One of Gov. Christie’s Bodyguards Charged With Shoplifting in Pennsylvania (+video)

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APOne of Governor Chris Christie’s bodyguards has suspended without pay from the New Jersey State Police, charged with shoplifting in Berks County, Pa.

A state police spokesman says that William Carvounis, 35, was assigned to the executive protection unit and had been on Christie’s security detail.

But police in Tilden Township, Pa. — north of Reading and west of Allentown — say last month the trooper stole nearly $300 in gun supplies and other merchandise from a Cabela’s sporting goods store.

Read more from this story HERE.

Best Super Bowl XLVIII Commercials (+video)

/5 Comments/in , /by

Budweiser “Puppy Love”Average and okay.” That’s Lee Garfinkel’s three-word assessment of this year’s crop of Super Bowl ads. And Garfinkel knows of what he speaks. The CEO of DraftFCB NY is the auteur of numerous classic Super Bowl ads, most notably a series of iconic Pepsi spots featuring Cindy Crawford.

Garfinkel, who created high profile spots at BBDO, Lowe, DDB, and Havas Worldwide, knows how hard it is to make a great Super Bowl spot. The stakes are high and everyone has an opinion. “It’s a very delicate thing to create a great commercial, let alone a great Super Bowl spot,” he explains. “You need to take into consideration how people view Super Bowl spots, how it will do in the different Ad Meters and reviews, plus so many people are working on it that it’s easy to chip away at it and water it down.”…

Here are the ads, including a great spot that did not air during the game on Sunday.

Read more from this story HERE.

A Super Bowl Commercial Guaranteed to Bring You Chills

/3 Comments/in , /by

On January 8, Army 1st Lt. Chuck Nadd left his eight-month mission in Afghanistan to come home. He knew he’d be greeted by his girlfriend. But he didn’t know his hometown — and Budweiser cameras — were waiting for him, too.

Thanks to careful coordination with girlfriend Shannon Cantwell, Lt. Nadd thought he was flying to Florida to speak at the VFW. Hidden cameras caught the airport homecoming between Cantwell and Lt. Nadd and followed the couple to the site where an old-fashioned ticker-tape parade awaited.

Viewers get a front-row seat to the surprise parade sponsored by the VFW and Budweiser in the Army officer’s hometown of Winter Park, FL, with marching bands, antique vehicles, the VFW motorcycle club, and the Budweiser Clydesdales.

Check out Lt. Nadd’s reaction when he sees his mom around 0:42. She secretly flew in from Alabama and was waiting to close out the surprise at the end of the parade.

The homecoming provided so much great footage that Budweiser extended the 30-second ad to 60 seconds during the editing process. Budweiser released the spot, titled “A Hero’s Welcome,” exclusively to active and retired military Thursday.

The Super Bowl Sunday premiere will launch a year-long digital campaign by Budweiser to encourage their consumers to honor the military. Lt. Nadd, a 2011 West Point graduate, was honored to help kick it off.

“I think it’s a neat opportunity for America to think about the folks coming home and everything folks have given up to get to this point,” Lt. Nadd said. “So many have given so much more than me. They’re the real heroes. … Those with two, three, four, or more deployments, those seriously injured, and those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our amazing Republic — those are the real heroes.”

In February 2013, Lt. Nadd graduated from flight school in Fort Rucker, AL, where he trained to become a Black Hawk helicopter pilot. He’s been deployed in Afghanistan since.

Budweiser also produced a five-minute web documentary on Lt. Nadd that highlights his background, family, friends, and the campaign details. You can watch it below.

Cantwell works for Alabama Senator Richard Shelby as a legislative correspondent and deputy press secretary. She said she nominated Lt. Nadd in hopes it would inspire communities across America to salute the men and women in uniform who daily give themselves to defend freedom.

“Both Chuck and I feel so blessed to have this opportunity,” Cantwell said.

This article appeared originally at Heritage.com and is re-published in full with the Heritage Foundation’s permission.

Obama Won’t Take Executive Action to Remove Pot from Narcotics List (+video)

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APPresident Barack Obama in an exclusive interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper said it is up to Congress to decide whether marijuana should continue to be classified as a Schedule I narcotic.

“What is and isn’t a Schedule I narcotic is a job for Congress,” Obama said when Tapper asked if he was “considering not making marijuana a Schedule I narcotic.”

“I think it’s the DEA that decides that,” Tapper interjected.

“It’s not something by ourselves that we start changing. No, there are laws undergirding those determinations,” the president responded.

According to the U.S. Controlled Substances Act, Schedule I drugs are described as having a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the U.S., and lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.

Read more from this story HERE.

Brave 6-Year-Old Asks For Help in Store Bathroom After Being Kidnapped (+video)

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: KHOUU11 TEXASA Texas man suspected of kidnapping a 6-year-old girl was arrested soon after the tiny victim bravely called for help in a store bathroom — when he was spotted in a hospital, where his wife gave birth to their child, police said.

