellow Republicans shows the potential 2016 presidential contender isn’t afraid to pick a fight inside the party. Paul chief of staff Doug Stafford is unapologetic.

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Obama to Praise Colorado’s New Gun Laws as Gun Businesses Exit, Boycotts Organize

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When President Barack Obama comes to Colorado on Wednesday to praise state lawmakers for taking a tough stance on gun control — an example that he hopes Congress will follow — it will be to a backdrop of a changing economic landscape brought on by the new laws.

Because of strict new gun bills signed recently by Gov. John Hickenlooper that ban high-capacity magazines and require universal background checks on gun transfers, hunting groups are organizing boycotts, shooting competitions are being canceled and more and more businesses that serve the gun industry are announcing that they’re taking their companies — and the jobs they provide — to more Second Amendment-friendly locales.

On Monday, organizers for the Rocky Mountain Western States Regional IDPA Championship shooting competition canceled their July 4-6 event because the new laws will go into effect on July 1. Organizers expected 300 out-of-state shooters to come to Montrose for the weekend.

“With these new Colorado laws going into effect July 1, and based on the ambiguous way in which they were written, we have decided to cancel the Rocky Mountain Western States Regional IDPA Championship,” said event organizer Walt Proulx in a press release.

This is the second competition to cancel. Earlier, the 2013 Ruger Rimfire Challenge World Championship, to be held in Byers, Colo. July 19-21, was canceled and has yet to be rescheduled “outside of Colorado,” according to the Ruger website.

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Associated Press: Reporters Should Stop Using Phrase ‘Illegal Immigrant’

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The Associated Press says it is no longer appropriate for reporters to use the term “illegal immigrant.”

The organization announced that its AP Stylebook — the language and grammar guide used by news organizations across the country — will immediately stop approving the phrase.

“The Stylebook no longer sanctions the term ‘illegal immigrant’ or the use of ‘illegal’ to describe a person,” senior vice president and executive editor Kathleen Carroll said in a post Tuesday on the AP website. “Instead, it tells users that ‘illegal’ should describe only an action, such as living in or immigrating to a country illegally.”

The move comes as liberal immigration activists have been encouraging news organizations to stop using the term. Most prominently, Jose Antonio Vargas, an illegal immigrant and former Washington Post reporter, testified before Congress on the issue.

“When you inaccurately call me illegal, you not only dehumanize me, you’re offending them,” he said. “No human being is illegal.”

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Feds Admit that FBI Warrantless Cellphone Tracking, Eavesdropping ‘Very Common’

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FBI investigators for at least five years have routinely used a sophisticated cellphone tracking tool that can pinpoint callers’ locations and listen to their conversations — all without getting a warrant for it, a federal court was told this week.

The use of the “Stingray,” as the tool is called, “is a very common practice” by federal investigators, Justice Department attorneys told the U.S. District Court for Arizona Thursday, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

Installed in an unmarked van, Stingray mimics a cellphone tower, so it can pinpoint the precise location of any mobile device in range and intercept conversations and data, said Linda Lye, staff attorney at the ACLU of Northern California in a blog post about the case.

In a rare public discussion of federal electronic surveillance capabilities and authorities, Justice Department lawyers told the court hearing that, instead of a warrant, the FBI operates Stingray and other cellphone-mimicking technology under the authority of “pen register” orders. These court orders, also known as “tap and trace” orders, are generally issued to allow investigators to collect only so-called “metadata” — like all phone numbers calling to or called from a particular number.

But Stingray collects much more than just phone numbers and also “sweep[s] up the data of innocent people who happen to be nearby,” according to the ACLU filing.

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Texas AG to Obama: I’ll Sue if U.N. Arms Treaty is ratified

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Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott wrote a letter to President Obama on Tuesday saying that the state will head to court over the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty should Mr. Obama sign it and the U.S. Senate ratify it.

“The UN has concluded its negotiations on the Arms Trade Treaty,” Mr. Abbotwrites. “It is now up to you to sign it — or reject it. Do not sign this treaty.”

Mr. Abbott writes that he understands the apparent purpose is to combat illegal arms trafficking around the world, but that the treaty could draw law-abiding gun owners and gun operators “into a complex web of bureaucratic red tape created by a new department at the UN devoted to overseeing the treaty.”

“As with most so-called international-law documents promulgated by the UN, the draft treaty is not written using the precise, unambiguous language required of a good legal document,” he continues. “Instead, the treaty employs sweeping rhetoric and imprecise terminology that could be used by those who seek to undermine our liberties to impose any number of restrictions on the right of law-abiding Americans to keep and bear arms.”

Darryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, said the National Rifle Association and other gun-rights groups have distorted the meaning of the treaty. He said it is about the global trade of dangerous weapons, not individual rights within the United States.

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New York State Senator and City Councilman Arrested in 'Bribery Plot' to Rig Mayor Race

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State Sen. Malcolm Smith and city Councilman Dan Halloran were arrested this morning on charges they were plotting to rig this year’s mayoral election through fraud and bribes.

The pols allegedly formed an alliance built on cash payments and fraud to get Smith — one of the state’s top Democrats — placed on the GOP mayoral ballot, sources said.

FBI agents arrested them both at their Queens homes shortly after 6 a.m. “I have no idea,” Halloran, in handcuffs, told a Post reporter when asked if he knew why he was being arrested.

“I’m sure the truth will come out once I have an opportunity to find out what’s going on.” Smith would not say anything as he was hauled off.

All six defendants were arraigned this afternoon, when they were ordered to surrender their passports and post $250,000 bond.

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