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

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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.

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Caregiver Used Stun Gun to Punish Kids, Kissimmee Police Say

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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.

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

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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.

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Wasserman Schultz: ‘The President Is Going to Have to Use His Executive Authority’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

Despite criticism of President Barack Obama’s pledge that he will use his executive authority and executive orders to advance his agenda regardless of Congress, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said the president “should use his executive authority.”

At the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday following the president’s State of the Union speech, CNSNews.com asked Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz, “What do you think of the criticism about using executive order(s) to get things done on climate change or [the] minimum wage?”

“Well, the ball’s in their court,” she said, in reference to Republicans in the House of Representatives. “I mean, they have an opportunity to work with him.”

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MSNBC Lionizes ‘Action Hero’ Obama as Superman, Washington Crossing the Delaware, and Uncle Sam (+video)

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Photo Credit: Newsbusters

Photo Credit: Newsbusters

MSNBC airs a bizarre video montage at the beginning of every episode of The Ed Show, but the program was especially outlandish on Monday and Wednesday, depicting President Obama as a series of larger-than-life figures. The liberal network first portrayed the chief executive as Superman standing on top of the White House, and later placed the Democrat’s head on George Washington’s body in the famed painting of the crossing of the Delaware River.

Two days later, The Ed Show lead segment repeatedly showed a graphic depicting the President as Uncle Sam, holding a pen in his boxing glove-covered hand:

After the montage on both Monday and Tuesday, host Ed Schultz gave his commentary in front of a graphic trumpeting President Obama as an “action hero,” and touted the liberal politician’s controversial vow to take executive action on several issues, as a means to motivate Congress to pass his legislative agenda.

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D’Souza Producer: ‘I Never Feared My Govt Until Now’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: J. David Ake / AP

Photo Credit: J. David Ake / AP

Gerald Molen, the producer of Dinesh D’Souza’s documentary film “2016: Obama’s America,” says he never feared his government before he learned that D’Souza is under federal investigation for election fraud.

According to an indictment made public Thursday, D’Souza is accused of contributing $20,000 to a political campaign in 2012, even though the legal limit is $5,000. D’Souza allegedly promised to reimburse others if they would contribute to a candidate widely believed to be Wendy Long of New York. Long, a Republican, ran unsuccessfully against Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand in 2012 for New York’s U.S. Senate seat.

D’Souza’s lawyer has said his client “at worst” was guilty of an act of misguided friendship.

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McConnell: We Won’t Treat Debt Limit Bill ‘Like Some Kind of Motherhood Resolution’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says Republicans will not give President Obama the unconditional debt-limit bill he wants:

“I think for the president to ask for a clean debt ceiling, when we have a debt the size of our economy, is irresponsible. So we ought to discuss adding something to his request to raise the debt ceiling that does something about the debt — or it produces at least something positive for our country,” McConnell told “Fox News Sunday.”

McConnell said President Obama is “unreasonable” to suggest that Congress treat his debt ceiling request “like some kind of motherhood resolution” that everyone would approve unconditionally.

He said a Keystone pipeline measure is “a good example” of something that could be attached to debt limit legislation because it would create jobs for the American people.

“The House of Representatives will initiate the discussion on the debt ceiling increase; they probably will have other ideas.”

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Snowden Docs Reveal British Spies Snooped On YouTube and Facebook (+video)

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Photo Credit: NBC

Photo Credit: NBC

The British government can tap into the cables carrying the world’s web traffic at will and spy on what people are doing on some of the world’s most popular social media sites, including YouTube, all without the knowledge or consent of the companies.

Documents taken from the National Security Agency by Edward Snowden and obtained by NBC News detail how British cyber spies demonstrated a pilot program to their U.S. partners in 2012 in which they were able to monitor YouTube in real time and collect addresses from the billions of videos watched daily, as well as some user information, for analysis. At the time the documents were printed, they were also able to spy on Facebook and Twitter.

Called “Psychology A New Kind of SIGDEV” (Signals Development), the presentation includes a section that spells out “Broad real-time monitoring of online activity” of YouTube videos, URLs “liked” on Facebook, and Blogspot/Blogger visits. The monitoring program is called “Squeaky Dolphin.”

Experts told NBC News the documents show the British had to have been either physically able to tap the cables carrying the world’s web traffic or able to use a third party to gain physical access to the massive stream of data, and would be able to extract some key data about specific users as well.

Representatives of Facebook and Google, which owns YouTube, said they hadn’t given the British government permission to access data and were unaware the collection had occurred. A source close to Google who asked not to be identified when discussing company policy said the company was “shocked” to learn the U.K. could have been “grabbing” its data.

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Counterterrorism Chair: ‘These Are Going To Be Very Much Threatened Olympics’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, told ABC News’s Jon Karl on “This Week with George Stephanopolous” on Sunday that the 2014 Sochi Olympics in Russia will be “very much threatened.”

“The fact is that these are going to be very much threatened Olympics. Probably more than any we’ve had in our past, more than Greece, certainly more than London or China,” said King, who said he could not give U.S. athletes a “100 percent guarantee” that they would be safe in Sochi.

“Everything is being done by the United States, but the fact is this is a dangerous region in Russia by the north Caucuses. There are active terrorist organizations there,” he said.

“And quite frankly, the Russians have not been cooperating with us or with other countries anywhere near the extent that, for instance, the Greeks or the Chinese or the Brits did,” King added.

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