Joaquin Ramos, 23 — who allegedly snatched little Kelly Tellez from outside her Houston home — was collared after relatives told police he was with his wife at Memorial Hermann Hospital with their baby on Thursday, according to KHOU-TV…

The terrifying ordeal began after the victim and her mother pulled into a garage near their Wirt Road apartment, police said. As the mother unloaded groceries from the vehicle, Kelly stepped outside to look at the ice frozen to a fence next to the garage, police said.

Suddenly, a man grabbed the little girl and forced her into his Jeep Cherokee. The panicked mother saw the struggle but couldn’t run to the vehicle before it sped away, according to KTRK-TV.

About an hour later, Ramos pulled into a parking lot at the Memorial City Mall and said he needed to use a restroom. He took the victim into a Target, where he told the girl to use the bathroom, the news station reported.

Read more from this story HERE.

Robert Redford Lays Into Republicans on CNN: They Want to Destroy Motives of President (+video)

/7 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: NewsbustersLeftist actor-director Robert Redford laid into Republicans in a Sunday interview on CNN’s “Reliable Sources.” Try not to notice this journalism show began with a Justin Bieber segment and included a Redford interview. Host Brian Stelter first asked how Redford felt about Obama. “I think he’s a good human being. That’s, I think, clear,” Redford replied. “He’s a humanitarian at heart, and that’s good. He’s trying to manage an extremely difficult situation. I mean, it’s — it’s almost too much for one person.”

He wouldn’t say the same for the GOP: “When you have one half whose only motive is to destroy the motives of the president of the United States, then you have a diseased system. And I don’t think that’s his fault. I think it just makes his job tougher.” Redford lamely claimed there was bipartisanship in getting to “truth” in Watergate: [See video after jump.]

REDFORD: We spoke a while back on “All the President’s Men Revisited.” There’s a moment in that film I’d like to point out that illustrates my point, which is remember the hearings, the Watergate hearings? And we have some archival footage in there where you had the panel, Sam Ervin, Sam Dash — you had all these guys, and you have the senator from Tennessee [Howard Baker], and he was conservative. He was a Republican.

You had Republicans and Democrats on this panel. And what you got out of it was how hard all of them were working together to get to the truth of something. And I thought, I’m seeing something we don’t see today, bipartisanship, working together to get to the truth for the public good.

Earth to Redford: In Watergate, can’t it look quite obviously like the Democrats and their media collaborators had the motive to “destroy the motives of the President of the United States”? The Republicans were cooperative in exposing what happened then. Do the Democrats look cooperative today on Obama scandals like the Benghazi fiasco or Fast & Furious? Are they interested in the “truth” when the Attorney General lies before Congress about his knowledge of Fast & Furious?

Read more from this story HERE.

Claim: Evidence Exists Tying Mr. Christie to Having Knowledge of the Lane Closures (+video)

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: NBC NewsNew Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and the official who ordered the closing of lanes on the George Washington Bridge last year clashed Friday over precisely when Christie learned about the controversial incident.

In a letter to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (.pdf), a lawyer for David Wildstein — the Port Authority official who actually ordered the event — says “evidence exists tying Mr. Christie to having knowledge of the lane closures, during the period when the lanes were closed, contrary to what the Governor stated publicly in a two-hour press conference.”

In a statement Friday afternoon, Christie’s office said that rather than call Christie’s behavior into question, the letter “confirms what the Governor has said all along — he had absolutely no prior knowledge of the lane closures before they happened and whatever Mr. Wildstein’s motivations were for closing them to begin with.”

Christie’s statement goes on to say he denies “Mr. Wildstein’s lawyer’s other assertions,” which primarily have to do with Wildstein’s attempt to force the Port Authority to pay his legal bills.

The main disagreement appears to stem from the sequence of events.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Read more from this story HERE.

Caregiver Used Stun Gun to Punish Kids, Kissimmee Police Say

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Yohei Yamashita/flickrA woman was arrested Thursday in Kissimmee on allegations of using a stun gun to punish children in her care.

Letina Smith, 41, faces three counts of child abuse after a 7-year-old, 8-year-old and 9-year-old told officers that Smith punished them with an electric weapon.

The children described the weapon as being pink, rectangle-shaped and having two points with electricity flowing between them, Kissimmee police said. The children also said Smith touched them with the weapon when they misbehave, according to police.

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

Read more from this story HERE.

Holder Tells Cruz He Didn’t Know IRS Investigator Was Obama Contributor (+video)

/22 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APAt a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder denied knowing that a top Democratic donor is leading the internal investigation into the IRS targeting of conservative groups.

“No, I don’t know anything about the political activities of any of the people who are involved in this investigation,” he said when Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) questioned him during a Justice Department oversight hearing.

“I must tell you I find it astonishing that the Department of Justice appointed a major Obama donor to head this investigation, so the first question I want to ask is did you know that the lawyer in charge of this investigation was a major Obama donor?” Cruz asked Holder.

On Jan. 8, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, sent a letter to Holder, calling Bosserman’s involvement “highly inappropriate” and demanding that she be “immediately” removed from the investigation.

Read more from this story HERE.